New Blog to Check Out

Here it is, already half through May. We are trying to finish up our homeschooling year, but I keep getting distracted. Our oldest son, Ryon, is graduating from high school. He has been participating in an online high school for the past 4 years for many of his classes. That online school, Mother of Divine Grace, is based in CALIFORNIA. Needless to say, Ryon likes to travel; he gets that from me 😊, so he decided to take a road trip to California for his high school graduation ceremony. Although we were supportive of this trip, Charlie and I wanted someone to go with him. Nicholas, being an avid homebody and our second oldest child, absolutely refused to go. However, Nathanael, our number 3, is very much like Ryon in his personality, so he jumped at the opportunity to go with Ryon.

Nathanael and Ryon just before leaving on their trip They decided to blog about their trip, so I thought I would let you all know about it. You can find his blog HERE

Obviously, as a parent, we are doing everything we can from afar to assure their safe return home to us, but the most important thing we can do is pray. So, please pray for them on their journey, as well as for the rest of us to handle any issues well. This is a rare opportunity that we are glad our children are able to take advantage of as it will have a place in the formation of who they are for many years to come.

Meanwhile, as a quick update on our family, we have decided not to do any major traveling this summer and instead to stay home and focus on our garden and animals. We now have 6 cows that we are trying to mob graze (which means they are in a pasture divided into small paddocks and moved every day to fresh grass). We still have a lot of chickens (Tractor Supply had many visits from us this spring purchasing chicks). Our turkeys and meat chickens are on order to arrive next month. Currently, we are trying to incubate 13 guinea eggs that a friend gave to us. (This is our first incubation experience, so we are all fascinated by it.) We spent Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend harvesting our last 2 pigs, which generated at least 150lbs of sausage for future consumption. Now we are in pig pasture regeneration mode. One of our cats had 3 kittens a couple weeks ago. I absolutely think that new kittens on the farm is one of the most entertaining situations for kids. The first thing most of them do in the morning is to run out and play with the kittens. AnaClaire and kitten

And finally, I am so glad we finally did, we managed to get started on planting fruit bushes and trees. These are some of the fruit-bearing plants that we purchased and planted in the fall: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, figs, peaches, oaks, and a few nut trees. This spring, we have been working on rooting and planting mulberries, elderberries, serviceberries, goji berries, paw paws, and maples. I’m so excited to think about what our mostly-pasture- land will look like just 5 years from now when some of these trees have grown to a more substantial size.