Sickness hits the farm...

8 days ago (Friday night):  Mexican restaurant.  Odd that Pick-Pick is not eating... as he usually can put the food down!  "Mama, my tummy hurts."  Panic spreads across his pale-white face and then both J and I know what is coming next.  I grab the complimentary chip basket (empty, of course).  It's not enough... I won't go into any more details as I'm sure you get the picture.  As we are trying to discretely tend to our vomiting child, the man (another parent mind you) in the booth next to us says loudly, "Dude, that kid just puked all over."  J takes Pick-Pick to the bathroom and then right to the van.  JJ and I, left with our half eaten plates and a lingering odor, stare blankly at each other.  What do we do now?  Well, we get our food to go, included the Horchata that J just ordered, pay our bill and tip our waitress well (anyone who has to help clean up a perfect stranger's puke gets an automatic big tip).

5 days ago (Monday night): I have the sore throat that keeps you up all night, where you don't even want to swallow.

4 days ago (Tuesday): I start working a 9 day stretch with only one day off.  Dread sets in. J is in the midst of the busiest week of his semesters.  Uggh.

2 days ago (Thursday): J takes the children to his work.  JJ is more quiet than usual... then the oh too familiar pale-white face returns and J knows... yep, it's "Take your child to work to puke all over the place day."  He gets sick later that night again.  My cold is officially at "elephant tusk" stage; where I roll up toilet paper and stick it up each nostril (only to wonder where the tusks will end up by morning... lucky for J, he found them!)

1 day ago (Friday): Some relief.  Pick-Pick still has a drippy nose but mine is cleared up.  We go to the local beach and get some much needed Vitamin D and fun.  We finish up our horrid week with a good ole' fashioned Friday night fish fry at a tavern right by the lake and five minutes from our house. What a find!  We are by far the youngest group there but love all the attention our kiddos get from the old folks and waitresses (Pick-Pick got at least 4 "high fives".)  The strawberry-rhubard cheesecake goes quickly when there is one slice and four mouths.

Today (Saturday): J and I take turns napping and watching the children as well as mowing the lawn-- the dandelions were kicking our butts.  We are on the mend but thankful for a quiet day at home.  Sadly, I have to work tomorrow but it will be worth it to have a longer Memorial Day vacation.

A Picture Tells A Thousand Words... (but a small caption helps too)

Here are some photos that illustrate a bit of our life here on the farm.  We are still trying to figure out what to call our home, beyond "the farm" but nothing has come to us yet.  Stay tuned...

 Thank you Bob and Meredith for this beautiful housewarming gift.  It fits in perfectly near our front porch. JJ decorated the moon with some dandelions in hopes that the butterflies would stop and stay for awhile... we are still waiting...

Farmer J, JJ and Pick-Pick gave me this bird feeder as a home welcoming gift.  I'm slowing becoming "a bird lady."  You can see this feeder from our kitchen window.  It's very entertaining.  We just need to buy a bird book.  

Here a pair of Indigo Buntings.  We see a lot of these on the property.  Just saw another today by a different bird feeder.  We also see lots of Blue Jays, Robins, Cardinals, Nuthatches, Red-breasted Grosbeak... and a lot more than I cannot identify any further than, "that pretty bird with the orange on it."  

Can you see it?  Hint: It starts with "chip" and ends with "munk."

My best rummage sale find this summer! Now I just need to find a few more...

Shit kickers for all!  If you come, bring a pair with... it's pretty hard to get in the chicken coop without a pair of these on.

This is a "fort" that JJ and Pick-Pick built.  They decorated it with flowers, weeds and various other "nature-y" items.  Good thing I never saw the Blair Witch Project or seeing this at night might freak me out!

Question: What do you do with a paddock and no animals?

Answer: Soccer field

The perfect tree for climbing...until JJ got stuck in the tree and almost fell out.  We are still working on getting a little more "country" in our kids.

Farmer J is putting our daily compost sludge into the bin.  Thank you Nate and Colleen for the rotating compost bin! It's working great.

And here's where the compost ends up... Farmer J's garden.  Notice the tall fence to keep out Bambi; hopefully it will work.  He has planed LOTS of garlic, potatoes, horseradish, herbs, tomatoes, beets, kale, squash, pumpkins, corn, beans, peas, strawberries, blueberries, radishes, watermelon, broccoli, and rhubard. J just told me, "We need a bigger garden."  I have a feeling we may need to hold a "canning" party this fall.

One of my favorite flowers: Lily of the Valley.  I've been putting a vase of lilies near my kitchen sink for a week or so.  The fragrance is lovely and quite strong... which is nice as we have no garbage disposal. 

One of my favorite views...

And a close-up.  Maybe we could be "Starry Moon Farm"?

This view makes getting the mail from the mailbox a pretty spectacular event.

