bathroom progress

in spite of all the busy farmstead activities. i have made some real progress on the bathroom. i actually took my first real bath in years saturday night--our old tub held less water than a mud puddle. currently, the floor tile is only half down. that was a major feat given the timing necessary. taking out the toilet, removing the old flooring, putting down new subfloor, installing new tile and replacing the toilet needed to happen as quickly as possible. we only have one toilet. i managed to do all the aforementioned in an evening and completed by late saturday morning, the next day. i laid the rest of that half of the room and installed the giant apple tub in time for an evening bath. i was so sore that i really needed a soaking bath.

sunday was already booked with ranching needs so i haven't finished the floor tile install yet. nimue went to visit a new beau. he is a young jersey bull that will hopefully sire our next heifer. we eventually hope to have two milk cows. we plan to keep at least one cow in milk year round. this should negate the need for milk goats.

speaking of goats and to answer the most asked question about their departure from the pile. goats are too much trouble the constantly are escaping and being naughty goats. i had a whole post entitled scapegoats which some of you caught. in an effort to be funny i unknowingly crossed the offensive boundary. that post was promptly deleted but thanks to those who commented on it anyway.

we slaughtered five chickens yesterday after visiting with nimues new caretakers for the next month. slaughtering is such a gruesome endeavor. it really stinks to take a life and eviscerate it. so much so, that it gives me a huge respect for the meals that come from it. not to appear zealot about the whole processed food machine but we really like not taking part in the tyson sin against nature.

the farm seems quite. the garden gives a nightly salad, the chickens crank out ten eggs a day and the broilers will be slowly entering the freezer over the next two weeks. the goats are gone. nimue and boca are temporarly gone. the only farm noise is the crow of the remaining roosters.

the garden is such a funny thing. it provided exceptionally well for us this summer. tabitha canned tons of sauce but it was much different than we expected. the tomatoes are all but done. no green ones left to make green relish/salsa--that is a sad thing. next year we might try some successive planting with determinate tomatoes being a later planting in an effort to get some green tomatoes for fall canning of green relish/salsa.

i'm working on a garden entry that will contain some of our lessons learned from this summer. it is an idea from christy. it should prove useful for years to come.

the kids are doing amazingly well. tristan loves his gameboy. bowser is very frightened of his gaming prowess. he reads very well. it amazes me. simple math is still a bit away but computer games are allegedly great for developing math skills. kassi is getting back to a normal sleep schedule. she really likes to be read to lately. it is funny how stereotypically girlie she is. we have made every attempt to not socialize her differently from the boys but she is innately girl. she has little collections and keeps them in bags. she changes her clothes several times per day. she definitely has a shoe fetish. toly is revealing himself as the feistiest o'melay yet. he is extremely clever, freakishly strong and likes to make people say no. what a crazy combination. a force to be reckoned with. i wouldn't have him any other way.

i hope to make real progress on the bathroom again this evening. the other day i replied to all of last entries comments but blogger lost it somewhere in cyberspace--maybe hacker has it? i don't have the heart to start that huge comment entry all over again. thanks to everyone that offered support, ideas and well wishes.