Home sweet home

So my two week break has been lovely, we haven't done anything too exciting besides Christmas of course. But I've enjoyed staying at home, I love taking time to enjoy my cup or I mean my cups of coffee in the morning. It's also been nice to catch up on the laundry and to do some extra cleaning.

I've also been able to spend lots of time with my pups and I've come to the fact that they can either be very lazy or crazy annoying during the day. And I mean this with all of my heart, I love my two crazy boys.

So now that I'm waiting on a new load in the dryer and I'm going to sit and enjoy my new cinnamon candle with a nice glass of red wine and a new novel.

Here are my two very sleepy boys.

Deans and Ms. Pearlie

I knew dean would fall in love with little Ms. Pearlie.

Winter Break

I'm officially enjoying my first winter break! Now that I'm working at a new school I get two weeks off for Christmas! Christmas has always been my favorite time of the year. The lights, decorations, music, baking and of course family. Ever since I began working I've felt as if I never have enough time in the season to do everything I love.

Last night Dean and I went downtown Seattle to enjoy some Christmas shopping, drinks at pike place the only place I've found organic beer and of course the gingerbread houses and lights. We also happened to be at the right place at the right time and got to see the 49es get off their bus and go into their hotel! Go Seahawks!! Tonight will be a big game!!

 The new large Ferris wheel on the pier.

49rs getting off their bus!!

BFF

Well it turns out that even if Asa may want to get the chickens. He's becoming best friends with Ms.Pearlie!

It's a girl!!

So...Prancer was suppose to be a buck,that's what the lady had put on hold for me. However it turns out that my sweet adorable angora is a girl!! The lady contacted me stating that she realized I was given the wrong one. Either way I now have a girl and I love her just the same.
My only issue was to decide on a name for her. I had time to decide on a perfect boy name, and I did fall in love with that name. However after considering several names I went with naming her after a very special foster child that I had for a very short time as a student Pearl(Pearly).

Prancer!

Yesterday was the day! I got a ruby eyed white English angora bunny for an early Christmas present. My first look at him and I was in love. I've named him Prancer! I thought it fit him since he loves to jump around the room and he was a Christmas gift :) I was worried at first about what my dogs would think of Prancer, so far though Asa my lab loves him. Moose and him have still not met so we will see. :)

Yay my wish is coming true!!

Next week I will be getting my white English angora buck!! I'm so excited I've wanted one since I was a young girl and Dean is finally on with it! I knew he would come around he always does and he even said the bunny is adorable.

Waiting for his Master!

Dean went on an overnight back packing trip with one of his buddies. Moose isn't use to being away from dean and has been laying in front of the door all night poor boy.

Angora

I've been wanting an English Angora rabbit since I was young. I hope this will be the year I get one. They are so cut, fluffy and loving and I also can use their beautiful coat for spinning! I feel it's a win win 😉 now if only I can convince Dean. He insists they are stinky and I've argued otherwise so we shall see!





How can u not love them!

Oh Christmas Lights!

Today Dean and I went to my sister Melissa's house to decorate it with lights! Christmas time is our favorite holiday and she was so excited to decorate her house since it would be her first Christmas in her own home. However two weeks ago she was hit by a drunk  driver so is unable to do almost anything. So as our Christmas present we bought everything she needed and surprised her with a beautiful lit house! Her expression was priceless and it felt so food to give her something I knew she'd been wanting.

Finally!

Finally after five years I got a new phone! The iPhone 5! So now I will be able to update my blog again. Even though I haven't been writing I've still been reading everyone's blogs. Well hope everyone has a good night!

Painting!!

This summer we've been doing lots of work around the house! One of our biggest projects have been painting our house. Our house was mainly white with our gutters painted green. I wanted to repaint our house completely white, though Dean wanted some color. We both agreed on a very light blue "iceberg", sometimes it looks light blue, sometimes white and other times grayish all depending on the lighting. All the trimming is going to be white.

We were both extremely nervous about picking out our paint since good paint is so expensive, however we are both still happy with our choice

This is the only picture I have at the moment for comparison; our painting isn't quite finished but as soon as it is I will post a finished picture!

New addition

So we experience our first tragedy two week ago on our little property. A neighborhood bobcat managed to squeeze her way into our large coop that we though we did a great job of keeping it predator proof. However she managed to open the bottom of our door about 6inches or so. In the chaos she managed to kill my lovely crested khaki Campbell and my best layer Rhode island red. Luckily the rest all managed to get to safety in time.

