Our garden grew and grew and now it’s dead. We had thousands of tomatoes.  Most of them ended up rotting on the vine.  We just couldn’t keep up.  We canned salsa, sweet pickles, dilly beans, dill pickles, tomato sauce, blackberry jam, strawberry jam, peaches, pears, and applesauce.  Only a small bit actually came from our garden.  Now we leave the garden area open and let the chickens clean up. 

We attended the CR Fair.

We went to bluegrass festivals…Thing 2 was free to run around barefoot and dirty-faced.  She played with a grasshopper (literally) to death. Thing1 got to try out a guitar for size. 

The ladies started laying eggs…and now have stopped.  It’s been 5 days without eggs.  It turns out that checking for eggs is one more thing for the girls to fight over. 

Thing 1 is now a first grader. 

There’s more…but it will have to wait until another post.

Tonight we are going to park down by the Cowlitz River and walk the path and enjoy everyone else’s fireworks show. Dinner tonight is going to be taco soup with cheese and crumbled tortilla chips.  Yum.  I made up a big batch this morning and it is simmering in the crockpot as I type. 

For dessert, I am going to mix strawberries, blueberries, and service berries together with some cool whip.  Scott and I will also add raspberries, but as the girls are allergic they won’t get any.  We got the berries at the farmer’s market this morning.  The girls and I went to pick up our CSA share. 

I ended up with quite a few “interesting” photos taken by the girls of course.  Thing1 had been saving her chore money for weeks and today was the day she got to buy a little plant she had been admiring.  She was sure to pick just the right one.

 Thing2 took these last two pictures.  It took me a few seconds to figure out what the orange picture was…it is a photo of a traffic cone, taken with the camera lens pointing at the inside of the point.  She’s quite the photographer .

I should be going…I just heard Thing2 call Thing1 a “big naughty doo doo!”  Sounds serious.

Banana bread and bluegrass…two tastes that go great together.   The girls and I took time out of our day to make up a couple loaves of banana bread.  I took a recipe I had used before and modified it just a tad. Reason one…because  I only had 2 overripe bananas…and I knew that it would be more fun for EVERYONE if each daughter got to make her own loaf…so only one banana went into each loaf.  I actually prefer the bread this way because I don’t like it when the bread has slimey globules of baked bananas speckled throughout.  Gag.  And reason number 2 for the modification…I felt that the bread should have some brown sugar in it…not just white. 

The girls got to practice their egg cracking skills.  Thing1 is pretty careful; although we do have to occasionally pick out a rogue eggshell or two.  Thing2 goes for a smack and crush technique.  We still have some work to do in this area.  

The bread turned out fantastically tasty.  We ended up taking one loaf to the local Winlock Bluegrass Picker’s Fest and shared it with our very good friends. 

 The recipe is as follows:

So…the Winlock Picker’s Fest was held at Winolequa Park in Winlock, Wa.  It was only $5 per adult and it was well worth the money for a wonderfully relaxing evening listening to very talented and genuinely nice bluegrass musicians.  The picture to the left shows one of the bands that performed.   I can’t remember the name of their group, but they were very good.  It’s a wonderful experience for adults and kids.  The stage was close to the playground, so we could enjoy the music and company of friends while the kids enjoyed playing on the playground equipment.  We attended Friday night.  They had 4 bands play for 45 minutes each and then you could walk around the camping area and/or the parking lot and find groups of people who had gathered to play together.  Saturday, my fiddle-playing friend, Angie, and I attended an hour long workshop.  I attended the guitar workshop and she attended the fiddle workshop.  Afterward, we found a group in the camping area and played for a couple hours before heading home.  We didn’t attend the Sunday morning gospel show.  Next year, I would definitely like to schedule a camping trip around this event.  It was close to home, not too expensive, and a great experience for all ages.

Thing2 poses for a picture with her good friend.

Last Sunday my mom, the girls, and I took a trip to my Grandma Bev’s house. This is the same grandma who taught me how to crochet many years ago.  I owe all my yarn craftiness to her.  Thanks Grandma!  I have fond memories of visiting my grandma’s house as a child.  The first things that come to mind are the smell of freshly baked bread…grandma would let us knead out our own little loaf (yum), homemade preserves, multicolored popcorn, standing by an old woodstove (cozy), learning how to crochet, jumping off haybales in the barn and staying up late to watch Dr. Who.  Our visit was nice.  The house is surrounded by pasture with tree-filled hillsides for a view.  We walked around the property, had lunch, compared crafts.  Sometimes the simplest things are the most stress reducing… you need to get away from the TV, computer and video games and go outside and moo at cows…

dig in the dirt…

and take your shoes off and rub your feet on thyme.  Let your kids get some nature on them…its good for them.    I even got stung by a bee…and survived. 

