A 10th Birthday Party!

Yesterday G'man turned 10! 

Today we celebrated with a fun filled day at the Nickel Cade - a local video arcade place where every game is only five cents to play!

Two amazing hours of games, friends, presents, cake and prizes! Everyone had a blast! I'm just thrilled that it turned out perfect!

All eight kids (6 not including mine) that were invited showed up! Everyone enjoyed the goodie bags, cake and soda. Most of all everyone loved the games!

We did have one down side, today when we got home G'mans friend and next door neighbor stole one of his toys - IN FRONT OF US!

I kid you not, he refuses to give back the small toy and his family's response has been, yeah he's been caught stealing from some of his friends.... That's it.

So while the party was great, we did end up having to ban one child from coming back to our home.

I am very disappointed with how people are raising kids, allowing them to consider this not only okay but normal behavior.

Also one of the funniest bits is his Lego Mine-craft toy came with a treasure chest full of --- a french baguette...?
Not what I picture as treasure but hey G'mans happy with it!

So another year has disappeared, vanishing quickly and we have a fantastic year ahead! Both my kids are in double digits now! Not sure if I should be thrilled or terrified. 

Also I've decided that from now on every year they age, I'm getting younger. I'm done with aging. No more sore muscles, strange aches and grey hairs. So let the good times roll! 

Easter

First off HAPPY EASTER! 

I had some fun today with Zorro, our adorable sweet male rabbit. He's so large and adorable now! I need to post new photos of him soon!

Gifts this year were different our kids are older now, Prissy is 12 and G'man is turning 10 in a few weeks. They did the Easter Egg hunt at Hubby's work like we do every year - this is where they bagged a ton of candy and a few nice prizes!

We however got them big kid gifts.

G'man got a wood burning kit and will be learning how to use it, while Prissy got a new art box.

For our adult friends and family (that live close by) we made up Easter Omelet baskets!

Highlighting our farm fresh eggs of course!

Each basket had 2 sets of 3 eggs. One set blue/green from our Easter Eggser (Americana's), one set brown from our Rhode Island Reds.

To go with the eggs we added cubed ham, cheese wedges, peppers, tomato, mushrooms and an onion.

We dropped them off yesterday so that they could wake up to an have a wonderful Easter Breakfast! So while we are all still feeling a little under the weather and haven't been very active. I hope to be posting more wonderful photos of our new cute additions soon!

Until next time, Happy Easter!

wink emoticon

Meet our Meat Rabbits

The top two bays of the rabbit hutch

Yes, the title really did read rabbit. No, its no longer a popular meat here in the USA. However, for many years it was a dietary staple.
After getting chickens last year, my darling hubby decided we were also getting rabbits.

When I say decided I mean he started creating plans, figuring out where he was going to put them and then of course finding us local meat breeders willing to sell us a few young breeders!

Meet Stormy & Misty our Does

Zorro our Buck

My only chore is making sure they are fed, watered and then finding ways to cook them up!
This week we butchered our practice bunny. An adorable white bunny we had named Bonnie, until we realized that Bonnie was indeed Bubba.
I cooked rabbit for the first time! It turned out amazing! Here is a link to the recipe.

Now Zorro is only 13 weeks and the Does are only 7 so it will be several months until we can think about baby bunnies. For now we are going to finish building the bottom two bays of the hutch, Then build out the growing pen.

The wood for the hutch we received from a friend of ours, it used to be fencing but had been damaged. We were able to salvage much of the wood and create a beautiful hutch all at the same time.

For those interested, my husband and daughter are making a video of building the hutch. It will be posted to their blog in a few weeks when the bottom is completed.

As for us, we've been busy. We have several spring projects we are hard at work on and will be planting the cinder block garden this weekend. I already have lettuce growing and raspberries to plant!
Our chickens are all healthy, fine and laying! We got a full 9 eggs the other day so Spring is truly here!

Blessing to all, may your life be full!

Early Morning Mountain Walk

Sunday morning  I took our dog (tiny one Patch) and Rocko (HUGE one) for an early morning walk, while the men made breakfast.

There are few ways I'd rather wake up in the morning than a solitary hike through gorgeous terrain.

Very few. 

Maybe only one.

The dogs were well behaved during both our walk and the whole trip. For two dogs that don't spend a lot of time together then being put into a camper for a few nights they were amazing!

Most of the time the sky was a bright blue, the first night we had a light fog roll in over the mountain range, making some of my photos hazy, but it cleared up and stayed clear the rest of the trip.

