Thursday, December 31, 2009
Saved from the Stew Pot
Well there is some good news from the Langer urban farm today. As you may know 2 of our chickens (the Buff Opringtons) started laying eggs in early November, but our 2 Arucaunas still hadn't started laying until TODAY!!! I keep hearing the reference that chickens that don't lay well or at all will get sent to the stew pot, well these two were a narrow miss (not really nice we have a mostly vegetarian home). The fun about Aracaunas is that they lay blue/green eggs. They are called Easter Egg chickens. So below are a couple pictures of the first eggs. All of the eggs we are getting are still a bit on the small side, but getting bigger. I don't really know when they will start coming out 'normal' sized. This has been a fun adventure thus far!!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
It's Christmas time...in the country
We spent our Christmas with Veronica's family in SD. Due to the snowstorm of the century, it was quite eventful! We got to SD on 12/23 and enjoyed time with family. The snow started falling, the wind started blowing and the snow started drifting. We had a little break from snow overnight, but by mid-morning on Christmas Eve, the weather was getting bad again. Christmas Eve mass was canceled, so we had family church at home. We continued on with our traditions of a chili dinner and opening gifts around midnight (Isaiah was the lucky one, he got to open gifts before his bedtime!). :)
Christmas Day, mass was canceled again, so we hung around the house playing games (Veronica got the game Bananagrams, which is really fun), having some great meals and wondering what the rest of the day would bring weather-wise. We were supposed to head over to Veronica's aunt's house, but we stayed put because the roads were not in good condition.
The day following Christmas, we were supposed to head to Nathan's family's house, but we were not going anywhere! The tractor would not start, so plowing the 100 yard driveway was not an option. In fact, Veronica's mom got up early to start shoveling the driveway by hand...it took her about 3 hours! We were all packed up just waiting for the plows to come through so we could head North to St. Cloud. Little did we know, the interstates were closed! We really were not going anywhere! Again, we played games, ate great food and relaxed. It was wonderful time with the Gaidelis family; having everyone home with nowhere to go, made us stay put and enjoy each others' company. Everyone seemed to enjoy time with Isaiah and with each other.
Sunday, we packed up the car and got out of the driveway at 7 AM. Little did we know that when we got out of the driveway and headed onto the gravel road that it would be drifted shut! We reversed the car back into the driveway and began brainstorming. My mom and Nate went out and shoveled the gravel road! At 9, we attempted to leave again. After lots of reversing the car, pushing and more shoveling...we made it onto the county road! WHEW!!! It was only 9, but already we had a lot of excitement behind us. The drive that normally takes us about 5 hours ended up being 7 hours of white-knuckled, 35-45 mph driving. Since Veronica is not comfortable driving in those conditions, Nathan got to drive the whole way. Isaiah was wonderful in the car. Often after a few hours in the car he is just done and ready to get out, but this time he stayed happy almost the whole ride. Yay Baby!
We had a wonderful though short time with the Langers. A lot of wonderful food, family time and giving (did you notice how I started with food? Not by mistake, the food was wonderful!). We arrived there around 4pm and most left around 8:30 p.m.. So the visit was short but we were all glad to at least have made it for that short time.
Monday morning we headed back to Duluth. Once we got home we were happy to see our beautiful city and the 24" of snow that we got. Thankfully a couple friends came over to help us shovel or we still wouldn't be out. We also hired some neighbor boys to help shovel the front, best $5 we have ever spent (though he offered to do it for $3).
All in all it was a wonderful though unexpected week of Christmas celebration. A first Christmas for Isaiah that we definitely won't forget.
Christmas Day, mass was canceled again, so we hung around the house playing games (Veronica got the game Bananagrams, which is really fun), having some great meals and wondering what the rest of the day would bring weather-wise. We were supposed to head over to Veronica's aunt's house, but we stayed put because the roads were not in good condition.
The day following Christmas, we were supposed to head to Nathan's family's house, but we were not going anywhere! The tractor would not start, so plowing the 100 yard driveway was not an option. In fact, Veronica's mom got up early to start shoveling the driveway by hand...it took her about 3 hours! We were all packed up just waiting for the plows to come through so we could head North to St. Cloud. Little did we know, the interstates were closed! We really were not going anywhere! Again, we played games, ate great food and relaxed. It was wonderful time with the Gaidelis family; having everyone home with nowhere to go, made us stay put and enjoy each others' company. Everyone seemed to enjoy time with Isaiah and with each other.
Sunday, we packed up the car and got out of the driveway at 7 AM. Little did we know that when we got out of the driveway and headed onto the gravel road that it would be drifted shut! We reversed the car back into the driveway and began brainstorming. My mom and Nate went out and shoveled the gravel road! At 9, we attempted to leave again. After lots of reversing the car, pushing and more shoveling...we made it onto the county road! WHEW!!! It was only 9, but already we had a lot of excitement behind us. The drive that normally takes us about 5 hours ended up being 7 hours of white-knuckled, 35-45 mph driving. Since Veronica is not comfortable driving in those conditions, Nathan got to drive the whole way. Isaiah was wonderful in the car. Often after a few hours in the car he is just done and ready to get out, but this time he stayed happy almost the whole ride. Yay Baby!
We had a wonderful though short time with the Langers. A lot of wonderful food, family time and giving (did you notice how I started with food? Not by mistake, the food was wonderful!). We arrived there around 4pm and most left around 8:30 p.m.. So the visit was short but we were all glad to at least have made it for that short time.
Monday morning we headed back to Duluth. Once we got home we were happy to see our beautiful city and the 24" of snow that we got. Thankfully a couple friends came over to help us shovel or we still wouldn't be out. We also hired some neighbor boys to help shovel the front, best $5 we have ever spent (though he offered to do it for $3).
All in all it was a wonderful though unexpected week of Christmas celebration. A first Christmas for Isaiah that we definitely won't forget.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Africa girls get together
Last weekend we had the opportunity to connect with three of the four women I studied abroad with in South Africa. We try and all get together at least once each year. One of the women is a flight attendent and it can be hard with her schedule to get her back to MN. So, she happened to get into a moped accident with a tree in Thailand (long, hilarious story...and she's okay) and is off work for a few weeks. It was wonderful to get together. Kim (the flight attendant) is the only one baby-less at this time, so it's a little more lively at our gatherings.
Yoga Mama Christmas Party
By the way...Isaiah appears to have FOUR teeth breaking through at the moment....whew!! He's haging in there though!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
