Happy New Year!

Ready and waiting...

We shared a great evening with friends tonight. The crowd included seven adults and six children, under the age of six. We had a wonderful time; highlights included prime rib, smoked salmon spread, fruit pizza, a popcorn blizzard in the media room (thank goodness for the dyson!), a few rousing rounds of Wit & Wager, some beverages and lots of laughter. Thanks for creating and sharing good memories to round out a good year.

Prime Rib & Popcorn

The best New Year's Eve party includes friends, prime rib, and popcorn.

The passing of time

You know it's been a quiet day when I can't even think of anything exciting to blog about. I did spin another bobbin full of Good Mama's fleece, and started to ply it into yarn. Unfortunately, that was put on hold when Isaiah decided he was done napping. I also spent some time undecorating, and cleaning, and laundry. Yeah, I can see your yawns now, so I'll digress.

I thought it would be a good exercise to look at Christmas one year ago, and Christmas this year. I would have liked to go back further, but alas all the other pictures are on my old computer, and I don't have the ambition to start it up and search for them. So here is a mini study in the growth of my boys in exactly a year. From Christmas morning 2007, to Christmas morning 2008.

Snow, Stacking, Spinning & Sock Monkeys

How's that for a title? This is a very random ramble tonight. Of course it is 11pm, and I should be snuggled up with my hubby, but my goal is to have 100 posts this year, I'm so close. Yeah, you're going to hear a lot from me the next couple of days.

First up, SNOW. We've got a lot of it out there right now, and finally the temperatures have been decent enough we can enjoy it. (If you are in Texas reading this, that means it is above zero degrees farenheit.) My challenge is spending time outside doing chores or playing when I have a 13 month old babe that probably shouldn't be exposed to the icy temps for too long. Enter a really warm snowsuit, boots, and an infant sled. Yes, poor Isaiah gets dragged around and watches me haul water and hay, collect eggs, stack firewood and attempt to snowshoe with Kohen. I only get concerned when I recall the amount of information he is taking in right now and learning from everything he sees. I can only imagine how it is all being catalogued in that little brain.

We spent a good bit of time outside on Friday. Kohen and I strapped on the snowshoes for the first time this year, but didn't make it too far. At least he now remembers how to walk in them. It took a few falls.

This picture was taken today as Isaiah was watching Nate, Kohen and I stack firewood. I turned around and witnessed how cute he and Shep looked and snapped a picture. Have I mentioned I always try to have my camera with when we are outside? You can imagine how thrilled Nate is when I drop the logs I'm carrying three feet away from the woodshed so that I can pull out the camera. But hey, how often do Isaiah and Shep stay still for a photo?

Second, STACKING. We've been doing a lot of stacking of wood lately. Of course Nate is doing 95% and Kohen and I are contributing about 5%. We were late getting firewood this year and our outside wood boiler eats it up quickly. I figure it's a good exercise program for me right now. For the next week that I'm home at least. Since I spent part of my birthday afternoon stacking wood, I had to share a photo of what was accomplished. Never mind that the row is complete to the roof, along with a second row today. I at least had a small, very small, part in it.

