Bummer of a Boat

So, my Uncle Ron gave us an old (1974) HydroSwift. It is a really classic looking 22' boat. He said it needed some work including a minor engine part and complete interior make over. But that he thought it ran well besides that.  It was a great price, FREE, so we decided it would be worth putting the money into it. We have been talking about getting a boat for a while since there is water every where up here and we enjoy fishing.

So, we spent a bunch of money getting the trailer ready to haul it 700 plus miles back to the NW from Utah. We wanted to ensure that nothing would go wrong on our journey as long drives and high temps are not good for old tires.

On our way back to Washington we got as far away as Ogden when I suggested we stop at Chick-fil-A.  The kids really wanted to eat there on our trip and in the 10 days prior, we never made it to one. Ben did not want to stop because we barely got started.  About 5 miles later, he started to get off the freeway. When I asked why, he stated "Why do you think?" He was not happy about not finding it right off the freeway and stated that if we didn't see it quickly, he was turning around and getting back on. So, here we are now at Newgate Mall on Wall Avenue, when he looks in the side view mirror and asks, "Chris, where is our boat?" I check my side mirror and exclaimed "It's gone!"

We never heard or felt a thing! Somewhere, the boat slowly slipped off the trailer, leaving the trailer empty behind the truck.

We turned around and went back up the street to 31st Street and sure enough, there was our boat in the middle of 31st and Wall Ave in Ogden!  Apparently, although the strap that held it to the trailer was strong enough (we did check all the straps), the stitching was rotted from the sun and after a couple of trips around the Salt Lake Valley and to Park City and back, it gave out!

Because Ben HAD to be back in Washington, he ended up having to fly home while I waited until Monday when they could get a couple of fork lifts to lift it back onto the trailer.

In the end, our "FREE" boat has become VERY expensive and we still don't have a boat! I ended up driving it to my dad's place in Oregon where we are waiting to hear what kind of new damage we are looking at now.  At least we got a good story out of it!

Everyone that drove by took pictures, including all the police officers and the tow truck driver. The cop was so surprised that he had to call us when we got back to Washington because he forgot to ask us a bunch of questions. He just kept laughing! Thankfully we didn't get cited and the only damage was to the boat itself, which surprisingly was minimal.

August Adventures

Mikayla went to girl's camp during the first week of August. She had a great time, but was ready to come home when it was over. I guess a lot of people had the stomach flu & she was afraid she was going to get it and she said it wasn't as much fun as she thought it would be. I was sad that she didn't love it as much as I loved the boy's resident camp.

As soon as she got back, we left for Utah again! This time it was for my niece's wedding. She was the flower girl at our wedding 16 years ago so it was sobering to be at her wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding! I really like her husband, Sheen and think they will be very happy together. My sister Julie did a fabulous job putting the wedding together! It was so nice to see all of my family. They are my favorite people in all the world!

After many tries, we finally got everyone to hold still and look at the camera, at the same time!

My brother, Wes and his family

Julie and her family. Wasn't Mylee a beautiful bride?



June and July 2011

Right after school ended, we went to Utah for 10 days to see Grandma J. She had a stroke at the end of May and we wanted to be sure to see her in case she did not improve.  Thankfully, after changing her meds, she came back around is doing much better.

During July the twins had two separate cub scout camps. The first was Cub Day Camp where I actually got to spend the whole week as the Archery Range Master. I was suprised by how much I enjoyed it. I learned a ton just from watching these little guys shoot and seeing all the mistakes they made!

Shortly after that they went to Resident Camp at Camp Brinkley. Because Ben's boss decided to come to town during the time that they were suppossed to be there, he couldn't go. I was secretly excited as it meant that I got to go. I totally get why the boys love camp so much. It was A LOT of FUN!!!  I loved the fact that I didn't have to cook or clean, got to stay up late & all the activities for the day were planned for us. I loved it and felt like I got a first class vacation even though I slept on a cot in a tent that wouldn't tie shut! I was sad when it ended! The twins are a little miffed that know that I know about it, I will try to ensure that Adam gets to go more than during his last year.

Jacob & Jared loved going to camp with their best friend David. They all had such a great time! On our way home we asked what their favorite part about camp was, they all agreed that it was being with their friends.

What a busy summer!

It has been a while since I have posted anything basically because I feel like I was gone most of the summer! Now that school is back in, it is time to get caught up. The kids are NOT happy about being back in school, especially Adam. He says it is boring and way too long. He thinks it feels like a hundred, million years. Welcome to 1st grade buddy!

Everyone seems to like their teachers and mom is liking having them all gone during the day. The down side is that it is so quite that when they get home I struggle with all the noise! We are all adjusting.

