A Hodgepodge of Random Updates

My father once told my husband that if he married me he ought to be warned that his life will never be dull.  I can say with confidence that I do not invite mischief.  It just somehow seems to always find me.  Even here in the backwoods of the Ozarks.

Rambles and Brambles

We have heard rumors of a large, wild blackberry patch outside the boundaries of our property.  We have been enjoying the pickings off our 3 small blackberry patches but there has never been enough at one time to make pies or jam out of and not enough self-discipline to deny ourselves the instant gratification of popping a scrumptious, sun-warmed berry right into our mouths. 

Gooseberry pie!

Emily and I took a mother-daughter hike down to our creek.  We had a lovely time together being able to talk without any interruptions, allowing our conversation to ramble and roam and go wherever we liked just as we did with our feet.  Between the two of us we found over 50 ticks on our persons, but an even better find than that was the discovery of gooseberry bushes!  We picked some leaves and a berry and brought them home to identify them using the internet and were so happy to find they were indeed gooseberries.  We all planned that we would keep our little secret to ourselves and bake some gooseberry pies to surprise Daddy with.
 

A Baleful Hayday

We had a full day this past Saturday.  We had an outdoor workday planned and everyone had plenty to do. 

Moving adventures!

I have come down with a case of bronchitis with laryngitis and since I'm on my 5th day without a voice, and assigned a day of rest to get over the hump, I thought I'd do a blog post to update a little bit. 

 

Here are a bunch of photos of our recent move.  We still aren't moved in yet since we've had to do cleaning, repairs and repainting and tonight will be the first night everyone will sleep on a real bed.  Soon I will give you the tour of our new home, but for now here are some glimpses of the glorious chaos minus the severe thunderstorms we loaded and unloaded during and the tornado that touched down within miles of us while we were trying to get the truck unloaded and back on time.

We bought the farm!

That's just so fun to say! 

 

 We've waited a long time to be in the position of buying a hobby farm with which to raise our family on.  We are still in that state of pleasant shock where it all seems too good to be true yet we've lived it unfolding and know it to be a reality.

 

So much to say, so little time!

We've been very busy lately...too busy to sit at the computer and write things out.  I have much to tell about because so much has been happening!

 

Turtle soup, anyone?

They say simple pleasures for simple minds, so what does it say about us that we all get excited about finding a snapping turtle in our yard?
 

I am loving my Canon Rebel T3i!!

Making memories is important to me.

I agree with the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.  Making memories with pictures has been priceless to this mother.  I am just so thoroughly enamored with our new camera that I can't help sharing how happy we are with it and what we love about it and how excited we are to keep learning and upgrading.

Onions, leeks and peas, oh my!

We received our onions from Dixondale Farms in the mail on March 4th. We took them out of the packaging and placed them in this crate so they would have air circulation while they awaited being tucked into their beds out in the garden.

 

 

 One thing led to another and they waited and waited until I finally just decided that TODAY WAS THE DAY!

Saturday, what a day!

We had an outdoor work day this past weekend.  It was a beautiful day and we all worked hard and got quite a bit accomplished.  I am so proud of the character our children are developing!  I'll include some of the pictures that we have taken that show the "before" aspect along with the pictures of everyone working and the end results.  It always feels so good to remember what it used to look like and be able to see all that we are accomlishing as we take dominion over this bit o' earth.

Savoring the sweetness

Life is always busy.  If it isn't one thing it's another.  The trick is to keep the plates spinning that cannot be forgotten about while juggling in a few things here and there to keep things spicey.  Sometimes I get so busy putting out fires and whacking moles that I lose sight of the sweetness of my life. 

Winter Sowing Part 2

The next day, with the aid of my lovely assistants we scooped out the potting mix into a large bowl and wet it a bit and filled the bottle bottoms up to about 1 inch below the rim.

I let Emily have one of the trays to sow her flower seeds in.  We each chose our seeds and labeled popsicle sticks to keep track of what is in each bottle.

Winter Sowing Part 1

In my research efforts to try to minimize my risk of failure at starting seeds indoors, I stumbled across a curious concept that I've never heard of but am intrigued by...winter sowing.  Since I have so much time on my hands and nothing better to do but dream up things to keep myself busy with, I just couldn't resist jumping right in and trying it.  I figure with attempting to start seeds both indoors and out maybe I can up my success rate.  Couldn't hurt.

I spent a little bit of time reading around online about it and my darling beloved brought me home some wonderful scavenger treasures and we have begun the experiment!

Steve is so very green and brought me a love offering (which scored major bonus points) of plastic pop bottles and a handy-dandy plastic tray to hold them ever so nicely.  This will be wonderful!

Recovering from a virus

Our long, wonderful stretch of good health has come to an end.  We haven't had anyone sick for almost a year and it was very much appreciated and enjoyed.  I was sort of holding my breath wondering if we'd make it through February.  It seems that is our sick month.  But, alas, we didn't make it and several people came down with a stomach virus.  And a strange one it was, too.  It has lasted over a week.  Most people weathered it alright,

In all seriousness, we are not kidding

No, seriously.  We're not kidding.  But we almost were!  We were sooooo close to getting two pregnant purebred registered Nubian goats and a buck to keep things interesting.  I think that it is just as important to record the crazy things that we didn't actually end up doing, so here's the story...

A new learning experience

It is quiet in the house tonight.  I've put all the younger ones to bed and a couple of the olders ones that are sick right now.  Steve and Ethan and Jordy are out working in the barn preparing for an ice storm that is coming in tonight.  We've never experienced an ice storm and are curious what it will be like. 

It amazes me how much there is to learn with life in the country.  I had no idea it was a whole 'nother world! 

Enter Brisket

 Introducing...Brisket, our new meat cow!

A sweet day with my sweet family

We started a tradition quite a few years ago of having a fancy tea part together with the children to celebrate Valentine's Day.  It has become one of the most special days of the year for our family.  We all look forward to it!  This year we have had an illness going around in all of the children so we didn't do as much baking or decorating as we would've liked to, but we still had a wonderful day together, making memories and enjoying one another.

Spring is on the way!

Spring is on the way!

I was on my way out to the pecan orchard where the kids and I have been hard at work clearing out debris so that Sweetiebelle can be outside grazing when I almost stepped on this beautiful cheery crocus.  She carries with her the bright promise of sweet breezes, sunny days and the delightful time spent working outdoors together.  We have a common goal we are working toward...