Breakfast

        Maycee asked for doughnuts this morning. When I told her no (only because I don't want to make a 32 mile round trip for doughnuts.), she said, "That's okay, I'll just have apples and peanut butter instead. It's just as good." Makes me laugh.
And on that same note, does anyone have any good (somewhat healthy) recipes for doughnuts?

Busy

       Okay, I know I said I would be catching you up on our lives. And I'm still working on that. Unfortunately, (for you anyway) there are dozens of other things for me to be working on as well. Here are a few, in no particular order:
Walks, where we pick wildflowers and trash.

 A dresser and mirror being refinished for the girls.

Irises being planted on the hill of our garden to help stop erosion. And the accompanying sunburn.

 A dog that wounded himself in a way we still can't figure out. (Let me just say that an eighty pound dog with a cone on his head makes a very efficient bulldozer. Especially for children.)

 Sewing endless projects (on the dining room table, which means we haven't been eating there...). Seriously, I think I will never be done sewing. I miss my sewing room...

This picture sums a few things up:

Animal Recount ((pictures now added))

          So, update on our animals. Many updates, actually. Let's start with the goats. I wanted goats so bad. Milk from our own goats sounded so homey and romantic. Then I ended up on bed rest with Iris. And suddenly milking goats didn't sound so fun. And then we moved in July and while we love our home up here on the mountains, fences are few and far between. This is good except that goats really shouldn't free range. At least not near homes. Goats free ranging equals goats on the deck. And goats on the hood of your car. And goat droppings everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Which is only exciting for the dogs, who eat them like they are milk duds. Don't misunderstand me now, we put up a pen for them. Free ranging goats were not our intention. But our goats thought they were above being penned in. We would pen them in, turn around to head back to the house and before we could get halfway there, the goats were at our sides. Right before Iris was born, we took them to get bred. They were being bred by the couple that we get our raw milk from. The plan was to leave them there a couple of months to ensure that breeding occurred. And after a couple months we had decided that life without goats really wasn't so bad. So we made a deal with the couple for them to keep the goats and for us not to pay for milk for a few months. Which worked perfectly. So no more goats for us. Maybe sometime again in the future, but not even the foreseeable future.

Who's that hillbilly with goats in the back of his truck?! Oh wait, that's my hillbilly.

        Next comes chickens. Chickens, chickens, chickens. Where do I start? We have had a weird winter with chickens. We lost one early on due to cold. Poor thing got smothered by the other chickens laying in a pile trying to keep warm. We lost one for undetermined reasons. We lost one right at the coop by a predator. At first it was a toss up between a dog and a bobcat. Seeing a bobcat twice, once on the property, once just down the road, made us really think it was a possibility. Until we lost a second one right at the coop. And Spencer and I tracked the predator through the freshly fallen snow. To the neighbor's house. Yea, it was their dog. Had a talk with the neighbors who were already aware of the problem (a dead chicken shows up on your porch and you don't have chickens means trouble. What I don't understand is why they didn't come to us first. Oh well.) Four chickens down leaves us with eleven. Did I mention we have a wandering chicken? She disappeared and we chalked her up as a goner. Fifteen days later she shows up. Just shows up! All is well and she hasn't wandered again. Yet. In March we got guineas. I had called back in September in response to an ad in the paper and had never heard back about them. I forgot all about them. In March we received a phone call from the gentleman. He had saved my message all of these months and had more guineas to sell. Five guineas joined the flock and provide us with entertainment and annoyance, sometimes simultaneously. In about two weeks, we will be getting our order of more fowl. Eight turkeys, six hens and a rooster. We'll see how long the rooster lasts, but hopefully we can keep him to breed and be a little more self-sustaining.

Chicken and rabbit house exterior

Chicken and rabbit house interior

        Now on to rabbits. When we moved here we had one little black female lionhead, Flower. We now have five rabbits. I already introduced you to Dobby, I believe it was back in September. She is an agouti lionhead cross. We also have Jack, our buck, who is a purebred Californian. He is very handsome. Our females are Jill, a Florida White, and Astrid, a New Zealand. I think. I forgot and am being too lazy to go check. Anyway, the ladies will be bred to Jack around the middle of the month which will hopefully lead to fresh rabbit meat in another four months.

