Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

Our neighbor to the north has a rented field. It was planted with oats and harvested yesterday. DH bought 6 big rectangle bales of oat straw for animal bedding because I've been fussing about not having enough bedding to clean out the sheep pen as often as I want.

DH is at an auction. He didn't buy a greenhouse (it sold for $100). Sad. We'll keep waiting to find one for cheap, but they seem to be in demand! He got a rabbit cage for me for $1 He bought long T-posts too.

The land survey is done. DH was right about the property lines. He has been putting in posts for a line fence along the disputed side. He hopes to put in a line fence on all the surveyed sides. I worry because his to-do list is impossibly long!

Baby tried to crawl during tummy time, but gets himself tired and frustrated quickly. He likes to sit on my lap for meals - and he's already putting his hand into my food! He hasn't figured to put it to his mouth, and I'm not encouraging that. He is back to his wide awake from 9 - midnight habit. I'm learning to take naps during the day.

Be glad you can get the naps during the day! My DD was one of those stay up late, wake up early and barely nap babies. I was exhausted some days!

Have you thought about making your own greenhouse? It might be cheaper than buying.

And I hear ya on the to do list. Mine seems to get longer instead of shorter.

to bad about the greenhouse but one will come along when it's suppose to.
i can't believe the baby it trying to crawl already. they grow to quickly don't they.

We returned from vacation. We drove out West: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. We went to as many places as we could fit in a week along with my cousin's wedding and the 46 hours of driving!

Now I'm trying to deal with tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, hundreds of onions, loads of cucumbers, zucchini, overwhelming peppers, eggplants, still picking blueberries.... and the apples are nearly ready to pick too! I think we'll scale back this garden thing next year!

Baby is growing up so fast! He had been able to roll for quite a while, but just found his motivation to roll everywhere in the last week! He's not quite strong enough in his arms to crawl He faceplants and then scoots along on his forehead. (silly boy!) He's still teething with no sign of teeth coming yet other than biting, drooling, and fussy. He didn't appreciate all the time in the car and now SCREAMS in the car seat.

The school semester starts tomorrow. DS8 has been doing schoolwork for several weeks (for fun...), but now we have to start "structured attendance days". He is excited to got to gym class, recess, and lunch at elementary school with his friends every 3rd day. It makes for a strange schedule for me!

DS8 is all off-kilter from traveling and all his behavior progress feels lost. I hope he recovers quickly, but with school starting at the same time, I doubt that will happen.

My DS didn't do a normal crawl for the longest while. Instead, he did an army crawl!

That's the problem w/doing vacations in the summer w/a garden. It seems to explode on you while you're gone. I remember when I was a kid, my mom hated to go away in the summer because of her garden. I don't recall now how she dealt w/it.

When my kids were little, there was a fun event at the fair every year called Funniest Baby Crawls. When youngest started crawling just before the fair started, I thought we were a shoo-in for first place. He turned up, to face the ceiling, then propelled himself with arms and legs. Unfortunately, he only did it for a week before he got up and started walking, so we weren't able to enter the contest. He was still funny when he walked for a while, because he couldn't figure out how to turn; he would plant his left foot and use the right foot to pivot until he faced the direction he wanted to go. He could only figure out how to pivot counterclockwise though, so if he wanted to go to the right he had to pivot in almost a complete circle before he could head out in the direction he wanted to go. *sigh* I miss those laughs

Baby is 4 months old today and did his first crawling! I missed it! DH saw it. I picked up the floor all the way to the corners and have started vacuuming frequently. I tried to install a baby gate today at the top of the upstairs - massive fail! I'll have to have DH figure it out!

I made 2 quarts of thick tomato puree today. I have enough for 4 more quarts cooked and cooling to run through the food mill tomorrow. I'm caught up until DH picks again tomorrow.

DS8 is excited to start music instrument lessons and online art class! He is building a model of a medieval town and read 2 novels set in that time period to reinforce his history lessons. I've been digging up all kinds of related activities for his earth science. He's so excited about it! He still struggles with writing, but when he manages to get through the prewriting step, he does just fine.

It's good to see a child excited about learning. And it sounds like he has some really interesting projects. What instrument will he be learning to play?

