Farm Sitting - Days 3 and 4

Now that we had all of our other obligations out of the way, it was time to sit back and relax and enjoy our last two days of working at the farm house. I spent some time shopping on my laptop for Christmas gifts while the girls watched TV and played outside on the trampoline. We got all of our chores done each day with no additional stress or rushing, and even took the dogs for walks. It was nice to have these two days to really relish the experience, as well as to relax a bit.

C with Oliver

K with Cookie (the duck)

Jan

C with Chocolate Chip (the duck) and Oliver being curious

A with Cookie

C walking Oliver, K walking Olivia, and A with Stewie and Hoover (it's kind of like that game - "follow the leash to see who is walking which dog")

girls and dogs on the trampoline

K relaxing with Oliver and Hoover

Hoover, very relaxed

K with Oliver, the cuddle-bug

Jan (background) and Robin (by fence)

Milagro

And here is a video taken by K, so you can see the entire farm house from her perspective (with lots of shots of her shoes - we may need to work on her video-taking skills)

Goodbye farm, it's been fun!

Farm Sitting - Day 2

It's day 2 on the farm and now that we've done a full day of these chores, we're all feeling a bit more confident in some areas, and a bit more lacking in others. For one thing, milking really is much harder than we thought it'd be.  But surprisingly, everything else is so much easier than we thought.

Unfortunately, we have one more day of busy plans, since this is Thanksgiving Day, and we need to do the chores quickly to get out of here on time again. Making the pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes last night means that I've only got the mashed potatoes to boil. Well, that and the turkey...  I'm thinking I need to leave here around 10 to make it down there on time for a 12:30 lunch. I spoil myself with the extra half hour in bed (until 7:30) pointlessly, since I'm already wide awake, and then we go ahead and get to work.

We're all feeling a little disorganized this morning and I head outside without any of the milking pails, asking K to grab them on her way out. The puppy, Olivia, is driving us nuts, chasing chickens around and barking at the goats, aggravating them. I decide it's probably best to put her inside and block the doggie door, hoping that the milking will go easier if she's not upsetting the goats. So A puts her inside and secures the doggie door and as we've got the goat on the stand I look around and realize the pails still didn't make it outside. I bark at K to go in and get them and A promptly tells me that the doorknob part of the back door is locked and now we can't get in. Perfect.

Because we've closed the doggie door, there's no way to get in the house now. We double-check the front door, but it's also locked tight. The girls start panicking a bit, but I remember that the bathroom window is a tiny bit open, though it's very high up and way too narrow for me to fit through. I tell K to sit down and milk while I pry the screen off, and thankfully C is brave enough to climb the ladder and drop into the tub through the tiny hole. She lets us in and we grab the pails and finish the morning chores in double-time now since we're running a bit late. No shower for me this morning, and yet another breakfast at the McDonald's drive-thru. :(

We get down to the house in pretty good time since it's a little early for most folks to be travelling and I get the turkey in the oven pretty quickly. I decided to go ahead and shower in my own home once I got the turkey in the oven, but then I suddenly remembered that I left my toiletry bag up at the farm house. This just isn't my day. The food turns out pretty good, but the turkey is almost an hour later than I'd hoped, meaning we had just enough time to eat our food, rest a little bit, have a quick dessert, and then head back up to the farm house for afternoon chores.

Mike has agreed to come up there around 5 to sit with the girls and the animals while Jessey and I go Black Friday shopping. I absolutely love Black Friday shopping, even if there's nothing I want to buy, and have been known to be out all night spending just a few dollars here and there, simply enjoying the experience. Jessey and I have been going together for years, and although he nearly broke our tradition by going with his friends this year, they canceled on him at the last minute and he was stuck with me. Sadly, Black Friday shopping isn't nearly as fun as it used to be. 4 am shopping was a privilege for the truly insane, and even midnight shopping kept the general public at bay. But now that Black Friday shopping starts at 5 pm on Thanksgiving Day, it's basically just a free-for-all, without the anticipation and insanity that used to surround the experience.

