Of being busy, cow names and a birthday....

So it appears that I have completely ditched my blog again lately! I PROMISE you that it has not been intentionally!
Here on the farm we have begun the HUGE project of cementing the shop.... so we have been kept hopping busy preparing for that this past week.
Between that and birthday celebrations.... well, lets just say that there has been pretty much ZERO time for blogging lately.

Anyways, there is a few things that I want to catch you up on..... before I get to far behind :)

First is Clarabell......
Sadly I don't have any new pictures of "my baby" to show you. My photographer doesn't get out to the barn very often.... and me + a camera + a barn,  just don't mix. SO words will have to do :)
Clarabell is doing very well, considering that she is a heifer.
 She likes to try to kick me when I'm washing her.... I've been learning to be very good at avoiding those leg breaking kicks.... and have minimized it to only one big bruise so far :)
She was having problems with dancing from side to side, so I eventually put a square straw bale right beside her legs so that she THINKS that she cannot move :) It also helps alot with the kicking.
She is giving 6 gallons of milk per day which is REALLY good considering that this is her first year and that she is only 1/2 jersey breed.

After a few days of thinking about it I decided on a name for the calf.... it is (drum roll please!)...... CARSON.
We have "C" names going with all the calves that we have gotten off of our milking cows so far (Clarabell + Clover) and the name "Carson" just kinda popped out of my mouth (this happens to me... often :), so Carson it was!
We call him "Car", "CarCar" or "Race Car" .... he is quite the spunky little thing!!
Carson is doing well and growing like a weed!

Secondly is Caleb's Birthday.....
My "little" brother turned 13 the other day!! I can HARDLY believe that he is already a teenager (kinda makes me feel old :).
Meg, Ker and I had been bugging him for about a year that it was time for him to think about turning from a "boy" into a "man", we kept asking him when he was gonna do it!
He (very seriously) told us that by his 13th birthday.... he would become a man.... and he has NOT disappointed us!
Though he is not completely there yet he has been making progress! It has been fun to watch the transformation, and being able to treat him more like a friend then just one of the "little brothers" has been a BLAST!!! He has been coming with me milking lots lately, so it's been fun getting to know him all over again... on a new level.
I just can't wait until his voice starts to change.... being the teaser person that I am.... I'm a gonna' have FUN with that!! (heehee)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALEB!!!!! I LOVE YOU MUCHES!!!

I do have some pictures of how much we've gotten done on the shop, but I think I'll wait until it is all finished until I show you them (are I not just so kind??? :). So STAY TUNED!!!
The big "cementing day" comes on Tuesday!

Until then.... have an AMAZING week!!!

Catching up....

Alright, so life has been absurdly crazy this week. Not to mention the fact that our internet had been down for a few days.... so I'll spend this post getting you all caught up on life here at "Quiver Full Farms".

 

Monday

We celebrated Zachary and Jesse's birthdays. Since Zach's birthday is on the 16th and Jesse's is on the 18th, we usually celebrate both of their birthdays on the "in between" day.

Zach picked the meal (Kerri's perogies, macaroni salad and chicken fingers) and Jesse picked the cake......

WINNIPEG JETS!!!!

Zachary got a bass guitar for his birthday... ahem, and a clown suit......

What a nut :)



Tuesday

Was Jesse's 9th birthday!!! I've been blessed beyond measure to have Jes as my little brother!

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY JESSE!!!!

Tuesday also began a project that was to continue through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

(Wednesday we also brought home the cows from one of our pastures...)

Bringing in wood for the winter!!!

Dad and Josh manned the chain saws...

There was LOTS of carrying wood, throwing wood, catching wood, splitting wood and stacking wood going on during the whole week. We brought home, split and stacked  12 truck loads!



Megan was the master stacker....

Tuesday we brought the log splitter right to the place that we were getting wood from and split it before we put it on the truck.



