A visit to the Brockelmeyers farm.....

The other day we were lucky enough to be invited to our friends, the Brockelmeyer's farm...to have fun with a bunch of other friends. Their farm is right on the Courtois (pronounced Coataway in Missourese!) Creek and is beautiful! Bob is a contractor extraordinaire and he and Carol have rehabbed and added on to the old farmhouse to make it just wonderful for large groups of people. I think they have about 6 bedrooms and 3 baths....it is gorgeous.

Here is us gals down by the river...sippin' on the wine...swimming and enjoying watching the canoeists and kayakers float by...... The kitchen....women working....

The dining room....men sitting.....

The livingroom....

View from one of the decks....

Playing ladder ball....

Bob and his balls.....

The eventual winners...over the men!

The group....

The rehabbed house in the background....

A fun time....Thanks Bob and Carol!!!!!

Luke's Bday party in our backyard

We had some fun celebrating Luke's bday with Mike's daughters and their kids and husbands.... We inherited a swing set and some other toys and it was really a beautiful day..... Luke is really good at playing with Ella....

Ella got her swim togs on to run through the sprinkler

Our patio...starting to come together.....

Luke is a great baseball player.....

Cotton candy...yum but sticky.....

Handsome birthday boy!

Ella....

Terry and Luke golfing.....

Birthday BBQ dinner....from left...Ella, Laura, Robb, Mike, Luke, Terry, Tammy.....

Pretty much moved in now...Thank goodness!!!

Hi all...sorry for so long a lapse in posts. As usual been busy with the moving process. Lets see if I can briefly catch you up....

I guess since I wrote last we were here for a couple of weeks...did a bit of entertaining and putting away of more stuff. We did celebrate our 20th anniversary here in our new house! A wonderful evening...lobster and champagne! Then on June12th we left for Michigan again to take the trailer back to our friend, who lent it to us, and to get another load. We were there until the the 21st. After a nice service and Father's Day breakfast at our wonderful little church in Tustin, we set off...knowing it was 100 degrees in MO and we have no AC anymore in the van! We survived....but let me just say...our showers that night were the best, I think we have had recently! While in Michigan were out every night with a different group of dear friends. Who will be our friends forever!! No doubt!! It was a great trip. However....we still did not get everything! Mike is going back in about a week to get another load and may have a sale to get rid of some stuff too. We still have winter coats there and Christmas decorations....of which, I have a LOT!! Come visit us at Christmas and see how we decorate this great old house! But we do have some stuff of Mike's there too...out in the garage and the bunk house. But really most all of the necessary stuff is now here! This trip we brought up some chests and 2 cedar chests, both of which have been in our families forever! They are coming in handy for storage too. Today I finally got most everything put away! Won't show you the basement yet...or the garage or storage shed. But most of MY stuff is not there.....that stuff belongs to my beloved packrat husband! AND the patio is still a work in progress too...but close to getting there. Hopefully will be kind of done before we have the kids and grandkids out for a BBQ this Sunday!!

Here is the latest picture of the front porch......



And this fantastic fern, I bought at a local store here with the proceeds of a gift certificate our realtor gave us. I LOVE this fern...and hope it lasts many, many years!

Here finally is the back porch....finally coming together......

And the dining room with the table! We found those pesky screws!

Here is the new pub table we bought for our kitchen. Come sit there with a glass of wine and talk to me while I cook. Note my wonderful lemon switch plates!!

Here is the latest view of our bedroom....with our new window AC...which we need to cool the upstairs. The downstairs does great with the central unit...these up (in each room) do supplement that...and we only have to have them on when we are up here.

Another view of our bedroom....

One of our guest rooms.......under the eaves......

Another view of it...it has a futon which will make into a double bed...and a single bed. The other one will have the same.....

Here is the second guest room...which we also use as our office and computer room. Has a futon now...and will have a twin bed soon...which will be put where I am standing to take the picture.

Another view of the office/2nd guest room.

That is about it for now. I notice that I need to post a new picture of our TV/family room. And the patio too once I get it done. May do that this weekend. That is my intention at any rate. Love to you all.....keep cool!

New address is.....

We've been told not to publish our address and phone number in a blog, so email us please for that info. We'd be glad to hear from you. Thanks.

The furniture has arrived!!!

Well..the furniture arrived all intact....no breakage of anything!! So thankful for that! The two guys who went to Michigan were magnificent....as were the other helpers on both ends. We are so blessed with wonderful friends!! On this end, our handyman Charles and his helper got the major part of the furniture unloaded in 1 HOUR!!! Placed it all to our satisfaction....it all looks great. Since then have been busy unpacking boxes and putting stuff away. So glad that I got the kitchen all dealt with before the rest got here.



