My Solo Week

I haven't been posting updates, but rather surviving my first week without Devin. He went back to work and was gone for a week.

I will sum it up in one picture...

Seriously, it wasn't terribly difficult the entire week, but we had some moments. I am glad he is home, especially since things seem to be breaking left and right over here and my elderly Weimaraner decided to unload her plumbing all throughout the kitchen last night.
Some days are just crappy, literally.

In much happier news, my oldest daughter Journee and my youngest daughter Rose had birthdays! When you have lots of kids, there is ALWAYS a birthday around the corner :-)
They share a birthday, so we tend to have joint parties. This year we celebrated at my sister's house!


Journee turned 21! I don't know where the times goes, honestly. I still remember taking this picture of her in the living room of our first house, back when we lived in Tennessee.

Rose turned 11. She has really shot up in height this year and will likely be taller than me, just like her older sisters.

I do have a picture of the two girls on the day Rose was born. We had planned to take Journee to a movie on her birthday, but she woke up to a new sister instead!

Two amazing girls!!! Two fantastic birthdays! I am so lucky they are mine.

        **** Note that my big brother is photobombing. You have not met him yet, but just know he loves to photobomb. Now that he lives in town, I will eventually make a formal introduction!****

Here's to a weekend that finally arrived! I hope everyone has a great one!

Happy Friday Ya'll!

A Look at 44

Warning, this is my transparent post of the year. My birthday was yesterday so I spent some time reviewing my year all that I have learned.
What good is life if you are not constantly evolving and learning?

It was quite a year, and now I am 44 years old or young...it depends on how much sleep I get, really.

Here is my year of wisdom and transparency:

1. Relationships matter.

The relationships in your life can be good ones or bad ones. Both types will affect your life in some way, either positively or negatively. Get rid of the negative ones. Life is short and it is your decision whether to live life positively or negatively.

Remove the negative and foster the positive. This includes family and friends.

When you purge the bad relationships, make sure you keep the good ones fostered, especially with your own children and your spouse.

2. Farming can be tough, but it can also be very rewarding.

I have learned more in my farming years than at any other time in my life. The only exception would be raising children, which has taught me tons too, especially about my own personality.

I still get negative comments regarding farming, but by far a majority of the comments are positive. Nobody will ever totally discourage me (see #1 above), and I have gracefully learned that any life in agriculture is a life with unexpected results at times.

I absolutely know that farming has impacted my life and the lives of my children in a positive way, and that I will always be grateful for the little voice in my head that encouraged me to get this life started.

I am also immensely grateful for my friends and mentors who farm, as they have been great encouragement to me many times in the last several years. I strive to be the same encouraging voice for others who contact me with ideas and dreams of their own farm.

3. Kids are the greatest blessing.

When I told people I was pregnant again, I had several people openly tell me how crazy I was for having another. Again see #1 above.

It is not my fault if people are too narrow sighted to see a baby as anything but a blessing. I cannot control their thinking or even change their minds. Instead I have learned to focus on the ones who feel as I do about babies and to keep my circle tight with like minded individuals who will love me and my children.

One only needs to be in my house a short time before they see how wonderful and uplifting it is to be here, in a home with loving kids who admire and love their new sibling to the ends of the earth. I honestly could not ask for more in my life than to have this very family and this very life.

Always know that children are an immense blessing and they should never be viewed with disdain.

4. Life is hard.

There will always be days when life is just hard and you wonder how on earth you will ever recover.
You will sometimes want to try and take charge of everything yourself, in despair and desperation.

When you get to that point, just stop.

Sometimes doing nothing is the best solution. Sometimes laying awake in bed at night worrying is the worst solution.

I have learned that things usually work themselves out. Do what you can and try not to worry too much. Yeah, that is too simplistic, I know. I also know that just worrying yourself into a panic does nothing for the situation.

Have faith.

5. I am beautiful and my body is amazing.

How's that for being overly self confidant?

This last year I was pregnant, again, and I was also amazed at everything my body can do, again.

In fact, I think my body looks the best when I am pregnant and when I am just postpartum. It is a miraculous thing to grow a baby and then to nourish that baby.

My lack of sleep shows on my face, my belly sticks out and wiggles like jelly. My boobs are sore and leaking milk, but I always think of myself as a miracle. Every post partum aspect of myself is proof that I can do miraculous things. I embrace it, as all women should. A woman's body is truly a masterpiece, no matter how it looks.

