Saturday is a Special Day

We are crazy busy with the garden right now. Liz calculated today that she could work full time on the garden for the next week and not be caught up. She was not kidding. We feel super blessed by the bounty, so we won't complain. We did things this year that we've never done--canned beans, made eggplant baby food--and grown so many things. 

Jacob pulled our onions today. We will spread them to cure in the basement before using them as fast as possible. We don't have cold storage, so things won't always store as long as we would like. 

Two of our peach trees produced a little bit this year and we harvested most of the fruit today. This is from the Elberta tree and it tastes like sunshine and youth. I wish we had 100 times as many. 

I want to say this was our harvest today, but the more accurate description would be that this is what Liz picked during a garden walk to stave off oversize vegetables and rotting fruits. And, this wasn't until after the beans, onions, potatoes, peaches, and beets had all been harvested.  

These are the roots sitting out so the moist earth will dry before we take then inside. As you can see, we (the boys) like to segregate the vegetables by the color of the their skin. Vegetable racists. We took up all the potatoes and we are sorely wishing for more. Now we know--more potatoes next year!

Our chicks have finally crossed over into the land of pullets and we have been pulling in more and more eggs. We are in the high teens per day and we should settle around 2 dozen a day when all the ladies are laying. We find that with all our adopting from friends this year, we ended up with 5 roosters, way too many for our small flock, so we are going to have to give four of them away. It's really too bad because we will have to say goodbye to our Golden Polish with the pompon head and Violet, the one we nursed back to health, who, as it turns out, is a rooster. Drat. Why didn't our friends purchase their birds more carefully?  Who knows. We love them anyway. 

Family Update

We recently had our pictures taken, and I thought I would use them to update everyone on how we are doing!

Michael, our young 12 year old giant, is growing into a wonderful young man.  He is now taller than I am and his feet are almost the same size as James' (13).  If he don't stop growing soon he will be as tall as James in the next year or two.  If you ask him he will take you that his favorite things are soccer, basketball and reading.  I would add that he enjoys scouting and camping, taking care of the chickens, mowing the lawn with the neighbors riding mower and anything else that makes him feel more grown up.  We have allowed him to drive our cars on our property for small projects which he has loved more than anything else in the world, though, he thinks he should be able to drive all the time now.  He still has 4 more years before he can drive.  It will be a long 4 years for him.

 Joshua is now 10 1/2 and doing his best to keep up with Michael.  Joshua is our creative giant.  Anything he does, he does big and well.  Right now he is focused on origami and Star Wars.  Thanks to Sam's Club he has a Star Wars Origami book which is amazing in Joshua's eyes, and if you were to come and visit he would gladly create something for you.  He also loves soccer and basketball which is nice since they can all play together.  He also loves scouts and is finishing up his Arrow of Light.

Jacob recently turned 8 and is working to find his role as a big boy in our home after being the youngest for 6 years.  He was excited to become a Cub Scout and already loves being a scout.  He also loves star wars but enjoys reading and watching more than origami.  Anything that could possibly become a light saber does.  He also loves being a big brother and is one of Hyrum's best buddies.  

Hyrum just turned 2 and is growing like a weed.  He is your standard 2 year old getting into anything and everything he can.  Just this morning he sprayed soapy water all over the kitchen.  I think his face says it all.  He isn't talking yet, but he sure knows how to express himself.  He loves reading and playing.  He loves going out to feed the chickens.  His favorite thing, however, is baby Simon.  He loves him so much that we have to keep him behind a closed door or else Hyrum will pick him up and play with him.  In another year this will be fabulous but for now we just have to be careful and keep an eye on them.  

Simon is just over 2 weeks old now.  He sleeps, eats and poops, but he is also learning to smile which is so much fun!  He is growing quickly, so we are trying to enjoy every moment.  

James and I are doing well.  James just got back from an amazing conference in New York City.  He got to see 5 different shows and learn how to be a better musical theater director.  He is getting ready for the new school year as well as taking some classes on online education.  I am still teaching online but with a lighter summer, so I can spend more time with my boys.  I am prepping for a new school year.  We moved the school room to the family room downstairs, so we have all of our supplies and materials in a room where the little boys can play.  I think it will work much better, but we'll find out for sure in a couple of weeks.  

Our farm/garden are blossoming beautifully.  Our chickens are laying more than enough eggs to meet our needs.  Our garden is in full bloom, and we are having fun planning meals that involve lots of vegetables.  We love eating food that we have produced, and in all honesty, it tastes amazing!  The boys are getting used to the idea of eating more vegetables and usually love it.  They are a little tired of eggplant, but our plants don't seem to care.  I did make some eggplant, pea and bean baby food with some of the excess.  It will be nice not to have to buy very much baby food this fall.  

In all we are doing great, so enjoy these final pictures of these amazing boys!

