BE HONEST!!!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
Tears
So I've been on a crying jag this morning.
I don't know why. It was like I couldn't control my tears at all. totally out of control emotions.
I'm really not sure why either.
Last night, I had a dream that woke me up. I don't remember many details. I was in a school and something happened and at some point the children were being evacuated. It was a boarding school. Anyway as far as I knew It was just me in the dream.
But as the kids were evacuating from this huge building with multiple stories and apparently not enough exits, in a panicky sort of way, I came upon C my oldest. Her shirt was half off and she was shaken. I picked her up and we were trying to find a good exit. Anyway, I think hubby rolled over because all of a sudden the building trembled and we needed to get out NOW. Then I woke up.
Luckily it was about time to get up because this whole thing really disturbed me and I was troubled by the dream.
Hubby's alarm clock went off and I was able to tell him the abbreviated version of my dream. Just I dreamed that I lost C. Of course, I was fine until I actually had the words out and then I got choked up and cried.
Hubby came over to comfort me and I was sad for a little, but was able to shake the dream off after a minute.
I thought I was fine. I gave both the kids and extra big hug when they got up and we went to church and all was fine and dandy.
Well about half way through the meeting (fast and testimony) I lost it. The whole meeting pertained to losing a family member it seemed like because a grandma died this week after 10 years of failing health due to parkinsons.
So I'm not sure why I was crying. I should mention that I can't get through a funeral without crying during a good part of it.
That, and this dream, and we found out that hubby's grandma died this week as well, and the funeral is next friday.
I am also super tired from a very full day yesterday full of a craft show and a 2 hour shopping trip for a double coupon Wal-mart event.
And my Grandpa who sealed hubby and I passed on a few months ago passed on.
And that got me thinking about hubby's father who passed on a few years ago.
And a little about the tubal pregnancy.
It all had me hugging my family tight and crying throughout the meeting.
I know about the plan of salvation. I know it's true. I have a testimony of it.
But I just couldn't stop crying after Sacrament meeting.
So I went home. I was hoping the change of scenery would help me shake it. It has helped. And hopefully my eyes are no longer red and swollen.
I wonder if I'm going through something hormonal or what.
I don't know why. It was like I couldn't control my tears at all. totally out of control emotions.
I'm really not sure why either.
Last night, I had a dream that woke me up. I don't remember many details. I was in a school and something happened and at some point the children were being evacuated. It was a boarding school. Anyway as far as I knew It was just me in the dream.
But as the kids were evacuating from this huge building with multiple stories and apparently not enough exits, in a panicky sort of way, I came upon C my oldest. Her shirt was half off and she was shaken. I picked her up and we were trying to find a good exit. Anyway, I think hubby rolled over because all of a sudden the building trembled and we needed to get out NOW. Then I woke up.
Luckily it was about time to get up because this whole thing really disturbed me and I was troubled by the dream.
Hubby's alarm clock went off and I was able to tell him the abbreviated version of my dream. Just I dreamed that I lost C. Of course, I was fine until I actually had the words out and then I got choked up and cried.
Hubby came over to comfort me and I was sad for a little, but was able to shake the dream off after a minute.
I thought I was fine. I gave both the kids and extra big hug when they got up and we went to church and all was fine and dandy.
Well about half way through the meeting (fast and testimony) I lost it. The whole meeting pertained to losing a family member it seemed like because a grandma died this week after 10 years of failing health due to parkinsons.
So I'm not sure why I was crying. I should mention that I can't get through a funeral without crying during a good part of it.
That, and this dream, and we found out that hubby's grandma died this week as well, and the funeral is next friday.
I am also super tired from a very full day yesterday full of a craft show and a 2 hour shopping trip for a double coupon Wal-mart event.
And my Grandpa who sealed hubby and I passed on a few months ago passed on.
And that got me thinking about hubby's father who passed on a few years ago.
And a little about the tubal pregnancy.
It all had me hugging my family tight and crying throughout the meeting.
I know about the plan of salvation. I know it's true. I have a testimony of it.
But I just couldn't stop crying after Sacrament meeting.
So I went home. I was hoping the change of scenery would help me shake it. It has helped. And hopefully my eyes are no longer red and swollen.
I wonder if I'm going through something hormonal or what.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
"Twilight" series - Don't waste your time
Warning, spoilers ahead!
So this past week I was helping out at preschool like I do every Tuesday and the teacher said something about the "Twilight" series and I said that I hadn't read it yet and I found myself going home with all 4 books.
I had been sent off with a parent telling me it would help my marriage and another telling me how I wouldn't be able to put it down.
I was confused and skeptical after all this.
These ladies had been gushing as they talked about the series. They had been telling me about how they would have to edit the 3rd book before they could let their VERY young teenagers read the book.
I later had a conversation with my husband about the whole thing. He said that the guys at work all said the series had made their wives horny (excuse my language). Apparently this was the marriage help that everyone was talking about?
So I began reading later that day. After dinner. I had been told to put something for dinner in the crockpot because I seriously shouldn't start the series without doing at least that. I wouldn't be able to PUT IT DOWN!
I read most of the first book that night. I stayed up until 1am. Not because I couldn't put it down necessarily. I think more because I felt like it was expected of me. That and I was in front of a nice fire in our woodstove and was SO comfortable.
I finished the book the next morning. After reading it I was let down. First of all I would never let a teenager read these books. Especially a girl.
The main characters, Bella and Edward 's relationship really bugged me. Bella was so extremely obsessed with Edward that it bothered me. Seriously, why would you want your teenage girl to think that this was normal?
I also didn't like how Edward spent a few nights sleeping with Bella. Yes, he was in full control of himself, and they hadn't even kissed. But what message is this sending? That its ok to lie to your parents? Its ok to let someone sneak into your bedroom at night and sleep with you? Ugh.
I finished the 2nd book the next day. I won't lie, it was well written. I just wasn't getting what people had let me to expect.
After this one, here is what I was left thinking. And I think this is where I was just over the books.
Girls already get hit with the 'someday your prince will come' stuff from a young age. Why would you then subject them to these books where you learn that after your prince comes he will then leave you and send you into a horrible life altering depression. I wouldn't want a girl to think that was necessary. Or even an option.
Oh and here's the best part. After he leaves and she tries to kill herself with extreme sports, he falsely learns that she had died and begins to take measures to kill himself. The only reason he doesn't is that she is able to find him and make him aware that she is still alive.
UGH
So as I started the 3rd book I realized that I was over the series and at this point was just skimming in order to finish the books so that I could get on with all my Christmas crafts and other things I wanted to do.
I would find myself seriously skimming and not paying attention. At that point I would put down the book and come back to it when I was in the mood to read some more.
Not nearly the 'can't put it down' that I was promised.
And may I say that my very moral father would have called these books from the beginning 'porn', or as that one lady would say in "The Music Man', smutty books!
The 3rd book has an uncomfortable to read bedroom scene in it. Oh and the whole 3rd book Bella is trying to sleep with Edward. The first of the 4th book they finally get married. The honeymoon isn't a play by play, but has enough info in it to make it feel wrong to read it.
I FINALLY finished the last book.
Here is what I got from the book. The inability to sleep without the hall light on for a few days due to all the vampire action.
Needless to say, I won't be seeing the movie and will not be recommending the books.
I will also say that the very staid church ladies who recommended the series to me have me looking at them differently.
I can't believe they didn't chuck the series out the window at the end of the 2nd book.
Those who are allowing their 14 year old girls to read this stuff and encouraging their young teenage boys to read it have me shaking my head.
In summary, don't waste your time on the 'Twilight" series.
So this past week I was helping out at preschool like I do every Tuesday and the teacher said something about the "Twilight" series and I said that I hadn't read it yet and I found myself going home with all 4 books.
I had been sent off with a parent telling me it would help my marriage and another telling me how I wouldn't be able to put it down.
I was confused and skeptical after all this.
These ladies had been gushing as they talked about the series. They had been telling me about how they would have to edit the 3rd book before they could let their VERY young teenagers read the book.
I later had a conversation with my husband about the whole thing. He said that the guys at work all said the series had made their wives horny (excuse my language). Apparently this was the marriage help that everyone was talking about?
So I began reading later that day. After dinner. I had been told to put something for dinner in the crockpot because I seriously shouldn't start the series without doing at least that. I wouldn't be able to PUT IT DOWN!
I read most of the first book that night. I stayed up until 1am. Not because I couldn't put it down necessarily. I think more because I felt like it was expected of me. That and I was in front of a nice fire in our woodstove and was SO comfortable.
I finished the book the next morning. After reading it I was let down. First of all I would never let a teenager read these books. Especially a girl.
The main characters, Bella and Edward 's relationship really bugged me. Bella was so extremely obsessed with Edward that it bothered me. Seriously, why would you want your teenage girl to think that this was normal?
I also didn't like how Edward spent a few nights sleeping with Bella. Yes, he was in full control of himself, and they hadn't even kissed. But what message is this sending? That its ok to lie to your parents? Its ok to let someone sneak into your bedroom at night and sleep with you? Ugh.
I finished the 2nd book the next day. I won't lie, it was well written. I just wasn't getting what people had let me to expect.
After this one, here is what I was left thinking. And I think this is where I was just over the books.
Girls already get hit with the 'someday your prince will come' stuff from a young age. Why would you then subject them to these books where you learn that after your prince comes he will then leave you and send you into a horrible life altering depression. I wouldn't want a girl to think that was necessary. Or even an option.
Oh and here's the best part. After he leaves and she tries to kill herself with extreme sports, he falsely learns that she had died and begins to take measures to kill himself. The only reason he doesn't is that she is able to find him and make him aware that she is still alive.
UGH
So as I started the 3rd book I realized that I was over the series and at this point was just skimming in order to finish the books so that I could get on with all my Christmas crafts and other things I wanted to do.
I would find myself seriously skimming and not paying attention. At that point I would put down the book and come back to it when I was in the mood to read some more.
Not nearly the 'can't put it down' that I was promised.
And may I say that my very moral father would have called these books from the beginning 'porn', or as that one lady would say in "The Music Man', smutty books!
The 3rd book has an uncomfortable to read bedroom scene in it. Oh and the whole 3rd book Bella is trying to sleep with Edward. The first of the 4th book they finally get married. The honeymoon isn't a play by play, but has enough info in it to make it feel wrong to read it.
I FINALLY finished the last book.
Here is what I got from the book. The inability to sleep without the hall light on for a few days due to all the vampire action.
Needless to say, I won't be seeing the movie and will not be recommending the books.
I will also say that the very staid church ladies who recommended the series to me have me looking at them differently.
I can't believe they didn't chuck the series out the window at the end of the 2nd book.
Those who are allowing their 14 year old girls to read this stuff and encouraging their young teenage boys to read it have me shaking my head.
In summary, don't waste your time on the 'Twilight" series.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sneaky sheep, dispatching roosters, and other fun adventures
So Monday morning we found that our sheep had decided to chew on a chicken coop latch and 3 roosters and a hen got out.
After chasing them for 10 minutes, it became obvious that the last thing they wanted to do was go back inside THAT run. They had only been in that run for a few days. I guess they liked the other one better. Go figure.
So hubby decided that we needed to harvest them about a month early. The hen was one who hadn't laid an egg for about 2 months. She and the 3 roosters were eating rent free. (the rent being egg laying). The roosters were a Rhode Island Red/Pinnon Hatch cross. They were not Pure (for my hatching egg scheme) so they were destined for the freezer.
Hubby got out his pellet gun. Dad gave that to him last year when we harvested the turkeys. why is it that harvesting food around here has tragedy involved?
Anyway, a pellet to the head and the turkeys were gone. It took about 10 seconds of flapping, but it was quickly over.
Well, this time the roosters and hen were out running around. so hubby had to be a 'hunter' of sorts to get this guys.
His first shot took down the most flighty bird (my suggestion) and we thought it was over pretty quickly.
It took about 5 shots to get the next guy. Hubby thinks the target is off on the pellet gun.
****warning do not read on unless you are up to graphic descriptions that will have you slightly disgusted****
Imagine our surprise when after the 2nd bird stops doing the flop of death, the first bird sits up and starts looking around.
Hubby didn't believe me when I told him the first bird was still alive.
Anyway, I'll skip all the awful details.
The short story is that the first 2 birds were very hardy and had to be shot point blank a few times. I feel very awful about this and we are rethinking the whole pellet gun option. We may use the cone method and 'pithing'.
The 3rd bird went down with one pellet (thank goodness). I don't think we could have taken any more.
The 4th bird ran into the neighbors yard. we thought never to be seen again.
We found him last night (1 day later) and hubby took him down with 1 shot after he got home from work.
so that takes care of 4 non-producing birds from my flock.
That leaves me with 16 hens and 1 rooster. 5 of those hens aren't laying yet. 2 Ameracaunas are 6 months old and better start soon or they will be dinner. the other 3 are not old enough yet.
In the other coop I've got 2 roosters and 4 hens (from my own stock!). None are pure bred, but all could be kept or sold as laying hens in the spring. The 2 roosters will be dinner at some point.
I've also got about 28 eggs in a incubator right now. They are supposed to hatch tomorrow. But this morning I woke up to a partially cracked egg. It was dripping a sort of bloody yolk mixture. but more cracks keep appearing, so I guess it may hatch after all.
YAY!
Lets just hope I get more than one bird from this hatch. They are destined to be sold as laying hens for $15 each in the spring. Hopefully that will help pay for feed and the new coop I have hubby building for me right now.
I've started keeping a notebook and recording all money going out and coming in on the chicken business.
If it doesn't make money, I'll sell my stock and just keep a small flock of 3-5 birds. The rooster will either be eaten or sold.
I really hope it doesn't come to that. I'd love to be able to do more to contribute to the household.
(and help pay for my sheep)
After chasing them for 10 minutes, it became obvious that the last thing they wanted to do was go back inside THAT run. They had only been in that run for a few days. I guess they liked the other one better. Go figure.
So hubby decided that we needed to harvest them about a month early. The hen was one who hadn't laid an egg for about 2 months. She and the 3 roosters were eating rent free. (the rent being egg laying). The roosters were a Rhode Island Red/Pinnon Hatch cross. They were not Pure (for my hatching egg scheme) so they were destined for the freezer.
Hubby got out his pellet gun. Dad gave that to him last year when we harvested the turkeys. why is it that harvesting food around here has tragedy involved?
Anyway, a pellet to the head and the turkeys were gone. It took about 10 seconds of flapping, but it was quickly over.
Well, this time the roosters and hen were out running around. so hubby had to be a 'hunter' of sorts to get this guys.
His first shot took down the most flighty bird (my suggestion) and we thought it was over pretty quickly.
It took about 5 shots to get the next guy. Hubby thinks the target is off on the pellet gun.
****warning do not read on unless you are up to graphic descriptions that will have you slightly disgusted****
Imagine our surprise when after the 2nd bird stops doing the flop of death, the first bird sits up and starts looking around.
Hubby didn't believe me when I told him the first bird was still alive.
Anyway, I'll skip all the awful details.
The short story is that the first 2 birds were very hardy and had to be shot point blank a few times. I feel very awful about this and we are rethinking the whole pellet gun option. We may use the cone method and 'pithing'.
The 3rd bird went down with one pellet (thank goodness). I don't think we could have taken any more.
The 4th bird ran into the neighbors yard. we thought never to be seen again.
We found him last night (1 day later) and hubby took him down with 1 shot after he got home from work.
so that takes care of 4 non-producing birds from my flock.
That leaves me with 16 hens and 1 rooster. 5 of those hens aren't laying yet. 2 Ameracaunas are 6 months old and better start soon or they will be dinner. the other 3 are not old enough yet.
In the other coop I've got 2 roosters and 4 hens (from my own stock!). None are pure bred, but all could be kept or sold as laying hens in the spring. The 2 roosters will be dinner at some point.
I've also got about 28 eggs in a incubator right now. They are supposed to hatch tomorrow. But this morning I woke up to a partially cracked egg. It was dripping a sort of bloody yolk mixture. but more cracks keep appearing, so I guess it may hatch after all.
YAY!
Lets just hope I get more than one bird from this hatch. They are destined to be sold as laying hens for $15 each in the spring. Hopefully that will help pay for feed and the new coop I have hubby building for me right now.
I've started keeping a notebook and recording all money going out and coming in on the chicken business.
If it doesn't make money, I'll sell my stock and just keep a small flock of 3-5 birds. The rooster will either be eaten or sold.
I really hope it doesn't come to that. I'd love to be able to do more to contribute to the household.
(and help pay for my sheep)
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Where did the time go?
I love John Denver music. It has so many memories.
Here's an update on everyone.
Hubby almost got laid off at work. He was able to avoid it again, but they announce a layoff about every 18 months or so.. we're thinking about the possibility of another job. But not very seriously. Mostly we are thinking of ways to save money and make more money.
C is in Kindergarten. She loves school and loves riding home on the bus. The other day I was helping out in her classroom and was there until it was time to go home. so naturally she would be coming home with me. Well as soon as she heard this plan she started crying and saying she wanted to ride the bus home. Crazy kid. I finally was able to bribe her with a trip to McDonalds (that didn't happen, but that is a different story).
A is in Preschool. I help out there 1/2 the time for 1/2 off tuition. She loves it. She has gotten better at sitting still and focusing. She also is minding better. When she started she had a hard time focusing. It is still a problem, but not nearly as bad. She will sit still for story time and circle time. When everyone is in groups, she does a good job staying in her group. But it's not strange to find her group hopping.
I'm still going strong. I'm trying to get ready for a craft fair in 2 weeks. I've been making wool crafts and everything else I can think of. I've got gourds, indian corn, hair bows and wool felted bags.
Nothing is quite finished yet. I suppose I should focus on that next!
So onto my other business proposition.
