Tuesday

The hay we got from Glen is moldy. That sucks. Now we have to show him and renegotiate the deal. Good thing we cancelled the delivery for today.

Mark took the kids camping at Beaver Creek again since their trip last time was cut short. I hope they are having fun, but Mark already left a message saying that he had to get a new battery for the car. It is nice camping weather though.

Thursday we are taking the kids to Cedar Point for the evening. I can't wait. I have been wanting to take them all summer.

Uno seems to be putting a bit more weight on. I am trying to make sure that he gets his fair share. It will help when Charlie is gone. He really picks on Uno, and Uno is such a timid little guy anyway.

Yesterday we signed the kids up for 1st grade at Firelands Elementary. I am so relieved and happy that they are going to this school. It was very bright and cheerful, and all of the people we met were very friendly. There are 5 first grade rooms with 16-18 children in each. For the first time they will be in different rooms. It is time. They will get the bus at 8:05 in front of our house and be dropped off at 4. Everything has fallen into place.

JoJo and Pickles

Yesterday Juliette found herself on the other side of the fence in the horse corral. We have no idea how she got there. The good news is that the donkeys totally ignored her and did not try to stomp her. Then, this morning I got up early and two deer had come throught the corn and were standing there wanting to jump the creek and our fence. Both of the donkeys were standing at attention, switching their tails and snorting and blowing. The deer and the donkeys stood there for about 10 minutes looking at each other. Every time one of the deer took a tentative step JoJo would snort and blow very loudly and menacingly. Finally the deer decided to turn north and head up along the corn away from our property. Good guard donkeys!

Silver-laced Wyandottes

Yesterday I picked up 6 new chickens from Ravenna. They are about 3 - 3 1/2 months old. Wyandottes are supposed to be friendly, great layers and cold hearty. Plus, I think they are gorgeous. With the temps in the 90's a good part of this summer the Buckeyes decided to molt and just weren't laying. I actually had to go out and buy store-bought eggs to cook with. I will only use them in recipes, not on my plate. So, once I had to do that I realized that we needed more chickens. I went round and round trying to decide what kind. Then I saw an ad on craigslist and I was sold on the Wyandottes. I am hoping that we have zero roosters on board this time. Maybe one would be okay, but that's it. They are in quarantine right now in the barn, but they are bright-eyed and healthy looking, so I might move them into the coop in a couple of days. They are much smaller than the Buckeyes at this time since they are only juveniles so I will have to introduce them to each other slowly. First the cage will sit on the lawn during the day and we will put it into the coop at night for about a week. Then we will let them out to free range during the day and hopefully they will go in their cage at night. After a week of that we will let them duke it out in the coop. If you don't introduce an already existing flock to newcomers slowly there will be a bloodbath.

Getting Finn and Tali ready for 1st grade. We finally decided on Firelands and I feel so good about that decision. I think it will be a much better fit. I want them to grow up with kids who speak the same language. ie. farm language

Ruby and I are doing very well. She is steering nicely and yielding to leg pressure. I rode her all around the big pasture with no problems at all yesterday. The only thing that could cause a bolt I think are those darn horse flies. They drive her nuts and she comes to a complete stop and will not move when one is on her. She just waits for me to kill it, but if it is on her chest or underneath there is nothing I can do. So, I sit there banging my legs against her waiting for her to move on. Now if I could only figure out how to get the saddle to stay on better we would be in business.

Professional Day

Today was a long day. No school for the kids so Mark took Tali and I took Finn to work with us for our professional day. They were excellent, so after voting we took them to dinner at Lorenzos. Voting was a fiasco. The line was long and slow moving because three people in front of us weren't on the list and had to vote provisional. Every time that happened, the little old ladies (all 4 of them) had to stop what they were doing and call the Board of Elections on their cell phone. One made the call, but the other 3 just sat there. The voting booths were empty. It held up the whole line. Again, Finn and Tali were great. We had a very nice dinner and made faces at the baby next to us. Now its time to hit the hay.
Farm news: Amelia is ready to breed and Bunny is trying his best. He wouldn't dare tackle Raisin, but Amelia is more his size! You should hear the noises he makes at her. Very funny.

Happy Halloween

Today we did quite a bit of running around. Home Depot to purchase a deep freezer and a mini bar fridge to replace the one that went bust. Tractor Supply for the weekly animal feed run. Great Clips where everyone got a haircut, even me. Sean busted his hand, or leg, or arm, or something, so cancelled on me today. I had to resort to Great Clips. I'm growing it out, so it didn't really matter.
For Halloween Finn is going to be a doctor and Tali a princess. I'm kinda mad at their school because they did face painting on Friday and it got all over both of their costumes. We are going to go into Oberlin. The houses are so pretty in the fall. I hope the weather holds. Mom and maybe Dad are coming.
Animal update: I think that Ruby is still feeling punky. I think she still has a strongyle infestation. I need to get some panacur on Monday. I left her in her stall today because the back creek has been flooding and the pasture is a mess. The poor sheep have half of their pen flooded. Luckily the straw has built up and they have a little dry space. Tomorrow the plans for me are to move the goat wall back so that the space is smaller. Then I'm going to fill it with sawdust and get their bedding built up before it gets really cold. I also want to finish painting the sheep shed and the doors to the pens.
I think that Charlie has been doing his job, at least with Raisin. We had to put Mr. Tumnus along with Bear and Bunny into the barn one night this week so that Charlie could have his way with her. Mr. Tumnus was just getting in the way too much. He is very protective of all of the girls.
Oh, we also need to get some lighting out to the chickens and cover the pool. We are getting two eggs a day but I think that will be dwindling soon if we don't get some light out there. This week we have let them back out to free range and they are very happy campers. But the poo situation is very annoying.

Warm buns

This morning Finn told me that while he was lying in bed he put his hands on his butt and he liked it. WHAT! I asked him to elaborate. He said that his hands were like snow so he wanted to find someplace cozy for them. He he!

Dreamin

While I was making breakfast Finn told me, "Last night I dreamed about budder." Butter, that is. Oh, my child is so strange. But in a good way! :)