A Sustained Life

Slow news day

2011-02-03T10:44:00.003-06:00

It certainly isn't every day that your kids make the front page of the paper. And yet, that is exactly what has happened! And it's not the local weekly paper, either. We're talking the state capital's city paper.

We were contacted Tuesday evening about the photographer coming over to get a few shots of the kids doing their morning animal chores in the cold. We agreed. I thought it would just be a photo with a caption...human interest. But then, we were interviewed and told that they might even want to do another story every few months of our progress through the year. And last night, we were told that unless something happened big in Egypt in the next few hours, we'd be on the front page. Talk about shock!

You can see the article here. I don't know how long that link will be good, but for now, that's the place.

So far, the comments online are tame. Hopefully, it'll stay that way. People tend to use those comment sections to sound off. Of course, I know I shouldn't care one way or the other! But I do.

Anyway, take a look! I'm so proud of my hard-working kids!

She talks. And talks.

2011-01-20T15:57:00.003-06:00

One of the big things that happened while I was "away" was that Abby started talking. I mean really talking. Before, she had been a master of communication, but used almost no real words. She was able to use grunts and sounds to make us understand what she wanted to say. With amazing accuracy. To outsiders, it looked like a mystery. Like Lassie telling the folks that Timmy fell down the well.

She still isn't always clear in how she says things, but she is getting better by the day and adding new words at an alarming rate. The funny thing is that Josh is really not very far behind her. I, though, am enjoying her new-found freedom in words.

The other day, we had this conversation occur about whether or not she could join us in a game.

Abby: "Abby play too?"
Meagan: "No, Abby. You are too little."
Abby: "I'm 3! And I'm tall!"
Meagan: "Yes, you are 3 and you are tall, but you are still too little for this game."
Abby, after a moment's reflection: "I need get heavy?"

Copper-colored glasses

2011-01-14T08:42:00.001-06:00

When we started adding on to our house, there were lots of other projects that came up. Things like needing to take the power line to the barn down & bury it...it had been on a pole that was really leaning badly after a large branch came down on it. Things like ripping out some of the old wiring in the house and replacing it with new. And things like laying new water lines to new faucets. All that added up to scrap copper laying around.

Don suggested that the kids start gathering it up to sell. And they jumped on that suggestion. They read a little about it online and found that stripped wire was worth more than burned wire. And so, for several months, when they had spare time, they'd sit in the garage and strip that copper wire. It was probably more tedious than any monetary bonus could justify in most of our minds, but it gave them a project to do together.

They finally finished last month and it sat in the back of the van since then, waiting for us to get to town to sell it. But last Friday, we actually made it there. As a total sidenote here, can I just say that scrap yards are a man's world? I felt so completely out of place there. I had tried to figure out a way to get Don to do the deed, but it didn't work out so I had to suck it up and do it myself. No problems, but I just felt like I entered another world when I crossed the tracks down in the industrial area. My minivan looked a bit conspicuous.

But anyway, here are the happy entrepreneurs!They got $100.03 for their efforts. They were in copper heaven. Don warned them to not go around yanking wires out of our walls now! They assured him they wouldn't, but they did start thinking of other possible sources. Hey mom...do you think you need that outlet there???

Not really Halley's Comet

2011-01-12T09:38:00.004-06:00

I could talk about the snow, but I'm in denial. Actually, it's not the snow that I mind. It's the cold that accompanies it. The high today will be 6. And that isn't Celsius. Actually, since I seem to be talking about it anyway, I'll go ahead and complain about the mud puddles inside the door melting off of boots. And remember, when I say "mud", I mean manure. It's almost more than this firstborn can stand. At least it's sunny. Though I do think it's some sort of cruel joke that the sun can be shining like crazy and still only get the temperature up to 6. That's just wrong.
At least someone likes it.

So, what I'm really going to talk about is our 2 new additions to the farm.
This is Halley. She is an 18-year-old mare who is in need of some love and attention. She was given to us because the owner is a traveling musician with his family and couldn't give her the time she needed. She needs to put on some weight, but when she does, she'll be able to be ridden. She is a sweetheart and loves a good apple.

This is Comet. Comet is not from Halley, but since the two came together, and Comet was still unnamed, we couldn't resist. Comet is an 8-month-old filly. She is completely not tame, but she seems to be a bit calmer now that she's in with Halley. The previous owner had her off by herself. She has to get older, of course, before we can break her to ride, so right now, she's just a pet. She will be great experience for us in horse training. Our ultimate goal is to own draft horses, so we felt like this was a good opportunity to get some horse experience before that.

The horses are enjoying the barnyard with the cows. Annabelle, who will calve sometime this month, Snowflake, who is our yearling heifer who needs to be separate from her mama for a little longer to make sure she doesn't continue to nurse, and our 2 Holstein oxen in training, Buck & Doe, are the cows that are normally housed in the same yard. Right now, though, we've taken pity on the usually pasture cows and let them into the yard so that they have access to the barn during the frigid, windy weather. They'll head back out as soon as the weather gets a bit more reasonable.

The cows are pretty sure we've lost our minds by putting these creatures into their turf. They were completely terrified at first, but have now settled into just giving the horses a wide berth. At any rate, they'd rather things go back to the way they were.
And yes, the horse pictures were taken before the snow!

Turn about is fair play

2011-01-10T08:09:00.000-06:00

Remember this picture I posted last March?

Yeah, well, Josh is getting even.

My little wood gatherer

2011-01-07T12:59:00.000-06:00

Josh absolutely loves to go outside. So I knew he'd love the job I had for him. There were lots of wood scraps in the yard left from Caleb's wood splitting so I sent all of them outside, telling them to help Josh gather them up.

He had a blast. He filled 2 buckets & 2 boxes with sticks and bark and bits of wood. Now, if I could just figure out how to get him to pick up his toys!

If I Had a Nickel...

2011-01-05T13:46:00.000-06:00

Oh wait. I do!

This sweet kitty showed up on our doorstep one cold morning a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty sure he is a "drop off" as he is extremely friendly and thought he belonged in the house. Meagan named him Nickel right off the bat, even though I told her that he might not stick around. He has though, so it looks like he's here to stay. He doesn't even mind the dogs' big noses following him around.

We had just been thinking we needed a second cat. Our head mouser Chief Wahoo was killed last winter by a coyote (we found the tracks and evidence of the skirmish in the snow) and though Johnny Cash looks good in black, he just hasn't been able to keep up with the mice. As a result, I've been catching mice in traps like crazy ever since the weather started to turn cool. In only 3 days, Caleb caught 24 mice in the barn! And there were several times I caught 4 mice in just a night in the house. We needed a second cat. And Nickel seems to be the answer.

Sewing desk

2011-01-04T08:18:00.003-06:00

I have dreamed of having a sewing desk for as long as I've been sewing. I've always thought how nice it would be to have a desk permanently set up with everything I need and a space to leave a project out mid-stitch. Well, just having the desk wasn't the only problem. I also needed a spot to stick one.

When I re-did our old laundry room into our new library, I snagged the perfect opportunity to claim a spot under the window for a desk. Now, to build it...

The desk is essentially 3 simple bookcases put together with a table top. I had 6 wicker baskets, so I built 2 bookcases with 3 cubbies each to fit them. I turned one toward the front and one toward the side.

On the right-hand side of the desk is another wider bookcase to hold fabric. It faces the side and so I was able to add my thread organizers onto the bookcase's side, which now faces the front.

I added a rectangular piece of 3/4" plywood, screwed all the pieces together, and painted it white.

Please ignore, by the way, the clutter. I thought about cleaning it all off for the picture, but then I decided to keep it real. Or maybe I'm just lazy. Anyway, you can see Meagan & I's newest project...a braided denim rug. That one is going to take a sweet forever. We contemplated changing it to a doll-sized rug, but we are going for the big one.

Too beautiful to waste

2010-12-31T15:48:00.005-06:00

It was absolutely gorgeous here yesterday. A bit windy, but it was in the 50s and mostly sunny.

We could've spent time at the park. We could've gone hiking. We could've done a million leisurely activities to take advantage of a rare winter day of mild temperatures. Instead, we butchered chickens.Two visiting boys catching chickens

Our homemade Whizbang Chicken Plucker

You see, a beautiful day just simply cannot be wasted when you've got a chore needing to be done like that. If we hadn't butchered yesterday, we might end up doing it on a day when the chickens start to freeze as soon as they come out of the scalder. We've done it on days like that. It is not a process I'd like to repeat. When everyone is competing to be the one to do the gutting because having your hand INSIDE the chicken is the warmest place there is, you can bet the day is not pleasant. It is much better to use a beautifully warm day to do it. In fact, I'd rather do it on a day like yesterday over ANY summer day as well. Things smell better in the 50s than they do in the 90s.Picking off a few remaining feathers

We did 38 chickens and 6 ducks. We had 6 extra sets of hands with friends, including a friend of a friend who is wanting to get more involved with his own food after watching Food, Inc. He wanted to experience this to see if he might want to raise some of his own food because he has opportunity to buy a small farm near the city. Butchering is always more fun with friends to get bloody with!

The shelves. The shelves that led to a complete room makeover!

2010-12-28T13:28:00.001-06:00

I am a woman who loves power tools. How did this happen? My eyes used to glaze over when Don wanted to stop in at Home Depot. Now, I know several of the employees at the Menard's in Lincoln. One of them is convinced that I am there every time he is. He may be right.

I've been building like crazy this summer/fall. It all started with needing a shelf for boots in our new mud room (I'll post about that outcome another time). I discovered Ana White's website and thought, "Hey, if I can build a stanchion for the cows, surely I can put together a shelf!" I did, and the rest is history.

We were needing a bunch of bookshelves as we had been borrowing Don's folk's and they were going to need them back as their house gets completed. So, I found some shelves I liked and got busy countersinking some nails.

Again, I adjusted the plans a bit to better meet our needs. They are individual base and hutch units, but it all comes together nicely and look built-in. The bases are 16" deep and the hutches are 12" deep. I may someday put doors on the base units, but for now, I'm happy.

The hardest part about these shelves was that the wall they were going on had the only heat register and 3 of the 4 outlets. If I didn't do something about it, we were going to be cold in there. Cold and using extension cords.

So, I used some duct tape and some insulated cardboard to build out underneath the shelf so that I could extend the "ductwork" and put a register on the front of the bookcase. It isn't perfect, as the picture shows, because I had to improvise a little...maybe a little caulk would hide the gap though. The other thing I did was to run wires underneath one of the bookcases so that I could put outlets on the front. The big deal is that everything worked! I didn't even cause any fuses to blow!

And new, white bookshelves required me to paint the walls and wood trim. And, put up new window treatments, and rewire the outlets & switches with white. And, put up pictures on the walls and bring in a comfy chaise lounge. The end result? A cozy new library (that doubles as a sewing room with the new sewing table I built...more on that later as well!) A library, by the way, that doesn't even hold all of our books. Back to the workbench!

It's just grand.

2010-12-25T10:16:00.005-06:00

Last week, I had arranged with a guy off of Craigslist that I would come and get his free upright piano. It had a few missing ivories, but it would be free. We'd just work around the "issues".

Friday night, though, Don asked me to meet him in Lincoln after he got off work. He told me the intersection, but wouldn't tell me the store he wanted to take me to. It turned out to be a music store. Ok...I thought he maybe wanted to browse through sheet music. I'm game.

But then he asked to see the used pianos they had. I gave him that look that says, "Have you lost your mind?" Didn't he remember that we were getting a FREE one? FREE. That is much cheaper than NOT FREE. He reasoned that we may as well look at them and see what was available...with all the ivories.

Anyway, long story short, this is now in our home...
The kids are having so much fun pounding away at the keys (and my ear drums). Meagan figured out which notes to play to get the first part of "Three Blind Mice", which doesn't sound like much, but it's not bad, considering she's had no exposure to a piano before.

And thankfully, I have not forgotten everything I knew. It is coming back to me. It is funny to me that I enjoy practicing now, when practicing was the most torturous thing I could think of as a child. Of course, I like onions now, too. Life is full of surprises!

File this under "Things You Never Thought You'd Hear Yourself Say"

2010-12-23T15:17:00.000-06:00

The other day at breakfast, these words actually came out of my mouth: "Don't blow your nose in your tortilla!"

Ahhh, motherhood. It really is different from anything you could've imagined!

Splitting wood

2010-12-22T14:39:00.000-06:00

Caleb has been building up a nice set of arm muscles this winter. Winter is usually a slow time of the year. One in which we rest & recuperate, getting ready for the sprint through the year that begins when the first seed goes in the ground. But, this year, we have a wood stove and a pile of wood that is too big for the opening of said stove.

Enter Caleb's arms. He has been faithfully hacking away at the wood. Truthfully, he likes it. Yes, it makes him tired and yes, it makes his muscles ache. But, he gets to wear a pair of too-big steel-toes boots. Like a man. And that makes it all worth it.

Since Opa returned from a short (4 month) trip to Ukraine, Caleb hasn't been all alone out there. The two of them have worked at it together some. And if you thought wearing man boots to split wood was fun for an 11-year-old, then think about adding an Opa to that mix. An Opa with an wedge and a sledge hammer, no less.

Building memories

2010-12-20T11:55:00.004-06:00

Meagan had one wish for her birthday this year (she turned 9 in July!) and that was to build a stand that she could sell from. We were, at the time, involved at a low level in a farmer's market and she so wanted to have her own stand, her own goods, and her own business.

So, for her birthday, I gathered up a bunch of scrap wood, bought a few pieces we didn't have, and presented them to her, with a promise that we would build the stand together. Just us girls.

