My new home for now

I've decided to give up my homeschool blogger site. I found it too difficult to deal with, so I will be here until our web site is launched, then I'll be blogging on that.

Our Thanksgiving was a bit different this year. We actually butchered our own turkey, the tom in the photo to the left, and it was the best tasting bird I've ever had. His dressed weight was 32+ pounds! The meat chickens we raised this season were also very tasty. They are free range and run all over our farm. Able to eat the insects and bugs, weeds and grass, they fatten up just nice. They do get grains to eat when they are put away at night. But foraging is best. We kept our meat chickens in a chicken tractor and that allows us to easily move them to fresh ground everyday. We tried in the past to let them free range on the property, but found them lacking interest in doing that. They basically want to sit in front of their food bowl and be fed. Our birds grew faster and were huge by butchering day. I think at 12 weeks, they averaged 15lbs each, just big enough to feed our family with a little left over for soup or a lunch. I'm looking forward to our new batches of them next spring. Yum.

Milk production in the goat barn is done for the season. We'll be back at it again in April, Lord willing. This year, I made chevre cheese in several flavors, garlic and chive being the most popular. My son, Aaron, is busy twice a day milking his cow, Blossom. Right now she's giving us about two gallons a day, which is not huge, but it's her first freshening. Earlier on, she was at three gallons, but has dropped down since the cold weather set in. I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but my goat also dropped way down so much that I am drying her off. With her milk I've made cream cheese and butter and whip cream. People also come to get gallons of milk for their use.

I've started a little store in my front barn and have decided to call it Blossom's Barn. This is where you can find homemade yummies like, jams, butters, pie fillings and nut crunches and whatever else I may have available. You can also find eggs and milk products. Soon there will be soap and some other crafts. It's a start, but gotta start somewhere. I'm looking forward to farmer's markets in the spring.

Sunrises are amazing here. On days when I remember to catch them and it's a good day to see one, I'm taking pictures. I have so many sunrises that I wish I knew how to keep track of them. I thought it would be fun to have a flip book since I take a pictures about every minute as the sun peeks over the horizon. The colors are amazing. These photos are two different mornings in November.

Our school days are rolling along nicely. It will be nice to have a break for a week between Christmas and the new year. We only take that week off. I don't see any need for an extended time off. They get restless anyway. They will have completed their Constitution class by then, yippeee! I'm shooting for their writing books to be completed, but that will be a stretch, but they will be done for sure during January. I'm looking forward to doing a literature segment for the next semester. We will also be doing a westward expansion segment for history which includes the setting up of the nation according to the Constitution by George Washington and then the subsequent presidents. This will be interesting to see how far we have veered off from the Constitution from how it was originally intended by the founding fathers. I'm sure they are rolling in their graves (not really, the Christian men are with Christ in heaven). We will also be looking at the Oregon Trail, Lewis and Clark, Santa Fe Trail and the Louisiana Purchase, not in this order. I'm guessing it will take the rest of the school year to do this unit because of all the readings we will be doing and the notebook they will be keeping. I'm very excited about January!

We've been busy with other things, too. The boys have picked up guitar and bass lessons and are playing in two different group situations. One is at our church and the other is at an alternative school place. They enjoy it and it's good for them to be able to play with other people. It helps make music lessons make sense. Sometimes you wonder "why do I have to do this?" well it makes sense when it all comes together. The work begins to pay off. But, they have a ways to go, but at least there is an up.

We went to the Chicago Planetarium a few weeks ago and enjoyed that. Our church was in a parade after Thanksgiving and we had all the festivities of that holiday. Now we head into the Christmas season and it's a nice slow slide. I'm not one to get involved in the hub-bub. I actually despise that aspect of Christmas, so I say "no" to the hub-bub. I heard a commercial on the radio where they are chiming "It's the most stressful time of the year!" huh? Do we really need to implant that into our heads? Christian radio is just as sucked into it as any other. I always pray we can be different in that area. We are so far off course in that respect.

Lord, prepare our hearts for what is good and glorifies you, Amen.