Not Helpful

Sammy and Blacky (the dogs) have been really “good” at trying to “guard” our house. They bark at the coyotes and other animals that get too close to our house (generally around 3 in the morning). They bark at cars (including our neighbor when he pulls into his own driveway). They bark at unfamiliar people that come onto our property (like my uncle and cousins, who use the machine shed and farm here, and really shouldn’t be unfamiliar anymore at this point). And they bark at the other dogs they can hear barking from far away at their own farms.

And now the dogs are trying really hard to get our attention about the suspicious, unnatural, possibly dangerous creatures that have shown up in the pasture by the house. Because there is clearly something wrong with these new animals standing around quietly, minding their own business. Yep. Blacky and Sammy are barking at cows. My uncle brought some of his cows over here for a while, just as he does every year, and Sammy and Blacky are absolutely certain that my uncle has begun some kind of evil plot which we need to be warned about. Constantly, ever since the cows showed up today.

Honestly, I don’t know that any of the cows has even made eye contact with one of the dogs yet. They’re cows. They’re pretty relaxed, most of the time. I don’t think they even care that they’re being barked at. I care, of course. I don’t want to listen to any more complaining about our bovine guests. But dogs don’t really see reason when it comes to “protecting” us, and I can’t really reward positive behavior, like not barking, when it hasn’t happened in hours.

Merry Christmas!

Santa came to our new house overnight, and Mom and Dad came over to watch the girls open up their gifts. None of the gifts left under the tree by Santa were disturbed, nor were the gifts that I wrapped and put on the shelves a couple weeks ago. We have surprisingly patient girls.

Christmas Trees

We have a pretty awesome situation for Christmas trees now. In the past, we put them in the playpen so that they would be harder to reach and nearly impossible to completely knock over. It worked okay. We couldn’t use the playpen at all for a couple months and we only used our small trees and not the big one, but with very curious small people, it was the best way to do it.

One Thing After Another

Today we got another dog. I did not plan on getting a second dog. Ever. But we’ve recently found out that while Sammy will bark at one or two coyotes off in the distance, she is terrified if there are more or if they are closer. A few nights ago, we heard a bunch of coyotes howling very close to the house, either down in the pasture or even up by the road, and Sammy spent the night cowering by the house behind a bush. Didn’t make a noise. At all.

The theory we’re going with is that having a puppy will help Sammy feel a little more brave. And since Sammy is 8, she’ll have a little company as she gets even older and may not want to be as active.

Antenna Installation

We have opened up Pandora’s Convertor Box.

Adam had some help hooking up our new antenna that is supposed to improve TV reception and possibly give us PBS, which I haven’t had on a TV since we lived in Lincoln while Adam was finishing school. And that was before the digital TV switch, so it was very fuzzy.

Well, we do have PBS now (and Fox comes in much better), but I’m not sure if this is actually a good thing. See, the girls haven’t ever watched much TV because we never got any stations with shows that are appropriate for them. We watched videos on occasion (Fraggle Rock, Veggie Tales, Sesame Street, and such), but nothing on a regular basis. That is no longer the case.

One More Mouth to Feed

Today we got a dog. I did not plan on getting a dog this soon, but I also didn’t plan on having cats already, either. Let alone cats that get attacked by coyotes.

Five More Things the Girls are Really Excited About

The girls have enjoyed discovering all kinds of fun stuff around the house. Here are five more things they especially love.


- Kitchen Table

I’ve mentioned it before, but the girls love sitting at the little bar in the kitchen. I ate there a lot with

my grandparents, sandwiched between them, and it was also a favorite place to paint with watercolors. Their excitement makes me smile.

Meow!

Good news! Our mouse problem has decreased significantly! Partly because Adam has caught so many in traps, but also because they’re scared to show their furry little faces around the house and car now.

We have cats. And the cats are very interested in all the places where the mice have been hanging out.

EEK!

Adam had a rough night.

Recently we noticed that mice (ew) had been getting into the garage (yuck). Adam started leaving out mousetraps every night, and after catching nearly a dozen in the first few days, the mortality rate has mostly slowed down.

