Farming Friday

I thought I would start posting some ideas for our farm or homestead on Fridays.  I'd really love for it to be homestead daze, but it doesn't flow as well. 

We have decided to convert part of the corn crib into the chicken coop.  We laid out plans that TL and I will be implementing in the spring.  We have alot of junk that the homeowner left that we need to clean out of there first.  I hope to start working on it in March/April.

April I will also start reviewing my garden plans and building boxes.  We decided to do raised bed gardening.  We're not getting any younger and kneeling down isn't something that Kevin or I want to do.

I'll also need to make the strawberry raised and tiered planter and figure out where the fruit trees are going to go.  I've decided on dwarf trees.  They produce less fruit but because they take up less space, you can plant more of them.  I'm excited that they only reach about 6ft tall.  I may add some semi-dwarfs next year.  We have three full size apple trees on the property now that badly need pruning.  I'm not looking forward to climbing a ladder to do that!

I've been drooling over my seed catalogs and have decided which seeds I will be buying.  I'll be placing my orders at the end of the month.  I can't wait to have some fresh veggies (and next year fruit)!! 

Did I mention that we're also getting a bottle fed calf?  A neighbor is going to rent our back pasture for some of his beef cows and he's giving us a calf in return.  "Ribeye" will be a nice addition to the homestead.

The big joke in our house is animals.  When we first got the farm, I envisioned chickens, a beef cow, and a pig.  Hubby was against it for some reason (he's come around now).  So I kept telling him that I was going to raise alpacas instead!!  Last night he sent me a Craigslist item that had alpacas for sale!!  We joked about it......and then he added that he wants to raise bison.   Thank goodness he's just joking!

I'm off for now.  Have to take TL to our church for teen night.  I pick him up at midnight and have the whole evening planned out to do all kinds of lesson planning!!  I'm really trying to get totally organized this year!!

Our 2012-2013 Reading Lists

I am totally not ready to start school this week.  My hubby left Saturday and my dad just left today.  I haven't taken down Christmas decorations and I still have lessons to plan out.  I'm almost done with the rest of the year's planning.  I will enjoy having them all done when I start school back up on the 14th. 

I decided to plan each subject, not by week, but by the number of lessons we have left.  Reading and math for instance we do five days a week, history and science four days, and other things we only do three or two times a week.  I gave us a week's worth of lessons as a grace period.

I love Tapestry of Grace.  I will post on this later this week.

I was able to lay out the kids' literature assignments  for the rest of the year.  I had to switch gears for Shakespeare for TL.  Originially, we were going to watch a play while doing a study on Shakespeare and then read another play, however we won't have time for that.  Our late start and my illness this year put us a little behind.

His 9th grade reading list for this year is as follows:

The Hobbit

Swiss Family Robinson

Tell Tale Heart

Cask of Amantillado

Hamlet video

Midsummer Nights Dream video

Last of the Mohicans

Mysterious Island

Rip Van Winkle

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Wind in the Willows

 

 

Princess and Bug-a-bug's reading list is as follows:

 

Sarah, Plain, and Tall

The Boxcar Children

The Courage of Sarah Noble

Little House in the Big Woods

Little House on the Prairie

Henry Hudgins

Encyclopedia Brown

 

 

I hope to finally finish updating my blog this weekend.  I still have last year's curriculum up!!  ugh!!  And the pictures are really really old!!  I still don't have  working camera but I'm sure I have newer pictures than this!!

 

 

Have a wonderful week everyone!





The time passes so quickly

Kevin is on his way back to CA later today.  We've enjoyed having daddy around for the last two weeks and it will be hard on the kiddos.  We're stopping at Mall of America on the way home to go to Build a Bear....that should ease some of the girls' pain.

We went down to IA to get family photos done with Kevin's family.  The last time we were all together was about 11 years ago.  I was pregnant with Princess and there were only five grandkids....now there are ten.  It was nice to get those done and they were alot of fun.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos from when he was here.  My camera is dead and TLs isn't working.  The camera Kevin brought with him is out of charge and the cord is back in CA.  I guess we'll have to use the camera phone.

