Merry Christmas from the Tilford Family! We hope this post finds you well and recovering from a wonderful Christmas and very Happy New Year!! As usual, this post was supposed to come a bit earlier but once again, I have been down hard for several weeks. I got a little assistance from my doctor this time and am beginning to feel normal again.
You guys... The weather here. I asked if Eric if he moved us to the Arctic! It has been so stinkin' cold! I do not like cold. Not AT ALL. I do not like to do my barn chores in the cold and doing anything extra or even ordinary with the animals is a huge undertaking in the low temps. I think many were affected, except those on the west coast, but we had an arctic chill come through that I NEVER want to see/feel/deal with again. It is highly unusual and we had record lows so I am confident we don't have to move at this point. The arctic chill was actually the week of Christmas and was the coldest on the day we hosted our annual Christmas Party. Our power went out, our barn pipes froze and shattered, our cows ate us out of house and home, our ground and plants froze beyond repair, and we nearly had to take out a second mortgage to pay our power bill between the shop, house and barn. It was in the single digits! We had a wind chill of NEGATIVE 13. That's right, I said negative. That whole week Eric had to feed the cows double the normal amount and add extra round bales of hay to their pasture. We had to use a heat gun just to pull hoses from the horse water buckets inside the barn and we had to heat all of the troughs and hoses enough to fill the animal water outside. It immediately froze again and we had about four-five inches of ice on the top of each trough. We had to cart hot water from the house to fill the horse buckets inside the barn so they wouldn't freeze solid during the night. It worked well, thankfully. The cats got really comfy staying inside and surprisingly the dogs loved going out and rolling on the frozen ground. I ended up gathering my courage and bundling up in some of Eric arctic wear (literally from when he was in the arctic) and did my chores since we still made the kids do theirs. The hardest part was breathing in the icy air.
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| Our garage froze too. All of our cleaning supplies were frozen, the hand soap at the deep sink, the kids' water bottles, water jugs for Eric's CPAP machine, all of it was frozen solid. |
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| Barn pipes... all shattered. |
We had the best Christmas. I love watching the kids on Christmas and just hanging out and not really having anywhere to go or anything to do. We got snow. Santa came. We watched movies. We ate. We played. We visited. We partied. Life is good. Our Christmas ended up spanning about two weeks. Due to some serious sicknesses, we couldn't celebrate Christmas and exchange gifts with the Casner Family until the end of the first week of January. It didn't matter, it was still lovely.
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Lily made Eric and I gifts and wrapped them in scarves. Naturally, Eric had to wear his.
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| The power went out while I was wrapping gifts so I grabbed a flashlight and continued on. |
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| The twins brought home so many ornaments they made at school. I love them so much and am so grateful their teacher is so crafty and patient. |
We have started off the year a little slower than usual and without the usual bang we normally start our year with. Due to the weather and sickness, we did not host a fireworks show nor did we have people over. I didn't even stay awake to ring in the new year. Eric stayed up with the three oldest kids and played Monopoly, toasted with sparkling apple cider and watched the countdown. I got one little video of the neighbor setting off fireworks. I saw, but missed taking video of the biggest part of their show. I am pretty sure they were disappointed we didn't answer back this year. Normally we "battle".
We are both still working on the new business, albeit quite slowly right now and I have plans for MANY projects I can do on the Glowforge but I need to make the time to get going. I need momentum. I am STILL finishing up Christmas decorations for my own house that, thankfully, I will now have the files created so I can duplicate, customize and sell them in the future.
