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!

Waste Management

A couple of weeks ago we made some significant progress on our house expansion project.  It may not be the most exciting or visually appealing part of the transformation, but it was an absolutely necessary first step.  

Say hello to our new septic system...

The day the big new tanks went in was pretty exciting.  My parents were still here and so we all watched as they were lowered into the ground.

Our old tank was in need of being replaced, and also in need of being moved so that we could build onto the house.  So getting this new system is in place was essential to get the ball rolling.

And while we're on the topic of potty talk, this is how our bathroom is looking these days...

It may not look like much, but there's already been a lot of progress in this room including a brand new bathtub.  We weren't expecting to start this renovation so soon, so my mind has been spinning with all the big decisions that need to be made before we can finish.  Good thing I work well under pressure... Maybe Erik should just spring every home renovation project on me at the 11th hour!

Then again... maybe not.

Fortunately I've decided on the main things - thanks to the inspiration of my Pinterest board.  So, for those who care, here's a little idea of what (I hope) is to come:

I've chosen a hexagon floor tile like this one and I also hope Erik can replicate this wainscoting...

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White subway tile for around the bathtub (and more hex tile but with darker grout)...

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Vanity inspiration (but with more drawers)...
(Also, we'll be putting in this double sink that I bought at IKEA over the weekend.)

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Light fixture (I found one that's exactly the same at Home Depot.ca)...

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So now that my homework is done, Erik's work is just beginning.  There's a lot that needs to be done before our bathroom looks anything like these ones...  Right now we are minus a shower and a toilet and the renovation of this one small room has overtaken our entire house...  But I'm just trusting that in the end it will all be worth it!

Garden Party

Saturday marked our first annual garden planting day at the farm.

We started with brunch together outside, at which point the day was promising to be beautiful.

Then it was time to get to work.  Erik and the boys took on the task of potato planting.

And Grandma got the girls started with some smaller seeds.

Keziah got right to work putting peas in the dirt.

And Emerson got right to work un-planting many of those peas.

We were able to rescue most, but time will tell how many seeds escaped their rows when things start popping up.

Emerson had a great time anyway, and managed to get herself good and dirty by the end of the morning.

You gotta appreciate the Toews-style carpentry that went into this garden project.  While we planted, Doug was in the shop cutting some pretty solid-looking garden stakes, which Elissa then labeled for all of our rows.

Keziah was pretty proud of her row of sweet corn.  Mmmm.  I can almost taste it already.

And this next picture is mostly for my mom who wanted to know where we ended up planting the garden.  It's just to the south of our shop and double car-port.

I found this picture from a similar vantage point that was taken back in October.  You might remember this post about the old pig barn that used to live here and how we had this area cleared out.

Now the fun part starts as we watch and wait for our little green plants to poke out of the ground!

The Lorax won't be pleased.

There have been BIG changes on the acreage this past week... Erik's dad spent a few days tearing down a whole row of trees to make room for our future house addition.

The peanut gallery watching from indoors (where it was much warmer and drier)...

Timber-r-r-r!


One down. A bunch more to go.


Here's the new view from the back of the house.

We were able to leave a cluster of trees by the street as well as another cluster at the back of the house (which is just to the left and back of where I'm standing while taking this picture).

The view from our deck. The neighbours suddenly got a lot closer.


Here's a before picture from the front - this was taken back in the summer before we moved in:

And now after.

Feels a bit... naked.

But it also gives me the feeling of progress. This addition will be the future home of Erik's parents. And when it's complete, our family of 5 will take over both upstairs and downstairs of the original house, doubling our current living space. There's a lot that needs to happen before we get to that point, so a little bit of tree-removal just makes it seem that much closer...