On answered prayers, surprises and more homesteading adventures

This past week has been filled with exciting and new things around our little homestead. To start off this past weekend we got a call from my hubby's mom saying that her sister and brother in law were out visiting from the coast and wanted to come for a visit. So we said sure, come on over. In true Russell time they showed up 6 hours later than they said, but with a HUGE surprise-the aunt and uncle visiting was a ruse, all though they did come along too-this is what showed up with them

My girls were SOOO excited!!! It is even decorated inside and has a four piece kitchen! The flower boxes are real, and filled with real flowers! We are so spoiled by my mother in law, who happens to be a cabinet maker by trade!!


Next on the list of happenings is some new little critters here at the homestead!
Remember how I had mentioned that we were supposed to be getting another batch of little chicks, this time Barred Plymouth Rocks? Well they had a bad hatch and cancelled our order, but said they would have another order filled for us in a month. Well we said no thanks as that is putting us butchering in Dec. Well they never got the memo to cancel our order so Tuesday morning I got a call from the hatchery wondering if I would like my order filled a week early and if I would be interested in some extras as they had several people not want there chicks. I went gulp, umm well, sure! So Wed we went and picked up 150 little babies!!! These ones are black with a little yellow spot on their heads and little yellow bums-so cute!
Needless to say I spent Tues running around trying to get the brooder all in order etc!
I haven't taken any pics yet-gasp I know-but I will soon I promise!

Now on to the answered prayer!
Being as how we live an hour from a major centre, we have to do a lot of driving to get anywhere and do just about anything. So I have been driving the girls in once a week for the last three years to the city for piano/violin and ballet (one year we went in twice a week for ballet) Well we had decided that we just can't justify the cost of gas, wear and tear on our vehicles etc any more so my hubby really wanted to see if we could find these things closer to home. When I had looked the first year I couldn't find anyone willing to teach either instrument closer than 45 minutes and they were in opposite directions from each other. So that was why I chose the teacher we did, because she taught both piano and violin. So I have been praying and asking God to provide teacher closer to home, in the same direction. Meanwhile I had been hoping to put the girls in voice lessons and have them in a choir. But I knew that the only way to do that was to drive to the city. I was so tormented over wanting these things for them, and wanting to be at home more and driving less.
Well I am so happy to share that God is a God of miracles! He provided a violin teacher, who also teaches in a style I want and like, only ten minutes from here. And then yesterday my mom was in getting her hair done and the lady beside her started chatting, and it turns out she teaches piano and voice! AND she cleans a house for a lady a mile up the road from us on Thurs mornings so she is going to come to my house and teach the girls!!!! Isn't that amazing!!! I was just beside myself all week marveling at the work of His hands! I will only have to drive one day, and only ten minutes from home!! I am sooo blessed!
Well it is getting late here, I better head for bed, blessings!
Erin

Yarn Along

I am finally joining up with Ginny's Yarn Along again! There has not been much knitting going on in the last month, but I do have some progress on my longies! I also crocheted up a pair of baby ballet slippers for a friends little girl. She bought the yarn to match the babies dress and I whipped them up in an evening! I love the instant gratification that a quick project provides! I forgot to take a picture of what I am reading, I ordered in the 30 heirloom baby knits book from the library-which I love! Can't wait to work on some of them-definitely going to try my hand at cables one of these days! I am also reading up all the homeschool books and such that we finally got this week! Definitely enjoying my tidbits of reading this week. Stay tuned for some exciting adventures happening over here at the homestead!

So without further ado-the pics!

I am going to use the lovely lilac color for the skirty and I think a matching Milo

The sweet little ballet slippers, sorry for the poor pics the morning light was not cooperating!

Oh and a little flower that she is going to put on a clip for her hair!

Blessings,

Erin

Reno'd bedroom, chicks and playground!

