tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57842104200627740532024-02-06T22:34:07.801-08:00Kooper's CoopTabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-70891691931883565772015-04-22T16:08:00.003-07:002015-04-22T16:08:55.764-07:00Oodles of Zoodles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Vegetables becoming noodles is a pretty big deal these days. So, naturally, I had to jump on that bandwagon. I was intrigued when friends of ours started doing mason jar salads. My mother in law got me one of these and a recipe book from the library and told me to have at it! Well... the book didn't have pictures, so I just had to turn to my good buddy Pinterest to see what I could scrounge up.<br />
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I made <a href="http://damndelicious.net/2015/01/24/zucchini-shrimp-scampi/">this recipe</a> from the guru over at <a href="http://damndelicious.net/">Damn Delicious</a>. Of course I tweaked a few things, I didn't add the parsley leaves because we don't like them and I only added the juice from half of a lemon because i didn't want to use a whole lemon because I've also jumped on the bandwagon of the infused water. Boy that was a long sentence..<br />
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Kind of like these long noodles!<br />
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The Veggetti was super duper easy to use. You just pick which side you want to use based on whether you want thick or thin slices, prep the veggie and twist. I found that it worked better with a bit of pressure, otherwise the noodles came out shorter. With pressure they were longer and well, more noodle like.<br />
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I also wondered where the seeds were going, and as it turns out they went into the opposite end of the utensil. Pretty cool. It also left this interesting scrap, if you will. Perhaps the makers of the Veggetti are also secretly the designers of Madonna's bras in the '80s.<br />
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I would absolutely use it again, with a few lessons in my back pocket. First, you have to have the right size veggie to twist. So yes, in this case, size DOES matter. I bought 3 medium sized zucchini and they worked perfectly. I had a larger one left over from another dish and it wouldn't fit even after I cut them. Second, cut the noodles before you cook them - I didn't think that they were "that long", but wound up cutting them after I put them in the pot. The instructions said to cut them, but who uses directions when you obviously know better than the people that made the utensil.<br />
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Besides, doesn't this dish look wonderful?! It was really delicious. The zoodles turned out similar to spaghetti noodles but with a bit of a crunch. This was perfect for us because we like our noodles a little al dente. We both like the taste of zucchini and you honestly couldn't taste it - it took on the flavor of the scampi broth. Really the only hint that they weren't real noodles was their color.<br />
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So, to all of those that have been on the fence about trying one of these spiraling gadgets, I say GO FOR IT! Now I can't wait until the garden is planted and the zucchini are plentiful! <br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-16791531910353862522015-02-02T18:20:00.001-08:002015-02-02T18:20:17.639-08:00Coloring My World...<br />
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Painting is like the job that never ends. I'm sure that Jeff will agree, but I feel like I've been seeing paint chips, paint brushes and paint rollers in my sleep.<br />
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Holy Toledo, what a job! We have spent countless hours painting our house so far. Between picking out colors, priming, ceiling painting, then putting two coats of color, it has truly been a labor of much love and a whole lot of color!!<br />
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We flirted with the idea of hiring a painter - but the cheapest price we could find for a painter was $0.70 per square foot and at 10,000 square feet of drywall, we knew that it was way out of our budget to hire a painter AND pay for paint. At this point in the game we have already spent $1800 in just the paint and supplies.<br />
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Speaking of paying for paint, we have to give a huge shout out to Sherwin Williams. Yes, their paint is expensive - but did you know that if you open a contractor's account (which they let us do because of the amount of paint we would be purchasing) that you can get a significant discount on supplies? We were able to get their best quality paint for around $32 per gallon. Which actually wound up being cheaper than the home improvement store where they wear orange aprons.<br />
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The employees at Sherwin Williams were also incredibly knowledgable. Jeff and I asked a ton of questions - and they even were helpful when it came to which colors went well together. They also gave me two different color pallets to look through, but I think that gave me entirely too many choices. They also have a pretty cool app called Color Snap where you can choose a photo from your device and then paint the picture with any of their colors. I used this feature, and it helped me rule out some choices.<br />
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Enough about Sherwin Williams and how much of a sucky job painting is - ON TO THE COLOR!!<br />
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While we started painting color, our dads chipped in and helped us paint the loft, ceilings, and the garage.<br />
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After what seemed like years of priming, we moved on to color, and the first room that we painted was the laundry room.<br />
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This is a little out of the box, but I LOVE it. I said all along that the laundry room was going to be my fun room and these colors give it a great start.<br />
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The colors are Synergy and Mélange Green.<br />
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Then we moved on to Kooper's room. He wanted a color like a New Holland Tractor - which, for those of you that don't have children obsessed with tractors, that's a bright royal blue. Not a bad color, but not a color that I want in a bedroom. The name of the color that HE picked was Hyper Blue. I hate to judge a book by it's cover, but Mama wasn't having that. So.. we (I) decided on a nice little color called Santorini Blue. It's perfect for him and I think that we will get some milage out of the color as well.<br />
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We decided to make Kooper's bathroom a different shade of blue and take on a more nautical theme to everything in there. His bathroom color is called Open Seas. It's very cute, and plays really well with the floor and the vanity.<br />
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Next up, was the Powder Room. That's a nice little color called Reflecting Pool.<br />
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The Loft color is Lagoon. Originally I intended on making the loft two colors. Lagoon on three walls and Latte on the wall that went down the steps. After some thought and a few other opinions we decided to make the whole loft Lagoon.<br />
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The Mudroom is Latte. A little dark for a room that doesn't get any natural light, but I still like it. Hopefully it will be a color that camouflages a lot of dirt!<br />
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The space that isn't painted is where the shower head will be. That will be tile of some sort, but we haven't gotten there quite yet.<br />
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The Master Suite is two different colors. Three of the walls in our room are Sand Beach and the exterior wall and in to the bathroom is a color called Cloudburst.<br />
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Bedroom:<br />
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Bathroom:<br />
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Originally we were going to leave the spare room just primed. We went around and around about this one. In the end we decided to match it (as close as we could without pulling the stuff out) to Kooper's nursery. If we have another baby, that would be his or her room - we both loved Koop's nursery, so we figured, why not? And, if there is never another baby, at least we like the color.<br />
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The great room, hallway and entry way were challenges. You can see all three depending on where you are in the rooms, and I had cabinet and flooring colors to contend with.<br />
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I knew that I wanted Gray. Little did I know that there would be 50 shades of gray to choose from. (ha, you see what I did there?)<br />
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After testing out Sea Salt, Comfort Gray, and Oyster Bay on the walls, I decided on Comfort Gray for the Great Room and Sea Salt down the hallway. All three are consecutive on a swatch, with Sea Salt being the lightest and Oyster Bay the darkest. I ruled out Oyster Bay because it was too dark.<br />
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Then we have the hallway - which, for after as much time and thought that <strike>we</strike>, I put into the color there really isn't a nickel's worth of difference in the two to the naked eye. Can you say frustrating?<br />
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See for yourself:<br />
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I saved the Foyer for last.. mainly because I had no idea which color to put in there. I wanted a little bit of color from the gray, but didn't want something too dark because the mudroom is off to the left.<br />
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We decided on a color called Calico. In some lights it looks dark gray, sometimes blue, which is interesting, but fun.<br />
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So, there you have it... 13 colors over 10 different spaces. It's a lot of blue, I know.. but I think that it all flows really well and gives a nice and relaxing feel to the house and our space.<br />
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Hope that you are enjoying the colors as much as we are!<br />
<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-59896368585316473692015-01-06T17:09:00.002-08:002015-01-06T17:09:45.016-08:006 Month Checkup<br />
It's January, and that means that we have officially hit the six month mark of remodeling our house. In some ways it doesn't seem like it has been that long, and then in others it seems as though it has been six years!<br />
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Lots of things have happened since my last house update. We processed our first batch of turkeys, and also managed to survive the holidays. Go us! Oh, and did I mention I was also featured on the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tabatha-kammann/why-we-finally-gave-up-on-the-elf-on-the-shelf_b_6202268.html">Huffington Post</a> twice? I even had an offer to be quoted in Good Housekeeping, but wasn't timely enough with my response. But, I digress...<br />
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The house has really changed since my last update. The last time I wrote about our electric being installed - which was a huge step. In order to go any further with insulation, drywall, paint, flooring, etc. we had to get our heat up and running. That is finished, and our system is pretty neat - I'm just excited because it tells me the outside temp as well as the inside temp. Jeff is excited because now (so he thinks) I won't always ask him "what's the temp outside?"<br />
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Since we now have heat, we were able to install the garage doors. They aren't completely finished yet, as they still need the handles, and some tweaking, but most of the work is done.<br />
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We chose a carriage house style door and the windows match the style on the front door of the house. The barn lights are new too, they are a little smallish, but we won't need a ton of light since the front door is to the immediate left. If the garage was further away we would definitely need more light.<br />
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The door installation helped with the heating situation for the drywall. Even with the doors being up and the heat being on, the crew still needed propane heaters to insure that the drywall mud dried properly.<br />
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When the drywall was delivered, it went right in the loft window and through the front door. Cool, huh?<br />
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The crew was able to install the drywall in one day, and then came back to mud the next day. This happened the day before Thanksgiving, so the holiday put the sanding part of it on hold.<br />
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This is what will eventually be the kitchen area. The door is for my pantry, and you can see the plumbing for the kitchen sink - as well as the 12ft. ceiling.<br />
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When they did come back to sand, boy oh boy was it a huge mess!! There were days of vacuuming involved to get the place "dust free".<br />
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When the majority of the dust was cleared out, we were free to paint. We thought that painting would be <i>so much fun</i>, when in reality, painting sucks folks. Jeff started the priming brigade and worked a little each night - we also spent just about one entire weekend priming and another whole night to finish. When it was all said and done we went through about 25 gallons of primer.<br />
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Jeff got ceiling duty, while I got 'low to the floor" duty. He didn't tell me until our last room that he had a knee pad. Yeah, let's just say that I had sore knees and leave it at that.<br />
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We also put the little man to work in one of the closets - that lasted about 5 minutes.<br />
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Then I was left to the task of picking out paint colors. Who knew that Sherwin Williams has over 8,000 colors?!<br />
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Since we are still in the process of picking out colors and painting, I'll leave off here. Next segment will include the painted rooms and info about the colors.<br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-24285341961415516252014-12-24T08:53:00.000-08:002014-12-24T08:53:06.566-08:00How a Santa Statue and a Disney Cartoon Helped Save Christmas<br />
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No, really, it's true. A wooden Santa Claus statue and a Disney cartoon called Doc McStuffins made me realize that my son really does believe in Santa.<br />
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In case you missed it, I mentioned in my post about <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tabatha-kammann/why-we-finally-gave-up-on-the-elf-on-the-shelf_b_6202268.html">The Elf on the Shelf</a> that I was pretty convinced that my son didn't believe in the man in the big red suit.<br />
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My son just doesn't seem to get excited about him coming like the other kids do. In fact, we haven't even been to sit on his lap and have his picture taken. We've asked, but he's avoided it like the plague. We still mention it, but have never used Santa as leverage for his behavior. After all, he's just a little guy, and we have to have some fun!<br />
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My husband and I went on an impromptu out of town trip last week and we ran with the opportunity to tell our son that we went to Santa's workshop. We really made it sound awesome - basically told him that Santa had a workshop for everything that we could think of on his list - which more or less consists of model sized tractors and farm equipment. My hubby and I even went as far as to bring back an ornament for the tree as a gift for him from Santa.<br />
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Of course he wanted to know why we spoke to Santa. He even seemed to be a little put off by it. His attitude was one of <i>why do you keep telling me about this man who clearly doesn't exist? </i>Though every now and then he would seem genuinely intrigued about the workshop and wanted to hear more.<br />
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Up until two days ago we kept up the facade that Santa is in fact real, even if we weren't sure what our son thought. I mean, the more we play it up, the more he'll want to believe it too, right?<br />
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In this case... right!<br />
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For the last week or so, my mother in law (who we are living with during our house remodel) has been leaving little gifts on my son's bed at night. A stuffed Santa, a Santa doorknob pull, a Gingerbread Man, candy, etc.<br />
