Still Here

I am still here,never fear! I'm still under the weather,so I am waiting until my headbone clears before I even attempt a regular post. I still feel very foggy,off kilter.Sometimes it feels like someone is sitting on my head,other times it feels like someone is twisting my brain.

If memory serves it usually clears up in a week or so.

My little blog has passed 30,000 views-YAY!

I have been enjoying reading blogs,even if I don't always post on them :)

My new love is "Lark Rise To Candleford",a BBC series I have been watching on my Kindle.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods...have a lovey day on this Lovely Planet!

MIA

Hello! 
Sorry that I have been absent a bit...AGAIN (yes,I know...) but we had a bit of computer trouble. The main drive and the motherboard on our old computer called it quits. We are up and running again,and I will be posting  on a more regular basis. I have lots to chat about!

Have a fabulous day on this fabulous Planet!

Ah,Shucks......

Last week, I was very pleased to learn that my blogging bud Kymber nominated me for a blogging award! Kymber and her love,Jambaloney, live at the their "bug out" house,aka Framboise Manor, and are in the process of fixing it up,as well as learning how to be more self sufficient. Both have big hearts and are very caring folk!

The rules for the acceptance of this award are as follows:

1) Copy and paste the award on your blog

2)Link back to the blogger who gave you the award

3)Pick 5 favorite blogs with less than 200 followers and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they received the award.

4)Hope the 5 blogs will keep spreading the love and pass it to 5 more blogs

After much deliberation,I have decided on the following 5 blogs:

1)One of my fellow Laura Ingalls Wilder admirers,who happens to also be named Laura! Her blog,A Simple Happy Life is about her life over in Michigan.She also loves old photographs from antique stores!

2) I follow Prairie Harmony,which is a nice blog about life in the Midwest. It's a fairly new blog,with just a handful of followers,so I hope my readers will check her out and give her some follower love!

3)We now go international....Sue,my New Zealand blogging friend,has a great sense of humor which spills over at her blog, Living The Good Life. Farm animals,crafts,remodeling,daily life...all told with her great wit.

4) I couldn't find how many followers this particular blog has,but I had to nominate Mike,The Garden Rockstar,because I enjoy his blog,My Earth Garden, so much.His posts range from gardening to canning to his experiment with trying to see how hard it is  spending only what one would get on food stamps for a month. I think many others would enjoy his blog.

5)And last, but certainly not least,my "neighbor" over in Maine,Pamela.Her blog,The Cheeky Seagull is a very pretty blog,with great craft ideas.

Please check out these great blogs! Have a great day!

Summertime Is Here

I have been trying for several days to answer comments on my posts,but Blogger will not let me. I can't respond to posts on other blogs,either! I have tried resetting my password,but I keep coming up as anonymous,and then it goes right back to the password page. Go figure!

Things have been busy around here. Our garden is growing well,which I am happy to see since we had such a late start. I have two ripe strawberries,and I still need to trellis my peas and cukes. I did get my tomatoes staked. I will post pics of that tomorrow.

The boys have been working on levelling the yard and creating a swale in the back so the water doesn't drain from our next door neighbors yard through our garden area ,into the chicken pen and hopefully not in our basement so much. Today they are going to work on levelling the area for our set -it -up-yourself pool. Our grass seed is finally sprouting as well.

Yesterday we had an exciting morning. Rick and Brother B were on their way to go fishing when Rick almost stepped on a little kitten. It ran under our porch,but they were able to get to it:

We thought perhaps the neighbors cat had babies,but when we asked them about it,they said no. Apparently,though,they have seen kittens running around in the area,so a cat had a litter somewhere nearby. This poor little one is just a baby. It was very scared,and bit both Rick and I,but after a short while it calmed down and we were able to hold it. It's little spine is sticking out,so we gave it some soft food and tried to get it to drink a bit of milk. I have named it Smokey. I believe it's a male.He tried to snuggle with Moxie but neither Moxie or Little O were having any of it,at least,not yet.

I decided to try and make peppermint soap the other day. It's been curing now for about 5 days.I used the lye soap recipe and just added some finely chopped fresh mint when it was starting to trace. I  put in what I felt looked nice. We should be able to give it a whirl in a few days and see how it came out.It looks pink in the photo,but it's not. It's natural color:

When Zach got home from school yesterday he was very surprised to see little Smokey. He has such a soft heart for cats and dogs.Smokey is licking his face in this picture,tickling him and he couldn't stop laughing:

One of the other things I decided to try was homemade ice cream. We love ice cream,but usually have to watch the ingredients because of Rick.This way,we can make ice cream that everyone can enjoy. I bought an inexpensive electric ice cream maker and tried chocolate chip.It came out wonderful! Now I must go buy ingredients for chocolate today:

Today is Zach's last day of school. We went there this AM for the awards assembly. Zach was on 4th quarter Honor Roll,and made Honors All Year.Here he is this morning with his certificates and his autograph shirt:

He has had such a great year this year. Yesterday he won the 7th grade Poetry Slam. Earlier this year he won the 7th grade spelling bee. We are so proud of him!

