We have been pretty busy. This weekend we did some sorting and clearing out of junk, under the barn, and in our shed. I created a new area for all of my gardening supplies. It is so nice to have everything in one spot.

We also built a bike rack from some 2 x 4's Cale tore off of a cedar fence he replaced this summer. It is nice to have the bikes all standing up in a nice rack, instead of falling down all over the place. We cut up some wood that had fallen down in the field.

Had some company, people brought some relations of theirs to "tour" the house. We were scrambling to straighten while they were in the driveway!!! But I do love to get company!!!

We also helped at a fund-raiser for our community center Saturday night.

Today we went to visit my grandmother, she has surgery tomorrow. We also went shopping at Sam's Club and stocked up on a few things. I saw a really nice gardening kit in there that I loved. Maybe the kids will take the hint with Christmas just around the corner!!

Then the kids had some money they wanted to spend, so we went to Goody's and K-mart and they bought some new shirts and underwear. I gave them each $10 for their good report cards, so they were glad to buy some new things. There were some good sales.

I found a neat new site called Frugal Moms: www.frugalmoms.com It has a lot of information, but it is big and a little hard to scan at first, but you get used to it. Try this site for "black-belt" tightwad tips.

Well that is about all for here. We are just getting ready for another week of school, work, and volunteering! This week will be busy as we have a 4-H kick-off party Monday, library Tuesday (decorating bulletin boards), piano lessons Wednesday, teacher conferences Thursday with all of the kids teachers (about 20 in all!) and a weiner roast Friday for a friend of Brady's, and Friday night a Country Music Festival at our Community Center. Wow! I don't know how we will get everything done!!! But I always think, better busy than bored!!!

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), November 04, 2001

Answers

Melissa~ My husband's entire immediate family was here this weekend. Two brothers with wives and 3 kids each plus his parents. Added to our family of five that's 17. But, one of my nephews brought a friend so we had a total of 18. It was a crowd, but definitely a wonderful visit. The guys fixed fence line and cleaned out the old shed on the side of our big barn. They were wore out on Saturday.

My nephew is in a Civil War reenactment group and they had a big shindig here this weekend. His friend who came with him is 17. He couldn't afford the ready-made outfits, so he sewed his own authentic wool pants, muslin shirt, wool vest and caped full-length wool coat. All of the wool items were lined!! It just goes to show you can do anything when you set your mind to it. Even a young boy!! I have to admit, I don't think I could have done as well of a job as he did. Very neat and precise.

-- Ivy in NW AR (balch84@cox-internet.com), November 05, 2001.

Whew, Melissa, it wore me out reading what all you are doing!!! I had to laugh though at you talking about straightening up while your company was in the driveway! We have a pretty long driveway and our dog lets us know as soon as someone hits it so that gives me time to do some straightening too!!! We are helping our neighbor lady put up some lattice this afternoon for her bittersweet to grow up and in exchange for that she is giving me some bittersweet!

-- Barb in Ky. (bjconthefarm@yahoo.com), November 05, 2001.

I have just been getting ready for the new baby due November 16th. Last Friday, two friends from church came and papered the nursery and put together the crib (DH is so busy between work and combining he has hardly been around!!!). I was so thankful and now I feel that the baby could arrive anytime since most of my to do list is done.

I wish I could say that I have been doing more, but I guess growing a baby is "something".

Blessings to you all,

Silvia

-- Silvia (organic_farmer@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

Well, let's see ... We had great plans for our weekend, which included lots of work on the kitchen. But before we started any of that, we had to go under the house to check the support beams to see why the kitchen floor sagged by 1/4 inch toward the center beam in the corner we planned for our refrigerator. About the time the Sunday morning coffee was gone, it began to rain. Crawling under the house was impossible when it rained, since we have no way to protect the opening from letting water under the house. Anyway, we switched to our weekly construction meeting, which had been overlooked by lots of odd chores needing done during the week. We actually figured out what we needed to do, for the millionth time. lol This time, we agreed to stick with whatever plan we ended up with and took measurements and drew plans. Then the rain stopped and the underhouse was checked. All fine. Just old flooring in the kitchen I guess. Hubby checked all the plumbing while he was under there, which lead to another discussion on moving the washing machine plumbing. We want to run all the grey water drains out a shared pipe, out through our foundation crawl space (underground of course) and down to the pond near the goat barn. We've wanted to do this for a while and haven't been able to force ourselves to get under the house. It's barely big enough to wiggle through on your back and the thought of spiders in the face is just not that appealing. lol Anyway, about the time we were headed out for the supplies for our kitchen project, we noticed the Indianapolis Colts football team were playing a game on televsion. Of course we had to watch it. Hubby is from there and I've learned to like watching the Colts and the Pacers play their games. Thank goodness he's not interested in watching any other teams though. lol After the game, Hubby decided he wanted to eat at our local salad bar, so that freed me from cooking. We got to Lowe's with only 45 minutes to shop. All the workers were trying to clean the store and go home early, but that didn't stop us. lol We got all our stuff and loaded it in the truck, which was a lot of fun in a darkened parkinglot. Back home again to unload the stuff into the workshop. Well, it was too late to do anything but start clearing things out of the construction space. We both sat down and answered a few emails together, which we haven't done for ages. We searched the web for livestock guardian dogs and had a great time cooing over the pictures of puppies. This weekend was supposed to be one of those that resulted in a long list of things finished, but I honestly can't even remember what we did on Saturday. Am I getting that old? lol It seems that we take one step forward and three back. But isn't that the way with all do-it-yourself projects? Hopefully, next weekend will be better. We're supposed to have the kitchen done by Thanksgiving and it looks like a warzone at this point. I'm not holding my breath. Iris

-- Iris (Sar_India@msn.com), November 05, 2001.

Congratulations on the baby Silvia, keep us posted if you have time!!

Iris, I always figure it will take 5 times as long as you had originnally planned, and twice as much money as you thought, to finish any construction project!! That saves you from being too disappointed when things don't go as "planned"!!!! Believe me.I've been there !!!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 06, 2001.