Smarty Pants with the Smarty Phone

I have finally entered the smart phone world....  I am trying not to think about the increase in our monthly phone bill and so, instead, I am focusing on the benefits....  handy link to the calendar system I use and love, Cozi Calendar, getting back to using Nike+ to run with my brother in Houston, and the ease of social networking and blogging... I hope... as of now, I am unable to post from the phone because for some reason blogger does not recognize it.
I will continue to problem solve the situation. 

Until then....   that is all. 

xoxo

One year later.......

Yes, I know, it has been a very long time...    

So much has happened in our lives in the last year.  I will be catching everyone up slowly, but I think it can all be summed up by the events that occured yesterday....

Who would have thought that I would be hanging out in the beer and wine section in Albertons (ok,ok, I know, that part is not a suprise, but the next part is...) talking about bow hunting and swapping elk stories (ok, so the stories I was swapping were not my own, not yet anyways) and how the ice drives the elk to lower elevations and my husband is at home ordering kitchen gizmos he found online while looking for meals he wants to prepare..... 

Funny how things work out in life.....

Homecoming 2011

Here is Paige and her friend Sander, before going to Bellarmine Homecoming 2011.....

Soul Mates

As I was getting ready for my day, I was thinking....  Those of you that know me already realize that very seldom does my brain stop processing or analyzing things... something is always going on in the background of my brain- kind of like the antivirus on a computer... it is always there, always on, and always processing....  I like to think of it as one of my endearing characteristics, however, I am almost certain that those who are around me the most my think of it differently...

But anyway, so I was thinking and I thought to myself, "Oh my gosh!! Phillip and I both have "champagne" colored Honda Accords AND we both have blue terry cloth bathrobes!!!" (of course mine is a Victoria's Secret and I have several other robes hanging in the closet and he has only 1)  These similarities were there prior to us dating....  

This only means one thing.....  We are soul mates!!!! 

My Saturday Morning

I woke up early on Saturday... 5:30 to be exact.  Hmmm, not what I had planned but I decided to make the best of it.  So as I was putzing around, I took some shots of my quiet early morning as Phillip and Paige were still sleeping.  I love it.

Early morning view from our back deck.

 Got the pellet stove fired up to warm up the house.  Fall is here, don't ya know.

 Cool shot of the fire.

 Making Tzatziki for Phillip.  He does not like cucumbers.  However, he tried some tzatziki that I got from Costco and he loved it.  But, me being me, I don't want to feed my family processed foods, so I searched for a recipe.  Here is my first attempt.  Hope he likes it!

The morning sun is starting to rise and burn off the fog in the valley.  Another shot off the back deck.

One reason I love it here so much!

This is what I get to wake up to every moring.... our 3 pups... Coco, Pawncho, and Max.

Don't you just love them?? 



All this and coffee too...  Loving my quiet early mornings in the doublewide in the woods with my family home, safely sleeping. 

My Destructo Man

So, as most of you know, we had some trees felled on our property.  Now we are saving to purchase a tractor, you know, one of those ones that has a bucket and and hoe and you can add many things onto them... like a grader and a box to level things and even a mower.  Something like this tractor.  We plan to have one by the spring if everything goes as planned and if we can find the one we want for the price we want. 

But I digress. 

Mom and I were out trimming the trees and bushes in the front yard  a few weekends ago and I wanted the rhododendrons gone.  Don't get me wrong, I like the plants for about the 2 weeks they are in bloom, and then I think they are ugly.  Ours were gorgeous in bloom, but hideous the rest of the year.  So, they were getting the ax, so to speak. 

Phillip had informed me months ago that he would be willing to pull out the rhodies when I was ready.  I was a little sceptical as they were near the rock wall and I knew that the wall would go with the the bushes as he pulled them out. 

But I was ready. 

Our front yard was already landscaping armageddon, so why not?  Just one less thing we needed to do when we were ready to get to work with the tractor in the spring.  So I go inside and get my dear husband, and I inform him that I am ready for rhododendron removal.

He is excited. 

He is ready.

He hops in his 4wheel drive truck, with a tow strap hooked up and he is ready to rumble. 

Here is after several rhodies have been removed. 

(Please note the manly pose of my destructo man.  Also note the condition of the rock wall)

Dad is enjoying the manliness of the entire situation too...

(nice t-shirt by the way)

Well, if he can take down the rhodies, surely taking down the flowering cherry should be easy.. 

