Written Update

All is going well here.   We are prepping for winter.  We just bought 200 bales of hay and I’m building a hay feeder so the sheep won’t waste as much hay.  I’ll try to post a picture when I finish it.  We are starting to halter train the friendliest of our ewe lambs, Luna.  If we can halter train a couple of the ewes, then we can take them to the school at some point in time for the kids to show their classes.  We gave up on breeding Rhea for a couple of months.  Borrowing the neighbor’s cow to check behavior for when she is in heat didn’t work and since she isn’t halter trained and we don’t have a headgate yet, it would be difficult to do artificial insemination.  We are planning on waiting a couple months until the timing is better (we wouldn’t want the baby born in the middle of July) and then we will build a headgate and try AI.  I’m glad the other cow is gone.  It was a pain.  Much too aggressive and it ate a lot more as well.  Bad timing since it has only rained 3 days in the past couple months.  The grass hasn’t grown at all which means we are running out of forage.  We’ve had the ram and the cow on the front 5 acres which is basically just weeds.  They aren’t too thrilled about it.  We are going to end up starting them on hay in the next couple of weeks instead of waiting until there is snow on the ground.  We will also combine both sets of animals in the next couple of weeks.  Deimos will be excited to finally have access to his girls.  J  Our little Dexter heifer should be arriving in the middle of November.  And the one ewe that we think is pregnant should be due around Thanksgiving.  Our plan for the chickens is to put the coop inside the barn up against the wall of the lean to.  Then we are going to cut a hole in the wall and install a small doggie door.  That way they can go in the barn to get out of the snow and wind, but they can still free-range outside as much as they want.  It also allows us to put the food outside so we aren’t trying to crawl inside the coop to reach the food and water like winter.  We’ve been using cattle panel as a sort of “creep gate” to keep the sheep from eating the chicken feed this summer.  It works well.  Hopefully we will get everything in that corner of the barn moved out of the way and the coop installed within the next couple of weeks. 

We are still eating tomatoes from the garden which the kids love.  We have also enjoyed our first batch of potatoes and red onions.  Jonathan’s homemade salsa was divine.  Luckily, he put a bunch in the freezer.  We tried homemade spaghetti and pizza sauces this year as well.  The kids love it when we eat stuff from our garden.  We had grapes, but the birds ate them all.  Next year we’ll try putting up netting.  We plowed up a small section and planted some winter wheat.  We don’t think it will work well but we wanted to get started on our learning curve.

The kids are doing great.  We had Pioneer night Monday which they always love.  We haven’t decided on Halloween costumes.  The kids are upset because “Beggar’s Night” in Iowa (the night for Trick-or-Treating) is Sunday night this year.  We’ve already told them sorry, but we don’t think it is an appropriate Sunday activity.  Luckily the Ward is having a Halloween party Saturday so that should appease them. 

Isabelle is doing well in school.  The teacher just sent a thing home this week recommending that she be tested using an 8^th grade test to check her levels.  Obviously she won’t do well since she hasn’t learned the stuff yet, but they said it would let them see what she is ready to learn and not just what she already knows.  She has gotten much better at home as well.  She stills gives attitude and can be defiant, but she is maturing enough to know that it is bad and sometimes she can stop herself.  Someone in our ward has pigeons and doves.  Jonathan went to his house to do a service thing and took Isabelle with him.  She fell in love with the birds and wants some of her own.  The owner has generously offered her any that she wants (he has lots in all different varieties).  We discussed it with Isabelle and decided she can have a couple , but she has to take care of them completely on her own.  She also has to pay for their feed herself.  She has agreed to our conditions and has already started doing extra chores to earn money for the food (she gets paid $2/hour right now but that will increase as she gets older).  We are going to his house this Sunday to look at the birds so she can decide what type she wants.  She seems to be the most interested in the ones that do tricks (rollers and tumblers) as opposed to the birds that fly fast or far, the birds that are just pretty, or the birds that are worth a lot because they are more rare ($150 each).

