time will tell . . .

It is quite funny what children will do to ensure they have the cups where they want them.

And time will only tell what happens next.  Our situation does not seems to be getting any better, and the time waiting is beginning to weigh heavy on all of us.

extremely hard . . .

Nolan has been such a great help around the farm this spring.  With working full time, he has still managed to help in so many ways.

First, setting up some movable fencing to allow the animals to graze off some of the rich clover on the garden spots.  And then last Friday helping me with the sheep shearing.  It was our first time shearing sheep and we had a wondeful teacher helping us along the way.  Flint has been working with sheep for several years and made the job seem so easy.  However, for both of us, it was extremely hard!

Ildi will be sending the wool off to get cleaned and carded, then it goes into her new spinning wheel to be made into yarn. YEAH!

thinking it through . . .

Contemplative . . .

So many times in our lives we think that our "little worlds" will never change.  The way things are will always be "the ways things are."  Sure, children grow up, the living room gets a new facelift, and the way we perceive something takes on a new perspective.  But, the way we live and the circumstances we are in, seems to stay mostly the same.

I, and we as a family, are currently NOT in one of those places in our lives.  The past few months has beckoned a new way of relating to one another.  This past time together has afforded a doorway for each of us in the family to walk through and make decisions on what we value, what we hope for, and what we stand for.  It is definitley a time of HUGE change.  A contemplative time to stay focused on God's plan for our lives.  A decision making time that will alter our lives together, forever.  May God be glorified and honored in our words and our actions. 

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.  :)

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 are 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 the 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 gotten a lttle head start on mucking out the barn by pulling it off to one side.  (actually, shoveling manure is 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 was 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 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 we 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.

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.

 

 

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.