Clean House

I am finally off of bed rest and what do I do? Take a hike? No. Go on a drive to the beautiful mountains? No. Go shopping? No. I clean house. How fun is that?! Actually, it has been quite lovely to have a really clean house. Between Meme, Hubby and myself we have kept things clean, but not that deep down, super organized, purge the house of unneeded items kind of clean. The papers are now under control. I cleaned the hair off the beater bar thingy in the vaccum so that it works better now. The floors have been vacuumed, even under the couch. Behind the toilet was scrubbed (ew, thanks for doing that, Hubby). I feel much better now.

Fruit

    Our Wednesday Wonder for today is maybe not a wonder, but it is wonderful, at least for me. My juicer arrived today! Yay! We haven't had a juicer for a couple of years, since our somewhat pricey model broke in the middle of juicing. This is a high rated and more affordable juicer and I can't wait to use it. It is my belated Mother's Day gift. Hubby and I purchased a bunch of apples to juice for breakfast tomorrow. I can't wait.
    In other, bigger news, my Doc told me that I should be in the clear and that I no longer need to be on bed rest! I am excited about this news for a plethora of reasons, most of which I am sure you can imagine. Today, my Doc is my best friend.

Sunday Blahs

   Today was not especially a good day for whiny reasons that I will not bore you with. This evening things turned around a bit. Mostly because Hubby came home. When he comes through the door at the end of his work day, it's like everything that went wrong during the day just fades away. At any rate, not a whole lot was accomplished today on my part. Hubby came home and fixed the wobble in our bedroom ceiling fan, so now it can be on more than just the low setting without sounding like it's going to shimmy off the ceiling in our sleep. He also figured out that the fans were all still on their winter settings and made them spin the right way, which immediately started cooling the house down. He tried to fire up the a/c, but discovered the blower is broken. My Hubby knows that when I get hot, I get cranky and ornery. This is one of the main reasons we moved out of Arizona six years ago. Keep me cool, keep me happy. I hate heat, it makes me angry. It's really probably my biggest fault. Now I feel good, relaxing under the ceiling fan with a sleeping Hubby by my side.

Shooting Sports

S participated in his first 4-H sponsored shoot today. He is doing air rifle which is really just a BB or a pellet gun. He mostly learned about safety, safety, safety. Then he was able to do a bench shoot, which is when you sit at a table and shoot at your target. He has really good aim, but we need to tweak the sighting on his gun a bit.

Chicky Ladies

On Wednesday night we put the chicks in with the chickens. All eighteen are now free to roam. Roam about their pen, that is. We don't technically have free range hens. They are all in a fairly large area that includes a horse stall to be locked up safely in at night and to come and go into as they please throughout the day. They share an outside enclosure with the goats during daylight hours that is made up of two horse stalls, one of which is twice as large as the other. This works well other than the fact that we are trying to figure out how to feed the chickens during the day without the goats getting into it. Incorporating the chicks into the already established flock of hens worked fairly smooth since we did it at night when the birds want to be roosting. The older hens were taken unaware. The chicks were a bit more riled up when they were put into their new home because we had to clip their wings first. All this consists of is trimming the long feathers on their wings so that they can't fly. Not that chickens can really fly, but they can flap hard enough to get over the fence and then you have chickens on the loose. Which isn't fun. Catching chickens is quite an adventure. The ladies are all doing well and I look forward to the day when we get more than a dozen eggs a day. Until then, I am satisfied with the three to five eggs a day they gift to us.

Dwarf Calf and Music

    Here on the ranch the cattle are still being shipped to greener pastures. Some of the cows had calves within the last month and therefore had to wait until the calves were bigger and stronger before shipping. Calving season seems to last a long time. It started in February and there is still a group of cows being watched who we know are pregnant, but haven't calved yet. Today, my folks helped brand and castrate (if necessary) a group of forty-some-odd calves. This in itself is no big news other than one very unique calf. About a month ago, a dwarf calf was born on the ranch. I have no idea what the statistics are of dwarfism in cattle, but I believe it is quite rare. This little guy is so sweet that I am thinking about buying him and keeping him as a pet. Otherwise he will be sent to market with the other yearlings next year. It just doesn't seem right to be so special and then be eaten. Anyone want to help me adopt a dwarf steer?

My lovely, hardworking, amazing parents.

Isn't he adorable?! Those other calves are the same age as he is.

Don't you think he should live with me?

    In other news, the summer music season has started. Remember how I talked about Pioneer Town the other Day? Well part of that property consists of a little white chapel. Every Thursday night at seven, there will be a different band playing there. We are music nuts and seek out music as much as we can. Well, Hubby and I do. The kids are content with whatever as long as they can run around. Thankfully, they opened the windows to the church so we could listen from outside while the munchkins did their thing. An interesting fact about tonight is that Hubby and I, being thirty-two and thirty, were at least two decades younger than anyone else there. The music was great. It wasn't old-folky or religious despite being held in a church. Why is my community not showing up for this? It's a free event to do with your family!

Just chillin. How is my belly this huge already?!

M looking at the most awesome tree, a Goldenchain tree.

Me and my small peeps

S's "organic collage" in it's pear shape

M's "organic collage"

T trying to figure out why brother and sister are so obsessed with the grass.

I have no idea what they were doing. But aren't they sweet doing it?

