A smattering of recent events - Gramma and Grandpa's visit, Joel's birthday and farm life

August has proved to be fun and full of adventure so far! Mom and Dad came to visit and see what life is like here on the farm! We enjoyed celebrating Joel's birthday with them.

{Joel is 7! He is very tall for his age pretty much off the chart! He still loves art - drawing pictures and coloring and all things colorful. He likes the animals and enjoys being with them and observing them. Joel is always thinking of an invention that will automate things - from picking carrots to cutting food to feeding animals. Joel is pretty good at roller blading and loves swimming. When we moved in he always wore a floatie when he swam. Now he can swim across the pool unassisted! He would swim every day if I could let him! Joel is also a shark! He is growing new teething behind his old teeth! Hopefully the old teeth will fall out soon. Joel is awesome!}

We spent a day at the Houston Temple, going to Buc-cee's and stopping by the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory.

Saturday was a normal farm day chore. The front field had just been cut and baled so Dad and Mom learned how to drive the tractor and gathered all our bales of hay into the back store lot. We got 20 bales mid summer which is pretty good for Texas.

We also visited a railroad crossing where to railroad lines cross. This was especially exciting for Dad!

This summer has been remarkably mild. We are just now getting over 100 F. Last summer it stopped raining by May and was 100 F by June. I am thankful that we've received a little more rain than that and that we've only had a handful of days above 100 F! My plan for this week is to bake cookies on the dashboard. I've always wanted to do it and when it's 108 F out, you have to hope it can be a success!

I've never considered myself an animal person, but last week we had a net gain of 10 animals on the farm and in the house! 

Alyssa got herself a gecko - his name is Fiyero (cue Elphaba's long Fiiiii-yyyyyeerrrooo refrain from Wicked - it's inevitably sung by each person who learns his name.)

Alyssa and Fiyero

We got 4 cats! I've had a lot of leads for barn cats fall through. The evening after my last hope the Austin animal shelter contacted me that they had 4 cats that were supposed to be picked up that day, but the adoption fell through. I was going to contact them within the next couple of days, so I took it as divine intervention and we picked up Flirty Flame, Lavassa, Perceptions of Reality and Longhorn. They are pretty feral. They live in the catio right now. Flirty Flame is pretty friendly and will play with strings and what not. Everyone else is starting to look more relaxed, but they still keep their distance. We have cats though!

Saturday we got 6 new chicks. We have some eggs in an incubator and are hoping to increase our flock a lot. The eggs will hatch in about 6 days. Then we may have 9ish more chicks as well! I'm so nervous. I hope it goes well!

A new Australorp Chick

Sadly after the addition of those 11 living animals, Miss New Hampshire Red, the head of the flock - first one out every morning, passed away from sickness. I think she had pneumonia. Poor lady. She was 8ish years old. May she rest in peace.

We are expecting Pinball the goat to give birth this weekend. There are also still 4 cows who need to calve! 

This is all to say, again, that I've never considered myself an animal person, but there is something beautiful about this little farm we have here and the life and even the death that happens here. It's fun to see how we all interact with the animals and the joy that comes from taking care of other living things. Just today I was out with the goats and Blinkie made sure that he knew he needed me to scratch his itch. He's a good boy.

With the farm and living around other farms also comes the occasional visitor. We had some neighbor cows visit on Saturday. This big white bull stayed until Monday night when we tricked him into walking through a gate that we hope leads to his real home. We had a few other bulls and calves visiting too. Their owner fixed the fence and took most of them back. I'm not sure why he didn't take his bull with him. He was pretty gentle and liked to coral all the ladies, keeping them in line. 

We still do stuff that doesn't involve animals and farm chores. Taft and Joel made cat inspired pizzas. Taft's was a full size cat and Joel's was a cat face.

Alyssa does lots of puzzles. She can knock out a 500 piece in a couple of hours. Here are a couple of pictures with her and the puzzles she has done.

Evan is cute. He loves his bandaids and his button down shirts (not currently pictured). He is really moving from toddler to pre-schooler. We start co-op next week and he is in pre-k. No more nursery for this guy!

There's a snapshot of life as of late. We start co-op next week. I am teaching a "physics" - motion and simple machines class and helping with a Harry Potter Elementary class. The kids are looking forward to their classes including a class all about dinosaurs, chess, STEAM based in Walt Disney, and intro to Spanish (for Joel :)). We'll start school a couple of weeks after that. We are also looking forward to Claire's visit soon! For now, we're here, fixing fences and watching the sunset and sweating in between. Stay tuned to find out about how chicks hatching goes...and if Pinball really does have a baby and when those other calves are born! Never a dull moment!