Brrrrrrr.....

October. Frost. Cold. Freezing.

I love it! I love the fire in the fireplace, bonfires, mulled cider. The wood cookstove came Friday. Winter is on its way.

It's been one year since we first looked at this place, first got stuck in the Southern Iowa mud, got blocked in by the local homecoming parade and it's 50 firetrucks and 2 floats, first gazed on the changing leaves reflected on the rippling pond water.

Back up just before that. We had our house on the market, we had agreed to not look until we sold (which we still haven't). I still looked. I stumbled upon the listing one night and emailed it to Dearest. He said, don't bother. I said, looking won't hurt. Still I trembled as I dialed and called the realtor. I have only trembled like that 3 other times in my entire life: when Dearest first kissed me, and the birth of each daughter. I knew something big was going to happen. I started packing months before and had announced to the dismay of all that we'd be on a farm by Christmas of 2008. My family doubted my sanity, yet here we are.

Then I made the phone call. I dared to dream. I drove south to a town I'd been to once when I worked for the state historic preservation office, followed GPS down a mud road, two children in tow and a block of cheddar.

Honestly, I had my doubts.

Things I've Learned on the Farm...

There are things I thought I'd learn and things I never thought of in a million years.

I thought I'd learn more about astronomy and yet the moments I've had to stare up at the sparkling night sky, while overwhelmingly beautiful, have been fleeting. I could wish for more time, but if I did it would be for more time inside snuggling with the babies. Their childhood is way more fleeting than billion year old stars.

I can tell you what that smell is and from which animal it came. Some people can sniff the bouquet of wine, I can tell you which manure came from what animal based simply on smell.

I was quite proud of my garden until it just withered and died. I know where I went wrong and it was almost exactly when I was marveling at how I never had to water. I should have. I should have mulched better too. I did get a fair amount of dry beans and pumpkins though.

I thought pig poop was the most foul smelling substance on the face of the earth. Bog of eternal stench material, as it is called when one slips in and gets thoroughly slimed with it. But no. The most foul smelling thing ever is dog vomit, after he's eaten a belly full of pig poop. Worse yet, in my kitchen the night before my sister's wedding just as my lovely aunt is unloading her bags from her rental car, bringing them in through the kitchen to the adjacent guest room. Not just poor pup, poor everyone. I thought dog skunked was bad. Seriously.

Pigs are interesting animals. More affectionate than I anticipated. Quite a bit like 4 year olds. They have an insatiable appetite, are ornery as all get out, and escape at inopportune times. They will find every breech and run gleefully to the pond or the road. They respond poorly to threats and ignore frantic pleas. They love fruit. They love milk. They really should have a bath after every meal and when they get muddy somehow manage to ruin my clothes too. All of that exactly describes Lil'Bug's summer. The only difference is that the pigs will be bacon in three weeks and she'll still be 4.

I love our small town. I love the people here, the town square, the parks, the weather, the kindness and curiosity, and the ice cream. It all fits us so very well. So many of the people we have met are just like us, recent transplants who are thriving in the fresh air. Thriving we are.

There were times, weeks at a time where I was just having impossibly bad days. Nothing that would make me give up on farm life, but still difficult. Many involving poop of various degrees. Abby and Jill and Prairieland Herbs got me through some rough times with advice, friendship, and clean smelling hardworking soap. This summer has tought me that we are in exactly the right place, but also that I really want to, perhaps, need to, focus on the trees and bees dream and not try so hard so fast to expand into all possible farming ventures. A CSA is not likely in my future. A berry and fruit and pumpkin stand perhaps sooner than our full out farm/orchard operation will be ready.

Review and check your insurance policy. Better to do it now than after something burns down. Nothing has here, but our friends up at Sugar Creek Family Farm know first hand. My Lil'Bug has been praying for her friend to not be so sad about the baby chickens that were lost. I am grateful none of our friends were hurt.

So those are some late night thoughts I thought I would record before the summer slips away into the fall again......

