The Riverside County Fair - Family Fun

All in all, we had a great time at the fair. We got to pet a ton of animals, feed them, see animals I never would have dreamed of seeing and most exciting of all, got the Hubs into it. Moo got to show Daddy how much she loved all these animals and Daddy got to see how much fun she had interacting with all of them. He rarely gets to come with us to things like this, so it was really great to watch Moo so excited to show the Hubs all the animals. And don't worry, Toots was there too. She was pretty quiet...just taking it all in. Though she did seem to like the 4H pig barn.
I can't wait for Toots to be old enough to run around like Moo did. Moo stuck her head in every one of these things she could find and made me take pictures so she could see what she looked like. She was too funny.
When it started getting dark, and we started getting hungry for some dinner (which is NOT fair food, sorry but I love my kids and don't want to subject them to food poisoning) we headed to the exit. That just happened to take us right by the carnival section of the fair. Games and rides that we were not really intending on going on/playing. But Moo wanted to look around, so we did.
She ended up asking if she could ride something or play a game. Well, she was not going to ride anything yet...not a big fan of carnie rides, so we opted for letting her play a game. We picked one where every player was a winner. She was given a long fishing pole with a ring on the end and had to hook it on one of the million bags on the table topped with a hook. She called her bags (which one, specifically, she wanted to go for) though the man said she didn't have to, she could get whatever she could and she tried until she got the ones she called. She was so patient and persistent. I was one proud Ma. She asked once if I could do it for her, but I told her to take her time and stick with it, that we knew she could do it. And she did eventually.
When we first approached the booth, Moo saw a Strawberry Shortcake doll hanging from the roof. She screamed out that THAT was what she wanted, could we just buy it? Nope, you have to win it. You get what you get and you don't get upset. So she was really disappointed when her first bag revealed...a slinky. I prayed like never before that the second bag held the blue poker chip needed to get that Strawberry doll. When the man opened it, it contained a little skateboard...and a blue chip! Moo was SO EXCITED! The man said two prizes in one bag just wasn't fair, so he was going to take the skateboard back and she could have the doll. Moo was fine with that! Just look at her, she was on cloud nine. Later, when we got home, the Hubs told me that he saw that man sneak the blue chip into the second bag as he was opening it. It should have just had the tiny skateboard in it, but he put that blue chip in there so she could get her doll. I don't know who he was, but in my humble opinion there is a special place in Heaven for people like that. He made her the happiest little girl in the world. Just look at her face. He also gave us the perfect ending to a wonderful family day. The Hubs got to see Moo win her doll and dance all the way to the car, where she proceeded to fall asleep clutching Strawberry for all she was worth. I would give my right arm for more days like that.

The Riverside County Fair - Babies!

Okay, this post just had to be...it's the reason to have a fair in February. The babies! There were so many babies at the fair, these were our favorites. Above, 3 day old kid. There were a ton in this pen, all tiny little guys. But this one was off in the corner alone and was just so cute.
Newborn baby duckling. Moo tried SO HARD to pet him, but he was just too quick.
This kid was born literally two hours before we saw him. He was still shaky on his feet and that thing hanging down at his belly is his umbilical cord! If there weren't so many people around and the Hubs wasn't there, I would have put this pair under my arm and proceeded to the nearest exit.
This mama had fifteen piglets four days ago (aren't they huge?!?!) and the man with them said that they are bottle feeding 5 of them because they were rather small and he was afraid that they wouldn't survive if they had to compete with the bigger guys for milk. Again, I would have gladly smuggled some of them out, but alas...too many witnesses.

The Riverside County Fair- Petting Zoo

Can you imagine how surprised I was to see a giant billboard on the side of the freeway advertising for the fair - in February? Who has a fair in February? So we waited until the Hubs had a day off and headed out to Indio, by the way it's not as close as you think - we were off by an hour. We had quite a lot of excitement, so I will do a few posts to include it all. This first is about the first thing we did at the fair, the free petting zoo.

