The big update

Animals, Food, and Kitchen




After a year of construction, the process is nearly finished. It hasn't been pretty and a lot of things have suffered because of it. The kitchen and our food has probably been the biggest hit. With weeks of no counter space (or tops some weeks) food prep went to what was quick and easy. We've eaten a lot of mac and cheese, canned chili and pizza. Our food budget went through the roof as we hit fast food more than we ever have before (even as newlyweds!). I killed our Kombucha SCOBY and the Kefir grains. Somehow our sourdough starter ended up with sawdust in it (who knows) and thus found it's way to the chicken scraps.  Thankfully, I am finding my rhythm again in the kitchen.  I'm nearly back to normal, with a starter bubbling on the counter. Even our animals suffered to a degree. We sold our milk goats to friends because it just became too many things to pay attention too. Those girls were fabulous and deserved far more love and attention than we were giving them. We butchered our pig in late October. Holy Cow! We will never have anything but pastured pork from now on. So incredible. The chickens had a hard winter. After a horribly cold snap (-35) we lost 11 in one night. We found them frozen in place in the run. Why they didn't come into the toasty coop is unknown. We are now down to 5 layers. We are getting 3 eggs a day now and they are beauties!

Dean and I Have some big plans for the kitchen. We both are working on some health issues that will result in a lot of play time in the kitchen. Our goals/needs are on the opposite sides of the spectrum so creative cooking is going to be making its way to our very boring (as of late) kitchen. Thankfully we work well together and have opposite talents. It should make the transition period go fairly smoothly.





The House:





As I mentioned above, the house is nearly complete. We are left with the final projects like painting trip, touch ups, and finishing off the bathrooms. To say it has been chaos is an understatement. For 1 year we have lived in a state of constant change and mess. With no closets we have shuffled all of our belongings from one place to another every couple days or weeks. With no garage we have had tools stacked on tables, under tables, in corners, and even on the piano. I can't find anything and probably wont be able to for still sometime. Every single surface in this house has been changed in the last year. Paint on the walls, flooring, counter tops, cabinets, ceilings... Everything. This of course has led to severe burn out for us. Projects that should have taken a week have drug on for a month in some cases. Our family has rolled their eyes and voiced their opinion on our state of mind more than once. They all thought we were crazy for buying this place to begin with. The especially thought we were crazy when every single room was a mess for months and months. This house became the snowball that would not end. To start one project we had to start 10 others. The prep time for painting was influenced by wiring updates, or new walls, or flooring. There was no smooth way to change this house while still living in it. Thank goodness kids are resilient!

The great news is our realtor came back with her listing advice. Oh boy do we have it in the bag! We bought this house to stay in for a long time. Shortly after purchasing it we realized we had bigger plans in life and the way to achieve those was by selling this home. Our improvements added with the steal of a deal we got for the house, will net us some crazy amounts of cash to start on our dreams. We are nearly giddy with excitement to be honest.







Homeschooling:



Yes we are still at it. Our homeschool has changed so much over the years. It's so much more different than the strict Classical Education that we started with. Each year we have relaxed a bit. This year I've noticed some decent gaps in the older kids skills. We will be focusing on those more over the summer after we wrap our year. The great things is the kids are excelling in so many other areas. The two youngest love working on stuff and happily do so multiple times throughout the day. At this point I'd almost call us interest led homeschoolers which is drastically different than my original goal. However, it makes sense for my kids and their goals. And that has always been a goal, to support them in a way they learn best. Caitlin will be in 7th grade next year so I've turned some of my research time to high school. It seems crazy that in two short years we will have a high schooler. She has some specific goals for high school and beyond. It's time to start making a loose plan on how she might achieve those.



The RV trip and the future:
Ahh the future, my favorite place to go. We have so many big plans in store for the next while. We have shortened our big RV trip. Opportunities have come our way and we really want to harness them and go with it. To do this we will have to have a solid home-base. Our trip will be a very specific trip with a very specific purpose. Not as much fun as wandering to and fro, but in the end I think even more rewarding. As that time comes I will share more information. For now there are still many variables that we need to solidify. Now that our life and home have slowed down we can re-shift our focus back to what it was and do some of the things that we haven't had time for in so long.

I won't promise to blog regularly but I do hope that I will return to this space. I like writing and I like cataloging our days here. There is a season for all things and I hope the upcoming one will include this blog.

Autumn Color

Last week we loaded up the van with fishing supplies and s'mores.  We headed an hour north to a little lake off the beaten path.  Unfortunately so did everyone else. :)  While the lake may have been packed we had the chance to do a little creek fishing and playing in the rain.  Well everyone else did, I of course spent time tromping through the mud, wet grasses and trees to take pictures of the late summer flowers and mushrooms.  The thing that I noticed was how early we have fall color this year.  It was everywhere I turned.  As I always do, I found myself breathing in the smell of autumn.  There is something in the air come fall that wakes me up.  I know I mention this every autumn, but seriously, autumn is perfection contained in a season.



