The coffee shop

aka; my second (home) office with the extra perks of de-lish almond croissants and pipping hot, soulfully rich coffee. 

I'm officially a cat lady!

Dust baths

And this is why it's so hard to have nice landscaping on a free range farm ...

Project for next summer: build dust bath spots for the hens near their coop!

Fresh to Dry

Slackers!

My home office co-workers keep sleeping on the job!

Frozen Compost

An old ice cream bucket in the freezer works well for keeping stink, ant and flys out of the compost, especially on hot summer days.  Also- it keeps the compost bin off my kitchen counter!

Home Remedy

JJ started with one wart on his hand.  We used OTC treatments on the wart and not only is the wart not gone but it has sprouted four friends.  The poor kid... one week before school... had five warts on his palm.  We decided to try a home remedy that JJ researched on that big ole' world wide web- garlic!  I thinly cut garlic into small slices which we put over the warts- and then covered with bright green duck tape.  I like the idea of this remedy but I'm not sure it will work.  First of all- by morning- the duck tape was off his hand and in his bed, and we have no idea where the garlic ended up! Secondly, JJ read that you have to repeat this process nightly for 3-4 weeks.  I'm not sure either of us can stand smelling like garlic every night and morning for the next month. 

Farm fresh sweets

Zucchini (from our garden) chocolate chip cake!

Sweet, dense and moist- thanks to the zucchini ! JJ hates zucchini...but loves this bread!

Afternoon snack made for Farmer J's Great Aunt Kay's visit.

Plates from Goodwill.

Pitcher from my mom... Thank you!

Plums from the orchard!

J and the boys made plum/white peach jam. It's sweet and such a beautiful color. We put it on our crepes for a bed night snack!

And this colorful concoction will go to the hens! 

Plan b (yesterday)

Plan a: power yoga at 6:30- cancelled

Plan b: bike ride with the kiddos!

I didn't burn as many calories but the view was much better!

Thankful...

For this gal and some mama time away to attend this woman's Christian conference.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YCGu0dKu-48

These two songs were a few, of many, played at the conference... (see link above).

Moving in...

Nesting boxes are done

The hens will go in this way!

We will open these cabinet doors (painted by the boys) to get out the eggs!

Here is the little chicken coop/roosting area for nighttime.

Preparing for winter

A huge thanks to my dad for giving us his time, expertise and sweat! Farmer J, with the help of my carpenter dad, made this small animal shed- behind/attached to our garage. This will be a warm home for the animals come this winter, especially for the fall/winter lambs we are hoping will make it into this world around then!

All this shed needs is some paint!  I wanted cute window boxes but my farmer husband reminded me that any cute window flowers would just be eaten up by the sheep! 

I heart kiddo art!

Kitchen Update

Paint primer is going up before we can put the color paint on the ceiling, walls and cabinets. My helper, Fisherman Finnegan, thought the ladder was pretty cool!

And this is the reason the kitchen isn't done two months after moving in...

Summertime at the beach, with three cousins, trumps any house project... especially when you live in a state that practically has a 6 month winter!