One huge project on the list was getting the hay put away the goats would need to get them through the winter. We are so blessed to have a barn already set up for hay storage so that wasn’t too difficult. But with the late season drought finding hay was a bit more difficult then I would have thought. Finally we found a neighbor with some hay available for purchase. He drove his hay wagon over Saturday night and we agreed to unload it, count it and pay him later.

You would be amazed how much entertainment that wagon gave the children. For the 2 older ones, literally hours. Proeun would say, “are they still over at the hay wagon?” already knowing the answer and giving a little shake of his head and a chuckle.
 

But it was not to last. We did have to unload.

Special thanks to my big strong husband who unloaded the wagon by himself. Each of those bales weighed 50 pounds and there were 69 of them! I supervised and watched the children, who loved getting in the way.

Admittedly not the best quality picture photographically speaking but when you are trying to capture a moment before it passes you use what you got.

But first things first. There is a bit of clean up and a few winter projects left that hopefully will get done in the next couple of weeks while it’s still possible to work comfortably outside.

I also am winding down my physical involvment as our due date approaches. But I had one “big” project I had to finish–the birthday crowns from Soule Mama’s The Creative Family. I have been wanting to make some for the kids for awhile. I bought felt like almost a year ago for it. So when Avril was trying to make a crown out of paper last weekend and it wasn’t working out too well I said absentmindly that I could make her one. Not realizing I would actually be making four. Then with the last week of delivery and scrambling to clean up I have been exhausted and this pregnant mama has not felt like sewing. Finally I got them done.
 

As winter approaches and I become more pregnant I couldn’t imagine trying to trek all the way out to check on him let alone clear a path. But how would we move his house?

Luckily my husband is a master at making do with what you have–Caleb’s house was built entirely of found material. So he came up with the idea of using round tent posts, lifting the house on to the posts and “rolling” it to the new location ala “caveman” as he put it. Later we actually saw this technique used with a log cabin on TV, but Proeun came up with it first I promise you!

So this weekend Caleb got a move into a new location.
 

Here they are coming down the trail and making the turn to head off into the woods. Proeun and his dad pushing and Avril supervising making sure to tell them loudly when they were at the end of logs. The other girls safely in the house being supervised by Two and me documenting.
 

After the house everything else was easy.
 

Yesterday I added some extra cooking, granola and roasted almonds,in the afternoon. Then while dinner cooked out to deworming the goats (its been a horrible year for parasites). Proeun called and I actually had to tell him, “Sorry honey I can’t talk to you right now I am deworming goats.” Never thought I would have to say that.

Then after dinner, settle down with a quick story and then bed for the kids. At some point in the day I was comparing my life with what it could be. If I had chosen a more traditional life with a career outside the home, 2 children and a nice little house in the suburbs I probably would have more free time, more down time. But as I was cooking dinner I thought about a quote I read somewhere about dogs and how dogs actually like to have a job to do. I guess I do to. I like to have things to do; and I especially like to be engaged in meaningful actitivies. There are plenty of those on the farm. Small acts like deworming the goats contributes to the overall health of the farm–same with cooking meals.

The fields look a little different now. But still lots of goodness out there. Pretty much everything has been harvested except for the greens which are holding up quite well despite the frost. I am loving the potatoes, onions, squash and apples that are daily staples now around the farm and learning all sorts of good ways to cook greens.

The trail out to the field, a pleasure in any season.

My favorite spot on the farm, our own little wetlands. I love the wildlife around the area and the change of scenery. When we were first looking for a property and I was imagining my dream property it included fields, woods, trails and a pond. Well we have everything but the pond, however this comes pretty close.
 

Some things don’t change. Bruce, aka the boss still strutting his stuff for his ladies.

Soon we will have to put the fields to rest, clean and put away the harvesting tools and settle the animals in for the winter. But for now there is a little breather. For me it is an excellent opportunity to get caught up on some projects I have been wanting to work on for about 9 months now.

