1 year Anniversary!

It is official, I have been blogging for a year! My first post was on Sunday Nov 20th 2011.

"....I am hoping by writing some of my hopes and dreams I fully realize how important they really are to me and it encourages me to strive to continue to follow my ambitions. In the meantime I hope you will find some entertaining antic-dotes about raising chickens, traveling, reading, and coming to grips with who I am. I hope that by writing my story down, you may participate in it. In a world of instant gratification and instant information, it will encourage me to write when I remind myself that I will be able to slow down and, after time, look back on the experiences that I write about...."

 I hope that you have enjoyed checking out this site as much as I have enjoyed working on it. It definitely makes it easier for me to look back and see all the wonderful things that I have done over the last year as well as the trials.

As always, thanks for stopping by :)

Tea Shelf

A while back I started a project of building a rack for our massive tea collection we have. I proceeded to get super frustrated and left it alone for probably 3 or 4 months out of sheer aggravation  I have learned that poly shades is NOT for me.
Anyway, it is finally complete! I made it fit along an empty stretch of wall and tried to match the stain as best I could... It's not perfect, but it gets the job done :)

I made dado cuts in the support piece( the left side) and then just used wood glue (and sometimes a hammer) to set the shelves into place. It is attached to the wall with two screws on tiny L brackets at the top an bottom. Each shelf can hold one standard tea box facing at 180deg or two boxes at 90deg (second from the top shelf). Easy access and adds some color to the room!

Final Appointment

In all the excitement about Betty I forgot to mention my last Dr appointment for my ACL! The Dr seemed very happy with my outcome. But even more than that, I am happy with my outcome. There are still a few things I cannot do but I have high hopes that in time I will be able in time. The Dr encouraged me to make an appointment if I ever felt instability, but otherwise I was doing great. The physical therapist told me that swelling would be there for 9 months to a year since I wasn't having the surgery so I still have quite a while till the injury is healed. The more reading I do, the more convinced I am that I made the correct choice. While it may not be the right choice for everyone, I think it will work for me. So many of the reconstruction surgeries fail within ten years anyway, that if I do end up needing surgery down the road, I'm not paying for it twice. There is also a new front of medicine called the regenerative matrix that is making some headway in the nonsurgical repair of torn ACLs that maybe in ten or fifteen years may be a viable option for human patients. Here's to hoping for that!

Betty decorates for Halloween

So I walked out to the garage this morning, a little later than normal and as I approached the interior my initial thought was, "How many of the chickens are dead".

There was blood everywhere.

Blood all over the place in the nest box. 

This is their feeder. There is normally no red on it except for the very bottom.  The rest is blood. 

After a quick head count I discovered all 5 of my chickens were acting completely normal and very alive. Letting my heart rate drop down a little I started looking for what in the world was going on. Grabbing one at a time I checked each chicken over for a wound. Then I found where the blood was coming from. Of course it was Betty. Her white feathers were streaked crimson from a what was to be discover as a small (I mean SMALL) nick in one of the points of her comb. It was still bleeding everywhere. I set Betty down and ran inside to grab cornstarch and put on a darker colored jacket because I knew I was going to get bloody. Betty seemed completely unconcerned with the blood constantly dripping off her face. She would just shake her head flinging blood everywhere and move on. I picked her up and started to attempt to apply corn starch to the wound (which I couldn't find at the moment because her whole head was bleeding it seemed). Betty seemed mostly interested in trying to eat the cornstarch out of my hand and was not real thrilled about me throwing it in her face and eyes, but she was relatively cooperative. One hour, one can of tuna and 6 or 7 corn starch applications later the bleeding finally slowed. Betty was not to pleased with me keeping her separated for a few hours to let the blood dry so the other wouldn't pick at the new scab.

It was a good thing I did't have to work! The whole ordeal took about two hours.

Betty dressed up as Zombie Betty for Halloween.

The worst part was- chicken blood smells EXACTLY like raw chicken..... I take one step closer to never eating chicken again today.

Fall

This weekend was a blessing. My first two days off back to back since I tore my ACL August 30th. Yesterday Dan and I slept in and then went to the Renaissance festival. On our way there we stopped at a tiny antique store called Mary Ann's Antiques in Barn. After the festival we went to Caesars Creek lake and walked around for a bit and then stopped a a farmers stand where we bought our pumpkins, apple cider, and a 1/2 peck of apples. He also sold this stuff he called "slush" which was apple cider in slushie form. It was delicious. I think the name of the market was "Lamb's Appleberry Farms". We came home and had a wonderful fire and relaxed.

Today was just as awesome and a bit more productive. Slept in and then had the amazing beef and rosemary stew Dan made yesterday (stew tips, bacon seasons, potatoes, carrots, onion, cayenne peppers, rosemary, oregano, garlic, curry, salt, pepper, water) . Then we mowed the lawn and did some yard chores that included trimming back a lot of the rose of sharons. I also harvested a good amount of my herbs so I can preserve them for the winter. It's mostly stevia, chives, curry and oregano this year.

The chickens also got to hang out in the lawn all day today which is a treat for them since I've been home so little. Dan lit a fire in the pit and burned a lot of the downed wood that had accumulated over the summer and some of the stuff we had just cut during our yard work. Then we made smores :) We went for a walk back in the nature preserve and I slipped around a bit but my knee seemed to do just fine which is really exciting for me. For right now I think I made the right choice to go non surgical. I just need to keep up with the exercises and keep my strength up to support the knee.

