The girls - an update

I wanted to post a brief update on the girls.

They continue to grow up. They are definitely little girls, not babies anymore. It is hard to believe that Esther will be 4 next month, and Clara is 2.5. It is fun to watch them play together. They have great imaginations. When we are inside they do lots of cooking, picnics, and eating with their play food, kitchen, and dishes. They also play with their babies a lot. Lately I've heard them playing school, pretending to be their teachers and doing things that they do at school. In typical big sister fashion, Esther spends lots of her time bossing Clara around. They play great together, but they also fight a lot too!

Now that it is summer time, we spend a lot of time outside. They help me gather eggs everyday. They really love it when I catch a chicken for them to pet! They like to ride their bikes and color with sidewalk chalk. Josh recently finished their new playhouse/swingset (a post about the pontoon playhouse will be coming soon) so they spend a lot of time playing on that. It is close to the garden, so they play while we work in the garden. They are definitely little farm girls. They like to help us do things, ride on the tractor and mower, play with all of the animals, dig in the dirt, play in whatever water or mud they can find, and get as dirty as possible. Needless to say, they get a bath almost every night.

Esther continues to amaze us with the things she knows, learns, and remembers. She likes to practice writing letters and spelling words. We haven't really worked with her too much with reading words or spelling, but she has picked up quite a few words that she can write and recognize. Clara can recognize most all of the letters, but she isn't writing letters yet. Both of them love to draw and color. We go through lots of paper, and they are always drawing us things. They like to fold up their papers and give us "presents".

Esther is getting really big and independent. She can open the doors to our vehicles, get in her carseat and buckle herself in. She can get her own water out of the dispenser on the refrigerator and will get water for Clara too. She picks out her clothes, dresses herself and gets her shoes on without any help. She has become really good at swinging and pumping her legs to go high on her own. It is nice that she can do most things for herself, but bittersweet that she is growing up so fast.

Clara continues to be such a funny kid. She does funny voices, silly faces, and crazy dance moves all the time. She hardly ever just walks anywhere, she usually runs or dances to get somewhere. She often will be in her own little world, but will then randomly talk in a funny voice or do something crazy that catches you off guard. She keeps us entertained for sure. It makes up for all of the tantrums. I had forgotten the completely illogical and unprompted meltdowns of a two year old. Clara has always had extreme emotions, when she is happy she is super happy, but when she is upset it is the end of the world.

We had some family pictures taken last week and got some cute ones of the girls. You can see their personalities, Esther being more serious and harder to get a smile out of and Clara being a ham.

The Accident

I wanted to be sure and chronicle this on the blog so in the future I can relive it.  May 10th started out as a potentially great day.  We drove down to see some friends who are missionaries in India and this was our weekend to spend with them.  We had only been there a couple hours and decided to go outside and let the kids play.  They were riding tricycles and scooters down a concrete driveway that went down hill for a little ways and then flattened out.  They were really having a good time. There was one of those razor scooters there.

Esther had not ridden one of these before and did not know how to operate it.  I decided to show her how to push herself along on it.  Then I went to the top of the incline to show her she could ride it down.  So, here I am going down a concrete driveway incline on a 4 year old size razor scooter.  What I did not know is that the kids had been warned not to ride the scooter down to the bottom because there was a drainage grate at the bottom of the incline and the front wheel of the scooter would get stuck in it and send you flying.  So, here I am going pretty fast down the driveway and sure enough the front tire sticks in the drainage grate and I go face first into the concrete. It happened so fast that I could not catch myself and the next thing I know I am standing up with blood pouring off my face and in terrible pain. Margo said she knew it was bad when she asked if I was ok and I said "No".  I thought I had busted out all my teeth but luckily just chipped one and injured some others. I had scrapes and road rash all over my hands, arms, neck, and face. I got lightheaded and had to lay down and just kept bleeding.  I finally looked at myself in the mirror and decided it might be a good idea to go to the ER and get checked out.  They did a CT of head and neck but luckily nothing was broken.  They wrapped me up and sent me home because you can't stitch road rash.  My worst wound was my lip, it had a big hunk out of it. We decided to end our weekend with friends early and go home because I was miserable.
I had lots of pain for several days and had to take pain meds and not go to work. Several of my teeth were really hurting so I could not eat well.  I had to drink through a straw for over a week.  It was 5 weeks ago and I still can't bite with my front teeth.  Two and a half weeks after it happened one of my fingers was still hurting me even though the wounds had healed so I went and had it xrayed and it turns out I had broken it in the accident. 33 years old and that was my first broken bone.  I also have to have a root canal next week and we are waiting to see if the rest of the teeth get better or if I have to have them fixed also.
It is so crazy that I go that injured doing something so innocent it seemed like at the time.  I am know to do a lot more crazy and dangerous stuff than that and never get hurt.  I don't think I am invincible or anything, I just think I am really coordinated and have fast reflexes which helps me keep from getting seriously hurt.  It did not work this time though.  I think this was the biggest injury/accident I have ever had before.  I actually healed up pretty well and fast, better than I thought I would.
Here are some pics.

