New chickie pix!

Day 3 with the chicks and I can't believe how big their feathers are getting already!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are changing daily. There was a bit of a pasty butt problem on day 2, but after a tush wash for each chick, they look great now.

I moistened a little chick food with warm water and added a tsp of plain yogurt and offered it to the chicks. I thought they would love it but it was quite the opposite. One peck and they wouldn't touch it again.

A bit later I gave them a bit of crumbled egg yolk and was astounded that the box turned into a free for all!

The Buff Orpington (still without a name) was the first to try a piece and the others got curious and started checking out what she had. She didn't like that and took off running with all the others chasing her, it was hilarious! More of them discovered the egg and a wild time was had by all till only a few crumbs were left!

Look at that smile!

Feathers!

Proud of her new finery!

Marshmallow Peep!

Monster Boy uncharacteristically still for more than 20 seconds

Here chick chick chick!

The chickies are here!

We got 1 black sex-link, 2 Bard Rocks, 2 Rhode Island Reds and 1 Buff Orpington, and they are so cute!

They took to the water really fast, I thought it would take them awhile, but they were pretty thrirsty it seems.

Noisey little buggers though, peep, peep, PEEP!

A little madness

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown —
Who ponders this tremendous scene —
This whole Experiment of Green —
As if it were his own!
~Emily Dickinson

Don't count your chickens before they hatch!

No chicks today, we got all the way there only to be told

that they didn't come in today.

They will hopefully be in on Friday, but we will definitely call first this time!

February 24 is here! And you know what that means?

Chicks!

We leave in 1/2 hour to get our baby chicks!
Pix soon....

I love this quote!

"It's hard to enforce fraud laws, when the government participates in the fraud."
~Ron Paul, Sept. 29, 2009 The Daily Show with John Stewart

Canadian Exporter?

Here are the pictures from our trip to Grayland, WA.
We couldn't have picked a nicer day! 68 degrees according to our on-board thermometer,
and barely a whisper of a breeze for most of the time in Grayland.

In January we heard about the shipwreck that was discovered on the Wa coast and we've been dying to go see it for ourselves, this is the article that first piqued our interest.

******
"by GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News
Posted on January 5, 2010 at 7:40 PM

GRAYLAND, Wash. - Washaway Beach got its name for the powerful surf that has steadily been removing a small community south of Grayland Washington. Now that same surf has given something back - the remains of a mystery ship.

The remains of a 100-foot-long vessel have been uncovered along the sandy high bank.

It's partially hidden by the dozens of uprooted trees deposited on the beach during a powerful New Years storm."
******

Doesn't look like much at first, but it's amazing to see the outline of the bow.





Looks like there was a fire at some point, whether someone set it, like the salvagers back in the 1800's or perhaps vandals at some point?




"All Aboard!"

Here is the ship they think the remains are from, The "Canadian Exporter" a Freighter out of Vancouver, BC. on it's way to Hong Kong with a load of timber. It was planned that they would make a stopover in Portland, Oregon to pick up more Asia bound timber, but lost in a dense fog she beached on the shore in August of 1921, where crashing waves soon broke her in two.

If you want to visit the wreck, you should probably hurry, one good storm and

it looks like it will be gone for good. A friend of mine with a vacation trailer at Washaway Beach

warned that it is very risky to go down to the beach at high tide, the tide comes in fast and there are few exits from the beach once the tide comes in, so please be careful!

I would hate to get caught between the tide and some of the cliffs.

If you do go down to visit the wreck, make sure you see the Cranberry bogs!

Very cool, I don't know what I was expecting, but not this. Right when you step out of the car we noticed how sweet the air smelled, and the color- Such vibrant red foliage!

I didn't know how many fields there were still in the Grayland area, and on each farm there were many signs that named the farmer and then followed with, "Ocean Spray Cranberry Grower"

Nice seeing local growers for such a large brand.

