Respect

In honor of our veterans, which includes my dad, we are flying the colors today.  In the wind. My Grandma always wanted the boys to salute the flag whenever we had it out.  We don't always fly the flag on the appropriate days due to the wind. After lunch we are going fishing. 


Alex putting the flag up




Andy and Alex saying the Pledge of Allegience



Happy Easter

Happy Easter from Green Gates Farm. This will probably be the last year the Easter Bunny visits here. Andy is 10 and Alex almost 9. But mostly because if the Bunny hides them outside, Mischka and Maks help themselves. And the Bunny does not like to be running around outside at 11 p.m. trying to hide 40 eggs.


See...I do have chickens

We had Easter parties at school on Friday. I ended up filling in for the Kindergarten/first grade class. Several of the parents couldn't make it. I had missed out on Alex's first grade Easter party since he skipped that grade. Karma.

Peter made strawberry blintz's for breakfast this morning. I had offered to make raisin french toast but the boys chose the blintz breakfast. While watching "Dirty Jobs".


Does anyone know what type of bird this is? It has white on it's upper wings when they are open. Can you see the bird well enough, that's as close as I could get.

It's January but these are Christmas pics

Andy was an elf in the school Christmas play.

Alex was a dog in the same play

Santa visited the school with gifts for all the kids after the play.

It's a family tradition. Many, many years ago when my dad (denim shirt) and his brother (white shirt) were little boys back in Moundridge, Kansas, the whole family would attend Christmas Eve services at the church. Each family would, at the end of the service, be given a bag of fruit, nuts and PEANUTS. The children would have to wait until the older men would eat All Of The PEANUTS before they were allowed to open any of their presents. Sadly, this tradition continues. Having been the victim of this insideous plot for more years than I care to think about, when it is just the four of us at home, Andy and Alex don't have to wait for peanut eating.

But after the peanuts are consumed, the boys get to hand out the gifts and open theirs. Usually we start with the youngest, which is fortunate for Alex because he's not the most patient creature in the world. That's my mom in the red and aunt in the blue.

Thanksgiving 2011

To start the Thanksgiving holiday off right, our school has a grandparent's day every year. Following a meal of turkey and all the fixings, the grandparents are treated to a musical extravaganza.

Alex spoke about what he was thankful for which included the fact that turkeys are easy to raise and taste good. I don't remember him doing much in raising any of our turkeys.

Andy told what he loved about his grandparents in the form of a poem. Andy was also one of the servers of the meal. That's his fourth grade teacher, Paul Frank, with him.

Halloween 2011

Alex was a ninja (again) and Andy was a Pokemon character. Magie made the costume for him. We carved pumpkins at home on Thursday night, went to the carnival at the school on Friday night, stayed home on Monday night and Tuesday morning tossed the pumpkins in the horse pasture.
Saturday Magie and I worked concessions at the football game, it was close but the Eagles lost. So football season is over. And the Broncos lost.

Father's Day 2011

We started Father's Day weekend by going fishing. Naturally. Peter got to drive the new truck. We went to our usual fishing hole, Willow Springs Pond. It has mostly blue gill, as shown by Alex's catch. He released it, on purpose. It also has a few lake trout, not very big ones. We did see a turtle. There have also been a number of cranes on previous visits

While Alex and Peter were busy catching the fish, Andy and I took Eliza for a walk around the pond. It's not a real big pond but there are two of them. We don't eat the fish we catch because just across the way is the water treatment plant for Fountain. Sometimes the smell can be...just bad.

During the walk we observed two sets of Canadian Geese families. One family had three juveniles and the other family had one youngster. Both families had both sets of parents. I'm guessing this wasn't a good year for goslings.


So...Happy Father's day to my dad. I hope this post makes sense, I'm doing it on four hours of sleep.