Day after the accident

1 week after

Today

Beach Vacation 2014

We are a bit behind blogging, so hopefully we'll get a few things posted this week to get caught up.

We didn't think we were going to be able to take a beach vacation this year with a bunch of new farm expenses and other things. But at the last minute things worked out for us to go. We've found that if you go the week before Memorial Day the prices for lodging are still reasonable, the water is already warm, and school is still in session so it isn't too crowded. We went back to Navarre Beach, Florida this year and stayed in the same complex that we did last year. We really like Navarre. It isn't touristy and crowded but has great beaches. We often had the pool to ourselves and very few people on the beach. We also like going down to the National Seashore which is just down the road and we had the beach to ourselves there as well. Like last year, our girls did great in the car and even better this year. They looked out the window, played with toys, read books, and colored. There were some tantrums, but overall they did great. We went totally expecting to use the DVD player, but we never needed to.

Playing in the sand at the National Seashore

Playing in the waves

Everyone enjoyed walks down the beach

A beach vacation is so great with little kids. Esther and Clara were happy to play in the sand for long periods of time. Esther loved the ocean and would take off into it if we would let her. We would take her out and let the waves hit her. We spent more time in the pool this year than last. Clara wasn't such a big fan of the waves, but loved the pool. Esther loved the ocean, but was more timid in the pool. They both would wear their floatie rings and float all around the pool. Josh's beach activity is hunting for shells. Last year we found lots of really great shells, but for some reason this year there were hardly any.

One day we went to Pensacola and went to the National Naval Aviation Museum. There were lots of neat planes and other exhibits. They had several planes that you could climb in, which the girls loved.

At the National Naval Aviation Museum

Playing in the sand at the condo, Josh relaxing.

Clara didn't mind the waves if she was sitting down and close to me.

Our attempt at a family picture. For some reason Clara didn't want to be in the picture.

It is fun to look back at last year's vacation and see how much the girls have grown. Taking trips with the girls as they get older gets more and more fun with them able to do more. We are excited to take many more vacations as a family.

A view from our condo.

The Garden of Hale - New House Edition

Warning: Long Post Ahead

One of the things our new place did not have when we moved in is a garden.  As you know, a big part of what we do is gardening (no till raised bed gardening).  The majority of our summer veggies come from our garden. And we can our own green beans, tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, salsa, pickles and we freeze our corn for the whole year. I hope to continue to increase what we grow and preserve and want to expand into selling some veggies.  Since this is going to be our "permanent" home I wanted to do the garden up right and make sure and make it plenty big. Once I got this garden set up, it ended up being probably like 50% bigger than my last garden.  I have 1500sqft of bed space. I also have an asparagus bed and a 100 sqft herb bed.
Another thing I have always wanted to do was an orchard and fruit. I have not really done it before because fruit takes years to produce well and I have never planned on staying long at our previous places. So I was super excited to put in lots of fruit at this place.  A coworker of Margo's is a fruit growing extraordinaire (seriously, it is what he does for a living) and helped me in selecting varieties.  He also sells fruit trees and fruit from his orchard. If you are looking for fruit trees I recommend him...Ames Orchard and Nursery. In the orchard, I have put in 3 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 3 peach trees, 1 mulberry tree, 1 asian persimmon, 2 pawpaws, and 2 pecan trees.  I also have put in 10 blackberry bushes, 4 raspberry bushes, 6 blueberry bushes, 2 juneberry bushes, and 60 strawberry plants.
When we moved in, a big decision I had to make is where to put the garden. I wanted it close to the house and preferably connected to the yard.  I think when I decided and told people where it was going, they thought I was a little crazy, because there was a 40x50 barn where I wanted to put it and a 30ft RV metal carport in the way.  When we moved in, besides the house and shop, there were 2 big barns, another small barn, a metal rv carport, and a metal carport and it was all right around the house.  The barn we ended up tearing down where the garden was going was in bad shape and needed to go.  I actually gave it to a guy in exchange for him tearing it down and hauling it off. I also sold the 2 metal carports.  I then had 2 dumptruck loads of topsoil hauled in to level the area and make my raised garden beds. I also hauled in two trailer loads of compost and three loads of mulch.  It was a lot of work making the beds and getting it all set up but it turned out great.  It is really going to be great once everything is growing and all  my herbs and berries are big in a few years. I will continue to post pictures in the future as the garden grows and becomes more of my vision for what it will look like. But here are a few before and after pics.  I have done most of my planting for this year already and have corn, green beans, onions, bok choi, radishes, spinach, cabbage, sugar snap peas, and potatoes coming up. I should have squash, cucumbers, and cantaloupe up soon. I also planted peppers, eggplant, and 49 tomato plants today.  I still have a few things to plant but it is almost all in.

