More Lambs!

Let's try this again. 

Two days ago, our ewe Basil, lambed twins. She gave us both a ram and a ewe lamb. 

"Uno"

"Tulsi"

Then just tonight, our ewe Sage, lambed with twin ewe lambs! 

"Parsley" and "Marjoram"

Of course, I can't forget to share a photo of the proud papa, Othello.

"Othello"

We can't close this post without updating you on Rosemary's little boys.  They are growing so fast and have so much energy and are as cute as can be. 

"Scrabble"

"Blackjack"

And Lambing Begins

This will be short, but oh so sweet!

Last night, our first ewe to come to our farm, lambed for the third time with......

Yep, twin rams. Oh! How I wish I could get ewes from her!

This morning, I opened the gate to allow all the sheep back together.  It went pretty well.  Lego, Rosemary's ram from last year, but very curious.  Thyme, Sage's ewe lamb from last year, was scared of the babies. 

Eventually, they all settled in.  Rosemary started eating acorns, the babies in tow.  A few times, the babies went to Lego, and he began lightly head-butting them.  I am sure she will do a great job as a mom to twins. 

Getting There, but Not Quite Done

The basement isn't done yet, but we are at a stand still with finishing the work. The last rain storm dumped several inches of rain on us in a little over half a day and it ended up seeping into the basement from behind the drywall. While it wasn't much, we want to make sure the problem is fixed before we put more money into walls and flooring. So for the time being, the floor and walls will remain as they are. 

Yesterday, Al and I took three of the beds and mattresses to the basement, and the fourth was put in Caleb's room. (Originally, they were two bunkbeds, but we disassembled them.)

There are still a few areas we need to put up drywall, and the ceiling needs to be finished.  However, in the current condition, it is completely livable.  (I forgot to mention that the bathroom downstairs is also in working condition despite the lack of flooring and wall panels.

While we have a guest room in the detached garage, we knew we needed one to be handicapped accessible. It has been a long time coming, but things are finally coming together. 

While the room is decently sized, the layout is absolutely difficult to arrange furniture in.   I am trying to fit two beds in here but with the door and the closet, they won't fit but one way.   

Once the girls get all of their things out, then the room can be completed.  I want to be able to put the old vanity into the room, but am not sure it will fit at this point. 

This dresser is too large for the room, so it will be move into the master bedroom for Al's clothes. There is a small dresser in the master closet which will come in here. 

The sewing desk and bookshelf from the master bedroom will come into the guest room as well. I had hoped to be able to put the vintage phone table in there, but it will have to go somewhere else. I can't leave tables and desks throughout the house because they end up covered in clutter. (And not because of me.)

This morning, I headed out to the local medical clinic for my wellness visit and annual blood draw.  Meanwhile, Al and a friend, worked together to put additional insulation in the attic.  

I was able to head to Batesville (ALONE), grabbed a coffee at Nova Joes, and headed to Bethesda to pick up some anti-biotic injections for my goat, which was dropped at a friend's house.  (How is that for a really long sentence?)  Then I went to Kroger for a few groceries, but ended up buying over $200 worth of food.   

After I got home, we ate as small snack for lunch and Al went to Searcy with the last cat, Bob-O Camo Skinny Jeans.  (Okay, the name needs an explanation: Bob is his name.  He can hide really well, and he is a thin cat.) He also had to return the machine to Lowes.  (That one machine that blows insulation into an attic.)

The weather was quite warm yesterday, but we have cold temps right now.  The "feels like" is below freezing and the wind is blowing pretty well.  This constant fluctuation is crazy, but I won't complain because we could be in Wyoming or Montana where the weather is below zero many days out of the winter.  NO THANKYOU!

Well, That is about it.  I hope you all stay safe as this storm system moves through.  I know there have been some tornadoes and extensive damage.  Prayers go out to all involved.  Stay safe!  Stay warm!  

Oh, and no baby sheep or goats at this point. 

Chores and Rewards

I admit, I haven't done very well in delegating chores to my children.  The older three didn't start doing chores until we moved to Lithuania in 2007.  At that time, Rebekah was three, Andrew was seven, and Leandra was nine.  But when we went from 1444 square feet to double, two baths to four, one level to three, it was time to start.  

I guess my hesitance to delegate comes from my tendency to have things right or a specific way.  It also has a bit to do with not wanting to listen to whining or complaining that they have to do something outside of playing!  

I have probably heard every excuse in the book as to why they "can't" or "shouldn't" have to do the chores delegated. Kids are pretty good at coming up with legit reasons.  My favorite - or is it the one that leaves me absolutely speechless has been, "I already know how to do it, so I shouldn't have to do it any more."  Yeah...that doesn't fly. Imagine if I quit doing specific chores when I learned how to do them.  I would have been done doing everything by 13!  

My parents did well with us.  There were three of us and we all knew how to do things even if by junior high I did most everything.  I remember being the dishwasher, the launderer, the cook, and the housecleaner.  And to be honest, I don't regret it and wouldn't have changed it.  I am proud to have learned those skills in a world where many, many young folks get out into the world with no knowledge as to how they even wash their clothes.  (I might mention, my six year old just started his laundry for the week.)