Astrid and Jill getting sunshine and fresh grass

       Our kitties have stayed the same, with the addition of Figaro. He was a poor, starving fella when he showed up on the deck in late fall. I tried not to feed him, I really did. But after about a week of him staring in at us, I relented. He fits right in, so he's staying. Crookshanks (who's one now!) loves him. Hazel and Autumn aren't so sure about him, but he leaves them alone, even when they growl and hiss at him.

Thane and Figaro. This cat is so happy to have a home that he even puts up with Thane dragging him around.

       Our last subject is dogs. Jessie is almost thirteen now and getting deaf and slow. We love her so much and don't like thinking about the eventuality of her not being with us. Mollie will be twelve this summer and is as ornery as ever. She hears just fine, but ignores me almost as well as the kids do. Neither one of the girl dogs enjoy being with Ranger as he's such a bundle of energy. His tail is like a whip and stings like one when he whacks you with it. Which happens way too often. Poor Jessie's face is right at tail level and she is too slow to get away from him. So the girls have their own yard and rarely have to deal with him. Ranger is getting better at listening and once his energy has waned (after about twenty minutes of chaos) he is quite content to just lay by my side. We had adopted him from Black Canyon Animal Sanctuary http://www.blackcanyonanimalsanctuary.com and this spring we decided to become a foster family for them. Three puppies came into our home. After just a couple of days one of the females was adopted. The other female went back to the sanctuary when we went to Fort Collins and quickly found a forever home. The male stole our hearts and now lives with us permanently. His name is Abraham and he is about three and a half months old. Him and Ranger are becoming best buds. He loves the kids and follows them wherever they go.

Maycee, Ranger and Abraham

Jessie

Mollie, up close and personal

        So to sum things up we have four dogs, four cats, five rabbits, five guineas and eleven chickens with more on the way. Wow.

I really didn't realize just how long it had been since I posted on here.My Aunt Louise pointed it out to me the other day. And I realized that at the beginning of April, when we were in Fort Collins, it had been pointed out as well. And then another month went by. March and April flew by. I don't even know how it is already May. And May is going to be so busy that I figure I should take this day to play catch up. I will most likely do this in a couple of posts so make sure you read them all. All of them I say.

Yep, this just about sums it up. Thanks Spencer

Today is the Day

 Okay folks, today is the day that I will catch up on my blog.
 After I finish my pancakes and coffee.
 And get Iris down for a nap.
 But then I will definitely be catching up.
 As long as no kid or animal related chaos occurs. Stay tuned...

My "assistant"

Cupcakes

     I love to cook. I love the freedom and flexibility in throwing tasty things together to make a delicious dish. I always try to follow a recipe precisely the first time I make something. But after that, there is a lot of tweaking that happens. If I could manage to go to culinary school and still home educate my children, I totally would. In the meantime, I will make do with cooking for my family and the occasional guest.             
    Baking, on the other hand, kills me. I can handle baking sweet breads every once in a while. I make awesome No Bake cookies. But my patience for baking ends at anything more complicated than that. I don't know why. Well, maybe I do. It's the precision of baking. Over mix and you end up with a bad result. Under mixing is the same. If the oven is too hot or too cold, you end up with chicken food instead of a tasty cake. I have a lot of distractions in my day to day life that make baking a very stressful situation. However, I also have a very persistent daughter. Maycee is always wanting to bake something. She loves the measuring and mixing and especially the sweet end result. So today, I relented and we made devil's food cake from scratch. We also made caramel icing. And I have to say, it really wasn't so bad. Even with the extra "help" from Thane and also needing to stop in the middle to nurse Iris. Maybe I am becoming a patient person in my old age. Maybe baking isn't as bad as I have built it up in my head to be. Who knows? But one thing is certain, chocolate cupcakes with caramel icing and a shake of sea salt on top makes it all worth while.

