a chat with a butcher

May 7, 2012 at 7:55 pm (adventures in houston, the barry farm)

today was another one of those days that i would have never thought i’d have living in houston.

it started with farm chores at the barry farm early so we could load up the 3 red wattle pigs that needed to make a trip to the butcher. geoffrey and i talked on the way there the best way to load them. we decided we really did need another person. thankfully a call to his dad yielded us the help we needed. you never know when you a need dad 🙂

of course, by the time we arrived to the butcher it was their lunch hour! they close and all leave for the hour…so, we drove around a bit to keep the pigs cool. we love going there. the butcher is an interesting old man and you never know what we will talk about. this was the most we visited with him. we talked about how many pigs, their breed, customer names, how the meat was to be cut… the normal things you would expect to talk about with your butcher.

he was VERY surprised when i, “a young lady”, “aren’t you a city girl?”, asked for some of the lard! he had questions… he said i might be the first person to ask for it in years!

“what did i think i was going to do with it?”
“do i KNOW what to do with it?”
do i know someone to ask?”
“how old is your mom?” … “oh, she’s too young!”
“do you still have grandparents alive to ask?”

i wanted to say, “mr. fischer, have you met google?” 🙂 but i didn’t. i assured him i would do research and ask around. he is old school and i didn’t just want to blurt it out. (i left that one of his employees later on in the conversation.)

i told him i was confident i could figure out how to get it done. he couldn’t tell me just how much lard they could get me. i was sensing he would just give me a little bit. but, i was sure to let him know that if they got 15, 20ish pounds it wouldn’t scare me…so, bring it on! we’ll see how much we get… we had a conversation with old black man, who was an employee, that remembered seeing it done and he reminded mr. fischer how they needed to prepare it for me. i am getting excited! i told mr. fischer i would bring him some biscuits made with red wattle lard. but, he requested an apple pie. crust made with lard.

we also talked about life. we talked about kids. farming. raising kids while running a family business. kids being raised with responsibilty. kids being raised by their parents and grandparents. kids who think meat comes from the grocery store. (oh, and he remembered someone telling him to put a potato in while rendering lard to keep it nice and white!) we talked about being a dairy farmer’s daughter. we talked about how is wife was a beautician by trade. years ago he couldn’t keep up with his 2nd slaughter house and asked his wife to manage it. yes, his wife who was a beautician that had her own shop! she of course she replied she didn’t know how to run a slaughter house. he told her there was a phone there and she could call him with questions:) i missed visiting with her today. she is a sweet lady.

this was the longest we had talked with mr. fischer. it was a lovely visit to his slaughter house. i think he thought we were nuts when we told him that we took our pigs off corn and soy and onto a NON GMO feed! he’s been around for a very long time doing what he does. they smoke in-house and don’t use nitrates and came highly recommended by farming mentors! until geoffrey can cut up pigs himself (which he’d love to do), we’ll go visit mr. fischer.

i am looking forward to our next visit and to see how much lard they saved for me! until then, i have some research do.

just another crazy day in this crazy, beautiful life i live with the love of my life!

 

 

 

 

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january in review

January 31, 2012 at 7:08 am (the barry farm)
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wow…i am so on top of it! its the last day of january and i am remembering to do a recap. let’s hope i keep up this pace all day of being on top of things. my day just got busier so…here we go!

we had a great time with friends and family here on new year’s eve which lasted until the ball dropped and we even topped it off with a toast of champagne and sparkling white grape juice. all the kids made it but one! there were seven of them 🙂

geoffrey was still recovering from his “table saw meets index finger” accident and dealing with pain and sensitivity. thankfully now the stitches are out and it looks and feel much better! it seemed like a long road to get there and i am so thankful its doing well and not causing him so much pain! he still isn’t allowed to run the table saw until he purchases what ever mechanism woodcraft makes to cover the blade. or maybe he should just get the saw that shuts off when it senses human skin apporaching. yes, they really do make one if you were not in the know like i was! 

