Hasn't everyone had this question posed to them at one time or another: "If you could have any superpower, what would it be?" I've always struggled with my answer and never felt I had a good one. I suppose you could view that as a good sign - that I'm content with what I have and don't need super-human powers. However, the decision came to me today rather out of the blue. If I could have one power, I think it would be to have the ability to freeze time. And yes, in case there was doubt in anyone's mind, of course this has everything to do with Myrick.
Don't get me wrong. I don't want her to stay a 2-year old forever. I suppose at some point I'd grow tired of it. For the moment, however, time is going too fast. It breaks my heart to know that someday when she's a sassy teenager I'll wonder what happened to that sweet little voice. When she hides in the closet and whispers "I hide," and then jumps out and says "E-prise Daddy!" when Nate walks in the room is priceless to watch. She brings an awful lot of laughter into this house with her squeaky inflections. I am treasuring every minute of it.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wrapping Up Winter
Now that spring has a firm hold on us around here we get to take stock of the situation left by Old Man Winter. The aftermath of the December ice storm has required a fair amount of cleanup; downed branches and debris litter the yard everywhere. Conveniently enough, however, winter also took its toll on our wood pile! The two go hand-in-hand, of course, requiring only a little (considerable) effort from us.The damage was not pretty. It was interesting to see how different trees sustained it. All the gray birches out back were bent over by the ice, and, as Robert Frost knows, they're still like that. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches!
Most other trees, however, lost limbs. Pines took it the hardest, but maples lost their fair share as well. Our old, overgrown apple tree also lost a major limb--quite a loss. The tricky part was that most of those maple branches were hung up 30-40 feet in the air, and not very securely. This was where my parents saved the day. As an anniversary gift, they hired an arborist to do some quality pruning for us. He brought his climbing harness and chainsaw, and within a couple hours had cleaned up the canopy and our diminutive orchard. Thanks, M + D!
So the rest is up to us, transforming all the fallout to either a huge brush pile or a stylish wood pile. What could be a better way to spend April break?
Gussied-Up for Church
One of the beautiful smocked dresses that my mom found for her in Greenville. This was her Easter dress last year, and it still fits perfectly! Notice how she matches the walls in her room.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Chicken Pictures
Here's what the Dominique looks like:
And here's what the New Hampshire Red look like:
And here's what the New Hampshire Red look like:
Cluck-Cluck
I think I've decided that Nate and I are the slowest people on the planet when it comes to acting. Take chickens for example. We've talked about it for some time, read books, visited friends with chickens, interviewed other chicken owners, researched how/when/where, but when it comes down to taking action, we get around to it... eventually.
It is official, though. We finally took the plunge and placed our chick order. After much debate and talking it to death we decided on a straight run of 12 New Hampshire Reds and a straight run of 12 Dominiques. For those of you who don't know (and I'll assume you don't simply because this is all new information for me, too), a straight run means both male and female, roughly half and half. So yes, we have both hens and roosters showing up, although at this developmental stage they are referred to as pullets and cockerels. When they arrive they will be two day-old fuzzy, fluffy, cute little chicks... that will grow into both our egg layers and our dinner meals. Yep - that's right! Our plan is to butcher the roosters and keep the hens for fresh eggs. They get here in about 8-ish weeks and then 8-ish weeks later we take the boys "to market." Not entirely clear on the details of how that will work, yet, but to be sure I will keep all posted.
Presumably we'll have around 12 hens left for laying. Which, if we did the math correctly (albeit a little late), we should have about 70-ish eggs per week. Holy cow! Or chicken! Or egg! We realized this after we placed the order. What to do with that many eggs??? Some will go to friends/family, some for our fridge, some to our church's food pantry, and then who knows. I guess we'll have to play that part by ear. Actually, we're playing a lot of this by ear - flying by the seat of our... tail feathers if you will. Our plan is to learn as we go! Anyone have any great recipes that use lots of eggs??
It is official, though. We finally took the plunge and placed our chick order. After much debate and talking it to death we decided on a straight run of 12 New Hampshire Reds and a straight run of 12 Dominiques. For those of you who don't know (and I'll assume you don't simply because this is all new information for me, too), a straight run means both male and female, roughly half and half. So yes, we have both hens and roosters showing up, although at this developmental stage they are referred to as pullets and cockerels. When they arrive they will be two day-old fuzzy, fluffy, cute little chicks... that will grow into both our egg layers and our dinner meals. Yep - that's right! Our plan is to butcher the roosters and keep the hens for fresh eggs. They get here in about 8-ish weeks and then 8-ish weeks later we take the boys "to market." Not entirely clear on the details of how that will work, yet, but to be sure I will keep all posted.
Presumably we'll have around 12 hens left for laying. Which, if we did the math correctly (albeit a little late), we should have about 70-ish eggs per week. Holy cow! Or chicken! Or egg! We realized this after we placed the order. What to do with that many eggs??? Some will go to friends/family, some for our fridge, some to our church's food pantry, and then who knows. I guess we'll have to play that part by ear. Actually, we're playing a lot of this by ear - flying by the seat of our... tail feathers if you will. Our plan is to learn as we go! Anyone have any great recipes that use lots of eggs??
