We Bought a Farm: Bring Jerome Home

I met my friend Karen through Heritage Home Scholars -- our amazing homeschool group. The first day, someone came up to me and said, "You have to meet Karen!" And they were right. Not only does she run a farm about 15 minutes from us, but she has two adopted children who are right at the same age as my kiddos. Her husband is a pastor, and they do a lot of "country" activities way out of my area of expertise. Their son Joshua is big into roping, they run chapels before rodeos, and do a lot of work with special needs children and adults and animals. 

It is always nice to have someone else you know at events you go to. I am getting to know a lot of ladies at the co-op, but seeing Karen, always makes me feel a little less shy. 

Even better? Karen happened to be raising the exact same kind of sheep that we are: Katahdin sheep. And even better than that? She had a ram that she was willing to let us borrow for a few months to hopefully, impregnate our ewes!

On Wednesday we went and picked up Jerome from Ms. Karen's house. But before we got Jerome, we got to meet their new baby goats -- who LOVED to climb on top of the kids!

That's Jada out to the right -- she's one year older than Abigail.

Yes that is Sidge underneath two goats.

I think Jada is dancing while Sidge is stood on. 

You can't even see Joshua in this photo -- but take my word for it, he is one cute kiddo -- Sidge absolutely ADORES him.

Sidge loved the experience.

You really can't see Joshua in this photo. And yes, that's a chicken under Sidge's arm. 

And here is a picture of Jerome (the black sheep) after he joined the flock. The pigs didn't want anything to do with him and either did the sheep. But within 24 hours, they were all friends!

We Bought a Farm: So Long Dan!

We are a little sad today. Our friend and Intern, Dan, said good bye to our family and our farm today. He was here for three months and really became another member of our family. (Hannah had a MAJOR crush on him!) We never set a time for how long Dan would stay. It was always up to him and us to decide when he was ready to try something else. He was simply here to try out farm-life for a bit, and he decided it was time to go try some other things. We really enjoyed having him here and will miss him a lot! He and I had a lot of good laughs moving chickens in the rain, and I'll never forget the day we did it while he recited past episodes of SpongeBob to me knowing full well I not a SpongeBob fan. Dan also amazed us, regularly, with his ability to eat more food than we thought was humanly possible. He was easy-going, polite, dependable, and incredibly trust-worthy around our farm and around our most important asset -- our children. We really hope our paths will cross again in the future! So long Dan. You have a great future ahead of you, and we hope that maybe it will include Bauernhof Kitsteiner.

What a Strong Will Looks Like

This series of videos helps illustrate what it is like parenting a strong-willed child ... a first for me. I happened to record a video of Hannah refusing to follow directions. I had no idea I would go to war with her over saying "thank you." I really try to pick battles and try not to get into "absolutes." I really didn't think this one would go very far. All she had to do was say "Thank you!"

But once I commit to something, I have to follow through on it. Patience and consistency are my only two hard and fast parenting rules. I honestly thought this would last a few minutes at most. The entire process was 90 minutes long!

I've been working diligently on staying calm and requiring Hannah to follow directions. Here was where it began:

7:30am -- The confrontation takes place.



7:40am -- I quickly realize this is not going to end easily.



7:50am



8:00am -- A new level. Clothes have started to come off.



8:10am



8:20am



8:30am



8:40am



8:50am -- I had to move all the toys in order to make time-out even less fun. It still wouldn't work!



9:00am -- Daddy wakes up after a long night shift and tries to help ... to no avail!



9:10am -- By this point I am very concerned that I may run out of time. I have to leave at 9:30am to take the kiddos to speech. And this chick won't break!



9:20am -- And then suddenly, all of a sudden, she gave in.



This
child
makes
my
heart
soar
with
love!
She
is
going
to
be
a
force
to
reckon
with!

My Houdini

After finding Hannah completely naked in her crib on many occasions ... and having to wash soiled sheets from her using the bathroom while completely naked, I went back to the drawing board.

Mind you I have never had another child remove a single piece of clothing. Especially not a diaper. 

So I bought pajamas with a zipper. I put them on backwards. And she was getting out of them! They even had a snap at the top that she could undo. It appeared she was undoing the zipper and shap, but I couldn't be sure that she wasn't wiggling out of them and then unzipping and unsnapping after they were off. 

So I tried a safety pin. And when I came in after nap, Hannah said, "I can't do this!" I looked, and sure enough, she had managed to unzip her pajamas straight down her back. But the pin had stayed intact! This little Houdini!

