Tuesday Life!

Lets see it really has been most normal around here.  Our version of normal of course!   T had a consequence of pulling weeds.  She found a nest full of guinea eggs.  Instead of leaving the nest area alone, she pulled ALL the weeds around them.  So anyone want to hatch eggs?  Let me know!  If not I will set them and make her responsible for turning eggs twice a day!

My incubator is in use.  I decided to use it for an incubator........of yogurt.  Hey why not?  It should work right?   I tried sour cream yesterday.  Don't think my starter was right or I left it to long. It failed.... big time... sorta bubbled over all over the incubator.  Today I have more starter going in there.  I won't do it as long.  I think with the higher temp of 99.9 it won't take as long.  

 The extra jar is just water to help keep the temps up. 

 T and D9 came in with a beautiful kitten this morning.  Mama is siamese.  Daddy is ??????    There are two kittens, but one is this deep smokey grey.  The other is black/brownish.  Both are pretty, but the one is so different. 

Considering they have their eyes open they were sweet.  No fizzing at all.  

 I did have them take them back to where mama has them hid out.   D9 is the one that found them.  

Kids were off to fly kites.  I told D 9 to be very careful with his kite.  It made it almost to the garage door before a stick broke.  Hummmmmm the kite did it?  I don't think so.  So he then got sent off with the kite fliers to watch.  NOT what he wanted to do at that point.  He and they were told he was NOT to touch the kites at all.  So they come dragging him back in seems he figured the string was OK to grab while they were flying a kite.  It crashed well I understand.  He was given a choice of go and do right or sit on the stool for the afternoon.  Guess he made his choice.    Only he wasn't happy with it.  He was going to have a screaming fit at me.   Funny..... mom decided to go LALALALALLALALALLALALLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAA..........  until such time as he gave up.  It was REALLY hard to keep doing it and not break out laughing, especially when the dog started howling with me!   Yes, he finally got the message that I wasn't interested in his justification or his fit either one.   He is welcome to have conversation with me as long as it makes sense and isn't about KITES!  

MN and the donkey, now named Petunia, or 'Tunia for short have been having a lot of time.  They play hide and seek and tag.  MN said earlier she was just standing still and donkey came up behind her put her nose between her legs and pushed.  MN landed on her knees.  She came in laughing.  She did say she told her it wasn't OK to do that!  They are becoming best friends so I was told by MN.

I guess that is the update on our life today.  Isn't it just as normal as yours?   How many have kittens brought to them, donkeys and kids playing tag, or what ever else took place today. 

Our newest member........... and other ramblings....

It has been suggested that she is related to me.  Some even say she might be a close relative. 

 Her nose is soft and smooth.  She loves to have it touched. 

 I have been told she even likes to play peek-a-boo with someone covering these big soft eyes and then moving their hands away.  

 Ears?  Yes, she as beautiful long ears that allow her to hear when she is called better.  She comes as soon as someone calls, or goes out the door, or she sees them. 

Isn't she beautiful?   OK beauty IS in the eyes of the beholder.  We like her.  She is 11 months old.  She is GENTLE.  I have been told that you can even crawl under her.  She begs for attention.  She loves the littles to sit on her back as the bigger kids brush, pet, love, pull ears, tail and do what ever else they can to find anything that will make her flinch or jump or jerk or spook.   So for they have found very little that bothers her.   When they do find a spot that bothers her then focus on messing with it until she decides it isn't worth fighting over.  MN can pick all 4 feet up, not at the same time.   This morning she was cold so MN rubbed her down with burlap sacks and then left two on her.   

                                                                                                                      con·se·quence   /ˈkɒnsɪˌkwɛns, -kwəns/ Show Spelled  [kon-si-kwens, -kwuhns] –noun 1. the effect, result, or outcome of something occurring earlier: The accident was the consequence of reckless driving

The next few pictures are children do CONSEQUENCES.  They have decided to rush through school and not care if they pass or fail.  Mom will just make them do it again.  So mom upped the anti.  She explained to them that if they failed ANYTHING then they would get a yuck job from mom.  I finished with, "Please fail!  Please!  Please!"  You know that list we all have either on paper or in our mind of yucky jobs that you just keep putting off?  That is the list I am pulling from!
 

 This flower bed is about 20 foot long.  It has mint and Mexican petunias growing in it.  Along with trash and weeds.  Yes, I do think the trash MUST grow!  T failed 2 so she earned two jobs or one bigger one.  This is her ONE job IF she does a good job. 

D11 failed 4-6 not sure didn't get a straight answer.  He is bad about when he does wrong then he just tosses in the towel.  Which he seemed to do on school today since he failed a test.  He has this whole area to clear.  I told him if he does it right that will be his only chore.  We will see.  Like I said he gets on a roll of bad choices and snowballs.  

