Wheels

 About two months ago we did a thing. We decided to sell my Edge and the Mini Cooper. I had been looking at the possibility of getting a new (to me) car and had begun shopping for one. Sean said "if you are really serious about wanting a new car, perhaps we should sell some cars first". What we normally do is buy a car and then decide what to sell afterwards. I don't think I thought about it enough before posting those two cars online, but 24 hours later both were sold. It was crazy fast, definitely a sellers market. I was kind of shocked to be sitting there without my car. I mean we have cars, three left but those two were my main wheels....my main kid haulers. I was sad to see them go, I get attached to cars for some reason. If they stay too long there is a chance they will never be sold and will forever stay with me (for instance my old 98 Ford F-150 that I bought my freshman year in college). 

So I started the daunting task of car shopping. I feel car shopping is a love/hate thing. I really enjoy the aspect of getting something fresh and new to me but dealing with salesmen at dealerships is a lot of work. Especially if you put out interest to multiple dealerships all over the country as I did. I was getting text messages and emails all day for weeks. 

I wasn't even sure what I wanted to replace my daily driver with at the time. I was bouncing around on several vehicles but finally decided on a Wrangler. I've wanted one of those since I was a teenager (I think everyone does as some point in their lives). They aren't exactly practical but sometimes you just need to step outside your box and try something new. I really liked the convertible Mini we had, the fresh air and wind in your hair was really fun. The whole family enjoy those outings. I will always have a special spot in my heart for Mini Coopers and will probably own a Roadster at some point in my life but driving that lowered car on our gravel roads was too much. It was always dirty too, it was literally never clean. The black interior was dusty even if cleaned daily. It was just not a dirt road car. 

I figured a Jeep Wrangler would provide the fun, open air (if we wanted to) ride that the Mini provided but with the height of an SUV like my Ford Edge. So we started to hunt for them. We researched engines and decided on the 4.0 liter 6 cylinder motor in the TJ. They stopped making the TJ in 2006 so I wanted to find the newest low mileage one we could afford in our price range. I also didn't want to drive 1500 miles to pick one up. It took about 2 weeks but we found a 2004 with 77 thousand miles within a 3 hour drive. We took the car hauler trailer down with us since we weren't sure how it would do on the highway in the rain. 

 

I just think they are the cutest vehicles ever. I've always wanted a white one with a tan top (the new top is in a box in the garage as I write this). It's a good thing we brought the trailer as it had some suspension issues that needed to be fixed. It has (what we think) is a 3 inch lift and many of the parts needed to be replaced. Sean has been out there every weekend for the past three weeks replacing links or bushings or bars. He's such a good guy.

 

It's been quite the work in progress. It came with a set of Corbeau racing seats and a rhino lined interior. I decided to take the interior back to stock so I found a set of seats (it didn't have a back bench at all when we bought it) and carpets from a 2004 in a salvage yard, along with roll bar padding and covers (which had been removed). We were able to sell the racing seats (I wasn't a fan of the squeezed in feeling) and that paid for most of the replacement seats and back bench. I've been out there doing little things to customize it. I sprayed the D-rings red on the front and back. The inside panels on the half doors were the wrong tan for the year so I took them off, cleaned them up and sprayed them black with some vinyl paint. I put down sound deadener and a heat shield before putting in the carpet and seats. I figure anything to help it be quieter is a good thing.

 

The black soft top that came with it was in ok shape but the previous owner said the back window zipper was crap and if we took it out it probably wouldn't go back in. Sure enough we wanted to see it with the black top down and when we tried to put it all back together the zipper wouldn't work. What's the good of having a soft top that can't be opened? So we took it off and ordered a Bestop Trektop in tan. Looking forward to putting it on this week while it's sunny and in the 70's (soft tops are easiest to put on when they are warm and pliable, found that out from my Dad- thanks Dad!). It will just need an alignment from all the suspension work done and then it's ready for the road! It's just the cutest little Jeep ever.

 

 

Katy Trail Bike Trip

 A couple of weekends ago the kids and I piled into the truck and hauled our bikes out to Missouri to meet my family for a long bike ride along the KATY Trail. We've done this before, maybe three years ago, and decided to go again. This time Greta wanted to come along which was fun. She hasn't been a very confident bike rider up until this summer and I was excited she felt she could do this long of a trip. Honestly I think the hotel is what made her come along, she loves staying in hotels and swimming. But that's ok. 

We met my parents, my sister and her family and my dad's cousin and his wife at a campground along the bike trail. They all brought campers and tents while the kids and I stayed at a local hotel (we're not much for roughing it). Since we met at the campground it meant fun evenings around the campfire. It was a bit cold with the evenings in the 30's but we brought winter gear and the fire did a decent job of warming every one up. 

The next day we set out for a day of bike riding along the Katy Trail. It is an old railroad right of way that has been turned into a very nice bike trail. It's 237 miles long and is part of the "rails-to-trail" project. It's quite beautiful! We've now ridden it in spring and fall, both times equally beautiful. I believe we rode 20 miles and I was feeling it at the end. We had some bike problems along the way and I let Greta ride my bike to see if she liked it. She really liked it and took off leaving me to ride the remaining three miles back to the campground on her 24" (knee killing) bike. It was brutal on my already screaming knees and I ended up walking it mostly. It's time to get my tall girl onto an adult sized bike. I'm not sure my creaky old woman knees are going to allow me to do that bike ride anymore.

 

We came upon a closed section of the trail where the bridge washed out. We were afraid we would have to turn around but instead found a path that had been created across a low water bridge. It was down a rather steep embankment and was quite the detour but we were able to get back on the trail and continue the journey.  Wesley was excited that we bent the rules a bit to get around the washed out bridge.

