We are tired.

Spring is in full swing and we are working our arses off! My musles protest and there isn’t enough time at night to sleep. Or rather, my body is not letting me enjoy my sleep. I keep waking up to early. 😦

We have lots to show for the aching backs and farmer tans we have acquired. We harvested over 700 seedlings planted by stray fallen cherries last fall. I bent up two shovels in the process. The hubby says I must be more careful. I think we should have stronger shovels.

The next day we planted all 700+ seedlings and now we will work to make them grow into strong little trees we will replant on out land next year. It probably seems crazy to go and put some serious work into digging up stray seedlings. But when they sell for more than $2.00 a pop and you need over a 1000. Digging them up literally saves over $2000  and takes two or three days. That seems like pretty good use of our time. 😉

Munchkin is working hard on language acquisition and confusing Baba with the mixed Serbian and English. This is gonna be a fun ride.Listening to her sing “twinkle twinkle”  and just repeat those two words while standing on the porch looking up at the sky. Then in her sweet little dual language baby talk she says, “Zvezda Moon!” Zvezda means star in Serbian.

Munchkin wants to learn how to play jump rope really bad.

 

New words surprise me all the time. The shock and pride never end.

I wish I had more energy, but I am just spent on account of all that manual labor. A picture packed post is the result. Enjoy.

 

Dobar dan!

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Drive by shooting (Fast Photography)

This week has been a whirlwind of farm work, a trip to a neighboring village and coming home to catch up online before going to bed. Yesterday I was so tired I slept through the first alarm. That NEVER happens. So I know the work is kicking my butt. That is good!

I am much happier when I am working, and working outdoors is so healthy for you body and soul. It is kind of rejuvenating after too many months cooped up!

In honor of this being the LORD’s Day, I am sharing some raw poorly taken pics of a church.

The side view mirror, proof of the “drive by”

I would love to go and check out this relatively new church in Balenovac, but every time we pass it we are on our way to another village for important (but not that important) business. This time it was picking up sour cherry seedlings. Side note… Balenovac means bales of money. This town is for the ballers!

Whizzing past the many fields in route to Baba’s house we see loads of village folk out planting, throwing fertilizer and such.  The fields are filled with reddened faces and necks as the last week has been absolutely gorgeous.

We planted another 200+ sour cherry flavored sticks with roots in the past few days. No wonder we are so tired! Flies have plagued us and bit up my muz pretty bad. Papa and I kept on the long sleeves and have avoided the brunt of the ravenous little piranha like flies. Later at night, as I was closing my eyes to sleep, I saw the bothersome pest  up in my face as I drifted off to sleep.

Still, I can’t complain. The fresh air and gorgeous view is better than any office job.

This is certainly not an office approved activity.

If I had a normal 9-5, the possibility of seeing a flock of ducks fly over a large pool of water is pretty slim.

Other things not on the agenda of a “day job”:

Watching  butterflies flitting around the face of our dog buck as he runs to catch up with the tractor after exploring something nose first.

Walking on a dirt road.

Learning how not to plow a field. Apparently, some people think it is o.k. to plow into the dirt road to expand their fields… Bad idea! lol P.S. it wasn’t me.

Getting a history lesson on location is out of the question for a normal J.O.B. I get these sometimes when I sit on the back of the tractor with Papa. Just after we past the pool of water above there is an old abandoned brick shack. When I asked what it was and got an interesting lesson. It was an old WWI magazine. This was the site of a hidden stock of ammunition! He continued to tell me about how many men from each village left to fight. And then about the progression of communism. Even with the language barrier being like a barbed wire fence. Lot of data gets through. 😉

All in all, working on the farm and taking pics along the way seems like a nice way to live. At least for now. 😉

Dobar dan!

Upside Down in Serbia

I was a gymnast a very long time ago. I decided to work on my core and get some “different” pics of Serbia simultaneously!

The first day pruning I got this one in a field on the way home. The downward slope was a challenge.

On the second day, we were having our coffee break whilst the dog ran about sniffing out food and begging for some.

I was determined to get another upside down shot. I was a bit to hasty. Should have given some thought to my top falling with gravity… oh well.  Here’s to sloppy belly shots!

The ground was super hard here. The coat I was wearing wasn’t enough of a pillow.

The last one was the biggest test of skill.  I was in a plowed part of the field again on a slope. 

This was the last day, again we were on coffee break. It had been sprinkling off and on and we were glad to complete the task.

I admit I am quite slow at clipping the fruit bearing trees. But, by the last day I got a bit better and next time I will do it even better.

As my arms and core get tighter and stronger the “upside down” will be improved as well!

Dobar Dan Y’all!

Pruning Trees

It is no secret we are farmers. Today was spent pruning our sour cherries. It was a gorgeous day. A few bees were about looking for flowers. Hopefully too many nice days won’t bring an early bloom that freezes the cherries. yep, getting ahead of myself with worry.

Thanks to the hubby photographer for getting proof of my efforts.

The Muz was nice enough to retrain me in pruning. He even called in reinforcements. Uncle Milosh came to give us a little lesson. He is a PRO!

I could understand enough Serbian to get the gist.

He was pruning a field above us and he came down later at the end of the day to ride back with us.

We stopped back at his place to have a coffee and see the Grandparents. For the first several minutes I spent time with a fungus covered stick cleaning the mud from my boots. Kisses all around from Baba and Deda and interrogation. Why haven’t you been to see us and where is the Munchkin?

Eventually, I just found a seat and my Turkish coffee and cuddled with Mikajlo the cat. I listened to the family chatting and took a few more pics.

When we arrived back at the village house Mama greeted us with a feast. We are pretty used to that. She is a super star chef!

 The table was all decked out. A bouquet of the early spring flowers even sat at the side. Visi Baba.

We will be back in the field tomorrow. Followed  by more of Baba’s Yummy goodness!

Dobar dan Y’all!