Wednesday, September 8th

I haven't written lately, because besides all the usual day to day activities, we have been having a lot of problems with Jason acting out. Jason is thirty six, but has autism. He can go for quite awhile without any incidents, but when he acts out, it makes life very difficult for everyone except maybe him. He started out last Thursday just making bad comments to everyone. He kept tattling on Adam, then started on Kevin and even the dogs. The more we attempted to ignore his behavior the worse it became. He threatened to hurt himself, so I wouldn't let him go to his bedroom because he had his fishing knife up there. He had to be restrained, not easy as he is about 6'1 and 300 lbs. He punched Kevin in the eye, and hit Adam as well. I talked him into getting into the car, and drove him to the hospital. After three hours, he calmed down and agreed to go home with prescriptions, take his medication and behave. Once home, he pretty much kept up the behaviors, although he no longer physically assaulted anyone. His behavior every day since has been pretty disruptive if only verbally. Not an easy way to live. I have an appointment tomorrow to get him signed up for Maine-care, our only hope for having any services to handle his behavioral needs. There are day programs that he can take part in, so hopefully the appointment goes well.

We have finished wallpapering the living room. It came out pretty good, we chose a off white wallpaper with little pine trees. One wall has a green checked pattern, it will also have the tiled wall for the hearth once we get the wood stove set up. I hung some pictures and put out a few knickknacks so it looks pretty nice.

We called the Amish and asked them to make Kevin's workshop before they do my barn. I won't even be using the barn until next Spring anyhow, so it made sense. He can put his tools, the tractor, and some of his books in his shop, as well as his ham radio equipment freeing up a bunch of space in the house. I will put my craft stuff in the front room, and we will both have some room to do our own thing.

Today, we stripped the wallpaper from the bedroom wall. It was pretty easy since most of it was falling down anyhow. I unpacked four boxes and we put all of our clothes away. We will probably just prime the walls and then paint them with some of the blue paint we already had. I found the light fixture in the closet, also the hardware, so we don't have the bare bulb showing anymore.

The moose came back the night I had Jason at the hospital, the female and her calf walked straight through the yard along side the tractor, then moved to the edge of the woods before crossing the highway. Kevin said the cow stopped in the middle of the road for about 30 seconds before she continued to the state garage where the road salt is stored.

We had a Labor Day barbecue with some of our neighbors. Everyone brought something to share and we provided the meat. I also made my first batch of baked beans. It was a nice gathering and now we know a few more people here in town.