Redeeming Time

If you'd rather hear and see the day in video - here's a link to the video on our YouTube channel. 

The days begin with feeding Yuuki, checking on food and water for the chicks, cleaning the brooder and stirring the compost.  Yep, seasons are changing.

Michael woke up sick this morning. We cancelled three appointments and then the kids and I set about redeeming the time we found on our hands.  Alex finished school first and headed out to pull up Cottonwood upstarts.  Those roots go out in the yard and send up new trees wherever they go. WHY can't Birch, Aspen or Lodge Pine do this? Or do they?

I set about turning this into a big batch of Pizza Sauce.  

Nolan finished with school and assisted Alex in tree containment. 

They hung a bird feeder for me. 

The kitchen was hopping. In addition to sauce making, Stacia made double chocolate chip cookies for "the boys." They were yummy! I'm an honorary young man. 

My first experience with water bathing. I need one of those big pots. I did get 21 pints of pizza sauce put up...all sealed....enough for 42 14 inch pizzas - I think. 

The days end with chicks....fun to note how they settle down at the same time each night....I wonder what the light of the summer will do in that regard.

Yes, I am bribing them. I hand feed them when I get a moment. 

I LOVE our Church

I love our church! Krista brought goats in today. They were out in the truck during church, but she brought them in for us to see them and love them. They are SO cute! 

So sweet - not this year. It's all a process...we'll establish chickens and a garden this year. We'll build on that next year and consider adding new things....

This evening the MAG women had a Game Night Gathering at Elise's. Elise is a fun hostess and we had a great evening relaxing together. 

I drove Ms Bonnie (below). Imagine the fun we had when we discovered her daughter is looking at buying the VERY HOUSE we put an offer on in May 2017!  They've dropped the price and done the repairs they refused to do for us, and this is fine. We are happy here on the mountain.....in this town.... we found this church....and THEY  have 7 or 8 boys and will love all the space.  God is always in the details. 

New church, new friends, new adventures - we are in a wonderful season.

A Very Rewarding Spring Saturday

A couple of videos which may interest you from the YouTube channel....posted Saturday.  The story of the 15 new arrivals.....and a recounting of our many Saturday projects. 


Michael opted to stay home rather than drive the hour to Anchorage. He planned to get a head start on the projects he had planned. At this point I wasn't 100% sure what they all were. I knew I was going to get a compost "spot" staked out and begin collecting "stuff" .....there had been talk of getting the greenhouse up.... Alex was in bed when Nolan, Stacia and I left for Anchorage. Nolan drove and I shot video clips.

Stacia kept the chicks on the seat beside her for the trip back to the Valley. 

We introduced these 15 to our 3 and made sure they were safe. I neglected photos - but check out the video if you want to see their introduction to our home.  Below is our Yuuki alarm. She is a beagle, a bird dog. I tried to show her a chick and appeal to her maternal instinct. She tried to eat it. She then spent the day pointing below their box. Michael built the brooder with screws to attach the top and bottom. It's secure, we don't think she can get in - but she may try before we get her trained to leave them alone. If she tries - the cow bell will make noise. 

With the chicks safely home, it is time for us to begin some projects. First, a picture of these two....Arielle and Cory.

Benny is 5 months old!

I didn't know this was on the docket for the day - burning a stump out. We have several that need to go. Izaak brought out a 10# can of bacon grease and THAT finally got it going. 

Michael ended up building a compost bin. He wasn't satisfied with letting me simply stake it out. He used pallets we got last week, wafer board the previous owners left, and hardware cloth leftover from the brooder.  There are video clips of it at the link above.... and now I got to put the pitchfork to use. I moved old grass clippings and food scraps which had been collecting over the winter.

We have three horse pastures that have several FEET of horse poop covering them. Izaak and Alex helped me break some from the frozen ground and we added a wheelbarrow full to the compost. I also collected the piles of moose poop for the compost.  I'm hoping for a "hot pile" that will produce some usable compost by the fall. 

Meanwhile, Stacia played with chickens.....

...and watched the canning for me, so I could work outside. I put up 10 quarts of spaghetti sauce. 

We all kept coming in to sneak peeks of these darlings. 

Thus begins our family pastime of chicken watching. 

We got a lot done today. It felt good to be outside and accomplishing things we've discussed. As one of the boys said, "It's rewarding." 

Friday the 13th

The morning began with two appointments for Michael.

We enjoyed lunch together, followed by a quick trip to Lowes. We picked up a variety of needed tools for upcoming projects.  This pitchfork has become a symbol of permanence to me. Who would ever buy such a thing if they were living in an apartment or moving every few years????  *I* own one now. Michael picked this one to work well for me....I've compost dreams.  Yeah, I know. I don't  know who I'm becoming - but I'm loving it.

We had just enough time to make it to Michael's third appointment.

I got a text while at one of the appointments...."Can we set up the trampoline?" Spring is here! 

Nolan and Michael finished up the chick brooder when we got home. I helped too. OK, Michael did 98% of this project, but we all pitched in as we could see how to pitch in. LOL This was his vision. 

The top part is hinged for easy access and viewing. 

We moved Golda, Rosie Proudfoot and Novio (formerly known as Diablo) into the brooder. Yes, by this point Diablo was winning Stacia over. She comes running when she hears Stacia. 

Look who I caught talking to the chicks.

As Michael and I walked around the yard, planning upcoming projects, I couldn't help but notice all the POOP in the yard. It is NOT all from Yuuki!  We've been working on that. As the snow recedes we are finding lots of moose nuggets.....

And there is FRESH HORSE POOP! We don't have a horse.  We live in a place where the neighbor's horse runs through our yard and leaves a gift. Shaking my head! ::snort::

Tomorrow, we pick up the 15 other chicks in Anchorage. We also have a list of other projects to do  - praying for a nice day.

The Rest of the 12th

 Other things happened on the 12th of April.....first, aren't these two darling? I've not posted enough grandblessing photos and must remedy that. LOL

Such a charmer

The 12th was Bella's second birthday! She's becoming quite a young lady. We celebrated her birthday on Sunday, but she came in today to meet our three new chicks.

The UPS man drove up this evening. He told us to get one of the young men on the property to come help move these boxes. Cory worked with him over the Holidays.  We are impressed! Last Sunday, Josiah and Michael decided I needed a greenhouse. I've known I'd want - but we weren't going to get it this year. I was going to make do. I was also going to see if I could keep anything alive - I have a  notorious brown thumb. They decided I needed something now. Home Depot had one, but they would ship it to SEA and then put it on a barge. They said it would take at least six weeks. Costco had the same one - it cost more - but they said it would be here in 2 weeks. I did NOT pay for express shipping. It got here in THREE DAYS!

Michael spent much of this day making a chick brooder out of two kiddie swimming pools. I plan to get him to sit down and talk about it on video one of these days.