Quick Walls Update.

Just a few quick pictures for you who are not on Facebook. 

Weaning piglets

Well we finally weaned the piglets this morning, or I guess we actaully just separated the sows and piglets. The weaning takes a couple days. All but one of them will be 10 weeks old on Friday so it's about time. What a rodeo! The piglets stayed in but every other pig on the place got out at one time or another! At one point we had at least 15 pigs out! These are big pigs! 200lbs to 400lbs! Actually I think both Big Girl and Gilly are over 400lbs easy. 

We finally got them all back in and the fence hot and they are all staying in now :) Mahahahahaha. That fence HURTS. I got nailed this morning and OUCH!! 

And no I didn't get any pictures! I was way to busy trying to keep the pigs in sight! 

But I will say something I say every year about this time...those butcher pigs are getting NICE and BIG and, don't you know it, it's 'about time to put some of them in the freezer!' 

But it's really not. We are way way way to busy to be butchering right now. The pigs will have to wait until at least November. 

Speaking of which I'd better go help Papa outside. I'm sitting in with the littles so they will nap and they are all asleep so it's time to go do some wall building :) 

Pregnancy Update 21 Weeks

It's hard to believe but I keep finding reasons to be surprised at how very fast time flies. You'd think I'd be more used to it by now :) 

Baby #8, we'll find out the baby's sex at the next ultrasound on the 27th, is already 21 weeks! If you follow my Facebook page (The Griggs Family Homestead) you may have seen last week that I posted that Baby #8 was half baked :) I'll make sure and post when we find out if he's a he or she's a she. Papa and I actually agree this time that he's a he and in the way life works: we have a girls name but not a boys name. But who knows we could both be wrong! :) It's been known to happen. 

Baby is active and I'm feeling movement almost every day. Mostly in the evening and early morning. Most of my morning sickness is gone as well with just the tiredness here to stay apparently. And yes, I'm resting often and pacing myself. We have been crazy busy but I take several more rest/water breaks then normal and make sure I get at least a rest, if not a nap, almost every afternoon. G&G Griggs were just up for a visit, more about that in a later post, and I got a nap/rest every day that they were here! Super nice! Thanks Mom! 

Views From the House

I'm amazed at how much we can see from the house windows. Ok, I KNEW how much we were going to be able to see from working on the house ever since we got the windows in BUT it's so DIFFERENT living in those views :) 

One half of the view from our bedroom window. Look Isabel and Maggie! 

The other half of the view! (Tarp is covering the plywood for the floor) 

This is the kitchen window, I didn't take pictures of the side dining window. See there is the trailer parked up front! 

And here you can see the piglets creep feed pen! 

Step out the front door...

And you can see the whole yard! Turn a little bit...

And you can see the front of the entrance! Turn a bit more....

And you can see what the kids are calling 'the stage' (the open entrance wall) and the soon to be floor area and the cow and pig pen and shed in the back :) 

Here is a picture of the entrance last night while the boys did chores. 

Trailer is OUT!!!

It was amazing :) I have a movie of it on the phone that I can't seem to post. 

They have arrived!  See our green truck? All 7 kids were in there with granola bars and apples for breakfast. They had a nice view that way and I didn't have to worry about them getting in the way. 

First they hooked it up to their winch and lifted it way way up! 

Then Papa went along and cut most of the supports. Then they drove this little wheeled thingy under it also using a winch. They got it placed under the rails of the trailer and set the trailer down on top of it. 

Getting the trailer ready and setting it on blocks after took most of the 2.5 hours they were here. 

Here they are ready to hook the trailer to the truck. I didn't get a single picture of it moving out as I was taping it and I can't seem to share the movie on here. I'll try and share it on Instagram #griggsfamilyhomestead later today. 

It sure left a big hole to fill!! 

Looks awesome to me!! :) 

We Moved into the House Today!

The day started with this. The hydro company came and switched our power to the house.

And ended, well almost at the end of the day, with this 

Pizza supper..cooked in the trailer :) as the propane wasn't working yet in the house. It is now! 

In between we: 

Moved the younger 3 kids beds into the trailer.

Got the delivery plywood and 2x10's we need for the middle chunk of floor.

The inpector dude came and made sure the house was all A OK. 

Papa and J tore down the bale wall in the entrance that attached the trailer to the entrance. 

We had lunch in the trailer.

Papa and J cleaned up their mess!

Grandma came and helped us pack up, move and unpack the kitchen. Wowza what a organizer she is! My pantry was stuffed looking and now I even fit the microwave in it! 

Our rep for the kids collage funds stopped by so we could sign some paperwork and made the older 6 kids a Japanese origami which was pretty cool! 