Eggs, Chickens, and Hatching eggs.
1 dozen regular eggs can bring in $2.
1 dozen hatching eggs can bring from $4-5 .
Needless to say I'm trying to gear up to be able to to the hatching eggs.
I just don't have the space I need.
I think I'm trying to do to much. Hubby is building me a 3rd chicken coop, but I can easily justify a 4th.
I've also got about 28 eggs in an incubator that I will raise until they are pullets and sell for $15 each. The roosters will stick around for about 4 months and then hit the freezer.
Its all about being self reliant. But if I ditched the rooster idea I could have more room for other chickens.
My problem is that the breed that will be the most popular is the rhode island reds. In order to gather the hatching eggs they have to be in their own separate coop. So thats one coop down. Also, they have to have a dedicated rooster. There goes my only rooster.
The other coop is for the misc hens. They are for eating eggs. I had thought to sell their eggs cheaper but there are a lot of people out there with broody hens in the spring who don't want to get a rooster and don't want to spend an extra dollar for Rhode Island Red hatching eggs. But the new problem is that the rooster is in coop #1. so I guess I need another rooster?
Anyway, coop #3 is the problem. I've been using it for the roosters, but in a few weeks I'm going to have a ton of baby chicks (I hope) and I'm not sure where they will go after the brooder. Hubby is going to harvest some non-laying chickens in about a month. Maybe the 3 extra roosters will have to be harvested early.
I guess it could work out. I'm still working things out.
Is it just me ? Every time I eat something with pumpkin and spices I get the worst heartburn. It's awful.
Anyway, I'm officially the crazy chicken lady. Not so crazy though if I can bring money in with it.
Right now the only money going out is the money for feed. That will be expensive over the winter. But I have a lady who has a small hatchery operation who is after my RIR hatching eggs even during the winter. So I may be able to pay for their feed like that.
The only problem I have right now though is the fact that I seem to be trading her eggs for chicks (More RIR for my hatching eggs scheme). 1 doz eggs for 1 sexed bird (guaranteed hen). I think it could work though. I just have to treat it like a business and keep books.
Lets do that here.
Right now they are going through 1 bag of scratch grains and 1 bag of layer feed every 2 weeks. That comes to $50/month (with a $5 off coupon).
So far they are not bringing any moolah in. Except for the 1 doz eggs I sold to the hatching eggs lady, but do those really count since I'll be bartering for new hens with that?
I'll be posting an ad on Craigslist to sell fresh eggs tonight.
Sorry for the rambling chicken post.
Here's an update on everyone.
Hubby almost got laid off at work. He was able to avoid it again, but they announce a layoff about every 18 months or so.. we're thinking about the possibility of another job. But not very seriously. Mostly we are thinking of ways to save money and make more money.
C is in Kindergarten. She loves school and loves riding home on the bus. The other day I was helping out in her classroom and was there until it was time to go home. so naturally she would be coming home with me. Well as soon as she heard this plan she started crying and saying she wanted to ride the bus home. Crazy kid. I finally was able to bribe her with a trip to McDonalds (that didn't happen, but that is a different story).
A is in Preschool. I help out there 1/2 the time for 1/2 off tuition. She loves it. She has gotten better at sitting still and focusing. She also is minding better. When she started she had a hard time focusing. It is still a problem, but not nearly as bad. She will sit still for story time and circle time. When everyone is in groups, she does a good job staying in her group. But it's not strange to find her group hopping.
I'm still going strong. I'm trying to get ready for a craft fair in 2 weeks. I've been making wool crafts and everything else I can think of. I've got gourds, indian corn, hair bows and wool felted bags.
Nothing is quite finished yet. I suppose I should focus on that next!
So onto my other business proposition.
Eggs, Chickens, and Hatching eggs.
1 dozen regular eggs can bring in $2.
1 dozen hatching eggs can bring from $4-5 .
Needless to say I'm trying to gear up to be able to to the hatching eggs.
I just don't have the space I need.
I think I'm trying to do to much. Hubby is building me a 3rd chicken coop, but I can easily justify a 4th.
I've also got about 28 eggs in an incubator that I will raise until they are pullets and sell for $15 each. The roosters will stick around for about 4 months and then hit the freezer.
Its all about being self reliant. But if I ditched the rooster idea I could have more room for other chickens.
My problem is that the breed that will be the most popular is the rhode island reds. In order to gather the hatching eggs they have to be in their own separate coop. So thats one coop down. Also, they have to have a dedicated rooster. There goes my only rooster.
The other coop is for the misc hens. They are for eating eggs. I had thought to sell their eggs cheaper but there are a lot of people out there with broody hens in the spring who don't want to get a rooster and don't want to spend an extra dollar for Rhode Island Red hatching eggs. But the new problem is that the rooster is in coop #1. so I guess I need another rooster?
Anyway, coop #3 is the problem. I've been using it for the roosters, but in a few weeks I'm going to have a ton of baby chicks (I hope) and I'm not sure where they will go after the brooder. Hubby is going to harvest some non-laying chickens in about a month. Maybe the 3 extra roosters will have to be harvested early.
I guess it could work out. I'm still working things out.
Is it just me ? Every time I eat something with pumpkin and spices I get the worst heartburn. It's awful.
Anyway, I'm officially the crazy chicken lady. Not so crazy though if I can bring money in with it.
Right now the only money going out is the money for feed. That will be expensive over the winter. But I have a lady who has a small hatchery operation who is after my RIR hatching eggs even during the winter. So I may be able to pay for their feed like that.
The only problem I have right now though is the fact that I seem to be trading her eggs for chicks (More RIR for my hatching eggs scheme). 1 doz eggs for 1 sexed bird (guaranteed hen). I think it could work though. I just have to treat it like a business and keep books.
Lets do that here.
Right now they are going through 1 bag of scratch grains and 1 bag of layer feed every 2 weeks. That comes to $50/month (with a $5 off coupon).
So far they are not bringing any moolah in. Except for the 1 doz eggs I sold to the hatching eggs lady, but do those really count since I'll be bartering for new hens with that?
I'll be posting an ad on Craigslist to sell fresh eggs tonight.
Sorry for the rambling chicken post.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
And the beat goes on
C starts Kindergarten on Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so excited!
She's so excited!
She already loves her teacher.
I'm just starting to realize how this is going to change our mellow stay at home life. I'm not sure if I'm ready.
A is going to start preschool in September at the same place that C was last year. I'm excited about that. I'm hoping it will help her on focusing. She tends to sit and stand and move about an awful lot in primary.
I subbed in C's class last sunday and was rather appalled at the fact that she was the worst sunbeam in the class. The rest were sitting and doing what they were supposed to do. A was moving from one teacher's lap to the other and would stay put for about a half second.
We are now actively working on the skill of sitting still and listening.
Ar is coming to live next door at Mom and Dad's house. I'm so excited! I may start a countdown calendar to put on the wall. Each day we could blissfully remove a number until she was here. OK, I'm only full of a little bit of cheese. We are all really excited though.
to change the subject.
The rooster has stopped doing his job. I guess that 8 hens were overwhelming to him. I guess anyway. I checked some eggs today and nope. They were not fertile.
I'm not sure what to do.
He has also started crowing like he is going hoarse. It is strange sounding. Maybe the 2 things are related?
I've been making fruit leather like it's going out of style with my brand new to me dehydrator! But! My kids have been eating it nearly as fast as I've been making it.
Also I think I need to cut the sugar down. I didn't put much in, just enough to cut the sourness, but I think it needs less.
Sunshine almost always makes me high. I love this song. Sorry, if you don't know what I'm talking about, one of the new songs on my blog is "sunshine on my shoulder" by John Denver. I love some of his songs.
The garden is doing well. Everything but the tomatillo volunteer is producing. I'm not sure why, but it just gets bigger and bigger and despite trimming refuses to give us any fruit.
Speaking of fruit, the blackberries are going crazy! We picked 3 times last week and each time get about a gallon of berries. I'll probably go and pick today as well and get that many. When they come on, they come ON. Hubby is looking forward to the jam.
I'm so excited!
She's so excited!
She already loves her teacher.
I'm just starting to realize how this is going to change our mellow stay at home life. I'm not sure if I'm ready.
A is going to start preschool in September at the same place that C was last year. I'm excited about that. I'm hoping it will help her on focusing. She tends to sit and stand and move about an awful lot in primary.
I subbed in C's class last sunday and was rather appalled at the fact that she was the worst sunbeam in the class. The rest were sitting and doing what they were supposed to do. A was moving from one teacher's lap to the other and would stay put for about a half second.
We are now actively working on the skill of sitting still and listening.
Ar is coming to live next door at Mom and Dad's house. I'm so excited! I may start a countdown calendar to put on the wall. Each day we could blissfully remove a number until she was here. OK, I'm only full of a little bit of cheese. We are all really excited though.
to change the subject.
The rooster has stopped doing his job. I guess that 8 hens were overwhelming to him. I guess anyway. I checked some eggs today and nope. They were not fertile.
I'm not sure what to do.
He has also started crowing like he is going hoarse. It is strange sounding. Maybe the 2 things are related?
I've been making fruit leather like it's going out of style with my brand new to me dehydrator! But! My kids have been eating it nearly as fast as I've been making it.
Also I think I need to cut the sugar down. I didn't put much in, just enough to cut the sourness, but I think it needs less.
Sunshine almost always makes me high. I love this song. Sorry, if you don't know what I'm talking about, one of the new songs on my blog is "sunshine on my shoulder" by John Denver. I love some of his songs.
The garden is doing well. Everything but the tomatillo volunteer is producing. I'm not sure why, but it just gets bigger and bigger and despite trimming refuses to give us any fruit.
Speaking of fruit, the blackberries are going crazy! We picked 3 times last week and each time get about a gallon of berries. I'll probably go and pick today as well and get that many. When they come on, they come ON. Hubby is looking forward to the jam.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
One of those Days
Yeah, today was one of THOSE days.
I knew that C had a doctor's appointment this week some time because she needed to have her school boosters done.
Our dr's office is one of those that calls the day before an appointment. Well, I got nervous because school starts in a few weeks and we hadn't received the reminder call. I made the appointment clear back in June, so the fact that I forgot the exact date is not all that unusual.
I called this morning and had a mini heart attack when they told me that the appointment had been Monday. The nurse said I must have received a phone call reminder. Well, I didn't. If I had I would have been there at 8:30 monday morning.
So, I had to figure out when and where C would get her shots.
This whole thing ticked me off anyway because her original appointment had been in July and when I had called to see if it could be pulled in, they pushed me out because the doctor would be on vacation. OK, gee thanks.
So anyway, I tried several things including an appointment at a free back to school thing put on by SW district health the next town over. Problem was that it was the Saturday before school started. I needed the immunizations done before I could REGISTER her for school.
After exploring several options I made an appointment at hubby's work's doc in the box. It is 2 towns over (at the FAR end), but they could get us in THIS friday! YAY!
So I ran the immunization record down to our regular doctor to have it updated for the appointment (I had forgotten it the last few appointments). They were able to update it while we waited. YAY!
On the way home I thought we should swing by the school for a list of school supplies. On the reader board it said that kindergarten signup had been Monday. So we missed it and didn't even know about it.
I stopped by the office and got the supply list and the kindergarten packet.
I got home and started filling things out.
One thing I needed was a proof of address like a utility bill.
We don't have a natural gas hook up out here so that was out of the question. Our electricity (what they suggested) was online. So we don't have a bill. So I called the customer service line and they said that because it was all done online they don't even generate a printable bill. The guy offered to send me a screen shot of the bill and send it to me.
I said sure. But what he sent me could in no way be used to prove that we live where we say we do. It doesn't even look like it was sent by them.
So a panicked call to the school later and I was searching for our garbage bill. I just hope that works. If not I threw in a few doctor bills, stuff from the government, the bank statement. Stuff like that. Something has got to work. Maybe the sheer quantity of stuff coming to our address for me will work.
So anyway I got through that stuff and the next thing is birth certificate. I look through the safe. It wasn't there. So I went through it again. Not there. I called hubby and he said it's got to be in the safe. So I went through it again.
Then I went through the entire house. Anything that had bits of paperwork, anything that was sentimental that it could have been tucked into.
EVERYTHING.
Not there.
Some time during this search I thought, maybe I could go pick up another copy of it at city hall.
Nope.
They closed the customer service desk in 2004. The only way to get a copy is to mail in for one, or fax in for one. The problem with both is that it takes a LONG time. We're talking weeks and weeks.
But they did contract with a company who could take and process your order online for an additional 10.50 .
so the gov't wants $13 and the service wants $10.50 . It costs $23.50 for a copy of a birth certificate.
Needless to say I threw up a little in my mouth as I typed in my credit card number.
There are no words.
I knew that C had a doctor's appointment this week some time because she needed to have her school boosters done.
Our dr's office is one of those that calls the day before an appointment. Well, I got nervous because school starts in a few weeks and we hadn't received the reminder call. I made the appointment clear back in June, so the fact that I forgot the exact date is not all that unusual.
I called this morning and had a mini heart attack when they told me that the appointment had been Monday. The nurse said I must have received a phone call reminder. Well, I didn't. If I had I would have been there at 8:30 monday morning.
So, I had to figure out when and where C would get her shots.
This whole thing ticked me off anyway because her original appointment had been in July and when I had called to see if it could be pulled in, they pushed me out because the doctor would be on vacation. OK, gee thanks.
So anyway, I tried several things including an appointment at a free back to school thing put on by SW district health the next town over. Problem was that it was the Saturday before school started. I needed the immunizations done before I could REGISTER her for school.
After exploring several options I made an appointment at hubby's work's doc in the box. It is 2 towns over (at the FAR end), but they could get us in THIS friday! YAY!
So I ran the immunization record down to our regular doctor to have it updated for the appointment (I had forgotten it the last few appointments). They were able to update it while we waited. YAY!
On the way home I thought we should swing by the school for a list of school supplies. On the reader board it said that kindergarten signup had been Monday. So we missed it and didn't even know about it.
I stopped by the office and got the supply list and the kindergarten packet.
I got home and started filling things out.
One thing I needed was a proof of address like a utility bill.
We don't have a natural gas hook up out here so that was out of the question. Our electricity (what they suggested) was online. So we don't have a bill. So I called the customer service line and they said that because it was all done online they don't even generate a printable bill. The guy offered to send me a screen shot of the bill and send it to me.
I said sure. But what he sent me could in no way be used to prove that we live where we say we do. It doesn't even look like it was sent by them.
So a panicked call to the school later and I was searching for our garbage bill. I just hope that works. If not I threw in a few doctor bills, stuff from the government, the bank statement. Stuff like that. Something has got to work. Maybe the sheer quantity of stuff coming to our address for me will work.
So anyway I got through that stuff and the next thing is birth certificate. I look through the safe. It wasn't there. So I went through it again. Not there. I called hubby and he said it's got to be in the safe. So I went through it again.
Then I went through the entire house. Anything that had bits of paperwork, anything that was sentimental that it could have been tucked into.
EVERYTHING.
Not there.
Some time during this search I thought, maybe I could go pick up another copy of it at city hall.
Nope.
They closed the customer service desk in 2004. The only way to get a copy is to mail in for one, or fax in for one. The problem with both is that it takes a LONG time. We're talking weeks and weeks.
But they did contract with a company who could take and process your order online for an additional 10.50 .
so the gov't wants $13 and the service wants $10.50 . It costs $23.50 for a copy of a birth certificate.
Needless to say I threw up a little in my mouth as I typed in my credit card number.
There are no words.
Busy Busy
There is so much going on!
The garden has really started producing. We have been spoiled with yellow zucchini, onions, shallots, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, rosemary, thyme, potatoes, and all sorts of berries! Strawberries, yellow raspberries, and marionberries that are all so yummy!
And then at Mom and Dad's place there are red raspberries, blackberries, and the fruit trees are going crazy! About 2 weeks ago was the apricot harvest and just this morning I cleaned off most of a peach tree.
There is still a lot of fruit to come. There are 2 more peach trees, and a nectarine tree to go. The grapes are coming! As well as the pears and apples. I'm just trying to keep up.
I had thought I would buy a fruit dehydrator and make all sorts of fruit leather, but they are unexpectedly expensive. So instead of paying to much in haste, I'm going to process and freeze the fruit so that as soon as I have one I'll be able to dry it.
I'm hoping a good deal will come along soon because I would like to dry fruit and veggie slices for snacking.
My sister and her family will be coming to live at Mom and Dad's house in about 2 weeks. That should be fun. As long as we don't grate on each other's nerves and end up hating each other. But I'm sure that won't happen :)
The sheep are doing well. They are at Mom and Dad's and are basically worry free right now. Thank goodness.
The chickens are fine and the baby chicks will soon be laying. Any week for some, and any day for others.
The rooster has decided to man up and very nicely fertilized some eggs for the incubator.
I collected 16 and they are on day 2. This will take 21 days so they will hatch the week after school starts.
Also, once the silkie goes broody again (any day now!) I'll put some eggs under her.
Somehow we will have baby chicks around here.
Speaking of school - the fact that C will be starting kindergarten is freaking me out!
But enough of that.
We have 2 new occupants of the pasture. Two Jersey steers. They are just months old and super adoreable. I'm trying not to learn their names and not get attached. If I get to attached then it will take me anywhere from 6 months to a year to be able to eat them. At least, that is how long it took for me with the turkeys.
We'll fatten them up for around 2 years and then put one in the freezer and sell the other to pay for expenses. If it went well, we would buy another 2.
I have to say that I'm totally impressed with out pasture animals. Every one of them has a purpose. A clear purpose. Eggs, meat, and wool. YAY!
I'm thinking about going the midwife path for my girly doctor. I'm still debating over that.
