Worse...but... Better

The excavation project began today as scheduled.  I know you must think I am exaggerating by calling it an excavation project but trust me - the room renovation task is that arduous.  It is really overwhelming which is why we kept putting it off and putting it off.  This morning I told Mr. Yesteryear Acres I was starting the project. He balked and protested and said he would get to it and I put my foot down and said WE ARE STARTING TODAY. My son was the only optimistic member of the family and could see how we start the project and make some progress.  He actually was the first one to dig in. Right now the room looks a million times worse....but better.  We made a lot of improvement!  Once my son and I started working, Mr. Yesteryear Acres gave in and he started helping and then my daughter pitched in as well. With all four of us dedicated to getting this project on the way - it really went much more quickly than any of us imagined. We have things in piles all over the room and it looks like a disaster area BUT it is an organized disaster area.  I even have the new makings of a work area! I have my computer set up near the window and can see out to our backyard which is SO nice. I have a beautiful hillside to brighten my work days. I am so excited to finally get this project going. It was long overdue and the end result will be SO worth it! Part II....tomorrow!

It's Like Starting the Excavation Project

This morning I was ready for the excavation project.  I woke up ready to go! Let's start.  Let's get this thing going.  Let's get after this! Then.......I had to take new puppy pictures for the website.  Then I had to look through all 300+ pictures and marvel at how cute our puppies are. Then I had to upload all the new puppy pictures on the website.  Then I had to publish the website. Then it was lunch time and I was super hungry so obviously I had to eat lunch. Then I had to wait for my daughter to get home because how could I ever start the excavation project without her kind assistance? Come to think of it - I believe I shall put ALL the blame on my daughter because she wasn't ready for the excavation first thing this morning so clearly my lack of getting started is her fault. When the afternoon rolled around - was it my fault that the peaches were ready to be picked?  I mean..... peaches vs. excavation........Peaches Win!  You can't deny big softball size peaches just ripe for the picking! My daughter came home just in time to help me pick peaches.  We ended up picking a bushel and a half of Red Haven peaches, plus a bushel of Paula Red apples AND a peck of tomatoes.  That is like starting the excavation project but SO much better!  We ended up peeling and slicing 5 quarts of peaches for canning, prepared a delightful peach salad to go with dinner AND a made huge peach crumble crisp for dessert. The crisp is baking as I type and the house smells sooooo good!  I am sure when Mr. Yesteryear Acres comes in from the garden he will say we chose well. For dinner we have fresh baked tomatoes over pappardelle pasta. Yes it is like starting the excavation project......there is NO procrastination happening here!

Quilt of Memories

My younger daughter and I finally finished the big quilt project we started this summer! I made a quilt like this for my older daughter when she left for the Naval Academy.  She was no longer allowed to wear civilian clothes and had to leave behind all her favorite T-shirts.  I thought, "why don't we turn all your favorite T-shirts into a big quilt!"  That way she could bring all her favorite shirts with her and not have to say goodbye to everything that reminded her of home.  The quilt turned out beautifully and it is still one of my older daughter's most favorite possessions.  She brings it everywhere and loves it dearly. My younger daughter decided she wanted a T-shirt quilt for her dorm room at college so this summer we started making her quilt. Last night we finished the last of tufting all the layers and it is now officially finished! Now that is one big "To-Do" happily crossed off my list. I am so glad we got it done and we had fun doing it together.

All the pieces blocked out for the front of Quilt 

Sewing the blocks together

We took turns sewing strips and by the end, my daughter was pretty quick at assembling the pieces 

Front side done!

Ready for the batting

Pieces blocked for the back of Quilt 

Ta Da!  All finished!

Ready for her Dorm Room.  Now it will feel like home!

