Surprise!!!

For those of you that do not already know earlier last year we were expecting our first child but lost it at 10 weeks, but are now expecting again! I am currently 20 weeks along today and I'm blessed to say this pregnancy has been a dream come true! I had morning sickness during my 1st trimester, but nothing compared to the last time and as soon as I hit my 2nd trimester I felt great and have felt great ever since! I felt the baby for the first time at about 16 weeks which of course was just a flutter but any kind of movement is exciting! The first time I actually felt the baby kick and I mean kick hard was at 17 weeks and the next day the baby was kicking so hard my husband could feel it on the outside! Since then the baby has moved more and more and though it doesn't always feel pleasant I don't dare complain because I know it's a great thing :)

Yesterday was our second ultrasound since finding out we were expecting and also the day we got to find out the sex of the baby! Before the appointment I called to see if there was anyway to have the ultrasound recorded because we had both read about people doing that, but when I called they said they had no way of doing that. So we decided we would just bring a video camera and video it ourselves, but unfortunately due to hospital regulations we weren't able to do that :(

Anyways the ultrasound lasted about an hour and I must say that was the longest hour of my life. One: the ultrasound screen was faced away from me and the way they have it set up is either to me or the tech so of course I only saw 5 minutes of the whole hour while my husband got to see it all.

Two: The pressure of the baby kicking while the ultrasound tech is pressing down on my stomach was not at all comfortable.

Thankfully after all the measurements were done she revealed what we are having! Before the ultrasound had began we made one last guess. I guessed boy and my husband guessed girl. At first she was only 90 % sure but by time she was done she said she was 100% sure. She was having a hard time seeing because the baby was laying with its back to her so her only views were from the top of the head down and the butt which of course the baby's legs were crossed, but after all that time she was able to see enough to determine it.

After the ultrasound we got 3 pictures out of the million she took for the file which were all of the baby's face which just looked like a skull except it is our little skull. Then we saw the doctor for a minute and got to go have another ultrasound in two weeks. Thankfully everything is fine they just couldn't get the picture they wanted of the baby's heart because of the way it was laying the spine kept casting a shadow on it. So hopefully then we will get some more pictures and re-confirm the sex!

We wanted to tell our immediate family in a special way so I decided to have them over at my mother in-laws for dinner and cupcakes (which would reveal the sex in the center) later that night! I am no baker but here are the cupcakes I made:

Of course because no one could wait any longer so we ended up having the cupcakes before dinner! It was crazy watching some rip them apart while others took a huge bite, but all in all it was a fun way to get to tell them!

Even though like most men my husband really wanted a boy and I wanted a girl more, but personally a boy first, we couldn't be happier with the outcome and can't wait to welcome our precious baby girl in May :)

Chicken and Dog Update

OK. So were are finally settled in at the Tabs parents. We got the chickens and their coop moved and the dogs set up in a 10x20 kennel, they still come in at night though. I took an old dog house my dad had that he never used and set that up for them. This property is sort of set up on top of a hill so it can get pretty windy. They have a tarp across half of the kennel top and down the back side to provide some wind protection. I really don't like keeping them in there but so far they seem to like it just fine. I've got pine needles packed around the sides and underneath for insulation. I put a wireless thermometer inside the dog house and I have a wireless weather station set up at the dog kennel. I can monitor the temp inside the dog house and outside weather conditions. It was warm today but earlier this morning there was a 10 degree difference inside the dog house. Most days when its been cold it has still been about 5 degrees warmer in there. I think its probably warmer than that to them though because they have been getting in the dog house together. The chicken coop is pretty much set up the same as it was at our old house. I am still having a problem with one of the hens sleeping and pooping in one of the nesting boxes. I have tried blocking it off and nothing seems to work. It stinks because I keep getting poopy eggs out of that box. Even with the colder weather and short days I have still been getting 4 to 5 eggs a day.

Now that we are out of the neighborhood we were in we are able to let our chickens free range when we are home during the day. We still have to keep an eye out for the random roaming dog or the hawks but so far no issues.

This setup if working out pretty good so far... We will have to see how the tarp handles snow if we ever get any.

You can see their guinea pen in the trees a little in this one. Also now that Roostie has been gone for a while that hen on the right is the boss and sure enough today she tried to peck at me. At least the hens don't hurt. Also if you remember a while back I said I was working on teaching the dogs not to eat the chickens. Well today the dogs and I were in the yard throwing the ball and playing. After a while they laid down and chewed on some bones. While they were resting one of the chickens came over to check them out and walked right up to their faces and all around them and they didn't ever react to the chickens so I guess that means the training is going good.

and a final sunset picture across the field.

Also we got our building permit finally last week so we should begin clearing any day now.....

