What we've been up to

OK, so life has been very busy...it's summer time!!! The sun finally came to Washington and we have been outside as much as possible. Our garden is growing like crazy and our chickens are starting to lay eggs. Even our rooster started laying eggs! (Apparently we're not very good at telling chicken gender either...i.e. 7 day cat...) We continue to love life on the farm. You know you want to come visit...

Our chickens are pretty funny. Here they all are posing for a picture. Aren't they all so beautiful? (Maybe this is something you discover more when you own chickens...bless their fuzzy little butts.)

They helped keep Caleb company while me and the kids went down to Utah for the annual cousin family reunion, hence the chicken portraits.

Between me and my sister and her kids, we added 11 people to my parent's house--I'm sure it seems awful quiet now that we are gone :)

Here is Fern snuggling/mauling cousin Sarah. Good thing kids are made out of rubber...


First off, notice that Fern is color coordinated with the very loud skate rink decor--that's our Fern! Fern has discovered a new interest--roller skating. She actually has quite good balance on the skates--walking around on them at least. She was really sad when it was time to give the skates back, but I told her we would take her again another day. Possible future roller derby girl? (If you know Fern, you know what we are talking about...)


Beautiful Big Springs hike. Thank goodness for a double jogging stroller and baby bjorn--Fern was done after about 20 feet...and it was 4 miles long!


We celebrated Grandpa's 94th birthday with a party. He is so strong and active for his age--even for someone 10 years younger...


Henry enjoyed 'digging' for dinosaur bones at the museum.


Fern thought the shark was pretty cool (perhaps partly because Henry was scared of it...actually MOSTLY because of that...that's Fern)


It's always awesome to see Mt. Rainier--the kids kept taking pictures of it from the airplane. Caleb claims that he could live to be a thousand years old and never tire of seeing the mountain.


My great travelers after the flight home, excited to see dad again. (Dad was happy to see them too--he didn't enjoy sharing his meals with the chickens all that much.)


This is just a pic for Riley, showing that we are using the Yukon the way it was meant to be used.


Caleb taking the kids off to play in the river (or more appropriately, at the side of the river, as it is ice cold water...) leaving me with three hours to read. Not sure when the last time was I had that long to read....it was really nice :)


Here is a cool stack of rocks (cairn) that Caleb and Henry built. You can also see the beauty of our secret camping spot. You are literally almost completely isolated from any other people. Awesome.


More camping pix--Henry claims that this was 'the best fire ever.' Caleb and Henry built it without using any paper. Next year they are going to try not using a match either.


Ferny showing her coordination? foot to head? who knows...just Fern.

Well, that is about all for now. Caleb's business is doing well. Check out his website--it is pretty impressive (the link is on the right of this page).

Happy Henry day + random other stuff

Hello everybody--happy wet Juneuary to you all. We've been having cold, wet, and dreary days here. The weather man predicted 10 days of sun, which would have been great, but we only got 1 of those...but we've still been having fun. When the sun does come out, we pack EVERYTHING into the day. One day we were outside from 9am until 10:30pm.

Fern feels very grown-up to ride on the "buddy bike" attached to Caleb's bike. She holds on quite well and has her own helmet now (which is pink with an added ribbon on top and Hello Kitty drawn on the side) and loves to go fast and go over bumps. She'll be mountain biking with Henry and Caleb in no time.


One day while biking, Fern heard a sound and insisted on stopping and seeing what it was. We found an abandoned cat hiding in the grass. Long story short, we ended up taking it home. They named it Gracie even before we got home. Gracie's claws were too long--she got caught on everything she stretched on, then she started getting sick, so we took her to the vet to see what could be done--they told us it would take $125 or more to take care of her, so we left her there. (I mean it was a "him"--apparently Caleb is not very good in determining gender in cats) He is now healthy and in a nice home--not ours--and probably with a better name. We call him our 7 day cat. The kids sure loved him though and the cat was quite tolerant of being carried around by Fern.


We continue to love our new home and surroundings. It is so beautiful. I think we shall never leave...Our garden is doing great (besides almost drowning in all the rain--did I mention that we need some more sun?)


So, we celebrated "Henry day" last week (as his birthday usually gets lost in the midst of Christmas preparations). We had a great day in Seattle. We went to the Pacific Science Center, where they had a circus exhibit. Henry got to put on a safety harness and walk on a tightrope up in the air. I couldn't believe that he was so brave! He seemed to be a bit more confident after this.


Then we went out to eat at Buca di Beppo (thanks to coupons and credit card rewards it was free!) an Italian restaurant. Henry got sang to (which he thought was totally cool--he loved the attention) and got a brownie with ice cream, along with a candelabra while he ate it. (Henry asked if there was going to be candles--the server was in a hurry and said "candles? you betcha", hence the candelabra.) You should have seen Henry beaming--so cute.


Back at home Henry had requested an iceberg cake with penguins. It turned out cool, but not quite as cool as the volcano cake last year...but what can top that?