I mean it

This weekend I am going to take care of all the little things on my "To-Do" list and then come Monday morning, I WILL START MY LAST BIG PROJECT.  I mean it. August is knocking on my door and I will not procrastinate any longer. I will wake up with the birds. I will put on my serious housecleaning attire. I will arm myself with garbage bags, donation boxes, vacuum cleaner and all the essentials to tackle the last excavation project.  The longer I put this off, the worse the room becomes.  It is now the "Oh just throw it in there" room for EVERYTHING that doesn't have a proper place.  I believe that once I start - I may never emerge again! It really is that monumental of a project. It has been kind of a disaster area for a couple of years and I MEAN IT - it will be done.  Monday morning.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres has been coming up with all sorts of things to distract me from starting this project.  He is actually the biggest transgressor of "Oh just throw it in there" and he is living in fear that I may actually get RID of non-working things and mementos from the 70's. Mr. Yesteryear Acres insists that HE will clean the room but we all know that will NEVER happen so I am going to do it. Mr. Yesteryear Acres....say goodbye to your 8-Track tapes! I mean it!

We Got Rain!

It actually rained here yesterday! Real rain!  We got 4/10th of an inch! The doomsday predicted repeat of June's torrential storm path didn't come true but we did get one huge thunderstorm to roll through here.  When June's storm hit we really had no idea something that big was coming. It caught everyone off guard. This time the news media had us well prepared and since we were expecting the worst - we got a regular good ole thunderstorm.  We were treated to quite the lightning show and other than a few branches here and there - we made it through unscathed.  Around 2,000 people in our area lost power and all but 500 have had their power restored so it looks like all is well.  The garden already looks happier! I think the crunchy grass is happier too.  This afternoon we saw 3 baby fawns nibbling on some grass on the hillside so they are happy too. This was definitely one welcome thunderstorm. We may just get tomatoes this summer! Yea for the rain!

Here We Go Again

We were under an extreme heat warning all day today with heat indexes well above 105*.  All day we have been warned of the torrential storms headed our way.  Given that our memory of having NO electric for over a week is still painfully fresh in our minds, we have spent the day preparing for the worst. Emergency supplies are all ready, extra water ready, dishes all done, all laundry caught up etc.  We have been running around like crazy preparing for today's storms.  As I write this blog, the skies have darkened, the winds have picked up and it looks like we are in for a good one.  Batten down the hatches!  Thar she BLOWS!  Let's hope things aren't as bad as the last time and I will happily be writing my blog tomorrow from the comfort of my home, lights on, refrigerator humming nicely and all will be well.

Things I am Not Thinking About

Today I am not thinking about the fact I miss my son.  He has been gone for over a week on a special trip with his grandpa. I haven't heard from him as there is no cell service where they are and I am definitely not thinking about how much I miss him.  Not at all. Not in the slightest. I am also not thinking about my daughter. I am not thinking how empty the house seems without her here. I am not thinking about how she makes me laugh or how much I miss her. I am not thinking about the heat advisory at Quantico nor am I thinking about what she might be doing this week.  I haven't given it a second's thought. Not at all.  While I am busy not thinking about missing my son and missing my daughter, I am also not thinking about the fact I need to start exercising again. I am not thinking about the fact my neck is still bothering me so that I haven't started back into my exercise routine. I am not thinking how I wish my neck were better. Since I am clearly not thinking about my neck - I obviously am not thinking about how I have NOT started the last room excavation that needs to be done.  I am not thinking about how quickly summer is flying by and I am not thinking about how desperately I need to do that room before my younger daughter goes back to college.  I am not thinking about her leaving for college of course - I am not thinking about many things today.  Mostly I am not thinking about how I am not procrastinating by writing my not thinking blog. Clearly I am the best at not thinking about things. I am just that good.

Cute New Babies

We have adorable new doodle babies here at Yesteryear Acres.

Our sweet Goldendoodle Eloise had 11 new Double Doodle Babies.

We have 5 girls and 6 boys and they range in color from light cream to deep dark apricot. 

Here are the 6 Boys all snuggled together.

Awwwwww sweet little new babies to love!

Olive's Chocolate and Caramel babies are getting bigger.  Their eyes and ears are now open so the world is a lot more interesting to them.

