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.

Update

What a very strange winter. I can't believe it is already Christmas. For all the looking forward to sitting by by the fire this winter and spending some time reading and planning all my ventures for next year, next to none of this has happened yet. Most of this has been because the weather has been so warm, I have had too much opportunity to work outside. So while the outside work is getting done, the inside work is so very far behind.
Yes, I know it is still not even half way through winter but next month I start plant trays at a slow pace to go on to a faster pace planting in February to an all out mad dash in March. February is also tree and berry planting time. One hundred locusts are going in the ground this year as living fence posts. And hopefully I will get some various market berries planted in February as well. February is also when I will be raising 50 chicks.
For those that don't know. I am expanding Blaithin Blair to include specialty produce. (Specialty producing meaning early and late vegetables and unique ethnic vegetables.) While cut flowers will still be the focus, I needed a complementary venture to slide in on the sides that didn't require the same intense labor as flowers. Enters early and late season produce. Unfortuntely, the planning for this is proving to be almost as intense as planning for flowers....most likely because of my lack of experience with vegetable farming.
Ah, well even if I have been so very busy this fall and winter it is still a slower pace then the spring and summer sprint. For that I am grateful. And hopefully soon winter will set in more fully so my tulips bulbs will have a good chilling season for a good bloom show in May(and so I will have a planning season).

What? More Snow! We have a Winner....uh, I mean a Winter...Finally.

http://www.accuweather.com/news-story.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&article=2

We had another light-duty snow this week..about 4 inches or so. Unfortunately, I was fighting a cold so I wasn't able to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. But I did haul some mulch on the tractor...I'm sure that didn't help my cold any.
It was a whopping nine degrees out this morning. And because of this cold (actually, both "colds", temperature cold and sickly cold), I missed going to the market today. (Even now at 1PM it is only 29 degrees...would've been a cold day to stand out on concrete). I am glad to see the cold though....maybe it is a good sign for the rest of the winter. It has been so long since we have had a nice southwest Virginia winter....been way to warm and muddy. Thinking about having a icy cold winter brings back memories of heavy but too short coveralls, frosted horse whiskers, dog paw ice wads, and cow snow coats. Not too mention water trough ice chipping, doing 360's in the car, warming up kittens in your coat, and pulling groceries on a wagon because the truck can't get up the hill.
Anyways, I had made some Christmas wreaths to take to the market, so now here they hang. The pictures do not do them justice.

I took these pictures last spring of
my favorite guitarist. I am finally getting around to posting them now.