A Season of Contrasts: Cold and Cozy Winter Days

 Baby A is getting so big. He has two little teeth and must taste anything he can get his hands on.  He is crawling a little here and there, mostly still scooting. 

He pulled himself up in his crib. Daddy lowered it right away. He also pulled himself up on the side of the bath tub and almost went in head first. We have to keep him within arms reach all the time.  

Seed sowing is well underway! 100 marigold plugs are ready to be potted up. I planted more than 150 tomatoes (for us and the ladies at church). Brother M saved seeds from his favorite little rainbow peppers and those have sprouted really well. Onions, angelica, chamomile, Russian rhodiola and skullcap are stratifying on the front porch.  Green and red cabbage varieties are just starting to sprout. 

I planted 50 plugs of rosemary for companion planting in my high tunnel raspberry patch. Big sister A chose some flowers for "her" garden this year. Her Snap Dragons have just started sprouting.

Brother S and Miss L like helping me with the seeding, but they LOVE preparing the dirt and filling the pots.  And inevitably they make tracks in my tub of potting soil for their monster trucks. 

There were some arguments over who got to use the seed dibbler (orange carrot thing in this photo).  Miss L got it in her stocking, so she had first dibs, haha!

It has been a perfectly beautiful winter. Cold enough to kill bugs and give blueberries plenty of chill hours and LOTS of beautiful snow days. The high tunnel fan is working well, despite not having its own outlet yet. 

I made Miss L a new snow hat as part of the Livestock Conservancy's Shave 'em to Save 'em Program. 

Hubby has had to do a lot of driveway clearing. He made the kids several nice piles in which they built a snow fort and sledding ramp. Thank goodness for our little farm tractor. 

In contrast, we have been enjoying cozy time by the wood stove, playing board games and listening to books on Libby.  They kids are master hot cocoa makers and recently discovered a recipe for snow ice cream.  They made about 10 batches and used several gallons of milk over the course of a week. 

Big Sister A's Polish doe had 4 kits. They are incredibly tiny compared to our Silver Fox kits. She's been doing a great job caring for them. 

We finished book #2 of the History of Us and decided to work on science for the next month or so. 

As part of that homeschool science, we did a soil testing project. Mostly it was for me and my gardening plans, but sampling soil is a great illustration of how to take a "representative" sample. The mason jar soil composition experiment was fascinating too. 

It was fun to confirm with our own mason jar test that we do indeed have the "silt loam" soil our Ag extension survey says we do.  It's much better soil than I had originally thought.  Not nearly as much clay as it seems like when I'm digging into it. 

We really had to struggle to pull samples from the garden!  It was not frozen, just buried. 

Family Schooling Summary: Creators and Makers

Our 4H program offered an online painting class last Friday. All of the kids wanted to participate. 

The teacher spoke really quickly (geared towards kids 10 and up). Big Sister A followed the instructions and ended up with a beautiful snowman picture. 

Brother M repainted some sections of his picture because he was not satisfied with them and also ended up with a great painting. 

Miss L messed up on her snowman's face, tried to correct it, and then got frustrated and started over with a clean canvas. 

Brother S marched to his own drum the whole time. He determined from the start that he was not going to follow the prescribed snowman instructions.  During the class he made the painting on the right (shark).  The next morning he made part 2, the painting on the left (squid and dolphin).

Big sister A has excelled in her study of the piano. Her teacher told her this week that it was hard to believe that she has only been playing for a year and a half.  We had a conversation over dinner that night about "talent" vs. practice.  Talent helps, but in the end it aways comes down to practice, as Malcolm Gladwell so clearly illustrates in his book, Outliers. Big sister A loves to practice the piano. I think that makes all the difference. 

Brother S had a cooking requirement for Cub Scouts this week.  He wanted to make fish sticks and salad. He made the grocery list, bought the ingredients, chopped everything up, mixed up the salad dressing and placed the fish sticks in the pan.  He liked it so much that he made salad for us again the following night and has been a fantastic kitchen helper. He also made homemade pizza.  The sauce was our homegrown jars and I made the dough, but he has made a lot of improvement on his ability to roll out dough in  a circle.  He also rolled out the crust for our quiche this week by himself. Miss L mixed and made jello by herself (I poured the boiling water). 

Daddy hosted (in the barn) and led brother M's Cub Scout den in a wood working activity on Thursday night. The other kids were jealous that M was able to make some cool scout projects, so Daddy helped them work on their own projects this weekend. Big Sis A finished hers, a "book" with a secret storage compartment. 

Farm Fresh: Rabbit Mamas Caring for Kits

 I have been "shelving" (bringing in at night) the 10 rabbit kits. It's a pretty serious commitment --EVERY night and morning. We may have a new solution that will help keep future kits safe, more on that below. 

Shelving has been an eye opening experience into the behavior of mama rabbits. Rabbits are prey animals and so they only nurse their young kits (return to their nest) for about 5 minutes, once or twice a day! Their milk is incredibly concentrated and almost impossible to replicate, which is why I always breed at least 2 mamas at a time.  If one fails to nurse her babies I can usually foster them off with another mama.  Otherwise, they are most likely not going to survive.  We have tried to "bottle feed" them before with zero success.  Silver Fox are very kind foster mamas and we've never had any issues with rejection by a foster mama. 

