Ernesto, we hardly knew ya.

The one nice thing about having a farm is the storage space – there's no lack of outbuildings in which to stash countless amounts of junk. The storage space came in particularly handy this past weekend, when hurricane Ernesto was threatening to ruin our Labor Day picnic. On Saturday, with the rain sweeping horizontally across the meadow and very little clue what Sunday's weather would bring, my dad and I busted out the brooms and cleaned out the lower part of the barn. Where cattle once stood, we'd have people.

By Sunday most of the rain was out of the area, bringing partly-cloudy skies and slightly cool temperatures to the valley. My father and I had stashed all the tables, chairs and other necessities in the barn, so Sunday morning we began moving everything from the lower part of the barn into the barnyard. By 3 p.m. I had cooked about 25 lbs. of ribs and people were just beginning to arrive.

By 9 or 10 p.m. we had gone through all but a few pounds of ribs, 15 lbs of chicken, almost three dozen ears of corn, plus all the goodies that people brought. Luckily I haven't received calls informing me of any salmonella-related illnesses caused by the round of undercooked chicken I served. By 11 p.m., well, honestly I don't remember much beyond 10 p.m., except the bonfire.

One really satisfying part of the picnic ended up being the positive comments we received from guests. As anyone restoring a house knows, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of a project and feel like you're making no progress or that your efforts are futile. This is the first time many of the folks saw the property and I was really pleased by how truly impressed they were with what we've done. We've got something really special, but sometimes I need others to remind me of why we purchased the property in the first place.

Oh, you're probably wondering whether Alton Brown stopped by the picnic. Sadly, no. Looks like I'll need to try again next year.