Woo Hoo! The sun is finally shining! The grass is growing! Spring has sprung in the Basin. We put the cow & goats out on the grass. They seem to be enjoying themselves.
I put the goats out on the weediest, most thistley patch we have. They are loving it.
Homestead entertainment: putting up the electric fence, letting out the cow & calf, & then pulling up a chair & waiting for the calf to discover the fence 
I'm telling you, we are easy to please on the farm.
Blessings.
...is going on in this picture?
I just felt this need to share with you how cheap, um, uh, I mean frugal we really are.
You see, my husband travels quite a bit. He usually stays in hotels 3 or 4 nights a week. Being the thrifty fellow he is, he always brings home all the little bottles of shampoo and lotion and all the little soaps. Being the tightwads we are, we empty all those little bottles into a big bottle and voila all the shampoo we could ever need.
Lotion too.
We have quite an impressive collection of little soaps too (sorry no pic) Just to really drive home our thriftiness, not only do we use the hotel soap as soap, I use it to make laundry soap as well.
3 or 4 of those little soaps equals 1 bar of big soap, so I grate up about 8 little soaps for my laundry soap.
We haven't bought soap, lotion or shampoo in quite a while. I haven't bought laundry soap in almost a year.
It's good to be cheap. I mean frugal .
Blessings.
I received this e-mail a while back and I just think it is so well stated. I wanted to share it with all of you. If you don't subscribe to 'This Old Schoolhouse' I highly recommend it.
Blessings.
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Our weather has been cold & rainy all week. I had so many plans for weeding, mowing, planting etc. and I haven't been able to do any of them! Sigh. It is supposed to warm up tomorrow so I am hopeful I will get some things done this week.
We need to till up our garden & I am going to take a chance & plant it. I know that must seem silly to you Southerners but it's still early up here. The local folklore is not to plant until the snow is off the mountain. It was almost gone last week, I will double check tomorrow when we go to church. But I think I'm risking it. I know I can get away with lettuce & onions & the like but corn is still risky. Oh well. Just do it, right?
And my sheets have been in the hamper all week just waiting for a sunny day to hang them out. I love sheets fresh off the line. The dryer always leaves them wrinkly & musty but they are so smooth & clean smelling off the line.
Ah, well, tomorrow is another day.
Blessings.
The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then,
Poor thing?
He'll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing.That pretty much describes our weather of the last few days
If the sun is shining on you & the wind doth NOT blow, go outside & take a walk for me!
Blessings.
Okay. I have confession to make.
I don't normally read fiction. But a friend loaned me the Mitford books by Jan Karon and I have to admit I am really enjoying them. They are christian themed so there is no sex, violence, or bad language. And best of all, they are uplifting. Happy. Joyful. They just tell the story of a group of people who love the Lord and each other. I'm hooked.
These are all the reasons I stopped reading fiction years ago. Most books are awful. They have a standard pattern: boy meets girl. They fall in love. Everything is perfect and then one of them dies in some horrifying manner, leaving us to wade through the aftermath until the main character meets someone else and the whole process starts over.
Now I realize many people like this. This is why there are so many books and movies starring this theme. But I, for one, do not enjoy having my chain yanked. Years ago, before I was saved, I had a saying. And now, while I don't fully ascribe to it, the general idea is still there. "Life sucks. Fiction should be happy."
Which, in a long drawn out way, is why I am enjoying the Mitford series so much.
Yes, I do understand bad things happen. And a certain amount of tragedy is to be expected in life. But I don't like being set up for it. Or having the gruesome details spelled out paragraph after paragraph. Quite honestly, I don't really like "surprise" endings. I often read the last page of a book to see who is still there. And when reading an unfamiliar book to my children, I always read ahead in case there is a need to "edit". I have several books that I read over and over and over again. They are old friends and knowing no one is going to pull the rug out from under me is what makes them so enjoyable. And here's a news flash: most of my favorites are childrens books. Old childrens books. "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew" is a hands down favorite. Imagine my unspeakable joy at finding out there is a WHOLE series of them! (Any family or friends out there can file that away as a future gift idea) I have read the Little House books at least a dozen times. Probably more. Anybody heard of Beany Malone? By Lenora Mattingly Weber. There is a whole series which I discovered at the library when I was maybe 11 or 12. I continued to check them out of the library about once a year until my husband surprised me and bought me the entire series. As a surprise. Now any man who would go online and find a series of out of print childrens books for his wife is a true prince. But that is a whole 'nother post 
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Back to my point (I did have one, I think) I have truly enjoyed these books because they are happy. How many things can you say that about these days?
