The garden is in...

This is the south side grape vine section. See what it looked like before the boys cut down the grass and I overturned the soil to make it look like the next picture.

Here is the north side. In between the two sections is my fruit orchard with three lonely live trees and six dead ones. See how nice and neat it looks. The grapes are doing great and growing up the fence.

Last week we were busy with all kinds of projects; planting tomatoes, then peppers, weeding most of the garden, planting watermelon and other vine crops. I made a run to town with Isaac for blood work so we ran to Menards to return some things and looked around. We bought some grape vines we thought were $4.49 each and they rang up for $2 each! :) I was pleased. My vines from last year didn't make it and we did up this nice fence for them. I hated for it to sit empty another year but grape vines from the catalog companies are nearly $15 each so needless to say, I was pleased with our find. The boys helped clear the patch and when we got done we had a clean, neat area. I put plastic down on one side of it for weed control. My tiller handle broke off this week!!!! I can hardly believe it but it's true and now I have to wait until we get the part ordered to keep up on the weeds. I had to turn the soil over on both sides of the fence by hand and we have two of these fences! :( It was a good day's work overall. After such physical work I always wonder how many more years I can do this. I start counting up how old I'll be if I quit or cut back when the kids are gone, but by then I'll have a lot of grandkids and they'll love eating Grandma's grapes and apples and raspberries and strawberry jam, etc. so I guess I'll be doing all this for awhile longer :)

We did finish getting the garden in Friday. Isaac and I tied up some peas today against the fence trying to push them up it to grab hold. I hope it works. One row of peas is blossoming today. My carrots did not come up and I planted two large wide rows of them. Strange!?! Should I replant or plant something else there? Unfortunately, I can't till the spot up until the tiller is fixed.

Kev runs into town for a doctor appointment to look at his finger. It's really hanging lately and not keeping the upward look of the other fingers. He's hoping for another splint. Isaac had some cramping today so please pray that everything is fine and that he will be healed!!!

Hoping it will last...

Isaac is coming out of this flare it seems and is greatly improved. His bm's are much less often and we are not seeing blood, although it could be there, we just don't see it clearly. Please pray against the enemy to gain any foothold on this good turn.

Kevin went into the doctor yesterday because his splint was way too loose and not seeming to work to keep his finger up. The OT said if he takes it off at all he is letting the tendon on top fall down and it takes that much longer for it to heal. He has a new splint and he's not allowed to be without it for 6 weeks. He's really feeling it would have been easier to just take the finger off. He would be healed up by now and on with life. They are talking surgery again to repair the tendons and things in there. He sees a specialist sometime in July to discuss this. Another reason to be off with the thing according to Kevin. I see his point but still, it's nice to see his whole finger on him! :)

We are busy with outdoor projects. The kids did a great job of helping rake up the grass in the newly tilled garden area. Today, we cleaned it up and I tilled again. I am having trouble getting it workable. I planted some cucumbers and pole beans. My scavenger husband was at it again and brought home an antenna tower someone threw out. It will be a great pole bean tower. I'm hoping to train the cucumbers up the old spring from a crib we used to have. We are doing a major overhaul on our perennial garden. It used to be about 10' by 64' and is now about 8' by 48'. We took out all the plants, laid down a weed barrier and have transplanted the plants. Tomorrow, we hope to do the finishing touches; edging on the front, mulch, and boards along the back fence to keep the mulch in. I cannot stand weeding this year after year, up to 5 times a summer but I can't see trashing the whole thing either. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Dr. appointment...

Tuesday, we drove the 6 hour drive to Mankato for Isaac's doctor appointment. We borrowed Kevin's parent's car and it was comfortable and quiet and really good on gas! His appointment went well. Dr. K. has a lot of experience with Ulcerative Colitis. He walked us through his labs and it shows he is inflamed, not too badly but that something is going on. We've seen improvement so I hope the inflammation is on the way out. We do labs next week to monitor what's happening so please pray for great improvement! Again, it has been disappointing to go through this setback. Isaac is very discouraged and had a hard night last night accepting it. He woke happy and hasn't been down today, for that I am thankful.

Poor Kev went to get some milk and dropped the jar on the tile floor. Crash went the jar and nearly a gallon of milk everywhere. Thankfully, he is cleaning it up himself. I'm too tired to even think about it! The unfortunateness of using jars for everything. This is the third time it has happened.

I was tilling today and loaded up 4 wheelbarrows of horse manure and spread it on the part of the garden I have left to plant. It is new ground and needs to be raked clear of the grass clumps. I've been tilling it over and over hoping to avoid the raking part but it doesn't appear to be breaking them up too well. This morning Em and I spent three hours cleaning for a lady. I washed her windows outside and polished her cupboards while Em dusted and vacuumed. After a lot of late nights, long day yesterday and today's activities I am ready for bed. Thus, the reason I didn't help Kev clean up the jar. Thanks again for praying and thinking of us. Isaac could sure use some encouragement and of course we all would rejoice with his healing.

