Me eggs

I liked the picture and was looking at it on the computer and said to myself in a small voice, "Me eggs!" and Tad was within listening distance and began to laugh and laughed until he cried and I dont know why. I still just like the picture, the eggs and the snow are so white and pretty, I like the clarity this camera brings. As I am no photographer!

Kansas Spring

These are somewhat out of order snow pictures, the last pictures are the first of the snow! In some you can see snow in the air, it was a lot for 2 days but these last ones, its warming up and melting. The kids had a wonderful time! I got a few good pictures of them jumping in the feed barn into snow drifts, and they are mid air. These are their favorite photos. It was warm today and yet now that it is dark, it is frigid and so windy the wind howls and screams at the windows and comes around the frames despite insulation...

Night photos of snow

Business

The fabric on this holder is PUL, polyurethane laminate and its slippery. So it doesnt look very neat... Sorry!



I am blogging these by request, the first time I blogged them we were in the rental house so these pictures are better. Frank made the first fabric holders and fabric bins (square wooden boxes) by himself, then I helped with the rest of them and the table. There are 5 fabric holders and when he is home we will probably double that. He helps me with fabric cutting and packing when he is home so its easier to expand that portion of my business with the extra adult!


This is the downstairs kitchen as it were, it used to be a kitchen but now has just 2 sinks and a bit of a counter top in it behind these fabric bales. The fabric holders hold the fabric bales on long metal poles that Frank cut to size. I have a total of 30 bales of fabric though some of them come with no cardboard center so they have to be hand rolled onto a pole which is easier to do with 2 adults. So these just sit in the corners for now and are all short bales so the fabric is tubular and double. Easy for me to pick up and lay on the table to measure and cut from.


The wooden bins behind the table and in the top right of the picture are 4 bins each and can be stacked or stood on end. I need at least 3-4 more of these, there is fabric stacked on top of the bins and also the under the stairway closet is full of flannel. Some of this fabric I sell and the rest I use to make the products that I sell here. This table was made by Frank also, and is on sliders. Even Nathalie can move the table across the room. I move it up to the fabric holder room (the table is in what we call the downstairs dining room and to photo it I am standing in the downstairs living room but its really one big room) to cut fabric off of the bales.


Table moved up, I cut fabric this morning for orders that sold last night. I am not finished but took a break to clean up the wooden floor and carpet of all the fabric scraps. I am famous for throwing the scraps as I cut with no care for the mess I make but after all, I clean up the mess!


Measuring tape on the table makes cutting easy, I use a rotary cutter by gingher and scissors of the same brand. They are the sharpest and longest lasting scissor/cutter brand that I have found. Each of the children have a smaller pair of gingher scissors and when using scissors elsewhere were horrified at how hard they had to work! These scissors cut through like butter!

Frank wants to get more into fabric selling business as its less work. Less profit than a made product but quicker to put out. So when he comes home, we will expand this even more as I will have the help. We need more fabric holders, more bins, another large table and of course his help... We want to expand my business so that it is a part of our retirement plan. Looking good so far!

Spring weather

Snow! In late march... Common here I guess, most places are so. Get nice warm spring weather and then get a freeze. We had hail 2 nights ago and now we have snow!


You can see it blowing about in the air in these next 2 pictures


The porch has a fine dusting, the wind is strong enough that most of the snow settling in crevices and cracks of the roof and in corners of the yard against foliage.


Its quite cold, I dont know how cold it actually is but the wind is wicked and I sorely missed my gloves when in the barn this am and came home halfway between chores to redress!


Look to the right of the picture, the evergreen trees in the corner show you the snow in the air as a contrast to the green. Wonderful... I adore winter, I always have. But I want it to be one way or the other. The kids are already into last summers (too small) clothes and I am anxious to wear summer clothes myself.

Bambu

I am largly against buying Chinese made products. I do not take issue with Chinese people, I have met many and enjoyed their company. My brother spent time in China and loved it. However, many of the products that come from China come with problems that affect the people in our country. Thus I have grown wary of buying all Chinese products. I boycott places like Wal Mart for many products. I seek out ways to buy handmade. I buy baby shoes and toys for friends and family from Hyena Cart in order to give back to other earth friendly mamas like myself.
Today I went looking for some bamboo and glass products on line. I was curious about glass straws, I found them. I also found a wonderful site selling bamboo products but was disappointed to see the words "made responsibly in China." Well how is that? What determines this? So I read their story here. They live IN the country! Work with the people, care about the people and help to make a better life for the people who work for them. This is a company I can support, this is a company I could buy from, though a bit pricey, I think they deserve it. Because they have people who work for real wages, and work by choice. They are artisans. And when I am ready to buy bamboo kitchen items, this company will get my business.

Goats and garden

This is an old doorway, there was a piece of rotted OSB in this doorway that we got rid of and replaced with chicken wire. There is a red gate that covers 3/4 the height of the doorway and the complete width so nothing can come through the chicken wire unless it can go through the gate. I would like to put a real door up here in the future. The babies come to this door way and cry as if they are ignored! This is their barn, they have a back door that is left open all day and they can come and go as they please.


