The Gang
October 2008 Sweet Potatoe Harvest
8:23 PM | 
Posted by
Shirley
Tuesday July 1st at 8 a.m. Caleb will undergo eye surgery again. This time they will be removing the oil that has served as a splint for the detached side wall of his retina. They will put natural fluids back into his eye which will allow the eye pressure to function as normal. When he heals from this surgery he will be fitted for a contact that will allow him to see close up again. He can see things far away but they are a bit blurry. I think it is totally amazing that he can see at all without a lens in his eye.
Phil, Caleb, & Sam (who wanted to be with his brother at the surgery), are leaving at 4:30 a.m. to get to the hospital. Please pray with us that the surgery will go well and that Caleb will have a smooth recovery. I'm excited for him that he has his own bedroom to rest in this time.
I'll try to update my blog tomorrow night to let everyone know how the surgery went.
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Each morning I wake up and thank the Lord that we are together as a family again. It is so wonderful to see Phil each day! Philip asked me this past Thursday, “Mommy, is daddy coming home this week?” I smiled and said “Yes Philip Daddy will be home tonight!” Philip's eye's got wide and he exclaimed, “Oh boy!!” The little ones still haven't caught on to the fact that because we moved we get to see Daddy every day now. It is so nice to greet Phil at the door each night and sit down together as a family for Bible time and dinner.
Today we worked hard on the farm again. Phil helped me till up the flower bed along the South side of the house. After tilling and raking out the weeds and crab grass we spread a layer of compost then tilled it in. I planted almost all of the herbs in the flower bed. I still have about 2 dozen parsley plants which I am going to plant with flowers along the front edge of the bed next week. I've always wanted a flower bed and an herb garden and now I have both! YEAH! If all my herb plants grow well we will probably have enough fresh herbs to feed the county. :-)
Samuel enjoyed tinkering with an old riding lawn mower that we found in the barn. The landlord said we could have it if we could get it started. Phil and Sam worked on it today but couldn't get it working. It was so fun to see Sam so excitedly working with Phil on the mower. Sam is still hoping that he and daddy will succeed at getting it to work.
Phil and the boys also worked on the fencing for our pig pen. We hope to finish it up early in the week so our little Berkshire piglets can join our farm. God is so good to give us the desires of our heart when we least expect it! Pigs have been hard to find this year up north so I was expecting to have a hard time once we moved down here. Our new neighbors, that we buy our milk from, have a sow that gave birth to 12 piglets this spring, 10 survived. They are a bit bigger than the normal feeder piglet, almost twice the size actually so we are paying twice the price. BUT the really neat thing is that they are Berkshire pigs. Berkshire pigs are the bread that I had decided through my research that I would some day want to have a sow and bore of. They are wonderful pigs for pasture feeding AND they are the gourmet choice of pork. I'm so thankful that we found these pigs and for such a reasonable price. We will raise these two for butchering this year. Eventually we will try to get a sow for breeding.
Our laying hens graduated from their one room heated establishment to the chicken coop today! The only difficulty we are having is that the roosters are trying to eat their feed and are chasing the chicks away, those naughty boys!! Phil rigged up a heat lamp for the chicks since they are only 4 weeks old and it is supposed to be in the high 50's tonight. He put the food very close to the heat lamps in hopes that the roosters won't like the heat and will stay away. We'll see if the plan works.
Elizabeth the Goat has been enjoying some freedom these past couple days. While we are out in the yard during the day we let her out of the chicken pen and into the yard with us. Thomas is trying to make her a house goat, YUCK! She enjoys laying on the cool concrete in the entry way of the house and has left a couple deposits that mom hasn't been too thrilled with. I'm hoping we will get more goats this week or I'm afraid Elizabeth the Goat is going to start to think she really is a Reese kid!
It has been so long since I've been able to blog that I don't know where to begin. So I'll go back a couple weeks and try to get you caught up on our family happenings. I hope you will sit back, pour yourself a cup of something cold to drink and enjoy catching up on us!
