School's out for summer.....

School is out!!  I countdown the days worse than my boys!  I love summer and the things that summer brings.   It's been less than a week and I feel like I am stressing myself out w/ a mental list of ALL the things we "need" to do this summer.  
 There is the responsible list:
 A. Paint the exterior of the house.
 B. build a deck
 C. Clean out the chicken pen and dog kennel
 D. redo flower beds and spread mulch...
 E. finish upholstering Mrs. McReynold's chairs that you've had for a month!
 F. put a new floor in the kitchen, bathroom and shop.
 G. add on a new laundry room.

 You get the idea. 

THEN there is THE LIST!:
A. Go to DC for the 4th to watch the BEST fireworks and see Smithsonian again.
B. Paint the rain barrel something crazy
C. make that table out of all the bottle caps we've been saving
D. Hang the lights on the patio ( I got them for Christmas :)
E. Go to the BEACH. ALOT
F. Take Cooper to SeaWorld and Oliver to Legoland.
G. Go Camping on the Beach (primitive, next to the water kind of beach camping)
H. Spend lots of time @ the River taking pictures of my boys.
I.  EAT lots of watermelon -them, not me. I'm allergic.  BUT I love the smell of them eating.
J. Fill my beverage server w/ bubble mix and let them blow and spill bubbles all over the 
     yard
K. GRill, Grill, Grill.  and eat veggies from the garden. 
L. Let the boys make the 8x20 visquine slip & slide in the backyard and not worry about the dead grass landing strip it leaves when they take it up.  It'll grow back.

Again, you get the idea.   I could go on w/ both lists.  I may get a few completed off of both lists too.  My lists do not include the schedules of summer football workouts, swim team practice /meets or play practice @ BLT.  These are also important lists b/c are also part of our summer and determines how much time we can spend on List #2.  

Basically list #1 is stay @ home and work.  List#2 is run away from home and all of it's work!  Where's it gonna go anyway? It'll be there when we get back. 
 There's always the Fall.   No wait, that's football season and soccer......  

We'll see @ the end of the summer if I get anything accomplished.   Thanks for reading.facebook

End of the school year

Wow! It's been a quick month!  The boys have 1 day of school left and we are ready!! Oliver graduated from kindergarten last night.   Baseball has ended and swim team is starting. Parker leaves for Youth camp next Tuesday and has football all summer.  So much for summer break :)   Cooper received 2 awards today, 1 was for all A honor roll for the whole year. The other was voted by the class and he was named Top Mathmatician.  He was so proud!

 Our garden is beautiful in spite of a hail storm that destroyed most of the new plants.  They looked like they had been hit by a weed eater.  But almost everything bounced back and is blooming.  The only thing that didn't come back after the hail was the spinach. I'll post a pic tomorrow of what is left, it looks like a deer got to it.  I was really looking forward to fresh spinach and feta omelets this summer.  I'll have to settle for store bought spinach for now.  We should have squash to eat in about a week, it looks beautiful.  We used barn compost from my friend Melinda's horse barn to turn into the soil for fertilizer and it is awesome!!

I hope to have more information to blog over the summer.  Due to baseball 3 nights a week for the past several months I haven't cooked much.  We've been eating a lot of Grilled Chicken Salads and sandwiches before ballgames.   I've been making coaster sets out of ceramic tiles to sell in my booth and I sold 30 sets between Mother's day and the end of school ( w/ the help of my PR Rep, Dawn).  Now I'm working on Father's Day designs for "the Man Caves".  So far I have vintage beer labels that are really cool and look great.  I want to do some w/ Golf designs and fishing motifs.  The coasters sell better than anything else in my booth right now so I'll keep making them and doing new designs. 
 I guess that is all for tonight. Everyone around me is snoring- The little boys fell asleep downstairs, one in the chair and the other on the dog bed :\  The dog, Shorty is snoring b/c he's not on his bed and can't get comfortable. I'm glad I washed the dog bed before my washing machine died.  Oh yeah, that happened too. Fortunately it's under warranty but the part won't be here until next Friday! We'll be out of clothes by then.  I'm going to the laundry mat tomorrow afternoon and do all of it!  Speaking of things breaking I am reminded that we had to have a fuel pump replaced in the Yukon and the transmission went out in the Cargo Van in the last 2 weeks.  Hopefully we are finished w/ repairs for now. 


#13 Parker's Spring Jamboree 5/16/12

Rain barrels and chickens

During Earth Day weekend Oliver & I attended an Earth Day Festival and made a rain barrel.  I've been wanting a rain barrel for years!  I think it's an awesome way to collect the pure & clean rain as it falls from the sky.  Of course, it has only rained one very small shower since we installed our barrel. It is about 1/2 full or empty (depending on your personality type).   After attending the workshop I am now ready to make more!!  I had been over thinking the whole process of making a rain barrel, it was so simple.  I have my eye on 2 barrels, I just have to verify that they are food grade barrels, not chemical and make an offer to trade for something they may need.  I plan to water the chickens w/ the rain barrel that we installed first since it's next to their pen.  They go through at least 5 gallons of water every few days, especially when it gets as hot as it was today (90*).    I feel better giving them fresh water instead of water that has been treated w/ chemicals.  After all, my boys eat their eggs!

I saw several pics of rain barrels that had been painted. I plan to paint ours this summer, that blue is sooo bright!  But even in bright blue I am pleased w/ the process and the outcome.  I may have to fill it w/ the hose and let it sit for a couple of days (lose the chemicals) so I can try it out!  Impatience is taking over.....

My chickens were acting crazy every time my camera would flash as I took a pic of the rain barrel so I had to take their pic too! I cracked up b/c our white hen "Betty White" kept walking if front of me like "take my pic!"  My hens are a funny bunch of girls.  They fight over specific boxes and fuss so loud that you'd think a raccoon was in the pen. But no, nothing there, they are just fussing.  I love to watch chickens, they are calming and interesting.  If you've never done it, do it sometime.  But don't wear red nail polish on your toes b/c chickens are drawn to the color red and will peck anything red REPEATEDLY.  Yes, I know this from experience. I don't wear flip flops to the pen anymore w/o checking my polish color first.

REclaim, REvive and REuse those big blue plastic syrup barrels!!! Mine was a Dr.Pepper syrup barrel :)

the girls were curious about the camera flash

Our Rainbarrel!!!

Betty White "striking a pose"

The rest of the gang waiting for their moment