Selling Some Land, A New Tent, Easter WIth The Kids

It was a good week last week but it started out very cold.  Mike and I did manage to organize some things and get paperwork done.  We seem to do a lot of organizing on our down days.  Mike says if he was next to me while I had the label machine he would end up labeled, lol.


Thursday was our closing and we are so happy for the couple who bought the pond property.  They are getting to begin a new adventure.  As soon as they closed they went over and did their first round of mowing(I don't envy that, lol).  On saturday they picked up a new "used" camper and towed it to the property.  And so their new adventure begins:)  I love new adventures.


Friday we waited for the well man but he never called.  Hopefully we will get the well in this week at the store.

Last week I mentioned maybe building a playhouse for our granddaughter.  The more we thought about it the more we decided it might be a shorter lived thing, very expensive and time consuming.  I came up with an idea that was instant and would bring her happiness for the summer and maybe even long after that.  A tent:)  Mike and I decided to buy her a tent as an early part of her birthday present and set it up for her on Friday before she got home from school.

I made a sign and we set up the tent…then we picked up Ella.  She was very surprised and thrilled with  "her" tent:

Her and papa hanging out inside:)

Ella has moved into her tent, lol.  We are sure she will get a lot of use out of her tent.  She has a head start with Spring break:)


After we went home Mike got back onto trying to make us more independent and off of the propane that we use.  He ordered a new well pump and his hope is to not have to use the generator to fill our water tank.  That should be here this week.  He also ordered the solar refrigerator.  That will take 4-6 weeks to get unless they have one on the line.


Saturday I spent the day getting ready for the kids to come over for Easter.


Easter Sunday….

Mike and I hid soem eggs for the kids.


Ella checking under the building:

Getting ready to hit the yard:

AJ shaking a tree for an egg:

This is the first time we did an egg hunt for the kids.  Mike and I thought they would be so easy to find…not.  They got most of the eggs after an hour or so.  We still have the "missing" 4 eggs, lol.



After that we went down to the house and had a nice dinner then it was time for games.  Since Ella spent Sunday night with us she had a few bags full of games.

Playing Headbanz…yes we look goofy but we did have fun:)

This morning we woke up and took the little one antiquing with her Easter money.  On our way home we stopped to visit Homer, the donkey and his parents:)


Stopping at the pond to feed the fish.  We have 4 big catfish, a Koi, and 3 carp…then lots of bluegill and some bass.

Once up top Ella helped Mike and I wash the big Truck.  We will get pictures of the truck today and get it down to the store and up for sale:

Once we finished that Papa helped Ella fill up her balloons for the balloon sling shot toy:

Mike and I held the big sling shot while Ella got to fire off the water balloons.  Since this needed 3 people there are no pictures.  Let's just say Ella had fun shooting our shed, lol.



Ella and I paying frisbee:)

More fun and games after I post this story than Mike and I need to do some work after Ella goes home.  Supposedly the weather is changing again.  Ugh….when will spring be here to stay.



Not much work this week but lots of fun.  Gotta have the fun and enjoy the kids while we can:)



Have a great week.  Hopefully we will have the well in by next week.  We also need to get some work done if we plant to get the store open this year.


Have a great week:)

Lisa

Moving A Shed, Outdoor Work, and the Mother Earth News Fair

It has been a busy week and Mike and I have been involved in all kinds of things.  On a bad note we got one of our properties back in TN…but on a good note we have a contract on it now:)  Yes it all happened very fast.  Before we got the contract Mike decided he wanted our old shed.  First we had to find a mover as it is a good sized shed.


Monday after the rain we got a call from our shed mover and he said he was in his way to pick up our shed.  Mike wanted to bring it up to our house but when we saw the size of the load coming down the highway we decided to leave it at the store.


They are at the store with the shed:

Very cool.  I have never seen this kind of trailer.  It has rollers so the shed slides right off:

Almost off:

Just another building at the store, lol:

The next day we got three loads of crush and run gravel to spread over the big rocks on the driveway:

All spread out…next up we will have to see about drilling a well and installing the septic:

Ah…back to planting seedlings, lol.  The never ending job.  The ones we have planted seem to be doing well so far.  The spot where the deer were only one got nibbled on:

We had to wait for the land to dry out a little before we could seed and hay the spot where we took the shed:

I sure do miss this pond:

Wow…this is one of the trees we planted.  It is three times as tall as me:

On Saturday Mike and I took a day for ourselves and went to a fair that Mother Earth News had.  It didn't have as much solar as Mike was hoping for.  They had many seminars which might be interesting to many.  As it was we just walked the fair.  We did get to see a tiny home, solar ovens, lots and lots of seeds, natural beauty products, and of course baby animals.  Here is the link in case some of you might want to check one out closer to you:
Mother Earth News Fair




We got back home early enough for Mike to get more cow manure for me:)

My garden is getting there.  One more load of manure and I can clean it up and get ready for planting:

Sunday we had breakfast with the kids and then Mike took our grandson driving while I went home with the girls to see Nicole's garden.  She did a great job on her fence.



