Melanie's Farm!

My friend Melanie and her family live on a 200 acre farm. That is one of Natalie's favorite places to go visit. 

Who can blame her! From playing with Melanie's girls to playing with all of the animals it's so much fun! I really like Mel's tea mixtures she always has ready to drink (so yummy) and she just about always has some yummy baked goods in the house. Her cookies are fantastic!

Melanie and one of the cute baby bunnies.

If anyone is looking to get a bunny Melanie's girls have some they might sell to you. I think they have 7 bunnies from 2 different rabbits.

 Natalie loves the goats and baby goats as she calls them. She talks about Melanie's girls and the baby goats just about every day! Melanie is going to try her hand at making goat milk soap this year. I'm excited to see it, hear about it or help out when she does that. 

Every time I go to the farm to visit the girls there is always something fun going on. One time the vet came, another time it was down pouring, another time there were baby goats just born.

 Natalie is looking out of the barn next to a mama goat. She likes to pet the goats and say "soft" while she is petting them.

If you can't tell I have 4 goat kids nibbling on me and I am in love with it all.

Goats and rabbits are not the only animals on the farm! There are steers(boy beef cows and I say boy because they do not have parts to make babies), goats, rabbits, 2 ponies, chickens, ducks, cats and dogs!

 Boy do the girls love their ponies, Sparkles and Brownie are their names! They really like to ride them when ever they can.

We cant forget about the ducks! They are one of the newest members of the farm, and will be used for their eggs, and from what I here duck eggs are fantastic.

And there are chickens EVERYWHERE!!!

To give you an ides of how awesome the eggs are here is a picture of one of Melanie's eggs and a free range egg from the store.

If you couldn't guess the darker yolk is from Melanie's farm.

Willy, one of the dogs, is such a handsome farm dog! He is a Great Pyrenees a breed I hope to own some day.

Melanie is also a painter so when she isn't taking care of her family or working on the farm she is working on her beautiful art!

Check out her web site http://schumacherart.com/

I could keep going on and on about how much I love this family and their farm but this is all for today. Maybe I will do another blog on them soon.

Gardens

As some of you may know I love to garden.

That being said I thought I would share the gardens I have made since I moved in to my house.

This is my front walk way that I made mostly for free. I bought the Salvia but the rest of the plants were split from my mother-in law or from my grandparents. I have 2 kinds of Host and 3 different colored Day Lillies. The path its self was also free I used gray pavers that were there but buried under grass and then I got the red pavers from my grandparents (they had them stacked on the side of the house).  You can't see because the plants are so big but the path has rocks edging the plants, those I got from Jeff's aunt and uncle and they were also free. All of the wood chips in my garden I can get free from the city of Mayer or Jeff's parents get free wood chips from their neighbor who is a tree guy.

 Along the wooden fence I have many different colored Day Lillies (all from my grandparents). Along the chain link fence I have a few kinds of Hosta from my mother in-law and then I also have a row of Hydrangea that I moved there from the other side of the house. The tree trunk you see is a maple tree that I did not plant but I love. 

This garden is a work in progress I have Hosta from my mom and my mother in-law, Irises from my mom and neighbor and Vinca that I bought. I will be adding more plants to the garden this summer!

The bench I got from my mom, the watering can was for Mothers Day when I was Pregnant with Natalie and the rocks are from Jeff's aunt and uncle's field. So another almost free garden!

This is my newest garden! It doesn't even have mulch yet. Its on the south side of my garden shed. The trellis I got at target a few years ago at Target and you can't really see them but there are small Morning Glories that I bought planted by the trellis. So I hope that they will grow up the trellis. I have some I think Tiger Lillies that I got from my good friend, Salvia that I got from my mom and some plants I bought but I don't know what kind they are. The rocks around this garden are from Jeff's grandparents lake. I'm not sure what else I'm going to plant in this garden but its a summer project. 

This is my vegetable garden. I have sweet corn, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions, broccoli, horseradish, summer squash, zucchini and strawberries. I have  few tomato plants at Jeff's parents and I'm going to plant green beans this week. as you can see I have only mulched 1/2 of the garden so far.

I am blessed to be able to have done so much of my landscaping for free. 

I will do another blog later this summer showing how everything has grown.

A New Page in My Life!

Today June 7th was my last day of work!

I have been watch my sister Kari's kids since October of 2008. Now that I have two kids of my own its time for me to stay home with them. Seven kids is a lot of kids to watch! I will miss seeing Jocelyn, Anthony, Elaina, Danny and Matthew almost every week day! I will still see them at family stuff and when we hang out. Natalie and Matthew are really close so I think that it will be the hardest on them not being together every time I would watch the kids.

Some people may wonder what I will do when I'm home most of the time. I have plans to work on the yard and gardens, and to keep up on laundry, dishes, cooking, baking and house cleaning. It is also a lot of work to take care of kids and teach them new things. I would like to also work on painting my dining room and office when they are ready and then all of the trim work. Natalie has a bed frame that I need to sand down and paint so that we can put that in use. I'm really glad that I will have time to work on projects keep up on the blog and spend time with my kids and dogs during the day and also keep up on the house so nights and weekends aren't so crazy busy doing house work.

