Mole patrol: a little bit less outsmarted and Halloween

In honor of the pending holiday, I present a few holiday appropriate pictures.
Hagrid's Hut lego set with his giant pumpkin garden...

 Graveyard duel lego set...

Those are pretty much the only things I have related to Halloween.  They're old pictures, but I think they are holiday appropriate.  We aren't really holiday type people (for any holiday, really), so we don't decorate very much, if at all.  Which is just fine with me and the hubby!  I did think about making something for Halloween decor but I didn't end up doing it.  My sister-in-law makes some pretty cool pumpkins out of scraps of wood!  I'll have to ask her how she made them and then maybe make some for next year!  However...I AM very excited to get out my owl-urkey for Thanksgiving!  I'll show you later, have to wait until Halloween is over!  It's sooooo cute!

In other exciting news, I caught a mole last week!!!  All by myself!  Can you imagine the adrenaline that was pumping through my veins when I saw that little bit of dirt moving?  And then, I saw a little tail.  I put the hose where that was happening and then it crawled up out of the ground and I used the hose to push it in the bucket.  Oh my gosh...it was just craaaazy!!  I didn't take a picture of this one, but here's the picture from one of the first ones just for effect.  I still feel bad, it's kind of a cute little thing, but it was really making a mess of the yard!  Not to mention it was teasing us and making us crazy!  I am not sure if we have more, but I am hoping this was the only one that was running around out there.

It has also been pretty exciting because they finally cut down the beans in the fields around us.  It was pretty exciting to watch, so naturally, I took a couple of pictures!  Here is the soybeans up close...

Here is the combine out my window as I was peeping...

This is after he went by...

And this is down the field...kinda exciting.

We also had something really odd happen with the chicken run...All of a sudden there was this hole in the door.  And the little pieces of plastic were cleanly cut and sitting next to the opening.

It might have been a possum or something small like that, but I put this board there and we haven't had anything since then.  I'm just glad I lock up my little chickens safe and sound every night! Who knows what might happen to them if I didn't.  Also, I went out to check out the garbage this morning and it turns out we had a critter have a little party in there last night.  Probably should have covered it, but I didn't.  Oh well.

Is it wrong to kill lady bugs?  It sure doesn't feel right...
Gotta go make dinner for the hubby...have a good evening!
xoxo
c

Fencing, garden and some random stuff!

Well, I seem to be having a lot more free time on my hands lately, so I get to blog more! Yay! Except I'm running out of things to talk about! Hmm...  Why do I have more time lately?  Let me explain.  I have been telecommuting to my job in Utah for the last 5 months, some days are frustrating and others are awesome!  But, I was nearing the end of my rope and started looking for work where I could do a little bit of socializing in the process.  Even though I haven't found any work yet (still looking...), we decided that I should quit my job last week.  I worked for them for the last 6 1/2 years, I am super sad and will miss everyone at work, but I think it was for the best. I have learned so much and gained so much experience working there, I can't thank them enough! And it turns out it was at a really good time, and I'm happy that I left on my own terms.  The real estate market in Utah is quite low at the moment, so my place of employment were doing some layoffs anyway, so, really, it was good for both of us.  I have decided that I want to start school in the Spring and finish up my Bachelor's degree.  My plan, so far, is that I want to get a Bachelor's of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in finance and a minor in Accounting.  All in all, I think I want to be an accountant.  You can do it all online for the most part, and doing the degree this way can make you eligible to take the Certified Public Accountant exam for the state of Wisconsin.  (I'm planning on attending University of Wisconsin-Platteville, which is about a half hour away if they accept me.  Still waiting....)  Accountants can make pretty good money, and I have always enjoyed playing with money and numbers like that.  And, since we eventually want to start our own farm business and maybe a few other things, it would be nice for me to have some background in business to help us out.  Hubby is thinking about getting his Master's in Business Administration (MBA), but we aren't sure when and where and what not. That would be really good for him and probably help him a lot in his future.  We will see what happens and how things play out though.

We've had some pretty productive weekends lately!  We've been wanting to make a fence to go around the chicken coop so that they could play in my garden and fertilize and things like that.  So, several weeks ago, we got some posts and some 6 foot fencing.  We finally decided to put everything up!  Here is the view from the corner of my garden.

We used the PVC pipe from the temporary run to make the little gates, they are kind of redneck, but I'm just fine with that! :)

Here is the view from the side of the house...

I love that they can just run around if they like and have more fun.  Some day, we hope to have a nice big back yard where they can just run around and play free and be safe!  Hopefully...But they seem to be enjoying themselves! :)

Do you remember that rusty cast iron pan?  Well....on Monday the 14th, we had a large crew of stupid roof people come to replace the roof at the request of the landlords.  I stuck myself inside the whole time because I didn't want to see anyone or anything like that.  So, I finally attacked the pan!  Here it is after my attack!

