At Least the Chickens Will Sleep Well...

Spring has sprung on the farm.  The plum tree was in full blossom a couple of weeks ago.  

So pretty...

But unfortunately surrounded by this chaos...

Let's back up the train a little bit here.  The last time I posted we were still "pre-dig".  I took a few "before" pictures of the farm before everything was in upheaval.  This is the house from the front.  The house will essentially be doubled in size with the addition on the right.

Here's the side view of the house (left side of photo faces the street) and the future site of the addition.

And the back view pre-dig.

Same view after the digging has begun.  Of course the warm, dry spell we had been having came to an abrupt end when the digging began and torrential rains ensued... resulting in piles and piles of mud.  I snagged these pictures several days later when the sun decided to reappear.

With our access to the back porch completely obliterated, we are now using the front entrance.  For about a week the kids and I had to put on boots just to make it to our van, where we kept our "good shoes."  This gravel path that Erik's dad put down helped a lot, and the sunny weather this past week has also dried things up significantly since I took this photo.

So, essentially there is not much more progress to report at this time.  There are so many other steps involved before the actual building can begin - things like soil testing (which we passed apparently), digging for new water pipes around the property and generally waiting for things to dry up.  Erik is super busy at his "real" job and plans to devote some time to the house in a week or two.  Hopefully there will be some further progress to report soon!

(Grandpa & Silas hard at work...)

Meanwhile, the chickens will be living it up in their brand new home...

Construction on the chicken coop is nearly complete.  A friend at church joked that if Erik was building it, they'd probably have crown moulding and everything.  Well, almost.  This little house has water hook-up, electricity, insulation and even pot-lights on each side of the front door.  Erik just needs to finish it off with some cedar siding.  Very soon it will be ready to house some real live poultry.

And, hopefully, happy chickens will produce delicious farm-fresh eggs!

Spring Break on the Farm

Two weeks of spring break felt like an overwhelming amount of time to kill with all 3 kids but it managed to fly by.  We didn't end up accomplishing everything on our spring break to-do list.  Ah well.  Summer's just around the corner.  At least it felt that way over the Easter weekend when the temperature hit 20-something...

The first week of spring break was still a bit cool and wet.  In fact one afternoon we even saw some snow coming down for a few brief minutes.  But despite the weather there was still plenty to keep us busy.  One cannot forget the episode of Patches and the new baby calf that provided some excitement.  After Cow #1 delivered, we knew that Cow #2 (Daisy) was not far behind.  Erik and I felt determined that we were going to witness the next calf birth so I was watching her like a hawk.  On Silas' birthday I could tell she was acting a bit different and after dinner she was in obvious labour.  We spent the evening outside sharing a set of binoculars but wouldn't you know she went into the far corner of the pasture and waited right until the point that it got too dark for us to see anything.  Really, who can blame the poor girl, but still we were disappointed to miss the actual event.

Since the first calf was named Bambi, we decided it was fitting to name the second calf (a male) Thumper.  Bambi and Thumper have been fast friends.  (Meanwhile Patches has been sequestered to a separate pasture).

(Cow #3 {Brownie} is not due for her calf until the fall but the kids are already brainstorming more Bambi-like names for him or her.)

Over the long weekend Erik and his dad started work on the next farm venture - a chicken coop.

The kids enjoyed the sunshine and the chance to don their tool belts and "help Daddy work".

Daddy's trailer is always full of fun tools to try...

After the forming was done it was time for the concrete.  The boys were filthy but Erik said Micah was actually super helpful - a future Alderidge Construction employee in the making we think...

Not sure when this coop will house actual chickens but I'll be sure to keep you up-to-date on the egg-production venture.

And, speaking of eggs...

The warmest and sunniest day had to be Easter Sunday.  What a perfect afternoon for an Easter Egg hunt.

Ahhh, Mom - it's too bright!

 

Little Miss Organized made sure everyone had equal amount of eggs.

There has been much too much chocolate and sugar consumed in this household as of late and it's time for this preggo Mama to go into a bit of detox mode.  (If only it wasn't for this baby girl making me SOOO hungry... All. The. Time.)

And now some exciting stuff starts to happen here on the farm.  The plans for expanding the current house to meet the needs of Erik's parents and our own growing family are finally getting underway.  There has already been some demolition happening around here.  When I got home this afternoon I no longer had any railings on my deck - slightly dangerous but I'm definitely not missing my concrete block railings (which matched the pattern of the blocks on the bottom right).

The view from the house is much more unobstructed and I can start to envision a much nicer looking deck in our future...

