future talks . . .

I am more and more fascinated with living on a farm. There is SO much work to do.  And it never ends.  I knew a few years ago that it was going to take tons of work to run a place like this.  I don't think I knew how constant the work was going to be.  Just the daily upkeep can be daunting!  And I wondered why, as I am getting older, that I would want to add more work to my life.

 

Most men who arrive at my age have settled into their favorite chair, ritually, and developed a long term relationship with a professional sports team.  Others bury themselves in work and only have relationship with family members at dinner time.  And some are just plain absent.

 

I bought into the idea of this farm thing because my children wanted to move from the city to a farm.  They wanted animals, woods, pastures, open spaces to play, enjoy, and learn from.  They wanted to be INVOLVED with nature.  Not just watch it on television.  And now it is great to see them involved.  Interacting with the world God has created.  Finding joy in just BEING outside, soaking up the beauty in the simplest things;  Like the moonlight on a summer night.



 Yesterday we went to pick up a new/used canoe.  I sold this one on craigslist and got a sturdier one for the children since they are all getting bigger now.  I was afraid that they were going to put their foot through the thin layer of fiberglass on this one.

During our trip to pick up the canoe, Macy and I were having one of our "future" talks again.  The kind of talk that speculates what the future may look like for our family.  It is great to hear young teenagers talk about growing up, getting married, staying close to home, and wanting their children to be friends with their sibling's children.  Her vision consisted of her and her siblings owning a few of the home that are close here to the farm.  Them and their children keeping animals here, and always being part of "grandpa's" farm.  The children floating from aunt/uncle/cousin houses staying with each other, coming down to the farm to help grandpa out with chores, and spending our lives working together to create a wonderful place for all of them to enjoy, learn from, and be connected to.

 I LOVE hearing vision like that.  Especially from my own children!  Vision like that is full of care.  Full of what God intended for families to think and believe.

 

What are the chances that will happen?  Probably slim to none.  I'm not a doomsday believer, but chances are they will all get on with their lives, scatter themselves across the country, and come to visit me once in awhile here at the farm.  That's OK.  That's part of life.  Part of becoming independent.  And my grandpa days are not here for a little while longer.  We still have some time to mill things over.  :)

 

So, all that to say that I am doing it for them.  I am creating more work now for myself so that potentially they will have a place for their children to be part of.  And along the way, I REALLY ENJOY living here and doing the work.  It beats watching TV in my book.

 

And on a side note, we now have 12 gallons of cherries in the freezer for this winter when fruit runs scarce.  I just washed and froze them pits and all!

sun setting . . .

Yesterday late morning, as I stared out of the kitchen window, I noticed a new foal had joined our farm.  At first I was not thinking that Lady had her foal.  But a second later, I yelled for the others to come and see the new addition to our farm!

 She is a Full Quarter Horse and has a lovely white marking on her head.  We are all hoping that she "grays out" as she gets older since the Sire is a full gray stallion.

 And it is hard to pass up taking great shots of Gresham with such a BEAUTIFUL sunset happening.  The other night it seemed almost magical outside the way the sun was setting in the sky.  God has a great sense of "live" painting here on the farm.

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.

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.

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!

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.

from the top . . .

The girl's room did not have wallpaper so it made it easier for me to finish.  There was a band of cork around the room, which made a nice separation from the top of the wall to the bottom.

 The walls were white and were a blank canvas for me to work with.

 I painted the bottom portion a buckwheat color (Khaki) and wrote the first chapter of James around the top of the cork.  The girl's added the pinned details like leaves, seeds, weeds, and bugs.  There are also a couple of real nests in the corners.

 I ordered the curtains from IKEA and had them shipped here.  Couldn't imagine driving three hours to go to the closest IKEA!

 When it is cleaned up, it makes for a large, pretty room.