Some things

School's starting, and we're still working away on projects and things as the summer winds down.

Thing One

Erin whipped up some pesto over the course of a couple days (that's Corbin-time). With the garlic scape pesto I made earlier, that gives us a good supply for the year. There's more basil out there, too, so we'll have plenty.

Thing Two

Despite my previous deer experience, through which you'd think I'd have learned my lesson, we left the garden gates open during a midday walk the other day. As the deer visit multiple times a day to munch fresh fallen apples, this was a problem. When we got home I walked through and closed the gates, thankful that nothing seemed sampled.

A bit later I looked out the window and saw a damn deer trying out raspberry leaves! At first I wondered how it got in, and then realized it must have been inside when I closed the gate. I locked the deer inside the garden.

I sprang into action, and rushed outside with Brindzi to put the fear of doG into that long-legged demon. I sicked Brindzi on it. I usually don't have Brindzi chase deer, in case they lead her out into the road. But in the confined space of the garden, in the two or three seconds that I thought about it, it seemed a good idea to let Brindz freak that deer out a bit.

Brindzi chased it into the far corner of the yard (Operative word: "Corner"). At this point the deer changed direction and sprinted directly toward the fence. As the distance closed, I wondered if it would attempt to jump, or change direction. The fence is seven feet tall; I couldn't imagine it going over the top. As I considered these options, the deer proceeded to crash right through the fence.

As the deer ran away and the fence frame ceased its shaking, I stood there, fully flabbergasted. A deer just bashed through my fence. I walked over, fully expecting to see a deer-shaped hole in my wonderful fence, just like when cartoon characters run through doors. Instead, I saw an uglier version of this:

I took that picture after I had sort of pushed the pieces back in, so that it still served its function well enough.

I was quite depressed for a while. Until I came to the following conclusions:

1. My first instinct was to send Brindzi after the deer.
2. My second instinct would have been to chase the deer myself.
3. It wouldn't have been until my third instinct that I would have calmly guided the stupid deer out of my garden.
   

So if I had it to do again, it may have ended up the same.

Then there's this: Instead of running through the fence, the deer could have run through:

1. The hoop house tomatoes.
2. The just-ripened corn.
3. The raspberries.
4. The solid part of the fence (much harder to repair).
5. Me.
6. Brindzi.

There were several more depressing and/or painful options. The fence wasn't that bad, considering.

Thing Three

The grandparents Hinkley came up for a day and two nights. The grandparents Shaffer come up today. Corbin is a lucky duck to have such caring grandparents.

Anyway, we had our very own corn-on-the-cob last night. Unlike last year, the raccoons haven't pulled it down for nibbles, and it's grown to a nice height. The ears are small, but tasty. It's our first successful corn harvest. Feels good.

Last Thing

If you live in Washington, I suggest you do this. I did, and I feel better about life already.

Rockin 'n' Rollin

I set Corbin down on his tummy this morning while I brushed my teeth. I was thinking that it was around this time when Becky said Brody rolled one day and she had missed it. She set him down and came back and he was on his back. And then lo and behold I went to go and get Corbin and he was on his back! I called Adam right away and said he rolled. While I was talking with him I set him on his tummy again and he did it again! So I ran down and got the camera and caught it!

My little guy is rolling!!!

Purpose or accident?

Corbin has been playing with this bunny for a while now. Although he has no control he does know that if he swings his hand, it will hit it and move. Pretty fun!

The future

This week I am officially a stay at home mom. Not just a school counselor on summer break. My school went back to meetings this week and school starts for students tomorrow. Adam officially starts today and rode away this morning on his bike. I am eating breakfast while Corbin sits in his chair and bats at the dangly objects hanging from it. Laughing. Glancing back at the funny face in the mirror, not realizing its him :-) Yesterday went pretty well. Corbin is getting into a slightly more regular routine. Kind of. It's weird to not be going back to school. It's just ingrained inside of me that when fall comes so does school. It's what I have been doing for the last 24 years. Elem. school, high school, college, AmeriCorps, grad school, and finally school counesling. All of them involve going back to school. I am really excited to be at home with Corbin. I just dont' know what it will look like. Summer allowed us to just hang out with friends, be lazy, and go for walks with Becky and Brody. Now I wonder what kinds of things we will do. We can go to the library and listen to stories, we can go to a parent group and meet other moms and dads with infants, baby and mommy yoga, more walks and play dates with Becky and Brody. It's important to me to get out and do things. I am curious to know how Corbin's schedule will work with all of these activities. It's also imporant to me to be flexible. We will see how it all goes. It's a new adventure. As he grows, so will I, into a mom. Wow. We miss Adam already :-)

I was also thinking about the future last night watching the Democratic convention. I have never watched it before, we have never had free cable before. I was truely inspired by watching Michelle Obama. I had never really seen her before. She is a beautiful, smart, powerful, mom, wife, and leader. It is so exciting to think that our future president could be the first African American man elected, Barak Obama. It's pretty exciting. I was emotional watching it last night. Excited to think about talking with Corbin about it one day. Excited to vote for change. I am being very optomistic right now.

