The Back Of The House. First Coat.

Before stucco. 

The whole area to be stuccoed. There are two walls that needed stucco in this picture. The other one is on the side of the house in the milking parlour area right in front of Isabel in the picture. The top wall isn't ready to be stuccoed yet. It will be the last straw bale wall. Papa is working on it and the upstairs side walls so they are ready before our winter hits. 

Here it is after the first coat of stucco. The side wall has not been completed in this photo. I love the little deck he's made back there. 

Isabel had leaned on the parlour gate that morning and snapped it in two! It was a old weak board and Papa replaced it and the latch that same day. Good thing too as the steers and Maggie came up from the back the next week and they would have put moe stress on it then the old one could have handled. 

Here is the other wall after its first coat was finished. That orange tarp covers our milking machine :) The side walls he's working on now will seal the top floor. You can see into the top floor in this picture. 

This is a picture where you can see the start of the side walls. There is more done now, but this is the best picture I've got now. You can see the stucco is hard and white in this picture as well. 

100% Grassfed Holsteins

Papa and I have the only 100% grassfed dairy cows in our area, that we know of. Probably the only one in the northern half of our Province.  There was one about 6 hours from us several years ago but we aren't sure if it's still running. Most people don't believe that Holsteins can survive our winters without lots of grain and a barn (and we have neither!) and you'd be amazed at their reactions when they see our 'fat' holsteins. BTW we think Maggie is FAT, MOST farmers who see Isabel think she is the fattest Holstein they've ever seen... until they see Maggie :) In fact Maggie is so fat we think it might be hindering the AI attempts. I took these pictures this morning. 

Isabel, above,  is 6 months into her lactation. Her calf Ivan was born a few days before Christmas. She's giving about 12 gallons of milk a day average. Some days it's more. The pigs and chicks are loving the extra milk :) Until we got the chicks I made cheese almost every day for several weeks. The milk production went up with the arrival of green grass and we scrambled for a bit to find something to do with it, besides feed it to the 17 littler pigs who love it. (I say Littler because they are really not that little anymore! Most of them are around 175lbs with several of them 200lbs.) 

Maggie's calf Milton was a year in March so she's been milking for 15 months. She's still giving about 4, 4.5 gallons a day. We'll probably dry her up after chick butchering, IF the last AI attempt worked, until then her milk is going into the meat birds. 

Shirley The Jersey. A Christmas Story.

Some friends of ours wanted to go on a trip, but they had a cow they needed taking care of . Papa said sure and told me later, but I was fine with that. They brought her over the 22nd of December. Her name is Shirley and she reminds me of a large happy dog. She is inquisitive and alert. She walked right over the wire fence to explore the pigs and right back in again when Papa put the fence down. She is easy to catch and lead and she seems to be, very much, a people cow. You know; instead of a people person? She's a people cow. Shirley is a purebred jersey cow with a rough coat. I'd never seen a Jersey with a rough coat. Looks neat. I knew she was in labour the night she got here so I put her in our new calf pen with Ivan, Isabel's calf, and watched her for a bit. Until 1am actually when my feet were frozen and my eyes kept closing all by themselves. I went inside to bed but resolved to wake up in a couple hours to check on her. I must have been tired because the next hour I saw was 8am!! I thought, for sure, there would be a calf but no! While I was still scratching my head over that she lay down and gave a little push and I saw feet!! I ran inside and woke up the kids, made them get jackets on and boots and we all went out to stare at the cow! Then we went back inside as nothing was happening..that friendly cow kept saying 'good morning' to everyone and wouldn't lay down again to push the calf out!!   I stayed outside and watched her and when she was down again and staying down I called the kids and they all came out and watched the calf being born! Papa stayed inside with S but the other 6 were all there. Wonderful experience! Shirley did so good and after the calf was out and she was up she shared the love and licked Ivan all over just the same as she did her calf! A Christmas Eve calf! What a wonderful reminder of life and love and Jesus! 

L hand milking Shirley. Norman is the red calf, Ivan the black calf. 

 What a busy day it was. A friend and two of her children came for breakfast, a wonderful lady dropped off a quilt, a couple of guys showed up to pick up a freezer full of old meat for bait (a very big pig that died a couple years ago in the bush that we were going to feed to the dogs and never did as it smelled so bad!), Papa took the oldest 4 kids skating with church family for two hours while I cleaned house and napped littles,  R and her 6 kids came to see the calf and have a quick visit. C's and their 4 boys stopped in to see their cow Shirley and name the new calf Norman (city slickers anyone?). At one point there were 17 children in the house! Papa and Mr. C went to pick up some hay. Everyone was visiting and having a great time! I totally forgot it was Christmas Eve! The dog barked, the kids yelled, Grandma and Grandpa are here! The families were introduced, the calves seen again, the snowsuits, gloves, hats and children packed up, hugs given, good byes said, Papa and Mr. C arrived. R and her children left, C's packed up their boys, checked and double checked for mittens and jackets and oh don't forget the babies boots! Than a moment of silence. Ahh. 

