Laundry

After going camping for 3 days I just completed a TON of laundry. And as I've been meaning to blog about how we do laundry I figured now was a good time.

We do laundry like a lot of people with very few differences. I have a washer and dryer (which both work at the moment!!!) but I don't use boxes of laundry soap or bottles of liquid soap. I make my own laundry soap as I find it's cheaper and it works better. I mix it in a 3 gallon bucket and keep under a chair in the entrance where my washer and dryer are at. A bucket full lasts me about 5 or 6 months and cost me about $30. I actually got the recipe off the Internet ant love it. It's simple and works great. 1 box of Borax and 1 box of soap powder. Mix in equal amounts. Then I buy sunlight soap bars (very pure soap) and either grate them into the bucket with my salad shooter or grate some into each load as I do laundry. Papa grated this batch but normally I just grate with a small knife into the laundry if needed. Not all loads need the extra. I do use a stain remover called Spray and Wash on the tough stuff. But I could just rub bar soap into it. I'm too lazy and there are other things I'd rather be doing. So I add a little spray and wash into the washer with the soap and only spot remove if 2 washings don't remove the stain. It works for me. I do use color safe bleach when I can find it which is rarely these days. I only use it on really nasty stuff. ( like Camping stuff) I also do use regular bleach on my whites and rinse them 2 or more times so that E doesn't break out in a rash after wearing them.


I have a trunk in our bedroom which is Laundry Central. I put totes or laundry baskets of different shapes and sizes. For example I have a short white laundry basket that is only for whites. Large blue totes are for darks and the green large laundry basket is for colors. I need one more really for lighter colors but now I just do some of the darks first and then re-sort the colors into that tote and the green basket. What I need before another colored laundry basket is more room for it. This color system makes it really easy for the kids to put dirty laundry away and also pre-sorts it and saves me time on laundry day.

I know people who are totally convinced that the only way to do laundry is to do a little bit every day. That drives me crazy!! Really. Then I ALWAYS have laundry EVERYWHERE!! And I don't have a 'laundry room' so it's on the couch, on the beds and everywhere in between!! So I do mine all in one day. Or if I'm not on the ball in 2 days. I start early when I get up and throw a load in. By the time I'm done chores it's washed it goes in the dryer. Load 2 goes in and when it's washed and if it's summer and I have a laundry line it goes on the line. My washer takes half the time of my dryer and I can really only hang dry about 1.5 loads at a time. (we are working on ideas for a longer line) So every second load goes on the line. And if it's nice enough the 1st load is dry on the line when the 3rd load goes up. If not the washer sits for a bit while we catch up. I can do a lot of laundry this way. Even with forgetting to start a load or turn on the dryer which happens often enough. By early evening I've done 5 or 6 or 7 loads (in the last 2 days I did about 10 and I was done folding by 5ish.) and after supper when the tables cleared we fold. This time because of camping and doing sheets and some camping blankets I had closer to 10 loads. What a lot of laundry. Sheets in my house do not get folded. They get taken off in the morning or after naps and are back on beds before naps or bedtime. What ever works for that day.


Folding. I like folding laundry. It's very satisfying.. No really. This nasty dirty stuff is now clean and folded and put away!! DONE for another week. Normally laundry day is Monday or Friday. Sometimes both and sometimes neither depending on what's going on and how much there is. Oh and I don't iron anything. Nothing. I don't even own an iron. I hang up anything I don't want wrinkled as it comes out of the dryer. There is very little I hang. I'm allergic to some fabrics and these are often the wrinkly kinds so it works. Anyway back to folding. So I have 4 large full laundry baskets or totes in a pile stacked 2 high. I clear off the table and wipe it. The I pull out my armless chair. It has to be armless to fit the basket. Then I grab a basket and start to fold the big stuff. J, L and E have another basket. They take out all the socks and put them in the whites basket. They also take out jackets, bibs and washcloths. Bibs go on R's chair, jackets go in the entrance in the box, and J folds the washcloths and puts them away. I fold the rest like a mad woman as E and R and L bring me 'fold able' stuff. J and L put clothes the right way out as I fold. R loves to fold laundry and packs this here and that there until I barely know whats going on. She is good help though if you can get her to focus. When everything is folded we sort socks and the boys put them in pairs and I or J fold them together. L or E put the laundry baskets back and R puts Papa's socks in his trunk just to keep her out of the socks we are trying to fold. I put my different piles in the same place every time I fold laundry so it's almost automatic when I fold. Papa's has by far the lest amount of laundry so his pile is farthest away from me at the back of the table. Mine laundry goes beside his but closer in but also at the back of the table. J's goes in front of Papa's on the side of the table I'm standing on, then L's and E's and finally R's. Socks and underwear go in the middle of the table along with small towels. Big towels go on Papa's chair and so do his over shirts. Extra blankets and things go on top of the towels or on another chair.

