Vacation Part 1

We recently got back from another (rather eventful) trip to Colorado. We did the same one last year for the 4th but changed it up a little bit. This year we decided to make the trip as exciting as the destination. So when we saw something fun along the way we stopped and did it. We had nowhere to be at a specific time so we meandered our way across the state. First stop was a lunch break at our friends Dru and Charity's house. They are about four hours away and made for a nice break in the first days eight hour trip. We'd yet to see their house and got the tour of it and the new one they are building. The kids got to play together which they thoroughly enjoyed. Our oldest children are three days apart in age so they have plenty of fun.

It was off to Pueblo, Colorado for the first night. The kids were pumped to stay in hotels with pools so I did all my hotel booking according to how awesome the pools were. The first night was no disappointment.  We got in too late to swim that night but took full advantage of their 7am pool hours (because you know these kids wake at 6 am on the dot almost). I liked taking advantage of the free breakfasts. I'm a total breakfast nut and loved feeding my face with everything available.....biscuits and gravy? Sure! Do I like biscuits and gravy? Not at all! But there's just something about those breakfast buffets full of cheap greasy food to just get you going in the morning.

While researching fun places in Pueblo I ran across their children's museum. Apparently they have the second best children's museum in the country. Who knew right? The Buell's Children's Museum didn't open until 11 so we delayed check out and swam all morning then headed out. The museum is downtown in a very nice building with sculptures all around. We had a lovely time exploring the building, playing with the puzzles and toys and building projects. They had a stage area with all the Sesame Street and Muppets puppets so I went digging for my personal favorite, the Swedish Chef. Low and behold they had him so we had to get a picture.

One of the other changes I wanted on this trip was to try local cuisine instead of finding the first fast food joint. It's a bit riskier with kids since you never know if they'll eat new food but I figure they hardly eat anyways so at least the adults can try new food. When we were entering the children's museum I saw a sign for Francos Bistro and took a mental note to just go there for lunch. Oh boy was I not disappointed. I might have been the highlight of the day. I got a grilled eggplant sandwich with sweet chilies and melted cheese on top. It was seriously delicious (my mouth is salivating right now). I am going to make it a point to head in there next time we are driving through town. Sean's salad looked pretty darn good too. Yes, I took a picture of my food....it was that good.

So it was a good spot to stop. Between the swimming and the museum they had a pretty good first day of the vacation. I'm going to stop here because I added a ton of pictures and I'm really tired. I'll condense the rest tomorrow.

Movies, trim and gardening

I thought I'd get an update in while I have a spare minute. It's been such a busy month! I've been trying to keep the kids happy and busy this summer and so far so good. We went to see Monster's University last week. This was Greta's second movie to see in the theater and she did pretty good. She lasts about half an hour and then starts getting antsy, could be the movie or it could be because she's three years old. It was a cute movie, I don't know if the kids were more excited to see the movie or if I was.

House projects are moving right along. We decided to finish the trim on the back of the house, which is needed to reattach the gutters which have been gone since Sean redid the siding last fall. Last week I took the truck into Lowes and loaded it up with cedar trim which I then painted.....in 103 degree heat. It was miserable but it's done and now we are blessed with a cool spell (today it was 89 degrees). So hubby was able to get a large majority of it hung today and will finish up the rest tomorrow. It looks lovely. Next thing is framing of the deck.

I've been doing a little landscaping lately and needed to find a good, inexpensive source for river rock. In the past I've bought the 40 pound bags from Lowes and they don't go very far. So I called around and found a local garden store that sold river rock by the skid loader scoop for $98. One scoop is a ton so I had to have half a scoop since my truck is a half ton truck. Half a ton of rock is actually a pretty decent size pile and I filled up the dump cart four times. I'll be back for more soon I'm sure.