the kids are back in school…they told me yesterday they really didn’t really like mondays! really? at age 5 and 7 they already don’t like mondays? oh boy. prior to winter/christmas break seamus was getting lots of ” yellow marks” on his daily conduct card. they were for talking!! thankfully since he’s been back this month he has only gotten one. (a yellow mark means his teacher had to speak to him about it more than a few times 🙂 ) the school seems to be pushing the kindergartener’s a lot. i’ve been a little surprised at the homework he is brining home. he is doing ok with it. take he and i awhile to complete and i am learning the best way to handle him and his homework. he is such a stinker! when he wants to and when he isn’t distracted he can actually pull off some pretty good handwriting skills 🙂 i love him so much! his favorite “subject” at school is PE!

lay is doing great! she enjoys school. she has a project due sometime soon about a famous person and she chose amelia earhart. i’m currently teaching a 5-week course in her class room on “our community” through its a junior achievement ciricculm. i enjoy being in her class each week!

we are busy with the farm…as usual! but its good. this month we were contacted by a chef whom geoffrey met with. he wants us to supply him eggs (when we can), chicken and quail. he is also interested in some pork. geoffrey made a first delivery of eggs last week! we are excited about this partnership and we’ll share more as it unravels!

we did have a big loss this month at the barry farm this month. one saturday when geoffrey was working, of course, the kids and i went to do farm chores only to find we had lost a pig. thankfully it wasn’t promised to customers but, that of course was the intention! so, down a pig but thankfully we have more and enough to cover our current CSA orders.

we still, and always will, find ourselves a bit stuck. we really need our own place. our own land to continue to grow the barry farm. there has been lots of planning, researching, brainstorming, praying… we are excited to see where we will end up but until then, we keep doing all we can do where we are! geoffrey is doing an excellent job at maximizing the 1 & 1/2 acres we continue to lease. next up – 80 meat bird chicks that arrive on thursday! we are starting february off with bang.

last thing…this month i started doing a work share at all we need farm.we met farmer stacy, at an event the barry farm was part of a few months ago. i go every friday morning and work with her from 9ish-noonish. i help her harvest, clean, weigh and pack for other CSA orders and well as the market. in return she pays me with delicious, beautiful, better-than-organic produce. i bring that home and feed it to my family who has been enjoying it! geoffrey, layla and i have fallen in love with turnips! creamed turnips done farmer stacy style 🙂 i made a salad with her lettuce greens and seamus just loved it! he told me while we were eating to tell ms. stacy that he really liked it! although it makes my fridays pretty busy i enjoy it! after leaving all we need farm i head to the barry farm (which is 30 minutes from there) and do chores before heading home.

our life is busy. our life is full. our life is wonderful and rewarding! thankful and honored to be on this journey with most precious family. thank you to all of you who journey with us in different ways!

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let’s get caught up!

December 21, 2011 at 7:53 am (kids, pictures, the barry farm, Uncategorized)
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geez..i’m a bad blogger lately. so much going on. so little blogging!

things are moving along here at a steady pace. thankfully i’m not feeling super stressed about christmas approaching. just the way i wanted it!! (although there is that one etsy seller would could make my life a bit easier if he just replied to me.) i do need to do a little shopping one day after geoffrey gets home from work and we’ll be all set. i am sure another trip the grocery store will be needed…i with they did deliveries.

the kids have been on winter break since friday, which was a half day! (they don’t got back until 1/4. craziness, i know!) our poor seamy got sick and missed thursday and friday from school last week. we battled a fever until sunday midday. his body ached, stomach hurt from coughing…poor guy. he too many naps, which is way out of the norm for him. we went to see the doctor yesterday and he has a pretty bad ear infection. he has never once complained of his ear hurting. he’s doing much better now but definitely not enjoying his amoxicillin! i am pretty sure this is his first time in antibiotics. other than treating asthmatic symptoms and allergies he has been a pretty healthy kid these past 5 years. he is back on the mend and was rather whiny yesterday…hoping for less of that today!

yesterday the kids and i had good day! we colored, in new christmas coloring books, with a NEW box of crayons (my favorite!) for well over an hour! it was great fun. then, we had to run a few errands to gather up a few supplies so we could  make these….