So, why is it that boys have a fascination with adding bunnies ears or peace signs above other people's heads?

School is winding up...and other great news!

School is finally winding up and each of the kids, and mom, are ready for the break. Speaking of break, Mikayla broke her arm last week while playing in the backyard. She was walking across the railroad ties that create our horseshoe pit and lost her balance. She was able to recover beautifully, just to say "that was close" and then back up and trip of the the bar that you ring the shoes around. It was so unexpected that she went down - HARD and ended up with a buckle break of both bones in her arm, just above her wrist. Thankfully this type of break heals well and quickly.

On the brighter side, she just received some wonderful news! She got accepted into the AVID program which is designed to help prepare students for college and puts them in advanced placement classes according to testing scores. It is amazing that in 8th grade they are starting to focus on college prep!

Then today she got news that she was accepted into the middle school leadership counsel! There were 53 students that applied for 25 spots and she was selected to participate. She is VERY excited! Two-thirds of the acceptance process came from teacher evaluations that included (1) positive attitude, (2) acceptance of others, (3) being a self starter without needing help and (4) grades.

We are so proud of her and the things she has accomplished this year! During the 1st & 2nd semester she had a 4.0 and the 3rd was a 3.95. She has been very driven this year and just decided that she wanted a 4.0 all year. She was disappointed when she missed it by a few points in her math class, but has put her head down and is trying to get it again in the 4th semester. When I asked why she was so interested in getting good grades, she said she just wanted to see if she could do it and that she wanted to qualify for scholarships when it was time to think about college. Mind you she is just finishing 7th grade, I was a senior in high school before I ever really even thought about college! 

All I have to say is WOW! She is an amazingly kind, empathetic, helpful and smart young woman. We consider ourselves very blessed to have her in our family. For those that knew her when she was younger, you are probably saying "WOW" too. She seriously had me rethinking this whole parenting thing!

We lost a kitten....

Every day I check on the kittens multiple times a day. Last night when I went in to do my before bed routine, I immediately noticed that one of Shyanne's babies was dead. Our best guess is that she smothered it. She is not a very good mom. In fact, I very rarely see her in with her babies. Because of this, I keep a close eye on those babies to ensure they are getting enough food. Thankfully she is a GREAT mouser and is very friendly.  It is a good thing we are going to spay her!

These pictures are from Cami's litter. They are 15 days old today and are starting to walk a little bit. It is really cute to see them stumbling around! Cami continues to be an AMAZING mom! She uses her arms to keep her babies snuggled in close to her and looks on anxiously whenever she hears her babies cry. She is definately a keeper!

The bunnies are getting big!

Ginger's babies are getting so big! It is amazing how quickly rabbits grow! They are now eating real food and are nursing just a little until they get better at drinking out of the water bottle.  Soon, it will be time to say good-bye to the ones we are not keeping. We have tried not to handle them too much because a few of them are going to grow to be dinner while the rest will find new homes. I don't want the kids to get too attached as I know it is going to be a sad day around this place without being attached.

Kittens -- Round Two!

Here is Shyanne with her litter. Adam named her Shyanne because when she first came to live with us she was very shy. We thought it was cute so it has stayed. The funny thing is that now that she knows us, she is ANYTHING but shy!

She had 6 babies this morning in about 2 hours! I couldn't believe how quickly they kept coming. I think she may be done but she is acting a little weird still. Of the six she had, one did not make it so we have 5 live ones. They are mostly black & white, but there is one with some orange on it. She looks like she will be a good momma, but not as experienced as Cami, who was amazing!

Here is Cami taking a nap with her babies. They are darling! The little orange one has his arm across his sibling -- too cute! Here they are 3 days old.

First Round of Kittens Have Arrived!

On Easter morning we got quite a surprise! Our Bishop called to say that someone had left a pet carrier with 2 cats in it next to the door of the church. He asked if we would be willing to foster them until he could figure our what to do. Well, much to our surprise, when we let them out of the carrier, they were both pregnant!

We named this mommy cat Cami. This morning she had 5 live kittens and lost one. She is an excellent mother and very friendly. We have decided to keep 2 cats once all the babies are ready leave. We haven't decided if it will be the mommy or babies yet. The mommy cats are obviously house cats and we want them to be barn cats so that would be a serious consideration.

She labored nearly all day and I was able to see a couple of them born. She was very tolerant of all the commotion as kids kept coming and going to see the babies. I have never owned a cat before and must admit that I actually really do like these mommy cats and look forward to having this addition to our farm. I think I am going a little nuts!



We now have 2 litters of bunnies!

Ginger's babies - 8 in all

Ashley's babies - we think there are 9 in all. Hers are black with a few spotted ones.

