what a life!!!

What a beautiful weekend I had!! The weather was perfect! Sunny with a bit of a breeze and oh so warm and wonderful on my face!! Just seems to lift all the winter hum drum off and bring me back to life! I love it this time of year. The trees are in full bloom, the grass is thick and lush. The sunsets are amazing! If I was a horse or cow what a great shmorgous board to eat after hay all winter long! Seeing the horses (and the cow at times), just open up and run across the pasture and kick up their heels throwing their heads around and almost here them squeal with delight as they let go and run! Then happily drop and roll around, then look around to see if anyone was watching them! Oh what a great life I live! The smells and sounds of the birds happily flying about gathering food to feed their babies, the hens clucking in the yard, the hum of neighboring lawn mowers, BBQs! The hay fields dancing as the wind comes around to cool us from the heat of the sun. The lightening bugs lighting up the fields at night. The smell of the camp fire, marshmellows and giggling of the kiddos enjoying night life in the country! I am so thankful I married a country boy and he brought me here to live!

 Got so much stuff done around the house and the farm yard! Granted I still have a ton more to do and haying season is here, finally! So that means long days getting that done. But when you have critters to feed all winter long, and hay is $4 a bale here, at least it was last year, I'm so very thankful for our haying equipment and fields that we can hay. I even like the long days in the field, and dropping in bed at night exhausted, and happy with all that was accomplished!

All four of my kiddos are gone. One is spending some time overnight at one of my sisters with her son. He was way excited about that. The girls are over at one of my brother in laws with their cousins. My man and I had a date all alone too! I enjoy those times when the house is quiet and the kiddos are gone and we can have a whole conversation with no interruptions! Doesn't happen very often, so I enjoy the times we do! I also look forward to having us all back together under one roof and listen to them chatter about all that they did and then snore that night about 5 minutes after they get into bed!

So until next time! God bless!

wild winds...

Phew, this has been such a long week. Really. We have been doing everything, but farming. We still have our chores and all that everyday twice a day. Matthew has been super busy over at the mill, and I've been super busy with chores and cleaning my house. Any of you home schooling moms know how much of home school takes over your life, and how your house work goes by the way side, and if that isn't your case then kudos to you! My house gets the basic treatment while I'm home schooling. Then once school is over I can get all that deep cleaning done, and all the soot washed off everything from the wood stove, that I love! Like my sister teasingly, sorta, tells me, it's 90 in my house in the winter and the summer!!! Yes I have AC, but I have no shade trees, and so I don't really use it. I like the hot weather! And I hate being cold in the winter, but I think it's more like 80 in my house, haha. I just love the wood stove. Actually this year all the kiddos helped do some spring cleaning with me twice. They washed walls, pictures, floors, you get the picture.
The weather has been wild with the wind, rain and the thunder storms! Now it's cold. Need layers on and pray my clothes don't blow to the next town when I hang them on the line!!
So what have I been up to this week? Well Monday seems like a month ago to me, but we went to the parade and proudly watched our boy march with the cub/boy scouts, then we had a BBQ at the house with family. Tuesday I sold some maple syrup! Oh yeah and I was putting away the kiddos winter clothes and getting out summer clothes. That is a project and a half moving buckets of clothes around, cleaning out 4 dressers and rearranging clothes. I didn't put all their sweaters away and long sleeve shirts, and I'm glad, it's cold and they still need them.Wednesday the kiddos had dentist appointments in the AM. I'm pleased to say no cavities!! Yay!! Then had some shopping and farm errands to run all over town. We had some crazy thunder rain showers too in the morning and then in the evening. We even had tornado warnings! What?! Yup in Maine, but I'm very thankful that we didn't get one here. So very thankful. I did get some pictures of the lightening though, it was just amazing to watch it. The thunder heads were huge! We got home Wed night and ran around to get everything done before the storm, but we only got a little bit of rain. Thursday I got a ton of stuff done around the house in and out. I was happy with what I got done. Last night we went to one of my brother in laws for their sons 1st birthday party! Then I helped Matthew over at the mill finish up some bee hive stuff for an order before we came home at 9ish. The week isn't over yet. DaLaney went to her grandmothers for the day to sew and cook. Then she has a "date" with Daddy tonight, and they are going fishing with her cousin and his brother. As for me and the kiddos, I don't really have a plan for the day, because I'm sure that it will change like the wind as my days usually do. But I'll get something done.

that's half the thunderhead. I wanted the sunset.