The rest of the current house will stay as is and we will be building an addition out to the west side (to the left of the house on the first deck picture).  Once the addition is complete, Erik's parents will move into the new part and our family will take over both floors of the current house.  We're looking forward to having another bedroom, another bathroom and another living room to spread ourselves out a bit.

The real digging starts tomorrow so stay tuned!

Four

Silas turned 4 today.

I can't believe how quickly he's growing up.  I can clearly remember the March morning that he was born.  I feel nostalgic about him becoming a big boy and yet if there wasn't another baby on the way I think I would feel much more sad about the rapid passing of time and how quickly we have entered a different phase as a family.

There are many great things I could say about this boy.  He is SO loveable.  And the fact that he doesn't want to sit still and snuggle anymore makes us want to squeeze him all the more :)  He's a true third child - making everyone laugh at the right moments and keeping the whole family entertained by his charm and silliness.  

And we're not sure whether he comes by it naturally or if it's a result of having an older brother who is into all things hockey, but this boy loves his stick and puck.  

On rainy days he spends his time on the kitchen floor, mini-stick in hand and ball flying.  On sunny days, he takes me out to the street to show me his "slap-shot", "back-hander" and how he can shoot the ball through the "5-hole".  The phrase I hear about 25 times a day is: "Mom, watch the replay!" and then I have to patiently wait while he does a slow-motion reenactment of whatever amazing play just occurred...

He shoots...

He scores!!

He doesn't have much patience for toys and imaginary play, but give the kid a ball or a swing or a shovel or a bike and he'll be happy as a clam.  He's an outside kid through-and-through.  This year he learned to pump his legs on the swing and ride a pedal bike (he's already graduated from the strider we gave him last year).  He's also a natural at hockey - so Erik says - and can keep up with Micah and the neighbour boys.

I may not share his affinity for sports but I am definitely in love with my little Siley-bear.  I think I'm going to miss having him as my "baby", and when he goes off to preschool in the fall I might be a bit lost without his silly charm.

Happy birthday Silas!

Jamie Toews: Official Cattle Wrangler

I think I earned my cowboy spurs this week.  

Monday started innocently enough when we looked out the window after breakfast and saw that there was a new baby calf!  The older kids were home because of Spring Break so we all booted up and went outside to get a closer look.  It looked like the event had occurred very recently as the calf was still wet and struggling to stand.  Our 1-year-old jersey calf Patches was super interested in this new "friend", which seemed really sweet at first glance.  But I quickly realized he had more on his mind than befriending this new little calf...

Exhibit A:

If you remember, I used to bottle-feed Patches twice a day when we first got him last spring.  Then I worked with him many times to wean him off of said bottle.  So the two of us have a bit of a history and I have an overall affinity for the little guy.  But after watching him mount this newest addition repeatedly and noticing that the calf would collapse under his weight - and wasn't getting a chance to be cleaned off or try to nurse from Mama Cocoa - I was starting to get annoyed.

With Erik's parents in Saskatchewan and Erik tied up at work, I felt a strong sense of responsibility to "save" baby Bambi (named by the kids, of course) from her perverse predator.  So enter me, my rubber boots and my pregnant belly (with 3 other kids shadowing closely behind).

And this challenging terrain to maneuver through...

The challenge was this: luring Patches away without getting too close to Mama Cocoa - who would no doubt feel threatened by my presence (let alone my 3 tag-alongs) and do who-knows-what to protect her new baby.  And I needed to lure Patches a long way to the barn where I could lock him up in a pen.  We had just run out of grain - which seemed like it would be the perfect bait for him - so I first tried shaking some rocks in a bucket.  Patches seemed only slightly curious and the only thing it served to do was attract the other cows to see what I had for them.  Not successful.

After a bit of brainstorming, I decided to try again.  This time I grabbed some fresh hay from the barn and put a bit of dog food in the bottom of my bucket (it seemed more realistic than the rocks I guess).  Then I searched for a rope and made a lasso - at this point I must've been tapping into my inner farmer... or perhaps my inner Wonder-Pet... (you could hear the kids and I singing, "to help the baby calf and save the day!").

After watching Patches repeatedly "offend" the baby calf and Cocoa idly standing by, I was more determined than ever that my plan needed to work.  This time I got as close as I dared and did my best job of making the hay and pail of dog food look appealing to the occupied Patches.  Lucky for me he took the bait and I had my lasso ready to get around his neck and cinch tight.  And another lucky thing was that we were close to a fence post where I could quickly tie him up - out of reach of baby Bambi.