Happy Birthday Hryum!

I can't believe that Hyrum is two already!  In the last year he has grown so much.  While he still refuses to use words he has learned to communicate, have preferences, eat like his brothers and much more!  His brothers have also had great fun training him to do many things including cheesy faces, smooshy faces (like a kiss but you just smoosh), act like several animals, race down the stairs on his stomach and well, you get the idea.  It has been fun to see his older brothers love him and take care of him as well.

For his birthday we let him choose his meals, and it was fun to see him choose and then proceed to eat it all!  We all had fun choosing presents for him.  He got a car and a big ball from his brothers.  Then, James and I had a little too much fun giving him Bristle Blocks because we loved them so much when we were little.  They have definitely added some extra fun pieces to the set that we never had.  Everyone had fun building with them and playing with Jacob!

For breakfast he had a tortilla with sour cream because he wanted the eggs and beans on the side.  He seems to like things separated.  He also enjoyed a banana, some grapes and a few cheerios.  Yum!

For desert he had banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting!  

He was getting very excited at the prospect of eating these delights!

He tried very hard to blow that candle out and with the help of his brothers succeeded. 

It was a fun day as we just spent it playing and relaxing.  It just doesn't get much better than that!  On to another year filled with kisses, hugs, playing and much more.  Hopefully we can avoid 'the terrible twos.'  Fingers crossed!

Cleaning out!

We have done a good job of moving in and unpacking, but our storage/garage/driveway were very neglected.  Now that we live in the country our garbage choices are limited and we knew that taking everything to the dump would be expensive and take several trips and several hours.  So, we called our garbage company and they agreed to pick it up for a fee.  It was not a small fee but compared to the fuel and time of going to the dump it was a steal.  So, we hauled it all out to the curb, well, we paid Michael to do it to help him earn money for scout camp (money well earned).  Michael even learned to drive the truck up to the curb which was nice.  But now everything is cleaner and looks much more manageable.  Hopefully we can finish organizing the garage now and finish unpacking those last few boxes!

I don't know if the photo can do this pile justice, but it was a LOT of garbage!  (from behind)

Front shot:  Yes, we finally got rid of our old toilets, dry wall that got wet and much more!

Gardening and Chicken Fun

As always we are busy with the garden and chickens.  We coop trained the chickens and they are now ready to enjoy some time outside.  The boys (including James) built a fenced in area for them, and a cute little ramp to help them get out.

It took the chickens a little while to decide to descend from their cozy home. 

The boys were pretty proud of their work.  And they love watching the chickens outside!

Hyrum loves watching those chickens.  They also love to feed them scraps from the house.  

The chickens also LOVE eating the clover, so it is a good thing we have a whole field of it.  Even Hyrum gets in on the action.  The boys will spend lots of time doing this.  They are even training the chickens to jump for the clover.  Gotta love it!

James has had fun planting pretty things as well.  Our deck is all cleaned off and looking great!  

Lots of herbs to cook with.  We decided having them close by would be helpful!

New window boxes.  These are very impressive!  Way to go!

We are going big with our garden this year.  We will then preserve as much as we can.  Maybe we can bring our food budget down a little.  Fingers crossed!  

Our berry bushes are looking great!  We won't get a ton this year, but one day.  :)

It is hard to see but we planted 70 tomatoes, 50 peppers and 20 eggplant.  With 80 feet of peas in the background.  Wowzers!  I hope we didn't overdo it! 

Our fruit trees are looking great.  Again we won't get much this year, but in time they will be amazing!  

We do have a few peaches which Jacob is very excited about! 

More peaches!  No canning this year, but hopefully the boys save me one.  

Over here we have onions, brussel sprouts, potatoes and more!

Here are some broccoli, kale, sweet potatoes and more.  I don't think the sweet potatoes are going to make it.  We're not sure why, but they don't look good.  There is also asparagus on the right, but it won't produce for another year or two.   But you have to start sometime!

The beans are looking good!  

And more beans!

Rhubarb is a new one for us.  We'll see how it goes!

Who wants some salad!  Apparently Jacob does!   

There are three rows of corn.  I just can't wait for some delicious fresh corn on the cob!  And those peas are looking great!  

So, yea, that is one huge garden!  It is a good thing we have so many helpers to take care of it.  Once the weeds start coming up we will definitely have our work cut out for us.  This will definitely keep us busy all summer, but once we start getting crops it will be amazing!  

