A day in the life of Evan

Evan is my kid that really likes everyone to entertain him. This job usually falls on his sister who, as she gets older, is finding this less enjoyable. On occasion he finds something that really strikes his interest. Just look what we walked out to one morning. Green slime was slowly making it's way down to the floor. The neighbors made goo out of white glue and borax. Evan found out if he put it up to his face and blew into it he made big bubbles. He also found out that borax is irritating to your face after prolonged contact.

Meet another being in our house that is entertaining to Evan. I do post lots of stuff about our pets, but I don't know if anyone realizes how special our cat Molly is. She is one of the only cats I've ever been around that tolerates being trapped under the laundry basket and poked at by all the neighbor kids until I find them and yell at them. Then when they let her out she doesn't run away. It's like she knows they won't hurt her and has a job to do to be Evan's companion. Really. She is smart, a good hunter, and loves her little boy. She loves him enough to let him tuck her in to said laundry basket and give her rides around the house for a good 30 minutes while the dog follows them waiting to chase her when she jumps out.

I'm serious folks! Thirty minutes went by. He just pulled her around and around the house while she acted like she was on the People Mover ride at Disneyland.

The dog was waiting patiently...

We'll be out in the garden this weekend, which means Molly will be gardening too. She likes to keep a check on the gophers around the edge and rolls in the dirt. If you sit down to rest she'll most likely jump in your lap and purr while she soaks up the sun, and deposits dust on your lap. Sometimes there are animals that really become part of your existence. That sure makes it harder when they leave us, but boy it sure makes while they are here special. She makes one little boy happy. I'm just glad she is so tolerant and patient. She was custom made for him. Thanks God. Sometimes angels really do have fur.

I hope you all had a nice weekend and made some Mother in your life feel special. I had a nice Sunday brunch out with my kiddos and husband. Then we went to one of my favorite places. Eisley's nursery is a local nursery that has wonderful plants and fun garden embelishments. They took me to pick out a rose bush. I like flowers with roots attached to them and before we moved they would buy me a new rose for my garden every Mother's Day. When we moved I couldn't take them with me as it was stinking hot in August and we hadn't found a house yet. I have a place that I'm going to convert into my new rose garden. We worked a little on the garden and should have most of it in by this weekend. The kids are busy with end of the year projects. Amanda just finished one on raising butterflies that is to be turned in next week for the open house. ONE more week until I no longer have bugs on my counter. The dumb ants have grow quite accustomed to coming in my kitchen at night to eat the sugar water we leave out for the butterflies to eat. It was actually a fun project! We watched the little tiny catepillars grow and pupate. Then on Mother's Day they started hatching. The kids were so excited! So I guess I got Painted Lady Butterflies for Mother's Day too!

Sorry, more chick pictures!

Easter break-could the timing be any better for baby chicks?

Out of 12 eggs 4 hatched

One proud momma!

I apologize for the endless amounts of chicken pictures. I just can't get enough of these little babies! You don't realize how small they are when they are born until you see them right out of the shell. They are TINY! This is one proud momma. She makes sure I know when they need food, and she's showing them around the back yard. One got stuck in the fence and one fell in a hole so I'm constantly checking on them. Chickens just keep moving if one falls behind. She has to watch out for the other 3. Sometimes she will come back, bringing the rest with her, but I guess the babies have to learn to get a long on their own, just like our kids do I guess. The cutest thing is to watch them all squish under her to get warm, and then one by one pop out to run around. Then she takes them for a stroll in the tall grass. One by one they follow her, running to keep up. Sometimes I feel like that. Life runs on ahead of us, and we chase after it one by one, trying to keep up. I'm just trying to remember to have God leading me. I just wish he wouldn't let me fall into so many holes or get stuck in so many fences...I guess my job is to survive!

Nature walk

I took a little walk around the property today to check out what's growing and snap some pictures. Whenever I take little walks I am always joined by some critters. Molly is always wanting to go for a walk. We thought we lost her Friday night. She didn't come home and we still hadn't seen her Saturday. I went to the Animal Shelter Saturday afternoon and when we got home I told the kids to ride their bikes around the neighborhood and ask if they can check their sheds and such. The kids came running in the house saying she was at the neighbor's house all night. Then I got the whole story. They put her in a crate and kept her in the garage Friday night. They had heard coyotes in the distance and was afraid she'd get eaten. Then they never bothered to call us and their dog chased her into the bushes Saturday morning when they let her out and sat there all day. Their kids told them she was our cat but they still didn't let us know. We were outside calling her and searched the entire property. Um, the reason why she didn't come home was because they locked her up. She was waiting to come home until the coyotes had passed. AND, if you're going to lock up my cat and know it's mine, CALL!!! She's a pretty smart cat and has avoided the coyotes for 2 years now. Let her make her own way home! The cat was so tired and stressed out she slept most of the day. Poor thing! Country cat and city folk don't mix well.