I was excited to get such an awesome picture of the lightening streak coming out of the sky. 

look real close and you can see the lightening streak behind the telephone pole.

Enjoy your day! I need to get some more work done, the kiddos want a snack, and I need an iced coffee! Breakfast seems like it was so long ago!

projects...

OK, just a quick one here, I don't really like to blog on Sunday. But I had a free minute and I just had to share the baby blanket I'm making. It's working up sooooooo nice! I hope the pictures can do it justice, and you can see the pattern. The color is the dark sage simply soft yarn, love it. It's almost done too. This is the sweater pattern I got from my grandmother and turned into a baby blanket! There are three pictures, so hopefully you can see the pattern!

sunshine hooray!!!!!

Abby decided to lay down and eat her grass out in her grass pasture this afternoon. She has done this since she was a filly. She'd always lay down in her pile of food and eat it. I like that she still does. I had to get her back to or she would have gotten up. I'm glad I have a pretty good zoom on my camera! Time Out was out with Maggie. The two have been together everyday for three days. Oh and notice the brightness and how lush the grass looks?!  That's due to about two weeks of rain, and humidity. We were finally able to get up fencing and put the horses out on grass. This picture with Abby is our back lawn, I no longer have to mow it, the horses do!! Not to mention get Maggie on some more pasture that was ready to be grazed. We noticed a huge increase in her milk. When it was time for milking her udder was full! She has gone up in milk 1.5 gallons a day! That is just putting her on fresh grass! She's on the end of her milk cycle too, we'll be drying her off in August, so she'll calve in October. Not really ideal for wanting a grass based dairy to dry her off in the peak grazing season, but considering all the trouble we had... anyways we are very excited to to see the increase in her milk, and are really encouraged to think how much more cows will give just getting them on spring grass! We have even cut back on her grain as well. We are not graining her for maximum production either, we give her half of what she was getting at the farm we bought her from, because we don't need as much milk as she can give.  But it is very exciting to see the increase and we look forward to having a more grass based herd in the future! This is the first spring that we have had a cow and milking! We have learned so much, and know we have so much more to learn, but it will come in time. Hard to believe that we have had Maggie for almost a year, we got her in June! Wow has that gone fast!
Kinda funny, only because everything turned out alright, don't think it would be so funny if it hadn't! Shortly after I took this picture I had to go get Time Out and lock her in her stall. She was chasing Maggie, and then she decided to take the fence down. She was a little confused and didn't like the shocking she was getting from the fence. She trotted all the way to her barn, then decided to scream for Abby. Abby couldn't care less and continued eating. Maggie was looking a little miffed when I went and had to get her in her stall. She really didn't want to come in yet, it wasn't time for miking, but a little bit of grain shaking near her head lock and she came in, after throwing her head around and pawing the ground to let me know she was not amused. Maybe Time Out was just practicing her team penning skills she really wants to have!! I got the fence back up, and put back together, and told Matthew when he got home we needed to make sure it was the way he had it set up, and we need to fix a few fence posts before putting Maggie back out.
Soooo now it's back to fixing fence and more walking! But when you have a grass operation I guess that's what you do, walk, and a lot of it!! Good thing I like to walk!!
Have a great night all!!

monday confessions

I'm tired of all this rain. Really. Seriously.

 I managed to get the lawn mowed, most of it, I just have a small patch that needs to be finished, in between the rain this weekend. We have a push mower, and I like it, I walk and walk and walk! Great time to think and get some exercise.

Saturday morning before the rain Matthew took the kiddos fishing! They were all excited to go! They were gone all morning, and I managed to get some house work done before I mowed.  Rachel was the only one that caught anything though.While it was pouring out I worked on one more project. I can't wait to show you how it's coming out too! It's a  sweater pattern that I turned into a blanket!! And I've never followed a " written pattern" or done this pattern before either!! Shocking right!? I went to visit my grandmother the other day and she gave me the pattern. We had a huge thunder storm too. It was right on top of us and BANG, BOOM!!! Thankfully they made it back BEFORE the rain and more importantly the thunder storm! Yikes! Here are some pictures of the fishing!!

our boy. he likes to fish! 

our baby, she likes to fish too! looks comfy sitting there!

shiner! she likes to fish as well!

our baby caught the only fish that day!! 

goose! she, you guessed it, likes to fish too!

