Cox Farm 2010

Cox Farm is one of our fall traditions. We have gone every year since we moved to Virginia and I think RuLynn has been with for 9 of them. We even went during the sniper attacks. We had a fun time, especially because it wasn't very crowded, but I think she and I were both a little nervous inside.

Matt comes with us once in awhile and this was one of those years. It was a nice day filled with sliding, lunching, corn maze walking, hay riding, animal watching, goat feeding, jumping, rope swinging, playing and pumpkin picking.

We all get to pick a pumpkin as we leave, which is a tedious process trying to get the perfect pumpkin.

Their hayride has got to be one of the craziest on earth, complete with space aliens.

This is a common facial expression in response to the wacky stuff they have on display.

Nate shows his speed sliding technique of using his jacket.

Thanks Nana!

Take a hike

We went for a little walk on the Appalachian Trail. It is nice to get up where we can see out above the trees and enjoy the stillness.

Apples and Honey

Apple picking sounded like a nice fall activity. The farms around here are so pretty. Too bad, because of the hot weather lately, the apples ripened early. We bought some apples, but we picked them out of an apple crate instead of a tree. It was still nice. Ru even bought us some honey and fresh cider to take home.

White House Garden Tour

Some good friends let RuLynn and I tag along on the day of the White House Garden tours. It was fun to read about which presidents planted the various trees and other interesting things that have happened on the White House grounds. It really is a beautiful house.

Artist

Just Cam makin' some drawring in the pretty light.

I made a HEADBOARD!

I have been wanting a headboard for our guest room for such a long time and so I decided on this Ana White design.  She is amazing and inspiring!
This is my first building project and it made me want to build all sorts of furniture.  This was a good project to start with because it was very forgiving.  The distressed finish hid my nail gun mistakes and it wasn't too complex.  I wish I took more pictures of the whole process but I was too excited about getting it done.  I did it in three days thanks to my friend Debbie who came and helped me on two of the days.  It was nice to have an extra brain on the job to make sure it was done correctly and nice to have extra hands to help hold things together.
I made it out of inexpensive pine boards.  My total cost was around $80-$90 dollars but I have a lot of nails left over for other projects.  You can find the plans here.

All the panels in place and back support nailed in.

The distressing on the front.  I chiseled the edges on all the boards so they would look old and worn.  Spence helped me hammer little holes and other dents too.

Clamping the top board and ready to finish the building.

The finished headboard in our guest room!

I made one change in using a 2x4 for the cap so it would look weightier.  There was one tiny glitch and I still haven't figured out if I did something wrong or if our bed frames are an odd size.  Our frame didn't match up with the headboard legs so we had to do some creative attaching, but it all worked out and we love it!
We got it ready just in time for some fall visitors.  Can't wait to show them.