The pin seems to be doing the trick right now. Nothing else works because she can get t-shirts and pants on and off with ease. I have, however, when feeling a bit lazy, opted to not change her into the pajamas and simply pin the back of her shirt to the back of her pants at nap time and this seems to work okay.

God really does create kids in a variety of amazing packages.

The Hannah package makes me absolutely pull my hair out coupled with an intense sense of pride for how innovative and thoughtful and full of pazazz she is! She truly is full of spirit and spunk and is nothing close to boring!

She has also humbled me. I must admit, in the deep recesses of my brain, I kind of thought I had this parenting young children thing down to a science.

WhatEVER!

We Bought a Farm: Ms. Freckles & Friends

Ms. Freckles died today. Man, when these pigs or sheep die it really tears me up. I wonder if I can handle this and I start questioning whether I am cut out for this farm life. How do people do this? It makes me so sad.

We are thinking that there may be a poisonous plant in our fields. We aren't sure. It is so hard to know.

And just so sad ...

I think the hardest part is not knowing why we've lost two pigs in two months. Wondering if there is something they are eating, a sickness they are getting ... and also wondering if the one sheep we lost may be related.

Losing animals is part of farming. But I hope I never stop reacting strongly to the loss of our animals. We really love them -- especially those that are our breeders and we hope to have around for a long time.

However, the day was not all bad. Far from it. I was SO blessed to have some very dear friends come for a visit. Many years ago, before JB and I were married or had children, we lived in Bowling Green and then Franklin, Kentucky and attended a church that became like family to us. Mike, was the pastor of his church, and we actually became the godparents of their three wonderful kids. We spent much time with this family, and they were  our family in Kentucky. Mike ended up marrying JB and me and then also married two of John's siblings.

Deanna and her two daughters were able to drive 4.5 hours to visit us for the day at the farm today. I look forward to them coming again when they can stay longer!!

Introductions to the pig and sheep.

Meeting the chickens.

Lovely ladies who will also occupy a very special place in my heart!

Things that made me smile this week

When JB works late at night, Abigail will go to sleep in our bed, and then JB moves her when he gets home. It is a way she feels better about Daddy not being there when she goes to sleep. Last night I put a "barrier" up inbetween us so she would quit coming onto my side. Abigail said, "But Mommy? How are we going to 'nuggle'?"

JB's job is often "feast or famine." This week is a feast week -- he is working a ton! When he collapsed on the bed, exhausted, the four kiddos decided to each get a piece of him.

Abigail decided to take a rest on Scrubby.

And share her sweater with him. She thought he might be cold.

He is such a good dog.

We Bought a Farm: Sick Pig

We have a sick pig. We lost one a few weeks ago, and now we have another that it looks like we may lose too. This is a hard one for us as she is one of our breeders. This means we named her (Ms. Freckles) and expected her to be with us for a long time.

We haven't lost many animals, but the sheep and pigs? Losing one of them really gets to me. Inside I think things like, "I'm not sure I want to be a farmer." It makes my stomach hurt. She is cuddled up outside in her shelter and the other pigs are nestled around her -- as if they know she needs them.

If you can say a little prayer for Ms. Freckles, I'd appreciate it. We are still hoping a miracle can occur.

Friday Funnies

Hannah: "Mommy has hair and Isaac has hair and Abigail has hair."
JB: "What do I have?'
Hannah: "A head."

*****

The kids picked up something at Costco that they wanted to buy with their own money. When they got home, I told them they had to get the money out of their bank. As Sidge handed me his money, he said, "This is my least favorite part."

*****

Our guinea fowl are, well, stupid. I don't know how else to say it but to just say that they are not smart animals. I have so many examples of watching them ram their head into the same wall hundreds of times trying to get to the other side. It's a non-stop thing with them. While my cousin Sarah was here, a bunch flew into the duck fencing, and they could not get out. I was trying to help them get out, and they can't even figure out how to do it with help. So I finally threw up my hands and said: "It's just the truth. These animals are really, really stupid."

Isaac said, "Mom, you really shouldn't say that baddest word. You should say they aren't very smart."

I should. But it doesn't even explain it well enough!

*****

Isaac: "I'm eighty-cent-per-sure that I am full."

*****

While walking back from feeding the animals.
Sidge: "I discovered what this plant is used for." (Points to a tall, reedy bush.)
Me: "You did. How?"
Sidge: "Well, Charleigh and I figured it out. It's for toothpicks."
Me: "It is?"
Sidge: "Yes, that's what we thought. And Dad confirmed it."
Me: "Wow."
Sidge: "Yeah. You can put toothpicks in your mouth and use them. I don't really use them. I just set them there. And they taste good. Well not good, but they don't taste like anything bad and you can just keep them in your mouth for as long as you want."

