Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

New International Version (NIV)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Smoke Around the Place Pictures


Smoke just hanging around.

Ash in the sink in the milking parlor!! It stuck on and I had to scrub it out. Don't worry we cover our milking stuff after each use!!

That blue trailer there is our hay bale feeder during the summer. You can also see the sprinkler in the back ground spraying water. I took this before milking in the morning and you can see the cows lined up on the gate waiting for me :)

I love this picture.. chicks in the back ground.. butchering equipment in the fore ground :) That tall black thing is the plucker and the smaller thing is what we use for a scalder :) And no that's not where we butcher.. it just got dropped off the other day and hasn't been moved yet. This was not as bad as the smoke got but it's the only pictures I took. At it's worst we couldn't see the trees across the road!

Rain Glorious RAIN!!! and other rambles..

Well after about 6 weeks of little to NO rain we have puddles!! What a wonderful sound is rain on a tin roof. As it is it's a bit late in the year and our neighbors, who we have a deal with for grazing, grass is dead. Ours is still alive because we've been watering like crazy people :) But we still ran out of grass about 10 days ago and the cows have been on hay for that time. Papa brought home two more bales. One for now and one for stocking up for the winter. Fall apparently is here and we are looking at the place and making 'to get done before winter and snow' lists. Firewood is mostly done but we do want to cut up some pine as we've been told that we could be in for a very cold winter. Jim, our neighbor has been in this country for 50 years and has seen it this dry only a few times (3 or 4) for this long and he remembers the winters after were VERY cold! So we are stocking up more then normal for this winter!

Billy the steer will soon be on the chopping block so I'm finishing the last of our last years steer, Bobby, out of the freezers. Believe it or not ( and I can hardly!) the beef from last year is almost gone. The hamburger is gone and we have some ribs and steaks and a couple of small roasts left. The chicks, what we've been calling our meat birds, have a few more weeks then it's their turn.

Maggie will need to be dried up soon as she's due to calve in November. She's bred to a red bull and so her calf could be red, black and white, red and white or black. I'm looking forward to meeting it. Maggie will be a good mother. Bullseye Bindy's calf from this spring is still getting about 2 gallons of milk a day and will need to be weaned before Maggie stops milking as we will not have enough milk for everyone if we don't wean him. The chicks are 7 weeks old and will be butchered just days after Maggie should be dry so that will work well. Right now the chicks are getting about 5 gallons of milk a day mixed into their feed. Bindy is milking only on the back two teats and will only fill in for Maggie until Maggie calves.

We have a new dog. His name is Brownie, he's 10 years old, and so far he's fitting in well. He has little to no interest in the animals, which is good as he doesn't chase them, and loves the kids. He does like to wander on the road though which means we have to keep him chained whenever we are not outside. We are going to give him a bit more time to settle in and hope that he breaks the habit by himself. We got Brownie and a gray female cat named Smoky from a neighbor family who had to move into the city. They have 6 kids and the dog loved them a lot!! The 1st few days after we brought him home he pouted and refused to get up or look at us when we went outside. After 3 days though and meeting the kids, which he LOVES, he's settled in and now gets excited when he sees us. The cat has been back once and we're hoping she sticks around. Oh and I have NO idea what kind of dog Brownie is, but he's cute! He's about half the size of Chip who is now a year old. Brownie and Chip have 'had it out' several times, Brownie starts it and wins! Chip is learning dog manners very fast! By day 4 the two of them were playing nicely together and enjoying each other. Though they will not share dogfood which is good as Brownie eats less then Chip and Chip could just eat all day! Brownie LOVES his food and it's totally off limits! Brownie will share his blanket!

The little pigs are still creep feeding out of the pen and totally enjoy eating what ever they can get their snouts into. Poor Bullseye often drinks so fast as to get indigestion trying to finish his milk before the pigs get there!! He can sure eat fast!! We had fireweed over our heads in the lagoon area and now that the pigs have been in there for a couple of weeks there is not a stick of it to be found. Too bad they loved my new blueberry plants as well... We sold all but 13 of the piglets so they make quite the herd wandering here and there on the acreage. They have recently found the peat moss pile by the driveway and we often see them digging away in there! People still drive really slow past our place.. I guess roaming pigs, chickens on the lawn and milk cows grazing near by are not normal sights :) Never mind the little people jumping on our 'hick' trampoline (it's up on old tires so it is not so high.) and the 'big green roof.'

