Vacation...Staycation...Workcation

I took a lot of random pictures this week with my cell phone, trying to record in the moment the daily happenings of our "vacation".  Last week, there was jury duty that took me away for 3 days and Phil went into work with the kids.  This week was our first full week at home, our "vacation".  I keep putting the word vacation in quotes because this has been a workation.  When we moved to the farm, we knew that it would take a few years to turn this run down, over grown place into our home.  The first summer was insanity as we were working toward getting this place to pass inspection so we could get a loan and Phil got a job as a school administrator which cut our vacation time in half.  We basically redid the entire home (roof, windows, drywall, plumbing, electrical, flooring, remodeling the kitchen, and reconfiguring the bedrooms from upstairs to downstairs) that first summer.  While Phil worked on the inside construction, I did clean up on the outside.  2018 was more outside clean up: prepping the property for gardens and starting the big undertaking of refencing the entire 14 acres. This summer, Phil tackled irrigation.  He rented a trencher so we could run lines throughout the property and he redid all the piping in the pump house.  He also continued on with the fencing projects, this time working on the West side of the acreage putting up deer fencing. I worked on planting, weeding, and mulching. 

Deer fencing

My turn with the tractor.  I have managed to win the war on blackberries, invasive grasses, miscellaneous weeds, but the sheep's sorrel has me beat.  Despite weeding, it is overgrowing the border gardens. I am working on reweeding and raking up hog's fuel and replacing it with bark.  The hog's fuel interlocks and I can't get the weeding tool through the mat it creates.  I have come to think of farming as a series of errors that you learn through...

When I first moved here, I looked forward to putting in the garden structure and then adding color.  This year, I have been able to make bouquets with perennial "plug in" plants now that trees and shrubs have been placed!

Sometimes, I can scarcely believe that I get to oversee such a place!

I don't even know what is going on here...

I am glad that Turtle Ridge Wildlife Refuge is so close.  We took these fledging Cedar Waxwings in after finding a dead (what I presume to be) parent.

I love living in farm country.

I was mowing the arboretum and just had to stop and take a picture.  We will have over 30 trees planted when all is said and done and when it is mowed down, I can visualize the park like atmosphere that will be created when all these different tree varieties grow up and fill in the space. 

Field burns....one of my favorite things about Summer grassland.

 We had wood delivered to be split into firewood.  Last year, we went in with a small group of people from our church to buy a splitter.  Just a fall project to look forward to!

 The poor goats are still in the barn waiting for their own personal shed and pasture (that is the next project on the list of "to do's") but we do let them out for recess.  They are loving the wood pile as their personal playground.

Summer dirt

This 14 year old has been practicing driving out to the driveway and backing the van up to the trailer for hook up.  We got the study manual at the DMV so he can read to take his learner's permit test.  My oh my...were has the time gone!?

Freshly mowed arboretum

New fencing

This is what we have been taking down all over the property

This is actually a driveway that we will someday complete

More fencing...it sure does look great when it is all mowed.  Incidentally, to mow takes about 2 days.  One to mow around the house and the other to mow the arboretum and orchard.

Can you tell which way the wind blows?

My garden, all ready for Fall planting.

We have a pool!  I do feel a bit bad that our last 3 summers have been all about investing in our property.  We were used to travel and adventures.  We were happy to invest in a pool so kids could work hard and play hard right here on our farm.  

The water is FREEZING!  We are hoping that the solar heaters will bring it up a good 10 degrees.  The girls braved the cold today and were in for over an hour.  The boys...not so much!

B, what are you doing?  Apparently it is warmer in the ladder box...

Meals....when I make them...are all about ease, and these days, barbecue!  I did a little experiment and bought some lavish bread from Trader Joe's and then made homemade pizza on the barbecue.  Yum!

 Pajamas, snow gloves, slippers, robes...and guns?  Boys!

Sawyer did get whisked away to Eastern Oregon for a fishing trip with Grammy and Grampy to celebrate his 14th birthday.

We have 7 days until Phil leaves for a work related trip and 8 days until we start our 2019-2020 school year.  I am not ready.  I could easily use another month.  Sigh....  It is really hard to think about the summer and vacation as ending, especially since it revolves around cramming work in.  We have next week "off" and it is jam packed.  Jubilee is volunteering at a Vacation Bible School.  Sawyer is going on a fishing trip with my parents (for his b-day).  Glorielle turns 8.  And, we will be cleaning the house top to bottom in anticipation of starting our new school year.  I did the scope and sequence planning for high school (and other grads) at the beginning of the summer and will be putting together the specific lesson plans.  

And that was it!  Vacation is done and Phil will be headed back to work.  Sigh.... I love where we live, I wouldn't change it, but I do miss those days when Phil was a teacher and our life was simpler.   I always said that I would rather have time than money.  Now we have no time and a bit more money (which goes directly into having property).  It has been an adjustment. 

We will eventually get ourselves into maintenance mode and country living routine.  I just didn't anticipate that it would take so long!