Stewart Little(er)

Baby (and parents) Survives 1 Year!

Life on the farm rolls on by. My main man turned 1 on June 29. Head full of teeth, head full of ideas on where he wants to WALK everywhere! Beau picked up on the walking game at about 9 months, 1 week. The practice has not let up and it has been a lot of fun. These days when I get up to go to work in the morning the first order of business is to launch a full investigation into where my keys, deodorant, and wallet have "toddled" off to. Usual suspects are under the couch, in the dishwasher, and in any one of the kitchen drawers. As soon as I close that case, its off to work where I am on "vacation" according to Kim. 

Now 2 subjects are to be covered today:

1) Beau's Birthday!

2) Chook-House remodel

I can tell you that Beau was way more interested in #2 than the party thrown in his honor which he won't remember...but it was a good experience. 

Party Time! Not too hard though.......we all know that this...

Easy there Dubya! College is a long way off!

Leads to this!

Life of crime...so young...

We invited a few friends over for the event and decided that doing anything too fancy for food would be ridiculous for a one year old person's birthday. Plus it was my department's yearly dinner the night before (I gloss over this detail), so we presented "little boys" and "sausage rolls". Kiwi staples.

These are little boys. Typically served with ketchup. I will send $10 NZD to the first person that comments on this blog with the reason why these are called what they are...

B-Day eats. Steaming-hot lil-boys.

Our house is currently a disaster-area of baby books, toys, and kitchen items which are deemed not dangerous for baby. So the last thing we wanted was MORE TOYS. But a few exceptions were made as there are really good deals for cheap toys on grabone.co.nz. Kim ordered a few well in advance of B-day and we wrapped them up for lil Beau to tear into on his day.  Our family sent cards and gifts from the states which were much appreciated by the li'l guy.

My man needed to be shown exactly what we wanted him to do..and he nailed it. 

Daddy gets to have some fun too!

Beau's friend, Zara, helped out too. He is distracted by blondes easily....I'm sure he will grow out of it. 

Kim attempted a chocolate fondant cake, which ended up as a chocolate sauce sandwich that we let Beau get stuck into as the climax of the birthday events. It was messy and drove me nuts...but was pretty cute.

Makes daddy crazy.
Beautiful day in Coatesville though.

Meanwhile, one of the more ambitious DIY projects we decided to take on at the farm was replacing our inherited chicken coop with something that is easier to clean and more aesthetically pleasing. We started by tearing out the half-baked solution which was basically just chicken wire wrapped around the telephone pole structure that supports our kiwi and grape vine deal in the back yard.

Early on. Mommy getting ready to get dirty, and Beau with the beginning of his love affair with the chook feeder. 

We wanted to do a concrete pad in place of the bare ground which just accumulates chicken feces and lord knows what else. It stinks, and concrete should be easier to clean. I have never really worked with anything but quickcrete for replacing fence posts, etc. So this was a new challenge. Lets get ready...

Need a hug from baby and some new coveralls. Need a rental cement mixer.

Check.

Now lets get organized...as well as we can. I learned a lot about cement, and how you should use 2x4, rather then 2x6 for the size. I had to do this over 2 weekends because the pad was so thick.

Embarrassing. Had to partition it off half way through.....

Once the pad was done Kim and I sealed it, and had a guy up the road build the chook run. Had to paint it same color as the house..of course. The chook house is forthcoming.

We were hoping to have this project done in time for Beau's birthday...but with baby in house, time gets sponged up in a way that still seems new to us. Currently we have a new flock of 3 "rocks". These are Plymouth Barred Rock chickens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rock_(chicken) ). Beautiful animals and they have just come into lay. I will try to make them the subject of the next blog. Beau has taken on the responsibility of:

1) Making sure their feeder is always in the chook house. And;
2) Chasing the poor animals every chance he gets. (more on this later).

Below is some footage of how attached he has become to handling their feeder. Kindness to animals is a priority at this farm and it is heartwarming to see him embrace it.