Promised Land Homestead

Egg On My Face

My wife ususally packs me a couple of hard-boiled eggs for breakfast each morning.  It helps reduce our egg inventory, which can be overwhelming at times.  Plus, I love hard-boiled eggs.  Actually, I love eggs in almost any configuration.

So she thought she's be funny this morning and pack me raw eggs instead.  I'm sure you can imagine what happened when I cracked the first one on my desk.  She's lucky none got on my uniform.  I was actually surprised to see that all three eggs were raw.  DW hates waste.

I thought it was pretty funny, so I called to congratulate her on a well played prank.  Of course, you know...

THIS MEANS WAR!!!

Wisdom of Yoda

I noticed the other day that we (or I should say mostly I) quote Star Wars a lot in our house.  It's a funny way to drive home a point.  Like when the kids get impatient about something I say:

"Patience, my young Patawan."  To which they must reply:  "Yes, Master."  They get a kick out of it. 

But I also noticed that most of my Star Wars quotes come from Yoda in "The Empire Strikes Back".  There's all kinds of good quotes in there that can be used in everyday life.  Click on the links to hear the quote from the master himself:

When the kids get restless and want something fun to do:  Adventure

When the kids tell me they'll try to do something or the always annoying "I'm trying!" when they can't figure something out:  Try not

When the kids want to know if they're old enough to do something new:  Too old

When the kids don't think they're big enough to accomplish something:  Size Matters Not

When they give the ever annoying excuse of "I CAN'T!":  Can Not Be Done

When I'm trying to get them to be serious and commit themselves to something:  Commitment

When they drop something or fall down:  Control

When they won't pay attention:  Looked Away

When they think they knew something that turned out to be wrong:  Unlearn

And then some funny ones we like:

War

No!

Mine! - If you've ever watched the Muppets, you can tell in this one that it's the same actor that does Miss Piggy's voice.

Renovations Beginning!

I started on the boys' bathroom today because DW wants it done before Thanksgiving.  Normally we would probably wait as we still have plenty to do around here until the first freeze.  However, the boys' toilet has been notorious for clogging, and we don't want our guests having to mess with it, so we're replacing it along with everything else.

This is a picture I took just after I tore down all the blue paneling.  I forgot to take a "before picture". 

I'm in the process of scraping all the old glue off the walls so we can paint them.  Then I'll replace the sink, toilet and towel/toilet paper holders.  I also bought a new light fixture to put above the sink.  After Thanksgiving I'll tackle the walls on either side of the fireplace.

We've also scheduled to have the window installer come install windows in the back room.  He won't be able to get to it for another 3 weeks or so, but that will be a big step.  It has always bothered me that there are no windows back there.

Chuck Norris

If you've never heard any of these Chuck Norris jokes, they're hilarious and you can find HUNDREDS of them on the internet.  Some of them are vulgar, and some just aren't funny, but these are phrases people have come up with to describe how AWESOME Chuck Norris (a Christian and conservative, BTW) is.  

Here are some of my favorites: 

Freecycle Dog

I heard through the frugal grapevine about a website called Freecycle.org.  People post things they're looking to get rid of or things they're looking for.  It's all free and can be a great way to save money.  There's not a ton of stuff (at least interesting stuff) posted on there at any one time, but if you check it out every once and a while (and are fast enough) you can pick up something you need or want for free.

I joined the San Angelo freecycle message board yesterday and checked it out.  A lady was trying to give away her 2 year-old female beagle.  She was going back to school now that her son was in kindergarten, and felt bad for the dog being left at home all day with no stimulation.  She wanted her to go to a good home with kids that could keep her entertained.  She was advertised as being great with kids, other dogs, and cats.  She's spayed and has all her shots.  So I gave the lady a call and went over yesterday afternoon.

