Life is full. With warming spring days, most of our time is spent in the garden, building beds and fences and arbors, seeding and planting. All of our in-between times are spent loving up on these children, and cherishing small moments of quiet.
Here are some favorite glimpses from the last two weeks (left to right):
Hole digging to replant our peace pole in the garden.
Toby, one of the neighborhood bears, waltzing through our front yard.
The Flower and the Tree, playing in the clover.
My Man, cooking me Mother's Day dinner.
Baby wearing while gardening, the only way I get it done.
The Tree in the tunnel, showing off all those new teeth.
Nap time snuggles.
The Flower, barefoot tree climbing (oh, is she determined to climb trees!).
My girl just can not get enough baby love.
Couch-reading with Dada.
Ahh, the smell of lilacs, right out my back door.
Our resident chicken whisperer.
Blooming azaleas, a tell-tale sign that we're in the South.
Sleeping baby squishiness.
On the swings. She's learned how to pump.
In the garden, sowing seeds.
I'll be back soon with more stories from the homestead.
Oh, those swings! We love them. And it's not just the children who are thrilled, I was giddy with excitement to get these set up so that I could swing. And the really good news? Unlike most of our DIY projects, this was a quick and painless job given the fact that the swing set frame already existed.
When we first looked at this house last July, I spotted the swing set frame immediately, stacked then with firewood by the former owner, even so, I started daydreaming about the potential. As the winter proceeded, and the firewood was fed to the wood stove, the idea of swings in the backyard started to become an actual plan. With a spring birthday for the Flower, the timing was perfect.
All that was needed for us to transform the frame was a click, click, click on Amazon to purchase the three swings. We also found a use for one of the three very large piles of wood chips on our property, which were wheelbarrow-ed over by a nephew eager to make some extra money (although I think he now officially despises wood chips). On the eve of the Flower's birthday, after she was tucked into bed, the Man hung the swings on the existing hooks and et viola, swing set!
The chickens have moved to their coop. Thank goodness. Here's what I've learned so far about chickens: baby chicks are cute, teenage chicks are gross. Seriously, you'd think that evolutionarily speaking the species would have evolved, and learned not to poop in their food or water. Not so. Don't get me wrong, I still like the girls, but I'm happier, and they're happier moving from their brooder to their coop, they just don't quite realize it yet.
I can't remember where I gleaned it, but some magazine/book/person told me that upon moving into their coop the girls would appreciate having a few days of confinement so as to really imprint on their coop. After that, they know where they live and roost and lay and they'll happily come and go as they like. Yesterday was their big move outside, and so began their three day confinement. However, today we bribed a few of them out into their yard for a little playtime. New sounds, and sights and flavors greeted them, along with a very eager, very attentive Flower. We could only get five of them out, the other seven were too scared to attempt a trip out in the Great Wide Open, but I'm sure they heard tales from the clucking beaks of the girls who made it out. My guess is that tomorrow more of them will step forward for a trip to the grass.
The afternoon brought rain, but it was mild enough to still be out in it. The Man did some repair work left by the backhoes a few months back, burying shrubs and such, and while the flower attempted to climb saplings and amused herself in mud holes, the Tree and I explored the forest around the house.
Sitting back now, fireside with a glass of wine, I'm calling it a good Saturday.
Are you feeling it? Has spring descended on you with a flurry of nest-building birds, singing frogs, mating ladybugs, and green budding goodness? It's here, and we are basking in the glory of bare legs, windows open while we sleep and hours at a time spent outside. Ah. It sure feels good!
Our chicks are well, and growing into funny looking preteens. They're definitely in that stage that only a mother could love. Feathers are poking out in all sorts of funny directions, and they change so much overnight that if I were to miss a day of seeing them, I might lose track of who's who.
I think (hope) we're over the hump of the infant period. For unknown reasons we lost two chicks that first week. I'm not sure why, and I anguished a bit about what I may have done to cause it, but after reading everything I can get my hands on, it appears that these things just happen sometimes.
