P.S.

Landen informed me that I forgot to mention that we got a cat.

I don't really like cats. I'm quite allergic to cats, probably the reason I don't like them.   That being said, Michael has been keeping feed in the garage. Which means we have way too many mice in the garage, which has a door to the house. 

I don't like mice in my house more than I don't like cats.

So, we came home with Kitty.  Landen named her that, Kitty.  We're way original around.  He has made her into his best friend.  He plays with her in the garage for a few hours almost everyday. And he's in charge of feeding and watering her.  Kitty pretty much loves him right back.  Which is totally fine with me because the less I have to touch her the better.

Bossil isn't as okay with the situation.  He doesn't like cats either.  When she leaves the garage, he trees her.  Then she meows and Michael has to get her down.  He's starting to be less aggressive with her and she made it out to the barn. 

1 more animal on our farm. Phew. That list is getting long.  Landen thinks there's a song written after us....E I E I O!

First November Weekend

We've been enjoying a few days of some nice weather!  We've been working really hard to get things winterized for all the animals.  Besides that, we took a little break and raked some leaves. 

 Landen really liked jumping in them, Maggie wasn't so sure and wouldn't get it.  Her bangs are in desperate need of a trim. In my defense, I have been pulling them back lately, just not Friday.

 Saturday, Landen went fishing with Papa.  He caught a pretty good sized fish. We were trying to get him to pose with it, but he kept saying it smelled bad and made faces.  It's was pretty funny.

We fried up the fish today and ate fish tacos.  At first Landen wouldn't try it, we coaxed him into and he loved it.  He ate almost half the fish in his taco!  We couldn't get him on the cabbage, but we got him on the fish! 

First Sled

We woke up to snow.  Already!   My kids were so excited, they decided they had to go sledding- at 7:30am in the morning because Dad said it would melt before lunch.  

 Maggie wasn't so sure about the sledding part at first, but she came around.  She would say "weee" constantly after she decided she liked it. 

We went up to Grammy and Papa's house in Rexburg and they had almost 10"!  We were grateful for just our little 1/2 inch.

Maggie Had a Birthday

Shout Hurray!

In true Busselberg fashion, we started the morning with birthday pancakes! Maggie loved being sung to and even sung along.  She loved the attention on her.

Then we opened some presents that came in the mail from Grandma Busselberg.

 

She loved the "princess dresses."  Any dress is a princess dress, and she insists on wearing a dress just about every single day.  

Later that night, we had some family over for her Party.  She had a purple birthday cake. I can't explain why it looks blue.

 She really liked the cake.... she went all in!

And there she is..Finally 2! We just love having her smiling face in our family!

Aggie Football!

We made it to our traditional football game this year.  We went for an afternoon game so we could take the kids.  Maggie loved cheering! Landen usually like watching football with Dad, so he was a good sport and enjoyed the game too!

 After the game, we got Aggie Ice Cream, and by request, Landen wanted to get on the bull.  Then he was afraid, but he was brave and sat on it anyway.  Always a good time in Logan!

Growing

I've neglected this blog lately!  We've really just been busy with our farm. We've grown like crazy!    Just to keep track of all our animals:

22 piglets, 6 adult pigs  (16 new piglet 8/15 & 8/16)

19 Turkeys

2 Milk Cows

200 + Meat Chickens,

 150 Laying Hens and an over-sized Dog.

Seriously, What will our Christmas Card look like?

Besides the farm,  Landen has been enjoying his "Playschool" that we have once a week with some neighbors.  He's learning his letters and numbers.  He loves the play farm and trains.  He also loves to take care of all the animals.   He likes to tease his sister too.

And Maggie,  she's almost two. She's crazy. She's loud. How do you teach her to use a quiet voice? I have no idea, but we're trying.  She into and on everything. Loves to climb and explore. She's into dresses and boots lately. And purple.  Everything has to be purple.  Her hobbies are making a mess and driving Landen nuts.  

   

Now that it's taken me 2 weeks to write this, I've got to get back to work!! 