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When I asked him who he thought was leaving these little gifts, he pointed at the Santa and said that "it had to be him".<br />
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Of course I wanted to know why he thought that. To which he quickly responded that "he must come to life at night like all of Doc McStuffin's toys do and visit my bed to bring me stuff". <br />
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Well I'll be! THE BOY <i style="font-weight: bold;">DOES</i> BELIEVE!<br />
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A Christmas miracle for sure! Thank you Doc McStuffins and a wooden Santa statue. Thank you.<br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-39062541844475571272014-12-01T12:13:00.000-08:002014-12-01T12:13:07.823-08:00A Different Kind of Thanksgiving This past Spring we took a leap into the unknown. After a few years of friends asking us to grow turkeys, we decided to give it a try.<br />
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What started out as adorable poults are now the full grown turkeys that are in my refrigerator. </div>
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We knew all along that the day they met their fate would be the Saturday before Thanksgiving. No questions, no backing out - it was go time. </div>
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Jeff spent the last week going through all of the prep in his head. Were his knives sharp? Was his work station prepped with the proper items to sanitize? Would the feather plucker that his dad made <i>actually</i> work? Did he have what it takes to kill a bird that he had taken care of for the last 6 months?</div>
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The mood was somber and reflective. Though there was a fair amount of "excitement" if you will about starting a new tradition on the farm. Jeff's ancestors had raised a killed chickens for their own use, but never turkeys. </div>
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Friends of the family came over to help with the process, but the first one Jeff wanted to do on his own. None of us were there when it happened, but I'm sure there was some sense of closure for him. </div>
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Even though he spent a TON of time reading about the best method of killing the birds, each one wound up being a little different. Jeff decided to use a cone for the birds. Essentially, you put the turkey in a road cone, and then slit the neck. The idea is for the turkey to not be able to writhe around until the muscles relax. </div>
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This is how he did the first one. After watching him and his mom make an attempt to do the second one, I have NO IDEA how he managed to do it alone.</div>
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They were able to get the turkey into the cone, but couldn't fit the neck through the top.</div>
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He freed the bird from the cone, caught it, calmed it, and then quickly slit the neck. In an instant it was done. </div>
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What wasn't done in an instant however, were the muscle twitches. Some of the birds continued to flap their wings for close to two minutes after death. That was the creepiest part of the entire process - to see something moving that you know is very obviously dead. </div>
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After he slit the neck, he let the bird bleed out for about 5-10 minutes and then it was time to de-feather.<br />
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De-feathering was probably the worst part of the entire thing. Simple concept, not so simple task.<br />
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One method of feather removal is to dunk the bird in hot, but not boiling water to loosen the feathers. Picture a spa-like environment. The hot water opens the follicles and in theory makes the feathers easier to remove. But there was a fine line - too cold and nothing really loosened, too hot and we risked cooking the bird and hence it would have been a waste.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They let the bird "soak" for 2-3 minutes. </td></tr>
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All things considered we probably kept the water a touch on the too cool side. Our next to last bird I think that we got it just right because the feathers just came right off.<br />
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We thought that we weren't going to have any issues with the feathers because we built this:<br />
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Here you have a piece of PVC pipe, and a bunch of rubber fingers. There is a drill inside to spin the whole thing. The drill didn't go very fast, so for the second day my father in law put a small motor on the back of it (pictured above). The plucker still didn't work.<br />
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This was supposed to be the magic bullet in terms of making the de-feathering process easy. In the end, it just wound up taking very little of the feathers off, making a fair amount of noise and costing us $50. Oh well. Maybe it goes back to us not having the water hot enough for the feathers to loosen properly? Maybe the motor didn't run fast enough?<br />
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When the machine doesn't work, you use your hands. Ugh, what a job. Nothing like getting up close and personal with some turkeys and their feathers.<br />
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After most of the feathers were off, Jeff started the process of cleaning and gutting the birds. He clipped their wings, cut off the feet, a layer of the skin, and then took out everything on the inside.<br />
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I'll pass on the pics, but let me just tell you - it was pretty gross. It wasn't very bloody all things considered. The innards were incredible to look at compared to something that was store bought. These were so vibrant in color and were incredibly lean.<br />
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While it was't easy to watch any of the birds in this manor, the one that bothered me the most was the very last one. She made noise as soon as we took the second to last bird away. Not really a crying noise, but an upset noise to say the least. Then she managed to get out of the pen - so Jeff had to chase her down. It was very upsetting for all parties - and certainly a surprise for the last one to be the most difficult.<br />
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Below is Jeff and the dogs chasing after the last hen.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEEwivwgdT9nMN8_OQm0Gtn04ZsbwK4qOKQ05yUcRBIIcyjzr1-PRM3IUw4sgQlyQtpEIpPcw1wGbst5fj2GMS_BCeQoM7GvVXrpcEQgvSIgw_HGNiVF6S-D2RrbaQTQY-Sv6WGux2FPSG/s1600/final+bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEEwivwgdT9nMN8_OQm0Gtn04ZsbwK4qOKQ05yUcRBIIcyjzr1-PRM3IUw4sgQlyQtpEIpPcw1wGbst5fj2GMS_BCeQoM7GvVXrpcEQgvSIgw_HGNiVF6S-D2RrbaQTQY-Sv6WGux2FPSG/s1600/final+bird.jpg" height="370" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
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After each one was gutted, Jeff had to put them in a cooler full of ice to cool them down. He would get three turkeys in the cooler and then we weighed and bagged them.<br />
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Here is Jeff with the final product.</div>
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His face in this picture says it all. Proud of what we accomplished, but sad about what we did. He said he felt bad because "there was no sport" in it. Yes, they were livestock, but it was hard not to feel some guilt about walking in to a pen, picking out a helpless bird and killing it.<br />
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In the end it was a fair amount of work to process the birds, though caring for them was relatively easy. It was also pretty costly. I will do a full breakdown but the amount for the housing, feed, etc. was well over $1,000. We didn't do it to make money, but we definitely didn't come out in the black this first year.<br />
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Put your order in for next year because we are definitely going to do it again. We are going to take a class in the spring to become officially certified. </div>
Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-34671505657210384962014-11-07T07:43:00.000-08:002014-11-07T07:43:03.509-08:00The Dreaded Elf on the Shelf<br />
It's barely November and my Facebook Newsfeed and Pinterest threads are already full of ideas for the Elf on the Shelf. Really people? Take a breath.<br />
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I'm finding that there are two feeling about the good old elf - you either love it, or hate it. In my case, I've been there, done that, and have a funny story to tell.<br />
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I have to admit, I was a little skeptical about it from the start. My son isn't the traditional sort of child by any means. He doesn't like trick or treating, in fact he gave out the candy this year, and he wouldn't be caught dead sitting on Santa's lap without some sort of ridiculous bribe from me.<br />
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But all the other moms are doing it - so I should be too.<br />
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We did everything right - my mother in law snagged one for a fraction of the cost the Christmas before and we packed it away until we thought he would be ready. Last year he was 3 and in preschool so he was going to be exposed one way or the other. We wracked our brains for a creative name for the little darling. One name after the next was tossed out - too silly, too boring, not festive enough.. blah blah blah. You would have thought that we were picking out a name for our next child. But finally it was decided, his name would be Sprinkles.<br />
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Sprinkles made his arrival early one morning in a bowl of Cheerios. Of course I got the idea from Pinterest and of course I thought it was the best thing ever. My son, not so much. He gave me this look of "what in the hell is that thing doing in my cereal and why do you think it's cute?"<br />
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We kept him high up on our bookshelf so that Sprinkles could "keep an eye on you and report back to Santa". My son was appalled by this - and now that I'm typing it, I am too. When I was a child it was creepy enough to think that some big jolly man with a beard knew what I was doing, let alone having an actual doll in our house keeping constant vigil. Think about it, the words to "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" are just a bit bothersome if you <i>really</i> sit down and think about it "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake", that sounds like the set up for some bad movie. (Don't get the pitchforks out and start a riot - I'm still a believer and want my son to be - just trying to make a point. )<br />
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In some ways I think that my son didn't like the idea because he couldn't risk Santa not coming. At one point he even offered to buy his own toys from his favorite catalog. Instead of it being fun, it was a mind game for him.<br />
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The final straw (we thought) was when we went on a cruise last year before Christmas. I packed Sprinkles in my suitcase and had a bunch of fun stuff planned. We visited Disney and Sprinkles left my son Mickey Mouse pajamas to wear... and do you know what my son did? He knocked Sprinkles off of our dresser and trampled on him. We didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or turn him over to a therapist. We decided to laugh it off and pack him away for the rest of the trip, telling him that Sprinkles was in the hospital on the ship. I was off of the hook for ideas for a few days and my son wasn't being "stalked". Life was good.<br />
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Then day after day I would see parent after parent proudly display their elves on Facebook and I would feel guilty. Perhaps it was time for Sprinkles to come home from the hospital. His hat had fallen off from my son's attack on him - so we wrapped his head. While we were wrapping, we decided to bandage him up, make a sling, the whole nine yards. Thinking that some how some way that would make our son change his mind and feel some sort of remorse for his actions. Yeah, let's just say that back fired. His eyes were as big as saucers when he found Sprinkles and his expression was one of "you have GOT to be kidding me".<br />
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It wasn't until then that we finally gave up on Sprinkles. My parents understood, after all they were with us on the cruise and saw what happened to him. My dad even jokingly said that "snitches get stitches". But we felt some sort of pressure from the rest of the family to keep it going. When we packed our house up for the renovation I thought about keeping it close by for the holiday season. Then I laughed to myself and packed it up. Sprinkles didn't give us the same memories that everyone else will probably have, but we still got one heck of a laugh out of it.<br />
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A piece of me was sad - I knew that as soon as I would start seeing all of the ideas flood my news feed that I would want to jump on the bandwagon. Why do I feel like a bad mom for not pushing the idea and making my child be like everyone else's so that I can be like the other moms? The truth is my son isn't like other kids and at the end of the day, I don't want him to be. So rock on buddy, at least you won't live your life feeling like somebody's watching you and I won't be scouring the internet for new ideas.<br />
<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-17250385568441039352014-11-06T17:31:00.000-08:002014-11-22T05:18:00.545-08:00The Thanksgiving Dilemma <br />
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You see, earlier this year we decided that after a few years of friends asking us to grow turkeys that we would <i>actually</i> do it. I've tried my best not to think about their impending move from my back yard to my dinner table, but I'm having a hard time with it.<br />
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From the day that they were delivered I told myself that I wasn't going to get attached to them, and that I wouldn't let our son get too attached either.<br />
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But, how you can you not look at these little balls of fluff and think of how adorable they look?<br />
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I know, I know.... people have grown their own food since the beginning of time. There is a hunter and the hunted. Yes, I get it, but for some reason that doesn't make this process any easier on my end.<br />
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I've felt like an absentee wife. I always try to help with the "chores" around the farm in terms of feeding the chickens extra food, planting/picking the garden, etc. Though, with these poults, I distanced myself from day one, as if me not being involved would actually change the fact that one of them will wind up in my oven.<br />
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Part of me feels as though I'm being completely unreasonable. Even though I'm an animal lover at heart, living on the farm has toughened me up quite a bit. I have to be tough, there is life and death all around us. I can only allow myself to think that the goslings and the fox pups are adorable for a limited time until I realize that they really can't coexist very well. I've shed my fair share of tears over things I can't control. But this, this, is something that we did on purpose. We bought these birds with the intent to kill them.<br />
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The other part feels completely awesome and hardcore about it. It's just another adventure in the many adventures I've had being the "farmer's wife". We didn't go to Whole Foods to buy our organic turkey, we grew our own! I know what they've been eating, I know that they aren't full of nasty hormones. I know all of the benefits. Though, unlike that turkey at Whole Foods, I didn't see them like this.<br />
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Our once fluffy and cute poults are now full grown turkeys. These days they are UGLY and stinky, so that makes "the deed" a little easier. We know which ones are toms and which ones are hens, I know which one Jeff stepped on (by accident of course) and now has a messed up foot. Should it be the one that we choose to eat, the one that I've felt some sort of sympathy for the whole time? Who knows?<br />
