What an eventful last two weeks with so much being accomplished. Realistically, it was just one week of working really hard and the other we stayed in Olympia hiking around old ghost towns, shopping at Hobby Lobby and Target (two of my weaknesses), eating at Buffalo Wild Wings every chance we got. Let’s just say that it was a fantastic week full of electricity, the Internet and TV. Oh, also flushing toilets!
We read a lot out here, obviously (two full walls of books) and we love to shop online for books, but when I took Riyan into a Barnes and Nobles this past week, she about died. She hasn’t been in a giant book store since we lived in Detroit. We ended up with a couple arms full of books. Back to reality of living out in the boondocks, we feel really blessed to call our little chunk of paradise, home.
We broke down and bought a push mower, which in all honesty is really good for me (I’m curvaceous, voluptuous … either one is fine with me). I, hypothetically speaking, lost 25 pounds mowing the three out of 20 acres that we use daily.
My brother Tanner and his family and extended family came out and also worked with us. Terra’s nephew Walker cut most of my sticker bushes while two of my sisters, Shalea and Savannah, raked them all to a pile to be burned. Phil and Ed got our asparagus planted and caged, tomatoes and peppers in the greenhouse and the orchard in really great condition! I got my rose plants in the ground but just as quickly as I got them in, Jake drug one out of the ground to chew on.
There were lots of swear words said. I was able to save it though and it’s now budding. One of my oldest friends, Tanya, came out with coffee in hand to check out the bricks that West Waste gave us (thank you by the way!) I used them to line my makeshift flower beds, square my roses and our rhubarb.
Riyan had her first slumber party at our house. There were lots of little girls running around the woods. Some went to the bathroom outside, some went in the house. Actually, the one I thought wouldn’t use our honey pot, did (San Diego city girl) and the one I thought would have no problem (Alaskan frontier girl), I had to threaten her with her mom!
They all did so well out here, really! They held the chickens, hiked throughout the property to the cabins, played in the dirt and raced around in the front yard. A big fat thank you to my neighbors up the hill for being so awesome and understanding with the traffic the past two weekends.
We got baby ducks and a really neat looking rabbit. I’ve never owned either of these, hell; I’ve never owned a chicken. Let me just say, baby ducks are the sweetest things ever! Daphne already tried to pick one up by its head. She is kind of mean. She can’t catch the chickens but if she gets close enough to them, she punts them like little fury footballs! Harper is the chicken whisperer. She totes one around most the day and it lets her. The nasty little bugger hangs out on her shoulder and on the porch. She is “potty training” it. It’s the strangest thing. When she puts it down and tells it to poop, it does. She cleans it up and back to playing they go.
We ended this week with some of our closest friends and family and a big dinner, lots of laughing and coffee. I can hardly wait for bonfires with everyone sitting around it. For now we hang out on my porch which is almost as good … I should get Phil to install a porch swing.
