This Gorgeous Week

This week it was gorgeous! Weather got to about 21C (I have not figured out Fahrenheit for the life of me!) and I took advantage of it! It was t-shirt time, and I even brought out the shorts!

I have been taking the dog down to the creek lately. It's great because 1) there's no cows down there 2) the dog has so much room to run and burn her energy 3) there's water for her to play in 4) it's protected from the wind! We just walk and walk and sometimes I have No clue where I am until I get to the top of a hill and see Jed's brother Cole's house! We discovered this deeper pond for Sassie the dog to swim in. It was the first time she actually swam, and not just flopped in at the edges. She loved it. She would race out back to me and then spray me with water. Such a happy dog!

Drying off

Her swimming hole

Trying to take a picture with the dog without getting soaked with pond water!

SO happy!

This little one is quite timid!

Had about 2 minutes 'free ranging' in the garden before I threw her back in the run!

Started pulling this rose mess out, and will replant with some bulbs

T-shirt, shorts, smoothie, outside...Perfect day!

Passed out

More passed out...guess they don't like that roost!

 I went with a friend to Belle Fourche/Spearfish SD the other day. I discovered some seeds at Walmart for .50C, .20C and then this Huge collection! I Obviously had to buy some of the cheaper ones. It was such a good deal!

Every time. I just can't help it.

I transplanted some tomatoes the other day so this window is getting Super full!

Golden Hour

Weekend.

After a HUGE breakfast of biscuits and gravy which I had never heard of, together, we went outside. First of all though, Jed had been bugging me to make biscuits and gravy for breakfast because "Andrea made them for Cole" (Jed's brother who he works with) so that means I had to. I had never heard of those things. At least not together.  I guess what it is is ground pork cooked, and then added to a white special gravy thing, and then served over biscuits. Jed actually bought all the ingredients for it last week while he was in Miles City. (He knows I would never buy it when it's just me shopping! Mainly because I Really don't know what it is). He asked if he should get some biscuits. Clearly he's seen my fails and fails of bread making! However, I can make biscuits.
So Saturday morning, we made them. I had made some biscotti the night before and didn't wash the dishes. Which is totally Not me! I wash the dishes after every meal because I can't cook in a dirty kitchen. But it was like 9:30 when the biscotti finished and Jed was already making some popcorn so I definitely couldn't do dishes while he ate the popcorn!
That just meant that while Jed was making the gravy and pork, he took over the counters+stove. I made the biscuits on the table. It was a well dirtied kitchen!

Biscuit making. Or made. 

Eventually we I got the kitchen cleaned up and outside we went. We had to put fascia, sofit and trim on the coop. The sofit was leftover from a job Jed's been on, and the fascia likely dates back to the early 80's. (Joys of having many old buildings on the property to find materials!) It was a nice enough day that I hauled the chicks to an old fenced in area that they used to use for other chickens and bird like creatures.  It was in the shade, cool and damp. Nothing like toughening them up! 

I found an old basket around here and hauled them like that. Some of the littler chicks were small enough to escape out, so they got royal treatment and got carried by hand. 

Hand carrying the weird ones! 

We were looking through the old buildings here and found this gorgeous old stove! I'm going to stake my claim on it now. I also found some cast iron pans I want to refinish!

This little dog watched the bulls for half hour or so and then decided to take 4 steps into the pen...too bad for her (and us) it was about 8" of poop/pee/water all mixed together! 

She also met the chicks, but decided annoying a cow was a better idea than watching chicks

            

Perfect day for sheet drying! 

                           The little silkie! I think this is Jed's favourite chick ha!

              

Hauling them!

Spring Dreaming

This 2014 has been absolutely GORGEOUS! Everyday has been super warm (for January, and for me) and super sunny. We get SO much sun here, I love it! There's hardly ever clouds in the sky.  With these gorgeous and summery days, it just makes me want spring. Right now. Unfortunately, it will likely snow or get cold more yet.
I realized just last week that I can almost be ordering chicks! I don't know where I first got the idea in my head that I want chickens, but it hasn't left. I have been pinning away chicken coops, ideas, etc on Pinterest for who knows how long. I've been talking to Jed about a chicken coop long enough that he knows it's not just a spur of the moment idea.
If you look on Pinterest, you will see some absolutely gorgeous, beautiful, and over the top coops. Because we know we aren't going to live here forever, we aren't going to make it super fancy. I am settling for a basic 8x12 coop with about 4ft of it being for a 'storage' area, and access to the eggs, without going Directly into the coop. I really like the idea of having a door into a storage area where you can keep the feed, cartons etc, and in this case, it'll be my little garden shed as well. Plus, that way you don't have to take dirty shoes right into the coop. Brilliant. Jed says chickens are gross and dirty regardless. Pfft.
My parent's are coming in a week and a half, and i'm hoping that I can annoy motivate Jed enough to have the building materials by then so my dad can help make this coop! I can't believe how excited I am to get little chicks and then FRESH EGGS! I'm going to get the chicks that lay the blue/green/pink eggs, of course.

I'm currently dreaming about my garden for this year. Ordering seeds, and just hoping things grow good this year! I hope to grow lots and lots of 'juiceable' vegetables; kale, spinach, beets, carrots etc. I told Jed he will be getting a fresh juice every morning if things work as planned! Jed has a list of 7 peppers he would like me to grow. I don't eat peppers, so if we end up with too many, i'll just let them dry out and grind into powder!
Now to hurry up and get through these next few months, and hope that no more snow comes!