Backyard Updates

I really wish I had taken before shots, because you would not believe the changes.

This week we have moved the play structure back, many feet, that very heavy thing. We moved it one inch at a time. We then put the fence back up so the dogs can't get into the play structure. Then Ethan and I moved the wood chips from the old play area, to the new play area. Two very hard days of work there. But we did it.

This is where the old play structure use to be, before being moved back about ten feet. We will now be tilling this area and planting grass.

Well the dogs are thrilled over this new addition. It's a dog run. We totally cleared out the side of the house, and put up a fence, with a latch and now we can lock up the dogs when we have company over. YEAH!

These are the thrilled dogs. In our soon to be very grassy area.

We cleaned out the sandbox. YEAH! This one thrilled the kids.

HEY, Mom is here!

MMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

COTM: Gluten Free Chocolate Basil Cupcake

So you are sitting there, thinking I had forgotten about Cupcake Of The Month right? Wrong. In fact I have been thinking about this cupcake all month long, well since planted ten tons of basil. I need to find all sorts of ways to use basil now. What better then basil and chocolate?

Ethan liked it, he ate two before he asked "Mom did you add basil?" Cole ate one, and Tucker is just too sick to eat right now.

Gluten Free Chocolate Basil Cupcake
by http://www.cupcakeproject.com/
Converted by Marcie Dingerson

1 cup basil
1/2 cup safe mayo
1 cup rice milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water

Put into food processor and process.

Then add in:

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cup gf bob's red mill flour mix
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Process in the food processor, pour into cupcake pans, bake at 350 for 23-25 minutes. If your food processor is not big, just cut up the basil and mix everything in a mixer. Enjoy.

Graduation 2011

Graduation, need I say more?

Tucker is now in First Grade....

Ethan is now in Second Grade

Cole is a Self Proclaimed Kindergartner

My three boys...Don't they look snazzy? Well if the photos were better...

There's A New Buddy In Town

So do you remember a year an a half ago, as there was a MAJOR baby boom on our farm? All due to one goat, a goat named Buddy. It seems he was everyone's Buddy. Well when babies started dropping, the first call I made was to the vet, and she raced right out, and fixed Buddy.

So Sierra had Jelly and Beans, and adopted Bella's son Trooper, All in one day. Beans died a few short months after being born, he was so sickly it was amazing he made it that long. But I had the opportunity to get Jasper who was born the same day Jelly, Beans and Trooper were born. And because the lady was just going to put him down, I took him in, thinking Sierra would take good care of him. Which she has.

So I'm out in the goat field the other day, and I noticed Jelly. Jelly is getting very round and has an udder? Well that can't be, as every boy in the goat field is fixed right? Well I went looking (Yes seriously). Buddy is good, Chip and Dale are good, Leo and Max nothing, although Max looks like he could pop at any moment. That left Jasper.

I take a look and very surprised at what I found. It seems Jasper is NOT fixed after all. So just to be sure, I caught Jasper yesterday and turned him upside down, and looked, and looked. Just totally dumbfounded. But nope Jasper is NOT fixed.

So lucky us, we are on baby watch.

BABIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have some very fat girls out there. So wish me luck. I'm excited and ready to rock n'roll. We have a mom pen all set if need be. I have towels and bottles and can't wait to see all those babies. But with the first baby that drops, Jasper will be loaded up and taken to the vets to be fixed. And then he will need to go out and get a job to support all these babies, we will have babies to feed and diapers to change! Ur, I mean hay to buy!

I'm may be re-naming him Trouble. Stay Tuned.

Herb Markers

I'm showing off my new herb markers...They are soooooo Cool...

I got 14 of them and I just ordered some for the boys, how cool will they be with names in cement, for the bed they planted.

Basil...LOTS OF BASIL

This is what 73 gallon sized basil plants look like. Um, yeah you heard me right, 73 gallon sized basil plants. My husband got all 73 basil plants for a .25 total. The store was just going to toss them. As they all needed lots of tender loving care and probably would not sell.

This is what happens when you dont' let your parents sleep in. You unload 73 gallon sized basil plants.

This is what you make with 73 gallon sized basil plants. As I gave them tender loving care, I got enough from half of the basil plants to make this much pesto.

