Small Art Prints

We accomplished number 66, on Keri Smiths 100 ideas. It might not take us 100 days, since I think like her and we've already done a bunch before we knew it!!!
We made a whole mess of prints with potatoes. They turned out nice, despite Micah taking charge of the color mixing. You might see them for Christmas. Who knows? Pictures soon.

Wish Tree

These are the wishes from the wish tree, that hung in the snow and the rain. They sprung up one night when the leaves were all gone, by a sidewalk where ribbons were placed by random. The wishes are beautiful, sad and poetic, ridiculous, funny and irresponsible.
They are life in our town

I wish I could have a baby without having problems, I'd be a good mom. Candor had more pot, (I think it says that, very bad spelling on that one.) (not kidding)
I wish my baby sister can be healthy

Wish I could fly
I wish that everyone is healthy, happy, safe and loved
To be a hunter
I wish my older brother was alive again
I wish I had a 4 wheeler

To Not be prego---kenny sucks.
Go to Heaven and C family
Peace in family
I wish is??? (not sure on this one, maybe there is Too Much pot in Candor)
I wish for my sister to love me.

I wish to be happy and have HIM
To have my doggy back, RIP, Thor
I wish to have a phone
To make world peace all around the world.
I wish I had a mini 4wheeler

To be a mom when I grow up
I wish my life was better
Candy
To see Jen get diploma in '09
To be loved and to learn what love is.

To be a beautiful dancer
That there were no potty words
and, last but not least, an invisible wish from someone who wants to be an Egyptologist when they grow up--I think they are well on their way since invisible wishes are very incriptic. (Is that a word?)

We are now the temporary caretakers of these Candor wishes, we will let you know the next step, but for now they are in a jar, sealed until Springtime. I will post a photo soon, it is downloading right now.

It's a Wonderful life

Trick or Treat!! From right to left we have Prince Caspian, cow, cowgirl, Big Daddy/cowboy with cheeta ,The Ice Queen, (also from the Narnia books), little cowgirl, third cowgirl and baby kittie. Momma had no costume, but had zuzu's petals in her pocket.

sheepgirl on the horsey???

We start our farmgirls out young around here! This is Popsicle, Rebeckah's Islandic lamb. He is a sweetie and when we were shearing him we could not help letting the baby have some fun. She was reaching and he made the perfect horsey.

Potty training!!

My baby is all of 6 months old in this picture, can you believe she is that big??

She loves to sit on the potty, and today she did her first number two. She was so happy with herself, and whenever we mentioned it she would look back at the potty and make a little laugh.

HE, HE!!! Baby potty training!!!

Lantern Walk

While I don't have any pictures of our walk, (since it was too dark!) I wanted to share this close up that Joy took of one of the lanterns that we made for the walk.
We spent a whole day baking bread, decorating lanterns with old jewelery, cutting flowers out of old magazines from our "chop box", and it was a beautiful, relaxing, quiet day.
To end it with a trip to my friend's farm made it just perfect. The sky was just about dark when we arrived, pulling in to the sight of a tiny fire next to their pond. A row of lanterns soon completed the scene, and the long row of children singing and swinging their candle lanterns had me wishing for my own lantern walk at our home!
We wove in and out among the fruit trees with our lanterns, and ended the short peaceful visit with all of us hushing to respect the coyotes we could hear howling on the next hill.
I spoke to Janese, so expect next years family dress-up party to start with a horse cart ride at our home, followed by a lantern walk, then off to Janeses' for the food, games and candy!!!

old lady apples

Remember old lady apples? Carve a face into the apple and let it shrivel up. This is Blessings, before the shriveling.

Momma and baby watching the chickens

This is next to the new coop, the baby loves the chickens. We sit and she can be happy watching them for a long time. Normally she is more happy moving around and being very busy. I think the chickens are busy enough for her!!!

