wild as bucks- and I loooove it!

I was taking clean, dry cloth diapers off the line.

Ran inside to grab a basket of clean, wet diapers to hang when I heard loud squeals from the kids.

I pop out of the basement door in time to see that they had kidnapped the entire bag of balls from their bouncy pit, dumped them, and were using my clothes line as a sort of basketball goal.

If they are not messes, I don't know what they are!

:)

5 Things I have learned from living in the country:

Before I start my list, you guys may not know that we're buying the house I grew up in! My dad moved next door (1/5 mi. up the road!) and we're buying this house from him- very exciting! I'm a born and bred country girl, but in my teens and a bit into my twenties, I was confused as to how I wanted to live,  to raise the kids (in the country, barefoot in the grass, living on land OR in the city, fabulously bohemian, finding sustainability in an urban environment), but with time and thought, my heart changed and what I wanted for my children really became clear. And positively, it became obvious that I wanted them to grow up how and where I did- outside in the sunshine, jumping in creeks, riding horses, healthy as oxen from good food and exercise... and the decision was made to transplant ourselves from the sidewalks to the pasture- getting back to our roots, since Tim is a born and bred country boy himself, except that he is from Missouri and I was born here in North Carolina!

And here is my list! (LOL)
What I have learned from being an adult moving to the country after living in the city for a decade:

1. Thanks to the bugs and critters, it is louder at night here than it ever was when I lived in city apartments!

A few minutes ago, I actually contemplated going on the back porch to yell at the frogs to shut up before I called the cops! Hey, it worked when I had rude human neighbors! ;)

2. I learned the name of my mail carrier. She is delightful and I am planning to leave some fresh eggs in the mailbox for her sometime next week!

Shoot, she brings me my Backyard Chicken subscription... she knows what I've got going on!

3. In the last two weeks, I've moved 3 turtles from the side of the road in an effort to keep them becoming roadkill. In the city, I used to avoid running over roadkill. From avoiding to preventing...

In doing this, I learned that my son is terrified of turtles and my daughter thinks we need more pets. Jackson is in luck, because I'm not going to clean out an aquarium so that Keelin can have a turtle. Keelin is in luck, because I'm working on convincing Tim that we're ready for a milk goat! ;)

4. This week, I learned that even in my small community full of people still living a farming lifestyle, jerks will  truck in wholesale produce and try to sell it on the sides of the road marketed as local produce. Kiwi doesn't grow here, nincompoops. If it did, I would grow it.

'Nuff said!

5. Last, but not least- there is nowhere else on the planet I would rather be. Counting the tiny tomatoes on the plants, being chased around the yard by bitties, not worrying about the kids getting snatched from the yard while I feed the animals, hanging my skivvies on the clothesline, letting my kids play in the water naked as jaybirds... Of course, the isolation is sometimes palpable. Especially when Tim is traveling, like now, I do feel a bit like we might be the only people left on Earth. There is no HOA to tell me what color to paint the house's trim, my rooster can crow to his little heart's content... and I have no complaints!

What an incredible day!!

Today was a really interesting day, so if you can hang in there through the whole post, you will be a real trooper! :)

Woke up this morning knowing it would be a crazy day! Why, you ask? Today is the day that my husband, Tim, goes on terminal/transitional leave! He is using up the paid leave that he has saved up before officially getting out of the Army a month from now after almost ten years of service. Crazy, right? (Paid leave being a relative term, considering what is going on with the governmental agencies acting like a bunch of kids with dirty diapers!)

We've been looking forward to this for the last 3 years that we've been planning this transition to civilian life and it was just so cool to see the day finally come! We got out of debt (car loans and such), saved up a chunk of change, had a baby, got me preggers with another, and got both he and I back in school.

What a way to sum up three years of marriage!

It felt like we waited all day for Tim to get home, so I tried to keep my hands busy!

I picked up sticks out of the yard (thanks, storm!), cleaned the chicken coop, lamented over the huge tree down in our yard and how being 19 weeks pregnant, I'm not in any shape to bust out our chain saw...

Oh, did a ton of diaper laundry, got Jackson down for a nap in his twin bed (Yay for my big boy!), and got in the kitchen!

This was our lunch, along with some homemade corn muffins that my son absolutely adores! Zucchini, squash, red potatoes, and carrots. All thickly sliced, drizzled with olive oil, and sprinkled with sea salt. The flavor was incredible, totally filling, and the chickens were thrilled to get the ends of the veggies as a treat! (Maybe now they will feel inclined to give us some eggs?)

Here are some banana chips dehydrating! I had to lay the smack down on my dad and son today. They were both in the kitchen getting into the dehydrator all afternoon. These guys just slay me- I can't make chips that actually get to be chips, because they get eaten too quickly. Banana fiends need to back off of my snacks ;) But yes, these were salvaged- 3 of my 4 trays made it into crispy, crunchy, delicious chips! I'll take the 75% odds!

Gotta love his "no poo" hair and cloth diaper!!

Jackson on his $5 consignment sale bike! He's a little guy, so it cracks me up that a bike that teeny has training wheels that are removable. I would love to see a person that small riding a Fisher Price two-wheeler without training wheels!

