The following month, June, our family suffered a major loss. My mother, Mary, passed away unexpectedly. The shock of losing my mother is indescribable. All things came to a crawl or complete stop.
In July, our family suffered another loss. My husbands great-uncle, Roger, passed away. He lived in Eagle Point, only 30 minutes from us.
Trying desperately to process my mothers death, I spent the summer settling into our new home by painting the kids bedrooms and the office.
By August, the wildfire smoke and the family tragedies and taken it's toll on all of us. School was about to begin and I needed a pick me up! We took the girls to the Oregon Caves.
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| Paradise Lost - Oregon Caves |
We followed that up with a trip to the Jackson County Animal Shelter and adopted two kittens (Grace & Ash - named after the wildfire smoke).
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| (Ash Grey Kitty & Grace Blk/Wht Kitty) |
When school began in September we were faced with yet another negative blow. My in-laws, Steve & Carol, who lived with us, announced that they were moving to Arizona. There went two great babysitters and future farmhands!
We discovered a new neighborhood to Trick or Treat in October. Just down the road from our farm is a retirement community and those seniors love kids!
In November my husbands uncle, Roy, lost his battle with cancer.
Defeated and ready for 2018 to be over, we hunkered down in December. We made the most of Christmas. Although it was our second Christmas in this new home, it felt like our first because we were able to decorate and put up lights. We bought a living Christmas tree this year for the first time and will be planting it in its permanent location soon!
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| Small but Mighty! |
After we rang in the new year, I spent the entire month of January planning out our first garden and fruit tree orchard. I ordered seeds from two local seed companies: Siskiyou Seed and Restoration Seed, as well as a dozen seed packets from my favorite flower farmer: Floret Flower.
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| Bell Pepper Seedlings |
Here we are in the middle of February. My bell pepper and jalepeno pepper seeds have begun to sprout. Last weekend I went to a local nursery, Shooting Star Nursery, and purchased two bare root fruit trees: 'Harko' Nectarine. Yesterday I went to the Grange Co-op and purchased more bare root fruit trees. I picked out two of each: Bing Cherry, Rainier Cherry, Santa Rosa Plum, Puget Gold Apricot, and Honey Crisp Apple. Twelve fruit trees in all, that's a pretty good start for our orchard. Although I just realized today, that my Honey Crisp will need a pollinator tree, so I may pickup a Gala and/or a Granny Smith apple tree. I might also, wait until next year for those!
We'll be in fruit tree planting mode for the next few weekends. Oh, and did I mention we're in the middle of renovating the master bathroom?
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| Master Bath demolition |
