Down on the Farm – Volume 1, Issue 4

It’s Jeremy’s Vacation time here on the farm…but unfortunately for him, that only means he has three weeks in which he will not be going to his other job. There is plenty of farm work to do around here, not to mention all of those additional projects I’ve lined up for him.

For me, it’s the best time of the year. Better even than CHRISTMAS…and if you know me personally, you know that means I’m over the moon exited and happy! It’s the best time of the year just because he’s here. It wouldn’t matter if he just sat around and only roused himself to grunt “get me a beer” I’d still be perfectly content because he is home. HE IS HOME!

I can start out by saying that things haven’t gone as planned…yet. We are only at the end of the first week, and about to start the second, but if we are to finish all of those things we planned, we’ve got to have a little bit of better luck.

His vacation officially started on Monday, but he got home Friday because he always has the weekend off, so, as far as we are concerned it started Saturday. Saturday was a fairly nice day, but we knew rain was coming, and we were still lacking a few important materials, which would need to be picked up either Monday or Tuesday. So, we didn’t want to start the deck..because rain was coming and the first thing we are doing there is tearing off shingles. We couldn’t work on the chicken coop because the cement and insulation wasn’t here yet.

So, Jeremy spent Saturday, Sunday, and Monday cutting wood to build 16 additional garden beds, building the beds, and then of course filling the beds…with a shovel, because we don’t have a working tractor around here. I spent those three days right here, working on the website as much as possible, sitting here with my Daddy, and getting more seedlings up-potted. Though, let’s be honest, I’m not sure they can. be called “seedlings” anymore.

Tuesday, Jeremy had a dentist appointment in Tyler, and on his way home, he had to stop by Lowe’s to pick up an order, Tractor Supply to pick up another order, Walmart to get flea meds for my Daddy’s dogs (because we can’t catch them to get a collar or leash on them to take them to the vet…but if we are fast, we can get the flea meds on them – kinda.) After Walmart, he had to go by the vet’s office to pick up the prescription flea meds for our critters.

So, he was gone for the majority of the day. I’ve been consumed and stressed with the June 1st deadline I’ve imposed upon myself. That is the day I intend for the bulk of this website to be finished, and it is also the day we will be re-opening our Etsy Store.

This website business has got me feeling OLD. I swear it feels like for every step I take forward I take three backwards. I just want to be able to turn the old mac on, login, write a post, update this or that then move on with my life that is not online. I mean…I’m not asking for the moon and the stars. I don’t need the site to do fancy tricks. I just want the dang thing to work, and for the love of GOD for there to be just ONE DAY when there is NOT a website related problem. Just. One. Day.

…But, I don’t complain…

Anywho…so Saturday, Sunday and Monday were productive, because those garden beds were definitely on the project list, but the things on that list are based on priority…and those were not the highest priority. But, at least we marked something off the list.

Then, we came to Wednesday…and it stormed all day long. ALL DAY. So, we kicked around in the house, and of course, I worked on the website…my Jeremy is so sweet. He took over all my responsibilities on Wednesday so I could work on this site.

He even got the potatoes planted between rain storms! The video for that is below, just click that play button…and if you don’t mind, subscribe, like, and hit the notification bell. Comment if you have your own experience with this, or you have suggestions for us to improve on this next time! We ain’t too proud to learn from other people’s experiences! We are also newish to YouTube and doing videos, so if you have tips there, we will proudly take those too!

But Thursday, I was gonna repay all that Jeremy sweetness…I put on my work clothes, put my hair up in a tighter knot and assigned myself the job of “helper.” Do you know what that man told me? “Nah, that’s alright…I got this. Go work on the site, and stay with your daddy.” He’s so sweet. I’m certain he wouldn’t say that just to get rid of me…I mean, I’m an excellent boss lady…I mean, helper.

So Thursday was THE day. The day Jeremy started on my Sundeck Herb Garden. Now Thursday things started clicking! My sweet guy got my bathroom sink fixed, and got all of the old shingles off of that carport, got all the nails pulled and got it swept off.

He had to undo the edging thingies, then scrape off all that old shingle. But as soon as he got enough of the wood uncovered, we wanted to see what we were dealing with…yeah, he values my opinion so he came and got me for that part!

Jeremy carefully pried up a piece of the patchwork flooring, and we were surprised again to see that the joists still look brand new up there. Not a water stain on any of them!

That’s fairly shocking since the deck was shingled because something was leaking down onto the carport.

Remember that Mama and Daddy built this house 46 years ago, so we were expecting to see rotting wood and rotting rafters. We were SHOCKED when we saw that the wood still looked decent, even if it had a few soft spots in it.

I never knew that Daddy had done the flooring on that deck with pieces of leftover lumber, but he did. It looks like a sturdy patchwork quilt of wood up there, with various sizes and shapes…but it all fits together tight.

It was a very productive day for us both Thursday, because I was also able to get a lot of content uploaded on the website. I also up-potted more tomatoes. So we both went to bed feeling fairly good about things Thursday night.

Friday was another great day. Jeremy got all of the decking put on the deck and nailed down, and I again got a lot done on the website. I may make that June 1st deadline after all! Of course…I up-potted even more tomatoes…and me and the tomatoes are not done yet!

He finished cutting all of the railing boards and spindles on Friday, and the plan for Saturday was to get those put together and installed…but we looked at the Calendar and realized we were running out of time for the coop build.

Of course Saturday knew what we were planning. It didn’t rain. Rain we could have worked around. No…instead the wind blew. Hard. Hard and COLD. So, there would have been no rail installing anyway, and Jeremy probably would have gotten hurt trying to wrestle metal sidings in that wind for the coop…so he finished the last four beds in the garden instead, I up-potted more tomatoes, and we decided to have a restful Sunday.

So, today (Monday) starts week #2 of the vacation…and more up-potting tomatoes. The coop build will begin in earnest, leaving the deck railing, sealing and paint the deck, picking up and settling chicks in the brooder, garden arches and entry beds, set up the watering system for the garden, install the pipe brackets to run a hose up to the deck, plant the fruit trees, get the chicken run done, put together their feed buckets and their waterers, and build the dust baths.

I think the Jeremy Vacation plan is back on track!

Till next week!