some random pictures...

And this is what they did after the buckets were collected, washed, and air drying! Right after I snapped the picture some wind came up and knocked some buckets down on their heads!! Matthew, one of his many brothers, and his sons came over and helped clean up the maple syrup stuff! It was a beautiful day for it too! I was thankful for the help, I didn't have to do it! Thanks guys!!

Me and my life! My kiddos! The only one missing is my man! We went and jumped in the leaves at my parents last fall! That is one thing we all love to do! The kiddos look forward to it every year. I think my parents do too. A day with some grand kids! What a blast we had!

One of the many snowmen the kiddos made this winter! They kept coming in the house and shed and taking things outside. Then they came and got me to see their creation! Rachel was sleeping when this picture was taken! 

I love, love, love this picture of DaLaney and her sheep. She just loves them and I think they return the feeling. They will go right up to her and they all just love on each other!

This is one of two Monarch butterflies that we found as a caterpillar and watched it hatch out as a butterfly last year. It was very cool to watch it fill up it's wings, gain strength, and then watch it fly to a warmer climate! I hope they both made it! The kiddos enjoyed it as well. 

busy days...

Despite my best efforts to post lately it has not been happening. Life just got busy. Geez can't imagine why! Endless house work, home school winding down, and farm life in the spring! Plus making some new plans for the farm! Now that maple syrup is done we are getting ready for planting the gardens and raising some meat! We have the broilers.Can't wait to have them out on pasture and fertilizing as they go! Maggie will be happy for the company when they are in her pasture. She gave us an almost painful moo when we took the chicken tractor out. She was mad when it left and ran around in protest. Kinda funny. Kinda sad. She really needs a buddy, she and TO just haven't connected yet. Matthew wants to get a heifer, I do too, so we'll see.

We took DaLaney to the ER the other day. She slammed her finger in the door at her grandmothers and then pulled it out. Well her little finger swelled right up, we were concerned about the knuckle. It's her right hand the fourth digit right on the last knuckle by her fingernail. Thankfully it's not broken. The x-ray confirmed that. She liked seeing her skeleton though! That was neat! Then the doctor, who was great, did a procedure to drain the blood from her finger to get the swelling to go away and not get and infection. The blood just oozed out her fingernail. It was so swollen her nail bed had risen, noticeably . It was neat how they did it too, I watched while Daddy held her head away so she couldn't see. I'm sure it felt better not having all that pressure in her finger. The pink color of her hand came back as the blood came out. She said it did feel better. Then they put a splint on her finger to keep it clean and from bumping it. The nurse said that she would need a note for writing for school, the doctor said her mother is her teacher! (he had asked her about school and she said she was home schooled that is how he knew I was her teacher). So now I get to write some of her work, at least for a day or two with the splint on her finger, it's hard to hold a pencil. She's right handed. I was really hoping for a lefty. I'm the only lefty in my family!

We planted a few inside plants, peppers, tomatoes to see if we can grow them from seed. I don't remember what all was planted. We've tried before but have yet to be successful at it. They are in the window in the living room, so I can see them and remember to keep an eye on them. So hopefully it will work! I'll let you know...

The sheep will be sheared soon too. The weather is slow to warm up, but I'm anxious to have it done and hopefully get it cleaned and be able to spin this summer! I know the kiddos would like that too, they like to spin wool too.

We have a bunch of birthdays this spring too. All three of our girls have spring birthdays. We have friends and family that have kiddos with spring birthdays too, so it's that time of year! Exciting, but sad, my babies are growing up so fast. Seems like I blink and they grow. Life seems to speed by and I can't seem to make it slow down, or get it all written down, remember everything and get enough pictures! At least my days are full of blessings and I have the privilege to have what I have, and am so very thankful for it!

I have washed, dried and put away ALL the winter jackets and ski pants, again! Now I need to get the snow boots put away after they are dried out, again. I am thinking that the snow is gone for good now. I hope.

Here is a cute picture for you to admire...

I thought this guy was just too cute to resist a picture! Fits right in there nicely I think!