Before - that is the barn we tore down and the rv carport we sold

After - the barn you see is the other barn that we did not tear down

Before

After

Before

After

In progress

In progress

Garden beds

Garden entrance - the beds on the outside of the official garden space are the herbs and strawberries and I hope to have vines growing over the arbor. 

Fruit trees

Spring Finally

It seemed like this winter lasted forever and was worse than normal. We and (I think) everyone else are really glad that it is over.  I know our girls are super happy to be able to spend more time outside.  We are also happy for them to be outside because they entertain themselves for longer and wear themselves out so they sleep good. As a family we spend a lot of time outside, as much as we possibly can. We aren't ones to sit inside and watch tv or whatever. I really look forward to the days in a few years where we can really turn them loose and just let them go explore on their own and do whatever they want without having to watch over them as much.
Since it was extra nice today we decided to load up the girls and take them to some special places to play outside. First we went to a big parking lot at the Prairie Grove high school football stadium and let the girls ride their bikes. They are both getting really good at riding. Riding on pavement is easier for them than on the grass here at home so we take them to a big parking lot every once in a while and just let them go at it.  Esther is really good and needs no help at all riding. Clara still needs a little help sometimes getting started but she is doing great overall and is much better at it then Esther was at her age. After we rode bikes we went to a playground at the Viney Grove Community Building.  Viney Grove is a small community that we live closest to, it is just right down the road. There is not much there besides a church, community building and some houses. But they have some fun old school playground equipment at the community building and the church is a beautiful old church. The girls got to play on a merry go round for the first time which was lots of fun.

Hale's Angels Biker Gang

If you don't know her, you can tell from the pictures that Clara is always having a good time.  Her shirt is perfect for her (it says Local Celebrity),  because she is notorious for being the life of the party and always wanting to ham it up. 

Enjoying the merry go round

They loved running around and around pushing mommy and daddy also.  This picture shows perfectly where Esther learned to push running and then jump up on the merry go round while it is going.  This must just be instinctual for kids because she just did it unexpectedly and landed it the first time.  She is a natural merry go rounder.  

New Deck

One of my big projects to complete before the spring was the deck.  If you remember when we bought the house, the previous owners had removed the back sliding door and put in a fake propane fireplace.  When I remodeled, I took out the fireplace and put a new back door back in.  We love to eat outside when the weather is warm so I knew we were going to need a deck.  This one presented a new kind of challenge for me though.  Our house is not built very high above ground level and behind our house there is a slight rise.  Outside our back door it is a 16 inch drop to the ground but at the far edge of the deck it was only going to be 4 inches off the ground. The best solution would have been to pour a concrete slab or put in a nice rock patio.  But those are a lot more expensive and a lot more permanent (in case we ended up not liking it) than a wood deck.  So, we went with the wood deck.  Whenever this deck needs to be replaced in many years, we might look at one of the other options.
What I ended up having to do since we were going to do a deck, was to dig out a lot of dirt for the joists and joist supports.  It was a lot of work and not any fun.  In fact it may be one of my least favorite projects I have done in a long time.  One of the bonuses of doing a deck though is I was able to make it level going out the back door so there is no step down and that is nice. And because of the incline of the land, I am only going to have to put a step off the deck on one side.  I ended up building it 22' wide x 16' deep.  Which turned out to be perfect once we got our stuff up there.

