Christmas Countdown

Hello Everyone,

Our family is all geared up and ready for Christmas. Here is a glimpse into some of our family Christmas traditions.

First we don't do Santa. I know shocking right my poor kids. I don't like to lie to my kids so we never gave gifts from Santa or promoted him as a real person. They still put out cookies and milk for "Santa" but they know that Santa is Daddy. Here's another BIG shocker we don't push Christmas as Christ's birthday either. Why? Because we feel that Christ's birth is something that should be celebrated year round. Soooo, for us Christmas is a Holiday about family, giving, and reflecting on how we can be better givers and be kinder to one another throughout the year. We have fun and enjoy the season. We talk a lot about things like Santa and the birth of Christ but it's more like a history lesson. We look at were our modern traditions come from and how they have changed into what we see in the world today. We talk about how it is celebrated differently in other countries and cultures around the world. We also don't do the elf on a shelf.

So what do we do? First of all we cut and decorate a tree with ornaments that Great Grandma Rose sends for the kids every year, plus some homemade ones.

We Make Cookies usually Crinkles and Sugar Cookies.

We do a 12 days til Christmas countdown. It usually includes things like free hot cocoa day or Make Christmas gifts for the animals day. Today we will be having a picnic by the Christmas tree. We have little bags on a string numbered 1-12 and each one has a little note in it on what we get to do special that day.

Christmas Eve the kids put out Cookies and Milk or Eggnog

Christmas morning we usually start off with Home Made Doughnuts. See Recipe in the recipe tab. Then we open our Christmas stockings. Those are also a family tradition going back generations. Everyone in our family has one hand made especially for them using a pattern that has been handed down. My Nana used to make them, now my mom makes them and someday I will take over. They are made for each new baby born or new husband or wife who joins the family. Then we go and do our morning chores and pass out our gifts to all the animals. Then we come back in and open gifts. Later in the morning the rest of the family here on the homestead comes down and joins us and we exchange gifts, watch movies, eat cold sandwiches and a finger food buffet.

The Kids took part in the annual Christmas play at the church yesterday. Then we all enjoyed the great food at the potluck after and of coarse ate way to much :)

Merry Christmas!

Let us remember not one day a year but every day.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour , which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:11 

Tis The Season

Hello and Good Day,

This week was yet another busy one. We had the Manley Hot Springs Sally Hudson Crafter's Guild Christmas Store on Saturday. The rest of the week involved getting ready and putting final touches on our craft projects that we would be selling. Lisa made more of her quilted trivets and the boys made more of their peg games. I made a few small crochet items and did some baking. 

Ken has been hard at work on his truck build. We moved the cab from his black truck onto the dually frame. It was quit the ordeal. It took Ken, Darryl, Ian, September and I to move it safely. Donna, my Mom and the kids all got to watch, cheer us on and bite their nails as we moved it over. 

Before on it's original frame

After Black cab moved onto heavier dually frame

Ken Mangled his thumb making the new body mounts. We're watching it closely. I really wish we had a suture kit on hand suitable for human use.

The picture is 3 days after. Right after it happened the one side looked like hamburger. 

We're gearing up for the Christmas season. Yesterday we went out and cut down a tree. This morning it's up and warming up. The kids are hoping to decorate it this evening. If we tried to put the ornaments on the cold branches they would snap off. We're pulling some of the other decorations out of the Christmas tote and putting them up around the house. 

 

Our big plans for this week include lots of school to make up for the time we took off for Thanksgiving. Not because we feel like we have to cram but because we have some super fun projects coming up that we're looking forward to. 

Lisa just finished her first chapter book. "Little House in the Big Woods". Now she's doing a book report and she's started the second book in the series. 

We're doing American History this year. We started with the Native Americans and we have just recently moved on to the first Colonies. 

For Science we're doing Astronomy. 

Math is Teaching Textbooks.

We also do Bible study and we're learning Swedish as well as still learning some basic sign language. 

Language Arts is a custom curriculum blend based around reading actual books. 

Art we really like the Homeschool Art Studio series. Plus we do seasonal crafts. 

Lisa is doing Quilting with Nonie for Home Ec. The boys are doing wood shop/mechanics with Ken.


Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

Wowza!!!

Butchering young Turkeys

Hello All,

Again it has been way to long since my last post. We had an insanely busy spring that just seemed to keep on rolling with very little time to settle in at the computer and type much of anything. Even e-mails and facebook posts have been short, sweet, few and far between. We also missed out on most of the fun local events that we usually attend. It would be pretty much impossible to talk about everything that happened over the past several months but I'll try to hit on some of the highlights. 

The least complicated birth of the Season.Iris and her triplets Luke, Bo and Daisy

Turkey Hen with 11 babies under her.

