It's a BIRTHDAY BOY.

Yeah I know it's a bit late. I thought I'd already posted them but I rechecked and umm yeah, here you go!!

L turned 4 years old the other day and boy did we have FUN. This 1st picture is him after he 'helped' make his birthday cake. Every birthday they get to help and every birthday they really are more help. J can almost make his own!! The 1st time I looked at this picture I had to blink and look again. L looks JUST like a mini Uncle Danny in this picture. My brother Danny has a goatee and mustache like L has in the picture and they are surely related!!

This is him with his "birthday." Some of you may remember that before the kids birthday we take them into the local $$ store and they get to pick plates, napkins, cups and one 'special thing' for their birthday party. Normally this cost us less then $10 and makes the day for the child!! L has always called these things 'his birthday' and they wait in the 'birthday bag' until the party when he gets to open them and put them out ready to use. He really wanted a tiger cake. 1st it was a white tiger with black strips. Easy I thought. Then he changed it to a orange tiger with black stripes. EEEK. But it worked out. When I finished with the cake L came over to have a look and said. "Where is my tiger!!" and I thought OH NO. But I'd taken a picture of it, it really did look little like a tiger from close up, and he was very happy with it after that. He, as you can see, was VERY EXCITED!! :)
Here is a picture of the group of children. The T family came to help us celebrate and M&A and family also came later for cake. Uncle K and Auntie A and M and C came the next day to surprise him. Grandma and Grandpa F missed the party but we saw them a few days before the 'big day' so that was great. The T family has 3 children. A girl and 2 boys all with T names (the Papa and Momma have T names as well) and they are all 1 to 3 months younger then our oldest 3 children. They all get along great as well. So we always have a party with the T family. Oh and their last name is T too :)

Here is L blowing out his 'ducks' one of the things he picked out at the $$ store.

L loves CARS and has wanted a "Mac" for a long time. So he got one for his birthday. It was quite the sought after toy that evening as all 4 of the little boys wanted it and all 4 had to share!!! The next day L played with it ALL day and loves it still. Papa's grandparents send $$ up for the kids birthdays and Christmases every year and the "Mac" was actually from Granny and Bruce. Which the kids think is really special.

Easter Eating Fun.

We had a family of friends visit us over Easter (yes I'm catching up!! Sorry!!) and we had a great time. They had never been to our place up north and we enjoyed showing them around. Their 13 year old daughter took some of the wildlife pictures in the "We went for a drive and what did we see." We fixed up our camper for them and they spent 2 dry and warm nights in it. :) Bonus!! LOL. They loved our homemade ice cream!! Papa grew up with B (the dad) and we knew them as a family when we all lived in the same town several years ago. We drove down to visit them 3 years ago so they had seen J and L but had only seen E and R through pictures. Their girls are reaching teenage dome and so now was a great time to get us all together again. We went to a local Church we visit when our home church is canceled and we had a Easter dinner and egg hunt afterwards in the yard. Papa and B had fun hiding the eggs and D and I had a great time helping the kids find them and taking pictures. We also had a Bible reading and Papa explained to the children the meaning of Easter and why we celebrate it. Here is D with a mouth full of chocolate.
Oh where Oh where have those little eggs gone. We thought the kids had found them all that day but we found several more over the next 2 weeks.
J careful in all he does. Even chocolate. Though he did end up with some on his face.

R LOVES CHOCOLATE!! Yes in capital letters even. She adores it. So I made it as painless as possible so she could eat hers in peace and without too much mess.

L playing with a hollow egg. Kept him busy for a long time. Great times.

E stuffing her face with chocolate!! Monkey!!

C being a good sport and letting the little children go for the easy ones. You can see here how long ago this was. We now have green grass where the fort was.

All the kids lined up in a row. C (13) , J (5) , D (10) , L (4), E (2) and R (1).

I never did get a picture of their whole family. Which I had wanted. Maybe she'll see this and send me one!! :) Love you guys.

Chicks.

Well we've been busy around here again. Some of you have noticed and asked for updates. Sorry it is spring and farm life is taking over!! I have had a bit of time to write so here you go.