Here it is in it's finished form. We will add a sign in the pink area, naming her stand, eventually, but at the moment, we don't have a name. We are also toying with the idea of making it changeable so that she can name it "Meagan's Melons" one day and "Meagan's Mushrooms" the next. We're brainstorming as to how to do that best.

I used the plans from Ana White's website as a basis, but modified it as Meagan is now 9 and these were designed for much littler girls. The hutch part comes off, as we attached it with bolts, so that we can easily stick it in the back of the pickup to take it somewhere else for selling things. It is a bit heavy, but manageable in two pieces. If you are interested in the plans and how we modified it, that info will follow...

Here is the base unit as is.
My cut list was:
A) 2 - 1x12 @ 31 3/4" (sides)
B)3 - 1x12 @ 34 1/2" (shelves)
C)2 - 1x4 @ 34 1/2" (half shelves)
D)2 - 1x10 @ 34 1/2" (center dividers)
E)2 - 1x12 @ 8 3/4" (bin dividers)
F)1 - 1x8 @ 36" (top of bins)
G)1 - 1x4 @ 36" (front of bins)
H)2 - 1x2 @ 22 1/4" (front side trim)
I)1 - 1x3 @ 33" (front footer)
J)1 - 1x4 @ 36" (back of bin trim)
K)1 - 1x2 @ 36" (back top trim)
L)2 - 1x2 @ 5 1/4" (back side trim)
M)1 - 1x3 @ 36" (back bottom trim)
N)2 - 1x2 @ 20" (back side trim)

The new overall dimensions are 36" wide, 13" deep, and 32 1/2" high.

In step one, the top measurements are the same, but the side will measure 25" instead of 15 1/2".

Step two is the same.

In step three, the bottom shelf will still be 1 3/4" off the ground, but there will be 3 shelves instead of 2. There is 9 1/2" BETWEEN each of the shelves, with 8 3/4" remaining at the top. So, the bottom of the bottom shelf will be attached at 1 3/4", the bottom of the 2nd shelf at 12", and the top shelf at 22 1/4", leaving 8 3/4" over the top of that last shelf.

In step four, we will add 2 half-shelves instead of one. The lower half-shelf will have 6 7/8" from the bottom to the ground, and the top half-shelf will have 17 1/8" from the bottom to the ground.

Step five is the same, except that there are 2 of the D pieces instead of one. Obviously, one between the bottom & 2nd shelf, and one between the 2nd & top shelf.

Steps six through fifteen are the same, just using the new cutting measurements. Locations & methods are the same, though.

Here is the hutch unit as is.
My cutting list was:
A)2 - 1x6 @ 32 3/4" (sides)
G)2 - 1x3 @ 25 3/4" (front side trim)

The new dimensions are 36" wide, 7" deep, and 36" tall.

All the steps are the same, with only the side heights changing. You won't notice any difference in the instructions.

Nine months later

2010-12-19T16:02:00.004-06:00

So, we were sitting in foster care training (What?!? Where did that come from? More later...) a few weeks ago and they were talking about the importance of keeping pictures and stories of a foster child's life so that they have something to look back on. "Imagine," the instructor said,"growing up and having no pictures from your childhood!" I leaned over to Don and said, "Josh is coming dangerously close to that." His response, in true Don form, was "Josh...which one is he again?" The short one, Don. The short one.

You see, I have taken almost no pictures over the last nine months away from the blog. I've recorded almost nothing. And I realized that I don't like it. So, I am in a search for balance. Balance between way too much time being sucked into this Macintosh friend of mine and a complete neglect of something important to me.

In order to spare you a list of randomness incorporating nine months of ridiculous busyness, I will slowly dole it out whenever I feel like it! Hey, nine months of happenings may just give me some topics for a while, right? It just may take me a bit to get in the habit again.

Reevaluation

2010-03-11T10:23:00.005-06:00

I think I need to take some time away from the good 'ole blog. Yes, I know, I've already taken several weeks. But, I'm just feeling like I've lost any sense of why I'm here. And, I know that there are matters far more important that I want to attend to. I feel such an urgency to be in the Word and I feel like I'm wasting time here. I don't know. I may be back. I may not. Only time will tell.

Until then, I'll leave you with a few pictures from the last several weeks...Josh gets no peace around here
Meagan's banjo that she bought with her own money
Josh sleeping in our bed...he loves to turn his face toward the sun
A new nightgown that I sewed for Meagan (McCall's pattern #M5510)My new sister-in-law, TraceyBryce, the groom (I can't believe these are the only 2 pictures I got the entire wedding!)
Our room at the bed & breakfast in Wichita...so pretty!
My cousin Kelli and Abby

Caleb riding a haflinger in Texas

Josh sitting in the sun and grass in Texas - love the mohawk!
Dancing the hora (a traditional Hebrew dance) at the rehearsal for the wedding in Texas - that's me in the white top and denim skirt and Meagan is beside me
Don and Caleb dancing the hora

And that's it! Thanks for reading. I do so appreciate all the comments and encouragement! Please know that!

News

2010-02-18T15:51:00.000-06:00

There is so much going on right now that I simply do not have the energy to write about it all in anything other than a list format. So, here goes:

Our poor mac is sick. He thinks he is a PC apparently, as he spends most of the day randomly freezing up and crashing. It's a very confusing time. His doctor's appointment is Saturday. We're hoping for the best.
Saturday, by the way, is my brother Bryce's wedding! He is marrying a darling woman named Tracey and we will be attending. The kids sure hope there is dancing at the reception, as they've been practicing.
Early Sunday morning, we leave for Wichita, KS. Just Don, Josh, and me. Don has a convention and I get to enjoy shows, museums, and chocolate. And, we get to stay in a bed and breakfast! I simply can not wait.
However, I am simply sick that Abby cannot go. I know the bigger kids will be fine (staying with Don's folks here, of course), but there is just something in my mama-brain that is going insane over the thought of leaving her behind.
Two days after we return from Wichita, all of us (except Don's folks, as they get to stay behind to milk) leave to visit friends in Texas. Another wedding too!
No, we don't really treat Don's folks as slaves. In fact, they've been away for a week, themselves.
Valentine is the name of our new bull. Pictures will be delayed, as he is making the rounds (as I mentioned before), but I hear that he is very dark and very big.
We will be opening up the "old" part of the house into the "new" just as soon as we return from TX. Everything is enclosed and insulated and the woodstove is ready to warm us. Some paint on the walls and some flooring installed and we'll be good to go. Of course, there is still lots to do in the basement, but it'll come...eventually.
Since the mac has crashed no less than 3 times while composing this post, I'm thinking I'll be absent for a while. I'll try to pop in from time to time on Don's work computer, but then again, I may be having too much time on vacation to think of it! Here's hoping!

On the move

2010-02-16T08:59:00.004-06:00

From rolling over to sitting to crawling to pulling up...
This boy of mine is ready to go, go, go!
Quick, everyone! Get everything off the floors and close all the doors!

Snow cow

2010-02-12T06:41:00.000-06:00

Don's dad loves to build snowmen. Or in this case, snowcows. It had to be a Holstein, of course, as the palette is somewhat limited.

Itchin' to dig

2010-02-10T07:09:00.001-06:00

Spring seems like a million years away when your garden looks like this...
But, my seed order from Baker's Creek has come. And with it, hope! Hope that in a few short weeks (probably shorter than I can imagine), I'll be starting again. Feeling the black dirt in my hands. Getting my nails stained for the season. Placing those tiny seeds in the soil, knowing that somehow, miraculously, they'll grow into huge plants ready to feed our family. In fact, I started some onions from seeds this year and have already felt that euphoria of walking by my flats to spy little green shoots starting to emerge. There will be watering and mulching and weeding and de-bugging and staking...all with the greatest thrill of all in the end. The harvest. The harvest of beautiful ripe tomatoes, sweet yellow corn, tasty potatoes all hiding underground, zucchinis as big as my leg.

Gardening...it's the world's greatest drug.

Bert, the dud

2010-02-09T11:19:00.003-06:00

I've got good news and bad news.

First, the good news. I will have a freezer FULL of wonderful grass-fed beef in a few months.

And the bad news? Bert failed his sperm count test.

No, that title isn't a typo. I didn't mean dude.

We loaded Bert up into the trailer on Sunday evening for a trip to the vet first thing Monday morning. It actually went very smoothly. We expected a real hassle getting him into the trailer, but he just followed the armful of alfalfa. The vet gave him a score of 62, which is failing. While we could keep him and see if he could breed anyone, we don't have the herd size to risk not getting our girls bred. We can't get him into the locker until mid-March anyway, so we are planning to just hold onto him until maybe mid-June so he has some time to start fattening up on green grass a little before he goes in. We should have grass by mid-April, so it seems silly to save ourselves the hay feeding of that last month when we've come this far.

Now, though, we are in a bit of a pickle. We were counting on having our girls bred in August to calve the following spring. But, that is awfully hard to do without a bull. Don is going to visit a guy selling a Jersey bull on Saturday, so if all goes well, he'll buy him. The new bull will actually make a visit to Harriet (and hopefully do what Bert failed to do!) and then spend the rest of the winter at a friend's place who wants to get his cows bred. He'll come back here, then, in the spring.

Although I'm disappointed that we've got a dud bull, I am thrilled beyond belief at the prospect of all that beef! We'll probably try to sell half of the meat and keep the rest. Yummy!!

Little Braids

2010-02-06T06:57:00.000-06:00

Someone around here is getting hair long enough for braids. What we call "Laura braids" from Meagan's obsession with everything Little House on the Prairie.
That someone is also, apparently, camera shy...

Drawing Textbook

2010-02-05T06:51:00.001-06:00

I really love art. It is funny, though, because I grew up absolutely terrified of it. I was convinced by the time I hit middle school that I couldn't possibly do anything even remotely artsy. I drew and drew as a young child, but during those awkward middle years, something changed. Perhaps someone said something rude. I don't remember. All I knew is that I could. not. draw.

And I didn't. Until I was married and on a whim, signed up for a college art class. Oh my, did I have fun. I often went early and left late, just to get in some extra time working with the teacher. And, at the end of the year, she actually bought one of my projects! Wow. I had forgotten about that until just now. Anyway, that opened up so much for me. I still am no great artist and I really have to work to draw and don't even ask me to draw from life because that is HARD. But, I enjoy it.

My kids were totally stuck in their drawing. They had been drawing the exact same stick people with circles for mouths that they drew at the age of 4. I tried in vain to get them to draw what they saw and not what they "knew". I wanted them to see that we don't actually have circles for mouths, nor do our arms look like sticks, etc. I knew we needed drawing lessons, but I didn't know where to start.

One day, I stumbled across a post on Baker's Dozen about Drawing Textbook. I placed my order and have been so happy with the lessons. When we first started, we flipped through the book and the kids started screaming that they could never do those later lessons. We just finished the book today. And, I'm happy to report that they have done wonderfully. I'm not sending them to art school just yet, but they've developed so much in their abilities. And, I've had so much fun going along for the ride.

Meagan's creations:
Caleb's creations:
And a few of my own:
Fun, fun, fun!

The best-laid plans...

2010-02-03T15:30:00.003-06:00

Just when I had plenty to write about and pictures to go with, I am stuck (bad choice of words because I wouldn't want it any other way!) with a sick babe in my arms. Poor Josh spent the night battling a 104-degree fever and though it is much-improved, he still wants constant snuggling. So, since typing one-handed is a bit of a drag, writing will have to wait.

But, here's a cute picture of him in the meantime. Check out the six-pack...on his back!!!

January 2010 Farm Production

2010-02-01T10:21:00.002-06:00

Somehow, I write a post and then 11 days go by without anything. I don't quite ever know exactly where all that time went, but it sure does go fast. Ah well, here's to more consistency...

Anyway, things have been pretty consistent on the milk and egg front, except that we didn't milk for 4 days due to a really bad storm. With all the calves in the barn, there wasn't any milk left for us! Our visitor, Harriet, has returned to her family, and we've still not started milking Lily or Belle. We are thinking about just not adding to the winter work load with them. We are getting plenty of milk for now. We'll see. Our thinking may change. The good news, though, is that Belle has been much less skittish. She is actually letting us lead her by the halter. The bad news is that Harriet did not get bred which means either Bert is a dud or she just didn't take for some reason. The next thing to do is to load Bert on the trailer and take him in to be tested. That'll be fun. Jersey bulls are not known for their friendly demeanor. It's not like you can just loop a halter on him and say, "Come."

Eggs collected: 343, or about 28.5 dozen (about 11/day)

Milk collected: 1291 cups, or nearly 81 gallons (about 2.88 gallons/day)
Milk sold: 2 gallons

Oh, and our pig is getting close to butcher-age. We'll be trying to sell her, as we still have lots of pork left from our last butchering.

Boys with knives

2010-01-20T06:48:00.001-06:00

For a baby boy with an older brother, this is bound to happen...

Hot cocoa

2010-01-19T06:58:00.002-06:00

When the weather outside is frightful, nothing warms us up like some homemade hot cocoa. And because we always have a large amount of milk in the fridge, we get to make it very authentically.

Hot Cocoa

Mix together:
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup sugar (I use Rapadura, but I'm still working on reducing the amount)
pinch salt
1/3 cup boiling water

Bring to a boil and then gently simmer for 2 minutes, being careful to not scorch it.

Add 4 cups milk and heat to very hot, but do not boil.

Remove from heat and add 3/4 tsp vanilla.

Even Abby gets a little, though I ladle her's out before it gets very warm!

Big boy

2010-01-14T07:04:00.000-06:00

This is all happening way too fast. Josh is now getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. He rolls all over the place and gets into anything within a foot of the floor. My goodness, do these babies ever stop growing so fast?

