love spring . . .

Love Spring here on the farm!  The leaves have come, flowers are blooming, and the grass is OUT OF CONTROL.

 

 The younger three have already started fishing and swimming.

And my green house is finished.  Kind of.  I decided to save a little time and be able to get the plants started earlier by putting plastic along the bottom and on the door frame.  Later this summer, when I am finished with school, I'll cut the glass and screen to fit in the bottom portion of the house.

The other day it was 115 degrees in there when I got home from school.  I have since taken off some of the plastic and keep the door propped open to allow some air flow while my plants are starting.

all growing up . . .

 

This past week, my little daughter, who is not so little anymore, left home.  Not forever, but what seems like forever now.  Being that this is her first time away from home, it was a happy, yet nerve racking departure.

 

About three weeks ago she was invited to go on tour with the Defiance College Choral group and perform at several places.  The choral group needed some stringed instruments to accompany them and she, along with four to five others, went with them out to Colorado for a ten day musical tour.



 



And then there was the ACT (American College Test) that needed to be taken in order to start applying to colleges.  Even though she is technically only a Junior in High School, I am shipping her to college next year as a Dual Enrolled student.  Her Senior year classes for homeschool will be her Freshman year classes that she takes.  The ACT (the SAT on the West Coast) is an assessment test that determines if the student is "ready" academically for college.  And if the student is not ready, usually colleges will require students to take remedial classes (lower than 100 level) that boosts their academic skills to prepare them for the classes that count towards a degree.  Most schools are looking for students to get above an 18-22 on all areas of the test in order not to take remedial classes.  And the more prestigious the school, typically the higher the score needed to gain admittance.

 

The ACT highest score is a Composite 36, and in order be considered for an Ivy League school, a student needs to score a 30 or above.  Top universities, liberal arts colleges, and top public universities will generally require a 26 Composite score or higher in order to be accepted.  And just last week, Amory got her score back from her first attempt at the test.  And it was the FIRST test she has ever taken!  Her composite score . . . 26!

more spring rectial work . . .

The children all have musical spring recitals.  I have spring building recitals!  And I think that I am addicted to building things.  The last few weeks I have been designing the greenhouse that I have wanted to build for three years now.  And this spring was the time for the production.  I had gotten some glass patio doors from a friend of mine and planned the structure around the shape of the doors.  Free glass is a hard thing to pass up.

 

I decided to build support walls on the bottom because each glass door weighs around 150 pounds.  The back, sides, and top all get the big patio doors.  They all measure 80" x 50" and I am using them horizontally.  I used some new construction wood to build the frame and painted it with an aluminum reflective paint.  Since I am in a rush to get it up and use it, I painted it and assembled it at the same time.  And I learned my lesson about building things "on site" with the bridge I built in the woods.  I constructed the wall in the wood shop, then brought it out where it will stay and put it together. 

 It's a nice little building that will accommodate all of our seed starting.

And this is Maine's spring recital piano piece.

spring recital . . .

Spring brings . . . and in this case . . . skills.  All the children had their annual Spring Recital last weekend, and here are some of the highlights of the program.  This video of Gresham is after six or so months of piano lessons.  Notice that he has memorized the music.  As a six year old (now seven) he is doing quite well memorizing his pieces.  Although, he does READ his music first.

This video was several months ago.  On the old piano.

spring new arrivals . . .

Spring time on the farm is EXCITING!  Especially when new life happens.  Two weeks ago we added another calf to the animal clan.  Gresham wants to name him steak.  He's going to be another meat animal two years from now . . . when he is close to 1500 pounds.  He is a Angus/Holstein cross and is a BEAUTIFUL glossy black coated bull.  Should be interesting to see him get bigger.

Currently are letting him nurse from Janey.  There is one teet that is always difficult to milk out, so we have given him the job to work for his milk.  It works out good for everyone involved.

