Yet another update from us. March 2010

Papa was home for 3 days and just about ran me into the ground. Man that guy can work. So today I'm taking mostly off. Doing a bit of laundry, dishes and 'have to's' but no projects or anything too ambitious. Good time to sit for a bit and update you all.

J is growing again. Yup he's stretched up again and went from size 13 winter boots to size 3 boys summer shoes!! Eek. Papa and I have given him the laying hens as his daily chore for the summer. Which includes feeding, watering, and collecting eggs every day. There are only 13 hens so we think he can handle it. When they get out of the barn I'll still move the electric netting pens around every few days but he'll do the rest. Papa took him out yesterday and showed him which feed and how much oyster shell to give them as well as how and where to get the water and where to put all this stuff. L is going to help but it will be J's chore. J also recently lost his 3rd tooth! All three on the bottom and has a adult tooth coming in to the empty hole already. He says his top 2 middles are also loose and another one on the bottom side!! He never did do anything half way when it came to teeth. As a 10 month old he got 3 in 4 days and again as a 2 year old with his two year molars. He has always been a great teether though and still is!!

L is growing again as well as is very obvious by his slow thinking and comprehension when we try and get him to do something. He only has 1 speed for anything while his body is busy growing and it is often confused with breathing... yes he's that slow!! (and yes he gets that from me.. I'm Mrs. Swiss Cheese brain during this~Papa says ALL but I don't think so..but not that I remember~ pregnancies.) It's amazing to me how much he puts into his growing. His mind is still constantly working and he comes up with the neatest stuff. Last night he told me the 'creature' in his throat wanted him to cough.. and no mom I'm NOT sick. He also has very thoughtful answers to our 'what are you thankful for' question at our nightly family devo's. His nightly prayers show a lot of thinking as well in the way he thanks God for everything from birthdays to babies to toys and sunshine. Yesterday he informed me that with B&B coming over soon we better put the 'squishes' away (these are those toy lizards and things they have with the beads in them) as Mr. B is very naughty with them!! These toys stretch and snap if used wrongly and REALLY HURT!! LOL. They never stay out for long and this last time within 3 days only 1 of the 4 children were allowed to play with them as the other 3 had used them BADLY and gotten the privilege taken away! Mr. B and the boys have 'wars' with them and I normally hide them before he comes over :) Sorry B!! LOL.

E has hair. I know amazing.. but really last night I braided her hair for the 1st time. Her hair is getting long enough that I'll be able to pull it back and DO things with it now. It is still very thin (Moulder side!! Thanks a bunch!) but at least it is growing. She is now growing out of most of her clothes.. pants and dresses anyway and I'm going to have to bite the bullet and sew some of the larger pants in a bit so she can wear more of what she has. She still loves to wear dresses but has a new need to be outside with the boys. They have a great time. Walking thru puddles in their rubber boots and looking so cute in their little red jackets. We are working on word pronounce-ing with her lately as she is lazy with a lot of her words. That is one area that L has recently bested her at and it's all of a sudden much more noticeable in her. We aren't pushing it yet as we hope she'll out grow it like he did.

R since turning 2 has not become a terror of a two year old but has decided that if she's a 'big girl' we'd better treat her like one!! So there! She gets quite mad if I give everyone else a chore and forget her!! For those of you who know us a bit we toilet train right after they turn 2 and R was more ready then I was. We had 9 'opps' in the 1st week and only 3 this week so far (that's one a day). Today for the 1st time she told me all by herself that she had to pee.. before she peed and then went pee on the toilet!! Way to go R!! She still wears Travel underwear (pull ups) for bed and naps but we'll get to that :) She still prefers to be inside with me and today while I update you she's been reading books, making soup (pretend), talking up a storm and playing with her toys while the other 3 are outside playing with the dog and the trampoline and running off energy!

