Soon to be Four

Lord willing by February 2024 we hope to be a family of four. 

As per Van Vliet tradition a prediction sheet has been started. Feel free to add your predictions by comment or email! 

For reference my due date is February 12, Hazel was 7Lb 8oz, born at 10ish, and 11 days late. 

Making Progress

 Jared got a extra Monday off! And WOW did we make good use of it! It was also the best we have every work together before and truly a wonderful bonding experience. 

Our project corner for the day! Our goal was to clean it up so we can fence it in for the cows. 

Before:

The picture is a bit deceiving as there is a bunch of firewood in the tall grass that can't been seen very well. It took us about 3 hours to move it all closer to the wood shed...with the help of the tractor!

The boat is officially a toy boat and got moved to the play area to be. 

Anyone want to guess what we found when we moved the boat? More garbage!!!! Surprise Surprise!

We cleaned out the A frame, so the cows can use it for shade. We also removed as many board hidden in the grass as we could find, there were a few odd piles here and there. There was also two stacks of beams hiding along the side fence, some of which got added to our ever growing junk pile and some which got moved closer to the garden to be used for future raised garden beds. 

The ugly pole that hasn't had much purpose since we took Nova's "zipline" down  was removed!!! It was very exciting brainwave to realize we could just pull it up with the tractor! We also learned that all but one of tires are movable so now the play area is open for ideas and imagination! 

So far I'm not thrilled with the current rearrangement and am back brainstorming. 

After: just beautiful rolling green hills for the cows! 

We took a break as Hazel went down for a late nap, and I had promised a friend to help move a few things to her new place. But once we had rested a bit and had dinner we were both itching to get the fence started that we had planned, so that evening we got 10 posts into the ground, which would be about 100ft of fence once we get the wire up. 

The next evening we got 10 more posts in going toward the side fence. Just have 4 more posts to put in but Jared needs to do some weed wacking and dirt moving before we can get them in. 

The Cows

Meet Boomerang and Monte. Boomerang is the darker one of the left, he is our beef cow and Monte is the lighter one on the right, and is Voorhorst's cow. 

They are capable of eating grass at an extremely fast rate and we quickly needed to get some hay for them. With them eating some hay it as also given the grass some time to grow back, so now they get a bit of both. 

We also gave them all the grass clipping from the lawn, which they were pretty happy about, this is boomerang, he got his name from the white marking on his forehead. 

Their favorite corner to lay down in. We started putting Rusty, the calf on the side, in with the bigger cows during the day. That lasted for a little while, but soon he was happy to be out there all the time. 

Hazel loves helping with feeding the cows and very diligently filled up the wagon....

and then waits for a hay ride :)

 

Hazel's 2nd Birthday

 Very glad I did a pre-two post as cows and summer suddenly showed up and things got really busy so I'm a bit behind on blogging...again...

 Hazel's birthday was a really lovely day, I brought cake and balloons to coffee social to celebrate. Two other little girls who are also right around two came (pre-invited) and they had a good time eating cake and playing with balloons. 

My attempt to get three two-year-old's to look at the camera at the same time...

Hazel enjoying her birthday cake.

Once Jared got home from work we opened Hazels cards and presents. 

I just loved how excited she was about the money 😂

Hazel received many gifts from friends and family.

She was pretty thrilled about the bike we got her! 

Surrounded by love! I know we live far away, but we did not feel forgotten, but loved on Hazel's birthday! Thanks so much for all the presents, phone/video calls, and messages. 

Trying out the bike outside!

The fun with the balloons still continues :) 

Mother's Day and Birthday Number 25

My apologies that these aren't coming to you in order, but I've just been writing as I've been inspired....

Mother's Day was quite lovely, Jared ended up having more firehall training which was disappointing, but allowed me to enjoy some more one on one time with Hazel and really think about enjoying being her Mother. 

Hazel's new birthday dress from Aunty Albany

We went out for dinner for my birthday, but the lawn REALLY needed to be mowed so we quickly did that before heading out for dinner. Despite Hazels face she loves riding the lawn mower with Daddy!

Dinner at White Spot to celebrate my 25th birthday.

Pasta! Which was thoroughly enjoyed.

I had a friends birthday party the next evening, we made it a double party between a new friend of mine and myself. It was really really special, more then I think I can put to words. We had wonderful conversation and closed the evening with a few songs! 

Real Farm Life

Over the past couple years we have been getting more and more animals. We started  with Nova and then moved on to baby chicks, the chicks were a nice way to start and none of them died when they where little, and when the first chicken did die, there was just one less, rather then none. 

This spring we got kittens, as you may have gathered from a previous post one of the kittens didn't make it as it got into Nova's pen and snuggled a bit to close. I am learning that learning can sometimes come at a high price in real farming. And when I say real I mean sharing the highs and lows, the wins and losses. 

Just yesterday we got a day and a half old calf, it was rejected by the momma cow, and needed to be bottle fed. It was small and cute and I loved the idea. But with the rough start and being so small the calf didn't make it through the night. 

I was sad when the kitten died, but the kittens were just to keep the mice down... so I was less attached I guess? The calf needed help and care to survive and it was so cute and calm and small... and I was a lot more excited about the calf then the kittens...the short of it is that I was very sad when Jared told me it didn't make it. 

To add to the roller coaster, by the time I had got myself together and mentally moved on saying "everything will be like it was 2 days before" Jared called me outside, just as the farmer brought another calf to our place. This was is 8 weeks old already, so much bigger, hearty, and knew how to feed off the bottle well. At the time I wasn't quite sure if this was the greatest idea, to just keep replacing the animals when they die.... but by the end of the day, I do think it was very therapeutic for all of us. 

Hazel seems to have a natural touch with animals, and it's been heart melting watching her interact and help feed all the animals. 

So there you have it, the ups and the downs, the learning, the high prices, and the moving on. 

Real life, Real love.