After months of stop and go progress, and nothing VISIBLE happening with our home construction, there is finally visible progress. The well-drillers dropped off their rigs yesterday and got to work today. I love that I work close enough that I can run down there at lunch and snap a picture or two.
This is Tom.
Look at all that silt flying out of that hole!
Gotta love progress, no matter what it is! Wahoo!
Filed under Home Construction
A Yorkie puppy! He is so stinkin’ cute – we all love him already! He doesn’t have a name yet, we’re still working on it. Actually, that’s another part of this post; we’re going to have a little “Name That Puppy” contest. Okay, so we’re cancelling the contest – we’ve decided “TOD” is a perfect name for our puppy! Great idea, girlies!
If you want to participate in the contest, comment to this post with your name suggestion. Suggestions must be made by 5:00 p.m. Thursday, May 29. Then we (the six of us) will pick from the suggestions. The winner will receive a special treat!
This weekend, we spent our free time at the property preparing for construction – again – go figure. Saturday, Aaron & I took down over 300′ of fence, burned weeds, and cleaned up dead branches on the catalpa tree.
Sunday, the girls & I went with Aaron, and while he sprayed weeds, we hung out at the Tolar Farm next door playing with the new baby chicks.
At the bottom of our road, across the highway there are a ton of peacocks. This guy has been out strutting his stuff and showing off his tail everytime I’ve been there lately. Of course, though, whe I got my camera out, he put his tail away. Probably doesn’t want to make anyone jealous. 
We’re drilling the well this week, excavating this weekend!
Filed under Animals, Home Construction
This past weekend while Aaron’s brother, Pat, and his family were out of town, I fed their animals in the morning, Aaron’s step-dad, Tom fed them in the evening, and one of their friends fed the dogs. I had a GREAT time (which surprised me, actually). I went early enough to feed before it was time to get to work on our property with Aaron (you know, fun stuff, like tearing down fence and burning weeds). They have chickens, pigs, and horses that I was feeding (the chickens were pretty much on their own – I just had to make sure they had water & their feed was full and I checked for eggs to bring home to eat – yum!). They have two hens sitting on nests right now and each morning, there they would be, sitting on their nests being good little mommies.
Monday morning after I got home and the girls woke up, we all went to the property so Aaron could spray weeds. I took the girls over to Pat & Tera’s to see the four chicks that had hatched previously and one they hatched in the incubator in the house. Isn’t this rooster pretty?
This is the chick that hatched in the incubator – he was the size of those tiny ones above last month at Brooke’s birthday party.
When we got there, though, we got a HUGE surprise. In one of the nests that was only eggs just a few hours earlier, there were six brand new chicks! I can’t believe how quickly they hatched! They were so stinking cute, and the girls were thrilled to be able to see them! I bet soaking wet they would have only been the size of a golf ball – tiny!
I was at the property again today after school, and I think all but a few eggs had hatched. They were running around everywhere!
My baby girl hanging out under the catalpa tree at our property earlier today while we were there. It’s her – by herself, exploring, playing, imagining, living. I love all that about her!
Filed under Girlies
Filed under Nature, Photography
So the reason I was in Heppner at all today was because Emma was being given an award. We knew it had something to do with Math, but we didn’t know anything specific. She has really struggled with Math, but this year, it finally seemed to click for her. She started the year really struggling and having to work extra hard just to pass her class.
The award she received today was “Most Improved Junior High Math Student”. We are all so very very proud of her! She worked so hard to get here, she completely deserves it!
And, because it’s so embarassing when you have to get up in front of the entire school, we high-five the Mustang, and then beat cheeks off the floor.
Awesome job, Emma!
Well, not really mutton, but lamb anyway. Today, Emma had an awards assembly at school, and after it was over she and I came back to Irrigon so she could pick out her lambs for the summer. She has always gotten her lambs from the same place Staci always did, but this year we decided to have her get them from Pat & Sean Barron. It was also the first year Emma was completely on her own picking her lambs because its always been Staci with her (Staci knows what she’s doing, where I’m clueless!). Pat said Emma picked two GREAT lambs, some of the better ones he has this year, so we’re pretty excited!
Chasing them around the pen . . .
“Can you see it? I can’t see it. Are you sure it’s a boy? Where is it?”
“Um, maybe I’d like to take a look at that one.”
“Oh jeez! I can’t catch these suckers!”
“Ah Ha! Got one!”
Meet Gizmo & Latte:
Have a great evening, we’ll be baaaaaaaaaaaack later.
This is Luna. She is my parents’ dog theoretically, but she thinks she only belongs to my mom. ANYWAY, when my parents move their camp trailer over here to live on our property and build our house, Luna is going to come with them.
Luna can’t very well live on our land the way it is now – scrub brush, weeds, sand, and no fences. I am transplanting most of the plants I have here at our rental to our property, so I grabbed some of those, the tree starts I made, and some sod and made her a little yard. Aaron’s dad came over with his rototiller and got the ground ready for me, and he helped me lay the sod (Thank you, Mick!).
Eventually it will have a fence around it to help corral her. Not that she likes to wander, she’ll tell you how much of a good girl she is. As a matter of fact, I’m sure she would call it exploring and guarding her family – I’m sure the selective hearing she gets is all part of it, too.
I’m thinking that even after the house is done and my parent’s have moved back to Cove, that I will leave this little area as it is. I’ll probably put some hedges around it, make a little seating area, and form it into some sort of “Secret Garden” reading/sitting area. Suggestions?
P.S. We sign Monday (5/19), start work Tuesday!!! YAY!
Filed under Cove, Home Construction, Luna
These marks mean the utility companies have been out and marked their lines so we can start digging. Fortunately, we only have two lines on our property – electric and phone. Luckily for us, neither of these lines is in the way of where we have to dig. There is a HUGE gas line (the yellow) that runs up the road adjacent to our property, but it doesn’t affect our construction, either.
And, do you know what four busy, bored girlies do when Mom & Dad are working on the property? They eat and hang out in the shade of the canopy of the pick-up.
You gotta love progress, even if it’s just a little bit.
Filed under Girlies, Home Construction