Birthday Boy

We have a 4 year old now!  Landen had a great birthday.  He wanted to float the river with the canoe, so we went to Grammy & Papa's and floated the river.  Then we had chicken nuggets and french fries (with corn on the cob, jello and salad for us adults), opened presents and ate cake.  He had his uncles and his family around and had a great day.  Life doesn't get much better when you're 4.  We should all remember that.

Where did July Go?

We're not really sure, but somehow it's the end already.

We've been hanging at the beach at Jensen's Grove, because it's been really hot and we need more cold water.  Maggie is scary in the water.  Absolutely No Fear of Water.  She likes to face dive into the water, but can't really hold her breath.  She has learned Mom only takes so much, then she can only get in to her ankles.  She is good after that, because she wants to come back!
 

 Maggie is growing growing growing!  Landen is only a head taller these days and maybe 5 lbs on her.  She loves bananas and all fruit -- but still can't have apples.   She talks like crazy, saying all sorts of big words -- scriptures, strawberry, bucket.  She loves to help stir while I'm cooking.  She's already started to "Let me" and "I do it," like she's two, but we still have a few months.  She's running and climbing and jumping.  She's a crazy climber, I have to have my eyes on her constantly.


We've been working in the Garden.  It's growing like crazy, Thankfully!

Landen loves to drive his trucks and tractors in it.  He loves everything farm.  He's getting so big and smart! He's getting really good with his numbers and learning his letters.  We recently discovered Hank the Cowdog books and Landen loves them.  He thinks they are so funny!  He keeps us laughing and on our toes!

And just for fun, here's a glimpse of our Sunday afternoon... 

.....I think we might have a future musician.


AND if you didn't catch it on Facebook, we had pigs last week!  The are pretty cute! Check Out Our Farm Blog if you want to see! 

Random Stops

Randomly, if you're traveling through Utah on 1-15 and have kids,  there is a great gas station to stop at The Flying J in Scipio.  (That's somewhere between Filmore and Nephi, but closer to Filmore?)  And I mean, we've stopped rest stops with playgrounds and wifi (Thank you, Nebraska). We've stopped at ones with restaurants and giant balls of twine, Historical Markers, Buffalo Bill Memorials, Wizards of Oz Museums, and any other sleuth of odd ball attractions, but in my opinion, Scipio takes the cake!!   They have a Petting Zoo!  It has the usual goats and sheep, ponies and donkeys, rabbits and chickens, alpacas and llamas.  And it also has a Zebra! and Emus and an Ostrich.  The Zebra was very nice and really just wanted the food, it didn't really care for being petted.  However, the Ostrich went for Landen's entire hand, scared him and we couldn't get him to go back into the pen.  Ha. (So be careful!)  

What a great stop when you're roadtrippin' with some kiddos! They have picnic tables under some shade too.  That's always nice! And, better yet it's FREE. Okay, they ask for donations... so not entirely if you are like me and have to donate. Anyway....

Even though it was like 105 degrees, we had a nice break from the car.  And we decided we had to ditch early before they closed I -15 from the smokin' wildfires.  And really, I feel so bad for all those in Pocatello and Utah who lost their homes! How awful!!  Back to the kids, they fell asleep until Provo when we stopped to see Brandon (Michael's Bro) and then they sleep the whole way home, so it must have worked.  Or they were totally exhausted from the reunion..... Yeah, I'm going with the Petting Zoo  ;) 

The 'ole Farm

I'm not sure when you cross the line to being a bonified farm, but I think we're there.  We have chickens, cows and a dog that is half horse.  Last week, we added more animals to our list.

Six of these bad boys!!  Well, one big boy and five girls.  He's a Ladies Man! 

The boar is the big one on the left.  He's about 600 pounds, not exactly little.  They look smaller in the pictures than in real life.  I need something to compare them to visually so you can really get an idea, but really all there is in their pen is an 8 foot high fence.  The other 3 in these picture are pregnant gilts. (that means a girl that hasn't had a littler of piglets yet.) We should have a litter or two by the end of July.