Miriam is cute as always.  Her greatest wish is to have a cell phone “so I can text people whenever I want.  I just really, really want one Mom.  I love them so much.”  Obviously, that isn’t happening any time soon.  But what she doesn’t know is that Jonathan got a hold of an older cell phone that works but has no plan to give her on her birthday so she can at least pretend to  text people.  She is finally starting to make some strides in gymnastics.  She has also said she realizes she gets distracted too easily in class and that it isn’t a good thing so she wants to do better at that.

 

David is in a stage right now where he repeats everything everybody says.  It gets pretty annoying.  He also says “why” in response to everything.  Jonathan and I decided we needed him (and all of the kids) to realize just how much they say it.  So now if they say just the word “why” then they have to touch their head and count to 3.  If they ask using a full sentence (showing that they are asking sincerely and not just automatically) then they don’t have to touch their head.  We also made a rule that they have to touch a doorknob every time they say “it’s not fair.”  They touch doorknobs fairly often as well.  But they are learning and the incidences are going down without any actual punishments which I’m happy about.  They usually just look chagrined and laugh at themselves.  David is surprisingly good at gymnastics.  While he can’t do much, he is anal enough that he does things “exactly.”  Like on the bar he can only swing his legs, but he keeps them straight and tight and points his toes. 

Emily is great about letting me sleep in each morning.  Jonathan puts a video on as he walks out the door and she watches it for awhile and then she plays by herself until Zac and I wake up.  She is really into puzzles all of a sudden.  She can do David’s 84-piece puzzle by herself and she is learning Miriam’s 100-piece puzzle.  She still needs some help with it.  She and Miriam are also best buds right now which is good since they are sharing a room.  Unfortunately, neither one is neat so their room is constantly trashed.

Zachary is crawling now.  His favorite places to play (to my chagrin)  are the bathrooms and Eli’s food and water.  Obviously we are working with the kids on remembering to close doors.  He is also a pig like all of our children.  I’m already starting to supplement him with formula once in a while because he is draining me too much, despite being on 3 full solid meals a day.  He is probably my biggest child of them all.  He is 7 ½ months and wears 12 and 18 month clothes.  He is perfectly proportioned and normal, he just grows fast.  I’m predicting he will be our tallest child as an adult and I predict Miriam will be our shortest.  He loves sounds and music.  He is very active and independent.  The first week after he learned to crawl I set him down in Sunday School and he was off like a shot and halfway across the large room before he ever looked back.  Luckily, Eli is very tolerant of getting his hair and ear pulled.  Eli is also good at cleaning up spilled cheerios and baby food.  J  Zachary’s first tooth came in this past week and a second one is trying to come in.  This is making him crankier than usual and he isn’t sleeping well either.  Which means I’m not sleeping well.  Arg.

Jonathan is going on his annual walkabout this weekend.  He’s excited.  I’m resigned.  The kids and I will have some fun after chore time though.  This summer I started a system where each day we have family chore time (each kid has 5 minutes per year they are old; less on school days) followed by family fun time (an hour of us all playing together) .  It gives them an incentive to get their chores done, it forces me to step away from the computer or whatever I’m working on and spend quality time with the kids, and it helps all of us bond.  I’ve noticed that the kids play together better since we started doing it and they argue less (except Emily who still gets a kick out of pushing David’s buttons).

As for me... I'm fine.  My broken toe is finally healed (mostly).  I love that Jonathan is more available now that his Seminar is done.  I love that he gets the kids off to school in the morning so I don't have to get up at 6am.  I'm busy with my callings (YW 1st Couns. and Self-Reliance Specialist).  I love peaceful nap times now that the older kids are in school.  I'm still addicted to the computer (currently researching BDay and Xmas gifts, sheep supplies, random odds and ends, and starting my year-end medical and financial analysis).  I'm enjoying working on the farm.  And of course I still have my pile of books that I'm working my way through.  :)

Family Pictures

I just wanted to share with y'all our recent family pictures. The three pictures below were taken at the Swarthout Family Reunion. 

