I haven't blogged in so long.. we've been trying to get through testing for the boys....

and things have been busy.  Since my last post regarding tubing, let's just say the weather has changed slightly... the following are recent pics of the boys....

Testing the waters....

 Oh My Gosh....What am I thinking?!

 AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! It's cold!!!!

We Did It!... Newest members of the Polar Bear Club - March 19, 2012!

The air temp. was actually around 67, so it wasn't THAT bad!  But they had fun in the pond..... So that's how they chilled out (no pun intended!) after testing week!  I think they did really well, but we won't find out for sure until the end of May, I think (I hate waiting for ANYthing, much less something like this!)  We also have a new friend in the pond....

And the beautiful red-winged black birds with their pretty song are back...

Eric made his first omelet ever..... and it was even more special because the eggs were from our girls.  He was very proud, so here it is, in all its glory....

It WAS very tasty!

The ladies are all doing well, and we get an average of 18 eggs a day, with some days being 17 and others being 23.  So they are doing great.  We recently painted their coop and got them out on the newly grown grass, out of the muddy garden:

And we got our first double-yolker... can you guess which one?!:

Oops... I broke the yolk....

Anyway, I saved the best news for last.......  drum roll please.........  We turned in our plans last Tuesday and got them back APPROVED today.  We are official, with our permit to build and everything!  Eric left the courthouse with permit in hand, rented the digger, and is now on the site digging footers....... Just kidding!  But we ARE all ready and excited to begin....

Please say prayers for this next leg of our homesteading journey... for cooperative weather, inspections, and lots of patience!!!

I have to go make our celebratory meal now, so if you'll excuse me, I'll see ya'll  later!

Ahhhhhh, on the slopes again....

after 17 years!  It's been that long since I have been skiing... is that true?! Wait... yes, it is! I can't BELIEVE it's been that long!   But alas, it has... and yesterday, the family headed to Snowshoe (Silvercreek) to hit the slopes... but this time for me, it wasn't about skiing...but tubing!  E and Rabbit, Eric and I woke up Saturday morning all excited and goofy with anticipation (okay, except for E, 9, who thought it sounded "boring" and needed an attitude adjustment!).  We got all of our gear ready (layers upon layers of, well... layers - Eric and I remembering, lo those many years ago, of freezing our patooties off and being miserable, so we wanted all of us to be more than prepared), went into town and then off to Snowshoe with the boys' cousin, 8 (who had also had an attitude problem that morning!) and uncle (Eric's brother).  It was a "balmy" 50 degrees in town, but we were hopeful for cooler temps and snows in the mountains.  Needless to say, when we could see the mountain upon which we were to tube, it was....snowless!  Oh well, the run was snow-BLOWN and it worked out very well.  None of us had been tubing before (except b-i-l and his son), and we were a tiny bit apprehensive about how you get your tube attached to the machine that pulls you and the tube up the hill... however, when we got our tubes and headed for the line, we were met with a cable with hooks that was not making the slightest movement.  Okay, here's where I admit my physical weakness, and tell you of my HUGE disappointment and nervousness because I knew that after one, MAYBE two attempts at walking up the mountain with my tube, I would have to quit... there is NO way I could have done that, even if I had to!

But, the cable started to move, and we were off!  It went remarkably well, and we all had a blast!  It was absolutely beautiful, and it turned out to be a gorgeous day.  It was so awesome to see Eric having such a great time with his boys.  It turned out that our group was a party of 23 (from b-i-l's church) and we knew a bunch of them, so that made it even more fun.  I ended up being the only mom to go, and quite frankly, I'm glad I didn't know that beforehand because I may not have gone.  But I am SOOOOO glad I did.  It was a great experience for our family!

I wish I could show you pics, and I had every intention of doing that, but once I took my first pic, the battery went dead (thanks, Rabbit!).  So here is the one pic I have, of the pile of tubes to choose from, and the people in the pic aren't even us, but still....

I would highly recommend this for families!

Everybody say prayers......

we planted our very first crop on ATG yesterday!  Okay, it's really just our first ROW of our first crop, but that's just details!  We planted a row of peas... it was a BEAUTIFUL late February day, so we decided to take advantage:

On our way to ATG :

Don't worry... they didn't really ride,  just for posing... notice the "gun!"

Eric tilling up the garden...

Rabbit giving us his professional opinion on the soil quality....


E trying to find grubs and worms...


Preparing the row and putting in some "black gold" (compost)...


We're planting............PEAS!

Not very appealing NOW, are they?  Let's hope they look better than this next time we see them!

                                  

                                                                                                        Watering...

Fencing...

And the "pea patch" is finished with "help" from these goofballs!

Here's Momma on the tractor... It's so much fun to drive!

After our planting, Eric headed back to finish rigging up his solar panels for the ladies' fence...

(Cool, huh?!  Hmmmmm, maybe a solar-powered house next..?!)

While I baked bread...

All-in-all, a very productive day on ATG!