A Friend for Cecil and a Circus Adventure

You know how some weekends are slow and relaxing and others are crazy busy? Well this was yet another crazy busy one. I told the hubby that I'm looking forward to cool weather so everything can slow down. The boys worked on the deck and finished it up (for the most part). The decking is all down, the only thing left to do is the stairs. It is so wonderful to have a deck on the back of the house and have all that usable "living" space. A place to eat or just relax with the kids. When it's all done I'll add pictures. Sean did a beautiful job with it, he should be proud of that accomplishment.

While they were busy deck building, the kids and I went on a little road trip to pick up a new member of the family. The animal family that is. Some friends of the family, that I've known since I was a tiny kid, had leopard tortoises. I always enjoyed going over to their house to see their cats and tortoises. It might be where my fascination with tortoises came from. They had two that they acquired back in 1985. A few weeks ago they contacted me to see if I was interested in adopting their remaining male, as the female had passed away a few years back. Of course I was interested!

Turns out their male is nearly the same size as Cecil, my leopard tortoise. And after a little internet research I've deducted that Cecil is in fact a "Cecilia". So their male might have a little more fun in the company of my female. I went and picked up the new one on Saturday. They are getting along wonderfully together. Where there is one you will always find the other. I think Cecil is just as happy to have another tortoise her size as he is. Thank you Phil and Linda!

"Guy" is the handsome lighter colored one and nearly 30 years old. Cecil is the darker one and 9 years old. Girls are bigger than boys in the tortoise world.

This weekend the circus came to town. I must admit that I am not a circus person. I don't like creepy clowns, hot circus tents and preforming animals. Maybe I'm strange. I was going to let it come and go without taking the kids until I started thinking about it more. I, as a parent, have to expose these kids to things that I don't necessarily like. Things like circuses. So we bought tickets and went to the circus. I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't so bad. In fact it was a nice little circus. Was it hot in that tent? You betcha. But the kids seemed to have a good time and the clowns weren't at all creepy. I'm sure we'll go to the circus again next year if they come back.

Strangest act of the night? The woman dangling from the ceiling by nothing more than her hair. Ouch!

Stepping it up

For some reason the end of summer is when I put on a few pounds. I don't know why but it's like this every year. I generally get back on track in the fall and spend the winter inside on the treadmill. This year I'm trying to curtail the "end of summer blubber" by buying a pedometer. I was reading an article that said getting 10,000 steps a day is great for overall health and a great way to get moving every day. 10,000 steps equals out to 5 miles of walking a day. So onto Amazon I went and bought a nice little digital pedometer. It's not one of those clicking kind. You know, the ones that audibly "click" every time you take a step? Apparently those are not very accurate. I bought a Omron HJ-321 and it works great. I like how it tracks 7 days worth of data. How many steps, miles and calories. Oh and it was cheap, under $17.

So I've been wearing this bad boy for over a week now and I gotta say, it is hard to get 10,000 steps a day! I'd say I'm a fairly active person and I get to about eight thousand step every day. This is even with 45 minutes on the treadmill. I find myself just walking around the house to get a few hundred more steps in. Last night after I fed the animals I walked in circles around the back yard to get to my quota. The neighbors must think I'm nuts. In the last seven days I've only reached my quota twice. How sad.

I took the kids to the playground at the school in town over Labor Day. They were playing and I was walking. Then I look up and discover a big lake next to the school that wasn't there before. They had been working on, what I thought, was a big ditch for years. Then one day it turned into a lake. The city had poured a nice sidewalk around it and put a fishing dock in as well. It was awesome and the kids and I walked around it thoroughly enjoying ourselves. It's funny, you can grow up in a town and never know something like a small lake was created right in the middle of it.

Anyways, it's been a fun way to try and become more active. That little pedometer has kick started my activity level after a long, hot summer. So looking forward to getting outside more in the upcoming, cooler months.

Daily Treat

Some days I feel like a zoo keeper. On a daily basis I take a big bowl back to the garden and pile it up with the more questionable tomatoes (you know, the ones with the big holes in them or are getting a bit too shriveled up), along with some bell peppers and squash. I then take a plastic bag out to the walnut grove and fill it up with mulberry leaves from a sapling that is growing alongside a walnut tree. I'll add a few dandelion leaves to the bag. I bring this all in and wash it and then get to work chopping. What I have left is three bowls destined for three very different species.

Today the chickens look forward to their head of lettuce, tomato and cup of day old yogurt. The goats will dine on cut up old cucumbers, tomatoes and a bruised apple.  The tortoises get a bowl of mulberry leaves, dandelions and mixed baby greens. This is just a treat for the chickens and goats, they get their daily rations in the mornings and evenings along with prairie hay. The tortoises get their greens along with timothy hay. I've been trying very hard to make sure nothing goes to waste around here. Before I throw away any food I decide whether it could go to any of the animals. The chickens can take care of almost any scrap food. Lately they have been stuffing themselves on melon rinds from the melons in the garden.