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I haven't even touched on the fact that I KNOW as sure as I know my name, that our son is going to pick up on the fact that we're having turkey for dinner and that the turkeys that have been around for the better part of the year are now suddenly missing. We aren't worried about scarring him, but it still makes me a little sad inside. Think about all of the people that you know, and at least one of them has some sort of story about how their grandmother, mother, who ever would go out to the chicken coop and pick one for Sunday dinner. Those people aren't any worse for the wear - or so it seems.<br />
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My mother is already boycotting Thanksgiving. I'm trying to convince her (and perhaps maybe myself) that this isn't so bad. That ALL of the turkeys that get eaten on Thanksgiving were slaughtered by someone, or worse, some machine. I'm trying to convince her that our turkeys are going to be "so much better" than the ones that were raised with thousands of others in horrible and filthy conditions - because they are. That we are going to process them as humanely as possible. That we had a bunch of our friends ask us to do this, so we did. That I, not our son, am not going to be scarred by this experience.<br />
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As much as I tell myself that I can do this - that I can not only help my husband process these innocent birds, but to also <i>enjoy</i> it as the crown jewel of our Thanksgiving meal, the truth is, I'm not so sure.<br />
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.... and to our friends that wanted us to do this - please don't back out now.Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-82287113415994471982014-11-04T17:42:00.000-08:002014-11-22T06:48:38.158-08:00It's Electric..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhyS5taQnB2dPVzVNsRfiR-07hph2u3t_YhYvabesKj5hF0GiP_Qy74lKi0nKMY3-byh2nKimIjEydcSOOPNNeiK3HmD-Bxu6p0rKBwJG6enpWJd7aqp1EaZRqTdFaZZTpvm2K1CUJl0g/s1600/Electric+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhyS5taQnB2dPVzVNsRfiR-07hph2u3t_YhYvabesKj5hF0GiP_Qy74lKi0nKMY3-byh2nKimIjEydcSOOPNNeiK3HmD-Bxu6p0rKBwJG6enpWJd7aqp1EaZRqTdFaZZTpvm2K1CUJl0g/s1600/Electric+Cover.jpg" height="640" width="484" /></a></div>
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When I sat down to write this post, I realized that I had a whole other post dedicated to plumbing and HVAC that I never actually finished. That was a couple of weeks ago now. Whoops?!<br />
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Soo... in the meantime, the plumber has just about finished up his work. He more or less needs the electrician to finish before he can complete his job - oh yeah, and we kind of needed to design the kitchen. More on that later.<br />
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This is the plumbing for the vanity in our bathroom. As you can see we decided on a double vanity. We went with a 75 inch French Grey vanity. If you're so inclined you can see a picture <a href="http://www.listvanities.com/corniche-75-inch-double-bathroom-vanity-french-gray-finish.html">here</a>. I love that it isn't a "traditional" looking vanity because of the color. Now I just need to decide if I want one big mirror or two separate ones. Oh yeah, and lighting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArMOs82jXZSIXuZasjdQvhtpOFtV-RH5Nwn11sV5zVjNHYx9jGv_tCAKvWcAkAeTF2w53IyP-Rf5oHxY_7gf9R91Xsyx_FVffiCzsd0pR3Q6Ljr80SC0sRLPto4_Yhw8uW9bA5mrlNExg/s1600/plumbing+master+vanity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhArMOs82jXZSIXuZasjdQvhtpOFtV-RH5Nwn11sV5zVjNHYx9jGv_tCAKvWcAkAeTF2w53IyP-Rf5oHxY_7gf9R91Xsyx_FVffiCzsd0pR3Q6Ljr80SC0sRLPto4_Yhw8uW9bA5mrlNExg/s1600/plumbing+master+vanity.jpg" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the plumbing for the laundry room. Have you ever been so excited to look at pipes? I know that I haven't. On this side of the wall there will be a washer, dryer and a cast iron farmhouse sink with a drainboard that we bought two years ago off of Craigslist.<br />
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Kooper's shower has also been installed. His shower/tub combo is one piece. This is awesome because then I won't have to worry about gross looking caulk over time. He's four, so there is a lot of splashing involved in his baths.<br />
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Finding this was easy, but the sales lady at the place that rhymes with Dome Repo did NOT want to sell it to me. She asked me about 150 times if I was going to be able to fit this in our house because "it is one piece, and that means that it doesn't come apart". Yes, thank you, I'm aware of what "one-piece" means. On the other hand, I do appreciate her diligence in making sure that I didn't buy something that I ultimately wouldn't be able to use.<br />
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We also had to make the final decision about the placement of the shower in our mud room. We more or less had to use this corner because the other corner has a duct, and the opposite corners have stairways. There was discussion of using one of those shower units that is like a shower stall, but I only wanted a half wall shower, so they wouldn't work. I like the half wall because it gives me the sprayer option that I wanted (plus an access wall if needed) and it will be a good space for a table or a mail station of some sort between the other wall.<br />
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In other news.... the electrician has started - and by this point is nearly done his work. Isn't this exciting?!?<br />
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There are codes about where electrical outlets and switches are needed, so some of that job was "easy". However, one glorious Saturday morning we spent four hours, yes I said FOUR HOURS walking through our house room by room and deciding switch and outlet placement.We also planned out the garage and all of the lights on the outside of the house as well. Talk about having more fun than you should be allowed to have on a Saturday why don't ya'?<br />
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Why so long? In each room we had to decide what kind of light we wanted, where we wanted them and where the switch would be. As you can see by the electrician's scratching out, we changed our minds a few times. We also had to decide fan placement, what kind of switches, timers, where the switches for outside lights went, the list goes on and on.<br />
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The electrician is almost finished and we are still making some last minute changes. In order for him to finish, we also had to finalize our kitchen design. He needed to know where to make outlets and where to place lights in relation to counter/island space. BUT, the fantastic news is that the kitchen design is FINISHED!! <br />
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.... and just when we thought it couldn't be any better than finally (finally) finishing our kitchen design and ordering cabinets.<br />
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WE HAVE WORKING LIGHTS!!!!</div>
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Woooohoooo!! The lights are oil rubbed bronze - (as are all of our fixtures) with seeded glass to compliment the glass in the front door. </div>
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Things are really starting to come together. We are officially into month four of construction and it is really starting to look like something again.<br />
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Our cabinets and granite have been ordered, we decided on flooring, lights are a work in progress.<br />
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Next really big steps: insulation and drywall. Day by day.. <br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-69604348664646858752014-10-11T13:16:00.002-07:002014-10-11T13:16:50.998-07:00DOUBLE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnGGGLi04F-YnBQm3vmlauvGWGkoPzNa1imLAK4wXWe3oAUI6zRv5zhg2jiz6U9IznKUdzFoKG8CCN2Nz83CT7klThr2NcWb3xnpsWl-akjSyze4IvrxIxJcQZaCXsy9p_ZVeqZr-4vE2/s1600/choc+chip+muffin+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnGGGLi04F-YnBQm3vmlauvGWGkoPzNa1imLAK4wXWe3oAUI6zRv5zhg2jiz6U9IznKUdzFoKG8CCN2Nz83CT7klThr2NcWb3xnpsWl-akjSyze4IvrxIxJcQZaCXsy9p_ZVeqZr-4vE2/s1600/choc+chip+muffin+cover.jpg" height="640" width="486" /></a></div>
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Now that the temperatures in our area make it feel like fall is here, it's time to get back in the kitchen and bake.<br />
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Fall is the time for pumpkin stuff - Pumpkin Lattes, Pumpkin Muffins, Pumpkin Dip... the list goes on and on. But, if you're anything like me, you could take it or leave it.<br />
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That's where this recipe comes in. These muffins are chocolatey and so delicious. As an added bonus, they are also exceptionally fast and easy to make. You can have crowd pleasing muffins in about 30 minutes.<br />
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This recipe isn't mine, it's from Nigella Lawson and you can see the original <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chocolate-chocolate-chip-muffins-recipe.html">here</a>.<br />
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So here's a list of items that you'll need:<br />
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<b><u>Ingredients:</u></b><br />
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1 ¾ c. all purpose flour<br />
2 tsp. baking powder<br />
½ tsp. baking soda<br />
2 tbsp. cocoa powder - I use Hershey's<br />
¾ c. sugar<br />
¾ c. chocolate chips, plus ¼ for topping<br />
1 c. milk - I've used whole, 2%, 1%, and it doesn't seem to make a difference<br />
⅓ c. plus 2 tsp. vegetable oil<br />
1 egg<br />
1 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
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<b><u>Directions:</u></b><br />
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The first thing that you want to do when you're baking is preheat the oven. This recipe calls for a 400 degree oven. Also, while you're prepping, go ahead and get the muffin tin out and spray it with some non-stick cooking spray.<br />
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From there, add all of the dry ingredients together. So, place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder and sugar into the bowl. Give the ingredients a quick mix and then add the ¾ c. of chocolate chips. Now give everything another mix - coating the chocolate chips with flour will help keep them from sinking to the bottom of the batter and sticking to the pan.<br />
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Next, mix all of the liquid ingredients together. I have a 2 cup measuring cup, so it makes this job super simple. The only thing I don't mix in right away is the egg. I don't take the chance of the egg being bad and having to dump the whole mixture. Just crack it into another bowl and then add it to the chocolate party.<br />
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Now give everything a good mix - but don't over mix it. This isn't one of those recipes that has a smooth batter, and that's okay. I use a teaspoon to mix, and will use the same one to transfer the batter to the tin.<br />
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Doesn't this look yummy? And by now it's smelling pretty good too.<br />
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Now you're ready to but the mixture into the tin. As I said before, I just use the tablespoon that I used to mix and give it a heaping helping right into the tin. This method usually works perfectly with no leftover batter.<br />
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Once you have filled the tins, go ahead and sprinkle the remaining ¼ of chocolate chips on the top. I don't actually ever measure how many chips that I use - i just take a handful and sprinkle.<br />
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I also don't tend to use muffin paper - unless I'm making these for someone else. They don't ever last long enough to warrant the use of the paper.<br />
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Like my well-loved muffin tin? It's actually not even mine, but I've had it long enough to warrant a common law ownership over it.<br />
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Now put these babies into the 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. They will smell soooo good. This is also one of the only recipes that I've made that the time is right for - 20 minutes on the nose.<br />
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When the time is up, let them cool for 5-10 minutes before trying to get them out of the tin. Otherwise they will just stick and tear. A good method (my method, so of course it's good) is to take a butter knife and run it around the edges to make sure they release.<br />
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One quick note about these - they tend to be a little dry. You will encounter that complaint if you read the link to the original recipe. It's true - they are dry, BUT, if you eat them as a breakfast muffin like we do, it's fine. You almost always have a drink of some sort with breakfast. Or, this is also a great excuse to have them as a dessert muffin with some ice cream. See, problem solved.<br />
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Enjoy!<br />
<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-87613597305777635672014-10-10T06:39:00.000-07:002014-11-22T06:39:35.787-08:00We can see clearly now.. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdR8HYue8CpisMi1mTvxXBux9G-cVGz0XwG01_hof0JgvfBDQPmV1zEQdJQ59jGMsCoMAGRv0S8yHJ7a-cX9CuRZJUOxxOFI9Uzo8w_IjbB5qA0gmk_I4EGTp9b8bbTXrbkSboq_XVcVo/s1600/MB+Window+Change.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSdR8HYue8CpisMi1mTvxXBux9G-cVGz0XwG01_hof0JgvfBDQPmV1zEQdJQ59jGMsCoMAGRv0S8yHJ7a-cX9CuRZJUOxxOFI9Uzo8w_IjbB5qA0gmk_I4EGTp9b8bbTXrbkSboq_XVcVo/s1600/MB+Window+Change.jpg" height="288" width="640" /></a></div>
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So far one of the main themes of our remodel has been change. We've made a ton of them already. For the most part we've been able to make them and not have too much of an issue.<br />
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Up until now....<br />
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For some reason, even though we looked at the plans for literally years we didn't realize that we had an oddly shaped, strangely placed window. We realized it once it was installed and the siding had been put up.<br />
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Can you say "ooops"?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV62snFsIkSSvcnWgSmIrRtS5thgZgN4dD_1msIwD0aBIsOiEaibzwP_zLVKP52DKhfng96KFE3Ph1cVyvjIGjn9eg-AzOdZjrL-VAGqCLq1LTeA55MLYv8E3lJBl5HINlnsbGFGY16HWt/s1600/original+bedroom+window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV62snFsIkSSvcnWgSmIrRtS5thgZgN4dD_1msIwD0aBIsOiEaibzwP_zLVKP52DKhfng96KFE3Ph1cVyvjIGjn9eg-AzOdZjrL-VAGqCLq1LTeA55MLYv8E3lJBl5HINlnsbGFGY16HWt/s1600/original+bedroom+window.jpg" height="306" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I disliked this so much, that this is the only picture that I have of it. </td></tr>
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From the start I didn't like the way that it looked from the outside. Something about having one whole side of the house wide open and the other so closed off looked weird to me. I get it, sometimes to achieve a look that you want on the inside you might have to have something less than desirable on the outside. <br />
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But, it didn't look good on the inside either. It was so high up that I couldn't even see out of it. Yes, I'm short, but that doesn't change the moral of the story: we had a window that I couldn't see out of on the side of our house with the best view.<br />
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Originally this was supposed to be in our bathroom above our tub. Then we decided not to have a bathtub in our master bath. I didn't really want the window in our shower, because of its location the vanity couldn't go there. The list of problems went on and on.<br />
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We spent a long time trying to remedy this window situation and make it work and we just couldn't do it in a way that made us happy.<br />
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So... this is what we did:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJT1UKLqwYFYxfEGWTF1JXOpQOM8RuG2W_ggLe-biv5EubEliVnkGEsQn1FXlnZJMwMFxUxaGowL7wKtT4ZFEKafyhyphenhyphenODEjf49xsbkMeqrlkSLcbuS7IGOcmmocnnbhFMuF_XGfUNCk03W/s1600/new+marsh+side.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJT1UKLqwYFYxfEGWTF1JXOpQOM8RuG2W_ggLe-biv5EubEliVnkGEsQn1FXlnZJMwMFxUxaGowL7wKtT4ZFEKafyhyphenhyphenODEjf49xsbkMeqrlkSLcbuS7IGOcmmocnnbhFMuF_XGfUNCk03W/s1600/new+marsh+side.jpg" height="288" width="640" /></a></div>
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We now have a 14 foot window in our bedroom - I can see out of it, I can see EVERYTHING!! Plus we were able to redesign our master suite in a way that we both love.<br />
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The icing on the "happy cake" was that we didn't have to lose money on a window that we couldn't use. As it turns out, the smaller window was able to fit in the dormer - and our only cost was a new window and more labor to re-frame and re-side. <br />