At any rate, we grabbed the Black Friday ads and headed out to see what shops they had up here anyway. The nearest Old Navy was two cities away, though only about a 15 minute drive, and we were excited to see that nearly every other store we were considering going to was up here as well. They even had a Kmart, which we don't have anymore. Our first stop was Old Navy, and we got there about 1.5 hours before they opened at 7 pm. We were shocked to see that there were only about 4 people in line and wondered what kind of night we'd be in for. Either things really have changed this year with the stores being open so much earlier, or Black Friday shopping is much different up here than where we live.

We sat in the car until 6, watching the line slowly grow to about 7 people and looking at ads deciding which other stores we'd like to go to, and then we got out and took our place in line. By the time the store opened, there were probably about 60-70 people in line, so that was more like what we were used to. Jessey needed some pants so I just milled about and picked up a few little stocking stuffers while he shopped. Even with the entire contents of the store on sale for 50% off, the clothes were a bit too pricey for a cheapskate like me (the clearance wasn't 50% off :( ), so I just waited for him. I actually got a few cute things, including some presents for the dog, of all things, and then we made our way to the really short line, paid and left. This was definitely not like the Old Navy we know. The one in the mall by our house actually stops letting people in after a little while because they reach maximum capacity, and if you aren't in line within 10 minutes of the store opening, you better be willing to wait an hour or more in line.

Even with trying on several pairs of pants, paying, and driving to Kohl's, which was our next stop, we were still there about 15 minutes before they opened at 8pm. We got in the somewhat wimpy line that had formed and waited it out. I like Kohl's a lot, and even though there's nothing I really wanted to buy this year, Jessey's search for pants will give me a reason to look around inside. They end up not having any of the things I actually need, and the one thing I was interested in buying is 30% off, but still more expensive than it is on Amazon, so I pass. Jessey manages to find some more pants, though, and I pick up a few more small things while I'm there.

Even though Toys 'R Us is right next door and opened an hour earlier than Kohl's, we decide to skip it because there's nothing I really want in there this year either (except maybe a Wii U, which I'm not buying now), and we're just not into it for some reason. I think the whole reasonable-ness of the hour we're shopping has killed the mood somehow. In some way, this shopping experience was so much more enjoyable when we were sleep-deprived, freezing cold, and groaning with stomachaches from all the junk food we'd eaten.

Our next and last stop is going to be Michael's, but first we decide to hit Denny's for some dinner. Even though it's not yet 9 pm, many places are already closed, so we go for the surety of Denny's. Our dinner's actually pretty good and we chat for quite a while before heading out again. At some point during our dinner, we remember that some of the families in Denny's probably accidentally ruined their Thanksgiving meal, and chuckle a bit at the thought. Michael's has been open since 4 pm, so there's no line outside and surprisingly no one inside the store either. The coupon we have is for 40% off your entire purchase, which I think is pretty good. I buy several more gifts here and Jessey buys a package of googly eyes, and then we both decide we're pretty much done with this whole thing.

We head back to the farm house just a little bit after my prediction of 10 pm, but Mike is surprised to see us. He was sure we'd be out all night. I'd have to say, I know many people were up in arms about stores making employees work on the holiday, and I can't honestly say for sure whether they wanted to work or not or how that whole situation played out, but I can definitely say that it killed the mood for the two of us. There's just something so awesome about standing outside a closed store for 2 hours in the freezing cold in the middle of the night, surrounded by cop cars and metal barricades on all sides to keep the crazies out. Making the trip to follow the line just to find out where it actually ends, discovering unknown alleys in the process. Making runs to McDonald's for coffee and Egg McMuffins for complete strangers while everyone talks hushedly about the items they're hoping to get. Perfecting the in-and-out tactic, tag-teaming who stands in line or splitting up departments to hit. Watching the rookies trying to use shopping carts in the madness. Making it to two or three stores before hitting a parking lot and catching a few hours of sleep in the van before the rest of the stores open up at 3 or 4 am. Shopping with all the bleary-eyed zombies who've also been up all night. Seeing the new friends you made in line smile at you from across the room as you both secretly celebrate their victory in snagging that one coveted item they wanted so badly. Having a second, and maybe even a third breakfast as your body desperately craves some sort of fuel for this grueling demand on it. And putting the thought out of your mind that about 1/3 of these impulse purchases will be returned sometime within the next week.

