Under Construction

New Baby Doll & Doll Swag

Silly Girl

Stacking Rings

Under Construction

A Closet Someday
A Screened Porch 20 Weeks "A Mother's Point of View"

Somebody Loves Mommy's Winni-The-Pooh

7" Shitake

The Wet Season = Lots of Mushrooms

...but the food has been great!

In Between the Cries

It's been a couple of rough days at home. It seems we've gone back to her first months behavior, sort of colicy with 2 or 3 short naps 5-30 minutes long followed by some inconsolable crying fits. I tell myself this will pass, and I know that is true since she's already a lot better than she was at 1 and 2 months old.

The Goods

Yesterday I learned that The Cultivator's* garden has yeilded 73 cans of salsa, 3 quarts of chili, and now multiple jars of spaghetti sauce. The load in the 3-wheeler was from yesterday. The garden seems endless to me right now, and although it's wonderful it's a source of stress and arguements between us... but the food has been great! He found a birds nest in the high winds we were having yesterday. Finally 1 shitake mushroom from the plugs he planted yesterday. He sauted it with onions and venison for dinner, and other garden goods.

Here Comes the Sun

We were able to spend a few minutes outside yesterday, but it was pretty chilly... even when the sun was out. I love the sun glasses she wears, and although she hates when I put them on she seems releved once they are in place... and how about that adorable hat that Aunt Reenie knit for her!

I just love my little Lulu Button.

Another Day...

In the Garden

Who knew brussel sprouts grew like little nodules on the stem of the plant.

After 36 years I finally like them, but with a lot of butter anything tastes good!

Sometimes I look at this thing and wonder what were going to eventually do to have it removed from the property... yesterday it looked kind of neat.

Lulu

What a character that's all I have to say.

At the Lake & At the Farm

We spent the afternoon at the Lake Cabin, it was a great sunny, breezy day.

Lulu & her Daddy.

Just before we left the house. I had to show mom the pirate shoes with skull and cross bones, they match the new shorts and t-shirt you bought.

The Cultivator* Harvesting Hops.

Watching Da-da* harvest the hops.

Growing

I just never knew how amazing motherhood could be, despite her difficult hours.

A side by side compairison of the hops from this year and last.

The pickling has begun, for Gerry of course since I don't do canning.

My sisters, parents and Lulu's neices and nephew all thought she was cute.

I loved to watch Bella play games with her as she just lay and watch. Bella also likes to put her arm around Lulu and watch TV, like the bestest of friends.

Little Penelope, although being very jealous if Ally touched the baby, would come up to her and hug her and say "I miss her so much" everytime she past Lulu laying on the bench. Then every time I would change a poopy diaper she would say, "That's so disgusting!"

And Ezekiel, he's such a sweetheart. Although he didn't pay much attention to her he did hold her one day until she pooped and it exploded from her diaper, that'd be enough for any 10 year old! He did talk to Lulu a lot and she really loved it. She'd coo and he would mimic her and they would talk like that for what seemed like 10 minutes. It never occured to me that she'd enjoy that exact sound being made back to her... a sort of Close Encounters moment.

Aunties just loved little Lulu... always holding her when they could. I of course would let anyone hold her. Nina says Lulu has eyelashes like hers and Bellas. Ally said she looks like Gerry.

Grandparents (Nana, Tata) did much of the holding too.

Then there is Charlie, he's a 'Baby Whisperer' too. I had no idea how good he was with children. Now I see who in the family is the softie (sorry Nin's)!

A Foggy Morning

The Fog

So foggy you can't make out the hill with trees in the far back, just the tree tops. I like mornings like this, except for the bugs. You can't really see the overgrown garden from this picture, if the wind picks up and the clouds stay I will weed some more.

Then I went to let the chickens out of their coop. Gromit is checking out the corn I threw in the grass, he's nuts. NOTICE: The freshly cut grass! Yes, Lulu slept for about 1 hour and 45 minutes on Tuesday so I mowed the lawn... and proceeded to break off the middle blade on the lawn mower, gosh just when I think I am helping Gerry I actually gave him more work to do! He picked up new parts for the mower yesterday after work.

Gimpy GirlMeet the last bird in the pecking order, I call her Henrietta. One day in Feb/March the other birds singled her out and pecked her to a bloody mess. I quarantined her and until she could fend for herself again. I think an animal must have attacked her because her foot is messed up, see how she folds her talons under? She's a smart bird though, fights of the other girls now, for the most part, she waits in the coop until the others are out. I give her a special scoop of corn and she hangs out awhile until the coast is clear then she goes to the lilac bushes and hangs out by herself mostly.

All Our Eggs in One Basket

A big "Thank You" for Les my 'muddin' friend. He makes cool wood stuff, and while he was chicken sitting for us one week he make us this really cool egg basket. Which is really a great help.

Kohlrabi (sp?)

From the garden, colorabi (sp? trying it on a couple ways). It tastes great. We'd never grown them before. Unfortunately we let these get TOO big, and it's like trying to cut a tree with a knife. So we decided we'd try have batting lessons with them.

Cone Flower

I planted them this year, for whatever reason they didn't come back last year. Pays to buy a larger plant. The chickens don't eat these or the peonies.

Try, try again.

This felted baby rattle has been a lollipop which I thought didn't look so good. Then I made it into a pinwheel which didn't work out so well. Now it'll be a flower, which is shaping up very nicely.

Lulu Button

Also known as Lulu... she was being super cute. But honestly who am I kidding she's always super cute even when she's screaming at me. We had a really rough day yesterday. It was the heat I think? She was exhausting all day. Oh well, only 18 more years of fun, fun, fun. Good thing I love her with every fiber of my being!

While She Sleeps...

The garden has been taken care of by Gerry all summer. We put down a lot of black cloth to keep weeds out, thank goodness, but many of the rows still have none and needed weeding.
I think I got to spend about an hour and a half in the lettus, beets and green beans...

Cabbage always looks so pretty, and this year we are going to try to make sour kraut.
Lulu was not impressed after she awoke and I took her for a farm garden tour.