The way she manage to get into our coop she couldn't get out with the help of Dean. In the end though I've been dealing with a lonely Khaki Campbell the last week. Luckily this Saturday I was able to find a five week old female. My duck is now happy  again and a huge burden has been lifted. I was always feeling so bad for him that I was spending lots of extra time with him.

Here's the couple now both happily following each other!

It's been too long!

I'm sorry I havent posted in forever! Unfortunately we've been doing lots of work on our house the past couple of months; including painting the outside which is extremely time consuming because our house needed lots of preping. While we were preping the outside, we got rid of lots of wires that were no longer being used so Dean thought. Well it turned out one of those wires was for our interenet!

We didn't call our interenet providers to reput the cord up since we were going to be painting the house anyway. So for the last two months I've had no interenet! And unfortunatel my smart phone is a Tmobile G1 from 5 years ago so it's no longer so smart; making it unable to use to write blog posts! I can't wait to write up some posts and show you everything we've been doing around our house!

First Egg!!

One of my Rhode Islands layed there very first egg today!! I've been waiting for this day for a couple weeks now. Dean and I already fried it up and ate it and I must say fresh eggs are the BEST!!

BERRIES!!

Yesterday I was able to pick a few ripe blueberries from three of my blueberry trees!! I've never been more excited! Dean came running into the house yelling "Michelle come here quick!" So I went running outside panicking that the dogs may have gotten out again; to discover that he had found riped blueberries!



We've also had lots of our wild blackberries and raspberries ripening as well and there are still tons more of those that are not riped!! I love being able to step into my yard and pick fresh deliscous no chemical sprayed fruits!! My dogs also seem to enjoy them! I first discovered that my black raspberries were ripe because I went to check what my Lab Asa was doing over by the fence and sure enough he was eating all the fresh berries he could reach!

This is our first summer in our house and we've discovered lots of berries and plants we never knew we had. Just the beginning of this month we discovered we had a 50ft cherry tree at the back of our property!! Though to get to it you have to tackle more blackberry bushes! Hopefully this will be another project later this year.

Clearing

So this last week Dean and I have been super busy working on our property. Our property is only two acres but a lot of that land is taken over by black berry bushes. Everyone has been telling us to get a goat but we don't have a barn nor shed of any sort to keep a goat during the winter or at night. So we've been tackling the stuff ourselves. We are so excited that we've cleared the area where we plan on putting up our new fencing and where our pig pin will be come spring. We were looking into getting a pig now, however we feel that it is better for us to wait. I was a little disappointed however I know it will be for the best. So now I have something to look forward to come spring;  raising my first livestock animal! I've been wanting to post pictures of the work we've done but our camera charger is missing and my phone just sucks!( phone is turning 4!)

 

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

~Michelle



Feauture Duck House!! Or Something like it ;)

I'm allowed to expand my ducks next year when we clear some of our acreage were not using next summer!

Summer!!

Here in Washington summer (sunshine) is a very special thing. Today it's suppose to be in the high 70's!! I'm so excited to be able to soak up some of those warm rays and not have to run to my second job today!! I got my shift covered at the restaurant since Dean's out of town and I don't feel comfortable leaving my dogs locked up for 18 hrs!! So instead I get to go home early and enjoy the sun with my pups and watch my ducks play in their kiddie pool! Maybe with a nice refreshing mojito, since my Mint is growing crazy!! Mmm can't wait! Only eight more hours to go!





Today is also the first day I'm also going to be able to make it to the farmers market!! Yay for fresh farm flowers and delicious fresh produce! I also plan on running to Monroe Feed and Farm to pick up some poultry watering nipples to create this  DIY Nipple Waterer!! Got to keep my chicken hydrated!!

Hope everyone has a great day and enjoys the sunshine!!





As promised the video that you've all been waiting for ;) Ok maybe just me LOL! Enjoy!

The Khaki Cambells enjoying their pool!

The Pekin!!



I promised Dean no more Chickens and no more Ducks for this year; however next year I plan on getting myself a couple Pekins. They are so adorable and the more I research them, the more I fall in love with them!

Fun outside!

