Visiting Family and Other Stuff

So, we spent the last two weeks visiting family. A week with his family and a week with mine.

It was...interesting.... And educational.

We spent a lot of time doing nothing with his family, but we did go to the zoo up there and we went out to eat with a few of his friends.

My family we ended up doing less, but more... We didn't go out quite as much but we did more stuff. I helped mom and dad finish the strawberry raised bed, weeded some of the flower bed, we went on a couple walks and we went down and tried to figure out where we would put a house if we decided to build a house on their property.

Overall it was a good trip, Benjamin did quite well on the trip, considering he's only 8 months old and we didn't have any major problems driving.

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When we got back my garden was MASSIVE! I picked two handfuls of peas, a dozen strawberries and there are some green tomatoes on the vines. There are tons more peas almost ready to pick and there will be a bunch more strawberries too. My blueberries are still growing, they're getting decent sized now, just need to ripen!!

My flowers are doing pretty well too, the Royal Allysum is about 4 inches tall and blooming and the marigolds I started from seed are starting to bloom.  The pansy's and Portulacas that are in my window box are going crazy and I got a bunch of seeds off then this morning.

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While I was on leave they called and told me they moved me back to the facility... I'm not sure why but it sucks, I'm still on day jobs but the hours increased to about 12-13/day instead of 8-10. No idea when I'm going to fit physical therapy, Benjamin's appointments and everything else in. I also don't know if I'll be able to take the classes I wanted to take for the Soldier For Life (SFL) program (basically the transition program for when you get out of the Army.

Well. I better go. Working on plans for my gardens and rabbit hutches today.  Will talk later!

Omaha Zoo!

We went to the Omaha Zoo today. Best zoo in the world. It's AWESOME! We got there at 0930 and didn't leave until 3:30pm. We wouldn't have left then but we were exhausted, had seen everything and didn't want to fight the crowds to go back through exhibits. I got tons of amazing pictures and Benjamin got to touch a stingray!

My ankle did amazingly well, we were worried because I don't have full range of motion in it yet and there were a lot of steps, but it didn't hurt at all. The physical therapist I saw last week says that it seems to be healing well except for the lack of motion. He's hopeful that I'll get it back with lots of physical therapy though.

Gonna be short today but I hope you all don't mind. I've got more farm plans so I'll try to update you when I have time. Oh! Garden is doing well, I have lots of green blueberries, a few strawberries and some peas starting as well as some squash flowers about to open! Hoping for a good year!

Gardening and Spring

I've got most of my garden planted! The peas have been in for a while, I put in my broccoli and my asparabroc (asparagus/broccoli hybrid) and a couple summer squash plants. I'm waiting for a little while to make sure that it isn't going to freeze before I put the rest of the squash in.
My blueberries and strawberries made it through the last couple freezes we had although the strawberries didn't drain quite as well as I had hoped and I think a couple of them may have died.
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My ankle is doing a lot better. I'm putting a little weight on it when I walk now (about 10%). The swelling isn't near as bad unless I'm on it all day. I'm hopeful that by the 14th I'll be able to walk on it and hold Benjamin because I've got another freezer meal workshop that evening.
I went to a Tastefully Simple workshop yesterday and we're trying the meatloaf tonight. Hopefully it'll be good!!

Fruit is Planted!

The weather warmed up a lot today (70*!) and my blueberry and strawberry plants were all delivered so I spent most of the day outside planting.
I'm doing a lot of container planting thus year since we'll be moving next summer. My blueberries and strawberries are all in pots, the rest (summer and winter squash, peas and broccoli) are all going into my raised bed. I went ahead and put the peas into the raised bed today, they're about 3 inches tall and starting to get little tendrils on them so I wanted to get them in before they got any bigger. I put some of the broccoli on the top of the strawberry basket, I used a laundry basket lined with a garbage bag for the strawberries so the whole top is open. The rest of everything I'll be waiting for a couple weeks to transplant everything else. I'd hate to get another frost and have everything die.
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I've only got 4 days left in my cast I think, hopefully it will be removed on the 25th. Yay! I'm hoping that they let me walk on it after that. It's hard to get around work on crutches! It's hard to do anything really... I had to have DH bring me all my stuff to do my planting today and he's been doing most of the cooking and stuff. Very demotivating!! I have had lots of time to read about plants and figure out what kinds of animals I want and cages and stuff. So that's been nice.

I've decided that I want bees. There's a couple of cool products out there, one of them allows you to drain honey from the hive without opening it up! And I love honey and the bees need help right now so it's a win-win! I think they'll be a second year project, plan for them and purchase all the stuff the first year and then get the bees the second year.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Will update later.