Well, enough for now. I've got 2 boxes of peaches waiting for me in the other room and I've promised hubby that I would make bread this week. The kitchen is clean (mopped yesterday!) so I guess I can't put it off any longer.
The garden has really started producing. We have been spoiled with yellow zucchini, onions, shallots, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, rosemary, thyme, potatoes, and all sorts of berries! Strawberries, yellow raspberries, and marionberries that are all so yummy!
And then at Mom and Dad's place there are red raspberries, blackberries, and the fruit trees are going crazy! About 2 weeks ago was the apricot harvest and just this morning I cleaned off most of a peach tree.
There is still a lot of fruit to come. There are 2 more peach trees, and a nectarine tree to go. The grapes are coming! As well as the pears and apples. I'm just trying to keep up.
I had thought I would buy a fruit dehydrator and make all sorts of fruit leather, but they are unexpectedly expensive. So instead of paying to much in haste, I'm going to process and freeze the fruit so that as soon as I have one I'll be able to dry it.
I'm hoping a good deal will come along soon because I would like to dry fruit and veggie slices for snacking.
My sister and her family will be coming to live at Mom and Dad's house in about 2 weeks. That should be fun. As long as we don't grate on each other's nerves and end up hating each other. But I'm sure that won't happen :)
The sheep are doing well. They are at Mom and Dad's and are basically worry free right now. Thank goodness.
The chickens are fine and the baby chicks will soon be laying. Any week for some, and any day for others.
The rooster has decided to man up and very nicely fertilized some eggs for the incubator.
I collected 16 and they are on day 2. This will take 21 days so they will hatch the week after school starts.
Also, once the silkie goes broody again (any day now!) I'll put some eggs under her.
Somehow we will have baby chicks around here.
Speaking of school - the fact that C will be starting kindergarten is freaking me out!
But enough of that.
We have 2 new occupants of the pasture. Two Jersey steers. They are just months old and super adoreable. I'm trying not to learn their names and not get attached. If I get to attached then it will take me anywhere from 6 months to a year to be able to eat them. At least, that is how long it took for me with the turkeys.
We'll fatten them up for around 2 years and then put one in the freezer and sell the other to pay for expenses. If it went well, we would buy another 2.
I have to say that I'm totally impressed with out pasture animals. Every one of them has a purpose. A clear purpose. Eggs, meat, and wool. YAY!
I'm thinking about going the midwife path for my girly doctor. I'm still debating over that.
Well, enough for now. I've got 2 boxes of peaches waiting for me in the other room and I've promised hubby that I would make bread this week. The kitchen is clean (mopped yesterday!) so I guess I can't put it off any longer.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Church, insurance, new doctors, & pregnancy
So today in church I was helping out in the nursery again. Its the 3rd week in a row that I've subbed. Anyway we had a girl who was visiting who had been there before. she normally has behavioral problems like bullying.
Today, she was throwing a fit. The "Mom don't leave me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" kind of fit that was unusual for her.
Well, her Mom stayed with her for the first hour, and unsuccessfully tried to leave. She ended up going with her mom to class.
She came in again with another Mom (not hers) who successfully was able to sit her down to snack, and then leave.
After snack, we moved to coloring. This girl calmly got up, walked to the door and tried to get out. She was able to turn the handle of the door despite the child proof knob.
I was keeping an eye on her. As soon as it became apparent that she would be able to turn the handle I walked quickly over to her. But I wasn't quick enough.
She was out like a shot and even tried to shut the door in my face. I chased her down the hall, down another another hall and then into the chapel where the priesthood was meeting. did I mention that she was screaming the whole way?
She collapsed in the back of the chapel where I finally caught up to her. She was a dead weight on the floor and so with the entire priesthood watching, picked her up and carried her to the foyer. Did I mention she was screaming?
In the foyer I was able to talk to her and tell her I would take her to her mom. I had her walking reverently and holding my hand (yes still screaming) when her sister runs out of her class and grabs her. the screaming escalated and ended with me escorting both of them to the relief society room where she was reunited with her Mom.
The other nursery leader and I had a good laugh about it when I got back. I just decided it wasn't a big deal and nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, what could I have done about it?
Later while taking another child to the bathroom, we saw her with her mom in the mothers room. Quite calm. I'm not sure what the deal with her was today. But sometimes you just don't know what is going on in these kids lives. different things will make them act out or act differently. Heck, she could have just been tired.
On to other subjects.
I'm having a meet and greet with a new doctor tomorrow. Since our insurance is changing to a most hideous new company, I have to find a new OBGYN and go to a different hospital.
They have this layered network thing. Basically the best layer has 6 doctors to choose from. Yes, 6 doctors for a whopping 10,000 or so employees. Granted, these employees aren't all women having babies, but those who aren't to old or done having babies have wives who are having babies.
At first I was thinking I didn't want to fight for a doctor and would just pay 10% more for treatment. Then I was like, why not? Why should I have to pay more ?
lets at least try it.
Well, new patient appointments are hard to come by. My appointment is September 30th. With a doctor I have never heard of. The nice thing about it is that the 6 doctors in the best layer of the network are with this hospitals womens group office. My last doctor was in his hospitals womens group office. So that makes me feel better. That, and the fact that I get to meet her tomorrow.
The other thing that is different with this office is that most of the doctors are female (5 to 1). In my last office most were male, including mine.
So that will be something to get used to.
Anyway, no, we are NOT pregnant as far as we know. We are trying however.
The doctor who did my ectopic surgery said that because of the ectopic pregnancy I would probably need to have an ultrasound early in the pregnancy to verify that it was a normal pregnancy.
I'm not sure how that will happen when the earliest appointment (for a new patient) is SEPTEMBER 30th!!!
But I'm trying not to think about that and hoping that at the meet and greet the new doctor will try and squeeze me in sooner.
Today, she was throwing a fit. The "Mom don't leave me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" kind of fit that was unusual for her.
Well, her Mom stayed with her for the first hour, and unsuccessfully tried to leave. She ended up going with her mom to class.
She came in again with another Mom (not hers) who successfully was able to sit her down to snack, and then leave.
After snack, we moved to coloring. This girl calmly got up, walked to the door and tried to get out. She was able to turn the handle of the door despite the child proof knob.
I was keeping an eye on her. As soon as it became apparent that she would be able to turn the handle I walked quickly over to her. But I wasn't quick enough.
She was out like a shot and even tried to shut the door in my face. I chased her down the hall, down another another hall and then into the chapel where the priesthood was meeting. did I mention that she was screaming the whole way?
She collapsed in the back of the chapel where I finally caught up to her. She was a dead weight on the floor and so with the entire priesthood watching, picked her up and carried her to the foyer. Did I mention she was screaming?
In the foyer I was able to talk to her and tell her I would take her to her mom. I had her walking reverently and holding my hand (yes still screaming) when her sister runs out of her class and grabs her. the screaming escalated and ended with me escorting both of them to the relief society room where she was reunited with her Mom.
The other nursery leader and I had a good laugh about it when I got back. I just decided it wasn't a big deal and nothing to be embarrassed about. I mean, what could I have done about it?
Later while taking another child to the bathroom, we saw her with her mom in the mothers room. Quite calm. I'm not sure what the deal with her was today. But sometimes you just don't know what is going on in these kids lives. different things will make them act out or act differently. Heck, she could have just been tired.
On to other subjects.
I'm having a meet and greet with a new doctor tomorrow. Since our insurance is changing to a most hideous new company, I have to find a new OBGYN and go to a different hospital.
They have this layered network thing. Basically the best layer has 6 doctors to choose from. Yes, 6 doctors for a whopping 10,000 or so employees. Granted, these employees aren't all women having babies, but those who aren't to old or done having babies have wives who are having babies.
At first I was thinking I didn't want to fight for a doctor and would just pay 10% more for treatment. Then I was like, why not? Why should I have to pay more ?
lets at least try it.
Well, new patient appointments are hard to come by. My appointment is September 30th. With a doctor I have never heard of. The nice thing about it is that the 6 doctors in the best layer of the network are with this hospitals womens group office. My last doctor was in his hospitals womens group office. So that makes me feel better. That, and the fact that I get to meet her tomorrow.
The other thing that is different with this office is that most of the doctors are female (5 to 1). In my last office most were male, including mine.
So that will be something to get used to.
Anyway, no, we are NOT pregnant as far as we know. We are trying however.
The doctor who did my ectopic surgery said that because of the ectopic pregnancy I would probably need to have an ultrasound early in the pregnancy to verify that it was a normal pregnancy.
I'm not sure how that will happen when the earliest appointment (for a new patient) is SEPTEMBER 30th!!!
But I'm trying not to think about that and hoping that at the meet and greet the new doctor will try and squeeze me in sooner.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Mortification
So the other day C and I were sitting inside watching a show while A was playing on the back porch.
Then C looks out the window and says "Uh oh. A is going potty outside again"
I didn't believe her. A hasn't had any potty training related problems in almost a year.
So I got up, looked out the window and about keeled over from shock.
My sweet 3 year old had taken her shorts and underwear off and was standing in a large blue laundry bucket that we also use for dirty wool washing water. That was why it was outside. I had emptied dirty water out of it and hadn't brought it inside.
Anyway, she had just finished using the bathroom in it!!!! UGH!!!!!!!
Needless to say I yelled "What are you doing?" to her as I opened the back door. She got out of the bucket and I brought her over to the hose where I hosed her off as punishment. Unfortunately this backfired as she enjoyed the cold water on a hot day.
Next came the standard punishment that she hates. I sent her to her room. She went in and bounced out again 30 seconds later saying she needed to go poo poos. Ugh. I'm just happy that didn't happen in the bucket.
And then, I'm thinking about what C said. She said "Again". Are you kidding me? This has happened before? YUCK! After questioning C about it, I'm not sure if it has happened before. I'll hold on to that hope.
I'm mortified. Where does she get these ideas? And why didn't she just come inside to use the potty?
I just don't understand this kid sometimes.
I'm simply recording this story so that I can share it with her in her later years. Maybe at her wedding reception, or at the Fast and Testimony meeting when her first born is being blessed.
What do you think? Maybe I could share it at her graduation instead.
Then C looks out the window and says "Uh oh. A is going potty outside again"
I didn't believe her. A hasn't had any potty training related problems in almost a year.
So I got up, looked out the window and about keeled over from shock.
My sweet 3 year old had taken her shorts and underwear off and was standing in a large blue laundry bucket that we also use for dirty wool washing water. That was why it was outside. I had emptied dirty water out of it and hadn't brought it inside.
Anyway, she had just finished using the bathroom in it!!!! UGH!!!!!!!
Needless to say I yelled "What are you doing?" to her as I opened the back door. She got out of the bucket and I brought her over to the hose where I hosed her off as punishment. Unfortunately this backfired as she enjoyed the cold water on a hot day.
Next came the standard punishment that she hates. I sent her to her room. She went in and bounced out again 30 seconds later saying she needed to go poo poos. Ugh. I'm just happy that didn't happen in the bucket.
And then, I'm thinking about what C said. She said "Again". Are you kidding me? This has happened before? YUCK! After questioning C about it, I'm not sure if it has happened before. I'll hold on to that hope.
I'm mortified. Where does she get these ideas? And why didn't she just come inside to use the potty?
I just don't understand this kid sometimes.
I'm simply recording this story so that I can share it with her in her later years. Maybe at her wedding reception, or at the Fast and Testimony meeting when her first born is being blessed.
What do you think? Maybe I could share it at her graduation instead.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Swimming Lessons
C and A had swimming lessons for the past 2 weeks. They had a lot of fun and enjoyed it for the most part.
C was really good. Doing Bobs and blowing bubbles. She obeyed the teacher very well.
A on the other hand was a pill. She did well for the first week and then on the following Monday decided she didn't want anything to do with it. Luckily I had discovered her weakness. Gum.
So I smartened up and started bringing it with me. The first day she decided she didn't want to swim, the bribe of gum didn't work. But the next day when I physically had the gum with me, she went right in. But I did have to threaten the hour of hair brushing that is usually only hubby's threat. I think its mean. but it sure is an effective threat!
Anyway, anytime after that, as long as I physically had gum, she would go right back in to the water.
One thing I've learned. When she felt forced, like she had no choice, she was stuck in "I don't want to!" mode. When I let go and just let it be her decision (no dragging her to the side of the pool or making her stand in the foot deep water) And using bribes she was much more receptive.
Aren't kids fun!
In other news, the baby chicken is still residing outside the coup and I'm sick of trying to catch it. I've decided that the only chicks I want to have are the ones I raise. Those chicks are scared of being outside the coup.
So I'm looking into my options. But I do have an incubator (borrowed) sitting in my laundry room....
C was really good. Doing Bobs and blowing bubbles. She obeyed the teacher very well.
A on the other hand was a pill. She did well for the first week and then on the following Monday decided she didn't want anything to do with it. Luckily I had discovered her weakness. Gum.
So I smartened up and started bringing it with me. The first day she decided she didn't want to swim, the bribe of gum didn't work. But the next day when I physically had the gum with me, she went right in. But I did have to threaten the hour of hair brushing that is usually only hubby's threat. I think its mean. but it sure is an effective threat!
Anyway, anytime after that, as long as I physically had gum, she would go right back in to the water.
One thing I've learned. When she felt forced, like she had no choice, she was stuck in "I don't want to!" mode. When I let go and just let it be her decision (no dragging her to the side of the pool or making her stand in the foot deep water) And using bribes she was much more receptive.
Aren't kids fun!
In other news, the baby chicken is still residing outside the coup and I'm sick of trying to catch it. I've decided that the only chicks I want to have are the ones I raise. Those chicks are scared of being outside the coup.
So I'm looking into my options. But I do have an incubator (borrowed) sitting in my laundry room....
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The story of the chicken chase
So I saw this ad on Craigslist and called the lady. she said that she had 7 free chicks if you were willing to catch them.
So I grabbed a few extra neighbors kids and told 'em I'd pay .25 per chick caught. I wanted to pay more, but their mom insisted that this was all it was worth.
We all crammed into the car and drove clear over to Kuna. Well we were in for a surprise. The chicks that we supposed would be somewhat corralled, were in the middle of a horse shelter in the middle of a field covered in fresh horse poop. for some reason the kids wouldn't listen to me when I said we should approach cautiously.
As soon as those chicks saw the kids running at them, they took off. I would have too!
We chased them all over about an acre of land. Through fences, into the hen house, over hill, over dale, and through a few trucks and trailers.
The momma chicken wasn't all that pleased and was squawking up a storm.
After about 45 minutes we were all pooped. It was about 95 degrees out there.
We had caught one solitary chick. We called it good and loaded into the car and headed for Arctic Circle which was just down the street. We were parched.
We all ordered large ice waters and ice cream cones.
We drove home with the windows down and then after a while we rolled them up and cranked the A/C.
We dropped off the extra kids and then headed home. The chick joined the hen house and I soaked myself with the hose while the kids stared in confusion. I guess they don't think Mommy likes to get wet?
Later, I went to put food in the hen house. Imagine my horror when the chick flew past me and out the door.
Yeah. One of those days.
I do have to admit that tonight I noticed it hanging out around the hen house (YAY!) and looking in longingly. I'll go and try to herd it in after the other hens are asleep.
Also the lady with the free chicks is going to try and round them up tonight while they are sleeping.
We'll see.
After paying the kids for their efforts (the prices went up as we all got hotter) and paying for Arctic Circle, my total output was around $9. For one chick. Pretty darn expensive chick is all I can say. And I didn't even add in the price of gas to get there.
So I grabbed a few extra neighbors kids and told 'em I'd pay .25 per chick caught. I wanted to pay more, but their mom insisted that this was all it was worth.
We all crammed into the car and drove clear over to Kuna. Well we were in for a surprise. The chicks that we supposed would be somewhat corralled, were in the middle of a horse shelter in the middle of a field covered in fresh horse poop. for some reason the kids wouldn't listen to me when I said we should approach cautiously.
As soon as those chicks saw the kids running at them, they took off. I would have too!
We chased them all over about an acre of land. Through fences, into the hen house, over hill, over dale, and through a few trucks and trailers.
The momma chicken wasn't all that pleased and was squawking up a storm.
After about 45 minutes we were all pooped. It was about 95 degrees out there.
We had caught one solitary chick. We called it good and loaded into the car and headed for Arctic Circle which was just down the street. We were parched.
We all ordered large ice waters and ice cream cones.
We drove home with the windows down and then after a while we rolled them up and cranked the A/C.
We dropped off the extra kids and then headed home. The chick joined the hen house and I soaked myself with the hose while the kids stared in confusion. I guess they don't think Mommy likes to get wet?
Later, I went to put food in the hen house. Imagine my horror when the chick flew past me and out the door.
Yeah. One of those days.
I do have to admit that tonight I noticed it hanging out around the hen house (YAY!) and looking in longingly. I'll go and try to herd it in after the other hens are asleep.
Also the lady with the free chicks is going to try and round them up tonight while they are sleeping.
We'll see.
After paying the kids for their efforts (the prices went up as we all got hotter) and paying for Arctic Circle, my total output was around $9. For one chick. Pretty darn expensive chick is all I can say. And I didn't even add in the price of gas to get there.
One of THOSE days
yesterday was a crazy day.
It started out as usual. The kids always have to catch Curious George on PBS. About 10 minutes into it the power went out. This upset C very much because George was about to get into trouble as usual. she even pulled out the tears. I couldn't convince her that I had no power over the power. I finally had to tell her that she could go ahead and cry. I couldn't change things.
During this, I was on pins and needles over a milk order delivery. Our ward and some others in the area had gotten together to order a large amount of Country Cream Milk. It was coming in yesterday morning and hubby was supposed to pick it up.
I couldn't call him to see if it had actually arrived, and he couldn't call me to update me.