The New Chickencoop

The chicken coop that Dean and the children did on our vacation is all done and set in place. You should see how cozy the hens look on their new perches. It's so easy to maintain, that Micah or Isaiah can now do the chicken chores themselves. They feel so big and grown up!!

Fallies

Meet "Farmer Bob", thats what the children call him. His family has been here since before the church at the end of the road collapsed into the ground. You could say this is his neighborhood, the area cemetery is even on his farm.
He and his wife gave the neighborhood an excellent hayride thru the forest on Saturday, we think we counted 26 people.
Apple cider and doughnuts made everyone friends quickly and we stopped for awhile in the woods to play in the deep leaves.
It was too funny how the children grouped to play, immediately (most) of the boys picked up sticks and started running thru the woods like crazy people, with stick duels and all. (probably inspired by the "tall tales" of an indian burial ground nearby) The girls organized themselves into a family and started building a house out of sticks.
By the end of the hayride it was getting dark and when we came down the last hill, which was the biggest, of course, I realized how well Bob knows this land. The sun was just setting,, perfect and red, and when we left the hill, the shadows of the valley were waving us goodnight and this sleepy family scooted off to some very happy dreams.

Babies love food

She LOVES food! Her first cereal was an absolute hit, she is eating cereal twice a day now and everyone is having so much fun feeding the baby sister. It won't last long, she is already "helping" the spoon into her mouth, and will soon spoon for herself I think.

masking ourselves

Guess who is who! fun for those who haven't seen us in a while. We made these as part of our classic curriculum. They look as if they came from some ancient greek play/statue. Of course we changed the original pattern and some of the masks now have beards and funny curly hats! Rebeckah was at school, we missed her, but that's why she's not in the photo.

vacation

What does this family do on vacation? We build a new chicken coop. This is the floor, I can't wait to download the photos of it all done. wait 'till you see the shutters. Sorry, Mary Jane girls, there is NO wallpaper.

Bootscoot boogey

Meet Boots, on the blog per Grammers request, this is the best photo that we have of him, but maybe one of the girls will get a better one later! If you can't tell, he is about the size of my foot. (IT is a dog, not just any-kind of dog, it's a complete mutt.)

Written in stone

Once upon a time in a fun, family homeschool, there was an exciting lesson in writing. Which just happened to also turn into art. (As lessons often did in this family.)

This family also learned some grammar, searching for the nouns, adjectives, the sentence subjects and the verbs. It continued with writing proper sentences, and ended with poetry.

This valuable language quest was begun with simply cutting random words from old hand-me-down magazines and gluing them to smooth river stones.

MORAL OF THIS FAIRYTALE<" mix a little art in all you do, "it will overflow into all the other areas of your life and make them more beautiful.

Does the tooth fairy come for horses?

The answer to that is, yes! Of course, but only for baby teeth. This picture of Leo having two teeth pulled is so incredible to me. The "Equine Dentist", pulled up in a bright yellow truck, and she and her helper just totally took care of our percheron baby. The doctor was so full of confidence and strength, I just wanted to post a photo of this amazing woman.
Imagine yourself pulling two teeth out of an animal that weighs half a ton!
Anyway, enough of my going on and on... my sonn made sure that the tooth fairy was NOT cheated, he wrote, "Leo's teeth", on an envelope, to make sure the tooth fairy knew they were under his pillow for Leo, not himself.
The tooth fairy was not taken back! She left some change and instructed my son to buy Leo some soft horse treats, because of course, she is too little to carry them!!!
Leo now owns a new hoof pick also, I think the people at the feed store where we got the treats might be laughing at our story though.

surreal

baby sister

simple

sisters

flower family

birthday

birthday plantings

My beautiful little girl, turning 11 on the 11th. We have started the tradition of giving the children a bush or plant or tree that will bloom on their birthdays. So far there are lilacs, roses, peoney and now a hydreangea the color of Lenas eyes. The february and march birthdays will not have a bloom, but maybe a fruit tree, we can freeze the fruit and eat it on their birthday.