2 Little Caramel Brothers

An Armful of Puppy Love!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

Sandwich Saves the Day

For all of those worried about poor Mr. Yesteryear Acres and our leaving him ALL alone ALL day yesterday, with all that work and no company and no dinner, please don't fear. My younger daughter saved the day.  Of course the situation was never really dire but nonetheless - her sandwich saved the day. She concocted a most brilliant sandwich that put a big smile on Mr. Yesteryear Acres face the moment he took his first bite. It was so good in fact - we repeated it again today for lunch.  Her masterpiece?
A fresh croissant topped with melted double creme brie, sliced grapes, lettuce and spiral sliced ham.
I have to say - it was delicious.  All morning long Mr. Yesteryear Acres couldn't wait for lunch so he could have it again.  He happily whistled while he worked and lunch was once again a huge success.  Ahhhh the power of a good sandwich.    Mr. Yesteryear Acres LOVES to have his lunch made for him. It just makes his day. He is eagerly anticipating tomorrow's lunch as my daughter is already thinking of her next masterpiece.  She is convinced she can top today's success and surprise surprise -  Mr. Yesteryear Acres is willing to taste all the sandwich concoctions she can come up with. Such sacrifice. He really has it rough!

Many Hours and One Full SUV Later

My daughter and I left the house this morning at 10am to go do ALL her college shopping.  I had a goal in mind of about 3 hours for this particular adventure.  3 hours of shopping and we would be done, finished, finito! Boy was I wrong.
It
Took
ALL
DAY!
The first mistake was thinking we could tackle Walmart quickly.  Evidently - that just can't be done. We were there forever and the lines to check out were ridiculously long.  Then it was off to warehouse clubs, home improvement stores, stores and more stores.  The good news is that WE ARE ALL DONE! YEA!  The bad news is that we have to empty the car. BOO!  The SUV is loaded.  I mean once I am already out shopping for the day, I might as well get EVERYTHING that is on our list. LED light bulbs, milk, oven mitts, shower curtain liners, Duct Tape, sugar for my coffee, etc. - yes I got everything on our list as well.  Despite the fact it took all day - we did a great job.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres did not look all that happy when we returned this evening. Mr. Yesteryear Acres did not look like he thought we did a great job. Mr. Yesteryear Acres did not run out to greet us full of joy and happiness, bouncing with overflowing gladness at our return. I may have told him I thought we would be back around 2pm. We may have returned at 6:00pm. We may have spent a lot of money. We may have left him with all the farm chores and all the watering and all the cleaning to do all by himself. We also may have forgotten to pick up dinner.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres....why so grumpy?

One month left

Exactly one month from today - all the kids will be back in school. Sigh. I was never the kind of mom that was eager for summer to be over. I know some moms who are so excited when the kids go back to school but it always makes me sad. I hate the end of summer because then it is back to homework and sporting events and homework and bedtime and homework. Did I mention homework? Oh how I love the never-ending, "Did you get your homework done yet?!?" conversation each and every day. I am already dreading the thousand pieces of paperwork that will come home on the first day, all asking basically the same information over and over and over again. I mean don't they have this stuff computerized by now?  I would love it if they just sent home paperwork that asked if there were any changes since last year. If the answer is no - VOILA! DONE!  That would be awesome.  I know that is just a dream that will never come true - but hey - everyone should have dreams! For now I better start dreaming on how to spend our last month of summer.  We haven't had time to do anything fun yet so I want to be sure to save a couple of days for doing something purely recreational. Mr. Yesteryear Acres has barely had time to get his fishing pole out.  The pond is definitely lonely! I also have one big cleaning project left to tackle so that has to be at the top of the list. Tomorrow I am taking my younger daughter shopping for college supplies. Yes. Reality set in.  One month left of summer.  GO!

