Our Life On The Hill

The best smell in the world....

is freshly cut hay!  There really is nothing better.  I could just close my eyes and stand there and take it all in.  It's relaxing and makes me happy.  

For the first time since we've owned this land, we didn't have crops this year.  We decided to go with hay.  We planted the back in alfalfa and oats and the front in grass hay.  Our alfalfa came in so nicely.  The oats were blown down from a really bad wind, so we couldn't harvest those, but that's okay.  The alfalfa was awesome!  We had our first cutting on August 7th.   Sawyer rode with me as I drove the farm truck out back and watched the guy we hired bale the hay.  We were surrounded by the sweet smell and I wished I could have bottled it up somehow.  I told Sawyer that this is a smell he'll always remember and love and it will always bring him back to his childhood.  

We hired a guy because we had this hay done in round bales.  This man has a baler that makes them very tight and compact.  We can do the square bales and the larger, looser round bales ourselves.  

We sold the hay to a local man and he came and picked it up as soon as we were done baling it. 

Here are the beautiful photos from that day.  I just wish you could smell this most wonderful smell via photos. 

The grass hay field

 

Hadleigh and Sawyer picked Queen Anne's Lace and we stuck it in bottles with colored water.  The flower takes on the color of the water.  They had fun with it.

16 years of waiting for me....

and the day finally arrived!  I couldn't wait to see a horse trailer pulling into my driveway carrying my very own horse.  The time had finally come!

Nevada arrived on Friday, July 30th

Hadleigh was so excited and I think you can see it from this photo.  We actually were in the middle of a coed softball game when we got the text that she was near our house.  We quickly raced home.  Hadleigh's friend came with.  Jerry was in the shirt, that was too small, that our "coach" gave us before the game. 

Here is Nevada being unloaded  

here he is enjoying his new home

The kids had to sit on him for a few minutes

Here he is all settled in.  We had to leave and get back to our games.  

Hadleigh loved riding him with just a halter and a lead rope.  We didn't have his bridle yet at the time.  Nevada was happy to walk around with her. 

  

I love watching him graze in the pasture

Millie and Nevada grazing together

 This girl loves her horse

 

The two of them trotting together

Nevada is so funny and he loves to gallop from his dry lot out to the pasture every morning.  We have to make sure everyone is out of the way, including the goats and chickens.  One rooster got a little too close the other day as Nevada was galloping out and he stepped on the chicken's foot.  The rooster is okay though. 

 

I so wish this one wasn't blurry  :(  I'll try again sometime.

   

Washing off her boots and the hoof pick

   

We were able to get his old bridle from the riding stable at Hadleigh's lesson the following Wednesday.  The first thing she did when we got home later than night, was tacked him up for a ride.  

    

Nevada is a Mustang.  He was captured by the Bureau of Land Management when he was 6 years old.  He was caught in the state of Nevada.  He went to an owner that didn't know anything about horses and put him into a machine shed.  He had injured himself really bad and was emaciated.  Karen, Hadleigh's riding instructor and stable owner, acquired him and nursed him back to health and then trained him.  He's now 24 and so sweet!  We just love him and we couldn't have asked for a better horse for our kids.  

Millie and Soleil are here

We adopted these two goats and brought them home on July 28th.  They were rescued by a couple of teen girls that ride at Hadleigh's riding stable.  They were at a sale barn and were in horrible condition and weren't treated well.  They were sick and Naomi, one of the girls that rescued them, took care of them.  I happened to be asking Karen, the stable owner and Hadleigh's riding instructor, questions about Nevada.  He's the horse we were getting ready to bring home.  I asked her if he would get along with goats.  I love goats and had goats when I was little.  I knew my kids would love having a couple of goats too.   Karen said that Nevada would be fine with the goats and she said she had two living there that needed a home.  I went and saw them and said that we would take them.  They are so cute and so funny!

Millie is a Boer goat, which is a meat goat.  She will be safe here.  Soleil is a Nigerian Dwarf goat.  She's actually a dairy goat.  

I'm sorry I took a million photos and just have to share them all!  They are just too adorable to not share!  

 Home at last

   

Hadleigh was helping out with her new pets

 

Hadleigh's friend with Soleil

Ashton made this obstacle for the goats and they love it!

      

We are loving our new pets!  

     

A gorgeous summer evening

I love nights when we can just relax and the sunset is gorgeous and the kids are all getting along so well.  There is nothing better than that!  

(You'll notice our playset is on it's side.  On Ashton's birthday, July 23rd, we had a high wind come through our area and it blew the playset over.  We also had big limbs out of several trees and we lost one tree completely.  Last year on his birthday, our favorite tree was struck by lightning.  We've had a hard couple of years when it comes to weather and damage.)

The night wouldn't be complete without a bonfire

   dirty kids are a sign that much fun was had

  
 

    

Our chicks are getting so grown up.  They will be laying very soon

our guinea

a view from the newly fenced pasture

some of our Cherry Eggers

The run in shelter for the horse and goats that Jerry built.  It has a coat of primer on it and is ready to paint.  (The horse and goats are here now and I can't wait to blog about them.)  

back to the beautiful sunset

overlooking our hayfield

the beautiful moon

   

   

 

miscellaneous happenings on the farm this summer

Post holes were dug for the fence for the new pasture.

