Joy Riding on the Tractor

Hands down we have the most awesome neighbors ever, even if they have their quirks and eccentricities at times. Today our "neighbors in the rear" (they live behind and slightly south of us) brought over their tractor to move a couple rocks for us. Then they left it with us so we could do some dirt/compost moving and let the kids play on it.

Not only did both kids have a chance to drive the old Massey Harris, but they got to dig and dump dirt with it..and that is AWESOME when you are 7 and 5. Both kids are in heaven. Emilie has her pocket full of worms extracted from the compost she dug (it is honestly kind of gross seeing all those worms crawling all over one another) and Jack has his head full of farming dreams. Even Kevin, though he may or may not admit it, had quite a bit of fun driving the equipment....it's just like riding a bike, takes a few minutes to get back in the hang of it, but then you're golden despite the fact the darn machine leaks hydraulic fluid like a sieve.

As for me I've got compost spread on the garden, happy kids, and plenty of dirt to fill in the dogs' potholes in the backyard...what more could I want?

Wind Up to Summer

Whew! Things have been hopping ‘round these parts lately. Events and activities have been line up and coming down the pipe one after another. Everything is fairly well lined out so we’re not overwhelmed but we are busy. Add to that some stresses adjusting to our new pet (Honey), my volunteer Secretary position at church, and the fact I finally ordered photos for scrapbooking so I can at least get up through Christmas 2014 and the blog gets a little neglected. Next week is the last week of school (that went fast) for both kids, and make-up swim lessons (they cancel when we have thunderstorms and we’ve had several lately) then I drive straight into VBS. Like I said, things keep on keeping on.

Now where was I??

Honey. So I mentioned some stress tied to her. Well, two weeks ago Tilly went lame in one of her hind legs. Before I could get her into the vet she and Honey got into a fight. With her bum leg Tilly got the worst of it….a ‘pierced’ ears and little nips/cuts all around her collar area and chest. We thought our worst fears of getting a ‘second-hand’ dog had come true and we had one that was aggressive. That week was so stressful. Not only did we have an unplanned vet bill, but the truck needed brakes and once they got them apart they needed more work (Kevin verified visually and we weren’t getting the wool pulled over our eyes) than thought so the price tag doubled. So two big unplanned bills, a dog that now needed special care and medication, and another dog that might be aggressive.

We sat back, tugged on our hair, and tried to put things in perspective. We’d only had Honey a week. Maybe she was an ‘alpha’ type dog or maybe Tilly’s hurt leg caused her to snap at Honey when she tried to get Tilly to play. No one was home when it happened so who knows really. Tilly pulled the muscles in he stifle pretty good but she didn’t tear them (a HUGE relief) so she was put on bed-rest (read, in the kennel, crate, or on a leash. No bouncing or running around like a yeah-hoo) and give pain killers and antibiotics. She was going to be okay. Now I’ll be honest, we looked at our options to rehome Honey. We even talked to a foster program. In the end we decided that since she and Tilly had to stay separate anyway and she’d shown no aggression towards the kids or the other animals that she could stay until Tilly is back up and running. So for the next 12 weeks (10 now) she’s on probation.

The good news on her probation is she seems to be relaxing. She doesn’t ‘huff’ (an anxiety thing) nearly as much and when Tilly comes out for walks they both try to initiate play (slapping forelegs on the ground with the butt wiggling in the air) and I’ve even watched Honey roll over and expose her belly to Tilly. Only problem is, the terms of Tilly’s bed rest don’t allow her to join in. Let’s just say we’re taking it glacially slow with these two.

After that week, Mother’s Day was a relief. We went fishing down at Riley Pond by the State Hatchery in Hagermann. Nothing like sitting with a line in the water to let your worries go. Both kids had a blast digging in the dirt and helping fish. Emilie is a master at handing out power bait (it’s just like play-doh ) and neither mind us using worms for bait as long as we don’t use Mr. Wiggly, the big night crawler (he’s just along for the ride).

We caught three fish in all, including one with a tracking tag that had to be submitted to the state. After filling out the form online we received a nice letter from Fish and Game later the next week telling us when the fish had been released (two months prior), where it was released (same pond we caught it in), and how long it was when it was released (it had grown about 1.5 inches). Some of those types of tagged fish win you prize money….ours was not one of those, but it was still a pretty neat experience.

