Old Fashioned Lifestyle

Well, we are getting close on the house.  The flooring is going in this week.

Here are a few pics.  It is clearly still a construction site, but you’ll get the idea…

kitchen and dining room

This picture is taken standing in the kitchen, looking into the living room.  The wood on the ceiling in the kitchen, and the red wood on the wall came from the barn we took down.  We brought the outdoors in with this house!  (We also used exterior lighting in the living room!)

back porch

This is perhaps my favorite part of the house – the back porch.   In the summer, this will be in the shade.  Ahhh.   And the view from the porch?  Spectacular!

back porch view

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This photo was taken by Giggle Goose.

No…. they were not born on the Lazy Sombrero, but they did come to us in April.

It is the big “farm note” of the month.

Here are a few pics to celebrate the newest addition to the homestead.

ewe

babies

The baby lambs the day we brought them home. They are twins – though you can see the black one was much larger than the brown one.

We started off very small – one ewe and her two ewe lambs. One reason I liked this match is because of the different wool colors I will have to spin next year. Each one is a different color. We brought them all home when the lambs were 2 weeks old. The littlest one, Cinnimon, didn’t seem to be doing well after a couple of days. It was very lethargic and seemed to be losing weight. Our caretaker told us he believed she was starving to death. Yikes! We brought her in and fed her with a bottle – - and still tried to encourage her to nurse. After a few days of this, she perked up and it was clear she had begun to nurse.

Now, they really seem to be settled in and are thriving.

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We’ve got a broody hen – - going on four weeks.

Her eggs haven’t hatched, but she won’t leave the nest.

We made some mistakes upfront:

When she sat on her clutch, we didn’t take out the eggs to candle them.  She was also sitting on too many eggs – 19 of them!!  We just figured that of the 19, there would be some fertilized eggs in there. So, we left her alone.

The other morning, we went out and saw that there were about 6 eggs uncovered – - and ice cold.  Looked to me like she haden’t been covering them all night. 

We tried to candle them.  They looked dark, but no evidence of life.

We opened one.  A mushy yolk.

We opened another.  A chick.  Small, but fully formed.

I have a huntch that she was just not able to cover all those eggs all the time, and at one time or another they were all kicked out, got cold, and died.

In the mean time, I’ve got this poor hen with no babies!  What do I do?

Things happen fast in the spring!

• Midnight (rabbit) had her babies a few days ago…  They look like miniture pot bellied pigs!
• The seedlings from the state arrived yesterday.
• We got a ewe and her 2 lambs….   now we are repairing fence….  holes we never knew about!

Not to mention our business life has been busy busy.  We are writing a how-to book and preparing that website…

How To Start A Self Storage Business

But, I miss writing about our homeschooling activities and our homestead – - – so I will try to carve out some time somewhere!  At the very least, I’ll come back with some spring baby pictures.

We had a donkey on our property – he belongs to someone else, but boards here. I don’t know his real name, but we have affectionately called him Eeyore.

It had been a few years since I have watched or read Winnie the Pooh. When my kids were younger, the 100 acre woods was a favorite place to visit. But other then a few favorite sayings “My spelling is wobbly” that have remained in the household Winnie the Pooh had not been a part of our lives…. until Eeyore showed up on our property.

Our Eeyore was just like the Eeore from the story. His head hung low – and he was never in a hurry to get anywhere. I used to watch him in the mornings – before my household got too loud. I never put too much thought into watching him and what he did for me…. until I read a description in Pencil Dancing : New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit about Cow Brain and Race Horse Brain.

Cow Brain is the take-your-time-observe-everything-enjoy-yourself lifestyle. Race Horse Brain is goal and productivity driven. If you spend too much time in Cow Brain Mode you will never get anything done. If you spend too much time in Race Horse brain, you will become the most dull person on the block – turning your creative life to dust.

Now, for confession time.

My name is Homestead Mama and I am a workaholic.

