Blood, sweat & tears

I always knew what that meant ... "blood, sweat & tears" ... but I believe I have a deeper understanding now.

 

Blood has been shed on our homestead ... only a few drops (so far). It sure hurts when the hammer misses the nail!!! My 18 year old son & 10 year old son made the first of three compost bins. The oldest was concerned because it didn't look nice. I'm not looking to be on the front cover of "Better Homes & Gardens" though. I don't care if it looks nice ... I just want it to function as it should ... and it doe! Great job, boys!!! It was made out of pallets. Pallets are free but some of them are hard to work with. None-the-less, they are a blessing. Our chickens are housed with the, compost bins are made with them, & some of our other projects will be made with them too.  Hopefully they'll be no more blood shed!

 

Farm chores get done first thing in the morning ... before the temperature rises! I know that old time farmers got up mighty early ... most say it was to use all the day light hours, but I wonder if the temperatures have anything to do with that too. It gets hot in these parts ... working through the day sure makes one sweaty!!! Sweat isn't a bad thing though .... it's a reward, really ... for hard work. We haven't done a lot here yet but our day is coming. Due to not having a way to contact help in case of emergencies, our kids feel safer going in to town on the days that my husband works ... so ... we go. It's a hassle & I'm over it. I think that the most frustrating part is that when staying in town ALL DAY, we have no structure, no routine ... it's sure showing on my children too.  I've noticed they argue more often & are crabby during the day. I tend to feel lost with no routine ... I look forward to getting our land line & a second vehicle. Hopefully those two things happen quickly. I have our schedule planned for when it does LOL

 

We lost a family pet this week. We were given a purebred MinPin 5 years ago. He'd become one of the family immediately. BearBear was supposed to be mine but he took a liking to my 16 year old daughter. His original name was Pharaoh but some how he became "BearBear." When our youngest was a baby, he became good friends with BearBear ... that lovable dog would let the baby use him as a pillow. The past week, we'd noticed he'd started acting like a playful pup again. He had some "pep in his step" again. He was 10 years old & though I don't know what his first 5 years of life were like, I know he had a great second half of his life. We came home from an already rough day to find BearBear had died. My 16 year old is broken hearted & many tears have been shed. We will miss our beloved BearBear!!!

 

Until next time ~