The garden is growing well. The grasshoppers and I have an understanding, I let them have my broccoli, carrots, onions and bush beans and in return they aren't going to eat my squash, cantaloup, tomatoes or sweet corn. If they do, they will die. It will be war. I still go out weekly and spray with the neem oil. It's tiring and takes about an hour, and now that the garden is growing larger and larger it's taking longer. What's sad is that I sprayed the onions, beans, carrots and broccoli with neem oil weekly and the grasshoppers still ate them down to the ground.....so I don't know if the darn stuff is even doing anything. Oh well, I feel like I'm doing something. We are drowning in squash. Every kind of squash you could ever want, we got it. I've made zucchini bread, sauteed it, made fritters and even zucchini brownies (which were a huge hit). I'd hate to say I'm squashed out, but I think I am. And I haven't even figured out what to do with the patty pan squash. Perhaps next year I'll keep it to two varies instead of five.

The kids are there for scale and silliness. They love to make faces for the camera these days. The zinnias just started to bloom and I just love em. They are, by far, my favorite garden flower. You know why? Because I think a monkey could grow them. You put a seed in the ground and forget about them. Four weeks later a happy little flower blooms. They bring wonderful pollinators to the garden which up your yield. It's a win win. next year: more zinnias.

Silly Stashes

Yesterday I had to take the van into the west side of town to get new tires put on and an alignment done. It was about an hour away and I knew it would take a few hours. I google mapped the location and found an awesome shopping center about a mile away. So I dropped off the van and went shopping. I didn't have the kids with me so it was just killing time in an outdoor mall. I must admit it was one of the most relaxing days I'd had in some time. I didn't have to be anywhere by a certain time, it was just walking and shopping. It was lovely.

I was in Old Navy and happened to come across a package of stick-on mustaches. I picked them up and immediately could hear my children's laughter in my head. They would get a kick out of something as silly as stick-on felt mustaches. I was not disappointed. They ran around the house laughing and making silly faces in the mirror. One of the best two dollars I've ever spent.

Weekend Update

Do you ever just feel like you hit the ground running in the morning? I sure do! Summer is a busy time around here and this weekend was just that. The deck project is moving. On Sunday Sean and Rich had finished up the holes for the footings, the sonotubes had been placed in the holes and they were ready for concrete. I took the truck into the rental place and they mixed up a yard and a quarter of cement, dumped it into a cart and I towed it home. Well, I attempted to tow it home. My poor little truck was was out of its league pulling a load of that size. I did get it home but couldn't get it up the (tiny) hill in the back yard so we had to unhitch it and replace it with Rich's truck. We figured it up and a yard and a quarter of cement plus the cart was around 5000 pounds. Way out of bounds for my trucks towing capacity. I took it easy and don't think I did any damage (here's hoping). Lesson learned though! You think we would have towed it home with the 1 ton van in the driveway. Doh.

Anyways, the boys got to work with a wheel borrow and got all 18 footings poured, leveled and the j-bolt inserted. They look great! Renting the cement cart is definitely the way to go for future cement jobs. We'll let them cure and start the framing on the deck soon. Thank you Rich for all of your hard work, we sure appreciate it!

The garden has given me my very first produce yesterday. All that work is finally starting to pay off! The squash is starting to produce in huge quantities. I think in about a week I'll be swimming in zucchini. I planted a few interesting varieties that have been fun to watch grow including the Golden Egg yellow squash (you can see it in the top left pic), they look like a little yellow egg. Also the Eight Ball zucchini is producing (bottom right), they are little round green balls about 3 inches in diameter. They are supposed to make great stuffed squash recipes. Yesterday I sliced up a few of each, seasoned them well and sauteed them in some butter then topped with a little feta cheese. Oh so good! The cucumbers are growing, the strawberries are ripening every day (and eaten every day by Greta), there are baby tomatoes everywhere and I can already taste the sweet corn (please don't be ready while we are on vacation!). I love gardening.

My parents went on a train trip this weekend with my sister and we got to watch their hounds. I thought three dogs kept me on my toes, five were crazy! We had fun and anyone that sat down was guaranteed a lap warmer. I had all three on me one day and thought it warranted a picture.

