Spring is here.....

More Winter Pictures

The greenhouse is up!

Last weekend we finally finished getting the greenhouse up. This week I finally took pictures. As you can see I have yet to build and set up tables inside although I have already worked inside of it. Just mixing up my seeding mix and sowing a few flats of this and that.

We have hot water!!! Ok well we have always had hot water...but now our washing machine has hot water. Jeff ran a hot water line to the washing machine yesterday and installed the "new" dishwasher!!! Now we will have clean clothes and less time washing dishes. Possibly even saving a little money by using less water. Hurrah!! Both of these appliances drain out from a separate graywater line to the swamp where they have time to filter out before reaching the stream. Eventually I would like to plant some shrubs and stuff in the swamp that would further help the filtering process.

Cooking Traditional Foods

Jeff and I have been using this menu-mailer for the last few months and are loving it. This way planning the menus for the week takes less time and we have found that even with eating more nutritious grains, more meat, and more fat (the un-politically correct, traditional foods way) our grocery expense has not gone up, possibly even gone down a bit. The only things we do different is we skip the meals that require a more expensive cut of meat...such as beef roasts....and add a fish meal once a week. This probably balances out in cost but we feel that the fish is better for us compared to beef. Just wanted to share. :)

Our Life

I finally was inspired enough to have a blog post.
Jeff and I really only have one New Year's resolution...and it wasn't really a New Year resolution as we started trying it out before the new year. This idea is to put ourselves on a more strict daily schedule..or should I say a semi-strict daily schedule as schedules normally go...it never works out exactly. So here is how it kinda pans out :

I am up at 6:30 at which time I float about quietly making my lemon water, and then doing my devotional time while drinking my lemon water. Afterwards, I start breakfast if I plan to make anything at all..most of the time it is just toast or something leftover. Then I check things like email, weather, and news. At 8:00, the day really begins. Jeff is up by that time and doing dishes. I begin my two hours of house duties. I really dislike the idea that it takes 2 hours a day to clean up yesterday's messes, sweep, start stuff for dinner, make shopping lists, make bread or other make-ahead food, etc., etc., etc. but this seems to be the case. I really hate it! There is too much else to do!
Jeff starts work at 8:30 and kinda works his own schedule until 12:30. I stop all things house related at 10:00 whether it is all done or not. I then finally have my morning cup of coffee and and sit down to read for a few minutes before getting started with the real work. Now this work could include anything from studying up on a particular flower, detailing the planting schedule, working in the field, or many, many other things. The important thing is this is farm-related and maybe more importantly income-related.
So at 12:30, Jeff and I have lunch(usually leftovers) and sit back for near an hour talking about, well, you name it. That is one of the greatest parts of the life we have chosen....the time we can have as best friends talking about all the important and not so important. And boy do we ever....Jeff and I have had lengthy discussions on everything imaginable from the time we met. I think these times just strengthen our camaraderie.
At 1:30 it is back to work until 3:30 and then we either go for a walk or just take another quick break. Here again is a time for talking about what we have going on. After that it is back to work until 6:00. I plan in the summer to swap this time with the morning housework time so as not to have to work in the field in the heat of the day. Somewhere in this time I feed the cows and will eventually include feeding chickens as well as an assortment of other evening chores.
Finally, at 6:00, we are done. But dinner must still be made and showers taken. We tag team on this and then enjoy making dinner together. Food is one of our few luxuries and we greatly enjoy the preparation(including talking) and eating of a nourishing meal....well at least most of the time. After dinner we either watch something on Netflix or read a book..preferably reading but we are usually so exhausted that watching something that someone else thought about is so much easier.
So this is the basic idea. Of course, it never goes as planned. As my work greatly relies on the weather, I often have to change gears. For instance, if it going to rain in the afternoon, I may go get the work done in the field in the morning rather than work in the house. If it is dang cold out, I may do some extra baking in the afternoon to help keep the house warm. In the stress of the summer, housework will often gets left out completely. But even if we can follow the schedule for the most part, I feel we will be doing well. I love the flexibility of our life.