Well, Surprise, surprise, surprise....

we finally figured Helga out.... we now call "her" Helmut (hel-MOOT)!  After 5 months of wondering, we heard a  few high-pitched cock-a-doodle-dos!  So out of 27 chickens, we have a rooster!  Although we ordered a straight run of hens (all same sex), why they threw in an exotic male is beyond me...  we now have to figure out what to do... do we keep him and give him a few hens of his own and have some potentially odd-looking chicks, or cull him, or find him a home... we'll keep you posted.  But otherwise, they are all very healthy, non-laying chickens!  Although we have the nesting boxes all ready, with golf balls and all, no eggs yet  :(

Thanksgiving's over and now we are looking forward to the Christmas season... to our Savior's birth... such a glorious time of year!  Our prayer is that everyone will stop to remember, in this, the most harried season, the real "reason for the season."  Amid all the hustle and bustle, the beautiful lights and decorations, the crazy shopping of gifts, and the parties, don't forget to take time to remember WHY we are celebrating Christmas.   After all, we've already been given the greatest gift we'll ever receive,  Jesus.  

The boys are ready for some snow, so we are also praying for a little white this year!  Here are the boys, taking a break from school, to lick a few snowflakes....

Well, I gotta get the oatmeal raisin cookies out of the oven, and finish decorating the tree with the boys... Eric's outside cutting/splitting wood, and Sam the cat is all snuggled in upstairs.  All in all, it's a very blessed life!  We love all our family and friends, and miss everyone.  We hope all is well... God bless.

Well hello, World!

I'm telling you, I didn't think blogging would be this much of a challenge up here in "the hills!"  I don't have much hair left after pulling it out every time I try to use internet.  So much has happened since I last blogged, but at the same time, not much has happened on the house-building front!  We got our road in, and after 2 (TWO!!!!) attempts at a well, we now have MAYBE enough water between the two to run a small cabin!  (Drilling and building on what we've discovered is mainly rock is no easy feat!!)  Our site is cleared, we have perimeter poles without wire yet for a pastured cow (beef) come spring (?) but we're holding off on a dairy cow for now because we've got too much on our plates as it is and want to be able to leave the hill overnight occasionally!

The kids are doing great!  God bless 'em... they're so resilient to change!  They're having a ball, running around outside, playing legos, going to church, into town for playing, etc....

The chickens should be laying real soon... all 27 of them!  Yes, they've all survived thus far and are HUGE, especially the dark brahma hen, Helga.... They free range out in the fields now, and to watch them is really funny... it's amazing that every night, like clockwork, at dusk, one at a time, they hop on their ramp and waddle into the coop... very funny!

My momma visited recently and we had a great visit (although she's not too keen on us being SO remote!)  We had beautiful weather and even saw the beginning AND the end of a rainbow in our field after a little rain (see below).

The loggers will be done soon so it will be REAL quiet up here now, and we are expecting a little snowfall tonight.  Next week the boys and I go into town to see the play "Oliver!" for a little culture... BTW, if you've never been to Lewisburg, WV... it is so worth the trip... a FABULOUS town (voted "Coolest small town in America 2011!!) with its many great restaurants, galleries, boutiques, bakeries and more.  And it boasts one of only 3 Carnegie Halls in the U.S.  Pretty cool....

Onto some pics:

Isn't God's Creation amazing?  We are so blessed in so many ways, and being up here just reminds us daily of His love for us all....

We've got plenty of firewood, new snowtires, plenty of food and each other... so bring it on, snow!
I'll write again soon when I come back into town and post more pics... in the meantime, ya'll be good, and God bless.

Our road is in....besides getting gravel!

Over Labor Day weekend, we had the usual gang up and had a good time...this about sums it up:

And the road was our big project over the weekend...

We are soooo excited to have a road in!  Of course, wouldn't you know that it hasn't rained here in about two months, and the day they put a road in, they had just about finished and the skies opened up?!  Lee brought us plenty of rain and much cooler temps. Thanks, Lee!  Here are some pics of the road and culverts....

Ta-Da!!!!!  Next we get gravel on it and it will be done...

We got a materials quote today, and we hope to get the footers in the first of October so we can get this house under roof by Christmas.... I know, I know... we'll see (please insert prayers here). 

 The boys are doing really well at homeschooling.  And the fun thing about homeschooling is that we get to do things like we did yesterday.... instead of  "school," we went to the Beckley Exhibition Coalmine.  It was soooo cool and the kids got to see what coal camps looked like:

We went with Nanny, Eric's mom... it was 54 degrees down there...

The boys loved it... E said it was "awesome", and Rabbit said it was "wicked!"  Then we went to Nanny's to watch October Sky to see more about mining camp life.  It was a great day...

 

Oh, and we got our toilet put in finally,

Just kidding!  E and Rabbit at the Exhibit... (let's pray we don't have to resort to that!!!)

I'll get back to ya'll soon...now go out and enjoy the coming fall weather!!!!

It's September! YEA!!!!!

I love the fact that fall is coming!  It is so nice and cool and breezy here, finally, although we still need rain SO bad.  We were hoping to get at least a little from Irene, but not a drop... but VERY windy!  This is the brownest I've ever seen the farm.  The grass is so dry and crunchy.  The last time I mowed was before July 4th!  We were going to get pigs but can't right now because the pasture is in terrible shape.... so we're going to work on liming and fertilizing the fields to get them ready for the spring.  We want to get a dairy cow and calf, and a couple of pigs.

The boys are doing great with the homeschooling.... so far it's really fun and we get to start Classical Conversations class next week so the boys will be with other kids in a classroom environment.

