Happy Valentines Day!

Hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day!  We, of course, did the completely romantic thing of gathering in our group including sugared up children and had dinner together!  Filling in around that table there were 15 adults, 4 tween-agers, 2- two-year-olds 1 toddler and 2 babies.

The table was beautifully decorated with festive tablecloths, roses, and rose petals.  Dinner was also lovely, Seafood Enchiladas (featuring shrimp, lobster, and crab with a light cheese sauce), a chicken version of the enchiladas, Spanish Rice, Bread, Salad and for dessert, Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake, and the showcase: Baked Alaska with English Toffee and Chocolate Ganache ice cream in the center.

So is he going to come hang out with us this summer?

Yeah, sure! If you’re sure you want him.

Yep, they can keep each other company and quite frankly they are old enough to help me with chores and in the garden!

Perfect.

Hi.

Hello.

Oh, I’ll take her from ya.

She’s getting awful big!

Could you teach her to sleep though the night?

Oh, she isn’t old enough to do that yet!

She hasn’t been sleeping at night at all.

You’ll have that.

Where’s the baby?

She got snatched almost directly from the car seat.

Aren’t you tired of holding these?

Well my last one was never this little!

How are you doing?

Good.

Hey, how’d you get the baby?

She walked over here with empty arms!

Hello! I hear she is eight pounds now!

Yes she is.

Wow, what are you feeding that girl?

Oh you know, a healthy diet of protein, carbs and the souls of our enemies.

Ah… yes, that’s the winner.

Hi!  I really like her outfit!

Oh, thank you.  We aren’t really big princess fans, but the dress was soo soft!

Too cute.  We are major princess fans at our house.  You know, after watching Cinderella as many million times as we have, you start to realize, she really has quite a bit of spunk, I mean she was gonna beat the cat with a broom for messing up her floor.  I get that!

Wow, look at the table! It’s beautiful!

Where did all the flowers come from?

We bought them.

I brought the petals, the florist I make soap for gave me a bunch for a rose soap I am going to try.

So are you guys doing anything romantic for Valentines?

Well, I did shave my legs yesterday…..

Give me five.

Ok kids, do you want chicken or seafood enchiladas?

Chicken

Chicken

Chicken/Seafood. Both?

Seafood

Ok, come get your plates. You guys can start getting ready to eat.

What do you want?

Apple juice?  Milk? Rice?

You want some juice too?

Hit it girl!

Bless this house, Lord we pray, keep us safe by night and day. Amen!

Amen!

Are these the chicken or seafood?

Chicken.

Oh, I’ll wait for the seafood.

Here girls, how about you split the chicken.

I would totally be a stay at home dad.

We talked about that, he wouldn’t do it.  Even though it makes more sense at the moment.

So is working at your job more lucrative?

Well, yes and no.  At the moment, yes, I make more than he does, but long term no, there isn’t much place for me to really advance around here.

So do you have to have a degree?

Yes, I have a degree and license.  My degree is very similar to what your wife’s will be as a nurse.  Maybe even a little broader because as a LVT I am also the radiologist, the anesthesiologist and a multitude of other jobs that usually you don’t see nurses doing in human medicine.  I have to know all of it to pass my boards.

Did you ever think about working in human medicine?

No not really.

She doesn’t like people that much.

No, I don’t.

Did you ever want to be a veterinarian?

Yes, and actually I was accepted to program at MSU, but because of a couple silly, young reasons I didn’t go.  One was when the showed me the closet of a room I would be sharing with five other girls, I panicked and the other was I chose to stay home for a boy.

That happens a lot.

It does, I was young and it happens, but life moves on.

… And you hear Valkyrei playing in the back ground…

…laughing…

Did you hear that?

No, I am laughing at him siging Valkkrei back there.

Oh good.

Oh yeah, we spank.

We never have, different things for different parents.

Spanking is saved for really bad things, like if they are going to really hurt themselves or are hurting someone else.

We just use a pit of bugs.

Haha!

Yeah, we feed the bugs every so often so there stays a lot of them for when the kids are really bad.

Are you stealing her worm garden?

I just need to be better at saying no.  Can you show me how to do that again?

(Dad looks at me with exaggerated example) NO!

Just like that huh?

Yep, he does it just like that!

Do eagles hunt ducks?

Yes!

Did you tell them about the time we had the two eagles fly up into are yard and all the ducks plastered themselves against the house?

That was the story I was just telling them!

It was crazy!

