Day 5 of vacation

After chores this morning, Emily's folks arrived to help the kids put up their teepee. They are giving their new shelter a test run in our north pasture before the big move to their property. We settled Emily's mom in the house with baby Joel and my mom. {Emily's mom really wanted to help but she is under MD orders to take it easy on her foot.}
Emily's dad and Anders carried all 17 posts out to the site and carted the canvas out. Then it was time for the big event!! Much spreading of canvas, laying out of poles, reveiwing and debating the correct way to tie knots, turning diagrams this way and that to get the right orientation and much, much direction reading followed.  It took most of the afternoon for us 4 novises to get the teepee up.

By the time it was upright we were all starving so we headed to the house. Emily and I fixed whole wheat biscuits and Red Wattle sausage gravy  for a late lunch. With coffee, OJ and milk from Vogel's dairy it filled everyone up. Then Emily's folks took Joel with them for an overnite and Anders and Emily settled in to fine tune the comfort features of their little nest.

I grabbed my niece, Heather, and we went out and gathered up hog panels from various temporary pens and hauled them up to the barn so we can use them to make the new sow stalls. When that was done we put some time in on my chicken tractor improving the nest boxes. Then she helped me haul straw in to the sows and their babies so they would have warm dry beds.

After that I was getting tired and Heather had to go home. I puttered around doing laundry and loading the dishwasher. About dark-thirty I went out and closed up the hens, got the eggs and checked on Mom's baby chicks.

With Brian and Kacie gone & Emily and Anders out in the teepee it was way to quiet in the house. So I took my friend Donna's advice and slowed down a little. A hot cup of tea and the "Contrary Farmer" joined me in the recliner for some relaxing reading. Well at least until I realized I was nodding off ....then I crawled off to be.

**I'll post Teepee pics as soon as Anders downloads them off of his camera