Chicken Coop Aug 22-29, 2016 Insulation

Chicken Coop 

Aug 22-29, 2016 

Insulation 

I got a late start on taking pictures!  We had already insulated the inside of the chicken coop, now we were going to insulate the outside of their walls...which are actually inside our barn, but since we don't heat or cool the barn, we thought it better to keep our chickens warm in the Michigan winters.  Supposedly their body heat will keep them warm---I'll let you know.

This is a great picture because you can see just how deep the insulation is on these boards!!!  This isn't some flimsy foam board...not at all!  This is serious insulation what was made for shipping pharmaceutical materials and made very well!  We cut outside to keep the nasty foam from being inhaled.

This is Side "A"

This is Side "B"
Side "B" has our door to go in and out on it, and our light/ceiling fan switches on it.

One piece to go!

The last piece put up, the spot above the door.

Then I stuffed shim's in all the cracks and got out the wonderful spray foam and sprayed it in all the spots to make a mostly airtight insulation.  Now we have to cover the insulation with plywood for a finished job.

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Sonlight Core G Week 34 B August 22-29, 2016

Sonlight Core G 

Week 34 B 

August 22-29, 2016 

I need to get an 'after' picture of these rooms, as the color turned to almost blackish blue by the time she got all the coats on.  She wanted it to look like a night sky to go with her glow-in-the-dark stars she has on her ceiling.  She also painted the other room of the loft this dark blue color, but has now decided to paint that other area a deep, dark red color.  

Hello Friends!

Good weather lead to lots of working on the house, and less time on our lessons this week.  Because we could turn off the AC, we could get to some painting. 



 Dd had a massive week of working on her bedroom loft.  She used up all the dark blue we had; rearranged and sorted her whole space!  I gave the basement 'rec room' it's second coat of green paint.  The basement bathroom took most of my week's hours of labor...boy, were the walls a challenge!  The hard part of this house, was that the previous owners we huge fans of wall-paper.  I know of at least THREE layers of wall-paper in that small space.  

I didn't manage to get a 'after' picture yet.  Dd decided to try out a purple/lavender color on the walls when I wasn't there...

Giz tried to take off some of the paper when here (when we went to Niagara Falls), and she accidentally left a lot of notches out of the dry wall with her tool.  I had to use a lot of Spackle to repair the holes.  I could go on, in detail, to all the things I had to do in that bathroom--but, I'll just say I worked on it for hour after hour!  It is almost ready for a layer of Kilz next.

Five cardboard panels in this side, at this point.

Dh and I worked hard on the chicken coop, and did some work on the bigger, extended run too.  We had planned on just working on the new fencing for the extention, but rain pushed us inside, out of the mud.  So, we put up the outside insulation around the chicken coop.  Dh had some of these big insulation boards from his work, that they were going to thow out, so he brought them home for us to use to keep our chickens extra warm.  We already had bought and installed insulation when we made the walls for the chicken coop, on the inside, but this new insulation was for the outside of the coop.  The outside of our coop is actually inside our barn/out-building, but since our barn is not heated or cooled, we thought we could use all the insulation we had to make sure our chickens aren't stressed by the weather in Michigan!  

All panels in, on both sides!  We had to cut each panel to fit each slot individually.

Wednesday was my appt with my doctor--- I had to wait almost 3 weeks to get in!  I won't go into all the details, but she took me off my migraine medication which was really taking a huge toll on my blood pressure (way too low).  I can thankfully say that after being off it my blood pressure has begun to come up some and my daily headaches have stopped! Praise the Lord, and my doctor.  

I've enclosed some lovely pictures of Fallsburg Park, throughout this post!

We went to Fallsburg Park for a little picnic, and short walk around.  We thought we were meeting some friend there, but I had hit 'reply' to the wrong person, and communication failed.  It was still really nice to go to the park with Dd.

Friday-Monday morning we had one of Dd's friends over for a long weekend of fun.  I picked her up on Friday at 11:30 and brought her home on Monday at 9:30, so that was a good, LONG, visit!  I took the girls to the library and Ball's Ice Cream Shop on Friday.  They swam and watched a LOT of movies---LOTR & Star Wars.

Our garden is home to the most awesome spider!  She has a bee hanging in a cocoon in the web's center.  I wish I could share how really cool the web is, and how magnificent her coloring is, but all I have are these pictures--which doesn't do it justice.

Let's get to our lessons:

Bible:

Fervent by Priscilla Shirer

Math:

No Math this week

Science: 

Apologia General Science:

Quarterly Test (third quarter)

Magic School Bus VHS "Get's Eaten"

never too old for MSB!

Sonlight Read Aloud:

The Phantom Tollbooth: in process

Sonlight Reader:

Master Cornhill

The roots from this tree form a huge skirt around it's base---really beautiful.

