Seedlings

My seeds have sprouted! All but the parsley, maybe it just takes longer than the others I hope, otherwise I will have to start over on that one.

Now I am really itching for a yard and a garden. I even get kinda pouty when I think about it. Hope you all are having a happy spring!

A Day With the Woolies, and Al the Llama

Yesterday was shearing day. Anyone who knows me will know that the sheep are not my favorite critter on earth, and poor John who gets sucked into helping actually "hates" them. Well I thought I would take the opportunity to take some pictures since I didn't have that pressing of a job to do.

Help, I don't want to go in there!


Before and After. I am always amused how they don't recognize each other after they have been sheared.


The shearer hard at work


Max taking a snooze in the sunshine


Smudge taking a break from playing


Trimming the llamas feet
I thought this might be the exciting "western" part of the day, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined it might be.


Al was not a happy camper




How many people does it take to hold down a llama?

Garden Update

I got my seeds yesterday and planted 2 of everything. I hope they sprout soon and then I will start taking pictures of there progress. Planting those few seeds made me itch for more though. I think I am going to start my compost bin this afternoon when it thaws out some. I read this article that said they built a compost bin out of pallets and then when it was full, they dug out a 5 gallon sized whole and filled it with potting soil and then planted a squash plant right in the potting soil. I think I will give it a try. Maybe with a cucumber and a squash plant? Plus it said that with a live plant in the pile it helps it to break down better by giving it more oxygen in the soil as well as consistent water. Even if it doesn't work it should help me have some good compost when my real garden beds get built.

Dinner

I made the best sandwiches for dinner last night! Not the healthiest but very good and they are made with Johns 3 favorite ingredients; worchesthershire sauce, tobasco, and Lawry's! I have to give the credit to Ree from www.thepioneerwoman.com Very easy and very good! I used a round steak instead of cubed, just cuz thats what I had in the freezer and I cooked it quite a bit longer before I added the rest of the ingredients. I didn't take any pictures of it but you can get it from her website! Enjoy!

The Marlboro Man Sandwich
Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 4

Ingredients
1 whole Large (or 2 Small) Onions
2 sticks Butter (lots And Lots Of Butter)
2 pounds (to 3 Pounds) Cube Steak (tenderized Round Steak That's Been Extra Tenderized)
Lawry's Seasoned Salt (or Similar Seasoned Salt)
½ cups (approximately) Worcestershire Sauce
Tabasco Sauce, To Taste
4 whole French/deli Rolls (earthgrains Are Best!)
Preparation Instructions
Slice onions and cook in 1/4 stick butter until soft and light brown. Remove and set aside.
Slice cube steak against the grain. Season with Lawry’s.
Heat 2 tablespoons butter over high heat (in same skillet) until melted and beginning to brown. Add meat in single layer. Cook one side until brown, then flip and cook until brown, about a minute on both sides.
Add 1/2 cup (at least) Worcestershire sauce, 5 to 6 shakes Tabasco, and 2 tablespoons butter. Add cooked onions. Stir to combine.
Butter halved French rolls and brown in skillet.
To assemble, lay bottom half of French roll on plate. Place meat mixture, followed by a spoonful of juice from the pan. Top with other half of roll, cut in half, and devour!

22 Weeks

Well here it is! But don't get used to the pictures, I hate pictures of myself, even on skinny days, which I haven't had in awhile and I fear I will never have again. Ok, maybe that was a little dramatic!

Gardening

So I just ordered some seeds today, and I can't wait for them to get here so I can get them started. I just ordered herb plants for now. Since we don't have a yard, or a garden, or proper gardening soil I will just be planting them in planters for this year. We are going to have to haul in dirt to build gardens with here since we live on a big solid piece of horrible clay. Hopefully this fall we can get some of the yard semi ready for next spring, but for now we have to concentrate on getting the inside finished.
But for this year, I have ordered oregano, parsley, summer savory, basil, and cilantro for my Italian herb garden. And I ordered chamomile, lemon bee balm, and stevia for my tea herb garden. I have a friend that is giving me starts of peppermint, chocolate mint, and spearmint as well. I am going to look in town for some planters. We will see how long this little amount of gardening will pacify me. I think I have an addiction. I always want more. I can't wait to get established garden beds at our house. I think I will have to try to contain myself and stick to these herbs and a couple of tomato plants for now, but next year will be a whole different story.

