It's been so long and I apologize for neglecting this great blog. I'm busy as a bee over at my HOMESCHOOL BLOG running a contest for folks to choose which cover they like best for my third children's book, trying to keep up on Show and Tell Fridays, and in general having a swell time!

Thanks, Rhen and DeeDee for "tagging" me. I'll do those 8 Random Facts in my next entry. For now, however, I want to share pics and happenings on our homestead! We spent all last week there and experienced fires, gully-washers, and fencing, along with fishing. As usual, I did not want to return to civilzation.

First is a picture of an invention that works very well to dry clothes any season. As you've seen in my first blog entry, we have an A-frame. My husband designed this clothes hanging device, which I can raise and lower. The clothes hang out of the way--up in the peak by the loft--and in the winter or on rainy (or in our case--smoky!) days, the clothes dry quickly. It holds 2 laundry loads. We have no power, but our generator runs the washing machine and the well, so we're set up nicely.

On to our fencing operation! We recently purchased a 3.3 acre strip that sits between our place and our neighbor in the canyon beyond. We didn't want anyone else getting it and setting up housekeeping, so when it became available, we snatched it up. Of course we had to move our fence line! Here we are, off to put in the cornerposts! Then a couple of pictures of my hard-working crew. Once the T-posts are driven into the ground (and this was up on a rocky ridge, so it was a nightmare to drive them!), and the barbed wire stretched, it is my job to clip the strands to the posts.

The boys are hard at it!

The result--the beginning of the northern boundary of our 14 acres. You have to squint to see the entire fence line! It goes all the way up the trail.

Of course, all work and no play makes a vacation dull indeed. So we were off to the lake a couple miles down the road. I fished; Roger, my dh, trolled around by rowing our rubber fishing boat. The boys rowed around in theirs and listened to their I-pods. I caught a 16" trout + a few smaller ones I threw back, and a 15" the next evening. Yum, yum!

There you have it. Ah...some day we won't have to try and stuff a whole summer into a week! Sorry this entry is so long. I try to keep them short and succint, but I couldn't. There's lots of cheap ($2,000-3,000) Okanogan acreage like this where we have our homestead. Okanogan County is the largest county in WA state (the size of Connecticut) yet has the fewest number of people in the state living there. Y'all come on over and buy some land, y'hear?