Every year I find myself slowing down, relaxing more, and breathing.  The other day I took our dog out as the sun was coming up.  I stood there, shivering a little, and watching the colors swirl in the sky, purple, orange, grey, and blue and everything just felt right.  Autumn always brings out (or rather brings out more) the introspective part me.  As of late, the main thing I've thought about is how just absolutely perfect life has been lately.  Perhaps it's because for the first time in years I don't feel like committing a felony, or disappearing on a very long drive, or any other dramatic sort of stunt (let's face it, mothering is tough and exhausting work).  For the first time in years my house feels somewhat organized and calm, we finally have gotten the hang of learning as a family, and I feel like I have a little bit of time for myself.



Yesterday I had the privilege of being present at the birth of a friends baby as an unofficial doula of sorts.  Start to finish it was just over 2 hours.  The only person in attendance other than the couple was myself.  There were no doctors, midwives, machinery, anything.  It was us, low lighting, and the sound of running water.  Holding my friends hand while she had that baby was a great honor, to see the first breath of life into that small baby was miraculous.  The world seemed to pause for those last contractions and there was nothing else that mattered.  It was like a giant deep breath and when those first cries happened it was like a rush of life back into the room.

Autumn feels like that to me, a giant deep breath and a rush of life.  Autumn is about rest and regrouping, rethinking and realigning.  Autumn is about life for me.

Linked to Homestead Barn Hop

On butter and bonding

Our oldest daughter is nearly 12 (sympathy accepted).  She is a lovely girl with a quirky sense of humor and a need for something interesting all the time.  She is also the one I butt heads with most often.  I've yet to decide if that is because we are exactly the same or complete opposites.  We both have the overwhelming need to be right and in charge.  You can see how that may be an issue causer right?



This weekend she was sick with a summer cold.  The worst kind of cold in my opinion.  She wasn't feeling on her game and honestly I wasn't either.  We also happen to be milking our neighbors jersey cow.  3 gallons of glorious milk a day is a good and bad thing.  A very good and very bad thing.  In an attempt to use all this milk I decided to make cheese and butter yesterday.

I usually do these kinds of project cooking times by kicking all the kids outside and plowing through the project.  With a sick one who didn't want to stray very far, the kicking out wasn't going to happen.  Normally I get really frustrated with kids in the kitchen.  My brain works at high speed, always looking 5 steps ahead.  The constant kid chatter can drive me crazy and distract me.



Yesterday though was different.  Yesterday my daughter and I worked together.  We planned, we talked, we laughed, and we took selfies.  She enthusiastically helped make butter the old fashioned way with marbles.  She was happy to check the cheese temperatures.  She wiped up spills and set up supplies.  She did it all with a smile on her face, not a single eye roll to be seen.  I didn't cringe at the incessant chatter or have to breath deep with the constant invasion of my (very large) personal bubble.  We took it in stride.  We didn't watch the clock as the hours passed.



A friend once said "The moment you want to pull away from your child is the very moment you want to draw them close and focus on them."  There is something in my OCD type A brain that rejects this notion even though my heart tells me it's true.  My mom had her own version of this "The child that struggles the most is your favorite.  That child will be ever changing because each child goes through struggles."
As we worked side by side with laughter AND smiles I couldn't help but think of their wisdom. Maybe we clash because our natural inclination is to push rather than gather together. Maybe if I did take this advice, maybe she and I would find some common ground that has nothing to do with a battlefield.



Yesterday, my cranky, funny, demanding, headstrong daughter actually got along with her demanding, list driven, introverted mother.  The world didn't end, there was no tragedy to propel us in the right direction.  All it took was a summer cold and a lot of butter.



I think I will keep cream on hand everyday.

linked to barnhop

Our house

In February of this year we purchased our second home.  The house was built in 1973 and was decked out in all it's vintage glory.  Orange wood paneling, patterned blue and gold carpets, peeling paint, and gold handles one just about everything.  It was a beauty.  To make matters worse, the elderly woman who had lived here since it was built, was a hoarder.  Capital H hoarder.  This meant that on move in day (in February mind you after multiple cleanings) the house was crawling with bugs.  All that aside we couldn't pass the property up.  Included in the purchase was a 2.5 acres, a barn, shed, green house, and a cement out building we call the smoke shed (which it eventually be).

What sold me on the place was the landscaping.  The woman was a master gardener and she planted like it.  We have lilies, irises, daffodils, tulips, Siberian pea shrub, peonies, aspes, pines, lilacs, raspberries, bamboo, and so many more living and thriving plants.  Our kids call the woods in front of the house Terebithia.  It really is a great place.

