From This Front Porch: September 2014

February 2014

Welcome to February 2014! Probably the biggest event of February was Melita's third birthday. Maya picked out the John Deere tractor theme for her birthday and she enjoyed her special day very much!

The next most exciting event of the month was the new additions that came to live on our hobby farm. Colter has always wanted a goat. So when my cousin Heather said she had a goat for Colter, Randy and he got a fence up and converted the chicken coup into a shelter for his new goat...

Here is Colter with Tulip. She happens to be a Nigerian Dwarf fainting goat. She is a very sweet pet...

It also just so happens that Tulip was pregnant, and we got to welcome her little baby into the world, on one of the coldest days of winter, at the end of February. A very neat experience in deed...

The new little girl goat was named Ginger...

And she survived the cold and is a healthy and very energetic to this day. Melita was completely delighted in this new arrival...

We thought January had been cold. February was even colder. The morning I snapped this picture of this old house, it was -20 on my way to bring the girls to school...

Maya did her Valentines cards for her class as usual...

And somewhere in the month, Kyla and I went skiing together up on Big Mountain...

At some point during February, Ryan and Jeannie and kiddos came over with their snowmobiles and we all went on a ride together. 6 sleds, 11 people in all...

Then the next day, Randy and Ryan went out on their own and had a little fun in the deep powder...

Randy took this picture at some point on thier ride. I think it sums up this post just perfectly...

Hope all have a wonderful week ahead! We plan on it. Alison

January 2014

Welcome to January 2014. The start to our new year found us sledding a few miles from our house. Love this picture (above) of my family enjoying the cold, sunny day together. A good way to start the new year. I would say January wasn't the best month of my life, but, there was a lot of nice things to remember too...

Colter and I celebrated one year of home-schooling together. I can honestly say that I learned so much myself, mostly about teaching with patience, giving more of myself, making more time for important things. I didn't pass all of my tests, but I've been rewarded beyond measure and I'm loving being a teacher...

These two goofy girls kept us entertained (even if they were supposed to be cleaning their rooms! Hey, I didn't realize they looked SO MUCH alike!

January's temperatures were very cold, but we were rewarded with some of these beautiful sunsets throughout the month...

I got rear-ended one day. Here is the tow truck picking up our van to be worked on at the body shop. It was judged to be unsafe to drive because the back door wouldn't latch. Three weeks later, to the day, I was rear ended again while driving the rental car in town. I got to go through all the mess again, of working with police, insurances, rental company, etc. Thank goodness I got my van back the next week, all insurances came through for me, and we were able to leave the whole thing behind us! Just thankful that, although I would not wish to go through either experience again, it was not worse than it was...

Then we began science fair projects for the year. Here Kyla and Randy are working on constructing a cell phone microscope together...

And here Colter and Randy are working on constructing a paper airplane launcher together for his science fair project...

Then we had sickess at our house. :( I think most mothers would understand this night time scene...

Randy and Colter got in some more snow mobiling rides in January...

And through it all, the sun kept on shining. We even got to see it a few times...

Now it's almost October. We're headed toward that dark and dreary part of the year again. But I'm sure we can keep the sun shining through the days ahead. :)

Here is whats going on here today... Just made Chili from scratch, from the tomato sauce from our garden, to cooking the beans, to the elk burger from Randy's elk last year to the pork sausage from the farm down the road. Then the younger 2 girls helped me make apple sauce from the apples that Colter helped me pick on the neighbors tree the other evening. Corn bread will be added to our supper tonight. That's a whole lot of home-made goodness, and I love that!

I will continue to try and update this blog. Thanks for stopping by! Alison