Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Weather System

I guess the theme for our household lately is "Go big or go home."

We don't just adopt a cat, we adopt a cat with a broken leg.

I don't just accept one calling, I accept three. (One of which I've been released from - no more Ward Bulletin - Woho!)

Brent doesn't just make a scratching post, he makes a scratching event.

And...we don't just have a little rain gauge, we get a weather system.

It is AWESOME! It measures the wind, rain, temperature, wind direction, barometric pressure, phases of the moon and it even told me it was the summer solstice yesterday. AWESOME!

Here are some of my favorite features:
1) I love to see the barometer. Is it going up? (Hardly ever this spring) Is it going down? What's going on with the barometric pressure?
2) It measures how much rain there has been in the last 15 minutes. It turns out that even when it's POURING, you don't get as much rain as you think you did.
3) It tells you the high and low temperature over the last 24 hours. This is perfect for my gardening mind. You see, I put wall-o-waters around my tomatoes. Tomatoes don't grow well until the nighttime temperature is consistently above 50 degrees. So now I can track it for sure, in my backyard. (It has yet to get consistently about 50 degrees at night. Maybe this week. We're off to a pretty good start. Since Saturday it's been at least 50 degrees 4 out of the last 5 nights.)
4) It tells you how fast the wind is blowing. Don't ask me why that's exciting, it just is. I hate the HUGE wind storms we have in the winter, but now I'll be able to say exactly how fast the wind was blowing.

Basically, this proves it...I'm a weather nerd. So, if you ever want to know anything about the weather in my backyard, just ask. Chances are I'll know all about it.

The Infamous Scratching Post

Do you remember in February how Brent tried to cut off his thumb while making a scratching post for Daisy? I do. If you don't, go here. Let's not talk about it anymore. It was yucky. And he still has a cool divot in his thumb. If you ever see him, ask him about it. It's kind of gross.

Anyway, he finally finished the said scratching post. And, since it's Brent, it turned into more than just a scratching post. He had to make it a scratching event!
Daisy loves her scratching post. Just this week she's figured out that it's a good place to sit and stare out the window. So, 9 times out of 10, if she's not with me, she's in that bed. It's kind of cute.

Why would Brent make her a scratching post? Well, she was scratching our furniture a bit and with all her surgeries it was hard to keep her nails trimmed. We went to buy one but they were anywhere from $75 to $100. Which was way more than either of us wanted to spend. So, he decided to make it himself using mostly wood that we had lying around.

He'll tell you that he made it to save money and not because he likes Daisy in the least. But I'll just smile knowingly and nod and let him believe that.

I was asked the other day is all of Daisy's hair had grown back in from her leg ordeal.
Yep. She has all her hair and looks pretty normal. When my mom was here she said that she couldn't even tell that anything had happened to her. I can but probably just because I know what to look at.

So, all are happy with the scratching event that was once to be just a scratching post. One thing checked off the honey do list...about a million to go! :)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Abundantly Green

We've been trying to eat more veggies around our house and fresh from the ground stuff is so much better, but we just don't have a great place to grow a lot of them. (Peas and potatoes do AMAZING...tomatoes, not so much. I did move the tomatoes this year so I'm hoping for a better crop, but that's beside the point.) So, one day I was looking through some mail we got and there was this thing about a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) farm that delivers here once a week for 20 weeks. And, they are completely organic - something that I'm starting to really think could be good idea. It's how I grow what I grow, so...

You buy a share in whatever they produce so there is some inherent risk in doing this - if they don't produce anything, you don't get anything. I'd heard of this, but had never really looked into it. I must admit, I was curious, so we bought a mini share in a CSA called Abundantly Green. Just in case you are curious about doing this, I thought I would track what we get for the summer. This will be good for us to decide if we want to do it again, and for you too, if you're curious. I'll keep it updated on the left tab.

Happy Growing Season Everyone!

Where's Daisy This Time?



This is the bag I took with me to a camp overnighter I had last weekend. When I went to take a shower, she was under the bed. When I came back, the bag was moving. Glad it was just Daisy.
That's the box for recycling stuff (we do live in Washington) that's in our pantry.
That's my sleeping bag. Again from the camp overnighter.

At least she's cute!

Whenever I find myself growing grim...

...whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul...I account it high time to get to the sea as soon as I can.

That's a quote from Herman Melville. Lately, I've found myself growing a bit grim. I thought it was high time I got to the sea as soon as I could.

So, we went to Seabrook, Washington, which is only about a 2-1/2 hour drive from here.

Seabrook is a little planned community on the Washington coast. It's only been there since 2005. Ryan and Marcela went there a few years ago, we'd heard a lot about it, so we decided to try it out.

We rented a little vacation home that was a 10 minute walk from the beach. It was glorious! If you're thinking about going to Seabrook, I would TOTALLY go, but we learned a few things along the way. First, there's really no place to get groceries, so bring all you need. They do have a little pantry there and there's a "grocery store" (that looks a lot like a bar) in Pacific Beach, but neither carry very much. Second, don't expect a lot to do. If you're there to stare at the ocean for a few days (which we were) or to do any other beach type things, then this is the place to go. There's not much else to do. And lastly, it's a sandy beach, which is kind of unusual around here. There were a lot of crab parts around (someone said that was because there was an eagle's nest nearby. We did see eagles so that might be true) but you could actually make a sandcastle. The sand wasn't always warm, but it was there.