Baking and waiting.

Stirring the caramel icing. She was much happier than she looks.

Sewing, Painting, Visiting

      I have been spending my "free time" sewing more zippered bags. I completed one for Spencer, one for Maycee and one for myself. I have another bag cut out for me and one in the works for Hubby.

Spencer's bag (his is my favorite combination of fabric. I might have to make one like it for me!)

Maycee's bag

My bag (the green stripey fabric is an old shirt of mine)

      I discovered some really cool stain by Minwax. It is water based and therefore not smelly, or at least not as smelly as oil based stains. I picked it up so I can stain my nightstand, but have been staining smaller things instead.

My repurposed thread and scissors box

Matt made this stand to put over our printer for extra storage. Here it is pre-stain.

Here it is post stain, with only one coat so the grain can show through.

       Thane painted an owl plate using his handprint to go along with his owl mug. He really had a good time painting at http://www.fatcatpottery.net. 

 

 

 

 

 

       I am a wee bit obsessed with collecting antique Pyrex bowls. I have a decent amount but when I found these ones, I couldn't resist. 

 

 

         Today Iris turned three months. I love the newborn stage, but I really love what follows the three month mark. Already she is starting to laugh and really interact. She searches out her sister and brothers just so that she can smile at them. Here she is all wrapped up for bed.

 

 

       The kids and I were able to go to Grand Junction today to meet up with my friend and her family. Her hubby had just run a 55K in Moab and they were making their way back to Fort Collins. We ate lunch at Rockslide Brewery and let the kiddos run and climb around on some gorilla statues to get their wiggles out. It was a brief visit, but so nice to connect with familiar faces. I didn't manage to take a single picture, which is a shame.

   

Fruita

       In an effort to learn more about this side of the state, we took a family trip to Fruita last Friday. Fruita is a small town just outside of Grand Junction. Hubby works there on occasion, but never had the opportunity to really check it out. So off we headed to explore. It is a cute little town, with sculptures on every corner, a nice downtown area and tons of outdoor activities to do. I am looking forward to going back in warmer weather for hiking.

Mike the Headless Chicken

Eating at the new brewpub, Suds Brothers.

My Man and Me

Happy fourteen years Hubby!

Sharing the Love

  
           It's that time again. Time for corporate bigwigs to remind us that we love our spouses. And not with a subtle hint, either. No. That's too easy and doesn't make anyone any moolah. Let's buy diamonds and roses and chocolate filled with gross gooey substances. I have never understood why we are supposed to only express our love publicly one day a year. I mean, I love my spouse at least 362 1/2 days a year. So let me say now, publicly, on this non-Valentines Day, that today I love my spouse. I love him in big ways and I love him in small ways. I love him for being such a great Dad. I love him for enduring my craziness day after day. I love him for fixing me omelets and vacuuming and building snow forts with the kids. I love him for working hard and staying with his job for the last 9 1/2 years. I love his creativity and his gentleness. I love him for letting me follow my dreams. On the thirteenth of this month we will celebrate fourteen years of staring at each others' faces. Fourteen years since we had our very first date. We saw Titanic together. That's a good way to have a long date and yet not really talk to each other. Thankfully, he asked me for a second date the next day and we actually had a Valentine's date. Probably our only one ever. I can't really remember. I have been with him almost half of my life. He has helped to make me who I am today. I love you, Matthew.
        Allright, enough with the smooziness. If you remember, last year I spoke of the love notes in our local free weekly paper. If you don't remember, click here to refresh your memory. This year did not disappoint. Four pages again of people loving their spouses, children, dogs, grandmas, neighbors, parents and our troops.That kind of Valentine I can appreciate. I also appreciate you, my lovely reader. Without you, I would just be writing to myself. And while that is okay, because I do tend to make myself laugh, I like thinking that I am making you laugh as well. So thank you for reading my randomness. My love to you this year, today and every day.