Vaughnshire Farm

Actually in all the spare time that I do not have, I have not been able to blog away. Annabelle is 6 weeks old and although things are settling down slightly, I am still very busy with all the children.

We are anxiously awaiting spring. My mind dreams of the glorious garden I have intentions of planting. We will see if that become reality.

I do plan on posting some interesting stories as soon as I can get them out of my brain and on paper (the computer).

For now, the business of motherhood has overtaken me and left me only with a few brief moments to myself. How wonderful to be needed!

WARNING: My disposition changes rapidly and without warning…..

Richard Baxter

From: Baxter’s Practical Works, Vol. 1, A Christian Directory ,
on Christian Economics, Chap. XI., pp. 454-457 Directives 10-12

Direct. X. Marry not without your parents’ consent. Nay, if it may be, let their choice determine first of the person, and not your own: unexperienced youth doth choose by fancy and passion, when your experienced parents will choose by judgment. But if they would force you to join yourselves to such as are ungodly, and like to make your lives either sinful or miserable, you may humbly refuse them. But you must remain unmarried, while by the use of right means you can live in chastity, till your parents are in a better mind. But if indeed you have a flat necessity of marrying, and your parents will consent to none but one of a false religion, or one that is utterly unfit for you, in such a case they forfeit their authority in that point, which is given them for their edification, and not for your destruction; and then you should advise with other friends that are more wise and faithful: but if you suffer your fond affections to contradict your parents’ wills, and pretend a necessity, (that you cannot change your affections,) as if your folly were uncurable; this is but to enter sinfully into that state of life, which should have been sanctified to God, that he might have blessed it to you. 

Direct. XI. If your parents be in want, it is your duty to relieve them according to your ability; yea, and wholly to maintain them, if there be need. For it is not possible by all that you can do, that ever you can be on even terms with them; or ever requite them for what you have received of them. It is base inhumanity, when parents come to poverty, for children to put them off with some short allowance, and to make them live almost like their servants, when you have riches and plenty for yourselves. Your parents should still be maintained by you as your superiors, and not as inferiors. See that they fare as well as yourselves; yea, though you got not your riches by their means, yet even for your being you are their debtors for more than that. Continue Reading »

Richard Baxter

From: Baxter’s Practical Works, Vol. 1, A Christian Directory ,
on Christian Economics, Chap. XI., pp. 454-457 Directives 7-9
Direct. VII. Patiently submit to the correction which your parents lay upon you. Consider, that God hath commanded them to do it, and that to save your souls from hell; and that they hate you, if they correct you not when there is cause; and that they must not spare for your crying, Prov. 13:24; 22:15; 29:15; 23:13, 14; 19:18. It is not their delight, but for your own necessity. Avoid the fault, and you may escape the correction. How much rather had your parents see you obedient, than hear you cry! It is not long of them, but of yourselves, that you are corrected. Be angry with yourselves, and not with them. It is a wicked child, that instead of being better by correction, will hate his parents for it, and so grow worse. Correction is a means of God’s appointment; and therefore go to God on your knees in prayer, and entreat him to bless and sanctify it to you, that it may do you good.

Direct. VIII. Choose not your own company, but use such company as by your parents is appointed you. Bad company is the first undoing of a child. When for the love of sport you choose such playfellows as are idle, and licentious, and disobedient, and will teach you to curse, and swear, and lie, and talk filthily, and draw you from your book or duty, this is the devil’s high-way to hell. Your parents are fittest to choose your company.

Direct. IV. Choose not your own calling or trade of life, without the choice or consent of your parents. You may tell them what you are most inclined to, but it belongeth more to them than to you to make the choice; and it is your part to bring your wills to theirs. Unless your parents choose a calling for you that is unlawful; and then you may (with humble submissiveness) refuse it. But if it be only inconvenient, you have liberty afterward to change it for a better, if you can, when you are from under their disposal and government.

Richard Baxter

From: Baxter’s Practical Works, Vol. 1, A Christian Directory ,
on Christian Economics, Chap. XI., pp. 454-457 Directives 4-6

