Pix from last entry

New Year's Eve with neighbors.




It was crablicious!




Beatlemania with Amira & Eily.




Valerie & her fish, Chet & Larry.




Close up of Larry.




Uh oh. The aquarium is infested with rats!




Christmas bunny. Ate everything under the tree ... Then he ate the tree!

What I did On My Winter Vacation

It's Sunday night. After two long weeks (yes, some weeks are shorter than others) the kids are headed back to school and Michael is about to be off to Detroit for a job. (I hear Detroit in January is lovely). While Michael and the kids are dragging around a bit with a sense of dread that the overwhelming world of responsibilities and commitments are about to descend upon them, I am feeling a sense of giddyness. It's not that I want to get rid of my family. I love them madly. And we had some fun this break. But, I'll be getting my kitchen back to myself. (Seriously, you're frying bacon just after I've cleaned the stove top? You really dropped pancake batter between the cupboards and oven AGAIN? Thanks for loading the dishwasher. The dishes were clean). And I can steal my guilty pleasures during the day when no one is looking (watching new episodes of Downton Abbey while folding laundry!)

But, I get ahead of myself. Let's re-cap some of the fun we had on this wonderful winter vacation. First of all, we all got to sleep in each day. No alarms going off at 5:45am. Well, there was the one rogue alarm going off at 5am each day. No one was able to find it. I assume the batteries finally died. I suspect it was in Amira's room.

There was the romping and playing in the street with the other kids who were also on their two week break. Lots of bike riding, scootering and shanty town, I mean, fort building. There was the visit from Uncle Dave. How cool is that guy? We had our annual Christmas Eve Day roller skating at CalSkate. And since there was hardly anyone there skating, we got all our requests in (Billy Jean by Michael Jackson, Gangnam Style, The Beatles and All The Single Ladies by Beyoncee).

Christmas Eve we didn't manage to take photos. This is too bad because it was Bollywood-Style. As Susan and John were leaving for Borneo the next day, they decided to order out Indian food instead of cooking something traditional. Michael decided that he would download a Bollywood Christmas Album and furtively drop it into the speakers upon entering. And I spent some time watching a Youtube Video on how to wrap a sari. (Susan and John brought one home from one of their other trips. This was my big opportunit to wear it! Seriously, it's like 14 yards of fabric and a whole lot of folding/wrapping/pleating). It was somewhat wrapped. But it was a good thing I brought a change of clothes.

There were endless Beatles movies (as Amira is in her Beatlemania phase). In fact, I have fan mail for Paul and Ringo on my desk waiting for the international reply coupons to arrive so we can get those signed photos in the mail in approximately three months.


I finally entered the 21st Century with an iPod Touch, given to me by my most beloved husband. Although not a phone (at my request), I can put my shopping lists, contact lists, calendars, budgets, photos, etc. on the tool. I always swore I was a Luddite with all my paper notes and books. But now the kids cannot believe how this thing comes with me everywhere. Michael asked me if I've named it. Of course, that would be: Precious. Thanks, Michael!!!

Valerie spent some time setting up a new aquarium. It's in her menegerie of rats/sea monkeys/plants. There may be other things living in there. But I'm going to have to turn a blind eye at this point.

We had king crab, wild rice risotto with pinenuts, salad and chocolate with ghost peppers to ring in the New Year with the neighbors. We adults called it at 9pm (we phoned in East Coast time and went to bed). The kids had a sleep over here with the neighbors. I think they actually slept. But the people across the street had fireworks at midnight. I heard them but was too lazy to get out and see what was going on. I figured that unless there were sirens, I was staying in bed.

We got out to see the new Hobbit movie as a family. With friends Valerie and Rex saw it twice and three times respectively. We also got up to the delightful Mineral Lodge to do some family sledding one day.

So, the kids may say we didn't do anything great. But  say we did. And now I'm looking forward to getting back on a schedule, doing a little yoga, zumba and laundry folding in front of my "stories".

