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.