Head on over!

For the past few months, there have been some strange things going on with this blog. Weird icons coming up over my posts, strange people commenting in fonts that don't make sense, general mayhem in trying to post, etc.

However, I do have another blog that I post on quite frequently. Almost every day, in fact. :) I am in the process of deciding if I should cut down to one blog and move my homeschooling posting over there.

If you're at all interested in continuing to read about our adventures, hop on over and follow me at A Farmish Kinda Life.

See you there!

Piles

It was one of those days where you look at the house and wonder if you'd be able to find your brain if it was hanging in front of your face on a string.

I told the kids I just need a day to get my things organized.

I was trying to figure out how to get things out of piles and into places they belong. I was trying to figure out what those places of belonging even were. Or if they even existed.

I have papers and books and treasures and things in piles all around the house.
I just needed a day to organize the "stuff".

Exactly twelve minutes into my searching for the spaces my piles could melt into, Iggy appeared.

"Mama" he asks. He's stopped calling me mom. I've been Mama now for about two weeks.

"Yes, dear?"

"You know what I've always wanted to learn how to do?" he asks, so very non-chalantly.

"What?"

"Sew."

I turn to him.

"You do?" I answer, and hope I didn't sound too surprised.

"Yeah. I want to sew a doll."

"Really?" (Again, hoping I covered the surprise.)

"Yes."

Out came the paper. He drew a pattern. Then out came the fabric so he could pick what he wanted.

"I'm making AquaMan. With a water bomb."

Perfect.

He thought he'd try his luck with hand sewing.



You can tell from the look on his face, it wasn't his favorite experience.

For another section of the doll, he decided he'd be brave and try the machine.



He was excited.

So we sat together and worked on another piece of his doll.



We stopped sewing when it was lunchtime, because withholding food for half a second from two growing boys is a terrible idea.

I looked around the room. There were still piles everywhere. Piles of papers, piles of books, piles of undiscovered stuff I thought I had misplaced...and now piles of fabric and scraps of thread.

Sigh.

My husband looked at me and smirked.
"You didn't actually think you were going to get away with a day of no learning, did you?"

Sigh.

I'll never be rid of the piles.
But thankfully, a magical life still goes on. :)

You do school...year round?

I often get asked if we take a break from "school" for the summer.
Nope.

Why should we?
There's so much to do!

There are local dairy farms to tour! (They give you funky blue boots to wear so you don't track dirt inside the bottling area...)



There are bugs to catch and identify.



There are creeks to dip into...



...and tadpoles to find.



Things to build



and build



like anemometers and weather vanes (that really work!)



There are wars to fight...



...and battles to win!



Wait, you say. That's not school. That just looks like a whole lotta fun.

I say...why does there have to be such a difference?

Sometimes it just happens

We've come upon that place where reading "just happens". I love it.



You call for Iggy and when he doesn't answer, you look for him and find him



there he is



sucked into a great book.



And you sigh.
Then you look for Ooky.



Found him!

Apparently its a great day to relax with some reading. I think I'll go find a book...

Energy Expended

Life takes Energy.



It seems like lately, when we get done with our Energetic Day, I have no Energy left to write about the Energy we expended.



But I know that you all get that. Because you're Energy Expenders like we are.



That's why cameras are so great.



They catch a bit of the Energy and still leave you with enough Energy to show what happened.



So I'm relying on the camera to do our catching up with you while I soak up whatever it is that renews my Energy.



Because I need it.



More Energy, that is.

That one scream

I have loud kids. The boys could probably be hired by the National Weather Service to replace tornado sirens in at least three states. We function within ridiculous decibels here. But even so, even this Mama knows the difference between I-just-wanna-make-noise...and the scream of serious distress.

A few days ago we finished our coop. Because we finished ahead of schedule, we were able to pick up our hens earlier than we planned. It was an exciting day for MamaTea, Iggy and Ooky. Brownie Ba-Gawk, the rescued rooster, was quite pleased as well. Who wouldn't be among a harem of women like this?



We all worked together to finish up the chickens outdoor fenced yard so they could have a little...shall we say "breathing room" after their introductions to each other.



