Mothers Day Hike ~one day late

On Mothers Day we were supposed to go hiking, but the weather wasn't cooperating so we waited until Monday to head out. A friend told me about this trail just recently so we decided to try it out. It is only about 10 minutes from our house( I can't believe I have lived here for almost 5 years and didn't know this trail existed!) So the kids packed up their back packs and we headed out.
The view at the start of the trail.

Another view from a different direction.

Starting off on the trail.

See that grey road looking thingy? Thats where we are headed, but I really didn't think we were going all the way down there. See the trail? That's what we traveled on.

We saw a dead rabbit along the way.

UP UP UP...we took Daisy dog with us. She was the girls protector on the narrow parts. She would walk between the edge and the little girls so they wouldn't slide down the hill.

Rob: alway on the edge;)

A great look for Jordan, don't you think? She was having a great time, just a bad picture.

See the grey? Thats where we are headed...

Almost there...

That sign was about half way down...at this point not looking forward to going back up.

Made it to the river at the bottom.

Can you see the rattle snake? It was under the bridge we were standing on. I HATE SNAKES!

Heading back up! I survived and didn't really have to catch my breath on the way up;) The kids did great, even Jaelyn. She was dressed warmly so she was pretty toasty going back up but she was a trooper!

Garden, goats, soccer

The kids and I spent most of the morning weeding and transplanting plants today. The weeds have overtaken the garden, we have had so much rain lately they are growing faster than I can pull them.


The newly fence garden. One side needs to be reinforced because of our very strong winds but that will have to wait until July. The chickens are still getting in the garden so I will still have to cover the beds with netting.



We transplanted one bed of Tomatoes, and just as Jacob and I were finishing a hail storm came in. I stood by for the 2-3 minutes it took to pass. The tomatoes didn't get any damage from it.



Strawberry bed. We have already picked some and can't wait until there is more.

Jacob and I weeding the beds.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Praise is giving me about a quart a day. I put the babies away in the evening and milk in the morning. I then return babies to mama. I can't wait for another month when I wean the kids so I can get double the amount of milk

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soccer season ends this week. I am always sad to see it end. The kids just love it as do the parents. Upward is such a great program. The kids learn drills, sportsmanship, and scripture all at the same time. Each week they are given scripture to memorize and drills to work on. This will be Jacob's last year:( Not sure what he wants to do next year, he has talked about Martial arts but we will see.

Jocelyn's soccer picture, poor girl was throwing up that morning but made it for pictures.

Spring time

It was finally a nice warm day(with no wind) so out came the sprinklers and bikes. No bathing suits required. The kids have been waiting for this for a while. Our winds here are bad in the spring, but once it warms up the wind dies down. The temps are supposed to be in the 80's tomorrow. YIPEE!!!

NO, I have't dropped off the face of the earth:)

Jordan studying her AWANA book before competition at the AWANA Bible quizzing, where they got 2nd place!

The roses Rob gave me for V~day

I am trying my hand at drying the rose petals in my garage on my dirt sifter Rob made for me.

We've been busy, it is almost spring you know:) We are planning our garden and seeing what needs to be done around the property. Our first project we are working on is our garden. It will be much bigger this year so we can start canning and preserving more, I think we all need to put our basic skills to work because no one knows what the future holds for us. We also just purchased a green house so I can work more:), haha. I ordered my seed from Seeds of Change and Johnny's. I am waiting patiently for Spring to arrive so I can get busy in the garden.

We have signed the kids up for 4H and are excited about adding this to our school curriculum. There is a lot to know going into it, but I think it will only benefit the kids and their academics.

Two of the goats are to kid in mid-May if their meeting with the buck took...we shall see. I assisted Dalyn in cleaning off her goat kids when hers delivered and that was an experience like no other. I can not wait for the kids~they are so fun!

We also will be getting 2 lambs and a beef cow hopefully soon so come fall our freezer will be full!

School is progressing along just fine, the kids can see the light at the end of the tunnel:) Each month we participate in "Country Nights" where there is one country picked and all the kids do a project from that country. The parents bring a meal from that country and after the meal is eaten then the presentations are made. Here is Jocelyn presenting marmots to the group, for the country Austria. This month is the country of Hungary.

Update

I can't believe it has been this long since I posted last. Well since last time things have certainly been busy.

Soccer ended here are the highlights

Jacob scored 1 goal this season, he improved the most since last year, his foot work was great!

Jordan scored 3 goals this year! She loves the game!

Jocelyn had a good time for her first year! The boys dominated on her team. She was close to scoring, although we had to bribe her $5 to even try:)

It was a fun season but a very cold one!!! It snowed on three different games. Compared to last year where we had umbrellas to keep the sun off of us!

I planted my garden with the seeds I started in the house. Although I don't think my corn or pumpkin or cantalope will grow because it just hasn't gotten warm enough. I will post pic on a later post.

Awana has ended and Jacob is done unless we take him to another church, which might happen.

The fence is slowly going up.

ugh I will have to show pictures later as blogger won't let me load them!!!

Spring is a comin'

Happy March

This month we have so much going on! So much, if I didn't put it on paper(or computer) my head would explode:) So here it is:

Fix truck(w/o it we wouldn't be able to do most on this list)

replace timing chain on van

Order seeds

till garden

build garden beds

get soil ammendments

clean out chicken coop and put away winter lights

reorganize garage so we can park in there again

finish painting trim and doors on house

buy hops logs for fencing->get them to house:)

make sure all sprinklers are in working order

clear spot for swing set we are getting from friends

Hubby start drilling out holes in logs for fence

put fence up

start building shelter for goats

continue to declutter house and clean it!

And on top of all this all soccer season is upon us, so practices for three of the kids. Thankfully they are all in upward soccer and will be practicing and playing their games at the same place.

Ok it doesn't seem that bad when you write it out. Although I am sure I missed a few things, oh well there is always April:)