A few of the 90 plus posts

The posts are all in and the insulators and wire are up.  We will eventually add boards so it will become a 3 rail fence, but boards and posts are expensive, so we are just doing the electric wire for now.  I will paint the posts and boards when we put them up.  

This is the start of the run in shelter.  It's also now almost complete.  It just needs painting and shingles. 

Chicks have grown up.  Remember our sweet little day old chicks?  They are getting so big and are about ready to start laying.  This picture was taken on the last day of May, so you can imagine how big they are now. 

A new clothesline and posts were put up.  I have to paint the posts and I'd like to add some gingerbread to the posts to give it some character.  That's on my huge to do list.  The kids love having somewhere to hang their towels while they are in the sprinkler. 

   

We've also had a ton of this...

 

  

Our view from the car

We've been dry the past couple of weeks, but our late spring and early summer were very rainy.    

Chicks

We picked up our 34 chicks last night.  They are so adorable and I can't wait to watch them grow to see how their colors change and what personalities they will have.   The kids were so excited and Hadleigh and Sawyer were with me when I picked them up.  They each "babysat" a box of chicks in the car on the ride home.  

Aren't they just the cutest things?  

In about 20 weeks, give or take, they will start laying eggs.  They grow so fast!         

barn clean up progress

Jerry has been hard at work on cleaning up after the barn tear down.  He also had to take out the foundations that the barn and corn crib sat on.  

It makes me so sad to see those buildings gone.  I can't believe it's been almost a year now since the tornado hit and took the corn crib out.  Even though the barn was ruined in March, we didn't get the structure down until December, so we could still look at it. It looks so weird to me to see that empty space now.  The silo looks so sad standing all alone.   We'll get used to it I suppose.  

   

Tearing out the corn crib foundation

 

.......to be continued
   

Harvest 2009

This year's harvest was so late due to the bad weather we had in the Fall.  Our corn wasn't harvested until December 12th!  Yes, December!!  It's the latest I've ever seen a harvest taking place.  My uncle remembers harvesting in January one year.  I think he said it was in the 1970s. 

This year, the kids were in school when they came, so they didn't get to ride with.  I snapped this picture as I was on my way to the school.  I can't believe there was a dusting of snow on the ground and the corn was being harvested. 

I took a picture of the grain elevator with the dryer going when I went into town that day. 

     

 

This year's photos are so different from last year's harvest photos.  I take pictures every year during planting and harvesting, because I think it will be neat to look back on the different equipment that was used and the different weather situations that were going on.  Last year's photos were my absolute favorites.

These were taken in October of 2008

Hadleigh and Sawyer going for a ride with Bobby.

Ashton waiting for his turn.  You can see the bean dust in the air.

I LOVE this one

I really LOVE this one too

This picture makes it look like he's flying...but he's not.

This picture doesn't even look like it was taken at our house.  With the bean dust in the air and it being dusk, it  looks like it's in the mountains or hills somewhere. 

Done for the night

  

Easter eggs

We have our first Easter eggs!  No, not the Easter eggs you are thinking of.  We have Araucana chickens and they lay what are sometimes called "Easter" eggs because they are blue/green.  We just started getting eggs from them.  It's so exciting and they definitely are beautiful!

One last weekend of summer

On August 15th, the kids had their first soccer games.  When the games were over, I took the kids to our fire department's fire camp.  It was held at the community center in our town.  They held this same camp two years ago and it was so much fun.  This year they had a few more water slides. My brother, he's a volunteer fireman, and I even gave in to the heat and raced each other in our clothes on one of the slides.  I was drenched, but it was worth it.  It was a blast and a very refreshing break from the heat and humidity.

After fire camp, we went to our favorite pizza place, Monical's Pizza, for dinner.  Our favorite Monical's to eat at is closing because they built a new building, and we had to say goodbye to this place.  We love it so much because of the really cool faux tree inside.  The kids are going to miss it.

My little tree hugger

We'll miss that tree. 

What is perfect after dinner on a hot evening? 
ICE CREAM of course!

On our way home, we stopped to visit Jerry's grandpa and his wife.  The kids love visiting them and really love it when the pigs are out so they can pet them.

This guy was in the barn laying down.  He's the Mac Daddy.  lol  He's HUGE and must weigh close to 700lbs.  I've never seen such a big pig before. 

 

This mama pig was in the farrowing house and ready to give birth.  She did a couple of days later and Jerry and Hadleigh had to go his grandpa's for something and Hadleigh held one of the 12 hour old piglets.  I'm sad I wasn't there with my camera.  I would love to hold a piglet too.  I'd probably want to bring it home.

This gal was having a great time in the mud.

the adorable summer kitchen

On Sunday, I took the kids swimming at my father in law's house.  We didn't stay too long, because the wind started and a storm blew in.