It looks like we will close on our new land on Sept 3rd or so. We're trying to find a tractor for sale that we like before that happens because we can qualify for a loan program if it's before we buy the land, but so far we're not finding what we want.
Here's a picture of part of our new land, in the middle of a small locust tree grove. It was quite lovely in June, although we're going to have to cut and bulldoze a driveway out of that bad boy.
Here's a picture of the pasture ground, with a little of that grove showing in the background.
In preparation for selling our place, we've been doing various things including staining the deck and replacing the living room carpet. The stain was a bunch of mistints all mixed together, and at first I thought it was too RED. But it has grown on me and I like it.
Before (basically no stain left, since we hadn't stained since we moved in):
After:
And here's a wider shot with the red deck:
The red has faded a bit already since it's not so fresh, and it's softer now in a good way.
I've been doing a little bit of crafting, mostly small projects. H is in a kind of summer preschool program put on by a friend of mine, and I was supposed to embroider a napkin for her to use at mealtimes. H asked for "yellow elephants" on her napkin, so that's what I embroidered for her.
I also made a small charity quilt out of scraps I found when cleaning up my quilting supplies. I used the opportunity to practice quilting feathers, which I think I improved through the practice.
H loves to "help" do various tasks and chores, which really is good. She is, of course, not good at them yet, but her willingness lets us teach her.
Tearing up bread for a topping for a casserole (boy, was this a GREAT task for a toddler! Tear it up, it doesn't matter how, and the food processor blades can't run with the lid off):
Watering plants:
And washing windows:
Before starting my job, I took a very quick trip with Little Z up to my childhood camp in Northern Wisconsin. My feelings about going there were well summed up by this sign that they've added recently:
If I have one spot in the world that I consider to be "mine," it is this rock:
I don't know why, but that rock is just the perfect place at camp. It is a little secluded from the cabins, but you can still see what's going on with the sailboats and everything else. I can almost smell the pine trees just looking at this picture.
On the way up there, Z and I stopped at one of the Grottos, this one in Wisconsin somewhere. Wow. World class ugly, that thing is. Can't believe someone spent his life cementing pieces of junk together as an homage to his faith and America ('Merica?).
We also did our annual outing to the Iowa State Fair about a week ago, where we spent eight hours there and succeeded in finding a company to build a building on our new land. We're really looking forward to building what we need and not cobbling together functionality from buildings that don't really suit us.
At the end of a long day, H is a little tired:
And with that, the kiddos need me. Sigh. Keep on swimming!
No comments:
Post a Comment