Sophie's always up for a nice walk when they weather is cool and sunny. Everything is so green!

Guess what else just showed up today??? Aphids and whiteflys!!! LOTS OF THEM!!! Time to use the systemic fertilizer. Gross!

Um, look who's been hiding on a dozen eggs? She's been there for 2 weeks that we know of.

Here's the other momma hen. We saw a baby peak it's head out so I went and got a waterer and started throwing out food for them as well. Sure enough, there were 4 babies running around with her this evening. There isn't much cuter than a momma hen showing her babies how to survive while they all scurry around her scratching and playing. It is the classic momma story. I guess I'll let her keep them in the back yard for a couple more days under there. Then they need to go into the coop so the cats won't get them.

All in all it's been a good weekend--Baseball, ongoing bathroom project that is about 70% complete, BBQ, animals, weeds, sun. The kids are on Easter break this week so hopefully we'll get some bike rides and crafts in. As for me, I'm joining a gym again bright and early tomorrow morning. I tried to work out at home for 6 months to save money. I've not been successful and can't fit into my clothes so it's back to the grind. I did pretty good for 8 years going so it's the only way that works for me. Wish me luck! I'm going to try a new place that's closer to me! SCARY!!! I went to the same place for all 8 years. Out of my comfort zone.

Happy Hearts Day!

Here is my surprise! Her name is Cat. She's an 8 year old Quarter Horse with a sweet personality. We're going to send her to school with my trainer in a couple of months. She needs a bit of a tune up as she's not been out much the last few months. The lady that had her babied her quite a bit.

Chris let me use some of our tax return on her and I got her Valentine's Day weekend so I'm calling her my Valentine's Day gift. I'd take her over jewelry or flowers any day.

Aww, she's nuzzling Amanda. I think I'm in love. Pretty girls! My heart is overflowing!

Egg anyone?

Can you guess what this is?

Here's another hint...

You won't believe this!

Look at the worlds smallest chicken egg! I almost stepped on it one morning when I was going out to let the chickens out of the coop. One of my new babies is learning! Too bad humans don't start small and work up to the LARGE eggs...

Animals we can eat...

Well, we finally were able to start on our venture to raise beef on our own property. After much fence fixing we're hoping they will decide to stay and be babied for a year or so. We knew a guy that knew a guy that sold cattle and went over to pick some out. "Go ahead and pick one you like." Uh, the brown one? The cute one? The one that doesn't look sick? I went for one that looked healthy and was Hereford. That was my criteria. Then he did the 20 question cowboy that is selling to city slickers routine that pissed me right off. I just stood there taking the brunt of his attitude. I just wanted to kick him and tell him I'm not a city girl and grew up raising beef with my dad. Instead I just played along. I didn't get REALLY irritated until he said, "Why do you want a smaller cow? I sell beef to people like you all day long that come over and want a cow. You're better off buying it bigger, even up to 1000 pounds. You won't have to put as much feed into it." I wanted to tell him that what's the point in having him feed it God knows what and giving him $700 to $800 more money, knowing I won't have that much more in hay in the smaller cow by the time I do it in next summer and I also just put one in the freezer from my parent's house and I want my kids to experience raising their own food anyway. A city slicker would just prefer to buy the big cow giving you more profit right away and do it in right away for immediate cow in the freezer, wouldn't they??? We like to take our time and do it the right way, thank you. He also kept telling me to call him if I had any problems and was concerned I wasn't going to know if they looked sick or something annoying like that. ANYhoo, we're going to the auction next time. We want drop calves so the kids can bottle feed them. THAT'S fun!
Here is Bubba. This is my best friend's cow that is keeping ours company. He is Hereford and Brama cross and quite shy. Although I'm finding out he's the curious one. He's almost opened the gate twice in the last week. I always catch him playing with the chain. He's also the only one I ever hear Moo.