Hello Again!!!

I am sorry I haven't posted any blogs in over a month. My life has been crazy busy, with work, 2 kids and construction I haven't had time to think let alone write. On June 7th is my last day of work and I will be a stay at home mom starting on the 8th. I'm hoping to have more time to post a lot more often starting then. I have much to update with my family and projects around my house but that will have to wait till I'm done with work.

Easter and Spring Time

Happy Easter a few days late...

We had a really good Easter this year and Natalie loved finding Easter eggs.

which was good because she had to look for them at 3 houses. First she had an Easter egg hunt at her great grandparents, then at my parents and lastly at our house. When she was at our house she had to compete with the dogs (they wanted to eat the eggs). 

Charlie loves to swing at the park.

He also is getting so strong he can hold his head and stand as long as someone is there to balance him.  

Natalie loves to be outdoors.

Yes!!! That is my yard. Thanks to the warm winter the dogs ruined my grass.

Natalie at 20 months really likes to help out Grandpa plant potatoes 

and when it came time to trans plant my tomatoes Natalie was so eager to help out with putting soil into the containers.

 

a lot has been going on since my last post, like

going back to work and spring time.

I went back to work 2 weeks ago and then had last week off and am now back. 

It is really hard to be away from home all day. We leave around 7 am and get home around 6 pm (I say we because Jeff and I car pool). Its hard being away so long because I can't get the laundry done during the day. I cant have dinner ready by 6. I have so little time at home to get so much done and when I am home at night the kids are really crabby making it hard to get anything done. There are one or 2 kids hanging off me depending on if Jeff is busy or not. Its also hard because I don't have the kids stuff like a bouncy chair for Charlie or Natalie's toys. 

Jeff has been working a lot on the construction project when he has the time that is. He also got us new phones me an iPhone and him a Droid Charge.

Hank and Pepper are enjoying the warm weather they love being outside all day.

I will try and be better at posting more often its just a little hard with being so busy with kids, house work, yard work and life.

Spring Time and New Windows

Minnesota has had an early spring this year. It has been nice

not having snow or cold much of this March. Natalie is loving being able to go outside without a jacket.

On March 10th we went up to Jeff's grandparent's place to help cut down some trees. (Jeff's tough guy look and Charlie)

Little did we know that was the last time that we have seen snow this March because it has been so warm it has all melted.

We learned that Natalie Loves jumping in puddles!

Natalie also really likes to "garden" or just play in the dirt.

Charlie has been enjoying the weather also. He really likes it when I let him take naps in the stroller outside. He is growing so much. I put him on the scale when he was 5 weeks old and he was 12 lbs 0 oz . Charlie is a really easy little guy he, sleeps a lot and when he is awake he is a happy baby. 

I have been running around like crazy after 2 kids, 2 dogs and a husband.

I have my days down though so it is much easier to get stuff done now that I have gotten used to having 2 kids to take care of and I'm managing to keep the house picked up.

Jeff has been working non stop when he is home on the remodel job.

The dining room is almost ready to paint and the office has been gutted. On the 17th, Jeff and his dad Dale put in 2 new windows in the office.

It was a very exciting day for us!

Before, no windows on the North side of the office.(The office is right above Dale's truck)

As you may notice, we haven't quite finished painting the house brown yet. That will get done this Spring/Summer.

A picture in the middle of the process.

 The dogs were watching me take pictures so I took a picture of them.

Hank the the taller brown dog and Pepper is the shorter black dog.

and now for the finished product, our house with 2 more windows on the north side...

When the house is finished being painted it will look Amazing!!!

So much so that when we sell EVERYONE will want to buy it... at least I hope so

My life the last few weeks

Charlie is 3 weeks old and it feels like he has always been here with us.

Natalie loves to give Charlie kisses,

and she will say "I lobe Tarlie" 

Charlie is very strong and can lift his head up, he is also much more alert when he is awake. Most of the time he is sleeping though. 

Natalie has been getting 6 teeth in the last month so that has been

a fun challenge for us.

She is also talking more than ever. Every day she is learning new words. She is very helpful with Charlie and she has been helping to keep her toys picked up,

 she also has been helping set the table.

Natalie Loves to have people read to her especially when the books have animals in them. She loves her books just like her Mama.

Other stuff going on in our life Construction!!! 

As you know from my last post we are remodeling our dining room and soon to be starting the office.

Jeff and his family have been working hard and got a lot done in a week.

They gutted all the walls, then wired, added lights, put in 6" insulation, put up plastic over the insulation, put up sheet rock and did layer one of the tape and mud 

Before there wasn't any lights in this little alcove and now there is 2 and they are on a dimmer switch. Jeff is the best!!!

and this is a sneak peak and the light fixture we got. It will look better once the room is painted and is has its shades on.