Miscellaneous Monday

It was crazy socks/hat day the other day at the elementary school in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday...

To be honest, I usually dread these school "spirit" days because it always ends in a fight or last minute scramble to come up with an appropriate ensemble.  My new rule is that if it's important to you to participate in the spirit day theme, then everything has to be done the night before...

We hit the mother load this year thanks to our neighbor, Jeannie, who lent us her Dr. Seuss and leprechan hat.  

I was surprised that Reilly agreed to go as a "semi-twin" with Ellie with the socks...

Notice how she switched the pattern up so as not to be completely identical with her, though?

A few years ago, for this crazy hat/socks spirit day, Reilly wanted to wear a crazy hat but was too self conscience to wear anything remotely crazy. After I  produced several options, she ended up deciding on a rather understated stocking cap, but then was in tears at the end of the day because no one thought it looked crazy.  What the?!  I can't win!

Jake's in house basketball team played their last game last Saturday...

This wasn't their best season, sadly, but he still had fun.

Brian was the head coach which was nice...I love watching him coach...he's exactly what a coach should be-

He's encouraging, knows the game like the back of his hand, and has a good relationship with the boys...

My friend, Megan, called me the other day in a panic, as apparently, there was a fox attack on several of her chickens.  Out of the 10 that she had, only 5 were recovered--two of which had major gouges and chunks taken out of their backs.

I offered to help her since I have had a bit of experience with wounded birds...

She brought one of the hens over and I got her cleaned up as much as I could with hydrogen peroxide and neosporin.  

She wouldn't keep the dressing on though, and kept trying to put straw on her wounds which was making a gooey mess.

I had her stay in a cage in my potting room that first night.  (Notice, the chicks are in the pack and play with the heat lamp).

The wound still didn't look great the next morning, so I decided to give her a "spa" treatment by soaking her in epsom salts and warm water.  (I probably should have done it the day before, but didn't want to send her into more shock than she had already experienced).  She didn't seem to mind and was very calm through the process.  I kept pouring the water over her back for about 20 minutes or so with a cup since that's where the bite marks were.

I wrapped her in a towel and then blew dried her until she was fluffy and dry, 

 put more neosporin on her and then some clean dressing and then. . .

I put a chicken saddle on her!  (Thanks to my friend Olivia who made these for her hens that were getting pecked at by her rooster).  I called her to ask her if she would be able to make a chicken saddle for this chicken and within an hour, she was at my doorstep with two!  

The saddle, which fits over their wings with elastic, was the perfect thing to keep her (and the other hens) from pecking at her exposed back as well as keeping the wound clean.

Since it was warm yesterday, I put her in our spare chicken coop and had her stay there for the night. I was pleasantly surprised to see that her wounds have made a drastic improvement and she appears to be on the mend.  Epsom salts are one of my go to remedies for many different chicken related ailments!

Father Daughter Dance

The Annual Father/Daughter event was tonight...

This year's theme was a"Sweetheart Dance"... 

I'm pretty sure Brian appreciated this theme over some of the others in his Father/Daughter night history...(ie...pirate, luaua, and an 80's theme which actually ended up being quite funny)

They've been so excited for this!  

The girls wanted me to do something special with their hair, but I have as much skills in the hair department as I do in making a flaky pie crust!

Fortunately, Rock Star Carissa Nielson came to the rescue after a panicked call this morning requesting her help.  She's great with hair and was able to whip up these hairstyles in no time!

I am so appreciative to her that she was able to make them feel confident about their hair.

 One last picture before heading out the door, to go home and put on the final touches!...

I totally scored on this dress...When all was said and done, I think I paid $12 for this!  Ellie loved it and couldn't stop twirling in it.

Reilly picked this little number out (and paid for it with her own money!)...

She was so proud of this--I thought she looked great!

There was much excitement in the air at this point!...

"We'd like to thank the Academy Dad, for taking us to the dance"

He's a great egg, that guy!

Dancing is totally not his thing, but he bucks up every year and makes this night a fun memory for the girls.

Everywhere a chick chick

Spring is just around the corner (or so they tell me...who would know with these freezing temperatures?!)...and that only means one thing...

Chicks!

We went in on an order with the Bucks Clucks 4-H club for chicks from Murray McMurray Hatchery...

We ordered 3 cochins...(our favorite breed of chickens)

They're the ones with the feathered feet.

This brings our chicken population up to 14...

Mary saved the day again and came over to take a few professional photos of our newest additions...

This little black and white chick will one day be an all black, elegant chicken.  We got her as a replacement for our other black cochin, Sonny, who died last year.  She's the one that won Reserve Champion at the Grange Fair 2 years ago.

The green dot on her head is just a temporary thing used for identification purposes in shipping...

Reilly claimed this buff cochin, and named her "Peaches"...

Ellie was so excited to show her class at school this picture...

Here she is holding "Blue Bell", "Chippie", and "Peaches"

This was a photo taken of our last batch a year and a half ago...these guys are at a bit of a gangly stage, but still cute...

I have to chuckle when I think of how this photo would make many of my non-animal loving friends' skin crawl...

Good times!

Maple Sugaring

We took a field trip today with Mary and Nicole to Howell Living Farm in New Jersey today...

This has been something I've wanted to do since the kids were little but never got around to going until today.

