New additions to our garden

I just picked up 8 tomato plants for $4 !! That's right, 4 bucks!! An older woman had some plants for sale out of her truck! Cool, I thought.

A friend who is an amazing gardener gave me a BUNCH of stuff including a lilac bush (baby), lily of the valley, some snapdragony thing, strawberry plant, a ground cover thing to put around a tree, and a number of others things I cannot remember the name to because I only wrote where they needed to be planted on the containers. Note to self : write the names too, silly!

So, for after Mother's Day, cause in Missouri it's the last possible frost day, we'll be out and about plantin all kinds of things. But some of this I'll put into pots first, because I want house plants this winter! Winter seemed to drag on and on, and I just think that with a few green things in the house it won't seem so awfully long. That's the plan anyway.

The herbs are doing very well so far. I'm thrilled I haven't killed anything yet. With all this rain I haven't had to water hardly anything either.

Hubby's gonna put up, with our help:), a fence around a part of the garden... whatever fencing fits in the budget and can keep out really smart goats! So we'll be busy with that soon too.

Looking forward to things this summer, even weeding. Fun. Sunny days. Nice.

Tuesday-

Sunny sunny sunny! Mushroom hunting this morning! Now I doubt we'll find anything- we've never had any luck before but it'll be fun hunting anyway! We'll see deer tracks and wild turkeys, and all sort of fun things in the mud! Fun fun fun! Having children is yet another good reason never to quite grow up!

The Amazing Chicken Saver!

This afternoon I was drinking some RRL tea at the table waiting for our youngest to finish lunch so I could nap, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a fox bounce out of the tall grass and onto one of our chickens!! Before I knew it I was out the door yelling like a banshee! I chased it pretty far, it stopped twice, neither time could I see it's muzzle. Finally I gave up and retraced my steps hoping to find a dazed hen. No luck.

BUT- this evening we counted the layers and found we stall had all of them. So that darn fox must have dropped her. I just missed seeing it happen. Trying to not trip probably.

YAY! We still have our chickens! But how to keep them safe. hmmm.

Monday Morning

Our oldest girl came out with me this morning to get her first lesson on milking a goat! We talked about things. Reproduction, body parts, breast milk, pain of birthing and milking, work boots, etc. Took all of 30 minutes and we chatted about a lot. We enjoyed it and had fun.

It reminds me that I need to focus more on the moment with these children that we have been blessed with. I only have right now. Tomorrow they will be older. I need to stop grumbling about the mistakes I think I've made and realize it's past, I can't fix it. I can only go from here and do better, the same, or worse. Better, I think is the goal. Right now they trust me. Right now they think I'm cool. And I am, but someday they may not think so. I'm going to enjoy today and plan for a happy tomorrow.

I guess it's not really about whether or not I'm a "good" mom, but whether or not I am the best mom I can be.

The Garden begins

I decided to increase my gardening self confidence with a little potted kitchen garden. I chose some savory herbs and a couple of tea/infusion herbs. I'm excited. We put them into the pots on Friday. We've got Roman Chamomile, Thyme, Chocolate Mint (don't cha love it?), Lemon Balm, Basil, and a friend gave me a Hen-n-Chicks. I gave the Hen-n-Chicks to our eldest girl, who this morning gave it some loving pruning, soil, and watering. All of these are out on the back porch today. They look good. And IF I don't kill them in the next two weeks, we'll invest in a little something to grow in the garden.

New Morning- Fri.

Meeting a friend at a local greenhouse, as she has graciously volunteered to share with me some things about gardening. I am looking forward to seeing the plants and learning how not to kill my garden. Most of my friends seem to be accomplished gardeners, and aside from herbs I appear to be a plant murderer. So I am hoping to absorb whatever greenthumbness I can from this morning's excursion.

Also, we're going to run a few errands to pick up some discounted groceries at the local Amish stores. Wonderful people the Amish. Although, in Pennsylvania they are not nearly as friendly. But I suppose that it is due to the high numbers of tourists, who by basic ignorance do some offensive things around the Amish, such as take pictures and whatnot. But they really are sweet people, and so understanding of large families. They are full of good advice, well tested wisdom, and an eagerness to make friends. We loves our trips out there.

