Sunday, April 25, 2010

Why Must I Ruin Her Life All The Time?

Protesting the fact that I did not buy her a trampoline this weekend. A right proper sit-in.All my poor neglected girl can do is sit and listen to her iPod Touch and text woeful texts to her friends. sigh. To her credit, she has limited it to theatrics only, no mean sass mouth to date. Thank God for small miracles there.

So Ag and her bestie had big plans this weekend for the go kart. Unfortunately, shortly into their fun Saturday the throttle cable pooped the bed and ended it all.

Begin the volleys of asking mom then dad then mom then dad to buy a trampoline to end their boredom suffering. They are champions of sweet asking those two. They made Mark lunch of a peanut butter honey sandwich with a honey heart on the bun. Aggie volunteered to forego all 2010 future Christmas presents. There were frowny faces. A touch of sighing.

Lemme just say, since there's a really good chance I'll end up caving like I do on stuff like this, I think trampolines are the junkiest piece of eyesore I could probably ever put in my yard. I admit, though I know it's not totally fair, that I associate them with trashy trailer parks. I've often wondered how long it takes for the thing to become boring and forgotten like any other yard toy.

It makes me think of Sit-N-Spins.

We never had a Sit-N-Spin at our house growing up and they were like the funnest toy ever-in my mind. Any time I visited someone else's house where they had one (and I swear everyone else had one but me) I'd sit-n-spin & sit-n-spin. And probably, the kid to whom it belonged thought "what the heck's the big deal?" and they probably never played with the dang thing. It's just one of those toys that's way funner at somebody else's house. Like a trampoline. At least, that's my theory.

Fortunately they did manage to find other ways to entertain themselves. I made them waffles for breakfast and then they headed outside in their 'pajamas.' I wasn't paying attention and then it was too late to bother making them change....

They were catching bullfrogs. Good times.Just like Charlie's Angels. Or something. Sam had just caught a couple of drones (male bees that don't have stingers) to play with and possibly take to school. He'd bee wrangled a bee at school last week and kept everybody entertained for a period or two. I said Crazy Bee Boy, huh? and he said Ya! He got the drones from an unoccupied hive that the other bees were cleaning of its residual honey. No gloves or nothin'! Even though you know they don't have stingers, it still makes me feel weird to hold one.

Could this be a prince?


We were just finishing supper, chicken fried wild turkey-yum!, when my grandmother phoned and Lily picked up. Nan asked Lily what she was doing and Lil said eating, but immediately said we caught bullfrogs today! And Nan said, You're eating bullfrogs?! and Lil said No! And Nan said Well, good. I wouldn't want you to croak.

Bum dum bump!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Look What The Cat Dragged In

Kinda gross, I guess. Sorry about that. Fluffy. She doesn't know any better. And heavens to mergatroid, it's not like we don't feed her every day.

But for reals, Sam got his first turkey this morning. It was his first time going turkey hunting. He and Mark headed out behind the house early this morning and came back triumphant in less than an hour. 21 1/2 pounds.

Mark was too excited to make any normal faces for the photos. I gave him many chances, too.

Friday, April 23, 2010

...had my head so far up my uterus...

Sorry. That's a bad visual. And a pretty accurate picture of where my brain's been.
On top of having trouble still wrapping my head around the fact that I'm pregnant, I've had 3 bouts of food sickness- one keeping me in bed for 2 days, the expected normal nausea and sundry hormonal grossness, an episode I'm fairly convinced was mildly epileptic, moodiness & exhaustion from hell, and general fear of the future. So. Wah.
I been meanin' to post, but then blogger wouldn't cooperate with my photos (gawd, am I the only idiot who has this much trouble dragging photos??,) and then the anti-virus would need updating for infinity minutes, and then I'd lose interest and go lie down. Then I'd think as I was lying there You're in no frame of mind to blog. You're thinking and acting weird. Maybe you ought to lie low for a while. So I guess I kind of did that, too.

What else have we been up to in the last weeks tho'?
There was the Maple Syrup Festival.After pancakes we walked around town to the kiosks and booths, through the museum, past the horse drawn carriage!
They let me pet him.Then there was a horse pull at the nearby fairgrounds. Much, much more entertaining to me than anyone else in our group.My photos weren't so hot but let me tell you, those horses, they were pretty. And strong.
From the horse pull Mark & I travelled to the farm where we buy maple syrup to sell at the market. The family has been making syrup for generations.

They also milk cows. Photogenic cows.There on their farm and all along the route you can see the maple trees tapped and strung with tubing to collect the sap. It's pretty impressive. So many trees. You can kind of see the tubing here:And then I went pregnant crazy for a few days and then I was ok.

Then Mark did some Spring beekeeping. He purchased some packaged bees to add more hives to the "herd."

Packages of bees behind the seat of the truck:
Sam helped him get everyone installed in their new homes. That's the suit he got for his birthday. (I would've duct taped those pant legs shut though!) One of the queenies in her cage being investigated by her ladies in waiting:
*yaaaawn* It is so boring when we can't go riding, isn't it, Nik?We had the annual Easter egg hunt at Wagner's Greenhouse.
'Tis the season to be gobble-gobbled awake every morning by wild turkeys pitching woo. It's a pretty nice way to wake up actually. That and the crowing of the rooster who insists he must be right below the bedroom window when he greets the sun. Ah, it's ok, he's a good kid.
Sam has been studying his Italian. If you can't find him, check in his "office."Sure, it's the closet, but the shelf is right at desk level, he's made a seat out of a rubbermaid container, got his lamp, dry erase board & calendar, books, and my laptop on loan in there. (And all the extra household bed linens he could possibly need.)
There is just enough room to shut the door right at your back. Pretty much an office. And a fun hiding place.
A big storm blew through the county last week.
My weren't we singing praises to the generator when the power went out! You just couldn't hear us singing over the noise of the generator.

The storm blew some jumbo trees down.A big 'ole cherry tree right on the fence. Fortunately there were no escapees.Sad to see such a nice tree go. I love trees. But that's another zubject.
Lily is on a hobo kick lately. She draws hobos and she builds hobo camps. Duct tape, sticks, and old bed sheets=awesome.

She took me on a tour of the empty pig pen the other day. Like I'd never seen this pig pen in the past 6 years we lived here.

But I let her show me the particular spots by the creek that were hers or Aggies. The area is on the far side of the barn and kind of out of sight of everything, so I can see how they'd feel like they were in a whole other world. She showed me where they made mud pies, where they'd unearthed bits of old junky pottery from the creek bed.

She showed me the "island" on the other side of the creek. The stones they sit on or cross the creek on.

It was awesome. It'll be kind of a bummer when the pigs move back in. Fortunately, their hobo tent is just outside the pig pen, so all is not lost.

Aaaand, most recently, yesterday, in fact, comma, Mark opened the market for the season. Not chock full like Summer, but still full of lots of goodies. Good and good for you. ;-)So far off to a nice start. Here's hoping for a super year. Reckon I' got onsies and papooses to buy.That there is my hero of a husband. Dude has had to deal with some major, major issues from me lately, and he has handled it like a true champion. I love 'at boy.

Roger, Wilco, and I'm Out For Now.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Yes, He's Serious.

Mark wants to name the child Amos Moses, after this song.



I'll be back in a bit.