Cloth diapers!

Initially we were going to use disposable diapers for convenience.  But then I started checking into the "new" cloth diapers.  Mostly because of cost savings, but also since they are so much better for the environment.  Our first concern was "do they work well"?  Then our next concern was "how gross will it be to wash poopy diapers"?  The products touts that they work with as small as 8 lb babies, but the sales folks said they recommend 10 lbs.  We waited until he was about 11 lbs.  We used disposables while Samuel was little and still keep them on hand while we are out and about. 

I have to say... we've been very happy with them so far!  We've only had one leak and that was my fault... we finished an early morning feeding and he went right back to sleep, so I opted to let him go instead of changing him.  By the time he woke up again, he'd wet through the diaper.  Also, he's had no diaper rash since we've started using them, which is another benefit the product boasts.  The biggest draw is that the diapers go on like disposables with Velcro closures.  The only difference is that you have to pull a liner out (that is what soaks up the urine) and wash them every few days.  Oh yeah, and rinse a poopy diaper sometimes.  Then when they're washed, I sit down and reinsert all the liners at once and we're ready to go for a few more days.  We figure over the 3 years or so that he'll wear diapers, we'll save roughly $1500 and put about 5000 less diapers into a landfill.  Not to shabby! 



Sporting a yellow cloth diaper.  He also has orange, blue, light green and dark green.



Bluebirds

Our real estate agent gave us a bird bath as a housewarming gift shortly after we closed on the farm.  It didn't take long for it to get some use!  Birds love splashing around in it.  Here is a pic of two bluebirds in it at the same time.  There were up to four at one point, but I couldn't get a good picture of them.

Lunch time

Take a hike!

Here are pics from a walk Dan, Samuel and I took recently through our property:

Our pond behind the barn...

The side of our house from the pasture right behind the yard...

Leaves turning red during fall...

A funny looking tree and our closest neighbor.  This is about half way back of our property...

Dan and Samuel in front of a fall tree...

One of the prettiest fall trees I've ever seen!...

The "lower" pasture...

An inquisitive cow as we were walking though the pasture...

Cows on pasture...

1-month check up

Samuel had his 1-month check up today with his pediatrician.  Her first comment when she came into the room was "He's a BIG boy!".  He's 23 1/2 inches long now and weighs 11 lbs, 14 oz.  She said his height is "off the charts".  When I asked if his weight in proportion to his height was ok, she said it was perfect and that he's definitely not a chubby baby.  Hard to believe since he's been eating 4oz at every feeding for the past two weeks already.  He's going to eat us out of house and home already.  I thought that didn't start until teenage years?!?

Building a coop

One of the first building projects here on the farm was to get a new chicken coop set up. Dan decided to build a lean-to attached to the existing barn. He and Danny completed the structure, but it still had no roof and the coop still needed to be painted. While his Mom and Dad were visiting at the end of September/beginning of October, they got the roof structure mostly done and the coop painted.

Here's Dan giving his dad a ride in the hay wagon. The reason for the tractor ride was to go to the back of the property where the previous owners left a pile of metal roofing sheets. Dan, being the Yankee he is, reused these old metal sheets for the coop roof.

Amby bed

Samuel loves his Amby bed that our friend Kim gave us.  It's more or less a baby hammock.  I think he likes it because he sits up a little versus laying flat in a crib and he feels more cocooned.

Big yawn!!!

More cows...

1 month old

Samuel's 1-month old pictures:

Cows

Our "neighbor" has about 30+ head of cattle and about 100 acres.  Since we don't have sheep yet, he runs his cattle on our property to help keep the grass down.  Our pasture comes pretty close up to the house... here are his cattle from our back window.

Time with Daddy

All clean and swaddled after bath time.

Feeding time.

Waiting for Samuel to settle down.

Baby Samuel

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few weeks.  Baby Samuel arrived on 9-10-10 and has been the center of attention lately.  Now that things have 'somewhat' settled down, I'm hoping I can get back to regular posts.  I plan on wandering around our property this week to snap some photos to show you the new farm.  In the meantime, here is Samuel Richard shortly after he was born...

