A Night on the Town
Mr Chiots and I don’t make it out often, we’re just not out on the town kind of people. We rarely go to movies or out to eat. About the only places we go are the bank, Post Office, local farms, and the farmers market. Yesterday however, was an exception.
We left home early to hit the farmers market, then we were off to get our passport photos and run a few other errands. Our main goal was to watch The Hobbit at the old restored Colonial Theatre in downtown Belfast. Since we were out and about for so long, we grabbed some dinner at a local restaurant.
I certainly enjoyed a grilled bacon cheese sandwich, a cup of clam chowder and some sweet potato fries. Mr Chiots went all out with fish and chips. Of course I had my trusty Real Salt in my purse as I always do!
We also spent some time walking around the downtown area, picked up a holiday puzzle at the game shop, looked at tons of yarn in the yarn shop and dreamed about future sewing projects at the fabric store.
Then we were off to the movies. No popcorn and soda for me, I stowed a bar of good chocolate in my purse which we enjoyed during the show. We had a great time. That’s one of the good things about not getting out much, when you do it’s really a treat.
What’s your idea of a nice “night out”?
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Friday Favorite: A Simple Christmas
Yesterday, a bunch of you were asking to see our little Christmas tree in all it’s glory all decked for the holiday. Here is is:
I’ve noticed that each year the holiday decor around here is simplified. I used to spend lots of time decorating the tree and making sure everything was just right and fit with a theme. This year, the tree was wrapped with one strand of 25 C7 light bulbs and then added my favorite etched glass balls. A small grapevine star topped it all off and it was finished, in about 15 minutes.
I think I might have to stock up on some incandescent Christmas lights, especially the C7’s I love so much. Those LED lights that are so popular now give me eye strain and headaches with their piercing pulsing light.
I have yet to dig out my favorite nativity set, if you remember I’m a collector of these lovely holiday displays. I don’t know if they’ll all be unboxed this year, I may just dig out my Willow Tree Nativity.
There are gifts all wrapped and ready under the tree, these are all for Mr Chiots. When it comes to wrapping, I’m a big fan of simple brown kraft paper and newsprint. I have a box of ribbons of all colors and sizes that get reused each year. I’m thinking of making a few burlap bags to add to my box for quick wrapping.
There’s something wonderful about simplifying the holiday season. It allows for a more laid back and enjoyable time. For us, this year will be particularly relaxing because we’ll be celebrating here in Maine by ourselves (unless my mom and dad make it up). That means we have no family functions and no work parties. It’s just us, just here, enjoying a holiday like we’ve never had before and we’re really looking forward to it.
Do you have a theme when it comes to holiday decor?
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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree
We finally have a nice Christmas tree set up in the living room. I prepared for it on Sunday by cleaning the floors and moving all the houseplants upstairs. The plan was to head out on Monday but it was raining. On Tuesday we spent all the daylight hours at appointments and meetings, but ended up with just enough daylight hours to get our tree.
We loaded up in our trusty “wagon”, grabbed our “axe”, and headed out into the woods to find the perfect Christmas tree. Back to the wetlands we went and the search was on. The beavers didn’t much like our presence, they were slapping their tails on the water to get us to leave. They’re quite amazing creatures, we saw evidence of of some fresh cutting as they’re building a new dam. Nature is truly amazing!
We debated on getting a tall slender one, or a shorter fatter one. After searching high and low, we found the perfect little tree. The short plump one eventually won and Mr Chiots cut it down.
We also harvested a couple smaller trees that will decorate a few other rooms of the house. One will grace the kitchen, one in the dining room and we’ll even put one in the office since we spend so much time in there. Perhaps the chickens would like one in their coop as well!
There’s something wonderful about putting up a Christmas tree. There’s nothing I enjoy more than sitting by the tree with a cup of hot tea reading. Something about the glow of those lights is so cozy and warm.
What kind of tree graces your home: real, artificial, or none?
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It’s a Wrap
We finally came up with an idea for our Christmas card. If possible, we like to incorporate something significant from the year into our cards, this year, moving to Maine was fairly significant. We thought and thought, trying to incorporate it into our cards in some way. Then it hit me, moving boxes. For the past 6 months our lives have been filled with many boxes. Thus, we decided it would be fitting for them to grace our Christmas card.
I was joking with Mr Chiots that we should just set up a Christmas tree of boxes. Then a lightbulb went off in my head – that’s what we’ll do for our card.
The back looks like this, we added our new address on it and a box for addresses in photoshop. And off to the printer they went. No doubt, next week I’ll find myself at the kitchen table addressing all my cards to friends and family. If you would like to receive a Chiot’s Run Christmas card, message me your address with the contact me form to the right.
Do you enjoy getting holiday cards?
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Duck Potatoes
If you remember, we added some ducks to Chiot’s Run back in October. When we traveled back to Ohio for Thanksgiving, we left them in a heated room in our garage. They still weren’t fully feathered and we hadn’t trained them to the electric fence, so we figured it would be the safest place to leave them. When we left they were still ducklings, we arrived home to BIG DUCKS!
Not only were they big ducks, they had gotten lazy in their cushy indoor days. When I would open the garage door to let them out to forage, they wouldn’t leave the garage. After two days of this, I finally decided it was time to withhold their food. A hungry duck is one that will go outside in search of food. Low and behold, it worked! Now they’re out and about much of the day eating dandelions and clover in the lawn.
The good thing is, they have now been trained to see an indoor place as a safe place and a place to sleep. I think this will be greatly help in our efforts to keep these guys safe from predators. I don’t have to herd them inside at night, they go in on their own. If they start trying to stay outside, they’ll be herded inside. We’ve already been working on our herding with them, it’s really quite easy with a flock of ducks!
They’re not quite fully feathered and they’ll still get bigger than they are now. Muscovies are pretty large ducks. The good thing is that they’re very hardy, the cold doesn’t seem to be bothering them at all. They’re so entertaining, we really get a good laugh from them quite often. They seem quite curious and love watching us working outside, here they are paying close attention to Mr Chiot’s coffee roasting to see if they can pick up any tricks.
We’re still in the process of building our duck house, we’ve been slightly busy with our work after taking a week and a half to travel to Ohio. Hopefully they’ll be living in their new digs by Christmas.
Have you ever had to deal with lazy pets?
