Done Deal

Many happenings around these parts lately: Dani's adoption is now officially completed and she is now a bonafide Slate. We were lucky enough to end up having it scheduled on her third birthday, October 17th and had a plethora of folks that have played an important part in her life join us in the courtroom for the ceremony. The judge even decided we should sing 'Happy Birthday' to her before it was all said and done.

Many of you know that my brother Joel and his wife Hannalize welcomed the newest Slate, Tyler Jay, into the family on October 30th. He had been trying to escape his confines for two weeks and although he made his entrance into this realm a bit early, he's doing well and enjoying teaching his new parents about the joys of never sleeping through the night again....hehehehe.....

All of the boys moved on to adoptive placements or alternative foster placements by the end of August so we were quiet around here for a couple of weeks. True-to-form the phone started ringing and we quickly went right back up to seven kids. We now have five, including Dani, as we have a group of four sisters that will probably be here for a while. This house hasn't had a female majority for several years so I'm having to transition from trucks and superheroes to all things pink and glittery. It is NOT a smooth transition. Fluff and froo-froo is not my baliwick.

The weather has turned yucky for the most part so the chickens feel they need to live on the porches and complain because the goats pirated the chicken coop and won't share. Now the chickens own the dog kennel. Par for the course around here....nothing follows the norm!

Comings and Goings

Yes....It's been a while since I've updated this blog. Summer has been quite busy with three of the kids departing for adoptive homes. Michelle has been working in Idaho since June, trying to fix one of the company's ailing restaurants.

Michelle and I went to Europe in May and managed to visit Germany, Austria and Belgium with side trips to Paris, London and Amsterdam and spent our final two days in Luxembourg, flying home from there. I am still working on arranging the photos from the trip. Hopefully, some will be posted soon.

Mom and Dad have made several trips to the cabin, getting all the replacement furnishings in place and have been enjoying the new house. Fortunately, family and friends have been able to come see it all and more will still be coming before Summer is over. The little cabin has been repainted to match and the roof replaced with a new metal one.

Our little girl's adoption is almost complete. We are waiting for the final review from the state to ensure all the legal requirements have been met. After that, we just need the judge to bang the gavel and make it final.

We've been cooking in some triple-digit weather but the garden is surviving with plenty of water. Some of the flowers are withering a bit but all in all, not too bad. We've had blueberries, zucchini, tomatos, radishes and a few peppers and are waiting on the corn, carrots and beets to be ready. Trying to keep the chickens out of the garden has proved to be a battle causing some creative fencing to be erected. Our Momma chickens hatched six little ones and they are running around everywhere. We think four of the babies are roosters so they will have to find new homes as our rooster population is already a bit heavy. We added two little wether goats to the bunch and they are learning their places in the farm society. The goat girls have been a little territorial. School registration started today so it's time to get back in that mode.

Hopefully, everyone reading this is doing well. I will work on getting some new pictures up.

Already May????

Spring has allegedly 'sprung' but we're not too sure we believe it. One 84 degree day followed by 2 inches of snow the next weekend is not quite convincing. Some goldfinches showed up at the neighbors so I know we're getting close! They are my benchmark for the change of season. I filled the feeders today so maybe I'll trick them into visiting and letting me know that we can actually plant something without fear of it freezing.

We have a hen turkey that hangs around cleaning up corn after the chickens hit the buffet. A tom has been gobbling at us from down the hill and occasionally comes up to strut his stuff. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to have some babies this year. The quail and rabbits are running around the edges of the yard, sure to steer clear of our kamikaze cats. The squirrels and chipmunks don't even bother coming across the road as they know their feline enemies patrol the territory on a regular basis.

The cabin seems to have passed muster with Mom and Dad. Some finishing tasks are still required and the paint and decks cannot be completed until we have some sustained weather above 60 degrees....could be a while.....

Michelle and I will be fleeing the farm in the middle of the month to try and restore a bit of our sanity. Baby Girl is walking better and practicing walking outside on uneven ground. She wants to be just like the boys and do what the boys do, despite the fact she's not quite ready to run around the yard. She's decided she loves to ride on the quads and gets very vocal when it's time to turn them off and do other things. The boys taught her to be a "monster" and walk around with her arms out like a zombie and growl. She has a new toddler play/therapy group to attend that is an extension of her physical and occupational therapy and is enjoying it after getting over some initial anxiety and shyness.

Congratulations to Joel and Hannalize on their pending arrival. I'm going to be an Auntie! Woohoo!

Maybe not.....

We were tricked into thinking the weather would get better and planted a few things in the flower pots. That was enough of an invitation to bring back snow and sleet for four straight days. Now we're back to the usual rain. The chickens are my weather announcers as they always come running to the back porch as each new little storm starts up. They are giving us quite a few eggs and we even had a huge...really huge...double-yoker from one of the girls. The kids are enjoying trying to keep track of how many eggs we get each day.

