Firewood...And a Place to Keep It.

Papa and I finally decided on a good place for a woodshed so we decided to build it before we changed our minds. :) 

We used a post pounder to pound in 10 posts for the foundation. Here is E running the post pounder..J and L had a turn too. 

After the posts were levelled and squared we made a 2x4 beam to hold the trusses. We made these trusses years ago, in fact they were the same ones we used for our straw bale barn here.

Trusses waiting for spacing. Foggy morning. This is right off the back door and the milking parlour..we are also planning a cow candy mixing area, tool storage, and a small critter pen under the roof.  Critter pen for calves.

Here it is as it stands today. This whole project started last Monday and we are hoping to get the tar paper, and the rest of the strapping on it today and start filling it. The tin will need to be ordered in so we'll put it up later. We are expecting snow this week so we want to have it ready before then. 

Walls and floor will be pallets. Calf pen will be at the front on the other side of this picture right next to the milking area. I'll post a picture when it's got wood in it. 

Kids rolling wood that needs to be split away from smaller stuff. We bought 5 cords from the mobile work crew this year and its nice stuff! The wood to be split line up went all the way around the trampoline in this picture when we were done! So I've been splitting wood too. 

We have had beautiful weather this October so far. It's been amazing and we've have been spending lots of time outside.

I want to say HI to Aunt Linda and Granny Sarah and THANK YOU for the very neat baby gift and letter Granny Sarah! Thank you for being such a wonderful sweet person! May God bless you both! I think it would be wonderful fun to make cookies with you and I know that your grandchildren are very blessed!

I do plan on blogging more but I'm finding myself quite stretched lately so I'm very sorry to say posts will likely be sparse for a bit longer. I will try to post E's birthday pictures soon though.. :) May God Bless you and keep you. May the sun shine on you and your coffee never run out :) 

S Laughing.

A Lunch for Papa.

What Papa found on the table awhile ago.

They made it themselves :) 

Morning Ramble and S Update

So it's 6 am and S is up. He's hungry and now that I can blog on my ipad I can write this up as he nurses. He slept 7 hours and I got 6 hours, in a row! Pretty amazing since I've rarely gotten more than 3 hours in a row since his first paediatrician appointment 6 weeks age. At his appointment last week she said he was gaining enough and I could drop some feeds at night. S must have heard her as he started sleeping longer hours that same night. So this is my third night with some decent sleep.  This will change my life. I may actually start blogging again. I've already started doing crafts with the kids again. I'm drinking less coffee, by almost half, and as the kids and I joke.. I'm feeling human again. R once got it mixed up and said she was feeling rather chickenish. We still laugh about that. 

S's appointment went well. He's now 12.5 lbs and 60 cm long. He's just about outgrown his 3 month clothes. If fact I have his next size in the house and will probably switch it in this week. His reflux is much better. He's even waking up on his back. I put him to bed on his side. He used to only sleep on his tummy. He has started to enjoy playing on the floor and rolling over belly to back and back to side. He is very strong and holds his head up really well. He loves to stand and is grabbing random things and trying to out them in his mouth. He loves to laugh. S is almost as cheerful as R was, always smiling and giggling. He is our smallest boy so far by a pound or so for his age. He's a Griggs :) where are J3 was a Fehr. Us Fehrs have bigger genes :) I'm the second smallest of my family and Papa is the biggest of his.. Makes for kids of all shapes and sizes. 

The paediatrician said we don't have to see her again so long as his breathing stridor doesn't get any worse but continues to get better. She said it should be gone or almost gone by 6 months. So far I've noticed a slight increase since he started sleeping longer hours, or maybe I'm just actually coherent again and it's always been like this. I'm truly not sure. I don't do well on little sleep. I NEED at least 4 hours in a row and I feel very fuzzy and out if sorts when I don't get it. I feel like I've lost some time. I know where it went though. It went into keeping S healthy and that's a good thing, a great thing, a calling even, so that's ok. 

The paediatrician did find a mild heart murmur this time but because it comes and goes its not a cause for concern. I have one too, and so does Grandma G. Mines never caused me a lick of trouble. 

The kids loved the paediatricians office. It's on the 10th floor, as high as any of them had ever been, and there are neat windows that show you the city from a new height. It makes me dizzy :) We found several landmarks and enjoyed the fall colors. But we were dissatisfied as we couldn't see our truck. We're funny like that :) 

That night Papa made us mussels steamed in white wine, with takeout sushi and oil and vinager and bread.  It was fantastic. I think we all felt like celebrating. It was a great day! 

Oh and P.S. we found a great new way to go shopping for kids with kids. iPods and iPads! Seriously! One of us would go in and take pictures of ideas and then come out and show the other and we decide and than one of us goes back in to buy it. Because we rarely shop without them and because we don't do Halloween we don't like to take the kids into stores this time of year. So this new way to shop worked awesome. It would work even better on two phones as you could text stuff back and forth! For us to be able to text Papas iPod has to have wifi and neither of the stores did. 

Anyway S is asleep again and it's only 7am so I think I'll try to get a couple more hours of sleep. 9 am is wake up time around here for the kids and lately for Papa and I too. I've checked the farm. The big pigs are sleeping in their big round straw bale, Maggie is snoozing and Isabel is getting an early start on her hay, the laying hens are up and about pecking around, the piglets (weaned yesterday and their first night alone) are huddled in a bunch in some straw inside their triple strength pen, the kittens in the tote in the entrance are wrestling and I can hear their feed bowls clanking gently together as they play, G just started singing in her playpen so I will go lay her down and shut their door...to much light and she needs to sleep more. 

Here is a picture of S in his chair and new sweater. I have a non blurry one..but this will have to do for now as the other ones on the computer :) Have a wonderful day! Oh and Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!! 

