Enough is Enough...

Ok, so I'm a big fan of excitement and adventure, but enough is enough. I'm ready for a snowy vacation, a hot (cold?) date with my skis, more snow, my skis...
So everything started with the 6:00 oclock news about a month ago. The headlines mentioned a double homicide in town, which is kind of rare around here, so I thought I'd watch the story. Well, it turns out, an old housemate a good friend who had sort of gone off the deep end a couple of years ago was now in jail, under arrest for the murder of two transients he had been camping with. Apparently, he had been living as a transient here for nearly a year! I'm just sick that this has happened, and while I haven't heard anything new, I can't believe he did this. I genuinely believe that he was not in his right mind, that he hasn't been for some time. Very sad!
A few days after that, we got the call that Trav's mom was in the hospital, likely with only a few hours left to live. So, we loaded up quickly and headed to Klamath to be with her and the family. That was a tough day, hard to lose her, but also glad to see her pain and suffering ended. She had put up an amazing fight against ovarian cancer for seven years, I think she had over sixty chemo treatments! She was a strong, strong woman. I'm so glad that her family was able to be there with her, holding her hands, she got to put a hand on her unborn granddaughter, before she left. I was sad for her and the family, and also it renewed sadness for the loss of my father, who refused to have his family with him at the end.
The following weekend we returned to the basin for Mary's memorial service and to spend time with family. It was a pretty healing time, really, I enjoyed seeing Trav's family pull together like I've never seen before. I couldn't help but feel that Mary would be so happy to see that too.
Upon our return home, I got the word my big sis was in labor. Finally, happy news! My nephew, Mathew, was born healthy and strong and perfect. Me and the boys headed over to the valley to meet him, but also to see Grandpa Honey, who was on his deathbed. More sad news. It was awesome to see baby Mathew, what a cutie! It was hard to see Grandpa, but I'm so glad I was able to see him one last time. He passed away a few days after. We will be heading back for his memorial service on the 20th, then heading to the Dalles that weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa Stewart.
We did get to come home with a puppy, which is a happy thing. He is half malamute, half springer spaniel, which is a bizarre mix. So far, he has been an angel for a seven month old puppy. I feel like I'm cheating, its been so easy! We got him from a malamute rescue, and I was so happy to find a rescue puppy!
Unfortunately, we also came home with the flu, and my battle with it is almost over but Isaac's just started last night with a 102 degree fever and aches and pains. Poor guy! Hopefully he beats it quickly, and hopefully Eli avoids it altogether since he's still getting mama's goods (the all natural innoculation.)
So, its been a way too busy month! I'm ready for the snow to fall, feet and feet of it, so we can just stay home and stop running around the state for a while.

Surprise!!

Look what happened this morning! Guess we will not be heading to the valley today!

Life on the Farm...

Well, its fall, and cold, cold, cold! Had some gropple-ish snow today even! Our garden is all done for the year, we pulled all the green tomatoes and threw them into a brown bag in hopes of getting a few ripe ones, made salsa verde out of the wild tomatillos that have overtaken the yard, put the pumpkins out to look cute on the front patio, and frozen the last strawberry. Last week, Henrietta and Agness started crowing, proving once and for all they were in fact Henry and Auggie, so Trav did the sad deed and we've already eaten one of them. Life with chickens, I suppose. I wish that we could have kept one, the crowing was actually kind of nice. Now, we are down to only three hens, so I'll be starting a new batch next year for sure. Eggs any day!
We did not get to adopt our new friend on the coast. After leaving him in the pound for four days, not responding to phone calls, his owner showed up. But, we might adopt an amazingly beautiful malamute from a malamute rescue program. We're getting pretty excited about him, but don't know yet when we'll get to meet him. If we love him, he will come home just in time for lots of skiing!
Well I'm off to the valley tomorrow for my sister's baby shower. Yay, finally going to be an aunt in a week or two!! And then again in January! I've been waiting a long time to spoil my sisters' kids.
Wood cutting season has officially begun so the ole forty-footer will soon be rolling again. And then, we knuckle down and start designing and building our new home. It'll be a busy winter.

Hurray! At the Beach!

Eli's carefully watching and learning how to play in the
world's greatest sandbox.

