Bliss Beyond Naptime

Introducing Rosie, Diva Hen, Sneezey, Push, Duck, and Two Other Chicks

Can't remember the last two names and simply don't have the heart to wake the munchkin up to ask her. The chickens are here! The chickens are here! I really felt in touch with my Peruvian roots driving down the highway with this sweet parcel in the hatch back. Any curvy corner I took I can hear them cluckle (is that word?) and all I can imagine is the feathery aftermath if, God forbid, we got in an accident.

And just as exciting as the chickens is the chicken coop that Craig built with the kind help of our friend Kenny (who also happens to be the local rock/country star). It's been a stressful few days here with the puppy mayhem and chicken countdown so it was beautiful to see Craig age down a few years shortly after this picture was taken!

And this was the best part (for me anyway), watching Craig move the ladies into their new abode. I felt like we were watching that Japanese program that's always on the tv when we stay in a hotel room where the contestants are decked out in crazy padded outfits and asked to complete these insanely sketchy/dangerous obstacle courses and everytime someone bites it the English speaking announcers always say the lewdest/sexist remark? You know the show? What's that called... hmmm... I'll get an egg shot today at some point. They've already squeezed out five for us! Thanks ladies!

Introducing Ursa(la)

He calls her Ursa while Edie and I like to throw in an extra 'la' at the end for kicks. Isn't she sweet? She's a three month old St Bernard and a big baby. Big. Baby. I don't know. It's pretty full on and everyday I'm flip flopping whether to keep her or not. Kale seems so incredibly easy in comparison. He's like a goldfish. Just feed him whenever he flaps his little lips and it's like he's not even there. But this girl. Oh my. I got to get a puppy trainer here pronto. She's going to be a horse-dog here pretty quick.

A boy and his dog. We'll see how it goes. We had friends over to help with building the chicken coop (the chickens are coming today!) and they insist that Ursa's mellow compared to most pups her age. She's a sweet girl but, you know, the nipping, the crying, the barking when human babes are to sleep... ugh! look how wishy washy I'm getting! I'll see how the puppy training advice goes that will perhaps instill some confidence that this will work out. Until then, bring on the chickens and more craziness around here!

Here's the Dirt

So we're all on fire here after the farmers' meeting, spring's in the air, frost is just about to give its last kiss goodbye and the chickens are due to show up on Monday. We got some top soil from Paradise and my mum's here to help and hang out for the next two weeks. She met Kale for the first time last night and it's confirmed: he's extraordinarily cute.

And Edie's got herself a big girl bike now. The bike was a secondhand score and has 'L'il Sassy' written on it. Perfect for my little sass factor here. And it's purple ("so Kale can ride it" she says). And it has no Barbie or Disney marketing paraphernalia. Dada did well. So she tried to ride around and around the picnic table while I took my drumcarding outside to enjoy some freshly ground pine tree smells.

Carding, carding, carding. Edie's turning into my personal blog photo taker. You can tell because this is approximately how tall she is. I got my gardening hat on but I still have to pull together the rest of my 2009 gardening ensemble. Any ideas would be appreciated (I'm getting on those dreamy overalls, Angela!). I'm thinking bloomers with built in knee pads. Think Fly Girls meets Bronte sisters and they have a duke out and there's lots of pockets and poofiness involved.

 

Also just around the corner is the annual May Day Party and Parade in celebration of water here in town. I'm donating some yarn for the silent auction. I tried to make this one as liquidy as possible. I'm so happy my mom's here to partake in the event and meet all our wonderful town folk that have heard so much about her (at least my impersonations of her). Edie wants me to make her a Water Princess outfit for the festivities. Mum packed extra sequins in her carry-on just for that purpose. That's the dirt on all things happy at the moment :)

Farmers, Sewers and Farmers that Sew

We hosted this month's Farmers Meeting at our house this weekend. Already I heard some pretty positive feedback like it was a pretty laid back meeting which surprised me, me being the 'take yer filthy farmer shoes off at the door' Nazi. We gave these really sweet and experienced gardening warriors a tour around the land telling them our short term and long term goals in terms of orchards, animals, cob hot tubs and they gave us some pointers, ideas and advice to ponder. Then we had a pot luck and social and we still had time to partake in our bedtime routine as per usual (aka Battlestar Galactica season four).

See the really tall farmer in the foreground wearing the black shirt with red plaid shoulders? Keep him in mind for part two of this post.

Part Two: Also this weekend, the annual Yard and Yardage fundraiser at the local Threads Guild that I'm a member of. Each year I load up one of those huge black garbage bags full of vintage and/or funky finds and challenge myself to sew through it all the duration of the rest of the year. Really fun scores. And Mr Tall Guy wearing the black shirt? He sewed that wool jacket up himself. Super rugged type from generations of farmer/hunter guys, and really tall with farmer hands to boot, likes to sit at the sewing machine to wind down. So cute!