*****

Isaac: "My chest hurts."
Sidge: "Yeah. Mine too."
Me: "That's because you guys are sick."
Sidge: "We're sick?"
Me: "Yes."
Sidge: "Oh man. Well, does sick mean we can always watch a lot of TV?"

*****
Hannah showing off her ABC's. 



*****
I love the way Sidge explains things. He gets so detailed and animated and serious about the most trivial things. This video sort of captures this.

How I feel about food crafts

I am not a crafty person. Not only am I not very good at them, but I just don't really enjoy them either. 

But I try to do something "crafty" now and then -- especially when my kids seek me out with an idea of their own. 

(I also try to attend things -- like a library story time -- where they provide the craft and clean up all the mess! That's my idea of a good craft!)

Sidge spotted this food craft idea in our Ranger Rick magazine. (We really love this magazine in our house -- especially Sidge who is crazy about wildlife.)

So we decided to try it out at our house. Here's what we ended up with:

But here's the thing .... the "sand" for the "crabs" is supposed to be graham cracker crumbs. I really dislike when a food craft makes me create something that is sort of not edible. The kids can't really eat graham cracker crumbs by themselves. So now I have a Tupperware container of graham crackers that I have to find another food idea for in order to use them up.

If we are going to do something creative, I don't want to waste any food. The kids would have much preferred to actually eat graham crackers instead of smashing them up into inedible pieces. 

That beings said ... they did have fun!

We Bought a Farm: A bit more action for me

Well, we just finished processing our second batch of chickens. In total, we did 88 chickens today. This will be our last batch until April. Next year, we plan to do about 1,000 chickens. But we will wait and see how much stamina we have.

Last time we processed, I managed to stay out of the actual "processing" part. But this time, I noticed that the men were backing up a bit, and I realized that it would be helpful if I could help with a step. 

They taught me how to cut off the feet, head, and the oil gland. 

I'll admit. It was not easy to do. It wasn't hard physically. But it was hard to get over the squeamishness that was brewing up inside me the whole time I was doing it.

But after a little while, I found my groove.

If you'd like some information on how we raise our chickens, and why we think they are one of the best chickens you can buy, click here. 

Also, while we cannot drive the meat over state lines to sell, anyone that lives within driving distance of us is welcome to contact us to buy some of our meat. We have already found quite a few regular customers and sold our first 50 without even trying. We really don't plan on doing any advertising and are just hoping to have our "regular" customers and stay with that.

The kids continue to do very well on processing days, but Sidge is, by far, the one that is the most excited. He actually woke up early this morning and came down and told us he had washed his face, his legs, and brushed his teeth in preparation for the day. He then worked, I mean, actually worked for EIGHT hours helping to catch chickens and then fish them out of the chill tank. He wouldn't even stop to eat!

A very hard but very fun family-filled day here at The Bauernhof! 

We Bought a Farm: Love our Layers

Evening meal for our laying flock. Beautiful birds! We hope to start getting eggs from them in the next few months. We will be keeping half the eggs for ourselves and selling the other half!

Ameraucana
Buff Orpington
Dominique 
Golden Laced Polish
New Hampshire
Rhode Island Red
Silver Laced Wyandotte

Review: The Girl from the Train

I recently had an opportunity to review a copy of The Girl from the Train From Booklook Bloggers in exchange for my honest review.

Folks, I LOVED this book.

And I recommend it without reservation.

I am a huge fan of Christian movies and books being as good as secular material. Haunting, beautiful, heartbreaking, and triumphant, I was never disappointed, continually surprised me. 

As World War Ii draws to a close, Jakob fights with the Polish resistance against the crushing forces of Germany and Russia. They intend to destroy a German troop transport, but Gretl's unscheduled train reaches the bomb first. What follows is the story of both Jakob and Gretl as they live their life countries apart. 

What follows is a story rich in love, loss, and the survival of the human spirit. 

If you like historical fiction, this Christian book shares the story of Christ's love and the power of the human spirit. 

My only "complaint" is that it can be a little difficult to accept the direction that Jakob and Gretl's relationship takes. But if you can get by that one small point, you will love this story.

Review: Faith of our Fathers

If you have not had the opportunity to visit the FishFlix website, you are really missing out! FishFlix is an online Christian Movie Store run by Christians. You can get Christian movies, Christian DVDs, and Christian films at a very fair and reasonable cost.