Or, maybe it's just me....  If you don't love it, I guess you just can't understand.

So, if you hear me petitioning for stores to stay closed on Thanksgiving (like it was any better asking them to get to work at 2 am), you'll know I'm simply pining for the 'good ol' days' when Black Friday shopping was barely-controlled chaos, and the die-hards like us shared a unique experience custom-made for the truly crazy.

Farm-Sitting - Day 1

Ok, so I know it's not actually a farm, but I'm calling it one, and it counts.

After waking up to let one of the dogs out 3 or 4 times last night when she whined to go the bathroom, and listening to the ducks periodically break out in a quacking chorus every couple of hours all night long, we were all wide awake and ready to get to work at 7am. I quickly realized that poor Hoover didn't actually have to go to the bathroom. She was just out of water and wanted to go get a drink in the fountain. Note to self: fill doggy water bowl before bed.

We needed to get to work early this morning to get everything done and get back home by 10am to decorate the tree with our scouting troop. I had stayed up late cutting and painting ornaments for the tree and prepping supplies, so I was all ready to go except for the farm chores.

Milking the goats took SO much longer than we thought it would. All the times we'd practiced, we'd only milked them for 3-5 minutes each and I guess the owners finished milking after we left, but we quickly found out that it was at least a 30-45 minute job per goat, twice a day. Oy. The girls split the tasks among themselves. A was in charge of letting the chickens and ducks out of the pen and feeding them, and C and K helped milk the goats. This first day they did pretty good, getting at least half done per goat before asking me for help. I fed the goats and helped finish up milking and then we all headed inside to feed the dogs. It was almost 9 by this point and we hadn't even gotten dressed yet or had breakfast. I ran in to take a quick shower once the dogs were fed, and we left the house around 9:15 for our 35 minute drive. Not quite enough time to swing by the house like I'd hoped, but definitely enough time to hit the McDonald's drive-thru on the way down.

We pulled in to the parking lot downtown at exactly 10am on the dot. Despite the fact that I was supposed to be the first one there, I was actually pretty proud of us for pulling it off as well as we did.

Decorating the tree was pretty fun, with all the girls taking turns making the ornaments and hanging them on the tree. It took about 1.5 hours to finish, but it was nice to take a little breather and just watch them work.

working on the ornaments

the decorating crew (minus my kids, of course)

the finished product - decorated with uniforms and handmade ornaments. Cute, right?

After the tree was all finished, we headed back to the house to prep the food for Thanksgiving. I was cooking this year, so I needed to make sure everything was set before I headed back up to the farm. I prepared the brine and bagged the turkey up in it, dug out all my recipes and checked supplies, measured and packed the ingredients for the things I'd be cooking ahead of time at the farm tonight, and packed a whole bunch of food for us to eat up there for the next few days. Thankfully, I only needed a couple of things at the grocery store because the place was a madhouse being that it was the day before Thanksgiving. After we shopped, we stopped for a relaxing lunch before heading back up to the farm. I knew we'd be getting back up there just in time to milk the goats again at 3:30, so I wanted to relax just a little bit first.

The goats were a little less cooperative this time, but we managed to get the job done. We've gotten a teeny-tiny bit of clean milk for us to use, and quite a bit of dirty milk that's only good for the dogs to eat (their meals are served to them like a bowl of cereal) or for making soap, which is what the goat owners do with the milk they collect from these goats. By the time we were done milking, it was just about time to lock the chickens and ducks in their pen for the night. We fed the dogs once more and then settled down to relax for the rest of the evening knowing we'd have one more crazy day tomorrow, and then hopefully some days to enjoy this place more before heading back home.