Direct. IV. Be contented with your parents’ provision for you, and disposal of you. Do not rebelliously murmur against them, and complain of their usage of you; much less take any thing against their wills. It is the part of a fleshly rebel, and not of an obedient child, to be discontent and murmur because they fare not better, or because they are kept from sports and play, or because they have not better clothes, or because they have not money allowed them, to spend or use at their own discretion. Are not you under government? and the government of parents, and not of enemies? Are your lusts and pleasures fitter to govern you, than your parents’ discretion? Be thankful for what You have, and remember that you deserve it not, but have it freely: it is your pride or your fleshly sensuality that maketh you thus to murmur, and not any wisdom or virtue that is in you. Get down that pride and fleshly mind, and then you will not be so eager to have your wills. What if your parents did deal too hardly with you, in your food, or raiment, or expenses? What harm doth it do you? Nothing but a selfish, sensual mind would make so great a matter of it. It is a hundred times more dangerous to your souls and bodies to be bred too high, and fed too full and daintily, than to be bred too low, and fed too hardly. One tendeth to pride, and gluttony, and wantonness, and the overthrow of health and life; and the other tendeth to a humble, mortified, self-denying life, and to the health and soundness of the body. Remember how the earth opened, and swallowed all those rebellious murmurers that grudged against Moses and Aaron, Num. 16; read it, and apply it to your case; and remember the story of rebellious Absalom; and the folly of the prodigal, Luke 15; and desire not to be at your own disposal; nor be eager to have the vain desire of your hearts fulfilled. While you contentedly submit to your parents, you are in God’s way, and may expect his blessing; but when you will needs be carvers for yourselves, you may expect the punishment of rebels.

Direct. V. Humble yourselves and submit to any labour that your parents shall appoint you to. Take heed, as you love your souls, lest either a proud heart make you murmur and say, This work is too low and base a drudgery for me; or lest a lazy mind and body make you say, This work is too hard and toilsome for me; or lest a foolish. playful mind do make you weary of your book or labour, that you may be at your sports, and say, This is too tedious for me. It is little or no hurt that is like to befall you by your labour and diligence; but it is a dangerous thing to get a habit or custom of idleness and voluptuousness in your youth.

Direct. VI. Be willing and thankful to be instructed by your parents, or any of your teachers, but especially about the fear of God, and the matters of your salvation. These are the matters that you are born and live, for; these are the things that your parents have first in charge to teach you. Without knowledge and holiness all the riches and honours of the world are nothing worth; and all your pleasures will but undo you. Oh what a comfort is it to understanding parents to see their children willing to learn, and to love the word of God, and lay it up in their hearts, and talk of it, and obey it, and prepare betimes for everlasting life! If such children die before their parents, how joyfully may they part with them as into the arms of Christ, who hath said, “That of such is the kingdom of heaven,” Matt. 19:14. And if the parents die first, how joyfully may they leave behind them a holy seed, that is like to serve God in their generation, and to follow them to heaven, and live with them for ever. But, whether they live or die, what a heart-breaking to the parents are ungodly children, that love not the word and way of God, and love not to be taught or restrained from their own licentious courses.

Richard Baxter

From: Baxter’s Practical Works, Vol. 1, A Christian Directory ,
on Christian Economics, Chap. XI., pp. 454-457 Directives 1-3

THOUGH precepts to children are not of so much force as to them of riper age, because of their natural incapacity, and their childish passions and pleasures which bear down their weak degree of reason; yet somewhat is to be said to them, because that measure of reason which they have is to be exercised, and by exercise to be improved: and because even those of riper years, while they have parents, must know and do their duty to them; and because God useth to bless even children as they perform their duties. Direct. I. Be sure that you dearly love your parents; delight to be in their company; be not like those unnatural children, that love the company of their idle play-fellows better than their parents, and had rather be abroad about their sports, than in their parents’ sight. Remember that you have your being from them, and come out of their loins: remember what sorrow you have cost them, and what care they are at for your education and provision; and remember how tenderly they have loved you, and what grief it will be to their hearts if you miscarry, and how much your happiness will make them glad: remember what love you owe them both by nature and in justice, for all their love to you, and all that they have done for you: they take your happiness or misery to be one of the greatest parts of the happiness or misery of their own lives. Deprive them not then of their happiness, by depriving yourselves of your own; make not their lives miserable, by undoing yourselves. Though they chide you, and restrain you, and correct you, do not therefore abate your love to them. For this is their duty, which God requireth of them, and they do it for your good. It is a sign of a wicked child, that loveth his parents the less because they correct him, and will not let him have his own will. Yea, though your parents have many faults themselves, yet you must love them as your parents still. Continue Reading »

So if the carpet removal in four rooms and the hallways took about an hour, how long will it take to get the 30 year old linoleum out of the kitchen?

Actually this is two layers of linoleum - and don’t forget we laid a nice new parquet wood floor over the top of both of these just a few months prior to this exercise. Here is one more before look.

So how long? The answer is a very long time. As of today we are still not finished. We demolished and rebuilt the entire bathroom and the kitchen floor is still needing some “final scraping”. But we did get it about 90% complete and we may say at some point that it is finished… That will depend on the new floor installation as we look forward to that.