A few weeks later, and all the girls seem to be happy and healthy. I was lucky to find a local, home-based greenhouse and farm supply family selling the chicken breeds I wanted. We have a happy rainbow flock that includes: Three Ameracuanas who go by Henna, Middle America and Max. Two Cukoo Marans called Nina and Simone. One Light Brahma named Wendy. And two Welsummers and four Buff Orphingtons who have yet to be named.
Last weekend we moved them to a larger brooder, and in another few weeks they'll be ready to move outside to their coop. With these warm temperatures we're having I'm anxious to move them to their new home, which is pretty much a chicken haven. But first, we need to fortify against predators by doing some fence work and electrifying their run, and the girls need to feather out a bit more. You can see in the photo below, just to the right of the coop is a large chain-link covered run that they'll be able to access on their own. We'll also give them access to range in the entire fenced side yard you see pictured.
The Flower loves to bring them tasty protein treats. Dada picks grubs out of dead wood and the girl fills her cup with a dozen or more of the slimy looking worms. I hide my disgust as she plays with the grubs and eagerly feeds them to the chicks. The chicks go crazy for their tasty treats and when they hear the Flower's voice, they come running, necks up, looking for their treats. I'd say a friendship is being formed.
This weekend we'll continue to work on building the garden bed walls. Even with daytime temperatures in the 70-80's it will still be a few weeks before the tomatoes and chiles hit the ground, but we're so anxious (so anxious!) to seed our early vegetables. We're actually feeling a little behind, because we could already be harvesting early greens if not for the time spent constructing the garden beds.
One step at a time though, right? We'll get there and I'm sure that our first year of gardening this new land will be fruitful.
Rising from bed this Monday morning, my body is telling the story of our workload this weekend. Goodness gracious friends, our garden is going in! Spring has made its way up here to the top of the Divide, and this was a most excellent weekend. Warm sun, cool breeze and hours upon hours spent outside with our hands in the soil.
As we settle into our first spring here, our to-do lists are enormously long. And at the top, as you can imagine, is building our garden. The backhoes and tractors came two weeks ago, to get us started. This weekend Steve, and our nephew framed out the deer fence, as our garden lies right in the middle of the deer highway, and I do not intend to supplement our forest dwelling friends' diet. We also began constructing the walls that will line each bed within the garden. Deciding on what materials we wanted to use to construct the beds took some figuring. Coal oil/creosote laden railroad ties were out due to the leaching potential. Ditto with CCA coated boards, whether new or used, the likelihood of adding toxic chemicals to our food source is too high. Raw wood logs are likely to introduce unwanted pests, so after many conversations, we decided on cinder blocks. More cost effective than wood, and certainly more durable, these walls will become living walls as each hole will be planted with perennial herbs. In a few months the cinder blocks themselves will disappear under the cover of draping, flowering plants.
We are beyond excited, and needless to say, spending an entire weekend outside, listening to the trickling creek, the symphony of birds and the distant sound of neighbors at work has given us all a taste of the gardening season to come. Simply put, we are stoked! And to tell you the truth, we're feeling a little like we pulled this thing off. The cross country move, this big ol house (that still needs a ton of work!) and all the life changes of the last six months are totally making sense, and we truly feel like we're living the dream. Truly.
Oh, and check out who else has risen from his winter slumber. Looks like our neighborhood bear, Toby, is out and about again. Here is his print, alongside my nephew's hand. His tracks cross the road in front of our property and head straight towards the Tricky Trail.
Ah. This was one of those on-the-cusp-of-spring weekends that had my little family in such a sweet groove. Our projects were centered around gardening, and most of our work happened outside. The laundry went unfolded, the kitchen sink stayed full of dirty dishes, the floors went un-swept. We happily busied ourselves with yard work, tended to the tomato starts, built a chick brooder, and found a chicken coop (more about the chicks in a few days, I'm so excited!).
We also met up with the family for a little birthday celebration for my nephew. After twenty years of living far, far away from my mom and sister, it is now possible to meet up with them for an afternoon. How cool is that?
