Backyard

 Minnie Mouse in the Back Yard..."collecting sticks"

Love the green that the rain brings!

 

Josiah helping his sister back down the hill, he takes such good care of her!

Country Time

I love living in a place where our kids can romp for hours exploring nature. Sweet Pea is covered in dirt, sticky from pomegranite juice and bathed in sun while J. is herding chickens, playing with trucks in the dirt and leaves, and sword-fighting oak trees and imagary bad-guys. They literaly can play together for hours outside. No park necessary. I love it! I also love how I can see our property growing with their ages. When they are older, they will surely venture up the hillside, make a fort in the oak at the top of the property, hike up the hill and have their own adventures in the brush with the wildlife around.

The other day the cutest thing happened that I have to document. It started off as finger painting. Then the paint got everywhere, all over. Then everyone's clothes came off as they tried to "clean up" and they ended up romping in the yard and on the hill, playing in the hammock, naked as the day they were born. 

Finally, mamma decided it was time to wash off. Not wanting paint all over the house, I decided to fill up a five gallon bucket with hot water from our outdoor shower (best-thing-ever, by the way). 

Little Miss K was first. 

I put her in and she said;

K- "Mommy...it's hot!"

Me-"ok K, Ill put some cold water in and cool it off..."

K thought a second, felt the water and then stopped me.

K-"No, mommy, it's not hot. I like it! Not hot. Not hot."

Me- "Ok, are you sure? It is kinda hot..."

K-" I like it!" 

Before I knew it, she had sunk down to her chin in her baby-hot-tub and she sat there for at least 20 minutes, closing her eyes and soaking in hot water bliss. Clearly, just like her mamma. When I finally pulled her out to make room for the next kid, she held on, kicking and screaming because she wanted to keep soaking. 

Girl after my own heart ; )

Country Time! - Night time visitor

             

                               We were in the process of moving the chicken one night and one chicken decided to come and check out the high life. She perched up there, took a look around, hung out for a few minutes and then returned to her coop. 

Oh, and we took the screen off of the kitchen window so we could throw the compost scraps right out to the chickens when we are cooking. 

Yes, we are just that redneck now-a-days. 

It's great.

We sold our kids.

Our kids were for sale. 

 Then we dropped the price when they didn't sell fast enough.

Don't get me wrong, Rebah and Dolly are like little dogs. We took them on walks and they trotted along right beside our ankles.

When we  ran, they would buck and gallop and skip, jumping and excitedly kicking up their heels. We did't even need to have them on their leashes! They just followed along! They were pretty fun.

 They were too loud for a while, so we gave them a two week trial period to shape up. Then we got impatient put them up for sale anyways.

Nobody called so we dropped the price.

Hmmm. There were only three options.

1. Keep them.

2. Eat them.

3. Sell them.

Every time they annoyed me I threaten to eat them and I reminded them that they were technically for sale.

Every time they acted super cute as Josiah and Kaila  wrestled with them, I smiled fondly and I was glad to have our little farm. What a great experience.

Then someone called, and just like that, we sold our kids.
Maybe we'll try again in a few years...or maybe we'll try something entirely different...

Only time will tell.
 For now, we are down to two kids, and those ones are too precious to sell ;)

Country Time!

How many times in your life do you get to hold a humming bird in your hand? This little guy flew in our house the other day. It took him a minute to realize I wasn't going to kill him before he flew off. 

Country Time!

I couldn't resist this picture of the kids feeding the chickens. They sat there forever, methodically dropping oak leaves and beet greens through the wire on the ground. Soooo cute!

Country Time: Love-Hate Relationship

Twin fawns spotted from our dining room window. The deer are bold and active this time of year.

I love it when Josiah yells "A Deee!! A Deeee!!!" and when Kaila kicks and gurgles and focuses in on them, tracking their every move, fascinated. I love how connected to nature we are here.  I enjoy it when visitors oohh and awe over little deer families serenely cruising the quiet hillside behind our house. I loved the time I saw two ginormous (oh yes, I just used that word.  Just sound it out) 5-point bucks fighting outside our kitchen window. 

I hate it when those deer come down and munch the just-blooming buds off the flowers I have been tediously tending for months. I hate it when I have a beautiful landscape, with proper deer-protection methods in place, and they still manage to come in and shatter my dreams of having a Better Homes and Gardens front yard. I'll admit it.  I hate it so much I often daydream about having a some backyard Bambi for dinner. 

Don't go calling Fish and Game just yet, I'll hold off another year. I'm asking Santa for a deer fence for Christmas. That should be a win-win for us and the deer. If Santa gets stingy though, watch out. I just may call up the Freitas Family for some backup and tell you not to ask what kind of meat is in that hamburger we just BBQ'd up.



*Disclaimer: Yes I know it's illegal, I wouldn't' really do it. And no, I could never kill a fawn. I'm not that cold.

Country Time

Critters are all over this time of year. We have a family of 7 foxes waking us up in the middle of the night with their odd, honking noises, deer, all types of quail, doves and other birds, and recently, we have had several bee swarms.

They make Ryan squeamish, but I find them facinating.When an existing hive gets too big, a bunch of bees, break off to find a new location. The swarms aren't dangerous. Bees are only aggresive when they are protecting their young or food, and since these bees are kicked out of the hive, they don't have either.  
What is amazing is that inside the swarm, there is a sort of democratic process that goes on. When the bees are forced to move, "scout" bees go and find a new location. When the scouts come back, they stand, two at a time, next to each other and do a little dance to communicate what they've found (size, location, etc. of the potential spot) to the rest of the bees. The rest of the bees then "vote" by moving nearer to the scout they choose. The scout with the most "bee-votes" wins. Then another scout comes in, and they vote again. They do this until there is only one scout left, and that scout leads them to the new site. Amazing right!?

The swarm on the move. You can see the cloud of bees against the sky.

They find a branch, the queen settles down there and the rest of the bees pile on top and all around her. This was a small swarm. Another one came this last weekend and it was two or three times this size. Note to self: Keep the garage door closed!

The first swarm was collected by our local honey-farm. They will re-home the bees and use them to make local Atascadero Honey. In case you were wondering, yes, that is a shop-vac attached to a wooden box in a wheel-barrow. They sure know how to get things done around here!