And sampling the sand. Think he likes it as much as dirt.

Yay, we love the beach! Its
only Eli's second time!

Splashing through puddles, good
coastal fun.

Maybe our new friend?

Well, me and the boys are at the coast, living it up, playing in the sand, and waiting on the rain. Our first day here, we went to the beach early and played in the sand and loaded up on some good treasures. On our way back from the beach to Grammie's house, we cruised past the dog shelter and looked at all the puppies outside in their pens, and I spotted a super cute one. I told Isaac maybe we'd swing by later and meet all the dogs, just for fun. (I know, bad idea.) Anyways, we headed up the steep, steep hill to visit with Great Girma and Girpa. All to brief of a visit there as the boys were both getting tired and antsy. When we got back into town and turned to go back to Grammie's house, Isaac started whining about the "puppy house" so we drove there. As soon as we walked in the door, the lady working there said, "are you looking for a dog?" I told her we had just lost our dog a few weeks ago and were just kind of curious to see who might be in her pens. She said, "I have just the dog for you!" Then she ran outside and came back in with the very dog I'd been admiring from the car earlier. Either she is psychic, or it was meant to be. So, yesterday we took him for a walk down to the port to try and get to know him a little, and then put a hold on him till today. So today is decision day. We love him, but part of me feels bad picking out a dog without Travis around, even though I don't really think he is too worried about that. Also, he's a very big dog, and is only about 9 months old, so he's going to be GINORMOUS, and will quite possibly eat us out of house and home. Plus, we might have to attach a horse trailer to the school bus just for him. :) But, I think I'm already sold. And he is much more affordable than dogs at the shelter at home, about half the price. So, if we adopt him today, he has to stay at the pound till Wed or Thurs. when we go home since there's just no room for him here at Grammie's house. That will be tough, but I think we can take him out to play with us during the day. Well, I'll know for sure this afternoon after we go back to the shelter to see him again.
Hoping to enjoy as much beach time as we can while here, and some KidCastle time, and some river time, and plan on coming home with buckets and buckets of berries (and maybe a dog).

Goodbye My Forever Friend...

Bojo the snowrunner

Bojo my shadow

Bojo the mountain bike racer

Bojo the longsuffering

Bojo the beach bum

Bojo the backpacker

Bojo the nonswimmer

Bojo the traveller

Bojo the ever-so-patient

Bojo of the mountains

Bojo the mountain climber

Bojo the rafter

Bojo the babysitter

No, I Didn't Forget the Pictures!

Perfection!

The First S'more moment.

The smoke and clouds, and if you look real close,
you can see the bomber in the picture too.

Forest fires always make such pretty sunsets.
The blurry spot above the clouds is the bomber.

All the smoke.

Bojo trying hard to beat the heat.
What a beach bum!

Ya, you won't see him in thid seat
when he's sixteen!

My little water baby!

Now I know what this silly opening
on this tent is for!

Wild and crazy lightning storms at home.

Summer's Whirling By...