I don't wash my kids' clothes and haven't since 2007. In fact, I don't wash my husband's clothes.  He does.  I take care of my clothes and all the linens.  Believe me, if you knew how often I have to wash dish towels you would understand why.  I am CRAZY about changing out my dish towels and dish clothes.  I can easily go through four or five towels and three to four clothes every single day on top of cloth napkins for every meal. 

I have tried many times to come up with a chore system that cycles, but every time there was something that didn't work right.  Then, of course I ditch the system and go back to doing it all myself, giving requests to do chores off and on.

Now I have a system that has taken a few tweaks, but seems to finally be working pretty well.  The kids have had animal chores for quite some time, but I finally have a chart that cycles and seems to work, while not exhausting a person to one chore all the time.  

There are four zones and each zone consists of an animal zone as well as a house zone.  Then they also have odd jobs here and there.  They don't have to do that zone of chores again for three weeks.  This gives them a break, but also gives them opportunity to learn to do each job, once a month.  I have stopped listening to whining and instead tell them, "I didn't have it down the first time either."   

They also have a school chart.  They only do home school four days a week since I do not like the concept of summer vacation.  This gives me time to take days off for various homestead chores like gardening and canning as well as the opportunity to take days or weeks off for holy days and feasts.  

We do not pay our children with money, but I do have a treasure chest. The kids earn points (numbers are by their names on the chores charts) during the week and spend money on their prizes on Sunday.  They get $25 (fake) for each day of school completed.  Then they get money for each day of chores completed.  This is done more as a percentage of chores completed.  Prices on items on the chore chart are 100x the price I paid. So if I paid $1 for a sheet of stickers, they pay $100. 

Finally, when the kids complete the sticker chart for days of school completed, they get a special treat.  For this 100 days, the treat is ice cream.  They don't have to wait for a treat either.  So if Alexandra earns hers first, she gets it first.  The others have to continue on toward their treat.  

Well, the kids are done with their chores today and have started to play their rounds of Adventure Academy.  Alexandra is playing right now and the other three are riding bikes.  The bread is rising in the oven and I need to go make lunch: eggs and muffins.  We are having haystacks (rice and chili over tortilla chips) for dinner and sabbath is tomorrow, so no work except that which is necessary like caring for animals and normal necessary stuff like cleaning up dishes and fixing meals.  

Have a blessed weekend! 

New Year, An Update

First, can we welcome the two newest additions to the goat herd?  We picked them up Sunday.  Since moving to Arkansas, we have lost a lot of goats, some being our breeding does. This means less milk for us. 

This year we are using a candy name theme.  We just brought home two little girls from Hillside Hillbillies.  The goat above is Bit O' Honey and below we have Almond Joy.  They are still on the bottle but seem to be healthy and happy little girls.  

And on to other news...

We finally got the chicken pen reduced in size.  Yes, it is a small pen for that many chickens, but the plan is to allow them to free range.  They are shut in because we are training a few of them to the cage again since they were so accustomed to sleeping on the woodpiles.  

The area they were is now in the process of being cleaned up.  Small trees will be cut down, vines and bushes mowed, and sunlight let in to allow grasses and "weeds" to grow for animals to eat.  We also need to chop the firewood and stack it. 

Al and I have been working on building next winter's firewood supply.  This stack is two deep.  We pulled last year's wood in from the chicken yard and have been burning that when the weather gets really cold.   

The new drain Al installed in front of the shop is working far better than the old set up.  He still has some grading to do as well as put down more gravel, but it is nice to NOT have a huge pond in front of the shop every time it rains.

We were finally able to move the turkeys from their residence to a new location just down the hill, into the woods.  It was much easier than we thought since turkeys are not as difficult as chickens to round up.  This area (below) is where they were.  

 

Unfortunately, there was a lot of trash under the surface and the turkeys dug it up.  So we have some clean up to do now that they are moved. 

And here is where they are now!  Nice big space for them just a hop, skip, and a jump from the black Australorp pen.  

They are such a pretty group of turkeys.  We have five hens and three toms.  So, we will probably only process one more turkey until we can get them hatching out again in the spring. 

Below is our rooster, Bok Choy.  Yes...you heard that name right, it is sort of a play on words.  He is a great rooster!  I couldn't be more pleased.  And these girls are fabulous as they lay 75% of our eggs right now.  We have nine hens back here and approximately 20 other hens of various breeds in the other pen. 

Yesterday, Al and I were able to get a new round bale to the bucks.  This usually means cleaning up old bedding and hay first.  The old bedding is put into piles for compost to put in the garden later in the year.  I have to say, the new hay bale to the goats was perfect timing because...

...today we received so much rain, our wet weather creek is roaring.  You can actually hear it from the house.  As you can imagine, the amount of rain we got will literally keep our ground saturated for days as it drains down the hill.  

I know this update wasn't very exciting, but homestead life isn't always glamorous.  Or is it ever?