Wedded bliss

2010-01-13T06:45:00.000-06:00

Don and I were married on New Year's Eve fifteen years ago. Fifteen years! That is hardly believable. Especially since I haven't aged at all in that time. I should really dig out a wedding photo, though, because Don has changed so much. He used to have this skinny pencil neck! Of course, he was only 21 at the time.

We don't often exchange gifts for our anniversary. It's proximity to Christmas makes gift-giving seem extraneous. But, this year, we skipped the Christmas gifts. We only gave gifts to people outside our immediate family. So, when I had an idea just a few days before our anniversary, I decided to act on it.

Don loves foosball. He and a buddy used to play nearly daily when we lived in Oklahoma. And now, we have this wonderful new sunroom to enjoy but only some garden benches for it in the way of furniture. Lots of empty space. So, I got on Craigslist.

Score.

At the moment, you have to be a real die-hard to want to play in the sunroom because it is C.O.L.D. We've been down to -11 degrees and it isn't much warmer in there yet. Drywall is going in though, so we will soon get to open the house up to the new rooms and start up our new wood-burning stove. It will get better. For now, though, it's coats, hats, and gloves if you want to play.
It makes it just that much more of a challenge.

Another prairie dress

2010-01-12T06:39:00.001-06:00

A long time ago, I made this dress for Meagan. I didn't know a whole lot about sewing, especially pattern sizes, so it was entirely too big. Well, the girl has been growing like a weed since then and now it fits.

And my, but she does look cute in it. She absolutely loves it.

For her birthday, she got a gift card to Hancock Fabrics. She wanted to make another dress, so she and I were digging through my fabric to see what we already had. We found some pink floral fabric, enough for the dress and bonnet, so she used her gift card for the pinafore. I've spent the last several days sewing away.

Here it is...
The pinafore fabric is a little thicker than the blue I used for the other dress, which is good because she's not exactly the type of girl who sits around with her ankles crossed. I've had to repair a button that pulled out on the blue pinafore.

One more winter project that I can cross off my list!

True Confessions

2010-01-11T07:44:00.003-06:00

I have a confession to make. For all my insistence on healthful eating, for all of my efforts to eat local, organically produced foods, I have a miserable love for Coke. It's a love-hate thing, really. In that I hate that I love it. But, oh, I do.

That is why I did the happy dance when I saw this in the cooler at the checkouts in Walmart (which, of course, my shopping there could be a confession of its own...it doesn't happen often, I swear!!):
Made with real sugar. Frankly, I couldn't taste a big difference. But I was so excited to get my fix without the high fructose corn syrup. Limited time only, and it isn't coke, but it'll do.

And, as long as I'm making confessions, here's another...I once went out in public like this:
It's not something I'm proud of.

December 2009 Farm Production

2010-01-01T12:46:00.003-06:00

Our egg production is finally up. The reason for this is twofold...They aren't leaving the coop much due to snow (which means they aren't laying eggs in odd places around the farm) and they are getting extra light through the heat lamp. I finally have eggs enough for some breakfasts again, as well as extra for baking.

Eggs collected: 273, or 22.75 dozen (almost 9/day)

Milk has been a bit of a yoyo lately. We've got lots extra due to visiting Harriet, but we've also had to bring all the cows in on some days due to extreme weather. When they are all together, Norman makes the rounds, emptying everyone out. We also had several low days with Harriet until we realized that Bert was helping himself as well! The stinker. He must be a little confused as to his role with Harriet. We are not currently milking Belle or Lily...we'll probably wait until Harriet goes home to start that. For now, they are just feeding their calves. Anyway, we've still gotten plenty of milk!

Milk collected: 1285 cups, or 80.3 gallons (about 2.6 gallons/day)
Milk sold: 2 gallons
Milk products made: 2 lbs each of gouda, queso blanco, and cottage cheese, as well as butter, ice cream, and yogurt galore

And except for the 2 new calves, that's the extent of farm production for this month! And, like last year, I'm going to include a line graph for the year. What can I say? I'm a first-born. The milk is cups and the eggs are counted singly.

Big Book Review, Vol. 4

2009-12-29T15:25:00.000-06:00

It's that time again...time when I sit down and record what I've read over the past six months or so. Once again, the actual number of books is much lower than I feel like it should be. Part of that is because I've got so many periodicals that I read, part because I've been totally into listening to the "Stuff You Missed In History Class" podcast (both current and past podcasts), part because I have a newborn for crying out loud, and part because the first book I worked on was a total monster of a book.

Here's the list:

Building Christian Character: A Devotional Guidebook through the Elements of Christian Character for Children and Adults by Blair Adams (image from first edition)

This was a heavy book, and I'm not just talking about weight. It was over 350 pages full of elements that make up Christian character, their polar opposites, and Bible verses pertaining to each. I understand there is a system available to use it in schooling that I'd really like to get my hands on. I often found myself thinking, "wow, I'd really like to have the kids memorize this list of verses," about a whole variety of character issues that still need polishing. Of course, I need my own bit of polishing as well...

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Mike and Nancy Bubel

A very informative book. Our new root cellar going in made it so that I needed to learn something about cold storage...Stat. I appreciated the logical layout of the book. I even got a good pumpkin pie recipe (using honey in the filling and butter in the crust) that everyone here enjoyed.

I also read the following books as a preview for Caleb, whose insatiable appetite for books has left me scrambling to find good books for him:

Our Only May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm

Really enjoyable. It's about a Finnish family, a girl with 7 older brothers whose desperately hoping for a baby sister, and life on the Nasel River at the turn of the century. May Amelia is constantly getting into trouble, but she really has a heart of gold. I passed it along to Caleb.

The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss

The book must be out of print because I couldn't find it listed, except for used copies, on Amazon. It is about a Dutch Jewish family forced into hiding in WWII. The book focuses on the youngest daughter who, along with her middle sister, must stay in the upstairs room of a farm house. You do really get a sense of how maddening it would have been to be, essentially, prisoners. And once free, how awkward it would be to rejoin the world. I haven't passed it on to Caleb for one reason: language. The farmer they live with lets a few words fly that are unacceptable in our house. As far as exposure to Nazis go, the book is actually quite a gentle introduction to the atrocities. It is a shame that it is ruined by language.

The Fire Pony by Rodman Philbrick

I liked it. It totally made me want to ride horses. There is some intrigue in it...a past that haunts the main character's older brother. You never know exactly what happened, but you know that they have to keep moving to stay ahead of his past. The ending is good. I won't spoil it, but I felt it was a great ending to a kid's book. I did pass this one along to Caleb as well.

The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman

I must admit I was drawn to this one because of my fondness for midwifery. The description on the back wasn't too enticing, but I read it anyway. I really liked it. It reminded me somewhat of The Tale of Despereaux in that it is a simple story with deep underlying emotional growth for the characters. However, it is crass in places. True to the medieval time period in which it is set, there are several (maybe 4?) references to someone being caught with their breeches down, pinches, warm & sticky kisses, and the like. Nothing overly vulgar, but I will wait a few years before letting Caleb read this one if he gets it at all. I haven't decided that one yet. Does it pass the "Whatever is good, whatever is noble..." test? Hmmm.

Books we read for school:

Walk the World's Rim by Betty Baker - Good story that inserts a fictional character into real history. When we went to learn the real story behind the book, we were amazed at how true to life it actually stayed. A hard look, also, at slavery and honor.
Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad - Diary of a boy on Columbus' ship. Great way to learn about life on a ship during that time and about Columbus specifically.
Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark - Honestly, I had to trudge through this one. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally, I just can't figure out why Sonlight picked a certain book. This is my core 3 question mark.
Incans, Aztecs, and Mayans by John Holzmann - We really enjoyed learning through this book. And, I've been amazed at what the kids have retained. In fact, Meagan often writes a number in the base-20 Mayan way after learning about it in the book.
Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare - We all really enjoyed this one about a boy who is left to care for the home while his father is gone for months to bring the rest of the family back.
Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare - Another wonderful book...one of those that the kids are chanting "One more chapter!" after each reading. The main character is 16, so I was a little concerned that it would be too mature for them, but they loved it. It is about a girl of privilege from Barbados who loses everything and is forced to turn to relatives in colonial Connecticut. She is accused of witchcraft and discovers who really loves her through it.
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes - We aren't finished yet, but it looks like it'll be a winner.

That's all for this year! Happy reading!

Babysitting Harriet

2009-12-23T14:33:00.004-06:00

We are doing a little babysitting over the holidays for some friends of ours. It really isn't a bad deal at all. They paid us for the trouble in honey and Harriet comes with her own system of payment as well...more milk!

Harriet is another Jersey who is here for 2 purposes. First, we are milking her daily so that her family will not come home from their vacation to a dry cow. Second, she is here to get bred. She visited Bert a while back for a day, but it didn't work out for her. This time, we are hoping that her extended stay will create a bred cow to return. Cows don't seem to appreciate just being thrown in with a bull and expected to come out bred in a few hours. They need to get to know the guy. They need some romance.

Bert is up to the task. He is so happy to have someone in his pen with him. He was getting lonely. What he doesn't know is that he is being tested. If Harriet doesn't get bred, Bert may end up in my freezer sooner than expected. Of course, Annabelle is his other test. She should be bred, though we don't know. If Harriet goes home still "open", we'll probably get Annabelle's status confirmed...before we do anything drastic.

He is a good-looking bull, though, in my completely unprofessional opinion. But looks won't cut it if he can't get his job done. I don't need an aggressive, horned, and useless lawn ornament. I could use some beef though.

And baby makes nine.

2009-12-20T18:39:00.003-06:00

Lily is the proud new mama of a baby bull calf! I do realize that if we continue to grow like this, at some point, it would be silly to post each birth announcement. But, for now, it is still so new and exciting for us that I simply have to share!

Lily and Belle were bred to the same bull, so it isn't too surprising that their calves are nearly identical. The guys went out to milk this morning and Don's dad opened the back door of the barn. He had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing double.

We've named the little tyke Runza. His future is nearly certain as beef, so we thought a food name was appropriate. Being named after a Nebraska favorite beef sandwich seemed natural.

Lily is a wee bit short. She is so short that when we've used the bucket milker on her, the claw (the part that attaches to her teats) nearly scrapes the ground. We always laughed about it, wondering how on earth a calf could get low enough to nurse off of her. We still don't know, incidentally. Runza wasn't hungry when I was out there taking pictures. Someday, I'm sure I'll catch them in the act, though, and the mystery will be solved. We suspect that he may get down on his knees, but we aren't sure. You can see, though, in the photo, when he came over to check her out that he is a little tall to nurse like most calves do. Caleb thinks we ought to make a stand for her to get up on so he can nurse more easily.

There is Snowflake and Runza together. Snowflake is definitely bigger in comparison, with just 10 days between them.

Baby calves are just the same as baby humans...sleep is a favorite pastime.

Okay, okay...

2009-12-16T16:33:00.002-06:00

It has come to my attention (through a very insulting comment) that we may be coming across as wealthy. Which would be laughable if it wasn't so sad. So, though I owe no one an explanation, I will still try to set things straight.

We were blessed beyond anything we could've imagined when we sold our home in Arizona just before the housing market completely tanked. With that profit, and as a joint venture with Don's folks, we were able to buy our land. Our house carries a mortgage. We have not stocked our land to capacity because it would require extreme debt to do so. And so, we have just a few animals out there compared to what it can hold. Perhaps that seems like luxury to some, but it is smart planning to us. We are trying to build our herds through cash payment.

Our addition is a blessing from Don's folks. They are building onto our house because we've decided to live together as a family but our small farmhouse wouldn't hold the 8 of us. We are losing our basement to them, but they are providing us with extra first-floor area. The additional blessing to us is that our siding and roofing is being redone as a part of the remodel.

Don's 5.5 months of unemployment used up our savings. God provided him with a replacement job just in time. But, even if He had not, we would've still felt convicted that there was only one option that we had to walk in obedience. During his unemployment, we had to walk away from our adoption. I can't even write that without crying. I never thought I'd lose that. Our little girl, born in January of this year, is going home to someone else. And while I'll probably never understand that this side of heaven, I know beyond a doubt that Yahweh is good. All the time. I don't know why He chose to work all of that out in that way, and dear God, it hurts with an unbelievable pain, but the savings that we had for the adoption fed us and kept a roof over our heads during our unemployment. And so you'll forgive me, commenter, for erasing your comment and it's accusations that are, to me, so vile.

And now, I will get back to the business of life. Of schooling my kids, cooking our meals, tending our animals, and delighting in my Father. We go without many things that the world would call necessary (including an income that would put us above "poverty level"), but I assure you that I am wealthy...where it counts.

Meet Snowflake

2009-12-11T07:22:00.003-06:00

It's official...Belle had a girl (hereafter referred to as a heifer, since I am a dairywoman).
We named her Snowflake after our big December snowstorm, the aftermath of which is still all over the ground. Had she been born just a day sooner, she would've been welcomed to temperatures of -11 degrees F. Instead, she'll get a few days growth before it drops below zero again. She also happens to have some snowflake-like markings on her back.

Belle had been with a bull for a few months in the spring, but we weren't even positive she'd been bred, let alone when she would calve. She'd been residing in the barnyard as a precaution so that she wouldn't calve somewhere way off on the back forty where we wouldn't even know for days.

So yesterday, just a little after noon, Don's dad walked by the barn door and did a double-take, having just past Norman and seeing a calf in the barn. It must've just happened, as she wasn't even cleaned up yet. But, she was up and getting around. We left the new mom and babe alone after giving them a nice new layer of straw to bed in and closing them into their own section of the barn to get acquainted without interference. They'll rejoin the rest today.

Belle is still so wild. But, we'll start working with her this weekend, and, if Caroline is any indication, she'll be tame in a few days.

