Puppies!

We are going to look at these guys tomorrow.  And a few more.  Yes, the specific puppies below are a few of the ones we will see tomorrow.  We are driving 4 hours there, to spend maybe 45 minutes with the breeders and check them out.  Only to spend 4 hours driving back. 

The litter that looks like these two is ready to go home this weekend.  I love the irregularities and character in their markings.

The litter that these two are from is two weeks younger and the breeder will hold them until Memorial Day weekend for us.  That is a little more on our timeline.  

What do you think we will choose?  Send us good vibes on the breeder, I hope she's what we are looking for!  And thanks for finding her Emma!

Horseradish-#75

A Bitter Truth for the day:
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.

From Lemony Snicket's Horseradish

Want

We want one these.

Yes I know that they turn into these. And we still want one.

The only thing slowing us down is the price. And trying to time it so that we get a puppy near the end of June so that we can spend all summer puppy training. Anyone know of a Great Gane puppy for sale at a reasonable price near the end of June?

Quick Takes Monday

Because I don't know when I am ever going to get a moment to sit down and sort through pictures. And I feel like I only take pictures of animals lately.

1. We spent a great Saturday with my family hanging out, going to the dog park, eating, and watching movies to celebrate my mom's birthday and mother's day. And I didn't take a single photo. Which is ok because it was nice just to be together.

2. I went by Josh's grave for the first time since July. And since we put the headstone on. I don't know why that has been a block. I don't want to talk about it.

3. Something is killing and eating our landlords ducks and has gotten one of the chickens. I am getting tired of his lack of animal care that results in them being good food for the other wildlife. Andrew and I are planning on building a chicken tractor this weekend to try and save the three remaining chickens. Landlord is happy to give them up to us...as they are just getting munched. I am not emotionally attached to his animals, but it still feels stupid to see animals die for lack of work on the owner's part. Rant over.

4. Plants are growing. All the starts we had indoors are in the ground and we are hoping to start more. One evening this week. And then another evening I will add more details. Andrew and I ate our first garden radish yesterday. Delicious. Oh, and the carrots are starting to come up too. Thanks for the positive energy on that one Mandi.

5. Peeps live outside permanently. Don't worry their pen is covered, hopefully they won't get munched. They are also getting big kid feathers.

6. Several of you asked why Spring is hard for Special Ed teachers. I won't give you the essay on the woes of the special ed teacher, because I knew all of those going into it. And yes I may rant about them to you occasionally, but really they are manageable. Here are the things that make Spring worse. That keep catching me off guard, but that will happen every Spring. Maybe I will be more prepared next year.

• There are lots of IEP's (Individual Education Plans) due in the Spring. This happens for each kid on a yearly basis and they all seem to be on a Spring schedule. This happens because a teacher will try everything they know all year, if the kid isn't learning by the end of the school year, then the teacher refers them to special education. If they qualify, they get their first IEP in the Springtime, thus putting them on a spring schedule for rest of their special education career. This equates to lots of meetings and paperwork in the spring.
  
• Scheduling for next year. Yes, that is my responsibility to figure out the best schedules for my students. That means coordinating their time with me and their time in general education classes. And who they will spend their time in general education with. Before we know what next year's general education schedule will be.
• State testing. Accommodations. Modifications. Paperwork. Scheduling of kids and adults. Kids over the top stressed out about taking this because they know how hard it will be for them. Parents worried about their kids being stressed. Administrators and general education teachers worried about scores and AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress, I think). Combined with my negative thoughts about the test. No positive energy about this one.
• Adults get all worked up about who will have a job for next year and where and who is moving. Lots of energy spent talking and trying to read into things. Energy that kids still need to be spent on this year.
• Other reasons I won't say in public.

7. This wasn't quick. Sorry.

Horseradish-#57

A Bitter Truth for the day:
It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.

From Lemony Snicket's Horseradish

More Peeps

Our peeps are growing ridiculously fast.  These pictures are from last night...so they will be outdated by the time you see them.  They have been living in this bin, which was quite adequate until the last few days.  Then we started to get greetings like this when we came in the room.

