The Homestead Journal ~ Week 113 ~ Lessons Learned the Hard Way

On The Homestead

Last Sunday we woke up to what I thought was Black Betty in labor. I jumped up and went to investigate. I was heart broken to find that she had already given birth, and the kids were no where to be found. The children searched the property for over an hour. There was no sign of any struggle no sign of babies. Other than a bit of afterbirth on Betty and a noticeably smaller belly, you would have never known. 

I was angry and crying. Betty seemed to be fine, I however projected my own emotions into it. More so probably because I am so close to delivery myself, and the possibility of losing your baby(ies) is a reality. Alma, our male pyr, would not leave her side, and visa versa.. I wonder if maybe he had wandered off to protect a different part of the property, when she gave birth.. I am not even sure she had nursed them, so maybe they were born dead. Either way I do not think we will ever know.

The good news is we are getting milk.  This is about 3 days worth. Abigail and Isaac have been milking her twice a day. Betty is good about it. 

 The Homestead Husband has to shave for work. I do not approve. I encouraged him to go to work with after he just skipped a few days.. He got a write up.. I told them to tell him his wife wrote him up for shaving! 

He decided to shave his head down as well.. So this is his "temporary" new look

I cut Quinten's hair as well. His is not as short tho. 

I don't even understand the policy. He can grow a mustache, but not a short beard. I have messaged the company, we shall see if and what the response is

I am curious about a policy you have. It seems you allow your employees to wear a mustache, but not beards or goatee's.

As a customer I notice that while your employees wear hats,and visors, they do not wear hair coverings, and mustached employees do not wear any sort of facial hair covering.

This seems to be an inconsistency in policy. I was wondering if you can help me understand this unusual health code.

Thank you 

Abigail made some apple pies from the pie filling we canned this summer

Zachary had to repair his robe ( he practically lives in it)
so he worked on his sewing skills

Jacob helped the little's with their "school time". They were playing on Starfall. 
Ezra loves the site, but the laptop mouse frustrates him. So he uses it for a little while then asks for help. In time, he will get more accustomed to it. 

Jacob has been working on garden planning. We ordered our first batch of seeds from 

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. We are collecting cinder blocks for our raised beds. 

(Photo from Pinterest. )

We are doing the Square Foot Garden planting with the Back to Eden garden idea. 

Jacob spent this week doing the figures on what he needs for the first planting, how many of each plants, how many square feet he will need etc. We plan to start with lettuce, spinach, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and some beans. 

We were hit with another snow storm. I think we got 3"

Here is our camera shy dog
He is sitting watching over the children playing in the snow

He saw I took his photo, even from that distance, and moved

Can you see him hiding from me?

He wont even acknowledge my presence. He will come right up to me if I put the camera away!!

He finally walked off and went to sit with the goats. 

They were up by the cabin with Maggie..
the goats were getting into trouble...

Fiona is cute, but mischievous. 
You can see she is also very pregnant, so maybe she was craving pretzels and that is why she ignored the hay we bought for her! She will also be getting penned up soon, she is not going to be happy about that. 


Additional Photos

 Lucas wearing his brothers boots. They *almost* fit! 

Angel stole daddy's seat! 

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Linking up with these Blog Hops 

(I am looking for more blog hops, do you have one to share? )