Devil Weeds

"Oh Golly! Your whole yard is cover in holes Lisa!"

"Why yes, yes it is."


"Gophers?"

"Weeds."

"My! Those must be some weeds."

"Why yes, yes they are..."

"... some devilish, deep rooted, joke of a weed."

Cum-ala, cum-ala, cum-ala Vista

I have an itch. And oh, what I wouldn't give to scratch it. Scratch and tear it up and drive it away forever! Like in that song from girls camp.

I want so badly, to have everything, finished, complete, and done-right now. New flooring: done. New lovely kitchen: done! And a nice garage, a front yard with a little white picket fence, and a sweeping grass lawn with a beautiful garden simply bursting with spring goodness! Oh! let's not forget, perfectly clean air vents and some soft warm walls that don't remind me of cardboard everytime I look at them. Ohhhhhhh, Ahhhhhhhhhh, that would just hit the spot.

But of course, I thought the same thing when Rial and I we're building our chicken coop. "Let's just get this thing done so I can have what I want!". And it was right there, when the feelings of frustration that come with large, time-consuming projects made me stop and step back and think, "Woah, I just felt like a child on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum because they had to eat their dinner before they got their dessert."

But I'm there again. Haha, its like I've time traveled into the past. Now that we've made a big mess by tearing out a wall in our kitchen, I'm itchy all over and I just want my dessert. You can take the nutritous experiences, just give me my dessert.

And now its time to remind myself, "but lisa, you like roast beef and zuchini and mashed potatoes and gravy. You like building things and making things and having fun creative projects to do."

And I'll whine back, "yeah, its fun to make things, but THIS is just so much work!"

"But it can still be fun."

And thats really how it should be. Even though its alot of work and sometimes frustrating that it takes so long, I can still enjoy myself and the time I get to spend with Rial and say 'wow, look at all this great stuff we accomplished! And now we're that much closer to being done!' And years and years from now we'll be talking about, "You remember when we were working on our house and then (blah-blah-blah-blah-blah ) happened?" And we'll talk and laugh about it and finish it up by saying, "Yeah, I'm really glad we were able to do that together, we had so much fun."

Its like: though the destination in life is important, its the journey that makes the memories. And we're the one who deceide what kind of memories we make.

Bee-be-dillie-a-boatin'-bop, Bo-bop-a-beaten-dot- Shhhhhhhhh, Vista!

Interesante'

Do you remember the movie 101 Dalmations? Though I don't know if there are very many people out in the world that have an uncanny resemblance to their owners, I did ask a lady that worked at a vet office once, if she saw that very often- pets looking like their people. She turned her head to the side and thought for a bit and surprised me by saying, "No, not really. Mostly they just have similar temperaments and such."

I had never thought about that, and it made me wonder whether or not Kuma resembled me. Keep in mind now that it was pure luck I wound up with Kuma, its not like I was cat/kitten shopping when I got her. I was walking back to the car at a gas station in safford, tagging along on Rial and Tyler Allen's car-fixing trip. 

Whether or not our temperments are spot-on, there are certain things we have in common. Like how I'll follow Rial around the house sometimes, just to be with him- Kuma likes to follow me around too. And its not even like she comes by and sits next to me, but if I'm in a room working (like now I'm typing on the couch and Kuma's sitting at the window) she'll walk in and hang out there too.   Also, I have this weird habit of sitting up on the sink when I'm doing my make-up- which my cat imitates, both with and without the water running.

Though I've never drank from a sink before, that's all Kuma- cats like it when their drinking water flows for some reason.

But all these similarities do bring up the whole Nature vs. Nurture thing. It makes me wonder if Kuma is a "copy-cat" and imitates me, or were our crossed paths more than just mere chance. I'm not sure, but it is food for thought. Which reminds me, my roast is getting done, avoire!

strut that stuff!

Yes, today is garbage day, but that's beside the point. Our yard is changing. It has taken one step closer to being more of a yard and less of a field of weeds. Granted, there are still weeds, but they won't be there for too much longer.

A big way-to-go! goes out for Brock for digging out the dirt, my father-in-law for shoveling the small rocks with Rial, and Rial for pressing the rocks and laying the pavers. And what did I do to contribute to this fine piece of architecture? I helped pick out the type of bricks with Rial AND I paired them up and handed them to him when he was laying the bricks down. I think I had the best job out of everyone, but that's just because Rial loves me so.

Now, I do feel a little bad spending money on a house project unrelated to the dysfunctionality of the master-bedroom's shower or our air duct system, which are kinda on the top of our to-do list. But the pavers were on sale! And the leveling tool was cheap. And having a nice front yard is important to Rial. And what's important to Rial, is very important to me.