Grandma and Grandpa Fox with 11 of their 22 grandchildren.

Kids: Miriam, Zachary, David, Emily & Isabelle

Great Grandma Swarthout with many of her great grandchildren.

Lamentations of Ill Health

I decided to add up the number of doctor, dentist, and eye doc appointments we've had in the last six months. Can you guess? 20 doctor, 9 dentist, 8 eye, 2 urgent care visits, and 2 hospital trips. Crazy, huh? It isn't like we don't have anything else to be doing either.

So the eye appointments are pretty easy to explain. Jonathan and I had our normal contact prescriptions renewed. We knew from last year that Isabelle and Miriam needed new eyeglass prescriptions. This was David's first appointment. It turns out he has the worst eyes out of any of us. He is majorly far-sighted. We were then worried about Emily since David's were bad so the eye doc said to bring her in. We lucked out, she has perfect vision. But of course then we had to deal with going back to order and fit the glasses, etc.

Dentist - We each (down to David) had a cleaning of course. Isabelle ended up with 2 cavities so she was back in later for fillings. It turns out Miriam has 7 cavities. What? She must have her Dad's teeth since I've only had 2 fillings in my life. Jonathan of course had cavities. He always does. So he ended up with 1 filling and 1 crown. So far David and I are in the clear. :)

Doctor - Of course I had a bunch of OB appointments, and then the 6-week check after Zachary was born and the IUD. Unfortunately I also went in twice with my sickness just before Zachary's birth. We've had a bunch of well-checks and immunizations. Zachary and Emily both had yeast infections on their bottoms. And then this week Emily was having a bunch of stomach pain. We were worried about her having the same thing as Isabelle (I'll explain later) so we had her blood tested. Luckily she doesn't have what Isabelle has, but she does have a virus. Oh joy. We've also had our share of flus, colds, poison ivy, sunburns and allergies. Even Jonathan, who never gets sick, was completely wiped out by a flu.

Urgent Care - Two weeks after Zachary was born, Emily fell while in the food storage room and hit her chin against a metal shelf corner. Luckily urgent care was still open so she ended up with ~8 stitches. Unfortunately, she refused to let us remove the stitches later (even with Aunt Miranda's help) so Jonathan took her back to the clinic to get them removed. Apparently she'll hold still for a doctor, but not for us.

Two weeks ago I scraped my knuckle while working in the chicken coop. No big deal. I disinfected it, put neospirin on it and a bandaid. It still got infected. A few days later the infection starting streaking up my hand and into my arm. It was my turn in the Urgent Care with blood poisoning. I was put on a couple of antibiotics and an epsom salt soak. I was amazed at how quickly the salt soak pulled the poison out. It was pretty cool. It also made me appreciate how before modern medicine a small cut like I had could have killed a person.

The first hospital visit was of course the birth of my son. I am very grateful that there were no complications or problems.

The second was Isabelle. She has had diarrhea for 7 months. Not a single normal stool. After multiple doctor visits, xrays of her stomach, stool samples and a couple of blood works, they recommended she go to a pediatric gastroenterologist. He recommended an EGD and a colonoscopy. So she was in the hospital for both of those last week. Most of the time I was trying to keep her distracted so she wouldn't be scared so I didn't have time to think about it, but when they wheeled her away, it hit me. The life of my little girl was now in the hands of a doctor and an anesthesiologist. And while she wasn't having surgery or anything dangerous done, I was still scared. 3 things kept me together... prayer, my husband sitting next to me, and my little baby boy who needed to nurse and who pooped through his outfit (the normality of this was comforting). The results came back later in the week. She has ulcerative colitis. Luckily, she has a mild case and they believe that the lighter meds will put it into remission. I just found out my Dad has it and I never knew, so if her case is like his then I hope it won't affect her very much during the course of her life. Unfortunately, it is genetic so the chances of our other children getting it are high. At this point I'm just feeling grateful that it isn't Crohn's disease, grateful to finally know what is wrong so we can start fixing it, and grateful that I never had it since it must have come through my genetic line.

