My Plan is Working!

I am sneakily trying to get us all to eat better. And it's working! Today for lunch I was eating a salad and Terra started begging for some, so I made her her own salad, and then Garrison and Emery wanted their own as well. They were bickering over who got their salad first!!! Yay! Love it. Of course...they still had to have some cheese and croutons on it, but we are getting better. I usually have to hide the greens in a smoothie or some kind of sauce.

Just Some of the Little Moments

It's the little moments in life that make it all worth it. Life has been really good lately. Really, really good.
And then the Planning and Building Department decide they need to get more involved. But, we'll make it through this little adventure too.
The weather is just starting to really cool off at night. I am now in fast forward to get things done before winter sets in. I have sold a lot of trees...at least enough to pay for most of the expenses this year...which means our own trees were paid for by the ones I sold.


Here's a picture of us at our favorite place to be on a Sunday afternoon. Sand Dunes Lake. Love it. We always have the place to ourselves on Sunday. There are trees to shade us, the water is clear, and we get a great parking spot.


This is my newly installed kitchen sink. I still have to figure out what to do about the walls in the kitchen...the "backsplash" area.


And This is Emery with one of my Roses in her hair. She always has a flower in her hair these days.


Some more pretty flowers in the garden...these are hollyhocks.


And this is after a fun filled day in town. Garrison sits up front so he chats with me on the way home, but the girls all zonked out.

Just Some of MY Great Outdoors

I LOVE having a garden of my own. I LOVE having the kids roam free and wide. I have an elderly lady that lives down the road who is the same age as both my grandmother(s)...she is an avid gardener and likes to come and visit and walk through my garden. She doesn't understand why I can't "just plant in rows", and "keep things weeded", and "why, oh why do you have to use all that mulch everywhere". I think she is just trying to be helpful...

This is one of my rosebushes that Joseph bought me for my birthday last year. Aila just ripped off all the blooms last night.

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And this is inside my little greenhouse...should be getting tomatoes anytime now...



And this is right near our front door. That is all the lawn that I want to ever have. It only takes about ten minutes of maintenance per week and I just use a human powered push reel mower. It is just enough, but not too much.



And this is a section of my wildflower garden. It is in FULL bloom now...I've got to go take another picture...QUICK!

The Beautiful Ranch

Joseph was bribed with brownies to go and spend the day trying to get his parent's fifth-wheel trailer up and running. We haven't been up to the ranch since early this spring. I sure miss the beauty and simplicity of life up there.


For example...need a drink? Just take a sip from the creek. (Ummm...you said it wrong. It is pronounced "Crick"...just thought I'd let you know.) That is Attley(cousin)and Garrison.



And Grammy took the girls for a couple of long rides on the 4-wheeler.



Joseph took this picture...beautiful photography.






And a few pics of the kids...the last is Aila with her "Grandad". She LOVES her Grandad.

Long Time Coming.

I know...I'm slow. I am finally posting something. We've been trying to get more organized and "structured" around here. So far it's been great. We've had time for the important things, the kids are helping out, things look slightly more clean and less cluttered, and everyone is getting more sleep. I hope it lasts for more than a few days.

Here are a few pictures of some stuff that's been going on.


Here we are at the County Fair this last weekend. I love going to the fair because we get a free Sloppy Joe lunch. I go almost anywhere for free food. Aila was just enamored with this horse. Whenever she saw it she went running toward it with obvious excitement.



This is Aila and our newest kitten. She loves it...(Just in case you were wondering, yes, it is really hard for me to keep my kids clean.)



And this our newest addition to our chicken flock. I know it is kind of hard to see, but there is a little chick there. Just one chick hatched out of the clutch-the last living descendant of Crazy Rooster Head (you know-the rooster with the top hat feathers). He was killed about a month ago by a raccoon (we think that's what it was).


And these are our little pigs who have doubled in size since we got them a month or so ago. We've been feeding them spoiled produce from the local grocery store and we also have them in a movable pen where they can eat all the clover we have planted. We plan on keeping them as a breeding pair and selling the babies in the spring. All I know is that I don't want to eat them. Joseph asked me again today if we wanted milk goats and I almost thought we should for a minute there. Then I thought about it...ummm...no thanks. Then I'd get addicted to milk again.



Hmmm...none of that sounds very exciting, but we've been staying busy.

Lots Going On Around Here!

That is a lot of trees. It doesn't look like it. This last week I planted or potted up over 500 trees!!! Some are for us...some are inventory for my new home based nursery...Springtime Nursery.

Here is a picture of Garrison pretending he is dying of thirst in the Sahara..actually just the Sand Dunes down the road.

And how sweet is that little face...aaahh. She is a handful though...I think she may be entering the "terrible twos".

Our first Shitake mushroom sprouting. Two months behind the scheduled emergence...but it is here at last. We ate it on pizza last night after it had quadrupled in size.

Our new chicks...I REALLY don't know how I got tricked into getting these...again...and in the last few days one of our neighbors gave us another 12 chicks because they didn't want them. Ughh...So we have 22 more chicks and we've got a hen hatching out a clutch as we speak. Yep that's a lot.

And our full grown chickens...we had to build a cage for that CRAZY rooster after he attacked our little Aila. And the duck (Dudley) has stepped in as the dominant Male around the yard.

And this was after 3 days of nothing to eat after a bout with the stomach flu...both of them.

Yes...that is a lot of eggs. Why do they all choose the same nesting box anyway?

Love This Book!

Food Storage Made Easy by Crystal Godfrey

Just thought I'd put it out there that I found a really great book on how to use food storage. I learned quite a few new things from it...like that you can use powdered eggs to make scrambled eggs. I was skeptical, but tried it and they turned out well...they aren't too different from fresh eggs! Great book...too bad nobody else at my library has had a chance to find the book cuz I keep renewing it! Hah...

And here's her website...lots of good info.
http://everydayfoodstorage.net/