What A Weekend!

Thank God for Memorial Day Weekend. We spent three days and two nights in sunny Hamburg, WI. First class accommodations (camper), 4 star restaurants (campfire food) and lots of recreation (walks in the woods, catch with the girls, reading and star gazing). As a family (that was the best part!) we planted most of the garden and formed a bucket brigade to water it (do do list: buy a longer hose!).
Erin built her first fire and cooked foil potatoes by herself, Tom and I were chased by an angry mama turkey, and 6 year old Lizzy -well she was just Lizzy! Happy, funny, hiding in the long grass-and the winner of the most ticks contest!

Kris

Hard To Say Goodbye

It is hard to say goodbye to something which is a powerful symbol. To something which used to make me feel so good but now only stirs up feelings of guilt. But I did give it all away to a comlete stranger. I am of course talking about my treadmill, dumbells, bench and all that other stuff collecting dust in my basement.

Tom and I have hauled that stuff around through college and new jobs and young children and boy we used to be in great shape. No longer though. I kept beating myself up mentally-'shoulding' all over myself. We are getting the house ready to put on the market and it had to go. I was not going to move it again!

I also truly believe that you need to make room in your life to let something else in. So goodbye weights, hello farm (I hope). I am making room for a different kind of fitness.

Erin and Beljit

Erin has been taking saddle seat lessons off and on for 12 months. This weekend was her first show. It is so great to see this shy quiet kid get all excited about performing in front of an audience!
Beljit is a Fresian, he is huge but such a gentle giant! The only sudden moves he makes are toward the feed bucket! He is the lesson horse owned by the trainer. Erin is completely in love with him (and so am I!)

The cedar stumps in front of our house have officially kicked our butts! I voted to just buy more wood chips and pile them above the stumps-but Tom will rent a stump grinder this week. Sigh, i'm the 'duct tape and binder twine' girl while Tom does things the right way or not at all! I have started cleaning out our closets and getting rid of unwanted stuff. Lots of Goodwill donations over the next few weeks!!!

kris

For Your Viewing Pleasure

View of barn from ArkWorks Farm, the farm needs lots of TLC. Lots of junk laying around and outbuildings (like that corn crib) which are dilapidated. The barn is still in good shape-structurally.



My garden-raised beds approx 2 1/2 feet wide x 15 ft long with lots of lawn clippings in the walkways the rest of this fenced area will be sown in cover crops-the soil is very clay-like.



The laying flock temporarily housed in apple orchard. Banties and leghorns. Any idea what the big black rooster is? He is very mild tempered toward people, and has this beautiful green sheen. He was included as a free 'rare' breed with last years cornish cross meat birds.

On Big Rocks and Small Potatoes

I've been pretty quiet for a few weeks. I have not been very good company for my family, my co-workers, my clients or my blogger friends. I had withdrawn into my protective shell and am now just starting to peek out. In the last 4 weeks I have re-read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and finished the entire Twilight series-that is what I do to escape and I have had it BAD lately. I look back and think -what a waste of time! But it was what I needed.

I've been thinking about big rocks. I have been scattered and not focused on the important things in my life. Tom and i attended a time management class a few years ago sponsered by Franklin Covey. The take home message was this: your time is finite, fill it with the most important things first, the not so important things can fit around the so called 'big rocks' like river sand. My big rocks are my children, my husband, my health. I realized my business is not even close to a big rock-so why am I filling my life with it? Now I need a job to make money just like anyone else, but this business takes up a disproportionate amount of my life. When I am not at work I am thinking about it (and resenting it). I plan to sell my portion of the clinic within the year. But first the exciting news...

After much soul searching, Tom and I have decided to place our house on the market. I hope to have it ready to show by June 1st. It looks like we will be able to buy the farm adjacent to my fathers place. It is a 100 yr old farmhouse which is partially remodeled, a nice barn (which will need some new roofing) and a bunch of out buildings which probably just need to be knocked down! She would like to sell 20 of her 40 acres (we want first dibs of the other 20). I am calm and happy about moving our family out there but a mess when considering getting our house ready to be looked at by strangers. I am paralyzed right now...where to start. It doesn't matter I just need to start!

My (very first) garden is going well, no great! Not that anything is really up, but it is so much fun! The girls and I planted potatoes last weekend (10 lbs of seed potatoes--caribe, rose gold, yukon gold and i think pink cloud), onion sets, spinach, beets, swiss chard and kolrabi and some peas are in. Today I am headed out with more lwn clippings for the walkways and to finish the garden gate. I will also finish the chicken tractor. This time I will remember to bring the camera so I can post some pictures.

Erin (the 11 yr old) will be in her first horse show this weekend. She rides saddle seat on one of the lesson horses both sat and sun. I am so proud of her! I was a horse crazy kid too, so I love being able to give her this experience.

Thanks for listening my heat feels lighter already!

(Christy -thanks for the great book review on 'One Second After'- scarey and totally plausable. It has me revisiting food storage and self reliancy in a less abstract way.)