We have two extra kids with us for temporary shelter care. Both are boys...one is seven and the other just turned one. The seven year-old is pretty mellow but the little one...phew! He's quite the handful. He likes to throw things, spit food and loves to scream and tantrum. On top of all of that, he's teething heavily. It will be a temporary situation for sure. Eight kids is busy enough but that little guy is a full day's work on his own. Any babysitting volunteers???

Mom and Dad returned from the Land of Sunshine and are getting settled back into the usual routines around here. They will go check out the progress on the new cabin this coming week. Everything is at the point where we can throw some air mattresses down and stay inside. Yeah! Most of the remaning work is outside (except installing the woodstove) and must wait until the temps warm up and the snow disappears. We will get measurements so we know what size furniture will fit, etc... I'm looking forward to shopping for new things. Since we have to replace everything, Mom has decided we'll all just go to the store, each get a cart and start going up and down the aisles. It's easy to forget about all the basics that we usually just shop for as we need them.

Our little girl is walking now, albeit a bit wobbly. Very exciting. She's loving her expanded skills and enjoys walking up and down the hallway and through the kitchen and dining room. She also wants to walk outside with the boys. We've made a small step ahead in the adoption process but it will probably be several more months before everything is finalized.

Michelle and I are running away from the insanity of our household in May for a trip to Europe. Given our usual crazy schedules, this will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime event so we hope to hit multiple countries and take a zillion pictures.

We hope everyone is doing well and feeling good.

Spring.....maybe....

It seems that another month has gone by without me updating this blog. It's not that I haven't thought about adding anything. I just seem to get distracted....often. I switched up the colors a bit and am adding a couple of pictures.

We recently added some additional chickens and roosters so we should have plenty of eggs for sharing and plenty of early morning noise to help wake up the neighbors. One of the roosters is an Egyptian Faroumis which is part of the banty family and he is nothing but attitude. I have one hen who seems to take exception to his advances and routinely chases him off to other parts of the yard. That's also the same hen who will scare the cats away from their food bowl and help herself to what she deems her fair share of the Cat Chow. She likes to sit on the mat at the front door and refuse to move until I show up with something interesting to peck at. If I don't hurry up, she pecks at the front door. Who's really running the show here???

Our little girl is starting to take some steps. Everyone is very excited, including the boys. We didn't think this would happen for a while so we all clap and cheer whenever she lets go of the furniture. She's also talking and signing more and can definitely tell us when things are not going her way.

The cabin is getting closer to being finished. We're still getting some snow up there and even had a freak snow squall here in the valley last night. I think everyone is ready for Winter to end. We've planted a few pansies and have some other cold-tolerant vegies and strawberries to get in the ground. It's time to get the seeds potted and started in the greenhouse and start planning what to do with the garden. Yeah!

Time Flies...

I just realized nearly a month has passed since the last post. I don't know where the time goes. Winter is still with us. We had a few "teaser" days of sunshine and weather in the 50's but that disappeared quickly. Last night, we were treated to a great view of the lunar eclipse. The fog and clouds didn't roll in until late and we were able to see the entire evolution.

There are new pictures of the cabin construction process on Northwind's website. The carpet and vinyl are down and we are waiting for appliances to be delivered in March and Winter to back off before any painting or decks are completed.

The adoption for our little girl is still "in the process". It's amazing how the kids can linger with us for years in foster care but the moment we say we'd like to make it permanent, the red-tape seems to increase ten-fold and the process slows to a sloth-like pace.

I hope to have some new pictures soon. We took Baby Girl to see her grandparents in Florida and escaped to Disney World for a few days. We also enjoyed driving through the Everglades and seeing quite a few alligators and amazing birds.

Brrrrrrr....

Mother Nature must be playing with us. This week has given us unbelieveably beautiful weather with cloudless blue skies and sunshine but the temperature doesn't want to get above the freezing mark. We've been breaking up the ice on the animal water troughs with shovels and trying to collect the eggs before they freeze. Our aracauna hen finally started laying so we have some 'ready-to-go' Easter eggs. Hers are generally a light turquoise color. Another hen has decided she's a B-2 bomber and lays hers while sitting high on a perch, dropping them to the ground. The only time they don't break is when they land in a pile of chicken poo, making them a joy to collect. We feel pretty lucky the girls are still laying even in the cold weather. We're collecting about 3-4 eggs a day.

We're still at six kids but the agency just called to update our records and see what ages we are willing to take. That usually means they're looking for a place for somebody.

Our little girl is getting a bit braver about trying to take some steps. She does best when she's wearing her specially constructed shoe inserts that help lift her arches and straighten her legs, although she'd much prefer to be barefoot. So far her record is walking about 6 feet without sitting down. She likes to have the boys clapping and cheering her on. She's learning many new words, trying several new signs and definitely knows how to tell us she's not happy. Her favorite thing is to announce that she's going to cry if she doesn't get her way. She'll ask for something and then say, "I cwyyy...." How she figured out to do that, I'll never know.