First full car load

... To the new house!

And it's full of toys!  One thing I learned quickly, is that you need to have the boys toys at the new house, or all they're going to do is wrestle and fight and get in your way. So today I'm taking a whole carload of toys, which means they have way too many toys, to the new house. 

This weekend we also got a lot more work done on the kitchen renovation. Thank you so much to Mimi and Papa and Bryce for helping with the kitchen and with painting JJ's room. And a big thank you to Mima and Papa for taking the boys, to allow us to get all this work done.

Here's some pictures from the kitchen demo.

A nice goodbye!

Farmer J brought the newest little lamb to my car window to say goodbye to me before a long work trip! So sweet...and I'm referring to the lamb and my husband!

PS: notice the coat and hood up! 32 degrees and snowing!

A sheep farmer story...

That will warm your heart!

http://www.aholyexperience.com/

It's worth the read! I promise!

Then after you read the story above, check out this video! I can see my JJ being this man when he grows up!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5R9J55dEZY8

Afternoon walk with JJ at our new home...

A homecoming gift from my boys...

 

 New fencing going up for pasture land.

 

 According to the previous owner of this home, this American Bungalow was likely built between 1900-1905.  Some research we have done makes us believe this home might have been sold as a kit- right out of the Sears catalog.  The first owner of this home was stated to be a "spinster" and sister of the nearby farmer who owned the majority of the land in the area.

 

Beatrix and baby

And that makes three

Beatrix had a healthy, good sized little boy lamb this afternoon.

Mama and baby doing well.

Pictures to come tomorrow!

A new view on life...

Our new view from the kitchen sink window out onto our mini orchard of pear, apple and cherry trees!

And here is the view off our back porch walking into our "backyard" of 4 acres!

We bought a farm....

Clean vs. dirty eggs

Yesterday, I felt like a bad farmer.  I had to throw out around two dozen eggs.  J and I... and the boys... we all thought the other family members were collecting eggs- but no one was collecting any eggs.  So the eggs sat there... and got dirty, and gross, and eating them would be unsafe.

My parents came yesterday to help watch Pickle while J picked up teaching another class.  I wanted to send some eggs home with them and I could only come up with nine acceptable eggs.  And I found eggs everywhere... on the dryer, in various egg cartons in the mudroom, in random straw piles in the barn and in the nesting boxes in the coop. 

We have been chicken farmer slackers.  Once my parents left, JJ helped me get a bale of straw to the coop and we laid down new straw inside and built up the nesting boxes with fresh, clean straw.  What a lovely place to lay an egg!

Today, I was so excited to go into a clean coop and gather very clean eggs.  I got half a dozen eggs that looked practically pristine. 

The key to collecting clean, healthy eggs is daily collection and keeping the nesting boxes clean.  Farmer J will also say having healthy, well hydrated hens is important too.   This isn't chicken "rocket science", I know.  I think I'll put myself on egg duty for the rest of the "high season" (i.e., high laying season of summer into early fall)!  I'll let the boys stick with the dirty job of mucking out the coop!

We've got a piper down...

Only big fans of "So I Married An Axe Murderer", like Farmer J and I, may understand the blog title reference, but J and I have been saying this quote to each other for almost 20 years.

Somewhat jokingly, I wanted to have a little girl... and name her Piper.... just so we could say that quote over and over again when she was learning to walk, once she fell asleep or when she was on the floor having a tantrum!

Two boys later...

But guess who I found on a local humane society website.... a little girl dog named Piper!  She is almost 50 pounds and just recently turned one! She is described as a "wallflower" who will blossom with kindness and love.  When Pickle heard me read that comment out loud, he said, "We can give her that!"  Yes we can, little man! We have an abundance of those two things in our home.

And here she is!  "Awwwwwwwww".



The boys REALLY want a dog.  I do too.  Farmer J... not so much.  I tell other farmers/country folk our 3 to 1 dog/no dog vote in the house and everyone gives J a hard time.  He takes it well.  But really, what farmer doesn't want/need/have to have a trusted sidekick?  "What's that Lassie? Timmy fell down the well?"  But more so... don't two little boys need to have a dog to play with on the farm?!  If anything, for their safety (see earlier sentence about the well)?!

But even I have some natural concerns with getting a dog.  And here they are!

1.) Will a dog be too rough with the chickens and sheep.  Our animals are kind... and tame... and happy.  We do not want to mess with our peaceful farm.  Notice I'm not worried about the goats.  The goats, especially Padraig, can hold their own. 