Life is finally starting to settle in around here, sort of! Trying to get back into a routine, and get my family back to normal! I wanted to post some pictures, with my new camera and show you our bedroom after the renos! And I wanted to show you how big and beautiful my chickies are-so without further ado-

Love my new room, love my new bedding, love the pine trim! Love  love  love!

Of course I had just given them some scratch to put them back in their pen as one of my dear children left the door open! So all you see  is their  cute patoots!

We were given a chicken from our neighbors poor thing stands out ! We have no idea what she is-other than a bantam of some sort!

Redneck playground! Lol! We bought these as we are going to be building our own  playcentre!

Grandma's gift! How can you tell she likes John Deere??!!

Playing catch up and my 10th anniversary present!

This has been such a disjointed summer, filled with chaos and crazy weather. We are finally back living in our own house (thank goodness!) We finished up our bedroom today, with the exception of three pieces of trim on the ceiling! We are all moved back in and I am just loving the new floors, new paint and beautiful pine trim!! Later this week I get to pick up a new bedding set then I will take a pic to share with you!

Speaking of pictures-I got my 10th anniversary present a little early- a new camera!! In case you haven't noticed-my pics on here have been terrible-but no more! My hubby bought me the Canon rebel T3i as a gift for sharing 10 wonderful years together! Yes I know he is the best and no  he doesn't have any brothers! *grin*
So I just had to share a few pics taken this evening, without me reading the instruction manual and with no touch ups or corrections-did I mention I am in LOVE!!!

                                                                             the very first pic

                                                                   Dirty face sorry!

                                                                            Serious/ pouty face!

                                                                       My little blue eyed angel!

MR. Handsome, we won't mention that it was grandma

who shaved his head without mommies permission!

                                           

My big girl, with really crazy hair!!

So yes I am having much fun with my new toy! Can't wait to get out tommorow and shoot some outdoor pics! After I finally clean my house top to bottom that is lol! Finally getting everything back in its place! Very much looking forward to organization and lack of chaos!

Many more pics to follow!

Blessings, Erin

Adventures in homesteading

This week has been an exasperating week here on the farm, in fact it has been a frustrating month all around lol!
To start with, we are currently living in my folks basement, due the severe mosquito problem in our little house. That in itself is frustrating!  However we are on the last leg of renovating our bedroom, we had to strip it right back to the studs-found out we had NO insulation in the walls or ceiling! ( No wonder we froze this winter!) So we are insulated now, we have the drywall up and I have the third coat of mud over the tape and nails and corners, just have the last sanding to do and then can start putting up the primer and paint! Hopefully by the end of this week we will be back in our own house!

So on to the newest drama! Yesterday I had sent Julianna out to feed the baby chicks, we share the responsibility as the waterer is to heavy for her to lift, so she feeds and I water! Well a minute or so after she is out the door I here shouting-I ran out the door and saw immediately what the problem was-we had a yearling heifer break through the fence and get into the yard the day before, we have another set of cows in the yard site pasture that haven't calved yet, so it wasn't a big deal that she was out. So mom and I just left her for the men to take care of this weekend when they got home as they move groups of cattle around on the lease and to different pastures every weekend and then they could fix the fence-note that mom and I are completely capable of fixing fence, it was just that they guys would be home in a day or two and it wasn't a big deal.
Well that morning when I came running I discovered that the horses,  that were also in the same pasture with the yearling heifers, broke through the fence and where getting into all my chicken feed in our woodshed (temporary housing for our feed!) They destroyed 6 bags of feed-half of which were organic feed that I had to order in and pay a lot more for than the cracked wheat and chick starter-but still I had to drive the hour to the nearest feed store and pay 65 bucks to replace the non organic feeds-and order in the organic feed! I was soooo angry with those horses!!!!!! We have also been storing our pop cans/water bottles/milk jugs in the shed temporarily and they had taken all those bags and shaken them everywhere-I found cans and bottles all over the yard site, and they even opened the sealed feed bags and shook them out everywhere. And to top it off I had just gotten the grass in the yard to start growing nicely I had spread some black dirt from the manure pile and spread it out to fill in all the holes as where our house is was once one of the horse pastures (ironic I know!)  And now there is a huge slimy muddy mess where their hooves dug up my nice yard GRRRR. I would show you some pictures but my camera battery is dead and the charger is in my dresser which happens to be on the back bottom of the pile in our living room buried!
Well that is just a few of the adventures going on here!
Hope you are having a wonderful long weekend!
Blessings
Erin