Sure enough she was a very sweet, friendly, and energetic young beagle.  Her downsides were jumping up on people and things, needing to relearn house training as she had been outside 100% of the time since they got her 3 months ago, and chewing on things when she's left alone for extended periods.  I figured these were all things we could work on.  Jumping on things is easily fixed with consistent correction.  Since she was previously house trained, it won't take long for her to remember.  Chewing is fixable because we don't leave the house much, and when we do, we have a crate we can put her in.

Her name is Sasha, which we like and will keep.  This is not a picture of her, but she looks very similar in coloring.  We couldn't get her to hold still long enough to take a picture, but here's one of a beagle if you didn't know what they look like.  She has adjusted wonderfully to our home and LOVES the kids.  You can tell she just has a TON of energy that she was never really able to expend before.  She did well with the chickens, which was a big plus because that's what caused the excommunication of our last dog.  The only time we've ever given up on a dog is because it wouldn't leave the chickens alone.  I thought she'd be a little freaked out by the cows, but after they smelled each other (our dairy cow is great with dogs) she went on about her business.

Xena (our current 9 year-old mutt) is currently establishing her dominance as queen of the house.  We've had to convince the kids not to get into the middle of that.  It's nothing serious, just a growl or snap every now and then when Sasha gets too rowdy.  I think in a few weeks she'll be settled in and trained well.

Purposing to Live Debt Free

DW and I have always purposed to live a debt free life.  We've never carried a balance on our credit card, never made car payments, never taken out student loans...never taken out any loan except a mortgage.  I don't know what it is, but something in my mind has trouble with buying something you don't have the money for.  I don't like that hanging over my head.

The Bible doesn't list debt as a sin, but definitely cautions against it.  It promotes timely payment of debts, not charging unfair interest, and forgiving debts on occasion.  But Proverbs 22:7 has always stuck with me:

"The rich rules over the poor,And the borrower becomes the lender's slave."

I don't like being indebted.  I can't say I haven't been tempted many times to go into debt to have what I want now.  The A/C installer offered me a 60 month, 6% loan if I didn't have the money to install the A/C in our back rooms.  Really?  Five years to pay off an air conditioner?  Then he offered me a 1% loan if I could make a substantial downpayment.  Now 1% ain't bad.  My money is probably deflating faster than that, and I know my bank account isn't pulling in over 1%, but still....it's just the principle of being in debt to someone.  Even 0% interest loans bother me.

Well, like any normal person, we took out a loan for our house.  I mean, who has that kind of money sitting around?  It was necessary, but as a family who has purposed to live debt free, it has always urked us.  I mean, have you ever taken a look at how much of your monthly mortgage payment goes to interest.  Ouch!

We decided pretty soon after buying this house that we were going to pre-pay our mortgage and get rid of the only debt we've ever had as fast as we can.  I took a look today at how much we have left to pay and how much extra we pre-pay every month.  The calculator said if we keep going at this rate, we will be debt free in 8 years.

Wow!  To own our own home and not be in debt to anyone!  That will be wonderful.  Especially considering the fact that when we originally signed our 30-year note, we would have been 57 years old when we paid the house off.  At this rate, we'll be 20 years ahead of schedule.  And think of all the things having that mortgage payment in our bank account will do for us.

We hope and pray that it will happen even sooner.

So why should the Federal government be any different?  We spend money we don't have, to buy things we don't need, all because we think we need it now.  Not to long ago (maybe 100-200 years ago), if a man died in debt, his children were expected to settle it.  Your father could literally bankrupt you when he died by saddling you and your siblings with debts he never paid and just sat their and gained interest.

Aren't we doing the same thing to our children and grandchildren?  How many of you think it would be irresponsible and reprehensible to leave your personal debt to your children?  Why then do the politicians in Washington not feel the same way?  Why aren't more people upset about this? 

Out-of-control defense spending, nationalized banks and auto makers, Medicare and Medicaid bankrupt, money being printed faster than ever before...and now they want to create a massive healthcare system?

