Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Nest

The last couple of weeks I have been experiencing "nesting syndrome."
For those of you who don't know about this, it is the period before
a woman goes into labor when she frantically starts preparing
for the arrival of her little one.
For the woman it seems that there are suddenly 1,000 
VERY IMPORTANT things to do
while to the rest of the world,
she just seems totally crazy.
I manage somehow to see both sides...
To be one minute obsessively washing and 
organizing every piece of clothing
including her impossibly small socks,
while the next laughing hysterically at myself
and how hormones can drive even someone like me
(who Casey believes has never actually put the cereal away
after breakfast once in her life)
to care this much about things 
like the organization of baby socks.

But I haven't exactly stopped there. 
The nesting period has gone beyond just cleaning and organizing.
I am still sewing.
Frantically. 
Here is one of the 5 pairs of overalls I have made in the last 2 weeks.
Because every child needs at least 5 pairs of overalls
before they are even born.
And I have started knitting another blanket
because the last one I made was thick and rainbow colored
and this one is thin and purple
(see how she obviously needs both).
I have also been doing a little last minute shopping
focusing on some things that are important...
like disposable diapers for her to wear until she is big enough 
to fit into her cloth ones,
and an infant bath tub.
While other things just seemed important at the time,
like these slipper shoes,
because every baby needs slipper shoes 
10-12 months before they can walk.
My nesting behavior has not just stayed in the nursery, either.
All of a sudden I felt the overwhelming urge to build a fence
around the garden, edge the front beds, seed the lawn, build a
stone path out to the chicken coop, and add rodent-proof fencing
around the coop 
all with the help of my lovely husband
who is likely wondering the same thing that I am by this point...
When will it end?
I have no idea 
but I am guessing it might not be until I am putting those
impossibly small socks
on some impossibly small feet.
I can't wait!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Orin's T-Ball

This spring Orin is signed up to begin Tot T-Ball.
To prepare for his newest sport
(he is still playing soccer once a week,
now in both the 3.5- 5 year old class and the 6-8 year old class)
he has been practicing every day, 
or as often as he can convince his daddy to take him to the local ball field.
Last weekend I went with them to film some of Orin's new skills.
We accidentally forgot the T-ball tee,
but as it turned out, that was not a problem.
As you can see from the video, the only problem that 
came up during the practice was that Casey really needs a helmet.
Enjoy.

Back to the Beach

It has been a particularly long, cold spring this year, 
but the other day it finally hit 70 degrees
which prompted an afternoon trip to the beach.
It was hard to tell who was happier to be back by the water,
Orin who instantly started drawing himself 
(and his name) in the sand
 or the dogs, who are only allowed a small window of 
warm weather beach time each year before they are banished
by laws created for the massive influx of tourists
that will begin to arrive shortly.
And speaking of beach, 
here I am with a beach ball under my shirt...
or wait, that is not a beach ball. 
Beach balls don't wiggle or kick
or get the hiccups at 3am.
Four weeks to go.
I can't wait!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Casey up a Tree

Every once in a while I am greeted by a moment
where the first thing that crosses my mind is
"I am going to need to write a post about this."
This morning I had one of those moments.
It started with this:
"What is that?" you might be wondering.
It is Casey's solution to a problem we have had in the backyard
for the last couple months:
A limb that cracked during one of the blizzards this winter
was dangling precariously over an area of
the yard that we walk under regularly.

To reach the offending branch, Casey created this saw-on-a-stick.
 
 The only problem with the contraption was that it ended up
being about 5 feet shorter than it would need to be to reach the branch.
So instead, he decided to climb up the tree and cut it by hand,
a process which took a painfully long time.
But, in the end, the branch came down.
So the lesson learned is when innovation fails you
there is nothing like brute force and a bit of crazy
to solve the problems of the day.

Trouble Returns!

The other day I pulled into the driveway to be greeted by 
a very familiar ball of fluff.
Our Trouble, who disappeared last fall,
had finally come home!
She looked slightly over-fed and slightly under-loved
but all in all she seemed to have fared pretty well.
Now all that is left to do is work on making up for 
some of the lost snuggle time.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Play time!

Despite the fact that Orin is super excited about his baby sister
"popping out" on his birthday,
we were a bit worried that his fifth birthday 
might be eclipsed by the other birthday occurring around that time
so we decided to get him an early birthday present:
a play structure for the backyard.
Step one was to disassemble the structure
 which, even with only a team of two,
we managed to do in record time.
A little over an hour later, 
all of the pieces were stacked in a big pile.
 
Although the Prius was useful in transporting the swings,
they ended up taking up pretty much all of the available trunk space
so we rented a U-haul to get the larger sections.
 After getting it back home, we started the slightly more challenging 
operation of assembly.
That big pile of pieces turned into a large, very heavy puzzle.
Luckily, we had some good help.
Slowly, it started to come together.


And finally, it was finished.
 
 Orin was a self-appointed tester of his new structure.



It passed inspection.
 
 All in a good day's work.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Egg Innundation

Typically, during the winter months
chickens naturally lay fewer eggs.
Chicken-raisers just know to be patient and 
eventually in the spring the flock picks back up with regular production. 
Knowing this fact, I was expecting to see some kind of a decline in
the number of eggs I was pulling out of the nest boxes each day.

However, my girls apparently didn't get the memo.
All winter long I have been trudging through the snow
to collect the 10-12 eggs per day from my 12 chickens.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am glad to have plenty of eggs
but I have to say, there are some downsides. 
For example, where do you put all of these eggs?
Throughout most of the winter
almost every inch of room in my fridge was taken up by eggs
and trust me, nobody can make quiche fast enough 
to put any kind of substantial dent in their collection.
So I started packaging them up and bringing them to the local feed store
where the owners happily purchase them from me 
and sell them to their customers.
 My girls eggs are particularlly popular because of their
beautiful deep orange yolks
and beacuse almost every dozen contains at least one of these: 
a two-for-one egg.

 It is hard to take a photograph that really shows the enormity
of this Ameraucana egg,
but here it is again next to a perfectly normal size Red Star egg.
Even extra large egg cartons can not contain these beasts.
Last week, after returning home from North Carolina
I was greeted by a fridge that contained nothing but a wall of eggs.
We literally could not have gone to the grocery store
because there would have been no room for food.
So out of pure necessity, I sold 18 dozen eggs to the feed store 
before I was cut off... they had run out of room in their fridge.
After selling 18 dozen eggs at least I was able to 
stack the remaining 4 dozen in the drawers of the fridge
to free up some room for other important fridge contents,
like, for example, milk.

So why have my girls kept up their egg production 
all winter and at what point will they feel the need to rest?
I suppose you will just have to ask them
for I honestly have no idea.
But, for now, let's focus on the more important question: 
Frittata anyone?

Happy Easter!

 Happy Easter!
 Happy egg hunt!
 And maybe, just maybe.... Happy Spring!
(finally!)