Wow, the weekend flew by. Saturday we spent the morning helping at the recycling center with our 4-H club. We had six kids help unload and sort all sorts of recyclables. They all had a good time and really seemed to enjoy themselves. We headed home and went to the local nursery to pick up some flowers and garden plants. We ended up with 11 tomato plants. What were we thinking! I'm not even a huge fan of eating the things. I do like making salsa, so there will be jars and jars of salsa in our future! Eight types of herbs were bought and now have a happy little home in our new herb garden outside the back door. Hopefully we'll be using them soon in new recipes. Kristyn helped pick out some pink flowers that she liked. As I was planting she kept asking me what I was doing. It's so cute to listen to a 2-year old and all their questions that they repeat over and over.



Sunday we decided to be bad and skip church. We were exhausted from Saturday. It ends up we were a little glad we missed the service. My mom called and let us know that a very dear girl that used to be a member of our church was killed in a car wreck Saturday night. She was lifewatched to Wichita and died Sunday morning. She was 17 and a high school senior, just weeks away from graduating at the top of her class. She worked at the grocery store and was loved by all who knew her. It was such a shock to everyone in the community. It will take a long time to move past this tragic event. I've told myself if Kristyn ends of being half the young woman that this dear girl was then I will be a very lucky mom. It is comforting to know she is in heaven watching down on her family. Hopefully they will know God's comforting embrace as they struggle to understand why she was taken from their lives at such an young age.

Rest in Peace Emily! You will be missed, not only by your family, but by countless friends and community members.

It's the weekend once again and the list of projects are still there, lingering in the background, taunting us to finish them up. Saturday morning we are helping our son's 4-H club at the monthly recycling day. We are helping community members unload their recyclables and sort them into the proper containers. We recycle at our house too, so when we volunteer to help do the sorting, our recyclables get taken over. That helps a lot. Once Saturday morning passes, we tackle the projects. (or so I hope!) The hand-pump well will hopefully get finished up. We poured the small foundation and are waiting for the cement to cure. The bolts were hopefully positioned correctly so we can fasten the pump to them. It will be nice to have it working once again. We probably won't use it much, but it's there if we need it or want to show someone how it works.

My husband's Jeep has been his big project all winter. The engine was taken out and rebuilt. It was living in my dad's shop for about six months and is finally home. There are still a few issues that he's been dealing with, but it's driveable. That's been good, since his car battery is dead. I don't have to take him to work at the crack of dawn, so I'm happy. We've spent lots of time in it trying to get the clutch working better. I think he finally has it working correctly now, thank goodness.

I have been inspired by my friends that have a super garden. They live several hours north of us, but I've been following their blog http://highfarming.blogspot.com/. We are by no means as big as they are, but I've learned a lot just reading what they have posted. I think I may try my hand at seedlings next year. I would love to have veggies earlier in the summer and not wait till July or August to enjoy fresh food. I think a road trip may be in order to take a look at what they have and visit them at the farmer's market.

Hopefully this weekend I will get my herb garden planted. I have a nice little patch right outside the back door that is easily accessible. It was so overgrown and full of rocks and other junk. It took me a good two days to clean out the small patio of bricks (which we didn't realize was there due to the grass covering it), all the large rocks, weeds and other little surprises we found. I've always said I'm going to find buried treasure somewhere on our property and I did. I found a quarter in the dirt. That's probably going to be the most I'll ever find. Oh well, we can all dream, right? :) Last year I had planted basil, thyme, and marjoram. The basil and marjoram were annuals, so I knew I would have to replant them, but about half way through August I went out and noticed my thyme plant was dead! I looked around in the soil and noticed a mole had dug a tunnel directly under the plant and had sheared off the roots. The poor plant lifted out of the ground easily since it had no anchor to keep it in place. I was so mad. I'm hoping this year to keep the moles away.

If we can get our few projects done this weekend, we'll feel accomplished. I don't like to cram so much into one weekend, I feel like I don't have time to breathe. Those weekends happen more often than I would like.

Spring on the farm

Projects, projects everywhere! How do we get ourselves into this mess each year? We have so many things we want to get done, and there is never enough time or money to do them all. Oh well, we just have to keep at it until they are done. Right now, we have a bathroom that we've been trying to get fixed up since last year this time. So far we have the walls painted and faucets bought. Not installed....just sitting in the boxes, waiting for a plumber to help. We plan on converting the tub to a shower. There are no water lines for a shower, so we need someone to help us with that part. Also, we will have to fix some tile work that was cut out years before we bought the house. Not sure how that will end up, but surely there is something that can be done.

Another project that my husband just decided to tackle is an old hand pump well that sits outside our side door. The top part of the handle broke many years ago and some tree roots were starting to push the footing up and out of the ground. He removed the pump and the concrete footing and all the pipe that led down to the water. Which, by the way, is only about 4 1/2 feet below the surface. (No wonder my basement leaks!) We took it over to my parents house and my dad explained what needs to be replaced. Hopefully we will be able to find the parts and get it working again. It's a part of farm history that is reminiscent of the simpler things of life.

Gardening seems to be a year-long project that never seems to get done, or done right in our case. We used to have a great garden years ago in Nebraska, but that's when I didn't work and had lots of time to spend out in it working. Now that I work, have an almost teenager (GASP!!) and a 2 year old, I don't seem to have the time for things like gardening and stuff I want to do. It's worth it in the end though and hopefully I'm teaching my kids to enjoy being outside and using their hands.

I've been getting inspired by Martha Stewart and all of her posts on her blog. She has such an amazing farm back east and I would love for our farm to look half as great. Our garden is the first part of that journey. Once we have an established plot of ground it should get easier to keep up. This is only year two for it, so with time, we should be able to have a nice area to grow things in. Our front flower bed has been transformed from a mass of Vinca vines to a clean garden of perennials. Each year I've added a few more plants that will return the next spring. I've also been getting some of my mom's plants from their house and incorporating them into my own flower beds.

We are always up to a challenge when it comes to plants. This year in our garden we will be planting peanuts. Yep, peanuts. We did this once while living in Nebraska, but moved before they were ready. We dug them up, but they didn't taste all that great. The shells were still a little soft for roasting, but it was fun to see how they grow. Now that we are a little further south, we can get them planted earlier and dig them later. They take an long time to get to maturity. I'll update this fall as to how they turn out. Another challenge we took on was planting three blueberry bushes and two canes of raspberries. We had raspberries in Nebraska that we found out in a field and they were delicious! We fell in love with them immediately. Finally we have an area to grow them. Our last challenge (at least for the moment) is a Goji berry plant. It hasn't arrived yet, but it's a different plant that my husband thought would be fun. We'll update on all the fruit later this summer as it grows and matures.

That's not all the projects on the farm at the moment, but as you can see, it's a little overwhelming. Still to come, 4-H lambs, chickens, the Jeep and soybeans. Wow, that's a lot to digest.

Till next time.... enjoy the simple looks at life!