May

While Chad was in the hospital at the end of April for the EMU he asked me if I would mind making some cookies for employees appreciation week. I told him each of the recipes I was planning to make, made a grocery list, and told him how many cookies each recipe would make. To which he said that should be good. I assumed (shouldn’t ever do that) that I would be just putting them on a big platter. When I started making them he got clarification on how many cookies he would need and he wanted them to be in cookie bags to pass out. I love making cookies and didn’t mind making them. I ended up making over 800 cookies in 2 days. By the end of day 2 I didn’t want to see another cookie for a while.Haha!

I got updates on the pigs back at the farm. They are getting less scared of everyone but Pancetta is a bit moody. The garden is starting to show some form of life and Dad got caught making Mom some roses for Mother’s Day out of metal . Such a sweet gesture.

Chad has been doing quite a bit of leatherwork lately and is getting quite good at it. He has even made some Narcan cases for some of his colleagues. And he continues to get better and better every time!

Sadly, Ro and I had to head back to Kentucky. On the way we found a park at a rest stop and we enjoyed a bit of play time before getting back on the road.

When we got back to the farm I wanted to sleep in but Ro had other ideas. He enjoyed dragging all of his toys out first thing in the morning. Got the adult children to unloaded the car that I packed full of stuff from Texas. Every time I go for a visit in Texas I come back with a car full of stuff so I can have some of my stuff here at the farm.

Payton put together his learning tower for Ro to be able to help out while we are cooking. He absolutely loves to watch us cook. He has some Montessori kitchen tools to work on his own food tasks.

The next day Dad and I got the ice maker installed to a water line. I saw on Pinterest a cute whisky barrel used as a small table or cabinet and thought that is an excellent idea to use the old bourbon barrel for it to sit on that was just collecting dust in the barn. Dad did most of it and I just had the ideas lol.

I started prepping the door for painting then it rained and rained and rained🤦‍♀️ so painting projects got put on hold for a while.

When I was in Texas I was telling Chad that I have been wanting to take Ro to the zoo but I think he might get bored pretty quick. Chad found and sent me a Facebook post for a place called Wendt’s Wildlife Adventure. I was glad Chad had found it and sent it to me. Moms got in free for a Mother’s Day special. We had such a great time and there was even a Filipino food truck there, it was so yummy! The girls and enjoyed the food and Ro just wanted to go play in the sandbox.

After we got back home I had found had more ideas for the second bourbon barrel we had in the barn. So Dad cut it up and turned it into a trash can and a cute wooden shelf. The days were getting hotter so Roman enjoyed playing on the porch with his new water play toy that Aunt Carla sent him.

Cheyenne and I took a trip to Cincinnati to buy some thin bricks for the basement apartment. She was very excited to go on an adventure with me. We worked on putting it up in the basement because it was raining again. The storm was loud and obnoxious and we had 2 trees fall down in the front yard. Thankfully they didn’t hit the house or any vehicles, but it did land on the driveway gate. We had to cut and haul branches out of the way so my mom could go pick Hunter up from work.

All the other projects that were being worked on got put on hold. We worked on getting it cleaned up every day. We shredded leaves and stacked wood to keep for the winter. Cheyenne and Payton brought wagon loads of rocks to help make a strawberry patch. I am not a good rock stacker so Dad had to fix all my stacked rocks. Since the tree messed up the gate we decided to use it as a fence for the pigs to get to the pasture. I hated the thought of just throwing it away. I am glad it could be reused. a couple days later we saw that a piece of tin came off the barn so it had to be fixed…. I am not scared of heights but I am scared of falling. Dad made me climb on the roof for no apparent reason but him and mom got it fixed up.

I was thankful to go make a Lowe’s run for screws and some expensive roof sealing paint. I was also fixing to leave to go back to Texas…. I was exhausted already from working on the tree cleanup and I was ready for a day of sitting. The strawberry plants were doing great and have cute little strawberries, the roses are going to bloom soon too.

We got progress pictures from my Dad on the trees cleanup. The pictures don’t look like it but they were really big trees. I am not looking forward to working on cleaning them up more.

Chad had another leather order that we needed to meet in a town called Turkey to deliver. Ro and I went along for the ride and when we got there we played at an awesome little park.

Texas time was much needed to see my Hubby. Ro was spoiled like always and had an awesome new playground, water table, and indoor climbing stuff. I got to do some sewing and made some curtains for the kitchen at the farm, Dino pack and play sheets with extra bands on the bottom to keep Ro from taking off his sheets every night and nap time. We found some thick foam, cut it into mattresses for him in Texas and in Kentucky. Made a few pillows and even blankets. I was happy to have the time to sew and enjoy hanging out with Chad and Carla.