Excuse me, can you tell me where the "tick-b-gone" is?

Well, no where of course.  Duh.  I was just joking silly lady behind the pharmacy counter. 


I know you can just pull it right off with tweezers!! Duh (again)
(or that's what google said to do once I looked it up).

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Earlier that day I had felt of my one year old's head.  Thought she had a little scab maybe from a mosquito bite the weekend before (I know...bad mom).  That evening at the grocery store I felt her head again as she sat in the shopping cart.  Same scab.  Well, this time I titled her head and looked.  OMG.  Legs moved.  Gross.  Freak out.  Call mom.  Mom calls grandma.  Put a match to it.  No wait, rub oil on it.  Go to the pharmacy and ask for drops.  OK.  Deal.  I left isle 9 and headed straight to the pharmacy.  After I asked for the "drops", the man and lady behind the counter chuckled and I wheeled away grabbing for my phone to google tick removal.  For about 3 seconds I seriously contemplated leaving my basket full of groceries and heading out the door to get the tick removed.  If it wasn't for running into my aunt (my moms sister who also grew up in the country) I would have.  She calmly said it was no big deal and that they (her and her 4 siblings) got them all the time.  Umm, ok.

I don't think I have ever finished shopping so fast in my life.  I barely got the groceries in the house and went straight for the tweezers.  And the jar filled with alcohol.  (My grandma said to keep the tick in the jar of alcohol just in case any symptoms came up in my youngest... OK...  thanks grandma...that helps.)

Pulled once, nothing.  That little gross creature had a hold on my baby's head.  Pulled harder and ta-da.  Tick went straight into the alcohol and I poured more on top of him and WATCHED HIM DIE.

The End.

    

 

a little washstand

A washstand or basin stand is a piece of furniture consisting of a small table or cabinet, usually supported on three or four legs, and most commonly made of mahogany, walnut, or rosewood, and made for holding a wash basin and water pitcher. The smaller varieties were used for rose-water ablutions, or for hair-powdering. The larger ones, which possessed receptacles for soap-dishes, were the predecessors of the modern bathroom wash basin, or sink. Both varieties, often of very elegant form, were in extensive use throughout a large part of the 18th century and early-19th century, eventually disappearing with the advent of modern indoor plumbing.^[

 

 

This is the one I bought for $40 from a "haul off" store.  Wasn't sure if the guy selling it was pulling my leg but I purchased it anyway.  He told me a 94 year old man had them pick it up.  I was happy to know it really was a washstand after looking at them online.  Honestly, I couldn't imagine it could be anything else.  When you put a bowl on it its the perfect height. 

 



 

Not quite sure where it will go (it is pretty short, shorter than it appears) and if I will just clean it up or paint it but the history behind it is pretty neat. 

John Deere Green

Does it get any better than this? Doing what we love and lovin what we do.....

Joe was able to make a ton of headway with a small little tractor. We are probably breaking every safety warning in the book but the kids were too excited about riding on the tractor. Kate even joined in the fun.

 

 

 

The real person in charge.

 

 

 

Burn piles, burn piles, and more burn piles.  We still are not cutting down any trees except those to make the road to the house and the actual house site.  Also, any trees that are already dead.  The majority of this burn pile is trees that we trimmed up.  Its amazing the progress we have made.

 

We did stop and take a little break, dug a hole, built a fire, and roasted wienies.  YUM!

This concrete horse was left on the property by the previous owners.  She needs a little touch up work.  Ava is super excited about getting her all fixed up.

 

Someone else's trash

 

 In our case someone else's trash is not our treasure.  It is a LOT of our hard work.  A mobile home used to sit at the front of our land next to the trees below.  I am thinking the owners of this mobile home did not have trash cans or did not like to use them.  There was water bottles, beer bottles, food cans, etc all over the place in this area.  When they moved the mobile home they did not bother taking their trash with them.  Guess they were never big into Girl Scouts..."always leave a place cleaner then you found it".  We've picked it up and loaded it on a trailer for the dump.  The trees also need some shaping up so we are in the process of doing that too. 

Off to the left is an inset next to the creek.  I see a picnic table and a fire pit in its near future...and SMORES!  And once we have electricity I plan to string a few clear globe lights in the trees.  I'll get pictures of the inset the next time I am there.  It will be something we can enjoy on the property while the house is coming along.

Now, to buy a tractor?

Trailer pulling

The ladies in my family are known for their strength.  Most of you may think emotional or motherly strength.  Well, they absolutely have that....but something more surprising is their physical strength.  The ladies above me can turn circles around some women.  They pump their own gas, can rearrange a room by themselves (even with stairs involved), will drive a tractor, motorcycle, bobtail all in a day, and will haul all the kids across the state by themselves if need be.  My point is they are beautiful women who love to dress up, fix their hair, and make up their pretty faces, but they will also get as dirty as any man.  They don't limit themselves because a task may be considered a man's job.  So, when Joe asked me to drive his truck with a teeny tiny trailer attached and pick up a load of gravel for our driveway...I jumped at the chance...

(and while I was saying yes I went through the route I would have to drive a hundred times in my head making sure I could do it all without backing).   

 

PS, I know there are many women out there who pull horse trailers or drive 18 wheelers like they have been doing it since birth and can probably back into the tiniest spots...but not me...NOT YET :)

 

I think I see horse trailers in our future.

A country porch.

So serene, so peaceful, so homey.

To shift of not to shift?

The dirt work has started.  Yay! right?  Well, if this is a sign of what is to come I need to get better at making decisions.

 

 

 We are trying to decide if we should rotate the house about 10 feet. This would allow our back porch view to miss the neighbors house, but it allows for the evening sun to set almost directly in our front yard. With the tree cover and what not we may be ok, but we had direct evening sun at our old house and it was not fun.

We were out here for about 30-45 minutes lining ourselves up a few degrees this way and that way.  The kids were having a blast running up the little dirt hills.  This one joined in on the fun.  I think she took the saying "playing in the dirt" a little far.  #countrygirl