Will the rain ever stop?...

OK, so Caleb usually does the updates...but I beat him to it this time!

Well, it's almost June and it just keeps raining... We've been working on our garden whenever we can and now I'm hoping that my seeds and plants don't drown! It's looking pretty good now. The rhubarb is starting to recover, carrots and lettuce are coming up and much more. I think I need a bigger garden though--it's pretty packed this year! The weeds are crazy and I'm trying to keep up with them, but I think they are in cahoots with the rain--they know that if the paths are muddy, I will not be weeding...

The garden--all those happy plants in the front are potatoes.

We let Henry and Fern plant some of the plants and they loved that!

Henry loved to use his backhoe for weeding and planting. He is a super worker and a great help!

We adopted 3 more chickens to join Goldie and Betsy: Lucy, Rosy, and Moonsmile. (I'm not sure where Fern got "moonsmile", but I like it!)

Between the garden, starting up grounded landscape design, still moving in (yes, this process takes FOREVER...there are always those boxes full of stuff that you have no idea what to do with, but you know that you can't throw the stuff away...), and the day to day necessities of figuring out what to eat, cooking, eating, cleaning, reading, organizing, etc. life is really busy! (and not everything gets accomplished...) I have just come to the realization that there will NEVER be the "right" time to take a break and that I just have to do it...now when am I going to? not sure, but realization is the first step :)

Were back online now

So for the past 2 months we have been very busy with a lot of crazy life stuff. And for most of that we have not had Internet. But we're back now, and ready for action.
So a pic is worth a thousand words, let go from there.
So after needing to move, here is how things have played out
March 13 Lyn's B-day
Then came my B-day, we were so busy moving that we just went to Safeway and bought a slice of cake.
Then we got moved in. Thank you to all of our dear friends and family that helped us so much. 4 days later we had to go to Utah to visit family. I am so proud to say that my kids went the entire 12 hours ride to Utah without ANY tv viewing. Not that they could if they wanted to, but I hear soo many people claim that their kids couldn't make it 1-2 hours without TV or DVD's. That may be true but only because they have been conditioned to need constant stimulus. I see some parents that put in a DVD to go to the grocery store. I feel bad for what will happen when the stimulus is gone. How will they ever find peace without a television? OK I'll get off my soapbox now.
So in Utah we saw the kids Great-Grandparents Nelson
Then we visited with Great G-ma Hulse

The we went and spent some very nice time with Grandparents Tidwell

In between visits with them we snuck over to Great Grandpa Tidwell's. He is Lyn's only surviving Grandparent, and just really a neat guy to boot.

The kids favorite game that they play incessantly is 'Love Bug'. It's like 'Slug Bug' but sweet. Fern, however has always lamented not being able to find any pink ones. [You've never seen a girl who likes pink more than Fern] So finally after many months we spotted one. We pulled a U-ey and caught this pic
Happiness !!!
Then we went back up to WA. Kids did it TV-free again! in case you thought it an aberration. We spent a day at the kids Grandma Nelson's house and played with cousins. When we finally got home we started working on fixing up the house. The last renters didn't leave it in great shape. Plus there was a lot of customizing that we wanted to do; paint, lights, landscaping. The landlords have given us over $300 so fay to fix it up. It has come a long way from where it was. Come on over and check it out. we'll put some pics of the house up after we get it all fixed. But I'll tell you now, that we won't be moving for a very long time because this place is soo beautiful. We feel that we are living in heaven. Everyday is a vacation. Our fire pit. and look at this awesome sunset. It is a regular occurrence out here. I think that there have been sunsets all along but at our old house in the ravine we couldn't see them. Even rainy days are neat out here because you get to see the dark clouds swirling around. Our yard=

Some of the fun things that we have been doing, in addition to hiking and exploring, are for one that there was a day that the Space Needle was offering a 50% discount for homeschoolers, so we definitely took advantage of that. Always a treat to go up the Space Needle.
Work has been really lousy for the last 6 months. My boss tries to do everything that he can to rip me off and finds every way he can to pay me less and less. After he took back the work truck with gas card, health benefits, vacation and holidays, and wanted me to buy a business license so that I could be an independent contractor and pay my own taxes and social security and what not. After all of that he wanted me to sign a non-compete so that I could only work for him. HA! What ? Do I look like an idiot?
So I started my own design firm. I have been thinking about it for a while. This just gave me the impetus to do it. The name of the firm is "grounded landscape design"
So now I am master of my own ship. 'Act or be acted upon'. I shall act so that I can be free from the dishonesty and idiocy of others.
Our garden is growing like crazy. Super-fertile soil here in the valley.
We lost 3 of our most loved chickens to Raccoons. It was a very sad moment for us. Chickens make wonderful pets. When you call them they cluck back to you and run up to meet you. We still have 2, but are hoping to score a couple more.

And that's about it.
We'll see you more often now that the Internet is connected again.