Next up, SPINNING. I've been avoiding the spinning wheel since I learned how to spin earlier this fall. I had such a great time that day learning, that I was scared to ruin the memory. Add in an old wheel that hadn't been spun on for at least forty years and was missing pieces, and you can feel some of my apprehension. My awesome hubby took the time to tighten and adjust things on the wheel, and make a couple of parts that were missing. I've really been getting the itch to spin, and with all the knitting that Grandma did for Christmas I would love to make some yarn for her to use. Yesterday I took the time to wash up a small batch of the shetland fleece that we had sheared this past spring. It is in pretty awful shape, as the sheep were when they lost it. Lots of vegetation and dirty, but I was determined. I soaked it good last night and dried it in the shower. After church and leftovers for lunch I put Isaiah down for his nap and pulled out my carders. I decided to card up a bit at a time to see how it would go. Needless to say I was frustrated to begin with. The wheel would not spin right, at least not what uneducated me felt was right. I was ready to quit before I started, but a break and phone call to Aunt Linda, and I finally started to make some headway, and yarn. The tensioner on this old wheel is very touchy, and I discovered that even 1/4 of a turn made the difference in spinning or not spinning. So as we watched the football game, I sat and carded, and spun. Oh yes, this is why I loved it! The soothing rhythm, the sense of accomplishment. Of course Isaiah awoke much too early from his nap and I had to return the spinning wheel to its place of honor on the air hockey table out of the reach of little fingers. I actually had 1/2 bobbin full of soft shetland wool, along with some bits of grass, but it's my first attempt, so I'm satisfied. I spent some time tonight finishing up the bobbin, which is the only reason my eyes are still open at 11:20 pm as I type this. Now comes the second rough patch, I do not have a second bobbin for this old wheel. Right now my plan is to either make it into a loose ball or put it on a lazy kate (which I don't have either!) in order to do the second ply. Anyone have a good idea for me? Nate is planning on making me more bobbins, but he doesn't have the time or lathe set up right now. For those of you who are nonspinners, I'm sorry, you don't know what you are missing! Sorry, that was not necessary. I was going to explain what I was talking about. When you spin you spin one ply. Most yarn is two ply or more, so I need to spin another one ply and then ply the two together. Usually you have a few bobbins so you can spin each of your singles on one and then spin them together on another. Confused yet? Anyway, here's my bobbin of moorit colored shetland. It looks like Good Mama's fleece. I am so excited about the idea of a pair of Good Mama mittens.

Lastly, SOCK MONKEYS. I wanted to post a picture of the adorable sock monkeys that grandma made the boys. Of course they didn't want to sit still for a picture, it's too much fun to play and roll around on the bed. So this is as good as it gets for now.

Good night. I'll blog at you more tomorrow.

Sheepishly Late

Sorry, mom got busy on the rest of Christmas and made us wait two days to share our greetings with you!

Christmas Greetings from Fiona...And Sunny... And Good Mama...

(Fiona is our black iset icelandic that we've owned the longest, 15 months. She and Ellie were our first sheep. Sunny is the sheep we've owned the shortest, along with her daughter Bunny. They just joined us a couple of weeks ago. Good Mama is our only shetland of the flock acquired last spring who twinned. Her condition has improved dramatically since we got her! We've witnessed her and Bam in action on December 1st. Here's hoping for some May 1st twins!)

If you see mom you might want to ask her about the nice shiner she got for her birthday! Compliments of Isaiah! Who knew that kid was so tough already?

Christmas Traditions

Kohen, the big four year old cleaned out the fireplace this morning so we could enjoy a fire.

Isaiah contemplating what Santa has left for him, it's a Cranky Crane Thomas Train set.

We had a great day today. Joining us today were my parents, my sister, her husband and two boys, and my three grandparents. It was one of those good, full days that you always want to hold on to. Memorable moments of the day included:

• sock monkeys for all four boys, complements of grandma Butchy.


• wool socks, mittens, and slippers for all four boys, complements of grandma Butchy (that lady's been busy!!)


• playing with the sheep in the 20 inches of snow. It actually made Shrek catchable!


• suiting up a four year old and a two year old in hockey skates, jerseys, and helmets for a trip to the local rink. (I guess they didn't skate much, but played in the snow instead.)


• getting a whole family picture.


• having help cleaning the kitchen.


• persimmon steamed pudding with gold sauce.
  

I hope that your day was as wonderful as ours. Now I'm off to enjoy some me time with the new novel that my hubby surpises me with: Playing for Pizza.

Merry Christmas!

Kohen's Christmas Eve Snow Angel.

From our Christmas Angels to you- Merry Christmas! Hope your day is filled with blessings and memory making moments.

Rumor has it that the four leggeds will share Christmas greetings later in the afternoon when it warms up above zero!

Santa

We're ready big guy in red. Sleeping boys, cookies, even some of the last garden carrots! Kohen really wants to see Rudolph's nose outside his window.

Long Ears

Daisy and Lucy, 2 weeks ago

Around here we love donkeys. No one more than Kohen. I think the original fascination for them came from watching mommy surf the web and drool over mini donkeys. This is the boy as a 2 1/2 year old, viewing a horse or stock trailer would proclaim, "a donkey trailer!" He still calls them donkey trailers! I'm excited to say that for Christmas his daddy bought him a toy Dodge Ram pulling a stock trailer. Of course mommy had to fill it with toy donkeys!

