New Construction on the Farm

We must be official if we're collecting outbuildings :) 

Rather than buying hay or straw to fill our coop nests, we've been cutting the prairie grasses on our second hill. Last winter, we kind of piled all this up under a tarp and used it as needed throughout the non-growing months. When summer arrived with its insane downpours followed by long dry spells, our spring grasses got kind of mushy and moldy from constant contact with the damp ground (and the deterioration of the tarp). Buck had the idea to build a hay box, but we didn't have time to get this accomplished before his surgery. With a promised 10 days straight of rain (we'll see how accurate that is) and a dwindling supply of clean coop material we decided to get the construction show on the road!

Day one, digging potatoes (so we had space to build :) Graysen and Brennen pulled 67 potatoes from what was left of our plants! Granted some of these are about the size of cherry tomatoes, but they totally still count :)

We moved dirt, we hacked weeds (I used Buck's machete, since our weed eater isn't working, Gabby used the metal clippers), we enjoyed a cool morning all the while.



Day two, Gabby and Brennen dug a trench while Buck tried to drive the lumber-loaded van up the hill for easy unloading. The hill said, "Not today, pal" and back to the driveway he went. The kids carried all the wood up, and in practically no time, the gigantic hay box was built. Brennen's carpentry skills gained another round of polishing, since Buck mainly directed the proceedings.






Before the expected rains came, the kids and I painted the box to match the rest of the farm. Pale gray like the shed and the house on the inside, navy like the deck and the fencing on the outside. Graysen was helping Buck with some other projects while we painted. So, by the end of the day, we had a built, painted, dried, and then filled hay container, with temporary tarp cover attached! Not bad for a day's work!



(Buck got the tarp put on before I could get a picture of the hay box filled up, so Gabby demonstrated by holding some of what was inside for illustrative purpose :)



And then a super pretty sunset to top it off! 

Gun Range

Finding a place to sight-in the kids' hunting gear has been a befuddling challenge for several years. Buck did some in-depth searching of the interwebs and discovered two such places within an hour of our abode. Not super convenient, but better than nothing until he can stop getting the run-around for whether or not we can do this in our own, edge-of-town yard. 

There were a bunch of older fellas shooting clays and spending the evening with their buddies, as we pulled up. We had this section of the range to ourselves, and not knowing each individual shooter cost in addition to the base range fee, everyone under 16 took a turn. At least they had fun doing it! Well, except for when the new gun without the shoulder pad left its mark on Brennen. Youch! 

We've got some pretty good shots in this family; deer beware :)

A Summary

To the tune of William Tell Overture (a.k.a. The Lone Ranger theme song) . . . :)




It's a dog on the floor with a big bear hug . . . It was washed, it was dried. It was sewn back up.




Then four kids off to school--but not quite yet. Smile nice for the mom 'cuz your grades aren't set.




To the K's, oh what fun when art is done! Ripping floors, pulling nails 'til the carpet's gone. Now we're sick; maybe mold? But we don't care! Did you see the pretty wood under there?





Off to testing do your form, move towards the next belt. Only an hour, happy parents, it's money well spent.



"Little" girls, growing up meeting friends at Starbuck's. Ordering drinks on their own, but no car keys--shucks! Begging mom, "Drive us please? We want to shop." Off to Target (Hobby's closed), "I love this top!"




Rushing home! Big event! Light the laptops up . . . round the states, here we go, who has the next pick? Hup! Talking smack, then the Lord, on the message page; CJ's the champ of the draft, we're all amazed.

This was fun, kind of hard, but creative is good! Hope the rhyming up-date put you in a good mood. Now I'm off to type more before the day is done . . . ooooooooh, isn't writing fun? ;)

Extraction Faction

Brennen's most recent dental ex-rays showed that he's still got four baby teeth rattling around in his upper jaw. Dentist said, "They have to go!" Orthodontist agreed. So, last Friday we settled in for a quadruple extraction---wait, make that triple, he wiggled one of those $160 a piece surgery shiners out himself. Whew!