Hopefully, we'll be back a little after lunch time so I can sneak a few zzzzz'z in while the toddler and almost 3 yr old nap. I am very tired this morning. Rainy and chilly, but such an improvement upon the seemingly unending snows of winter. Looking on the bright side of things. Making my own sunshine, and where I have difficulty the children light the way, creating their own shiny rays of light and cheerfulness.

Good morning, world!

Today?

Learning more music for our homeschool co-op play. It's fun. Get to start milking the dairy goat in the morning. I am so sick of buying milk for these special diet kiddos! Pricey!

Still thinking bout keeping the goats outta the garden. And today? Picking up, singing, vacuuming, baking, cooking, and reading out loud! Cloudy day. Maybe it'll rain, maybe not. But I am having a great day. Even fighting with the heathens to do their chores, stop whining, stop screaming, and PLEASE! Stop Arguing!!!

I will admit - I am getting very very tired of being screamed and whined at!! Is there a magic serum that will cure children of this? It's worse than changing diapers!!

At the same time I am very happy that they love to "help" Mommy, dust, sweep, and help in the kitchen. They are very polite children, maybe not 100% at home, but anywhere else they are extremely well behaved... or at least other people tell me they are. They are sweet and thoughtful - "Mommy, did I surprise you when I emptied the dishwasher without being asked?". All in all, even with the whining, etc they are pretty great kids. I'm grateful that I am involved in their lives. I get to watch them grow and learn and mature from a special point of view.

It's a great day to be alive. Hope you are finding sunshine on your cloudy days too.

Kids

A few of the pygmy/boer kids. Butter, the mom, dropped 4 again this year. Hoping she keeps up the good feeding, because I am NOT up to bottle babies. They are all healthy and hardy, better than last year. And Now we have 7 little bouncy kids in our yard. They look like popcorn when they're playing around.

Aren't they cute? We haven't named them yet, but we're gonna. We have 5 bucklings and 2 doelings, so we'll probably stick with the food theme.

My Cat

We have several cats. 5 at last count not including two kittens. It's the mother of the kittens that I refer to as mine. When we first moved here we would see this streak of black and white every once in a while, but that's all we saw. So I named it Phantom. I like to name things. Gradually over the course of two years she became somewhat tame, in a feral kind of way and we discovered she had no tail. We also discovered she had this mask of calico over her eyes (appropriate name, right?), while the rest of her was white and black spots. The only person she would tolerate was me, and she would even deign to let me pet her sometimes. As she domesticated herself further she would bring her litters over to the property. Some of the survivors have stayed, farm life is not the safest life for a cat, others visit often. But Phantom has decided to stay. She likes to follow me around and even comes into the house sometimes, but only into the laundry room. She doesn't like the larger rooms at all.

Last Spring she was very pregnant and came up to me in the yard. Then right in front of me had her babies. Knowing she was not doing this in her usual way, in a hidden place, I scooped her up and put her and the babies in the laundry room in a carrier. A few weeks later I placed the carrier in the tall grass near some places she could choose to hide the kittens. She chose a tree *roll the eyes*.

This Spring, two weeks ago, Phantom came to me in the yard and meowed at me. My husband was there, he can back me up. She walked a few paces, turned and meowed some more. So we followed her. I know, we felt a little silly too. She led us to a dark quiet place and slid under into a hole of sorts and meowed some more. So I peeked in. Not knowing what else to do I left her there, thinking, "okay, she's in labor and wanted me to know". Inside the hole was some old decaying insulation, not good, right? I got the carrier ready and went out again the see her a few hours later. Sure enough, there was a baby. I scooped her and baby up and placed them in the carrier. The next morning there were two babies, and she seemed very happy. She now goes out to use the lawn and comes back to care for her young. Sometimes I forget to close the cage, but she has no interest in going anywhere, or removing her babies to a different location.

Does anyone else find this odd? I mean she used to be completely feral, hissing, fizzing, fighting, running, etc. And now, is it possible, she actually sought me out to help her care for her young? Twice? She is still wary of strangers and not overly friendly with the rest of the family. During the Winter she's downright unsociable. Thoughts?

Friday

Okay, after a I get a couple of things done at home- I am TAKING THE DAY OFF! We're going to the park, the resale shop, whatever. then home, lunch and Quiet time (QT). I'll worry about dinner later. I've got something written on the menu, right?

But I NEED a day off! So we're gonna go play!!! BYE!

Co-op

I think I mentioned that we homeschool- despite the temptations to go public. lol. We homeschool all of our children. Love it when it works out with a wonderful day... and let's be honest, anything's a headche when it doesn't work out. So we have on days and off days.