So this is what 68 gallon sized basil plants look like planted into the ground. One plant went to the mail lady, one went to the neighbor, two are going to mom in law, and one is in the hospital, so un-sure right now if it will make it.

This is bed 1.

This is bed two.

This is the pizza we ate tonight with the new pesto. This is Carol's recipe and should be all over the web so I won't post it here.

Easy Peazy Pesto
by Marcie Dingerson

3 cups firmly packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup diaya white cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Put in a food processor and combine. Put into a glass jar and put into the freezer or fridge. It's seriously that simple.

Cole

So during the summer we do what we call summer school/home school. Last Thursday, my youngest (4 years old) proclaimed he is now a kindergartner and he will now be going to school with his brothers and that was it.

So hubby today, gave Cole some pre-k work to do, and he told daddy, NO. I want kindergarten work. He said but you need to know your shapes, Cole said this was a square, a circle, and so on. Daddy said well OK then. Kindergartners do letters. So Cole sat down and did his letters. And boy it ticked him off when he messed up one. But he did really good. This kept him busy for hours, as he had to get it perfect.

Cole then got his hands on a sketch pad and that was all he needed for the rest of the day. My have a budding artist as well. Cole has all ready informed us tomorrow he wants math!

Question?

Any Basil experts out there? I think the top one is basil. The bottom one no idea? I think it's an actual weed.

Ideas?

Because the basil I planted today looks totally different, but I can't remember what type of basil I planted last year...

Don't Laugh!

So here's the deal, my hubby makes compost. He puts nearly anything into compost bin. And he fills our garden beds and buckets with this compost that he makes. So he is filling a few of the beds with this compost, and a few weeks have gone by and I go out, and pick a bed, and weed it. Well I went out yesterday and dumbfounded, that mixed in with all my zucchinis, I have these little tiny tomatoes. Well how did that happen?

I also noticed in the green house, one or two tomato's mixed in with this flat or that flat and thought it was odd, but OK. I had let it go thinking it was an odd season?

And then hubby realized what happened. When he pulled the tomatoes from last year, he put them in the compost. OOPS. Your joking me right? NOPE. Where when I pulled the tomatoes, I feed them to the goats. So I have tomatoes everywhere at this point. We figure if we get anything we will try and can enough tomato products to last two years and skip tomatoes next year. We are also watching the goats, just in case they start pooping out tomatoes as well.

One of the many babies running around.

We also have a new rule. NO TOMATO'S IN THE COMPOST PILE!

Sadly The Tree Came Down

So I adore this tree, it keeps the house cool in the summer, and keeps my head wet in the winter. But sadly we know the day we moved it to the house, at some point this tree had to go. So a few things moved us to make this decision now. First we want to expand the house, and this was step one. Two we need to move the play area back and in doing that I want to build a fort the kids can sleep in, during the summer. We can't do anything with this tree in the way. Next, we have a tree in the goat area, it was near dead. It had to come down for safety reasons. So kill both stones at once.

So apparently it is much cheaper to have someone come in and cut them down, and no clean up. So on Wednesday, hubby went to call to make an appointment for Thursday. But they came Wednesday instead. So after I was doing what I had to do, I had to race home and help play clean up. The tree in the goat area, had to be cleaned up ASAP. As the goats were eating the limbs. Too many limbs and the goats will bloat up, and we risk loosing them.

So we worked our tails off and got the back field tree cleaned up. Hubby didn't take photos of the back field tree. But he did take photos of the tree that is right behind our house.

This is the tree up.

Another view.

After

After, from another view.

As of today, we now have EVERYTHING cleaned up. I'm so beyond sore, and tired and hurting. BUT it's DONE! I will try and update with those photos soon. 

The Circus Came To Town

So if you blinked you probably missed the circus that breezed in and out of town. We were dodging rain that day, but luckily the rain stopped and held off so the kids didn't get wet.

At the end of preschool, they put on a circus. Cole was so beyond excited. He had a blast.

The entrance.

Lifting weights, because all lions must keep in shape.

And all lions drum to their own beat right?

More exercising.

The end. How I love my brothers.