Moo was so excited to see and pet the animals! When we got there, we found out that not only could you pet the animals, but for $1 you could feed them too! We also were amazed at the variety of animals in the petting zoo...zebra, yak, goats of many types, mini donkeys, pigs, odd species of bovine, kangaroo, turtle and some type of llama/elk looking thing that I never caught the name of. Moo got to feed and pet them all and she was loving it!
I was a little afraid that she would chicken out, she likes the idea of dogs but when we see one in public she NEVER wants to touch it. She likes cats, but that's about it. Last year at the fair she surprised me by petting a sheep and a rabbit, so I thought she might be persuaded to pet something if reminded of that. But she didn't need it. She dove right in and pet everything! She would go up to the fence and call it over so sweetly, "Come here little fella, I'm not going to hurt you...are you hungry? I've got some yummy food for you." She was so sweet and gentle to all of them and begged for more food to give them. She assured me that they all were starving, even though this was late in the afternoon and EVERYONE in the entire fair had already been through feeding them. Anyway, she had a blast petting everything and has now added baby goats, a barn and baby chicks to her birthday list. Go figure.
The miniature donkey, goats and yak were my favorite. Moo says she liked the yak the best. He was cute. I thought he was a baby buffalo when we first saw him. That's a picture of Moo petting him in the middle there. She says she liked feeling his soft hair and his horns. Good thing she didn't put one of those on her birthday list.

Party Prep

So Moo's 5th birthday is coming up and I just realized that I have very little time left to figure out all the details! Having a baby really makes the time fly. The last time I thought about it, I had well over a month! Not so much anymore! I have to make the decorations, plan the food, plan and make the games and figure out how I'm going to do the cake. This year Moo chose a My Little Pony theme for the party, so today I made the invitations on the computer with a few of her favorite ponies drawn on to set the mood. Next up, figuring out what to do about the cake (possibly a bundt cake pan in the shape of a cute little cottage with a few ponies hanging out around it) and trying to paint a giant pony for "Put the Cutie Mark on the Pony" (like pin the tail, but with stickers for those little pictures the ponies have on their rumps). Then I have to come up with some clues for a scavenger hunt suitable for a 5 year old and another set of clues for the adults at the party. Should be interesting!

Toots and Rice

Toots loved her first bites of rice cereal. She is a big fan. But it might just be because she gets to watch Mommy make crazy faces and sounds while trying to feed her. Either way, she eats it. By the way, that's the Hub's arm...I am in no way THAT hairy!

Toots is sad

Look at that Argall Lip. Toots is sad. Really sad. It's been a few days since her 4 month check-up (shots) and she is still fussy and crying so much more than normal. She has no fever and no swelling or other oddness at the injection site so I don't think anything is really *wrong* with her...I think it's just a general crummy feeling from the vaccinations. I just hope she gets over it soon. My back is killing me! She seems to feel that being held only merits a 75% cry while being put down in the swing/exersaucer/floormat/crib deserves a full out, red-faced 150% screamfest. So Mommy has gotten little sleep the past few days and even less done around the house. I had to put her down for a little while today to wash the burp rags (we were out of clean ones) and wash/prepare a new batch of bottles (we formula-feed Toots, so every day I have to wash all the bottles and fill them all so they are handy in the fridge when she gets hungry). She screamed the entire time, developed a serious case of the hiccups and gagged/dry heaved a few times. Moo was right there, trying to get her interested in playing with her teether or a toy. She turned on the musical Glo-Worm, she sang a song, that wonderful big sissy did everything she could think of to help Toots. When she finally gave up she said "Toots, I don't know what's wrong with you. You're fine, so stop crying so I can get some work done." I think she meant playing, but I like the idea. She didn't yell this, she simply said it in the hands in the air kind of "I give up" way that people say that type of thing. It almost made me laugh. Almost. There was still a lot of screaming going on. Right now Toots is in her crib, crying. I had to put her down for a few minutes or I literally felt like my back was going to crack right in half. I have a super headache (all that crying right in the left ear for two days straight will do that I guess) and I just wanted to come in here for five minutes and write this post to blow off some steam. It helps to talk about what frustrates you at times and right now I am frustrated. The Hubs works hard, but this can seem SO much harder sometimes! Okay, I've complained enough for one night. Time to go get the kiddo (the other one is already in bed, by the way) and see if we can come up with some kind of distraction or holding position that will stop the crying and prevent any more pain in the back or head regions of Mommy! Wish me luck!

The Garden - Season 1

My new favorite reality show, The Garden, is taking place right in my own backyard. I spent the few hours the Hubs was home dumping the baby on him so I could get outside before the rain came to get my first raised bed planted. I did and it was beautiful. Let's recap the first few episodes for everyone out there who couldn't tune in...because they weren't in my yard.

Day one had me outside building a 3x6 raised bed out of redwood. Thankfully, we had purchased a new power drill not too long ago that had enough power to get the job done. The old cordless that used to be my best friend crapped out on the first screw. Once the frame was built, I lined the bottom with chicken wire. Let me tell you that if you have never worked with chicken wire before, it is quite a

funny site. My forearms reminded me to tell you to wear long sleeves and gloves when handling the stuff ...I should probably get a tetnus shot...

