First Snow ... Busy Family

Sorry it has been so long since we posted anything. As you can see we have been quite busy. Along with the first snow comes a ton of work, and a little play. We have been building snow men, sledding, and all the other essentials. Oh, and I have been drying A LOT of clothes, gloves, and shoes in the mud room. I love it all and it just confirms that there is just something magical about the first snow. I will tell you that the chickens do not share our love for this white stuff from the sky and have been bunkered down in the chicken house. I don't think a team of wild horses could drag them out into it. The geese on the other hand are right at home in all this. They are playing in it as much as we are. Sadly enough yesterday the weather warmed up and all this beauty was replace with rain. The chickens are now happy !

A Happy Thanksgiving

I do have some great pictures of our day, and then I am off to tackle the giant piles of laundry.

Well, this about sums up our Thanksgiving ! We all had a great time and everyone is worn out. It was really wonderful to see everyone and to play with our niece until she passed out.

Amour

Friday is it, THE day.

On Friday it will be 16 years since my handsome husband took me as his bride. I must say it is going to be a less than romantic day filled with preschool Thanksgiving lunches and early elementary release for a long Thanksgiving week. It does, however, make me reflect on the wonderful life we have had together. We have been in Alaska for the salmon run, in New England for the fall leaves. We have been through earthquakes, blizzards, and the birth of 2 lovely boys. We have lived by the ocean and in the desert, on a mountain, and in the city. It does seem that no matter where we go the best part is we are doing it together and I can't wait to see what is next.

Ode to Dinner

Meet Dinner.........


He is a problem..........

Lets start with we never planned to get a rooster. We wanted to stay with laying hens. Well, as you know life never goes as planned. This spring we all piled ourselves in the truck, went to the feed store, and bought some laying hens to replenish our sorry looking flock. They were of course one day old chicks and all so cute. Well, as they grew we started to realize that Dinner may be a rooster and so we jokingly named him Dinner. Now we usually stay away from naming our chickens because it seems like those are the ones that always get eaten by something. So we though our problem would be solved. If any one would get knocked off it would be the little one with a name..... then no rooster. As he got even older he became so pretty and he was ( at the time) soooo sweet. We came to the conclusion that it could not be so bad to have a rooster.

Here is a news flash .....

He was fine until he lets say he hit his stride, became a man, got his chicken groove on, started putting it to the hens.

Now he is an ass to say the least and we can not even get near some of the hens or their eggs some days. He attacks both the kids and me, my husband he is scared to death of. The boys have come up with the idea that dinner knows Dad is the head male around here and so he leaves him alone. My husband does not mind this idea at all and does not correct them. I have gotten a little sick of it all lately and have been threating to make Dinner dinner. It is quite funny to be roasting a chicken and have everyone go out back and make sure all of ours are there. Any way, there have been quite a few meetings of my men's minds and they have come up with a wonderful idea. They are going to build a chicken tractor. They researched them on the internet and drew up plans last night. Now I have been informed that we can have even more chickens ( great) and they will all be able to live happy little lives free from predators, and no one will attack us anymore. Sure..... I will let you know how that works out !

Strange days

It seems as if my days here at skunky acre are getting stranger and stranger. First there was the day my mom called and my vacuum cleaner had just caught fire. Then there was the morning I found myself standing in the chicken coop with a gun defending my chickens against something that had just jumped off the roof of my house. Oh, and did I mention that it was 5 in the morning! My washing machine has also decided that it will only work if you kick it just right, and the blender exploded all over the kitchen. At this point I am wondering if I should laugh or cry. The strange part of it is that I would not trade it all for the world. There may be a good deal of strange hard work out here, but it really is a fun adventure. I love that we had to put curtains in the dining room because the deer would look in a watch us eat, and that my kids spend their free time hunting lizards. I actually like finding strange scratches on the deck and then spending the entire afternoon out there trying to figure out what made them, and that my youngest son's preschool requires him to own snow boots. Speaking of schools, my oldest son attends a 2 room school house that is 100 years old, and has the most wonderful teacher. I can't help but feel so lucky that we get to live some where we can watch for elk in the yard, even though we have a bit of a skunk problem. I think life is funny and sometimes you end up in the darnedest of places and end up loving it.

Free Fall

Yes, this leaf really did fall in our orchard and it is just absolutely beautiful down there. I love all the leaves of red, gold, and yellow. The chill in the air has chased us indoors more and more each day. I find myself turning to my half finished projects inside the house, and dragging out my soup recipes. All the dry air and indoor play has also brought a lovely cold virus to the house . It is visiting each of us in turn and we will be very glad to see it go. I guess this should lead to a wonderful list of all things our family loves about fall.

Family, I don't know why but to us fall always means family
Smores
Hot chocolate
Nuts
Fuzzy slippers and Fuzzy PJs
Old movies on TV
Pop corn
Fires in the fire place ( or wood stove)
Apples
New snow boots ( this one is my youngest fav. He wears his everywhere even though there is no snow.)
Fresh baked bread, pies, cakes