Birthday Chicks

Chick Momma

Although her birthday is not until July, Evelyn has been talking about getting chicks for her birthday and having a chickie party. Since we were all stuck at home together, we decided to get chicks sooner rather than later to "free up" summer (at the time we had no clue these restrictions would last so long). But all the mail-order hatcheries were sold out for months, The Grange had canceled all chick sales for the year, and the smaller feed stores were sold out too! So what's one to do but hatch chicks oneself!?!?

Our incubator was finally delivered on May 5th and we had 6 eggs in it that very day! We waited...

The kids talked about the eggs often. We candled them and saw development. Burns was sure we would have 2 chickies and one lizard...I guess he thought the last three eggs were duds. 

Finally, on Monday morning we came downstairs to the sound of peeping!! One chick had hatched! The whole day was filled with checking the incubator! We watched the progression as the other eggs went from chirping to having tiny cracks called "pips", to lots of tapping all the way around, to wet floppy chicks pushing the shell apart into two perfect pieces! Within 12 hours of hatch the floppy wet chicks were active little puff balls. SUCH a fun experience!

A little ugly at first

Doesn't get cuter than this though!

We spent all day here

4 hatched, 2 to go!

Like I said, all day

Now the chicks are outside in their brooder box. They're doing well and have lots of opportunities to go on "field trips" to the grass or around the porch with the kids.  

Ev asked me to hold one so she could take a picture

My Experience as a Volunteer Provider

In the enclosed nurse's office where I could take my gown and gloves off.

**late post from May 17, 2020**

Dusting off the bin holding my scrubs, I reflected back on applying for my Washington nurse license. "Would you like to register as an Emergency Volunteer Health Practitioner?" the application asked. "Sure" click. It felt like a role I'd never be called on to fulfill. And yet, here I was, after one phone call, preparing to head to work the next day. I was pulling out my scrubs, freshening them up, and seeing how they fit after a season of neglect.

That was a month ago. I have now fulfilled my assignment, today was my last day assisting a facility to make it through a very difficult season. When I walked in on that Saturday morning I felt the weight, the grief, and exhaustion of the employees. I watched as the staff focused on the tasks at hand, knowing that many would succumb to tears again as they got in their cars to head home. I saw the shadow of what the facility had been, remnants of the cheer and fun...but now the halls were quiet and the elderly residents did not understand why they were not allowed out of their rooms. This virus was taking the lives of these beloved residents and although the staff was accustomed to end-of-life care, they never expected to be providing so much at once. 

Now things are different. The facility is still not back to "normal" but there is definitely a sense that the darkest days are over. I feel grateful to have had this experience, grateful to have had a chance to serve in this way and grateful for my husband who made it all possible by spending his weekends with the 4 creatures we call "children" after he already home-schooled them all week!

COVID19

So many words to describe this time: unprecedented, uncertain, stressful, depressing, disaster, pandemic, uncertain, unnerving, scary, critical, crisis, tragic...the list goes on. And yet...and yet in the midst of this world-wide health crisis, our little homestead is thriving. We are so blessed that Daniel was able to take time off from work and I am able to work from home. We are so blessed to have been forced into a season of together. With all activities including school canceled, we are here. We are home. We are together. It is not to say that we are ignorant. We understand the rest of the world is in the throes of a crisis. We understand the gravity of the situation and we understand that not only will many become sick, but some will also die, and the world's economy will be gravely impacted. We are not sheltered from the fact that this is a historic time. And yet...

So how can I bring generous into this season? How can I be generous when I can't even spend time with my neighbor? Well, I can bring them groceries. I can be generous by staying home to prevent the spread. I can be a word of encouragement. And I can be generous RIGHT HERE. In this family, in this home. These two and a half weeks have brought so much joy, so much together time, I am so thankful for them. When I was coming to a point where I wasn't sure I liked my kids at all, when everything bugged me about them, when I tried to be patient but it just wasn't working, and then BAM we were together 24/7 and life changed. Now I love being around them, I love learning with them, I love being reminded how special they each are. It's going to rain this week so maybe my opinion will change a bit as we spend more together time indoors but I am still thankful. Thankful for the wake-up and for these crazy kids. 

Here are some highlights of our Corona-cation as we are calling it:

Day 1- get piglets and introduce them to Mars, our dog.

Next, get dirty...

...by helping not-so-helpfully...

...but also very helpfully...

...to build a fence.

Fit some homeschool in here...

...and there.

Answer some life-questions like, "how does a toilet flush?"

Add some popsicle breaks.

And you have yourself a Corona-cation

Generous

Yes, February is half over and I am finally posting the word for the year. I have a million excuses, a million "reasons" I might prefer to say. But those are for another day, or never at all. Who wants excuses?