New definition to Bird Watching

I really love birds.  I love to watch them at the feeders. I like to have them flutter around on my walks.  I love all the different colors and songs.  Birds are awesome. Lately however, I have been on BIRD WATCH.  Serious bird watch!  We have a Mommy Hawk with three rather large "baby" hawks right in our backyard.  They have really had a growth spurt lately and it appears that this week is "Let's Teach my Babies to Hunt" week.  Oh that mommy hawk is determined.  She is scouring the area for easy prey for her sweet "little" babies.  I now have to let the doggies out while waving my arms and making screeching "Get out of here" sounds so she doesn't confuse some of our smaller doggies for fast food.  My younger daughter has a doggie that is only 4lbs and that Mommy Hawk looks at our sweet little Penny doggie as if she were a snack.  You can just see the smile on her face that says, "HAPPY MEAL 12:00!" We now have to be quite vigilant when we let the doggies out.  Our normal "Let Dog In" and "Let Dog Out" schedule has become "Let Dog In" and "Let Dog out....NOT UP!" Dear Mommy Hawk, I know your babies are so adorable and so loved but please do not let them eat our Penny doggie.  She is not on the menu.  Thank you.

What is this? The TODDLER section?

Today my daughter and I decided to get a little more serious about our commitment to physical fitness. We started the summer off GREAT.  We were walking and exercising and we had really made awesome progress.  Then the heat wave struck. And then we lost electricity. And then we were miserable, and the house was hot, and there were no showers, and there were no fans, and there was no cold water or ice cubes or anything refreshing. We lost our forward momentum and all exercise ceased.  It was just too much to put on our plate.  Now that we are back in the land of working showers and cool fans - it is time to get back into action. We went to go treat ourselves to a new exercise workout outfit. There was a huge sale at our favorite store so how could we say no?  Once we got there - OH MY.  SO many choices!  So many awesome colors and awesome styles!  Every single outfit looked AMAZING on the hanger!
"How about this one?" 
"OH I LOVE IT! What size is it?" 
Size.......EXTRA SMALL.  How about this one?  Size...EXTRA SMALL.  EVERY SINGLE TIME I found something I liked it was SIZE EXTRA SMALL!  What is this?  The TODDLER section??!!!  Honestly.  They weren't real size extra smalls either.  They were the size extra smalls that super super super super skinny super models would wear. Super skinny super models that are 5'0 tall and weigh 90lbs soaking wet! Grrrr.  OF COURSE everything looked adorable. THEY WERE ALL TODDLER exercise outfits.  I know, I know - I suppose if you exercise REGULARLY - you would be able to WEAR Extra SMALL exercise outfits. Clearly, I am not an extra small.  I am not even a small.
"Where are the clothes for REAL PEOPLE?"
"Those sizes aren't included in the awesome sale. They are full price."
OH I SEE.  Only super super super super super skinny super models who clearly do NOT need cute exercise outfits get the sale price. sigh.  Maybe it is easier to just say no to ice cream...................NAH!  Who needs a cute outfit to walk in anyway?!!!