Ok. Corbin has had enough of his chair. Time to go.

Munchables from our own dirt

We just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to Corbin. We read during the night's final feeding. Anyway, I found it quite inspiring. And quite affirming for the things we already do a lot of. If only we had half an acre more space...

Last year we did nothing with all of our Transparent apples. They ripen early, are mealy/mushy within minutes of coming off the tree, and when they fall, the bruise takes up half the dang apple. Plus, as I mentioned once before, the deer love them. And last year, the deer pretty much had their fill.

Not so this year, you pesky ruminants! Bruised, mushy apples aren't much for munching, but they'll make a good sauce. So far I've made two small batches of applesauce with just apples picked up off the ground. Three cottage cheese containers worth. We'd make applesauce anyway, with our good apples that ripen a little later, but this way we can save more of those for cider and pie and eating.

One of these days I'm planning on whipping out the apple picker and getting a few big Transparents off the tree, sans bruises. I think they'll make some good dried apples. We'll see. It's a productive tree; I'm glad they're more than deer bait this year.

Pulled up red and yellow onions and shallots today. Most of them were tiny, though each type had a few big ones. I never seem to have a full success with onions.

And! I pulled the plastic off the hoop house today, to snip away at blossoms that will never make it to fruit by fall. It wasn't until after I covered everything up that I noticed those red beauties. I had to scootch in on my stomach and reach way around to get them. It's crazy in there. Because of the low light, I picked a few that probably should have been on the vine a little longer, but they'll ripen OK in the window. This is the earliest we've ever had big tomatoes, so I'm considering the hoop house a major success. It just needs to be bigger. Which it will be, next year.

It was pretty wild looking over and seeing a whole clutch of ripe toms. They were quite tasty on tonight's hearty chicken salad. Oh yes.

Grasping Connections

It's amazing how such small things can make such big news when it comes to baby development. Especially your own baby's development!

Last week he figured out he had a fist. This week he can get his fist to do things. Sometimes accidentally sometimes on purpose. But it's pretty cool either way. He began waving at one of his dangley toys from his chair last night. Which by the way he now can sit in and be content. I think its because he can now see further and likes to sit up not just lie on his back.

Then today while reading a story I gave him a rattle to grasp. I have been reading about how they can now grasp at things and then let go. But he held onto it for a while and was waving it in front of his face. He brought it up to his mouth too. I am not sure he quite knew what he was doing but he will get it soon.

Ok. Got to go save Adam. I think he's hungry. Or its time for a nap. We are working on lying down for naps instead of napping on the go. They are going ok. Better today than yesterday. We are going to the Rodeo in Lynden tonight. We shall see how it goes. Keep posted for some good looking tomatoes soon. Adam is master gardner!

Everyone feasts!

Part One: Production

The farmish part of our property is grooving right along. Our corn, as you can see, is tall and tufted and ripening up.

It's important to me, and us, that we have a garden and grow at least some of our own food. There's a financial reason, and a health reason, but mostly it's a fun reason. Gardening is fun. The garden has been quite productive this year, much more than last, and it's been fun to show it off.

[Insert cliché about overgrown vegetation here]
The hoop house has been a major success. Except that it is too small and the tomatoes are overflowing out the ends and falling all over each other.

It's also giving us peppers earlier than ever. Usually we only get about one, somewhere at the end of September or so. Though it has to fight with the tomatoes, this one is loaded.

Green beans are coming!

Part Two: Predation

The green beans came, with the tepee overflowing (more like a green bean fountain than tepee). And then the garden gate was inadvertently left open one night.

The deer walked right in and gave out tepee/fountain a shave. Not bald. But no whiskers on the chinny-chin-chin. Strangely, they left most of the beans, of which I harvested many today. But they munched pretty much all the leaves. Time will tell if the plant can survive and still have a long harvest period. When I saw the damage, though, I actually felt my heart sink. Really. They also munched on some flowers, potatoes, tomatoes, raspberries, peas, but didn't really do any damage with those.

Speaking of predators. Well, wait. Do plants count as prey for herbivores? Does prey have to be able to run? Or just move? I'm going to consider deer predators and my garden their prey. It's my duty to protect them. The deer love our neighborhood because of all the apple trees, which leave tasty morsels on the ground every day. Keep. Gate. Closed...

Speaking of predators, I went out to put the chickens on their roost last night, since we have very stupid chickens who don't seem to have an instinct for sleeping in high places. I put them up nearly every night, since I know my history, and don't want to repeat it. Hopefully they'll smarten up soon, because I hate going out there every night.