We've been planning the chicken coop and garden while he's been home.  He also helped hang up some things for me.  The walls are plaster so hanging things are a huge issue.  My dad is also here and they put in a new dishwasher so I don't have to hand wash anymore and a new faucet for the sink since the old one was leaking.  Dad is also building an island for me for the kitchen and brought five school desks for the kids that he built.  I really wish I had a camera!!

I'm off to get the kids moving and into the showers.  Take care and have a very safe New Years if I don't get to post again.

Mid Year Review

Well, okay, not quite mid year review.

Everything is working well for us but history and art.

TLs art program, Artistic Pursuits is a nice program but its not really working for us.  It assumes that you already know how to sketch, which he really doesn't.  I'm looking into other programs or looking into a lower level for him to learn the sketching part.  The girls are using Meet the Masters and I don't love it.  Their program teaches them about the different artists, but does very little drawing.

History.  Love history!  I'm a history major.  With the move to the farm with lots more to do and starting school back up in January, I've decided to go ahead and purchase a history curriculum.  I just cant keep designing our own.  I love to do it but have been so busy, its been hodge podge for a couple of weeks.  I really want to do a good job and make it interesting so I've decided to go ahead and get Tapestry of Grace.  We will start mid year three and then move into year four next year.  I'm very excited about it.  I'm looking forward to this move for us.  It will relieve alot of pressure off of me!

Writing-The big girls are going to start IEW's SWI level A.  TL is finishing up Rockets, Radar, and Robots.  I'm going to move him into SICC level C as soon as he's done.  It will take us till mid year next year. 

Everything else is working and flowing well.  The girls are finishing up their grammer from last year and Im going to move them into Easy Grammer for the rest of the year. 

Our weeks have been really busy and I'm so behind for Christmas.  I don't have any baking or shopping done!!  I cant believe I am this far behind.  I plan on working hard to get caught up this week so I can enjoy my hubby being here for two weeks!! 

Have a wonderful and enjoyable Christmas season!!

Stress and stocking up

For my stocking up this week, I purchased four gallons of water, 4 cans of cream of chicken soup, and an 8pk package of AA batteries.  I still had money left over, so I'm going to grab another soup.

School went really well this week.  I'm looking into getting Tapestry of Grace for history for the rest of the year.  I start school back up in January and I just can't plan out the history program like I want. Also, I've been so busy with the kids and the house that I haven't been doing a really good job at it!!

I am so far behind on Christmas.  Cards are done.  Baking has not even been started.  No shopping done (thankfully we don't buy alot).  And I have two gifts that I have to make and I haven't started those yet either.  ugh

Good news though, hubby comes into town on Saturday.  He'll be here for two weeks and I can shop all I want while he spends time with the kids.  It will be alot of fun!!

I'll post more about our school week later!

stocking up for $5/week

With all the recent things going on in the world, I decided its time to seriously stock up our shelves and prepare for an emergency.  We live in a tornado area and also could get blizzards, so I need to be prepared.

I found a list on pinterest on stocking up your shelves for only $5/week.  I had a couple of issues with the list.  First, if food and meals are a top priority, I certainly didnt need 180 pounds of sugar by the end of the year.  Second, my hubby and I are the only ones who eat tomato soup and so 12 cans was a little extreme.  Thirdly, they didn't have any water on the list.  We live on a well and if it freezes, no water, so that is a priority for us.

I made myself a new list and put in things that I thought we would need and eat.  I also upped the amount to $7.50, I know I'm a wild woman.  And I added on $5 a week for non-food items.

Next week is the first week and I'll be getting:

5 gallons of water

3 lbs of salt

1 package of toilet paper

 

 

 

Doesn't look very exciting does it?



Weekly Wrap up

This has been one busy week.  We had homeschool co-op on Tuesday.  The big girls are taking a class to learn to build a bookshelf and then a creative writing class.  Miss Trouble is taking a science class and then a craft class.  TL has opted not to go.  At 14, he is the oldest there and the next oldest are all girls.  Monkey gets to hang with me while I visit with the other mommies.  I hope to do a class next session to teach the older kids about the iditarod for two classes and then some information on American Indians.  It should be fun.

I just found out I may have to take an extra college class to graduate.  They changed a required upper level class to a lower level leaving me one class short of upper level class requirements.  Since I never received and email or letter about the change, I'm going to fight it tooth and nail.  Being from NY has some advantages, at least I hope in this case.

