July was full of nice weather, many trips to the pool, and a more relaxed schedule than the past few months. On the 7th I officially became a mother-in-law and a grandma!! I couldn’t feel more blessed. 🙂 I’m so glad Jade and his family live close and we get to see them almost everyday! Dusty turned 18 on the 29th….wow that went FAST!
Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy my photos from July.
Mr. Busy playing in the water and laughing at his Aunties!
A pair of swallows built a nest above my kitchen window. I wasn’t thrilled at first considering the mess, but it was so fun to watch them grow. Four babies quickly grew up in this tiny nest with mom and dad swooping in and out all day long to feed them, (that’s either mom or dad on the far left).
Like all babies they grew up too fast, and now are flying around catching bugs. Now I need to wash the bird poop of the side of my house and kitchen window. Oh joy!
Two rattle snakes in one week is enough for me!
The bird whisperer! Hahahahaha
Mary’s sweet little bantam.
Bacon and ham!
Jo was supposed to be practicing for the fair with her little black hen. It didn’t take long for her other 2 favorite, spoiled pets (Stinky and Boots) to realize they wanted to be on the table so they could get some attention too!
What a month! I have been so very neglectful of my blog. We didn’t finish up school until the 17th and that came with recitals, programs, and graduations! The girls performed at each event and did an awesome job! Mary’s vocal lessons are done for the summer…phew! Now that school has ended and summer has begun the pace around here has slowed down a bit, so maybe I can get some blog time back in my schedule!
The girls are enjoying NO SCHOOL!
The Bantam hens went on a little adventure out of their pen, but the big hens were not very nice so they quickly went back in.
This is the little rooster, and he’s not nice to the little hens either. He gets let out during the day and has turned into quite a nuisance, but he’s very entertaining!
Little Chef was gone last week to camp, so Jo and I got to spend lots of time together! One of her favorite places is the pool. 🙂
The raspberries are just now starting to ripen and there are TONS of them!
I did not get a garden in this year. 🙁 I was heart broken at first, but this will leave me much more time to focus on school and cleaning up around here. We’ve been so busy that many things have been neglected inside and out.
I said last month that April was a busy month…….HA! May was stupid busy! When I think back it’s all just a blur. I’m not complaining at all though it was a great month. Good thing I managed to get a few pictures taken so I can recall a few details. The biggest change we’ve had around here lately comes in a small, but VERY busy package. Jade’s girl friend moved to town and ended up getting two jobs very quickly, that was a very good thing, but that meant she also needed a baby sitter for her 16 month old son. Did I mention he’s busy? I teach a preschool and kindergarten class everyday so you would think that this shouldn’t have been much of a change…..oh how I have forgotten how having a mini person around keeps you on your toes!! What a joy he is and I’m even starting to get use to the grandma jokes. 😉
Hope you enjoy these photos from May.
Here is Mr. Busy Himself!
One of our regular sized hens laid a mini sized egg. Jo was fascinated by it and had me fry it up for her for dinner. 🙂
Our four bantam chicks grew a lot during May.
It turns out that one of them is a rooster and he thinks he’s pretty hot stuff. His crow is getting a little better as time goes on.
We went to our local tractor pull and saw some pretty cool old tractors.
After all the tractors were done pulling it was time for the pickups. Digger and Jade both entered their pickups. It was supposed to be Digger’s 79 Ford against Jade’s 84 Dodge but they didn’t have time to finish getting Jades pickup ready so he decided to enter his 2010 Toyota. It was a grudge match between old and new….or maybe I should say old and young! 😉
The old WON…by five feet!
Some goodies we got at the farmers market! My mom had given us some home grown rhubarb so Little Chef made a couple strawberry rhubarb pies for her dad.
April was incredibly busy, but full of amazing cuteness. 😀
We started off the month with our spring break. I figured it was a good time to bring home our first batch of chicks for this year. The girls want to take bantams to the fair in August so they picked out four bantam chicks at the feed store.
