Farmstead Family Summer

We have been admittedly, pretty silent on the blog front. But, that’s because we have been working our little tails off during this stretch of absolutely perfect Pacific Northwest weather.

And to top it all off, the Handsome Man’s parents are staying with us for the Summer, which is awesome! Even cooler? They come completely self-contained in a 5th wheel trailer. Mr. Nick carved out a legit pad for them, Farmstead KOA style, with full power, sewer and water hook-up. Apart from the family style dinners every night (which have an average start time of 9 pm, after a full night's work) and waking up to their smiling faces we have been getting A LOT done.

Pop has been a machine, doing the work of three men, getting us so far ahead on another sheep barn and fixing a lot of nagging things that we just hadn't gotten to yet. But, his main event has been, drumroll please! The fence line! By the end of this Summer our goal is to have a 10-acre perimeter closed in…and we are close. With him working during the day and us working into the night I can almost see the end. For any of you who know me you can guess, the fence has been a huge source of stress for me, mainly because being self-contained is a very valuable feeling in my world. (And in case you were wondering, he's not really as grouchy as he looks.)

Mom has really channeled her inner farm girl and can bust out the evening chores in no time at all. That means, watering the garden, feeding the chickens, feeding the pigs, feeding the sheep and goats, milking the goat, putting the chickens away and feeding the duck (who I should mention, she has conditioned, in true Grandma spoiling, to beg like a dog at the dinner table).  And, because we are such nice kids we even let her muck the sheep pen, even though she had zero experience with such important tasks!

While we were in there, mucking our sheep’s poo (modeling the ultimate relationship a girl should have with her mother-in-law), I think there was a comment around how we should start up a Farmstead Weight Loss Camp. It’s funny, because my mother has also said that she feels like she’s going on The Biggest Loser when she comes to visit. Uh oh, maybe we shouldn’t work our parents so hard.

Except, they are the ones who raised us…