Memorial Day...

Always remember....and it's time to get back to what all these people died for. 

We need to get the scum (namely the president and all his socialist, commie friends) out of Washington that is trying to dismantle the country and our Constitution!! But that rant is for another day.

Remember....and PRAY

50 chickens & a Turkey

Today we added our meat chickens.  I found a great deal on Craigslist...(and NO, there is nothing wrong with them despite being a bargain!).  The guy also had turkeys, so we added 2 of those...named Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This is what 50 chickens & 2 turkeys looks like...

Sadly, we have already lost Christmas.  I guess we'll have to go with a Christmas ham...back to Craigslist for a pig :)

Mowin

Mowin', mowin', mowin'

Man, Boy, and Danny

Kristl supervising

And for 'colie

My cousin that is facinated by freakishly large things.....Found this on the Ohio/Indiana border.

Danny

Today, I drove all the way to Lafayette, IN (Home of Purdue University) because of my love for the Boy.  What did I come home with?

This is Danny.

Boy's Dog

He is one year old, housetrained and totally Boy's dog.  He goes everywhere with him.  He is very sweet and a good natured dog.  He and Kristl haven't become buddies like Stormy and Kristl were.  He will occasionally play with her.  He will also play with Big Dog, Iona.

All the dogs like to "Go Bye-bye" and frequently go down to the drive thru in town and get slim jims from the lady that just loves them.

Is it a SWARM...

After have our bees for 2 weeks, we discovered them doing this.....

Scared that they were getting ready to swarm and take off, I called my "bee mentor".  He said they were "hanging out on the porch because it is hot."  I took the extruder board off my box and they were happy bees again.  It was my first time truly "working Arby's".  It was just a bit nervewracking!

I also discovered that it looked like I had lost my queen, so I went over to my mentor's house and he had me help "inspect" his hives so I would actually know what I was looking for and gave me a new queen cell to add to my frame.  I'll have to go back in after Monday to see that she has hatched and also a few days later to look for eggs.  Do you know how small bee eggs are???

REALLY REALLY small!

1/2 grain of rice.

Relieved....closing...finally

What more can I say...it's over!  We've FINALLY closed on the house in W'ville.  Just shy of being on the market 1 year.

Such a blessing...

It's such a blessing to have a boy that loves mowing and weedwacking!!

Arby's.....OUR BEES

Since February we have been talking about Arby's.....that was my Birthday present and my Mom's day present....

OUR BEES...

Some of the equipment that we also got....another "Deep Super Hive Body", a veil, gloves, smoker, smoker fuel, and a hive tool.

Kristl "working" the Bees.

MORE New Additions...

We added 2 more Holland Lop bunnies that will eventually be used to breed pets for others. 

Boy picked out "Spot".  He will be our breeding buck...in about 4 months.  Right now he is only 5.5 weeks old and just weaned from his litter.  He is very small and very CUTE!!  He is what is considered a "Broken Tort."  Which technically means brown spotted.

We also added a bargain breeder.  Our rabbit mentor had this sweet Lop that only has 1/2 an ear on one side.  When she was being born, her mama tried to pull her out by her ear and ripped it.  She was the only kit to survive from her litter.  She can't be shown, but she will make a nice breeder.  Her color is called "Frosted Point"  She doesn't have the full points to be called "Sable Point".  We named her "Frosty".  She will take a trip back to her first home in about a month to be breed with a "Broken Black" Lop.  About the time she is ready for her second litter, in the fall we can put her with Spot.

We also took our mentors advice....it is not likely that Sweetie (Black Doe Lop that we got from my boss) will breed as she may be too old.  She is a maiden.  Most rabbits need to breed by 6-8 months otherwise they will not breed.  But she suggested rather than wait for Spot (another 4 months) to go ahead and breed her with Robby and see if it takes. So.....Robby spent 5/21 with Meg (who didn't take this time-this is her last chance before becoming dinner) and 5/22 with Sweetie.  Tune in at the end of June to find out how we did!

And so the count goes up!!

Fur and Open Eyes

The babies are almost 2 weeks old.  They now have fur and most have open eyes.  A few have "nestbox eye" which is where their eye is stuck with goo.  We are taking care of that.  They are starting to jump out of the nestbox too.

We have 1 kit that is gray (which doesn't happen often according to my rabbit mentor and the lady we got the does & buck from. 