Summertime is here,and we are ready for it!!!

Mother -Son Time

I have really been remiss in my posting,and I apologize. This time of the year there really isn't too much going on.

Yesterday,though,Zach and I delved into decluttering his bedroom. We were able to get rid of VCR tapes,old books,most of  his Legos,and assorted toys he hasn't touched in a long time.I didn't realize how much little stuff he had. It was crazy. We have everything that was in decent shape boxed up and ready to be donated.

Today we are going to organize his closet. I am sure there are clothes that no longer fit,or that he no longer likes. Each fall we go through his clothes to see what he needs for school,and if shirts have stains on them or the pants are a wee bit too short,we save those for "bang around" clothes. However,he is now growing so fast that I think even some of the play clothes may be way to small.

I am very proud of him. He wanted to keep a lot of things,but after I asked him things like," Are you really going to watch this again? " "When is the last time you actually used it?" he realized he  didn't need these things after all.

Today we have a snowstorm going on. We are projected to get anywhere from 6"-12" . So far we have 5"-6".The snow is heavy,so some power outages have been reported. I am really over the snow now,but if one lives in New Hampshire,one gets used to snow up until May sometimes! There is nothing we can do about it,so we just deal with it.

I can't remember if I mentioned this,but Rick,Brother B and I are all on the 17 Day Diet. We saw it on Dr Phil,and it sounded like it might be worth a shot. We started a week ago Wednesday,and so far I have lost 7 lbs in 8 days. Last time Rick weighed himself a few days ago he had lost 8 lbs. Brother B is not weighing himself. But he has noticed a change. So far, so good.

The wind is picking up. Hopefully we won't lose power. If we do,that's fine,I have a good book and some knitting I can do.

My thoughts go out to the folks in New Zealand who are dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.

I hope all is happy and peaceful in your little corner of the world!

Thanks For Sharing Our Journey

On June 14,2009, I started this blog. I didn't know if anyone would be interested in reading about a family they would probably never meet. All I knew,I had to write it. I had to talk about what was going on. At first,it was mostly to clear my head about the struggles with Rick's issues. I knew I was not the only military wife dealing with their loved one coming home a stranger,or with cognitive issues and all that involves. So I wrote. It was a release for me,and helped me feel better. I hoped that someone would find my little blog and maybe find comfort that they were not alone. The blog was also about our path on being more self reliant-how and way we decided to do more things for ourselves. I remember by excitement at the first comment I had on one of my posts,and when I started getting followers.

Now,a year and half later,I have folks from 35 countries who pop in and read my blog. Our little blog has had 7,065 hits. Some folks may have found it by typing in specific words and only reading one post. Some follow silently,some publicly follow me ( I encourage more public followers! I love seeing that follower number go up!) I would like to thank all of you,whether you follow me daily or read  the random post. Thank you to those in :

Australia
Bangladesh
Bosnia/Herzegovina
Brazil
Canada
China
Croatia
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Germany
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Mauritius
Netherlands
New Zealand
Pakistan
Philippines
Poland
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Singapore
Slovenia
South Korea
Sweden
Taiwan
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States

Thank you for finding my blog,and for sharing our life here in New Hampshire!

Then and Now

I have a list of blogs that I enjoy reading,though I don't comment on them a lot. Several of them are from Australia and New Zealand ( Hello Rhonda Jean,Sue,Rina,Damaris and Laura!).Right now in the Land Down Under they are beginning their Spring season.It's nice to see their photos of flowers blooming and gardens coming to life.Here in NH,it's quite the opposite,though.

Remember my favorite tree? The colors were so pretty just a few weeks ago:

This is what it now looks like:

Goodbye,colorful leaves.....ALL leaves. This is what most of the trees look like now. Bare. Except of course for the pine trees. We do have few leaf bearing trees that still have leaves on them,but they are a deep rust color and very sparse. My yard has more leaves than the trees! :)

Last night I lit all our candles and oil lamps. I was in the mood to create a cozy atmosphere. I counted 22 lit at once. I would've liked to have taken a photo of how pretty it was,but those type of photos never come out for me. There is something very relaxing about candlelight. We noticed that the house was getting warm-no wood stove was going,and the thermostat was set down to 67 degrees. The temperature in the living room was 77 degrees. Hmmm. I then went to an oil lamp and held my hand over the glass chimney. A surprising amount of heat was coming out of it. The seven oil lamps and candles were creating enough heat to keep the main rooms warm.

While the flames were giving us heat,we watched "The Pacific",produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. We just purchased the mini series a few days ago,and have been watching a couple episodes a night.Last night the fourth episode concentrated about the soldiers time in Australia. I have a special interest in the Pacific during World War II,because my Dad served there. He was in Australia and New Guinea,and some place he called Moretai Island (the spelling is probably wrong,I apologize). My Dad had a great respect and affinity for Australians.He said the people were warm and friendly,and that the soldiers were tough fighters. He would be tickled that I have blogging friends from there. He was with the 197th Coastal Artillery,anti aircraft. He went from Camp Hulan in Texas right to Australia,then to Hollandia, New Guinea. I know he was in different areas in New Guinea,but he really didn't speak of it much.One thing I do remember is that he talked about how the natives would help the Allies,even the head hunters,because the Japanese were so brutal to them. I would love to find some show or documentary about the New Guinea campaign,but haven't so far. We have only seen the first two discs of the 6 disc series,so I am hoping they might have little something about it,even if it is only based on fact and not a documentary.

