Reflecting on this past weekend I can't help but hope to have many more like it in the near future. At least I hope it 's the near future. Sometimes I don't think we will ever be move-in ready. Saturday was a cold and gray February day. Once again, Jerry worked on wiring, leaving me to do some early spring garden chores. With the sound of the chickens clucking and scratching in the background, I built frames for raised garden beds and did some maintenance in the herb beds already up and growing. I sprayed the fruit trees and put up a new trellis for my Hops vines. I use a lot of tincture of Hops and Valerian for my insomnia so I want to grow my own. It can get a little pricey at ten dollars for a one ounce bottle. As an experiment, I had grabbed a bunch of onions starts at Lowes and stuck those in a small plot. I want to see if the voles are going to eat them. If they do, I need to figure out a way to stop the little underground terrorists from eating all my hard work. They have a sub-terrainien city going on down there and I am afraid they are going to be a huge problem. They don't seem to care for some of the aromatic herbs, I have planted, but I want to plant lots of veggies too. From what I have read, they can be hard to get rid of. I am thinking some felines might be in my future. And maybe another Scottish Terrier. You can't beat  a Scotty for rodent duty.

Signs of spring were everywhere if you looked closely. Daffodils with creamy swollen buds waiting for the perfect moment to pop open and show their yellow faces to the sun, fruit trees slowly waking up to the new season with their own little buds winking out at the light, the bees finding pollen in the tiniest flowers and heading home to the hive to deliver their day's work.

Sunday was clear and cold and we got an early start. With a basic lesson in carpentry Jerry turned me loose making a brooder box for our new chicks that will arrive in April. I have a lot to learn in the woodworking department. My new brooder looks more like a hobo house, but it will do what I need it to do, which is keep rats from getting the new babies. Jerry yet again worked on the wiring and later in the afternoon the kids all came out to do some target practice.

Brittainy brought lunch and we sat in the sun and watched the kids play. Being "town" kids, they love the freedom of being able to run and romp on all that green pasture and hillside. The Tonka trucks were sat on and rolled down little rises with the same thrill that an amusement park ride produces. But I think it was more fun because they dreamed it up themselves. I can't wait for the day we live there and the kids can just come anytime, we can stop our work and they can just play to their heart's content. Those thoughts are what keep me going when doubt creeps in and tries to convince me that we will never get finished. Well, maybe not finished, but at least livable.