Category Archives: Outdoors

My Laura Ingalls Wilder Experience

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We gardened on Saturday, like we do every week. But…it was different…

*le gasp*

Okay, no, not like that. :P We did garden on Saturday, and continued prepping for the winter planting. We tore out zucchini and more cucumbers, picked pumpkins, dug up potatoes, fed the sheep, and…

(You can barely see the wheelbarrow under that enormous load of zucchini. o_o)

…we roofed a cold frame.

It was amazing. I totally felt like Laura’s pa, unfolding and securing a temporary roof on their cabin. Except this roof is permanent. :D

Duh duh duh dun…

We got the eighty feet of plastic sheet into position, and hoisted it up, over, and then back down, the structure of the cold frame. ^_^

And here it is all covered over!

The guys still had to pull it tight, but in the picture it’s almost done. :)

This is our harvest, bereft of tomatoes! :D We picked lots of pumpkins, the last of the cucumber crop, and lots of potatoes, too.

On an ending note, it’s Mikah’s eleventh birthday today! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE BRO!

I LOVE MUSHROOMING

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I had forgotten how much I adore mushrooming. B-) If the drive’s rather long, and it takes awhile to find anything, it doesn’t matter once you actually find the mushrooms.

We went mushroom-hunting for chanterelles yesterday. ^_^ It was SO MUCH FUN! I absolutely love looking for mushrooms. :P But I’m being repetitive. Moving on…

We wanted to find a mushroom-y place to look for mushrooms ( :roll: ) that was closer to home this time around. :D We ended up driving at least an hour or so last year.

After a couple wrong turns, and a couple miles of driving, we definitely found a MyPtLfM (Mushroom-y Place to Look for Mushrooms). XP

We found lots of yellow chanterelles, and some white chanterelles as well. :) Which was cool, since I didn’t even know there were different types of chanterelle mushrooms. ^_^

There was some morning fog, but the sun burned it off eventually… It was really gorgeous.

Spectacular! ^_^

And then the sun came out! :P

Not a Proper Post, But an Excited One! =D

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Just checking in to say we’re going mushrooming for chanterelles today! I’m so excited. We went mushrooming last year and got loads of mushrooms (in fact, we ate the last of the them about a month ago–hurray for freezers!). ^_^

So while this isn’t a proper post, I promise there will be one soon, ’cause of course we’re taking along the camera and it’s a sure thing to get lots of pictures. :)

Seeya in a bit, my flower! (Anyone recognize that quote? Besides my lovely sister… :P ).

Because Winter is Inevitable

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Well, I think the fact that winter is coming has finally sunk in. Rather grudgingly, anyway. Our garden work changed from weeding summer crops, to taking out the crops altogether, and preparing for new ones. :)

On Saturday, we started work on the beans and cucumbers–getting the last of everything off the vines, and then tearing the plants up and feeding ‘em to the sheep. The sheep were very happy. :P

The beans took up the majority of our time. We had left a good number of beans on the vines a month or two ago, so they would dry and we could use them in stews and such later on. We had to harvest all of the beans (literally hundreds O_O), untangle the vines from the rope supports, and cart everything away.

Wow, that sounds a lot simpler than it really was. :P

But eventually (six *pant* hours *gasp* later) everything was done, and we could pick tomatoes, take pictures, and then head home. It was very satisfying in the end. :D

Out in the main garden, the leaves on our pumpkin plants had withered and died, to reveal bright orange orbs of October-ness! Because pumpkins are rather symbolic of October, wouldn’t you think? :)

So that’s that for the garden update. ^_^ I’m not quite sure what we’re going to plant for winter, but we’ll figure it out soon!

