Another Week

Another day is flying by here. I am amazed at how quickly the days go by. But from the time we get up until the time we go to bed we are busy busy busy. I love it and hate it all at the same time. 

Kya is growing so quickly. She is doing well with recognizing letters and enjoys practicing writing them. We try to incorporate writing and art into the day, but most days we do not get the chance with everything else going on. We do read for 30 minutes to 1 hour or more each day though. I love reading time with kids. We have so many wonderful conversations about life and the stories we read. Kya has been telling us when something happens that  "it is always like that on my birthday." Even though it usually is something that does not or can not happen on her birthday. lol. 

Cathal is growing so quickly. Since he turned 2 on the 7th he has been talking up a storm. Explaining things and enjoying life so much more. He and Kya get along much better and he enjoys time to himself very much. He looks so cute with cut hair. We shaved it off soon after his birthday and he looks so much like a little man now. I sort of miss the curls, but he is so adorable shaved that I am happy we did it. 

The gardens are growing quickly. Getting 1-3 inches taller every day. Though 5 of my poor broccoli plants were eaten by deer the other morning. :( Good thing we have 50 or them left and more planted. 

Chaz has gotten more of the house finished. Just a couple walls left and a wood stove to install and we can live in it. The house already has electricity in it so we are good to go there. I can not wait to get a real bed and be able to sleep in a house and not a trailer any longer. :)

The weather keeps teasing us. We have lots of rain clouds that go in a circle around us, and the ones that go over us only provide shade, no rain. Hopefully we will get some soon. Though I do appreciate the cooler temperatures from the shade of the clouds. 

For now that is all. Have a wonderful week everyone. Talk to you next time 

The Garvins

The Pictures

This is a small gathering of pictures of everything that is going on here. We are having so much fun and the hard work really does pay off. Enjoy everyone!

The new family members. They are 7 weeks old
Yoshi is the one in the middle, Ponyo is the runt of
the litter standing behind Yoshi,
Princess is the one on the right.
Yoshi is Cathal's. Now I know he is allergic, but they live outside and he
honestly does not have a reaction to them when he plays with them :)

Kid's Play area ( soon to be the only one)

The storage area that Chaz built while we were gone, it is almost 15 foot tall and plenty of room

Chicken coop. We need some chickens to call it home.

Squash

Spinach

Tomato Plant, this one is the biggest, but we have about 8.

Tomato and Spinach

Artichoke!!! Yummy!

Cauliflower

Kale

Pole Beans

Beans and Peas

Broccoli

The biggest Broccoli we have

the biggest squash

Peas!!! They are so happy!

Corn

Peppers

Bean

Carrots and Red onions

Lettuce, there are 4 of them

The day room, Chaz has done 99% of this on his own!!

Brussel Sprouts, there are 5 total

Cathal's 2nd Birthday!!!! Mustaches for everyone!! (Gosh they grow up quickly LOL)

More to come! Stay Tuned :)

Oregon- New Beginnings

Here it goes.

I have been meaning to get on here for so long and get to letting everyone know what we are up to. Life is fantastic up here on our mountain and I would not change this experience for anything. 

Let's start at the beginning. 

Moved up here in the middle of May this year, still snowing here. Ugh. 2 kids and myself and my husband crammed tight in a small camper trailer. That was interesting enough. We had not planned on snow so we were ill prepared. However about 2 weeks later the snow let up and we were really able to get to work.

Preparations began with cleaning up the property. 4.63 acres of unkempt land to rake, dig and move debris. This has been fun and is an ongoing project as we focus on one area before moving to the next. We designated an area for the kids toys, though they follow us around a lot trying to help and learn what we are doing.

My hubby dug some garden beds for us and we set out 15 planter pots in one of them to get our seedlings started. Currently we are growing 4 types of beans, 2 peas, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, 3 lettuce, 2 carrots, 2 onions, brussel sprouts, kale, beets, corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, 3 melons, strawberries, radish, and 4 peppers. The numbers are the different types of each food, we have way more than we will probably be able to eat. The plan is to store most of it for winter and give some away to some of the wonderful, kind people we have been meeting along the way up here. 

We were blessed from a gentleman leaving the mountain top with an RV full of useful things. This saved us some money as well as gave us a second place to store things as well as for me and my husband to have a space to get homework done and just take a break once in awhile. 

There are two ponds on our property. They are beautiful and teeming with frogs and other pond creatures. We have hundreds of little tiny frogs about the size of a dime hopping around the gardens all the time and hundreds more growing legs in the pond. :) There are several animals that come and visit the pond daily. There are blue herons, robins, falcons, and even a family of deer. We were blessed to watch two of the deer come and eat some grass by the pond last night, they were there for about 10 minutes before they took off. The kids really enjoyed it. 

My husband is currently working on getting the day room up so we can have a place to go on rainy days, as well as a bigger area for when winter hits. He has done an amazing job and even built a loft area we are going to fence in for the kids to play in. Even the door will be gated so they have to have help to get out, do not want any falls happening.

This fall we are trying to get our daughter into a head start program so she can attend school. She has been asking us for at least a year to go to school and we think that it will be wonderful for her. I am kind of sad and happy about this all at the same time. My hope was to home school her and my son, but she informed me she wanted to go to regular school with the other children. So we decided to let her try it and see if she really enjoys it. I am sure she will, she is such a social butterfly. She is also smart as a whip, learning her letters and how to write them already and we believe she could benefit from some schooling, since we are limited in the time we have each day at the moment.

Other then working our butts off all day getting things done we enjoy going on walks through the woods with the kids and teaching them about the world around them. We are working hard now, so that when winter comes we have the ability to take it easy, and not have to work so hard in the cold. By then we will have a green house and will still be growing our food so that we are never without. Plus we want to have seedlings ready for next years planting.  

This has been a wonderful adventure and I would not change a moment of it. Our family has gotten so much closer to each other and we are growing daily.