Did you know that when Medicare was created in the 60's, they estimated it would cost $9 billion by 1995.  Do you know what the actual number was?  $66 billion!  That's more than 7 times overbudget!  Is there any reason to believe this time will be different?  The President tells us his healthcare proposal will cost $1.6 trillion.  If it goes over budget in a similar way Medicare did, it will end up costing more like $11.7 trillion!  That is the exact amount of our national debt as I write this!!!

Should we really believe the government when they tell us that tax hikes on the rich (which has moral issues in and of itself) and cost cutting from the healthcare industry will pay for all of this?  Does anyone really expect their taxes to not increase?  Do we really expect to be able to borrow countless trillions and print our currency into oblivion and everything will just goes on as it has?  Even if it did, is it moral to leave that kind of debt to our children?

Something's got to give soon.  We will either have to fix this ourselves now or relegate our children to the future economic baseball bat of reality.  If you had to endure extreme economic sacrifice now to ensure your children didn't have to after you were gone, wouldn't you?  I think any good parent would. 

Why is this any different?  Forget left and right, conservative and liberal.  This is a moral travesty that trascends politics.

Ductless A/C or Window Units?

In contemplating the renovation of our back add-on rooms to make them usable, I've had to research several different options for a/c and heating.  There's basically three:

1.)  Adding a second central a/c system to heat and cool only the back rooms.

2.)  Having a mini-split ductless a/c installed for the back rooms

3.)  Installing window a/c units in all back rooms.

Option 1 is pretty much out because there's really no way to put ducting in the back rooms. You need at least 12" of  space to run ducts, and it's really not there. 

Option 3 feels much better on my wallet, but is undesirable for several reasons.  First, it is less energy efficient.  It will cost us more to run all the window units together than it would to run a permanent system.  Second, they don't last as long.  I don't think they're pieces of junk, but considering how much we would be running them in the summer, I wouldn't expect them to last much more that 5 years.  Thirdly, window units let in more heat or cold (depending on the season) because they don't seal the window shut.  Plus, most have little plastic curtains to span the space between the unit and the edge of the window.  I would imagine plastic doesn't insulate the room very well.  Fourth, they're unsafe in fires, because if you needed to escape through the window, and the only window in the room has  window a/c, you have to dislodge it and climb over it to get out.  Lastly, they usually don't have a heat option, and the ones that do are more powerful than we need for these size rooms.

That pretty much leaves Option 2, which is a ductless A/C. 

It is basically a compressor that sits outside and runs refrigerant lines to small air handlers in each room.  It acts just like a central a/c, just not using ducts.  They are just about as expensive as a central unit, but not as much so if you're not paying a HVAC technician to install ducts.  As long as the system is quality and lasts for a decent amount of time, it is worth the money.  They're quieter than window units and have a heating option for winter.  You can also turn off the air handlers in any room you're not using and the compressor will only run the operating airhandlers.  That will save us money on our electric bills.  Not only that, but it increases the value of the house.  You can't count any rooms towards your total square footage unless they are heated and cooled by a permanent system like a central or ductless a/c.  Window units don't count. 

This is actually how most of the world heats and cools their homes and apartments.  Central A/C is primarily only used in the U.S.  I remember seeing these ductless a/c systems in Japan when I was there.  I've come to learn that they are widely used in Europe, and are becoming popular here.  We have an HVAC business in town that does the full range of ductless install and maintainence.  All and all I think it's the best option.

Pappa Would Be Proud

I found this article the other day about U.S. Marines training to work with mules in Afghanistan.  The mule has been used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years to carry equipment and supplies in mountainous terrain.  The Marines in Afghanistan are finding them useful again.  These mules are need on those steep mountain trails where vehicles just can't go.  They allow individual soldiers to only have to carry 20-30 lbs on their backs, allowing them to go further and arrive less tired.

