Silence on the blog might be a good sign... It's the sign of a busy full swing spring season at our place! Each and every year, I set some goals for what I hope to accomplish with our homestead for that year (who am I kidding, I re-write my plan more than that!). I started this spring with a goal : get more done.
GET. MORE. DONE.
Sheeesh. I am hard on myself, aren't I? I think I'm either growing or shrinking, so let's do this thing and GROW! So, what in the world was I going to do to push myself and my yard to grow more? A lot! I can fully admit that I'm the worlds worst planner and I wing it. I'm not detailed in my plans. In fact, I might even say that I have a lot to learn from others in the planning division. So, with a general idea of what I think I could accomplish this spring - I dove in.
First up on the spring agenda: Second beam placement!
With the help of my awesome brother Rafa, our good friend Joe and the master planning skills of my husband Damon, the second beam was completed without hiccup on Easter weekend. The beam placement meant more old framing could come out and we'd be in the clear for the kitchen island to go in. Though we had some delays with our island cabinets, this is the "last" of the remodel project for the Spring/Summer season and I'm feeling peaceful about the timeline we're on.
In the middle of our remodel, I had the feeling of "this home isn't quite right" and I realized that I was missing my childrens art work from our walls. Before the septic fiasco and losing all that drywall downstairs, I had lots of stuff on the walls from them. So, I moved my picture of Jesus from my living room, loaded us all in the car to buy paint and my children spent DAYS filling the wall in our living room!!!!! Ah. Much better.
With Spring hitting Idaho - we had fun weather!! Both hail storms and glorious sunshine with lovely flowers in the same week? Yep, SPRING !
April was a wonderful month. We had fun at the zoo, the discovery center, outings with friends and more.... In the middle of writing this blog post, a child needed me and I was transferring photos from my phone.... Anaius decided to delete them. Poof. Gone! I cried. He cried because I yelped so loud upon discovering him sitting on my computer.... And so y'all will just have to take my word for it - it was a good month..... For family not on Facebook, here's a quick recap from what I recovered from my April posts.
Declan broke his arm!
3 weeks with a cast above his elbow - another 3-4 with the new shorter cast....
Damon was a complete bad ass and trenched our driveway so we now have water on the southside of our property!
And Daunika spent over 5 hours testing for her eyes to help us understand what she needs to be more successful and how to fix what's going on. She was so nervous. It was hard for me as her mom to sit by and watch. What an exercise in shutting up - I couldn't give her all the answers!
And Damon used this really nifty machine to build me a lovely new berm!
I HAD photos of the kids getting rides with Damon... but since I didn't post them on facebook and Anaius "helped" me, you'll just have to trust me when I say the kids had a blast when Dad brought home this machine to move some dirt at our place.
Spring brought something new to our little homestead too!
I'm trying to align my expectations for this summer with expecting another baby in the peak garden-harvest/canning season. I was pretty bummed to realize that a big veggie garden was likely far more than I needed to put on my plate this year. I felt so sad to think of the ground barren for this year. I was talking to my husband on the phone about this disappointment... I said something about "this would be a great years to put pigs on the garden space to have them compost and hog till everything, eat all the weed roots AND we'd have meat in the freezer by fall. Damon responded casually that he agreed that wasn't a bad idea......
2 days later, I picked up pigs.
I think he's questioning ever telling me I have a good idea again.
But seriously. They are AMAZING!!! I'm SO happy that I'm whimsical with my homestead and dive in head first. These little piggies are so loved and will bless our family with a full freezer! I didn't have a plan. I didn't have anything I needed exactly "just right".
I just LOVE May. I can't tell you how much it just reaches a core of me that I didn't know existed before living here. It's so alive, so vital and healthy. So much to do, it's overwhelming. So much to do, it's satisfying.
You can see the pasture mix we seeded early this year is thriving alive and well in the goat pen. They are so spoiled! I seriously adore my goats. And those chickens? I tolerate them mostly. They get lots of yummy greens and have a huge pen where nothing grows because they are expert dirt scratchers.
The raspberry patch is exploding this year! I'm also in the battle of a lifetime with Candian Thistle. Seriously, this weed is sent straight from hell. I'm ready to light the whole yard on fire and watch it burn.... except I'd lose all my efforts and established plants!
Our baby trees are so healthy and thriving. Apricots, peaches, nectarines, plums, apples and a lone pear dot our mini-orchard. It's so fun to watch them grow!
And guess what? The pigs aren't the only new thing around here!
We live on such a busy road and want to both provide privacy to our yard, boundaries to those driving by, AND use the land to our advantage. We decided that 100 feet of blackberries would do the trick. I spent the Saturday before mothers day planting blackberries! And my stellar husband began the posts for the trellises to train them up on mothers day!
Such babies, so much HOPE in those tiny little plants!
As a fun end note, I love when people say "how did you learn all these skills?" and I have to scramble to look intelligent. The truth is, I have NO skill other than this:
I try. Fearlessly.
I didn't grow up with any example of gardening. I had never seen a livestock animal outside of the fair and mostly hated them because they were stinky. I have failed a million times. I have had things die on me - both animal and plant and I felt the loss so deeply in my bones I hurt.
If someone asked me how to do it all, I wouldn't have a clue of what to say!
Instead, I simply haven't given up. I'm not the best at a damn thing y'all. So, get out there. Try. FAIL and ask yourself what you learned in failing. It's so incredibly vulnerable to place your hope in things, I understand. That's ok. Gamble with the dirt and a packet of seeds. It's worth it.