Those little people sure are growing up. It's amazing to me and Papa how very fast it's all going. J will be starting home school this fall, L is riding his bike, sometimes, without training wheels, E is making people laugh everywhere with her wit, R is RUNNING and I mean she can really move!! and talking but funnily still can't jump! Baby J is smiling and rolling and can sit while leaning on something. It's amazing.. I was sure I only gave birth to him a minute ago and here he is starting school this fall! We are still having fun as a family of 7. I took all 5 of them to the Fall Fair the other day for most of the day. Papa joined us in time to have supper with us, see Glens pig (Grand Champ!!), pet a horse, watch some roping (very cool!!), and get some balloons before we headed home. The kids and I had a great day together looking at animals and petting them, playing on the playground with friends, watching the horse jumping; stock dogs working; draft horses showing, playing games and winning prizes, eating fries, cotton candy and goodies :) Baby J slept in the snugly a good part of the day which was a total blessing as he doesn't always sleep when we go out. Little R climbed up the jungle-jim half way and beamed, she was so proud of herself. J overcame his fear of heights and made it almost to the top! They stuck together well during the day and we used the 'buddy' system while walking which works great. J and R together holding hands and L and E doing the same. I had put them all in red shirts so I could easily spot them and as the day was cool they had their red sweaters on too.. boy does that every make them easy to spot in a group of kids. I took 4 pictures all day but that's ok cause they are great ones :)

One of the pictures I took at the fair! All the little Grigglets dressed in Red :)

Papa's gotten back in to the work rhythm and now that I'm doing morning chores isn't feeling quite so crazy busy and has been able to take a few deep breaths lately. I've been milking mornings for about 2 weeks now which gives Papa more sleep and less work so he's feeling like he can do more then chores at night when he gets home. I enjoy milking with the machine and Baby J is a great sleeper which makes it easy for me to help. I also feed chicks and the calf in the morning and move the chicks as needed.

J is feeding chicks most afternoons and L is our new egg collector! L gets so very excited about his eggs that I normally get a run down on color, possible spots, cleanliness, and shape of the 'interesting' ones :) I think it's funny that my kids know how many eggs go into their favorite foods and connect with the no eggs= no favorite foods mentality. If he finds 2, they think we should make cookies ('cause that's how many eggs cookies need Mom!). If we get 4 it's 'enough for ICE CREAM!' or ' for egg in a holes Mom!' J has even figured out that we can make multiple batches of things.. like 6 eggs is 3 TIMES the cookies!! ( I find this funny because my recipe says 2 eggs but I only ever use 1 for cookies.. but we say '2 eggs and we can make cookies!' Maybe because we almost never make just one batch!) He loves his math! The other day I asked him how many apples he'd have left if I gave him 2, L gave him 2, E gave him 3 and R took away 2. He figured it out super fast!! He also loves to count by twos and we were reading a book and he had to count to nine. 2, 4, 6 + 1 is 7 +2 is 9! Without my knowledge or help! He's really looking forward to school and can't wait to read so he can bury himself in a book!! LOL. Not like he doesn't now! He's constantly in their new book. It's an kids encyclopedia and he loves it!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Missed One!!

Eek I've got a bad memory these days :) This is my wonderful friend Amber who we've seen several time since Baby J was born and I kept forgetting to take pictures of! She loves to snuggle with him as according to her 'that's the size babies should be!' (Though I must say I do prefer my babies a bit smaller!! :) Both her babies were big and she loves to hold babies that were the same size, almost, as hers! Amber has been a SUPER big blessing to us in MANY ways and she is a WONDERFUL friend to have. She tells it like it is and supports us in what we want for our family!! Thank you Amber!! Her and her husband have a daughter a few months older then E and a son a few months older then R and the kids love to play together. She also gifts us with hand me downs which anyone who's ever received hand me downs KNOWS is a huge blessing!! Thank you for all you do Amber and for being a great friend!! I finally snapped this picture in a parking lot and it turned out great!! Oh and Baby J is wearing a shirt from them in the picture and you can see he loves her too!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Kids :)

Here are some recent pictures of the kids. L, this picture shows the teasing side of his character!!
Baby J relaxing in the tub! He's about 14lbs at 7 weeks old and quite the little roll boy!! He's covered in rolls :)
J with his 'smiley face' holding Baby J. J loves Baby J and loves to make him smile! Baby J is wearing an outfit from D&A!! Papa calls it his 'coat of many colors.'