This batch of chicks brought with them a lot of firsts for us. Our first bantams, our first brooder in the house, and our first time using a EcoGlow Brooder instead of a heat lamp. This was also our first time picking chicks that we didn’t know the sex or the breed. The only thing we were sure of was that they were CUTE!
I will miss the day when my youngest kiddo outgrows bringing me dandelion bouquets. 🙂
We bought 10 blueberry bushes. We weren’t ready for them, but they were too cheap to pass up. (I LOVE blueberries!)
Yes, he’s bringing me a tire. He packs it around when he can’t find a ball.
We enjoyed some great weather during April.
The photo bombing dog strikes again…..
Our old mower was unable to be revived this spring so Digger and Jade brought home a new one. (well, new to us) It was great to find something local that we needed just in time that’s in great shape for a fair price! Little Chef was super excited to get a new mower; she does lots of the mowing.
Photo by Little Chef
Last years green onions starting to bloom. I thought they were beautiful.
We got the garden cleaned up which was no easy task considering we neglected it last fall and then digger tilled it, pretty or not. 🙂
We had a wonderful Easter celebrating our Lords resurrection with family, friends and great food!
The girls and I got to take a trip to Newport, Oregon with my mom and a few of my siblings. This was the view from our beach house!
We visited the aquarium and the science center while we where there too. What fun places! This was perfect for Jo as she’s doing a report at school on Orcas. 🙂
Little Chef LOVED the music room at Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.
Jo’s cat Boots had four kittens in mid April. This one has been named Sky. Jo has been in kitty heaven!!
The super cute chicks at the beginning of this post grew quite a bit over the month and aren’t as cute any more. They have graduated from being in the house and have been moved to the shop. This is a picture of their first trip outside. They now spend a few hours outside in the little pen each day.
I know we’re supposed to love our neighbor and all, but what if your closest neighbor is an emu?
A big emu….
A big emu with a fluffy butt….
A big emu with a fluffy butt that paces the fence across the road….
A big emu with a fluffy butt that paces and makes a loud thump, thump, thump noise…..
A big emu with a fluffy butt that paces and thumps and watches us with creepy eyes.
Are we supposed to love our creepy, thumping, pacing, fluffy butted neighbors too?
She or he (at the risk of highly offending our feathered neighbor I’ll just call her a her on this post) does have some good qualities too. She is actually rather entertaining and I’m kinda partial to fluffy butts. The creepy eye thing, well I just try not to make eye contact so it doesn’t bug me so much. Our feathered neighbor is a bit curious too. She came over for a visit the other day to see what the guys where doing in the shop. It was a particularly nice spring day so Digger opened up the big shop doors to let in some sunshine and fresh air. He was welding away when he saw some movement out of the corner of his eye. He flipped up his welding helmet and there was our nosy neighbor just staring at him. It was a short visit, she didn’t want to chat or have a beer, she just turned around when Digger saw her and headed home. Being the nice neighbors that we are Digger and Jade followed her half a mile down the road to make sure she made it home safely.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27
I’m still not sure if this includes the feathered kind, but as long as she doesn’t come peeking in my kitchen door, I can love her……from a distance. 😉
My chickens egg yolks went from yellow to dark orange as soon as the new grass popped up and the bugs came out!
Uncle Tom came over and dumped the compost pile into the garden. Hopefully this will help amend our poor soil on the east side of the garden. Why do we have poor soil only on the east side of the garden? Well, it has something to do with a retired go-cart track. Read more about that here.
Another great thing about spring is CHICKS! This came in the mail today, so we are off to pick up some chicks tomorrow!! Today is also the first day of our spring break and I’m looking forward to getting LOTS done in and out of the house this week.
Goodbye February….Hello March! If you saw January’s photos you know we have had some crazy weather, and February was no exception. It did finally snow, then melted extremely fast. It was nice to have that long awaited white stuff around for a couple days, but now I feel that winter is complete and it can go….away….any minute!