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| I made a rubber address stamp on the Glowforge! I love trying new things with that thing. |
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| I spent several hours one day taking apart and cleaning the Glowforge. I am glad I did, the cameras were super dirty. |
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| I made a "windchime" on the Glowforge! It's totally my own design. |
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| This is for the twins' teacher. |
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| This is for the twins' teacher assistant. |
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| The twins had a gift exchange at school so I made these to attach to the outside of the gifts. |
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| I made this for a large area on one wall. Eric framed it and I think it's perfect! |
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| I made this for over the back door. |
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| I suck pretty bad at stenciling so I made my own SVG file and engraved the sign instead. |
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| For the Casner Fam. |
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| For the Garcias. |
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| A gift I haven't sent out yet. I have three more boxes to send... |
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| More teacher gifts... |
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I always try to use the negative of everything I make so I get a two-for-one. This is the negative of the sign I made as a gift.
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| Teacher gifts. These hold post-it notes and are personalized. The cut-out is a coaster. |
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| Teacher gift boxes. I didn't have extra baskets so I wrapped boxes and gave them their gifts like this. They had ornaments, candy, drinks and signs... |
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Of all of the things I made this year, this has got to be a favorite. Everyone commented on it. It was displayed in the kitchen. I love it so much.
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The twins have missed a BUNCH of school because of one sickness or another and we are anxious to get back to a more normal routine next week. This week they only went two days. Jess and I have been joking (but kind of serious too) that I want to tent my house like people do for termites but with disinfectant and antibacterial/germ remover or neutralizer. I told Eric that when everyone is all better, he needs to take the kids for a long weekend so I can go through and disinfect every surface of the house. My only fear is that I won't finish the job because I'll sleep the whole time they're gone. We all have started on a pretty serious vitamin regimen to help boost our immune systems. Part of me thinks that some of our immune weakness comes from still acclimating to the climate. Now we had this highly unusual cold spell so we have to acclimate even more.
The dogs have been suffering pretty badly with allergies for several months and I finally couldn't take it anymore (for their sake) and contacted the vet. The fleas are pretty bad in East Tennessee and our dogs appear to be highly allergic. One bite and Bear loses all of his fur and bleeds and it's a mess. He was literally going bald. His ear filled up huge with bloody pus and we have to drain it. Missy chews her paws and itches incessantly. Both of them get ear infections and Callie loses weight. She is super skinny. Anyway, they are on a topical flea prevention as well as flea collars but neither do the trick. In fact, both irritate their skin so badly, it makes them sick. Callie's flea collar infected her throat so badly that it took several weeks to heal and was a stinky, awful, painful mess. The poor girl. It wasn't on her too tightly or anything like that. So, we started them on Bravecto. It is flea treatment that lasts for 12 weeks. The only reason we hadn't put them on it prior to now was because the vet needed an exact weight and until we took them in a couple of months ago, we didn't have one. We ordered Bravecto and that was the start to their healing. After they were on Bravecto for a week or so, we noticed a slight difference but we needed them to heal from the major stuff they had been going through for a couple of months. I explained what was going on and asked the vet for antibiotics and steroids and she was so wonderful and prescribed them to us for each dog. They finished their treatment last night and I can't tell you how relieved both they and we are. What a difference. None of them are itching, Bear's ear went down on its own without us having to drain it. They all are so much happier now.