I am a complete and total Race Horse brain. I have been known to have tunnel vision and completely miss the life that is happening all around me. I have a big fat gaping hole where my creative life should be. I realize now that watching Eeyore gave me a few minutes of Cow Brain time.

Eeyore died while we were away on our trip. He lived a long life – 22 years – but the farm is a little gloomier these days – without our gloomy Eeyore. But he taught me a lesson that I will carry on. I need more Cow Brain time.

Thank you Eeyore – and Goodbye

Eyore

Have you ever heard of geocaching or letterboxing?  I first read about them a few years ago, and thought it sounded like a really fun activity.  What a great way to enjoy the outdoors and start a fun family hobby. 

The basic idea is that people hide a box, then submit directions or clues to get to the box.  Either hidden treasures or stamps are found in the box.  I never did actually go out in search of a treasure though.   Life just got busy, though.

In preperation for our road trip in Mexico, I have been preparing for some activities for the kids.  The idea of geocaching and letterboxing came to me again.  I set out on the internet to find information about these activities again.

This time, I found some new ideas.  These are even better.  It is geocaching or letterboxing in an eco-friendly way.  Let’s face it – leaving a manmade box in a beautiful natural setting is not the best way to care for mother earth.

One alternative is Ecoscavenger.   This is the same basic idea…  someone designs a hunt.  This time though  – the destination itself is the reward.  Ecoscavenger looks as if it is just getting started, so there are not many hunts yet submitted – and none in Mexico.  So, we just may design a few hunts to submit on Ecoscavenger!

Another is Degree Confluence Project.  This is a fun one….  GPS based photography.  You take a picture of each degree latitude and longitude crossing.  Many of the points in Mexico have been covered by the project, but it is a great idea and one we may do for our own scrapbooks…. (uh, that is, uh, if we get a GPS!)

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Yesterday, as a part of Creating a Haven In Your Home over at Biblical Womanhood, I set out to do the following today (plan is in red.  Result is in Black) 

1. Refresh Your Spirit.  I will spend 5 minutes in deep breathing and meditation

What Happened:  I had a lot of trouble quieting my mind.  Too much going on.  Too much to worry about…  am I addicted to worry?  So, I tried to quiet and the quieting did not come and so – I went on.  Tomorrow will come.

1. Take Time to Plan.   I will take 5 minutes to “remember” and write down what our typical daily structure used to “look like” before chaos hit our household.  The morning routine, etc.

Though I did not see the immediate result of my Refresh Your Spirit time, I realized during my “planning time” that the day – as it used to look – isn’t the day I want anymore.  My soul needs something new.

When I first decided to homeschool, it was unschooling that really inspired me.  However, doubt, guilt, fear, who knows… something troubled me and stopped me from totally jumping off the “school” wagon.  However, the beliefs I held never went away – perhaps they just went dormant.  In the mean time, I had read The Well Trained Mind and it sounded good to me.  There were aspects of The Well Trained Mind that really made sense to me…  I like the organization and structure.  The notebook system is great.  So, in lue of unschooling, I losely followed suggestions in The Well Trained Mind.

Then….  the chaos hit and The Well Trained Mind flew out the window.  We went to unschooling by default – but the unschooling life as it stands is missing something.  What I realized this morning is that what we are missing – what I am missing is the nurturing environment…  the creative wonderland I envisioned…  the place for inspiration.  I realized this morning that what I need to create is a haven in my home – a creative wonderland – an inspirational home …  not a schedule for the day.  (But, I probably DO need a schedule for cleaning – and other mundane housework – as that is the stuff I don’t enjoy and will procrastinate at…)

 And so – during my planning sessions, what I will be planning is the transformation of my home and family environment into a place of creativity, inspiration, and nurturing.

1. Do Something
   1. Inventory the homeschool and craft supplies
   2. Load of Laundry
   3. History Projects with Kids
   4. Finish Decorating for Christmas

I got most of my work done, and am off to do these things now.

Technorati Tags: Family Life, Homeschool, Homestead, Motivation, Scheduling