Finances, Effort, and Time

Spring is a busy season on the homestead.  The snows of winter not only bring a quiet, beautiful, peace, but also force you to slow down--you don't leave the house for frivolous reasons, your adventures tend to have a shorter radius, and hunkering down is mighty fine.  The melt seems to scream "GAME ON."  I wrote last year on the true meaning of spring cleaning (picking up everything that got forgot before the snow fell), and it holds true for yet another year--and the chore list seems to have done nothing but grow.

My friend Em and the Wall Crew

We enjoyed a gloriously long weekend together.  My schedule this quarter, has allowed for several luxuriously long weekends that have allowed us to focus on tasks at home and get the most out of the lengthening days.  My being home has allowed me time to focus on the kiddos as well as enable Cam to get some work done on the house.  The framing stage of building is so fun, because you see change each day, and finally get a look at what your home is really going to look like.  And I'd say it's looking pretty awesome....  Looking out the windows up there is going to be heaven.  We were lucky to have some friends from Twisp over the last weekend to help us raise two of the four walls, and then Cam and I finished the third this week.  Cam says it's all coming back to him, and I'd say he's doing a fine job!  The front wall will be a bit of a challenge as it's quite tall; one of our neighbors who is a master carpenter has offered some help as well, for which we were very grateful.  Four walls.... The kids have been so excited to see the changes... and are sure enjoying the flat spot to ride their bikes!  It feels good to see my husband up there working on our home, and while we swore up and down we would never build a house EVER again, this one seems a bit more fun.... and so exciting.  On the house docket remains: power/water lines to the house, a septic system, and that big 'ol front wall.  That should keep Cam busy for quite some time!

Me Getting Personal with the Nail Gun

Child of Spring- Wild and Free

Our fruit trees and berry patch are sure loving all this spring sunshine.  Nevertheless, we did take my Uncles advice and throw up a deer fence, following a late night ransacking of my pear tree.  It didn't cause much damage, but I had blossoms and chewed off buds on the ground covering little doe hooves.  NOT OKAY!  I had been hoping our dogs would keep the deer at bay, but not the case.  Following the fires we hadn't seen many deer in our area, but they are back and in FULL force.  I must have seen 200 deer on my way to school this morning (picturesque but makes for an anxious commute).  So, in true TEAM BROWN fashion, we threw up a piece meal fence to suffice until we build something more permanent/fancy.  It seems to have done the trick though, but I'm pretty sure the deer could jump right over it if they wanted to (which could be tasty....).  Along with the deer, many other animals are finally returning along with the regrowth of vegetation.  We have had whole herds of turkeys, our owls are back, the Sandhill Cranes have been flying, and my neighbor that I ride with said she just saw a mama bear with a cub the other night.  It's good to see, because it was really starting to feel like the moon around here with the ashen landscape.    Spring happened so fast this year.  In fact we have a wild plum tree that literally bloomed overnight.  We had been waiting on it, and checking buds, and then all of a sudden it looked like it had been snowed on.



I've come to the conclusion that when you do things yourself or chose to live out in the wilds a bit, life takes three things: financing, effort, and time.  Unfortunately, life rarely gives you all three at once... Luckily though, a lack of one is often compensated for by an excess of another (which usually means effort makes up for anything that gets thrown your way).  Right now, time is a little short, and the days simply not long enough to finish all we'd like to get done.  We have to prioritize and set ourselves up for success in the coming seasons and years, when hopefully our ratio is a bit more inline with our project list.... And a house is probably a bit more of a priority then another garden bed, or fences for that milk cow I've been searching for.. darn it!  It's a good life we're building, it feels just right.