Who needs milk?

Too many bosses

I guess the girls' Latin class is rubbing off on Garrett. He told Laura "Today is surgite 'cause I not want to sit down anymore"  (Surgite means to rise) (I think they have told him sedete - Sit - a little too often)

Good Report

Todd had a follow up visit with our family doctor this morning, and the doctor seems happy with his recovery so far.  He wants to do a follow up chest scan in a few months just to compare with the ones the hospital took to make sure the granulomas in his lungs have stayed the same or gone away.  So now he just needs to keep up with his rest and get his strength back.

Melting his daddy's heart

Since Todd has been sick, he has been taking a nap at lunchtime.  He pushes back from the table and heads down the hallway to our room and sits down in the recliner.  As soon as he gets up from the table, Garrett asks to be 'cused (even if he is still in the middle of eating), jumps down from his chair and trots down the hall behind his daddy.  He climbs up into daddy's lap, and soon the two of them are sound asleep.


Today, Todd went in to the office to work.  After lunch, I sent Garrett into our room to take a nap.  He happily trotted down the hallway, went in to our room, turned right back around and came back out to the dining room with a sad look on his face.  "I not taking nap - Daddy at work"


We're going to have a hard time around here when Daddy goes back to working at the office every day instead of working from home...

The lonely napper

The Shelbyville homeschool group decided to have the June get together at our house.  This wonderful group of moms came over today to help us get caught up on some things that have been neglected since Todd has been under the weather.  They told me that I couldn't say no :) - So, even though it is so much easier to give than to receive, what else could I say?  We had a great day with lots of visiting, laughing and working.  There were 8 moms and 21 kids (I think I got them all counted).

 - An aside here - I always have to chuckle to myself when people hear that we or others homeschool and one of their first questions is almost always - "But what about socialization".  Almost invariably, when we have gotten together with other home school families the kids just "get along".  I don't think I heard any arguing or whining.  A lot of the kids hadn't ever been here before nor did they know our kids very well, but  most of them hopped out of their vehicles and started right in playing.  All of the kids from almost 15 to 7 weeks played together.  Well, the 7 week and 7 month olds didn't exactly play, but they did get lots of snuggling in.  The big kids helped the little kids and the little kids enjoyed having the big kids doting on them.  - Anyway, I just think it is fun watching our "unsocialized" kids getting along just fine in the socialization department.

 - Back to the subject of my post... We really appreciated everyone's help.  It feels so nice to have shining and organized cupboards and closets - and last year's school books back on the bookshelves.  It was so fun to have you all here!  Thanks so much!!!

These are for you, Talisha :)

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Maybe it's not so safe out here in the country after all...

This afternoon, Todd was held up.  Right here in our own back yard.  The kids were watching the whole thing out the window.  He had taken his gun out with him, just in case, and all the a sudden the kids were yelling - "He dropped his gun!"  "He's got his hands in the air!"  Here is the story.


But first, a picture...

The intruder even made him drop his clothes!!

Charlotte took some garbage out and came in saying that  it smelled like skunk over there. There was no lid on the garbage can, so Todd asked her to go out to see if she could find it.   Out she goes (pretty reluctantly) and I send Emily out with her for back up.  Pretty soon they came running back in shouting "There's a skunk in the garbage can!!!"  Out Todd heads with the gun.  Gets as far away as he can and still see it and "BANG".  That is when the kids start yelling!   "It got him" "Right in the face" "He's running!"  "It must have gotten him in the mouth, he's spitting!" ...


I headed out with a jar of Maxine Fryberger's home canned tomato juice, and he had stripped down to his skivvies (again we were thankful for no close neighbors!).   He hosed the first layer off (brrrr), then I gave him a tomato juice shower and he headed in for a real shower. He still doesn't smell like a rose, but there is only a "hint" of skunk left on him.  I'm thinking that his company will be thankful that he is working from home right now!!!