He arrived with the milk about an hour or so later. The power was still off so we manually opened the garage door. The truck with the milk went inside and he went back to work.
I had seen an ad on Craigslist for some chicks that were free if you could catch them. So I needed to clean out the hen house. So we cleaned out the hen house until it was time to go to swimming lessons. We barely made it on time.
A has been having problems with wanting to stay in the water and had to be bribed with gum (her new obsession) and threatened with hair brushing for an hour. Yes it worked. And yes I feel bad having to use both. But she stayed in the pool and participated. That was all I asked.
After lessons we stayed around for lunch in the park (free to the kids) and then borrowed a friends 2 kids and drove over to the chick place.
We were very unpleasantly surprised to find that catching the chicks involved a field with horses, a horse shelter full of poop, many broken down and burned out vehicles, a chicken house, and lots and lots of running. We chased the chickens around and around about an 1/2 acre of land.
After about 45 minutes we were all exhausted and only had one chick for our efforts. We gave up and went straight to Arctic Circle for Ice waters and ice cream cones all around.
The lady assured us that she would try and capture them again that night. I'll call her in a little while and see if it worked.
After we dropped the friends kids at their house we went home. The new chick went into the hen house and I hosed myself off. The kids didn't want to get wet and seemed surprised that I wanted to. I guess they haven't seen me run through the sprinkler for a while.
Later, I went out to feed the chickens. Imagine my horror when the new chick flew up and past my head to freedom.
Thank goodness hubby helped me laugh about it. It was a pretty funny story when you thought about it.
What a day! The chick seems to be hanging out around the hen house today so maybe she'll return to the pack. But I assure you that we will be clipping her wings if I do ever catch her again.
Notice the assumption of her. I think it may be more of a hope than a reality. We'll see. Of course if I never catch her again, it won't matter.
yesterday evening was spent helping people load up their milk orders and then later hubby delivered some to people in our ward.
What a day!
It started out as usual. The kids always have to catch Curious George on PBS. About 10 minutes into it the power went out. This upset C very much because George was about to get into trouble as usual. she even pulled out the tears. I couldn't convince her that I had no power over the power. I finally had to tell her that she could go ahead and cry. I couldn't change things.
During this, I was on pins and needles over a milk order delivery. Our ward and some others in the area had gotten together to order a large amount of Country Cream Milk. It was coming in yesterday morning and hubby was supposed to pick it up.
I couldn't call him to see if it had actually arrived, and he couldn't call me to update me.
He arrived with the milk about an hour or so later. The power was still off so we manually opened the garage door. The truck with the milk went inside and he went back to work.
I had seen an ad on Craigslist for some chicks that were free if you could catch them. So I needed to clean out the hen house. So we cleaned out the hen house until it was time to go to swimming lessons. We barely made it on time.
A has been having problems with wanting to stay in the water and had to be bribed with gum (her new obsession) and threatened with hair brushing for an hour. Yes it worked. And yes I feel bad having to use both. But she stayed in the pool and participated. That was all I asked.
After lessons we stayed around for lunch in the park (free to the kids) and then borrowed a friends 2 kids and drove over to the chick place.
We were very unpleasantly surprised to find that catching the chicks involved a field with horses, a horse shelter full of poop, many broken down and burned out vehicles, a chicken house, and lots and lots of running. We chased the chickens around and around about an 1/2 acre of land.
After about 45 minutes we were all exhausted and only had one chick for our efforts. We gave up and went straight to Arctic Circle for Ice waters and ice cream cones all around.
The lady assured us that she would try and capture them again that night. I'll call her in a little while and see if it worked.
After we dropped the friends kids at their house we went home. The new chick went into the hen house and I hosed myself off. The kids didn't want to get wet and seemed surprised that I wanted to. I guess they haven't seen me run through the sprinkler for a while.
Later, I went out to feed the chickens. Imagine my horror when the new chick flew up and past my head to freedom.
Thank goodness hubby helped me laugh about it. It was a pretty funny story when you thought about it.
What a day! The chick seems to be hanging out around the hen house today so maybe she'll return to the pack. But I assure you that we will be clipping her wings if I do ever catch her again.
Notice the assumption of her. I think it may be more of a hope than a reality. We'll see. Of course if I never catch her again, it won't matter.
yesterday evening was spent helping people load up their milk orders and then later hubby delivered some to people in our ward.
What a day!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
A new post
Gee I haven't been very faithful in posting lately. Oh well :)
Lets see what has been going on... The goats have all found a new home. We've made the decree that never again will goats be found in our pasture. 'nuff said.
Hubby wants to get some baby cows who can get fat and then hit the freezer. We will need a fence upgrade though. So we'll see about that. I still wouldn't mind some more sheep. They don't push through fences (stupid goats) and eat our garden (ARGH!) 3!!! times and devastate our newly planted fruit trees, blueberry bush, cherry bushes, etc etc, and walk through all of our garden beds making huge dents in the soft soil and then make off with most of the salad greens, some corn and various other plants (but not the tomatoes thank goodness).
But I'm not bitter.
They are gone now. Some to continue with their life as fiber animals. Some to be roasted over a spit.
I can now feed the chickens in peace.
The baby chickens are not so baby anymore and we heard the first rooster crow the other night. It was pretty quiet and we haven't heard it since. I'm crossing my fingers that this will turn into a rooster we can keep.
C finished her tball season and was running the bases and hitting the ball pretty well. Now if we can only get her to pay attention to the ball. She is so cute dancing around the outfield though.
They will start swimming lessons in a few weeks. That should be a lot of fun. I have fond memories (for the most part) of when I took swimming lessons. and Mom would ask me what level I was at and I would say "Beginner 1". I think I took that class a few times.
There is a lot of fruit on all of the trees and I'm so excited for the harvest. Speaking of harvest, the tomatoes are doing awesomely. Hubby has pruned all of the suckers and used pantyhose strips to tie the plants along the fencing we have there for support. I was a bit scared but within the first week we noticed that the tomatoes we had were growing faster than I've ever seen and we had gone from 4 tomatoes to 20 tomatoes in about a week and a half. Very worth it.
Did I mention the goats ate the pepper plants again. We replaced them on Saturday with some of the money we sold the goats for. Should be interesting. We got green, purple, orange, and chocolate green peppers. Yes, I may have gone overboard, but they all sounded so cool and we had the room!
We also planted a bunch of dent corn. This is the kind of corn that they use for animal feed. We've gotten a few tips on how to grow it and then after drying will use our hand wheat grinder to crack it a little for the chicken. Hopefully this will cut some of the costs associated with feeding chickens.
Another chicken benefit is that we are trading 5 doz eggs a month for $10 off of preschool tuition. This and getting 1/2 price for me helping out half the time will bring tuition down to around $22.50/month. Believe me that is a bargain! This lady had C reading and I am so proud of her!!!!! I think that because A will have her for 2 years, she will get even further ahead.
The baby chickens are now about 13 weeeks along and should be laying in about 5 more weeks. I'm still uncertain how many roosters we have. I know we have 1 RIR rooster, but the 2 Ameraucana chickens are really hard to sex. So maybe 1 rooster, maybe 3.
On a serious note -
Since my last post I've had emotional ups and downs. I had a really bad day where I came face to face with reality about the baby. Yes it was a baby. Yes it didn't have a chance. But Yes, it needed to be mourned. I was pretty emotional for a few days and was sad. But I'm doing great now. I think my avoiding the issue and not facing it truly, might have made it harder on me and everyone else. But once I faced it I realized that that was why I had been so emotional about the whole changing calling thing and other things that were going on at that time. But I still say it was very wrong of the counselor to release me on my answering machine. I will make a point to say that to him. but now I know that I'm over it and it will be more of a by the way point as opposed to a super emotionally charged thing that it would have been a few weeks ago.
That last paragraph sounds a little unemotional, but just to assure you, I was plenty emotional about it for a little while there. I just think I've processed things and accepted it since then.
Anyway...
We're off to Utah next week for a family reunion. I'm not sure why we are going there since no one lives there. And I'm not sure if more than 3 families will actually make it. But! We're going. We'll stay at my brother's house if he hasn't forgotten about us.
I think the only activities are going to Lagoon (because my b-i-l 's F-i-l is the head grounds keeper there. But can't get us any free or even discount tickets. We're not going because we are not stupid enough to pay almost $140 to take a 3&5 year old to an amusement park which would only amuse them for a few hours. Maye as many as 4.
And the other activity is dinner at the Olive Garden.
Oldest bro won't make it. Sister can't make it. Gay bro will make it due to nothing else to do (currently living with Mom and no job) and another bro may make it due to same issue. Oh, but he is on disability. so that makes it better.
Mom, Us, bro from AZ, and bro from BYU-I, and maybe 2 live at home bros. I guess more will make it than I thought. I think I'm actually looking forward to it more. Still seems like a long way to drive when the cost of gas is so much. Oh well. Its a vacation and we will have fun.
Anything else to add? I think that may be it.
Over and out.
fight.
Lets see what has been going on... The goats have all found a new home. We've made the decree that never again will goats be found in our pasture. 'nuff said.
Hubby wants to get some baby cows who can get fat and then hit the freezer. We will need a fence upgrade though. So we'll see about that. I still wouldn't mind some more sheep. They don't push through fences (stupid goats) and eat our garden (ARGH!) 3!!! times and devastate our newly planted fruit trees, blueberry bush, cherry bushes, etc etc, and walk through all of our garden beds making huge dents in the soft soil and then make off with most of the salad greens, some corn and various other plants (but not the tomatoes thank goodness).
But I'm not bitter.
They are gone now. Some to continue with their life as fiber animals. Some to be roasted over a spit.
I can now feed the chickens in peace.
The baby chickens are not so baby anymore and we heard the first rooster crow the other night. It was pretty quiet and we haven't heard it since. I'm crossing my fingers that this will turn into a rooster we can keep.
C finished her tball season and was running the bases and hitting the ball pretty well. Now if we can only get her to pay attention to the ball. She is so cute dancing around the outfield though.
They will start swimming lessons in a few weeks. That should be a lot of fun. I have fond memories (for the most part) of when I took swimming lessons. and Mom would ask me what level I was at and I would say "Beginner 1". I think I took that class a few times.
There is a lot of fruit on all of the trees and I'm so excited for the harvest. Speaking of harvest, the tomatoes are doing awesomely. Hubby has pruned all of the suckers and used pantyhose strips to tie the plants along the fencing we have there for support. I was a bit scared but within the first week we noticed that the tomatoes we had were growing faster than I've ever seen and we had gone from 4 tomatoes to 20 tomatoes in about a week and a half. Very worth it.
Did I mention the goats ate the pepper plants again. We replaced them on Saturday with some of the money we sold the goats for. Should be interesting. We got green, purple, orange, and chocolate green peppers. Yes, I may have gone overboard, but they all sounded so cool and we had the room!
We also planted a bunch of dent corn. This is the kind of corn that they use for animal feed. We've gotten a few tips on how to grow it and then after drying will use our hand wheat grinder to crack it a little for the chicken. Hopefully this will cut some of the costs associated with feeding chickens.
Another chicken benefit is that we are trading 5 doz eggs a month for $10 off of preschool tuition. This and getting 1/2 price for me helping out half the time will bring tuition down to around $22.50/month. Believe me that is a bargain! This lady had C reading and I am so proud of her!!!!! I think that because A will have her for 2 years, she will get even further ahead.
The baby chickens are now about 13 weeeks along and should be laying in about 5 more weeks. I'm still uncertain how many roosters we have. I know we have 1 RIR rooster, but the 2 Ameraucana chickens are really hard to sex. So maybe 1 rooster, maybe 3.
On a serious note -
Since my last post I've had emotional ups and downs. I had a really bad day where I came face to face with reality about the baby. Yes it was a baby. Yes it didn't have a chance. But Yes, it needed to be mourned. I was pretty emotional for a few days and was sad. But I'm doing great now. I think my avoiding the issue and not facing it truly, might have made it harder on me and everyone else. But once I faced it I realized that that was why I had been so emotional about the whole changing calling thing and other things that were going on at that time. But I still say it was very wrong of the counselor to release me on my answering machine. I will make a point to say that to him. but now I know that I'm over it and it will be more of a by the way point as opposed to a super emotionally charged thing that it would have been a few weeks ago.
That last paragraph sounds a little unemotional, but just to assure you, I was plenty emotional about it for a little while there. I just think I've processed things and accepted it since then.
Anyway...
We're off to Utah next week for a family reunion. I'm not sure why we are going there since no one lives there. And I'm not sure if more than 3 families will actually make it. But! We're going. We'll stay at my brother's house if he hasn't forgotten about us.
I think the only activities are going to Lagoon (because my b-i-l 's F-i-l is the head grounds keeper there. But can't get us any free or even discount tickets. We're not going because we are not stupid enough to pay almost $140 to take a 3&5 year old to an amusement park which would only amuse them for a few hours. Maye as many as 4.
And the other activity is dinner at the Olive Garden.
Oldest bro won't make it. Sister can't make it. Gay bro will make it due to nothing else to do (currently living with Mom and no job) and another bro may make it due to same issue. Oh, but he is on disability. so that makes it better.
Mom, Us, bro from AZ, and bro from BYU-I, and maybe 2 live at home bros. I guess more will make it than I thought. I think I'm actually looking forward to it more. Still seems like a long way to drive when the cost of gas is so much. Oh well. Its a vacation and we will have fun.
Anything else to add? I think that may be it.
Over and out.
fight.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sometimes its hard to make lemonaide
The animals in my life are forever changing. The angora goats aren't growing a type of fiber that I can use. It's annoying, but they will have to find a new home. No use in feeding them through the winter if they aren't pulling their weight.
We just went to a family reunion at Downata Hot springs near Downey Idaho. Wow that place was a rip off. They didn't charge to much to camp, but you were so close to your neighbors that it felt like we were sardines. They charged 50 cents for a 6 minute shower. Not only were you surrounded by campers, but the pavilions were everywhere. I'm glad we left on saturday because there was no way there were enough toilets for the amount of people who showed up by mid morning before we left. My biggest gripe was how much they charged for swimming. My 3 year old was $1.50. No big deal, right? Well, 4-13 or so paid 8.50. As adults, we paid $10.50. OUCH. Yes, this was an all day pass. Yes, they have 2 huge hydrotube slides and 2 smaller ones at the pool and a water park. And they did give everyone $1 off since we were camping. But with 2 little ones and us, we swam for about 2 hours and were done. Hardly worth the $28 or so that we paid. But as hubby reminded me, it was vacation and we were going to have fun. And we did. But I won't ever go back. We also had to drive 5 or so hours to get there. The cost of gas, camping, swimming, etc. and it was pricey. But we had fun and it did provide a much needed vacation.
We also had some big things happen in the past few weeks. About a week and a half ago I started having some low back pain and some bleeding. I have an IUD so my period is very irregular. I wasn't worried until that afternoon I stood up and felt light headed and woozy. I had my 5 year old bring me the phone and I called my hubby. I called him and asked him to leave work early because I was feeling weird and didn't want to faint in front of the kids and freak out. Something felt wrong. It was about 15 min before 5pm, so I was sure he would probably be able to. The pain I was having was in my left low back. I've never had cramps there before.
I laid down and waited for my hubby to come home and thought about what might be happening, maybe receiving a little inspiration, who knows. By the time my hubby came home I had a suspicion that I might be pregnant, and if I was, it was ectopic.
When he came home, he dug out a pregnancy test. I should point out that ever since I got an IUD I was paranoid about pregnancy because if it were to happen with an IUD it would most likely be ectopic. so whenever I felt weird, had a strange period, etc, I would take a test. I went through about 3 tests in 3 years, so I wasn't all that paranoid. Just enough that hubby would give me a box of tests for a gag gift in my Christmas stocking.
Anyway, he dug it out and to our surprise it came out positive. We were stunned. I called my doctors office right away and the doctor on call called me back and said call for an appointment first thing in the morning or if your pain gets bad, go to the ER.
Well, I woke up around 1:30 with bad pain. We went to our local ER instead of driving to the hospital my doctor is associated with. It was closer and I was in pain. Thinking back I probably could have held out for the other hospital, but I think it was for the better because it allowed our friends to easily pick up our kids and ward members to visit without having to drive 30 minutes.
Anyway, after a catheter, and drawing blood they were able to confirm that I was pregnant. Well, duh.
They had to do a pelvic (oh joy!) but at least the doctor was nice. In fact strangely cheerful for it being so early in the morning. Next I got to endure a painful vaginal ultrasound. Yeeha! The ultra sound tech said that she couldn't tell me anything. The radiologist had to be the one to do that. Ugh.
Back to my room to wait for the results. We waited for about an hour.
The kids did great this whole time. After the first hour or so, Milton took the kids home to change their clothes and then over to Wal-Mart for snacks and treats. He came back about the time I came back from the ultrasound. Things are a little fuzzy here, but at some point the cheerful doctor came in to tell us that a local OBGYN was coming in to consult and that if he was a women he would go to this doctor and that he highly recommended him.
Anyway to make a long story short the ultrasound showed a growth in my fallopian tube and I would need surgery. We discussed the possibility of it being simply a growth and what would happen if the pregnancy was in my uterus etc. the doctor was great and said that if all possible he would preserve the pregnancy.
I have to say that I was pretty sure that a baby would not come of this pregnancy. It just didn't seem possible.
So at 9am I was off to surgery. I was freaked out since I've never done this before. The kids were picked up by a friend right before we went down so Milton was able to be with me right until I went into the OR.
It was a huge room that was way to big for just me. the anesthesiologist was LDS and Milton and he were talking BYU sports before we went into the OR. He and I were joking about how he didn't need to talk to me about drinking or smoking. I said, "yeah, and all those recreational drugs". It was funny at the time.