While I was showing D11 what wasn't weeds I discovered where the grey water drained out by the black tanks TOMATO plants!  Several!   They are next to the tank, in a cool shady place.  They have a trellis already so I will just leave them.   They are growing in a spot where a wisteria died.  I have honeysuckle on both sides along with turks caps.  

We had an amazing time this weekend.  It was fun.  Part of us went on Sat. to look at donkeys.  Why?  Because adopting a donkey is easier than adopting a child!  :)   I have always been drawn to them.  We had a miniature for a while.  She wasn't overly sweet.  I wanted one that was kid friendly.   So off we went.  It was MN and MJ and I.   The other three went with Dad.  One because she LOVES auctions, one because he had been a pain to me most of the week and I was ready for a break, and one got caught lying and that was the worst consequence we could come up with for him :) 

It was really tough making a decision on the donkey.  They had two I wanted.  MN wanted three.  But one of her "picks" was a little jack that would lick her.  I loved the one we got and her mama, who was going to have a new baby in a few weeks.   We decided on this one since we didn't really NEED two donkeys and being young she would bond better with our zoo.  She is adjusting well.  She was already very people friendly.  Now she is becoming beggar friendly.  

After we came home my SIL and nephew were here, with ice tea made even!   We visited while kids played with donkey until dark.  It was fun!  

Sunday church was awesome!  I really wish everyone had as wonderful a church fellowship and encounter as we do.  We had a wonderful meal, eating way to much.  Then after praise and worship we settled in to watch a Ray Vanderlaan video.  After much interesting discussion and rabbit trails over the material we turned the monsters , noise machines,  children loose with the understanding they would go play OUTSIDE!   We did serve them hot chocolate a bit later as it was in the 50s.   We had more wonderful fellowship and discussion about God while we drank coffee.   

Once we finally came home a friend came  with us to get a truck load of soil.  She is doing a garden, I'm sure she will blog about it.   I supplied the potting soil.   We got it loaded then just hung out and fellow shipped for the rest of the evening.  It was filled with lots of deep discussions about God.   What He is doing, where we are, where we WANT to be doing for Him, and many other off the wall different discussions of the power of God.  The type discussions that you can't have with just anyone. 

Today started off with blessings as it started raining about 2 here.  We had a tiny bit of hail, no damage.  Total rain was only about 3/4 of an inch.  it is COLD, with a high only in the low 50s for the day.  Tonight it is to get down to about freezing.  IF it does freeze at the Airport it will break a 100+ year old record for the latest freeze on record.  Tomorrow we should be back into the 60s.

Did I mention my whole garden is coming up?   :)   Every bed has plants coming up.  Yea!  I am ready to harvest!   I don't wait well :)  

Have a child waiting for a school redo.  so I better get off here and get busy.  All have a blessed day!

Life Skills 101 and other ramblings...

Two of my children who were done with school got to do more school.  Life school!  I wanted stakes to hold up my wire off my beds that keep dogs from excavating them and removing all my flowers.   I had them get the stakes and screwdriver and drywall screws.  They knew what I wanted so I backed off and let them try.............and try...........and finally I did one to show them how.

They decided that it was harder then it looked.  

This is what they are making.

 After I took a picture of this I decided to share how my porch is looking.   See all the hanging baskets?  Each one has plants, many flowers and tomatoes. 

 Home for the last 4 tomato plants!  I try to remember to add a few marigolds to help keep tomato worms away.  

 More pictures of life skills.   They are working hard.  I was working hard too.... not helping!

 I don't think I ever shared our new fountain pictures.  Our last one never worked as well as we wanted.  So off we went in search of "ideas".   I found this fountain in town.  I revised it and it worked great.  

What I did was set the new fountain on a big rock inside the water trough that was our old fountain.  I used the pump from the water trough, only pumped the water into the bottom of the new fountain where it would have been if it was freestanding.  Once it filled up it overflowed into the water trough perfect!  The water in the base keeps it from blowing over in our strong winds. 

 I then added a few plants around it just because.   I like the results. 

 Here is our designated play area. It isn't to junky right now as I discovered one child was hogging a large area.  I had them clean all the toys, flatten all the mountains then start over today.  Told them they were erasing their designs and starting fresh.  This will be an every Monday morning thing.  Then I explained to play area hog that if he did it again he wouldn't be playing there, PERIOD! 

Potatoes!  More Potatoes!  At least I hope.  This is my potato bed.  Each time the leaves reach the top of the tire you add a tire and more dirt.  I am amazed at how fast they are growing.  Now I wonder if they are making 'tators or just leaves that I promptly have covered. 