I had the opportunity to review the movie Faith of our Fathers which came to theaters this past July.

Faith of our Fathers  follows the story of two young men: Wayne and John Paul as they retrace the steps of their fathers -- who both died in the Vietnam War. They meet as strangers, but guided by handwritten letters from their fathers on the battlefield, they embark on a journey to the Vietnam Wall. Along the way, they discover that the devastation of war cannot break the love of two fathers and sons. And they also discover the faith that guided their dads in the darkest of times.

I am so impressed by the Christian films that have recently been being put out into the theaters. I really want Christian movies to present the same quality that we see from secular films. The quality of this movie was good. I also thought that message was very good. This story presented the story of salvation and redemption in a very powerful way.

However, while I liked the storyline, this was not my favorite Christian film. (Unconditional is currently my favorite.) The main reason was that I felt a few things were just a little too far-fetched. These feelings mostly surrounded the storyline of Wayne. I simply found him a bit over-the-top and when their father's former sergeant is the one that catches him trying to commit armed robbery, I just couldn't quite buy into it anymore.

That being said, this is a movie worth watching. While it is probably a little bit too mature in storyline for young children, teenagers will be able to follow and it would lead to good discussion in your home. I also am a huge fan of Candace Cameron Bure and thought she had a strong role in the movie.

In addition, I definitely intend to continue to turn to FishFlix for quality Christian entertainment!

Some Shane Snaps

Our friend from Turkey, Shane, came to visit us on the farm. His wife was attending a conference in D.C. He took a few fotos that I wanted to share!

First stop for Shane: Chik-fil-A! He had been back in the states a few days and had eaten at Chik-fil-A every single day. It's one of the places we overseas people miss a lot!

Sidge discussing the origins of the universe with the sheep.

JB loves his new life!

The pigs love belly rubs.

Prairie girl.

JB's mom made this dress for her oldest daughter Elizabeth. Abigail LOVES it.

Scrubs showing off his permanently dirty face. He runs through the wet grass on the farm and gets muddy like this ... constantly. I actually am giving up on bathing him.

Shane caught Scrubs' new pose. He does this all the time!

Isaac with one of the unlucky males.

Our ducks before we processed 10 males. (We had too many males which would have lead to bad fighting as they got more sexually mature.)

A picture of Mr. Shane before saying good bye. He played SO much with the kiddos.

Homeschool: Field Trips

I absolutely LOVE the homeschool group I have joined in the "big town" about 30 minutes from our farm. There are two parts to this group: (a) A Co-op on Mondays where nearly 200 children are taught by the moms in all kinds of classes and (b) field trips that go on throughout the month. 

It is so amazing how well-run this homeschool group is. I can just sign up and pay for these field trips online and then show up! So easy and so wonderful.

Last month we went and saw Jack and the Beanstalk at the Children's Theatre. It was delightful! I especially loved that they cast Jack as an African American boy with a white mom without any explanation. Such a great story of how adoption works!

Abigail and me attempting a selfie.

With our good homeschool friends: Joshua and Jada. Sidge LOVES his new friend Joshua.

New Tradition

I've previously written about my Halloween feelings on my Blog. I'm not going to get into a big debate about it. I totally respect people who don't do it. I'm not sure if doing it is the right thing.  We read this book every year and try to find ways to include Jesus in the most secular holiday of all. 

Since we aren't in a military community anymore, and since we are not living in a neighborhood, I really wanted to find a fun thing to do as a family. We found Bright's Zoo Boo at the Zoo. This is a small zoo about 45 minutes from our house. They had all kinds of candy stations and games. If the weather is good, this is something we definitely hope to do in the future.

We met up with our friend Ms. Karen. She is a fellow homeschool mom, fellow adoptive mom, and fellow farmer who only lives about 15 minutes from us. She has an older daughter and then two young kiddos who are my kids age!

With our new friends.

Isaac is Spiderman. I didn't get a single picture of him in a costume without a jacket.

I bought Abigail ruby red slippers to be Dorothy. I never spend money on costumes, but she was insistent, and she already had a blue gingham dress. Lesson learned. Morning of she completely changed her mind and decided to just "wing" a costume. We decided she looked most like Lemon Meringue form Strawberry Shortcake. 

Hannah borrowing Sidge's Optimus Prime mask.

Mr. Shane joined us so we actually got some pictures of all of us as a family. The morning started off very cold, but warmed enough to take off our coats!