We brought Don out to the barn after he returned from work to show little Snowflake off (and determine if it was a heifer or bull). We are so excited to finally get a heifer. After Bert and Norman, I was starting to get impatient for a heifer! The lighting is a little dim in the barn, so the pictures aren't the best, but here are Belle and Snowflake...
Next up, should be Lily!

New calf!

2009-12-10T16:54:00.001-06:00

I haven't even gotten close enough to determine for sure if it's a boy or girl (though I do really think it's a girl), but Belle, our spotted cow, just calved! Will post pictures soon...

Snow!

2009-12-08T12:57:00.003-06:00

...And more is coming down!

Welcome! And here'a a fist in your eye.

2009-12-07T16:12:00.002-06:00

So, my little brother Peter (who likes to be called Pete but I just can't remember to do that because my mom always yelled at anyone who said Pete so I always said Peter and just can't change it now...*inhale*) moved to town. He's actually over in Council Bluffs, IA, but that's not more than about 90 minutes away. Anyway, I'd been asking him to consider moving here and just before Thanksgiving, my dad called to tell me that he was finally coming. I was thrilled. He'd never even met Abby, let alone Josh. He got an apartment (or what is actually more like one-third of a house) and is looking for a job. Saturday night, he was sitting out in front of his house when 3 guys pulled up, jumped out, beat him up, and left! He'd been here 6 days. What a welcome, huh? He's okay, and amazingly, they didn't take anything. Poor guy, though. I just hope he doesn't change his mind about living here.

Project complete...2 years late.

2009-12-04T13:42:00.004-06:00

I have had this on my to-do list for, seriously, 2 years. I kept thinking it would be a good winter project. Unfortunately, those seem to really stack up and by the time winter rolls around, I have 10 months worth of projects. Well, I finally just decided to get this done (and ignore the 3 foot-tall stack of material waiting to be sewn into various garments).

Caleb's room is full of all sorts of animal prints. We purchased unfinished furniture for him a long time ago (back when we were city dwellers and I had all the time in the world) for me to paint. I painted his dresser and desk with each drawer sporting a different print. I was really pleased with the results. Over the years, I've added a few more things which I've also painted, such as a shelf and a set of wooden letters spelling out his name. When we remodeled the kitchen, I new exactly what I wanted to do with the old oak kitchen ceiling fan that no longer matched the new look. I'd move it to Caleb's room and paint it. I also replaced the glass over the light bulbs, since they were a little frilly.
I'm happy with the way it turned out. I had to turn the flash off because it kept reflecting off the lacquer finish, so it is a little dark, but there is one blade each of zebra, tiger, giraffe, and leopard.

November 2009 Farm Production

2009-12-02T10:23:00.003-06:00

We started off the month in utter randomness. With Norman still in with Isabelle and Caroline, we never knew how much milk we'd get, nor from whom! Norman was an equal opportunity nurser, so sometimes we'd get milk from his mama Caroline if he'd been nursing off of Isabelle and sometimes we'd get the opposite. When our milk intake really started to drop off drastically, we decided that it was time to move Norman out to the big pasture with Isabelle as his nurse cow. We kept Caroline in the barnyard. The first morning after that, we found Norman had busted through the fence to get back with his mama, but the shock was memorable enough that he hasn't attempted that again. Isabelle and Norman do hang out just outside the gate, though. I believe Norman doesn't want to go far and Isabelle won't leave him behind.

At the same time, we moved big Burt to his own bull pen. We've also moved Lily and Belle into the barnyard as we believe they will both be calving before too long. Since the big moves, our milk production has been pretty consistent. And, in fact, we sold our first 2 gallons of raw milk! Quite a landmark occasion, considering that our goal is to be dairying full time some day.

Eggs collected: 162, or 13.5 dozen (about 5.4/day)

Milk collected: 973 cups, or 60.8 gallons (about 2 gallons/day)
Milk products made: 8 lbs each of mozzarella and ricotta, plus lots of yogurt, butter, and ice cream
Milk sold: 2 gallons

We are still getting red tomatoes because we pulled all the green ones off before the first frost and stuck them in paper bags in the basement. Every few days, more have ripened. While I am thankful for the continuing harvest, I'm getting a little sick of processing tomatoes. It's December, for crying out loud! I've made a lot of spaghetti sauce that we consumed immediately, so I won't include that in the numbers.

Produce preserved:

4 cups dried tomato powder
2 qts tomato sauce

We've also been able to dig into a few of the hard cheeses I made. In fact, I took a cheese plate of them to Thanksgiving dinner. They got rave reviews!

Cheaters never prosper...but they do get butter faster.

2009-11-24T06:51:00.000-06:00

One of the lovely things about having more milk than we can drink is that I have the guilt-free opportunity to skim off the cream, feed the skimmed milk to the pigs, and make something wonderful. Often, that something is ice cream. I've already written about my problem with ice cream, so I doubt I have to extol the virtues of that option. But lately, I've been making butter.

If you've never tried fresh butter, especially the raw, fresh, deliciously yellow butter from a Jersey cow on grass, you really should. Oh, the sweet, sweet smell. I know the stuff sells for upwards of $10/lb, but if you can find a way to splurge, do it! Or, find a nice source of milk and make your own!

I've made butter before by the good, old jar method. The shake-the-jar-until-your-arms-are-falling-off-and-you-want-to-curse-the-butter method. And that is certainly a fine way to make it. But someone once showed me how to do it using a food processor, and I don't plan on going back. Unless the system collapses and I have to, that is...but then, there will be bigger problems than tired arms. Until then, though, it is so easy...

Add the cream...
Turn that puppy on...
Drain off the buttermilk...
Look at your lovely butter...
Rinse thoroughly with cold water...
Plop it in a butter bell - mine was handmade at Homestead Heritage (or shape and refrigerate or freeze)...

Yum!

We had been planning on not milking through the winter (Thanksgiving would be our quittin' time), and just drying off the cows. But since Caroline calved so late in the year, we won't be doing that. And it's a good thing too, because I really love having milk, butter, and homemade ice cream available. I am truly spoiled!

Two.

2009-11-22T11:16:00.003-06:00

Abby turned two yesterday...and suddenly, I feel older. What's with that???

She is still holding back on talking, though she has added a few more words to her vocabulary, including a Russian goodbye. I keep telling Oma that I'm having a hard enough time getting her to speak English, but what can you do? You can't fight progress, no matter the language.And two years later, she's still a precious miracle.

First day.

2009-11-16T09:22:00.003-06:00

After 5 and a half months of waiting and trusting, Don has finally gotten a job! He started today. And even though time went on and his expectations of job quality diminished, God really showed him that he would provide above and beyond. It's not the highest paying job in the world, but it will provide...and more importantly, he is really excited about the work. It could hardly be more different from what he was doing before, but his prior experience should really be helpful. He'll be working at a farmer's coop, doing safety compliance.

Now, we just have to figure out how to get along without him home! Five and a half months is a long time...we really started to rely on his being here. I'm just hoping that the house addition doesn't slow down too much!

Where's Abby?

2009-11-11T06:26:00.000-06:00

Is that a foot?

Abby loves to tuck herself in between 2 bookcases and arrange her toys in front of her and on the shelf.

And I must say, she has a little of her big brother in her. That boy would line things up like you wouldn't believe. We'd often find lines of toys stretching across his room. Her desire to be neat and tidy, though, goes beyond that because she actually will pick toys up so as to not leave a mess.

It's CDO...like OCD, but in alphabetical order like it should be.

Norman has two mommies

2009-11-09T06:55:00.000-06:00

One of the things you learn when you keep dairy cattle is that every cow is different. Every. Cow.

There are ones who produce a large quantity of milk and those who produce less, but maybe have thicker, creamier milk. There are those who are a dream to milk, standing still in the stanchion and not even switching their tails. And there are those who stomp around and feel that milking time is the best time to empty the bowels. There are those who are consistently dirtier and those who somehow keep themselves tidy. There are those who would never, ever willingly let another calf nurse off of them and those who will either actively or passively adopt whomever gives their bag a nudge.

Isabelle is a born nurse cow.

Norman has been kept close to the house along with his mama, Caroline, and Isabelle, our other cow in milk right now. It makes milking chores much more pleasant, especially on bitter cold mornings. The other 4 (Lily, Belle, Annabelle, and big, ole' Burt) are out in the big pasture.

Shortly after Norman was born, Isabelle decided she was lonesome for a calf of her own and began offering her services to Norman. He was happy to oblige, of course, because what is better than a big bag of milk at your disposal? Two of them! She even seems to think that it is at least half her responsibility to protect the little guy and keeps a close eye on us when we get near to him.

At the moment, we're letting this continue. It makes for a surprise each morning, as we never know who will be full and who will have just been emptied by Norman.

Soon, however, we will send Norman out to the pasture with Isabelle. Isabelle doesn't produce quite as much milk as Caroline, so we'll let her take the calf and keep Caroline close to the house to be milked exclusively by us. We are expecting Belle to calf early in the year, so we'll be bringing her in so that we can start working with her before she calves. She is the wildest of the herd, so she definitely needs to get used to being handled, especially if we need to assist in any way during the birth.

Until all that happens, though, Norman is sure getting his fill.

House update

2009-11-08T08:02:00.000-06:00

Things are moving along nicely with the addition. You can see that the retaining wall is just about done and that the house is getting wrapped and windowed (surely that is a word, right?). Don finally decided to rent a Bobcat to move dirt, since we had to backfill around the wall. Shoveling the dirt over, one wheelbarrow load at a time, was just taking way too long. The siding and roofing is supposed to go up this coming week. It'll be a whole new house by next weekend, that is, if the rain will stay away enough to get the work done!

Nineteen Pounds

2009-11-06T06:38:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I knew that Josh will just about break your arm if you have to carry him for any length of time.And I knew that he and Abby wear almost the same size diaper.And I knew that it wouldn't be outrageous to suggest a big baby, as I have had 3 before.But 19 pounds at just 3.5 months?That's one big boy.

Waiter, there's a hair in my soup.

2009-11-05T06:53:00.000-06:00

I do believe that one of the sneakiest, least talked about, issues of new motherhood is hair loss. Those pregnancy books that gush over the lustrous hair that you'll have during your nine (or, in my case, ten) months of waiting really do us a disservice by ignoring the inevitable. That hair...that lustrous hair...that which just does not fall out on a daily basis during pregnancy? It's coming out sometime.

And so, along will dealing with too-tight pants and leaking milk, you must also lose all your hair. Oh, I know that the body is just playing catch-up. But, seriously...when I see all that hair in the shower, I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a wig.

And a hair net.

Rubbing Elbows

2009-11-04T07:17:00.000-06:00

In the past few months, I've been so pleased to see someone I know get published and another friend mentioned in a magazine article.

The first is Ben Gotschall. He is the herdsman at the dairy that we used to buy our raw milk from (before we started milking our own cows) and he was the one who delivered our Annabelle to us when we bought her from Ben's dad (who, by the way, is named Jerry...how can you not love that? Ben and Jerry???) He has started writing articles for Stockman Grass Farmer, sharing his vast knowledge of cattle with his readers. Ben is all cowboy, and, amazingly enough, is also a poet and has published a book called Where It Happened. What fun!

The second was a surprise to me. I was reading an article in Stockman Grass Farmer (different article!) when I stumbled upon the name of Butch Tindell of Texas. He is the man at Homestead Heritage who taught the homesteading course that Don and I took a few years back. And, this last time we visited, opened his home up to us for a lovely dinner. He is a wonderful mixture o knowledge and hospitality. He will be teaching at an upcoming seminar in Colorado as he represents Homestead's business model for their grass-fed/grass-finished beef.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have joined the ranks of those in print. Mother Earth News printed the letter to the editor that I wrote! I was reading my October issue and imagine my shock when I read my own letter. I had written about our experience building a homemade chicken plucker (the one designed by Herrick Kimball). Of course, I realize that my claim to fame isn't nearly as exciting as a book of poetry or being a keynote speaker at a conference, but I'll take what I can get.

Autographs available upon request.

October 2009 Farm Production

2009-11-03T14:31:00.004-06:00

Ahhh, it's good to be back. I will say that as time away from the internet wore on (and on), I was getting more and more used to not having it around. But, I am glad to be able to check the bank account, look up a recipe, and keep up with others' blogs once again.

October was a busy month for us with all the building going on, but we still had quite a productive month farm-wise as well. Of course, as I said before, we welcomed our first, born-on-the-farm, calf to new-mom Caroline. She did splendidly, though I would've preferred a less bitter-cold night for calving! She is now producing milk jointly for us and for Norman.
Eggs collected: 220, or 18.3 dozen (about 7/day)
Eggs sold: none

Milk collected: 888 cups, or 55.5 gallons (about 1.8 gallons/day)
From that: 2 lbs mozzarella, 2 lbs ricotta, and lots of milk to the piggies
The pictures are from Norman's short time in our kitchen while we were trying to warm him up and get him started. The box is small, but it helped hold in the heat.

The garden is now put to bed for the winter, though I do have some cleaning up still to do there yet. We are still reaping the benefits of it, however, as we pulled in many, many bags full of green tomatoes to ripen inside. Every few days, we find more red tomatoes in the bags and are still, even past our first snow, enjoying fresh, ripe produce!

Produce preserved:

8 lbs sunflower seeds
8 cups of dehydrated tomato powder
5 pts dehydrated tomato slices
4 pts dehydrated hot peppers
9 pts tomato sauce

In addition to the produce, we also harvested some meat for the freezers. We butchered some older hens, new, young roosters, and our 2 goat wethers. We will miss those boys, but we are grateful for the opportunity to know that our food was healthy and happy in life.

Meat put away:

10 whole chickens
75 lbs goat meat

Unfortunately, we lost one of our bee hives. We have no idea what happened, but they all died. The other hive is doing well and though we weren't able to collect honey from them, we hope that they'll be off and running in the spring. And that's all from the farm!