When we got back from camp we were sad to find one of our little rabbits dead. The next morning the other female was found dead too. Now we have one white male. We hope to find more rabbits to bread with it once we get proper cages built.
Fathers Day was a nice day at church celebrating the dad's and saying farewell to our dear friends. Sunday afternoon U Hall called about our truck telling us that we had to travel about 45 miles one way to pick up the truck, and it wasn't available until 10:30 Monday morning. We were bummed to have to wait until after noon to start loading. My wonderful organized planning all went down the drain as the loading process began. I stepped back and let the men do the work while I continued to pack up things throughout the house. Loading the moving truck and trailer took about 8 hours. Finally at about 8 pm we headed for New Holstein.
We arrived very tired to find that the kitchen floor had been lacquered late in the evening and was still wet. We did our best to lay down boxes and rugs so we wouldn't step on the wet floors while we brought in enough blankets for the kids. They were exhausted so we bunked them all down together in Samuel's new room. By midnight we realized that we were never going to find blankets for Phil and I. That is when he remembered the blankets he had been using were located in the van at the auto shop only a few miles down the road. He drove there got our blankets and we were able to head to bed.
I received one VERY BIG surprise when we arrived at the New Holstein house. Phil had purchased a new bed & dresser set with a nice new mattress. YEAH!!! Our nights sleep only lasted until 6 am when the landlord showed up to do more work on the house, but it was the first nights sleep I've had in years where I didn't wake up with a back ache.
In the morning we found out that some folks from our new church would be coming at 9 to help us unload. The unloading process went very quickly (thanks to all my labeling) and by the early evening almost the entire kitchen was organized, plus a couple of the older kids had “settled” into their rooms.
On Wednesday we continued to settle in. One of the ladies from church who has 5 children around the same ages as ours came over after lunch with her kids for the kids to play while we worked on getting Thomas, Philip, & Nathan's room unpacked and organized. It only took us a couple hours to get the room ready for the boys. That evening Phil & I set up the beds while the kids were at their first night of VBS at our new church.
By Friday we were pretty much settled in with the exception of the school room. I have to get bookshelves for the school room before I start to unpack. Phil has to put my desk together too. Elizabeth is not quite settled yet in her room and my need some “help” from mom to get it finished.
I absolutely love this house!! If it came with a few more acres and wasn't quite so old I'd be chomping a the bit to buy it. I'm so thankful that we will be able to live here while we get our finances more stable without the pressure of another mortgage. I'll have to take some pictures to post once we get our Internet. Right now we are trying to use the Internet off of Phil's blackberry, which means it is quite slow. Phil is working on getting us phone and Internet.
The children are really enjoying our little country life. We aren't in a good routine yet but Elizabeth is faithfully caring for the laying hen chicks and the boys are getting a bit better about caring for the rabbit. There is a rope swing here on one of the large maple trees which the kids spend HOURS swinging on . This yard is so wonderful for kids!! There are trees to climb, a sand box, and the rope swing. Once the animals chew down the pasture they will be able to access the creek easier and hunt for crayfish.
This past Saturday we added another animal to the Reese Farm. Goats! Phil drove out to a nearby farm and purchased two does that were about 2 months old. The kids named them Mary & Elizabeth because they are cousins. We lost one yesterday, Mary. The move upset their system a bit causing them to have diarrhea. Elizabeth, the goat, is still with us. If she survives until next week we will work on finding 2 other goats to put with her. From what we've read, goats are best in small herds. We have a very nice Amish family down the road who keeps goats that is willing to allow us to use their Billy in January so the girls can have spring kids.