Crazy Cackler
This video clip requires a slight explanation: she loved hearing her voice echo into the water bottle and went on cackling like this for some time. Thank goodness for cheap entertainment!
Friday, April 24, 2009
Vacation Highlights
Honestly, this Spring vacation has been rather dull - and I've loved every minute of it! We've gotten some chores done: painted the kitchen a lovely green, cut out the awkward kitchen tower to make room for a new granite-topped island, planted my seeds in flats, ordered chicks, and burned the brush pile in the meadow. Nate and I have thankfully had some time to just hang out with each other - what a joy to remember what that's like. He's pretty good company! Errands, laundry, and watching movies has rounded out the rest of our time. Myrick has had some lovely time outdoors with plans to really enjoy tomorrow's 80 degree temps! All in all, I think I'm ready for the end-of-the-year push. Two months of school left, and then it's summer! Here is a photo taken on the day we were burning brush. If you look carefully you can see the aftermath of this winter's ice storm: all of the bent-over birch trees in the background.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Time to Catch-Up
Time flies when you're working hard. The time between February break and Spring break has been a bit of a blur with some curve balls at work thrown our way. Toss into the mix our 7th anniversary, Myrick's 2nd birthday, me out of town for three days, and Nate's science fair and you can imagine where the time went.
There were so many moments when I wanted to just stop and catalogue what was happening. Myrick is changing so much so fast that I can't seem to capture it quickly enough. I'd love to think that I could sit down for just 10 minutes each night and throw some highlights up here for my friends and family to read. Even that modest goal, though, appears to be too much. My professional workload has been crushing these past weeks. Finally, though, a moment to catch my breath and catch up on my writing. Spring break couldn't have come at a more needed time.
On our agendas this break: selecting and ordering our chicken breeds and finally getting my seeds into some soil and under grow lights. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow. We ordered heirloom seeds from Seed Savers, and Myrick had a mighty fine time today shaking the seed packets and naming all of the veggie pictures on the front. She calls tomatoes "'matoes" - just one of the many adorable things she's doing these days. She's even mastered some three-syllable words lately, like "amials." That's animals in Myrick-speak. Anyhow, I finally got the peas into the ground two days ago, so hopefully that isn't too late to get a better crop this year. We would be hard-pressed to get a worse pea crop than last year, that's for sure; I think we managed to eek out 7 pea pods last summer. Like I said, this year has to be better in the pea department!
As I drove Whidbey to her vet appointment this morning, it occured to me how lucky we are to live where we do. We really have just about everything we need right here in our own town. A full-service vet, a pizza place, our library and church, our dentist, two cute restaurants with yummy food, a volunteer fire/police department that has promptly rescued our family and home not once, twice, or even three times, but four times already, a great k-8 school, beautiful old historic homes, and so many miles of beautiful trees and land that remain undeveloped except by farmers and homeowners. This is my little slice of paradise. When I get a chance to slow down every now and then, I get to see what I miss on a daily basis - that life here offers us just what we need.
On that note, I'm heading to bed to enjoy a full 8 hours of rest listening to the spring peepers and the lovely rain that is watering the promise of delicious summer vegetables. Good night.
There were so many moments when I wanted to just stop and catalogue what was happening. Myrick is changing so much so fast that I can't seem to capture it quickly enough. I'd love to think that I could sit down for just 10 minutes each night and throw some highlights up here for my friends and family to read. Even that modest goal, though, appears to be too much. My professional workload has been crushing these past weeks. Finally, though, a moment to catch my breath and catch up on my writing. Spring break couldn't have come at a more needed time.
On our agendas this break: selecting and ordering our chicken breeds and finally getting my seeds into some soil and under grow lights. Hopefully that will happen tomorrow. We ordered heirloom seeds from Seed Savers, and Myrick had a mighty fine time today shaking the seed packets and naming all of the veggie pictures on the front. She calls tomatoes "'matoes" - just one of the many adorable things she's doing these days. She's even mastered some three-syllable words lately, like "amials." That's animals in Myrick-speak. Anyhow, I finally got the peas into the ground two days ago, so hopefully that isn't too late to get a better crop this year. We would be hard-pressed to get a worse pea crop than last year, that's for sure; I think we managed to eek out 7 pea pods last summer. Like I said, this year has to be better in the pea department!
As I drove Whidbey to her vet appointment this morning, it occured to me how lucky we are to live where we do. We really have just about everything we need right here in our own town. A full-service vet, a pizza place, our library and church, our dentist, two cute restaurants with yummy food, a volunteer fire/police department that has promptly rescued our family and home not once, twice, or even three times, but four times already, a great k-8 school, beautiful old historic homes, and so many miles of beautiful trees and land that remain undeveloped except by farmers and homeowners. This is my little slice of paradise. When I get a chance to slow down every now and then, I get to see what I miss on a daily basis - that life here offers us just what we need.
On that note, I'm heading to bed to enjoy a full 8 hours of rest listening to the spring peepers and the lovely rain that is watering the promise of delicious summer vegetables. Good night.
Oh Egg!: Part II
This is what an egg hunt looks like here in New Hampshire: winter duds to keep us warm while we hunt from spring eggs in the still-brown grass. Gotta love it!
Easter Photos
Here are a couple of photos from Easter. Myrick is wearing the beautiful dress my mom sent despite the freezing temps and wind that day!
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