Surgery, Farm Plans and More!

So. I had surgery a couple weeks ago.... If anyone ever asks if you want surgery to tighten up your ankle, just say no! Or opt for amputation! LOL my little sister keeps saying amputation means permanent crutches but I say there are prosthetic limbs...

In all seriousness the surgery went fine and the recovery is going pretty well. I'm getting the cast off in a little while (25th!) and then I get a boot :( not sure if I'll be walking on it or not with the boot.

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I've got my raised bed built. I'm going with 'ask forgiveness, not permission' for the garden. They didn't say I COULDN'T build one so I figure as long as I fix it before I leave in good.
I've got broccoli, summer squash and winter squash planted and blueberry bushes and strawberry plants on the way :-)
I've also got my eye on a couple of farmers markets in the area that I'm gonna start going to. The plan is to can some fruits and stuff and freeze the veggies so we can have 'fresh' veggies all year long.

I've also got my goat fence plans, chicken coop plans and I think I know what I'm doing as far as rabbit hutches and stuff. Plans are finally coming together.
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I'll be back later!

Sunny Skies and Inspections

Kansas... It's days like these that's I LIKE Kansas... 65 and sunny! In January! We went to the zoo Saturday, wore our winter coats Sunday and back to 65 degrees today. Love this state!!

Bad news is that we're having an inspection at work this week and it's getting crazy LOL not worried about it, but still crazy...

Goings on about chickens and farming are happening, I'm starting my business plan... Got some great books at the house that I'm slowly reading through... Hoping that they'll help me out with the planning phase.
In about 4 months I can start ACAP which is basically just the army 'preparing' me for civilian life again... Pretty sure I'm going to be OK on the transition LOL. But ACAP is just another stepping stone to getting out... I can't wait to be free again. Don't even care if that means that I need to scrimp and save even more than I do now.

Well. That's all the goings on for now. I'll be sure and write more when things cool off!

Cilantro Lime Chicken

I've been on an experimental kick with recipes lately. Tonight we had Cilantro Lime Chicken which was OK but didn't really wow me. The flavor was OK but it ended up a bit dry and seems to me that I don't care much for the flavor of cilantro!! I probably won't try the recipe again, especially since it needed done a couple hours ahead of cooking so it could sit in the marinade stuff. I just don't have the time to devote to a recipe I don't really care for!!

Benjamin seems to be teething!! There are two tiny white specks showing through the to of his gums in the front. Seems a little early to me but who knows! He doesn't really seem to be upset about it and he is drooling less lately not more... Oh well... I suppose his little teeth will come through eventually!!

Tomorrow I go back to work, headed up to the company for a while, can't wait!! Gonna be nice to wait up at 7 and have two hours to get ready for work instead of waking up at 3 and having 40 minutes to get ready!!

Happy New Year!

I should really post more frequently!!! Maybe I'll be able to cause I've got the app now! :-)

Anyways, I have a new addition to the family! Baby Benjamin was born September 16th at 0208 :-).  He's healthy, generally happy and, at 3.5 months old starting to try talking! He was born with a full head of hair and it has only grown. It's getting lighter now than it was when he was born, however, it's just as thick.

We've moved since my last post, we now live on post. It's pretty nice, we have a fenced back yard facing the woods and I'm only 7 minutes from work.

Work.... I'm now working in the training office for my company. It's pretty chill, this week might be rough cause it's the first week I'll have been there since Christmas. I moved to the medication window for Christmas and New Years so they got a better work schedule. In the time since I've been out of the office the company has split, a couple sections that are actually shift work have gone to a different company. That'll make things a little better for me on one hand, worse on the other...  Better because we have less people to deal with, worse because I have to take them all off our numbers :/ gonna take some time but not insurmountable.

Future plans at the moment include going home and starting a hobby farm. Unfortunately I won't be able to do that for a while... Not done with my contact for a little over a year :-( . I'm not too upset about it but I kinda wish I could go home now LOL. Just been a rough little bit... I'm still a little depressed I think from so many changes and a lack of sleep.

We had a great Christmas this year. I got Tim his ballistic vest for air soft, he got me a bunch of cooking utensils I needed. Benjamin got a book (Winnie the Pooh) and a few talking toys and a cool rattle he can grab and chew on. We also got a few games from gram and pops and mom and dad. Basically we made out like bandits LOL. I can't think of anything else to say right at the moment so I'll go away. I'll try to post at least every week!