Birthday, KOA camping & what's new around here

Balloons!

Last weekend the oldest turned 4 years old and we had a sweet little party here at the house.  

The theme was PBS's Wild Kratts, a great educational nature program that we all love.  There were leaves, creature power discs, animals all over the place and a cake shaped like the Tortuga (the crew's turtle-shaped ship headquarters).

I made the Tortuga out of a mini bundt cake pan, after it was baked I filled the center with candy so that when I cut into the cake, M&Ms spilled out.  Children were very impressed.  "I want to eat the HEART!" the neighbor boy exclaimed.  I gave him all of the red M&M's.  Too funny.

It was great fun with family, the cousins and a neighbor boy.  The kids had a blast.  Trampoline bouncing, swinging, sand box digging, wilderness exploring, pizza eating.  The whole food side of the affair was catered by Domino's pizza delivery, a great relief of work and cleaning because the very next day we left to go camping.

Here we are at the McKean KOA.  We've never been to a KOA before. Ours was the smallest  camper by like, oh, 15 feet.  Seriously, the place was filled with huge rigs with slide outs.  Massive $50K motor-homes. I think one of the huge 5th wheel rigs even had a second story, is that even a thing?   Honestly, the last thing I want to worry about when we are "relaxing"  is scrubbing a toilet or vacuuming a carpet.  To each their own.  I wonder if some of these owners work remotely and are able to just travel all of the time and see the country.  That would be a wonderful lifestyle.

Here we are.  12 feet, circa 1960-something, $1,700.  It suits us. 

Raiding the fridge.  They love camping because it's all treats all the time: gummy bears, hot dogs

Spaghetti-O's, Fruit Loops.

The KOA was great for families, beyond anything we'd hoped for.  There were two pools, one of which only came up to my waist and both kids absolutely loved swimming.  There were tears every time they had to get out for a break.  Also there was a pond, a playground, a bounce pad, movies every night and goats.

Goats?

Goats.

I won this guy in the arcade in the laundry room.  I needed to have it.  We also won a big, glittery stuffed unicorn which the oldest presented to a girl that was staying the next site over, who had sweetly befriended him.

They had goats at the KOA too.  Adorable, pet-able goats.

Everyone slept snugly.  The camper has the original canvas hammock that goes over the back bunk for additional sleeping and we might get it out for the next trip.

The second day we spent some time in Erie.

The water at Presque Isle was too choppy to wade in but it was still a beautiful day.  The baby protested loudly and adorably every time we put him down (feet! touching sand!)  It was good fun though.

We went to the welcome center at the park entrance, kind of a nature center.  When you walk in there is a two-story tower of hand carved wooden animated sculptures of people and wildlife.  The same person carved all of them and by spinning a wheel you could set them all in motion.  Wooden people rowed boats, swam in water.  Birds flapped their wings.  The sculptures were really lovely.

A play room with lots of puppets.  Honestly, the whole place is much nicer for out kids than the Children's Museum.

I really liked the way these insects were displayed.  I've started collecting insects in the back yard again and need to find a nice box to display them in.  I'm hoping to find an antique frame that my husband can put a deeper backing on to accommodate the insect pins.

The adults were ready to leave the next morning but the children were not.  Here the oldest is trying to hide under the awning as we were taking it down.  I just remembered that the awning rail has come loose and lifted  the last 6 inches or so, so we'll need to repair that.

The rest of the days have gone by quickly.  We've been mostly playing in the yard.  I've been working on getting the chicken coops painted "barn paint" red. We lost two more birds while we were gone.  The oldest has been going to more stores with me and is doing well with it.  It will be a busy week with a friend coming for lunch tomorrow, a freezer meal party on Thursday and a friend married on Saturday with a rehearsal to go to on Friday.  Thank you cards to write.  Pre-school workbooks to complete so it doesn't seem like the oldest is starting from square one next month.  He's been showing a lot of interest in adding lately.  I'm also staring to think about picking up some hours part-time somewhere in town.

Friendship

Is a drink to a thirsty goose. He's afraid of her, sort of. She's cautious around him, sort of. They're about the same age.  It works out.  

Boys. Toots make weather?

Photos taken over the last 24 hours:

Organizing the freezer and counting Popsicles.

Watching the Giant Pacific Octopus documentary while wearing snorkel gear, alongside his stuffed octopus

Raiding the kitchen cupboard.  Yes, we have a child lock.  Honestly, sometimes 5 minutes of clean up is totally worth 20 minutes of peace and quiet. Plus, I'm sure this is "learning" somehow.

Making play-doh this morning.  We are out of dang near everything so the mixer has been in overdrive: homemade noodles last night, bread this morning, banana bread after that and for the grand finale: homemade play doh.

Which the oldest turned into a "starfish tank" all by himself.  "HEY! Do you want to see the Cleveland aquarium?" he asked

Working on a puzzle together last night.  These two are a few years away from stealing Playboys and cigarettes at the local corner store but it's not too far fetched to point out the mischief that is coming our way.  

Rainbows.  Or the solar system, depending on who asks.  

