I don't think so. My Mom and I recently were discussing carry conceal and gun ownership and she had some pretty valid concerns. She referenced a camping trip a chunk of family went on where the manly men seemed to kind of blow up the situation and become a bit more paranoid and how easy it could be to freak yourself out and overreact to a situation. Something I realized though is that all of the over reactions I have encountered where guns are in play has to do with men.
Now I am not man bashing. Heck I am a happily married woman to a very responsible gun owning manly man. I also realize men are programmed to protect the roost whether that is a campsite, a car, or our homes. What gets me is how normally sane smart men can take a situation and all of the sudden we are facing a raid by armed militants in the wilds of Wyoming rather than the dumb kids shooting at signs that were actually present. When in protection mode I think guys see all the possibilities of danger and react to those possibilities rather than taking the time to truly assess a situation. Men are hardwired to see the worst possible scenario and it seems the men I know lose the ability to trust their instincts in situations where it just might help to listen to the female contingent.
Granted there were small children on the trip I mentioned above and I would have absolutely pulled out and loaded the .40 that travels with me at the first sound of gun shots but I also would have remained in my campsite, placed the children in the most protected area and stayed right there to protect the little ones rather than running off to investigate. Curiosity after all did kill the cat.
Yes I know a few men will be able to argue that women are the less logical in tense situations, and I know that can be true, but in my world the men tend to jump to conclusions rather than actually take the time to think things through.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Ninja Pre-schooler: Tale of the Locked Door
The Boy is a ninja. Seriously, I have no idea how such a small person can cause so much havoc. It's beyond my level of reasoning. Just about every entry/exit point in my house (including windows) is jimmy-rigged in some way to prevent escape. My house is more secure then some prisons, I'd guess. But anyway, I'm off subject.
Friday night, it was just about bedtime and I told the Boy if he picked up his room he could watch Bolt with me for half an hour. If he didn't pick up the toys, it was straight to bed. I heard him shuffling around for about 5 mins, then he comes out of the room, shuts the door and proclaims it clean. I told him I'd go check and then we'd start the movie. I reach for the door and he starts yelling "No, no! Don't look Mom!". As you can guess, this is not usually a good sign. I reach for the handle, and turn. Nothing. Jiggle jiggle... JIGGLE JIGGLE.
He locked the door. From the inside. Then shut the door, locking he and I out.
I check out the knob and it's one of those types with the little hole. Stick in a bobby pin or something and it pops open. Not a problem. I find a couple different things that should work and start poking. Nothing is budging this door.
I call David (the neighbor) and ask if there's a trick to the doors. He says "Is it the one with the hole in it?" "Yes" "Just stick a nail or something in and it'll pop right open". I get off the phone with him and call BD (his brother, who used to be a neighbor) and have virtually the same conversation. Nothing is opening this damn door. BD offers to try his luck when he gets back into town Saturday night, and we hang up.
No big deal, right? One night. The Boy can just sleep with me. Then I look at him and realize I hadn't put him in a pull up yet. He still wets the bed, and I just got a brand new queen size pillow top. He had 3 glasses of milk with dinner. There is no way in heck he's sleeping in my bed with no pull up. Pull ups are his room, behind the unlock-able door.
I take a deep breath, scavenge through my garage and get some screwdrivers and things. Slowly but surely I managed to take off the knob. I poke around at the mechanism and it still won't unlock. I continue removing parts and eventually get the door unlocked (which was honestly a bit anti-climatic after all that work). I replaced the knob, and put the boy to bed.
It took me quite a chunk of time, but at least now I know what to do with the stupid door the next time the Boy locks it (Notice, I didn't say *if* he locks it).
Friday night, it was just about bedtime and I told the Boy if he picked up his room he could watch Bolt with me for half an hour. If he didn't pick up the toys, it was straight to bed. I heard him shuffling around for about 5 mins, then he comes out of the room, shuts the door and proclaims it clean. I told him I'd go check and then we'd start the movie. I reach for the door and he starts yelling "No, no! Don't look Mom!". As you can guess, this is not usually a good sign. I reach for the handle, and turn. Nothing. Jiggle jiggle... JIGGLE JIGGLE.
He locked the door. From the inside. Then shut the door, locking he and I out.
I check out the knob and it's one of those types with the little hole. Stick in a bobby pin or something and it pops open. Not a problem. I find a couple different things that should work and start poking. Nothing is budging this door.
