Twin Firs Farm

Spring is in full swing over here and Mark has projects galore.

Bubba Chunk up there has discovered he too loves the outdoors and a closed door is a fate worse than naptime.

The big Family Project this year was expanding the garden.  Mark divided up the goose/turkey/meatbird yard and turned the back half into veggie growing space.  This man needs to plant two whole seed packets of beets I tell ya.

He has no time for square foot gardens, trellis gardens, or straw bales gardens.  He is as old-fashioned as he can get with his string and stakes.

The kids were a big help, from rototilling (teen boys are great) to rock raking to seed planting.  Mark also got some Frankenturkeys and has an order in for more Frankenchickens.  He and Evie hatched out five chicks in addition to our eight new layer chicks.

Of course I'm busy raising my own little flock...

And you know what else is coming 'round the corner?  Here's a hint...

Waste

I consider myself to be pretty crunchy, earth-friendly, resourceful, and thrifty.  I pinch pennies, don't give in to my children's whims at the store, and accept hand-me-downs.  I keep things because they are good toys and can be used by all ages and genders.  I hang on to Hot Wheels tracks just in case Daniel develops an interest in cars.  I appreciate the things we are blessed with because I know our lifestyle is different from other people and I don't want my kids to look at our family and feel resentment toward each other for hogging all the resources.  But I can't keep everything.  I can't.

People think that I take cast-off items because "I have such a huge family and could probably use it."  I know their giving is an act of kindness, but it kind of isn't.  They bought into the consumer lifestyle.  Their kids didn't appreciate their stuff.  They don't have any younger siblings to hand it down to (or they don't want to keep their childhood treasures for their grandchildren), so they send it to my house.  Your treasures come here to die, did you know? That puzzle lost one piece the first day it was here.  And I burned it with the rest of our paper garbage.  That paperback book series you laboriously taped back together when the glue started to get brittle and the pages fell out?  They will also be destroyed.  I will find a chunk of pages and toss the whole thing.  It's so wasteful, but that is our culture.  I hate it.

But I don't think my kids get it.  I think that because they get so many hand-me-downs, they feel no need to conserve what they have.  Who cares if the dog chews up a My Little Pony? Someone will want to offload a whole bag on them in a few months, probably, and if not, they can always find one at the thrift store for the price of a tooth.  Mom says, "Pick up all these repositional stickers NOW or they are going in the garbage!"  Who cares? They can just ask for more for their next birthday or Christmas and since there are so many birthdays around here, they can just gang up and get group presents.  "Pick up your clothes and stop putting clean clothes in the laundry for me to wash or I'm going to pack them all up into trash bags and then we'll see how you feel when you don't have anything to wear!"  Oh, Dad would never let Mom keep their taekwondo uniforms and who ever heard of a naked ballerina?  Mom and Dad paid for those lessons; they aren't going to keep them from their dance clothes and shoes and waste their money.  And they don't really care if their clothes are stained and have holes-they're homeschoolers and no one sees them, right?

Sounds like my kids got just a little spoiled, doesn't it?

And it sounds like it is time to do some extreme decluttering.  We have until the end of November to find out if everything in this house actually has a place.  We have six short weeks to find out if we own more things than we have places for.  If I don't have a perfectly clean house by the end of November, Christmas presents will be cancelled!  Oh, we'll have a tree and candy, but no toys.  No toys, no clothes, nothing with parts.  No "consumable" craft projects (because the end product isn't consumable-it's more junk), no art supplies, no science kits.  No games for family night, no critical thinking solitaire games, no self-contained learning activities.  Nothing.  This mom is DONE.

I'm Dreaming of a...Green...Christmas

I got a few more Christmasy things "wrapped up" over the weekend...

I pulled out my "green" wrapping supplies and got our presents wrapped!  Throughout the year, I buy Christmas themed fabric at the thrift stores and I use it as wrapping paper.  I absolutely hate the idea of buying wrapping paper and spending all that time taping it into place just to stuff it in the bin a few hours later.  My Christmas fabric also cushions our decorations while they are stored for the year.

I also use reusable tags on the gifts.  I used to use stickers, but I like these much better.  Instead of the tags having a "to" and a "from," we just do a "to" and leave it at that.  With 150 tags in the box, I don't think I will ever run out!