It is really hard to catch on camera, but you get the idea.  They are too big for the box.  So we built them a make shift pen with stuff we had around the yard.  In a few weeks they can just run loose.  But for now they are happy outside in their little yard.  And yes our grass and weeds are really long.  It's like a forest for them.  Today was their first full day outside, they seem quite happy still.

While I was taking pictures last night, a plane flew over.  The bottom two pictures show their reaction to a new noise.  Love it.

Quick Take Wednesday

I like when other people do this so I am going to copy them. A little bit of what is on my mind, with the photos and pressure of something newsworthy.

1. My peeps are growing ridiculously fast. It's not an exaggeration that you can tell a difference overnight. I will post some pictures soon.

2. None of the carrots have come up yet. I am pretty sure the first planting is doomed. Not to late to seed again though.

3. Spring is a hard time for special ed teachers. I knew that, but I didn't KNOW that.

4. I sent some packages out on Monday. That was pretty fun. I will post some pictures later this week so that I don't spoil any surprises.

5. I am glad that my mom got us ducklings. Skunks (or some other animals) continue to raid our landlord's duck's attempt at a nest. They eat all the eggs and leave a mess of egg shells behind. Sad day for Momma duck. Doubt I am getting any ducklings out of that. So I am glad that I am getting to experience them another way, even if they are getting ridiculously muddy at this very moment.

6. Speaking of eggs, even after giving lots away, we are still very overstocked on eggs. And I thought we went through a lot of eggs. I guess we don't eat 4 a day.

7. My workouts have not been good lately. I have been going, but no energy behind them. I am blaming in on the playlist. I need suggestions for workout music.

Horseradish-#15

A Bitter Truth for the day:
An old cowboy song celebrates home on the range, where deer and antelope play, but anyone who has seen deer and antelope knows that when they are frolicking they scarcely look where they are flinging their hooves, which is why cowboys have been pummeled almost to extinction.

From Lemony Snicket's Horseradish

Happy Monday!

And yes, this may, or may not be, an attempt at making me smile on a Monday morning. 

Backpacking

More Summer fun, from last Summer

Horseradish-#147

A Bitter Truth for the day:
Assumptions are dangerous things to make, and like all dangerous things to make-bombs, for instance, or strawberry shortcake-if you make even the tiniest mistake you can find yourself in terrible trouble. For instance, one morning you might wake up and make the assumption that your bed was in the same place that it always was, even though you would have no real evidence that this was so. But when you got out of your bed, you might discover that it had floated out to sea, and now you would be in terrible trouble all because of the incorrect assumption that you'd made. You can see that it is better not to make too many assumptions particularly in the morning.

From Lemony Snicket's Horseradish

Teachers do get Thank Yous

Yesterday one of my students brought me this huge bouquet of flowers. I can't even fit the whole bouquet in the picture with me (the problem with a computer camera). Yesterday I woke up with a headache and this was the perfect thing to make me smile. Made me smile again this morning to come in to their cheeriness.

Horseradish-#41

A Bitter Truth for the day:
Oftentimes, when people are miserable, they will want to make other people miserable, too. But it never helps.

From Lemony Snicket's Horseradish

My Peeps

Are growing up so fast.  First, a few photos:

We were trying to get it to stand next to the dish so we could see how much it grew.  It just wanted me to pick it up.

It likes me

Hi Peep

And then, their first swim lessons. Many of the things that I have been reading about raising ducklings said that you would have to teach them how to swim and not to leave them unattended in water as they could actually drown. Andrew had the idea to try them out the bathtub. We started out with only an inch of water or so in the bottom and gradually increased it to make sure they would be ok. The following video is near the end of this entertainment, they were getting pretty tired, but it was still pretty funny.

Deception Pass...last August

Bellingham Google Fiber

I like fast internet, I would probably like Google fiber. Check out Bellingham's bid.

Scrapbook Pages

Horseradish-#23

By Lemony Snicket
This guy makes me laugh. I loved the Series of Unfortunate Events Books. They made me laugh. I didn't enjoy the movie, as it didn't capture the author's sense of humor at all. I love the way he uses words and twists everyday things to be different and catch me off guard. Last week, I was spending some of my birthday money on amazon and bought his new book, Horseradish, for fun. I love it. And I'm going to share some of it with as it makes me laugh. It probably won't make you laugh if you aren't already a fan of his humor. Sorry.

