Learning, Birds and Bees....Literally

We are learning lots these days.  Homeschooling five children has it rewards and it's downsides.  I found myself making special plans just to get my kids out and socializing with people this week.  The distance from town, car troubles, etc... has left us cooped up a little too long.  It doesn't help that bronchitis is going around my house and it started with me.

School can either look like this or.....

....this in our house.  Lately these two are into some math that I never learned or don't remember learning but the Lord has blessed me with a husband who is very good at math and at explaining it to the kids.  He has spent much time tutoring this past week.  My strengths lie elsewhere I'm afraid, like in the garden or lost in history or just temporarily misplaced in a novel.  Maybe the goats ate them? 

The Birds....

Raising poultry is a new thing for us so it's no surprise that I didn't spot a sick bird right away but it has been spotted.  It's one of the goslings we recently brought home.  We think we are dealing with coccidia and hopefully will be on the mend very soon.  The poor little guy isn't growing like he ought to be.  A fact plainly evident in this picture.

Tweedle-dee, Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-doo?

Here is the best picture I could get of the baby birds in the garage.  

I know, low quality.  I really need to use my "camera" instead of my phone for this picture.  I am also afraid of upsetting the mama too much.

The Bees....

No picture here just a line being dropped looking for information.  We are reading up on keeping bees because Zack has shown some interest and the benefits of local honey are outstanding but the price is ridiculous.  Anyone who has kept bees or knows something about keeping them should please leave a message, email or contact me in some way.  

The Birds!

Anyone see the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"?  I have a miniature version of it going on in my carport.  A few weeks ago we started noticing a lot of bird activity in our carport.  Maybe they were attracted because we had a brooder set up in there?  Whatever their reason, it was clear that they did not want us around!  Two or three of my kids have been "attacked" by these birds.  All while they were very active about their business and since it is spring there could only be one business for birds to be about.  A little investigating showed the beginnings of a nest in some shelving we had set aside for canned goods.  We decided to leave the nest intact and move the canned goods away from it.  A few weeks later and they had a very study nest built up.  Shortly after we saw some little eggs in it but it was too difficult to get a good quality picture since they were in the back of the nest and it was so small.  But now the mama bird is setting on the nest consistently and today I was able to snap a picture of her.

And here she is!  The original "angry" bird, lol!  She looks mad too!  It will be fun so see the babies though.  I love nature and now I can watch it from my desk!

New Things!

I really enjoy watching things grow.  It seems to be my favorite pasttime.  I have a ton of pictures on my computer of children, kids, chicks, ducklings, etc...  Here is one of the new goslings I brought home today.

(I put these same pics up on facebook recently so they may be repeats for some of you.)

There's something else new at my house.  A truck.  My big white van blew a head gasket and my husband's car was dying.  Three mechanics could not tell us what was wrong with it so we traded both in for an '07 Chevy Silverado.  Me likey!

I kinda like the cowboy standing with it too.  ;-)

My Zack

I started this blog with the intention of sharing not just our homesteading experience but our lives.  Most especially the adventures placed before us.  One of my biggest adventures has been having Zack.  Zack was born with a malformation, some of his parts did not form properly and therefore did not function properly.  Without getting too descriptive I will simply say that he could not do some of his bathroom duties.  He had surgery the day he was born, at ten months old and again at 11 months old.  He continued to have problems taking care of business but while he was in diapers it was manageable.  Toilet training opened a whole new can of worms.  When he was four he woke us up with belly pain early on a Sunday morning.  This belly pain led to emergency surgery and 9 days in the hospital.  He was very sick.  His bowel had a major blockage not due to mismanagement but due to an undiscovered and rare malformation inside.  They removed some of his intestine and discovered that his left kidney had failed.  Eight weeks later he had another surgery to remove the dead kidney.  Eight weeks later another surgery was necessary to protect the remaining kidney.  Then, a few months later, another surgery provided him with the opportunity to toilet train fully.  He was five years old.

