Remember December?

It’s a foggy, damp January morning as I sit here to write this. The house feels unusual because not only is Michael gone this morning, but so are all of the kids. Rex has gone off to work at the paintball park like he does every Saturday morning. He did not leave the house without first building a nice fire to warm the house, fixing a pot of coffee, feeding Wasabi, and letting the turkeys out to roam the yard. I consider this the sign of a successful young person who gets up and does all of these things without even being asked. Valerie is off at an FFA leadership conference in Redding. And Amira  has been invited to go snow camping this weekend with her friend. Her friend’s dad is a Boy Scout leader and is leading some boys up for high-adventure. This is something that we do not get in our Girl Scout troop so I’m really grateful for the opportunity for her. In any event, I woke up to a very quiet house. Granted the house was warm and smelled of coffee on this damp and foggy January morning. This was a lovely way to wake up.

As usual, time escaped me as December washed over us like a daunting wave on the open ocean pulling us toward the shore of the New Year at speeds I don't consider safe. Maybe I'm just getting older, but that's how time feels right now. It seems there is never time to update with all the goings on if we are busy with all that activity. So, thank goodness for a quiet and reflective morning where I can take a moment to piece together what just happened.

In early December we decided that it was time to go get the annual Christmas tree. Rex had a special request noting that this was going to be his last Christmas at home before going off to seek his fortune in Southern California next year. He asked if we could go up to the Christmas tree farm where we used to cut our own trees when he was very little (that was before he joined a Boy Scout troop that sold Christmas trees as a fundraiser each year. Then we just picked up a Christmas tree every year while Rex was working at the lot).  

Here's "Tree Rex"




So we packed everyone into the minivan and cruised up the hill to go find our little Charlie Brown tree. We brought Rex's girlfriend, Dylan, with us. She is such a treat to have over and just fits in with the rest of the family. Plus she brings such a smile to Rex's face.















There was much running around and arguing over which tree would possibly be the best one for our living room that year. Finally a decision was made. A few people were happy and a few people weren’t. Amira was still off looking for the best tree because she was definitely concerned that we had not picked the best one. I told her she needed to stop bad mouthing that poor little tree that was coming home with us and say nice things to it. In any event, I’m glad that we went up there because it turns out that the people who run the tree farm are retiring and this was the last weekend that they were going to be open, ever.

When we came home Michael went all "Clark Griswold" on the lighting of the house as Rex and Dylan and the girls hunker down to watch some Christmas movies.

Also during the month of December Amira went to her eighth grade winter formal dance. I was lucky to get a photo of her with her sister before she took off. This was such a unique looking dress. It’s like a romper with a long skirt attached to it. It had a certain elegance and a lot of sequins but definitely a very modern look.



 Here is a photo of Amira with her good friends Sarah and Ruby just before the dance.



Meanwhile, Michael and I were invited back to San Francisco to have a little “jingle and mingle” with my old Washington Place friends. We had enough points to give us a free stay at a hotel near Union Square so we made a weekend of it. 

We made sure to go down to the St. Francis Hotel and take a look at the incredible gingerbread house display is there. You know me and gingerbread houses. This thing was over 12 feet tall and on a turntable. It just filled me with awe.  No, I do not aspire to build such a creation. But every artist needs an appreciative audience member. That would be me.



And here are Michael and I at my good friend Marcus‘s house. We are visiting with John and Outi. These are some of our good Washington Place friends that we’ve known for over 25 years . (Washington Place was a building on Washington Street in San Francisco where a bunch of us lived in our 20's and 30's. It was a tight knit community of friends who met most evenings for a glass of wine on the roof or mingled in each other's apartments with open doors often. It was what I imagined a college dorm would have been like). Did you know that it is really difficult to get a taxi from hotel in Union Square on a Saturday night? Yes, that’s always been true. But nowadays they don’t even try. It’s all Uber and Lyft.








Meanwhile, back in Chico, Valerie had her ugly sweater contest with the FFA and participated in the end of school festivities after working really hard on all of her school projects. 






Here’s also a photo of her element, silver, that she had to create for her chemistry class. I think that Rex and Michael deserve also some credit for helping her with that engineering feat. It was a pretty good looking model!



Another big December milestone was December 21st when Valerie took and passed her drivers test. That’s right, we now have four out of five people licensed to drive in this house. How exciting! This has enabled me to take on full-time work. Now that I have some helpers to drive themselves around to all these activities and help drive Amira, it’s freed me up to try and contribute to the household income a little bit more. Really, I am just paying for car insurance now. Teenagers are expensive.

Finally Christmas eve arrived! While I was busy in the kitchen that morning, the turkeys showed up on the back patio to break stuff and poop all over the place. Turkeys!!!