Right now we are working on bottling our Christmas Ale!

A Torn ACL and a New Job

So I saw the orthopedic Dr again today and made clear to him my desire to take a non-surgical approach to my ACL injury. He seems impressed with my range of motion since I can straighten and bend my knee very well now, but he seems unsatisfied with my overall stability. The hard part for me comes with the fact that I am in the middle of a job change. I don't think I've mentioned it yet but I put in my notice at my old job and training for my new job has already begun. Last day at the full time job is Oct 4th!(I'm very excited about this). This makes things a bit more complicated because I lose real insurance on Oct 31st because the new job is only part time. That means I would have to have the surgery done in Early October. I just don't think I want to do that. It's been a rough few weeks since I tore the ACL. Since I am working both jobs now and I'm on my feet a lot. I'm not using the crutches anymore but I still can't lift a whole lot of weight. I feel really good with the progress I've made with my knee. I can't walk normally yet but it is getting closer every day. I can walk up and down steps now without stepping up one at a time. The more I read the more I think it is possible for me to return to a somewhat normal life without having the reconstruction surgery. It is hard to find examples or information on going the non-surgical route though. It seems like Dr tend to just have the surgery done and not really think twice about it. Either way I'm pretty much guaranteed to get osteoarthritis in that knee. Either way I'm in for a long recovery. I will never be able to play soccer again without the ACL. While this is a heart breaker for me, it seems easier than having the surgery at this point in my life. Even with insurance I would probably pay more than $3000 out of pocket. Recovery can take 6 months, and my wedding is in 6 months.

Here's to hoping I don't need the surgery. My next dr appointment isn't till Oct 31st but lots of therapy between now and then. I need to relearn how to walk.

Bad News

I received some devastating news today.

I guess it starts with the fact that I started playing indoor soccer again. Just recreational Thursday nights coed. Thursday a week ago I injured my knee. I thought I had dislocated the knee cap and went to an urgent care. They took an xray and saw no problems so instructed me to see an orthopedic. The orthopedic Dr then told me to go get an MRI (don't even get me started on our healthcare system). Today was the appointment with the orthopedic Dr to look at the MRI. I tore my ACL. Completely tore my ACL. The Dr thinks I'm going to need surgery to repair the damage. I can't even really think about it honestly. I made some appointments for physical therapy.


In other news..... My mom came over to help around the house since I'm on crutches and we used up all the peppers and tomatoes from my garden, her garden, and Dan's mom's garden that I had collected to make some hot salsa! It made 8 -8oz jars so I'm looking forward to trying that.

Also, at work the other day I caught a hummingbird. I caught a humming bird with my bare hand. It got into the shop around 11am and was zooming around in the warehouse. I tried everything I could think of to make it fly out of the building but it just wasn't getting it. (I even set up a light with pink gel in it to try to lure it lower so it would fly out). So around 6 pm it was time to go but we couldn't set the building alarm with it still flying around. I started to watch it, it definitely seemed to be getting tired. It landed on an Ethernet cable strung in the ceiling and just sat there cleaning itself and then was still. I grabbed a ball out of the desk and threw it up there. It hit the wire but the hummingbird didn't move. I found this curious. So I rolled the big ladder over and set my crutches down and climbed up the ladder so I was level with the hummingbird. It didn't move. I reached out and snatched it. It freaked out. It felt like a grasshopper trying to escape a clutching hand, but it made more racket than I thought possible for a bird that small. His face was all puffed up and his beak was open and he was just letting me know he was pissed off. Needless to say I hobbled back down the ladder and over to the open dock door where I let him go. He took right off so I have high hope he found some food and survived the ordeal.

Also tomorrow is one of my best friends wedding. I am super excited to be going. Incidentally she was one of the first people I called after I hurt myself. I wanted to let her know that I was going to be the girl on crutches at her wedding. Not just at the wedding I suppose. In it. The rehearsal was tonight and everyone kept asking what happened.

Lost the Colony

So I guess we didn't have beginners luck on this one. We just went out to our hive and found that the whole thing is basically gone. No brood, no signs of a queen. Lots and lots of wax moth larvae. There are a few bees but we suspect they are only robbers or the remnants of the hive coming back to salvage as much as possible. There is maybe two tablespoons of honey left. 3 weeks ago there were full frames of honey. It is definitely a blow to us. Right now just trying to learn from the mistakes we made and salvage as much equipment as we can for next year.

The chickens seem to be experts on digging out the wax moth larvae from the wax. I'm feeling vindictive and let them just gobble them up.

Heading Home- Vacation Part 8

After getting out of the hotel as quick as we could we headed for Johnstown Flood National Memorial. The Johnstown flood was caused by a dam failing after days of heavy rain and years of neglect to the dam. 20 million tons of water headed down the valley crushing small towns with its 40 foot high wall of surging water. By the time it reached Johnstown is was a colossal mess of debris and water. When it hit Johnstown it knocked down boilers that set the swirling litter of debris and bodies on fire. Over 2,200 people were killed. Many felt that the owners of the dam, the South Fork Fishing and Hinting Club and its wealthy members, were to blame for the catastrophic failure due to their failure to properly maintain and equip the dam. They were never found legally responsible.

A view of the valley near the town Saint Michael where the lake was in 1889, taken from the top of the remnants of the earthen dam that broke. 

