Chicks Are Out.

Jen asked on Facebook what we do with the chicks so I figured I'd hook you up with our system. 

We have a wire panel fence and inside on the bottom of it is a layer of chicken wire. This keeps the chicks in the panel fence. Around the outside of the panel fence we have an electrified electric mesh fence. This is to keep critters, like cats, out of the pen.

 The shelter is simply a piece of plywood leaning up against the side panel with two rebar posts on the ground side to make sure it stays there. There is a light, outside the panel that shines under the plywood shelter. The second piece of plywood is on the outside of the panel fence and keeps the wind out of that side of the shelter. We only get wind in one direction here normally so this works. 

On the top of the front right corner of the panel fence there is a fence post with a black garbage bag tied to it. This is a crow/raptors deterrent. It works. It works really well as long as you move it every two days or so. 

The plastic owl, his name is Fred, sits on the back corner of the panel fence. He's a good crow deterrent too. He's broken so he head no longer moves, what is with curious cows and owls anyway?, but he still works.  

Chip, the big black dog, loves the chicks and watches over them like a mother hen. He will not warn us if something happens to them though. He will sit and watch a raven or crow eat them. His, self proclaimed job is to  keep them all in the electric fence later when they are excape artists until they grow too big for the holes. He does this all day long for as long as it takes. He tried to teach Tucker this when he was a puppy but Tucker thinks this is boring. 

Tucker, the big white dog, is a LGD. He's half Manama and half golden retriever. This makes him an wonderful kids dog and a fantastic bird dog. He hates Ravens, crows, Hawks etc. He even barks are airplanes. He paroles the chick pen several times a day, sneering at Chips affection for the chicks, on the look out for raptors. If he sees one he chases it off. We've seen him do this repeatedly until we have very few problems with raptors here.  They were our biggest killer of chicks until we got him. 

Right now he and a sneaky raven are duelling it out every morning. The sneaky raven steals eggs out of the hen pen and Tucker chases him off at least twice a morning. 

The trick to keeping raptors off the chicks seems to be movement. So my chair is also out there and moved around every time I go out. When they get get big enough to move around in the electric netting we have way less problems with the raptors as long as we move them to every day to second day. Three days is too long. Something has to move every day or two or the raptors will attack. 

The chicks will live in this fence just like it is in the picture for about a week, then we will open up the panel fence in the morning and let them graze in the electric fence during the day. At night they get shut up in the panel fence again. We add more electric fencing the 3rd week and normally by then they aren't using their heat lamp at night much and we only do have it on when the temp drops a bit but better safe then sorry. When they are big enough not to be a easy catch for the raptors we start moving them around daily on the grass with a different shelter and no heat lamp until butchering day :) The fence post garbage bag goes with them always as does Fred. Fred normally has a lawn chair in the pen and the fence post gets moved during chores every day, even if we move the pen that day. Some of those sneaky Ravens/crows will get used to the pen moving but they don't like the bag moving. 

And there you have it. :) Hope that answers all your questions :)

Have a great y'all!! 

Dog Tails.

During breakfast the other day we heard a huge ruckus under the trailer. This is what we found. Tucker was stuck! He'd somehow gotten under there and had a electrical wire wrapped twice around his back leg. Papa had to push him back around that pole and untangle him! Tucker weights a fair bit and it was a tough push. Here are some more dog pictures from recently. Tucker is taller now then Chip.

I had to talk to them as Papa was in the pig pen lighting a fire and they both wanted in with him but they had to be happy with me instead. Here is what I normally get..

Can you tell which direction Papa was in?? Lol. Loyal mutt. 

 

First Snow Man Of The Year!

E made this little man one day and half a dozen others the next. Even a very cute snow baby as S. Tucker thought they were cute too.. and jumped all over them with his big doggy feet until there was nothing left.. 

E's is disappointed but not deterred. She says she'll try again later.. when Tuckers had some more time to get used to snow again. 

You Never Know....

What you'll see on our yard!!  

Sometimes it's kids playing a rousing game of soccer, or chickens eating grass, full grown cows munching around the trampoline, or little pigs rooting in the dirt. There are almost always laying hens and children, dogs and toys. A couple of weeks ago it was calves as well..

Everybody loves Papa. 

Patch; still a little wild.

J3 and Milton.

Calf and beer.... such is the homestead life!! 

Calf, Papa's shadow (also know as Chip) and beer... 

Ah it's the homebrewing/homesteading life!! 

Early Morning Visitors Part 2. Unwanted Visitors.

The unwanted visitors, there is something dead type, are a pair of ravens that attacked the chicks their first morning out on grass. Papa and I woke up to 10 dead chicks in the pen, chicks everywhere; under the porch, in the bushes, everywhere, and Tucker laying beside the trampoline watching the ravens eat the dead chicks. Yeah it turns out Tucker has to be loose to be 'on duty' for ravens anyway. He does fine with coyotes while tied or crated, but apparently must be loose to bark at ravens. He does chase them off, we've seen him, but not while tied... strange mutt. 