E in one of her 'new' dresses that she LOVES!! She loves to prance around in them on her tiptoes singing and having a great time!
R, also in a 'new' dress and hat, looking like a little angel... she has A LOT of people fooled :) She smiles so sweet!!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Fried Fish!!

The boys were so impressed that they got to eat the fish they caught!! Papa fried them up and BOY were they good!!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Smoke Pictures..

This top one is my favorite!! Mom took this one.. show quality!! This is out at Beaumont Beach.

That's not mist that's smoke coming our way!
These were taken at the beach on the 18th of August~ Pretty nice there really as the wind off the lake kept the smoke away. This smoke was behind us in the hills behind the beach. I can not take credit for all these pictures as I did not take them all. My mom, sister Ang and I all had a time with my camera.. Mom took most of them I think :)
The sun when we could see it.. after a while we could not find it anymore. Then we went home. Kinda creepy being in twilight all afternoon. Felt like a storm was coming.


Nap Attack!








Wednesday, August 4, 2010

FISHING!!!

Grandma F called me a while ago and asked if my boys could take a day and go fishing with them out at a nearby lake. When the boys got up from their naps I told them they'd had a phone call and needed to call Grandma. (This is how she wanted to tell them.) So they put in a call to Grandma and both their faces LIT up when she asked them if they wanted to go fishing. So that night after supper Grandma and Grandpa helped them pack up some stuff; PJ's, life jackets, clothes for the next day, dug some worms in the old garden area and took the boys off to their house to spend the night before a big day of fishing. Here they are with some of their fish. J LOVES to fish and told me when they got home that now he wants to be a fisherman when he grows up. L enjoyed the day but really fishing's not his thing yet. L caught 2 fish and J caught A LOT. Most of them they released because they were too small, but they kept a few. J even casted from shore whenever they weren't in the boat! Thanks Amber for the picture :) Turns out they had a even more awesome day then was first planned. That night U. Dan and A. Amber, U. Korey and A. Ang took them with cousin O and M to the local theater where they watched Toy Story 3 in 3D!!! VERY COOL. (The boys are the 1st ones of the family to watch a movie in 3D as Papa and I haven't even done this yet!) Thanks to you ALL for giving the boys the time of their lives :) They'll be talking about that day for a LONG time yet.

Some More Baby J Pictures!

We've had quite a few visitors since Baby J was born and I've tried to take pictures of them but I've missed several. Sorry!! Here are some of them anyway :)
Auntie R in Wa. State :)

Great Granny Vivian also in Wa. State :)

Our neighbor Joy. Wonderful Grandma who loves babies :)

Had to stick this one of R in here as she looks SO pleased :)

My friend Mrs. T with Baby J on the left and Baby Boy T on the right. They are 15 days apart, Baby Boy T is older and heavier, and roughly the same size!! We got some great pictures of them together but I'm rabbiting.

Our neighbor Linda! And her daughter Kara is below. Great friends and wonderful neighbors.

My sister Ria.. in the hospital in the pictures. She's seen him several times since then.

My cousin Karina. Was wonderful to see you again!! I wish you lived closer! Oh and he's wearing a outfit from A & D here. SUPER CUTE!!

My cousin Amy :) She finally got away from the kids long enough to hold the baby. They kids LOVE HER!!

Marci, the girl M of M&M :) My cousins wife :) At the park.

Carlene, the other half of E&C, another cousins wife.. also at the park. Some of the cousins got together to play volley ball and the kids and I went to watch Papa play. They played for hours and a good time was had by all!!

