Tiller...

...Is the newest addition to our family. Sadly, her addition comes because of the passing of Peachy. Peachy was our Border Collie/Austrailian Shepherd mix. She had been with us since the very first day we were home from our honeymoon. She was Ben's work buddy and just a really great dog. This last Wednesday her and Dezi got into some poison (still unknown to us how, when, or where this occured). They both dropped into fits with seizures but Peachy was much worse and unable to breathe. I have do admit it was one of the hardest things to watch your pet suffer and I wish that on nobody. Needless to say that day was pretty awful. Dezi came out alright and I'm very thankful we didn't lose both of them that day. At first Ben was adamant that he would not want another truck dog for a while. Peachy would be a hard act to follow. I told him I thought he would change his tune and besdies, who can be too sad when there's a puppy around? The next day he admitted I was right and we looked in the classifieds. Austrailian pups in the Fresno Bee caught our eye and it just so happens we would be passing through Saturday. We got there on Saturday and immediately fell in love with a brown pure bred Aussie pup. It was love at first sight I tell you! So Tiller has arrived and made our sad story a little bit sweeter and though we will miss our Peachy, miss Till has us wrapped around her paw already.





Giving Dezi some love, she's not all too sure about this new addition that's just her size. She's just so accustomed to every dog being bigger than her.
Dezi isn't the pup any more.




Up at Shaver. She liked the snow!

She should be a model for puppy chow. Just look at our fuzzy little Tiller bear!

Puppy Love <3

Books, Blogs, & Libraries

These three items have to be some of the things I am enjoying most in my life right now. With my new found time because of the changes in my job I have been taking more time to do the things I enjoy. Go figure that you are happier when you take a little time for the things you love!

Books: Books and libraries kind of go together but I'll talk about libraries in a second. Becuase of the library I have been reading more. What have I been reading? Fiction, Non-fiction, Cook Books, Gardening, Chicken books, and Craft books. Anything and everything and I'm loving it. Two of my latest favorites are "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" by Ree Drummond and "Mad Hungry" by Lucinda Quinn. Black Heels is the love story of "The Pioneer Woman" who also happens to be one of my favorite bloggers. It's hilarious, sweet, just all around good fun to read. Mad Hungry is a great book about feeding men and boys. Her perspective on cooking (why and how she does what she does) is just amazing. Not to mention the food is down right delish! This one is going on the Christmas list.

Blogs: I have always loved books but blogs are relatively new in my life. I started this blog as a sort of journal to keep track of the events in my life but also to share with friends and family. Now I have a nice little list I keep up with on my reader. They consist of about half friends and family and half blogs of people I do not know personally. "The Pioneer Woman" has to be one of my favorites right now. Even more so now that I have read her book. Her confessions page is hilarious, the cooking is phenomenal, and the pictures are inspiring. She's a jack of all trades and I have been shamelessly stealing her recipes! (and getting rave reviews from the husband might I add) Besdies her blog "Raindrops on Roses" has to be one of the best, primarily because my nephew is awesome just like his mom!

Libraries: Can I just be a nerd and say I love the library. I'll shout it from the roof that's how strongly I feel about it! It's like Christmas every time I go in. I find the books I want online and put them on hold. I get an email once they are in and then viola! I go pick them up. ALL FOR FREE. What more could you want?

All these things have been inspiring me to be more creative and to try new things in every aspect of my life. Sewing, cooking, gardening, keeping chickens. What fun things! I can't say I ever thought I would enjoy these things and I think God for putting people in my life that offer constant inspiration to try new things and go for the gusto!

Gardens and weddings

It's that time of year again. More weddings and a big garden! I've been making what has become my standard wedding presents for friends...aprons. I'm in a rut I know, but no one is complaining so I think I'll hang out in it for a while longer. As for the garden, it has been planted and set up on drip tape for a while, I just haven't posted about it. Even though I managed to almost demolish it single-handedly. I, being the wonderfully bright woman I am, decided to put a "burn" pile a little too close to my beloved monstrosity of a garden. And then to top it off, I decide that Hey, I'll be a good little wife and light er' up. All of the sudden it's a very big fire, like within one minute and it's in the middle of dry weeds. I start running for the hose in the backyard and Ben's like whhaaattt are you doing?! I yell back "It's a little out of control!" He proceeds back to the fire only to yell back "ummm hurry." Well it didn't burn down our house but it did manage to singe my tomato plants and well, kind of melt the last 5 feet of drip tape. Yup did I mention how wonderfully bright I am? Thankfully I have a great husband who repaired the drip tape and with a little love my tomato plants have made a comeback.