This would make my grandfather proud.  He was a member of one of the last U.S. Army horse calvary units in WWII.  His job wasn't as glorious as the movies might depict cavalry.  No death defying charges on horseback.  He worked with mules in the rugged mountains of Burma, fighting the Japanese.  Just like today's Marines, the mountainous trails of Burma just couldn't accomodate jeeps and trucks.  Mules were the only way to get supplies through the jungle.  Remembering some of his war stories, he told me once during the monsoon season, they crossed a river in the driving rain in the morning at about 7 a.m. and began climbing the slippery muddy trail out of the valley.  At 9 p.m. that night they were still climbing and had only made it about halfway up the mountain.  He also recalled having to go 3 days without food because their air supply drop got captured by the Japanese before they could get to it.  He and his men found an orange tree next to the trail and they were so hungry that ate the entire orange...peel and all.

I find it fascinating that with all our advanced technology and equipment, we have found such a practical use for mules again.  It just goes to show you that simpler is sometimes better.  I've worked with mules in the mountains on Boy Scout hikes before. 

Notice in the first picture how it's not just the Marine in front pulling.  There's one in the back pushing it on too.  Man those can be some stubborn animals!

Here's the article.

Proposed Renovation Schedule

I'm not sure why I'm posting this because it's sure to change, but I've been thinking about the home renovations alot lately (to my poor wife's annoyance because I won't stop asking her about it. Although she's gracious and doesn't act annoyed, after 12 years together I can tell when I'm annoying her) so this is my proposed schedule for our desired renovations projects.

Winter 2009/2010 - Knock down walls to front foyer.  Renovate boys' bathroom (new sink, potty, and paint walls).

Summer 2010 - Build walls in back addition to create 4 seperate rooms.  Framing, hang doors, sheetrock, and paint

Winter 2010/2011 - Have A/C installed in back room.  This is by far the most expensive part, but we can't really use those rooms until they are heated and cooled.

Fall 2011 - Put windows in all back rooms.

Spring 2012 - Put down wood flooring in back rooms.

Fall 2012 - Knock down walls between old and new dining room, and between both girls' rooms.

This timeframe will allow us to save for each step before we actually do it, and will allow us not to get overwhelmed with the farm work and trying to do too much renovation work at the same time.  I keep having to remind myself not to get in a rush.  We've got plenty of time to make this happen, and don't have to have any of it RIGHT NOW.

Got Pork?

I went and got the pork from the butcher Friday afternoon.  All together she dressed out at 199 lbs.  That's 25 lbs less than last year, but anything that wasn't ham or bacon we had ground so we didn't pay for as much weight in bones this year.  We got 43 lbs of ham and bacon and 156 lbs of ground pork.  The butcher charges $0.68 per lb just to season the ground pork to make it sausage.  We decided to season it ourselves this year.  DW tried a recipe for pork sausage seasoning she found online and it was a hit.  It's going to be much cheaper to season our own, especially since on of the ingredients is sage and we have a tone of it growing in the garden.

We have to wait a few more weeks before we can get our bacon and ham, as it has to cure.

Wisdom from Reagan

"Man is not free unless government is limited.  There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics:  As government expands, liberty contracts."

"Children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let them know, and nail them on it."

Future Renovation Project

Our house has a large section added onto the back of it that adds about 1000 sq ft to it.  It consists of one large 12'x48' room and a smaller 12'x24' room with a large walk-in closet.  We have been unable to really make use of these back rooms because they are not vented for A/C and heat.  Additionally, neither of them have windows (which I can't understand).  The smaller room has a window A/C unit built into the wall, but no windows and no heat.

We've been trying to figure out how to utilize this space, as we feel it's being wasted.  We have some of the kids' toys in the large room, and most of our books in the smaller room, but beyond that we don't use them much.

Here is a drawing of what it looks like now.

The wall just behind the kitchen, with all the windows in it, was the original exterior of the home and is brick.  Our goal is to split the large add-on room into three rooms:  a bedroom, office, and dining room.  We will put windows in all the rooms, as well as window A/C units.  Instead of a standard window A/C in the new dining room, we'll have a PTAC (Packaged Terminal A/C) which is just like the ones you see in hotel rooms.  It has both A/C and heat.  The other rooms will have to be heated by just small electric ceramic heaters.  They're small enough that it won't be a problem.  Here's a drawing that shows the difference.