Children chattering excitedly, Christmas Eve! We've remembered! Gingerbread houses and snack night and Grandma and Grandpa and excitement reined! I remember Papa hugged me and I smiled at him and we went into the kitchen to set up for the gingerbread house decorating. We decorated, we chatted and ate, we even opened gifts and hugged and laughed and then we were saying good bye again to Grandpa and Grandma and yelling MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Then again the house had a moment of silence before the little excited voices. Reminding us. Another Tradition. A wonderful Tradition, the annual watching of 'The Nativity Story.'  

Later that night after the kids were in bed Papa and I took a couple deep breaths and finished a few surprises for the next days giving. When the house was ready for bed I went out once again in the dark cold night to check the calves and Shirley and marvel. Every birth is a gift but God becoming man, being birthed into this human world to save us from sin is the greatest gift of all! What a personal reminder of the magic of life, the God thing that opened my eyes and quiets my heart. Thank you Jesus! 

*Disclaimer. Our children close their eyes for several minutes several times in the movie 'The Nativity Story' we also fast forward the first part and both births. 

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. 

Oldest & Youngest: Chore Helper.

J is 9 and Papa has decided that he can stay up later, around until 10:30 and help me with the evening  chores. He fetches this and packs that and makes my job a whole lot easier. 

There are several ways to help Momma with the evening chores.

 Holding and patting a tired baby to sleep is one of them. Bonus: he gets to stay up later, I get to go to bed sooner, he gets to read his book, and I don't have to worry about the baby!!

Ham And Bacon.. A Movie!

E helped me get this little movie of Ham and Bacon this morning... Actually there is a story behind my walkabout with the camera this morning. I better start there.

J is laid up on the couch, post coming, so I was a bit surprised when E came running inside from doing chores to ask him to come out and help them. When asked, she admitted that one of the piglets had jumped out of the barn and they needed his help to get it back in. I think my eyes bugged just a little. Oh my!! I'm not super agile normally and really not right now and I knew J should NOT be out chasing piglets so I handed S off to J, got some socks on and prepared to head out and see what we, L, E and I, could do. Before I even got my second sock on though E came back and told us that L had caught him, it was Bacon thank goodness and Ham is HUGE!, and got him back in the barn!! Thank you Lord!! WAY TO GO L!!! Anyway since I had my socks on anyway I headed out to see how the piglets were doing as I've not seen them in several weeks. They are doing awesome!! Bacon, the one in the front in the movie chewing on E's shoe,is still smaller then Ham as you can see but they are both a pretty nice size for 2 months old!! I just checked and their birthday was May 10th! They are getting at least 2 gallons of milk a day, one in the morning and one at night and today we are going to soak some broiler feed in milk and feed them that tonight.

Soon they will go out in some electric fencing but we need to do a little pig surgery first :) 

Here are a few more pictures of my little walkabout :) 

Isabel in the rye. Papa has been giving them a little at a time for several days. They LOVE it. 

Little girl looking a bit pregnant :) She should have babies in about a month. 

The herd of pigs.

The tethered calves behind the house. That's our last hay bale on the trailer there.. free choice with the rye. The calves are in the cow pen but thankfully the cows act like they aren't even there. We had worries of the cows trying to adopt them and let them suck. 

Some kind of melon plant that is coming up in the cow pen.. Last year there was one plant and this year over ten! I'm curious to know if any fruit will grow. 

The Calves Are Out On Grass :)

The cows think it's wonderful!! 

So cute to see two great big milk cows go gaga over two little cute calves!! 

The cows even sleep by the pen now! 

J, L and I set the fence up and then J and L held the fence up, turned off!, while Papa led the calves one at a time to the fence and I walked behind them as 'motivation.' Milton did quite well on the lead but little Patch fought and fought and fought!! When he finally did get in the fence Papa sat down and let him tire himself out on the lead rope until he stopped fighting it. J ran to turn the fence on and we watched while the calves learned electric fence. 

Milton checking to see if Papa had anything to eat. 

Yum.. green stuff!! 

Ah.. this is what we were looking for!! They are about a month apart in ages.. Milton being older. Patch is very small though for his age. I wonder if he will catch up! We shall see! He sure has attitude!! 

Thankful Thursday. May 2nd

Today's post is being written while I lay on my side in bed, the only mostly comfy position I can find. My back is protesting the lifting I did last week and I'm no longer lifting at all. Even lifting little G is hard. I'm not complaining, just explaining. Stretching and massage help quite a bit as does walking, but sitting upright is out and leaning back while sitting is better but still painful. My chiropractor helped quite a bit yesterday but I think mostly it will just take time.

Poor Papa is now doing all the milking; morning and evening, but I'm thankful that his shift allows for him to have the time to do the morning milking. It takes him about 35 minutes to milk alone and feed calves,  so he has to get up at 6:30 am to milk before work. (Those of you who know Papa know he is NOT a morning person and this a big sacrifice for him!)   I used to  wash milk stuff as he brought it inside and help that way but the sink is too low and its super painful now. When we were able to working together it only took about 20 minutes, and I'm hoping my back will get better enough that I can at least wash again.

I'm thankful for the training I've been able to do with the kids all winter as they are able to keep up on the house work with very little help from me. They also are amazing help with the lifting the littles, dishes, laundry and yard work! A lot of our fun training; things they wanted to learn and still enjoy, is really coming in handy too..like putting cookies on pans, slicing bread, putting mayo or jam on bread, picking out G or J3 clothes, washing baby hair in the tub, organizing the book shelves and more that aren't coming to my mind.