Monday, June 1 was Thing1′s school field trip to the Children’s Museum.  This is such a fun place to go. I highly recommend going if you have young children and have never been.  It costs $8 per person and is well worth the price of admission.  Thing2 and I met the class there and had lunch with them. 

The chickens will be in double digits at the end of this week.  Ten weeks old!  I’m still counting on mid- August for our first egg. 

I finished knitting up Thing1′s bolero, weaved in the ends, washed and blocked.  Thing1 and I made a trip to my mom’s house so she could pour over hundreds of buttons in order to find the one gaudy enough for a 6-year-old fashonista.  Now I need to finish up embroidering the flowers and sew on the button.  I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.  I’d like to knit another one, but with some fun-colored yarn…that Pepto Bismol pink was getting to me toward the end.

The garden looks great.  Scott did a fantastic job!  We planted a combination of plants and seeds.  Most of the seeds have sprouted.  We planted acorn squash, yellow squash, pumpkin, tomatos, lettuce, green onions, beets, peas, green beans, and carrots.

Jester (our dog) is doing so well with the chickens.  I feel a bit guilty giving him so much temptation, but he is doing well.  He loves the fresh country scent of chickens in the morning.  He did get a little too bold one afternoon and licked one in the face, but no harm done. 

King of the Coop

Scott has been working on creating a new garden area.  He dug holes, poured concrete, placed fence posts and streched chain link fence.  He has also dismantled the one planting bed we already had in that area and has bought the lumber so he can build some new boxes.  He’s so handy to have around and does a great job.  I’m a lucky girl!  We are hoping to have all this done by the end up the month so we can plant some seeds. 

Our peach tree and cherry trees both have fruit on. 

Here is Thing2 enjoying one of her favorite outdoor activities….salting slugs. 

Our schedule is still filled with t-ball games and practices.  Here’s Thing2 standing proudly on third base.

Thing1 is a monkey bar enthusiast.  She is very strong and I’m tempted to sign her up for gymnastics to see how she likes it. 

Knitting:  I’ve been working on the bolero for Thing1, but I haven’t taken any pictures yet.  I’m almost done and only need to finish one more sleeve, weave in my ends, wash and block and add a couple buttons. 

Scott and I have a meeting set up with our insurance rep to review our policies and talk about life insurance.  Fun times.  Next week we have a meeting with a lawyer to draw up a will and other such necessary documents.  We’ve been meaning to do this for a few years now, but it is so easy to keep putting it off.  Let this be your reminder to get this done if you haven’t already.  Otherwise, you know your family will fight over all your junk.  So…do it.

While that was heating up to simmering, Thing2 and I made the noodles from a recipe I found on recipezaar.com.  It was a VERY hands on activity.  Flour everywhere.  We rolled it out and then cut them into strips and just tossed them into the pot and left it on the stove to simmer all day long. The result was a very thick and hearty chicken noodle soup.  Yum.

Knitting: Here’s a picture of Thing2 modeling her new knee highs.  I have also started to knit a pink bolero for Ruby.  I’ll take pictures soon.

We also took time one sunny afternoon to plant some flower seeds that Thing1 got for her birthday.

Some of you may know that Thing1 and Thing2 are completely opposite in regard to practically EVERYTHING.  One of their differences is their ability to fall asleep.  Thing1 falls asleep almost instantly and likes her blankets to be very, very, very “flatted out.”  To the point where she will refuse to sleep under the covers because she doesn’t want her blankets to be messy.  She gets this from Scott.  I liken it to sleeping in a hospital bed.  Thing2, on the other hand, lies in bed for an hour to an hour and a half before falling asleep…all the while collecting toys and such and hiding them in various sections of her bed before falling asleep amidst a jumble of blankets, books, and stuffed animals.  It is like a treasure hunt when we check on her before we head to bed.  We never know what we are going to find.  The other night I found her with fairy wings attached to her back.  I had to wrangle her sleep-induced noodly-ness out of the elastic bands keeping the wings attached.  It was pretty cute .

