Simply at Home: trying to stay ahead of the sprawl...
Saturday, August 30, 2008

The things we've been up to...

Posted in The Homestead
Whew...as usual things have seemed non-stop around our place. Our visiting horse went home at about dinner time the day he was here. He's living next door where we didn't think they had any horses living anymore. She came home from work and saw Twister out in our field and called his owner to come and get him. He's been caught a couple more times sneaking out of the fence.

We've enjoyed our start with Mystery of History. Mellie has a few hens and chicks growing in a little greenhouse made from a canning jar. Amanda wants to root a spider plant baby and then close up her greenhouse. We're really enjoying what we've done so far as far as history goes. Of course I hope to get so that it's on a little more regular basis. I'm trying to get it in 3 days a week with our science on at least 2 other days. More often than not Saturday is a school day for us as well. Especially when Daddy is working.

Earlier this week while watching the hummingbirds by our feeders outside the sunporch I decided that we should dive into the Handbook of Nature Study. What an awesome book. There's an entry for just about anything you can imagine. Sooo, this week, the kids have drawn hummingbirds and colored them with colored pencils. I found Mellie a mask to color which led her to the fairy craft book that she found at the library and made hummingbird wings and a tail from freezer paper, wire hangers, and duct tape.  Does that girl have a great imagination or what?!

I also found directions for making an origami hummingbird...needless to say, we gave up on the first set of directions and searched for an easier one. After a late night run for wrapping paper to try (the tracing paper and doodle paper just weren't quite right) Jeff and I (Amanda got sent off to bed at about midnight) finally figured out where we had made a wrong turn so to speak at about 3 this morning. Determined to finish the silly thing before calling it a day, I took another 1/2 an hour and finished it up so that it could be sitting on Mellie's glasses case waiting for her this morning. (She's the only one who got a fairly early start to the day seeing as she headed to bed at a reasonable time...)

So, here's a look at our hummingbirds...(I was able to help the girls make theirs just a bit ago this morning.)

Mellie also had to make a flower for hers.

Yesterday, we transplanted some basil into a pot in the sunporch and we planted some tomato seeds to see if we can get them to grow out here too. I was able to get a creeping fig when Mark and I ran to Lowe's for patio blocks yesterday. He finished the longer privacy fence around it yesterday too. It's great!!! Now to see in the end of the sunporch on the shared driveway end you have to head into the woods!!! It's great not feeling like we're a sideshow at the circus now!! It's also allowed me to have the blinds open all the time and all the plants I've started to put in here are loving it!!! Eventually we'll have that mini-greenhouse I've hoped for out here.

Well, this is what our week has been like. Oh yeah, we also had our neighbors over for bbq pork Thursday. The kids ended up playing UNO and I think Blayche is planning on coming over on Monday when she's off school for Labor Day for a Monopoly-thon.

I've got to go braid hair so someone can get started with her other bookwork. Have a great weekend!!

Blessings,
Leigh-Ann
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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

"Momma, there's a .....

Posted in The Homestead
HORSE in the backyard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"


This is who showed up at our house this morning. We have no idea where he came from. No one on our road recognizes or owns him. Sooo, for now he's inside the fence until we can find out where he belongs.
Jeff asked me "building an ark" Momma? He's funny isn't he?!?
Oh well, as you can see, things are just an ordinary Tuesday morning here.
Blessings,
Leigh-Ann
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Sunday, August 10, 2008

WE CAUGHT HIM!!!!!

Posted in The Homestead
Oh my goodness, I could hardly believe it when I went out to the car to put something away in it and I saw the peacock again! This time he was right up against the fence in the back yard. I don't know how he snuck by the dogs next door but he did! Jeff came out with a slice of bread and the girls were at the back door. I managed to put the dog kennel (I should call it just a kennel I guess because the dogs don't use it anymore) right along the fence without spooking him.
He walked right into the kennel!!

Mark got home pretty much right after this. He and I took Jeff with us in the truck and went to the feed store to buy him a bigger house. We found a 10 x 10 chain link kennel for him. Here's the gang putting it together...

And, here's Joseph in his new digs! It's so very cool to look out the sunporch window and be able to watch him. When he thinks no one is looking he seems very relaxed.


Well, this is what we've been up to this weekend! I hope you have had as pleasing a weekend!

Blessings,
Leigh-Ann
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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Never dull...

Posted in The Homestead
Hello all...

As usual things have been busy around here. Yesterday afternoon, Jeff, Mellie and I were at the library when my cell rang. It was Mark calling to let me know that THIS was in our yard...


Isn't this an awesome bird?!!?
We have no idea where it came from. It stayed around long enough for me and the kids to get home and see it in person. Mark and Amanda had been watching it for a while. It left through the barbed wire a little after we got home. The kids followed it for a little, trying to see if they could persuade it to come back to our place. It almost worked. Jett, our neighbors lab wanted to see what the kids were up to and that's when the peacock took off.
Sooo, now we're looking into finding out how hard they would be to raise here.

Blessings all,
Leigh-Ann
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Thursday, May 1, 2008

Moving day...

Posted in The Homestead
Hello all!
This morning the kids and I moved the Partridge Rocks out of the garage and into their "outside house". It's a chain link dog kennel that Mark built a roof for. They seem to be settling in after the ride in the dog kennel through the back yard that they didn't really care for.
So, the garage is chicken-free until the 12th. This is the day when the Buff Orpingtons are being delivered. I can't wait to get them. Everything I've read or heard about them tells me they're a great breed.
Well, we just finished grating soap for new laundry soap so it's off to laundry I go! Have a great afternoon!
Blessings,
Leigh-Ann
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About Me

I'm a Christian woman who has had the blessing of being married to my best friend for a little more than 19 years. I'm also a homeschooling mom to our 3 great kids. We're trying to figure out how to stay country when country is disappearing at an alarming rate here in our little corner of the world.

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Pray with St. Francis


Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is discord, vision. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy.


O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

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