The Bovees, Busy at Work

This summer, we have been busy, busy, busy. But thankfully it's the kind of busy that we all enjoy! We love working together out in the heat stacking wood, weeding the flower beds, and hoeing the garden. Okay, maybe that's an exageration that we ALL enjoy it. I'd say Jonathon and I do, but the young 'ens don't so much. It's good for them!

We have added some residents to our homestead as of late. We added 3 chickens that gave us 3 eggs, until today. The girls came running in saying that they found 3 eggs in the chicken coop and 11 under the chicken coop. We have one lady who likes to hide out under it, so I guess now we know what she's been doing under there. They gathered them all up and brought them inside. Hmmm, now we should figure out which one we've been seeing go under the chicken coop, so we know which one is our good layer.

We haven't had a lot of garden work yet other than keeping it hoed and weeded. That is a job when we get plenty of rain. Thankfully we have stayed on top of it, and it looks pretty good. We have been getting lettuce and peas and some herbs have been cut and are drying in the attic. Today I went out to the wildflower area to gather some mulein to make some infused oil for sickness. And while I was doing that, some more residents arrived.

But our day started out different than most weekdays. Jonathon didn't have any jobs scheduled for today, so he drove his van to get worked on, then from there he biked to his mom's house (12 miles). After stopping at a garage sale and buying some pants for .50 and .25, the children and I headed to pick up Jonathon. He was helping his mom get her barn cleaned up from years and years of accumulation. Slowly but surely it's getting cleaned out and is looking good. I suggested a barn party when it's all clean, but I'm not sure anybody was listening to me. : )

We took him to pick up his van and then he went to Ron Hyre's to ride with over to pick up our new boys. While he was gone, we had supper and worked at getting some other things done around here that were on my list for today, laundry, garlic oil, raspberries picked, and not on my list but accomplished, two spillings of liquids on the floor from Benaiah.

My mom had some garlic that came up on it's own this year, so I dug that up the other day, then today went and cut mulein, St. John's Wart, and thyme. I also cut off the remaining of lavender I had and got out some that I just dried. I put all of those things (cut up) in two jars and then poured all the olive oil that I have into the jars. It was supposed to be filled to the top, but I didn't have enough oil, so tomorrow I will have to buy more to fill it all the way. This concoction will sit for about 6 weeks in my window for the sun to heat up. All the medicinal properties from the herbs will release into the oil while it sits and will become a great oil for earaches and for internal use for coughs (added with honey) and honey. I usually just do garlic and mulein, but this year I thought I would add more things that would be good internally as my children have been taking the oil by the spoonful when they are sick. Doesn't taste good, but it's only for a short bit.

Now onto our new residents......

We have 2 new calves. They are so great! They came from a farm that only pasture feeds which was what we wanted. This is so much healthier for the animal as this is what they were created to do. And take note of the little bird house in this picture. Alegra sure is creative with her picture taking. Anyways, Josiah made it for his dad for father's day and it looks as though somebody else has taken up residence on our little farm.

Tonight, as I sit here blogging, our new boys are not sounding too happy being away from their momma. They aren't used to people at all, so our children are trying to befriend them. They got pretty close tonight to them and I'm sure as the days go by, they will continue to make friends. Not sure how long it will be safe for them to go out there, but for now, it's okay. They sure are pretty and healthy looking.

And the papa is feeling pretty good about all the new additions to our homestead. I believe he is in his element. Does he look like a proud farmer? : )

There was also some ball playing, bike riding, weeding, and ice cream eating tonight. This sure felt like a full day.

What has been keeping us so busy that I haven't been able to blog more? Well, if you check out CLB CeLeBrations, that is where a lot of my time is spent. I have been busy planning celebrations for the ladies at our fellowship and boy have they been blessed. It is so wonderful for me to know that others are being ministered through something that the Lord put on my heart to do. The next one coming up is for my party assistant. A little more challenging without her by my side, but she deserves a good blessing too, so others have stepped up and lended their help, which I'm so very thankful for!

We have also been riding our bikes a lot lately. Last Sunday, we took a ride to my parent's house with one pit stop half way. It was a great ride and felt so good being out, getting exercise. The ride was a total of almost 11 miles. Everybody made it safely and without falling over from being weary. Jonathon is planning on taking a big bike trip of about 150 miles over 2 or 3 days with a few of his buddies, and I would like to make a trip to his mom's which would be about 28 miles. Hopefully, by fall I'll be worked up to that. The children probably won't be worked up as there are lots of hills and it would be nice to have a whine free trip once. : ) Yes, they do whine, and are learning the meaning of overcoming obstacles and having victory over what seems difficult to them.

I believe our work is done for the day. Alegra is reading a book to Benaiah, Diella and Josiah are in bed, Jonathon is showering, and I am finally getting a blog finished of our lives as of late. Always so much to do, but enjoying every minute of it. Hope you are all enjoying your summer! But for now, I'm hoping I don't hear calves all night crying out for their momma. Hmmmm, I remember when I was young going out and sleeping with our sheep. I wonder if they need an adopted momma. I better not. They're gonna be on our dinner plates when they get bigger.