Weekly Update: 7.8.23

After all the crazy last week, this week was a bit of a reprieve. I think part of it was the holiday -- it felt like we had had two weekends back-to-back. The weather has cooled off wonderfully. We know it won't last, but having several days with highs in the 80s made all the difference for our morale. The Ozarks are in their full summer glow, with wildflower days and firefly nights. The grasshoppers have taken over our field and cicadas have started their annual serenade. A bunch of us picked our first blackberries this week. Grace froze them on cookie sheets so that we can add them to ice cream at some point.

While all the wild world is flowering and fruiting, our potted plants are also doing well. Our rock roses started blooming like crazy this week. I didn't know they could be so pretty.

We had David Davis back for several days working on our septic system, so that made things kind of different this week. Our brother Levi has done some work for him in the past, so he was busy helping put in our leach lines.

An unexpected part of the septic install has been the debris Davis has dug up. It appears the previous owners buried a bunch of farm equipment. We plan to take it to a scrap yard once the septic is completed. For now, it looks rather like we have pieces of modern art scattered around.

We did make some progress on our other projects. We put our pool up on Sunday after church. It was quite the job -- our pool is a 20' x 52" Intex Prism Frame. The site has taken us weeks to get perfectly level. We sunk 12" pavers underneath where each leg of the pool goes, as was recommended by several Youtubers. When we finally set the pool up, the process went smoothly. Jeremiah, Levi, and I put it together. Even Dolly helped. After having it in a box for weeks, we were thrilled to have it up.

Our excitement lasted until the next morning when we found a leak in the side of the pool on a seam. After all of that effort, we were pretty disappointed. We were thankful to find out that we can still take the pool back to Lowe's. We ordered a replacement. Once it arrives, we will take down the old pool and put the new one up in it's place. Then we have the fun job of getting the leaky pool back into a box and driving it to Springfield.

The highlight of the week, of course, was Independence Day. A bunch of us attended Dadeville's 4th of July Parade and Picnic. You can read more about it here.

After we came home, we spent the afternoon swimming in our pool. We did most of our holiday cooking on Monday -- we had pasta salad and mock éclair dessert already in the fridge. I whipped up some baked beans to go with our burgers before I took a dip in the pool myself. As we were grilling the burgers that evening, though, some unexpected guests showed up.

We counted seven of our neighbor's cattle in our field. They came over by the tent and eventually made their way to the spring. Our dogs went crazy. We called the neighbor we assumed was the owner. As we were sitting down to eat, the neighbors showed up. After we finished eating, we suited up in long pants and work boots to help move the cows back home. But by the time we hiked back to where we figured the cows were, the neighbors already had put them up. I was impressed -- herding animals through the tangle that is our woods is no small feat.

Early in the work week, we spent some time on our footings. After pouring the first one, we realized we needed to fine tune our holes a bit more. We have been shaping them so that the footing frames can fit exactly where they need to be. We have also been making sure the bottom is as level as possible to make leveling the frame easier.

Dad and Grace spent Thursday building stairs for our office building (where we keep our freezer and refrigerator and where our brother Jeremiah works). The project has been on our to-do list, but we kept getting busy with other things. We have been climbing up and down from the office on a stack of concrete blocks that scared me at first, but we had all gotten used to it. Then early Thursday morning, one of us might have fallen on the way back down with breakfast supplies. Said person might have landed on her feet (total God thing), but the experience inspired the family to go ahead and get those stairs done.

On Friday, we spent the morning clearing a site for a new dog kennel. Bonnie-Jean will be picking up her German Shepherd pup this morning. With two puppies underfoot, we decided we need a permanent area to corral them when we can't give them our undivided attention. We decided to set the kennel up near our hammocking area, since it's fairly level there and shady. Several of us have been spending a lot of time down there to avoid the heavy equipment, and we think it will be perfect for a dog kennel.

The dogs have had to be tethered or penned up in the woods, which Dolly and Rascal have not appreciated. Even though the whole time they are petted and spoiled by our nieces -- they like being free-roaming country dogs.

Dagger, however, is a very good-natured puppy. The only thing he requires is having a human close by. He doesn't like to be alone -- that leads to a fuss fest. With so many people around, though, he rarely has to be by himself. And once Bonnie-Jean's pup arrives this weekend, he will have company of his own kind. He has been trying to play with Dolly and Rascal, but they will not have any of it.

Along with all the easy-to-see progress, we spent a lot of time this week on camp upkeep and the normal daily duties of camp life. There is always bookwork and record keeping to do. There are bills to pay and supply orders to make. There are groceries to shop for and meals to cook. Every day, there are mountains of dishes to wash and piles of laundry to wash, dry on the line, and then fold. The kids and pets in the tent make daily dusting and vacuuming a necessity. Plus, there is always something to be tidied up -- a porch to scrub, tools to sort and put away, recycling to take to town.

Often we are running from the time we get up at 6 am until after 9 pm. With all there is to do, we are struggling to find the right work-rest balance. We have been attempting to take a couple hours off each afternoon, during the hottest part of the day. This time is for resting, devotions, and personal projects. We haven't succeeded in taking this time most days, but I think we are getting there. I feel like each week, we make progress not only on our projects, but on figuring out this phase of homesteading life.

This next week should be another exciting one. We will have another puppy here to wreak joy and havoc. Our septic system should be finished by the end of next week. We hope we will have our new pool put up. I'd love to finish pouring our footings and be moving on to the piers themselves. I'd also like to get back to fencing our garden. We will see how things go. We will do our best and trust God's timing. There is so much peace knowing He is ultimately the One building our house (Psalm 127:1).