Leaving Johnstown we set our sights on home. We made a pit stop at Cabellas in West Virginia and found an excellent two burner propane range to brew beer on and can on. After spending some time in the store we moved on again. We stopped in Columbus and ate skyline and then stopped again near the Ohio Renaissance fairgrounds to watch the Perseid Meteor shower. We pulled off on a small country road between two cornfields and laid on the back of my car and watched the hundreds of shooting stars crisscross the sky. It was a beautiful end to a great trip.

Scranton Sucks - Vacation Part 7

We were surprised again when we woke up at Lake St. George. Who knew that we would be able to see the lake from our close-to-the-highway site. We moved on pretty quickly (after enjoying there awesome shower houses) and headed to Lowell National Historic Park which is nestled just north of Boston in Lowell.   We only saw a small portion of this historic park and I look forward to going back when the weather is nicer and I have more energy. The park is spread out throughout the city highlighting different parts of the textile industries growth and decline in Lowell, the heart of the US textile industry in 1850. The only part of the large park that we visited was the Boott Cotton Mills Museum where we watched power looms do their work. It was cool to see 1800's machinery at work.

The video shows the machinery moving and you can hear the sound, but the feel of those machines in your ears and feet and lungs, I can't imagine working there everyday like many young women did.

We left Lowell and decided to head to Scranton, a middle ground between Boston and Pittsburgh  We also decided to just get a hotel since it was going to be pretty late when we got into Scranton. We headed to a Best Western and walked in to get a room. Sold out. We had the lady call a few other hotels. Sold out. We tried about 30 hotels and motels. Sold out. We had to drive another hour before we found a hotel with a room left. A king suite, smoking. At two in the morning it sounded fine. Stupid Scranton.

Canadaish - Vacation Part 6

Cobscook turned out to be an absolutely amazing campground. All the spots were really nice and there was water everywhere. Our site ended up being really close to the shower houses which was convenient  Going to take a shower resulted in some hilarious people watching of the women who were using their electric coffee pot in the bathroom because that was where the electric was. Not to mention the line of people trying to charge their iPhone. Apparently everyone with AT&T was on international roaming because we were so close to the Canadian border.

After we cleaned ourselves we headed to St Croix Island International Historic Site. There wasn't a whole lot to see here. The island is not visit-able because of its fragile nature. They had a short interpretive walk with some interesting statues that were covered in white furry caterpillars.   The story of St Croix is the story of some super stubborn Frenchmen. They found this island and were like 'yeah here looks good' and the native Passamaquoddys were like, 'um you probably shouldn't stay there this winter.' And the french were like, 'But it is defensible! what do you know!' Then 35 out of the 79 men died when the water around them froze and became impassable to the mainland... Which happened to be the only source of freshwater.

A view of St Croix Island at low tide. The near bank is USA the far bank is Canada. 

After St Croix we headed to one of the bridges that would allow us to enter Canada's Campobello Island so we could visit Roosevelt Campobello International Park. The park is interesting because it in Canada but dedicated to FDR and therefore the park talks a lot about the history of the relationship between the US and Canada. They have restored Roosevelt's summer cottage (all three stories and 34 rooms) and have many items that once belonged to the president and his family and tell his story in relation to Campobello. The most notable part of which was his contracting polio in 1921. Mostly it made me wish that I could have been around in the 1920's and had a lot of money so I could have bought a "cottage" on an island for a summer home.

We made it back through customs. And started heading south. We arrived out our campground, Lake St George State Park, just before it started to rain and set up camp in the headlights of our car in a light drizzle. The camp site we found was maybe 20 feet away from the highway, pretty different from Cobscook.

Words that start with Schoo - Vacation Part 5

Our camp ground at Lamoine State Park wasn't much but they did have a nice beach that we took advantage of with a nice walk in the morning. After that we headed on to the Schoodic Peninsula. This is part of Acadia National Park but is about an hour from the main part on Mt Desert Island. The Peninsula was much quieter. We took advice from a ranger to go there during low tide when you can walk to Moose Island and do some tide pooling. This was a lot of fun and I could have spent all day doing it. I found an anemone and a starfish! As well as thousands of snails and crabs!

We left in a bit of a hurry to head back to Bar Harbor, the town on Mount Desert Island. This was because we had made reservations on the historic 4 mast Schooner!

This is a picture of the Schooner we took a ride on. I took this the day before right when we arrived in Acadia!

 The boat ride was beautiful  We were able to cruse around a small Island without an engine running. What ended up being super cool was seeing a pod of porpoise feeding off the starboard side of the boat. I'm pretty sure the kayakers just thought we thought they were super freaking cool.

The small black dot below the kayaks is a porpoise surfacing!

After we got off the schooner and fought our way out of crazy busy Bar Harbor we headed to the quiet side of Mount Desert Island. The west side of the Island is far less traveled and touristy than the east side. On our way we stopped at the Atlantic Brewing Company and had a beer tasting and ate some amazing BBQ before continuing on. Again we took a rangers advice and climbed Beech Mountain up to the fire tower. It was a great hike with some beautiful achievements in trail workmanship. We were in a bit of a rush since sunset was approaching quickly. The view was worth it and we lingered here longer than we probably should have. It was pretty dark by time we found the parking lot again.

