bowling . . .

Another great break activity!

We are all really bad at bowling, but we do enjoy doing it.  Over the holiday break I took the children out for a night to throw the balls down the lane.  We all opted NOT to have the guard rails on and just had fun knocking pins down.  Or not.  :)

For several weeks now I have attempted to post something of our Christmas time this year.  Each time I have sat down to upload pictures, the internet service has timed out, or my laptop has overheated and shut down without saving any of my work.  Today, I am making sure to KEEP my work.  :)

This year I went a little techy with gifts for some of the children.  They were in a little bit of shock because they have this strange idea that I am not a promoter of technology.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  And for the younger crowd, I did they usual making of gifts for them.

In addition to working out in the wood shop, cleaning up in the barn, and some sledding behind the Gator, we all spend oodles of time playing games and staying up late talking and laughing.  It is one of things that I think they will remember as the fun times when they were young.  :)

before Christmas day . . .

Before the actual day of Christmas, we spent time doing some holiday activities as a family, and also with some new friends.  Amory performed in the Black Swamp Orchestra Holiday program.  We visited a small town and looked at the Christmas lights and shops, and of course cut and brought a tree in the house to decorate.

In addition to the Christmas seasonal things, we are also working around the farm getting it set up for Spring.  A few weeks ago we started the mucking of the barn and putting manure on the garden.  And since it has been unusually warm, it has made it a pleasure to work outside!

for the winter . . .

Since it was REALLY warm today, I took advantage of the great weather and did some detail work that I have been wanting to do in the barn for a long time.  I am now at the point on the farm that most of the major work is done, and I get to spend time doing some small jobs that a relatively easy.  For example, today I painted another one of the gates in the big barn.  (as well as fixing a few doors)  The gates are fine they gray color they are, but I like to have them painted.  All the outside gates were painted different neutral colors last summer, and now I am working my way through the barn painting the inside ones white.  Years ago I would have spent hours cleaning and prepping them to be painted perfectly.  Now that I am older, less stressed about things being perfect, I just wipe them down a bit with a towel and start spraying away!  Even OVER some of the manure.  :)   

 We have also got a lttle head start on mucking out the barn by pulling it off to one side.  (actually, shoveling manure if a form of work that the children do when they get a little naughty with me or each other)  Instead of taking it out in the summer when it is hot, we opted to leave it in the barn until cooler weather to work in.  In addition, it is nice to only move it once.  Now we are going to haul it out the garden and dump it on the garden rows for next planting season.

 And the chicken house got brought into the barn for the winter.  Usually it sits out on the big pasture and gets moved daily so the birds can eat fresh grass and bugs each day.  However, during the winter time they spend most of the time inside the house huddling to stay warm.  As well, it is a bear to walk half a mile to go gets eggs!  This year we put it in the south east side of the barn to see if is easier to deal with than where er put it last year.

The rest of the day was spent getting ready for the winter season this year.  Plastic up on the patio, chicken pens away, last mowing around the pond . . .

local pheasant hunt . . .

Along with deer hunting, the older boys have added pheasant into their hunting repertoire. 

Gary, the guy I have working on all my vehicles, called a couple of weeks ago and asked if the boys wanted to go with him on a local pheasant hunt.  (It is great to have other people involved and teaching the children new skills)  Since they DID want to go, I thought it would be a great experience for them, and a way to meet and to work with new people.  While I stayed home to work on making chalkboards, they went out to get some meat for the family.  And Nolan came back with a BEAUTIFUL bird.

Using a cast iron pan, Macy put all of her herbs on it, and roasted it in the oven for us to eat. And to my surprise, it was DELICIOUS!  In fact, it had a better taste than the free-range chicken we eat regularly.

fall colors . . .

The other day I took some pictures of Amory when we were outside playing disk wars.  It was a beautiful day, and a great day for photos.  The leaves on the trees are changing, and since it has rained a bunch these past few weeks, the grass in the pastures are LUSH!

saddle seat, english, and western . . .

