The View From Our Sledding Hill

This is the view from our sledding hill.

North

East

The sky was so pretty!( West)

South

"He hath made everything beautiful in His time...." Ecc. 3:11

The piglets are here!!

This afternoon ... napping...


Finally!! Our long awaited piglets are here!! They arrived Monday evening February 18th... a sqirming, squealing litter of ten. Micah was sure they'd be born that night and wondered if I'd sleep in the loft above the pigpen with him instead of the haymow. (This was the same night of our campout.) I refused knowing how awful it STINKS up there!! "You'll wake up smelling like a pig!" Nathan exclaimed earlier in the day when I mentioned it- not seriouly though!! Then Micah decided he would sleep in the haymow and just set an alarm and check on Miss 'Cookie' every hour. We didn't need to worry about either! Dad came in after suppper and quietly told us, "She has two of them already." News spreads like wildfire and minutes later we all ended up out in the pen ... watching and waiting. By then a third had arrived and all three were in a pile making a racket of ear peircing squeals!! While we waited two more were born... slimy, wet, and scrawny with long cords to trip them. This piglet thing was all new to us. Cookie laid so quietly and didn't even do anything with here babies. We weren't sure how she was supposed to act or how the piglets should be so we brought our amish neighbor over. He though it all looked great! One little pig we took inside to help warm and perk it up on the register, otherwise they did well. So far so good, except three casualties.... when a 3-400 pound mama lays on you you generally don't survive. :(

Micah with a slippery wet new piglet that was just born.

Snuggled up close to mom... it was freezing cold out!!

This is Micah in the shadows watching his piggies.

They were more interested in keeping warm than eating.

Camera shy... and tired.:)

My wonderful brother David took me skiing and gave me this new mummy sleeping bag for my birthday! It's good for 10 degrees so I wanted to try it out. That sparked our camping out adventure. It was great as Juli said~ but I was't too thrilled about my chocolate-milk-sticky-sleeping bag...:( :( That's when you feel like being a mean big sister, no mercy, and have to constrain yourself... and be loving anyway.( I still need much work on that.) It was probably colder than 10 degrees but we were cozy! (a turtleneck,3 hooded sweatshirts, 2 pairs of pants, 2pairs of socks... :) )

Camping Out in the Barn!

What a blast sleeping in the barn!! It was cold and snowy with high winds so we all settled down for a cozy night out there wrapped in mummy bags and piles of blankets!!

Adventurous, little Jo in her beanie and Alaska socks.

All our 'gear'. Jo made boiling hot chocolate and Micah opened the too-full thermos over Amy's sleeping bag. It got wet and a little sticky.(By the way,that's Micah in the sleeping bag on the right. He was feeling a little guilty about the hot chocolate ordeal so he tried to conceal himself from human eyes.)

Camper party #1. Amy,Kayla and Jo giving it their best shot.

Camper party #2. The lone two-Micah and Juli.

Homemade Doughnuts~ A Birthday Tradition

~In our home every birthday morning begins with a breakfast of doughnuts. I'm not sure when this traditon began, years ago sometime, and now we can't imagine a birthday without them. The last year or so we've improved our birthday breakfasts , and the fun the evening before, by making our own doughnuts! With everyone helping (the girls that is usually) it turns out to be as much fun (or more :)than the birthday itself! Someone turned the ripe old age of 21 this week so we made doughnuts.... Fresh doughnut dough ~all ready to rise.

Beautifully risen... ready to cut out. ( Ahhh... this is getting yummy already!)

A few of the many doughnuts we made rising~ soon to be deep fried.

From risen dough... to deep fried... to the finished product-(minus the glaze.)

~Freshly deep fried in coconut oil. The smell captivates your senses... and the coconut oil is awesome! It's great for your health and leaves the doughnuts gently fried, crisp and tasty with no greasiness at all!!~

~Our finished pile of delicious, mouth watering doughnuts, shining with Juli's scrumptious glaze. Anyone want to join us for a birthday??~

Winter is here!!

It's SO beautiful outside!! Huge fluffy snowflakes falling... the ground is covered and more is coming! Ah... REAL winter. How we love it! Hikes to the creek, sledding, more ice skating -if it stays cold, then coming in to a warm house, piling on the register over the wood stove, and drinking steaming cups of hot chocolate. What could be better?!

With the cold and snow comes that old itch to ski (or snowboard for the boys!) Last evening they spent snowboarding at Snow Trails, a cute little resort an hour or so from home. This is a video from another boarding trip to Seven Springs.


