A Two Wheel Barrow Homestead

Yesterday in the city we picked up another wheel barrow. Our old wheel barrow is pretty much just a mixing and holding area for the cows sweet treat mix. Our cows are 100% grain free so we mix them up a special grain free treat for milking time. They love it. Here the old wheel barrow in its spot inside the woodshed. This wheel barrow has hauled uncounted numbers of loads of stucco, and it shows. It's got a bit of a wobble. It still works great, honest, it's just not quite reliable enough to haul heavy loads of stucco anymore..probably wasn't really last year either but Papa is good at making it work. It's been retired from stucco hauling and 'put out to pasture' as a cow candy machine. 

Here is the new stucco hauler, wood hauler and all around work horse.  J put it together this morning. Beautiful ain't she? 

So I guess in the world of the homesteaders...We are now a TWO wheel barrow operation 😉

Hey Y'all I'm resuming the blog!

Due to a LOT of circumstances I've really slacked off in blogging the last quite a while. Papa has asked me to resume writing and I'm going to do my best. :) 

SOOooooo... I can't just pick up where I left off and skip the large events that have happened since I stopped blogging and neither can I just blog in order of happenings until I catch up. So what I'm going to do is label all the old catchup posts BLAST FROM THE PAST. and leave the updated newer posts like I normally would. So hopefully, I will try too,  do a BLAST FROM THE PAST, or new post every day for awhile and see how it goes. (This is today's posts if anyone is keeping track 😉) 

Oh and if you want to hear about something in particular let me know and I'll do my best. I know a lot of you follow me on Facebook so you might have something you'd like to hear more about. I do post a lot more on Facebook then I blog 😃. You can either post on the Facebook page or leave me a comment on this post. 

Oh and you can also follow me on Instagram under jbgriggs77 or the hashtag #griggsfamilyhomestead :)

Here's to a fresh start. See you tomorrow. 

And it's a.... (Gender reveal post ;) )

Boy! Our 6th boy and OH MAN did we have a time naming him! After much deliberation we decided to add another J name to the family. Little Mr. Jacob is measuring just about what he should on ultrasound (even though he looks like he's got some serious mucles already,) leaning his hand on his chin (I think we may have been boring him) and playing with his toes between bouncing off momma's bladder,  kicking the ultrasound wand, and laying stretched flat out on the ultrasound. 

At 22 weeks we are already buying yarn for his baby blanket, sorting out where he'll sit in the new van (post coming soon) and wondering if he's going to be a big boy or not. I think we are all a little excited to meet him! August will come much faster then expected, I know, what with the end of school, chicks, piglets, working on the house and all those sunny days I'm hoping for. 

Excited to Announce....

Fall Has Arrived.

Every morning the sun hits this willow at the front of our place before it hits any other part of our homestead. The willow lights up like a candle with its bright yellow leaves. Fall is here. Frost is on the ground. Cows at the feeder. Fires are lit to ward of the chill in the mornings. 

And The Griggs Family Homeschool has officially re opened its books ;) 

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. 

Living Room...Ah We Have Missed You!

What an amazing amount of space! Yay! The walls are not cured yet so nothing can touch them yet but all the furniture is back ABOUT where it was. Wether it will stay there or not is still a bit up in the air. But the stucco mess is done and gone and while the floor is very much less then perfectly clean of stucco it's swept up and mostly clean ;) 

Papa cranked the music up and we headed outside to see how sound proof the house is now, it was not at all before the stucco!, and we were quite surprised at the difference! Yay! Papa said a lot of sound went thru the top window frame so when that window goes in and the outside stucco it should be even more sound proof. He also grabbed his guitar and tried out the acoustics. It sounds better to me but what do I know about it ;) 

Papa still has some wiring to do after a few more curing days have past. There will be lights in the boxes above the windows and plugs around the bottom, but he's got the speakers all set up and the clock, printer and computer. 

The floor still has quite a bit of stucco mess but we will slowly get it all off. T enjoyed playing on the rug for a bit before lunch which is something he's been missing as there just wasn't a good place for him before. 

We cleaned all the toys out of the little kids room and they live in the living room again! Yay for being able to see the kids as they play again. The books will wait for a bit. I've got to find a way to store them yet. We will slowly get it all together and organized. The plan for the week is to slowly get everything out of the kids rooms that belong in the living room and then clean the kids rooms so we can start our new school year with a clean organized space.

 Papa goes back to work tomorrow, full time, so building will be relegated to evenings and weekends. He wants to get the top window in and the first coat of stucco on the outside before the weather gets too cold and then work on little projects all thru the fall and winter. 

Living Room Stucco First Coat July 2015

Just a quick look see for you. This is about 12-15 wheel barrow loads of stucco! Papa started on Monday and yesterday afternoon he ran out of lime. So today he's off to the city to pick up more lime. He can't reach those top two pieces on either side of the top window. He'll have to get scaffolding to finish those areas. He's hoping to start the second coat inside by Saturday! 

He got this chunk done on the front as well. Right now the plan is to get one coat on all of the outside walls and two coats on the inside walls before winter :) 

Front Windows.

Prepping to put the windows in. 

One window in! 

Inside view of both windows in! 

Outside view of both windows in. 

Papa also rebuilt part of the wall above the freezer, took that window out and straightened it and put it all back together again! Front walls are ready for wiring and that's what is on the list for today. Kids and I have a box of cherries to pit and freeze :) and a couple of little swim pools to play in, and our daily school to do. Oh and the kids are writing a page on our recent trip to Barkerville :) 

Trailer Moving Out.

On the white board. The news for the day. 

We have been planning for this moment for over 7 years!! 

Before. 

During. 

During. 

Going. 

Going. 

Gone. 

Joy. 

Hello House. 

Good bye Trailer. 

 We had lots of great times in you but we will not miss you :) Enjoy your new life.