Life

This life with its brokenness and joy, beauty and pain, struggle and strife...

This life with all of the vehicles breaking down around our ears. The lawn mowers and weed-eaters, washing machine, vacuum, dishwasher, computers and refrigerators all waiting for the repair man.

This house with its peeling paint (inside and out) and the huge brick chimney that barley hangs on.  Some days I can almost hear the groaning as it slowly tips back away from the house, pulling up the floor boards as it goes. This house literally bursting at the seams.

These four children of mine; one man-child preparing to fly, one young lady training for womanhood, one girl blossoming to adolescence, one boy, the baby, finding his own voice.

These kitchen floor tiles eating away at my supply of dishes; oh the heaps of broken dishes. This weeks tally: 1 coffee mug, 6 plastic cups, 7 drinking glasses, 1 cereal bowl, 1 saucer.

These silly children that grow too fast to suit me and ask too many questions (in their best British/Australian/Scottish/French accents, of course)  that I cannot answer.

These silly, crazy days so full of fret and worry; days filled to overflowing. Days wherein, I forget to love, be patient, hold my tongue, have mercy or be graceful; awful days where I don't lean on my Father who loves me.

This one room school house with its toppling towers of books and strong willed children. This mama worn and weary trying hard to do the right thing, anxious and excited over all the possibilities.

This faith full family doing Kingdom work.

These chickens that don't lay eggs and two silly pigs with a food budget bigger than our family of six. A farm dog with a thyroid problem and far too many fluffy kittens to suit the Mister. One lonely rabbit whose sole purpose is to produce fertilizer for the garden.

This husband and wife struggling with the daily grind and frustration.

This little hill of clay that I coax to grow more than just blackberry and poison oak. This sad little oasis, where once I dreamed of  glorious gardens I would grow and tend. I see those wild blackberry vines creeping and those shiny leaflets of three and wonder if that dream will ever come to fruition.

This house turned upside down in effort to purge and make space. Space for the school books and space for kids who just need their own corner of this house. A bit of space for the Mr. and space for this girl to make beautiful things again. Such a deep need to be creative again.

.....

These are the things of life right here and now.

Farm Tour Day 3

The current state of the weather keeps me from taking many pictures, as camera's and tsunami's don't mix well. I am only exaggerating a tad. Every time the water stops pouring from the sky I scoot out the door snapping pictures like a mad woman. If only you could see me, slogging about in my muck boots, apron strings trailing- skirts a'flyin... A pretty picture indeed! Thankfully I can remove that image from your mind with these shots from around the farm and homestead. Enjoy~

I always plant flowers with my veg. This year I sprinkled Cosmos seeds in the Hot Pepper patch. Those pink blossoms really stand out amidst all the shades of green.

My darling menfolk made me a new squash patch this year and while it didn't produce scads of Winter Squashes as I had hoped, I was pleased that this special plant produced 3 healthy fruit. This is Red Kuri or Potimarron or Onion Squash. I hear it has wonderful sweet flesh that tastes a bit like chestnuts. I can't wait to try it.

For school the kids are studying Honest Abe. The youngest farmer boy finds Abraham Lincoln most fascinating. He writes himself notes so he won't forget a single detail.

Fall leaves make my heart go pitter-pat.

This is how I spent a healthy portion of the weekend. It was heavenly. The pounding/pouring/sloshing rain only distracted me slightly. 

Note: Pay no attention to the frown lines on my forehead this is a good book! It's about Depression Era farm women.

Inside/Outside:: Farm Tour

Time does slip quickly by when one has far more chores than there are hours in the day...  (Deepest apologies for the lack of photo editing here...not enough time!)

Garden harvest 22 October -in the torrential downpour/thunder and lightening storm.

                                                             

Bloody rotten APHIDS!! eating happily away at my Brussels 

Farm dog-Hard at work keeping watch for errant toys

Garden Mums. My favourite.

Never ending pile of laundry to be folded or Mt. Foldme

                   

New to the farm this year- raised beds in the front courtyard. Didn't do quite as well as hoped, but still blooming!

After-school mess making...er, playtime.

Raised bed #2 sporting a healthy (5.5 ft. tall) crop of Redbor Kale and the blasted aphid drowned Brussels.

I have carpel elbow from all of the chopping/stirring/slicing/stuffing I've been doing this last month. In the pantry: Cider and juice, salsa, dried fruit/veg, butters and jams and still more to can.

Raised bed #3.  Home to wayward strawberries, various herbs and Cole crops.

Outside-the rain tumbles from the sky. Inside-the fireplace crackles and the tea kettle whistles. Dinner is simmering in the oven and the water-bath canner bubbles steady.