This is the fence at their side yard. You can see Vlads horns, my disbudding failed. His horns grew larger and faster than the other 2, scouts disbudding seems to have worked and Chiva has to be done again... Not fun. Frank will have to help me band Vlads horns as they are too large to be disbudded with the iron.


Playing in the garden plot, the other end is planted partly so they know which end to dig in for now. This was tilled by Frank before he left and again by a local man because this is the first year we have planted here. It took several times going over and over for the dirt to be well broken in.


Tad kissing Nona, and yes he really did I just missed the shot. Chiva is behind him wishing he was in the big yard!

Scout, she is so pretty! She will be a nice looking goat and she is quite stubborn, which is good. She will have to assert herself or Nona will run her off and tell her to find a new home!

My son

My son split this log. He is 8 yrs old. WOW! I know, this may not be the most impressive thing in the world, but seems pretty impressive to me. He weighs 50 pounds whole pounds and he considers himself "the man of the house" for now and has done a variety of things that I wouldnt have thought possible for an 8 yr old. Including helping me do away with the leftovers a dead guinea hen (half eaten by some predator...), fixing an extension cord, moving a huge leftover stump using leverage (a stump I had failed to move after numerous attempts), running the house for 2 days (cooked dinner-bean soup) when I was ill, the list goes on. Nathalie is also quite impressive, but this is his post. His log, that he split alone. He is so proud we havent managed to put it on the fire. I think the log and Tad have agreed that the log stay there until may so that Daddy can see it.

My sisters baby

He is coming! He is on the way! My sister is in labor as I type! Mom just updated me, her water has broken! I am very excited and so very happy for her. Her husband is with her, my mom is on the way. This is their first child, his name is Niklas, the children and I have nicknamed him Nika (pronounced Nee-kah)
This is the rest of his nb diaper pkg which is on the way to her now, the first part was before x mas and was posted on here as well. This also includes wipes, wet bags, 2 wet sheets, a few more pieces of clothing and burp cloths (not pictured).

This is the entire set pictured, 3 wet bags, small, medium and large, 2 wet sheets which have one side waterproof PUL and 1 side cotton french terry-these are for mattress covering on top of sheet, or laying on the carpet/couch etc. The cotton french terry is absorbent and soft. There are wipes, of course she has more of these but this is 20 more bamboo and flannel. 3 prs pants, 2 shirts, 6 diapers and 4 covers.

The trucks and ooga booga are knit diapers and the rest are flannel. The little clothes are knits and wool with easy on necks and wide, stretchy waistbands for comfort.

Wet sheets and covers, these wet sheets are invaluble for many uses. I use them still for my children, good eating mats if snacking in a room with carpet for movie night, great for the flu, wonderful for a mama for many things... Home birth, monthly cycle, after baby cycle, nursing/leaking. Sorry for graphic descriptions there but its just the truth, they are wonderful additions to any families cloth stash of any sort!

2 of these covers are made of the wildly popular lator gator and robots prints. My sister liked the lator gator quite a bit so will make Nika larger diapers out of it as well.

Wet bags and wipes are also wonderful to have throughout baby years and beyond. We still use wetbags for beach, pool, picnics, or just traveling period. We have about 400 of these wipes in our house for any cloth use you can imagine.


This is the inside of the nb diapers, they are just 2 layer, inner and outer of knit/flannel/bamboo with hidden snaps. Then the insert is a bifold bamboo insert, serged and folded down the center and sewn in just at the top as you can see here and then the other side folds over. This is great for drying and because a newborn doesnt move around a lot, the soaker can be just sewn in a bit.

Now it is folded so this is how she will lay it to put on Nika, and yet it will be super fast drying. There is only one place, the seam, where any part of the diaper is more than 2 layers. She has quite a few nb diapers and none of them very thick so I included a pile of doublers, just lay in soakers that are 3 layers bamboo. They can be used from now until he is out diapers, they are small enough for nb but will be great to boost absorbency of any diaper.

Bad sunlight here, but a cute little outfit! She has a matching side snap diaper already from x mas time made from this same spider knit. This is Tad's fabric choice for an outfit for new nephew.

Both of these covers have gussets, the robot cover ended up larger than I had hoped and I labeled it small but once his umbilical cord falls off it will fit fine. The yellow one is sandwich PUL, fabric on both sides with waterproof center. Fabric is polyester so wont leak/wick. The side snap and the gussets make it great for nighttime coverage.

3 wet bags, the google eyes is cotton but it wont matter because its a wet bag, not a diaper. These are great for hanging on a hook or traveling, I will make her quite a few more because her baby is going to go to daycare during the school yr (next aug) when she goes to work and the daycare said yes to cloth diapers! I want to make sure my sister, Scarlett, doesnt have to do cloth wash each night so I want her to have plenty of diapers and accessories.

Wet sheet open, large enough for many uses. Large enough that if newborn pukes on one side, cover with burp cloth and move him to other side...

I will update as soon as little man enters the world! I hope to have pictures soon of him and I will see him for the first time the 17th of april.