Mike will be home this afternoon. FOR GOOD.

Trucking just didn’t work well for our family at all. Gregory won’t eat for anyone and has only had food a handful of times since Mike left. He has gone back to wanting to live on Pediasure.

Mike will be home this afternoon and quite possibly already has a new job. I will post more about that when we know something for sure.

We put an offer in on a new place in the country. 3.10 fenced acres. Nice manufactured home, which eventually we will replace with a brick home. There is a barn and coral. Land is comepletely “clean” with wonderful prairie grasses and ready for horses, a cow and goats! Not to mention, there’s a garden spot already for us to till and plant next spring. We are anxiously awaiting word on the offer.

Everyone keep their fingers crossed and if you are the praying type, please send up a prayer for us on the new farm.

Marci, over at Down on the Farm, shared this video for the trailer of a new movie that looks to be wonderful and hopefully make a great impact on people.

This is why we are on the path we have chosen, as well.

How many of you used wood burning “pot belly” stoves for heat in your home?  In planning for our new farm, we are considering this form of heat, but are quite nervous, since we have two young children.

Any other comments on alternative heating methods is welcome, too

I’ve also considered using a wood burning stove on which to cook, but just don’t think I could manage that.  So, I’ll continue with a modern day range, just careful to conserve as much gas/electricity as I can doing so.

Here’s a beauty I’d love to own.

So…what do you think?

Farmwoman over at Life on a Southern Farm is giving away on of the wonderful nest box sets that her dh, FarmMan builds.

Here’s the link to register for the giveaway…just leave a comment on her post
Register to win —-> HERE

Enjoy!

…when they scratch at the back door wanting to come in the house. ROFLOL

Seriously, we had the chickens out in the backyard for a couple of hours this morning.  I kept hearing a scratch at the back door and continually told the dogs to get away from the door that they couldn’t go out with the chickens.

THEN I realized the dogs were all laying at my feet while I was working on the computer.  I heard the scratching again and realized it was the darn chickens!!!! Gabe, Tuff, Charlie and Pierre.  CITY CHICKENS I TELL YA!!!!!

During the kids spring break, we went to visit with Curt (works with Mike) at his farm. Curt is helping mentor us with information and advise for our new farm. Here’s lots of photos…enjoy!

We were there for hours…we had so much fun!

That lamp oil would be so hard to find.

We have started a new tradition at our house. Each night, we eat dinner over oil lamp light. We turn off the lights and fire up the oil lamps. It’s really quite a nice thing we have started.

Now that daylight savings time has changed, we don’t do this much at dinner time since it’s still daylight outside. Instead we light the oil lamps after dark while we watch tv, play games, etc. Not only is it saving electricity, it’s quaint and cozy. We like that.

For the past three days, I’ve been on a scavenger hunt for lamp oil. I can’t beleive there is not any to be found in Amarillo (well at least on the west side, that is). I have gone to 4 different places and nada…no lamp oil to be found. UGH.

Thank heavens for the absolute neatest store I found online several months ago, Lehmans. They carry lamp oil year round, along with TONS of other self-sufficient and homesteading products. By the way, if you’d like to see a very unique “Amish” site with thousands of products, click here!

As well as oil for my lamps, I found the “granny” fork that I have been wanting for years. My mother had one she used constantly when cooking and I’ve never been able to find one.  Now I have.

Have a great day and a fun time parusing Lehmans site!

Petunia, our Chihuahua, had her puppies last night, four healthy little ones.

Chicks are hatching as I type this.

I’ll post more details and photos later today or tomorrow!

Well, today was supposed to be a day of sewing on quilt blocks for Felicity and I during Judy’s Quiltathon.  We got nothing done today because….

We signed the papers on our 5.4 acres of land for our farm today!!!  We even got a farm truck along with it!!!  We are all eggstatic (lol). It needs a bit of clean up work, but nothing serious.  It is down the road from where we used to rent before moving to our current rental house.  We looked for land when we moved out of that place, but could find nothing where we wanted to be in our price range.  God made our week this week AWESOME!

Also, obviously I was off count on hatch day for the first of the many batches of eggs in the incubator.  I had planned on hatch day for Sunday. We had 3 baby chicks hatch yesterday and 4 so far today. WHEW! What a tired Chicken Mommy I am tonight.  Photos to come soon.

So in getting back on track for the Quiltathon, tomorrow I will have photos as proof that Felicity and I are participating lol. We’ve got so much to do and are excited to have the day after Mass to work on it all while Mike is at work.

I recently participated in the Sassy/Flirty Apron Swap. 

It was so much fun! I designed my own apron pattern for my swap partner, Diane in Arkansas, and it turned out great!

Here’s a photo of the apron I made and the goodies I sent to Diane:

Here’s all the goodies I sent with the apron:

This is the goodies all wrapped up and ready to mail. I used a half yard of Vintage Valentine print fabric as the wrapping “paper” and rick rack for the “ribbon”.

I received the most awesome country apron from Martha in New York.  She couldn’t have done any better a job picking fabrics that define me!

Here’s all the goodies Martha sent me.

This swap was so much fun! I can’t wait to do another!