View from the top of Beech Mountain 

Pulling out of the parking lot we waved goodbye to beautiful Acadia and promised we would visit again. We began what turned out to be a very long and foggy drive north to Cobscook State Park. We pulled into the campground well after ten pm. There was no one to be found. No directions for the campground other than a list of how many bushels of clams you were aloud to take from the water. We drove in following signs. There was no one. Anywhere. Dan got out to look at a campsite. He disappeared for ten minutes. The campsite was set 100 yards off the road in a very wooded pine grove. We finally passed a site that was on the road. Still no people. I then told Dan that we were going to drive around the campground till we found people. If there were no people we weren't staying. Well eventually we found people and went back to the site on the road that we had found earlier. We set up camp and crawled exhausted into the tent. As I laid there, in the giant pine forest I noticed that there was not a sound in the park. No rustling leaves. No wind. No crickets. No engines. No people. I whispered to Dan, "There is no noise in this campground. It is creepy." On cue a nearby owl goes WHO-who-who. Dan replies, "There's an owl." I think this is by far his favorite part of the vacation.

Acadia- Vacation Part 4

Well we didn't quiet make it into Maine. We stopped at Moose Brook State Park in New Hampshire to pitch our tent and sleep for the night. After setting up in the now customary darkness we walked out to a field and put the picnic blanket down and watched hundreds of shooting stars cross the sky. Eventually, being in the mountains, we got cold and headed in for the night. The following morning we made a friend who was interested in Dan, and in what Dan was cooking .

And then we moved on to Maine. For real this time. We knew we were getting close to Acadia because the gas prices kept creeping up slowly. After some serious traffic we made it over the bridge to Mount Desert Island. We decided to go to the Hulls Cove Visitor Center to see about getting some lodging for the night at one of the two campgrounds. We waited in line for about 15 minutes before discovering that they were both booked. For the rest of the week. So we decided to go ahead and do the driving tour of the main, and very very busy, part of the Island and call around campgrounds in the area to see where we could sleep. The driving tour was very pretty and there was a lot to see but I do recommend not going during the peak week, like we did. For dinner we went to the Jordan Pond House and had popovers and soup out on the lawn. And then took a short walk to the pond to see the bubbles. Which are actually small mountains.

After that we made the drive up to Cadillac mountain for sunset. I guess it is a more popular place to watch sunrise as it is the first place the light falls on the United States. Sunset was quiet a spectacle however, our sunset even got a standing ovation from the massive crowd. No encore unfortunately.

After driving down Cadillac mountain we headed off the Island. We had reserved a "spot" at a campground called Lamoine State Park. It was about an hour long drive so once again we arrived after dark. I call it a "spot" because when we called to reserve it the kind ranger on the phone said " we have a spot left but it's really no good unless you really just need a place to sleep for the night". We were sold.

Welcome to the 20th Century- Vacation Part 3

After leaving Saratoga we continued North along the Hudson River. Along the way of Rt 4 we were hit by an exceptional storm. We pulled the car over to the side of the road near the bank of the Hudson and for nearly 20 minutes watched the storm rage around us. After that we decided that this would make a good first night in a hotel. We stopped at a Best Western just inside Vermont.
Our first stop the following day was the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park. This is a park dedicated to three owners of one house. George Marsh, Frederick Billings and Laurence Rockefeller all at some point owned the house. Their common mission was land stewardship. We took a hike on one of the carriage roads up to what they called the Pouge. It was basically a good sized pond that supplied water to the house and other buildings and water troughs. Quick history lesson: Mr. Billings also held huge investments in the oil and railroad industries at the same time he was committing  himself to land stewardship. Conflict of interests? Anyway Laurence was widely known  as a philanthropist and helped create many of the national parks as we see them today by buying and donating land (most notably in the Grand Tetons). He donated the house at the national park in 1992 and he officially moved out and handed the keys to the national park service in 2001.

The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller House. We took a tour but no photos inside are permitted.

Dan and I at the Pouge taken by two very nice ladies from New Hampshire who sat with us while we made a revolutionary lunch of spaghetti-o's and ravioli.

After returning from our hike and hopping in our car we sped out of Vermont and headed to New Hampshire (which wasn't far away). We drove over a covered wooden bridge to enter New Hampshire and once again arrived at the park almost at closing time. Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site proved more interesting than I originally thought. Augustus Saint-Gaudens was a sculptor and the historic site was where he did much of his work and lived for much of his life. There are many replicas and originals of his works scattered through out the grounds and buildings of the park. We rushed through many of the buildings because they closed at 4:30, but the grounds were open till dusk so we had plenty of time to explore them. History lesson: Mr Saint-Gaudens did many famous sculptures that you may recognize of President Lincoln and coin proofs like the $20 gold piece called the double eagle. He also happened to do the bronze face casting that we had seen a few days previously at the James Garfield NHS.

After leaving Saint-Gaudens (well after everyone else) we headed back the way that we came. And we saw that covered bridge. And our jaws dropped. Coming from the other direction it hadn't seemed all that interesting. Yes covered bridges are cool. However, this one was 449 feet long and built in 1866. After getting out of our car to take some pictures of this remarkable feat of 1866 engineering and throwing off the super excited and overly friendly bridge hunters (escaping them, not literally throwing them off the bridge)- we headed onward to Maine.

Notice the boater. And the fact that it didn't fit in the picture.