The hope is, that the adult teeth (which are currently growing in almost parallel to his gum line above the baby teeth) will now find it nice and roomy in the gums to drop down into their intended positions. The orthodontist says, "Braces!!" the dentist says, "It will all depend on where these teeth come through." So, we shall wait and see :) Graysen still has missing spots in his mouth where he had teeth pulled AGES ago. I don't know how long Brennen's adult teeth will take to arrive, but he is bummed about all the foods it is hard to eat missing four upper teeth, including both canines, at the same time.



As you can see, the roots on those teeth hadn't hardly started breaking down! I watched the extractions, and that dentist had her work cut out for her. Brennen was cool though the whole experience, but had to get a lot of booster numbing meds in his gums--like double the original four. The dentist was very patient and gentle, but trying to extract teeth that were so deeply connected required some muscle!



First lost tooth pic and *last baby tooth is gone pic*--almost seven years apart to the month (not day :) Same hair cut :)

Art with Bob

Wow, am I behind on posting this! Time is skipping away from me . . . okay, so during his first week of recovery, Buck felt well enough to camp out on a tarp in the downstairs living space for a painting party with Gabby. They had collected all the necessary paint colors (many left from Buck's painting days in the far distant past), easels, brushes, cleaners, etc. the previous week. Then, they loaded up the Bob Ross DVD painting class they'd selected, and off they went to a world of happy trees and "no mistakes, just happy little accidents."




Chauncey was kind of literally painted in a corner over there ;)





It takes oil paint a LONG time to dry. Which is okay, because week two of recovery was pretty awful for Buck. He wasn't feeling up to having a picture taken, much less changing out of his pajamas. I washed one t-shirt, one pair of shorts, and one underpants that Saturday--and that was his total contribution to our laundry piles (usually mountains, but with as much staying at home as we've been doing, ensemble changes are at an all time low :)

At the end of the second week, as the third week dawned--Buck felt healthy enough to go to church. Since he and Gab were both dressed up to go out, I snapped a quick pic of the two of them with Bob--Bob is always ready to go out :)



Their paintings turned out really cool! We still don't know where we'll put them (I think they are still fully drying in the garage). 

Buck had his follow-up with the surgeon last week, and was told everything seems to be healing as it should. It can take up to a YEAR for the nerve to fully heal and stop bugging him (yikes!) and that he should come back in a month to talk about going back to work, etc.

Yesterday, Buck had his follow-up with the oral surgeon (oh yeah, remember the surgery that started it all this year? :) The dental guy's assistant took an ex-ray of the implant; doctor deemed it also healing well. He unscrewed the "healing cap" that sits on top of the tooth, tightened the implant screw (?) below into Buck's jaw, and then replaced the cap. 

Since Buck has $47 left of his dental benefit for this year, we asked if we could re-tooth next year. This isn't a problem, as long as the cap doesn't come loose and cause damage. Buck will be henceforth released from the oral surgeon's care, back into our dentist's care for dental impressions and an eventual tooth replacement. Whew!

Pet Vet

We had a rough couple of days when it comes to animal care around the Acre. Graysen came running down the hill and burst through the door saying, "Marshmallow is covered with blood!" So, I dropped my dinner prep and ran up the hill to the coop. Sure enough (of course it's the white bird), Marshmallow was stained red all the way down her neck, with a splatted back, and blood all over her legs and . . . toes? What are those things called? 

Anyway . . . I quickly determined the blood was coming from her comb. Generally birds who are injured get picked on and at by other birds, so there was the concern that leaving her in the coop could lead to her death if the other chickens decided to be bullies.

Well, a short observation showed that wasn't an immediate concern, so down the hill I hurried to get my Chickens for Dummies book (seriously, SO helpful). Their recommendation . . . cut it off. The crop. Ewwwww!!! 

