Dawn419 & doc's LSTA: Confounded Computer!!!

[Dawn419]

You should have seen the look she gave me after she wiped herself up off the floor!

April 2010:

Some much welcomed green after such a white winter:




We recycled more wood from the clearing we did to start on a fence for a future shade flower/herb garden.




Planted our first apple tree (Stayman Winesap) in the orchard:




And started laying out "logs" for the raised beds in the garden:




Even the woodpeckers were busy:




And I retired my Doc Marten hiking boots after 7+ years of constant wear:




Our dear neighbors gave us an old sliding door screen to use on the "coldframe to 4377". It doubled as a shade cloth and kept the chickens out:




The peas I planted in February are off to a great start:




I started filling in the shade garden fence with pliable branches from our many brush piles, hoping I could fill the fence in with enough of the branches to keep the chickens out.




Made a "trellis" from electric fencing wire and old macrame' cord for growing Scarlet Runner Beans for eating and hoped the vines would double as shade for the south side of the camper:




Had an awesome sunset for my birthday and the neighbors across the highway came to the fence to say howdy:








The radishes and mesclun are growing well as are the irises on the hill:

 

[Britesea]

wonderful pictures! Mine always turn out fuzzy, so I don't post very many

 

[Dawn419]

Thank you for the picture compliment, Britesea! Doc bought me a digital Olympus E-500 (8 megapixel) a couple years ago and I love it! I usually take several pix of the same thing (using the different settings to get the best pic). The camera is awesome, the operator, not so much!

Doing a quick modern day update!

After being together for 17 years, doc and I celebrated out first "official" wedding anniversary on the 12th of this month. Didn't do anything fancy, went to mom's for our weekly "civilized" visit (showers, laundry and our aquarium maintenance).

We'll actually have a bit of a bigger celebration on November 7th. He has to go to Little Rock to take his state test to get his boiler operator license. We checked out things to do in LR and weren't impressed with prices on anything there (hotel/motel, a nice dinner/nightlife, or the attractions) and decided we'll head to Hot Springs and spend the night.

I was dreading the LR over-nighter as I don't like big towns/cities but am totally excited over going to HS and found the perfect overnight accomodations for us: Horseshoe Cabin at Bartee Meadow B & B.

Not sure what we'll get into as far as sight-seeing goes but there are plenty of neat options!

As far as life here at home goes, I'm busy getting plants in the ground and getting one of our 5' x 20' raised beds prepped for planting our garlic in. We bought 1 pound each of Purple Glazer and Georgian Fire (hardnecks), plus 3 pounds of California Late White (softneck). We hope to use the CLW harvest next summer to do plenty of garlic braids....some for Christmas presents and hopefully sell a few braids, too.

I'm hoping for some serious rain as we are under a burn ban here and I really need to burn some stumps out of the orchard area so I can work on getting my fruit trees going. I've got year old pear and persimmon saplings (that I've grown from seed) to get planted and paw paw, peach and more persimmon seeds to sow this year.

Our garden was a bust this year with little to no rain and extremely hot temps but the herbs did fantastic with little to no care. I'd been trying to grow Rosemary for years, without any luck and finally have 2 plants of it that are going crazy! Bought 3 more plants for a dollar a piece that I need to get in the ground, just need to rid "Herb Hill" of the blackberry plants.

Lesson learned from buying a piece of raw land = not enough hours in a day, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!

I'd really like to start making jewelry again but by the time I'm done working outside for the day, I just don't feel like breaking into that project.

Been spending at least one hour a day hauling in downfall dead wood. This is a project that I see "no end in sight" but have enjoyed the time time in the woods and Bubba loves the run and is a great kindling wood breaker-upper! Turns out that he's a great mouser, too! So much for getting another cat!

Still messing with computers but will post another pic post as soon as I can!

 

[savingdogs]

I enjoyed your photo collection!

 

[Dawn419]

I enjoyed your photo collection!

Thank you, sd!

Reflections and Rememberances...

Well, we've been here living beyond the norm for two years now and I can't sleep so I'm in the mood to look back on the past changes that have brought us to this point in our lives...

We'd lived for years in a small college town and it was great at the time. We were younger, the bars and night-life were right around the corner and we never lacked for company 7 days a week. As much fun as it was, we always felt like something was missing.

We found an acre of land to rent and left town.