Hope you had a great weekend!

The Wednesday Write-Up

-I've been one mad waxing fool for the last several days. That van was taken good care of and it's in good shape for it's age but I don't think it's been waxed ever in its life. Therefore there is quite a bit of oxidation on the fiberglass top of it. Feels kind of like a chalkboard. So I took a slightly abrasive rubbing compound and spent today rubbing and buffing the top before applying a wax. It's looks better, it's smooth now but not too shiny. Might have to work on it some more when it's not 94 degrees out.

-The garden is growing like crazy. I've got squash the size of my pinky all over the place (did I mention I planted like 700 varieties of squash?). The kids like to go out there and see what's growing and run around the paths. I'll have to remember to keep the paths through the garden for future years. It sure makes getting around to weed, water and spray easier. I've have to spray for bugs once now. It's an organic garden so I'm not using any harsh chemicals which doesn't leave a whole lot to control the baby grasshoppers which are out there by the thousands. I did my research and decided on Neem oil. It doesn't hurt the beneficial bugs, like lady bugs, but coats the leaves in a natural oil which repels and slowly kills the bugs that munch on the leaves. I say slowly because it takes 3-12 days to start seeing results. I'm on day 7 and am just now starting to see a decline in the baby grasshoppers. It no longer feels like I'm having handfuls of rice thrown at my legs as I walk through the garden. Yea, it was that bad. The ate all my honey dew, marigolds, broccoli and are working their way through the kale (which I was so excited about, grrr). I get to spray again tonight which I'm oddly excited about. Die, grasshoppers, die.

-Wesley had a birthday party for a friend of his this past weekend and they celebrated it at the city pool. It was our first time visiting the pool and the kids had a really great time. I had to practically drag them away. I promised them we would go back to the pool weekly for the rest of the summer which I'm already regretting. I have no desire to go back to the over populated city pool, squeeze my glowing white body into a swim suit and keep tabs on my kids so they don't drown. So, I offered them an alternative that they ate right up. Today we went to the store and bought a blow up pool that I set up in the front yard. They splashed, screamed and had a wonderful time....and I think they forgot about the city pool (at least for the moment).

Catching lady bugs. There must be thousands in our yard, they are literally flying into my face when I'm outside.

The Family Truckster

My husband has been driving the same car for ten years now. It's a little blue Pontiac Vibe that we bought with 7,000 miles on it. It now has 160,000 miles and many many rattles. In fact we nicknamed it "The Rattle Box". It's showing it's age but it's reliable and gets a fabulous 34 miles to the gallon. He gets to drive the corvette on nice days so the Vibe has been his backup car for nearly a year. But he's ready for a change.

He didn't really know what he wanted so he was looking at all sorts of vehicles. We were hoping this could be a family car, something we could travel in. Which lead him to start looking at RV's. He looked at big rv's and little rv's. It couldn't be a giant motorhome since this would technically be his backup car for work. So he stumbled upon conversion vans. Then, low and behold, he was surfing Craigslist when he found a fairly low mile, inexpensive van that fit the bill. So last week we bought it. Welcome our new Family Truckster, a 1998 Dodge Coachmen van. It's a nifty vehicle with a sink, fridge, microwave, toilet, tv and fold out bed. The kids think it's awesome and climb all over it. They even got to watch a movie in it the other night. It should be quite the experience traveling to Colorado in it this summer. We're all excited.

Big Helpers

What a beautiful, productive day we've had. You can't beat this weather we've been having this spring. It's actually spring like weather. Usually it's 100 degrees out by June and today was in the 70's with a nice breeze. The kids have been begging to go outside right after breakfast so out we go and are usually out there until lunch. They have a fun time playing (have I mentioned how nice it is to have two kids that play well together?). Today I asked if they wanted to help me rake up grass clippings and they enthusiastically said Yes! I ran out of mulch for the garden and have resorted to using dried grass clippings from the lawn mowing yesterday. We let the lawn go a little too long between mowings and it left several large piles around the yard. So I raked and the kids hauled the cart around depositing clipping into it. They got to help me put the clippings around the baby corn. They were big helpers and I'm proud of them. They, of course, wanted to know what they would get for helping to which I replied with a big kiss on the forehead. I wonder if they'll help me again in the future. 

