Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[lorihadams]

We've had a busy few days. We worked the bees Sunday and then took the kids bowling for the first time and they both did very well and had a really good time. We went to Home Depot and got some gutters for the barn and some concrete to put around the spigot outside the barn to keep it from wobbling and give me a cleaner platform to put my buckets on instead of the red Virginia clay.

Monday Tyler started soccer camp at church and is having a blast, despite the heat. Maddie is still continuing her swim lessons this week and I got a call from my papa while she was getting changed and they came up for the night so they could see the kids doing their activities. It has been a while since they had seen the kids and they were missing everyone. Granny hadn't seen the goats yet and she came out and milked with me Monday night. She couldn't believe how easily Aliana went into the barn and up on the milkstand. She has milked cows before but never goats. She got up early this morning and made everyone biscuits and gravy (except me...gotta love being GF). Maddie LOVES biscuits and sausage gravy. After we got Tyler dropped off and watched him for the first 15 minutes of camp we took Maddie to her swim lessons so they could see her too.

I talked to my neighbor about milking the goat in the mornings while I take the kids to VBS at my mom's church, we'll be gone the whole first week of August and I am photographing the whole shebang. My papa has turned an electric barbie jeep that a parishoner donated into a safari jeep. He took the whole thing apart and cleaned it and painted it zebra striped. It looks awesome! There have been people from the next county over to come see the outside of the church where they have already put up sets advertising VBS. I can't wait to get there to see it all.

The heat today is unbearable. I'm making the kids stay inside. Monday we went to the eye doctor and my astigmatism has gotten bad enough that I need glasses, at least for reading and maybe nighttime driving. Gotta love getting older.

Today Chad took off for a dentist appt and is working on a coat tree to replace our existing coat rack in the laundry room. He has pretty much gotten it done but is putting on finishing touches and deciding whether or not to stain it or leave it as is. He is using one of my great granddaddy's tobacco sticks as the hanger bar.

The ducks are getting big and will be ready to go soon, thank God, I'm getting tired of dealing with them all. We are gonna have to get some fill dirt and raise the level of the floor up in the goat barn to help with the flooding issues. We are hoping to get the gutters put up next weeks and maybe dig a hole and fill with gravel to give the water some place to drain.

Granny went out to look at my volunteers growing in my compost pile and came back and informed me that I somehow have cantaloupes and honeydew melons growing over there. I didn't plant any and we haven't eaten any so the birds brought them from somewhere I guess. Maybe a neighbor threw some out somewhere. I don't know where they came from but I'm not gonna knock free food.

Granny and Papa went back home this afternoon and we really had a good visit. I can't wait to go up there for a while. The bees looked pretty good this past weekend but I'm not seeing as much new brood as I would like so I'm gonna have to do some research to see when the queens will start slowing down. I have lots of honey from my stronger hive though and I may need to move some over to the weaker hive to help them out for the winter but we'll see what happens in the next few months.

Chad gets his stitches out Thursday and while we are at the doctor I am thinking of asking her for a referral to the chiropractor for myself....my lower back has been all kinked up the last few weeks and I'm just thinking that all those years of toting children on my hip has caught up with me. Well, off to go catch up on everyone else's journals.

 

[gettinaclue]

Well, at least you're never bored

I have also restricted my short people to the house. It is FAR FAR FAR to hot outside to do anything out there.

 

[lorihadams]

So, this week is finally OVER. Can I go to sleep now?

My DD did wonderfully well with her swimming lessons and passed her swim test so now she can go down the slide at the YMCA pool, in theory. She tried Friday but made it as far as the ladder and came back down....can I get an AWWWWWW?

My BF picked up DS from his last day of soccer camp and the coaches gave all the campers a soccer ball signed by all the coaches. He is so excited it is ridiculous. She met us at the pool and I picked up my babysitter, who is having a rough time cause her nanny just got diagnosed with cancer and isn't expected to make it much longer. She came with us cause she didn't want to be home alone and on top of that her jerk of a boyfriend broke up with her. She's 17. He's an idiot. The kids were really excited to have her there and she loved playing with them in the pool....took her mind off everything going on and my BF looked at me and said "you brought the babysitter, good call!" We spent almost 6 hours friday at the pool.

