Winter's A-Comin'

This Old House (the real one, not this blog) alerted me to a sale on these indoor window insulator kits – with 30% off retail and free shipping from Amazon, I snapped up two kits for about $30!

Ryan’s mom Denise used these last year and had nothing but good things to say and I am Very Excited to use them this winter! Our old windows are single pane and two or three with cracks in them, so this added layer should help a lot.

We soldiered through last winter with various stages of insulation, but didn’t get the drywall up until March, so the insulation really wasn’t performing at peak level. I’m hoping that the closed up walls and the added insulation on our windows will help keep the house cozy and our natural gas bill low.

Now if only we could get the gas fireplace up and running for Christmas… (hint, hint Ryan).

Hubba Hubba

UPDATE: My mother, who is a seemingly endless compendium of all things horticultural, has informed me that our gourd is actually a Hubbard Squash.  Can’t get anything past her!

Thanks to Wikipedia, I also learned that there’s a possible North Shore connection! Apparently, the Hubbard Squash (at the time nameless) may have come to Marblehead through a Captain Knott Martin. A woman named Elizabeth Hubbard brought the fruit to the attention of her neighbor, a seed trader named James J. H. Gregory who subsequently introduced it to the market using Mrs. Hubbard's name. Gregory later bred and released the blue hubbard, which has a bluish-gray skin. Gregory advertisements for the squash date from at least 1859.

Gosh I just love stumbling upon things like that!  (SUCH a nerd.)

Happy Halloween!

I’ll add an update later this week on our weekend activities – more yard clean-up, a freak snowstorm (we were spared power outages and downed limbs this time around) and priming the baseboard trim – but we did want to wish a Happy Halloween to everyone out there!

Ryan and I have survived another colorful October working in Salem. We skipped out early today (roads close at 5:00 pm for celebrations) and we and hope to have a few trick-or-treaters at our door tonight.

A client of Ryan’s sent him home with this tres chic gourd. I was beginning to worry we’d have no fall flair this year.  The gourd is just about the same color as the house shingles and I think looks Rather Swell.  I’m already planning for next year and am thinking white pumpkins… 

Don’t eat too much candy tonight (she tells herself as she pops her fifth bite size Mars product)!