Sorry the pictures aren't better, there is SO MUCH HAIR in there and I don't want to mess with the nest to much, it upsets the moms.

We thought we had bred both rabbits, however, Ashley was not showing a SINGLE sign of pregnancy, so we thought that she hadn't had a successful breeding. Last night when I checked on them, there was no nest, no indication of anything out of the norm.

When we returned home after a field trip today, Jacob said there was a bunch of hair in Ashley's cage. When I went over there, there were a bunch of little babies moving around. Her babies are "hoppy". Ginger's babies just kind of hang out and chill, Ashley's are constantly moving around their little nest, they seriously look like they are hopping around in there! 

Now, it appears that one of the cats that we rescued on Easter morning (they were abandoned in a box at the door of the church) is about to deliver. She is HUGE, acting very strange and hiding in a queening box. I wouldn't be surprised if she has them in the next 24 hours. I will keep you posted!

The babies are here!

Freaky elf ears!

Ginger finally had her babies! They were born on Monday morning between 7:15 and 7:45. Unbelievably she had 8 babies! They have no hair and look like little pigs. The fluff  this baby is in is fur that Ginger pulled from herself to make her nest. The amazing thing is that she looks like she still has all her hair. As soon as the babies start to come out of the nest, we will move them into the big hutch as this one CANNOT handle 9 rabbits!

Baked Ham & Cheese Omelet

In the tradition of my dear friend Tiffanee's blog, http://onecrazycookie.blogspot.com,  where she shows the most wonderful food, I have decided to try it. I typically think of cooking as an undesirable chore. One where I know I will be greeted with complaints and whining. So, if I can make it fun, at least for me, perhaps it won't be so dreaded. So, without further adieu here is what we had for dinner....

So, I think Tiffanee is on to something. It was a lot more fun to think of this as a creation of art, not just something to fill the kids tummies or something I HAD to do. I had fun putting this together and by putting things on the plates before inviting people to the table I made sure that they got some of everything I wanted them to have. And even though we have had this before, I only had one person complain that they didn't like it instead of a chorus. It was light and fluffy and helped me get rid of extra eggs. With 12 chickens around, I get a lot of eggs! Here is the recipe if you are interested.  I doubled the recipe to fit the 9x13 pan. This makes great leftovers for breakfast.

Baked Ham & Cheese Omelet

8 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup of cooked ham chunks

1 cup of shredded cheese

1 tablespoon of minced onion (can use dried)

Beat the eggs until frothy, add milk, salt, pepper and onions. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Pour into a greased 8 inch baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minus or until test in center comes out clean. Serves:  6

Bees & a birthday

There is no family resemblance whatsoever!

Jared really enjoyed helping get the bees ready to hive. Here he is spraying sugar syrup onto the foundations so the bees have something to snack on.  Later Jared announced that he loved being near the bees and that they really calmed him. He has stated a few times that he wished he could hear that sound whenever he got upset so that he could calm more quickly. I suggested we go sit out there so we can hear them and create a physical memory, one that he can recall any time or place to help him calm himself down. I thought it was interesting that he noticed a difference so quickly and wanted to re-create it. Perhaps it was because he knew that if he was not calm he would get stung!

I did the first hive behind Mikayla. Now is was Mikayla's turn to hive them. She was so excited! Here she is shaking them out of their package onto the frames.

We now have approximately 6,000 bees in their new homes. Adam & Jared were so brave they were with us the entire time and had on NO EQUIPMENT! Eventually the bee on Adam's hand in this picture did sting him. I think it didn't like the fact that he was a Venus Fly Trap. But after a copper penny & benedryl spray, he was good as new!  Shortly after that I felt something tickle me and with out thinking, I scratched it to discover that a bee had flown up my shirt! So, I got a little sting to. Honey bee stings are NOTHING compared to those blasted hornets! I will take a bee any day!

Mikayla had a great birthday yesterday! She turned 13, so hard to believe that I now have an official teenager! I picked her up from school around10:30, took her to the ortho where she got her first birthday gift, no more bite guard!  After the ortho, I let her play hookie for the rest of the day. She just finished the 3rd quarter with an entire year of straight A's so I thought she deserved it. So off we went to get some snacks for our drive up to Snohomish. It was a beautiful day for a drive. Still a little overcast but just enough to keep you from getting too hot in the car.

Once we got to Snohomish we picked up our bee packages, a few more deeps and feeders and then headed home for hiving. Then dinner and presents that ended with a treasure hunt all over the farm. She was lead to the "treasure" in the shed were she found a new mountain bike. She was very excited and couldn't wait to head out. She promptly started riding it all over the property and announced that her knees no longer hit the handle bars....I guess the bike was a little over due!

