Persevero! Dear Momma!

Do you ever struggle with having Bible time each day with the kiddos? Intentions are always good, but I have a hard time being consistent. Picture this: desiring to make our time enjoyable, we chose the front porch for morning devotions. It was cool, quaint, a change of pace...

...after fighting over seating location ("Please just find a seat...they're all the same) and solving the question, "What can I use to color on?", (Does everyone have a magazine??) we open our Bibles.

...the littles are allowed to color to help occupy their hands. Which means that not but a couple verses into our text the inevitable clanging and shuffling of colored pencils begins. Not finding the elusive shade, the 

clattering seems to rise above my voice. 

"Please stop with the pencils!!"

I'm starting to feel a rather large tinge of frustration, but after a deep breath, purpose to continue. This is sweet fellowship with the children...enjoy the moment...be present...

"MOM! Is that cow in Labor?"

(Jenna! You are kidding me, right?)

A quiet resolve to go with the moment, we leapt from the porch with high hopes of watching a birth. Miss momma however, grew tired of nosy neighbors and headed off to the back pasture for a bit of privacy, and thus we missed the action.

We did make it back to Bible time. Eventually.

On the Farm...

 

Have you ever seen this?

Lizzie the cat decided to join the few chickens who like to lay eggs in this hay chute when she had her litter of kittens this spring. She would nurse the babies, and the chickens would lay their eggs. Then the playing field changed, and Miss chicken decided to glare at Lizzie and give her a few pecks until she left her kittens and the hen would settle in on the babies as if they were her own! Thankfully everyone is fine, there are no identity issues, and did I mention...

we have thirteen of these cutie pies needing a home (wink)?

Labor and Delivery

 

 Two does + two hours of labor = four kids!

 Monday was filled with kidding on the farm with two does kidding AT THE SAME TIME! A first for us! Read more detail on Jenna's blog at the above link. 

This is always such a busy time with extra clutter around the farmhouse kitchen and babies bleating in the mudroom, but a great opportunity to put into practice all those thoughts of gratitude, capturing the moments, engraving memories into the heart, and mothering with patience, not pessimism.

So how did I do? It's just a little funny that my kiddos thought the day was difficult for everyone. By dinner time, obedience was non-existent for some (which raises the frustration level on momma's part), all were tired, and offenses against one another were adding up.   

"But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth."

Colossians3:8

Here's our chance! If you find that you have failed in this area, confess your sin and go to your children...ask their forgiveness! Purpose to walk in the Spirit, blessing one another and encouraging one another.

Momma Gets A Farmhouse Education...

A milestone has been reached on the farm...

I have milked the cow!!!

This week I have been "in training" doing chores that I never do. Coming out to the farm six years ago sounded wonderfully romantic, full of charm and vintage farm life, simplicity and down-home goodness. But quite honestly, the children do practically all the farm work. Thankfully Josh and Jenna love it, because I'm not so sure I'd stick it out if left to myself!

I was a bit intimidated by the cow, but discovered that I can put her halter on and lead her without any trouble. Josh was careful to show me which part of the halter goes around her nose, and which part goes over her ears. So far, so good. With only a couple tugs, I managed to bring her into the barn for milking and then came the next hurdle. Josh said, "Now you need to learn how to tie a 'quick-release knot' around the post." I needed a few demonstrations, but discovered that tying knots may be similar to my mom's interest in Sodoku. It is mentally challenging...

Two other concerns I had in addition to the knot-tying, was "stripping" her, and whatever would I do if she decided to release her bowels? I've heard countless stories of how the children can see signs of impending release, run for the shovel, and actually catch it (or most of it) before it makes a mess of everything in the vicinity. I was on my own tonight, and confess I felt a little vulnerable bending right behind her behind...my kiddos sing in the barn~I was asking the cow to use her manners for my sake...really, I did. Thankfully, no problems of that sort, but I can't always be so fortunate! As for the stripping, I finally got it together and was able to make my brain and fingers coordinate their movement. Back to the pasture she went, and my first time milking~all by myself~was successful!

If the day comes when I'm all alone on the farm, I'm not sure what I'll want to do or what I'll want to take care of. But for today, it did feel good to "do hard things" and stretch myself out of my box, as long as I know my kiddos are not leaving me yet!

Around The Farm...With Raw Yogurt and Raw Honey

Well it is downright crazy weather here on the farm! Instead of sunny May, it feels like late October with howling winds and freezing temperatures. I'm so cold I've been requesting fires again just to take the chill off the house.

