The Great Pyrenees

Maple Jane........not yet a mama or even 2 years old, but born with nurturing and protective instincts over what she claims as hers. She has claimed us, the chickens, the goats, the other dogs, she is a cat bed on a chilly night for her favorite friend Goober. She is fluffy, drooly, curious and sometimes plain neurotic. Her half sister Millie is her just as loyal and nurturing, but so much more calm a demeanor. Summer will hopefully provide the opportunity to breed them both and let them experience motherhood, plus cute little balls of fluff running around the farm sounds like heaven!!! 

Current Inspiration

Looking for inspiration? Both of these books have really sparked my creativity and of course, a bucket list is always a must. Fun summer HERE we come!

On the Hook, Off the Hook

A couple of my recent crochet creations.........I have had a real desire to create lately, maybe its hormones. Part of me thinks it could be the fact that the farm is Never.Done, I mean there is literally never a day the entire season where you feel even half way caught up to all the weeding, harvesting, planting, watering, washing, packing, and everything else needing done. Creating projects with my hands is something I love, but I find a strong satisfaction with these small projects that I am able to complete rather quickly. They bring me joy, a feeling of completion, and they make my kids smile. 

3 Month Plum Bump

Although I had a good week, I am back to feeling crummy whilst 3 months pregnant with my little plummy :) I think I have dealt with the nausea far better this time having had a 5 year break between pregnancies..........and maybe just being older and knowing how short and precious these times in my life are. I know this is fleeting and in time will be a blink in my history. I can't remember a time I was so excited to get a baby bump, for the realness of this little life to be exposed. I look forward to those little movements within me that I never thought I would get to experience again. In so many ways I am still so humbled to even be expecting again after a vasectomy, a reversal we were told failed and a lot of tears. Although I felt so shattered at the time, it paved way for so much appreciation and joy now. 

Our appointment today brought up discussion of past history and future plans for how this pregnancy will safely be handled since I am considered high risk because of the SVT. Dr. S said he plans to follow a similar protocol as Dr. T did with my last 4 pregnancies. He mentioned steroids around 34 weeks and delivery around 36 weeks if I can make it. I am determined to make that goal for the sake the baby's lungs. I want to be sure she/he has the best chance to skip past the NICU.  For the nearer future, we go June 6th to get our NT testing done and will hopefully learn the gender of our little plum. 

Our Tie Breaker!

Maybe flatish nub at 11 weeks 

 Giving us the bird! #futurerockerbaby

We went today for a free ultrasound as an ultrasound model for a local pregnancy clinic training day. It was a great experience, there were 2 different nurses ultrasounding me getting their training time in. I made an interesting candidate with my extremely retroflexed uterus. They said I was a great teaching tool. Baby was rolling, flipping, kicking and going wild. Everett was this way in utero also, he came out quite the wiry little thing.  Baby's nub appears to be maybe flat at 11 weeks, however, it is still very early. I feel, based on intuition,but admittedly I am out of practice. We will be able to confirm in 2 weeks at the NT scan. Then.........let the shopping begin!

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.