We throughly enjoyed the snow this afternoon... and our cookies and hot cocoa when we came in... all soaked and freeezing!
Happily climbing!


God is the one who paints true beauty!


On the creek bank... freezing!!

Micah~ on a wild slide down "Horse Tail Trail"!

Enjoying each other and the snow!

Firewood...

The other night we had to chop a pile of firewood up and haul it inside before it got really cold so Josh borrowed a wood splitter from Gingerich Tractor and while supper cooked in the oven all of us kids were busy loading,hauling and stacking firewood. It was fun in a way and when we were finished(an hour and a half later) we got to go inside and enjoy a nice,warm supper of mock turkey. After some pleading Dad let Joanna drive the skidloader from the basement,to the woodpile and back again. She was very happy!

As you can see,our load was pretty big for the poor wagon...

Kayla and I with our big stack of firewood.(No wonder the tire on the wagon blew!)

Here is Nathan watching Josh use the wood splitter.

The calf attack

~Have you ever tried to feed a writhing mob of seven hungry, pushing, shoving, black and white calves, at once, when they're all in one pen?? It's a major challenge I'll try to descibe -and one not soon forgotten when you're in the middle on it!
All hungry & fiesty, thier rough, slobbery sucking tongues, butting heads, and wet noses are everywhere you turn!! "On your mark, get set, GO!" and a couple of off grab two bottles each ... four calves are guzzling down their warm milk. Sucussfully started, someone grabs the fifth bottle to feed the next one. Meanwhile the two youngest calves, waiting for their bottles, terrorize everyone else by running under the necks of the calves who are drinking, knocking them off their bottles, stealing a few gulps... a bottle falls... you try to retreive it and almost get licked to death.... (and they're proud of themselves for the trouble they are!) So this morning we tried something new-take the littlest ones and feed them first~ outside the main pen~then feed the other five. That didn't work!! They were as micheivious as ever sucking your coat tails, trying to knock the bottle away from you, tripping over the pail of bottles, pushing at the panel while the calves inside are pulling it dangerously inward( we rest the bottles on the edge of the panel while they eat and it isn't very sturdy!)... another bottle falls in the pen... thus that now bottleless calf comes after the babies I'm feeding... I'm almost falling in the pen... my hand is being sucked in three directions to distract a few other calves from bothering the last one, someone is butting me from behind... "HELP, I'm being attacked!!" I hollered to Micah. What relief when we're finally done!

Six hungry babies with miss trouble running under their necks.

Getting sucked in three different directions while the slow poke finishes up.

Nathan temping them all over for a picture.

P.S. ~ Our problem in now solved. Three new calf hutches and a feeder that five calves can drink from at once!

Piglets are on the way!!

ONE of our newest farming adventures is farrowing out piglets!! Something we've never done before but excited to try. Micah is thrilled about this since 'Cookie' is his piggy! She was last year's fair pig that turned out to be a reject... and now is going to be a mama. We have done some looking around at farrowing options, considered a farrowing crate but decided on the good old fashion way-just a simple pen. Dad and Micah have spent the last days working away to fix up a warm insulated place for her in our (used-to-be) tack room with special sides so she won't lay on her babies. The pen is complete, Micah filled it with a thick, cushy layer of straw and piggy is quite happy. Now we're awaiting the arrival of our litter of piglets!!


Micah's motherly sow who is due to have her piglets any day now!



Micah watching Dad screw supports.

Micah- up on the almost finished ceiling/roof of the farrowing pen.

Dad enjoying his work~ pushing a sheet of insulation up into place on the ceiling.

Its been awhile since we've updated....oops!
No more snow or ice here;it is very wet and very muddy instead! And when it is muddy is when the cows like to get out the best! The other day six heifers decided to take a run....right through the lawn....leaving hoofprints and skidmarks...long skidmarks. Thanks cows. So we chased them back in and fixed the gate because they got out due to a certain person's bad tie job.(Names are not listed to protect the guilty.) Then this past week the dry cows decided to get out. They ran out behind the barn and over the hill. So Dad,Amy and I slopped through the mud,behind the barn and over the hill to chase the renegades back in. Must be the cows thought it was spring. If you know how cows act when they get out you know they act pretty goofy! They were bouncing around,bogging their heads and had their tails stuck straight up in the air like ramrods. Anyways we finally got the creatures moving back to their dwelling place and made sure the gate was locked. Oh the joy of cows! :)