Putting away. L or J runs to their bedroom and opens the 3 drawers under E's bed and then the rush is ON!! J, L and E run back and forth putting laundry away and R puts more of Papa's laundry away. Handy that he likes trunks so much. She just has to chuck it in :) I put towels and my laundry away before helping the kids with the last of their stuff and helping to close the drawers. All of L's clothes go in the drawers and some of J's. E and J share the old change table shelves with J's shirts and PJ's. Everyone has a small box or basket to put underwear/socks and in R's case PJ's in. And laundry is done again for another week.

Family Campout.

It rained one afternoon and the kids watched a few movies in Grandma's trailer. Left to Right is.. Justin, Luke, Jed, Rose, Levi, Emmaline, Ashley, Oakley, Alex and Mackenzie!! 10 of the 15 grand kids.

Luke, Justin and Grandma rolling out dough for lunch. They loved helping.

I'm told it was the 6th annual Fehr Family Rainout this last weekend. I think I missed the 1st one because I don't remember it. (Actually it would have been the year before we moved up :) Anyway it was our 5th. As the family has been growing it gets crazier and crazier. This year because of Grandma and the new baby Kyle we ended up changing plans at the last minute and camping closer to town then normal and no one went fishing at all. We went to a local lake that has a campground and bathrooms and a beach and playground but no showers. The kids had a great time. And we were all there. Though we did not get pictures with all of us. So we had Mom and Dad Fehr in their travel trailer, T&D Fehr and their 3 children, Luke, Alex (a girl) and Kyle (Aged 7, 5 and 4 days) sleeping on their boat (D took Kyle and Alex home for 2 of the nights ), S&D Thiessen and their children Justin and Ashley (the oldest grandchildren at 11 and 9) in a tent trailer, D&A Fehr and their 2 children Oakley (almost 3) and Kirsten (7 months)in her uncles travel trailer, A&K Martens and girls Mackenzie (3) and Courtney (5 months) in their motor home, Us with our 4 kids in out camper on the trailer, And M&D Campbell with their 2 children Kacey (1.5) and Ruger (3months) in their camper. And I must say it was a bit weird to be one of two of the girls that did not have a baby or newborn!! All in all we make 29!! Mom and Dad are 2, children and in laws are 12 and grand kids number 15!! 12 of the 15 grand kids are 5 and under!! 4 of the grand kids are under a year! Needless to say there was a lot of baby passing and strollers and kid fun stuff going on!! The older kids brought their bikes and ball gloves. The younger ones played on the playground and grass but mostly the sand that was everywhere by the end of the weekend. It did rain and we put up a huge blue tarp to 'live' under and our large 12 man tent for the kids. We also had 2 little shade tents that were great here and there and everywhere. There is 3 birthdays in a row in July and this weekend hit them all!! So we sang and ate cake and ice cream. Actually last week was Mom and Dads anniversary too (36 years!!). And Kyle's birthday too. So all in all there are 5 birthdays and a anniversary in 10 days in July!! Crazy days. There are 7 boy grandchildren and 8 girl grandchildren. The 1st several went boy girl boy girl but starting with our E there was 5 girls in a row so it's nice now that Ruger and Kyle have come to help balance it out. I told Papa that we should have a boy next too to help equal out all that girl power!!
We always do a treasure hunt for the kids and J turned out to be very quick with the clues. Good job J!! They all loved the small toy snack and water pistols they found at the end and we had a great water fight with anyone who could pull the triggers!! We were all very soaking wet and had a great time. Some of the men played rounds and rounds and rounds of horseshoes until their fingers were blistered but had a great time. I didn't cook a single meal all weekend and loved it. Papa is a great cook and it was awesome!! Thank you Papa!!! The kids took a bit of getting used to sleeping all together in the camper without their normal noisy fan but by the last night we all slept great and all the way through the night!! They are still tired though without naps for so many days and are catching up!! E went up to grandmas blanket on the beach one afternoon and layed herself down and napped!! Fell asleep in her life jacket and slept for over an hour. Other then that nap R was the only one who napped all weekend. Oh and Papa napped too.
We came home tired and weary and ABSOLUTELY FILTHY!!! So we checked the critters (Bindy was at the neighbors and had given him a bit of a run. Sorry Mike), unpacked the food stuff before showering everyone and sitting eating supper in our PJ's in the living room watching movies till bedtime. The next day was to tackle the dishes and laundry !! 4 kids + 2 adults + sand + smoke (the fire under the tarp smoked us all) + rain + mud + living outside for 3 days = a TON of laundry!!