We asked him if the skunk was dead, and he replied "I don't know, but I'm sure not going to go find out!!!"   I went out a little while ago, and it is still scrambling around in there.  It might be time for a new garbage can.  Luckily it is in one of the empty cans and not in the one that we've been putting trash in this week.  I don't know which one of us is going to be brave enough to take the trash down to the road Thursday morning... 


Earlier this afternoon, he shot a raccoon that has been killing our chickens.  


We moved the cows and sheep to a different pasture and one of the sheep leaped right on top of poor Garrett and bowled him over.  He wasn't hurt, but he sure was surprised and upset!  The sheep was just excited to be going to a fresh pasture.


So all in all, it's been an exciting afternoon!

The girls were playing around with each other's hair today.  Charlotte ended up with a crown. Someone thought of putting clothespins around her head. (I'm not sure who, and I'm not sure why...) Which led to dressing her up as the Statue of Liberty.  

I found this picture the other day and it just cracks me up. Abigail was so attached to her pacifier.  She had pacifiers hidden all over the house.  She would go to bed with one in her mouth and one in each hand just in case she lost one during the night.  If we put it in upside down, she could spin it around quick as a wink so it was right side up again.  We tried it and could only get our tongue tied up.  She was our only baby who really liked a pacifier, all of the other kids could take it or leave it.  When she was about 2 or 2 1/2, the pediatrician said it needed to go because it was keeping her from talking.  What a sad day when her paci broke. 

Two weeks ago we got rid of the bull and steer and the meat chickens.  Last week we sold the lambs that wouldn't stay home.  Saturday, we tightened up the chicken house to hopefully keep out the varmint that keeps getting in and killing our laying hens.  So we were feeling pretty good about the state of our animals.  Everything was back down to a manageable number and temperament.   Saturday afternoon we got a call from our neighbors.  "Some of your kittens are down here!"  Sigh... :)  Anybody want some errant kittens?

Pizza anyone?

Several years ago, when we wanted a quick meal, I would just throw a frozen pizza in the oven and the kids thought it was a treat.  Then, I started making homemade pizza and if I ever served frozen pizza, the kids would eat it, but made comments about how much better homemade pizza was (hint-hint).  Now, we very, very rarely have pizza in the freezer, but the other day it was on a really good sale so I bought a few thinking we could have it for a snack or something.

I went out to mow this morning. It was getting close to lunch time and I wanted to finish up before I came inside.  I hadn't started anything for lunch, so I asked the girls to pull out the pizza and put them in the oven.  Now, these girls can make pizza from scratch almost with their eyes closed.  They often make it for supper on Friday nights.  I almost always keep the ingredients on hand, because now when we want a quick meal I have them throw a couple of pizzas together and they can have it on the table in about 45 minutes.  So I had to laugh when I walked in the door and there were the pizzas just out of the oven, on top of nicely toasted curled up cardboard circles.  Guess we'd better stick with homemade pizza...

Country Kids

It makes me laugh to hear our kids talk like they are from the country.  We were driving to gospel meeting tonight and Garrett shouted out in excitement - "Hay!!!"  - Sure enough, there were several round bales of hay out in the field we were driving by.  Some of the kids came in from closing up the chicken house and checking on the cows after we got home describing in detail how close Lilac must be to calving.  "Her tail is really, really loose, it looks like she is having contractions, etc."  Guess I'll be checking on a cow in the middle of the night...  I did go out and check on her a little while ago and I think she has another day or so, but you never know.  Come to think of it, who would have ever thought that "I" would know some of the things to check for in a pregnant, almost ready to calve cow?  Conversations about animals, weather conditions, crops, hay, machinery and fences are pretty normal around here.  And oh the excitement when a crop duster buzzes into their hearing!!!  Have I mentioned that we LOVE living in the country? :)

Now the important and good news.  Todd is getting better.  His pain and swelling are mostly gone.  He forgets to take his ibuprofen.  He is still really, really tired - exhausted is probably a better word for it - and can't seem to get enough sleep, but he is definitely feeling stronger.   It will probably be a little while before he is completely back to full strength, but we're so glad that he seems to be heading that direction!