Glasses not mine, overalls mine

Breakfast Saturday: Pancakes, eggs (fresh from our girls) and sausage.

Then of course I headed back out with my camera to do more exploring, photos and hiking.

More on the wildlife and adventures tomorrow! 

Camping Night One

Did I mention that I'm biased to Utah's stunning beauty? That I find our mountains to be gorgeous?
If I haven't I've been lax.
Camping this weekend, the end of summer, Autumn already starting to show signs of starting in the mountains was glorious!
I loved our whole trip. Friends, food and an amazing view.

The sunset over the ridge the first night lit up the entire sky, soft rosy reds, pinks and a light orange hue rounded it out.

Our entire group consisted of 13 people. 9 adults 4 kids. Most of us have been friends for years but there were a few new faces. M is recently engaged to R. Welcome R to the group! Also L & N came along getting to know the rest of the group. L and I've been friends for years, but her life recently changed where she can go on adventures and play again.

If you click on any of the photos you can view them larger. 

No good camping trip would be complete without S'mores!

This was a fairly short trip, we went up Saturday and came home Monday. I still managed over 300 photos, some of which turned out amazing!
More posts to follow!

Pentatonix Vol 4 or #SOON

Earlier this week Pentatonix decided to play with the announcement of their latest album Vol. 4. They put out these emoji's so we could guess the names of the songs.
I played along!

First I'll name my guesses for the photos then I'll list the ACTUAL names that they just listed.

1. Dance, Dance, Dance
2. Can't Sleep Love (This one I knew from the concert)
3. Sing Out Loud
4. Rebels
5. Go!
6. Nothing Or later on I thought 1+1=2 (but really hated it so... bleh)
7. Rose Trophy
8. I'm Falling in Love
9. Broken Hearted
10. Tears Falling like Rain OR Raining Tears
11. We're Going Home
12. Party
13. Brightly Stalking You (Alright so I kinda gave up on actual guessing on this one)


Here is the ACTUAL LIST

	Name	Artist	Time	Price
1	Na Na Na	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
2	Can't Sleep Love	Pentatonix	2:53	$1.29	View In iTunes
3	Sing	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
4	Misbehavin'	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
5	Ref	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
6	First Things First	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
7	Rose Gold	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
8	If I Ever Fall In Love (feat. Jason Derulo)	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
9	Cracked	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
10	Water	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
11	Take Me Home	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
12	New Year's Day	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
13	Light In the Hallway	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
14	Where Are Ü Now	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
15	Cheerleader	Pentatonix	3:03	$1.29	View In iTunes
16	Lean On	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes
17	Can't Sleep Love (feat. Tink)	Pentatonix	--	Album Only	View In iTunes

See how close I was! I know I was rocking that list (LOL)

Now I have to wait for Oct. 16th!

Hens, Eggs and Windows

Going outside today hoping to sneak one or two photos of eggs in the laying boxes I found a gold mine - or rather an egg mine!
The lighting outside doesn't do their color justice. Those aren't white eggs, they are lovely blue! My Easter Eggers lay some truly stunning colors!
The brown are from the Rhode Island reds - who even though there are only four of them rule the entire chicken yard!
They take the "best" laying nests, hog the food and scold the rest.

Yesterday for the first day we received 9 beautiful eggs from our 9 laying ladies! Its the first day we've had all 9 lay all on the same day. The Rhode Island reds seem better at producing at almost an egg a day. The Easter Eggers are averaging five eggs to every seven days.
Both numbers place them toward the top of the layer chain. Some more ornamental chickens lay one egg a week (or less). So I have some hard working ladies on my hands!

The two laying boxes closest to the house have been taken over as Rhode Island Red boxes.
The two farther away from the house are now used solely by the Easter Eggers. When I started chicken care I had no idea we'd have a mini west side story going on in the coop! However they are happy, healthy and get along fine in the yard.

Now not to brag (BRAGGING happening now a-hem) but I have the best husband and friends in the world.
Hubby's bestie Shayne gave us a window (a while ago) and my darling (finally) put it in.

Measure, marking, cutting and install took just over an hour.

I know, I brag on my man, but seriously I'm blessed beyond belief. Not only has he endured 13 years of me (which says a lot about his patience) but he continues to spoil me with home projects.
Last week he also fixed our fridge which had stopped cooling properly and wired his shed for power and light so he can continue doing projects during the winter months!

Thank you both to Shayne and to my darling - you guys ROCK!