We had Susan, John, Alan, and Dave over for the usual festivities. I roasted another Christmas goose. We really enjoyed each other’s company for a nice evening in. Christmas day was spent over at Susan’s.

The day after Christmas, Valerie and I left very early in the morning with her sheep mentor and friend, Carol, and a trailer full of sheep and goats. We followed Carol's husband and son and their trailer full of cattle to the Arizona Nationals. It took us a day and a half to drive down there through the smoky central valley of California. We spent the night in Palm Desert before rolling into Phoenix the afternoon of the 27th.  

Our team did really well down there at the nationals! Valerie and her friends participated in a skill-a-thon and placed very well, 3rd out of 500. Look at these good looking kids (left to right: Josh, Sarah, Valerie, Hailey):

Carol devised a plan to have Valerie come to the Nationals to assist Hailey with sheep and goat showing and Sarah would come along to help Josh show his cattle. This plan helped Valerie and Sarah work their way off of this trip which would have been expensive to pay for in order to be down there to participate with their livestock judging team.

Here are a bunch of girls walking their sheep through the fairgrounds. This had to be done early in the mornings and late in the evenings each day.

Here are Hailey and Valerie early in the morning leaving the hotel to get ready for the Livestock Judging contest on the last day of 2017:

 

The team placed sixth in the Livestock Judging event. Look at this photo with that beautiful Arizona sky behind them! All in all, it was a very successful trip for these kids. What an opportunity! I am so grateful that Carol brought us along with her family so that we could have this experience. I’m very sorry that we missed a visit with Scott and Dawn. But I’m hoping to catch up with them in the future.

On New Year’s Eve we rolled out of Phoenix and crossed the border into Palm Desert where we spent the night. We were all in bed by 10:30 PM that night. There was no New Year’s celebration for us. We got up early the next morning, New Year’s Day for another long drive back through the central valley. We had to make a detour into eastern California and pick up some more sheep on our way back to the farm. Michael was gracious enough to pick us up late that evening at Carol‘s farm. When we arrived that night there were baby goats being born. One of the does birthed seven kids. Six of them survived, three of them were in the intensive care unit. But we all had to hold baby goats and keep them warm upon our arrival. It was a pretty exciting way to end our trip and start the new year.

Wasabi

... and there went November! I tried to savor the colors of the leaves while still on the trees because it is such a show that I enjoy each year. And I love the crisp bite of fall with the tinge of smoke in the air bringing to mind sitting with a hot cup of tea by the fire feeling all cozy while it's frosty outside. Our November was not so frosty. It was kind of soggy, actually. But I'm not complaining. We need the rain! And I'm sure those frosty days are ahead of us.

Look at our red maple. It's on fire! I love this tree.



When the kids were younger they used to play in the fallen leaves. Now our youngest brings her bunny out to play in the fallen leaves. Spot enjoyed it for a moment and then felt like hawk bait and asked to be brought back inside. He is such a house bunny.

I also did my best to enjoy the large flock of turkeys that entertained us all these months. They flocked around the yard gobbling and barking at every sound and motion that passed through our back 40. So, it was loud. 

We pardoned 4 turkeys, a tom and 3 hens. Michael, in keeping with his military theme (Colonel Sanders for our rooster) has named our tom, "Major Tom". Yes, he's punny. Anyhow, Major Tom has a harem of 3 darting around the yard with his fat self. We are wondering if he will ever learn the miracle of nature and get together with his girls to produce some spring turkey poults. We'll keep you updated.

Ah, speaking of turkeys, Thanksgiving was delicious. We had the usual suspects over for dinner plus a couple of bonus guests. There was no shortage of food. I spent the following few days in a tryptophan and wine induced sloth mode. We finally cracked open the bottle of red I brought home from Canberra in August. It went well with the turkey (topped out at 15 lbs, so we cooked up 1.5 turkeys). Thanksgiving has got to be my favorite holiday. It's a day to get together and share our gratitude and feast. There is no crazy gift giving or other ordeal. It just feels good. Also bonus that the turkey and pumpkins came from the yard.

Just after Thanksgiving Michael took off for Los Angeles and the rest of us resumed our work and school schedules. Monday morning I received an unexpected message from our Craigslist post about our missing blue parakeet - Ramon. It was an odd message but I was hopeful that another miraculous recovery had been made. So, I went out to the garage and put the cage all back together with the cleaned up bird dishes and bird toys in the hopes I would be picking up my little buddy while the kids were off at school. But, there was something odd about the communication I was having with the person on the other end of this. Turns out this person lives in Texas. And they sent a photo of someone else's blue parakeet. 

Well, after getting my hopes up and dashed like that, I found it hard to get work done. So I took a theraputic break down to the local pet store (where they are very familiar with my lost and found stories ... they are the ones who originally brought Ramon and I together). Anyway, I thought some oogling at the budgies would some how make me feel better. I was no way going to get a new one.