For our school:

Reading:
TL and I are reading The Hobbit.  He is several chapters ahead of me and I need to catch up this week.  The girls are both reading my mom's old Barbie books (they are from the 50s).  Not really educational but fun to read and for the girls to see the comparison between then and now. 

Math:
The big girls have finally finished memorizing their multiplication tables.  I hope to have division done by Christmas.  TL has started Algebra 1 (I had ordered it and then realized when it came in that I ordered the wrong one so it took longer than expected.)

Science:
TL is still working on his Agriscience.  Its a little dry right now and should improve after the next few chapters.  The big girls have just started and astronomy unit and I'm using a bunch of files from Homeschoolshare right now.

History:
We are still working on Lewis and Clark.  Its been a really fun unit to explore.  I hope to have it done the first week of December.

Writing:
TL is working on a unit from IEW.  I plan on finishing this up by the end of Jan and moving onto another unit from there.  The girls are working on writing for their creative writing class so I haven't touched their other stuff.  I think I'm going to start IEW with them in January.

SPelling:
All the big kids are using All About Spelling and making vast improvements with their spelling.  I'm really happy with this program.

Grammer:
Only the two big girls are doing grammer and they are doing really well.  We're finishing up our book from last year and then will dive into a new book later this year.

TL
Is going Spanish, Government, and Computers.  Spanish is okay.  Im not really sure I like the program we're using but I think its because we're in the intro discs and not the actual program yet.  Government is going quite well and I really like the program we're using.  I couldn't find a computer program so I grabbed the books from the class I had to take in college and putting TL to work with Word right now.  He'll work on Excel and Powerpoint this year.  He's also working hard on Taekwondo and Boy Scouts.

Art:
Art is going okay.  Could be better.  I'm not an artist at all so this I really struggle with.

The big girls
Are working hard on the Bible Quiz Team.  They have had two competitions so far and improved a ton from one to the other.  They have also picked out badges to work on for American Heritage Girls.  The girls are also working on Geography and its going well so far.

My goal this week is to get caught up grading and recording.  I need to work on science and history lesson plans.  I also need to work on  my blog.  These pictures are really old and I haven't posted this year's curriculum yet!

I'm also working on painting the big girls' room.  I tried to remove their wallpaper with everything known to man.  Apparently they used superglue to hang the wallpaper.  I'm finishing up one little section by the door and then priming over all the wallpaper and calling it a day.  I don't have time to spend removing this wallpaper and the girls are anxious for a little color.

I can't even post pictures because my camera has decided to die on me, well actually the battery.  Its a rechargeable battery and about ten years old.  I need to get a new one but can't find one anywhere so I'll need to look online.

Have a wonderful and blessed week!

The garden.....planning phase

While growing up, we had a huge garden.  Lots of canning was done each year.  I haven't planted a garden or canned in over twenty years.  This along with the fact that I live in a colder climate zone has encouraged me to buy the following:

I have just drawn out the garden area.  I plan on growing two apple trees (more will be added later), two pear trees, a peach tree, and a plum tree.  If I have space, I want to do a cherry tree too.   I plan on planting strawberries and blueberries this year.  Raspberries and blackberries will be added next year.  Although I'll be spending alot of money on plants this year and not receiving any yield, the yield in years to come will certainly make up for it.  We also have two apple trees on the property that haven't been sprayed or taken care of the last few years. 

I've also been planning out the vegetable garden.  Sweet corn, potatoes, carrots, onions, peppers, lots of tomatoes for canning and spaghetti sauce, pumpkins, beans, peas, and cucumbers.  I plan on canning pickles so lots of cucumbers.  We also have an asparagus and rhubarb patch on the property.  There is also a small strawberry patch, but I don't know the yield on that yet either.  I need to see how much we get from that patch, not that it really matters, my kids could eat quarts each day.

I've also got this book:

And also this:

TL and I have started planning out the chicken area.  Only egg chickens for us right now, so I'm thinking about a dozen, which should give us enough and some to share.

I may think about a milk cow too, seeing as how expensive milk is getting.

Take care everyone!!  Happy reading!!