Friday night my MIL rolled into town with her on again off again boyfriend that we haven't seen in a while but we love. We hope they will be more on again She stayed with her brother and then came over on Saturday to watch us do the bee hives and take the grand tour and meet the goats. I also got up Saturday morning and found one duckling in with my new broody chicken and she had kicked it out of the nest and it was really cold, it didn't make it. There was also another one that was hatched out so I took the more experienced broody, Brahma Mama, and put her in the isolation cage with all the eggs and the babies. We ended up with a black and a chocolate runner yesterday and I have 2 more eggs hatching today as we speak with 3 more due to hatch probably tomorrow or the next day cause all the eggs came from one indian runner female over the course of a week or so. The first 2 survivors are doing very well and I will go back out and check on the progress of the two hatching eggs in a couple hours.

We had a cookout Saturday night and played cards for a while and then set up the tent inside the garage and the kids and I camped out. We had a good time. Hubby visited with his mom until almost 1am and then she went back to stay with her brother and met us for breakfast this morning before heading back to NC. The kids and I are planning on going down to visit her mid August for a long weekend.

Today hubby made a stand for Tyler's aquarium and yesterday he made another workbench for his new piece of equipment we got...an air compressor with a brad nailer, finishing nailer, and crown stapler for $279. The compressor alone was $179 so we got the 3 air guns for $100. Couldn't pass that up. He has made 3 pieces of furniture in the last 4 days, I'm in trouble.

My son has decided that he wants a pet mouse. I told him no, we couldn't get a mouse and that we didn't have any more aquariums because they were all full of toads and frogs and lizards so he took one of his 10 gallon aquariums outside and let all the frogs go, dumped out all the contents, and then came back in the house and said "can we go get my mouse now?" Killing me. I don't care, truth is I like the little mice, they are more active than his toads so I am okay with that. They only cost like $2 so I'm not sweating it. I'm going to use wood shavings for litter since that is what I have for the chickens anyway.

We went to the chicken swap yesterday and my husband actually talked to a man about some meat rabbits and got his business card!!! I would love to get a breeding pair and process the kits for us. We like rabbit. Seems like everytime he goes hunting for rabbits he comes back with maybe one. I would love to get back into them.

Today we are watching the world cup soccer final and making lemon goat cheese. Chad has a friend from work that called and asked if we would like some spaghetti sauce, he is canning all weekend. He has 68 tomato plants this year. I told him that I would trade him some eggs and cheese for the sauce and he said it was a deal! His daughter is lactose intolerant but does well with goat milk and cheese. He also wants honey from us when we get to that point with our hives.

So, next week we get to slow down some and breathe a little but still have 2 dollar movies we want to go see, I'm sure we'll end up at the pool some too, and 2 birthday parties toward the end of the week. Crazy. I also have to make a decision about school for Tyler. I am really thinking I am going to keep him at home and continue homeschooling next year but there is that tiny part of me that wants to chicken out and put him in public school to see how he does. He told my BF that he didn't want to go to school cause it was too much work. Of course that just made her lecture me on why I should put his little butt right in school She doesn't understand why I am letting my 6 yr old have a say in what he does with his education. I just think that I need to be a little more proactive and structured in my day here at home so that he knows that during certain hours we are "learning" and cannot just go play. I need to work a little harder on getting the balance right this year. I also think I need to ditch the workbooks. He hates them and there is no point in yelling at him all day long just to get him to do a few worksheets a day. We can get the same work done in different ways and be much happier. I do still want him to practice handwriting and learning some sight words and we may do a few unit studies as well to incorporate some science and history in everything. We'll continue to so some worksheets for math and work with manipulatives and focus a lot on reading and me reading aloud with some narration back from him to make sure he is doing well listening and actually comprehending the stories. I am thinking we will do Ambleside Online in the Charlotte Mason method. He loves when I read to him so why not do more of it?

 

[lorihadams]

So here are some cute pics....Maddie at swim lessons

Tyler at soccer camp (he's in the silvery outfit in front)

Chad helping Tyler practice riding his bike without training wheels(that we got for $1 at a yard sale, btw)

 

[lorihadams]

This heat is ridiculous....and my kids are being bad so I told them that if they kept fighting before lunch we would not go to the pool today. Well, now I'm kicking myself for suggesting it but I have to stick to my guns, right? So we are staying inside. We went and saw Yogi Bear yesterday and today we saw Marmaduke, both cute. Then had to stop by the pet store for crickets and got the dogs a big braided rawhide treat each and came home to eat lunch. Tomorrow is story time and maybe then we can go to the pool if the kids stop acting like little brats.

Hubby has to go to a property that he is leasing to work on the pond there today so dinner is by ourselves tonight. I'm thinking ham steaks and cabbage. Yummy.