The sliding door in the back will be replaced with french doors.  The current dining room will become our study area where our computer will sit, and our kids can do some school work.  The new office will be a quiet study place for the kids because, as you can imagine, it gets a little loud in the main area with all the little ones running around.  The wall between the current dining room and future dining room will be knocked down.  The new dining room will also be big enough to fit a longer table, which we already need.  I also plan to put wood floors down in the entire back room, except for the 2nd boys' room, which is already carpeted.  Lastly, I'm going to turn the window in the girls' room into a doorway so I can connect the two girls' rooms.

It's going to take quite a bit of time and money to complete these renovations, but I'm not in a rush.  At least I'll have my retired father-in-law to advise me along the way.  I will definitely document the transition here on my blog.

Fall To Do List

Fall is the time to get longstanding projects done around here.  The animal population and garden are reduced, which means more time to work on other things.  It also happens to be the best time to go camping since DW hates leaving the farm during the "busy season" (i.e. - spring and summer).  If I want to convince her to go camping, she's much more receptive in the nice cool fall when things are somewhat quieter.

So what's on my initial "To Do List" for fall and winter this year?

1.  Renovate boys bathroom.

It's not a complete gutting or anything so labor intensive.  It merely consists of removing the old ugly paneling to reveal the nice textured dry wall underneath (why the previous owners thought paneling looked better, I can't guess), painting the walls, replacing the sink and toilet with new ones, and replacing the over-sink light fixture.  We like the tile and sink cabinet, so they stay.

2.  Mow all the dead mesquite trees in the pasture.

I've killed about 50-60% of the mesquite trees this year, and will need to mow them so we have just nice grassy pasture.  The only bad thing about mowing mesquite is now you have hard thorns lying all over the ground.  I may cut down the bigger ones with garden shears, but I don't have time to do them all.  A necessary evil, I suppose.

3.  Knock down the walls between our front foyer and our living room.

When this house was built it did not have a front foyer.  The front door opened directly into the living room.  Some previous owner added a 12'x24' front foyer (and did a good job), but you have to walk through the old front door now to get to the living room.  That means there are no windows in the living room.  None.  It feels like you're in a cave.  Knocking down the two walls on either side of the fireplace that seperate the foyer from the living room will let some actual sunlight in.  This will be my first demolition project, and the first time I have tried to do drywall on a large scale.  Eeek!  Not to mention that they are load bearing walls, which require special precautions.  Luckily my father-in-law knows lots about this kind of thing, and will be looking for things to keep him busy, as he's retiring this winter.  Yeah!

4.  Paint and repair any outside trim around the house that needs it.

Is that too ambitious?  Probably.  I'm not naive enough to think it will all get done before spring, but I can sure give it the old college try.

Pig Gone

We took Sausage the pig in to the butcher on Thursday evening this week.  She is the fourth pig we have raised here, and everything went well since we got her in March.  She was very friendly and it was not hard to load her.  She loaded in about 2 monutes, which is a big improvement from the 45 monutes it took last year.  One of last year's pigs was not so friendly, and didn't want anything to do with being loaded.  DW thinks the breed has a lot to do with how friendly they are.  She thinks the Berkshires are the friendliest, so we'll probably get a Berkshire or Berkshire cross again next year.  We didn't tape her last week, but we did two weeks ago, and she probably finished out at between 230-250 lbs.

We decided to get just hams, bacon, and have the rest ground this year.  We run out of pork sausage every year, and we don't really like pork chops, so we opted to get all sausage.  The butcher usually charges $0.63 per lb extra to season the sausage.  We decided to season it ourselves this year.  The man we bought the pig from says his family sells some really good pork sausage seasoning.  We'll see how that goes.

DD1 is always sad when we drop the pig off every year, although she could care less about the pig while we're raising it.  This year, on the way home from the butcher, she declared that she is going to be a vegetarian.  I had a talk with her about how eating meat is natural for people, and our animals have a much better life than most farm animals.  She wasn't budging.  I had a feeling it was temporary, so I just left it alone.