I used Brillo steel wool soap pads.  It was hard to get all that rust off, but I think it came out pretty nicely!  I also baked the pan the same way as I did the other one, about 350 to 400 for an hour and let it cool in the closed oven.  I think it turned out really nicely, lets hope I can just keep both pans maintained.  I do like cooking with them, it cooks really evenly and browns pretty nicely. I need to figure out some other awesome things to make in them.  I think maintenance will be the hardest part.

Apparently it is the season for raspberries at my house!  I am not complaining, they are soooo good!  The raspberries on the right were picked a few days before the ones on the left.

I can't believe I am getting so many raspberries from the one plant, its incredible.  Funnily enough, we aren't getting anything from the other plant.  Maybe its not as well rooted or something.  By the way, all of those raspberries in the picture were gone within 30 seconds of taking this picture! Hehe...YUM!!!

I went grocery shopping earlier this week and I saw my favorite pumpkin display ever outside a grocery store.

I love how clever they were and made it a really nice display, rather than just throwing pumpkins out.  

Also, I have decided to try to learn how to knit.  Here is my learning swatch.  

The bottom 6 rows-ish is the "knit" stitch, the next 6 or 7 rows is the "purl" stitch, and then the top 7 rows is the "rib" stitch (even though you can't really tell, but you can kind of tell...).  I'm still trying to perfect it and become more consistent, but that will take some time.  Its kind of cool though.  I think its a bit easier because my mom showed me how to crochet when I was young, so I feel decently comfortable around yarn and stuff.  Knitting is a whole different ball game though.  I wanted to learn because I really like the stitch patterns that you get with knitting.  Someday I hope to knit a sweater, but we'll see how things go from here.  Since I don't know many people out here, I'm learning from a book.  I picked this and everything else up at the Hobby Lobby in town.

Here is all the materials that I use/have...(the book said I should get a little kit going, so there we are).

Its kind of fun, but we'll see how it goes, as I've already said.
Well....I think I'll go play with the chickens for a few minutes and see if we received any delicious presents.  :)  Have a good one!
xoxo
c

Mole Patrol: Feeling outsmarted

The mole is still teasing us in the yard.  I found this the other day in the back yard...

Then, I found another similar to that last night!  Naturally, we took the hose to all of them and nothing.  This mole is being particularly elusive...And a giant pain in the butt.  It's funny how such small creatures can be so frustrating.  

xoxo

Mole Patrol and Fall pictures

Well, we found evidence of another mole.  I was about ready to announce that we were mole free for a while, but alas, we found one.  This one is proving to be quite elusive.  It seems to be playing along side my driveway where there is dirt and where I can hardly tell.  Hubby noticed when he was mowing the lawn on Thursday.  We got out the hose and tried in about a dozen different places and couldn't catch the little beast.

(this one has a mound that hubby stamped on)

I never in my wildest dreams thought that we would be dealing with moles.  And I can completely understand the phrase "making mountains out of molehills."  The other night when we were working on the nesting boxes for the chicken coop, I ran to the shop to get something and noticed all sorts of little tunnels under the ground.  This one is really teasing us well!  I'll keep you updated.

One of my friends at work and I like to talk about zombie protection strategies (lightheartedly of course, I just think its funny to talk about).  I had to let them know that I saw these in the local hardware store.  Zombie specific Ammo Cans.  Awesome!

I have also seen zombie target things in Walmart for shooting practice and a zombie apocalypse survival guide in Target.  I didn't expect to see these kinds of things out here, its kinda funny! :)

On a completely different note, here are some pictures of the coop alongside the bean field this fall! Its so pretty!

 Here is the view to the right...

 And yet another view of the left field without the coop.  :)

 Oh oh oh oh oh!!!  Guess what I picked yesterday!!!!!

These 4 beautiful raspberries...YUM!!  Hubby and I both had 2.  I picked another one this morning!  Homegrown raspberries are sooooooooooo delicious!   Someday I hope to have a nice big raspberry and strawberry patch!

Some of you might remember that at one point I had an irregular heartbeat and have been taking heart medicine to make it regular again.  I believe it came to be because I was pretty addicted to caffeine for about 6 years.  Which I have stopped drinking every day, now I only have a little bit once or twice a week, no where nearly as much as what I was having before.  As an update, this last time I visited the doctor, they put me on an EKG for a few minutes to measure my heartbeat. I'm happy to announce that it was working perfectly!!!!!  All is well!  I do have to keep taking the heart medicine though because if you stop cold turkey your heart will tend to go back to the way it was before.  The doctor lowered the dosage and everything seems to be working perfectly!  (knock on wood) Not to worry everyone! :)

Today is the chickens' 4 month hatch day!  I hope to take some pictures tomorrow and post about that tomorrow!  (we'll see if that happens!)  :) I'll take pictures of the nesting boxes we built this weekend too!

xoxo
c

Chicks, garden pics, and painting, oh my!