Crystal, another cousin, and Karina and Amy's middle sister :) Expecting their 1st child this winter. YAY for cousins having babies :)

My sister A of A&K with little Miss Courtney her 1 year old. Courtney LOVES Baby J :)
Some people I missed was Uncle Joe, Mike, Uncle Dan, Uncle Korey, Auntie Dana, Kerrin, Suzanne, Annette, Grandma and Grandpa Griggs (though these are getting sent to me :). These are just people that are not in other posts :)

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Bullseye and Kaffi

We had the calves in a 'training pen' which is 3 strands of electric fence with little pieces of tin foil on it. They were fence trained in very little time :) Now they stay in, most of the time, with only one wire. Kaffi can tell if the fence is on or off so we keep it on and they stay in :) We put them in with the cows as sort of an experiment. IF they would behave themselves they would be helpful in the cow pen by eating the grass the milk cows won't. The 1st day was fine.. the second day Papa got only a gallon and a tiny bit from Maggie.. and I heard Kaffi sucking when I walked by. Didn't see him do it but the evidence was there!! Bullseye also got all the calves milk that night as Kaffi was not interested! Some one was a thief!! So they got their own calf pen in the back close to the lagoon. Bullseye is 2 months old already and Kaffi is 6 weeks older then him so they could both be weaned but Papa has taught them both to drink out of a bucket so all we do is pour the milk into the bucket and they both stick their noses in and GULP GONE!! LOL. Sometimes there is a little pushing involved :) Kaffi will be going home here as soon as his owner comes to get him. He's old enough to be weaned, his owner is home now, and he's kind of a trouble maker :) He steals milk and gets out when ever the fence is off.

Happy Pigs and a Walking feed bag :)

Papa had 4 days off this weekend and we used it to do 2 things. Catch up on some farm stuff and REST!! I'm happy to report we did both very well. In fact our 'to do' list was finished by day 3 and day 4 was spent doing pretty much whatever we wanted with an evening out at Grandpa and Grandma's to top off the weekend!! Very nice.

One of the 'to do's was to move all the animals. The chicks got moved out, the cow's got the neighbors pasture we rent, Billy the steer got a path to more water as his was out thanks to almost no rain in 6 weeks, the calves got a new piece of their own as Kaffi steals milk!, and the pigs got a new pen farther from the house. We had to keep them close by for selling purposes. The creep feeder and catching area was in the straw bale barn so as long as we had people coming to pick up pigs we needed to have them by the barn. I'm happy to report that we sold 8 little weaner pigs and have decided to keep the remaining 13 ourselves. We will be selling butcher hogs this fall!! We are also planning on keeping our sows to breed again next year :)

Papa, the "Walking Feed Bag" bringing the last of a bag of chop to the pigs. The bucket is a mix of grain and milk. The pigs are also getting several gallons of milk a day.

A happy sow in the new pen.

Some little piglets eating the dumped grain. Several people have commented on the size of these weaners. One man who got weaners from us and from some one else said that ours were much bigger then the others he'd gotten. Maybe even as much as half again as big! He said that they were all roughly the same age as well. Papa thinks these weigh as much as 75lbs.

Chicks are Out!!

These are our broiler chicks this year! They are a month old in the picture and outside at last. We normally put them out at 3 weeks but it's been too crazy, but a week late is not too bad. We found they moved out much easier and wanted to stay out much faster! Bonus!! They spent the 1st four weeks in the barn you see in the back there. The wheel barrow is full of a mixture of ground grains, supplement, and milk. The chicks are getting several gallons of milk a day mixed into their food. We are also doing the Willard's water in their water this year as we had GREAT results with this feeding solution last year. So far out of 208 birds we got from the hatchery we have lost 4. Two were VERY tiny and one was scarred on it's rear.
Can your Cornish Giant Cockerels do this? LOL. Happy healthy birds!! This morning when I went out to feed there was close to 10 of them in the wheel barrow!!
These birds will get moved farther away from the barn, they are already cut off from it, today. From now on they will be moved inside the electric netting every 2 days for the 1st little bit and then every day as they get big enough to use the whole space in one day. Their feeders get moved everyday even if the pen does not so that they graze the whole area. The feeders are old eves troughing which work great as they tip if they stand on them and are really light to move! They will go out on our newly scythed piece in the next few days. In this way they will mow a lot of our grass in the next 4 weeks. They eat bugs, grass, seeds and whatever else they can find and fertilize the ground as they go! In 4 or 5 weeks we'll butcher them and they'll be our chicken for the year. Yes we really do eat that much chicken :) We have a standing trade with one couple, hay for chicken and milk, for 50 of them but the rest will go into our freezer.