I Live in Kansas and I Butcher Chickens.

Two things I never, ever thought I'd say.  The count is 3 now.  Yup.  Three chickens we have butchered.  One was a meat bird, destined to be in our freezer from the start.  Kenneth only bought her because she was such a cute chick (man, she sure did grow up to be an ugly bird!!!!).  The other 2 ended up being roosters.  Let me tell you I am sure getting better sleep the last 2 mornings with those guys gone!  I was starting to get really stressed out.  Not only for my sleep, or lack thereof, but for my neighbors.  Yes, I live in Kansas, but I do not live out in the middle of nowhere.  We live in a regular old neighborhood.  Roosters are not really welcome!!  Luckily, most of our neighbors actually grew up on farms, so it's not like it's a noise they haven't heard before.  Plus, they are are so nice, I don't think anyone would give us a hard time about it, but still, my stress level in the mornings has lowered significantly, for which I am grateful. 
Now, I know you all want the nitty-gritty details, right?  If you don't, skim down a ways and I'll share more fun stuff that's gone on around here. . .

The first chicken to be butchered was "White-ea".  The kids named her, of course.  We butchered this one not too long after we returned from our long trip.  She was getting to be too big to even walk around very well! 
The kids were amazingly okay with us butchering her and witnessed the whole event.  All Arianna could talk about was getting to eat her wing when we cooked her.  (One of Arianna's favorite meals is a whole chicken cooked in the crock-pot)  Now, when I say 'I' butcher chickens, of course I mean 'we' and when I say 'we' butcher chickens, I really mean 'Kenneth' butchers chickens.  I did help with the plucking.  That counts, right?  Plus Kenneth and I are a team, so sure it counts!

Here are the pictures of that:

Saying goodbye to the old girl

Then.  See? Wasn't she an adorable chick?

Now.  White-ea in all her glory.  To my friends in Liverpool:  Yes, this is the very same chicken I impersonated.

Daddy stringing her up.  We couldn't do it on a block- couldn't have a headless chicken running around our fenceless yard!

 

Relaxed and ready to go.

 

I spared you the picture of the deheading.  After that step you dip her in 180 degree water to loosen the feathers.

All plucked.  It actually wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would have been.

We turned it into a science lesson and showed the kids all the insides.  They were intruiged.

Once she was all cleaned up, she was still over 7 pounds!  Big girl! (After I wrote this whole thing Kenneth tells me he thinks she was a he.  Oh well.)

The roosters we just butchered 2 nights ago.  I didn't take nearly as many pictures, but here are a few: 

Here's one handsome rooster.  Zebree is was his name.

One last picture all together.

Grant saying goodbye.

Arianna had to say one last goodbye.  They were a little sad to see this guy go.  He was so pretty, after all.

 

This is Tiny.  He really was a little guy.  But, he was starting to be a feisty little bugger.  Kate likes him, don't you think?

Grant helped to keep Kate happy while I helped pluck.

Out with the old in with the new.  Here are some baby birds living in our hanging flower basket on the front porch:

 

Here is the first baby hatched.

Mom!  Dad!  I'm starving!  Please feed me!

Here they are just this evening.  They are getting bigger!  They were all sleeping, sorry.

After we returned home form our trip, I had 2 weeks to get the house ready for a housefull of visitors.  I definitely wanted to change the paint color in the dining room since I knew with that many people here we would be spending a fair amount of time in there eating.  I am pleased with the color I chose. 

Before

After

Now, I just need to find the right pictures, curtains, centerpiece, etc.  I really love the Black-eyed Susans from my yard for now, though.

Alright!  I am catching up!  I will post more soon on my visit to Colorado and Kenneth's whole family's visit here to our home!

We're a traveling fam part 2

 

 After a week and a half on the farm, we said to good bye and traveled one hour to Syracuse, our old stomping grounds.  We took Kenneth straight to the airport to catch his flight to Brazil for work.  Then the kids and I went to Kenneth's sister Diane's house to spend a couple of days with them.  They have an awesome backyard and the kids had so much fun playing there.  Then it rained some more, but they still had fun playing inside with cousins and toys. 

Diane with Kate

Diane's kids and our kids watching Gilligan's Island in the basement of Diane's home

Arianna zonked out during the show after playing so hard.

After staying with Diane and her family, we went just 20 minutes away to my brother's house.  He is actually in the same ward we used to be in when we lived in the Syracuse area!   It's too bad we weren't there at the same time.  We had so much fun staying with them!  We were there for my sister-in-law's birthday.  I watched their kids so they could have a well-deserved night out.  (I felt like the traveling babysitter on this trip!  I watched kids for 3 different families as I traveled around.  I was so glad I could.  Sometimes I feel like I am so involved in the daily care of my own family, I don't serve others very often.  So, it felt good to do something for someone else.  Although, they were all such good hosts to us, we are still so indebted to them for their kindness!)