On top of my cooking, cleaning, and thumb twiddling- I sliced up a TON of fruit and froze it combinations that would be yummy for smoothies, which have become our go-to breakfasts around here.

I finally got tired of being productive and sat myself in a lawn chair to read the end of a book and start another while Jackson napped.

The book I just finished is:

“Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream . “ by William Powers

A great book written by a guy local to me. It highlights his experiences living in a 12 foot by 12 foot cabin in rural North Carolina. Very cool read!

I'm actually planning to give away a copy of this particular book (gotta support our local authors!) next week!

This is the book I just started reading:

"Better Off : Flipping the Switch on Technology," by Eric Brende

So far, it seems to be a book about an Ivy League educated couple that decide to see what life would be like without the distraction of electricity and their quest to return to simplicity. I have a feeling that this one is going to be good!

18 weeks and 1 day

So, I popped my due date into this little thing-a-ma-jigger and it told me that I am more than 18 weeks pregnant. Uh. No. Could I possibly be almost halfway through this pregnancy?! No way!!

*sigh*

Denial won't change it. This pregnancy is getting away from me. I swore I'd enjoy every minute of it- and I am, so why is it going by so quickly?!

I have his newborn cloth diapers ready, I have some little newborn wool sleep cocoons (will post pictures next week when the custom I ordered gets here), some little teeny clothes that I'm planning to dye when I dye his prefolds all sorts of beautiful colors.

Basically? This baby boy could make his grand entrance tomorrow and have everything he needs, except for a carseat! But of course, he needs to stay in for another 22 weeks- which gives me that much longer to obsess about it. And the nesting hasn't even kicked in yet. I am in such trouble... even though I'm totally going the handmade, minimalistic route with this little boy's items!

18 weeks and 1 day with baby #3

I think I popped a bit since my last picture! :)

The first week of Spring!

The first week of Spring was really kind to us, aside from the last couple of days being a little chilly for my taste! I was really productive at home and we got some great news. Tim got a great job offer from a company he was interested in working with, so he officially is employed for when he gets out of the Army two weeks from today!

I felt the baby kick from the outside for the first time last night! I'm almost 17 weeks and felt the baby start moving around right before I was 13 weeks. I guess with this being my third and final baby, I know what to look for- or this baby is just wild at heart!

Speaking of the baby, I believe we are going to name him Finn. It's a Gaelic name that means "fair." And yeah, all of my kids are pale- go figure. :) Having a hard time choosing a middle name, though. We'll let you know when we come up with something, but it will definitely be a tough decision.


I made a tablecloth for the kidlet's table! We eat a lot of yogurt and fruit, all of which were ending up on the unvarnished wooden table. Had to protect it somehow. My elastic wasn't tight enough on 2 of the corners, but it was my first shot at it, so I will tighten it up at a later time. For now, we're loving the easy cleanup!


The results of my first knitting lesson with my friend Kate! I've practiced a bit since then, so I hope that eventually I will actually start trying to make something :)

One of my 2011 Resolutions was to learn to knit and it was the last thing on my list I had yet to start, so I'm really excited. Progress- and it is so relaxing!



Short rows tilled in the garden, two peach trees planted (now we get to just wait about 5 more years for peaches), marigolds planted (help with bug control and pollination), and some of our seedlings put in the ground.

We did have a little cold snap, so I'm afraid that some of them aren't looking so good. I think I have enough seedlings left to make up for it if those kick the bucket, though, and end up in the compost bin.





Diapers on the line right above my daffodils! See the brownish colored diaper? I heard that you can dye fabric with tea, so I tried it and the color looks really strange. I think I did something wrong, but I definitely will try again. Some of the fabric I've seen dyed with tea is just lovely, so we'll see if I can't get the hang of it :)


My beautiful seedlings! Can't believe that I grew these from seeds and only killed a few of them :) My thumb is slowly changing colors!

Our upcycled chicken coop! It is finally finished and our 10 oldest chickens are spending their second night out there (with a heat lamp, of course) tonight. They love it! I've never seen them happier! It's 88 square feet, 44 feet of perches, 7 nesting boxes, a large fenced run is just beyond the window, and there is a closeable "chicken door" on the bottom left, so I can shut them in at night to protect them from predators. There is electricity out there, so our feathered family members will have a heat lamp as long as they need it and a fan in the summer.

The last Saturday before it's officially Spring!

Today was such an amazing day. I don't even know where to start! I hope I can remember everything!

I planted daffodil bulbs all around my clothesline posts. My gift to myself :) I learned today that daffodils will come back AND multiply every year. Very exciting, since we had none on our property before today.

My brother jacked up the shed that will turn into a chicken coop soon and reinforced the floor. Thank goodness! He also started spreading a thin layer of concrete over the inside floor so that the chicken poo won't damage the wooden floor over time.

