Spring

Spring is finally showing up! Over the last few weeks we've started our spring activities even if the weather hasn't been ideal.  

Spring is the start of garage sale season! I love going to garage sales and with 5 kids it's a great way to save money on clothes, toys or whatever other treasures we can't do without. The picture above is part of the stuff I put on my own sale earlier this month. Several gals from church, that live in the country, decided to rent a building in town for a sale and clean house! I'll admit is was a little hard seeing all my baby stuff go. :( 

Speaking of babies we have lots! 18 total. In the end of February we saved several of our eggs and added a few more from my sister then had Ethan's friend incubate them for us. My hope was for 5 chicks. We ended up with 18! We also have six adult chickens running around. However you do the math, that's way to many chickens! :)  The picture above is of them hatching in the incubator. One chick still has a little egg on him.

They've lived in a Rubbermaid in our sun room for the past couple weeks. (They moved into their bigger box in the shop today)

Amelia picked the smallest little chick of the bunch, as her own. She's enjoyed cuddling it that past couple weeks.

Yikes! We need to teach Allison how to hold a chick nicely! 

That's better Allison!

Ethan and I are working on our strawberry competition for 4-H yet. I've planted 20 plants from Wal-Mart which haven't liked the cold weather. (I may be replanting if no sign of life happens in the next week or two.) Here Ethan is amending the soil in his bed with a little peat, sand and manure to keep it from turning into a brick this summer. 

  

Ang and I were super-pumped to break out our Christmas presents for the first time!

Amelia and Ethan canoed while Ang and I kayaked. I was hilarious listening to Ethan bark orders to Amelia. She's got some learning to do. :) 

After a fun evening kayaking we made it home around 9:00pm to find this! I sent Ethan to shut the chicken shed door and he ran back to tell me the chicken shed burned down. :(  It appears sparks from the burn barrel must have started it on fire. All was lost, except the chickens who were safe in another barn when we came home.

 We are putting them in pet carriers to keep them from being eaten by coons and opossums at night. :( We should have a nice new shed for them by the end of next week. 

Picking out 4-H projects is another spring activity around here. We decided to go with sheep for Ethan again this year. He snapped a picture with my phone on the way home. (Looking a little redneck, aren't we) :)

Amelia is doing a good job trying to make them feel welcome. 

I was our turn to lead a church service for the nursing home this month. Mark gave the message and Amelia did special music, playing a song she learned during piano lessons. 

After the visiting the nursing home we had some time to kill before church. So we feed the ducks at the cemetery across from church. Allison especially loved this and didn't want to leave. 

Ethan being brave and feeding the swans.

Mark and I celebrated our 15th anniversary! 

This was Ethan's first year to participate in the District V track meet. It's a track meet for the area Christian schools to compete in. I remember it as a kid, although I remember it being a lot warmer. :) Ethan was in 5 events, the running long jump, sack race, 100 meter dash, the 800 and 4 x 400. He did well and enjoyed everything except the 800, which I don't blame him. :)

Ethan and his cousin Gideon were on a team for the sack race. 

Racing the 100 meter dash. Ethan literally came up to the elbows of the kid next to him. :)

We have a problem with opossums and raccoon's. This morning as I reached into the garbage can that holds our cat food I found this nasty thing! It's the second time we've had this, Anton found the first one. :) Listen this little song which fits our situation well. :)

I ordered a few trees which came in the mail this week. As you can see I had some amazing help with this project. :)

When the hard part of digging the holes and planting  the trees was done, the helpers came around  to pound in the fertilizer sticks for me. :)

March

Happy 11th Birthday Ethan!

Anton has had issues with sensitive skin and up swelled up a couple times when around farm dust. So we thought it would be best to see what was causing his reactions. Apparently, everything. He had a reaction to everything they tested for, the only place that didn't swell or turn red was the neutral spot. His worst allergies are dust mites and cats. 