Death and Life!!

Kay Wiebe

My Mom's Mom Kay died of pancreatic cancer on July 7th. She was sick for about 5 weeks and in a lot of pain. She insisted that she wanted to die at home and did with all her kids and husband around her. Most of the in laws where there as well as a few cousins. Kay believed in Jesus and that he died for her sins and that he rose again and is alive and I'm excited to see her in Heaven someday. She will be greatly missed. She was greatly loved. She was 76 years old and left behind 8 children, 8 in laws, 29 grandchildren, 17 grandchildren in law, and 35 great grandchildren. Add the few people in long term relationships with grand kids and the 2 babies due in the next few months and the clan will be up to over 100 people. We buried her on July 13th and we were almost all there. My cousin Walter and his wife and children were the only ones missing. But they had a great excuse. They had a baby boy that afternoon and named him Darren James. My oldest brother Tom and his wife Dana were at the funeral which surprised many of us as she ended up delivering their baby boy Kyle James at 2:30am on the 14th. Life and Death meeting together in one family on the same day. Needless to say it was a emotional day for the whole family.

Kyle James

THEY LIVE!!!

Haha. My goldfish that I put in the pond are ALIVE!! I thought for sure that pair of ducks had finished them off and haven't even been down to see in ages. But this morning I had to go move Bindy on her picket line and was close by so I went to have a peek!! And there they were!! Swimming happily on the top layer of the water. 6 beautiful colored goldfish. If you recall I put all the brown ones in the lagoon :) There may be more then six but six is all that were out this morning. I'm going to take the children out later to see if we can see them. How exciting!!

Fast Work!!

Papa got a call this morning about his knee. He has an appointment for the end of the month!! Thank You LORD!!!

Update.June 09

Papa hurt his knee about 18months ago and then several times in between then and now. He recently got an appointment with our family Doc and found out that they wanted him to do a CAT scan on it 18 months ago when he 1st went in. No one from the clinic had called us so we didn't even know!! Anyway yesterday he went in for a CAT scan and he has a referral to a knee doctor in a town about 6ish hours from here. If he waits for the doctors in the 'City' he'll have to wait up to 2 years just to be seen!! With this other doctor he should be seen very soon and possibly even have surgery this summer!! They want to do a scope surgery to see what is happening inside the knee. Our family Doc was very impressed at how tight and strong his knee was. His hurt knee was tighter then his none hurt knee. Now that Papa is mechanic-ing his knee is bothering him more and interfering with his work. Papa is also getting geared up to go back to school. His 1st 6 week schooling season starts late Sept. He'll be driving to school in 'the city' everyday! It's only about 45 minutes from our house.



J, 5, is growing up!! He constantly surprises me. He loves to help and has started doing things for others with out being asked or in secret!! The other day while I was busy with something outside he set the table for supper with out even being asked!! He still loves his bike and yesterday we took the training wheels off... tried it without and put them back on. He simply isn't ready. The balance he needs is not there. Also his back tire has a wobble and it isn't helping.



L, 4, is talking more and more and getting IDEAS!! ACK. The other day he asked if we could have 'cut up apples and banana's and marshmallows with liquid chocolate!!' He's had chocolate fondue once but it sure made an impression!! He is also doing well on his bike. He went up and down the driveway at least 8 times yesterday!! Mostly though we find him in the sand box!! When ever I ask him to do something he always comes back and asks if there is something else he can do. What a great helper.