Not wanting to miss an opportunity to help, Natalie loads up to bring in more wood. Isn't it great when even the little ones learn how important they are in keeping the home?

Looking for the bright side of our weather pattern, when the wood stove is on, I can make my raw milk yogurt and let it culture overnight in the warmth of the stove. This is so easy to do!

Raw Milk Yogurt

2 gallons fresh milk (preferrably raw, full fat)

1 packet yogurt culture starter, or one 6 oz.container Dannon yogurt (plain or vanilla)

Option 1: Raw method

Warm to 115 degrees. Remove 3-4 cups and whisk in the yogurt or starter. When well blended, add back into stock pot of milk and ladle into jars.

Option 2: Cooked method

Warm to 180 degrees, then submerge pot into cold water and bring temperature down to 110 degrees. Continue as in option 1.

If the wood stove is on, I can set the jars on the bricks, cover with a heavy towel and leave overnight. Refrigerate in the morning. Otherwise, place large jars of hot water into a cooler, then add the jars of yogurt. Within 4 hours the yogurt should be ready for the refrigerator.

The other new acquisition is all this beautiful raw, local honey! Jars upon jars on my shelves now, hopefully to last us quite awhile...and provide ample opportunity for a visible object lesson:

"Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones." Proverbs 14:24

May we strive daily to have those pleasant words on our tongue!

Charlotte Mason On the Farm...

I love Charlotte Mason. She has been my inspiration for a lifestyle of learning since the beginning of our journey. This week was no exception! When I am not PMS'ing, I can enjoy the flexibility of our life here on the farm. Activities are educational. Projects provide great lessons.

Take this seed starter shelf made by Josh and Caleb. I tend to be a procrastinator due primarily to paralysis of indecision, but when Josh got excited reading the gardening book that included the plans~

...all it took was a trip to the local Home Depot (the guys equivalent of a fabric store?) and the two of them spent the day measuring, cutting, assembling and having great brotherly male-bonding time together. What classroom could best that?

And then there is kidding season, which, if you read Josh or Jenna's blog, you can get up-to-the-moment videos and pictures on all the farm births. Goat births are the big farm news right now and I'm doing my best to be the cool farm mom who not only takes care of the house, the education and the children, but also helps in the barn. I don't know if it's working, but I hope overall, that there are more good memories than bad!

There IS Life on the Farm...

~Better pictures are soon to be posted;)~

Guilt aside, there's nothing like waking quietly to the start of a new day with Little Running Squash sleeping sweetly and peacefully beside me. There was ONE moment of no thoughts for the day, no concerns for the schedule, no...

MOOOOMMMMMMMAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

Lucy has HOOVES coming out!!!

What a jump start to my day! By the time I reached the barn, it was all done. Jenna was there just in time to reposition the head from getting stuck in a straw bale, and viola! a calf was born.

I've exchanged "textbooks" today for real-life learning on the farm as the better part of my day has been spent in the barn trying to convince a very strong little bull calf that it really does want to eat. We've been wrestling with it, and had the joy of watching it wrestle with itself and learn to stand. Amazing.

Off now to get Josh. He's been away since Sunday night, AND I DON'T LIKE IT!! Let's just say, we miss him A LOT.

Chicken Poo, and the Making of Godly Character

Could chicken poo ever develop godly character? Not in and of itself, but the CLEANING of chicken poo and the process of "freshening" the coop sure has some great life lessons. Take today. Yet more complaints on the disgust of the job, the impossibilities of "getting it all", and the injustice of making children do the nasty jobs.

I couldn't help chuckling, then I began to wax eloquent. All the virtues of learning to do the unpleasantries of life while young would surely apply throughout the years. I'm quite certain that those youngsters who learned early to deal with the yuck, and do it cheerfully, are the better for it. Imagine the advantage of learning to bear up under the arduous and noxious tasks of childhood with a joyful, happy spirit...

Those will be the heros and heroines of the next generation! Those will be the courageous defenders of the weak! Those will be the trustworthy, reliable, and noble...

Let's hear it for chicken poo...

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

Farmhouse Apple Dumplings and More

My friend, Cinnamon, was tempted this picture of

Farmhouse Apple Dumplings and requested the recipe. If you visit her blog, you'll find that she beat me to it, and has already made her own version. So, perhaps she'll need to make these and do a taste test, then let us all know...

Farmhouse Apple Dumplings

2 c. sugar

2 c. water

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/4 c. butter

Make into syrup and boil 3 minutes. Using 6 apples, peel, core and thinly slice.

