Week ending 5-14-23 Outside projects, rock climbing, Mother’s Day

by Marcie May 15, 2023

May 15, 2023

This was another busy week of me working constantly on a music curriculum to sell. Whenever I needed a break I worked outside. We had several big projects. One was Blueberry Hill on Wednesday, another was cutting down the dead trees on the driveway, and another was moving an electric cow fence on Saturday when Lori was here to help.

Making progress on Blueberry Hill

blackberry bramble amongst blueberry bushes — Just when we think we’re making progress, we come to a huge blackberry bramble all tangled up in the blueberries. It looks beautiful all flowering, but it’s a big pain pulling out! Thorns all over it, crawling under to cut all the vines, many kids pulling at the same time to entangle it. We got several big ones out this day and it felt so good. Still lots to do before it gets too hot, but it’s coming along!

a bunch of brambles in the blueberry bushes — So much growing in and on the blueberry bushes.

5 year old girl in a field in spring. — Andy was the cameraman this day and took a cute one of Tilly walking through the pasture towards the driveway. All those dead trees are now gone, as we cut them the following day.

7 year old boy in overalls carries branches through a field.

a mom carries branches through a field — Me dragging a thorn tree.

two teenage siblings wave at the camera while they're working outside — Kait and Tom having a chat break.

11 year old girl carries branches over her head

Mom and 6 kids standing in a field with their arms out and smiling — Lexi says this is some pose? I say it’s, “Ahh! We’re done! And that breeze feels so good.”

path to the blueberry bushes — Last year the neighbor’s cows were up here eating it down, but this year they’re not. So Thomas mowed a path for us to walk on to get to the blueberry bushes.

Gardening

Watermelon box

11 year old kneeling by a garden bed she planted — Makenna planting her watermelon seeds. She’s always excited to grow watermelons.

Squash seeds

a squash seed barely poking out of the ground — A squash seed starting to sprout. It’s so fun to see its progress.

Kiwi flowers and forming fruit

A tiny kiwi on the left. Then zoomed out on the right to see how tiny it truly is on the tree. I had to look close to find them. I hope we get some kiwi this year! Last year bugs ate the leaves in July and then the kiwi stopped growing.

male kiwi plant growing new leaves — Male kiwi plant

Lettuce

Thursday: Rock climbing and hiking with the boys

Thomas had a rock climbing activity at Pilot Mountain State Park so I decided it was a great time to hike since I’d be dropping him off and picking him up. I brought the little boys along and we had a great time. We hiked 3 miles up in 1 hour 15 minutes, watched them rock climb for a bit, then ran down in 30 minutes, got the car, and drove back up to get Thomas who was done climbing.

Sam and Andy climbed up to the ledge to get a closer look of Thomas rock climbing.

Watching from the ground after Thomas was done. Then we ran the 3 miles down. I love taking my boys hiking. They have good attitudes and enjoy it too.

Saturday: moving fence posts and wire

kids goofing off while moving an electric fence

Kids moving an electric fence — So glad Lori was here to help! We got a lot done but still have more to go.

Mother’s Day

While talking to Madalyn on video she couldn’t believe how tall Kaitlyn was. So Kaitlyn and Alexis measured to see if Kaitlyn was the same height yet. Not quite!