Swinging with Daddy

 

Barnyard Administrator

 

Our Rabbit loves to putter around the barnyard.  She goes out there several times a day and oversees the schooling and development of the animals. 

She also loves to collect eggs.  My other kids sometimes sigh if I ask them to go out and collect eggs (novelty wears off quickly) but not my Rabbit.  She gathers them with great gusto and then enjoys counting them carefully (what a perfect thing to practice counting on!)

Another Dang Rooster…

One of these days we’re going to figure out how to tell a rooster from a hen.  That pretty chicken we call Rainbow turned out to be another rooster.  I really thought we’d ordered only HENS in the last batch from the hatchery, but sometimes they include a free rare-breed chick.  Anyway, he’s a really pretty rooster and we may hang on to him until county fair time. 

Anyone Seen the Rabbit?

Oh, there she is!

(And don't you love me for posting a picture that shows how atrociously messy my laundry area is? You're welcome!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Toad Hall!

What I Buy on Ebay

It all started in 1994 when my parents bought a house from an elderly gentleman who included a bunch of his furniture and knick knacks in the sale of the home. A lot of it was really nice stuff, including a set of a dozen or so Danish blue and white china Christmas plates. I had never seen these before, and I thought they were really pretty.

My mother loved them; she has always liked blue and white china. She decided that it was going to be her Collection, and Dad bought her the 1994 plate that year for Christmas. There are two main Danish china companies that come out with a new plate design every Christmas: Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grondahl. They have been doing this for over a hundred years and have quite a loyal following of collectors who are willing to pay somewhere between $75 and $100 for the new plate each Christmas.

A few years after we were married I had this kitchen that had the perfect spot for plates like these and since I had decided that blue and white were my colors I started looking into getting some. I knew I could never afford them new, but when I looked on ebay I made a happy discovery. The really old ones were very expensive and the recent ones were beyond me, but there was a window of time from the 1960s through the early 1980s where they were going for really cheap. Like five dollars cheap. I still had to pay shipping, but I bought a set of seven of them for between $10 and $15 each with shipping. I decided to buy only Royal Copenhagen because I liked the border on them and I wanted them all to match.

It was a fun few months: I bid low on lots of auctions and lost quite a few. I spent a lot of time on eBay. But in the end, I had my space filled with blue and white for a bargain price.

They look like they were made to go on that space in that sweet little kitchen, but I have usually found a pretty good home for them in the houses we have lived in since then.

And now, since we remodeled the kitchen, they once again have a place made just for them:

Here is a little bit of a close-up: you can see that they are all Christmas-themed, very classic, and very charming:

But I have a little problem: my seven plates fit perfectly above my cabinets on one side of my kitchen… …but there are two sides to my kitchen!

That means I get to buy more! I think about five should do the trick.

Looking on eBay, I have found that I have already pretty well picked over the years where you can get the plates for under $15. There are a few left that I don’t have, but they are designs I don’t care for. I have to like the design and like the price, of course. So it looks like I am probably going to have to spend more like $20 to $25 each for this set, especially since shipping has gone up in recent years (what hasn’t gone up?) I will need to spread these purchases out over several months. But it’s going to be really fun choosing which ones I want and bidding on them!

It's funny to me that I am so into these. I am not normally the kind of person who is into collecting things, especially something like china plates. But these plates make me happy. Maybe it is because I am one quarter Danish. Maybe it is the connection with my mom. Or maybe it is just the thrill of getting something so beautiful and high-quality for such a bargain price. I am hooked on these plates!

Magical Badger Bread

The Badger has been reading this totally awesome book (which I will get around to reading myself one of these days!) entitled The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers by Caleb Warnock. One of the things the Badger has been talking about from the book is how much better it is to use the old varieties of yeast instead of the modern fast-rising yeast. A few days ago he put his money where his mouth was and started this jar of… something… on the counter.

I must confess—I am still not entirely sure what he is doing, or how he’s doing it, but our bread is turning out well. It takes longer to rise and it has a different smell than the yeasty smell I’m used to, but it tastes great.

This natural yeast is supposed to make it easier for your body to digest the gluten. It’s supposed to be a lot healthier. What I think is cool is that we totally made it ourselves without any dependence on a store-bought product. As we learn from Napoleon Dynamite, it’s a good thing to have skills: yeast starting skills, bread baking skills…. we’re really piling on the skills here at Toad Hall!