Sunday Creation on Monday

   I forgot yesterday was Sunday and even though I am glad I wrote the post that I did, I have been excited to share this weeks' creation. So here goes. I have been loving working with felt. It is super easy, so soft and I am always pleased with the end result. An extra bonus is that it is an easy project to set down and pick back up again without forgetting where I am at. This is usually my problem with knitting. I forget which stitch I am on and have to count again and again. And I love sewing, but dragging out the machine and then having to wrestle an almost two year old away from it is sometimes more challenging than it's worth. Felt never gives me any problems. I discovered this book called Fa La La La Felt just before the holidays last year. I didn't get any ornaments made for Christmas then, but my goal is to get a few done before this years' celebrations roll around. I started out with this sweet little owl. I have loved owls for a few years, and luckily (or unluckily) for me, they are now all the rage. I guess it is hard to be original in a world with six plus billion people on it. At any rate, here he is:

Pioneer Town

   Today the wind blew and we stayed inside all day.
   But that is not an exciting post. So instead, I will write about what the children and I did yesterday while Hubby was at work on his birthday. I am discovering all kinds of things about our small town. Which is, I suppose, the most thrilling thing about moving somewhere new. Our small town really comes alive from Memorial Day through October. Phew, because I was really beginning to have my doubts about this place. By "our small town", what I really mean is the four small towns that make up this area. They all merge with each other, but because of water rights, they are all individual towns. To make it easy, I just call the whole area our small town. There is is wonderful little place that is open seasonally and yesterday was the grand opening for the season. This is their website: http://www.pioneertown.org/. I have seen it from the road and figured my family would be spending some time there, but after yesterday, I know we will be spending A LOT of time there. It looked small from the road, but it turns out that it goes further back than you can see from there. Which ultimately left me unprepared as I thought that we would be there an hour and leave. I can't comfortably carry T in a sling or frontpack right now. I dislike pushing a stroller unless I know for sure that we will have a long day, such as when we are at a museum or the zoo. I thought T could walk for the time I believed we would be there. Turns out we were there three hours and T needed a nap so I carried him for two hours. Can you say exhausting?! We had fun, though, as we explored "main street" from the late 1800's-early 1900's. The children took turns churning cream until it turned into butter.

T taking his turn at making butter.

M sharing her turn with T.

We visited all of the many outbuildings, including a working Blacksmith's shop, a house filled with antique dolls and toys, a mock train station, a building full of western and Native American relics, an old schoolhouse (the childrens' favorite due to the working belltower) and a few others that escape my memory. We also were able to view fiber arts in action. As much action as fiber arts can manage, that is. The children tested out beautiful old handcrank sewing machines. S and M took turns using a spinning wheel to turn raw wool into yarn, while I chatted with a lady about making rugs. I love making connections and I am anxious to keep in touch with this woman and possibly become a part of the weavers guild she belongs to. We finished our day by taking a wagon ride pulled by two Belgian draft horses, who were a wonderfully matched set, but were both named Daisy. All of us are excited to go back and take Hubby along to explore some more.

The Blacksmith making a pair of tongs.

Trying the handcrank sewing machines.

So pretty and old

Waiting for our wagon ride.

Hubby's Birthday

    The thing about being an adult and having a birthday is that, really, it's just not as fun as it used to be. Especially when you have to work and then come home to a family of small people. This, however, is life and life is what Hubby had to experience for this year's birthday. He is now thirty-two. I have spent the last thirteen birthdays with him. Today's was definitely not that exciting. After spending most of his day working in Grand Junction, he was able to come home. Before we could have dinner, we needed to take care of the animals. I thought it only fair that the children and I do this job and give Hubby a moment off. That lasted, oh, about two minutes. When we got into the barn and made our way past wiggling, licking, jumping dogs, we discovered a dead bird laying near the dogs' bowls. Gross. I don't do well with dead bodies. S went to ask Daddy to save the day. Well, once you are in the barn, it is quite hard to come back out. There is always an animal that needs something extra, even if it is just a scratch behind the ear. While I fed and watered the animals, the children set to work on scooping doggy doo. After a momentary argument about which pooper-scooper belonged to whom (they are identical!) they set to work. I, meanwhile, had finished feeding and had taken the dogs out for their nightly run about. I call it their perimeter check. Halfway through this I am startled by high pitched shrieking from the barn. It seems another dead body has been discovered, this time a mouse. M does not do well with dead bodies either. Hubby has to save the day again. So, my poor, sweet Hubby had to work all day, do double duty on body removal, and cook his own sausages for dinner. Not glamorous at all. We did finish our dinner with a fun and yummy ice cream sundae bar. Someday, when we are older and greyer, maybe we can actually celebrate with a trip somewhere. But where's the excitement in that?! I love you Hubby and hope you had a good birthday anyway. Thanks for being our hero.

Small Town Library

   There are times that living in a small town has drawbacks. Like when you want to go out to eat. Or buy organic groceries. Basically, anything to do with food. Which is even more frustrating when you are pregnant and all you want is gourmet olives, sushi and someone else to fix your meal. But a major benefit of being in a small town is getting to know others and be known around town. The trust that is automatically given is astounding. Take today, for example. M, T and I went to the library. I needed to fax something and we, of course, needed books. I didn't realize how much it would cost to fax and I fell short twenty-five cents. The librarian just rang me up with what I had and didn't even bat an eye. Later, as we were checking our books out, a different librarian and I were chatting about daughters and how they never fail to surprise you. I was loading my books back into the handy carts they provide for people like me that check out dozens of books at a time. As she handed me my last book, she glanced at the computer screen and said to me that not all of the books had checked out. I said I would unload them and start again and she just shrugged and said she wasn't going to worry about it, that we had checked out enough books in the past to (apparently) make us trustworthy. She trusted that I would return the books all together when they were due. Which of course I will. The library is the one place in the world I love unconditionally. No matter what town I visit, I have to seek out the local library. I love books and I love librarians. I love the smell of books. I love the crisp sound of pages being turned. I will never own one of those electronic devices that are supposed to replace books. In my mind, there is nothing better than a good book. Except for good food.