He crawled in his hands and knees about 2 feet over to his farm toy!

Brianna, Eli, Ian and Taelan (Eli’s cousin) came over today.  They brought stuff for turkey pesto sandwiches, and cantaloupe so we had a nice lunch and then the kids played, looked at the kittens, jumped on the trampoline, and ran around outside.  Can’t beat that!

Delia and I went on about a 25 mile 4 wheeler ride today! She did great, and either she had a lot of fun, or she did a good job faking it for my sake. We rode on the Stony Spur trail which is pretty well out in the boonies, but always near the Tomahawk Rd, so if we did break down or something, we’d be near help. We stopped at what felt like a Boundary Waters campsite and ate our lunch (sandwiches from the Short Stop). Delia explored a lot, found mushrooms, asked me about lichen, collected rocks, and so on. I had planned on going back after we ate, but she wanted to keep going, so we rode another few miles before turning back. The weather was gorgeous and it was a lot of fun.

Above is the route we took.

This morning I spent a few hours and cleaned the kitchen.  I put away all the odds and ends that have accumulated and then scrubbed everything, and did two or three loads of dishes.

This year’s crop of cats is harvested!

Turns out Blackie is a mom too. I was out putting the safety chains on my new trailer, and I heard the now-familiar “mew mew mew” coming from Marty’s boat, which is also Blackie’s house. I picked up the cover and though it was dark, I could see Blackie lying in there with some sort of dark shapes moving around her. I went out and told Delia, who squealed with delight, and then went in and told Emily, who also squealed, but with less delight.

So now we have 9 kittens. Blackie and her little furballs are now staying in the guest room along with Snowy and hers. Blackie is quite a bit less laid back than Snowy, so it was a trial for Emily to capture her. She was growling when we’d get close, but now she’s a lot calmer. She lets me pet her while she’s nursing her babies. Snowy seems to really like it, though Blackie sort of just tolerates it.

Marty was here today, before I knew about Blackie. I told him we had kittens and he said “Blackie?” I didn’t think much of it at the time, but now what he said, along with the fact that there was a blanket in the boat, makes me think that Marty may have had prior knowledge.

Blackie’s babies are all dark. One is black, two are striped but mostly black, and one (the cutest one) is striped and a little lighter.

Anybody need kittens? I’ll let them go cheap.

I’m glad we found them when we did. It’s much better to socialize them and tame them now before we just end up with a barnful of young wild cats.

Delia played outside for a long time again today, and she and I and Henry took a nice walk around the property, looking for dandelion seeds to plant in Delia’s garden. She’s a wealth of information. As we walked, she explained the difference between woods and forests: woods have trails, but forests don’t. I found one of those u-shaped fence posts which gave me an idea of how to do the chicken run fence. We still have several of them at our old house, so we’ll drive those into the ground and then slip the new fence post pairs over them. It made me think of the auction I attended a couple of years ago where a pile of probably 15-20 of them sold for a dollar. There were so many great deals I passed up at auctions because I had no place to put stuff. If only I could go back in time!

This afternoon I cut up a little more firewood for the boiler, and used my splitting axe that my Grandpa gave me to split some of it up for the fireplace. I loaded up the boiler, and I have enough to keep it running for the next few days at least. I loaded the split wood onto my 4 wheeler and drove it over to the porch, under which we store the fireplace wood.

I absolutely love it here. As I was splitting wood, I stopped and looked around and thought about how much fun I’m having (we’re all having). The sky was just starting to get overcast but the golden yellow late-afternoon sun was still shining. The smoke from the boiler was blowing over the pond, and it smelled great. The chickens were romaing around me, scratching at the ground. I had an axe in my hand and sawdust all over my legs. Everything was just beautiful.

It’s impossible to not get dirty here. The new rule is I wear my “dirty clothes” (old jeans and badly stained t-shirts) by default and only put on my “nice clothes” (slightly less dirty jeans and t-shirts with three or less stains) when we’re going into town. Can’t ask for much more than that.

She woke up and immediately went down to be with the kittens, and she’s been down there ever since. She even ate her breakfast down there.

This morning we woke up really early, and there was a beautiful fog covering everything, as often happens. We’ve been trying to think of a name for our little farm, and Emily immediately said “How about Misty Morning Farm”? I liked it, but it had a bit of a fru-fru feel to it. We brainstormed a bit more and came up with Foggy Pond Farm.