Integrated

I just happened to be looking out the back window the other day when two of the young pullets decided they no longer wanted to be in the dog kennel and flew up to the top of the six foot bar. They then perched there and then flew back into the pen. Seeing as the cats will eat anything with a heartbeat I feel the pullets are too little to be safe. So this morning we put a tarp on top of the dog kennel. It's not pretty but it will work. It will allow them access to grass and foraging which is important to their health and important to what kind of eggs they start producing for us to eat.

They are still only 13 weeks old and can't be in with the older hens (and eat the laying feed) until they are 16 weeks old. I read an article about feeding young pullets laying food too early can cause them to get too much calcium too young, which will cause unexplained deaths later in their life. Since I've have five unexplained deaths with my older hens I am following the food guidelines to a T this time round. In the evenings I round up the young gals and toss them in the hen house to roost at night and familiarize themselves with the three remaining older "laydies". I keep the food up at night so nobody is getting the wrong food. Seems to be working for now.

Testing testing

The blog doesn't seem to like the new camera video's. I've tried uploading them every which way but nothing seems to work. So I'm back to YouTube. Which is fine, it's better quality than bloggers video option. So I took a test video today while outside playing with the kids. I think it works?

Memorial Day Weekend

Lots of progress around here! The deck project is moving. Hubby has been out there all weekend digging holes for the footings. These aren't just little holes either. Currently he's on hole 13 out of 18. The plan is to rent a cart of premade cement and fill the holes, in the next few weekends. I know Sean is looking forward to finishing the digging part of it.

I've been out at the garden hauling mulch back and forth, trying to cover the rows before the weeds overtake everything. So far I think I'm ahead of the weeds. The plants are growing wonderfully.....well except the cabbage. I planted the cabbage seeds and every day I inspect the plot looking for something, anything, that resembles cabbage seedlings. I even Googled cabbage seedlings to know what to look for. Still nothing. I don't have the patience needed to keep looking so I'm tilling up the plot and planting the Spaghetti Squash I somehow forgot to plant. We don't eat cabbage anyways, I planted it for the chickens.

Some of the new plants I'm trying this year are looking promising. The swiss chard are robust little plants which I'm looking forward to eating. Same with the kale. I had to go pick up a new GFCI outlet for the koi pond this weekend and just happened to stroll down the plant isle at Lowes. They have these giant racks in the back full of clearance plants and they all just call to me "Save me!". So I took pity on three, rather healthy blackberry bushes. I've been wanting to add blackberry bushes and I couldn't resist the low $5 price tag. I told Sean every year I want to add 3 more bushes until we have a whole row along the back of the property. Same with the fruit trees. Maybe add two trees each year. Did I mention that my baby cherry trees have cherries on them this year?! How exciting. I'm all for letting the land provide food for me and my family. I've just decided I can't bite off too much or I get overwhelmed, so adding more each year is the way to go for me. The plan is to expand the garden by 5-10 feet each year too.

Sean got the new GFCI outlet installed by the koi pond (we have to put a new one in nearly every year for some reason). So now the waterfall is going again. Greta and I bought three large gold fish for the pond last week. They promptly disapeared and we assumed the Minions ate them. Have I mentioned those cats eat everything? Well when we were getting the pump going I saw a flash of orange so I think they might still be alive. I predict baby goldfish in about 4 weeks.

The kids have been having fun now that school is out. I try to keep them outside but after about half an hour they are whining to go back inside. I keep telling them it's going to be a long summer if they are crying to go inside when it's a lovely 80 degrees outside. While in town I picked up six bags of play sand and filled up their sandbox which seemed to work at keeping them entertained outside yesterday.

I hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

What's Happening

I can't even believe that my kindergartener has three more days left of school. Three! Then I will have him and his sister home together all summer. I'm actually looking forward to it. Now, ask me this the beginning of August and I'm sure I'll be counting down the days until school starts up again....but for now I'm pumped. I'm so looking forward to sleeping in. As it is I get up at 6:30 and run around getting kids fed and clothed and out the door, so sleeping in is going to be heavenly. Greta also does better with her brother around to play with. Those two are really good together. I'm lucky.

After last weeks visit to the eye doctor I've had the awesome responsibility of getting eye drops into a three year old. Not just one or two drops but five drops. Five drops spread out throughout the day. It's been hell. About every two hours I have to all but sit on her to get these blasted drops in her eye. One of the drops is a steroid drop and the other four are anti-inflammatory drops.  We get to go back to the doc next Monday to make sure the mass in her eye is gone and at this rate it's not going to be. It's a mess.

The kids got to experience their first real tornado scare yesterday. They were not impressed. Actually they were downright terrified. We had to retire to the basement and dig out the battery powered weather radio. Electricity was blinking one and off and then settled on half power....if that makes sense. The lights were all dimmed, ceiling fans all going half speed. It was odd to say the least. Luckily no storm damage. We all cuddled up on one of the couches in the basement and played games on the tablet by the light of the lantern. I'm sure the kids will be talking about that experience for some time.

The Great Grub Massacre of 2013.....or not

Every year in Spring and Fall I venture into the horse/goat house to clean it. I figured today was the day. It's quite the chore with all the old hay, pine shavings and manure layered up for six months. I got to use my new dump cart which made it all suck a little less. 

After the seventh and final load of nastiness I finally hit the bottom layer. Under that bottom layer I found a surprise. Not a "Oh wow, how neat" surprise. But rather a "Oh, that is disgusting" surprise. I turned over the last layer of old hay to find roughly 30 grubs digging their way through the dirt. It was the perfect habitat for grubs, nice and cool with fine loose dirt. So I did what any human being would do. I ran out of the horse shed and grabbed a bowl. Then I collected all 30 some grubs into the bowl. These were the biggest juiciest grubs I've ever seen before, some of the larger ones being the diameter of my thumb. Yuck!

I'm sure at this point you are saying to yourself "Why would anyone in their right mind collect 30+ grubs into a bowl?" Well if you are asking yourself this then you are definitely not a chicken owner. You see I've been collecting grubs from my daily trek out to the garden. Whenever I plant something I am usually finding at least one or two to feed to the baby chickens. They are slowing coming around to idea of eating bugs. Apparently it's a learned behavior, something they usually are taught by their mother. Me, being mother hen, has been trying to teach them the wonders of bug eating.....but alas I don't eat bugs so it's slow going.

So off I go with my big ol' bowl of grubs. They see me coming and stretch their little necks through the fence (they are still living in the dog kennel during the day, not old enough to integrate into the flock).

I'd like to say it would always be referred to as "The Great Grub Massacre of 2013" but the poor uneducated pullets didn't know what to think of the giant squirming grubs. I'd almost venture to say they were scared of them. It was a disappointment for me. I, being the chicken mom, wanted them to devour the disgusting mass of food I'd presented them. Oh well. I collected my grubs and tossed them in the hen house where they lasted exactly 2.8 seconds.

I tried.

Relief

I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day weekend. We, as usual, got quite a bit done. My parents took Wesley and myself out to a lovely Mother's Day brunch. It was nice spending the morning with my Mom and celebrating her being a super awesome Mom.

 The deck has officially been started. Yeah!  Sean got out there with posts and string and strung out the deck and then marked all the future footing spots. Then with the gas auger he dug 20 holes. I took the truck to Lowes and bought 20 cardboard tubes to insert in said holes and then fill with concrete for the footings for the deck. I can't express how excited I am to have a deck.