Boy they sure are cute! I'm partial though! I love country life, and they do as well! Shiner and Goose got their own fishing poles for their birthdays this year. It's what they wanted. So cool! And Bug said she wants her own fishing pole too. Yup that's what she's getting too! Little Matt already has one!

Recently I had to throw away about 5lbs of sugar. Well actually it's organic evaporated cane juice. Ouch. Yup had to toss it all in the trash. Why? Well I have glass containers on my counter of things I use very regularly, and it was an old jar that my mom gave me and the rubber ring had worn off, and well I went to close the top and it went CRASH! I found two large pieces of glass on the counter. I decided I didn't want to risk it and eat any glass shards, so out to the trash it went. Oh man! I still have glass containers of things on my counter, but now they are all in Ball Mason jars, the half gallon size, with a plastic food grade cover on it. So now it all matches!

Have a great Monday all, even if it's raining and it's Monday!! :-)

what on earth...

is that? Looks like yellow cheese in something. But I wouldn't recommend eating it. And a side note, I don't buy yellow cheese. Milk is white, not yellow. Don't want the dye!
I have kinda poo pooed this idea for some time now. Why? Because it's easier to get it already done at the grocery store. But then again a lot of things are easier to just buy at the store come to think of it. Well are you wondering what it is? It's my first attempt at making homemade laundry detergent. So I'll let you know how it went.

These are the ingredients. Cost all of about $8.12, that's with the tax. I found some recipes on line and thought why not!? I finally decided to bite the bullet and try it. So I grated the Fels Naptha bar with a cheese grater. Then added the rest. Then thought, well I have towels to wash, so I'll try it on them instead of clothes, just in case... Well I knew that the Fels Naptha bar won't dissolve in cold water, so I'll just turn on the hot water and throw it in and mix it around, then turn the water back to cold to finish filling up the washer. Yes I use cold water to do laundry. Well the Fels didn't dissolve in the hot water. At all. Great, now I have to clean it out of the washer, and melt it. But that means more work to wash clothes. Boil water, add the soap, let it dissolve, then put it in the wash, then, well you get the picture. A little bit inconvenient for me. Too many steps. And too much time. So I decided to try the liquid homemade laundry soap. It ended up being a double batch because the first batch of dry stuff made it be a liquid double batch. I hope I like it! I'll let you know!

Hot water, with the Nels Naptha to melt. Took about 10 minutes to melt it all down.

finished product. I had to put it two small buckets to fit it, for 24 hours. I have two store brand laundry containers that should fit some. I get the 96 loads size. I have yet to try it because it needs to sit for like I said 24 hours. 

Well there you have it. My latest project for making a homemade soap, for the wash! Happy laundry washing all!

projects

So I have found the time to sit and knit! It's been raining here a lot lately, days on end it seems, and some days it's been nice and I have taken my projects outside with me. I got stung by a hornet one day when I was out knitting. That was the end of that! I like to make baby blankets for friends and family that are having babies. I have had people say they want one that is big enough for them to warp up in! I take that as a complement. I don't make a ton of them and I think I like to try new patterns. Once in a while I get stuck on a certain pattern that I really like and I make a few blankets in that pattern. Maybe someday I'll be real ambitious and try even more... don't hold your breath! When I pick out a color I don't always pick the traditional "baby" colors, sometimes I base it on who the mother is, or if one of the kiddos really likes a certain color I'll go with that. I have been busy knitting. My mom taught me how to knit, and from that I have learned more stitches. I like to call my grandmother who is a wonderful knitter and ask her questions about knitting too. I have lots of baby blankets from her for the kiddos and she makes them sweaters too. She informs me that I'm doing it wrong and how to fix it, I appreciate her help. I've even looked on you tube for more things. I have yet to make socks or sweaters, but maybe someday. My kiddos want me to make them a sweater out of our sheep wool. We shall see. If I do DaLaney will get the first one. But here are pictures of the blanket, and blanket to come.

this is a close up of the pattern, it's a basket weave. I kinda made up the patten myself in how I made it. I love this color too!

This is the new color I'm going to start on next. It's Dark Sage, I love the Simply Soft yarn! I  My  friend is having a boy, so I am going to make another baby blanket. All this rain I'm having plenty of time to knit! 

the same blanket on my lap, just wanna snuggle a baby in it! this is not the whole thing, it's just to show you what it looks like!  Stupid computer wouldn't let me change the pictures around, I tried three times. That is why the green one is in the middle. The friend I gave this blanket to had a boy.