A Few Old Tools

Welcome back!

I hope you enjoyed Parent-Teacher conferences with your family. It's been a busy week for everyone!

It's been more busy than usual for our family so today I have a few photos from the farm that you may enjoy.

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Do you like to build things? Do you like to play with tools?

Quin and Xander like to play with tools, especially the tools in the old tool chest. We don't use these tools very often, but they are a lot of fun to look at!

This is an antique carpenter's chest. It was owned by a carpenter a long time ago.
It is so old that when the chest was built cars hadn't been invented yet!

Do you know what a carpenter is? It's someone who builds things out of wood.

Quin and Xander like to take the tools out of the chest and pretend to build with them.
What is Quin doing?

Quin is using an old folding ruler to see how long the piece of wood is.

Quin is having lots of fun drilling holes with my drill.

I have a nice, small battery-powered screwdriver that I can put drill bits in.

It's just the right size for small jobs, and small children.

Xander likes to use the hammer.

It's a small hammer that's just right for small indoor jobs, 

and it's just right for small children.

Quin and Xander's dad and mom both love to build things with wood. That's why Quin and Xander like pretending to build things. That's why they like using real tools instead of toy tools.

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We hadn't seen the turkey hen for a while.
She showed up again earlier this week.
I think she was living in an old pile of brush and weeds
in the neighbor's yard.

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The chickens ate all the hay in their nesting boxes.
Did you know chickens eat hay, too?

They are so excited to have hay to eat today!

I think they miss scratching around in the grass.

Do you miss playing in the grass?

I filled up their nesting boxes with hay, too.
I'm sure they will eat all of it within a few days,
and I'll fill it up again.
They like eating the hay, and they like laying their eggs in the hay.

The chickens have started laying eggs again so spring must be coming soon. The ducks are laying eggs, too! I know Punxsutawney Phil said we would have 6 more weeks of winter, but the ducks and chickens don't believe him.

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I heard that you enjoyed watching the dogs play in the snow last week. I thought you might like to see what they do every morning. I don't have to whistle very loudly for them to hear it and come running to me. They know when I say, "Ready!" it means to run to the barn because we're ready to do the chores. They run fast!

They don't care if it's warm or cold outside. They love living on a farm!

Next week I'll show you what it's like to do all our morning chores. It's a lot of work, but we enjoy it.