Baby Jesse is still growing inside me and I'm now in the 3rd trimester. He weighs about 2 lbs now and can hear us and open and close his eyes. He is starting to sleep more which is nice as the constant tap tap tap gets old after a while. J, L and E have all felt him move with their hands on my belly which they think is great. Papa has too.. which surprised us both as he normally doesn't until later. E has finally 'gotten' that he's a BOY and his name is Jesse. R could really care less about my growing tummy but loved to see 2 week old Baby Chloe on Sunday and was very concerned when she cried! Coming in to check on her every time she made a peep. So far the kids are 15 months (J and L), 17 months (L and E) and 19 months (E and R) apart so it will be a bit different for us this time with them 28 months apart. We are looking forward to meeting him face to face. Yesterday Papa brought in the newborn boy clothes which I need to wash and they are so cute and so tiny!! It will be wonderful to have a baby in the house again!! Oh I'm feeling pretty good too. I'm getting more active now that it's nice outside and doubt I'll even gain any weight this month.. very normal for me as I'm overweight to begin with. I've gained a total of 7lbs so far which is also fairly normal for me. With each of the girls I only gained 15lbs and lost it all before I left the hospital. I'm hoping to be able to do that again with Jesse. I'm still milking the cow and I'm finding it a bit more comfy now as my belly sits nicely between my legs as I milk.. before it felt like I was going to fall over all the time and now I seem to have found my balance! Not that I want to milk much longer as my hips and shoulders like it less and less.

Papa has only 2 more days of work this week before going to school next Monday. School will last 12 weeks and we have been preparing for this for the last couple months. Our April budget is already done. Praise God! Which is a load off our shoulders. He will be receiving UI but not for the 1st 2 weeks so it's nice to know the months $$ is there for use already!! He has 13 Saturdays off in a row and we are looking forward to every one of them :) This 1st Saturday we are heading to a town about 2.5 hours from us for a conference! Papa apprenticed with Joel Satatin before we were married and he is speaking at this conference this weekend and we are going to hear him speak. The kids are spending the time with Grandpa and Grandma F and are really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to it too as I get 'itchy feet' this time of year and I'm sure an 18 hour day will cure it :) I'm also looking forward to meeting Joel as I heard a LOT about him from Papa but I've never met him.

The 1st day of spring was last Saturday and it's actually starting to feel springish! The snow is melting rapidly and we've had a few rain showers which really takes snow away in a hurry. Under the snow is some green grass which is waiting for the ground to thaw so it can start to grow again. The grass is a very soggy place to walk and has puddles all over it. The kids have a great time running around in their rubber boots splashing and generally being kids and having fun. The pussy willows are starting but the poplar trees are still not bringing their sap up yet which is great as we are thinning more of them out and it's nice to have lighter dryer wood to haul as the sap makes them heavy and wet.

Papa has been working after work, and these last few days, cutting down trees and piling and burning the branches while stacking the firewood into piles. I help as much as I can but my energy levels are no wear near his. The boys have been helping too and get a real kick out of throwing branches into the fires. They also help with the little pieces of firewood and are great help moving these around. No particular area is finished per say but trees are down all over and I'd like to say we are over half done thinning the acre behind the house. The orchard area is still covered in snow and while there is only a bit to do there the trees that are down are still frozen in.. so it has to wait. Most of the work we've been doing you can't even see from the house which is disappointing.

Now that we have Chip we decided to fence our 5 acres totally in. Which sounds like a lot of work but isn't really as all but the front and a 1/4 of one side are already fenced. Actually as of last night only the front needs to be fenced. We finished the right side (looking from the road) last night just before it got dark. There was a OLD barbwire fence there that was more on the ground then up which we took out and put up hog wire fencing in instead. When we moved here there was a hog wire fence right behind the house blocking off the house area from the bush which we took down years ago as it was in the way. So we used that wire to fence this side piece. Amazingly we found enough hog wire around the place to fence that whole side and about 20 feet of the front!! Nice!! There are very few posts down this line but the trees are quite thick so we tightened the fence and then tied it to the trees with poly rope. The corner at the front was the only place we had to put in a post (2 actually) and the digging was easy. The holes filled with water really fast as this area is flooding at the moment. Yes I had to wear my rubber boots and later asked Papa if he would buy me new feet. I DISLIKE my rubber boots (They HURT my feet no matter what I do!) and would MUCH rather have cold wet feet then wear them.. but when your walking through about a foot of water.. you wear them. If for no other reason then to set a good example to the little people.

