There’s been a lot going on around our farm lately. We’ve entertained quite a few guests, and each one has helped spur on our cleanliness level and a bit of decorating. We’ve been trying to do a little bit here and there to lesson the extremity of some of our projects. A few of them are going to be a lot easier if we can get our helper guy over here to take care of some things…and a few just require us to be patient until things are ready to go. I’m pretty amazed at the things we’ve accomplished despite all of the other work we’ve been getting done in our “real” lives on a day-to-day basis. Just a little bit of action can make a huge difference.

1. Harvesting, canning & starting winter planting — The days are getting shorter and the weather staying cooler…so as much as I hate to admit it, our summer seems to be winding down. We’ve had some very nice success with our new container garden this year and learned quite a bit. I’ve already started planting a few things for our winter crop but hopefully will get some of the summer plants cleaned out this week too, and get more things like broccoli and brussel sprouts in the ground before it’s too late.
   
2. The back yard garden — We’ve played with a lot of ideas for our garden this year, but pretty much decided that we’re not ready to abandon the idea of having veggies in our garden behind the barn. But instead of trying to grow everything out there, we’ll keep the daily stuff closest to us — and just plant the types of things that need little maintenance and take up quite a bit of space. Stuff like squash, pumpkins, onions and probably a few more strawberry and raspberry plants. We’ve got some major cleaning up and prepping to do before winter hits — but we’ve got our ideas in our head already so it’s just a matter of finding the right weekend and getting a whole bunch of mulch here.
3. Living room remodel & repurposing furniture — We recently inherited some furniture and so we’ve finally gotten ourselves what we consider to be an extremely adult living room now. It’s a bit scary to have lovely rugs and expensive tables with the kiddo and doggo around — but so far things have gone pretty good in that regard. New sofa, new rug, new coffee table, new end table…pretty much the only thing we left in there was a sideboard with our TV on it (which is oh so practical) and Stefan’s turntables. But we’ve got some things in mind for that corner too. We also have moved a whole bunch of stuff around as a result of that remodel and it has all been for the better so far. Mack now has a big couch in her room (which is really nice for reading in the evenings) and we’ve rescued another piece of furniture from the attic that only needs a little bit of cleaning up and sprucing to make it really nice.

1. Decorating the patio — We’ve been staring at a solid white wall for a couple of years now, ever since we finished building the furniture a couple years ago. We intended to hang a bunch of deco stuff that we’ve found around the farm up there, but have had some trouble tracking stuff down again. So before a dinner party this weekend, we found a few thing that I’d relocated during the storage room cleanup and hang them up. It instantly looked 1000 times better in there and far more cozy. Hopefully we’ll soon find all the old license plates and tin signs that we set aside.
   
2. Building a trampoline — Trampolines are all the rage over here right now…and we found a good deal on one a few weeks ago on Groupon, so Mackenzie got herself a very early birthday present. But since it probably wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to play on at the end of November, this just made so much more sense. She’s really enjoyed it the last few days and been hopping around like a little frog. And thankfully Stefan has also now recovered from pulling the springs into place. 😉
3. Storage room clean up — A couple of weeks ago, I could barely fit our two strollers into what we refer to as Storage Room B. Stuff was cluttering the floor (to be sold or which just ended up there at some point) and it was starting to get dangerously close to spilling out. So around the time of the Laternenfest, I decided to take action and reorganized some stuff in there. We can now actually reach our shelves and access the stuff we want to ebay more easily now, which is half the battle!
4. Cutting back trees — At the beginning of spring and start of fall, we have large garden trash pickup days where you can put out you yard and garden trimmings for free. I’m pretty sure the city sells the compost and mulch they make from everything they pick up (or at least I hope someone does) and we don’t have to worry about getting a special trash container just to take care of a few things. This year, our trees in the courtyard are in desperate need of trimming, so I started on one of them already. And I think that our fruit trees are also going to be needing some love in the backyard after the harvest because they are looking like Weeping Willows, loaded down with all their fruit.
   
5. Our aquaponics setup — We would like to get our aquaponics bed in the courtyard back to working order, especially since I just planted some Lamb’s Lettuce seeds in there. I’m fairly certain that it’ll grow even without the thing being active, but we at least need to see about getting it cleaned out before spring so it’s ready to go. The winter was not so kind to our fish, so we have to restock — and also have to see about getting a new pump since the freezing didn’t make our old one work any better. I’m not even going to talk about what is going to happen in the backyard at this point as far as aquaponics goes.
6. Cleaning out closets and other decluttering — Slowly but surely, we’ve been adapting more to the mindset that having too much stuff is detrimental to our overall health and well-being. Not because we’re being smothered by stuff, but simply because when you’re constantly being reminded of all the junk you need to be putting away and trying to play catch up with your stuff, it just doesn’t allow you to have fun or just enjoy your own home.
   
7. Setting up a worm bin again — Our little girl is a fresh veggies junkie. In fact, this weekend, she probably ate close to a 1/2 pound of carrots and possibly even more tomatoes, straight from our garden. She is definitely loving all the fresh stuff around, and she is so adapt to what is growing around us (which we really love). But all of this extra fruit and veggie growth and consumption has made us realize that it would be really nice to have our worm bins back again. So we’re going to reactivate those as well and buy some new worms again as soon as our bin is ready.

So that’s a taste of what is going on around here — and you just can’t even imagine how much work we’ve managed to get done lately on our businesses as well. Just trying to continue pushing forward on all fronts and make our dreams reality! We truly are blessed.

Want more top 10 lists to read? Hop by OhAmanda this week and see what’s everyone is sharing.

What’s happening in your neck of the woods this week?