E, 2, is on a Beautiful kick. Everything is Beautiful!! Everything. Or she'll fall down and say, "Oh I almost fell down.' When really she did fall down. She also loves to be outside and hates to stay in with R when the boys are out. She can get herself totally dressed now and loves to pick her own clothes. Whenever I tell the boys to do anything E says "what about ME, what can I do!!" So I give her little chores to do to and she loves it.



R, 1, is talking more and more. She can say Mama, Papa, moooo, baaaa, please, more, nite nite, bye, love you, and lots more things that she just mimics. She is a climber and just climbed on the chair to see Bindy who is grazing out there. She is a little doll and everyone loves her and wants to hold her. We recently went to a wedding and she charmed everyone she met. She loves to put things, mostly diapers, in the garbage. She holds out her hands and asks for them and then proudly walks to the kitchen and, after some one opens the door, puts them in the garbage!!



Forrest our Black sheep died the other day. We are not sure why. He was tied to a truck and we found a dead chicken under the truck but could not find any anti freeze or anything that would have killed them. He did look a bit like the cat we lost to anti freeze so I did give him some vodka mixed with water which is suppose to take the anti freeze out of their kidneys but he still died. Papa and I hate having anti freeze around and have searched every thing and can not find any. So we really don't know what killed him. The boys barely blinked an eye but still want me to get some more sheep. We'll see. I think if we do it will be a grown ewe and maybe we can keep it alive!



I am still waiting for my kidney stones to pass. It's been months now and I have a appointment soon to see what else we can do about them. They don't bother me much but they are still there and they will bother me again when we decide to get pregnant again. I'm also looking into a herbal remedy for them but so far have not managed to start one. I'm really looking forward to butchering day and being almost chore less for a few weeks. My green house is growing well and soon I will have enough to do with out several sets of chores.



Our weather goes from sunny and windy to cooler and still. We've not had very many nice days were we can go play in the water somewhere. Hopefully we will yet. We've had several thunderstorms and one night we all sat on the couch and watched the lightning while Papa read to us. The boys loved 'catching' the lightning and then counting to see how far away it was. When it rains it rains at night which is also nice.



My raised beds got planted late but at least they got planted. Papa never did have time to bring the bobcat home and empty the manure stall and fill them in so I mixed up, by hand, nine large wheel barrows full of peat moss, manure and sand and put a 6 inch layer of this in each raised bed before planting it. It worked great but my shoulders are still sore!! I have peas, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, dill, radishes, turnips, and beets in the raised beds. Corn, potatoes, beans, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage in the garden (planted on time). And tomatoes, peppers, cukes, and some herbs in the green house. Oh and I have carrots and several zucchini in big pots here and there. We also ate our 1st strawberries of the year at Papa's birthday party!! Yummy!

Have a wonderful God blessed day!!

That time of year again.

The meat birds are 7 weeks old and we've started planning butchering day. Papa and I think these are the nicest birds we have ever had!! They are beautiful!! LOL. Well sort of. No really they are. They are healthy, active, large breasted, clean and alert. They have been out on pasture for the last 3 weeks. Moved to a new spot daily and are great grazers!! They love being moved and rush out and gobble up the new grass. They chase bugs and scratch at the earth and are generally happy little critters. So far the loss count is about 14 out of 218. Not super wonderful but not bad either considering they are all cockerals. (which grow faster and often have worse heart problems because of their fast growth.) They are still getting milk daily and gorge themselves on it. Lately the milk has just been offered in rubber maid 4 inch tubs, instead of being mixed as wet feed as several were hogging the wet feed and getting it all every day. I called these my 'milk babies' and they would follow me around and beg for milk every time I went in the pen. Now more of the birds are getting milk even though we are still giving them the same amount. Butchering day will be a bit of a turning point here this year as the cow is dry and the meat birds will be gone and all we'll have left is the pigs, and layers. It's perfect timing as my side of the family's "Camp out" also called the "Fehr Family Rain Out" is coming up in July and we'll be able to feed everyone and leave for the weekend without worrying about getting some one to feed and tend all the meat birds or milk the cow. How sweet will that be!!