 

 

i saw a facebook friend post pictures of her and her girls making cookies and i saw she was using these. i knew right away i needed to go get some.

 

(pardon the position of the picture but, wordpress wouldn’t let me change it.)

they are some nifty squeeze bottles, made by wilton for candy making/melting but they worked great for sugar cookie icing! i filled them with my own colored icing. our usual routine in making sugar cookies is i frost most of them and the kids decorate with candies and sprinkles. well, i knew if i got these we would all create some very cool cookies! i still eneded up frosting some of the bigger cookies with a knife but these bottle are worth the investment! (they were $4 at walmart. i couldn’t find them at my local hobby lobby and micheals was just took far for us to go yesterday.) we made 60ish cookies and layla stayed with me almost to the end!

this christmas we decided to make christmas presents for the kids and shop on etsy as much as possible. here are a few things i made for them and i’m so proud of myself that they are done! last night i sewed the eyes onto these cute little guys. i saw them on pinterest and decided they would be something cute and homemade for the kids stocking!

sockoctopus!

i also wanted to make their christmas ornaments this year. so i came up with the idea to make these…

they are very fitting seeing we started the barry farm this past year! i love them.

i’ve been baking too…too much! sweet rolls, pecan tassies, a bunch of cookies, mini cheesecakes…needless to say, my family has been very happy about all this! my shirts and jeans? not so much.

today the kids and i will be rather busy. we’ve got egg deliveries to make, farming to do, cookies to eat :), and we are going to friends tonight for supper! i have some baking i need to get done and in the freezer before the weekend, make a final grocery list and make a batch of homemade bread. what i need is a nice little to-do-list.

i hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season! the kids are getting very excited about christmas and we are so very, very happy that geoffrey is NOT working this christmas! we are looking forward to a great christmas day that starts whenever these two smith kids decide its time to get up!

goodness i love them!! 🙂

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a blog about meat that turned into a walk down memory lane

November 9, 2011 at 5:11 pm (adventures in houston, farming in texas, self sustainable living, the barry farm, thoughts in my head, Uncategorized)

we have a ton of meat in this house! ok, not a ton but over 500 pounds…

i’m starting to get excited about it! you see…we don’t eat much meat around here. if we don’t know where the meat came from (and ‘from the grocery store’ doesn’t count!)…or as geoffrey describes it…if i can’t drive to the farm and see how and where the animal raised and talk to the farmer, then we don’t buy it! we have bought small amounts of local grass fed beef over the past year and i mean a small amounts! it’s expensive and you can’t just pick it up at the grocery store when you are there. so, we’ve been flexitarians the past few years…only eating meat on occasion.

now, i have over 100 pounds of beef in the freezer, like 400-500 pounds of rose veal, and 120ish pounds of heritage breed gourment pork! oh, and a turkey and one last lonely whole chicken! i have shepherd’s pie in the works right now for supper…its been years since i made it and i’m looking forward to it. i had pulled out two package of the ground rose veal and that’s what i am using. rose veal is from a calf who was still nursing on it mother but also ate from grass/hay. not your traditional milk veal from a little baby calf who didn’t see the light of day and was kept in a little pen. this rose veal is from bigger calves, months old who still were spoiled by having access to their momma’s milk while enjoying grass/hay in the pasture they roamed! now, that’s the life.

we, the barry farm, purchased two cow/calf pairs from a friend who just couldn’t afford to raise them anymore. we sent them off to the butcher and the beef went to 8 different families and the veal is sitting in our freezer waiting to be bought. if you are local and you want some contact me!

