Winter is just around the corner, our first snow was on Halloween, and we have had a couple more days with flurries, but none on the ground yet. We have sealed a few of the windows, what we did is used weather stripping on the windows and then on the North side we have added clear plastic on the inside. Kevin has also fixed the doors that were askewed so we can now close them. There are a few gaps, but I am going to make some of those draft dodgers to seal out the draft. I sorted through and organized all of our magazines, we have many that will help us plan for livestock and gardens as well as pass the time during the Winter months.

Jason is now living in Presque Isle, soon to be in Patten or Houlton in a house with a couple other men with similar disabilities. He is happier in the city with a lot more stimulation, and will be also attending a day program. This has been a hard phase in all of our lives, but I think this is overall a good chance for Jason to learn the skills that he will need in his life. The staff so far has been very helpful and caring and finally after nearly 31 years of looking for a good situation for Jason we may finally be making some headway.

This year we will be buying all of the ingredients for Thanksgiving, our goal for next year is to raise everything here on the farm. I would love to be able to also put together a meal for another family  to donate next year.

Kevin is working on repairing the sagging floors. He put jacks in the basement to help raise the livingroom floor. We have one beam that is sagging quite a bit, but he put a jack in two areas on that beam, You adjust the screw over several weeks until the floor is raised, this process is best with our house because the beam will gradually straighten out and it will decrease the possibility of the beam cracking. Over the next couple of months we will work on the other floors. Already the floor is more stable, my knick knacks don't rattle when you walk around.

We have added two new family members, Sophie and Lilac. Sophie is a two year old calico cat, and Lilac is an eight month old kitten. The first week was horrible, the dogs barked non stop at the cats, Sophie went through the bathroom drawer and was in the wall behind the tub. She came out on her own, I am guessing she was cold, or curious. After a week, everyone is settling down, I won't say it's perfect, but the cats aren't afraid of the dogs, the dogs aren't obsessed by the cats, and the mice situation is very much improved.

Our satellite internet has proved to be expensive and ineffective. It goes down whenever it rains, or snows. We cancelled the service, so now are using dialup, maybe a good thing less distractions. Dialup is pretty slow, but rumor has it that broadband is coming in the near future.

We attended a Halloween party here in the neighborhood, it was great fun. We didn't wear costumes, though a few people did. It was fun, we love the neighbors, a very nice group of people.

On Thursday, another of our neighbors whom we had not yet met dropped by with a warm apple pie. This was pretty much unheard of  in St. Louis. This is why we moved away from the city. In twenty years in the same neighborhood, we really never friendly with our neighbors. As one of the people said on Halloween, "out here, we are not just neighbors, we are family." Perfect.