Extra hands

If you have read previous posts you know that my parents have moved up here to Oregon from Arizona. Talk about a climate change. They are excited to see snow and to experience more then two seasons.

Dad is super excited to start growing some stuff in the garden next year. Which means that hopefully someone will have the time to really take care of it and baby it the way it needs to be. Then we can offer up the extra products for sale.

The honey got lucky the other day heading to work. He was driving down the road and came upon a cage in the middle of no where with a rabbit in it. So of course he grabbed the poor thing and took care of it all day while he was at work. Ended up naming him James.

James is now living with Lily ( yes the kids are Harry Potter fans) in her big cage and having the time of his life. We will probably have some baby bunnies in a few weeks. We will update when that happens.

We bred Betty in October and she hasn't came back into heat sense. So we should have some piglets around Valentine's day. If you're on Facebook you should take a guess on how many she will have and if you haven't already give us a like.

I had to have dad build a fence to go around my Christmas tree to prevent animal and tree miscommunications.

We had a wonderful Christmas and we do hope you all had one as well. It was very relaxing and quiet. We had an amazing dinner and the company was wonderful.

Ladybug got a lion head bunny for Christmas and named him carrot. She is obsessed with American girl wellie wishers. Her absolute favorite is Willa who is all about animals and nature.

The fig tree we got last summer was moved into the house and has been growing leaves like crazy lately. Good thing it came in to house because it has been so cold this winter.

Well I think that's good for now.
Hope you all have a wonderful new year.

Autumn is here

Autumn has hit the homestead. Which means canning, baking, firewood, and hay.
We've gotten 90% of the wood done for everyone and the freezer is already full of bread. If everyone would eat it a little faster I could put cakes in there. We picked up another load of hay today and added some straw to the order to get animal beds ready. We started enclosing our soon to be mama pig shelter to keep her bacon seeds inside their fence. The canning is going fairly well. With everyone here it's been very crazy, well crazier then normal.

The rain is supposed to be here this next week and it doesn't look like it will stop for awhile. Don't get me wrong I love the rain and with the extra hands we have gotten a lot of the stuff needing done all finished up, but 8-9 days of it? Nope not happening. I can only play so much connect four and Monopoly before I scream.

With the honey working on Thanksgiving, we have to celebrate it on his day off. This year it's the day before, sometimes it's after the day, but we have come to the conclusion that it's not about the day, it's about the people you celebrate and surround yourself with.

So with many blessings and grateful hearts we will celebrate this Thanksgiving with a few more generations.

Craziness

It's been so crazy these last few months. The kids over their summer break helped the gparents move from Arizona. The hunny and I had the farm to ourselves. Which of course just meant that we had been putting in a lot more work then play. We have gotten the garden irrigation system started, the fruit and nut orchard started, a lot of the land around mowed down for a fire break, some dead stumps pulled out, a lot of the yard cleaned up, finished redoing a bubs room, got a few new faces, bought a horse, cleaned a shed, started canning up some stuff, added a few things to the freezer, crocheted up a sweater, started on a blanket, made some flavored alcohols, started remodeling the house, and had just been keeping the animals fed and watered.

Now that fall is here you would think we would take a breath and relax, but that is not the way of farm life. The way of farm life means that the work never ends. If anything with fall here it means more. It means that bread has to be baked and frozen. Produce has to be processed and canned. Hay has to be brought in and stocked up on. Straw must be thrown for bedding and pens need one last clean out before winter.

With all the extra hands (my parents and gparents) things are a little more out of control then normal. In a good way. It means that we have four generations working this farm and that is worth all the craziness of the situation.

Until next time.

Our life during winter.

This last winter was very weird.
We had gotten barely any snow and coldness level has been tolerable. I mean really what the heck is up with that?

With this winter being so weird we are able to get things we normally hold off on until the muddy thaw, like digging post holes and running fences. If you're following along on Facebook you will see that we got the garden and orchard fenced off. If you're curious why we did that I have a pig that is a magician. Now you see her, now you don't kind of thing.

