Just for fun!

This is what our house looked like when we first saw it. 

Teagan took this picture yesterday.

And just for reference, what the back yard/house looked like.

The Backdeck and Chickens

We (read: mostly Greg) spent the past weekend sanding, fixing and painting the back deck. Many of the balusters needed to be replaced, some of the wood was raw, other parts were either white or green.  We quit trying to figure out what the previous people were trying to do a long time ago.  It really freed up some brain space to let go of that...  Glad I remembered to get some 'before' pictures.

This back staircase goes into our masterbath.

I took this picture this morning, the mostly finished job.  Major improvement if you ask me!  Plus, you could walk out on the deck barefoot now (not that I recommend that out here....) without the risk of splinters or raised nailheads.

The entire time we were working on the deck, we had 'the gals' supervising us, openly discussing how I didn't tape the tarp far enough over and the house was going to get over sprayed (it did).  They wondered why in the world my window is open right next to where Greg was sanding?  Good point.  They wanted to know what the paint tasted like, if they fit under the furniture, if they would get painted if they stood *right* there.  You get the idea.  We did discover that we have quite a few characters on our hands. 

I know I said I wasn't going to name these chickens, but it's pretty hard not to, once you realize they have personalities.  LOL!

This is Penny, a Rhode Island Red.

Maude, a Barred Rock.  She has a thing for Greg...

Here, in the forefront is Donna, a Blue Andalusian.  Behind her is Clementine, an Easter Egger, and the Brown Leghorn is behind them.  I think I'm going to call her Harriet.

This is Blanche, a Delaware.

This is the Ancona, not yet named.  She is really skittish, thinks I'm the Devil.

Here is Ellie Mae, she's a Cochin. 

This is another Easter Egger, haven't named her yet either.

Well, thanks for coming by!

The Playset - ala'complete!

I got the wild hair to paint it like the house. 

Let's just jump right in ...

With a snake picture!  Apparently they like the nice warm weather too. 

No big deal really, except that I had *just* gone down these steps 1 minute before.  I turned around to go back up and there he was.  The close up picture is actually taken with the mac-daddy zoom on my camera.  I'm no where near this close to the snake.  See the open door to the left?  Yep, that's right where he went.  Into the garage....  I just got the willies typing that.

We had a boy turn 8.  This was at his party at Incredible John's.  The Las Vegas like Chuck E. Cheese in Roseville.  Fun was had by all!



We cleared an area in the back yard for a play set.  There had been a wooden floor with cement footings here.  Greg broke it all apart with the tractor and flattened the area. 

The play set is cool, with the exception that none of the parts were labeled.  It's okay, we just figured it out ourselves, measuring each. and. every. piece, then labeling with all of the post it notes we owned.  After about 4 hours we had to cover it all up with tarps and head in because it started to rain.

No worries though right?  Well, we didn't get back out there to work on assembly until the next weekend.  Giving some critter plenty of time to chew all the post it notes off and build a nest under the tarp.  Yep, we're giving like that.....

The instructions said this would take 2 people 10-12 hours to build.  Hahahahahahahaha.... breathe. hahahahahaha.  And we used power tools.  The idiots in the video are screwing everything with the smart little tool by hand.  The spiral slide is 2-3 more hours of nothing but pure. fun.

Glad to say that after about 1 month of working around weather, sore backs, and other activities, the play set is now complete!  I will go take a picture of it today.  We decided to put this up so that the kids had something to play on while we start to grade down hill for the garden.  See the blue tarp off the right side of the above picture?  That is the greenhouse Greg gave me for my birthday last year.  That project should go just about as well, considering those boxes have sat outside for winter rain, snow, not to mention GOATS.  They loved to run up on the box and chew on it until I almost got there, then tear off of it.  *(&^% goats.

Well, off to clean things up to take to the children's consignment store.  Wish me luck!

Chicken Math...

Lesson 1 Probability: If you get one, you will probably get more...

Lesson 2: Addition: If you add one, you will definitely add another, so no one is "lonely"

Lesson 3: Division: No matter your best intentions, you will need to divide your chickies into more individual groups than you originally anticipated, which won't work, so see Lesson #4 Multiplication

Lesson 4: Multiplication: Coops and brooders must multiply by 3, every 6 months.

Lesson 5: Algebra: X number of chickens will always produce Y number of chickens, of which Z amount will actually be claimed as "real" "countable" chickens.

Lesson 6: Calculus: If Z amount of chickens are not actual chickens, and only Y can equal Z, then R must equal two times S, which means A is less than B, ...and if A is less than B, then you still have room for more before you are considered a hoarder!!

I got that from SunnyCalifornia on Backyard Chickens. 

With that said, get ready for some total cuteness!  The following are the breeds, not their names.  I'm not sure these gal's are going to have names, trying to not make 'pets' out of them.  Just too upsetting if something happens to them....

Ancona

 Barred Rock

 Brown Leghorn

 Blue Andalusian...  jury is out, looks like a boy to me.

 Cochin (has feathered legs)

 Delaware

Dominique

Rhode Island Red 

 Ameruacana (Easter Egger) #1

 Ameruacana (Easter Egger) #2

Gotta love chicken math...

Nermackerdoshious. AKA Otis.

My little Co-pilOtis.  Naughty Otis.  Oter-rifriskris.

No one has velvetier ears than you. No one can do the 'gig' better than you. Man, will I ever miss you.....

Dec 2000 - March 2011

More Random Updates...

I'm back from ScrapCamp 2011.  Had a blast, good food, good friends, lots of talking.....  I officially brought the least amount of supplies.  That is my seat, and that is *everything* I brought.  Turned out to be a productive time for me though, and I got almost completely caught up with Christmas!

This is my pile of completed layouts to be put into albums.  Currently I am doing a layout of each kids Christmas and a one for a family album.  None are the same, so this takes me for.ever.

Last week the weather kept threatening to get nasty.  Finally on Wednesday it made good on the threat, opening up with a thunder/lightning/hail storm.  Declan kept an eye on the chickens out in the yard.  We thought they would head for cover as soon as it was thundering, but they waited until the hail started pelting them to get in the coop.  Sassy (bantam Cochin who bites...) actually flew across the yard directly into the open door on the coop.  Pretty funny!

Then school was canceled on Thursday and Friday due to bad weather and no power at the school.  I thought I'd take the kids to the mall to poke around.  I also thought I would buy trinkets at the Disney Store to dole out while on our trip to DisneyLand, but the store was closed due to the fire at the mall last Fall.  So, instead I paid $8 for 3 kids to ride the carousel and bought pretzels....  While poking around I found the next car/SUV on my wish list.....

I actually have a funny story about this car/SUV.  Back in the Fall when I flew to Arizona, Dan (dad) picked me up at the airport.  While driving we were discussing where to go and what to do.  We pull up at a red light and I see this exact SUV at the light.  I tell Dan to look at it so he can tell me if it's just an overpriced sled.  In literally a fraction of a second, the car behind us honks at us to turn.  Dan said, "Welcome home!  You haven't even been home 30 minutes and someone is already honking!"  We must have laughed the whole way to my home away from home, Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Anywhoooo, it probably is just an overpriced sled, but at least it looks good.  I'd be willing to give it a test drive, see if I can get 3 car seats in the back.  I think Greg should have flopped for the 1st (convertible VW Beetle) or 2nd (VW Thing) car on my list, as I could get both of those for what this Range Rover sells for.