IMAC is back!!

Our IMAC computer is back in business with a new external hard drive attached since we lost all of our information over the last two months.

To post an update - we closed on our house here this week, I will rent it for the next two months or so. We will be re-looking at a house again tomorrow that is my dream property - having some financing issues because of the deal on the house here but hopefully that will be worked out soon.

In addition, it appears we have someone interested in buying our house in Alabama but they will need to sell a house first - they want to rent to own our property, which would be great as it would bring in additional income.

No word on Steve's retirement yet but we know its being worked because they have asked for additional information.

Finished reading "An Unburdened Life" by Richard Morris. Good on the whole, I like his point about it being hard for most people to exercise because other than fitness it serves no purpose. Back in our agrarian forefathers day they got a great workout and a great harvest to prove it.

Weather finally warmed up here but we have had amazing amounts of rain.

That's it for now - will post pictures of where we buy a house, once we figure that out.

Quick check in

Didnt think I could post anything while our IMAC was in the shop recovering from its hard drive implosion because the lap top has cookies and such enabled but apparently I was able to fix that. House closing here on Wednesday, think we have found our new farm and plan to make an offer this week. Working on lots of sewing projects, going to start packing, etc... no news on Steve as of yet, hoping to hear something this week... seeds I planted last year in the garden are coming up - I guess the moisture and temperature are just right this year.

Heirloom nightgown

Pictured below is a new summer nightgown for Emma using Martha Pullen's Fancy Slip pattern. The nightgown needs to be washed and shrunk a bit but all in all it went well. I am enjoying improving heirloom sewing techniques using my specific sewing machines.

Testing a few things

I wanted to test this new blog site, including inserting pictures. Here are my sweet Emma and Elizabeth...

Exhausted

When Steve found out he was going to be deployed for a signifigant period of time, we filed a hardship retirement waiver because we knew it would be very difficult for our children to handle.  We didnt realize how quickly things would start to go bad.  Unfortunately this past week, one of our more challenging sons started bullying and hurting his sisters and then when confronted with the fact that if he didnt stop he would be speaking with men from our church, he ran away into the woods for two days.  The woods behind our house consist of thousands of acres and so it was a very scary/exhausting couple of days for all of us, not knowing if he was truly lost, hurt or just being belligerent.  Turns out it was the last and he finally came back because he was very hungry.  Right now he is staying with some single men from church until we figure out the best place for him to be (or Steve comes home if the waiver is approved).

On another note, one of our adult daughters is visiting with her biological family for the next two weeks (family she hasnt seen for over ten years and from what we have been told haven't changed much since their children were removed).  She has gotten no sleep since she has been there, she said they were finally going to eat dinner sometime after ten p.m. last night (getting ice and beer was more important).  We are thankful during this time for technology as we can text back and forth to keep her spirits up and her strength in convictions renewed.  Her family has complained to her that she is too "white" and they have to bring back the "brown" in her, whatever that means.  Of course she is going to act like us, she has lived with us for 7 years.

Finally, my littlest girls are sick again, stress I believe is contributing some, so most of the crew will be heading to church this morning while I care for little ones.  Hope everyone out there in blogdom has a wonderful Lord's Day!

Dogs vs Porcupine

Unfortunately, the dogs lost and we ended up having to take them to the vet yesterday morning to be sedated as this was the only way to pull out the massive amount of quills, especially on our dog Frostbite (all 3 dogs are Great Pyrenees).  They all came through great - we go pick them up this morning before church.  More importantly, it appears our house here has sold, so we begin looking for our new farm.  At this point we think we will find a farm with small farm house and build a 2 story log addition, using the skills Steve received at the Log Home Builders Association 2 day class.  If we do, I would like to pictorial the process along the way.

Steve, Lucas and Eric have had a wonderful time at the Veritas Press End of the Year Gathering and Steve actually interviewed to teach there  (Calculus to start).  He said the interview went well and is hopeful.  He has also met some folks we used to attend church with in North Carolina and also the Mother (a teacher a Veritas Press) of a woman we were friends with when we lived in Florida.

A young man from church here was able to fix the rototiller we inherited when we bought this property so Gina, Shawn and James tilled up our garden area to see how it works.  That garden area looks great and is a wonderful combination of cow, pig, goat and chicken manures and spent alfalfa hay (which I have read is phenomenal for the soil).  Hopefully the new owners can get a good crop of veggies from it.  I plan to haul the rest of the manured hay with us (we will rent a tractor to scoop it up) so we can get some garden beds going when we get there.  Our earthboxes with lettuce, radishes, tomatoes and peppers are all thriving with the massive amount of rain- we are looking forward to salad soon!

Lots going on

I haven't been posting much lately because so much is going on in our lives.  We found out a few weeks ago that my husband is supposed to deploy to Afghanistan in the fall, preluded by several months of training, all in all he would be gone around 15 months.  We have been fighting the deployment because it would be very rough on the children, especially those of our children who are more challenging.  We have one more fight to make, the results would be early retirement for S