Kids!

We had some new goat kids born early this week. I expected our goat Rose to kid on the 15th, but the trio came a few days early. I had hoped to catch some birthing pictures with my camera, but she had her babies without us knowing! What a fun surprise. Now we are waiting for our goat Nettle to kid in a few weeks. It is a big change having to milk twice a day again. I enjoy milking but it was nice to have a little break in the goats last months pregnancy. Hopefully we can post photos soon.

We have been busy taking care of seedlings, planting potatoes, and making new garden beds. After a month of colds, the flu and travel to see family; we are ready to have a weekend to get a lot of work done. So we will be planting, planting, planting!

Buzzz

On Tuesday we picked up four new bee colonies! They were supposed to arrive Monday but due to bad weather the truck came in late. Brian picked them up at Ruhl Bee Supply on the way home from work and hived and fed the new ladies. Hopefully on Monday we can post photos of the process (I just did). Two of the hives are a type of bee that is supposedly hardier, but also not as docile as the Italian honey bees, so of course Brian got his first sting of the year!

We spent this weekend with my parents in Southern Oregon to celebrate Easter. We came bearing dozens of eggs, a huge bag of spinach, and Easter Egg radishes. It was good to see family but always stressful to leave the farm. I worry about animals getting sick or loose, or something happening to the house... Fortunately, all was well when we got home, except it is no fun to have to rush around checking on everything after spending hours in the car!

We had a very productive Spring Break, with no computer time to update the blog. We worked hard on getting the garden ready and planted a bunch of cool season crops: radishes, kale, cabbage, etc and we continued to sow peppers, eggplants, tomatoes and other warmer weather crops inside. I have often lamented how much I like clear, over spaces in our home but often our projects take over our house. Right now every available space is covered with seedlings, unless it is nice enough to put them in the sun. I can't wait for our last frost date to pass so I will have these babies out of my way!

We mainly worked on the land this past week, with Brian clearing out a scrap wood pile that has been building since we started out house. he also started tiling the bathroom floor, which is really exciting. My big milestone is that I have finished the interior plaster. All I will need to do it the lime washes on the plastered bales and some Alis (clay paint) to the cob! On to the outdoor plastering...

I got sick early this week, which slowed down what I could do. I was determined to weed the garlic, and it took me so long. Towards the end I was so tempted just to lie down in the rows and take a nap! I did rest afterward with a book, but it drives me absolutely crazy to do nothing!

For our last months of homeschooling before summer, the kids are doing ancient Greece and Rome in history. When I told the kids what we would be doing, they were so excited, you would think I said we were having ice cream for dinner! I love how different homechool kids are; they are not self-concious about diving into things. We are reading the Odyssey before bed, and our 7 year old hopes to make himself some sort of Spartan-inspired battle suit. What fun!

Happy Spring!

The spring equinox was a few days ago. We celebrated by doing lots of work outside, planting onions and preparing garden beds. We got all our onions planted, which is a relief. I put up a little Easter tree with the boys. It is just some willow shoots in a bucket with wheat grass seeds, hung with painted wooden eggs. My kids love any holiday decorations and traditions.

Brian brought home a new batch of chicks and three turkeys! Right now they are warm under a light next to the wood stove. Our four year old likes to carry them around. He showed me a fuzzy yellow one and told me it liked it's belly rubbed!

It seems like every surface inside is covered with trays of seedlings. It will be a relief when they are all planted in the garden in the next few months. We ordered a soil blocker, which I think will help streamline our seed starting.

We are trying to expand our garden beds, fence in new areas, and seed some pasture areas. Brian is on spring break and we aren't doing our full homeschool schedule, so I hope we get lots done!

Onions!

Last year onions were one of best sellers at the market. This took us by surprise and we sold basically every onion we grew, including the storage onions I planned on saving for ourselves and using all winter! So this year we have planted enough to exceed our market needs and have tons for our own use. We are planting Mars, Ailsa Craig, Copra and Yellow Sweet Spanish varieties. Also we are growing some leeks. We love our alliums!

For Christmas this year our almost 11 year old got a digital camera. So lately all our blog photos are from her. She is doing a photography club for homeschoolers so she coming up with all sorts of neat pictures. Unfortunately because she is behind the camera, I don't have as many photos of her for the blog! It is really fun to look at her photos and see all the mischief the kids get into! Here are our boys:

Notice the baling twine so the wagon is being towed by the bike.

Once they harnessed the wagon to one of the goats!

A few nights ago after dinner, our seven year old said, "I'm cold. Could you make a fire?...Actually, I'll make the fire." And he chopped up some kindling (he has been taught how to use a small hatchet safely) and started a fire in the wood stove. I am so glad to have such self-reliant kids. I like the idea that if you need something, first see if you can do it yourself, and then ask for help if you need it. I think it helps that they see their parents constantly making things from scratch, repairing things ourselves when they break, and making do with the resources we have on hand.

This self-sufficiency helps our 10 year old take responsibility for her home education. Although I do spend a few hours daily working with her on more challenging subjects, a great deal of her "school" day is self-directed. She has all her materials and knows what she needs to accomplish each day; so she is able to get her work done by herself.

This week it has been more of the same on the farm: plastering, weeding, taking care of animals, working on the house, caring for seedling and Brian fixing our truck (again!). We have most of the seeds we need for the year, but we have been picking up some extra seeds to round out what we are growing. We are choosing many heirloom varieties from organic companies. Also our huge box of onion sets just arrived, so this weekend will be spent planting onions!