Learning and Harvesting

 Swimming lessons with Aunty Stacy at Aunty Nelly-Jayne's house, I don't think it can get much better than that!

This game was so cute to watch as they all try to swim after the little balls that keep moving away from them.

Setting up the toy space under the stairs. Some day the stairs may have a railing, but for now our girls are use to it and have lots of fun hanging off of them, jumping off of them....🙈 makes for a bit of a indoor playground. 

Our first batch of apples from our apple tree.

They made some yummy and very thick apple sauce. These are also my first jars that I canned all by myself.

Plums, plums and more plums!!! There are a total of 9 plums trees on this property! 3 old big ones and 6 small ones. Thankfully Opa and Oma claimed the 5 that lined their drive way. We now have frozen plums, canned plums, canned plum sauce, and plum butter!

We had our home visit with our support teacher and she gave Hazel a special pen which she was very eager to use.

First day of homeschool picture. 

Our books took a bit to come in, so we had been doing some causal lettering and such while we waited.  We chose to do 'Come Sit By Me' recommend to us by Oma. It has a book for every week with bible verses to memorize and actives to pick from that are related to the books. We also have math and phonics work books that we will be doing along side it.

The previous owner left behind an old steam juicer. I have had so much fun making grape juice! It doesn't quite seem worth it by the time you picked, de-stemmed, and washed them all.... but when the juice just flows out of the steamer into your canning jars it is so fun and rewarding!

Prepping for the new shop build.

Grabbed a basket of grapes from Nelly-Jayne's too, theirs are a lot more accessible then ours and harvesting is much more fun with good company!

My total count of items I canned this year:

22 jars of grape juice (plus a bunch that was just fridge stable)

14 jars of apples sauce

6 jars of plums

2 jars of plum sauce

To some that may seem like a lot, to others that may seem like little. But it was my first go at canning anything on my own and it was very rewarding! 

The very best part was that all of this was provided to us by God, we didn't buy it, we didn't plant it or water it. It was simplify provided, and I found it made the harvest even that much more beautiful.

Homeschool sports day out in Aldergrove. This is a totally new group of people for Hazel, so I wasn't expecting her to participate much. But she very much surprised me and participated in 90% of the activities!

Having some fun with chalk, I outlined the girls and then they colored themselves in. Hazel asked if I could trace her again and the second one got colored as Fern. 

Our first homeschool field trip with Heritage Christian Online School (HCOS) at Greendale acres.

We had a lovely time at the corn maze with lots of other activities to do and flowers and animals to looks at. We even got to go on the train ride. It was lots of fun to have Jared's cousin come too, she is homeschooling as well and only a few years older then Hazel. 

Building and Growing

 July was a month to watch growth and development and building. Hazel is growing fast, learning lots and slowly coming more and more out of her shell each day. Projects were built both big and small, and lots of skills were learning and worked on by all.

The bunnies finally got a house upgrade. So fun to see what Jared can make from scrap wood and some mesh!

Hazel got 3rd place in the running race at the chicken picnic. It's the only race she would do, but she prepped and practiced for it and ran with a bunch of other kids her age! A big win for her!

Hazel made a long chain with her spool knitter so we could make it into a flower.

Walking out to get a better view of the two deer walking through the field.

The grape vine that got moved, I don't suspect it will do so well in the summer and fall, but hopefully it revives in the spring.

With the outside construction wrapped up for a while the girls are enjoying playing out in the backyard again. I marked of one piece of safe dirt which works as a sandbox for now.

The girls have had fun watching the corn grow in the neighboring field, it is now taller than them which was exciting.

Ready for the new ideas. Now we wait for the permit to go through.

Lots of blackberries ready now, I made a bunch into sauce and freeze the rest every other day for smoothies.

The girls and I have very much enjoyed our afternoon pool invites!

Lots of barn construction has been happening since June,

today was the exciting day where they craned the manure bunker roof over to its new foundation in a few pieces. 

Sunrise chicken lunch, they had face paint and balloon art for the kids. It took a bit of convincing, and Hazel had to watch Jade first, but she was brave and let someone paint her arm.

Hazel has been enjoying the easy access to paper, scissors and stickers. She made a lovely princess crown all by herself.

Making playdough animals with Aunty Elise. I think a lot of Hazel's craft inspiration comes from crafting with her aunty.

A New Look

 June was both a destructive and constructive month. A few days after our last hosting event the siding crew showed up and started taking off the vinyl siding and then cutting and banging the stucco siding off. It was a rather noisy few weeks with some quite days in-between. Some of the destruction was sad, but after all the house renovations I'm starting to learn to trust the process (sometimes...).

Eggs from the hobby barn, Great Oma's strawberries, and our rhubarb all collected in our morning rounds.

Made some strawberry rhubarb crumble

and some strawberry rhubarb jam. Yum Yum!

No end of entertainment out the windows these days.

Before(ish) picture of the front entrance.

After(ish), front entrance is opened up and the steps were removed. I should note that they found out that the steps were solid concert and needed to be jackhammered out! Good thing the guys like working with machinery.

Bye bye rotten deck, and the steps followed a few days later. It was interesting getting in and out of the house for a few days... thankfully we were on holidays for some of it.

Hazel modeling her anklet that she made with her spool knitter.

A lovely pop of blue through all the green!

Redone inside and out! 

(see 'A house to make a home' post for before pics)

Back yard before pictures before the excavator inevitably shows up to take down the shop and whatever else is in its path.

Backyard blue berry snack, only got a few handfuls off of those bushes, but I'm happy that Hazel is willing try the fruit growing in our back yard.

The inevitable day finally arrived...

"It's okay if a few things fall into the garden during demolition?" was what I got asked that morning...

Come afternoon the excavator leveled the whole thing, and moved one grape vine that we hope to save. My stomach did drop... but it was out of my control and as beautiful as it was in its own way, starting over was cleaner then trying to redo or repurpose what was existing.

The excavator driver set aside a few on the old mattresses that were in the shop and later used them to nicely sweep up his mess! 

The falling over, 5 foot tall, not properly framed green house stayed pretty much in tack when it got picked up.

A very different look out the living room now.

The entertainment started up again early the next morning as dump trucks rolled in to load up all the rubble. Another end of another chapter on this property, while also being a new beginning.