Putting up the siding -Step 8

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted. The warmer the weather gets, the busier we seem to get. One of Dad's side jobs that he does is cleaning pools, ponds, and doing yard work. So since it's warming up, him and I have been cleaning out quite a few ponds. We are soon going to be opening up some pools too.
Not to mention that we have been working hard at putting the siding up on the dairy. We're using cypress wood for siding because 1) we like the way it looks, 2) it's cheaper than metal siding, and 3) it's easy to hammer into, so all of us can help with putting it up. We are putting up two boards with about a 4 inch space between them and then going back and overlapping another board on top. It's going along really well and looking great!

Poppy and Uncle Steve putting up the siding.

Mom picking out the boards to use.

Savannah on one side staining the wood...

and Gram on the other

Dad and me putting up the siding.

Planting the Garden

We have started planting our summer garden. So far we put in potatoes, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, and sugar snap peas, along with the onions and garlic from the fall. About two or three years ago we learned about "lasagna gardening". It's where you layer your garden with leaves, hay, manure, cardboard, newspaper or anything else that you want to put in. You never till up the ground; you just dig a hole big enough for the plant, put newspaper around the plant to keep the weeds out and the moisture in, and mulch with straw or hay. Before we started using this method we were to the point of giving up on gardening because by summer the weeds were so high in our garden that you couldn't see the plants. And we also had really sandy soil. But after only a year of lasagna gardening we now have rich, black dirt and TONS of earthworms tilling up our soil for us! It works great!

Teepee

Dad cut down a tree in our horse pasture recently and Ethan had a blast building with the logs. He made this teepee which my horse posed behind to give it the perfect "Indian" setting!

"I'm keeping my eye on you!"

His Plan Is Perfect

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,

says the Lord,

thoughts of peace and not of evil,

to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me,

and I will listen to you.

And you will seek Me and find Me,

when you search for Me with all your heart."

~Jeremiah 29:11-13

Why Are We Switching To Plastic Jugs?

Here is a picture of Kelsey standing at the utility sink with all the milk

jars waiting to be washed...

Kids of 2010

"Fudgy"

"Shawn"

"Sparrow"

"Gypsy"

"Sydney"

"Levi"

"Brownie"

"Corrie"
(Chance, Dominoe, Mario and Sadie have already been sold.)

Spring!

Mom has had a Japanese Magnolia in the front yard for 16 years and it is finally blooming this year! Needless to say, she is thrilled!

Old food....

My grandparents were cleaning out an old shed from a house that their church has owned but is now selling. In the shed they found tons of glass canning jars! The only draw back was that the jars were full of canned food. So the plan was that we were going to empty the jars, wash them, and put them in the attic till summer. Well,...it wasn't as easy as it sounds. Some of the food was so old that we had to use knives to scrape it out of the jars. And some of the lids were so rusty that Poppy was the only one who could get them open. But the worst part of the whole deal was the SMELL!!! It was horrible! Some of the pears and jellies didn't look so bad, but the canned chicken...well, I'll leave that one up to your imagination! (Let's just say that it no longer LOOKED like chicken!) We did find a date on a couple of the jars. Can you believe that they dated back to 1991 and 1985! Too bad that I didn't get any pictures of that job!
Posted by Kelsey

Uncle Kurt

On Saturday, my Uncle Kurt (Dad's brother) flew down from Kansas for a visit! We had a very good time with him while he was here! He is in the Army and in September his family will be leaving for Italy for at least three years, so it was nice to be able to see him before he goes overseas.

We made two cakes while he was here. My cousin decorated them in Italian phrases!

"We will miss you Kurt and family"

"Till we meet again/farewell Kurt"

God bless you Uncle Kurt! We miss you already!

Posted by Kelsey

Milking...

Recently, some friends came over to look at our baby goats. They asked if they could come over one morning to watch us milk. They had tried milking goats at one time and would like to get back into it. Here are some pictures of the brother and sister milking. They both did a very good job.

Here is a picture of where we are currently milking.

Step 7: Framing up the building

Poppy has begun framing in our building. He's been working at it really hard and although we help him out as best we can, he's the one with all the know-how when it comes to this stuff. It's coming along well though and it's actually starting to look like a dairy instead of a garage!

posted by Kelsey

The Man With Many Faces...

Ethan is our impersonator and is always putting on costumes ( or as the 1st picture shows, putting a pie rack on his head for a football helmet). He always makes us laugh. There is never a dull moment around here!

Posted by Kelsey

Piano Lessons

Jordan recently started giving piano lessons to a young girl from church. Both teacher and student are doing very good. Jordan and I took lessons for 5 years, but this is a first try at teaching! Since Jordan was preparing a lesson anyway, Mom roped Savannah, Ethan and Noah into the learning too and all of them are doing quite well! Frequent times throughout the day we hear songs such as "Row, Row, Row, Your Boat" & "Merrily We Roll Along" drifting down the stairs. Ethan is also trying to teach himself the harmonica and it is sounding really good.
There is a song we like to sing whenever it's time to practice.

"Practice, practice, practice,

Practice every day.

If I want to get better

That's the only way.

There's no doubt about it.

There's no way around it.

Mother please don't shout it.

Practice, practice, PRACTICE!"

Posted by Kelsey

Parental Liberty in Education

"In 1925, the United States Supreme Court in the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters overturned a direct state attack on private education in the form of a state law requiring public school education. The Supreme Court overturned the law on the basis of the parental liberty over education. The Supreme Court said:
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The act of 1922 unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control....The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.

The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.

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At least three basic premises are stated here.

First, the child is not the creature of the state. By implication, this means that children have an extra-statist existence. Presumably, in terms of Christian belief, the child is the creature of God.

Second, parents, acting under the authority of God as His stewards, have both liberty and a "high duty" or responsibility to educate their children properly.

Third, the state, whose power is derived from the Creator, has no authority to interfere in the parents' liberty and responsibility to educate their children. Instead, the state must allow parents to seek out alternative forms of education to include, but not be limited to, private schools and home schools."

-Written by John W. Whitehead

in Parental Liberty in Education

This was a Supreme Court decision less than a century ago! Oh, how far our country has strayed from the principles that we were founded upon.

Posted by Kelsey

Step 6 - Putting up the carport

On Friday the carport went up! It looks a lot bigger than we thought it would! It is really starting to move along fast. Now it's up to us to finish the rest. It's fun walking through it saying, "This is the store,...and over here will be the milk room...". It's all coming together!

Posted by Kelsey

Vindicator

"Vinny"

I took this picture of our cow, Vindicator, the other day. He looked so adorable.

Posted by Kelsey

Step 5: THE WALL!!!

The retaining wall is up. The man that we buy our hay from, Kevin West, has a large tractor with a bucket on the front and graciously agreed to come help us with removing dirt for the wall and filling it back in after the wall was built.

Before the dirt was pulled away...

Putting up the wall

After the wall was built, Kevin came back out and filled it in with dirt.



The finished product!

Posted by Kelsey