A Little Telephone Game

Last night the girls troop discussed communication.  They had a blast playing telephone and with 15 or so girls they really got each message messed up quite a bit.  They also got to try their hand at telephone cans with strings.  They were all impressed with how they actually worked.  We then made a big telephone circle and had the girls send messages through the group using their can phones.  It was a blast.

Rotational Grazing

We have just over 5 acres at our place.  Somewhere around four acres are pasture for cattle.  The pasture is split into two sections.  Our six heifers rotate every three weeks or so to allow half our land to rest and the grass to grow while they graze the other half.  This has been working so well for us that this week I took it to a new level.  Fusty, our guinea pig, now helps with the grazing.  She has a bottomless cage that I now rotate around our lilac bushes.  My husband hates mowing this area so Fusty can help.  She is about halfway around one bush now.  I also and seeing that this is quite a task for her so perhaps a herd of guinea pigs should be invested in to make this grazing a little more effective?  Alas we are a one guinea pig family so she will just have to try her hardest to keep up and eventually Brent will just have to mow to help her out.

My Wonderful Cold Frame

My Wonderful  Cold Frame

My husband and daughters built and decorated this cold frame for me last spring.  I started lettuce in it then when the weather was a little warmer I moved it and put my tomato plants in it.  Last fall I planted carrots, onions, lettuce, parsnips, and Swiss Chard in it.  We just moved it over for the tomatoes again but check out the harvest that is ready to eat.  The Swiss Chard is a little small yet but the rest are ready for eating!  Now the tomatoes are quite happy acclimating to the unpredictable Montana spring weather.  

Fairy City in Montana

Mary Jane's Farmgirl Jubilee got me excited about fairy gardens.  In an earlier post I posted a few pictures of the plan but the weather was just too cold for the plants to get planted yet.  Mother's Day weekend I went out and bought the plants I needed to get started and today I got it all put together.  For the safety of the fairies I had to fence out the dog and children but I don't think the fairies will mind.  I sure hope that many fairies will come to live in our little garden.

The Camper Overhaul is Done!

Today the final touches of the planned remodel of the camper were completed.  The curtains got hung and the place got cleaned up after all my work.  It is ready to head out on its first trip of the season.  We are thinking it will go out this weekend.  Somewhere close by so we can get Brent back for a track meet he is helping out.  Here are the pictures to show off.

Glamper update

In between Mother's Day festivities and plant shopping some glamping sewing managed to get done. I finished the last curtain and started on the tiebacks.  The girls and I slept out in the camper in the driveway last night.  The curtains were a great improvement. The girls slept in until 7:45am!  This new look is already paying off.  The windows that were missing curtains before this were the bunkbeds and the the main window over the dining table so the change in lighting for early morning was huge for the girls.  Not to mention the place looks so much better.

Camper to Glamper Update

How much paint can it take?  I thought a gallon would leave me plenty left over and I am starting to wonder if it will be enough.  About half of the trailer is painted with two coats and the other half has its first coat.  I took a break from painting for the last two days to work on the curtains.  I have sewn all but three curtains now.  I ran out of navy blue thread so until a have a few minutes to run to the store I am back to painting.  Brent came out and checked it out and helped me hang a new curtain/door for the girls to have a little privacy and decided it looked pretty good.  Initially when I asked if he minded if I redid the trailer his only request was that I didn't make it too girly.  So I went with greens and blues.  When the curtain fabric came home he decided he didn't like the green fabric as it looked to 70's.  Once they were up he seemed to like them better.

Although not as obvious I also have reworked the girls's closet to make it a little more kid friendly, made new washclothes/dishtowels, and cleaned out a storage area we don't use to give us another space to store things.  I also have to figure out some curtain tiebacks.