Farm Kids and Baby A's #3 Birthday

 Lots of work and fun adventures in May on the farm.  We have ducklings, kittens, rabbit kits, and chicks hatching next week. The crops are shooting up and so are the weeds. We have had a Family Weeding Day each of the last two Fridays and we could use another one soon.  The kids opted for Cafe Rio dinner for one week's reward and Chinese food the following week. 

Lucky Ducky little A has a brilliant older brother who made this cardboard tractor with him during his "Andy watching" time. 

Brother S planned a campout with our local W family friends for his birthday experience. He made the grocery list and we bought all the things that he planned out (hot dogs, thin steak burgers, s'mores, chips, root beer, watermelon, water guns, and glow sticks).  They had a lot of fun playing Ghosts in the Graveyard, jumping on the trampoline and telling stories in their tents.  "It went by way too fast." was the only complaint.   Our friends taught us how to make banana split s'mores.  Baby A inhaled 2 of them.

Follow-up from our last post when we hung the lights in the high tunnel -- here they are all lit up. 

Perfect for late night gardening. 

We made a trip to Lancaster focused on visiting herbal and medicinal plant greenhouses. It was wonderful! At least I had a lot of fun looking at all of the unique plants. 

Baby A discovered the joy of sticking his head out the sun roof. 

And, we came home from Lancaster with three 3 week old kittens.  They need a lot of TLC (their mama stopped feeding them) and we are bottle feeding them.  I knew my neighbor was looking for some and we are just fostering them for him until they can all drink out of a dish and start eating more independently.

We did our first "hay mowing" of the year.  The grass was so long!  We filled both corners of our hayloft with the dried front yard grasses.  I put the backyard grass around the potato plants to "hill" them. 

Baby A turned 3!  He picked out a cake mix and candle. 

These are the things that he told us to put on his cake :)  He has strong opinions about what he wants and how he wants them. 

Grandmama made him this strawberry tractor shirt, just like his favorite cartoon show. He wore it to his Tractor Store date with daddy.

He had lots of presents from his siblings and had a fun shopping trip to the John Deer store.

He loves to hide and seek for toys. We found some Easter Eggs filled with mini trucks and hid them in the library for him to hunt. There were 12!

Hubby and I are teaching a Youth Sunday School class together.  We have been bringing "furry" treats instead of food treats for kids who remember to bring their scriptures. It has been a little distracting during the lessons, but so much fun.  I am guessing it is pretty memorable for the kids.  So far we brought ducklings two weeks ago and kittens today.  Bunnies or chicks will be next. 

Farm Kids and A Monster Truck Birthday Experience

 

We added solar power lights around the perimeter of the high tunnel. The boys helped me get them set-up for their garden chore one morning. It was hot in there, so we were happy to irrigate while working. 

 

Brother S bought himself an extra 40 lengths of hotwheels tracks and put them to good use with several long jumps and stunt tracks. 

We did some interesting science experiments - one was trying to harvest oil from sunflower seeds. First we ground our homegrown seeds with the corn mill. 

Then we used the tiny press that came with our science kit.  It made just enough oil to moisten the cloth that held the seeds. I thought it was a good indication of how rare seed oils would be for most small farmers. It would take a ton of acreage to grow enough sunflowers for a year's supply of oil. Animal fats are much easier to produce and harvest.  

We have had a lot of rain and our hose has a leak.  A fun little stream bed has grown in the backyard and the kids (and ducks) are heartily enjoying getting wet and muddy. 

We have a friend at church with some pet turkeys. One of them got too big for his legs.  I helped them put him out of his misery/butcher him. They did not want to eat their pet so we were blessed with a monstrous amount of meat. I weighed the carcass before I cooked it-- 40 pounds!!  I made a lot of broth and froze most of the meat pre-cooked, ready for quick meals. 

We are also enjoying the springtime abundance of fresh eggs. We have been making lots of custards, quiches, egg bakes, and hard boiled eggs for salad toppings. 

One of our new favorites this year is this 12 yoke pound cake, which is like a yellow angel food cake, some call it a sponge cake.  Made with the custardy duck eggs, it is rich and delicious. 

We made several meringue pies, but the kids like meringue cookies the best and are willing to put in the work to make loads of them. We also made a big batch of lemon curd.  I am going to make a bunch of fresh pasta and freeze it, using this week's excess eggs. 

We took a drive up to Lancaster to refresh our supplies last Friday. I bought a bunch of plants at the greenhouse there. And I would have bought more, if only we had the space!  Our good W Family buddies went around with us. The kids had a great time together.  The boys found a huge bounty of shark t-shirts at the thrift store. They bought some matching ones so that they could be twinners. 

For Daddy's birthday experience we went to watch Monster Jam in Baltimore.  It was incredibly loud!! 

Brother S's favorite truck, Megaladon, won the most points overall.  He was sooo excited to see that.  They did doughnuts, two wheel, and freestyle competitions.

We all wore ear protection, but it was still super loud. 

My favorite part were the motocross stunt racers.  They did the "half time" show. They were more agile than the Monster Trucks and performed some great tricks.

Maryland is a great place to live if you love crab. Yum! The concession foods had many "Maryland" options, including crabcake fries and crab & shrimp stuffed eggrolls. 

This is one of Baby A's favorite spots- the front door. It's a warm sunny place for most of the day. He took his nap here one day this week.

He also likes to mostly close the door and hide between it and the storm door. He and big brother S hung out there reading their library books several days this week.