Rachael Eliker's Blog, page 41

Maze Runners

Jack and Henry working on the maze.It's no secret that Jack is the fun parent. For example, when I get on the mower, I want mow quickly and efficiently and do my best to avoid running over little children as I raze down straight-ish lines. When Jack mows, he has the kids sit on his lap, they go speeding off, laughing and screaming, and if they get tired of mowing straight lines, they twist and turn until they've created a maze.
The finished product.In the back pasture is a somewhat unutil...

Lucky Rooster

Big, beautiful Twinkle.Twinkle is one lucky rooster.
A few years ago, we were given three Easter chicks, who all ended up being roosters. Twinkle, who should have been a hen, was the one fortunate rooster who didn't end up butchered. He's had a good life, watching over a small flock of hens and given free range to roam as he pleased. As far as roosters went, he was a pretty good one, though once in a while, he got the boot when he confused the kids or us as a threat and came flying with spurs...

Meaningful Milestone

Another milestone has come. It may be unimpressive to others, (especially successful bloggers who see the kind of traffic that I've seen in five years in one month on their site) but to me, it is satisfying to check it off my 2017 goals. More than simply numbers, having over 750,000 pageviews is an encouragement to continue writing, which, when it boils down to it, is a personal journal for our family and a way to share with family and friends, near and far. So, perhaps unimpressive, but stil...

Kate

Happy birthday Kate!Every time a birthday rolls around, it brings on some serious reminiscing. With Kate, we remember our time in Iowa, which is now coming up on five years since we left. Kate was the last of our Iowa babies and she was born at a very stressful yet exciting time. Literally. She showed up in the wee hours (on my sister's birthday) and between ISU's career fair and Jack having several important, career-deciding interviews. To say she was a happy miracle in our family is a...

How Did We Get Here?

We've been at New Harmony for a couple of weeks and things are settling down (a little...). Now that it's starting to feel more like home, I've been reminiscing. We've been married ten years and in that time, have lived in eight different places, three of those being houses we've owned. So, just how did we get here? Remember our first homestead in Iowa? Yeah, it was pathetic. Like, really horrible. We're talking missing windows, rotting floor beneath the leaky toilet, warped flo...

Hurts So Good

You'd better believe they make triple jogging strollers!One of the activities I've lamented foregoing the past few months is running. I continue to have a love/hate relationship with jogging but I really love the feeling of being in good shape. The problem is, I have to get into shape before I can truly appreciate the feeling.
Raven loooooves running and she helps pull!Once we got settled into the house, I figured I get back into the running routine. Believe me, I tried. I tried waki...

Dolly

Everyone else wanted to clean stalls. Who am I to say no?Yesterday was a day like most of our Saturdays. We slept in a little (and by a little, I mean about ten minutes) and after breakfast, we went to the barn to tidy up. The girls and Jack cleaned some stalls and loaded them with shavings, while Henry swept the aisles clean.
Everyone took turns babysitting (because babies like being in the middle of the action, too!). Evelyn is going to replace me as mother soon...We put pallets into the loft...

Double Duty

A few weeks ago, Claire came to me, complaining of something hard stuck in her gums, right behind her baby teeth. Turns out, it was her adult teeth, poking through in the wrong spot. So, Claire wiggled and wiggle those baby teeth but try as she might, they just wouldn't budge.

Then Kate accidentally kicked her in the face. You see, Kate has a knack for accidentally kicking people in the face and this time, it came in handy. Tooth number one popped out without much effort. A day later, the secon...

Second First Day

Nothing like smiling straight into the sun!At the beginning of August, the girls had their first day of school, take one, but since we moved, they got to have a second first day. There were a lot of nerves and anticipation about being the new kid at school, so we'd gone before we moved to take a tour. To say the school was tiny is an understatement. Hoping to make the best choice for our girls, we concerns were put to rest after we spoke to a few of the staff, teachers, and the principal...

Labor Day

Ah, Labor Day. I suppose most people probably take the day off to rest from their labors but for some reason, we have it in our head that labor day means you work. So, our project of choice today was fixing up the front pasture.
While the fencing around the pasture--the posts, the wires, the corners--are in decent shape, the entire fence was riddled with weeds, which wouldn't be that much of a problem except the fence is supposed to be electric. That means that every time the electri...