In the last five weeks our remodel project has been a nightmare (yes we are still without floors and walls:)), living out of coolers, cooking and living in our family room,  had wonderful guests stay with us for five days last week (and they still love us:)), had a booth at the Michigan INCH Homeschool conference and helped hubby while he taught workshops there, finished off homeschool music with two nights full of concerts last week (in the midst of remodel, guests, and INCH) and to top it off my Mom is still in the hospital after 4 1/2 weeks and I have been running back and forth to be with her.... I need a break.  My wonderful Hubby, for my 40th birthday in February, surprised me with a 1 night stay with Matt and Angela at the Maple Valley off-grid cottage  http://eclecticculturefarm.blogspot.com/ We are leaving today!  I am so excited.  I had visited there last fall to take a couple of classes, they are about an hour and a half north of us.  I hope to...

If any of you out there sell animals on your small hobby farm like we do, this article will hit close to home http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110524/pl_dailycaller/usdafinesmissourifamily90kforsellingafewrabbitswithoutalicense   I found out about this story through some of this family's relatives that live in the same town we do.  As someone who sells a few fiber rabbits a year, this is scary stuff!  What is next?  I hope they are able to find some very wise people to stand up for them.  Last I heard, if the money wasn't paid by Monday the fine was going up to $4 million!

Lilacs are in full bloom Garden ready to be planted Royal Palms Narragansett Chicken Tractors Goat area Free range meat birds Claire  Tiger and Robin Babies Rabbit area My "kids" New Kitchen There will hopefully be floors here...soon? New window for the new room new room

I have three French angoras available for sale.  We are located in Michigan.  They are $50 each and make wonderful pets!  They are brown, grey/chinchilla, lillac grey in color.  These are wonderful small fiber animals!  Leave a comment if you are interested, or you can email me!

What was supposed to last 3-4 days is now on day 11.  We are hopeful this week we will start to see our new rooms take shape.  We have run into make issues that were not expected, like the second story addition not sitting on load bearing walls on the first floor.  Floor and walls that are really, really, un-level, and my favorite so far has been finding out that our furnace/hot water heater pipe that goes up to the roof was never really attached and locked together when they put it in 20 years ago.  Which means we have had exhaust fumes being blown into the attic!  Our builder has been amazing and has done a great job with all the road blocks.  This week we should see electrical done, plumbing done, and insulation start to go in...as long as nothing else goes wrong. I said from the beginning this was going to be a character building experience for me, and boy or boy has it ever.  I am not necessarily a "clean freak", I don't dust...much and usually ...

I just love it when science shows up in the backyard, or in this case, the field across the road.  I often wonder what the neighbors are thinking when the see the kids and I, loaded with books and pencils, go running across the field.  In our research we decided that this was an old snapping turtle.  There are many differences to look at, webbed feet or not, 1 claw or all claws, short or long tail?  I say old because the book said that the older turtles have a worn shell, and he didn't snap once.  Boy was he trucking across the field though!  We had to run back and forth for the camera and books and had to look for him the second time!  My oldest happen to spot him from his upstairs bedroom window...don't ask me how!

Well all of the ceilings are ripped and now that I can see the "spare room" it just keeps looking better and better!  I am not sure what the next step is, we have found many issues along the way (just as we suspected) as they have pieced this house together.   Our builder has been fantastic!  He is doing an awsome job.  I am just so excited now with the walls down, I can actually see what is in store for us.  The huge extra space is just an added blessing. On a side note, and without going into great detail, please put my mom in your prayers.  She is in the ICU, and it is still a mystery as to what is causing her issues.  I know that God is the Great Healer and your prayers are appreciated.  The "spare oom, in the land of wardrobe":))

The big start to our remodel project was Monday morning.  WOW pictures don't do it justice.  Amazingly we found a "bonus" room up above both our kitchen and dining room that expands the entire length of our house (probably 25 ft)  The ceiling will be on a slant, but for us it is perfect!  We have always struggled for space in this house, and I am amazed at how much was just sitting there!  You won't believe your eyes.  We told the builder to go ahead and finish it off.  What a huge blessing this is!!