Rain Dance

We are living under some kind of Sci-Fi type dome where NO rain makes it to the ground. We can watch the radar screen full of BIG DARK GREEN and YELLOW warnings of torrential rain absolutely vanish the second it hits our area. Our friends less than one mile away got an entire inch of rain the other day and we got nothing. Everything is so dried up around here.  The grass is yellow and crunchy.  The creek is so dry it is nothing but dust.  We have to fill up the horse trough several time a day as the horses just drain it dry.  Watering our huge garden takes HOURS.  We have over 100 tomato plants and each plant needs a good 1/2 bucket full of water. Our corn is so short - I believe it will qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records, "Shortest Corn EVER".   It is a never ending process to try to beat this drought.  Yesterday my daughter and I did the rain dance all day.  We asked Mother Nature to PLEASE send us some rain.  Rain. Rain. Rain. Rain.  We have so much extra work with all the watering. Most of our day is devoted to watering and re-watering. We will be lucky if we can harvest actual vegetables out of our garden rather than harvesting dehydrated produce!  Right now it looks like we are making the fixings for dehydrated soup mix! It was just about time for the second round of watering last night....when the skies darkened!  The thunder began rumbling!  The rumbling got louder!  My daughter and I cheered! We ran outside. COME ON RAIN!  COME ON!  All of the sudden, we felt a drop on our head! YES! RAIN!  Then two more GIGANTIC drops fell from the sky! YES RAIN! YES!  And then....it was all over.  Four drops.  That was it.  When Mr. Yesteryear Acres came in, I complained that our rain dance didn't work.  He informed me that it worked perfectly.  I asked for rain.  I got rain.  The fault lies in the fact I neglected to specify just HOW MUCH rain I wanted.  I see.  Okay.  Today during my rain dance - I am specifying how much rain.  I would like enough rain so that nothing floods yet, the creeks are full, the grass has enough moisture to gain just a little bit of green coloring, the garden is fully saturated and the outside is cooled enough so that it doesn't mimic the temperature of the sun.  Is that asking too much?  Maybe I should set my rain expectation a little lower.  Perhaps I should start with 6 drops of rain. Okay. COME ON SIX DROPS OF RAIN!  YOU CAN DO IT!

You have a SPARE!

Mr. Yesteryear Acres took our daughter to the Doctor today to get her stitches taken out. She had a SURPRISE surgery about 10 days ago and today was the appointment for the removal of the stitches. That was supposed to be my job but my neck is still so sore I didn't think I could do the 2 hour round trip drive to the Doctor's office.  My daughter was really good about it - but we all know - she wanted her Mommy to take her to the doctor.  She was nervous about having her stitches removed and Mommies say things like, "It will be okay" and "It will be over before you know it".  Mr. Yesteryear Acres says things like, "I hope you don't bleed all over your nice shirt".  Yes.  Good ole Mr. Yesteryear Acres.  One time Mr. Yesteryear Acres was in the kitchen cooking and hot oil sprayed out of the hot pan and hit my daughter in the eye.  She of course was in serious pain as she had burning oil IN her eye.  I ran to get ice and all of that while Mr. Yesteryear Acres continued cooking.  Later that evening as my daughter was trying to get sympathy for her hurt eye, Mr. Yesteryear Acres said she knew she was fine.....after all......she has a spare! Isn't he so sweet?  He is just so mushy with all that attention isn't he?  The good news is that my daughter survived all the love and comfort provided by Mr. Yesteryear Acres and came away from her appointment just fine.  The stitches are out, the biopsy was negative AND even better.... she did not bleed all over her nice shirt.  Thank goodness!

ACK! I can't turn my head!

I woke up this morning at 5 am with one overwhelming thought, "ACK! I can't turn my head!" Ugh.  Somehow in the middle of the night my neck went out and now I am in severe pain. I can't look left. I can't look right. I can't look up. I can't look down. I am walking around with a pained look on my face and have to turn my entire body just to see something.  The pain goes all the way down my arm so that even my elbow is in pain. Ugh.  I am fairly certain I didn't do any rock climbing whilst sleeping so why this happened to me is just a mystery.  I have lists of things to do!  I have things that need to be done! I can't lift a glass of water to my lips! ACK! Looks like it is time for a heating pad and Advil. Sigh. I guess I won't be much help today.  Hopefully it will get better soon!! I have my "To-Do" list on the calendar...in INK! I double checked and there is not one single day that says, "Lie around in severe pain unable to move head"  It looks like leftovers will be on the menu for dinner.  Thankfully we have a refrigerator full of good ones! Dear neck..... GET BETTER FAST!