We didn't see as many friends anymore because we lived so far away...thirty minutes far. Yet is was great if we showed up at their places but it was so far away for them to come see us at a cool place that wasn't in city limits, where we could have a small campfire in the yard and listen to the night as opposed to listening to the city "night'.

So, we adapted to this new life and embraced it.

We missed our friends and our skin grew thicker since we didn't miss the small town. Lo and behold, true friends came out to see and share our new life and agreed that we were onto something by daring to be different. They saw the peace in our faces and enjoyed the occassional glimpse of wildlife that passed through our yard.

We all got busy with life and the newness wore off for some friends.

And something was missing...

But we made new friends and they got to meet a few dear old friends and life was good again!

Then we all got busy with life again, and something was missing!

Doc and I bought a motorcycle, and enjoyed riding together every chance we got and visited with everyone we could. Life was great but something was missing...

We were in a bike wreck 4 months later (someone ran their red light) and our friends where there for us.

At this point, we were unhappy with where we were living, paid of bills with the wreck settlement money and decided not to waste the rest of the money on paying rent. Looked for property in TN and decided to expand our search to AR and found our place for a good deal (in our minds, anyways).

It was love at first sight!

Several friends and a few family members told us we were crazy! But something was no longer missing!

We'd been dreaming about a piece of raw land that we could paint our own picture on and now we are here!

The painting has been slow, but we feel that it has been right. The emptiness has been filled and we no longer feel that anything is missing.

We don't see mistakes made as such but as lessons learned. I've yet to shed a tear over mistakes and laugh at them instead as they were funny.

We've learned patience and perservierence (don't think that's even spelled right!) and am so glad that any tears shed here have been from happiness as opposed to sorrow!

By nature, I totally dislike change but our new life here has been teaching me to embrace it!

Wanting to live a more self sufficient life has definately taught me/us to be more self reliant and we couldn't do it without our friends/family/neighbors who encompass a radius of 30+ miles around us.

The best part of this whole journey for us has been that we finally feel like nothing is missing!

 

[framing fowl]

Dawn, it's fun watching you transform barren land into your own bit of paradise! What do you have coming up through the end of the year for projects?

 

[lorihadams]

That is so cool....I enjoyed your pictures too!

Hubby and I have been trying to figure out what to do when our children are out of the house....in 14-15 years He wants to buy a piece of property in the sticks somewhere and start over from scratch but I am in a place now where I just don't want the bills to go along with it. I want to stay where we are (3 acres) and travel some cause we have never been able to do that and with no mortgage payments we would be able to go on trips when we wanted (in theory).

There are times when I dream of moving to some remote island somewhere and just laying in a hammock all day....but I know i'd get bored and I'd miss my critters

 

[Britesea]

what a lovely description of your journey, Dawn! Don't forget you have friends from all over the world via this internet! We may not be able to come over and share toasted marshmallows with you, but we are able to share in your triumphs and goofs when you post here

 

[Dawn419]

Thanks for the replies framing fowl, loriadams and Britesea!

ff,

Not many big projects planned for the end of this year. It's hard to believe how close we are to it already!

I need to get the garlic planted but after 2 days of rain, the bed I'm planting it in is too wet to work so I've been harvesting some of the herbs and drying them so I can get the herb bed mulched for the winter. Dried oregano, rosemary and some sage last night and today is more oregano, peppermint and applemint. Tomorrow will be more oregano and starting on blackberry leaves.

It seems like the more we make plans for big projects something always comes along and the plans fall through so we just go with the flow and figure that when the time is right, they'll get done!

lori,

I hear ya on the traveling! We've either never had the time or the money to do much of it ourselves. Even though we don't have kids, there's always the animals to consider. The upcoming over-nighter will be our closest thing to a vacation in years!

I have the remote island dream too and like you, I'd get bored and miss my critters. One of these days, I plan on having vines covering the branch fence on the shade garden and will hang a hammock between two of the trees and pretend that I'm on that deserted island when I need to get away!

Britesea,

What you say about internet friends is so true! Especially since I've been posting here! I have so much more in common with all of you than I ever had with most people I used to consider my friends.


This is our third fall here and as the saying goes, "third times a charm", as it has been the prettiest Fall with the leaves changing this year:

 

[snapshot]

I love the Fall photos!!!! And I understand about the online friends also. With our traveling lifestyle, we meet lots of folks but don't usually form lasting relationships. I have known most of my online friends longer than anyone we have met in the past nine years. Stay warm!!!!!!