The here and now

Right here and now~

:: Seeking calm and order. Making a schedule for the farm chores, household stuff , myself and kids.
:: Striving to live fully the length and breadth of this life.
:: Seeking simple. Purging the 'shtuff' that has piled up over the summer. Sorting and culling school books.
:: Loving my morning coffee.
:: Experimenting more and more with fermented foods...sourdough, Lemonade and pickles.
:: Not wholly loving the darker-colder mornings, despite my love of Fall.
:: Preserving like a crazy person-canning, freezing, dehydrating. Ad nauseam.
:: Struggling to get the kids motivated in the a.m.
:: Sad at all the "things" I didn't get done this summer that I had hoped to.
:: Watching the BBC show Sherlock and loving it.
:: Dreaming about sneaking off to the ocean.
:: Grumbling that the chickens continue to escape and feast on the beloved tomatoes.
:: Wanting to be writing again.
:: Embracing Gratitude-every day.

:: Digging deeper-in all areas of life.

:: Excited to see how many of the Blue Orpington hatchlings are hens.
:: Enjoying the last of the fresh garden veg.
:: Appreciating my darling husband building the much needed Le Poulet Chalet.

The busy-ness of me

I have been flitting about in such a fashion as would make a Humming Bird nervous. I have forgotten where I was a few times. I lost track of time, got lost in town and forgot my own name while placing a phone order. Seriously, I have hardly keep the days straight. At one point I was processing a Canner full of jam, making supper, entertaining company, helping kids with school, watering the garden, loading the dishwasher, starting a new batch of jam, taking photos, reading a recipe and talking on the phone!

I have been overwhelmingly busy.  Dreadfully busy.  Much, much to busy for me....

I have canned umpteen jars of Tuna, barbecued Tuna, smoked Tuna, vacuum packed some 50 lbs of Tuna and Salmon and otherwise lived like and frankly, smelled like, a fish monger. I camped with my family. Attended two funerals, in the same day.  Attended a baby shower. Canned blackberry syrup, apple & pear butters, plum jam and rhubarb. Forgot to water and weed my garden.  Fetched my mother from town for a week of canning fun. I have taken an entire truck load of  "stuff" to the Goodwill, (thank you Joy).  Accidentally made cottage cheese. I have lovingly, labouriously, plucked raspberries from the vines in my garden and tucked them into the deep freeze. Visited friends and loved ones at the hospital in Big Town.  I have taught classes at church and home. I have shredded and frozen scads of zucchini. I have eaten my body weight in zucchini. Spent a morning getting in firewood with my family. I have dried tray, after glorious tray of herbs in my food dehydrator. In general, I ran like a head with my chicken cut off.

I have never in my adult life canned/put up so much food. Or run to town so many times while in the middle of said canning.  When returning from the grocery with mass quantities of large and small mouth canning lids and military sized bags of sugar, my oldest son asked if I was preparing for a nuclear holocaust.  Not a holocaust son, I said, just putting up food so I can feed you during your next growth spurt.  (Dear sweet baby boy, please stop growing!)

While not preparing for disaster, I have been busy filling the pantry with good, old fashioned, staples in hopes of making ends meet ( re: feeding of teenagers) All the while, juggling the things that make up this crazy, calamitous life of mine.  This kind of busy makes my very happy.   Crazy, but happy.

What's been keeping you busy lately?

Hello? Is it me you're looking for?

I know. My posting is totally sporadic and random. I am spazzy. But friends, my plate is full. The worst part is, I have so many posts in draft that most of them are no longer relevant so I can't even rely on scheduling a post.  I have no plan for my blog space. I have no plan for life in general but that is a blog for another day.

Anywhat.

So much going on!  The calamities are still abundant but something is missing. I think its pictures. There haven't been near enough picture posts here in Calamity-ville.

I have been working on honing my photo skillz for my little brothers upcoming wedding.  I am currently shooting with four different cameras. (Talk about spazzy!)  I am nervous about taking the pictures for this big event.  I am excited for this new opportunity.  I am filling C.F. and S.D. cards (as well as my hard drive)  with more images than I have ever shot before.  I am working with a snazzy film camera as well.  It feels like ages since I loaded a roll of film into the back of a camera. I am even loving the anticipation of waiting for the pictures to be developed.

Needless to say I am inundated with photos. Some of them are worthy of sharing and some of them are...well, junk is a nice word for it.  I am working on some editing in order to get some pic's posted but like I said earlier, the plate is full.  It may take me a while but I will persevere.

I will post.  I will post...PICTURES.  Minimal calamities. No cheesy song lyrics. And ... skads and skads of pictures.

 For now, I will leave you with one random photo.

 Drops of water on my peony.