Kayak trip on the Susquahanna River

This last weekend we went on a Kayak trip with the whole family. We switched in and out of three boats, two were tandem and the other one has a "fish hold" that just fits Isaiah. We went from Crowleys all the way to the second bridge in Owego on the Susquahanna River. I am a tad sunburned.

The children loved it. We saw so many birds and once a large fish hit my paddle and then jumped about 5 feet. When we went by the Hiawatha Island they were having their Annual History walk. It was like stepping back in time, to paddle by with the Native American drums going. What a beautiful place to live. We had this trip planned for our vacation before the gas prices skyrocketed, but I am so glad anyway! I think trips should be more about Family and TIME, and less about the Destination.

Shoe art

If you are wondering what happened to the shoe art, well...the baby has reflux and I have been BUSY> and tada!, Joy is pregnant! So, the shoe art is here finally. I have more challanges up my sleeve, but I will be waiting until the end of summer, a farmers life is too hectic this time of year. This is my shoe art.

Jacob lambs for sale

It's that time of year, when the jacob lambs we raise are ready for their new homes. This year we have an excellent choice of rams. Whether you are looking for a 2horn or a 4horn, the ram lambs we are offering are gorgeous and registerable. I will post a photo of them later this week, but for now, these are two random baby photos, to show you how cute they are when they are born.

goosey, goosey gander

Our last geese turned out to be the standard set for this farm!
When they abandoned the domestic urge and flew away to our neighbors, we worried it would cause a row. (Good fences make good neighbors, but geese can FLY!!!) But our neighbor, the children lovingly call "Farmer Bob", knew the geese were good for his pastures and had no problem with it. That was last years geese, this year we now have 13!!
Can you see the 4 babies among the large ones? I am expecting a call any time, that they are devouring too much of the grass he needs for his beefers. I think there is room in the freezer for a few. Fois grois?? Is that how you spell it? Probably not.

Baby Leo our Percheron

Leo, the baby Percheron, with his winter/baby coat growing out. He is a lot less fuzzy now, but still just as cute. His "cute" is a bit bigger than the other horses. Leo appears on the blog per special request of Samuel. He belongs to Sam, and is going to be pulling the wagon that Samuel and Dean are going to make this Winter. I will be sure to post pictures of the progress of that, when it starts. For now I am not in a hurry for winter, though.

Baby Days

Chloe and Daddy, does Daddy look a little tired? Chloe is usually pretty fussy, but look here, at least we know she can smile! For sure, this is a BIG one...wish you were here Aunt Donna. (That's what she is saying) If you can't tell, I am totally in love with my new baby, she is 5weeks old now.

It's spring!! Look at these pretty eggs

I am always re-energized in the spring. It's like all the dreams and ideas I had last year are dormant until the sun wakes them up in, oh about May, around here. I love all the baby animals on the farm, and everything looks more attractive with a fresh green background to it. We are getting ready to have a farm open house this Saturday, things are really busy, but I have a photo I have wanted to post for a while, and I decided to take a break and put it up here.

Scattered days

Today was a busy day on the farm!
We had the "AI" guy here, for Butterfly our cow.
I then had to explain his rather undelicate job to my 7 year old.
fun, fun, fun!
Then the down-hill sheep were moved in with the up-hill sheep.
Charity, who is generally uncooperative, didn't follow along with everyone else.
Rebeckah and Samuel bravely caught this naughty sheep! and then tugged her up the hill with Blessing's help.
We hung out laundry, but had to bring it in from the rain.
Leo, our baby percheron, (draft horse), was tied out in the grass and managed to tangle up his legs. On my way out the door to help poor Leo, I almost ran head first into a hummingbird that loves my mother's day hanging flower basket. I am very proud of it, our church gave them out and mine was for having the youngest baby in church. If you aren't familiar with our church, it's not an easy thing to do! Our church is FULL of children.
This was all after sewing aprons and earache soother pillows for our farm open house on Saturday.
What a busy, scattered day!