My mantra for this next year is to be the best I can be, to love and be kind, and to embrace the ups and the downs of life.

Year 44 will be my best year yet!

Happy Tuesday Ya'll!

Before the Baby Arrived

Before the baby arrived, I had planned to update on farm life here, but blogger was being a pain. Today I plan to update.

We got 3 new piglets. We still have 2 large pigs that will be processed soon, but I was able to get 3 babies this fall as well.

Because we did not want the babies in with the larger, forested pigs we set up a new area and fenced it with three strands of electric wire.

Apparently this was not enough fencing for these little guys as they were escaping constantly. I would wake in the morning and find them scattered across the pasture. We finally locked them up in this dog kennel until we could secure more fencing.

Devin ultimately used barbed wire and more strands. It is working so far. They will stay in this area until the big pigs are processed, then I will move them into the forested area.

Loading up these guys from the kennel and transporting them across to their new paddock was lots of fun, i.e. pigs are really great at squealing!!

We are fortunate that they love Willow and they love milk, and this makes moving them even easier.

We no sooner got the piglet challenge conquered when my bulldog Duke suddenly fell ill. We came home one evening from eating out when we noticed he could barely walk. We initially thought his leg was hurt.

The next morning he could not get up without howling in pain. It was his back. We carefully loaded him up and headed for the vet.

A few x rays revealed that he had a possible slipped disc. It is difficult to see slipped discs on an x ray, but there were no other findings that would cause the pain. The doctor gave him a steroid shot and we left the office with more steroids and some pain pills.

He was noticeably better the next day and has improved since. He is still stiff jointed in the morning, but he is getting quite old for his breed. We are hoping he remains mobile and healthy.

There are weeks when it always seems like "something" is happening....that's life and that's agriculture.  I am hoping for boring weeks for the remainder of the year :-)

Happy Friday Ya'll!

My Newest Earthling

Wednesday, Oct 19th, this little boy finally made his entrance earth side. 

5 days past my due date, which is a rarity for me.

Ace Buchanan Martin

He weighed in at 10 pounds 5 oz and was 23 inches long.

I knew he would be a good sized baby, but I didn't expect a 10 pounder.

Labor started in the late of night and lasted only 5 hours. It was, for me, a quick labor. The 4 oldest girls were in attendance, seeing what a normal birth is and seeing how much work the midwives do at a home birth.

There has been no shortage of people willing to hold this little guy.

To say he hit the jack pot family is an under statement.

Devin is home and off work for a stretch, so I have been resting, recovering and enjoying this new little earthling.

Who does he look like? It's hard to tell at this stage, but I see a little of Fletcher in him and his eyes are already quite blue.

Already I cannot imagine him not being here in our family. To say we are quite lucky and blessed is an under statement.
We truly love this baby with all our hearts.

Thank you for all of the kind words and prayers on Facebook and through emails.

He is here.

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!

Fletcher at 6 Years

Yesterday was Fletcher's birthday.
 He officially turned 6 years old, which is almost unbelievable to me. So much has happened over the last 6 years.
6 years ago we were still mourning the death of my dad, who had died 5 days previously, and yet we were also celebrating life with the birth of Fletcher.

This year we are just a couple of weeks away from celebrating another baby. My dad would have loved being here for all of the excitement.

Because of Devin's ER schedule, we celebrated Fletchers birthday a week ago with a family trip to the local jump park.

The entire family loves the jump park, and on Monday evenings they offer a family special. The entire family gets in for a grand total of $35. I missed being able to jump with everyone, but enjoyed watching from the sidelines.

After jumping we grabbed a few pizzas and an ice cream cake and came home to open gifts.
Fletcher loves Blues Clues so Willow crafted a "notebook" for him. She did a great job and it has actually been his most favorite gift. Hand made wins every time.

He was also gifted lots of play dough, and who doesn't love that stuff? The boys have played with it every day and I have swept the floor of dried play dough every evening.

 When we were at the beach and celebrated Zeb's birthday I discovered that Publix had some nice ice-cream cakes. The oreo one is a favorite, so that is what we had for Fletcher too.

It was a simple celebration. It was a family birthday party. It was perfect.

Happy birthday Fletcher Pike!

Today will be a busy day with school and a mid wife appointment. I am hoping Devin and I can squeeze a movie in this evening too. The Magnificent Seven is out and I really would love to see it!