(Zack after one of the 2008 surgeries)

During that time we were so often at the doctors in Dallas, which is a two hour drive for us, that I actually toyed with the idea of moving there but never very seriously.  Gradually the appointments got further and further apart until today when the doctor said come back in two years.  Two years!!!!!  Praise God!!!  Granted this is just one of his doctors.  He has three specialists he has been seeing regularly as well as his pediatrician and the occasional visit to the allergist.  But this doctor, today's doctor, was the doctor who dealt with most of the problems and surgeries in 2008.  This doctor has invested the most in him.  Her name is Linda Baker and she is wonderful!

I would like to take a moment to thank Dr. Linda Baker and Dr. Rinarani Sanghavi as well as the Nephrology clinic at Children's Medical Center Dallas.  They have saved my baby and helped him live a normal, or nearly normal life.  Praise the Lord for doctors like these!  I would also like to thank my family, and my church family for the many prayers, gifts and help given to us during the worst of it.  We love you all!

(This pic is a little over a year old.)

Firsts...

We have eaten our first chickens (they were yummy!) and today we found our first egg!  We are assuming it's a duck egg since it was found lying on the ground and I don't think the chickens will lay for another month.  I don't know whether it's viable or not.  We're just going to eat this one.  Soon we'll buy an incubator and then maybe we'll keep a few eggs but until then...breakfast!

Rednecks....and arms!

We make a lot of jokes about rednecks since we moved to the country.  Now I have one.  A red neck and red arms.  I am notorious for getting outside for long hours without sunblock.  I know it's bad.  Every year I get one or two good sunburns and tell myself I need to remember the sunblock.  Well, I've done it again.  Yesterday I spent hours turning soil and making new rows in my garden.  I added two rows of green beans and transplanted my tomatoes.  I knew I walked away from it somewhat tanned but not really burned.  Today I helped my husband put up a fence for our buck as well as planted some bulbs and other various jobs.  I spent most of the day outside again.  Tonight I have a red neck and red arms and face.  I also have flip flop shaped tan lines on my feet.  I will not be showing a picture.  I will, however, share some pictures I snapped while I was outside today. (I thought I would add that none of my kids are sunburned.  Instead they brown up like grass in Texas in late summer.)

Remember those fuzzy little ducks?  Not so little and fuzzy anymore!

I keep telling him not to let Doritos do that but he seems to enjoy it.  Oh boy....

Burger is getting so big!

All the ducks together!

Just thought this was pretty.  It's hanging in a pot on my front porch.

Culpepper and some of the Gingers.

You can see my garden behind them. Later this week I plan to add radishes, corn and a row for my bell peppers.  Still trying to decide where to put the jalapenos.  I am also adding watermelon and squash but in a different area not pictured here.

Farming is......work!

I love our farming adventure!  It has been a wonderful blessing!  I often find myself feeling sorry for all the city folk who never get to experience it.  However, I would be remiss to call it easy.  There are some things that are just like the movies.  For example, we get up early every morning to feed the animals.  But maybe not as early as you imagine.  I got up at the same time when I had to get my kids off to school every morning or when I had to be at a job.  We are usually up at 6am.  It used to be earlier but our noisy bottle-fed goat came off the bottle and is no longer waking us up at 5:30 every morning.  That part is not the hard part.  The hard part is the putting up of fences, keeping a large area of land trimmed, cleaning up the animal mess, and slaughtering chickens.

Yesterday these five cornish rocks met their demise.  When we bought them we jokingly said we would name them after fast food restaurants and such like Popeye's, Chick-fil-A, etc...  The truth is, we may have assigned them names but we never used them.  Now I'm glad I didn't.  Slaughtering chickens is officially my least favorite job ever.  It's not the slaughtering part that I hate though it's unpleasant enough.  We spent three hours plucking these birds yesterday!  However frustrating, I went into the job with my eyes wide open.  I fully expected to hate plucking chickens and my expectations were fully met.  When we finished I went inside and googled chicken plucking machines!  I am just hoping that our tastebuds appreciate the very hard work we put into this first meal we raised ourselves!

Gardening

Today has been so beautiful that I had to get outside to work on my flower garden.  Do you remember the before picture?

We did this today.

I added a geranium my mother gave me that wasn't doing well in it's pot.  I also moved in some strawberries, pansies and a mint.  I plan to add more pansies and strawberries.  I have a rosemary and a basil plant but I can't decide whether to put them here or in the back yard.  Here's the garden from a different angle.

I will take any suggestions on what to add next or what I should possibly move!