Well, hubby and I have been on a work trip this week, during which I have been quite bored and been able to read books that I have wanted to read for quite some time!  It has been very nice, even though hubby has been gone for most of it.  But we have taken a few chances in the evenings to do a few fun things in the area, but for the most part we like our vacations pretty boring. :)

So, I'd like to take the chance to post about a few things that I have had in the queue to blog about for a while, this way I should be slightly caught up.  You remember how we made the pvc and netting run for the chickens?  We use that now as an attachment onto the coop so that they have a lot more run area and it seems to be working pretty well!

Here is a picture of Parker, the partridge rooster...He has so many nice colors and is really filling in to be a very nice looking rooster!  I'm afraid that Basil is still the number one rooster though!

We decided to finish off the garden, so I picked all the carrots and all the rest of the watermelons, whether they were ready or not.  I think we are going to end up feeding all the watermelons to the chickens because we kind of have to be in the mood for watermelon, and we haven't really been in the mood for it.  But...the chickens are absolutely in love with watermelon and I know they are hoping that all the cucumbers I take out to them are watermelons...I can see the disappointment when they discover they are cucumbers, hehe...

Here are the flowers on the raspberry plants...I hope that we don't miss them.  I'm hoping they are red, ripe and ready when we get home and that we are able to eat them.  YUM!! So glad we did the raspberries!

I have to figure out how to save some strawberry starts so that we can make some more pots, I have been getting tons of strawberry starts, but just been putting them back in the pot.
And, alas, here is the garden.  I cut out the tomato plants from their mangled cages and pulled them from the ground.  I wasn't going to use any more tomatoes and decided it was time to call it done. It was fun though, wasn't it?  While hubby was mowing the lawn I sprayed the garden with round up just to kill anything growing in there.

After hubby mowed the lawn and I raked it all up, he distributed the grass all over the garden just so it would help kill some of the garden greens.

Next year, I think I will use newspaper in between my plants to keep the weeds down and aid my gardening skills.  Plus, I think newspaper just decomposes and adds some nutrients in the soil, I think...I'm quite sure.  (Hubby is looking at pictures of goats and I want some pygmy goats soooo bad!!!)
On a different note, here is my finished painting from the acrylic painting class I took!  Ta Da!!!!

I think it turned out okay, and I really like how the red of the face of the bottom brown one turned out.  I'm not sure that painting is one of my skills, but it was worth a try! :)

Here is a quilt that I am in the process of kind of making.  It is no where near perfect...

And it may not be to anyone else's taste, but its a collection of my favorite fabrics that I have.  It has been pinned together in my fabric box for quite some time and I've been able to take some time the last few weeks to sew the pieces together.  Many mornings it can take quite a while to get any work to do, so I have been taking that time to clean the house and sew this thing together.  I still have to get some batting and a sheet for the back side and sew it all together.  I want to make it a bit heavier (I like heavy blankets), so maybe I'll see if I can add something in between the sheet and the batting to add some weight.  I think its a twin size blanket, if not a little smaller, so I might have to add a border around it to make it work with the sheet.  I also have some more large pieces that I want to use to make something else, not quite this crazy though.  I need to post pictures of the 2 king size quilts that hubby and I both made with the help of his wonderful mother...They are incredible!!!  :)

Also, I kind of want to learn how to knit, so I thought I would take the time to learn how this week. I have a little swatch working, but I'm still working through learning the stitches.  When I finish learning them I'll post a picture of the swatch and the book that I'm learning from.  I think that because I already know how to crochet that maybe that has helped maybe a little bit.  Maybe not, I dunno.  We will see how this goes.  :) It is kind of fun though!

xoxo
c

Garden update: near the end...

Real quick because we are getting set up for Lego Labor day!  I usually go shopping in Park City, Utah with my mother in law and sisters in law, but since we moved we are unable to participate this year.  Which is really sad, I really miss it this year!  :) This year, however, I think we are going to play with legos instead.  Which I am really excited for because it has been a very long time! Yay!

Here is the overall garden.  I'm not proud.  I did not weed like I thought I would, its pretty cool that we got what we got out of it!

 Here is the watermelon patch, we got probably 6-7 out of it this year!  Sweet!

Here is how I found out how to tell if they were ripe...If the tendril is brown, and not green, it should be ripe!  The tendril is that little tiny random stem that is nearest the part that attaches to the watermelon.  It is that little tiny branchy thing at the top of the overall watermelon to the kind of left that's brown.  Wish I could draw on the picture...

This one is green...follow the stem that attaches to the watermelon to the right to where it bends and you'll see the tiny random stem coming out.  That is what is green and should turn brown when ripe.

 Here is the watermelon plants to the right, I think the grass overtook it.  :( Totally my fault.

