Berkshire Piggies!!

Here are so pictures of the 'girls'. They are from about 5 different litters which is why they are different sizes. . I'll try and get a better pic soon. They all have different markings on their faces. So far we love them. They are grazers and will pull up a plant like a cow and munch on it and only till lightly after they graze!! They are also like a Bindy when we move them and readily move to the next piece without a fuss!! They eagerly look forward to moves. All the pink pigs we've ever had have never enjoyed moving like these girls. It was often a fight to move them at all. They are also VERY smart and are trained to 2 wires already. Today if it stays nice they will get a new larger pen with just 2 wires instead of the little electric netting fences they have had. We do this because it's easier to build around trees and can be any size and because we need the electric netting for the meat birds. This is one of the smaller girls. See the white on all 4 feet and the white on her nose!!

SURPRISE!!!!

J lost his 1st tooth yesterday and was SUPER EXCITED. I guess it just fell out and he spit it into his hand. It's been loose for 2 weeks and his adult tooth was coming up from behind. The one next to it is loose as well. We put it in his 'tooth jar' to show Papa. My little man is growing up!!

Pigs.

Well here is a story I'm sure a few of you have been waiting for. We ordered 8 Berkshire wiener pigs late February from the only local couple who raised them. And it's a good thing we did! Pigs have been scarce this spring and every one is looking for wieners. Wieners are about 8 weeks old and 40 to 50 pound pigs. We actually got all females or gilts. Males are called barrows. One day mid May I made arraignments with the pig breeders to go and pick up the wieners the next night. The pigs, 5 sows (mama pigs) and their 25 offspring had the run of about 5 acres of bush/field and because they are getting out of the pig business they wanted to get the sows out of the area first. This makes for easier piglet handling. So the day before we went they had just shipped the 2 big sows out and gotten all the piglets into a small pen with a barn where they stayed until pickup. Because we ordered first we got first choice. Very nice. :) The 5 batches of piglets were all within 2 weeks so they were between 10 and 8 weeks old. Which explains the size difference a bit. Papa and I fussed a bit trying to figure out how we were going to get the pigs home. We normally use a couple of dog crates and haul them in the back of the travelall. But because we've never bought so many at once we knew they would not all fit. Last year we got 4 from one guy and 2 from another on different days so it wasn't a big deal. Well Papa had a great idea and it worked good too. :) The travelall is sort of like a suburban. But with about 5 feet behind the 2nd seat. The back is a tailgate with a window on the top. SO what we did was we cleaned out the back of the travelall. Put a tarp behind the kids carseats (between the car seat and the front of the seat) and tucked it in really well and then used the rest of the tarp as the floor. Then we just opened the window in the back and dropped the pigs in. We still have nose marks on the back windows. :) Now I have to admit when I first heard this idea a certain Patrick McMantis book came to mind. :) Something about pigs in sacks and pigs loose and looking over shoulders and a wild drive while trying to get wild pigs back in the sacks and ends with a cop in disbelief. Well thankfully that did not happen here. The pigs did try once to get into the back seat where the kids were but they gave it up when they realized they were surrounded. After that they just rushed around the back grunting and squealing all the way home.(Another picture missed sorry) The windows stayed half open all the way home as well... (but wonderfully the smell went out totally with the tarp)


Well we had the pen we wanted to put the pigs in set up beforehand. In fact we'd had chickens and sheep in it for several weeks. It was a electric netting fence around the area that the cow had used last winter for her hay area. We wanted them to till it up for us. Well we backed up to the pen, over the side of the fence and put the window down opened the tailgate and off they went. 123456 little piggies in the pen. I RAN to turn it on about the same time Bindy (the cow) realized that we had done it again!! The crazy humans are always bringing home stray critters that she disapproves of. PIGS. Bindy dislikes new critters and BOTH Papa and I realized later that we should have tied her up before hand. We also should have checked the fence. Unfortunately we did not. HEY chickens and sheep had already been in it!! Well it had also rained the whole night throughout the day before and left the posts in the clay a bit loose. Too loose. Much too loose. Bindy started to BAWL at the top of her lungs.. and she has good lungs. By this point the fence was on. I can run fast when needed :) 4 of the pigs hit the fence and decided that it hurt and they'd stay away from it. Another thing that we had not realized.. or maybe I had not realized was that these pigs had almost NO contact with humans at all their whole lives. And they'd had the run of 5 acres. Not just a little patch. The other two pigs hit the fence again and again until it flipped over and they raced under it... into the chicken pen. Also electric netting. Also a rained on fence. Chickens don't care. Pigs care!! Well we were settling the 4 down and watching them and trying to get Bindy to shut up.. she did eventually. She's almost as well behaved as some dogs when it comes to bawling. We're always yelling at her. Anyway we thought that the two escapees were in with the chickens and when we went to look for them they were GONE!!! Two black and white pigs off in the bush at 8pm. Good luck!! NOT!! Actually it was still light enough out that we searched for an hour and a half before giving up and going inside. Papa saw them twice in this 90 minutes. He also said that he was walking behind them and they would stop in the bush so quietly that he kept on walking right by and then they would turn and RUN away!! (it was almost dark) I didn't see them once. They were bush trained. Over the next week we realized how well. That night I called the people who own the patch of land that is behind our lease. I told them to be on the lookout. For all we knew they would keep on going. Our neighbor said she doubted they would last the night. Both Papa and I knew they would.