The boys left this weekend for Montana, which meant I spent a lot of time with my furry/feathery friends. I loved watching the ducks play in their little pool yesterday. I'm going to try posting the video later on my other computer at home. I can't get this one to load it. :(

Friday I also let my little silkie chicks run free for a little while for the first time! They loved their little extra freedom I gave them. They enjoyed eating the grass(weeds), eating bugs and the black one especially enjoyed chasing an ant! I have a funny feeling that the black silkie may just be a rooster, which Dean has always said "No Roosters!," however he's the one who picked out that little black guy!;) I'm secretly hoping he is!



So since Dean was gone all yesterday and I actually didn't have to work for once, nor did I have any plans or obligations. My four legged boys and I hung out on the couch for majority of the day. It was nice relaxing together, actually enjoying a couple cups of coffee and just snuggling with my babies. Usually I'm the type of person who's go go go! But not yesterday!



Here's by boys snuggling on their favorite love seat!

Brotherly Love

I woke up to this Sunday Morning...

This made my heart melt, thank goodness my phone was on the night stand so I could snap a picture!!

My sister came to take photos!!

Buff Silkie

Rock Barren

Crested Khaki Campell

Our Furr Children!



So I know I've previously mentioned our Chocolate Lab Asa. Well Easter morning, April 28, 2012 we added a new addition to our furry children. His name is Moose.

Moose is a two year old Rottwieler, who we adopted from a man who could no longer walk and needed surgery on both of his ankles. Asa and moose hit it off right away! The moment we saw those two playing together we knew right away that Moose was meant to be in our family.

Now as I'm sure you can all imagine Moose is a very LARGE boy. And boy is he clumsy, he may be large but he still acts like a puppy so you better watch out for those paws. Moose loves to push up against as if he's herding and he doesn't understand his size or strength. So my feet are constantly being stepped on, I don't think my feet have had so bruises on them ever lol!

Our Moosey may be clumsy but we LOVE him, he's been such a wonderful addition to our family and is forcing our lab to exercise! This is how I convinced Dean that we needed to get ASA a friend; he kept saying Asa was getting fat and that I needed to not feed him so much. Even though I was not over feeding him! The first couple weeks with Moose in our household was a little hectic, it took them a good couple weeks to calm down. Now though I couldn't imagine our lives without our Moosey!



 





June!!

It's amazing to me how time goes by so quickly! It feels like just yesterday was Febuarary and I was starting my new job. Today is the first day of June, which to me means almost SUMMER time!! It's my favorite season of the year. I love the hot summer days,warm starry bon fire nights, swimming in the lakes and fishing! 

Besides it meaning it's almost summertime;today is my little sisters Senior Prom Day!! June 5th is Deans' Birthday and then on June16th is her graduation!! I feel like this month is always jammed pack with exciting  events and things to do.

Every June for the past three years I go camping two hours back on a dirt road in montanna for the last two weeks of June! This year however Dean's going without me. :(  Since I just started my new job 3 1/2months ago I don't get vacation pay yet. And considering I just purchased a house in September, I don't really have the funds to take two weeks off. All the money we're saving is going into projects around the house! Dean and his bestfriend are going back packing around Montanna deep in the woods and on the across the rivers. I'm sure he is going to run into a bear or two. Considering last year in the car we saw at least 4 of them on the dirt road.

Dean with our furr child Asa in Montanna last year!

Oh one more exciting piece of news!! This is the month my chickens (cross your fingers) should start laying eggs!!



Chicken Run!!!

So my three little silkie chicks are still in a rubbermaid tub in the garage; as they are still too little to join the rest of our flock! I'm afraid they wouldn't survive the pecking order.  However to my HORROR I opened my garage door the other evening to check on them and I found all three standing on my garage floor!! The only explanation I have for this is they discovered how to climb onto their food/water dish and jump (possibly fly) out of their tub. All three of them were standing right next to eachother still as could be! They looked shocked like they had been caught red handed. This image is the closest depiction of what I witnessed!



If I wasn't in such a frantic mode to scoop them all up before they weaved their way through hiding spots I would have loved to taken my own picture! It was priceless! Dean however did not find it to be so amusing! As he yelled, "They pooped all over my garage! Theres chicken sh*t in my garage!" I couldn't help but to laugh hysterically at the whole situation.

Attack of the Moss!!