We’ve been seeing more eagles around here.

We have quite a few sharp shins around the house right now.

Those were always my favorite, although every once in a while I would find one dead in the barn.

Yeah, I remember the one that had gotten its head stuck and was froze all spread out.

(Making faces at my now out stretched arms and flopped over head)

It was really sad, but kind of neat to see it, I am pretty sure we donated it to the Nature Center since it was so well preserved.

You know crows are some of the most intelligent birds?

Really?

You know, I’ve heard that.

They, other than humans are one of only a few species that uses tools and is able to pass learned information down between generations?

I watched a show where they said crows actually morn as a group.

I heard that too.

They did this study, where they gave the crows puzzles, there was a berry in a box and in order to get the berry out they had to use a tool, there was no way to just pull it straight out.  So the crows, took a straw and bent it, then were able to pull the berry out to eat.

That’s amazing.

I also saw another study, where they had people go into the crows habitat with scary masks and harass the crows.  They did it for several weeks.  Then, years later when there were new crows there, they went back into the woods with the same masks, and sure enough the new generation of crows recognized the masks as being trouble.

Its amazing how nature works.

In the documentary they also talked about how this girl fed the crows for years, and after a while they started to bring her gifts.  Some of them were gross of course, but still gifts for feeding them.

Not just cats bringing nasty gifts anymore!

I remember one summer we had red-wing black birds that were so aggressive with their territory that they knocked a girl off her bike near our drive way and she came running to the house to get away from them.

What?!?

Yeah, they are really that territorial.  They left us alone, because they recognized us, but new people were a problem.

By the way, I’ve been using your Jersey soap, and I’ve gotta say my hands were so cracked…

Yeah…..

And now they aren’t! I love it!

Oh good, I totally thought you were going the other way with that and I was going to have to go home and dump all of it.

No!!! It’s wonderful!

Good, because I know my hands are much happier since I’ve been using it.

So, I have a question for you since you’re selling on Etsy. Kind of a general question I guess.

Ok, shoot.

So, the furniture that people sell on Etsy, does that come pre-assembled?

Well that’s not a very general questions, pretty specific really.

I honestly have no idea.  But I do know my soaps come fully assembled!

Haha! Here’s the oil and the milk, and watch out for the lye, it can be kinda tricky!

You can always contact the seller on the website, I know people can email me.

So, are you still making your wood burnings and knives?

Yeah, I just haven’t gotten very far, I am not really sure what will sell.

Well, get some stuff together.  In August I think we should split a booth at the fair.  It wouldn’t be too bad with at least three of us there.

Good idea.

Hey! There you are! We were just talking about splitting a booth at the fair to sell our wares in.

Oh really? I don’t know if people would pay what I am asking there.

I bet you would be surprised.

Are you talking about the art fair?

No, the county fair, you don’t’ have to be accepted there, just have money.

Ah.

Wow, she is really enjoying that dessert.

Well, if you’ll notice they are both full of sugar and neither one is crying for a change.

(The one year old literally has her face smashed into the Baked Alaska and is covered in icecream)

They weren’t crying last week were they?

Oh yeah.

Hey! Be nice to the dog! He is old!

Be careful! If you hurt him he might bite!

Poor old dog.  (This is Blake, we have had him since a puppy and he is now 14 years old.  He is very good with the kids, but usually keeps out of the traffic since he has a bad back)

How old is he?

I don’t know 34?

OH COME ON! I’m 33!

Really?  You’re only a year older than me?

Ha ha.  Come on! I am not that old?

Well, you know you were driving WAAAY before me it seemed like.

Well, that’s cause I had to do something to get away.  I got tired of riding my bike to escape.

So are you milking your cow to capacity?

Not even close, but I am at my capacity until the weather gets better.  Right now I leave her calf on her, and separate them during the day so I only have to milk at night.  In the summer when its nice, and really the calf is plenty old now to be weaned, I will be able to milk twice a day.

Really the calf is getting the best of both worlds, plenty of grain and still all that good fatty milk.

Oh yea, and she looks it too the pork-chop.  She loves going to day care.

You send the calf to day care?

Well, I started calling it that because the cow is like a nursing mom who goes to work for the day and the calf goes to day care.  So I started calling it that when I would lock her up in her section of the barn.  Now when I go out there I say “time for day care!” and she goes running in.

That’s crazy!

Yep, but she is getting a little big for it now, going to have to find a bigger day care.

I think the girls are ready to go.

 

Advertisement