A Tour of My Yard

Monday found us back at homeschool and work. After a few slow weeks I have to admit waking up Monday knowing I have a busier schedule made my day a little sad. Justin began in his 7th grade schoolwork, he's doing 7th grade Language Arts and 7th grade Math. Still in 6th grade Science, Literature and Creative Writing. Three days down and things seem to be working for the good. And to think California is trying to say homeschooling is not an education option for parents, all because they want the all-mighty dollar, shaking my head at the man.

During my 40 days of no blogging I got a chance to be in my yard a little more!

I went out today and took some pictures I thought I'd share.


The Pumpkin Patch the homeschool group made. We carved pumpkins back in October and left the seeds in my front yard, I was so excited when I noticed the leaves!!


The start of my first pumpkin!!

I love the colors of nature and the delicate nature of this particular flower thrill me!


A few feet from the pumpkin patch lies this: our veggie garden. I also got the first layer, OK so Steve and Vaughan did the heavy work. We'll go one more layer high and then bring in soil. Still working on a system to keep the animals out!? That's our dog in the upper left corner.

One of our flower gardens.

This will bloom into the Hawaiian Lei Flower

Of course a picture tour of my yard is incomplete without a picture of Fluff, my gardening friend.

It was my 2-year-old nephew that inspired this sandbox, for all my friends with children younger than mine.



This tour wou;n't be complete without some sort of pile of something sitting around, this is wood to sell and also for our firepit.


Spending all this time in my yard, I got thinking about how I can be self-supportive here in my neck of the woods. Here's what I came up with:

1. grow our own veggies, I live in a sub-tropical climate where just about anything grows. After 10 years of trying to grow something in NH, OK, SC, I moved into my house and threw out my half dead house plants. It wasn't long before they were growing strong and healthy. Ever since then I've been hooked - I'd be stupid to not have a veggie patch!

2. Chickens. This is still up in the air, as long as the chickens don't cost us more than we save. I figure we'd need a roster because we'd need chicken for laying and for cooking.

3. Solar power. Again, sunshine state. We've been investigating this for awhile and are certain we want to own our own panels and not rent them and still have a monthy bill. Wind is another option being on the coast, this is more up Steve's alley.

Well that's it here at the SpanRanch.
Happy Wednesday!
~Michelle