Anyway, last night. Went out to roost 'em and maybe leave a little protective scent around the pen when I heard a low sort of growl and saw some shiny spots in the headlamp glare. A closer look found me staring at one raccoon on the fence, one behind it, and three in the apple tree. Now, last year raccoons got our chickens, which was sad, but also pulled down our corn, which was just sort of rubbing our faces in it. I don't know if these critters were snooping around for a vegetable to prey on or an animal, but I threw some buckets at them (they didn't even flinch) and tried to bug the ones in my tree with my apple picker pole. I'm pretty sure my chickens will be safe. I can't protect my corn, but maybe I'll get lucky and they'll leave it alone.

Don't know why they needed five. I'm just one man! Take it easy on me, you stupid furry jerks.

On the plus side, I found a dead mole. Take that, nature! That'll teach you to burrow in my garden! I left it out there as a warning to other animals. Think that will work?

Mid August Days

We aren't going anywhere this weekend for the first time in three weeks. Yahoo! That doesn't mean we didnt' have a busy week though. Corbin's uncle Jed arrived in the middle of the night on Monday to visit his nephew for the 1st time. Corbin had his 2 month doctors visit. We went blueberry picking. And we went to the fair. Yep. All in three days time.

Corbin's doctor's appointment verified that he is growing. He now weighs 12 lbs 1 oz and is 23 inches long. Both in the 75 percentile. She said he looks good everywhere else too! We had to do some vaccine research before this appointment. It's a controversial subject but we feel like we have made a good decision that is both socially responsible and yet avoids some of the side effects from vaccines. We have decided to follow an alternative vaccine schedule from the book "The Vaccine Book" by Dr. Sears. This decision is to refrain from injecting him with more aluminum than is recommended by the FDA that often come with multiple shots by spreading them out. So on Tues. he got his Dtap shot and the oral Rota Virus vaccine. He will have to go go back in month for 2 more shots. Eventually he will get most of all the recommended shots but just over a longer period of time. It was a hard decision and might take more time and effort but hopefully will avoid some negative side effects.

It was fun to have my brother here to meet Corbin. Corbin has now met all of his aunt and uncles (not all great ones) now. It was a fun week for Jed to get to see him. He has become way more responsive and smiley! He has also figured out he has a tongue and has been sticking it out a lot. Today we noticed that he is gaining more control of his limbs and can almost get his fingers into his mouth on purpose. At the fair he didn't want to be in the stroller where he couldn't really see. He wanted to be facing out and held so he could take it all in. Our Beco front carrier unfortunately only allows him to face in. We might have to use the sling more so he can see out. He was awake for the dairy cows, the food, and the rides. He slept through the horses, sheep, goats, beef cows, chickens, and collections. We all indulged in lots of fried fair food. It was a good first fair trip for Corbin. Adam is already scheming on what kinds of weird things Corbin will collect for the collections exhibit.

We also started our cloth diaper service this week. We are using the Seattle Diaper Service which delivers 70 cloth diapers every week. So far Corbin likes them! They are way easier than most people think they will be. I also got a wet/dry bag to keep in the diaper bag for those wet diapers. I am glad we won't be throwing away so many diapers now or having Corbin exposed to all the nasty things that are in plastic diapers. I was inspired to also start using reusable wipes at a diaper party. Hopefully we will start those too. It's all way easy! I encourage anyone to try them.

We have also been enjoying the Olympics. Summer seems to be winding down. It makes me nervous to have Adam go back to school... but more on that later.

Camping 101

A couple of summers ago while we were backpacking in the Olympic National Park we ran into a family who was backpacking with a baby. I couldn't believe it! They said they went camping with her for the first time when she was only 10 weeks old. They said it was very possible but you needed some good friends without kids along to help out. It made Adam and I excited to see that we could do this with a little baby too! So we did it, well we went car camping this past weekend and Corbin was only 7 1/2 weeks old! Good thing we also have friends without kids too!

Jill & Paul, Julie, Jerry, & Juneau, and the Shaffer gang packed up the cars, the canoe, the two dogs, one baby, and lots of food on Friday and hit the road to North Cascades National Park and Colonial Creek Campground. We felt like we were missing a few because Becky, Kevin, & Brody were unable to join us. Maybe next time. Friday was super nice and warm. We set up camp and Corbin watched and was super trooper.

We checked out the campground and had to stop for some stick throwing and swimming for Brindzi from Adam and Corbin.

Juneau watched as Brindzi swam. He seemed like he wanted to go in but just couldn't quite bring himself to do it.

Like I said before, Corbin was super trooper. He just hung out and enjoyed the sites. He hardly fussed at all unless he was hungry. Here he is in his Pea-pod.

We set up our two person tent but when Corbin took a nap it was quite clear that we (Adam, Corbin, Brindzi, and I) would not all fit inside.

