StarzAbove

I’ve been adrift the past couple of months. It almost looks like I blogged myself out at the blogathon, and barely made a post in August, but that is not the case. Things have just been topsy turvy with plenty of turmoil.

My hope is that now that my favorite season is here, things will resume a natural state of chaos once again. Why? Because winter is fast approaching.

This means, so far as the farm, that we need to get a move on and finalize all of our preparations for the cold months, and now! There is wood to be gathered, split and piled. There are pastures to build and others to secure. There are shelters to build. The garden needs to be turned over and a greenhouse constructed and then planted. And so much more…

School is also back in session around here. Mostly. That routine is comforting, although some adjustments still need to be made, for sure. I’ve got a senior to graduate and get ready for college, another high schooler to get ready for SAT’s, and two middle schoolers to carry on. If only I had more time with them….

I’ve been knitting again – finally. I finished a wavy lacy shawl for Julianne, and have almost finished a baby boy sweater for Julianne’s grandbaby-boy-to-be. I hope to finish it today or tomorrow and get it sent her way. This will be her first grandchild – she is my age – ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! The baby is due in October some time. I also hope to knit him some booties, a hat and maybe a baby blanket.

I’m also hoping to get my spinning mojo back, as well, but I’ve figured out that I really need a little more space for that to happen. We’ve set the date for a week from tomorrow to merge our two cabins, therefore increasing our living space dramatically. We’ll actually have a living room/office/school room separate from the kitching/dining room. It will be so nice! We’ll still be well under 1,000 sq. ft. but will have a pantry/bedroom, 2 bedrooms, the livingroom/schoolroom, 1 bathroom (with another one in the works), and the diningroom/kitchen. Two storage lofts are in the plans, too. We are trying to make it work so that we get most of the outside work done before the cold season, and then we can work on inside projects all winter. That is the plan, anyway.

I’ve been working quite a bit lately. Sister and I are working together and it’s been a good partnership. We are also getting others working independently by subcontracting to them, and that’s a good thing, too.

It’s time to go listen to an audio book and knit, before sleep time. I’ve been listening to Nicholas Spark’s ‘The Choice’ but after getting about halfway through I’m not sure I’m in the mood for it. I added a new book to my iPhone today – maybe I’ll switch to that instead. Any good book suggestions out there?

Well, we survived Blogathon 2009! Thank you again to all that donated!

July was beautiful temperature-wise, but WET!!!! Now that August is here, the Midwest/Top-of-the-South summer has returned. Hot and humid days, with foggy, sultry nights that don’t dip below the 70’s much.

We had a pretty bad thunderstorm last week that blew out porch roof (shade) right off – it landed up on top of the house. That was pretty freaky! The man was standing on a table underneath of it, trying to remove some of the loose boards, I was standing inside of the front door looking through the window at him, and all of a sudden the roof blew up and over us smacking hard as it landed on the roof of the house. He boarded up the window on that side of the house and then finally came inside for the rest of the storm. Fun, fun, fun…

August is birthday month around here. My youngest, 2 of my nephews, and 2 of my nieces all have the weekends of August covered with birthdays (minus the first weekend). Mine is supposedly somewhere in the middle part of the month, but I’ve canceled it once again this year.

This weekend is my eldest nephew’s birthday, so we are getting ready right now to meet him at the movie theater. He’s never been! He turns 7 tomorrow, so we figure it’s time. The little town over the hill near us plays free movies on Saturday mornings during the summer. They are older than 2nd runs, but within the past 6months/year. And it’s always fun to see a movie on the big screen – especially for FREE!

We are headed to pick up a couple of peacock chicks this afternoon. I’m looking forward to raising them and their beauty. I am not looking forward to getting used to their call – it sounds like someone screaming for help!

We’re off! Happy Saturday in August!

We are off to hit the hay.
To catch some ZZZzzzz’s.
To saw some logs.

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Nicci again.

We’ve been camped out in the living room since sometime last night. It’s kind of interesting to look back on a 24 hour period and think about what events filled it. I saw a water heater shoot sparks a couple of feet from me. I felt my fingers ache from piano because I never bother to do stretches or scales (the biggest curse of teaching yourself piano is it’s so easy to skip parts you don’t like). I stood in the rain. I woke up at 5 or 6 yesterday morning to go fetch a horse that had wandered out into the yard. I cleaned up a huge pile of junk that had been piling up around our house. I skipped a meal. I ate four slices of cold pepperoni pizza after the house was quiet and I was trying to keep alert and busy. And I don’t like pepperoni. But I love pizza. (BTW, it was not one of those frightening pizzas where you can wipe a napkin across the top of the cheese and fry something in it.

At least, I think I did all those things in the last 24 hours. Sometimes the lines blur between days. In a way, sunsets and sunrises represent that blurry line. There’s no fine line between the light and dark. It isn’t like a lightswitch, you touch something lightly with your finger and in a flash your surroundings have changed, as well as your perspective of time and distance.

In days, there are blur periods were it’s really an in-between.

But a solitary raven is a sign of good luck.

Yeah, whatever. I’m soooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired.

My mind is blank. And Nicci is brain dead, but happy. Angel needs to crash.
But we’re here, fighting the good fight.

It’s daylight outside. It’s foggy and wet. Someone is not going to be happy about it.

I’m happy that I’ve just about made it through the past 24 hours. It’s been incredible, once again. My girls are up with me, too. I’m thrilled to have them experience a part of giving.