The Barn!!

Greetings all,
Sorry it's been so long since I posted anything. I know I say that every time but we really have been busy! Between my grandparents and Mum going back and forth to the hospital, Daddy traveling in Florida, a new milk cow and 150 new chickens, I haven't had much time to take pictures, much less blog! Thanks so much everyone for all your prayers for my grandfather, he is feeling somewhat better and is able to get out more.


But any way, as the title states very plainly we are in the process of building a barn!..That is, the Mortons are in the process of building us a barn. LOL. I had lots of grand intentions in regards to blogging this momentous event, holding Abby S. in the light of blog-heroine, but alas, it was not to be *sigh*. But considering it only took them about three days to build up the frame work, I guess there would not have been much to post about everyday.


Sorry I don't have more pictures of the actual building process, I just never made it out there to take some.





They started on Monday morning, this picture was taken Tuesday morning before they got here. It was really foggy outside and I thought it looked pretty neat. The big white thing in front is the chicken pen.

The workman's roller coaster

Progress as of Tuesday night.

It rained all morning on Wednesday, so they had to wait until Thursday to finish up.

Art

Daddy and Mum admiring the barn

She really didn't seem all that impressed with the idea of getting a new milking stall. But I am.

Necessity

As my Dad said, "This is one of those pictures that most blogers would lable 'art'".
So just to be different I'm going to lable it 'nails'.

I don't know what to lable this one, unless I call it 'more art'.

Wesley cutting some boards

My favorite picture of the day.

Almost done!

Our lovely pond.

The day after they finished Daddy let me climb up and write some scriptures on the rafters.

Hi!

Once the tin comes in it will be complete! No more milking in the rain! LOL.
(It wasn't that bad though, kinda kept the flies away;)

Haawi ke aloha,
Angela

What's new on the Hagen Homestead

Sorry that we have been a little busy to post many updates. The month of August has been a little crazy. Mrs. Christine's dad spent much of the month in the hospital, but thanks be to God he is doing much better now. But just to keep you updated, here are a few things that have recently happened here on the Homestead: We have added to our flock of chickens...125 new chicks to be exact. We hope to have more layers layin' by the end of the year. These little fuzz balls are just sooo cute!

Also, we have added a second milk cow, Sunflower. She is a sweet cow, just still trying to get used to us and getting used to things here on the Homestead.

Why I Am Not Going To Be Politically Correct

You can check out Mr. Larry's essay on political correctness by clicking here.

Homeschoolers are Smarter!

Check out the report of this study that shows how homeschool students just blow away public school students on standardized tests. Click here to see the report.

To see the results of the present public education system and what happens if you DON'T homeschool, click here to see a funny video...

However, that is not the main reason to homeschool. For a real good lesson on why to homeschool, click here.

Don't let the U.N. run (or ruin) your family!

The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child is a serious threat to the rights and responsibilities of parents to "train up a child in the way they should go". It also is a serious threat to U.S. sovereignty. Click here for more information. We cannot sit idly by and let this happen to us.

Channel 23

This little gem is taken from No Greater Joy - Volume 1:

The TV is my shepherd, I shall not want anything else. It maketh me to lie down on the sofa. It leadeth me away from the Scripture. It destroys my soul. It leadeth me in the paths of sex and violence for the sponsor's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will enjoy the evil, for blood and sex they excite me. Its cable and remote, they comfort me. It prepares a commercial before me in the presence of my children. It anoints my head with humanism. My coveting runneth over. Surely laziness and ignorance shall follow my family all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house watching TV forever.

Meet Charlie the Chicken!

A couple of weeks ago, TJ and I were butchering our roosters; we had 23 that were ready for the freezer. TJ would randomly grab a rooster from the pen (the first one he could catch) and then we would go through the process. We finally got down to the last rooster, and this is what we found: this rooster has a horribly disfigured leg and foot. The chicken's left leg is bent outwards, and he walks on the back of the top of his left foot.


Notice the left leg bent out crooked


Close up view of the left foot

We don't know if it was a genetic defect, or if it was injured at some time by either the other chickens in the pen or injured one day when we moved their pen (we move their pen daily to provide them fresh pasture). In any event, as we got to this last rooster, it got away from TJ and we spent over an hour trying to chase him down (we had others that had gotten loose as TJ was randomly pulling them from the pen, but he was always able to quickly recapture them). In this case though, it took all of us to track him down and finally catch him.



One thing that I deduced through this adventure is that this chicken single-handedly (or should I say single-legedly?) dispelled the "survival of the fittest." For he was the last chicken that TJ could catch in the pen: he was able to avoid capture longer than his able-legged brothers against TJ's random removal. Additionally, when he got away from TJ, he was able to out-run TJ and I and was able to survive where the others could not. Clearly, with his disfigured leg he was certainly not "the fittest." But again, he was able to survive where his brothers could not. And certainly not even the most ardent Darwinist could claim that this was a beneficial mutation, for other chickens certainly by now would have acquired this trait if it was beneficial to their survival.



Since this chicken completely shattered the "survival of the fittest" theory, I have thus dubbed him "Charlie the Chicken" in dubious honor of Charles Darwin. After we had spent all that time in chasing him, I also decided to grant Charlie the Chicken a stay of execution, and so Charlie the Chicken lives on in his pen on the Hagen Homestead.

~Posted by Mr. Larry