When I bring these 10 babies/kits back to their mamas in the morning everyone is so excited. The kits are all waiting for me and practically launch themselves into the canvas carrying bag that I use to transport each litter to and from. When we get to the barn, the mamas are hopping around anxiously and the babies start making little noises. 

For previous litters I almost never saw the mamas doing their 5 minutes of nursing, but now I see it every day.  They usually lick and inspect each of the kits while they are nursing. It's very efficient.  Mama rabbits always seemed so ambivalent about their babies before. Now I know that they are not.  Their instincts are just to keep mostly away from them so that predators don't find or follow them to their nests. 

Brother M is proving to be a very responsible Dragon Daddy.  His dubia roach colony is thriving and I never have to remind him about feeding Beardy.  He is growing mustard greens so that Beardy gets his fresh veggies every day. He loves carrying him around and worries over every little thing.  I have never had to remind him to water or clean the cage either. 

Other rabbit news.  Since we are doing 4H rabbit club now and planning to go to more shows I have been talking to fellow rabbit raisers about finding some second hand carriers. We kind of hit the jackpot on that. We found an older couple whose kids are done with 4H and grown up. They were selling all their rabbit paraphernalia. We took two cars over to their house and loaded up on valuable supplies for an incredibly generous price. 

They also had this pretty and sturdy hutch for sale. I am not usually in favor of using any wood for rabbit housing (holds bacteria). Bob Bennet advises against it in the Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits. BUT in light of the current rat issues and the very inexpensive price tag, I decided to give this hutch a spruce up and see how it goes.  When we have a couple warm days I will get the inside sterilized, whitewashed with lime, and then paint the outside to match the barn.  It has been in a carport up to now, so the wood needs some protection from the elements. Also, their are a couple holes in the floor screens and some rust that I will need to treat and patch. 

Brother S decided to read one of our favorite children's books to Baby A.  Sandra Boynton's Blue Hat, Green Hat. 

Such a sweet Big brother moment. I love the way that all our older kids dote on Baby A. 

I found Baby A sitting up in his crib this morning. He is getting so big. 

He has 2 little teeth poking through on the bottom now.

Big brother M has been building block towers for him to crash. 

Farm Family Fun: Baby A's First Tooth, Tree Clearing, and Rabbit Genetics

 Baby A's first tooth came through this week. He has been our least droolly baby so far. I only thought to check his teeth because he has been a little fussy.  

He also had his first tastes of Kix cereal puffs. Very good for fine motor skills and keeping him occupied. 

We made a new rule last week -- no pets at church.

Baby A loves to sleep with me. And apparently Big Sis A too.  He was crying one night around 10:30pm and I thought Daddy picked him up.  When I went upstairs I found them like this. 

First graham cracker mess. It was love at first taste. 

We are raising two new (to us) breeds of rabbits for the kids' 4H projects. Big sister A is raising Polish (1st litters due Jan 31st!). Brother M is raising the critically endangered Silver rabbits (not to be confused with Silver Fox that we have raised for the last 5 years). The color genetics work differently on the different breeds - for the Silvers, agouti brown color is dominant; but for the Silver Foxes, black is dominant. We did a homeschool lesson on genetics to help me and them understand it better. 

I peeled the skin off a granny smith apple and gave it to Baby A to gnaw on. He loved it. 

It's a good time of year for making and sharing herbal remedies. I made a big batch of Elderberry Syrup to share with our friends and because Miss L had been asking me for more. 

Remember how we were going to clear the berry patch in 3 phases? Well, we changed our mind because one of the phase 3 trees was getting very rotten. We are ALL done cutting trees in this area now. Ready for Hubby's "favorite" task -- chainsawing and clearing. He is going to be VERY careful not to touch poison ivy this year. 

If all goes well, we might be ready to plant the berry patch by this fall!!!

It's a perfect time of year for canning dried beans. I did a double batch (14 qts) the kids' favorite baked beans this week. On to pinto beans next week. Last year, I did 21 quarts of pintos, but we used them up in about 8 months. I will try to do around 35 qts this week. 

Baby A's Life: 7 Months Old

 As you might expect Baby A is most interested in what the big kids are doing. All sitting on the new window seat big sis made? He wants to too. 

Looking at presents from our buddies? He wants to too. 

And the oral fixation phase continues! Except that now his pincer reflexes and small motor skills are getting much better.  He picks up everything and tastes it. 

I let him try plain bananas this week -- he loved it of course. And oatmeal with a lot of applesauce in it is going down pretty well too.  Just for fun, I put a few corn cereal puffs on his tray today and he was able to pick them up AND get a few in his mouth! oh my. 

He had his first bath sitting up in his special tubby this week.  He cried awhile and then decided it was not too bad. 

We had a few nice quiet naps by the Christmas tree, while I tried to soak up the cuteness. 

And he's scooting all over the place. He pulls himself along with his arms and does a table, but has not started fully crawling yet. Every time I set him down I feel like he's in danger.  We are still not very baby proof and little legos or other bits are lurking all over the place.