When Michael comes home de-stressed from his next job I will run into his arms looking for a little break from the day-to-day grind I will have gotten into with the kids. And we will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary later this month, between jobs.

Snow Day

After all these winter storms, we finally made it out for a little snow play.



Sliding down the hill full of jumps was awesome for the kids. Michael was smart enough to steer clear of the action after watching my attempt at being "fun mommy". Needless to say I have a very sore neck & shoulders today.













The least painful part of the day was the snowball fights. The powder had us pining for our snowboards.

As soon as I recover, I hope we can make plans to have another winter snow adventure.

Location:Mineral, CA

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

Not to diminish December 7th, but I'm driving on a field trip and then getting some much procrastinated work done at my house with a co-worker. I promised her some eggnog as a reward. Honestly, my halls are not decked and I'm not quite there yet. I feel like I get enough Christmas what with it all sharing the aisles with the Halloween crap starting about July 5th every year. (How jaded am I?)

Anyhow, my co-worker mentioned that she could totally use some nog after the giant data transfer we are planning tomorrow. I've already signed Michael up to pick up those kids from school in anticipation of an excellent toast to work well done. Little does my co-working realize that this will not be your Trader Joe's holiday nog. I will be grabbing those eggs warm out from beneath my chickens and supplementing with home made vanilla, spices and farm fresh raw milk. We'll just call it a meal.

For  delicious holiday recipe, see this link for egg nog and visit Tiffown Past.

Enjoy!

Shearing and Shuffling

Another momentous event from November was the shearing of Rex. That guy has been growing out his hair since third grade (when he steadfastly refused to get that "before first day of school hair cut"). Here's that hair in the middle of seventh grade.

Well, he finally decided to get some of those split ends removed. He decided that (Amazing) Grace was the woman to do it. (Grace really works some magic on my hair. She is the best colorist ever!)

Of course we had to document the entire event.

 

Head on before and after:

Also, as we were downsizing our flocks of poultry, Michael talked our neighbors into retrieving the five rogue chickens sired by our rooster, Captain Fluffball, and their slutty hen, Crazy Chicken. Our neighbor suggested just taking the two hens and putting the roosters on Craig's List. I think that is exactly what happened. Here are the photos of the wild chickens as they departed Rancho Wilhelm.

Kasey with our "mohawk" cockrel. He was kind of the leader of the flock. You can tell he's a scrapper!

Here's Daniel with "Chipmunk". She is gorgeous with the polish "hat" of feathers. Also very wiley!

Madelyn show off one of the boys. That's a strapping young cockrel right there. (EDIT: Actually, that's a strapping young hen right there!! She's kind of stocky and not so feminine as her puffball headed sister, Chipmunk).

 

 

Phil has a way with that rooster.

Valerie holds the really good looking guy. Really, I could just look at this rooster all day. But not listen to him!

The Book Report

Ah, me! No time to upload photos today. I do have some photos of the past month, however they are on Michael's iPhone and he's in Germany at the moment. I'll give a quick recap of the month and then move on to our book report.

Where did November go? I feel like I'm on rocket skates speeding through life, not unlike Wile E Coyote. I should probably slow down. It never ended well for that guy. Of course, the Acme company made tons off of him. I suppose it was in their best interest to see that he survived to pitch another episode.

Veterans Day saw us harvesting 24 of our own cockrels and another several hens belonging to  friends. Now that we have the complete chicken slaughter set up down and a some experience under our belts, we're okay with that. Michael even invested in a drum plucker. That thing is worth its weight in, well, poultry. It was really nice to go through the process with friends and neighbors. Michael, our neighbor, Phil, and friend, Tibi, were down on the killing and plucking station. We had Rex and Daniel and Luca getting chickens from the coop and taking them to the cleaning table where Amber and I worked. Valerie and Madelyn fine tuned the plucking with needle nosed pliers and then put the birds on ice.

