We were promised some honest-to-goodness real Springtime weather over this past weekend...and sure enough! We got it! Right up to 70 degrees, sunshine, short sleeves and shorts, too!!

Our friends, Mark and Jen, brought their kiddos over to our land on Saturday...with Bailey their big husky-mix dog....that chased and ran...

panted in the shade for a few minutes with the kids....

then ran and chased some more!!

The guys continued to mill out more beams and lumber...

Later more neighbor friends, the Grants and the Dows, came over in the afternoon so we took the opportunity to grill up hamburgers and hot dogs... then roast marshmallows (of course!) over a bonfire. I keep wondering what my yard will actually look like once we have no huge logs lying across it!

We also lit up a grass fire at dusk. I know it sounds crazy but we burn our long grass in the Spring up here...just like the Indians did on the Plains...and it grows back amazingly lush and green!

Plus, it makes quite a show for the kiddos!!

Can you believe it?! I'm so thrilled to have landed a cute little wooden picnic table at a yard sale this weekend...perfect for under The Climbing Tree (have we thought of a better name yet?)! So what do you think? What color other than the primer splattered with some questionable tan generic color should I paint this darlin' thing...???

In L.L. Bean we discovered glossy white, or red, or hunter green picnic tables that just beg for a site like this. Yet...when I'm looking at this little table now...in it's own setting...I'm just not so sure...

Perhaps it should just be painted a basic woodsy brown or sage green that's not quite so glitzy...I don't know...decisions, decisions.

Anyhoo, I love having it here and the children have thoroughly claimed it and made it their own. All it lacks is the official christening of sticky jelly, peanut butter, and marshmallows - which will come only too soon!

And then there's the see-saw...

Which could also be a perfect depiction of my life right now...or, better yet, the quandary of my life right now! It's the balancing act that must be performed in the last waning days of summer. Where oh where has this summer gone...??? I wanna know! How much more can we get done on the log home, rearrange the storage unit, fix the barn for the horse, get some more hay up, get the bunny cage expanded, and now prepare for a new homeschool year,...??? And ya know, there's much, much more besides! What can I say? Decisions, decisions!

Well, I'm just not gonna boggle my brain over it all...not just now anyway. We still have some beautiful...FULL...is the operative word here...days ahead and I want to enjoy each non-blustery-cold, non-snowed-on minute of them! Even if it does mean some wild, precarious balancing act to pull it off! And that's my decision!

So jump on over to Green Pioneer and see what we got done on the homestead this week!

So here's the recent update on our land and log home projects. The walls are continuing to go up and the brush and grass is continuing to come down!

I've gotten all the brush and tall grass removed from under the new climbing tree...this tree needs a name! We have the "Thinking Rock" at home...for now I guess it'll just have to be "The Climbing Tree"...

I can't describe to you the amount of brush, vines, and small trees...


So here's just a sample of part of the pile that has come on down this week...

This is how tall this grass is...or was...in most of what I was traipsing through all week! Itchy, scratchy...gone!

This grass was thoroughly demolished with this mumbo-jumbo weed-eatin' fightin' machine...

As you can see...this machine is my new best friend...we are tight....we are totally bonded...

Now pop on over to Green Pioneer to get 'the rest of the story'...

This is the front of our property where I've spent the last couple of days clearing loads of limbs, vines, and brush...getting poked in the face and scratched on every square inch of my legs...and feeling muscles that I never even knew existed...but isn't it starting to look rather lovely...?? Park-like perhaps...????

Pop over to Green Pioneer to get the full update on our log home progress!

I'm so very, very pleased to announce the arrival of our new logs--fresh from the Maine woods--delivered yesterday morning for the roof rafters of our log home! Aren't they just gorgeous? They require peeling yet--something we want to get done soon while the sap is at the surface and the bark slips off easily. I'll keep you posted on all our summer progress! Yay!!

Whereas the winter time is a more hunker-down and hibernate sort of season in Maine, spring and summer usher in the more social season in Maine--prompting most people out to do what I refer to as 'toodling'--or just toodlin' for short. This could either be toodlin' around town or in antique shops or in the garden or out on the lakes or down by the sea shore or at the plethora of fairs and festivals that start cranking up in earnest--which, by the way, Small Farm Field Day will be this Sat.--woohoo!

Needless to say, we've been out doin' our fair share of toodlin' around ourselves over the past week or so. We were over with Jennifer and her family lendin' a hand with the major renovation of their new house. As we 3 women (Jen, her mom, and I) scraped 5 inches of multitudinous layers of embedded wallpaper off the kitchen walls, we just chit-chatted and girl-talked up a storm--and still managed to get alot done! While the men folk, far removed from the chit-chat realm, hoisted out old carpet and scoped out the plumbing problems--along with other very inhospitable projects.

We've also been toodlin' over to our land, and got it all burned--finally--the GRASS that is! And have also managed to get the final lifting pole up and 3 logs on in just the past couple of weeks--YAY!! I told you, my husband's gonna pulley-rig this thing to fruition--just stand back--he's on the loose!

We just got our tax return yesterday and have enough to get all the timbers for the roof, so we were out toodlin' around looking at logs--there happen to be lots of those up here! All I have to say is--bring on the thermal mass, baby!

From our land, we toodled on over to our friend's place to see all their springtime activity. Karyn has created this wonderful idea of a kitchen-like garden in a series of raised beds--right outside the door.  She's been rather stumped as to how to get more green in this area to grow--so she hit upon the notion of raised beds--I say perfect solution! I can't wait to see these once they're all filled in with luscious vegetables and berries!

They also plan to build up a low stone wall against the house to use as a bed for tomatoes. This little family is full-tilt, full-steam-ahead with this whole homestead thing and have so many wonderful ideas and ventures they're tackling with their 40 acres along the lake. Just sit tight 'cause I'll be sharing a whole lot more of what these modern homesteaders are up to very soon!