It's a boy!

2009-10-26T13:41:00.002-05:00

Norman, the adorable Jersey bull calf, was welcomed to our farm in the wee hours of Saturday morning. His mama, Caroline, calved out in the drizzly rain and Norman had a rough start due to the chill. But, it was nothing that some time in the kitchen with a half-gallon of his mama's colostrum couldn't fix. They are now together and happy. Pictures coming when we get internet back!

Still in the dark

2009-10-22T15:58:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting at what Don likes to call a "chick place to eat where they serve mini meals" because we are still without internet. Surprisingly, no one has spontaneously combusted from the situation. Anyway, here's a quick recap...

We had our first snow on October 10th (pretty early this year). Everything is harvested and the garlic and strawberries are in to await the Spring. We are about a fourth of the way done on the retaining wall. We've hired an Amish crew to install the roofing, but not much is happening right now while we sit in the mud and wait for the rain to stop. Meagan's pet rabbit Riley has died which was hard for the kids to take. But, along with death, life comes to the farm. We expect Caroline to calve anytime now. She was due on the 18th and things are looking good for tonight or tomorrow.

That's all I can think of at the moment. We get internet back on November 3rd, so until then, I'll still be scarce. Thanks for the well wishes and prayers!

Offline

2009-10-07T14:43:00.002-05:00

Our internet satelite is now INSIDE my new mudroom. And, apparently, the satelite doesn't like trying to do its thing through wood. So, until we can get the satelite mounted in a new location and re-aimed (which will likely take a sweet forever, given the satelite company's past response times), I'll be offline. Of course, I'll snag some Wi-Fi when and where I can, but it probably won't be often for a while.

In the meantime, you can just imagine all the nailing, sawing, roofing, siding, retaining wall building, and such that is and will be going on around here. At least we've had our first frost and most of the gardening work is done!

September 2009 Farm Production

2009-10-02T08:43:00.003-05:00

What seems to be our last summer month, September was a continuing bounty of goodness from all aspects of the farm.

Eggs collected: 145, or about 12 dozen (almost 5/day)
Eggs sold: none

We dried off Lily about halfway through the month because she was producing so little...we decided she needed a break. And, we went to once a day milking as well. It's all an experiment around here, but we've read that less milking is less stressful to the cows. Since they both had a bout of mastitis (which is quite understandable with all the stress they've undergone in the last few months with moving and new people & routines to get used to), we figured they could use a little less stress.

Milk collected: 778 cups, or 48.625 gallons (about 1.6 gallons/day)

I turned a half-gallon of milk into yogurt on a nearly daily basis. But, except for that and a few pints of ice cream, I didn't make any extra milk products. The piglets drank most of any excess this month.

Produce canned:

15 qts pumpkin
95 qts tomatoes (!!)
12 qts potatoes

Produce otherwise preserved:

8 cups roasted pumpkin seeds
4 lb 11 oz dried popcorn
47 lbs onions
3 lbs 3 oz frozen bell peppers
7 cups frozen hot peppers

Conspiracy

2009-09-23T17:21:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought I might never return to my pre-pregnancy size (apparently, my metabolism isn't what it was), it was made fact when I encountered these three words of doom...

Waffle Cone Wednesday

3 scoops of ice cream in a waffle cone for only $1.49.

All hope is lost.

Excuse me while I wipe the Rocky Road drips from my face.

Fruit Fly Trap

2009-09-21T07:09:00.000-05:00

It's primitive, but it works so well.

Put a little apple cider vinegar in a bowl or jar and add a drop of dish soap. You can leave it just like this, or you can increase it's effectiveness by adding a funnel. I just folded up a piece of paper to fit into the jar (snugly around the rim), leaving a small hole at the bottom.

So, the fruit flies are attracted to the apple cider vinegar. If they land to try to drink it, the dish soap will have decreased the surface tension, allowing the fly to drown. But, adding the funnel makes it better because the fruit fly will go into the jar and since it can't figure out how to get out, it is much more likely to try out that juice at the bottom. Incidentally, it works for flies too, though not as many seem to fall for it.

With all the produce in here lately from canning, we've been just overrun with fruit flies. I had some tomatoes sitting on the counter waiting to be canned and just a wave over the top with my hand brought a whole fog of fruit flies into the air. It's just that time of the year, I think.

My trap, by no means, gets rid of them all, but I sure do like looking at all the drowned little bodies at the bottom of it. I'm morbid that way.

Framing has begun

2009-09-19T17:00:00.004-05:00

Our concrete has been poured this past week, which is such a relief. We now have a 12-foot perimeter before we get to mud if (when) it rains again.
Abby enjoys having absolutely no restrictions on where she can dig. With our yard torn up the way it is, she can do what she likes.
We brought a framing crew all the way from Tennessee! Well, it's actually less extravagant than it sounds. Josh(of First Fruits Farm NE)'s dad and brother came in to do our job AND see the new baby. They got started today and we are seeing walls take shape!

Greenhouse progress again

2009-09-18T15:30:00.004-05:00

The greenhouse is still inching its way along. Of course, with the dramatic progress taking place on the house, it, understandably, takes somewhat of a backseat. But, it is still slowly getting done. The roof is now up and the floor inside (brick pavers over sand over insulation foam) is next.

In other garden news, my squash and pumpkin vines are succumbing to powdery mildew. It is so sad. We did get lots from the plants already, but I was hoping to have extras for animal treats over the winter. Oh well...maybe next year. I have canned my 120th quart of tomatoes, though, with some donations from friends' gardens as well. We'll be eating good this winter!

Dirty knees

2009-09-17T06:31:00.000-05:00

I think I may have to take some Ajax to these puppies. At least I know he's living life to the fullest!

If you give a kid a camera...

2009-09-15T08:52:00.000-05:00

...you are going to get a lot of pictures.

Apparently, Caleb's new goal in life is to fill up my camera's memory card. I have so many pictures of the work that's been going on around here that I could actually make several stop-action movies.

I suppose I could've alternately titled this "Walls", though, because we have them! Or the start of them, at least. And that's a good thing, too, because Don's folks leave Europe tomorrow...they'll be here in less than 2 weeks, most likely.

Our walls for the new part of the basement are these insulated forms with poured cement inside. They will actually only be underground and then the 2-foot base of the exposed walls. Wood framing will make up the rest.

Caleb's somewhat edgy view of the inside of the forms with rebar.

The walls have spent the weekend getting nice and firm and dry and they will begin pouring the floors today. The framers will get here on Thursday. I'll be walking (as opposed to climbing) out a door before I know it.

Stuck

2009-09-14T10:08:00.003-05:00

I was canning tomatoes the other day and managed to enlist the help of Don. Frankly, I think he just wanted me to get a move-on with lunch, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

But Abby is a handful. And with everyone else occupied, she loves to make trouble.
Did you know, however, that a toddler often finds it difficult, if not impossible, to get down from a high stool? It's true. And if she's sitting on one, she's got no other option but to stay out of trouble. Problem solved. I cannot take credit for the idea myself...A friend did it first to keep their busy toddler contained.
Incidentally, she becomes quite a ham when the camera comes out.

Lily and Belle

2009-09-10T06:19:00.000-05:00

The most recent two cows to join our herd (I think 6 constitutes a herd, yes?) are Lily and Belle. Another 2 lovely ladies, if I do say so myself.

Lily is a bit older at about 6 or 7 years old. She is the just the sweetest thing. She's a bit shorter than the rest and just looks so shy and innocent. She does not have any horns naturally, which makes me so happy to add those genetics to our herd. Both dehorning and dealing with a horned animal are no fun. She does not give a whole lot of milk right now, but we love her anyway.Lily happens to be terrified of children. One time when she was in the stanchion about to be milked, Meagan came running up and Lily was so frightened that she moved the whole stanchion about 4 feet. Don says that all he needs to do to get Lily to move forward is to put one of the kids behind her. There were kids at her last home, but maybe they were a bit wild? All I know is that Lily isn't fond of ours...yet. The kids are milking her with Don, though, so hopefully she will become more comfortable around them as time goes on.

Belle is our one cow with spots. She is very pretty, but a bit untamed. She has absolutely no intention of letting any human get near her. She is dry right now. We'll either get her to settle down or she'll become a nurse cow next year.

Lily and Belle came with a machine bucket milker. We still milk Lily by hand because she gives so little, but it is a nice help for milking Isabelle. Next spring when we have 5 lactating cows (though 1 or 2 may be nurse cows), it'll be a very nice help. It feels a bit like cheating since you get milk without the arm workout, but I love it because Don doesn't need my help and I can stay inside with the babies. Incidentally, did you know that the record for hand-milking was set in 1992 by Joseph Love of Kenya? He milked 30 cows for 117 gallons. I'd like to see those forearms.

Smile for the camera

2009-09-08T09:46:00.003-05:00

Gee, mom...I sure love you.

Whoa, what on earth was that flash of light???

Clay dirt surrounding the house + Rain = Squelch + Squerch

2009-09-07T11:42:00.003-05:00

Work will continue at our place tomorrow. Last week, the footers for the addition were poured and the lagoon was dug. It is fascinating how fast things are moving along, now that they've started. I guess I'm used to the "hand-dug" pace at which we normally build. Now, cement trucks come the same day the footer is dug!That was the footer for the root cellar! Just imagine it filled with garden goodies for a winter's storage!

Lagoons are the preferred system for handling household water waste (isn't that a pleasant way to word what would otherwise be sickening??) in Nebraska. This is mainly due to our very clay soil. In fact, in some counties, you are required to put in a lagoon if you live on more than 3 acres and a septic tank would be a big no-no. The whole idea of a big pond to hold that stuff is pretty gross if you ask me, but they say it is much cleaner, given our soil. Anyway, our house was set up on a septic tank plus a gray water system for everything else, which isn't up to code, so when they hit (and broke) the gray water line, we had them dig the lagoon. That way, everything is nice and legal. Now we have a nice big lagoon on the property...and no, you don't want to go swimming in that.
The addition is coming along quite nicely, but it is not so pleasant when it rains. We are already climbing down a ladder when we leave the house and passing things out the bathroom window. And then we get rain. Let's just say that we all had a good 2 inches of mud stuck to the bottom of our shoes by the time we get across the mud field. The house is not very clean right now. But, I just hold on to the visions of a completed house and a nice new mud room and all is well.

Curly carrot top

2009-09-05T10:06:00.004-05:00

While I've always fully expected to eventually have a child with hair as curly as mine, I never expected this.This boy has got a curly tuft of hair smack on the top of his head. And I cannot get it to lay flat for the life of me. Even I didn't have hair like that...not this young.What had made his look even more comical is that he lost most of the rest of his hair! I have no idea why, but the rest of the top of his head became cue-ball bald while he continued to have this crazy, sticking-up mass of curls in the center. I'm sure people thought I had done it on purpose. His hair is coming back in now (so I have no fears of it being a permanent look!), but it was so funny for a while there.So, let me just say it now...if you continue to have curls so strong that they stick up straight for the rest of your life, I'm so sorry, Josh. Just tell people that you stuck your finger in an electric socket. It worked for me.

Supermodel

2009-09-03T15:43:00.000-05:00

When Annabelle arrived at our place last May, she looked like she had been through a rough time. Not at all to say that she hadn’t been well cared for…just that she was shedding her winter coat (it was much colder still where she had come from), had just calved, and had just made a long trip. She looked worn out.

See?

And while her looks improved tremendously after she finished shedding, she still wasn’t quite beautiful. And then winter came and she really slimmed down and got her shaggy coat back.

This spring, however, we brought a whole new cow back off the big pasture and in to meet the new arrivals. She hardly looks like the same girl.

She is gorgeous now. She is sleek and plump (as much as a cow should be, of course). Frankly, when I see her now, I feel like she would make a most excellent model for the cover of a dairy magazine (and yes, they have them…lots of them, in fact). Except for the flies, she’s just the perfect picture of a Jersey.

And, along with her beautiful new look, she’s also become top-dog around here. With the addition of the 4 other ladies, Annabelle has asserted herself as the head mama. She’s not mean…she just makes sure that the others know that this was her turf first.

Supermodels always have been a little full of themselves, you know.

Candy

2009-09-02T07:07:00.000-05:00

At just past 21 months old, Abby has only 3 words under her belt. Mama, Dada, and Hi. She shakes her head No, of course, and can meow like a kitty. She still makes a strange gutteral noise for all animals that just can’t be translated to letters. And she has a few signs…More, Please, and Drink.

She has no need for any other words. She’s a master of the grunt. She can communicate better than any one I’ve ever met with just a grunt. I probably understand her better now than I will when she starts using words since she’ll likely butcher them at first. She’s doing just fine. She doesn’t need any more.

Until now.

Guess what the easiest sign to teach a toddler is? Try candy. Just one demonstration of the sign followed by the giving of a treat and, by George, she’s got it.

Now, to get her to STOP signing it…

August 2009 Farm Production

2009-09-01T02:21:00.000-05:00

I think the most exciting thing I’ve experienced out here in the country is that so many of our meals come all, or in large part, from our farm. Our eggs, our meat, our milk or cheese, our veggies…it’s thrilling to look down at your plate and know the entire short history of your food. To know that, with God’s provision, you’ve grown it all yourself.

