Earth Day... a tribute

My step-mom was a champion for our environment, so today on Earth Day I would like to make a tribute to this awesome woman. Her house was off the grid, solar and hydro power. She recycled everything, used bio-fuels and grew organic produce. If we all just did a quarter of what she did, our planet would be better off.

I have been working on a picture slide show for the service and I want to share some of my favorite pictures of her. I probably won't be blogging a lot, it's hard to focus on anything else right now.

My heart is heavy

Early Friday morning my stepmom lost her long battle with cancer at the very young age of 49.
She was an amazing woman who gave so much to my family.
My dad met her when I was fifteen, she had no children of her own and inherited me, a surly teenager. She took that in stride and loved me as if I was her own.
My dad and her owned a Nursery for seventeen years, creating it from nothing and making it into a very successful business. They worked tirelessly at the Nursery and when they weren't working there, they were working on their land and building their dream home.
During the last year of her life, while battling cancer, she laid every tile in their living room.
She loved nature and her animals, cooking meat for her dogs and cat. Despite the fact that she was vegetarian she learned how to cook salmon and chicken for my dad.
She was an amazing cook who created her own recipes.
In the last few years she learned how to make natural soaps and lotions, selling them at the farmers market and online.
She was there when my son was born, and I'll never forget the look on her face when she saw him for the first time. She turned to me with tears in her eyes and said " Oh Autumn he is just beautiful" and thus began a special bond between grandma and grandson.
When we would visit, she always cooked for us but she would make Bug a special plate with all of his favorite things.
She helped me through labor and birth, holding my hand.
When she passed, I was honored to be at her side, holding hers.

Who has time to blog?

Especially when it's 80 degrees and gorgeous outside. Yes you heard that right, on Saturday we hit the 80 degree mark with Sunday being slightly cooler but just as beautiful.

We were too busy doing outdoor projects to sit in front of a computer.

Here is a list of our (hubby, mine and Bugs) accomplishments this weekend.

1. mowed the yard and the grass around the shop.

2. Washed my car.

3. Washed husbands Jeep.

4. Swept out the garage.

5. Put up more electric fencing .

6. Tilled the garden (only one pass, the ground was still wet).

7. Fertilized the starts in the greenhouse.

8. Vacuumed out both vehicles.

9. I took the riding mower tires in to have leaks fixed.

10. Husband limbed up a dozen fir trees... and here are the pictures to prove it.

It's important to keep trees close to the house limbed. It helps in wildfire prevention.

It also helps to make our property not as appealing to Cougars.

Last year a Cougar killed one of our little goats. I couldn't get mad at the Cougar, after all it was an easy meal for them and we moved into their neighborhood.

Look at that reach! Husband didn't like these pictures...

See those white lines, that's the electric fence to keep the goats out of this area. They were stripping the trees and killing them. Plus eroding the bank really bad in this area, they liked being close to the house.

Bug liked playing in the branches.

He was having a fun time until daddy got upset with him... and told him not to play in the pitchy branches, near poison oak....

Here's Bugs reaction to getting in trouble.. look at that sad face.

This area was trimmed up a couple years ago.

Husband scared me a couple times, working on steep, rocky ground.

Reaching over his head with a running chainsaw...

This is hims saying "Why are you taking my picture?"

Oh just documenting for the insurance company dear....

By the way, I purchased a new vacuum this weekend. I decided on a Dyson, it's a real sucker and I love it but the damn thing cost more than a pony! Shhhhh don't tell Bug!

The late night visitor...

Around 12:30am last night Bug busted into our room, doing a little dance and announcing " I have to go potty reaaaallllyyyy bad!"
In a sleepy haze I told him " Well go then!"
He rushed into our bathroom and slammed the pocket door.
I could hear the familiar clang of his potty seat getting positioned on the toilet.
Oh... he has to poop... great, this will take a while.
My Bug takes his own sweet time going number two.
I tried not to fall back asleep, as I knew I would be summoned soon to inspect his cleaning job.
As I laid there hoping he wouldn't take an hour like the last time, I heard him talking to himself.