And some even bigger news coming next week.............

Smoked Turkey Thanksgiving #2

We have been packing and moving the last few weeks and are now settled in at the In-Laws(Tabs Side). Long story short it was a pain!

I have been wanting to cook a turkey since I never have and i figured there was no reason to only have the Thanksgiving meal once. We don't get any leftovers from thanksgiving since we go to someone elses house. I went to the store on Saturday and they had their large birds half off. So I bought a 24.5 lb bird for $9.68. Once I got home I realized that a bird that big cooked on the smoker would stay in the 40 - 140 danger zone too long. So I cut the bird up and smoked it that way. I was just so tired of getting dry baked turkeys all my life that I had to find a better way. It cooked quicker than I expected(I usually just smoke ribs and butts). The breast turned out pretty good. They were a little too smokey but with gravy on them were perfect. All very tender and moist. The legs were okay. I think i should have left them on a little longer. The skin felt crispy but was more like leather to chew. It was still way better than a baked turkey. Next time I will use less smoke and a little higher temperature. I left for church after I put it on so it didn't get as much attention as it might have needed while cooking.

House Update

Well nothing has really happened on the house building part. We are kinda stuck in the permit application phase. We are working with the builder to finalize the contract and that's not easy when you want as many things as we want yet have already maxed out the budget. We will find a way though. Hopefully everything except the building permit will get completed this week and we will just have that to wait on.

We have started packing since we have to be out of our house by the 28th of this month and it is not fun! We also have to find arrangements to keep the dogs and chickens in while we are living with Tab's parents. They are coming with us but I have to make sure whatever they stay in is temporary and yet still secure enough. With Thanksgiving coming up and hunting season being in full swing it should be a busy few weeks.

This is a veiw down the road that cuts through our property. It is an easement for the few people that live on this road. Our property is on the left side of this road.

We Sold our House!

Well we thought we sold our house in the spring and then after the bank drug the process out as long as possible they denied the buyers at the last minute. Then a few weeks later the same buyers found approval from a different lender and everything went through just fine. We have to be out by 11/28 and then we will live with family until our house is complete sometime in the spring. I meet with the lot clearer this past Saturday and we walked off the area that will be cleared as well as the driveway. I can't wait to see what it will look like after it is cleared. I doubt any of that will start for about a month.

Roostie Is GONE!

After many debates and weeks on Craigslist I finally found someone to take Roostie. He had gotten to the point that whenever I went around the coop he would puff up and try to attack me through the wire. The coop is much more peace full now and the hens don't really seem to care that he is gone. Maybe in the spring I will add a new rooster to the flock. We also plan on doing some meat birds next year!

Not sure why we haven't been posting. We will have to make some update post on our Apple orchard Trip, applesauce, apple cider and apple butter making.

Irene

It's been busy around here with all the earthquakes and the Hurricane. Last weekend we had Hurricane Irene come through. A lot of the local forecasters were forecasting that it would stay well east of us or that the wind would not be significant. There was even a local NBC forecaster who was saying we wouldn't even get any rain. They were way off. If you were around for Isabelle it was pretty much the same thing. There was a lot of rain and a LOT of wind with gust over 70 mph. There were tons of trees down all over the Richmond area. We actually got it worse in Richmond than they did in the Virginia Beach area.
There are about 9 oak trees in our back yard and 4 of them are close to the house and HUGE. I didn't expect anything to happen to them because they are close to each other and I figured the roots probably are intertwined. There are some dead branches though on some of the other trees and I was actually hoping they would blow down. Well absolutely nothing blew down in our yard. Nothing but little twigs and leaves. I guess we were lucky because some of our neighbors had it much worse. One house had a tree fall right through the middle of it. Tabs Grandfather down the street from us had a big oak fall on his house. At least he had moved his cars because that tree fell right across his driveway where he normally parks before it hit his house. Across the street from us there was another big tree that fell right across the power line and kept us without power for 5 days.

 Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done but water was running into his house so I went over in the middle of the storm and helped cut the tree.

 this is were his cars normally are

 This guy made a bad decision. I went around another way to get home.

I had hoped to make a little extra money after the storm by cutting up trees but the neighbors had so many trees down that I have spent the last week cutting their trees and hauling the wood to our future home site. We should have enough firewood now to easily get us though next winter. I haven't has a wood stove since I lived in my parents house and I have no idea how much wood we will need but I am very confident we have enough. I took 4 loads down from the storm and I already had a huge pile from clearing for the food plot.  That's not counting all the trees I will go around and cut up this winter that are down on our property from the storm. Now I just need to build one of those awesome wood sheds like they have over at Against the Grain ( http://againstthegrainhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/06/okay-wind-is-in-my-favor-today.html )