The rest of the time we brought the wood home and formed a crew to get the wood unloaded, split, and stacked away all in one swoop. At one point we had a crew of 11 going!

This picture is Megan's vantage point of the crew. One kid would hand the logs to mom off the truck, she would hand them to Josh,  who would put the log on the splitter. I ran the splitter lever. Dad took the split logs and handed them to one of the many kids who were carrying wood. The kids then brought the wood to Megan who stacked it all!

The final product. 2 room fulls of wood for the winter!

Zippy Zee Man

Today is Zachary's 11th birthday!!!

Wow, where do I start? This boy is somethin' else :)

I have the privilege to have Zach as one of my 2 students in school. He gets VERY easily distracted, but other then that, he makes my job quite pleasant :)
He is better at writing then me, which is weird because he is still learning how (like you know.... not print, write :) so he'll ask me how to write a letter, I'll show him how, and then he'll go and do it and make it look WAY better then mine! (I don't like writing!) But I'm one up on him on printing.... so I'm okay with that :)

Zach is a perfectionist when it comes to certain things in school. He was very upset with getting a 93% on his first math test the other day.... he wanted 100%!

He likes to say "dun-Jen!" (it sounds like dungeon.... I get called that ALOT during school! :)

I sit beside Zach at the table during meal time. The poor boy is a good sport, anyone who sits beside me gets water pored on their head.... often. I call him ducky boy because the water just runs right off his head :D. And I like to tease him just to see his sweet smile :)

Zach is a cowboy wanna be :)

When it comes to sports... oh my, this dude. He is very dramatic (I like to call him the drama queen :) so he can make everything look good!

In this picture below he was showing me how guy tennis players "dance" :) You can imagine how good he was at it!

Zach LOVES animals. If ever there is a cat or other animal that is especially tame, I always know that it is Zach's! He is good at making animals like him :)

One of his favorites is chickens! He tamed all of the chickens that he was in charge of this year, he would actually let all of them out of their pen every day and "walk them". Those chickens LOVE Zach! His favourite chicken is one that he named "dinosaur".

Zach is a master sock stealer.... he seems to always manage to have a pair of my socks on his feet. And somehow it manages to NEVER be his fault!!

When Zach is supposed to be up... he is down. 

And when he is supposed to be down.... he is up!

I LOVE you Zach. And I LOVE being your big sister.

Keep that smile on your face!!!!!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!!!!

Love,

Jenny

A birth story

Haha.... I bet that title got you goin' eh? My birth story is not a human one... rather a cow one :)
(just thought I'd clarify :)


Yesterday at around 8:00p.m. I went to milk our cow Sally. I knew that Clarabell was getting REALLY close to calving, but I had quite given up on guessing when the calf was actually coming.
When I was finished milking I went out to check on Clarabell... and I saw.... FEET!! YEAH!! It was time!

I was mentally preparing myself for a staying up REALLY late waiting for the calf to be born and getting it fed and getting Clarabell milked.
I was thinking.... 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning.

It was SO adorable/funny, between contractions Clare would come over to me and start licking me all over, it was like she was practicing for when her calf actually did come :)
At around 9:30p.m. she started pushing in earnest, so I ran inside to get Ker out there just in case the calf was really big and I needed help pulling the it out.
But she was a PRO and a few minutes later... the calf was born!!! IT'S A BULL (boy :)!!!



I have experienced nothing as amazing as having the privilege of watching the birth of a new little life. And every single time it thrills me! This time was extra specially special because Clarabell was my little baby... now she is all grown up!

At 10:30 Ker and I went out to milk Clare and to feed the calf. We seperated the calf from momma, this is always the SADDEST thing to do, but it is necessary if we want milk to drink! We brought Clare into the barn and began milking her. She was REALLY good, so amazing in fact that I could hardly believe it! I thought.... wow, milking a heifer (first time mother, milker) is EASY!
Unfortunately... I spoke to soon, the morning milking was a disaster.... but I'll get to that in a bit....