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It was totally worth it in the end. This is our dream home, and that window just didn't sit well with either one of us. We kept hearing this voice that said "don't just live with it". So what if it was my mother in law's voice - the times when you listen the most are the times when you've already thought it yourself.<br />
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I can't wait to wake up to an amazing view every-single-day... besides, the outside of the house no longer looks weird either.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2q4WroPpOVNiPdNzEZoZBTBSBvBr5h7MJdLXznPlxW35gpciYUdi4t3ii0doPpHcUUMYaKeKtzIViawkkLEfzWdgzHXGog-YAolP-tvPpP5CR-m6nyANOoHQAFMSwd5Z6vAKJhgzu9Xmc/s1600/full+marsh+view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2q4WroPpOVNiPdNzEZoZBTBSBvBr5h7MJdLXznPlxW35gpciYUdi4t3ii0doPpHcUUMYaKeKtzIViawkkLEfzWdgzHXGog-YAolP-tvPpP5CR-m6nyANOoHQAFMSwd5Z6vAKJhgzu9Xmc/s1600/full+marsh+view.jpg" height="334" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-67740494526630597962014-09-26T06:25:00.002-07:002014-11-22T06:32:45.488-08:00....and then there were windows.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWBrRwk0EIKMo4T8FkQt3rKym9HgmB-HbGt2QC6TcEBz6QSXGDBHDR14tM2qUaOxsMKD2B_homni4aydp2MiCihAQgFk0KlfxZekKBKk4SxjYr-Fxtd6eIRL_by6YHwyacV4ARsDfCgOUg/s1600/Window+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWBrRwk0EIKMo4T8FkQt3rKym9HgmB-HbGt2QC6TcEBz6QSXGDBHDR14tM2qUaOxsMKD2B_homni4aydp2MiCihAQgFk0KlfxZekKBKk4SxjYr-Fxtd6eIRL_by6YHwyacV4ARsDfCgOUg/s1600/Window+Cover.jpg" height="366" width="640" /></a></div>
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For Puff Daddy, it was "all about the Benjamins, baby". For us, it's all about the windows, baby.<br />
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The crown jewel of our windows was installed this week, and we couldn't be happier with the result. Which, is good, because getting to that point wasn't easy. The rest of our windows have been in for quite some time. These last few have taken what seemed like forever to be delivered to the company we ordered them from. <br />
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I get it, they were super special order. However, a company should in theory have more than one person in charge of helping customers place special orders and in turn have more than one person that can give you answers about said windows.<br />
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But, I digress... that's all behind us now.<br />
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The original plan for this back wall called for three pairs of sliding glass doors. The night before the framing started, I kept looking at pictures of what I wanted our living room to look like, and decided on the picture below.<br />
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There are 12 separate windows (and 2 doors) here. The larger ones on the top are casement windows, and the smaller ones are transits. We decided on a reverse transit and were going to leave it at that. Then we decide to add more.<br />
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As a result we went from this look :<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9yKWe3NOhqm_xpnbmlhk0D0a52Z8z7qLaKl_i7K0sP6OMx-5koOt8UsC5sDwq37tJV8JnU-1OVR828vHQwiielhk0rO9SOBVF_gpKkQegkgyWQsHlgMdPtdc_gLezHPNQsk0cbt68vrl2/s1600/living+room+windows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9yKWe3NOhqm_xpnbmlhk0D0a52Z8z7qLaKl_i7K0sP6OMx-5koOt8UsC5sDwq37tJV8JnU-1OVR828vHQwiielhk0rO9SOBVF_gpKkQegkgyWQsHlgMdPtdc_gLezHPNQsk0cbt68vrl2/s1600/living+room+windows.jpg" height="364" width="640" /></a></div>
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To this.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH0LmnfFlXo2AkCEV9SjrBQVLJv7m_0Blcq_uGNwyRk3ymF-8Yx1TtlnpdOQVwcxTOxH6dJa-B2T4X16qlRgCVzwnYI2kGOcc36GSz8DaTM7ITeSqSHlCxUpmevF-yXNQ2euSuYXrNTj3Z/s1600/trapezoid+window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH0LmnfFlXo2AkCEV9SjrBQVLJv7m_0Blcq_uGNwyRk3ymF-8Yx1TtlnpdOQVwcxTOxH6dJa-B2T4X16qlRgCVzwnYI2kGOcc36GSz8DaTM7ITeSqSHlCxUpmevF-yXNQ2euSuYXrNTj3Z/s1600/trapezoid+window.jpg" height="386" width="640" /></a></div>
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To say the least, we love it. I am so happy that we decided to do the reverse transit and as a result able to add these trapezoids at the top. We talked about putting two more windows in the corners. We could probably make it happen, but at this point it would be another special order, which means more time waiting. More time rearranging siding on the outside, and it would ultimately delay our drywall from being finished in this area. Oh yeah, and more money. <br />
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Because of all of our special orders and the sheer amount of glass, we spent around $20,000 for windows. Yeah... Also because of the window changes we spent more than the original quote for lumber as well, as each window needs about 3-4 boards worth of support.<br />
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We are going to have to be on a tight budget from here on out, but neither one of us foresees wanting or needing to re-do windows - so we decided to dream big.... and eat Ramen noodles until we're 50.<br />
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The idea of a trapezoid on the top of the other windows was Jeff's idea. The idea of a half round in the loft was my idea - so Jeff calls this "my window". He didn't think he would like it because it takes up a lot of wall space.<br />
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Sure, it does... but the view is amazing. Well, right now the view is partially blocked by a tree - but we can remedy that.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDHGv3dkk3O81EUUHQKsVqkGMaZfACwYTVwmUJiRcaGKJEUh52kAo-x9Q271weaGomMx_4JLWOgJRsAGm1EyFgpHV_ockAZL_kHgFxn9eKnyVPqzOQUBGqxVuwLR8bpok4qIYovBOnJHP/s1600/loft+window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDHGv3dkk3O81EUUHQKsVqkGMaZfACwYTVwmUJiRcaGKJEUh52kAo-x9Q271weaGomMx_4JLWOgJRsAGm1EyFgpHV_ockAZL_kHgFxn9eKnyVPqzOQUBGqxVuwLR8bpok4qIYovBOnJHP/s1600/loft+window.jpg" height="404" width="640" /></a></div>
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Our front door was also installed this week. No, it's not crooked, just some bad photography on my part. Sorry!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUi-ij92NB5kjhbm-2GCVZd0e9V1x5brlhYcKY5BhbA0JOIVVDeUQm3eFbW3sGf-b7pwfVMAyQT7YLoZSK61IHwQ2kGduQNbCMApikTTTIH-Yo20ezDeOR2NxxJmZeWMmYhQY0mj_z4gE-/s1600/front+door.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUi-ij92NB5kjhbm-2GCVZd0e9V1x5brlhYcKY5BhbA0JOIVVDeUQm3eFbW3sGf-b7pwfVMAyQT7YLoZSK61IHwQ2kGduQNbCMApikTTTIH-Yo20ezDeOR2NxxJmZeWMmYhQY0mj_z4gE-/s1600/front+door.jpg" height="558" width="640" /></a></div>
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I am a little torn about how I feel about the glass. I love the design, but we (I) opted for chorded glass. Which, essentially means that you can't see through it. The idea of not having someone be able to see in was appealing to me. However, you can't see a darn thing out of it. As a result, I'm a bit torn - I like the privacy aspect, especially since the other side of the house is a wall of glass, but ultimately am not crazy about having glass that I can't see out of. We could, of course, get a screen door and just keep the door open. Perhaps, but it would have to be the "right" kind of door so that we don't lose the look of the door.<br />
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So what's on tap for the future? The last two weekends Jeff's uncle has been installing our HVAC system - which isn't too much to look at, so no pics. But, it's the top of the line system and we will have three separate units. One for the old part of the house, one for the kitchen and great room, and a third for the loft.<br />
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We're also busy designing our dream kitchen with my uncle. He designed a fantastic kitchen space for us, and we went to pick out cabinets this week. Plus we are picking out vanities and lights for the rooms. The plumber starts today, so we had to finalize our bathroom wants/needs. Oh yes, and floors! We are in floor hell - why oh why are there SO MANY choices??<br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-81122558052606773752014-09-14T07:39:00.000-07:002014-09-14T07:39:08.990-07:00Not so fast... <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-7UTfeeWAIVhGADioslY2evxIKZBtDaaqXStOOq0f-vLKjw8ndkF1vLZezLYezAS7yQrNc3i6dQkETWrIaX86UFUZlSlDsKypX3P-I0ff7LNmOJ8waF8UeFjJVkr3DlECjcKuIDqhnwfe/s1600/Quickie+Graphic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-7UTfeeWAIVhGADioslY2evxIKZBtDaaqXStOOq0f-vLKjw8ndkF1vLZezLYezAS7yQrNc3i6dQkETWrIaX86UFUZlSlDsKypX3P-I0ff7LNmOJ8waF8UeFjJVkr3DlECjcKuIDqhnwfe/s1600/Quickie+Graphic.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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According to my husband, "you + tragedy - me = comedy".</div>
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Well, here's hoping that you can get a laugh out of something that has plagued us our entire marriage. We can't seem to have a "quickie". </div>
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In honor of our 7 year wedding anniversary happening tomorrow, I've compiled a list of 7 reasons and unfortunate stories about why we just can't seem to seal the deal in a hurry.<br />
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The inspiration for this post started this morning when Jeff and I found ourselves alone in my mother in law's walk in pantry. We stole a quick kiss, to which he said "hey, we could have a quickie in here". My response was "you know that we can't, strange things always happen when we do." Of course at this point, his mom is in the pantry looking for who knows what and says " what are you talking about". Normally we would have skirted around the subject, but we were in a fun mood so we told her - and now I'm telling the magical world of the internet.<br />
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<b><u>1. A Power Outage</u></b><br />
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We have well water, so when the power goes out, the water is out too. The first Christmas that we were married, we decided to have a little rendezvous in the shower before Christmas dinner. Lo and behold, what happens? Yep, you guessed it, the power went out.<br />
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Perhaps the funniest part of this story is that people had asked us separately what we were doing when the power went out (yes, our family is nosey apparently) and we both gave the same answer "I was in the shower". Their faces when they figured it out were pretty priceless.<br />
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<b><u>2. A Giant Sand Dune</u></b><br />
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A few years back, my inlaws and Kooper's Godfather and his wife all rented a house in the Outer Banks. Needless to say with 7 people and a baby, private time was at a minimum. Then one by one they all left, the baby napped, and we had the place to ourselves. It was like the stars had aligned and we knew what we had to do, or at least try to do.<br />
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Nope.<br />
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The majority of them went to a place called Jockey's Ridge, which is essentially a very large sand dune. My sister and father and law were going to hang glide my mother in law wanted to watch. Even though our friends were headed in that direction, my mother in law didn't want to burden them with an extra stop, so she walked. Did I mention that it was like 100 degrees? Our friends passed her on the road and decided to pick her up. Did I also mention that we didn't know that any of this was happening?<br />
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Some time passes and the phone rings. We, like anyone else in the same situation didn't answer right away. Finally we did and it was the Godfather saying "something is wrong with your mom, I thought that she was going to puke in my brand new car so I let her out". Wait, did he <i>really</i> just say that he let your mom out in the 100 degree heat to WALK the rest of the way to the sand dune after he said she was gonna throw up!? A phone call like that will kill the mood in a matter of seconds. I can attest, it happened to me first hand. We got ourselves together, woke our son up, and went to her rescue.<br />
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To this day, and up until she reads this, she never knew what were were up to and why we always laugh hysterically when we talk about "the time she got heat stroke in the OBX".<br />
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<b><u>3. My Dad</u></b><br />
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Now might be as good of a time as any to mention that we've been trying to have another baby. With that, of course means that things have to be well timed.<br />
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Jeff and I had the opportunity to vacation at the beach with my parents last year. The condo that they rented had two bedrooms and a sofa bed. Mom and dad in one bedroom, Kooper in another and us on the sofa bed. No biggie.<br />
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That is, until you have a positive ovulation test and everyone is asleep except for my dad. The man who usually has been in dreamland for at least three hours at this time of night. But no, not this night - he's just randomly walking around the condo like he doesn't have anything better to do. Every time we thought the coast was clear he would pop out of their room again. It's like he knew.. ugh, maybe he did. Though, I doubt it. There's something funny and awkward about waiting for your son AND your parents to go to bed before getting your groove on.<br />
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<b><u>4. Kooper</u></b><br />
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As any parent knows, the day when your child can climb out of his or her crib is a life-changing one. For them it means freedom, for you it means nap time sex is over.<br />
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Regardless of locked doors and baby monitors, we still had the constant conversation of "do you hear the baby, I think I hear him walking around". Cue, stopping what you're doing to check on him only to find out he's sound asleep and to repeat the whole conversation again in 30 seconds.<br />
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Yeah, this doesn't really get much accomplished - and at the end of it, I didn't even get a nap. Talk about annoying.<br />
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<b><u>5. My Mother in law</u></b><br />
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Since we've been at their house, she likes to go in and snuggle with Kooper at night. On this particular night, she fell asleep in bed with him. No one knew. No offense, but we didn't really care where she was - our son was asleep and it was "go time".<br />
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Until... we heard a knock at the door. We both thought, was that a knock? Yeah, it was. So we stopped for a moment to collect our thoughts (and our clothes) and hoped that whoever was knocking would go away.<br />
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Then, another knock. We answered the door. Who was it? My father in law looking for my mother in law. He said "have you seen mom?" Ummm, nope, we haven't, and we're okay with that. We didn't say that of course, but for a few days after we would laugh and randomly say "have you seen mom".<br />
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<b><u>6. Someone is bleeding</u></b><br />
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As many of you know, we are currently remodeling our house. We had a crew of guys working on framing the house and roof.<br />
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Jeff and I had an appointment in the afternoon - Koop was with his mom, his dad was outside working. Yep, you guessed it... and again, a shut down.<br />
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In spite of all of the people working outside, I was able to talk the hubby into a quick romp. I have to tell you, that I honestly have no idea what went on from here. The rest was told to me after the fact by Jeff . Apparently there was some yelling outside - we had a few guys that were on the loud side, so I didn't think much of it. Then, Jeff heard his dad say "he's bleeding, let me go and get Kathy (my MIL) so that she can check it out." And with that, our romp ended - with blood and stitches. But not for us.<br />
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In case you were wondering, one of the guys was sawing a board and it somehow managed to land on the head of another one of the guys who wasn't wearing any safety gear. For those that have been following the renovation, this was the same dude that kept stepping through our ceiling. If your memory is foggy, you can read about it again <a href="http://kooperscoop.blogspot.com/2014/07/mama-said-thered-be-days-like-this.html">here.</a><br />
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<b><u>7. A quickie is never quick</u></b><br />