History:

BiblioPlan Companion: Medieval History

Ch. 23: The Spanish Reconquista

Ch. 24: Explorer's From Portugal and Spain

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

pg 230-231

Favorite Poems Old and New

pg 452-453

Home Economics:

Made Hamburgers and Started Grill

Grilled Hot dogs

Painting Bedroom--18 hours over week

Cleaning and Rearranging, inside and outside house: 13 hours

Chicken Care: collecting eggs, cleaning straw: 2 hours

Kitchen chores: 2 hours

Our garden is doing great!!!

Library:

Two visits this week

PE:

Swimming in pool : 2 hours

Hike at Fallsburg Park:

I've put in a bunch of our pictures from this lovely park throughout this post to share with you.

Music:

Lesson with Mrs March (piano lesson): 30 minutes

Fundamentals of Piano Theory: Unit 5 completed

Saxophone: zero

Piano: 3: 30 hours/minutes

Violin: 1: 30 hours/minutes

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Sonlight Core G Week 34 Aug.15-21, 2016

Sonlight Core G 

Week 34 

Aug.15-21, 2016

96th Week on Core-2 to go!

A wet, rained on Zeus!

Hello Friends!

As one of my friends in Sunday School often says, "We are a needy people!"  This week was difficult, I had two days of a migraine I couldn't shake, 24 hours of a wicked stomach bug--awful, and by Sunday I had caught a bug, I think, from a cute little baby, and had a high fever. SO, I spent too much time on my sofa!  Dd was struggling with more vague problems, of wanting a break from her lessons. especially math.  Because we are so close to finishing our core, I was kind of hoping to press-through until the end, and then take a break.  But, didn't have much fuel in her tank, and I was in no place to push too hard!  I think the next two weeks we will just try to finish our core, and not assign much work so she can get a break and read "her" books.




Monday, a couple from our church, came over to look at our pool.  It has been three weeks of the pump being off.  Dh ordered parts twice, had to put in new wiring, and we honestly tried everything we could think of to fix it!  But, after an hour and half, our friend asked me what watage did we have the pump motor set at--230 or 115--after some looking at our new motor, and comparing it with the old motor, we found we had it set wrong.  Once I turned it to 115 the motor started purring!  Yay!  So thankful for help from a church friend!  

You can see where we trimmed the chickens flight feathers on the top, mostly black chicken.

Thursday we were invited over to the "V's" house, for a group get together with our little group of friends (4 families).  The kids got to play volleyball and Nuk'em and we mom's got to chat!  Really nice day together.  Dd made blue-blueberry muffins for the kids, so they could celebrate Percy Jackson's birthday.  I brought some carrots and a dozen of our eggs for the hostess.

The fun part of this week was that I spent it looking for my favorite bible verse---all week, only to arrive at the bible verse I started with in the beginning!  A woman in our Sunday School class had asked us to all bring in our favorite bible verses, for some Christmas idea/gift she is working on.  Well, I really worked hard trying to review all my normal favorites and see which one to choose, and settled on my normal one.  I wrote it on an index card and brought it in, but the lady wasn't there! Ha!  I know you are wondering which one is my favorite:

Matthew 11:28

"Come to Me,

all you who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you, and 

learn from Me,

for I am gentle 

and lowly in heart, 

and you will 

find rest in your souls.

For My yoke is easy 

and 

My burden is light."

For our bible this week, we took another week off our on-going Veritas Press: Gospels study to continue reading the Phylis Shirer's book: Fervent.  This book has been very thought-provoking for me, and Dd seems to like it too.  We don't have a lot of our VP program left, but Dd is continuing to request Fervent, so I am happy to stay on this bunny trail.

Bible:
Fervent by Priscilla Shirer
Ch. 9

Math:
Teaching Textbooks:Algebra I
Chapter 7 Test

Math U See: Algebra I
1A, B, C



Science:
Magic School Bus: Inside the Rain Forest
Apologia: General Science: Module 14: Human Respiratory
Text: 343-358
Student Notebook: 214-220

Physical Education:
Volleyball and "Nuk'em": 1:30 hours



IEW SWI B:
 Lesson 3 (3 1/2 hours)

Wrote letter to friend (1 hour)

Rosetta Stone:
3 days = 35 minutes

Wet chickens shaking off the water!

History:

BiblioPlan Companion Vol II:
Ch. 20: Ottoman Empire
Ch. 21: Africa
Ch. 22: America Before the Age of Discovery
Ch. 24: The Spanish Conquista
(Highlights from these chapters: Ottoman, Bey Osman, Devshirme, child harvesting/blood tax, Constantinople--Christian Church is taken over and turned into a mosque, Hagia Sophia is also turned into a mosque as Islam spreads, Sultan Mehmed....)

