Merry Christmas!!

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us."
Matthew 1:23


But the angel said to them.  "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2: 10-11

Beekeeping

This last spring my brother-in-law took up beekeeping, and it has been very interesting to learn the process. Typically Jennie uses quite a bit of honey in her baking as it is a more natural sweetner. Even at Costco it is pretty spendy. So, when I suggested that we look into it Jennie was all for it. Our property also borders a large berry field so I figured it might pretty easy to get it going. And also the honey bee was the one bee I was not allergic too when tested in high school, so it must have been meant to bee. My brother-in-law always does his research when taking on a new hobby, and he said the best book by far was the Beekeeping for Dummies. So, as you may have guessed I have checked it out from the library and am starting to familirize myself with those busy little bees. As I have previously mentioned I am slow reader, so could take me some time :-)
I am hoping to get everything ready for next spring.

Joel Salatin - Family Friendly Farming

Good Evening!
I (Dave) have finally finished reading Joel Salatin's Family Friendly Farming.  Yes, I did start it quite a while ago, lets face it, I am not a fast reader.  Not to mention I lost it for a couple of weeks since I could not renew it and had to get it back from the library to finish it.  Overall I thought it was an AWESOME read.  We are by no means anywhere near the point of dumping my city job and just diving into full time farming, but this book has lots of good ideas on making your farm friendly to family, primarily it is referring to kids.  Although I will admit sometimes I fall asleep dreaming of full-time farming where my boys can help me with the chores in the morning before starting their homeschooling and then being able to come in and have lunch with my family.
In the book Joel talks about the 10 Commandments for Making the Kids Love the Farm:

• Integration into Every Aspect
• Love to Work
• Give Freedom
• Create Investment Opportunities
• Encourage Separate Child Business
• Maintain Humor
• Pay the Children
• Praise, Praise, Praise
• Enjoy your Vocation
• Back Off from Personal Domains

I have started to try and implement some of these concepts.  For instance when the boys have helped me out in the yard over and above their standard chores, I have started paying them.  Joel's comment on allowances is "No person should receive pay just for breathing." and he goes on from there with a very good argument against allowances.  

In Chapter 23 he goes on to talk about Greenhouse Kids.  This is the metaphor that Joel uses in reference to homeschooling.  He goes on to say "The whole goal of keeping kids home and protecting them from the world early on is to give them strength and stability, to establish their stem and their viability early so they can take the elements and thrive later on."  Just as with a greenhouse we need to start our children off in a protected environment where they can grow and thrive.  

I really don't have time to go through everything that I loved about this book, but overall I really found Joel's insight helpful and encouraging.  Since finishing this book I have listened to a couple of lectures;/podcasts by Joel and enjoy his humor and matter-of-factness.  Separate from his views on a family friendly farming I also like how he raises his cattle and poultry naturally, purely grass fed.

George Washington wanna-be's

So today we are finishing up learning about George Washington with making Tri-corn hats. The kids were marching around with flags and Mia carrying a rifle. They even shared one with Lily Mae. Today has been a good day of schooling. Lots of excitement while learning and reading. days like these really remind me of why we are homeschooling our children. To see the excitement firsthand of finally mastering reading and to pick up any book and start reading because he loves it or figuring out a math problem and loving to do more, or mastering a phonics sound and getting to put it up on their tree, (I'll make a post about that later). Those are the things that I would not want to miss if our children went to school. Don't get me wrong . There are some pretty hard days that I end up crying and wondering if this is really want God wants for us. But then He just confirms our questioning by giving us good days like this.

Harvest Party

Just some fun pictures of the kids at the Harvest party that we go to with family and friends every year at Dave's parents small community church. After going back and forth for months the kids finally decided what they were going to be Sunday at lunch time. YIKES! I'm glad we had lots of dress up clothes to choose from. :o)
Ethan chose to be a Knight for Lily Mae was his princess. Evan was Roy Rogers and Mia was a Cowgirl/sheriff. Out of the whole evening for Lily, who is teething and has been a rather cranky little lady lately, she LOVED baby Presley. Some friends of ours who live just up the street from the church. They are also country folk and we love buying their beef. We had a wonderful time and although there where some questionable costumes this year it brought up some good conversations with the kids.

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.