Last weekend in Louisville

Last weekend we took a quick get away trip to Louisville. We took the kids to the Louisville Slugger Museum, swam in the hotel pool and watched The Polar Express while eating pizza. It was a fun break. Here are a few pictures of the kids

Life has been a whirlwind.

It has been busy here at Longwood Hollow. We have had lots of family here over the past month. Ten days ago Brett and I took his brother and family to the airport in Nashville to fly back to Russia. While there we stopped at Opryland and looked around. They have amazing indoor gardens. Here are a few pictures.

It's official--I am old

Jasmine greeting the kids getting off the bus--Isaac's first official day is over!

My last little tyke started school yesterday.  Isaac was able to start Kindergarten early.  His first day was yesterday.  He did pretty good--just had a few "I miss my Mommy" moments.   I had a few I miss kids moments.

 I did enjoy being able to do so many things without interruptions.   I even went to Walmart for about 2 hours and did not even browse the toy section!  The house was rather quiet.  I have had the music on almost all morning while I cook and clean.  I guess now I will have some time to volunteer at a few places I have wanted to and sew and "gourd" all I want without a little helper sewer and painter.
After having little children home for the past 16 years it will definitely take some getting used to.  I think it has already made me appreciate having my kids at home more when I do.  I do so love being a Mom!!

I am so very grateful that I have always been able to stay home and be a full-time mom.  I love the Lord for blessing me so greatly.  I love my husband who has supported our family financially and me emotionally.  I love my kids who are willing to go without some of the "worldly" goods their friends have so that I could stay home and be a Mom.

October was a very busy month for our family.  We had a calf born on October 13th--Jim Bob-named by Ethan--it is his calf--in honor of my Dad--Bob.  It was born on my dad's birthday.
For a few days we had a journalism student from the Mountain Workshop hanging out with our family journaling our lives.  It was fun to have an outside perspective on how we live.   She wrote a story for the workshop.  You can access this story be copying this and placing it in your address bar.

http://stories.mountainworkshops.org/workshop/2011/slideshow/1392/megan-westervelt-having-the-faith-to-fail/

I hope that works.  I am still learning how this blogging thing works.

Then of course we had Halloween and visits from family and just life in general to deal with, but I really do love my life.
I have officially become a substitute teacher and have worked a few days.  It makes me ever so grateful to come home in the evening to my beautiful happy place, with my family that I love.

Isaac the Black Widow Spider

Canyon the Race Car Diver--eating candy with Robin Bartlett

Gypsy Faith with Megan Westerveldt--our student journalist.

Jed, Brett's brother with one of his Halloween Masterpieces

The other masterpiece!

This is Boo!

We had one more calf born on Halloween and aptly named Boo!

More, and more, and more calves!

This little guy belongs to Maybell.  She had him around midnight on Wed. October 5th.  He is not named yet--any suggestions?

This is Bandit, born to Bossy on Wednesday morning.

Perseverance, born today, October 7th around 2:30 PM.  His mother is Weighty and he is so named because he has a rather large nose and it took a lot of perseverance on his mom's part, the poor thing.  We were a little worried we would have to intervene, but she was able to have him all by herself--thank goodness!

Rocky aka Curly with her little calf.  It was born last night, October 6th around 11 pm.  He, too, needs a name if you have any ideas?

I have had the opportunity to watch the birth of three of our eight calves and it is a pretty amazing thing.  There are so many things that I see when I walk around the farm that testify that there is a God and he is good.  I do not know how anyone would really believe that all of this just "happened" or "evolved".  I know that there is a God and that he is aware of even the smallest of his creations.
I have been taking classes to become a Master Gardener and I have loved it.  Not just because I do like to garden, but because I have realized that I really love to learn.  I get so excited and amazed by the things I am learning.  This week was all about the Pathology of Plants.  Who would think that learning about bacteria, virus', and fungi that affect plants could be so interesting.
I am so grateful for the many opportunities for learning I have had since moving to "the farm."

Pizza oven is starting to look like one.

It is fall break and our family is not out on vacation--we have been working up a storm.  Yesterday we built three A Frame huts, two for the goats and one for the pigs.  Then we collected a bunch of rocks and did some landscaping.  It looks pretty good--we still need a few more rocks--I'll post a picture when we are finished.
Today we worked on the clay pizza oven--it is finally starting to look like and oven rather than an alter in the front yard.

The kids stomping and mixing
the clay

The sand form covered with wet newspaper--waiting for its
covering of clay.

The kids getting their hands dirty as we build the clay walls.

Cedar and Rose busy at work.

Faith and Ethan busy building the wall.

Ethan and I making finishing touches.

Cedar showing off her cleanliness.

Just a layer of insulative clay and a final coat and we should be ready for a pizza night.  It will take a few more days--at least.

New Pictures of a New Calf--found the camera!!!!!