Pillows!!! normally I would say that there is an excess of pillows in normal decorating, but as we turn our house into a home I am discovering the beauty of homemade pillows. And this weekend I made 4! I finished the quilted one from the previous post and finally put together some of the panels I had purchased awhile ago for the children. So these pillows don’t all go in our room but you get the point. The children love having their own decorative pillows.

I love giving and getting homemade gifts. So I have started Christmas preparataions early. The problem is with children  especially young children if they don’t actually see you working on a project for them they don’t know you made it. So no surprises at Christmas. Each of these pillows was supposed to be a Christmas present but since I don’t have much time to sew when they are asleep or doing something else they were present for construction. But they loved seeing it come together.

Now as we are setting up house keeping on our farm it seems so natural to include as many handmade items as possible. We luckily have a quilt shop in town. One day I stopped by to ask for recommendations on an easy quilting pattern. I bought one, went home and got started. Now I am hooked.

Since we had 2 sets of bunk beds in the house I have 2 sets of matching quilts I am working on. I am so excited my first top is completed.

My mom and grandma have agreed to come up and help me set up the quilting frame soon for a quilting party.

Avril is really digging the sewing too. She helped me quite alot on the first quilt but since I was using a pattern with set seam allowances (that were pretty small) I decided it best to design a simpler quilt for the other bedroom. More on that later. This one is Avril’s quilt and she has done virtually all the sewing on it. She is even learning how to thread the needle and wind the bobbin. This is strictly hush hush but I think another sewing machine may be joining the family this Christmas.

Not only has quilting been going on at our home but some fabric dying as well. Not able to find the color I wanted for the backing fabric for the quilt above I bought some plain white muslin and dyed it. I love it, the girls thought it was pretty cool to.

I even have time to work on a few projects. I have been waiting for weeks to get this book from the library. I had gotten it years ago and remembered that it had a pillow pattern that I loved in it. So since I am only going to have it for 3 weeks I thought it best to jump right in on my “basketweave pillow.” I am using fabric left over from the curtains I wrote about here and the pillow will dress up our masterbedroom.

We hadn’t gone to the fair for several years. This year was a little different, rather then going for pure entertainment, we were working. As members of Minnesota Grown we were asked to volunteer our time at the organization’s booth. Our task was to pass out the free directories listing farms and farmers markets across the state and make sure people knew about the wonderful on-line resource that allowed you to search your area by product you were looking for. In exchange we had the opportunity to share a little bit about our farm, our story and our products.

The booth was in the agricultural building. I don’t remember ever going there growing up honestly. But now as an adult committed to nourishing my mind and body (and my family’s and customers and the earth) I see what an important role agriculture plays in that and learning about other farms and farmers. I loved seeing all the fruits and veggies grown here, the bee products and the flowers. I have recently discovered a love for cut flowers, maybe a next year addition to the farm? Anyway here is just one of the amazing flowers on display.

Since we were working and the fair often looks like this

I wasn’t relishing the idea of trying to keep track of four children, so thanks to grandma and grandpa only Effie came. She promptly stole the show.

As the seasons progressed it turned into this,

With branches that look like this

And this is after weeks and weeks of harvesting. A few days ago the children decided to shake the tree to see what would happen. Over a bushel fell but the tree is still adundant. I am so thankful that we got to see this tree through the seasons and that my less then two year old knows that fruit comes from trees. Every time we go to the mailbox we have to stop for a treat.

The tree is so abudant in fact I decided to try my hand at jelly. I cut the stem and blossom ends of the apples and put about 12 cups of them with 3 cups of water in a pot to simmer down. I bought a jelly bag (basically a super fine strainer) to get the juice. The directions fo the Ball Blue Book of preserving said

Crab Apple Jelly

4 cups crab apple juice
4 cups sugar

Disolve sugar in juice, bring to a boil, then simmer stirring constantly until it gets to the jelling point. It took about 15-20 minutes for me but I think I did it too long because my jelly is super firm.