What goes up... must come down!

We see plenty of hot air balloons taking off from the field across the street from us over the past two years. We've even gotten up close when we've been at events over there... but the other night I heard the flame of a balloon, looked out the kitchen window & saw this one LANDING in our neighbor's yard!

Here's how close it was to our property- the fence is ours!

 It was neat to see how they put it all away...

Then they folded it up (in a much less exact manner than I would have thought!) 

and stuffed it in a bag... 

but I got talking to the neighbors, and missed getting photos of that part.

I hope they someday land in OUR field- I never get tired of seeing them.

Catching Up- August 2013

Just a collection of random little stuff that has been going on this month!

We had a good harvest of raspberries & blackberries.








I was completely shocked when I stopped in to buy a pie at a farmstand and saw them for sale for $5.99 per HALF pint!  That made me feel pretty good about our bushes :)



We also harvested the pear tree the other night.

The kids picked a grand total of 66 pears! (Not including what they ate while picking!)


Tonight we plan to can a bunch of them, and maybe make a pear tart too.






There weren't as many hot air balloons this summer- maybe because it's been rather rainy?  Or maybe we just haven't noticed them, since we didn't grill outside as much as we usually do.
But I got a couple of shots the other night...

Going up across the street
(you can see it hiding behide those trees)

Lastly, here are some flower photos from the picking garden...  I'm going to add these to the next batch of photos I get printed for the downstairs hallway.

I'm thinking that adding some mums to the garden for fall would be a good idea.  We have some planted in the front yard, but this is the perfect place to do mix-matched ones!

Catching Up- June Edition

Here are some random updates and things that were too small for a post of their own...

The lilac bushes that we moved from the side of the house are doing well... 

I'm so happy that the transplant didn't kill them!  

Hopefully next year they'll be blooming again! 

Balloon season is upon us.  We love seeing them- the novelty has not worn off!

I cleaned up the little shelf made out of crates.  

I was going to paint it, but once all the grime was washed away, you could see the writing on the side.

I liked it, so just ended up applying a clear coat (left over from the sign project) to protect it.

We were going to put it in the Nautical bedroom, but I can't decide where (the kid has too many toys!)  

For now it's sitting in the Well House.

Hot Air Balloons

People told us we were moving to "Balloon Country", and we thought 'Yeah, that's nice. Certainly better than the airplanes we had gotten used to!'







Over the horse barn

Little did we know just how much better they would be!

The first time we heard the "whoosh" sound & saw a hot air balloon rise above the tree line, we were in awe.  They were so close!

Just down the street from us, there's a field where they run hot air balloon tours.  They often launch in the evening as we're outside eating dinner.  Sometimes they fly so low that the people yell hello to the kids.

My sister-in-law was visiting and summed it up really well...  "You've seen them in photos & movies, but seeing them in person is really cool!" 

Someday we're going to have to treat ourselves to a ride.  We'd get some awesome aerial shots of the house! 

Speaking of which, check out this framed print that the previous owner left for us (excuse the flash from my camera, I didn't want to take it out of the frame to scan it).  On the back, it's dated 1954.

The big red barn is looking very spiffy!  We have quite a bit of work to do there.  I think I'll start getting together a blog post on the barns- to organize some of our thoughts on those projects.

There appear to be cows in the field, and the little barn on the right looks similar to our goat barn, but it's not the same one.  Our horse barn is not yet there. 

You CAN see the bomb shelter trap door.  I'm dying to know if there are any old tin cans of food or anything else left down there, but alas-

We won't be finding out anytime soon

(in case you can't tell from the small photo, it's completely flooded)

... it'll have to remain locked & holding it's secrets for now.



More Balloon Photos:



A Launch!