Not for Arachnophobics

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We found this MASSIVE spider lurking in the beans while gardening today. He was pretty cool. :D Check out his coloring! It looks like a face! :P Albeit a somewhat creepy face…

Even though Naomi is a little freaked out by spiders in general, she was interested enough to take this picture. Which–and I think you’ll agree–is a pretty awesome picture. :D

I’ve been really interested in phobias recently, ’cause my NaNoWriMo heroine is an aquaphobic. And I have very little idea what that means, since I love water. So, yes, I need to do some research. ^_^ Are there varying degrees of aquaphobia? Will she be terrified of something like drinking a glass of water, or is it only bigger things that freak her out?

Rain

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The autumn weather officially started about a week and a half ago. Normally I’m quite happy to see all the rain, but this year I want summer to stay. Maybe it’s because I spent so much time away from home this summer, and so didn’t get my share of Oregon sun. :) At any rate, winter is coming on fast, and this morning during barn chores, my fingers and nose felt the cold. :P *shiver*

In honor of the rain, here’s a quote from one of my stories:

Rain dribbled off the tent sides and slid into the sand. Rain, marking my departure, the coming winter, plopping angrily at Father. It was raining in the desert….

On second thought, that isn’t that great of a quote, though (I think) it works well in the story. Oh well. :P It’s from the very beginning of chapter two, and rather melancholy. ^_^

And speaking of my stories, I have officially (it was unofficially decided quite some time ago) to have each chapter of my NaNoWriMo equal a day. So “Chapter 1″ is “Day 1.” Should be sorta cool to write! :D

Time to bid you all goodbye, ’cause Naomi has an orthodontist appointment (an insanely early one, if I say so myself :P ) and it’s time to leave for town. *waves*

Restoring the Ruins (Part 2)

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The recap post part 2 is finally here. :D Now, because I’m terrible awkward at introduction paragraphs, I shall jump right in to the awesomeness of this post. :P

I’M IN HIGH SCHOOL!

I’m thrilled because…

  1. It isn’t just called 9th grade. No. It’s called my freshman year of high school. And that’s coolness in and of itself. :D
  2. My social studies is called world geography.
  3. My science is called biology. Now, while my favorites of the science “ologies” are climatology, seismology, geology in general, and a couple other things, biology remains, as ever, pretty awesome.
  4. I’m officially in algebra! *faint* YAY! I love algebra! Or at least pre-algebra. I’ve peeked in my heavy-duty, 2 inch thick workbook and–apart from the fact that the size of the font is maybe 2x smaller than my last workbook–everything is overwhelming. o_o

And, guess what?! We have chicks! They up and wandered into our barn during evening milking a couple weeks ago. Awwwwww. :D They’re pretty cute.

And because they have grown up quite a bit since that last picture, here’s another one. :mrgreen:

Photo credit my sister, Naomi. :D

Ta-ta for now, folks! *rides zooms into the sunset mountains with her nonexistent snazzy Jeep*

Our Very Own Garden… Kinda

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Some friends of ours have a garden, and offered to give us what we grow in it if we help out! :D We had our very first garden in California, and it was just boomin’, but then we moved here and… hm. Our first garden here was a floppin’ failure. We brought in compost, but eventually discovered it was dead. Also, the deer plagued it as they hadn’t pestered our old garden in the California city. To sum it all up, nothing grew. :(

Five years later, here we are again! :D


Mom drove over there to plan everything out a couple weeks ago, and then she, Naomi, and Mikah went over there yesterday to get started. They laid down compost, tilled it, planted, and got everything going. I stayed home to take care of the animals here and apparently, I missed out on all the hard labor. :P


They came home pretty much dead-on-their-feet. No, scratch that, they were dead-on-their-feet before they left! :P

We’re going back in a week or two (and that time Naomi’s staying home while I go!) to check on our plants’ progress and do a bit of watering and weeding.

Είμαι πίσω

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The title of this post is Greek for “I am back.” :D

Well…where to begin. :P Miracle is the most adorkable (love that word!) baby goat EVER. I know I say that every time we have a baby around but it’s true! ;) She’s grown a bit and jumps on everything. If you sit down somewhere, you’re liable to have a baby in your lap in about five seconds. And once she’s in your lap, she plunks down and starts chewing her cud.

