Do you want to see what a satisfying Saturday looks like?
Our yards are all mowed and edged (thanks Taylor!) the thistles in the main yards are out, the front of the barn is weeded (I did that this week, but it’s still weed free today), Josephine and I made dirt cakes in the yard, and now she’s napping peacefully while Taylor and I watch the Giants game before my mom and step dad come to visit. Feels so good! So, unbelievably good!
Hello, welcome to my back porch, also known as “The Captain’s Porch”. Yesterday while Josephine napped after our family zoo trip (for over two hours!) I decided to work on cleaning this area up. Over the next couple of months I hope to make this into a nice little area. Our house is awesome, and our back yard is particularly badass, however, there is no direct route or clear path from the inside/living room to the back. It’s a little funny. Enter the Captain’s porch. There is a door leading from our dining room/music area to the side yard. It is our hope to make this the passage to the outdoors. Right now nobody uses the side door or the Captain’s Porch. Probably because it’s overgrown with weeds and grass. There is also a broken down hot tub out there, but that’ll stay for a while I’m sure.
I went to town weeding and clipping back a bush that I’m getting ready to dig up. Fun Emily Fact: I HATE bushes. They are awkward and need to be manicured and are only good for a rousing round of hedgecore (Ahhhhhh, to be 19 again). And so I’m tearing it out.
I worked my behind off cleaning this area. And I am super duper sore now. But this was COMPLETELY worth it!
Please excuse the goats. They love to be everywhere I am when they are out. I had a little gang going with the three goats and Buddy all hanging around while I worked. Apparently, I am quite popular with the farm animals.
But I digress, doesn’t the porch area look good! It’s a start at least. Eventually we’ll have an herb garden out there and some chairs to make it a proper Captain’s Porch 🙂
The sun is shining, I’m getting crap done and feeling good! Which is nice because I’ve been having a rough go with balancing life, work, relationship and two year old for the last week. Don’t feel too bad for me, most of it boils down to bad time management and inability to say no and stay home on my part. Live and learn. But, things are looking up!
Oh, and because my family is the cutest and I know you all yearn to see pictures from our day at the zoo, here you go. You’re welcome.
In the process of moving and getting adjusted to life out here, we let our pasture maintenance slip. Before the goats and horses came, our pastures became pretty overgrown. And then the thistles came. And then they bloomed (such pretty purple blossoms). And then they seeded the hell out if the pastures. I’m sure our neighbors are simultaneously laughing at us and cursing us (since I am sure some of the thistle seeds blew onto their property). I now know why they say to take care of weeds before they seed. I’m afraid this one season is going to take us years of work to undo. Recently I started the de-thistle process. Man. I went through most of one of our small pastures. The main goat pasture. The back end of it is full of flat thistles, with a few tall ones thrown in for good measure. Josephine and I went to town, and still, we did not get them all. Notice I said Josephine and I were in the goat pasture. This is possible because…we no longer have the asshole goats!!! Hooray! Yippee! Party time! We are down to three: our two wonderful, lovely goats named Duck and Billy, and the rental goat, a fat Pygmy goat named Giselle who likes to make a lot of noise, but who is quite well mannered. Now that the asshole goats have moved on to a new farm somewhere with tall fences that they can not leap over, it is safer for Josephine to spend time in the goat pasture with me. And now that she has stopped (for the most part) asking, “Where Bobby Poppy?” (the names of said asshole goats), it is quite pleasant to be able to walk through the pasture or do maintenance without being reared at or head butted or pushed around. Thank the goat lord!
Anyways, thistle time. We have a long road ahead of us, but every day it’s getting easier to do chores with Josephine in tow (in the pasture she spent a lot of time throwing grass into the water troughs, dipping sticks in the water to “paint” on the rocks nearby, and talking about her muscles. She is strange). Taylor even irrigated with Josephine this week without a hitch. You can be sure she had a blast tromping through the waters with her boots on! As for the thistle, one day we will look back and realize that we conquered them. And I will dance a jig (because I am strange, ok? I take after Josephine).
Oh, and one more thing. The neighbors butchered Mister Cow. Right in the pasture directly in front of our living room window. Luckily Taylor saw and closed the window before Josephine could watch. She LOVED Mister Cow. Farm life just got real!
lazy to living 