Papa has also taken the opportunity to start teaching J how to get Isabel on the milk machine and said both the boy and the cow did really well! I'm constantly amazed at how strong J is and what he can do! The other day he carried a box of school work that Papa said was heavy and it barely even fazed J.  Having a 9 year old boy sure is a handy thing!  J and L together took a small piece of our 'new to us' kitchen cabinets from the truck to the house the other day with no help from Papa or I at all. They are both fairly good with the wheel barrow and bring firewood, bedding and totes and things where ever they need to be. J's even learned how to take stuff out of the oven recently.. Quite a big deal for him as he's very leery of hot stuff. Yesterday he lit the fire pile in the yard all by himself. (Yes I asked him too and was supervising.)

So it is now several hours later and I'm sitting at the computer to finish this post. Papa is outside getting the chick barn ready for the 400 little yellow peepers that are in transit right now and will be arriving here tomorrow morning. Papa has taken the day off tomorrow to get chicks home and help me get every body fed, warm and happy in the barn.

My back has done much better this afternoon and I've barely had to rest it at all. PTL!! Maybe I will get somewhat back to normal yet :)

Anyway if your the praying sort and think of us; please pray that my back gets better, and that we find time to do all that we need to do; hopefully without stress :) Thanks :)

Oh and don't worry I will for sure take LOTS of pictures of the kids with the chicks tomorrow.... :) ;) and hopefully get around to posting them soon!!

Lift Power :)

First I have to say THANK YOU STEVE!!! For the wonderful idea!!! :) 

Lovely little addition to the farm this weekend..

What is it you ask??
It's AWESOME!!! 

L and E trying it out while J and J3 look on. Tucker in the way... as usual. 

The cows were pretty sure we should feed them as we did spend about 45 minutes in the milking area putting it all together and trying it out.

Here is a little clip to show you how it works. 

This wonderful idea makes it super easy to get those heavy milk buckets on to the porch after milking and makes it possible for me or J, maybe ;), to milk the cows no matter how much milk they are giving!! 

Just for reference Maggie is now giving 8 to 10 gallons a day... that makes for a pretty heavy bucket!! Much more then a 9 year old or a 7 month pregnant lady should be lifting!! Papa may even use this system to keep his back in better shape!! 

Maggie's Calf! March 22nd/2013

 I knew Maggie was in labor yesterday when I saw her with her tail up and how restless she was. She would lay down and get up and lay down and get up. When I went outside to take a looks see after several hours of watching from the window I saw this! There wasn't even time to go get the kids...I did get it on camera though and a MOVIE of his birth!! 

She just turned around, laid down and pushed him out!! Two pushes :) She MOOOOO'd while she pushed which I've never seen a cow do before! Isabel was quite excited too but after he was born she left. J and I pushed him up to her head as she wasn't getting up and she cleaned him off a bit. Finally I was worried because she wasn't standing up, after about 35 minutes, and got purposely too close and she got up. He got up right after that and was nursing very soon after that! When I saw how active he was I called Papa.. we'd not decided if we wanted him to nurse her or not. I thought we did because it's so much better for both of them but we've also had trouble with calves who suck til they are 2... or in the freezer!! As soon as Isabel saw him trying to suck SHE WANTED HIM!! I had to fight her off!! J ran back to the house and got a bucket of sweet mix and called her and sure enough off she went a running. He got her locked in the milking parlor, GOOD JOB J!!, and Maggie and baby had some alone time. He had a good meal and she cleaned him off. 

Isabel got left in the milking parlor for about 90 minutes.. I wanted them to have a little time together before I had to take him away. These same to cows fought over Isabel's calf last year and it got a bit rough so we figured it would just be safer to take him away from them both.. the same thing we did to Star last year. Isabel was actually using her head as a wedge to get between Maggie and the calf. She also used her head on Maggie a few times to chase her off.. what a circus!! When I found out we had a bull calf I WHOOPED super loud!! We don't know her exact dates but the later they calve often means heifer where as the sooner they calve means bull. I really wanted a bull!! 

So now he lives in his little pen in the front of the house! I'm SO glad Papa put it up on his last day off as I'm really not sure where I would have put him if not for the pen. Here are the kids checking him out. He's tired.. He had to walk, get pushed, a long ways from the hay bale, to the milking parlor (Maggie WOULD NOT go in without him) and then to the front of the house and his little pen. After I got him in I milked both cows and let them out. Maggie searched for him for about 20 minutes and unless he bawls she doesn't even call for him. He has a heat lamp because he was shivering. I also covered him with straw. This morning we hit -15C here and he was as far away from the heat lamp as he could get and still be in the pen.. so I think unless it gets really cold he will not be needing a heat lamp anymore! 

Last night when Papa got home we took a bottle out and got about a cup into him. His cord was still bleeding, which I'd been worried about all evening and googled, so we tied it off with a piece of dental floss.. what Google recommended. :) We had to do it twice as the first time didn't work but the second did and it stopped bleeding and this morning it's looking nice and dry like it should be. 

So here he is! He needs a name.. 

an M name, because he's Maggie's bull calf. 

We already have a Meatloaf.

Papa is thinking Milton . 

He is all black.. not a speck of white on him. 