our four red wattle pigs we raised since the spring, went to the butcher shortly after the beef. they were split up between 10 families! geoffrey and i are so honored to raise animals that can feed so many. All the meat was ready for pick up at the same time too! Yikes! But, after delivering ALL the meat on monday we are happy to know that we can coordinate delivering about 2,000 lbs of meat across the greater houston area and have it all arrive still frozen! What a day it was… Still tired.

this is how it was growing up….the freezer was always full of meat! when it got low we had a family meeting about which cow looked the best and should be sent to the butcher! ultimately, my dad had the say. it had to be a cow that wasn’t producing to her full potential. we had a dairy farm so, she had to be plump and beefy but not cranking out the milk like she used to selling the milk is what paid the bills!

i remember raising pork and chickens at times but we always had beef in the cellar freezer! it feels like home…freezers full of good quality meat ready to make into delicious meals for my family. our kids are going to wonder what is up! like geoffrey and i, they haven’t eat much meat in the past few years. we all eat the same. we do go out for burgers occasionally but its at burger guys, a place that gets their beef from farm in west texas i believe. and not just any beef…gourmet beef! its delicious!

as i was preparing the shepherd’s pie today my mind was flooded with memories of growing up. when i was telling geoffrey last night i was going to make shepherd’s pie with the ground rose veal i pulled from the freezer he started describing how he remembered shepherd’s pie. but, he doesn’t remember my mom’s way. i made it just like my mom today! doesn’t it feel good to say that? pretty sure my grandmother (mama) made it the same way. how often do we say things like that? probably not as often as we should. i want to teach layla how to make shepherd’s pie like my grandmother and mom and also tell her how grammy (geoffrey’s mom) makes it. it may be different and i might prefer one way over another and have my own opinions about the healthiest way to prepare it but i don’t want to forget how mom, mama and grammy each made it!

so, today meat has gotten me feeling rather nostalgic! (listen to me…) i lead such a crazy life these days but an amazing one. a life changing one. i would have never thought in a million years that this is what my life would have looked like! my days are full of suburban living, urban farming, stay-at-home-momming… i knew i wanted to be stay-at-home-mom and i am very grateful to be able to living that dream and to be married to amazing man who helps make that possible. i did not know, however, that i would want to “farm” again…(my mom is laughing…)

when my crazy husband kept talking about wanting to farm…in houston…i mostly listened. He kept asking me all kind of questions seeing i was the one who actually had farming experience. There is one thing i’ve learned being with geoffrey for 8 years… He won’t give up on a dream. He’ll find a way. He’ll take risks. Learn from whatever mistakes might happen. He’s not afraid of failing so, this farming thing i knew was going to happen and there was no stopping him!

Now, that we have been on this farming journey for a year its amazing to look back and take account of all we have done! All the real food we provided. We are doing it folks! We are providing real, good, healthy food for our family and many others. This is what my parents, grandparents & great grandparents and great great grandparents did. Life has taken me (and my family) on its own journey but today i feel like i’m back to the way life was growing up! Back to my roots but with our own little twist. I thought i wanted to break away from that…i thought finding geoffrey & moving here to houston 5 years ago would be the break away that i wanted but…boy was i wrong. that break is so over.

Today tell your family, your kids or a good friend about something you remember about your ancestors. The gramma that crocheted you a blanket…the loved ones that moved their family to america for a better life…the grandfather who worked fields with horses or mules…the garden you remember your mother growing as a kid…your family that all lived within 15 minutes of each other…sunday dinners around the table…sleepovers with grandparents, or cousins or favorite aunts…the 14th generation dairy farmer your dad was (speaking of my father). Thats what i’m going to tell my kids as we eat the shepherd’s pie that is now out of the oven!

