Category Archives: The Homestead

First off, let me just share that I never, ever, thought in my life, that “I” would want a chihuahua.

NEVER.

I also “thought” I had learned a long time ago never to say never.

I guess I thought wrong.

Maybe I should stop thinking so much…

When I first saw this tiny little puppy, I fell in love. Instantly.

How could I not?!

I had wanted a tiny dog for quite some time.

I found that the older my children got, and the less they occupied my lap, rather then embrace my new ‘freedom’, I found myself wanting to fill my lap again.

I guess if you’ve had your lap filled for 19 years with little ones, once those littlest little ones get to be 11 years old, a lap can get lonely. Especially when the oldest of those little ones turns 19.

When that lap is accustomed to not just one littlest one, but two, twins, it only makes sense when that lap would want to be filled with not just one small dog, but…

two!

First came Jasper.

Our papillon (pro-nounced papi-yawn for those who wanted to know…)

He is the perfect size really, even for the kids. They can carry him around, or rough house with him.

He has energy, yet isn’t totally hyper.

And now there’s Teagan. He is a long coat chihuahua, but he was the runt. Half the size of his brother.

He was a gift from my husband for our 20th Wedding Anniversary.

At 4.5 months, he’s still under TWO POUNDS!

1 pound, 14.9 ounces to be exact.

That’s tiny!

When Jasper came to us at 12 weeks, he was already over 3 pounds.

Teagan is tiny.

Yet, full of spunk!

I have a video of him, after a bath.

It is TOTALLY hilarious.

He’s like a wind up toy, or the energizer bunny.

Spinning, spinning, spinning, trying to get his tail. Maybe I’ll share it when I can figure out how to get it right side up online.

I want to send it in to AFV. It’s just too funny.

Right now it’s upside down though. I’ll figure it out one day.

(this is how he spends his time in the studio while I work. lol Notice the knot of windpro scraps? Fabric scraps are his favorite toy. That’s my doggie!)

Anywho…

(his first snow)

Teagan is TINY!

He’s even tiny compared to  Jasper, who is only 10 pounds!

We’re trying to teach Teagan to love the water.

He doesn’t look too happy in these photos, but he actually doesn’t mind the bath at all.
He just prefers one of the twins (or both!) be in the tub WITH him. lol

Actually, today while I was having MY shower, he kept whining and crying because he couldn’t see me behind the shower curtain. He wouldn’t stop. So I finally scooped him up and set him in the tub while I showered.

Yes. I clearly understand I am weird.

And yes, I am TOTALLY, 100% ok with that.

For the rest of my shower he was content.

Wet, but happy.

Our family enjoys animlas.

Hmmm… maybe you gathered that already?

Just maybe?

My husband is taking care of one last thing today before he can put in his resume for a job on the oil fields.

He’s at a course all day. I hope it goes well. He’s been sick all week. He doesn’t get sick often, none of us do, but when he does get sick, he seems to do it well and get’s hit hard. Hopefully he’s feeling alright during the course.

Once the course is done, as long as he passes, it’s the last thing he needs.

I’m wondering, with some fear, and anticipation, what will happen next.

Will he get a job on the oil fields?

If he does, when will he start?

We have found out that it’s most likely 2 weeks on, 1 week off, or 3 weeks on, 1 week off. 12 hour shifts.

Hard work.

The first week he has off will most likely be needed THERE to spend time finding a more permanent place to live. That means we may not seem him at all for the first 6-8 weeks. He’ll most likely have to stay in a hotel the first two-three weeks. Thankfully they pay for this, unfortunately, not until after the first two weeks. SUCKY! But understandable. But still SUCKY when you’re taking on such a job because things are now financially desperate. lol

He’s trying to sell his atv/quad.

We love that atv/quad.

We’ve had several great trips on the logging roads on that thing.

He needs winter tires to make it through the Rockies though. And new brakes. Both good things to have when driving across country, especially through the Rockies. lol

Hopefully the atv/quad sells quickly. He’s had it less then a year. SUCKY once again. lol But whatever right? You do what you have to do. The fact that he’s willing to give it up to make things better for his family is priceless. You can’t buy that kind of devotion. You can however, buy another atv/quad.