Papa and the kids and I spent 45 minutes rounding up chicks, found 4 more that had been squished in the panic, and got them all back in the pen and fed. Over the next few days we lost several, I think 4 or 5, more... probably from too much stress. It's a terrible way to wake up on a beautiful Sunday morning. 

We had to re-plan our day as we'd planned on going to church and out for lunch and then to a car show that afternoon. We'd already told the kids we were going to the car show so Papa packed up the kids and took them to see the old cars and I grabbed my book and went out to sit on the lawn.. and it was good that I did. Those brave ravens came back again and again and again!! I moved myself around the yard and that kept them from landing. 

We've had troubles with ravens before but not in several years. We found that if we tied a black garbage bag on to a movable fence post and moved it around in the pen when we did chores the ravens wouldn't land. We also move our chicks every day or every second day and the ravens really don't like change so they will not attack. 

We've never ever had raven troubles the first night the chicks are out until now.

So we made this guy known as Scare Steve. He's a scare crow but he looks like and is tall like our friend Steve and the kids named him :) Tucker DID NOT like him and barked for ages until Papa brought Tucker into the chick pen and 'introduced' them. 

So far, it's been 10 days now, we are keeping the ravens away with a couple of proactive activities. We are moving the scare Steve every couple of days, we are moving the feeders/waterers/ wheelbarrow in the pen every feeding or almost every feeding.. so two or three times a day! We are spending a LOT of time outside which they don't like and we are hunting them. Well Papa is :) We are still having raven scares every day. In fact the kids and I moved the chicks across the driveway today into a new pen and within an hour the ravens were checking them out. The scare Steve is not yet in the new pen but it will be tonight. The kids are outside doing P.E. and that should throw the ravens off until Papa can get the scare Steve and the feed trailer into the pen. I'm also seriously wondering if I should get a couple of Papa's old shirts and change scare Steve's shirt every day or two. Papa and I also sleep with our window cracked so we can hear the chicks in the middle of the night. 

 Papa figures the chicks would dress out about 3 lbs right now so it shouldn't be too long before they are too big for the ravens but until then we will be doing everything in our power to keep them safe. The ravens will not go after my laying hens so at least we know there is a size where the chicks should be safe. 

Surprises On The Front Porch :)

One day last week E came screaming into our room in a most excited manner and woke me up from my nap :) 

Daisy, our not so bright cat, had just lay down on the front porch and given birth to a kitten right before their very eyes. 

They had been on the porch setting up this surprise for me when it happened.

What great kids I have!! 

And Daisy?? Well she went on to have 3 more kittens in the old outdated carseat we kept on the dogs crate for the cats to sleep in. One was this little orange kitten who stole all our hearts. That night Papa moved the carseat, kittens and all, into the new house, we couldn't leave them where Tucker could get at them, and found out the next morning that Daisy had some sense after all and moved them out of harms way. Turns out Tuckers figured out how to get into the house. We were a bit worried as we couldn't find them and Daisy seemed to be around a bit too much to have just had kittens, but Saturday morning after chores Papa came bursting into the house to tell us that he saw Daisy go above the ceiling, on the insulation, of the house and he's pretty sure that's where she's hiding her kittens!! YAY!!! 

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 :) 

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! 

Washington Trip!

Yes we did. We traveled to Washington state this fall to see Papa's side of the family. We had a BLAST!! Packing was fun. I stood at the table and the kids ran to their bedroom and got the clothes I asked them for and we packed 4 outfits per child. Pants, shirts, underwear and socks all in neat little piles. 3 sets for daily wear and one for American Thanksgiving and pictures :) 

After driving 12 hours we made it across the border and to our 1st nights hotel. The kids love hotels :) We were messaging to Grandpa G who met us the next day in the tri cities area to visit with his mom; Granny. The next morning we drove 5 hours to Granny's house. We had a great time on a long stretch of road watching the tumbleweeds cross the road in droves. We carried 3 of them with us into the city! 

The visit with Granny went really well. The kids had a blast in her yards and eating the snack lunch. After lunch we went to a local park and let the kids play on the playground! Even little G was all over that playground! When Grandpa took Granny back to her place we found some crackers in the truck and headed down to the water to feed the geese! They saw the crackers and mauled us! Ok MAYBE maul is too strong of a word, but we were surrounded and the crackers made a quick snack for a bunch of apparently starving geese! They were super tame and the kids were petting them. We also took a walk down to the boat launch area where we last said good bye to Granny's husband Bruce on our last trip to Wa. two years ago. 

That night we went out for supper at a Mongolian BBQ with Grandpa and then got back in the truck and drove a few more hours before stopping for the night in Hotel #2. This made our last leg of our trip MUCH easier the next morning and gave us more time to SHOP in Spokane!! :) Toys R us!! Here we are!! After spending several hours picking out Christmas gifts and eating at one of our old haunts, Longhorn BBQ, we finished the drive off while most of the kids napped and made it to Griggs House right after they'd started eating supper ;) We do tend to be late :) G's birthday party was the next night and here she is having a bath in Gramma's tub while J3 looks on... actually I think he was stripping.. He was soon in the tub as well. 

