These days I'm...

Saying goodbye to my beloved Irish Water Spaniel, Tia, my constant companion for over 9 years. She had what turned out to be a cancerous mass removed from her leg last fall, that unfortunately came back in her lungs with a vengeance in the new year, and we let her go a couple weeks ago as it was clearly her time. We went on a nice hike with her the weekend before, and it is nice to have that memory of her in the woods with me right up to the end, just like old times.

Feeling in awe of this large garden space to work with, and constantly admiring the new additions that keep making it more and more a creative space for us to grow in: yarn for the birds to use for their nests, garden spaces for Little M to grow plants in, haybale compost piles, and the fun continues.

Going on a backpacking trip for the first time with the four of us, just up the hill, and loving tent time at dusk with this crazy-hair girl.

Also loving this little cutey on my back on the way up. Not so much loving the midnight hike back down as we realized three in my little tent is too many, and realizing in order to make it through the night, let alone on a multi day adventure like we've been hoping for this summer, we would need a slightly different approach to gear.

Feeling proud of these little cactus that I've started from seed intermittently over the past 8 years.

Watching fresh life appear on herbs I had worried were dead in our early very cold spell last winter before we had any snow covering.

Watching the moon set over the mountains as the early morning sunlight starts to fill our world.

Starting SO MANY seeds with this little monkey!

Getting outside!

We've been spending so much time outside lately, especially now that the mister is back on dayshift, and I'd love to blame my lack of posting on that, but actually I had several posts prepared last month that just never made it to publish! Not quite sure what happened there! Of course they are now sadly out of date, so here's the update instead of those old almost-posts :)

Little M is a self proclaimed 'big help' now, at 4, and with Baby E quite content to be watching the proceedings from my back in the Ergo, we've got 2-3 sets of fairly capable hands quite consistently working around the property, so we've made some real progress. This is the most productive time of year for us around the property, so him being on the same shift as me right now has been meaning we've been motoring through tasks like no tomorrow!

I've been keeping the mister busy already moving the pig structure further to the south, taking fencing down and reinstalling it elsewhere, putting in more posts and getting the garden and chicken/orchard area completely fenced, and starting on the dog/yard fence. It's exciting seeing our plans for this land come together!

You can see the garden and pig area on the left side of this picture below, taken on a hike up the hill beside the house. The chicken coop and behind is the chicken/orchard area, and in front of the coop is the fenced side garden area. The pigs will be in the lower half of that this year, doubling the area in there to be gardened this year, which will be a challenge I'm sure.

We've gotten most of the fence posts in for the yard fence, although we still need to finish our H-braces complete with tension wiring, and then dig the trench for the fencing to be buried in along the posts. It will be nice to have a secure area for the dogs, to keep them a little more under control. The griff's like to tear off to the creek, or after deer, or just generally off on walkabout every now and then, which has made me limit their outside time more that I would like. The fence means that when we are out gardening, or playing in the yard, they can come along with and get their energy out!