Picking out Hee-Haw, 3/29/08.

Cut to yesterday morning. We headed to church to attend the Sunday School Christmas Program, Mary had a Little Lamb. It was the story of a small spotted lamb named Tiny at the birth of Jesus. One of the characters was a donkey, played by the granddaughter of Don Simonson, our local small town webman. Don runs a wonderful website that details happenings, history, birthdays, etc, in our small town. If you are bored and want to find out what's happening in a small town of 600, 90 miles south of the Canadian border in Minnesota, click here. Anyway, Anna and her family recently moved here from New Zealand. So picture this cute little girl with donkey ears and a New Zealand accent. It was great. Kohen would watch the play and kept chanting, "donkey, donkey, where's the donkey" whenever she wasn't on stage.

Fuzzy Daisy.

We currently have three donkeys. Hee-haw a five year old jack, Lucy-a 5 year old jenny, and Daisy, our 4 1/2 month old beauty. Yes, I called a donkey beautiful. Hee-haw and Lucy were purchased last spring at an exotic animal auction, and Lucy was bred when we bought her. She is about the poorest specimen of a donkey. Scrawny legs, horrible hooves, and she obviously did not have a pleasant life before we acquired her. It took us months of gentling before we could even get near her. She still is not overly fond of human attention. Our plan is to downsize to one or two donkeys come spring. We have long talked about getting rid of Hee-haw, but Kohen loves him and he is a great donkey. Tame, gentle, and boy can he bray! Kohen loves to head out to the pasture with a brush and spend time with his donkey (supervised of course.) My current thoughts are that we find a new home for poor Lucy, and get Hee-haw gelded, but don't hold me to it. Daisy has been raised with sheep since the minute she was born in the sand under a pine tree. She does great with them, even sleeping in the sheep shelter as a posted last week. Thankfully she must have inherited some good genes from her dad because her conformation is much better than her mom's.

Daisy at one day old.

This last picture is not one of our donkeys, but a mini at the petting zoo. Along with the donkey is Brody and Amber. Amber loves mini donkeys even more than us, so she had to be included in this post

The Good of Giving

Giving can be SO good. I am surrounded by a feeling of warmth right now, all from the act of giving.
Earlier in the season I had read a great post here about ways we could and should give in the current economic times. I took it to heart, but not to head. With our busy life style there is so much that we take for granted and do because of the ease of it. I have a true wish to not live my life in such a consumer driven way, but right now I try to balance the consumer side with a more holistic, balanced side. I might buy my milk at Super One, buy my eggs come from my backyard. The pasta may be from Paul's Italian Market, but the sauce is from my tomatoes, and the beef is from our neighbor butcher.
So with that thought in mind, along with our limited financial budget, we did a balance of shopping this year. Most of our retail purchases were made on Black Friday, so we felt secure in getting the most for our money. To finish up my shopping, and for those close friends whom I want to share meaningful gifts, I decided to visit two local choices. I have been so happy with the products and services, and the good that buying/giving this way produces, I thought I would share them with others in blogsphere.
First, Gilley's Naturals. These products are great. We are currently using the baby ear drops and diaper rash spray with Isaiah. I love the essential oils and pure scents. Plus, Jill's prices are great. About 12 years ago I had the privilege of teaching Jill's children one summer when I developed and ran a summer rec. program. She wrote me one of the greatest letters of recommendation for getting into the education program at UMD.
Second, Women of Hope Creations, a division of Mashiah Foundation. This is a wonderful organization that allows women in Nigeria whom are infected with or affected by HIV, create a self sustaining income through their beautiful sewing. Sandi Wallestad, a neighbor, sells these beautiful creations here in my rural neighborhood. I took the time to stop in this evening on my way home from work and fell in love with the brilliant African prints and styles of these items. I would love to post some pictures of what I purchased, but I'm too lazy, so check out the link. (Plus some of them are going to be blog readers Christmas presents!)
I better go be with my boys and clean some of this house. One more day of school and then two weeks off. It will be good. We still need to pay a visit to Santa, Kohen's concerned he won't know what he wants. Tomorrow is filled with Christmas concerts and school parties. Remember the good that can come of giving. It's what makes this holiday the best!