I think Milton sounds smart and he is that!! This morning he drank a bottle full like a pro!! I don't see weeks of force feeding in my future with this little guy!! 

Still I do like my name too... Melt'n :) 

As in Melt'n in my mouth :) 

Maybe this guy will be Milton and his, hopefully, soon to be stall mate from a local dairy, will be Melt'n. :) 

So what do you think?? 

Thankful Thursdays!! March 21st!

Miss Maggie heavy with calf! Look at that bag!! I can't believe it's still getting bigger everyday! From the back you can't even see the quarter lines! She looks very rectangle these days. She is very fat for a Holstein and we are excited to see how much milk she'll be giving!! 

The cows salt block is on a stump in front of her.. she's licking it. Yes.. ON A STUMP!! 

We do have that much snow. 

Miss Isabel. She's been officially milking for a year and 8 days. Still gives about 4 or 5 gallons a day. We will probably dry her up when Maggie calves.. We recently AI'd her for the 2nd try and if it doesn't take we will probably take her to a bull. She is a good quiet cow who has really only bonded with Maggie. Where as Maggie has bonded with the dogs as well as Isabel and will lick all three! 

She was staring at Tucker.. 

Tucker.. handsome is't he? I need to get a picture of him standing next to Chip or Papa so you can see how big he is. We thought he'd stopped growing UP awhile ago but then just last week I noticed he's grown UP again. He was already bigger then both his parents before this last growth spurt so we really aren't sure how big he'll get! I love his coloring!! 

The calf pen waiting on Maggie.. Yes this is just outside my front door.. Yes I like it that way :) 

Makes chores so much easier and it will keep the calf under shelter. The plywood is to block the wind. The gate is on the left by the pallets. The little 1X4 fence is because Star, our last calf, always tried to jump on to the porch and where this pen is at is LOWER then where Stars pen was at. 

Big Momma enjoys the sunshine!! Little 'Hairless' is beside her.. She has very little hair and most of it on her head. Born that way and it never did grow in.

Anyway our camera is home and working so be aware :) LOTS of pictures to take and post in the next little bit. Critters today.. Kids/Snow/house/Beer stuff coming soon :) 

Cow Update March 9/13

Just a quick note to tell you that Maggie is slowly bagging up and is looking like she will calve in the next month or so. Papa and I have tenitive plans to buy a dairy steer when her calf is born and raise the two together. Two is very little more work then one and the way we've been going through beef we are gonna need two! Besides that we will skip a year with beef if we do not and we are enjoying it too much to go without it unless absolutly nessasary.  

Isabel was checked recently and found to be open, in other words not bred. So we are once again watching for heats and hope to try AI-ing her again soon. This time to a brown Swiss bull! On the 13th of March she will have been milking for a full year. She started at about 8 gallons a day and is now down to about 5 gallons a day! That is really good! She is in good shape for a Holstein as well and seems to be able to blance her wieght loss and her milk production really well. Some cows give all their weight to their milk production or produce less milk and keep some wieght. Isabel seems able to do both. Other then Papa's sweet mix at milking time and a salt block she is just getting hay!  Maggie on the other hand looks bullish she is so fat!

      Maybe I will wander out there with my Ipad soon and take a picture of them for you. They are bonding and sometimes we see them licking each other for hours.

      I wonder if Isabel will make a pain of herself while Maggie's calving the way Maggie  did when Isabel calved a year ago? I hope we are around to see the birth! Maggie's last calf, Meatloaf (who is living with the neighbours herd at the moment and will be beef this fall) was born about 6 o'clock in the morning and I just caught the tail end, punny!, of the birth through the window. He was born in November 2 years ago now on the same day we butchered Billy the steer who was Bindy's second last calf. It was an interesting day that's for sure!

If you want to read some fun stories about cows click on the word cows or calves on the side panel and you'll get a bunch! Happy reading!

General Farm Update.. January 2013

It's been a while since I did a update so here you go.

Maggie is home now and her and Isabel seem quite happy together again. We have not yet had her preg checked but the fact that she's not gone into heat since she's been home and the waddle in her walk makes us think we should have a calf arriving in the next several months. Isabel has also not gone into heat since we had her AI'd and we are hoping she too is bred!! IF Maggie was bred the month she went to the Bull's place we should have a calf in March. If Isabel is bred she should calve in August. Isabel is still giving about 5 or 6 gallons a day. Lucky pigs and chickens.. I just wish I had the energy to make cheese!!! Maybe soon :)

Chip is getting less exercise now that Tucker seems to leave him alone more and is no longer loosing weight.. Papa thinks he is about 120lbs. One bonus from bringing the ski doo home to give the kids rides is that Chip follows it around, Papa is ON IT!!, and gets some exercise. He has made himself a new bed under the floor of the new house and seems to revert to puppy hood with numerous naps and unawareness. He's only 3 so I'm not sure why or even if he's changed or if Tucker is just so much more active that I've actually noticed how inactive Chipper really is.

Waiting for Papa's return one snowy day! 

Tucker has a annoying habit of chewing on bike helmets, gloves, baseball gloves, odd shoes and whatever he can get his mouth on. Other then that he seems to be fitting right in. He's about 5 months old now and quite large. I barely have to bend to pet him. He has learned to stay off the porches and to sit if he wants attention but he still has a ways to go. He tried to follow us out the driveway the other day and Papa had to chase him back a couple of times. He is very bright though and that works in his favor.