Anyway back to butchering day. We're going to try and get as many as possible done in one day and what ever is left the next day. We also bought 6 'clean' garbage cans, I wrote CLEAN on them, for cooling tanks so we now should be able to fit most if not all of the birds in cooling tanks. This has been a space problem for several years and limits us to how many birds we could do in one day. We wanted to do 100 one day and 100 the next but everyone can only come the one day so we are going to try and get most done that day!! So now I got to make my 'to do before butchering list" and work to get it done before everyone shows up. Butchering around here is a bit different every year. One year we had the use of a 6 bird tub plucker which was lovely and a 6 bird rotating scalder.. also lovely. But the last 2 years we've been using a old hooded chicken plucker, borrowed from a friend, and a maul gropen or a large round tub that you put a tiger torch under to heat the water for a scalder. One year we scalded in the maul gropen and plucked totally by hand. I sat and plucked and cleaned and Papa did everything else. So all in all a plucker AND a scalder is really easy. Really it is. I don't mind chicken butchering days so long as we don't plan for more then we can handle. This year we have had 6 couples offer to help and so far 3 are for sure coming. One couple has a teenage son who loves to be our catcher!! With him there will be 9 adults. :) That is a big help. Last year J helped and loved it. I'm sure he'll want to help again this year. Maybe he'll be a chicken catcher 'helper' this year. Once we get everything set up and working the day flows by pretty smoothly. Papa and I have been butchering chickens together for years and have a pretty good system worked out. The hardest part of the whole process is trying to get the helpers to fit into our system. But I think we'll find that easier this year as we've butchered with some of these people a few years in a row. Several of the couples, both or just one of them, have NOT ever butchered chickens before. Or have not done it in 15 or more years. Thankfully they all are willing and able to take directions. One couple wants to help butcher just so that they can say they have done it. That's fine with us!! They are a younger couple and she is very interested in how we raise our birds and would like to raise her own some day. The T family has their own birds this year and we are planing on trading with them. They'll help us and we'll help them. We'll all use the same equipment!

Part of my 'to do' list is done. I sorted through and cleaned out the 3 freezers and am feeding some of the old (2006, 07, there was NO 08:) stuff to the pigs. Boy do they love that. I also rendered lard yesterday in the 'mual gropen' or big cook pot outside. I got 39 quarts of lard and 8 of cracklings!! A good days work!! The T family is bringing lunch for butchering day and I still have some pies left over from Sunday so all I have to figure out is supper. I think I'll do a roast on the BBQ and potatoes and a salad. And if I can hide some eggs from Papa maybe I'll be able to make some chocolate chip cookies. He has a habit of using every egg in the house when ever he cooks. But I do love it when he cooks.

The kids are all excited about butchering day too. J and L are on count down. Counting down how many sleeps til butchering day. They are also looking forward to the T's coming over for the day. The 7 of them have a blast!!

Anyway I'll let you know how it went and I'll try and post some pictures later. We are still having Internet problems and it has slowed me down some.

A day in the life... Of me :)

I thought some of you would like to know what a fairly typical summer day on our farm is like. Summer brings longer hours of light and lots to do on these 5 acres. We've been here 4 years now and it seems like every year we get some stuff done and find more things we'd like to do. But slowly our place is shaping up. Bindy, our cow, is dry now (as in not milking, waiting for her calf) and is eating less then ever before. So this year we actually, so far, have an abundance of grass. She's still working on the yard and only went to the neighbors place 3 days several weeks ago when our grass wasn't quite big enough but his was perfect; his having had more sun. Anyway the reason I bring her up is because we are not choring her at all these last few days and that is something we'd normally be doing as well.

