I spend a lot of my time these days trying to transform our new house into our home. For us, that has meant a lot of painting, buying some furniture to better suit the new space, fence building, counter top creating, and most recently taking out a wall.
With all of that, I have also started a … Continue reading the story "New Endeavors"
Moving has absolutely overwhelmed my time and energy for, in truth, over a year. I cannot apologize for that, as it was essential for my family, but I will apologize for neglecting all of you who have kindly read and commented here.
That said, we have moved to the front range of northern Colorado; we are now … Continue reading the story "Apologies and Reset"
Moving has so many complications and selling a home more so.
For my family, as I suspect for most, keeping the house pristine and ready to be shown to perspective buyers is one of the greatest challenges. When a family also has pets in the house the work of perfection is amplified by the dirt and hair that are associated with animals. What you many not … Continue reading the story "Choosing to Advocate for Skunks"
So I have to admit that I always get drawn into the spring planting season to the point where my computer time (posting for all my readers) falls to the wayside. Sorry for that....
Happily, this garden season is off to an incredible start! I have 11 tomato varieties growing out for planting in warmer weather-my goal is about 200 tomatoes (which is far more than … Continue reading the story "Enter the Volunteers"
Standing in line at the local Tractor Supply, surfing the web, reading some of my favorite blogs, or even watching slightly outdated shows on Netflix, I'm finding more and more information being marketed to people like myself, who like to do for ourselves, as "the New American Pioneer." Unfortunately (especially for those diligent marketers) it irks me.
How does this concept respect those individuals who set … Continue reading the story "I’m not a Pioneer"
Real quick, I have set a new goal for this month: I want to plant something everyday!
Every February I practice frugal grocery planning, eating up things in the pantry and freezer and only buying a small amount of groceries. As part of that this year, I am also trying to cut back on the number of seeds I buy, instead using what I have in … Continue reading the story "February Planting Goals"
I have been attempting to get to the point where my chickens would produce their own offspring so I might stop buying fryers for the last three years. To that end, I have both encouraged the few hens I have that have gone broody and chose to sit eggs and I purchased an incubator to hatch some of my eggs myself. Sadly, I have not … Continue reading the story "The mysteries of incubation"
So 2015 ended up being a trying year; my husband was out of work for a couple of months and the job he is currently working is a limited contract out of state, we had unexpected losses wit our rabbit kits, two of our companion animals (a cat and our oldest dog) died tragically, and I had unfortunate losses in my garden. These were pretty … Continue reading the story "Jumping into 2016"
Some may remember that I was very interested, last spring, in incubating eggs and having my chicks arrive not through the mail but from our own hens. I bought an incubator (after failing to build one) and made several attempts to hatch my own. My success rate was never more than 30%.
Thankfully, one of my hens did a much better job, sat 9 eggs (not … Continue reading the story "Spring Expectations"
So, its been far too long since I sat down to write. A lot has happened since last summer... Sadly, not all of it was good and 2014 was a very personally challenging year for my family, my husband, and myself. Happily, we are moving forward.
While I try to get back in the habit of posting, I thought a short update was in order.