Busy everywhere but home!

OK so it's been a while. That should also be an indication of how much work has gone on inside the house! None...
However we have been busy doing lots of things! Heading into fall there is always alot to do around the farm. My Father-in-law is busy chopping corn. Todds brother is putting up a new garage and of course Fall means the wineries in the area are harvesting their crop! Last weekend our good friends, Jeff & Erica, came up and we went to a winery in St. Croix Falls. It was wonderful! We had a great time.

Then on Monday we went out to eat with my parents to celebrate their 30th anniversary! Wow 30 years! It was another great time. So tonight Todd is finally getting to bottling the beer that he brewed several weeks ago and Isabelle and I took some photos.

The irony of this photo just makes me laugh!

One of the best tips that Todd has received when transferring beer from one vessel to another is to do this on the door of a dishwasher. If you spill then the clean up is easy! I love this idea. Todd unfortunately had to do this twice tonight because he forgot to "Prime" each bottle. you will have to ask him what that means however it meant that he had to open and empty every bottle back into the 5 gal. bucket. Then prime each bottle and pour again. Oh well at least he remembered to do it, other wise that batch would not have turned out well.

Isabelle had her 8 month check up and is healthy as a horse! She is now 21lbs and 6 oz. She is also a whopping 29.5'' tall. I tried to say 30" but the tall nurse insisted 29.5''. Isabelle I tried!
Climbing everywhere is our new favorite game. Under, Over, where ever she can get. The stairs photo is just after she crawled up 3 stairs by herself for the first time. We are not encouraging this!

I love bath time with Isabelle and we are looking forward to having a bath tub that she can really splash in!

One last Smile to tide you all over until the next post! Still only 2 teeth but we are growing and changing every day in every way!

I've called in a designer and she's walking.

I'm lucky enough to have an interior designer as one of my best friends. So this is a warning to her- I will be calling again very soon needing words advice! We still haven't done anything to the room however I did find out that my bath exists. Now can I afford it? We'll see.


Also Miss Isabelle has decided that it's time to begin walking. She isn't doing it all on her own yet but she can push things around like none other. I think it was a good buy! This toy also turns into a riding toy and she really likes that.

Mumumumuma and Other Milestones

The little one is talking. Not really talking but well on her way according to my lovely friend who has a masters in linguistics! On Sunday we were playing at Grandpa Wolfs house and we were reading a book about the alphabet and I kept saying "Book" and 4 times Iz said "bu ka". I looked at my dad and said, "Did you hear what I hear?!?" With eyes as big as saucers he said "YES!".

On the way home I called Todd, who was in the middle of his fantasy football draft and told him. She hasn't said it since even though I try about 10 times a day!

However to much anticipated relief after months of "da da da da" last night on our ride home from day care a chorus of "mu mu mu mu ma" came from the backseat. I just about pulled over to give her a hug! Then when we got home she kept saying it. I, of course, very graciously said to Todd, "Do you hear the new word our daughter is saying??" He just smiles and nods appeasing me and my eagerness for this little one to call me by name!

Words are not the only new thing in our household, but crawling has quickly become just a means to move in between object on which she can pull herself up on to a standing position. Last night a stay half full diet coke can was tumbled from the coffee table. Needless to say I have a feeling that our house be a lot more picked up with the newly mobile Iz.

"How is the renovation going?"

OK folks I'm going to admit it. WE have done NOTHING in the torn apart rooms for about 3 weeks now and it is looking like it will be another 2 or 3 before anything more gets done.

Living on a farm means there are many other responsibilities that those inside your front door. On the average farm there might be time for more renovation however on our farm we are becoming day by day more industrious with the things we have around us.

Let me back up. We live on Neumann Ave. My brother in-law and his family live 1/3rd of a mile from our house and then in the other direction 1/3 of a mile of my in-laws house. In some areas they might call it a "compound" we however call it home! The in-laws have 200+ acres of farm land and they keep Steers and Sheep at our house because they don't have a barn. On the 200+ acres we plant hay as well as about 5 acres of pumpkins and squash that we sell. We are always trying to expand our products to sell in the fall. Last year Todd decided to start keeping bees.

Todd's grandfather used to keep bees and one summer even had 1 TON of honey- yes 2,000lbs! Most of the equipment was in one of the sheds. Todd took it down, cleaned it up and ordered some bees. (do you know they will mail you bees- Thank goodness I'm not a mail man!) Last year the spoils were about 60 lbs of honey. However those bees did not make it through the winter. So this spring he started over with 3 new hives. One of the hives swarmed in June and he now has 4 hives and so far this year with 1 extraction he has over 80 lbs of honey and is anticipating that much from the 2nd extraction. He is even selling it at our local country store just 4 miles down the road.

Also Todd has started making his own beer, not to mention making sausage and jerky. So between caring for the farm, cash crops like honey and pumpkins and making and drinking beer our bathroom is no further than it was 3 weeks ago.

The construction is contained in our home and if I close a door I don't have to look at it which is great. However I think after this weekend I will get the itch to start anything including insulating the walls.