It was a relief the next morning when I went for a quick walkabout to hear pig grunting by my pond and when I peaked though the bush to see the piglets standing stock still in the middle of a bush road. They were so stealthily that they did not MOVE for several minutes waiting to see what I would do. I did nothing and went home happy they were alive and that we had a chance to get them back. When I got back to the house I called Papa at work to relieve his mind as well. Well now we knew where they were but now to get them home with their sisters. This same morning I got a phone call. They had our last two pigs ready for us. There was some muddling and it turned out we got all 8 of ours now instead of having to wait for the next batch to be ready. Better for us for sure. So I called Papa again at work and we made plans to go again that night and get the last 2 pigs. This time we used the dog crate and only Papa and J, L and E ended up going as the peat moss came the same night and I needed to be here for that. That trip was uneventful and the 2 new pigs (also gilts) settled right in inside the crate and they were asleep when they got home!! Papa put a pig in each arm and walked over to the pig pen. One of the two screamed almost the whole way and both Papa and I half wished that this would call the other two out of the bush. But it did not. The two new gilts settled right in and there was no problems at all. Bindy was tied up at the neighbors piece of grass; we do learn :P This batch of pigs was so wild that they huddled for almost 2 days in one area, running when ever we came within shouting distance. Not that we shouted.. just looked.


Well, over the next 24 hours we realized, with discreet checks, that the 2 bush pigs were not going anywhere. They stayed within a certain distance of where we assume they had found a hole in a slash pile to sleep in. We considered building a electric fence around them, dismissing this because of the noise the chain saw would have made while making a path around them to even get a fence up. The area where they were (yes we got them in) was part of our lease right behind our place. Marshy, wet, close to the pond for water and totally overgrown with 2 inch poplar trees and bush. To walk though this area it's step, step on a log, step, step on a log!! The whole way. There was NO way we could chase them so we decided to bait them. Papa got a bucket of milk and grain and I placed it close to the fence were they had found a hole. I checked this bucket 3 times that 1st day and it had not been touched. But the ground where I had seen them the 1st time was getting well tilled!! They had not been able to get to the area where the bucket was. I think it was too wet for them to walk through while thinking. They raced over it that 1st night but had better sense the next day. SO I moved the bucket. The next morning, day 2, they had eaten the grain off the ground in front of the bucket but not put their heads in the bucket. I moved it away from the fence a bit and checked it again later. Later they had again been there and this was the pattern for the next week!! By the end of the week they were emptying the bucket and only about 50 feet away from the pig pen. Beautiful!! Papa and I wondered why they weren't drawn to their siblings. We found out.


8 days after bringing them home Papa got the pigs in. We were moving the meat birds and doing evening chores when I noted out loud that 'the 2' were within 20 feet of the pig fence eating out of their bucket. Papa glanced over and finished chores. Well before I knew what he was about he had the pig fence moved around, singing softly the whole time, and before my very eyes he simply kept on singing and penned those 2 strays in!! He then asked me to feed the pigs in the pen, that had tamed down a lot that week. So I did found some really smelly slop and fed it. Then with me on the outside of the electric netting and Papa on the inside we tried for almost 40 minutes to get 'those 2' to cross that line!!! We couldn't turn the fence on and leave them because it was sided on one side with a hog wire fence and would just ground out. So we had to get them over with the other 6 so we could close the fence and turn it back on. Pigs are smart. These two remembered. They remembered that line (the fence was gone) and would NOT cross it. They could smell the food. They could see and smell their siblings less then 20 feet away (at times it was 1 foot away!!) but they would NOT cross that line. I told Papa afterwards that they are sure fence trained for never having been in one!! Finally I hopped in the fence as well and some of the 6 came over to investigate and after several tries 'the 2' finally followed the crowd and walked in to the pen. Papa and I controlled our need to panic to get the fence on and fixed the fence and when it was completed Papa RAN to turn it on and they've behaved themselves nicely ever since. And there you have it. The PIG story.