Facebook Crashed My Blog

I can make the claim that we're just really busy, but you know what? That's only half the story. The other half is that Facebook steals my time, lures my thoughts into a tweet like trap and leaves me with nothing at the end of the day.

As an experiment, I am going to open a draft folder here on blogger in the morning and every time I wish to FB tweet I will enter the line there instead. My days really are funny and silly and full of things every day and FB is getting all the good parts. For example:

Little known fact: my dream as a child was to be an ER trauma surgeon. I worked for 3 years as a "volunteen" (assistant nurses aid) and saw first hand the work of rural volunteer fire fighters and EMT's. I know firsthand what death looks like, both traumatic and lingering. I chose instead to study architecture.

found 6 keets wandering back this afternoon. That's something at least. Harvested 6 pumpkins too. Tomorrow heading to DM.

Yup, I homeschool just to annoy you. comment by Dearest: We're sorry, but your child does not meet the qualifications for enrollment in the ***** Family Academy for the Talented and Gifted. We do however donate annually to a fund for public institutions that work to keep kids like yours off the streets. Thanks!

thinks Coraline is frightening on a very personal level. Other Mother. Shiver. Also, setting the mood for contemplation today. Found the cat but none of the keets. Pigs fed. 1/2 the laundry put away. Figuring out dinner. Soup sounds good.

Ug, my kitchen smells funny and not a funny ha ha either.

is worried about the 25 missing keets and the one, precious, missing cat.

I give in just a bit and check FB, AND SCORE A FREE GLASS GREENHOUSE! W00T!

I think my house is sliding into shangri la/ we are surrounded by fog it looks like we are in a cloud

6 inches of standing water at the pig gate. Blueberry grabbed her poopy diaper and flung it. Slipped in chicken poop. Today's theme?

is a bean picking dancer la la la la la.....yeah a bean picking dancer la la.

Funny that the rain soaked maggoty picnic was the highlight of my day. The picnic was great! Thanks H B for organizing it. :) It warmed and dried up as soon as A and S R. left. Um, the caterpillars were in fact maggots. Lily found a nice home for them in the bushes. Ug. All 10 of them....the caterpillars J gave LB were actually maggots, which is freaking hilarious. I so did not freak out. I mean, she had already played with them for HOURS.

So you see, last week was pretty freakin' hilarious. Lots of pictures too. We made ice cream, cheese, and canned tomatoes. We started getting eggs from the chickens, first egg was a double yolk!, got a batch of guinea chicks, raised them to 3 weeks and set them outside. Lost all the guinea chicks. Made brownies for the FIRST TIME EVER. BLUEBERRY STARTED WALKING! I wrote about all of it, just not here. Such is the plight of facebook to destroy blogger apologetically and in the process steal all my personal information. Hmph. Ironic that this blog will now feed into my FB page and belong to them FOREVER. But enough complaining, on to action!

Our Busy Busy Life

Bye bye station wagon. We are still awaiting diagnosis, a third opinion. The second opinion was that the car model was junk and we should junk it. I hate driving the truck. I hate driving Dearests car. I hope there is something we can do and not junk it just yet.


Sisters asleep.
Lots of color. The new orange.

Fried zucchini cakes with fresh local goat feta, a little salty but perfect with fresh sliced tomatoes.

This is Wilbur the pig. Her pig. She tells people we have 5 pigs, 1 pet, 4 for bacon.


My little swamp elf setting crawfish traps off our dock. Grampa T. made these for us. She is warming up to him quickly and we are enjoying his visits a lot!

Pawpaw painting the old house the new blue. This blue is the color of the sky on a perfect day. It is also the color that I painted our first house when we were first married. It was a color scheme I loved on a house in the Drake neighborhood, one day I pulled over and knocked on their door and asked them what colors they used, the paint chip names. They gave the old cans and I went to the paint store and got the colors exactly. Newport Blue and Academic Navy. Now that Drake house is purple and our old house is a different blue with white trim.

But something about these colors moved me then and what better than to color our home with the memories of how our marriage began!


And last, but not least...queso blanco. Yum. I'll post more when I figure out what I am going to eat this with.......