Jonathan says "getting sick stinks. We should stop doing it." I agree.

Old Fox Family had a farm, e-i-e-i-o...

And on their farm they had some sheep, e-i-e-i-o...

The fence wasn’t done when it was supposed to be done due to weather, again. But they did finally finish it just over a week ago. Hooray! That Wednesday our sheep came. Double hooray! We ended up with two extra momma sheep as well. So now we have 8. We named them after moons… Leda, Europa, Callisto, Luna, Elara, Thebe, Io, and our ram is Deimos. He is way too interested in the mommas. I can tell they are in heat. He follows them around smelling their bottoms. He just hasn’t figured out how to do the rest. We need to separate them before he does figure it out since we don’t want them getting pregnant until fall.

Louie has loved being able to roam the entire pasture. He seems much happier, although he still spends the hot portion of the day in the overhang so he must not have minded being stuck in there too much. He was afraid of the sheep at first. Not anymore. Now they’ve all accepted each other. We just started keeping them together day and night yesterday. This morning one of the neighbor's dogs came around and Louie herded all of the sheep into the lean-to and wouldn't let them out as he barked at the other dog warning it to stay away. I was very proud of him. Unfortunately, when I was weeding the garden later I noticed that every time a nearby tractor would start up or a car would go past, he did the same thing. Hum. Maybe he is too protective. The poor sheep didn't seem to have much time to graze before being sent back to the lean-to.

Our garden is coming along nicely, but weeding is an ongoing battle.

We had an upset on the cow front. We had put a deposit on two heifers and as part of the deal they had promised to wait to deliver the cows until the fence was in. They had said it was no problem because the cows were just out on pasture not costing them anything. Well apparently they changed their mind, without telling us. We called back to give them an update on the fencing and they said they decided to sell to someone else because the other person would only take their bull if he got the heifers too. And then they tried to keep the deposit saying that we had wasted their time and cost them money feeding the cows for the extra couple of weeks. Oh, and that it was our fault that they had problems selling the bull. What??!!! Obviously we pushed back and eventually they did return the deposit. I was pretty upset though. So now we have been searching for cows/heifers for a couple of weeks and we can’t find the breed we wanted. There just aren’t any available. It’s too late in the season. So I’m not sure what will happen there.

Old Fox Family had a farm e-i-e-i-o,

And on their farm they had a tractor e-i-e-i-o...

We bought a tractor! I like it. A lot. I look for excuses to use it. :) We bought the TYM 353HST. We got a great deal on it. We debated an old Ford 3000 and we drove a Mahindra, but it was a gear shift and not hydrostatic. I discovered that while I may be able to drive a stick shift just fine, apparently a tractor is much more difficult for me. I’m sure I could have figured it out eventually, but we didn’t have time for the learning curve since I need to be using it now. And I already have used it several times. I feel like a real woman when I’m on my tractor. :)

Picking lambs

On Friday we drove to northern Iowa to pick out our sheep from Red Barn Katahdins. I was too busy taking notes and asking questions so I only took a couple of pictures. Here are some Mommas still in their winter pens. They'll be going out to pasture this week.
Jonathan holding the baby while we pick out the ewe lambs. They were so tiny and cute.
These were the final ewe lambs we were deciding between. We chose the black, the brown and 3 of the 4 four whites in the picture. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the ram lamb, but he is a tan color. He is the son of the top ranking Katahdin ram in the U.S. so he will hopefully give us some great babies. He had good conformation, great stats, and he seemed the most confident of the 10 or so we were deciding between. He was obviously the leader of the group. Jonathan was proud that we were getting a manly man for our ram.

