Farmers Market and CSAs

Well I have been inspired by friends (Kerry at Taste A Little of  the Summer) and family to get more into gardening, outdoors, good food, vegetables.  I have been playing around with the idea of joining a CSA (community supported agriculture) basically you buy into a 'share' or a local farmers produce and each week we would receive a box of fresh, local, in season produce from the farmer.  Being a lover of outdoors, farming and growing up from a family of farmers and gardeners but not having the space (until recently) for a garden or the time I figured a CSA is the best option.  (I hope to start a square foot garden next year, when we are more settled)

We found a local CSA here in Sioux City, which is The Cornucopia out of Sioux Center, they have a stand at the Farmers Market and we went down on Wednesday morning to talk with the farmer, get a little more information and an idea about what to expect.  We had a great talk and sense we are in the middle of the season we decided it wouldn't be worth the money to join now (we were okay with that, we will join next season) BUT the farmer has what they call a Carrot Card basically we paid and have a line of credit with them and she also told us about the livestock that they raise (poultry and pork) and they have a butcher date coming up for their Berkshire Pork....are are going to buy half a hog worth of meat!

I am excited about supporting local farmers, getting fresh, local produce and meat and the challenge of  (because it will be) eating more with the season that veggies are at their prime.  If anyone has some great recipes please share and any that I come up with I will share on my Sweet Elder blog and check out Taste a Little of the Summer . 

Summertime!

It is hot here, but I will have to say it is not as hot as it would be if we were still in Texas!  Hope you are all enjoying your summer vacation too! (Isn't he the cutest little bugger ever!?!?)

Noah's makeshift pool for one!  (and our new fence in the background, love it)

Lots Going On

Homeownership is treating us fairly well.  We love having a home and something we are able to call ours and make our own.  Here are a few projects that have been started some finished some in progress still.

The yard has some nice landscaping but it is what I call 'hard' landscaping, mostly rocks some hostas, a few burberry bushes and what I believe is a holly bush.  Anyway, we took out the burberry bushes, they are beautiful but they have thorns and that is the last thing I need Noah getting into.  Some far we have planted a rhubarb plant (love strawberry rhubarb pie), day lillies (I am not sure they are going to make it, Noah kept pulling them out) and a hydranga (not sure about that spelling and not sure that it is going to make it either).  It was a going away gift and it got a little fried in the cab of the u-haul on the way from Texas. 

We started removing some of the rock and we plan to seed it with grass seed and that will give us a few more feet of usable yard and less rock.  In the rock section at the top left of this photo below is where the rhubard is and we hope to remove more rock and make it a small garden (that is on next years list of to-dos).

This project is still in progress because this is the first dry day we have had in over a week.  David and I worked some more on it today - we love being outside in our yard.

Okay, don't worry it didn't snow in June.  This picture is from March when we put in our offer to buy.  But I am showing you this picture because our house sits on a corner and the backyard sits between the back of the house (which you see here) and our garage and runs along the street.  With small children and a dog first thing on our to-do list was to put up a fence.

We have some great friends who own their own contracting business and we hired them to fence in our backyard.  They did an awesome job and we L-O-V-E it. It looks great, we can let Molly (our dog) out and we don't have to worry about Noah running into the street when we are all in the backyard.

Noah said he was supervising, such a little handy man!

This curio cabinet was my grandparents, I remember exactly where it sat in there home.  Well anyway, my aunt offered it to us when we bought the house and I was so excited.  We plan on putting it in our dining room.  It was a deep red color with a brushed black over it.  It was cute but I wanted to clean it up about and make it a little more classic I guess.  The glass on the bottom was also broken so I need to either replace it or I have thought about putting in a piece of fabric...that might not make since but it makes since in my mind.  So for the last two day I have been spray painting it black but I have left the inside this deep red, I think I like it that way.  It is still a work in progress, I will keep you posted.  (I also have two other pieces of furniture that I am updating/refinishing)  Fun times!

Going Away and Packing Up

And so it began, about 4 weeks ago.  We got serious about packing out things, parties were thrown in our honor (I think Texas was happy to get rid of us), I finished up work at the school, and we said 'see you later' to friends...because we will see Texas again and again.

A going away party, and I know more pictures were taken but

obviously not with our camera. But we had a wonderful time

and it was a great break from packing.

Some people were really worried that we would forget them.....

Noah and Kenzie had lots of fun running around in the big U-Haul. 

Too bad it was taking us away from one our best friends.  We miss you neighbors!

We had to say lots of good byes to wonderful friends and family.

Catchin' up is hard to do...

We are here!  Our new house is wonderful and all of it is very exciting.  I am happy to say that all the packing, traveling, unpacking, settling is going very smoothly.  We have had AMAZING help in Texas and Iowa and prayers and support the whole way, a BIG thank you to everone, we could not have made it to this point without you!
I hope to have pictures soon.  I realize that I should have taken pictures before we moved anything into the house, you know blank slate and then pictures when I think we finally get rooms the way we would like them....like that will ever happen.  If anyone knows me I like to move furniture.  Anyway we got unloaded and the first goal was to get Noah's room completed so when Grandma and Buck-o got him here all of his things would be in their places and he would feel comfortable.  That worked out splendid, we actually went ahead and set up his twin bed and put his toddler bed in the garage, out of sight out of mind!  He hasn't said one word about not have his 'little' bed, thank goodness.  Noah has transistioned pretty well, he is tired - but aren't we all - and he loves being outside. 
David and I are feeling really good about how much we got done yesterday, thanks to friends who stuck with us all day and unpacked box after box.  We have also done some shopping....love that and our list keeps growing on more things to do or buy or whatever!  Again I hope to have pics soon...I promise. 

Our Moving Crew

We are packing, this picture was taken about a week ago but that is pretty much what it looks like around here...I like to call it organized, FUN, sometimes stressful, chaos!!  We are so excited to move closer to family and a new adventure but torn and sadden by the friends and 'family' that we are leaving in Texas.  Carla is in town to join in and Mom and Dad (Shelton) arrive on Monday.  The U-Haul is reserved and our second bathroom is no longer being used as a bathroom but storage for a mixture of boxes, newspapers and containers all awaiting items to be packed.  We have cleaned our cupboards and inventoried the fridge and freezer for meals the next few days.  I have made a list of things to get done and we have already marked off a few items...wow, this is real.

Absent...

I have to apoligize for the lack of blogging that I have been doing lately.  We are in the final two weeks of finishing up jobs here in Texas and packing up and getting everything in line to move back to Iowa!!  We are super exciting but I don't have much time or energy to upload pics and fill you in on all that is going on.  Please forgive me and you will be hearing from us soon.