Apple Tree

Judah found an apple seed that was sprouting in an apple he was eating. He wanted to plant it, even though we were not to sure it would grow very good. Several months later and one re-potting, we have a nice little tree. But now we are a little unsure what to do with it. There is a chance it might make it through the winter indoors, but what about next year? It won’t make it out doors in the cold. At least it was fun to grow for the short time we have it.

First Big Snow

We had snow in September this year but it didn’t last and the weather warmed up. We went almost a month since then with some pretty It is not unheard of to have -30 at the end of October. So it was a real treat when we had warmer weather until the 26th of October when it finally dumped 6 inches of snow over night. The day we had dentist appointments and had to drive 200+ miles. Ug. But all went well. The children were very happy to see the coming of the white stuff. In fact they were out there sledding first thing in the morning… who needs breakfast! They made snow angels and made trails; however for a “first snow” it was to dry to make snow balls or snow men. Maybe next year or at the end of this year we might get a wet snow and be able to make snow men. We can only make snow men once every couple years or so. Here are a few pictures I snapped of the children playing that morning.

More Storage In The Kitchen

We were in need of some more storage in our kitchen. There was not enough room for all the great Tupper Ware we had collected from the time Anna was a Tupper Ware sales person. Plus we wanted the dishes at arms reach for the children so they can help put dishes up after washing them, they could also easily  get the dishes out for setting the table for dinner. We used the wall between the dinning room and the new addition (living room) to build our new cabinet. We have ten foot walls in this room. We built the cabinet ten feet from top to bottom and four feet wide. We built the cabinet partially into the framed 2×8 wall to make it deeper for more storage. The lower two feet had some electrical running through it.  The upper two feet we left the insulation in so it covers the wall where the roof for the addition attaches, so we could not build into these wall sections.   We added blocking in the wall at these two feet marks between the studs making a center section of six feet that was 8 inches deep. The studs were two foot on center, so two stud widths were enough to make the cabinet four feet wide. We made a box out of 2×12’s that matched the stud lay out of the wall, with one in the center, and boxed it in top and bottom. This made the bases for our cabinet. In the picture below you can see the box of 2×12’s and the recessed area that is in the wall adding an extra eight inches of depth to that section of the cabinet. You can also see the first of the shelves going in. The shelves are 3/4 inch plywood and are later trimmed with 3/4 solid wood trims to make them look nice.

Judah wanted to help screw on some of the 19 inch long shelf supports. Jason had already marked the lines on the one foot lay out. Judah seemed confident he could do it. So Jason let him have a try. Jason stood back while Judah took over and put on eight of the supports without missing a lick. He even showed great skill in enlisting Serenity Rose’s help, on the last few, to hold the other end while he got it started. He kept each of them straight, on the pencil line, and flush to the front edge of the cabinet.

While we were putting tools away this evening we looked over our work to find Bubbles trying to take a snooze on the bottom of our cabinet. In the other two pictures below, you can see on the left, that we just finished putting in the shelves, on the right (the next day) you can see the casing around the front and trim edges on each shelf.

Jason made a couple of jigs to set the cross pieces in place on the cabinet doors. This made things go quicker on each of the other doors. It also made things uniform and for all the doors to match.

Above you can see Judah standing by the first door. Below you can see Serenity Rose standing by the cabinet with all of the doors finished. Now it is time to reorganize the kitchen.

Dusting of Snow

This morning we got our first dusting of snow. It was light and didn’t stay long bust it came down off and on all day. It is an awful reminder that it is that time of year. We are just glad we have all the garden in now.

Cabbage, Cabbage, and More Cabbage

We had fun harvesting our big cabbage’s and plucking their lower leaves to bring them in. Even Destiny Divine wanted to carry one of her own but decided she better have help. So Mercy Fire helped her carry the cabbage.

Judah was a big help hoisting the big cabbages onto his shoulder like they were nothing at all.

It was neat to see how massive the harvest looked when the table was covered with the cabbage. These green cabbage are OS Cross, and we also grew some little purple cabbages too.

Potato Harvest

We harvested our potato patch the other day. Now the only thing we have left in the garden are the cabbages. We all worked together and made pretty good time getting the spuds dug up.

We rinsed off some milk crates to store our newly cleaned spuds in. This year we grew reds, blues, and some whites. We had some voles, little mice like critters, dig down and eat some spuds. They liked the whites more than the other two. We hope the kittens we got this year, will be big enough by next year, to keep the voles away.

Fox Video

Here are two clips of a nice red fox we saw on the highway yesterday when we went back to see the foxes again. This is about three miles from home.

These were taken with our digital camera so it is a little more shaky than I would like them to be. But at least it is better than nothing, I was kind of bummed it didn’t yip or make any noise like the other day.

Moose Leg

Wow, we were given a whole rear moose leg and a rack of moose ribs! It was an awesome blessing! We stayed up until 2am getting it cut up and in to the freezer. Jason’s dad came over and helped cut it up with us. The leg, from the top to hoof, was well taller than Jason who is 6′ tall.

We got some really nice roasts and steaks out of this wonderful moose. It will be nice to dig into the freezer and dig some nice moose roast or steaks out.

Fox Field Trip

We went on a trip tonight to see some foxes that were hanging out near our home, in fact it was only three miles from our home. It seemed some people may have been giving them scraps because they were looking for us to give them something.

There were four red foxes and one that was a very pretty cross fox (below) making five total running all around us.. They put on a good show. Jason saw them before coming home from work, so we went back as a family for a good field trip. We may not have a zoo here, but at least the children get to see some neat animals.

Everyone had a great time seeing and talking to the foxes that were continually circling our van. They were whining at us and it often sounded like a cross between a baby and a cat.

Carrots

We harvested our carrots; however we did not have a big batch of carrots this year. Also we had them in a smaller garden bed where the soil was a little to rocky so they did not produce as well as they could have. There are some nice carrots in this batch though. And they taste so yummy when they come straight from the garden and sampling them too.

We had a few carrots that the children had a good laugh over. Including the octopus one and the one that divided in two and grew around this little root/twig seen above. Also in the picture below there is one that had another growing out of the side of it. The children all had fun pulling all the carrots.