Um, something must be wrong..the sun is shining!

Oh, I do apologize.... The trip to Nebraska and all my basketball(dreams down the can!) and then I had company the day after we got back and then confirmation and then my good friend having her first baby and cleaning house........ I think you get the picture. I feel exhausted.

I enjoyed the company, but between her 3 kids and my 4, I felt overrun. My life is now back in center and at peace. Well, at least a little left of center and teetering in the balance! But as they say "That's how I roll".

Not a lot of new news around the Hacienda. The garden shed/barn is almost complete, so the chickens are a step closer. The neighbor just got a new puppy, so the kids have been spending the evenings bugging him. My youngest tank figured out how to climb trees! I quietly awaiting the er run for that.

I know I said I would take and post pictures from Nebraska, but it really looked and felt like everywhere else. Cloudy and cold. So, we go to Lincoln in April, maybe I'll get lucky then.

But in the meantime, my shoots are growing and the sun is finally shining and this week is supposed to be WARM. I can hardly wait to get outside and in the dirt.

24 hrs and counting....

Well, crunch time is upon me. We leave tomorrow for Nebraska, so that means I need to clean and pack. The days have been getting away from me and I'm not sure why. I blame daylight savings! I love it though that we're getting more light in the evenings.

My pumpkinhead is sick. The weather plays with her in the worst way. We've got the bubbles(runny nose), and the asthma crud. Yea Spring! I hope and dread it all at the same time.

The other half informed me yesterday that I had better tape my game so I can watch it when we get home since we WON'T be leaving early enough to get to the farm to watch it. He wants to get the roof on the shed before we leave. Hmmm, that was not in my plans at all. I guess he doesn't understand that there will be another game on Saturday, geesh does he not pay attention at all?

The girls have been running around the house this morning looking for a bit o' green to wear. They think that if they don't a leprechaun is going to find them and give them a pinch! Where they got that idea, I have no idea, but it's funny to see them scramble. Happy St. Pat's to all and have a wonderfully 'green' day.

Oh, Can You Say.......

Slacker! I have so much to do, but yet, to no avail do I get anything done. It took me 3 hours yesterday to run into town to do 2 things. I have no idea where the time went and I can't even blame the kids because they weren't with me!

My ultimate excuse is that it is March Madness! I'm totally caught up in the moment. Once this is over I can get back to a normal, lackadsical way of life. Not caring about sports at all because basketball is over. Breathe.

Allright, enough about my freaky sports addiction an onto important stuff. I had the kids pick a subject to write about. The Bug wrote on St. Patty's day. My Pumpkinhead wrote on the Easter bunny. And my wonderful little Tank wanted to write on Elephants. Let me tell you they were doozies! It was actually a pretty good activity to do since one loves to tell the story and the other one loves to draw. I've been searching for other things to do until we leave for the farm. (We will be leaving at the crack of dawn because I need to be there by 8 for the game!!)

Oh, and through our local sustainability network, someone is giving away their llama! I put an e-mail to them and I'm next on the list. Uh, I haven't mentioned this one to the other half yet... I'll tell him when he's in a good mood!

One of those days....

So far, it's day one of spring break for my older daughter and if it keeps going like this, 10 days is going to be loooong. The weather doesn't help, it's rainy and gloomy outside, the kind of day when you just want to curl up with a good book and get cozy. I'll have to see what kind of activity we can do to keep all at peace.

This week was shot due to I have no car because my other half is playing firefighter and I have no means to get anywhere. Which is particularly annoying since I have found some great things on some other sites that I'm dying to try, but I have to get the materials. Hmm, maybe this weekend.

I completed my shopping bag and I have to admit, it won't win any prizes but for a first time stab at sewing, I didn't do to bad. It's usable and looks decent, so on to my next grocery run, it will be put to use!

Hopefully this weekend will dry out, I really would like to get to my front garden bed and start transforming it into my kitchen garden. The seeds I started are coming, I just have to hope that we don't get that extremely hard freeze in late March to kill everything off. The past two years we've lost our cherries and plums to the freeze. I like to get the kids together and give them a % of what they pick when I take it to our local market. It turns out to be a pretty penny! One of these days I'll learn to can, but it's still way more than we'd eat. We've trimmed back our grapevines in hopes that they come back. After 6 years of being in the house, we haven't had the wonderful grapes that we had that first year. True be known, we really didn't have the time to get to them. We had to work so hard on the house to get it livable, that the gardens and fruits trees that were here got neglected.

Well, I have lots to do this summer, so Mother Nature had better get it into gear because I'm READY!

Change is good

Well, I've figured out how to change my page. I'll see how I like this, the scenery is always changing, so.....

Hump Day again! Only a week until we travel to no man's land in Nebraska. It's always nice to see the in-laws, although the last few times we've been up, I got sick. Hopefully no repeats this time. The girls have discovered in their grandfather's gravel pit that it's a paradise of rock(aka dinosaur fossils) I have several budding paleontologists in the midst. Never say never, Nebraska has an extensive collection of mammoth bones and just to the south of the in-laws there is an active dig going on. He has 600+ acres, who know, maybe we'll have the next T-Rex!

I hope to take lots of pictures while I'm there. We're close to the Missouri River and now is the best time to be there, because the rattlers aren't out yet! I am not a snake lover and that, more than anything will keep me indoors as much as I hate it.

I can tell spring is here. We have had a fortunate fall and winter with our eczema woes, but now my poor baby boy is starting to break out again. He's not bad, but I can tell the change in humidity is effecting him.

I'm off to work on the market bag that I've been trying to sew. Maybe I'll post pictures if it resembles what it should be.

Hectic Tuesdays!