I spread our organic (i.e. super smelly) compost/ soil enricher onto my garden today and then my brother tilled it into short rows for me, so I can now start planting as soon as the weather is agreeable to various seedlings! I'm hoping to build some trellis structures for my beans to climb tomorrow with leftover bits of wooden pallets and chicken wire. We'll see how that turns out! :)

This afternoon, we drove an hour to a 3d/4d ultrasound place to find out the sex of our third baby bump. Tim said it was a boy. I said it was a girl. I'll tell you what we're having and post pictures as soon as my kids are in the bed :)

No, we're not "going green!" We're striving to be more conscious!

The next week or so will include quite a bit in my blog about what we are doing at our house (lovingly referred to as the Emerson-Power Homestead) to become more sustainable and self-reliant.

I just want to make a few things clear before I really get into this over the next few days, weeks, and months-

1. We don't give a flying flip about "going green." The whole "go green" movement has turned into a joke, a consumerist hullaballoo or a hollow bragging right, if you will, and we aren't buying into that sort of thing. This isn't about fancy water bottles (although we enjoy those) or buying organic cotton shirts from Wal-Mart (which we do not do, since we don't shop at Wal-mart). This is a bit different.

2. We won't be doing much of anything that you'll see and go, "Oh, how cute!" This project, for the most part, is not fancy or attractive. It is basic and sometimes raw, a modern attempt at returning a place that is more responsible and conscious.

3. If anyone is interested in any of the projects seen here, please let me know and I will help you in any way I can to help you introduce any part of this to your family. I'm a modern gal. I shop, I mix a mean margarita, and I drive a mini-van... but I also dream of vermicomposting and converting our swimming pool into a salt water pool. Everything that you will see us do as a family is totally doable by a normal, modern person.

So yeah, this is for us, for our planet, for our great-grandchildren. It isn't going to always be pretty, but it's worth it. Here we go! :)


These are wooden pallets that I got from a local company that is giving them away. We are going to be hammering these together to make a frame for our compost pile tomorrow. They are about 4'x4' with one not pictured.

We are taking my dad's truck this week to get an entire truckload of these. Why, do you ask? Because it's free wood! This wood can be popped off of the pallet and used for any number of projects around here. And if you've been to a home improvement store recently, you may have seen how expensive wood is.

By using scrap wood or recycled/repurposed wood, you save a TON of money and you use a wood product from a tree that has already been cut down. It just makes sense!



Here is a picture of the two 60 gallon black plastic barrels that my dad and husband got me for my birthday. (See my new mommy-mobile in the background?! :)) They are food grade barrels that have been cleaned out and sold off to be repurposed. These were picked up for $20 each from a guy that sells them downtown out of the back of his store. He also has smaller red ones, but I loved the simplicity of these (and the extra 5 gallon capacity), so we went with black.

These are going to be converted into rain barrels. They'll be connected to a down spout on the side of our house and will catch rain water. There will be netting to prevent leaves, bugs, and whatnot from getting inside. At the bottom, we'll insert a spout that will hook up to a standard garden hose. The pressure from the weight of the water will cause the water to flow through the garden hose. This will provide water for our garden!

This is a good idea for a number of reasons. Foremost, we have a well! In NC summers, we tend to get a bit dry and while I've never heard of our well going dry, we have neighbors that have had to come shower at our house before due to their wells going dry in a drought, so we're going to try to utilize our resources wisely!


This is the label on the black barrels. When I opened the lids to check inside of them to ensure that they were in good condition, I immediately knew what they had originally carried! Gherkins in brine!! My rain barrels smell like pickles!!! How appropriate for this pregnant lady, right?


This is a picture of the clothes line that I bought last year and my brother set in concrete for me a couple of weeks ago. I use it to dry my cloth diapers for the most part, because lately we have been getting quite a bit of rain. When it dries out a bit, I plan to dry my cloth diapers on it and at least the kids clothing. With this being a small line and me giving birth to our third baby this summer, I have a feeling it will be getting a workout!

Why is a clothesline an awesome option? We go through a TON of laundry! We wash, we dry. We wash, we dry. Hello, energy usage! By washing in cold water, we use our well water and very little energy to wash. By hanging to dry, we use absolutely no energy to dry our clothes! With my cloth diapers, I do a hot wash and two cold rinses, which uses a little bit of energy to heat the water, but I feel like by hanging them to dry instead of drying them using two cycles in the dryer (they're super absorbant, clearly!), I am able to off-set that extra energy usage. This will be really helpful with 3 kids, two of whom will be in diapers.


Here is a picture of part of our yard. Our yard is about 3 acres, but at least half an acre is occupied by a pool, play house, storage building (about to be converted into a chicken coop), and landscaping.

The sand box and teeter totter are in a part of the yard that sits low, so when it pours rain, it is puddle central. We put the play equipment back there so that we could utilize the higher areas of the yard for gardening and the like. Shoot, if it's that wet back there, the kids won't be out there anyway, so we figured it was a safe bet :)

The garden (still with long rows, we haven't put in the short rows yet- we had a little issue with the tiller this weekend and it should be out of the shop tomorrow) is just over a quarter of an acre. It should be more than big enough to grow the seedlings that I've been tending on the sunroom for the past few weeks!

If you got this far, thank you! I know, I ramble.
More on this topic tomorrow!