So its been a while. I had realize that, but just hadn't made this a priority. sorry.:(
Anyway, lets see...what is going on with my life. The chickens. The chickens are not laying where they are supposed to be! And then they like to wander way farther than they ever have. That is not so great when the neighbors are somewhat close. Its very frustrating and now I am visting not letting them free range for a little while so they will lay in the coop and remember that is where the eggs go.
Quinten is obsesses with primary music. He likes to listen on the ipad and turn the volume all the WAY UP. He likes to tell you that "Child of God is on the IPAD!!!!!" and that "I go to the temple. You want to come to temple?" and "The temple is open today!". Its sweet, amusing, and a little annoying with the music is really loud. But mostly sweet.
Nolan has discovered that he can have an opinion. And be stubborn. And throw fits. Its lovely. But its just a phase. And Wee loveee himmmmm. He is talking more and more, but still hard to understand. He and Quinten are in sunbeams. They start preschool after labor day and are looking forward to it very much.
Ned is in kindergarten and loves every minute. he loves building with legos and so do all the boys. He plays a lot with the smaller legos. He goes to kindergarten with a huge smile on his face and comes out with a huge smile on his face. he is a happy boy. and he loves kindergarten.He likes to tease and torture his brothers, so we are working on that. He likes doing stuff outside with his dad and isa huge help. He is to the point where he will do his chores, and especially likes to do thm when he can earn things. Like time onthe computer.
Mia is almost 12 years old. She is about a month away and can barely wait. She also loves to play lego friends, loves graphic novels, and enjoys pokemon shows. She enjoys playing Roblox with her friends and is always looking for a playdate to go on. She enjoys going to her friend Peyton's house because she has horses and all sorts of other animals.
Cecilee is in 8th grade and loving life. She likes to work hard at school and hang out with her friends. She is often found on the phone with her friend from Washington. She loves to read and go to the library. She enjoys mutual and also having friends over.
Ned, Cecilee and Mia are all going to be starting soccer pretty quick. This is Ned's first year and Milton is his coach. It shoudl be interesting to see how that goes. I know that Milton is looking forward to it.
Monday, August 29, 2016
Thursday, August 25, 2016
How about a new post. It's been awhile. In the spring or early summer, I can't remember specifically, but Megan and her Dad talked about an idea for our shed where we store our wood and misc supplies. The wood is stored on one side and then various stuff on the other. The other side needed organized and after the mention of this idea from Megan, I sought out to improve the shed since I also thought this was a great idea.
Megan was able to gather all the pots we had stored up in the shed that we used for growing plants in the spring, moved into a storage bin by the greenhouse. I then went about organizing my lawn tools and creating a bin in the shed for all the starter wood that was scattered everywhere. This created a space that I could park the mower. This is where Megan's idea of a second door for the mower came to be realized. I took down part of the wall and went about building some new doors. The old entrance location also needed some new doors, so why not do both. I watched a couple of different YouTube videos and came up with what I wanted to do.
Here are the results. Megan also helped with the painting, which I greatly appreciated. I'm also thankful for some tools that I was able to use from my Father in laws arsenal.
This is after I finished constructing the doors. I used 2x6 for the frame and stripped off the outer beveled edge. I used pocket screws to hold it together. I then routed out a 1/2 inch edge on the back of the door to place the particle board inset and nailed it into place.
This is after the doors where painted and before they were put into place. It's no easy task to hang doors. The new doors on the right went pretty smoothly, but the replacements on the main entrance to the left took some work. Overall it turned out well.
The rest of the shed also needed to match so it finally received a fresh coat of paint after 9 years of waiting. You can see in the previous picture that the shed was looking pretty sad. I power washed the wood to get rid of the layer of dirt. After the fresh coat of paint it looks halfway decent. I've also added some shelves to store some gas for the mower and fertilizer for the lawn in order to keep out of the little boys hands. I'm pretty happy with the final results.
Megan was able to gather all the pots we had stored up in the shed that we used for growing plants in the spring, moved into a storage bin by the greenhouse. I then went about organizing my lawn tools and creating a bin in the shed for all the starter wood that was scattered everywhere. This created a space that I could park the mower. This is where Megan's idea of a second door for the mower came to be realized. I took down part of the wall and went about building some new doors. The old entrance location also needed some new doors, so why not do both. I watched a couple of different YouTube videos and came up with what I wanted to do.
Here are the results. Megan also helped with the painting, which I greatly appreciated. I'm also thankful for some tools that I was able to use from my Father in laws arsenal.