The work it needs is overwhelming most day.  In the first 30 minutes after closing (not exaggerating) we ripped out the entire kitchen to reconfigure it, ripped out carpet, and started paint swatches on the walls.

Here is a peek at what we saw that first day clear back in October (yes we had a 5 month closing, it was....awesome).



The back of the house sported weather worn siding, out dated doors and windows, and over grown plantings.



The barn with decrepit fencing. Was used for horses at one time. The barn is 1/3 filled with manure.



The double decks and west side of the house. Covered in peacock poop (haven't I mentioned the peacocks yet? hmm) and rotting where they stood. The large tree in front of the deck has died due to the unfair treatment said peacocks gave it. At move in day there were 35 peacocks running around, down from 60 in November.



The lovely, lovely driveway. In the spring it was absolutely splendid.



This is actually the front door but is on the side of the house. No one knows where to enter the house. We have people walk around to the sliding doors on the decks or to the back door. Rarely do people come to the front door. We are changing that.

More updated pictures to come.

 

End of Summer

Its truly gone.  Last night we had our first freeze.  I woke up to windows that needed scraping, the heater running, and purple lips on one little one.  Summer was here and gone so fast I barely remember it at all.  After co-op today, the kids and I did a big yard clean up.  We took down the bean trellises, tomato cages, and soak hoses.  We raked up fallen fruit and found all the socks left all over the yard.  We cleaned "the fort" area under our huge pine trees and picked up all of the wood from projects the kids worked on all summer.  I wore a jacket all day, even in the sun and not once did I think of getting sunburned.  Summer is gone and in it's place is Autumn.  My favorite season of all.  The long shadows, geese flying overhead, squirrels scampering, and the colors make this season one of quiet and peace for me. There is still fruit in the trees and work to be done (a barn in our case that still needs to be raised) but it doesn't seem to have the same frantic pace to it as summer.  I look forward to Autumn all year long know that by the time October hit the calendar, I will be needing a reason to hunker down and call it a book day.  I will want to cook soups and stews, breads and pies, read books from morning till night and take pictures of shadows, leaves and the sky.  Autumn is my season.

So farewell summer, until next year.





















 

Lost and Found

Have you ever started doing something with one point in mind only to see something else play out instead?  That's this blog post.  I have this long rambley message posted below this going on about my lost blog. (Perhaps you've noticed the missing pictures, posts and other goodies?)  In between my dramatic streak and my wit I started to insert random pictures for the heck of it.  The funny thing is each picture actually fit into my whole lost and found title more than I realized.

So instead of stating the obvious about the blog, and instead of playing lead drama queen in my own life, I will instead share some old pictures that in some very tangible ways (and some not so) represent a little bit of lost and found.

(This one is my last babe.  Her toddler years are very nearly in the past.  At nearly 4 she wants to read, climb trees, chase chickens, and sing at the top of her lungs.  While she still cuddles (thanks goodness!) and needs me to kiss a hurt, most of the time this little bundle of energy explores and lives like with such abandon it leaves me speechless.)

 

(a fabulous fall view on top of a mountain in Idaho.  A plane went down here years ago.  The air at this point is so crisp and cool that you start doing that involuntary shiver/flinch combo that makes you wonder if you're having a seizure.  The loneliness of this post is something else.)

 

(My high school girlfriends and I would ditch PE to come hang out in this old school house.  Hang out naturally means freak ourselves out till we ran screaming like little girls from the building.  All in good fun right? As a teen there were only a couple of desks left in the large one room, coat hangers still hung on the wall and there were few missing pieces of glass.  I peaked in the windows to see a very different site last fall.)

 

(same day as the above picture and nothing has been Photoshopped. Breathtaking isn't it?  I used to drive by these fields as a teen.  I got my first speeding ticket not 5 miles from this exact spot.  After late nights at a fast food joint, I would bundle myself up, turn on a little Delilah, roll down the window and cruise this highway at 1 am every weekend.  Some nights I don't know how I  made it home alive as I never remembered driving it.  Other nights I would feel such a deep sense of peace fill my soul as I drove this desolate road that I would slow down and just feel the cold air hit my face.  Today I still speed on this road, I still roll the windows down, and I still notice the air as it hits my face.  Unfortunately Delilah no longer provides the soundtrack. Such a shame.)

 

(A stack of wood can be a funny thing.  Each time I see one I seem to have a memory that goes with it.  Making out with my best friend/boyfriend on a stack of wood in 11th grade, chopping a stack with my little one who swore he was big enough to hold the axe that out weighed him, sitting next to my guy on Christmas eve night with nothing but the glow of hot fire and twinkle lights on a tree.  A stack of wood always reminds me of something warm and happy and it always reminds me of home.  I miss our home and all the warmth it had.)