After spending 2019 in REFLECTing, I moved into 2020 with a new enthusiasm, new assurance of the direction life is heading and how to be every day obedient. I'll continue to hold this sense of reflection, just as I hold all the words from past years. Rather than "moving on", I seek now to add to the collection. The collection of words, foci from years past, growth areas. This year I seek to open my hands. Stop holding all that I have, all the gifts, and release them. Be generous with time, money, resources, words. Generous in my home as I serve my family, generous within the community, generous as I fill my role in this crazy world.

Will you join the ride?

I wonder what I will miss

Kitchen "Help"

I wonder what I will miss someday...surely I will miss the paint on the car that was scraped off in a moment of chaos. The chaos of 4 enthusiastic kids who were allowed to shop at a garage sale, one dog happy to see her human, and my mind set on getting dinner on the table as it was already dinner time and the food hadn't made itself...and the fateful moment when someone (me? a kid? we'll never know) closed the garage door on the open van door. Yes I'll miss the paint, but will I miss the chaos?

Will I miss the Radio Flyer bike, always underfoot, either zooming around with a toddler on it or left right in the kitchen, right where I am going to step...pushing it away is futile, the front wheels are always left turned so, like a boomerang, pushing it away only causes it to roll right around, right back in to my space.

Will I miss the invasion of space when I have "my space" someday? An adult bathroom without toothpaste smeared on the towels, no pee on the floor, the counter-top wiped rather than left splattered?

Will I miss the pitter patter of feet in the morning? The pace that only children can manage to attain immediately upon wakening. Or books at bedtime? The books that are for children but somehow feel like endless novels to parents who just want to get kids in bed so they can clean up and accomplish two more tasks before heading to bed themselves? Or the sleeping kids strewn around the house? (yes ok I already love this one, sleeping kids are so sweet...and silly)

The lack of chaos, personal space, the uninterrupted morning quiet, the time I could spend "being productive." Do I value it all too highly? The structure, the productivity, am I focused on this too much and missing out now on enjoying what I will miss in the future? Yes. Maybe. And yet as parents I think we are all too often focused on trying to perform perfectly, second-guessing whether or not we enjoyed it enough, worried that we're not doing this right. Stressing ourselves so much we can't possibly enjoy ANY of it. Even the good things. I include myself in this some days. So honestly, I think I will miss the chaos and the noise, the toys and the energy level, but I think it's also ok to be bothered a bit by them. I'll try to slow down and enjoy the books, but I don't have to enjoy the toothpaste on the towels. I'll try to slow down and play with my kids, picking up their toys for them once in awhile but still teaching them that other people don't appreciate treasures strewn about the house. And someday, I'm sure I'll miss it, but for today, goodness let's avoid the garage sales and keep that paint on the car where it belongs!

"You need to blog again." "Post something, even just some pictures." "I want to hear about your life." I've been hearing it for awhile, and feeling it too. It's time to start again. But how to even begin when it's been so long? When so much life has passed? Do I summarize the last few years? Or start with today and move forward, as if that time will somehow remain a memory,  knowing full well my memories fade all too quickly? This blog, it's as much for me as for you, I want to remember this life, these seasons, the trials and the joys in years to come.

This morning I was up at 5:10am, it's how we roll around here. That hour and a half of calm before the storm, I can't bear to give it up! And it's farm life, right? (Not that I do my chores that early). This time of year is perfect, the sun is rising and the birds are already chirping...soon that sun and those birds will be up even earlier and we won't enjoy them quite so much. But for now, for this morning, it's lovely. I so enjoy looking out our many windows, the ewes and lambs grazing, the chickens beginning their morning strut around the fields, and Steve, our ram, already taking his morning nap. Soon the fields will be alive with the energy of four piglets, running, playing, eating, and then crashing out for naps of their own.

I work from home, still for the company I worked for in California. It's the perfect job. Not forever, but for now. Two days a week our incredible babysitter loves on our kids all day, making sure the bigs catch the bus from her house and return to her in the afternoon for a snack and playtime before I pick them up. Two days a week I am "Mom" for most of the day but furiously work away during afternoon naptime for the littles. Fridays I work in the morning for a few hours and during naptime as Daniel works four-10's and is home on Fridays. It's become quite a nice rhythm, mundane is good during this season. I shudder to think about how all the fun of summer vacation will affect our lovely little schedule but the beauty is, my hours are flexible and we'll be able to make anything work.

The serenity hour (and a half) is up and I hear stirring upstairs. I'll look forward to touching base soon and updating you on more about Royal Acres.

