So cute

First, yes, that is a snuggie in the background, way to call me out.

Sometimes Teach has a hard time deciding what he wants to play with. Yet, always excited to do so.

That is all.

0-2

Well, this year has not been very productive when it comes to my first attempt at farming things besides plants.

Earlier this year some dogs came and killed all of my chickens. They were 10, then 7, then 1, and then all dead.

My honey bees were doing better. They were growing, so much so I got a second layer for them. In August they were so many they were beading. They had heavy frames, tons of bees, and all over doing great.

Well, I got lazy or negligent, or just being a dumb first year bee keeper. The end results are dead.All dead. All the wax and honey is gone, all gone.

What happened you may ask? I'll tell you. I was hoping to just let bees do what bees do best. However, they were not a strong enough hive. I should not have put the second layer, or if I did it should have been a proper second layer. Not the same size as the brooder. Mistake one.

Then I checked on them, but not nearly enough. Mistake two.

I saw mites once but wanted to let the bees figure it out and take care of it. Mistake three.

I then looked up and started to worry about winterizing my bees in October, after it already started to get cold. Mistake four.

Starting both chickens and bees while trying to first identify a depression, work though, and get out of a depression was also probably not a good idea. I didn't know I was depressed at the time, but again, mistake five.

I have failed as a first year bee keeper. I have learned, hopefully from my mistakes, and come spring of next year, I will, try, try again. 

Anyone else been successful in killing all of their new projects this year? Let me know with a comment below.

Friday Night Fire

I would like to say that fall is one of my favorite seasons, however I am a positive person. I can pretty much find a positive part of any season. Or most situations if I really start to think about it. Most, not all. 

Anyways, on Friday I got home from work and I was in the mood for fire. Food, a beer, and burning random stuff. That is exactly what I did. I have one of those little porch fire pits.Nice, light, and portable. I pulled it off the porch, put it in my driveway and gathered sticks, random logs, and pretty much anything else that is good to burn.

Man, I love the smell of fire. The peace staring into flames poking hot coals. My dog only ran away once, he only tried to eat my poking stick twice. I guess the hot end made him like it less. 

It was a beautiful night,clear, cool, and just wonderful. New Dude's brother also hung out for a while shooting the shit and just chilling. It was a good night.

Training

Well, it is going to happen again. I am going to compete in a Tough Mudder. I have joined a team, have a room in a house to share with strangers, and even signed up. There is no backing out now.

I know a few years ago failed at the monkey bars. That is kind of a bummer when you think about it. Grant it, they were going up and down but I don't think I even made it half way. So this year, more training, more work on my upper body and well hopefully do better.

While on a walk it Teach this weekend I came upon a park that had this variety of monkey bars. I didn't get to test my skills because my dog was wandering around the playground and I was worried he would take off but I will be back!

If you have any tips for training for a Tough Mudder please let me know!

Not Friends

I have talked about our new cat Lockness Monster a few times. In the posts Sink Kitty and also Lockness Monster Leash which for the most part are showing some of his more positive side of the cat.

We this week, we became less of friends than normal. I was trying to be a good cat mamma and let him have some outside time. Since we are still not sure if we are going to let him be an inside outside cat. I was like I will hold him and let him feel the sunshine on his fur. I scooped him up and was walking to the mail box. It was going well until I was at the mailbox and a car drove by. Well this led to Lock losing his mind. He fought me like mad and used my hands as a diving board to get away and ran back to the front door. 

The good news is that he hates cars. The other good news is that he ran back to the house. The bad news is that he cut me. Pretty deep actually. It hurt, it burned, putting peroxide on it was not fun. Adding new skin to it was defiantly not fun. It cost me a day in the pool and a body pump class. Not a happy mamma. 

I wonder if this will mess up my palm for future palm reading? I hope that if it does, it at least didn't mess with my life line. 

Lock and I might be friends again, but not this week.

Mad Dog

This weekend I was able to celebrate with some friends his little brother's 21st birthday.

I say little, but he was honestly the biggest guy in the house and that is saying something since New Dude is 6'3" and 275 lbs.

Well, he was drinking, they were drinking, and I mostly just enjoying story time and losing successfully at a card game. We had to clear off our kitchen table so everyone could drink and be merry.