Getting started

Clara was VERY helpful

Esther was really into it and actually was helpful at times.  She would hand me screws when I was putting on the decking.  Which I remember always being my job when I was little...handing dad nails. 

I did let Esther run the drill a couple times with me to put in some screws (pay no attention to the thinning hair)

In progress

Finished

Added a little wheelchair ramp so we were ADA compliant

With our stuff

Livestock

It has been a busy winter.  When trying to get semi run-down place into a good working farm and a nice home area, it takes a lot of work.  Even with the crazy winter we have had, I have had to keep going to try and get a lot of things done before summer gets here because summer brings garden and livestock which we need to be ready for.  I started working on fence a while back.  The fence that is here is 5-6 strand barb wire that is in bad shape.  I am putting up field fence so that it will keep in goats and sheep.  I will not be able to get all the fence done this year because it is too expensive.  I was able to fence a 2-3 acre pasture area so that just in case I get some goats or sheep, I will have a place for them.  My main plan for this year to just to get some steers to raise throughout the summer and then sell before next winter to make some money.  The existing barb wire fence will hold in cows. We really never thought we would have enough acreage to do more than one or so cows but with this place we will be able to do several which is exciting. We both like having cows around.  We will not do cows exclusively but it will probably be our main livestock we have here since we have so much pasture.
We set aside some money so we could hopefully buy 10 calves this year to raise throughout the summer. So far we have six. The cool season grass is starting to green up so they are able to be out eating grass most of time. It is nice to lookout our windows and see our calves. It makes us happy. We can't wait until the farm is completely set up (maybe next year) and we have cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and maybe pigs and turkey roaming around.

Update

Its been awhile since we blogged, and I wanted to write an update on the girls. There will be some farm updates coming soon.

The girls spend a lot of time coloring, drawing, and writing.

Esther is really turning in to a little girl, it is hard to believe that she will be 4 in just a few months. She is very independent. She can pretty much do everything for herself, other than getting plates out of the cabinet and getting the milk out of the refrigerator. She loves to help--set the table at supper, put away laundry, put away groceries, she even helped Josh pull up and carry fence posts the other day. 

She continues to blow us away with the things she knows and remembers. She is really into writing words right now. She knows how to spell all of our names and writes them often. She likes to ask us to spell things and she will write them, or she'll just write a bunch of letters and ask us what she spelled! She loves to read books. We get new library books every week and after we have read a book a couple of times she usually has it memorized and can "read" it to you. She has known her directions (right/left) for awhile and will tell us what direction we are turning or are going to turn. She has learned all of the road names we drive on and knows the way we drive to all of our routine places. I'm fairly sure she could direct someone on how to drive from our house to her school, church, the grocery store, or Josh's parents' house.

Esther practicing her portrait skills.

We had several people tell us the "3s" were harder than the "2s" as far as behavior. Esther is definitely one of those kids! She is very strong willed and doesn't want to comply unless it was her idea. Couple that with the irrational thought processes and behaviors of a toddler and some days I think I'm going to loose my mind! But overall she is a sweet, smart, and fun little girl.

Esther loves drawing people and writing her name.

Clara continues to keep us entertained. Even Esther says, "Oh Clara, you are being dramatic." I wish we could keep a video camera on her at all times so we could share all of the hilarious faces, expressions, voices, dances, and silly things she says. She lives in her own little world most of the time, but it looks like a pretty great place to be! We have even talked about renting her out to people who are feeling down to help cheer them up.  She is constantly making us laugh, even when she gets in trouble it is hard to keep a straight face. We are not sure at what age most kids start this but she even does funny voices at times to make us laugh. 

Clara cheesing for the camera

Clara is also gaining independance. She keeps up with Esther and can do just about everything her big sister does. She insists on picking out her own clothes most days, so you never know what she is going to look like. Clara's big recent milestone is she is now potty trained. She still wears a diaper at nighttime, and still has an occasional accident, but overall we consider her potty trained. After 3.5 years of changing diapers, we are very excited about this.

Playing, they were probably going on an adventure.

Zoned out watching a few minutes of Seasame Street

Playing in the dirt, a favorite activity.