We fought here- Vacation Part 2

Our next stop was sort of unplanned in central New York in a town called Rome.It was unplanned because we ended up camping about 5 miles away from it in a state park where we got the last camp site. The place was called Fort Stanwix. It nestles itself between two rivers where one needs to portage, or cross the land, with a boat to get from one to the other (that used to be a big deal).Your history lesson: it was only called Stanwix when the British owned it during the French and Indian War. However since the Patriots took over the fort during the revolution, they decided that calling it after some British guy that they probably didn't like was a poor idea. So they renamed it Fort Schuyler. Go ahead pronounce Schuyler. I bet you didn't say "Sky-lar". Well that is how you pronounce it. Apparently in the English language if you put the letters schu it makes a "skuh" sound. Anyway the fort effectively halted the British forces during the revolution which helped the Patriots win victories at other battlefields like Saratoga (foreshadowing).

No it isn't an out house it is a guard shack. It sits on one of the bastions (that means corner that sticks out)

Our next stop was (did you guess it?) Saratoga! After finally escaping Fort Stanwix and their insanely friendly park ranger we headed to Saratoga. We finally were able to do our first hike here! We did a loop called the Wilkinson Trail. It wound us through many of the prominent areas of the two battles. Your quick history lesson: Saratoga was where the French decided that well, maybe those rebel Patriots really do have a chance of beating up those danged British guys that are really irking us at the moment. Why not help them? Once the French were on our side we had a fighting chance for Independence.Most of the world sees the American Revolution not as a war between Britain and Americans, but rather between Britain and France.
We missed the driving tour at Saratoga because our hike took a while, and we didn't realize the tour road closed at 7pm.

One of the stops on the Wilkinson Trial. The letters corresponded to a guide that told you what was going on

looks like a cannon

Dead Presidents- Vacation Part1

The James A. Garfield National Historic Site is nestled in the burbs of Cleveland Ohio. It was the first stop on our short anticipated trip to Maine. WE spent the night at Dan's parents house south of Cleveland and made the drive early. Early enough that the visitor center wasn't open when we got there. We wandered around the grounds till the visitor center opened and got in line (I suppose it was a Saturday...) for a tour of the house. Your quick history lesson: James Garfield was the "front porch" guy. It was the front porch of this house he gave his campaign speeches from. He was the first president that actually spoke for himself. He was shot in office but didn't die right away. He actually probably would have lived if the doctors had just left him alone. But alas medicine isn't what it is now back in 1881.

 Just in case you were curious what a man who had been shot and bedridden for a long time looked like, they took a cast of his face just after he passed.

The famous front porch. 

Moving right along we drove to New York in a hurry to arrive before the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site. Apparently we just barely made it in time. We were the only people there, but there was a nice staff of half a dozen park employees to help us. Unfortunately there was not much to see. There we doing a renovation so everything was moved away or covered with blue fabric. Out tour guide was very interesting though. His tour was more like him acting out a diary than a tour. History lesson: President McKinley was shot. Roosevelt rushed to him as the VP to see if there was anything he could do. McKinley appeared to be on the mends to a full recovery so Roosevelt left for vacation. Unfortunately he had to turn around and hurry right back in his vacation clothes because McKinley died. He borrowed a suit for the official swearing in. 

the Wilcox house.. where inside a president was sworn into office... after borrowing some nice clothes.. They do have a really catchy logo.

Pretzels

So tonight for dinner I made homemade Pretzels! They were delicious! I made the dough last night and finished making them today when I got home from an unexpected day at work where I got to visit the Jenny Wiley Theatre in Prestonsburg, KY. To get to Prestonsburg one goes south in Kentucky. The East. Then East some more. And for good measure go a little farther East. Anyway pretzels! They were spicy jalapeno cheddar, Italian seasoning, cayenne and salt pretzels.

They turned out really well this time and I think the big reason was instead of mixing the dough myself I used my handy dandy bread maker on its dough setting. It rose waaay better than I had ever gotten it to do. I also deviated from the cookbook directions slightly. I'm starting to get the hang of yeast and what it likes and doesn't like. Learning this is exciting to me! I feel like I can connect with my food more when I am coaxing a microscopic creature to help me out in making some awesome baked goods. 

Another example..

.. of why my neighbors rock.

I answered the door the other day to find one of my neighbors standing outside. While I don't have as much interaction with the neighbors across the street, we do generally have friendly waves, she brought over cookies for Christmas, I've taken her eggs in the past, and she has brought me chicken memorabilia (for lack of better words) from garage sales. Her husband likes to brew beer so he and Dan talk occasionally about that art. Anyway I answer the door and there is my neighbor standing with an empty egg carton and a pack of bacon. She says, "Hi, I was wondering if you had any eggs? I brought bacon for you!"

After scrounging the house, "you have a cat! Cats!" and then in the coop where she bemusedly met the guinea pigs, "guinea pigs!?" I got her the half dozen she was looking for.

We ate the bacon for Sunday brunch :) Yay awesome neighbors!

dandelions

Dandelions are a remarkable plant. Able to withstand so much, with so much abuse. They have gone from saving to damned in a very short amount of time. They were brought over by Europeans because they are edible and considered a herb as well as believed to have medicinal purposes. Now people just want them out of their lawns. Bring on the dandelions I say! Apparently the Guinea pigs agree:

Guinea Pigs! Now I have guinea pigs!? No, I am actually babysitting them thru September for a friend. But man. Dandelions are definitely top of their list. 