Last night while driving Delia to sleep/going to get donuts, I picked up a Manneys Shopper, which is the Virginia/Hibbing classified ad paper. I found an ad for 60′ of chain link fence, posts and a gate for $60. I called this morning and talked to the guy and it sounded like just what we need for our new chicken run. Emily was taking the kids to Virginia today anyway, so I decided to go along and pick it up in Hibbing while she was at her meeting. Delia decided she wanted to come with me, so Emily and Henry went to the meeting and Delia and I went to Hibbing. When I got there I was pleased to see that it’s really nice heavy duty stuff – so heavy that the guy had to use his old Farmall loader to put it on my trailer. After about a half hour of strapping it down and assuring Delia that I was almost done, we were on our way to McDonald’s, then Lowe’s (to return a shower head and buy a light fixture), and then back to Virginia to pick up Emily.

When we got home, I went out to the barn to get my tractor to unload the new fence. While I was unhooking my mower, I heard a faint “mew mew mew” coming from one of Marty’s old Ski-Doo tow-behind sleds. I climbed up to take a look, knowing what I was going to find, and sure enough, there were 5 kittens nestled in next to a dozen eggs. Apparently Ski-Booses make good hatcheries and kitten nurseries. I figured Snowy was the mom since we’re not even sure if Blacky is a girl or not, and because Emily and I had noticed that she looked a bit like she might be nursing. They were alone though, so I wanted to wait until I knew who the mother was before doing anything. Emily was dealing with Henry inside, so I started my tractor and drove it out to where I had parked the trailer. I told Delia what I found, and her face just lit up. She wanted to go see them right away. I told her we had to wait for mom, but luckily she came out soon. We went in there and carefully lifted the sled down so we could get a better look. Snowy heard the commotion and ran over to make sure her babies were okay. After some discussion, we decided to get a box and bring them into our guest room, along with Snowy of course, since it’s going to be pretty chilly for a while. Snowy jumped in the sled and started nursing the kittens, so we went out to work on the fence.

Emily and I carried the posts by hand and then I hooked a chain to my loader to pick up the rolls of chain-link. The ad said 60′, the guy said it’s more like 40′ when I got there, but when I unrolled it, I found that it’s about 48′ – 50′, which is a perfect size for the run. It’s also 7′ tall, so hopefully it’ll keep Foghorn (The Rooster) in. He usually jumps out of their current run when he decides it’s time to start the day. This morning he was out when I went to take pictures of the fog, and I got some nice ones of him too.

We finally found a good box for the kittens and loaded them all up along with Snowy, and brought them into the guest room. Snowy paced a bit, but calmed right down and settled in with her babies. They are SOOOO adorable. It’s ridiculous actually. When I hold them and look at their tiny little faces, I feel like somebody is playing a joke on me and they’re fake. They’re just unbelievably cute! I think they’re about 2 – 2 1/2 weeks old – eyes open, but not very good at walking yet. Delia’s going to pick one to keep but the other four are up for grabs so let us know if you want one or two! (Cats are better in pairs you know.) We explained to her right away that we’d be giving away all but one, and she seems to be okay with it. We’ll see how she does when the time comes, though her constantly saying “I love you” to the kittens makes me a little worried. I’m really hoping we can give them to people we know. Luckily we only have 4 to give away. It could be worse.

Delia spent the whole evening down there to “check an eye” on them. She’s really sweet with all of them, and even put a little teletubby toy in their box. We had to bring her her dinner because she refused to leave them, and even wanted to sleep down there tonight. She said “Aw, these babies are so baby-ish!”

By the way, we have some kittens to give away. Take as many as you want!

We heard the door open down there, so I went down to make sure it was closed tight and Delia was in the bathroom down there going by herself. He came back up and she went back in with the cats. Emily says: I think that means she’s “potty independent.” Most of the time she doesn’t even use the seat insert.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but if anyone needs a kitten, let us know.

