I know. I know. I should be shot for even saying the word this early. I am only bringing it up for the simple fact that it is a good time to start making your list if you have not already. No! Not the list of what you want. The list of what you need to get for others. I was laid off about a month ago and my DH's side construction business is DEAD DEAD DEAD a little slow right now. We are blessed that we can manage our monthly's just fine if we are a little more careful with spending. God has always provided and this time is no different. I am trying to make quite a few presents this year. Some things I have already purchased have mysteriously ended up in my home as decorations. OOPS! So Here are some of the items I purchased.
Okay the mantle still needs work but the gold frame was $2. LOVE IT! the green pumpkins were .74cents each, smaller black star from dollar tree I sprayed it black. My most favorite the green candle holder. When I saw it I said What on earth is that! kinda cute. Then I saw the $.25cent tag and was like oh yeah baby your coming home with me! Funny how sometimes the price of an item changes what it looks like.
My finds.
Candle holder $0.25 Cute white plate $1.00.
creamer and sugar for our church Christmas tea $1.00 each.
Glove Hollow Christmas Tree Farm (glovehollow.com) has been in the Ahern family since 1897. Fourth generation farmer Mike Ahern and his wife Karen now own and manage the 435-acre farm. Mike’s father Omer planted the farm’s first Christmas trees in 1957, and Mike and Karen’s four children, aged 1 ½ - 11 years old, also help out around the family operation. Here’s what Mike had to say about the family business when we caught up with him in October.
The farm has been in your family for a long time.
“It started off as a dairy farm. My dad planted the first trees 52 years ago, and he lived long enough to see the 50th anniversary. When he planted the first trees, he had a construction company. He did have dairy cows, but he sold off the dairy cows and went to work for the government. He retired after 29 years working for the Sullivan County Government. We actually grew up in Unity, New Hampshire. My two older brothers and my dad would always come back and take care of the trees. And I came when I got old enough to start working, in first grade. I’ve been shearing and working on the trees since I was probably 7 years old. I’m 44 now. I just couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”
When did you take over the operation?
“When I got out of college, it was like a magnet. When I got out in 1987, the economy was probably just as bad as it is now, so it was very easy to be able to come back and take care of the Christmas trees, because there was always work to do. At that time my dad was retired and doing most of the work himself. In 1994 I signed the paperwork to own the farm. My dad continued to help all the way up to 2007 when he passed away.”
Does your family help with the farm now?
“It really is a family thing. My wife has brought in the animals that our customers really enjoy seeing – four goats, two horses, rabbits. It really adds a lot to the flavor of the farm. People see the family connection when they get here. It’s not just a business – I guess you would call it a labor of love. Our kids are working right along beside us now, even though they’re still young. They’re getting the flavor of planting trees, and hopefully it will be in their blood like it was mine.”
What else is special about your farm?
“We’re all in one location – you actually get to visit one site and see 80,000 Christmas trees. There are mountains are all around the fields. The Hobo Railroad goes right through the center of our farm. One Saturday during the season, the train actually stops and the passengers get out and cut their Christmas tree and put it back on the cars to take with them. It’s kind of neat to see the train go right through the property. We also let customers take their vehicles right into the fields. Sometimes it’s their only chance to use their four-wheel drive.”
How big is your farm?
“Right now the Christmas tree portion is 172 acres, and there’s 260 acres of forested land. Our forest land is managed by a forester that’s been working with our family since the 1970s.”
What kinds of trees do you grow?
“We grow Frasers and Canaans. And we grow Fralsam – a cross between a Fraser and a balsam. We’re in a frost pocket and often get a late frost, so we’re forced to grow late-flushing trees, which just happens to be a couple of the best trees to grow.”
How many trees do you sell each year?
“We’re in a growth stage right now. We’ve always been about 43,000 Christmas trees in the ground, so we were selling 5,000-6,000 trees per year. Now we’ve got 80,000 trees in the ground, and we’re two years away from selling about 10,000 a year. We do cut-your-own and precut. We’ve got some people that have been buying their trees here for over 30 years.”
Do you sell anything else there?
“We sell wreaths. We mostly just concentrate on the trees. We never try to make anything commercialized here. We’re trying to be old fashioned and simple, but fresh.”
How many people work at the farm?
“We have kids that started off in high school that are still working with us. They know as much about the farm sometimes as I do. We have three fulltime seasonal employees and five or six others depending on what season we’re in.”
Do you have plans for any changes at the farm?
“We just added a tree house two years ago, overlooking the farm, with electricity and an observation deck. This year we added a couple of horse stalls and a paddock. It’s something that the public will be able to visit. As we get bigger and start handling more people, a lot of our ideas will hopefully become reality.”
