Fencing continues . . . . . . slowly

Since we had some decent weather last weekend the boys and I set out to putting some more posts in the ground for our cross-fencing.  As my wise father reminded me "now is the time while the ground is soft".  With the old school post hole digger we use it is easy for the boys to help out.  I usually use the shovel to cut slice the grass off the spot where the post goes and once I get the hole about 10-12" down one of the boys can take over .  I was quite surprised to come back and find that Ethan almost had one down the to the required 3' depth in not too long.

Here Evan is digging the post hole and Ethan was measuring.  The white bucket off to the right is for catching spiders during their down times.  The gate you see leaning up against the post was one that came with the property and we are going to try and reuse at this break in the fence to give us access to the pasture.  The two larger gates will be farther down in either direction.  Someday we hope to put a little shelter just to the left in this picture to allow the cows to get out of the wind and rain.

Ethan emptying the dirt from the digger thingy (that IS the technical term).

After the posts holes were filled with gravel, and the gravel packed down with a piece of rebar we drilled the holes for the brace pins.  It was odd how easily the pins went in, and then I realized I had grabbed the 1/2" drill bit instead of the 3/8", so the holes were plenty big.

Ethan drilling the holes in these two posts.

After putting the horizontal post on we ran the wire and twisted the whole thing tight with a branch.  It is fun to use branch's for this kind of thing, kind of looks chic rustic, and they are cheap.

I am getting anxious to finish this project and Lord willing we will have some nicer weather this weekend, allowing us to get a little farther along.

Earlier in the day we had put up plywood on the interior of the pump room walls to keep the mice from tearing up the insulation we had installed.  This curious lady got to close and Evan grabbed her so she could see the pump room up close.

Speaking of chickens, it is about time to go get some more chicks.  Looks like the farm store has the 5 free ones next weekend, so we need to get everything ready in the nursery.  The kids vacuumed it out but we need to sanitize the feeder and waterer.  We have not settled on how many to get, but you need to make sure you over-estimate, just in case you have any unexpected losses.  15 or 20 ???

Blueberries & Stuff

This last weekend we finally had some decent weather where I could rototill a couple of rows for some new blue berry plants we had bought some time ago.  The kids dug the holes and then we filled them all back in.  The next step is to wrap weed cloth around them and then get some fir sawdust to mulch around them with.  We have 12 more mature bushes that we planted last year, and are looking forward to bountiful crop this summer.  You can never have too many blueberries.

Above are the two new rows, with four plants each.

In this picture you can see the more mature plants.

We also need to raise our garden fence to keep the deer out.  They are not deterred by the pretty pink ribbon, and our one motion sensitive sprinkler can not cover enough ground.

A couple of bonus items from the weekend were dinner out at Sweet Tomatoes on Friday.

Here Lily is enjoying her ice cream.

We opted for a dinner out since Jennie had a late doctor's appointment for Baby.  Praise the Lord everything looks good and the babies heartbeat was a calm 165 beats/min.  Jennie is at her 12 week mark, and it seems like she is starting to get some of her energy back and is not sick as often.

The last exciting thing from this weekend was that we gained a new trailer.  It came with the property but we had no idea we had one as it was covered in blackberry vines down at the bottom of the property.  On Saturday Evan, Mia and I cut our way through the brush and blackberries so we could try and pull it out with Big Red (tractor).  We got it part way out when one of the barrels that were in it fell through the floor and got stuck under the trailer.  It was dinner time so we called it quits for now.

Here is a picture of it being pulled out.

March Snow!!!

Here we are the 1st of March and we woke up to 2.5-3 inches of snow. YES!!! Don't get me wrong. It is beautiful but I am soooooo ready for spring and warmer weather. Of course with this much snow I had to give the kids a snow day. There was just to much to not let them go sledding and have snow ball fights. They played for a few hours outside and then came in for lunch. Right now as I write at almost 4:00 p.m. the snow is almost gone. Except for the shadowy spots. It comes and goes so fast. But we had fun while it lasted. 

The kids ready for a fight. I wasn't though. :o)

Lily just wouldn't hold still. She was so excited I let her out today to play in it. 

Our pretty curly willow tree. I love this tree!

Mia sledding backwards. She loved it.

Seed Catalog

Well, it is that time of year again!  We received our Territorial Seed catalog the other day, and it is funny how I get excited about a seed catalog.  When I was a kid and we were overseas my sister and I got excited when the Sears or AAFES catalog came, ahhhh how times have changed, now I get excited over the seed catalog.  We also get catalogs from Burpee, a large see distributor and Annies Heirloom Seeds.  I kind of decided to stick with Territorial since they based here in Oregon, down by Eugene, which gives me a piece of mind that a lot of the seeds they sell have been tried out here in the Pacific Northwest.  Last year in my search for Mammoth Mangel beets, I ended up getting the seeds from Annies, and I may order some more this year.  We have already started discussing what we would do differently in the garden, and I am always looking to expand it.  Since we do have a bit of a deer issue, I may try and put a lot of our squash outside the fenced area as the deer do not like them.  This will open up considerable room in the fenced area for other things like sweet bell peppers or lots of lettuce.  We will need to deer proof the garden better this year.  We currently have a 4' fence, but I extended the posts up 3' from that and ran a wire around the top to try and prevent them from jumping in, but by the end of last year's season they had found a way in.  So, we are probably looking at the plastic mesh deer fencing that I will need to string around to raise the height.  We also have one motion activated sprinkler, but it is not enough for the size of our garden.
Blueberries: We have picked up some small blueberry plants to add to our existing mature plants that we put in last year.  These are smaller gallon size.  We purchased four from Costco of all places, and four from Als Garden Center.  These should go in pretty quickly, but then I will need to make a trip to get the fir sawdust to mulch around them.
Fruit Tree's:  We are finally going to plant some fruit trees.  Once again we bought some from Costco, because we could not resist the price, but then I went by Al's.  Al's are probably $8/tree more but the quality is vastly superior, they just look healthier, and the branches are all nice spaced and at the correct angles, unlike the Costco tree's which sometimes just have branches on one side.  We are going to plant them all and see how it goes.  The big question is where do we want them?  It is kind of an important question as they are not easy to move once planted.  I have a feeling they will end up down by the bee's, which will ensure they get as much sun as possible.