While visiting with my brother, we were able to go to a horse farm for a special open house, where they had horse rides for the kids. We also were able to go to church in Liverpool, our old ward.  That evening, my brother and sister-in-law hosted an open house for us to be able to hang out with our old friends there.  It felt like the goood old days, even though we've been gone from there for four years!  It was so much fun to see everyone!  We all agreed we wish Kenneth had been with us.  I did not do a good job taking any pictures of my brother and sister-in-law or any of our old friends. 

Emma on the horse

Arianna's turn

Arianna snuggling Kate on the couch at my brother, Karl's house

Dressing up the dog, Baxter

The cousins all together

After a few days in Liverpool, we started the trek back to Kansas.  Because we were on our own, without Kenneth at this point, we took it very slow.  We drove just over an hour to Ithaca and made our first stop.

Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, NY. a.k.a. The Center of the Universe

 
Oh how I miss this place!  When I lived in Ithaca before Kenneth and I were married, I worked at a Bed and Breakfast at the base of these falls. My boss, who had lived there most of her life, considered it the Center of the Universe. Good times.   Unfortunately, she was out of town, so I didn't get to see her, but I did get to see. . .

Holly!!!  We met Holly at the falls. She drove up from northern Pennsylvania to see us. She was a BYU roommate of mine. It was so good to see you, Holly!

It was raining for a good portion of the time we were at the falls, so we spent some time under umbrellas and in our separate vans with the doors open so we could still chat.  Even so, I am so glad we both put forth the effort to stay connected. 


My children to the left (minus Kate) and Holly's children to the right. What a crew!

Here is another shot. They were told they must not touch one another (hence the separation of children). Holly's son threw up in the car on the way up to meet us.

We said goodbye and drove 5 1/2 more hours to the Cleveland area.  Our last stop before we got to Cleveland was at Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  I had promised the kids a treat earlier that day and I needed a place to nurse Kate, so we went there.  I could not have made a better choice!  This particular Krispy Kreme had leather couches in a nice sitting area where I could nurse and still see the kids watching the doughnuts being made.  It was a nice break in our trip that day.  We stayed near Cleveland, actually in Kirtland, that night with my sister-in-law's sister.  She was kind enough to let us stay on the way to New York as well.  We were so thankful for her hospitality!  The kids had fun playing with her kids for the short time we were there. 
The next morning, we packed into the van again and made the drive from Cleveland to Cinncinati.  It's only four hours, so that was a nice easy day.  We stayed there with Kenneth's cousin, Phil and his family.  When Kenneth and I were dating and engaged, they lived in Ithaca as well and Kenneth would always stay with them when he came up to see me.  They are so wonderful! 

At a park with a water feature in Cincinnati with the Baldauf family. The kids had so much fun!

After a week and a half without Kenneth, we were ready to be reunited.  From Cincinnati, the Indianapolis airport is only 2 1/2 hours away.  So, we had a short drive to make to go pick Kenneth up.  It was so good to see him!


Horses and girls romping in the fields.

The above picture cracks me up! The girls were given those humongous horses by the Baldauf girls in Cincinnati. The girls were so delighted. So, we piled them in to our already overfilled vehicle and traveled the rest of the way home. This shot was actually taken right near the cell phone lot at the Indianapolis Airport. We were waiting to pick Kenneth up from his business trip to Brazil. The girls were playing in the grass while I nursed Kate and took care of a diaper blow-out.

After we picked Kenneth up, we drove a few hours to St. Louis and stayed there overnight so we could take turns going to the temple. It was so nice. The kids had a ball eating pizza (except that Daddy ordered 2 pizzas BOTH with anchovies on them. Who does that?!?!), jumping on the beds, watching a movie and swimming in both the indoor and outdoor pools.



Jumping on hotel beds. Hooray!

Swimming time with Dad



Gorgeous St. Louis Temple



Swimming in the indoor pool the following morning.

Grant was having a rough morning.  Lack of sleep?  Too many anchovies on his pizza?  Who knows.

At least he cheered up enough to cooperate for a picture:


Our whole family in front of the temple on our way out of town



Sweet sisters

Sweet sisters times 3!

Mom and the girls



Flowers on the temple grounds.

Arianna asleep with her new horse on the last leg of our journey.

During our drive home from St. Louis to home, we ran into a bad storm. At one point I was nervous it was a tornado. Pretty wild. It soon passed and we had beautiful sunny skies as we arrived home. We even had a little while when all 4 children were asleep at the same time. Amazing! It was fun to see the wheat fields all ready for harvest.