Dean (AKA Hunny) and I have been working hard to rid our yard of Moss!!! The stuff invested our yard and since this is the first summer/spring in our home; were working to make it dissapear! Yesterday we raked and raked the moss out of grass. It never seemed to end! This is going to be an on going process and I want to invest in a thatcher; however were still safing up for our riding lawn mower. Then I want to get a thatcher that will attacher to the mower!! Hopefully sooner than later! ;)

http://media.growsonyou.com/photos/blog_photo/image/38829/main/Moss.jpg

No Joke this is how much moss we gathered from a small section of our front yard! Unfortunately I didn't take a picture so this is the closest I could find on the web!

Chickens!

Here are some of the picture of my chickens and the coop that I promised to post!

 My Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rock at one week!

 Here's my sweetie putting the finishing touches on the Chicken Coop!!

 Here are my Rhode Island and Plymouth Rock at 8 weeks and the first time being outside!

Here is my little fluff ball chicken, they are silkies so the have hair on their legs/feet and an extra fifth toe!

Peonies!!!

My two favorite flowers are Peonies and Dahlia's!!! My mom got me these Peonies as a thank you for helping her with my sisters wedding last weekend. Which I will talk about on my next post!

My sweet crested duckling!!



Wow... It's been a while!!

So I know I made myself a vow to stay constant with my blog with regular updated posts. Though, with this new career path I've taken plus my second job at night. I've found hardly anytime to even keep up with my dishes.

So to update everyone a little I convinced my lovely boyfriend to build me a chicken coop!! One night during bed I radomly said to him "I want chickens!" His face was priceless he had both a confused a shocked look on his face. None the less I proved to him I was insistant and wasn't going to back down. I made the an argument how I only buy brown organic eggs, so why not have my own laying hens. I was planning to only get two Rhode Island Reds and two Plymouth Rock Barrens, however by the time I left my local farm & feed store I walked away with three of each.

Over time I've become a huge fan of poultry and find the stinking adorable and cute so in April I added two Khaki Campell duckling and in May I added three Silkies; 2 Buff and 1 Black. For now my flock is complete and I'm having a blast with them all. My Rhode Islands and Plymouth Rock Barrens should begin to lay sometime this June and I can't wait!!

*Pictures to come, my computer doesn't want to upload them!

Changes

So, I've had a very hectic crazy January. I discovered that the preschool I teach at is closing it's doors. This has been a very difficult time for all of us teachers and the parents. My kids have slowly been leaving as they find other centers to go to.

February however is turning out to be a better month so far. On February 14th I will be starting my new job as a director at a preschool. I'm very excited for this oppurtunity and all the challenges it will bring me!!

Today Dean and I went and bought 4 semi-dwarf apple trees and a plum tree; we plan on planting them tomorrow morning. I am so excited for starting my own mini apple orchard!! They may not produce any apples this coming year, but hopefully next year there will be plenty of apples.

Snow! Snow! Snow!!

This is our first snow storm in our new home and location and man do they get alot of snow here. I don't think I have ever seen so much snow in my own backyard EVER!! I have gotten well  over a foot over snow and it's making its way on to two feet!

                          This is the picture of my backyard two days ago there is even more snow now!

I love the way our property looks in the snow, I almost forgot what our house looks like without the snow. Right now though I have major cabin fever; I finished putting all the Christmas decorations away, did all the laundry, tackled the linen closet that was holding junk and am running out of things to do inside.  I wish I had bought paint before the storm hit; I could have repainted my whole masterbedroom and bathroom by now!! *note to self buy project supplies ahead of time before storm hits.

Our Asa bear (our chocolate lab) is however loving the snow! We got Asa four Christmas's  ago during another winter snow storm when he was just a little over 6 week; we took him out to play/potty constantly throughtout the day and night so he has became a Snow dog!! He becomes a completely different dog when it snows.

                                     Our Asa Bear stoping long enough to pose for the camera!

Running and leaping in the snow, he's not very graceful with his stopping skill yet.

My first blog entry

Hello Everyone!

I decided it was time for me to start a blog of my own. I've been greatly enjoying reading others blogs over the years and now that I bought my own house I figured it was time for me to start documenting the progress and improvements we gradually make to both the house and the property.

I grew up in the country with lots of apple trees, a huge plum tree I use to climb and my favorite a red barn. It has always been my dream to move back to the country. On September 23rd 2011, my boyfriend Dean and I finally accomplished my dream. We went from living in a 800sq ft. apartment to a 1700+sq ft. house on 2acres!! Our chocolate lab Asa is absolutely in love, though he still isn't sure about the deers that come into our back yard. Tomorrow I plan on posting some pictures!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Michelle L.