This is our Gus Gus. He's the protector and can be a bit pushy at food time. I have to separate the alfalfa a little or he hogs a bit. He also attempted to challenge me to a stand off when I was chasing them out of the fruit tree enclosure that they busted in to. They mostly run away when I try to pet them but they have also discovered that not only do I provide them hay and water, but I also have a YUMMY grain treat that is sweet and only given in small amounts so they are slowly wearing down.

Come Boss! They pay attention to the back door and come running when it's time to eat. They also don't understand the time change and think 4pm this week is just as good as 5pm was last week.

Now Chris can say I got an animal that we can eat. That is his rule. No more animals unless we can eat them! Now to convince him that some countries eat horse meat...

More fruits, and veggies of our labor...food and otherwise.

Um, I'm now sick of squash, for this year anyway. The chickens are excited about this fact. They've been getting zucchini and cucumbers thrown in to them daily. The tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos are now ready...finally. Salsa anyone???

Here is a sneak peak at Evan's quilt that I've had in the works for 2 years. Now to just wash it and act like it's a surprise on his birthday since he's seen it. I gave up staying up late to work on it when he wasn't looking. The best part is IT'S DONE!!! Now we have a fun trip going to the laundrymat to use their oversized machines. I just love experiencing the laundrymat culture.

Here is Amanda's book bag for school. I just barely finished this one by the hair on my chinny chin chin. School starts tomorrow. I need to lengthen the strap a little, but other than that she loves it. It's stuffed with school supplies that we got yesterday. She is so excited to be in 4th grade!

We got a little crazy on the front with the embroidery settings on my machine(Maybelle).

This bag was a bit of an experiment since I worked from a pattern and picture we found on the internet and just changed the size up a little. One thing I've noticed on the free patterns you find on the internet is the directions are usually lacking. If I hadn't just made up 11 grocery bags made with similar lining concepts I'd have not been able to complete it properly. These people need to edit their directions better. They forget key parts that make a huge difference, like don't sew the handle all the way to the top since you have to tuck it down inside when you are sewing the lining to the outside. That way when you turn it the right side out the handle is on the OUTSIDE instead of the INSIDE. I think I'll write them a note. They forgot that whole step. Anyway, bookbags are packed and awaiting a lunchbag and school starts tomorrow. I see some closet organizing going on today in preparation for tomorrow. Fall is near, and I'm ready!

Tacoma

Well, here is the little poop. Actually, we think he's a bit taller than the lady said he was, but are we surprized about that? No. We went and pertied him up last night, just to play with him.

Imagine a dumb look on my face now...I love him. Ok. I'm done. I really do enjoy him. His personality is great. Time will tell if he'll calm down with us, but he really likes being around the kids and let them brush and love on him while he ate dinner. That's good. He also worked out in the round pen with my mom a little, which is a great sign as that means he's done that before. Cool.

He's got the LONG tail and full billowing mane. I call him Taco when he's being a poop, like when he flipped around and I thought he was going to kick at me, but he just wanted me to scratch his butt. Um, ok. Now if I can just get him to do what I say...

Fruits of our labor

Here's what we've been working towards with our garden. We've been busily storing up for winter. The first picking of green beans yielded 16 quarts and we're in the midst of doing pickles in 3 or 4 flavors. So far we have dill relish, dill pickles, golden glows, and zucchini relish. The next batches will be bread and butter and more dills, but more of a kosher kind. I'm learning a lot about estimating amounts needed and methods used...ice bath, lime bath, pickling salts, soaking, rinsing, flavoring, the possibilities are endless! What kind of recipes does your family pass down? What little tricks do they use to make their veggies shine? We want to know!



We're really trying to get done with this stuff to make room for when our tomatoes really come on. They've been slow to ripen due to the mild weather we've been having. When they do come on we'll be in trouble!!!

Here is my little helper. He made sure I did dill pickles, since those are his favorite. His other favorite that I showed him this year is to take cucumber, slice in spears(which he can now do by himself) and sprinkle with salt and pepper. He probably eats a couple of large cukes a day!!!

Thebest thing about all of these veggies? I don't have to buy them to use on my South Beach diet I'm doing! In phase one you can have lean meats, veggies(non-starchy), eggs, and low fat dairy. That means I'm eating a lot of veggies!!! I am getting a little tired of zucchini and bell peppers though! The great part is I've lost 10 pounds and get to start phase 2 which means I can have fruit again! Have a great week! We're headed out of town on a camping trip.

major project

Here is what's been taking up a lot of our time in the evenings this past month. Veggies galore!!!

Our garden has really taken off! The kids love going out in the evenings to pick what's ripe.