Update. The pigs are all fairly tame now. They are still in the same pen and still digging happily. They come to the fence now to see us when we go to see them :) And no longer rush away right away when we go in the pen. The '2' were a bit skinnier then the '6' but now we can't tell which ones are which. Yesterday when I fed them they came within touching distance of me. That's a 1st and a welcome sign. We are planing on breeding two of these pigs and will pick the best of the bunch this fall. There are 4 big ones (from one litter) 3 medium ones (could be from one or several litters) and one small one. They all have white feet and noses and some markings which is a Berkshire breed standard.


Bindy has forgiven us and has accepted the new arrivals. Sometimes I wonder who is the boss around here. Me or HER!!!

Raised beds.

The raised beds are under some trees, mostly poplar, between the house and the road. It goes road, bunch of thick trees, old used to be driveway (actually new but un-needed and un-used), then this patch of trees with the raise beds in them, then a patch of lawn, the driveway and the house. That brown line you see on the right with green on either side is the driveway. Our house is off to the right. Our 5 acres is very long and not very wide so things seem to stretch out. :) The house you see in the top picture is the neighbor!! The 3 poles laying on the ground are an idea for a triangle shaped bed that may or may not happen next year.... :) I'm not sure I like it. This one in the middle is the potato bed and it's already planted. I put a layer of cow manure down, then a layer of peat moss and then planted my potatoes and covered them with more peat moss. The idea is to keep filling the bed with peat moss as the plants grow and the potatoes are suppose to have a bigger yield with less square footage. We'll see how it works.
Here is the inside of one of my yet to be filled raised beds. I lined it with cardboard to hopefully keep the moisture in. The floor is several layers of newsprint and a light layer of shavings. This is one of the ones that is line a line of three. If you look close you can actually see all 4 raised beds in this picture. On the right you can see part of the biggest bed. Some trees that are shading this area will be taken out. Papa and I are one a black spruce tree clean up mission these days.

AHHHHhhhh!! Time to write and hopefully a good enough connection to post as well. Besides being crazy busy (more on that in a minute) our Internet doesn't like to work well while the wind is blowing and it is BLOWING!! Thankfully we don't get as much wind as the people around us thanks to our protective trees but it still affects the connection. This will change when we get the antenna up on the roof. We had to take it down to put the roof up and it's a bit tricky to get it up now. I've waited and waited to post so that I could put some pictures up as well but it won't work so I'll try and post some later!!