I am going to digress.  I love flowering cherry trees (and plums for that matter).  However, the condition of the cherry was borderline at best, even previous to the armageddon left behind when we had our trees felled.  However, at some point when they were taking the big guys down, they decided to take out part of the cherry and leave the rest to just look like modern yard art.  I was not too happy, but then again, we will never use those people or recommend those people after what they did and did not do.  So, the tree needed to come down sooner than later.  Which, in all fairness, it was scheduled for eventual removal, but on our time. 

Anyway, here is the strap tied to the tree and my sweetie ready to go. 

 And here it goes!!

He pulled it all the way around to the lower driveway so we can throw it in the ditch.  Which happens to be the same ditch that we unintentionally rolled one of the downed trees into when we were trying to rescue the motorcycle out of the carport. 

Well, if we can do that tree, can we do the other tree? 

Now I liked this tree and it was not damaged by the tree removal armageddon.  However, it had been poorly trimmed (aka topped) throughout its life (which everyone should know is bad, bad, bad for trees) and after mom and I trimmed it up the best we could, we decided we might as well have Phillip take it down too since it needed to be replaced with a healthier specimen. 

Here is the flowering plum. 

 There goes the flowering plum.  I do have to say that this was a tough old tree and did not go easily.  I think the reat truck tires may have even gotten some air during the attempt. 

 Ah, but patience is a virture that my dear husband has (which is a great thing especially because he has to put up with me) and he overcame that tree and the wall and it went down. 

(Note the path of destruction it left.)

My mom was able to save a hen and chick from the now destroyed wall.  She is awesome!

 

As a side note, no animals were harmed in the removal of the rhodies, cherry and plum trees, or the line of bushes on the front edge of the property along the road (which it started raining and I was not able to capture in photos).  Max stayed by my side during the removal stages and ran freely while we were throwing the yard waste in our ditch (which we are planning to have filled with soil so we can use that property). 

Much fun was had by all. 

Favorite Quote

My favorite quote of the morning, by my loving husband, in reference to an email we received yesterday that pretty much put me over the edge....

You can't fix stupid.

Ah, you are so correct my love. 

How does he love me???

Well, actually, I am not certain if it is me, the bike, or fresh muscles… but let me explain… 

It all begins by Phillip wanting to have some trees downed on the property.  Of course I agreed, so hence the following saga begins…

We come home to see that the 27 trees are down.  Yes, mostly fir, some cedar, very tall and very big.  All down.  Oh, they were down here and there, but mostly in the driveway.  Yes, the driveway that is from the road to the car port…   Yes, the very same carport that the Goldwing is safely parked in… yes, my friends, THAT carport. 

“No worries,” Phillip said… “they said they will be gone by Tuesday.”  “Ok,” I said.  Of course, no one actually knows which Tuesday they were talking about because here we are, 4 weeks later and the trees are STILL in the driveway… 

But I digress….

My parents call and inform us that some very good friends of the family will be up on Whidbey Island on Sunday, and, do we want to come up and enjoy some fresh Penn Cove Muscles at Toby’s?  “Why YES!!!” I say….” Of course!” Phillip responds.  What could be better than a beautiful sunny day, going up to the island, no kids….

But wait…  We still have gigantic trees trapping the motorcycle in the carport…  Hmmmm

I go to assess the situation.  I think, “Surely Phillip, with his incredible riding skills can negotiate the bike around these trees and down the steep embankment to the second driveway and out to the road…”  

Phillip is not so certain. 

“Ok then, how about taking down the garden fence and 4 wheeling it through the garden area and upper field, around the shop and then out to the road?” I ask. 

Phillip is absolutely certain that is not an option. 

I pout.

I want to ride.  I want to ride on this glorious sunny day to the island, on the ferry, to visit my parents and friends and then to eat muscles on the cove with my love.  This is what I really want. 

So, after about 30 minutes of pushing, prying and wedging the largest fir tree you can imagine, we are able to push one of the logs off of the top driveway.  We are SO excited as it begins to roll down the embankment to the lower driveway… then we stand and watch, with jaws dropped, as it keeps on rolling… rolling across the lower driveway down an even steeper embankment, through the bank of blackberry bushes, down an even steeper embankment into the gully on the property line. 

“Hmm… good thing I moved my car,” I think.   Yeah, good thing.