2 c. flour

1 t. salt

2 t. baking powder

3/4 c shortening (or butter)

1/2 c. milk

Cut together ingredients to make dough. Roll out into 1/4" thickness. Cut into 9 squares. Arrange a handful of apple slices on each square, wrap the dough around the apples, and arrange in a baking dish. Pour syrup over the top and bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Top with whipping cream or ice-cream if desired.

:::

So what happens around here when momma is busy and distracted with something else instead of Little Running Squash? Well, the obvious! Little Running Squash heads into the mud room bathroom and retrieves the TOILET PLUNGER! I know that has a very useful purpose, but in general, I find it disgusting. She, however, was quite proudly toting the thing around, until I saw her.

:::

Today the children were out in the barn mucking the stall for the horse and cow. I'm headed out to check soon, but they report (with as many details as possible) that Lucy the cow is showing signs of pending birth. Silly, but I feel like the resident midwife, and need to prepare for the big moment. I'm really hoping that she'll be just fine on her own and not require any intervention. As it is, I'm trying to prepare Tom for "heroic" measures, should they be necessary.

:::

It's Friday! Have a wonderful evening!

Love, Kathy

We Are Loving...

the farm life~

the beauty of an 1850's home complete with post and beam barn that is absolutely gorgeous!

the simple life~

together for learning and living, growing and harvesting not only gardens, but souls

the homesteading life~

nurturing our very own...chickens for fresh eggs, hogs for delicious bacon, goats for raw milk, and our newest venture of raw cow milk! We are satisfied with making our own mozzerella cheese, cottage cheese, culturing our own buttermilk, and (drumroll) butter!

Isn't this butter churn beautiful? She's an original from the 1940's, and she works like a charm! A dear friend passed her on to us, knowing that we would use her as we ought . Afterall, this isn't a relic for the shelf...it's meant to be used!

Changing Plans

Today was to be the family Christmas gathering on daddy's side of the family. House is cleaned, food is made, and vomiting began...

We have been so blessed thus far this winter season, and in keeping with past history, we save our sickness for Christmas.

So today is shaping up differently. The floor is littered with aching bodies and stiff necks (not the rebellious kind), and heads that ache. I am still feeling okay, though fighting a sore throat. I hope to get a couple of batches of Sour Dough bread made and more sewing.

We momma's need to press on, don't we? Doubtful that I'm the only mother out there who dreads illness in the home...it has happened in the past, that by the time it goes full circle through all the members, it starts again! And, I always regret not being better prepared. I have a stash of vitamins, but I can't quite get myself to the next level of herbs and homeopathy, tonics, infusions, tinctures...you get the picture.

So here's one of my latest ideas: incorporating herbs and gardening into Jenna's science for the rest of this year (and into next?).

We'd both like to enlarge the garden, incorporate more variety, learn about and harvest medicinal herbs, and grow a cutting flower garden. Who has time for ameoba's and protozoa??? Yes, they have an important role, but I think I'll save that detail for Josh, who behaves like a sponge when it comes to science.

Can you help me? If any you could recommend books of value related to growing and using herbs, gardening or growing a cutting flower garden, I'd be grateful. If you're a lurker, please come out of hiding on this one...I love first-hand thoughts and opinions.

And please don't mention to Jenna that she's actually doing science!

Thoughts on raising boys to men...

Give him a little time and guidance...

...a chance to succeed...


...opportunity to build strength and endurance...

...a new project to challenge and inspire...

"Anybody knew that no two men were alike. You could measure cloth with a yardstick, or distance by miles, but you could not lump men together and measure them by any rule. Brains and character did not depend on anything but the man himself. Some men did not have the sense at sixty that some had at sixteen. And Almanzo considered that he was as good, any day, as any man twenty-one years old.

Almanzo's father thought so too. (His) father had put his boys to work early and trained them well. Almanzo had learned to save money before he was ten and he had been doing a man's work on the farm since he was nine..." ~Laura Ingalls Wilder in "The Long Winter"

On Hay and Applesauce...

We're off to a rainy start for October, and chilly enough to have a fire in the wood stove, though we won't do that for another couple of weeks. Hopefully we'll be stacking wood this weekend in preparation for the winter. We weren't really grasshoppers this summer, but I do feel behind with our wood. On the positive side, we (Okay, the children and Uncle Patrick) unloaded our final wagon of hay into the barn today, so that is one job DONE for the year. I was also blessed with a visit from two of my sisters, and making applesauce was top of the list...so that is done too!