Well after the Griggs visit Papa and I started on some projects around the place that we've been wanting to do for awhile. Raised Beds, you know for growing things in :) (not everyone knows this I've found. I've gotten several blank looks recently). When we clear out trees we keep the straightest ones and cut them off at 5 meters and pile them up for later use. Some of these will hopefully one day be a pole fence. They also make great raised beds. Papa used the chain saw and I stacked and moved the poles over to the raised bed area. Working together smoothly as a team in took us about 2 hours to make 4 raised beds. The longest one is nearest the road and at 6 meters long will hold lots of veggies. Then there are two 5 meter beds with a 2 meter bed between them all in a row on the the house side of the long one. Eventually I would like another 2, also closer to the house, but we decided to wait to do them until next year. The next day the children picked up all the tiny wood pieces and threw them on a handy burn pile (not lite) while I lined the beds with cardboard and put layers of newspaper on the ground inside the beds and finally a light cover of shavings on the newspaper to keep the paper in place. The idea is that the cardboard around the sides of the raised bed will keep the dirt and moisture in the bed and the newspaper and shavings will keep the small trees and grass from growing up through the raised beds. The small 2 meter raised bed is for potatoes. I'm going to try stacking them and keep on adding dirt in the raised bed as they get taller and hope to get a good crop of potatoes. Well shall see I guess. Now we are waiting for the dirt. Peat moss actually. From a local swamp which we will mix with manure and lime and sand to fill the raised beds with. Then I will be able to plant them!! They are set up in such a way that I should be able to extend our very short season by protecting them from frost with frost blankets and plastic. Sort of a mini green house. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Raspberries. The neighbor down the road called and said she had some extras and would I like some!! I jumped at it as I've been wanting to move my raspberry patch and I finally found the perfect spot!! We live in a row of 4 five acre parcels and we are the second one. So we have neighbors on both sides. Our house is farther back then either of theirs so we don't see much of them but the one on the town side has his shop right in line with our house. It's fairly cleaned out along his fence line (these two pieces were originally one piece). So for the last 4 years we can see most of his house and path and stuff that he has lined up along the fence. Not really a big deal but now we have a brand new line of raspberries on our side of the fence with enough room to pick both sides right along this fence line!!! In a few years I hope to not have to see his stuff at all!!
Clearing. Yup we are clearing more of our 5 acres to get it into some kind of usable land. The front piece between the house and the road has never been good for much. We have run pigs through it 3 or 4 times but the black spruce is so thick and it's so damp in there that even the pigs have been able to change it very little. A few years ago we thinned the one corner considerably but even that was so blocked by the other trees that grass isn't even growing there!! To little sunlight. SO Papa and I finally agreed what to do with it and now we are cutting out all the black spruce leaving only a roughly 60 foot line of trees beside the road and another 50 feet or so between us and the neighbor on that side. I have a feeling we will be planting something along that fence line as well. Because it is so wet in this piece the idea is to eventually have a pond there. The spring run off all runs to this point and we have a swamp all spring and often a chunk of summer!! If we could get that water to drain into our pond instead we could have a pond and no more swamp!!

Fish!! We have a small man made pond at the very back of our piece. Its about 30 feet across and quite deep. We're not sure how deep. We also have a lagoon. Lagoons are mosquito heavens which breed bugs by the hundreds. While speaking to Papa's mom one visit we came to the conclusion that fish could probably live in both the pond and the lagoon. Fish, I got 30 three inch feeder goldfish, would hopefully eat enough of the mosquitoes eggs to keep the population down and add to the farm by the lack of slapping this would bring!! Never mind that fish are fun to watch and add something to ponds in just enjoyment alone. So far in the few times I've been down to check on them I've seen fish almost every time. But yesterday while chasing pigs (wait for it, it'll come) Papa noticed a pair of ducks living in and around the pond. Hummm...
Lease. We have 5 acres here and originally we were hoping for a 1/4 section (140 acres?????) but our financing and our lack of credit rating in this country (did you know that credit does NOT cross borders?? ) made that impossible. So we decided we'd buy 5 acres and work it to the best of our ability. And then when and if we got to the point where we could use it all completely we'd sell and move to a bigger piece. Well our neighbors, the raspberry ones :), have a piece behind us that is not in use and has not been touched since it was logged of poplar 6 years ago. Papa actually haul those logs to the mill. So Papa put a idea out to them last summer and this spring we finalized it. They have no use for roughly 35 of their 57 acres. They have 2 horses and want only enough to feed their horse all summer and a winter pasture so they don't have feed hardly any hay. The problem was that they needed part of it fenced so they could use the winter area. So in exchange for fencing this area before winter in we have complete rights to the rest of the 35 acres that they are not using for as many years as they live there.. or we do. What a DEAL!!! We jumped at it. Actually we could hardly believe our luck. Really it's not luck at all. It's the Master and Creator of All who has blessed us!! Afterwards Papa and I were both in the good sort of shock that involves dreams and plans and thankful worship!!

Chicks. The meat birds are doing wonderfully and growing like crazy. They LOVE the milk mixture we are feeding them and really need to go out on grass. The weather has been so cold and nasty and windy that we are hoping for some good weather so we can kick them out of the barn (they now have the whole barn). The death count is now 7. 2 layers and 5 meat birds.

Strawberries. The strawberry bed Papa made for me last year still had some holes which needed plants so I got some more in the 'city' and planted 10 more. Tristar. Papa remembers this kind as a kid and assures me they are excellent producers. I'm drooling just thinking about it!! YUM!!!!