However, last night for dinner we opened a can of cranberry sauce to go with our "Why the heck not.." Roast turkey and gravy and tatos dinner, it said "Made in New York"

New York? What's up with that?

Road trip!

Will hopefully have a bunch of pictures to post from our trip to see the shipwreck today at Washaway Beach, Grayland, Wa!
Wish us luck!

Chicken Update!

I saw some chickens at a friend's house today and have to admit to feeling a bit panicky at the moment.
They poop!
Big gloppy glops of poop!
OY!

Ok, I can do this. The chicken poop will be good for the garden, right?
And the garden is good for growing vegetables, right?

So not only do we get the eggs, but we also get manure!
Big gloppy glops of manure!

Article For Lent from Catholicism.about.com

http://catholicism.about.com/od/catholicliving/a/lenten_readings.htm?nl=1

An excellent way to focus our thoughts and deepen our understanding of the meaning of Lent is to turn to the Bible. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to know where to start. That is why the Catholic Church has provided us with the Office of the Readings, part of the Liturgy of the Hours, the official prayer of the Church. In the Office of the Readings, the Church has chosen scriptural passages that are appropriate to every day of the year.

Every season of the Church year has a certain theme or themes. During Lent, we see four themes in these readings:

1. The need for proper repentance
2. Israel of the Old Testament as the model of the New Testament Church
3. Israel’s exodus from Egypt to the Holy Land as the model of the Christian journey out of sin into the Kingdom of Heaven
4. Jesus Christ as the eternal high priest

Wednesday of the first week of Lent

In Exodus 10:21-11:10, Pharoah continues to refuse to let the Israelites go, so, for three days, God engulfs Egypt in darkness. The only light in the land is found with the Israelites themselves—a sign, because from Israel would come Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Thursday of the first week of Lent

In Exodus 12:1-20, Pharoah's stubbornness has come to this: God is going to kill the firstborn of every household of Egypt. The Israelites, however, will be protected from harm, because they will have slaughtered a lamb and marked their doors with his blood. Seeing it, God will pass over their houses. This is the origin of the Passover.

Friday of the first week of Lent

In Exodus 12:21-36, the Israelites have followed the Lord's command and celebrated the first Passover. The blood of the lamb has been applied to their door frames, and, seeing this, the Lord passes over their houses. Each firstborn of the Egyptians, however, is slain by the Lord. In despair, Pharoah orders the Israelites to leave Egypt, and all of the Egyptians urge them on.

Saturday of the first week of Lent

Expelled from Egypt after the Passover, the Israelites head toward the Red Sea in Exodus 12:37-49 and 13:11-16. The Lord orders Moses and Aaron to tell the Israelites that they must celebrate the Passover every year. Moreover, once they have come into the Promised Land, they must offer every firstborn son and animal to the Lord. While the animals will be sacrificed, the firstborn sons are redeemed through the sacrifice of an animal.

College update

It's official, we have 3 in college now!
Green River College certainly makes it difficult to register for classes though.
1st the Angel Orientation online messed up and wouldn't let us finish, then suddenly it did work but scored her wrong, but passed her anyway? Then it turns out there could be a two day wait till her PIN is given to her!
Fortunately, they got on the ball and she received her pin by 10am the next day.

Whatever, at least Katie is officially registered for classes now.
Most of the ones she had planned to take were all full but I think she is satisfied with her schedule as it stands now.
She's on waitlist for Math and Psych so hope hope hope pray pray pray that she gets the notice that she gets in those two classes.
Otherwise it will be a long wait for her sister to get out of class to take her home everyday.

Chickies will be here on Feb 24!

Yippee! I just got off the phone with Sumner Animal Grub and they will be getting chicks in next Wed. So it's time to start getting our brooding box set up.
I still have some questions for SAB and the orderer will be returning my call soon, hopefully!
I need to know whether the chicks will be vaccinated against Marek's disease, what to feed the little buggers and also about whether or not we can get just female chicks.
Alas, monster boy wants ONLY a black chicken.
I think he'll settle for whatever we can get once he sees the cute little chicks though.