And then yesterday in the afternoon, Amory noticed that Praline had her lambs.  She was on her bike riding back from Mr. Wilson's farm when she saw them out on the big pasture.  She came in and announced the new arrival of a ewe AND a ram.  They are really cute.  :)



This week is Spring Break for me as well, so I am getting to do tons of necessary spring work that the farm requires.  We have already repositioned all the bricks in the front planter, spring trimmed the fruit trees and the ones that are growing near the Big Barn. and I have done cosmetic work on our new (used) car.  Tomorrow we are going to clean up all the debris from winter and get the flower beds ready for new growth.

snow storm . . .

kitchen window view

 

 

We had a sudden snow storm last night, and school was cancelled today.  LOVE these kinds of days.  Since I have the day off, I am making breakfast for the children.  Usually I am gone by 6:45, and the children wake up (a lot later) and make their own breakfast before starting on their studies.  I try to have them get their studies done before I get home so we can spend time together eating, playing, or watching movies in the evening.  Since August, we have been keeping more of a night life; not getting to bed each night before 10pm.  Last night, knowing that I was probably not going to have school today, we all stayed up even later.

 

The animals have been foraging around, and it is nice to stand at the sink (while doing dishes) and watch them.  I love living here on the farm, and enjoy the work with all the animals as well.  What's great about our approach is that we do not let the farm run our lives.  We don't let the work of the farm make us feel bound to chores.  Sure, chores must be done, but we don't let the chores dictate our schedules.  We work around the thing we need to do, making sure they get done, without having the feeling of being labored to death by living here.

 

finished the upstairs bathroom . . .

When we first moved in, we peeled paper off the walls, and I painted this bathroom.  I did a rush job on it knowing that I needed to get the rest of the house done before we moved in.  Just these past few weeks, I have repainted, and finally finished the bathoom now.  I was only planning on cleaning it a bit, but Macy encouraged me to fill some cracks, and repaint it to make it "fresh."  She was right.  I am happier now that I took the time to do all the details of it.

Since the room did not have an exhaust fan, I used an old ceiling fan that I removed from one of the bedrooms, painted it, and installed it.  A couple of miscellaneous finds from the Goodwill, repainted, and now our upstairs bath has a "fresh" start. I have a couple more accessories to go, like a bath caddy, some towels, and a new rug, and it will be done.  I love the clean feeling of a newly painted room!

rabbits . . .

Amory and Asher went rabbit hunting last weekend and brought home some food for us.  They ended up getting three rabbits altogether.  Amory dressed them out, put them in the crocl pot, cooked them, and then froze them for a meal later.

Goodbye and Hello...

The newest goodbye was just this afternoon. Our white van, that has been ours for as long as I can remember, was sold today. I took pictures of it just last night, then by around 9:00, Dad had already got 5 calls asking about it. One of the men that called for it stopped by this afternoon and bought it, just like that :)

 

Goodbye... We are NOT sad to see you go! :)

 

Newest hello is to this lovely piece of plastic!

 

 

Yes, I got my permit! I was 15 and a half on Valentines Day, and I wanted to get my permit as soon as I could. So I did a couple practice tests last night and this morning, then Dad drove me up to the BMV to get it. I was SO excited :) I passed the test then we waited FOREVER until their computer worked, then Dad had me drive home.... I was shaking like a leaf. Dad was yelling at me the whole time, saying things like "The speeed limit is 55 NOT 30, push the gas pedel!" All in all an eventfull day :)

 

 

Post be MacyAnne

 

boys room . . .

The boys room, on the other hand, had paper.  And lots of it!  Some of it was peeling off already, so it made it a little easier to peel the rest of the paper off.

 And one of the seven radiators that were bad needed to be dismantled and removed as well.

The room now definitely has a young man feel to it!  Guns on the wall, bones and animal parts, and live rats.  Yes.  Live rats!  Both Asher and Maine raise RATS!

Asher purchased a couple of box traps last year, so he used the black and white picture from the package to make some wood picture boards from them.  After he glued the image to the board, he scroll cut them out.  Currently he has a racoon, squirrel, and a pheasant one.