Garden has been covered with black landscaping fabric for several weeks now and the kids and I planted some corn in between the rows of fabric. I went along and made the holes, E holding the container of seeds, L putting the seeds in the holes and J covering them up. (this is the SLOWEST way I have ever planted anything but we sure had FUN!!) I also planted 2 rows of beans. The rest of the garden is for whatever doesn't fit in the raised beds and the pumpkin plants the kids are growing. Speaking of pumpkin plants. The horrible affliction I have of killing all plants in the house has not applied to them ( or to the mothers day flowers which are still on the table looking nice. Not the roses they are just done.) and they are thriving and BLOOMING!! I've been taking a Q-tip and fertilizing the flowers as they open. They will go out into the garden soon.

Greenhouse. The greenhouse is on the list for today. Yesterday the children and I went to town and bought tomato, pepper, and other plants for the green house/garden. They are all in the green house awaiting me!! :) (The green house is now totally planted I finished it today. 9 cukes, 10 tomatoes, 10 peppers: hot to sweet, lettuce, spinach and dill: trying to get a jump on these as the raised beds are still not going, and I think that's all. Marigolds. It looks great!)

Pigs. We have gotten 6 of our 8 pigs and will pick the other 2 up tonight. This subject requires a much longer blog then I have time for and I will write it another time.... maybe when it's finished. Like totally. :) Keep your eyes peeled!! (We have gotten these last two but still only have 6 penned :)

Caught up. Well now you are completely caught up on the work we've been up too. We've also been having some fun. We've rented 2 videos for the children in the last 2 weeks and they beg and do watch them regularly. Papa and I have also had a few movie nights which is relaxing and enjoyable. Sort of like a date where you don't leave the house. :) We've also been enjoying the weather when it's nice and when it's not. We've had a few soaker rains which is nice this time of year. The rain hitting the tin roof is music to our ears. I've been taking the children bike riding on the days that are nice enough and when there is no mud. It's fun and we all like it and it tires them out for nap time. J rides his bike and I ride mine pulling the cart with R in it. L rides his trike to the end of the driveway and then runs to the black tire on the side of the road. E runs to the end of the driveway and then rides the rest of the way until we get to the driveway again. Then she runs home. L rides in the cart til we hit the black tire again and then he runs to his trike and drives it home. It's not perfect but it works :) The kids are playing outside as much as possible and are loving every minute of it. They are filthy daily and have a great time!! I make them strip off outside on the porch and bring them in and wash up!! L's pockets and ears are always full of sand!! E has beat up knees and the bugs love her and it shows!! She doesn't seem to mind and never complains but she has 2x as many bites as the rest of us. Poor kid!!

All and all everything is busy but good here on the Griggs Farm. We are daily blessed with the joys of spring and now summer. And loving it!!! Thank You Lord!!! On the way to home Church this last Sunday we saw a cow and her twin calves running along side the high way!! A cow MOOSE!!! Very neat. The children all saw it and were amazed!!! The calves were just days old and all legs and heads. It's amazing that they can even run at that age. The cow moose was very skinny and patchy but the calves were perfect!! Too bad I forgot my CAMERA!!!! Sorry guys!!

IF April showers bring May flowers... what does SNOW in May bring??

We got 4 inches total!!!

Beside a bunch of disappointed humans??? Hopefully a real SUMMER!!! The last few years our nicest weather has been in May. Weird I know. But very true. This year we've have had April in May. YUCK. It wouldn't be so bad but we also had April in April. But finally now at the end of May it seems to be warming up. Gardens are being planted, grass is growing. The moose and deer are still not calving. Which, I believe, is late. Mosquitoes are back. But not badly back. Do-able. And by that I mean that when I go outside the mosquitoes don't all try to carry me off. I have one or two pestering me but not 100. Which is a real blessing. This is the 1st year in the last 28 that we have had snow here in May. It took 2 days to melt and wasn't cold enough to kill any plants or grass or trees. It just snowed. We have had killing frosts in May lots of times, frosts that can even kill the trees leaves but this is a 1st for snow this late in May. (it was May 19th when it snowed). Bindy was a very happy cow as she got GRASS!! She knew it was time. She bawled and bawled for 2 days while trying to look hungry enough so that maybe we'd take pity on her and let her out to eat all that grass. Papa waited til the grass was ready and then did she ever pig out!! Forrest likes the grass as well. Unfortunately his brother Snowball was found dead in their pen one morning. After playing the 'what if' for several hours a dear friend told us. "They say the only thing sheep do well is die!" How depressing but how true. And she would know. She raises sheep. After I told the kids he was dead. J told L that it was alright. He would share Forrest with him. That touched L and I and J has proven up on it already. What a sweet heart!! They also want to get more sheep next spring. That is, so far, the plan. Forrest is already doing a great job eating poplars and cleaning up in the small areas that Bindy doesn't really fit in to. Here he is by the greenhouse. He's been rubbing on the white peeling fence. Silly sheep.

