Almost 3 months later. Mama’s time warp struck again. I have loved reading everyone’s updates. I’ll hit some highlights.
2020 – we bought a 10 acre farm in middle of our town and did about a 9 month remodel in 4-5 weeks with ongoing projects for a couple years. We moved in Jan 2021 and I only have one room left to do now.
2 weeks after moving our oldest came home with 14 chicks. We were not ready! Fast forward and I have 50-70 layers any given time. Currently 16 chicks, 5 roosters, and 43 layers. Yep, I am the crazy chicken lady. I’ve bought chicks, incubated chicks, and let broodies raise chicks. I’ve also raised and dispatched several batches of broilers and am in fact kicking myself I don’t have any going now. It gets too hot here in FL to do in the summer. I learned the hard way. We also have a mismatched pair of geese, 2 pekin ducks, and a muscovy. We had a couple sheep, they did not make it. Now we have 2 mini horses, a big Oldenburg horse, and a pair of Scottish Highland cattle – heifer and bull. Oh and 3 dogs and 2 cats. It’s a real zoo around here.
DD23 lives in a small house on property and she and I do the bulk of animal care, DH helps build barns and fences and pens, etc and with animals when needed. She graduated homeschool a year early, she almost finished her degree in law enforcement operations and lacks maybe 6 classes, but HATED college. She now works as a nanny, pet/house sitter, and farm hand here and at a relative’s horse boarding barn. Who knows what she will get up to next. She is the biggest animal lover, so I know animals will be part of it.
DS20 is in his sophomore year of college in IL. He went there to play ball, but loathes the cold. He has another shoulder surgery coming and is planning to transfer south for next year. He is majoring in economics. He was working on his pilot’s license before he moved to IL last fall, but broke his leg and had to pause. He is in flux. Remains to be seen if he can compete again in baseball and that is a determining factor of where he winds up.
DD16 graduates our homeschool in May with many dual enrollment credits. She had everything mapped out to attend a Torchbearer’s school in Canada for a year then CIU in SC, but Canada changed laws and she can’t go because she won’t be 18. It was a tremendous blow for her, but she has bounced and is doing a gap year internship in middle school at church and possibly some overseas summer camp ministry next spring. She will work at a Christian camp again all summer a few states away. She finally got her license last week and I am enjoying not playing chauffeur. She is our non animal person. She liked them when she was small, but not so much now.
DS14 is finishing 8th grade. He now does a 2 day a week classical tutorial program and 3 days at home plus math and science at home. I stepped down from the co-op I founded and it ceased altogether. We miss it, but homeschooling families have changed so much, it was too much of a burden to me. This tutorial fills a gap for us. He loves the outdoors and sports, esp baseball still. He helps with animals as needed. I sometimes greatly miss homeschooling everything 100% on our own, but have found that for my boys, especially, they benefit from the outside accountability.
It’s been a rough few years. I helped both parents through their last days. Dad passed in 2016 and Mama just 5 months ago. In between, my younger brother took his life at 34. My older brother is not in our lives anymore, so it’s a weird place being the last from my family. I’m dealing with health issues related to autoimmune and toxins, etc. Thankful I have found a new functional medicine doctor who I’ve just begun working with.
DH retired a couple years ago and consults now. And takes care of farm stuff.
That’s all for us!
