Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[FarmerDenise]

I love that you're storing your guns with your fabric and sweaters.

You know I was such a tomboy and couldn't stand pink - too girly for me. I ended up with a daughter, who by age 2 refused to wear anything but pink. She wouldn't wear "boy" socks or pants. I used to buy boy's socks, because I could get a large package for the same price as three pair of girly socks. I was glad, when my sister moved in with me and she could play all the girly games with my daughter, that bored me to death. DS was a girly girl too, when she was little. At halloween she was always the princess or lady and I the cowboy or indian along with our brother.

Fortunately both DS and DD grew up to be strong, capable women. Whew. DD can even shoot a gun now, I was so proud of her, when she told me she did some target shooting at a friend's house.

 

[lorihadams]

Monday

Whew, today was a doozy....Maddie is being a little hellion today. Her and her brother are fighting like cats and dogs and trying to drive me crazy. He word of the day has been "NO".

Both of them are used to being given all the attention for the past week and now they are having to readjust. Unfortunately I had 5 loads of laundry to do today. I did have to run the dryer a bit to finish up 2 loads but it amounted to about 20 minutes. I can usually fit about 3 loads on the line at a time so I did all the sheets and towels first and then did the clothes. Unfortunately something was in with the jeans and there was little paper bits all over them so I had to run them in the dryer for about 10 minutes to get everything off of them and soften them up a bit.

I have been reading 2 books lately and I posted some about them on Bee's journal but I will talk about them here too.

The first is The Land Remembers by Ben Logan. It was published in 1975 and is a memoir about his life growing up in the early 1900s on a Wisconsin farm. I really enjoyed it...especially his memories about the little one room schoolhouse he attended. The ending was very sad, made me cry. I won't ruin it for anyone but I highly recommend it.

The second is by far one of my favorite books as of late. I will definitely check this one out and read it again. It is called See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America by Logan Ward. It is a memoir about his wife and son and their experiment to try to live life as if it were the year 1900. They started this journey in the year 2000 when they both quit their jobs in New York, sold their home, and moved to Swoope, Virginia. They purchase a farm, get rid of their car, their toilet, and their well pump. They install an outhouse and a hand pump on the well and turn off the electricity and phone. THey purchase a wagon and a draft horse and two bicycles for their only transportation. They learn to cook on a woodstove and milk goats and tend chickens, they also plant their first garden and learn how to can and preserve their own food. This book made me think of Beekissed and how she wants to write a book. They even run into Joel Salatin!!!

I have about 85 pages left but I know I won't be disappointed, it has been wonderful so far. I highly recommend it to anyone on here. They truly sound like kindred spirits!

 

[keljonma]

The second is by far one of my favorite books as of late. I will definitely check this one out and read it again. It is called See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America by Logan Ward. It is a memoir about his wife and son and their experiment to try to live life as if it were the year 1900. They started this journey in the year 2000 when they both quit their jobs in New York, sold their home, and moved to Swoope, Virginia. They purchase a farm, get rid of their car, their toilet, and their well pump. They install an outhouse and a hand pump on the well and turn off the electricity and phone. THey purchase a wagon and a draft horse and two bicycles for their only transportation. They learn to cook on a woodstove and milk goats and tend chickens, they also plant their first garden and learn how to can and preserve their own food. This book made me think of Beekissed and how she wants to write a book. They even run into Joel Salatin!!!

I have about 85 pages left but I know I won't be disappointed, it has been wonderful so far. I highly recommend it to anyone on here. They truly sound like kindred spirits!

Too bad they don't have internet - they could join us.

 

[lorihadams]

They still live there. Logan used to write for National Geographic. When he and his wife Heather first got engaged they lived in a third world country for a year!


On a side note, my poor husband has still not gotten to eat dinner yet tonight. We ate at 5pm but as he was walking into the house our neighbor came rolling into the driveway and it looks like their well pump has burned out. Chad came home to get his phone so he could call my papa for advice and he was covered in dirt from where he helped Tom pull the pump.