We have watermelons, cantalope, crookneck, zucchini, butternut, corn, tomatoes, green beans, basil, green onions, peas, peppers, cucumbers, and dill. Here is a collage Chris made of some photos he took. It's a busy place out back!

I've been canning this week. Wow! I'm tired! Picking, washing, processing, needing a latte and a pedicure...

Critters

Well, the critters are out! Not only have I woken up to the INTENSE smell of skunk multiple times in the last couple of weeks, we've also had deer hanging around. One in particular has been hanging around our side fence in the trees napping and such for a couple of days. Most of the time Sophie doesn't notice it but on occasion she does. Then her hair stands up and off she goes. Such was the case this morning. We had two in the back yard just looking at the sliding glass door. She launched herself down her ramp and tore into the back yard. I almost wet myself laughing. Her little legs were FLYING!!! Darned tickballs...that's what I call the deer. Now if I can just find where the skunk is hanging out...yesterday it got REALLY smelly at 10am. Yes, 10am...aren't they nocturnal? And why was it out during the day??? I got nervous that I was going to have another encounter like I did at our last house when the neighbor started up his lawnmower in his shed and disrupted the skunk living underneath the floor. Out it shot towards our front yard and my gardening session. It is possible for a human to levitate multiple feet through the air away from danger, just in case you were wondering...I think I need a gun, and not my son's BB gun, which is what my husband grabbed last time(along with his headlamp) the skunk was in my hen house. Yet another pant-wetting episode. Ahh, country life! Happy Friday! It's going to be a hot one this weekend!!!

We have a Smalley

Ok, only one more chicken post for the week. I promise. When I got 5 new chicks in March they were all the same size and color. They were all healthy and grew quickly...well, all except one. Meet Smalley. We named her after reading a post by a fellow blogger who has a chicken that is smaller than the others but seems to have overcome her issues named Smalley. I soon realized we have a Smalley too! My husband said she'sstunted and will probably never lay eggs. Oh yeah, like he's the chicken expert??? Paaleeezeee. He's just picking on her. See what she deals with? Even with her smaller than the others size she is doing quite well. She is the first one to the gate when we come out and allows us to catch her after not that much chasing, which considering the others run for their lives (even after feeding and handling them since birth--out of the goodness of my heart--off they go with the other older birds, influencing them to turn their backs on me...) is pretty remarkable. She's our girl. On to the rest of the chicken story...

My dog Sophie is a bit of a snob, but incredibly sweet and loves people. She doesn't think she's a dog most of the time. I let her come into the coop with me. She doesn't chase them and really just likes to sniff around and "do" other dog things. I think she feels she's part of the clean up crew, for lack of a better description. Gross. I, of course, know if I wasn't there she'd surely make a game of chasing them while barking. Well, here comes Smalley. The other chickens kind of stick to the edges of the cage or kind of follow her when she is in there. Smalley

kind of pecked her butt a while ago but it seemed more out of curiosity. This time it was obvious that Smalley had a plan. She lowered her head, slowly stalked up to Sophie face to face, and nailed her right in the face! Sophie was so surprised that she just kind of jumped and ran to the gate. Smalley was making sure that dog was not going to interfer with her chicken yard. You go Smalley! I wish I had my camera!

Outside

Keeping it real here. This is what our back patio looks like most of the time lately. It's that time of year...fertilizing, weeding, BBQing, mess making. I find myself saying, who wants to clean it up when we're just going to use it next weekend? Same reason why I'm not one to make my bed every morning. That's one of my goals this summer. Put stuff away and make it look nice so it feels nice! I went on a bit of a cleaning frenzy outside. We can actually eat on the picnic table instead of using it as a tool box. My husband was not happy. He's a bit of a messy guy, well, a lot messy and usually gets irritated with me when I make piles of his tools and such(like empty beer bottles) to put away. I wonder if it was because I piled it on the lawn, knowing it needed to be put away before the sprinklers came on that evening...horns anyone??? Hey, it worked... Another project we've been working on is getting the swing set back in action. It needs to be sanded and restained this summer. The best part of our backyard is the HUGE trees that shade it all day. The swing set is in shade at all times. LOVE IT! Chris wants to built a treehouse to connect to the set at some point. That should be interesting.

I'd also like you to meet our new addition. I've already posted pictures of the babies we hatched in January, but one came out of the chicken closet. Can you pick HIM out? He's the big pretty one along the fence. Rodney is NOT happy about sharing his girls and is constantly chasing around this HUGE rooster with his scrawny, fluffy, pathetic winged body. It's hilarious!