Time to Get Busy

Now that the puppies have all gone to their new homes, it is time......for another project!!! You can imagine all the cheers and HURRAYs that could be heard here. My younger daughter said, "WHAT!!!????"  Yep. I am that mean.  We have one more room to tackle this summer.  One more "disaster area" that desperately needs our attention.  It is going to take at least one week of solid work to whip it into shape. It is really a mess.  It has kind of been the room where if you didn't know where to put something - it went there. I am talking a total makeover. First thing is to keep Mr. Yesteryear Acres VERY busy.  VERY VERY BUSY. OUTSIDE.  Most of the junk....oh I mean "precious memories" are his.  He keeps everything. That broken answering machine from 10 years ago MIGHT come in handy someday!  We have 2 shelves in this room full of CASSETTE TAPES.  We do NOT have a cassette player. Why do we have so many??? OH because some day Mr. Yesteryear Acres will want to play his cassettes.....from the 70's. I mean who doesn't want to pop in good ole ABBA in the good ole cassette player in your good ole walkman? ACK! Cleaning out this room is going to take some finesse.  It will take some sneaky sneaky work.  I am putting down Wednesday as the start date. Wednesday my daughter and I shall tackle the room and hopefully we will be done in one week.  Goal set. Time to get busy!

All Day Puppy Smiles

Fergie's puppies all went home today. From early this morning until this evening it has been non-stop puppy smiles. Everyone fell in love with their new furry babies. There is nothing so awesome as love at first sight. I often get asked how we can part with our adorable puppies and the answer is always the same.....I love seeing happy families! There is nothing better than watching the happiness on everyone's faces as they meet their new furry best friend. The puppies are always happy too. They have people running to meet them and hug them and love them forever. It is just the best feeling and makes for a most awesome day.  To all our new puppy families and all our sweet puppies....travel safely on your long journeys home.  We will miss you adorable puppies but are so happy you are all so well-loved!

Puppy Weekend

This weekend all of Fergie's sweet chocolate and chocolate peanut butter babies are going to their new homes.  They are just the most beautiful doodle puppies! I can't wait for their new families to meet them!

We love the cooler weather! Last week was too hot!

Even the sunshine feels good now!

Hey LOOK!  It's Mr. Yesteryear Acres!!!! YEA!

I am going to pounce on him!

Hey look - I found a spot of GREEN grass!

Everybody loves Peanut Butter and Chocolate!

Who's going to pounce on the new toy first?

Let's do it together! Yippee!

Click....LIGHTS....HAPPINESS

Our horrible week long torture of having no electricity during the heatwave is something I hope to never live through again. Not only did we have no water, no lights, no air-conditioning, no fans - we had sad doggies and sad puppies that had no way of understanding why we couldn't cool them off. They would just look at us, panting like crazy, wondering why we weren't able to make them feel better. It was oppressively hot and pretty much the most miserable week ever. It was my older daughter's last week at home and we had planned on doing fun things during that last week but instead, we all just suffered. All week long I kept thinking how HAPPY I would be if I could flush the toilet without having to fill the back of the tank up with water.  I would be SO HAPPY if I could have a cup of coffee. I would be SO HAPPY if I could turn on the lights and have the lights turn on. All I wanted was my electric back. I realized how little it takes to make me really happy. I just wanted my power back! Now that we are fully restored, our water pump working, our house nice and cool, our doggies happy and full of cold fresh drinking water - I am happy. I turn on the lights...click...lights turn on...HAPPINESS follows. It is so easy to forget how awesome electricity is. It is so easy to take something as simple as flushing a toilet for granted.  Turning on the faucet for cold drinking water is something I do all day long but the second you go without that convenience, you realize just how very lucky we are. We don't have to go to the well and collect buckets of water.  We don't have to traipse for miles carrying water containers just to get a drink. We open our refrigerator and out comes cold fresh food. Life for us is pretty easy and although it might not be something you remember to be grateful for every single day, it is important to be appreciative of those type of things we often take for granted. Any day that you go to turn on your lights - and they turn on - that is a good day.  Any day that you can get cold water from your faucet - that is a good day. Any day that you can escape inclement weather - that is a good day. Any day that you are home, safe and sound, in comfy temperatures, with the family you love, and the doggies surrounding you....that is a good day! Click....lights...HAPPINESS!