They have a really nice sized corral to hang out and root in.  They are like nature's rototillers. We're hoping they do a good job so we can plant the corrals with a good pasture mix for next year's rotation.  These pigs will go into our pasture rotation, so they got a fresh 1/2 an acre every few weeks.  Pigs don't have to be moved as often and they are pretty hard on the pasture, so it's good if they get it all overturned and then move on.

We have 2 more smaller gilts in another pen.  They aren't quite old enough to be with the big boar.  But they will be soon.  They should give us litters for next spring for 4H pigs.  

Yeah..... Things are going well on the farm! We have our webpage up: Desert Wind Farms  I'm still working on it and getting the online ordering up, working on some additional pictures and header.   You should take a look and tell us what you think!

Riding a Bike

 

 Landen got a bicycle this summer.  We had been looking for one of craigslist or something for a few weeks when a friend of our picked it up at garage sale for $1! It had bent training wheels, so we knew we'd have to get some new ones, but hey, it's a good deal!  Landen was so excited when we got it that he jumped right on and promptly feel off.  In Landen's words, it was too "wiggly-wompily."  I got him new training wheels and put them on, but he wouldn't ride it for me!!   He wouldn't get back on the bike until Daddy taught him to ride it.  Michael was out of town with work so Landen waited 3 days for Dad to teach him.   Landen would walk it around the driveway, but he wouldn't even get on and let me push him.  (Ahhh.. some days I wish he wasn't so determined!)

Michael got home and was teaching him,  I think he just needed the confidence that it wouldn't tip over, but Landen kept complaining that it was too hard. He could cycle part-way around but he would get stuck with a pedal up.  He kept trying, but it seemed like he just couldn't get the pedaling.  I started thinking maybe the chain needed greased. And Michael can't do anything half-way, so he took the bottom bracket apart and re-greased it.  I totally just would have sprayed WD40 in there, but that's what you get when dad helps! 

It really helped!  After having a blast helping Dad fix his bike, Landen was excited to ride!  It took him a little bit to get the whole pedal thing down, but he kept at it even when it was hard.  That's what makes me so proud of him!  It took him a little while to get it figured out, but he did and now he rides around so good!

The first thing he does after breakfast is get dressed with his tennis shoes so he can ride his bike. This is a seriously deviation from his regular cowboy boots for everything else that he has to have.  He says, "Mom, is it to windy to ride my bike?" "I haven't been out yet,"  "Okay. I'll got check." And he marches out to see.  He asks throughout the day if he can go ride his bike.  It's great ;)

 

Garden Week 1

So, I decided we should start documenting our garden this year.  In 5 years of marriage this is the 4th new garden we've started.  That's starting from scratch every single year we've planted one.

This year included turning a weed patch into a garden oasis.  Not an easy task.  However, this year has been especially conducive to working outside before we really needed to plant.  We rototiller it up, and started putting in beds.  Originally were going to put in 4x8' beds about 2' apart, but we got tired of digging. We put in 8 of those and then went to just 4' rows 2' apart that were only raised enough to keep the weed plastic from blowing away.  This really ended up working well so we had larger beds to put in larger quantities of produce and use the raised beds for succession planting.

We also put the entire garden on a drip system. With the amount of wind we get out here, it's way more practical.  And I can water the entire garden in 1-30 minute set 2-3 times a week!  We know the initial investment was more than a hose and sprinkler, but hopefully being more efficient and running the pump less will save us more money in the end!  Our garden is almost 2000 sq ft, and we put the entire system in for about $100 to $150.

Anyway, This is the first week after our Average Last Freeze Date. The majority of our planting has been in the last week or so, but we've got spinach ready to eat!!!  Our onions, potatoes and peas are looking good, along with our lettuces, carrots, cabbages.  It makes me really excited for more things to start peeping up.