First thing Monday morning I headed to town to get my gestational diabetes test done. They test for this every time and so far I've not had it. With J I was close but I've been told that's very common with a 1st pregnancy. Anyway they test for it as a matter of course up here. This year the doc asked me to fast for the night and do it 1st thing in the morning. No big deal. So I hopped in the car and ran into town. This test is a 2 step thing as you have to drink a nasty sweet drink and then wait for an hour and then get your blood tested. So I drink the nasty stuff and the tec hands me a timer? What? This is new. Turns out they no longer let you leave the hospital for the hour between drinking and testing. SO I spent an hour walking (climbing) the walls of our very small and as it turns out boring hospital. I sure did wish I'd thought to bring my crocheting.I could have gotten tons done!! But it wasn't all bad I got to see and chat with one of my aunts who was waiting for her daughter in x rays and then later for the ER. She's fine.. totalled her car but she has a hard head!! Looked like she'd been in a fist fight with her eye all swollen almost shut and a cut over one eye. Thankfully she was going rather slow when it happened or it could have been much worse. After the timer finally went off and they took several tubes of blood from my arm I jumped in the car and raced to the J&S to feed myself my 1st meal in over 12 hours and finally get a drink of water!! By this time it was 10:30 and I didn't get home til 11!!

Papa wanted to bring the bull home Monday morning so when I finally did get home I headed out to milk Maggie while he took the fence down and grabbed a bucket of sweet mix to lure the bull home. Bindy was locked up by the milking area with her own sweet mix and neither of them moved a muscle when Brutus the bull finally left our small 5 acres. (It's truly amazing how much smaller 1 bull can make an already small area!!) Brutus lives behind our lease and his owner Jim had plowed a road from his place into the lease so Papa could bring him home easier. As Brutus is an absolute PIG for sweet mix this worked great. And Papa said he was off our piece in less then 5 minutes!! The whole move took almost 2 hours as Papa had a ways to go before he could find a gate and get the bull in with Jim's cows. Then on his way back he paced off some of the lease and revamped our map when he got home. Brutus the Bull behaved rather well the whole time he was here only giving Papa a head shake and jump at once but I guess he got a bit worked up on the way home and Papa said he was snorting and cavorting for a while. Thankfully he has enough respect for humans and loves his bucket too much to do any damage. One thing we didn't expect is for him to wreck the barn. It turns out a 2000lb bull can push over a large square bale if he really wants too. Thankfully of the 2 he pushed over only one was actually helping to hold the trusses up and they tipped a little but are still up. Papa is sure he can fix it in minutes the next time he brings the bobcat home. Oh the surprises animals love to bestow on us. :)

Papa did chores for Jim recently while they were gone on a trip and on their return Jim stopped in and brought us a block of cheese. Not just any cheese mind you!! Tillamook cheese from the states!! YUMMO!! Cheese were we are is 3rd rate at best and any 'real' cheese we get is a real treat! Jim remembers this almost every year on their trip and brings us a block. What a sweetheart!! He also was quite concerned about Bindy as it was his bummer bull last year and he is really determined she WILL calve this year. He walked out to her and checked her out. He thinks she could be bagging up and says we should be able to tell in the next month or so if she is. I've been watching her and I think he's right. But what do I know. I was convinced last year that she was going to calve!! I'm leaving all 'breeding issues' to others this year and hopefully many more to come :) On that same note.. it looks like Maggie will calve in Oct which will give us a nice stretch between Bindy and Maggie for freshening purposes and it's still early winter and not too cold for calving.

Well since I've been typing this up the kids have come inside for lunch and then they are all headed to bed. I think I'm going to have some lunch myself and then I might go play in the puddles outside, in my shoes :), and see if I can't get some of them to drain off. Oh and I'm expecting a movie in the mail so I'll check that too.

~The sun is shining, the snow is melting, the water is running and we are all healthy and blessed!~

Until next time; May God Bless you and keep you in the safety of His hand!!!

R's 2 Year Old Birthday!!

The Cake!
The happy Birthday girl. She got to pick her dress. It's actually E's dress but she REALLY wanted to wear it and it fit long but nice on top.

Blowing out the candles. She blew out the 1st one but the 2nd one was taking FOREVER and Papa blew with her and made sure to blow it out.

Pretty in Pink. She's getting ready to open gifts.

The 1st gift was a real HIT. See how she tucks her legs under her dress. She sat like that for most of the gift opening. What a little princess.

After the cake! She had 2 cupcakes and a scoop of home made ice cream and loved every bite on her princess plate! Oh and 'pink' pop in her princess cup!!