This is what we do on Tuesday mornings. My Bug loves going to gymnastics and actually so do the rest of them. We get to work out a lot of energy all on the beams and bars and best of all the "pit"!

So, finally this evening I'm sitting down with a cuppa tea and for once some actual quiet to put some thoughts for the day down.

I really have enjoyed reading and peeking into all these lives that people care to share. It gives me hope that some of the things that I would like to do are possible. My time management needs some tweaking, but anything is possible.

I'm still playing around on my blog and hope it to evolve into something.... not quite sure of the word I'm looking for, but something. So please forgive some of the changing scenery as I settle into it.

Well, here are some pictures from my porch, were I spend a lot of my time. I have just repainted it to the blue. I wanted something bright and cheery and boy did I get it.
I have a few seedlings emerging from my little greenhouse! I have to find the list because I forgot where I put what.
We had another great weekend outdoors. Sunny and warm = fun for all. The girls have discovered that they enjoy playing soccer, so I guess, I might be coaching again! The youngest just likes to follow me around and look for snails and acorns.
My neighbor let me borrow his wife's sewing machine, sooooo I need to dig out some of the patterns I had bought a long time ago and see what I can do. I haven't a clue to what I am doing, but I'll figure it out. I was teasing him and told him I'd make him a shirt! Hmmmm, I hope one of his arms is longer than the other !!

Cloudy Saturday!

Well, the weather will not deter me in my venture! I keep pressing the other half to get busy, and now I'm just moving forward with it myself :-) I put up a new compost bin today that is bigger than the other one I had and I built it myself!!!
The other half is actually talking about letting the chickens free range! I said nothing about it, he came up with it himself..... We'll see how long it lasts, I'm curious to see what they get into.
The new garden/tractor shed actually has a frame to it now. He just ran to the hardware store to get more lumber to finish it out, since we've actually used up most of the scrap that we had accumulated since we moved in. The major construction on our house is done, we just have to remodel two bathrooms and we can actually say the house is more or less finished on the inside. Now all our work will come on the outside of the 5 acres to landscape and garden. Ugh, it's a never ending process and I wish the weather here will cooperate, but it's Kansas, as soon as the major cold is done, we'll have 110 days. Yippee.
But, for now, I'm content to putter until I can get a structure for the chickens and since I watched a special on PBS last night about meat, I'm looking at maybe getting a cow for beef. It's scary to think about what is put in our food that we don't know. I truly think I'm done pretending that I'm ignorant about the food I eat and give my kids. We have enough allergies and asthma and eczema going around in the house I'm not going to add anything else.
OK, enough of my soapbox for today, I have to go finish up the mess I made before the rain hits and borrow the neighbors sewing machine so I can learn how to sew. Yeah, I'm just adding project after project to my lists of things to do. hee hee, Have a wonderful afternoon all.

Friday and then the weekend is here........

Oh, to be able to have the entire weekend to get out in the yard and work, but alas, they are calling for rain the entire weekend.
Well, yesterday I managed to get most of my seeds in their makeshift greenhouse and onto the mud porch to soak in the sun. I took some pictures along this time to document my progress. Hopefully, we will all be able to see my progress into this journey.
I also hit the grocery store last night and put some serious thought into what I was buying. I loaded up on the yeast and flour and basic necessities to make from scratch several of the things we normally eat. Next I'm going to check with the butcher to see if buying meat from him is any cheaper and cost effective, not to mention local?
The other half and I were talking about the benefits of the chickens and I really pressed the point of the eat TICKS, GRUBS( which we have a horrible mole problem) and little snakes!( Which we tend to get a lot of also.) I might have him convinced to not put the coop where he wants it and into an entirely different place altogether! Yea, I might get them quicker than I thought.
OK, I'm off to finish my daily chores, so I can get outside faster.

Ahh, the itchings of Spring!

Tuesday's are a busy day for us here at the Hacienda and as I was somewhat discombobulated anyway, I did not get to sit at the computer. Today, although I am itching to get outside.(Once I get some of my household chores done first)
I'm discovering that living simply, is not as easy as I thought. It truly is a mindset that you have to immerse yourself in. I look at my garbage can overflowing and think to myself, I just changed it 24 hours ago. We generate a lot of trash! Granted there are 6 to 8 people living here at any given time, but still. I do believe that will be first on my agenda today, get my compost piles ready to go. Lets see if I can generate less trash.
Cooking from scratch is also hard. Half of the things I would like to make have ingredients that I don't normally stock in my kitchen. My initial outlay may be a bit expensive, but I'm going to try to track what I spend from cooking from scratch as opposed to cooking from ready-made and half scratch. I do know it will take some trial and error as my baking skills are subpar and need some time to hone. I've found some great websites that can help me along in this regard.
So I do believe that I will head out to finish my laundry and picking up so I can head to the store and buy my nesesities.
Have a wonderful day!

Bugger, it's Monday

Well, it's the beginning of a new week again. We got some things accomplished this weekend. We burned off one of the terraces that has laid dormant since we moved into the place 6 years ago. I have made some plans to turn it into the cutting garden. The other half was getting a start on our water feature aka mud pit. He's been trying to get the number of ponds just right and laid out where they all flow into the other. Even in winter still, the underground spring is flowing and backfilling what he has done.
The kids got some wonderful and much needed outside time. It all went well, until one of them slipped on ice and almost busted her nose! They keep asking me when we're going to get the chicken. By spring for sure! Apparently I have been going about the chores and helping around the house bit all wrong. All I had to say was I think it's time we became a "Farm" and all of a sudden, EVERYBODY wants to help. I received no whining, crying, or fights when it came to cleaning rooms and picking up the house. Hmmmm, I wonder how far this could take me?