Anyway within about 5 minutes I was under. It was unpleasant because I remember opening my eyes and not being able to focus. Also they put this thing over my nose and mouth and I couldn't breathe comfortably. I remember saying over and over "I can't breathe" and that was how I went under. I think next time I'll be having a conversation about how I want to go under.
I woke up and remember saying "I feel like crap" and it was like I couldn't wake up. You know those sunday naps where you just can't seem to come out of it? That was how it was. After a while I came out of it enough to go up to a room. What was strange is as they were rolling me out I remember seeing another man on a gurney near me. Maybe he was next? I don't know. but that would freak me out to be him! Can you imagine being wheeled into an OR where someone was already out?
I spent the next 5-6 hours in a room trying to wake up. I slept a lot and remember hubby saying, I just want to take you home. I suspect he was tired and wanted to sleep but I was pretty out of it.
We went home about 5 or so and a lady from the ward brought dinner. She also came and got the kids the next day. the ward brought dinner over for 6 days. It was so nice.
I'm doing fine now. Almost all healed. The baby doesn't seem real. I don't think it seemed real at all until a girl in my nursery class today said "did your baby die?" and then for some reason it hit me. We only knew for about 15 hours about the pregnancy and the baby didn't have a chance. On one hand I feel shallow and on the other hand I'm glad it's not a huge deal, and then sometimes I feel a little sad for what could have been.
The result is that we will most likely try and get pregnant soon. I'm not sure if it's the healthiest choice for me, since I need to lose weight. But we are thinking hard about it. We'll see.
The other thing that is bugging me is that the ladies in my ward are now all weird towards me. I'm moving on and getting over things but they keep giving me sympathetic looks and "how are you doing?s. You know the ones. They are the ones that can't be answered with an I'm fine how are you?
I also was released from my calling in the nursery. This one ticks me off because the guy released me not only over the phone, but on our answering machine. That was cold.
And! didn't even call me back when I left a message on his machine asking him to.
I think it's someone's mistaken thinking that it will be hard for me to be in nursery.
On the contrary. When I was released today (never got to talk to the counselor) I started crying. It made me sad and I felt like I was being punished. I cried more over that than the baby. Maybe I was more affected by that because of the baby. I don't know.
Anyway, now that hubby is in the elders quorum we can't teach the wolf scouts together anymore. I really really don't want to have to be with another partner. It will be so hard after doing that calling with him. If one of us was having a bad day, the other one took the lead. We would get all the chores done together so that they house would be clean and ready. We had so much fun. I don't want this calling anymore.
But how do you ask to be released from a calling when you're sure that would be a bad thing? You don't ask to be released from callings.. And who knows what calling I would end up with after that.
UGH. Why does everything have to be hard at once?
Why can't I just be in nursery and not have the scout calling anymore? That is what the stake councelor told my hubby is what would be happening, so that is what I was expecting.
Anyway, sorry for the whining. Its been a TOUGH day and not a great month.
We just went to a family reunion at Downata Hot springs near Downey Idaho. Wow that place was a rip off. They didn't charge to much to camp, but you were so close to your neighbors that it felt like we were sardines. They charged 50 cents for a 6 minute shower. Not only were you surrounded by campers, but the pavilions were everywhere. I'm glad we left on saturday because there was no way there were enough toilets for the amount of people who showed up by mid morning before we left. My biggest gripe was how much they charged for swimming. My 3 year old was $1.50. No big deal, right? Well, 4-13 or so paid 8.50. As adults, we paid $10.50. OUCH. Yes, this was an all day pass. Yes, they have 2 huge hydrotube slides and 2 smaller ones at the pool and a water park. And they did give everyone $1 off since we were camping. But with 2 little ones and us, we swam for about 2 hours and were done. Hardly worth the $28 or so that we paid. But as hubby reminded me, it was vacation and we were going to have fun. And we did. But I won't ever go back. We also had to drive 5 or so hours to get there. The cost of gas, camping, swimming, etc. and it was pricey. But we had fun and it did provide a much needed vacation.
We also had some big things happen in the past few weeks. About a week and a half ago I started having some low back pain and some bleeding. I have an IUD so my period is very irregular. I wasn't worried until that afternoon I stood up and felt light headed and woozy. I had my 5 year old bring me the phone and I called my hubby. I called him and asked him to leave work early because I was feeling weird and didn't want to faint in front of the kids and freak out. Something felt wrong. It was about 15 min before 5pm, so I was sure he would probably be able to. The pain I was having was in my left low back. I've never had cramps there before.
I laid down and waited for my hubby to come home and thought about what might be happening, maybe receiving a little inspiration, who knows. By the time my hubby came home I had a suspicion that I might be pregnant, and if I was, it was ectopic.
When he came home, he dug out a pregnancy test. I should point out that ever since I got an IUD I was paranoid about pregnancy because if it were to happen with an IUD it would most likely be ectopic. so whenever I felt weird, had a strange period, etc, I would take a test. I went through about 3 tests in 3 years, so I wasn't all that paranoid. Just enough that hubby would give me a box of tests for a gag gift in my Christmas stocking.
Anyway, he dug it out and to our surprise it came out positive. We were stunned. I called my doctors office right away and the doctor on call called me back and said call for an appointment first thing in the morning or if your pain gets bad, go to the ER.
Well, I woke up around 1:30 with bad pain. We went to our local ER instead of driving to the hospital my doctor is associated with. It was closer and I was in pain. Thinking back I probably could have held out for the other hospital, but I think it was for the better because it allowed our friends to easily pick up our kids and ward members to visit without having to drive 30 minutes.
Anyway, after a catheter, and drawing blood they were able to confirm that I was pregnant. Well, duh.
They had to do a pelvic (oh joy!) but at least the doctor was nice. In fact strangely cheerful for it being so early in the morning. Next I got to endure a painful vaginal ultrasound. Yeeha! The ultra sound tech said that she couldn't tell me anything. The radiologist had to be the one to do that. Ugh.
Back to my room to wait for the results. We waited for about an hour.
The kids did great this whole time. After the first hour or so, Milton took the kids home to change their clothes and then over to Wal-Mart for snacks and treats. He came back about the time I came back from the ultrasound. Things are a little fuzzy here, but at some point the cheerful doctor came in to tell us that a local OBGYN was coming in to consult and that if he was a women he would go to this doctor and that he highly recommended him.
Anyway to make a long story short the ultrasound showed a growth in my fallopian tube and I would need surgery. We discussed the possibility of it being simply a growth and what would happen if the pregnancy was in my uterus etc. the doctor was great and said that if all possible he would preserve the pregnancy.
I have to say that I was pretty sure that a baby would not come of this pregnancy. It just didn't seem possible.
So at 9am I was off to surgery. I was freaked out since I've never done this before. The kids were picked up by a friend right before we went down so Milton was able to be with me right until I went into the OR.
It was a huge room that was way to big for just me. the anesthesiologist was LDS and Milton and he were talking BYU sports before we went into the OR. He and I were joking about how he didn't need to talk to me about drinking or smoking. I said, "yeah, and all those recreational drugs". It was funny at the time.
Anyway within about 5 minutes I was under. It was unpleasant because I remember opening my eyes and not being able to focus. Also they put this thing over my nose and mouth and I couldn't breathe comfortably. I remember saying over and over "I can't breathe" and that was how I went under. I think next time I'll be having a conversation about how I want to go under.
I woke up and remember saying "I feel like crap" and it was like I couldn't wake up. You know those sunday naps where you just can't seem to come out of it? That was how it was. After a while I came out of it enough to go up to a room. What was strange is as they were rolling me out I remember seeing another man on a gurney near me. Maybe he was next? I don't know. but that would freak me out to be him! Can you imagine being wheeled into an OR where someone was already out?
I spent the next 5-6 hours in a room trying to wake up. I slept a lot and remember hubby saying, I just want to take you home. I suspect he was tired and wanted to sleep but I was pretty out of it.
We went home about 5 or so and a lady from the ward brought dinner. She also came and got the kids the next day. the ward brought dinner over for 6 days. It was so nice.
I'm doing fine now. Almost all healed. The baby doesn't seem real. I don't think it seemed real at all until a girl in my nursery class today said "did your baby die?" and then for some reason it hit me. We only knew for about 15 hours about the pregnancy and the baby didn't have a chance. On one hand I feel shallow and on the other hand I'm glad it's not a huge deal, and then sometimes I feel a little sad for what could have been.
The result is that we will most likely try and get pregnant soon. I'm not sure if it's the healthiest choice for me, since I need to lose weight. But we are thinking hard about it. We'll see.
The other thing that is bugging me is that the ladies in my ward are now all weird towards me. I'm moving on and getting over things but they keep giving me sympathetic looks and "how are you doing?s. You know the ones. They are the ones that can't be answered with an I'm fine how are you?
I also was released from my calling in the nursery. This one ticks me off because the guy released me not only over the phone, but on our answering machine. That was cold.
And! didn't even call me back when I left a message on his machine asking him to.
I think it's someone's mistaken thinking that it will be hard for me to be in nursery.
On the contrary. When I was released today (never got to talk to the counselor) I started crying. It made me sad and I felt like I was being punished. I cried more over that than the baby. Maybe I was more affected by that because of the baby. I don't know.
Anyway, now that hubby is in the elders quorum we can't teach the wolf scouts together anymore. I really really don't want to have to be with another partner. It will be so hard after doing that calling with him. If one of us was having a bad day, the other one took the lead. We would get all the chores done together so that they house would be clean and ready. We had so much fun. I don't want this calling anymore.
But how do you ask to be released from a calling when you're sure that would be a bad thing? You don't ask to be released from callings.. And who knows what calling I would end up with after that.
UGH. Why does everything have to be hard at once?
Why can't I just be in nursery and not have the scout calling anymore? That is what the stake councelor told my hubby is what would be happening, so that is what I was expecting.
Anyway, sorry for the whining. Its been a TOUGH day and not a great month.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Something for nothing?
Check out this blog post for a free fathers day gift!
http://christinescoupons.blogspot.com/
It worked for me!
http://christinescoupons.blogspot.com/
It worked for me!
Summer is almost here!
Yesterday we took our scouts to the local fish hatchery. It was a lot of fun. Did you know that it takes a whole year to get from fish egg to fish ready to be released? And they start with 80k eggs and only about 70k eggs will hatch? We learned many exciting things during the 30 minutes that we were there. We will most likely do this next year too.
One of the goats got out on Sunday. It ate some apple tree (newly planted), some raspberry plants, some blueberry plant (and would be berries!), 3 different cherry bushes, lettuce, and peas. It tasted a little of everything in the garden. It even tromped through most of our newly seeded grow boxes. Needless to say its hard to figure out who wanted to strangle it most. Me or hubby. It got out through a part of the fence that mysteriously came undone from its fence post. Still trying to figure that one out.
I spent time on Saturday skirting the fleeces from the sheep. I've come to realize that I have no idea how to skirt fleeces. I pulled out anything that had guard hairs in it. These are stiffer hairs that would make the wool itchy once it was spun. And then I just pulled out anything that was too matted, to yucky with poop or lanolin, or too short. I've put these aside for the future in case I'm feeling overly creative and ready for a challenge.
My mothers day was great. I was throroughly spoiled by my hubby who made me dinner, did the dishes, made a surprise cake for me (and let the kids help!). I also got lots of chocolate from church! And from hubby and the girls. And I got a surprise in the mail. It was a shirt with a picture of my kids on the front. It was very cute and it surprised me that he went to the trouble. When he asked me what I wanted I just told him a nice dinner that I didn't have to cook.
Well Mom and Dad hit the mission field yesterday. I'm sure they will get their assignment, apartment, etc today. I can't wait to hear all about it!
The baby chickens are getting huge. They are over 6 weeks old now and almost as big as my silkie. On a whim, yesterday I moved the silkie over to their hen house. She was showing signs of going broody again, and I thought this might snap her out of it. She could be the bully for once since she is usually the one being bullied. We'll see how that goes. It was pretty comical to watch yesterday.
I am hoping that she will give these babies lessons in being chickens. Roosting, scratching, eating anything interesting on the ground, etc.
I've discovered the beauties of conditioner for my girls. We've been using conditioning shampoo up to this point. The other day I decided to try a little conditioner. Not only did their hair comb out a lot easier, but A's curls seemed a little more curlier! So we bought some conditioner for them. They just have to remember to keep their eyes tightly shut.
One of the goats got out on Sunday. It ate some apple tree (newly planted), some raspberry plants, some blueberry plant (and would be berries!), 3 different cherry bushes, lettuce, and peas. It tasted a little of everything in the garden. It even tromped through most of our newly seeded grow boxes. Needless to say its hard to figure out who wanted to strangle it most. Me or hubby. It got out through a part of the fence that mysteriously came undone from its fence post. Still trying to figure that one out.
I spent time on Saturday skirting the fleeces from the sheep. I've come to realize that I have no idea how to skirt fleeces. I pulled out anything that had guard hairs in it. These are stiffer hairs that would make the wool itchy once it was spun. And then I just pulled out anything that was too matted, to yucky with poop or lanolin, or too short. I've put these aside for the future in case I'm feeling overly creative and ready for a challenge.
My mothers day was great. I was throroughly spoiled by my hubby who made me dinner, did the dishes, made a surprise cake for me (and let the kids help!). I also got lots of chocolate from church! And from hubby and the girls. And I got a surprise in the mail. It was a shirt with a picture of my kids on the front. It was very cute and it surprised me that he went to the trouble. When he asked me what I wanted I just told him a nice dinner that I didn't have to cook.
Well Mom and Dad hit the mission field yesterday. I'm sure they will get their assignment, apartment, etc today. I can't wait to hear all about it!
The baby chickens are getting huge. They are over 6 weeks old now and almost as big as my silkie. On a whim, yesterday I moved the silkie over to their hen house. She was showing signs of going broody again, and I thought this might snap her out of it. She could be the bully for once since she is usually the one being bullied. We'll see how that goes. It was pretty comical to watch yesterday.
I am hoping that she will give these babies lessons in being chickens. Roosting, scratching, eating anything interesting on the ground, etc.
I've discovered the beauties of conditioner for my girls. We've been using conditioning shampoo up to this point. The other day I decided to try a little conditioner. Not only did their hair comb out a lot easier, but A's curls seemed a little more curlier! So we bought some conditioner for them. They just have to remember to keep their eyes tightly shut.
Monday, May 05, 2008
My brain feels overloaded
For some reason I haven't felt like blogging. I think it has to do with how busy we've been.
Mom and Dad reported to the MTC this morning. they will be leaving for Texas Next Sunday.
We bought a web cam, but I don't have anyone to talk to until they hook up their camera. My sister in Michigan just moved and won't have a permanent connection until she moves here. I'm not sure who else I could call? Can I call you? Well, over the next week or so I'll hook it up.
We planted most of the garden. I think we have a few more boxes to fill still. I'm happy with our square foot garden concept, but I'm slightly frightened at the amount of stuff we have planted. I still vow to freeze, can, and cook everything I possibly can!
We mowed Mom and Dad's lawn today for the first time. That took a while and really wiped hubby out. Mostly because he had just tired himself out making bird house kits for scouts. He is now at a softball game. I don't think he'll have trouble sleeping tonight.
I just brought Mom and Dad's change to one of those Coinstar machines tonight. They had over $67 bucks in change. Of course Coinstar had to take $5-6 bucks. what a ripoff.
Mom is so funny. When they were trying to leave she was busy scrubbing the bathroom, trying to vacuum, and everything while Dad was trying to pack the car and leave. Needless to say, they left nearly 2 hours after they had planned.
Did I mention we have new animals at our house? We picked up the 3 angora goats that were free. I'm a little nervous about them still. When we first picked them up they stank to high heaven. Oh so bad! Dad thought it must have something to do with what they were eating. they basically were fed everything. their pasture had no grass at all. Something like, if we eat a lot of garlic, it can make us smell like garlic. Anyway, since coming off of alfalfa and now eating grass and rose bushes, they don't smell much. I still want to give them a bath though.
The 3rd goat is sick with a staph infection (not catching). When we got her we knew this. We had to buy medicine for her through her vet. Anyway, it ended last Friday, and I'm not sure exactly how to tell if she is over the infection. I'll just keep an eye on her. Buying her medication has so far been the only cost. At $15 it certainly has been a bargain.
Tomorrow C's preschool class is coming for a farm day. They are going to help me feed the chickens, gather eggs, feed the goats and sheep (they will get a special treat of alfalfa to lure them to us) and then we will look at the garden, have a spinning display, and then play with the not so baby chicks.
I think it will be lots of fun. they'll be here for about 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure that will easily take up all of our time.
I'm pretty excited about it!
Mom and Dad reported to the MTC this morning. they will be leaving for Texas Next Sunday.
We bought a web cam, but I don't have anyone to talk to until they hook up their camera. My sister in Michigan just moved and won't have a permanent connection until she moves here. I'm not sure who else I could call? Can I call you? Well, over the next week or so I'll hook it up.
We planted most of the garden. I think we have a few more boxes to fill still. I'm happy with our square foot garden concept, but I'm slightly frightened at the amount of stuff we have planted. I still vow to freeze, can, and cook everything I possibly can!
We mowed Mom and Dad's lawn today for the first time. That took a while and really wiped hubby out. Mostly because he had just tired himself out making bird house kits for scouts. He is now at a softball game. I don't think he'll have trouble sleeping tonight.
I just brought Mom and Dad's change to one of those Coinstar machines tonight. They had over $67 bucks in change. Of course Coinstar had to take $5-6 bucks. what a ripoff.
Mom is so funny. When they were trying to leave she was busy scrubbing the bathroom, trying to vacuum, and everything while Dad was trying to pack the car and leave. Needless to say, they left nearly 2 hours after they had planned.
