Oh dear.

I knew it had been a long time since I had gotten on here but I hadn't realized just how long. October to February. How did that happen?!

So what has been taking up my time? Several things. I got a new computer somewhere in there so I've been trying to sort out accounts and the like. I need to figure out how to merge a couple of Google accounts to simplify things. I've ended up with a ridiculous number of email and blogging accounts.

Let's see...new computer, new critters, kids (one in school, one at home), my own business, running a farmers' market, and about September I joined the Board of Directors of a grocery co-op. I have a monthly knit-night, a monthly (more sporadic than that but it is supposed to be monthly) spinning group, monthly board meeting, and then any of the other activities that go with having kids and pets. Some how I have ended up very busy by accident. I try to not get this busy because it takes away from just enjoying what we already have. In a lot of ways it is fun to be crazy busy though.

The kids are doing well despite the fact that we've all been sick with colds the last week or so. Bear is sick of school and ready for summer vacation, and Mia is ready to start school. I think poor Bear just gets bored with doing the worksheets day after day. Mia reads right along with Bear now. She jumped from not really reading to catching up and maybe outpacing Bear sometimes. They are in pretty stiff competition with each other when it comes to reading. Bear loves science at school and Mia loves animals. Bear does too but he loves them more in the sense of studying them and Mia loves to hang out with them and talk to them.

I love watching the kids develop into their own personas. They both have aspects of Tom and I but they are certainly their own people. Mia loves to do her own thing most of the time. She'll ask me why I don't leave the room sometimes. She would rather sit and play by herself than talk to me much of the time. Bear is just the opposite. He wants to be with us and interacting all the time unless he is allowed to play on his computer.

Our little farm is slowly coming together. We've got goats, chickens, cats, and dogs. We are up to two dogs again. I just got a Great Pyrenees, Akbash, Collie mix puppy. Her name is Luna. She is very sweet and growing like crazy. The goats are a pain but seem to give good fiber. The chickens lay eggs most of the time, but I'm going to have to get a few more to keep us in eggs. The cats do alright keeping the mouse population down but they aren't quite keeping up.

Those are the major developments. Otherwise we just keep chugging along with our day to day chores and activities.

Time flies

I hadn't realized so much time had passed.  Lots to catch up on...

The boys are back in school.  Bear does love school.  Thank goodness.  He is doing well.  There are always the bad days too but overall he is well behaved.  We are coming up on parent teacher conferences already.  Man, time really does fly!  It will be interesting to see what his teacher has to say.  He says he really likes science, math, and reading.  Sounds about right.  He is very interested in the natural and real world.  For example if he sees a house fly it isn't just a fly but a "blue-bottle house fly."  How he remembers it all I don't know.  He loves to watch Wild Kratts and from that he learns all sorts of names of the critters.  Another good example of his desire to know more about the natural world was when we were picking raspberries at the u-pick farm and he wanted to know what the little white thing was that gets left behind when you pick a raspberry.  He asked the gal who ran the farm and she told him, calyx (maybe?  I don't remember for sure).  He asks lots of questions about the world.

Tom is super busy with school as well.  He has his class and he is helping to run the recruitment program for international students.

I am trying to catch up on a few things now that I am not running a farmers' market for the moment. My garden did not get attended to so it needs cleaned up.  The chickens will need their coop cleaned again before the weather turns.  Goats (yes, we got goats) will need more straw for their bedding, and I need to get their hay tarped better.  My current tarp is old and worn out and not big enough.

We got our firewood in and hay in.  Those costs are making this month a bit more difficult money-wise but should help in the long-run.  We also bought half of a hog so our grocery bill is down.  That is nice.

Mia is growing like a weed and learning at a rapid pace.  Big brother is a great teacher and she seems determined to keep up with him.  They love challenging each other with math problems and she is working on reading.  She has three-letter words down pretty well and she sounds the longer words out well.  The hardest part is remembering to read left to right not right to left.  In watching her I think we may have to come up with some extra school stuff for her.  She will be very happy to go to preschool next year.

As it is a young lady's quiet time I think I'll see if I can actually get her to nap.  She has decided that most days she'd rather not.  Mom would so love it if she kept naps for a while yet.