Memorial Day 2011

The earth didn't expire a week ago so everyone was out in droves to celebrate Memorial Day. It seems that people are losing the original idea of Memorial Day. Instead of honoring the fallen soldiers, it has become the official start of summer and everyone, and I do mean everyone, has to get out and drive. They were talking on the radio this morning about the beginning of the driving season and how it might be curtailed because of the high cost of gas.
Looking at the traffic on highway 24 today, it doesn't look like driving is being curtailed much.
This weekend was also Territory Days in Old Colorado City. Melissa took her boys on Sunday and she said it was jam packed. We had thought about going but now I'm glad we didn't.
Peter stayed home with Andy and Alex today while I took Melissa to lunch and to buy her belated birthday present. She's reached the age where it is easier to let her pick out what she wants. She Had Talked About getting some CDs of music she likes but when we got to the store (20% off this weekend) she picked out horror movie DVDs instead. I don't know where she gets this, not from me.
I also picked up season five of "McGyver", the boys, especially Andy, really like this show. Melissa suggested a few shows that, ummm, no, not happening.
There's a news report out that has doctors saying that you shouldn't give energy drinks to children. Like prudent people didn't know that energy drinks give children even more energy and as if they didn't have enough already.

Mother's Day Wrap up

This year's Mother's Day began on Friday with the school's Parent's Day Tea (that's a lot of apostrophes) The program was called "We Haz Jazz". Andy, as a third grader, had his first speaking role. He was Lester Young. Alex, 2nd grader, was part of the chorus. The program was followed by an art show and refreshments.
Saturday we went to HD and I picked out the bulbs I wanted. Now to find someone to plant all 50 of them. We ended the day with supper at MIL.
Sunday, Peter cooked pancakes for breakfast. He also cooked a brisket on the grill for supper.
We also took some things to the auction (for Monday) and stopped for ice cream and some time at the playground.

A Reason for Easter

The Easter bunny is on a recycling crusade. He asked that parents leave out the plastic eggs from the Easter party on Friday and he would fill them and hide them. Basically Wal-mart was way to busy on Saturday and the dollar store was out of them.
The boys were up at 6 am, why do they get up early on days when they could sleep in (and me) but can't get up for school?
We are on our way to my parents for Easter dinner.
While you are eating your jelly beans and chocolate covered marshmellows, please remember the true reason for Easter. Remember the One who died on the cross and rose from the dead on this day.
Happy Easter from Green Gates Farm

Recapping Christmas

It was a fairly quiet Christmas. We attended the candlelight service at the church. We had been discussing changing churches (most of the boys' friends go to the other church, the other church has AWANAS and I'm not comfortable with the organization of the youth group at our church.) And I really don't like contemporary or cowboy church services, too much of a traditionalist. But what do you expect, I went to a Lutheran college, Peter's been an Episcopalian his whole life and my family came from Mennonite roots. But we decided to stay at Antioch, partly because of the outpouring of support for my BFF Magie as she deals with a distressing issue.

Saturday morning, the boys were up bright and early and quite upset that all Santa brought them was some things in their stockings and a video game. I told them to look closely at the video game and then they noticed that it was a Wii game so they went running off to find the Wii console (or whatever you call it) We had opened presents when we got back from church on Friday night. We then went to the daughter's home for brunch. We were going to walk around Garden of the Gods but I thought it was too cold so we settled for driving. We did go play for awhile at America the Beautiful park.

And then we went for dinner (prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, chocolate cream pie- my faves) at the MIL. Almost the whole family was there. Niece Suzy stayed at college in Alaska. BIL Alec and his family stayed in Idaho (expecting their first grandchild soon, Ali- January 2 is a good day to have baby- I can share my birthday).

Sunday we went to my parents for Christmas. We had a nice time, lots of food etc. My dad is on meds which means he has to watch his diet so the salad I took, he couldn't have.

So for the rest of the week, we'll be staying close to home, cleaning and organizing. Still looking at moving in the not to distant future. And since it's a smaller house, I have to downsize some things. But it's okay to not have so much stuff.

I'm hoping for Red, Hot and Blue for my birthday dinner. Or Olive Garden. Or....
Any suggestions?

A Christmas Letter

You know how people send out letters with their Christmas cards every year? I sent out these rather thick multi folding cards and I thought that sending a letter would raise the postage. Seriously, I didn't make the time to write it before now and look it's Christmas eve.

So what has been happening here at Green Gates? Chickens have come and gone. We raised two turkeys to adulthood and Sir Henry has just starting to fluff up and it's driving the dogs nuts.

The horses are doing fine. Ariel, our momma llama, had her last baby in September. She finally had a boy, probably because the dad of her last three daughters went to a new home. We had a number of baby goats this spring. Sadly, Sage the beautiful matriarch of our herd had her back broken, we suspect by a horned boer, and had to be put down. But she left us with Sasha and Simon. The evil boer is gone.

