To the Hilt

More recent news....

aka the Biggest Photo Blog EVER!!!! Haha!

You ever get so far behind on news that you end up skipping major things, otherwise you'd have to put up like 8 posts in one day?

I do that.

But not today! Here is the whole enchilada.

We celebrated my brother's 23rd birthday a while back. THAT IS CRAZY! I was married 6mo when I had my 23rd birthday! That mean's I've been married 4 years. Okay, I know, we celebrated our 4th anniversary in June but it's just different to watch a younger sibling hit that kind of milestone....

Happy Birthday, bro!

More pics from the farm....

We stayed late.

Oh, and before I forget, which I have forgot numerous times, here is my new sink:

And here is the $5 dresser after Jonathan finished working on it and moved it to the boy's room. I wonder if it will be my boy's and girl's room before long?

Then, Jonathan's brother and  his wife visited from Florida. We went to the Zoo together and hung around for an entire week generally making constant pests of ourselves. The boys really hit it off with their aunt & uncle!

Here is Elijah with his Aunt Clare. Clare is pregnant. A month ahead of me, but I'm the one getting the strangers asking about my pregnancy. I guess by #3 you don't have much left to hold it all in. Oh, well, Jay is thrilled that I'm "showing" this time around sooner. And it is fun telling people that it's our THIRD when they ask, of course, if it's our first. It makes it seem all that more real. Our third child!

Five years ago we had our picture taken "with the bear" and it was just the two of us. I love, love, LOVE having my lovely family doubled!!!

My boys really liked the zoo.

On Friday night, a soon-to-be Air Force .... guy. .... took us up on a Cessna 172. Did I mention he's 3 years younger than me and Jay? And that made me feel old to trust him to fly us up into the sky?

The airplane was ENTIRELY TOO SMALL. It made our car feel huge when I was back on the ground. Every little thing made it dip and buck in the sky. It was like a rollercoaster without anything beneath us. My stomach churned. Samuel freaked out. I had to comfort him by saying things like,

"The airplane is just bouncy! It's fine! Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy! Isn't this fun?"

.... while resisiting my urge to grab the pilot's shoulder and beg him not to kill us all.

Right before he freaked:

A field. Full of round bales. BIG BALES, folks!

My parent's farm. I tried to get Jonathan to take pictures. I really did. He said I would do "fine". Then, after we had circled and I took the camera full of pictures and we headed back, he turns in the seat and says:

"You took all the pictures zoomed in all the way, right?"

Appearantly, he was so confident of my answer he turned back around without waiting for one. It was too noisey and I deemed it the wrong time to tell him . . . NO. I hadn't even thought of such a thing, while trying to take pictures out of the window over my son while bouncing through the sky. My bad.

I still contend that Jay is partly to blame. He should know I'm no photographer by now!

It was a good flight anyway.

And that is about all, except I wanted to share two pictures of my boys. This old picture of Samuel (he was 7mo):

And this one, of Elijah (he's 11mo but probably close to the same size his older brother was):

My little boys! They are growing up so fast! I'm so ready for a tiny little newborn that wants to snuggle and nurse, this tiny new person that is bumping me from the inside to get to know. A unique, different individual that will be somewhat like the rest of us yet totally different in a whole new way . . . .

Still no washer and dryer. I have some tile to walk on (ungrouted and unsealed) now but it's a big, big project. I probably won't be able to do laundry until Monday or Tuesday or possibly later. My hamper floweth over, but we haven't come close to running out of things to wear. So it's all good!  And when it's behind me, I shall have tile!!!

~Ashley~

Why again did we buy pigs.....

Oh, yes, it's part of this whole self sustaining lifestyle we are trying to lead.  Well, the pigs are getting bigger and they love and I do mean love to try to get out of their pen.  My honey built them this nice big pen in our barn that keeps them sheltered from heat and rain.  Do they appreciate all of his hard work?  No.  I guess the grass is greener on the other side , as they say.  So honey has been doing all sorts of fence mending, LOL, to try to keep these little devils in.  They are still so small that they can squeeze their little bodies through the hog wire.  So yesterday hubby wove barbed wire through the holes.  Well, this was the scene this morning.

I think Betty and Wilma were getting the best of him.LOL

So now the love of my life, has wood pallets lined up all over the pig pen.  It looks horrendous but oh well.  It's just until they are too big to squeeze through the holes.  We will soon have our garden spot fenced in so that they can graze on it.  We will have a door on the side of the barn for them to go in and out.  That way they will have shelter and be tilling and fertilizing my garden spot. 

We fared very well from the hurricane.  We got lots and I mean lots of rain.  My yard is a sopping wet mess but it could have been so much worse.   Here's a pic of the horses yesterday.  I think they were just tired of the rain but they wouldn't get out of it.

We have had so much going on here since the buying of the new homestead.  We love it so much here.  Here is the hammock that my DH put up for us before the rain came in.  The kids love it!!!  They will take their pillows and blankets out and read a book in the hammock.  I hope to see them out there a good bit between now and winter.

Since the purchase of the house, groceries and gas have tripled.  This has really dipped into the budget.  We have not had the resources to buy all of the supplies that we have wanted for the new homestead.  However, we did read in the Market Bulletin this past week that a guy wanted someone to come and take down a shed and do the cleanup and you could keep the materials from it.  Dh went over to look at it today.  It was an old smoke house.  So he and our son will go start to take it apart in the morning.  We are so thankful.  We will be using the siding for our garden shed and hopefully the roof will be used for a new chicken coop this spring.  We hope to triple our flock but we will need a new coop.  This will put us on our way. 

