House in progress: 2015

Here we go again! Maybe I'll make it past the middle of the season this year? We'll see. But don't hold your breath. Brad also should probably take and post some pictures of the progress on the upstairs. There's a slight possibility that I'm beginning to be hopeful that it might actually be finished before the boys go to college. To date, the electrician has been in to wire the place, the insulation in the exterior walls has been completed, and the plumber doesn't need to come back until the final attachments are ready to go into the bathroom. If I remember correctly, we're waiting to hear back from the insulation guy on the interior walls. Then the sheetrock guys will be able to come in. We also need the contractor to finish up the outside of the house - siding, doors, front porch, back deck. So another busy construction summer awaits! But that's ok. It's progress!

We've also challenged ourselves as a family to visit all of our state's state parks with walking/hiking trails. It's a great way to get the boys out on a morning for some exercise and exploring. There are no set agendas for the walks; no journals of wildlife, no counting birds, etc. Just getting out and getting moving together. Although, unofficially, I've also set us a goal of taking a family selfie at each place, too. Best if there's a bench, but a clear path will do in a pinch. :)

So now, on to our CSA for the season. There's been a slight change for this year; we pick up on Wednesday instead of Tuesday now. Also, one of the farms that used to participate in the CSA is taking the season off, so the name has changed. We're now with Blue Skys Farm instead of Four Friends Farm. Our season started last week and we are so happy that it did. This year, we've signed up for a single veggie share, a fruit share, and an egg share. We'll get veggies and eggs each week for 20 weeks and fruit for ten weeks starting at week 11. Our first email mentioned that there would be tours of the farm available, so M was VERY excited to get to the farm. I had not realized before Wednesday that he enjoyed tours so much. Brad met us half way so that we could all go over together. We went to the same area as last year to pick up our share and bumped into some of Brad's photography friends. While they were chatting, M kept asking about when we were going to get our tour. The only person around was the farmer at the distribution table. I tried to put him off, but he wasn't having any of it. He had been told there'd be a tour, and he wanted that tour. Of course, since no five-year-old has a discreet setting for their voice, the woman at the table overheard and inquired about whether we would like a tour. I know that farms are busy places, so I said only if there was someone available. I didn't want to pull anyone away from work just for the sake of our tour. But she insisted that the lead farmer was itching to give tours, so we said we'd love one. We learned some history of the land and buildings, got to see the greenhouses and the tractors. I hadn't realized that there were different types of greenhouses, but evidently there are. We saw the washroom (for the greens, not the bathroom as I had assumed before we walked in) which is housed in an old dairy barn. The washroom section has just been redone in part to keep the barn swallows out. We also got to go through the unconverted part of the barn and check out the barn swallows in action. They build their nests on the sides of the beams that run across the barn. The nests are made of a mud-like substance and are almost cone-shaped. The boys loved watching the birds swoop in and out of the barn; we even got to see some baby birds in their nest! We're so excited for this summer's CSA season! Our farmers are great; they take time to listen to what their customers are looking for out of a CSA share and share their ideas with the customers as well. They interact with the boys and encourage them to try out new vegetables. M was excited to try the mint that Christina offered him. He also got to try a borage flower. It tastes a bit like cucumber. M says it's "kind of yummy." S is not quite as adventurous when it comes to trying things at the farm. But he loved seeing the birds and smelling the fresh herbs. Here are some photos of this week's share. So far we've only eaten the snow peas. I think salads with the lettuce are on deck for lunch today. Maybe the turnips with dinner tonight.