Day two had the girls out there with me to level off the ground to set the bed in the pre-approved spot. It took about an hour of hard digging since our dirt is a rocky compacted clay type dirt that is basically like a chunky cement. After that hour, the girls were ready to call it a day. Little gardeners they are not.

Day three had me and my gardening book outside once again to move 36 cubic feet of good black soil into the empty bed . It was hard work since I am still on restriction from my C-section 4 months ago. I'm not supposed to lift more than 25 lbs. so the fifty pound bags of soil were a bit much. I had to rig up all kinds of assists from dollies to carts to get the bags out of the garage, down the steps and into the backyard. It took a while and boy am I tired today, but I did it. Hopefully that insane amount of work will result in the veggies I harvest being about 20% tastier.

After the soil was in the bed, I got on with the planting. Two paste tomatoes, a cherry tomato, one red and one yellow bell pepper, a globe basil and about 20 red onions make up the bed. I have to say, seeing the cages go over the tomatoes and the onions all in their pretty little rows made me smile. If I can keep them alive for the next few weeks, we should be eating pretty well this summer. No promises, I don't have a great track record with plants. But I'm determined.

Another bed will be made soon to house pole beans, carrots and possibly strawberry. Though I may put the berries in their own bed and give that space to some cucumbers for pickling. We'll see.

All in all, Cold Hands Farm is officially up and running. Unless you count fish as a farm animal, then it's been going for a while now.

My finished bed! I'm a proud Mama!

The New Name for a New Beginning

For some time now I've been dreaming of sheep. My parents can probably remember summer camping road trips that had us passing acre upon acre of green pastures and beautiful white, wooly sheep with a sigh from the backseat and a declaration that someday I would have sheep. I still dream of sheep, but I don't know how long it will take me to get there. Until then, I will use what I have and make do. I have a tiny backyard, which I am currently turning into a raised bed vegetable garden. I would have chickens if the HOA allowed them, which it does not, so right now a vegetable garden and fruit orchard (can I call it an orchard if it is five varietals...on one trunk?) are all I can do. So why consider that a failure in the grand farm scheme of things? On the contrary, I should be celebrating the change from focusing on what Taylor Swift was wearing at the Grammys and whether Natalie Portman is going to have a boy or a girl, to seed catalogs and researching rabbit breeds for possible livestock options. Hey, if you want fiber animals but can't have sheep, angora rabbits are a viable option - even for apartment dwellers. Today I realized that when my subscription to InStyle Magazine runs out, I should subscribe instead to Urban Farmer Magazine...or Hobby Farm...I already get Hobby Farm Home, thanks to a Christmas gift from Grandpa (best gift EVER!!!). Anyway, I think that made my heart sing for a minute...just to realize that I'm more into veggie gardens, than Hollywood. Nice.

So as the title of this post proclaimed, I have come up with a new name for this new beginning, the humble beginnings of my farm. It came from a complaint that the Hubs always has of me and my girls...I guess I passed down my gene for extremely poor circulation to them (sorry to all future in-laws). So the name of the new "farm" is, drum roll please....

I thought it was also appropriate because while looking around on-line to see if there were already a million other farms bearing the same name, I found a few sites discussing country/farm sayings and beliefs. Apparently, having cold hands is the sign of a warm heart. People with cold hands are to be trusted and befriended. Doesn't that just say it all? Cold hands, warm hearts. And yes, those are handprints from my children. Moo put hers on top and after much struggle and cajoling, I got Toots to put her x on the line too. I hope to keep this sign for eternity. It means so much to me.

Handmade Hats of Love

My girls, Moo and Toots, sporting this years knit winter caps. I say this years because though Moos' will probably last a while, Toots will most likely need a new one next winter. We have large headed babies here in Bailey Country. Moo chose a purple on purple stripe pattern for her hat and matching scarf to go with her jacket (also purple). Though she maintains that pink is her favorite color. We picked pink for Toots, mainly because we wanted her to be easily identified as "girl". I think they both came out well and the girls seem to like them. At least they keep their heads warm and that's what matters, right?

Kids hats are super easy to knit, even on double pointed needles (I know a lot of people think these are scary, but I assure you they are not) and whip up rather quickly. It's kind of nice to have a piece of wearable clothing you can knit in under a year! I have yet to undertake a adult-sized sweater for that very reason. I have made a child's sweater for Moo, which I will have to dig out a photo of at some point to post here.

Anyway, I just thought I should grab a shot of the girls in their winter hats before it's too warm to even think of such attire. Why not? Hope you're enjoying the last of the cold weather, because I have a feeling this year will be a doosey of a hot one!

Spring is coming!

I can feel it, can you?

What are these?

