Today

Sometimes it is hard to feel that we are accomplishing much. I feel like we are running in circles, never getting anywhere. We have so many projects going! In the past, we have tried to complete one thing before moving on, and tried to have a large chunk of time before we started the work. That hasnt been effective here.

We work on the barn on weekends, because we need a large block of time. Evenings we try to get several posts set in. When all of the wooden posts are set (3 an evening, these are set in concrete) we will move on to T posts. At 10 a night (post pounder) we should be done 5 nights later. Then we start to string the fencing, which we already have. Once again, work evenings. Continue working on the barn on weekends.

That leaves during the day. The kids are doing summer school-both have the last bit of their math book to do and so we work on that daily. We are not going super fast, some days we get only 1 page done. Neither child is behind, but I want these 2 workbooks done before end of August which will be start of 4th and 5th. Nathalie is finishing her 4th grade reading book-we went slowly to work on speed. Tad plays guitar daily, and they both do French. We try to squeeze in a spelling test weekly, and a geography assignment for fun. All of this only takes about 2 hrs, a lot of it is independent.

Friday is deep cleaning day for the whole house, as well as sheet washing. Laundry, dishes and basic clean up is a job for all 3 of us, all week. Chores happen 2x daily, more as needed. The kids work on knitting, sewing and legos for 4h projects to show at the fair in August. This is also independent.

I have been doing some sewing, trying to start up business. This week I need to get started on winter wardrobes for the kids, that is just around the corner for us.

We cook every day, make bread a few times a week as we only buy bread in an emergency IE mama forgot to bake some and now we have none.

We do something in the garden most days, weeding, watering plants that the sprinkler does not reach, planting new seeds. Today we ran the burn pit because we had a chicken die, we have no idea why, and we are burning the carcass. I try not to throw things away that can breed disease in the dump, and we only generate enough true trash for the dump to make a trip once every few months. Sometimes even then our few trash bins are not full. We have to go to the recycle center every 3 wks aprox, and by then the bins are over full.

Our Mrs. Rabbity had kittens, IE baby rabbits. They are 1 wk old on Thursday. When they are 6-8 wks we will eat them and about a wk later, breed Mrs Rabbity again. This weekend we will be putting Miss Babbity in with Mr. Babbity (Rabbity being their last name) because she has grown a lot and is breeding size. 28 days later, she will have her kit. This will soon give us a steady amount of meat and hides. We have one rooster (he was a hen...) that will be butchered. We need to get more butcher roosters-but we were out of space.

We made a 3rd chicken coop, I will photo this later. I need one more large one of a different design to raise butcher roosters. I will be buying a large amount of these in the fall as we will have a huge barn completed!

Ok, so thats some of the stuff I do all day to stay busy. I sometimes visit with my family and friends online, I miss my people. I talk to my best friend in Tn (just moved from Ga) pretty much every other day at the very least, my kids talk to her kids just about as often. We have a nice 4h group here, the kids are about to try out for swim team. Tad's guitar teacher was other than reliable so I am filling that position which is not hard, I can play the guitar. I am just not consistent. Tad is good to remind me so it is working. Tad will be able to meet a local diving coach this fall, he only takes new students in the fall and takes few at that. Tad has a chance, according to the swim coach because she said his diving is phenomenal, amazing and inspiring. Hmm. Wow, he was born able to dive like that. Imagine having a coach!!! Frank and I are taking swim lessons as well right now.

Pictures later, Nathalie is off somewhere with the camera and her dog (AKA Kitten.)