The rest of May!

Memorial Day weekend included a trip to visit Great-Grandma Johnson and Ikea.  Hopefully we did not wear her out too much, the kids were pretty subdued.

Mia relaxing, we were almost through the whole store, the kids were real troopers, it is quite a walk!

Mr. Nonchalant.

Ethan stopped by this patio display to ponder things.

The other weekend the kids and I built this little outdoor run for the chicks, so they could get some sun and mingle indirectly with the older ladies outside.

We reused the existing gate, and tied it in so we have a way to get into it.  Evan usually has to take the broom and use it to encourage them to go in for the evening, and then we lock them in.  

Here they are up close, getting big!

Saturday morning included a run to get some more straw.  The chickens love fresh straw and this one would not even let us get it out of the trailer before she checked it out.

We only got 10 bails as I was worried about our little mini-van getting the load back up the hill.  We bought the straw from the same guy that we got it from 2 years ago, good thing I saved his number.  He is a wealth of information, and has connections with the local farming community.  I asked him if I could just call him with random questions as we were newbies at it, and he said "Sure", he might regret that.

We do want to try and use some of the straw for mulching the garden to help hold in moisture and prevent weeds, so I will more than likely be going back for more.

May Happenings

We were helping some friends one Saturday on their 22.2 acres, hauling branches to burn piles, burning and also loading up a trailer of firewood. It was a lot of work and they all were sore the next few days, but they had a great time serving others alongside their friends. Working with good friends is always more fun and goes a lot faster. We enjoyed a wonderful meal for dinner and then the kids all had fun playing a game of something that they made up, but kind of like freeze tag. Ev was running along and jumped/tripped over a branch that was on the ground and hurt his knee pretty good. He was out the rest of the night with his knee up and ice on it. It was swollen soon afterwards so we knew he did something to it. On Monday he was still in a lot of pain so we took him in to his Dr. who then sent us to an orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday. X-ray's came back looking good but it was just a good sprain. Bummer. It would be a good 8 weeks to completely heal. WOW! 8 weeks to keep an 8 year old boy from doing to many crazy things let alone not run on it for at least 3 weeks. That has proven to be a challenge. He is completely off of the crutches now, doesn't complain of it hurting, and started riding his bike again. So life is starting to get back to normal. Which he is very thankful for. And so are his parents!

Lily finally got the courage to ride in the tractor. 

And loved it!!!!

The new honey bees and their new location. For some reason, unknown to us, our whole hive died by early spring. Maybe to cold, maybe mites, maybe chemicles from the berry field that they were close to. We are not sure. But now it is next to the chicken coop, sheltered more from the strong winds we get and from the chemicals that get sprayed on the berry fields. Dave got the hive all set up, but no picture yet, and the bees seem to be really busy. That is encouraging.

Mia working hard shoveling sawdust for our berries. It is always safer wearing a helmet too!!!!

Pictures of bugs, insects, and reptiles that we (mostly the kids, sometimes Dave, but never mom, which is fine by me) find. 

Here is our Northern Alligator Lizard that we seem to find every year in the Spring time, basking in the sun. 

Rubber Boas!! Yuck!

April Happenings!

Ethan chipped his second permanent tooth. Bummer!

The amazing things that Dentists can do now. He still has to be very careful with both of his front teeth now. And he is looking at root canals down the road. But hopefully a long ways down the road. 

Fun science.

Celebrating Nana Baer's birthday.

A hot April day. Very unusual for OR.

Chickens enjoying the fresh green grass!

Our neighborhood cat that seems to be coming around more.

Easter family picture

Papa and Lily Mae

Papa and Mia

Mia enjoying an Easter craft that Mrs. Sherman brought.

The girls in the kitchen helping cut up broccoli.

Lily in her new big girl bed. She did great with the transition and loves to be able to get in bed all by herself.

Catching Up

March happenings and pictures. . . . .

Lily helping, but enjoying the eating better!!!

We planted 8 new blueberry plants.

Our blueberry patch. A total of 20 plants. 

We found another surprise down at the bottom of our property, hidden under over grown blackberry bushes. A trailer full of all sorts of chemicals. Gallons and Gallons of them. Dave tried to pull it out with the tractor but the bottom was so rotten that the barrels fell through. So they rigged a bottom to support the containers with branches. It worked. 

And Dave was finally able to bring it up the hill of our property and to a place where we can load it into the other trailer to haul it off and dispose of it all. Yuck!!!!

We also got 18 new chicks at the end of March to add to our 9 laying hens. We are having so much fun with them. 

It's a . . . . . .

GIRL!!!!! 
The ultra sound showed that she was healthy and growing at the normal rate. It is always such a miracle to witness the life that God had formed moving around inside of me. We are half way there and I know that the next 20 weeks will go by so fast with all the activities that we have for the summer with family and friends. We look forward to meeting her and touching her. by the way, we do not have a name yet. Once again we had a boy name already picked out (we've had the boy name since we found out that our 3 child was a girl) so we are still working on finding a name that we both love.