This isn't a great picture, but it is of Runt.

Another NOT great picture, but to give a size perspective...one regular size on my hand.

Out of town

Boy is staying with Nana & Pawpa for the night.  We were supposed to close yesterday...now it is looking like next Wednesday....so glad I panicked!!

We have a HUGE delivery for Man's business tomorrow about 3 hours away.  I'm going to help!  The folks are wonderful Christians that are in the process of adopting a sibling group from Ghana...their blog is http://www.blessingsfromghana.blogspot.com/ Pray for them as they are about to take their second journey to Africa to bring their kids home!

More moving.......sigh

Foggy morning....

I arrived home from work to see the field covered in a foggy dew.  It was so pretty...

Why NO....

Why No.......
...we do not live near the power plant..

.........................why do you ask???

Typical asparagus we are getting from the patch!

The Berry Barn Party

Good friends of our family celebrated milestone birthdays today by having a party at a working farm called "the Berry Barn".  It was a lot of fun.  Man joked that when we get together with our friends, it's the only time he takes off of work.  He took the whole.day.OFF!

Their youngest daughter is one of Zachary's best friends, and she spent the night at our house.  Her older sister turned 13 and had a slumber party, so we wanted her to have something special to do too. 

Boy and she had great fun getting dressed up for the party.  What was especially fun and somewhat disturbing is that he now almost fits in the cowboy hat and cowboy boots that his daddy wore when I met him....he's getting way too big!

It was fun seeing the berry barn. Some of the old "stuff" that is in their barn is also lurking in our barn waiting for us to bring it back to life!

Then there was horseback riding.  Boy LOVED it.  Especially after last weekend at the Evan's barn mucking stalls.  These are halflingers.  This ones name is Joseph.

When we returned home, he found a baby bird that was out of its nest and couldn't yet fly.

Finally, we are still missing Stormy something awful.  Boy and Kristl have been loving on each other more to help each other with the loneliness.

Good Friends

Sometimes in life we are blessed with friends that just go out of their way to make our lives better.  My friend Myra is one of those people.  No matter how busy she seems to be, she takes the time to help me out.  I sent out a cry for prayer to my circle of homeschool friends, and know that they were praying and that really helps.  But Myra put feet on those prayers.  She showed up at the house with 3 of 5 of her kids and set to work helping me make sense of the chaos this week has brought.  While I unloaded yet.another.load from the van, she planted all the plants I "relocated" from the other house.

Her son, Noah, is Boy's best boy friend.  He also had his best girl friend over on Friday too!  So what a great day he had!!

Thank you, Myra.  Your love and friendship are more than I deserve!

Baby Bunnies

The baby "popples" are at about 4 days old.  They are a bit bigger but still very small.  Here is one of the bigger babies in Man's strong hands.  They are starting toget the sheen on white fur on them.  All 10 have survived and we have 1 runt that is about 1/2 the size of the others.

Dualathon

The Boys' Brigade Dualathon was tonight.  The boys ran 1/4 mile, then biked 2 miles, then ran an additional 1/2 mile.  (I'll have to check to make sure that is right). Zachary loves both running and biking so this is one of his favorite things of the year.  He's been training for his personal bike-a-thon (Stay tuned...coming up soon!)  They don't actually "place" anyone.  The lesson is perserverance.

Hi-fiving a friend.  Zachary is known for his "Christian Sportsmanship." and has won awards for it.  It makes a Mama proud...I'd rather know that he has good Christian sportsmanship than to win any prize!!

Craziness-day 2

Happy Birthday Colie!

Another Crazy day here!!  Got 4 new tires...Moved 3 loads today.  Personally "met" a mama and 5 baby mice as I packed...EEK!!

Boy found his fishing stuff and had to refamiliarize himself with how to fish...

Finished up at 11 pm...luckily when I called in "INSANE" yesterday, I asked for the rest of the week off.

What a MONDAY!!

Longer explaination later, but....was told that W'ville house is closing May 15th...not June 15th....PANIC

Good..Molly kindled!! WOOHOO

Then spent the day packing up and moving stuff from the W'ville house.  On our last trip out to the farm....on the side of I-71...during rush hour...this happened....

And while waiting for Roadside Assistance...the battery decided to die too.

Luckily I had already called in to work not sick but "INSANE."

Getting the garden in...part 1

Got the seeds in today...