And Yay again!

I posted the sheep on craigslist last night and someone came and bought them this evening, so we didn't even have to go to the auction barn with them.  So now, we wait for Lilac to calve.  That should be our next bit of animal excitement.  I guess it is time for another critter list so we can keep track of what we have.

Blueberry Gray - the donkey

Cattle -
Lilac - Standard Jersey Cow
Heather - Miniature Jersey Cow
Fern - Miniature Jersey heifer calf (from Heather)
Buttercup - Jersey Cow (From Lilac)
Clover - Jersey heifer calf (From Buttercup)
Blossom - Hereford Cow (From Rosie)
Cheeseburger - Hereford cross steer (From Blossom)
Independence - Hereford Cow (From Rosie)
Ferdinand - Hereford Steer (From Independence)
Cocoa - Dexter heifer - (From Horned Mama)

Sheep -
Adgie - Ram
Abigail - Ewe
Gabby - Ewe
Cupcake - Ewe

Yay!!! Sheep are loaded in the trailer

I looked out the window this evening and most of the sheep and lambs were in the corral so I snuck out and closed them up.  It was another time I was glad for no close neighbors as I dived and feinted and grabbed and heaved and dragged and carried... Laura and Abigail were glad we don't have close neighbors, too, since I had them come out in their pajamas to make sure I didn't load the wrong sheep.  So we now have 8 lambs and 2 ewes in the stock trailer ready to go to the auction barn tomorrow and 3 ewes and a ram happily grazing in the pasture.  It pays to stay in the fences where you belong!

The past couple of days, it seems like Todd has been able to tell that he is starting to feel better.  Today he hasn't been feeling cold inside like he had been. His hands and wrists are still swollen and stiff, but he said his legs and feet feel about 90%.  Yesterday he was extremely tired so today he slept in and has been taking it easy.  He was able to put in another full week of work last week.  It has been so wonderful that he can work from home so he can take a break if he needs to and then get his time in when he is feeling better.  He is hoping to be able to go into the office at least part of the time next week.

Yay!!! Chickens are in the freezer!!!

We were all planning to go pick up the chickens so Todd could back up the trailer to pick up the chicken crates and talk me through strapping them on, and the kids could help me load the chickens in the van, but I decided I could surely do that much!  I've helped Todd load and strap things on several times. So I left everyone at home since I wanted to stop at a few stores over that direction and Todd was working.  A cute little Amish boy helped me load chickens - I think I worked his muscles a little more than he was expecting - :) I asked him afterwards if he was allowed to get a tip - he answered "I... I... don't know"  but he went away with it with a huge grin on his face.  It took me about an hour, but I got the trailer hooked up, backed up, loaded up with the crates, tied them down and made it home!

When I was a little kid, I remember wishing I was a boy.  It seemed like boys got to have so much more fun than girls.  These past few weeks, I've been so glad that I'm a lady, not a man.  I'm much more comfortable taking care of all the domestic duties that belong to me than taking care of all of the things around here that my man normally does.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind at all doing them while he is recuperating.  There is a saying that a man's work is from sun to sun, but a woman's work is never done.  That might be true, but but WOW - a man's work is not easy!  But I'm learning...  :)

Chickens are loaded!

The girls are so relieved to have the chickens all loaded in the crates and on the trailer!  They were pretty happy not to have to move the pens tonight.  They sure have done a great job taking care of them during this heat wave!  A friend of ours came by this morning and told Todd that he had to go up a few miles from the chicken processing plant tomorrow morning anyway, so he could come over this evening and help load them up and take them up for us!  We sure did appreciate his help!  Especially when it came time to put one of the birds out of it's misery...  I just couldn't bring myself to knock it in the head even though it was about dead anyway.  It is so much easier to be on the helping end of things instead of having to be the ones who need help, but I guess it helps us grow and develop character.

