A Catch-Up Post... a Month's Worth

I am grateful for airplanes.

Oh so grateful.

^^^Airplane naps! Yay! Makes the time pass much faster. ^^^

There was definite beauty in starting your day in your own bed and ending it at your final destination. 

Road trips. Blah! 

At least with five kids. 

^^^Watching a movie also helps.^^^

I am also grateful for technology that occupies my children whilst flying through the air at the 500 mph across the country. 

I am super thankful for anti-nausea meds. You see, I don't like being puked on. I forgot to give Miriam hers and didn't remember until she horfed all over me, then it was too late. 

And Miss Pukey-Pants did not appreciate me holding a barf bag in front of her face. 

Did I mention that we were on the runway? BEFORE TAKE OFF. 

Yeah, awesome. 

BUT puking aside, we had a wonderful family vacation in Salt Lake with dear family and friends we love like family. 

^^^Lunch with friends!^^^

^^^All the cousins on my side of the family, going to the dollar movie. The most fun ever! We took up an entire row!^^^

We came home exhausted and happy to have been there. We were also sad to have to come back so soon. Who knew a week simply wouldn't be long enough? 

But coming home was also oh so good. Driving back home from the airport, on my winding, bumpy roads, with sunlight filtering through hundreds of trees, I was struck with how totally awesome New Hampshire is, especially in the summertime. 

^^^No filter dudes. The sky really looks like that here.^^^

The animals were happy to see us. Seriously, Jonah liked every inch of me. GROSS. The chickens welcomed us home with a huge stash of eggs they had hidden from the pet-sitters. Spencer found them. 

^^^Weird egg. I love having chickens.^^^

Derek stayed in Utah for some extra days due to work so it was just me and the littles on the plane ride home and for the rest of the week. We spent it recovering from travel, by enjoying the sunshine and doing almost nothing. We had a hike and picnic in our backyard. 

^^^Right in our own backyard. Well, techinically it's the neighbor's yard, but whatever.^^^

^^^Picnic!^^^

^^^He kills me with the cute!^^^

^^^What is with her eyeball? No idea^^^

^^^Anytime I'd stop walking she'd smack me on the back and yell, "Go Mommy, go!" ^^^

Now, we're onto swimming lessons and freezing our tushies off at the lake. It's the BEST. Sand in all the places! 

We love it. Can't even lie. 

^^^Sand, everywhere. The big boys don't come in for towel time, making getting a picture of them difficult.^^^

^^^When their lips turn blue, I gotta make them sit out for a minute.^^^

^^^You can't see it, but he was visibly shivering during his lessons. His lips were blue. I worry about hypothermia, I really do.^^^

I love LOVE summer here. It very nearly makes up for the hideousness that is winter. It is warm, and green, and lush and incredible. I am so blessed. WE are so blessed. 

Happy Summer! 

Mud Season

Spring is coming, it is! It is!!

I can see dead,  brown grass in my yard, and MUD IS EVERYWHERE.

It's Mud Season here in New England. We live on a dirt road and drive a white van. It's DISGUSTING.

This mud is a metaphor for my life, I tell you.




I'll take the mud right now, see? I'll accept it because while it's gross and ugly and cold and wet, it's BETTER THAN SNOW, better than it was.

And, mud means eventually, things will grow. Things will START to blossom.

Mud season will not last long. I'm sure of it.

And when it's over...

It'll be spring.

Life on the Farm, and Hope

Winter is streaky this year, freezing, thawing, freezing, snowing on TOP of the sheets of ice. I'm trying not to be completely offended by the entire season, but frankly it isn't going well.

The ice has caused the gate to the goats to get stuck and break, so now I have to suck in my ever-expanding belly along with my marshmallow puffy coat in order to squeeze in to feed those menaces. Additionally, they are BORED and also offended by the weather, and escape at every given opportunity. Since they free range in the warm weather, the fact that they are loose would be less of an issue except that the lack of forage when they escape has led them to chewing on my house. This is unacceptable.

But, the bright side is, regardless of the bitter cold, freezing cold snowy days, our little chicken ladies keep on laying. I'm very grateful. We've seen a bit of a drop, somedays only getting one or two eggs, but many days we get four or five. With five chickens I'd call that success. Getting them in the house before they freeze is a challenge though.

So, our little farm life isn't without it's worries or fears. I worry every night when I see how low the temp will drop, even bringing all the birds in one night when the temps were way below zero. The goats were fine, a nice thick layer of bedding and another, along with their spongy, wooly winter coats kept them comfortable. But, I stress and worry. We have had a bout of some sort of respiratory virus with both the girls, but they got over it fine, and are not worse for the wear.

It's a funny life we're choosing here. I think about undoing it all the time. Maybe I don't REALLY want to do this. Maybe the stress and worry is too much. Maybe my heart just can't take it.

I come in from chasing a wily, house-chewing goat back in her pen AGAIN and declare to Derek that THIS TIME I mean it, sell the damn goats on Craigslist!

But I don't mean it.

 I have a tendency to pull away from strong emotions, to distance myself from things that hurt or might hurt (I'm human) and I know that our little farm is a breeding ground for heartbreak, just like it is for good things.

But then I find myself at the farm store, reaching for books like these, bringing them home, and dreaming of spring when I can plant, then summer when I can chase goats from my strawberries, and hope for the future, for the new life that is promised.