UPDATE – kids LOVED the shepherd’s pie although they wonder why its not shaped like a pie but called one. seamus made the comment that shepherd’s probably ate it! (luv him!!)

so, i was explaining what 14 generations means…i explained to the kids like this – papa was a dairy farmer, and my grandfather (papa’s dad) was a diary farmer and 12 more grandpas were dairy farmers before that! layla says to me…”so that makes us 15th generation farmers, right?” luv.her. 🙂

 

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QR code for the barry farm

October 20, 2011 at 9:10 am (the barry farm, Uncategorized)
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check it out…just got a QR code for the barry farm – take a look with me…make sure it works! (hahaaha!)  i’ll be working on integrating this code into the barry farm. but, now i must to take care of a few ducks, 10 turkeys, 57 chickens and prepare for another 60 chickens that i’ll go pick up tomorrow!

scan me with your QR reader to find
our more about THE BARRY FARM

thanks to MY MOM for this is idea! you’re the best mom 🙂 

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friends at the farm

July 22, 2011 at 10:30 am (photography, the barry farm)
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yesterday we met our friends at the land. it was their first visit.

rosie came with esther, rachel and baby joel. they go to immergent (church) with us every saturday night!

rosie is great at photography and is working on building a portfolio as she starts her own business so, i asked her if she wanted to come shoot pictures at the barry farm. we are now the first farm in houston she has come to photograph! we think its pretty cool and more she shares some of the many pics she took we think its WAY cool! check out this one…

 

* Nice to LOOK at, nice to SHARE but please do not crop or edit, please, if you'll take a care*

this is one of our red wattle pigs loving the mud! its rather HOT here in texas and with the little rain we are getting we pour a bucket or two of water everyday in their area and make a wallow for them! now when i start walking by them with buckets they follow me…they know what’s coming! 🙂

anyway…back to rosie and pictures. you should have seen her taking pictures…she was loving it! loving being outside. loving being with animals. loving being ‘on the farm’. the kids did well and of course helped gather eggs!! they didn’t break one…but i did! whoops…

you can check out rosie’s photography page on Facebook – she’s under “rosemary elizabeth photography”.

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blue

June 21, 2011 at 2:36 pm (in the kitchen, the barry farm)
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i (we) have been seeing LOTS of blue the last week! on thursday the kids and i went and picked almost 13 pounds of blueberries! we were enjoying them all weekend. i made jam, we had a fresh (no baking required) blueberry pie, lots by the handful, in a fruit salad and some in the freezer. i really wanted more and geoffrey was off yesterday and said he’d love to go pick with us…so off we went! this is the 2nd year we have picked blueberries from moorhead blueberry farm in conroe, texas. they have about 20 acres of blueberries on their farm that is if i remember right about 30 years old (?). they haven’t used pesticides/chemicals/yucky- bad- stuff you don’t want on your berries which is exactly what we wanted!! hard to find. and…they are a u-pick only farm, provide buckets for picking, they bag up the berries for you, have multiple restroom facilities, shady bushes, a sno-cone stand (that we learned isn’t open in the late afternoon/evening when we go) and very friendly staff. oh, and the berries are $2 a pound! we shall return there every year for as long as we can!

the last batch of jam is in the canner right now! i’m wanting to bake a delicious blueberry pie. i was hoping to do that today… if not today, tomorrow for sure!

the kids have become quite the blueberry pickers. we picked a little over 12 pounds with geoffrey and got done fairly quickly. with the extra set of adults hands i had less stems to weed out this time around 🙂 seamus just asked for a sunbutter and blueberry jam sandwich! i made our jams with honey only. just enough to make it sweet. this year i am using a texas honey but next year i am hoping to be using our very own barry farm honey! that will be awesome!