The garden has been giving me enough produce for our family along with a nice daily treat for the animals, it's been nice. I forgot how much the dogs like the garden too. Every day I let Cody and Sophie out to roam the back yard and every day Cody runs back to the garden and plucks the biggest patty pan squash he can find and runs up to the house to devour it in the shade. He is one goofy retriever. Sophie usually joins in at some point.

The Wednesday Write-Up

-The first day of preschool went wonderfully. She was a little shy when we got there but after finding the bucket o' Barbies and a playmate she bid me farewell with ease. I asked her in the car at pick-up time how everything was and she said "All the kids were so nice, nobody kicked or punched me like Wesley!". Ha! Don't worry about Miss Greta she punches Wesley far more than he does her. I'm thrilled she's excited to go back.

-The deck progress has stopped due to a rather ill husband. Poor guy got a nasty stomach flu (or maybe West Nile virus?) that had him curled up on the couch in misery. The kids and I tossed Saltines to him from a safe distance (not really) as we really did not want to catch whatever bug he had. Luckily he is feeling better today and on the road to recovery. As much as I've tried he still won't let me go out and put down decking, he really wants to do it himself. I'm ok with that. I'm just happy to be seeing this outside my sliding glass doors:

....rather than this:

-The Volt just turned one year old and turned over 10,000 miles. So far it's been fun, sporty and different. We haven't noticed any difference in our (gigantic) electric bill and it's been lovely not filling the car up much. I've used 57 gallons of gas over 10,000 miles which averages out to 175 mpg (come on, that's cool). That means the 32 mile range is just about perfect for my transportation needs, I don't tend to ever need to use the gas engine except for the occasional trip. The downsides thus far include the low clearance on the front....I scrape anything and everything. I'm an equal opportunity scraper. And the black interior. You mix living on dirt roads, kids and a black interior and you are left with the dirtiest car interior ever. It's dirty right after I clean it. It makes me twitch. Never again will I own a car with a black interior. Mark my words. Fun car though! Happy birthday Mr. Volt.

Conversations with a 3 year old

We have one very excited little girl. Do you know why? She starts preschool tomorrow. You know I was a little worried about how she'd do all by herself in preschool before this summer. She's done some major growing up and I can honestly say I'm not worried about her. She's going to do wonderfully saying bye to me for a few hours. It's going to be strange having a few hours to myself, but I'm sure I'll adjust.

She had to go in for her yearly physical before school started. I knew she was tall for her age but she came in at a whopping 99% for height. Yikes! She's doing great and keeps me laughing, case in point:

I was walking down the driveway with Greta and we were discussing imaginary things.

Greta: "Ghosts aren't real. Dragons aren't real."

Me: "Yep, they aren't real."

Greta: "And zombies!"

Me: "Yep, and unicorns too"

Greta: "And ALLIGATORS!"

Me: "Nope, alligators are real."

Greta: "WHAT?!!"

I think I blew her mind. I'll miss her for those few hours a week. 

Flashback Friday

About 12 years ago Hubby and I were once again building a deck. This time it was on Sean's college house and it was about a month before we got married. It was a family affair and my parents were there along with Sean's parents and brother. It was 102 degrees out, much like it is now, and we had a great time. I dug around and found the pictures taken during that hot weekend and on Saturday I had Rich take a reenactment picture to document the next (and probably not the last) deck building experience.  Here they are side by side, the older one on the left is just a picture of a picture so the quality isn't so great. We were 22 years old at the time. Just babies. Hehehe....

I couldn't resist sharing this next picture because it cracks me up. That would be my future mother-in-law with her signature "flare". Love you Randi!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Look who ate dinner on the almost finished deck? We did! Woo hoo!

Pesto kind of day

My deck building boys have put down their screw drivers and returned to their desk jobs so it's just Greta and I again. I thought "what better thing to do today than to make something yummy". We were outside this morning watering the garden and I decided on a tasty batch of pesto. So first things first, in early spring plant more basil seeds than you'll ever use in your entire lifetime. Plant that basil in your garden and strawberry bed and then watch it grow into three feet tall bushes. Then gather a bowl and your three year old helper and go pluck several cups of basil leaves. Make sure said three year old knows the difference between (toxic) morning glory leaves and basil leaves.

Next thing to do: shell 1/3 cup of pistachios. I like using this recipe for pesto because it uses pistachios instead of the traditional pine nuts. I usually always have pistachios in the cupboard. Place pistachios,  1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese and two cloves of garlic in food processor. I bought this el cheapo food processor for $10 at Wall World, works great. Pulse it until everything is pulverized.

