Author Archives: Greg Thames

3 Weeks

Comment 1 Standard

It’s hard to believe 3 weeks has already passed since our sweet Abigail joined us.  I know I am echoing many past mothers by saying it goes so fast BUT it goes so FAST!  And I am so bummed but our camera is missing again.  I have not seen it since April 30th in the hospital.  I am 95% sure it came home with us but we have not been able to locate it.  A call to the hospital also turned up nothing.  Such a bad time to loose it!  So I am relying on friends with cameras to capture these fleeting days.  Like the one above taken on chicken butchering day. (more on that later…I hope). 

How about a little Abigail information.  My brain is currently working to form words so I am going to take advantage of it. (I got a nap today 🙂  Abigail Louise was born on April 30 at 11:18 pm.  Greg and I have loved the name Abigail for a long time and we knew if we had another girl Abigail would be their name.  She gets her middle name, Louise, from Greg’s grandma. 

Contractions had started that morning but nothing close enough to get excited about.  I new I would go crazy sitting at home waiting so we piled into the car and went on the hunt for some garage sales.  Things didn’t start to get exciting until that evening around 5:30 or so.  Things were going smoothly.  We were able to get the kids dinner and into bed before calling the sitter and heading to the hospital at 9:00. 

We arrived at the hospital at 9:20 and were pretty much the only ones there.  I think we met every nurse on duty that night.  At 11:18 Greg announced “It’s a Girl!”  She was our first “surprise” baby and it was so sweet to hear those words.  For as active and crazy as she was in the womb she was calm and quiet when she came out.  She made a squeak or two but mostly just lay on my chest just looking around.  When the nurses moved her for a second to get a warm blanket on her she grabbed hold of my chin.  She weighed in at 7 lbs 3 oz and 20 inches long. 

Abigail has been a wonderful baby.  She has been sleeping around 4-5hour stretches at night.  During the day I have been trying to feed her every 3 hours.  This is hard at times when your busy with a million other things and the last thing you want to do is stop to wake a peaceful, sleeping baby but, I have noticed the days I let her sleep mean our nights don’t go as well. 

Zoe is still so excited to have a sister.  When asked what her favorite part of having a baby is she replied, “Holding her.”  She reads books to Abigail and sings to her if she is upset in the car.  Most of the time it works wonders.  I never thought I would hear myself say “Keep singing, Zoe!”

Zeke and Oliver love their baby.  Pictures I have missed capturing the most are the ones of the boys holding her.  They are so proud.  They are always quick to alert me if she starts to get upset.  Zeke will sit next to me and rub her head.  Oliver finds it nessecicary to hold her hand while she is getting dressed or her diaper changed. 

We are so blessed to have her as a part of our family.  And while I don’t want these days to go by so fast I am excited to watch her grow and learn.

She is here!!!

Comments 2 Standard

Proudly introducing the new member of our family…….

Abigail Louise Thames 7lbs 3oz

She was born April 30, 2011 at 11:18pm.  She is 20 inches long (tall).

God is good all the time!!

First family gathering

Our TWO girls!!! 🙂

And cooking…

Comment 1 Standard

Well, the due date (Wednesday) has come and gone.  Still no baby.  My doctor isn’t concerned and I’m not either…just ready.  Last night I was having enough contractions to actually start writing down times but as soon as I sat down they all stopped.  But we made good use of our due date and got baby pigs instead!  At least some sort of baby came into the Thames household (farm-hold?) I guess. 

So there they are.  I believe we have decided on the names Mr. Pork Chop (left) and Smoked (right).  It was fun this year to actually be able to pick out which ones we wanted.  The person we got them from had a couple that were black and white (pink i guess) so we got one of those to make it easier to tell them apart they look so cute.  We ended up with two boys.  We didn’t plan it that way it just so happened.  I don’t know if it will make a difference.  Last year we had two girls.  If nothing else they should be bigger in the end. 

I had forgotten how cute they are at this age.  They love their house.  They completely bury themselves in the straw at night and they sleep in in the morning.  Our last pigs weren’t early risers either.  Maybe it’s just the pig way.  Works for me.  I’m not much of a (happy) early riser either.

