Spring is here, and after an unseasonably cold last few months, we are ready for some sun! The baby chicks we got last fall are now fully grown and laying beautiful eggs – all shades of blue, green, white, and dark brown with speckles. We are getting about eight eggs a day! Which means we have plenty to give away. We stock up when we know we’re seeing family or friends, and sometimes I even take a few dozen to school and give them to my students. Aaron has been working hard to build them a fenced in area behind the coop. Like everything he does, this will be well-built and ready for anything! He’s putting together a 7-foot tall fence made of welded wire with an aviary netting over the top, which should keep out the bear and coyotes! As well as putting in a gated door for us to be able to get in/out. He also seeded the ground with grass in that area and put down some strawberry, marigold, mint, and nasturtium seeds along the perimeter – chickens apparently love those, and they help them make richer eggs.
It’s also fun to see the trees and flowers at the farm come to life. About a year ago, we planted some daffodils along the driveway, and now they’ve poked their sunny heads up again. I’ve gathered several vases of them and love having their bright yellow color around the house and by our bed. We’ve been talking about this for a while now, and finally bought a king-sized bed. We are so happy with it – it gives us a little more room to turn over at night without breathing on each other or kneeing the other person in the back! I also picked some branches from a newly flowering apricot tree on the property and put them on our dining room table – the table is a mess, but the branches are pretty.
Things keep moving along slowly at the farm. The septic team had to come out and dig some additional test holes, and we are now waiting on the septic permit to be approved by the county. Once that’s done, we will dig the well and then start building. Aaron and I have continued to try to make time for trips to many home stores in the area to pick out siding (we are looking at HardiPlank’s “shiplap” and “v-groove” siding), flooring (thinking about ADM “sea smoke engineered wood flooring”), paint, tiles, etc. I’ll share more when we’ve made our final decisions!
The last few months have been special for us, with lots of fun events and some visitors. We have wonderful friends who threw us three different showers – one in Portland, one for me at work, and one here in Tacoma. My mom and Jenn came and stayed with us for about a week before the Portland shower, and we had a wonderful time celebrating Jenn’s birthday, doing some baby shopping, going to see a movie, and relaxing together. It was so special to have friends come from all over – Seattle, Bend, Salem, Lebanon, and even California, to be with us! Baby girl is so very lucky to be born into such a circle of love.
Both Aaron and I have been busy at work, with me trying to teach up until baby arrives. The timing of all this has been interesting, as I’m going up for tenure this year and all of my materials are due in September! So I’ve been working hard to get as much of that done as possible before I go on maternity leave. I had last week off for spring break, and drove down to the coast to see my mom and dad for a few days. We had such a good time, doing all of our favorite things – getting salads and sweet potato french fries at Georgie’s, watching Project Runway (a sewing/design competition) together, getting maple brown sugar breves at a little coffee shop in Yachats, and walking through the downtown waterfront area of Florence.
It’s so hard to believe it will only be a few weeks (if that) before baby arrives – we can hardly wait to meet her. We packed the hospital bag with everything we can think of, including a book that Aaron wants to read to her. We haven’t decided on a name yet, and will wait until she’s born to see what fits best. A few weeks ago, I had kind of a scary night where I had some really severe cramping and vomiting. We went to the hospital at about 1:30 AM and they admitted us and ran some tests but weren’t able to figure out what was causing the problem. I felt better the next day and we went home, but I’ve been a little anxious since then, hoping that the rest of the pregnancy will go normally and that we can welcome baby without too many complications.
We’re looking forward to sharing some good news soon when she arrives!
So glad everything seems to be going well after that scary cramping event! I remember a favorite shop from the last time we were in Florence. I think it was called Manna. Looking forward to seeing baby girl once she arrives and someday seeing the farm!