We started the removal by removing the base boards. We were then able to take our pole scrapers and cut under the wood floor and the first layer of linoleum. This came out in roles as we cut the edges and rolled both floors together like a big carpet role. While it took what seemed like several hours, we eventually got down to the nice yellow and orange 70’s floor. This was the beginning of the end. I would give this first part (the top two layers) a 6 on the level of manual effort involved. There was a lot of cutting with a long pole scraper that needed to be sharpened with the grinder and a lot of manual rolling the floor, which was fairly heavy.

Once it was complete, we looked long and hard at the final layer that had the 30 year old hard glue melting it into the floor boards. We took one look at it and called it a day and went home. The next day, all refreshed and ready for a long hard day of manual scraping we started nice and early and it did not take too long before we abandoned the kitchen and started on the bathroom. We soon found out the bathroom had the same time harden 70s flooring in there as well.

So we scraped and scratched, and scraped some more. After uncovering a 10 or maybe on the outside 20 square feet area of the floor, we decided that it was time for a bon fire to burn some of the yard waste and to clean up some of the brush. As we enjoyed the outdoors we discussed the notion that somewhere on this earth someone had to run into this situation before and they probably had a solution to our problem - if we just knew the right folks to ask. We enjoyed the afternoon outdoors and called it a day.

It was several days before we made it back to the house for another “work day”. Before we came back we made a trip into town to Lowes, or as our 4 year old calls it L-O-W-E-S. I stopped in the nations tool rental center and asked him if he had some kind of floor scraper that would remove 30 year old yellow and orange 70’s style linoleum. The guy didn’t even flinch, he walked me over to the corner and promptly introduced me to what we now affectionately call “The Machine”. For as little as 60 bucks for the day along with an extra blade and a few other floor scraping accessories, we could load up The Machine and take it to our house. I was loading it in the van before the cash register could complete the transaction.

I should probably explain a little bit about The Machine. First it was a rental. This means that I still have no idea how it was suppose to work, because there were several broken pieces which I fixed, several times. Next this contraption had a 50 pound weight sitting on the front of it above the nice sharp cutting blade. It was electric powered, although it made the noise of a Harley. The directions say do not put weight on the blade, but let the machine role on the back wheels across the floor.

All this produces is a floor with a few deep gouges in it every few inches. It did not remove the floor at all. A quick aside, you notice the nice padded gloves in the picture. This was not because it was cold. This thing was a jack hammer, with a blade and wheels. You would think with all the noise and vibration that the floor would jump up and run out of the house. But no… not this floor. It actually wanted a tool that could remove it. Not just make noise and vibrate the brains out of the operator.

Never the less, I discovered that if you did indeed lift the machine off the back wheels and put the full weight of the machine on the chopping blade that it did actually remove some flooring… about 5 inches at a time. 5 inches is better than no inches so we proceeded to spend the day being vibrated around the kitchen by this massive electronic jack hammer with wheels until we could not see any more of the 70’s yellow and orange.

That is not to say the floor was removed. That’s just to say that the top layer had been scraped off. Somehow, while we were getting this top layer we also managed to get several nail heads from the sub floor as well. Of course they wouldn’t be cut off The Machine would just jam on them and not move past them, until you stopped the machine, straightened the blade, and beat the nail back down into the floor board.

Of course as soon as you start the vibrathon machine back up it promptly vibrates the nails back up out of the floor. So this is how the day progressed and how we arrived at a mostly stripped floor at the end of a long day.

Unfortunately we only had the machine for one 24 hour period so we started the next day nice and early and went over the high places once more which is how we have arrived at a floor that is about 90% scraped and ready for flooring. But before we return this industrial strength beast we still have the small matter of the bathroom. It was just as stubborn as the kitchen, but at least it was small… then again it was small. Did I mention that The Machine was over three feet front front to back?

That’s right just a little smaller than the average width of a small bathroom. We did find a second use for The Machine however, … if your ever looking for a quick method of removing a toilet let me know and I’ll tell you about it. Ok so we didn’t quit resort to using The Machine to break apart the toilet, but I thought the thing was going to vibrate in two before we were finished.

We made it through a fairly tough day. I’d have to rate this one about an 8 for physical exertion, manual labor, and endurance. The machine was heavy and the vibration for wearisome. In the end, we were very thankful for having been introduced to The Machine. If you ever need to remove your 1970’s flooring, make a trip down to the local tool rental place and tell them you’d like to meet The Machine. I’d recommend it above all the other tools I found for this job. Oh wait, there weren’t any!

After moving the stairs and finishing the build out on the bunk bed the house was occupied for two years and we did not do too much work on it - other than the addition of the kitchen floor, which is seen below. Now that the house is empty and we are planning on moving in, we had to decide what to do to fix up the house and get it ready for our family of nine.