Depending on the season, there are all sorts of hands on activities and presentations to participate in such as

beekeeping, sawmilling, lambing, sheep sheering, etc.

This is the time of year when they tap the sugar maple trees of their sap for making maple syrup--

The temperatures need to be in the 40's in the daytime and 20's at night...

We've had crazy weather in these parts, so the maple sugaring season has been shorter than usual.

It's been so cold that the sap from some of the trees never make it to the bucket...

Normally, the sap flows fairly steadily into the bucket, so much so that sometimes, the buckets need to be emptied a few times a day...

After the sap is collected, it's placed into a large holding tank.  The sap is then boiled for about 14 hours or so to allow the water to boil off and the syrup is then in a concentrated form...

When the internal temperature reaches 219 degrees, the syrup is then ready to be strained of the minerals and then canned...

After hearing about the "how to's" on boiling down the sap, we took a scenic walk up the road to a 250 year old farm house where we got to eat pancakes made with handground wheat, homemade buttermilk, butter and of course, the farm's own maple syrup.

While we didn't go on one of the wagon rides, it didn't stop Ellie from doing the "horse hover"around her favorite animal...

Nicole isn't the biggest animal fan (say what?) but I love that she bucked up and put on a smile for this picture--I always joke with her that I'm to make her into an animal lover someday!

I have the strongest urge to bend the rim of Jake's hat down.  This apparently is the new "look"...(he's even keeping the labels and stickers on it)...He says that it adds value to the hat, but I say that it just makes it look like it's stolen.

It was nice to get out and enjoy the sunshine today...(even though it was freaking cold).  This was a great diversion from the hideous weather report that we are getting for Sunday night into Monday....

Note:  Many thanks to my rock star friends Mary and Nicole for taking the photos of our day...

I wish I could carry them around in my pocket to help me document each day like this!

House Renovations--Before and After

I've  always loved this house...

It had a kind of living, breathing spirit to it that drew me in from the minute I saw it..

We knew from the beginning, though, that changes needed to happen to accommodate our growing family...

...And so about five years ago, we began our renovation process by making our garage into a living room...

and added this...

(this little bump out was the only thing added...the rest was the garage space reworked)

Here is the entry way view right when you walk into the house...

This is what it looks like when you're standing in the mud room...

Here is the entry way view right when you walk into the house...

From the mudroom/entryway looking in...

Living Room

(A bit of a splurge was had on the floors because we wanted to make them match the rest of the house...)

I found a company in New Hampshire that makes them (Carlisle) who were delightful to work with...

We chose random width, old growth, eastern white pine with hand cut nails...

Since the basement of our house is not usable living space, we needed another place to go when our kids had friends or we just needed to not all be on top of each other....

That glass door leads into the potting room...

AKA--(favorite room in the house!)...

I love that it gives me access to the garden, and that we can see the new chicks or ducklings (if we have them) just by peeking in from the door off of the living room...

I always joke that the neighbors must think we are devil worshippers since when we raise baby birds, there is always a red glow that shines from the heat lamp that can be seen from the street.

Before--
This was the very first picture I took of the kitchen...(and sadly, the only angle) grrrr

(notice the carpet, dark wood, and hideous windmill wallpaper)

Phase 2--

 we ripped off the wallpaper, pulled up the carpet and painted the floors with porch paint, and painted the cabinets.  I enjoyed the fact that I could get to the front porch via the door, but it took up a chunk of space, so when we finally redid the kitchen, that feature was removed and a cabinet was put in it's place.

After...

By opening up the wall and putting a transom over the new doorway, the entire space felt unified and so much larger...What a pleasure it is to be able to converse with people and actually see their faces now, whereas before, there was always a wall dividing the conversation since there was really no where for them to sit if I was working in the kitchen...

Here is just another view from the dining room into the kitchen....

I never get tired of my blue plates..
It always makes for a more productive flea market outing when you have an idea in your head of something that you collect.  Collecting blue plates has been a favorite thing to look for as they are easily spotted from a distance.  I love that each one has a story!

                              I was super excited to get this farmsink (Shaws) and faucet (Rohl)...

Before--

This is a better shot of the door that led out onto the front porch.  We can still access the front porch, but from the door in our front hallway.

After--

Notice what a difference removing most of the wall  between the dining room and kitchen made?
(this photo makes the kitchen look 10 times bigger than it is)

I chose quartz for my countertops...While there wasn't much of a savings by choosing quartz over granite,  the fact that I can put a flaming hot pan right on the countertop without a hot pad was what sold me.  I was leaning towards marble, but found this white quartz to be a more practical  choice...

Notice the cabinet is where the door used to be...

Before--

Hallway that leads to laundry room and garage...

After--

Phase 2--

This was what it looked like after we did the living room addition.

After--

Before--

This door used to lead out into the garage...

After--
This is now the hallway that leads to the new living room

Before--

Dining Room fireplace

After--

Before--

someone had a field day with the stenciling!

After--

Before--

After--

Before--
Family Room

After--

Family Room--Before--

After
(the perfect little nook for a game table/chairs)

I've been wanting to document these changes for the longest time now...
I've been frustrated that I've been so lame with blogging.  It always feels good when I know I've been able to get a memory/or event down in print...