So much to think about.

Trying constantly to be positive about it all.

Sometimes though, I hope someone will jump out of a dark corner and yell, “April Fools! It’s all a joke! Here’s your miracle and your husband doesn’t have to leave afterall!”

Somehow though, I don’t see that happening, and really, it’s ok. I know we’ll all make it through this.

Have you ever noticed that just when you think you have something, or someone, all figured out, that’s when things change up on you and get you all confused?

After 19 years of being a mother I like to think I know kids pretty well.

I’ve learned a lot, an awful lot.

One thing I’ve learned really well, is how to think like a child.

ESPECIALLY when it comes to finding things.

Not just anything, but MY things.

If you’re a mother, you know exactly why I would need to think like a child to find MY things.

It’s because children, no matter the age, are drawn, magnetically almost, to all things that belong to their mother.

ESPECIALLY things a mother uses a lot.

Important things, like,  well for instance… if you sew, a lot, like I do, and cut a lot of fabric and threads, like I do, it would only make sense that the one thing that would CONTINUALLY go missing, would be your…

scissors!

I honestly could not count how many pairs of scissors I have bought over the last  years. With each additional child, I’ve probably bought at least one additional pair each year. Meaning by the time I had five children, I was probably buying about 5 new scissors every year. My kids even GIVE me scissors as Christmas and birthday gifts.

No joke.

I wouldn’t kid you!

Yet, yesterday as I set to work in MY sewing studio, at MY desk, MY scissors were no where to be found! I spent a full ten or fifteen minutes searching and searching and searching for the ONE pair of scissors I have that still cut well.

You see, not only do items you need go missing, if you ever DO find them again, they never work as well anymore…

During this entire time searching and searching for the illusive scissors, I’m thinking and thinking, and asking myself…

“if I were Alesia (who I knew was in my sewing studio last)… where would I have put those scissors?”

I looked by the rolls of fabric she often has to cut from. Nope. No scissors there.

I looked on her cutting table, where she works when she cuts said fabric. Nope. No scissors there.

I looked UNDER her cutting table. Nope. No scissors there either.

Then I checked the pattern box, the drawers that hold fabrics near her work table, under her seat cushion, in the fabric bins and baskets.

Then I checked the bathroom. Who knows, she may have decided to cut her hair in the midst of cutting fabric? I was trying my best to think like her, you know? I was trying to BE Alesia.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of this searching, I decided to give her a buzz in the house. We have cordless phones that have an intercom option, so we use these to interact between the house and studio (the two buildings are about 50 feet or so from one another).

I buzz her.

“Alesia, would you by ANY chance have ANY idea where you may have left MY scissors when you were out here last?”

Her reply:

“Did you check your desk drawer, you know, where the scissors belong?”

I check.

Sure enough, there they are!!

I asked her, “Now why on earth would you go put them where they belong!? I’d NEVER think to look there!” 😉

That’s when I realized that just when I thought I had my kids all figured out, knew them so well, could even THINK just like them, could BE them, I had to come to grips with the fact, once again, I really know nothing.

Even at 19 years of age, they still keep me guessing.

Maybe by the time I have grandchildren I’ll have it all figured out?

If not, I’ll just have to find a new hiding spot for my scissors.

For the past 10 years, I have been at war with myself. I hate it and I TRY and TRY not to do this to myself, yet it’s a constant battle.

For the past 10 years I have not been very happy with myself, about one thing.

My weight.

I bet many aren’t surprised. I know I’m not alone. There’s many a woman, a mother, who’s unhappy with their weight, with their health ultimately. And this is why I’m sharing.

I was always a skinny kid.

And a skinny teen.

Then a skinny newlywed.

A thin mother of one. Mainly because I went back to work when she was just 2 weeks old, as a long term care aide. Lots of running around in that job. I only worked weekends, but it kept me busy enough that I’m sure it kept my metabolism up.

Then, I even became a trim & healthy mother of two. By this time I was no longer working as a care aide since we had moved away from my original job. Instead I went back to being a waitress, the very first job I had when I was 15 years old. I knew the pay could be good and It gave me the ability to be home all day with the kids, and not go to work until after dear hubby came home. It also kept me in shape. I worked right until I was 7.5 months pregnant with our son, and went back to work while he was still a baby.