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For some, maybe. For us, not so much. Jeff likes to think of it as "getting an extra life in a video game". You do something good, and just as your life is ready to run out, you get another one. And pretty soon, your quickie has turned in to exactly the opposite.<br />
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So, there you have it. Our reasons why quick sex is off of the table for us. I'm really adamant about it. We had a perceived opportunity the other night when the whole family was around and Kooper was occupied and I literally said "No, your grandmother is here and something bad ALWAYS happens". I don't need that kind of drama in my life when all I want is a quick roll in the sheets with my man.<br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-19854646504148188752014-09-07T14:35:00.000-07:002014-11-22T05:59:12.653-08:00We've got windows.. and siding!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPAJcdVRbj5WcC0SmaLLT5CKXll-3II8mB8Sh5HydOGHI6ocGm7NVE8-jlL8gU-eWqCL3UkxTRES3k8dkVf9353HEA8hlW9tWytHnHNsjiuulPWLAR_8YMv1cwJxUKMUnRbjIZ7VUgN8G/s1600/siding+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioPAJcdVRbj5WcC0SmaLLT5CKXll-3II8mB8Sh5HydOGHI6ocGm7NVE8-jlL8gU-eWqCL3UkxTRES3k8dkVf9353HEA8hlW9tWytHnHNsjiuulPWLAR_8YMv1cwJxUKMUnRbjIZ7VUgN8G/s1600/siding+cover.jpg" height="572" width="640" /></a></div>
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Sorry that it's been so long since my last post. Things have been busy, but we're moving right a long with the renovation. A lot of work has been done, even if it doesn't look like it. The first few weeks many obvious changes were made, but that's slowed down a bit.<br />
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The demolition process was neat for us, but would probably be a little boring if you didn't have an appreciation for the old house. It was also pretty time consuming. It took a total of about 2-3 weeks of just my father in law working on it and moving the trash from the house to the dumpster. Jeff and I were able to help a little, but in the grand scheme our help was minimal.<br />
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The house needed to be gutted before the windows could go in, and the windows have to be installed before the siding can go on. <br />
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One of the biggest parts of the demolition was removing the old siding from the house. There were cedar shake shingles under the old siding - who knew? This was a very tedious process to say the least.<br />
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Another gem that we found was this cool wallpaper. Jeff's mom and aunt remember this from the house when they were growing up.<br />
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While my father in law was finishing up demolition, our work crew was able to start the windows. This is the view from the marsh/river side of our house.<br />
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The french doors have also been installed. Here is the view from the inside. I am in total love. And, as if we don't have enough windows already, there is a trapezoid shaped window going in over top of the doors and windows. <br />
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We spent a lot of money on windows, but saved money on siding. Ha ha ha..<br />
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This is the view of the picture window and the doors. As well as a good shot of our siding. The "official" color is called Mist. In this picture it looks off white, in some lights it looks grey, in others the reflection of the grass makes it seem green. I like that it can't quite make up its mind. We almost picked an olive green - and I'm very happy that we didn't.<br />
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I also like that we chose to do the additional white trim around the windows and doors. It gives it just a little bit more.<br />
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Here's another view of the siding. This time the front of the house. See how it looks more grayish in this light?<br />
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We also now have steps! This is a huge deal because now we can access the loft space without climbing a ladder. For some, that's not a big deal. For me, it was huge... I really really don't like ladders, or heights.<br />
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Asher was also very happy about the steps. Now he can join us upstairs instead of barking incessantly until we come back down.<br />
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What's on tap for the future? Well, now that the house is wide open we are designing and redesigning our floor plan. Our architect more or less made a footprint of our house to give to the county for a permit. He did minimal interior design (which was fine), so now we are able to figure out how we want the rest of our space to look.<br />
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We're also working on a kitchen design and the HVAC work is set to begin next week.Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-23974621838806185972014-08-12T17:42:00.000-07:002014-08-12T17:42:01.236-07:00A look back... our house before the remodel. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-yP0Ke1HQAFY4zfnoqZPVvcODmZvc6zNpEwBDknSsMiSGhSmi4iO4ByhPxGKvv3u7IpNqstn3q2iJ-Iq58Bu-iHNrMEupaaJ4VpSkrFK3aUoReAryLHwuucuhwdg2MPucvT_fGGa2KQyx/s1600/before+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-yP0Ke1HQAFY4zfnoqZPVvcODmZvc6zNpEwBDknSsMiSGhSmi4iO4ByhPxGKvv3u7IpNqstn3q2iJ-Iq58Bu-iHNrMEupaaJ4VpSkrFK3aUoReAryLHwuucuhwdg2MPucvT_fGGa2KQyx/s1600/before+cover.jpg" height="390" width="640" /></a></div>
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Our house has changed a lot over the last few weeks, but today the most dramatic change happened. The demolition process is really underway, and our old house is to the point of barely recognizable.<br />
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I was able to help for a little while today, and it was fun to tear apart the old house, but also weird at the same time. I was using a sledgehammer and crow bar to rip down the house that was my home for the last seven years. The kitchen that Jeff painted and put an island in, the room that we so lovingly prepared for the arrival of our son - all gone.<br />
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It's bittersweet really. Yes, it's sad to see the old house and all of our memories go - and not just ours, but the rest of the family's as well - as the house was built in 1929. But, for as sad as it seems now, the end result is going to be awesome.<br />
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In light of the day's work of demolition, I decided it was the perfect time to show everyone our old house.<br />
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Let's start with the kitchen. When you first walked into our house, this is what welcomed you.<br />
Jeff painted all of the cabinets, made the range hood where the microwave is, and installed an island. I'm going to miss having all of those pictures on the fridge - our new one is stainless.<br />
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Sort of the same view, but to the immediate left upon entering. Jeff stained those doors and that's where our washer and dryer were.<br />
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View to the right of the kitchen. This whole wall and the cabinets are gone as of today.<br />
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This was the entry way into the living room, and the door to the right is where our office and our room used to be.<br />
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The view from the very back corner of the living room looking back in toward the kitchen. Jeff painted the wood paneling in the office, but it wound up being a lot of work. So we decided not to paint the living room paneling. We didn't know at the time it would be seven years before we'd start the remodel, otherwise we might have painted it. But who knew? And good things come to those who wait!<br />
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More paneling on the other side. We also had curtains at one point, but they went to the wayside a few years ago. We've also got lots of drab colors going on. It won't be like this in the new house, trust me!<br />
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Our bathroom. Yep, it's an awful picture. Sorry about that. I took a few different ones, and this was the best. Go figure. The bathtub is directly across from the toilet. I didn't feel the need to post a pic of just the shower curtain - which was surfboards in case you were wondering. </div>
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Kooper's room was right next to the bathroom. His room was my favorite room of the house, hands down. We converted the guest room into a nursery when he was born. The room was still shades of a nursery with a hint of a big boy room. I am really excited for him to have a brand new room in our new house and can't wait to decorate it. Can you say tractors?</div>
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I cried when I packed it up, and that will be the only room of the house that I won't help rip apart. </div>
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Now we can move back over the other side of the house. This was our office, the view is from our bedroom.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWisfc_sodwE9G5tO2XyoMXCmaO1neBJvNBj9G9VMxqzWOBUeWLDyGdvqkG89CMu6SN9Hm1mDeoS5TpUSTRZ0W5FlKSU-xgXzRjCtBbfAnLGTjKl8blvWpmYxzEQAdc_m89xs1iSwhf3R-/s1600/office+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWisfc_sodwE9G5tO2XyoMXCmaO1neBJvNBj9G9VMxqzWOBUeWLDyGdvqkG89CMu6SN9Hm1mDeoS5TpUSTRZ0W5FlKSU-xgXzRjCtBbfAnLGTjKl8blvWpmYxzEQAdc_m89xs1iSwhf3R-/s1600/office+1.jpg" height="444" width="640" /></a></div>
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And last but not least, we have our room. When we were first married, this was the room I was the most excited about decorating/painting. I look back now and realize how boring it really was. Oh well.<br />
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I've already posted a lot of pics of the outside of the house, but here are a few more just to really show the difference.<br />
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I hope that you enjoyed the tour of our old house. It was definitely a cozy place, but it was time for us to make a change.<br />
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<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-12630660409653298842014-08-09T15:37:00.001-07:002014-08-09T15:37:04.083-07:00Zucchini Bread with CHOCOLATE CHIPS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq8wrF8F1CByXkf9lUYkfjtP2uIAfgBnCmW5Yh12xxzogOTCqJ7v0lHwxjZ1ya22QBK_lWSs1naOZVq6ASIqYJGuvmFy2XM3EIk5qMLCxB2uQfdanhS6Ae_fcKLMPy_jrCXz26_mEhR6zd/s1600/z+bread+cover.jpg" height="640" width="398" /><a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moms-Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx?soid=carousel_0_rotd&prop24=rotd">here</a></div>
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Mmmm.. Doesn't that sound delicious? This time of year our garden is usually chock full of zucchini. This can only mean one thing for us - Zucchini Bread.<br />
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I found this recipe a few years back and love it. When it comes to baking, I tend to follow recipes rather than venturing out on my own and mixing stuff together. So, consider this me doing the hard work of sifting (like what I did there) through the recipes and giving my readers the best of the best.<br />
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The original recipe can be found <a href="http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moms-Zucchini-Bread/Detail.aspx?soid=carousel_0_rotd&prop24=rotd">here</a>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Ingredients:</u></span><br />
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3 cups all-purpose flour<br />
1tsp. salt<br />
1tsp. baking soda<br />
1tsp. baking powder<br />
3tsp. ground cinnamon<br />
3 eggs<br />
1 c. vegetable oil<br />
2 ¼ c. white sugar<br />
3 tsp. vanilla extract<br />
2 c. grated zucchini<br />
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* The original recipe called for 1 cup of chopped walnuts. I added a sprinkle of chocolate chips.*<br />
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I pretty much add chocolate chips to everything that I bake - they complete everything so well.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Directions:</u></span><br />
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Grease and flour two loaf pans and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. I use the baking spray that has the flour already in it. It's called Baker's Joy. If you haven't tried using it, it's awesome. Even the store brand versions work well.<br />
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Then you want to sift the flour, salt, baking power, baking soda and cinnamon together in a bowl.<br />
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Why sifted? It's to aerate the flour, and to make sure that there isn't any debris in it. This is mainly for people that take flour right from the bag to the bowl. We keep ours in a container. If you use a whisk you can have the same effect. I have a sifter, so I use it. I've never skipped this step, but I'm sure that you could, and the bread would turn out just fine.<br />
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Next, you beat the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a bowl. Add the sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture and beat well.<br />
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The mixture will be really thick, as you can see on the spoon below. It SHOULD be like this, the zucchini will give the mixture the liquid that it needs to be poured into the loaf pans.<br />
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I put some of the mixture on the spoon and ran my finger down the middle. The mixture didn't come back together, so that means it is really thick. You can also use this method for judging whether or not sauces are ready.<br />
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Next step, grating the zucchini. This is always messy. My preferred method is to use a box grater. As the name implies, it has 4 sides. One is good for slicing, one good for grating, and to be honest, I'm not sure what the others are good for other than making mush. So, if you want mush, use the other sides.<br />
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I used the side closest to the left - just in case you didn't notice the leftover zucchini on it.<br />
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When you are finished grating, add the zucchini to the mixture and use a wooden spoon to mix it back in. A metal spoon works, but it is much easier to stir with a wooden spoon.<br />
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Yes, I realize that in this picture, I've got a PC spatula. This is one of those "do as I say, not as I do" moments, kids.<br />
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After the zucchini is mixed in. Pour the mixture into the loaf pans. This is also when I add the chocolate chips.<br />
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Why not mix them into the batter? You could.. but, I've found that they sink to the bottom and make the bread stick to the pan. Usually sprinkling the chips with flour before mixing them in prevents this, but for some reason that trick doesn't work with this recipe.<br />
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The original recipe also calls for the baking time to be between 40 and 60 minutes. That is a huge range. I've never had this bread be ready in less than 60 minutes. In fact, it tends to be longer than that sometimes too (65 minutes has been tops).<br />
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Here's the finished product. The chocolate chips sunk down into the mixture as it baked, but not enough to go all of the way to the bottom.<br />
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If you try this, let me know! I'd love to hear if you enjoyed it. Our family loves it, my parents actually fight over it!Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-66748439397844693752014-08-08T09:01:00.000-07:002014-08-08T09:01:21.820-07:00Under Construction: Week 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This week in pictures will be short and sweet, even though there was a lot of progress made. For the most part, the pictures were the same all week. There was a lot of work done to the roof. <br />
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This included finishing up the trusses. Our roof design is super complicated because of tying the old house in with the addition.<br />
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Like the random dragonfly in the pic? How about my sidekick Asher?<br />
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After the trusses were completed, the crew had to put up the new sheathing. Then they could begin the process of stripping the shingles off of the old roof and fixing whatever needed to be fixed underneath to make sure everything was weather tight.<br />
