Procrastination

Procrastination is the key word of the day. I am tired from working 10 hours in the yard yesterday preparing for the snow/rain we are supposed to get later this afternoon. No, I am not ready.

I also have my first Cub Scout meeting today that I am not prepared for. I had all summer to get ready. I guess I work best under pressure.

Q&A: Why do I have a sheep?  -  I usually answer that question "Because I can". I live further out-of-town so I can do what I want (for the most part). City living in a subdivision would drive me insane. This is Daisy's sixth summer and she is purely a pet. I have never used her wool as it is expensive to process and I don't have the means to myself. I was thinking of doing a little of it next spring just to have a bit of her to save when she does pass on.

Zucchini Bread

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup sugar
1 cup finely shredded unpeeled zucchini
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel (I just throw in a splash of lemon juice from a bottle because I never have lemons on hand)
1/2 cup walnuts

In a mixing bowl combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg. In another mixing bowl combine sugar, shredded zucchini, cooking oil, egg, and lemon peel; mix well. Add flour mixture; stir just till combined. Stir in chopped walnuts. Pour batter into a greased 8X4X2-inch loaf pan. Bake in a 350* oven for 55 to 60 minutes or till a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove bread from the pan; cool thoroughly on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before slicking. Makes 1 loaf.

(At this house it gets cut hot and two loaves are eaten in about 2 hours. I freeze my zucchini in 2 cup portions so I can make two loaves at a time).

September 5....
They are just so darned cute. Foggy morning.

September 6....

Elijah running it in for the first touchdown of the game. We won this one!

Muddy game as it had been raining for a few days prior. Sprinkled some during the first half.

September 7....
Our last game of croquet for the season.

I love to sit by the fire pit. Wish I had the time to do it every night because our Fall is pretty short. Soon it will be winter and I'll be sitting by the fire inside.

 I'm really happy with our area. Twelve chairs so plenty of seating and the rock keeps it so clean.

September 10....
This is where we are with the hill. The two landings will be for gardens which are not going to be ready this Fall. The dozer went back so we aren't even sure we will get the fire pit and snowboarding hill done. Hopefully we'll get to use it one last time to finish up.

September 11...
I was at the school so I could go to Girl Scouts with Olivia. I saw this poster she made on the wall in the halls. She was the only child with ten family members. The most anyone else had was six (mom, dad, four kids). Guess she's lucky. She wishes for two dolphins. Not sure where that's coming from?

They had snack on the floor (I wish she would have had them sit at the tables).

Then they made a book. It's a two hour meeting and everything she had planned was done in about 50 minutes so they went out to the playground. We stayed 20 minutes and left. Delaying dinner and taking up our evening for the playground is not why Olivia is a Girl Scout. Hopefully in  future meetings they will do more to work towards their badges.

We stopped by the store because I had promised a trip to the toy aisle. Those two have to look at every single thing before making a decision. Ug! Grabbed some groceries and home for dinner.

Again I seem to be failing in the photo department. I am floundering and so far behind. My time management is pretty decent (except right now), but it seems there is just too much for one person to accomplish in a day. I guess *when I have time* I am going to have to better organize myself. I can do this!!

Wrapping Up August

(Post #3 on 9/12)

August 27....

I grew hundreds of peppers and they are still out there. These are yellow banana peppers if that tells you anything. I'm not sure what my deal is.... I just wasn't into harvesting this year. In a few days I will go out and pick them to freeze for stir fry this winter.

Olivia is such a big help... peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, early girl tomatoes and green beans.

August 28....
Emily attended the home school orientation and then helped me. (Home schooling is going great and she was ahead of the game, but then she spent two days with Grandma and now the last two days in bed sick... Nick, too... so she's about even right now).

Homer putting on my moose lights for a down and back trip to Anchorage. I can't see so well in the dark anymore and when it's raining and dark I feel almost blind.

Mandy.... if they would only stay out of the beds.

Emily and I went to town for "Gym" time. We saw Lucas on the playground.

She roller bladed and I walked Mandy.

At home we pulled the onions.

I taught her to braid them to hang.

August 29....
Put the Lucas and Olivia on the bus....

....and then left to Anchorage with Elijah. He had an appointment and Nick rode along to keep me company. On the way back we stopped at the State Fair and let Elijah go to a rap concert. Nick and I walked around and then I got a half-hour nap before the 300 mile drive home. We left at 9:30pm. Ug!!

I stopped once to sleep a few hours and then a second time for an hour so that the sun could rise. I was starting to see things in the dark that weren't there and was afraid I'd miss the moose that was!

This is what it looked like at 7:00 AM about 30 minutes from home. Why the big rush? Elijah had to be back so he could go to school Friday so he could play in the football game that night. He slept the whole ride and then a couple more hours when we got home before he went in to his class (he does the other's online). We got here just in time for me to put Olivia and Lucas on the bus. Then I went to bed for about four hours exhausted. (And I'm going to do it again tomorrow. He plays in Wasilla and I don't have a sitter so I'm going down in the morning, watching the game and coming back at 9pm so I can be here to watch the kids on Saturday. Gee.. it's only 600 miles and one game).