The first thing we tackled was the floors. It had carpet throughout, with the exception of the kitchen and the bath room. We determined that it is easier (and cleaner) to sweep the floor rather than vacuum so the plan is to put hardwood floors through out. Actually, we have determined that we will simulate hardwood floors with a Corning product, which we’ll show you when we get to that phase.

First for the demolition. Having determined that the carpet and current flooring needed to go, we let the kids loose with tools. You’ve never seen a happier face on a couple young men with hammers and pry bars as they are told that it all has to go. The carpet took what seemed like just a few moments. I don’t think I touched it except to drag the roles out of the house. You can see the remains of the last room in the hallway below.

Now that the carpet was out of the way, we had to get started on the trim.

Never mind the fire raging in the ditch out the window, it was leaves. Again we set the demolition crew in motion. It did not take too much longer for the carpet and all the trim to be completely removed.

Here are two of the demolition crew. Followed by their brother below.

The saying, many hands make light work, has never been truer as we worked along side of one another, it seemed like the carpet and trim was done in no time. Not only did I enjoy watching the children learn how to use tools and enjoy themselves at the expense of the poor house, the work was completed quickly and somewhat efficiently.

Of course that was the easy part. There was one small lesson learned during this process. Pry bars will make holes in the wall. So unless you plan on doing some putty work be careful.

The next challenge was what to do with 2 layers of linoleum, one of which has been down for almost 30 years! It was not an easy task, but we found a tool that helped with the job… well it helped a little. More on that next time. For now it’s time to paint.

Breastfeeding in public has gained notable attention here in our county lately. Recently, a mother was told that she was not allowed to breastfeed her baby in the Victoria’s Secret dressing room in a local mall. I found that quite interesting being the type of store it is! You would think with the amount of concern Victoria’s Secret has over modesty, they wouldn’t have a problem with it..but evidently they did! Be it a county building or a public building, nursing an infant isn’t a crime as some would have us think.

Another mother recently made the news when she was asked to stop breastfeeding her baby at a local Recreation Center. The Rec Center said they have rules in regards to breastfeeding because some people are “uncomfortable” with seeing a woman breastfeed. Their policy is that if you want to breastfeed your baby…you must do so in the bathroom.

Both of these instances were with women who were discreetly, modestly nursing their infants. They were not exposed in an offensive way.

I personally do not have a problem with mothers feeding their babies in public. I nurse my baby in public when necessary. I do know that some gung-ho breastfeeding mothers feel they should be able to bare all and feed their babies how ever they want. I have seen these type mothers in public and find it very offensive for them to assume that everybody should just accept exposed bare breasts in pubic if a baby is attached to them. I do not believe bare breasts are acceptable public displays.

As nursing mothers, we have the have the responsibility to be discreet and modest. Thankfully not all public places harass breastfeeding mothers. Just recently, I was walking through a department store with my girls. Annabelle was fussing and I was trying to soothe her until I could find a place to stop and feed her. A kind woman who worked there walked up to me and commented on how precious the baby was. She continued, “I hope you don’t mind me asking a personal question, but do you breastfeed her?” I was a bit confused by her question but stated that I did. She said, “I just wanted you to know that if you needed me to open up a dressing room or direct you to a comfortable couch, I would be happy to help you.” I told her that I appreciated her kindness. I was thankful that I didn’t happen to run into someone who was “uncomfortable” with breastfeeding that night.

Here is a quick view of the kitchen as it stands now. We are about to start on it this next week as we finish up the bathroom. I will be posting more on the bathroom remodel as I get time. For now, I just wanted to test out the photo uploads and make sure it is going to work.

Remember I mentioned the ceilings and the texture. The kids are scraping, but boy have we learned some lessons on the small little ceiling in the bathroom… we’re still not looking forward to the Kitchen. If only we hadn’t moved those stairs and left that big ugly spot on the ceiling.

It’s be fixed soon, but I’m tired already.

I just ordered vitamins and noticed that vitacost lowered their already low price on the Rainbow Light Prenatal vitamins to $28.89 currently. I was shocked to see that they had lowered their already low price–they were $31 something. This is a really great deal for these vitamins because at the health food store they are around $60!!!  Some do not like the fact that you take 6 a day. It is suggested to take 2 during the morning, noon and night meal, however, you can take 3 in the morning and 3 in the evening if that makes it easier for you. They also have a one a day prenatal.
Rainbow Light Complete Prenatal System 360 Tabs for $28.89 (regular price is $63.95)

I also am going to try this product:

Postpartum Omega Mom — The First EFA Product Specifically Designed for Postpartum Women with Important Nutrients for Infant Brain Development and DHA for Postpartum Mood Support.

I already take a fish oil gelcap but do not like the fishy taste of it. I thought I would switch to this oil to see how I liked it. I will post later about the results.