Sunday

Family and Fences

The week of Thanksgiving....


We spent the week in NC, with my brother and his fiance and my mom, step-dad and little sister who were in from Oklahoma.


The bulk of the week was spent just hanging around the land...and building a fence for our dogs.


The weather was sort of all over the place, but for the most part really pleasant. We had a couple colder rainy days, but also a few in the 60s and sunny. Which was really nice for late November.

 

The boys all helped with the fence in some way- fetching tools, refilling the trench, holding posts, etc.

  

There was firewood cutting- taking it from the forest to the trailer and down the hill to the house. Rylan and Cale spent some time splitting the logs.


And visiting. Annika had never met her Aunt Amy before, and they spent a lot of time together.


Thanksgiving morning was spent in the kitchen....

making bread


and pie

 

and whipped cream


and finally fixing the clogged sink....

 

doing a little work while the food was cooking


and finally Thanksgiving dinner. On the back deck, surrounded by the mountains and my family- including my dad and step-mom, who came up for the day. It's been so long since all of us have been in one place.


Enjoying her first Thanksgiving meal- she particularly liked the stuffing.


And finally, an early morning good-bye on Friday

 

My mom headed back to Oklahoma, us back to TN and later this week my brother heads back to Colombia
 

Hopefully it won't be quite as long before we are all in the same place at the same time again.

Wednesday

K5: Online Reading and Math Program

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students.  I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program.  If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their  open invitation to write an online learning review of their program. 


Since I have kids ranging from 4 to 10 (not including the baby of course), I am always open to trying new programs that might enhance our homeschool experience. I'll let you know in 6 weeks what I think of their program!

Monday

Bringing Down the Barn

 This old barn had been deemed unsafe and unstable, and it needed to come down so we could build something more inhabitable in its place.



Sunday was the day.

Phase 1: The center support


Phase 2: The Front Corner



Phase 3: The 2nd Corner



This is when Paul's brother just sort of pushed on the side and it all came crashing down


And the first floor is gone....

Phase 4: Crowbar, sledge and axe

Paul and his brother spent a couple hours and reduced this half barn to...

A pile of sticks.
 

Next up, salvaging any usable barn wood.


Watching it all go down.


Cale spent a lot of time with the saw this weekend. Helping to cut up wood for the stove. I think it was about this time on Sunday he got into some type of briars and one ended up in his eye. For which he ended up at the eye doctor this morning getting it removed. 24 hours with a thorn embedded in your eye is no fun, neither is getting it pulled out with tweezers. He is left with a very red, scratched left eye.


 

Cohen and Rylan did their share of pruning and sawing too.  Collecting firewood, cleaning up fence rows and brush piles, and helping to resuscitate the old apple tree.


And they all came home exhausted Sunday night.

linking to the Homestead Barn Hop
 and