It rained Monday night. It was for-casted so we weren't much surprised to see rain drops on the window when we woke on Tuesday morning. As the sun started to rise, we realized that the world outside was being covered, ever so slowly, and ever so completely, in ice. Have you read the book the Snow Children? It feel like we'd been transported by Swirly Wind herself, to the Ice Palace.
It literally felt, and sounded like it was raining crystals.
Otherworldly, stunning, beautiful, faerie-like are a few words that come to mind. As well as treacherous, crack-boom-crash, and watch out for that tree limb. As we made the rounds of the yard, we were careful not to walk under any of the low hanging, bent-in-half tree limbs. Many were broken, and you could hear the crash of limbs and trees in the forest above us. It's was a tad eerie, and completely fascinating, at the same time.
We went to sleep without power on Tuesday night, and in the morning we woke to ...
Our world was encrusted in ice crystals for most of two days. Yesterday, as the sun warmed to over 50 f, the sound of falling ice chimed through the hillside (along with the sound of chainsaws, and generators). Unable to leave the house due to falling tree limbs and an ice-coated van, we cancelled our adventures and marvelled at the beauty around us.
By noon, the ice had melted, and we were sunning our bare feet on the deck.
It's almost gardening season. Are you ready? We sure are! There's a lot riding on the success of our 2013 garden. I'm not just talking about a bounty of vegetables to fill our bellies, freezer and pantry. We need some spiritual healing by way of this new garden.
Have you ever felt like you're stuck in a muddy swamp of bad luck? Bad juju? Bad karma? Whatever you want to call it. Geez louise, we are currently buried in it my friends. Buried. We were riding high on a slip stream of promise a few months back when we made the decision to move across the country. We felt as if we were being pulled, guided by uncanny forces toward this house, and this new life. There was an incredible amount of effort and work to get us here, and along the way most of the details just seemed to fall into place. It all just felt right.
We're all healthy and together as a family. This is the most important thing in the world to me. But as of late, we're wondering what sort of karmic debt we're paying off. What lesson are we to learn from all of these struggles?
I've been an optimistic person my whole life. I see the sunny side of darkness, and my cup is always, always half full. Heck, optimism even runs through my veins, I'm B+ through, and through. But, oh goodness, my positive outlook on life has been rocked during these last months.
I will spare you the details, but this house has been a major challenge. Let's just say we've had a line of contractors in our driveway since we moved in (electrical, plumbing, foundation, roofing, drainage, insulation). Every (every) major structural piece of this house needs work. In many cases the work that we've paid to have done has been done incorrectly, and the repair needed to be repaired. One contractor even ran his truck in to our house! Like, bam! in to the house. Which, of course, now needs to be repaired.
If I had the energy, I'd laugh at the absurdity of it.
Forgive me for this rant. I wouldn't mind if you'd already tuned out, goodness knows I'm tired of hearing it, feeling it, and seeing it myself. But I've needed to get this all out for sometime now. I've started several posts, attempting to talk about our struggles, but I haven't been able to articulate it well enough to hit publish. This space we're occupying as stressed out, emotionally exhausted, crazy-people is not familiar territory. I'm ready to shed this skin of bad fortune. I long to crouch down in the dirt, and plant the seeds of hope. I want to nurture a bright green future here, on this land.
For us, gardening is almost a spiritual practice. We all find our center there, digging in the soil, harvesting the fruits of our labor. There's a collective exhale when at the end of the day, the Man and I can meet in the garden with a beer and our harvesting basket. And my girl, she's got the green thumb, too. She's inherited our love of gardening, and some of our best moments happen while playing in the soil together. Simply put, the garden is just about all we need.
Soon, we will breaking ground on our new garden. We have a lot of work to do to get the field in gardening shape. More backhoes, dump trucks, and whatnot are in our future, but they'll be making their way up the bumpy dirt road to work on a project that brings us all joy. We don't have the date circled on the calendar just yet, but until the big dig happens, these little baby tomato, and chile plants provide a glimpse of the spiritual healing of the spring ahead. And that's just what we need.
I'm Lisa Coffee :: Wife to the one & Mama to the flower and the tree. Thank you for joining me as I share snippets from the good life! Read more about me on my about page.