Of course with all this comes the realization that I have not accomplished everything that I wanted to during the winter months, and pretty soon the garden will be calling me.  To top it off I definitely need to get the fencing done as I read a news headline today talking about the price of beef going up the next two years.  It would be nice if we did not have to worry about that by raising our own grass-fed steer.  Article Link.

Evan turns "8" officially

This is how we greeted him Sunday morning on his birthday. Of course he found a way out but had to do an army crawl on the ground. 

Evan's choice for breakfast was an egg breakfast dish with sausage in it and homemade scones. 

He is loved by all!

He is taller then his older brother! We are looking at probably a son over 6 feet tall. 

A great mixture of characters.Yes that is a real bullwhip and tomahawk (but it isn't to sharp). He's dressed up in different attire the whole week. This picture fits him perfectly. He is always in some kind of dress up and all the kids love to be out playing paratroopers in their fox hole that they have dug recently, or playing cowboys, or Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. 

His choice for dinner was Broccoli cheddar soup, biscuits and apple crisp and ice cream. 

We were able to take just him out to dinner last night to his favorite restaurant, Red Robin. It is amazing how much food this kid can put away. 

Ev, you are such a special son. You are always making us laugh and you love to play with all of your siblings. You love your school work and are such a go with the flow kind of kid. But you are growing up so fast. Sometimes to fast. We pray that as you continue to grow and mature that your heart's desire will be to serve your Heavenly Father and to let Him lead you. We love you and look forward to watching you grow this next year. 

Love,

Dad and Mom

Our blessings

So about 2 weeks ago we found out we were expecting our 5th child. I became fearful of what was going to happen as I had miscarried not to long ago. The fear was just there even with all the prayers. I know it is a sin to worry but I am human and that is an area that the Lord is still working in me. By Wednesday of last week after I had told a few people and they were praying with us, I was finally at peace of knowing that if the Lord so chooses to take this baby too, I will be o.k. with that. It was such a freeing thought. It cleared my mind so I can focus on other areas that I needed to give over to the Lord. Friday night came and I showed signs that I was going to miscarry. At least I had never had those signs during my other pregnancies unless I was miscarrying. I thought for sure I was going to. Maybe I was just expecting it. Like this is what is going to happen. So I grieved with Dave Saturday night and then had a very quiet Saturday and Sunday. Sunday we celebrated Evan's real birthday. I will post on that next. He turned 8. I was fine to celebrate with him but I was just extremely tired. Monday morning, this morning, I put a call into my midwife and they wanted me to come in to have an ultra sound and see if the baby was living or not. Then we could discuss further if needed. My sweet mother-in-law came over to watch the kids so I could go and meet Dave, who was able to get off of work. We went and checked in and got prepared for the ultrasound. Side note- I had a good 35 minute drive to the clinic so I used that quiet and peaceful time, which is a rarity in a car with 4 kids, to pray. I spent that time praising God, asking God to continue to give me a peace with the final confirmation, and praising Him for always knowing what is best for us. He kept bringing scripture to mind as I was praying and I was praising Him for that. I just had a wonderful time talking with my Heavenly Father. I also got to the clinic with a true peace. As soon as I saw the picture of the baby I saw something beating. YES! I asked if that was the heart beat and she said it was. Beating strong. PRAISE THE LORD. HE truly does care for us and knows our deepest desires. Dave and I were in awe. Here we were thinking that we had lost our baby and God knew all along that it was still alive and with us. Who are we to question the God of our universe, the One who put the sun moon and all the stars in the sky. Who made every living creature and every human person. The God who knows everything about us. Praise Him Praise Him! I came home to a house full of people. A dear friend brought dinner over for us thinking that we were grieving the loss of a child, when I got share with them that our baby is still living. Our children were jumping for joy, where as 2 days ago, there were many tears of sadness. We are truly blessed that God has allowed us to care for His children and bring them into His world. They truly are His. And such a precious gift they are to us.

January Birthday Party

So we have a total of 8 birthday's in January in our whole family on both sides. A few years back we started to celebrate all the Jan. birthday's together and we have loved it ever since. I love the fact that we are not busy every single weekend and that we aren't eating cake or sweets every weekend too. We don't need that especially after Christmas. :o) My sister, Julie, lives in FL with her family so we don't get to celebrate her with us. We miss her and hope that some day we can do it all together. So we celebrated Grandma Turners, 

Dave's, Christina's, mine, and Evan's 8th at our house. It was a lot of fun and very loud with excited children. But it was so much fun to have both sides of the families together. 

Christina made the cake.

Taco's for dinner

little girls table

Ev got a bow and arrow, which he has been waiting and waiting for.

sister in law Christina and her oldest daughter

Ev got his sword and shield so now the boys can go at it.

Grandma and Dave celebrate the same day too. That makes it easy to remember. :o)