Shane breaks a board with a back hook kick (let's hope he asked Santa for new socks!)

While I was busy wrapping, Mark and the three older kids were busy administering/taking their first test at Mark's new Taekwondo school!  He has been teaching Taekwondo at the YMCA for the last few months.  Ian and Shane earned black belts a few years ago at their old school, but they were out of practice and Mark didn't want to start them off so high.  Yesterday they tested into the brown belt level and Evie tested up to green.  Fiona will stay a white belt for a few months (if not longer).  The best part of the test came when Shane was having trouble punching through a board.  He tried three times, his knuckles getting redder and redder with each punch.  He was so embarrassed and you could see that he was holding back tears.  Mark had him stop trying the punch and had him switch to kicks.  He kicked his two boards with no trouble and wanted to try the punch again...and he did it!  Mark was so proud of him for not giving up.  "That's black belt perseverance!" says Mark "That is what I want my kids to get out of Taekwondo."

Beautiful "Lulu"

Last night, the four older kids (plus Heidi) and I attended a Christmas party hosted by one of Ian's friends from Boy Scouts.  We had such a good time.  The host family purchased presents for all the kids who attended and also hired a Santa Claus to surprise them!  The Santa was pretty creepy; the kids and I had a good talk about stranger danger and the difference between the real Santa and his helpers that work at the mall and creepy guys that dress up as Santa to earn extra money at parties.  The take home message was, if Santa tells you how pretty you are and wants you to sit on his lap twice, watch out!  This Santa even asked if I would take my sleeping newborn out of her wrap that I was wearing her in so he could hold her.  Um, no.

The girls got matching hats and scarves, Ian got a headlamp, and Shane got a Lego set.  Even Daniel and Lula got gifts even though I refused to bring them to the party.  So although Santa was creepy, the company was good and we all had a pleasant time.

Time for a nap!

I'm feeling pretty good about what Christmas items I've been able to check off my list this year!  I though for sure that having a newborn would hamper things; instead I use my sleepless hours to plan what I'm going to accomplish each day. I'm normally pretty stressed out and grumpy about Christmas.  It is my least favorite holiday, I'm sad to say.  But this year isn't going too badly.  It helps that we've had a budget and haven't run out of money for necessities and at the same time, maintained our savings and never used credit.  And it also helps that Mark picked all the presents and I didn't insert my opinion (too much).

Today I made cookie dough for tomorrow's cookie party at my parent's house while Evie, Fiona, and Daniel made a few ornaments.  The girls are making beaded Christmas trees...the kits are easy for Evie and challenging for Fiona.  Fiona is still working on hers...

Daniel made Shrinky Dinks, courtesy of my friend Crystal!  She gave us this kit last year and I saved it for a perfect rainy day...today!

He was pretty cranky today and had a hard time following directions and allowing other people to have authority over him.  He even threw his presents from last night's party into the garbage...and then cried because he threw them away and wanted them back...and cried again when he found out that I already took them out of the garbage and wanted them put back in.

He insisted on being the person to put the Shrinky Dinks into the oven, but his arms just aren't long enough.  But watching his ornaments shrink right before his eyes was awesome and he has been carrying around his project all day.  We'll see if he is able to give them away as presents...

Dirty Laundry

I give myself permission to post the following dirty laundry *wink*.  This morning, I pulled this shirt, freshly laundered, out of my dryer:

This used to be Ian's best church shirt when he was three.  Obviously Daniel ruined it.  I am at peace with the fact my boys destroy their clothes (we do live in a big dirt pit with all the bulldozing we have going on), but man, this dirt spot was awful.  Can you see the strange spiral shape above? Right before I left for dance, I drizzled some stain remover I bought from Costco on the shirt.  When I got home and rinsed it off (no scrubbing!) I could see the clean spiral-shaped path!

I added a second drizzle and scrubbed half the shirt.  I was totally amazed at how quickly the dirt disappeared!  That lady at Costco was not lying!