Bread and GMO's

I baked my first ever loaf of bread last night! It turned out excellent! The outside was nice and crispy and the inside was moist and soft. It was a beautiful thing. My new bread maker is my new favorite appliance. Well, it's my only new appliance. Well, its actually not even new. Dan scavenged it from the lunch room at his work. Apparently it have been sitting there for years looking for a home. Well it's mine now! I cannot wait to try out more recipes in it. Hopefully this will move me towards my goal of eating only non-GMO food. I will be able to buy GMO free flours to start and go from there. Here is my loaf of bread!

If you are not familiar with the phrase GMO you should be. GMO is the short term applied to a food that has a "genetically modified organism". The companies making these GMO's (namely a corporation called Monsanto) are actively telling the public these foods are safe and the good traits and benefits far outweigh any other issues. Monsanto also told us that some of their other creations -DDT (what killed off all the bald eagles among other animals) and Agent Orange (the defoliant used in Vietnam) were safe before people and animals started dying from exposure. Many European countries have started banning GMO crops. And it is the direction our country needs to move. The problem is that Monsanto is one of the biggest companies in the world, its based in St Louis, MO and Monsanto employees are scattered all throughout our government. It is easy to make sure your modified foods pass inspection when you run your own tests. These foods are slowly but surely being linked to the massive decline (called commonly colony collapse disorder) in honey bees. The ruin of honey bees is the ruin of us. Strategically and in true monsanto fashion they purchased the company who started to point the finger at the GMO's causing the decline in bees. No matter how magical a crop, it needs bees.  Want some more info?
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsanto
 http://www.naturalnews.com/035688_Monsanto_honey_bees_colony_collapse.html

I'll get off my soapbox now :)

Just a plain ole update

It has been dryer than a pair of gym shorts on the long cottons cycle. I mean seriously. We have had 0.27 in the last 27 days. The temperature forecast for tomorrow is 105deg. I've been managing to keep things alive. I bought a new soaker hose for the vegetables. They seem to enjoy it. I also laid down some of that weird no weeds cloth stuff to keep the weeds from getting all the water. So far the vegetables seem to be loving the change. The peppers are finally recovering from being eaten nearly to the ground by the deer and the beans are flowering. My 1$ cherry tomato plant is covered in green tomatoes on the back porch. I planted it in much to small of a pot so it requires daily watering. Live and learn right! My parsley, germander, chives, and oregano are all blooming. It really is amazing that people don't plant them as ornamentals! One of my neighbors actually asked "what that purple flower is". The look on his face when I told him chives was priceless. Dan and I also planted two apple trees. They are both 3 in 1 trees with gala, fuji, and yellow delicious. The deer ate about half of one of the trees so we will have to wait and see what happens. I think we may completely loose the gala branch. The chickens are doing well, however, Cookie hasn't laid an egg this month. I think she might be going through a molt, but it is hard to tell. Maybe she is just getting lazy. I have started a new workout regimen to try to meet my wedding weight goal. I have set myself a realistic goal and fingers crosses, I will achieve it not just for the wedding but for my own health.

Thanks for visiting!

Harpers Ferry National Historic Park- Memorial Day P2

So after we left Manassas and the battle of Bull Run, we drove to Harper's Ferry. We arrived at the HF Econo Lodge to spend the night. As soon as we crossed from Maryland to West Virginia the GPS lost signal. "Welcome to West Virgina. We don't call people." Luckily the Econo Lodge was just over the bridge. Harper's Ferry is a historic town with a lot happening. It is located at the corner of Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.  It is also where the Shenandoah River hits and joins the Potomic River. Needless to say it is very pretty and their are lots of signs. The historic part of the town is a recreation of mid-late 1800's business district. Your quick history lesson: Remember that guy you learned about in 8th grade history, John Brown the abolitionist? No? Well he tried to arm the slaves to start a battle to end slavery starting in Harper's Ferry. He was hanged. He should have waited a few years because the civil war started 2 years later. Harper's Ferry was also home of the largest Union surrender of the war. 12,500 Union troops were captured and told not to fight anymore until they were all traded for captured Confederates. Imagine half a full baseball stadium. Surrendering. And then someone saying, "Right so we can't actually put all of you in prison, so just promise me you wont fight 'till I say ok -ok?" The honor system was awesome in the 1800's.

These handy things were everywhere!

John Brown's Fort. It was only here some of the time. Apparently they moved this building around a lot in the 1800's. Brick by Brick. 

A view of the Shenandoah River from near Chambers' Farm and one of the foundations of John Brown's Fort on the Murphy-Chambers Farm Trial. 

Manassas National Battlefield Park- Memorial Day P1

After a wonderful holiday weekend visiting friends in Crofton, MD (a town nestled between DC and Baltimore). We headed to Manassas (aka Bull Run) Battlefield to spend our Memorial day properly- looking at memorials. We arrived a bit late in the day, around 4pm. This was due to an accidental poor route choice, where, instead of going around DC on memorial day- we tried to go directly through it. In the parking lot that was Pennsylvania Ave, I did get some cool pictures of some of the more attractive buildings in DC:

After arriving (finally) at the battlefield we caught the last tour of the day. A 45 minute short "hike" that explored the first battle of Manassas. I wish all civil war battles were so easy to understand! We were able to view all the major points of the first battle of Manassas in 45 minutes of stop and go walking. The second battle of Manassas on the other hand took a 3 hour 18 mile car trip to hit the major stops. Your quick history lesson: The first battle on Manassas was the first major battle of the civil war. Most people thought it would be the ONLY battle of the civil war, so they came out to watch. Well they were wrong. The Confederates won. The Confederates also won round two at Manassas. 