August 30....

Here's the game that we had to get back for. The Dog Bowl.... cross-town rivalry between our West Valley Wolfpack and the Lathrop Malemutes. We've won the trophy the last five years... unfortunately this year we lost and gave the trophy to them. Elijah is #13 in red.

He almost had a quarterback sack, but #74 held him all the way around finally letting him go when he was by the QB. No call. Our refs are horrible. Horrible.

The sunset during the game. My nieces Tisha, Michele and G-nieces Destiny, Jadyn & Justise all came to the game.

Playing under the lights.

August 31....
Thought I'd go ahead and wrap up August. Then I'll be out splitting wood while my sick kids lay on the couch using the Internet to watch movies on Netflix. Nick's throat is horrible and he has no health insurance so he doesn't want to go to the doctor. I'm just going to have to take him in because that isn't going to get better without antibiotics.

This day I worked on cleaning out the flower beds. Not my favorite thing to do by any means. It's depressing.

The rocks are almost done on part of the hill. Next to it I intend to make a Koi pond, but still haven't got it started. :(

Such a long process... pull the plants (compost bin or Daisy), clean off the wood chips (we stored in a pile), pick up the newspaper (went to the compost pile), till and then rake smooth. I like to be able to walk out in the Spring and get right to planting.

Homer took a week off to work on projects that need done before the snow. He really needs two months at home!

First Hard Frost

(Post #1 on 9/12)

August 25....
 Ack! Blogger is loading the photos in reverse order so then I have to try and move them around. So frustrating!

On this is the morning I woke up to find it had frozen and killed almost all of my flowers. I normally have them into September. Last Spring, Early Fall, very short growing season. Just the night before I was thinking I should pick bouquets on Monday for the teachers. Too late now.

Look at the size of this pile (which is now bigger).

Homer hauled dirt, I split wood, the little ones played and Emily had friends over. 

Passed this field of sunflowers when I gave her friends a ride home. Some years these people do pumpkins. I was going to do something like this this summer, but never even planted one sunflower. Have lots of packets of seeds for next year!

Hamsley sunning himself on his last day at the farm. How much do you think he weighed? (We got the call last night and will get him back tomorrow. He was 260 pounds! His eight litter mates raised at my husband's work were only 215-225. Guess my extra back scratching did the trick.) It's $415 to get him back all packaged.... hams, bacon, Italian Sausage, Link Sausage, Patties, pork chops, ham hocks... $1.60 a pound on the hoof. I'll have to weigh what we get and see what the price per pound is for returned product, add his cost and the cost of feed and see how feasible it was to raise him. 

Emily and I hauled wood chips for the chicken yard. Trying to make it 3-4 inches thick. Keeps them out of the mud in the rainy fall and during break-up in the spring. Looks much nicer, too.

Major Changes

(Second post of the day.... be sure to scroll down... don't miss the fun at The White House!)

August 22-24....

I've found a little motivation since my last post a few minutes ago.... I'm cleaning house while the photos load since my Internet is so slow. I see that the sun is shining so I'm going out soon. So many Fall chores to do. 

The "front" of the house is where my flowers are. The "back" of the house is where all the crap is that is supposed to by my lawn (I call it the Man Side of the Yard). To the left of the house is vegetable gardens and greenhouse. To the right the dog yard, dirt, trees, sledding hill. Major reconstruction of that area lately. 

Dirt being moved up behind the "Y" tree to make a better snowboard park for the young men Nick hangs out with. 

Beyond the dozer past the house is where my flower gardens are.

We had to clean up some trees and then dirt could really be moved.

Up, up and up.

Because we are who we are out "projects" develop as they go and always become much bigger than originally intended. The next decision was to dig out the bank next to the house.

You can see a portion of the 25 X 25 dog yard here.... the idea was to dig out the bank, move the dog yard over and put in a doggie door hoping they'll let themselves in and out. We are loud, busy and on the go... the dogs do not go to the door or whine... they just quietly go on the floor. Frustrating to say the least when you have 4 dogs. Cross your fingers this helps.

Then we looked at the big bank trying to decide how we could better utilize that space. We can't cut back too far... can you see the power lines in the back? Can't cut down the "Y" tree. Lucas said the other day "When I get big I'm going to kick a football through that tree". Can't disappoint him now. :)

We finally decided to cut down the trees in the middle so we could take some of that dirt for the sledding hill.

He scraped off the moss/stumps and they went down the hill to be buried.

This is a view from the top of the snowboarding ramp. All the "stuff" is where my lawn will be and that will all be moved over next to where the shop will be.

Beginning to develop the hillside and dog yard. I guarantee you will NOT believe what it looks like today. 

So let's do a recap.....

A couple weeks ago....

Today....

Before....

Now....

We still have a long way to go before it's "done", but progress is being made.