Farm Pets: A Sad Story

As we were driving home this last week, I saw Rose (the cat) laying in the road, not moving.  I tried not to make to big of a deal about it as I did not want to alarm the kiddos. They did not see her. Daddy and Grandpa J went out a little while later to collect the body and then that night we told the kids. She was the most skittish and the least well known (to the kids) of our three barn cats.  She was gone for most of her first month at our house.  But the kids were still terribly sad. Daddy printed them each out a copy of the above photo.

 The next day, after Daddy came home from work we had the funeral. Grandpa J  dug a nice deep hole earlier that day. The kids drew pictures to put in the hole with her. We buried her and said a prayer.

 A few days later Daddy cut out a grave marker for them and let them color it.

 

Sew Special: Casual Seating aka Bean Bag Chairs

  The kids like the den much better than the toy room/sewing room.  Why? This is the very thing that I have been asking them.  The first answer - no place to sit.  Fine. How about some bean bag chairs? I used this great pattern from the Made Everyday blog.

 I like the pattern because it has an interior lining (full of foam beans, stuffing, and packing peanuts) sewn up tight. And and outer cover that can be removed and washed. It was a great stash buster. In keeping with my first-use what-I-have plan, I didn't buy any new fabric for this project. I just took out all the pieces that I had that were big enough and heavy weight enough and let the kiddos choose whatever caught their eye.  I made 3. One for each of the three older kiddos. Also, I did buy some zipper by the yard, a  new thing for me, but good for all kinds of upholstery projects.

 

 I tried several different fillers.  I had 3 big boxes of stuffing that someone gave me when they moved away.  I used one box for each.  Then filled in the majority of the space with bean bag filler, like this.  That was getting pricey, so I did one with packing peanuts.  I am waiting to see how they hold up and then decide on future fillers.  They each have handles for dragging them around.

  Of course sitting is not the only thing the kiddos have been using them for... I may need to refill them sooner rather than later.

 

Field Trip: Clark's Petting Farm

The last time we visited Clark's Farm big sister A was a toddler. We went again with the cousins and had tons of fun. They have nursery rhyme themed models and playground equipment. 

 

 

 In Willie the Whale's mouth:

 

 The Enchanted Forrest was my favorite part.

Farm Fresh: Chicks and Ducklings Update

 My camera has not been working right for a couple weeks so I have several updates to make. First, a livestock update.  4 weeks ago we brought nine new chickies home: 7 are Araucanas and 2 Buff Orpingtons. 1 of the Araucanas is a rooster.

 

The ducklings are 1 week older than the chicks.

 

 For the first 3 weeks they were each in these cardboard brooders that I made solely from leftover moving boxes.

After one week, I started using the large waterer for the ducklings.

The ducklings' wet habits destroyed their first cardboard brooder. It got holes all around the outer edges.  I bought a 60 inch plastic kiddie pool from Toys R Us and built cardboard walls around it.  It is working pretty well.  I still have to change their bedding very frequently, about every other day.  Ducks are so messy! Today it was up to 80 degrees and we decided to take the ducks outside while I cleaned their pool.  Here they are at 5 weeks old. 

One of them is suffering from a niacin deficiency. I did not know that I needed to add it to my feed. I feel lucky that I caught it early enough that only one has long term side effects.

 The ducklings day out quickly escalated to a pool party.  I emptied the wood shavings and let them have their first real playtime in the water. The Khakis are land ducks so they don't need a pond or anything, but clearly they still love the water.

 They were plunging their heads in and throwing water on their backs.  They kind of shake themselves like dogs too.  I did not make the water too deep.  They don't have enough oil on their feathers yet to keep from getting soggy and kind of sinking.

Family Visitors from NY and VA

We had a busy weekend with lots of visitors! Luckily my dad brought his camera and took amazing pictures of the events.
A couple of family pictures on our new front stoop:

Handsome husband:

Mr. Gigglebox:

With all the visitors the chicks and ducklings got lots of petting and attention. The chicks will be two weeks old on Monday and the ducklings three weeks old on Wednesday.

I cannot believe how fast these birds grow.  The ducklings are about twice as large now and their feathers are growing in under their down coats.  I had to upgrade them to the large waterer, but then they started soaking and perhaps strategically? sloshing water on that side of their brooder.  I thought it was going to fall apart any day from water soaking into the cardboard. But I put the waterer on this large "tray" (lid of a plastic storage container) and it is collecting the majority of their splashes. They need to clean out their bills as they are eating and they consume 2-3 times as much water as the chickies.

 We make the kiddos sit down when it is their turn to hold them.

The chicks brooder is so much easier to keep clean than the ducks.

Belly tickles:

Little Miss L is really running lately.  She wants to keep up and see what everyone is doing. She still only has her 6 teeth though. I keep waiting for the bottoms and molars to pop out, but no sign of them yet.

Big sister A is taking a Korean class at co-op school and she sang "Twinkle Twinkle" for us in Korean with the help of one of their Youtube videos.

 Aunt Sara and her kiddos all came up and spent the weekend too.

We tried to get all 12 of the grandkids together for a picture, but it was wild. All the youngest ones were crying for mom and dad.

It got better when we joined the picture.  It was pretty nippy that day so we did not bother with many poses.

Then the kiddos got down to business with a painting activity:

I was going to do a post about this room later, but this picture gives a good overall view of its current state. This is the toy room/schoolroom/sewing room/ mudroom.  Since it has so many functions it's been tricky to organize and there is a lot more to do.  Unlike our old toy room, there were no storage closets or shelving, so we added three Stuva wardrobes, a wall of hooks, and a Stuva (ikea) bench. We are planning to add another Stuva wardrobe, replace the brown fans and weird lights, and build a 4 sided desk/craft table around the supporting beam in the center of the room. It's a great space because there are windows on three sides of the room. (It is over the garage).

Grandpop and Grandma Judy brought Miko.  He is a nervous little guy, but as sweet as can be with the kiddos.

Belly-belly

We have a giant trunk of dress-up clothes in the playroom.  It is very popular.

Our new kitchen worked out great for feeding this big crew.  I just set everything out salad bar style.

 It was amazing to have plenty of room for everyone to move around. The new house is perfect for hosting big family gatherings. Our table fit 12 kids, no problem.

Before everyone left we had a tour of the yard and barn.  There is so much to do outside. It is pretty overwhelming. The landscaping is gorgeous and I am loving seeing all the Spring foliage. Just so many trees! A lot more work needs to be done to get that part of the property in order. Several large trees are dead or nearly dead and need to be taken down for safety reasons. The lumbermen took care of a few of them, but several remain.  The tree guys call the big dead trees "widow-makers". Scary! And there are about 10 trees too close to the house that they did not get to during the time they were here.
Baby L is tasting some of the twigs near one of the huge stumps. Yum.