C milking Jan

K milking Robin

Milagro, the baby boy goat. He is Robin's baby, but is now separated in his own area since he kept drinking all her milk.

When we came back up here tonight, K accidentally dropped one of the grocery bags, and unfortunately it was the one that had my baking dishes in it and my casserole dish shattered. We hunted around here and found one that I can use in its place, thankfully. Tonight I plan to make the pumpkin pie and also bake and mash the sweet potatoes so they're ready to go right in the oven when I get home tomorrow. The more I get done here, the better.

Last night A and C slept on the fold-out couch with the dogs and tonight K wanted to. So, I made A and C pick a number from 1-20, and A won it, landing C on the big bed with me for the night. She wasn't terribly happy about it, but soon enough they were all sound asleep. I joined them shortly afterwards, pretty tired myself from the long day we'd had.

House-sitting on the Farm

To add to our list of completely random and crazy activities this year, we had the awesome opportunity to house-sit for some people that, although they lived right in the middle of the city, had a virtual farm in their backyard.

Here's how it happened:

• The goat-owners asked the person who had previously cared for their animals if he was free to help out over the Thanksgiving holiday while they traveled back east to visit family, but he said he couldn't help.
• They then told her sister that they wouldn't be able to go back east because they didn't have anyone to care for the animals.
• The sister, unbeknownst to them, sent an email to the local homeschooling group asking if someone would like to take care of the animals during Thanksgiving week.
• I initially hesitated since I wasn't sure if they would think we were qualified and also because I had never met these people before.
• When the sister sent out a second email saying they would train people to milk the goats, I went ahead and replied that we would be interested in coming up to help out since we're only 35 minutes away and could make trips easily. I hadn't told the girls about it yet because I knew they'd be really sad if it didn't work out.
• The sister emailed me back and said they wanted someone to stay overnight at the house because the dogs didn't do well if people weren't around, and asked me if I was still interested. At this point, I went ahead and told the girls and asked them if they'd like to do it. They all enthusiastically answered, "Yes!"
• I got back to the sister and told her we'd be willing to do it, but I'd seen another couple of emails come through, so when I didn't hear back from anyone for a few days, I figured it fell through. Actually, during this time, she was contacting her sister, the goat owners, and telling them she'd found someone to watch the animals behind their back because "they couldn't make her go visit mom and dad all alone".
• Eventually, I got an email from the actual goat owners asking us if we could make a trip to come up there and see what was required, do a meet and greet (since we still hadn't met any of them), and let them know for sure if we were interested. Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of Outrageous Outgrowns, but I knew the girls would be upset if we missed the opportunity, so I picked the least insane of the days and made the 2 1/2 hour trip up there and back to meet the family, meet the animals and see what we'd have to do. It was actually all pretty weird thinking about staying in this home belonging to people we didn't even know, but the girls were obviously very excited, and the goat owners actually seemed pretty happy with our enthusiasm and willingness to help out.
• We traveled up their two more times to actually learn how to milk the goats and practice that, and to find out where all the food and supplies were and what specifically we had to do. Each meeting got a little more comfortable, although I couldn't help but think how weird it was for them to entrust their home and animals to complete strangers for 5 days, although I was really thankful for the opportunity. I know they would have paid their house-sitter to watch the animals and I actually saw one person talk about being paid on the email list, but the way I see it, I usually pay for my kids to have this kind of experience, so doing it for free was kind of like a bonus for us.

So we headed up to the house on Tuesday afternoon prepared to spend the rest of the week there. We brought our sheets, blankets and pillows, and a single change of clothes (since we have to go back down to San Jose tomorrow anyway). I would have felt too awkward looking around the kitchen at pot and pans options and supplies during our previous visits, so we planned to eat out for dinner tonight and then bring more food up when we came back, after we figured out what they did and didn't have (like no microwave!)