Last Friday Scott and I attended the spring concert at Thing1′s school.  It was packed.  She had been pretty excited about it for weeks leading up to it.  She’s in the front row, third from the left…wearing a purple dress.

Each Saturday Thing2 has YMCA t-ball.  When the weather is nice they play outside.  Playing outside is so much better than being stuffed in the gym. 

Chicken Update:  I believe they are now 6 weeks old…7 weeks this Friday.  We have moved their coop outside now.  When we are out there with them, we open up the doors and let them explore the yard.  They are still so funny to watch.    I keep an eye on Jester (our dog).  He tries to smell them to death.  He takes these giant lung filling breaths as if he is trying to suction them to his face.  I just worry that he will figure out that they also taste like chicken.

Knitting update:  I started a pair of socks for Thing2 on April 23 using yarn I already had (yay).  I just finished them yesterday (May 11).  I used up every last bit of the yarn which resulted in knee highs for her. I’m not too fond of the colorway.  It looks like barf, but the yarn is super squishy soft.  The yarn is SheepShop SheepFeet. I still need to weave in my ends and take a finished photo of them.  Here’s one of the Work In Progress photos.

I remember spending days at my Granpa Vance’s and Grandma Peggy’s house playing outside with my brothers and my uncle (he’s my age), while my sister, mom and grandma were inside watching “All My Children.”  No fair!  How come Nicki got to stay inside?  No worries though…we got our revenge picking an assortment of flowers, leaving them on the doorstep, ringing the doorbell and running away to hide in true May Day fashion.  All. Day. Long.  That had to have been annoying.

JW celebrated his 30th birthday in April.  We all met at the local Mexican restaurant and had dinner and cake. I like how everyone is nonchalantly looking in the opposite direction of the camera.  I know you see me people.  Real Nice.

I finished Bob’s socks.  I didn’t want to post about them until I’ve actually given them to him, but my schedule has been crazy and I haven’t had time to present them to him.  So, now, he will most likely see the picture of them before I give them to him.  As long as he acts surprised .  He had cut out a bunch of wooden keychain sock forms for me a while ago, so I knitted up a matching keychain to go with his socks.  I even made a label for them. 

Since finishing Bob’s socks, I also crocheted up a new cotton market bag.  I love it!

The chickens are 5 weeks old today.  They are out basking in the sunshine right now.  No new pictures at this time. 

Thing1 had her 6th birthday this week.  Thing2 and I met her at kindergarten and brought treats for the class.   Then we came home and opened some presents before heading to t-ball.  Thing2 tried to disguise herself as a present.

I went on a 3.19 mile walk today…at lunch.  I felt like I was on a wild life refuge.  I saw an osprey, a flock of geese, a deer, and loads and loads of flying bugs…all of which must find my particular brand of spray-on sunscreen irresistable.  Even surrounded by all that nature I was able to jog one whole mile nonstop.  It probably looked more like a stumble…but it felt like running, so it counts.  I then walked a bit and jogged another .29 miles.  So in total, I jogged 1.29 miles.  I need to resign myself to the fact that in order to get a good workout, I’m probably going to break a sweat.  Then I’ll have to go sit at my desk all  sweaty and red-faced and miserable the rest of the day.  Ugh.  Even if I take a shower at work, it takes my face hours to turn back to a normal color.

In December, a lifelong family friend let me borrow her drum carder (thanks Toby!).  I can’t believe it has been that long.  Her daughter has since been learning to spin, so I need get a move on because before too long she is going to be wanting to card some wool!   Yesterday I put the kids (Thing1 and the neighbor girl) to work carding a wool fleece I bought at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last fall.  It’s a good activity and we talked about where wool comes from and how yarn is made and what you can make with yarn.  A word to the wise…a little bit of wool goes a long way.  The picture to the left shows a small portion of the uncarded of wool sitting in a green plastic crate.  To the left of the crate, is a pile of carded wool…all fluffy white.  This pile is just a small bit of what was in the crate.  I think the stuff is growing!  I’m no where near done carding  it.  I’m sure the novelty of using the drum carder is going to wear off before I run out of wool.  I might need to find a processor to send it to and then I can just enjoy the process of spinning and knitting it.  I would like to play around with dying it as well, but first things first. 

Thing2 was content playing with the hose.