The Great Tooth Night

A while ago I posted on FB that 3 kids lost 4 teeth in one night and asked you to guess who :) 

Here are the results. 

R lost her bottom right tooth, her second tooth ever!

J lost his first molar and his 11th total! 

And E lost TWO teeth!! Her 7th and 8th!! 

L wants everyone to know that he doesn't even have a loose tooth at the moment and J3 would really like to have a loose tooth.. but doesn't :) 

So that is the line up!!

So S you were the closest!! Great guess!! 

Brown Coat!!

Well he's finished. Papa finished the last of the stucco we wanted to get done this year yesterday. 

Officially the inside was done Friday the 27th! Yesterday, the 28th, he did the front wall on the outside. It will see the most weather and so it was important to get done as well. 

I have to say he did a fantastic job.

 The scratch coat we all worked on. Anyone and all hands were helpful.. We got it done in less than 9 days. 

The brown coat Papa pretty much did alone. I helped the equivalent of maybe 1 day.  

It was hard work. The brown coat goes on in two layers and its best if you do the second one right after the first. The second coat has to be as smooth as possible and than you wait a couple of hours and smooth it out again. Some of these wall were gone over 5 times. That's a TON OF WORK. 

Actually it is roughly 17000lbs. 

9 days 1st coat

13 days second coat

7000 lbs sand

3500 lbs lime

+3 year old mix=

12000 lbs +

5000 lbs water=

17000 lbs  in 22 working days

Part of the long side wall. That's the pantry window. Looks great hey? 

The front kitchen window from the outside! That wall to the left will be redone when the middle wall goes in. 

The outside with a filler coat. Papa has decided to try and finish the brown coat on the outside as he has all the materials, the weather is still nice enough, and to put the skirting up we need to take down the platforms he made for scaffolding. 

This will be in the inside hallway walls. The holes are for the doors into the hallway.

The Master Bedroom :) big enough for a baby area as we are not having a nursery. The color difference you see is just wet vs dry. It cures grayish white. 

The front kitchen wall. My sink will be under that window!! 

The view from the yard. 

More Cute S Pictures

S is 3 months old today! He was 11lbs 11oz on Sunday and has been gaining an oz a day so he could be 12lbs today! He smiles, laughs and coos. He loves to stand up on your lap or wherever. He really enjoys kid watching from his chair and the fan and the bubbles on the computer too :) He normally sleeps 5 to 7 hours straight at night now and has two nice naps during the day. He loves to fall asleep on people and hates baths. The kids fight over who gets to hold him and G will often come sit beside me and demand to HOLD AM! (She can't say her S's). They all try and make him laugh which makes them laugh and our house is full of laugher. They love it when he farts and quickly wipe up spit ups. He hasn't peed on anyone recently :) 

Asleep on my shoulder. 

With Mrs. M. Also asleep

Checking out Mikey.

Chilling with L on Granny's rocker. 

On the way to church...I love the hat! 

Loving some floor time in his little auzzie outfit :) 

Cow Update

The calves got moved to the back where the pigs have been and given the pond and the lease. Milton is looking awesome but Patch is still a mere shadow of what he could be. He is finally out of the 'bag of bones' category. He just doesn't seem to be a good keeper no matter what we do.  

Our friend S came and AI'd (artificial insemination) Maggie last Sunday and we did get confirmation that Isabel is bred and should calve right before Christmas. They are both AI to brown swiss and we are hoping for a heifer :) The cows are looking wonderful. Sleek and fat. They have the last hay bale on the place as they are out of grass.  We've fed 4 bales this summer including the one they are eating now. Our place is just too small to feed two milking cows. We only have the 2.5 acres in grass :) you see. Oh and M's acre :) They cannot go in to the lease as it is too much bush and their bags would get torn up. Our winters hay is already arranged, we trade meat birds for hay, and we just need to make delivery arrangements and get the storage spot ready and stack and tarp it when it gets here. 

Pig Update

The piglets are doing really well and gaining weight. There was one that we were watching as we think he got stepped on last week in the excitement of a piglet getting stuck in the electric netting. Papa turned the fence off and the piglet got out on its own but this little guy of Big Mommas got caught in the mix and was limping badly. He could still get around but he's slow and competing for food. We were going to take him out and bottle feed him. Big momma was stressed enough to try and take a snap at Papa. Totally unlike her and Papa smacked her for it and she looked repentive but we are more careful now. He disappeared a few days later and we are assuming he is dead. It's really too bad but its reality. 

Ham and Bacon are doing really well and are out of the 'cute' stage. Ham is probably 75lbs.  Papa wants to butcher them before winter as we cannot house them with the other pigs in the barn this winter. So we are feeding them hotter then we normally do. They are getting lots of milk and 2.5 gallons of soaked feed a day and growing like crazy! Pigs you see are not color blind and are racist. The white pigs being smaller would not fair well with the big black pigs and the black piglets. It would be too much stress for everyone so we must keep them apart. UPDATE: we may have one sold! 

The butcher pigs for this year, the 8 we kept from our sows last year, are doing really good. Papa spread corn in the cows winter feeding area from last winter and let it sprout and then put these 8 pigs in there. They love it! Papa went out and taped a couple (using a tape made to weigh pigs, you just get two measurements and it tells you about how much the animal weighs. They have them for calves too) and the biggest one is 280lbs! Great news as I took a look in our pork freezer and its pretty empty in there! 

E's Great School Day!

E has been really working on her school work this year. She's been making sure she reads the instructions and follows them, writes neatly and checks to make sure it all makes sense. It's paying off! The other day she did 14 pages without a single mistake! This is a big improvement from her normal and we are very proud of her! Good job E!!