However, during my pregnancy with our third child we decided it was time for me to stop working outside the home and I began a home daycare. This would work much better since we had now been homeschooling for a while and the lifestyle of me heading out to work when hubby came home was starting to get a little ‘old’.

However, it seems at this time, during my pregnancy with our third, that my metabolism must of taken a bit of a dive because after her, I didn’t really loose all my pre-pregnancy weight.

Then, I became pregnant again when Elsa was just a year old. During this time we were making a cross country, 3000 mile move. We didn’t even know we were not just expecting #4, but #5 as well!

We found out at 5.5 months during a routine ultrasound. I was in the ultrasound room by myself with the tech because they wanted to check things out first, before my husband came in.

When we were all done, I walked into the waiting room and asked dear hubby if he’d like to come and see the bay-BIES.

His response?

“Yeah… right…”

Hee hee.

Anywho… that’s a whole other story for another time. 😉

When I realized I was carrying not just one baby, but TWO, I guess I went a little overly cautious on my body and stopped doing pretty much anything too physical.

I experienced a bit of spotting during this pregnancy and now that kind of frightened me.

I had been through two miscarriages before, and certainly did not want to risk going through another, especially so late in a pregnancy with TWO babies.

I think my metabolism decided right then and there to hate me, for a very very long time.

I think at that time it also decided to become very good friends with my ‘excess’ body. 😉

SOMETHING was liking the excess body because it sure wasn’t wanting to go anywhere!

And it sure wasn’t ME liking the excess body.

No matter what I did, how little I ate, it just didn’t seem to want to change. Actually, I lie, it did, over the past 10 years it’s gotten worse!

It makes sense of course. I’m pushing FOURTY! The last time my body was truly fit, I was in my late TWENTIES!

*shudder*

Yes, I’m 39 years old. And yes, this is my first time being 39, not a repeat of several years. Ha!

I’m realizing the closer my 40th birthday gets, the harder I better try to get rid of this ‘excess’, or it may just never come off!

So, the first thing I did most recently, was cut down on my coffee intake. If you know me, you know I love my coffee. My regular routine was 2 cups in the morning, 2 cups in the afternoon during my ‘break’ and then 2 cups of decaf in the evening while doing my computer work.

Recently I cut it down to 4 cups.

Wow. I wish I had done it sooner! I’ve been loosing weight steadily, without changing anything else, for about 2 months now. Almost 9 pounds lost. That may not seem like much over 2 months, but considering that’s the ONLY thing I changed, and considering it took me 10 years to gain all this ‘excess’, I’m feeling pretty darn good about it!

I’m hoping to add some exercise into my routine soon. REGULAR exercise.

Being behind a sewing machine, or a computer, or at the table teaching the kids, doesn’t allow for a whole lot of  ‘movement’.

Things have been so crazy busy that anytime I do have a free minute, quite honestly, I just ‘veg’ pretty much, either on facebook or watching a bit of late night tv before I fall asleep.

I hope to change this some how, some way, and soon!

How about you? Are you struggling with the same issue? Have you found anything that works for you? What are YOU doing within your lifestyle, or what would you like to do to change it?

I haven’t had much of a chance to blog this past week. Truth be told, when my mind gets overly busy or I’m feeling a little anxious about something, I just don’t do so well with blogging and… well… there’s been lots to be thinking about.

I shared on facebook the other day (http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=184095461603942&id=87164962268 ) that my husband is looking into working outside of province. About 2000 km (over 1200 miles) away actually.

Seven  years ago my husband started his own business and officially became self employed. Since that time, it has been nothing but a blessing. Difficult? Yes! Trying by times? Yes, very! Rewarding? Most definitely, YES! Our son has grown up from the time he was just 10, until now at 17, working along side his father. That one aspect alone has been one of the biggest blessings as far as I’m concerned. My husband has taught Joshua how to lay flooring including hard wood, laminate and tile, shingle a roof, build sheds, build decks, put in doors, cabinets, build additions, revamp homes, landscaping, you name it, if it’s reno’s of some sort, they’ve done it!