Exciting days are here again. OK. Well. Most days are exciting around here all year round. But spring time is REALLY exciting. The snows pretty much all melted. As amazing as it sounds the green grass grew up around the snow this year!! We barely had a 'brown season' at all. The grass is not long enough to put anything on it yet but it's coming fast and today's rain will sure help. We ordered 200 Cornish meat birds, cocks only as it actually cheaper that way!, and we've spent a couple days getting ready for them. The brooder, we are using the chicken barn this spring as our plans for a straw bale brooder got pushed back another year in the spring rush. I tacked up chicken wire to separate the barn in half, stapled a clear bag over the only window, piled shavings, and generally sealed the barn with paper feed bags. Then I got two garbage cans full and waiting (one of water and one of feed) and placed them in the other half of the barn for easy access. Papa took some left over tin and rounded out the corners so the chicks won't pile up. If you don't do this they will pile up in the corners and the ones on the bottom with die, a night of piling and you can loose a LOT of birds. I saved eggs for several weeks and hard boiled them. We always feed our new chicks hard boiled eggs mashed with cream for the 1st several days after hatching. We find this gives them a considerable head start and we have very few deaths. The cream is where the nutrients are in cows milk and so we mix that in to get those great nutrients into the chicks quickly. They love the mix and go crazy for it. I'm glad they like it. To me the smell of cooked eggs gets in to my nose and refuses to leave. YUCK. This time the pot of 'mush' is staying OUTSIDE. I searched the place over and finally found the chick waterer's and feeders and got them in and ready. Papa took the Travelall to town and picked up a mini bag of feed from a local farmer. We'll likely go through a few mini bags of feed and Papa makes sure the protein level is right for the age of the birds. Papa made us some lights to hang low to keep them the right temperature at all times. And then we were ready for chicks. Just in time too..

Papa had to work so the kids and I headed to town to pick up chicks in the Travelall. We got to the feed store and after waiting in line for 20 minutes FINALLY got our chicks. Good thing I grabbed a cart as they didn't even offer to help me get them out to the truck. So with R in the front of the cart, and J, L and E walking behind, I balanced the two boxes of chicks on the top of the cart and we slowly made our way outside and to the Travelall. The chicks got the front seat and poor R got a shock when she stuck her finger in one of the air holes. A chick pecked her!! She didn't cry but she jerked her hand back and stared!! The box was ALIVE!! LOL. The other 3 children were SUPER excited!! We drove home with our ears echoing with 'peep, peep, peep, PEEEP' and got those babies in the brooder and under the lights where they belong. Here they are home at last. The egg cartons on the floor are full of the egg mixture. We ordered 200 meat birds and received 208, and 10 layers (sex links) and got 10. Tomorrow they will be a week old and we have lost 2 meat birds and 1 layer. Not so shabby!! Here they are in the brooder that 1st day. It looks a lot fuller now. Boy do they ever grow fast.

R, after the first shock, really liked the chicks. She was very gentle without being told which amazes me. She is a little mother-er already!! E, below, was SO PROUD of these 'peepers' as you can see. You would have thought she'd hatched them herself!!L wasn't too sure about the whole 'big deal' which doesn't really surprise me. He'd much rather see a backhoe or some kind of equipment. But he did want to hold one and did enjoy it. So maybe it'll grow on him. J, below, loves the 'peepers' and could hardly wait to hold one. When anyone comes over he's right there asking if they want to see our chicks. Several of them have and he takes great pride in them.

PUDDING!!!

Wow did she love it!! She ate it by herself with a spoon which is a first for her and totally enjoyed it!!

R's Special Quilt.

My family started a tradition when my oldest nephew was born where every aunt (there is 6 children in my family and we are all married. ) and Grandma F make a square for a baby quilt. The mother of the child does not have to make a square! It's a great tradition and a lot of fun. We all get together to give them to the child. R got hers just the other day. Here she is crawling on it. She loves it and pulls it over her head to sleep.

A Cool Nest.

We found this great nest while out and about the last few weeks. I think it's either an eagle or osprey nest. It over looks a lake right by a campground so I'm thinking it could be either. It was not in use (that we could tell) when we saw it but we'll have to check on it later and see if we can see anything.

Last Load of Tin.

This afternoon a local store delivered our last 3 lengths of tin for the house. (The side of the trusses, the bottom 2 foot piece that goes between the old and new tin, and the ridge piece.) The driver, a young maybe 20 years old, called ahead and asked if we'd be home. "Yup I'm home all day" I said "but Papa isn't home so you'll have to unload it yourself." Quiet, last time Papa did most of the work and this guy helped. The last load was over 1000 lbs of tin and this one is only 500lbs. I also told him to put the tin lengthwise across the back of the flat bed dump truck. That way he could just back up to the porch and lift his dump bed. Making unloading easy. When he showed up an hour later we all ran to the window and sure enough! Worked great. The ridge piece he unloaded by hand no problems. Then with a bit of hand signals and some talking we got him backed up to the porch and the tin offloaded. I was inside the whole time talking and doing hand signals thru the front window and holding R, who waved at him the whole time. I did wonder if she would confuse him but he seemed alright, she did have a bright yellow toy in her hand. J, L and E were all crowded around watching and asking questions. When the tin slid off with very little effort L says 'He did it!" and E pips up "all by himself!!" A big deal to a small child who's goal in life is to do as little as possible and who hears 'you can do it!" several times a day!! Strange for a 2 year old I know. When he left the kids all waved like crazy he waved and honked his horn. Beep Beep. Here is what the place looked like yesterday. The tin we just got goes on the sides. One long piece goes where you can see the lines of strapping close to the top. One short piece goes on the very bottom and brings it all together. In the front of the picture you can see the boys melting snow fort.