Did I mention we have new animals at our house? We picked up the 3 angora goats that were free. I'm a little nervous about them still. When we first picked them up they stank to high heaven. Oh so bad! Dad thought it must have something to do with what they were eating. they basically were fed everything. their pasture had no grass at all. Something like, if we eat a lot of garlic, it can make us smell like garlic. Anyway, since coming off of alfalfa and now eating grass and rose bushes, they don't smell much. I still want to give them a bath though.
The 3rd goat is sick with a staph infection (not catching). When we got her we knew this. We had to buy medicine for her through her vet. Anyway, it ended last Friday, and I'm not sure exactly how to tell if she is over the infection. I'll just keep an eye on her. Buying her medication has so far been the only cost. At $15 it certainly has been a bargain.
Tomorrow C's preschool class is coming for a farm day. They are going to help me feed the chickens, gather eggs, feed the goats and sheep (they will get a special treat of alfalfa to lure them to us) and then we will look at the garden, have a spinning display, and then play with the not so baby chicks.
I think it will be lots of fun. they'll be here for about 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure that will easily take up all of our time.
I'm pretty excited about it!
Friday, April 18, 2008
pictures
Charlie still hasn't decided if he can trust the rest of us yet, but he likes A. He normally likes to chase her around the pasture. She runs, so he runs after her. The worst he's ever done is push her in the back with his nose. But today he let her do this.
It was very cute.
Here is a picture of what is happening in our garden.
And finally, all the wool I ended up with.
Hubby and I went out to celebrate our 7th anniversary tonight. I can't believe we've been married that long. And we have a 5 year old! WOW. It has gone by so quickly.
We are thinking about getting one of those cash back credit cards. It's a little scary considering the fact that I've believed my whole life that credit cards are bad. And they are. but if you were to pay it off each month and just use it for normal purchase you would have enough money for 2 Christmases (at our house at least).
It something we're considering.
The chickens are in their new house. This one has 7 nests and the outside area is twice the size of the other house.
The old house will be disinfected,if necessary and the new chickens will move in once their feathers are fully in and it doesn't look like they could get through the chicken wire.
With Mom and Dad going through their entire house and cleaning up I'm having to battle with my tendency to be a pack rat. Pairs of earmuffs? yeah, that would be great for winter for the girls. Someones unclaimed hoody. Wow its cute and one day it could fit! Bags and bags of cards... well, I'm still not sure on this one. I just think Mom may have been trying to get rid of them and giving them to someone felt better than throwing them out or donating them.
I will either be sharing or donating. I don't need 3 large bags of cards. I don't really send cards. I guess I could start though...
Anyway, this happens right after we spring clean. So unfortunately I've got oodles and oodles of space.
MUST RESIST!
It was very cute.
Here is a picture of what is happening in our garden.
And finally, all the wool I ended up with.
Hubby and I went out to celebrate our 7th anniversary tonight. I can't believe we've been married that long. And we have a 5 year old! WOW. It has gone by so quickly.
We are thinking about getting one of those cash back credit cards. It's a little scary considering the fact that I've believed my whole life that credit cards are bad. And they are. but if you were to pay it off each month and just use it for normal purchase you would have enough money for 2 Christmases (at our house at least).
It something we're considering.
The chickens are in their new house. This one has 7 nests and the outside area is twice the size of the other house.
The old house will be disinfected,if necessary and the new chickens will move in once their feathers are fully in and it doesn't look like they could get through the chicken wire.
With Mom and Dad going through their entire house and cleaning up I'm having to battle with my tendency to be a pack rat. Pairs of earmuffs? yeah, that would be great for winter for the girls. Someones unclaimed hoody. Wow its cute and one day it could fit! Bags and bags of cards... well, I'm still not sure on this one. I just think Mom may have been trying to get rid of them and giving them to someone felt better than throwing them out or donating them.
I will either be sharing or donating. I don't need 3 large bags of cards. I don't really send cards. I guess I could start though...
Anyway, this happens right after we spring clean. So unfortunately I've got oodles and oodles of space.
MUST RESIST!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Sheep shearing
Today the sheep got sheared. It took about an hour and a half for all 4 sheep. I guess that because they are Cormo, which is 1/2 merino, they have a lot of wrinkles. That means that you have to shear slowly.
Unfortunately the shearer didn't realize that until he was done with Charlie. Poor Charlie. He got nicked quite a few times. The shearer had a powder of sorts that had an antiseptic and a blood thickener or something like that that he only used on the big cuts. Charlie had 2 big cuts. He also had a lot of small nicks that the flies just loved. I wasn't sure if flies laying maggots in his skin was a good thing or not, so smeared them with Bag Balm which seemed to at least keep the flies away.
The second 2 sheep did pretty well. I think they got some minor cuts. But the last sheep (after escaping the shed and being recaptured) had a large chunk of skin taken out (think quarter sized). The shearer put some of his powder on it and the darn sheep wouldn't let me near to see how it was doing.
I didn't see a whole lot of flies on the others backs (which is all they would let me see) so rather than freaking them out again by trying to catch them and bag balm them, I decided to just watch them.
Am I freaking out? Is getting cut this many times a normal thing? I thought shearers prided themselves on not cutting the animal?
I may research this to see if I need a new shearer or if I just need to calm down.
In other news, the shearer knew of someone giving away 2 angora goats. for FREE.
We'll have to think about that one.
Unfortunately the shearer didn't realize that until he was done with Charlie. Poor Charlie. He got nicked quite a few times. The shearer had a powder of sorts that had an antiseptic and a blood thickener or something like that that he only used on the big cuts. Charlie had 2 big cuts. He also had a lot of small nicks that the flies just loved. I wasn't sure if flies laying maggots in his skin was a good thing or not, so smeared them with Bag Balm which seemed to at least keep the flies away.
The second 2 sheep did pretty well. I think they got some minor cuts. But the last sheep (after escaping the shed and being recaptured) had a large chunk of skin taken out (think quarter sized). The shearer put some of his powder on it and the darn sheep wouldn't let me near to see how it was doing.
I didn't see a whole lot of flies on the others backs (which is all they would let me see) so rather than freaking them out again by trying to catch them and bag balm them, I decided to just watch them.
Am I freaking out? Is getting cut this many times a normal thing? I thought shearers prided themselves on not cutting the animal?
I may research this to see if I need a new shearer or if I just need to calm down.
In other news, the shearer knew of someone giving away 2 angora goats. for FREE.
We'll have to think about that one.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
ugh
so this is what happens when you don't blog for a while. You have so much to say that you feel overwhelmed and it seems easier to just not blog.
I'm going to attempt it anyway.
Last week hubby took a week off of work and we made huge strides in the all of our projects.
We put in screen doors! Yay!
We got our square foot garden all put in and even planted some things. We ended up using plastic sheeting under the whole garden including the walkways. Its in huge sheets (not cut up) so we should have 0 weeds coming up. The only holes in the plastic are from the metal anchors used to hold edges of the plastic down and also some fence posts hubby put in for the tomatoes. I'm so excited! We have peas, lettuce, onions, shallots, garlic, and strawberries all planted.
I found a place for extra strawberry plants. My parents garden. They won't need it this next year, and my sister won't want it this summer (she is staying in their house). So I'll either be selling strawberry plants or strawberries next year.
Our broody hen is no more. I ordered chicks to put under her and 2 days before they were supposed to arrive she decided that sitting on a nest was for the birds. So I'm currently raising baby chicks inside in a cardboard box. Yay me.
While I'm sharing pictures, here is Charlie. he is ready for his spring haircut!
I've been plucking our rabbit already this spring (basically gently taking her loose, shedding fur from her). I blended some with some wool last night and boy was I in heaven. It made such a soft yarn. And it didn't take a whole lot either. About 10 parts wool to 1 part rabbit fur. so soft!
So last week we were able to go through almost every room in our house. We cleaned, went through boxes, organized... it feels so good to have everything so organized!!!
Back to the chicks. I ended up getting 2 Rhode Island Red hens and then after much discussion with hubby, a rhode island red rooster. That was done with the understanding that he could quite easily become dinner. I also got 2 straight run Ameracaunas. Straight run means that they haven't been sexed. I also let my 5 year old choose the chicks from the brooder so it would truly be random. So I could have 1 rooster, or 3. Since you only want 1 rooster per 8 hens, we would then have to cull or eat 2. I'm not as traumatized by that thought as I once would have been.
We found a cutter bee house on Craigslist for $30. These are those square box like houses that you see in farmers fields around here. We bought it to make into a hen house. Our current house is just not big enough for 9 chickens...well, it might be, but it would be a squeeze.
Another thing about that darn not-broody chicken. She hasn't been laying me any eggs! So she is eating for free. When chickens go broody they stop laying. so she stopped clear back in March. I may have to resort to the cayenne pepper method that is much talked about over at www.backyardchickens.com . Basically you feed them some cayenne pepper and it does something to kick their egg laying abilities back into gear.
The goats may have to go. They were being agressive with the sheep this morning. They were out of water and I filled up their trough. Well the goats were butting the sheep to get them out of there. Goats could kill sheep that way easily due to their horns and even (in the case of no-horns Lucky) just butting them. Sheep don't butt. Goats could kill sheep because they are so much bigger and they like to butt. Because sheep give us wool and goats don't do anything but eat our weeds (which sheep also do) then the goats are automatically out.
I think that is everything that has been going on around here.
Mom and Dad leave in about 3 weeks! AGH!
I'm going to attempt it anyway.
Last week hubby took a week off of work and we made huge strides in the all of our projects.
We put in screen doors! Yay!
We got our square foot garden all put in and even planted some things. We ended up using plastic sheeting under the whole garden including the walkways. Its in huge sheets (not cut up) so we should have 0 weeds coming up. The only holes in the plastic are from the metal anchors used to hold edges of the plastic down and also some fence posts hubby put in for the tomatoes. I'm so excited! We have peas, lettuce, onions, shallots, garlic, and strawberries all planted.
I found a place for extra strawberry plants. My parents garden. They won't need it this next year, and my sister won't want it this summer (she is staying in their house). So I'll either be selling strawberry plants or strawberries next year.
Our broody hen is no more. I ordered chicks to put under her and 2 days before they were supposed to arrive she decided that sitting on a nest was for the birds. So I'm currently raising baby chicks inside in a cardboard box. Yay me.
While I'm sharing pictures, here is Charlie. he is ready for his spring haircut!
I've been plucking our rabbit already this spring (basically gently taking her loose, shedding fur from her). I blended some with some wool last night and boy was I in heaven. It made such a soft yarn. And it didn't take a whole lot either. About 10 parts wool to 1 part rabbit fur. so soft!
So last week we were able to go through almost every room in our house. We cleaned, went through boxes, organized... it feels so good to have everything so organized!!!
Back to the chicks. I ended up getting 2 Rhode Island Red hens and then after much discussion with hubby, a rhode island red rooster. That was done with the understanding that he could quite easily become dinner. I also got 2 straight run Ameracaunas. Straight run means that they haven't been sexed. I also let my 5 year old choose the chicks from the brooder so it would truly be random. So I could have 1 rooster, or 3. Since you only want 1 rooster per 8 hens, we would then have to cull or eat 2. I'm not as traumatized by that thought as I once would have been.
We found a cutter bee house on Craigslist for $30. These are those square box like houses that you see in farmers fields around here. We bought it to make into a hen house. Our current house is just not big enough for 9 chickens...well, it might be, but it would be a squeeze.
Another thing about that darn not-broody chicken. She hasn't been laying me any eggs! So she is eating for free. When chickens go broody they stop laying. so she stopped clear back in March. I may have to resort to the cayenne pepper method that is much talked about over at www.backyardchickens.com . Basically you feed them some cayenne pepper and it does something to kick their egg laying abilities back into gear.
The goats may have to go. They were being agressive with the sheep this morning. They were out of water and I filled up their trough. Well the goats were butting the sheep to get them out of there. Goats could kill sheep that way easily due to their horns and even (in the case of no-horns Lucky) just butting them. Sheep don't butt. Goats could kill sheep because they are so much bigger and they like to butt. Because sheep give us wool and goats don't do anything but eat our weeds (which sheep also do) then the goats are automatically out.
I think that is everything that has been going on around here.
Mom and Dad leave in about 3 weeks! AGH!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Strawberry plants
Our strawberry plants went wild last year. I didn't know how wild until I started digging them up.
It all started Saturday morning when I heard my hubby get up, get dressed and fire up the truck. I was still asleep because I had stayed up late blogging the night before. Please note that my last blog entry was written past midnight. And on a laptop. So that is why all the non-capitilization and why its a bit hard to read.
Anyway, I heard him fire up the truck and knew he was going to rent a rototiller that we had discussed a few weeks back. I hurried and got dressed. He got home and started the rototiller up. I hurriedly rescued some onions that had come up from last year. Then I started on my strawberry patch.
Last year we started out with 49 plants. 25 bare root Quinalt ever bearing strawberries and 24 Fort Laramie plants that we got at a greenhouse shop for a great price. For a couple of reasons I let them run last year. Meaning I let them make as many new plants by sending runners that they could. I was hoping to end up with about 100 plants or so.
As I dug plants up I realized that I had way more than 100 plants. I introduced the idea of selling the plants $5 for 25 plants on Craigslist. Hubby liked the idea and I posted on Craigslist that I had around 200 plants or so to sell.
My first call was for 25 plants and my second call was for as many as I could dig up. By the time the 2nd lady came I had counted out 260 plants. She was in a hurry so couldn't wait for me to count out any more.
I realized I had a lot more still to get rid of at this point so posted again on Craigslist.
A couple came by for 50 more and then a weird guy came by for 100.
I again realized I still had tons and so asked for it to be announced in Relief Society that I had 200 or so plants to get rid of. One lady took 100, another lady took 50. Then another call from the Craigslist ad for 25 and then another lady took the rest (89).
I kept 225 plants. I hadn't intended to keep so many but hubby built me some large garden boxes and according to the square foot gardening guy its 4 plants per square foot.
Anyway, did you do the math? Its about 900 plants or so. And considering the fact that I didn't count plants that were struggling, and I also included 5 or so extra plants with each order (to ensure that people got at least the amount of healthy plants they wanted).... well the numbers are huge.
From 50 plants to over 900. Who would have guessed?
I made $90 from my Craigslist ad. I didn't charge for the ones I gave to family and friends from church.
This will help us pay for some plants for the garden! I'm even thinking about doing this again. I just have to find the right location. And a loose soil would be a plus since they would be easier to dig up. The initial investment would be buying 50 or so plants. That would run me about $12 or so. So A neat profit without much care besides remembering to water the plants. And a bonus of strawberries!
For some reason I'm full of money making ideas right now. The other thought I have is about getting a rooster. Then my chicken eggs are fertile. Then I buy/borrow another silkie (very broody birds) and keep them busy raising chicks for me. But this idea fails because of the cost of feeding those chickens. But people around here are willing to spend $5-$7 per laying bird. And I could just sell the eggs for ~ 2.50 per dozen before they are sold. But you also have the smell. And we would need a bigger hen house. I also wouldn't want more than 25 birds at a time. So don't know if this one will ever happen.
It sure is fun to come up with all of these ideas.
It all started Saturday morning when I heard my hubby get up, get dressed and fire up the truck. I was still asleep because I had stayed up late blogging the night before. Please note that my last blog entry was written past midnight. And on a laptop. So that is why all the non-capitilization and why its a bit hard to read.
Anyway, I heard him fire up the truck and knew he was going to rent a rototiller that we had discussed a few weeks back. I hurried and got dressed. He got home and started the rototiller up. I hurriedly rescued some onions that had come up from last year. Then I started on my strawberry patch.
Last year we started out with 49 plants. 25 bare root Quinalt ever bearing strawberries and 24 Fort Laramie plants that we got at a greenhouse shop for a great price. For a couple of reasons I let them run last year. Meaning I let them make as many new plants by sending runners that they could. I was hoping to end up with about 100 plants or so.
As I dug plants up I realized that I had way more than 100 plants. I introduced the idea of selling the plants $5 for 25 plants on Craigslist. Hubby liked the idea and I posted on Craigslist that I had around 200 plants or so to sell.
My first call was for 25 plants and my second call was for as many as I could dig up. By the time the 2nd lady came I had counted out 260 plants. She was in a hurry so couldn't wait for me to count out any more.
I realized I had a lot more still to get rid of at this point so posted again on Craigslist.
A couple came by for 50 more and then a weird guy came by for 100.
I again realized I still had tons and so asked for it to be announced in Relief Society that I had 200 or so plants to get rid of. One lady took 100, another lady took 50. Then another call from the Craigslist ad for 25 and then another lady took the rest (89).
I kept 225 plants. I hadn't intended to keep so many but hubby built me some large garden boxes and according to the square foot gardening guy its 4 plants per square foot.
Anyway, did you do the math? Its about 900 plants or so. And considering the fact that I didn't count plants that were struggling, and I also included 5 or so extra plants with each order (to ensure that people got at least the amount of healthy plants they wanted).... well the numbers are huge.
From 50 plants to over 900. Who would have guessed?
I made $90 from my Craigslist ad. I didn't charge for the ones I gave to family and friends from church.
This will help us pay for some plants for the garden! I'm even thinking about doing this again. I just have to find the right location. And a loose soil would be a plus since they would be easier to dig up. The initial investment would be buying 50 or so plants. That would run me about $12 or so. So A neat profit without much care besides remembering to water the plants. And a bonus of strawberries!