What a happy boy! I love this facial expression of pure excitement and happiness. He got what he wanted--legos. We feel lucky that we have a boy who got a pack of mints and a small box of legos and was completely content. What a great kid :)


Love when snapshots work out so well! The lighting and composition worked out nicely and it was just a quick shot...cool. Caleb's business has recuperated the startup costs and is looking promising. Feel free to check out his website (there is a link to the right)--there are lots of pix of his work. And if you live in the Seattle Eastside area, feel free to tell everyone about him.

Anyway, hopefully the sun is shining on you and hopefully it will come out here also!

Will the rain ever stop?...

OK, so Caleb usually does the updates...but I beat him to it this time!

Well, it's almost June and it just keeps raining... We've been working on our garden whenever we can and now I'm hoping that my seeds and plants don't drown! It's looking pretty good now. The rhubarb is starting to recover, carrots and lettuce are coming up and much more. I think I need a bigger garden though--it's pretty packed this year! The weeds are crazy and I'm trying to keep up with them, but I think they are in cahoots with the rain--they know that if the paths are muddy, I will not be weeding...

The garden--all those happy plants in the front are potatoes.

We let Henry and Fern plant some of the plants and they loved that!

Henry loved to use his backhoe for weeding and planting. He is a super worker and a great help!

We adopted 3 more chickens to join Goldie and Betsy: Lucy, Rosy, and Moonsmile. (I'm not sure where Fern got "moonsmile", but I like it!)

Between the garden, starting up grounded landscape design, still moving in (yes, this process takes FOREVER...there are always those boxes full of stuff that you have no idea what to do with, but you know that you can't throw the stuff away...), and the day to day necessities of figuring out what to eat, cooking, eating, cleaning, reading, organizing, etc. life is really busy! (and not everything gets accomplished...) I have just come to the realization that there will NEVER be the "right" time to take a break and that I just have to do it...now when am I going to? not sure, but realization is the first step :)

Were back online now

So for the past 2 months we have been very busy with a lot of crazy life stuff. And for most of that we have not had Internet. But we're back now, and ready for action.
So a pic is worth a thousand words, let go from there.
So after needing to move, here is how things have played out
March 13 Lyn's B-day
Then came my B-day, we were so busy moving that we just went to Safeway and bought a slice of cake.
Then we got moved in. Thank you to all of our dear friends and family that helped us so much. 4 days later we had to go to Utah to visit family. I am so proud to say that my kids went the entire 12 hours ride to Utah without ANY tv viewing. Not that they could if they wanted to, but I hear soo many people claim that their kids couldn't make it 1-2 hours without TV or DVD's. That may be true but only because they have been conditioned to need constant stimulus. I see some parents that put in a DVD to go to the grocery store. I feel bad for what will happen when the stimulus is gone. How will they ever find peace without a television? OK I'll get off my soapbox now.
So in Utah we saw the kids Great-Grandparents Nelson
Then we visited with Great G-ma Hulse

The we went and spent some very nice time with Grandparents Tidwell

In between visits with them we snuck over to Great Grandpa Tidwell's. He is Lyn's only surviving Grandparent, and just really a neat guy to boot.

The kids favorite game that they play incessantly is 'Love Bug'. It's like 'Slug Bug' but sweet. Fern, however has always lamented not being able to find any pink ones. [You've never seen a girl who likes pink more than Fern] So finally after many months we spotted one. We pulled a U-ey and caught this pic
Happiness !!!
Then we went back up to WA. Kids did it TV-free again! in case you thought it an aberration. We spent a day at the kids Grandma Nelson's house and played with cousins. When we finally got home we started working on fixing up the house. The last renters didn't leave it in great shape. Plus there was a lot of customizing that we wanted to do; paint, lights, landscaping. The landlords have given us over $300 so fay to fix it up. It has come a long way from where it was. Come on over and check it out. we'll put some pics of the house up after we get it all fixed. But I'll tell you now, that we won't be moving for a very long time because this place is soo beautiful. We feel that we are living in heaven. Everyday is a vacation. Our fire pit. and look at this awesome sunset. It is a regular occurrence out here. I think that there have been sunsets all along but at our old house in the ravine we couldn't see them. Even rainy days are neat out here because you get to see the dark clouds swirling around. Our yard=

Some of the fun things that we have been doing, in addition to hiking and exploring, are for one that there was a day that the Space Needle was offering a 50% discount for homeschoolers, so we definitely took advantage of that. Always a treat to go up the Space Needle.
Work has been really lousy for the last 6 months. My boss tries to do everything that he can to rip me off and finds every way he can to pay me less and less. After he took back the work truck with gas card, health benefits, vacation and holidays, and wanted me to buy a business license so that I could be an independent contractor and pay my own taxes and social security and what not. After all of that he wanted me to sign a non-compete so that I could only work for him. HA! What ? Do I look like an idiot?
So I started my own design firm. I have been thinking about it for a while. This just gave me the impetus to do it. The name of the firm is "grounded landscape design"
So now I am master of my own ship. 'Act or be acted upon'. I shall act so that I can be free from the dishonesty and idiocy of others.
Our garden is growing like crazy. Super-fertile soil here in the valley.
We lost 3 of our most loved chickens to Raccoons. It was a very sad moment for us. Chickens make wonderful pets. When you call them they cluck back to you and run up to meet you. We still have 2, but are hoping to score a couple more.

