a few days visit . . .

Miss Leisa came to visit us again while she was on ANOTHER one of her many travels. Must be nice to take work off and travel the world huh?

We first met Leisa when she was a tenny little 16 year old exchange student from Down Under. She came to stay with us for a month during the summer, and since then, we have stayed in touch. This year, she decided to "pop in" on us at the farm on her way back home from another world tour and visit for a few days. Little did she realize that she was going to be doing some real, down to earth, homesteading activities. Along with milking Janey, she has ridden the go-cart around the property, and tomorrow she will butchering her own chicken. Nolan is also going to teach her how to shooot a rifle! She is going to go back home with lots of stories and new experiences to share.

training time for everyone . . .

Officially her name is Intercept Golden Jana (American Jersey Cattle Association) and she is a Registered Jersey. The previous owner called her Baby Jane, but since she has had a couple of calves, we decided to call her Janey.

It seems that what we have been doing is working. And we are learning quite a bit about her. The first few days were a little rough being new at the milking thing, and the whole cow thing, however, after a week of it, it's running pretty sMOOth.

The children are taking turns, like everything else, by milking on their day of the week. Years ago we assigned a day to each child to have for their day to pray, get the mail, and things like that. Well, it was only natural to let them milk on their day as well. Nolan is taking on most of the work and he is the constant milker along with me. In the evenings, the others join in to get the practice to be able to milk her by themselves. It's a training time for everyone.

The first few times Janey moved around ALOT and it was like milking in a moving van. She wanted lots of feed (which is like candy for her) and was ready to move on real quickly. Now she is eating her small cup of grain we give her, and patiently standing and waiting for us to get our work done. And currently, she is giving us about a gallon and a half per milking. We are almost swimming in milk! The benefit of having her as well is that we are able to have cream regularly for our coffee without going to the store, and the children have been making really rich BUTTER from the cream as well. What a treat.

hard to believe . . .

SHE'S HERE! SHE'S HERE! SHE'S HERE!

Two years in the thinking, planning, and praying, and finally the time has come for us to get our milk cow. It's hard to believe she is actually here.

Janey came to us last night via a wonderful young couple from Leesburg, Ohio. Last Wednesday, I took a half day off from school to drive down to their farm and look at the Jerseys they were selling. My neighbor Steve went with me to help me since he has had quite a bit of experience with animals, including cows. I decided to get the one they took to the local elementary to let the kindergarten students milk. He said she was real calm and would make a great family cow.

It has been fun to watch the children dawdle over her already. Milking her this morning and evening was a real learning experience for them. The morning milking yielded a couple of cream filled gallons. However, this evening's milking was a bust not being able to keep her feet out of the milk pail. :) The things you learn in a day with a cow.

hole in my pants . . .

The same morning that the chicken incident happened, I also had a little accident at school. In the process of cleaning up the storage area of the art room, I was taking a poster filing cabinet off the table to store it in a different place. (I needed the counter space and the cabinet looked a little shabby as well) As I was pulling it off the counter, I realized that it was a "little" heavier than what I expected, so I used my knee to hold it up and lower it slowly . . . stopping it from crashing on the floor and putting a hole through it! The last few seconds of the descend it ripped a hole in my pants at the knee, and finally dropped to the floor. "Whew . . . that is over" I thought to myself as I wiped the sweat from my forehead. A minute later my knee area started filling up with blood. I sat down on a small stool, raised my pant leg and noticed that I had torn the skin on my knee all the way to the cartilage! About an inch long altogether. Blood was soaked into my pants at the knee, and was now running down my leg. It's a good thing I did not panic, because right then, my third grade came into the class for art.

Long story short . . . even though I was advised by the school nurse to go the emergency room where I should have gotten 5 to 10 stitches to close the wound, being the MacGyver kind of guy that I am, I just used some bandages and some tape for a make-shift butterfly to close the wound and to keep my knee from bending. And one week later . . . God has brought about a complete healing! Don't hate me Mrs. Thompson.

right on top . . .

Today we had our first chicken tragedy. It was one of those situations that had we been a little more prepared it wouldn’t have happened. Since we've been raising chickens, we have only lost a few to inexperience; splayed legs, accidents, and a few things we don't understand about birds. But last night we had a situation that caused the loss of 4 of our meat birds. Not a good thing.

I bought a new tarp to cover the birds and to keep the elements away from them. Elements like ripping winds and rain that is harsh at times. The wind and rain out here is vicious! The tarp I bought big, and was very sturdy. I was really happy about my purchase and was excited to show Nolan . I brought it home, and Nolan fitted it perfectly onto the chicken “play yard.” Last night we had quite a bit of rain, and the tarp collected a whole bunch of it. RIGHT ON TOP! It probably collected it because it had a flat roof. Duh! When Nolan went out to check on the birds this morning, the top of the structure was broken in and the birds were all huddled in the corner and were wet and cold. One of them had died. (the fact that it was 45° and rainy didn’t help the situation) We spent about a half hour changing the structure to another one we had and trying to get the birds under the lights and sheltered from the rain. What a mess!

