a family visit to gobble hill

with guest photographer Victoria!

it was a lovely fall weekend with warm weather, cool nights, lots of good food and wine. mom, dad and victoria arrived in the late afternoon. we checked into the inn at stone ridge before heading over to the house. we did a tour of the interior house and saved an exterior walkaround for the next day. that night we went out to dinner at a local restaurant.

here is the inn at stone ridge and a little breakfast moment. during the night, mom's car battery ran low, the car alarm went off, and made for a surprisingly calm hiccup to start the morning. steve and i brought some jumper cables, but dan the inn's owner, brought over really big jumper cables and his dodge ram and all was done in minutes.

we drove back to gobble hill for another tour of the house, the barns and the grounds, and a morning walk on our road, before heading out for a drive around the area. mom very much like the stacked cinderella pumpkins. when returned from the drive, we stopped in High Falls for a couple of nice store visits, and sandwiches. thereafter, we ended up playing games until our first bottle of wine opened up. this led to cheese, crackers, more wine, a spatchcocked turkey, wild rice, sweet potato casserole, and an apple crisp from apples we picked up at the orchard. with miller high life in hand, dad did an excellent job at slicing the turkey!

while we played games in the afternoon, steve took on a project of adding some lights to the barn. he added a flood light onto the big barn, and framed the little barn with christmas lights. it certainly made for a festive early thanksgiving.

the next day we took a drive across the river to hyde park to visit the vanderbilt mansion and its gardens. very grand and gorgeous on a lovely day.

on our return, we had leftover turkey dinner for lunch, played some more games, and prepared started the dessert: chocolate log with cream. just before dinner, we made a pitstop at my friend deborah's and had some cheese and wine and talked of farmers, denmark, goats, and design. the dinner consisted of chicken with mustard and garlic, carrots and potatoes, and of course, more wine. the image may not show it so well, but the log has a nice bark texture from the way it cools on a wire rack and from cracking as your roll it.

thank you mom, dad and victoria for making the trip and making such a nice weekend!

corn maze and pumpkin cannons

in the next town over, there is a farm that transforms their farm field into a maze. each year they have a new pattern. this year was based on the 400th anniversary of henry hudson. here's an aerial view from last years maze. however, this year was overcast, the corn was obviously not lively and green, and because of the recent rain, the paths were brown and muddy. however, we all had a great time. at night time, they have movie night with this fine set up outside the maze.

after the corn maze, we headed over to our favorite farm stand, gill's, for the pumpkin cannon. they claim it can shoot a pumpkin 4000 feet. it's unclear to me where the pumpkin lands but it certainly creates a few seconds of awe.

the barn

after cleaning out all the unwanted items, mouse traps, dirt and dust, we thoroughly swept out the barn. we were expecting a cord of wood to be delivered later in the afternoon. we weren't quite sure how much room a cord would take up, but we managed to pile it up. we should be plenty warm through this and next winter! here, you can see the before and after of the wood delivery.

paint and patience

before the winter sets in, we wanted to make sure that we scraped and painted some of the wood where the paint was chipping. along with some of the other repairs that had been done, i think we might be set for the winter. buster waited patiently by the barn until we finished.

wild turkeys!!!!

these wild turkeys greeted us around 7am one morning. they apparently like to eat the crabapples, berries and bird seed. of course, once we let buster out of the house, they gobbled and flapped their way up to the trees where they roost. do they know that thanksgiving is around the corner?