Like I said, we have had a lot going on.  One thing as of late, is our muscadines and pears are ready and I have been making jelly and jam.  I am so thankful for what the Lord has provided.  These will make wonderful Christmas gifts on a very tight budget.

I hope you are all doing well and bless you!!!

If I could Turn Back Time........

That song has a new meaning for us.  As I have spoken of before, our home was built in 1890 with an addition added by 1910.  In living here, Joe and I have often talked about the remodeling that we would like to do.

This morning, the remodeling discussion took on a whole new turn that I am very excited about.  Last week, 2 of the 5 circuits in our electric box went out.  We have had no electricity in the kitchen, other than the 220 outlet for the stove.  The refrigerator is being run temporarily by having a heavy duty extension cord run from another part of the house.  The only other electricity that we have in the home is in the laundry & bath which share a circuit and the dryer which is on a separate 220 circuit.

This has been a very eye-opening week.  We have found that we don't need the electricity as much as we thought.  After the first 2 days, no one has missed watching TV.  That brought us to this morning.  I had 2 oil lamps lit and placed on opposite sides of the room.  Joe came in, getting ready for work, and noticed how much light those lamps provided.  He was surprised to see how well they did are providing enough light to do what needed to be done.  That was when he made the comment that changes everything.  Instead of replacing the circuit box with a larger one, we are going to wait another 2 weeks until next pay day.  If we are still finding that we don't miss the electricity, then we are going to a small circuit box.  We will then be putting electricity in only 3 rooms of the home.

Kitchen: In our kitchen, we have an electric stove (220 volt circuit) that I use when the weather is too hot for using the wood cookstove.  We also need a 110 circuit to run the refrigerator.

Laundry: In our laundry area we have our water heater and clothes dryer that share a 220 circuit.  There is one plug and we simply plug in which ever appliance we are needing to use.  We also have a 110 outlet for the washing machine.  We will keep these, but he plans to add a second 220 outlet so we don't have to switch out the dryer and water heater.  If they are not being used, we can unplug them. They will each have their own outlet however for the times when we do need both to be used at the same time.

Livingroom: This room will have a single 110 outlet to have available for the computer and my sewing machine.  The computer is a necessity since we will be using it as an income resource.  Eventually, I will have a treadle sewing machine, but until then the electricity will be needed.

This weekend when he makes a trip to get supplies, Joe will be buying a few more oil lamps and oil.  Making this change is a huge step for us. It is one that we are finding to be easier than we would have thought a few years ago.  As time goes on, we will likely find we can use even less electricity.  In the meantime though, this step alone is bringing us closer to the time when we will easily be able to manage our electricity needs with only a wind power system.

The clothes dryer & washer are appliances that are seasonal.  Whenever possible, I will be hanging the laundry on a clothesline to dry.  Days like we are having right now when it is raining, the dryer will have to be used.  The washer will be replaced with a wringer type as soon as we are able to do so.  While I still am wanting to hand wash as much as possible, I am being realistic about the arthritis in my hands and planning ahead.

We will always have the option of adding another circuit box later if we find that we have need to do so.  I am very optomistic however that it will be unnecessary.  It seems that the more time we spend doing things the "old way", the more we realise the modern ways are not as essential as we would have believed them to be.

Eventually, we will be using a wind-power system to provide our home with the electricity we need.  Cutting back now on our usage will be a good preparation for that time.  The size and type of system we use can be adjusted to fit the actual need.

Musings...of Autumn?

Shayna's school

Shayna wants to got to cooking school.  Fine, but the school wants us to pay for the whole thing.  The grants they offer is only 5 thousand.  It will cost 55 thousand for her to go for 21 months.   That means the payment will be 22 hundred a month.   The offer the parents loans and such.    We have an appointment next week to see about her going and what all it will take to get her in.   Pray for us.

God Bless, mj

We started School & how Kristi learned to ride

We started school yesterday and it is going ok.  Kristi does not like her bible study , it has to much stuff of marriage.   So I have to find a new bible study.   Other wise it is going good.  One thing she loves about being home schooled is we can us everyday things for classes.  Kristi loves p.e. because she gets to ride her horse for it.  It is hard work to learn how to ride english after riding after riding western for 13 years. 

Do I ever tell how Kristi got started riding??     I do not think I did so I will tell now:   When Kristi was 3 years old I was working at a race horse rescue.  Kristi went to work with me.  She loved to help feed and water and help me with the vet care.  She had away of making the horse relax while I was doing this like cleaning wounds , stitching them up.  Kristi also had away calming the horse fresh off the track that were highly drugged going threw withdrawals. 

 After awhile Kristi just ran around like she owned the place.  She would help everyone out she could and just go in pastures and pet and love them.  It was cute to see this tiny 3 year old girl going from horse to horse , under their legs.  The horse took care of her.

  One day she was off in with King he was a 19 hand gelding , next thing I know a barn worker come running to me yelling that Kristi is on King.   I run to go see what was going on and yup she was on King.  He was running with her on his back.   No bridle, halter, saddle , but she was on him having a blast.  We all just watched her for awhile then King brought her to me.  I took her off.

  After seeing them a few more times I just left her alone.  Kristi never fell off, how she got on remained a mystery.  We all got use to seeing her going under the horse, riding them.  When we had a new worker they would freak out and come running to us and tell us what she was doing and we just laughed.  They would look at us like we were crazzy , the would tell us what she was doing and we would laugh. 

 After awhile of them watching her they understood.  At 3 years old she had the run of the ranch and rode like a pro.  Yes,  my 3 year old daughter learned how to ride horses on race horse going full speed.   I will look for some pictures of her at work and post them soon.

Kristi worked with me there until she was about 4 and a half then   we started our own animal rescue. 

God Bless, mj