Little Corn Huskers :)

From the looks on their faces you would think it's a horrible chore, but it really isn't. They totally enjoyed it!! This was the last of 2 boxes of corn got for a steal of a deal :) There is still some to be eaten or something but I had the kids husk it all so I could tell if it was molding or anything. Most of it was fine. The pigs really enjoyed the husks! In the back there you can see Baby J on the 'outdoor playpen' also known as the Trampoline!! :) 

Scratch Coat is FINISHED!!!

Looks serious doesn't it?? We needed to get the last bit of scratch coat mix up on the roof so we could finish off the top part of the wall above the trailer and seal the straw off completely. We did get it up there... and the scratch coat is NOW FINISHED!!! Papa ended up adding several more pallets under the wheel barrow and then he pushed and I pulled and TA DA the wheel barrow was on the roof!! No I did not hurt myself! We both were very careful! Once the mix was up on the roof the plastering took no time at all (we are getting pretty good at it :) Papa did need a little more and did have to make up a bit more to finish it off but it's DONE DONE DONE now!!! YAY!!! 

A Little Miss R Update.

Little Miss R is really growing up!! She loves her babies and packs them around a lot. Here she is using a blanket which started out as a cape as a baby back pack. She's quite the little mother!! She's been growing lately and getting clumsy.. hopefully she stops growing so fast before the wedding where she's the flower girl in October! She would really like to be doing school with E and L and one day I teased J that he knew the program so well maybe I'll get him to teach her and before I knew it R was digging in E's drawer to find her box with her pencil, eraser and glue, and ran up to J and told him she was ready. Teach ME!!  J looked bewildered and asked me if he was suppose to start now?? lol. She's still only 3 so even though she can sing the songs and say the sounds we'll not be starting her reading program anytime soon. She really has very little fine finger control but that is simply a maturity thing.  She is enjoying learning to draw and color in the lines and doing sort of a kindergarten with L and E's grade one.

3 Little Stories :)

A Sand Story:  Papa took the truck to the 'city' the other day and picked up about a ton of sand for our plastering. Too bad our new skid steer could not pick it up out of the trailer as the sand was too heavy for it to lift over the side of the trailer!! So Papa shoveled a bunch of sand into a second feed bag and tried to take the smaller bag out with the skid steer!! Well.. the bag ripped right open and all the sand landed in the bottom of the trailer!! When Papa tried to take the larger bag out it slipped to the back of the trailer and this 

was the result!! In the picture Papa is already shoveling sand to the front of the trailer to try and get it to level out.. it never did he just emptied more sand from the bag to the trailer and took the bag out. Chip is never far from Papa when he's home. See him laying beside the trailer?

J was a great helper.. holding out the straps so Papa could put the forks in them. 

Ready for lift off!! 

Bringing it to the 'mixing area' :) J looking on, feeling a bit cocky I think :) 

A Note About The Skid Steer: This is the same skid steer, or bobcat, that Papa used to borrow from work.  We recently bought it from his bosses for our farm workhorse. Papa's work got a newer one!  We needed something to move bags of feed, bales, what have you around on the farm. We're also really looking forward to using on steer butchering day to hang and move our dead steers!! No more cutting into quarters and wrestling the chunks of meat into the back of the travelall. Now we'll be able to hang it right up to skin etc and then place it right into a plastic lined trailer to take to the butcher or to hang in the yard to cure before we cut and wrap it ourselves. I have to admit I really wasn't super keen on buying it, even thought we got it at a GREAT price, but Papa was quite insistent and so far it's making BOTH our lives easier. I can't wait to do forest clearing next spring as the skid steer will make moving cut logs so much easier without having to cut every log into firewood sized chunks. It also makes moving bags of feed SUPER easy and it's so much nicer to have the feed close to the animals that are eating it :) I have to admit though that we'd probably still be talking it over if it hadn't been for my brother Danny.. we had them over for supper one night and he told us he'd give his left arm for a skid steer (and his right for an airplane:) as it would be so helpful with his business. I knew some day we'd need something to help with the lifting work on the farm but I'd hope to put it off for a few more years.. and quite honestly.. I was hoping to have a bit more house built and paid for first. Papa got a nice $$ bonus for competing his IP test, the final of all 4 apprentice years, and it paid for most of the skid steer. 

A Cow Story: Maggie LOVES the skid steer!! You can see her in a couple of the pictures. They must have fed her with one at the dairy and she RUNS over to see what it's up to every time Papa drives it! Often MOOOOOing and looking impatient! 

A Baby Cuddle.

I've always enjoyed taking pictures of Papa snuggling with the newest Griggs baby but Baby J never would cuddle with him long enough for me to grab my camera. Well lately Papa has been getting all the Baby J snuggles and I finally got my picture!! Late is always better then never :) 

Inside Scratch Coat Finished!!

Papa and I got the last of the inside scratch coat on the straw bale walls the other day :) This was the biggest wall and it took FOUR loads of plaster to finish!! 

Looks great hey?? I love the look of it before Papa scratches it! So nice and smooth and much more like the finished project should look. You can see Papa's not quite done in the bottom picture.. he's sitting on top of a ladder in the top left corner finishing the last little be up!! This corner will be the 1st spot brown coated as we want to be able to move the wood stove into place before we start using it daily. Papa has a few days off and we are trying to get at least that area done for the winter. The brown coat is all mixed and in the 'tub' (see bath pictures below) which has been lined with plastic. The tub is ALMOST FULL and might be enough to finish the brown coat completely. We're really not sure how much plaster it will take. He used up pretty much all the sand that he brought home the other day! 

