It is almost Fall...

I can not believe I have taken so long to update. Of course I get so distracted that I barely know the day but still. Summer really passed us by this year. 
   I was happy for the cooler weather but it rained soooo much. I did get a little fruit from my trees and bushes but not much. No cherries because of the cold spring. My tomatoes are just now ripening and it is time to plant the fall garden. 
 So here is a rundown of our summer:Part 1

Mason and I hiked
a little of the Appalachian Trail. (AT)

Lightning Struck tree on AT

Mason looking cool

We got some sheep

I cut down some Trees

Jack Graduated a year early.

He doesn't think he needs this.

Awkward pics are the best.

Goofy

We rode the Metro to the Smithsonian.

I will talk about Part 2 of summer tomorrow. Get ready for lots of shots of all the ways I managed to hurt myself.

I cleaned the garage out, then decided that the floor was too ugly so I painted it.

Much better.

We also got a goat.

We played paintball for the first time. It would have been more fun if we could have seen through the foggy, dirty goggles. Next time we will just play at home and shoot each other. 

Mason felt pretty tough.

Lots of mask adjusting.

We are ready for the guns.

Val and Mason.

Princess decided to help me pack my errand bag.

Mason started a Home school Karate class. He is doing really well. 

Wasting away again at the DMV...

looking for my lost registration tags.... some people say that it's my husband to blame... but I know it's my own damn fault.
    This was obviously sang to the tune of Margaritaville Jimmy Buffett.
So this is a fun story ,the other day, Saturday actually ,I went to go pick up some chickens that had just come in the mail. A man stopped me and said do you realize that your tags are expired, so I looked at them and yes they had expired 7 months ago! How both my husband and I had missed this for 7 months is beyond me.
   So for 7 months no cop neither noticed or stopped me for it, but as soon as I know I am totally paranoid that a cop will now notice and stop me andgive me a ticket.  It took me about 3 days to get to the DMV and of course in those 3 days a cop stops and give me a ticket ,thankfully I had kids in the back of the car or he said he would tow me. so I'm at the DMV again today with the line wrapped around the building in the 85 degree weather  and I'm just sitting in my truck waiting for the line to get shorter while I enjoy the air conditioning.
    Unfortunately people keep coming and the line is  actually not getting any shorter. I  went yesterday but I didn't have a paper that needs to be signed or something so I had to go back to my car and by the time I got back into the DMV there was a line again so I said we'll just do it on Saturday I guess that has come back to bite me in the butt.
 

I can not believe what month it is...

How on earth is is May? Spring took a long time coming this year. I liked it for several reasons. I love winter, for one thing and we got a bit of snow this year. Also we got to go to Las Vegas and if Spring would have come early like last year I would be way behind on planting. 

     Last year at this time my irises and peonies not only had bloomed but were all dead and mushy. This year they had not even bloomed so hopefully they will last longer. I transplanted quite a few things last year and most of them have lived and are growing.  I have planted a few things but mostly just flowers. I planted peas twice but the chickens got the first planting and we will see if the second planting worked in a few days.
   

This tickles me.

We did go to Vegas for Spring break and had a great time. We got to see My In-laws and even my Brother Andy and his Wife Casey came up from Colorado to see us. It was fun and really nice to visit with everyone. I wouldn't mind going for a grown up weekend sometime. Right before we left for Vegas it snowed like 6 inches. This was nearly April!

Snow makes everything pretty.

Beautiful snow in April.

We went to some fun places in Las Vegas and one of them was the Sigfield and Roy Dolphin and Big Cat Sanctuary. Mason decided to let a statue eat him.

The hotel we stayed at was called the Platinum and it was very nice. It was actually a condo with a kitchen and a huge tub. 

The view from the pool on the roof at the Platinum.

Mmmm, Hot tub and pool at the Platinum.

The Bellagio

Inside Cesar's Palace.

The Bellagio water show is the coolest thing.

     Another thing that we did since the last time I updated was to celebrate Jack, Craig and Mason's Birthday. We went bowling for Mason's birthday and Went out for Crab legs for Jack and Craig's.

Mason's Doctor Who Tardis cake, Even the paper was edible.

Jack is eating the weeping angel.

The Tardis cake was so cool and the weeping angel was creepy.

So...What else happened  so far? I came outside and found my cat, Zombie, looking for her dinner apparently.

Sometimes I think cats may be evil.

So pretty much I will be spending the next month doing lots of yard work, cleaning the house (maybe) and teaching Mason.

My Face Hurts

If my brothers are reading this I am sure they are thinking"well it's killing me"! That used to be their joke back in the good old days...that and telling me I actually look like a girl when I wore anything nice.
    Anyway, my mouth is store from getting a deep cleaning and getting fit for a crown at the dentist. I have TMJ so getting any dental work just hurts so much. On top of that the sink leaked all over the kitchen floor and I agreed to baby sit for 2 sweet but very young girls. Needless to say I am tired and hurting and I can not wait to go to bed. Oh did I forget to mention that my kiddo kept me up all night because he was barfing all over my bathroom. It looks like the exorcist was in there and I do not handle vomit very well so I still need to clean that...has anyone seen my hazmat suit?

Pics

Here are the pics I promised. Most are of the burnt barn and greenhouse but there is one of our new addition, Phoenix.

Love My Phone

I didn't think I was using my blogging app right on my new phone but apparently I did because I just saw my posts and my pics. Today is bloody cold! It is about 10 degrees out there. I had to use a hammer to break ice on the water bins for the alpacas. By the time I was done feeding I was frozen and my hands hurt so much. I have most of the animals inside so that is 5 cats and 200 lbs of dogs. It is getting kind of hard to move in here without stepping on someone.

    We spend quite a few hours repairing fences a few days ago and the dogs helpfully found a spot we missed. They need to stay put because I am not doing anything that is not vital in that cold. Don't get me wrong, I love cold and winter but I am still not going to go gloveless and repair fences unless it is life or death. I would really like to see some snow. If it is going to be winter I believe the precipitation should be snow,not rain.
   We got a pleasant surprise yesterday as we found a 3rd duck alive. We miss those darn ducks so much. I hope there is a secret group of them hiding on someone's pond and they will eventually make their way back.  Fires are the worst!

For some reason this cat cracks me up!

I just got a new phone

seriously I think this phone might change how well I blog at least how often I blog. I usually I don't write anything because I'm too lazy,but this phone has a speaker thing so instead of having to buy that dragon software for 100 bucks I can just use my phone as long as I talk slow.
I will add pictures of this  tomorrow but  the only new thing lately is that we had a barn fire .it was pretty bad and killed all our goats and almost all of our ducks.
what's even worse is that the insurance under insured the barn it was actually worth about $25,000 but the insurance insured it for $15000 so now I actually have to buy a smaller Barn. Still at least we have insurance that will cover a quite a bit of the things that were in it and the barn itself so  now I will just have to find a small barn that will be good for the alpacas. 1 good thing is that we had a very nice neighbor jump the fence and save  the 2 dogs that we had in the barn at least they didn't die that would be really hard to deal with.