Bauk, bauk, be-cock!

At least thats what I'm hoping they'll be saying when they get older.

Yep, thats right! My 3 year old dream has finally come true. I have chicks. Ten wonderful chicks. They were given to me about 3 weeks ago and I can not get over how fast they've grown! You can already see some of the differences in the fist 2 wk old pic where their sleeping, and the other two pics I took this week. There are 8 black/brown chicks and 2 yellowy chicks.

my poor Kuma. What that cat wouldn't give if she could just chase them about. I'll let her come outside when I water my garden and do a little yard work. And now that we have chicks, she's spends all her efforts stalking them, despite the wire fence that prevents any damage from ever occuring. If Kuma is anything, she is the most hope filled cat on earth. There isn't a simgle time I don't reach for my shoes or walk past a door that she doesn't run up to it and start meowing her wishes of going outside. Poor kitty. But she tolerates being cooped up fairly well, despite her killer cat instincts.

But I digress, its a good thing the chicks are growing so fast, because I am just dying to know what kind of breeds they came from and which ones I'll be eating because they're roosters. Its a sad thought, but I need my chickens to give me edible eggs, and a rooster doesn't configure into that equation, and I can't think of what else I ought to do with roosters. The person who gave me the 2 day old chicks, told me that he didn't know the sex or breed because these eggs became fertilized and hatched unintentionally, which was why he was giving them away and not selling them.

After hours of scouring the internet, I've put my hopes in that the brown/black ones will turn out to be some type of marans mix and the yeollowys to be easter egger chickens. But alot of different breeds look exactly alike as chicks and its not till they're older that their plumage changes to the breed standard. But till all is said and done, I'll take a leaf out of Kuma's book and remain hopeful that I'll be getting chocolate brown and green/blue eggs in 2 months.

Begone with you, foul weeds!

Admittedly, I was disappointed when I looked out at what was once a lovely barren yard, and saw it desecrated by hundreds upon hundreds of weeds. All my hard work over the winter break of raking and gathering dead vegetation, all of it for nothing. Cause now, its been replaced with a vast field of rag weeds, growing high, up to my waist. And with a broken lawnmower and broken weed wacker and zero willpower to work one by one, pulling each one out by the roots, it didn't look like it would be changing any time soon.

So I was standing by my window the other day, looking over my yard, and I decided that I really didn't mind it so much that weeds were growing everywhere, I just didn't want them blooming and going to seed, which they were. Cause more seeds meant ever more weeds next year, and an even bigger mess when we finally get around to re-establishing grass as the dominant vegetation.

So I went outside to get a better look at the mess which was the backyard. And before me, it was all transformed into a deep amazon jungle, with impassable vegetation rising from the ground. Vegetation so easily cut down by a machete. 

Now, not ever having been to South America, I don't own a machete. But being a trainee in the deadly arts I do own an unsharpened set of twin broad swords, which were soon recovered from their home at the back of my closet. 

Then I got to work. I raised my blade and stuck in one fluid movement. Slash! I was amazed how easily my blade sliced through the green fleshy stalks. Slash, slash! Though I had planned on only cutting the flowers off, I couldn't restrain myself from delivering three or four blows to the same patch of weeds, cutting them lower and lower. I had never known weeding to be so fun! And its kinda funny, but I'm hoping maybe I'll get just a few stalks of ragweed next year that I can let grow for more swordplay practice.

The Boy is Back in Town!

The boys (my 3 little nephews) were tearing it up at the entrance for terminals 1-14, Running around and around. They reminded me of some crazy planets orbiting an unseen sun, the way they would run right at each other then turn away from each other at the last second, giggling like crazy before turning again and repeating the cycle. We all watched them as we waited, the grandparents helping to intervene when nessessary.

And then the people could be seen coming down the long hall. The boys were gathered up into loving arms and we all huddled together to peer down the narrow walkway. Alot of people with their bags and cases of luggage came bustling by, but no sign of my brother. Then finally the pilot and the stewardesses brought up the rear. But where was Bryan? In the now empty hallway a lone figure could be seen walking slowly towards us. It was a man, and he did have a suit and tie on, and he did have dark brown hair. could that be him? Or did he give his seat up to another missionary who was on standby too? we asked ourselves. After all, there had been four of them stranded in texas. He was now almost close enough for us to see his face when the man stopped. Looking down, he then knelt to tie his shoe. We laughed, Aw come on! travis cried.

It WAS Bryan. Such a stunt was just like him. All smiles, we waited in our places so we could embrace the homebound son, brother, uncle, missionary of God. It was a joyful reunion.