One of the items that has been moved off the table on the table and off the table was the set up for the Minute To Win It game called Mad Dog.I'd send a link to it but I do not have permission.

The basic idea is that you take two ticket tack boxes, tape them to the end of a ruler and shake your head a like a dog to get all the mints out. In the show each partner needs to empty their mints one at a time in less that 60 seconds. Since I only had one set up it was rest to 30 second.

Below is the video to share. I thought it was fun and silly and recommend others to play this game. One thing I would recommend is a wooden ruler. Mine was plastic and it cracked in my mouth while shaking my head madly.

 Does anyone else have a favorite Minute To Win It game they like to play? Let me know with a comment below!

Bed Head

This picture is exactly one of the reasons that I do not go to bed with wet hair.

Yes, I will take a shower at night before bed some times, but normally I avoid washing my hair.

The main reason is that I hate the feel of wet hair on a pillow followed by a damp pillow. Boo to the nth degree. If it is winter time I WILL stay up until it is dry.

The other reason is that I am going to be showering in the morning anyway. Some people need coffee in the morning I need a shower.

Also, do you see that hair? It it literally standing up.There is not a thing that can be done unless more water is added.

Does anyone else have issues like this? Or have their own thing they avoid at night before bed? Let me know with a comment below.

Dinner Options

Over the last few months I have been trying new ways to improve quality of life. 

It is little things from breaking down to using those cleaning wipes for a quick clean. I am all for a deep clean but sometimes life does not give me enough motivation for a deep clean. However, getting things a tad cleaner faster while waiting for the motivation for a deep clean can actually remove some stress.

One of the other items I am trying is Blue Apron. Full disclosure, they didn't ask me to write this article.  

I get three meals for two once a week. My thought process was no need to figure out what to buy, cook, or do for a few meals a week. I was getting burned out trying to figure out what to eat each week and our eating out had increased.

I would say that this was a good idea, but it became a little hard to do. I didn't take in account the extra time it would take to make and our busy schedules. I started to trade one stress for another stress. I was worried about using up the meals before the next box arrived. I didn't want to waste anything because I hate wasting food in general but more expensive food is even worse. 

I think that is a good program, great food, and easy direction and set up.

It does take a little bit more time because of the prep work required. Unlike when you cook a meal you've done over and over, there is reading, re-reading, and the best way to execute their meals are to chop, slide, dice, and get everything ready before adding heat to anything. It just requires a bit more attention then I'm used to giving.

Below are the pictures of a bunch of meals I made all at once tonight. You can see the picture of the actual food, and what they said it should look like. 

I really liked being introduced to new ingredients, ways to cook, and flavor combinations I had never tried before. It really is a gourmet meal that you cook at home. 

They taste so good and the portions are amazing.I had a fear that it wouldn't feed New Dude. That he would eat it and then still need a sandwich. It is almost too much for me and puts him just below uncomfortable full. Plus the calorie count for these fresh, robust, and delicious meals have been about or less. I found that to be very awesome.

I would say the one thing that I really dislike is the use of all the dishes in my kitchen. Grant it, there were a few items in the sink before I made all three meals, it does feel like about 6 more dishes are used when making these meals. 

If you're thinking about signing up, I say go for it. Best case is that you're going to be eating amazing meals three times a week. Worst case is that you add a little bit of stress and you cut back on the delivery or the service at all. 

Anyone else try them or another service like it? What was your experience? Let me know with a comment below!

Peep Peeps Update

In the last article about my chickens I was telling everyone about how fast they were growing and moving them outside soon.

Well first we had to build a coop, which really was more of a run than a coop.

This took about 2 nights and about 8 beers. I say that only because it was one of the first projects that New Dude and I worked on together. It caused some arguments, frustration, miss communication but was completed.

The peep peeps were able to enjoy living outside for a fun 2.5 weeks. Then while at work one day dogs came and killed 7 out of 10

We only saw 7 bodies so we assumed that they took the chickens off to eat them or something.

Nope, they ran away to the neighbors fenced in yard.We gathered our chickens, celebrated in their survival. 

Two days later they were all dead. The dogs came back and finished off the rest of the flock.

I would best describe it as unfair, uncool, disappointing, and nature taking it's course? 

We're going to build a better hiding place for the chickens and wait for the back yard to be fenced in before we attempt this again. In other words, next spring.

Live, learn, and get a fence.