It's been a while...

I know I've broken the cardinal rule of blogging by NOT posting often enough. I have no excuse except a busy life. But now that I have an organized office, I'm going to do my best to get back into the swing of it!!! Plus I have a ton of projects coming up....

Here are the pictures of the chesnuts I promised:
This prickly fellow is quite sharp - do not pick it up or step on it without shoes or gloves.

We had a pretty dry summer and these guys ripened early.

You must wait for these little guys to drop on their own.

When they start dropping, look out!

A.J. was a little timid to eat one...

But someone else ate like a king for two weeks.

On the farm

Here are some recent pictures on the farm...

It's September 22nd - and new flowers on our cherry tree?

Who needs sand when you have corn?

Here comes the rain...


After playing in the rain...

Hello pumpkin, you are going to be pie soon...

1st mum to start blooming!!!!

I'm pretty impressed with my pictures today - next post will be about our chestnuts...

Quilting Project "Garden Club"

Since I've had my babies, I haven't had time to quilt. I miss it so much and I've decided to finish all of my projects this winter. Well, at least get the tops done - I'm talking probably around 10 projects!!! Speaking of projects, the biggest project of all is cleaning out the junk room where all my quilt projects/supplies along with all the other junk we shoved in there when we moved. I have a huge weekend ahead of me if I want to get this done. Here are pictures of one square from the Garden Club.

I use Janome machines and my favorite style is machine applique embroidery.

I love the detail...

I want to start quilting now....

I wish I had more time in the day. Such is life...

My little girl

Isabella is 10 months old today and she started to crawl a week ago. Oh how the time flies. She is the sweetest little thing - a wonderful baby and I'm so blessed to have to happy, healthy babies. Little do they know what is in store for them when they get older. Oh farm work... sweet farm work...Hehehehehehe

Last night Dada took us for a ride on the Ranger (all four of us) down through the old railroad bed next to our property. I couldn't help but think that it would make a great hayride trail if we could trim it back a little bit - I didn't tell Mike that though... not yet.

I've seen blooming mums already and my eyes are looking all over for the first pumpkin! Haven't seen one yet, but I know it'll be soon. However, the corn started to change color and their steady decline to harvest is quickly approaching. Yeah!

The Jersey Shore vs. Rural Ohio

I wouldn't say I was a "good girl" when I was young, but I would be if I compared myself to the Jersey Shore crew. I watched a JS show today and I was blown away. While the entertainment factor was really high, the underlying content is pretty low. I can't help but wonder if my 2 yr old and almost 1 yr old are going to be influenced by this type of behavior in school or out in public. Let me back up. If you haven't heard of "The Jersey Shore", it is a show about a bunch of kids (over 21) that go to a destination to (Jersey Shore and now Miami) drink a bunch of booze and try to hook up with "Guido Juiceheads" or hot girls. There are lots of fights, name calling, bullying, tanning and sex. The kids are all Italian with an underlying theme of the importance of family, which was the foundation of their backgrounds. I wonder how their parents feel about their kids now.

I spend quite a bit of time thinking about raising my children to be respected, educated and contributing members of society. How can I be successful in doing the biggest, most important job of my life? Again, the answer comes to me, as it always does, to the farm. So, I'm going to take it upon myself to raise my children in the farm environment, where hard work is rewarding, self esteem and character building chores are going to mold my children into adults that build integrity and respect. And for myself, I hope that my kids will say that they were raised in a great home, loved their childhood and want to do the same for their children.

My 2 1/2 year old...

My son likes to take our wallets when we're not looking - not for the money. He likes to take the credit cards/licenses/library cards (any cards) and stick them under the TV. Perhaps he thinks it's an ATM - I don't know. However, the TV is big and quite heavy and Mike has to lift it up while I fish out the cards that have been wedged between TV and the stand. You'd think we would put our wallets where he can't reach right? You are correct! However, while I was taking a shower yesterday, he ran to the dining room table, pushed a chair to the breakfast bar, climbed up and grabbed my wallet so he could shove all of my cards under the TV to make his transactions. Little bugger. He's so sweet that it's impossible for me to stay angry.

I've been voraciously looking for farming blogs to help me on my quest for restoring our farm for the "pumpkin extravaganza" that is to come. Seriously, I have a vision in my mind and I wish it were spring 2011 so I can get to work! In the meantime, I'm going to create the perfect pumpkin pie this fall. YUMMY!

Pizza Night

I decided to make pizza from scratch. Well, I had Mike and A.J. make the pizzas while I took pictures. We had SO much fun! I made the sauce and the dough from scratch and the toppings were all organic. YUM!
On a side note, I started reading Erma Bombeck. WOW! I think she is just amazing! She had the most brilliant mind and to express her feelings about being a wife and a mother are such a breath of fresh air for me. Bless her for having the courage to write about the things I'm thinking.
Ughh... low tonight of 72 degrees. I'm so excited for autumn that I've bought 9 mums already. Is this heat ever going to break?

Why pumpkins?

I love pumpkin patches. LOVE them! I never went to one when I was a kid and now I go to them all of the time in the fall. They have evolved into a pumpkin patch festival with rides, mazes, pumpkin games, petting zoos and tons of food!!! My vision includes all of these activities-but more importantly, I want to provide memorable activities for families. :) The barn pictured is the "Pumpkin Barn" that needs to be restored. I would have loved to see this farm in its prime days.

I've only grown pumpkins in my garden - never on a large scale. I've done research on them and I have a master plan for next year. However, next year will be a trial run. I need a little practice to make sure I can deliver a great product. I'm also going to plant my garden boxes with veggies, rows of tomatoes and hopefully some blueberry & raspberry bushes. I'd like to do canning next year with all of my fruits and veggies. My vision is so grand that it frightens me! lol

Is this thing on?

Hello world! My name is Stephanie and I'm a stay at home mommy of a beautiful 2 year old boy and a 10 month old girl. I love being at home with my kiddos!!! This blog is about my life with my hubby, my kids and our farm.

Our farm. Seems strange to say, "our farm". It is an OLD farm. With an old farmhouse and four detached, run down barns. We bought our little 4 1/2 arces in 2008, moved in July 4, 2009 and we're still working on everything.

This property was a foreclosure and was left all alone for over a year. It was a total mess inside and we've been slowly chipping away at it. I've started to think about the outside recently and I think I've got my husband halfway talked into letting me plant a pumpkin patch next year.

So much to do, so little time. I think I'll have to blog more about my vision for the farm later. Good night!