When it was all done we gathered around the picnic table for some chili, caponata, cider and beer. It was really a good experience and sort of festive at the end. And now our freezer is full and the land is at rest for the winter. I tilled up the chicken yard and threw down some poultry pasture mix. I can't wait to see it green up. Maybe I'll throw down some wildflower mix too.

A week later Michael and I harvested the turkeys. Dang! Those guys were heavy. They ended up between 16.5lbs and 19.5lbs. (Luggage scale works great!) Also, the one we had at Thanksgiving was extremely juicy. It had a surprising layer of fat about 1/2" thick all around the breast. Extremely local food. Last night I made a pot pie with the left over bits and stock I'd made from the parts. I threw in some kale and chard from the garden. Yaaaaard fooood!!!

So, on to the book reviews! We do manage to find time to read. Quite frankly, I barely have energy to do that at the end of the day sometimes. But it's nice when we all get comfy in front of a fire with a good book at the end of the day and enjoy the quiet togetherness.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand:

I read this book in September as it was chosen by my book club. I have to say that at first I was really not into it. I thought it was going to be a story about WWII. Then I thought it was about Olympic running. Neither of these subjects are a draw for me. But, when I got into the book, I found it to be a wonderful story about humanity through many lenses and perspectives. It's a well researched book and re-tells a long story through the eyes of allies and enemies. It is well written and told with a sense of humor and compassion. I passed it on to Rex after I read it. He couldn't put to down. I highly recommend this book. It's a real page turner!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner:

I'm not reading this book, but Rex is. He has not been able to put it down and went to the library to pick up the next two books in the trilogy. I don't really know what it's about, but it appeals to a 12 year old boy.

The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan:

Valerie has read and reread The Mark of Athena. She is a huge Rick Riordan fan. In fact, most of her friends have read this book. Rick Riordan is the author of the Percy Jackson series. I've read a number of his books. But after a while, I moved on. This book steeped in mythology appeals to many 10 to 12 year old girls and boys.

The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop:

Amira likes reading just as much as the rest of us. Presently she's into this one. It's a great read for ages 7 to 9. A young boy finds a castle in the attic and the little figures come to life and have adventures. I enjoyed these books myself.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver:

One thing I love about Barbara Kingsolver is that each of her books are so different. So, if you like a book or hate it, you really have to give the next book a chance. They are not all alike! This takes place in Appalachia. A young woman is about to emark on an affair but she suddenly witnesses a miracle of nature. She doesn't go through with her planned infidelity but what she witnesses has a life changing effect on her and those around her.

Lastly, on the subject of stories/books, anyone who likes stories might like to check out some of the following pod casts. I download them from iTunes and take them to the gym with me. I have to give credit for Snap Judgement to Paul Bollinger. He recently turned me on to it and it has become a new favorite of mine!

Snap Judgement

This podcast takes you to a different place each time. A series of poets and story tellers recount funny, unusual, life altering or just strange stories. The host, Glynn Washington, is thoughtful, humorous and charasmatic. I have become a "Snapper" as he lovingly refers to his audience.

This American Life

What can I say? Ira Glass pulls out some of the best storytellers ever. And, he checks his facts!

Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me

If the only way you can take your news is by laugher injection, then this is the podcast for you. I laugh out loud from the cardio room at the gym (which is difficult to do when you're as out of shape as I am!) So worth it.

Stuff You Missed In History Class

I love, love, LOVE history! The hosts of this podcast revisit EVERYTHING from scandalous royals of old Europe to the history of underwear to the Samurai. If you like history as much as I do, you will appreciate most of these podcasts from the "How Stuff Works" team.

Stuff You Should Know

This is Rex's favorite podcast. I enjoy the banter between Josh and Chuck as they inestigate all kinds of seemingly mundane topics. Well, they're not all mundane. What I'm saying is they can conversationally add some humor and little known facts to a subject to make it more interesting than just googling it. Check it out.

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