 

[lorihadams]

Tuesday

Cloudy foggy day....the temps are finally up into the 70s so I have turned the heat lamp off on the broilers for the last few days during most of the day. They seem to be doing pretty well. They are 2 weeks old now. I have started feeding them until about 8-9pm and then letting their food run out until 8am. I still have not gone through 1 bag of food yet. They just seem to be hanging out. They are getting more feathers and I have started trying to give them greens everyday. I tried giving them peas and they looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.

I am super excited because Snow White comes out on dvd today!!! My husband has explicit instructions to get a copy on his way home today. My children have not seen it, ever. I'm so excited cause it is one of my favorites.

Chad also got the portable processing station done....he has plans to attach a metal pole at the top to hang the chickens to bleed out. Here it is, very simple and didn't cost us anything except $3 for the eye bolts. We already have a stretcher bar that we use to hang our deer on but we had to halfway climb a tree to raise it up so this will be much easier.

Here is another pic of my silly brahmas resting on the wood pile this morning

And here are my beautiful children riding the gator this morning

Just got done making some bread and the house smells soooooo good. Chad is bringing home crickets for all the critters as well this evening so everyone will be happy. I fed the chickens and ducks some mashed up cooked quail eggs with the shells and mixed in some cooked oatmeal. They seemed to enjoy themselves and got really messy.

Chad has to go back to our neighbor's house this evening to help him replace their well pump. He was supposed to go to Home Depot and get a new one.....Chad said, "well, at least now I know what to do if ours ever breaks"

 

[Beekissed]

Those are great pics and adorable kids! Nice to have hubby on board with the chicken thingy...very fortunate!

 

[lorihadams]

See what happens when we don't supervise.......

Let me explain what this is. This is our broiler pen. I showed hubby a pic of Becca's hoop house and he says, "I can make that." No problem. He gets free lumber from work and steals the pvc pipe from our garden (there goes my polytunnels). Anyway, he starts on the hoop house for the broilers and gets halfway through it when I come out there and remind him that I need a door so that I can feed and water our little chickies. So, with what my papa colorfully referred to as "afro engineering" this is what we ended up with. I hope it works.

oh, yeah, I know we need a door.....

 

[dacjohns]

I must be missing something. I like the pen. Maybe it's too small?

 

[lorihadams]

I honestly like the pen too but it just looked like he changed his mind mid-build. It was supposed to be a hoop house.


Thursday

Got up today and fed and watered everyone, boy will I be glad when the broilers get into the tractor. They are stinking up my porch. I add new shavings everyday, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. I have been feeding them more and picking greens for them every day. They seem to be more interested in the greens.

I made a new sign for the chicken coop, I finally named it. I'll take a picture once it dries and I can hang it.

Got two loads of laundry on the line blowing in the breeze.

I think I'm going to make a pizza for dinner. Nothing too complicated. I've been in a lot of pain lately with the fibro. The cooler weather really takes a toll on my body. I am trying to get back in to swing of things with 2 children instead of one. Madelyn is really trying my patience. She is constantly into everything, I forgot how the 2 year old phase was. Sometimes I forget that she's only 2. We went to the library and then the park yesterday and met up with 2 other friends and played for a few hours. One of the moms has fibro too so it's nice to have someone who knows what life can be like.

The local library is having a book sale tomorrow so I think I'm gonna go see what they've got. We are going to try to go to the Powhatan Pauwau on Saturday if the weather cooperates. I haven't been to a pauwau in 10 years and I am really looking forward to it. I have been trying to prepare the children and tell them about he native american costumes and singing and dancing that we will see. They seem indifferent about it for now but I hope that once we're there they'll enjoy it.

Hopefully I can get some good pictures!

 

[Blackbird]

LOL I bet Tyler would jump right in and start dancing!

Your hoop pen is quite creative! Atleast it still looks good. I looks very good actually. Wheres mine..? Does is pull fairly easy?




My mom has fibro too, she's been in a lot of pain also, and its been so awefully cold here lately.