The inside cover reads:
Many collections slap together the wit and wisdom of certain authors in the hopes of inspiring a reader at a crucial time in his or her life. Instead, this book contains a bouquet of alarming but inescapable truths from the work of Lemony Snicket, along with selections from his unpublished papers and remarks he has made at dinner parties and anarchist riots, in order to remind the reader that even the loftiest of inspiration contains a sharp, bitter kernel of dread-and vice versa.

And a bitter truth for the day:
Perhaps if we saw what was ahead of us, and glimpsed the crimes, follies, and misfortunes that would befall us later on, we would all stay in our mother's wombs, and then there would be nobody in the world but a great number of very fat, irritated women.

Alec

My work email login and the login I need to finish my grades are not working.  Obviously, I can't finish my work for work (confusing). So I'm scrapbooking. I came across this picture from last year. Love my brother!

Spring Break is Over

And I did not get much of the things on the list that I wrote done. No regrets, as all of the things that didn't get done can still happen.

Highlights of the week:

• Ikea in Canada with Maggie
• Some deep cleaning/organizing
• Planted next batch of lettuce, carrots, radishes, spinach, and peas. As well as sweet onions, which weren't on the list
• Got lots of weeding, transplanting of bulbs (I know, not the right time) and mulching done. Some alone and some with friend's help. Which meant for lots of quality outdoor time.
  
• Slept
• Got ducklings
• Spent some nice time with family, last weekend, and during the week
  
• Make 10 million cookies for Andrew's recital
• Went to Andrew's recital
• Cooked dinner for 15 people who played in Andrew's recital to thank them
• Cleaned the house multiple times from all of the above listed things

Things I wished I had gotten done:

• Recipe book work
• Scrapbooking
• Reading
• Taking care of Andrew's recital video footage (this week, I promise!)
  

Happy Birthday Josh!

I don't usually post about birthdays in our families as there are a lot.  But we are thinking about you and missing you today Josh!  Wondering what you would be like if you were still here with us, we love you!

Josh Ward

April 11, 1993-June 19, 2009

New Additions

No these are not our hatched ducklings. Those will be coming in a month, if the mom can figure it out. And they will continue to belong to our landlord and live down the drive. Even though we claim them and take care of them. These were a spontaneous purchase yesterday. Because they are so darn cute. Totally learning on the go here...any one got duck raising tips? More pictures to come...they are pretty funny!

Recycled, compostable seed starting containers

I love the containers that we made to start our plants in. I totally stole the idea from another blog that my cousin shared with me. So don't get any ideas that we made this up ourselves. But I am resharing this as my own, mostly so that next year when I forget how to find that blog again...I have the information I need at my fingertips.


Pros of these babies:

• Reusing discarded newprint
• You can plant them in soil with the plant
• Inexpensive
• They hold moisture well

Cons:

• They might not be for you if you prefer 5 minute stops at the garden store to sitting down and making the items you use. Which is totally fine.

Supplies needed:

Newsprint this size

Some kind of twine, a small jam size canning jar, and scissors

What to do:

1. Cut a bunch of lengths of twine that are long enough for you to EASILY tie around the jam jar. Give yourself some extra room. Especially if you have bumble fingers like mine.

2. Start with a piece of newsprint this size.

3. Fold it in half from left to right, so it is like this.

3. Fold in half from left to right again, so it is like this

4. Cut around the edges so that you get loose sheets of paper the size of the sheet about. Set these sheets aside, they will be the bottom of your containers.

5. Fold a new sheet of newsprint in half from left to right like this.

6. The in half from top to bottom, like this.

7. Then in half from top to bottom again, like this.

8. Roll your jam jar over this strip to crease the folds.
9. Wrap the strip around the jar and rub it to get the folds to bend into the round shape.

10. Tuck one end into the edge of the other. This is hard to explain. Can you tell from the picture?

11. Slide the jar into the round and tighten the ring.

12. Tie your string around the paper and the jar to hold it in place later.

13. Take your jar out. You have your outer shell complete. Pull those strips of paper back out so you can make the bottom. I grap the strips from the sides and crinkle towards the middle. Not too tight, kind of a messy bunch.

