Thanksgiving Weekend

What a full weekend!  It started off rough, but it was wonderful in the end.  Thursday, Thanksgiving, we went to mom and dad Chases' house.  We had a great time visiting with the fam.  We got to see Jason's Aunt and Uncle, Chuck's brother and their son and daughter-in-law and their son.  They were so friendly, it was really nice to visit.

Friday I went to some great bazaars, Vintage Roost in Albany, Christmas in the Barn in Shedd, and Country Sage in Albany.  This was my find of the day.  Jason really thinks they're ugly, but I think they're adorable.  And, they're handmade!  :)

Saturday we did a little shopping, nothing too exciting, Coastal had grain on sale, so we stocked up.  The cows thanked us by bellowing loudly the moment they saw us.  Then we went to dinner and a movie.  We saw A Christmas Carole 3D.  It was great.  I'm not usually that into animated movies, but it was great.  I wouldn't take little ones to it though, the last "spririt" was pretty intense.

Then today was the really satisfying day.  :)  Is it weird that I enjoy things that most people consider work?  We rented a log splitter today and made quick work of the wood pile.  Some of it isn't worth saving, but we've got a pretty decent pile of wood for the winter.  Hopefully that will cut back on the propane bill.

The chickens even came to survey our work.  :)

Too Good!!!

The pumpkin pies turned out so good, I couldn't stay out of them!  Oh my gosh, I found the best recipe!  I never should have made this the week before Thanksgiving.  I have no self control!  Now it will be two weeks of no self control instead of just one day!

Chuck, my wonderful father-in-law, will be up Sunday to start working on our fencing.  He has the week off, so we hired him to help make some progress on our fence.  I'm really looking forward to getting more fencing done.  :)

Fall Fun

Jason and I made a pumpkin pie together today.  He told me first thing this morning, "hey, I thought we could bake something together."  I thought he must have been up to something, but he was serious.  :)  We finally got around to starting it around 5:00.  I found this new recipe at All Recipes.com.  It was awesome!  The recipe calls for honey; I was really excited to use some of our honey.  We used one of our home grown pumpkins too.  YUM!!!!  The recipe even stood up well, it didn't turn to mush when it was served.  :)

I spent some time today getting the barn ready to house our new chickens.  I'm getting 9 new chickens from a co-worker who is moving into town.  They're Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock.  I hope they'll do well with their new roommates.  :)  Jason helped me put up two new roosts so we'll be prepared for them.

I'm looking forward to them arriving this week.  Oh!  We got two very large eggs today.  I think these girls need a week off!  :)

Another Rainy, but Productive day...

This tune is going to get old very quickly... I'm sure most days throughout the winter could be labeled, "another rainy day". 

We finished laying the rest of the sod today.  Some of it is literally layed out in the front yard, no topsoil, no prepwork, nothing.   Just so that it won't die, staying rolled up on the pallets.  Jason had a great idea for curving the side yard in front of the garden shed, so we layed it the best we could. 

We got a nice break in the rain today, but the ground is still very, very wet.  We'll see how it goes.  We just figured it has a better chance of surviving in these conditions that rolled up on a pallet, so what can it hurt? 

We were completely exhausted by the time we got done around 3:00.  We layed around and did nothing for the rest of the day.  Except that we did pressure cook a turkey...  Jason has been curious about it so we tried it out.  It was done in 1 hour.  Amazing!  It just fell off the bone.  I don't think I'm too keen on the flavor though; it's pretty bland.  But it will be great for soups and pot pies.  You have to try everything once, right?  :) 

Another Rainy Oregon Day

It is pouring outside; we even got a little thunder earlier today.  Hobbes was not impressed.  He quickly retreated to the closet.  We started finishing our sod in the backyard, but got rained out again. 

Jason is concerned about us getting sick, otherwise I'd still be out there.  It's nice to take a break though.  But it's still pouring, so here I sit typing.  I think Emma has the right idea about how to spend a rainy day...

I ended up going to the feed store to pick up some more chicken scratch and grain for the cows.  One of my co-workers, Sheila, is planning on giving me her chickens since she's moving into town.  So I spent some time looking at the barn stall trying to figure out what upgrades I need to make.  I think just add a couple more roosts and some more nesting boxes.  Even though they tend to all lay in one box anyway.  I also need  to add another low roost for my little "Frizzle" who can't fly up to the roosts with all of the other girls.

Hahns and Donna and Christian and Alaina came up for dinner tonight.  We had a great time together.  Jason and I had a bet how long we thought it would take Christian to ask to play video games.... 

He acutally made it through 3 episodes of home repair shows before he asked.  I was pretty impressed.  Then Hahns and Donna went to the club and the kids and I made cookies,

and now I'm watching them play "Up".  It's pretty funny because the characters can hit each other and they make funny noises.  It's pretty cute.  :)  The kids get a huge kick out of it.

 Now I'm really tired and want nap time!  :)

New Back Yard!!!

With the help of some wonderful friends, we now have a beautiful back yard. It's so nice to have something done!

Beautiful Fall Day

Today was a beautiful day!  Complete with a visit with Mike & Christine, Chase & Derek.  We went for a little walk, took rides on the tractor and enjoyed some really good Chicken & Dumplings (if I do say so myself).  The recipe is courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.  I love it!  Jason even loves it. He can be a little picky about his food sometimes.  :)  Anyway, the boys loved their rides on the tractor.  Chase even tried stearing for me.  He did pretty good, with just a little help.  Derek didn't want to at first, but eventually he tried.  He had a great time! :)

When they left Jason and I had a nice nap.  I fell asleep to the sound of the Vikings/Packers game... Which the Vikings won by the way.  It's kind of hard not to be happy for Favre.  I'm kind of torn, I want to be a Packer's fan, but it's so hard not to root for Favre!  Anyway, I digress, we had a nice nap and when I woke up at 5:00 I ran the recycling to the dump so I won't be tripping over it all week.  Went to Coastal for some shavings and grit for the chicken coop and came home and cleaned the barn.  It's such a nice feeling to "put them to bed" in nice fresh stalls.  It's amazing how easily the chickens get stressed.  I felt bad getting them excited, but I really needed to get it clean.  With the time change it will be dark each night when I get home from work.  Well, it was dark then too, but I really wanted to get it done.  It looks so nice and fresh in there now. 

We really need to get some new roosts set up too.  The girls all crowd together

 and sometimes there are a couple that aren't so lucky, they have to sit on top of the nesting boxes.  ... Maybe they're just anti-social???

Harold was nosy and obnoxious as usual. 

He was rotten today when we went for a walk.  He kept trying to headbutt Derek.  We actually had to leave the pasture because he was following too close.  I think Derek was just too close to his height, so he decided he'd like to play the same games he plays with Maude.  That's all for now.  Goodnight!