"Wow, no wonder I couldn't sleep"

At least he wasn't singing this time.....

Catching up.....

Last night we finally had nice weather. The rain has been bumming me out.

Bug and I spent some time outside, playing hide and seek, swinging, looking under rocks for bugs and checking on our plant starts in the greenhouse. Spring has sprung so I thought I would share some pictures from yesterday.






I haven't had a lot of motivation to blog lately. I've been reading other blogs but not commenting as much and just lethargic about life in general.

The car is fixed and was covered by the warranty. I'm picking up a new vacuum tonight.

Things are looking up.....

And in case anyone is wondering, our ladybugs did not survive the winter inside the house. However I did see several emerging from hibernation last night.

It is supposed to be in the seventies this weekend. I am so excited for Spring!

Would you like cheese with that whine?

Allow me to whine a little. I haven't been very good about blogging lately. Lot's of personal stuff going on. Not to mention I've been feeling like I'm coming down with a cold for over a week. You know that sort of raw throat, achy neck, and terribly lethargic feeling? I'm to the point I would rather have the cold and get it over with.
To top it off, I went to vacuum this weekend and my vacuum was emitting that hot electrical smell that is a sign of impending doom.
I decided to ignore it and keep vacuuming. It wasn't really doing that great of a job, it didn't seem to be picking much up. I finished vacuuming the whole house, I went to empty the bin only to realize that it in fact didn't pick anything up. Nice, now not only is the carpet still dirty but now the house smells like burnt wires. Anyone recommend a good vacuum cleaner?
Then this morning after I dropped Bug off at daycare I turned up the road to our house and my car started to sputter. Then it died, right there in the middle of the road.
I sat there wondering what I should do, luckily it's a very quiet country road so I didn't have to worry about traffic. I put it in park and started it again. It sputtered a bit and died..... crap.
I put my emergency flashers on and called hubby at work to ask what I should do. It went to voice mail so I sat there cursing.... alone. I tried starting it again and this time it worked fine, so I slowly made my way up the hill and made it home.
I thought husband was silly spending so much on the extended warranty five years ago, I was wrong.... so wrong. Hopefully it's something that is covered and we won't have to spend anything.
I hate being a whiny person, so now that I've let it out, I'll let it go. Besides I hated that damned vacuum anyway so now I have a good excuse to spend money on a new one.
Hmmm... maybe I'll get a new car out of this too. Oh never mind I'm way to cheap for that!

Division of Labor

As I was pulling a tarp over one of our burn piles this weekend, I started thinking about household duties and how other couples split them up.

At our house there aren't distinct chores that I am in charge of as opposed to my husband. I do most of the yard work, but husband sometimes mows the lawn.

He does most of the vehicle maintenance, but I did replace the wipers on his Jeep.

We both do the laundry and dishes, if it needs done and one of us has the time, we do it.

I have realized that this isn't always how other couples function.

A few weeks ago our UPS driver pulled in the driveway as I was outside washing my car. He made a comment "I'm going to let my wife know that ____' s wife washes her car!"

I wonder if he would fold laundry like my husband does, perhaps then she would wash the car.

That made me wonder how unique our arrangement is. Could it be that even now, in 2008, household chores are gender defined? Or is it a matter of convenience?

I do admit that there are some things I don't do, simply because I don't have the strength to do them. Running the chainsaw for example (well I would but husband is afraid I will cut my arm off), or running the rototiller on the garden, it pulls too hard and I would end up over the bank.

Some people were shocked when I built an electric fence by myself (except for the pounding in of a large grounding rod.... ). I didn't do it because my husband wouldn't, I did it because I wanted it done and knew that I was capable.

So what is it like at your house? Are you stuck doing chores you hate just because of your gender?