the super chill weekend

david is on the keyboard, let me tell you i really am an ignoramous on da 'puter.
so it has been a soopa relaxin' weekend after a week in the 70s with sun, we woke saturday to much rain with thunder and lightning. it was so nice, and it got cooler as the day went on so we cozied down on the new sofa, watched some b ball on the new flat screen, and enjoyed a sweet rainy day. the loomers were over for a bit in the morning. so much fun having little lilikoi smiling, drooling, and being a baby, she is awesome. 2008 is sure to be another amazing year. so far we've built the new fence with 2 arbors, and 4 gates. We cleaned out in front of the bath house and planted dozens of mountain berries along the fence(wich is basically a 500 ft trellis), and built a small spring fed pond which is atticus' watering hole, I finished the siding on the house, now were down to earthen plaster on the round and trim work left and then our home will look totally done. wow, so even on the super chill weekend i can't help but think about the many wonderful projects to come, and i am thankful for the down time i have now. thanks for reading my thoughts and i hope to write more soon. peace and love

Springing into spring

Atticus and David on top of Stone Mt

Easter has come and gone with a magical visit from the East Bunny, a forest egg hunt, and a wonderful dinner with neighbors. Easter sure did come early this year! I heard something crazy about it being the earliest it's fallen in a century or something..hmmmm....what is blog etiquette? Is someone checking facts? Well, it was really early! We do have some hints of spring around....blooming daffodils, violet, life root. Chickweed, self heal, and trillium popping up. It's hard for me to say goodbye to winter (my favorite season) but spring offers it's beauty and it';s hard to resist.
Gita and best friend forever, Willow


We dyed Eater eggs (and fingers, and a bit of the counter) while David and Alex took an impromptu trip to Asheville for an "emergency" basketball hoop. I am not sure when the sudden realization that one does not have a basketball hoop becomes an emergency, but whatever. I think the arrival of the letter from the IRS about the Economic Stimulus Package made us feel like we may have a little money to spare (not a common feeling for us, but a welcome one!) Really, I didn't mind being home alone with three kids and massive amounts of eggs and food coloring. So now we can play a little gravel ball whenever the desire comes.....ahhh, the sweet life.

...gold at the end of the rainbow



We have also been working hard creating raised beds in our terraced veggie garden. Kelcey and I attended the Organic Growers School which inspired us in many ways, namely in moving towards raised beds. So we have been busy digging, building, amending, covering......and soon, planting. We also built an awesome cold frame so we can start some seedlings without donating our windowsills to the purpose.

Amidst all this excitement, I must remember to take care of some other not-so-fun taks: file my state taxes, figure out if we can get garbage pickup on our rural road, find plane tickets to Maine, and continue trying to expose the kids to chickenpox so we don't have to vaccinate.

happy beginning of spring!

once more from the state of sun

It's our last day of beach vacation and thought I'd make one more post while we have the glories of wireless internet.

Yesterday, we went to Old Town Fernandina to pay a visit to the Farmers Market. 5 crab cakes, 8 grapefruit, and 3 turnovers later, we were suprised by a good ol' southern Shriners parade...a first for me! We also visited Little Talbot Island State Park outside of Jacksonville. 6 miles of pristine, uninhabited beach offered us an afternoon of fun and sun.

You got some video of Noah on the skim board. It is amazing that this kids lives in the mountains.... he is such natural at stuff like this.....if only we all could be so coordinated! I seem to always get injured doing adventurous activities such as opening the door to a public restroom. I think I missed the "skim boarding window" in life.

The girls found and caught a tree frog in the yard today. They agreed to leave it here in Florida after making a nice home for it under a tree.

We head back to the mountains today, with an afternoon visit to Savannah, GA...another first.
One of our mama goats, Sparrow, is due to give birth on Tuesday. We are so excited to welcome baby goats to our farm. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she has two females....we'll keep you all posted....

until then,
happy trails!

the Sunshine State

The Carmonas are in Florida for a much needed, totally impromptu beach vacation!

We are staying at a vacation house of our dear friends who invited us to use the house in between other vacationers. So we packed up the family van and drove 7 hours to Fernandina Beach on the Atlantic side of northern Florida.

We spent yesterday on the beach (70* and sunny). Being a bit out of touch with the risk of sunburn (still winter in the mountains),

we forgot the sunscreen and now David is being called lobster boy.

Today we went to Fort Clinch State Park and toured the fort that was built in the Civil War. We had a lovely moment of education with a very loud (and old) living history solider who was ready to enlist Noah as a drummer boy and Nimuae as a wash lady.

A hike on a nature trail in the park put me face to face with a very fercocious looking (although harmless, I'm sure) armadillo. In my defense, I was a bit on edge after passing a few "Aligator Crossing" signs. I'm sure my reaction will live clear in David's memory as another example of one of the ways I'm becomming my mom.

....the many joys of vacationing

Live from cyberspace

That's right, the Carmonas are making technological advances at lightening speed!

And now, we are ready to take on the next challenge....blogging.

Many of you ask for updates and photos and I just can't seem to get around to making that happen, so now, (drum roll, please) you all will have the amazing opportunity to log on whenever you want a little piece of us. Maybe a recent photo or hear who has the flu or whatever nuggets of info I remember to share. So please, check back often and encourage me in this new, and frightening, frontier.