Ok, sorry for the long time no write again, I can't believe that it's August already! This summer has completely gotten away from me! So, what have we been up to? Well, let's see...
We headed off to Trav's hometown for the big hundred year celebration. It was great to see family, and friends, and we had fun wearing the boys out in the city park. Plus, an airplane dropped ping pong balls out of the sky on everyone, and how often do you get to see that happen?
The next weekend we were supposed to head to the Dalles for Trav's grandparent's 60th anniversary celebration (yay!) but Isaac woke up Saturday morning covered in suspicious red bumps. So, Trav went without me and the boys out of fear that we were harboring chicken pox in our midst.
Monday morning the boys and I climbed into ole Marmalade and headed south to go camping with my Mom and sister for a week, chicken pox unconfirmed. We had a blast camping, swimming every day, sleeping in our tent, making smores, getting bug bit till we all looked like we had chicken pox, etc. And, we had a big forest fire directly across the lake from our camp so the big bombers were flying right over our heads and the helicopters were dipping from the lake and dumping on the flames, it was quite the show! We came home dirty, bitten, sunburned, and happy. And my hopes of Isaac having the chicken pox fizzled along with all his weird bumps, they just faded away instead of turning into blisters, etc. So, who knows? Maybe a mosquito spent the night in our bedroom, feasting only on Isaac!
Since coming home we've been trying to re-organize ourselves into daily life. I'm working on my one and only diaper order, and also trying hard to get ready to have a booth at an upcoming community bazaar. Money is agonizingly tight for us right now, making ends meet gets harder each month, but me and the boys splurged yesterday and paid for a trip to the pool. Wow, that place is amazing! They've built this awesome play area for kids, its all pretty much 3ft deep and less, perfect for the boys. And Elias is proving himself to be quite the water boy! He can dunk his head, and I feel like if I just let go of him, he'd swim! Its so amazing to watch him in the water. Isaac is still pretty nervous, but he gets more confidant every time. And tonight, our neighbors surprised us by giving us a big 10ft wide pool that is about 20 inches deep. Perfect for these guys to learn to swim in! Hopefully I'll have these boys swimming in no time! (Ready for some whitewater action in a few years?!)
Our gardens are finally starting to produce, we ate a giant zuccini the other night and we've been feasting on peas in the pods for a week or two now. Yum! The chickens are fat and happy, but ready to move into a bigger, permanent home so that's the next big project. No eggs for another month or two, and right now I'm just hoping none of them start crowing in the next week or so. Hope they are all ladies, but two shes look suspiciously like hes! Henrietta and Agness might actually be Henry and Auggie. Yikes!
Well, that's it for now, more busy life ahead!

Hope Everyone Had a Fun Fourth!

Bojo looking hungrily for the next plastic toy he can eat.

Yay, Eli's first ride in Marmalade!

The view of the fireworks from our back door

Nature put on a show too, with lightning and
beautiful clouds to match any fireworks.

Eli's giant smile after his big brother smeared
dirt onto his head.

Can't believe another fourth of July has come and gone! We hung out at home to watch the fireworks this year since we have a great view from our back door. I love July 4th, think its my favorite holiday, along with New Year's I guess. Mostly its the noise, I love the big booms of the fireworks. But, I guess really even more than that its the nation-wide "block party" feel of the whole thing. Most people in America celebrate the fourth, and its so fun to see everyone come out of hiding and celebrate together. I love that, and I have had soooo many fun fourths over the years, whether I was way out in the woods or riding a bicycle around town through shooting firecrackers. I admit my love for the fourth of July has little to do with patriotism, its all about the party and the noise. :)
We are still busily trying to decide what to do with ourselves right now. Trav is still working, largely I think because his boss really doesn't want to lose him and so is making up odd jobs for him to do while waiting for new building jobs to start. I'm scrambling trying to find anything that doesn't require childcare, and trying to increase sales of my diapers. I'm getting excited to try a new community bazaar that has started up this month here in town, I'm planning to reserve a booth and see if I can get some sales out of it. We just have to see what happens from one day to the next. Many who know me know that that's how I normally live anyways, but its a bit stressful when there is a house involved. Its a challenge when you feel like you've really worked hard to invest in something that might be your only chance at financial stability in the future, only to face so many challenges to hang on to it. I've always been financially poor more or less (but rich in happiness), but now I really have a much greater understanding of what people experienced during the Depression and how that shaped their thinking about finances. Anyhow, enough about all that and onto something that always makes me smile!
We decided that it made a lot more sense for Travis to drive our 40 mpg car to and from work instead of his 17mpg pickup, so I got to drive good ole Marmie around today on my errands. For those of you who don't know, that's my first true love, my old orange VW bus, and few things make me happier than a cruise in the old gal. Plus, it was Eli's first drive in her! Of course, true to form, (she always lets me know that she's been feeling a bit neglected) we got done shopping at the grocery store and the key wouldn't turn in the ignition. This has happened before, and we had to replace the whole ignition. So, I called Trav who was at work an hour away, and he said he'd pack up and head our direction. Then, thinking like the old school VW driver that I am, I decided to firmly press my foot on the steering column at the floor (I know what you all are thinking, and no, it wasn't a kick!) and lo and behold, the key turned smooth as silk. Ah Marmie, always keeping me on my toes. I just can't hear the sound of that rumbling (purring?) VW engine without grinning from ear to ear.

Yes, We Are Still Here...

A breakfast table game of peek-a-boo.