2.) Is it unsafe to have a dog when you live near a busy highway?  How could we keep this animal safe?

3.) Would having a dog cramp our style?  Don't get me wrong... we do live on a farm, but we also like to go away for weekends and trips.  It's pretty easy to pay a teenager we know and trust to come by morning and night to do animal chores.  It only takes about an hour a day and the going rate of $10/hour.  A dog would be more work, more money and more time...

4.) Do we want an animal in the house again?  We had a cat... named Ollie.  Ollie had LOTS of fur... and would puck up fur balls... and would pee in the house... and sometime dragged his "little brown crayon" on the carpet.  Ugh.  I shutter just at the memory of those things.  It has been REALLY nice not having to "de-fur" our clothes, worry about our house smelling of animal and getting stains out of rugs and carpet!  But... we do miss having another little furry life being in the house.

Well, this is where we are at in the dog or no dog dilemma. Stay tuned.  Regardless, we will wait until we own our own home... and have moved into said home!

Our Sunday

Church

Lunch outside

Searching for dinosaur bones 

Dust baths

Flowers from a farmer

And a lovely afternoon with family from the north filled with playing catch, walking to the frog pond, barn basketball, and dinner interrupted by chickens and Mosquitos with burnt cookies and "Easter" Kringle for dessert!

Sam and Barbara, (and Mima & Papa) thanks for taking in some pastoral views with us and making the trip out to the farm.  Safe travels!

Two days...

Future barn?!

Can you tell I'm excited to paint? Well...not excited to paint but am loving picking out colors for our very "own" walls!

Blue skies and sunshine!

Hay Run!

"Some old fashioned things, like fresh air and sunshine, are hard to beat."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder



 

We need a truck.  But before we decided to be wannabe farmers, we were parents of small children, so we bought a mini-van.  So our "beater" or "ole, pick-up truck" is disguised as a Japanese made mini-van. 

 

Today, we took out the middle seats of the mini-van and drove to Farmers Andy and Barbara's place to get four bales of hay! 

 

*** (an aside) J met these two lovely farmers, by chance, when he answered a Craigslist ad they had posted (hay for sale) a few months ago.  Some of you may also remember that we found our current rental home though a Craigslist ad, way over three years ago.  Who knows what adventure Craigslist will lead us on next?!

 

Farmer J and I were in the front of the van, then the hay, then the boys in the back.  The boys said the hay got a little itchy and scratchy at times... but for the most part, it was a great trip.  And who notices a little hay when you are drinking a milkshake made with milk from the first place white milk winner at the world dairy expo?  Not us! 

 

We got healthy hay for our animals, a tour of Farmer Andy and Barbara's amazingly beautiful (and tidy) farm (including seeing a day old baby calf (that already weighed more than JJ), many baby Suffolk lambs (and mamas) and a 2000 + lb bull) that expands hundreds of acres of beautiful oak savannah/prairie AND some refreshing lemonade and snacks.  Throw in some vitamin D from the sunlight... and even some rosy cheeks and foreheads (forgetting that we do sometimes need sunblock in the northern Midwest), some fresh air and..... Ahhhhhh.... a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

 

And our furry and feathered friends loved the excitement (and afternoon snack) of the new hay! 

 

Spring... please come to us!

We have had April showers... and are longing for May to be full of flowers!  The forecast ensures us sunshine is coming our way this weekend.  After a week of gloomy skies, cold rain and wet earth... we are anxiously awaiting dry, sunny weather!

"That is one good thing about this world...there are always sure to be more springs."
-L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

This gal really wanted her picture taken.  I think she thought my bright, red phone was food!

 Our little boy lambs are getting so big...and so fast!  We can only catch them if we sneak up on them when they are nursing.  I know, that's not very nice of us... but they are so warm and soft and fun to snuggle.  You just have to make sure you have a hold of their hoofs-- or you'll get a hoof in your mouth!  We have never had a set of boy twins before... and they are certainly more daring and wild than any set of twins we have had yet!  Beatrix is really looking pregnant and I'm crossing my fingers that she will have twin GIRLS to counter act these wild little guys!

 

 Beatrix and Aoife are getting in a little back scratch, by way of the lilac tree branches!

 

 And wherever Aoife is... Ciaran is not far behind.  He is so in LLLOOOOVVVEEEE with Aoife!

 

 A before bed frolick in the yard...

 

Have a lovely night!

Farmer J and the Mrs.