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| This is his ear after we had lanced it already. It would fill up the following day! It's almost completely flat now. |
We did something super spontaneous and not like something Eric would normally do- but I think I definitely would... It's a story so hang tight. On Saturday afternoon, I received a text from a friend in Idaho. She used to be a teacher at the kids' old school in CA. We chatted for a bit and she mentioned that her brother was moving to East Tennessee and was in a bit of a bind. She asked if we would be willing to help him out or if we knew of anyone who could help them get to their new home in Cumberland Gap. Their escrow had been pushed back by almost five days and they had a rental truck pulling one of their big trailers full of their household goods. They needed to return the rental truck to Texas where they rented it and they needed to do it soon. Thankfully, his mom and step-father were traveling with them and were going to drive the truck back to Texas but needed to leave with it prior to the new close date. So, we offered to store the trailer until they closed and drive it to their new home for them with Gramps' truck. We then decided to offer for them to stay with us until they closed escrow because we know how hard the drive is and how exhausted they must be, not to mention the financial strain and the strain on their kids. They had been separated from one member of their caravan so they decided to stay nearby in a hotel that evening, so they could all get together and come together the next day. They had 12 people with them. It was he and his wife, their eight kids (ranging in age from 16 years - 6 months old) and a set of grandparents. We just really loved them all and bonded so much with the grandparents. Luckily, we have so much space and extra beds and were able to accommodate with no issues. It was so good for our kids to have playmates for the few days and it felt good to help them in that minor way. We really all got along so well, had a lot in common and enjoyed visiting, showing them around and sharing meals together. Their kids helped with chores and even dug the holes for the footings for the new silo we bought. It also enabled them to find a local return location for the rental truck and rent a smaller, more economical car for Nana and Papa to drive home to Texas. In turn, that allowed them to stay to help the family get into the new home and leave the day after closing instead of the day before. They are just such a cool family and have been through a lot. They also homeschool and want to homestead and like to do projects themselves. We are really excited to see what they can do with this home and property. They have major remodel plans and are anxious to get started. They bought a church on 11 acres and are going to remodel it into their dream home (at least their dream for now). It really is very exciting. We spent a low-key day together on Monday and then Tuesday afternoon, we headed up to Cumberland Gap with their caravan. We took Gramps' truck pulling the big trailer and followed behind the group. The drive is about 1 hour and 40 minutes but we expected it to take us a little over two hours. It was almost exactly two hours and such a beautiful drive. Cumberland Gap is on the Tennessee/Kentucky/Virginia border. We had to wait for the realtor who told us to be there at 2pm but she didn't get there until after 4pm. Once she was there we opened the place up, took a look around and promptly got to work unpacking the u-haul (which had to be back the next morning at 7:30). The kids all helped so much, I was very proud of them all. Their kids are very hard workers and worked so well together. They were so kind to one another and very protective of one another. It was refreshing to see. We have been working with our kids to be more kind and loving toward one another and this was a real life scenario where they had proof that it happens... I think Tristan really took it all in because we have had several conversations about them since they left, focusing on the positives I am trying to instill in my children. He seemed to really be aware and I could tell he admired how they behaved toward one another.
Sometimes I think people come into our lives to teach us something. Maybe it's something we didn't know about technical things or about the world or whatever but I really feel that this family came into our life to teach us more about ourselves and to also serve as a reminder of who we want to be, how we want to live and how we want to raise our family. In such a short period of time, they really affected me. I hope we can see them from time to time and see Nana and Papa when they come to town as well as our friend in Idaho when she comes to visit her brother and his family!
Farming aint easy. I know aint isn't a word but it flowed there. In winter, I wish I could just hibernate until nearly spring and not have to deal with the cold, wet, muddy winter at all. We have been buying all of our animal feed from a ranchers Walmart called Rural King. We like Rural King but boy do we miss Lees Feed. We were able to get all of our feed in bulk there. It was fantastic. Here, we have been buying 50lb bags of feed since moving here and we have to store it in a stall in the barn. Sometimes Rural King has none available so we have to go to another store or wait for feed. We have searched high and low to find bulk feed and no one carries it. Evidently there is some "good ole' boys network" that runs anyone who wants to bring in bulk feeds out of town. I am not sure about the validity of that but that's the story we have been told. Anyway, we FINALLY found bulk cattle feed and went in search of a grain storage bin large enough to store a ton or so. I have always wanted a silo because it makes me feel more legit as a rancher/farmer if we have one. We found one in Kentucky and contacted the man about it. He said he'd deliver for free within 100 miles. We were 94 miles from him so it was a no brainer. He delivered it the same day! So, we are the proud owners of a 5 ton silo for our cattle feed. Now all we have to do is order it in bulk and the truck will come deliver it and dump it right into the top of the silo!