BiblioPlan Advanced Maps:
 21, 22, 23

Sonlight Reader:
 Mary, Bloody. Mary by Carolyn Meyer: Completed

MOH: Vol III: 1:30 hours
New volume for us, so we listened to the refresher overview and the first four lessons:
L1: War of the Roses, L2: Cosimo de Medici & Italian Renaissance, L3: Ferdinand, Isabella and the Spanish Inquisition, L4: Ivan the Great.

The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia:
204-205, 224-225, 228-229, 211

Favorite Poems Old & New
450-451

The chickens were helping each other preen, and get their wet feathers sorted out...cute!

Music:
Violin Lesson with Mrs. Reed: 45 minutes
violin: 2: 30 hours
piano: 30 minutes
sax: 0

Wet birds!

Busy Hands:
Dd and I cut off the flight feathers on one side of our chickens wings

Made yellow GF cake and icing

Made Blue-Blueberry muffins

Washed Truck (got paid!)

Washed dog, Sophie

Crochetting my shawl- 2 hours

Took care of chickens, now getting paid for her chicken work.


Next week, since the weather should be cool enough to keep the windows open all week, will be a painting and fixing up the house week.  Dd will get a whole week off from math, and perhaps that will help her be able to get over the new hurdles she is struggling with in her TT program (Teaching Textbooks).  

Our Current Project: 
an extension on the chicken run; going out around barn and behind.  We put in 9 new posts, in three different sections.

Now to add the fencing to the posts...

  ................

Favorite Bible Verses Aug 2016

The fun part of this week was that I spent it looking for my favorite bible verse---all week, only to arrive at the bible verse I started with in the beginning!  A woman in our Sunday School class had asked us to all bring in our favorite bible verses, for some Christmas idea/gift she is working on.  Well, I really worked hard trying to review all my normal favorites and see which one to choose, and settled on my normal one.  I wrote it on an index card and brought it in, but the lady wasn't there! Ha!  I know you are wondering which one is my favorite:

Matthew 11:28

"Come to Me,

all you who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest.

Take My yoke upon you, and 

learn from Me,

for I am gentle 

and lowly in heart, 

and you will 

find rest in your souls.

For My yoke is easy 

and 

My burden is light."

I began the week with Matt 11: 28, and ended again with it!  I have a lot of different favorites, but, in my heart, imagining God saying: "Come to Me" always feels so right.  That when: "For when I am weak, then I am strong."(2 Cor.12:9-10)

Psalm 46

Be stll and know that I am God.

Jer. 29

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Psalm 91

He shall cover thee with his feathers,

and under his wings shalt thou trust:

his truth be thy shield and buckler.

1 Thessalonians 5: 16-17
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks for all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus in you.

Matt 22

Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

As a parent, this (see below; Deuteronomy 6)really speaks loudly to me on how I'm instructed to teach and prepare my daughter.  I might do many things wrong as a parent, but I can at least find peace that I have read and read the bible to her, all her life, and planted God's love deep in her heart.  She is grounded in her faith. And knows The Word well.  The past few years, as I read the bible aloud to her, I underline each word with my pencil.  I look forward to her, as an adult, looking through our bibles, and seeing clearly what I read to her!  I want to give her those bibles to keep for herself.  I wish I would have thought of that idea years ago--but even so, we have lots of it underlined already!

Deuteronomy 6: 5-9

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.

Psalm 23--

The Lord IS my Shepherd!

Psalm 121

I lift up my eyes to the mountains--

where does my help come from?  

My help comes from the Lord, 

the Maker of heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot slip--he who watches over you will not slumber, indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber or sleep.  The Lord watches over you--the Lord is your shade at  your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, not the moon by night.  The Lord will keep you from all harm--he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Well, that is some of the places, in the bible, I visited this week.

Sonlight Core G Week 33 August 8-14, 2016

Sonlight Core G 

Week 33 A

August 8-14, 2016

Getting 14 eggs per day now..and you wouldn't believe the amount of cherry/grape tomatoes we get each day!  Love gardening!!!!  

More acorn squash is in our garden growing!

more pictures to come!

Hello Friends!

First thing on Monday morning, Dd complained about her throat hurting; so I looked at her tonsils, and they were very swollen and ugly looking.  Apparently Dd hadn't been taking her allergy medication, and then to top of the situation-- she has been so busy and working hard in Marching Band (Nothern Lights Homeschool Marching Band).  It wasn't until Friday that she had anything scheduled, so she got a lot of resting done while at home this week.  I didn't even take her along for our shopping or going into the library.  We did some of the assignments for the week, but I let quite a few things go as I adjusted my expectations for her due to her illness.  She had quite a few 11 hour sleeping spells at night; which is always a sure sign that she is run down.  As I type this, she seems to be almost back to normal.