Papa gets up, eats and heads off to work. He has to be there at 8am so he normally gets up around 7. This morning he put together a marinade for a pork roast so he got up a bit early. He likes to cook and I encourage him :) I get up around 8am these days as there is no cow to milk. When I do have to milk I get up at 7. I head outside to feed the meat birds: they get 2 five gallon buckets of feed morning and evening and 1 every afternoon. Soon I'll have to make it 2 every afternoon. One of the mornings buckets is wet feed mixed with milk that we saved just for them. This morning they needed moving so I fed them outside the pen they were in, let them out and showed them the feed and then took down the electric netting and reset it up around them in the new area. The first few times we do this they are a bit confused but by about the 3rd time they have figured it right out and today not a single bird was left behind. I haul their 15 gallon waterer into the new pen and fill it with the garden hose. Chicks are done til afternoon. Then I grab another 5 gallon bucket of feed and wet it with water and transfer it in to 2 five gallon buckets for easier carrying. It's harder on you back to carry one full bucket then to carry 2 even buckets. I haul them about 250 feet to the pig pen. The piggies are sleepy but happy to see me. I fill their trough (it moves with them) and talk to them a bit. They pretty much ignore me and eat like they've never seen food before. Gluttons. After the pigs I head out a bit farther to see Forrest the black sheep and his little band of laying hens. I have about 18 layers but only about 7 are in. The rest are out enjoying their freedom until Papa and I have time to sneak out at night and clip their wings so that they can't get out anymore. Until we do this there is no point to trying to keep them in. Forrest and his gang need a new spot so I tie him to a willow and move the 2 chunks of shorter electric netting that make up their pen. I manage to keep all the hens in!! WOW. Maybe I will graduate to 'farmer' yet.. I've been a lousy apprentice for toooooo looonnngggg. I drag the nest boxes along the ground and into the new pen. Then I go get them some water and while I'm at it get the pigs some as well. Two buckets are easier to carry remember? Normally I head to my green house and give it a quick watering/look over but this morning I've been longer then normal, I rarely have to move 2 pens in one day, and so I head inside to see what time it is and if the kids are up.

Inside it's 9am and I'm amazed how much one person can get done in an hour!! I was sure it was closer to 10. Oh well. Lucky for me. I go and sit on our bed and read my devotions. I've pretty much finished the Bible in NKJV in the last 18 months so I've started reading it in The Message. I love it. It's so easy to understand. I started in Genesis and I'm finding that I have to make myself stop reading so that I can pray before the kids get up. I get right caught up in the stories of Abraham, Isaac and now Jacob. I finish my devo's and consider a shower. It's 9:20. The kids should be up any minute. I decide to shower at nap time as I'm going to weed later. I wander around for a bit waiting for the kids before I start making pancakes for breakfast. Papa has a Doctor appointment for his knee today and will be coming home at 10 to shower before heading back into town to see her. At 10 I am half finished frying pancakes and the kids are STILL NOT UP. So I go wake them up. L and R are still sleeping and neither want to get up. R needs a cuddle so I cuddle and flip pancakes and tell E to go to the bathroom. J is wide awake and talking. The kid could win a medal for 'never ending chatter box.' L gets up a few minutes later, he's still asleep but he's on his feet. In a very few minutes they are all playing on the floor while I finish breakfast and check my facebook and email.

Papa gets home at 10:15 and the kids are all eating. He has a quick shower, gives me a kiss, tells the kids to be good and he's off again. He doesn't want to eat, he already had breakfast. After breakfast I supervise the days dressing and soon everyone is out of PJ's and dressed in shorts and T-shirts. They can all dress themselves except R who I still dress. E has recently learned how to put her shirt on and now can get completely dressed by herself!!! The boys have a fuss over a pair of pants and I intervene. Then I kick them all outside!! Right before we head out J goes to the bathroom and comes out with bad news. We have no water. I check the kitchen. Nope. OK. I know how to fix it but I first need to know why. The pressure tank will switch off if it gets too empty. Like say if the sprinkler and the hose are on at the same time. Papa needs to fix this. But he's not sure what else to try. But we should have been fine. The house doesn't effect this or hasn't. So I grab a sweater and some gloves and crawl 6 feet under the house!!! SHUDDER!! I fiddle with it and finally get it filling again and crawl out. By the time I get out I can hear water running. Wait that's not right. I rush over and see where it is. It's coming out of a unused irrigation pipe that's been rolled up so we can clean out the cow area. One of the fittings has popped off. So I go find a screwdriver and put it back on. Back under the trailer I go. SHUDDER!! I hate it under there. It's wet and spidery and NASTY. I get it going again. Wait several minutes to make sure and crawl back out. I get to the front yard and the sprinkler is NOT working. It should be. Back I go AGAIN. I re fix the pipe fitting and crawl BACK UNDER THE HOUSE AGAIN!!!! SHUDDER!! By now I'm a pro. I get it going. Wait in the damp, dark, NASTY, hole and climb out to wonderful sunshiny day!!! This time the pipe fitting stayed on and the sprinkler is going when I round the corner. That job done. And yes I did head inside to wash off the NASTY and make sure the water works!! Today is a outside day. We've had 2 inside days in a row and we're all glad to be going outside. On inside days we do things like laundry (this week I did about 9 loads, including all the bedding and our swimming stuff from the weekend), cleaning (this week it was sweeping cobwebs, wiping bugs off walls, vacuuming the whole house, putting away, bathrooms, and wiping down the house; doors, oven, dusting, chairs and table, etc), organizing kids clothes, (someone is always outgrowing something) making supper ( baked chicken and potatoes and chicken strogginoff this week) and sewing projects (I put this last because it is my LEAST favorite but I did get one done) With the rain this week I figured I'd better catch up on the house stuff. I have a feeling I'm not going to get to it for awhile. Last summer I never did seem to be able to keep it up and finally did a HUGE cleaning in the fall and reorangaized the whole house. With such a small space it 'needs doing' often. On inside days I also try and do a bit of 'school' which each of the kids. J is learning number recognition and adding and verses, L is learning to count to 20 (that's the tough one) and verses. E is learning to count to 10 (she always misses 4) and her name, my name, Papa's name etc and her verse and some colors. R is learning where her nose, toes, fingers etc are. It's fun and it's good for all of us. They also often have a time to do something fun alone. Like a puzzle or book or game. Normally this happens when I'm working with one and the others get to do a "school'.