Todd felt a little stronger today - I think he even got by without a nap - just had a 15 minute rest in the middle of the day.  This evening, though, he tried to get by without taking a full dose of ibuprofen and had another set back.  It seems like if he takes it on a regular schedule he does much better than if he waits until he feels like he needs it.  Hopefully a good night's sleep will help him feel better again in the morning.

Farmers from the city!!!

Not too long ago, someone mentioned that we needed to post some more of our "farming stories", so here goes... Since Todd isn't up to taking care of the animals right now, we decided that we should get rid of the bull (Oliver) and the steer (Rib-eye) who thinks he should be a bull and acts totally like one.  There is an auction barn in Shelbyville, so no problem, right?  The kids and I will just get them into the corral, load them into the trailer and truck them into the auction barn.  Easy as pie! Except... It was kind of an awkward situation.  Oliver didn't really belong to us - we had him at our place for several months, and his owners weren't really interested in having him back, but we couldn't get a hold of them to see if we could take him to them or what we should do with him.  Finally, after several phone calls, we got permission from them to take him to the auction barn - whew.

The first part went great.  They cattle love grain, but they usually only get it like candy when we want to bribe them to move.  They'll pretty much follow a bucket of corn anywhere.  So we shook some grain in a bucket, poured it in a pile in the corral, and here they all came!  Now to get everything but Oliver and Rib-eye out of there.  A little trickier, but we did it.  Ahhh... this is going to be a breeze.  Every once in a while during the day, we went out and filled up their water and made sure they still had grass.  We were going to wait until after supper to load them.  About 4:00 the kids went out to swim and I hear Garrett start crying and the kids start yelling - Rib-eye is out!!! Somehow he pushed through a 5 wire electric fence.  Luckily he went into another area that we had fenced off.  It hadn't been used for pasture for a long time, and we had borrowed several fence posts from it, so the wire was pretty loose, but it was at least better than him being in the yard or in the neighbor's field.  We knew it wouldn't keep him in very long, but we quickly made a makeshift gate and closed him in so we could work on getting Oliver in the trailer.  Todd did come out and help us out part of the time.  The girls and I tried to do most of the moving and work, but we were really glad for his supervision!

We were able to get Oliver into the trailer after a while - he was kind of grumpy - he wanted to stay with his girls, not get in a trailer by himself!  Now, what were we going to do about Rib-eye?!?  He was wandering around the little pasture - the same pasture where we have the moveable pens for our meat birds.  The same pasture that we had to go in to move and feed and water the chickens!  Sure enough, pretty soon, he finds his way over to the pens.  Right by the pens is the single wire - low enough for Heidi to cartwheel over (as she demonstrated to me this evening) - so certainly low enough for Rib-eye to step over... So here is the part where we are really glad not to have close neighbors - Laura, Abigail and I armed ourselves with a broom, a pool brush and a pool net and slowly walked ol' Rib-eye back through the waist high grass to the gate and back into the corral.  So now, Rib-eye is back in the corral and we don't want to take any chances of  Oliver getting out of the trailer while we get Rib-Eye in.  Fortunately, the auction barn is only about 5 miles away, so we drove Oliver over, delivered him and headed back to see what we could do about Rib-eye.  After a lot of coaxing, moving cattle panels and bribing, Rib-Eye climbed in and was delivered!  Whew!!!