We're a Traveling Fam, Part 1

I cannot believe how fast this summer is going by.  We have much to share and so little time to do so.  I feel like each day goes by so fast and when I have finally finished everything I need to do, I fall into bed and then it starts all over again in the morning.  But, I really want to chronicle all of our adventures and share them, so I am really putting forth the effort.  So, here we go.  I am going to have to do this in a few installments.  The first installment is the trip from Kansas to New York and our time on the farm.

Back in the end of May, Kenneth was supposed to leave to go to spend a week and a half on his parents' farm in Upstate New York.  He would come home for a day and then leave for Brazil for work for a week and a half.  And we were going to stay home.  We always go to the farm every year for first cutting.  (For those of you not familiar with farm talk that means the first mowing of the hay for the season.)  This year, though, when Kenneth was buying the plane tickets shortly after Kate was born and we thought it would just be too difficult to take all of us.  (We still had visions of the last time we all flew in our heads.)  But, as time got closer we were feeling sad about not being on the farm this year.  So, in true Kenneth Larchar family style, 2 days before we were to leave, Kenneth cancelled his flight and we readied to drive all the way to New York.  From Kansas.  Yeah- it was a long drive.  But, it was worth it.  Serendipitously, there was a couple moving in to our ward the same time we were leaving who didn't have a place to live yet, so they stayed in our house and took care of the chickens, the lawn and the garden.  We had a wonderful time on the farm.  When Kenneth left for Brazil, the kids and I traveled around visiting family and then picked him up in Indianapolis and he drove the rest of the way home with us.

Dad and kids in front of the Kirtland Temple in Ohio after being cooped up in the car for 24 hours without a real stop

Here we are walking on the temple grounds.  I had never been there before and it was very special to me after having read the history of that great place.

Here they are all lined up in the backseat.  Watching a movie.  This seating arrangement worked great until Grant got cabin fever and started flailing and yelling and otherwise accosting his sisters.

Grandma was so glad to meet Kate and spend some time snuggling her.

Larchar cousins so happy to see each other.

 Good times on the farm.  Here is a little taste of what it's like:

 

Lined up to watch the daily cow parade go right by the house.  The cows walk back to the pasture from the barn after being milked.

One day we were hanging out at Kenneth's brother and sister-in-law's house (just 10 minutes from the farm) and there was a fawn left behind by it's mother in the neighbor's lawn.  We got to go see it.

The neighbor was feeding it some milk.  The kids were so excited!



Kisses

It was amazing to be so close to it!

Emma and the fawn

The boys out making hay

More haying pictures.  There was lots of rain during our time in NY, so when it was nice, they were to be found in the fields making hay while the sun shone!

Uncle Jason reading the kids stories

Grant and Joslynn playing the the puddles

More puddle fun!

Arianna loves the cats!

The pond out it front of the house.  Holy dandilions!

More puddle walking.  I wasn't kidding when I said there was a lot of rain!

Beautiful New York

Kenneth and Grant baling the hay

Aunt Karen and Diane and the kids during a visit to see the boys working in the field

I finally got a shot with all four tractors working at the same time!  Kenneth, Scott, Dennis and Jason all on different pieces of equipment: mower, rake, baler and wrapper.  Pretty cool!

I was up early one morning with Kate and decided to go on an early morning walk with her in the carrier and my camera in hand.  I love the morning.  Especially on the farm.  Geese in the field behind the house.

First rays of sun streaming through the trees.

I love the misty mornings.

The cows with the old hen house in the background

Kate in the exersaucer for the first time.  I feel like she really grew up during this visit.  She also first started playing with toys on the farm.

We had lots of weather extremes during our visit.  Freezing cold to run-in-the-sprinklers-hot!

Oh the views! 

The boys and their toys (well, their Dad's toys, to be accurate)

The Brethren

The traditional chicken barbeque.  Scott and Brother Wright are flipping the chicken.  Yum.

Here is our family (minus Kate, who was napping) in one of the fields on the farm

Visiting the calves

Playing with the barn cats.  The kids love them!

Walking to the barn.  That is the milk truck coming to collect the milk.

More kitty time.  As you can see, it got pretty cold during part of our visit.

Kenneth and Sam, the dog

Emma got to feed the calves with the bottle

Kubota rides with Grandma

The last morning we were on the farm, we got to go out in the field and visit a new calf who was born just that morning.  Here we are seeing the mom with her baby

Kenneth and the ladies.  Cows really like Kenneth.

Who are you two?

Kenneth's whole family.

It was such fun to have all the siblings and their parents together.