Beans

One of my winter projects was to use up some the dried beans I have stored in buckets. These are just small red beans great for chili or re fried beans or things of that sort. Canning them makes them a LOT easier to use up as I can never remember to soak them the night before. All in all canning beans is very simple and quick. I used the salt only recipe in the Ball canning book for these. I want to do more yet but as spring appears to be on it's way it likely won't happen unless we get another cold spell. Even then I've several other unfinished projects that need doing as well.

Pig Hauling... Lester the boar goes home!!

The Travelall with it's International pickup bed trailer we use for everything.

Lester the boar pig is in a crate in the back in this picture.

Our 3 girls in the crate while poor Lester, who is supposed to be in it, tries to get in!!

All 3 of our girls fit no problem but only one would have fit with Lester!! He's a big pig!!

Lester beside one of our 'girls'. He weighs in at 550lbs and makes her look small. She's over 200lbs. Probably closer to 250lbs.

Papa and Lester (who didn't have a name until he got home and his owners wife told us what she named him.) He is a great pet pig and super friendly and loves a good scratch.

Lester's owner only has Sundays off these days as log truck driving is a 6 day a week while you can get it job up here. So we made plans to drop Lester off one Sunday afternoon.. if we could get him in the trailer. Hungry pigs are better movers then full pigs so Lester and our girls went without Saturday in hopes that we could convince him to climb up into the trailer. As you can see from the pictures that was not a problem. It went really smooth. In fact the biggest problem we faced was to get our girls OUT of the crate so Mr. Lester could get in. Papa pushed and prodded and slapped a few noses and finally they did get out of the crate and Lester got in!! It was amusing to watch. Those girls of ours REALLY thought that crate was REALLY SOMETHING!!!

When we told the kids what they had done J said 'while maybe they can go for a ride some day." Not at all likely and after I explained to him that they were going to stay forever on our farm first with their babies and then in our freezer he understood and felt sorry for them. They did get to ride in the travelall when we got them and that's the only ride they get! (This fact helped J to feel much better :)

On our way to Lester's home we stopped for fuel at our local stop and a lady in a car next to us had a bit of a scare. She saw the big black thing in the crate on the trailer and told Papa "I thought it was a BEAR!!" Black pigs are quite rare around here still.

Well we got to Lester's home place with no troubles and after finding out where to drop him off Papa backed the trailer in and got ready to unload him. How we unloaded him when we got him was simple. Drop the hitch off the travelall and jack the front of the trailer up and open the back of the crate. The crate is held down with a strap and stays in the trailer. Worked great. So instead of getting a tractor to pick up the crate and then unloading the pig and then reloading the crate we figured we would do what we did at home.

At our place Lester had a bit of a problem going backwards down the tailgate into the pen but with 3 girls encouraging him he figured it out in about 2 minutes. When we brought him home they wanted him in a boar pen, alone, out quite a way away from his women and their new piglets. He wasn't too keen on it. It took 3 guys, 2 poles (to go thru the crate so he couldn't go forward), a bucket of grain, and about 10 minutes of 'fuss' before they got him out. Papa was at one point IN the crate with him and at the end had a hold of Lester's back leg and helped to PULL him out!! Lester was NOT impressed!! But as soon as his head was out he stuck it in a pile of grain and promptly forgot why he was mad!! What a great pig!!

After the fuss getting him out we all headed inside for coffee and a visit. The kids had a great time reading books with the teenage girls of a friend who happened to be visiting Lester's owners when we got there and we all enjoyed a nice visit, coffee and goodies before packing up and heading to drop the crate off and my uncle Joe's place.

When we got there Uncle Joe came out and helped Papa unload the pig crate (but not without getting his Sunday pants dirty.) then he and I walked over to see his pigs and feed them before we headed to the house for more coffee and another great visit with him and his wife.. Tanta Susan. Hours, and faspa, later we headed home with a great feeling of friends and family. But the day wasn't done yet.

We were now pulling an empty trailer so we stopped off at our grain pickup place and picked up a mini bag of pig grain. Thankfully they have a self serve system and we were able to load it at 11pm with out any problems. R sang at the top of her lungs all the whole way home, happy as a lark and no one even fell asleep even though it was quarter to 12 when they finally climbed into bed.