Now it pretty much is as it will be! Some pictures to hang up....some things to put out. The back porch and the guest rooms are pretty much not done yet at all....but it will all fall into place. If we have not communicated with you individually during this time, please forgive us! You cannot imagine how tired we are at the end of the day....up and down the stairs many, many times....lugging around and unloading boxes! Our feet, legs and back ache!! And half the time our mind is boggled with lists of things to do and get! I go to Walmart AT LEAST once a day. Thank goodness there is one in this little burg. I leave for MI tomorrow. I will leave the Internet connector (our Broadband) here with Mike. He HAS to have something to do as we have VERY limited TV!! Will be in touch as I am able. Will go to the library daily. And have my cell too! Better go now....Mike says the pork steaks are about ready....and I have corn to do to go along with those and the potato salad. Wish you were here....but really...we DO need this time together since we are not together much these days at all. Will add to this in about 2 weeks. Check it from time to time....when I send reminder emails, I don't mean to bug ya.....know that everyone is BUSY too!

Here is the foyer/sitting room....coming together really nicely. We are pretty happy with it!

Here are two views of our TV room....where we most likely will spend a good deal of time. It also does not have all the pics on the walls...and everything on the shelves. Need to bring the DISH box, the DVD player, and all the stereo stuff....then plug in the empty places with books....which we have PLENTY of!! It was hard...but we fitted our massive mission furniture into this moderate space! Right now we get NO channels on our new big screen HD TV (which we bought with our stimulus money like the good patriots we are!). So we spend time sitting on the couch and in the recliner watching a BIG blank screen!! ;-)

The dining room. If you do notice that there is no table....you are not hallucinating! We cannot find the bolts which they took out when they took the table apart. They are sure to turn up at some point. Til then...we will eat on our porch or outside. (When we get the patio set up!!)

Here is the pond area....really looking lush and good but needs attention and weeding! Our front porch

Our Rhododendron! Thanks Laura for confirming it to be that! And thanks to Micki and Barb for identifying that tree in the previous post as a tulip tree! They are sooo pretty...we love them!

Two photos of our bedroom....still a work in progress...but progress is being made!

The latest from Owensville

I have been here for the past 3 days. Got all the boxes I brought (all the kitchen stuff) and most of the boxes Mike had brought on previous trips (mostly books) unpacked and put away. Worked literally from 6 AM to 6PM at least. Here is a picture of the sitting room starting to come together. Mike and his buddies are on their way with the bulk of the furniture now. Will arrive Thursday and then the fun will begin! The kitchen starting to come together.....

Our pitcher collection on the high shelf in the kitchen

A tree outside in the back yard...anyone know what kind it is? It has leaves that look like maple leaves.....and yellow blossoms. We have 3 of these trees......

Looking down toward the patio....we have what I think is a Rhododendron bush too!

The upstairs hallway starting to come together. The rest of the rooms don't have much furniture yet. Will post more pictures when it comes and is in place. I do have to say...love it here! Love the town and love the house. So does Cali!

Update....from Michigan

Hi everyone.....Mike did come home and now is back in Owensville. Soon it will be reversed! My last day at my job is Thursday. I will leave Saturday and head down with the car fully loaded. Mike will get back here on Friday and his two buddies from St. Louis will arrive that day also. They will then load up the van and the huge covered trailer that one of friends from up here is lending us....and take off with most, if not all, of the furniture. We then will have (at least) 2 more smaller loads of small stuff.....clothes and shoes, lawn furniture and planters and odds and ends to take over the rest of June....and then we think and hope we will be done!

Our house here will be put on the market this week...realtor coming out to put out signs tomorrow. When I get the link to it, I will post it. Until we sell, we will leave here a futon, tables and chair in the livingroom, a smaller dining room table in the diningroom, a double bed and chest in the downstairs bedroom and the bunkbeds upstairs and out in the bunkhouse. We will leave some lawn chairs too. We will come back from time to time...maybe not so much this summer but if we still have it, will for sure come back next summer. We will have to come back each spring and each fall to winterize and unwinterize and clean up the yard also. We really, really hope that it sells soon, but the real estate person is not very optimistic I am sorry to say. Times are very hard up here in Michigan.

Right now, it really doesn't look that different here inspite of all the knickknacks being packed away. Most of the kitchen stuff is packed also. Once the furniture is packed, it definitely will look different!

When I get to Owensville and unpack some stuff, will get some new pictures up. Until then..... Judy