I know I'm not the only one that enjoys a delicious apple pie in this autumn weather, so after a long day of making sauce, we indulged in a family favorite~

Picture courtesy of google :)

Dutch Apple Pie

2/3 c. sugar

2T. flour

1/8 t. salt

1-2 t. lemon juice

1/4 t. nutmeg

1/2 t. cinnamon

6-7 c. apples

Mix ingredients in bowl, pour into pie crust. This can be used as a two crust pie, or make the crumb topping:

1/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. plus 2T. flour

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

dash of salt

1/2 c. butter

Mix; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of pie, bake at 425 F for 40-50 minutes, or at 375 F for 50 minutes.

The recipe is easy! Gather the children and have fun making memories, learning the art of pie-making, and enjoying the work of your hands!

Summertime

I hope we always play dress-up

I love this shot!

A daily tradition with Jenna and the babies

Can't you just feel the sticky mess on your face??

Laura's first attempt at corn-on-the-cob

Here is summer on our little farm. It has been a beautiful season, filled with good ol' hard work, lots of fun, character-building opportunities, ministry, projects, and very little rest. Literally every summer I invision the quiet simplicity of a country farm life complete with lemonaid, blankets spread under the shade of a tree, children scampering about in purity of play, long days ending with a chorus of frogs and crickets. Truth is, our days seem filled to the brim and time is going faster than I care to admit. How the babies grow to near adulthood so quickly defies reason...how changing diapers turns to borrowing keys doesn't make sense...

So tomorrow, we'll start a new day with farm-fresh eggs, morning chores, unload the hay wagon, and make time to play dolls on the front porch.

Boys Will Be Men...

Another joy of our little farm is watching my sons work like men. Haying is a great opportunity for them to understand the value of preparing for winter, strengthen their muscles, sweat off some extra testosterone, earn a little money, and test the ever-present teaching of learning to work cheerfully.

Caleb loves to help in the loft!

I love to see Josh smile while he's haying

I had to include this too. What a great shot of Caleb...you can just feel the desire to take on a man-size task!

"All young men should be on the road to developing a healthy attitude toward work. Honest productive work is the backbone of strong families and blessed nations." Bob Schultz

Hamburger or Helper?

I've been MIA for a bit now, and with reason. But for the moment, our good news is that we are expecting! Finally, just before she was converted to hamburger, Lucy our Jersey cow, is with calf...and not a month too soon. I was starting to plan my meals...

On gardening, we've finally begun to cheer things up around here with flowers! Last week's blessing was finding cutting geraniums for $1 each...a significant savings :) So, on a beautiful day, out we went to create some lovely areas, which were much needed. Isn't it encouraging and fun to see the little ones so excited about work?

On Gardening...

Dividing the tender shoots
Choosing the healthiest plants

Finally getting SOMETHING in the garden!

Gardening at the farm is virtually non-existent right now. For a brief couple of days we had lettuce planted...until that row got tilled under. For another brief couple of days we had kale planted...until that row got tilled under too! The basil was planted in a charming pot, and yes, that got dumped. Since then, we have managed to NOT till under the cabbage plants or the lavendar plants. I confess, I've lost a bit of that springtime motivation to get the gardening done, and can't always turn those random available five minutes into anything productive.The easy part of the project is dreaming up ideas and the challenge is actually accomplishing something worthwhile. So what should I do? This year I need to make progress in providing opportunity for the littles to "help", and create more of those precious memories...even if we have no kale or lettuce!

Many hands...

Gifted hands and an amazing attitude...

We were so blessed this weekend by my brother, sister and her husband coming along side our busy farm and doing so many of the random jobs that multiply and accumulate so quickly! Not only did they accomplish much, but I was also encouraged by the spirit in which they worked...including the littles, welcoming the "helping hands", demonstrating and teaching along the way, not getting frustrated when the two year old made a game of climbing back and forth under Dave's knee while he was kneeling and drilling into the wall (with three other helpers). Can we be reminded too often, that the best way children learn is by example? Encouragement and conviction all at the same time! The prize of the day, however, goes to Natalie for emerging domesticity...

...I just couldn't bring myself to make stew...

A Charlotte Mason Education?

Lucy on the right

Sunday afternoon we took Lucy across the road to visit her friends in the neighboring pasture. We are hoping she will remember that she is a cow, and perhaps actually get bred this time...I just can't give up on the idea of fresh milk, butter and cheese! It was an education for all and Caleb declared (quite innocently) that he thought it looked like the bull was having fun...yikes! Thinking quickly on our feet, what could we say, but, yes, we think he is...