So, life on this micro-farm is changing, growing, expanding. We'll plant and toil and chase and hope.

Apple Picking

Derek's dad and step mom are visiting us from Texas. We're all having entirely too much fun. The weather today was made in Heaven, so we headed for one of the 2431 pick-your-own apple farms here in this corner of the world.












(I took pictures of Ezra, I thought, but they seem to be not on my phone??? He had a wonderful time.)

It took approximately seven minutes to pick 40 lbs of apples. Seriously, it was quick and oh so fun. The farm we went to prunes their trees so they grow out instead of up, making all but the very highest accessible to us. The trees were heavy with apples, and every single one of us got to enjoy the deeply satisfying feeling that comes from gathering one's own food.

Essentially, it was a delightful afternoon.

Around the Farm

It occurred to me this weekend, as I was trying to bathe a chicken in my kitchen sink (more on that later), that for as much time, *money*, energy and effort as we've put into our animals here at Brooksound Farm (Brooksounds? we haven't decided yet...) the animals get very little mention.

Skip it if you'd like or already know the tales of the tails that we keep around here, but we do, admittedly adore our animals and they are a huge HUGE part of our lives here on Hagey Hill. We've introduced you to most of them before, but let's start again, shall we?

This past March, Derek came home from work on a snowy Friday evening to find me surrounded by hand written notes, and the address for the local feed store.

"Wanna go get some chickens?" I asked, "The internet said..." and on I went. We'd discussed chickens for years, so it wasn't a new idea, but we had said previously, NEXT spring, when we're settled, we'd start. We hadn't even finished unpacking the house yet. (Okay, OKAY we still haven't...).

Bless that man. "Sure," he said. And by 7 o'clock that evening, we had spent $80 on six fluff ball baby chickens and all the supplies necessary for keeping three day old baby birds without a mama alive.

Now? Now we have six egg-laying machines! It's been a bumpy road. Most recently, as mentioned, we've had some injuries that were caused by members of the flock on other feathered friends. Let me tell you, washing and cleaning injuried chicken TUSHIE is not glamorous. Oh no.  And the head chicken hasn't accepted her back into the flock just yet, so she's free-range, and stays pretty near her friends, regardless of the fact that if she goes back in the run, Florence pecks the crap out of Susie.

The girls: (Florence, Kathy, Jackie, Polly and Becky)



The poor little outcast, Susie:


Next up we have the goats, who have taught us much about how farm animals prefer NOT to be fenced in and will escape at any given opportunity. We started with one, and that was a disaster, next thing we knew, we had three. The boy is Linus (I beliveve you've met him) and the twin sisters, Lucy and Sally. They are mostly free-range, as their primary job at this time is to be our lawn mowers, which, seeing as how I haven't had to mow in two months, I'd say they are earning their keep. We might breed/milk the girls in a couple years (they are all only about six months old) but for now, we are just letting them eat and eat and eat...

I have also learned how to effectively treat bloat in a goat, and let me tell you, it is only slightly less disgusting than bathing a chicken in my sink. Blech.



The kittens, Burton Guster (Gus-Gus) and Juliet O'Hara (Jules) are rapidly becoming cats, and are our mousers. Have I mentioned my husband's saint-status? I announced to him in late April (before the goats...) that we were going to need a cat for mousing and if we got one cat, we both knew we'd actually need two. One cat means you get clawed when they feel playful. Two cats mean they claw each other. Enter a good friend, Gail, who knew a girl with some rescue kittens, a quick road trip to Connecticut, and we had two fur babies taking up my bathroom and bedroom. Now, they are big, and free-range ONLY in the house, and thus far, their hunting skills have brought about the demise of exactly ONE creature.

It was a grasshopper. And Jules got tired of eating it halfway through and left it on the floor for me. Sweet.

Gus:



Jules:


All of these animals, interestingly enough were born in March. Weird.

And finally: Jonah.


Four years ago, when we adopted Jonah from a rescue, he came with the warning that he couldn't do cats, and he didn't love other dogs either. We thought, "No biggie, we'll never want any other pets, so that's fine!" He was great with the kids, kind, and gentle and NEVER barked.

Then, fast forward to now, and we have been rocking his world with all the additions. We carefully, and slowly introduced him to each new animal, and other than a couple of altercations with Linus the goat (stupid goat) and Jules, who has no patience for him whatsoever, he's done great. He's a fabulous farm dog. He doesn't even flinch (despite him being half hound) as poultry squack past him, Gus, the cat frequently kicks him out of his own bed, Linus can be seen to head-butt him, and add in the neighbors' ducks and we are all shocked with how quickly he learned and now fully understands not to hurt or harm any of the animals.

AND the neighbors TINY dog, Nikki is frequently here visiting, running the hill with him. He has never tried to harm him in any way. We are duely impressed with our overweight grandpa dog, who has earned his title as best farm dog ever.

So, there ya go. That's the rounds here at the homestead. I'm grateful for what we've learned thus far about animal husbandry and care. I know animals often equal heartbreak, and as winter approaches, I worry, especially, about the chickens. Everyone is doing well for now though, so we're happy.

The kids are learning to work, and they are also learning that if you want an animal to trust you, you must treat them with respect. This is especially difficult for the smallest boys who simply want to snuggle the cats to death. We are learning. It's amazing.