Clarabell gave over 2 gallons of colostrum. We fed some of it to the calf and then put the rest into the freezer. Colostrum is milk that cows give for the first few days of her calf's life. It is essential for the calf to get colostrum within the first 24 hrs of life or it will die.
We freeze the extra in the case that in the spring we have a calf that lost a mother, or that it's mother is not able to give it the life giving milk that it needs in time.

Cows don't give chocolate milk.... but they give something even better, BUTTERSCOTCH MILK!!!

(looks like it eh?)

 After milking, we fed the calf, he was a really quick learner and Ker and I were in and cleaned up by 11:15p.m.!

This morning when I went milking, I made the mistake of leaving the calf in the same pen as where I was milking Clarabell. The minute the calf let a bawl Clare LOST IT. She wanted her calf NOW! I had to put her into the head gate, and even then she was swaying from side to side, kicking the milk machine off, bawling and makin' me a sad woman!

Tonight she did so much better.... I hope to have my sweet carefree Clare back soon!

And I'll NEVER again say that it is going to be easy to milk a heifer.... I've learned that experience means a lot!!

SOOOO, any name idea's for the calf????

Wordless Wednesday ~ Thanksgiving Pictures

OOPS.... I have to add some words in here :)

 These 3 beautiful ladies are all expecting (can anyone say YEEHAW!?!?!) So we had to take a picture since this would most likely be the last time that they would all be together before one of the babies arrived!

Left to right: Becka (due in November), Mom (due in March), and Aunty Laura (due in November)

Dream list #53

This morning I was FINALLY able to say that I woke up at 6:00am every single morning for 2 weeks straight!!! YIPEE!!!! I WILL be honest and say that there were 2 times that I woke up at 6.... but then stayed in bed for a few more min. But that's close enough right?!?!?! :)
I would DEFINTELY recommend trying this.... especially if you are a person like me who can be particularly lazy in the mornings :)
My personal experience was that it makes me feel so much more.... alive, motivated and joyful.
Even those days that I had a late night... sure I was SLIGHTLY more tired during the day, but I still felt more alive then I would have if I HAD gotten ALL the sleep that I could have.
It's like getting a kick start to my day I guess you could say (haha.... I'm a poet, and I didn't even know it!! heehee :).
Waking up early was MOST annoying on Saturday and Sundays... those are the days that are my most favourite for sleeping in... but even then, it was ALL worth it!! I'd do it again!! ;)

And good grief... WHY NOT when you get to see this every morning!!!!

Proverbs 20:13

Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.

P.s. I was able to think of a few more things to add to my dream list... it's still not finished.... but getting closer!!!

See dream list here

Memories Monday Part 3 (years 4, 5 and 6)

These are the years that the pictures begin to only appear around birthdays and special occasions and such. You don't blame mum do ya??? She must have been kept hopping with all 4 of us crazy kiddoes :)

For my 4th birthday I got a dolly named Jessica. She was my favourite doll for MANY years.

Our dog "Heidi" had puppies.... oh the joys!!!

My 5th birthday party

These were the beginning of the crazy fun years that I had playing with my sisters. We mostly played "house" together with our dolls. What FUN! :)

I got a letter from my daddy on my birthday. I remember being SO tickled that my daddy would take the time to write me those sweet words.... I still have that paper...

Here Josh and I were practicing for a play that we were doing. I think it was about being to busy working to be spending time with God.

Mom and a good friend of her's made these dresses for me and a friend. Mikaya now wears my dress....

My 6th birthday party

I got THEE best present from my brother for my birthday.... a PUPPY!!! We named her Shadow and she was our amazing dog for many years.

Josh and I were playing "follow the leader" one day out in the snow. He decided to go up the tree...  then jump down. When I tried to follow, I jumped... but unfortunately didn't hit the ground :( I WAS STUCK!! My big brother was SO kind and considerate.... he promptly left me hanging and ran inside to get mom to take a picture!!! Some big brother!!! (that I love to bits!!! :)

For Christmas of 1997 I got a diary! My first few entree's were as follows.... have fun trying to read them :) (don't you remember always getting those b's and d's mixed up.... oh the trials!!)