The chickens are growing like crazy and we should start seeing eggs around Halloween, I believe.  We haven't lost a one, although our neighbor has been losing several to coyotes (but hers are free to roam, whereas ours roam, but behind an electric fence and they go into their coop at night.  It's so funny to see them all go in, one at a time, in a line up their ramp at almost the same time every night!  And you should see the silly things they do:  they get their little heads down really low, run across the yard to each other, stand straight up, do a little flying leap and chest butt each other and then walk away calmly.  It's crazy and so funny!)  We all walk around their perimeter every evening and stir up the grasshoppers to go jumping into their area, and it's a free-for all!  We think these may all end up just being layers, at least for the first couple of years, til they become stew....  It's hard to imagine eating what you've raised from fuzzy chicks (until they peck at your feet and then you start calling them chicken parmesan).

I miss work because I really liked what I did, and I really did work with a great bunch of people.. .I miss seeing them and being silly with them, and I think about them frequently.  But I also love the freedom up here of homeschooling, raising chickens, doing farm work and the quiet life.  The boys really love it and seem really happy and Eric loves workin' the farm!  I'm getting into my groove of homeschooling, baking, cooking, farming and keeping one eyeball on all the spiders!  (we have Fisher spiders here... look them up... they are like smaller tarantulas!)

Here are some pics of around the farm:

Good night, ladies!

The deer are getting pretty brave and eating our apples while we're messing around right near them...

A pumpkin that just grew out our compost pile...

The cutest of the Future Farmers of America... (my niece, G)

Eric's sunflowers....aren't they cool?

The crazy ladies eating dried oatmeal...

They never stay still long enough to get their portraits taken.

I also have a pic on my camera of a momma bear with her three cubs.  I need to get it off there and put it on here... it looked like a nature show... the momma came up to the top of the hill, and two of the cubs stood up on their hind legs, looked around, then all four sauntered off down the hill to ATG.  Eric took off on the four-wheeler to follow them, but couldn't find them.  It was really neat (as long as they keep that distance.)  I'll get the pic up, although I don't have a zoom so they probably look like little black blobs.

Ya'll have a great Labor Day weekend, keep safe, and love to my family and friends.

We had our first experience with the West Virginia State Fair...

and it was GREAT!  We had a great time, saw all the animals, blew $10 on one game for the boys, and filled our guts with an incredible amount of fair food!  The boys loved it, and I'm sorry to say, my fellow Richmonders, it's alot better and cleaner than Virginia's!

We are in the process of looking for two Tamworth feeder pigs, and the chickens are growing like gangbusters.... still don't know what Helga is, though..she's a mystery.   The chickens like veggie scraps, leftover pasta, spaghettios and cereal with milk, in addition to their feed.  They are so funny to watch... very entertaining!

We are getting estimates for the driveway, well and septic and we have finally chosen our floorplan... it's all so exciting!

Homeschooling is going great, although I fear Rabbit may have a mental block with math, which if so, he gets from his mother!

And, lastly, WE NEED RAIN!!!!!!  It is sooooo dry here, but we are loving all of it.... and have met some truly great folks.

But we miss you all, and hope the rest of your summer is relaxing and safe...

So much to report!

And the kids got a basketball hoop from a neighbor... so generous!  Of course they are using it as a jungle gym, shimmying up and down the pole....

First off, we started homeschooling this week and it's been great... so far, so good!

Although I don't look particularly excited in this pic, we WERE excited... this is the first morning (7:30) as I am explaining to Rabbit and E how things were going to go...

 Secondly, it's been a very busy and productive week at ATG!  We got all our stumps removed from the homesite and it looks like a completely different place... it's a big, dusty open area, ready for a foundation!  Check out the before pics in the previous posts, and compare to these:

Eric contemplating what to do with all the boulders we've dug up...

The boys thinking they're archeologists...

And on to the chickens... we think we finally figured out what Helga is.  While all the other chicks are the Buff Orpingtons we ordered, we never could figure out what the free, exotic chick was.... and now we think she is... drum roll please......... a Dark Brahma!  She's going through this pubescent, gorpy phase, but she is going to end up real pretty.

This is the chickens eating leftovers... cold pasta and corn.

Signing off from ATG... have a great weekend!

One final one for the night.

The rabbit had a little party this weekend and our friends came to celebrate.

While we are on a roll....

This is a photo of the chickens on pasture.  The fence is to keep out the predators (4 legged ones anyway).  We put them out there last week (Tuesday the 25th).  They seem to love it.   

After they run this grass down a little bit we can move them to a new section.  They really are fun to watch.  They do they silliest things.  

Let's try some pics, shall we?! (you have no idea how difficult this is...!)

Some before pics of site...

Notice Eric squatting in the pic above...

This is the first tree that they cut on our property.  A large white oak.  It has an enormous top.

Almost to the homesite. 

This is a shot of the homesite after we have been cleaning up for a day or two.  Just beyond where you see the stumps in this picture is where the rock is that I was standing on in the picture at the top of this page.  Also, it is from a slightly different angle.

This is C on the splitter the first day of clean up.  You can see the fallen trees all over  the place in the background.  Most of what you see in this picture has already been cleaned up (see above).

Happiness is a full woodshed.  Or nearly full in this case.  This was actually taken today (8/1/11).  We will have it completely full by tomorrow.  Then we will have to stack up the logs near the woodshed (probably right behind where I am in this picture) for the future.  There is still tons of downed trees to get out of the way for the dozer man to come in and knock out stumps and prepare the house pad.   I'm thinking of renting a large woodchipper to dispatch the small branches of the tops.  We will see how it goes!!!!!