What a weekend and wow is my belly full!

Our weekend was super productive, full of good food, good company and lots of time outside. Truth be told I'm a bit tired but loved every minute of it and feel like we accomplished so much.


This weekend I...

watched the music man and his band perform at a charity event  to help a wounded veteran get a home

spent time weeding the garden

harvested onion, 21 of them

braced my tomato plants

rode Chance

bathed Chance

helped the music man extend the coop

cleaned the house

made a batch of strawberry jam

enjoyed an evening with my sister and her hubby at local winery sipping red wine and 

listening to some really good blues and R&B music all while shaking our booties

flipped pizza's for pasta Sunday while visiting with friends

Our breakfast Sunday was really exciting and delicious! It included eggs from our girls, chard, onion, red potatoes and garlic from the garden. Honey from the bee keeper down the street and blueberries we picked ourselves from the patch earlier that morning. Super cool right!

as you can see this weekend we ate, ate and ate some more... i need a walk badly. I didn't want to overload you with pictures so I'll share pictures of the jam and the new and improved chicken coop later, its so nice!  hope you had a nice long holiday weekend too.

a long weekend to bust a move and remember

I am ready to kick off the long weekend, anxious to spend three days with my hands in the dirt while making significant progress on my "to do" list all while soaking up some sunshine and visiting with friends and family at the end of the day both Saturday and Sunday.
 
First up on the list is to expand the coop. It's a priority since i haven't been able to have the girls out as much as i hoped. The coop we built meets the per feet requirement but this week they've begun pecking at each other and i think they are a bit stressed out so were doubling the size and adding some "stuff" for them to do in case they are board.  This is such a bad habit, Goldie has all but two of her tail feathers left they've pecked them out this week and drew a bit of blood from Lucy yesterday just above her tail feathers . I am so bummed for them and am determined to get the pecking under control quickly.

Dixie and Betty are in the egg groove and are laying daily. The last seven days they've gifted me with 14 eggs, enough for a nice scramble with my sister and her family Sunday morning.

We'll be visiting a pick your own blueberry patch and the strawberry farmer down the road. I'll be using his berries to make my jam while my plants try to grow. The roots i planted a few weeks ago are sadly not doing very much and the plants that are growing are being eaten by the squirrel or squirrels that are visiting my garden at night which brings up the next item on my list..... get rid of the squirrels they have become enemy number 1 and must go! Not sure but i think they are eating my zucchini and growing tomatoes too or maybe it's the huge crows or hawks...

Which brings me back to the girls and why they can only be out of the coop while I'm outside with them. I sure hope doubling their space will settle them down, not sure what else would have set of the aggressiveness towards each other this week.

Gardening, riding, building and spending time at home, yep I'm ready for the weekend.

 
 "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy

 I hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend that's filled with sunshine, love and a bit of thankfulness for those who gave us and ensure the freedom we enjoy everyday. 

how bout them cowgirls

How 'bout them cowgirls
Boys ain't they somthin'
Sure are some proud girls
And you can't tell 'em nothin'
And I tell you right now girls
May just be seven wonders of this big, old round world
But how 'bout them cowgirls

I am a ginormous fan of George Strait and have loved his music since Unwound, his first album. Saturday i went with a buddy of mine to see her friend compete in a penning event and when we arrived instantly the above lyrics hit my brain.

I met some incredible, kind and strong women there. The cowgirl in the pink t shirt is my buddies friend and boy can she ride, holy cow.  Monkey may be taking a couple lessons from her and possibly leasing one of her horses, how cool is that.

I had a blast and my camera and i will be going to a sorting event soon to document the day. I am looking forward to hanging out with these women, hearing there stories.and grabbing some more pics of them strutting their stuff.... How bout them cowgirls.

an afternoon at the barn

looks like this through Monkey's eye's...

Sitting with the camera perched up high, i love this, shadows are fun to shoot.

We play follow the leader but not to close.

 There was rolling in the dirt time too, he loves this. He rolls not quite all the way over but half way each side.

the one phase of the famous Poop Patrol, don't be jealous now, haha.

