The Door.

This beautiful old door used to divide the living room and dining room in the house. It is a huge pocket door that slid back into a pocket in the wall when not in use. For quite a few years it has functioned as a divider in the stable! We carried it out into the sun. With some cleaning up I think it will make an interesting piece to use somewhere in the house again. The red building in the photos is the old granary. The house is up at the top of the hill.






I love the old hardware.

The baby chicks on arrival day

This is a Buff Cochin, one of Marc and Marcia's chicks. There are two of them and they are popular with the kids. You can't see in this picture that they have feathers on their feet.


The Buff Cochin is obvious in this photo. There are also Black Australorps, two Golden Polish, one Dark Brahma, and two Golden Laced Wyandottes (or they could be the Partridge Rocks, it is hard to tell). The Buff chick is falling asleep standing up. The Golden Polish chicks have a puff of feathers on their heads. They are on the bottom left of the picture.



More sleeping chicks. I think they were worn out from shipping.



The silvery striped chicks in this picture are the Dark Brahmas. The one standing is a Partridge Rock. The sleeping baby at the top is a Golden Laced Wyandotte. The black one is an Australorp. The Buff Cochin is obvious. Their waterer is a quart jar on a watering saucer that Chelsea found in the dirt while we were cleaning out the barn. The water has a yellow tint to it because we have added a vitamin/electrolyte mix.


I am not going to try to identify each of these! They just look so cute sacked out!

Joyful and her babies

Sweet, sleeping baby!



The resting family.



Snuggling



It is good to be a kitten!

Roxy the Beagle

This is Roxy, (whose name I spelled wrong earlier).

Easter

First of all, I must say that Easter was wonderful! Totally not how we usually celebrate, with all of our family, but very good in a very different way.
We had a surprise delivery on Saturday that will make this Easter stand out in our memories. Our chicks arrived two days early!! We were not ready. Honestly, we had planned to spend the day getting ready for them. We received a phone call from the post office saying that the chicks were there and we could come pick them up right away, or wait till Monday morning. Hhmmm! Tough decision!?!? We all jumped in the Man Truck and zipped in to town! I just can't imagine those poor little babies in that cold dark post office all weekend with no food or water. We brought them home and quickly set up a heat lamp for them. Yes, they are in our kitchen! No! This is not their permanent home, but it works for now. Once the chicks had all had their first drink (you have to dip their beaks in water and wait for them to swallow for the first time), we called the Lundquist's. They are our partners in this chicken experience! They ordered some really cute chicks that will grow into beautiful birds, a pair of each of four varieties. Marc, Marcia, their daughters Heidi and Kimmy, and their niece and nephew, Lara and Will all came out to the farm to marvel at the tiny babies. None of them had ever held a baby chick before. I think it was a great experience for everyone! Well, one chick got excited in Heidi's hand and left a little offering that wasn't so appreciated by the recipient! But other than that it was all good. Poor Lara was smitten with one of our baby kittens (no rhyme intended). She really wanted to go home with that baby! We told her there are always plenty of kittens at our house. If she gets permission, she may have any of them that she likes!
So that was our Saturday. Delightful and happy and filled with baby animals! Then Sunday morning we had an Easter breakfast together as a family and played two rounds of our traditional Easter game called "Eggy". I think someone in my grandma's family invented this game of smashing each other's hard-boiled eggs. It is a lot of fun! Really! For years the kids thought every family played this game together. They were shocked when they learned that none of their friends had ever heard of it! Chelsea was this years' winner! My Grandma would have some special treat set aside for the winner, I forgot that part! Ooops! Then there was the general rush to get ready for church, and off we went! The worship service was wonderful! The music was rich and full with a beautiful blend of new and old pieces. Pastor Larson always does a great job with the sermon! And it all ended on a humorous note when he accidentally wished the congregation a "Happy Christmas"! Laughter is such a wonderful blessing!
After the service we joined the Pecor family for their Easter celebration with several other families from their church. Jason grilled out and everything was picnic style. The food was terrific! Again, there was some excitement when the whole grill caught on fire! No one was hurt and we will laugh about it for years! Completely stuffed, we headed over to the Cedarblade's for "second lunch". It was just a wonderful day of food, fellowship and friends! God is so good to us!
I hope that all of you had a Blessed Easter with those that you love. I am so thankful for the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for each one of us when he went to the cross, and for the joy of knowing that he did not stay there, but rose from the dead, conquering death and purchasing for me, eternal life! Glory!!

The Beagle

It will be two weeks on Thursday that the sweet little beagle wandered into our yard. She had a traveling buddy originally, but the black cocker spaniel didn't stay around for very long. The beagle was older, pudgy, and stiff legged. She hobbled up the hill from the barn, being led by Chelsea, and accepted the affection that we offered her with polite kindness. Her eyes seemed sad. She could not tell us where she had come from or why she ended up here. We could not imagine that she had run away, she seemed unable to accomplish simple things like climbing the three steps to the porch. Sadly, we assumed that she had been dumped by an owner unable to care for her.

Glen and I were gone for the evening on that first day. When we returned home and walked in the door a very tired dog face greeted us from a folded-towel-bed on the kitchen floor. We groaned, instantly recognizing that the kids had adopted this sweet canine into our home. In the morning when I came downstairs and turned on the light, her wagging tail thumped on the floor to greet me, and I felt my heart warming to her as well. Two days later the beagle seemed to perk up some. She could walk outside to do her business on her own. The next morning when I came downstairs she was not on her towel bed wagging at me? "Now what?" I thought. Slowly and still a bit sleepily, I walked through the dining room. No beagle. On to the living room. Low and behold...that dog had pulled the largest pillow off of the sofa and was sleeping in the middle of it looking very content! Hmmmm...clearly she was a house dog that had enjoyed a comfy life. The days went by. Our entire family was growing attached to the dog. Glen was calling her Pudding. She could stand her ground with our two dogs in defense of her food dish. Yet we really did not want another dog. One morning I read in the paper that the place to call if you were missing a pet was a vet clinic in a nearby town. I dialed the number and explained that we were not missing a pet, but had "found" one. The friendly voice on the other end didn't think any dogs of her description had been reported missing, but she took my information just in case. A few moments later the phone rang...it was beginning to look like our beagle had a home and a family who were looking for her. Several phone calls and a few hours passed. There was a knock on the door. A very happy family called to a very happy beagle! The missing pet and the ones who missed her were reunited!
We then learned that the beagle's name was Roxie. She had gotten out of her yard with the cocker spaniel and roamed the neighborhood till they ended up at our house. Her partner in crime had returned home the same day, but Roxie had been too weary and foot sore to do the same. Now that little homesick face was bright and smiling. Gee...some things just make you feel so good! It was wonderful getting to know you, Roxie!

April Fool!

That must be what all the white stuff is today, right? We have had temperatures in the high 40's, 50's, even 60's already this year. The snow has to be just a joke! Honestly, it is not even a bad joke. We only have a light dusting, and I know that I have friends who are looking out their windows at a lot more snow than that! So today we will focus on the spring things going on inside the house, like the tiny herbs under the grow lights and the baby kittens in their basket in the living room! The weather will cooperate eventually! After all, now it is April! Yay, spring!