Summer vacation story and a little catching up.

It sure is busy this summer.  We have managed to cram a lot in but not nearly as much as we were hoping to.

We lost our old dog Buddy.  He quickly went from being a little better to much worse and we knew it was time to let him go.  He was too good of a dog to let suffer.  We could tell the last day or two that he just wasn't Buddy anymore.  The light in his eyes had gone, and my old friend was ready to move on to happier fields and a young body again.  I miss him dearly, but I am glad he doesn't have to try to survive another cold winter.  We spent some good moments in our front yard snuggled and talking about all the good/crazy times we've had through the years.  I will most likely get another pup/dog at some point but it will have to be the right one.

Although we gave 4-H a good try without a club we won't be doing fair this year.  We just didn't get it together enough on our own.  Not a huge deal this year.  At least now we know a few more of the details and can get our schedule worked out a bit better for next year.

The farmers' market is going well but I am going to be ready for winter.  Winter will be Tom's busy time and my "vacation."  I'll still do a few markets here and there but I am not going to run one.  Summer is plenty for me.

We did get to go on a bit of a vacation as a family up to South Dakota a week or so ago.  We had a lot of fun in spite of the crazy rain storms we got the first night that flooded us out of our tipi. At least it made for an adventure that we will all remember.

You want the story?

Okay, so the first night we had a campground reserved with a tipi as our tent.  We pulled in and everything looked great.  We unloaded our stuff and went to town for dinner and a look around and we road a train over an old mining spur route.  As we finished up with dinner, which was an adventure in itself, we saw some storm clouds.  Around here that isn't anything surprising after a warm day.  Storms build.  We got back to camp and built a fire to make s'mores on.  Right about the time I got the bedding laid out and Tom got the fire good and going the storm hit us.  No idea how much moisture it put down but our tipi was flooded and most of our stuff was good and damp if it wasn't soaked.  The storm backed off after a while and we managed to dry things out enough to go to bed.  No s'mores for us that night.  But then, as Tom and I were struggling to sleep in wet bedding and not sleeping well anyway, the thunder and lighting struck right over the top of us.  There was enough lightening that it looked more like daytime than night and we decided to bag it and move into the truck.  We quickly scooped stuff off the floor and threw the kids into the truck.  Right after we got the kids in the second storm of the night really hit and proceeded to drop about an inch of water in an hour or so.  The next morning with next to no sleep we managed to procure a cabin, take a nap, and continue on with our planned vacation in much more cushy accommodations.

We had a lot of fun after we got dried out.  Now we/I am just playing catch up from being out of town.  I see it is the kids' bedtime so I'd better go lay down the law...

Summer time

It is officially summer now and that means that we all get crazy busy.  I can't seem to get myself to all the places I want/need to be during the day.  I really am horrible at time management a good portion of the time. It is a good thing I can really crank stuff out if I need to.

So, where are we at?  The garden is a weedy jungle.  We've had a rough spring and my tomatoes aren't doing too well.  I must have something going on with something around here because my tomatoes outside and my avocado inside are doing the same thing.  Both have curling leaves that are not really growing.  They are still green though.  Not sure what is going on.  I haven't done any research yet so that will come later. One of the many things I need to get to.

Everything else seems to be doing all right.  I've been really bad about getting things in on time so I'm hoping I get a good crop.  At the very least potatoes and onions would be nice to have.  I know the rest I can get at the farmers' market if I really need to.

I have figured out a way to have our property bring in a little income.  I now have three yearling calves pastured here.  It isn't a ton of money but it will help pay for a bit of fencing here and there.  It is better than letting the pasture go to waste and it helps out my friends who own the calves.  It is nice too because I don't have to fork over $1500-$2500 per animal to have three animals on the place.  Beeves aren't cheap right now in this area.  Especially since last fall our area (just north of us) got hit with a freak early-season blizzard that killed a bunch of animals so there are several ranchers looking for replacement heifers (cows that haven't had a calf yet) this year.