Things are still cooking…

Standard

Just an update to let you know baby is still hanging out in the womb.  Moving and grooving as always.  The countdown on the website was wrong.  My due date isn’t really until the 27th (2 more days!)  So we’re hanging in there.  Greg was off last week and that would have worked out best for scheduling but I guess our schedule isn’t high on baby’s priority list. 

My doctors and my doula have all stressed the fact that I need to go in to be checked for labor the second I feel like there may be anything at all happening.  I guess non of them liked me arriving 2o minutes before delivery last time.  At least we didn’t waist anyone’s time.  I am ready for this part to be over and to finally hold this sweet baby but at the same time I am not really ready for the labor part.  I know it’s not the highlight for most women but all of my deliveries have been so drastically different that I really have no idea what to expect.  It almost feels like a first baby.  Only the Lord knows how it will all play out and when and we are just trusting in his way and time. 

In the meantime how about a soap making post.  A friend and I have been experimenting with making soap.  WAY back in June 2010 we made our first batch.  We were inspired by another friends blog and step by step instructions (with pictures).   It took much longer than we were expecting but we did end up with some wonderful soap and a lot of lessons learned.  We have done a re-batch of the soap to have some variations (more lessons learned) and our last batch was lard soap. 

I will say so far the lard soap was my favorite to make.  It’s still curing so I haven’t even been able to use it but I am sure it will be a favorite.  It was a lot faster to make and we were able to apply some of our education to make the experience a little more streamline.  I am loving the homemade soap.  I have been using is exclusively on my skin for a while now and I will say there is a noticeable difference.  I love it.  We have about 1 more week before we can try our lard soap and I am so excited.  It smells so good!  Greg has requested a regular no frills soap though.  No problem!  We can do that (right after this baby comes out).

For memories sake it must be recorded that the kids have made a few interesting comments about the soap.  First off Zoe was scared of the lavender/oatmeal soap we made.  For a while she wouldn’t use the downstairs shower because the oats and lavender flowers in the soap scared her.  Another soap we made was a spiced oat bar.  Supposed to be manly and all.  We thought it looked like no bake cookies but the kids thought it looked like…well…poop.  One bar we had in the main bathroom had softened with use and could be molded.  Unfortunately, the most comfortable shape to use it in was more of a log than a bar.     

Baby Update

Leave a comment Standard

I realized I haven’t done any baby/pregnancy updates recently.  With less than a month to go I figured I better do one quick.  So things are going pretty good.  Baby is still super, super active.  No worries on that front.  All measurements are text book.  At my last appointment the doctor said this may be my 8 pound baby.  To which I just said, “hmm”.  8 lbs is big for my babies (I know Ruth, sorry)  I like my small babies.  They start out small but grow fast.  Works for me. 

I somehow didn’t plan my schedule too well for my last month of pregnancy and have one of my busiest months ever.  At least it feels that way.  My brain is more gone this time than any pregnancy in the past.  Normal I guess.  I actually had to get a planner and write everything down the second I plan it.  I was even loosing tract of Greg’s work schedule.  It’s a crazy one I know but we’ve been doing it for a few years now and I had it down.  In the last few weeks I draw a complete blank.  I feel like Dori on Finding Nemo.  “Nothin’ in my noggin.”

We do not know if we are having a boy or girl.  I think some posts I wrote ‘he’ but we have no idea.  I don’t suspect either way this time.  Zoe is so excited for the baby.  Her big test is to give me a hug and see if she can touch her fingers.  At last measure she was off about an inch.   We haven’t done much to get ready for baby.  I have a few baby clothes left from Zoe but I don’t know what. We got tired of moving them over and over again so we did get rid of quite a bit when we moved this last time.  If it’s a boy we are definitely set and I actually know where they are.

And Chicks

Comment 1 Standard

The latest (but not last) addition to our mini farm were broilers (AKA meat chicks).  We did 3 a couple years ago as a little experiment and I was not too crazy about it.  So this year we are doing 35 (well 34 now.  We lost one).

