Wow, it's been a while since I wrote last. It has been crazy busy
here. New farm chores (animal and garden), a larger house to keep
up and an additional adult to feed/clean up from/laundry for/etc. I
feel as though there is barely time to breathe anymore. I was telling
myself that it will all calm down in the winter when there isn't as
much to take care of outside, but that was just fooling myself since
we will be in the thick of "new baby" then....maybe it will calm
down in January of 2009...well, probably not!
We LOVE living farther out in the country! We are just eating it up. We don't even mind being woken up at 2AM by the coyotes! There is a calm peacefulness (underlying all the busyness) that invades our souls and we welcome it! How wonderful to be away from the highway! The Canadian Geese wake us in the mornings and swamp frogs lull us to sleep at night. Sandhill Cranes call out their gravelly notes as they pass overhead and as we sit around the campfire, June bugs zoom past our heads with low rumbles like tiny B52 bombers. It certainly is our little piece of heaven on earth!
We got our garden in the weekend before Memorial Day and went
camping over the holiday weekend. We've got lettuce, carrots,
cabbage, broccoli, beets, asparagus, strawberries, raspberries,
potatoes (white, red and sweet), beans (green and yellow), corn,
zucchini, cucumber, pie pumpkin, mini pumpkins, butternut squash,
tomatoes and some sunflowers (to feed the chickens). We purposefully put in enough to share so come visit us during the harvest season and you will go home with a bag of whatever is ripe at the time!
I have also started an herb garden from a bunch of "throw away" parts
of plants my neighbor was getting rid of...so now we also have oregano, onion, chive, salad barnet, mint, and two other plants I am going to have to look up. We also have some cilantro from Aunt Wilma--thank you! They all fit perfectly in an
old flower bed that my mom had near the kitchen door that she usually
puts annuals in and wasn't going to do anything with this year anyway.
My brother suggested that spot when I mentioned I would be getting
some herbs and wanted to start an herb garden and it seems to be a
prefect location. It will be fun to add to this and cultivate a
diverse herb garden so that I can share with others in the years to
come.
Paul is still enjoying his job although the long commute is starting
to grind on him. He really wants to get a motorcycle for better gas
mileage, but I am definitely not on board with that...yet, anyway. His co-workers are great and Paul is enjoying freedom in his job and also well-earned appreciation!
I am feeling much better and only have small bouts with nausea once in
a while. Some days I am really tired all day and other days I feel
fine! I just try to take advantage of the good days and let the weary
ones pass. I still don't feel pregnant (4.5 months) and probably
won't until I can feel the baby move. Our midwife, Patrice is pleased with how things are progressing and we are really looking forward to seeing how different this birth will be from Alia's under Patrice's care. Heard Lil' Sprout's heartbeat again last night...140's/150's. Guess we better keep trying to come up with a girl name!
Alia is walking now. She kind of looks like E.T. from the back that
way she bobbles around in her big diapers! It is still amazing to me
that such a short time ago she couldn't do that and now she spends all
her time upright! Her first word was AH-mah (grandma) but we are
still waiting for the rest.
Angel is thriving in her new-found role as a farm dog! Her coat,
once course and full of dandruff, is shiny and smooth and clean. She
isn't as jumpy as she used to be and although still my shadow, she has
on occasion spent time laying out in the grass when I am not outside
(a big step) and 2 days ago she and our barn cat Lucy were taking
turns scaring and chasing each other. It was hilarious and also
monumental in that up until now Angel has been afraid of Lucy and
generally left her alone. She is also eating up all the attention she
is getting from my brother and dad who lavish her with rubs and
scratches on a very frequent and regular basis!
Lucy was gone for a couple days a while back and came home with
a badly swollen face. Once the swelling went down we were pretty sure
she had lost the sight in her right eye. She is all healed up now but
she will probably not see out of that eye again. We aren't sure how
many lives she had when we got her but she's used up 4-5 of her 9
since she has lived with us! I am campaigning hard for her to become a house cat when late fall rolls around!
Our chicks have been slow to grow and mature...we think that the bout
we had with Rickets back in April with that late snowfall really
slowed some of their development, but we changed their diet and they
seems to be doing alright. About 1/3 of them now have names...which we have really had a lot of fun with. Some include Hoot, Dottie, Buzz, Bity, Rosa McAllister, Pappy, BoBo, Butterscotch, Ebony, Carmel Corn and Hudini. All of them have come by their names for a reason....some I am sure you can already guess.
Farm life is never boring. Sunday afternoon, Paul happened to glance
out the bathroom window while washing his hands and saw that there
were a couple chicks out. So a bit later he and I went out to find
the hole in the fence and put them back in. What we discovered was
most unexpected. Apparently, a Blue Racer (snake) had gotten into the
chick yard underneath a board but couldn't figure out how to get away
once he got pummeled by the crowd of chicks. He tried to go through
the fence and ended up strangling himself. He was dead when we found
him and Paul had to decapitate him in order to get him out of the
fence. He was beautiful and a pretty big one too...about 4 1/2 feet
long! We laid the carcass in the garden next to the strawberries and
the birds have stayed away for sure! Tonight though we are gonna bury
him where he lays and let him be fertilizer. The bonus was there were
no "chick-sized" lumps in his body when we found him!
My dad is currently renting the majority of his property to a local
farmer to grow corn on, but Paul would really like I to take over the
land and pay dad rent ourselves so we can start to put it into pasture
and get cows on it in 4-5 years. We have been praying for God to lead
us in this matter.
We purchased 2/3 of a cow and are getting 2 gallons of raw milk every
week from a farmer just down the road from us. Our cow, Mary Lou,
gives the sweetest raw milk any of us has ever tasted...so good!
Even Paul who never liked to drink milk has had a glass on occasion!
Dad and Mom's house is coming along very nicely. They are approx 1 1/2 weeks ahead of schedule right now. The insulation and drywall are going in this week. Very exciting! They hope to move in at the end of August/beginning of Sept.
I better close while Alia is still napping and get the next load of
laundry out on the line, feed the chicks, and go get something to eat myself.
We think of you all often and pray that God holds you closely.
Paul, Becky, Alia and Lil' Sprout
