Moments in my yard

You don’t generally see me around here this time of year.  I am building, planting, and generally staying outside in the sunshine, far away from screens of all kinds.  (Although I do love to share my current projects on Instagram.)  My yard in May is a beautiful sight.  Everything is in bloom, plants are popping up all over the place and the grass is still green before the sun shocks it from the constant cold and wet that we live in the rest of the year.  We wake up, eat breakfast and head outside and often we do not come back in until nap.  We are even doing school in the glorious sunshine right now.  And we love every minute of it.  Here’s why-

Happy Spring everyone!  It sure has been one for us. 

“Poke.  You done?”

My little chicken mama….

We got our first flock as a homeschool experiment when my daughter was 6 years old.  She was hooked from the start and quickly became the main person to care for the chickens.  She would feed them, play with them, and even gave her favorite hen, Rose, “hay rides” in our little red wagon along with Logan (who was just a baby then).

When I began my journey as a mother, my only goal was to be the type of mother that she could ‘stand on the shoulders of’ and not feel as though she had to ‘recover from’.  I didn’t have any idea what I was doing, but as I stumbled along I learned new things, added a few more babies and a few more goals.  As a mother I am constantly wonder if I am doing it ‘right’.  When I look at the way she mothers her flock, I already have part of my answer.  I watch her with her flock of newly hatched chicks, putting ice in their water on a hot day and or going out at 10pm with a flashlight to make sure she remembered to turn the heat lamp on.  In those moments I know I have already done something right. 

This week, she and I wrote this post for Inner Child Learning on how to start your own backyard flock and I have been amazed at the knowledge she has gotten from her farm experience right here in the city.  Come and check it out!

{this moment} - Just Breakfast

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{Inspired by SouleMama}

Homeschooling today - Field trips

This has been the week of field trips.  First was a birthday party for a dear friend who just turned 8.  My friend planned a whole visit to the land of Middle Earth to celebrate and Logan decided he needed to dress the part.  (He and Cyan created this costume all by themselves.)

“Bwalin - At your service.”

   

“Oh, my precious, my precious!” 

He spent the day going through the caves of the Dwarven King, fighting Smaug the Dragon, and winning gold coins.  All with the help of their trusty wizard friends. 

Then the next field trip was to the skating rink.  At first Luke wasn’t sure what was going on.  But soon he was dead set on being on the skate floor the entire time and a full on melt down ensued if he had to leave for any reason.  Even the speed races. 

At one point he stole someone else's skate walker (above) and headed out to the floor to join the 4 & 5yr olds for their race (he is 26 months).  We didn’t even notice until he was at the starting line!  The attendant gave him a coupon for a free small soda because he was so determined and cute.  His favorite thing to do was to stand in the middle of the floor and dance on his skates.

After that we spent two days at home working on our chicken coop (more on that later) so we spent those days taking short ‘field trips’ to the shed to say hi to the chickies in their new home.

The chicks have even gotten field trips (into the yard) and playdates (with the neighbors chicks) lately. 

Yesterday we spent our time downtown at the children’s museum and the art museum.  Eric Carle is being featured and so it was kind of like a reunion of Luke’s birthday party themes. 

 

The museum had set up a huge magnet wall with Eric Carle prints so the kids could move it around and make their own pieces of art.  We spent the most time at this space and then reading the Eric Carle books they had on display.

We set off down the street to the Tacoma Children’s Museum after that and spent the rest of the early afternoon experimenting with all kinds of fun discoveries there.

“Cheese!”

This has been a fun and tiring week.  The weather has been SO lovely that we have spent most of our time outside, soaking up the sun. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful, educational week!

The making of a beautiful backyard homestead

It takes years.  Seriously.  To create a backyard homestead.  Just one step at a time with lots of patience and ingenuity thrown in for good measure. 

When we bought this house it had a big yard, with lots of landscaping and almost no ‘useable’ space.  Plastic covered the ground.  Under the dirt, between the bushes and trees, around the beds.  It was all covered in plastic. We removed as much as we could, and also removed completely unusable plants like ivy, bushes that were overgrown and dying, and tons of grass. 

In March 2010 - I drew up pictures of what I wanted my future garden to look like.  Although it looked NOTHING like my yard of the house that I had just bought.  I wasn’t sure I would ever get to a place where I would have the dream I wanted.  But I now realize that it just took work and a lot of patience.

Before:

Design:

I knew it would be work, but over the years I have seen a lot of that dream realized and today I can say that I am almost there.

After (March 2013): 

Here is the other side of the garden that has also been transformed from somewhere ugly into a beautiful and useable space.

Before:

Design:

After:

 

This year we have taken it to a whole new level.  My 16 year old is able to help and he has gotten very good at it!  More hands make lighter work.  We have done a lot this year so far, and I have more plans that I am ready to put into place. 

But first, I was compelled to draw them out. 

This is my reality right now.  I’ll consider it my ‘before’ (April 2013):

This is my design:

I haven’t gotten a whole lot more sophisticated with my design materials.  I still enjoy using my own hands and colored pencils to map out the details of what I want to do.  But already this is so much better than it was just a few months ago that I feel as though it will not be long before this dream, too, is realized. 