The six-month update... (super long post)

I'm attempting to make up for the lack of posts in the past six months by putting them all into one big post. Have fun!In September, Jonathan went on his annual Walkabout. He was sad not to be able to continue his trek along the Appalachian Trail. He went to a nearby State Park. There were a lot of poorly marked (or completely unmarked) trails so he got lost a few times.

There was a good variety of woodlands, prairie, ponds, and even some cow pastures.

This is a pretty typical place to find me, especially in winter. I love doing research on the computer with a hot cocoa by my side.


For Halloween Jonathan and David were cowboys; Isabelle, Miriam and I were matching witches and Emily was our black cat.

We celebrated several birthdays in the fall and the kids liked leaving the decorations up.

A friendly game of 4-player Wii Tennis on our tiny TV.

We had an Elder's Quorum Presidency social at our house. Here Jonathan is with Michael Shelton playing Dance Dance Revolution.

The kids learned how to play "Set" and they love it.

Pregnancies are exhausting. Notice Eli's bed on top of me.

For Thanksgiving we had a bunch of friends come over. We were thrilled that Dan and Miranda (and baby Camden) were able to visit.


Jonathan gave our turkey, Josephina, a lovely massage.

Yummy desserts! Can you tell Miriam did her own hair? Her view is the more stuff in her hair the better.

We played Wackee Six a lot and Isabelle was so excited that we deemed her capable enough to play a game with the adults. The other kids watched jealously.


All the men who came over for Thanksgiving chipped in and helped carry the piano up the stairs. The next day Dan helped me set up our new TV. Hooray!

December started with decorating the Xmas tree.

In the fall our neighbor delivered a bunch of trees for us. Jonathan spent many hours all through fall and winter cutting the trees with a chainsaw. His old chainsaw didn't do a very good job, so he was thrilled that I let him buy a Stihl saw. I helped out too by splitting the wood with our wood splitter.

Even Isabelle and Miriam chipped in by stacking the split wood.


We made gingerbread houses using graham crackers and store-bought cake frosting. I figured if we waited for me to make home-made stuff, it wouldn't happen.

The finished houses... Miriam's, David's, Emily's (with Mommy's help), and Isabelle's.

Watching TV together.

Our family picture. Eli refused to be left out.

My handsome boys. :)

Jonathan helped the kids make Santa cookies.

Ice skating on our pond. Only Jonathan and Isabelle were brave enough this year.

This year we traveled to South Dakota where we rented a cabin with my sister and her family for Xmas. The car was packed to the gills.

Eli was happy to have a little space.

At the cabin the kids all had fun together. Here they are playing the Wii.

Wwweeeeeee!

Don't I have the handsomest man?

Pretty girl.

Fast as a speeding bullet.

Sleds are for sleeping, not racing.

Emily gives Eli a little too much love.

Miriam's new marble run was enjoyed by all.

We tried to go to Church on Sunday but the roads were so slick we couldn't even get both cars out of the driveway. We had a wonderful experience holding a Sacrament meeting the cabin. Everyone ended up sharing their testimonies, even Isabelle, Miriam, and David, none of whom had given a testimony previously. After we played games.

Happy sisters.

Jonathan queueing up music... again.

The kids all agreed that their favorite part of the trip was going on walks outside with their cousins.

Here Jonathan is modeling the Sari that his parents sent us from Africa.

Our chickens enjoyed winter in the barn. We moved their coop inside the barn and occasionally let them out to play in the hay.

Emily and Miriam wanted their hair cut. I made it through Emily's but part way through Miriam's I got sick (pregnancy nauseous). At first I sat down and then I laid down right where I was on the wood floor. Jonathan was on the phone with his parents in Africa and the kids went running to him, "there's something wrong with Mommy, she's laying down on the floor!" so he quickly got off the phone, helped me to my bed, and then he finished Miriam's hair cut. Two thumbs up for a good husband. :)

Miriam and Emily were "stamping" and then they had to wash the stamps out.