Since I was out in the truck I also stopped and picked up some straw bales for the garden. This year I'm trying out a different mulching method. First layer will be straw, then manure and hay. I'm hopeful the hay seeds won't sprout a crop of weeds this year if they can't reach the dirt. We'll see. I spent several hours planting the many many tomato, pepper and basil seedlings. I've gotten 20 tomato's planted and am tempted to call it a day. There are probably another 10-15 but I'm afraid I'm running out of garden room. Next year I'll have to be more selective and keep only the strong seedlings. Needless to say I should be rolling in tomato's this year (knock on wood).

Greta had a bit of a scare last week. She's had a spot on her eye for a few months, it's on her left eye and on the white part right next to her pupil. It kind of looks like a collection of blood vessels. I've kept an eye on it and thought if there was ever any change I'd take her in to the doctor otherwise I'd just wait until her yearly visit. Well she started saying that eye hurt the weekend before last so I set up an appointment with the pediatrician. He took a long look at it with a scope and said he'd feel better if we went to a pediatric ophthalmologist. He said it could be nothing but it could be uveitis or a form of arthritis. Let's just say I was a bit worried all last week.

So yesterday we went on a long drive to go see the specialist. They were running behind so we got to wait in the waiting room for 45 minutes. Greta asked me every 38 seconds if it was time for us to leave. Once we got in the room they preformed several normal eye tests to ensure she could see properly. Then they dilated her eyes. Before we even left that morning I sat her down and told her that if she was a good girl and did everything they asked then I would take her to Target on the way home and she could get a toy. So when that nurse started coming at her with eye spray to dilate her eyes, I quickly reminded her about our agreement and she calmed right down and let the nurse spray her eyes. She did so good and I'm proud of her. They looked in her eyes and felt around and turns out it's nothing to be worried about. The doctor said it's a benign mass probably due to allergies or trauma. She on some anti-inflammatory and steroid eye drops and we get to go back to the doc in two weeks. I'm just so happy it's nothing. Greta's happy she got a Barbie.

That's about all that's happening around here. Have a great week everyone!

The Wednesday Write-Up

-They say gardening burns 272 calories an hour. I'd have to say it feels like a lot more. Over the past four days I've spent about nine hours out there digging, raking and planting the hundreds of seeds I bought back in February. I forgot how much work that was! After laying out the garden with an online garden design tool, I then had to find a way to keep that design in the actual garden. I thought about string or flags but ultimately settled on baling twine. You know, the string that keeps hay bales together with? Well I have about 4 million miles of it and finally I have a good use for it. I flagged out the corners of each bed and strung the twine in between. I figure I'll remove the twine once the plants start growing and I can tell where each bed is by the plant growing in it. At this moment I've got 3/4 of it planted, with the last quarter mostly being tomatoes. I'm enjoying the walkway through the middle of the garden, it's sure nice having somewhere to walk that I know won't squash anything.

-The tomatoes, basil and peppers are being hardened off this week. It's not a good idea to just take your seedlings and plant them directly into the garden without a "hardening off period". It's a time when the little plants can get accustomed to outdoor conditions.....like wind in our case. So all this week they are spending most of the day outside and then brought in at night. I've started in the shade and will eventually be in a sheltered sunny spot. I hope to have them out in the garden next week sometime.

-Another thing that is leaving my house besides the seedlings? The chickens! They are officially in the hen house now. They haven't been integrated yet since they can't eat the laying hen food until they are 16 weeks old (too much calcium too young can cause unexplained deaths when they are older). So for now they are in a small dog kennel in the hen house at night and transported to the big outdoor dog kennel during sunny days. With all this daily handling they are becoming quite the tame chickens.

-Last but not least I shall leave you with a picture I snapped yesterday. I was talking to my mom on the phone and looked outside to check on the kids who were playing in the back yard. I found them both with their pants down attempting the pee on a tree. Actually it looked like Wesley was trying to teach Greta how to pee on a tree. Let's just say it was not successful. She did manage to fill her shoes though. *smile* Child rearing is always a treat.