So why the incredibly huge garden?  Michael has set a goal to put up 50% of our food this year ourselves.  I totally support it too.  I was talking to a "normal person" earlier and they said we were crazy.   Why would we ever do that much work? The answer really isn't that crazy, though there are many different reason, our top 4 are:
1. The prophet said to plant a garden. 
2. To be more self-sufficient
3. Eat healthier and more natural
4. Save money


Seriously, I think just to save money is reason enough.  My goal is just to reduce my monthly grocery bill by $100.  Can you think of other way people do this?  Couponing comes to mind.  I doubt I spend any more time than those that cut and organize coupons and then run around town chasing deals.  We'd rather spend our day out in the dirt any old day!! 

Busy Bees

Some days it hardly seems like it is only June in our summer, and some days it feels like it's barely June.   We hit up the zoo last week.  Well, the kids went with Papa while Grandma and I did some shopping.

The funny thing about shopping--  I went for me.  I had some birthday money to spend and a shirt to exchange. I was suppose to get something for me. And I probably spent 25% of the time looking at stuff for me.  Then, I spend the rest of the time in the kid's section or looking for something for the house.  I actually considered using my birthday money to buy some new plates!  First, realize mine don't exactly fit in the dishwasher. They are about a 1/4 inch to tall!  The top spinner grazes them around and makes quite the racket!  They were really cute, but Michael hates it when I use my birthday money to buy things that aren't just for me. So, I didn't.  Cute plates are still at the store.   I bought myself one shirt.

They had a blast at the zoo.  Landen still tells me about the pink birds.  Maggie likes to roar like a lion.  They love being outside and we love them.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to All the Moms! 

On this day, I few years back, I realized I had a choice; Mother's Day could be a good day or it could be a bad day.  I could enjoy being pampered a bit and let others express their gratitude or I could compare myself to all the idolizing talk about someone's mother and realize how badly I fail as a mother.   I decided, that I needed to enjoy Mother's day.   It's all in my attitude.

I can't expect my kids to suddenly put on their best behavior and be angels for me. I can expect to hear stories at church about others perfect mothers and be inspired to be better.  I can listen my husband gush about how great I am because he doesn't do it everyday.  I can love and treasure my kid's scribbled on cards.  I can laugh because Landen woke me up saying "Happy Birthday Mom!"  I won't do any dishes today, and I've hardly lifted a finger to cook. (Michael did have some verbal help.) 

I need to enjoy Mother's Day.  I need to teach my kids about the plan of salvation. Motherhood is divine role, and once a year I need to let them celebrate it.  I should do so daily, but what's wrong with making it extra special once a year?  I need them to know I like being their mother.  I need to show them how to appreciate and express gratitude to those they love by letting them show me.   I need to let them know that hard things bring us the greatest joy.

I love my kids.  They inspire me and make me happy.  I love being their mom- it's exhausting, but rewarding.  I know that motherhood is part of God's Plan of Happiness.  I love Mother's Day.

Up in Smoke.

Remember how I mentioned farming keeps all of us busy?

Yeah, Wednesday Michael went out burned some weeds near our corrals.  It wasn't a lot and took about an hour.  Michael went to Montana for work on Thursday and Friday. 

I was in charge.  The kids and I did chores Thursday and then went to story time at our library. As we were coming home I could see smoke, and thought my neighbor was probably burning weed.  Nope. It was our property.  At least not the house!  I came home to 10-12 foot high flames along the corral fence.  Yikes!  Adrenaline does amazing things.   I turned on the garden hose and realized it was pretty fruitless in the face of those flames.  So I did what ever woman does and called her husband,  the conversation pretty much went like this:

"Michael. The corrals are on fire. Call someone to help me, okay?"
"Really?"
"Yes! Now Please! I can't do this!"

A few minutes later our neighbor (and bishop) showed up with his hired hand.  Bishop took over the hose and the hired hand and I went and moved our other neighbor's pipe over to the corrals.  Yes,I really moved pipe.  Anyway, we got it under control and drowned the fire out.  Straw and manure fires are totally the worse... they smoulder forever and putting water on them isn't a sure way to put them out. I'm thankful God answers our prayers and our neighbors are willing to drop everything and come help.  I'm also glad most farmers are experienced firefighters, because I had no clue what to do.

