September part 3

9/24/15 - Turns out we have 10 roosters and 6 hens.  We tried to save 2 chicks that had messed up legs, but it didn't work and the other bends pecked them so much it was disturbing.  They didn't make it.  One other chicken (we weren't sure if it was a rooster or a hen) got out and was killed by the dogs.  That really made me mad.

The roosters are all pretty aggressive, the biggest one is white and we call him Head Hancho.  It won't be long before we have to get rid of most of them.  (I wish I had got rid of them sooner)


9/24/15 - Jake borrowed bishop Mendenhall's truck and went to Seattle to pick up my shipment of Color Your Own puzzles.  The kids helped us unload them.


9/25/15



9/26/15 - The youth had a service project doing some landscaping at the temple.  Jake took Natasha and due to our busy overlapping Saturday schedule Thurston got to join in too.






After the service project Jake took the Natasha and Thurston to voodoo doughnuts.



9/27/15 - Willow is ready to have kittens any day now!
















This evening we went for a drive so we could get a view of the lunar eclipse.  --"The moon will pass into Earth’s shadow producing a total lunar eclipse during the "Supermoon" – a time when the full moon occurs "at or near its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit," according to NASA. Because this full moon happens on the night of the autumnal equinox (9-27-2015), it is also known as the Harvest Moon."credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech

I only got this crappy photo with my phone, but Teri got the amazing one below.





9/29/15 - Willow went to the back corner of the closet in the girls room and had two little kittens.  One is a female and she is black and one  is a male, he is white and grey. The kids decided before the kittens were born that they wanted to name one Quinby, so that is the girl's name.  I got to name the grey and white one (only because the kids liked the name I picked).  We call him Splash.

It seems to me like she is still pregnant and may have another kitten in there, so I research it online.  It sounds like on rare occasions cats have their kittens over the course of  a few days.  So it is possible that there is another one... but after reading that it is also common for people to think there are more kittens coming when really there aren't I start to think that maybe it is just my imagination.

The next day she has a third kitten.  He is all grey and has a bob tail like Willow.  The kids name him Percy.  They have been reading the Percy Jackson books all summer.

9/30/15 - I think Dantley only lasted 30 seconds past when I took this picture.  Harvesting sunflower seeds is tedious work.

Halloween Preparations

9/24/15 - We have decided that we are going to go to Teri's house in Loveland, CO this year for Halloween.  Mom, and Mark and Jess will be there too and we all are going to dress as different Disney Villains.  The kids are super excited (so am I)!  It is going to take a while to make the costumes that we want.  Today I picked up this jar full of jewelry at Goodwill.  I think I found some pieces that will be great with our costumes.  I also bought some fur leg warmers to use as the black mane for Dantley's Scar costume.


9/29/15 - Tamsyn is going to be the Queen of Hearts.  I bought a black and red Christmas dress at good will that I am taking apart and redoing with the help of my friend and amazing seamstress - Vione Graham. It is looking good so far!

Pumpkin Growing Contest

9/22/15 - We bought a package of giant pumpkin seeds and each kid got to plant 3.  We decided we would see who could grow the biggest/heaviest pumpkin.  We thought Dantley didn't have a chance because he washed 2 of his seeds away when he planted them and only had one pumpkin on his plant, but that one pumpkin grew and grew and he ended up with second place.

Natasha got first with her pumpkin. She had two really large pumpkins.  One was 47.5lbs and one was 42 lbs.


Tamsyn's plants got a late start because once Thurston watered them and I needed to replant them in the soil.  It definitely set them back.  She felt really bad about it, but she had so many great watermelons we tried to remind her that she definitely had a good gardening year.

Thurston got some interesting shaped pumpkins, but they never got very big.

Dantley got second place.  His pumpkin weighed 20.25 lbs.


9/23/15 - Tamsyn saw a pretty bouquet in the store that was inside a pumpkin.  She had heard her teacher talk about how much she liked flowers, so we picked some from our yard and added them to some carnations we bought at the store.

More September

9/17/15


9/18/15 - We are considering getting goats, so to test out how well they take down the blackberry bushes we borrowed the Bustad's goats for a few weeks.  My kids loved them and they did alright with the berry bushes, but the dogs got a little aggressive with them so we don't think we will get any for a while.


Canned more pear sauce and pears


9/19/15 - More soccer games.  Thurston really likes playing keeper.  He isn't afraid to dive after the ball.

Dantley is getting slighlty more aggressive (but maybe that is because they were playing the "pink princesses."

Tamsyn is going to harvest her sunflower seeds.  She read online how to harvest them and then clean and bake them.  Her seeds are really small, so I don't think they will be as good as larger seeds would be.


9/21/15 - We picked Dantley's pumpkins today.  They are sure heavy.

Tamsyn caught this bird that was stuck in our garage window.  It couldn't figure out how to get out, so she just calmly climbed up to the window and caught it and then set it free.  We have had quite a few birds in there recently.  I think they come in to get into the chicken feed.

9/22/15 - Julie Richey had a bunch of apples so a bunch of us went over to help her make applesauce and pie filling.  Jen Graham, Vione Graham, Katie Scrivens, Katie Jensen, me and Shana Mendenhall were all there.