Reflect

Strange, but I feel like we started 2019 with a deep breath. A good breath. Looking at our schedules at the end of 2018 it would look like we hit the year running...and maybe we did...but we've prioritized and it has been good. 2018 was a year for community and I just love reflecting back over the past 12 months, seeing how that community has developed. New friends, solidifying relationships with old friends, getting to know teachers at school, continuing with dinners in my cooking club, deepening our engagement with families in the AWANA program, hosting a "Lifegroup" through our new church, implementing pieces of our farm plan, and establishing our place in the community...a place that we hope is welcoming and warm.

This year will be a year to reflect. Reflect on priorities, reflect who we want to be, reflect.

This year will be spent with less mindless survival more moments stopping, reflecting on where we were, where we are, and where we might go. I love that life has seasons. Sometimes you just "gotta get through" and sometimes you just have to be a bit "mindless" as a Mom...but not this year...this year I'm going to see things differently, deeper, more slowly...

And reflect...I hope that I reflect Someone greater, reflect love, reflect compassion, reflect grace...

Here we go, into 2019...albeit running...but with a cadence of peace...a cadence I can keep up with...a different cadence than before.

October?!

It's October.  It's time for an update.  I'll start in the past and work my way to the present.

We went camping

We played with pigs

We went swimming

We went camping (again)

Bought a tractor

We spent time with the Gordons

Went camping (again)

Grew sunflowers

Harvested pigs

And spent a lot of time with friends!

Family Complete

Today we added another Royal to the family! We are so happy that Sophia will be part of our family forever!

We were so happy to have a representative from the
Moore side of the family join us!

And now it's time for us to take a break from foster care for a few years. We have full hearts but also full hands and a full home. Time to focus on these four children and attempting to train them up with love, discipline, and a heart for Jesus.

Animal Updates

Our farm continues to grow. Lightning, Skittles, and Chocolate Chip are doing fabulous, except they can't keep up with the wildly growing pasture! Sometimes one will call out fearfully because she has lost the other two in the towering grass. We chose sheep because we wanted something that would keep the pasture down, would be low maintenance, wouldn't cost a fortune to over-winter (feed during the winter), and wouldn't escape continuously (like goats do). Sheep seemed to be the right choice. Plus we have a couple sheep-farming neighbors so we can share resources and bounce ideas off of them. We're starting with three ewes and will get a ram eventually. We are hoping for some adorable little lambs next spring. We will keep the ewe-babies to raise up and sell the ram-babies. We chose Katahdin because they seem do do well in our area and because they are hair sheep! They develop a woolly undercoat in the winter but shed that for an entirely hair coat in the summer- no shearing required!!

The belly scratch

Don't think you can walk through the pasture without a herd of piggies running to greet you!

Last month we picked up our weaners which we will grow in to hogs and to whom we will say goodbye in October. Their names are Happy, Tinkerbell, Cow, and Balloon-Ear. Have you figured out yet that the children choose the animal names? The pigs are such fun creatures, very friendly and love ear scratches which quickly morph into belly scratches, just like when petting a dog. They have a way of getting you to rub their belly whether you planned on it or not. Of course they are growing quickly and outgrew their initial pen within a few weeks. The other day I moved them to pasture also. What an experience! Training pigs to an electric fence is a startlingly LOUD experience. We didn't quite research the "how to" process well enough initially and the pigs jumped right OVER the fence instead of back from the fence. So we had to corral them, return them to enclosure, and spend another week training to hot wire. Within a week though they had a healthy respect for the fence...however they were also pretty attached to their hog-home. They weren't too interested in leaving it in order to move to open pasture. With some treats, coaxing, and corralling they finally made it to open pasture. They were rewarded with a mud pit and donuts.

Pig and sheep, unsure of each other

After living in a temporary home for 8 months, the chickens finally have be a beautiful new chicken coop. We debated adding an enclosed run but they are so happy having free reign of the acreage. We decided it's worth the risk of losing one here and there in order to keep the entire flock happy and healthy. Currently we have 9 hens but I think some chicks may be in the works in the fall. Shhhh, don't tell the kids, they will never stop asking about chickies.

These guys built

These guys painted

I added the finishing touches and Capper tried out the chicken door

A Weekend at Royal Acres

What a weekend, what a life! From Fun Friday with Friends- mud and lawn tractors and trailers in the field...laughter and sun and a few bumps and bruises. To Sunny Sunday with our newest homestead addition- SHEEP. And in between?? Well lots of digging, and weed-eating, and mud soaked laundry, and fencework, chasing sheep who escaped and sore muscles to boot...church and Minecraft, and kids spending the morning with grandparents. What a weekend, what a life! Welcome to Royal Acres folks!

Frog Finding Friends

The sheep had to spend the night with the chickens after their wild run last night...and three adults chasing them...it must have been a rather silly sight! By morning they were calm and ready to eat grass out of our hand.

Finally Skittles, Chocolate Chip, and Lightning are released to pasture!

Oh, we also finally have a trampoline again, thank you generous strangers!!

I shall leave you with this classic.