Let's see, what else?  I lost a chicken to our new dog.  Dumb move on my part.  I am most bummed about the fact that it was my best layer and friendliest chicken.  We got a new kitten who is a holy terror.  He thinks he is Mr. Special and king of the place.

Our old dog, Buddy is on his downhill slide.  He has congenital heart failure.  It will be a very sad day when he goes.  He's been with us for 13 years.  The medicine the vet has him on seems to be helping him be more comfortable.  A week ago he wasn't fighting us at all about the meds and now we have a bit of fight.  This is good and bad.  Good because it means they are working, bad because we can't just stop giving them. Unfortunately the dog is smart enough to figure out that the extra treats contain the medicine.  We have had to resort to dissolving the pills in water and shooting them into his mouth with a syringe.  At least he gets most of them this way.  At this point it is just making him as comfortable as possible in his last while.  As far along as he is I'm kind of doubting he'll get to winter.  Who knows though?

Happier news:  The kids are doing well.  Bear is soon to turn six-years-old.  How in the heck?!  I know, I know.  Everyone tells you it will go fast but you don't really have any idea just how fast until you do it for yourself.  Both kids love books.  Bear is reading a lot and participating in our local library's summer reading program.  I'm trying to get the 4-H thing started with him too but I am horrible about getting that going.  Fair is frighteningly right around the corner.

Mia is doing her best to learn to read.  She has most of the letter sounds down and is starting to try to spell. She is also writing her name and most of her capital letters.  What a difference in kids.  Bear never cared about writing etc.  Still doesn't really.  Mia wants to read, write, and do math.  Her and Bear do simple addition math at the dinner table for fun.  Bear keeps trying to get her to go a lot past her abilities but that is probably why she is as good at all of this as she is.  Big brother is always pushing a little bit more and she wants to do everything he can do.  They both seem to love a good challenge.  I just try to encourage that.

Bear finally is napping.  Almost 6 and he still needs it.  Mia is pretty well over naps at 3.  That makes for a sad mom.  I love nap time.  I knew he needed one today when I was having to tell him everything 5 times and then having to yell to get him to actually hear and act.  He becomes a little zombie when he needs sleep.

I'd better take advantage of the peace and try to get the kitchen, pantry, and everything else ready to start processing food.  I have strawberries that need jammed.

Grab a drink and join me for an update.

Wow, life got busy all of a sudden.  Spring hits and so do all the end of school events for both boys.  It is of course also gardening time and time to get ready for the summer farmer's market.  I went and became the market manager so my time has been filled with lots of emails and organizing in preparation for market that starts in June.

Bear gets done with school next week.  So does Tom and that means there are music programs, field days, faculty meetings, summer school planning, and all sorts of craziness going on there.  I am trying to organize getting another kitten since one of our cats got killed last fall.  I have a 5K coming up on Saturday that I am not ready for at all because I haven't been able to run much.  Stinking spring blizzards.

Speaking of that.  Mother's Day we got almost a foot of fresh snow.  It snowed for 12+ hours straight.  At least the snow should have protected all the little shoots poking up when it froze last night.  I do wish it would melt and dry a bit though because we need to mow the lawn.  How goofy is that? So goes Spring in our weird weather area.

We haven't minded being trapped inside too much since we've all had colds too.  At least it means we don't feel bad about staying inside.  I would like to get out and get the garden planted though.  I know better than to rush it too much.

Let's see, what else do we have going on? Market prep, gardening, school...Snow, planning a family camping trip, and trying to figure out how to have animals.  Anyone want to sponsor a ton of fencing?  Fencing and hay are killers when trying to figure out having livestock of any kind.  For example: Hay.  Based on some really rough numbers for sheep, if I were to have 8 sheep that ate 4 small bales per week that averaged 80 pounds per bale I would end up needing about 5 ton of hay for 9 month.  For easy figuring let's say hay is priced at $200/ton that makes $1000 in hay alone for less than one year for a few critters.  Those numbers go way up if you have horses.  Middle of the road numbers for beef and probably less for goats.  And then you get to start figuring prices for fencing.  I have been too scared to really price it out.  I know fencing panels start at around $20/panel and go up from there.  Field fencing is cheaper, as is electric fencing.  Honestly I will probably go with some electric fencing since that will entail the least amount of money and work overall.  It will still require a lot of work and money but not as much as some of the methods.  I luckily already have good fence posts in place and have barbed wire fences.  That just won't hold goats or sheep.

