4th of July Weekend

What a full weekend it was. Three day weekends at our house always seem to be packed to their breaking point. We try to take every advantage of beautiful weekends to work on projects outside. When the weather is nasty or cold, not much gets accomplished. This particular weekend was full of friends, fireworks, and lots of time outside. We started our 4th of July in Littleton with the Nave's, Jensen's, Brenneman's, Engel's, and Forsythe's. Good food, good fellowship, and lots of fun for all the little monkeys is always a given.

We continued our weekend working on lots of projects at home that have been put on the back burner. Finishing the drip system for the garden, pulling lots of pesky weeds, and preping the posts for the barn topped the list. Sunday finished off the weekend with lots of wind and rain. It ended up being a great day to sit inside and have a family movie marathon.

June 26th brings us our 4th anniversary in our home. Lots has transpired since moving in, lots of projects done, but lots still to do. We moved into a home that was owned by an elderly couple for more than 25 years. They raised 6 boys in this home, but had little time to do much with it. (Understandable) To date, we have built 2 pastures, a loafing shed for the horses, a small chicken coop, painted the exterior of the house, along with a couple of interior rooms, and set up a back yard fit for the kids - complete with trampoline, swingset, and playhouse. This year, our goal is getting up our all-important "small" barn. Our original plan was to put up a 50' x 70' barn. Lofty goals unfortunately come with lofty price tags. We decided to put off the big barn, complete with guest quarters, for a couple more years and put up a smaller 20'x30' barn to start. We are in need of hay and tack storage, an enclosed location to put the horses during winter storms, and a bigger home for our chickens. We have 4 laying hens, as of now; but are hoping to be able to increase that number to a full dozen, with the extra space. We seem to use a lot more eggs that we imagined we would. We would also like to be able to sell our extras. The demand for organic, fresh, farm eggs is definatley high. The holes for the barn are dug and posts are just about ready to be placed. We are hoping to be done with the addition by mid-July.