Does anyone out there know what these things are? They are hard little capsules about the size of two grains of rice side by side. I found just this one clump of them on the main trunk of my flowering plum tree right near the top. I broke them off and they did not appear to be alive or bugs, really...just hard little nobs. I really had to snap them to get the things off and they did seem to take the outer most layer of bark with them. Haven't found them out there again and couldn't find them in the dirt...they are exactly the same color as our dirt. I wanted to put one in a jar and take it to the nursery, but I couldn't find it after I knocked it off. Anyway, if any of you know what these are, I'd really like to know.

Jumping into Gardening

Moo enjoying the "fruits" of my labor. Someday, that may be a real tree.

Moo and Toots with me on my quest into vegetable gardening today.

Last week, Moo and I ventured to Lowes and picked out our very first 2011 Garden Challenge participant. A lovely mix of FIVE apples all on one cute little semi-dwarf tree. Fuji, Anna, Golden Dorsett, Ein Shimmer (however you spell that) and Beverly Hills. I will hopefully be able to harvest throughout the season...in a year or two. Oh well. Some are good for fresh eating, some are good keepers and some are baking apples, how perfect is that? And because there are multiple varieties on the same tree, it will self-pollinate without a problem! Yipee!

Today I grabbed the girls and headed out to build me a raised bed for vegetables and got to work. I actually built the 3x6 redwood box bottomed with chicken wire two days ago on the Hubs last day off, but today I spent a while leveling off the ground where the bed was to go. You can't tell in the picture, but our yard has a bit of a slope to it and I wanted the bed to be fairly flat to prevent any pooling of water in one corner or the other. Oh, did I mention that our ground is like concrete? Anyone from the Inland Empire will tell you that the dirt here is not dirt...it is grit packed tightly in between rocks and boulders. I broke two shovels trying to dig in it the past few days. Annoying and back-breaking. But I will get my garden, you just wait and see.

Anyway, I got the bed leveled pretty good and ready to fill with the good garden soil waiting in the garage in 60 lb bags. The only problem is that I am still on restriction from my C-section and can only lift 25 lbs. Ugh. So I started busting open the bags and shoveling the dirt into a bucket, then carrying the bucket out to the bed. But that didn't last long. Toots started crying and it was time to come in for her bottle. Oh well. I hope my tomato plants survive til tomorrow when I'll go out and try again!

Christmas!

Well, seeing as how it is now WAY past Christmas, I won't bore you with pictures and recollections of a holiday past (since we should be getting ready for Valentine's Day), but I thought I should put a picture up to show what Christmas means to me...it means joy on the face of my daughter Moo at coming out in Christmas morning and seeing what Santa has left under the tree...and frustration on the face of my Hubby as he tries to unpackage, unbox and build all those stupid kids toys that manufacturers think it's funny to bundle tighter than Fort Knox containing directions written in Chinese. Those Hasbro guys!

Ca-ute!

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping baby?

Pasta-mia!

So I went home for a visit in January, taking Moo and Toots, but the Hubs had to stay behind and earn a living. Bummer. But while we were there, my brother and I tried our hand at making our own pasta. Now, my brother and I are game to try to make almost anything in the kitchen and I was a bit excited to try this out. As you can clearly see, we did not have the proper pasta making equipment, but were reassured by many on-line resources that many authentic Italian 90-year-old chubby women made pasta every day without such machines as well...so off we went. Our first problem was using a Jamie Oliver recipe that everyone reviewed as being great...ours turned into a rock hard clump that I had to turn over to Bro because it was way past the point where I could knead it and it darn near broke his wrists too. Then we let it "rest" for an hour in the fridge while Bro "rested" his poor little forearms. When we took it out to roll it we had the same problem - ROCK hard and it just wouldn't roll thin enough. So we rolled it as thin as we could and cut it into strips as thin as we could, then we rolled those again. What we ended up with was a bowl draped with leathery, misshapen gobs of dough we weren't sure we wanted to actually eat. But Grammy was a trooper and told us to cook them up. Let me just say that one little scoop of that pasta FILLED YOU UP! It was so dense that a tiny bit of the stuff, well, stuffed you. It didn't taste bad, it just wasn't pasta. It was a cross between scones and pasta, covered in spaghetti sauce. We vowed to try again, following an Italians' recipe instead of a Brits'. I mean really, what were we thinking?

Challah Bread!!!

Just read an old post on my favorite blog - ColdAntlerFarm - about the yumminess of homemade pie and it made me crave something deliciously homemade. Thus, the birth of the Challah Braid! Yum! A home without something freshly baked and yummy to eat, just isn't a home. I think I'm going to commit to more bread baking from now on. It really does taste SO much better than store bought bread.