Thankfully, the week post Mother’s day was much calmer and Kevin and I even got a date night, sans kids, when we went to the Friends of the NRA banquet. (our neighbor is the chapter president and ropes us into going every year….thankfully the ‘Friends of’ side of the NRA is non-political and is more about raising funds to use for firearm education than anything else). Huge thanks to Kevin’s boss Sarah and her husband Rich for watching our kids last minute. Between state Softball, family obligations, and my Mom’s group having a Mom’s only event (read everyone needed a sitter) all my normal childcare options were unavailable. Both kids had a blast at their house and impressed them with their food consumption capacity… .

Well, I’d better go get Tilly out for her yard time. Until next time….which is hopefully in a week or less….

Happy New Year

2015 is off to a lack-luster start around here. New Year’s Eve Emilie came down with some sort of cold virus and as the week progressed we all succumbed to it. I was the last to get it and spent most of Monday on the couch buried under blankets….I just couldn’t stay warm. Thankfully aside from lingering stuffy noses and coughs, the worst of it was short lived. Everybody is on the mend, back to school, work, and all the usual stuff. Hopefully we met our illness qutoa for awhile too…

A Tale of Two Kitties

It all started innocently enough with the purchase of swimsuits…..

The kids dove back in to swimming lessons a little over a week ago now. After 12 weeks of lessons and a summer of backyard/lake/hot spring use their current suits were pretty much shot. Not to mention, both kids have done some growing since the suits were purchased back in January. That meant about a week before lessons started I went online to Target.com to purchase new suits. At the same time I also thought I’d pick up a birthday gift for my soon to be 4-year old nephew. Kill two birds with one stone AND get free shipping? Doesn’t get much better than that.

I’d been waffling around on what to get my nephew. Generally, he likes whatever big brother likes (and who has a birthday 10 days after little brother) pirates, superheroes, etc. but I didn’t want to just get two of the same thing. I wanted something that uniquely Noah. What to get, what to get? I’d actually be struggling with it for weeks. Emilie to the Rescue!

Emilie had come into the office and crawled up on my lap during the swimsuit selection process (wanted to make sure Mom didn’t forget that suit with the large ruffley obnoxious purple tutu skirt ) and remained there as I looked at toys. Soon enough she pointed out Fur Real pets and started jabbering on about pretty kitties and baby puppies. Hmmmmmm, Noah LOVES stuffed animals. He’s got a real soft spot for them. Sleeps with about fifty-zillion every night and, trust me, he knows if one is missing. What could be better than a pseudo-stuffed animal that purrs and walks and drives his mother (my little sister) batty?? Perfect! I added a nice gray kitty named Bootsie to the cart, clicked ‘checkout’, verified my order, paid, and was off to better things back in the real world….awesome things, like laundry .

Fast forward a week. We are waiting the arrival of the swimsuits hoping they’ll arrive in time for lessons. I got two e-mails. One said the suits shipped the other said the cat shipped. Tuesday shortly before lessons started the UPS truck pulled up in my driveway and the UPS man climbed out of the vehicle carrying two rather large boxes. “Okay,” I thought “Apparently they don’t consider item size when they pack stuff at Target.com.” Then the UPS guy casually states, “I have a third box for you, but I can’t find it in the truck. I’ll go look again and bring it if I find it.” Uhhhh…..what??

I can’t think of anything else that I ordered, so unless a relative sent a box something is off. I went inside and opened the two boxes. First box, Fur Real kitty. Second box, Fur Real kitty….. I looked at the packing slips. Both were for Fur Real cats. Did I accidentally order two? Did they accidentally send me two cats instead of swimsuits? I went online and checked, nope only ordered one cat, which now showed as delivered. Swimsuits still showed as ‘out for delivery.’ My checking account was billed the proper amount for swimsuits and one Fur Real cat. There was actually no hint of a second cat anywhere.

At that point I sat down and looked at the packing slips and box labeling…. They were absolutely identical down to the tracking number. It was like someone hit print twice and sent me a duplicate cat without realizing it. I called Target’s customer service and explained what had happened. The guy didn’t seem to get it. He kept telling me to return the second cat for a refund. I tried taking it into the store too, but they also wanted to give me a refund. There is no record of the second cat and they can’t return it to inventory without reimbursing me for it. Considering I never paid for the darn thing that just feels like stealing….even more so than keeping the cat I never ordered in the first place.

So just like real cats are the “gift that keeps on giving” it seems robotic cats are too. My devious plan to earn Auntie brownie points while at the same time pick on my sister backfired and I too am stuck with one of these obnoxious meowing cats myself.

