When did hard work become wrong?

So my hubby and I have been having issues with the town. We are different and have less money then most around here. Instead of giving up we struggle and fight. One issue has been the height of our lawn.. yes this is an issue.. why? because our neighbor mows as low as he can every 3 days. We can't afford this and hate the way it make our lawn feel. I'm an old fashioned girl and love running through the yard in bare feet during the summer.. it's no fun when the grass gives you splinters!!

We have been given a riding lawn mower that was about 7 years old and had "quirks" and a push mower that a friend found for free that he tinkered with. So basically both were well used.. well this year they have had one issue after another.

I'm tired of the issues, the money spent to fix them, the time wasted trying to get the right part only to get the wrong one 5 times in a row...  So why not use a mower that basically has so few parts it won't break?? and how would we go about finding one like that...

Well after a looooong talk with my hubby we decided to see if his parents still had his grandfather's old reel mower. The first words out of his dad's mouth was.. "you can't use that to mow your lawn, you live on 3 lots!"  Needless to say we now have it.

Yesterday, hubby and I mowed our lawn with the old fashion reel mower. I will never go back to gas! Yes, we have a huge yard and since we live on  a corner there is a lot of parking to mow... but I loved it! The exercise was wonderful and the muscles in my arm felt well used..

Everyone driving around town wasting gas slowed down to stare.. even the mayor took the time for a drive by... we just kept going enjoying our time with the kids working as a family. After a while one guy stopped and asked if we had actually mowed the whole yard "with that!?"  Hubby's answer was yes. They had a nice conversation and I think my hubby may have made another friend. But the man said he couldn't let us mow with it, he would look around for a push mower...

Even my 5 year old can do it! And loves it!!

Mows great look at hubby go!

Bitty got stuck :) It get's stuck on sticks :)

Why? Why is it an issue? Back in the day EVERYONE mowed with a gas-less mower... why is it such an issue now? I don't want to waste money by using gas to mow the lawn.. I can use my energy instead. We also have 3 kids who wanted to help mow and they all can with this one..   I don't get it.. I like hard work.. it's rewarding.. I feel accomplishment that I never felt while pushing a button on the computer.    We had a wonderful rewarding experience with our kids and hope to have many more.. teaching them the value and rewards of handwork!  Check out our pics!

Animal Update

This is the first time that I can really say our Christmas presants are still going strong 2 months after Christmas. The tank and the animals in it have brought us and our guests great joy. The kids have learned a lot about Tree Frogs, Fire Bellied Toads, Salamanders and Anoles. We have had 2 fatalities. 2 Tree frogs literally bloated up and died. They belive this was just caused by age of the animal,( they don’t always know the age of the frogs they get in.) 

We about lost 1 Anole. Snowman was our first anole and it seems that he was a solitary animal. He decided if the crickets didn’t come to him that he was not going to go and find them. We found him shrinking and barely moving at the bottom of the tank on our weekly check.  This was very scary for all of us. Corey and I took him in the next day, the store was really great and gave us a refund… not that we cared.. there was an animal we loved fading fast. 

One of the guys  (we’ll call him C) who we talk to every time we go in and has helped us get our big tank set up took Snowman home, kept him safe and eventually he plumped back up.  C put him back in a tank and sold him to a family with a little boy who knew they were only going to have one Anole. He told the family that he was named Snowman and the little boy loved the name. So Snowman is in a good place and is still Snowman :)

It’s wonderful that they allowed us to follow up on Snowman, not just left him to die or wouldn’t tell us what happend they kept us in the loop the whole time. It’s wonderful working with a local non chain store pet shop!

So here is updated picture of our critters.

Excited

Lol with a title like that your probably thinking it's something major... it's not for most people but for me it is.

Tomorrow night I get to ride with my husband as he drives his route... okay, most people think, yeah riding in the snow, in a Semi that hasn't been taken care of well (his place of employment believes in total break down instead of upkeep) and a seat with no air ride .....that's fun?

For me it is. Tomorrow night there will be no ADHD, there will be no Alzheimer's, No Asthma, no Overactive Immune System and no hug and kiss and saying "boy do I miss you". I won't have to call and talk to Corey on the phone at 11 so we can touch base and make sure were on the same page for the next day and for the weekend.  Trying to plan a garden over the phone is sooo not easy!

Tomorrow night it's the two of us :) We get to talk, catch up and enjoy the open road and the sights around us. I get to meet a few of Corey's Fav. warehouse guys for this run and well relax...  Tomorrow night I get to just be me.. and what's even better is I don't have to talk.. if I need quiet there will be quiet if I need to talk we'll talk.. and if we stop at a rest area to run in and get a pop or something, I get to hold my husbands hand with out a little person getting mad :)



It may not sound like much but I sooo look forward to these nights. They don't come often but when they do I cherish them! 

