Summer came in like a freaking Lion

Summer has come to Indiana unexpectedly.  Two weeks ago, we were fretting over frost advisories and today it's supposed to be in the upper 80's.  Sadly, this is common for Spring.  In April and May we have an equal chance of building a snowman or going swimming.  But eventually we will settle into the super-hot temps of summer and I'll complain that I wish it was cooler. 

On Mother's Day, we went out to my mom's house to go shooting with the rifle and had to wear warm clothes.  We went back this past weekend and we were sweating like crazy.  Shooting is fun, though my shoulder hurts for a day or two afterwords.  On Sunday night, I was sitting in my chair and I stretched and I heard a maswsive crack as the bones in my shoulder rearranged themselves.  I could actually feel the shift.  It was rather disconcerting. 

The arrival of summer also means that it's time to spend more time with Little Guy outside.  At some point today we are going to go outside and play in the sprinkler.  He loves the sprinkler and I love watching him play.  Right now, he's becoming such a little boy.  The baby aspects are disappearing and he's developing a little boy body and little boy legs.  I find myself looking at him and wondering where the baby went. 

Though watching him play as a little boy provides hours of amusement too.  Yesterday, Big Guy took him to the park while I was working.  Little Guy decided he had to pee and went to a corner of the playground, dropped trou, and peed.  Big Guy said the first clue he had that Little Guy was doing something he oughten't was a fellow park parent shouting: "He's peeing!  He's peeing!"  So.... We can never show our faces there again.  Of course, while we were regaling Whiteybare and his girlfriend with this story outside lst night, Little Guy went over to the lot next to us and started peeing again.  

 

"What are you doing?!" I shouted. 

"I'm peeing all over the place!" Little Guy shouted back with a grin.

I think he's definitely his father's child. 

Weekend's end with guns and bread

I love weekends with my family.  This weekend has been an excellent weekend in terms of recharging the batteries.  We've been clearing out space for Whiteybare which required  moving much of Little Guy's stuff into his room.  We moved his car table which holds his collection of Hot wheels and his train set into his bedroom.  We also moved the TV and PS2 into his bedroom.  I'm feeling kind of torn about that one.

On the one hand, we are now one of "those" parents.  The ones whose four-year-old has a TV and PS2 in his bedroom.  On the other hand, this effectively limits what he can watch.  When the TV was in the front room, it was hooked up to cable and Little Guy discovered Cartoon Network.  I wasn't too thrilled with him watching it since I prefer that he watch good programming.  I became even less pleased when this new programming he had discovered led to him actually punching people and laughing about it.  That was a swift trip to no TV for a while.  However, now that he has the TV in his room, it's not connected to the cable and I know exactly what he can watch. 

But moving the rooms around wasn't the only thing we did this weekend.  We also picked up our Mosin Nagant rifle from the gun store.  Big Guy and I spent the evening yesterday cleaning it off, wiping it down, and learning how it works.  It's a beautiful bolt-action rifle that we've polished and cleaned up nicely.  We're looking forward to target practice out at my mom's place and maybe even hunting.  We were talking about how great it would be to have a Thanksgiving turkey that we just caught ourselves.  Yum!  Needless to say, it was pretty cool getting a gun made in the 1930's all cleaned up.  Big Guy and I Were talking about how cool it would be to find out the history of our gun in particular, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. 

This morning we woke up too late for "church", so I made coffee and waffles instead.  I added powdered sugar and vanilla and made a large batch of waffles.  Little Guy ate about 5 waffles and Big Guy and I decided we could not find better waffles even in a pancake place.   I put the pack of uneaten waffles in a ziplock bag in the freezer.  It will make a great breakfast throughout the week.  This evening, I even dug out an old jar of strawberry jam that hadn't set to use in bread. 

We got a breadmaker off of Cheapcycle for $25 and have definitely gotten our money's worth.  We've made loaf upon loaf of bread, spending only the money needed for the flour and the sugar.  It's been working out extremely well.  Currently, I have the batch of bread with strawberry jam in the breadmaker in an effort to produce a good breakfast bread. This will leave our day-to-day bread free for sandwiches and give us a good, hearty fruit bread for breakfast.  I have plans for cherry bread and perhaps even berry bread.

Wanting to go from Urban Homestead to Homestead

Economic times have become dark indeed, and desperate times, as they say, call for desperate measures.  When Whiteybare (as he wants to be called) showed up at our house and told us that he was losing his home, Big Guy and I didn't even flinch.  Our natural inclination was to say: "Stay here, we'll make room for you."  From there, we discussed our own burgeoning unhappiness with the community we live in.  So we decided that the group of us would get our own place and we'd do the hippie thing, grow our own food and work together, become a truly extended family. 

After that, we thought we might be able to do this with a few more friends, but the planning just didn't work out for a variety of reasons.  But, in the past 2 weeks, we've done pretty much nothing but look at houses and try to find good spaces on craigslist.  It's been frustrating to say the least.  But, even after the fall of the initial commune plan, we're still going to go ahead and try to form a mini commune.  We also have more time adn a wider variety of places to choose from, even if we're renting and not buying. 

Honestly, I recognize that what I am looking for is probably out of our reach, but it doesn't stop me from wanting better.  The goal is a house in the country with a big yard for gardening, a fireplace, and room enough to raise animals.  I guess you can take the girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl.  So, right now we're looking for a place to rent that's "good enough", or a house on Land Contract that suits our needs and our wants. 

With Whiteybare moving in, we have someone who agrees with and understands our desire to find a country place, so this partnership should work very well.  He gets a place to live, and we all get an extended family with the same values and desires.  In addition to that, Big Guy has picked up a rifle and we're going to look into going deer hunting this year.  It's exciting, the little steps we're taking.  I just wish we could take the big step and get a place of our own.