The chicken coop.  Shutters open to let in the spring breeze.

"Hello babies".  This is what we all say when we approach the coop.  We are trying to get them used to us but anytime we say it, they run into the coop from outside. 

Here are some of the chickens enjoying their new digs that Farmer J made for them!  Fresh air and sun is great for growing chickens.

And a little close up.

And another view.  The exterior is complete but some more work is needed on the interior.  

This is a name-less Rhode Island Red (i.e., meat bird).  Don't be sad.  He is a very happy bird- much happier than if he was living in some chicken factory.  

Work is done...and so is this blog entry.  Good night and Happy Mother's day to all the wonderful women in our lives.  

It's noisy out here in the country!

We have lived out in the country for a little over a month... and it's pretty noisy out here.

At night, we hear the owls, sometimes the "spring peepers" (frogs), the mice scurrying above us and the bats flying into and out of the attic.  And our new favorite noise (sarcasm noted), the loud muscle cars that squeal their tires and rev their engines most weekend nights-- we live in a hilly area that is pretty fun to drive!  J and I might have to hid in our bushes and try and get down some license plate numbers.

During the day we hear lots of bird calls, chicken peeps, the lawnmower (as J has to pretty much mow every dry day to keep up with the lawn), and many loud, little children noises.  Over the weekend, we have also heard lots of thunder as many thunderstorms have come through the area.

We are also trying to decide if we are more in favor of bird watching or having mice on the farm.  We have been thinking about getting a "barn cat" (as our oldest is way too allergic to have a cat in the house) to decrease our mice population; however, the presence of a barn cat would definitely decrease our beautiful, colorful birds that frequent our bird feeders all day long.  So far, we are trying mouse traps.  We just set them today.  I'll let you know how that goes...

This weekend has been pretty quiet but we had numerous visitors this week.  J's parents and some of their lovely friends came to visit on Thursday.  The rain stopped long enough for a nature walk, checking out the chickens and the coop, some mushroom hunting and sitting out on the front porch shooting the breeze (I need to find some more rocking chairs).  A lifelong dream came true that day: sitting on my front porch drinking sweet tea.  Of course, the serenity of my daydream was not quite realized as I had numerous children trying to steal my tea and then the mosquitoes arrived.   But there are many more opportunities for quite times on our porch... especially as that is the best location for using our mobile phones.

Little brown bat pictures... and worm "relations".

Here are the bats hanging from the house. *** First read the story that explains these pictures in the previous post called "Batty bats".

Here is one of the bats approximately 2 minutes after the fall-

Here you can see the injured/bloody wing.

Another batty bat.

So to lighten the mood from the sad, injured bat.  When J was in the woods going on his late night stroll, he kept hearing odd noises.  He looked down and saw numerous worms having "relations" with each other.  Oddly, we have a picture.  

Who needs the "birds and the bees" talk when you can give the "worm" talk!  

Other updates:

We had a fun visit with my brother and his family.  The funniest part of the day was when we were in the lower part of the barn and a bird flew over our heads and out the barn door.  Every girl present (including two grown women) screamed and NONE of the male counterparts even made a noise.  

My parents came to visit yesterday and helped me hang up pictures in our house.  One month after moving and we finally have some art up on the walls.  J got home late and sad he immediately noticed the artwork and felt like our house was more our home now.  My parents also took us out to eat at a local Italian restaurant-- I'm heating up the leftovers as I type this!  Thanks again Mimi and Papa!

Lastly,  we just got back from Menards.  J got rock to build a little retaining wall around the outside of the chicken coop to ensure safety for our girls.  I guess foxes can dig under the fence and steal away all the chickens.  Our coop will be as safe as Fort Knox! So take that foxes!!  Aye-yah (picture JJ doing a ninja like move).  

Batty bats!

So... it's looks like I was right.  Remember back when I thought there were bats in our attic but Farmer J said the noises were from mice.  Well, we are probably both right.  Lucky us, we have mice and bats in our attic.  J got home late from work last night and decided to go for a midnight stroll through the woods-- he is a true naturalist!  I'll return to his late night stroll within the next post. Anyway, as he got closer to the house, he heard this high pitched squealing/squeaking.  He looks up and saw bats going in/out of a hole near the top of our house.  Then...this is the sad but exciting part... he saw what looked like a bat in distress hanging off the roof.  J was thinking he would need to go get a ladder and rescue the bat but seconds later... thump.  It turns out that J actually was looking at two bats hanging off the roof and they had both fallen to the ground.  Both bats appeared injured.  I'm thinking injured bat equals get the heck outta there (picturing the bat scene with Meredith and Dwight from The Office).  J is thinking... let's get a picture.  He's a great husband- he knew a picture would just make this blog entry that much more interesting.  And he was right.