Amy and Matt and Kids

Saturday, July 7, 2012

My summer garden 2012

Elody, Beau, Safia, and Jaren

Baskets of tomatoes

Onions and carrots

Zucchini and yellow squash

Elody holding our hugest tomato!
We sliced this onto hamburgers.

My garden is flourishing beautifully! Everyday we go out and pick produce. We already bottled 7 quarts of tomatoes. We've had more zucchini and yellow summer squash than we can handle, so we've been giving quite a bit away. This is the first year I have been able to grow onions, cucumbers, and carrots so well. I am so pleased with it all!!!

Summer swimming!

We set up the death trap aka backyard above ground pool. Candy's kids came over to play with my kids. We always spend some time with the little kids teaching them to swim. My two are soooooo cautious and really have a hard time letting go of the securities, but Candy's little Hannah was a fish! She wasn't one bit scared and practiced for about an hour until she was practically swimming. I had to catch it on video. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWibglNvvX8&feature=plcp
She's only 3 years old as of March. Go Hannah! Now if I can just get my two little kids to learn how to swim.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Trip to fossil springs and visit with my mom and sister

This is the first main pool. Just 100 yards upstream there is only a dry, dusty, waterless stream bed. Then suddenly all of this water comes gushing up out of the ground and you go from desert to oasis. The water is a nice 74 deg. year-'round so you can even swim in the winter! In the near end of the pool you can see a bunch of native fish swimming around.

This cave is very cool. It is about 30 feet across and 30 feet back. The stream runs into it and is 8-10 feet deep. That under-water log is nearly 2 feet in diameter to give you a perspective of the size. The sun doesn't shine in since the overhang is fairly low, but the clear water conducts the light back inside so that it is lit with a beautiful turquiose light inside.

This is Jileigh in front of an 8-foot tall manzanita. We call them bushes at home but this is more of a tree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0wpxqeZIjQ This is Talon Jumping down into what is called the Toilet Bowl at Fossil Springs. There is a tunnel deep under water that you have to swim through to escape the violent whirlpool and enter the main pool. A little scary but very cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76sM-xbP4ko&feature=plcp This link is Matt's turn into the Toilet Bowl.

This was the 2nd day. The kids played with the marble game.

Matt had the opportunity to go to a training for work on woodworking near where my mom lives. So we got to take a paid vacation to see my family. We went a day early so Matt could take our older kids down to fossil springs. I spent the day with my Mom helping her on her computer putting pictures in a document. The next two days Matt went to the training and I spent the days with the kids letting them swim and play with their cousins. The 3rd evening we were there, Matt was able to replace a couple of outlets and fans switches in my mom's house. We all had a great time!

Happy 3rd Birthday Elody!

For Elody's birthday, Matt made two boysenberry pies from the berries on our vines and he made homemade, custard-style vanilla ice cream. Truly divine!

Elody wrapped up in her favorite blanket

Elody in her new PJs and the mug from Beau.

I am glad I have sons

Talon and Jaren after beheading and plucking 4 chickens

My white chickens have a tendancy to peck at the eggs and eat them, so we decided their fate. We also haven't received any white eggs in a couple of months so we know they weren't laying. We finally gave the boys permission to take care of them. YUCK! There is no way I could go through that process alone. It makes me too sick. They had fun for the most part. By the end, they were tired of plucking them. They sure do make great soup!

Memorial Day weekend at the Ranch 2012

Matt on "The Blob"

Dave and Jason brought up "The Blob" to the ranch for Memorial Day weekend. Matt and Talon each had the guts to get on it. They maneuver themselves down to the end and then two adults jump from a ladder and onto the other end of the blob. That shoots the person up into the air and into the cold water. NO THANKS!

Elody's mouth with Hand Food Mouth Disease

Elody's lips swollen with blisters

We spent Memorial Day weekend at the Ranch as usual. But something unusual happened. Elody got sick with hand, foot, mouth disease. It was so miserable for her and for me. She wouldn't eat hardly anything and I had to hold her almost all the time except when she was sleeping. It lasted 8 days. She would sip my homemade kefir and yogurt through a straw in the morning when she was hungry. She'd sip a little water sometimes. She wouldn't eat anything or hardly drink anything without me begging her. She went from 30 pounds down to 25 pounds. I took her to her doctor in the beginning and then again toward the end because I was afraid she was getting dehydrated and would need to be put into the hospital, but he said that it wasn't necessary. By the ninth day she was finally eating and drinking again. By the time two weeks was over, she was eating and eating all day long. It was like I couldn't feed her enough. She quickly gained her weight back and her eating normalized. That was one horrible sickness I wouldn't wish upon anyone.

Baby chicks graduate to the outside

Baby chicks last day in their chick habitat.
(That's my Beau's head)

I put up a fence to divide the chicken run for the baby chicks.

At about 2 months old, the baby chicks could no longer tolerate their little habitat. I wanted to move them outside, but they weren't ready to mix among the adult hens. So I put up this make-shift fence in the chicken run for the chicks. They also have to eat a growing mash while the adults eat a lay mash. It works for now.
Also, we discovered that they aren't all hens. We had ourselves a rooster. I am not accustomed to waking up at 6am so I found someone to give him to. They are the people we get our raw milk from and they have lots of property and they only had one hen left. They were happy to take him.

Jileigh's awards assembly May 2012

Jileigh receiving her awards

Jileigh receive 3 certificates at her awards assembly each with a pin. They were for 4.0 GPA, perfect attendance, and a presidential award. She's a good smart kid! :)

Solar Eclipse May 2012

The beginning of the solar eclipse

SOLAR ECLIPSE
All these pictures were taken with our simple camera through sunglass lenses.

light shining through the trees onto our house.

My 7 kids in the light of a solar eclispe

Elody in the light of the solar eclipse

My hand with a glow around it in the light of the eclipse. It looks out of focus but is really a strange over-lapping shadow caused by the full eclipse.