Discovery and Resumption

I have spent the morning discovering blogs by two old friends. We are far flung, but seem to have much in common. The three of us are all learning the foreign language of our husband's homeland, and are putting our houses and families together. It has also served as some blogging inspiration. Whoa, lucky for you!

Much has passed since March. I didn't mark the wildflower season much this year, but with the lack of rain there wasn't much to report. We have cracks in the clay soil you do NOT want to drop your keys down - it would take some vertical gear to retrieve them! The most prolific flower this year was the primrose, although we had a bumper crop of dewberries. I ate many of them from the yard, and Charley picked several bowlfuls for my cereal and his ice cream. We were too busy working on the house though to really harvest them, but it would have been a good year for it. We have made so much progress on the house! Charley got the whole list of stuff to be done by June 1st completed - two weeks ahead of schedule! We have a kitchen cabinet now, with doors, and a tiled backsplash (that was my project, and it turned out great!). We have an entire room devoted to being a library - and that was quite an accomplishment. It is a small room, but it needed new walls, a floor, bookshelves, and books. Charley went to the university auction and got us enough bookshelves to go wall to wall in the small room. Our friend Richard assisted with the new walls, and Charley and I installed a floor. We also unpacked what seemed like hundreds (not really) of boxes of books that have been stored for years. We moved all of my crafty stuff in to that room, and Charley is going to also make a home for his postcard collection. The library takes up most of the top floor of the two-story 10x20 foot cabin where we lived while we built our main house. The rest of the space up there is taken up with a very as-of-yet unfinished bathroom - just a toilet and a sink, and bare drywall. But having no bathtub, I could care less about that room, really. The downstairs of that building has become our shower room/movie room, since it has a shower in it... Charley revamped an old armoir that I scored (for free!) with shelves and stop chains on the doors (so they don't ruin the walls) and I filled it up with towels and other showery-bathroom stuff. That's in one corner, and the rest of that room now houses our video and dvd library (whew, we have a lot of movies. The one case we installed to hold them is NOT enough) and a TV with VHS and DVD capabilities, and our giant blue couch for lounging. We will have to play tetris with the rest of the space to see if we can't fit another chair in there.
Charley also installed a railing on the stairs that lead upstairs to our deck and the library, which is a good thing, because in my newly waddling state, the stairs were beginning to get a bit sketchy. Now I have something to hold onto. We have cleaned out LOTS of junk, and just have to rearrange the copious furniture ( we went a little crazy at the estate sales last year) in the main house to make room for baby stuff. It's all coming along. The major construction is finished, for the time being. We still have to finish that bathroom off, and finish installing our pantry cabinet in our main house, but I'm not terribly concerned about those things getting done in time for me to go into labor. The next big project is to finish our lane and parking area with road base, and put up a shade structure for the cars to park under. Then Charley gets to build his shop! He can't wait to get that started, and it is a big project, starting from the ground up - leveling, pouring a slab - all that. And when the shop is finished, we will then build an addition to the main house, with extra bedrooms and a bathroom with a real bathtub, for me! That's the three year plan, but I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself. In the meantime I have some baby showers to attend, a visit from my mom coming up, and relaxing to do.
I noticed just the other day that there are three new baby buffalos in the field by the highway on the way into Austin. It seemed later this year, but looking back in my blog, it was just earlier this month, last year that the buffalos were born. I think it seemed earlier because even though we've actually had quite a nice spring, this year the weather has turned to summer on cue, 100 degree days by mid-may. Last year, with the rains, we had spring until June, and so at this time last year the wildflowers were just beginning to simmer down. This year, the land is much more barren, although I have seen a few beebalm flowers lately, and some brown-eyed susans. I've also seen several toads, and many large spiders. The grasshoppers are miniture right now, and the fire ants are up to their usual no good. I doubt the compost heap will volunteer a garden for us us this year, but the fig tree has figs thanks to some diligent watering Charley does. We've decided that next year will be the year we begin our garden, and start some animal husbandry. We're thinking rabbits and chickens. Charley has seen many dead snakes in the road, but none alive. We've also heard some reports of treefrogs around our place, but I have yet to see them in person. The gekos are once again enjoying the lights and screens as perfect bug-catching habitat, and we've seen a couple walking sticks on the house so far. There has been a real lack of butterflies this year, but that goes hand in hand with the lack of wildflowers. I have seen a few female swollowtails, and some hairstreaks, that always come with the vervain. The wild honeysuckle is again this year tenacious, and is about the only thing still blooming. The mesquite trees are all still very green and leafy, giving us lots of privacy, which I appreciate very much.
So that's about it. We're about two months from baby launch, which is getting more real and more exciting every day. I have quite the bump going. The heat is a challenge but Cold Texas Rivers have been my saving grace. The baby moves a LOT and that is quite the odd sensation - I haven't ever gotten used to it. We still don't know the sex - but I love when people ask "What is it?" because I can assure them it is human. I am healthy and happy, and receiving great care from my midwife. We're planning a homebirth, which is why the drive to complete some of this construction so soon. We're almost there. I'll do my best to keep you posted.