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Apr. 9th, 2009 03:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarflameThere's been a lot of construction in my backyard the past few days. We almost have a chicken coop and run :)
The coop part is the upper floors there on the end...it's enclosed now and will have a hole to get in with a ramp for the chickens to walk up. Then they can walk around under it or in any of the other free space, and we'll put a couple of perches up high as well, once all the chicken wire is secured on it. It has a hinged door at this point for us to walk in and out of.
(definitely gonna be moving the firepit...)
Mr Shaun Wright, who's been staying late to help.
We've had two false alarms this week.
1. Elise had been playing in the sideyard (connected to backyard) with the other kids, then came to us with a blue streaked mouth. Grant had torn out some weeds sprouting suspicious purple-y berries and we were both instantly terrified she had eaten some wild poison. Robbie, our 14 year old nephew, was in the ER for hours last year after eating some crappy berries on a dare from one of his friends. Luckily, no, there were no more berries Grant had missed along the fence - we are lame enough to have a rainbow striped hackey sack laying around and it was wet with drool, and the ink from the blue part had run as she chewed on it.
2. The chickens have been in a temporary coop on the deck, that has a towel layed down in it (we're rotating all our old and raggedy, horrible towels that have been used for rabbits for months now for this purpose...)It's better for them to walk and nestle down to sleep on than the deck slats and keeps some of the poop off the deck (though we can hose the rest). Anyway, one of the chickens had some fraying string wrapped around it's ankle tight enough that it's foot was swelling and it was laying there looking alarmed and making a big racket. It limped and hopped it's way through the rest of the day, when not laying around looking shocked, after we freed it and threw that towel out...I had to give A and A a "this chicken might die or be crippled forever" talk but when we woke up to go *gulp* check, the chicken was fine. We can't even tell which of them it was now.
We have got tomatoes like crazy. Peppers too. And mangos like mad ripening on our tree.
Elise right after the rain.
Elise right after a hair brushing.
Being read to by Jakey.
Oh, my sweet sweet Jakey.
I just want to say, WHAT is going on with our weather? It was 94 degrees on Monday afternoon. Then Tuesday night, down in the 40s?! That's a cold front for us in January.
My sister's birthday was the 7th. She said she can't remember it ever being cold on her birthday in her life (70s...in the shade of my deck we were sitting in rocking chairs bundled in blankets from the wind). Her husband decided to be all dashing and drive the fire engine to her house during his shift to deliver her roses and then drive off in uniform leaving her all a-flutter. Then I came and got her and we went and picked up her ultimate dream cake from the Publix bakery, an Outback giftcard and made some promises of babysitting that were fulfilled today.
24
I feel better. I'm definitely NOT following Weight Watchers. But I don't care that much at the moment, either? I think that makes it not that bad?
Spending a lot of time crocheting this blanket I'm making, that's basically a series of 3-repeating-color columns...it's like I made a red-pink-fuschia-red-pink-fuschia-red-pink-fuschia scarf, and then a beige-brown-purple-beige-brown-purple-beige-brown-purple scarf, and now I'm doing a black-burgundy-brown-black-burgundy-brown-black-burgundy-brown one. At the end I sew all the scarves together and it's a big blanket made of all these stripes of squares centered around browns and reds. I'm using a wool blend that can go in the washer. When I'm not doing that I'm making kitchen mats out of a variegated green cotton.
Or editing and writing short stories.
Or talking with or reading to kids.
Or loading the dishwasher or washing machine.
Or fiddling with, taping up, sneezing out(!THISREALLYHAPPENED!), or cleaning my nosering (I know, Melissa, I know...) I left the paper tape I'd been keeping it from sinking into the hole with off for 24 hours last week and my skin grew completely over the stupid thing, it was totally gone in my nose and I had to like re-pop it out? So I've been all uber vigilant about it again. And I think it's healed enough at the right size that it doesn't need the paper tape anymore? But who knows. (for those who don't know, I found some reputable piercing info that said if you have a stud sinking into a hole you can use micropore paper tape, like my surgical wounds have been dressed in, cut a tiny slit in it, and basically make a sort of buttonhole where the tape is between the hole and the piercing so it can't slip down anymore. You just change it when you clean the new piercing, twice a day. It seems to work pretty well, i think I just got a really tiny stud for the needle size the guy used, or else I'm weird, or whatever)
I really, really love our house and yards and kids and pets and how well it all works together. I love the giant kitchen and big dining room, connected and right in the middle of the house - that now have a wall under the bar where kids are allowed to write, color and paint whatever they like. I love my big old turquoise master bedroom with flowy white curtains, his and her closets, king sized dark wood four poster bed, and massive two room bathroom with a garden tub and a couple of sinks and a linen closet all it's own, and mermaids all over it all. I love that we have A LIBRARY, and so much comfortable furniture in there and the tv room with this insane flat screen set up and this kickass antique light on the PIANO.