Beautiful Cinderellas on their way to the ball

Here are the girls, all looking way to old for me to be happy with, because that means they are growing up too fast for this Momma. This night their daddy took them to a ball, that's right, a real ball-with ballroom dancing! Sorry if you are a relative that doesn't dance, I am not trying to offend, but there is something special about dancing with your daddy, and they did dance together too. I couldn't go this time because I was still (very) preganant and do not own formal maternity-wear.HA as if there really is such a thing. (I know there is, it just seems ridiculous to this farm girl)

Daddy and baby Chloe

Dean and the baby on Daddy's birthday.

Draft horse club/cart photo

The draft horse club evaluations were today, everyone passed! In the whole club! We are so excited for the group, these children have been working hard. These three are ours, Blessing, Alina Grace and Samuel.
Leave it to us, to join the "farmer version" of the 4-H horse club, no fancy pants here!!

dream of a birthday cake

have you ever seen such a pretty cake? Blessing loves her Daddy.

Happy Birthday, Dean!!

Maryland Fiber festival

Blessing is now the proud owner of a Hog Island Ewe. She entered an essay contest, thru the Youth Conservation Association. It is in promotion of rare/endangered breed sheep. This photo is of Bless and our friend Meagan, both girls are from our county, and both girls won!
There was a wonderful parade of breeds, and we saw some awesome sheep, I didn't get to see much of the festival, since little chloe is not ready to run around too much. We made it to a few booths, but the funny thing is, except for a shawl that is WAY out of our budget, and didn't come home with us, everything I "needed" was from local venders!!! I guess we just have it good around home, when it comes to fiber!!

If you want to hear more about the rare hog island sheep, visit Blessings blog,
http://oneyearwithahogislandewe.blogspot.com/

More Baby Chloe

I thought maybe you would like another picture, here is the new love of my life. (Of course the other children are STILL the loves of my life, too.)

And always will be.

Baby Chloe Tatianna

Here she is! Born on Monday at 4:50. We had an awesome labor and delivery. It was only 5 hours, and her entrance only took minutes. It was very special to us all that my mom was there. Her presence made it almost perfect! I say, almost, because she came so quickly that Rebeckah and Micah both missed it when we woke everyone up for the birth.
At one point there was concern over her heart rate, but after prayer it was completely resolved. After her birth, we realized what the problem was, her cord was very thin, and must have been pinched, but with prayer she had been repositioned and was out of danger!
Now everyone is queing up constantly to hold her. I have so many hands, I don't think she has been put down yet!!! The children and Dean have been so much help all week, I am so blessed. Isn't she beautiful??

The waiting game

The new baby is still not here, in case you are keeping track! Yesterday we had a photo session with LoBo Photo, who happens to be my next door neighbors, we did baby belly photos for two hours! With the family and by myself with the belly! I will have a disc to post some in a few days! In the meantime,while we have been waiting, my girls gave me a blessing God's way gathering, my friends came, and we ate all my favorite foods, and I was given a special book with a page from everyone. I also had a wonderful foot bath, with herbs and essential oils in it, here is a photo my sister took.

SMALL ART FRIDAY

How is everyone doing on their small art?? We are still working on our shoe challenge, but I wanted to show you what we did last week. While we are waiting for the new baby, I think our nesting instincts ran away with us!!

Meet the new ladies

Meet the new ladies! Our new egg layers are here, 18 light brahmas. They are so adorable and the best part is, that when they are grown up, they are almost just as cute still. They look like they are wearing white dresses with lace around their ankles! They lay beautiful eggs and are much more friendly than our reds.

SMALL ART FRIDAY

I said I would post some shoe art, and thanks to another farmgirl friend. (Thank you, Susie!!)

TADA!!! Send in your photos, if you are feeling the muse! It might be Monday soon, but that just means Friday is around the bend.