Alanna with spaghetti and birthday cake April 29 2012

Meagan and Alanna came out Saturday to visit and to celebrate Meagan's birthday, which we missed on the 17th...but enjoyed today. Alanna seemed to have no problem being flexible with the celebration. Ha











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Katherine has always wanted to play with her hair color. We agreed summer was the time. (School requires "natuural" hair color) So off we went in search of a new color.

Although I think the red that Katherine had envisioned was more the bright-red-once-was-bleach-blond-red, she is happy with the way it turned out.

There have been many comments and compliments on the look! She is such a beautiful, photogenic girl!

More Spaghetti and Cake Baby pictures

I am afraid I really see Meagan in some of these looks. Smile. Love you both Meagan and Alanna.

October 2011 Alanna is walking!!

Alanna and her momma came to visit us one Sunday afternoon in late October. Alanna entertained us for several hours with her new antics. She loves to walk pushing things. Think you will enjoy this short video.

Seems like I get very few pictures of anyone else these days. Better rectify the situation!

Labor Day

Life is full and wonderful. Dave was able to take a full 6 days to be home and we packed into the time as much as we could. On Saturday we drove 1.5 hours to a (local) waterpark. Katherine and Grace had the most fun sliding down almost every slide in the park. Mom and Dad enjoyed a few rounds of the lazy river float! The temp was hot and mom got some sunburn...nothing serious.

Monday, actual Labor Day, Meagan and baby Alanna came for the day. What fun. We celebrated Dave's 60th birthday with a roast dinner and invited neighbor Susie to join us. She did. She always adds such a comfortable amnount of conversation to the table and the time. Alanna and Grama and Grampa spent some time in the sdwim pool while momma took a little nap. Good time was had by all of us.

School Starts...new home scenario

Sept 1, 2011

Well. School has begun for Katherine and this year she is attending a local Christian school as an eighth grader. The daily routine is that I drive her to school (6 miles) before 8am and then pick her up again at 3. This gives her a year of junior high in a small Christian setting...and me 6 hours a day of time to persue activites of my own.

I am anxious for next week to arrive. My plan is to be busier than a cranberry merchant three days a week and home for the whole six hours the other two days!!

Beginnning next week

Monday will include: 1.5 hours of lunch duty aide at K's school, grocery shopping, and horseback   riding lessons after school or evening depending on the temperature.

 Weds will be 4 hours as a serf at my local CSA farm, and 2 hours of music with choir and Womens' Ensemble at church.

 Friday will include a couple of hours milking goats with a neighbor lady and K's band practice away from school. Although these days will be full, I am also going to try to schedule all the away-from-home errands on those days too!

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be my home days!!! Looking forward to those.  On the at-home-days I am hoping to do a better job of blogging, more letter writing, and to pursue cooking food that is more "righteous" close to the source. I have hopes to make yogurt, bread, hummus, and to work on drying food in the dehydrator.

I also hope to unearth the crock pot and get good at slow cook meals, once again. It used to be (when Daddy was out of town for long stretches of time)  that the girls and I would eat dinner when we got home from school. They were starving and I was hungry. We would eat our dinner meal at 3:30-4, then sometimes snack in the evenings. Was a good thing for digestion and for the mom's peace of mind!

Our temps have been over 100 for the last 30 days. It is hard to think fall when you are sweating soo very much. Hope for rain and cooler temperatures soon.

Meet the Domestic Engineer

Hello.  I am Carol. I am the blogger in this house. The other two like to read them now and then, but are not too interested in creating a blog. My intention is to blog through being middle-aged, recently welcoming a pre-teen into the home, and creating a homestead, self-sufficient life style all in one process. God is good and this effort will glorify Him.

Since college time I have been fascinated with the idea of living closer to the land. I am recognizing several factors in my love of gardening and growing things as I became an adult. My Dad was a forest ranger and we lived in the Cascade Mountains of Washington along the Columbia gorge. There was much wild life and outdoor time in my childhood.

I remember coming home with a large bouquet of trilliums for my mom and having Dad careful, gently explain that they take many years to bloom the first time and by picking them I was dooming the plant to many years of recovery before it could bloom again. I don' remember crying, but do remember remorse and haven't willingly picked a wildflower since. Smile

My high school boyfriend loved to garden. His parents moved into a new, subdivision home and he persuaded them to allow him to put in a vegetable garden. I though that was pretty cool and participated in the weeding a little.

My first husband was an outdoor man and loved the woods, hunting and horse back riding. I brought gardening into the equation and his mother is largely responsible for me being able to can just about any living (edible) thing! Bean snapping afternoons and pickle making are very fond memories of my time with her. Thank you Lee.

Married now for 20 years to a wonderful, steady, unflappable husband Dave, we have slowly moved toward the country life. We have been 8 years now on property that allows a big garden, some animals and a few fruit trees. We live in the Katy Texas area and while the summers lately have been scorchingly hot, most years have been blessed with adequate, period rainfall through the summer.

Our garden is about 30 by 50. It grows enough weeds to supply the Mexican army and enough produce to keep our family of three, two neighbor families and a daughter and son-in-law in occasional produce. The beauty of this part of Texas is that there are two growing seasons each year. the fall season...coming up...is the best.



Living closer to the land and becoming self-sufficient to what ever degree possible is a great and glorious goal. While Dave somewhat embraces the idea, I am possessed by it. I dream of wind turbines, cisterns from the roof, chicken tractors, goat milk cheese and yogurt and a pantry and root celler to supply us through the next year if necessary. 

While Dave will go along with these things, he has no time to help with the planning or the implimentation of such labor intensive things as new fences, new gutters, wind towers etc. The irony is that  now we have the money to do these things (subtracting heavy labor costs) but not the time. When Dave retires and has the time...we will not have such a flow of money. Are we the first with this dilema??? Doubt it! So...what happens next?   Read and see.