Yarn Along and the heartbreak of farm life

I have lots of pic to share with you, pics of our new babies, my baby and of course my knitting-I haven't accomplished a lot this week in the knitting department. I have been too busy caring for all the little babies in my life as well as volunteering at VBS this week in the nursery. I am loving this longies pattern, and how quick it works up, and now that I am working on my second go round it just keeps getting easier! I am past the three short rows, so it is smooth sailing till splitting for the legs!|

 Now to the heart break...remember the cute bunnies I showed you in the last post? Well its a long story but their pen was broken into by the dog (we didn't know this at the time) . So the next day we went to a ladies house in a nearby town and picked up three other little bunnies. The next day we were out in the garden in the evening and there we found one of the bunnies munchin on some tall grass! We were able to catch it and put it back where it belonged, so now we had four bunnies.

Well last night Les moved the bigger chicks into the new coop-that still isn't quite done yet-as well as the bunnies, and moved the little 6 day old chicks into the other makeshift coop. The new coop has a dirt floor. This morning when Les checked on them-they had dug out and were all gone. This evening as we were sitting on the deck eating our supper as its above 30 here, the dog goes trotting by with Benjamin`s bunny hanging from its mouth... of course all three kids saw and burst into hysterical tears and sobs, even my little man who knew it was his bunny and who had wanted them the most, was bawling his little three year old heart out. Both mommy and grandma were in tears because they were so upset.

 My oldest has such a heart for God, and she just kept saying, why did God make Star (the dog) if she was going to eat their bunnies. It is so hard to explain that Star was being the way God created her, and that small animals are low on the food chain, but she was just so upset. So if you would, please pray for my littles as their hearts are breaking.

                                                   Their first home-the wood box

                                                  Their second home-the swimming pool!

                                                       They grow sooo fast!

                                                 Ahemm don`t mind the cle*vage

                                                       My little bright eyes

                                                      The longies

Don`t forget to go to Ginny`s site and Nicole`s and visit all the other wonderful ladies and see their beautiful wip`s!
Blessings
Erin

yarn along and a surprise!

I missed the last two yarn alongs because we have had our hands full lately! We've been working on finishing up our chicken coop, we had a baby girl with the measles-or so they think, and we have had to stay in my parents basement for the last week because of an extreme mosquito problem in our house *sigh* So needless to say we have been busy, however I did manage to cast on a new project-I am doing another pair of longies for Olivia-in the next size up, and in the sweetest butter yellow yarn!!!

As for reading-I have been reading up on poultry-researching organic feed sources and mixes for mixing our own, unfortunately it is really hard to find a local source for organic feed-the closest being two and a half hours away...
In other news
I am so exicted to show you my pics this week, because a couple weeks ago we went to a heritage breed show and sale, and came home with 6 exhibition quality buff orpington chicks, they are about 10 weeks old now we think and I just LOVE them!!! And we also came home with two  bunnies because we brought our little guy with us and he was so upset when we put the chickens in the carrier and not any bunnies-so we brought home two! 
And I got the call this morning that our 50 hatchery chicks (also buff orps) are in at the feed store and we get to pick them up this morning!! So more pics to follow soon!!

So without further ado I am linking up with Ginny  for her weekly yarn along!

                                                                 Flopsy and Mopsy

                                                               Poor little measles girl

                                                           And the sweet longies!