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We put new flooring in the kitchen. I hope to paint and do a couple other small changes. I will post the "after "picture when we get that far. :)

Ethan participated in the Cadet-O-Rama last weekend. He enjoys Cadets and seeing his friends projects and cars.

This was one of the projects Ethan did for badge this year. 

"I shoot mommy butt" :) We ended up with several Nerf guns this Christmas and enjoy having "war" with the kids. I guess Allison thought I was an easy target. :)

Ethan showing his brothers how his catapult works. Then next day I found Elijah attempting to launch marbles in the house while Ethan was at school. The catapult will be in hiding for awhile. :)  

Ethan showing his cadet car for this year. He took 2nd place in the turtle race at church. That means he had the second slowest car of the group. Pinewood Derby cars aren't really our thing. :)

I needed a little taste of spring so I picked up a couple packs of strawberries and the kids helped me pot them up. Hopefully we can do a better job of keeping the alive than Wal-Mart. :) 

Homemade Yogurt

March was Ethan's month to do a presentation for 4-H. He decided that presenting how to make homemade yogurt would be fun and he even brought samples to pass out. We followed the instructions from here.

 Ethan during his presentation. 

Heat  one gallon of whole milk to 185-190 degrees in a heavy bottomed stock pot.

Keep stirring so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

We used a candy thermometer and checked the temperature often.  It took while to heat up, be patient. :)

Put cold water in the sink to quickly cool the milk to 120 degrees.

This part doesn't take long.

Next add your yogurt starter to the cooled milk.  This is just 1 cup of plain store bought yogurt. You can also save some from a previous homemade batch to use. Be sure to whisk it well so that the starter is thoroughly incorporated into the milk.

If you want to make a vanilla version add 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar and 1-2 tablespoons of vanilla to the mixture. We added 1 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of vanilla. We don't like the plain yogurt, tastes like sour cream to us. :)

Carefully pour the mixture into sterilized jars and put on lids. Our favorites are the plastic screw on kind, but we also use lids and rings.

Place the jars in a cooler and add water that is heated to 120 degrees 3/4ths of the way up the jar.

Place in the warm place and let sit for 3 hours. We found 4 1/2 hours was better. The yogurt was nice and firm at 3 hours it was still a little runny. Don't wiggle the yogurt during this process it can cause the yogurt not to set up.

After it's firm, place it the refrigerator. It lasts one week after being opened and one month if sealed.

Leupold Scope Commercial

This fall we got a call from a group of guys headed to our area to film a commercial for Leupold Scopes. At that time the government was shut down and so were the state parks, including the park they were going to film at. They found Bluff Creek, a local ATV riding area, near us and planned to film there next day. They where looking for a Ranger and driver. They found us through a friend at the Chamber of Commerce.  The problem was it was the first week in October, one of the busiest weeks of the year for us, and we didn't have anyone to help them. Mark offered our place and Ranger to them and said they could drive our Ranger themselfs. They checked it out and came back bright and early the next morning to film.

The kids and I had to check out how filming a commercial worked. So we watched for a little while. 

This is just a picture of the "model" riding around the coalmine.

The guys in the back of our Ranger are filming  the 4-wheeler.

This is the scope mounted to the 4-wheeler after 6+ hours of riding around the coalmine. They were testing to see how tough it was. and how accurate it would shoot after testing. I told them if they really wanted to see how tough the scope was, to let Anton play with it for a little while. They didn't take me up on it. :) We enjoyed seeing them film, it's not everyday a commercial gets filmed at your place. :)

You can see the video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g7e2BTPogQ

February

Eventually winter of 2013/2014 will be a memory. But for now we're doing our best to enjoy a few days that aren't so bitterly cold. We've also had fun doing things in the warmth of home as well. Here's a few pictures from our month so far. 

We enjoyed a sledding party with cousins and friends last week. Everyone piles in the calf sled for a ride to the top of the hill. A calf sled is on my Christmas list for next year, it was a blast!

