I was looking through my past posts and realized that I have not written anything for about 3 months! My goodness time flies!!! But really we have had so much going on! I will start with the biggest news: We have been blessed yet again and will be having our 5th child in November!! This came as a bit of a surprise for all of us but we really could not be happier! As you can imagine it has been very hectic here. I usually stay pretty sick during my pregnancies and having 4 children who need you on top of that pretty much has taken all of my time and energy! But now that I am 12 weeks along I am starting to feel a little better and have a little more energy!
For those that don't know we live in a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. Needless to say we are running out of room!! And with another on the way we have been feverishly trying to decide how to add on to our existing home. I would say that we have ironed out about 80% of the details and are well on our way to set of blueprints :) Oh happy day!! We are now saving and hoping to add on as we go in the next 2-3 years!
We have also been working on getting the gardens ready. Our back garden has been tilled and planted with 65 lbs of seed potatoes and 3 lbs of onion sets. We still have to make some raised beds for our carrots, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. I am also wanting to start a few herbal beds. We have been unable to really do anything to our front garden as of yet due to the rain. But within the next two weeks we are hoping that everything cooperates. My husband and I are both itching to get our tomatoes, peppers, green beans, corn, zucchini, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe and gourds in the ground!
We have added a few more animals to the farm as well. The first week of April we bought 5 baby ducks (one for each child). They are so cute but boy can they make a STINKY mess!! That week we also traveled way down into Kentucky to pick up two saanen nannies who each had a set of twins. They are amazing and we are once again getting close to a gallon of milk a day!!! Of course with new babies the kids had to stake claim. We had 3 nanny kids and a billy. Our son chose the frailest nanny baby and named her Sweet Pea. The two oldest girls chose the other two nanny babies naming them Princess Fiona and Dora. Sadly two days after we got the goats Sweet Pea passed away. We have always had animals on the farm and many of them have came and gone. My son must just be at the age where he is just understanding the process of life because he took this so hard. It is one of the hardest and yet most important lessons you have to teach a kid on a farm! However, we had a small funeral in which I hand painted a marker for his Sweet Pea. He is still picking her flowers and taking to her! Such a sweet heart he has :) He has now staked claim to the billy baby naming him Shrek. Only after a long talk though. It had to be explained to him that we are unable to keep the billies. So he understands that Shrek will either be sold or eaten. Another hard but important lesson for a farm kid! We have also discovered 5 new baby kittens in the horse barn. The kids are as always ecstatic about this! Luckily for us they have not ventured from the loft!
We are also busily reading the farm for hopefully 7 or 8 sheep within the next month or two! Not only are the kids excited about this but so are my husband and I! They will cut our mowing in half!!! We have also decided to buy a sow. We have figured that it will take us approximately 2 pigs to get our family through the year and once the 5 of them become very hungry teenagers that will probably become 4 or 5 pigs a year. Plus what an experience for our children to raise, sell, show and butcher two litters of pigs every year that came from their house!!
That about catches my up for now! Hope to get to write again soon!!
You guys are really amazing and inspiring.
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