(On Monday night we had nice rain storm.  I went out in the morning and shot all things blooming.)

Katie needs her groove back:: Part 2

As I searched through my archives this morning, I was hopeful of finding something to post; something that didn't require conscious thought or photo editing.

I had no such luck.

Bleh!

Most of the posts I have in draft are so dated they would require much more tweaking and consequently, editing, than I have the will power to attack.  Yet, I still wanted to post...something.

I stared at the blank post editor. Then I clicked over to Facebook. FYI: Facebook is a deep swirling vortex. It will suck your will to live.  At the very least, it will tap into your inner voyeur and will prevent you from doing anything other than checking the pages and comments and pictures of  every. single. friend.  And....it goes on and on.  Facebook is a vortex I tell you! (Facebook is evil.)  The thing I love most about FB is that I can chat with all of my best farm chickie friends (whose job it is to tell me to blog ALREADY!), my cousin in France (who loves reading about all of my calamities), my dear friend in Idaho (who adores my blog) and my Mom (who checks up on me via my blog) all at the same time. Which is what I was doing instead of blogging. So, I clicked back here and stared some more.  And so it went. Till I grew weary of the clicking. And the manic chatting.  And my poor lonely blog cried out....

BLOG ALREADY! 

So....I started and stopped. And stopped and started.  Then decided to just jot down the truth. The truth being, I have lost my blogging grooviness.

I want to have time and drive for blogging. Frankly, I want to have time and drive for just about everything but I also have a desire to make my blog more....well, just more. I want my blog to be what it once was.  I want my blog to be my online storybook.  I want to see something funny and think "That is totally blog-worthy. I should blog it".  I want to take pictures of the beauty around me and post them for all the world to see.   I want to find my groove again.


Blogging groove, where are you?

Easy does it

I have run so harry-carry as of late, I am feeling the need to take a day off.  The busy, bustling of  "putting food by" has taken a toll on my house and my attitude.  For months I have poured out my energies, with abandon, on my garden and now... 

I find I have lost the heart for tending and toiling.  And canning.


Ad infinitum.



I think I will play the grasshopper for a day and simply watch the ants scurry past.

Summer in pictures...maybe.

What can I say? I have been busy.

Fall frenzy

This year, more than others, we are "putting up" all sorts of produce for the winter months. This has taken over all nonexistent free time I had pre-canning season. Thus the sketchy blogging.

Yesterday my mother called me to see why I hadn't blogged. Hmm. I imagined all of my other readers calling me also.

Katie, yes, Hello. Are you planning on blogging in this century??.... ...Oh, really? You are trying to botulize your family? Well that's nice. Blog soon..mmmK! Ta-ta for now!

((Silly, I know. I can't help but be funny, it's all the fermenting grape fumes....or maybe it's the corn or the apples.....oh who knows. I am done being funny.))

Moving right along.






I have been swimming in fruits and veggies for a few weeks now but the pantry doesn't seem to be filling up. These little monsters that roam the farm eat a jar of jam at one setting. They devour 2 quarts of green beans with dinner. At this rate I will never get the pantry stocked for winter. And with this "economy"....ugh.

If I am absent from blogdom, just know that I haven't given up on blogging, I am just busy beyond measure, enjoying this fall frenzy and I will hopefully live to blog again another day.

Or some such nonsense.

Let's review...

When I was thinking of what to post for today I thought to myself, Self, make it easy on yourself, just put up some pictures of all the fun stuff you have been doing lately. Super easy, shmeasy. Well I started the ever so easy process 2 hours ago. Hmmm....

So,here is a somewhat short summary of what our summer has been like so far and Sally sold sea shells by the sea shore....could I have added any more "s" words to this sentence?? Hah! I guess so. :)

Here you go.

Fidget learned to fly.

The kids got lost in the Loch.

I tried out my mad photo skillz on The Fourth. This is my darling, showing me a little love.

The masses; playing in the sprinkler.

On Memorial weekend we camped with a group of friends. I thought I would play Martha Stewart Rachel Ray and make a cake. Note to self: don't make cake while camping. We had lovely chocolate charcoal.

You can read more about this adventure here.

Teaching kids to ride without training wheels is harder on the parents than the children.

One night I strolled into the bathroom to find this thing flapping against the window. From the size and shape of the shadow I thought it was a bat. I, yelled for help. Because it is a well know fact that bats can eat through glass, and I was freaked out by all the freaking flapping. Inspector the the rescue. He yells, (doing his best impression of Mrs. Doubtfire) help is on the way! Being intrigued by the size and shape of it, the Inspector decided to GRAB it. This caused me to suffer a mild coronary. As it turns out I lived and so did the most bizzare, ginormus, hairy moth I have ever seen in my life.