Mr. Cow

Samuel loves his toy that our friend Lisa gave us.  We've named him Mr. Cow.  He's also wearing a cute outfit given to us by our friend Dawn.  Daddy gave Samuel some help grabbing hold of Mr. Cow.

Just hangin' out

Samuel is taking a rest on Mommy & Daddy's bed, sporting an outfit sent to him by our friend Jeane.

Happy baby

If this isn't a happy baby, I don't know what is!

I love the grin and giant booties!

First swing ride

First bath!

Samuel's first bath was received with mixed emotions.  For him... not me.

Children's hospital

We were instructed to return to the hospital the day after being released so Samuel could have blood work done to see how his bilirubin count was (jaundice).  We were on our way home when Samuel's pediatrician called to say his levels were dangerously high and we needed to go to St. Louis Children's Hospital soon so Samuel could be admitted.  We did a u-turn and headed right there.  We spent 2 1/2 days at Children's where they took fantastic care of Samuel and me.  Two things likely caused his bilirubin levels to get so high: 1) he was dehydrated... probably not getting enough breast milk yet, so we supplemented with formula and an IV and 2) my blood type is O and his is B, which can cause a conflict in babies early on.  The doctors tried taking Samuel off his light therapy on Tuesday, but his bilirubin levels went back up.  Finally Wednesday afternoon, his levels held steady after being off light therapy for 6 hours, so we got to go home.

Samuel's bili-bed.  Or the baby tanning bed as we called it.

Bili bed

Early on day three, the nurses noticed Samuel was yellowing from jaundice.  While at the hospital, he spent most of day three in a bili bed in the nursery.  We were sent home with a portable bed to help get rid of the jaundice.  He actually loved being in there.  I guess the warmth and hum from the bed reminded him of being in the womb.

Day 3

Today we got to go home from the hospital.  Yay!

Samuel clasped his hands together all on his own!

Contemplating something?

Zonked out!

Still snoozing...

I love his little smile while he's sleeping.

 

Flowers from my sister, Cathy.

Day 2

Samuel and Mommy on day 2 at the hospital.

Samuel Richard Thayer

Samuel was born 9/10/10 at 2:22pm in St. Louis, MO.  He weighed 9lbs 4oz and was 22 1/4 inches long.  I went into the hospital at 8pm on the 9th to be induced.  The first stage of labor started around 2:30am on the 10th and my water broke shortly afterward around 3am.  By noon my nursing staff had me pushing trying to deliver.  However, Samuel decided he wasn't quite ready and I was worn out.  My doctor came in around 2pm, did an exam and said that with the help of a vacuum he was pretty confident he could get Samuel out and hopefully avoid a Cesarean.  A few short minutes later, Samuel joined the Thayer Family!

So without further adieu, here is Samuel Richard Thayer:

Minutes after he was born being cleaned up and getting his first Apgar exam...

About 40 minutes after Samuel arrived.

Close-up of picture above.  What a sweety!

After his trip to the nursery to get a bath.

Close-up of above picture.

FINALLY... broody-less chickens

For months we've had a broody chicken, Blackie.  You've seen her before on our blog.  This is the second time she's gone broody.  The first time was for several weeks, then one day she just hopped out of the coop as if nothing happened.  She stayed out a few weeks, then went broody again and has been ever since.  It's been at least a month or two.  We actually started discussing butchering her.  After all, the purpose of a hen is to provide eggs and well, she's not.  To make matters worse, she seems to have taught two other hens how to be broody... one of our Buff Orphingtons and an Ameracauna went broody also.  Fantastic! 

So last weekend we started disucssing butchering again.  Then out of the blue, Blackie started coming out of the coop a little bit.  So we watched and held off butchering.  Then she started coming out each day just like the other girls.  And it seemed that if Blackie was going to come out, the Buff and the Ameracauna didn't have any interest in staying in the coop either, so they've been coming out every day too!  FINALLY! 

That's not to say she/they won't go broody again, but 1) we can hope and 2) at least our egg production will be up in the meantime.