 

Greg as built these little guys (and or girls) a nice little chicken tractor that we will move around the back yard each day.  About another week and they will be moved from this area to thier tractor.  (pictures of that later)

We will only have to keep the broilers for 2 months before they are ready for processing.  Still not something I am looking forward to but again, thanks to good, knowlegeble freinds who are willing to help we will try out this new adventure.  And don’t you worry…I’ll keep you updated 🙂

 

Our little flock

Comments 3 Standard

Well, Greg and I had talked about getting sheep…in the future.  The purpose of the sheep would be for meat.  We are not into the wool thing or milking (sorry Jen).  We had done a little research on the kind we would get if we went that route but that was about it.  Well, remember how I said we rushed to get the pig pen done and then we were without pigs?  Greg made one last attempt to find pigs at the animal auction.  There were no pigs but I received a text from him a little while after the auction started stating I was now the new proud owner of 2 sheep.  Sheep?  What?  I thought that was a future prospect.  Folks…the future is now!

We are indeed the proud new owners of two sheep.   They are Katahdin or African Hair Sheep.  They don’thave wool but hair that is shed each year.  I teased him he just wanted an animal to put in that great pen he made.  Didn’t really matter what it was 🙂  Turns out it was a mama and baby combo.  No idea how old either of them were.  He came home to pick us up and the truck to bring them home.  Now, on they way there he tells me “I don’t know if I can eat them Merriann.  They are really cute.”  That’s what I was afraid of!!!  Pigs and cows are nasty when they get big.  Easy to put in the freezer.  Sheep…still cute.  The other thing.  Their names.  The mama is Lily (named by Zoe) and the baby is Shannon (named by Greg).  Do those sound like food names to you?  Nope.  We had an agreement.  Any animal we were going to eat was going to have a food name.

Thank goodness for the Internet because we had to give ourselves a quick study on sheep care and run to the feed store for some food.  At least they were safe in the pen and had water.  I am also thankful for friends that didn’t think we were totally insane for getting an animal we knew so little about.  We have had a lot of fun learning as we go.  We have a guesstimate Lily is about 4 years.  Shannon is a little more confusing.  She seems so small but what looking at her teeth she looks to be over a year.  Somewhere between 12 -18 months.  We will have to look into that one some more. 

Greg has made them a pen of their own so when we do get pigs (hopefully in May) we’ll be ready.  Their own house is on the list of things to do.  We are trying to decide if we will be breading these two or eating them.  Lily is a bit on the old side for eating and Shannon is so cute!  Again, We’ll see how that goes.  Sheep are pretty easy (at least from what our vast knowledge and experience has shown us) so we wouldn’t mind getting a little flock going and breading. 

Picnics

Standard

Zoe loves picnics.  And she loves using her tea set.  She was so excited to see the sun shining on our front porch (the only place the sun was hitting) she had to get out her tea set and have lunch outside.  Needless to say it wasn’t actually warm outside and they soon had to put their sweatshirts on but, they had a blast with the first picnic of the season.

Pig Pen

Comment 1 Standard

One of our first projects was building a secure pig pen.  Last year we had a few problems with the pigs getting out.  This year we are doing all we can to keep them in.  We set up hog panels and electric fencing around the bottom.  Greg also built this board walk type thing around much of the pen.  The pen will not be green for long.  It will soon just look like a dirt/mud pit as the pigs do what they do best…root.  The board walk will help keep us out of the mud when we need to go inside and it should keep them from being able to ground out the electric fencing with dirt.

Zoe helping by balancing things on a stick 🙂

Greg built this fabulous pig house and even bought me Bard Red and white paint.  I am a sucker for red barns.  We don’t have enough room to actually have a barn but at least our animal houses will be my favorite colors.  We are hoping to get many years of use out of it.  The kids had fun playing in it…at least until it starts to stink.  The house and most of the pen were completed in one day.  As is often the case in this area we were being threatened with rain.  All was fine until we opened the can of paint.  We were expecting to get our little piggies the next day and had to get the house painted before they got in there.  Thankfully, it never started  raining too much so we just kept painting.  It is just a pig house after all.  We were able to get all the red and most of the roof painted white before having to call it quits.  Unfortunately, after the rush to get this done we were not able to get the piggies.  Apparently pigs are hard to come by this early in the year and the man we were getting them from had accidentally over promised and was out.  Oh well.  We have a great home from the ones we are scheduled to get in May.