Eggs collected: 215, or about 18 dozen (about 7/day)
Eggs sold: none

Milk collected: 1258 cups, or 78 gallons and 5 pints (about 2.5 gallons/day)
From that milk, we produced:

34 lbs of Yogurt
2 lbs Gouda
8 lbs Mozzarella
6 lbs Ricotta
2 lbs Dill Havarti
2 lbs Monterrey Jack
2 lbs Pepper Jack
2 lbs Leister
In addition, I made buttermilk and ice cream, but did not record the quantities

Produce canned:

7 qts green beans
21 qts potatoes
9 qts bread & butter pickles
20 qts carrots
28 qts tomatoes
6 qts pumpkin

Produce otherwise preserved:

10 qts of frozen summer squash
9 lbs dried flour corn
5.5 lbs dried popcorn

We sold all of our hogs directly to the consumer as meat this month and acquired 5 new piglets, which are currently being raised 100% on our raw Jersey milk. These piglets will, most likely, be sold as feeder pigs. We do plan on raising another pig or two next spring again, but don’t really want to feed pigs over the winter since we want to get away from buying in feed and aren’t producing enough ourselves yet to sustain them outside of a growing season.

I just love redheads.

2009-08-31T15:55:00.003-05:00

Digging

2009-08-30T07:28:00.001-05:00

Tuesday morning, the backhoe arrived, followed by the traxcavator on Wednesday. You cannot believe our excitement. We’ve been waiting since the week of July Fourth for this work to get started, but our unusually frequent rains this year caused our digger’s schedule to fall behind. Then, finally, he was ready to start work on our place.

Before:
The house stands ready, sans porches, to receive her makeover.

There was quite a lot of racket as our patio was torn apart and hauled off.

We are creating a very long retaining wall in order to have a walk-out basement and still have water flow away from the house.

The dirt piled up over the course of Thursday and Friday.

And the dirt pile will get even bigger on Monday when they return to finish the root cellar area and dig out a lagoon.

We now have to climb down a ladder 6 feet when we exit our house. It makes for some interesting balancing acts, especially if we need to take things with us as we leave.

It’ll be even more interesting when the cement gets poured and we either have to walk a plank over a 20-foot span or climb out a window around the back of the house!

Things are changing around here!

P.S. See my greenhouse taking shape in the background??? The clear roofing is going up!

Isabelle and Caroline

2009-08-29T09:30:00.004-05:00

Remember when Don went to pick up a cow and came home with 2? Here they are…

Isabelle is the one in milk right now. She is a sweet cow, very friendly and approachable. She has a few bad habits while milking…tail swishing (getting cow tail in the eye is not fun) and leg stamping, but she’s getting better. This was her first calving, but she’s really got a nice bag (that’s farmer-talk for her udder) and fairly long teats (which are a must for hand milking, but are usually still small on their first calf).

She loves to “mow” our grass in and around the driveway and stanchion while she waits to get milked.

Caroline is named after my Grandma. We were trying to come up with names for the new heifer as she came to us without one. Don wanted Dot (she has one on her backside), but I thought that was much too undignified for a milk cow. I thought we should name her after a famous blonde (she’s a gorgeous blonde herself, you know), but Marilyn got boo-hooed. So I said that really, cows are best named with old-fashioned grandma names. And Don took me literally.

So, Caroline it is. My Grandma goes by Carol, but her given name is Caroline. I told Don that it would be a gamble…Grandma would either be highly insulted or genuinely flattered. Fortunately, it was the latter. She loves telling everyone that she has a cow named after her.

Caroline is due to calve in October with her first calf. She’s a little skittish still, but is getting more and more used to us. Hopefully, she’ll be right at home by the time she calves.

Burt is enjoying his new female companions. He often follows Isabelle to the gate when we take her out for milking and waits there until she returns.

He’s becoming quite a happy bull. In fact, his spirits have been raised even further, as Don brought home TWO MORE COWS!!! Pictures and the story of Lily and Belle will follow!

Gee, and I thought I had a hard time keeping up before!

2009-08-28T17:17:00.004-05:00

Sweet baby Joshua has complicated life around here. Of course, he's the apple of my eye, but he also makes the time I have on the computer a little more interesting...because I've only got one hand available then. Add to that our regular internet outages (something is causing it to go out all night and periodically throughout the day) and all the other things that demand my attention (do these people really need to eat EVERY day???) and it all adds up to not posting in nearly a month. If I still have any readers left, I do plan to do better. And yes, once again, I am dreaming of the slower pace of winter.

Quick update: We are now climbing about 6 feet down out of our side door (our front door is even higher above ground level) as they have begun excavation for our addition! It is quite a sight to behold...handing a baby out of a house that is practically on stilts! No sleep-walking allowed around here!

I've got pictures to sort through and posts to compose...now just to find the time to do it! Maybe I just need to learn to type one-handed.

July 2009 Farm Production

2009-08-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

So much to blog about...so little time. It is a really busy time for me around here, compounded, of course, by a little munchkin who loves to eat! I have so much to catch up on, so many posts rattling around in my head, but they will have to wait a bit more. However, I did want to get this up and out of the way.

Eggs collected: 54 (or 4.5 dozen), or less than 2/day average (Naughty chickens!!)
Eggs sold: none

Milk: 22 gallons & 6 cups, or about 2 gallons & 6 cups/day average
Milk products made from above:

6 lbs mozzarella
6 lbs ricotta
4 lbs feta
1 qt yogurt

Produce canned:

7 qts summer squash (zucchini and lemon squash)
1 qt pickled beets
12 qts bread & butter pickles
6 pts dill pickles
15 pts sweet cherries
14 pts cherry marmalade
9 qts cucumber chips
23 pts glazed carrots
4 qts carrots
10 qts chicken broth

Produce preserved without canning:

2 gal dried summer squash
5 cups dried cherries
4 cups dried apples
2 cups dried bananas
4 cups dried crushed peppermint
2 cups dried crushed hot peppers
15 cups frozen shredded zucchini

Produce eaten fresh: unfathomable!

That's all, folks!

This ain't the city life.

2009-07-22T15:43:00.002-05:00

So, you know how husbands sometimes make "impulse buys"? You know...you send them to the grocery store to pick up some paper towels and they return toting ice cream as well? And the electronics store guys love to see a man come in because they are much more likely to talk him into a new flat screen? Well, my husband went shopping yesterday...

He went to pick up our new milk cow, Isabelle. She is another Jersey and is gloriously "in milk" right now.

He got home at about 10 o'clock last night and I went out to peer into the trailer to see her being unloaded into her new home. And what did I see? TWO COWS! The man made an impulse buy of a heifer, due to calve in October, because "she was just so pretty!"

I guess that was his own version of bringing home some ice cream.

Josh's first week

2009-07-21T04:21:00.004-05:00

Some shots from the week:
My homecoming cake, made my Caleb and Meagan with help from Don's mom. Those are peppermint leaves from my garden.
Abby has, overall, made the transition very well. And yet, she has her moments...
There is always a fight to hold Joshua. Meagan won this time!
Abby giving Josh a kiss.
Abby finds Josh's hand and feet very fascinating. She is always inspecting them.
Asleep...and beautiful.

Joshua's Birth Story

2009-07-18T15:00:00.002-05:00

Joshua's birth was such a time of learning for everyone involved. We were taught so many things by our Father and stand in awe of the experience.

I had reached 43 weeks and 1 day in my pregnancy. While Abby was 10 days late, I secretly hoped that she was only late because of her positioning and that this birth would be different. So when I started having prodromal labor (also called "false labor", but different from Braxton Hicks contractions) at 38.5 weeks, I lived in a continual state of "This could be it!" I couldn't believe it each time when the contractions would fizzle out and we'd begin our wait again. But, miraculously, by the time I'd reached 43 weeks, I'd also reached a place of rest. Oh, I still wanted to get that baby out, but I was no longer a crazed lunatic about it! I figured God had something yet to accomplish before the baby could come and who was I to rush Him?

So, when, at 43 weeks and 1 day, contractions began at dinner time, I paid no real attention to them and just expected them to go away sometime in the night. By 11:15pm, though, I could no longer stay in bed. Contractions were about 6 minutes apart and I really had to breathe through them. Still, I wasn't ready to declare myself "in labor" yet. Been there, done that. So, I just sat up at the computer and tried to distract myself enough to get through them. Eventually, though, I was having trouble getting through them alone and wanted Don's support. I woke him at 2am and told him that today was the day. (That would be Monday morning). After listening to me moan through a few contractions, he knew I was serious and he jumped to life. He started moving things around and preparing our room...even sweeping! He drew me some bath water and I soaked for a while. We eventually called our neighbor who, along with her eldest daughter, had volunteered to come for the birth to help in any capacity needed. They both came for Abby's labor as well. They arrived sometime around 4am. They were both so excited that the day had finally come.

One of the things L, my neighbor, helped with was teaching me to make low moaning sounds through the pain. I had been making higher pitched noises, which she said was natural to do when in pain, but that lower sounds helped the body work better. It took some practice, but I finally allowed myself to make the sounds, which became more natural as the day wore on.

And wore on and on. In the early morning, I had determined that I was dilated to about 5 cm. L was sure several times that I must be nearing transition as I became more and more agitated about the severe pain I was experiencing. Each contraction brought fire to my back. I could deal with the pain in my abdomen, but the back pain was becoming unbearable. It even caused me to throw up. When, at sometime in the afternoon, I found that I was still at about 5 cm, I became completely defeated. I had been awake for nearly 36 hours, struggling through contractions that were unlike any pain I could ever imagine. In the early afternoon, they had gotten to 3 minutes apart, but by this time, they were spacing back out to about 8 minutes apart and I knew I had a long, long way to go. And that is about when I began to lose it.

If the birth had been near, I felt like I could go on. But with the contractions spacing back out, and no progress having been made all day, I felt like each contraction was pushing me further over the edge. We spoke with a doctor-friend and he suggested some maneuvers to get the baby to turn from the posterior position (the reason for the intense back pain and slow progress). His suggestion involved positioning through 8 contractions. But at that point, all my energy was completely gone. I couldn't even contemplate how to get through one contraction, let alone eight. Of course, the contractions were coming whether I moved through them or not, but in my mind, I felt like I could somehow stop them. Don and L actually had to move and lift me into each new position, as my arms and legs no longer seemed to work. Caleb came up to hold me and hug me when my sobbing became the new sound they heard. He was so worried about me.

Through much struggle and prayer, we finally decided that I needed help. I knew that if I could just get some rest, I could finish this thing. But rest is unobtainable when every 8 minutes your back becomes a raging ball of fire. I cannot tell you how much Don struggled through this decision. He wanted so much to be in God's will through this whole birth process and knew that the only thing to fear was to move outside of His will. I was much less objective, obviously, but knew that if I would allow him to come to a decision, that I would be secure in his covering. I cannot even explain how much I prayed that his decision would be the one I wanted, and I didn't know how I would continue if it was not, but I knew I had to let him make it. In the end, we decided that I would go to the hospital and get some pain relief, which would allow me to get some rest and enough strength to finish the birth. Our other hope was, that with some pain relief, that we would be able to get the baby to turn out of a posterior position which would ease the descent and speed the process back up. And, of course, that with some relief, that my contractions would pick back up.

We began the trip to Omaha, (our local hospital does not allow VBACs and would've taken me for an immediate c-section, calling in a surgeon from Lincoln), which seemed to take an eternity. We arrived at about 9pm and got right into a room. The nurse verified that I was indeed at 5 cm and shortly after, the doctor on call came in. We told him what we wanted and he agreed, making us very secure that he felt that there was absolutely no reason that I would not have a VBAC. The epidural was given and I immediately began to sleep...resting so well that within just a short time, the doctor returned to check my progress and I was at 8 cm. (My water broke with the exam and it was full of meconium, a normal occurrence with an overdue baby and not alarming to the doctor...they would just have NICU standing by just in case.) The head was still not coming down, though, and a new problem was developing. The baby's heartrate was slowing with each contraction, which is normal, but it was taking a long time to regain its speed. They tried putting me in different positions, giving me oxygen, and everything else they could think of to get the baby more oxygen. Still, the heart rate was not improving. Rather, it was getting slower and slower. The doctor had me try to push, hoping that we could get the head descended and speed the birth, but the posterior position was still holding that head high. Without an immediately impending birth, the doctor felt that a c-section was our only hope of getting the baby out fast enough.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I do not have an automatic trust of doctors. I've read too much to accept the fear-pushing that often goes on with doctors. And I know that many times, their advise is based on their own protection (being able to say "I did all I could") or even convenience (inducing because of a "scheduling conflict", for example). And distress of the baby is an overly-used road to a c-section. Of course, that is not to say that all doctors are bad, or that they only think of themselves or anything of the sort. I do believe that in most cases, they are acting in a way they think is completely right. And I am grateful for the service they provide. And, there are genuinely times when the only option to birth a healthy, live baby is to do a c-section. I just think that they are overused, especially in the U.S., and that they are often seen as the only option when they are, in fact, not.

Feeling the way I do, then, made the decision a hard one. Was this a genuine case of distress? Was this the only way? Even now, I do not know. I will never know. Would the baby have been fine if we had waited? Maybe...maybe not. What I do know was that as soon as we gave the go-ahead, I had a sense of peace about it. I knew that we were doing the right thing for us. Perhaps, even, it was the reason we had come, the reason I had felt such a need to get to the hospital. Perhaps. We won't know. What I do know is that though disappointed that I would have a second c-section and worried about the risks it involved for both the baby and me, I was sure that we were heading in the right direction.

They began to quickly prep me for the surgery. Don was given those paper clothes to change into so that he could be there while my epidural was pumped up to completely numb me from belly to toes. The extra drugs in my system, along with my exhaustion and nervousness over the baby's condition, caused me to shake uncontrollably. It was the most frustrating thing. I did get some relief right about the time they were pulling the baby out, which was so good. Don got to glance over the drape to tell me that it was a boy! I was so incredibly happy...especially for Caleb's sake, as he's been praying for a brother for about 2 years now. He emerged at exactly 1:30am and was whisked off to the other room right away. Don left to go see him and I waited to be put back together. At some point, someone called out that he was 9 pounds, 10 ounces and utterances of awe went around the room.