Our garden is growing well.... and so are the weeds. After 3 weeks of very little care the weeds have become quite happy amongst the vegetables. We are slowly beating them back!! Our vegetables are doing really well considering their lack of care throughout this move. The broccoli is huge and forming their first broccoli heads. The cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage all look great too! Both the red onion sets and the ones I started from seed are doing GREAT, plus we even have some garlic growing thanks to the cool spring! We have a few short rows of carrots, two types of green beans, yellow wax beans, some pumpkin & watermelon plants, only 5 red potato plants (out of 30 sets, GRRR), 10 Yukon gold potato plants (out of 30 sets), and I think close to 20 Georgia sweet potato plants (out of 50) and a nice start on the corn. The corn won't be knee high by the 4th because we didn't get it into the ground until last week, but it has sprouted and is growing every day! I'm really disappointed with the potato plants, but am not surprised since we had flooding rains just after planting them. Over the next couple of days we will continue to battle the weeds while getting our squash, cuc's and zucchini in.
UPDATE: I wrote this entry of events a couple days ago. Today I worked in the garden for 6 hours, Phil and the kids helped put in some time too. Our garden looks WONDERFUL now!!! I planted Summer Squash (yellow zucchini), green zucchini, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, slicing cucumbers, and picking cucumbers. Caleb helped me with all the planting which was fun! We also planted more beans. The beans Phil and the kids planted a couple weeks ago are doing well and should start flowering soon. Phil took the tiller to all the rows and all the empty beds so we could plant and get the weeds under control. We also put some nice composted manure we found in the barn on the potato plants. Every bed was weeded today. There are only a few veggies that need some fine tooth weeding. It is so nice to look out my kitchen window at the thriving garden and know that we'll be feeding our family great food this year!
Tonight we also spent some time with some of our new neighbors. They are the family that we purchase our raw milk from. It was so fun getting to chat with them for a couple hours. They are Nourishing traditions/raw milk/organic/whole foods people too. It was fun comparing “notes” on what I am learning since they have been living a Nourishing lifestyle much longer than we have. They are also on the same page as us with their research into economics and investing. It was such a fun evening which I believe will lead to a nice friendship. The kids had a great time too. They have 3 children still at home ages 18 (girl), 14 & 10 (boys) and are a home schooling family.
Oh and for those of you who are wondering Elizabeth the Goat is still with us. She is still very skinny and sickly. We hope that when we get a couple more goats this week it will help her to bounce back. This time we are getting adults instead of kids in hopes that they will adjust better to their new home.
By the end of the week we should have 2 feeder pigs too! YEAH!! I've been saving scraps and throwing them in the freezer in anticipation of our little piggy's! Phil and the boys will fence in the area for them early next week so we can have them delivered.
I'm off to bed.... if I can sleep without bothering my sunburned shoulders much!
Here is a little recap of the past couple days for you:
Monday: A dear friend in town here helped us pack and get all our things out to camp. She sacrificed 2 hours to help us make trips to camp, helped me do some dishes and was simply a HUGE blessing to our family! The first evening Thomas really had a hard time in the children's groups. Many of you know that PHil and I have worked at NMC in several positions and usually the staff NEVER gets a parent out of the service. They are so well trained and so extremely patient and caring that most kids can get over their crying and start having fun. The change in routine and the number of kids in the 1-3rd grade group was so extremely overwhelming for him. Finally Phil and the couple in charge of the children's groups decided to move Thomas down with the 4 yr - kindergarten group. He has done much better in that group! We are so thankful for the staff at NMC!! They've handled him very well.
Tuesday: Phil and I enjoyed a morning of teaching sessions along with some quiet time for us to talk and pray together. The kids got to have game time, craft time, bible story time, and over all a TON of fun! After lunch Phil and I hung out with Nathan, Philip, Eliza & Caleb enjoying time playing basketball, watching some other activities, and talking with friends. Sam hung around with some new friends spending the day going on the water slides & swimming. At about 3 the littles and I headed back to the cabin for a nap while Phil and the other kids went to the fishing derby. Sam came in second place with a 1 1/2 pound bass. I'll ad a picture to this blog later showing off his catch! The evening included another preaching session for us, children's groups, and family fun.