After we left it was time to get the BA truck ready to sell.  We got a new oil pan for it and it is running very well.  Now it's time to clean this monster:

Mike vacuuming the back out:

OK…it is very gross…Mike decides to hose the back out while I shampoo the front floor areas:

My turn to jump in back and give it some elbow grease:

We got a good amount cleaned up on the truck but we need to pick up some stronger chemicals to finish it up.  The natural cleaning products just didn't cut it.


Later on we got a picture of our granddaughter.  Seems like we were all working outside today:)  Here she is.  She made a house from sticks. I think we may have to make a family adventure of building her a playhouse.

That's all for now.  The weather has turned cooler so we will be a little slower at the beginning of this week.


Have a great week and I will write in on Monday.  Happy Easter.

Planting Pine Seedlings, Prepping The Gardens, And A Baby Donkey

It has been a busy few weeks for Mike and I.  We had some back and forth things going on but we finally closed the "re flip" in Florida.  Here in TN we have been getting things ready for the store, we got the truck fixed, and we have been planting as the weather allows us to.



My square foot garden is in need of cleaning:

My poor strawberries need a cleaning out also:

Playing in the dirt…one of my favorite things:

All cleaned up…now it just needs some compost and it will be ready for planting:)

We have been using our wood stove and it has been keeping our house very toasty.  Mike adds more wood from up top to our wood stack down by the house…he missed his tractor:)

We picked up our granddaughter a couple of weeks ago to spend the night.  On our way home we stopped off at a neighbor's farm to see the animals.  They have a New Year's donkey named Homer:

Homer is such a cutie:

Two weeks ago we got our last, hopefully:), snowfall.  I love the snow on the tree branches:

Looks like we will be staying in today:

And of all things…the next morning we got a call from our Forestry department.  Our 500 seedlings are in so we had to meet the man in town to pick them up.  Sadly…we will not be able to plant until the ground thaws:

Luckily a few days later it warms up enough for us to start planting.  We loaded up the jeep and headed to the area above the barn and close to the property line:

That round we got about 30 trees planted.  It is a slow and not fun process when dealing with mountainsides, lol.


The next day we ventured out to a new location and planted about 30 more on the front ridge near our house.  Mike digs the holes and I follow behind him to plant the trees.  Niki is just happy to be out:)

Me planting the seedlings:

Looking back towards the house…yeah it is pretty unique:

A few days later we make it to the back hill.  Mike digging again:

The back view:

Again we planted about 30-40 more.  There is no way we will plant all 500 seedlings.  We keep the seedlings in a big plastic bucket with a lid and keep them moist.  So far they are holding up very well.  We will continue to find spots and plant what we can. After we are done we will give the rest away to our neighbors at the Farm Supply.


Taking a break from planting.  I talked Mike into letting me have a small "big girl" garden:):)  He is tearing out some of the grass so I can prep the spot:

Ooh…a real in ground garden:)

You can see where it is in reference to the house:

I am so excited.  It will be a small garden to get my feet wet.  I plan to compare both my square foot garden and this garden to see how things grow differently.  I will also be able to plant the bigger things in the in ground garden like more zucchini, squash and for the first time cantaloupes:)

Later on Mike helped me get my squares laid out for my square foot garden:

OK…back to planting trees.  We decided to add a line of trees behind the barn.  On our way down we spotted one of our resident deer:

Again…Mike dug the holes and I planted the seedlings.  It was a good round with some good dirt.  We planted about 60 more.  We did find something curious.  While Mike was digging he found a sneaker.  He asked me if I was missing a shoe…uh no, lol.  It turns out it was an old work sneaker of mine that was in the top of the barn.  We were pretty far from the barn so we have no idea what was big enough to get up to the top floor of the barn and then drag the sneaker at least 200 feet away…..and why???



At least the digging was easier:

Mike working his way back down:

Ooh…while we were down at the barn I spotted gold, lol.  Under the hay on the floor of the barn was some prime cow manure:):)  For decades the cows have been taken into the barn to get their shots.  Well under that hay was some beautiful garden compost:)

Mike scooped up a couple for me and dumped it into my garden:

I am a happy woman.  Since I don't have a tiller I and turning the dirt using a shovel:

Thankfully it is a small area, lol:

That's all for now.  Today we are getting a steady rain which will make our seedlings very happy.

I will keep you posted.  I will write an update each Monday to let you know what we are doing.  Have a great week:)

Lisa