Laying hens are laying eggs again!! YAY!! Some days we get a dozen other days only 1 or 2. I'm sure I have an egg eater in there somewhere but finding them is the thing. We've lost a few older hens, as we do every year, which is life. We haven't got a hen under almost 3 so it's no wonder we loose one here and there. Most of them are between 3 and 5.

Pigs.. Well we finally butchered the last two butcher hogs 10 days ago (and had bacon for breakfast YUM!!) and got the sausage done 2 days ago and Papa smoked a side of bacon yesterday to see how it was. It was YUMMY!! Anyway that means we have 8 growers (5 months old) to butcher next year left, two proven sows and one gilt. Papa picked the friendliest gilt and kept her to breed. She is not purebred and is multicolored so it will be neat to see what her babies look like. The pigs just got a new large straw bale in their pen and Papa forked a bunch of it into their barn so they are happy pigs these days with the warm weather and something to play with.

Papa slicing bacon for breakfast! Check out that pan behind him!! 

As for the rest of the place it is surviving winter well. Papa has mornings to clear snow with the bobcat and he's made great big piles of snow every where for the kids. The kids have tunnels and caves and trails and all sorts of fun stuff out there in the snow. The snow on the entrance side of the roof has not come off in almost 2 months.. it's been too cold for it to move. The other side gets more sun and has come off once in the last month. Right now there is A LOT of snow up there and we are awaiting the BOOMING THUNDER OF FALLING SNOW!!! Papa has taken the bobcat and cleaned out the snow on the ground on the entrance side so it won't pile up and make a mess this spring. We thought the snow would fall today as it is 4C/40F here today, I even kept the kids inside because I was that sure, and so far nothing, but it is overcast and normally the snow goes on sunny days. It's already cooling off here so I think if it is still warm tomorrow it might fall then. If not it will wait until our next beautiful sunny day.

The snow by the front door... this actually fell this morning but only the part hanging down. 

Some of this fell but not all of it. Every warm meltly day on the farm we have red patches... butchering spots that show up as the snow melts.. looks terrible but you get used to it. Isabel was waiting to be milked and she was watching me with interest as I took the pictures. 

 As for a house building update.. there isn't really one. Between butchering, holidays, sickness, and work we've not had much time. Papa is waiting on a few quotes for trusses/i beams for the floors between the two additions. 

I almost forgot the cats! They are spoilt as per normal. The two kittens we got this summer have learned how to get up on Midnight's perch above the back porch. There is a bit of a ledge up there and they all 3 fit nicely and make good use of the heat coming through there. Hunter, the orange male, is still giving Tucker a hard time which is good for Tucker. I have no idea where he sleeps but I would guess in the large addition in the spare bales there. His brother showed up 2 nights ago after having been MIA for almost a year. They look a lot more alike then I remembered. The brother (what did we name him? I'll have to look on old blog posts.) is a bit more rough and tumble then Hunter and Papa says his eyes are goopy. If he sticks around we'll have to do something about that. I've only seen him once, that I know of they do look a LOT alike!, and I'll be surprised if he stays. Here is the original post on the two orange cats.. whom we were told were females but both were males. The one that stayed was renamed Hunter.. I wonder if the other just left before we knew they were males?? Anyway the 4 regulars are very friendly to each other and we often see them all 4 on the Travel-all's hood when it's warm. I hope the return of the other male doesn't mess that up! Anyway that's the farm update. Hope you enjoyed hearing about life on our place :) 

New Neighbors.. of the Fowl Kind.

See it?? 

It is a grouse sitting in a spruce tree. 

The spruce tree is at the end of our driveway. 

It's not our tree actually it's Mr. M's but our driveway goes right by it.

I discovered our new neighbors one day while I was walking back down the driveway.. 

I'd gone out to take pictures of Papa bringing Maggie home.. I wanted one of him walking her down the road home.. I never got the picture I wanted as Maggie decided to NOT follow him and we chased her the whole way! Anyway.. I was walking back to the house with the camera and I was a TAD distracted as I was also taking the opportunity to train Tucker to stay on the house side of the raised beds and NOT follow me down the driveway, when something EXPLODED right beside me.. 

Yeah.

 I knew what it was the minute my heart went out of PANIC MODE. 

Grouse are known for this little trick. It must have been less then 3 feet from me and I panicked it and it panicked me and Tucker took the opportunity to come a bit closer.. 

I yelled at the dog and marveled a little at myself.. I had NOT dropped the camera you see! 

I gave myself a mental shake and turned around to see if I could find it and calmly took a picture. 

My heart didn't actually stop racing until I got inside. 

I walked up and down the driveway several more times that day and saw two grouse in all. 

Over the next two weeks we saw 4 in all, sitting in the trees, walking across the driveway like they owned the place. Chip barked at them. Tucker went to sniff them out and got yelled at. 

I think they may have been attracted to the area by our hay pile.

Then one day they were gone.. moved out. Found a better place to camp I guess.

Anyway now that they are gone we kinda miss them.. they were fun to watch. 

Even if they did like to get your heart rate a boost! 

