Calves

I took some pictures of a property my husband will be running cattle on soon. It turns out my husband told me I took those pictures of the property he was cleaning up (from the last post) too well. He tells me they totally don't show all the work he has to do to clear brush and blackberries. He said there were some blackberries on the property that had stalks that were causing the chain saw to pause.

We had a calf born today. I was already not focusing well this morning and then Natalie told me that one of the cows was being suspicious. I went outside and took a close look at her and sure enough she was in labor. The next time I looked there were feet. I took this video a little later. She delivered her bull calf quick. The last birth we had was a breech birth and my husband had to pull it. It sure throws our household into a raucous when a calf is born. We had to go to art class today, and didn't get any school work done before leaving. But the girls came home and got their work done after art class. It made for a full evening.

Ahhh Sun

Oh, it felt like spring was here these last few days. It's been a warm winter. It's been quite rainy like normal...just a part of living in the beautiful place we live. Yesterday, we gardened. I dug up raspberry plants that I'll replant after tilling the spot they've been in. They've been terribly choked with grass, and we have a new plan. Which is to give them a fresh start and cover them with mulch. My husband actually tilled the garden. So, if we don't get a deluge all Spring, we may be able to plant early this year. The girls had so much fun running around barefoot in the grass.

Notice her feet!

I also worked in my little greenhouse. I cleaned up the weeds and the old starts I never used that I won't be using. I prepared the ground for planting. I can actually plant Arugula any time. I can plant that in the ground. And, my husband made me a warming table for starts. So, I'll plants lettuces and other earlies in that soon. My greenhouse is a cold greenhouse, with greenhouse film, so I'm still under the constraints of the weather. Yet, it's looking like this year the weather will cooperate and it might be a little warm. Last year was terribly cold. The year before that was quite cold. So, yay! This will be my first year to use my greenhouse that wasn't colder than average.

Friday, after doing school, I finished pruning my fruit trees. And they got sprayed. So, here's hoping for some fruit. I had to prune them back quite a chunk this year, so it might be till next year for us to really get fruit. It's been a long time trying to figure out fruit trees. Two seasons ago, my husband actually made me some drip irrigation for them. Now, this year, I found this pruning video, so pruning wouldn't be too mysterious.

The other exciting thing that happened on Friday was a calf being born. We actually did not see it born. But, there it was in our field! We like it when births happen like that.

Thursday, after school, the family headed over to the property my husband is leasing to run cattle on. I took some pictures. My husband wants before and after pictures for the work he is doing, although, I must say, my before pictures were quite beautiful, what with the golden sunset light that was falling there. It might be hard to make after tending the ground look more picturesque.

Looking forward to sunny days

Ahhhh, winter is almost near it's end. I'm looking forward to Spring. I want to start getting working outside. Hopefully, some sunny and warmish days are on there way. Recently, we were blessed with a warm day and went to Lewisville Park to enjoy it. It was really beautiful.

I'm really wanting to get out soon. I was perusing through old photos today and realized that one of the salmon runs actually ran in January one year. I thought it was late February and March. Hopefully, I can head down to the river soon to see if there are still any salmon (very close to my house). I'm also wanting to visit the Ridgefield Bird Sanctuary. I need to look up when the birds usually return so I go at the right time.

Another thing on the agenda, is that we have bred our older goat. She is due in June. It should be fun.

I had signed up for an alternative learning program this year, which kept me really busy. I had used similar programs for many years, but our state legislature put more and more requirements on those programs. So, in order to be able to have my kids take the classes they wanted, I signed them up for an alternative learning program, where they checked in each week. Which was fine, I wouldn't have had a problem with that. But, it ended up getting more complicated and more stressful, and I felt like my freedom to teach the way I wanted was pressured. While they allowed me to teach my own way, the goals had to be all laid out ahead of time and crossed off in a regimented way. It didn't end up working for us. So, now I'm free from that. Which I'm glad for. For now, we're paying for the classes my older girls are taking. We'll see what we do next year.

More and more I'm learning the lesson, however, that for me, a simple lesson plan, reading, writing, arithmetic, nature study, delight-directed learning, is me. And is totally sufficient and superior really to the over-stretching of every last subject. For me, this is mostly following a Robinson curriculum plan, but my own style of that. And, I feel like, maybe I've found what's good for me, and will allow me to enjoy my kids, yet make sure they have a good education.

Five Year Old Isms

Abigail: "Mom, is that a double A light bulb?"
Me: "No, that would probably be a 60 watt light bulb."
Abigail: "Oh, yeah. If it were a double A light bulb it would be really big."

Abigail: "Mom, it's a good thing that Josiah wasn't a chicken. If Josiah were a chicken, I'd be really mad. All we'd have would be girls, except for Daddy."

I love kids.