On Sunday, our pastor used a visual illustration in church of kids laying out all their candy and checking out their "stash." I had never seen this before but sure enough, after the sermon, I watched as my boys did just that!

Isaac made me so happy when he said, "I don't like chocolate that much. So you can eat all my chocolate Mom." But then he discovered trading with his siblings and that got over-taken!

Here are some flashbacks from Halloweens past:

• Halloween 2005 (pre-kids -- Minnesota)
• Halloween 2008 (one kiddo -- Eglin)
• Halloween 2009 (two kiddos -- Eglin)
• Halloween 2010 (two kiddos -- Turkey )
• Halloween 2011 (three kiddos -- Turkey)
• Halloween 2012 and Part II and Scrubs (three kiddos -- Lajes) 
• Halloween 2013 and Scrubs and on Base (barely four kiddos -- Lajes)
• Halloween 2014 (Four kiddos -- Tennessee) 

We Bought a Farm: Sidge and the baby mouse

"Hey kids! Come see what I found!" is a pretty normal utterance in our house.

I'd like to say that what follows involves harmless and fluffy animals.

But it normally doesn't.

Instead it often involves worms. Bugs. Snakes. And even rodents.

This morning, it was a baby mouse.

Mice are a problem on a farm. They get into your feed no matter what you do to try and stop them. And unfortunately, due to some severe cat allergies that my husband has, we don't think we can solve the problem in the old traditional way.

This baby mouse had fallen into a bucket and could not get out. JB sat on a chair in the living room as each child, and yes, even the mom, came and took a peek at the little mouse.

(I've been working on not being squeamish.)

(It's really a waste of energy when you live in the country.)

After a few minutes of ooohing and aaahhing  over the little mouse (who was most likely responsible for getting into our bird seed yesterday) JB headed back outside.

Sidge followed.

(Sidge always follows anyone who is going anywhere outside on the farm.)

Let me pause for a moment to talk about Sidge.

All of our children seem to like our new home. They like the farm. They enjoy seeing the animals and being free to roam.

But Sidge loves living on the farm. He breathes it, and it is almost the only thing he talks about. Anytime someone is going to do farm work, he wants to tag along. On your way, he leads the conversation with question after question that goes like this: "What's your favorite animal? Do you like wildlife? What's the best part of being a farmer? What is your favorite job on the farm? What animal is your favorite to take care of on the farm?"

Yesterday, when we were done feeding the chickens, I told Sidge I was heading up to the house.

"You can stay here a bit by yourself if you want."

Sidge was sitting next to our laying chicken tractor, sticking long pieces of grass through the tractor for the chickens to eat. He looked up at me and said, "I'm not really alone if I'm with the animals."

Sidge is also one of the most tender-hearted and sweet little boys you will ever meet. He can tear up from happiness within a second. He often "happy cries." When a visitor leaves, he takes it hard. When Mr. Shane fixed Abigail's new bike yesterday, he turned and said, "It just makes me so happy to see Abigail back on her bike."

My sweet boy.

Anyways... so back to the mouse.

JB and Sidge began loading up feed to take down to the chickens in the pasture. While JB scooped out feed, Sidge stood over the bucket, watching the mouse.

"What are we going to do with the mouse Dad?"

JB paused before he said, "Well Sidge, I'm not really sure. Mice are a lot of trouble for us here on the farm. And if I let this one go, there will be more baby mice and more feed that they get into."

"So what are you going to do with him?"

"Well, I think the best thing might be to put him in with the chickens. Chickens are omnivores, and if we do that, the mouse will die for a purpose and the chickens will get some good food."

Sidge scrunched up his nose and said, "I don't really want to do that Dad."

"Well it really is the best thing to do. But if you really feel strongly, you could take a walk with that bucket all the way into the woods and let the mouse go up there."

Sidge thought for a moment. "Maybe you and I could go together?" he asked.

JB shook his head. "I have to go out and feed the chickens before church. If you want to save the mouse, you'll have to do it yourself."

Sidge thought another moment, picked up the bucket, and took off for the woods.

Later, in the van on the way to church, I asked Sidge about his choice. "I talked to the mouse all the way up to the forest," he said. But then his eyes filled with tears.

"Why are you crying?"

"Because," he began. "I forgot to say good bye to him."

"Oh don't worry," I said. "That mouse knows you saved his life."

"You think so?"

"Yep."

Sidge gave a resolute nod, and smiled. "I did the right thing," he said.

And I smiled.

And teared up a bit myself.