Pretty foxgloves.

I have had altogether too much fun photographing the flora on the farm.

Last, but certainly not least, was the most recent fun; watching my son play ball. Notice home (paper) plate? (That was the Inspector's idea.) Oh, and of course the man child's form. Doesn't he have good form?! I am so proud of that kid.

There you have it folks the longest, short post ever! Have a great weekend.

Busy as a bee...

I kinda have a lot going on these days;

Relatives and friends visiting, Exposing myself, gardening, anniversaries ( Happy Anniversary to me!) and birthdays ( Happy Birthday to Miss D), play dates, swim lessons and Taekwondo, trying not to forget to do SOME form of math with the kids, animal care, trips to town, caring for my mother-in-law's garden, and the list goes on…..

So, here I sit.....blogging. I have a million and a half things to do, namely an apron to make, and yet here I am sitting at the computer. Is this really a waste of time or just cheap therapy?? I am going to go with the therapy notion.


Here is a short list of the progress I am making in the Exposé moi department:


I found a large rectangular basket that will fit on the shelf in my kitchen, I would show you pictures but I broke my card reader and the computer won’t read the SD card from the camera. So….I have that to freak out about. Hopefully you can just imagine my nice neat basket, sitting on the lovely silver shelf, sans plastic clutter. It is a site to behold. Now if I could only get someone to mop the floor…….hmmm.


Now that the kitchen is under control I will be moving into the master bedroom. It just happens to be the dumping ground for all the STUFF that no one knows what to do with. Remember my wondrous description of it? How could you forget? In case you need reminded, go here.


So to start things off I am going to Goodwill a bunch of clothes (this will also lighten the clutter in the laundry room), shoes and (ouch) books. This will be hard so, I need all the support you dear reader, have to offer. You see, I like my clothes, shoes and (yowza) books. I could clothe and home school a hundred kids, no problem. Since I only have four children, I need to purge a bit…..


Next I will tackle the desk that resides in my bedroom. There is a bunch of paperwork to be filed laying on the desk and the adjoining book shelves.


Once I have the room in general, under control, I really want to cute things up a bit. There is nothing hanging on the vast expanse of wall. I need to remedy this. Not sure yet how, as I have all of the cool art in the living room. I just might have to paint something…(I don’t think this falls within the removing clutter plan).

Well there you have it. I am one busy lady. Better go...git-er-dun.

That Girl

I am that girl that you saw in Walmart today. The one with the screaming, mimi throwing, toddler. That was me, trying in vain, to convince him to shut up long enough to grab some rice, applesauce and folder tabs, with only a quick jaunt over to fabrics. I, so desperately wanted to go down the aisle with the duct tape. The temptation was too much for me to handle. My threat's met deaf (most likely a side effect of the blood curdling screams) ears. But how would you know any of this? You just lurked in the shadows, watching. Waiting.

I am that girl you saw standing on her head, butt crack showin', trying to force a billion pound bag of Jasmine Rice under the shopping cart. You gape in wonder at my behind. (yes it really does make African girls jealous, and NO I can't find pants that fit the dang thing) I am the one who, standing up red faced and adjusting all of her clothes, gave her 12 and 9 year old children the look of death for laughing. 'Just wait till your FATHER gets home'...........

I am that girl at the check out with the danger mite child who is determined to climb out of the shopping cart. You look to see if I notice the escapee. You draw in a sharp breath as I deftly snatch the air born toddler from the stratosphere and plop him back into the seat of the cart, barely saving his life. He is ungrateful. He screams like a banshee. You wonder if the clerk can move any faster.

I am that girl you saw in the feed store wearing pink cords, a sparkly shirt and ballerina flats. You gave me THE look. I was trying my darnedest to load the chick starter, oyster shell, dog food, rabbit food, chicken scratch and layer crumble into the back of my Suburban. I was trying not to get too schmutzy. You were repulsed by all of the Juice Boxes, Pull-Ups, Toys, McDonald's paraphernalia, extra Clothes and Shoes, I was trying to force out of my way in order to shove all the feed into the back of my truck. You wondered when I would go back to the city from whence I came.

I am that girl you noticed in the Goodwill. The one with a gazillion kids. The one whose kids were either pickin-N-flickin' boogers or peeling the price tags off all the glassware. Yes, it was I, who meandered over to the book nook, the one next to all of the noisy toys, just to annoy you. I told my kids to have at'ter. 'No fighting now, there is plenty of annoying junk for all of you.' You had the nerve to glare.

I am that girl.

The pesky shopper. The ridiculous farm chick wanna be. The goodwill stealer. THAT mom with the screamin' kid.