We got about a foot of snow, so school was cancelled that day and it was nice to stay home.
The chickens were not happy about it and only one brave lady ventured out of the coop that day.
The human girls enjoyed the snow much more than the chicken girls. 🙂
Temperatures dipped down into the single digits several times.
Jo came back from the coop and said, “look mom, every chicken laid an egg today!….But, 5 of them froze and cracked”. I was disappointed, the dogs and cats were not. 🙂
I got a shiny new washer and dryer a couple weeks ago.
It was one of those things we have been putting off for a LONG time. Who wants to spend money on a washer and dryer when there are sooo many other “fun” things to spend money on. Like a new, bigger chicken coop. 🙂 It got to the point that we couldn’t ignore the horrible sounds coming from our old washer and dryer. I was really bummed about it at first, then I realized how fortunate we are that God had provided for us financially and we were able to purchase these very necessary items! Now that I have them home and have used them, I have to confess,… I REALLY like them.
Just a couple days ago God provided AGAIN. This time it wasn’t a necessity, but it was something I’ve been wanting and dreaming about for some time now. Please don’t laugh…..
IT’S MY NEW CHICKEN COOP!!!!! Yes, it’s a big empty box off the back of a truck… Digger needed this thing off the truck it came on so he can turn it into a mini log truck. All it needs is a chicken door, a people door, a window, and a paint job! I’m so excited! I’ll keep posting updates on my redneck chicken coop. 😉
Happy New Year Everyone! Hope you all had a blessed Christmas and are looking forward to an AMAZING 2014!!
We started off December by decorating. I love that the girls are now big enough to put our ugly, fake, redneckbeautiful, artificial tree together by themselves. They needed a little help from dad when it came to the lights but other than that, it was all them!
Jade came home for an early Christmas and we remembered to get a family picture this time. It’s not the best pic, but it’s all of us. 😀
December was a month of cookies, cookies, fudge, dipped pretzels, almond roca, and more cookies…….I really need to get back to work and away from my kitchen before I can’t button my pants!
This is what happens when you turn your back on the 9 year old with sprinkles in her hand.
Sadly we have received no snow so far this winter. Everything is brown and cold. These are our dormant raspberry bushes.
This goofy dog locked himself in the garden….he’s looking a bit worried. 😉
Digger hauled this home the day before Christmas Eve. It was his Christmas present to himself! As you can see he has LOTS of work to do on it.
We are praising God for a 2013 that was full of change and challenges and praying for a healthy, productive, and happy 2014.
Happy last day of November everyone. 🙂 The count down to Christmas is on, so I promised the girls we could get the Christmas decorations out this weekend (this time of year always sneaks up on me!)
I don’t have many outdoor pictures for November. It’s been down in the twenties most days leaving me less than thrilled to spend much time outside.
This is Diggers supply of fire wood for his shop. It is slowly getting moved into the barn…very slowly….. Apparently the teenager in the house doesn’t want to be outside either.
He would much rather be working on a skateboard in the warm shop.
The ladies checking out their clean nesting boxes. They are such curious critters.
If you follow my Facebook page, then you already know I finally cooked one of our home grown chickens! It was delicious!
My little chef helped out in the kitchen getting ready for Thanksgiving. She made these beautiful dinner rolls….they were melt in your mouth good! We will be making these over and over and will definitely share the recipe soon.
Yes, it was totally me that stole the roll out of the center of the pan. It was a little less than perfect and needed to go……into my belly. 😉
I shared in my post about my contributions to Thanksgiving dinner that I had never made pumpkin pie before. This is Jo helping make our first pumpkin pies EVER. I got a few helpful emails from readers and Diggers Aunt. After taking all the great advice into account, they turned out super yummy. My only complaint is the crust was a little tough. Pretty sure I know what to do differently next time. 🙂
Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving and are having fun preparing for Christmas. Thanks for visiting the red double wide!