The Henry House- kinda in the middle of all the fighting. 

There's a bluebird on my.... cannon? That was captured by the Confederates? Do'oh!

Lucky

Today I feel lucky. Not lucky like I should go play the lottery. More "blessed" but really without that religious feel to it. Kinda like "privileged" but without the nose in the air snottyness. Content but eager. I'm sure the word I'm describing exists, I just don't know it.

I have five hens running around in the backyard watching me water my plants. I have a beehive that is going nuts in the warm summer air of today. I have peppers, lettuce, mint, parsley, spinach, rosemary, lavender, chives, thyme, basil, stevia, tucander, oregano, onions, blueberrys, raspberrys and strawberrys growing in the garden (or bathtub in the case of the lettuce). I have two adorable well adjusted cats. I'm babysitting two cute and squeaky guinea pigs. I have an absolutely amazing and supportive fiance. We have owned our house for two years now. I am planning our wedding in Ireland. I went to work today because I have a steady job with benefits. I went out last night with good friends. I went to the museum and saw the Pompeii exhibit with friends today. Thank you.

Finishing Coats

Finally got the finishing coat on the clawfoot tub! I have the option of a third coat but I figure I can do that once it is in place in the bathroom, also touching up any marks that are made during transportation. The final color is a Sherwin Williams gloss enamel in the color "creamery". Now I just need to finish the feet (the new one came in from Creative Castings in Seattle, WA this week!) and buy the faucet/ drain hardware. Well I guess I also still need to throw a party to get it up the stairs!

Ouch!

In other news today, I think I broke my toe yesterday. Dan and I have decided to make more of an effort to start hiking in preparation for a trip we want to take this summer/fall. So we have been going in the evenings to do short "hikes". Well yesterday I stepped up on a log, and then down off a log. Under a green bush there was a 1" dia tree stump that someone had cut to about 4" off the ground at a sharp angle. It went through my shoe and grabbed my baby toe while I was landing the decent from the log. All in all it HURT.

And still hurts. Hopefully gets better soon because I really want to do this trip this summer. Our goal is to hike across Isle Royal National Park. Isle Royal is a island in Lake Superior and the length of the Island is about 45 miles. I have my fingers crossed! (But not my toes at the moment )

Oh Honey!

Dan and I checked on the bees today! It was the first time that I got fully suited up since we got the bees on April 1st. I was much more relaxed this time, which is good news! The bees seemed to react much better to the smoking this time, but I think that was due to the fact that they had honey to eat now. (When you smoke bees their reaction is to eat as much as possible because they think there is a forest fire and they may need to move). The good news is , they had honey to eat now! And so did Dan and I! We got a small honey treat because they had built some honey comb in some weird places of the hive, so when we opened it up there was nothing for it but to scrape it off and save it for a sweet taste later! It was pretty awesome! The honey isn't quite fully fermented/ to the right humidity but it was still very sweet and delicious. It was just thinner than you would expect and had a little less color.

Our first taste of our backyard honey!

All and all it looks like the bees are doing great! We have another couple of boxes that we will be adding soon! Can't wait for harvest time. :)

2 year Anniversary!

Today is two years from the day Dan and I closed on the house. It really has been an adventure that I cannot say I have loved every minute of, but I can say I have learned every minute of. It is great to have pictures like this to be able to look back and see just how much I have done over time. I can wait to see in five years how much has changed. It really is exciting. Thank you to everyone who has helped me get this far.

May 2010

May 2012

Click image to see a larger composite of the two pictures

First White Coat!

Here is a picture of the first white coat of pain on the tub! I am using a Sherwin Williams oil based enamel primer. It smells REALLY bad. Looks nice though. 2 coats of this, then two coats regular high quality primer, then three top coats. Moving right along!

First Tub Coat!

Finally got the first coat of Penetrol on the tub! After about two hours of scrubbing with a wire brush, scraping and blowing with an air compressor, I decided I got most of the loose paint off and it was time to start resealing and finishing! The penetrol should seal the cast iron and rust deposits and prevent future rust. The first coat takes about 24 hours to cure and then I will do a second coat. It just looks clear, but when it would hit the cast iron it would turn almost black. Anyway the tub looks far worse than it did before. As my neighbor always says to me, "You have to make a mess to clean up a mess!" Cant wait till it starts getting primed!

April status

Things are definitely green around here! Spring is in full swing and the only thing in the yard that hasn't turned green yet is the mimosa tree. I remember talking to Dan about "taking that dead tree in the back out before it falls and ruins the fence" when we bought the house. Glad we were not in too much of a hurry! It is really stunning when it blooms. All my iris' that are going to bloom this year have buds! Unfortunately I moved quiet a few of them around to clean the soil of the grape vine that was strangling the iris (how in the world do you pluralize the word iris???) so I don't think they will bloom this year.

The upstairs bathroom is coming along! I haven't done much more work on the tub as I am debating my tactics. Do I want to strip the whole thing or just paint over it and try to obtain a smooth appearance with a lot of love and time? Either way its going to take a while and I don't want to try one way and then go back and want to do it the other. Anyway the second wall is completely gone now and my dad is in the process of repairing the hole in the floor from the old tub. Looking good! I still need to pick out tile. Remind me to never fully design my own house. I would die before I picked the siding color.

And i will leave you with a cute picture from today... This is Nora :)

And this is a picture of the beehive enclosure that I built to keep stupid people away from the hive. And Betty and Rye.