Grandma helped us pack up and move the pantry from the trailer into the house. And we moved our dresser and bedside table and got the bed made up! 

Papa got the rest of the skirting off the trailer, got things hooked up and unhooked as needed.

We had supper :) 

After supper the boys cleaned up in the trailer and the girls did dishes. 

Papa and I moved the fridge into the entrance and his trunk and the vacuum cleaner while the kids watched Donald Duck in our sinking bed. Air mattress, need I say more? 

S went to bed.  

The girls and J3 helped me repack the fridge in the entrance while the boys did chores.

Girls and J3 went to bed. 

I sat with my feet up and talked to Papa as he set up the propane oven etc. 

Big boys finished chores and went to bed.

Papa did more hooking/unhooking and moved the dishwasher into the entrance. 

I tuck taped the air mattress. :) 

Papa took off to pick up something or other. 

Papa came home and I started this, he's now checking the air mattress for more holes as we are slowly sinking. And we found it! 

Good night all :) 

Thankful Thursday!

You know they say being thankful is the best way to see your life in a different light. Here goes ;) 

Today I'm thankful for:

Willing helpers.

Hay for hungry cows

Hard working Papa. 

Hot water in the house.

Happy piglets running around and kicking up dust.

Sleeping children.

School days.. At home. With me :) 

Friends who aren't just fair weather friends. 

Empty and full jars.

Pears.

Drive Thur History.

Egg sandwiches. 

A patch of Sunshine. 

Butter. 

Leaves falling from the trees. 

Silence. 

A Pig Picture.

These are the 16 wiener pigs, Berkshire/Old English Black, we kept last year to butcher and have sold for this fall. We have 9 sold, and the rest will go into our freezers :)  They will be ready to go in to the freezers around November or December when everything else slows down around here :) I love their intense look, they were pretty sure I should feed them when I was done standing there. That brown mixed up chunk of ground in front of their pen is where we fed the cows their hay last winter. This spring the pigs tilled it for us but it needs to compost a bit before we can seed it to grass. :) 

Oh and for those of you who are wondering this is the centre of our property. The spot the pigs are on is where they put the line in to the lagoon. That line, which we are building up, was pure clay and nothing would grow there. That hump of dirt at the far end is the lagoon. The pigs fence goes to, and then around, the lagoon, thru our pond area, and then they have about 8 acres in our lease behind the property. The lease is all small poplars and pigs do a great job cleaning it up and making it walk thru able. 

Homemade Sushi Night!

It was awesome and he is so going to make it more often :) 

Yard and Bits of Random News :)

We got our yard back today! It's had a huge hole and a trench and then a smaller hole and piles of clay on it since May. The bobcat broke down at a very bad time and Papa got it fixed last night! 

Papa got the bobcat going last night and started filling in the hole! The cats thought it was great fun! 

Curious here was chasing the dirt as Papa pushed it. When I took this picture I wasn't sure that his tail wasn't stuck. It wasn't. 

Oreo watched with me :) He's a bit smarter then his cousin. 

Papa brought a bunch of compost over and spread it around as good as he could with the bobcat. Then he seeded it, raked it and got all the kids to help pick up sticks and weeds out of it. After that it was packing time. 

He got the kids all lined up and got them all stomping and around and around they went! They had a blast! Papa joined in for the last lap and marched them around as good as any general. 

Then we watered it for a couple of hours.  It's late in our season but the grass is still growing on the farm. Hopefully we'll get a start this fall and it will control the mess in the spring. Clay is a pain any time of year but spring is the worst. The driveway is getting a couple of loads of gravel yet which will help a lot in the spring. 

Oh yeah and the bobcat is looking like this 

Again.

Papa got several smaller jobs done with it today and then he said something just wouldn't go. Turns out it needs another $250 part. At least it's happening now and not in the middle of trusses! That's the sliver lining. We must find a silver lining since we've put over two grand into this machine this summer so far and I don't even know how many hours of work! Hopefully it will last a long long time after all these repairs. 

Here are some pictures of the kids enjoying the yard today. 

S loved it! 

These two love the swings. J3 asked me today he if he could go 'wing? Complete with arm movements. They have both learned to 'pump' this summer and other than G needing help getting on they can 'do it ourselves.' One day it was close to two hours they were on the 'wings! 

And one of J showing me just how strong he is! 

That's three 6x6's and his 80lb brother on that wagon!! He pulled it no problem! We took the 6x6's off the yard area..I think we've decided if after two years we still haven't prepped them for sand we really don't want or need them. Sand we will still get, but a nice border to keep it in? Naw! We just aren't that particular ;) and it's so not a priority. Don't worry they won't go to waste! I've got some plans for a set of stairs for the trampoline and we'll need some for the doorways in the house. :)