Phillip then negotiated the cycle down a semi steep, loosely packed, hill between the driveways and up to the road.  Big smiles all around.  He then washed the bike and we rode to the island via the Port Townsend/Keystone ferry.  And yes, I call it this because the ferry actually does dock at Keystone (those of us that are divers know this) and Coupeville is several miles away.  I don’t care what the state of Washington wants to call it or how much money they wasted changing the name on all the signs and paper work they have. 

But I digress…   

So, the love of my life delivers. 

I like to think that he loves me that much, but I am pretty certain that he loves to ride or loves fresh muscles just as much or perhaps more than he loves me… 

None the less, we ended up having a fabulous time on the island with family, friends, and Penn Cove Muscles!

It's official!!

I am now a true country girl. 

How do I know this?

Because, I, my friends, have been to a

TRACTOR PULL!!!

 Apparantly, when you lean back, those few extra hundred pounds help keep those huge tractor tires on the ground....   or it makes you go faster... less wind resistance I guess.

Either way, it was a fun time.

Rats, Cats, Dogs and Chickens...

So, we have rats.  No, not as pets, but as unwanted pests. 

This is what I actually believe the truth to be...  They used to live in the chicken coop.  No, we don't have chickens.  Phillip used to have chickens, that is until his rotti played with them.  He came home to carnage and no more chickens. 

But I digress. 

So, the rats lived in the chicken coop, which is actually attached to the tool shed, which actually began as a potting shed, but no one actually potted anything in it so it became a tool shed... well, actually, more of a "catch-all" shed- that would have chickens in it- weather permitting of course.

But again, I digress.

So, Phillip decided to have some of the really tall trees felled recently.  You local folks remember the storm last November.... the one where towns and cities in the South Puget Sound area were stopped dead in our frozen tracks, some with no power for many days... right about Thanksgiving time?  Well, the folks out here in this neck of the woods experienced many tree and limb casualties.  (including the roof of the above mentioned potting/tool/chicken-out of the weather/catch-all shed)

But we will cover that at another time. 

Well, when the 27... "oops, sorry Mr Kirbow," 28 trees came crashing down (smashing part of the chicken coop wall), the rats were scared (understandably so) and migrated to under the house.

How do I know?? 

Coco, the chocolate lab, informed me one early morning that we had "friends" in the wall.  When I opened the back door to let her investigate further, she ran from the newly chewed hole in the house siding to the chicken coop and back.  My two boys, Max and Pawncho, could have cared less, they just wanted to go outside and say good morning to Honey, the remaining goat, who at that time, enjoyed their company.  Not so much any more. 

But, again, digression..........

So, long story short, after frantic texting to Phillip, we decided on poison.  Soon after we had killed a few, I realized that I did not want to poison the little buggers anymore, well, actually, large buggers. I did not want them to die in the walls of the house.  I also did not want the dogs to eat a poisoned, dead rat.  When I saw one dead as a door nail on the back deck one early morning, the dogs, all 3 of them, wanted to investigate.  While I was screaming at the top of my lungs in a very frantic voice "LEAVE IT!!" the puppy, Pawncho, actually tried to pick it up.  EWWW....not only a dead rat, but a poisoned dead rat.  Poisoned with blood thinner... that way the bleed to death... a rather slow and painful death I would imagine.  But, non the less, bad for dogs, very bad for dogs. 

So, I decided, after much thought, and questioning my patients (something I do quiet often, it is something like my own personal Gallup poll or Rasmussen report...) I decided to adopt feral cats.  I realized that this could be a life long battle living out here in the woods, I thought, how nice to have some vicious felines around to take care of business. 

After some searching and researching, we now have 3 "feral" cats in Max's big kennels in the tool shed.  They need to be kenneled for 4 weeks so that they will come to identify this as their home.  They are safe here and have daily food and water and they will realize this after 4 weeks.  (so they say)  Then they will be set free to seek and destroy any roaming rats around. 

"Wait a minute", you say... "What about the damage to the above mentioned tool shed from the storm??"  "Are the cats safe from the elements?" you wonder.   Well, rest your mind, folks.  As of yesterday, while Phillip was at work, my dad and I fixed the damage.  Thanks to him and my mom for letting him come over and help.  The cats are now well protected from the elements.  Good thing too, because I think we had our 4 weeks of summer and now it is fall... there is no frost on the pumpkins yet, but soon, I tell you, soon , it will be upon us. 

Digression, digression, digression....

Needless to say, soon after the cats arrived home, the rats are no longer making the ruckus they were originally.  Maybe they could smell or sense that doom was on the horizon.  None the less, we are momentarily rat free... or they are very, very quiet...