In the Flower Circle

I would have titled this blog post 'Bearded' but I know my Mister would be reminiscing his winter beard and lamenting the agreement that he'd keep his face clean-shaven for me in the warmer weather.  As sexy as his beard can be (when kept nicely trimmed, Matthew Aaron!) it is not the facial variety of which I speak.

This week all the Bearded Irises began to pop open and once that happens in the flower circle, there really is no stopping it until the first wintery frost.

 Orioles singing in apple trees, petals dancing in the wind, hummingbirds whizzing past your head to get to the mini petunias, buzzing, tweeting (the old-fashioned from the mouths of real birds kind) and all the gloriousness of May.

Adele' asked if we could watch the Lizard of Oz the other day which was hilarious.  And a few months ago, upon spying a 'wooly bear' caterpillar exclaimed "Mama!  Look at the Wooly Mammoth!"  Every single day these children tickle me with words or antics and I tell myself that I MUST not forget that!  And yet, every day I forget to write them down.
Children really make the world just so wonderful.

I came across this video I took in the flower circle two summers ago and I just love it.  From the planting of feet to Andrew's molasses rendition of Truly Scrumptious to wispy Adele' to the little boy tackles I never want to forget.

Life with children is so busy, messy, crazy, beautiful and so so good.

WeekEnding

 Every weekend I feel even more like a sloth than I do during the week (and I feel like one then too).

On his days off, Matt works outside pretty much all day and I sit and watch him.  I have no gumption to do much of anything.  Part of it may be laziness, but I think much of it has to do with feeling so downright lowsy all the time.  I feel either starving or nauseous, but when the former, I feel the latter soon after.  It takes all my energy not to throw up, apparently, and I have nothing left over with for being productive.  I'm not complaining, mind you, Tiddle is totally worth it...but I do feel a bit guilty about being such a bum... or would, if in fact, I had enough gumption.



Despite my (more intense than I ever remember feeling with any other pregnancy) nausea, I really love looking at pictures of food and reading recipes for food.  I have spent the last hour looking at a friends' food blog (she makes good food, I can attest, and takes mouth-watering pictures of it) and scouting out allrecipes.com.  It seems, even if my mouth can't, my eyes want to feast.

Since wiping my blog reader down to the top ten list, I have no food blogs to devour now that I want them.  Any good ones out there for me and my feasting eyes to peruse?

I have several baby gifts to be making (have made) but I haven't picked up yarn since my last project-a good month and a half ago.  See?  I told you!  Lazy bones.

Andrew thinks he's pretty swell to be able to push mow.  I think so too.

We had an odd experience this winter.  While Penny was on hay, her cream stopped making butter.  I don't know why, exactly~ I've scoured forums, books and articles to know the science behind it- but without success.  The butter would begin to form granules and then it would go back to whipped cream.  Weird.  Now that she is on pasture, I am able to make butter again.  Unfortunately, her milk has a more 'pasture' taste which I can't stand.  This could be a pregnancy thing too, because no one else seems to mind it.



This Memorial Day our neighbor came and tilled up the garden.  It looks amazing.  That is what it took for me to become excited about planting things again.  Up 'til now, I didn't even like to look the way of the garden.  I am really late in planting things this year- I usually plant the first things on my birthday (the 15th) and put everything in on Memorial Day...but hey, a freshly tilled garden is a good step in the right direction.  It will happen.  It will happen.

I've been enjoying harvesting lots of asparagus though I have decided I should have planted twice as many crowns as I did.  We have plenty to eat but none to put up and that is too bad.

My rhubarb is growing well, though I don't know how much I'll be able to harvest this year... you aren't supposed to harvest stalks until they are 10" and they aren't quite that.  I do have some frozen rhubard that was given to me so I'll be using that up soon.

I am angry with the chickens.  Or, more likely, the dog.  This is now day 4 of getting only 1 egg a day.  I have to go around the fence and find where they are getting out and mystery creature is getting in and repair it quick.  It is no fun keeping chickens without getting any eggs in return.   We do not free-range our chickens all year.  Once the garden is in, they are confined to the chicken yard again.  Enjoy your freedom chickens because soon---you'll be behind bars once again.

And look!  Baby cherries!!!!

Super exciting!!!

(and yes, that announcement does warrant six exclamation points. !!! )

The Porch Project Continues

Since the weather has warmed up, the porch project has resumed once again.

Matt (poor guy) has been spending every moment that he can working on it, which has been pretty slow-going when you work as much as Matt.  Saturdays are great but, even working all day long at it, having only one day a week to get much work done is very limiting.  

Matt took last week off, hoping that a few consecutive days of work would help to move things along.

And then WOOOOOOOOOOOOSH.  

He can build porches faster than I can blog about it! 

(This is a very photo-intensive post...but there is a lot of ground to cover!  Those of you uninterested in porch building, no worries...flowers and food and children posts will resume shortly.)

Scoping out the mini porch that has to come down...

and then doing it.

Then the posts and frame had to go up.  

Matt is fortunate to have his family willing to come and work with him every now and again.  His Dad was absolutely instrumental and has come over very often to help. to His brother John came over once too.

Rafters for the front.

He now has a seriously sexy farmer's tan going on.  Just sayin'.

Then it all had to happen again on the side of the house. 

Matt's other brother Nathan came over for a day too.  

See?  What'd I tell you about the farmer's tan?

The corner was the tricky part.

Then came the roof boards.  At least, I think that is what they are called...

Evening things up.

And then it was time for the steel roofing.

The big kids helped Matt too!  

By the end of the week, the roofing was up!  It went from plain deck to covered porch nearly in the space of a week!

 It isn't done yet...there is still ceiling, railings, stairs, paint and stain to do- but it is done enough for us to enjoy it!  We've been eating breakfast, lunch and dinners out there ever since.

My, what a week of vacation and a hard-working man can accomplish!