After a little riding around, it was time for cake and ice cream. Then mom discovered that after all the birthdays since December, I was indeed out of candles. I guess I should have thought of checking before I went to put them in the cake. So, instead we had a "red-neck" cake and used match sticks...they burn MUCH faster than candles! We RUSHED through the birthday song and she blew them out before we were even finished singing. After yummy Costco cake & Kirkland vanilla ice cream (our favorites), it was time to go ride some more. When she went to bed last night, she said it was the best birthday she has ever had and that she didn't want to go to sleep because that meant it was over.

It truly was a GREAT day!

Goat Stanchion

Ben took the boys out and had them help build this goat stanchion. It was a lot of fun for them and Mikayla & I are grateful as hoof trimming is MUCH easier! Before it was a 3 person job and then you could only get 1/2 a hoof if lucky. This time they jumped right up, fought the foot hold for a minute and within about 10 minutes all four hooves were done and shots were given! What a difference proper equipment makes! Additionally the twins got to mark some achievements off in their Webelo books, played with power tools and hung out with dad!

Home for those that need to be "re-homed" & a name for our home

In February we re-homed these two Pygmy goats, Emmy & Tucker. They came from someone that Ben works with. Their original owners found that they just didn't have time to care for them the way they should and wanted to give them to someone that could. This was our first "re-home" addition. Emmy, the black one, is very shy and afraid of humans. Originally her name was Serena, but no one could remember it correctly. We are hoping that with time she will be more interested in us. Tucker is a little more friendly and will actually let you touch him! He is getting a little better with time.

This is a picture of Clyde, one of the newer additions to our little farm. He joined us in March. He is a cross between a Pygmie & Angora goat. He is SO CUTE!!! His little personality is so much fun. He truly doesn't know that he is a goat, he thinks he is a "do-man", a cross between a dog and a human. His mom rejected him at birth so he had to be bottle fed. His owner brought him into their home and kept him there until he got a little older. His favorite playmate was the family dog. As he got bigger, they moved him outside to find that he just didn't get along with the llamas and alpacas. The owners sold off the other goats so he was alone. Thus the email to the King County 4H which brought him to our attention. We are so glad that we answered that request, I think I can honestly say that he the favorite for all of us.

Then earlier this month we re-homed six hens. A friend of ours moved to a new home and couldn't take her chickens so we said we would like them. We now get 9-11 eggs a day! I am learning many different ways to prepare eggs and we are either giving away or selling the extras.

One day the kids decided they wanted to try selling them and in 20 minutes we sold 4 dozen! Adam put on a parrot suit (from an old Halloween) and flapped his wings. One lady said that it put it over the edge and that she just HAD to stop. Obviously Adam earned some commission for his work!

Next week, we are picking up 2 packages of Italian Honey Bees as I have decided that I am going to try my hand at beekeeping. I am really excited and hope that this year will be good enough that we will have enough surplus honey to sell.

Ultimately we want to get into animals that help earn their keep around here. We want to make goat milk soap, sell honey, candles and eggs. Additionally we are putting in an orchard and with time hope to have excess fruit to sell as well. As you can tell we are learning how to become much more self reliant. It is amazing to see how dramatically our life has changed in the last year!

This year I have been selling a few grass fed steers for my brother-in-law and decided that I want to sell my own beef instead of his, so we have purchased a heffer and a steer so that we can sell the grass-fed beef next year as well.

So all these new ventures have made me think that I really need to come up with a marketable name for our little place. Right now my favorite is "Bit of Heaven Farm". Basically it describes all the different things that we can sell that truly can be considered gifts from heaven in addition to the beauty that completely surrounds us when everything is in bloom.

So, I would love your ideas for a name if you have one. Ben had "Land of Milk & Honey" (for bees & goat milk) but some of the hits on the internet were not good and I didn't want it to get confused with something else. I also thought of the "original" (ha ha) name of Southwick Farms, Rainier Farms, Southwick Six, etc....

Well, that is it for now, send your names if you come up with something and I will share some our bounty with you if we pick your name!

So, here is a picture of our new house. We moved in in March 2010 and have had a blast! We have had a sharp learning curve getting to know what it is like to be land & livestock owners. There is never a dull moment and there is always something that needs to be done. I am gaining a greater understanding why some people have junky looking property when they have more land. There is always so much to do and I often feel like I can never catch up. But we love it!

Return to Blogging

Okay, my dear sweet sister has guilted me into updating my blog. She just started a blog and while talking with her I realized that I haven't posted FOREVER and my life is dramatically different. So, keep checking back as I am going to get new pics, etc. on here soon.