If you have not discovered the book "Catherine Called Birdy" by Karen Cushman, you need to. It is a wonderful book set in that time period; told as a series of journal entries by the 14 year old daughter of a minor baron. Although it is written for young adults, I found it enchanting as well. Here is an excerpt:

12th Day of September

I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.

13th Day of September

My father must suffer from ale head this day, for he cracked me twice before dinner instead of once. I hope his angry liver bursts.

14th Day of September

Tangled my spinning again. Corpus bones, what a torture.

15th Day of September

Today the sun shone and the villagers sowed hay, gathered apples, and pulled fish from the stream. I, trapped inside, spent two hours embroidering a cloth for the church and three hours picking out my stitches after my mother saw it. I wish I were a villager.

16th Day of September

Spinning. Tangled.

17th Day of September

Untangled.

18th Day of September

If my brother Edward thinks that writing this account of my days will help me grow less childish and more learned, he will have to write it. I will do this no longer. And I will not spin. And I will not eat. Less childish indeed.

19th Day of September

I am delivered! My mother and I have made a bargain. I may forego spinning as long as I write this account for Edward. My mother is not much for writing but has it in her heart to please Edward, especially now he is gone to be a monk, and I would do worse things to escape the foolish boredom of spinning. So I will write.

What follows will be my book—the book of Catherine, called Little Bird or Birdy, daughter of Rollo and the lady Aislinn, sister to Thomas, Edward, and the abominable Robert, of the village of Stonebridge in the shire of Lincoln, in the country of England, in the hands of God. Begun this 19th day of September in the year of Our Lord 1290, the fourteenth year of my life. The skins are my father’s, left over from the household accounts, and the ink also. The writing I learned of my brother Edward, but the words are my own.

Picked off twenty-nine fleas today.

20th Day of September

Today I chased a rat about the hall with a broom and set the broom afire, ruined my embroidery, threw it in the privy, ate too much for dinner, hid in the barn and sulked, teased the littlest kitchen boy until he cried, turned the mattresses, took the linen outside for airing, hid from Morwenna and her endless chores, ate supper, brought in the forgotten linen now wet with dew, endured scolding and slapping from Morwenna, pinched Perkin, and went to bed. And having writ this, Edward, I feel no less childish or more learned than I was.

***(end excerpt)


Getting a baby gate on the stairs is a GOOD idea for a crawler! I also decided to teach mine how to go down the stairs safely, just in case the baby gate failed somehow. I placed him tummy down on the stairs (only a few steps up) with his feet pointing to the lower floor; then I got down beside him in the same position and coached him as we gradually bumped down each step. It only took a couple of tries for him to "get it" and then he started going faster. He got to where he would position himself at the top of the stairs and then raise his hands and feet and give himself a push, scooting down the stairs like a surfer(fastest tummy in the West!) Even after he was walking, for quite a while he decided this was a faster way to negotiate the stairs.

I put all the tomatoes through the food mill, yield 6 quarts and a 7th watery one I won't can. They're in the fridge because my recipe requires 2 T of lemon juice per jar and I don't have that. I'll have to finish processing them after grocery shopping!

We didn't pick anything in the garden. I was "childrening" all day. Schooling in the morning, Baby's vaccine and checkup at noon, and then a trip to my hometown (90 mile round trip). I bought DS8 a trumpet. I took him to a bike shop to interview an employee for his 4H bicycle project. The guy suggested a particular bike and they happened to have a used one in their basement bargain area that was priced reasonably. DS8 drained his bank account and bought it. All that birthday and Christmas money put to good use! <3 I did some errands until Baby's vaccines caught up with him in the form of inconsolable SCREAMING. I headed home. He is OK after Tylenol, daddy cuddle time and a good sleep. <3

3 out of 4 hens are missing. We don't see any feathers, so we're guessing the 9 maturing cockerels "eager" behavior ran them off. The 1 poor hen left is getting beat up so badly! I tried to catch her and give her a night off, but she ran off after the boys. :/ They're due to be butchered on Monday.

I don't expect much farm or schooling news. We have houseguests for 5 days in a row - no family staying longer than one overnight. Will be crazy hectic, but I can't wait to see everyone. DS8 will just have to take an extra long holiday weekend. With his new-to-him bike and trumpet to figure out, I don't think he will mind!!

Thanks for the book suggestion Britesea! I'd heard of about that book but hadn't read it and didn't remember the name. I'll request it from the library!