And then he ate...

This dog of ours, my goodness we love him.  He is a big, sweet baby still, only 6 months old.  I've been working from home a lot this week and he follows me upstairs to my office everyday and is a complete distraction.  He jumps on my bed (Murphy down!), grabs the kids toys (Murphy bring it!), tries to eat everything in sight (Murphy leave it!), and brings me all sorts of things he find that he know's he isn't allowed to have.  God love him he's into everything.  Yesterday he brought me two stuffed animals, a compact mirror, a barbie jacket, a magnet and ate a receipt before I could get it from him.  I do enjoy his company and snuggles when he finally stops but boy is he a handful!

You don't actually need to work at home do you mom?  I'll keep you off that computer.  

This moment

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Linked through www.soulemama.com

Pictures to warm us on this 6th day of March

Today is my husband's birthday.  He said he can't remember his birthday ever being this cold.  But he got up this morning with a smile and a whistle on his lips and started his day without a complaint.  He's a great guy and he loves us dearly and we him.  We are both tired of this snow, of the cold, of having the horses indoors. We made our chicken order yesterday, 10 ready to lay chickens and 2 chicks.  We've never raised chicks before so this was our safest bet.  I may even order 1-2 more chicks in case one of them dies and leaves one child without a chicken to raise.  We've been reading about pecking order and how to integrate the new chickens and chicks into our current brood.  And of course this makes me think of spring.  Have a great day everyone!

This last one is the stalls, fully cleaned and scrubbed, ready for winter.

A picture of winter

Looking out my office window towards where the fire pit once was, I see a picture of what this winter is.  Snow up to my knees and branches that fell during the ice storm.  If anyone needs sticks for firewood, we will have plenty in the spring!

Chickens like pasta and other things I've learned

I wrote a draft post two months after we moved in and read it again a week ago and giggled to myself.  Oh I've learnt so much since then.  I am learning all the time on this farm.  Not just about the animals but about this life.  Sometimes it's discouraging and sometimes it's eye opening but most of all it's rewarding.  I want to write about what I've learnt every Tuesday because I know when I look back in a year from now I'll smile and nod to myself and realize I've grown.

What I've learnt - September 2013 to February 2014.

1.  Cleaning out a horse stall takes 10 mins but you'll smell like horse pee forever, so you'll want to wear the same jacket every time and probably wash it once a week.
2.  Those black, sturdy rubber boots with the red bottoms.  They are the best.  Nothing fancy needed here - and they even make great winter boots with the right socks.
3.  My dog may never learn how to walk on a leash.  It's the beauty of training a dog to be obedient but a worry when you think about taking them into the city for their vet visits.
4.  I've learnt to climb a ladder and not be afraid to do so when required.  On the same note, lifting a long ladder is heavy and dangerous.  If you are on the bottom end of the lift, do not lift UP.
5.  Straw makes great bedding for chickens and when it's covered in their poop, is easier to lift off the layer of frozen poop in the winter than to scrape it off bare wood.
6.  I will wear layers.  All.  The.  Time.
7.  My kids appreciate a hot water bottle or a heating pad in their beds at night in an old farm house.
8.  To make the most of my trips to town.
9.  Electricity is expensive in the country.  Do your laundry in the off hours and on the weekends.
10.  Your neighbors will help you.  With advice, with manpower, with resources.  It's the way it was meant to be.  And in the summer I'll bring them eggs and produce to thank them.

But I guess what I've mostly learnt is to be adaptable.  To enjoy the snow days indoors.  And that the work is never done, and that's the best part.

Oh and auto correct has informed me that learned is not a word, it's learnt folks.  Learning all the time.

This old house

I felt some frustration on the weekend with my old house.  I was cleaning out the mud room (which still needs drywall and proper flooring) of the accumulation of recycling etc.  After that was done I started in the kitchen and I realized, the kitchen needs a LOT of work.  There is wallpaper on paneling and under the chair rail it's green, and not a pretty green.

The black bedroom needs to be painted - even the ceiling is black, and the wood floors upstairs need to be refinished.  The carpeting needs to be taken off the stairs.  And lastly, my husband has already mudded a wall in the living room - that I actually liked the color of - so that needs to be painted too, along with the window frames in that room.  I've resigned myself to the fact that this house is never going to look like new but I can't wait for it to look like ours.

The one partially finished corners of the house!  Still missing the quarter round from when the floors were done.

Home preserving

This beauty was given to me by a friend last September when we moved in.  It seemed a long way away at the time to having my own garden so I shelved it.  Last night after I made my seed order I pulled it out to read about the basics of home preserving.  This book starts off with an introduction to how preserving is done and the different types of preserves you can make - pickles, chutney's, jelly's, jams and sauces.  But it also gives you much more than that, soup and stew fillings, ice cream recipe's and wine and cordial recipe's.  No, this isn't a sponsored post!  I just wanted to tell you how great this book is.  Some of the recipes that I will try are pickled carrots, beets and zucchini but there are so many more in here - the book is
very inspiring!  Coq au Vin, ratatouille, cassoulet are a few recipe's I've never tried and this book makes them look easy.  I look forward to sharing my experiences this summer as my garden grows and I try my hand at preserving some of the delicious food we are growing.