Falling Fast

I wish we could think of a way to keep the leaves on

the trees a little longer, but they are quickly finding their way

to the ground. This has always been a huge job in itself, but up

until now there has been a Gentleman taking care of mowing in the

spring and summer, and the leaves in the fall.

He turned 96 this year and his family thought it was time for

him to retire.

The weather has been so great this fall so far, so Ken gets out there

every couple of days and mows over the leaves, mulching them in with the

grass clippings.

Katie has gotten in on the fun as well!

Note the lawn in the background. Beautiful job Katie!

A Fall project

(Pictures taken last winter. No snow yet!)

There is a wonderful old house that sits in the middle of Camp.

It was built in the early 1800's and is the original "Farm House" that was used

when they started having Camp Meetings on the property in the '30's.

We are not sure when they "remodeled", taking the kitchen and dining room out making it all into a dorm with a comfortable living room. You can tell by the trim work which rooms were original and which are not. It is a shame that it was altered, but I am sure that it was out of necessity at the time.

The plan is to eventually restore it back to its original state, but I am sure that it will be several years from now. In the mean time, we use the building for guests. Each room has at least two beds and some even have washrooms. I often give tours to potential guest groups and the one thing that I have always had a hard time with was showing them the living room in the house.

I was determined that when things slowed down, I would see what I could do.

This picture was taken after I got started and thought;

"I should take a Before Picture".

It was also getting dusk, so the lighting isn't very good. The walls were white and very marked and dirty. The drapes were that '70's gold.

Lots of ugly furniture and random pictures hanging here and there.

My focus needed to be the QUILTS that were hanging in the dining room. These three quilts were made by families that come each year to Family Camp and are very special and important to those people. The quilts had served their time well in the dining room, but we felt that it was appropriate to now make their home in the Living room of the old house.

So this is where I started.

I discovered that what I was painting was old wall paper that had been painted over and over again over the years. Someday, when the remodel happens, all of that will come off and done right, but for now, one more, (actually two), layers were added.

Here are some after pictures.

It was a fun project and I enjoyed getting out of the office and up on a very tall ladder,

(12 foot ceiling I think).

We still need to do something about the furniture, but that will come soon, hopefully.

I am in the process of painting my office. Of course I forgot to take

"before pictures". I will try to do that before I tackle Ken's office!

This is a great time of year to get all these little projects done, besides figuring

out what to do with all the leaves! (next post).