I have 3 baby indian runners with brahma mama and she had another egg that was starting to hatch this morning but no baby yet. We've lost 2 babies so far, one I think wasn't fully "done" before it hatched, it still had some stuff coming out of it's belly and the first one the inexperienced mama kicked out of the nest overnight and it got cold I think. She still has 3 more eggs to go and my indian runner hen has 2 so we'll see what happens in the next few days. My phone just rang and my neighbor down the road is with a friend that wants $75 for a mixed bag of hens, 4 of them meat birds but she doesn't want anyone to eat them. That kills me. I told her I just couldn't right now.

I have done 3 milking lessons with my neighbor and boy is this gonna take a while. The first time was a total trainwreck and she couldn't get anything out but at least she tried. Second time my husband tried to give her some pointers since he is fairly new at it and her fingers are bigger than mine so Chad's perspective helped some. I still had to milk her about halfway. This morning she walked over and got about 3/4 of her milk out before she stepped on her arm and knocked most of the milk on the milkstand. So the chickens got the rest of what I milked out of her. She is gonna be one fat milk goat by the time she is through cause she is taking FOREVER to milk her and we have to keep giving her feed to keep her still. I keep telling myself that it will get better the more she practices but I am just concerned that by the time I get back from VBS she's gonna drop in her production so much I won't get anything out of her. She keeps getting milk all over her hands too and I just know that the milk is gonna taste off from it. Oh well, I can always freeze it and make it into soap, right?

I have ten days before I leave and it is gonna give me nightmares, I swear. I still worry about my husband milking her and getting all her milk out but I just have to get over it I guess. That control issue thing.

I am still trying to adjust to my new glasses, they are weird. I'm wearing them now and I have always hated glasses, they give me a headache. I can't turn my head to quickly or everything is blurry and jumps back into focus and makes me nauseous. It's weird. Everything is sharper and clearer but I just can't get used to having these things on my face. :/

The heat is awful and supposed to get worse this week with the heat index jumping up to 115 on Friday. Gonna be a fun week. My garden still looks pitiful but my pumpkins are turning orange finally. The bad news is that something is killing the vines. They are turning yellow and dying. I probably need to water everything this evening but I was hoping we would get a thunderstorm and nature would do it for me

I have gotten one tomato. I am thinking I am doomed to buy canned tomatoes for the rest of my life. There are worse things I guess, right?

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

And I thought my days and weeks were long and exhuasting!

I really don't know how you keep up! lol

 

[gettinaclue]

I am still trying to adjust to my new glasses, they are weird. I'm wearing them now and I have always hated glasses, they give me a headache. I can't turn my head to quickly or everything is blurry and jumps back into focus and makes me nauseous. It's weird. Everything is sharper and clearer but I just can't get used to having these things on my face. :/

I know exactly how you feel. It took me a while to get used to mine as well. Felt like on top of everything, I was looking through a window as well. Give it time, you'll get used to them.

I don't have any ripe tomatoes either..but I have a whole gaggle that have set. I hope I get 'em before the chickens do LOL

My pumpkins?...lets not talk about them. LOL You are way ahead of me on that one. I MIGHT have one coming up about an inch tall...but it could also be a watermelon. I'm not sure which it is. I guess time will tell.

I've also been bad with my watering. I was really hoping we'd get some rain last night and of course we didn't, so I was out at about 6:30 watering the garden before I had to go to work.

eh, it could be worse.

 

[Henrietta23]

Watering is always my downfall too.
Hate hate hate new glasses. I started wearing them full time 2 years ago and got the progressive ones. Took me forever to adjust. Then I had to get new ones and adjust all over! I can't walk on uneven surfaces without stumbling.....
Your kids are adorable!! Even if they are being brats. Mine has been suffering in the heat and just went across the street to play with the neighbors' granddaughter for a bit.
I'm missing our tiny baby ducklings. They are getting all big and duck like quickly!
We put off taking a vacation while our goat was in milk. I just didn't have anyone who I thought could handle it! Well, she's finally dried off and we're getting some time away!! Hope your neighbor figures it out!

 

[Farmfresh]

I decided to save a buck or two last time and got single vision lenses. I don't really need that bifocal anyway - right? Oh my goodness I am blind as a bat!

 

[gettinaclue]

! I can't walk on uneven surfaces without stumbling.....

Same here. I always take my glasses off if I'm not walking on a flat surface. It isn't at bad if the uneven surface is familiar - like my backyard, but I still stumble from time to time.