Interesting Reading

 I had vaguely heard about this farmer back East by the name of Joel Salatin and how he had a very natural way of running his farm.  Also on one of Jennie's blogs there was a clip of him and his farm, Polyface Farm, on ABC. He has authored a handful of books so I had Jennie pick up one from the Library for me, it is called Family Friendly Farming, A Multigenerational Home-Based Business Testament by Joel Salatin.  So far it has been very interesting and right now I am only about a third of the way through the book, and just into the section that is the 10 Commandements of Making the Kids Love the Farm.  I love the fact that he emphasizes in a Family Friendly farm you do not want chemicals or heavy metals around for the kids to stumble into, just like you don't want them in your food!  I am really intrigued by how he runs his farm and the involvement of his family in the farm.  I will report back when I have finished the book.
USA Today Clip

The Garden

We worked hard in the Spring to try and make use of our property by getting a garden ready. We managed to find enough large 16' fence panels around the property to fence in a 48' x 60' area where it appears a garden was previously. Unfortunately with the really wet spring we had we were a little unsure about the correct timing to plant our seeds and seedlings. We are also at a higher elevation so that can play a factor as well. Our biggest struggle and most disappointing was the green beans. As soon as the little sprouts popped up they were eaten down by something, possibly cutworms? By the time I got them planted again it was too late. We have enjoyed some zucchini, acorn squash, yukon gold and russet potatoes, and small cherry tomatoes. Just this last week we picked all of the butternut squash and some small pie pumpkins. Next year we are going to try and utilize some different methods for controlling weeds more, possibly newspaper, and weed cloth. The yukon gold potatoes were fabulous, and I think next year we will plant more of those. The ducks enjoyed the process of digging up the potatoes since we fed them the worms as we went along.
Yukon Gold In The Ground:

Ducks checking out the Yukon Gold potatoes:

Yummy worms!

Fall Harvest:

Duck Eggs

So we have finally been enjoying our duck eggs for about a month now. We are very grateful to the Chupps for giving their science project to us. They hatched the ducks and then they needed to find a home for them. Our children had been talking about getting some ducks even before we moved out in to the country. So with only 1 month to go before our 4th baby arrived, we moved the ducklings out to our place when they were about 1 1/2 weeks old. They were so cute.

With getting 3 eggs most days now we are pretty sure they are all females. Some days are amazing. Now taking care of the ducks, is part of the boys chores. They love to do it though. Evan feeds them and lets them out to roam the property and Ethan takes care of the bedding and they both bring in the eggs in the morning. Most of the time we let the ducks free range. So they get lots of grass and bugs. One morning we had a surprise.

Yes that is a duck egg next to a normal size chicken egg. Ever since that day we have been getting an egg like this once a week. Dave made eggs this morning for breakfast and which he thought was going to be 2 eggs turned out to be 4. Now that's what we are talking about.

Before & After

When our realtor initially looked at property that we now own, he called me to tell me the best thing about the place was the barn, not so much the house.  But after much discussion on what we would need to do to the house to make it more livable, we decided to pursue it.  We ended up spending a month fixing things up, mainly new doors/trim, paint, laminate wood flooring, new vinyl flooring in bathrooms, and new toilets.  I had read online about people texturing the manufactured home bathroom walls, so my Uncle Tim did some general drywall repair and then textured them.  They don't look like a stick-framed house bath, but the are definitely a lot better then they were.  Here are a couple of before and after pictures.

Living Room Before:

Living Room After:

School Room Before:

School Room After:

Main Bath Before:

Main Bath After:

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

Poultry House Before:

Poultry House After/Partially Complete:

Chickens on the left, ducks on the right.

We have also done a considerable amount of general cleanup around the property, and are by no means complete.  At some point we may need to have a dumpster dropped off for the weekend, as our pile is getting pretty large.  We have made a separate scrap metal pile in hopes of having someone just haul it off for free.

All of the toilets, showers and sinks had some amount of staining from the iron in the well water, and we received a quote for several thousand dollars to install filters to remove the iron and soften the water, but the Lord provided.  One day my wife ran into someone in the nursery at our church and they were looking to get rid of their Sears water softener (how they got on that conversation I do not know), so we offered to help them out with that.  It turns out the thing works like a charm!  What a blessing, and so cheap.  It does use the large salt tablets but they are relatively inexpensive.  The water no longer stains things, and does not turn color after sitting for 15 minutes.  

So, that is a brief overview of the house etc. since we got here.

In The Beginning

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Gen. 1:1

It seemed appropriate to start our blog with a picture of a sunrise, taken just last week.  A sunrise symbolizes a new start, a new adventure, or just the beginning of another day the Lord has made.