While house-sitting, we would be responsible for 3 goats (2 of which needed to be milked twice a day), 4 dogs, 13 chickens, 4 ducks, and 2 fish. They also had a parrot which went to another house at the last minute, and 3 more goats that were there on our first visit, but went to be bred before we got there. I was actually really glad we only had 3 goats to take care of. Trying to milk 4 goats would have taken us all day!

All the animals had already been taken care of for the day, so after eating dinner we settled in for the night. I knew it would be an early morning for us, so we started it off by getting some sleep, even though the girls were really excited and took a little while to calm down. K and I slept on the big bed in one bedroom, and C and A slept on the pull-out sofa in the living room surrounded by dogs.

I hope this all works out!

Operation Christmas Child Shoebox Packing Party

If there's one thing I love more than anything else, it's probably doing service projects like this. Since my girls aren't always as enthusiastic as I am (especially around Christmastime, when there are a huge number of service options available for kids their age), it's especially fun when I can plan a service event with a big group of people so at least I'm not working alone.

Probably since this was right on the heels of several other service projects, my girls weren't all that excited to participate. Since we volunteer so often now, I don't make them help when we go. They help when they want, and hang-out when they don't, and either way is ok with me.

Packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child is something we've been doing as a family since the girls were babies. We'd buy 6 plastic tubs and each person would fill their own. Then we'd drive down to the local collection site and pray for each one before walking it inside and handing it off. Last year, for some reason, we missed packing shoeboxes entirely, so I was even more excited to do this packing party this year.

Our shoebox packing pictures from 2008

 

This one was organized for our American Heritage Girls troop, and I was glad to see the big turnout. I made a sign-up sheet and had it available at the last several meetings, asking families to bring 10-20 of a specific item (toothbrushes, combs, soap, pencils, etc), along with anything else they'd like to bring for the shoeboxes. I had quite a collection at my house of stuffed animals and small toys, as well as some clothing and shoes from the show's donated items, so that provided something fun for the kids to put in the boxes along with the practical items.

I wasn't sure how the evening was going to go, but I knew that I really wanted to get across to the girls what they were doing and why it was so important, so I showed them this video:

A Boy's Life Changed

We talked about how each box represented a child, a life, that they could make a lasting impression on forever. Not just the items in the box, but the knowledge that someone loved them, cared about them, and they were special.

After some last minute instructions, we took some time to pray for the kids we were packing for, and then I gave them some quiet time to think about who they were packing for and what they should put in the box for them.

And then, the packing began. Not in a frenzy as I had expected, but deliberately and thoughtfully. They slowly sifted through the items on the tables, looking for just the right things to put in their boxes.

A few of them gathered items from the table and then took them off to a corner to pack them in their box. A couple had to get very creative to fit all of the goodies in.

Most girls spent the entire time packing one special box, but a few went back to pack a second one. When they were done packing their boxes, we had given them instructions to head to the back table to pick up a letter, photo, and envelope to place inside. We had the letter Samaritan's Purse provides online, with places to fill in your favorite color, food, and why you love Jesus in the blanks. Many girls took the time to write little notes to the children before placing the letter inside. I had also made an abbreviated letter for the littler ones who weren't strong readers, or the kids who wanted simpler fill-ins. The photo was one I had taken at the last meeting of all of the girls together. I was hoping they'd take the time to circle themselves so the child who receives the shoebox can see the face of the child who packed it for them. The envelope was one that was addressed here to my house. I'm hoping we may hear back from a couple of the kids, so our girls can hear directly from the children who received the boxes.

After they put the papers inside, it was time to head up front and pray for their box. Our troop Shepherd volunteered to stay there and pray with the girls if they wanted, but many chose to pray over their boxes alone. It was such a sweet time to see them really think about that child and pray that they would know the love of Christ.