Good thing Julie & Jerry brought their Castle car camping tent! It saved us! We now have to invest in a car camping tent.

We ate some great meals! We even attempted to make some ice cream...but didn't have quite enough ice to make it work. Adam and Paul did have fun throwing the ice cream ball around for almost 40 minutes though. But it did taste pretty damn good! How can you really go wrong with cream, sugar, and vanilla!

Juneau was also a puppy trooper. It's amazing how dirty a little puppy can get :-)

Jerry got some good fires going. I think he won the vote to be in charge of the fires, or at least the stick:-)

Napping away.

The first night it was pretty warm. Here Adam is getting Corbin was getting ready for bed. After which we sat around the fire and talked religion and other deep thoughts. Our sleeping that night went pretty good. I found that the crazy creek chair makes a pretty good nursing chair! And with all the room in the castle, our night time routine wasn't so bad.

The second day after a yummy breakfast of eggs, french toast, and sausage, we got ready for a hike up to Thunder Knob. Right when we got going, it started to rain. But because when I had looked at the forecast I only saw sunshine (it was a week before) we were not prepared for rain. I somehow forgot to bring our rain jackets. So instead of dealing with a wet baby, we decided to stay in the Castle until the rain cleared up. Brindzi got to go on the hike without us.

So instead we napped in the tent until the rain stopped. We then ventured out to Thunder Knob and found our group headed down when we were almost to the top. They said it was cold and windy at the top, so we headed back down with them too. It started to rain as we ate lunch. Again, Julie saved us and lent us a jacket to keep Corbin dry.

We all piled into the tent minus the dogs and played some games, took naps, and just hung out while the rain kept falling. It rained on and off the rest of the time. The Castle had a few leaks we had to fix with the tarp. We also had to bundle Corbin up, but he kept warm and dry. Brindzi and Juneau had to spend some time out in the rain and Brindzi got all depressed when she finally was allowed back in the tent. It rained pretty hard that night. Corbin slept like a champ and had his record night of 7+ hours of sleep. We must have tired him out with all the camping and game playing! We woke up to a damp morning but no more rain.

Everyone helped out so much with Corbin! It was a great first time camping trip! We were supposed to stay one more night but I wasn't sure I wanted to be wet and damp for one more day with a baby. The weather looked pretty similiar with rain showers. You can only spend so much time in the castle. All in all, it was great fun! I am excited to show Corbin picutres from his first camping trip at not even 2 months old!

We are now ready to not go anywhere for the weekend for a while. Three weekends in a row being gone was a little too much! Jed comes tonight to meet his nephew! We have a trip up to Lynden for the the fair planned for the day but other than that, we are here for a while. Corbin has his 2 month doctor appointment tomorrow too. We have to make some vaccine decisions. And now as I write this, we have a leak in our hot water heater....oh no! I will keep you posted on that....

Growing Families

This past weekend our family grew by one more, officially. Kevin and Meghan got married! I now have a sister-in-law. We went down to Seattle and began the weekend festivities with a co-bachelorette & bachelor party game of croquet.

Here Corbin is with his almost official aunt Meghan, getting ready for some croquet. Meghan looks like she is making a Corbin face :-)

Corbin's first game of croquet, too bad he slept through most of it :-)

My parents came up for the wedding and also helped out a ton! It was so nice to have them there to help out so Adam and I could do wedding stuff. Much like Susan helped out the previous weekend at Rowan & KK's wedding.

Three generations!

Hanging out with Grandma!

Kevin and Meghan decided to forgo the cake for the wedding and had ice cream cones instead! So they had their wedding cake the night before at the rehearsal dinner. Both the cake and the ice cream were delicious!

Corbin also got to meet lots of his extended family. Mark's sisters and their families were all in town for the weekend. Here Corbin is with his great aunt Kim, as uncle Alan and cousin Ben look on.

Corbin got some good quality time with Grandpa during the wedding.

The wedding was in a great spot at the Farm Kitchen in Port Gamble. It was a perfect spot for an outdoor wedding. The weather was great, a little hot for those tuxes, but other than that, pretty good!

The ceremony was great. They were married by a family friend David Stallings. Their own vows brought tears to the eyes and they had a very cool audience participation piece with their rings. They had their rings pass through everyone's hands to have everyone place their own thoughts and wishes on the rings. It was very cool.

Meghan looked just gorgeous in her dress!

Corbin slept through the whole thing. I had to stand with him for a while but he didn't make a peep.

Three generations of Shaffer boys!

Uncle NZA looks pretty content with a sleeping Corbin ;-)

Grandma and her boys.

A new family photo. It just keeps growing.

It was the first time all grandparents were all together as new grandparents! Corbin is a pretty lucky guy to have such wonderful grandparents who love him. I am sure he will have many more adventures with them all :-)