Pool:

I think this is the third week of our pool being down.  It really is a sensitive issue, as Dh really worked hard, night after night, and weekends trying to do all the repairs himself only to have it not be righted.  Thankfully, a retired pool man sits behind us at church, and I asked him today if he would be willing to come out and look at it.  I'd much rather pay him than another stranger!  The last people that came out was not very agreeable to me.  Hopefully Chuck can fix our pool or perhaps we will have to close it for the year; though we only swam a few times.

Chickens:

They are doing really well with their new extended run.  This week Dh got both gates put up!  I did repairs to the damage our dog did when we left her in the run (alone) while we went to the parade last weekend.  Apparently Sophie had a conniption fit!  The chickens have been laying 14 eggs per day, this weekend.  We have had a few odd eggs---not a hard shell, but a thin rubbery shell, about as thick as a balloon.  I've read that is normal with some chickens as their body starts to figure out how to make eggs.  Dd is doing most of the work for the chickens now---which is great!  We've decided to pay her allowance ($3.00 per week) for her chicken work.  She has been saving her money to buy a flute, so she is excited to make a few dollars each week to get closer to her goal faster!

GERD/reflux problems:

I've decided to go back on my medications after trying un-successfully for the past ? months.  I've just so extremely tired of all the heartburn and extra strife.  I will have to get my blood taken, so they can keep an eye on my liver enzymes to make sure my meds don't harm me.  I will continue to stay dairy free and gluten free, for the most part, as I've found my migraines significantly decreased with that change in diet--surprisingly!  I didn't plan on my diet changes helping my migraines, but so glad to find something that helps!!!  Now to find a better gluten free flour mix.  Dh and I have been reading the Trim Healthy Mama books and seeing if those diet arrangements also help my digestion problems.  

Music:

Dd had the whole week off from music lessons, but did some practicing on her own, but nothing like normal due to her illness.  I think she was ready for a light week.

Socially:

We had TWO friendly visits with people from our church this week!

Tuesday we all were invited to the D's family farm for dinner and a farm tour!  They have a ? dairy? They have lots of cows, milk the cow and sell the milk...I guess that is considered a Dairy Farm.  They also hire people to farm their fields too.  It was really neat seeing their sheep, chickens, black lab, and cows!  We had a great evening with them!

Doris, from our church invited us out.  She took us to produce stores, out to eat lunch, and to Moo-ville, for ice cream.  We had such a lovely day with her!!

Our week:

Bible:

Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer

Aug 1, 2015

by Priscilla Shirer

Fervent by Priscilla Shirer: In Process

Second week reading Fervent together.  I have really been getting a lot out of this book.  One thing I really appreciated, was how the author suggested we look into ourselves and see where our weak spots are and start to specifically pray for those area's.  I was able to quickly identify two very weak area's in myself and have started to pray on them.  I'm also looking for bible passages that pertain to those areas and want to pray specifically with The Word on those topics; which is easier said than done!  This book really is having me think (and pray) in ways I haven't before---which is always insightful.

Math: Teaching Textbooks: Algebra I:

Re-do of Lesson 54, Lesson 55, re-do Lesson 55,  1/2 Lesson 56, then second half of Lesson 56...slow and steady on this difficult material.  I gave her Monday off as she was in bed for most of that day.

Science:

Apologia General Science: Module 13: Human Digestive System:

completed the whole module, workbook and test, but didn't do the experiment.

History:

Sonlight's assignments for Kingfisher Encyclopedia of World History and 

Favorite Poems Old and New for Week 33.

BiblioPlan Advanced Maps: Medieval

Week 19 & 20

(Dh bought us a new printer, so we are back in action!!!)

Monks and Mystics: Vol. 2 by Mindy Withrow

chapter on John Wycliff

Foreign Languages:

1. Sign Language

I had her review her book alone--no testing this week.

2. Rosetta Stone: French

45 minutes this week (4 short sessions)

Sonlight's Timeline and Mapping:

Week 33

Sonlight Reader:

Mary, Bloody Mary

Apr 1, 2001

by Carolyn Meyer

Mary, Bloody Mary: by Carolyn Meyer in process

Fun Readers:

Jurassic Park: by Michael Crichton: In process

The One, The Selection Book 3: by Kiera Cass: Completed

Miss Perigrines Home For Particular Children: by Ransom Riggs: In process

Busy Hands:

Home Economics (7 hours on private craft)...6 different craft projects kept her busy

Egg Salad (30 minutes)

peach & apple pie (1 hour)

Church and Sunday School are going very well!

DVD:
I checked out a movie to watch on the plaque; Black Death....only it really didn't have much to do with the plague---it was just a violent, gross movie....oops!  At least it was set during the black death!

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