9-29-12 Flying

Last night Dad & the older crew worked on more floor preparation for tile, so, after supper outside, I went to the south grove with this crew.

Gorgeous evening.

Some wood cutting.

Some corn hunting.

And back for more camping.

Today was more preparation - -

staining and varnishing well-used cupboards.

Giving the cats some much-needed attention.

Jacob & Ben did a lot of varnishing.

Funny things show up when Jesse gets a paint brush in his hand.

Great crew.

Leader Of The Pack

Kevin stopped by and laid the shower floor tile; he’ll be back on Monday to finish the shower and start doing concrete board for the bathroom and kitchen floors. Incidentally, we now have light in our new bathroom – courtesy of Jacob. He finished wiring five switches and got them all going; it looks great! Maybe I’m a little prejudiced, but I think that’s a pretty good accomplishment for a 14-year-old. I know I certainly couldn’t do it.

Thus ended our Saturday progress. With all walls painted, all trim stained and varnished, all tile coming next week, and all carpet ordered, things are still flying along at breakneck speed. All that’s left to do in the greatroom is 1. tile, 2. trim, and 3. carpet. Then we can move back in, and we are very ready for a return to normal. After that we’ll concentrate on finishing up the bedroom and bathroom and a few more upgrades in the kitchen.

9-28-12 Crazy Week

by Tori

This week has been crazy. I think Mom went somewhere every day, and she and Dad have been gone two evenings too. Wednesday night they were gone and Josh was already in bed when she got home. We had told him that Mom would be home when he got up, but when he woke up she’d already left to meet with our interior decorator. Josh said, “She not home yet?”

For the last several days, the boys have been waiting for cow #4 to calve. They were sure she was getting close, and then after two days of thinking, “She’s gonna have it today,” the cow was barely able to walk yesterday. Thinking it had something to do with her calving, they called Dr. Hoerr and he discovered that her hooves had foundered and then cracked which made for tough walking. He trimmed them down and she was fine; he also checked the calf and it was fine too. Jacob was very glad to report this morning that the cow had calved. Earlier in the morning he had checked her and she was by herself but with no calf, and then two hours later she was just licking it off. Jacob said it could hardly even stand yet so it must’ve been pretty new. Needless to say the boys are all very pleased.

Px from the week. Josh’s moose got turned into a horse for a while.

Lately the kids have been spending tons of time in the sandbox digging holes and making roads and mountains.

A very common scene right after a library day.

Getting the kitchen ready for paint.

Everyone gets to help.

Life with boys = some really strange things in the washing machine. Actually the nail isn’t too strange, but the stinkbugs are a little unusual.

Today the bricks came.

That’s it, have a good weekend.

9-27-12 Restmor

by Sarah

Tuesday we went to Restmor. After Restmor Val and some of her kids and Elizabeth and some of her kids came for lunch. Then we rode horses and then we played Capture the Flag. We had fun.

9-26-12 Horses

by Kaitlyn

This spring we got two horses. Their names are Diamond and Gray. We got Diamond for 600 dollars. She is an 18-year-old mare. We got Gray for free because he is 22 years old and needs a different kind of feed. I’m not sure what Diamond’s breed is but she is the color of a paint horse. Gray is an Arabian. Gray looks white from a distance. But he has little brown specks all over him. I think it’s called flea bitten but I could be wrong on that. Marty came out a lot to show us how to work Diamond. She might be a little bit old but she has a lot of go in her yet. We work her usually before we ride but sometimes we only have time for working or riding. Once we are done working her she should stand by the saddle and let me saddle her without tying her or bribing her with feed or something like that. When we work her we just run her in circles in her pen. We have to turn her too. Then when she is running nice, her tail is in, and her head is down that means that she is ready to hook up. That means she will follow me anywhere. Then I saddle her up. Gray is so old I don’t have to tie him anyway so we don’t have to work him. Tori and I are the main ones that ride them but sometimes the little kids like to ride. Jacob only likes to ride Gray. He won’t ride Diamond because he can’t handle her like Tori and I can. He can never make her go in the places that he wants to go, so he just lets us girls ride Diamond. We like to run with them. I don’t know if what we do is cantering or galloping. We had a lead rope tied to the saddle horn so we could smack Gray if he wouldn’t go. We finally took it off because we never used it anymore. We used it a lot at first. I think his favorite gait is trot; it is sometimes hard to get him to canter. It is really fun either way. So I guess I don’t really care. I ride Gray bareback quite a bite. He is so old he has a very bony back so if I don’t ride him right it doesn’t feel very good. I haven’t tried riding bareback on Diamond yet. She is so frisky I’d probably fall off. I need to learn how to keep my balance on Gray before I try it on Diamond. I about fall off every time I ride bareback. It is hard for me to trot and not fall off. I think he knows I don’t have good balance so I can’t make him run very good. Last night we rode them and I rode bareback. I think I might be getting better. At least I just about fell off only once. We have had a lot of fun on our horses. I think they are well worth the time and care we have put into them.

9-24-12 Sunday

by Kaitlyn

Sunday afternoon Tori and I rode the horses. The little kids wanted to ride too. I rode Grey with Josh in front of me and Tori led Jewel and Sarah on Diamond. We put Josh on Diamond for a picture and then we took them right to the barn so they didn’t get to ride triple long.

We fed the horses, and, while Grey ate, Josh and Jewel brushed them. Josh had to stand on a bucket.

A. Sarah came for supper around the fire.

Jacob hit the old horse trough with the potato gun. Josh ran and picked up all of the pieces.

This poor chair died while Levi was sitting on it.

Jesse likes one cat on the whole farm. His name is Boss. He is a favorite cat around here. He was the biggest kitten of the litter so that is how he got his name. We had a different cat named Boss a long time ago but he ran away.

We popped up some popcorn for a snack. Jewel & Josh love watching popcorn pop.

Josh is taking mandolin lessons now .

A. Sarah playing Zingo with the little kids. I was helping Josh.