I slept in while Ryan had the kids this morning. Henry has decided to nap less lately, which is perturbing. I got up around 11 and did a little work and then took the kids to Babbitt. First to the library to return stuff and get the third Harry Potter book. They didn’t have the second HP movie, and neither did the gas station so we need to get it from Netflix. Parked in the lot in front of Zup’s and from there went to the post office, bank to get a form notorized for ECFE, the gas station, Babbitt Drug, and Zup’s. We hadn’t been in Babbitt Drug before. It’s one of those kind of sad, emptyish drug stores that has a little of everything. You mostly never need to go there, but if you really need something (and it happens to be between 9 AM and 5 PM), you’re REALLY glad it exists. They had a weirdly large selection of marionettes. Yes, marionettes.

Got ingredients for play dough at Zup’s but on the way home from Babbitt I called Nora and asked if we could try to squeeze in a pony ride between rainshowers. So, we did. Delia rode Duke, who is bigger than Cowboy and more responsive/cooperative but she didn’t kick him (we asked her not to) so that wasn’t really an issue any way. After their ride, Delia shared an apple with him and we followed Nora to her oats dealer and bought a few bags of oats for the horses. (I hope she has an alarm, you know.) Then Nora came to our place so we could show her our horse stalls and pasture area and shelter, which she thinks is all good for eventual pony usage. Just add fencing. And a ton of commitment and responsibility.

Delia and I made play dough and cleaned up her room while Tex Mex Stew was cooking and Henry napped in a pouch. She was pretty darn crabby all day so we had some unpleasantness after dinner until she fell asleep. Hopefully she’ll get a good amount of sleep and we can have a better day tomorrow.

We set an alarm for this morning because ECFE started at 9 AM in Ely.¬† Of course it woke us up and we had to wake both kids (they never wake early on days we need to get up early anyway).¬† ECFE is Early Childhood Family Education.¬† It’s through the school district and meets once a week.¬† Parents play with their kids, and then meet separately while the kids play some more.¬† Ryan dropped us off at the school and went to run errands in town and start loading stuff up from the “old house.”

After ECFE, Delia rode her bike and I walked with Henry in the stroller to a hair salon.¬† Luckily, they had time to cut my hair right then.¬† There’s a little spot with kids’ toys so Delia played and Henry rolled around on the floor by her while I got my hair shampooed and cut.¬† Ryan met us there and we decided we’d go to the Chocolate Moose for lunch.¬† Then back to the old house to fill up the trailer (it’s done!¬† And we figured we’d use it for clean stuff a few times before it gets all garbage-fied.)¬† Henry slept in the stroller and Delia rode her bike on the sidewalk or helped us pack bags and boxes.

Drove home in some rain and quickly unloaded the trailer because we knew more was coming.¬† I was carrying empty boxes to the barn for burning and I tripped over a plastic chair and dropped Henry!¬† It was as good a drop as possible – onto soft (an unmowed patch) grass from no more than¬† two feet up, but it still upset both of us plenty.¬† Lesson learned: put Henry in a carrier if I’m going to be carrying other big stuff around and possibly not seeing where I’m stepping.

Lots of heavy rain fell, the power flickered several times but never went out.¬† We heated up leftover jambalaya for dinner and spent the evening realizing how sore we were.¬† Delia started writing a book she titled “Color Color Color Do You Want to Color.”

There are two cats that live in the barn, named Snowy and Blacky by the Stages (previous owners). With names like that, you can imagine what they look like. Blacky, in addition to being black, is fluffy, and Snowy, in addition to being white, is cross-eyed and has 6 toes. She’s not the prettiest cat, but it turns out she’s really sweet! She and Delia have become friends, and Snowy even comes out and plays in Delia’s sand pile with her. Blacky lives in the Stages’ boat, and snowly lives in the loft. She has an amazing way of climbing the ladder to get there, which I hope to get on tape.

Delia played outside a ton again today. It’s so wonderful to be able to let her go out by herself and watch her come up with things to do. Emily went out and played pirate with he, and then they walked around the property and Snowy followed them the whole way.

I mowed!!! I installed my new overrunning coupler – which is a safety mechanism to prevent the mower blades from continuing to power the PTO (and transmission) after you disengage the clutch and stop providing power to the mower – and then carefully and nervously started the tractor and let off the clutch. The engine strained a bit (my governor still isn’t working properly) and then I could hear the mower’s gearbox and blades spinning up! My hydraulics worked just enough to get the wheels off the ground, so with it lifted, I went into the grass and dropped it. Grass started flying out the back of the mower, which is a good sign when your goal is to cut grass. I drove around a bit and saw a very nicely cut 6′ wide path behind me! Delia got on and we did part of the front yard together.