So I sent a kid for sharp scissors, I gathered peroxide and cotton balls, another kid grabbed the Neosporin, Buck got into the mix by watching a video on this situation--he said we needed baking flour to staunch the bleeding--another couple of kids ran up the hill and captured the chicken, who then clawed the carrier and needed to be rounded up again (only this time in a much more vast area for running). We had a watering jar filled with the warm hose water, and then Caelan held the bird while we tried to wash the blood off of her.

Caelan got soaked, and it was really gross when the chicken shook her head and splattered watered-down blood on all of us. Ummm, eww. But we got Marshmallow cleaned off well enough to see the cut on her comb (wherever it came from), was not as bad as we thought. So, hooray! We didn't have to cut off her comb. We antibiotic-ed her, floured her, and put her in isolation until nighttime. The next day (when these photos were taken) she seemed to no longer be bleeding, and the other chickens were still not bugging her, so she's a weird color, but otherwise on the mend!




Then there's Turkey--man, she's huge again! I don't know what the deal is with her digestive system, but she's got more crop issues. We may be making another chicken support apparatus sometime soon.



And then there's this guy--ugh, Gimli's eye was completely swollen shut when the kids went to change his cage bedding this weekend. I got out my plastic gloves and more Neosporin and slimed it across his bad eye. He was opening it later in the day, and today it seems mostly open. He's getting old and shaky though, poor little dude. This pet vet stuff is not for the faint of heart!

Puppy Sitting

Our neighbors brought home a puppy last week--an eight week old Cavapoo, walking teddy bear of a puppy. So cute. When it waddles around, it seems more like one of those FurReal pet toys they sell at Target than an actual, real animal. It's so tiny! Oh, it is a "he"--Ollie. Adorbs.



You can see there was a slight size difference between Chauncey and little Ollie! Chauncey wasn't mean (he's never mean, unless there's a stranger in or near the house), but he did sniff the wee intruder excessively and whined when the little fur ball got more attention that he did.





Buck got a little puppy therapy during the day Ollie spent in our kitchen. How can one resist? Why the kitchen? Because this puppy is not potty-trained yet, although he will go outside if you take him there. Otherwise, inside is just fine in his book. It's been a while since we've had puppy pee and poo in the house--we mostly get puke these days. Aren't animals wonderful? :)



Just like when a baby is sleeping, you want to take its picture--so the puppy was photographed frequently in sleeping sweetness. 




When Ollie awoke and found everyone on the other side of his three-block enclosure, he gathered all his puppy ups and wiggled over the wall! This was at the end of our play date, so we didn't build the wall higher. 

I wasn't sure the kids were going to let this puppy go back to its own home. When we did get the notification that the neighbors were on their way home from the fair, we gathered up all Ollie's puppy stuff and started the trek back to his house--only to cause a stir in the neighborhood! Puppy lovers swarmed about us, sniffing his breath (I kid you not) and oooing and ahhing over his tiny cuteness. Irresistible! 

Garden Goodies

An unusual find in the garden expanse . . . one solitary cucumber!! Apparently it had grown to just the perfect size, because when we next looked--the chickens had pecked it into a hollow green shell. I guess they don't like the peels on their veggies either :)


But, we were super excited that the first of our melons (not one that we planted, but one that something transferred from the other garden into the watermelon garden, though it is oddly more fully grown and ready to be eaten than those we planted intentionally . . . ??) was ready to harvest! Actually, it was just laying on the ground next to the vine, no longer connected, so I figured if it's not going to grow any more, I might as well bring it in and slice it up :) It smelled soooooo good through the rind! I don't even like this kind of melon, but I do love how it smells. Hooray for garden produce we can actually eat (well, that everyone else can actually eat :)




Graysen dug up a round of white potatoes--they're not huge, but they are tasty :)



And here is our impressive corn harvest!! First crop--the second is looking more promising, except I had to pull about six stalks because the tomatoes were growing over the top of them. 





As you can see--not much edible in the crop, lol. I think I boiled two of the half dozen ears (I'm adding the wee little bits together to make full ears ;), but we didn't get them eaten yet. Pretty exciting though, right?! Once you grow corn, I'm pretty sure that makes you an official farmer. We're so official!