Last Monday Brett found the camera out sitting on the edge of the driveway--Yay!!!!   After a week out in the rain and dew I wondered if it would work.  After three days in a bowl of rice. . . this is a picture of me when we found out the camera worked.  I guess there is something to be learned from watching crime investigating tv shows.  I would have never know the rice trick.

Yesterday we were out working on some fence between the garden and the goat pen.  It took us a couple of hours and during that time I noticed one of the cows was not up with the rest of them.  So when we got done, Brett and I went on a walk around the trees.  At the last place we looked we found her--number 7, affectionately known as Pig Pen--was laying at the edge of the trees just at the beginning stages of calving.  We sat down and watched.  A little while after we sat down all the cows came running by on their way to water.  This startled the mamma, so she got up and walked further into the woods.  We snuck around from the backside and watched for another 30 minutes while she had a little calf.  It was very awe-inspiring.   It was a boy--we named him Long John after his pirate patch.

He is a good-looking and strong calf.  We went out this morning to tag and band him and I could hardly hold him down while Brett did the dirty work.
All in all this first week of fall has been a good one.

No More Pictures for a While

Well I had such a great day last Wednesday that I just have not had the time to write it down for all of you to read about and laugh.   It all started as I drove back from taking the kids to the bus stop because it was raining.  I looked over at the cows and could only count 9 of 11.  Since they are imminent to calf any day I knew I needed to go and find those that were lost.  I went inside got all the rain gear on put my phone in one pocket--in case I need to call for help--and the camera in the other pocket--to take pictures of any new born calves or anything else I find interesting.  I walked out to the cows and counted again.  Now there were 10 of 11.  Still one missing.  I counted twice more just to make sure before I went looking all over the pasture.  Still only 10.  Off I went making the rounds around and through the trees.  I could not see the missing cow anywhere.  However about halfway through I did notice that one of my pockets was empty.  I had lost the camera--somewhere in the tall wet grass.   I was still worried about the missing cow so I retraced my steps looking for the cow and the camera.  When I got back up to the top of the hill I counted all of them again.  Now there were 11.  At least all the cows were safe.  Now if I could just find my camera!!  So off I went zigzagging over the pasture.  Then I here a lot of mooing and looked up the hill to see about 30 cows on the other side of my fence, all over the driveway and my front yard.  I called my neighbor--who owns the cows and he came right over.  I helped round up his cows and chased them down the drive and road to his place where they jumped back over the fence that had been crushed by a fallen tree limb.  By this time my pants were thoroughly wet except where they were covered by my raincoat and boots.  I went inside to eat breakfast and as I get to the front door Isaac is standing there crying.  The cows in the front yard had frightened him--poor kid.  So we sat down together and had some breakfast and read a book or two.  Then I turned a kid show on for Isaac got a dry coat and hat on and went back out to zigzag the pasture.  One and a half hours later I was again thoroughly soaked and still cameraless.  I went inside and took a warm shower and went on with my day.   Later when the family got home we all went zigzagging together--still no camera.  I still have hopes that on one of my rounds 2 or 3 times a day to check on the cows that I will find my camera.  Wether or not it will work is a different story.

More calves.

We had one more calf late last night or early this morning.  It was a little heifer.  Her name is Paulyanna.


It has been a very busy week.  Checking on the cows two or three times a day can be a little time consuming.   It is good exercise--I hardly puff when I am walking up the big hills anymore.  

We also got four pigs on Thursday.  They are now at home in the garden--which means no more picking of vegetables.  They have already eaten all the broom corn I planted too late to harvest.  At least it was put to good use.

This is a picture of Patch who was born on Wednesday.

A New Little Calf

Dottie and her calf Harvey

On Monday, Sept. 12th our little farm was blessed with a little bull 

calf.  We named him Harvey in honor of the Harvest Moon that we had on Monday morning.    Mother and calf are doing well.  We were out on a walk as a family Monday evening and found Dottie just after the calf was born.  It was neat to watch her clean the calf, and the calf's first attempts at standing.  Another calf was born early this morning.  It is a brown/red color with a white face.  We named him Patch because he has a brown circle around one of his eyes.  Two calves born and hopefully 9 more to come over the next few weeks.

This is a picture of my two boys that look most alike, in their twinner shirts.  Isaac has adopted the name Moose because he loves wearing his moose shirt.

We went to the Wayne County Heritage Festival at Mill Springs a few weeks ago.  Here is a picture of the kids with Lake Cumberland behind them.  The festival was fun with old time crafts and singing and Civil War re-enactors.

The Dog Days of Summer

A few of the kids swimming at Laurel Lake

Our oven turned patio project

  A few weekends ago we took a break and went over to Laurel Lake and played around for a bit.  The weather was nice and the water was perfect. It was a lovely day.

The clay oven project that I have posted before has turned into a little bit larger project.  We originally were eventually going to make a patio out front along side of the oven.  As I was about to finish off the base for the oven, Brett said, "You might want to make that taller."