All the shimmering specks are dirt from rolling around, he is so fun and doing very well.  The farriers has come weekly to check on his hoof, Monday will be seven weeks since the bad trim job and he is finally growing, thanks to good nutrition and hoof supplements. The pressure and ouchie are feeling much better. To be sure nothing else was going on i had the Vet out for x rays. I am happy and thankful to report they are negative and with angels called into the farrier he is definitely on the mend. We even did some light work this week without his moon boots.  I really love these days, time with monkey as she gets busier and watching Chance get healthier everyday is such a blessing and i am soaking it all in . Life is so very good.

Whats Growing on over here these days

cabbage ~ I'm looking forward to fish taco's to accompany this beauty, yum.

 The rainbow chard this year is off the hook! We've been enjoying this for a couple months now, its waist high and is still plentiful. The heat doesn't seem to bother it.

 It's early but so far so good, fingers crossed. I started my zucchini plants a little while back and so far this year is looking much more promising than last summers disappointment. potato and garlic are coming along wonderfully as well.

I have a couple dozen tomato plants, I am hoping to be able to get some of my sauce into jars this year.
 Red and sweet walla walla onions growing close to the bell peppers. One of my favorite combinations to grill up, i put them in almost everything of course with some garlic too.

cucumber seedlings.  I have a 25 foot row hugging my soaker line, if all goes well I should have a lot of pickles, these are the music mans favorite snack.

What the heck... Looks like the potato plants have something extra "growing" on them. I took this picture to share the lady bugs i got for the garden...but when i saw the photo i saw this webbing and black spots, not great.
I dug down a little and the potato's are fine, phew.

The girls are getting into the swing of things and now two of them are laying eggs for us. It's incredible to be able to go and grab these gifts from our yard, simply amazing.  I'm a very lucky girl.

Let go my egg o

Today started off like any other day, sun up, coffee brewing while I was outside feeding and making poop patrol rounds.  When I went inside the chicken coop to visit and take care of the girls there it was... Our first egg! Holy Macaroni this was incredibly exciting, between doing a chicken dance and a few woot woot's  i yelled for the music man to come over and check it out with me.  We both stood there in awe admiring it, when i picked it up it was still warm. All the girls had it surrounded and were trying to figure it out when i walked in.

I wasn't sure which one of our little misses laid it but after i removed the egg from the coop Betty started making all sorts of fuss and running around or awhile.  She is the oldest by a week or so and i think it was her. Check out this little egg isn't is b e a u t i f u l !

photos of our weekend

This weekend the music man and i enjoyed a night out with our neighbors and new friends.   Rode Chance in his fancy moon boots, finally his hoofs are starting to grow out a bit. Spent time in the garden weeding, harvesting and adding dirt to my onion and potato plants that are growing nicely and Sunday with family. We went bowling to celebrate my dad's birthday it was so fun. I haven't been to a bowling alley in years and this one was nothing like any alley i visited before, it was so futuristic and spacey. I didn't bowl but i did take some photo's.

The music man checking  his score and trying to keep up with her,

                                                  she threw four strikes in one game!

I got to spend the afternoon with my parents, my sister, her family and the Bug. This last weekend was wonderful and has me feeling extremely grateful for my life and family.  Life is SO good!

Our visit to Stagecoach

This marked the sixth year for the festival and my third visit. The last couple years attendance have set new records and this year was no different.  My friends, Monkey and i were just one in of over 100,000 people who soaked in the hot desert sun, danced our booties off and listened too our favorite tunes.  Here are some pics of time our time there.

Packed and ready i headed out last Thursday to meet up with  friends. Monkey was already there as she and her boyfriend stayed in the tent campground. I stayed in a house, too hot to rough it for this girl.

 Everyone had to hike into the festival and each way was over two miles. No worries though,  i had my good friend and walking buddy with me and we were able to bust it out quickly. The walk at the end of day was much cooler and often funny as we watched others navigate there way.

First stop once inside was the tent for shade and an ice cold beer to cool down, the temps were in the mid 90's.

Look who was waiting for us, Monkey found a spot for us in the shade each day. Our group was big and with the heat shade was a commodity for sure.

We danced...

 and danced... 

 We had such a blast and I'm so thankful for my time with Monkey, our friends and our annual stagecoach trip,  I'm already looking forward to next year!