Together they have turned this view:

Into this view:

And this:

Into this:

Together (and yes, the rest of us have also helped along the way) they have turned this entire property, and it’s buildings that one no one else wanted, into a property worth well over twice what we paid 5 years ago.

Everything was going quite well. This past spring we even decided to finally get me a new (to me) vehicle. For the first time in our married life, we jumped into vehicle payments. Scary, yes, but things were looking really good between our two businesses and we felt confident all would be well. It had been two years since we had more then one vehicle and although I did fine not being able to go here and there at the drop of a hat, we had teens who were now wanting jobs outside the home etc. and it was just time for me to have a set of wheels again.

Well… then fast forward to summer, and our provincial gov’t implemented a new tax. The HST. This meant an increase in cost for every job my husband would do for others. 12% . Things have been up in the air with word that they (gov’t) would take back the addition of the HST, and then saying they are going to wait until next September to make any changes, etc. etc. etc.. One thing after another.

In the meantime, the small businessmen like my husband and quite a few others we know, have been hit hard. Why would someone lay a hardwood floor NOW when they can just wait and see if that extra tax will ‘disappear’ next year? Things have just come to a SCREECHING halt.

We’ve never had that happen before. To be without work. All our married lives (over 20 years now!) as long as we were willing to work, the work was there, for both of us! That’s just the way it’s always been. It hasn’t always been the easiest work, but the work has always been there.
But, it hasn’t just hit my husband’s business, it has hit many. We’re hearing it over and over again. Business friends unable to make ends meet when just a few short months ago everything was great.

We’ve held in there as long as we could but now, times are becoming desperate. My business has been doing well, and for that we’re extremely grateful. However, it takes an awful LOT of pads to keep a homestead, a family of 7 and the bills that go along with it all, paid. It also takes an awful lot of my time. I have children to raise, a home to run, kids to take to work, etc.. There is only one of me and as much as I appreciate the help my family gives, they just can’t help enough for this busy-ness to continue. And yet, we can’t afford to pay someone else to help. Catch 22. We’re also not sure we want the business to go in that direction. In house seems best. I’m not ready, nor do I know if I ever will be ready, to hand over any of the business ‘reigns’ to someone else. This business was begun to provide a way for myself, and one day our girls, an income. A family business. We feel pretty strongly about keeping it that way. Any time we start wondering if we should be considering otherwise, we never feel right about it.

So, my husband has been pushing open any doors of opportunity he can find, and right now he’s pushing this one. Working in the oil fields, far from home.

There’s nothing concrete yet. He has to take a course on Thursday and from there he takes the next step. We have no idea how fast or slow all this could/would unfold. Everything is up in the air right now.

If this all happens, it’s going to be a very different lifestyle for our family. We’ve been spoiled these last years, I’ll be the first to admit that, as far as having dear hubby/daddy around. I’ll always be very thankful for that time. But times change, and I’m trying my very very best to look at it all in a positive light.

Life is an adventure. Sometimes there are hills, mountains, slips and falls along the way though, and sometimes it can hurt, but the adventure continues anyways and you can either get up and move along, or sit and wallow. I’m choosing not to wallow. We all are. If this happens, we’re going to take this new adventure by the ‘horns’ and go with it for all it’s got!

In the meantime, we’re not giving up on our dreams. Homesteading is our dream. We don’t feel that with these changes, we have to change our dreams. We may just have to take a new path, a different path, an unknown path, to follow them.

Happy 11th Birthday to our girls Shaylah and Julia!

Just sharing some more memories.

Best of friends…

Born the same day…

Yet two very unique and wonderful little girls.

Oops… I mean BIG girls! Shhh… don’t tell them I called them LITTLE! 😉

Memories of summer…

What do homestead children do on a nice hot summer day? Bathe one of their cats of course!

Meanwhile, the ‘obsessed over small animals’ lap dog watches with anticipation, almost shaking (who am I kidding, he WAS shaking) because he wants so badly to join in on the fun, torturing the cat. Hee hee. Actually, the cat doesn’t seem to mind it too much does he? Silly thing.

