It’s spring time on the farm! And Daffodil Hill is in full glory (pictures courtesy of my mother):

Beautiful, aren’t they?

This morning, I woke to a blaring alarm clock. It doesn’t matter that I went to bed uber early last night to try to recover from the cold I caught from the kids (my best friend is calling me “squeaky” this week).

I didn’t wake up on my own.

When I killed the blaring of my iPhone alarm, I heard a siren, overlapped by a car horn, the whirring of traffic and domestic unrest next door. I hate living in a townhouse. I also hate living in the city. (more…)

The most amazing thing happened during my work at the cabin last week. I bought a beautiful bathroom sink and cabinet. It has clean lines. It’s simple. It makes me happy. It’s nothing like the ugly one I thought I’d have to install to “get by” until I could find what I really wanted. (more…)

I can’t imagine the daily horrors visited on people facing foreclosure now. The numbers continue to climb and the economy plummets. I’ve been told I like to worry. Maybe that’s true, but I think the current situation is worry-worthy. (more…)

I am thankful. I’m working on my farm today. I’m getting my cabin ready to move it. It’s a long, arduous process. It refuses to meet any of my self-imposed deadlines, but it is progressing.

How many people can honestly say that the house they inhabit is paid off? How many people own a mortgage — or are owned by one?

My little cabin is tiny, it’s true. It doesn’t have many of the amenities considered “essential” in the modern world of the USA. It has everything I need. It’s warm and weather proof, it has places to go and be alone — with doors to close. It has a good sized gathering-place kitchen that dominates the whole first floor (which isn’t that big, so don’t be too impressed). (more…)

Thanksgiving is going to be rather non-traditional at my house this year. Byron, Alex and I will be at the cabin working. My father and mother will be there with us during the day, retiring to their own cabin on the lake in the evenings. (more…)

I joined Nablopom several weeks back, committing myself to a daily blog for the entire month of November. I decided that my Twitters didn’t count, nor did posts on other blogs (like my ActiveRain blog or my contributions on RemoteProfessionals.com or other sites.) And, honestly, it’s been a struggle.

I think if I didn’t HAVE to blog daily, it would be easier. But this came at a good time, and it has helped to keep me focused on my blog during a period of time when I’d probably let my blog slide. When things are particularly challenging, I usually don’t talk about the details on the blog. I talk about the symptoms, on occasion, but not the cause. I only explain the cause after the fact if at all. Let’s just say that trying to blog right now is difficult.

I do like the idea of daily blogging, in the same way I’ve always thought it would be great to follow in the footsteps of the great men and women in American history who journaled every day. (more…)

It’s Fall! This weekend, the colors were astounding. I think this weekend was the peak for this year. The cold snap last week brought out the fire in the leaves on the farm. It was quite a show. Simply beautiful.

Over this long weekend (the kids had Thursday and Friday off school for Fall Break), my father came down to the farm and we worked to get running water on the farm.

Happily, the well pump is working and the water is just as cold and clear and wonderful as it always was.

We don’t have water circulating in the house yet, but we have it coming in and going to the pressure tank. We did most of the plumbing for the drainage system and the electric is now ready to go on the on-demand water heater. (more…)

This is the year from hell. In the future, 2007 will be known as such in my memoirs. It is the year in which family members accrued enormous health bills to go with their individual trials and tribulations. It is the year in which I have had to move twice already, and will endure another one before year-end. Life churns on.

2007 is the year that everything I touched… broke. My mother told me this weekend (as I held my daughter’s head while she vomited again) that my life seemed to be an embodiment of Murphy’s Law.

I would find that statement offensive… if it weren’t so true. (more…)

Nope, not always. (But it is much more often than it should be!)

I just spoke with Russell Springs broker and real estate agent Kim Byrom of Lake Cumberland Properties who is the first real estate agent that actually tried to help me find a new office space. She is NOT the first one I contacted. In the future, she will be.

Kim asked qualifying questions, got my name and number and said she would give me a call back. I believe her. I told her how much I appreciated her help and that she was the first real estate agent of the five I’d contacted that was interested in helping me. She said that most of the office space rentals were not listings so she helped people as a public service. She went on to say that it strengthened the community… etc, etc.. and I found myself in awe. She said all the right things. She’s service-centric! I love it.

Yes, I work with Real Estate agents all day, every day. Yes, my own clients are overboard on the customer service. That’s one of the reasons I work with them instead of working with other agents and brokers in their zip code.

But locally, it’s always been hit and miss with real estate service and it was really nice to talk to Kim after what I’d endured on this one inquiry already today. It was refreshing and I told her so.

(more…)

Alex, who is now being called “Zandria”, found several pets on the farm in recent weekends. I wanted to share a couple of the shots. The first is a furry (not fuzzy) caterpillar — which is like nothing I’ve ever seen. She named it “Snow-Fuzz” and played with it all day on Sunday.