The chicks are in the front yard so the kids can't play in the sandbox or on the trampoline. That's OK. The carport is empty and they play in there and on the drive way. I head over to weed the beans and corn. My beans are doing nicer then ever before and I'm really hoping to get a good crop this year. The corn is not doing so hot and I'm not sure why. Some of it didn't even come up. How disappointing. I weed the whole garden in about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Not too shabby. I have black fabric between my rows which really cuts down on the chickweed!! I pretty much just weed between plants. We stop for a quick freezie break. They all want white. R and I share a purple. R climbs the stairs by the porch and falls off. A first. She's fine just a little bump. Then she did it again. Time to go in! The kids clean up toys which are all over the driveway and I quickly finish the last row of beans. Toys cleaned up we all run down the driveway a few times to tire us out for naps. R enjoys walking half way down and then starts to whine. I run past her a few times, which makes her madder, and then we walk for a bit, run for a bit. R is totally bewildered. She's tired and needs some lunch. One last run down the driveway and I pick her up on the go and jog holding E's hand to the house. E loves to FLY with me as I jog. Her feet barely touch the ground. Some days we go for a bike ride/run but today it was too warm and we're too hungry!! It's about 72F in the shade. But that's pretty nice for us these days.

When we get inside the kids all run to wash 'with soap' and I wash my garden hands and R's playing hands in the kitchen sink. Her hands are so tiny compared to mine and so clean!! Lunch is peanut butter and jam for the boys, jam for the girls (E is allergic) and peanut butter and honey for me. L is my helper and brings the others their lunches as I do them up. He also gets to pray for the meal. What a good kid!! J eats his 2 sided bun, and another and the last bit of mine. He is growing like crazy. He says he's still hungry but I make him finish his water and then he is done. After washing up again the kids wait while I clean up R and then they make me a deal. If they all have a good sleep they can watch a movie. Bribery I know. But they haven't been sleeping well and then they get cranky. Besides nap time = Momma time. And I need it. 2 hours of peace!!! LOL. No more like 2 hours of WORK.

I sit and relax in front of the computer for a bit but the connection isn't connecting so I give up and head back outside. I normally wait 15 to 30 minutes inside to make sure they don't just get up and play but actually lay still and sleep. Today I don't think they'll need it. It's very quiet so I go out early.

