Advantages of "having" a farm

My MIL lives on the family farm land. Her unmarred older brothers (The Uncles) have farmed it their entire life. It's a real farm and not one of those cooperate do-dahs that do the countrysides. It's been in the family since before the War Between the States and has been farmed by at least generations. My Uncles my be its last farms though. Unless they can convince one of my boys to take up farm life.

But farm life has great advantages. 2 cords of free firewood in one of them. ZooDad and the Uncles split it and loaded it. ZooDad tried to cut and split some for the Uncle that still lives in t Farm house but he was aghast at the prospect of allowing someone else to cut his firewood.

The bushels of sweet potatoes and peanuts in my kitchen are another advantage. Today, I'm roasting the peanuts to make home made peanut butter. The potatoes will go out in the garage for cold storage for later treats. (By the way, if you've never had sweet potato fries, you need to try them. You can top them with salt or butter and brown sugar.)

I also have THREE bags of unshelled pecans to shell, bag, and share. And that will be some time consuming work.

Every season, the farm brings new treats. The summer brings blueberries. The Uncles are proud of their watermelons. The have scupernongs and muscadines growing wild amongst the plum trees. There's figs, apples, and the occasional pear. That's in addition to fresh corn, peas, beans, okra, squash, and carrots.
And peanuts for boiling in the fall.

Then there is the fishing, the hunting, canoeing, and just traipsing through the woods on paths made by their great-great-great-grandfather. You just can't buy that anywhere.

One day someone from our homeschool support group suggested that we take a field trip down to the farm. (It's about an hour away.) M was astonished when he realized that most kids don't have a farm to play on and can't just get free fresh food whenever they need it.
"If their Gremmie's don't live on a farm, where do they live?" he asked.
When I told him that most Grammies live in houses, apartments, or nursing homes, the look on his face was hilarious. "I'm sure glad that my Grammie lives on the farm."

She's glad too.

Christmas Recovery

I'm home.
And lucky y'all...you get to hear about our holiday.
I might even have pictures. If not...I will soon.
Let's see...when I last left you, S had the flu and we were missing my Mom's surprise party since ZooDad was at Quantico.
I sent the older boys down to play with a buddy and made cookies to make up for the missed party. They had just cooled when the boys got home and M asked to have one. I had not removed them from the cookie sheet but did have my cake cutter/cookie scraper out. I didn't realize that it had such a sharp edge. Neither did M until he cut his index finger open.

Blood everywhere.

I bundled and loaded all the boys up and headed to the ER. On the way, I called ZooDad and filled him in and then called my sister to meet us. (She missed the party too. But I couldn't have 4 boys in the room while one was getting stitches. ) After three big shots and 5 stitches, M was all patched up. We get the stitches taken out tomorrow. It was a really deep cut.

Christmas was over the top as usual. ZooDad spoiled me royally and loved every moment of it. I got 15 skeins of yarn AND a new video ipod. I'm still giggling over the ipod. So far I have loaded every CD I could find including Latina Christiana and all the boys' CDs. I've used 2 of my 30 gigs. My entire Johnny Cash collection. All my downloaded music. 100 kiddie songs and everything else all in one compact little device with headphones and a radio transmitter for the van.
No more searching for lost CD's. No more burning CD's. Yay me!
Oh yeah, and all the books from Audible are going next...as is Story of the World. I am so thrilled. As a bonus, when we caravan to the farm, ZooDad can pick up the signal if he tunes to right radio station.

Christmas day we played, opened presents, visited with family and ate then loaded up for the farm and did it all over again. We loaded up on firewood and 7 layer cake and headed home after spending days seeing everyone we knew. Today is laundry and finding homes for all our new treasures.

On the knitting front, I started a new pair of socks. My BIL spent two days watching me turn out one sock. He was totally amazed.
"Hey, there's a tube. What's that flap thing? Oh...a heel now. That's the foot part now. Toes! It has a toe. You can actually put it on your foot. Wow!"
I'm going to knit him a pair for next year. He'll appreciate them now after seeing how it happens.

We got home last night and unloaded everything. The packaging and wrapping has all been thrown away but the living room looks like a toy bomb went off in there. All the boys are happy and content. Every gift was loved and they got just enough but not too much.

There was great sadness this morning when ZooDad went off to work. But the boys were comforted by the fact that he only has 2 workdays this week. If the boys had their way, we 'd have a month full of Saturdays. If I had any say so...I'd wish for the same thing. We're happiest when we are all together.

At breakfast one morning, MIL beamed as she fussed over all the boys, happily answering their requests of more pancakes, milk, or bacon. My childless BIL, noted how active the boys were that morning. I told him that this was ZooDad's and my experience every morning. We have no quiet breakfasts at our house. My MIL smiled at us and said, "Aren't they blessed!"

Yes we are. I could not ask for more.

Busted

JC has a song called "Busted." It's lyrics are just an itemized list of all the bad things that are going on in a farmer's life.

I went to my brother to ask for a loan. I was busted. I hate to beg like a dog for a bone but I'm busted. My brother said there ain't a thing I can do. My wife and my kids are all down with the flu. And I was just thinking of calling on you. I'm busted!