It’s seriously CUTE. :D

She also climbs into the hay rack and snoozes in there. And she comes into the people area of the barn. She’s small enough that she fits through the holes in the cattle panel fencing. ;)

In other news, Gracie is doing excellent! She’s giving 30+ cups of milk a day. Practically 2 gallons. And her calf, Mercy, is wonderful too. We lock Mercy up with Fiddlesticks and Miracle in the baby stall every night so Mercy doesn’t drink all of Gracie’s milk during the night. Because of that, Miracle and Mercy have become great friends. :)

Let’s see what else… Oh, my novels are coming along great! :D I got a ton of work done yesterday on my fantasy novel and hopefully I can accomplish as much, if not more, work today as then. I’m praying! Freedom Trek, which, if you’ll remember, is the novella I finished in 2009, I’m editing again. It’s currently on its 3rd edit and…yeah. I’m waiting for Naomi to finish reading/critiquing it so I can wrap it up! I’m also working on a sequel for Freedom Trek, but that’s on hold as of a couple weeks ago. Basically right now I’m putting all my novel energy into finishing my fantasy novel, which I’m bringing to…

…KANSAS THIS SUMMER!

I don’t know if I told you, but my OYAN class has a summer workshops/reunion annually in Kansas. I wasn’t able to go last year, which was the first time it was held, but my awesome auntie and super grandma ( ;) ) are taking me this year.

So anyway, I need to finish my fantasy novel so I can get it critiqued when I go.

One last thing, I think. I should get my braces off in a couple months! :D I know it was six mouths away in August but since my top 12-year molars decided to be tricky, my time has been extended. :( Still, as long as my last molar to come in comes in well and fast, they should be off soon! I’m so excited. :D June 24th, 2011 marks my 2-year anniversary of braces so I’m hoping to have them off by then. :P

Ooh, and that’s my signal to wrap this up! My laundry is beeping!

Areli, Our Puppy

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We have a puppy! :D Her name is Areli (uh-REL-ee), which means “lion of God,” and she’s amazing.

She’s a Boerboel x Kangal cross. The Kangal breed comes from Turkey while the Boerboel comes from South Africa. She’ll be a big dog, and you can definitely tell from the size of her paws! Her father, the Kangal, was huuuuge. If he stood up and propped his paws up on Baba’s shoulders, he’d be at least a head and a half taller. Baba’s just under 6 feet. Areli’s mother, the Boerboel, is big, but shorter. She is more muscular while Areli’s father is leaner and big. ;)

We’ve been training her according to Jan Fennell’s method, based on the hierarchy of a wolf pack. It’s working! :D

She came with fleas, unfortunately, so we’ve given her a couple baths. The fleas seem to have disappeared!

The goats are still freaked out and Paisley will butt her to the ground, but Areli’s relationship with them seems to be getting better. Areli and the ducks have a long way to go. ;) Puppy likes to sneak up on them, leap into the air, and chase them all around. :roll: We’d like her to chase them off the front porch, but to then leave them alone. Discipline!

To view more of the bathing pictures, visit my Facebook album.

Paisley’s Birth

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I’m sure you’re all wondering what happened to Paisley. After all, I haven’t posted in ages! Well, she gave birth on the 29th of July, the day before my birthday. But the baby buckling got stuck in the birth canal and despite our efforts, suffocated. :( Naomi and Mom had their hands in there and eventually got him out, but it was too late. :cry:

All the other babies are fine. :) We’re bottle-feeding Daisy’s babies because we don’t think they’re getting enough milk. They looooove it. :lol:

We’re milking Paisley, but only on one teat. Her other teat has a bump in it that prevents milk from squeezing out… She’s had that bump since last winter. It’s really weird…

Gingham is due on September 11. Pray for an easy and successful birth!