Rental Update

Two weeks ago we finally finished cleaning and fixing up our latest empty rental.  We ended up renting a buffer, stripping the upstairs floors (about 800 square feet), and resealing the floors all in one day.  It took a room or two to get the routine down, but should go much faster next time.  Unfortunately, last week another renter moved out so now we will be working on that house!

 

Dersty Holiday

Every year our friends Edward and Jamie Derst (hence the party name) have a big Labor Day weekend celebration at Edward's family property in South Carolina.  They have a pavilion on the water and some fields and trails through the woods.  Everyone brings a dish for the potluck and then we enjoy an afternoon of live music and games.  This year we were able to bring the miniature horses to give pony cart rides and they were a huge hit!  In fact, I don't think we will be allowed back to the party next year unless we bring them again!

 

Here's Jamie and I with Peanut and Spice.  Most of these photos are from Jamie, I was too busy with the horses to get my camera out.

 

All of the kids enjoyed visiting with horses just their size!

 

 

A few girls were especially interested and helped me brush the horses and braid their hair.

 

 

After lunch we hooked the horses up and gave cart rides.

 

 

I drove Peanut.

 

 

And Matthew drove Spice.

 

 

When the minies got hot and tired, we sat and relaxed too.

 

 

And Matthew was able to get in a couple of games of volleyball before we headed out.  After this party we drove home, dropped off the minies, took quick showers, and then headed off to another celebration! (no photos of that one though). 

Salsa

This weekend we continued to work on the rental house and did a few things around our house (nothing really picture worthy though!).  On Saturday we stopped by the farmer's market and whole foods market to buy some ingredients to make salsa.  My mom has been providing us with salsa for the last few years but it is time for me to start making my own.  I started with her recipe and tweaked it a little to fit our tastes and so that I could freeze it instead of canning.

 

Here are all of the fresh ingredients from the market.

 

I used various chopping methods for different ingredients.  The hot peppers and onions were hand chopped while the other peppers, tomatillos, and cilantro were put in the food processor (after this photo).

 

I used my juicer (a wedding present!) to juice the tomatoes and remove the skins.

 

After adding a few more things I let it simmer on the stove for about an hour.

 

 

Finally, after it cooled I packed it away in freezer jars for storage.  Preliminary taste tests indicate that I may have added too many hot peppers, but we can just use it sparingly, which means I won't have to make as much!

Popcorn & Pictures

Last weekend we discovered what is possibly the best find yet at an empty rental house - a popcorn popper!  And not just any popcorn popper, the exact same kind that we already have (which I believe is actually a replacement to Jane's original) that is in mint condition!  Our current one is pretty cracked, so now we have a back up.

 

 

This week I finally got around to hanging more photos around the house.  I put up some family photos over the mantle next to our wedding photo (on the left is a photo of my brother and I when we were little and one of my parents on their wedding day and on the right is the Hicks family photo from the beach house).  I still need a few more prints for the photos on the mantle (for that empty spot!) but the living room looks a little more like home now.

 

I also hung my gyotaku (fish prints) over the fish tank.  I haven't ordered the nature photos for the other wall in the dining room yet but I am starting to gather frames and think about layout.

Another Rental Mess

Once again our plans for working on our house this weekend were postponed due to a messy empty rental house.  This one was not quite as bad as our old house, but we still took two pick-up loads of stuff out - one to goodwill and one to the dump.  Cleaning mostly consisted of dirt, dust, and spider webs and it needs only a few minor repairs.  Hopefully we will have it all fixed up and rented out again soon!

 

Some of the stuff in the dining room.

 

They left a lot of food and appliances in the kitchen. 

 

One of the bathrooms.  We cleaned up this room first so that after working at the house all day we could take showers and go to a ballroom dance!

Tack Room Walls

This past weekend we started building the tack room inside our barn.  Matthew and Richard installed the outside door a while ago but we were able to build both walls on Saturday.

 

Here I am standing in the future tack room while we laid out the walls.  The big green box is my tack closet that currently holds most of my equipment, although you can see that its contents are over flowing onto the floor since the minies arrived.

 

Wall number one went very quickly since there are no openings.

 

The other wall took a little longer because of the doorway.  Next we will be securing the walls to the floor and then adding rafters.

Midwest Tour

This year sure has been the year of vacations and trips!  Over the last week and a half I worked my way around the Midwest to visit lots of family and friends.

 

I started last Tuesday by flying from Savannah to Cleveland, OH to stay with my college roommate, Sam.  We had lots of fun walking the dogs, hanging out with other college friends, shooting bows and BB guns, making cookies, playing games, and, of course, chatting!

 

We made delicious ninja cookies for game night and they sure disappeared quickly!

 

On Saturday one of my aunts flew from NH to OH and picked me up at Sam's.  We then drove about three hours to Indiana where a lot of my mom's family lives.  On Sunday we had a combined college graduation party for my cousin and an 83rd birthday party for my grandpa (apparently I did not take any photos of these events).

 

On Sunday night my mom drove me to Michigan where I stayed at their house for a few days.  Monday morning we went riding at a state park that I used to work at.  My mom recently helped develop new horse trails at the park and I wanted to ride them with her.  Here she is on her horse, Doni.

 

I rode my dad's horse Bonner.  The board in the background is a foot bridge for hikers.

 

The rest of my time in Michigan I spent hanging out with my brother, visiting with more family and friends, and shopping with my childhood friend Julie.

 

On Thursday morning Mom, Dad, and I packed up the miniature horses, Spice and Peanut, along with all of their gear and headed to TN.  We spent the night at our cabin and on Friday my dad and I continued to GA (my mom stayed in TN to work on their retirement house).  After about 1000 miles and 19 hours in the trailer, the minies arrived at their new home!  Rabi recognized my parents' horse trailer and started talking to the minies before we even unloaded them, haha.

 

After unloading the horses and grabbing some dinner, my dad and Matthew set to work on our lawn mower, which is once again having issues.  They diagnosed the problem but it needs a part so they were unable to fix it completely.

 

Although my dad stayed over just for the night, he made sure he had time to play some Foosball with Matthew on the new table!  My dad headed back to TN today to pick up my mom and then they will finish the trip to MI on Sunday.  Whew, it's good to be home!