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new farmer’s workshop

June 13, 2011 at 2:01 pm (farming, farming in texas, the barry farm)
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yesterday geoffrey and drove to austin for a new farmer’s workshop put on by the texas organic farmer and gardener association (TOFGA). it was held a boggy creek farm which sits on about 5 acres of land inside austin city limits. we had  such a great time and it was great experience! great speakers and resources. larry and carol ann, the owners of boggy creek farm were very helpful and friendly and we both enjoyed talking to them! they have on site market days twice a week where about anywhere from 90-200+ attend one of those days.

the panel of speakers spoke on soil, selling produce to local restaurants, selling produce to whole foods markets in the austin/houston areas, CSAs, holistic crop management and a few other topics.

i meant to count but i think there were about 20-30 people. some people seemed to be couples while some were individuals. some of us were farming now, some where wanting to but looking for guidance, help, resources. of course geoffrey’s wheels were just a turning all day regarding our continued journey with the barry farm! it was a great day to share him!

we sat under the big shady trees on the farm’s front lawn. by the afternoon it was 98 degrees but it wasn’t too bad sitting in the shade. when i was talking with larry and telling him a bit of our story i told him i was born and raised in vermont. he said, ‘VERmont?! why would you ever leave there?’ of course i laughed and proceeded to tell him how i was so thrilled to be moving the city and would never in a million think my husband would want to farm in houston, texas!! we agreed that milking anything was out of the question and agreed to let me call him if geoffrey started talking about milking anything! 🙂

here are a few pictures i snapped with my trusty iphone seeing i didn’t have our camera.

 

 

larry talking with the group before the workshop started.

carol ann giving a tour of some of the farm.

one panel of speakers.

larry spraying down the trees behind us in the afternoon..it really did provide a bit of relief. such a smart old man!

 

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a grant

May 10, 2011 at 6:52 pm (the barry farm)
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boy, its been a while since i last posted. i’ve been busy. busy farming, trying to keep up with the garden, school, doctor appointments, church…and the list goes on. its a good busy, a different busy.

so, a bit ago had a call on my cell from a number i didn’t recognize and i rarely answer… especially when my kids are at home and i know it’s not a call from school. but, i decided to answer seeing it was quiet and it was a nice gentlemen from the texas department of agriculture. i knew right away what he was calling about it!

last week geoffrey and i last minute filled out and mailed off applications for the 2011 texas department of agriculture – young farmers grant! geoffrey started filling it out and quickly realized that if i applied i would ‘score’ better. you get different points for things like (but not limited to) education level, ag experience, and what things are you raising/producing. well, seeing i have A LOT of ag experience i scored better than my well educated husband! hahaha!

so, we decided i should fill out the application and see if we could get some help for the barry farm. then we decided we should both fill it out! there wasn’t any rules about married couples and filling out the forms so we both sent them off. a kind gentleman called to talk over the forms and suggest that we just file my application seeing it scored better. he could tell from our applications that i did most of the most, that i had way more ag experience and that we both really were doing this together. i agreed and kindly thanked him for calling and helping us out!

so, we shall see. its a matching grant and i believe the way it works if we say…purchase a dexter steer for $X we submit that and they reimburse us that same $X. god has been so good and we have paid cash for everything we have needed to purchase for the barry farm out of pocket! and its been a lot…let’s just say it hasn’t been like $200. so, we are very thankful and blessed that when we have needed it, there has been extra money in the budget. so, this grant would help us do even more things!

the grant application came with a list of surplus and deficit commodities in the state of texas. things like beef, pecans, grapefruit, cotton, mustard and collard greens were in the list of 14 surplus commodities. the deficit commodities were 69 other items and guess what was in the top 5?

eggs and pork! that helped out score on the application. honey is also listed farther down the list on the deficit side which helped as well!

geoffrey has alway been adamant that we aren’t going to raise or produce anything thing unless we have a customer for it. in case you’re wondering about how we decided to do certain things, that’s the idea behind them. geoffrey wanted to farm. he found people who wanted fresh local pastured eggs. we now have 59 of them laying eggs every day that we deliver once a week to those people. we wanted meat. we decided pigs were easy enough to raise and we found a whole bunch of friends who wanted pork too. now we are raising 4 red wattle pigs we purchased from nonesuch farm that will feed about 10 families!

