Time for an update.
It was a busy summer and early fall. There were so many fun things that happened with the kids and on the farm this spring and summer and although I thought I would have time to write and post pictures about them, that obviously did not turn out to be the case. So now I'm playing a little catch-up (.... make that a lot of catch-up).
A brief return to spring:
We tapped our own maple trees this year and made our first ever maple syrup on our homemade evaporator, which worked really well (thanks to Matt's hard work and planning).
Here the kids are cooking hot dogs over the maple syrup fire (which is likely to become a spring tradition). Now we can serve real maple syrup to our kids (prior to this we gave them the cheap stuff and saved the real syrup for ourselves, nice parents that we are.)
In farm news:
We had several broody hens this year that hatched chicks for us. We had a rooster for awhile until he got mean and started attacking the hands that fed him (i.e. mine). It wasn't worth my rising blood pressure to keep a mean rooster, but he did make a real nice soup with rice and veggies.
Here's mama hen with her four chicks. (Our rooster was a black Australorp, black obviously being a dominant color.)
Nora and a curious chicken:
Lena is a little animal lover. And Snowflake is so good with the kids.
Baby chick time again, in early May. Clare ordered several special chicks with her own money: an Americana (Easter egger) chicken which will lay colored eggs and a Silver-laced Wyandotte.
Lena LOVED all the peeping and the new entertainment:
Karl got busy with his own version of working in the garden this spring:
Clare helped me plant seeds in milk jugs and trays: cucumbers, sunflowers, kale, marigolds.
I just love this picture of our farm girl Lena with her chickens:
Matt was tilling some strawberry rows. We bought 50 June-bearing strawberry plants this spring in hopes of some fun harvests next year and after. Karl might need to grow a bit before he'll be a help with the tiller.
A fun springtime activity for the kids is catching toads and making houses and mini habitats for them.
Lena, surrounded by her "chick-chicks".
This busy girl loves to brush her teeth and wash her hands. This was a pretty common sight this summer.
Nora loves to catch chickens and give them hugs. Most don't seem to mind.
Clare turned eight in May, which is hard to believe. She's growing up so fast and she's such a sweetheart.
She made a "water park" cake, with plenty of candy. I like that she can frost and decorate all by herself.
One of her favorite birthday presents:
Purposeful farm babe:
Clare talking to her favorite chicken: "Cinnamon-Sugar".
Growing so fast:
Our neighbor Steve planted our field again this spring and Karl just loved watching that big tractor go around and around.
Tragically, a predator got into our chicken coop one night (there were a couple small holes in the fence where a weasel probably squeezed through) and killed every single one of our newly purchased chickens. A loss of 13 birds and quite a few dollars. Weasels are senseless killers in that they kill just for fun even after they eat their fill. So we lost all those new birds, except... later that morning, I saw one of those "lost" chicks peek out from behind a mama hen that had been sleeping in a nest box on the floor of the coop with her newly hatched chicks. She must have put up a good fight or else the weasel was full by that point and ready to move on, because none of the chicks in her care were harmed. That little Rhode Island Red must have run to her for protection and ever since it followed her as its mom. Here is mama hen with the little chicks she hatched, and flying out of the coop is her red adoptee, trying to keep up.
Ah, kite flying in the spring. It's so much fun to have a big field to fly kites in. Nora was excited this year to be able to fly her kite "all on her own" - for about 20 seconds before it crashed again into the grass.
Helping pull rocks from the garden beds. Nora and Lena got this wheelbarrow from their cousins for Christmas and it has come in handy!
Lena loves water. Gotta keep my eye on her at all times, this busy one.
She discovered how to throw balls down this chute by herself. I love the joy on her face.
Summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to meet some good friends at the Children's museum:
Lena just loved it. The kitchen was her favorite...
... and granny squirrel's house, full of balloons and with a ceiling just high enough for Lena to stand up.
So much for feeding the dolly...
Grandpa K and Clare made a duck box for Clare's birthday. They'll put it in our pond this winter and maybe we'll have wild ducks nest there this spring!
This Nora girl is getting so big.
Karl loves to draw. His fine motor skills are amazing. My dad had one of Karl's drawings on his fridge and the hospice nurses that came to help my mom were amazed that a five year old who wasn't in school yet had drawn it.
Waking up from a nap and watching her "chick chicks" roam the yard.
Sisters.
Starting all over... on June 28 our new shipment of replacement chicks arrived. We decided to replace all the pullets we had lost and buy two more turkeys. Here is Clare with the new "Cinnamon-Sugar". Honestly, the hardest thing about losing those birds to the weasel was telling Clare that her special chicken had died. So hard to do. Farm kids learn early about the circle of life and loss. Clare had spent so much time teaching her chicken to come to her, getting it used to people, making it friendly. Now here she is starting all over again.
It would often fall asleep in her hands:
Karl's drawings. (Yes, I should really move this picture with the other drawing but that is too much work and I'm determined to post this before I go to bed.) This drawing happens to be a "catalog" for ordering vehicles. At this point, he only has one priced, at a bargain of $10. Most of his vehicles are listed for millions of dollars. Some have so many zeros after the one I can't even count them. He now has several multiple-page vehicle catalogs in the bookshelf. What is this kid going to do when he grows up?!
An attempt at a family picture. Lesson learned: Don't try to photograph the baby when she's hungry.
Okay, that's it for now. Next post will have some summer time beach pictures.
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