For some reason I'm full of money making ideas right now. The other thought I have is about getting a rooster. Then my chicken eggs are fertile. Then I buy/borrow another silkie (very broody birds) and keep them busy raising chicks for me. But this idea fails because of the cost of feeding those chickens. But people around here are willing to spend $5-$7 per laying bird. And I could just sell the eggs for ~ 2.50 per dozen before they are sold. But you also have the smell. And we would need a bigger hen house. I also wouldn't want more than 25 birds at a time. So don't know if this one will ever happen.
It sure is fun to come up with all of these ideas.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Projects
Oh the projects that we have committed to right now. Thinking about them makes me tired, but not stressed. That's a good thing. Last year I spent about 4 months stressed out due to trying to put a lawn in, landscaping, and having an outside wedding next door. Helping my parents get their yard ready was stressful. they did most of the work, but I helped out a bunch in the weeding, planting, ideas department. Don't think that is much? You try and dig out bulbs that haven't been dug up and seperated for at least 7-10 years. I ended up with hundreds and hundreds. And I didn't get them all. We ended up with a nice crop still coming up this year. that is ok though. the plan all along was to dig them up (they were so thick that weeding and making the bed look nice was nearly impossible) and putting a normal amount back in this year. The problem was that after all that stress and hard work that when the time came to put them back in we were too tired.
Fast forward to about a week ago. We were talking about the yard and Dad says something to the affect of we need to put those bulbs in soon. they've sprouted because of the leaky roof in the garage. So we pulled out the boxes of bulbs and sure enough they were happily sprouting in their boxes. There were some gross and slimey ones that we couldn't save. But most were just fine. We ended up giving about half of them away on Craigslist. The other half we planted in an out of the way flower bed that is still sort of a holding place until they get back from their mission (leaving in 6 weeks!) and can figure out where they want them.
Anyway, projects. I've decided that we don't really have the money to buy new furniture that is needed. Our old stuff is truly wearing out. We have worn holes in the fabric. So we went over to our local craft store with our handy dandy 50% off coupon and spent about $350 for fabric. 25 yards of it. Cross your fingers for me. The nice thing about this project is that it will keep until I have a lot of time to devote to it. That is why it isn't really stressing me out.
Next project. Screen doors. We need these for bug control. Last year the flies were horrible. This year we decided we had enough money to buy screen doors. Front and back door idealy since the kids are so young and love to leave the door open. We went to Lowes and found that they had reasonably priced screen doors. We were even able to special order one in a matching color for our front door for a small fee. The back door is just going to get plain white.
Next project. We bought and planted 4 fruit trees. this project is ongoing. We still need to buy those tree rounds to put at the bottom of them. But this project is pretty much done. Just needs to be finished up. You may say this isn't a project, but planting trees takes an hour or two if you do it right. So that is a project in my book.
Next project is the garden. We are going for a modified square foot gardening thing. We love so many things about the square foot gardening method. First of all, very few weeds. Last year we were overtaken by weeds by early July. With all the stuff to do for the wedding I gave up around mid July. I just couldn't stay on top of it. Hubby has built boxes. These boxes will have plastic sheeting on the bottom to keep out existing weeds like the dreaded bindweed we have so much of around here.
The dirt you use is actually considered a "soiless" mixture. Basically its equal parts vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. The only maintanence on this soil since it is so loose is to mix in more compost each year to enrich the soil.
I was skeptical but Mom and Dad did this last year. Their plants were beautiful. they grew faster than mine and looked nice and healthy. Best thing? VERY FEW WEEDS! Dad said that most of the weeds were due to the type of compost he used. Another thing we plan on doing is putting something, probably weed barrier if we can afford it, down between the grow boxes. This will keep the weeding to a minimum. HALLELUJAH!
We will have to continue to weed the yellow raspberry plants. that is pretty much unavoidable due to the nature of raspberries and how you want the plants to send up new starts.
The last project that I'm trying to avoid thinking about is Mom and Dad's yard. They will be leaving in about 6 weeks. That leaves us to take care of their lawn. And the grapes. And the fruit trees. And the blackberries and raspberries. And any other things my Mom thinks she needs to plant before they leave like golden raspberries.
I'm not all that stressed because I'm trying to think positively. If we get overwhelmed, I do have 4 other siblings and their families who have offered to help out. And Mom and Dad and us have discussed the possibility of hiring someone from church to help out for an hour each week or something along those lines. We are going to try to do it ourselves first. Hubby wants to do that. But I will be asking for help from the family when I feel it's needed.
Last project. Collect and organize food storage for one year. We've really been working on this lately because of the price of food going up up up. We've got our wheat and a lot of other stuff. We found a food storage calculator on about.com and modified it to fit what our family eats regularly. We don't want to store food we don't eat regularly because then it would go to waste.
We've also added things to our list such as toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant cocoa powder, things that I wouldn't want to live a year without if something were to happen or if we got into a financial bind.
So those are our projects. Overall, I'm not feeling stressed. I feel like we have time. Most of the projects can be put off until we have time to accomplish them. the only one that can't be put off is Mom and Dad's yard. I feel very positively about that though. They are going on a mission. Their house and yard will be taken care of. I just have a good feeling about it.
I am going to miss having Mom to go chat with and Dad to bounce ideas off of. I've really been spoiled by that. The kids love going to grandma's for the toys and treats. I guess we'll live though.
Fast forward to about a week ago. We were talking about the yard and Dad says something to the affect of we need to put those bulbs in soon. they've sprouted because of the leaky roof in the garage. So we pulled out the boxes of bulbs and sure enough they were happily sprouting in their boxes. There were some gross and slimey ones that we couldn't save. But most were just fine. We ended up giving about half of them away on Craigslist. The other half we planted in an out of the way flower bed that is still sort of a holding place until they get back from their mission (leaving in 6 weeks!) and can figure out where they want them.
Anyway, projects. I've decided that we don't really have the money to buy new furniture that is needed. Our old stuff is truly wearing out. We have worn holes in the fabric. So we went over to our local craft store with our handy dandy 50% off coupon and spent about $350 for fabric. 25 yards of it. Cross your fingers for me. The nice thing about this project is that it will keep until I have a lot of time to devote to it. That is why it isn't really stressing me out.
Next project. Screen doors. We need these for bug control. Last year the flies were horrible. This year we decided we had enough money to buy screen doors. Front and back door idealy since the kids are so young and love to leave the door open. We went to Lowes and found that they had reasonably priced screen doors. We were even able to special order one in a matching color for our front door for a small fee. The back door is just going to get plain white.
Next project. We bought and planted 4 fruit trees. this project is ongoing. We still need to buy those tree rounds to put at the bottom of them. But this project is pretty much done. Just needs to be finished up. You may say this isn't a project, but planting trees takes an hour or two if you do it right. So that is a project in my book.
Next project is the garden. We are going for a modified square foot gardening thing. We love so many things about the square foot gardening method. First of all, very few weeds. Last year we were overtaken by weeds by early July. With all the stuff to do for the wedding I gave up around mid July. I just couldn't stay on top of it. Hubby has built boxes. These boxes will have plastic sheeting on the bottom to keep out existing weeds like the dreaded bindweed we have so much of around here.
The dirt you use is actually considered a "soiless" mixture. Basically its equal parts vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. The only maintanence on this soil since it is so loose is to mix in more compost each year to enrich the soil.
I was skeptical but Mom and Dad did this last year. Their plants were beautiful. they grew faster than mine and looked nice and healthy. Best thing? VERY FEW WEEDS! Dad said that most of the weeds were due to the type of compost he used. Another thing we plan on doing is putting something, probably weed barrier if we can afford it, down between the grow boxes. This will keep the weeding to a minimum. HALLELUJAH!
We will have to continue to weed the yellow raspberry plants. that is pretty much unavoidable due to the nature of raspberries and how you want the plants to send up new starts.
The last project that I'm trying to avoid thinking about is Mom and Dad's yard. They will be leaving in about 6 weeks. That leaves us to take care of their lawn. And the grapes. And the fruit trees. And the blackberries and raspberries. And any other things my Mom thinks she needs to plant before they leave like golden raspberries.
I'm not all that stressed because I'm trying to think positively. If we get overwhelmed, I do have 4 other siblings and their families who have offered to help out. And Mom and Dad and us have discussed the possibility of hiring someone from church to help out for an hour each week or something along those lines. We are going to try to do it ourselves first. Hubby wants to do that. But I will be asking for help from the family when I feel it's needed.
Last project. Collect and organize food storage for one year. We've really been working on this lately because of the price of food going up up up. We've got our wheat and a lot of other stuff. We found a food storage calculator on about.com and modified it to fit what our family eats regularly. We don't want to store food we don't eat regularly because then it would go to waste.
We've also added things to our list such as toilet paper, shampoo, deodorant cocoa powder, things that I wouldn't want to live a year without if something were to happen or if we got into a financial bind.
So those are our projects. Overall, I'm not feeling stressed. I feel like we have time. Most of the projects can be put off until we have time to accomplish them. the only one that can't be put off is Mom and Dad's yard. I feel very positively about that though. They are going on a mission. Their house and yard will be taken care of. I just have a good feeling about it.
I am going to miss having Mom to go chat with and Dad to bounce ideas off of. I've really been spoiled by that. The kids love going to grandma's for the toys and treats. I guess we'll live though.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
New baby, new trees, spring is here!
My sister had her baby earlier this week. Mom flew out to Michigan to help her out. From the pictures I've seen and the webcam, she looks like such a cutie! She might have red hair like her mother and she has rolls of fat. Her birth weight was 9lbs 1/2 oz. And my little sis did it naturally. Not by choice, in the end she wanted the drugs. But She made it through it and everyone is healthy.
We have had a busy day. We started the morning with a Ward breakfast and Easter egg hunt. That was fun and the kids loved it. Needless to say we've been eating to much candy.
Next we came home and relaxed for a little bit. Then Hubby went over to help with changing some brake pads, (he's never done). My Dad and hubby get along well and Dad loves to teach my hubby all sorts of new skills. My hubby really appreciates it as well. He didn't have to many of these sorts of opportunities growing up.
After than hubby went and (after a short course of how to use it) used a chain saw to chop a bunch of wood we got cheap. He had to get it down to a size that would fit our fireplace. Then I guess he stacked it.
While he was doing this I was keeping my Dad and sister company while they changed the oil in their cars. The kids were playing with a neighbors grandson. They traipsed all over our yard and Grandpa's.
We stopped for a nutritious lunch of cereal and milk. Then we relaxed some more and then we decided to plant 4 fruit trees that we bought a few weeks ago. We just finished that. Now hubby is asking about dinner and we are all tired!!!
Oh, and we also put the sheep in with the goats. Dad's pasture had much more grass than ours and we hopefully will save some money on alfalfa by the sheep eating more grass.
So yesterday Hubby called me from work and said that a co-worker whom he had chatted with about chickens had brought in a blue/green egg for him. The co-worker has a rooster. So the first thought I had was, bring that egg home and put it under our broody chicken.
Yeah, this means we have a 50/50 chance of a rooster. Also, we really don't know the breed of chicken. Easter egger, americauna, auracana? Also, it was refrigerated. The hatch rate goes down to 50%.
Oh well. If nothing happens, I can still buy some chicks and slip them under the chicken. She is so cute in her broodiness. She just sits on that nest and stares ahead. That would drive me nutty. But this little chicken is determined.
So hopefully we'll have news on that in the next 20 days or so.
We have had a busy day. We started the morning with a Ward breakfast and Easter egg hunt. That was fun and the kids loved it. Needless to say we've been eating to much candy.
Next we came home and relaxed for a little bit. Then Hubby went over to help with changing some brake pads, (he's never done). My Dad and hubby get along well and Dad loves to teach my hubby all sorts of new skills. My hubby really appreciates it as well. He didn't have to many of these sorts of opportunities growing up.
After than hubby went and (after a short course of how to use it) used a chain saw to chop a bunch of wood we got cheap. He had to get it down to a size that would fit our fireplace. Then I guess he stacked it.
While he was doing this I was keeping my Dad and sister company while they changed the oil in their cars. The kids were playing with a neighbors grandson. They traipsed all over our yard and Grandpa's.
We stopped for a nutritious lunch of cereal and milk. Then we relaxed some more and then we decided to plant 4 fruit trees that we bought a few weeks ago. We just finished that. Now hubby is asking about dinner and we are all tired!!!
Oh, and we also put the sheep in with the goats. Dad's pasture had much more grass than ours and we hopefully will save some money on alfalfa by the sheep eating more grass.
So yesterday Hubby called me from work and said that a co-worker whom he had chatted with about chickens had brought in a blue/green egg for him. The co-worker has a rooster. So the first thought I had was, bring that egg home and put it under our broody chicken.
Yeah, this means we have a 50/50 chance of a rooster. Also, we really don't know the breed of chicken. Easter egger, americauna, auracana? Also, it was refrigerated. The hatch rate goes down to 50%.
Oh well. If nothing happens, I can still buy some chicks and slip them under the chicken. She is so cute in her broodiness. She just sits on that nest and stares ahead. That would drive me nutty. But this little chicken is determined.
So hopefully we'll have news on that in the next 20 days or so.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Broody Hen
We have a broody hen! I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised. The weather has been very spring-like around here. Also, the broody chicken is a black silkie. I've heard that not only are they the broodiest chickens out there, they also easily adopt other chickens chicks to raise. So a good combo!
Saturday morning I found the silkie in the nesting box sitting on her egg. I pushed her around and grabbed the egg. When I looked out at the run later she was running around and scratching like the other chickens. Sunday she showed no signs. Monday she laid another egg, but this time just left it in the box as usual.
Later I found her sitting on a Rhode Island Red egg. I grabbed a golf ball from hubby's stash (don't cringe, it was scuffed, so not very desirable anymore) and swapped an egg for a golf ball. I'm going to head out there this morning and check on things again.
Strangest thing though, yesterday she tried to peck me. This has been the most docile of my chickens. I actually caught and picked her up once! So I'm not afraid to pick her up as much as the others. Now though, I'm considering gloves! Anyway, I just thought it was funny that such a docile chicken was all of a sudden so protective and wanting to be a mother. She's only been laying off and on since December if memory serves me correctly.
Anyway I hope to be able to get some chicks in the next week or so. I'm going to have to get her off the nest somehow and then swap the golf balls out. I've got to get her to graduate to 3-4 golf balls. Then I'm going to pick up 2-3 Rhode Island Reds and an Easter Egger (blue/green eggs).
Speaking of babies... my sister in Michigan is in the hospital this morning being induced with her 2nd child. At the doctor yesterday they did and ultrasound because they thought my sister was measuring bigger than her due date. After the ultrasound, they estimated the baby's weight at 9+ pounds. This freaked my sister out. As it would most mothers!
Anyway, my thoughts are with her this morning. I'm sure she'll do just fine. She had her first baby naturally and I know she will do just fine with this one.
Saturday morning I found the silkie in the nesting box sitting on her egg. I pushed her around and grabbed the egg. When I looked out at the run later she was running around and scratching like the other chickens. Sunday she showed no signs. Monday she laid another egg, but this time just left it in the box as usual.
Later I found her sitting on a Rhode Island Red egg. I grabbed a golf ball from hubby's stash (don't cringe, it was scuffed, so not very desirable anymore) and swapped an egg for a golf ball. I'm going to head out there this morning and check on things again.
Strangest thing though, yesterday she tried to peck me. This has been the most docile of my chickens. I actually caught and picked her up once! So I'm not afraid to pick her up as much as the others. Now though, I'm considering gloves! Anyway, I just thought it was funny that such a docile chicken was all of a sudden so protective and wanting to be a mother. She's only been laying off and on since December if memory serves me correctly.
Anyway I hope to be able to get some chicks in the next week or so. I'm going to have to get her off the nest somehow and then swap the golf balls out. I've got to get her to graduate to 3-4 golf balls. Then I'm going to pick up 2-3 Rhode Island Reds and an Easter Egger (blue/green eggs).
Speaking of babies... my sister in Michigan is in the hospital this morning being induced with her 2nd child. At the doctor yesterday they did and ultrasound because they thought my sister was measuring bigger than her due date. After the ultrasound, they estimated the baby's weight at 9+ pounds. This freaked my sister out. As it would most mothers!
Anyway, my thoughts are with her this morning. I'm sure she'll do just fine. She had her first baby naturally and I know she will do just fine with this one.
pattern corrected
Just wanted to say that I've corrected and cleaned up the pattern that I posted for my church bags yesterday. I must have been in a hurry because when I reread it this morning it was missing all sorts of basic instructions and the handle instructions were wrong.
If anyone has any questions about the patterns, as them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.
If anyone has any questions about the patterns, as them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Crochet pattern for small church bag in previous posts
I just don't want to lose this pattern I made up. Right now its on a random post it.
For anyone who wants to use this pattern - I made these out of 100% wool yarn that I spun myself. (If you don't spin, you can buy 100% wool yarn. MUST be 100%) Then I threw them in the washer (in pillowcases) and filled the tub with hot/warm water. I set the agitation to Heavy duty. Then I turned the washer on and with the lid open let it go through the agitation cycle twice, checking the bags every so often. You leave the lid open so the washer doesn't drain. That would be an awful waste of water if you had to refill the washer.
This is called felting. Basically it shrinks the wool yarn and makes the bag look totally different. Sometimes you can no longer even see the stitches.
Bottom
CH 30 Turn and sc 7 rows.
(ch2 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Long side
CH 8
SC 31 rows (ch2 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Big fat side
ch 31 dc 15 rows.
(ch3 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Handle
sl stitch 3 times on the bag where you want the handle to attach. Ch 2 and turn.
sc in each sl stitch, skipping the first one (that one counts as the first sc).
Repeat until you have 22 rows of sc.
sl stitch (3 times) to attach handle to bag
Sew all parts together using a whip stitch.