Emilie really wants it….. She carried the one  to give her cousin around for a week and actually packed her own overnight bag when I said we were mailing it to her cousin so that she could go too. However, the second cat still remains in it’s packaging in the back bedroom. Part of me wants to give in and give it to her….but I feel wrong about that since we didn’t pay for it. Another larger part of me says to donate this duplicate cat to Toys for Tots or Project Angel tree or something similar and give another child something to love on.  That would be a better lesson to teach my children. As for Emilie, if she still wants one come December there is always the chance ‘Santa Claus’ will bring her one…or three, with my luck. As long as it’s not a real kitten (and don’t any of you got getting ideas, we already have two cats ) I suppose I can persevere.

Chinese 6-Year-Olds Must Be Brilliant!

About a week ago Kevin had made one of his pilgrimages to Harbor Freight and brought home this little airplane model for Jack. (FYI If you don’t know Harbor Freight it’s like Wal*Mart for tools. Great for stuff like ear protection, gloves, files, tarps, but if you’re looking for something to last more than one or two uses skip HF and go to a more reputable dealer.) 

Please note the “Ages 6+” and “Easy to Assemble” claims both clearly written on the front of the box.

I was dubious from the beginning, partially because of my prejudices against Harbor Freight and  partially because of all the little toothpick looking pieces of Bass wood that seemed so easy to snap and would resulting in tears. It seemed to me like the box should say “age 6 and up, some adult assistance required”

After opening the box and looking at the ‘instructions’ I began to doubt that this was a good choice for six year olds at all! Kids in Taiwan must be engineering geniuses if a six year old can assemble this. These were the instructions:

It also came with a teeny tube of glue and these words of wisdom, conveniently written in six languages. (BTW I’m assuming it’s sandpaper that the second asterisk is inferring is enclosed, it wasn’t, so it’s probably okay they didn’t finish that sentence)

We didn’t exactly follow those instructions after seeing what we had to assemble. I had Jack punch out piece as we needed them so we would lose track of things or mix them up. Jack was able to build the wheels/axel and the propeller piece as well as the tail. The rest exceeded his abilities and really tested mine (mostly in the patience department) but we persevered. We ran out of the provided glue building the fuselage. and had to dig up some large binder clips to use as mini vices since the pieces running the length the fuselage had to be slightly curved than held in place until the glue dried. Rubber bands came in handy when the clips wouldn’t work. That was nothing compared to the toothpick like pieces used to brace the biplane wings. A lot of under-the-breath swearing and tongue biting went on for those ones….. The pieces had to be ever so carefully weighted down while being balanced so the whole wing didn’t slip to one side or the other and the braces wouldn’t pop out of place or fall over.

I have some guilt that I had to do the majority of the assembly, however we did get it done. I think I’m going to let him paint it if he wants to, he thinks it’s pretty cool except the propeller doesn’t spin.

Maybe I underestimate the abilities of my almost 6-year-old…could yours handle this?

Next time I think we’ll go with a beginner level snap-together model….who knows, maybe they even make tractor ones.

Portland to Coast

After three days home I feel like I’m finally getting my mojo back and functioning at my normal level. It probably would have been two days, but in my genius I decided to mow both the front and back lawn (about an hour pushing the mower for each portion) AND spray a backpack of 2-4D and two of Roundup (take that evil goatheads!). I’m back now though and have a weekend full of wonderful and hysterical memories. Most are probably only really funny if you were there or if you are in a severely sleep deprived state. I will never be able to think of Dick’s Sporting Goods the same way ever again and glow sticks also have new meaning.

In overview, the Hood to Coast/Portland to Coast run/walk relay event is considered the “Mother of all Relays” as it’s the largest event of it’s kind in the world. Our team, Team Slow Poke, did the walking relay. 132 miles starting under the Hawthorne Bridge in Portland and ending just down from the swing sets on the beach at Seaside, OR. There are twelve people per team divided into two vans of six (14 if you have designated drivers – our team had one so there were 13 team members overall). Each person completes two legs and you rotate through in a preset order. I was #6 in Van 1 so I got to do the “big” exchange at the Van transfers. Each team has a little slap bracelet and that is what gets handed off at each exchange.

Team Slow Poke start time was 3:15am so we were up by 2am on Friday morning making sure the vans were loaded and everyone had their stuff in the right van. At 3:15 we cheered Cheryl as she kicked off our first leg and head off toward the coast.

Coarse rules state anyone walking at dawn/dusk/nighttime has to wear a reflective vest, flashers on front and back, plus headlamp or flashlight. You also cannot have any speakers (i.e. headphones) above shoulder height. Out team was fortunate to have invested in reflective vests with speakers built in, so you just plugged in your iPod and rocked out in your own happy little music bubble – that is unless your iPod choose to get hung up right at the most annoying part of that Beyoncé’ song. (or was it Rihanna, Jill? I can’ remember )

Cheryl handed off to Libby, who passed to Dan who gave it to Jill who put it in the hands of Janet who delivered it to me, entrusting that I would give it to Kathy from Van 2 safely.