The boys all dressed up for my birthday

Eli doing some modeling for me, unleashing his wild side.

The two cutest little guys ever!

Sorry for the long-time-no-write folks. Busy as usual. Feels like summer has finally arrived, and I'm loving the sun and the heat. I would rather be lovin it on the river though! But, we're getting some good play time in and the boys are growing as fast as the garden and the chickens. Elias got his first tooth today and he has been sitting up really good for a while. He is really trying hard to scoot along, probably won't be long before he's roaming the house in four-wheel drive. Isaac is talking sooo much, although nearly impossible to understand by all but me. He surprises me every day with a new word, sentence, or by recognizing a new letter or telling me a memory from when he was "much younger."
We are trying hard to gather up the bits and pieces we need to start on the big bus project and are hoping to at least get a jump on it this summer. For now, the ole 40 footer is doing greenhouse duty though in our pathetic attempt to extend the unpredictable growing season around here. Hopefully we can not freeze our tomatoes this year.
Speaking of unpredictability, Trav's job is on shaky ground so we have started tentatively "job hunting" to test the waters out there. Things are getting a bit scary! Options on the table mostly involve leaving the house, which would be fine in another year perhaps, but we just aren't set up for that yet. So, its entirely possible that our young fam will be doing time apart for a while. We'll just have to wait and see, as always.

The Ghetto Chickens...

Isaac helping Mommy and Daddy build the chicken tractor.
For those of you who don't know, a chicken tractor is a
portable chicken coop so you can let them eat away at
various parts of your yard (jungle?) and fertilize it too.

Happy bird in their summer house.

Oh Hail!

The yard covered in hail. Note the chicken house hiding
behind the tree in the center of the picture.

Well, we spent last weekend building a "chicken tractor" for our ladies to spend the summer in, and they've been enjoying their days out there this week, and I've been enjoying having them out of the garage at least most of the time. Today was almost disastrous however as a crazy hail storm came along and I had to run out to the coop getting pelted by nickel sized hail stones to rescue the dumb birds. They didn't know to get into their house so they were all piled up at the end of the "tractor" trying to get shelter from the hail. I was able to scoop them all up and get them into their house without any of them escaping, and without getting struck by lightning. When the crazy down pour ended I went back out to get them and they were just happy as clams poking around in their straw bedding, no worse for the wear. Its supposed to continue with thunder storms and showers all week, so I hope they learn to get themselves into their house because I don't really want to repeat today's misadventure. Thankfully I think the garden survived the beating, except for the two cucumber starts I just put out yesterday. They ended up buried under a layer of ice. You gotta love spring in Oregon.

Back To The Woods...

The view at the end of the trail after an afternoon of hiking.

Oh so good to be back in the woods!

An amazing root wad. This is as tall as a person!

As a native Oregonian, I find it kind of sad how excited I get over
big trees. But this old guy is impressive!

Unfortunately, this is what you find more often.

It was so nice to spend an afternoon hiking in the woods and it reminded me how easy it is to get out there. Since my car really does get nearly 40 miles to the gallon I've got no excuses for getting the boys out in the woods more often! Thanks Phil for the great idea, and thanks to you and Aunt "Hammie" for playing in the woods with us!

Aaah, Spring...

Well, we've been busy around here playing in the spring weather. The herb box is planted, the main garden is half planted, with the smaller two ready to go, and the new baby chickens are happily pooping away in a box in the living room. Oh, and the back "forty" is a bright green jungle, although it gets less wild every year. The grass is really only getting tall around the school bus, which reminds me of one of my favorite songs..."under my wheels baby, the grass is growing..." Anyways, as usual for this time of year I feel the need to hit the road or the river, and we had hoped to be on the John Day this weekend but didn't have the funds. However, after Travis agreed to loan our raft and gear to a friend without thinking, I made him go along on the trip to make sure our raft made it home in one piece so he is gone for the weekend. Grrr! I need river time! But, today I really enjoyed just playing with the boys, not trying to get any work done, just cherishing the time I have with them while they are small. At least I can take them to the river bank. :)

The newest members of our "flock."

Whoa, grass!

Good Ole Bojo, as handsome as ever

Mothers Day in the park with my boys.

One worn out little guy after helping Daddy in the yard.