Very early stages, it's much more green now!

Dezi....

... our sweet little daschund. Yes she sure looks that way doesn't she? But what you don't know is that she has a dark side. She is always friendly with people and loves to make new friends. Our little sweetie is a cold blooded killer! When out with Ben running hay water she goes up and down the rows killing every gopher scared up out of their hole, while Peachy is content to just play with them. Friday night Dezi committed the ultimate crime.....she broke into our chicken coup and ate two chickens! She's crazy I tell you. She managed to pull back a lose fence slat and murder two medium sized chickens, not full grown, but not babies. I received the bad news while sleeping. Ben walks in and says in a very grave voice "Kell, Dezi ate two chickens last night." Then I hear him walk out and start securing the fence slats. Is it bad that I laughed? I mean, a little dezi, prying back a fence slat and nabbing two chickens. Maybe part of the humor was how mad Ben was, and maybe because Dezi's my favorite dog so I'm more prone to forgive her. Anyway, the fence is secured, we got some re chicks. (Yes 4 not 2 but 4, don't ask how it happened, ok we might be suckers). Hopefully these babies will get to grow up big and finally lay us some eggs!


So innocent....

NOT look at her!

Drooling for another crack at the chickens
New babies

They're just a little traumatized

Chickens!

The next adventure for Ben and I is Chickens! Ben's always wanted to have chickens but hadn't acted on it. I saw a friend that had chickens and thought about the prospect of fresh eggs and trying my hand at something new and decided it could be fun. I think Ben was a little surprised when I said lets get chickens but he jumped right in. We decided to put the chicken coup outside our fence using the shed and fence as two walls, less walls to build right? I would have been fine with something small and easy but Ben dreamed up this beauty. No coyotes will be getting to our chickens very easily that's for sure. The wonderful before shot.

I know our weeds got a little out of control this year.

Laying out the walls using lattice we already had. Ben was pretty ingenious and designed the whole thing around the lattice we already had.

Supplies

We put the poles in on Saturday and decided to get at least one wall up Sunday afternoon. Since it was such a beautiful day we did carne asada tacos outside and had ourselves a little tailgate party.

Ever notice how well behaved your dogs are when there's food around?

One wall up. Ben putting up the roof supports.

A finished coup! The chickens! We got 5 total, 3 Leghorns, 1 New Hampshire Red and 1 Jersey Black. Their names are Big Red, Lafawnda, Moose, Duck, and Turkey, if you were wondering. They are living in the cage inside the coup right now because one is still small enough to potentially slip through the lattice. At they rate they are growing they will soon be allowed out of the cage.

We shall see how this adventure goes. So far it has been fun and interesting. The dogs are tortured by the fact that they aren't allowed inside the coup to chase chickens. We won't have eggs for a while either but so far so good!

My Nephew....

...the coolest little man I know! Ben and I delived some compost to my Brother and Sister-in-law's house. While the boys worked hard unloading and distributing compost, Henry and I played in the truck. Oh what fun! He had just found the panic button on the keys :) Driving

Painting

Looking at our taxes....haha

Annnddddd this is the picture Henry took of me. Not my best, but at least he got half my face.

Farmer's Market

Lately I have made a habit of going to the Farmer's Market on Brimhall on Saturdays. It's right down the road from the Fresh n' Easy I get groceries at. It is pretty small but they have exactly what I'm looking for. They always have fresh veggies which is what I went for in the first place but then.....I found the hummus guy. I happen to love hummus. I use it instead of mayo on my sandwiches, dip crackers, or veggies in it. When I saw the stand I knew I had to try it. I've been getting hummus, a veggie mix, dolmas and once in a while fresh pita bread there. This last week I got sundried tomato basil hummus, feta cheeese with sundried tomatoes and dolmas. I immediately went home sliced some of my freshly made bread and fell in love. It was a nice light lunch with so much flavor. Ben came home and loved it to. Go figure my meat and potatoes guy would dig the hummus and feta cheese! So needless to say the farmer's market is quickly becomming part of my routine. Soon they will have stone fruit and possibly homemade tortillas!