Busy, busy, busy …

... as if that is any excuse for neglecting this blog for three months!

I started this as a form of record-keeping for our family and way to keep our extended family members and friends abreast of what is going on in our little world.  Oh, woeful failure!

Since last I blogged …

… the wildlife has turned out after a hard winter.

… the chicks are now over a month old.

… the ducks are fully grown and should soon produce eggs.

… the garden beds are all planted.

… our foundling cat turned out to be female and gifted us with two wee kittens.

… and most of all, the children are growing up, loving our life.

This photo features our five younger children.  Our oldest was the photographer that day.

 

Seeds, Freebies and Nerds ...

Our seed order arrived from Baker Creek!  We received it in just six days, including the weekend.  They even included a free packet of Red Romaine!  I'm blessed by that because we were bemoaning the fact that we hadn't ordered as many greens as we ought to have.

In other news, Homestead Revival is hosting a give-away from the folks at Homestead Drying Racks.  I've been eyeing their drying racks for a while now.  They have an excellent design and look to be well-constructed.

Such a drying rack would be ideal in front of our woodstove for drying clothing in the winter.  It dwarfs our wobbly little drying rack purchased at a big box store.  I finally gave up using that one because it was so precarious and held so little.

Last night I watched a video on NaturalNews.tv about misrepresentations in the organic poultry/egg industry.  (Click the image to view the video.)

I wanted to revisit one of the statistics in the short bit, so I replayed it today and all the children gathered around.  I joked that my children are nerds.  While other children are talking about video games and cartoons, they are watching organic poultry videos.


I don't mind at all.

A simple CHRISTmas ...

The Charge of the Light Brigade ...

"Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;"*

Little boys can build a million things out of Lincoln Logs.

Noah's latest creation was a bevy of cannon.


*"The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
http://www.nationalcenter.org/ChargeoftheLightBrigade.html

The big move is behind us ...

Our move is behind us and we are settled into our new home.  It seems we were just in time as Fall is disappearing and the nip of Winter is in the air.

The children have enjoyed time out-of-doors, free to roam and play in a way we could never allow when we lived in town.

With Grandma and Grandpa living just down the drive from us, the children are able to walk over to visit or help out with necessary tasks.  They have been enlisted to groom the dog, carry wood, rake grass clippings and so on.

This fulfills one of our great desires in making this move:  that we are able to help my parents as much as and as often as they need us to do so.