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This is the house with no shingles. Our house has already been added to. If you look between the four windows on the side, where the chimney is, is where the old house used to be. We decided to keep the dormer, as it was original to the house, and adds a little architectural appeal.<br />
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Week 3 was also our last week that we spent in the house as we know it. We spent the week packing and storing things to get ready for our move in with Jeff's parents.<br />
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This is Jeff cooking our last meal in the house before all of the plates, and cooking utensils got packed away.<br />
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Stay tuned for Week 4 - which means a completed roof and hopefully a garage floor.Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-29744009106547157272014-07-29T17:39:00.001-07:002014-11-22T05:50:36.693-08:00"Mama said there'd be days like this.."<br />
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I'm finding that in life, most great things take a while to accomplish and don't come without some sort of hiccup. <br />
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Well, we had our hiccup today folks. A few of them, actually. </div>
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Just as I was getting used to what the sound of men working on your roofs sounds like (lots of thuds, in case you were wondering), I hear a crash. I was in our living room and heard lots of stuff crashing down somewhere. That somewhere turned out to be our kitchen table. </div>
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See Exhibit 1:</div>
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One of the guys working on our roof took a wrong step and his lower half came crashing through. My immediate reaction wasn't to see if he was alright, or to even get the dog away from him. (story later) It was the lamp. You see, this lamp doesn't actually belong to us, it has been on loan from my in laws and is sort of a family heirloom. Many a Kammann have banged their noggins on this table, and because of my quick actions, hopefully the tradition will continue. </div>
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So, back to the dog. Asher can smell fear, and the guy that fell through is afraid of dogs. Every time Asher goes out, he is on the hunt for this guy. Then, lo and behold, he was in Asher's house and unable to defend himself. Let's just say that if the kitchen table wasn't there, this guy would have been an Asher snack for sure. Even the up until now straight and focused Amish guys got a good old fashioned belly laugh out of the situation. </div>
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Shortly after this incident I was informed that the light wouldn't be much use to us anyway because the power had to be cut off in certain places because of electrical lines running in our current roof- surprise! </div>
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This involved taking down two fans and now we no longer have power in our bedroom and part of our kitchen. Oh well, we can rough it for a few days. Nothing like camping in our own house. Thankfully the weather is fantastic and we are able to have the windows open - because with all of the holes in our ceiling, we'd be cooling the great outdoors. </div>
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The entire time the crew was working today, I kept hearing cracking. I kept looking at our kitchen ceiling to see what was cracking, and couldn't see anything. I even looked at the top of our cabinets to see what was up - nothing.</div>
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Then, I walked into our bedroom - mystery solved! Bingo, I found the crack. Please tell me what I've won... </div>
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...oh wait, a free view of the sky from my bed? Awesome! I turned around to find this:</div>
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Which, I think that there is something a bit awesome about the placement of the cross, and the light, but perhaps that's just too much Catholic schooling?</div>
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About this time, I decided it was time to pack up some things on our dresser and get myself, Kooper and the dogs out of dodge for a while. A little while later, I came up to check on some things and what did I see?</div>
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You guessed it, another hole!</div>
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This was sort of the icing on the cake, and we can currently see the stars. Which, is perfect for camping. Ha ha..</div>
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Seriously, everything is technically "under roof" at this point, but there is a little piece of sky hanging out of this hole. I think we will be ok, I'm not going to freak out about it....</div>
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Even if our current roof looks like this:</div>
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All things considered it could be a lot worse. Frankly, I'm not shocked that someone came down through the roof, what shocks me is that it took this long to happen. I'm not too upset about all of the damage either. The entire house is set to be gutted and redone, as well as the entire roof. </div>
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So what, we had one broken candle and a lot of dust. It's all minor in the grand scheme. No one got hurt, my family is safe, AND we are getting a whole new house! I hope to look back on this day and laugh. </div>
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Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-40090313824829449082014-07-27T09:07:00.001-07:002014-07-27T09:07:22.973-07:00Week 2 Progress<br />
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The end of our second week of construction is a wrap, and we are so pleased with the progress. The crew that we hired to get our house framed and under roof worked only 4 days this week and it is insane how quickly the house is coming together.<br />
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The trusses for the roof are going to be delivered sometime over the weekend and the work will continue on Monday. We are busy packing and prepping to be displaced for a period of time. Packing is awful and it has been a slow process so far. Though, thanks to my favorite mother in law, we have more of a jump on it than we did a few days ago. </div>
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Here goes week 2 in pics! There are a lot of them, sorry about that, but it truly speaks to all of the progress that was made this week.</div>
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This is the steel beam that supports the new part of the house as well as the support for the subfloor. The guys had these all of the way down and ready to connect the other side when they realized that the wrong size was placed on the plans, which meant that the wrong size was ordered. They had to remove them, return them and wait for the correct sizing. </div>
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In spite of the set back, they were still able to get the sub floor in and the first of the wall frames up the very next day. </div>
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Jeff got home early enough one day that he was able to literally be hands on in helping raise the garage wall. </div>
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Kooper and I stayed in bed a little late on Thursday morning, and when I looked out, this is what we saw. The middle is going to be an 18ft bay window with doors on both sides. This "little" nook is where I want to place our kitchen table. That's our dog Asher checking out the new view. </div>
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This is the inside of the garage from my pantry. Once the wall goes up, I won't be able to see it, but thought it was a cool view for the time being.<br />
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Here's the kitchen wall. We're not 100% on kitchen design yet, but there will also be a mud room in this space. Our garage will lead into the mud room, which will lead into the kitchen. I'm standing about where the kitchen island will be. The space above it is loft space. This will be our office/play area/tv room.<br />
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The back wall of the loft. The middle window is going to be a 6.5ft half circle. Yes.. we know about the tree and are trying to find a solution that meets everyone's needs. Jeff's grandmother gave that tree to her mother in law when she was first married. So even though the obvious choice is to remove it, after knowing the origin it becomes a little muddled.<br />
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While we're up in the loft... let's take in a somewhat panoramic view without the roof and walls..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGXO-BRsFDIuzPb0tMn6SdUYopc9VRfhAraSGkfg5s8rbkPB_2tOjQnvM9R1VDge658uZmE-w7YvsyBAcrp50vQ5FCZgfGLMDZeUTeIzrvruFPibGBHksNpxWfWX_BN5lUjUdvO1Oc6nY/s1600/Panoramic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggGXO-BRsFDIuzPb0tMn6SdUYopc9VRfhAraSGkfg5s8rbkPB_2tOjQnvM9R1VDge658uZmE-w7YvsyBAcrp50vQ5FCZgfGLMDZeUTeIzrvruFPibGBHksNpxWfWX_BN5lUjUdvO1Oc6nY/s1600/Panoramic.jpg" height="220" width="640" /></a></div>
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Here's the side of the garage. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkm2TZOPEn0SPkdQTRycwZCBSN4vcwFn50-T3O5vQ_dhFAhSYc7nhE8d6CcGMJbvt2XLSpVvEYwGqpv5A0WvBa5Y2nFdHzEkibUkDewX8-yppUYa-wdtVt53_CoZw-2YgNNHKcZIGlzMpz/s1600/garage+view+2+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkm2TZOPEn0SPkdQTRycwZCBSN4vcwFn50-T3O5vQ_dhFAhSYc7nhE8d6CcGMJbvt2XLSpVvEYwGqpv5A0WvBa5Y2nFdHzEkibUkDewX8-yppUYa-wdtVt53_CoZw-2YgNNHKcZIGlzMpz/s1600/garage+view+2+.jpg" height="436" width="640" /></a></div>
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And here's our current roof view from the loft. It's down to drywall in preparation for tying in the roof. We had a quick storm the other morning and somehow stayed dry. We also have a very cool green tint to our bedroom now. The window on the far side of the picture is our current bedroom. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQwSMJzV0yuPqlE_UBgyUnRtF54yRURZAbs4oL_87MO8sszM2PUhIgV0v2eRQeiq8z2ghKcoOt85XAq5FK7_FStTPSLI6DStJsrTqkuVQDD1etGN5e60l3mOOWneQHsnObd8MhZpr9NDr/s1600/roof+tarp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCQwSMJzV0yuPqlE_UBgyUnRtF54yRURZAbs4oL_87MO8sszM2PUhIgV0v2eRQeiq8z2ghKcoOt85XAq5FK7_FStTPSLI6DStJsrTqkuVQDD1etGN5e60l3mOOWneQHsnObd8MhZpr9NDr/s1600/roof+tarp.jpg" height="442" width="640" /></a></div>
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As I said before, there was a ton of progress made in week 2. Week 3 promises a new roof and us to be out of our current space and in with my inlaws. </div>
Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-13169535304138873222014-07-23T10:56:00.000-07:002014-07-23T10:56:47.176-07:00How to score FREE boxes!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTp14JBSwIKGgPfZKY30vkoRrW08t7TlOUwL2BKPLaCnZjWoHHxmttVrEMiOhfulfmN1SQmU65vHcGQkR6TallbRNkbvCG4GX0zSKByqgXdpbQ-ubb0CIY0zEJCgHfXm_gj89yCHgAAPlh/s1600/moving+boxes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTp14JBSwIKGgPfZKY30vkoRrW08t7TlOUwL2BKPLaCnZjWoHHxmttVrEMiOhfulfmN1SQmU65vHcGQkR6TallbRNkbvCG4GX0zSKByqgXdpbQ-ubb0CIY0zEJCgHfXm_gj89yCHgAAPlh/s1600/moving+boxes.jpg" height="616" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's been no secret that we are putting an addition to our house. As such, at some point we are going to have to move out of our current house. This means packing. We've never moved before. Jeff moved from his parents house to our current house - we moved some furniture and clothing on a flat wagon across the farm and he was set. I basically only moved clothes from my parent's house, and all of our wedding gifts went right to our house.<br />
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Flash forward almost seven years... now we have TONS of stuff (and another person and 2 dogs worth of stuff) that needs to be packed up. Kitchen gadgets, special plates and dishes, pictures, you name it.<br />
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A friend of mine told me that I can buy boxes from the U-HAUL store. I went there and bought some. I got 15 extra large and 20 large boxes for around $42.00. I also purchased BubbleWrap from Office Depot for $20.00 for 150 yards. $62.00 later, I decided that there had to be a better way. Plus, the boxes that I bought were too big for items like books.<br />
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I asked my local supermarket for egg boxes, they gave me 6. That wasn't gonna get me far. So then I was really on the hunt. Our local liquor store gave me 2. Walmart had NONE, some how their workers are so efficient that they crush all empty boxes as soon as they are finished with them. Yeah, ok.. but I digress..<br />
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While I was at Walmart, I decided that I needed an iced coffee. When I got to DD, there was a delivery truck in the back - and then it hit me- ask them for boxes! Well, I hit pay dirt. Not only did I get a bunch that same day, but the manager saved me some for this morning as well. Cha ching!! That was all I needed to be inspired to go to all of the local neighborhood stores and ask for boxes. I more or less hate asking for anything, so it pained me a little, but it got easier as we went along.<br />
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Kooper had a fit at the place with the golden arches for two reasons. 1: I wouldn't buy him french fries, and 2:, they told me that there were "tons by the dumpster". Kooper immediately started ranting about how the dumpster is dirty and we can't dig in garbage and yaddda yadda, yadda. He's 3, mind you. As it turns out, there were no boxes by the dumpster.<br />
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I was also able to score a bunch of free newspapers at Royal Farms. I was told to take "anything without a barcode", and believe me, I did.<br />
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So, when in search of boxes, I went thinking big - grocery stores, and Walmart, which were also a bit inconvenient, especially with a child in tow. And neither one of which was too helpful. When I decided to think smaller scale and hit the local stores that were right by our house and because I frequent their businesses, they were happy to help and to also tell me when to come back if we need more.<br />
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I will give Walmart credit though, they wound up being $3 cheaper on the bubble wrap. <br />
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Happy box hunting if you're ever in need! Now, back to packing... and watching our walls being built!Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-7937371544556893812014-07-19T13:43:00.000-07:002014-11-22T05:26:12.345-08:00So... We're Remodeling Our House<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21rkupHi6fEWLy27XguGB_QEC_t26scNKVVW9uttCkfmyT_zpYir4xm8aa1QLNoxvI0VMd_VfzTHMSLctbJ5AkUr7e2tnnD3BaRhozk0VgRrHMoxLpLiu-V7lxuVDF3LclxxOB3uTNfw1/s1600/Construction+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21rkupHi6fEWLy27XguGB_QEC_t26scNKVVW9uttCkfmyT_zpYir4xm8aa1QLNoxvI0VMd_VfzTHMSLctbJ5AkUr7e2tnnD3BaRhozk0VgRrHMoxLpLiu-V7lxuVDF3LclxxOB3uTNfw1/s1600/Construction+Cover.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
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Wow,<br />
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There I said it, so it has to be really FINALLY happening, right? Last week was such a whirlwind of activity for our family. All of our planning and dreams are starting to become a reality right before our eyes.<br />
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When we moved in to our current house seven years ago we knew that we would eventually want to do an addition. Four years ago when I was pregnant with our son we met with our first architect. Yes, FOUR years ago!<br />
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We have a bit of a unique family situation, so just because we wanted to remodel didn't mean that we could just go for it. After many family meetings, appointments with banks, and lots of phone calls and visits to and from our county (and A LOT of other stuff in between) we were finally able to start the project.<br />
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We went on a quick 4th of July get away with my parents, and while we were gone, my father in law started disassembling our deck. When we got home, farmer boy quickly got to work himself. The deck was down pretty quickly, then it was time to move on to the trees.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BBsakN90D5zBM-3Mp3eBni9_VvsObW9TBqRhzwSWpElGh6kAPSPdmUnqfPYJssXq1g_4Mv5-OO114tty7llkSzW7OXc1OGqtsE_rCiGB4hgTLDIK_vYQm6pVKH8e8_-eoj4mO73DKVeo/s1600/deck+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8BBsakN90D5zBM-3Mp3eBni9_VvsObW9TBqRhzwSWpElGh6kAPSPdmUnqfPYJssXq1g_4Mv5-OO114tty7llkSzW7OXc1OGqtsE_rCiGB4hgTLDIK_vYQm6pVKH8e8_-eoj4mO73DKVeo/s1600/deck+.jpg" height="640" width="488" /></a></div>