It was a bit of an adrenaline rush, I'm telling you.  And I felt a deep sense of satisfaction when I watched him struggle against my amateur rope-tying job while Cocoa was finally able to tend to her new baby.

But of course the drama wasn't over.  I won't get into too many details, but basically Patches got out of his rope eventually and made a bee-line for Bambi where he proceeded to violate her repeatedly for the next few hours.  I watched and waited for an opportune time and managed to get him roped up again - this time was trickier as he was in the middle of the field with no fence posts nearby to attach him to.  So envision me smacking his rump, pulling him by the horns, and just plain tugging with all my might.  After some sweat and some patience I finally got him tied back up.  And there he stayed until Erik got home a few hours later.

Now Patches the Offender is where he belongs.
Behind bars.

And Mama Cocoa and Baby Bambi (who we suspect is a female) got in their all-important bonding time.

So, I don't know about you, but I pretty much think I just single-handedly earned some sort of 4H badge or something...

At the very least I think I deserve a cute pair of cowboy boots.

Pink or Blue?

Well.... the gender results are in from the ultrasound and we know what this baby's going to be!

But first, our family weighed in their votes: 4 votes for girl and 1 vote for boy (thanks to Silas for weighing in for the male gender).

Well, I guess majority wins...

Pink it is!

At the ultrasound, the kids were anxiously asking the ultrasound technician if the baby was a boy or a girl - Micah was chanting "please be a girl, please be a girl!" and Silas came back with "please be a boy!" I had to remind them a couple of times that she couldn't actually tell us at the ultrasound and that we were going to have to wait a little bit longer.  But the technician told us she was 99% sure what it was, and the last thing she said to our little family was that "it should even things out."  Even Micah was clever enough to pick up on that hint :)  The midwife confirmed that the technician believes she saw a little girl in there...  (Even though we realize there's still a chance that we could be surprised by a boy!)

So there is plenty of excitement in our house as we anticipate the arrival of a little sister for Micah, Keziah & Silas!  (And I'm breathing a little sigh of relief since we already have a girls name picked out and not a CLUE for a boy!)

Love Month & Other Things

Valentine's Day came and went. 

And there was a lot of sugar consumed...

BC had it's very first Family Day this year (a week earlier than the rest of the country's Family Day - go figure).  Unfortunately Erik could not participate so it just felt like a long day at home with the kids...

I decided to try to make it fun by baking Valentine's sugar cookies with the kids. But I think the first 1/2 hour of the process was spent fighting over which stool each kid got to stand on, who got to pour the sugar in and who's turn it was to use the mixer...

  

And then there's me watching flour go everywhere and silently reminding myself that it's just flour - we can clean it up later...

After the mixing, it was time for the rolling and cutting.  More mess for sure.  And more drama as the kids fought over the only 2 heart cookie cutters I had.  Silas must've lost interest in the process by the time I took this picture.  Likely sneaking in some screen time in another room...

While Silas napped (I'm so thankful he still does most days) the older kids and I got a head start on the decorating.  Eliminating one child from the equation made this part so much less chaotic...  Other than me reminding the kids every couple of minutes not to lick the knives they were using for spreading (sorry to anyone who shared these cookies with us...)

We used this sugar cookie recipe, which calls for sour cream and makes super soft cookies.

Valentine's came a few days later and we celebrated Love Day as a family...

Pizza was on the menu and I cut them out using my big heart-shaped cookie cutter.  A bit labour-intensive compared to regular pizza...

But worth it.
I think.

Other exciting happenings of this last month included welcoming our newest cousin/nephew to the world.  A few days before Valentine's, Sawyer James was born - the kids were already in their PJs when we got the news but we quickly packed them all up and headed to the hospital to meet him for the first time.

It was fun to explain to the kids that this is how they would meet their new sibling for the first time.  I think they were pretty excited about the idea.

I'm now 17 weeks pregnant and feeling great.  Just... growing.  Up until yesterday I was making do with stretchy leggings and my regular jeans with an elastic band stretching from button to button hole - but the old elastic band trick just wasn't really cutting it anymore.  And when I recently went through my bag of maternity clothes from my previous pregnancies I felt like throwing up a little bit.  Some of those clothes I bought nine years ago.  Needless to say they are just not working for me in 2013.  Erik's mantra this pregnancy has been "We are not buying ANYTHING new for this baby."  But sorry honey, Mama just has to feel somewhat pretty for the next 5 or 6 months - something to counteract the visual of those numbers creeping up on the scale every morning...

Happy Love Month to me!