Goin’ on a Hayride

 

The Badger went and got a load of hay today (and had to drive a long way and pay a premium price for it!)  When he came back, we all piled on for a short, gentle hayride around the yard.  Another beautiful country living memory!  We’re racking them up!

Wrap Details

I have been asked for some details about how I made that baby wrap.  It is simply a strip of fabric six yards long.  I use knit; I have seen them made out of woven but I like a little stretch.  Six yards of knit can be expensive, but I watch for neutral colors in the clearance racks and know that one six-yard cut will make two or three wraps (depending on the width of the fabric).  Once I bought three yards and cut it in half so that there was a seam in the middle of the wrap (which I covered with a pocket)—I think that worked, but it didn’t look quite as nice. 

Anyway, you lay the fabric out and cut it so that it is 18 inches wide in the middle.  The last few feet on each side you taper it down so that your two ends are about 6 inches wide.  That’s all you really need to do.  I have been serging the edges to make a little bit neater of a finish, but knit likes to roll so much that the edges of the fabric are very rarely going to be visible (which is why I don’t take the time to fold them over and hem them.) 

The pocket is purely decorative, but it looks cute and makes it really easy to find the middle of the wrap.  Just get a fat quarter you like that matches your fabric and cut it maybe about 11” by 13” or so, bigger or smaller if you like.  Then sew it on just like you would sew a patch pocket on anything else. 

Learning how to tie it can be tricky and getting it set up to put Baby in it is a little bit fussy, but once you get the hang of it you will love how comfortable it is and how happy Baby is when they’re in it.  For instructions on how to tie it and install the baby, just get on YouTube and search for how to use a Moby wrap. 

Rabbit in the Pasture

I was looking out the upstairs window this glorious spring morning, enjoying the view of the pasture full of chickens and goats, when I noticed a small person coming out from behind a tree.  It was my little Rabbit.  I hadn’t noticed her going outside, so I wasn’t expecting to see her out there.  However, I wasn’t too surprised since my Rabbit is the kind of person that not only feels very capable but is naturally very proactive.  What she wants to do, she just goes and does.  And this morning she felt like going out and playing in the pasture with the animals before breakfast.  I watched, enchanted, as she started out across the field, followed by a long line of chickens.  I wondered what was going on in her little four-year-old imagination. 

 

Oh, Rabbit!  How glorious are your days!  Enjoy them!

Feeding Company

 

My Badger loves to feed company.  Whenever we have guests, he bustles about the kitchen preparing a huge feast (so totally reminding me of his Grandma Edna!)  And he does the dishes too. 

The night my brother etc. arrived I was just going to have a simple pot of soup or something, but he said, “How about we do make-your-own pizza?”  I made pizza dough and then he prepared and set out something like 16 different toppings to choose from.  We patted the dough into pie tins and everyone got their own individual pizza.  This is a very popular old family tradition from my family that we haven’t done much with our kids because it’s easier to just make big pizzas when you have a lot of tiny kids.  But now that they have experienced the thrill of getting to make their own little pizzas, I think we will have to go back to this.  I love this photo of the Badger helping the Rabbit make her pizza:

So, then, the next night the Badger went crazy again setting up a scrumptious burrito bar.  It was incredible and they were some of the best burritos I have ever eaten. 

In the middle of this picture you can see the Badger’s burrito creation.  He makes these things and they are so big and luscious-looking you just have to take a picture of them.  It’s fun to see how the Badger’s rich imagination comes into play when he’s creating his own food. 

   We ate well this weekend, that’s for sure!

It's a Wrap!

Well, my nephew and his wife went and had an etremely adorable baby girl a few weeks ago. I've been thinking about them lately.... remembering what it's like to have a brand-new baby for the first time. Everything is new and crazy, you don't know what to expect, you feel like your body is falling apart, and you definitely don't get enough sleep.

I decided to make them something to make their life easier....



I really wish I'd had one of these wrap carriers with Bean. I didn't get one until Fish, and even then they were not in the United States yet and I had to order one from Australia. Don't ask what I paid for it. But it was worth it. They are by far the most comfortable baby-wearing systems around and the baby is so happy whenever they're in there. And they're incredibly simple to make.

So, my dear Neffy-poo and your lovely wife: this is for you with love from Aunt Birrd.