November 2011

I like to look through my pictures at the end of a month to see what we've been doing with our time.  Of course there are some posts from November below this one but here are a few more pictures with some captions:  It was a pretty busy month!

Worked on our Wood County Master Gardeners Spring Conference arranging a speaker, acquiring a raffle prize, and worked on poster ideas.

Created the "Scrapbook Song" DVD for Alex

Found a picture of grandson Colby on FB.  He lives with his father. (Starnes)

Spent a morning traveling around Wood County taking pictures of fall color - but this one is in the back yard.

Had tree removal done at the house and tree trimming done at the Treehouse

Did some refinish work in the chapel and we replaced the cross with one more appropriate.

Spent an hour or so one morning taking fog pictures.  This one is almost the same place as the 'fall color' picture above.

Attended the Winnsboro Fine Art Market

Found a picture of granddaughter Haley on FB.  She too lives with her father. (Gattis)

Had the JamFest T-shirts made and have sold most of them now.

The sign for the city of Quitman is going in.  I worked on the project.

Attended two afternoons of music at the Winnsboro Fine Arts Market.

We are adding some stone pathways at the Wood County Master Gardener's Wildscape Garden at the Mineola Nature Preserve.

A cold Christmas season night in downtown Winnsboro!

Attended several music evenings at Brewbaker's Restaurant and Pub.

I completely rebuilt the upper pond - removing the stone, cleaning and repairing the liner, dug  it deeper but made it smaller, and replaced the stone, pump, filter, and waterfall.

And, of course,there was Thanksgiving and the week of prep that goes into it.

Gift cards

. . . paid for a new bench at the chapel!

Another new chapel sign (for my birthday)

The birthday is still three weeks away but when we walked down to the chapel today I found this wrapped up in birthday wrappings! We saw this at a Mineola antique store several months ago but they were asking too much for it. But it finally found its way home and I know this is home because you just don't find many chapels around that need a new sign. This is from an old funeral home and I'm sure it feels a lot better here - out in the woods working for Wildernest Chapel! Alex cleaned it up and put a new coat of paint on it and it looks really nice! Glynda did the lettering and that's an excellent job on that. To explain my appearance - I spent three hours working at the Wildscape Garden this morning, came home and mowed the driveway area (and then went on the walk with G to the chapel). So the attire selection was based on the wildscape work and it's condition (and my condition)is a result of same.



I knew it was gone from the antigue store but had a lot of confidence that it would end up here.

New (permanent) sign on Wildernest Chapel

You might remember the post I did a few weeks ago that included some comments about a street festival in Winnsboro? One of the vendors there made laser cut signs and did it on, among other things, tile. We later sent him some artwork of our Wildernest Chapel sign to see what he could do with it. This is how it turned out. We really like it! It's an early Father's Day present from Glynda.

The interior of the chapel is finished . . .

with the exceptions of a few paint touch-up, finishing the laying of the rug, and adding a few more things that would come under the rough heading of decorating. The pictures tell it pretty well except for the color - it looks gray but it's not and, in fact, the color turned out really well. We're happy with it and hope it won't be too long before each of you can visit. The spring trees make the exterior look different too so I included an exterior picture. The little slot that you see in the "altar" in front of the cross is for the prayer box that Bev asked for. The altar is just a narrow table that will be a place for the cross, a bible, and a candle stand. There is an altar rail in front of it and even a little kneeler. There is a bench on both sides - each would accommodate two people so there could easily be a gathering of four. It proved to be an excellent project for using up leftover oak trim from the house that I still had in the shop. Daniel used the word "elegant" and I think I'm happy with that. And, for what it's worth, Daniel and Alex did everything associated with the roof, I did the rest. That's why it took so long!

Just so you know -

The inside of the chapel is not finished yet but it will be soon. It is close enough though to tell if we achieved the feel we were after and the answer is "Yes!". We just got back from a walk there (after dark) and we lit it with some oil lamps. It was nice! Maybe tomorrow or the next day I can post a couple pictures of the completed interior.

The chapel has a roof now

I opened my email this morning and there were a couple pictures from Daniel that he'd taken yesterday afternoon when we were putting the roof on the chapel. Daniel did the cutting, Alex did the high work, and I watched it all very carefully. The guy that planned the materials (me) missed it a bit. There are still two strips about four inches wide and four feet long that need to be covered - but it looks great! Now I need to finish the inside and treat the outside with some type of preservative - Thompsons Water Seal or??

It's getting closer - (to finished)

Thanks to Alex for the cross design!

Alex and Daniel worked on the chapel today

. . . and this is pretty much the way the chapel will look for the wedding on Saturday - except, of course, for Glynda's decorations. There's still quite a bit of work to do. We could not put on the green tin roof because I didn't buy enough boards to go under it - so there's still a hole in the roof. And I didn't buy enough siding so the back gable is not yet done - plus some other things that I wasn't even hoping to get done. But overall I'm really happy with what we've accomplished and I'm happy with the design!