December 24 1997

Yesterday we hab lots OV fan.

We took picRters

we opned presins.

KerrI, Megan and me got a big KItchin set, and I got things to make braslits thats all I hav to saeid

December 24 1997

today day we habd lots of fun.

we opended pesints we played with toys, the adults played games. 

I derinck cream soda. thas all I have to say.

Apparently keeping a diary at 6 years old wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, because it was a year before I wrote it in again.... I'll have more next time :)

Meanwhile.... I hope that you all (all my Canadian readers that is....) have an AMAZING Thanksgiving!!!

~ Thanksgiving ~

I'm thankful for....

• Family 
• Smiles 
• Sunrises and sunsets
• New days and fresh starts
• Babies to cuddle and children to enjoy
• Home
• Chocolate (especially DARK! :)
• Pjs + cowboy boots (trust me... they go together well :)
• Horses, dogs, cows..... ect.
• Grandparents
• Sisters (you know who you are :)
• Little nephew
• Brothers
• Friends
• Beauty of nature
• Crunchy leaves
• Stars
• Church family
• Hoodies
• Campfires
• Singing
• Sundays
• Soft breezes
• Valleys
• Gravel roads
• Apple pie
• Babies that are a comin'
• Running shoes
• E-mails
• Love
• Peace
• Joy
• Salvation
• My Heavenly Father

And oodles of oodles MORE!!!!

What are you thankful for???

I'll leave you with this song sung by none other then.... Marshall Hall :) 

Hope that you all have a VERY.... 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Of Babysitting 8 kids...Alone

Hey all! I've decided to ditch "Memories Monday" for this week because things have just been CRAZY around here and I have NOT had the time to go through and scan all the pictures that I'm going to need.

Sunday was Megan's birthday. Mom and Dad decided to take Megan and Ker to see the movie "Courageous" in theatres (since Meg had been CRAVING to see the movie since she first heard that it was going to be out!!) and then they stayed overnight (it was a 2 hour drive) so they could pick some stuff up in the morning.

 So after church I took all the kids home.... and the fun began :)

WE HAD A BLAST!!!!

There were those crazy moments, like when there were 2 kids that needed to be changed, and all the other's waiting for breakfast all at the same time.... or when one kid (who will remain nameless) threw a tomato at another kid (who will also remain nameless). 

But there were more fun moments! We had a pj party right after supper until bedtime (which included VEGGIE TALES!!! :), we had a fly killing contest, I watched the duggars with Caleb in the evening.... oh oodles of fun :)

It definitely got lonely at times.... I'm pretty much used to having someone (an older someone :) to talk to all of the time (If anyone knows me... they know I like to talk!!!). But it was a really good experience :)

Here are some pictures that I took during our "pj party", they are not very good.... but my photographer was gone, so these'll have to do! :)

Someone is 18!!!!!!

Today is my lil' sista' Megan's 18th birthday!!!!

I luv Megs.... so very muches! There are SO many times when I have to stop and thank God for giving me Megan for my lil' sis (not to mention that she is one of my 2 VERY best friends!).

She quite the AMAZING person and is LOADED with creativity. With all her photography, movie making, scrapbooking, decorating, card ect. ect. ect it seems endless :)

 I LOVE it because I'm somewhat lacking in that area.... so she is handy to have around :)

She loves her violin, and it's lots of fun to see (or hear rather) her practice and play to her hearts content.

 And have I ever mentioned that she is DROP DEAD gorgeous?!?!?!

    

I LOVE you Meggy, so very VERY much!!! Thanks for being such a AWESOMELY, TERRIFICALLY, FABULOUSLY, AMAZING little sis'!

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY!!!!

Love yur' biggest sissy.

Jennifer