House Year TWO In Review

As of spring this year we have been in our house for two years now.  Though work around the house and yard have been steady throughout the year, the difference is not as obvious as our first year's  changes.  Progress is progress though.  It's ok to laugh at me that I still do not have curtains or even pictures/decor hung in some rooms.  I've told you in the past I am an indecisive person at times.  Plus shopping for home goods is not at the top of my daily chores priority list these days (just being honest). Shopping in general is not up there..... I can't even remember the last time I shopped for clothes for myself (and my wardrobe these days shows it :).

So here are the before and after photos.  The before pictures being the house when we purchased it, the after being the current.  Starting with the living room-

Before-

Now-

Before-

Now-

Before-

Now-

Dinning Room.
Before-

Now-

Before-

Now-

Before-

Now-

Hallway/Back Entrance.
Before-

Now-

Kitchen.
Before-

Now-

Downstairs Bath.
Before-

Now-

I did not include any upstairs pictures because there haven't been many updates since last year.  I think the installation of the master bedroom closet is the only update.
That's all for now. :)

Straight From Farm to Mouth (Skip the Table)

It's finally strawberry season here in New England and, boy oh boy, the fruit is lovely this year.  I forced my husband, I mean, I requested we take a break from our crazy Saturday work schedule to go and pick strawberries as a family.  Little man had been asking to go pick berries and we don't get to do alot of fun activities with daddy (hard working guy these days) so we had to work it in.

To the berry patch-

First, baby girl had a quick lesson on how to NOT destroy the plants while trying to pick berries.

Then off she went-

After realizing the 'fruits of the labor', she didn't stop-

This might sound silly but we recently read, Blueberries For Sal, by Roberty McCloskey.  From that story little man understood the concept of picking and saving food for the winter.  He did a good job picking and saving instead of eating them all.  He does like having a job, makes him feel 'big'.-

I like having jobs like this myself  :)

In the meantime, still chowing down-

Look at that tummy-

We managed to get enough picked-

And turned it into good things for the future-
(Every time I pick berries and make jam I think of home.  When I used to pick up strawberries at Scott's roadside stand on the bypass during my lunch break for me and my co-workers at Numark.  It meant summer was really here.)

Though little man did pretty good holding out on eating the berries while picking, strangely enough he doesn't have the same will power towards the sugar snap peas in the garden.  Only a few have actually made it out of the garden to the dinner table.  Baby girl loves them too.

More garden news later.  And still no piggies... probably mid to late July now.  And house news.... we scheduled the basement guys to come fix our leaky basement by installing french drains and get a new sump pump.  Pricey unfortunately but important in caring for our foundation.  On the downside.... probably no central AC installation that I was hoping for this year. :(

Side Yard Before and After

Pardon my blogging hiatus.... lots has been going on.  This post is a quick before and after of our side yard improvement, nothing jaw dropping here.

The cleanup started about a year ago to this date when my parents visited.  My Dad cannot sit still and has to always be busy with something.

 After the brush was cleared we were able to get the two trees cut down.

Then Jonathan tore up the area (since it was all weeds and crab grass), re-seeded it and such.

Last our neighbor put up a new split rail fence just a few weekends ago.  He has been wanting to do this project for some time.  Sweet!

Not the best before and after pics, but here it is again-

After-

So thats about 1/16 of our yard.  Now onto the rest.

We are currently dealing with a flooded basement after all the rains, about 1" standing water throughout.  Basement guy was here today for an analysis of how to fix the problem.  Looks like we will be doing some home improvements in that area soon.

Tadpoles Arrived

The majority of my childhood was spent outdoors.  Not only because I liked being outside but my mom would send us all outside to play to get out of the house.   Having a large yard is my favorite asset as a stay at home mom.
We have been anticipating spring and tadpole 'season'.  Little man and I decided to go hunting for some yesterday.  We had heard the frogs singing their mating songs a few months back (concluded this due to the time of year, not because I speak frog) .  At first we scoped out the ornamental pond behind our porch (that is in process of being cleaned up).

Initially we became quite excited with finding little swimmers squirming about the pond.

After further investigation I realized it was mosquito larvae (gross, but not surprised.... add item #156 to the to do list,  treat ornamental pond).

We headed to the 'wetlands' at the back of our property and found all sorts of things to investigate on the way.

Anyone know what kind of caterpillar/larvae this is?  I suspect some type of moth with those spines (a complete guess as I know nothing about this type of thing).

We were pleasantly surprised to find an abundant amount of tadpoles in the pond!

Very interested.

I easily caught one and brought it back to the house.  I think it's name should be Tad.... or Polly.

I love this stuff.  Soon it's little legs will be popping out.

After looking into how to keep a tadpole to its final stage (frog-hood, I made that term up), I decided I didn't want to deal with it right now (though its not extremely involved, so call me lazy).  I told little man we would just come back to the pond and check on them regularly, which he was fine with.  So I released our little pet.  Hoping our local mallards don't exterminate them all.

Pig update!!  I talked to the farmer and our piglets are NOT EVEN BORN. :(  This means we probably will not even get them until July (since they nurse on their mommies till about 8 weeks old).  In some ways this is a burden off our shoulders since we don't have the new water line to the pasture dug yet.... and Jonathan is still working on the custom gravity feeder.

There is plenty to do in the meantime.... I think I need to get these kids some ear protection.