Second big excitement was a day with Gma like no other!
I have not had a day as good as Monday was with my grandmother in so long. She was still lost... but she wasn't.. I know that doesn't make sense but she was Happy.. joking in a good way :)

We played 3 games of Spite and Malice and she "won 2 games :) I never thought I'd cheat at cards so my grandmother would win, but it made her day. After cards I was folding Newspaper pots and she asked if I would show her. She was so into it and even understood most of the directions. She only had an issue with one part but even my 9 year old had issues with it. :) We made 22 pots! together!   Then when my mom txted me gma told me I should have said "gma put those bottles away mom's almost home "  She was joking.. and as I came out of the bathroom at one point I could hear her saying "Colty quit climbing the ceiling" :) These were funny, not mean jokes.. I had a piece of Gma I hadn't had in over a year.   And we talked.. It was nice, it was calm and except for a few minor things that were off.. we had a good day!

Third .. My husband and the support he has been showing me. Over the past few years he's worked on being and showing his support. During the good and the bad.  Tuesday there was bad.. and when my stomach clenched and I was worried.. he told me go! You have to go, I'll take care of the stuff here and have the kids watch a movie while I take my afternoon nap... What a Blessing to me that he's supportive..  I was able to help and was relived at the outcome instead of worrying all day/night.


My other big excitement this week  was a huge weight lifted and Blessing was a family discussion. My Parents, Grandparents and my brother and myself had a family dissucion. I've been praying that this would happen and that it go well. There are so many personalities, generations and ideals that it was hard telling how it would go, but everyone talked, everyone shared their feelings, and we are working toward a more freezable schedule and way of working together. :) There were moments with Gma that were very hard, but things I had dreaded saying turned out okay. I'm so praying everything works out. I know it's no where near perfect, but if we can give peace to our family and take some weight off those who are over weighted it would be awesome!   And my dad wants to take the kids camping! All of them :)

My big smile for the day was "puppy" asking pa for a hug and pa giving "puppy" and Colty the biggest hug and smile I'd seen in forever :)   

and to add to all this a nice night with the kids :) Bit and I picked out pictures because she's the "Star of the Week"  She had to take the big picture from the wedding with everyone in it :) She has pictures of the Great Grandparent's, my parents and our family along with a few from here and there when she was little....

So this week so far hasn't been a bad week. I've been truly blessed with a week worth thinking about and Small Blessings every where. Sometimes it just takes picking out the good moments for me to realize why I do the things I do :)

Night all!

Tomatoes have blown up!

I wish I would have had the forethought to take pictures of all the tomatoes littering our kitchen... or the ones still on the vines outside almost ripe... My question is why does it seem they blow up on the worst and hottest days of the summer?

I've decided next year to plant a set of plants every few days instead of all at once... I'm wondering if I plant one of each type of tomato and pepper and then 4 days later do it again if I could in turn make waves of produce instead of a huge wave that I can't climb out of?

I've lost about a basketful of Tomatoes this year either to bugs or to harvesting them and being unable to use them.. there were a few times we didn't have jars and just couldn't afford them or I was extremely busy...

At least I was able to talk Corey into trying to compost again... The last time we tried it wasn't very organized and lets just say it's now a very well producing weed pile :(

Between this and the worm bin I hope we can compost and not waste as much as we had been.

Yesterday I taught my nine year old daughter how to wield a knife like a pro.. at first I had her going slow but she picked up the pace and we were able to finely chop up 2 1/2 gallons of chopped tomato..

I had hoped to process salsa today but with an asthma attack last night saw the need to take Colton in today for a check up. With the Dr. being over an hour away we wasted much of the day.
So tomorrow after a visit with my mom and grandparents I hope to process a few batches...

So with another 30 tomatoes staring at me in my kitchen I'm ready to call a truce with the Tomato Craze and spend time with the kids instead... if one rots over night it will go in the compost.. I shouldn't get upset that I missed just one.... time for kid time!

Will continue next week posting on frugal wedding's and ideas that we used... also more on this years harvest and savings.. we also have the Can recycle bin, and my hopes of a big outdoor worm bin... (I'm sure my husband is driving down the road cringing right now.. knowing that I'm on my favorite blogs getting ideas... "it's only a few cinder blocks and a big hole and a pvc pipe honey and we've been offered 100 cinder blocks for free if we can go to town...."  at least now he won't fall asleep while working night shift :)  See being frugal has it's advantages.. and having an ox for a husband makes it even better!

See simple blessings are every where :)