Whirlwind

Every time-related adage I can think of is absolutely true. Being the mother of young kids? Time goes by so fast. Getting older? Time goes by so fast. Farmer in the summer? Time goes by so fast....

And when they all it at once it is absolutely mind-boggingly exhausting. My favorite is when people are just getting to know me and asking questions to scratch the surface... "oh. You work full time? And you're building a house?".... "oh. And you have kids with all that? And animals?" The beginning of the conversation may have people politely wondering about everything and putting themselves in my shoes.... by the end they can't even fathom it anymore and start looking at me as if I MUST be an escaped mental patient, and surely nothing I am saying is true?

And yet here I am, once again, sitting staring down the downhill slope that is the rest of the summer. I'm not sure how we did it, but we're past the point of no return on this particular frantic season. It's time (or was time a bit ago) to get my fall and winter garden in, and I never really aught up to my summer one. It's time to get the house finished (so close!) and get ready for winter. It's time to resist the urge to hatch out more chickens, give up on breeding the rabbits, and stop putting cuttings and small plants in new pots. Thankfully, it is NOT time to stop canning, because I don't know that I could ever get my fill of that one.... and I don't feel like it's something I get to do a lot anyways....

But I don't have a choice. And while it seems that most of the people staring at me as if I'm batshit insane and from anther planet entirely from the one they pleasantly and sense-numbingly nhabit are terrified of that, I relish not having a choice. I would never ever get 1/2 of what I do done (and that's far from how much I'd like to get done) if I had a choice about it.  My kids, the house, the garden, the animals, if you bite it off, you have to chew.

So I dream of being able to blog as much as I'd like, and I dream of being able to do many romantic probably-pinterest-inspired things as I feed, schlepp, nurture things along.... and try not to plan too many more big bites for the next year.

The Acorn had a birthday!

LOVES Kombucha!

Babies!

Veggies!

BUMPER crop of marigolds

Fur harvest.

Gherkin, Oops.

Haven't barely harvested any this year... :(

Snarkles began his photography career

Mommy's trunk = best playhouse!

Antsy.

Antsy.

Antsy antsy antsy!!

We are so close and yet so far from our house being done.... we were on a roll and making great momentum, and now life is getting (irritatingly) in the way again. SO ANNOYING! Stupid things like work and kids and this and that and the other thing getting in the way....

I *am* however, allowing myself to picture a not-too-distant future in which I have the luxury to DO things because I have a kitchen again. And it makes me so happy, despite current cramped conditions. What kind fo things you say? Many things. My beautiful friend's wedding cake, another batch of blueberry wine, ressurectling my Kombucha brewing, preserving, baking, cooking again....

The problem with allowing myself to picture having a kitchen, is that it spills out into other areas of the house. We'll have room for a proper dining table...which means family dinner AT THE TABLE. Something I miss so so SO much from my own growing up.

And the gleaming play kitchen in the shed (we bought a stove and dishwasher when they were drastically on sale and we couldn't not take advantage), and the fact that my parents were kind enough to bring me all the stuff from my last house I had stored in their basement is NOT HELPING. It's just taunting me....

Maybe it's just because it's been cold outside and I've been cooped up....

Soon. Very very soon!

This is not relevant to this post. Obviously.

Holiday Spirit

It took my mother coming out from Vancouver for us to finally get into the holiday spirit. But into the holiday spirit we got.

We sang Christmas carols. Loudly.

We put up a tree. A Christmas tree. And we even broke with tradition and put up a not-so-Charlie-Brown tree.

We went out and it was dark when we came back. It was nice to be greeted by it at the end of the driveway.

Because OF COURSE it is outside!

Cutting utensil

Making a stand

Tree!

*My mom took the first two pictures.

Growing Things

Things seem to grow around here.

Things you pay no attention to:

Neglected Asparagus or weeds?

Child is for size reference, only.

And then things you DO pay attention to:

Halloween shenanigans

Bathtub box!

Cousins!

Hanging out on a beautiful fall day.

Progress!

We've been working. The redneck has been busting his butt tryinging to get as much of the house done as possible - we're still reeeeeeeaaally hoping for it to be ready to move in to by Christmas. Ish. You know. Somewhere thereabouts.

This has nothing to do with the house. This is my son's newest favorite - plums!

Happy boy post-plum massacre

Mr Snarkles meets Henrietta

Siding and roof is done! Woohoo!

New septic tank. Baby is for size reference. You know. Works better in this context than a quarter...

Holy Crap...

...where did August go? Seriously! I turned around and the yawning expanse of summer before me is now behind me - just a small blip in the road behind me. Hot damn where did the time go?

My parents were up for most of the summer (they left today) to get the exterior of the house finished. And it *just about* is. Woohoo! Three years of living in the woods in an Airstream, and the end goal is in sight.

Kinda.

My parents and the Redneck have spent the summer toiling away against the weather to get us a finished shell. And it shows. Our (future) house is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. White pine siding, metal roof, porch, idyllic setting...