So that has been my main dilemma.  In the back of my mind there is also the fact that I want to add bees to our orchard that we started.  I think for that I will see if I can work with our local bee man to see if I can even remain calm around a hive of bees.  That is a heck of a lot of bees in one place.  Bees would be wonderful to have though.  They would help the garden and orchard and I love honey so that would all be lovely.

Hmmmm... Family trip.  We hope to travel to South Dakota and do some camping.  The Black Hills and Mount Rushmore are only a few hours from us so it would be an easy weekend even if it ends up in the middle of the week.

Tom is teaching summer school again this year so although he is wrapping up one semester he is planning summer classes already.  He doesn't get much time off this year.

I have Bear in 4-H too for the summer.  As if we won't be busy enough.  He is old enough this year for the Clover Kids program.  That means he can't qualify for the state fair but he can enter our county fair with his project.

Mia is doing her best to be ready for Kindergarten.  She isn't even going to preschool yet.  We'll wait another year on that.  I don't want to do two years of preschool.  A couple of reasons there.  The cost and the fact that it is in another school in town, that is separate from where Bear goes.  Enough miles go on the vehicle taking Bear to school since we have no bus service.  But, back to Mia.  She knows her alphabet, is starting to write her letters, counts to 30 with very little if any help, and is starting to spell/read.  Her and Bear do addition and subtraction for fun when they are sitting at the table so she can add most of her numbers up to 10.  Bear is starting to teach her the concept of subtraction.  He is an incredible and natural teacher.

I think that about catches us up.  Spring is always busy and for some reason we insist on adding to the normal Spring busy.  We must be crazy.

Running Again

I'm finally almost back into the habit.  I pretty much took the winter off.  Running at -30 degrees didn't seem fun and since I refuse to pay for a gym and don't own a treadmill running was put on hold.  This week hasn't been easy since I've been trying to come down with some sort of creeping crud Bear brought home.  The actual running wasn't so bad but afterwards and just before were not great.


Someday I will get faster.  I am. very. slow.  At least I'm moving.  I'm determined to actually loose some weight this year too.  You would think that after 3 years I could get rid of some of the baby weight.  It is due time now.  The garden will help with that.  Both the act of gardening and the eating more vegetables.


I started my tomatoes today.  I'm already seeing piles of weeds too.  I'm going to need to dig beds again to kill all those little weed starts.  The chickens will hopefully help with some of it but three little ol' chickens aren't going to get it all.  I'll be hopefully getting my voice back enough tomorrow to call a gal that has sheep for sale.  I have no idea if I have enough money for them or decent fences.  I suspect not on both accounts. 


I'm off to finish off my horrible garlic, ginger, lemon, and apple cider vinegar concoction for my throat.  Tastes bad but seems to help.  And then I have children who think I'm starving them.

3 years

Three years ago yesterday my dad died.  Hard to believe.  I still can see something or think of something and almost pick up the phone to call him.  I miss our phone talks.  Well, I really miss everything.  In many ways I'm glad he went when he did but it doesn't make me miss him any less.  I really wish my kids could have gotten to know him better.  Bear did a little but Mia only met him once at about a month old.  She was only 3 months old when he died.


You know one thing I didn't realize until after he died?  I didn't realize I was such a "daddy's girl."  I wouldn't have called myself that but in many ways I am.  And as much as he and I could argue I think it was because we were more alike than either of us cared to admit.


One of the things I would love to ask Dad now is if he remembered exactly the day, the phone call, the feeling when he got the news about his dad dying.  Of course that isn't something I wanted to know when he was alive because it wasn't something I wondered about.  I'm assuming I will always remember those moments.  I remember those phone calls from the plane crashes and I remember the phone call about my dad.


Enough thinking about this.  I miss my dad, that is about all there is to it.  Most days are pretty dang wonderful but there are times it is harder without him.  Such as life after a death of a loved one.