When I got home from school today Nolan told me that three more had died. :(

as a family . . .

Another weekend to rest around the farm. :)

Yesterday my mother came out to visit AGAIN! I am pretty excited that she takes the time to come and visit. When we lived in Los Angeles, she came to visit a total of 8 times during the 21 years I lived there. Seems like such a small time to spend. And it was. However, since we are now local, she has made it a point to come and visit several times so far. I like it for many reasons. The children have never really spent any time with relatives at ALL. Ildi's brother and sister don't have children and never visit so that means no cousins or aunts and uncles to rub elbows with. And since my family lived so far away, we rarely made it across the nation as a family. The last few years Ildi's mom visited us more often, and we have all not met her dad due to an early car accident death. So, having grandma here is really a treat for them. It is good for them to hear the stories of my youth. My mother tells them of when I was young and the types of things I did. For good and bad. It is great for them to hear about me being just like them! I also like that they get to learn new things from grandma. As well as learn how to treat elderly people. There is such a benefit to having older people in and around your life.

As well, yesterday we went to pick up around 300 pounds of feed for the chickens. We had been getting the feed from our neighbor, but I decided that I would save him from picking it up for me and go to the source myself. We are getting feed from a local "natural" farmer who is growing and grinding his own feed. It is extremely interested to get involved with the processes involved and learn as much as possible about this whole thing called HOMESTEADING.

Today I am going to be doing a little plumbing work in this old house, and then we will probably spend a relaxing day outside by the fire. Hope your Lord's Day is restful, contemplative, and honoring.

over the barns . . .

A few more fun things to do to before the cold winter comes! All the children have been on a bow and arrow kick for the last few days. They are finding sticks in the woods and making all the parts of their Bows and Arrows set themselves. I guess the big fascination is to see who makes the arrows that fly the furthest. They are using their knives we bought them for Christmas last year to whittle the wood down, and the pencil sharpener to sharpen the arrows that they have adorned with electrical tape and feathers from the chickens. They have been shooting them at targets, over the barns and house, and as far into the sky as they can. Kids gone shooting crazy.

In addition to the shooting that is happening, this summer my sister let us use her go-cart that she had for her son. Since he is college now, and they live in the city, she decided to "store" it out here on the farm. This whole summer the children have been riding it around the property, and enjoying learning how to drive it. Nolan has actually been learning a little auto mechanics on the side as a benefit of having it. He has also mowed a path through the tall weeds as a track for the transporters to follow. Macy and Asher are now driving it by themselves, and just today I solicited a ride from one of the new drivers.

playing with fire . . .

Since the weather has been getting a little cooler, I have been spending time on the weekends building fires in the pit out on the side of the house. I LOVE building fires, and living out here where no one is around, reminds me of our camping times in the Sierra Nevada Mountain in California.

In addition to me loving fires, it seems EVERY single child of mine loves building them too. What does a parent do when children love to play with fire? Well, I let them play with fire! (I do watch them in case you are worried) On occasions in the mornings, I let them take kindling and start the fire again from the hot embers from the night before. As well, they also play with "fire sticks." Fire sticks are sticks of their choice that they poke in the fire until the end starts to burn. After it catches on fire, they "write" in the air with the smoke, they start other parts of the wood on fire, and all other kinds of cool things. Gresham is allowed to pick up any bark or wood he finds and throw it in. What a joy it is to watch children "play" with something so potentially dangerous and have a respect for it at the same time. My attitude and thinking is that they will learn the respect needed for fire by getting experience working with it. And the benefit is that each one of them can build a really mean fire!

the "horse" bug . . .

Part of the joy of living in the country is doing things that we have not done before. Like riding horses. Last weekend, and some today, the family got the chance to ride some of the neighbor's horses. Just recently they purchased two new ones and have been letting the children ride them when we visit. I have to admit, it has sparked the "horse" bug in me and I am REALLY open to buying a horse for the children, Ildi, and ME to ride and enjoy.

capturing video . . .

This is were technology meets the country! Tonight, I watched part of the Star Wars Episode III out by the fire. Using a LCD projector, my laptop, and some speakers, I captured the screen on the side of the big barn out back. It was sort of the test run before I let my family watch a movie at the FOUTFOLK CAMPFIRE THEATER. I walked down the lane out to the road to see how the image looked on the side of the barn. The image projected to a 40 x 60 foot size. It was like I was at the Drive-in-Movies! I think we will have one movie night outside to rap up the summer season, and then get prepared for the upcoming COLD.