Cabin Roof On!!

The cabin roof is finished enough for winter now. Foam insulation and the metal roofing will finish it completely in the spring.

Here it is at the halfway mark:
Isn't it pretty?
I'm glad that the round rafters will be left visible in this cabin (the round rafters here in our house had to be buried inside the ceiling).
Andrew working on the right side:
Roof meets gable end:

Finished!! (A molding strip will run down the peak to cover that little gap.)



Wouldn't she look cute decked out for Christmas?

Some Pictures from the Week...

Nothing much to report here on the home-front... Life moves on just as it did yesterday, with changes so subtle that we often don't recognize them until a year or more of time has past. It's been rainy, a little snowy, sometimes cold and very wet and muddy here. The boys keep switching between their mudders and snow boots for farm chores. Andrew and Dad are putting the roof on the cabin and Stephen and Michael are putting the gardens to bed for the winter (both projects nearly done!). Us girls have been kept busy mopping up the mud behind the boys and making meals to keep Mom off her feet, etc. We are very much looking forward to Thanksgiving, the arrival of our new sibling and Christmas!
Everyone is healthy, warm, well fed, excited yet content, exercised in body and mind, yet well rested and overall happy.

Well, I won't keep you, I just have a few pictures from the week to share. Blessings to everyone!

The bunnies are getting so big! It's so much fun to have them running around the living room.
"Ah, Mom? Somebodies here..."

Fighting over who gets to sit in Mom's food bowl...

Some of Stephen's photography using the tree across the road...
At night...

Snow! (And there's still little red apples on that tree in the background.)
"Don't bother coming out guys, it's not enough to go sledding.." (thankfully this all melted! More predicted for tonight though).

If that electric line (overhead) and the van silhouette weren't there, they could be Indians on a ridge overlooking a westward headed wagon train...
Naw, just gals having fun...

Dad's gorgeous sunrise pictures... (Stephen misses out with his sleeping-in tendency!)
Sigh...

Also, our Lund Family Productions website has been receiving updates. Head over and read up on the post production of our latest short movie.

Have a nice day!!

Egg Delivered C-Section

BREAKING NEWS: Egg delivered c-section. Mother does not survive.

Ok, we had an 'oh my gosh' moment this morning... Mom and I were butchering the 'egg eater' chickens and Mom was pulling out her chicken's guts like normal, when she suddenly cries, "Oh my gosh!". We all stepped closer to look and then began our own rounds of 'Oh my gosh!'es. Out came an egg! Fully formed, big hard shell, must have been just about to be laid.

Apparently, I mean obviously, (well duh!) she still lays. But, it wasn't that big of a loss because she has been caught twice in the act of eating eggs (usually her own). We've had this problem with chickens before. It usually correlates with the change of season when they stop free ranging. However, we've upped their oyster shell mineral which should fix the problem.

So, that was our first experience with butchering a layin' hen. I was totally amazed and told Stephen to go get his camera, but he was too grossed out and I don't think he really wanted to remember the incident... Sorry!

Pictorial Cabin Update

Here's the long overdue cabin update. We put up these rafters last week. A windy, rainy storm prevented further work to be done this week. Today was our first sunny day and, (as it turned out), we got (some of) our winter hay delivered today. Anyway:








Satisfied I'm sure...

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your day.


---Ooo! I have to include this cool panorama that Stephen took of winter hay supply. I know, it's a lot! but i'nit a cool pic?? ---

Angora Bunny Report :-)

Hi everybody, this is Theresa. Mary asked me to write a post regarding my little bunnies. I would like to introduce my fifteen rabbits:  Mittens, Marbles, Minnie, Mia, and a new litter of ten!

Mittens is my oldest. I've had her for three years now. I got her with another one (Slippers) who ended up dying a year ago.

(Slippers and Mittens:)

So, I got another girl (Marbles) a few months later, to keep her company. Well, only two months after we got her, it became apparent that she was actually a he as I found a (dead) baby in the pen. Sooo, one of my girls wasn't really a girl... yup, sure enough Marbles was a boy! So, we quickly got to work making a bachelor pen for the poor guy.

(Marbles)


Then, about a month later (near Easter) I was watching Mittens, thinking that she was acting a little strange. The 'rabbit midwife' () in me was right. Yeah, she had a baby right there in front of me. After a few moments, it was apparent that she wasn't going to take care of it. So, I took the baby in and fed it with an eyedropper, and I also would take Mittens into the house to let her drink. When the baby got to be six weeks old we were able to find out that it was a girl. So, she was then finally able to get her name, which is Minnie. She lived in the house with us for at least three months, until it was warm enough for her to stay outside. Now she has a cage in front of the house and every time you walk past she practically screams at you: "pet me!!!" And who could resist?

(Minnie)
I sure can't!

So, after a while, we all decided that we wanted babies again, and that maybe she (MIttens) would take care of them this time. Sure enough, a month later there were four babies and (thankfully) she was taking care of them! It was so much fun watching them grow up and seeing them bounce around their pen. Sadly, when they were six weeks old it was time to start selling some of my babies. A few hours in front of the local grocery store sold three of them. The forth one didn't sell (Mia) so she's been with us since.

(The litter. Mia on the right)


I had Marbles breed Mittens and Minnie a little over a month ago. Mittens had one baby outside her house. It was still alive when I found it, and I quickly brought him/her into the house. It's one foot was hanging out through the wire on the bottom of her cage and had some teeth marks on it, (cats?) but it seemed like it would be okay. He/she lived for three days, fine and very bouncy, but then we found it dead on the forth day, so we were thinking it probably had something to do with it's foot.  His/her name was Muffin for its short life span.

(Muffin nursing on Mittens)

Then, Minnie had her first litter five days ago. She had ten (!!) big healthy babies, I was pretty surprised that she had so many, especially since her mom's biggest litter was four, and angora rabbits usually only have three or four at a time. Also, it was her first litter! I don't know how I'm ever going to name all these babies!! They're sooo adorable.

(Minnie's first litter)


I just sheered Marbles and Mia yesterday.

(Marbles getting his hair cut)
(Mia after her sheering. Once sheered, we found that she has a multi colored undercoat. It's white and black spotted!)

I was supposed to sheer them like a month ago when it was warmer so that they wouldn't get cold. Since I didn't get to it, I made them both little coats .

(Marbles and his new coat)

Mittens and Minnie both pulled out a lot of their hair to make nests for their babies, so I didn't have to sheer them.

We'll be sharing pictures of the new litter as they get older . Hope you all enjoyed reading this!
Theresa

---Hello all, this is Mary. First, thank you Theresa for the post (I would never have been able to keep 'em all straight!), you did a good job. Secondly, we saw our first snow this morning as we were sitting around praying morning prayer. Johnny said it felt like Christmas and I couldn't disagree. Big fluffy flakes always instills the Christmas spirit into me. Lastly, we have a fun, silly slideshow/vid to share with you all. Stephen made it on the boys' new movie editing program for the experience. Theresa's sheering and the Veggie Tales song brought about the idea. It turned out adorable so I hope you can all view it! God Bless!!----