 

The cousins loved these giant hay bale pigs they had all over the town of New Franklin, MO.

It's just a shave

 All summer my daughter has been begging me to take her to the hair salon and have half her head shaved. She saw a YouTube video of a woman with the lower half of her head shaved and LOVED it. The gal also had a mop of curly hair like Greta so it really excited her. I was not on board with this look right away. She would ask probably 5 times a week and I'd tell her maybe sometime. Finally Sean whispered "You know it's HER hair?". So I promised her after school pictures in the Fall I would take her and let her do what ever she wanted. 

The day after pictures this happened. 

Once cut we dyed it with a temporary vegan pink hair dye. She LOVES it. Tells me so every day. I'm happy she's happy.

Late Summer

The growing season in coming to a close and I wanted to capture the backyard in full bloom before it's gone. The animals needed a little love too. We were hoping to get the walnut grove completely fenced but once again fell short. We did manage to get the north side fenced and have nearly all the supplies to get the rest completed. We ran short on energy and time. Next spring it will happen....I hope.

 

We've been trying to adhere to state guidelines and socially distance when with family and friends. When my parents visit we stay on the deck outdoors and have dinner. We've enjoyed seeing them when they are home and, of course, Rudi is never too far away. 

 

Birthday Girl

 Our sweet girl turned eleven years old the other day. She's growing into a very caring and responsible young lady and we are very proud of her. I feel like she's growing faster than usual and seems to be changing by the day. Every time she stands next to the wall with little marks for her height, there is more height to mark. She's taller than her brother now (by a few inches) and likes to point it out at every available moment. I figure at this point she'll be taller than me when she's grown (and I'm 5'9"). She really likes being the tallest person in her grade.

She's very much into art (painting is her thing). She paints on pretty much anything she can find. For her birthday she wanted fabric paints and a jean jacket so she could paint on it. She loves collecting Hydroflasks and will spend an hour putting just the right stickers on them. 

 She's very much into her hair right now. It's a recent thing actually. During the state lock down she started watching YouTube videos on curly hair and learned how to brush it and put product in it. Then she wanted to cut it and shave the side of her head so when everything opened back up we went and had her hair cut/shaved. The cut allowed her curls to bounce up and created volume. Then came the requests for dying her hair. I said maybe temporary dyes. So she bought some vegan temporary dye that was highly rated on Amazon and dyed a chunk of her hair (that's all I will allow while school is in session). It's been pretty much all hair non stop for the past several months. 

Happy Birthday Greta! 

 

She has wanted a weighted blanket for about a year now, she finally got one.

She loves String Worms and wanted them on her cupcakes.

She loves lights so she got quite a few to decorate her room.

 

 

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Her room looks like a theater now.

A Vet Visit for Cooper

Remember back in February before all this coronavirus stuff happened we got a cute little puppy named Cooper? Well he's now a full on shaggy teenager who's full of energy and still wakes me up at 6:20 each morning. We weren't sure what a shih tzu/border collie mix would look like as an adult but he got his short little dad's legs and long hair and his mom's deep bark and size. He's 100% cute and has fit into our household quite well. He and Winston are pals and play all day long. 

 

Getting a puppy right before a pandemic has been quite the experience. Our vet clinic has grown to the point that it was time consuming to get in there....pre pandemic. we're talking at least a 45 minute wait in a stuffed waiting room. Now it's just plain crazy since everyone and their mother got a puppy during lockdown. Nobody is allowed to sit in the waiting room so we check in and then sit in our cars for an hour or more. When it's your time you hand off your animal to a vet tech and they take them to an exam room behind a big sheet of plastic. You get to watch from the hallway. I'm just glad he's done with his puppy shots now. 

Cooper went in two weeks ago to get neutered and all went well. My folks gave us a cone that they had from their miniature schnauzer so that Cooper wouldn't lick his incision area. This worked for a couple of days before he figured out it was too small and he could still lick. I took it off and put the cone of shame on the counter and it seemed to disappear. I later found it in Greta's room on one of the Build-A-Bears. 

 

Summer Odds and Ends

With the kids back at school I'm able to get back to sculpting full time.....something I haven't done since March. A quiet house is magical and I feel so ready to get back to it. Sean is still working from home and will be until next summer. He's got a work place in the basement which we need to actually turn into an office one of these days. Once a week we go out for a lunch date and I sure look forward to that each week. We tend to pick up food that we ordered online and either eat on the patio of the restaurant or go to the park to eat. It's been a fun tradition. 

 

 

We officially put the chicken brooder back in the garage. It's been in my living room since April. I put three rounds of baby birds through it this year, the most I've ever done. Usually I have one batch of chicks every other year to replenish the flock but this year I got bit by the hatching bug. That was sure a fun experience. Tuna and his gang needed a bigger place to hang out so I built a chicken tractor. It's really just a movable pen that goes on the lawn and allows the chickens to eat grass and flap around. It's called a chicken tractor because it's like a tractor in the sense that if you leave chickens in it long enough they will eat all the grass and till up the ground like a tractor. I was able to make the whole thing out of scrap lumber, the only thing purchased was the wire mesh and hinges. We still have a small pile of lumber left over from the massive deck that used to be around the inground pool.....that was taken out 12 years ago. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

 

 

We were able to get our yearly load of hay bales recently. We've used the same farmer for three years now and it's working out nicely. This was the first year with the new (to us) truck. We sold the old Ford F250 and replaced it with the Toyota Tundra and the difference is night and day. Let's just say the Ford had a lot of problems. I am very thankful we had that truck but sometimes it just nice to get something without issues that just works like it's supposed to. We got our normal 12 round bales and that seems to last exactly a year for us.The skid steer makes short work of lining them up end to end (I remember we did this by hand one year!).