Half acre homeschool

We got our first duck egg today! Hopefully the rest of the girls will start laying soon too, as the kids have developed a taste for duck eggs.  We put up a second, smaller tunnel in the veggie garden. I moved all my pots there from the big tunnel, so Hubby could build another raised bed in. He also built another bed outside and helped me prep a few overgrown ones. Behold my neat polytunnel! (It's not going to look like that for long, if I know myself as well as I think I do...) The kids set up a paddling pool in the play area, because the goats went to work clearing the middle garden. A did about a hundred trips from the tap to the pool with a watering can, and they put it under a little slide. DIY water park complete! Tomorrow I plant. But for now I'll enjoy snuggling sleeping babies and trying to get through a full episode of a TV show before falling asleep. 

The chicks have graduated to the great outdoors. Well, nearly! They're getting a gentle introduction to soil and grass underfoot (or -claw) in an ibc tank full of compost. They seem very happy, and are getting regular room service of pellets and water from A. The plan is to keep bringing them in for nights until they are six weeks, and then let them out into the orchard with the ducks.  I took a whole day off gardening during the week, so I had an extra helper today to make up for lost time.  We got tomatoes planted into the tunnel, some herbs and peas out into the beds, peppers moved into bigger pots and did some work on the overgrown beds too. I stopped to admire my beans in the middle of my battle with mystery stabby weeds. Between the rooster attacks, nettle stings and what I presume are some sort of thistles stabbing me in the shins, I feel like I have earned my cup of tea by the end of the day! We managed over 8 hours outside today....

The chicks are all three weeks by now, so we celebrated with another photoshoot. Miss W's milestone cards are getting reused! Little pirate man...   We also enjoyed change of scenery with a beautiful evening walk. When I say walk, I really mean a climb/roll/splash!  Nothing particularly productive got done today, but we had fun. 

Miss W doing her morning studies  Myself and W doing our morning exercise       Eating radishes straight from the tunnel      Helping little brother with his planters    First attempt at woodburning, some plant    markers made out of reused wooden cutlery   ...and a Rec Room logo!             Is chicken yoga a thing? Raising the raised bed, so I can contain the chickens while I plant stuff. Mr Pennywise needs height for his magnificent comb! Not pictured are all sorts of building work, goat getting shots, meal outdoors, chicken coops being cleaned, planting and tidying in the tunnel, shopping for the week and me huffing and puffing down the road as I tried to motivate myself to jog with the help of heavy metal.  Good day was had by all. Except maybe the chickens, who are confused by their ...

So, we all know the rules.  But if you happened to be an innocent bystander, whose property Fight Club was happening on, could you write about it? Asking for a friend... The kids asked for pancakes, so I whipped up a batter and baked them a batch for supper. They ate, and headed off to play. I went to bring the rest of the pancakes to Hubby, who was just outside tiling. And that's when I stumbled upon the dark underbelly of my home. Two small figures were standing in the yard, their tops off, mid-battle. To protect the identities of these characters, let's call them Fighter 3 and Fighter 6. The numbers may or may not indicate a skill level, or perhaps age.  They were facing each other, taking turns in slapping each other on the bare belly. "Be careful you don't hurt each other for real." I said in passing.  "Well, we are playing a fighting game..." said Fighter 6, clearly indicating my input was not appreciated. Fighter 3 was preparing for his next combo...

Our newest lockdown babies are two weeks old today! They had their first outing in the grass while their box was being cleaned, were sniffed at by the goat, and some of them learned to jump onto the edge of their box. Big day for these little guys!   Their beautiful patterns are really starting to show, and they're so curious about their surroundings.  We also explored more of the lovely forests around us. R's little legs got tired, and he went back to the car with Hubby, but myself and the girls managed the whole new walk.  Discovering hidden gems near our home has been one of my favourite things about the last year. Definitely makes me appreciate where we live even more!

Amazing what a difference a few days makes in the orchard! Looks like all of our trees survived the winter just fine. We have apples, pears, cherries and plums (or the potential for them, as we only planted most of the trees last spring). The ducks live in the orchard too. I am feeling a bit sniffly today, so only the basics got done today. My helper and I did tidy up the polytunnel a bit, and got some cut grass to compost in my future flowerbed. The wheelbarrow ride back is the only bonus my assistant needs!

I'll finally introduce our crew, seeing as half of my children are asleep and nothing is burning, beeping or flying away with the wind. I am Laura, mom of three, stepmother to one, and wife to my Hubby. I am a secular homeschool mom, a babywearer, a breastfeeder, book lover, and operate largely on coffee. I love nature and growing things in our garden and polytunnel. I am only building my skills, but get a great kick out of getting a little bit more produce out of my efforts every year. I take millions of photos of our life, because I've realised the kids grow a little bit every time I blink. Hubby is my partner in crime. He builds fences, sheds and then some more fences. He eats everything I cook with minimum suspicion, is always happy to go with my crazy plans and complains only a little, when I get another goat/dog/chicken. The eldest kid is K , who is 13. He is already taller than me, and can no longer borrow my boots. He is a master of fixing things, rememberin...

Our little chicks are not so little anymore - we have a start of actual wing and tail feathers!  We were admiring this new development as the chicks had their morning outing.    I'm trying really hard to be better about weeding the raised beds this year. Luckily I have the best helper, and we got the potato and carrot beds completely sorted today, and the rest of the tunnel started too. There's my assistant, filling the watering can. The garden coming back to life has been great for our 1000 hours outside challenge, the only problem is that I haven't actually been in long enough to add up last month's hours yet!  Anyone else trying for 1000 hours outside for the first time this year?