My first leg (18) was a warm one that started at St. Helen’s High School shot you west for a couple miles and then looped back around to the county fairgrounds. It was about 5.25miles total and around 80 degrees or so. I opted to skip carrying water which was a big decision given this leg is completely unsupported (i.e your van cannot drive by and give you water) but since I run this distance at home without water in this type of heat I figured I could do it. I did too! Though that first bottle of water at the end was the best I’ve ever tasted.

Once I was finished with my leg our van was done for awhile too so we went and grabbed some lunch then headed off to the next van exchange for a nap. Now, race rules prohibit sleeping next to your car for obvious safety reasons. For that reason Dick’s Sporting Goods set up a little ‘Slumber Village’ of 4-man sized tents in a grassy area in back of the exchange. Fantastic idea! Except that the sun was high in the sky (I’d completely lost track of time by this time) meaning no shade and there was little to no breeze. This meant Dick’s Slumber Village was really more like Dick’s Sauna. We tried adjusting the rainfly’s to provide shade while letting air though but it didn’t do much. Mostly we just spent 2 hours trying not to melt to the tent floor.

As dusk fell we began to prep for our next go-round and decked out in all manner of glow sticks and flashy LED’s as well as mustache tattoos. It was at this point running on 18hrs of no sleep that things started to get a little punchy around the van. Trust me, the van parked next to us thought we were nuts…..

 

 

 

We finally got to my second leg about 4am Saturday morning. Still only minimal sleeping of 15 minutes here – 10 there. This was a fun leg along Hwy 102 headed into Astoria. It was pitch black, the fog rolled in just after I started, there were no fog lines on the road (those are kind of nice since they reflect and make a line to follow) and there were times I could barely see within the distance of the glow of my headlamp. It was like walking in a tunnel. A girl in front of me actually asked her Van for her gloves because “It was dark and she was scared.” I’m still not actually sure what glove are going to do for you in that situation but whatever makes you feel better. I’m pretty sure any critters in the vicinity were chased off long ago.

My leg wrapped up sometime around 5am. I only know this because it was 5:30am when we stopped at the Pig ‘n’ Pancake in Astoria and we had to wait half an hour for it to open. So if you saw a bunch of people passed out in a GMC suburban in the parking lot on Saturday morning….that was us. Half an hour does very little for you when you haven’t slept in almost 30. We were so exhausted and giggly all through breakfast. There was one point when the waitress came by to ask if everything was alright and we were laughing so hard no one could answer.

From there we made it to the beach for showers, foot care, and a little sleep (like an hour or hour and a half maybe) before heading down to cross the finish line with the rest of our team. From there is kind of blurred for me. Team photo, lunch at American Cancer Society after party, walked over to get Saltwater Taffy, then I’m not sure at some point we ate dinner, then we waved at people on the boardwalk for awhile, walked down to the concert on the beach, and I threw in the towel about 10pm. Up around 9ish the next morning to clean up, load up and head home.

 

It was a long, exhausting, totally amazing and fun weekend with some old friends and many new ones. I’d really love to do this again next year if I can figure out a way to work it into the budget.

Wordless Wednesday: Jack-in-a-Box??

Hours of entertainment here folks!

Great for hide and seek, and magic act, jump launch pad, and dancing surface.

**Some adult supervision required (can’t have them locking each other in and shipping each other to Timbuktu…or can I??? )

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I often moan at Kevin that the garden seems to be ‘skunking’ around and not growing much. I’m out there almost daily fiddling with water and pulling weeds, which, by the way, seem to have no problems growing 2 inches overnight. I have garden envy when we are out driving and I seen rows of corn and squash the seem to grow in leaps and bounds.

I think the deal is that I just can’t see it with my own eyes. It does grow, I’m just looking at it all the time and can’t see the change. So, for my own satisfaction mostly, here is our 2014 garden. Two shots ten days apart…..yep, she's a growing.

Now if I can just figure out what is eating my cucumbers we’ll be doing great.

Oh, and we don’t have two calico cats…just one. Helga was wandering across the garden as I was photographing and through the magic of photo-stitch technology it only appears I have the power to clone animals.

I am Mom, Hear me Roar!!

As promised, the reason I was swamped last week…..