Place 2-3 cups of packed basil leaves on top of crumbles, and give it all a squeeze of lemon juice. I think the lemon juice keeps the basil from turning brown. Put the lid on the food processor and turn it on low while slowly drizzling olive oil through the lid (usually there is a little hole in the top for liquids). It will blend up into this lovely pesto. Salt and pepper it to your own preference (if you used salted pistachios you won't need much if any salt). It's so good scooped onto carrot sticks, Wheat Thins, cucumbers, anything! I found a recipe for Chicken Panini's that uses pesto and is so delicious. Enjoy!

Pesto with Pistachios 

2-3 c. Basil leaves
2 Garlic cloves
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/3 c. Pistachios 
1/2 c. Olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Day 6

Hubby has been home for 6 days now building the deck and it's coming along. Here are progress pictures from this morning. We are lucky to have Rich here today helping out too. The decking is going down well.

Holy Joists Batman!

It's really starting to look like a deck!

Moving right along

I'm starting to have what looks like a deck on the south side of the house! Woo hoo! Tuesday afternoon a large truck delivered two big bundles of wood that we ordered on Monday. Hubby has been out there ever since bolting things together. It's starting to come together. Perhaps by the end of this weekend I might have a finished deck. Oh how exciting!

School review, Deck progress & Dimes.

Today starts the first full week of school. Wesley hasn't figured out the whole five days of school and then two days off for the weekend. He's always still very surprised and pleased when he has days off for Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday he came up to me and said "Now let me get this straight, tomorrow I have school right?" I said yep and he thought about it for a second and said "Yeeeessss!". He loves school and that makes a Mom happy. Personally, I think he loves recess but it's all good.

He still holds my hand when I walk him inside. Last Friday he held hands with Greta as they tromped ahead of me into the school. It made my day. He likes hugs too. Every day at the end of school when his kindergarten teacher lead them out to the waiting parents, he would wrap his tiny arms around her and give her a hug goodbye. He did this every day of the school year. I wasn't sure if he'd do it now that he's in first grade so I kept my eyes open when his new teacher lead them out on Friday. Sure enough he gave her a hug goodbye. He's a sweet kid.

We had a weekend full of progress. The deck project is moving again. After nearly a month of rain it looks like we may have a reprieve. No rain for the next 6-8 days. So wood is being ordered today and (hopefully) delivered tomorrow. Rich and Sean got the 4X4 posts set on the footings yesterday and he's hoping to get the rest of the week off of work to get the deck done. I'm so excited!

We had a little excitement last week. Tuesday Greta thought it would be a good idea to eat a dime. Yep, a dime. She ran up to me screaming that she just choked on money. I asked if she was ok and then asked where the money was now? She sheepishly said in her tummy. I know it was a dime because she was playing with one earlier. So I called poison control to see what they recommended. They said they would like to know that it wasn't stuck in her esophagus and recommended an x-ray. I called my pediatrician to see if they had the equipment to do that without (another) trip to the ER. The nurse said they normally don't worry about objects under an inch and if she is able to breathe properly, eat bread and drink water then I shouldn't worry about it. So we watched and waited and apparently the dime wasn't a problem. I can only assume it passed without any issues (because I'm not sifting through anymore poo). Greta is 3 years old for roughly 32 more days, I suppose she's going to occasionally act like it. Ugh.

First Grade

Wesley started first grade today! He was excited to go and see his friends again. I'm happy he's so happy. Looks like it's just Greta and I again.....until she starts 3 year old preschool the beginning of September.

Lobsters, Cubicles and Beauty Queens

-My menu's for dinner were getting a bit stale so I implemented "Seafood Friday" about six months ago. Ever since we've been enjoying all sorts of new (and maybe questionable) seafood dishes. Recently we switched it from Seafood Friday to Seafood Saturday (has a nicer ring doesn't it?) so that Rich could join in on the festivities. We've been having fun trying all sorts of new dishes but mostly salmon and changing it up with snow crab legs about every 3-4 weeks. We found a wild caught cedar plank salmon that was pretty good (although very hard to cook through). I'll throw in bay scollops and shrimp dishes every so often but it's rare. I thought it was time to change things up last Saturday so I bought a whole lobster and a sushi sampler tray. I'd gotten the sushi before and love it but the kids hadn't tried it. I told them they could have a piece of candy if they tried the sushi and, by golly, they tried it. Greta liked it, Wesley not so much. Greta is my little seafood lover though and can usually eat more crab than I do. The lobster was another story. We were lacking in knowledge on what to do with the poor creature so after he was cooked we just cut him open down the back. This exposed his body cavity which was filled with what I refer to as a "guacamole" like substance (goodbye appetite!). We did dine on his tasty tail and claws but all in all not something I would buy again. It was a good experience for the kids (and adults as well). 