At one point, I had the engine running pretty fast and raised the hydraulic lever with the clutch down (the clutch has to be engaged for the hydraulics to work). When I let off the clutch, the mower shot right up all the way to the top – so much so that the PTO linkage was rubbing on the top of the mower deck. Normally my hydraulics barely work at all, so this was a surprise. I never got it to be that active again, but since that time, they have worked noticeably better than before. I guess I must have knocked some something loose in there.

I mowed the entire yard and even a good section of field with very tall grass, though I raised the deck to the highest spot for that. It worked beautifully and I didn’t have one problem. It took me a while because I don’t have a good path worked out to get it mowed efficiently. I’m sure next time will be much quicker.

I have to make a mention of all the tools I’ve used in the past few weeks that were given to me by my Dad. I used the new air ratched he gave me on the trailer deck, the impact wrench to get the lug nuts off the trailer, the set of punches to install the spring pin in my PTO coupler, the saw horses for cutting and painting the wood, the circular saw, and lots of other things I can’t remember at the moment. I’ve also been using the socket wrench set Joe got for me at the auction last year a lot too.

It got up to 81 today, which is quite a change from the very cool weather we’ve been having. Delia put on her bathing suit and floaty and went out to swim in the pond, but it was too cold, so instead she and Emily just sat on the dock.

The kids woke up very early, about 6:30 AM, and Emily the saint got up with them and let me sleep. She even made an excellent breakfast of eggs and sausage.

After breakfast, I headed outside with Delia and Henry, and after Henry fell asleep, I put him in bed with Emily, who was catching up on sleep. Delia played in her sand pile for a long time while I worked on the trailer. I checked on her a few times and found her filling her watering can from the pond and watering her garden, which consisted of several small ponds and a few “planted” dandelions. It was so nice to watch her playing out there, getting dirty, and coming up with little projects for herself.

Delia and I went to the barn to visit the chickens. They had free run of the yard today, but opted to spend most of it in there. When we got close to them, we found them rolling around in the dust. They popped up and shook, sending a large cloud toward Delia. She thought it was great. I hadn’t found any eggs in their boxes for a couple of days. I couldn’t figure out why, but thought maybe it was the stress of the two run-ins with the dogs. I poked around the horse stalls thinking maybe they started laying in there, and sure enough, I found 7 eggs in one wooden box. From what I’ve read, chickens are just funny that way. Our chickens like to poop in their nesting boxes. I figured this was normal, but I’ve read now that they shouldn’t do that. Our chickens like to sit around in the boxes, even the rooster, which is also something they shouldn’t do. They’re just supposed to go in there to lay and they should be on the roost the rest of the time. The way to break them of this is to pick them up when they’re in the boxes, and move them. That’s not going to happen with the current coop – the nesting boxes are right at face level and the coop is too narrow to get away from flying beaks, feet, and wings.¬† I figure we’ll just let them do it until we build the new coop, and then we’ll try to teach them the proper way to be a chicken. I found a decent ear of corn in the garden and gave it to the chickens for a treat. They seemed to enjoy it.
I noticed today that we have almost no goldfinches at the feeder. It’s almost all chickadees now. The other day there were 15-20 birds I’d never seen before. They were blue jay sized, and black with a green and purple sheen to their backs and heads.

I finished my trailer! I have to get safety chains for it on Monday, but other than that, it’s done! Finally! It’s going to be our rolling dumpster. We’ll fill it with trash, and when it’s full, I’ll just haul it to the dump. Sure beats tying 3 cans onto our cargo rack or snowmobile trailer.

When I last tried to cut firewood, my chain was extremely dull and it took forever. I’ve always had a shop sharpen my chain before, but I finally bought a tool and tried it myself. It worked! I cut up some wood and got the wood boiler going again.

Emily made a delicious dinner tonight as well – flat iron steak with sauteed mushrooms, oven roasted potatoes, and sauteed veggies.

My overrun coupler came for my tractor yesterday, so I should be able to mow! I ran out of time today to hook it up, but it’s on the agenda for tomorrow.