We’ve been thinking on getting the kids a new swing set for awhile now. We’ve always admired the wood ones Costco sells every spring and probably would have picked one up a few years back but it really wasn’t in the budget and the neighbor offered us their old metal one for free. This year it became apparent that the metal swingset was about at it’s end. The thing sways side-to-side whenever the kids are on it causing them to crash into each other and no amount of bolt tightening solves the problem.

So we priced out the Costco set and started saving our nickels. Of course once we had the appropriate amount of funds set aside Costco had sold out of said swingset for the year. I scoured the internet looking for other retailers of the brand and found none so I contacted the company directly. Turns out there are no other retailers in the US, but they do have a sister company that sells comparable wood sets through Toys-R-Us.

Sweet!

When I looked into it I found a virtually identical set to what we’d seen at Costco, plus it had an additional Monkey bar feature. Best part was that it was also on sale for 25% off (Memorial Day blowout)

Double Sweet!!

SOLD!

We ordered it online and had it shipped to the nearest store (Meridian on the far side of Boise about 2.5 hrs from home) since that option is free and it would cost an additional $275 bucks, voiding my sale savings, to ship it directly to the house. Of course shipping to store means they can take their sweet time about it. We were hoping (fingers crossed) that it would only take a week to ship (since it left the warehouse about 3 hrs after I place my order) and we’d get it in time to build the weekend before our planned camping trip.

Luck was not on our side and it didn’t arrive at the store until late Saturday of the weekend we wanted to build so, given their short Sunday hours, pick-up was not an option until Monday. Of that week happened to be one where Kevin was slammed at work (in fact he was gone for two nights) so it came down to two options. 1) Swingset construction waits another full week with kids constantly asking when they can play on their new swingset or 2) I build most of it myself and have Kevin help with the heavy lifting we he gets back on Thursday.

Since the kids woke up Tuesday morning and their first words were, “Can we build the swingset” I went with option 2. I mean my Dad taught me how to wield a drill, use a level, and operate a socket wrench. With those skills and the ability to read instructions it should be no problem right??

Honestly, it really wasn’t a problem. Just time consuming (there are TONS of pieces and 40 some odd steps to these things). Especially when you are also trying to entertain two kids. I even managed to water seal the whole thing – I mean if I’m going to do this I should do it right…right? As I went along building pieces it eventually came to me that I probably could do the whole thing on my own and save Kevin from having to do it Thursday night.

The trickiest part was the roof. Thankfully we have a helpful, albeit slightly odd, neighbor who said to just holler when I was ready. We got it right up on top with no problem. I don’t completely trust my skills and was worried we’d get it up there to find it or the main structure weren’t square and it would sit right. Thankfully it fit perfectly thought I still might add a couple more brackets to anchor it better since we get some strong wind ‘round these parts.

Needless to say when Kevin got home Thursday night the set was done. It was totally worth to see him stand there saying “It’s done??.. I don’t have to do anything?” Well, that and the fact the kids are totally in love with…..

 

 

Gettin' Down on the Farm

Sunday night we got a special treat. Some friends invited us over for dinner at their place. They live further out of town than we do and their beautiful old farm home sits on several acres. They go church with us and have watched the kids grow and know of Jack’s love for all things farm equipment. For that reason the arranged to have their grandson come and swath the field next to the house while we were there.

Guess who got to ‘help’ swath the entire field! (Look close and check out the smile)

He was soooo excited! I’m told he talked Garrett’s ear off about farming and heavy equipment the whole time. He’s already ready to go back to rake and bale. Yep, I think we’ve realized one of his dreams. He didn’t even have to wear ear protection. Sometime loud noises (especially ones he wasn’t expecting) really unnerve him. We took his ear muffs but he was so excited to get up in the Swather and ride shotgun, that he completely forgot to put them on. Plus I think the enclosed cab really cuts the sound of the engine so it wasn’t a problem.

Emilie wasn’t forgotten either. While brother was out cutting hay she got to meet all sorts of new friends. Avery, Garrett’s dog, had relinquished the co-pilots seat to Jack so she made friends with Emilie. So did Burbon (which Em pronounces ‘Burpin’) the horse. A few carrots and those two were buddies. She then buttered up Fluffy, the local barn cat/stray (or so I’m told….she’s awfully friendly for a “stray” cat that just hangs around ) She also got to help feed and water the chickens, as well as, collect eggs. There were 10 hens and she found 10 eggs (she counted) which she was allowed to keep.

Yep, we’ve got a couple of farmless farm kids on our hands. Good thing we have good friends who help show these kids the ropes. Hopefully, someday, we can have more of a farm for these two to enjoy.