Things started to go bad for me at that point. The shaking returned full-force and I began to feel very panicky. My chest felt tight, my face felt flush, I felt like I could not breathe...I had a complete and total panic attack. It was terrifying. Don returned to find me begging for help and thrashing around (as much as I could, being numb from the belly down). They injected some really strong drugs and I eventually calmed down and passed out.

I awoke in recovery and drifted in and out while I periodically asked questions and took drinks of water. Joshua spent the time in the NICU. It took some time to stabilize him, but he did great and was really released quite quickly.

Don wheeled him to me at about 4:30, 3 hours after birth. Joshua was really ready to nurse, but I had to give him a once-over first!
We moved into a post-partum room and spent the entire day alternating between sleeping and eating/feeding Joshua. Don's mom brought the kids up to see him in the afternoon. Here's my two red-headed boys!
Abby did remarkably well for the visit. She got to wear a sticker saying which room she was visiting and decided it looked better on her neck. At one point, Don plopped her in Joshua's isolet and we all laughed to see our "baby" so crammed into something that she was dwarfed in just a moment ago (or so it seems!). My, but they do grow up so fast, don't they?

My aunt and uncle came up in the evening and brought my grandma and grandpa as well. Grandpa is not doing so well anymore, and so it was great to see him come to life so when he held Joshua. It is a precious picture to me.

Recovery for me went (and is going) so much better than it did with Abby's c-section. I believe that is due, in large part, to the fact that Abby required a good deal of pushing, pulling, tugging and smashing to get her out because of her transverse position. Joshua was a quick slip out. I think the internal trauma was so much less with his.

Joshua's blood sugar had a hard time staying in the safe zone (it was below 40 most of the time) and we ended up staying an extra night because of it. They wanted it to go up and stay up before releasing him. By the time we left, his poor little heels looked just like raw meat, they had been stuck so many times. Through the night, each time they poked him and did the test, Don and I would pray with all our might that it would be a good score and it was just such beautiful words when the nurse would give his new score, each higher than the last and all over the cut-off. By morning, they declared him healthy and ready to go home.

It was a wild ride. I still have a hard time processing all of it. But, I do see God's hand in all of it and I feel like I've been brought through something magnificent (though traumatic at times!) to the other side of being closer to God and closer to Don.

We are now home and resting.
I will try to get back to the blog ASAP to post more pictures (with a lot less words!!) and keep things current. Of course, the garden did not take a vacation while I was gone, so there is much to do around here, both inside and out.

At last...the news you've been waiting for!

2009-07-16T17:23:00.003-05:00

Joshua Thomas was born July 14th at 1:30 am. He was a beautiful 9 lbs, 10 oz. and has bright red hair. He ended up coming via emergency c-section. Completely not in our plans, of course, but we are overwhelmed with thankfulness at God's protection and provision through the whole birth. I will post the whole (LONG!) birth story later, in the next day or two. And, I'll get these photos loaded too. I promise. I just didn't want to leave you hanging any longer!

This is it!

2009-07-13T08:21:00.000-05:00

I've been in labor all night...will update when I can!

Another week slips by...

2009-07-11T17:47:00.003-05:00

Today is 43 weeks. As crazy as that sounds, I'm finding that it really isn't as unusual as it may seem. Nor as dangerous as you may have heard. I've discovered a website with a whole section devoted to "Ten Month Mamas". It has been very encouraging and helpful to read, especially in my more emotional moments.

Today is my Grandma's birthday and she has put in her vote that today be the day. Hey, I'm all for that. But, something tells me I have a bit more to wait. The good news, of course, is that baby is healthy and happy in there (he or she lets me know MANY times a day!) and I'm just waiting on baby to be ready to make that momentous journey out of my womb and into Daddy's arms.

Keep us in your prayers, if you will!

Perhaps this will help?

2009-07-08T20:53:00.002-05:00

I went to see a chiropractor today. It was my first time, but I had been reading much about how misalignment can hinder the descent of the baby. So, I asked for referrals from friends and went on in. I, amazingly, have had no pain shooting down my leg, as I have had for the last several weeks, since my appointment. Obviously, she fixed something! She also showed Don a pressure point on my foot that might help contractions to start. If nothing else, at least I get my feet rubbed!

Perhaps I'll have some news soon???

No news

2009-07-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

In this case, no news isn't necessarily good news. I haven't been quiet because I'm having a baby. I've been quiet because in the absence of a baby, there isn't anything else going on worth mentioning! I am just totally consumed with waiting. I'm now 17 days over due...but you know what? My mom went 20 days over with me. What goes around, comes around, I guess. I have taken to bring a newborn diaper, a blanket, my herbal remedies, and a couple of waterproof pads with me whenever we go anywhere farther than about 15 minutes away. The amount of contractions I've been having could amount to a quick labor, so I want to be ready to birth in the car if need be, if we're away from home. And Don doesn't even go up to do pig chores without taking his phone with so I can call him if my water breaks or something. But, for now, we just wait. And wait.

A porch demolished and burned

2009-07-05T07:07:00.000-05:00

In anticipation of the digging that would be going on this week, we ripped our porch off last week. I came out to find the windows covered (for protection), one pillar off, supports up to help it fall out rather than against the house, and Don and my dad about to knock the other pillar off. We all expected that without the pillars (and most of the supporting nails between the porch and the house) that it would come down with a spectacular crash. Instead, nothing happened!

It took a big heavy chain attached to the roof of the porch being drug by a pickup truck to get the thing away from the house. Unfortunately, right about that time, my camera battery died. The good news was that it decided to die then and not in the middle of the birth.

Once it was down, they again used the chain to drag it to the front of the house to burn. We thought that would be a good spot because it will all be dug up anyway when they go to add on to the basement. This is what is left of the porch...

Don got the fire going and within what seemed like just a few minutes, the fire was raging and we had to douse it. We didn't count on the flames reaching quite so high and so fast. A tree nearby was in danger of catching fire (a tree that would need to come down for the addition, but nonetheless didn't need to be burned!), and so Don threw his buckets of water on the fire and got it back under control. Even after we thought it was completely out, though, it was not. We definitely learned why firefighters need to practically tear a place apart to ensure that a fire is completely out. I think I'll call it "fire safety lessons" for school. Anyway, after that initial flare up, we managed to keep it under control and it burned throughout the entire day. It was, in fact, still burning 12 hours later.
We put it out completely before bed and now have a huge pile of ash and metal in front of our house. The kids are going to earn a few bucks by gathering all the nails they can find. And now, on to the digging for the addition. Things are happening fast around here. All, that is, except the producing of a baby!

Greenhouse progress

2009-07-04T06:32:00.004-05:00

The foundation for the greenhouse is done and now the walls are beginning to be framed. Unfortunately, it won't get worked on for too many more days before we have to stop to change focus...no, not because of a baby but because the addition construction (so that Don's folks can move in) will begin next week!

Anyway, the foundation for the greenhouse was quite an undertaking. A trench about 2.5 feet down and 2.5 wide was dug in a square, along the 16x16' perimeter of the greenhouse. That's a lot of dirt to remove! We had a big pile of dirt in our yard that the kids nicknamed "Fort Sod", but that I quickly renamed "Fort Mud." Let's just say that I have had some very dirty kids over the last few weeks. Anyway, at the bottom of that big trench, another smaller trench was dug, this one another 9 inches down and about a foot wide. Concrete was to be poured into this smaller trench as the basis for the foundation, which would be below the frost line. Then, a cinder-block wall, 4 blocks tall, would be built on top of the concrete, placing it just inches above the soil line at the end of it all. Oh, and then a good majority of that dirt that had been removed would need to be put back, packed in on either side of the new block wall.

The cement truck brought quite a bit of excitement to Abby. I was a little surprised, as big machinery isn't exactly rare out here. But, then, that machinery isn't usually driving into our yard. She sat out on the porch and watched.Don, Caleb, and my dad did the cement work.The smaller trench was actually finished very quickly. They were all very worn out afterward, though, as the work was fast and furious.

After a few days of drying, the cement was ready for the block wall to be built on top. It took a couple days to finish the 160 blocks required, but my dad again helped with it.
The framing is now started and I'm starting to actually be able to visualize how wonderful that greenhouse will be for my garden next year.

It's a....zucchini!

2009-07-03T07:31:00.003-05:00

Nothing may be happening with me (at 13 days overdue!), but yesterday, my garden gave birth to a beautiful, bouncing baby zucchini. The sucker weighed in at a whopping 3 lbs, 4 oz! I check the zucchini daily, but I must've missed this one...or else I have some sort of super-growing soil. Now, to dig out the zucchini recipes!

So, a July baby it is, then...

2009-07-01T08:00:00.002-05:00

I seriously never thought I'd get to this point. Long ago, people used to say, "Hey, maybe it'll be a 4th of July baby!" and I'd just respond with a glare. I was not going into July. And yet, here I am.

We canceled the induction. We decided to wait and see.

Patience...it's a virtue, right?

June 2009 Farm Production

2009-06-30T08:29:00.002-05:00

We have egg-eaters once again. It is so frustrating. Don thinks we should just start knocking the hens off one-by-one until it stops. You know, "the beatings will continue until morale improves!" Anyway, something must be done because it sure doesn't pay to feed them if they won't return the favor.

Eggs gathered: 123 (10.25 dozen), or about 4/day
Eggs sold: none

In addition to the produce we ate fresh straight from the garden, I also put up the following:

21 half-pint jars of strawberry jam
10 lbs frozen strawberries
4 lbs spinach
4.5 pints pickled beets
10 pints peas
1 cup dehydrated zucchini

The zucchini, especially, is starting to come in fast and furiously. Don thinks I should sit outside and watch it to see if I can actually see it growing. The tomatoes are on the vine (still green), the corn has tassels and silk, the cucumbers & pumpkins are just beginning to fruit, and the peppers are starting to grow. It is all quite exciting. Which is good...because at this point, it looks like I'll be having a July baby and I need something to do to keep from going crazy waiting!

Big Book Review, Vol. 3

2009-06-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

In the continued absence of baby, another quick recap of the books I've read over the last several months. When I put it down in print, I'm always amazed at how few books I actually get read because in actuality, I read every day. But, as I've said before, we subscribe to quite a few relevant (to us) publications that I do read cover to cover as well. It really bites into my time for actual book-reading. And then there is always the fact that sometimes I only make it a page or two before my eyelids are crying out to just let them close. I must obey them, you know. But, regardless, here is the list:

Unassisted Childbirth, by Laura Shanley

Wow. This book made me so sad. There were some helpful (factual) parts to it, citing research and stats. But, the vast majority of the book consisted of her beliefs in all manner of "new age"-type powers of the human mind. For instance, she holds firm to the belief that there was an "energy personality essence" named Seth who spoke through a woman named Jane Roberts. She goes on to say that Seth teaches that "consciousness is independent of the physical body and we all travel out of our bodies every night [through our dreams]."(p.78) This, she accepts as fact, though she continually dismisses out-of-hand any Christian belief as pure myth for the uneducated. She concludes the book with her story, meant to inspire and encourage as a woman who faced adversity and overcame by her sheer willpower, but which left me so profoundly sorrowful for her. Pray for this woman. As far as information goes, there are other books with more in them.

Playing for Pizza, by John Grisham

A light-hearted story about a down-and-out professional football player given a second chance. He is offered the opportunity to play for Italy's little-known football league and in the process, he really finds new meaning in life. The story is enjoyable. But, the descriptions of the food were divine. My mouth was watering. And, I was ready to pack my bags for a trip to Parma. I wonder who could take care of the animals and the garden while I'm gone...

Putting Food By, by Janet Greene, Ruth Hertzberg, and Beatrice Vaughan

Whew. That was a book chock-full of information. While it doesn't exactly read like a novel, I did actually read it all the way through. Well, I skipped the fish parts...because we aren't big fans anyway & it's not like there is ample opportunity to catch huge amounts of fish around here. Anyway, for the most part, I found it very helpful. I was a little put off by the fact that they include nitrates in their curing instructions...I know that it can be done without because I've purchased cured meat with none in it. They also rely heavily on white sugar, though they do acknowledge that people want alternatives and do try to give those. I appreciated the fact that they not only gave instructions, but explained the "whys" as well...it makes it obvious, then, what must be adhered to and what can be altered. For instance, in recipes that include salt, she specifically states whether the salt is for preservation or just for flavor. Good book for the beginner, which I am!

Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt

I have not seen the movie, but did enjoy the book. Well, "enjoy" may not be the right word. It's hard to say that you "enjoy" a book about extreme poverty and alcoholism. Told from Frank's viewpoint as a young boy growing up, you get such a sense of the hopelessness that his family faced. The empty stomach with no food in sight. The knowledge that, once again, dad is out drinking what little pay he is given. And the sheer sense that it won't, can't, get any better. It really has given me a better sense of how much I have been blessed. For starters, I have more than weak tea for my lunch.

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity, by Frank Viola

This is a sequel, of sorts, to his book Pagan Christianity. It picks up where the other leaves off, giving us a "where do we go from here" look at the Church. It deals heavily with the concepts of leadership, covering, hierarchy, and decision-making. One of the more interesting points, dealing with covering is this: If one must be covered by another Christian, then who will cover the top person? If Christ does, then why can't Christ cover all of us? If His sacrifice removed the barrier, then why doesn't the Church seem to put into practice the idea that every believer actually has equal access to God? Interesting questions. Again, as with Pagan Christianity, it isn't for the average church-goer. It is for those who are questioning the way we "do" church and who wish to "reimagine" the Church as the actual body of Christ.