Snow Day

It has been confirmed by two sources (local TV station and Honeywell Instant Alert call) that Eveleth Gilbert Schools are cancelled for tomorrow. Hurray! Nate took a trek out in the truck to bring Jason to The Log Cabin (read local bar) to catch a ride home. He said he was pushing snow the three miles to the highway, and it is still snowing. There's at least eight inches of snow, with drifts that are several feet deep.
I let Kohen know that tomorrow would be a snow day. His response, "Does Nate get a snow day too?" I didn't try to explain the logistics of being a self employed contractor to him.
Hurray for Snow Days!

Like Livin' in a Snow Globe

The new picture on the header is what it looks like out my window today. Literally. I didn't even step outside to take it. I cracked the window open and stuck my hand out. Sad I know, but it is nasty out there! Would you believe there are three donkeys and 15 sheep in that shot? It's pretty tough to tell how much snow we have gotten because there is a harsh wind out of the north. Nate and I were supposed to attend a contractor appreciation party tonight, which has been cancelled. So, it's time to cuddle in, and enjoy the swirling snow outside my window.
Nate, Koe, and I headed out this morning when it was snowing half as much and made sure the four leggeds were ready for this. This include hauling water, hauling straw, and hay. Kohen and I used the wooden sled to haul a bale of alfalfa and straw from the morton building. It was not an easy task. I'm a wimp. I haven't worked out in forever, and my body was screaming from hauling the sled through the snow. So I decided to let Kohen help. Ok, I really just let Kohen pose for a picture. He was so cute, and worked hard at chores. He did a great job of crawling in the sheep shelter and spreading straw out. He also had the job of keeping the sheep at bay as Nate and I (ok Nate) moved a round bale into the enclosure. It worked great because he pushed it into the end of the hoop shelter that we built for the donkeys. Now they can eat in shelter. It also makes a great wind break and insulator. Daisy still chooses to use the sheep shelter when she wants to escape the elements. The sheep don't seem to mind her company.

Do we dare hope for a snow day tomorrow? I'm supposed to drive to International Falls for a consult. Not really looking forward to that drive. We'll see what morning brings.

Party Time & Preparations

Kohen and Brennan check out the cakes.

PARTY TIME: So we celebrated Kohen's 4th birthday today. It was a great party with family and friends. Kohen's best friend, Brennan, from daycare, came which made the day for him. The theme was fighter jets. Captain Kohen even wore a flight suit! The cake was a runway shaped like a 4, with Blue Angel jets taking off. I also used the scraps to create a fighter jet cake for Kohen. He liked it. The kids also got to frost some plane cookies, and play a lot. He received some great gifts, and has been playing all afternoon. Gramma Jan had arrived from Rochester last night and was a great help in getting everything ready for the party. She always gets stuck on KP duty.

PREPARATIONS: They are predicting a big storm to hit us tonight. Nate made sure that the donkeys, sheep and ducks all had plenty of food and water. After the party I headed out to the coop and spread a new layer of straw on the floor and in the nesting boxes, and cleaned the waterer. We have been losing a lot of eggs to freezing. Yesterday morning it was -31 when I left the house at 7 am! Of the eight eggs in the boxes today (2 days worth) 5 were frozen. My chickens have never been ones to lay at a consistent time, and with being gone from 7 am till 5 pm the eggs don't always get collected in a timely fashion. We do have a red heat lamp on all the time in the coop, along with a white heat lamp on for 6 hours in the evening. The waterer is also heated. Unfortunately, some of my hens like to lay in the nesting boxes furthest from the heat, and on the outside wall of the boxes. It isn't too bad, I'm just happy they are laying again!

So we are ready to hunker down and watch the snow. Nate and Jason spent some time cutting wood so that the woodshed is ready too. Hopefully I'll have some good northern Minnesota snow pictures for tomorrow!

nEwes

Shreks head on the left, Bam, Bunny, and Sunny. Nice ram expression hey?

