Yesterday, Mr. Monte spent his time stretched out in front of the wood stove. Dear, sweet Wife quietly relaxed and looked forward to the year ahead. She also began compiling her 12-volume set of “Honey Do’s” for yours truly. I brought in some wood from the woodshed and then settled down to a small cup of hot espresso.
Now, I’m quickly dashing off some notes in planning for all the posts I will need to write to catch you up with the many amazing and sometimes frustrating events that led to Christmas – a Christmas which we didn’t really have a chance to celebrate fully until December 26th. – So, here is my list of events about which I hope to post over the next few weeks:
12-XX Annual Yard Trash Day: This year, beautiful and creative Wife was deeply
12-22 Major Repairs: $3,800.00 for plumbing repairs is not a paltry sum, especially when the repairs had to be accomplished during the week before Christmas.
12-22 Christmas Cookies: Despite the unnerving presence of a Kubota compact excavator digging a trench just outside the kitchen window, dedicated Spouse prepared some of the best Christmas cookies ever.
12-24 Christmas Eve Ritual: As shown in the featured photo, a mysterious and exceedingly beautiful woman wearing a cat mask, puzzles over how to drink a cup of coffee while watching Christmas Eve shoppers at 6:15 AM. Somehow, her annual ritual will never be quite the same.
12-24 Christmas Eve Flooding: An unusually heavy rain storm dropped at least 3.25 inches of rain on Serendipity Farmhouse and the nearby area on Christmas Eve. The waters of the Thornton River North Fork rose to most dangerous levels.
12-24 Christmas Eve Power Outage: The massive amounts of rain and accompanying winds caused damage to a main power line from the nearby Sperryville substation. Consequently, most of Rappahannock County, including Serendipity Farmhouse, lost power and St. Peter Catholic Church held its 7:00 PM Christmas Vigil Mass by candle light. By the way, the sudden drop in the rain measurement in the above graphic was not because the rain had stopped, it was because the power went out and the SFH weather station couldn’t transmit its readings.
12-25 Christmas Day: Mr. Monte maintained security at SFH while Blondie and Fuzz Face spent an enjoyable Christmas Day with most wondrous Daughter #2 and her family.
SFH by the Numbers
The following links will catch you up with what’s come out of our gardens and what has gone into mason jars and the freezer since our last Journal post.:
SFH WX Station Report – Weekly: