Pond digging

We are also busy with having our pond re-dug out and reshaped. we ran into some big problems with the pond last summer and its finally getting fixed. When we bought this house 3 years ago we were told this 1 acre pond was really deep. It was going into winter when we bought the house so we never got to check it out. The first summer we discovered, while it is an acre big, it was very shallow! You couldn't swim in it and because it was so shallow it had no air or water circulation and it basically was a giant swamp hole and with the heat of the summer, it turned into a stagnant water hole. SO last summer we hired someone to dig it out and make it deeper. We knew that there was risks with this as when you are digging into standing water you have no idea what is underneath there. There is always the odds we could have run into a rock bed or the clay bed would not have been deep enough and we would have dug into sand. Which if that happens the pond would have completely drained out thru the sand then we would have had to dig all of the sand out and put in a new clay bottom. Well that didn't happen but whoever originally dug this pond put It over the top of what used to be farm ground. Tiled farm ground. when they started digging the pond deeper last fall, they hit several tiles that no one knew where there. This in turned caused the whole pond to drain in a mater of days. This also uncovered a fence that the people who had put the pond in had left. So the fence was smack dab in the middle of the pond too and that had to be removed as well. So winter struck and we had a mess out there. My daughter said it looke dlike armageddon out in the front yard. So we have had a very ugly yard to look at all winter. We couldnt dig anymore because the ground was frozen and the snow was deep and had filled in the hole. So we waited till spring. And we have had such a cold wet spring that they couldnt get back into the pond until just 2 weeks ago because the equipment kept getting stuck in the muck. Now we are finally only 2 days away from being done. They have made the pond bigger and alot deeper and they have smoothed out the edges of the pond and slopped it nicely into our yard. Its not done yet but soon we will be able to plant grass around the whole pond again and then wait for the rains to fill it up again.

Graduation and College

I am also busy getting ready for my youngest daughter to graduate from high school in about 5 weeks. So I am busy planning the guest list and working on invitations and the menu for the party. We just never seem to have a free minute around here. Oh well.

Unfortunatley my oldest daughter as of now probably wont be home for a visit in June as I had originally hoped. I am very sad that this is not working out, as I really miss her. I hope my other 2 daughters dont end up so far away and stay in touch more often. I think they will , my college freshman calls me several times a week and texts me also and my youngest one and I talk all the time so I cant imagine that will change. Its so hard when your kids move away and start lives of their own and you dont see them or hear from them very often. Its really hard. She will alwys be my little girl no matter how old she gets and I will alwys miss her and love her.

My youngest daughter was accepted at 6 colleges but has picked the one. AND luckily for us it will be the same college our middle daughter is it. This will make life so much easier for the 2 girls, they really get along well and will be able to spend time with each other while they are at school. It will also make it easier onus with taking kids back and forth from school. They will start at the same time, and have the same breaks etc. We are very proud of both of them and they will both do great at college.

Our middle daughter will be finishing up her freshman year of college this week. We will be bringing her home on Thursday. SO our home will be a little more full for the next 3 1/2 months before the girls all leave for college. Next Fall will be a big change for our household as this will be the first time in really long time that we haven't had kids still living at home. Big adjustments are coming. At least they will still be coming home for breaks for awhile longer and will be at home for the summers, so I have a few more years before they will be completely gone. SO the transition period begins.

Gardening

The early garden is in and starting to come up. I have radishes, lettuce and onions poking their heads up. Still waiting on the carrots, peas and beets to come up yet. I also planted some rhubarb and asparagus this year, so that we could get a patch started. the rest of the garden will have to wait until the ground and the air temp gets warmer.

My three seasons room is full of flats of vegetable seedlings just waiting for it to warm up so that they can go into the ground.

The pumpkin patch will be in a separate garden from the main vegetable garden. We just got the space for it cleared out last week.

So we are making progress in the garden front. Onto other things!

Court day!

Today was another trip into the courthouse for a hearing dealing with the continual issue of an ex who is way , way behind in child support and medical bills for the kids. I am usually in court 3 times a year minimum with these issues. I know that sounds extreme but I really don't ask for this, he is so far behind that the judge and the child support office, order us into court on a regular basis to try to get him paying. Oh I cant wait till the child support years are over with! At this point he only will owe for 3 more years of support, at that time the kids will all be to old to qualify for support anymore but he is so far behind that we are guessing that he will have to pay me a weekly amount for an additional 3-4 years past that to get everything he owes caught up. Its just that after 3 more years he will not be accruing any additional past due amounts, so we may actually start to make some progress on this at hat time.

UPdates!

I havent been on my blog in forever!!!! I have been way too busy and life here at the farm will get even more busy as spring gets further along and summer arrives. I spent so much time creating this blog and getting it up and running over the winter and i was really happy with he way it was going and I was just starting to get a decent following when life became very busy with a whole host of things. We are still working at clearing off items on our overly full plate. we have made big progress in some areas and are close to removing them from the plate all together but other items will drag on into the summer , unfortunately. So between these items and the gardens and kids, farmers markets, I will be hard pressed to get on this blog but a few times a month, so I guess I will just to try to get on her as often as I can and then rebuild this winter.

Weight loss goals....

I'm not one to usually talk about my weight loss, but I hit a big goal this week! I have finally lost 15 pounds! This took 14 months, and let me tell you it has been very frustrating. 14 months is a really long time to take off what I put on in 4 months! I know that the slower you lose it, the more apt you are to keep it off, but still its frustrating. I am finally back to the weight I was 18 mos ago. I probably would have hit this goal sooner but Thanksgiving thru New years set me back and I had to re-lose some weight I had all ready lost! I also don't consider myself to be on a diet, they just dont work for me. Sure I would lose a bunch of weight quickly, on some wacky diet, but then as soon as I would go off of it, the weight would all come back. So instead what works for me is that I have to follow a constant plan, of making good decisions every day. It has to be a way of life for me. I also do not deny myself anything, if I want a piece of cake I will eat a small piece. That satisfies the craving and I am good to go. I just eat sweets in small moderation. I also weigh myself daily to track weight loss, but also to keep an eye on any weight gain, so that I can more easily take off a couple of pounds that may have crept back on. Unfortunately when I put this weight on in 4 mos., it was when we were going thru the stress of trying to start a new business and the start of a business partnership going severely bad, so without realizing it, I ate more and was eating more bad things. When I had realized that I had put 15 pounds on, I was very upset with myself. None of my clothes fit and I refused to buy larger clothes! 18 months ago I was at a point where I needed to lose just 5 pounds and I am happy to say that is were I am at again today. I want to lose 5 more pounds. I think that will put me back into all of my old clothes comfortably and I will be happy. After the 5 lbs more I believe if anything all I will need to do is tone up. I know with the summer soon approaching that I will be getting plenty of exercise working the gardens. So I believe the toning up part and the next 5 pounds will come off fairly easy, as soon as it gets warm and we can be outside every day!!

No matter how slow your weight loss seems to be going, keep at it, you will be happier and healthier in the end!! There was many times over the last 14 months I just wanted to give up because the progress was so darn slow, but now that Im at my first goal, I realize it was worth the wait and Im re-energized to work on the next 5 lbs!

What did you want to be when you grew up???

My youngest daughter like alot of college seniors is trying to figure out what her career will be for the future. I don't know its so important to have a permanent answer right now, but at least a general goal or interest to work towards, that has lots of options. So many college students change their major anyway, as they learn and mature and start growing up and experiencing a different world outside of high school. But all of this got me to thinking , how many of us really end up doing, what we said we wanted to do when we were in elementary school and then as middle and high schoolers. Most of us went thru numerous career options before we even made it to our senior year of high school. I wanted to be a ballerina when I was really little, then that changed to a gymnast, and in high school I wanted to be a math teacher, to name a few. Instead I ended up in the banking world and worked my way up thru the ranks and took every class they offered to pay for and even became licensed in the finance world. Had I not been layed off I would probably have stayed in that world. It was the only career path , in my adult life that I have ever followed and all I ever knew. So I think we tend to stay in what is familiar and known, even if its wrong for us. I cant say I was happy there, or even satisfied with my career. I became easily bored and quickly outgrew each new job position I was promoted into. I was always looking for something more challenging, more fulfilling, that job that made you want to get up and go to work. Instead my career was more of a chore, an unpleasant chore, even though I was very good at all my job positions that I had in the financial world over the last 13 years. I hated going to sleep at night, knowing I would have to go to work when I woke up in the morning. All Thru the day I counted down the hours until it was time to go, the days never moved fast enough and that's just no way to live life.
So that's why I'm struggling now to figure out who I am now and what I want to be when I grew up.... Seems like it doesn't matter where we are at in life we are always learning and remaking ourselves. I would really like to find that something this time that makes me happy.

So how many of you actually ended up in the career path you originally chose??