But not before we noticed that the mice had also been getting into the car (disgusting), which wasn’t even in the garage due to Grandma’s old furniture still being stored inside. Did you know mice like ranch? Yeah, it’s true. They chewed through a couple old ranch containers from McDonalds that had fallen under the seat and completely licked the ranch out. They didn’t touch the sweet and sour or barbeque, though. Why would they need to eat the ranch, with three children worth of dropped snacks hidden under car seats? Well, mice are greedy and obnoxious, so they ate the ranch, tastiest of all non-ketchup dips, and then they still ate the gram cracker chunks, lost cheerios, and bits of froot loops. And they left evidence of having been in and around all three car seats.

Five Outdoor Things I am Really Excited About

Here are some things outside of the house that I'm a big fan of at our new home.


- Pond

Don’t tell the girls yet (or ever?), but there is a pond in the pasture next to us. Sometimes there are ducks on it. It’s very pretty. I wouldn’t ever swim in it (my uncle keeps cows in that pasture sometimes), but it is nice to look at. And in the winter, you can take your chance sliding around on the ice a little bit. It’s not ice-skating per se, but something kind of close to it.

- Basketball Hoops

My grandparents’ old hoop is still up over by the hanger (though it needs to be rehung and restrung) and there are plenty of other cement places to put up a hoop someday. We didn’t have any good cement pads at the old house, so we kind of hit the basketball jackpot here. Horse, anyone?

Happy Fourth of July!

Every year, Adam and I go over to my parents' house a few times in the weeks before Independence Day to shoot off fireworks. Why? Well, fireworks don't go all that well in town when there's lots of trees, not a lot of empty yard space, and you don't want to shoot off fireworks in the road. Also, I'm told, we're not supposed to shoot them off in Goehner at all. But some people do, so I may be wrong about that. Or maybe people are just really chill about that rule.

Anyway.

This year, for the first time, we were able to do fireworks at our own house! Without worrying about neighbors or getting reported for using fireworks in city limits! And we even got to invite Mom and Dad over to watch. Which I think Mom preferred because she doesn't have to pick up used fireworks the next day AND she won't have to complain about finding firework debris in her gardens for the rest of the summer.

Five Indoor Things I am Really Excited About

There are lots of things I like at the new house, too. Here are five things inside the house that I'm particularly enjoying. And given the stormy weather of the last month or so, having a safe basement to cower in ranks high!


- Basement

What the heck, nature?! Nebraskans are good people. Lay off the severe storms, please? But at least we have a good place to go during severe weather. We can even bath, sleep, and paint and heat set dishes in a kiln down there if we need to. (Except the kiln isn’t set up yet. Someday.)

Patio Pool Party

Since we’re doing a lot of work at the new house and the girls enjoy playing over there, plus there’s so much more room to play, we set up our pools on the patio.

Yep. Plural. We have more than one pool.

Really, should that surprise anyone?

Actually, we’ve had a small plastic pool for a few years. Last year, Adam cracked it on the bottom. It has duct tape covering the crack now and does not seem to be leaking. But it may not have much time left on it. And we thought it would be good to have a “calm” pool for Agatha and a more wild pool for Emaline and Gwendalyn. Plus, three girls don’t fit into one small pool without a little territorial arguing.

Don’t Make Friends with the Wildlife

After the girls were in bed, Adam yelled that I needed to come look at something. Outside the living room picture window are three of the four little raccoons that live around the new house.  And Adam is tapping on the glass to amuse them.

I don’t enjoy killing animals, but a family of raccoons is not really something we can have. They will eventually need to be, unfortunately, put down.  If you have ever lived on a farm or acreage, you may be nodding your head or sighing in frustration because you’ve experienced this before. And you know how frustrating it is. If you’re really offended but live in the city and don’t actually have to deal with this level of critter issue on a regular basis (meaning lots of them every day), please don’t lecture me on wild animal ecology. You don’t even want to know what I think of mountain lions. And now I’m freaking out a little because I’m thinking about mountain lions. So thanks for that.

Most likely, Adam is the one who will have to handle the raccoons. I’m not a bad shot, when I’m not upset about having to be shooting at things. But I prefer bow and arrow, and that isn’t really practical here. Ever seen Robin Hood? Yeah, there’s no way I’m THAT good.

Five Things the Girls are Really Excited About

 The girls love the new house. Here are five things they are especially excited about.