For my larger church bag
Bottom
ch 30 sc 52 rows
(ch2 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Side
ch 31
dc 27 rows
(ch3 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
other side
ch 45 dc 27 rows
(ch3 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
handle
sl stitch 5 times on the bag where you want the handle to attach. Ch 2 and turn.
sc in each sl stitch, skipping the first one (that one counts as the first sc).
Repeat until you have 36 rows of sc.
sl stitch (5 times) to attach handle to bag
Sew all parts together using a whip stitch.
For anyone who wants to use this pattern - I made these out of 100% wool yarn that I spun myself. (If you don't spin, you can buy 100% wool yarn. MUST be 100%) Then I threw them in the washer (in pillowcases) and filled the tub with hot/warm water. I set the agitation to Heavy duty. Then I turned the washer on and with the lid open let it go through the agitation cycle twice, checking the bags every so often. You leave the lid open so the washer doesn't drain. That would be an awful waste of water if you had to refill the washer.
This is called felting. Basically it shrinks the wool yarn and makes the bag look totally different. Sometimes you can no longer even see the stitches.
Bottom
CH 30 Turn and sc 7 rows.
(ch2 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Long side
CH 8
SC 31 rows (ch2 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Big fat side
ch 31 dc 15 rows.
(ch3 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Handle
sl stitch 3 times on the bag where you want the handle to attach. Ch 2 and turn.
sc in each sl stitch, skipping the first one (that one counts as the first sc).
Repeat until you have 22 rows of sc.
sl stitch (3 times) to attach handle to bag
Sew all parts together using a whip stitch.
For my larger church bag
Bottom
ch 30 sc 52 rows
(ch2 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
Side
ch 31
dc 27 rows
(ch3 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
other side
ch 45 dc 27 rows
(ch3 and turn at end of each row except last)
finish off
handle
sl stitch 5 times on the bag where you want the handle to attach. Ch 2 and turn.
sc in each sl stitch, skipping the first one (that one counts as the first sc).
Repeat until you have 36 rows of sc.
sl stitch (5 times) to attach handle to bag
Sew all parts together using a whip stitch.
Friday, March 07, 2008
I'm afraid of chickens
Yes its true. Chickens can frighten me.
Now I'm not afraid of eating chicken. I'm not afraid of their eggs. I'm not afraid of the animal themselves.
What I'm afraid of is when they get out. How are you supposed to catch them?
So there it is. I'm afraid of my chickens when they get out.
Today I was talking on the phone to my sister in Michigan. I was a little late in feeding the animals. I usually feed them around 10 and It was about quarter after. The kids had wanted to play outside and so after getting socks, shoes and a jacket on, I let them. I was wandering around the house as my sister and I talked. I was sitting at the computer when C brought me an egg. Look Mom! I got the eggs! And I fed the sheep.
Well I went to look out the back door to make sure all was ok. The sight that greeted me was a door to the coop open and 3 chickens on their way out. It was kind of cute. A had opened the door to be like her sister. She was watching and dancing around in glee with all of the animals around her. I asked C to close the door and she headed out. She brought me another egg, but the door wasn't closed. She couldn't latch it.
Anyway, that was our morning. It was kind of fun to chase chickens. It brought back the memory of a story mom told about getting in trouble for chasing chickens when she was young. They make funny noises and run around crazily.
I might have to let them out now and again just for the show.
Maybe if I wasn't so afraid of trying to catch them :)
by the way, the way we were able to re-catch them was by leaving the big coop door open (the one we use to access the hen house for cleaning) . I simply herded them that way. When they saw home, they hopped right in and proceeded to eat the breakfast I had prepared for them.
I was just checking on them again and one hen is trying to lay her morning egg.
From what I've heard, we might see an interruption in the egg laying for the next week or so. Thats ok. The entertainment was worth it.
Now I'm not afraid of eating chicken. I'm not afraid of their eggs. I'm not afraid of the animal themselves.
What I'm afraid of is when they get out. How are you supposed to catch them?
So there it is. I'm afraid of my chickens when they get out.
Today I was talking on the phone to my sister in Michigan. I was a little late in feeding the animals. I usually feed them around 10 and It was about quarter after. The kids had wanted to play outside and so after getting socks, shoes and a jacket on, I let them. I was wandering around the house as my sister and I talked. I was sitting at the computer when C brought me an egg. Look Mom! I got the eggs! And I fed the sheep.
Well I went to look out the back door to make sure all was ok. The sight that greeted me was a door to the coop open and 3 chickens on their way out. It was kind of cute. A had opened the door to be like her sister. She was watching and dancing around in glee with all of the animals around her. I asked C to close the door and she headed out. She brought me another egg, but the door wasn't closed. She couldn't latch it.
Anyway, that was our morning. It was kind of fun to chase chickens. It brought back the memory of a story mom told about getting in trouble for chasing chickens when she was young. They make funny noises and run around crazily.
I might have to let them out now and again just for the show.
Maybe if I wasn't so afraid of trying to catch them :)
by the way, the way we were able to re-catch them was by leaving the big coop door open (the one we use to access the hen house for cleaning) . I simply herded them that way. When they saw home, they hopped right in and proceeded to eat the breakfast I had prepared for them.
I was just checking on them again and one hen is trying to lay her morning egg.
From what I've heard, we might see an interruption in the egg laying for the next week or so. Thats ok. The entertainment was worth it.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Japanese Anime
So when I think of Japanese Anime, I've always thought it was wierd little cartoon like shows. Not really my cup of tea.
The other day I found out that a book I quite enjoyed, "Howl's Moving Castle" had been made into one. I thought that sounded great!
...until I watched it. It was awful in my opinion. If you hadn't read the book you would probably like it. But It was so far from the book...in fact they changed the whole story. At the end they had changed so much that it was pretty much a different story altogether.
But the person who told me about "Howl's moving castle" had also recommended 2 other anime's. "Castle in the Sky" and "Spirited Away".
"Castle in the Sky" awful. I couldn't get into it.
"Spirited Away" on the other hand caught my interest. It was interesting, imaginative and fun. It starts out with a family and their child moving to a new place. They get lost on the way their and find a building with a tunnel going through it. They go through the tunnel in a spirit of exploration and find themselves spirited away to another place altogether. They are trapped and the parents are turned into pigs before they realize it. The story is how the child is able to become strong and courageous and save them all.
So I searched YouTube for more.
I found "My Friend Tortoro" Yet another one I enjoyed. The story of another family moving to a new place. This time without the mother (in the hospital) and 2 daughters with their father. The 2 daughters befriend a forest spirit named Tortoro. It is fun and light and enjoyable. The Mother in the hospital storyline for the most part is ok. The girls are just sad not having their mother with them.
Now for "Grave of the Fireflies". A very interesting storyline. When I think of anime, I think if imagination, lightness. A cartoon for goodness sake. This show is the most depressing show ever. Everyone dies. The Mother, Son, daughter. And not all at the same time. One and then the other, and finally the other one. Sad and depressing. But if you don't mind a good cry, watch it. WWII and the mother dies in a bombing leaving the son to care for the 4 year old daughter. He does all he can but she manages to die of malnutrition. HE then follows from depression, malnutrition, etc.
This show did however make me very thankful for certain things in my life. For one thing I am grateful that I have enough food on my table. My husband has a good job and we are able to save money.
Also, I'm grateful that we have not had to endure a war here at home. Can you imagine air raids in the middle of the night. Every night. Food Scarce, people scared and stressed out.
I just want to say how thankful I am that I and my family live at this time. In a place where there is peace and we are free to buy food at the corner supermarket and grow more in our back yard.
Anyway- on to less depressing subjects.
Yesterday hubby and I were able to go down to the local Lowes and buy nice bareroot fruit trees. They were selling all sorts of trees. From fruit to landscaping trees. If you need trees, buy now. Priced from $15 - $30 they are going fast.
We bought 2 Honey crisp apple trees. Sweet and delicious apples for eating. We had intended to only get one, but it needed another to pollinate it.
We also bought a nectarine and a peach tree. We are still talking about where to put them. The nice thing is that we don't have to decide for sure until it gets a bit warmer. The trees are nice and dormant and we probably have another month until they have to get into the ground.
So this makes 50 strawberry plants, 20 golden raspberry plants, 1 huckleberry, 2 Marionberry, 1 blueberry bush, 3 pie cherry bushes, 2 apple trees, 1 nectarine tree, and 1 peach tree. Do you think we have enough?
I'm actually really excited about having so much great fruit to freeze, can, and make jam out of. Oh and eat. Can't forget the eating part. In fact for all the low to the ground fruit, A will most likely find and eat it all. I think I need to educate her on poisonous berries. If only she will listen.
While Mom and Dad are gone on their mission we also get to care for 15 blackberry bushes, 10 raspberry bushes, 4 peach trees, grape vines, golden raspberry bushes, 2 apricot trees, 2 granny smith apple trees, 1 nectarine, 1 plum tree, 2 pears (?)... I'm actually uncertain of all the different types of trees in their orchard. There are around 12 though. Lets just say that I'm glad their is a lot of family close who can be called on to help out on the consuming part. And hopefully the harvest and care part also.
I guess we'll see. I'm just leaving myself open to asking for help from the ward if necessary (I'm hoping that they'll see it as service to help care for the yard of a couple serving a mission). And if there are not enough people in my family willing to eat some of this stuff, I'll ask the ward to help out too. Maybe that will provide help for a family that wants to can or something. We'll see. The nice thing is that next summer my sister will be here to help out with all of Mom and Dad's fruit.
The other day I found out that a book I quite enjoyed, "Howl's Moving Castle" had been made into one. I thought that sounded great!
...until I watched it. It was awful in my opinion. If you hadn't read the book you would probably like it. But It was so far from the book...in fact they changed the whole story. At the end they had changed so much that it was pretty much a different story altogether.
But the person who told me about "Howl's moving castle" had also recommended 2 other anime's. "Castle in the Sky" and "Spirited Away".
"Castle in the Sky" awful. I couldn't get into it.
"Spirited Away" on the other hand caught my interest. It was interesting, imaginative and fun. It starts out with a family and their child moving to a new place. They get lost on the way their and find a building with a tunnel going through it. They go through the tunnel in a spirit of exploration and find themselves spirited away to another place altogether. They are trapped and the parents are turned into pigs before they realize it. The story is how the child is able to become strong and courageous and save them all.
So I searched YouTube for more.
I found "My Friend Tortoro" Yet another one I enjoyed. The story of another family moving to a new place. This time without the mother (in the hospital) and 2 daughters with their father. The 2 daughters befriend a forest spirit named Tortoro. It is fun and light and enjoyable. The Mother in the hospital storyline for the most part is ok. The girls are just sad not having their mother with them.
Now for "Grave of the Fireflies". A very interesting storyline. When I think of anime, I think if imagination, lightness. A cartoon for goodness sake. This show is the most depressing show ever. Everyone dies. The Mother, Son, daughter. And not all at the same time. One and then the other, and finally the other one. Sad and depressing. But if you don't mind a good cry, watch it. WWII and the mother dies in a bombing leaving the son to care for the 4 year old daughter. He does all he can but she manages to die of malnutrition. HE then follows from depression, malnutrition, etc.
This show did however make me very thankful for certain things in my life. For one thing I am grateful that I have enough food on my table. My husband has a good job and we are able to save money.
Also, I'm grateful that we have not had to endure a war here at home. Can you imagine air raids in the middle of the night. Every night. Food Scarce, people scared and stressed out.
I just want to say how thankful I am that I and my family live at this time. In a place where there is peace and we are free to buy food at the corner supermarket and grow more in our back yard.
Anyway- on to less depressing subjects.
Yesterday hubby and I were able to go down to the local Lowes and buy nice bareroot fruit trees. They were selling all sorts of trees. From fruit to landscaping trees. If you need trees, buy now. Priced from $15 - $30 they are going fast.
We bought 2 Honey crisp apple trees. Sweet and delicious apples for eating. We had intended to only get one, but it needed another to pollinate it.
We also bought a nectarine and a peach tree. We are still talking about where to put them. The nice thing is that we don't have to decide for sure until it gets a bit warmer. The trees are nice and dormant and we probably have another month until they have to get into the ground.
So this makes 50 strawberry plants, 20 golden raspberry plants, 1 huckleberry, 2 Marionberry, 1 blueberry bush, 3 pie cherry bushes, 2 apple trees, 1 nectarine tree, and 1 peach tree. Do you think we have enough?
I'm actually really excited about having so much great fruit to freeze, can, and make jam out of. Oh and eat. Can't forget the eating part. In fact for all the low to the ground fruit, A will most likely find and eat it all. I think I need to educate her on poisonous berries. If only she will listen.
While Mom and Dad are gone on their mission we also get to care for 15 blackberry bushes, 10 raspberry bushes, 4 peach trees, grape vines, golden raspberry bushes, 2 apricot trees, 2 granny smith apple trees, 1 nectarine, 1 plum tree, 2 pears (?)... I'm actually uncertain of all the different types of trees in their orchard. There are around 12 though. Lets just say that I'm glad their is a lot of family close who can be called on to help out on the consuming part. And hopefully the harvest and care part also.
I guess we'll see. I'm just leaving myself open to asking for help from the ward if necessary (I'm hoping that they'll see it as service to help care for the yard of a couple serving a mission). And if there are not enough people in my family willing to eat some of this stuff, I'll ask the ward to help out too. Maybe that will provide help for a family that wants to can or something. We'll see. The nice thing is that next summer my sister will be here to help out with all of Mom and Dad's fruit.
Friday, February 29, 2008
American Idol
Am I the only one who thinks that American Idol is just bad karaoke? I would like to dedicate my new blog music to the American Idol contestants who sang really awful songs this week and last. Here are some awesome songs that you COULD have sung.
I can't wait until Nashville Star comes back. That is an awesome singing contest. And whatever happened to Rock Star?
I can't wait until Nashville Star comes back. That is an awesome singing contest. And whatever happened to Rock Star?
Google Reader
Oh how I love thee, let me count the ways!
So my sister told me about Google reader yesterday. Now instead of clicking on a bunch of different links to check on different blogs, all I have to do is log in!
I'm really excited now because there were blogs that I just stopped checking because the person would update every month or so. I got tired of checking. Now I can check all the blogs at one time. I love it!
With all the spring weather I'm thinking about shearing sheep (April - May) and planting the garden. Also taking the scouts fishing before they all start turning 9 in April.
The sheep shearing should be quite fun. I'm also thinking about keeping my ear to the ground for a black merino sheep. It might be fun to work with dark fiber. If I was able to find a bottle baby then even better. Cheaper anyway.
Here are my latest projects.
Church bags for C and A. What do you think?
I think its about time. They are 3 and 5 and don't need a diaper bag anymore. I was thinking that C was old enough to carry around a Book of Mormon and A could put 2 toys in her bag for Sacrament meeting. I would then confiscate the bag. I am pretty sure that if I let her take it to her class I would play find the bag after church every Sunday.
Here is my bag. It felted differently than I expected it to. I'm also not done with it and am facing a few decisions about it.
First does it need a thin board in the bottom to help it keep its boxy shape.
Second I was thinking I might want to put a few pockets in the bag. These would be crocheted and then felted and then sewn into the bag.
Do I want a liner. If I put a thin board in the bottom, then I would want a liner so I could line the board. I could still put pockets in it but I don't think the lining fabric could support much weight. So they would be small pockets. I don't know how helpful those would be.
Anyway, things to think about for me.
Does anyone think it needs more flowers?
So I went into the other room and saw a chair pushed over to the cupboard. A decided to help herself to some dum dum suckers that we bought yesterday for a treat. I went into their room and their were C and A eating suckers. C says "A got the suckers". I then gave her a lecture about how she could have come and told me rather than sharing in the bounty. I confiscated all of the suckers and told them that they were stuck in their room for punishment.
I guess it could have been worse. They could have found more crayons and gone to town on their walls again. Have I mentioned that Magic Erasers are my friend?
So my sister told me about Google reader yesterday. Now instead of clicking on a bunch of different links to check on different blogs, all I have to do is log in!
I'm really excited now because there were blogs that I just stopped checking because the person would update every month or so. I got tired of checking. Now I can check all the blogs at one time. I love it!
With all the spring weather I'm thinking about shearing sheep (April - May) and planting the garden. Also taking the scouts fishing before they all start turning 9 in April.
The sheep shearing should be quite fun. I'm also thinking about keeping my ear to the ground for a black merino sheep. It might be fun to work with dark fiber. If I was able to find a bottle baby then even better. Cheaper anyway.
Here are my latest projects.
Church bags for C and A. What do you think?
I think its about time. They are 3 and 5 and don't need a diaper bag anymore. I was thinking that C was old enough to carry around a Book of Mormon and A could put 2 toys in her bag for Sacrament meeting. I would then confiscate the bag. I am pretty sure that if I let her take it to her class I would play find the bag after church every Sunday.
Here is my bag. It felted differently than I expected it to. I'm also not done with it and am facing a few decisions about it.
First does it need a thin board in the bottom to help it keep its boxy shape.
Second I was thinking I might want to put a few pockets in the bag. These would be crocheted and then felted and then sewn into the bag.
Do I want a liner. If I put a thin board in the bottom, then I would want a liner so I could line the board. I could still put pockets in it but I don't think the lining fabric could support much weight. So they would be small pockets. I don't know how helpful those would be.
Anyway, things to think about for me.
Does anyone think it needs more flowers?
So I went into the other room and saw a chair pushed over to the cupboard. A decided to help herself to some dum dum suckers that we bought yesterday for a treat. I went into their room and their were C and A eating suckers. C says "A got the suckers". I then gave her a lecture about how she could have come and told me rather than sharing in the bounty. I confiscated all of the suckers and told them that they were stuck in their room for punishment.
I guess it could have been worse. They could have found more crayons and gone to town on their walls again. Have I mentioned that Magic Erasers are my friend?
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