Last night we were eating some sausage with our dinner, and she was eating it.  I asked her if she had decided not to be a vegetarian anymore.  She paused, looked at her plate with a perturbed look, and then said:  "Yeah.  I like sausage, so I'm not going to be a vegetarian anymore."

Thought so.

Rain, Rain, Don't Go Away

Well our days of dry crispy grass and earth are over.  We've had nearly 4 inches of rain in the last week!  The grass is turning nice and green and the cows are loving it.  I'm lamenting having to mow more, but it's worth it to have green grass again.

We haven't been able to do much outside this last week, but I'm not going to complain about rain ever again.

Take The Red Pill!!!

I couldn't pass this one up.  Last night the President made a statement at a press conference about nationalized health care that alluded to the movie "The Matrix":

"If there's a blue pill and a red pill, and the blue pill is half the price of the red pill and works just as well, why not pay half price for the thing that's going to make you well?" -- President Obama

What he probably didn't realize at the time was that in "The Matrix", the lead character Neo is offered a choice between taking a red pill that would lead him out of the illusions of the Matrix, and into the reality of the real world, or the blue pill, that would allow him to go back to his normal life, continuing to live in a fake world of illusions. 

President Obama unwittingly urges us to take the "blue pill" because it's "half price"  Wow.  I could not have illustrated the fallacies of nationalized heathcare better.  Thank you Mr. President.

While I'm sure the President's heart is in the right place (wanting all Americans to be fully covered medically), his ideas of how to acheive better health care for the poorer folks in our country couldn't be more in the wrong place than if it was on Mars.

As a federal employee, trust me...allowing the government to run health care for this nation is not the answer.  There is nothing government touches that is fixes.  If you knew what I know about the VAST amounts of money that are wasted, and the INCREDIBLE amount of red tape that is present in our world, you would cringe.

The military may be awesome at what it does, but I submit that we are great IN SPITE OF the bureacracy we work for...not because of it.  Not to mention the fact that we still waste vast amounts of money.

Being A West Texan

In the past I've poked fun at my friends here in West Texas because of how excited they get about rain.  It reminds me of the old Jeff Foxworthy routine "You Might Be A Redneck", with a little twist.

1.)  If you've ever stopped on the side on a highway to ask a complete stranger how many inches of rain they got...you might be a West Texan.

2.)  If you've ever gone out in the middle of a rain storm to see how many inches of rain you've gotten so far...you might be  a West Texan.

3).  If you talk about rain accumulation in anything smaller than 1/2 inch increments (Hey Billy!  We got 0.34 inches of rain today!)...you might be a West Texan.

4.)  If you or any of your neighbors own goats... you might be a West Texan.

Well, I must be a West Texan now, but because I  went out in the middle of a rain storm today to check on how much rain we had gotten so far.  It's been so dry lately and I was so happy to get rain that I couldn't help it.

We got 1.8 inches...Ha!

I'm Back

Homestead Happenings

Since I haven't posted in an entire month, I thought I'd share what's been happening on the homestead.  First, and most importantly, DW gave birth to child #5 on March 24th.  We welcomed DS3 into the world at 7:40 am after only about 2 1/2 hours of labor!  Whew!  Talk about a fast one.  The contractions came crashing in at 5 am, she was in late first stage labor very quickly, and before we knew it, she was pushing.  In fact, it happened so quickly and we've had so many false labors that we waited too long to call the midwife.  She has to drive 90 minutes to get here, and she only made it half way by the time DS3 was born.  I delivered him in our big bath tub in our master bath.  Praise God that everything went well and there were no complications to deal with.  All I had to do was wiggle him a little to get him out.  He was big boy at 9 lbs 4 oz.  Our biggest yet.