Some improvement...

We have seen some improvement in Isaac the last couple days. It is encouraging as we haven't done much but change his diet a bit to deal with the flare and now we have been adding foods back on and he is reacting well to them. He had a doctor appt. with the doctor who helps us keep him on track nutritionally. He's having a great last few days because my dad from Wisconsin is here visiting. He's camping out in my front yard. Some kids have been sleeping out there in the camper too. It gets a little cold at night but they love it. I'm not sure how I feel about them out there, this morning they were confused as to the time and were brushing their teeth at 6:30 a.m. I am not an early morning person.

We went to the dentist yesterday, 8 of us had cleanings! It was two years since we were there last. How many cavities could 8 people have........drum roll please........2! They are both in one child too, meaning 7 of us were free and clear:) They were in back teeth where this child isn't flossing well. Unfortunately for me I have two teeth with cracks in them. He asked me if they were bothering me and right that moment they were not but as soon as I ate something, whoa, pain! I now realize it is my teeth causing my jaw to ache and my head to hurt each day. Oh, bother, as Winnie the Pooh would say.

Our van is going under tomorrow. We decided to get it looked at to figure the problem out. Kevin just got the septic system fixed that was overflowing since last November and then the sprayer engine died, right in the process of killing my millions of dandelions. Life is designed right now to make sure we have not one penny to our name!!! Worse than not one penny, being in the hole a lot of pennies! Again, it feels like that roller coaster ride I sometimes refer to and how I want off. I'm learning to lean into the curves a little and it's not so tumultuous as it once was. I don't even feel a little emotional as I write this and that is progress! I know we are not going through some extraordinary trial that seems to only have hit our family. Thankfully the Lord is leading us through and we can find peace in it all:) So, smile and think of us if you are having a bad day because we're probably having a worse one!!!!! :) JK! (just kidding)

New life...

We are all watching the new babies. Emily was in the pen because Jane knows her because she milks her. Emily was toweling off the babies and helping them stand. She threw some extra straw in the pen for them since the one baby was slipping around on stuff.

The boy kid is the top one and the girl is in front. I think they named the boy Gadget. The dad goat is named Gizmo. We are still deciding on the girl. She'll either be from Pride and Prejudice or another Jane Austen movie. We are tossing around Kitty or MaryAnn.

We have two new babies at our house and they are adorable. I was out in the garden and I heard a baaa sound that sounded quite little. I went over to check on the girls and there was a baby all strong and fluffy and another one being born. Jane gave birth to twins; a boy and a girl. We were hoping for two girls so we could breed them both next year and then have two more to milk. The boy was born first and appears the strongest. It is a very exciting time for all the kids.

Rain, Rain go away...

The items shown here were all completely free! Free! How cool is that? I didn't have to do much to finagle these deals to be free, just hand over the coupons for them. The Windex outside window cleaning kits were $12.99 each (free), Scrubbing Bubbles shower cleaner with battery powered nozzle, $8.96 each, (not only free but I made $1.04 on each), Schick Hydro razors, $7.99 each (again free plus made 5.04 on all four of them), free Carefree pads, Palmolive free and clear(no additives) (free), Infusium shampoo, $7.29 each (free) Bird-eye frozen veggies (free). Everything here was free! It did take the kids and I some work to organize the coupons, checking for deals online and then the time finding it in the stores, since so many are sold out of the item but we did good. Jordan read a wife saved her family $24,000 in all the years she was couponing. That's fun!

I can't take the cold! I want to be outside weeding or something! I drove home from town last night dropping off a kid's friend and the roads are just mush and cause a head-ache even trying to drive on them! The girls tried out with the friend for the symphony yesterday. I'm praying they all make it in. It was a great experience last year for Jordan and we know it would be for Emily. It's a disadvantage that we don't have a school orchestra nearby they could take part in but you do the best you can with what you have and the girls are doing well anyway. We had a very late night. I was couponing last night and for some reason I am so slow at it.

Kevin had an appointment and unfortunately for him, his finger isn't healing very well. He will be 4 more weeks with another new splint. There isn't much blood flow there and that hinders healing. His new splint pushes up the broken bone and makes it look more "normal". He probably won't be able to use the end of that finger and he's a bit bummed because he wants to play banjo with the kids but I'm not without hope. God has done bigger things before!

Isaac is improving with his last relapse. In the UC (ulcerative colitis) world it is called a "flare". It has been disappointing but we know what we are dealing with and a bit about how to fight it. He is definitely improved yesterday and today! Praise God for that! Please continue praying for his healing! Thank you!