- Windows

 This house has a few HUGE windows. The girls love looking at the plants, the sky, and the animals outside. The windows are now covered in fingerprints. And mouth prints. I will be having them wear Windex covered gloves in the house now so that they can wipe the windows clean as they look outside.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs (and Trained Attack Babies)

This house has not been lived in for about two years.

Strike that. This house has not had humans living in it for about two years. It has, however, gained and maintained a healthy population of bugs. We have glue traps out and we’re squishing whatever we see, but I can’t say how much it actually helps. (Again, I don’t like killing things, but a near infestation is a problem.) The occasional roach seems to get in through the vents. Little beetles are coming in because the back/front door doesn’t seal all the way at the base. Mosquitoes have found holes in a screen door. Ants have a little passageway in the sliding door. There may be bees in one wall. Carpet beetles have a number of entryways, unfortunately, but at least they’re kind of delicate. And most of the rest of the bugs come in when I forget to turn off the inside light when the outside light is on and the door is open.

I remember Grandma and Grandpa used to have a bug zapper. I think I saw at least part of it the other day. We may need to see if it can be revived or just get a new one. At least for the outside door. Darn moths and June bugs.

Agatha, by the way, worries me. She puts a lot of things in her mouth. And she’s dangerously quick.

Dishwasher Disaster

Adam had his first day of graduate school today.  I thought I would be a hard worker and get a lot accomplished. But I was also a little lazy, too.

So I loaded up the dishwasher, still the original machine in the new house, and turned it on. Nothing happened. I called Dad, and he reminded me to turn the dishwasher’s water lines back on. Easy enough, right? I should have thought of that. The girls and I played, read some books, and then decided to do lunch in town and go to a park. Maybe even see Great Grandma. A few hours had passed.

On the way to get shoes on, we noticed that the kitchen floor was wet. Flooded, actually. As in, “Hey, get the plastic boats from the bathtub!” flooded. Monsoon season flooded. The dishwasher had not drained normally and instead was draining all over the floor, which apparently has low points over by the clothes washing machine in the entry and also in the space between the fridge and the oven. That’s where the pool of water was deepest, of course.

I sent the girls to play in another room, but of course they hung around to watch and ask a thousand questions about the water.  And splash. And get yelled at by a panicking mommy. And splash some more.

New Carpets and Naughty Babies

Due to a few problems with stains and mold, we have many new carpets in the new house. I would have liked to keep the old ones, but it wasn’t entirely an option. So only three old carpets remain.

New carpet it kind of nice. We got some odd looking ones and we were able to make the master bedroom yellow again. And there are fewer carpets with pins and needles in them. Seriously. Grandma sewed a lot, and growing up, I always left my shoes on in the house because it was really risky to go barefoot. My feet picked up SOOOO many stray pins over the years. It has only been a minor issue so far; mostly in the office-turned-sewing-room that kept it’s carpet. Along with the carpet roughness issue if you’re crawling on it.

But also, new carpet sheds a lot. There are lots of little pieces of carpet coming out and migrating around the house. And it’s REALLY easy to pull out a few loose strands.

Up and Down the Stairs

We’ve only been here a few days, and we’re already stuck in the basement for an evening. There was a big hailstorm tonight, and with the huge windows my Grandma always loved, being upstairs was not an option. So we brought a TV downstairs along with the girls’ sofas and spent the evening playing in the basement.

And Adam and I spent a lot of that time just going up and down the stairs. Going up to look out the windows. Coming back down. Going up to check the weather radio. Coming back down. Going up to get something for snack. Coming back down.

Moving-ish In-ish

Don’t tell my mom, but I’m allergic to bunnies.

I’ve actually known that for a while. And really, I’m mostly allergic to their food (timothy hay) and their loose fur. And the dust they create.

So as we’ve been packing at home and preparing to move, we’ve had a very important rule: If Adam is going to pack things near the rabbits (which I can’t do, due to said allergies), it needs to be at night so I can bath and go upstairs to bed right away.

Well, a few days ago, Adam forgot our rule. He’s out of school now, so he’s home all day. While the girls were doing afternoon nap, I was sitting by the TV, sorting papers. I didn’t pay attention to what Adam was doing, until I started sneezing and rubbing my very itchy eyes.