And that's about it.
We'll see you more often now that the Internet is connected again.

We're moving

So any how, now that we have your attention: Yes we are moving. After many weeks of being stressed out trying to find a place to live we finally found the right one.
Our new house is on a dairy farm in the town of Duvall. [accent over the U] the dairy part is a 1/4 mile up the road from us so minimal stench. Behind our house is about 60 acres of corn fields. The house is an old farm house that was built in the early 40's. I t is all new on the inside and is significantly bigger than our current abode. The rent is way cheaper and there are no utilities, thereby reducing our expenses by about 1/3!!
It is soo neat. There is lots of space for kids to run around. We have a huge veggie garden and there is even space for our chickens. We got 3 new chicks on Wednesday! One thing that I love about our new home is that it is right on Snoqualmie river. We have fire pit on the banks of the river and overlooking the Cascade mtn's. Here you see a pic of my kids standing in what will be our new garden. It looks like American Gothic doesn't it?
We will probably be moving the 20th of this month. If not it will be the 27th.
I am soo excited to have this blessing of living in the country. It will be a simpler life and one that is much more in harmony with mother nature and the cycles of life. Plus did you see how gorgeous it is?!

The weather yesterday was super nice sunny and about 64. Love it. El nino winters rock.


Well that's about it for now. Work is still sucking, but at least I have a good family to keep my focus on what is important.
We love you guys and hope to have you come out and visit us. We will so miss the fine members of our church. we hope that we can continue to say in contact with you.


I'm tired, Good Night

Real stuff

We actually have stuff to report on this time...
We had a bobcat sighting in our backyard (see short video above). Our chickens survived the ordeal, but Caleb thinks it would be ALMOST worth it to lose a chicken to see a bobcat in action. It was cool to see a bobcat so close (20 ft. away), but it really concerned Fern. (We weren't in the backyard--we were in the kitchen--just so you know that she didn't have anything to be concerned about...) And then a couple of nights later we saw 2 coyotes just a couple blocks from our house. I guess this warm weather is bringing them out of hiding.

It's been sunny and warm the whole winter (yah, no rain in Seattle...weird!) It even got into the high 50s /low 60s this past week. If only every winter could be like this...

The kids have a new game called "lion". It involves Henry pretending like he is a lion, chasing Fern, and Fern running to daddy's arms saying (in her best dramatic voice) "saaaave me daddy, saaaaave me!" and then tells daddy to whack the lion. It's pretty fun to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8luKxrYiOU One of their other favorite pasttimes is playing this song over and over and over and over and over....(Henry figured out how to make the CD player repeat...) and dance around the house wearing assorted dress up clothes (I'm not sure where the dressing up came about for this particular song...it just happens): tights on the head, several shirts, skirts, socks (on hands, feet, multiple layers), diapers on head, whatever can be found. Fern has also discovered that swimsuits fit over several layers--no matter what they are... One time she had so much on her head that she couldn't see where she was going and walked into a chair--she doesn't put things over her face so much anymore.

Valentine's day was fun. We celebrated it on Saturday. First of all, Caleb picked up balloons for the kids--as in one for each of them. Those balloons received more play time than anything else for a week. (This would have continued longer, but Henry's floated out the door at some unknown time...) It was fun seeing their imagination. Henry turned his into many contraptions for lifting, transporting, etc. He is very mechanically minded. He also invented games of trying to catch the balloon with a piece of rope and a binder clip...anyway, it was fun. For lunch we had a "Seattle picnic". It was raining, so we all got into the good old Trooper and drove to a nearby park that is not well used. We then folded the back seat down which made a bed of sorts and set up blankets and lots of pillows. Then we put the laptop on top of a milk crate and watched "The Love Bug". It was kind of like a nest and was very snuggly. It was a novel way to spend the afternoon.

After my class on how to ferment food (OK, so I took it for Caleb...I found that I can't stomach most of this stuff...but I really liked the sour dill pickles...Caleb really likes sauerkraut, so I will see if I can successfully make it :) ) we headed over to UW arboretum to go canoeing. Henry wasn't so sure about this adventure when we encountered the wake of larger vessels and wanted to know when we were going back. After we got into some shallow water where we could see turtles and the bottom of the lake he started loosening up and even liking it. Caleb explained to him that there is something difficult about everything that is worthwhile. We asked him if he was enjoying himself, to which he responded 'yes'. We pointed out that he is one that kind of needs to warm up to things, to which he responded, "yah, I'm like a toaster."

As for how we are doing:
no job until April (commission only...eek!)
car broke down (Caleb fixed it for $30!!! woohoo for a husband that can fix stuff!)
landlord is selling our house (but not sure how soon...so not sure how stressed we should be)
but....we do have unemployment, we have a car, we have a roof to live under, we have food stamps to keep us fed, and cute kids to keep our mind off the other stuff.

(By the way, if you like any of the pictures, you can click on it to bring up a bigger version and then you can right click and save it.)

Thank you for leaving comments-- we love hearing from you :)