Snow...Finally

And we weren't home to enjoy.  Here is what we came home to on Friday evening.

This is soooo cool!  Love the hanging down.

The girls thought we were punishing them.

Corgis love snow...in case you didn't know.

Yard from the chicken fence with the garden on the left
and the baby greenhouse on the right.

Indian Summer, and Then....

For the first time in many years we were graced with a long, 

warm Indian Summer.  It made yard work and outside duties where

 we wanted to be, so on this 29th day of October, I am still trying to 

catch up on the housework.  We also went on our semi-annual

 trip into the Eagle Cap Wilderness, where the feeling is so

 bittersweet for me. All of my growing up years it was

 more anticipated than Christmas, and many of my grown up years

 it has been a struggle to work up the desire to go.  It's strange how

 throwing some in-law drama into a family sucks the

 fun out of most situations. 

 Now onto the good stuff.

The annual Dream House picture.  

Playing in the creek.

Handsome guy.

Practicing for the circus.

Just plain cool.

Lookin' hot at the cross country meet.

RUN, Wilson!

And after all the loverly weather....snow in October.

To end what is usually my favorite month, I sprained my ankle....again. 

 In the throws of cabin fever and bleacher bum-itis, I worked 

on my farm logo.  I wanted something cute to put on  jars

 and eggs and other plain 'ol country things.  

This hen is the one Wilson put on the chicken yard gate he built me, 

so I wanted to get her in there.  Peas are the one crop

 I can always grow. And I am proud of the fact that in

 this world of marriages that last an average of seven years,

 Darrin and I still enjoy each others company more often than not.

Discoveries (Or; "Things I Should Have Already Known")

If you have ever seen the movie, "Hook" with Robin Williams as Peter Pan, you will understand when one of my children says that they have had an apostrophe.  What Hook's toady (Bob Hoskins) really meant was an epiphany, but it was just such a funny word slip (and we watched it almost daily until the tape was ruined) it just became part of our family vernacular. Here are some of my recent apostrophes.  In no particular order.

1)It is not possible for me to read the Bible in 90 Days if I read anything else at all.  When we did this program in 2010, I "fasted" from all fiction for the duration.  As well as I know most of the people that "follow" me, I know that means something to you, because we are all such bibliophiles.  This time through, I attempted to keep one foot in the Word and one in the words.  And got as far as the end of Leviticus.  Even though I will not be reading the entire Book as quickly as I had planned, today I am starting where I left off and finishing.

2) Beginning a new job at 40 is really hard if it is constant motion and physically challenging.  I have PAIN!  My bod is MAD!  But the benefits (most days) outweigh the hurts and ouches.  I am in better physical shape than probably ever before and all those people who say it gives you more energy, they ain't lyin'!  It's nice being an actual size 10 not a 14 stuffed into a 10.  

3)  I am not looking forward to being a Grandma as much as I thought I was.  Madi's best friend just announced she is going to have a honeymoon baby.  It's a family tradition, it seems, with both her and her husband's oldest sisters being nine monthers.  But when Madi told me, I put the brakes on the grandma train pdq!  (that's purdy durn quik) It isn't anything about vanity or being too young or anything like that, but because I still remember how hard it is!  Those first years with tiny, dependent, loud humans are no walk in the park.  I don't think my daughter is ready for that and neither does she.  The financial struggles are so much to deal with when you are first married and scraping through college is plenty of pressure without the "WHY IS THIS CHILD CRYING AND NOT STOPPING AND WHY AM I SO EXHAUSTED I CAN'T COOK AN EGG!?"  

Here's the selfish part of it, trotted out for the whole world (or you all at least) I want to have my own kids mostly raised so I have the money and time and wherewithall to go and stay with her when the little ones come.  I want to be like my mom and come and make her tea in bed and hold the baby while she gets some rest that first week or two.  And understand when she is crying and not sure if it's happy or sad or hormones.  And help her through having the udder of a Holstein implanted on her chest.  And to help her be deliberate about the baby years in ways I was not because they go by so fast and if she is like me, all she will do is try to live through, not savor every minute.  Even now the lack of on-purpose-enjoyment of those years makes me choke up and be angry with myself.  I want better for her.

As per usual with my brainy ( :P ) posts, I have run on sentences galore and some pretty crumby grammar, but it's how I communicate in real life, so it should be here as well, right?  RIGHT!?  Next time, pictures and silliness.