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We had two cedar trees outside of our bedroom window. We both hated to see them go, but there really was no choice.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyxz1JeQR3DdHN-wM_BX5o119r0t_HNDHiE11W5LJGGuLRCPq4FP6ESfVU1tBruz3UJJxWH464_PcW4hx4XX2nihJl3d1rSRthAfVsA9hwDiUbBYcEErCcsQvoXsYgsBy33uEKb9j1C51e/s1600/trees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyxz1JeQR3DdHN-wM_BX5o119r0t_HNDHiE11W5LJGGuLRCPq4FP6ESfVU1tBruz3UJJxWH464_PcW4hx4XX2nihJl3d1rSRthAfVsA9hwDiUbBYcEErCcsQvoXsYgsBy33uEKb9j1C51e/s1600/trees.jpg" height="372" width="640" /></a></div>
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All of this just seemed to go along with the months and years of preparation for the addition. It didn't actually seem real to me until I saw the trucks pull up on Monday morning and the men begin working.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhO4E5ONHjGY-awIo3GNhNjJWlFLq-TKU8Xk9JlkxAMLWOZTa-fnuaOGigzZci70o2ueBHbBXbqwhCbz49WjnE2z5aCfKVEoTvYNC7K3vaq3NTwKSEFIlZeNVhZmeEw03BuB4S9qwSKUys/s1600/trucks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhO4E5ONHjGY-awIo3GNhNjJWlFLq-TKU8Xk9JlkxAMLWOZTa-fnuaOGigzZci70o2ueBHbBXbqwhCbz49WjnE2z5aCfKVEoTvYNC7K3vaq3NTwKSEFIlZeNVhZmeEw03BuB4S9qwSKUys/s1600/trucks.jpg" height="400" width="640" /></a></div>
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They removed the stumps from the cedar trees... </div>
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and then it was game on to start digging for the foundation of our house. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkxi-ysLjWyutGwOCgzeLVC-SckPppFb07YSadj3c7jI4BcF-PX40moIE2E6046RsxVhys4kI4oPLau9c9maSPJ73ibzbd8_CZUADyAuzOYJ1QWwwsMiMge737ujTeuU8oDzN3c3nqArc/s1600/digging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOkxi-ysLjWyutGwOCgzeLVC-SckPppFb07YSadj3c7jI4BcF-PX40moIE2E6046RsxVhys4kI4oPLau9c9maSPJ73ibzbd8_CZUADyAuzOYJ1QWwwsMiMge737ujTeuU8oDzN3c3nqArc/s1600/digging.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
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Kooper and I couldn't tear ourselves from the window all day. He was mesmerized by the equipment and I kept looking to make sure it wasn't actually a dream. This is going to be our view from our new great room. </div>
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This was the result at the end of day one. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNtQiHujMivl913Rz-9GX9DNOhtXvZsYNNWTbwAqnnUo1_I49Nq8Ycs6IYmslS5PAzkKSgKEVnnTTj_9f213kZiEY7VAoJuMK3ggm7Z7sBB6A4Vq1-kjLlK-IDUy56CRRp7S0iPu3v1RXx/s1600/hole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNtQiHujMivl913Rz-9GX9DNOhtXvZsYNNWTbwAqnnUo1_I49Nq8Ycs6IYmslS5PAzkKSgKEVnnTTj_9f213kZiEY7VAoJuMK3ggm7Z7sBB6A4Vq1-kjLlK-IDUy56CRRp7S0iPu3v1RXx/s1600/hole.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is Kooper standing in the spot where our new fireplace will be!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9cMZRSOoT_qDoHco514emrBe_-DzcXyJy0BDjj5peQC3n3_kaqhzQyK-RAe7AoSX4ZdfQeWkCb5vB79LrY9V_q_gkDPoa9dVE4KeivcYXfgxSRBgE1PBf4hrzac-VTxOrF3QRv_vtVNk/s1600/fireplace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO9cMZRSOoT_qDoHco514emrBe_-DzcXyJy0BDjj5peQC3n3_kaqhzQyK-RAe7AoSX4ZdfQeWkCb5vB79LrY9V_q_gkDPoa9dVE4KeivcYXfgxSRBgE1PBf4hrzac-VTxOrF3QRv_vtVNk/s1600/fireplace.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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After an inspection by the county, and checking and re-checking to make sure that everything was even, the brick layers began their work. These guys worked for the rest of the week and on Saturday. I'll never look at a block building the same way again. What an art, and truly a tedious job for sure.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDj9T_14ZXfQyZ64XD_aGik0_DsRJ8oAlxfXkuNoiAQbK25Tarkv-307ay3QwViCTFVFqs9G4Csf8vhlKEu8tT7vhsUisvCwF_kVPuSRd2YLqPDXzLLh43q1Wrxuv0Rsj3DSd5deHfzfI6/s1600/brick+layers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDj9T_14ZXfQyZ64XD_aGik0_DsRJ8oAlxfXkuNoiAQbK25Tarkv-307ay3QwViCTFVFqs9G4Csf8vhlKEu8tT7vhsUisvCwF_kVPuSRd2YLqPDXzLLh43q1Wrxuv0Rsj3DSd5deHfzfI6/s1600/brick+layers.jpg" height="434" width="640" /></a></div>
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So at the end of the first week of construction these are our results:</div>
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This is the side of our house where the new living room will be. Think lots of glass and open space. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0DWCxCsvrEenGI6bj9JVUP8anZ62JIsw1Wuz7pEAbq4LTR3g10sxZVZvEnv8JHlc8pa6JK8aEltlNOUU_wGOs9VYsgxb19Njl6UxL1fBUnBrvzmA-S_3taUmO5n5pArI6nmFFqzvnhDK/s1600/side+of+house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl0DWCxCsvrEenGI6bj9JVUP8anZ62JIsw1Wuz7pEAbq4LTR3g10sxZVZvEnv8JHlc8pa6JK8aEltlNOUU_wGOs9VYsgxb19Njl6UxL1fBUnBrvzmA-S_3taUmO5n5pArI6nmFFqzvnhDK/s1600/side+of+house.jpg" height="486" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the front of our garage and where our loft space will be. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXV_X_7MWpSKq_Ilka0WOczrPzjQEpaZO6Xddn4b3zBHZnM5KKJ8DE2skxahLKq8qXAPGz5zQhwcwwyuzXI4tuQi85rRYJQQvTlGIU9rPktpEOIcFD30vW08NFUQ13UP19XaKNlV-TBqt/s1600/garage+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVXV_X_7MWpSKq_Ilka0WOczrPzjQEpaZO6Xddn4b3zBHZnM5KKJ8DE2skxahLKq8qXAPGz5zQhwcwwyuzXI4tuQi85rRYJQQvTlGIU9rPktpEOIcFD30vW08NFUQ13UP19XaKNlV-TBqt/s1600/garage+front.jpg" height="486" width="640" /></a></div>
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Oh, and the random door in the garage? Let's just say someone messed up and forgot to make space for it to go. We added a visual so there wouldn't be confusion when they actually do cut it!</div>
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We couldn't be happier with the results of week one. </div>
Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-261383522858970562014-06-29T11:58:00.000-07:002014-06-29T11:58:16.023-07:00Cucumber & Onion Salad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0HvgoJosUx1X0D3Gk7bDulNHLcAzIc5bZIsP4mtP6ygEcqz2QXSVYwFk8S5gRjUHJFjsRIMpGUlJQ7hKyV1LZpXrXrOmDmR1mYtzbhK89KlgjnThB2WXe6i0IcC_22MUpo9de_ht4jBn/s1600/cucumber+salad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0HvgoJosUx1X0D3Gk7bDulNHLcAzIc5bZIsP4mtP6ygEcqz2QXSVYwFk8S5gRjUHJFjsRIMpGUlJQ7hKyV1LZpXrXrOmDmR1mYtzbhK89KlgjnThB2WXe6i0IcC_22MUpo9de_ht4jBn/s1600/cucumber+salad.jpg" height="640" width="490" /></a></div>
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This is a super simple recipe that you will make again and again. It is one of our favorites this time of year. I made it as a side for dinner last night. Go ahead and try it, I'm sure that you'll love it!<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"> All you need are cucumbers, onion, sugar and rice vinegar.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Ingredient List</u></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">4-5 small cucumbers (2 or 3 large)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">1 onion</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">½ cup sugar</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">⅓ cup rice vinegar</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">salt and pepper</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Step 1:</span></u></b></div>
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Slice cucumbers and onions very thin. We use about 4-5 small cucumbers to one large Vidalia onion. </div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Step 2:</span></u></b></div>
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Pour ½ cup of sugar into ⅓ cup rice vinegar and stir until it dissolves. You can use regular vinegar, but a friend of ours told us about rice vinegar a few years ago. It gives you a little added bite, but isn't over powering.<br />
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<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Step 3:</span></u></b><br />
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This is where I salt and pepper my cucumber and onion mixture. Then pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables, and you're all set.<br />
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If there is any leftover, just refrigerate. The mixture does get a little more potent the longer it sits, so I wouldn't let it be refrigerated for any longer than 2 or 3 days.<br />
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I hope that you all enjoy this recipe as much as we do! </div>
<br />Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-65528260655894328072014-06-28T13:20:00.000-07:002014-11-22T06:54:30.022-08:00Garden Update: 1 Month<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwqoPDVRNEDEAQBcm6eME5iue2Kw6m5ihchQWRpz-QkXTDBlUdteMlOjJ3RjuDtMw2i_6EoooOnuGqJ-zIqnjuPwtQFi5KL2AISvtlyxEprrOnixQ95hGgsKz5Ol_ObYqP9vzNhv5m799j/s1600/Update+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwqoPDVRNEDEAQBcm6eME5iue2Kw6m5ihchQWRpz-QkXTDBlUdteMlOjJ3RjuDtMw2i_6EoooOnuGqJ-zIqnjuPwtQFi5KL2AISvtlyxEprrOnixQ95hGgsKz5Ol_ObYqP9vzNhv5m799j/s1600/Update+Cover.jpg" height="640" width="504" /></a></div>
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It's been a little over 1 month since we planted the garden and so far we have great results!<br />
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Here's how it's looking.</div>
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<b><u>Cherry Tomatoes:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV9iu92jtB8_-qm-f-U-kp0azvqshYgM1h9gN8Eakah6bbRLhCnl0oVitRcOM6jYRkHtxoSBz-7V0wvPAX9Pz0jYX7SN4TTHLWBYXOHgaR5H-k8TgKVXSuN5W6IC46YHb9seeSgHJ-nOIO/s1600/cherry+tomatoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV9iu92jtB8_-qm-f-U-kp0azvqshYgM1h9gN8Eakah6bbRLhCnl0oVitRcOM6jYRkHtxoSBz-7V0wvPAX9Pz0jYX7SN4TTHLWBYXOHgaR5H-k8TgKVXSuN5W6IC46YHb9seeSgHJ-nOIO/s1600/cherry+tomatoes.jpg" height="640" width="484" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Beefsteak Tomatoes:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvLnt4aUj_zazzUX0R8wj6eRE3vUBXm1cfJFBabQISM44Zc4tqpTFw7-x9aLshycuVcjWpUW0qSJNn1rpnDsSQxLum5xRpnYhSm2wluZHIeIjJCISABt535C7sV7-olOAcJdUJBrco5pWY/s1600/tomatoes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvLnt4aUj_zazzUX0R8wj6eRE3vUBXm1cfJFBabQISM44Zc4tqpTFw7-x9aLshycuVcjWpUW0qSJNn1rpnDsSQxLum5xRpnYhSm2wluZHIeIjJCISABt535C7sV7-olOAcJdUJBrco5pWY/s1600/tomatoes.jpg" height="640" width="504" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Peppers:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgMT1h6orRGZFim9V2pU06KsVZOhiom8iblXd-BQn7gAAHuo1e3dDdY9VqSEtjJPkt2IPvSlZOh2Yq72xC7iFkcmu01IAukT7PIKo_qswUbUkciopnGEx7VxwzyDq53D_0NNLJNvMrDT9/s1600/peppers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLgMT1h6orRGZFim9V2pU06KsVZOhiom8iblXd-BQn7gAAHuo1e3dDdY9VqSEtjJPkt2IPvSlZOh2Yq72xC7iFkcmu01IAukT7PIKo_qswUbUkciopnGEx7VxwzyDq53D_0NNLJNvMrDT9/s1600/peppers.jpg" height="640" width="486" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Green Beans:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmfUMsL9zmUGM4OpbQ6CN5Jp7wu8xePp8UiJNNSIuv7cE0q0Sc4F1wKxUd3G8pWyc9mCqdOuJU6kiOIvumK9PZcMi4LQY5r13OAYR8qlykiVFA9H5njXk38Q4sTLfclyqjSp7rCk2BL8J/s1600/green+beans.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpmfUMsL9zmUGM4OpbQ6CN5Jp7wu8xePp8UiJNNSIuv7cE0q0Sc4F1wKxUd3G8pWyc9mCqdOuJU6kiOIvumK9PZcMi4LQY5r13OAYR8qlykiVFA9H5njXk38Q4sTLfclyqjSp7rCk2BL8J/s1600/green+beans.jpg" height="640" width="486" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Onions: </u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnS1_W6Q7IgpQy_-Uwp0VhJU8mHvlnF1iuepMUK6Kwr3VDUnYw3-mNI_ywgB3tXoiGVH5toignmU7II6KuWtd1fvPfY0RspAfE1naOn8OkcJOjcpHcaoaddwgGl-WtUlXdgBmONa500Tt/s1600/onion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVnS1_W6Q7IgpQy_-Uwp0VhJU8mHvlnF1iuepMUK6Kwr3VDUnYw3-mNI_ywgB3tXoiGVH5toignmU7II6KuWtd1fvPfY0RspAfE1naOn8OkcJOjcpHcaoaddwgGl-WtUlXdgBmONa500Tt/s1600/onion.jpg" height="640" width="368" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Watermelon:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4uJogh5wdEwHopkR5wBPXgpUNlqpqdvqePlcqjnQx4NgvnKgZVqufh6aga-aAnNGo30-PgT2e_3LNJsF-E64kFnXjA_ovaMvbFEEu7GyVtNtul6n_Zb7C8FP5aWeZ0bF4b4jpm5o83EE/s1600/watermelon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl4uJogh5wdEwHopkR5wBPXgpUNlqpqdvqePlcqjnQx4NgvnKgZVqufh6aga-aAnNGo30-PgT2e_3LNJsF-E64kFnXjA_ovaMvbFEEu7GyVtNtul6n_Zb7C8FP5aWeZ0bF4b4jpm5o83EE/s1600/watermelon.jpg" height="640" width="522" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Cucumber and Cherry Tomato:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5fcx64OfzKSbg9Kvc0vEskSK_X_KmFxMYhNiP5C18wi6acHGx6QWM2MKE7HBuEoLON-dPrjEZGV5EN7QdQIi3EGI85VSEN25IXYovrhtvZ1RVuk5O6C-Hy11Os3aAqyK9FiKVovNU8ks/s1600/cucumber+and+tomato.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5fcx64OfzKSbg9Kvc0vEskSK_X_KmFxMYhNiP5C18wi6acHGx6QWM2MKE7HBuEoLON-dPrjEZGV5EN7QdQIi3EGI85VSEN25IXYovrhtvZ1RVuk5O6C-Hy11Os3aAqyK9FiKVovNU8ks/s1600/cucumber+and+tomato.jpg" height="640" width="572" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Squash and Zucchini:</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-VpCIxe_WpCTAHAYSQVumPZcWK_20Pkq3ecK1khmaByv5GSqzTzDqVrdHXa5kdbsqa3BZ33Hgfjue1sIeGef9CESf3MU7VH4ZIuoM-e-HKXw-RyctVrIhd0zEHhxXtfPd6o5HvV9nWdt/s1600/Squash+and+Zucchini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-VpCIxe_WpCTAHAYSQVumPZcWK_20Pkq3ecK1khmaByv5GSqzTzDqVrdHXa5kdbsqa3BZ33Hgfjue1sIeGef9CESf3MU7VH4ZIuoM-e-HKXw-RyctVrIhd0zEHhxXtfPd6o5HvV9nWdt/s1600/Squash+and+Zucchini.jpg" height="640" width="554" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Field Corn:</u></b></div>
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No, we didn't plant this, but it's amazing how much it has grown in a little over a month! I'm only 5'1, but as you can see, it is well over my head. </div>
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Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-14792864233732462612014-06-28T12:59:00.000-07:002014-11-22T05:39:56.606-08:00Coop Planting Guide<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtRKm9Q3bmrx0-WqcGpjV7Lgf0nvVm9gOYvEJZfxrHkiD8r_oRM4W5KScug029wV8Y-QgMHUTFRKwY0bGkkmQywLUadzQ5eicbllE9bO8T4mUjEfdbIclmas501hsOSSLlCdg8c0QOhNc-/s1600/Planting+Guide+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtRKm9Q3bmrx0-WqcGpjV7Lgf0nvVm9gOYvEJZfxrHkiD8r_oRM4W5KScug029wV8Y-QgMHUTFRKwY0bGkkmQywLUadzQ5eicbllE9bO8T4mUjEfdbIclmas501hsOSSLlCdg8c0QOhNc-/s1600/Planting+Guide+Cover.jpg" height="322" width="640" /></a></div>
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So.. this post is a little late. But, better late than never, right?<br />
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It occurred to me as I was getting ready to do a "Garden Update" that I never actually posted what we planted!<br />
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Farmerboy and I buy starter plants from a local farmer. We tried growing plants from seeds a few years back and weren't pleased with the results. It was really time consuming, and we ultimately didn't wind up with a lot of decent plants to plant in our outside garden. I doubt we will try this method again in the future, unless our son wants to try it.<br />
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We planted each of our plants the same depth down into the dirt - about 6 inches, or the length of a small garden shovel handle.<br />
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Here's a quick run down of what we're growing at Bengie's Farm this year.<br />
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<b><u>Tomatoes</u></b></div>
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<b><u>Planting Guide:</u></b><br />
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We dig about 6 inches down, enough to just cover to where the base of the plant begins. The spacing, if using cages like we did, is about 15 inches apart. Not caged should be about 24- 36 inches apart. Tomatoes are also notorious for loving full sun, so make sure you choose a sunny spot for yours.<br />
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I don't eat tomatoes. Yes, go ahead and throw things at me! I will also now confess that I don't eat eggs either. However, these guys are a great way to finish off a salad - if they make it that far. Farmerboy eats half of the basket every time we pick them! We planted cherry and beefsteak tomatoes. We don't can tomatoes or make sauces, so these are the best choices for us.<br />
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<b><u>Cucumbers</u></b></div>
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<b><u>Planting Guide:</u></b></div>
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About 6 inches down. We use trellises for our cucumbers, so ours are about 18 inches apart, otherwise, leave about 36 inches between plants. Cucumbers also love full sun, so they make a good neighboring plant for tomatoes. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0DrvKuWOA_pYy_AD_H1q41NjyW1iO6y9cCjmCoBoExkO6xfMgbhyphenhyphen4AVwIjM9h18V4UW43j2PcHWUXZnJi3ACEjqlAaJ6Tru3JDXpFh5Wjw0wi8LMAIPgA9JGGxlwhNxPhp1WFXBBdIFZ/s1600/Cucumbers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0DrvKuWOA_pYy_AD_H1q41NjyW1iO6y9cCjmCoBoExkO6xfMgbhyphenhyphen4AVwIjM9h18V4UW43j2PcHWUXZnJi3ACEjqlAaJ6Tru3JDXpFh5Wjw0wi8LMAIPgA9JGGxlwhNxPhp1WFXBBdIFZ/s1600/Cucumbers.jpg" height="328" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's a little hard to see in the picture (my apologies) but on the left we did All Season Burpless and on the right, Pickling. We are of the opinion that there isn't too much difference between the two. We eat and can with both equally and really can't tell a difference. It's possible that <i>in general</i> the pickling ones tend to be a bit smaller, but that's all in how much you monitor and pick them too. These are also hard to resist eating when they are freshly picked.<br />
