Well it has been a busy summer, hence the lack of posts! May and June brought on moving and planting our garden. John decided to plant one the size of Texas ;) and it has been growing like crazy! Our soil is very fertile and so it grows plants very well and weeds too unfortunately. Somehow we have managed to have a great harvest though! John power washed and painted the barn, along with a little help. We even managed to squeeze in a vacation to my aunts cottage on Schoolsection lake with the Derby family. We have been busy weeding, harvesting, canning, freezing and keeping three kids alive :) Here are some pictures of our adventurous summer!
 |
| We were blessed to have a neighbor let us borrow his lift |
|
 |
| Esther painted the O & E FIRST & SON which was my great grandparents, Orrin and Eloida and their son, Duval, my grandfather |
 |
| John did some fancy work painting the top part of the barn as the lift only went so high. I believe the top of the peak is around 40ft! Notice the bright orange harness around his waist. |
 |
| Here is a great view of before and after the paint, what a difference! We haven't been out to take all the after pictures yet. |
 |
| Here the girls are fishing with their aunties at the cottage |
 |
| This was one day of picking, I think the carrots were my favorite! |
 |
| Garden produce! |
 |
| John processing our first chicken. I may have accidentally ran over it with the dolly as we moved their pen :( We are now down to 91 (started with 104). We have one in the freezer ready to be processed as well (he got smothered when they all got scared because of hawks in the area and ran in the pen). We lost 7 to coons, 5 to smothering and 1 to the dolly. |
 |
| School has begun! We are doing some preschool with Hope this year. Mainly learning skills like cutting, tracing and painting. She loves it and we have a good time. |
 |
| Grace is our little worker. Here she is helping me wash tomatoes so that we can can them. She has been a great help! |
 |
| We do manage to have a little fun amidst all the work. Here the girls have made smoothie mustaches :) |
|
 |
| Paul has been growing! He is standing everywhere and longing to walk. As much as he would like to help can, he mainly grabs the big pots and bangs them on the floor. He is such a joy though! |
So that has been our summer in a nutshell. We are working on getting all the squash processed and the last of the corn and tomatoes. We are just about to butcher all of the male chickens for meat and then build a hen house for the females. They are about 13 weeks old and will start laying eggs in about 6-7 weeks (hens do not need roosters to lay eggs). I can't wait! We are excited for fall so we can settle things down and make a plan for spring. We are slowly getting used to the farm life. We didn't realize how slow the process would be but we also feel that when you go into everything slowly, you don't have debt and you are able to adjust your life slowly so you are not so overwhelmed. This is the best way to be profitable and to enjoy what you are doing so we are choosing to be the tortoise and not the hare :) May your fall be a blessed one!
John, Kristin and the kids
