The Living Without Series

This is a series of posts that I wrote back in 2006 on living with less stuff. Check them out: liv011Living #2liv031liv04

Coal Creek Farm on Facebook

The Chicken Doctor

April

The Architect

Clay

Ellen

Ellen

Seth

Seth

Ike

Ike

The Animal

Levi

Summer 2010

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We took a road trip to Branson, Mo in which Clay wore my old sunglasses and posed like a teenage girl for her Facebook profile pick.  He makes me so proud.

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We took our glowing white children swimming.  Several people were blinded by the glow coming off of their epidermis.

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The Facebook pose, it was sort of a theme for my family during the Branson weekend.  This is me, my mom and my sister.  I’ve decided my head is too small for my body, I must fix this.

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This was eighteen years ago when my mom had no idea she’s be called Grandma Martha by eight kids and teenagers didn’t pose for Facebook and my head was much larger, apparently it shrunk as my body grew.

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See, it was the automatic response every time I brought out my camera.  Get those lips pursed and the peace sign displayed…QUICK!

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But, let’s get back to summer 2010.  We’ve had a lot of rain. Lots and lots of rain.

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We had a fairly decent cherry crop because of all that rain.  So far, I’ve made two pies with those cherries and they are tart and wonderful.

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There were some baseball games in which I did my best to pay attention, but not really.

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We found ways to keep ourselves entertained through NO TV in June.

We tore down the paneling in Ellen’s room and I’m hoping to show you updates, uh….when we have it looking better  than a crack house.  I’m just sure that any day now we’ll get it done.  Hahahahah, ho ho, hee, hee…ahem moving on.

We ate here on our way home from Branson and I think I gained 400 pounds just reading the menu.

They put a big piece of kale with a slice of pickled apple on each plate and that takes me back to every restaurant my family ate in while I was growing up in western Kansas.  The food was meh, but the rolls are heavenly.

And lastly, we saw two monkeys making out on an ark where all the animals seemed to be incredibly out of scale

And that is my summer 2010 update.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful 4th of July.  We are staying home and blowing up things in our yard and eating a lot of food.

Vampire Deterrent

My garden is pretty much crap this year.  I planted late and it rained a ton and now I look out there and pretty much want to cry my eyeballs out because I’m a terrible gardener.

Oh, but I did grow some garlic because it took absolutely no effort on my part.  I stuck some in the ground early last fall and wah-la, garlic.

I asked one of my friends if he wanted to take home some garlic and he said, “Uh, I get my garlic from a jar.”  Then he said, “Oh, okay I’ll take half a clove.”  Half a clove?  Who takes half a clove?  And for that I gave him none.  I’ve decided only people that appreciate how hard I worked to grow this garlic deserve to have it and also people that appreciate fresh garlic, because it is NOTHING like garlic in a gall-darn JAR!!!

Also, I need to keep it so I can get rid of all the vampires roaming the soybean field.

The Panic List

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That mommy camel and I, we are both hoping that summer comes soon so we can shed some extra baggage.  She is looking a bit haggard gazing off into the distance with her little one by her side wondering what she should do next; feed the kid, clean, laundry, work, finish a project…okay just stare into the distance, that’s really the best thing.

I think I’ve discovered that three is my limit for everything.  Once I exceed three I’m toast.  I find myself saying, “Oh CRAP!  I forgot about that !”  a lot these days.  A lot.

I just hope I can get past May 15th, which is the final track meet of the season, without completely losing my mind.

I’m way behind on farm stuff and that makes me sad, so sad that I’m starting to panic a bit, so….might as well make a list.

Spring Panic List

1.  Get the dad gum frickin’ garden planted!

2. Find two blasted pigs!

3. Mow..mow…and then mow again and then rake up all the gosh darn clippings!

4. April, you can’t raise meat chickens if you don’t go get them!!!

5. The orchard…remember how you were going to treat the orchard this year?

6. The bees…why Clay?  Why did we get bees?

7. The porch, it’s rotting.  Will we start that project before or after somebody falls through and breaks a hip?

Oh, gosh, I have to stop before I have a nervous break down and I just realized I have one hour to take a shower, clean my house for company tonight, go to the store and get to school to sub in a classroom.  It’s all good right?  Right?  RIGHT?

One day at a time.