Lot's of Pics and no Way to Share!!

I have taken lots of pictures that I would like to share...the plants, the greenhouse, and some pillow covers that I am making and hope to post about when they are done, but I can't seem to find the cord that connects the camera to the computer!!! It's probably in some really obvious place too.

Searching for Land

After much discussion over the past few weeks, Andrew and I have agreed it's time to seriously start looking for more space. By more space I mean more land. We have a pretty good size yard now, and it has amazing possibilties, but it is still surrounded by neighbors and doesn't really work well for our personal goals. Just what are those goals? Well, ultimately we'd like to be as self suffiecent as possible. Being able to live with what have, and maybe producing just enough income for things that are unavoidable like property taxes. Right now we garden and preserve to help supplament our food....which has been invaluable as the cost of food has skyrocketed, while our salary has not. Not to mention the food industry in this country leaves much to be desired. We do our best to buy other foods directly from thier sources (love the farmers market!), and make staples like bread from scratch. But we'd really love to have some animals of our own. Goats and chickens mostly. I would love to have not only milk goats, but goats for fiber too! Now we have enough space in our yard for some miniatures, and this was something we seriously considered, but then the new neighbors and their chickens came. Now when they first arrived, as you can tell from the post I wrote about it, I was thrilled! And really, they still don't bother me that much. But the rest of the neighbors...well they are not too pleased. Not only are there chickens, but they have turkeys too, and these birds are loud. All day long the turkeys gobble and the roosters crow like they are in a competition for who is king bird around the yard. Not to mention that everyone else around the neighborhood has dogs, including us, and dogs really send those birds into a frenzy! The roosters start crowing well before the sun is up. It doesn't wake me up, but I've heard other people complain, and it can make it hard to fall back asleep if I've woken up for another reason. The point is, while goats don't crow, I'm sure they must make noises of their own, and obviously we are just too populated for farm animals. It's okay to not care if the neighbors think your crazy for talking to your tomato plants, or shake their heads because you grass is knee high before you mow, but you still need to consider them when your choices will affect them too. So we search. We would like at least five acres, and something more rural than where we are. Truth be told if we are going to afford five acres with a house on it it's going to have to be way out in the boonies anyway, but that's just fine with us. The only complication is the house we have now. What to do with it? It's in a very desirable location, close to the best schools and only ten minutes from the most popular shopping areas, but still outside city limits, but that is the best it has going for it. Our neighborhood is one that was built in the 70's, when the lot sizes were big and houses were small. (As opposed to the current trend of building three thousand squre foot houses that are ten feet from the property line so all you see is a good view of your neighbors bathroom). Our house has only 1027 squre feet and one bathroom, and by today's standards, that's a closet. I think it will be hard to sell. We are toying with the idea of renting it, but that's a scary venture in it's own as I know nothing about being a landlord. Either way, it needs a few things like new carpet and kitchen cabinets, all of which cost money. So we figure this whole buying land and moving on thing is probably going to take us a while, but we are ready!

Changes

              It has been quite a while since I posted anything, and so much has happened since!! I had intended to get right back into regular postings with the arrival of spring, and all the activities that usually go with it. A couple of months ago we started preparing the garden beds and Andrew even spent several weekends building me a greenhouse. (Pictures to come soon!) The garlic I planted last fall has come up and is growing strong as are the onions. Again we decided on doing potatoes in the containers like last year, except this year we added a purple variety. I started from seed bell peppers and tomatoes as well as hot peppers this year, and all are doing really well. I have started the hardening off process and they should be ready for planting in the first weeks of May. With the virtually non-existent winter and really warm march, it was so tempting to doing things too early, and I am glad I didn't, because last night we had a late freeze....well, not really late as it is not unusual in April, just out of sync with what the weather has been like this year.
          The biggest thing in our lives right now, is that we are expecting another baby, and this pregnancy has brought the most changes to our lives. Last July I had a chemical pregnancy, and so when in march the test was positive I was anxious to get to the doctor and have it confirmed. Then, a week before my scheduled doctor's appointment I started have heaving bleeding and spent the night in the hospital. The baby was fine, and I was sent home and told I may still miscarry. A few days later the bleeding returned, and this time on an ultrasound they saw that I have a tear in the placenta. This means that I have been on virtual bed rest as to keep any more damage from happening, and to allow the tear to heal itself, I've been restricted from anything strenuous at all. This means no picking up Isabelle, who at two and a half doesn't quite understand why I can't hold her, no doing household chores (except I still wash dishes) and to my horror, no gardening. No digging out that new bed I wanted, no pulling weeds (okay really I'm not that sad bout that), nothing. This has been really hard for me. Andrew is doing his best to keep up with everything, and really his is superman. He works full time, plus does side work on weekends, and he's still going to school. What has really amazed me about him through this whole thing is even with all that, and having to do laundry and carpets and scrubbing the tub, and pulling the weeds and mowing the lawn, he still finds time every night to spend with Isabelle. Those two are inseparable. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but sometimes when I see them playing together I get a little teary eyed. But, it's been a couple of weeks and I haven't had any bleeding, and I have an ultra sound later today. Hopefully some of these restrictions will be lifted and maybe I will be able to do more, otherwise it's going to be a long nine months. By the way, baby is due November 11th!