3 Lovely Chics and A Hot spring

3 Lovely Chics and A Hot spring

Mammoth HotSprings - March 2013

How do people have time to blog?  Right now the only reason I do is because my children are in the care of a police officer giving me the break I finally needed to do something really important like make my life sound larger than on our blog.

We haven’t submitted to the blog in a while.  Since our last post we have moved into a new home, added 1 roomate (Jon, our resident cappuccino king, who placed 2^nd in the National Barista competition 2003, and wakes me up with an espresso drink to order every morning) and 2 part time roommates (his daughters, ages 7 and 5).

Visitors

We finally made it to Yellowstone National Park this March for the first time with Barb and Rea.  For those of you who know how much my Mom loves driving in the snow, we definitely needed to relax in the hotsprings after driving up 2000 ft of icy mountain roads to the Yellowstone Plateau.

 

 

Rea proves that sledding is not just child's play.  He plans on starring in a movie called "Springbreak - Profs gone Wild"

 

Sean and Zoe came later the same week.  Typical of Montana spring, we were able to sled in the snow when they arrived and hang out in T-shirts by the time they left.

 

B hitting some hot-chocolate after a hard day on the slopes

 

Sean sporting his man-scaping, Sarah with her prego-pooch just starting to show, and what we believe is a moment of Zoe attempting to intimidate another hiker with her Papuan-gang signs.  As Zoe narrows down her college selection, we are still hoping to make the winners bracket having now convinced Zoe that Missoula is the tropical paradise of the Pacifac Northwest and fairly earns its title of "Montana's Banana Belt".  Its the warmest place for at least a 50 mile radius.

 

 

And as of today we took the plunge and decided to commit.

 Having committed to:

-  raising a dog – average commitment – 10 yrs

-          2 children, and 1 on the way (due September 3^rd)  – we’d love to say 18, but are afraid that with our ample living space they may never leave 

-          Home ownership – two times over, and in this market of slow moving real estate, the commitment time is somewhere between a dog and raising children 

-          Marriage – till death do us part; which may be sooner on somedays if you ask Sarah about the effect of taking care of the 3 boys in the family. 

You may be wondering what exactly our newest commitment.

 We now have 3 lovely chics that have moved in.  I’m talking girls that look great in feather boas, one of them may be x-dressing as a girl (we could find out it is a total cock later), and they all know how to lay one.  They are constantly chattering and they poop in a cardboard box.


General Tso is a barred-rock and hopes to look like this one day



 

 The other two are Red-star Hens and hope to look like this

We have named them “Thomas” (name courtesy of “T”) – we convinced him not to name her after himself in case we had to cull her, “Big Bird” (name courtesy of “B”), and "General Tso"

That’s right – if you didn’t already guess it, we have committed to the world of urban chicken farming. 

The decision was easy, after having already announced it to several friends; it was too late to back out even after reading horror stories of having to digitally help remove an impacted egg stuck somewhere in the all-in-one hole from which the chicken gifts the universe with guano and eggs.  Besides, our friend, Officer Diener, a Baltimore City cop was visiting and we had to do something “Montanan” to convince him that life under the powder-covered mountains of the Big Sky is just as Bad-A as living by powder-dusted noses in Baltimore riding the Big High.

 

Our first attempts to convince Ryan of this didn't quite hurdle his intensity bar:  we force-hiked him up Mt Sentinel with 30 pounds of snoring 'B' on his back and tried to get him trampled by Bison.

 

 

Our adventure began yesterday at the local Ranch supply store.  I was pretty much the only guy in there with a belt buckle smaller than a dinner plate and who didn’t know the difference between a "pullet" and "straight run" chicken.  I found the stores chicken dude, and a few minutes later, Scott had told me everything I needed to know about chickens.  “You need a heat-lamp, some water, some feed and a place to put ‘em”.

I asked for the unabridged version, figuring I needed to know a little bit more as Sarah has informed me that the chickens are strictly my project (she draws her limit at cleaning up two different kinds of poo) - so I said “Is there anything else I need to know?” 

Scott, realizing that I was not a Cliff-notes kind of a guy, gave me the answer I was looking for, “Nope”. 

Now I know what you're thinking, "Surely, you must pass a test and get a permit before they let an urban-moron raise fowl in the city?" 

You'd be right, about the permit part.  So, this morning I went to city hall to get my chicken permit. While I was waiting in the line labeled “Stupid-City-Folk who have romanticized notions of Rural living and watch 'Portlandia'”, I ran into Missoula's Mayor (in all sincerity, a great guy).  And with a naïve grin, proudly said, “Hey Mayor I’m getting my chicken permit”.  John replied, “Free eggs, calories, and cholesterol – what's not to like?". 

I’m not really sure about the answer to his question– I imagine there are a number of things that I will not like about being a chicken farmer; but I’m hoping that having Tuesday be Flan and Custard night won’t be one of them. 

 

Yellowstone

 

 

 

 

Taj the place kicker

Taj's football inspiration is somewhere between Matt Stover and Charlie Brown.
You decide: (also he was having a hard time mustering the umphh needed for a good kick...until we said 'Kick it to Mommy.'  If he goes pro, Sarah will have to get a season pass for a seat behind the goal post.)