Walk-A-Bout.

Spring has finally hit!! The snow is melting more everyday and the last 2 days it's has rained, either all day or on and off all day. This morning the sun came out for a bit in between rain showers and I put R down for her morning nap, and the children and I went outside. A-Walk-A-Bout. We bought a SLOW!! CHILDREN PLAYING sign awhile ago. I grabbed some nails, found a hammer and we headed down the driveway to nail it up. ( First I added, in permanent marker, PLEASE DRIVE above the SLOW. Papa and a friend of ours get a real kick out of these signs and when I bought it Papa made the crack. "What you think MY children are SLOW??' Chortling away.) After I dealt with business, and the kids stomped about in the puddles and mini rivers, we checked out the 'worm trails' in the mud and puddles. We even found a few 'cool' worms which is a HUGE improvement from last year as worms were 'gross and slimy'. J even picked one up!! We saw a swimming worm, traveling worm and a attacking worm (One of the ones that J picked up wiggled and 'attacked' him :). The we headed across the front of our property marveling at the ditches full of water. Throwing rocks and mud balls in the water and generally having a great time. J has a good arm on him and can really huck those rocks. L threw a few but had more fun watching J and E and keeping his crab toy safe. E throws like a girl but hopeful it's the age. She missed the water as often as she hit it. We found some clover growing and some tiny little somethings growing. We stopped and checked out how deep the water was and saw thousands of tiny black things wiggling and swimming in the water. I suspect they are mosquitoes.. but hoping NOT. We saw a tiny beetle who promptly hid and then scurried and hid again. Then we headed back to the driveway to see the ant hills and bulbs pushing through the soil there and play some more in the puddles and mini rivers. I used my boot heel to open up some of the rivers so the puddles would drain and smiled at E who started dragging her boot heels around in the puddles. By this time I was 'guarding' the crab and L was racing with J. Here and there and everywhere. I think L and I where the only ones with dry boots. We both had rubber boots on and E and J were still in winter boots. Then we picked up the hammer and some garbage we'd found and headed in. I cleared the sandbox cover of water and 3 kids piled in so fast I barely had time to see the sand. I kicked the rest of the snow on the trampoline around and hopefully it will melt off soon.They can already jump on it. I walked over the whole garden patch kicking snow. (it melts faster if you disturb it) The sheep, Forrest and Snowball, got make shift collars on them just to see if they fit and so I can catch them. J wanted to 'go exploring' so we headed off to the back to kick the remaining piles of snow and marvel at the large amounts of clover shooting up where ever the snow is gone. The sheep came with and nibbled on the poplar sprouts and I SMILED (those little trees are why I wanted sheep). Bindy, our cow, called and called to the sheep until they got curious and went over then she threw up her head and chased them away. Crazy beast. She'd better get used to them they're going to be around for a while. The boys found a old haunt of the children's and climbed the hill to go explore it again. E climbed half way up and got her hands dirty and bawled til I got there to wipe them off. Strange behavior for her and I'm hoping it doesn't last long. She also went to pick up a rock, EEEKED, and dropped it screaming "BUG BUG. Tiny little BUG on it!!" Until the boys went to 'go see' and then no one could find it. She is leery of the sheep as well. Which doesn't surprise me at all as they are as big as she is. Forrest might weigh more then E. They jumped on her a few times a couple of weeks ago and that totally put her off. They no longer jump up but she still avoids them. I also headed out to the back shed to find the box of rubber boots. Found it and got everyone in boots. Warm and dry feet here we come. Well maybe.

And can you believe it. I forgot my camera and didn't take a single picture of my kids in matching hats and red coats playing in the spring sunshine. Oh well there is always next time.

Spring Run Off

Here are some neat pictures I took when the rivers and rivers of water was pouring off the driveway through the snow. Looks almost life size hey?

This last one looks like it's taken of earth from an airplane.

These were taken about 2.5 weeks ago.

I'm catching up :)

Bragging Rights!!!

Isn't he the sweetest thing!!! Ruger John was recently added to our extended family. 7lbs 8oz of pure cute baby!! His Momma and Daddy are very proud of their new addition and so is big sister K!!! He is my younger sisters child and is so far the only niece or nephew we have that looked like our children did when they were born except his hair which he gets from his Daddy.