It took weeks for his crow to not sound like he had a hairball in his throat. Good thing he's so passive because Rodney is our favorite and we won't tolerate poor treatment of him. Chris is waiting to do the new guy in at the first sign of fighting. You know Chris and knives...any excuse.

I think he needs a name. I was considering Reggie, but he needs something more colorful since he spends all of his time doing sneak "dates" with the girls and is always chased off by Rodney. Maybe Joey...any suggestions? He's awful perty, don't you think?

New love

The garden is coming along nicely. Lots of weeding has been done. The watering has been easy with our mild weather the past 2 weeks. Sophie is on patrol, walking up and down the isles. Chris gets a little irritated with her since she isn't always careful around the tomatoes. Gee, I think we could stand to lose a few without much issue. Thirty some odd plants is enough!!!


The garden has also brought on a realization...my husband has found a new love. This love doesn't talk back, is rich, and provides for others. Any evening you can find him lovingly turning, watering, and sifting. Meet the mulch piles. This is two and three.

This is number one. Notice all of the green plants and snarled roots in this initial pile. That was my doing. While he is working on the mulch piles and wandering through the garden I've been working on some planter boxes that have been overgrown for a long time.

This one was full of Agapanthas that had 15 inch thick tuber/rootballs and another 10 to 12 inches of spidery roots going everywhere. It was like a huge carpet! They must have been there for YEARS. I had to HACK them out section by section. Pretty much the entire planter was full of them. Chris had to rototill the dirt and now we are sifting it. What a mess!

Wow! No more jungle of green! I'm not sure I even know what I want in here so it might be dirt for a while.

And yet another messy planter now cleaned out. I just threw some wildflower seeds in here. We'll see if they grow.

Feels good to get them cleaned out! One more patch of agapantha to go in the front yard. That might wait until Fall.

busy weekend

The weekend proved to completely wear me out. I spent Saturday, ALL DAY, at a CPR first aid class. I came home to a cooked meal, a miniature rose plant on the table, and cards from the kiddos. They also got me the next book in the Twilight series that I'm almost ready to start. Yeah! It was a wonderful thing to come home to. I got a glimpse of what Chris feels when he comes home and I have dinner on the table waiting for him. He'd be satisfied with a beer in place of the rose plant though. Sunday I woke early and made breakfast. Then it was time to head outside to start the garden planting. I'm a bit of a bull in a china closet when I get started on a project. I do it until it's done. Chris kept trying to get me to sit down and have some sangria with him but I really just wanted to take the time I'd set aside and get all of my seed starts and seeds in the ground. He doesn't know what's on my calendar for the next couple of weeks, but I do and yesterday was the day to get the garden done. Are you ready??? I planted, butternut, zuchinni, crookneck, cucumber, watermelon, cantalope, 2 different types of onions, peas, corn, bell peppers, jalapenos, 38 tomato plants in 3 different varieties, herbs, and green beans. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it, which is why there aren't any pictures. My arms were too tired to lift up my camera!!! Today I'm clearing out a planter box before work and planting 2 hydrangeas Richard gave me. I need to get them in before it gets too hot!!!

Maybe when more of the little green shoots are showing I'll take some pictures. If everything goes well we'll probably be having picking parties too!

Local living history field trip

Amanda had a field trip planned where they had to dress like early settlers in our area. We set out to get a pattern and fabric for her costume. They had to bring their lunches in baskets or pails and were asked to not bring plastic anything. We had lemonade in canning jars and everything wrapped in waxed paper. She even made me unwrap my string cheese and re wrap it in waxed paper. I pointed out that there were lots of kids with bags of chips and containers of yogurt that weren't following instructions. She just gave me the "look" as if I'd gotten the memo and was required to comply.


I was in charge of helping the kids (40 of them) make leaving dolls and button spinners. Next time I'm doing the baking or laundry! I kept trying to tell the rowdy boys that they weren't following the guidelines for how they were to act as if in 1859. Yes maam, no maam, ladies first??? Hello???

We conned grandma into helping in the baking section since her teacher didn't get enough volunteers.

Amanda said she wished it was still like it used to be in the 1800's. I said yeah, except for the whole hygiene thing. Well, maybe the long sleeve and full skirt rule too. I can already feel that I'd have been the rebel not riding side saddle and maybe rolling up my sleeves when it was 100 degrees and I had to go churn butter or water the crops or chop off a chicken head...