It's just pretty much badass and I sort of can't believe it every damned day.
I made turkey burgers for dinner and lemon bars for dessert, tonight.
I had a really nice, GOOD cry about feeling the Holy Spirit and presence of God for the first time in awhile, set to Third Day's "Show Me Your Glory", that I needed pretty badly. We are still going to City Church and liking it, but "charismatic" Protestant worship is so kind of...spectator-y? That I can block it out very easily or keep my distance with minimal effort. I CAN also choose to pay attention and be prayerful and get something out of it. But if I'm feeling like I like my distance and want to be a sinner without remorse, I can do that too. It's hard to not be mentally involved in Catholic church when you're getting down on your knees, reciting things along with everyone else, crossing yourself at the right times, getting up and down, etc. There was a Sunday at City Church with (walking up for) communion and actual congregational singing (rather than just the admittedly very cool concert deal) and it just undid me at the seams.
I have got a huge stash of Easter surprises for my kids. They're going to have amazing grass and candy free baskets filled with awesome sauce. And there will be candy on the hunt and undoubtedly candy from the in-laws, so don't get your panties in a bunch. We're going to be talking about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday over the next couple of days...I need to have Easter in some kind of context here...and then I'm psyched about Sunday. It's all under a sheet in my office.
I'm so tired, I haven't done a 3 am update in awhile.
The coop part is the upper floors there on the end...it's enclosed now and will have a hole to get in with a ramp for the chickens to walk up. Then they can walk around under it or in any of the other free space, and we'll put a couple of perches up high as well, once all the chicken wire is secured on it. It has a hinged door at this point for us to walk in and out of.
(definitely gonna be moving the firepit...)
Mr Shaun Wright, who's been staying late to help.
We've had two false alarms this week.
1. Elise had been playing in the sideyard (connected to backyard) with the other kids, then came to us with a blue streaked mouth. Grant had torn out some weeds sprouting suspicious purple-y berries and we were both instantly terrified she had eaten some wild poison. Robbie, our 14 year old nephew, was in the ER for hours last year after eating some crappy berries on a dare from one of his friends. Luckily, no, there were no more berries Grant had missed along the fence - we are lame enough to have a rainbow striped hackey sack laying around and it was wet with drool, and the ink from the blue part had run as she chewed on it.
2. The chickens have been in a temporary coop on the deck, that has a towel layed down in it (we're rotating all our old and raggedy, horrible towels that have been used for rabbits for months now for this purpose...)It's better for them to walk and nestle down to sleep on than the deck slats and keeps some of the poop off the deck (though we can hose the rest). Anyway, one of the chickens had some fraying string wrapped around it's ankle tight enough that it's foot was swelling and it was laying there looking alarmed and making a big racket. It limped and hopped it's way through the rest of the day, when not laying around looking shocked, after we freed it and threw that towel out...I had to give A and A a "this chicken might die or be crippled forever" talk but when we woke up to go *gulp* check, the chicken was fine. We can't even tell which of them it was now.
We have got tomatoes like crazy. Peppers too. And mangos like mad ripening on our tree.
Elise right after the rain.
Elise right after a hair brushing.
Being read to by Jakey.
Oh, my sweet sweet Jakey.
I just want to say, WHAT is going on with our weather? It was 94 degrees on Monday afternoon. Then Tuesday night, down in the 40s?! That's a cold front for us in January.
My sister's birthday was the 7th. She said she can't remember it ever being cold on her birthday in her life (70s...in the shade of my deck we were sitting in rocking chairs bundled in blankets from the wind). Her husband decided to be all dashing and drive the fire engine to her house during his shift to deliver her roses and then drive off in uniform leaving her all a-flutter. Then I came and got her and we went and picked up her ultimate dream cake from the Publix bakery, an Outback giftcard and made some promises of babysitting that were fulfilled today.
24
I feel better. I'm definitely NOT following Weight Watchers. But I don't care that much at the moment, either? I think that makes it not that bad?
Spending a lot of time crocheting this blanket I'm making, that's basically a series of 3-repeating-color columns...it's like I made a red-pink-fuschia-red-pink-fuschia-red-pink-fuschia scarf, and then a beige-brown-purple-beige-brown-purple-beige-brown-purple scarf, and now I'm doing a black-burgundy-brown-black-burgundy-brown-black-burgundy-brown one. At the end I sew all the scarves together and it's a big blanket made of all these stripes of squares centered around browns and reds. I'm using a wool blend that can go in the washer. When I'm not doing that I'm making kitchen mats out of a variegated green cotton.