I was very fortunate to be able to take 3 weeks off of work, so I got to spend lots of time with the family.  Since it's animal and vegetable growing time around here, we went and bought a feeder pig.  We only got one this year, and named her Sausage.  She'll be in the freezer sometime around August.  We also took delivery of 50 meat chickens from Welp Hatchery.  We normally get ours from Murray McMurray, but they were back ordered, and it was going to take too long to get them.  So far we have 46 left.  A few have died from trampling, or falling in the waterer and then getting too cold because the heat lamp is off for 4 hours every night.  We'll start processing the biggest ones at 6 weeks, and the rest around 8 weeks.

We'll also be taking delivery next week of an assortment of layers.  We bought some Dark Cornish roosters to be the sire's for our meat flock, and some White Rock hens for the mommas.  Hopefully we'll never have to buy meat chicks again.  We can just grow them when we get low on chicken.  DW loves hatching eggs, so it works out for her too.

We also planted more of the summer garden.  Peas, beans, cucumbers (yuck!), cantelope, watermelon and tomatoes have all gone into the ground.  Everything it growing beautifully.  It was definitely a good idea to plant half the garden this year.  We're just utilizing the available space better.  My next step is to run a water line into the garden to make it easier for DW to water.  We have water spigots near the garden, but she has to walk out of the garden to turn them on and off which is a hassle.  I'm getting pretty good a working with PVC, and it will not be much trouble to run a line to the garden for her.

Lastly, and not really homestead related, I decided to try my hand at building our family a new entertainment center.  I started getting into woodworking when we got married and really enjoy it.  My FIL is a great source of knowledge on the subject, as he is much better at it than me.  I started out building DW at shoe rack.  It's funny to see the progession on my projects since then.  That shoe rack is functional, but is far from aesthetic, and weighs 50 lbs.  Other things I've built include a doll house bookcase for the girls' room, a doll cradle for the girls, and a wooden dumptruck with pedals that the kids never ride in because it's too hard to pedal on the grass.  This entertainment center is by far the most involved and complicated project I've undertaken.  I've learned a lot reading "Wood Magazine" and wanted to put the knowledge to use.  The entertainment center will consist of a large cabinet the TV sits on, with shelves underneath for the DVD player and anything else DW wants to store under there.  On top of that will sit a book case for pictures and books.

So far I've finished the large cabinet portion, which is by far the most complicated part, and am working on completing the bookcase.  The cabinet turned out really well, and I am happy with the result.  It is a monster though.  It's 8 feet long, 3 feet high and 2 feet deep, so it's got lots of room for storage.  Once the whole package is complete, I'll post a picture.

Future projects will include more bunkbeds for the kids and a computer desk/school work area/bookcase for our dining room.  That area will eventually be where we put the computer and store all our homeschool supplies.

Sping in Full Swing!

I forgot how busy we get in spring, but it's a good busy.  I foolishly tried to plan a trip to Carlsbad Caverns in June that's not going to pan out because we'll have too much going on here.  We could go in July, but it will be too hot.  Oh well.  All our long trips will have to be planned for late summer and early fall.

The spring garden is planted and growing wonderfully.  We had a good 3 days of rain last week that has all the grass growing, and the cows are happily grazing in the pasture.  Pumpkin is putting weight back on.  She got pretty thin after having the calf so we stepped up her grain.  I'm sure the fresh grass is helping.

We ordered 50 meat chicks, which will arrive on April 10th along with some more layers that will get here on May 6th.  We need chicken pretty badly.  We're quickly running out.  The meat chicks will be processed sometime around early-to-mid June. 

We're also preparing for our yearly pig.  We grow at least one every year for the freezer.  I haven't called the pig farmer yet that we buy them from, but we got pig grower yesterday, and will be getting our baby pig soon.  We grow them until they're approximately 6 months old before taking them to the butcher.

Until the meat chicks are processed we get pretty busy around here feeding all these animals.  They eat A LOT and drink A LOT, so you have to stay on it for the 8 weeks it takes to grow them.  We're going to try to breed our own meat chicks next year.  We'll see how that goes.

It's a good busy.