Those that didn't fit in the sled crammed in one of the Rangers. It was just as much fun riding to the top as it was sledding down. 

 Beware of the voles!!! If you veered off the beaten path with your sled, you were likely to stir up one of these little guys. They are very fat and slow compared to mice. Added bonus: The next day the kids were watching Wild Kratts on PBS and it happened to be about voles. It was fun to see how they tunnel under the snow and survive the cold winter. It also makes me wonder just how many of these little guys were out there with us. :)

Hanging out near the fire was the place to be by the end of the evening. 

The next day we ended up getting several inches of snow and had the day off from school. The temps made it into the 40's so we hooked up the sled and made our way around the yard.

I "taught" Ethan how to make bread for his Cadet baking badge. I really don't know how to make bread very well, but it turned out pretty good for his first time.  We enjoyed it hot out of the oven with homemade strawberry jam.

 We entered a yield contest this fall and got second place for our soybean entry. We had fun visiting with other farmers at the awards banquet and we even played a little Black Jack at the casino. We came home $5 richer. :)

Anton turned 4! For some reason I just can't believe he's four already. He loves to run around the house pushing a dump truck or track-hoe. He likes making Lego creations and playing little games on the tablet too. I asked him what his birthday wish was when he blew out his candles and he said he wished for a dirt bike. 

Mark and I took a quick trip to NW Iowa to visit some friends we hadn't seen in a while. In this picture Mark is singing Karaoke in front of their wine cellar entrance. It happens to be made out of an old cistern. If you look closely you can see the ceiling is made from slats from their old turkey shed and the walls are textured with straw. They have the most creative house I've ever seen, I absolutely loved it and loved hanging out with them again!

We made it to a couple fundraisers, this particular one was a dessert auction. Our table had the winning bid on this, a Red Velvet Cheesecake. Yes it was as good as it looks! 

 Amelia and I decided to see if we could get some 2 year old pictures of Allison. It was fun to try and figure out my camera settings and use a new lens but my little model was quite challenging. :) (This is one of the better pictures.)

Generally this is what I got. :)

January 2014

 2014 is in full swing we've had a fun start. Here's a few pictures from the past month.

Allison turned two! She's growing up so fast. She's already potty trained, talks like crazy and does everything she can to keep up with the rest of the kids! What a blessing she's been to our family the last two years!

Amelia, Allison & I spent a little time on Pinterest and found a cute cake similar to this. I had everything in the house to make it and we had a birthday Owl for Allison in no time!

Anton likes me to take pictures of him. This is him smiling nice. :)

Like last year, we didn't waste any time dipping into the health savings account. This kids were doing a race around the house with a few obstacles. Elijah didn't make it on one and fell off our bed hitting his eye on the way down. We decided to have it glued instead of stitched so he would have less of a scar. This did bring back memories of the same eye being glued shut by the doctor a couple years ago. :) 

Staying warm this looong winter? We are, with a little extra heat from our wood burning stove. The kids and I helped Mark a few times to restock our wood supply. They love watching the wood splitter work.

Mark & I are entering a new phase in life - Out of Baby Phase/Middle Age. :) In the last couple months I've really noticed this. First Allison potty trained herself, woohoo no more diapers in our house, at least during awake hours. Then we attended our last Young Farmer Conference, after 35 your not considered "young farmers" anymore.  ;( Finally we moved Allison into a bunk beds with Amelia. No more crib. This is the first time we haven't had someone in a crib for 11 years! Now if we can get rid of diapers all together we'll be in business!

Amelia has a summer birthday but they celebrate half-birthdays in school. She is my "high-maintenance" treat girl. The boys are happy with a box of fruit snacks but Amelia enjoys something homemade and cute. Last year was little hedge hog cookies and this year we copied tractor cookies from a friends Facebook page. They turned out pretty good!

Elijah is really enjoying preschool this year. One evening this month we had Family Reading Night with the preschool students. Elijah was given an army hat to wear during this activity. He is in the brown track-hoe jammies second from the left.