I called it a Shih Tzu caterpillar. Its hair is so long that it actually parts in the middle!

(more…)

I’m quite excited about the changes at the farm. We have managed to beat back the wildness a bit with the help of my favorite bushhog operator. The weeds are at bay and my little “bowl” nestled in the tops of my favorite Kentucky knobs is now visibly neater and more readily enjoyed. (more…)

This weekend, in addition to digging a hole (for one side of the new gate that I’m putting in — in the rockiest, most root-infested earth known to man), I also cleaned the construction supplies off the front porch and made the place much more pleasant.

This photo of Alex sitting on the porch swing on the farm was taken with my iPhone. Not bad, eh? Click to see the full-sized image.
It was a beautiful, albeit hot as the blazes this weekend. The swing is now the right height and has springs at the top for a comfortable rest and relaxation period (if you can bear the heat).

Early mornings and late evening is the best time to enjoy the porch. (more…)

I just returned from a weekend at the farm with the kids. We managed to cover up all the graffiti on the building (although it’s going to require completely repainting the building to hide it completely).

I also talked with the man that does all my dozing and heavy work. He’s going to go bushhog the place for me this week and will do the annual work on the road (which is past due). (more…)

It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged. That’s unlike me, but I’ve been struggling to catch up on so many things. I finally took some time off to breathe a bit…

I went to check on my farm yesterday. I needed the break from work. I needed to see the farm again. I needed to be refreshed and rejuvenated from a long, difficult few weeks.

When I arrived, I noticed the gate was missing. This gate, shared by my neighbor and me, was taken off the hinges and had been stolen. What kind of people steal gates?

As I raced back to the farm, worried about what I might find, I hoped for the best. (more…)

Ok, it’s official. I’d gotten OLD and had forgotten how badly it sucked to rent property. It really does. We have had possession of the house since the 9th and the air conditioner (that I was assured worked) didn’t work and still hasn’t been fixed. Now, in May that shouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s hot as blazes in here (especially upstairs) and I’ve been cleaning and working and painting and sweating for days.

The list of things that were to be completed before we moved in still aren’t done.

And the real kicker? We smelled a serious gas odor and when I called last Monday to have it checked out… we have a leak in the house. Over 50% of the pressure that enters the house is escaping through a leak and the gas line itself is going THROUGH a heating duct. Nice, eh? The gas company immediately shut off the gas. So this week, we have been without hot water and without a way to cook. (more…)

I found an article today about the tiny houses being built by Lowes for the needs of Katrina survivors. These minuscule dwellings offer all the basics and nothing extravagant. These and other homes like them are, IMHO, the wave of the future.

I’ve watched and dreamed about the designs of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company for several years now, myself. I even developed the floor plan for my own house based, in great part, on the desire to keep the footprint small and the utility high in my home.

(more…)

I spent the night on the farm last night. I had a day onsite with a client a few counties away and I just went there instead of coming all the way back here last night. Call me crazy, but it was calling to me. The cabin is still many (wo)man-hours from being completed. This was a fact that had been depressing me to the point I was avoiding the cabin altogether.

After all, we made the decision to stay here at the lake until my son graduated high school — because despite my substantial complaints about the Russell County School system… it still runs circles around the Casey County version. It will be a cold day in Hades before my children attend that sorry excuse for a school again.

Which means… I can only visit the farm. I can’t live there right now.

It’s kind of crazy, with gas prices being what they are, that Wayne drives over 70 miles to work every day, when the farm is less than 10 miles from his place of employment. He stays at the farm occasionally. I think, working nights, it’s probably easier to sleep there than to battle all the hubbub around here during the day.

(more…)

I went to visit my son on Wednesday - spent the day with him in his first apartment. It took me back a few years. I had a lovely time, and it will help keep me from worrying about him for… uh… a couple hours at least.

Then, I went by to spend a bit of time with my Grandmother. I’ve made a decision this year that I’m going to spend more time with the people I love and spend less time in front of the computer. Life is good, business is booming and it’s time to quit working 18 hours a day, and to have REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS.

Now, I know I’ve been preaching this for years, but as usual, I’m terrible at taking my own advice. So, this year, I’ve started. And… (more…)

Cold weather makes me take a moment to think about life. Life is good. This morning, when I got up (from a toasty-warm bed), it was cold in the cabin. Quite a chill hung in the air.

Then my husband got up and said “Want a fire? Are you cold?” and immediately began the wood-burning stove ritual to get a blazing fire roaring.

Life is good. I spent some time with my sister yesterday and she stayed the night. After I finished work, we went to the Amish food store and got an armload of nuts and dried fruits and fresh fall apples. Then, we went to my favorite cheese place — a family owned business in Casey County called Zimmerman’s Homestead Cheese. They make the BEST cheese in the world there. We buy several pounds from them every month. (There’s a reason I say my family is “cheesy,” I suppose.) When we started eating organic, cheese was the thing we missed most — then I found Zimmerman’s. (more…)