News...new ewes...Last night we headed up the road about 12 miles to fetch two shetland ewes that we traded some lamb meat for. They are well fed girls! Poor Nate could barely heft them in the truck (mind you this is the man who hauled a 800 lb. bale of hay in a sled today, with no cylinders involved.) It was dark when we got them home so we put them in the pasture with Hee-haw. This afternoon I assessed them in the daylight and we opened the gate and allowed them to join the flock. Bam was most excited at some fresh...ummm...blood, to sniff and perform other acts on. Bunny was alread receptive to his antics. Mark the calendar.

The new girls are named Sunny, and Bunny, complements of Kohen. They are a mother/daughter duo, with the daughter being two years old. I'm not worried about them getting pushed around by anyone, they have plenty to push back with!
Their fleece is beautiful. Sunny, the mom has some nice markings (I'll have to look up the shetland terms for them.) Bunny is beautiful too, though her tail is a bit long. I know that Bam will be able to improve it on any offspring that may have been conceived today.

In other news, our chickens have finally started to lay again. We need to make some modifications to the coop, we are losing eggs to the cold weather. We are down to 6 laying hens; 4 ameraucanas, and 2 buff orphingtons, along with the banties. We've been getting 4-5 eggs per day, so I'm happy. I also am getting some more layers soon. It's nice not to have to buy the anemic, pathetic store eggs anymore. I ended up having to buy 3 dozen earlier this fall when the ducks quit laying and the chickens were moulting.

Thanksgiving

Better late than never. We had a great Thanksgiving in Rochester, including two feasts! Along with lots of food we managed to have the Wild game, a great Vikings game, a one-year-old's birthday party, and lots of visits with family and friends. We rolled into our own driveway at 2:40 am on Monday, after the great Viking victory over the Bears. I had prearranged for a personal day on Monday, good thing. Isaiah woke up with a fever and miserable cough. I took him to the clinic, and found out the poor little guy still has an ear infection, (his first was in October and the doc doesn't think it ever completely left.) So, he has to endure three days of injected antibiotics, along with zyrtec, a humidifier and plenty of vicks on his chest. He slept from 10:30 to 7:30 this morning, and I decided to use a sick day to help him on his road to recovery. I have 'bad mom thoughts' toward myself when I realized that he has been suffering for so long. I had attributed his fussiness and low fever to teething. My bad. Hopefully now we can get him healthy and keep him that way!

Dead Sheep..Breeding Sheep...New Sheep

It is what it says it is.
DEAD-The sheep that died while we were away for Thanksgiving was Ellie. Not that I ever want to lose any sheep, but it was the best one to lose. She clearly died from bloat. I guess I never thought about sheep bloating on hay, but it was very good hay. She has always been a hog at the feeder and continued the trend. Thankfully everyone else is fine, and doing well.
BREEDING-I almost titled this something else, but I want to keep it clean for everyone. We turned Bam in with the rest of the ewes yesterday. What a show! I even let Kohen watch an extra episode of 'Go Diego Go' so that he didn't pay too much attention to what was going on outside the window. I watched Fiona, Good Mama, and Pamela all on the receiving end of Bam's affection. These occasions were marked on the calendar and I told Nate that I might be needing to take a day off around May 1st. Our 2 lambing jugs may not be enough with how busy this ram is! He has been in with Jacobs and Shrek for the past three weeks, trying to space some things out.
NEW-I received a phone call from a local person last night who is looking to sell her two shetland ewes. Well, the price is right, and we'll hopefully pick them up tomorrow night.