Have you noticed EVERYTHING has wire over it in my yard?   This is the ONLY way I can have a yard!  Right now I even have a piece out in the middle of the yard where dogs/kids decided to dig the other day.   I filled it in added some grass I was pulling up from a flower bed and covered it with a 4x4.  Just to keep it in place I then parked a cart full of dirt on it for a couple of days :)  

Can you see my new table?  Kids are working on the other end of it.  I love it.  I do find the trail is crowded when large white dog sprawls in trail beside picnic table.  But, he can MOVE!

Garden!  About as weeded as you will ever see it.  We are wanting to put chat down which will sit up hard and keep a lot of the weeds out of the walk ways.  It will also look pretty with the white chat between the green plants of the beds.  

That is about all that is happening here.  I am blessed to get to keep grand kids today as son had a long feed trip to make today and since DIL had never been to that part of TX I suggested she grab her camera and go with him.  Maybe she will get pictures of the Marfa lights!  That would be SOOO cool!   If not she will see a totally different type of area of TX. 

Feels of Spring..

Yesterday was a day of accomplishment.  We spent the day in the garden and yard doing spring like things.   We tilled the beds in the garden and planted, and planted and then planted some more.  I think this may the the first time we have ever had all the beds planted at one time.  

I may have bought a few to many tomato plants IF they produce.  We will be trying to find ways to use/freeze/can tomatoes.  I have a lot of bite size tomatoes in hanging baskets on the porch.  Then we have 4 beds of 6 each in the garden of larger tomatoes, like Roma, and beefsteak and some other kinds.   I still have about 4 more plants that need homes.  I am thinking a big pot or two on the porch. 

If my summer squash grow well I have decided to make chicken enchiladas out of them.  This is a great way to use a lot of squash that everyone likes.   My DIL even likes it and she isn't a squash person.  Since this is a casserole that freezes well I can make it and share it or use it all winter since I have the freezer space to store it. 

We also did two beds of green beans.  If they grow we will have enough green beans to enjoy.  A bed of cantaloupe and a bed of watermelon mmmmmmm!   Then I transplanted my black berry bushes to a bed there for a new permanent home for them.   Where they were they didn't do well.   I am hoping they will do much better there.   After working most of the day out there we broke for a bit. 

Kids swam and played and played some more in their new "Designated Play Area".  It is an area under trees that I have told them they can make roads, and move dirt.  They love it!  I love it!  No more holes or roads through out the yard.  The grass even loves it!  They have the toy kitchen in this area, and about a zillion cars and trucks of various sizes and quality.   They spend HOURS out there. It is really a place to spark creativity as they build their "towns" and "homes".   It is amazing some of the junk er stuff they have rounded up to make it fun.  

While the kids played I planted some more plants in a flower bed and pulled weeds out of the same bed.  I hate weeding :)  I am down to a small amount of plants that need to be re potted.  

We also worked on the porch.  A friend blessed us with their old 11 ft picnic table as they got a larger one.   I am thrilled!   It takes up a lot of room but at the same time is a great place to eat, or do outside crafts stuff.   That meant I needed/wanted to find a home for our glass topped iron table that was a pass down from DH father.   It has never really been used because of fear of it being broke.   I found someone who is very excited to have a "fancy" patio table.   Face it I am just not into  "fancy"  I am much more thrilled to get a used wooden picnic table that could use a paint job.   I pulled the  glass top table out of where I had it stashed on the porch, moved the last of my lockers I had bought several months ago down there.  Promptly filled it with weed eater stuff, (most of which stayed piled on the glass top table) and am loving the new porch look.  Kids ate two meals on the porch yesterday.  

After a hard day of work I was ready to check out the pool.  As soon as kids went to bed I went to the pool.  Yes the water was coooool  but I have swam when it was MUCH colder getting in.   I so totally enjoyed it!  It had been hazy and cloudy all day.  Just before I went swimming the front moved through and left a sky full of stars to enjoy as I swam.   I tried to talk dh into swimming with me.  He wasn't interested.  So I tried to talk a dog into it.  Dog was willing to lay on the pool deck and watch me.  

May everyone have a blessed Easter an stay focused on Him not on the Easter bunny. 

Feels like spring.......

After several days of 100+ temps, smoke so thick it looked like fog, scanner blaring away on the huge Wildcat fire that burned over 150,000 acres, (think from end to end over 25 miles long.)  Today we have a blessed calm day.  It is HUMID, what maybe 25-30%!  Hey after 5-10% humidity driven by 20-40 mph winds it IS humid today.  

