Apologies

Apologies dear readers,
It's been a while sense I have posted.
A quick recap of the last few months, we got the greenhouse up and have been getting some good fruits and vegetables out of it. I have some seriously excited farm kids because of some little growing pumpkins.

The farm kids have decided they are going to school this year away from Mom. As much as they love me they ARE all growing up and wanting to make friends. I don't blame them really.

The piglets are growing up so fast and we have a few pigs ready to go into the freezer. Along with ducks and chickens and turkeys.

Canning season is fast approaching us and I will be even busier then ever until breeding time in November of course. I have been canning BBQ sauce and pickles but the real fun will begin soon enough.

We have some blackberry bushes blooming, but they won't turn in time before the frosts hit.

The guys got the lumber mill up and going fairly well, they were going really steady until the tractor blew a tire and now that's on the to find list.

The boys turned 15 this year and are ready to get permits to start their driving training. They decided they wanted to go to the fair for their birthdays so we decided to hit the rodeo up while we were there. Ladybug seen the barrel racers. Poor shimmer is being put through his paces. For a twenty something horse he is keeping up pretty well.

We have gotten 90% of our firewood for the year so we are doing really well on that end.

I have been crocheting up a storm lately, we WERE expecting a new little farm hand, but I got overly stressed and it just didn't work out. So once the doctor gives us the all clear we have decided to try again.

I know there is more but I don't want this post to be ten pages long.

Until next time.

New page for the family and farm

The homestead has an announcement to make, we have decided to move on. The farm is up for sale and we are in the process of looking for a new place to live.

We as a family feel that is time for us to explore new areas. It's going to be sad to sell this place because there has been a lot of blood, sweat, tears, fights, and swear words here. But there has also been a lot more happier moments. This has been Ladybug's only known home. We have grown so much as a family here. We learned knew things about ourselves.

We don't know yet where we are going, but as soon as we get there you will know. Until then we will keep you up to date on the goings on. (Like the new babies, but that's another post).

Be blessed!

End of another year

Wow, I'm a little late in getting this post written up.

All of the snow has melted off and it has all turned into ice patches or mud. It of course freezes every night and turns it into frozen mud but this last week it's been warming up so much that it turns into nothing but a slippery mess.
Ladybug ended up getting sucked down in her wellies and when I went to grab her out ended up knee first in the muck. Mud and water all in the wellies, it was terrible. Score one for klutz mom.

This last year was a pretty good one for us. We grew as a farm but more as a family. My teenagers actually WANT to hang around with us. Shocker isn't it?
In the last year we have gotten cows and a horse, made bacon seeds and ended up adopting an abandoned rabbit, restocked the ducks and built shelters. Went on a "vacation" and a vacation. I will say I won't miss Arizona.

We have lost some animals to critters and gained some helping hands. We were able to get a few things done that we had wanted to and had to push a few things back.

There has been a lot of growth and even more learning. We have watched frustrations turn to pride and we have watched humbleness get learned the hard way. There's been scrapes and scuffles but at the end of the day we all need each other. We have had more connecting with each other and less technology. So all in all I think it's been a learning experience for everyone this year.

Here's to another learning year for us.

P.S.
We have three adorable baby bunnies now from Lily and James.

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!