14. Shove it in your ring, so that is looks about like this. You want it to be full looking.

15. Press your jar in the middle to smash the bottom down. Check that you don't have huge holes in the bottom and nudge a corner if you need to.

16. Repeat! Then line a seed tray with as many of these containers as you need, fill them with dirt and plant away!

Thoughts

It's still my spring break. I have been doing lots of things. I will post about them. Right now I am doing lots of multitasking including but not limited to:

• making millions of cookies for Andrew's recital tomorrow
• having a headache
• chatting with Rachelle on google
• catching up on blogging
• listening to Pandora
  

As such, my blogging may be weird. But whatever I get done today will be below this post. So scroll down. Other things I'm thinking about:

• When I switched the blog name, all of my comments disappeared and I can't figure out why. Erg.
• The header is not lining up on the top of my page and I figure out why. Erg again.
  
• Everything is taking way too long today.
• I have lots to post about.
• Why do I have a headache?
  
• I am not going to get all of my spring break list done.
  

Eggs

We eat a lot of eggs at our house. Not much meat, fish only really. But we eat a lot of eggs. So we have been trying to figure out how to get these lovely ladies below to lay. There are 4 of them. Who wouldn't stand together for their photo shoot. They are getting really friendly, and demanding about their feeding schedule.  And they frequently eat my worms from my compost pile.

Prepare for funny story: About two weeks ago we started getting an egg here and an egg there. The first ones were underneath the chicken coop, and a weird whitish color.   We moved some of the first eggs into the chicken coop to try and convince the chickens to lay. Pretty soon we started getting eggs more regularly. Then about a week and half ago now we started getting 5 eggs a day. We have 4 chickens. Chickens lay an egg every 25 hours. One of the eggs was always white. And we have a duck. Who had obviously been laying in the chicken coop.

After 4 or 5 days of us taking her eggs, she moved her nest over into a deserted metal box, dragged some of the chickens nest builder stuff over, and is currently continuing her egg a day routine. We have seen confirmation of their fertilization (don't ask) and are going to see what nature has happen. According to my google research, she should lay an egg a day for 8-15 days. Then she will sit on the next and incubate the eggs for 28 days. Then ducklings will emerge and I will move to the next stage of my research.

So we are back to 4 chicken eggs a day in our fridge.  And 1  duck egg a day in a nest.   P.S.  This all started happening right after we about somewhere around 5 dozen eggs at Costco.  Anyone need eggs?

Plant Progress

These are those precious plants that got started not that long ago.  I keep wondering how long they will last inside and if I started them indoors too soon.  I'm hoping to get a few more things started this week before I go back.

Parsley & Cilantro

One of the projects that did not go as planned, but I think will turn out all right.  I planted these Walla Walla Sweet Onion starts yesterday.  In perfect rows.  Evenly spaced.  And I didn't cover them.  I left the box alone for maybe 30 minutes while I got distracted by a phone call (yes it was you Mandi :)  When Andrew came home and we walked down to the garden for me to show him my handiwork, I had an unpleasant surprise.  The cats had dug a bunch of them up and made it all unpretty.  Litlle cat holes and nests and piles everywhere.  As of right now, everything is replanted, the box is covered, and I think it will all work out.  Just not as perfectly arranged as the first time.  I was not a happy camper for a few minutes.  I guess we will see how durable these little guys are.

Peas starting to come up.

Radishes, lettuce, and spinach starting to come up.  We haven't seen the carrots yet.  Second round of planting went in yesterday.  I can't wait until the eating begins.

Another one of our landlords little surprises.  Beautiful tulips popping up on an otherwise forgotten hillside.  Makes me smile everytime I go to get chicken/duck/turkey fed.

Because I'm a nice mom, I planted a nice bushy catnip plant for my kids while last years are working on coming back.  This is what it looked like after about 5 minutes.  Now I know why last year's plants are having a hard time coming back.

This is one of the culprits.  His name is John.  He follows me everywhere outside.