Good Bye Norma Jean

Well it's that time of year again.. when the big game guides come down from northern country and back into life with humans ;) Their hunting stories all brand new and their bodies worn from 3 months of hard work, little sleep and almost no 'days off.' They come back and shower and sleep for a week :) Well maybe not a week but several days anyway. Our favorite big game guides say they shower, needed or not, every day  for the next 6 months.. just because they can. This year is a year of changes for them and we wish them well but we miss them terribly. Love you guys!!

ANYWAY!! I'm sure we'll get into all that in a later post. The title of this post is GOOD BYE NORMA JEAN!!

Remember Norma Jean?? She's a Holstein cow we were 'cow sitting' for some friends of ours. Besides being one of the DIRTIEST cows we've ever seen she fit right into our little place for the 3 months she was here. After that 1st week of training her to the stanchion and electric fence she did really well on the homestead..she upped her milk production right off and gave 6 gallons a day which Star, our Holstein heifer, really enjoyed and the piglets and laying hens did too :)  Until last week that is when she stopped eating, started squirting junk out a back teat and spent a lot of time laying down doing nothing. Now if you know much about cows you know they chew their cud. Constantly. She stopped chewing hers. She also stopped coming in to be milked which resulted in several frustrating days of chasing her in morning and night to be taken care of. Turns out she had a kind of mastitis that affects their whole body. We'd already babied her through most of it when we found out and she was already recovering nicely when we found out how bad it COULD have been.. and we are forever thankful. Thursday is when she got sick. Sunday she was already much better and by this morning she was giving 2 gallons and perky as ever when they came to pick her up. We did a little farm tour; the house building we've been doing, the weaner pigs (Their little boy really seemed to like them! :), and finally the cows. Norma Jean seemed to know she was under scrutiny and stared at us as we stared at her. When the Mr. of the two fetched a lead rope and went to catch her she turned her head away and I commiserated with him.. she doesn't like me much either.. In the end Papa put some of our sweet cow candy in her stanchion and she walked right in allowing herself to be caught and lead to the trailer. She trailers better then most horses I've seen. Too bad I left my camera on the our truck!!! (The camera is fine as the truck was parked, but I forgot to take a picture!) Anyway both the Mr. and Mrs. said she looked great. Papa and I couldn't see the changes too much as you tend not too when you see them daily but we did notice that she no longer had ribs showing. Her hips and front shoulders looked bony, as they should, but not thin. I'm hoping to get a picture of her in her new barn from the Mrs soon and I'll be sure and share it with you! They are excited to have her back and as they left were talking about cheese and butter and all things dairy. If I know those two they'll be eating ice cream tomorrow night :) YUM!! Good luck Norma Jean.. I doubt we'll missing your dirty bag and your stinging wet tail, but I'm glad we made your acquittance. Tonight at milking I almost missed your big brown eyes... almost but not quite :)

I have to add that the kids were very sad to see her go even though they knew she would leave when she came. They loved her. She would let them pet her and Isabel will not. Apparently every time they'd walk through the cow pen Norma Jean would come over for a pet and they loved her for it!

Fall Update. 12

Well I realize that other then my Thankful Thursdays post I've not posted very much lately. Partly because we are busy but I'm also working through some things in my life and blogging seems to be more on the bottom of the list then the top. But I've got a bit of time right now so I thought I'd update you all a little. As most of you know I blog for myself and my husband, my family; near and far, and my kids. I blog as a memory keeper. I back it up onto my computer and keep it for later. Sort of an online scrapbook. And bonus the relatives like it too as they can share our days with us :).

I also try to be a very positive person so I very rarely post anything negative  I don't want this to be a place to complain. Actually I try to never complain on Facebook or the blog and rarely in person. It's a personal preference of mine. Though I realized the other night my Bible study ladies probably hear more then they'd like. I'm sorry. I'm working on it. God isn't finished with me yet. :) Love you girls!!

Anyway now that I've got that off my chest I'll update you on our life at the moment.

Kids first :)

Baby G is almost 11 months old, she is still nursing several times a day and is so focused while she nurses I wonder how hard she'll be to wean. She is a habits girl and changing her habits is always neat to watch. You can just about see her thinking and readjusting. She is standing up and balancing and cruises on the couches or whatever but has only taken 3 steps. I expect she will be walking soon. She has quite the personality and chatters away at you, cocks her head and waits for you to chatter back. She is learning signs and already does please.

J3 was 2 in July. We were so busy this summer that we waited to potty train him for several months. It took about 6 weeks but he's now mostly trained. He still will not tell us when he has to go but will go several times a day and will stay dry for hours. Good enough! He gets a 'choc bar' (a mini one) if he tells us he has to go so we are working on that slowly. He is talking a lot more and stringing words together nicely. He loves animals and being outside. He gets upset when ever R does school because then she's not playing with him. They are best buddies and play together very nicely. He is learning that soon he will be the 'big kid' in the living room with Baby G and they are working on staying in the living room during school and playing nicely together.


R is 4.5 and loves to do school. I made her a work book with letter printouts and she is learning her letters and how to write them. This will be all the school besides crafts and coloring she will do for awhile as Papa says she is too young to do more. I think she needs to play more as well.  Next year she will be 5 and might do grade 1 then. She is really enjoying the little work books we got her from Walmart that she does dot to dots and colors in. She has a baby doll that she plays with, dresses, naps, etc and I often enjoy hearing her teach her doll things. She has been a great help in toilet training J3 as she would really get excited for him which made him excited too. She loves to snuggle and read books and play all kinds of games. She also enjoys computer games like purple place and jump start preschool.