The BIG TUB!!!

The kids were so excited, the warm water hose from inside had been running warm water for over 30 minutes, the weather was warm enough for a bit of a bath!! Finally, Mom said, Get NAKED!!! Oh well wait.. keep your underwear on!! lol.

Stripping, it's amazing how fast 4 little people can get mostly naked! Yes, it's fall and yes R and E are wearing sweaters because it really isn't all that warm outside! 

Mad dash to the tub and a frantic crawling in! 

Sitting enjoying the nice warm water. They all thought it was a bit too warm at first but it didn't take long and they were all splashing and playing and sliding down the sides of the tub. The ridges on the edges are GREAT for standing on and jumping into the water!! 

After quite a while had passed I stuck Baby J in there too.. he didn't much care for it at first but it didn't take long and he was splashing with the rest of them. While we were there we might as well get clean :) Papa brought us some shampoo and some towels and we did a 5 head scrub! 

Kind of an expensive tub right?? Yes it is. It's not just a tub, actually it's not really a tub at all. Papa and I needed something that would be dual purpose. A large tub or something that would be able to hold cooling chickens and our plastering mix. This cow waterer is the best 'bang for our buck'  for the size we wanted. It will be easy to line with plastic for chicken butchering day or for the plaster! It's sturdy enough to hold all our chickens or an entire coats worth of plaster.. and bonus it makes a pretty cool tub or summer time pool for the kids!! Besides those 3 things I have a feeling we'll find many more uses for it.. For instance, I just thought of this..  I bet it would make a great pen for chicks or small critters!! It might even be put to use as a outside play pen :) 

In Other News :)

What is this?? Have they finally come to their senses and realized that it's all together TOO much to homeschool 3 kids, have 3 more, have a farm and run a household... etc etc.

NOPE we have not!! 

Yesterday our great neighbor Mike brought a friend of his over with his little boy, about 8 years old, to see the piglets. They got the farm/straw bale house tour and after they'd left my kids all came RUNNING to me!! Mom!! Do you know what he said!! He LIED!!! They were horrified, not that they don't lie on a fairly regular bases, but it was WHAT he'd lied about that hit them where it hurt!! The little boy, remember we don't know this family at all and after yesterday we'll not go out of our way to make relationships!, told our kids.. 'You wont learn NOTHING homeschooling!!' I soothed the kids with reassurances about everything that they are learning, including manners!!   Ok time to hop off the box!!

Papa got a phone call the other day and from the glint in his eye I knew it was no good!! I could just TELL!!! As I was sitting beside him I got to hear quite a bit of the phone call and by the end I'd put my .02 in. Papa laughed with the guy on the phone as he explained and there was no point in him having to listen to us argue about it and he'd call him back in a bit. I knew it would be a LONG bit!!  It really wasn't. Once I'd heard the whole thing and gotten a few considerations.. hee hee.. I didn't really have a problem with the idea. The guys name was John and he's somehow or other involved with one of our local Christian schools, several years ago the school had problems with one of their buses and brought it up to see if the guys where Papa works could fix it. They figured out the problem but it ran to too much money to fix it. The school ended up getting a different bus instead and still has it to this day. When the bus had been in for repairs Papa had told John that if they ever wanted to get rid of it to let him know. It has a diesel motor in it that he really wanted for one of our trucks. WELL!!! Yup you guessed it.. two years later and they want to get rid of the bus. John remembered what Papa had said and gave him a call. There were a few things that really cinched the deal... #1 it was free.  #2. It runs.. but will not start unless you use either, not a problem as I do NOT plan on EVER driving it. #3. Papa can fix it :) #4. It makes a GREAT playhouse!! :) #5. We can take some seats out and convert it to an RV for camping. Rough but better then paying through the nose for an actual RV and we don't camp all that often so rough is fine! #6. Papa really does want the motor for one of his trucks. #7. The kids love it. They got to drive home with Papa in the bus and man oh man the smiles were face cracking!! I SO wish I'd remembered my camera!

And we have a great place to park it!! At least for now.. we'll see how old it gets having a bus within view of the house. The spot where the bus is parked is a dead spot in our otherwise lush acreage..We're not sure why as it's been seeded and babied for several years. Papa thinks maybe because of the trees right behind it. 

Oh yeah... and the funnest thing of ALL... Internationals do make buses.. they are everywhere but this one just happens to be made by 

Bahahahahhahahaha!!! (It is also our 1st ford EVER!!, Papa says AND LAST!!)

Oh and before you think now we're going to go crazy with buses.. one of the 'considerations' was that there WILL NEVER BE TWO BUSES ON OUR PLACE AT ONE TIME!! They may pass in the driveway but may never linger!! Papa still dreams of owning a International Bus you see but as far as this homeschooling, do it yourself-er, mother, wife and all around farm apprentice, never mind chief cook and bottle washer, is concerned.. ONE BUS IS ENOUGH!!! 

What Has Been Eating The Apples??

Looks like something very hungry has been snacking on my apples...a Hungry Little Baby J!!! 

Yes I keep my fruit in a wipes box :) It USED to live on the floor in the kitchen but we recently had to move it to the counter... seems we have a HUNGRY HUNGRY BOY in our house who just needed a nibble here and there!! I had told him not to touch.. and he didn't.. I found him leaning over 'bobbing' for bites with his hands tucked to his sides :) He was trying SO hard to obey!!  Only his mouth made contact!! 

Heehee Look What I Can DO!!!

Yup Baby J is climbing chairs!! And OH SO proud of himself!!