Eric has been in the shop building furniture for the past two days. I am happy because he loves to get sawdust all over and I need some tables. I have a thing for tables. I cleaned and organized my office/craft room about three weeks ago... Eric gave me the whole day so I pulled EVERYTHING from the room and even emptied the cabinets, dresser drawers, etc. I forgot to take actual before photos but I took photos after I started moving stuff into my bedroom and after I was finished. It is so much nicer now and easier to get around in here. There is so much less clutter. I took several things to the classroom that I was hoarding in here including an extra color printer I do not need. So, now Eric has to build me a printer table because I already have our black & white printer in the classroom. I am excited to have that set up all nice and neat. I also spent a day cleaning and rearranging the kids' playroom. We cleaned all the bins and organized toys and got rid of more unused and baby-like things. We moved their sofa and chair nearer the TV so when they play the Wii or Nintendo, they can sit closer. Or for movies. Now they have a designated play area and TV space. Not that it'll help them to keep the place neater. I wish. Although, all of my kids got complimented on their rooms and how neat and organized they are. Tristan replied with "Oh, that's Mom." Which then made me think I may be too over-the-top with my OCD but then I quickly wiped that thought away and replaced it with "well, I function better in neat and organized spaces and I allow them to decorate how they want and they can hang whatever they want up and have their room how they like it- even destroy it all day long- as long as it gets picked up daily." They will all probably have messy houses when they are grown all because I make them clean up daily. I am sure there is some psychology there. Eric built Nico some shelves for his room to house some of his collectibles. He has model cars from my late grandfather that I have stored so he couldn't play with them, he has some figurines that Papa just sent from Iowa and some things from Eric. Nico is a collector. Eric also put a wood top on the twins' drawers they have beside their beds. I wanted long tables over the top but he did that instead and I like it. He is in the process of making them shelves for their model cars as well.
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| I was able to add a picture because Eric just texted me this. He just finished. |
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| After cleaning. Now, it may still look cluttered to some but I have so much stuff and it is so much better than it was. |
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| I was able to condense my sewing stuff down to what is under that table (it's the same amount of stuff, I just folded it and put it in baskets). |
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| Before. It was wide open but soooooooo cluttered and not very "user friendly". |
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| Clutter.... |
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| During. This is after I started to move stuff to my bedroom. Also, Eric brought in a huge stack of CDs that I had in the Camry from MANY years ago and I listened to like 20 of them while organizing. It was so much fun. |
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| During. |
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| After. I moved the dresser and reorganized the drawers. |
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| I like this spot for the table SO MUCH better. |
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| I have since moved all of the spray paints (from that shelf) to the shop since I primarily paint outside and now they're all in one spot. |
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| These bins wouldn't fit under here before (well, the wood one wouldn't) because of the center leg on the table. So, we unscrewed a few screws and spun the leg a little until the wood bins fit and screwed it back in. Now both fit together. |
The kids have been asking frequently to roast marshmallows and make s'mores so we have done it twice in the past two months. Last night, we did it before supper.
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| The dry cedar burns hot and quick. |
A couple of weeks ago, Eric was picking up the twins and called me. The Camry was smoking black smoke and died as soon as he parked at the twin's school. Thankfully he made it into a parking spot. He had Nico with him. I went and picked the twins and Nico up while Eric waited on a tow truck. Well, the twins get out of school at 1:30pm and Eric made it home with the Camry and tow truck about 7:45 that night. It was ridiculous. Anyway, we thought the Camry was a goner but upon further evaluation, it appears the tensioner pulley broke and dropped the serpentine belt off. The battery died just as soon as he parked because the alternator wasn't charging the battery. It fell off several miles before getting to the twins' school. Anyway, Eric wasn't home to take the big boys to ju jitsu so I took all of the kids and after dropping the big boys off, we went to the car wash then to a local park while the boys ju jitsu'd. Lily, Harlan and Nolan had a lot of fun playing but I would rather have been under a heated blanket or in a hot tub somewhere. It was freezing cold AND Nolan had to go potty TWICE and the park only had porta-potties. I probably have never mentioned this but I HATE porta-potties. They are one of my biggest fears with kids. I am beyond terrified one of the kids will fall in one. I can't EVEN. So, I propped the door open with one foot, held Nolan's jacket for dear life with one hand and held his hand with the other all the while frantically telling him to stop touching stuff! I tried to get him to hold it but no such luck. Anyway, they had fun and I froze nearly to death. When we left there I was headed to get Eric because I was sick of him being put off by the tow truck company and just as I was about to turn the opposite way from home, another company came and rescued him. The first company kept saying they were on the way and were totally putting him off. I put a hex on them. It was so dang cold that day too, and Eric was just waiting there in the parking lot. I told him to leave the keys and hope the car gets stolen but that didn't happen. No one could have driven it anyway, it didn't run.