We have been very blessed that we are able to have one of Thomas's Therapists come to camp to work with him from 12:30 - 3:30 each afternoon. They are playing with another autistic child & therapists working on having the boys take turns choosing activities, taking turns in those activities, working on manners and generalizing other things they boys have learned through therapy. Thomas's favorite activity this week has been mini golf! He also loves the boats and has decided today that he wants to try to zip line tomorrow.
Wednesday: We got to sleep in a little this morning which was refreshing. Then we had one morning session before brunch and family field games. The kids enjoyed sack races, egg toss, water balloon toss and more! Nathan and I had a quicky nap after the games. Phil and PHilip fished for about 2 hours and caught lots of fish. Eliza, Sam & Caleb enjoyed the two water slides, swimming, and playing carpet ball. We ended the afternoon with a Reeces Artic Dream and a Cappuccino (Philip's favorite drink). You've already heard that Nathan puked on me, so we are here doing some laundry while Phil and the kids are in sessions. We will head back in a few minutes for funny time, date night (where the kids will have sitters and Phil & I will get 1 hour alone), and star gazing for the older three.
Off I goooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Yesterday I got a call from Phil stating that the tire just fell off the van. He had driven to one of our new neighbors homes to pick up milk before heading home when the tie rod fell apart as he turned into their driveway. We are so thankful that this didn't happen when he was driving 65 on the highway! Phil said the tie rod broke (I think). God is so good!
Phil is going to have it towed to an auto shop in Kiel, a few miles from our new house where we will find out how much it will cost to fix it and we will go from there. We have decided that we will pray about fixing the van depending on the cost or just selling the van for parts and buying a new van. We have needed a new van for over a year. This past winter we had no heat which makes even a short 10 mile trip VERY cold when the weather is 40 below zero. We will see what our options are and prayerfully take the next step.
A friend of ours is graciously driving down to Kiel to pick up Phil since I cannot fit all the kids in Phil's car to go get him myself. We are so blessed to have such a great community of friends up here and we will really miss them!!
Today we were showing a friend who lives a couple blocks away how to care for our animals. I was a bit reluctant about having our friend feed and care for the dogs because Bandit is VERY moody. He has bit more than one child and is simply not predictable. Phil was hopeful that he could train his moodiness out of him once we moved. I'm sorry to have to report that Bandit bit our friend AND Phil. Phil had to get two stitches and both men had to get a Tetanus shot and antibiotics. Bandit will be entering doggy heaven within the next 24 hours.
We are very thankful that the injuries were not more severe and that we learned of the dogs limits before someone got hurt badly. We are also very glad that we do have a nice house dog, Sunny, to help the kids deal with the loss of Bandit.
If you have ever wondered about which oils really are the best oils you have to read Lindsay's post on oils over at Passionate Homemaking.
Stephanie at Keeper of the Home has a GREAT post on Frugal Food Shopping due to the rising costs we are all encountering each time we go to the grocery store.
I hope you will find these posts to be a blessing to you as you seek to shop wisely and add more healthy foods to your families menu!
These are the pictures of the kids celebrating their first nice day of summer vacation! The kids are outside playing with the roosters & rabbits, ridding bikes, golfing in the football field & overall enjoying the beautiful day!
I'm not sure if you can tell how many boxes we added yesterday, but it is very exciting to me to see this pile of boxes grow as area's of the house empty out. I have another 10 boxes that were finished yesterday that are still in the basement. When Thomas is done with therapy today we will haul them up along with all the therapy items.
Today we have an answer to prayer to share: Phil was able to find some folks who work at LTC to carpool with! The carpool is about 3 miles from our Irish Road House. There are already 3 in the carpool, with Phil joining they will each only have to drive every fourth week. What a huge savings on gas that will be!!
We are very thankful for the good rain that we have had this week. Now that we are gardeners the rain is such an answer to prayer since it allows our soil to remain moist and fertile! Phil said we have beans coming up and the broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts & cabbage are doing GREAT! Phil was able to get my largest tomato plants into the ground yesterday even though the dirt was quite mucky. He planted my Cosmont Volkov & Beeser (cherry) Tomatoes. These plants were each over 1 foot tall already so he buried them a good 4 inches to help make the plants stronger. Today he hopes to get the rest of the tomatoes in, if the weather cooperates.