We have had some losses this summer - most notably my beloved grandfather passed. While it was a long time coming, it was still a very sad time for us. The brighter side is that everyone - everyone - went to the funeral. We had a nice little fast family reunion. I got to meet my amazing 9 month old niece for the first time. We stopped by to see my godmother on the way back, fresh out of surgery and looking amazing (and her sister. SO GLAD to have gotten to see her, too!). We found out that 3 days in the back of an F250 is rougher on me than on the Mr Snarkles (who had NO problems riding, minus one 20-minute stretch of gas-induced screaming). We got to see my godfather who drove up to upstate NY from CT for the funeral. MY sisters, my cousins, my aunts, my distant aunts, my distant cousins.... It was great.

The Acorn spent most of the summer away and his grandmother's - and boy oh boy has he grown! Wow! I missed so much...

I'm not a church goer, or the most religious of people, but the way I'm feeling about my life right now - and this may just be the exhaustion, post birthday let down, and impending cold talking - can only be described as blessed.

He hangs out during the day during construction...

Getting there!

Framing inside has begun!

This will be my new view coming down the driveway... yay!

Dexter, supervising.

The Redneck and the Mr Snarkles

Mr Snarkles Snuggles

(almost) wordless.

I can't help but think that he knows something I don't know...

Not Another Baby Blog

This is NOT going to turn into a baby blog. I promise. Not like when I promised that this wouldn't become a chicken blog. No. This is for realsies. Hence you haven't heard a lot from me. The Little Squeaker is taking up all of my time and energy... and will continue to for a little bit longer. Can't help it. I will be going back to work in a few short weeks and I want to drink him in while I can :)

Eek!

Zonked out bebe. I know that I should put him down and nap myself, but it's too hard to resist the little snuggly guy

However, we have managed to get out into the garden...to look. Haven't planted a damn thing this year. (thank goodness for volunteers!) But it's nice to know it's *resting* (sure. 'resting'. Let's go with that...) and waiting for me for next year!

Irises! Thanks to the best Godmother, ever

Could be a bumper crop!

Rosemary and Sage are choking out the mint. Really.

Last year this was the strawberry bed...

Muscadines!

The wild grapes are thriving, too.

(almost) wordless.

Our little squeaker at 24hrs old.

(almost) wordless.

We will be needing these soon.

Family Time

We're an odd unit in the traditional sense of the word 'family'. I recent had a discussion with one of our younger members all about what a 'real' family is. With missing pieces, substitute pieces, step pieces, grand pieces, grand step pieces, half pieces, and nary a 'real' title among us (except maybe Zora and Luke as 'the family dogs'), this can be a tough one for a kid to wrap their head around. And while I wish that these sorts of discussions weren't so necessary at times, I am so incredibly happy and extremely grateful that we are at a point where they can happen. Because I take my job as the family 'hippie' tremendously seriously, and it warms my heart to know that these kids can talk to me.

And it warms my heart when we get to spend 'real' family time together to do fun stuff. Recently we went to the Natural Science Center of Greensboro (again for me and the Acorn. But what can I say. He loves the Pendulum). It was the first time for Sissy, and the Acorn got to show her his favorite bits. Needless to say, she was more impressed with the animals than the pendulum, but that was part of the fun. When we all went to the one in Raleigh a few weeks ago, she had been and we had not, so it was his turn to take the lead.

We had fun!

The Health Education room seemed to be immensely interesting to kids of all ages...

We tried to feed the Acorn to the resident T-Rex, but he spit him out (too bony).

It was a fairly warm day and this tiger climbed down the 'cliffs' the have set up, backed into the pool up to his neck, and proceeded to make these faces.

Practicing for when we get goats.

Teaching the redneck how to operate the 2 man submarine. (this is important stuff, guys)

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads, step Dads, sometime-Dads, wanna-be Dads, and Dad-for-a-day-Dads. Much love to you all.

And to the best two Dads I know. Mine, and my Redneck. A very special Father's Day to you both.

Vacation

I know. I've been gone. But I had a good reason for it! I went to Vancouver for my Dad's 60th/my sister's wedding party/a family reunion. It was awesome. We had fun. We drank too much, ate too much, slept too little, all had bad colds, and family members that had never met got to meet. It had been a long time since I had been back on the west coast, and needless to say re-entry is proving kind of tough. I miss my family, the west coast, my family, being able to take vacations, and my family.

And now I'm back to the grind - trying to figure out how to make my family and farm here work around a work schedule and juggle every ball I seem to have in the air at the moment.

I have always had a soft spot for the Aquabus

Vancouver...so gray and shiny.

While it was in the mid-80's at home, it was in the 40's there. We had snow flurries... but the plum tree decided to bloom for us anyway.

I made my sister a Red Velvet wedding...hat. It was tasty.

Chicago. I got bored on the plane.