E is almost 6 and grew like a weed this summer. Both her and R went through 2 sizes in the last 6 months. Mostly they grew taller, though E is almost at 40lbs which makes her excited as she can almost go into a booster seat. She is enjoying school and amazes me with her memory.  They are starting math drills and she did her page in 2 minutes! She really loves science Paces and, I think, she'd finish one a day if I let her. We are working on her writing neatly as she didn't have the control last year but does this year. She enjoys our new puppy Tucker and likes to mother him. She's been experimenting with laughs and is making us all laugh at the same time. She loves to tell stories.

L is 7.5 and loves to draw and do Kung fu. He is a very active child and needs to stay active outside or he drives us all crazy inside :) He is the first in the wrestling match and the last one out. I can always tell when he's walking in the house because that extra bounce in his step makes the trailer floor thump just a little. In the kids games L is often the monster or creatures of terror. He loves it and plays his part really well...too well sometimes and scares us! He is the fastest kid in school and loves his social studies paces the best. He is also the neatest writer of the three. Surprised me!

J is almost 9 and wearing my boots! He's grown 2 sizes this summer as well and I think will soon be wearing his fathers shirts. He can haul totes, 5 gallon buckets half full and 3 gallon buckets mostly full! He and L have been in charge of the laying hen chores and firewood for the last year and it has really beefed them both up. He is finding school a bit long this year as he often works for over 3 hours a day, but he is working on being diligent and working hard to get it done during school hours and not 'free time' hours. :) He loves to read and do crafts and experiments.

As a group the kids are enjoying pretend play, chicken teams (apparently the chickens need teams like `the dirty bum team`and the `commanders`) swinging, playing with Tucker, enjoying home church and their kids church. Singing, jokes, and stories are often heard.

Me, well since I sat down to start this blog post I've; sat in the bedroom with J3 until he fell asleep as he's not been napping well, given out school assignments to J (x2) and L and E, sent L and E out to get a garbage can of sticks for kindling and 5 pieces of firewood, helped R with her 'school' assignments, checked out a cool home school newsletter and got some ideas for fall leaf projects, wiped a bum, turned the oven on to bake my bread, gotten J3 up from his nap and fed him his treat and put him on the potty, helped J with his assignment, drank a little bit of coffee until I saw that a bug had committed suicide in it, switched to the computer for faster typing :) Today I've managed to get Baby G's new size clothing sorted out and put away, putting some aside for a friends much rounder baby girl, made two meals and what I call directed traffic.. in other words.. boss people around :) I THINK I know what supper will be ( movie night as Papa is gone to the city for a course. So leftover chicken breast, crackers, apples, carrots and popcorn.) My kitchen is mostly clean and my fire is still going :) BONUS!!! lol fall is always a remembering time for me.. I MUST remember to keep wood on the fire! And I have made some plans for tomorrow.

Papa is busy these days too. Between work, sleep, farm and family he keeps pretty busy! Never mind the house and keeping our car and Travelall in great working order. This weekend he has a course in the city Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I may have to brave church alone.. with 6 kids. ( Church itself isn`t the problem. It`s getting the cows milked, chores down, kids ready and breakfast ready and eaten that is making me rethink my Sunday plans. Normally Papa does chores and cows and helps with kids ready when he`s done. I think I can do it alone.. I just have to get up really early! :) ) Anyway, Papa`s back is doing really well and he is normal again.. as much as ever anyway.

House building is coming along. Papa was sick last weekend which set us back a little. I`ll post some pictures soon.

Farm. Cows. Norma Jean goes home next week and after that we are planning on bringing Maggie and the two steers that are at the neighbors home for the winter. Well the biggest steer will go into the freezer :) We`ve made a deal with a friend of ours for the AIing of Isabel. Star has learned some cow manners from the two milk cows but is still very tame and easy to handle.. perfect!! She is still getting some milk every day but that will stop with Norma Jean going home.

Pigs. Well... we butchered the biggest pig in the back group and we are really enjoying the pork on the table!! We also sold 9 weaner piglets so far and 6 more are going early next week. We have 9 more 200 to 300 pound pigs in the back to butcher. Two are sold and whatever we don`t sell will go in the freezer. YUM!! We hope to only keep 10ish weaner piglets and the two purebred sows over the winter.

Layers. The hens are molting and nit picking and generally doing everything but laying eggs, though we did get 12 yesterday and 5 today! so hopefully soon we`ll be enjoying eggs in great number again.

Dogs. Chip is now 3 years old and I don`t know if it`s the puppy or what but he has taken a great disliking to a particular van and it`s people who come twice a week. Papa actually met them on the road the other day on their way here and hopped in the van with them to `deal with`Chip as Chip had growled and snapped at the man the last time he`d come. Chip behaved and has done much better since! He likes to play with Tucker and the two of them are often seen rolling around chewing on each other. Tucker is fitting in well and the kids enjoy taking him for walks and feeding him. Now that it`s colder at night he has a blanket that goes over his crate on the front porch and gets a warm breakfast :) He`s gonna be a big dog!!