Simon Joseph Hutchings

Simon joined our family Wednesday, May 14 around 8 PM after a unique pregnancy and delivery.  Whether it was my aging body, a super cold winter or just how it was, this pregnancy was definitely a challenge for myself and my family, and no it didn't mean we were having a girl.  :)  All of my patterns were thrown out the window, which as we all know is not my favorite way to live.  I started having contractions over a month ago, and since I have never had a contraction before real labor this was even stranger.  I remember other women telling me about these, and I always thought it sounded horrible.  Needless to say, I was right.  It is no fun and having contractions is exhausting, so I've spent the last month tired and physically exhausted.  The boys have been good to help and fill in for me when I have needed to rest.  Because I started contracting so early we thought this little boy might come even earlier than our other boys, but our hopes were dashed as time went on, even though the contractions sporadically continued.  I had an OB appointment scheduled for Wednesday the 14th and was sure I would never make it that far, but I did and went to my appointment.  My doctor/midwife was headed out to a delivery, but she took the time to see me since I was so far along.  She wanted to do a check and found that I was already dilated to almost 4 cm.  She was shocked, and I was glad to hear that all of those contractions had accomplished something.  After awhile I was wondering if I was just imagining things, so it was nice to know it wasn't in my head.  My midwife did not want to send me home that far along but because I was still one day away from being 39 weeks there was nothing she could do according to hospital policy.  I promised her that after 3 contractions in a row I would go straight to the hospital.  It didn't make her happy, but I was comfortable with it, and I wasn't going to just sit at the hospital waiting around.

I was hoping that her invasive check to discover my dilation would be enough to send me into labor.  So, I ran to the grocery store and home.  By the time I got home the contractions began just as I was hoping, so we set the boys up for the evening and headed back to town to the hospital.  My midwife was still there from her previous delivery and she was really glad to see me as she was worried that I would give birth in the grocery store.  I wanted to try a water birth, well, a water labor because a water birth is not allowed in our hospital, so after getting settled and jumping through a few hoops they let me into the tub.  It was relaxing, but my level of pain really didn't seem less than in the past which was really discouraging.  Things progressed plenty fast compared to others, but for me it wasn't going fast enough and I wasn't dealing with the pain.  You would think that on my fifth child I would have this down, but no.  My midwife read me well and asked if I wanted an epidural.  I caved and said yes.  Because I was almost to hard labor they gave me something called a spinal and then an epidural.  I must admit that I didn't love the spinal as it completely numbed me from my waist down.  It was really strange and different from any other epidural I had had before.  I remember reading that epidurals made it so you couldn't feel crowning and had never experienced that before, but now I can say that I have.  It was completely surreal.  My midwife was going to put in a catheter but ran into a problem when she found that his head was crowning.  I couldn't believe that I couldn't feel him at all.  I had to be coached through pushing since I couldn't feel.  I wouldn't recommend a spinal as you are numb for quite some time, but it was better than my falling apart, and I found I wasn't nearly as tired afterward which was nice.  And now it is over and I am no longer pregnant.  Yippee!  Having a more difficult pregnancy has really taught me what is most important in life as I have had to limit my activities and make difficult choices.  I know I will be tired and up in the night with a baby, but after such a challenging pregnancy it just seem so bad.

Both of us slept last night.  These beds aren't particularly comfortable, but I felt a lot less tired this morning than I have in over a month, and that was fabulous!  I am very much looking forward to getting my own body back.  The boys came over this morning to visit, and it was really sweet to watch them hold Simon and pass him around.  We are working hard to introduce Simon to Hyrum in a way that will keep Simon safe and Hyrum from being super jealous.  I think it is all still very confusing to him, but he loves seeing the baby and touching him.

Hyrum and Simon meeting for the first time.

All my boys!  

Joshua enjoying some Simon time.

That is one proud big brother!

We didn't want Hyrum to feel left out.  Jacob enjoyed helping him get to hold him.

It is crazy to think we are a family with five boys, but it is wonderful!  I hope you all get to meet our new little precious one soon!

Our first chicken coop!!!

Now we can finally say that we have a chicken coop.  This is very exciting because we have some chickens that need more space, and we really want to get that chicken smell out of the house now that they aren't chicks!

Our shed arrived yesterday which was its own fun little adventure.  Fortunately, we just got to sit back and watch as they delivered and set it up for us.  Sweet!

The shed first off the truck.  It was impressive to watch him easily move the shed around.  It is amazing what you can do with the right tools.

Look at us working hard while the shed goes into place.  :)

Everyone was excited to see it and explore.  

The chicken door was added at our request and is perfect!  The boys still think they can fit through it.  We'll see about that.  

 Today we were able to add our own modifications to turn the shed into part shed part coop.  We began with a wall and then added a roost.  We decided to put linoleum down to make the floor easier to clean.  The boys with James rocked this project!

Sticky linoleum pieces are great!

Then, it was time to add some bedding to make the chickens feel at home!

Now it is ready for some chicks!

Here come the chickens!

And now the chickens are safe in their new home.  I hope they like it!

 It was a busy day but everyone did a great job, and now our growing hens have a great place to live!