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With today being the last day of August, it practically means the summer is over. And with that, all the summer projects I wanted to complete and didn’t.
Okay, so really, it isn’t the end of the world. I can always still do a majority of these projects, if not all of them. But, I had set a goal to finish them this summer and I think we got one out of a dozen things finished. Why summer? Simply put, they were projects that would require being outdoors or we would need to spend more time outside due to the nature of the project. Still, all is not lost, and other projects were added to the list due to necessity, which in turn, probably would have cancelled out some of the other projects anyway.
There were some things at the top of the list I really wanted to get done: paint our bedroom; paint, tile and put in a new shower surround in the main bathroom; replace the broken windows; thoroughly clean out the rock garden of weeds and trim the plants as needed; put in a shed in the backyard; clean out the garage; gravel the side driveway; put the gutters on the chicken coop. Hmm… it looks like the things at the top of my list are, well, everything left to do on the list. At least we got our closet cleaned out and clothes garage saled or Goodwilled.
Of course, other projects took precedent. Our roof, for instance, on the south side of our house has had a few issues now for a few years. The main issue being that because there was no flashing between the gutters and the roof rain would get between the crack and eventually rotted the wood, including the plywood under the shingles, the facia and soffet. The gutter nails weren’t even attached to anything in the center stretch and were barely hanging on from either end. Fortunately we have a roofer friend who helped my partner fix that issue and we paid him in imported Jamaican beer, which was our only cost along with the materials required. This project alone took up a majority of our nonexistent budget, as we could have replaced both windows and painted our bedroom with that money. Not that we necessarily would’ve gotten around to doing either of those things, but still, it was spendy and had to be done. If for no other reason than to get rid of the rampant bird population living in that portion of the house.
Alas, while the summer is not really over, perhaps there is still time to get a couple of the outdoor things off the list. I know putting the gutters on the chicken coop will be rather quick once we get a downspout for it, and with the cooler weather, it might be easier to clean out and trim the rock garden, so perhaps there is still some time after all to cross a few more items off my summer to-do list.
Last night I made Chicken Curry and decided to pull a few carrots and onions out of the garden to make it with. It was, hands down, the most delicious curry I’ve made.
When I pulled the carrots, I expected them to be like ones that I’d pulled before: short, stumpy and wide. However, the three I pulled last night were near perfect specimens. Okay, so one was a near perfect specimen, one looked like a mandrake root from Harry Potter, and the third was somewhere in between. Still, larger than any I had pulled up before. The onions have been slowly getting harvested as needed, and part of me wishes I had planted more. They are sweeter and have a pretty intense bite compared to their grocery store counterparts, and actually made me cry as I cut into them. I lit a candle and moved on.
Potatoes I can’t justify planting myself, just yet anyway, because they are so incredibly inexpensive. The same, I know, can be said of onions, but if you’ve been buying onions for the last few months, at least here in the Northwest, they’ve been pretty terrible. I’m glad we planted our own this year. Perhaps I should plant a winter crop of onions for a spring harvest?
After roughly chopping the veggies and throwing them in a pot with a few chicken breasts cut to about the same size, I allowed everything to simmer for a couple hours as we waited for my cousin and her daughter to show up for dinner. The rice had been done before I even got to cooking the curry, so I put a lid on it and kept it off the heat. Meanwhile, we watched the Emmy’s. Our favorite show one best Comedy and my cousin never showed, but the curry was to die for. I’m telling you, there really is nothing like making a meal with food you’ve grown yourself.
How appropriate that today’s episode of “Super Why!” is about energy of the human kind. I don’t have any.
The kids we’ve been watching, well, take a lot out of an inactive person like myself. They seem to be constantly moving because, well, they are. Of course, we have probably got one of the most child-unfriendly houses ever, full of places for little ones to impale themselves on or find ways to harm themselves or others. However, they haven’t hurt themselves yet, so I suppose it isn’t that child-unfriendly… yet.
This morning I’m having a hell of a time waking up, even my trusty sidekick, coffee, isn’t working fast enough. Perhaps I should take the advice of the “Super Why!” gang and eat some fruits and vegetables. Then again, I don’t know if it is all that wise to take advice from a group of kids and a pig, which makes me want to ask, “Why is the “Super Why!” group made up of three kids with magical powers and a pig who doubles as a construction worker? I guess I’ll need to go eat a banana to have the energy to research this. For now, I’ve got to go get the munchkins ready for church.
When kids are doing something you’ve asked them not to, the first response I always get is, “I don’t know.” Hmmm… I remember my responses as a kid eventually became known as one of two: I.D.K. (I don’t know) and I.D.C. (I don’t care.)
Okay, seriously, it has taken me a half an hour just to get that first paragraph out due to two children constantly asking me for this or that. Okay, one is being entertained by PBSs morning children’s programming, but the other needs food, milk, and vast amounts of attention. While writing that last sentence, he decided to sit next to me, which means his milk must be gone, he doesn’t care for Cheerios, or both. Or perhaps he just wanted to sit next to me. Reading a child’s mind is difficult. Getting them to tell you why is even more so.