I call David (the neighbor) and ask if there's a trick to the doors. He says "Is it the one with the hole in it?" "Yes" "Just stick a nail or something in and it'll pop right open". I get off the phone with him and call BD (his brother, who used to be a neighbor) and have virtually the same conversation. Nothing is opening this damn door. BD offers to try his luck when he gets back into town Saturday night, and we hang up.
No big deal, right? One night. The Boy can just sleep with me. Then I look at him and realize I hadn't put him in a pull up yet. He still wets the bed, and I just got a brand new queen size pillow top. He had 3 glasses of milk with dinner. There is no way in heck he's sleeping in my bed with no pull up. Pull ups are his room, behind the unlock-able door.
I take a deep breath, scavenge through my garage and get some screwdrivers and things. Slowly but surely I managed to take off the knob. I poke around at the mechanism and it still won't unlock. I continue removing parts and eventually get the door unlocked (which was honestly a bit anti-climatic after all that work). I replaced the knob, and put the boy to bed.
It took me quite a chunk of time, but at least now I know what to do with the stupid door the next time the Boy locks it (Notice, I didn't say *if* he locks it).
A wandering soul!
So I grew up in a big construction family. I don't mean big as in family size but big as in bridges, dams, tunnels and the like. I was born in a tiny town in a small hospital and over the next 26 years I lived in 5 states. I have moved 14 times. I went to 3 elementary schools, 1 middle school, 2 junior high schools, and 2 high schools. I have seen and loved the western states close-up. I fell in love with Utah's mountains, Oregon's beaches, Washington's forrest, Texas' history and California's sunshine. I look forward to adding a new state and move to my list. Call me crazy but getting the chance to absorb the richness of a new place and discovering the beauty and wonder just gives me such a happy tingle. I feel fortunate that my husband chose this type of work because I grew up with it through my father. Each job you make new friends but keep old ones. It is a huge family of men and women who work hard and can play harder, who put their lives in danger to improve our lives. It can be a tunnel to clean a river, a damn to increase water storage, a bridge to span a canyon. They deserve so much gratitude from us and I am happy to be a part of it!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Quote of the Day
Maggy: Girls have cooties, huh?
The Boy: Nope, girls have cute butts.
He's 3. I am so screwed when he's a teenager
Spagetti Sauce Cooktastophy
I attempted to make spagetti sauce last night. In a bold (albeit ill concieved) move, I started with what seemed like an easy recipe. It was also a large recipe, calling for nearly 30 tomatoes. I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong. I think its because I didn't seed and hull the tomatoes, but Gracie disagrees.
Either way, no good come of it. Scraping the recipe and starting over sometime today.
Of all the families in all the towns in all the world.....
mine has to end up with a case of potential swine flu. Now luckily it is not in my immediate family but family I was hoping to see this weekend has potentially been exposed. My nephew has tested positive for Influenza A but the strain won't be determined until Monday. I am not sure I could in good conscious take Squeak over there even though the household we would be visiting is not the household the flu is present in. She is just about 5 months old and unable to really battle an illness like that yet. I would absolutely loose it if i did go over and she ended up sick and died and I could have avoided them. I know the incubation is short so I plan to give them until Sunday to display symptoms and then go from there but I am pretty sure that Hubs will still prefer that I not go over there. I really don't want to risk my baby.
Could be good or could be bad news!
So I am on my pilgrimage to the desert and have not been in contact with the world much except for phone calls to Gracie and Maggy. Anyway so last night I got to my Mom's house and we were talking about this lauded blog. (Yes may be only lauded by the 3 of us but a girl can dream!) I was talking about how I tend to be the hot topic blogger of the group. That led to talking about Drew Peterson which led to my mom telling me that the body they found was ruled to not be either Stacey or Lisa. I am undecided on if this is good news or bad news. It is good because that leaves the chances open that either woman is safe but bad because still we have no answers and with Drew Peterson up for murder charges the fact that Stacey is missing is not a very hopeful thing. I just hope that when the body is identified it will bring closure to another family that is in desperate need.
Mini-Gardening Successes
My little garden(ing pots) have taken off pretty well, although some are doing better then others. My herbs are sort of struggling along, but my onions, lettuce and carrots are doing just peachy.
Now here's the really funny part. I'm scared to eat my lettuce. Gracie keeps telling me I need to or it's going to go to seed, but I just can't make myself. I don't know why. It's very intimidating for some off reason.