A few minutes later, the whole shirt was presentable!  I haven't even washed it yet.  I am so amazed at what this awful chemical could do to a shirt that was headed to the garbage can!  Now what should I do? Pollute the environment with chemicals to preserve a shirt or pollute the environment buying new shirts and throwing destroyed ones away?  Choices, choices.

All in a Day's Work

Yep.  All in a Day's Work.  Nothing special, nothing exciting.

Most of the firewood is chopped and stacked.  Mark and the boys do this job in the morning before the sun gets hot.  The boys set a line of wood on end so Mark can chop, chop, chop.  They then stack the chopped wood or reset it.  It makes the chopping and stacking go much faster. We have double (at least) the wood we had at the beginning of last winter.  Mark has to lift the boys on top of the wood pile so they can stack it!

I'm picking the green beans and freezing them for winter.  We have a bumper crop of beans this year.  I'm loving my Food Saver for this job.  I've canned and dehydrated, but this is the first time I've blanched and frozen.  I can't believe how easy it is.  I do flash freeze the beans before I vacuum-pack them.  It keeps the water from interfering with the seal.

Thanks to the planting of an entire package of seeds, we also have a bumper crop of yellow summer squash.  I'll be making and canning relish this week.  Relish.  Every time I read that word, I want to say re-LISH instead of RE-lish.  Rhymes with delish!  I counted 30 squash in the garden and that does not include what I've already brought in.

So much for me not having anything to do with gardens this year!

Raccoon Repelling and Slug Slinging

Ever since the lady at the end of our driveway moved away and stopped feeding the raccoons, we've had several  hits on the coop.  We've lost three chickens and a bunch of eggs (the raccoon pulled the chicken off the nest and ate the eggs, right there in the coop while the chickens freaked out).  This on the heels of selling 22 two year old hens has caused our egg production to fall to about 9 eggs per day.  Which is a nice change from the two dozen we were getting, but we still don't like losing our chickens.  The other night S and I scared the raccoon off, in fact it growled at me from the bushes when I recovered the body of the freshly killed rooster!  We've determined the time the raccoon usually strikes: right before dusk.  By the time it is dark and we are ready to close up the coop for the night, the damage is done.

My new method for keep the raccoon at bay is to send my loud children outside to play at 8:30 PM.  This is usually our bedtime, especially in winter.  But at this time of year we've barely finished our dinner (I have a strong circadian rhythm and have trouble living by a clock this time of year-I was wide awake at 5:30 AM this morning).  The kids and I are ready to go for another few hours-until 11:00 PM at least!  This is also the best time of day for garden maintenance... 

"Toss that slug, F!"

Once upon a time, I read a book called Slug Tossing.  I forgot it existed until I heard E exclaim how many slugs were in the garden (and they were eating my precious kale).  My slug enthusiasts now go into the garden and toss the slugs into the blackberry bushes while I water.  I'm very happy to keep my veggies poison free while keeping the raccoon at bay long enough for the chickens to get in the coop.  The kids are even learning how to weed and thin!  So even though I told M I was going to have nothing to do with the gardens...

...at least I don't have to bend down to weed or pick anything and the kids are a getting great garden education.

Earth Day

Once upon a time, I had a friend who hated Earth Day.  She told me we made funny friends because I like Earth Day and Earth Day made her want to burn tires and drive around in her gas guzzler throwing trash out the window.  She was right; we did make funny friends.

A Happy Earth Day Indeed

Today I celebrated Earth Day by recycling my plastic...but I didn't know it was Earth Day when I did it.  I was just on my way to town to obey my inner urge to purchase massive quantities of meat and make freezer meals.  Then I bought throw away dishes and disposable diapers (although I cut out pieces for more cloth diapers this morning) and LED light bulbs and storage containers for hand-me-downs.  I think I'm well-balanced, don't you?

While I was gone, M rototilled the garden and planted tomato starts.  He mowed (parts of) the lawn.  And he got his BBQ groove on with some Copper River Sockeye and steak.  For this I am extremely thankful because I came home and put together 13 freezer meals and have three more trays of meat and dozens of eggs to process tomorrow.

The kids took another dip in the pond this afternoon.  They are so lucky to live here!  Now we are enjoying a delicious dinner that reminds me of the days when we used to come down here for vacations.  We are only missing three special people.

