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.

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.

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!)

Sew-a-thon

As my total weight gain for this pregnancy nears 300 pounds

(just kidding... but that is how it feels)

I have been seeking activities that involve 

less movement than my normal routine.

All my life I have watched my mother sewing,

knitting, cross-stitching, etc and have always had a slight interest

in learning how to make things out of fabric or yarn,

but have never had quite enough motivation until now.

Now I am having a girl.

 

Don't get me wrong, boys are awesome

but baby boy clothes are just not as cute as baby girl clothes. 

And with the arrival of our daughter approaching

 I did not want to limit myself to just the adorable clothes

that you can buy from a store...

No, I wanted limitless options.

So I took over the spare room and, on occassion,

the dining room and began going a bit sew-crazy.

Under my mother's watchful eye 

I have been churning out enough baby clothes for an army.

It has actually become somewhat of an obsession.

  I started with dresses.

Here is my first pattern:

and, of course, just one color was not enough:

 (As of yesterday I made another one of these)

Then came patten number two,

a wrap dress:

(I finished two more of these yesterday as well)

Then I stepped up to pattern number three 

which is significantly harder to make then it looks.

I call it the nightmare dress:

 (I am halfway done with my second one of these)

Each one of my creations has some kind of significant flaw.
I may have not lined up two pieces of fabric properly,
 sewn across something I was not supposed to,
caused the botton-hole maker to spontaneously break down
leaving a glob of thread where a button-hole should have been, etc.
but I tell myself it is just how I make each piece unique.

When I need a break from sewing dresses I work on other things,

like patches for overalls:

A rainbow colored blanket that I am knitting

(pictures to come),

and this:

A crib bumper kit.

Only 24 ties and 12 pieces of bumper fabric

(and likely 10 hours later)

and I will have completed my crib bumper

complete with sparkles

(which you can't really see in the picture).

Think I am a nerd?

So does Casey.

But, really, didn't we all know that before?

And aren't you glad you get to read a post that doesn't contain

pictures of boogers or dishwasher brains?

I thought so.

The Wrong Message

This afternoon I noticed some suspicious looking

globs on the spare toilet paper.

On closer inspection, I realized what they were.

It turns out that if you instruct a child to

"go wipe your boogies on some toilet paper"

you need to be clear that it should be on a section 

of the roll that you can then tear off and discard.

I have now learned my lesson.

 Really, though, it is kind of hard to be mad at the perpetrator

when they are this darn cute.