School's Out For Summer

We are now halfway through the second week of having both kids at home. Between the kids, the farm, and the house, I am pretty darn tired. It some ways it is fun to have them both home, like when we go outside and play on the tractor. Other times it is pretty suffocating, like when Daddy is just trying to get all 100 Serviceberry trees planted (I am only half way there). I make it work though and the kids do spend much of their time outside being kids. 

My daughter has been pretty surly with me the last two weeks. 

We are preparing to start the potty training process with my son. He seems willing and eager to try, I am just not sure I am personally ready and willing to try. 

Tractor Gal

Backhoe Boy

The most challenging thing the last few weeks has been the rain. We have had well over three inches of rain in the past ten days. When you consider that around our house is bare earth, and the house did not get rain gutters installed until yesterday, you can begin to guess how muddy it has been. This has also meant there have been quite a few days that I have had to keep the kids inside on account of extreme mud (which is really rough on everyone). 

 One of Our Frequent Storms Moving In

We are starting to get things going this year. One-hundred-and-eighty chicks just got here last week. They are doing well in the tank brooders we are using. This is not my favorate way to brood chicks, but it is what we have and it does work. It makes me miss the old chicken building and has motivated me to work on some plans for our next poultry building. 

180 Broiler Chickens in the Brooder

The rest of the farm is hanging in there. I continue to move cattle, every two or three days. We have had three calves during this wet weather and all of them are doing fine. Serviceberries continue to go in the ground as fast as I can. Customer emails and delivery schedules still need to be finalized and sent out. Our website is still in the mess, and the new one just is not ready to go yet. There is no shortage of things that need to be done. To complicate things, we just found out that connecting the home to internet is no small task. This is contrary to what were were originally told by the local service provider and the Iowa Internet Connectivity Maps.

One of the Three New Calves

Our evenings and weekends are filled with house projects. Janice has been tiling, and painting like crazy on the inside, while I have been running the farm on the outside. Progress is slow, and we still have some big projects to tackle, like installing quarter-round, filling holes in all of the woodwork, sanding down the filled wholes, and staining the trim.

Janice Laying Tile in the Mudroom

Thank you, for bearing with us as we continue to make progress on the house. We have not forgotten about our customers, we just have been  pretty busy.  Stay tuned.