Happiness is...

...line drying towels on a beautiful Spring day on a brand new clothesline...

...and sharing that happiness with a baby.

Happy (Belated) Earth Day!

I totally forgot yesterday was Earth Day...good thing I have friends that remind me of things!  So since I was busy thinking about other things (mostly Grandad related), I had a normal kind of D Family day.  We did schoolwork:

The boys are assembling Native American History Pockets while E plays with paper dolls.  Whenever the sun shines, we have a hard time finishing things...

The love that their uncle is Tlingit!

... so we headed outside when M got home from Grandad's latest appointment.  We will finally know how far the cancer has spread and what can be done by the middle of next week.  Prayers are much appreciated!

Pileated Woodpecker

Baseball fever has infected IJ.  I'm glad that he has become enthusiastic enough to go out and play and haul his siblings along with him:

"2,4,6,8..."

And we played baseball together!  What fun to have enough people!

Even the dumb dog played!

Azure Standard/Costco Day

Nothing makes a farm girl such as myself more content than a pantry full of food.  Everyone knows that I bulk order our grains, cereals, baking mixes, beans, and pastas, right?  I order from Azure Standard, a drop ship company out of Oregon.  Once a month, people can place orders that will be shipped to a volunteer's home.  We get a phone call that our order is in and we pick it up!  It's awesome!  Unfortunately, I've been missing the Azure Standard cut off for 9 months now, and ran out of whole wheat flour.  And then almost oatmeal!  Like, that could never happen!  This month, I did not forget, but I also had a lot to get.

I also had to do a Costco run yesterday.  I usually go once a week when I'm in town, but last week I went to the regular grocery store instead.  Grandad requested some special items that Costco doesn't carry and right now, his wish is my command.  So, I was two weeks away from my last Costco run and needed to restock several items.  The timing of my Costco run, however, coincided with the time some people were... stocking up in case of emergency.  You know what I mean?

It isn't too odd for a woman with five children to push a giant cart through the store.  Especially when there is a coupon for paper towels and TP.  But after the kids are packed in the van and I'm alone loading the food...I look a little like I'm stocking up in case of an emergency.  Well, I am.  I always am.  There are all sorts of potential emergencies: flu, earthquakes, ice storms, trees across the power lines,...rising food prices...nuclear fallout...or I just plain don't want to leave the house!  The man parked next to me mentioned that he had stopped in for just one thing.  But he decided that since he was there, he might as well get prepared, and it looked like I was too.  I responded, "Oh...well....this is just a normal run for me.  I have a lot of kids.  And I haven't been here in two weeks."  And then I tried to close the back of my van, but the door wouldn't shut.  Heh, heh.  Whoops.

Just a Little Somethin'

...I whipped up over the weekend:

 A pretty purple dress for my 2 year old who only wears purple and dresses.

 The Clan Campbell diaper (made two)

and the Road Hazard diaper (made four)

The insides of the diapers were lined with receiving blankets I picked up at Goodwill for a few cents (discounted due to stains) and an old pillowcase.  Yay!  Diaper changing is fun again!

Baby's First Food

Today we reached a great milestone in that journey we call babyhood.  Baby D got his first "solid" food! I believe in waiting for signs from the baby that he is ready to start solids instead of looking at the calendar.  I think D's signs of watching us eat and drooling and trying to grab our food is a good sign.

"Wah! I'm hungry!  I'm starving to death!"

Every other baby got that iron-fortified instant rice cereal.  This baby got iron from a green source: spinach smoothie!  My smoothie!  I told M just yesterday that I wasn't going to give him a smoothie as his first food.  But after he started grabbing my glass and crying, I gave in.

"Hmm...cold texture flavor on mama's finger"

"Wow, I taste something!"

All of the ingredients are found in commercial baby food: spinach, peas, peaches, and water.  But these were fresh and tasty! 

"I like it!"

"I need MORE!"

"Oh, thank you!  I thought I was going to DIE!"

His face was getting too messy with finger feeding, so I switched to a spoon.  But this didn't deliver enough of the goods, so he went after the cup!  And took big gulps!

"I better get some before it's all gone!"

Before I knew it, everyone wanted my smoothie!