Baby A is 2!

Hard to believe my fiery red head is 2!  The big kids wrapped his presents and then coached him on how to unwrap them. 

He loved his cards. 

Thank you to all the grandparents!!  

For his birthday, he went to the John Deere store with daddy.  They sat on all the big tractors and looked at all the tractor toys.  He came home with a little tractor of his own to sit on and some ice cream!

 Baby A is our best napper.  He usually takes a 3 hour nap every afternoon.  I think he takes after daddy. 

He likes to help with projects.  We ordered a rabbit tractor (and now have a second one on the way , since we liked it so much). The kids helped me improve the weather proofing with some leftover SW duration paint from when we painted the barn. 

The bunnies approve of their new digs. 

The rabbit tractor is nice and lightweight, easy to move and gives good access to the grass. I only wish that it had bit more shade.  We will need to rig up something for the front half as it gets hotter. 

We also celebrated my birthday with a family weeding day. The kids did a great job clearing beds for my birthday present. 

Silly big and little brothers playing in the harvest baskets. 

Big sister A went on her first solo trip to visit the cousins in Florida.  It has all gone well so far. Before she left we had a mad dash of supporting her finishing her schoolwork.  We had set some deadlines for her to complete before she could leave.  Unfortunately, her procrastination made for a couple of very stressful days.  I hope she learned her lesson. 

One of the projects was building a fairly authentic Native American dwelling and then writing a report on what the effort taught you.  I contributed some rabbit pelts and her friend came over to offer her support. 

Cats watching the people hard at work in the garden. 

My smelly corner. Lilacs, then choisya blossoms, and then roses. Yummy!

Our cat with the broken leg has recovered beautifully.  Two weeks of R&R in the basement, plus comfrey salve twice a day, and she is almost as good as new.  No 5K surgery or amputation required. 

The peonies were lovely by my garden gate. 

Super Surprise Visitors

I have been keeping a big secret from the kids for about a month.  Our besties that moved to Utah 3 years ago were coming to visit.  They wanted to surprise the kids and meet up somewhere.  We met at the temple open house on a Friday morning. 

There was a lot of shrieking when they came up to us in the parking lot. Hugs and joy all around.

It was a rainy week, but we still had loads of fun.

On Saturday we went up to Lancaster to spend the day eating, enjoying the rural scenery, and shopping for goodies.

We ate freshly made mini doughnuts at Weavers Hardware store.

We went to most of our old favorites and some new places too.

On Sunday we gave out plants for Mother's Day and they went to visit their Grandma.  Monday we took it easy.   I did some gardening and we went to the park and library near our house. 

On Tuesday we went to Gettysburg.  We did the narrated audio driving tour this time.

We rushed from there to the big wooden slide at Rocky Ridge park. There we met up with another homeschool family friend and they fed us all dinner. 

On Wednesday we had a busy day of swimming lessons and pottery class.  Then on Thursday we went to tour around Annapolis.  We visited the US Naval Academy.

They have a lovely cathedral and crypt.

The crypt of Commodore John Paul Jones - great naval leader of the American Revolution.

The "midshipmen" were mostly all gone home for the summer so we did not get the full campus experience, but made our own fun. 

I love the signs at the exit of the academy.

Then we headed over the the famous Chick and Ruth's Delly on Main Street.  Other than a little crab omelet debacle it was yummy and fun.  Most of the kids said that they like the Whitehorse Luncheonette (Lancaster) better.

We went on to visit the Maryland State house.  We saw the senate and house chambers as well as the white board listing bills being signed. 

The Tiffany glass ceilings in both chambers were beautiful.

Statue of Frederick Douglas.

We finished up the day with a trip to the beach.  

It was not hot, but the kids waded into the bay anyway.  They built moats and frolicked in the waves. 

Big sister A found an incredible Native American arrowhead in the sand. They also found lots of sea glass and shells.

Friday we rested and hung out.  Our buddies went to lunch with their Grandma.  The girls went to a birthday party together for most of the evening. We made kimchi and cooked dinner together.  And then just like that, it was Saturday morning and time to say farewell.  We are so glad they came and already missing them again.  Thank goodness for Facetime and Skype. :)

 

Animal Adventures: New Pets, Farm Hatchings, and Wild Things

 Lots of animal adventures happened here on the farm in the last month. 

Our sweet barn kitty Strawberry broke her leg. It looked bad from the start.  I thought maybe the vet could pop it back into place and splint it for her.  Alas, they said the same thing that they did for poor Smokey W: 5K + for orthopedic surgery or amputation.  We went ahead with the amputation for Smokey W. and she died of depression shortly thereafter.  So this time I determined to go again the doctor's orders and try my herbal remedies instead. 

I made her a comfrey salve and have been putting it on her twice a day for the last 2 weeks or so.  She mostly licks it off, but it works internally as well as externally.  She is already putting some weight on the leg and seems worlds better.  I am so glad it's working.   Mother Nature is an amazing healer when we know the right plants to use. 

We have hatched two incubators full of ducklings and sold all but 9.  Two more incubators are due to hatch in a couple weeks.  We will keep selling ducklings all summer long. 

They started in the livestock tub, but quickly outgrew it.

A friend let her kids have a pair of Khaki Campbells over Easter break and then gave them to us. I already sold them on to a new family.

We built a bigger brooder for the ducklings since they are selling a lot slower than they did last year.

While giving the front walkway a sweep I found this fellow.   At first, we thought it was a juvenile copperhead, but it lacked the bright green tail.  It was just a young rat snake so we shooed it off into the underbrush.  Hopefully it will kill lots of pesky rats!!

We found a nest of guinea eggs and I tried to hide it from the dogs, but they are too smart by half.  They found it, broke through the defensive branches,  and ate them all up. 

Our fellow homeschoolers gave away these budgies/parakeets, including the cage and a big bottle of food.  The girls were excited to get their own house pet.  And I, of course, am a pushover when it comes to pets. 

Now M & S have a lizard and fish and the girls have parakeets in their room.  It's a zoo.

Last month, the kids did a service activity for 4H.  They brought their bunnies to display and talk about at our local chick-fil-a.

M brought Alexander - a chocolate Silver Fox buck.

A's bunny Cedar is a little Polish buck. 

Some of our bunnies came home from the PaSRBA rabbit show with snuffles.  There is no cure and it's highly contagious.  Luckily, we seem to have it contained to the barn bunnies.  But we are still so sad! I am planning to butcher a large number of rabbits the first weekend in June.  Hopefully we can keep it from spreading. 

The kids have been helping exercise our friends' German Shepherd, Kirche.  We all love her.  She is beautiful and very energetic. She does all the fetching and catching that our dogs are not interested in doing. 

She catches the frisbee or soccer ball right out of the air. 

We think she loves us too.  When we get ready to go, she jumps in the car and wants to come along home with us.