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| I still love this car so I'm hoping it's just the pulley thing. |
Our motorhome hasn't been started since we moved it in front of the shop last spring to work on the electrical. Well, it took three days to charge the batteries but we wanted to move it back next to the shed out of the way. Since we were starting it up, Eric decided to take it out for a spin and see if he could finally dump and clean the holding tank (the boys were allowed to pee only in it on the way from CA). The twins don't really remember riding in it when we took our big trip to the mid-west a few years ago so they wanted to go for a ride. Nico wanted to go too so Eric loaded everyone up and took off. Every place was closed to dump and clean it so he took them to McDonald's for Happy Meals and came home!!! It was so much fun for them and they want to go to Legoland in it. That was Harlan's request. I'd rather avoid So. Cal if possible (except Santa Barbara) but I definitely want to take a trip this year.
Prior to our arctic freeze, we had ordered a mini-split heating/ac/dehumidification system for the shop. We have wanted one for a long time because it solves three issues in one and is small. We wanted one for the granny flat in CA too but never bought one. Anyway, we bought it and had it ready to go but we needed to bleed the lines and charge it with nitrogen to get it going. It came full of refrigerant (or whatever goes through the AC lines) but we needed to pressurize and gas it up. We contacted several people to do the job for us since Eric got rid of his nitrogen tanks when we moved and he wasn't confident that he would do the job correctly. Well, after getting some quotes, we figured we would take our chances and do it ourselves. I'm thinking the people HAD to have misunderstood and thought we needed a full installation (even though we told them what we needed) because the quotes were up around $1,800 for one guy to do it. I mean, it's like a one hour job. Youtube to the rescue AGAIN. Eric did the job and it works perfectly! We are very happy for many reasons and one is that it is economical. The heaters we have in there now are a little less economical. We had to keep them going full-time during the severe cold so our supplies didn't freeze and more importantly, our Glowforge. Now this can keep a constant temp with no freezing.
One silver-lining to the barn pipes freezing is that Gramps went and bought all new pex and completely re-did the pipes to all the stalls, his sink, the shower and the whole barn. He added spigots and new valves. It's incredible and I love it!
The kids have been pretty helpful the past couple of months during all the sickness. Tristan did my barn chores without me even asking and has been offering to do pretty much anything we need. The twins got some Dino eggs to dig through from one of our games we play at Christmas. Well, they wanted to dig them out and we had rain for like a week straight so I put them in their bathtub and let them go to town. Harlan doesn't like his hands getting dirty so he got a little stressed but they did great. One had a tooth in it. My friend Beth offered us a hoverboard so I traded haircuts for her boys for the hoverboard and they brought it over and got haircuts. The kids are LOVING it. The Casners are gracious enough that they have each of the big kids over in turns very frequently. They had Nico last weekend and he got to play a new PS5. He was a zombie. Lol. I pulled the easels out for the twins to color and paint and they've been loving it. I have a roll of sticky coloring pages and Harlan and I are now coloring buddies and Nolan and Lily are. I also found a big pack of play dough on clearance and bought it for the play dough bin. The kids have been playing in it daily since then. Nolan won a patriotism award at school last month. When Harlan was sick, he slept on me for about four hours one day. Eric and I watched so much TV, I am all caught up on Die Hard, 1923, The Hobbit and Avengers. We also played games. Nico had to recap the Ugly Duckling in school on tape. Nolan tried a super sour candy and couldn't hang. Miss Kitty let Lily touch her for maybe the 5th time ever. Nolan got ahold of my phone and wanted selfies.