Now what to do about those few sheep that keep getting out and into our neighbor's newly planted bean field...  The plan had been to work on getting them into the corral on Monday and take them to the auction barn.  These sheep get through any part of the fence as if it isn't there, so it is pretty hard to contain them in any of the pastures.  Tuesday morning, the kids got several of them bribed into the corral - they are pretty skittish and really hard to catch (the sheep, not the kids).  I grabbed one of them and we got her wrestled into the trailer, turned around and... the corral was empty!  The other sheep had found a spot they could get through and they scrammed!  Unfortunately, the sheep we had gotten in to the trailer was not the main culprit... but after working a while longer, we were able to get a hold of Ruby and get her into the trailer too.   We weren't able to catch their lambs, though, so now I am sitting here, feeling really bad as I am  listening to them frantically calling for their mamas. Oh, and did I mention that it was about 100 degrees out there both days?  We were one sweaty, tired family when we got this done!

After that long story, I'll add that for some reason Todd is feeling really tired and pretty sore today!  I'm sure he probably shouldn't been out helping wrangle animals!  He really didn't do a lot of work with them, but after a few weeks of basically sitting in a chair or laying in bed, just being up and around and in the van and out of it was pretty hard on him.  I can hook on the trailer and drive it just fine, but when it comes to backing it up in a straight line at the auction barn, I'm kind of hopeless, so he came along to do that part for me. Hopefully it is a short set-back!  He seems to take about 2 steps forward and one step back with the way he feels.  As long as he keeps Motrin in his system, he can at least function.

Tomorrow evening we load our meat birds to take them to be processed.  Something tells me that it's going to be a whole lot easier to get them in the crates and on the trailer... There is something a whole lot less intimidating about waddling, squawking chickens than there is about a bull that paws at the ground, growls and trumpets and  stares you down every time you make a move!   Most likely we'll have some kind of a story to tell about it, though.

Or not...

After Todd's better day the other day, he has had a couple of rough nights and a rough day yesterday.  The swelling, stiffness and pain moved up more into his wrists and hands, and his cough has been worse.  This morning, though, he feels a little better again, so hopefully he will continue that direction!

Getting Better

Last night, Todd slept 3 hours past when his Ibuprofen wore off and this morning when I asked him how he was feeling, instead of his usual "about the same" he said with surprise - "I think I'm feeling a little better!"  So hopefully he is on the mend!

Todd is feeling pretty much like he did when he left the hospital the other evening.  He is still weak and sore with swelling in some of his joints and doesn't have any stamina.  His internal thermostat doesn't seem to be working well - he is cold most of the time.  We've been eating soup on these near 100 degree days because cold food just makes him freeze inside.  I did get him a heating pad, so he has been sitting on that some and it seems to help him warm up. He has been able to work from home the past 2 days, so that has been good.  He starts a little early and works a little late so he can have a nap in the middle of the day. He doesn't feel like he has the strength to walk to his desk or around the office, so it is wonderful that he has this option to work from home.  He works for a wonderful company!!  This all started 3 weeks ago tonight.  They told him that it would probably last 3 - 6 weeks, so we are aiming for the 3 week mark.

The kids and I have been working around outside and enjoying this nice weather.  Some friends came over and helped us mow and do a little weeding on Monday and we really appreciated that!   I found a big vinyl pool at a garage sale last weekend and we've been getting it set up and filled, so when the water warms up a little bit the kids will be spending a lot of time in there.  They've been weeding the garden and doing chicken chores and trying to catch the calves so they can tame them, so they've been keeping busy!  Heidi learned to ride her bike this week and is extremely thrilled!  Lincoln started piano lessons today - when Abigail asked him what he did at piano lessons, he told her he ate donuts and learned stuff that he already knew!  His teacher said he most certainly didn't eat donuts - what a kid!!! I am not sure where he got that tale from - maybe that is what he was wishing he was doing instead of playing the piano?!?  He has been spending most of his days this week up in the mulberry tree eating mulberries.  He has really changed since last summer.  He's not a "baby" anymore.  He goes from jumping on the trampoline to swinging to climbing the trees to playing in the sand... always on the move. He and Garrett keep the rest of us hopping.  Raising boys is a whole different ballgame than raising girls!

Anyway, we're all doing well and looking forward to Todd feeling better again.  We're so glad that his illness isn't one of the serious ones that they tested him for!