Here's some pictures...(you knew I'd have a ton of those)
Here's Brent poking the sand with a stick. While my plan was to stare at the ocean, his was to fly kites. Unfortunately, Saturday morning wasn't windy enough for kites, so he had to go beach combing with me.
Later in the morning, the wind picked up so he pulled out the big kite.
As I said, there were a lot of dead crab parts around, so I got to into the habit of flipping over the shells as I walked by. This one didn't flip..it pulled out it's big old claws and looked at us. Kind of surprised me! (I say it was at least a foot across, but Brent says it's was only 9".) I stopped flipping the shells after that.
Look at that blue sky. It was a GLORIOUS day to be at the beach!
Ever wonder what a sand dollar looked like when it was alive? Well, there you go. I suddenly realized that I had no idea what a sand dollar was. So I googled it. It's related to a sea urchin. In Spanish, the name means Cookie of the Sea. And in South Africa, they're called Pansy Cake. The stuff you can find on the internet!

I found 6 whole sand dollars, which was less that I was expecting because I'd heard you'd find 100's here. I found 100's of pieces, but only 6 whole ones. Well, technically 9 whole ones, but 3 of those were still alive. I think the weather just wasn't turbulent enough to wash them ashore. Today would have been a better day - the waves were HUGE as we left!
There's a seagull in this picture. See if you can find it...
Those are seagull tracks...I just thought they were cool. I love digital cameras!
This was Friday when it was REALLY windy and we didn't have our kites. We did eventually get to fly a couple of them. Brent pulled out the big stunt kite that drags you off your feet when you're doing tricks. Technically that's my kite. I love it, but my weak arm muscles don't love it.
What would a blog be without a scrunch picture or two?

And now for some beautiful views of Pacific Beach...



If you've ever wanted to go clamming, apparently this the place to do it. There are razor clams galore here. If you know how, could you teach us? I must say, I'm curious. But, as I think about it, it might fall under my "if I see it alive, I can't eat it" rule. Maybe, teach Brent, then I could taste them.

It was misty like this almost the whole time.


It was a glorious weekend. There were times that we were the only ones on the beach. How is that for fun? I feel totally recharged and ready for the crazy month and a half I have in store.

I'm thinking this might be a yearly excursion in our household.

Monday, June 07, 2010

Just a Thought

I really want to blog so that my last blog is not the one about my stye, which is healing nicely, but not totally gone yet. Thank you for not looking at it.

But, my camera is in the kitchen and I just really don't want to go get it, load the pictures, make the pictures smaller, then put them on the blog, so I'm not going to.

Instead, you just get musings from Ashley.

I'm kind of killing time until I take one of our older sisters in the ward to the doctor. I'm kind of excited to go for a couple of reasons. 1) This sweet sister reminds me a lot of my Grandma Sally, which is kind of fun. and 2)While I'm waiting for her, I'm going to read the Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan which I'm told is AWESOME! So, I only have a couple of minutes to make it so I don't always have to read about my stupid stye.

Our weekend did not seem long enough because once again I was SUPER busy. But, this weekend is going to be AWESOME! We decided we needed some uninterrupted time together and I needed the ocean, so we rented a little vacation home on the coast and we're going for 3 days of staring at the ocean. I'm so excited. Which means I have a lot to do this week to get ready to be gone, but I think it's worth it.

I'm also getting my brain ready for the L** Girl's Weekend that is coming up in a few weeks. All the L** girls, except sadly Jenny - I'm going to miss you, are coming up to Washington for a fun weekend. We're going to San Juan Island for 4 days. I'm excited for it except for the part where I have to drive a 12-passenger van. I'm not always a good backer in my little car, so luckily there will be plenty of people to help me not run into things. :)

Brent finished the infamous scratching pole for Daisy over the weekend. Why is it infamous, you ask? Well, just read this post and you'll see. As soon as I take a picture, put it on the computer, make it smaller, etc, etc, I'll show you how cool it ended up. And because it's Brent's creation, it never ends up as small of a project as it started.

Well, my 5 minutes are about up. Have a great day!

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Stye

I have a stye in my eye.

I hate it when I get styes. Do you ever get these stupid things? I usually have one a year. Here's what I hate about styes.

  • They hurt. Whenever you blink, it hurts, but it's not like you can stop blinking.
  • Sometimes (lucky not this time - yet) you can't close your eye the whole way. Ick.
  • They look yucky. I hate looking in the mirror and seeing my big old stye.
  • It's all people are looking at. No really, I'm sure it is. I mean, what else could they be looking at? I'm sure they're thinking, "Look at that big old gross stye in her eye. She's gross." (When, in fact, they probably aren't even looking at my stye, but still.)
  • They don't seem to go away fast enough. Which would be like instantaneously. "Hey, I think I have a stye...wait, it's gone. " Now that's my kind of stye.
So, I'll just go along with my life, and my giant, new-eye-sized stye. And I'll try to pretend that no one is looking at me.

Please stop looking at my stye. I mean it, stop.