And so while we were playing with our homemade Play-doh today and making the starfish exhibit the skies darkened outside and we heard a rumble.

"Oh"  I said " I hear  the clouds knocking together and making thunder".

The oldest corrected me.  "No."  he said deadpan  "That's chipmunk toots".

I can't even.

Well, that's that

This weekend a mamma deer and her two fawns came through and ate the garden. They ate the corn tops, the peanut plants, all of the buds off the daylilies I transplanted. They ate the beans and the TOPS OFF THE SUNFLOWERS.  

We have 5 acres they can browse on.  Thanks, deer.

I give up. I was sitting out there brooding and feeling horrible about things when I slowly resolved to focus on this, the oldest making nests for himself in the dirt and corn rubble.

 And so maybe that's where we're supposed to be right now.  Maybe the idea of getting food from the garden will be given up this season and the best made of a bad situation.  A garden seems like such a small thing but it mattered very much to me.

If I've learned anything about life it is this: you can either decide to roll with life or it will will run you over.

After dinner I turned all of the poultry out to graze and glean whatever they wanted. We still have some kale and chard, tomatoes, peppers and ground cherries.  Two zucchini plants.  We're picking blueberries to snack on when we're outside.  And if all of those get eaten by something too, 

what the hell, as much as it pains me to say there's always Wal-Mart.  I guess.

And so it goes.  A garden is such a small, stupid thing to get hung up on.  I will try my best to let it go.

Outfoxing the fox & Hank Shaw's skirt steak tacos.

First I want to say that it was a very, very good morning for me.  Let's just say the red fox will not be causing our birds any more trouble.  It is such a relief.  I think the geese and chickens all gave each other high-fives and clapped when they saw me coming back around the front of the pen.  After all of the bird deaths here it seemed like Christmas morning.

We did not eat the fox.  It did probably taste like chicken at this point. 

Last night we had Hank Shaw's Great Skirt Steak Tacos.  I've never cooked a skirt steak before and hardly ever marinade anything.  This was marinated in soy sauce, spices and beer.  It was so fragrant it really seemed a shame to throw the marinade out when it came time to cook the dish.

It's served simply with queso fresco and cilantro.  The cooked corn is just corn, chicken fat, some stock, butter and salt/pepper/sugar.  It was a fun dinner to assemble and eat with your hands.  If we were going to have this with company I would want to remember that I'd need to prepare 2 of the steaks - the cuts are large but very thin.  I guess these come from the inside of the rib cage.  Hanks says it works with elk or caribou.  I can't imagine a deer large enough around here to get that cut off of, but here's hoping.

Well, things are looking up.  That's for sure. 

More dead birds, serves me right I guess.

It only seems fitting that after posting yesterday about all of the life going on here that I should walk outside this afternoon to find something had been killing my birds again.  In the pen.  In the middle of the day.  So either our coyote is back or our fox is causing trouble.  I didn't see the animal but may have scared it off screaming "OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" when I saw the carnage.  I think this is a pretty reasonable reaction considering how badly we've been hit this year.  I estimate that we've lost 30 birds total to predators this season.  90% of them in the middle of the day.

I lost more 3 more pullets and I assume both of my pheasants are dead too.  

The pheasants are gone but the pullets were just found laying around the pen dead.  Not a scratch on any of them, feels like broken necks.  Whatever it was went over the fence again.  Just like last time.

I am ready to give up.  The number of birds we've had killed this year is just insane and there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop something from climbing the damn fence when we're not home. 

Living things

Just some things happening around here...

Getting male coloration.

Bee waits out another rainstorm.

Trees are heavy with apples.

Monarch on milkweed.

Daylillies blooming.

Swiss chard growing.

I love the colors in this section of the garden.

A family pile up in the yard.

Birthday decorations.

I still have photos to post from the youngest's birthday party.  We got new phones and service providers around that time and I still need to get all of my old photos off the phone. It's been a busy, fun month.

Welcome Popcorn! Our new rooster

A big welcome to Popcorn, our new rooster.

It was high time to bring in another Roo. I missed the crowning and the ladies have been... um... throwing themselves at my feet lately.  Which is both awkward and a little horrifying for me and continually disappointing for them.  So we were on the search for a handsome gentleman.

 My dad knows a lady who takes in unwanted farm critters as pets so today we went over to shop for a new Rooster.  She said he was the friendliest of the bunch.  I was smitten by his good looks and promised to return him to her if he didn't work out. 

The oldest and I named him Popcorn. He's gorgeous.  We were told his dad was a Leghorn and his mom a Buff Orpington, although I wonder if maybe the hen was a Rhode Island Red.

He was brought home and installed in a pen out in the poultry yard so everyone can see and smell each other.  Only one chicken has objected; the oldest hen of the group, and even she seemed to simmer down after a bit.  I'll go out tonight after dark and put him up on the roost with the hens and we'll see.  He came from a barnyard with a ton of other roosters and here he will be the only gentleman with a big, adoring group of hennies to follow him around.  I hope it works out.