Nice food at Andre's but...............

We had reservations for 6:30pm and they had only one booth left, from what we saw it was mostly walk ins so I don't know why they didn't have a quiet little booth reserved for us, isn't that why people make reservations? So a spot is reserved?
The booth they did have was right in the entrance facing all the people coming in.
Kinda awkward.
So we order a glass of red from a terminally worried looking waitress. She's asks if we are ready to order before she leaves to get the wine, but we just got there, not enough time to look at the menu yet.
She's back in 10 minutes, with our wine and we discover that we both do not like the stemless wine glasses. I really like classic wine glasses and the squat glass wine cups annoy me.
We order a lovely plate of hummus with homemade flat bread and pickled veggies for our appetizer and again she gets worried about whether we are ready to order our entrée, we said, "Not yet....." Seriously, we're trying to relax here.

The Hummus comes and it is gorgeous! The plate is laid out beautifully and we each get individual plates to use, but I like the idea of sharing a communal plate.
The only pickled veggie was the peperoncini and the lonely looking half of a Klamata olive, the broccoli and onion was raw, but when dipped in the Hummus it was tasty. I suspect that plastic veggies dipped into the hummus would be tasty though.
Very flavorful and not too tart with lemon that too much hummus relies on for taste.
The hummus was very good , but the star player was the bread. The flat bread is truthfully the best I've ever tasted, warm, soft but toothy enough for texture and the spices baked on top were lovely, garlicky and lightly salted. Heaven!


We finally put the poor girl out of her misery and ordered our entrée halfway through the appetizer, and it seems there was a reason why she was worried.
It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get our entrées.
Seemed like a very long time, and other diners who arrived after us were being served before us. It was hard catching her worried little eyes when we wanted a wine refill too.

Finally his Filet Mignon with Mashed potatoes and my BBQ pork ribs, fries and coleslaw came.
The smell of the BBQ sauce was rich and smokey, and the meat literally fell off the bones. So good!
The Filet Mignon was very tender, flavorful and done perfectly. Mashed potatoes are an odd choice to go with 75% of their meals, I really wish a baked potato was an option, but the mashed was edible.
The coleslaw, on the other had, was not. Why anyone would add cumin to slaw is beyond me, plus it was room temperature and limp. Not good.

I wanted to try the Apple Rhubarb Crumble for dessert, but my fickle stomach decided it had had enough rich food for the night and gave me ample warning that it would not tolerate much more.

All in all it was our 2nd successful dinner at Andre's, but I do wonder about maxing the menu out soon. There's not a lot of choices and I recommend a peek at their online menus before your visit.
http://www.andresbg.com/dinner.shtml

We need to get out!

It's sunny this morning but not dry enough to work in the yard. We need to go on a road trip!
Maybe Dash Point to watch the waves for awhile, bring a lunch and have a spur of the moment picnic?
Still pretty cold though.....

We probably should stay home and make a menu and shopping list....sigh!
Don't you hate knowing what you "should" be doing?

Ok, but Friday we ARE going to Washaway Beach - Wo0t!

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Nice to see this article today! It's St. Valentine's Day, not just "Valentines" Day

___________________________
DENVER, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Catholics in the United States and abroad Sunday celebrated the saint behind St. Valentine's Day, The Catholic News Agency reported.

The Roman Catholic Church views St. Valentine as the patron saint of couples and young people in love, with the roots of those beliefs coming from a pair of stories about St. Valentine's involvement with the ancient Romans.

St. Valentine was arrested during the reign of Roman Emperor Claudius II.

Claudius had banned his young soldiers from marrying based on the belief they would be better soldiers if single. St. Valentine violated that ban and secretly married young couples until his arrest, the news agency said.

The story ends with St. Valentine converting his jailer before being martyred by being beheaded.

