Tad made a LEGO gun and holster



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we brought baby goats into the house that were born when it was too cold outside. We hoped their mama would keep feeding them but she says NO so we are bottle feeding them. Not a lot of fun, especially milking 4x a day which seems to be the only way to keep enough milk.

The pictures are a mess here on this blog post, I cannot get them in correct order. This was a quick, on the fly baby goat coat that I made.

The baby goats are Bully's babies she thinks

A kitty in a sack anyone? He will put himself in any container he can find.

"Something is wrong with this cat... Plastic leads to suffocation."

Christmas Bows

These are Tad and Frank's Christmas presents. Tad wanted to buy a bow for his best friend Faith in Tn, so he worked mucking out barns for us and the neighbor to earn enough money. It was hard work, and he almost didnt make it! We bought it early enough and he kept working through holiday. We did the research to find a good quality bow for beginners, as well as one that could be used for hunting. These are a 62" tall bow, the wooden part at center stays the same forever. you buy new ends as you get stronger, Tad's is a 30 lb pull and Frank's is 40. Frank can hunt deer, but Tad can only hunt birds and rabbits with his bow. Right now they are just doing target practice.

The quality of the bows is amazing, they were made by a small family operation. Even Nathalie goes outside to shoot sometimes though mostly she says it is boring! These are take down bows so they are easy to travel with. Frank found a picture of a bow hanging shelf, similar to this one, so he made one out of scrap playboard and ripped 2x4s yesterday. He wants to sand and stain it, but for now the bows just needed a home. These are in the hallway. Now I need to get some rabbit hides tanned and sewn into quivers for them to hang below their bows!

Sorry!!!

I have not posted in a REALLY long time! We are so busy, and yet nothing is very interesting... Swim team is taking a lot of time along with the farm and homeschooling. This picture shows you how the cat feels about the new dog!

We bought Bully Girl from someone nearby here, he had to sell her because he had 2 dogs and had to move where only 1 was allowed. The other dog was elderly, so he kept him. Bully is very well trained! Incredibly well behaved, no jumping or licking, does not eat from our plates, or potty in the house. she has learned an underground fence very quickly so can go out whenever she likes.

"I needs my belly rubbed... and these guys is playin a game!"

"What was that???"

"OH look its the cat!"

"I never get any cards... "

Watching snow fall together. Nathalie has feared dogs pretty much her whole life. we do not know why, she has not been bitten. We meet dogs that she likes, but not well enough to want one. She was highly apprehensive when we went to meet Bully but 5 min after walking in, she was in love. She is very comfortable with her.

One of the things we have done in my absence, this was a project that Tad and Frank completed in an hour when I requested a place to hang our winter gear.

Another reason for being busy... We cant make tortillas like normal people, oh no N and I have to make them!

Did someone say rabbit??? Our rabbits end up being quite enormous, Frank roasted it chest down instead of binding the legs together in order to make it cook faster. It was excellent.

And this was after we ate dinner! Mostly gone. The chickens finished up the rest. We have a lot else going on, so much... more than I can list. It is Sunday night and the week starts again, we had 1 day off this weekend and we have a swim meet next, so we will be busy constantly for the next 2 wks. Sunday's are usually catch up days as this one was.

School this week

Do you ever have those days where you look at your kids and just keep noticing, "I made that" about what they are wearing? Yeah, me too. I made her shirt, yes its too small. I made her pants, and now they have a hole in the knee. She is making a birthday card for a swim team friend for art class here.

My punk boy and his Taylor, Frank bought this guitar his 2nd tour in Iraq, lost interest so our son gained a 3/4 Taylor. This was so surprising to his guitar teacher (he was 8 at the time) as it is apparently a very amazing instrument and most people wouldnt trust their children to not tear it up. After knowing him a few months, he said he would loan Tad his OWN Taylor. I think that is a compliment.

Pugel sticks, Frank and I bought these one evening on our date night. We spent the evening at an education store and came home with cool toys. These are great for super cold or windy days, for garage PE.

Kitten is considering a pounce...

"You cant see me!"

"Oh. Hi."

He LOVES Frank's clothing items, worn or not. Frank sometimes has to fight Kitten out of his pants, he has to remove the cat in order to put them on and even as he is putting his foot in, the cat is climbing back into them. It is hilarious to watch.

