EKjourney Backup

We went from rainy days to a week of 80 degree temperatures.  It is so lovely working outside in the sunshine...well, in the morning and evening, heat of the day can be a little too much if you aren't used to a 20 degree temperature increase.  I even bought a straw hat to keep the sun of my face and neck.  I am feeling official now! We only have a few more weeks that we can do backyard burning so we are trying to get all the piles of wooden fence posts, lumber, tree limbs, blackberries, cardboard, and various other miles of piles of burnables.  Unfortunately, nothing is really worth saving so goodby it goes! Interestingly, the house Southeast of us did Spring field burning.  I always marked the end of summer by the giant plumes of smoke mid to end of August.  I am very interested to see what fields are burned around us.  I actually love field burning...the smoke clouds are mesmerizing.   My goal for the weekend was to get the animal food area clea...

I am sure that everyone who finds themselves living in a remodel and property clean up project gets to the point where the newness and excitement of the undertaking begins to wear off!  We started in Mid-March, spending every evening and weekend out at the new farm.  We demoed, we cleaned up, we dreamed, and then we went home to sleep in our own beds.  We said goodby to our Silverton home at the beginning of May and it was hard, very hard.   This is our 4th weekend here on the farm.  We have yet to unpack and this is what it looks like in our main living space: Dining area Livingroom/bedroom space Dining and kitchen Garage - dressers and storage Here, Phil pulled off some sort of packing miracle by fitting 27 bags of insulation in the car.   The deadlines and late nights are difficult.  Phil pulled an all nighter on Wednesday, took a nap in the late afternoon, and then stayed up until 4 in the morning on Thursday.  He had to get wiring, insulation...

Jubilee turned 11 yesterday.  Oh my!  She is growing up so fast and this past year, particularly the last couple of months, she seemed to rocket right out of little girl and right into young lady.  She is more proper, more independent, more responsible, more conscience about her appearance (clothes, hair, and jewelry).  She is very friend oriented, loves journals and notebooks, cooking, having things neat and tidy, enjoys drawing fashion sketches, and loves outings and social gatherings.  The farm life really isn't her thing but she does love animals, particularly birds.   She and I made a day of it.  I took her out to breakfast in Silverton and then we spent several hours shopping and got her a whole "new" wardrobe.  She picked out jeans and button up checkered shirts, a pink belt with a horse belt buckle, and brown boots.  I didn't say a word and just let her get what she liked.  (Kind of missed the days of picking out her outfits, dre...

So glad to have some warm sunny days!  It was so drippy wet all winter long with record rainfall and dark gray days.  On the farm, the sun is up several hours earlier than on Silverloop and the morning sun streams through the windows.  I am not a fan of window blinds or closed curtains but I can tell I am going to need to combat the summer heat with some shades.  Even the morning sun is intense.   It has become an annual tradition to watch the pet parade with friends.  It actually felt a little weird this year.  Silverton is not our home anymore, we were visitors.  We were only a mile away from our Silverloop home, and we often would just walk to the pet parade (in nice weather)...and we never will again.  Despite being here for 3 weeks, I am still feeling quite displaced.  The farm is home...but it really hasn't become "home" yet.  I still think about our Silverloop house daily.  I miss it.  I think it will change once we...

We are trading cool and rain for hot sun.  I prefer medium sun with lots of puffy clouds.  Going from 50's to 90's is a little to much shock.  If it never got out of the 70's that would be fine with me!  The older I get, the less I like hot weather.   I get up between 5:00-5:30 generally.  Our windows mainly face East and the sunrise is amazing.  I don't get a westward view because of the tree block.  I decided to take a short walk down the road to a a lovely little meadow just South of us this morning. Going down the driveway The meadow Our property from the road. The tree block (you can't see our house from the West side of our property). Back down the driveway, looking Northeast.  These little buggers are everywhere!  Our entire property is bumpy and uneven because of all the mounds. He seemed to be enjoying the early morning hours as well.

It was the first dry day in quite awhile so we took Alec up to see Silver Falls.  The state park is only about 15 minutes away from home, just over the ridge that marks the horizon from the porch view. The ants were swarming like crazy! This is all ant. Alec is not a fan of bugs in general and he was given a very bad time about taking a dare to touch the ant hill (and these ants do bite!) This is Alec getting the heebie jeebies and running away.  LOL! Just over the green ridge and down into the valley is home.