Yay a weekend for me to do stuff!!! The garden is on the list. It is horrid, I am ashamed to say that in some parts the grass is hip high. I want to tear it all down. Well except for the broccoli and some romas; they and the gourds are the only things that really are doing anything. More venting on that later. Saturday is the last tour day for the Family Friendly Farm and we are going! Will have my camera this time too!! I can't wait!!

Well anyone who has kept track of my updates knows I had been in a depression. Had is the operative word. I’m out of it. Several things have turned around. #1 My husband found work!! #2 As mentioned before, I spent several hours in the garden trying to reclaim it. It is turning around nicely. #3 I went on an adventure which has led to the revival of my soul and is the real reason I wanted to post.

Saturday I took a trip to Cape Girardeau, MO to visit the Family Friendly Farm for one of their tours. I drove by myself (haven’t done that in a LONG time) but met up with my co-worker and some of her family. Walked around through pastures filled with cows and chickens and I even got to catch and hold one myself! (Chicken dude, not a cow!) It was really nice to see positive stewardship of the Earth and genuine concern for the animals that are raised there. They sell eggs, chicken meat and other various chicken bits, raw milk and beef. They also sell local honey from a guy in Jackson, MO. These folks were wonderful to talk to answering a slew of questions from us. Their son also is a sweetie and you can tell he is being brought up right. I do recommend that if you can swing a visit that you do so!!

The egg on the left is from the Family Friendly Farm and the one on the right is an extra large from the store.

I bought a half of a gallon of milk, a dozen eggs that wouldn’t even fit in a jumbo egg carton, a pint of honey and a butter bell. I had never had raw milk before. It was something I’d always read about. I did sneak a glass before I left it in the fridge to let the cream rise on it. Oh and another thank you to Rachel, who I had to call after I got home because I didn’t know if the cream would still rise if I put it in the fridge. Like I said, I’ve never dealt with raw milk and had a noobie panic moment. But that’s ok I called my co-worker first and she didn’t know either :P When that finally happened I was calling Ginsu to come look at it. He laughed at me and walked off shaking his head chuckling. Yesterday I finally got around to making butter, which was also a first for me. I used my food processor and had a blast. Once I got it washed, pressed and salted I packed it into the butter bell. All in all I came away from the weekend refreshed. I just need to keep that feeling in the front of my mind.

Tonight I soak my pickling cukes. Tomorrow I make Limed Pickles :) and yes...recipes will follow.

The garden got away from me. I spent 9 hours Saturday wrangling it back. I mowed quite a bit down. I still have more grass to pull mainly from the beans and the spaghetti and yellow squashes. The area I had set for the herb patch was a bust. We have reclaimed it as a bonfire/campfire/hangout area. My garden is doing very poorly except for onions and radishes that are in the raised beds. I looked at the pictures from this time last year and it is markedly different.

To be honest with you all I am in a depressive funk. I will get over it I know I will. I don't want to do anything hardly anymore and I feel like crying at the drop of a hat. I am tired all the time. There is always some sort of stress here whether its dealing with my stepdaughter drama, Bill can't find a job drama, people at work driving me nuts drama, etc. We still haven't found a roommate. I'm tired about worrying about bills. I'm tired of feeling like a homesteading failure. To top it off I feel unappreciated. So yeah there is me in a nutshell, sorry its a bummer at the moment.

Well I have switched to a new schedule this week at work. I will now have Friday and Saturdays off. YAY!! This means that I will be able to go do more things like visit family and friends and I will also be able to go to my beloved farmers' market which is on Saturday mornings. Things here are slowly shaping up. I putter around the house until about 7pm when it is cool enough for me to go out in the garden (sorry I am a wuss) and then pull grass and weeds until I can't see anymore. Roughly it's about 2 hours of work an evening. The grass is slowly being defeated. I did have to spray for squash bugs...they are attacking my zuchinni and the japanese beetles were destroying my pole and turtle beans I lost one of my zuchinni to squash bug larvae in the vines :(

I did get to do some harvesting today!! I got 1 medium and 1 large zuchinni, 1 massive head on the broccoli that will be enough for me and Bill to steam up for dinner some time and about 20 or so radishes. My bibb lettuce is going to seed and Im letting it. Then I will gather the seed and try again. I did manage somehow to save 2 of my heirloom tomatoes that we all thought were dead...well the rest are. The corn is still struggling despite the rains yesterday and the day before. The 2 cabbages seem to be going well as the late broccoli I planted. The roma and cherry tomatoes are small but I cleared the grass around them and some of the peppers and I hope they recover. Spaghetti squash, cantaloupe and yellow squash seem to be holding their own. Onions are still doing great and the carport of loofahs and birdhouse gourds is completely green. My herb patch was a total failure and the garlic is scrawny. It will be the next thing I hit tomorrow after I finish clearing the rest of the grass from the peppers.

Jodie has moved out for the most part, she has some stuff still here that she has to get but she's got the majority of it out. We are still looking for another roommate but have stopped short of placing an add in the paper. We've mainly searched through friends and family. Trying to find someone who isn't a nutcase AND has a stable income. We will be ok with just us but I would like to have more people in the house and every little bit helps.

So we got back from the best vacation to find that A- My post for Homemakers Who Work went poof. and B half my garden is dead or dying. My heirloom tomatoes had completely dried up as well as one side of my pole beans and my black beans were covered in Japanese beetles and my corn is not happy either. My friend who watched the house and animals said she watered and pulled some weeds.......umm yeah....moving on. However, my cats and the dog are great and the house was a little cleaner than when we left. Im not giving her any crap as her parents barn burnt down while we were gone and it had all her house stuff stored in it.

Here the house has been a beehive of activity. Ragnarok is coming upon us!! Well not literally the end of the world no...it's the major, national gathering for those of us who are in Dagorhir. It's medieval combat, with a fantasy base. Yes I am that much of a geek :)

Anyhoo Ragnarok this year is the 21st to the 28th in Cambridge, OH. We will leave the house around midnight Saturday to make the 8-10 hr drive. My friend is staying at my house for a week to take care of the animals, normally I'd just have someone come in once a day to check in but cant do that now that we have the Tater-pup.

I love going to Rag but the week before there's always soo much to do. 11th hour projects abound. I am guilty myself. I have made 1 skirt, 1 mens tunic and I need to make a half chemise and finish up another skirt.. I also had to dye a few pieces. Bill is working on belt favors for our unit. Him and a friend have been working on a pavillion for our camp. The roommate is trying to get packed and find all her garb. We are trying to co-ordinate caravans. Yeah pretty busy.

Outside of the house the weather has been crap for humans but great for some plants. It has been tooooooo hot, in the upper 90s, very humid (when its not storming) and I got sick trying to "suck it up" out there. The garden is a mess :(