Merry Christmas BlogCard

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas From Missoula
As the year draws to a close we have so much to be thankful for
An older son who loves being a big brother – Taj is always giving Brij advice, hugs, kisses, toys and reassurance when mom and dad have their hands full.
Visits from all of our families this summer to help welcome our newest addition Brij
Who lights up the room with his gummy smile now broken by two bottom teeth.  Brij is now sitting up on his own.  Says “Dadadada” (Yes, Sarah is jealous that "Dada" is his first word) and is eating a delicious variety of pureed veggies and fruits - at least when they are not being smeared on the bib, floor, the dog, and who evers feeding him

A church family that loves and supports us and is part of our day to day lives:allsoulsmissoula.org
A beautiful town to call our home surrounded and invaded by beautiful mountains, lakes and rivers
and last but not least our rotten dog, Sadie, who can’t get enough of Montana mud or snow tracked into the house

Today we are grateful for Christmas itself

Today we spent a wonderful day enjoying gifts from the grandparents, Taj is decked out in snow pants (Thanks Barb and Rea) and a jacket and boots (Thanks Cindy and Ray) and a sled (Thanks Ram and Sapna).
Fresh snow to ensure that a white Christmas won’t just be a dream
Taj said his first prayer last night and knows that tomorrow is Jesus’ Birthday.
There is much that we miss this year - our families and friends spread across the country and globe.  Most especially, we miss Rob’s Uncle Kevin who lost his fight with lung cancer this fall.

Our thoughts and prayers are with all of you

We’d like to say our new years resolution is to blog more…You’ll have to stay tuned and find out

and I could see for miles, miles, miles

In my suburban empire it easy to feel like king, I flip a switch and I have light, I press a button and I can change the climate.  Food comes out of box.  The cliche of modern convenience and its depersonalizing effect.

In addition to Brij and family visits, my summer has also been filled with reading John Muir's biography and listening to Bon Iver's new album.

This past week we took the family to the buffalo range and were surrounded by 50-100 head of buffalo tumbling down a hill.  A stream of frothy, wooly, pulsating bison parting around our tiny 4runner.  The vehicle shook as they poured around us and you could hear their grunting and their bellowing and smell the cud on their breath.  One bull in particular decided to stand us off and started inching its ways square to the center of our bumper.  That's around when Rea rolled the window up.  One look at the large males and you know if they wanted they could flip your SUV and roll it with a flick of their horns. 

And the song 'Holocene' keeps playing in my head "Saying nothing thats enough for me, and at once I knew I was not magnificent, hulled far from the highway aisle and I could see for miles, miles, miles"

As much as I believe that God gave us the animals to shepherd them, I think he also made sure that we weren't his only children.  I know its not for everyone, but I'm glad that Taj won't be a fortunate only son.  I'm glad that God didn't make man a spoiled only son either.  We may be special in all of creation, but we are not alone.  Muir never stopped to be amazed, fascinated and humbled by creation.

Reading Muir, seeing Taj adjust to sharing our love with his brother, and being swarmed by bison are all God's good gifts for keeping me appropriately small.

Adventures in Motherhood

I am realizing daily that when you increase the number of children in your family, you also increase your hope that strangers will be kind and help you out.  When I go out now, I am out numbered 2:1.  I once thought that God gave me 2 arms for a reason, one for each kid.  But I will tell you they both are being used on the smallest, more fragile one who's head "needs" to be supported. (btw, this sometimes happens, sometimes doesn't, and his head still remains attached...no worries!)  Meanwhile the bigger, faster, more cleaver and increasingly pushing the boundaries kid is free to roam where ever he may please and cause me heart palpatations.

This morning I was very proud of myself.  Pat on the good ol' back for getting all 3 of us fed and dressed (and me showered) before 9 am.  I was feeling extremely daring and very confident, so I decided to run a few errands.  Nothing too crazy.  First, was a trip to the post office to get stamps.  Both boys were angels and it couldn't have gone smoother.

Second stop, the library.  I confess, I have a fear of going to the library with babies.  Libraries are a place where you have to whisper and use a 12 inch voice.  It's a quiet place where people read and study. So you can imagine how anxiety provoking it is to take a creature that can cry and be loud at any minute into a quiet place.  I am afraid of disturbing people and having people glare at me.

You'll be happy to know that Brij slept the whole time.  Taj on the other hand was a perfect model of what not to do in a library.  He ran like the wind and surprisingly I only lost him once (found him as he was making an exit out the front door).  To get rid of the extra energy we went to story time.  Another bust.  We left without incident, glad to be home, get lunch in the kid and put him down for a nap when I looked down and my whole shirt was unbuttoned!  I didn't feed Brij at the library but instead, gave everyone a good show.  Why did no one tell me?

Beth's visit

We're almost done Auntie Beth's visit.  She came just in time for Brij's first smiles

Independence

I'm at a crossroads these days with Taj.  Daily I debate in my head how much to let him explore his environment and how much I try to control the mess I KNOW he will make.  Today I decided to relax (or rather sit and see how long it would take Rob to intervene) and let him explore.  We were at the OB's office and they recently got a new water cooler.  When you are there every month and then every week, you notice these slight differences.  And so did Taj.  At first it was cute watching Rob and Taj drink their water, but whenever Rob refilled Taj's water cup he made him close his eyes so he wouldn't learn the secret to how water magically got into his cup.  Sadly, that only lasted so long. 

A guy came in with his wife and you can tell he's not chasing a toddler around in his spare time because he let out the big secret. Taj studied this guy and quickly learned just what button to push to have water flowing into his cup and else where. I would like to add, Taj isn't the best at drinking from a cup because of my issues with controlling my environment.  Therefore we choose to keep things nice and clean...ie. sippy cups.

Once Taj learned the button, he was over at the water cooler every 10 seconds to fill up his cup with a sip of water. By the time we were done Taj had water covering the front of his shirt.  Of course with exploration, there is mess.   Taj ended up dumping small (although it felt large) portion of his water out on the floor and yelled "mess" although Rob swears his heard Taj say "shit."  Ironically that is what Rob yelled as soon as he got up to intervene.