A second story holds the roots of the "valentine," the news agency said. The story involves St. Valentine being arrested for aiding Christians being held in horrible conditions in Roman jails.

While incarcerated, St. Valentine reportedly sent a letter to the woman he loved, signing the letter "from your Valentine."
_________________________________________

One thing though, St. Valentine did love the woman, but not like it sounds. She was converted to Christianity by him, as was the jailer.

Disturbed isn't she?

Written by my daughter when I stepped away from my computer for a second.
Disturbed isn't she?

___________________________________________________________________
" I'm a weirdo who blogs random things and blah blah blah how yoooou doinnn?? Yayaya! Crazy crazy I'm going craaazy! <8>)~ LOOK! It's GANDALF!! Ehehe!
And I think Patrick Swayzie is sooo fine. And Liam Neeson in a kilt?? *wolf whistle* YEEEHAW! But I kinda like my hubbie, sooo.. sorry guys!
EEEGADS! Wassa me a sayin?!? I'm going craaaaaazy and I loooooove youuuu...I waaaant you to waaaant me...I neeeeed you to want meeeeee...ohhh yeeeeeahahahaaaaa...*coughcoughhackwheeze*

Okey. Mesa done now. Hab a nicey dayo! :) "
___________________________________________________________________

More paper models

It's hailing and pouring rain on this lovely St. Valentine's Day!
So I'm inside with my computer.
I was cleaning up my counter, it gets so cluttered in just one week! I came across the paper craft I started awhile ago and never finished. Hardly began, really.
It's the Roman Coliseum and every single piece has thousands of little tabbs to cut out - so time consuming!
Maybe some day I'll finish it!


Here are my finished models..........

I love to make paper crafts. I found a ton of them at Canon Creative Park
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/1006/

There's architecture, science, cars, animals and many other ideas like birthday cards etc.
Here's my mouse I made yesterday......... Isn't he cute??

















Chicken Update!
We went to Sumner Animal Grub today and found out that they will have their chicks in next week - Wow - We could have chickens by next week!
I have to call them during the week to find out what breeds they are getting in. I really want Leghorns - they are great layers, but every place we call are not getting them because they don't sell that well. I wonder why?
Pearl White Leghorns are what they raise at the industrial size poultry/egg farms.
We also want some Plymouth Rocks, some Austrolorps and some Rhode Island Reds.
The only one that seems to be available consistently is the Reds.
Monster boy really has his heart set on a little black chicken so we may wait till they came in at Del's in Enumclaw
Or maybe we WILL get them sooner. Decisions decisions!
I don't know though, we still don't have plans for the coop. We did find a chain link dog kennel at HDepot that is reg. $249. and it was on clearance for $87.

We were so tempted to just buy it. It would be so much easier, but we really don't want to spend that much. But it did give DH some ideas on how to make our own using some chain link we already have.
I kind of want a wooden country style chicken coop, you know the type, barn red and quaint looking.

Whatever we build will be better that what DH found on the internet last week though, it's called an "Egglu" and it is plastic and ick!

Oh hey!

I just looked at the date for the first time today!

I quit smoking 4 yrs, 3 hours, 22 minutes and 47 seconds ago!
More importantly, I have NOT smoked 35,067 cigarettes and I have NOT spent $9,314.99 on them!
I have also save 121 days, 18 hours and 17 minutes of my life!



YAY ME!

Spring is trying to sproing!

It's staying light so much longer now and I can hear the little froggies croaking the ditches! I just love spring, it's the season that most signifies hope, isn't it?

Maybe that's why Easter is in spring?

We bought our seeds and some tato/rhubarb starts and now we just have to wait for dryer weather so we can get to tilling the garden. Whenever it gets sunny I go outside and feel the warmth and smell the fresh dirt, it's so nice. I'm so excited at the thought of a garden!

And chickens!

We're getting chickens!

I can't believe we're getting chickens!