The past two weekends Macy and Nolan have spent almost the entire weekend at the fair grounds competing in this year's OHIO horse competition.  Both are riding English and Western, and in different events.  I love going and watching them compete with other students to display their "horsing" skills.

Macy placed well in English Bareback, mostly because she spends lots of time here on the farm riding Lady bareback.  This was here first time competing.  Since this was Nolan's second year, he had a good sense of what he was doing and added Saddle Seat to his events.

 

 

saddle seat apparel . . .

Wake up, drink some coffee, milk a cow, drive to school.  Teach all day, drive back home, make some chalkboards, go to bed.  DO IT AGAIN!  DO IT AGAIN!  DO IT AGAIN!

Since summer, my leisurely schedule has changed. No longer do I get to hang out on the farm and do what I want all day. Now, I am slightly bound to a schedule. Fortunately for me, I like having schedules. :)

I teach art most of the day and on a few occasions I help with intervention groups.  With my groups I am focusing on reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  I think is it a whole new approach that requires a lot of work from the students, but they are enjoying the learning activities.

This weekend is the first event for the OIHA horse team competition.  Both Nolan and Macy will be participating in it this year.  Amory has opted to spend her time this year joining an orchestra.  :)  And tonight Amory and I spent some time helping Nolan get a costume ready for the saddle seat event he will be in tomorrow.  Instead of buying a new riding coat, we talked about it, and last night came up with a plan to sew some extended tails on his hunt seat coat and pin it on for his new event.  When he is finished, we take the pins out and he uses his coat as before!  :)  Amory spent the time sewing the flaps, and I made an old farm hat look like a new derby hat.

The point is for the costume to appear to be saddle seat apparel without spending the $300-$1500 to get a suit.  So far, we were able to come up with a fairly decent costume for $25.00.

lots of improvising . . .

The knotting of the string on the gourd is fun to do.  I decided to use this type of attachment to hold the gourd up on the wire.  The only other alternative was to drill holes in the top and run a string through it.  I like this look more than a string ran through it.

 This one was EXTREMELY fun to create today.  It all started with our dog Saxon tearing off the top of the gourd.  Instead of blaming him (since it was me that left it on the concrete to dry) I just used it to make a different style of birdhouse.  A more decorative one.  After I sanded it, I drilled holes around the torn top part and the hole for the bird.  I painted it a medium green with spray paint then applied a dark walnut stain on top of that.  Once it was dry I added some semi-dry cat tail reeds by "sewing" them on with black string.  I also used a blanket stitch around the hole with the same string.

 And this is where I put the bird houses.  (or this is where I had Nolan put them!) The electricity wire that stretches from the garage to the horse barn.  Notice the improvisation on lift equipment.  Relatively safe, as long as the van is not moving!  :)  (out here on the farm we have to do lots of improvising.)

hanging them on the wire . . .

I finished the balcony off the game room/loft a couple of weeks ago.  And I am quite happy that I figured out how to match the railing of the porch!

I had purchased a screen door to put on to allow a nice air flow in the room and when I took it up to the loft, there was no way it was going to fit.  Even if I cut a lot from it.  So, I keeped the door for a week or so and modeled the one built from it.  It was fairly easy to build, and I think I probably had $3 - $7 in the total screen project.

 Today was a creative day.  For the past several weeks I have been busy with school starting and with chalkboards on my Etsy business.  It had been awhile that I spent some time making things I want to make.  So today I spent some time building a shelf that I wanted in the bathroom, re-arranging towels racks, adding shelves to the boy's room, adding some art in the girl's room, and making some gourd bird houses.  A while back, a friend gave me four uniquely shaped gourds from his garden.  I have been excited to get to making these for some time, so I spent the time today.  And it was great!  I washed, sanded, and spray painted them blossom white.  The holes had already been cut for me.  After the paint dried, I used my gourd craft book I had gotten many years ago to get inspired to add some knotted string.  It's a sort of macrame. I will be wrapping the string around the top of the gourd so I can hang them on the wire between the garage and the horse barn.  It is a favorite place for birds and I hope a few of them start using the gourds as their home.