There he is with his just as cute wife when they held the Farmer's Meeting at their place last year. Love these two. The chickens we're getting next week are from their farm. I was pretty nervous to follow up their hosting act because everything they offered in terms of food fare was like this "these are the beans and onions from our garden, the pork's from our pig, the honey from our bees, etc..." I was wondering to my mom what to make after sharing that story to her and she suggested whipping up some Barney.

Had she suggested this in the morning time when his meowing wakes up Kale, I might have followed through with the idea. Lucky for him I have this photo to look at when I'm tempted. I made lasagna. Using noodles from our lasagna tree.

Good Morning Cuteness

Ironic that now the sun is rising earlier I'm sleeping in a bit later. And feeling much better for it! While making my first thing walk out to the office to turn on the internet the sun blasts me right in the third eye. So therapeutic. And when I sit down in front of the lap top, blam - same sun right on the dusty screen. Not so therapeutic.

This is what I wake up to as well these days. I made Edie's babies a hammock bed and she sets it up right at the kitchen table and tucks them in at night (in the quilt that Grandma Nancy made for them to match the one she made for Edie) and wakes them up in the morning. Really cute.

Then I wake up to this which is really cute too. Another book she's working on. She's kind of like some crazed out eccentric novelist these days. Always coming up with a new book idea. Finishing a page, pulling at her hair before flipping it over, drawing on the other side than throwing it on the floor.

That's the part I'm finding not the cutest. If anyone has any ideas on organizing such adorable chaos please flow them to me. I already perused my copy of Soulemama's Creative Family - some ideas there I'm going to play with, mostly for presentation but nothing for this sheer quantity of child genius by product. Totally don't want to stifle her little throat chakra but Gods, man - everything should have a place, right?

Speaking of cute, we visited some friends who just adopted the most beautiful little girl. Maybe one day she and Kale will get married. You never know. The visit was so inspiring. Really, the world's cutest family. I got pretty mesmerized by this babe and forgot to capture the cute parents, the cute house, cute chickens, cute cat and the cute puppy. I'll just throw in some puppies that kinda looked like him I find through the interwebs:

I know. Let's all use our Jedi powers at the same time to manifest one of these here at the Quack House.

Easter Drama Bunny

Our neighbour across the street has an annually Ukranian Easter Egg decorating party on Good Friday. I'm so happy this is an annual event. This is definately an arena that takes some practicing. So much fun though. Not so much fun though when you burn yourself with melted black wax (ooooo, that would make such a cool girl band name - still brain storming on that one, Blande).

Ouch! That's gotta hurt! Little Princess got a big blob of hot love right on her little hand. It's like we're siameses twins sometimes, me and her. Especially at this party. My little cylon Klingon. That's okay. She was pretty bummed after that singe episode so she sulked on the couch and drowned her sorrows in her beer.

Speaking of Klingons, I heard some distressing news at the party. The alternative school we were leaning toward sending Edie to eventually is totally revamping their structure and location. Primarly it's the location that's the hugest turn-off for me. That and it will probably mean the classes will be starting at an insane hour. Like 8:00. Edie was up once before 8:00. And it was 7:45. Because it was Christmas morning. See what I mean? Now, we're going to look back into homeschooling again. If anyone can recommend some good books on the topic that would be great...

Easter morning came and Edie looked and looked in and around her Fairy House...

... looking, looking...

And finally she came across this strange object she's never seen before. What is it? - I asked her. I don't know. She says. I had to explain it was a chocolate easter bunny. Her first one obviously. She wants to eat the butt first. I'm an ear girl myself.

Edited to clarify Craig made the egg on the left and I the one on the right! We then settled in for a breakfast of blueberry buttermilk pancakes (buttermilk from our beloved butter lady) and sausage and flourished the table with our Ukranian/German/Hungarian/Peruvian eggs. The first flowers from Edie's garden were a pretty touch too. Anyone can tell us what kind these are? Is this a crocus among us?

And Mr Bunny also left her some Silly Putty and a beautiful giant hollow egg  - like ostrich sized - painted with girly bunnies all over it and filled with treats such as a baby sleeping duck (Edie named her Kaloopa, but her nick name is Quacky Duck), modeling clay, worry dolls (Craig named them Choking Hazzards), and this nifty little paint brush that she was eager to test drive right away. Yes, those are her panties on her head. See why we're looking into homeschooling?