Kitchen Chaos

Well now that the weather is slowly starting to come around I am dying to get started on the house again. We would like to get the main floor semi finished before John goes back to work after breakup. I have high hopes but realistic expectations. So in the meantime I am going through the basement (our current pad) and trying to make it more homey. Mostly trying to make the kitchen, and I use this term lightly, easier to use. Let me tell you about our kitchen, it is currently located in our future mud room. It consists of a stove, our dining room table is currently functioning as our only counterspace, and some shelves that I moved around yesterday. We have to use the bathroom sink. Luckily it is a utility sink so there is room to do dishes in it. The refrigerator and deep freezes are located in our current "living room." When we moved I had boxes of food, that got piled high, like everything else we own. So yesterday I decided to get these boxes out and use them up. After moving shelves around and trying to make some sort of pantry space, I realized that because all this food had been boxed up, I had bought more of the same. Rolling my eyes at myself, and my ridiculously low amount of storage space I realized that I had 3 bottles of worcestersire sauce, 2 huge bottles of ketchup, 2 cases of chili (which only John eats, I think it looks like canned dog food) and two one pound containers of garlic salt. For someone that has very little space I somehow managed to get stocked up on things that take forever to get used up. Did I mention how excited I am to have a real kitchen?

Dogs

Well I figured I had better dedicate today to the four dogs in our life! They are all spoiled rotten and we couldn't live without them.

Dally was with me before John was. She decided there was no way she was missing out on our wedding day and came down to join in the festivities! She is also the most well behaved of the pack.

Dally enjoys a good nap after chores every morning!












When we lived in Clinton we decided that Dally needed company since we were both gone all day long.


Dingo joined us and turned out to be the first of our Miniature Aussie pack!

Isn't he cute?


Then I got a hair brained idea that we should raise mini aussies and make a bunch of money. So here came Belle, our very petite mini aussie.


Belle is very demanding and very much a "little dog"


And she likes to watch tv with John

Well about two years later, Belle had a litter of puppies.
These are the cute little hellions I mentioned in an earlier post.


The puppies were so cute and so much fun! I became so attached to them all that I couldn't sell them. John became attached to them to although he will not admit it! So our big money making project turned into us giving them all away to close family and friends, and of course keeping one for ourselves. Smudge got to stay with us! John and her don't get along but I sure like her.



Oh yes and after this experience ALL the dogs got fixed!

I am still toying with the background! I figured I would stick with the blue for awhile just for the mere principal of the matter at hand. But don't be surprised if I change it every other day until I find something I just love.

It's a Boy!!

Week 20 came around and we got to go in for the big ultrasound to let us know if it was a girl or a boy and to make sure that he is healthy. He appears to be quite healthy.

We are very happy that we know what he is now! I think it will make life much easier.

I am glad that I am half way done being pregnant. I never had anticipated all the toilet hugging (I thought you got over that in college)and for that reason this little guy may very well be an only child. I keep threatening to take a picture of myself but I keep chickening out every time I look in the mirror. I am not sure I want photographic evidence of how large I may possibly get. If I get brave enough I will post a picture. Now on to the important things like picking out a name and buying baby stuff. Oh yes and if you ask us what name we picked out we won't tell you (nothing personal), it will be our little secret until the little guy shows his face.

A new chapter begins!

Well it was November and guess who is pregnant? Nobody but us got to know this valuable piece of information until Christmas. I got to spend the next 3+ months laying on the couch being completely miserable thinking I may die at any moment. It turns out that one can survive on grilled cheese sandwiches alone. I never would have guessed it! Luckily by mid February the nausea started to pass and then I incorporated Carnation instant breakfasts into my grilled cheese diet. Now it is the beginning of March and I can eat almost anything and the nausea only comes back at very inconvenient times. But luckily only lasts a day or so at a time now.

Inside pictures

Just a preview of the inside of the house! It looks the same at this exact moment as we have not worked on the upstairs all winter. Last September we moved into our camper right next to our house and stayed in it until we had 25 below 0 outside and the campers water lines froze up. Then we moved into our unfinished basement. It is very rustic but we have running water and heat. It is really quite comfortable. We are very excited to get moved upstairs but we are not suffering at all in the basement.

More Adventures

I guess I might as well keep posting since I am on a roll!

May 2009 we broke ground for our house which will prove to be the most trying adventure of all.



Pouring concrete

We finally started stacking the logs

Starting on the roof

Still working on the roof!

And finishing the roof

Working on the septic system

Since this post is getting long we will just skip ahead and now the staining is done and the windows and doors are in. Insulation is done and outside trim is almost done, but we finally got it sealed up before the first big winter storm!

Now that the honeymoon is over!

Here is a quick review of what we have been up to since the big day!
We moved to Helmville, we had a litter of puppies!

Literally the cutest little hellions on earth!

We took a train trip to Indiana to visit Joe (a friend of Johns) and went to a Notre Dame game!

It was a great time with great people!

We took a quick trip to Vancouver Island to Johns cousin Sarah's wedding!

It was foggy but beautiful!

More adventures to come!

New to blogging!

This is new to me, but what the heck I'll try anything once! Why don't I catch you up to now! So lets take a step back in time to June 21, 2008. Our wedding day!

The day was perfect!

It was so hot out, I think all my makeup melted!

I even got the horse drawn carriage of my dreams!

Our wedding party!
There are literally hundreds more pictures but I will leave it at this for now!