so, that’s what’s going on in our world this evening. you know when you fill out paperwork and take the time to answer everything the best you know how then you send it off and think…i wonder if anyone will actually read this. will anyone actually care. will they understand. will they get enough of the picture of who and what we are about? well, the gentleman i talked to this evening seemed to have a good grasp on what was up with us and he could only know from reading both of applications well. so, we are thankful. we are praying we get this grant. (for those of you who know me well…i am smiling and laughing as i write this blog about a young farmers grant through the state of texas! 🙂 )

by the way…for supper we had a fresh cucumber from the garden and beef stroganoff that i made with a chuck roast given to us by the wonderful parkers of the nonesuch farm on the day we picked up the 4 pigs! melissa and don..again, i thank you for the delicious meat you sent home with us and the way you have helped geoffrey and the barry farm. you shall never be forgotten!

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march with the smiths

April 3, 2011 at 4:24 pm (the barry farm, Uncategorized)

well, march is over.

april is already here?

really?

it seemed to come quickly.

march was a busy month! the dream of the barry farm became reality! we got 60 hens which started laying on friday! geoffrey went to the land to feed and water them and he found 3 eggs! saturday we got 2 and today the kids can i found 5. not sure how much longer it will be a few eggs here and there. they should all be the same age so we just need to wait until they all start laying…our customers are patiently awaiting weekly delivery of eggs!

geoffrey’s also been in contact with nonesuch farm about getting red wattle pigs. we are waiting to go pick them up in late march! we are getting 3. (not all for us, we are raising some for others.)

and about 10 days ago (or so) seamus and i took a trip to the post office and picked up 40 chicks! we are raising pastured chickens. unfortunately we lost 5-6 so we are down to about 34. it happens… the kids love having them in our garage. not sure they are really listening to us when we tell them they are eventually going out the barry farm!

so, now most of my days revolve around ‘my chores’! between dropping off/picking up kids at school, driving to the land to take care of the chickens and collect eggs, clean and feed the baby chicks in the garage 2x a day, tend to the vegetable garden plus laundry/dishes/meals…i’m no longer bored! 🙂 i was never really bored…although i think geoffrey must have thought i was! LOL! (i love you, geoffrey!) now i’m just on the go all day on most days! did you get that?

it’s all good. life is wonderful and we are blessed!

i turned 32 this month and my crazy son keeps reminding me of that. oh, and he tells others too! he’s such a nut!

layla and seamus continue to do well in school. lay seems to be slacking a bit with her routine math worksheets and tests so we are working on that. she got straight A’s again (takes after her dad – not me!) and was on the honor roll. the principal even wrote a note on her report card…she was excited about that! i went on a field trip with seamus. field trips with pre-schoolers are always an adventure!

spring break came and went. we did go visit our friends esther, rachel, joel and rosie one day which was wonderful! daddy had to work most of the week. we of course made our daily trips to the land and i think we did go out for mexician one night! oh, and we did go to the rodeo as well! i have pictures i should post from the rodeo…it’s always a fun time. i got a sunburn and got talked into riding a ride a didn’t like very much with my two precious babies! imagine that… it was the 2nd time they were getting in line to go and they wanted mommy and daddy to go. we weren’t sure how many tickets we had left so we told them to just go and have fun for the 2nd time. well, seamus just wasn’t having that. he begged and begged for mommy to go… i went… i was scared… i screamed… i held on for dear life and prayed my children were doing the same! we all got wet… the kids were overjoyed… i was glad to be off the ride… the end!

geoffrey attended a meeting and lecture on beekeeping in march. he has ordered everything needed but the bees. once the supplies for the hives come and they are set up and out at the land he will order the bees themselves. we are excited to have harvest our OWN honey! cannot wait!

so, i think that pretty much sums up the month of march here. if i left anything out…someone remind me! oh, and we did have a great family sleepover weekend with doug, gwen and the kids!

i’m pretty sure april is going to be busy as well. so… here we go!

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