Today I'm going to get some baking done for Thomas for camp: a quadrouple batch of waffles & some cookies. Then will use up all the rest of the boxes I have packing up the rest of the office & hopefully Phil's office in the basement. I'm in the home stretch with the list getting smaller and smaller but yet there is still so much left to do. I'm thankful that yesterday and today I feel really good. The cold I had last week really wiped me out and early this week I was simply exhausted still.
I end with some simple praises and thanksgiving to the Lord:
~Thank you Lord for the Rain!
~Thank you Lord for daily strength!
~ We praise you for providing a carpool for Phil!
~ We praise you for a good church body at our new house!
~ Thank you for a good nights sleep (and for getting to sleep in a little)!
~ Thank you for a beautiful day!
Ps. 89:5 The Heavens shall praise they wonders, O Lord: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints!
What are you praising and thanking God for Today?
School is over and the countdown has begun for vacation & moving day!
Just 4 more days until Family Camp!
Only 11 days until we Move!
Today we've been packing! It is a perfect day for packing since it is rainy and dreary out. I am almost out of boxes again. :-) Hopefully by the end of the day we'll have all the kids packed for camp and all extra clothes boxed up for the move.
Phil signed the contract for our Irish Road rental yesterday. YEAH!! We officially have a place to live within 20 minutes of Phil's work. This week it has been raining every day so Phil hasn't been able to plant anything. We are thankful for the rain as it has revealed that the roof has NOT been fixed at the rental. We are very blessed with good landlords who will be fixing the roof, putting new carpet in our bed room, and painting the entire house before we move in on the 16th. The only thing we might have to do is replace the upstairs banister which is only 2 feet high and quite wobbly.
Phil will probably stay until Saturday so he can put our 75 tomato plants, 6 pumpkin plants, 6 watermellon plants, and the about 16 pepper plants in the ground. We were hoping to plant a little more spinach & lettuce and the corn but it is way to wet. Phil will be harvesting our first lettuce to bring home for our fathers day salad.
Our roosters are getting big! We got our first 25 laying hens this week. They are cute little orange/brown fur balls! I will hopefully be getting 1-1 1/2 dozen eggs a day starting sometime in October. I ordered another 50 chickens, they will be a mix of breeds and sexes, which will be arriving the week after July 28th along with 2 geese, 6 ducklings, & 6 turkeys! How fun!! I am so excited about getting to eat chicken again!! We will butcher one of the turkeys for thanksgiving even though he may only be 10-15 pounds by then. It will be really neat getting to eat a bird we raised from a hatchling, no mystery injections, fillers, fattening on GMO corn & soy, and knowing our bird had the opportunity to live a happy turkey life in a pasture eating bugs & grass!
We have another new animal addition to our "farm". Rabbits! Sam went with some friends last weekend to a local animal swap. They were able to find us 2 girl rabbits the gray & white lion hair, and the cute little orange one, and a white daddy. We will breed the rabbits for meat. When we move we will have to find another male so we have two males in order to insure we aren't breading the kids with dad. Yes, I know what you are thinking.... who will kill them? Phil says he doesn't think he will have a problem doing it, so we are going to give it a go. They are another cheap animal to feed! During the summer they will eat grass, clover, and dandelions.
For those of you who know Phil you will be pleased to know that Phase One of the Robot Factory has finally been started! He has planted his carrots and purchased the rabbits! If there are any interested in investing in Reese Robotics while the company is young, please let us know! :-) For those of you who have never heard of Phil's childhood plans to build a robot factory, some day I'll have to share the entire story with you.
Enjoy the pictures!
I'd better get back to packing!
In the midst of this disappointment we:
~are very thankful that we KNOW that He has a plan and will work it out in His timing.
