It seems that life happened and this blog DIDN'T for the past two years! I can't believe it's been that long!

I'm not even going to pretend I can think of everything that's happened around here...but here's the short list off the top of my head....

My husband and I painted the house. The TALL house. By ourselves. Scaffolding can be really high. And somewhat wobbly.

That's better!

Then we took down one of the old unusable chimneys. Did I mention the house is tall? Soooo worth it for the view from up there though. I may have done more picture taking than helping on this project.

I've come a long way with my gardening efforts, this past summer I was able to do some canning, fermenting, and enough freezing to fill an entire freezer. I was even able to buy a little greenhouse which has been so much fun and I can't wait to get out there again (winter is starting to seem loooong!)! I still have lots of goals in that area, including finding another spot for an additional garden because I ran out of space in the existing ones last year and didn't get to plant everything I wanted.

We have a freezer full of our own farm-raised and (mostly) grass fed beef, and more cattle currently in the pastures.

We did a few meat chickens, but we had a little trouble there (bad planning on my part) so mostly we have layers and had a crazy overabundance of eggs over the summer! Working on a better plan for this coming season (hopefully!).

                                             Gardening with chickens...always a challenge!

We've done lots of remodeling/fixing up inside the house. Some of those projects are still underway.

You can't really tell in the pic, but those walls were a (old, dirty)  seafoam green. And old green carpet EVERYWHERE! Green also happens to be my least favorite color.

The thing about living room pictures is...I don't post pics of the family on the blog, but I don't have a single picture of the whole living room without someone in it! So I had to settle for these pics of my favorite part of the room, the woodstove, and one that just kind of sums up how cozy it is!

I got a pretty good start on an orchard with apple and pear trees, grape vines, strawberries, and raspberry and blackberry bushes. I'm hoping to add a few more fruit trees this year.

But it's going to be awhile....

I had Mono and some complication from that over the fall and winter which really REALLY slowed me down, but I have high hopes for Spring! I already got my first seed order, have fresh new herbs started in the window sill, and a new canner just waiting for a successful harvest! Of course, this is Nebraska, and we currently have a winter storm heading for us and probably a few more to come before Spring is a reality, but I'll be dreaming of it while I watch the snow fly!