We also walked down to the neighbor’s house and watched the neighbor’s grandsons wrangle a snake.  Surprisingly, Thing2 was very interested in it.  Not too long ago, Thing2′s encounters with snakes involved a lot of screaming and running.  I think she has decided that it is more shocking to like snakes than to be afraid of them.  She’s all about being shocking.

This evening we attended Thing1′s softball game.  She is very intense and pays close attention to what is going on in the game.  (Picture to the right: High Five) 

I let Thing2 take some pictures.  It was hard for me to decide between posting the picture of my foot or this one, but here it is… a very flattering picture of the chain link fence.  I might have to put together a collection of these rare gems; I think she has quite an eye.     

I thought I’d post while I’m waiting for my steel cut oats to cook.  I discovered the bulk section of the grocery store.  I know it has been there forever, but for some reason I had avoided it in the past.  It just seemed like too much effort.  Now, however, I was happy to see that I could get my oats for $.68/lb.  I didn’t take the time to compare the price of Bob’s Red Mill Old Fashioned Steel Oats in the grocery store, but I did find it online ranging between $1.83/lb and $2.86/lb.  Of course, you miss out on the adorable little bag, but I’m okay with that.  Now I’m on the lookout for other things to buy in bulk.  So far, we have tried the taco seasoning and corn bread mix.  I prefer to make corn bread from scratch, but we will definitely continue to buy our taco seasoning in bulk.

Another inexpensive meal that I love and recommend is cheesy broccoli soup.   All you need to do it buy a bag of Bear Creek Cheddar Broccoli Soup mix which run about $4.00 or so (I don’t really remember the price, but I’m sure it is somewhere around there).  I’m sure other brands would work, but I really like Bear Creek brand.  You only have to add 8-cups of water to the mix.  I like to add some fresh broccoli and a bit of grated cheese.  While I’m cooking this, I like to grab a couple rolls out of the freezer, wrap them in tin foil and put them in the oven to warm up.  The rolls I recommend are from WinCo.  They are in the bakery section and are called ‘Hard Rolls.’  They come in a bag of 18 rolls for $2.48.   That’s only 14 cents per roll and they are delicious.  They freeze well and you can just grab a couple as you need to.  You can feed quite a few people a very inexpensive and delicious lunch or dinner with very little cooking time (only 15-minutes).   Try it…you’ll love it. 

Scott and I sat down last night and did our Monthy Cash Flow Budget for May.  It was our homework for our Financial Peace University class.  It was actually pretty fun.  Scott and I are both “nerds” as opposed to “free spirits” so we both enjoy calculating, balancing, and planning.   I think now that there is such an emphasis on tracking where we spend our money, I’m encouraged to find more deals…which is a good thing.  You’ll notice in the right-hand sidebar I’ve added a link to the Grocery Cart Challenge blog.  This is written by a local woman who feeds her family on $60/week.  There was an article about her in the Daily News in the past.  I haven’t spent much time on her blog, but I plan to check it out more often.  I’m sure she offers great cost saving ideas.

Yesterday was Saturday and we didn’t make it to the Farmer’s Market or to Earth Day.  Thing1 is having horrible abdominal pain and headaches.  She’s been suffering with this since Tuesday, April 14.   She is afraid she is going to throw up so she carries a bowl around with her and even sleeps with it.  I took her to the doctor yesterday morning and after an examination, an abdominal x-ray, and blood work, they couldn’t find anything wrong and recommended prunes.  So now, I’m tracking at home every time she starts crying and wincing to see if there is a pattern.  In between episodes, she is completely fine and playing/running/jumping.  I know she’s not faking these symptoms to get out of doing stuff, because she has missed out on things she likes because she feels so horrible and she wakes up from sleeping screaming and crying.  It is very sad. 

I washed the cars yesterday.  Woo hoo.  I also went for a 4.19 mile walk.  Of that, I ran .75 miles …then walked…then ran .25 miles.  So…technically I ran 1 mile.  It’s a start.  My legs are a little sore today, more of a tightness than pain.  I need to start stretching. 

Scott mowed the yard and also measured off an area of our property that we are going to fence and plant a garden. 

The girls picked beautiful bouquets of “wild” flowers.

 Chicken Update:  We moved the chicken coop out into the grass yesterday.  The ladies loved it.  Only a couple of the chickens have got the idea to climb the ramp up into the roosting area.  We moved them back into the garage in the early evening.  It is still too cold at night for them to be outside.