Life is good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We've had a beautiful, full first summer here filled with lots of garden time (LOTS), flowers, fields, balls, chickens, family, and just freedom.

As we get ourselves back into the routine of early mornings, catching the bus, and homework, we look forward to the next season to come.

Wool is once again on the needles and always on the brain. Spinning class happens soon...and maybe, just maybe, so do those sheep and feeder calves, meat birds, and.....
....

(but not the season after that.  Winter can just not come)

In action

:::With another week of super cold, snowy, and blowing weather hitting us, we find ourselves quite stuck inside.  That retched wind took out 4 big boards in our old barn too.  Not gonna lie - I shed a tear.

:::The boys find themselves around the table, keeping warm, working on projects, building Lego creation after Lego creation, eating us out of house and home, and generally in good spirits about it all.

:::Luckily we've got the littlest member of this boy band's crazy fever under control and he is ready to take the world on one digger at a time.

:::Wool is everyday.  On the head, legs, feet, and hands.  Sometime I rock two sweaters.  This weather makes it easy to pick out an "outfit".  Wool.

:::We turned our heat down even lower and celebrated that we had the option to do that by having a candlelight dinner.  Now we are just cold. Burr 60.

 :::It looks like it could be yet another day out due to extreme cold weather and wind chills.  We are getting so used to being home that when an actual full week of school happens, it will be a bit of an adjustment.

:::Until then, we will just keep calm and project on.  

On the needles

My knitting stride is just about back.  Between moving, Christmas makings, and the puppy (oh and those kids), I've not had a lot of time to knit.

I think I'm finally under control enough to start back at my addiction hobby again.  Good thing too since I need to finish my kids' solstice/winter/Christmas sweaters.  I've forgotten that as they get bigger, their sweaters take longer.

All three are getting Tea with Jam and Bread.  As soon as this pattern came out I knew I'd make it. Not only is it one of my favorite songs, it is the perfect boy (and me!) sweater with its tunic style and pockets for various rocks, bugs, and other found treasures.

Each one is knitted out of Lark from  Quince and Co.  I've got a few knits for myself out of this yarn and I know it wears really well.  I should finish my medium boy's sweater today and then on to #3.  I hope to have it done by next week.

Between reading everything I can about raising chickens and coop building, I've also been reading and experimenting with recipes from Mary Jane's For the Farm Girl.  My oldest thought I needed to check this out from our library.  Turns out it is pretty cute and has some good, basic, whole food inspired recipes.  I've worked with sourdough this week. My bread was a fail though. I think it was just too much whole wheat. It will make good croutons though!

linking up with Ginny at Small Things

Weekend Warriors

The last two weekends we've been able to ink out some good ol' farm working time.  Each have given us one day of temperature that was not at that "my teeth are cold" cold.

Last weekend we were able to organize the pile of lumber in the field next to ours.  All of that leftover lumber was available to us from the previous home owner.  We've put in a call to make sure but now it is out of the ground and ready to move.  Dragging wet, frozen boards a few acres at a time was not a lot of fun but our crew of merry men did it.  If we get the go-ahead with the lumber (again), we will be using them for the chicken coop. 

The Chicken Fortress layout has finally been decided - a 12x16 house for 20+ hens.  I'm tickled pink that there will be a green house as part of it.  A Green House.  I swoon.

The mud.  This makes for some really cold mama fingers since I have to prewash this stuff in the snow and water.  Outside.  Burr.

This weekend we had much of the same again.  Nathan was able to burn a huge pile of Hedge tree that he trimmed.  There is a lot more tree overgrowth to work on though!

The boys and I took their day off of school to clean out the dairy pen in the old barn.  Yikes.  I had no idea how long it would take the four of us - 5 hours!  I really wanted to finish the job with the crew on hand as it is a mantra around here to "finish what you start and do it well". 

We did.  Those kids of mine rocked it.

All of that soil "food" as the crew calls it, is our "pumpkin graveyard".  Last weekend we buried our Halloween pumpkins and leftover gourd seeds.  There was piles and piles of roofing tiles behind the barn and there still is a lot left. Hopefully those vines will help us dig them up.  Mason really enjoyed making each pumpkin a grave marker - hence, the pumpkin graveyard garden.

Little by little, before the ground thaws, we will empty that old, beautiful, falling down barn of all of its 40 year old gold.  I've bought myself of collection of books on soil.  I'm super excited to read them. Good thing I'm married to a science nerd and he gets my need for knowledge.

Happy "Famer/Cowboy/Monticello Worker" who is now not a boy but the a fore mentioned people at any given time.