Hell's Kitchen

We visited a beautiful spot nearby that for some reason is called Hell's Kitchen. I'm curious to find out why it deserves that name because it's a nice little canyon with a small creek and lots of trees (rare!) and an old stage road and rock house. The kids had fun climbing the cliffs, rolling rocks and giving us heart attacks.

Cocoa the Goat

Heidi enjoyed her time having a backyard goat. Cocoa only recently moved over to a pen near our pigs. But it was fun while it lasted to have him close by and interact with him more. He loved to race around the yard with us and sometimes he'd get to ride on the 4-wheeler when we went over to do chores at the pasture. The only real problem with a backyard goat was he would cry REALLY loud when we went back in the house and I bet the neighbors were ready to pull their hair out! (It sounded like a child having a loud meltdown). When we weren't back there to entertain him, Cocoa would play king of the mountain on the firewood pile and hang out in our old stroller. But when he was old enough to nibble my strawberry plants, he had to go.

Bugs

You know you have a bad bug problem when you are in your quiet house at night, with the windows shut, and you realize it sounds like rain outside.....but when you step outside to look at the rain you realize it's actually thousands of large gnats pelting your house in swarms, crawling and flying on the siding and windows that are lit up. Yuck! They are the healthiest gnats I have ever seen!

Cement slides!

Hot summer evening in the country.....what is there to do? Cement slides! And swimming at the lake!

Quilting for Join Hands Day

We had some kind ladies in our ward piece quilts for us to tie for our Modern Woodmen activity last Saturday. Even the boys helped too and with everyone's help we got 4 quilts done in a 3 hours!

Patriotic Car

Reagan's first pinewood derby was last night. He was SO excited about his car that he'd designed and painted! I'm a big believer in letting my boys do as much of the process as possible including the paint job. This is after all, their car! In this case it meant Reagan took the initiative to find the tempera paints we have on hand and go to it on his own. Yes, chalky finish and all. But I love it! He named it the "Patriot". It came in second!

Symmetrical butterfly project

For 3rd grade art we learned how to make symmetrical butterflies by drawing on half the paper with oil pastel then rubbing to transfer the image to the other side. Then they painted their butterflies with tempera paints. It took two sessions and the kids really enjoyed themselves. I made a mural with all their butterflies, along with tissue paper butterflies from the kindergarten and second grade. The mural also included leaves painted by 3rd and 5th graders and grass cut from the textured paper the 1st graders made for their ladybug collages. I love how cheerful in turned out!

Desperate for mud

When we had a few days of warm weather last week it was interesting to see how much pigs crave mud to lay in. The pink spotted pig, with her snout, pushed some dirt up onto the concrete slab that is under their waterer and created a small muddy area about one or two feet in diameter. Then they both tried to fit in it but they kept falling off the slab and snorting and stepping over each other. They finally compromised and ended up with just their hind ends in the mud! It made me laugh! Now we bring extra water and make a mud bog area for them.

Fun at the hair salon

My friend was getting her hair done and I went along to watch her newborn. Leif is friends with her three year old daughter and the two of them had a great time that afternoon playing with the pint size barber chair. We just hope they don't get any ideas of attempting "real" haircuts on each other!