Happy Wednesday Ya'll!!

Bugs

Bugs! It's all about bugs with this kid.
When I started combing through books for the school year I knew I wanted to include some sort of junior entomology curriculum.
That was a long and fruitless search.

Most of what I found was geared for very young students and comprised of a coloring page and a chart of butterfly metamorphosis. This kid is ready for more.

I ended up buying an entomology intro book, several color books, a thick insect identifying book, and  a box of file folders to create lap books.
I spent an entire day taking notes from reading the entomology books and created a list of general bug knowledge and specific bugs, along with their traits.

I also decided to include Rose and Fletcher, so that the three youngest all have some insect knowledge.

Lap books, if you are new to them, are a way to create an individual book on a topic. It gives kids a chance to cut and paste and create. This first book covered the topic of entomology and what it includes.

Next week, we will move on to specific insects, and they will each get their own lap book.

I also decided that some insects are worthy of several weeks of study. Honey bees will be studied in more depth this spring, and I plan to order a couple of bee packages. I have the bee suits for kids, so the boys can help install the bees into new hives.

To go along with the new apiary we will set up, I ordered several blueberry bushes. The biggest struggle with bushes here are the cows. Cows love blueberry bushes. Devin spent a full day getting me an area prepped and the bushes planted and mulched. Later next month he will add some fencing around the entire area to keep my ladies out. He will also add space for bee hives in the spring.

I also decided to dust off an old and empty worm farm. I have worms on order and plan to let the children get the farm up and running. They can learn about composting with worms and by spring they will have ample bait for some fishing in the back yard creek.

Zeb has been busy collecting caterpillars and watching them transform into beautiful butterflies. There is no shortage of the critters around here lately.
He has been able to look them all up in his identifier book and then turn them free.
So the learning has come natural for him and I am simply trying to fill in some details.

3 more weeks until this new baby should makes his entrance. I have been trying my best to organize the house and yet relax too. Sleep has been difficult at night and afternoon naps have become necessary. I can live with that.

Today is the first day of autumn, although the 90 degree temp outside says summer is still very much here.

We have not been swimming quite as much, but we do still find some time to cool off. Journee's pup Kid enjoys the water very much and it helps to burn some of her high energy.

Here's wishing everyone a fun and productive week!

Greener Grass

I have found Fridays to be my one day to sit and enjoy the morning. Because of the many projects I am wrapping up before starting school and having this baby, I have been extremely busy.

One major project I started was to write up a junior entomology curriculum for the younger kids. I searched high and low for a bug program for the boys to no avail. Everything was geared for much younger kids, and Zeb is especially ready for something with more detail. I will post an update once I am finished.

                        ****One of many bugs Zeb has found around the farm and admired****



This was also a summer of no rain. It was very dry and hot until late July. We finally started getting some rain and the grass finally decided to grow.

In fact, it was too dry for a cutting of hay in June, but we should get a good cutting in a week or so. This should, along with all of the pastures, give us enough food for the cattle this winter.

A couple of days ago we moved all of the cows into the yard around the house.

                                   ****Valentine and Molly****


No fancy landscaping over here. I use cows to mow the lawn and I honestly do not care if they munch on bushes.
Not to offend anyone with beautifully landscaped yards, but I truly find more peace in watching my cows graze the yard. Grass based farming has so many advantages and we are blessed to have the ability to farm in this manner. Thank you Joel Salatin for all of the inspiration!

                       ****Baby Chance, who is not so much a baby any longer****


They were very excited to move to fresh grass and spent a good part of the moment jumping and bucking their way across the yard. We will let them graze a few days before moving them again.

Journee's elderly goat has spent each morning, now that they are cooler, basking in the morning sun on the drive. I have washed the drive twice this week of goat droppings, but it is a lost battle.

                   ***Brownie. One of the steers ready to process this fall***


Our next big project is too get a blueberry orchard planted. This would be an easy task, except we must fence the orchard to keep the cows from chewing down the bushes. Devin will be better able to tackle the project once Dragon Con is over.

We spent a good deal of time Tuesday sewing the finishing touches on some cosplay costumes for the Dragon Con event. I know it will be  great time for everyone attending.

Moving the cows, cutting hay and prepping school supplies must mean one thing: Fall is almost here.

It's time to soak up these last few days of summer and that is exactly what I plan to do this weekend.

Happy Friday Ya'll!!!

Sami