We are homeowners...for real!

Since I'm the one more often pinned down with a sleeping baby, I get to be the main blogger these days! This would likely be a much more interesting post if Jason were to author it but the list of things for him to write about is growing and this is worth noting before it is old news!

Sunday, May 15th marked 17 years since Jason and I were married - it was the best decision I have ever made, particularly not knowing at all what I was getting in for. So grateful for the five homes we have shared (if you count our two one month stints the summer we got married - I do!), the many plants and animals we have tended and most importantly the four daughters we have birthed! We made sure to give each other at least 17 kisses throughout the day - this might not sound like much but it was a rather major undertaking for us at the particular stage of life we find ourselves in. I'm trying to keep it up in the days since our anniversary but I'm afraid it is about 5 p.m. and I think we are at two pecks for the day thus far! Better get on it this evening...

So I'm hoping we'll cook up a good celebration (alone!) come year 20.  However, we did do one major thing to celebrate: over a morning cup of coffee and a Wendell Berry Sabbath poem we wrote our last mortgage payment check for our Fruit Farm Lane property! Terah was mostly interested in the coffee...So for the first time in our married life we are really homeowners. And what a home in the making it is and continues to be for us... I still feel very committed to being worthy of having been chosen by Pam to be entrusted with this precious piece of earth. I sure hope our living on it only improves it!

On the evening of our anniversary, after enjoying dinner with friends, it was all about getting every tomato and pepper plant on the property covered by nightfall.  While the low temperature predicted was only 37, there was a frost advisory.  And upon consulting our neighbor, he recommended covering (if it calls for anything below 40!). So crates and flower pots were covered with pieces of row cover or a feed sack and placed over dozens of plants scattered in five different gardens.  Was it all for nothing?  What a relief to know they were safe when Jason came in the next morning to report a solid covering of frost in the main garden!

And a few other quick things to end on:

My other anniversary commitment to Jason was that I want us to try to name one thing going well for every thing we comment being behind on. So we celebrated our plants surviving the frost. We aren't sure how much of our onion crop is going to make it - too many things against them this year (seed that wasn't great, ordered seed arriving later than desired planting time, getting sets that had dried out to fill in blank areas, weed pressure and rain, rain, rain, rain...).  Time will tell - basically we aren't counting our onions until they are pulled! Here's Jason attempting to lower the weed pressure after the soil dried enough to get in there (that was yesterday - and now today was another rainy day).

We like having pigs! And they seem to be adjusting nicely to Tangly Woods... They have already rooted up the ground they were on and so Jason is out moving them to a fresh area - they are earning their keep thus far!

And, finally, Kali made a lovely pot of chili for her Monday meal this week to go over polenta crisps. We took advantage of some sunshine and enjoyed a fun picnic!