NaNo has me going batty!

I am sorry I am hermitish right now. I am trying to do this NaNo thing and so it has all my writing focus. I am at 15,591 words so far and exhausted. The kiddos only give me so much time in the day to write so i mostly have to do it after Monkey is in bead so it has meant late nights for me which is leading to some tired Lila. I need sleep, lol. I will surface sometime I promise and pay attention to all your wonderful blogs and comment on them. Right now I am buried in a kidnapper in Jackson Hole in 2042.

absentee blogger

Yes, that is me. I am sorry. I have been crazy busy the last few...umm...months...? My boys started school and I stupidly thought this would give me soooo much free time. Yeah, that didn't happen. I am up by 6 to get my middle schooler (gasp) off to school. As soon as he walks out the door, I have to wake the younger two and listen to them fight as they get ready. I really hate mornings. By the time they are out the door I am exhausted.

I have also been canning. and canning and canning. We had an early freeze this year so I spent an hour and a half outside in a snowstorm picking tomatoes and the rest of the garden produce. Luckily a friend came to help or it would have taken me all day. We picked 16 pumpkins, four watermelons, two cantaloupes and 430 tomatoes. Yes, you read that right. I have 430 tomatoes in various stages of ripeness on my kitchen table. Salsa anyone? I have already done two batches of salsa but neither of them really came out. One was too sweet (it also called for several of my cucumbers), the second called for over a cup of vinegar and that is all you can taste. Sooooo.......this next batch will use the second recipe but cut the vinegar wayyyyyy down.

I canned my peas and carrots together because I didn't have enough of either to bother canning. I got a batch of green beans done and two quarts of tomatoes.

I did end up being a judge for the fair and there was a judges category (whoot) so I entered. I won three blue ribbons! We were up all night judging the hundreds of jars and had to come early the next day to award the ribbons.

The chickens are all molting and the yard looks like a fowl massacre with feathers EVERYWHERE. I wish they didn't do that right before the weather turns freezing cold. Mr Chicken and my chicks are completely clueless as to how to use the cat door we installed on the coop. My older hens are used to it and go in and out several times a day. It is too cold to leave the big door open and it is driving me crazy to have to let them out every morning and catch them every night to put them back in the coop. I hope they figure this out sooner rather than later.

I already gave you the update on the bees. Kind of. I have just gotten scared enough of them that I don't really go out there unless the smoker is fired up and I am in full beekeeper gear. That is just such a pain in the butt that I usually don't get around to it. Plus, my little photographers are not willing to get that close either. It doesn't help that my oldest son is allergic to bee stings.

So there are all of my excuses. I am going to try harder to keep up with this but if I disappear for a while again, I am sorry.

OMGosh! I am actually blogging!

Wow, Lila has been busy. I figured it was time to pull at least part of my own weight around here. So today you get a post from Gracie. I have been insanely busy the last couple of weeks and just haven't had the time. Last week I spent the week with my family celebrating my dad's 80th birthday. I had a GREAT time visiting with all of my family but honestly, it felt AMAZING to sleep in my own bed.

I have several posts I plan on writing either today or tomorrow and posting over the next few days. I have garden updates, bee updates (those bugs are nuts!), and just life in general updates. Hopefully I can keep up with Lila so she doesn't have to do the lions share of keeping up with our blog.