Pies are TRADITION at every Griggs Holiday feast and man were they ever good!! YUM!! We had smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, 2 kinds of stuffing or dressing, squash, ham, and I'm sure I'm missing somethings!! 

Papa's parents had the unique privilege (or not?) of having all of their descendants under the same roof while we were there! Here is a picture of the kids with their cousin Morgan taken on Thanksgiving day! Our family picture on the Christmas letter was also taken that day. 

We were quite busy, haha actually I spent a lot of time Baby watching which suited me fine, while we were there. Auntie Ruthie gave E, R and J3 their very first ride on a horse! J and L both have had rides before but neither of them really remember.. so it was a pretty big deal to all of them. I'd have taken pictures of their ear to ear smiles but the sun was going down and the lighting was lousy. They went hiking, and hiking and exploring in caves and streams and canyons and hiking some more. We had a wiener roast and another hike and mine exploring at M&J's, Papa's aunt and uncle, before heading home to play games and do puzzles and play games and cards. We lost G twice as she learned how to climb stairs while we were there. She climbed up all the stairs to the second story and explored up there before finding the toys in Morgans room! She can move pretty fast when she wants too!! Auntie Ruthie and I drove to town and spent a goodly chunk of a day shopping and enjoying ourselves just the two of us :) 

This game of Risk started out with kids and Papa and slowly became Auntie Ruth and Papa. R officially won even though she did very little playing. Lots of fun, some tears and quite a lot of cheering.. along the lines of  "Get Papa, Get Papa." lol. The game lasted much of the day and this picture was taken so they could set it up again after supper! 

When the time came to leave we packed everything up, we had to add two totes to our truck!, said our good byes and wished we didn't have to go just yet! We fueled up at our favorite little store ever where Papa found a friend to talk to, and headed home... 12 hours of driving later we arrived at home. I don't actually remember much of the trip. Turns out I was fighting more then just morning sickness and motion sickness, I also had a bit of an ear problem that made noise un bearable and spent much of the day trying to sleep and wishing the Tylenol would stay down!! We did stop for fuel a couple of times, to puke once, to eat a few times and of course with every stop a bathroom run. The kids had new games to play and had a good trip home. Papa was a bit barn sour as they say and I just looked longingly at every motel we passed. We were all very glad to be home!! Tucker grew a couple inches and Chip climbed in the truck when Papa opened the door!! 

J kept a tally of animals we saw on our trip. We saw

100 buffalo

10 swans

36 ravens

40 sea gulls

390 ducks

14 wild turkeys

2 grouse

1 nuthatch

3 moose

17 deer

24 bighorn sheep

21 hawks

4 eagles

7 pigeons

and 6 flickers.

I did a rough count of cows on the way down and got around 2000. Thankfully all the critters stayed off the roads and we had safe driving there and back! 

Total hours in the truck equaled out to about 32 in 8 days. 

We just want to say A HUGE THANK YOU TO GRAMMA AND GRANDPA, AUNTIE RUTHIE AND MORGAN for letting us stay with you and feeding us so very well!! Also to Morgan for sharing her room and toys and showing us around her school, which was neat as it was the same one Papa went too for a while. Thank you very much too for all the laundry you did!! I was amazed at how it piled up with only 3 outfits and two sets of PJ's per kid! (Next time I will pack more per kid!!) I was doubly amazed at how it seemed to magically get washed and dried!! :) And thank you too for Grandpa meeting us in Tri cities I know you all gave up something so he could be there with her and us. 

THANK YOU!!! 

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!

Tucker~ Our Little Fur Ball.

Cute isn't he :) He's a Maremma Golden Retriever puppy bred by some very good friends of ours at home church and we think he'll be just what we need :) 

The kids all watching him explore the tree :) Chip really likes him too. 

J3 having a little lesson on why we don't pick puppies up when they are peeing.... 

yeah I think it's a boy thing!! 

Baby G LOVES him and squeals loudly in glee when ever he is near by. 

He loves her too and washes her face. He weighs about the same as she does! 

Yes we have him inside :) 

We are crate training him in the entrance and he's doing really well. He gets the run of the house only a couple of times a day and is outside whenever the kids are outside. At only 7 weeks old he still sleeps a good chunk of his day and he does that and eats in his crate. 

So far he is not bonding to Chip but to us people.. like we hoped!! He is very playful and goes right at the kids to play while outside. Chip never really did. Tucker, we hope, will be the kids dog and a bit of a guardian too. Both his parents are good watch dogs and bark when people drive up and will protect the property and they are both very good with kids. IV his mother even watches over our kids while we visit there and keeps them in sight. We are hoping little Mister Tucker, who will not be little for long, will be the same :) He should grow out to be smaller then Chip or at the very most the same size as Chip. The two dogs are almost exactly 3 years apart. 

So there you have it :) The newest addition to the homestead :)