On an odd note: anyone have any idea when to harvest onions or carrots?
Now here's the really funny part. I'm scared to eat my lettuce. Gracie keeps telling me I need to or it's going to go to seed, but I just can't make myself. I don't know why. It's very intimidating for some off reason.
On an odd note: anyone have any idea when to harvest onions or carrots?
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Extreme Home Makeover: Chicken Coop Edition
As of Memorial Day, I no longer have chickens in my garage! Hooray!
Brett the Logger lives on a couple acres in a part of town fondly called "the valley" by the locals because that's exactly what it is. A long, narrow river valley that is still mostly small family farms, owned and operated by what are now the third and fourth generations to do so. Brett lives in a house that was built by his granddad back in the 20's. Also on the property is a good size shed complete with large root cellar, and a chicken coop that dates back just as far as the house.
Until we started our little chicken farm, it had fallen into a sort of disrepair, and was being used mostly to store random junk. But the coop was large enough for what we'd need, and was already semi-equipped to handle the chickens. It also has several little handmade gadgets and jimmy-rigs that we probably never would have thought of (like a detachable roost board). Sean the Crabber is currently staying with Brett and they together had come up with a pretty decent scheme of how to fix up the coop.
Memorial Day morning I went out to the Valley to help the Boys with the last of the renovations. Now, Sean has a lot of grand ideas, but Brett seems to be the one who ends up actually making it work. They had already partially framed out and fenced a large yard for them to run in, but that was about it. The Boys got to work on the yard and I sent about cleaning out the coop.
Inside I luckily found about 50 different handmade garden stakes that are who knows how old, but in perfect shape. We set those aside for use in the garden (which will probably get sent out tonight or tomorrow). I cleaned and swept it out, laid down some shavings, then set up the new water fount and feeder.
We doubled the chicken wire (in preparedness for ninja raccoons) and buried the edges about 12 inches deep in the soil for weight. We grabbed the chicks and threw them in. They seemed pretty timid at first, but head out into the yard and started in on the bugs. I went out to see them this morning, and boy did they fatten up fast! I'm not sure if it's the bugs, the more or less unlimited feed, or a combination thereof, but gosh are they getting big.
Hopefully come September or so we'll start getting eggs. Ryan the 3L's aunt gave me some tips on how they keep they're chickens laying year round, and I found some great nesting boxes that we are going to hammer or in the next month or so.
Cross your fingers!
Brett the Logger lives on a couple acres in a part of town fondly called "the valley" by the locals because that's exactly what it is. A long, narrow river valley that is still mostly small family farms, owned and operated by what are now the third and fourth generations to do so. Brett lives in a house that was built by his granddad back in the 20's. Also on the property is a good size shed complete with large root cellar, and a chicken coop that dates back just as far as the house.
Until we started our little chicken farm, it had fallen into a sort of disrepair, and was being used mostly to store random junk. But the coop was large enough for what we'd need, and was already semi-equipped to handle the chickens. It also has several little handmade gadgets and jimmy-rigs that we probably never would have thought of (like a detachable roost board). Sean the Crabber is currently staying with Brett and they together had come up with a pretty decent scheme of how to fix up the coop.
Memorial Day morning I went out to the Valley to help the Boys with the last of the renovations. Now, Sean has a lot of grand ideas, but Brett seems to be the one who ends up actually making it work. They had already partially framed out and fenced a large yard for them to run in, but that was about it. The Boys got to work on the yard and I sent about cleaning out the coop.
Inside I luckily found about 50 different handmade garden stakes that are who knows how old, but in perfect shape. We set those aside for use in the garden (which will probably get sent out tonight or tomorrow). I cleaned and swept it out, laid down some shavings, then set up the new water fount and feeder.
We doubled the chicken wire (in preparedness for ninja raccoons) and buried the edges about 12 inches deep in the soil for weight. We grabbed the chicks and threw them in. They seemed pretty timid at first, but head out into the yard and started in on the bugs. I went out to see them this morning, and boy did they fatten up fast! I'm not sure if it's the bugs, the more or less unlimited feed, or a combination thereof, but gosh are they getting big.
Hopefully come September or so we'll start getting eggs. Ryan the 3L's aunt gave me some tips on how they keep they're chickens laying year round, and I found some great nesting boxes that we are going to hammer or in the next month or so.Cross your fingers!
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