For school (Sonlight's picks plus a few of my own), I read the following:

We also listened to recordings of the following books:

Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe
Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan

I am currently in the middle of a huge book, Building Christian Character, by Blair Adams. It has been so good. But, I will wait to discuss that when I am finished.

Deadline

2009-06-26T08:37:00.002-05:00

Please pray...
I have an induction scheduled for July 1st. The doctors are getting antsy, especially as I'm a VBAC and they feel like they are already "allowing" me to do something special. By July 1st, if I haven't gone into labor on my own, I will be forced to decide whether to walk away completely or let them proceed with the induction.

I feel strongly that one intervention leads to another. If I allow an induction, I put myself at risk for a cascading stream of interventions. And, pitocin is the major cause of post-cesarean scar rupture.

So, please pray, if you would, that I would go into labor, the sooner the better, on my own!

Due date

2009-06-20T20:44:00.002-05:00

Well, my due date is here...and in just a few hours, it will be left behind.

I am almost to the point where I've stopped paying any attention at all to the contractions because they feel so serious, only to leave me hanging. I'll know they are real when the baby comes out, I guess. Until then, I'm not believing they are real any more!

Don has everything planned out and the next available time for the baby to be born is Tuesday. I've put the baby on alert, but I'm not counting on his/her cooperation. Tomorrow, we are having a guest come from Phoenix on his way through, moving to D.C. He was a single guy that came over quite often for dinner and board games when we lived in Arizona. I don't even know how many games of Settlers of Catan we played with him. And then, Monday, Don's mom comes in. Don is hoping to go look at a Jersey cow on Wednesday. Oh, and on Thursday, Don's sister and family will visit on their way out of the country for their next assignment (army) in Germany! We like to cram in a lot of activities around the birth, apparently! So, baby, it's either now or Tuesday, you decide.

Yeah, that will work.

Infestation

2009-06-17T20:43:00.003-05:00

Just so you don't think that life on our farm is all sunshine and roses (or knee-high corn, as the case may be), I thought I'd share a horrible little secret of mine.

Ready?

We have mites.

Oh, do we have mites. Grain mites. Here is the back story: We brood our chickens in the basement, as I've mentioned before. After the last batch went out, we didn't get around to cleaning out the brooding trough. You see, it didn't stink...they weren't there too long since the weather was nice and warm. So, it just didn't get done. Well, apparently grain mites came in with the chick's feed and lived quite comfortably on the grain waste in the bottom of the trough. But then, they multiplied to where they needed more space...and more food. And so, off they went, out of the trough, to seek their fortune. And cover my basement.

Two days ago, Caleb was downstairs vacuuming up some broken glass (Don't ask! Pregnant women are clumsy!) and hollered that the (black) cord was covered with moving white specks. I ran down to see what he was talking about and with dread in my heart, began to look around elsewhere. Sure enough, everywhere in the basement, wherever the color was contrasted enough to see them, there were moving white specks. EVERYWHERE.

We quickly realized that the bulk of the infestation was coming from the trough and pulled that thing outside in a jiffy. We were concerned that it was chicken (feather) mites, but soon realized that they would've needed a host. Grain mites were the intruders. Out seeking more grain, but covering every square inch in the process.

I tried just vacuuming them up, but quickly realized how futile that was. They just crawled up anew to replace their vacuumed brothers. They were going to need to die. And quick. Before they took over the whole house and the only solution left would be to burn it down!

Diatomaceous Earth. Or DE, for short. That was the answer. That, and 2 kids with energy to burn, armed with squirt bottles to make it airborne. Three bucketfuls of DE later, the basement and all its contents were covered with a fine white powder. That's ALL its contents, including a couch, an entertainment center, all the food storage shelves, rugs, jackets, shoes, freezers...everything. Including the kids. (They were wearing dust and eye protection!!)

And now, the clean-up begins. It will take a sweet forever, I'm afraid. It took a good hour and a half just to vacuum it up from the couch and the entertainment center.

Wait...it gets even better! Don's mom will be here in 5 days and she usually sleeps on the pull-out couch in the basement. So, I either have 5 days to completely clean every square inch of the basement, or, she'll have to sleep upstairs in one of the kid's rooms. And given the likelihood that I could have a baby any minute, I don't see getting the basement all done.

The good news, however, is that the DE seems to have worked like a charm. There doesn't seem to be any more mites. Of course, grain mites don't bite people, so it could've been worse, but still it was completely disgusting. Talk about feeling like a horrible housekeeper!

So, there you have it. Our dirty little secret, laid bare for the whole world to know about. Don't ever say that I don't keep it real, okay? Mite infestation...it's about as real as it gets.

How my garden grows

2009-06-15T19:37:00.004-05:00

In the absence of any significant baby news, I thought I'd entertain you with pictures from my garden.A whole mess of garden peas, climbing up both the sunflowers and the sunflowers' stakes. Every once in a while, I have to detangle the top of the sunflower so it can continue to grow. It isn't working quite like I planned, but I think that is because the sunflowers were planted much later than the peas. Had they had a chance to get bigger before the peas went crazy, it probably would've gone better.
This happens to be the flour corn, but all the corn is doing fabulously. It is taller than our knees so far.
This is one of the beds of tomatoes that I did inside tires. They seem to be doing great, but the beds without are doing great as well.Here is a picture of tomato blossoms. Can't wait!A little spider, ready to take on any insects that decide to crawl on my tomatoes.
Cabbage! It has gotten huge. Way bigger than I expected from my Square Foot Gardening book. It's completely shaded out the next-door celery. Rather than 1-sqft of space, it's taking a good 4-sqft.
One of the first peppers. We also have a jalapeno growing already. Mmm...
Our lettuce bed. I planted a 4X8' bed. I probably needed 2X2'. We are overrun with lettuce. More than we could ever eat! But, it sure is yummy! Our May Queen is on the other half of the bed and has become these deliciously full head of butter lettuce. So incredibly tender. I love it.
Those are 4 zucchini plants across the front of the bed and some cucumbers along the back. I cannot get over the size of the zucchini leaves. They are bigger than my head!
We have 5 beds of potatoes and they are growing like crazy. In fact, between the beds of potatoes, it is impossible to get through on the path!
Baby's breath...just because. There are a few flowers tucked here and there in the garden, simply for our enjoyment. Of course, the marigolds have an insect-repellent job to do, but the others are just for looks. Don has been digging for the foundation of my greenhouse, with the help of Caleb, Meagan, and my dad. The trench is huge, 3 feet deep and about 3 feet across, in a square. We'll pour concrete footers in and then build up with concrete blocks. Tonight, though, we are supposed to get a couple inches of rain, so it is covered with a tarp. Pictures of the actual ditch will have to wait.But, today, we had the supplies for building the greenhouse delivered. It was quite a heavy load, with all the concrete blocks, sand for the floor (it'll be an insulated floor, covered with sand and pavers), and mortar mix.

I love to see it all coming together!

Cruelty

2009-06-12T10:02:00.002-05:00

Cruelty is exactly the word for "false labor". It's really not nice to mess with the mind of a woman so pregnant. I'm already at the point where all I can think about is getting this baby OUT and then I go and have 4-5 hours of regular intense contractions that fizzle out to nothing.

Not nice at all.

Pastured Pork for Sale!

2009-06-09T13:20:00.003-05:00

Our first official offering from our farm...pork! I've set up another blog, just for our farm, and you can find the details on getting pork there.

The start of something new.

2009-06-07T19:20:00.000-05:00

I guess you could easily call this the end. But, I prefer to think of it as just the beginning.

The 29th was Don's last day with the Air Force. He ended his tour early (it was supposed to last until mid-July) after becoming convicted that he was there outside of God's will. He felt very strongly that all the Air Force represents, including the use of force and the alignment with the powers of this world, were not where God would have him earning a living. And so, after struggling with the idea (and with God) for a while, he finally came to the place where he laid it all on the altar before God and gave it up.

And it was hard. Unbelievably hard.

Can you imagine voluntarily becoming unemployed...in "this economy"??? Especially when the job you had was secure, well-paying, rewarding, and enjoyable? Except for the drive, there was hardly anything Don disliked about the job. And yet, that nagging feeling, that conviction, wouldn't give him peace.

His leaving of the Air Force was quickly followed up with a resignation with the prison, as his work there had much of the same moral complications. His "last day" will be next Friday, though he won't be working there at all until that day.

What now? We don't know. For a while, I think we'll keep him busy around here...there's a greenhouse, a summer kitchen, and a chicken processing hut to build, not to mention the daily disasters to clean up and chores to do. Oh, and bonding with a new baby as well...sooner than later, hopefully! He will eventually need to go back to work, though, if we are to continue to live in this house. Thankfully, our mortgage is small, but it is there and will need to be paid. I fully trust that God will provide...in some way...though it may not be in the way that we expect...because of Don's obedience. It'll be exciting to see His mighty hand working. And in the meantime, maybe we can finally get some things done around here!

A little pick of heaven

2009-06-06T07:50:00.004-05:00

On Thursday, we went strawberry picking at a local farm. They said Abby was the youngest picker they'd had yet.

What they didn't know was that they should've weighed her before and after...they could've made another 10 dollars or so.

We picked 20 pounds and bought another 10 from their pickings. The prices were so reasonable...$1.00/lb for u-pick, and $.75/lb for their seconds (what didn't make it into their official farm sales containers).

I've been processing strawberries ever since. Besides the strawberry yogurt, strawberry tart, and just plain fresh strawberries, I've frozen a bunch and also made 21 jars of strawberry jam.The jam looks dark because of the Rapadura sugar I use.

I'm pretty sure that Abby decided right then and there that she must be in heaven. She at least decided that she had never in her life had such a good time.

May 2009 Farm Production

2009-06-01T12:26:00.002-05:00

So you've already heard about our chicken coop woes. It really made the chickens a bit crazed and their laying suffered immensely. It was so bad, in fact, that we didn't have eggs many mornings (that is quite a difference from normal) and we didn't have any extra to sell.

Eggs gathered: 234 (19.5 dozen) or about 7.5/day
Eggs sold: none

The garden has been doing wonderfully. I need to get out there and take pictures. The potatoes are so tall now. But, only the lettuce, spinach, radishes, and sugar snap peas are ready for harvest at the moment. We've had many, many salads, which I cannot even begin to estimate as far as amount/weight. I do know that so far, we've pulled in about 30 radishes. When you are just grabbing things to make enough for a meal that day, it is hard to keep track of how much is actually produced. All I know is this: we are having a terrible time keeping up with the lettuce. There is way more than we can eat. Eventually, the animals may have to help us finish it. I did put up some spinach, though. I steamed it, chopped it, and then froze it in containers for future use in recipes.

Spinach: 4 lbs frozen

And that's about all for farm production for May. I'm expecting a much longer list for June!

A Riddle

2009-05-23T07:19:00.000-05:00

What time is it when the cow is in the chicken coop?

Answer: Time to get a new coop!

Yes, we are speaking from experience here, though I doubt we'd need it to draw such a conclusion. This is what comes from having a coop with a door big enough for people to comfortably go through and cows who are of a smaller breed. What can I say? Our cows were attracted to the smell of the feed the chickens get. They pushed their way inside, which immediately busted the floor through to the ground (the floor was up on runners so that the coop could be pulled to a new area with the pickup truck). The floor had already been weakened by all the rain that got in last year from continually losing the roof in storms. It was still strong enough for people, and certainly for chickens, but apparently, not strong enough for a couple of bovine creatures.

But, just getting in and out was not enough for those cows. They had to dance around inside, which broke all of the roosts, the waterer, and the feeder. They really did a number on it. As a result, the chickens didn't lay many eggs for many, many days. And when they started laying again, they did so UNDER the coop, which they accessed through the busted up flooring. It's been hard to get at the eggs and so I'm sure that when we finally get the thing moved and deconstructed, we'll find a nice stash. I sure hope no chickens have been underneath when the cows come for a visit!

And so, another project had to be started at a time when we were NOT intending to do it. Don had purchased running gear (the wheeled form that can be used for building a trailer) at an auction a while back just for this purpose, but we had hoped to put off building it until next spring, as we had plenty else to do right now.

As an aside, we have contemplated picking up a super-cheap full-size van at an auction to turn into a chicken coop. Picture it. You could fence off the driver's seat so that the chickens wouldn't foul it up and then you could just hop in and drive it to a new location. You'd tear out all the other seating for the chickens to have a nice big open area. Then, you'd build nest boxes at the rear of the van, which you'd access for egg-collection by just opening the back doors. It'd be perfect! Sure, the neighbors might talk, but they already do. You could even paint it like the Scooby Doo van just for kicks. Picture that out in the middle of an 80-acre pasture. And, we've seen running vans go for $400 or less. You can't build a similarly sized coop out of wood for less than that (unless maybe you salvage wood from somewhere). I would've loved to do it. But, we couldn't wait to come upon the van priced right since those silly cows forced our hands.

Anyway, Don got to work building a new coop on top of the running gear. Here is a picture of it before getting the walls and roof on so you can better see the structure of it.We've since added a roof and siding, and of course, people, chicken, and egg-collection doors. The cows won't be able to get in, unless they shrink and fly. The chickens will have a small ramp to walk up to their door, but we are worried that the cows may knock it over. I'm thinking we may have to set up an electric fence perimeter (with solar charger so it's movable) around it to keep the cows away.

There is a flat tire that needs to be fixed before we can pull it out to the pasture and transfer the chickens to it, but that should be accomplished the weekend. I hope those chickens like their new digs! As an added bonus, they can't hide eggs underneath it...not without us being able to access it and find them, at least!

First salad

2009-05-17T07:12:00.000-05:00

Mmm, mmm...I thinned out the "May Queen" lettuce and we enjoyed our first salad of baby lettuce. It was yummy, especially knowing we had grown it ourselves. Talk about fresh and organic!