So today my thoughts range from our country fighting side by side with our Australian brethren 68 years ago,to pretty,colorful flowers being posted by my Down Under blogging friends. From war to flowers,then and now.

Gray Day...Sunny Blog Design

It is another gray,rainy,chilly day here in NH. It's typical November weather,though. Up in Coos County (pronounce coh-os,not cooze),which is our most northern county, snow fell yesterday. They got a nice little coating.I am glad they got it and not us. I love snow at Christmas,and the first snow is always fun,but the day after Christmas it can all melt and I would be fine. Amazing how when we are younger we love the snow,but as we get older,the fun wears off!

Days like this make a fire in the wood stove even better. It's one thing to have the stove going on a sunny,chilly day,but when it's miserable out,the heat and sight of the flames make the day feel better.

The girls have been increasing their egg output. We now get 5-6 eggs a day. The hens crack me up. The other day I went in the hen house to see how many eggs were left,and one of my Rhode Island Reds was sitting in one of the boxes. I looked to see if any of the other boxes had eggs,but none did,so I checked underneath her chest and there were three eggs! She did not appreciate the fact that I disturbed her while she was trying to lay,and she started squawking at me in no uncertain terms. In fact,I heard her squawking at me the whole time I was walking back to the house! Every time I go to the door of the pen,all the chickens and Runt come running towards me,but when I enter they go the opposite direction. I always ask them," Why are you all running at me,but then take off?" Chickens are quite amusing,to say the least.

You have probably noticed I changed up the design of the blog. I was checking new templates out and really liked this one. I liked the colors and nice,sunny,warm image it has. What do you think?

Spring Has Sprung

The weather continues to be gorgeous here in NH. More and more buds are showing on the trees,and our lilac bush is showing leaves. Yesterday we had my Mom up here for Easter dinner,and we were commenting how rare it is to have Easter with such beautiful weather and no snow on the ground. Our Jonathon Apple tree is just starting to show buds. One day we will wake up and all around us will be green. It seems to just happen overnight.

This weekend I cleaned up our screen porch. That poor porch has seen better days. It sorely needs a fresh coat of paint and some new screens. It hasn't been painted since 2005,so I would say it's time. A porch should always look somewhat decent,especially since it's the first thing people see when they come to your house. It's your greeting to friends and family. Right now, that greeting is not very cheerful looking here!

I also took advantage of the weather and did some raking. The boys started putting up the new turkey cage. They seated the lumber posts with some quick-crete,but didn't get as far as they would've liked,because they picked up the free speed boat we were given. So that took a chunk out of the day on Saturday. Then of course, some of the men neighbors had to come down to check it out,which took more time. By the time the boys came back from Home Depot,it was already 3:00 PM. They did work on it some yesterday morning,but of course stopped around noon time since it was Easter. They did get the lights for the seedlings hung,and I had an interesting time trying to figure out the timer...which I finally did,I think !

Today is laundry and ironing day.I will be going outside and helping Rick with the turkey cage and doing some raking in between loads. Tonight is Boy Scouts and we have a Troop Committee meeting,so I not only have to wash and iron Zach's uniform,but ours as well.

It's nice to see Rhonda Jean from Down To Earth posting again. She has a fabulous blog,with great advice. I think she is probably the standard bearer for self reliant blogs. You can't go wrong when you follow Rhonda Jean!

I suppose I should go do what I have to do -start some laundry and hit the great outdoors. I hope you and your families all had a great Easter,and if you don't celebrate it,I hope you all had a great Sunday!!!!

Thank You!

Thank you to Sue Weber who has given my blog the "Sunshine Award"! The Sunshine Award is given to blogs that make your day a bit brighter. Sue is from New Zealand,and I follow her blog, "Living The Good Life." This is my first award from a fellow blogger,and I am quite pleased that she thought of me waaaaaaayyyyy down there on the other end of the world.

Now that I have received this award,there are some other things I must do,as this is a "rolling" award:
1. Post the Award
2.Pass on to 12 bloggers
3.Link to nominees
4.Link to givers

I am not that computer literate,so hopefully I will be able to figure out how to do this!!!

I don't follow 12 blogs,so I shall have to send this award to just a handful.

1.http://Little House in the Suburbs
2.http://A Homesteading Neophyte
3.http://Down---to---earth
4.http://Living the Good Life (right back at you,Sue!)
5.http://Lizzy Lane Farm
6.http://Our Wee Farm
7.http://Candid Country Life

Thanks again to Sue,and keep up the good work on your blog....New Zealand looks like a beautiful country.