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<b><u>Cantaloupe</u></b></div>
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<b><u>Planting Guide:</u></b><br />
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6 inches down with 16 inches of spacing between the plants. Another full sun loving crop.<br />
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I don't eat cantaloupe either... are you noticing a pattern? Just about everyone else around here does, so we plant them. I feel as though these take FOREVER to grow and don't usually yield many melons.<br />
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<b><u>Squash</u></b></div>
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<b><u>Planting Guide:</u></b></div>
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Plant about 6 inches down with a plant spacing between 12 and 18 inches. Squash plants thrive in full sun. </div>
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Yes, something else that I actually eat. Squash and zucchini are almost always our first plants to produce. We are always so excited when this happens, even though we always wind up with them coming our of our ears. We like to dice with onions and grill it. We also like to make a vegetable tian with squash and zucchini. It's delicious.<br />
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<b><u>Zucchini</u></b></div>
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<b><u>Planting Guide: </u></b></div>
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Plant about 6 inches down with a plant spacing between 12 and 18 inches. Plant in an area with full sun.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmq_ZzCGnpT1x6EXjdo_dsewyR-2XYfGOcROmKwcwx-MpdvlJXHZg2bvpGJN6ZldD9Oq9VXD2bB6aZP7NTNweL3H-lCoh1XAPfDTVJMxDh7C0Ns7ws6h5KBP5wnt5ghVE4ALIf3Eph0IMa/s1600/Zucchini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmq_ZzCGnpT1x6EXjdo_dsewyR-2XYfGOcROmKwcwx-MpdvlJXHZg2bvpGJN6ZldD9Oq9VXD2bB6aZP7NTNweL3H-lCoh1XAPfDTVJMxDh7C0Ns7ws6h5KBP5wnt5ghVE4ALIf3Eph0IMa/s1600/Zucchini.jpg" height="640" width="456" /></a></div>
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Can we say Zucchini Bread? We also have a recipe for relish that is delicious. Between these two things and the vegetable tian I mentioned before the zucchini tends to go pretty quickly.<br />
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Though, both the squash and the zucchini plants tend to produce for about a month after the initial showing.<br />
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<b><u>Onions</u></b></div>
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<b><u>Planting Guide:</u></b></div>
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Plant with the pointed top just even with the surface of the soil, and about 3-4 inches of staggered spacing in between plants. Onions also like full sun, but are able to tolerate some shade.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixx84SwZlH5DdvGSbQnND8wp2W-26vpZQM37zubfYHBelTy5V23MGCAwHAtJuNIfdxcKVege9M91vZiiHcM_9BtOtnNq2b0fdRYbesdyNHwJbI_uqp7ToMBAlJc9sEZEoIQj_UB6cZGpJ3/s1600/onions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixx84SwZlH5DdvGSbQnND8wp2W-26vpZQM37zubfYHBelTy5V23MGCAwHAtJuNIfdxcKVege9M91vZiiHcM_9BtOtnNq2b0fdRYbesdyNHwJbI_uqp7ToMBAlJc9sEZEoIQj_UB6cZGpJ3/s1600/onions.jpg" height="640" width="530" /></a></div>
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This is our first year trying these. We saw them and thought, why not? </div>
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This is where the pictures stopped. Perhaps our photographer was too busy with planting and got distracted. Not that that EVER happens around here. We also planted a total of 36, yes 36 pepper plants, watermelon, and green bean seeds. Why so many pepper plants? We LOVE fresh peppers, and we cut and freeze as many as possible. Last year we grew and froze so many peppers that it wasn't until a few weeks ago that we ran out. It pains me to pay $1.00 per pepper when I can get a plant for $2.50. </div>
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<b><u>Pepper, Watermelon and Green Bean Guide:</u></b></div>
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Plant peppers about 6 inches down with 12 inches of spacing between them. Plant watermelon plants 6 inches down with 18 inches between the plants. Green bean seeds were planted about 1 inch down with a 4 inch separation between seeds. All three of these plants also enjoy full sun. </div>
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All of the plants that we bought had instructions on how to plant them. However, we also use a book called <u>The Vegetable Gardener's Bible</u> by Edward C. Smith. This book tells us a little more about how to water, what plants are good neighbors/adversaries, how to harvest, and even how to make a raised bed.<br />
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This is what our garden space looked like when we were all finished planting. </div>
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Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-85609538551657580262014-06-13T13:46:00.000-07:002014-06-13T13:46:14.851-07:00We're over Friday the 13th!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCD9KXgvaAGJJdRbnfJlNR_siAl-rc8OER8U09iXALQsrFG3mvlZUhbz8zTki-GyDQ6qk0JvvSKzQlb1dPl3VqmD28YkkYNuFZUc4PeXxPpVugaxgrTdTDNTwTj76Cw0ZlozuYtu13Y0rd/s1600/13th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCD9KXgvaAGJJdRbnfJlNR_siAl-rc8OER8U09iXALQsrFG3mvlZUhbz8zTki-GyDQ6qk0JvvSKzQlb1dPl3VqmD28YkkYNuFZUc4PeXxPpVugaxgrTdTDNTwTj76Cw0ZlozuYtu13Y0rd/s1600/13th.jpg" height="640" width="528" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnehQvzoPYKkfXnrYkgNK2iWLdyR6TvIlPLNTBof0N_Gx_tWjSqGIPOQOmORH4T3Uc-e2E0q55no6ME16ZLpsLW5ztmjevDejLcZ0C67BCe7FD5hsPlDH7Y43tYjVCdQXQ24mFPLuo0S0s/s1600/13th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnehQvzoPYKkfXnrYkgNK2iWLdyR6TvIlPLNTBof0N_Gx_tWjSqGIPOQOmORH4T3Uc-e2E0q55no6ME16ZLpsLW5ztmjevDejLcZ0C67BCe7FD5hsPlDH7Y43tYjVCdQXQ24mFPLuo0S0s/s1600/13th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnehQvzoPYKkfXnrYkgNK2iWLdyR6TvIlPLNTBof0N_Gx_tWjSqGIPOQOmORH4T3Uc-e2E0q55no6ME16ZLpsLW5ztmjevDejLcZ0C67BCe7FD5hsPlDH7Y43tYjVCdQXQ24mFPLuo0S0s/s1600/13th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br /><br />
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<b>Something strange has been going on here at the farm. Over the last few days we've had a freak series of events happen. What is more perfect to blame other than a full moon on a Friday the 13th?</b></div>
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<b>Many of you may (or may not) know that we have 12 turkeys that we are going to take care of and then process ourselves for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. Over the last week farmer boy and his dad - mainly his dad worked to make a really cool custom turkey tractor to house the turkeys over the summer and into the early fall. </b></div>
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<b>On Thursday morning, he went out to cheek to on the turkeys and one was dead. To add insult to injury, whatever killed it only took the head, and not the rest. It could have at least made a meal of it, you know? </b></div>
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<b>Farmerboy thinks it was a raccoon, because they basically kill for sport. Also, because they have "hands" and would be able to reach into the coop if one got close enough to the edge of the fencing. </b></div>
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<b>If you are so inclined, you can see the picture <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=590909521862&set=a.507080246402.2009042.144100182&type=1&theater">here</a>. </b></div>
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<b>As for odd event number two? Oh, nothing but a HUGE snake feasting on the eggs in the chicken coop. This happens about once per year, but is still a shock when you go to the coop and are welcomed by this:</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSClMUXtzr4w3m5vTiugYCslP9zeZ10UTAe7yYwcNtP0YAEFhbVPcGBQayS6k61VBlSnMNQvVMgN5Ycn0wfezcUNJP8WoXgmWAjRkL5wQAWusVl3PAkil0JEaeOjZtIxkkzY1nHjkkjAiR/s1600/Snake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSClMUXtzr4w3m5vTiugYCslP9zeZ10UTAe7yYwcNtP0YAEFhbVPcGBQayS6k61VBlSnMNQvVMgN5Ycn0wfezcUNJP8WoXgmWAjRkL5wQAWusVl3PAkil0JEaeOjZtIxkkzY1nHjkkjAiR/s1600/Snake.jpg" height="303" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Here's to hoping that the rest of the day.. and the summer, and our lives are a little less creepy. </b></div>
Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5784210420062774053.post-85291144550607776182014-06-12T16:28:00.001-07:002014-06-12T16:55:45.305-07:00Farm Dog Week<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVrb4BQm-3YrcBzltUVB1bwu8eahN0mGbjEFZwYy8kfEC41Q8HqJFLGSM-oB7lll-SxokvKTwajWu17P23z_BYNXzzQCqZArGLYY2VaEhhmE_J9MBg6PY_b0SOFYzftiizDXAroaWrc4e/s1600/Farm+Dog+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEVrb4BQm-3YrcBzltUVB1bwu8eahN0mGbjEFZwYy8kfEC41Q8HqJFLGSM-oB7lll-SxokvKTwajWu17P23z_BYNXzzQCqZArGLYY2VaEhhmE_J9MBg6PY_b0SOFYzftiizDXAroaWrc4e/s1600/Farm+Dog+Cover.jpg" height="640" width="640" /></a></div>
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I've been meaning to do a post dedicated to our dogs. So after reading <a href="http://www.thecharmingfarmer.com/"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Charming Farmer's</span></b></a><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> </span> post about this week being Farm Dog Week, I decided that this would be the perfect time to introduce the world to our pack.<br />
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The funny thing is that our dogs aren't farm dogs at all. They are farm dogs simply because they live on a farm. Most people think of Sheepdogs, Komondors or Australian Cattle Dogs when they think of a "traditional" farm dog.<br />
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Since our farm doesn't have cattle or sheep that need to be herded, we opted for a less traditional breed. The Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Between us and my in-laws we have four total, 3 of which live here full time.<br />
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All of our Chessies have been adopted - 3 out of 4 from <span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="http://www.cbrrescue.org/"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Chesapeake Bay Retriever Relief & Rescue</span></a>.</span> I can't say enough wonderful things about this organization, or the people that run it. They are truly a Godsend to the breed and have become dear friends of ours over the last ten years.<br />
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The 4th? Well, that's Boh, and he's special - he was "adopted" from Criagslist as a product of a broken home. Seriously, you can't make this up.<br />
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From oldest to youngest... <br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Gracie </u></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRMu4-3ZwJe5WK6GGJaCevOMYNG2TV6H9IdCT071yCqxclWyL6SeIoIjA8LENmFCJYQM6WLjdLygDM9PhfNydR5LeiT29bV_43aO0C8DHG-iGC-Qr7l6SoBqO0ZU0e-w8FPqgvXcEFjFTT/s1600/Gracie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRMu4-3ZwJe5WK6GGJaCevOMYNG2TV6H9IdCT071yCqxclWyL6SeIoIjA8LENmFCJYQM6WLjdLygDM9PhfNydR5LeiT29bV_43aO0C8DHG-iGC-Qr7l6SoBqO0ZU0e-w8FPqgvXcEFjFTT/s1600/Gracie.jpg" height="271" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo Courtesy of Gina Downin or Heather Hauser</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div>
Affectionately known as "Mama Grace", or "The Perfect Dog" she is the leader of the pack. She was the first of the four to be welcomed to the farm. When she arrived, she had a horrible case of mange and required round the clock care from my mother in law. <br />
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Gracie will swim.... if she has to. Her true love is being on the front porch watching over the place. She's "Rooer", and she is even known to give the occasional smile (and by this I mean shows her teeth in a not so nice way) to keep the other dogs in line. A few years back, she was even given The Good Citizen Award - humorous to me considering what I just wrote about her smiling.<br />
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Gracie has shown the ropes to all of the dogs that followed in her footsteps, including our girl Abby.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Abby</u></b></span></div>
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We adopted Abby in the fall of 2007, right after our wedding. We called Gina Downin and told her that we would love a puppy - her response "puppies don't come along often, but when they do I'll let you know". A few short weeks later (if that long) our girl Abby arrived on the farm. Her and her litter mates were dumped off in a shelter, and it would become obvious to us later, that they were abused in some way.<br />
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She is the most skittish of the group, doesn't like loud noises, yelling, or even thunder. She is also the best swimmer of the bunch. Her first dip in the river was a cold February afternoon to retrieve a dead fish. I thought for sure I'd be swimming out to get her, but she was fine. A few years back we found out that she has hip dysplasia, and could benefit from a replacement. At the time, we were preparing to have our son, and spending between 5 and 8 thousand to do so wasn't feasible. We medicate her, and she's incredibly stoic, so it has all worked out fine. Abby is a true smiler (unlike Mama Grace).<br />
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Abby has been the best "babysitter" for Kooper. The day we brought him home he was crying and she circled around us until we picked him up. She never leaves his side, and the two of them have such an incredible love and bond with each other.<br />
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...and then there was Boh.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Boh</u></b></span></div>
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Oh, where to start with our darling Boh. He belongs to my sister in law. She wanted a companion when she was living on her own, nothing on the CBRR site was a good fit for her at the time, so she saved him from a divorcing couple that had an ad on Craigslist.<br />
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He has always been such a sweet boy - I always said that if she didn't take him home that day, we would have. Boh, and my sister in law lived with us on the farm for a time, and he loved it. He loves to swim and make bubbles, and enjoys chewing on his rubber ball. Since moving from the farm, Boh spends a lot of time on his momma's boat.<br />
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Boh's special trick is that he can actually catch his own tail. See, told you he was a special one. He's a lover for sure, and he sure does love his Aunt Tabby.<br />
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...<br />
and last but not least, our little boy Asher.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Asher</u></b></span></div>
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Remember how earlier I said that the Chessie Rescue doesn't usually have pups? Well, we started thinking about getting another dog and sure enough, who called us? We basically aren't allowed to have thoughts about a puppy, because it somehow makes it come true for the organization.<br />
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Asher was one of eight (or maybe nine) pups. We had the privilege of playing with them on a few occasions before we picked one out and brought him home. Having a new dog and an 18 month old was nothing short of hellish - though moms have some thing with their brain that makes them forget the bad parts so that we are crazy enough to do it all again, right?<br />
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Asher is a bad ass. No other way to put it - his bark can be down right out scary. In other words, he is the perfect dog to protect our family and our farm. Kooper isn't as close to him as he is with Abby. Perhaps because they were babies at the same time, both jockeying for my attention? It was also pretty funny to be potty training a baby AND a puppy - some of Kooper's reactions to Asher peeing on the carpet were truly priceless.<br />
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All of our dogs are unique and all of them offer their own special thing to our family and our farm. Even though they are hunting dogs, none of them hunt - farmer boy isn't a hunter, or else Asher would have been his best candidate.<br />
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Besides, I can't imagine our waterfront farm having a Komondor. Umm, yeah... I don't think so. <br />
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Tabathahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03143752903299528370noreply@blogger.com2