The Family that Plays Together........

Millie Could no longer bear the sudden heat wave and decided to take a lay down and cool off in the shallows. 

Cheese

Butter is always chasing the next carbs to enter the pond area.

Scuba Steve.....uh I mean Tanner

Nothing but icy pond joy

Fudgsicle beard

Again, Butter with the carbs, Don't worry it was just a couple drops of Nate's leftovers

Spring babies are one of the best parts of farming

She didn't get tossed in, Daddy was toying with her :)

Right before they polar plunged themselves. Brave soldiers, I salute you both

The kids created this awesome water slide last year and its stayed. 

We took the afternoon to enjoy the pond on the first day to hit the 80's this year in Oregon. It was beautiful out today and everyone enjoyed themselves after yesterday's long day in the fields working. Its important for us all to have balance and play hard after we work hard and besides.......Sunday.

Family Field Work

Prepping bed for all the peppers, eggplants and more that are needing planted this week Everything is behind with the wet spring, but we are slowly catching up. Having such a large crew comes in handy. 

Composting beds.

Organic fertilizer and lime.

Laying water lines.

After a long day in the fields, the littles were happy to come in and watch a show on the kindle together. 

9 pm sun setting on the fields. It was a satisfying day, we accomplished a lot as a team. This big family of ours can really come together when we need to and make things happen in a hurry. Now we wait for another nice morning to get more plants in.

We Bought a Farm......Playing Catch up!

In August 2015 we made a crazy decision to leave our home in Southern California. We literally opened a map and started researching the entire US trying to find a safer place to raise our family, a place we could follow our dreams of farming organic vegetables, open space, affordable housing that would actually fit our large family and adventure. In the end, we settled on Oregon. It had nearly all the attributes we wanted, we especially loved that we would have 4 seasons with very little snow. Housing was affordable, crime was low, owning land was within our grasp after selling our homes in Southern California. It was a really crazy, exciting journey. Nathan accepted a law enforcement job here and the rest was history. We came home to pack everything up and caravan our entire lives and all our animals to Oregon. It took 3 days, horse hotels, dog and cat accepting hotels for us and a lot of driving to get here, but we made it in one piece and began our lives crammed into a tiny town house. We boarded our horses and waited for our property in SoCal to sell. 3 months later, it was sold and docs were signed, shortly after, we found our dream home on 17.5 acres with big prospects for us to farm it. We had to clear 7+ acres of timber and we poured our lives into getting the farm going for the first 18 months. We put up greenhouses, dear fencing, wash and packing areas, a walk in cooler for our produce and so much more. We had a dream and we ran on pure adrenaline. Last summer, we started our very first farmer's markets and ran a successful CSA. We have continued on this year, gaining organic certification and increasing our operation size. We have had an exceptionally rainy spring which has made it tough, but we are pressing forward using every technique we have learned from other farms, books, youtube videos, and farm conferences. It is a challenge, but it is so worth it. Our lives have bigger meaning bringing fresh, organic vegetables to our local families each week. Its truly a labor or love.

April Fool's

A squinter at 8-9dpo

6W5D

2 months pregnant with #9

9W5D

Let me begin with the back story. Nathan had a vasectomy reversal last year and after his analysis came back, we were told that to conceive more children we would likely need IVF with ICSI. His count was 690.000 with 5% motility. It was tough news for us this March after high hopes and spending a large chunk of money, but we figured that maybe later we would go ahead and go for IVF. A few short weeks after this news, I felt off.......I was nauseated and could smell too well. I decided to grab a $ tree cheapy and I was so sure I wasn't pregnant that I tossed it in my jacket pocket forgetting I had taken it until later during our date night. At dinner I put my hand in my pocket because I was cold and I felt it and pulled it out, shockingly it was positive. It was a squinter, but even Nate could see it. It turned into a very fun date night wondering if the cheapy was lying after receiving such sad news 3 weeks previously, but being so hopeful that maybe just maybe. The next morning I retested using a reliable FRER and again,  a squinter, but I was definitely pregnant! We got to hear baby's heart beat at an ultrasound at 6W5D, it was 114 BPM. Found baby's heart on my home doppler at 7W5D and it was 162! The last ultrasound photo is from 9W5D where baby looked fantastic, was waving and had a heart rate of 171. So far the pregnancy has been pretty uneventful except for the all day nausea that has plagued me since 5W5D. At 10 weeks 2 days today, the nausea has eased off a lot the last couple days, but who knows if it will come back with a vengeance. I am praying we are over the rough part and headed into smooth, nausea free waters! We are looking forward to welcoming baby 9, our little miracle, into our family during the late fall. 

Happy Fourth of July 2013