 Check out the raspberry plants!  The one went kind of crazy!!  Awesome!

 And look at what I found the other day on each branch of the crazy one!

Again...HOLY COW!  I'm so excited!  Looks like we'll hopefully have more than 2 raspberries from the plants this year! yay!!

The strawberries filled the pots and have been putting out bunches of starters...thinking of picking them and saving them, but I don't know how to do that...

 And, picked all the carrots and the rest of the watermelons...

The only thing left in the garden is tomatoes...and I might call them done, too.  Unless the spaghetti sauce I'm going to try is good. The salsa I tried wasn't very good, and I don't think that we like fresh salsa, regardless of the recipe.  I'll post about the salsa next time as well as my first attempt at homemade cinnamon rolls! ;)
xoxo
c

Random stuff

Okay, so its been a little while since I've posted and I apologize...I'm still trying to figure out what to talk consistently about next, but that isn't going very well.  Any ideas?  I know that's a loaded question. :)  Btw, one of the last times I talked about how my heartbeat was irregular, but I've been on some heart medication for about a month now and it feels perfectly fine.  I had to give up caffeine, which was very disappointing and difficult (I miss you...) but it is all worth it.  I still have to ask the doctor if I have to be off it for the rest of my life or how that will work (I hope not and kind of doubt it, just not as much as I was getting before).  Seems like everything is coming together, lets hope it stays that way.  I've been working on eating better and changing my eating habits and its working pretty well, I think.  Mostly I've been trying real hard to get in more fruits and veggies, which is hard because I usually don't opt for them.  So we have a lot of them around the house and in the fridge (which also means lots of fruit flies, which you will see later).  But it is good, I've already lost a few pounds and it would be nice if it kept progressing that way.  However, we did go to the Iowa State Fair (awesome!) this last weekend and ... well ... you know! :) Fair food is pretty good!  But its back to being a good girl now!

Anyway, enough about me, lets see some pictures from the "garden" and then some other random stuff.
You remember those raspberries I decided to put in pots and see if they worked?  Well...we actually got some raspberries this year!  I'm very pleasantly surprised!

 Here are 2 raspberries I picked on Friday that we ate before we left for the fair...YUM!!!!

I picked one of our watermelons!!  I picked it last week and its still on the counter, so we should probably eat that for dessert tonight :)  Its maybe 8 to 9 inches in diameter!  I love the size of it, and it should be perfect for hubby and I to eat and not have much left over!  I'm very excited!

Here are a bunch of tomatoes that I picked!  This was also last week, right now they are a deeper awesome red!  They look so good!  I wish I knew what to do with them!  I think I'm going to try a recipe for salsa for one, and then maybe spaghetti sauce? Or Pizza sauce?  I don't know about those though!  I've never made any of this!  Anyone know of some good recipes?

Here is a picture of the front yard (across the street).  I wanted to get pics with the hay bales in it before they removed them, and they did later that day, so I'm really happy I did that when I did!  So pretty!!  This is what I look at all day while I'm working! :)

We had a bunch of flies and fruit flies around the house, so I made this for the flies outside by the brooder (now there is probably 20 dead flies in it).  I put it out there last week and its been doing a pretty good job of keeping them down!  I forget, but I think there's sugar, vinegar and water in there...

Here is my fruit fly trap (the top is aluminum foil poked with little holes held on with the ring).  This has apple cider vinegar and a couple of drops of dish soap.

I put this out one morning and the next day I had a ton of fruit flies in it...(here's a picture but you can't really see them real well).  But there's a ton in there now! Yay!!!

We haven't really been giving them anything other than feed, except I put a cucumber out there that they weren't too interested in.  I had some apples that were going bad and I thought I would see what the chickens thought of them.   They were all over them, they had them eaten up in no time!  That made me really happy!

And a couple of weekends ago, we had a bunch of egg yolks left from our eggs on the weekend mornings so I cooked them up and fed them to the chickens!

They weren't quite sure about it all, but some of them really enjoyed the yolks!

We had to cook up the yolks because if the chickens eat them when they are gooey they will know they are eating yolks.  And if an egg breaks in the coop they'll know what it is and where it comes from and that they love it and so they will eat their own eggs.  Which we DO NOT want!!!

Oh!  And we took a little video of moving the coop with hubby's riding lawn mower!  Check it out!  Its pretty neat!

And, last but not least, in an effort to get in some socialization, I started a beginner acrylic painting class.  Its only a 6 week class, but so far I think its helping, and its kinda fun too!  I'm not sure painting is for me, but its worth a try! This week (tomorrow) we get to bring in something that interests us to start painting, I might bring in a picture of one of my chickens! :)  Here is a picture of my first work of art! (haha)

Not bad, eh?  I think it turned out okay, it really discouraged me at some times, but, its alright!
All right...I better get to work!
xoxo
c