Farm takes backstage

Today I'm 39-weeks pregnant (9-months for you non week-to-month converting folks) and had my weekly prenatal checkup.  I've been having some pretty miserable pregnancy related side-effects and just last week was told Samuel is a tad big and they want to keep an eye on his size.  Today I told my doctor all of my woes and how one in particular - severe itching all over - is unbearable.  I expected him to say something like 'it will all be over soon', but instead he said 'I think we need to deliver this baby'.  WHOA, say what? After a few minutes of discussion, I agreed.  So, tomorrow night at 8pm (yes, PM!) we go to the hospital to start the inducement process.

My point in telling you all of this is because there will be less going on here at the farmstead than normal.  Well, let me clarify... Dan will be doing a lot over the next week since we still have to get coops and pig-pens setup at the farm and ultimately need to move 5 pigs, 23 hens and 10 roosters, oh and the rest of our furniture.  However, since I'm the designated blog updater and will be busy the next few days giving birth, then afterward learning how to care for a newborn... all the while trying to ensure I don't get peed on while changing diapers... it's safe to say blog updates may be sporadic.

Dan and I are so blessed to work for a great company that gives 3-months fully paid maternity/paternity leave to Mom's and Dad's.  This is of course supposed to be time to bond with your baby, which it will be.  But it will also give us time to bond with our new farm.  =)

This past weekend

This past weekend Dan and Brian processed 29 broilers.  I stood by for moral support, fetched supplies and packaged the birds after they cooled and rested a bit.  This batch of broilers were Red Broilers, which aren't as genetically modified as the Cornish X's we raised last time.  Although this makes us feel better, they sure were small birds.  We discussed trying Cornish X's again from a different supplier and butchering them a little earlier then we did last time, so they don't get to the point of having leg/joint issues.  We'll see.  We're still trying to decide if this will be the last batch of the year or if we want to squeeze one more in for a late fall processing.  It will probably all depend on whether we can get the brooder and chicken tractor moved to the new farm in time. 

Stay tuned....

The new and improved Thayer Family Farm!!!

One week ago we closed on the new and improved Thayer Family Farm. We are so excited to finally have found a property that we both love.  I love the house, which is where I spend a good portion of my time.  Dan loves the 60 acres of land.

Moving has presented a bit of a challenge since I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant and Dan has to do most of the moving by himself.  Our goal is to get as much as we can to the farm before Samuel gets here, then we can move the rest later.  However, we need to get the current house on the market as soon as we can, so we can't dilly-dally either.  We'll be sure to get pics of the farm up as we get coops, pig-pens, etc set up.  Here are a few general pics that we have though.

Front of the house...

Barn, where some of the animals will be housed near...

One of the many pastures....

2-weeks ago....

Two weeks ago Dan and Brian butchered rabbits.  A total of 11... 3 adult (stewing) and 8 young rabbits.  Processing rabbit is quite a bit different then poultry and goes pretty quickly.  They had all 11 done in about an hour.  I'm looking forward to having our first rabbit dinner... we haven't decided what we're making yet though.

Oh, and remember our turkey that flew the coop trying to avoid being butchered?  She didn't escape this time.  Now we have 9 turkeys in the freezer.  It's going to be fantastic having antibiotic free turkey we raised for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner this year!

3-weeks ago....

Sorry there hasn't been a post in quite a while.  To say we have a lot going on is an understatement.  Let me try to get caught up with some of the recent goings-on.

3 weeks ago Dan butchered turkeys.  Except for one that seemed to figure out what was going on and flew the coop.  Literally.  We have a 6-foot high barb-wired fence that separates us from a Girl Scout Equestrian Camp.  The turkey flew over the fence while Dan was trying to catch her.  Later, she realized where her food and water was and wanted back over, but couldn't figure out how.  Finally the next day she figured it out and flew back over.  Since all her turkey buddies were gone, she started hanging out with chickens during the day.  A pretty funny sight.

As far as the butchering, Dan's decided he really likes turkeys better than chickens.  Everything is larger, therefore, easier to eviscerate.  However, he doesn't like that 1) turkeys really aren't very smart and 2) if his truck is left outside, they use the hood as a roost.  One nice thing about the new farm is that the pasture and yard will be two distinct areas, so we won't have to worry about hood-roosting.