Cats. The two kittens we got this summer have made themselves right at home and seem to be a great addition to the place. They are both about the same in friendliness now and we are enjoying seeing them playing and goofing off at all hours. They will wrestle with Tucker which is super cute! Hunter, our oldest cat, the orange tabby is semi friendly and is a very good mouser. He sits on the raised beds and waits.. and gets quite a few mice! Midnight, the about 1 year old black male which someone dropped off here last spring, is the strangest cat ever.. he lets those kittens suck on his belly fur like they are nursing.. and yes we checked.. he`s a full male!! He takes care of those two like they are his own. I often see the cats and the puppy playing tag in the dark. Hunter really likes to attack Tuckers leash if he`s got it dragging behind him :)

Well that`s life here on the Griggs Family Homestead. Well no not really.. homesteading wasn`t talked about.. we still do quite a bit of that in our daily life. My breads ready to come out of the oven. Papa has bacon curing, the kids recently made sauerkraut and there is normally some kind of milk product in the fridge. Papa`s beer fridge is freezing at night now but it`s still got home brew in it. Apparently it needs a place inside.. or a system like the milk fridge. We still eat what we raise and can make for ourselves as a large part of our diet. We are getting into winter mode and staying home more, doing school daily and having a lot of fun together doing projects like our recent Great Clothes Swap! or our Get the toys in the bus so they don`t get buried in snow  project. Or our Canning adventures, De-cluttering 101, The Great Surprise Puzzle,Move The Baby Day and many many more. 

A couple of things we will be working on in the next few weeks are
*Getting the rest of the firewood to the winter pile.
*Winterizing the trailer and animal areas.
*Getting the kids 1st term supplemental work done.
*Shelves in the dining room area for the school stuff.. to the ceiling.
*Shelves in the entrance area for shoes and boots as we outgrew ours.
*and many many more..

I`ll try and blog a bit more of our adventures but for right now I`m outta here.. time to go try out that great looking bread on the oven top.. hmm.. movie night.. ah.. yup!

Some Shots Around The Homestead And A Farm Update :)

I'm so used to doing a load of laundry every day that this morning I decided to hang out our bedding to air out because I actually didn't have a load of laundry to do. It's such a beautiful day I didn't want to waste it. I did end up doing a load of laundry anyway as I decided to do our bedding while the blankets hung. 

While I was hanging laundry Papa cut a hole in a pallet and got it ready to fill up the laying hens bulk feed storage.. more on that later. Doesn't Peggy Sue look nice in the sunshine?

Big pigs and little pigs having breakfast. The littlest piglets are 6 weeks on Monday. They will be weaned soon, maybe even Sunday night which will give us three days while Papa is off to deal with any that escape  and try and find the Momma pigs. We'll be taking the big pigs out and leaving the littles in. The big pigs will follow Papa and a bucket and Papa will lead them all the way down to the butcher pigs at the pond. 

My crazy rhubarb plant which doesn't seem to realize it's fall! 

The yard and play area. There are at least two kids in this picture :) 

A zucchini plant I found that reseeded it's self in the cow pen. 

An empty wire cage. It kept the chickens out of the horse radish all summer.. and for a couple days it kept the cows out too.. but Isabel figured out she could move it and she moved it around and ate the whole thing. Sometimes I wonder why I bother! 

 Fluff :) and if you look very carefully you can see Hunter, orange tabby, in the background. I didn't even know he was there when I took the picture.

The ladies.. Isabel in the center, Norma Jean to the right and Star bringing up the rear. Papa and I tied Star, on her tether, close to the electric fence for several days until she learned to stay on one side of it :) Then we put her in with the cows. She learned her lesson really well and the two older cows are teaching her some cow manners. They have about 2 or 3 days of grass left then we will start feeding hay.. probably for the winter now. We've already fed one large square while we waited for grass to grow but the season is ending and we still aren't getting the rain we need to keep the grass growing.

Filling the layer feed storage. The pallet he cut a hole in is under the feed bag. There is a hole in the bottom of the bag that ties shut. So he locks the bobcats forks in place, opens the hole in the bottom of the bag and fills up the storage thing.

Here is our tarped hay stack, compost pile, bobcat parking, pallet storage area, and camper parking. I also got Papa's chain saw in the picture I see :) We should have almost enough hay for the winter.. We were expecting more grass so we might need a few more later on. 

My little garden area :) The onions and strawberries and the lettuce did wonderfully! 

Now all we need to do before winter is get firewood done, it's at about a 1/3 done, butcher a bunch of pigs and a steer, bring Maggie (our other milk cow) home, sell a whack of piglets and a couple of butcher sized pigs and move the keeper pigs into their winter barn, getting the hens to their winter barn with a light and winter pen, winterize the trailer/hoses/trucks/milking machine, and I'm sure several more things that just aren't coming to mind right now.. thankfully just looking at that list is making my eyes cross. 

And the good news is? Papa is now on 4 tens so he has three WHOLE days off every week and doesn't go to work until noon thirty the 4 days he works. :) :) :) So we finally might have time to get working on that list.. and the house.. and everything else :) 

Oh and Papa's back is MUCH better!! He's off morphine totally and is only going to the chiropractor every second week now!! YAY!! He's even been seen sitting!! 

So now you are updated on the homestead and Papa too :) 

My next job over the next few days is to update the kids pages :)