This and That

It has been below freezing all day. Right now it is -3 C with a wind chill of -10 C. We saw a few snowflakes today, but not enough to stick.

As for the chicken that was hurt, it is still alive. It eats and walks around (with a major limp). Meghan is still faithfully tending to it.

Meghan and Leah have gone babysitting. Our parents are shopping. The rest of us are at home, enjoying movie night.:)

Tomorrow Allison and I are going to a concert put on by a local choral society. We will be handing out programs. I am glad for the opportunity. I saw a poster for the concert and thought it would be nice to go. And now I get to go for free.

Last night I went driving with my driving instructor. We did the big city/major highway run. Definitely glad the rain and drizzle was rain and drizzle and not snow. Driving on the highway was easy and fun. The city was harder to drive in, but a good challenge.

Here are some pictures of a handsome cowboy and his pretty little lady.:)

Pretty good for having been taken in the basement using a camera whose batteries were dying, eh?

Justine

Quotes from Thomas

Thomas: "Can dogs see in the dark?"

Me: "Not that well."

Thomas: "If they open their eyes they can."

"It's getting froggy (foggy) out here!"

Thomas: "These are my gravy pants."

Me: "Gravy pants? What are gravy pants?"

Thomas: "Like my Sunday ones."

Me: "Oh, navy pants."

Justine

A Link

My mom posted a youtube video of a beautiful performance of the Hallelujah Chorus. You can see it here.

New Experiences

You learn something new every day, right? And not necessarily when studying either.:)

Yesterday we found out our dog likes to chase chickens. So that day's new experience was doctoring up a chicken. One of the younger hens flew out of the pen and we found her huddled in a clump of grass. She has an open wound on one side under her wing. Some of us went out on Friday night and bandaged her up. Surprisingly, she didn't seem to feel a thing. And now she can eat, drink, and get out of the towel we wrapped her in. Meghan has been keeping an eye on the hen. We are not sure if the chicken will live, but we'll see.

Today I learned to mix cement. Allison and I mixed cement for a farmer nearby. He was setting up some new water buckets and needed to get them up off the ground. So now I know the ratios of cement, gravel, and water to make cement. Anyone need cement?

Wednesday evening Leah, Meghan, Emily, and I did our hair up in rags to make it curly. (This was not a new experience - we've done it before.) My hair didn't get curly because my hair was too wet when we did it. The other girls had lots of ringlets and curls, though.

(Emily took this picture of herself in the mirror.)

(Leah took this picture of Meghan.)

Justine

Chickens

We have 36 chickens. We bought eight of them as day-olds two and a half years ago. This year we bought 25 laying chicks and 20 meat birds as day-olds. One of the laying chicks disappeared, so there are 24 of them left. One of the meat birds died and fifteen went to the butcher at the beginning of September. Now we have four left to be butchered, and we plan to try to do it ourselves.

The older hens lay one to four eggs per day between the eight of them, and the 24 younger hens lay between two and six. The eggs from the older hens are extra extra large, but the younger hens have been laying medium to large eggs so far. (By the standards of the regular eggs that can be bought at the grocery store. By the standards of the eggs we are used to from our hens, these eggs are small.)

The shell in this picture is from an egg from one of the younger hens. Though not very large, this egg had two yolks. Since then we've found a few more double-yolkers.

I just took a break to do the chores and found seven eggs from the younger chickens. It's getting better everyday.:)

Justine

Kale

On Thursday we washed, chopped, and froze kale.

We had 41 plants and it made enough for 57 large meals and several smaller meals for our grandparents.

We stripped the leaves off the plants on Tuesday, gathering 5 1/2 garbage bags full.

The first step on Thursday was to wash it twice in the tub. Meghan, Warren, and I started on the first bag.

When we were finished washing we took it down to the kitchen, where we chopped it in the blender. We filled the blender with kale, added some water, and chopped just until the leaves were all into the water. Meanwhile, Allison and Leah started washing the next bagful.

(Leah chopping)

We put the kale through the strainer to get rid of the water and then packed it into freezer bags.

(Emily filling bags)

It took most of the day to get all the kale done. We worked in teams, so we weren't necessarily all working at one time, but it was a good day's work. We listened to a radio drama of The Chronicles of Narnia while we were working, which made it fun.:)

We eat it mixed with mashed potatoes. The kale is boiled for about 10 minutes before adding it to mashed potatoes. The real name for this is kale stumpot, (EDIT - I was corrected. The proper name is boerenkool stampot, literally translated kale hash) but we call it green potatoes. It tastes delicious topped with mustard and served with sausage.

Justine

What We've Been Up To

On Saturday, Leah, Meghan, and I cleaned a church. Another girl we know used to do it, but she moved away so we got the job. In the afternoon we did stuff around the house. After supper my dad took me to the city to practice driving. I am pretty confident driving in the country, but there are so many more things to watch for in the city. I drove for more than an hour and even got to see a place where my dad is going to be working.

On Sunday we had some friends over for lunch. After the evening service the Young People's from our church came. The last people left at about 10:30, so it was kind of late. But I had a nap this afternoon, so that's okay. :)

This morning when we woke up it was a bit chilly, and it was cozy to go downstairs to the warm living room where the fire was burning brightly. When the sun came up we saw that we'd had a good, hard frost. We have already had one frost but it wasn't so hard as this one. Warren and I went outside to let the dog run around this morning and I took the camera along.

Warren ran and slid on his boots across the grass. Here you can see his tracks. Where the tracks start is where he started sliding. The tracks beside are from the first time he slid.

Later we tried sliding on the deck. I couldn't slide very far, but Warren could. When the others saw him sliding they decided to come out and try it, too. My mom got some video of it.

It's just about time to get the winter coats and hats and boots out. We did get boots out for the three little ones this morning. We put on their winter coats, too. Since Nadia's was in the wash, they all had to bump up one - Gavin wore Brent's coat, Thomas wore Gavin's, and Nadia wore Thomas'. They looked so cozy, bundled up in the too-big coats. Nadia's mitten was a bit wet by the time we came in because she tried to suck her fingers through it.

Gavin is being generous, handing out his Sunday School candy. That is his weekly practice. :)

Justine