Our kidding season was the most difficult one we have ever  had with soooo many challenges and so much loss. We got a huge batch (over 100) of heavy breed cockerels in place of our usual meat birds and that was also a huge flop. They were unhealthy from the start, we had huge losses and the birds were so small at butcher that it was not worth the food that they ate. A hard lesson to learn. Thank goodness God was looking out for us and we ended up with an abundance of baby turkeys. Many of which we sold as poults. Others were butchered young and replaced the fryers that we lost. Still others were raised and butchered just before Thanksgiving. We may not have much chicken in the freezer but we have plenty of Turkey. 2 of our 3 pigs did really well. The third did ok it just didn't grow as big as the other 2. They were also butchered about a week before Thanksgiving and were processed out over a few days. We try to make use of everything we can. I even made head cheese for the first time this year. 

Pork Steak

Making Sausage with our new Meat Grinder that we got as an early Christmas gift from Donna. 

Head Cheese!

Raw Hide Chews for the dogs.

The high tunnel performed well again this year and we had a wonderful abundant harvest. The only thing that didn't do well was the corn and I'm still not sure what happened there. We had basically a small crop circle in the middle of the corn and of coarse what fell did not produce. The potato garden also did well and produced a LOT of potatoes for us again this year. The bees were a flop again this year. When hiving we lost a queen. Then we had a spring swarm which I caught and re-hived. We ended up with 5 hives and only got about 4 gallons of honey. Very disappointing. 

We had some great helpers here this spring and summer. My cousin Cole came and stayed with us for a couple of months in the spring and was a huge help getting everything set up for the growing season. To add blessing to blessings Cole accepted Christ while attending Rock Crossing Bible Camp here in Alaska.  Then we hosted our first wwoofer Stephanie. What an amazing experience! We could not have asked for a better first wwoofer. She is an amazing, smart and wonderful person, a true joy to be around. We worked hard and had fun. She will always be a part of our family from here on out and we hope that she will be able to come back and work with us again or just come for a visit. 

Stephanie Milking Lilly

Me, Stephanie, Wyatt and Oak checking hives

Relaxing in front of the fodder house enjoying hot dogs and s'mores 

Stephanie

Our biggest structural change this summer was the addition of a well!! We now have our own water and don't have to haul it from Manley any more. There is still no plumbing from the well so once a week or so we hook up a hose and filter and pump water into all our storage tanks. We also got a tankless propane water heater so we can now take a nice long hot shower! Yippee! All our plumbing is located in the fodder house/bath house. The cabin is still dry with a small tank that hooks to the sink for washing dishes and the tanks on the back of the wood stove for hot water. 

We were on TV this fall. This summer the cast and crew of the Animal Planet show Dr. Dee Alaska Vet came out and did a clinic at our house. So...our family was on the season 2 episode 7 called Farm Frenzy. I do NOT envy people who are on these kinds of shows. It's extremely hard to get anything done while they are filming. Having to repeat yourself all the time and having people in and out and all over your place. Don't get me wrong they were all really nice people just not very considerate of farm life. Leaving doors and gates open, going were asked not to go etc...

So here we are ending out November. We had a wonderful laid back family Thanksgiving with great food.  The school craft bazaar is done. The butchering is all finally done, school is in full swing and we are impatiently waiting for more snow so we can start running the sled dogs. The Crafter's guild Christmas store is coming up on December 3rd so we're getting some more stuff made to replace what we sold at the school Bazaar. Lisa is learning how to quilt from Donna and did well selling her quilted trivets. The boys are learning woodworking with daddy and have been making peg games, they also sold well.  

Lisa's Lap Quilt

Boys bear face peg game, They also have triangle ones and bear and moose profiles.

Now we're getting ready for Christmas and today I recorder the coldest temps so far for the season -33* f. Oh...did I mention that we now have an NOAA Co-Op Observer weather station on site? I record and report each days 24 hour totals (high, low, temp at observation, precipitation amounts, snow depth, 24 hour snow fall etc..). Today's 

Observation time	November 28, 2016 at 08:00AM
Observation type	daily (24 hr values/totals)
Max temperature	0 degrees F
Min temperature	-33 degrees F
At observation	-32 degrees F
Precipitation	0.02 inch
Multi-day Accumulation	No
Snowfall	0.1 inch
Snow depth	3 inch
Observation period weather

Remark

Clear

What I'm hoping to do from here out is to try to update once every week or two. I need to try to set aside a time. They will be shorter posts but more often. As I pull out my garden records I still plan to share with you all the varieties that did well for us this year. We lost over 80 plant starts this spring to the goats when they got into our front entry while we were gone visiting a neighbor so that put a crimp in some of my garden plans and record keeping. I'm also hoping to make a small e-book with some easy from scratch recipes, stories and advice to people considering going off grid. Not sure how long that will take but it's a goal. We're hoping to find a way to raise some funds to purchase fencing supplies. We're hoping to be able to fence off the old runway and turn it into a field for grazing and ultimately get .......drum role please......A MILK COW! Fencing supplies tend to be pretty pricey up here so it's a long term goal, but hoping for sooner rather than later. 