Counting change, I think this was for fun. Just counting pennies, how big of a pile makes 10 $ I think was the challenge. Kitten is in front of the TV, getting ready to jump on Tad's counting hands and penny piles.

Africa puzzle again, Nathalie can complete this in 2 minutes now, and then reads all the countries aloud. If she reads each country name before placing it, the puzzle takes longer but that is her assignment for the next 2 wks, then we will move on to Europe and Asia.

Tad found this lovely ice sculpture. It is violet flowers, encased now in ice from a rain storm before a freeze. I think he set it in the shade and it is still just like this, covered some in snow. we will not get a thaw now until April more than likely. We have a 9 wk grade report and project sample due date coming up, we have to turn in the report and projects to our contact teacher for our homeschool program. The kids are working on their work samples, Tad has 9 classes and Nathalie has 8. For swim, dive and gymnastics, we show videos to the teacher.

Barn life

These are shelves that Frank and Tad built for my feed room. They made the part that is screwed to the wall in the shop and carried them down, and then put shelves on top. The bottom shelf holds my feed container and the others are for supplies.

This is our water solution, rather than using multiple heaters and still hauling water (hoses freeze and will bust) we will instead fill this barrel as needed. When we walk down for chores, we take 2 gal of water and use them first. As we are walking down a minimum of 2 x a day that makes sense, we take down 4 gal that way. We use about 6 a day. We have to stretch the hoses from the garage down to the barn now that we are in a hard freeze. The timer in the outlet here allows us to have a "sunlight" bulb on a timer for the chickens. They have a heat lamp also.

Rabbit stand, we built this in the garage a few wks ago and I posted the making, but not its use. The big rabbits have litter boxes with hay in their cage, they eat the hay and at one end, they potty. Daily we dump this and refill, they leave little waste hay. This keeps the area under their pen completely potty free, they never potty outside of a box if they have one available. These 2 bunnies are our last from the butchering, we want to keep one of the females as a breeder so she has a friend as well until we can move across to breeding row.

I found wool crepe a few yrs ago, 7 to be exact, for 2$ a yd because it was damaged. I never found a use for it until now. This brings the barn temp up about 10 degrees, possibly more. It is water and wind proof. yes, the wind can blow it open but it does not come strongly from that direction.

The chickens have a heat lamp full time, and plastic on their upper walls for warmth. The sun bulb is on during the day and it encourages egg laying.

Most chickens do not lay in the winter, but the electrical cost for the sun bulb comes nowhere near the cost of eggs, and I am going to feed them for the winter anyway. These egg crates make great egg laying boxes. We lined them with cardboard.

So it is that season again, it gets cold and the moose join our zoo. They will be in our yard all winter, we wish we could eat one! 1 would take care of our red meat for a yr, and we have decided against grocery store beef anymore. We do not want the hormones and antibiotics. This moose decided she did not want her photo taken.

We assume these are mama and last year's baby. Often they have 2, which is quite cute in the yard come spring.

When their ears are forward, they are curious and dont mind you. If you get closer and their ears flatten, you want to not aggravate further.

Here is part of why I love homeschool. This is education, Frank found a seat head rest thrown out and pirated the magnets from it. It took some time, he had to pop all of the discs out of the seat inside. The kids have spent hours playing with it, they take them all apart, use them as toys, pick up other things that they did not know had metal in them with it. Even the cat plays with them.

These have spawned new magnet research for the wk.

Africa Geo puzzle, Nathalie prefers this to her computer map program. She can put this together in about 2 minutes now, so she and Frank started working it upside down. She cannot pronounce all of the countries without a reminder, but knows them by their written name, as in she can see it written and know where that one goes.

She and Frank love puzzles. Tad and I are happy to let them play them.

I did not get a finished picture which according to these two, was total my fault.

Nathalie getting her key turned, there are 2 tiny holes in her herbts apparatus. You put the key in the front hole, move it to the back and then take the key out. 1 turn a night for 22 nights. 

This has created several gaps in her front and side teeth on top which is what we want, this will spread the spacing out by pulling open the suture in the center upper jaw. This suture closes around 12 yrs of age, so the ortho was pleased she is so young. He said whatever spread is done, will likely stay instead of going back to original place. He will take off this appliance and put a bottom one on, and a month later we are ready for braces. Nathalie is good at dental hygiene, she has a water pik and uses it multiple times a day. Frank does any mouth care that she requires, and unless he is gone one evening it will stay that way. I dont do spit...ewww.