A Griggs Visit.

Every year in the spring time Papa's Pa and Ma come to see us for a few days. This year they brought Auntie R and M (Papa's sister and her 5 year old daughter.) with them. The kids all got to meet last fall on our 'big trip' and the boys counted down the days until M got here. Grandma and Grandpa and Auntie R were just a bonus. They were SO excited. Finally the day arrived and all I heard was "WHEN MOMMY?" After lunch I said repeating what I'd been told. Well after lunch turned out to be 3:30pm and the girls had napped and gotten up, J and L got to stay up to see M, J had 'prayed to God that the next car was them... But it wasn't" I had to do a small lesson in "God doesn't always work the way we want him too." J sat on the trampoline and watched the driveway with a steady gaze that un-nerved me. I kept glancing over my shoulder to see what he was staring at! Finally we ran some races and played some games and low and behold!!! Here came that familiar little red station wagon and inside was M!!! There was no need for introductions! Grandpa and Grandma had brought J a surprise and boy was he!! A bike!! With a helmet and knee pads. I'd know then were bringing it and had been making J practice on his little bike and had explained to them that 'some day' J would get a big bike and L could have his 'little bike.' So when the time came J readily gave L his little red bike and hopped up on his big new green bike and off he went!! He loved it. And I'm told he even thanked Grandpa and Grandma without prompting!! Good job!! L wasn't too impressed with the gift of the little red bike as he really prefers his trike. He'll grow into it. Grandma on my bike pulling E and R in the cart. Below is E running for the cart in hopes of a ride. Her hopes were realized in the top picture. She was so excited!!
3's a crowd, or so they say, these 3 little Griggers seem to be having a great time.
M and L watch while J goes down the slide head 1st. Didn't take long and they were all doing it. Even E who flew and looked like she'd break her neck. ( I put a stop to that.. thinking that it couldn't be good for her.)

J pushing R on the swing. What a great big brother he is.

Here is L and M on one of the park attractions. I love how M's braid is flying with the movement.

We had a great weekend with the Griggs. Hot dog roasts and bike rides, trips to the local park for playtime and pizza. The kids renewed their friendships and I hear M is planning on coming back next year :) Auntie R had never been to our place before so we showed her around and tried to give her a picture of what it had been like and also what we hoped it would be like in the future. Papa cooked all weekend and thankfully the dishwasher did all the dishes. For there was a LOT of them. Here is a HUGE bubble Grandpa blew and I quickly caught a picture of before a child popped it :) R caught in a bubble. I didn't even try for this picture... total fluke. The whole crew (-Papa and L and I.) having fun with bubbles in our front yard.Morgan 'getting' bubbles. Hey R maybe you should put her in Karate!! She looks like she's in the middle of a move!! :) The empty box behind her was from the dishwasher. The kids had been using it for a playhouse but it had been rained on and so later in the day after our hot dogs the kids and Papa burnt it. M was shocked!!! They voted and she was the only one who wanted to keep it. Auntie R says M never gets rid of ANYTHING and she couldn't believe that they burnt the box!!! Grandpa and Grandma also brought bubble wand thingies and everyone had a great time blowing bubbles, letting the wind blow bubbles, popping bubbles and chasing bubbles. The boys also found out that Auntie R is great fun on the trampoline!!

L attacking Auntie R. She would lay really still on the trampoline and they would get closer and closer and closer and then she would jump up and scare them. They loved it. L was the only one of the 4 that would turn and attack instead of run away. He'd run two steps then turn and yell and jump on her.

And of course.. bottle feeding the sheep.

Sunday morning came all too soon for the children and we sent our visitors off for their 2 day road trip with a huge waffle breakfast, with eggs, bacon and lots of great tasting milk. The shavings pile in many of the pictures is as far as the children are allowed to go down the driveway. The shavings themselves were from a house my parents re-did last summer. All the insulation was shavings and they delivered them right to the house. Beautiful.

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.