We have been without a good rain for months! The pond is dry, the plants are wilting, and everything is parched, and there is no rain in site! Please do a rain dance and send some our way!!!

Kaia, Toby, and I took the Amtrak up to RI and Mass. for a family reunion this past weekend! It was the first one in 22 years! It was wonderful to see everyone and hear so many family stories. I was 12 at the last reunion, so I didn’t remember much. All of my great Aunts had fun telling me how much like my great grandmother I am. I found out that she couldn’t work as a Nurse once she came over to America, so she got her certification in massage and worked as an herbalist and massage therapist. One of my cousins remembers her having 2 recipe books that she kept everything in, so he is going to go through some of the boxes of stuff in his attic (that have some of her old stuff) to see if he can find them. Wouldn’t that be amazing!! Some of those recipes would be from the 1800’s! She also read palms and tarot, which I think is pretty cool too.

We had a prenatal today and all is well. I’m 13+ weeks, but measuring ~16, so I may get an ultrasound, just to make sure I’ve not got two in there :-O We did hear the a heart beat though, nice and strong. And I’ve started feeling movements (Toby and Kaia felt it too). I felt them really early with Kaia too.

We’ve been trying to clean up the yard to get ready for our open house party in Sept. Toby’s mom came up today and helped chop up a bunch of construction wood for winter. The longer pieces will go towards making the raised garden beds.

A friend of mine is wanting to get ‘back to the land’ and has asked to live on our property for a year in exchange for house and childcare help! This would be an amazing help to us!!! She could help me get the garden beds prepared before the baby comes, help when the baby gets here, help with spring planting, etc… We are probably going to get a big family tent for her, and set up a propane stove and composting toilet for right now. And before the cold weather sets in, we will probably build a small addition onto the cabin with a separate entrance. That way she will have water, heat and electricity. I’m not really looking forward to more building, but it would be great to have her out here. And the guest house would be great in the future for friends/family, or WWOOFers or something.