Some friends from Church moved in two doors down (hooray). They loved coming over and playing on the icy pond with our kids.

Playing "Sleeping Queens."

Sometimes Emily waked up from her nap and sneeks out of her room, into my bathroom. Then she lines everything up in a row across the countertop. It was cute the first time. Then she did it three days in a row. It was no longer cute having to put everything away every day.

In preparation for the coming of the baby, Miriam moved in with Isabelle and Emily moved in with David, freeing up a room for the baby. As a result, we had to buy a bunk bed set. I went ahead and repainted their room as well to get rid of the ugly turquoise color.

There is an annual free Chocolate fest in Des Moines. Jonathan and I took David and Emily (the girls were in school). Basically, you walk around getting various chocolate samples from booths. We ate chocolate samples for an hour until even the kids didn't want anymore. So we put stuff in a bag and took it home for the girls. Free chocolate, who can ask for more?

Jonathan was going through some old memory boxes and he came across his old High School Year Books. The kids loved seeing what Daddy looked like when he was young.

In January, we received another addition to the family, Louie, a Great Pyrenees Livestock Guard Dog. Unfortunately, he eats chickens when he is bored. Fortunately, he adores Eli and our cats.

Jonathan grew out his beard after Xmas.

Louie has proven to be an escape artist. We put up 3 foot high electric netting. He jumped it. So Jonathan put up some fencing along the railings of the barn. He dug underneath. Jonathan then put stakes every foot along the fence. It worked. He's stuck in there. He can't wait until our woven wire fencing gets put in so he can have a few acres to roam around in. Unfortunately we've had so much rain this spring that the ground has been to wet to put fencing in. Hopefully in another week or two it will be done.

As you know from my last post, Zachary Thomas Fox was born February 26th.

What is it about sleeping babies that makes everyone else sleepy?

Miriam loves to paint. She is my artsy, creative child.

Our friends, the Bowens, came over one Saturday and helped catch fish in our neighbor's pond to stock our pond with. We caught 14 Large-mouthed Bass. Good job Isabelle!

My sister Shauna, and Jonathan's sister Miranda came at different times to help me out with the new baby. My kids took full advantage of having Aunts willing to read books to them.

My two boys. Do they look alike?

Jonathan feels the love (and saliva).

Isabelle is a great baby holder.

Louie had a cut on his chest and we couldn't tell how bad it was, so we figured we better wash the area off. We put him in a tub. It is a good thing he is such a sedate dog. We were still soaked by the end.

Might as well brush his teeth while we're at it.

This is one of the two heifer cows we just bought. They are half Galloway Beltie and half Dexter. They are one-year old so we will breed them in the fall. They don't have names yet, but I'm voting for Minnie and Moo, based on the children's books series.

One Sunday we looked out the window and there was a parade of tractors going down our dirt road. We have no idea why, but there were about 30 tractors.

Emily thought she could put the toothpaste on the toothbrush by herself. You can't see it very well here, but about two weeks after Zachary was born, Emily fell and bonked her chin against a metal shelf. She ended up with about 8 stitches.

In the past month, Miriam has started doing Emily's hair as well.

Isabelle put Zachary down in his Bumbo with a blanket she is crocheting as a headrest. Apparently he liked it enough that he fell asleep.

Is it a birthday? Nope, it a cleaning party!

Jonathan and the kids had fun cleaning to party music and then eating treats. Notice, Miriam did Emily's hair again. These "Whaley" pajamas are Emily's favorites.

It's Easter egg dyeing time. We actually had to buy eggs for the first time in many months since brown eggs don't dye very well.

Yesterday, we had a new tree put in our front yard. We are hoping that it will help block the afternoon sun that comes in the large family room window. You can also see that the chickens have moved back outside and they are happily eating away at the bugs.

So that is it for now, but DSL finally came to our area and we made the switch so hopefully with the faster internet connection I will post more frequently now.