Week-ending

 1.  Bug's quilt finally underway. 

2.  A basket of apples from our tree being enjoyed. 

3.  Squish's first face plant down the steps. 

4.  Grapes solving some brotherly conflict.

5.  A little R & R. 

6.  On a bicycle that's not built for two.

7.  A celebration of two years of sobriety.

8.  Preparing for next week with some rest. 

What is possible?

Is it possible to feel homesick for a place you've never been to? 

If you could afford the best schools in the world for your kids would you feel like you would be short changing their life by sending them to one?

My--or our--answer to these questions is "yes." 

Daddy-o and I have been talking (a lot) about moving to Idaho for sometime now. 

Here in Tucson we feel limited by our space and in Idaho, if done right, our only limitations will be ourselves.  How awesome would that be!

We feel that teaching our children how to sustain themselves is more important than a college degree. That piece of parchment may provide them a paycheck to buy the essentials but why not cut out the middle-man and just get them yourself? Not to mention that they will be an indentured servant for that piece of paper.
If we teach them how to be sustainable with their own hands and off their own land they will never have to rely on others to keep them fed, clothed and covered by shelter.

These feelings and ideas are nothing new.  It's what our great-grandparents did.  It's what they had to do!

In searching the Internet this past week we found our dream home and land.  It's only $800,000 over our budget so yesterday I hit up a Circle K for some lottery tickets.  Actually, I expect to be there weekly now. 

Unless we come into a windfall of money we know this dream of ours will take many years before it can all come together but everyday we will wake up and stay on our path that will take us to Idaho some day. 

These photos capture part of the every day life we want for our kids on our dream property. 

This moment

Camping in Greer, Arizona

this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Via:  http://soulemama.com/

Where we are

Hello All:  I know it's been some time since I was last on here. During my time away I contemplated letting this blog go altogether.  I have enjoyed my time here but I don't like what I have felt was this constant pressure (that I have placed on myself) to be a hip and fun blogger like all the ones I read.  However, after much thought I want to give blogging a try again.  I am not sure how I am going to fit this into my daily priorities but I will try. 

So let's start fresh!

This morning after playing Farmer John I went around taking pictures all of the life we have in our front and back yard. 

These are three of the five fruit trees we have planted over the last year.  There are two apples, two peaches and an Asian pear.

Here is Squish enjoying an apple from this morning.

This is a new planting location for us this year.  When we bought this house there was a walled in area that once housed a spa.  I had high hopes of this one day being the perfect chicken coop but when the Daddy-O decided he needed a pool I figured it should go in here for safety reasons. 

In here is a mess of melons and various kinds of squash.  You see our first mound of compost didn't get hot enough to kill all the seeds in there so every time we use that compost we get a load of surprises.

 These are newest planters we have.  This was left over culvert from our rainwater harvesting set-up...

  In the newest planters there are tri-colored green beans, snap peas and more squash.

 This is one of our three grape vines.

This is kind of an overview of our main and original garden area (less most of the junk stacked up on the left).  It's not Homes and Garden pretty but it functions for food production.

In this area we have sugar pumpkins, corn, tomatoes, acorn and butternut squash, zucchini, okra, watermelon, garlic, bell peppers, pablanos and a few remaining onions.

Every year we try to find news places and food to plant.  Our new goal for this year is to set up aquaponics.  It's important for us to be as self reliant as possible for our food.  Neil was fortunate enough to get drawn and then to shoot an elk late last year so that has been our main protein source.  Unfortunatly, Neil was not drawn this year so our new goal for protein consumption will be the fish we raise in our back yard through the aquaponics system.

I hoped you enjoy seeing our little piece of this earth.