Alright, so I find myself at home with 6 girls! Aahhhhahaha. The ages are 2-7 yr olds, 2-5 yr olds, and 2-3yr olds! It's like having 3 sets of twins!!  I'm not quite sure how it all happened, but it's been interesting to say the least. They are all on the floors in the bedrooms, far from sleeping at this point... maybe before midnight they'll be asleep!
I've been very busy with the farm, running with the sap, and chickens, oh the chickens! They require a lot, and we have just gotten 25 Cornish X Rocks yesterday. So far they are doing well. I went to a Pampered Chef party last night at my sister in laws. I was late getting there because Matthew was getting the chickens and we had to get them settled before we left. I had done all the barn chores as well because he was late getting back home, and I still had on all my barn clothes and ran out to give the cow some water before we left and we are in the midst of mud season here and I had on my rubber boots. Little Matt asked me as we were driving down the road "your going to wear your muck boots Mommy?" Well at that point I didn't have a choice, so I said "looks like it." Oh well, guess I wouldn't have won any fashion contests but I enjoyed myself and the gals that were there are used to me, and take me the way I am! I think that's a good thing! I was told I didn't smell like a cow, so I guess that's good... I wasn't too concerned about it. I think I'm getting more comfortable with who I am and just "wearing my own shoes" so to speak.  The new laying hens are still getting used to their new home. The older laying hens are still getting used to them being out there with them.We haven't had any problems so far, they really don't pay any attention to them, and the little ones haven't tried perching on their perch yet, so we'll see how it goes.  I hope they all just stay friendly and don't have too much of a pecking order problem.
Thankfully the sap season will end for us tomorrow. We are pulling the taps and will be cleaning them and putting the stuff away until next year. We still have some sap to boil, but will be done with collecting. It's been a great year and the sap has really flowed well, compared to last year. We had that learning curve, but figured it would happen, but now we know what to fix and what to do, so next year will be better. I think thus far we have finished off 10-11 gallons of syrup. I have lost track and I like to keep track of all that stuff for my own personal records. I told Matthew I look forward to the season and I also look forward to the end. No more running and the days and nights are warmer and summer can come anytime now! He said he feels the same way.
We have gotten 2 pigs this week as well. Currently they are over at my in laws, but will be coming home when we have their pen ready, they are cute, white ones. I have no idea what breed they are, but most piglets are cute, I think. I don't have a picture of them yet, but I'll get one on here when I do. I like to refer to them as sausage and bacon. Don't want to get too attached to them...
I do have a picture of the broilers though. Chicks are cute too.

Sorry about the color, the heat light is on them. Cute little fuzzy butts!

Here they are!  Cute!

Yes there is a lager black bird in there with them. This bird is one from the laying hens. Haven't figured out if its one of the hens or one of the exotic birds, but it's rather weak and we didn't dare turn it out with the others. So we are pampering it and hoping it will come around and gain some strength. The broilers just love it, snuggling right up under the wings, and the bird doesn't seem to mind at all. It actually perked up when the chicks were put in there! We'll see how it does.

finishing maple syrup, part 2

OK! Here is part two of the maple syrup videos! It's about 1min 16 sec I think. Hope you enjoy it! Yes it's me talking again, and I still sound like the Nanny! The temp of the syrup is about 216 degrees, and it's a 2 person job to filter it and get it in the jars, so I didn't get that in the video. It needs to be hot to help seal the jars. As maple syrup cools it actually shrinks a bit in the jars. In the video I couldn't remember the name of the "brick floater", but it's called a hydrometer. We got almost a full gallon from what I finished off this afternoon. Then I wrapped it in a big towel and let it sit for about 24 hours, and it's sealed and ready to be sold. As the year progresses in the sap the maple syrup gets darker in color. We have some customers that ask for the darker stuff because they like it better. It tends to be a little sweeter and thicker too!

boiling sap, part one...

OK, per the request of a few people I have  part one of a two part video of the boiling down process of sap. It's about 1 min 40 sec, so.. I hope you enjoy. Yes the voice talking is me, you'll have to forgive me I've had a head cold for 2 weeks and my voice sounds funny, to me anyways. I was in a hurry to get the maple syrup finished that I forgot, hard to believe I know, to video the rest of floating the bricks, filtering it to get the tree dirt out and bottling it part. So next time I finish some more maple syrup, maybe tomorrow,  I hope to get the second part on the blog!! I already downloaded the video once, but somehow I managed to delete it. So I'll try again! Me and the computer!! Auurrgghhh. I have a love hate relationship with it! So this is part one! Enjoy!

I hope you enjoyed the video, and got the idea of the process of making maple syrup. We have enjoyed making it over the years and hope to continue for a long time to come! Remember that part two is coming!

