Pro Photo Shoot: Courtesy of Clockworks Photography

 

Family Schooling Summary: Swimming, calves, and Lancaster

The dairy farmer that we get our milk from has a cow that calved a few hours before we picked up our milk. The mama was a nice gal and let us get up close.

 We went to Lancaster this week without our W family buddies. It was not as fun.

 Big sister A did some carpentry at cub scouts. 

Brother M's den went to city hall to meet the mayor and have a flag ceremony. 

 Last week was the end of a swim lesson session. 

 Big sister A has some good friends there that she plays with during the free swim session. We try to coordinate our sign-ups so she has friends to hang with and swim with. It is 45 minutes of free swim and 45 minutes of lessons.

 Brother M's teacher used him for demonstrating several techniques during the course of their lessons.  He recently told me that he likes to go fast, which of course made my swimmer self smile with understanding. He will likely swim with the non-competitive swim team starting in the fall.

 Little Miss L and Brother S made huge progress during their FIRST ever session of formal lessons. They loved Miss Cathy's class and "HuMMM"ing under the water (to make air exit their nose instead of their mouths).

 During free swim time, L & S practiced diving for rings with me. They were afraid to dive under before, but now they have got the hang of it.  We have one 6 week session of homeschool swim lessons left before summer (Then all the school kids start taking lessons and it gets waaaaay to crazy in the pool).

Field Trip: NY to visit Grandparents

 We went to visit my Dad, Grandma J, and Goomie this weekend. Goomie was happy to see us, but very frail.

 They were having a quarantine for a flu that was going around and we all had to wear masks. Miss L refused to put hers on.  P.S.  Three of four kids had a stomach bug that started a few hours after we arrived home. I don't think the masks helped.

 Big sister A  played guitar for Goomie. Brother M was focused on his puppies from Goomie.

 We had a photo session and then everyone was excited to see their pictures.

We watched General Conference while we were there.  The following are some candid shots from Grandpop:

 

 

Farm Fresh: Plants and Paths

Saturday was a balmy 70 degrees and we spent the day outside. So many projects to do!  The main accomplishment was hubby and the neighbor finished clearing brush and trees from what will be the back fence line.  The neighbor and we are sharing the cost and work of putting up that section of our property fence. 

 That pink string is the property line.

I worked on my front yard garden extensions.  I have attempted to build up this section of soil and start garden beds here several times with meager success.  The biggest problem was that much of the soil and compost that I added slid down the hill.

 We had these big rocks behind the barn that were making it hard to mow that field. Hubby tractored them up here.

 The kids and I used sleds to tow some fairly straight logs up here from the wood piles.

 I have been "spring cleaning" the compost-ish manure and bedding from the poultry houses and putting it here.  About 8 wheelbarrows full just from the guinea house...

 I dug out some bushes and moved them to be a side border (future corner with the wooded landscape) so that I can make a path that will extend down from the front steps.  A friend gave us a pile of rocks from her old patio. I am hoping to use those (light gray triangles) for the path.

 And this pile of river rocks was next to the barn -- we are going to try to use them to make rock walls in front of the logs. It is an evolving WIP.  Lots of salvaged materials means zero cost (other than sweat!), but lots of creativity required to make it work. 

 I don't want to eliminate the slope. We have a nice dry basement and I would like to keep it that way. I just want to build up the soil enough to plant herbs.

These two hazelnut bushes will be the edge on the left side. I expect to make two more "levels" moving out from the first tier, but I may not have enough compost to fill all that in this year. It will be an ongoing project.
Meanwhile, Spring planting and sprouting is going strong. Hellebores.

 Hostas.

 First baby lilac. I plan to plant a lot more of these! I love them.

 Daffodils are coming up all over the place.  Some are in the middle of the front yard?!  I need to move them so they will be grouped nicely next spring.

 In the garden, rhubarb seems to have leaped out overnight.

 I made one of my special compost rows for new strawberries. Still need to mulch over the cardboard. As I said before, I am doing Amish style long rows this year.  Chinese cabbages are under cover and pea teepees in the back corner.

 Daffodils transplanted last year came back well along the fence line. Tansy is up too.

 All the plant starts are doing well. I sold about 20 comfrey starts and made back the money that I spent on comfrey roots. Their are 20 plants left for me or to continue selling on craigslist and at the poultry swap. I am probably going to want to order some more root cuttings either way.

 These onions are going into the garden in 10 days with the carrot seeds.

 Nasturtiums.

 Lemon balm, tomatoes, yarrow.

 Parsley, tomatoes, feverfew

 This next part is for the W family.  I spring cleaned all the rabbit cages (scrubbed them) and reconfigured them.  Pretty boring news for anyone other than close buddies who spent a lot of time at our house. Here are some shots of the new configuration. Starting with the long hoop house (chicken house) - the 3 current big (30 x36") cages and one more coming to even it out.  These will house mama's with babies and litters growing out.

The guineas have entered their "Spring crazy" phase and only want to roost in high trees.  The guinea house is now the big daddy house with lots of bucks and buck grow-outs. Four more of the smaller size cages will line the back. 

But for now I just added two cages because...

 Mrs. Muscovy (Perry) has been laying a clutch in there and I will let her set on it if she wants.

That means that the barn and the garage are rabbit-free now. I still need to do some cleaning in there.  Hubby is pleased.

You might have noticed the orange cat in that crate.  Around Christmas time our kids favorite kitten, "Tiger" or "Twyger" depending on who you talk to, disappeared. Our friends in the ward just found this orange stray miles away.  His ear is clipped and he is neutered like Tiger was. He seems a lot like our lost kitty, but we can't really be sure.  He is getting the new home treatment with 2 weeks in the cage until he is acclimated. He is a sweetie just like our old Twyger was.  The kids are thrilled to have Twyger back. I have given up telling them that it is probably not him.