   
I went to check on the 'ashes' at about 9pm that night and they were smoking again!  I just turned the sprinkler on and left it all night. I dreamed about it started back up and kept getting up to check... the stress of being husband-less.  Even sleep-deprived, we are truly blessed it was only the corrals, and that the corrals were empty.  

Reading.

My kids love to read (ok, maybe pre-read, but you get the idea) and be read to.  Love it.  We love going to story time and check out lots of library books and read them.  We've been thinking of starting to read-aloud chapter books.... but I'm not sure where to start!







I'd like it to be a good experience, something he would like, and engaging enough for my almost-4 year old.  I mean, Maggie will love it too but it's more for him. 

Where should we start? What books do you like to read aloud to little ones?

More Chicks...

Living on a farm is a life-style.  Really, because vocation and career don't quite cover it.  It isn't just the farmer that works on the farm, the entire family does.

Case-in-point:  I was in the middle of putting kids to bed, and I hear, "Angela! Come Quick! the Chicks are dying!" Gee...I just bought them earlier that day, this is last thing I need since the kids are already late going to bed. (These are cornish-crosses. They are a meat bird, not egg like our other 150. Yes, that means we have like 250 birds. These boys will be free-range broilers in about 5 months.)

They were dying. Did you know that if  a chick gets wet it's like instant hypothermia?  The waterer malfunctioned and got the floor wet, and then chicks laid down in it.  Michael is frantically pulling them out, and trying to sho the others away.   I grabbed a few and ran them inside, and dumped them where? Well, on the kitchen table.  I was thinking, "they need to be warm and dry....towel in the dryer...blow dryer!"

Oddly, I have 2 blow dryers.  Landen and I started blowing them dry.  Micheal kept bringing them in. There was about 45 total that got wet (out of 100).  It took about an hour, but we were able to save most of them.   So, what did my kids do?  Well, Maggie terrorized the house while she was getting ignored (and loved every second of it!) and Landen held a blow dryer.  It was good, because he was a little upset.   Two Day Old chick look like grasshoppers wet.  It's sad.  But they fluffed up.  I mean, I was really surprised we didn't lose more. Some of the chicks were hardly breathing when they came in.

 We kept them inside most of the rest of the night. With a heater blowing on them and some molasses in their water (good for stress).  We stuck them back out with the rest in a new box before we went to bed.  Michael installed another light to keep them toasty.  And we got a new waterer, which we made sure worked properly!

I pretty much poured bleach on my table afterward.  (our table is formica, but let's not talk about the weird 7/8 of a circle built in formica table with oak swivel chairs...)  The kids did eventually go to bed, almost 2 hours late, and they did not sleep in.

 Sometimes, it's more important to save chicks than to go to bed on time.

A Nice Day

I've been telling myself... since I can't plant my garden yet, I'll just do some spring cleaning instead.  Well, my spring cleaning is mostly done.  And it's still only April 20!  We rototilled the garden Saturday since it was so nice.  I'm itching to get my garden in.  I think I'm going to brave it on Monday and plant my hardy veggies. Cross Your Fingers we don't get a hard freeze.  Ha! It's Idaho, and I probably will because it's only April!!

  The kids had a blast playing outside.  Landen went after his usual and was showing me how he was building the wood.

Maggie rode her Zebra-thing.  She loves it almost as much as she loves Landen's trike. 

 The pretended to drive the rototiller.  It was off. Don't worry.

 Maggie is talking in her rock-phone.  It sounds like, "Aye. Ewoo"  That's "Hi!" and "Hello." She talks like crazy. It's awesome to hear her trying so many words.

 Did I mention she's 18 months?  She is getting so big!  She hates nursery :(  Anyway, she still likes to eat rocks and dirt.

Hope you enjoyed the sunshine! We did!