Except that I had this cage all ready and set up. Taking it apart would seem like another loss. And, hey, are those baby budgies? They still have the barring on their heads. Oh, look at this little guy. He says he wants to come home with me!

Meet Wasabi ...

Wasabi is still in the "I'm terrified that I'm in a new place" space. But I figure within 6 months he will sitting on our shoulders and making a complete mess of the place. Yes, his wings are clipped. You cannot see from the photo here, but he has a teal-blue tail with black and yellow feathers that flare out to the sides. He might be part peacock! His songs are much nicer than those of a peacock (thank goodness). He is already chirping away to certain songs that Valerie plays on the piano.

It's the end of November and I am still feeling much gratitude for so many things. You know, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens and all that. 

Konichiwa & Sayonara

October at Rancho Wilhelm was good month. We kicked it off with a visit from Scott & Dawn. What a treat to hang out with them for a few days.

The turkeys really miss Scott. He provided some excellent leadership to this confused and unruly bunch.

We ended October with Michael & Tiff traveling to Tokyo and Valerie traveling to Indianapolis while Rex & Amira held down the fort.

I have always wanted to visit Japan. I just love the culture there. It's so unique. So, Michael had said that when he got a job there, someday, he would take me along. Well, that day came along in October and off I went. Michael was working the Auto Show for Nissan. Here he is at the Nissan Crossing:



And here we are with Godzilla!



When I first arrived, Michael was busy at work for a few days. But he greeted me in the hotel lobby the night I arrived and took me out to dinner. I was still buzzing from the adrenaline of landing in a country where I didn't speak the language but was able to find my way from the airport to the train to the metro to the hotel all by myself. Real life puzzles! 

Surprisingly, our first night was not sushi. But it was, perhaps, the most tender beef ever and attractively plated.



Our first hotel room had a view from the 12th floor that I very much enjoyed. But our second hotel had a view of a different part of the city from the 23rd floor. 

Views, views, views! We stomped around the city for days ... visiting the fish market - Michael says of this photo taken here, Japanese version of "bobbing for apples". 



Meet the fish, eat the fish!




We also visited a Samurai Museum, Shinto Shrine, Owl cafe and a hedgehog/bunny cafe. These are definitely not experiences I would get in Chico. 

Next time I go back I would love to visit some rural parts of Japan.

Valerie had her own experiences stomping around Indiana and Kentucky with her FFA chapter upon their National Convention tour. 

They visited a popcorn factory, a marshmallow factory and kissed the bricks at the Indianapolis Speedway. She also turned 16 while she was gone and was treated to some extra special attention from her friends.

Valerie arrived home an hour or so before Michael and I did on the 29th. Her grandma took her off to a piano recital that night while Michael and I collapsed into a deep sleep. The next night we were able to celebrate Valerie turning 16 and her grandpa, Alligator,  turning, well, a bit more than 16.

On the 31st we had our annual pot-luck, costume party. It's great to have all the neighbors over and see friends that have managed to elude us since last year. Very few people got my costume (Frida Kahlo). I thought for sure the mono-brow would have been a hint. 

Our friend, Casey, brought frogs' legs again. And for anyone who wanted to say that they tasted like chicken, well, he brought chicken as well. The whole thing was garnished with climbing roses from their garden. What an exotic treat.

Of course there was the, "Gee, we have all this left over dry ice ... what are we going to do?" We ended up with pumpkins blown to smithereens all over the back yard. As usual.

Just after Halloween Michael was back on a plane to Brooklyn for a week. How his body copes with the constant jet lag, I'll never know.

Although the weather has turned cooler and a bit more damp, the yard continues to produce some flowers. (Haven't had that first frost yet). So, I've made up some bouquets for the house.

And because I love to surround myself with color, I got a fresh paint job myself. Mermaid hair.

While Michael was gone we had a special guest, Josie, the neighbor's dog, stay with us while her family traveled. She was excellent company, as always. We love to have well behaved fur friends come visit. It was like having one more kid on the couch.

Mr. Whiskers took the couch sitting to a competitive level with the dog. I have to say, he looks super comfortable, if a bit annoyed.

On Monday, 6 November, Josie's person, Madelyn, came to pick her up and take her home. I was standing at the front door, with my ever-present bird on my head, talking to Madelyn and saying good-bye to Josie. Suddenly, without warning, Ramon flew off my head and right out the front door. 

Now, he'd been known to fly out the door to land on my head. But he had never flown off my head into the great beyond before. It was as if he had the taste of freedom on his last adventure and maybe yearned for some more excitement in the wild. Sadly, we have not been able to find him. And I do not think I can count on a second miracle. This time we have to say good-bye to our little buddy, wherever he is. It is with heavy heart that I say good-bye to my little friend. He is greatly missed.