This is after I finished constructing the doors. I used 2x6 for the frame and stripped off the outer beveled edge. I used pocket screws to hold it together. I then routed out a 1/2 inch edge on the back of the door to place the particle board inset and nailed it into place.
This is after the doors where painted and before they were put into place. It's no easy task to hang doors. The new doors on the right went pretty smoothly, but the replacements on the main entrance to the left took some work. Overall it turned out well.
The rest of the shed also needed to match so it finally received a fresh coat of paint after 9 years of waiting. You can see in the previous picture that the shed was looking pretty sad. I power washed the wood to get rid of the layer of dirt. After the fresh coat of paint it looks halfway decent. I've also added some shelves to store some gas for the mower and fertilizer for the lawn in order to keep out of the little boys hands. I'm pretty happy with the final results.
Friday, February 5, 2016
So it turns out
that the neighbors actually did have a new rooster. They apparently have about 5 now. This new one was disrupting things and so it moved to our house.After a talk with the neighbors they have now taken him back and rearranged their roosters so that he is now a part of the group (or they ate one and put some of the others in closed coops so they can't get out. Go with whichever one makes you the happiest) :)
We have some new chicks arriving in a few weeks because its that time again. Also, its about time to wake up the greenhouse! One of my favorite times of the year! I've spent some time rearranging it while the boys were playing in the yard and it is at least somewhat ready for the onslaught of plants and chicks.
Milt trimmed the fruit trees today while I fed the chickens and collected eggs. I've also been working on some quilts for the kids since we have lots of sheet sets, but not a whole lot of twin sized quilts since the twins are still in toddler beds. I've got them all cut out and now comes the fun part of sewing.
We finally have the inside of the house finished. After begging the builder for what seemed like months (actually about 2 or so) , he finally showed up and in a few short hours finished what needed to be done. (There was that trip to the 'lumber store' that took so long the store must have been in Twin Falls, 2 hours away) There is still a small section that needs to be painted, but he shared that the painter just had a new baby. So knowing how long it was going to be to get him here before that, I'm tempted to paint it myself. This project went fast and slow. It was a bit like that dance. Which one is it? Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.That is how I would describe it anyway.
Now we just have to wait for the weather to cooperate so that we can have a yard and sprinklers and all that stuff again.
It will be worth it. It will be worth it. It will be worth it.
Who knew this process was going to be nearly a year? We are coming up on 9 months. Lets not count the time that we spent on all the other stuff like dreaming this thing up :)
We love the addition so far. My only regret is looking at our finances after the fact.
Sorry this update is all over the place.
The girls are both in Charter school now. They both love it. Who knew? Ned is in preschool taught by me. I have 5 other students.
Things preschool has taught me. There are some really stinky people out there who will take you for all you are worth. Even preschool. They will promise to pay you for a couple of months and then say it will be such and such a date and then stop showing up just before that date, never to be heard from again no matter how many times you text them. They will leave owing you money for several months because you didn't push it because of Christmas. I don't think I'm much of a businesswoman because this has happened to me 2x and then that other lady who had her daughter come 3 times and then promised me she would drop by and pay me for my time (she said she got a new job and couldn't get her daughter to preschool anymore)
So, I'm making somewhere around minimum wage to teach preschool in my home. That doesn't even count the prep time, and all the months of buying snacks since the parents were claiming (after Christmas) poverty. I don't know if I'm going to do this again next year. I don't know if its worth it. I will teach preschool to the twins. I just don't know if I will have any additional students. I don't know if its worth it to deal with the parents and the business side.
Well enough whining from me.
The good news about preschool is that Ned is thriving. He loves it. He loves having kids over and learning. Its a huge positive thing for him.
The twins are getting bigger and smarter and doing well. Nolan is mostly potty trained and Quinten is potty trained. Yay. Good days and bad. Booh.
I'm tired of typing so, perhaps I will try and update again sooner rather than later!
We have some new chicks arriving in a few weeks because its that time again. Also, its about time to wake up the greenhouse! One of my favorite times of the year! I've spent some time rearranging it while the boys were playing in the yard and it is at least somewhat ready for the onslaught of plants and chicks.
Milt trimmed the fruit trees today while I fed the chickens and collected eggs. I've also been working on some quilts for the kids since we have lots of sheet sets, but not a whole lot of twin sized quilts since the twins are still in toddler beds. I've got them all cut out and now comes the fun part of sewing.