Notice a few added details.  The garden bed beneath which will be the home for the lavender plants from the front of the house, which I am slowly replacing with blueberry bushes.  The clothesline with inspiration that came from Homestead Revival’s own HOA friendly clothesline design.  The chicken run, which will have a nice door and fence surround that leads up to the 8 ft fence behind it to keep my girls safe from the neighbors new puppy.  All of these things don’t exist yet.  But I no longer have any doubt that they will.  And I am enjoying dreaming of a day where there will be an ‘after’ for this section too.  Because it won’t be long.

Happy Homesteading!

{this moment} - Giraffe goes where?

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

{Inspired by SouleMama}

My sweet old cat passed away…

My cat Taio passed away this last weekend.  I found him laying in the middle of the neighbors field barely able to walk.  It wasn’t long before he left us, but not before he allowed each of us to lay with him, cry with him, and say goodbye.  Even in death, this cat was kind and sweet and I will miss him terribly.

I found him when exercising horses with a friend in 1997.  I wasn’t even really a grown-up yet.  He and his 5 brothers and sisters were on the side of the road huddled around their mother, who had been hit by a car. I took him home and my friend found homes for the rest.

He has been such a wonderful cat. He didn’t meow and he was the most even tempered cat I have EVER met. I had never even seen him hiss unless hurt, not even in the end. He was a chubby ball of love and definitely a wonderful member of the family.

I had him before 3 of my kids.

I had him before my marriage began. 

And yet, he was my husband’s cat at heart.  His favorite napping place was on Don’s lap or behind Don on the couch crushing my couch cushion closest to the window he loved to look out of.

When he was a kitten, Alex was just 1 year old.  I had to keep his cat food and litter box in the bathroom because that was a door I could keep closed at all times.  In doing this we started a trend that lasted until the day he died…. every time we went pee, he had to be fed.  lol!  It was silly, I know, but being escorted to his food became his ‘thing’ and he couldn’t really eat unless someone had walked him there.  It was tradition. 

He was a huge fan of ‘people flavored water’. 

He taught all the cats this love and now we have three younger cats that will climb into the shower with us, or drink from the bathtub while we are sitting in it.

He had the biggest yellow eyes I have ever seen. 

He was even loved by all our neighbors.  When he was a young cat, about 5 I would guess, the neighbor got a German Shepherd puppy named Jessie.  She LOVED Taio.  At first he was a toy.  She would rush him and he would just put his ears back and stare at her like “What??”  She didn’t know what to do considering he wouldn’t run from her, so she claimed him.  She would corral him onto the sidewalk when he was outside with her and lick him until he was soaking wet.  He stood for it all.  He just wanted to be friends with everyone.

During our most recent move our neighbors nick-named him ‘fat cat’ because he was a whopping 22lbs and it was easy for their grandkids to say.  Each time they came over he would saunter up to them and let them pet and touch his ears and tail. 

He slowly lost weight this last few months and when he died he couldn’t have been more than 15lbs.  It was strange to hold him in those last moments and remember when he weighed nearly as much as our toddler just months ago.

He was the first of many pets. 

He slept at the foot of our bed for 15 years.

We buried him under the cherry tree in the backyard.  I planted tulips and white bluebells over his grave.  They look sad this year.  Bulbs don't do well transplanted while blooming.  But in a way it seems fitting.  Every time I see the spot I am sobered by the reality that my friend is gone… but next year they will come up and they will remind us of this amazing life we were privileged to be a part of and it will be a little happier, for the love of a good pet lingers long after the pain of loosing them.

He was the most tender, sweetest and kindest of our cats by far.  Always a friend, even to dogs, chickens, and toddlers, this beloved member of the family will be terribly missed.  I want to remember him fat and happy, rolling around the yard in the summer sunshine like this:

I hope you find summer sun where you are my sweet friend!  We loved you so very much!

Some cuteness for a friend

My friend Laura is having a baby.  She has waited a long, long time.  Her little boy may be one of the luckiest kids ever to be born with two amazing parents I have known since forever.  Her baby shower invitation showed up last week and it had a giraffe on it.  I have seen the nursery and it also sports a giraffe here and there.  So I knew what I had to do…  Make something giraffey fun.  In that spirit, this blanket was born.

When you have a toddler, as I do, it is very easy to not craft for years in a stretch.  And every time you DO craft, it is easy to see why it has been years since you had out your machines and good sewing scissors. 

But the struggle was worth it.  I LOVE this blanket! 

100% cotton, inside and out, with quilter’s cotton applique and sewed on the outside, it will be the perfect thing for their new baby to lay on anywhere they want.  And it’s already been washed a couple of times to bring out the quilting, so no worries about it being damaged in the wash! 

For the quilting (which I did before the appliques) I used this tutorial.  It was easy, but time intensive, and even with this smaller sized quilt, it is VERY important that you PIN PIN PIN!

This cute mama and baby giraffe were Google searches idea of ‘cartoon giraffe outline’.  Then I printed one at ‘full page’ and the other at ‘5X7’ and used them as my template for the appliques. 

I was able to give it to her yesterday at her shower, so now I can show it to the world.  It’s the only sewing I have done in a really long time, but I am so glad I got to pull out my stuff and gift my friend such a unique gift.  Celebrating babies is such fun!