Wild...Woes

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Hope you are enjoying the day in a warm house, with warm and welcoming company, and juicy turkey! We are in Rochester this holiday, and getting ready to eat a feast with family.
WILD: Last night we drove down, and had a detour along the way. A once in a lifetime detour. Terry, one of Nate's clients, gave us tickets to the Wild. Not just run-of-the-mill crowded seats tickets. These tickets were the creme de la creme. Try suite tickets. Try suite next to the owner's suite tickets. Complete with complimentary beverages, a suite steward, great food, including the best garlic mashed taters I've ever experienced. Wrap it up with creme brulee and chocolate pudding cakes. Nate and I have agreed that our boys will be sorely disappointed with the quality of seats they will have when we have to buy the tickets! I would love to show you some pictures, but they'll have to wait since I did not bring a camera cord with. The experience was great, even though our team lost. We shared the suite with Terry's family, and friends, including Matt Niskanen's parents. Matt is a 'local boy' who plays for the Dallas Stars.
WOES: My dad is kind enough to be watching the farm while we are gone. Unfortunately, he called this morning with some bad news. One of my icelandic ewes was laying dead in the pen this morning. She wasn't caught in the fence so he isn't sure what happened. I can't believe how frustrating it is to be 300 miles away and not able to check the well being of the rest of my flock. I hoping it was an isolated incident. We haven't had any problems with any sickness, and everyone has been looking/acting healthy. He isn't sure if it was Ellie or Fiona. The lesser loss would be that of Ellie. She is my moorit ewe that lost the lamb this summer and has always been quite gluttonous and flighty. Fiona is a black iset sweety. Dad said he would let me know later what the color was, he isn't as well versed in sheep colors, and the ewe was covered with snow. Sorry Dad, but this is farm life! I feel like I have a pretty good handle on sheep well-being after this past springs perils, but sheep are sheep. In the words of a vet that I consulted, "Sheep are either healthy, or dead." Let's hope everyone else is healthy when we get home.

Turkey Anyone?

President Bush may be granting pardons, but around here we have our own pardons. Yes, once again Turk will reign free and not have a spot in my oven. Actually, I don't believe he would fit in my oven anymore. Turk, formerly known as Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then Easter, was purchased fall of '07 for Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of only purchasing one turkey, and one with a personality. Turk/Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter knew that Nate was his out and he endeared himself to him. Once our weather was in the double digits below zero last year and Nate was greeted by gobbling whenever he went to fill the outdoor woodstove, his spot was secured. He is free to range about where he pleases. Each night he roosts in the branches of a pine tree above the chicken coop. His spot doesn't change much, as evidenced by the pile below it!

This past summer we had a moment of sickness as we headed to the lake one day. As we approached the highway we both noticed a bright yellow object in the middle of the gravel road; a turkey foot. Nate and I both immediately looked at each other with the question, "Did you see Turk this morning?" Since neither of us could confirm a sighting, we quickly turned around and drove home. I won't forget opening my car door and bellowing, "Hey Turk" (did I mention he knows his name and responds when called?) To be relieved when I am answered by his gobble. Additionally, it should be noted that Turk has dark gray legs, not yellow. So someone else's turkey was not as fortuate as ours.

I wished that I had my camera handy today when got home. There was a light dusting of snow on the deck, not a measurable amount, but enough to display a neat set of turkey tracks, up the steps, across the deck, and in front of the fullview glass mudroom door. I'm sure that he and Shep had a quality interaction through the glass considering they are on chasing terms only when both are outside. The tracks then turned and led off the edge of the deck.

Yesterday, he feasted on a slice of old bread on the deck. Turkey with stuffing perhaps?

Good Things

No, I'm not going all Martha Stewart on you (sorry Amber.) I just wanted to highlight a few of the good things that God has given me on this morning:

• Two beautiful, busy, boys. Right now Kohen is going through all his board games one by one. Can you visualize the mess of assorted tokens outside our entertainment center. I think I have now listened to the 'Wheels on the Bus' song twenty-four times, consecutively. Isaiah is right with him, taste testing tokens, climbing in the cabinet, and giving Kohen some quite vicious teeth mark tattoos when he tries to return tokens to their rightful games. I'm appreciating their chaos more today since I did my Autism consultation job yesterday. No matter how crazy they get they don't believe they are Santa Claus. (sidenote: My name was on the good girls and boys list, so I hope that means a good Christmas :) )
• A yummy cranberry scone recipe from here. It was perfect with a big mug of coffee with plenty of milk. Interestingly, I used to be a straight black coffee girl, but after Kohen was born I justified that cup of caffeine by adding plenty of milk. The trend has continued, and I don't know if I'll go back to black (don't read anything sick into that statement...)
• A warm house. It's 27 degrees outside right now, but I'm wandering barefoot and in short-sleeves. Gotta love that outside wood boiler! Gotta love the man that fills it morning and night so I don't have to worry or get those sticky wood chips on my school clothes!
• An egg! Yes, finally the chickens have gifted us with a fresh, brown egg this morning. I took the time to move the ducks out to the goat shed/pen. So hopefully production will continue to increase in the coop. Have to justify that feed and electricity.
• A half clean house: Does the 320 sq feet of great room/play room really count as part of the house? It was an addition in the '80s, plus, I've given up on keeping ahead of the toy tornado. Kohen's current attention span limit for cleaning up toys is about 90 seconds, or long enough to pick up three things and decide he MUST play with two of them.
• Rich guys from the cities: (You ask yourself: What is this crazy woman talking about?) I'm talking about the good clients that my husband has who have the money to sustain through these tough times and keep him employed building things for them. The work might be tough right now; lake water, ice, mud, digging, damming, excavating. But it's work. Keep it coming, please. Plus Wild tickets and Vikings tickets from the best seats we'll ever sit in is a very nice bonus, more on this later.
• Wonderful, awesome, friends with common interests: We had a nice evening with Eric, Stephanie, Alex and Addison last night. Nate and I always have to talk about what fun people they are, and we have a lot of common interests that help strengthen our ties. We spent some time last night projecting into the future and what our four children will be doing in another 10-15 years. It all was a bit cloudy, but I know the topics of dates, raves, and parents relaxing with wine were envisioned.
• Blogging: It is an exercise in relaxation and reflection for me. I've also met some great people, visited cyberly people I would love to meet in person, and gained some wonderful sheep through the blog world. Let's keep it up.

Friends & Family

A good time was had by all in celebration of Isaiah's first year on Saturday. Here are a few pictures of the event.

Happy Birthday Isaiah!

Isaiah is one! Here's a picture from his big day. I'm late posting it because I've been having computer issues.

Honey Halloween

So we had a sweet 'honey' halloween. Kohen went as a honey bear, and Isaiah as a honey bee. Shep even got in on the action in a honey bee costume. Sadly, I don't have a picture that includes him. Kohen was still recovering from his stomach bug, so it was a short time of candy collections. Here are the boys receiving treats and love from great-grandpa Bud.

Pumpkin Time

So it's that time of the year. We've harvested the pumpkins, now we need to put them to use. Last weekend I roasted and pureed six of the small baking pumpkins from our garden. Yesterday, I was home with a almost four year old suffering from stomach flu. I decided to bake a batch of pumpkin raisin bread that had been enticing me since I read about it here. It turned out great, and here's a picture to prove it. I brought a loaf to share at work today, and it was nowhere to be seen by lunch. Guess that means its good. We roasted the seeds too.

Today I stopped at Kunnari's, a farm market stand in Virginia. They are closing tomorrow, so they had some good specials on squash. Well, I decided that my mellow, still recovering boy deserved a BIG jack-o-lantern to carve tonight. I let Kohen take his pick of the patch of substantial pumpkins. After dinner we broke out the carving tools.
Isaiah even got in on the action.

Here are the finished projects. All a-light and spooky. They'll grace the porch tomorrow night.

Fowl Weather

This is the view on this gray, blustery fall day. I was out to do chores and had to take some pictures of the geese. There have been a lot of Canada Geese flying over the river and resting here at night. Today we have a very miserable north wind with periodic rain/sleet/snow. The perfect day to stay inside and make a big pot of bubbly soup, fresh bread, and apple crisp. In addition to the wild geese overhead, there is the ever present flock of ducks underfoot. We've decided that we will butcher them soon, they make an awful mess in the chicken coop, and I don't look forward to that for the winter.

I also had to post a followup to my previous two left feet post. I have further discovered that one of the boots is a size 7, and the other a size 8. This works well if I manage to get the 8 on my right foot, if not there is some discomfort and a hitch to my walk. Such was the case this morning when I was out in the pasture, Nate had a laugh and head shake at me.

Hee-haw is not a fan of the snow. But of course he won't leave the gate when there's still a chance that I'm bringing a treat!

Finally, here's a picture of Chase (4months) and Isaiah (two weeks shy of 1 year) yesterday. The boys and I spent the night at Taryn's in Duluth. 4 boys under four keeps one (or three adults) busy!