Busy as Bees!

It has been a busy Spring! I have so much to accomplish this Spring that I have hardly spent any time indoors it seems like! The tulips that I caged in have already bloomed and faded away. (The two I caged ended up being a red plant and an orange plant). I am very excited I was finally able to see them bloom this year though. I have also been moving lillys around like they are dishes straight out of the dishwasher. They all came from my side yard and are now all over the place. I even gave away a 5gal bucked of bulbs at work. Needless to say, I think the side yard may be back under control, for the first time in maybe 10 years. (We have only had the house for 2!). I replanted some of the lilliys in a bare garden spot I had in the back. However the chickens thought this was an awesome place to scratch and kept demolishing the lillys. I ended up buying some green plastic "fencing" and blocking off a large area of the garden to keep the chickens from harassing the lillys and two blueberries and a raspberry plant I have back there.

We have also been busy preparing for our bees! I made a lattice enclosure that matches the colors of the house to set against the back fence to hide the hive and keep predators, stupid people, our cats, and the chickens from having direct contact with the hive. The three sided contraption turned out pretty well and is just awkward enough that it takes two people to move, or one strong determined person (aka Dan). I also set up a cement fountain that my mom gave to me. This is so that the bees have a constant source of water that is not our neighbors swimming pool. (And the fountain looks great!)

Gathering supplies together to put the bees in the hive. 

We went and picked our bees up on April fools day, as fools we are. We brought them home and kept them cool and fed until evening when we shook them up, knocked them around, and attempted to pour them into the hive. Nothing quiet like a swarm of thousands of really pissed off bees. It took a couple of days but it seems like they are in a regular routine now. Friday evening we opened up the hive to make sure the queen had made it out of her box. (She come in a separate box when you buy bees, otherwise they would kill her, once they get to know her they eat the candy trapping her in her small box and make her their queen. Bees are pretty cool, you should read more about them). The queen had made it our of her box and is now happily in the hive. Attached to the queen box was some comb already! They had started to incorporate the queen box into the hive!

First sight of honeycomb!

The honeycomb is so intricate. It is amazing that they can make something so perfect on such a large scale when they are so small. Perfect hexagons with prefect circles inside. On the left side of the picture you can see how the pattern just sort of fades out. (The right side is where it got ripped off the queen box)

It appears the hive is doing well! Fingers crossed we get some honey this year!

Tulips

So today after work I build some tulip cages! It is basically two rods shoved in the ground with chicken wire around them. I'm hoping this Spring, our third at the house, I will actually get to see what color they are when they bloom. I got a bud last year before the deer chomped them all to the ground. So this year I built two cages. One on a purple and green leafed tulip in the garden by the street and one on a green leafed tulip near the from porch. Unfortunately my tulips are all over the place because when I was digging up all the daffodils I accidentally dug up the tulips too and all the bulbs were mixed together! Oops, (the first spring the deer got to the tulips so quick, I didn't know I had them till year 2 when strange leaves started appearing among the daffodils.)! This does however give my tulips a little cover before the deer munch them down, seeing as they are camouflaged by the daffodils which the dear are not quiet as fond of. So, hopefully they work! They look like weird fuzzy cacti!

Springtime Itch

I am ready. Ready for spring. I am ready to start my gardening adventure for this year. I hope that this year I will have more time and more motivation to do what I want to do with my garden and lawn. Now that the chickens are grown and easily managed I think I will be able to spend more time working in the dirt. I am also hoping to expand my tiny vegetable garden this year so that I can have a crop that is more suited to what I actually eat a lot of. Garlic, potatoes, onions, peppers are staples of my diet that I hope to grow. I want to work on turning my garden into an edible garden also. There are so many gorgeous plants that also serve as food. I am hoping that year two of my herb garden will also bring a better harvest and more productive care. There are still many plants that need to be moved around and spread out from the gardens long neglect. This will be the first spring that I get to use some of my composted chicken manure. I hope it is ready. The signs are good.  I am thinking about building a 10'x10' garden in the back yard to put into practice the native american trifecta or the "three sisters" garden. It is basically growing corn, beans, and squash very close together and allowing them to work off one another. A good article is here: http://www.reneesgarden.com/articles/3sisters.html . First i need to let the trees leaf out so that I can see if I get enough sun in my proposed area. I am also hoping to plant two dwarf apple trees this year. I think this summer is going to be full of trip to farmers markets and Findlay Market, and of course Natures Harbor Farm  http://www.naturesharborfarm.com/ Cant wait for this fake winter to be over!

Introducing! Pat

Today I would like to take a couple of minutes to introduce another chicken. Her name is Pat, short for Cleopatra. She was named this because of the awesome markings around her eyes when she was a chick. Also the Cleopatra exhibit was in Cincinnati when I got the chicks and a few friends were working on the load in. She is an Araucana or Ameraucana depending on how you want to spell it and lays light bluish green eggs. She usually seems to have a different agenda then the rest of my hens. She is always the first to roost in the evening and generally is only interested in a treat if everyone else has walked away (yeah right!). She is skiddish and not a friendly as my other hens, but she has some adorable habits.

A good picture of why we named Pat Pat @ 1 week old 

Pat in her awkward teenage phase @ 1 month old

Adult Pat on the prowl. I took this picture today @ 1 year old

Pat's favorite dust bowl. All the other chickens forage when I let them out of the run. Pat naps.