A Variety of Happenings

While Michael was in St. Louis we had a tree limb fall. Michael took care of it when he returned home.

I was hoping the limb would have destroyed a small tree that it is next to. I want to put an Italian Plum tree in that spot. It missed the tree. Now I have to wait until we decide to pull the tree out and replace it with the one I want.

We are replacing our furnace in the house. A wide variety of reasons but the main one is that the furnace is too small. We need one twice as big. We decided to go with natural gas which will also allow me to have a gas stove in the kitchen.

Here is the company that was hired to put the gas line in. Normally they don’t have to dig a trench but the driveway was so hard packed that they decided the only option was to dig a trench.

In the process they cut our phone line and the power to the ornamental pond. This was the Wednesday before the Fourth of July weekend. The phone company said they would be there sometime between that day and July 6th. They finally showed up late on July 7th. Pretty difficult for Michael to do his job without phone or internet. On the good side when they were digging the trench to replace the electrical to the pond they went ahead and dug it out to the shop, put pipe in and covered it up. When we can afford the wiring it will be very easy for Michael to have power to his shop.

Here is a video of all four babies together. We put them in a stall together each night so they don’t drink the milk. After we milk both does in the morning they are all back together again. The video is about four minutes long.

Here are Storm and Sandy drinking water. I didn’t know they knew how to drink water. It must be an instinctual thing. Storm drank like a goat (sucking it down). Sandy drank like a dog.

Here is Sandy playing in the stool that we keep in the barn.

Sandy

Our garden is already producing a lot. I picked some young potatoes which were delicious. We have summer squash and cucumbers coming out of our ears. I’ve already made three half gallon jars of refrigerator dill pickles and I’m currently working on a Zesty Zucchini Relish.

Last but not least I thought I would share with you what it is like to live with boys. I posted these on Facebook the other day so if you are a friend on FB you might have already seen them.

Joshua and Nicholas have been in the pond a lot lately. Joshua, using his net, has caught some baby fish. Crappie and Catfish. He wanted to dry them out by covering them in salt. I had multiples piles of salt covering fish on my kitchen counter. Finally I said, “Enough.” Unbeknownst to me Joshua decided his next project, a Crappie that literally jumped into the canoe, would be dried in my dehydrator. I was shocked when I saw it in there (he hadn’t asked) but decided to not squelch his fun.

Well, maybe I should have squelched it because a whole frog ended up in my dehydrator next!

Joshua shot a robin who was eating beans in the garden the other day. He plucked it and put it in the freezer. The same day the frog went into the dehydrator Joshua killed some bull frogs and cut their legs off and put those in the freezer (if you ever visit, please don’t look in my freezer). Saturday night he decided to cook his robin and his frog legs. He did it on his own right next to me as I’m cooking boring old chicken for the rest of us. He marinated the robin and baked it in the oven and breaded the frog legs then fried them. He ate all of it and really enjoyed it. I didn’t take any pictures. There is only so much I can handle.

So, as the mom of boys (one who seems to be more adventurous lately and the other who is enjoying reading) I find myself constantly straddling a line. On one side of the like I am so proud of my boys. On the other side I’m completely grossed out!

A happy mom of boys,
Karen