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| Scott took this picture of Lily. |
I haven't photographed many menus even though I get a lot of comments from people on them, sorry. I have been creative with meals and trying to make them easy. Also, we have been eating a lot of soups. Yesterday was Scott's birthday so I made him the rolo pretzel pecan candies. I made them for Christmas and everyone loved them. I made baked chili dogs and they were a hit. I made viva la chicken and it's always a winner. I made sheet-pan kielbasa and veggies. We also had 32oz of mushrooms that were going to go bad so I threw those on a sheet-pan with Tony C's, jalapeño olive oil, garlic and rosemary. Those were a big hit. I don't eat mushrooms but was happy to not let them go to waste.
Random animal photos, project photos, sunsets and more...
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| Friends and cat snuggles. |
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| Sick in bed. I slept for three days straight. |
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| We get the best sunsets. |
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| Our little mischief maker, Buttercup. |
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| I finally completed my 2023 calendar on January 4th. I usually have it done BY November. I made the kids do their own this year as well but I printed them stickers with reminders of their laundry day, big chores day and birthdays. |
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| Carl will fit himself in any basket, container, bag, box, etc. |
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| More cat snuggles. |
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| This is on the way to pick up the twins from school. This picture doesn't do the sky justice. It was so pretty. I had to dig for my phone though so I almost missed it. |
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| I'm using primarily Plant Therapy essential oils now (along with all of my Young Living favorites) and really enjoying trying new ones. I bought this one and they donated to the wounded warriors. |
That about sums up our Christmas, New Year and the in-between and after. I am sure I am forgetting something but let's be honest, this post is long enough! Hahaha.
Birthday shout outs!
Happiest Birthday to our beautiful and amazing friend, Andrea! We love you beyond measure and are so glad to have you in our life.
Happiest Birthday to our talented and sweet friend, Clarisse! We hope your birthday was as awesome as you are!
Happiest of Birthdays to my incredible uncle, Uncle Doug. You are truly one of our favorite human beings and we all love you so dang much! We can hardly wait till June!
Happiest Birthday to another favorite of ours, Steve Shervey. You are one of the smartest people I have ever known and you gave me so many opportunities that have helped shape my life and I am forever grateful to you. Hope you had an incredible day.
Happiest Birthday to the kids' Uncle Scott! You are such a good uncle to the kids and we are so happy to have you all close by! Hope you had an awesome day!
Happiest Birthday to the kids' Aunt Nancy! We hope you had an incredible day and got spoiled by everyone. We love you.
Happy Birthday to our sweet niece and the kids' cousin, McKenna! Have so much fun and get spoiled!!! We love you.
Happiest Birthday to our favorite mini rancher, Phoenix Nelson! You are so grown up and we need to see you before you're a full-blown cowboy! Have a great day!
Last but certainly not least, Happiest Birthday to our favorite cowgirl, Bella Nelson! I cannot believe the young woman you are becoming right before our eyes. I wish we could see you more often but hopefully we get a couple of short visits this year! Have an amazing day and don't grow up too quickly.
It's not quite here yet but Eric and I celebrate our 14 year wedding anniversary on February 6th. What an adventure our life together has been. I am at a loss for adequate words to express how grateful I am that our paths crossed all those years ago. He is the best man in the world and I am so lucky to have him as my bestie. Cheers to many more, babe! I love you SO VERY MUCH.