~are thankful for the extra margin this will ad to our lives. Phil will not need to take a week off work the week after we move to come up here and refinish the floors along with all the other projects.
~are glad that we can now re-evaluate what are the essential things that need to be done before renting/selling and can focus on those. This will probably save us a significant amount of money!
~are very glad that we will have a couple months to do the work on the Pembine house.
~are so thankful that we will be able to pray with our children about the need for a renter/buyer for the house. This will allow them to see God answer the prayer and help to increase their faith.
~won't have to have the house completely emptied out this month, so if we need to we can leave things here that will not fit in the moving truck.
~will be able to spend time focusing on settling into the new house and settling into a new family routine without the pressure of having to get this house done NOW!
~I should say, I am very thankful for a husband who is calm, levelheaded, wise, and a godly leader in our home. This would have rattled most men, but Phil has remained very calm and god-minded through this time. Thanks honey!!
Please pray with us that God will provide a renter for the house and for the apartment, or a buyer for the entire house.
~packing overtakes your life.
~The kids say, "Mom, where is the _________" and for once you know where it is: "It's packed!"
~every pair of pants you put on have sharpie markers in the pocket.
~you dream of organizing your new home, with a fervent passion for no cluter and a place for everything or IT ISN'T COMING OUT OF THE BOX!
~you are determined to only make useful purchases FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE!!
~you serve hot dogs to your family three times in one week.... so much for healthy eating. :-)
~you are 16 loads behind on laundry, cannot see the laundry room floor and you are encouraging your children to run through the neighbor hood with bare feet (because there aren't any clean socks).
Yes, our lives are quite hectic right now. The living room is about 1/3 full of boxes, not clear up to the ceiling, but high enough that we have to watch the little boys who think a cool square jungle gym has just been constructed for their use! I finished all the upstairs closets last week each of which are 5 X 8. Everything is packed and labeled from those areas and I'm almost totally done with the upper level of the house. I only have to help Eliza & the littles pack for the next 2 weeks then box up the rest.
My greatest challenge currently is finding enough boxes to fill. We were shocked to discover this week that WalMart will no longer give boxes out to people. Last week I picked up 2 carts that were full of boxes and this weekend when Phil went they wouldn't let him have any because they get paid to recycle the cardboard. Now I'm on a fervent search for boxes to finish up. If I cannot find boxes I'll resort to buying storage bins which I can use in organization, but really don't want to spend the money on right now.
We have changed our plans to go down to the house for this weekend. After working very hard these past several days packing Phil & I decided that he'd go down for work this week, stay at the new house, work in the garden in the evenings, and come home Fri evening or Sat once all the gardening is done. This will allow me to have a couple extra days to prepare for camp which will allow for a more relaxing vacation at Northland Family Camp. The kids were a bit bummed but I think they are excited for a couple extra days to play with their friends before we move.
Our landlord will be painting the house. If they are able to get the bedrooms, living & dinning room done, they will also strip the wallpaper off the kitchen and paint it too. I requested that they get the rest of the house done first and that if needed I'll do the kitchen this summer.
Today we did take a day of rest..... well can you call washing and folding 10+ loads of laundry rest?!? So maybe we just took a rest from packing. :-) We did enjoy a wonderful morning in church as a family with hopes of seeing Caleb & Sam Baptized. Plans changed when Pastor went to get into the baptismal after the service to find it EMPTY. :-) We all had a good laugh and are thankful that we'll be here for 2 more Sunday's. Hopefully next week will be their baptismal. Philip wasn't feeling good but we made him go this morning so we could all be there for the service to see Sam & Caleb Baptized. Philip was so sick that he slept and SNORED through the entire message. I tried plugging his nose, shifting him, covering his mouth, etc and no matter what I did he still snored the entire time. His tonsils are huge and he is congested so it is no wonder, but it was quite funny. A friend of mine sitting 4 rows in front of us could even hear him. He is taking another nap right now, poor kid!
We'll I'd better get back to the laundry..................................