Spots for learning

We have dug into the books at home this year and things are going well.  Both girls are diligent in getting assigned work done and there are several things we are doing together.  We have just finished reading the book 'In His Steps' together and both girls would love to have me read it aloud again!  They are both reading other books continually and we also do readings for history and science.  The best part of it all is having them climb out of bed in the early morning (7 am!) and climb under blankets on couches and chairs in the living room.  There we begin with devotions, some worldview study and some medieval history.  That's before we get unsnuggled and have breakfast and family devotions.  You can't have too much of devotions, can you?  Lots of scripture getting us hearing from God and time to pray so he hears our voices too. 

By nine in the morning when most kids are pulling out their pencils and books, our kids are onto the 4th or sometimes 5th subject.  Nuts eh?  And we have school wherever it works.  The kitchen table is often plastered with many books.  The living room is the comfyest place to read and sometimes the girls even do math and language work there.  But there are other spots too - in front of a sunny window, outside near a fire, and science fun in the kitchen or outside!  Kierra and science experiments usually equals a lot of fun and a mess.  And mostly understanding.  She is a learner on a roll and carries the rest of us along and we work to keep up.  Her thoughts often seem to be one ahead of us all. 

We are enjoying the year thus far.  Hopefully we will survive the winter ahead of us without too much cabin fever. 

Kierra's first choice of book was to finish and re-read 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry'.  She read that with her class back in Stratford and would often comment on the way that certain readers had read parts of the book.  I think she enjoyed that almost as much as the book itself.

Dayna packed up some books and worked outside near the campfire one beautiful morning.  I would love to have some more of those mornings in the next weeks.  Maybe after this snow melts we will have some gorgeous fall weather.

the lineup.

Several tractors have loaders and one can choose from this line-up to find what you would like to attach for the current job!  Kierra is getting better at this job.  Because she is, I am spared the job of trying!

Tic, Tac, Toe anyone?

It's been a few weeks since we completed this massive tic-tac-toe board.  What a relief it was to finally finish. But doesn't it look pretty?  I am all about making things look nice.  This is a nice 'nine-patch' with some of Dayna's outdoor twister discs used instead of x's and o's for the game.  Don't worry, no-one won the game.  Besides, I was just playing against myself!  This is what the close up is like...then a view from farther away...and farther... and farther!

 In my naivety I had looked forward to the corn silage harvest thinking that since we needed two less people (no one needed to cut or invert as we do with haylage) things would run quickly and smoothly.  On the whole things ran quite smoothly.  Long and smoothly.  Like, really long and smoothly.  Which after a while doesn't really feel so smooth anymore. Acres and acres of corn hauled home to fill up these 'bunks' for winter feed.  Notice how we are making bigger bunks all the time?  Maybe we are getting better at it.  Besides these four bunkers we have several 'piles' that we made out on the ground.  And there is another bunker of haylage and two large upright harvestore silos that are full now too!  A milking herd of 190 plus all their 'followers' means lots of food put up into storage for the winter!  I won't be as naive next fall.  I was able to put in a lot of milking shifts.  I was ok with that.  It was cooler out.  This farmer isn't into working in 30+ degree weather.  I will let you know about working in -30 degrees after the winter. 

After the corn silage was done, we had a couple days off and Dave went out in the combine to finish off our last acres of corn for high moisture corn.  And that took a few days and then WE WERE DONE HARVEST for the WHOLE year!  Yippeee. And we finished off the new 'up close/calving barn' so we can use that too.  Now the jobs are to spread the manure, work the fields and clean out the pens!  But this is good.  The guys stop to come in for meals and do the milking with our hired milkers and even have naps once in a while to catch up on something called sleep.  They don't do a whole lot of that...more next year, I am hoping!

The New Additions

The farm is a great place to be and the expanse of this place has meant that the reality of adding new additions is possible.  Even horses!  And two girls here are very excited that we have FINALLY found the next answer to their dreams.  Meet Kierra's new equine friend,  KEELA!

and Dayna's daily companion, WAYSA!

Keela is 4 years old and a great horse for Kierra.  She is green broke and easy for Kierra to handle.  She needs work but we have Sarah Stam living next door and even though that is far away at times, she is here at the main farm A LOT and that is a huge bonus for both girls as they work with their horses. 

Waysa is only 3 years old and not rideable just yet but  we have someone coming a couple times a week to work with her and Dayna.  We hope it won't be long until the two of them can be seen flying through the fields, alongside the palomino and her rider, Kierra!

The horses are such a big part of the girls' lives that in celebration of Kierra's 13th birthday she had a "Riding party' with 3 of her friends and Dayna and Sarah.  Two of the girls brought horses along and they are just leaving home to go to a neighbor's farm where Sarah's horse, Shade is until they have a spot for her at their place.   It was an long afternoon of wonderful memories -  6 girls and 4 horses and beautiful weather!

Ontario girls (you know who you are!) - should you want to come out for a riding party of your own, let us know when you will be here and we will make sure to have enough horses ready for a ride!!