Why, because if we make a patio we will have to even everything out, raise the ground here lower it there--lots of earth moving.   Well since we just couldn't decide how tall I needed to build it without the patio, we dug up the front yard and have started on the patio.   So now the oven is on the hold until we get the majority of the patio figured out. --Maybe by Thanksgiving we will have an outdoor oven to cook a turkey in and a nice place to sit and eat it--outside.

The kids have been in school for about a month.  Life is still very busy.  Monday night for family night the kids, grandma and I went and picked about 14 gallons of apples and about 1 gallon of pears.  This week we have been busy making pear butter, dried apples, and still have apple pie filling and applesauce to go.  I am glad for tools that make things easier for the kids to help.  They all like to take turns turning the handle on the apple peeler slicer.

Isaac showing off our biggest watermelon from the
garden and his cheshire grin.

Buttercup and her buddy Isaac

Here are a few pictures of lone Isaac.  I think he enjoys being the only one home--although I have played Memory, Uno, Checkers, and Stratego more times than I care to count in the past few weeks.  Sometimes I am thankful the patio isn't finished because there is lots of sand for Isaac to be happy playing outside on his own for a while--even if the sand often finds its way into the house.  The best is when Isaac climbs into my bed for a nap and sand falls out of his pockets or seems in his clothes.  It is so fun to climb into a sandy bed.  Reminds me of trips to Lake Powell as a kid and the beach when we lived in Oregon.  Just one of those little things to help me remember how truly blessed I am.

Signs of Summer Ending

This morning as I was walking out to the barn I almost ran into this web.

I seem to run into webs everywhere I go.  That is a for sure sign of fall coming soon.  All the little baby spiders have hatched and are off spinning webs on their own.  It always remind me of Charlotte's Web.

This morning after I saw this web I began to hum a song a friend taught me in high school--

There's a web like a spider's web
Made of silver light and shadows
Spun by the moon in my room at night
It's a web made to catch a dream
Hold it tight 'til I awaken
As if to tell me my dream is of you.

I always thought it was a song about a dream catcher hung above the bed.  Maybe it was just images made by the moon.  It's funny how a little thing like a spider's web can spark a memory that leads to other memories.  The human mind really is amazing.

It was the kids first day of school.  It was such a quiet day for the most part.  It makes me appreciate my kids more.  You know the saying--"absence makes the heart grow fonder."  

Last Lazy Days of Summer

The kids only have a week left of school.  To make sure that they enjoy their first days back I have been making them do yard work.  Really I just decided to make use of them while I have them.  We have been planting and landscaping.  Here are a few pics.

Rose working hard moving rocks around the yard--Love the Wonder Woman boots!!

Faith diggin' her grave--really just a hole for a bush!

Wonder Woman and Faith

Canyon working hard at keeping the kittens happy

Isaac--doing what he does best--making us laugh!

I have also been working on a clay oven--hopefully in a week or two we might just be able to have a brick oven pizza night.  Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

The base of the oven with some clay covering the rocks

A few more layers on top to hold in the insulation layer-I know it
isn't even--we will work on that over the next few steps.

The insulation layer, glass bottles surrounded by a mixture of
clay and small wood shavings.

My New Hobby

When I moved to Kentucky I found a new hobby.  I love going to the Arts and Crafts shows they have here.  Especially the Appalachian Craft Shows.  I really like the old arts.  I saw some really cool things that were made out of gourds, so last summer I planted some in the garden.  For Christmas I got a few tools to make what I call "gourding" easier.  I spent most of Christmas morning creating my first gourd--I even burnt breakfast--thankfully a kind family dropped off some delicious cinnamon rolls for us.  This is my first gourd.  Since then I tried new tools and techniques.  Here are some more gourds.

I painted, carved and burned this gourd to make this design.  It has one of my favorite sayings on it.  Most people think it applies to teachers, but I like to think of how it applies to families.  You can count the number of children in a family, but you can not count the amount of influence on the future those children may have.  It goes right along with my favorite  saying--"save the world--raise good kids."

This one I made by carving, and staining.  The handle is a curved vine I found on one of the many hikes we make through our woods and pasture.  I am always on the lookout for interesting "stuff"

This is the only birdhouse I have made so far.  It reminds me of a little gnome home.  

I painted this blue with gold swirls  and then decoupaged butterflies onto this one.  It is all my girls' favorite--Go figure. 

I haven't finished this one yet.  I plan on putting hinges, a clasp and a brass handle where the stem currently is.

This one is carved and stained and then I wove cedar tree bark to make the top and handle.  It is one of Brett's favorites.

This one is painted and the top is woven on with the twine.  It is also lined with a matching fabric.

This is my first and only rooster so far.  He is kind of funky--but I like him and it was fun to make him. 

So--What do you think?   Do you have a favorite or an idea-I would love to have some feed back.