I have been gone w/ my littles out of state at our camp since July 30th. My husband joined us for some of the time, but he was mostly holding the fort down in Maine, hanging w/ our chickens (Thank you Justin!). There were a couple weeks of blog posts that I scheduled ahead of time, but I haven't written a blog post since well before we left. We were at camp, not only our typical mostly media free lifestyle, but also internet free. A glorious break with family, immersed in books, a wee bit of sewing and painting, frequent nature spotting and multiple times a day fully submerged in the St. Lawrence River. And food. Lots and lots of cooking and eating. Riverfront dining daily. Rest assured, my blogging pause is over and I'm back at it!
Vacation photos will be forthcoming. The funny thing is, although I absolutely love photography and taking pictures in my spare time, I have relatively few pictures from our time on vacation. Once I get with my loved ones, my photography goes out the window, as I seem to love being with my family more than I like taking pictures! I got to see my beloved family and quite a few of my late mom's friends. My mom died 25 years ago this August, but her memory was so alive as I remembered her with many of my mom's siblings' families and my mom's friends (who have also been a source of support and encouragement for me). On the anniversary of her death, we were dining as a family with our tremendous view of the river, my heart so joyful of all that she has taught me and of the 15 years of memories I have to share with my beloved littles (who seem to be not so little these days).
Projects here at the farm are carrying on. I am branching into new gardening with my woodchips and there are parts that were successful and parts I want to tweak for next year. I remain confident that this method will work for our family, even with me being gone almost all of August and not tending it. I am working on what to plant when and what to skip. I want enough to freeze before we leave and some to freeze when we return, but not such an abundance that my husband has to deal with when we are gone. But, I want enough to feed him when we are gone. It's sort of like starting brand new, planning and preparing a whole way of gardening. My apple trees are finally producing quite a big and the deer have taken notice. Hopefully the return of our dog scent will deter them. Zippy (our cat) is over the moon thrilled to have us back.
Now what? Well, laundry to start. Piles of it. The Speed Queen is earning her keep! The chicken coop needs attention, there are weeds that need pulling, produce that needs collecting. On a larger scale, we need to do some barn work and I have plans to create a laundry room (get that laundry out of the kitchen), finally getting my vintage farmhouse sink installed and new flooring in the kitchen. We have been working on a bathroom renovation that I cannot wait to be completed. It's finally in working order, but we are awaiting a few specific things as I try to keep some things that will match the character of the rest of our house in our brand new modern bathroom. As we dance around the bigger projects, you will find us outside or curled up with a good book or taking another dip in the ocean while we still can. I will be purging, organizing and excitedly preparing as we spend another year of homeschooling at home sweet home. Oh, and the fair. Of course the fair. Kids insist we return in time for the fair. Thank you for coming along for the ride with us, I appreciate my growing number of readers who enjoy following our journey on my little ol' blog. If you know of anyone who would like to follow along too, feel free to share. Despite what is happening in the world, I am determined to make our time at home sweet home marvelous.
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