I've been singing my own version of this song lately. Though money is fine, I haven't really even started on Christmas shopping. ZooDad is at Quantico until tomorrow. (He's been there all week.) We'll miss my Mom's surprise birthday party tonight because Baby S has some unknown virus, most likely the Flu. He's fine as long as I keep him on Tylenol/Motrin. As soon as the meds wear off, he's back up to 102 degrees. He's been sleeping with me so it is just a matter of time before I come down with the dreaded disease.
Yesterday evening, one bright curious boy tipped my tart warmer. No one was burned but I know have red wax all over the floor and my yellow buffet. The splatter won't scrape off and the red has already stained it.
And I'm out of firewood.
and one strand of my outside lights has a short....making the whole house dark.

Petty huh? (laugh)

On a positive note.
A sick boy has given me lots of knitting time and I've rather enjoyed being home all week with an excuse to not go anywhere.

I finished all four boys' stockings and hung them by the chimney with care. The stripes were super easy because I just carried the yarn over each row since I didn't care about a seam. It was cumbersome fiddling with three yarn strands at a time but it was worth it when I was weaving in the ends. I'm working on one final stocking for ZooDad.


And the new "fake, pre-lit" tree is up and decorated. I only hung my precious silver ornaments and the garland. The boys did all the rest of the hanging, even way up top. Cool!
Here's the lit version.


I may not be back until after Christmas. I have massive shopping to do. (That lone present is my sister's.) Christmas evening, we'll head down to the farm for a few days of over-eating and goat chasing.
Merry Christmas to all. May your houses stay warm and well lit. May your children stay healthy. May the things you wish for be the gifts God grants you.

In which she half decorates

It's "decorate the house but get sidetracked by all your stuff" day here at the zoo.

The situation thus far.
We have a redneck pile of totes on the porch. I go out periodically and forage through them for stuff.

Three (count 'em THREE) stockings are knitted. Only one has a hanging loop on it. It is hanging from the caboose stocking holder on the mantle. I've cleared the mantle from my normal stuff except my clock. I've replaced it with lighted garland and the train stocking holders. I need to do something else there but I have to find my stuff first.

The new pre-lit tree is up and lit. But it is not fluffed. It's looking pretty Charlie Brownish. I'm about 20 minutes away from putting up my old fake tree. (also on the porch.) But I would have to be desperate because I'd have to sort, fluff, and assemble each and every dang branch PLUS put on my 10 stings of lights.

Jesus, Joseph, Mary, the Wise Men, 3 angels, and a couple of Santas are hanging out on the buffet in the dining room. Beside them are a stack of ornament boxes for my silver ornaments (which need polishing) and my basket of knitting.

In the very center of my living room are two big totes of tree decorations and garland. Four advent calendars has already been hung as has the front door wreath. A tote of Christmas lights sits in the center of our walkway along with a step ladder and various and sundry yard stakes and extension cords.

With any luck I'll be done Christmas. I'd better be. I'm hosting the family this year.

I needed that

We had a grown up party last night.
I didn't take any pictures so you won't see me in all my glittering glory but ZooDad said I looked beautiful.

It was great. We won a $50 gift card and a poinsettia for my mom. We ate a delicious meal, had a few desserts, had a few drinks, and got to visit with some people we liked. ZooDad promised that we could start adult dance lessons. There is a studios between ours and mom's house, so I am going to make the man live up to his promise.

We got to cuddle and laugh and talk about stuff other than children and house stuff. ZooDad was praised a couple of times and I was so proud because I knew I helped him be this fabulous employee, father, husband. (And the fact that he's mine!)

The boys had their own party. They got to hang out at my mom's and play with 3 of their cousins. They ate pizza, ran around outside, and played video games until we showed up. It was midnight before they were asleep in bed so school is pretty much shot for the day.

But is was sooooooo worth it.
Sheila

In which Sheila gets over it all

shake
shake
shudder
brush, brush, brush

I've decided to just shakes that funk off and just be happy. I think that is the first step.

Tonight I have help being happy. I have a real life grown up Christmas Party to attend. A real party with sparkly clothes, a catered meal, open bar, presents, dancing, adults to talk to, and my darlin' hubby to escort me. I am so excited. Now I just have to do something with my crazy hair.


On the knitting front, I finished 2 of the four stockings I have to make (plus a giant one for ZooDad.) The two pictures are without flash so you can see the initials better. Both stockings need blocking and some sort of hanging device. But that is a detail to be worked out after the other 2 are finished.



Today we are doing laundry, reading The Magicians Nephew, and literally... watching grass grow. The winter rye thrown out last week has proven to be a great nature study. We've studies what plants need to grow and experimented with water, sunlight, and ground cover. They have compared species of plants, immature plants to adult plants, as well as growing seasons, planting zones, and a quick intro to photosynthesis.
We would be watching mold grow, but none has yet. After 5 days in sandwich bags and neither, the wet bread, the plain bread, nor the toasted bread has shown any changes. The wet bread does smell not so tasty.
The grass is growing faster than the bread is molding.

Tomorrow we are going to Civil War School. I'll post pictures from it and the fabulous Fallen soldier re-enactment we had at a family reunion a few years ago.