The Scorpion's Stink

A couple pieces of explaining to do here. Stink is a joke between me and Edie. Whenever she says sting I say "wha? The bees stink? Gross! What do they stink like?" And we lauuuuuuugh. AND, both my kids are Scorpions. No, no you Battlestar nerds (or am I so two years behind even in my nerdiness now?), not from the planet Scorpion, as in astrological sign. I'm not the most on top of my astroogy mind you, all I know is when Edie was creeping up to her due date I was keeping my legs crossed for a Sag because that's what Craig is and I like what I know. Nice and docile like a sweet milk-giving cow (just kidding, babe. You're all bull.). Living in these neck of the woods, your astrological sign is right up there with your genetic coding. Everyone, and I mean everyone, when I told them that number two was due on Edie's birthday was like, "whoa, a house with two scorpio kids? Yikes". So, I was starting to get nervous.

I have to admit, everyday there's a Scorpio moment with this one. Usually pretty short lived though. Stink then the stink goes away. Slowly. Such as the day of this photo shoot - mind you she still had some cold lingering that she kindly passed on to me. I made her the cutest little ensemble from this same Japanase pattern book, Floofy Girly Girls, or something like that and she tried it on and whoopsie-daisy, the pants are too big. Look out. Big time Scorpio Stink. She hated how they went up all the way to her belly button. She likes her pants fitting low rider style. I was always like that too have to admit. The following day I asked her to please, please, wear the pants just one more time so Mommy can post a picture of how cute the top and pants look together and then you'll never need to look at the monstrous things again. Finally, I caught her in a mild sugar high or something and she agreed to wear them for a couple of pics but the deal is she can take a picture of me right after. Oh, sure, I said - even though I hate getting my picture taken.

So there are the pants in all their ex-sofa slip cover glory. Love the fabric but we no longer have the couch (that was my lucky couch I had from my swinging single twenties. Craig insisted we get rid of it. he's such a Sag!) so turns out they make the perfect slacks fabric. In lieu of ties, I used some leftover neon merino yarn from day three of the Yarn Everday challenge of April felted up to sinch around the ankles. Craig calls them a tripping hazzard (or maybe he was referencing his swinging single twenties).

After the shoot Edie wanted to act as her own stylist so I took some pics of her wearing the ruffle top, from the same pattern book, with the ensemble of her own creation. Yeah, you can see the colour creeping back into those cute Scorpion cheeks! And then she took a picture of Mama. See the relief in my eyes that the stink blew over? I can see clearly now the stink is gone...

Tom Thumb and Green Thumb

I got a cold. The first one in a long time. It's more of a sore throat runny nose thing so a part of me was worried that maybe I'm allergic to spinning every single day. But I persevere. So if my writing is super wacky that is my excuse. I'm feeling kind of spacey. This is my Monday contribution for Yarn Everyday and was finished up in the nick of time just as Tom Thumb stirred awake (calling him Tom Thumb for sake of a fitting blog post title - not necessarily fitting for him unless it's a thumb with elephantiasis we're talking about).

Craig (can't take any of the credit here; was ill'in) got on the starters this weekend. The snow is almost gone and we're hosting the next Farmer's meeting here in a couple of weeks. We're going to give them a tour of the land and they'll be offering their advice from their experience what to put where. We have so many projects that are starting up this year so it's a bit overwhelming.

We've been reading, reading, reading. This is hardly a dent into the pile we have going on right now. The chickens are coming in a few weeks and the book I'm excited about these days is the Milking Goats the Modern Way (which is pretty funny because the cover of the book is sooooo seventies). Definately a new chapter in our lives. I told Craig a thought I had walking to the mailbox - it suddenly dawned on me that I'm going to have to kiss my lazy ass ways goodbye pretty quick here. Like, get out of my pajamas before noon and such. He agreed. Edie's excited and too is always saying "we're never going to have to go the grocery store again!". She totally gets it.

Busy Bee

Here's a little dose of Kale to squeeze your cute quota over the weekend. I'll be a better blogger next week, I promise! Took the little big guy (the one at the top of the photo) to the doctor for a 'well-baby' check out. Well, baby, just as we expected, he's a big boy. In the 95th percentile! Explains why when we call him 'Tiny' he smiles each time. He gets the sarcasm irony. This Yarn Every Day Challenge has chewed up a lot of my mommy time so not getting up to the sewing room which is where I want to live in these days.

This makes for a bit of a different routine here. In the evenings whilst watching Battlestar I spin. In the morning whilst Craig practices his yoga beside me, I spin again. Quite therapeutic spinning in the morning by the fire. Real mind-quieting. Then I wet set the yarn being able to take pictures by the afternoon and upload them and share with other sadomasochists before Craig shuts of the internet connection for the day. I'll have a nice inventory by May anyway. Kale is finally down for a long nap it seems. I'll see if I can cut into this sofa slipcover from our old couch and make Edie a pair of slacks. She'll look just like her dada in these seeing how he lives in Army Surplus pants. Ooooo... I should make Kale a pair too! Oh the cuteness that surrounds me these days...