We added two chihuahuas to the canine family, Chico and Princess. Katie, our old Keeshond, passed away this summer. And Cody, the mix, had to find a new home after he killed half of the chicken flock and pulled the boys' pet rabbits out of their cages and killed them.

So Andy, now 8 years old, is doing well in the 3rd grade. Still crazy for dinosaurs. He's become quite the artist and is really starting to read more. His favorite books are about dinosaurs and he really likes the series "the Magic Tree house". Since I got tired of two messy bedrooms Andy has to share his room with....

Alex, now 7, is technically in the 1st grade but he is in the 2nd grade classroom doing 2nd grade work. Alex scored in a national test in the 99% in math, reading and writing. Sometimes he's a little scary how smart he is. Alex loves computer games, card games, (bugging his brother) and he also likes the treehouse series.

Peter is keeping busy with work, being secretary of the HOA, and trying to keep sane from all my ideas of what projects we (meaning him) can do here at the farm. And I have a lot of ideas...

I want a new horse barn cause then I could put the goats in the old horse barn and use the entire goat barn to store feed. Hey, when I find a good price on grass I feel the need to stock up. You never know when we'll will get a bad storm. I've also been busy with the church's food pantry, serving on the school board and volunteering two days a week at our school's front desk.

I forgot to mention we added two parakeets, Bert and Ernie, and a canary, Teddy, to the menagerie. I just heard Teddy singing which reminded me.

For Christmas we are having brunch at daughter Melissa's home. She has two boys now, James is one and Derek is 3 1/2 months old. And then we go to the MIL's for Christmas dinner with Peter's family. Sunday we are going to my parents. And this is after Christmas Eve candlelight service. And sometime Santa has to find time to visit our house.

So from everyone and everything at Green Gates Farm, Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year.

Count down to Turkey

So Thanksgiving is less than a week away and I have about 25 people coming this year. The four of us, Magie, Glenn, Granny, Ashley, Sara, Jenny, Melissa, Cody, James, Derek, Randy, Dylan, the other Melissa, Brandon, Hope, Virginia, Ladosha, Jason, Johanna, Sarah, Benjamin. Did I forget anyone. Three are pretty little yet.
Today was Grandparents day at our school. There is a Thanksgiving dinner served followed by a musical program. Alex was a shark in the play "Fish".
Sadly, Andy didn't participate. He's been fighting a respiratory problem all week.
Alex went to the dentist this morning, did well with the cleaning and no cavities. Andy was supposed to go but due to illness we will reschedule.
We bought a turkey fryer tonight. And the oil. The oil is almost as expensive as the fryer. Magie is butchering two of her turkeys for our consumption next Thursday. We are also having a ham, two kinds of green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and some other stuff. I need to get some chairs from the church. I think I have enough tables, thanks to my grandpa Smith making extra leaves for the dining room table. But a little short on chairs. One of our neighbors put out a table for free, so it found a new home here at Green Gates.
I wonder if our royal palm turkeys would cooperate and have their pictures taken wearing pilgrim outfits. Probably not, I may try to keep them in the front yard for yard art.

It was a nice day for mothers

So yesterday morning, Peter brought me breakfast in bed. He had made blueberry pancakes from scratch. He always makes pancakes from scratch. The blueberries are the fat juicy kind as opposed to the hard dried out kind. Sadly, while the outside of the pancakes were done, the interior was not. So while he made some more, I went out to do the farm chores. Luna still hasn't had those babies yet. I asked Sophie if she had told her mom happy mother's day. She just wanted to be feed. Silly horse.
I came back into the house and Andy and Alex had eaten all the pancakes. So on our way to my parent's house we stopped in Limon and got drinks and I had a snickers bar for breakfast.
We had a very nice day. We gave my mom a framed b&w photo of the boys and she gave me some metal butterflies for the garden. I seem to have some sort of condition which enables me to always leave something at their house. So this time I left the butterflies. I had left the camera and the soy oil at home. And my dad's birthday present (it's in January). Maybe for Alex's birthday in July.
If anyone is reading this blog, please leave a little note to say that you are. Or am I just spinning my wheels writing to the wind?