Too Long!

Yikes! My last post was on the 9th of May!! How does almost a whole month go by without posting here? Life gets in the way, I guess. BUT, I want to document the cool stuff we have been up to so I am going to be putting up a bunch of posts over the day as I file through my pictures and my brain for the memories. I will be putting them up retroactively as if I posted on the day it happened, or thereabouts, so scroll down till you get to all the new stuff. I won't go into the past beyond the post from the 9th though, so you can stop there!

The Farm

We belong to a great CSA farm that has U-pick opportunities built into our membership. So, the girls and I went out to the farm to get our share of strawberries, and then some. We made a full day of it and had lots of fun.

Here are the girls on the wagon ride over to the strawberry field.

E with some of the scrumptious berries. We picked a total of 6 quarts, and ate probably a quart between us. Ok, not really, but we did sample!

After we got back and paid for our berries, we stashed them in the van and went to explore the farm. First, we said hello to the animals.

These were the cutest bunnies, eva'! It was very hard not to steal one and take it home.

Then we played on the rope swings.

And jumped on the awesome Pumpkin Pillow. The other kids were there for a school field trip. When they all left, it was soooo quiet and peaceful.

E had to hop up on the lovely cow statue for a photo op.

Here, A is sorting out her gemstones that she panned for in the sluice. The girls each got quite a haul from the one little bag we bought. Not to mention the fun it was to see what the water revealed!

It was a good day on the farm and we look forward to going back soon! We are also looking forward when our first box of goodies from the farm is delivered!

Pictures and Words

And now for something completely different....

We have a great maple tree in our front yard that is fairly easy to climb, so the girls do.

I found some rope in the basement left by the owners or a previous tenant and decided we needed a rope swing.

A is helping to make a batch of strawberry jam by squashing the berries we got from the farmers market.

E helped by stirring the cooking jam. She looks a little apprehensive, don't you think?

One weekend we went to an arts festival in the next town over. There was a community mural that the girls and I put our mark on.

Despite E being done before the rest of us, we had a good time looking at all the art for sale and even bought some for our home.

The girls came home very inspired and painted for two days straight until I ran out of canvases!

This last one requires a story. One night there was a heavy rainstorm. Water was getting into our basement under two doors and even down our electric line. Then the power went out at 1am. That meant we no longer had to worry about the water on the power lines, but now we had to worry about water filling up our basement. C stayed up to bail out the cistern since the sump pump couldn't run with no electricity. He got me up, not that I could sleep worrying about water damaging our stuff in the basement, at 3am and I helped with the water bailing efforts until the power came back on at 6am. C immediately left to go buy a generator at Home Depot! This is a picture of A trying to get it started for a test run the next day.

My Baby is Gone!

No, not my human ones. My first real car was taken away this morning to be donated to the Purple Heart Car Donation program. We had been thinking about going down to one car for a while to see how we could manage, and when we looked at the monetary resale value of a 1994 Saturn SC2 with windows that would not roll down and an engine that overheats if you don't run the AC, donating it started to look real good. The tax benefit will be nice since we don't have a house payment to our advantage right now.

Anyway, I never thought about how hard it would be to say goodbye to a car. Granted, I have had this car for 14 years, but still. It's a car. A car that carried me safely across the country on two solo trips and me and C back and forth from FL to NY, FL to AL, NY to VA, and NV to CA. A car that, despite the little issues mentioned above, never broke down or even had a flat tire in 14 years. And it was not only my car, as C began driving it as his primary vehicle back around 2000. He was the one to get up early this morning to meet the donation people. He was the one to do the hard job of letting her go. And you did not hear it from me, but I think some tears were shed. It's silly, but true. We loved that hunk of steel and glass and plum polymer side panels.

Here she is in all her shiny new car glory back in 1994:

Goodbye sweet Saturn. We will miss you. We trust that what value you have left will benefit some hurting veterans and that your absence will help us to live more simply that others may live.

How Do I Love Swaptree...

...let me count the ways:

1. You can make a list of all the books, cds, and dvds that you want and a list of all the books cds and dvds you have that you don't want and the Swaptree computers find you matches for trading said book, cds, and dvds. Oh yeah, video games, too!

2. You save money and get rid of stuff you don't want or need all at the same time! Everything is free! All you pay for is the shipping on the item you send out.

3. Instead of buying new things, you find someone to trade stuff with and you get to do your part to help save the world's resources. And used is cheaper, too.

4. It does not even have to be a one to one trade; i.e. I can get a book for a cd, or a dvd for a video game, or a dvd for a book or cd for a video game. You get the picture.

5. The more people that join and start sharing, the better your chances of getting what you want. Soooooo, everybody join up and get trading!

The First Haul

Happy May Day!! Today was the opening of the local farmers market. It was sparsely attended both by the farmers and the customers because of a little rain, but that did not deter us. We grabbed the umbrella and put our hoods up and walked the two blocks to the market. And here is our first bounty of the year! Not bad for May 1st. Those asparagus look soooo fresh. I am eager to cook some up for dinner. And the strawberries are going to taste so yummy in a shortcake for dessert. It was nice to see some produce make it through the winter for us - the apples and sweet potatoes were grown last season. All the farms are within 125 miles from the markets in Fairfax county. I did not bother with asking for growing methods this time as getting truly local produce is my main priority, but I will find the ones that practice organic or as close as possible in the coming weeks. We just stopped by each booth and got a little something from each one.

I am going to try really hard to feed us from the market and the CSA we joined this year. And what little we manage to grow ourselves this year. I figure the balance will shift towards self sufficiency as we get better at doing it ourselves, but for now I am grateful for local produce! I am told there will be pasture-raised meat and eggs and dairy soon, as well. Hooray!!

p.s. Don't forget the book offer!