 

New phases of life

Lately it seems like every time I turn around something is changing.  Some days I struggle to keep up and other days I embrace it all with arms wide open.  I am always amazed at quickly life changes, how one simple moment or decisions shifts everything.  We have had many of these moments in the last month with many more to come.  I have to say with the weather warming, flowers blooming and the bees buzzing, I feel like I can roll with the punches a little better.  It's amazing how a little sunshine makes everything....well sunnier. :)



 

Business-  Years ago I had a little etsy shop that I started.  I had a handful of sales with great success.  Then life happened (ie 2 unplanned little girls entered the mix) and sewing was put on the back burner,  waaaayyyyyy on the back burner.  Now I am back to sewing again.  Today is the first day I have a deal listed on pinkepromise, a daily deal boutique.  It goes until Saturaday so check it out.  These skirts are super cute (there is even a Chevron option)!





Adoption-  We have just one week left of training classes.  This Saturday we meet a prospective child to adopt.  We are a little freaked out about this as it will catapult us into the teen phase of life.  Oh boy!  We are looking at a few different children and this is the first of those we will meet.

Farm-  Through a little side business called Cowgirls Country Kitchen, Caitlin was about to make cookies to sell.  With the proceeds she earned enough to buy two horses (a very good deal coming from a friend).  Ida and Hercules are beautiful and a very welcome addition to Caitlin's world.  We also purchased 4 rabbits a couple weeks ago, a meat breeding trio and a Mini Rex for Ian's 4h project.  Add to that we also have a bunch of chicks, 2 ducks and are established flock.  We are bursting at the seams most days.  We've talked about finding land and building a house but just aren't sure we want to commit to such a large mortgage.  The market here just doesn't have what we want, or at least not for a price we are willing to pay.



Garden-  It's all in and it looks awesome!  Although the neighbor came over to tell me we have a huge morning glory problem in the exact spot I planted the garden.  Awesome.  If you know of a natural organic way to get rid of the most pesky plant on the planet, I am all ears.  Leave a comment please!

That's about it around here.  We are busy running non stop as we have project after project going.  This weekend we are headed to Yellowstone National Park, a Memorial Day family tradition.  In the very near future I am going to share some free patterns and a couple frugal health care items.  My idea notebook is spilling over with ideas, it's time to get sharing them!

Wishing you all a fabulous finish to the week and a lovely weekend.

*Sharing on Frugally Sustainable

 

 

Spring has finally come

 

I love autumn and winter.  I look forward to them all year but without fail February comes and all I can dream of is April/May.  This year we had horribly cold temperatures, -35 on some mornings, for weeks.  I started looking forward to spring time in January!  Now it is here.  The robins are bouncing all over our yard, baby chicks are under a heat lamp in the garage, 14 fruit trees have been pruned, a garden tilled and goats are headed our way on Friday.  We will have baby goats born some time in May which will be so dang cool!  Today we were given two horses by friends who are moving to the city.  I picked up a contract sewing job that will put a little extra cash in my pockets sporadically throughout the year.  Spring is finally here and so much change has come with it.

I think the biggest change for us will be our family.  We have started the process to adopt.  Yikes!  This crazy plan of ours has been met with some hesitancy from family which is a bit frustrating.  For those around us it has come out of the blue, however Dean and I talked about adopting long before we were married.  We have talked about it on and off for years but the time never felt right.  Possibly because we never lived in an area that was "home" and we've never really had a support system that extends into the community.  Over the last year we have met an amazing counselor whose primary work is with kids who have unstable family histories, we have in place a home school community that is filled with all types of families including multiracial adoptive families (hard thing to come by in our neck of the woods), great pediatricians, a huge group of teens that are active in the community, arts, service etc.  We really live in a place that fits all of our families current and future needs.  In all of our talking, praying, pondering and researching we have chosen to adopt from the foster care system.  Within the system we are deeply considering either a teen or a sibling group.  We will be a licensed to take two children unless there is a sibling group of 3 (possibly 4) that can not be split.  All of the steps will be completed by the first week or so in June.  After that we will be available to either have foster kids with us or to look within the agency to adopt.  We already have one boy in mind.  As we continue on with the process we (he and us) will be able to determine if the match is a good one.

So yes Spring and Sprung and with it comes much change, growth and life.  In all these changes I run my word "Choose" through my head.  So many opportunities have presented themselves this year.  So many chances to choose.  In December when I found my word I had no idea it was going to so perfectly fit what this year had in store for us.  What a perfect inspiration.

 

PS. I have a camera filled with pictures of our little mini farm (or at least the beginnings of it!) but it's midnight and I can't find the camera cord.  I guess that is what I get for taking so long to post.