-Last Friday was Family Fun Day at the hubby's work so into the car we piled and off we went for an afternoon of fun. We got to see his new cubicle and enjoy a bounce house (in the rain...have I mentioned it won't stop raining?). This year, I must admit, it was poorly planned and we had to wait in line a very long time for more food to be cooked. Waiting in line with hungry children is not a pleasant experience. But we made the kids very happy by going across the street to get an ice cream cone afterwards. That's what they will remember, not the long lines and wet bounce houses.

-I finally made it into the 21st century and bought a smart phone. Forever I'd had a Tracfone, you know....one of those little pay by the minute cell phones? It's not like I go many places or have a load of friends to keep contacts for, I never felt like I was missing out on something. Well my little tracfone finally bit it (well it didn't officially die it just took too long to wake up) so I went to replace it and found I wanted something more functional. When I wanted to go for a walk or run in the evenings I liked the idea of tracking my speed and progress so I'd take hubby's phone with the running app on it. I also wanted something with a decent camera I could have in my purse without taking the big camera. So I'm now the proud owner of a LG Optimus l9. Still a pay by the minute phone but this time through T-Mobile (still very inexpensive). I've been having fun with the free apps and found one called Cymera which takes pictures and then has a "beautify" button in which you can change hair color, size of eyes, makes you thinner and so forth. I haven't laughed so hard in quite some time as I did the other night. My parents came over and I took pictures and "transformed" all of us into beauty queens (or maybe just queens in some cases...hehehe). It was a good purchase and I'm having way too much fun with it.

Moving on up

I have two tortoises. The oldest being eight years old. Cecil has been in the same tortoise table since he was a hatchling. He's....er......quite large now. He's been sharing his small indoor home with his brother (from another mother) "Billy Bob" for a year now. They get to go explore the great outdoors once in while when the weather permits. But the weather has not been permitting them outdoors in some time now. It won't. stop. raining. Ugh. So I figured it was time to build them bigger indoor digs. They are enjoying their massive new pen galloping around and kicking up their heels with glee.....not really. They both just lie there like tortoises do. But I can see the thankfulness in their big tortoise eyes. 

Their old pen was a mere 2 foot by 4 foot and their new pen is 4 foot by 6 foot. It pretty much takes up any and all spare space in the bird room (where they live). It's actually my old work room. I keep my sculpting and painting supplies up there but I stopped working up there because who wants to work up in a tiny room with nobody around except five rather loud cockatiels? Not me. I sculpt on the couch now. Anyways, here are the new digs. It's not beautiful but it was completely made out of scrap lumber I found in the shop, not a single cent was spent to build it.

Construction. Had to cut all the pieces and bring them upstairs to the room to assemble. Caulked the edges and sealed the bottom.

Slid over to the corner it doesn't take up too much room. So much more room to grow in. Filled it with 3 bags of cypress mulch (which by the way inhibits mold and bacteria growth).

Happy little torts.

It keeps coming down!

Well we haven't floated away yet! The rains just keep coming and coming. It's nearly a daily occurrence of thunderstorms that drop inches and inches of rain. I do believe our drought is over. Ponds are filling up that have been bone dry for two years. It's simply wonderful to see green lush grass and a garden that is spilling over (with weeds anyways!). I just wish it would dry out long enough to get the mower through it all. But beggars can't be choosers.

One of the downsides to all this rain is that the shop has been flooding. The shop that houses my fresh new 250 bales of hay for the year. There is a sky light along the top of the shop to allow light in (which is nice) but it also is a weak point for leaks. The foam between the sky light and the roof has been separating and falling out which allows water in. So this weekend Sean and Rich got up there and riveted the sky light panels together (where the cats have been getting into the shop) and then sprayed expanding foam in the gaps. So far so good! We have a dry shop for the first time in a long time. Thanks Boys!

The rain has made everything grow so nicely. The strawberry bed has exploded! I planted strawberries around the base along with basil and pole beans in the upper tier. The pole beans did ok but the grasshoppers finally found them and ate nearly everything but then the morning glory from last year reseeded itself and took over. The basil is huge! Every week I go out and pick a big bowl full and make pesto. It's so delicious. Miss Greta loves to go out there and fish around looking for something (anything) to eat. She usually finds a strawberry or a tomato but will settle for a green bean.

If you'll remember I bought three goldfish this spring for the koi pond. The odds were decent that I'd get a boy and a girl fish and apparently I did because the pond is full of tiny little baby goldfish. I get quite a kick out seeing all those darting little fish. Perhaps I'll have to net a few out to save over the winter. Hope you all have a nice and (hopefully) dry week.