Making It Meaningful

Is just how we got our new horse Chance. I saw him on freecycle and emailed the gal and it all worked out for us to get a great horse for free.

He is 24 years old (so not a spring chicken), old trail, show horse. He is a racking horse. Great chestnut color with a lighter mane and tail. Very gentle, nice horse. He has come to live out his retirment on the farm. We are trying to get him back into shape for some riding of him. The kids especially will be good for him as they dont weigh as much. DH and I have ridden him just a little too. He is a giant for sure!! But we are giving him a second Chance out here on the farm!!

Happy Birthday

Incubator....to buy or to build...

That is the question! So in true home-schooling style, we decided to cancel our order of baby chicks and try to hatch them ourselves. (Talk about an educational opportunity!) Now, the question arises...do we build one or buy one? For the sake of homeschooling, I'd love to build one with our children....but I'm also a bit afraid to have a homemade electrical appliance running 24/7 for 3 weeks! Also, I have to admit that I'm being lured in by the self-turning options out there....

Our trip to the orchard

2 bushels of apples!! Yummy! Our own apples were a bit wormy despite our effort at spraying them, so I figured I would go to the experts again to get apples.. Wesler Orchard in OH. Last year they had to import their apples from Michigan as we had a horrible spring freeze. This year the apples looked beautiful!! DS11 already made caramel apples for dessert tonight. I want to try some baked apples. I am trying to avoid refined sugar and flour so I am not sure what else we will make with it. I still have some applesauce from last year, but may end up making some more.

Busy Autumn...Harvest and Babies!!

That's right, we've placed an order for some baby chicks and cannot wait to have them here! We've ordered (all pullets):

2-Black Australorp
2-Salmon Faverolle
2-Ameraucanas
2-Buff Orpington
2-Light Brahma
2-Barred Rock

Now it's time to set up the brooder and plan out the chicken coop...wow, this almost feels like being pregnant and nesting!!

For the brooder, we've been blessed with a 100 gallon aquarium with cover and heat lamps (Yay!!) and it'll be in the bathroom (a huge room with lots of wasted space!) My Dad's a carpenter and he's offered to help with the coop....I'm soo excited! LOL

We've been blessed with a couple of bushells of squash, several sugar pumpkins (to can), 2 bushells of apples,150 lbs of wheat berries, 150 lbs of potatoes, 25 lbs of onions and 20 lbs of carrots....oh and another 4 bushell of corn for the freezer. I'm exhausted just thinking of the work to be done over the next couple of days, but feel sooo blessed to have this bounty of fruits and veggies for our family. We're also going to re-stock our supply of dried beans and brown rice to make sure we have plenty for the winter. Between the winter/economy, I think it would do a person good to make sure they have something set by for harder times....I know my husband has heard rumors of layoffs at work...and he works at the railroad! Supposedly one of the most secure jobs you can hold!

Luckily, we have nothing to fear......we know our Lord will provide for us and get us through tough

Window update, and the art of decluttering, or why my back hurts.

Whew. I have had quite the day today, let me tell you. For some reason I have this urge to purge -- and I'm not referring to an eating disorder. I have been decluttering and re-organizing everything in sight! And not a moment too soon, either. I know that Mrs. Michelle Duggar once said that she didn't really get organized until her fourth of fifth baby came along. I understand why!

I am not naturally an organized person, exactly, but having five small children living in a limited space has really brought the necessity for organization to the glaringly obvious forefront. My brain can't handle the stress and strain of all this *stuff*. Once during a previous decluttering spell, my husband complained that I was getting rid of too much, but I gently explained to him that this *stuff* was challenging my mental health, and he relented.

This time around, I know he was feeling the strain too, and so he was actually eager and enthusiastic about my efforts to streamline our belongings. Actually, I am not sure "streamline" does my efforts justice. I think I'll go back to the word, "purge".

Here is a photo of the clothing of four of my five children (not including the clothing that is still on the line outside, or in the hamper. I will deal with that as I process it). I went into their rooms, and threw every single item of clothing into laundry baskets, and then dumped it all on the couches in the living room. This is not including the clothing that I organized yesterday -- the non-current sizes that are being saved for children to grow into (although you can see some of that on the coffee table, all boxed up and ready to go back into storage). This is just the current stuff that they have been wearing, or throwing directly onto the floor, or whatever. I think it is pretty impressive.

Probably even more impressive in person.

So, I actually got that all organized, and here is the photo of all the clothes that are ready to go to the charity store (as well as a few toys that made their way into the outbox):

Anyhow. The above photo is not nearly as amazing as a current one would be (which I would post here, except it is now dark and I don't like using the flash, and plus I just can't be bothered). Because now I have seriously culled the kids' toys, every last one. That little room is now, literally, half full of stuff. I mean, it is full half way to the ceiling. Seriously. So yes, I am awesome. Thank you.

In other news, I finished my window makeover yesterday. It is hard to get a good photo of a window with the curtains open because (at least with my stupid camera) the light coming in makes for a dark photo. I'll tell you what I did: I washed the window and the screen, took down, laundered and rehung the curtain, and made some braided, rag rug style tie-backs. Nothing fancy, but that's the way we like things around here.

Yeah, it works. I dig it.

So what did YOU do today?

Gravity Box

Yippee, DH got a gravity box at the auction on Saturday. So now he is set to have the corn picker put the corn right into the box. It has really made the picking of the corn go much smoother. So far he figures we have about 4000 pounds of corn on the cob.. It will be wonderful when we start to see the savings add up by not having to go to the feed store for awhile. I figure we spend close to $300 a month on feed for animals, and that will be greatly reduced with our own corn. We are also going to switch the layers to straight corn for the winter. They aren't laying much right now as they are getting older, so to spend the extra money on laying mash isn't getting us a favorable result. I don't think they will lay much this winter so we will just feed corn and later in the spring try to breed and get some chicks for spring and start over with a new batch of layers.

Crochet food pattern links...

There are a LOT of crochet food patterns out there, some of them free. A google search for "crochet food" will pull up a bunch of them. I will try to give you somewhere to start, but part of the fun is finding ones that you like (plus I am lazy) so I will leave some room for creative choice here. :-)

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/foods.php

The above link has variety of patterns for fruits, veggies, baked goods, and other stuff. It is too fun looking at these -- you must check them out!

I am also quite partial to this pattern set, which is where I found the pattern for the grapes and celery:

http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/HomeDec/WR1070+Crocheted+Fruits+and+Vegetables+Basket.htm

There are still a bunch of patterns I would like to try but I don't know when I'll get around to it. If any of you (you know who you are) end up making some crochet yummies, you owe me photos. I know where you live.

About the veggies...

Fresh produce!!