Conversations

"Mama, can I take my baby chickens outside?" Tad loves his three bantam chicks, they were hatched by their mama but she was murdered by something and now we are raising them-er-the kids are raising them inside.

"Yeah but you are going to have a hard time keeping track of all three, what if one runs off." He looks startled and turns his head to the side.

"But mama, they love me. I am their daddy. That makes Nathalie... NOT the mama, the nanny!"

"Oh I see. You are their daddy." He nods and walks to the laundry room to collect his baby chickens.

"And that, my baby chickens " I hear him whisper "makes mama the evil head-master!"

*Note: we know that baby chickens are chicks, and baby goats are doelings/bucklings, baby cattle are calves. But we call them baby and the adult counter part. I think we actually say baby cows, which would mean female but we mean all cattle that are baby.

Landscaping

On the chance that we ever have to sell our house, or on the chance that we hate looking trashy... we are landscaping! We have a beautiful garden this year, and almost no weeds. We have very few goats/chickens at this time, we are just having a good time with a smaller group of animals. This has given us some time to work on our property.

A local friend has been helping me, we are trading/cooperating in work areas. She is very helpful, able to work harder than a lot of men! Also, she is skilled in gardening and landscaping. This is her foot on the shovel. These tiered beds were here when we moved in, and now there are a lot of weeds grown up. We cleaned up and planted all 3 tiers with herbs/flowers that C (friend) planted at her house. She starts seeds more successfully than I do.
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This is a before picture, we have pulled weeds and thinned out some of the plants and flowers here and will continue. We will use mulch on ground cloth where we dont intend to plant which means we wont have any weeds growing in unused areas. It will look much neater that way.

We had Tad, and Cs son for help as well as N. But the only "man" on the property was tractor. We used him to haul some manure to layer in the beds. Also the tractor bucket was where C landed as she flew through the air to get away from a large lizard AKA Mr. Gardener.

Some simple things would make our property and beds look better, not having old rugs, blankets and hand-painted plastic lawn seats about. We will continue to clean these up, and get rid of them.

Nathalie was taking pictures, this is just a new little section of bed that has been worked and can now have herbs or flowers planted. There was nothing there but some rocks and weeds so we removed those bits.

Nathalie's toes and some more newly worked bed. This is a lot of work, T, C and I have been mostly doing this outdoor job. T also mows and brush hogs, drives the tractor around for me while I put things in/on it, and he helps quite a bit in the garden. Nathalie does well with picking, and doesnt mind the weed free paths but doesnt do well in heat or with the buggy friends. She likes lizards and frogs for friends, but finds more of the bug sort of friends in the garden and isnt interested in their friendship. Instead she keeps the house clean and food provided for T and myself.

More photos to follow as we get more landscaping finished!

Banana!

We have a new game called banagrams. It is like scrabble because you have to spell words connecting them to other words. However, you have your own line. Each person draws a certain number of letters, turns them over and plays. You build your words/lines without any turns, everyone just works. When you need/want more letters you say "peal" and a number. The directions say peal 1 but we peal more. Once the letters are all pealed equally, you have to finish using your letters first to win.

I play this game at least 1 x a day. Sometimes by myself. We try to spell big words, and at the end if you are left with just a few letters you often have to re-arrange and take apart. This takes skill. My children are not great spellers, so we are using this game to aid the problem.

The photo here shows my daughter's game, she was playing with Tad. She went about the house collecting words and this is what she came up with, she doesnt know what humectant means but it was a good word! The reason that she spelled admitted incorrectly, is because she says idmitted. After this round I correctly her gently and she learned to spell/say it correctly.

I love that she has two bathroom words...Too funny!

No photos

I dont have any photos. So if you cant read, x out for now and come back later. If you can but only come for pictures, refer back to my first.

Today we worked. Hard and a lot. Matter of fact, yesterday we worked. A lot. And hard. We pulled weeds that I allowed to get far too large. They are in an area that I cant get into to brush hog or mow, and they are in an area that I need. I did have something planted there that failed, and we are taking it back now. Also I weeded my garden perimeter which isnt fun.

I have 5 major areas that need landscaping. Maybe 6, I guess 6. Areas that once had ground cloth and landscaping stone laid, and now the cloth is no good. The weeds come through at a rapid rate. We (a friend is helping the children and me) are pulling the weeds, then pulling out whatever is in each bed (one isnt rocks, it is a funny sprawling used to be ever green something), laying down heavy duty ground cloth and cypress wood chips. They break down, and can be composted. They are natural, and dont have to be dug out like rocks.

It is a lot of work, but we need to get it done. The quote I have from the local landscaper is not manageable and I didnt think it would be. It is a job we must do, and I dont enjoy it. I think that I will be very proud once its done, more so than I would be from paying off a landscaping loan.

We also did school, sewed and cleaned house. Well, Nathalie cleaned house. The bugs are out in force now, so while she planted nearly all of the garden with me she now doesnt love to be out there. I wont kill her love for green things so instead she cleans the whole house. Truly. The whole house.

My kids are wonderful, they work hard and I am grateful for them. Now I am going to go play games with them. Bye.

Stormy sky

We had storm clouds rolling in, I am not used to the little canon I have and I dont take great photos. The camera isnt any good if the subject isnt perfectly still, no, lets say its not good in my hands. My mama could take fabulous pictures with a broken camera. I did still like the pictures in which the subject was moving, because it looks like they sort of separated.

The hair pictures are proof that I can do hair. For years, my daughter went around with a nappy head or daddy did her hair. The few times I did she cried, and my husband tried to say to "be more careful" but honestly had she thought I was him she wouldnt have cried. She just preferred him so what can I say. I avoided her hair and just let it go if he was gone. When she was 6, we told her take care of it or we cut it off. Its now grown out again see??? She has let me brush it 2 after-baths in a row and tonight I took the opportunity to braid it. Its braided along her natural side part as I had no comb to part down the middle.

She is wearing her daddy's "I need my garage time" t-shirt to sleep in.