No one was counting or watching the boxes pile up. Everyone was thinking only about the box they were packing, which was such a wonderful thing. We were all surprised when we stacked them up at the end of the night and found that we had packed 52 boxes.

I'm so proud of these girls, and I hope we'll all continue thinking about and praying for the children who will be receiving these boxes soon.

(Actual Date: November 19)

A Day At The Circus

It's no secret that I love entertainment: movies, TV, stand-up comedy, concerts, theater, and of course, the circus, among others. Every couple of years I splurge and buy some tickets to the circus. Even though the theme is different, the acts don't change much, so skipping years in between shows keeps it fresh and interesting. And as young as the girls are, doing something we did 2 or 3 years ago is just like doing it for the first time, so they had no idea what to expect.

The tickets were pretty cheap, so we went ahead and parked in the expensive lot and walked all the way to the other end of the lot where the animal meet-and-greet was happening. We were there a good 20 minutes before the animal pre-show was supposed to close, so we got in line to see it. Unfortunately, the not-so-nice lady at the front of the line refused to honor our printed online voucher and told us we'd have to go to the ticket booth and redeem them for tickets before she'd let us in. Here is a picture for reference.

The blue circle is where I parked. The orange spiral is where the animal pre-show was. And the purple 'X' is where the box office is located. Grr..

I warned the girls that we might not make it to the box office and back before they closed the pre-show, but they wanted to try for it anyway. So we practically speed-walked the whole way there and back and entered the pre-show with just a few minutes left to look around.

Needless to say, my girls were thrilled to see the animals up close - and some of them were really close.

 a pretty cool amber-colored tiger

 the tigers were about 6 feet from us

This horse looked exactly like the Bengal tigers for a minute, but it was spotted. It was one of the most unusual-looking horses I've ever seen.

After we had looked around outside for a few minutes, we headed inside for the indoor pre-show. They let everyone come down onto the floor and meet all the clowns and performers. You can also watch some small acts in performance rings, learn to juggle, or try on your very own clown nose. A decided it was a good time to collect autographs in the program we bought just before we came inside. It was a little like "Where's Waldo" as we looked through the book and tried to find the matching clowns in the crowds of people. We got SO close to getting all of the clowns' autographs. I think we were only missing one or two by the time the show was about to start.

the first clown she found

Towards the end of our autograph-gathering, we found a girl clown with blue hair. We tried to ask her for her autograph but she walked away in a big rush mumbling something we couldn't understand. It seemed a little rude at first, but less than two minutes later we spotted her again.... hanging from the ceiling. Totally forgiven. We did track her down as soon as she was done, though, and got her autograph.

We made our way up to our seats once the pre-show had finished. We were way, way up on the upper deck, but we could see everything just fine. Or maybe I'm just so used to seeing shows and sporting events from that height that I don't know any better. At any rate, we all enjoyed the show tremendously. It had a transportation theme, which they exploited heavily.

"Traffic cone" man on stilts

leaping horses

leaping tigers

poodles in buckets

 women being shot out of cannons

standing elephants

and the tallest stilts I've ever seen, by far... I mean seriously, take another look at this guy compared to the people around him

He had to duck to get out the door!

Don't tell anyone, but I brought you some snippets of the show so you can see some of the acts.

This guy had serious guts. There were a ton of tigers in there with him.

This tiger sat on the sidelines during the entire show and didn't do any of the tricks. We wondered about her until we found out that apparently she speaks Spanish, and only likes to dance...

These guys were having way too much fun at their construction site

I'm not sure why I quit taking pictures halfway through the show. I swear I nearly had a heart attack near the end when the guys ran and jumped on the spinning circles. I thought for sure they were going to fall and die. But I did make sure to get a photo of one of my very favorite things there - the ringleader's outfit! I swear I would buy this for Jessey in a heartbeat if I knew where to get one. I loved the whole ensemble, but the jacket was just awesome.

Actual Date: August 21