Blessings.
I am up early this morning. Everyone else is still in bed. I love this quiet time. I have already spent some time with the Lord, praying and reading his word. I would like to start every day like this but I don't. It is my desire to spend my mornings in prayer and in The Word. But so often I spend my mornings getting more sleep. I have never been a morning person. I keep trying to change that but I've only had sporadic success. It's just so important to spend time in The Word. Seeking the face of the Lord. Is there really anything more important? But many mornings the Little Man is awake before me and that pretty much takes care of quiet time. How do you all balance it out? Are you one of the lucky ones that pops up, fresh as a daisy at 5am ? Or are you like me, craving more sleep, the warm bed, a snuggle with your husband? Well quiet time is officially over here. My husband is up and the dogs are barking 
But it was good while it lasted.
Blessings.
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We're baa---aaack! Vacations are a funny thing. Have you ever noticed there is twice as much work when you return? I spent the day washing & hanging 4 loads of laundry, mowing the lawn, watering & weeding the gardens & putting the cow out to eat grass. Whew. I'm ready for a vacation.
And now the moment you have been waiting for...... vacation photos!! Whoo Hooo!
You can't go on vacation without swimming in the hotel pool!
Here we are at the Humboldt Fort & Logging Museum
Next stop was Agate Beach at Patricks Point State Park
The little man's first time to the ocean
Tracks from the sea otter who came on the beach.I tried to take pics of it but it moved too fast & my tele-photo wasn't strong enough
Next up is the Yurok Indian Village
We actually did hike out to Patricks Point. Very pretty and luckily for us it was an unusually warm and sunny day.
Here are the kids at "Wedding Rock"
This is the famous Samoa Cookhouse. It is still run like it was during the mill days with the delicious food served "family style"
Those our the highlights. I won't bore you with any more We had fun but it's always good to be home.
Blessings.
Outside My Window... It is dark & a Pepsi machine is glowing (we are in a hotel on the Northern California Coast)
I am thinking... .That it was a looong drive here & my back hurts!
I am thankful for... good neighbors who are making it possible to leave the homestead & take a family trip
From the kitchen...we have fried chicken in the mini-fridge....does that count?
I am creating... family memories(good ones I hope!)
I am going... sight seeing tomorrow
I am wearing... my PJ's (blue flannel pants & a linen shirt)
I am reading... At Home In Mitford by Jan Karon (my vacation book)
I am hoping... for a joyfilled week
I am hearing... the TV
Around the house... I brought all my Mothers Day bouquets with us(I couldn't just leave then at home alone)
One of my favorite things... the Northern California Coast
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:
Hiking, agate picking, beachcombing, museum going, & eating out
Here is picture thought I am sharing...
Come join the fun with Peggy at http://thesimplewoman.blogspot.com/
Blessings.
I hope you all had a fabulous Mothers Day. Our church had a lunch for the mothers, cooked and served by all the men and boys. It was nice. For junior church the kids made carnation bouquets. I'm feeling quite rich in flowers 
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It's been a busy weekend getting ready to go out of town tomorrow. We are leaving bright and early for the Northern California coast. I am soooo looking forward to a week away with NO chores. The secret desires of a homesteader .
On Friday we went on an awesome field trip to the LavaBeds National Monument. They were having a "TimeLine thru History". They had representatives of Mountain Men, Klamath Indians, Pioneers, and Civil War Soldiers. We had a really fun time and took LOTS of pics to share.
This was the Mountain Man Camp. The last pic is my hubby making fire 
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Here comes the kids throwing a spear.
The Little Man was otherwise occupied
This was the pioneer camp (they were a little lost. They were looking for the Applegate Trail)
The coolest was the Soldier camp.They even had a hospital tent complete with a pile of amputated limbs 
The Little Man enjoyed the ride
We were all dirty. I was sunburned(forgot my hat 
). And tired. But we had fun. Talk to you soon from the Redwoods.
Blessings.