Tasty Chicken

So tasty. We had chicken the other night that we grew last summer from our own chicks we hatched. We raised Barred Rock chickens - used the females for layers and the males for meat. We raised Cornish Cross one year and I felt so sorry for them, they could barely move under their weight by the time they were old enough to process. So, I decided to go with a heritage breed. They were a lot smaller than the chickens you get in the store, oh but they were so tasty. I can't even describe the difference. They were rich in taste, instead of bland...like the difference in the taste of homegrown produce versus grocery store. And, I am sure, so much more healthy too! We butchered these Barred Rock chickens around 15 weeks. We raised a rooster once (that we first thought was a hen) out till he was big once and he was terribly tough. Not good for anything but soup. But, I think we butchered him more like 18-20 weeks. So, ours were fairly small (probably a little under 2 equal a store bought chicken). They were in a movable pen which we moved every day (about 16 roosters for a 10' square pen), not completely free range. But, they had lots of fresh grass, and could move about, but probably didn't get as much exercise as completely free range. They had lots of healthy yellow fat on them though from the fresh grass. It was successful, so, I think we'll try it again and see if we can do more next year. Here is a picture of our turkeys from last summer. They were tasty too.

Christmas Recitals

It's Christmastime, so we've been busy with Christmas recitals. Here are some photos from Dance and from Orchestra. After today, I don't have any Christmas activities except with our family. I'm looking forward to celebrating Christmas in a more laid back way.

Sleeping Boy

My little boy fell asleep on the couch. This is an unusual event for my kids. None of them are the kind of kids that can fall asleep anywhere. He probably slept for a good ten minutes and I managed to get some cute shots. I know I'll appreciate these when he's older.

Time Is Flying By

Time has been flying by in our very busy household. There is always a lot to be thankful for, and especially for my family. God gave me them and they are a very special gift. Here are a few photos of them recently.

Birthday Twins (their birthday is on the same day)

With cousins at Thanksgiving

A Boy And A Train

My Darling Husband

My Middle Joyful Girl

My Big Serious Girl

And, here is a recent picture of a property near to ours. We rent it out to graze our cattle on and my husband cleared this property and planted it in pasture. All the cleared area was in brush trees and blackberry bushes previously.

Ah Cleaning

Sometimes I feel like I never stop cleaning, pretty much literally! With a 2 year old boy, a 4 year old girl, an 9 year old girl, and 11 year old girl, and a 13 year old step-daughter, there is much laundry to do, many dishes to do, many spills to clean up, and nothing stays in its place for long. I've been working very hard to try and stay on top of it. I finally made it out to the garage today to sort clothes. My husband has a rule for me that I must catalog all the items I am going to give away to charity, even if they were given to me, so that we can take the tax deduction. How I long to just load up stuff in the back of the car and drop it off without the cataloging, but my husband does a lot for me, so I suppose I can honor his effort to try and save us a little money in taxes.

My girls really help with the cleaning. In particular, I appreciate my 11 year old. She really takes more than her share. She does the dishes, she takes care of the small outside animals, and she cleans and vacuums the main room floors.

My motto is slowly becoming more "less is more". And I've become a toy nazzi. That is I really limit the toys they have out. Most toys have their own box (cars in one box, potato head in one box, trains in one box, legos in one box). And they can't get out another set of toys till they put that one away. Somehow, onesies and twosies of different sets always seem to get left out somewhere; so that is a challenge.

The hardest thing I find about cleaning is finishing a given area. It's really like I have a block. It's just the hardest thing to do. The thing I do with myself (which I teach my kids to do for themselves) when it comes to cleaning, is "just do the next thing". That works for me. Or the 10 minute dash. Pick up this room really quick without worrying about perfection. Then, move onto something new.

Dad and son

My little son has asthma. Each time he gets a cold (well almost every time) he get asthma symptoms and has to be nebulized extra (he gets some preventative medication every day whether he has a cold or not). Being a two year old, he doesn't like sitting still to be nebulized for long. Luckily Daddy spells me and takes care of it a lot.

It's been a rough two weeks. I think the combination of my son being two and him beginning to be able to talk about what he wants and doesn't want, made for a very grumpy boy. Here is a sweet shot though...just regular every day life. I love my family (even on the hard days).

Writing

We started our new writing curriculum today. My kids didn't get "which" clauses and how the clause needs to be connected with the first part of the sentence. They also didn't get how their sentences are supposed to make sense, or how to change the sentences to make sense, and I didn't get how to teach them without getting frustrated. I hope it gets better. My middle daughter usually has trouble writing things that make sense (she's great orally), which is one reason why we're doing Writing In Excellence. But, they are supposed to write from an outline and at least today, this actually made it harder for them, and I found myself completely exasperated as to how to explain to them what to do without telling them what to write. Writing is definitely the hardest subject for me to teach.

Four Year Old Ism

Four Year Old - "Mom, my tummy hurts."
Me - "maybe you should lie down if your tummy hurts."
Four Year Old - "No, I think I should go outside and play.
Maybe my tummy hurts because I have tight fitting garden shoes on one toe."
Me - "that makes your tummy hurt?"
Four Year Old - "Yeah, sometimes."