Follow the shenanigans of a woman's attempt at going green while trying to raise a little one on a small ranch in Arizona with chickens and horses.
Phew, back home from home…
I spent the last week and a half running around like mad Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities with Lilly, visiting family back home in Iowa. What a crazy crazy week but it was sooo worth it to see everyone!
Lilly and I flew out solo on the 16th to Cedar Rapids to visit with my sister. Ray had classes and had to stay home and couldn’t get to us till Thanksgiving Day. Flying solo with a 2 month old is a little overwhelming (so is changing a diaper at 33,000 feet!). Our flight back was soooo relaxing because Ray was with us and we took turns.
Prepping Lilly for Iowa:
Lilly met soooo much of her family (we missed a few people but we’ll get them on the next round). We spent mornings with Aunt Jen, drinkin’ coffee and warming up in her sun-room. (Note, Jen and I were drinking coffee, not Lilly… 
We met up with both sides of our family, it was a bit of a whirl-wind of events because we had to cram visiting Ray’s side of the family in the 2 short days he was with us.
We didn’t get any snow while we were there, but that’s probably a good thing. I can take Lilly up north in a couple years when I want to get pics of her with snow, and then come back down the mountain to warmth.
I did get pictures of squirrels this time though when I was home!
I LOVE squirrels, no idea why, I just think they’re awesome. If I had a dream life, like I could do anything I wanted, I think I would spend summers up north with my family and whittle away the summer days feeding squirrels. Seriously. Phoenix area doesn’t seem to have them. I guess they are up north in the mountains but not here.
The weather was divine for Iowa on Thanksgiving but Iowa sent us back home with a subtle reminder of why we left, cold wet nasty icky rain… not a wonderful summer rolling thunderstorm, but 40′ish degrees and raining ickyness.
When we got off the plane in Arizona, I melted… I will miss my family terribly but ahhhhhhh, sunshine and warmth, how I have missed you!!!!
Lilly’s Chicky PJ’s
My little girl is all about the chickies, as you can tell from her picture.
Toot if you love chickens!
Today she is 2 months, 11 days old. In 5 days, she will be taking her first airplane ride back to Iowa! (I hate to say it but PRAY FOR SNOW once we’re there, that would be awesome to get pictures in!)
I have a ton of packing to do and gotta run down my list of everything I need while I’m there, need to call the airlines and verify what they allow as carry-on for a baby (some airlines are different). I can’t wait to see my family and friends again!
I suspect there will be lots… and lots… and lots… of pictures.
Cool things to do with old tires
This weekend I am snagging up some old tires and starting my tire garden, so I thought I’d do some searches for inspiration.
I’m borrowing some images from the net out there to show cool things you can do with tires, with links back to their originating sites. I hope this inspires someone today…. (*cough cough, Chicky Readers, cough cough!*).
So… painting the tires. There’s a lot of really cool things you can do with tire gardens to make them look better… (and as an added bonus, get the paint from the OOPS section of Home Depot and Walmart paint department cheap!!!)
Copyright goes to http://www.felderrushing.net/, Please visit their site for more inspiration! I adore the stencilled art on them too.
You can grow pretty much anything in tires (yes, including food, there’s a ton of research out there on if any toxins can leech into the soil and the general scientific consensus is it’s safe and that the tires are inert). Even if they did a little, it’s probably 99% less than the pesticides and herbicide crap covering what we get at the store not to mention modifications that have been made to them to grow them faster…. I cannot wait to have real fresh tomatoes again, not the crap from the grocery stores.
Copyright to Junk Drawer Decor- Follow them at http://junkdrawerdecor.tumblr.com/ I love these bright colors
Copyright http://jennifersilva.suite101.com These are tires that have been flipped inside out, hence the smooth surface on the outside, and then cut to give the cool rims.
Build a Wall: Copyright Cowiche Camp: http://cowichecamp.wordpress.com Think of all the cool plants you could do in those crevices, turning the entire wall green!
Build an obstacle course for your kids.. or hell, even your dog.... Unknown Source
Hoarders Show on TV: Why I like it….
This is a strange little side-topic but while on maternity leave, I’ve found myself up late at night with Ms. Fussy Butt and have taken to recording episodes of various shows on the Tivo so that when she’s up at 1am and won’t sleep, I have something to watch other than paid infomercials or movies I’ve seen a million times.
One show I keep watching is Hoarders. The show overall is pretty crappy, I look at the probably faked up drama bits and roll my eyes, but I look at the MESS and I instantly want to clean the living hell out of whatever house they’re in. It’s really weird but I can’t help but watch the show just to look at the mess because all I can think of is what I would do if I were to walk in that house, where I would start, how I would organize it, how I would clear it, etc. etc…
I’ve got some “clutter” areas of my house where everything makes a pit-stop and crashes (cough, my office), and the other thing I like about watching Hoarders is that it makes me get up and move and clean around my own house too. Lilly’s been crashed out tonight (for once), so I’ve been tackling my office… I have about 1/2 of it done, taking a break on it to blog so I don’t burn-out.