(FYI - We fully intend to free range these cluckers and allow them to roam the property during the daytime, after which they will obediently return to the coop for a little shut-in shut eye. However, I'm not sure how obedient you can be when you're not even sure where home is, so for now, they play in the coop or the fenced yard.)


Anyhoo, once their outdoor pen was all buttoned up, we let the clucks out to play. And play they did - what a lovely time they had. Those dust baths are a hoot to watch, but not easy to get a picture of. ;)



Hubster and I had a few loose ends to tie up in the barn so we left the boys in the fenced yard with the chickens (at their request) with explicit instructions not to harass the chickens.

Yah, ok mom. We'll be fine.
I believed them.

Into the barn Hubster and I went, only to be brought back out a couple minutes later by the bloodcurdling scream of an Ookster. You know, not the I-wanna-hear-myself-make-noise kind of scream. No, this was that one scream where you know something is wrong.

What I imagined was happening as I hightailed my way back to the chicken yard was that Ooky had got between a love-starved Brownie Ba-gawk and his hen of choice, and was currently getting his eyes pecked out of his head.

I rounded the corner, and three things happened in rapid succession:

1. I sighed in relief. He was not losing his eyeballs to a love-starved rooster.
2. I laughed. Ooky was crying and screaming (and crying! Sobbing uncontrollably!) and pointing because HIS beloved chicken, named just moments before as Isabella, had flown over the fence and was running a hundred thousand miles an hour towards the woods.
3. I said, "Shit", and realized it was my duty as MamaTea to catch this so called Isabella who had proven in the half day we'd owned her that she was a complete and total Sass. (First S in that last word is optional, by the way.)

GRR.

To make a very long story shorter, we did end up catching Isabella. And then we had to catch her again about ten minutes later when she flew out. Again. And then we had to catch her sister Teacup who flew out as well.

Cripes. This was not what I envisioned in my peaceful chicken daydreams. No, I'm pretty sure there was nothing anywhere in there about not-to-be-contained chickens, and the sobbing school aged boys who were in hysterics over the possibility Mom and Dad could not catch them.

Needless to say, it wasn't long before we hatched a plan to counteract this constant chicken chasing.

The very next day we got ahold of some deer netting and fashioned ourselves a roof for the chickens fenced yard. Because we are so cheap and didn't want to buy one that would fit a 14x14 yard, it required MamaTea and Hubster to roll out a 100' by 7'piece of said deer neeting and cut/sew/weave together into a piece that would suit our purposes.

Did I mention it was windy?
And 30 degrees?

Another thing that generally happened in my peaceful chicken daydreams was that when the chickens did arrive, Iggy and Ooky would be more than willing to help with whatever needed to be done, keeping a fantastic attitude and learning scads of information from this real-life adventure in the process.

Ask me how that's working out for me. ;)

Oh well, at least Hubster and I got some quality alone time together.
Right?





That netting is nice an' tight!!





But it was all ok in the end (four hours after we started the netted roof) because when everyone was happy and safe and feeling loved (chickens included), we got rewarded with this:



Life is good. ;)

Best Buddies

A couple weeks ago, if you would have told Iggy that we were going to have a chicken anywhere on our property, he would have busted out in tears. Iggy had a bad experience with a sassy rooster once while we were helping a friend with a garage sale. Buffington the Rooster was about as cocky as they come, and had no qualms about chasing Iggy. I told Iggy to stand his ground, and that running from the rooster would make it worse...but I guess its hard to believe Mama when a giant (GIANT!!) Buff Orphington is coming at you with his beak to "peck your face off."

That day scarred Iggy and now whenever we visit anyone with chickens, he literally cries if they are outside of a coop and ten feet from him.

I cannot believe his mean ol' mom was contemplating getting chickens this spring.

So imagine my surprise when the other day a stray rooster shows up...and one day later we have this:











Iggy has decided that he needs to feed him every morning.



He also informed me that he can talk to chickens and that the rooster informed Iggy that his name was to be Mr. Brownie Ba-gawk.



I think its quite possible that Iggy now has a case of chicken love!

To see what else is going on at our house in chicken world (we're hatching eggs!), check out my other blog.