We are actually working on the front pasture fence to bring in some cows later this spring.

So, back to one of our days.

My honey works outside the home so he leaves in the dark and is home in the dark until the sun starts its staying out later process. He is up and out the door by 5:30.

I am up by 6:00 and able to take a min or two to work on some Facebook scrolling and blog posts and sip on some much needed coffee. I have enough time to get a load of laundry started and open the blinds. I keep an eye on the yard because we have had an unexpected pest in the yard in the mornings.

The kids all start to trickle out around 7:30. Depending on the school day, depends on if ladybug gets her cartoons or not. Today she does. So with wonder pets playing in the background, we start getting our clothes on to get our morning chores done. The fodder needs to be watered and today's batch needs to be spread into the trays and tomorrow's batch needs to be started, firewood needs to be brought in, animals need to be fed and eggs are collected, frozen water is broken or melted with warm water jugs.
We dish out a scratch here and a pat there.

The kids are all homeschooled so after chores are done, laptops are brought out and signed into so class work can begin. While they are working I will make up some breakfast, today its oatmeal. With 2 teenagers its hard to keep them filled. Switch laundry again.

While they eat I reheat my coffee and start cleaning up the kitchen. Today I have to sweep and vacuum. When I am done with the house chores I have been sewing some things to make the house cozier. Today is ladybug's curtains and some more pillow cases. I have to paint her curtain board and get the hooks hung on it so the curtains have a place to go. Have to start another load of laundry.

While I am sewing dinner plans are made, sounds like its tacos so hamburger is pulled out of the freezer to start defrosting.
It's lunchtime so soup and sandwiches are made up. The boys need to unload and reload the dishwasher after lunch. I have to water the fodder again.

Back to school work for the boys, ladybug is done so she is set at the island with her coloring books and crayons until I am finished with whatever project I am doing.  Then her and I sit down with library books to work on her reading.

The boys are done with school and they now get 2 hours of screen time, tablets or video games. I am ready to start winding down until the evening chores start. I get a cup of tea and start dinner while the kids feed the animals for the night. We start a fire for the night and do one last house clean up before dad gets home for the night. We close up the birds for the night and dad pulls in about 6:00 and we all have dinner together. We watch a show or two, then head to bed for the night at about 8:00.
This is just a normal day for us sometimes we are out and about in town all day or helping some one out with whatever they need from us. Sometimes we have groceries to put away or sometimes the animals will be going off. It all depends on what the day is. If my honey is home there is more outside work then inside. So you now know what we do all day.

Blessings!

Coziness.

I'm a Pinterest fanatic. I probably need to check myself in to PA meetings and all that. I can surf for one thing and end up looking at all the amazing ideas on there for awhile.

Like trying to make feed stretch further, duh hello fodder. Less waste and wayyyyyy more vitamins and minerals the critters need.

Or how about the fact that I am just now getting into trying to make our house feel like a warm hug. The danish have a term for that, its hygge (hoo-ga) basically its all things that new years resolutions isn't.  It takes warm drinks, candles, good food, and friends and makes it one big party. Well actually its about making you feel like you stepped into a warm hug on the crappiest day of your life.

This trend has been in the states for awhile. I'm always the last to jump on the band wagon for a new trend, but when I do its with both feet.

So this home maker/farmers wife/momma has been crocheting up blankets, sewing throw pillows, (use Walmart cheap big pillows cut and resewn in half to save some cash) and pouring hot wax for candles and fire starters. My fire skills are much improved with fire starters.

Oh and did you realize how bad of an idea it is to have blinds in your house when you live on baby powder for your dirt? After 5 years of fighting with the dust I am taking them down to hang curtains. I found a pin that uses boards with hooks instead of rods to hang the curtains. If you have cats you know why I am going that way.

Well I think your all caught up for now. Off to feed some animals and bake some bread.

Blessings!