Busy Busy

We had a fun and busy Memorial Day Weekend.  In fact the whole week leading up to it was busy too.
Dom took the week off so we could catch up on some chores.  We got a lot done even though the weather was less than perfect, with scattered rainshowers throughout the week. He could easily take off another week and we would be just as busy.  There is more trees to cut-up and the coop still needs to be finished-things I can't do by myself.
 Dom's main goal was to get the boat washed and waxed and in the water.  The poor boat was the dirtiest it's ever been and it took several days and dodging rain showers to finally get her in tip top shape.  I am happy to say she is in the water and ready for fun in the sun to the great relief of my husband.
We ended up getting three cookouts over the long weekend one for each day.  Saturday my parents came to help get some more work done on the coop.  After many hours of hard work by Dom and my dad we got the rafters and roof on-Yay!  Afterwards we had some steaks on the grill.
Sunday after spending the day waxing the boat we headed to the Beikmans for a cookout.  After scrubbing the boat all day it was nice to relax with good friends and good food. 
Monday morning saw Dom doing a bit of touch-up on the boat and me doing some baking with Kenzie.  Then we headed to Mark &  Ellen's for a cookout.  More yummy food and good company and Kenzie even learned how to play Bocci Ball!

Mother's Day

 I had a very nice Mother's day this year.  It started with a yummy pancake breakfast, cooked by Dom.
In the afternoon we all took a hike up Blue Job.  The weather was beautiful and the bugs were bearable, well the bugs actually got pretty bad on the way down even though they didn't bother us on the way up.








Kenzie checked out the view with the binoculars and the girls discovered several inchworms.
Becca got a haircut last week-doesn't it look cute?
Kenzie also gave me a really cute card with a very nice note inside and a book she made in school.
The evening was topped off with a steak dinner of grass fed beef from a local farm-Yum!

Kenzie Love

It's a well known fact that in this house all the animals love Kenzie and the cat is probably the one that loves her the most.  If the cat is awake, it's likely you will find her looking for some "Kenzie love".

Here she waits patiently while Kenzie does some drawing, hoping to get a nice scratch behind the ears.  Notice how she has strategically placed herself in the pencil box.

And here she is giving me a dirty look for interrupting her Kenzie time.

Coop Raisin'

Work has started on the new coop in preparation of a dozen new chicks arriving in June!

Since my husband was a little reluctant to take the steps towards building a coop and adding to our flock (in the hopes I would just be content with the two hens we had and shut up about more chickens already)  I did what every little girl does and went to my daddy.  Dad planned out the coop and is overseeing the whole operation.  We even got my brother to lend a hand for a day which was really helpful.
               We've still got a ways to go but it is really starting to take shape.

                                    As you can see coop building is a lot of hard work.

Mackenzie's Piano Recital

Guess What?

                                                    CHICKEN BUTT!

So as you can see it seems we had a little visit from a bear the other night.  I hadn't been feeding the birds but I hadn't brought the feeders in either. Now we need new feeders because these are broken. Luckily the pole is still in tact and not bent.  I guess I can thank the rainy weather and soggy ground for that.  At least the chickens helped clean up!

Dishwasher Roulette

I've got a new dishwasher.  The dishes come out clean-no cloudiness, no spots, no stuck on food.  It's quite wonderful.  Here's a picture:

Yes it's my own two hands! What a concept, huh?  Well you know what they say, if you want something done right you've gotta do it yourself.
We are on our second dishwasher in 10 years.  In fact the current one I think we have only had 3 years and it's performance as of late has been very poor.  Now I know that they have removed phosphates from dish detergent which can leave dishes cloudy, I am ok with that because it's better for the environment and I found that white vinegar splashed in the bottom on the washer helps with that. But the issues are more than that. It was like playing dishwasher roulette.  Would the dishes come out clean this time?  Would I end up doing half of them by hand anyway because they weren't clean?    It was just a big waste of water and electricity-It takes the dishwasher and hour and half to wash the dishes. I can have the dishes washed, dried and back in the cabinet in 20 minutes or less.  So the past week I've been washing everything by hand and the dishes have never looked better.  So far I'm not minding the process and I have no desire to spend money on repairs or purchasing a new one.  Dom's offered to take a look at it to see if he can fix it. If he does great, if not, no biggie.  Will I eventually miss the convenience of throwing everything in the dishwasher and walking away?  Maybe, but for now I'm just happy to have clean dishes on the first try!