So, say, you ask them not to throw sticks at each other and the little one gets an evil grin on his face and clocks his brother on top of his head and then you pick him up and put him in a chair for a timeout. This particular session was obvious from the get-go that it’d be abnormally difficult. Fortunately, the child is deathly afraid of our dog (okay, so maybe not so fortunate for him) and when I threatened to bring out Lucy (our Great Dane) to watch him and keep him in the chair by asking, “Do I need to have Lucy watch guard over you to keep you seated?” he responded with a sob-filled, “Yes.” And so she did… for the next ten minutes.
Upon asking him why he was in timeout, he said, “I don’t know.” When I told him it was because he hit his brother with a stick, he said, “I don’t know.” After asking him if that was appropriate, he said, “I don’t know.” Lastly I asked if he would want his brother to hit him on the head with a stick, he said, “No, that hurts.” A breakthrough. Eventually I got him to acknowledge that his behavior was inappropriate and he apologized to his brother.
Funnily, they play really well together most of the time, contrary to what we’ve been told. They share toys, interact with each other, and laugh a lot… usually at me. I can take it. I’m usually doing something goofy or they just find me hilarious. But every once in a while, and it seems from out of nowhere, they decide to misbehave. I don’t know why, as I don’t ever remember having to be in timeout as a kid, probably because I was a perfect angel, but the kiddos seem to enjoy the time to cool off… most of the time.
Buying diapers as a novice is one thing. Buying diapers with the advice of a seasoned pro sometimes yields the same results.
Last night on our way home we had to pick up some diapers and were advised to pick up size 6. Reading the box, I presumed that a 5 would be more appropriate, but alas, decided the person actually related to the kids would know what size would fit and so I picked up a box of 6s. This morning as I was putting the diaper onto one of the kiddos it was painfully obvious this was an accident waiting to happen… literally.
Then again, it is entirely possible that I’m just not putting them on right. Bigger diapers are a little trickier because they seem to have so much more room and don’t seem to fit as well as the smaller diapers. Alas, I’m sure they’ll work, I just don’t want them to leak all over. Perhaps it is time for some internet research or a few calls to parents to get to the bottom of this situation. Of course, the two and three year old boys we are watching should be potty trained or at least beginning the process, and we’re working on that with the help of cookies, which would alleviate the ill-fitting diaper dilemma.
Our neighbors behind us have chickens, this is nothing new. However, a couple of their hens have made a habit of breaking out of the coop.
The first incident was about a month ago, and there have been many since. It always seems to be the same two chickens that dig their way out of the coop and then freak out, sometimes for hours, trying to get back in. Of course, this also usually happens when the neighbors aren’t home.
Last night one of their hens decided to find a nice place to roost… on the roof of her coop, but not after what sounded like a particularly violent chicken torture session. I’m not sure what all the ruckus was about, but it was enough for us to actually go investigate this time. I mean, if they were being attacked by raccoons or possums we’d want to know why their dogs weren’t fending them off. More than likely it was one of their dogs trying to herd her back into the coop, something she had no intention of doing. After a while, she calmed down and we went back into the house to watch Up! for the first time, which, by the way, was much more emotional than I was anticipating.
So this morning I hear more ruckus, but was unable to figure out if it was just a chicken laying an egg and singing the egg song that chickens sing ever so loudly during the egg laying process, or if the chicken torturer had returned. More than likely it was just two hens gossiping louder than usual. Anyway, the neighbor was out feeding them breakfast, probably whatever was leftover from last night’s meal, and looked like he was trying to get her back into the coop. Did he succeed? I have no idea, I was busy making coffee. Priorities. I guess I’ll find out when I go water the vegetable gardens.
Figuring it would be hot, our friends and us made plans to go to the beach. We didn’t factor in the wind.
For a few weeks now we’ve been trying to plan a trip to the beach with our friends and their four girls and yesterday was the decided upon date. It was going to be warm, even at the beach, and full of sunshine. And it was warm and full of sunshine in town when we arrived. We went to a few shops in Long Beach, got doughnuts from The Cottage Bakery (mmm… Devil Dogs), and made our way to the beach to spend the day. It became painfully obvious, after unloading our cars, that the wind associated with this abnormally beautiful day at the beach was not going to let up.
After braving the wind for a couple hours, we all had sand in our eyes and every crevice it could reach and were crabby and ready to pack up and go home. Instead, we decided to load up the cars and head down to another beach, Gearheart, where we spent a full day at the beach last year. With the exception of the lack of public restrooms (we ended up using the facilities at City Hall) we probably would’ve gone here to begin with. While it was a few degrees cooler than Long Beach, the wind was much more bearable.
With our location scouted out, the kids all enjoying the water and various pools filled with aquatic wildlife, the dogs running around chasing each other, and the adults just happy the wind wasn’t blowing nearly as hard, we finally started settling out of our bad moods. Of course, all the beer we packed helped too! After we got the fire going, we roasted hot dogs (some just had theirs cooked on a small portable grill) and ate those before we all gathered around to toast marshmallows and make S’mores and watch the sunset and moonrise.
So, was this an idyllic day? Not really. But we salvaged it rather than giving up, and decided it might just be a better idea to stick with our less crowded, less windy beach next year when we do this all over again… maybe.