I decided to spring up my porch.  Easter is this weekend, cold should be done.    I had carried out all my house plants last week or the week before.  I just had them sitting up next to the house to get use to the heat and wind.   Saturday I bought more plants at Abilene.  They have a nursery I like.  I bought a mix of tomato and pretty flowers.   I decided this year to hang cherry tomato type tomatoes on the porch.  I have several pots of sweet 100s, pear both red and yellow, grape and ???? not sure what else.   I stuck a couple of marigolds in each tomato pot.  I think a few I stuck other pretty plants too.   We will see how it works out.  My porch has a lot of shade.  Or defused sun.  I stuck some in more full sun and some more in "shade".  

I still have a few more plants to find pots/hangers for.  Once I do that then I need to find places to hang on the porch.  It is starting to look like a curtain of plants.   I do have tomato and herbs to find homes for in the garden.  I am again trying a stevia plant for one thing.  I have managed to kill a few of them already over the past few years.  Anyone grow them successfully? 

I have yet to buy peppers.  I can't find the kind I like.  I want New Mexico Green Chili's.  I would like some funky stuff too and some strange peppers.  I did that on the garden tomatoes.  I bought striped and other strange tomatoes just to see what happened.   I hope to get them in the garden this weekend.  Really I hope it is way to wet to plant.  We have a chance of rain for the first time in a long time.  I know it is because of all the people praying for rain to stop the wild fires. 

For those of you on facebook there are some amazing fire pictures there.   The coolest ones I found were on the Texas Forestry Service facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150225432082176.358816.283145907175  These are of the Ft. Davis fire.  

I also found that the best way to stay updated on the fires was through facebook.  There were several pages that were good.  For the Wildcat fire the Wildcat Fire Page was awesome.  They were great about keeping everyone up to date.  I found the paper and the news media lacking to the point of wondering how they keep viewers.   Once the fire no longer threatened San Angelo the paper seemed to find more pressing news.   I found that sad.  Maybe we need to come up with a Face book news page for our area and post what we hear and share.  It would soon put the paper and other media out of business I think :) 

I added the second tire to my potato rings today.  I am trying growing them in tires and as they grow add a new tire and cover with dirt once the season is done and they start to bloom, just tear down the tires to gather them.   I will let you know if it really works.  

I sold two of my old milk cows last weekend.  A man at the flea market wanted them so we too them and 8 peafowl up there for him.  I was glad to get rid of them.  My DIL was even more glad to get rid of one of the cows.  She never assumed a gate was locked.  If she walked by a gate she checked to see if it was locked.   If it wasn't well she assumed it was unlocked just for her to come in and snack.   Dog food, corn, calf manna..... any and all that she found she ate.   She would also get in the barn worse than any other cow.    My Dh was glad to get rid of a few peafowl.  He seem to not like them as much as I do.   Don't understand :)

I will try to get some pictures of my porch to post some time soon.  I do have a few more plants to add.   I also have some winter clutter that needs to find a new home.  

May everyone have a blessed and safe week.

Yard Work

I really wanted to redo my flower bed.  It is held back with a telephone pole.  I like the rock flower beds I have done so we collected some medium size rocks.  Then motivation happened.  I got in the bobcat and started moving telephone poles.

Daughter in law was documenting the event with my camera.   She did a great job of documenting the fun.  Including the cheering section.

Moving the poles.

See the lizard?  It was under the pole.  I saw it run when I picked it up.  I pointed it out to DIL and she took a picture.

Once poles were moved then we started setting rocks.   We being guys.   They would scoop a rock in the bobcat and get it close and dump it in the ditch left by the telephone pole. 

Learning to work together is tough.   Two boys that do not communicate well setting a rock while older boy sets in bobcat laughing at them, under his breath..  Dad just supervising it all.

More pictures of the cheering section.  

Finished Product!!!  Isn't it pretty?   I like it better than a old telephone pole.

As The World Burns..........

Please keep our part of the world in prayer.  We have a major fire burning.  Major to the tune of close to 50,000 acres and still out of control.   I had the pleasure of taking a pallet of water to the Salvation Cantina.  I had taken my husband his war-bag.  Yes, he is hoping to get on a truck.   :)  He ask me if I 'minded' taking some water.   LOL talk about jumping for joy!  I was more than thrilled!   I have been setting home doing nothing but listening to the scanner and wanting to DO something all day!   I did remember to grab my camera.  Here are a few of the pictures I took.

It is a serious situation!   MANY homes have been evacuated.  To my knowledge they have saved all homes.  

My friend that was MUCH closer (her yard caught on fire from ashes) is spending the night out here.