Ice, ice and more ice!

Ugh...we've been without power for 3 full days. Not fun after the first 24 hours. We're cleaning up snow, ice, changing the oil on the generator that's kept us afloat, shoveling sidewalks, doing the mounds of laundry that have piled up, and so much more! The sun is out today and the ice is melting a bit. I'll be back later with pix of this winter storm! I've never been so excited to clean in my life! Hot water here I come!

Asleep

Our Pride and Joy

1 Month

Almost 1 Year!

Served!

Hello! My husband served a reality Celeb today! We're sitting here in the family room watching tv tonite and he says, "Oh, hey, I forgot to tell you...I served Eric from MTV today." Excuse me? Elaborate? He thought this guy looked familiar and after Eric left, Charley's coworkers asked who served the guy from MTV.

Eric is the dude in the middle. He's most recently been on the Gauntlet.
Not that I have seen it or anything.



It's not really that big of a deal, but I thought it was worthy of a little post.

How to Share

No, I'm not posting a lecture on how John attempts to share toys with his friends. I could I guess. But, I won't. Instead I'll share a few pics of our exciting next-step-in-the-ongoing-saga we like to call "Our life." To quote John and Kate Plus 8 (and, yes, she's overbearing and slightly mean to her sweet, non type-A personality husband...but I still like the show nonetheless), "It may be a crazy life...but, it's our life!" We are making slow, but steady steps toward our dream of living sustainably and making a living doing this...Au Naturel Farm...someday. The SSAWG (Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group) page is a great website about individuals making a successful and profitable living from modern-day farming. Another great site with tried and true practices is found at http://www.polyfacefarms.com/.

The farm gate begins a half-mile road to our house site with the water line to the left of the road.

The electric company installing lines...and the road has gravel!

Charley is putting in an electric fence around the site to keep the cows out!
Right now, one of our great neighbors is renting the land for his cattle.

Below is an interior look at our cottage with Charley and the babe on the left and our builder on the right.

This last picture below was taken a few nights ago in the snow.

There is still so much work to be done...windows, doors, porch, siding, roof...and that's just the exterior! We are finishing the interior ourselves. Right now we are installing the electric. Next, we'll work on the plumbing, insulation, drywall, flooring, not to mention all of the finishing work in the kitchen, bathrooms, trim throughout the house, and so much more! Needless to say we are busy!

Tagged!

Well, this is a first! Thanks Laura, for the tag! I was just wondering what to blog about, came to my list of friends and read Laura's blog and saw my name! So, thanks for the inspiration! So, I went to My Documents, the 6th folder in My Docs and the 6th picture. So, here goes...
I found this somewhere online and couldn't help but save it in My Docs. I didn't really have a good reason to post it on my blog, but why need a reason? God knows me well and knows that I need a nudge to be able to share my innermost self with others. I love to hear my dad's voice in the back of mind sometimes throughout the day. And, as he would say, "we learn something new each day." For me, that's true in many ways b/c I swear I don't know how to go through life without analyzing almost everything. (Poor Charley!) This entire quote hit me like a ton of bricks. But, the line with the most impact for me was..."Playing small doesn't serve the world."
So play it big today! Whatever "it" is for Y.O.U.!!!

Rewind

I was going through pictures tonite and thought I would add a few of you know who!
Our friend Tom visited in November and we went hiking while he was here.







Oh my, but isn't he the bees knees?





And, a final pic from Christmas.
No adequate words to describe how in love with my child I am.

Yeah...this was pretty much the view on Christmas morning. I mean, I thought Charley and I would love it. The anticipation was nearly killing us...but, imagine the excitement of these two...so much worse than we ever could have imagined. I found myself getting a little jealous after awhile, with little man hamming it up to his grandma and grandpa wells. Geesh. You would have thought we had spent weeks prepping him for his big moment. Nope. No assembly required. He got right down to business and fully enjoyed himself this first Christmas.



They 'motorboated' to each other all week. This looks like a sad face, but it's merely the winding down of a final lap around the lake. Of which there MANY. So many, in fact, that I am motorboated out. Thanks for the encouragement, grandma.



Christmas Eve before Candlelight service at church. I found this off-white adorable outfit for $3 at a consignment store before Christmas! It's hard to see, but has red striping around the sleeves and colar and the cutest snowman on the front!




"Alright, I'll humor you for one more."