Thursday, September 6, 2012

Sunny September

It just amazes me how fast this summer has gone.  How is it suddenly September?!  We have been keeping busy as usual, with life centering around both Gig Harbor and 300 miles away at Nine Trees.  The girls continue to be stellar travelers.  I am glad this crazy part of our life is happening when the girls are so young and take everything in stride so well. This summer the farm has been much more manageable as we are able to put some things off until next year when, things going as planned,  we should be moving into our brand new house in the fall.  After the initial hay-making flurry this spring, we are in a maintenance cycle at the moment, with the most pressing task being to keep the trees watered and alive through the heat of the summer.   Thanks to our generous neighbor's well, so far so good!  We also got the play structure finished, much to the delight of the Adventure Girls.  M has decided that it is the perfect house for her pet praying mantises (the girl doesn't have a squeamish bone in her body!) Activity will pick up a bit next month with some seeding and fertilizing, then we will be tucking the farm in for the winter.  The most exciting development is that we had a site visit from one potential builder last week, and we are talking seriously with another builder this week.  We should be making up our minds and moving forward with the initial steps toward construction before the new year starts.  I can't tell you how excited we are!
Back at the "other farm" in Gig Harbor, upon our return from a long weekend at Nine Trees, we were delighted to find that Marshmallow (our coronation sussex hen) has started laying.  We now have three laying hens, just waiting on Ava, the last one.  It is cute to see the tiny eggs that the youngsters are laying now.  I will have to show a pic one of these days!  I also discovered a nice large zucchini in the hoop house.  It has been so cool this summer, I am just not having a lot of success, but we did get our first ripe tomatoes, a couple okra, the big zuch, and a ton of green beans, so I guess I can't complain!  Time to get the fall cool weather crops in the soil too!  Just ordered the seeds, so once they get here I will have to hurry a bit to get them going.  Thankfully the hoop house should extend my growing season enough that they will do OK.
Saving the best for last, M had her first day of kindergarten yesterday.  Talk about a bittersweet moment.  How is it possible that my little baby can get on a bus, ride to school, spend all day away from me, and magically show up on the bus in the afternoon, all by herself?  Of course I couldn't make the change that quickly, so after putting her on the bus, AdventureDad and I drove to the school and met her at that end.  I am glad we did, because her class was certainly a bit crazy, and the help from me and a few other protective parents was welcome.  O missed her "sissy" all day long, but I get the feeling she was starting to see the up side to having mommy all to herself.  O starts pre-Preschool next week, 1.5 hours one day a week.  Not much, but a little start on socialization for her and a little bit of freedom for mommy.   Life just keeps changing!