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 KJV

Gearing Up For Spring

Good Spring my friends. It was warming up the snow was melting and it was really looking like spring has sprung. Then it started to snow, and snow it has for the past several days. Temps have been pretty warm in the 20's and 30's even getting up into the 40's but it's still snowing. I'm ready for spring and was teased by some beautiful sunshine I know the extra moisture will be good in the long run but I am ready for spring.

February had a rough start. My poor baby girl had to have her lip stitched. The kids were playing outside Wyatt threw an empty #10 can that we use as a feed scoop. It hit her in the mouth. She came in with blood going every were and all she was worried about was her brother. She kept saying "please don't be mad at him it was an accident". I got it cleaned up and but a butterfly bandage on it. Then we all jumped in the car and drove to the clinic in Minto were they put stitches in it. Wyatt felt bad but has had a bad habit of throwing things so we made him watch her get stitched up and kept telling him that is why you don't throw things. I had to sit down as they stitched her because I almost passed out. Blood doesn't usually bother me but watching my baby go through that was awful. 

It amazed me how fast it healed though and now there is just a small scar. 

Then we sold two of our baby goats from last year Abby and Zeva. It was really hard to give them up but they went to a good home. 

The kids had good birthdays.

Wyatt and Oak had roast turkey and fried turkey strips for the birthday dinner. They got boxing equipment so now when they start fighting they can take it to the mat. We're working on technique and safety. I really wish I could post videos..lol..

WYATT

 OAK

Lisa had Moose burgers and french fries for her Birthday.

Ken made new bee hive parts and we all helped paint them. We now have enough for 5 hives. This year we ordered 2 hives of Carniolins and 1 hive of Buckfast. Having enough gear for extra hives is good just in case we have one the splits and swarms. 

We had 14 out of 15 chicks hatch healthy and happy. So cute and so much fun!

We went to the Carry the Cure assembly at the school and got to hear Broken Walls perform. It was really awesome!

http://www.carrythecure.org/

The babies are growing fast.

Oak lost his second tooth.

We got in our chick order of meat cockerels with a few specialty chicks thrown in.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Seed Starting has begun

So far I have started Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Herbs, Onions (from seed), Celery and Leeks

Herbs
	Garlic Chives		02/28/16
	Chives		02/28/16
	Greek Oregano		02/28/16
	Parsley 3curled		02/28/16
	Parsley It.Flat		02/28/16
	Basil Lrg Leaf It.		02/28/16
	Sage Broadleaf		02/28/16
	Catnip		02/28/16
	Dill Bouquet		02/28/16
	Rosemary		02/28/16
	Lemon Balm		02/28/16
	Lavender-prpl		02/28/16

Eggplant

Suraj F1

02/28/16

Onion

Bianca De Maggio

02/28/16

Celery

Utah

02/28/16

Peppers
	Yum Yum Gold		02/28/16
	Mini Bell Choc		02/28/16
	Mini Bell Yellow		02/28/16
	Mini Bell Red		02/28/16
	Early Jalapeno		02/28/16
	Purple Star		02/28/16
	Alma Paprika		02/28/16
	Long Cayenne		02/28/16

Tomatoes
	Glacier		02/28/16
	Nova		02/28/16
	Manitoba		02/28/16
	Indigo Cherry		02/28/16
	Gold Nugget		02/28/16
	Yellow Pear		02/28/16
	White Cherry		02/28/16

Leeks

King Richard

02/28/16

Hatched Chicks growing like weeds

Meat Bird Cockerels Growing Fast as well

Starts are all doing great!

Happy Easter!

Kids had a good time hunting eggs in the snow. We had a great time after at the hall eating chili dogs. Huge thank you to the Manley Hot Springs Crafter's Guild.

The kids cutting down dead trees to make roosts in the brooders. Rover supervised.

More Starts

My first attempt to overwinter a pepper plant. It already has blossoms.

We call this guy feisty. He's smaller than all the others and feathering out more slowly. He loves to be held and comes charging over to be picked up when we open the door.

Our two story Chick Brooders

So even though Spring may not be in full swing we are in full spring mode. Over 90 fluffy chicks lining one side of the front entry and plant starts lining the other side. As soon as the turkeys start laying we will start incubating turkey eggs. I'll be starting more veggies next week. The barn and coop are ready for a full deep spring cleaning. Bees will be coming in mid April, Pigs end of April beginning of May.  Baby goats are do in May. Ken is getting ready to start back on the road crew. Donna is coming home. My cousin Cole from Arizona is going to come stay with us for the next 7 months and help me out while Ken is working. He will get to learn all about small scale farming and I'll have someone with muscle to help out when Ken is gone. I think it's going to be a lot of fun having him hear and I am so thankful that he was willing to come. 

And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3:13