Measure Twice, Cut Once

I think one of the best things we can do with children in the way of helping them to find their creative sides is to make sure they have lots of stuff to be creative with. I know my wife thinks it is funny, that everytime I’m out and I see paper on sell I buy allot of it or pencils that pretty much goes for any kind of craft supplies. I like to keep allot of it on hand and I let the girls  pretty much have free hand at it with a few limits some days they can get pretty creative. One thing I like to see is them using chalk on paper I have saved some very pretty pictures, those are for when I’m old and toothless I can sit on the porch and dream back to my early days. So let them draw and keep lots of paper and chalk on hand and let them use it freely. Having little ones can be allot of fun if you let it, secret here is to just get in there with them, for we are all kids at heart,. God Bless you and your families.

So yummie, So yummie.

Winter has come to the homestead and along with it fog, Kealynn decided to give the steers Blue and Brownie some hay to eat on this foggy morning.

Thanks Little farmer , this hay is very good.

Here is my newest little helper, most of the time you will find her helping herself to a cuddle with her mommy, she will soon be running around with her big sisters.

We also have new kittens on te homestead, looks like Sarah has picked out which one she wants to keep. We are now back home from the city for the winter and we are starting to work on the house again. Our first job will be  to dig a water well and then put a porch on the side of the house.

I have been wanting to post here for some time now on some of the ways in which God has and is changing my life, he has really transformed it. I should have knowing he would do this for he tells us so in the bible, at first I wasn’t sure how he would do it. I now know he makes use of everything and anything to open my eyes to the fact that he loves me and that I love him. One of the ways he is changing me is through my children I think of my girls as Gods little helpers. I believe that God teaches us about himself and how he wants us to live and deal with others around us in much the same way a parent teachs their children. After all God is the first parent and as with all loving parents he loves his children and ours more then we will ever know. I think of God as my Heavenly Father and I long for him to reveal himself to me, and it never ceases to amaze me in all the ways he does it, if only I keep my eye on him. I thank God in Jesus for the little blessings he has given me to parent and to try to be more like Jesus each day, God sets a very good witness, all we have to do is follow.

Summer is gone and with it the warm weather, we have been keeping a fire in the stove pretty much every day that we are home. We are just finishing up some contract work in the city so we have been staying with Jennifer’s Grandparents. But we should soon have that done and can get back to work on the house, and get a water well dug, we did get the road all finished thanks to our good neighbor Al. We are now just gathering up things for the well and the house and will soon decide where to dig the well. I’m thinking of putting it in the greenhouse that I will be building on the South side of the house it will be and old cast hand pump. We have been working up the two garden spots, as we have been told that a sure way to kill quack grass it to freeze the roots, last night it got down to -8 Celsius. The cows are needing a bit of hay, the fall pasture is all but gone now, we really need to do some more fencing to get the cows in the bush around the North and East side of the yard to eat all the grass. I have made a list of all the post and wire needed now to put it into the budget and hopefully get a start on it in the spring.

I’m a bit late with this photo but it is true the seasons are a turning here on the homestead, the other day we watched a few thousand sand hill cranes fly over. The girls where very happy and waved and told them all to come back in the spring. No pictures of the cranes, sorry I’m in need of a new camera the old one doesn’t take good pictures of things far away.

I never planned to be a homesteader, it just happened and so I have been trying to make the best of it ever since. Along the way I have learned some very interesting things, but I would have to say that the most important thing that I have learned is to have a well-laid plan and stick to it. For you will save allot time, money and grief as you begin your homesteading adventurer. Now that winter is fast approaching and the time for outside work is just about over, I find myself looking at adding on to our house over the winter. This is something that a well-laid plan might have avoided, for it will be a challenge to say the least.
Over the winter I plan to write a serious of posts on setting out a well-laid plan and things that I have learned, in hopes that someone might be helped by some of my mistakes. But for now its back to the grindstone to get a few more things done before the ground freezes as hard as a rock.

Two very busy days and the solar panels now have a new home, and from the voltage meter we will have allot more power. Due to the house getting a new roof  I had the to move the panel which where on the roof. Now with the help of my two little helpers the panel can be pointed into the sun as it cuts across the sky.

Here it is before we load it up with the panels, testing to see if it will turn with some weight on it , we still need to slide it up to the top of the post.

Now we are ready to wire it up and slide it to the top of the post.

All wired up and putting out 49 volts DC back to the battery pack.

All ready for more of those sunny Alberta days.