Today we were scheduled to be at co-op at 10 am for a presentation and then play practice. We got there at 1:15. Made it for the last bit of practice. So today? Was an off day.

Honestly I don't think I mind so much. I am hoping that our children learned a valuable lesson this morning from the consequences of their actions. We were late due to their behavior. Nothing unusual. Just a bunch of kids who thought they shouldn't have to do their chores. Then after learning that they were missing all the co-op fun and lunching, they got their acts together, and at least finished in time to catch part of the fun. Then when we left after practice, "but we didn't get to play!". I am seriously hoping something was absorbed from this experience.

Because I have plans for tomorrow morning too!

Looking back maybe I shouldn't have lectured so much... saying things like, "I am your mother, not your maid!" may not have made quite the impression I was going for. But who knows, maybe I said the right things. I guess I'll find out later when they get therapists- lol.

Tuesday Garden

Hey I got out there with all 6 children and we weeded and planted PEAS!! Can you stand it? I know, I know. It's tooo much, dahling. Well, when we first tilled we, I had the interesting idea to take the leftover soggy hay and cover what we could of the tilled soil with it. So this morning, glory behold, there were hardly any weeds to pull in the area we needed for peas. So cool.

We planted the peas and got so more wet yucky hay, and covered what we could. I not gonna water it, we get enough rain here. So we're done with the garden for today. I don't know anything about gardening, but it feels right to do it. I dunno what the next step is, although we really NEED to find a fencing idea that's no cost and keeps the free range goats out of the garden.

Yesturday, was library day. But the day before we went into the basement and began getting our "Safe Room" cleaned up and set up. We cleared out a corner in our unfinished basement and put a couch a friend was done with, and a braided rug another friend was done with. Lots of sweeping was involved, dead Japanese Ladybugs everywhere. Afterwards, I made a list of what we needed to add to the SR, rolled up the rug and put it on the couch and covered them both with old sheets. We need a container of books and toys, the plapen, and some blankets and pillows. Then we'll be set in case of a bad storm or whatever else might happen out here in the stix.

Spring is busy. Well, every season is busy- let's be honest- with 6 kids. Oh speaking of kids- two of our does freshened and birthed 6 kids bewteen them. Oh my goodness, could they be any cuter? A friend gave up a buck this year, and as he is the most beautiful pygmy I've ever seen I am looking forward to breeding him this fall. So, busy busy busy busy.

Lovin life, hope you are too.

Why Crunchy Monkeys?

Easy answer... some people describe me and my (our) lifestyle as a bit hippy-ish. People who are baby wearing, attachment parenting, co sleeping, cloth diapering, yadda yadda, are called Crunchy. So I became a "crunchy mom". Our children... well, they're all monkeys, as I am sure you other parents can sympathize with. Hence- Crunchy Monkeys.

Any Questions?

Why this blog...

I want to share our lives out in left field with others. Maybe you live off center, maybe you run the straight line. But I want to share my thoughts, insights, and ramblings of my life as a homeschooling stay at home mom of 6 on our little homestead, as we learn to do what we need to do. And as I learn about me, I guess, and my many jobs and responsibilities. I know, talking about one's self can be so dreary. And reading about me could be worse. I just don't know yet. Enough self doubt! Moving on...

We began this trip almost 4 yrs ago when we purchased our 20 acres and home. Within a year we had a milk cow, 3 pygmy goats, mice, a few cats, and a flock of chickens. Most of these animals just showed up. We now have 2 cows, 9 adult goats with 5 (so far) kids, chickens (why count?), more cats, less mice (YAY cats), and who knows what else?

We are planning a modest garden, more fencing, and a number of other projects.

Our children range in age from almost 12 to almost 16 months. One is adopted from Taiwan, but that's another post. They are teaching me more than I teach them.

I am an amazingly happily married woman to an amazingly insightful and caring man... who is 5 yrs my junior. And he likes to remind me. But it's all in good fun. I am discovering the joys of long term relationships, romance, and communication.

All of the above and more will be the topics of this blog. Just my thoughts on life, self, society, family, and friends. I love my life, so if you're looking for angst, it ain't here. Might try the blog next door. Here you'll find optimism and hopefully an encouraging nugget or two along the way. Life is a wonderful thing. Care to share in mine?