16 years

Well 16 years ago this firey, long legged, champagne white marking on her beautiful face, sorrel filly came into my life and forever changed it! I have so many memories of the two of us, some good, bad and well just plain ugly too! From halter training, showing, riding, ground driving, to vets and shots!! Aaaahhhh the stories I could tell. But I won't. Let's just say they include black and blues and sailing through the air hollering profanities and landing in horrible positions, tears, blood, sweat, all from me of course, but I wouldn't change it and I wouldn't sell this wonderful mare that has been mine from the day she was born for any price. I love her like my own kid. I can't believe it's been 16 years already. Even though things didn't turn out like I planned with her, I still have her and still have plenty of time to do more things then I thought, I guess it's not in my timing, but that of my Creators and His time. I pray it comes soon!!
I take a picture of her every year on her birthday and either make horse cookies or give her carrots. I got a few pictures of her today but it's a wet dreary day, and she was not going to cooperate, and TO was being the typical pest, then the batteries in my camera died and now I have to charge them. Ugh. So pardon the lack luster of the pictures. The weather has been anything but nice the past few days or so. Very depressing. But...

Happy Birthday Abby!!

This is the best shot I got before the camera died. TO decided to eat her hay pile, and she was irritated  by that. Haha see her nose!!

This was last summer. Happy, and taking a snooze. Lazy summer day.

mother daughter bonding

It's been snowing all day. No this is not an April fool's joke either, I would not joke about such things. I don't really get into the whole pranking people on Aprils Fool's day. Never really got it. But anyways. I had to begrudgingly dig out the kiddos winter stuff again. Yes begrudgingly. I did not want to look at that stuff all over my house again. I wanted to cry when I saw it, the ski pants and the snow. But surprisingly the kiddos had fun in the snow, after all their complaining about it weeks ago, they were out throwing snowballs at each other and sliding down the snow banks! Imagine! They never sees to amaze me!!
Yesterday late afternoon (before the snow) I found myself home with just the girls. The boys had gone out rabbit hunting again on the last day. We were sitting on the couch chilling and then I decided we would have a home spa day. Never having done the whole spa thing myself, I took a swing at it! I dug out the nail polish and the clippers and all that wonderful stuff and we proceeded to have manipedi's at home! My girls are right into that sort of thing. Their best colors are pink and purple, no big surprise there right. So they picked out the colors they wanted. Then got creative about which hand, foot would be what color. They only picked two colors they liked best though! I like to paint my toes when I wear flip flops, and I even like my toe ring. The girls would like a toe ring, to be like Mommy! I might have to get them one for the summer! Wow would they like that! So while we painted toes and fingers the girls had hot coco and I had some tea, Tazo Chai at that! Yum. In the midst of making the hot coco it got spilled all over the table all over one of Little Matt's school books and all though the hot coco container. Now Little Matt's spelling book smells like chocolate, could be worse...LOL  So we proceeded to make some more after we cleaned up the chocolaty mess. We laughed and talked and giggled while we painted fingers and toes. I'll be the first to admit that I am not the best at painting those wiggly, chubby fingers and toes, but we had fun just hanging out and taking it easy together and enjoying a little pampering! Once all the toes and fingers were dry and the hot coco was gone they went outside and played in the dirt! At least they had boots on their feet! My girls can be real girlie then turn right around and get dirty while playing and not even think twice about it! I love that. They truly are farm/country girls! I didn't get a picture of them playing outside, because Matthew had the camera while they were hunting. But I did get a picture of all my wonderful girls toes and fingers! I did not take a picture of mine, and your welcome! haha

my girls fingers and toes, aren't they cute??!!! Can you guess who is who?

By the way, the boys did see some rabbits while hunting, and one of the kids that was hunting got one! Little Matt had a good time and is looking forward to going out again. But I'll have to blog about that later, after I get more information about it from Little Matt!

For supper last night I made a pot roast, and it was delish! I did get a picture while it was cooking, but didn't get one before it was devoured. All of it was gone! I cooked carrots with it, and had mashed potato, with gravy my family likes gravy, Rachel and I do not, and had blueberry pie for dessert. The pot roast and potato are gone. And only a little bit of pie is left! I guess hunting and a spa treatment makes everyone hungry!  But here is a picture of the roast. Made the whole house smell good with the seasonings!

Roast, carrots, onion, rosemary, thyme. It's Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast if you want the recipe, it's really good!! We give it two thumbs up times six!!!