I think our animals may be a little… odd?

ALL of them. Seriously. We have a problem. An “odd animal” problem. Every one from the tiny birdie to our horses.

Do you suppose it could have anything to do with the people they live with?

Could it be possible we might be “odd”? 😉

Guess you could call us the “Odd Family”. There once was an ‘odd’ guy… who married an ‘odd’ girl… and they became an ‘odd’ couple… and went on to have an ‘odd’ family… who in turn had ‘odd’ animals…

We love them all anyways. Hopefully the feeling is mutual.

There’s ups and downs of having a homestead with lots of animals, as I’m sure anyone would expect.

It’s fun to have baby animals, and grown up animals, of all kinds. There’s truly NEVER a dull moment. When I hear people mention they are bored, I’m always amazed. I don’t think we truly know what ‘boredom’ is around here! It just doesn’t really happen. If there isn’t an animal keeping us busy, like horses breaking loose, a duck with a hurt leg, meat chicks needing to be fed just about every hour, a sick rabbit etc. etc. etc… there’s always work to be done. Whether it’s a chicken coop or rabbit pen that needs cleaning, a duck pond (read: child pool!) needing  scrubbing, a dog needing walking or brushing (our two shelties could be brushed 24 hours a day and still look like mangy mutts lately!), a horse needing grooming, oh and horse poop… we won’t even get into the horse poop! That’s just never ending. Then there’s laundry from all this cleaning and scooping, which is also never ending…

Anyways, you get my drift. Boredom. It doesn’t often happen on a homestead. If your children complain they are bored, just do what one of my sisters and a friend do, and threaten to send them to my place to scoop some poo…

All that to say…

We had some downs this past month here on the homestead. It all started when Julia’s great big white german lop rabbit was found deceased one day.

Then Elsa’s muscovy duck was found dead the very next day!

We don’t know what happened to either of them. Julia’s rabbit was fairly old so it may have just been it’s time, although another rabbit we have, Shaylah’s, should have died many times already and is a year older, and is still hanging in there so who knows why one goes before the other? Shaylah’s rabbit, Bugsy, is now re-named by me “The Energizer Bunny”. He had a seizure the other day and I was sure that was the end of him. He seems to have about one a year, very strange. He was screaming (ever heard a rabbit scream? It’s a HORRIBLE sound!), and then seized for a few moments so we brought him in the house to care for him where it was warmer and he perked back up, ate some fruits and veggies and was back to himself again within an hour!

Elsa’s  duck, well, we suspect it may have been in part due to some new hens we received from a neighbour. They had been  picking on her but we felt she would stand her ground being that she’s more then twice the size of the hens. Hens can be pretty darn nasty at times though! But, we can’t know for sure what exactly happened. Poultry can be finicky animals at times.

Then, it was time to take the 11 meat birds to the processors. I believe this is the first time all our chicks survived. We had ordered 10, and received 11 and all 11 made it the 8 weeks to full size. We now have a lot of beef and chicken in our freezer, and actually one in the oven as I type. I’m sorry if that offends some, but that is the way of a homestead and raising your own organic meats. We didn’t raise the beef ourselves, we’re hoping to do that one day but not able to yet. So far we’ve only raised chicken and pork. We appreciate that some do not eat meat, really! Our family does, and I feel good knowing that we have a very good understanding of the meat we are consuming. How it was raised and cared for, what it was fed and how it was treated while it lived. That is important to us.

Then this month we also said goodbye to two of our khaki campbell ducks.

They are no longer little ducklings, but big boys who kept fighting with one another over our lone girl. Out of the four, 1 day old khaki ducklings we picked out, only ONE was a girl and this became an obvious problem over the past few weeks as the three, now grown boys with raging hormones, fought over little Cocoa. We found a new home for the two boys. They are now residing with 3 Khaki girls just a few acres away. No more fighting for them, they’ll be too busy! Sad to see them go though as they were really great pets. We just couldn’t bare to find yet another duck dead one morning. We’re hoping Cocoa and Shivers will be able to have some ducklings once spring comes and live happily ever after.

So, this month our little homestead is 15 animals smaller.

And that’s part of the ups, and downs, of a homestead.