I grab my keys and walk to check the mail. Papa has a birthday coming up and there is 2 cards for him. Several bills and a notice about the new Chinese food place in town. And a surprise a picture of Kirsten our niece who is 6 months old. She's beaming into the camera. What a little sweetheart. I head to the 'barn' and grab my machete and some gloves. I'm hacking down the little poplars in the areas the chicks have already been in. It's hard work and last time I blistered my pinkie finger on the end of the handle. This time the gloves help a lot and no blisters. I hack down about half of the area that needs it still. You need a good hard swing and then sometimes the trees fall and sometimes they don't. I hack and hack at them. I also go over the last piece I did and get the few I missed. This is hard work. I finish my row and go and weed the flower bed. I have 2 flower beds. Surprised?? Flowers don't like me. They just die on me. These 2 beds were here when we got here. The front one is the one I tackle. Bindy has munched around it but I go and clean up the rest of the dandelions and the few thistle. The beds about 15 feet by 5 feet and it takes a while. I make great big mounds of spent dandelions and grass. I don't mind dandelions in my beds but when they are finished they make it look shabby so I pull them out. I like the look of the tall flowering grasses so I leave them as well. The sprinkler is up, I set it up this morning, on the last area the chicks had and I dodge it and weed the whole bed. I only got wet 4 times and it felt good! The chicks stand as close to me as they can get and beg.. They don't want weeds I'm finding. They want more grain and they have to wait. We are almost out of feed and Papa is going to get another load tonight. They don't give up and beg the whole time. Bindy grazes behind them then lays down in the shade to chew her cud. I'd love to join her with a good book!! I also weed around the horseradish and cumphrey. Both are doing fairly well. I bring the weeds in the wheelbarrow (the BIG ONE) to the pigs. They are less interested then I thought and react badly when I throw the weeds in. Then they wait to see if the weeds will jump up and get them. When the weeds are obviously dead they come take a look but don't even eat any. Maybe later. Papa gave them a new 2 wire pen last night and are they very happy. On the way back to the house I stop at the other flower patch and pull 2 thistles and a handful of poplar mini trees. This bed has never been a favorite of mine but the chickens sure like it. I think I'll take it totally out. It's not even got pretty flowers. I'm done outside and head in for a DRINK!!

Inside I grab a glass and head to the computer.. and here I've sat telling you about my day. About 20 minutes into it the kids got up and are playing in the living room behind me. I did promise them a movie but they don't mind waiting for a little while. But I think I'm going to put in their movie. That is one bad thing about not having a TV I can't write while the kids are watching movies. Today I don't mind. Papa should be home in 45 minutes (about 6:30) and I never did get my shower!! Thank goodness Papa's making supper... though I have a funny feeling that "the apprentice" might get a lesson in BBQing pork roast as Papa also has to go get feed tonight. I don't mind I LOVE pork roast!!! As I finish this the kids are talking about the movie they want to watch and cleaning up toys. It's amazing how many toys 4 kids and get out in a short amount of time. They want to watch 'Prince of Egypt', a new favorite, and are very excited. Evenings around here can be very exciting but I'll have to tell you about it another time!! Have a wonderful day and God Bless.

The Fruits!

Looking good hey??? Last week we BBQ'd up some of last years birds, I'm emptying the last few out of the freezer to get ready for the new batch, and I chopped up some potatoes seasoned them and BBQ'd them as well!! YUMMMY!! Papa normally does the BBQing around here but this night he was busy and so 'the apprentice' (ME, as I'm the apprentice is all things around here:) got to do it. The birds are on roasting cones which cooks them evenly but Papa likes his breast meat just barely 160 F and I much prefer the dark meat (legs and thighs) to be closer to 200 F. So when the breast are done we carve them off and cook the rest to 200. The BBQ is large enough that we cold cook the birds. The propane is on under the side where the potatoes are but not under the chickens. This works great and only takes about 1.5 hours. Not too shabby!! These birds Papa seasoned with BBQ sauce under the skin which looks terrible while your doing it but taste wonderful!! Papa likes to experiment and tonight he is doing a lime chipotle marinade on a pork roast!! It's smelling wonderful and I can't wait til tonight.. but I'm going to have too :)

Berkshire Piggies!!

Here are so pictures of the 'girls'. They are from about 5 different litters which is why they are different sizes. . I'll try and get a better pic soon. They all have different markings on their faces. So far we love them. They are grazers and will pull up a plant like a cow and munch on it and only till lightly after they graze!! They are also like a Bindy when we move them and readily move to the next piece without a fuss!! They eagerly look forward to moves. All the pink pigs we've ever had have never enjoyed moving like these girls. It was often a fight to move them at all. They are also VERY smart and are trained to 2 wires already. Today if it stays nice they will get a new larger pen with just 2 wires instead of the little electric netting fences they have had. We do this because it's easier to build around trees and can be any size and because we need the electric netting for the meat birds. This is one of the smaller girls. See the white on all 4 feet and the white on her nose!!