August

It is once again the end of the month and I haven't done a blog post.  So in the spirit of Paula Fraker, a (mostly) wordless Thursday.

Darrin's Zopo

My Echinacea

Emily's Alaska Wild Blueberry Jam

Pencil Wilson

Farmer Morgan

Sunburned Char

July's Gone

        Seein' as how I always fight with my blog when I want to post pictures, I am going to start with the typing, then add the images later.  Last weekend, we went to Drain to watch Madi's best friend, Shelby, marry her Riley.  It was beautiful and sweet and tear-jerking.  The lighting was really nice for the photographers, who can remain nameless, if they want to.  What do you  think, Lexi and Kay Lynne, wanna be anonymous?

Cutting the cake?

Praying together after Communion

Momma of the Bride, Keethia

Madi and Tim, three days
before their first anniversary

Charlotte, Wilson and Morgan
all dressed up.

Awwww...

My $2 wedding outfit.  What a cheapskate.

June Miscellany

We're thinking of adding
"Soothing mud baths" to our
list of Casa de Dailey amenities.

Meet the masseuses. 

Prom night.  This park holds a special place
in my earliest memories.  When we were
little kids, we would leave as soon
as school was out on the first Thursday of
October and drive this far before sleeping.
The next morning we drove to Eagle Creek
 for opening of deer season.  Never thought we
would live so near to both the park and
our favorite camping place.

The school trip I didn't chaperon.   Capital, beach, Air Museum.  I stayed home and sorted pheasant babies. This is the majority of the kids in the junior/senior high school.  There were some that didn't want to go...weirdos.

Gittin' 'Er Dun

I am a bad chicken mom.  I have been telling my girls
that they needed to get to laying or they were
going to be stew.  They were laying...just
behind the brooder box! This weekend,
 I think we need to get the nest boxes built.

The under kitchen worm bin. It started having a bad odor
I noticed there were less worms working it,
so I took it to the back porch and dumped it.
Charlotte and  dug through and picked out all our
wiggly friends.  There were still some worms, and some babies
 and even one cocoon.  But they  were definitely
down in numbers.  Re-bedded and put back to work.

After picking out the majority of the wrigglers,
you are supposed to pile the bedding in little piles
so that the remaining worms go to the bottom.
 My little helper and I did such a good picking job,
 though we only got a handful the next day.

Over the winter I requested seed donations from a few
companies for the school's greenhouse and
community garden project.  Baker Creek Seeds and Territorial
 both were VERY generous and donated many hundreds
 of dollars worth.  This is the Junior and Senior class
and a small sample of the plants that they started from those seeds.

Spring?

We finally got a sunny-ish weekend-day to enjoy the green of our yard and get a few things done around here.

The rose (that is happy in it's new house pot)
was on the table at Madi and Tim's wedding.
The mints are from my last shopping
 trip with Kay Lynne.
The burl is from an Eagle Creek camping trip.
The heart is from me to Darrin.

Emily's contribution to the front flower bed.
It's to be a cottage garden.
Maybe.  Someday.

The wee garden and it's guardian.

Supper?

A word to the wise.
 If you are going to order chicks for
yourself and others, be prepared for the
possibility that they may desire BWLs.

Wilson, with a little help from Dad,
finished the window frame on the barn
while I worked away on the greenhouse.

Onions &

Peas &

Potatoes.
Side dish anyone?

Not a lover of the Iris,
but isn't this one loverly?

I've wanted to have a south facing laundry
room for years for only one reason...to use
 the heat from the dryer vent.
Here is the beginning of the Wee Greenhouse,
over the vent hole.

And while we were yard-ing,
 Friday was holding down the fort.

Curtain Call

Mowgli, Akela, and Kaa after the
Missoula Childrens Theater's production of "The Jungle Book."

One of the EXTREMELY cool things about being part of an extremely small, extremely rural school district is this kind of thing.  It is a group out of ,of course, Missoula, Montana that comes with props and backgrounds and costumes and in one week puts on a musical.  The kids get to sing and dance and act and just have a wonderful time.  

Ours were the only "older kids" who participated, which was disappointing, but they were good!  And had so much fun! They all sang, even Wilson. He also played the leader of the wolves in a rather Elvis-like fashion. Emily made the best snake, and led her little group of snakey tail so well. Charlotte had to teach the little monkeys to dance and let them drag her around so expertly. 

Can't wait for next year's performance.