Our first Open House, freeze prep

It took most of the day to do the requisite cleaning to satisfy Mama that the house was ready for entertaining, but with Victoria’s help Mama was pleased with the overall effort by late in the afternoon. I did little things as we progressed in setting up the living room for guests, but largely kept working at my desk in the bedroom. Once I signed out for the day, I worked through the evening feeding while Mama made some dips for our expected guests. We were fairly certain that we were overpreparing but hope springs eternal. Vegetables were sliced and made ready for that tray. Meats and cheeses were sliced and made ready for that tray.  All the prepared food items were repackaged and set in the refrigerator to be set out when, or if, anyone showed up. When the prep was done, we waited.

Alissa and Aliza, true to their word, were the first to arrive. While I busied myself with getting the snack trays set out, Mama began entertaining. A few minutes later two of my coworkers arrived. Claude and Alyse are both employed at Energy Worldnet, Alyse works in the Education department with me and Claude is one of the managers in the Compliance Department. They have two children, Cadence (a teenager), and Bear (nine, maybe ten, years old). Both Alyse and Cadence were very interested in Color Street but neither had ever bought or tried to apply the nail sets. So, last night they got their chance – with Mama’s help. Alissa had also never tried the nail sets, so this was her first time as well to apply the appliques. Alyse and Alissa both bought several sets to take home with them. Cadence was truly excited about the nails. Aliza, at the ripe old age of eight, has been Mama’s little Color Street champion for months but this was her first time to apply the nails by herself. She was mostly pleased with her first effort, but definitely saw some room for improvement.

Claude, Bear and I spent the evening visiting, looking at the improvements made in the shop since Claude helped me relocate the fence on the East side of the shop. That was a couple years ago. He was impressed by the progress and the setup of the shop especially since he is now working on a shop of his own. We talked a variety of subjects, mostly hunting. Bear was a chatterbox. He alone covered a range of topics from dinosaurs and Komodo dragons to spiders and flies, to the feeding habits of coyotes which we heard howling in the distance. He managed to keep both his father and me on our toes for two solid hours as he tested one hypothesis after another. It was fun. It has been a long time since I was around a nine-year-old that was that chatty. It brought back a wealth of good memories.

All in all, I consider the evening a success. It at least proved to me that once a person gets a chance to see the product Color Street offers, there is an immediate recognition of the value, the quality, and the ease of use of this product. The abundance of variety in the color and design of the nail strips is almost too much to take in, but it is obvious that there is something available for everyone who has any desire to have their nails adorned. Now we just have to expose more people to the personal potential for this product to impact their lives. It was a good start.

Over the course of the afternoon, mostly during my lunch break, I took the time to cover and wrap the waterline at the corral. I have several lengths of heat tape to apply to exposed lines to prevent freezing. It just takes a bit of time to get the wrapping done. It did freeze overnight, so the labor was not in vain and while I was working on prepping the line, our neighbor came over to check on the heifers he has on our property. We chatted a bit and I asked how long he was wanting to leave the heifers with us. He had no definite date so we agreed that they would spend the winter on our small pasture. It will be good for them to have the added protection of the barn through the winter. We enjoy having them and they help us ensure we meet the ag exemption requirements. A win-win all around. Our neighbor is also looking for a calf for me and Mama to feed out along with his two heifers. That would be a blessing.

Today is the calm before our next Open House Saturday night. We purposely scheduled two so that there would be more options for those who had interest in coming. We all laed busy lives, so options are a necessity. We already have one family committed to coming Saturday and I hope several more from my office will come as well. Time will tell. At any rate, we are ready - or we will be in short order.

The work in preparing for yesterday evening will ensure we are well prepared for Saturday's soiree.