Or editing and writing short stories.
Or talking with or reading to kids.
Or loading the dishwasher or washing machine.
Or fiddling with, taping up, sneezing out(!THISREALLYHAPPENED!), or cleaning my nosering (I know, Melissa, I know...) I left the paper tape I'd been keeping it from sinking into the hole with off for 24 hours last week and my skin grew completely over the stupid thing, it was totally gone in my nose and I had to like re-pop it out? So I've been all uber vigilant about it again. And I think it's healed enough at the right size that it doesn't need the paper tape anymore? But who knows. (for those who don't know, I found some reputable piercing info that said if you have a stud sinking into a hole you can use micropore paper tape, like my surgical wounds have been dressed in, cut a tiny slit in it, and basically make a sort of buttonhole where the tape is between the hole and the piercing so it can't slip down anymore. You just change it when you clean the new piercing, twice a day. It seems to work pretty well, i think I just got a really tiny stud for the needle size the guy used, or else I'm weird, or whatever)
I really, really love our house and yards and kids and pets and how well it all works together. I love the giant kitchen and big dining room, connected and right in the middle of the house - that now have a wall under the bar where kids are allowed to write, color and paint whatever they like. I love my big old turquoise master bedroom with flowy white curtains, his and her closets, king sized dark wood four poster bed, and massive two room bathroom with a garden tub and a couple of sinks and a linen closet all it's own, and mermaids all over it all. I love that we have A LIBRARY, and so much comfortable furniture in there and the tv room with this insane flat screen set up and this kickass antique light on the PIANO.
It's just pretty much badass and I sort of can't believe it every damned day.
I made turkey burgers for dinner and lemon bars for dessert, tonight.
I had a really nice, GOOD cry about feeling the Holy Spirit and presence of God for the first time in awhile, set to Third Day's "Show Me Your Glory", that I needed pretty badly. We are still going to City Church and liking it, but "charismatic" Protestant worship is so kind of...spectator-y? That I can block it out very easily or keep my distance with minimal effort. I CAN also choose to pay attention and be prayerful and get something out of it. But if I'm feeling like I like my distance and want to be a sinner without remorse, I can do that too. It's hard to not be mentally involved in Catholic church when you're getting down on your knees, reciting things along with everyone else, crossing yourself at the right times, getting up and down, etc. There was a Sunday at City Church with (walking up for) communion and actual congregational singing (rather than just the admittedly very cool concert deal) and it just undid me at the seams.
I have got a huge stash of Easter surprises for my kids. They're going to have amazing grass and candy free baskets filled with awesome sauce. And there will be candy on the hunt and undoubtedly candy from the in-laws, so don't get your panties in a bunch. We're going to be talking about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday over the next couple of days...I need to have Easter in some kind of context here...and then I'm psyched about Sunday. It's all under a sheet in my office.
I'm so tired, I haven't done a 3 am update in awhile.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 07:03 pm (UTC)I think that maybe you're right, maybe it's just "what you're used to" that can get stagnant? But I know that, for me, in general, I have a strong tendency to mentally dissociate and a horrible time listening to say, storytellers or talk radio (even when it's really interesting stuff). So there really is something valid for me in getting me to physically participate.
I also feel more worshipful on my knees and really enjoy how Catholic church is something you can slip in and out of as a personal thing without a lot of back slapping and "HEY, How ya doin, we've missed you!!"
no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 02:31 pm (UTC)I like that Shaun guy. He's a keeper. :)
I'm totally looking into getting two chickens, we have the space, just barely, and I think having eggs around would help out so much.
I wish I had planted tomatoes and peppers, maybe its not too late.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 07:05 pm (UTC)I don't know anything about timing with gardening. I just plant stuff whenever I get the urge. I have a feeling that I live in an area where I can get away with that.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 03:31 pm (UTC)Where did you get the plans for your coop? Or did they just make it up? My parents got 16 baby chicks and two baby turkeys last week (sharing with my sis and BIL). They have to be in the garage for now, until they get an iron-clad coop that will keep out coyotes. They're not sure what the coop will look like at this point.
Talking to my mom about the garden, the chickens, and my sister and BIL's sheep (that is now in the freezer) made me homesick and jealous. I'm so done with Philly.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-09 10:02 pm (UTC)3d modeling/planning program: http://sketchup.google.com/
no subject
Date: 2009-04-10 01:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-12 06:24 am (UTC)Laura's husband (Frank Urbina) is in his first year so he's all over the place.
We also have a husband and wife in PATH who are both firefighters and work opposing shifts to homeschool. It's pretty cool. I can't recall their names right now.