We finally have the inside of the house finished. After begging the builder for what seemed like months (actually about 2 or so) , he finally showed up and in a few short hours finished what needed to be done. (There was that trip to the 'lumber store' that took so long the store must have been in Twin Falls, 2 hours away) There is still a small section that needs to be painted, but he shared that the painter just had a new baby. So knowing how long it was going to be to get him here before that, I'm tempted to paint it myself. This project went fast and slow. It was a bit like that dance. Which one is it? Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.That is how I would describe it anyway.
Now we just have to wait for the weather to cooperate so that we can have a yard and sprinklers and all that stuff again.
It will be worth it. It will be worth it. It will be worth it.
Who knew this process was going to be nearly a year? We are coming up on 9 months. Lets not count the time that we spent on all the other stuff like dreaming this thing up :)
We love the addition so far. My only regret is looking at our finances after the fact.
Sorry this update is all over the place.
The girls are both in Charter school now. They both love it. Who knew? Ned is in preschool taught by me. I have 5 other students.
Things preschool has taught me. There are some really stinky people out there who will take you for all you are worth. Even preschool. They will promise to pay you for a couple of months and then say it will be such and such a date and then stop showing up just before that date, never to be heard from again no matter how many times you text them. They will leave owing you money for several months because you didn't push it because of Christmas. I don't think I'm much of a businesswoman because this has happened to me 2x and then that other lady who had her daughter come 3 times and then promised me she would drop by and pay me for my time (she said she got a new job and couldn't get her daughter to preschool anymore)
So, I'm making somewhere around minimum wage to teach preschool in my home. That doesn't even count the prep time, and all the months of buying snacks since the parents were claiming (after Christmas) poverty. I don't know if I'm going to do this again next year. I don't know if its worth it. I will teach preschool to the twins. I just don't know if I will have any additional students. I don't know if its worth it to deal with the parents and the business side.
Well enough whining from me.
The good news about preschool is that Ned is thriving. He loves it. He loves having kids over and learning. Its a huge positive thing for him.
The twins are getting bigger and smarter and doing well. Nolan is mostly potty trained and Quinten is potty trained. Yay. Good days and bad. Booh.
I'm tired of typing so, perhaps I will try and update again sooner rather than later!
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
No No, not a new family member. No thanks.
So I look out the window this morning and realize I've got a new rooster. One somewhere between a adolescent and full grown. Lots of colorful feathers, but no spurs.
Interesting. I head on out and confirm that it is indeed a rooster. I compare him to the youngest chickens and confirm that he is to large to be one of that group.
Another thing to think about was the fact that over the summer I did have a hen acting rooster-ish. mounting other hens and such. http://www.livescience.com/13514-sex-change-chicken-gertie-hen-bertie-cockerel.html It can happen.
However, I was just out there about a week ago, topping off the feeders and water. So unless she grew tail feathers, started walking taller, and got a crazy look in her eye in a week, this isn't that.
Another tell was the fact that he wanted nothing to do with me. My chickens don't love me - we don't have that sort of relationship - but when I bring food, they come running. This guy kept far away.
So I contemplated what to do. Do I keep him? Hope he leaves? Or 'gift' him to the neighbors.
I thought it over as I topped off the food and water. We don't have a rooster because we have little boys. So a rooster, and even more so one that is strange to us, has no place on our property until our boys get a bit taller and understand their dangers.
Also, I think this is the new rooster who has been crowing about midnight each night.
So he had to go.
Hey, did I tell you the neighbors have a new rooster? :)
Interesting. I head on out and confirm that it is indeed a rooster. I compare him to the youngest chickens and confirm that he is to large to be one of that group.
Another thing to think about was the fact that over the summer I did have a hen acting rooster-ish. mounting other hens and such. http://www.livescience.com/13514-sex-change-chicken-gertie-hen-bertie-cockerel.html It can happen.
However, I was just out there about a week ago, topping off the feeders and water. So unless she grew tail feathers, started walking taller, and got a crazy look in her eye in a week, this isn't that.
Another tell was the fact that he wanted nothing to do with me. My chickens don't love me - we don't have that sort of relationship - but when I bring food, they come running. This guy kept far away.
So I contemplated what to do. Do I keep him? Hope he leaves? Or 'gift' him to the neighbors.
I thought it over as I topped off the food and water. We don't have a rooster because we have little boys. So a rooster, and even more so one that is strange to us, has no place on our property until our boys get a bit taller and understand their dangers.
Also, I think this is the new rooster who has been crowing about midnight each night.
So he had to go.
Hey, did I tell you the neighbors have a new rooster? :)
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