What do you like most about your work?
“There’s always something different to do, and I really like that. I guess the best part about growing Christmas trees is the harvest, seeing all the customers come. It makes you feel like all the hard work you put into it really pays off. It really gets you psyched up for what you’ve done and what you’re going to do every year after.”
What’s the toughest part of growing trees?
“The real test is the patience you have to have to grow a really nice tree. We generally get the trees out 8-10 years after planning. The old timers will tell you, wait an extra year, don’t push it.”
What is something about growing trees that your customers might not realize?
“I think the attitude about Christmas trees has changed a lot in recent years. There are so many cut your own operations that have popped up, and they’re teaching their customers about it first hand. People really know the value of their tree.”
Okay I get excited about Halloween. It is fun to get ready by getting the kids costumes and decorating but when it is over I am kind of glad it is another year away. So her is the break down for you. We are invited to a party every year. I make a dessert every year. This year I was asked to make a pumpkin cake. So sure I said NO WAY IN HECK! Oh I would love to! Here is the process in photos.
Two bunt cakes one upside down and one on top.
Lovely orange frosting. This is where it gets crazy. I decide to add green. Remember use strong ziplock bags.
No the GIANT green glob is not a leaf! The bag I was using exploded out the side. The worst part is this was the second time!!! I had already scraped a HUGE green blob off and recovered with orange frosting. I put the green in another baggie and POP again out the side on to my beautiful cake.
I decided no more messing around. Just use a huge ziplock cuz Gallon is all I had. Third times a charm!
About the time I was doing a happy dance claiming victory over the green frosting I get a call. . . Wonderful hostess is sick with fever and party canceled! I feel really bad for her but what am I to do??? This is two count it two cake mixes. I cannot be trusted with cake in my home. I will tell my children that it is bad for them and they will go to school. Then I will try to save them from the evil cake by eating it all myself! Well we cannot let this happen. We ended up taking the cake trick or treating with us and gave slices to friends and family we visited.
We each had little slices. At the mom in laws we took a photo opp. Here we are in all out glory!
Yes I am an elf! Don't ASK! Lets just say after going from place to place and getting home at 11pm I was glad to see the door and know my bed was close by.
So this year I thought maybe it would be a good idea to get treats for my sweet Sunshine and Moonshine classes that were not sweets. (know what I mean?) At Costco they had the Halloween Pop Corn such a great treat. I was also hoping that there would be some extra bags left for me to eat all by myself my children. Okay me being me I could not let the children hand out the treats in the original form. No that would not do. So I looked over at The Graphics Fairy and found so me really cute graphics. (of course) I used the graphics in a graphics program and added text in the Bleeding Cowboys Font which you can download Here
This is what I came up with. I put two to a sheet and then just cut the sheet in half. They turned out pretty well. Just remember if you have two kids you have to change who they are from before you print. My son almost had half his class done in treats saying they were from his sister. Live and learn.
You can make it blank instead of putting the recipients name. I made a few of these because he could not remember all the names of the kids in class.
We had fun and I think they all turned out great. I know this is kind of late to post as an idea but I only did it last night and I know there are more procrastinators like me out there! You still have time!
Manukrawa dance be danced by a group of female dancers who numbered between 5-7 people. Manukrawa Dance is a new creation dance that describes the behavior of a group of water birds (Manuk rawa) as narrated in the story of Wana Parwa Epic Mahabharata.
This dance was created in 1981 by I Wayan Dibia (choreographer), and I Wayan Beratha (composer). Before becoming a freelance dance, Manukrawa dance is part of the Mahabharata "Bale Gala-Gala" work of Ramayana / Mahabharata Ballet team of Province Bali displayed in Bali Art Festival in 1980.
I found this lamp at the Thrift Store. Only $4 I thought that was a steal! It had a shade but I forgot to take the photo of it.
The lamp was cute the way it was but I wanted it for my work space in the laundry room. So it had to be cream! I also had to change the shade because it was burgundy. I covered the shade in Scrapbook paper and added a little ribbon bow. (hope it's safe to have a paper shade)
This is what it looks like in the space. I am pretty happy with how it all turned out.
(click to see full size photo)The Keep Calm and Carry On was a free graphic from The Graphics Fairy
She has some really neat stuff make sure to check her site out.
Okay so I bought this frame on sale at K-Mart for $5 from the clearance rack. I had put up my fall decor and needed something Halloween.
So I decided to print the letters B O O and a little clip art I found online on orange card stock. I also printed the words Trick Or Treat then ripped them out. Added a little of my scrapbook stuff I came up with this.
I was pretty happy with my quick and easy project. It did the trick. Here it is on the mantle. Let me know what u think.
