the new milk house is operational. all that is left to accomplish is the painting, trim and a few small details. tabitha has been milking in it for the past few days. adding milk-house construction to the fall chores has really made things crazy around here.
i finally started to close down the garden yesterday. i pulled cucumber and squash trellis. i tilled about half of the garden to get ready for garlic and winter wheat. we are expecting rain on monday. tristan and kassi helped. they were picking dry beans off the bean arch, picking up rocks and mounding the weeds into castles. today we'll get the garlic and plant it.
so much has happened. halloween was a grand success. the kids went to a birthday party, swimming and trick-or-treating. i had an amazing time trick-or-treating. the kids were too cute. tristan and kassi have been busy homeschooling. tristan has expressed an interest in math. he is doing simple addition and subtraction. tabitha had 13 dollars in three separate notes. a ten, a two and an one. tabitha asked tristan what was 10+2+1 tristan looked at his hands to count it out on his fingers. he stalled realizing that he has run out of appendages. then it happened the cutest thing ever. he dropped to his butt and yanked off his socks and promptly replied thirteen. i laughed and laughed.
i made a fire protection grate for around the wood stove. the kids are simply too rambunctious and the stove gets too hot to not have some form of protection. i made it out of recycled copper pipe and a horse panel.
the chickens are laying about ten eggs a day. rosie finally stopped pooping in the front yard. nimue is finally looking better. nina is becoming part of the family. the ducks are everywhere. the guineas are down to four from ten. speeding cars have taken their toll on them.
christmas is on the horizon and the kids have been pouring over toy catalogs. we, like always, have sworn off plastic toys. although wooden painted toys aren't really safe anymore. the kids don't need a bunch of creativity stealing theme toys anyway.
i made a firewood box for the front porch. it is in the queue to get painted next. the kids are going to do the painting after i prime it. it has casters on the bottom to make loading and cleaning easier. i look forward to firewood mess containment.
9 comments:
The milk house looks great! What kind of milking machine are you all using?
We're still on a quest to acquire a milk cow over the next year, though I'm seriously looking into Dexters as well.
I hear you. We're in the throes of the "fall frenzy" here as well, trying to get everything done before the snow flies. Any days without snow feel like a gift at this point. A year ago this weekend we were snowed in by a bad blizzard.
The milk house looks fantastic!
danielle,
we use a surge milker. it is no longer manufactured as a whole unit. they do make all the replacement parts and vacuum pump.
sugarcreekfarm,
it looks like we have a few more days of good weather and time off to accomplish more chores.
I know you've been busy but it all looks so peaceful there. For Christmas this year Logan is asking for money to put toward a trampoline when we move. We've told him as soon as we move he can get a big one with a net. I think that will be happening the day we move! I'm glad not to be adding a bunch of plastic toys to our house this year!
It never seems to end, does it? We had an incredibly LONG warm spell, and suddenly it's cold. I spent the weekend getting our garden beds put down for winter, and planting garlic.
If you have time, I'd love to hear more about your winter wheat. It might be a good something instead of straw mulch for my garden beds, but we get a lot of snow and from the first snow to the spring thaw will have up to four feet of accumulation on the ground.
I know what you mean about the toys! We have large family on both sides that insist on buying my kids the China made plastic crap by the ton! (I have been told by the few family members I trust to talk about such things to that it is rude of me to ask people not to buy for my kids!!) Anyway, I find that mine tend to enjoy the everyday real objects around the house much more than their toys.
I LOVE that cow picture! It's great!
What a nice round-up. This urbanite remembers how busy the fall was on my uncle's farm as everyone worked "two seasons ahead". And I the toys...oy. We're moving this weekend and in the process I managed to unload seven large boxes of plastic junk (I think it multiplies in the dark). It will NOT be replaced.
Nice stove guard! We've not had one since our wood furnace is in the cellar. With our tiny cottage the wood stove will be in the common room so like you I've built a guard to keep little ones safe.
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