The Garden Masterminds Taking a Gander...

Flowering artichokes in the foreground with the two masterminds conversing over coffee.

 This morning Matt and Alex took a little garden walk through to assess the status of our wonderful veggies growing away. While they discussed the correct ratios of fertilizer, adjustments on the drip irrigation, and marveled at the wonderful corn that is shooting up at an amazing rate, I took the time to snap a few photos in the morning light.

MMMM, sweet corn in 1 months time?? We can only hope!

dewdrops on our asparagus plants

flowering pole beans climbing our teepee

A ton of green tomatoes! How long will it be till the red starts to creep out?

We actually have NOTHING in the garden now ripe to eat, minus a few strawberries. This is the waiting time, especially with our late summer. But oh in a month or so, it will be a great feast!

Granny is Here!!! and...Wonderful Neighborhood Beach BBQ's, and......Summer is Wonderful....etc. etc.

Talin and Grandma Gloria enjoy the shade

The most wonderful neighborhood beach party!

Baby Talin, Matt, and Granny enjoying the sand

Forrest and friend Bryce having a kiddie cocktail at our neighbor's wonderful deck overlooking the river

The two grandma's and T baby enjoying the garden strawberries

My mom is here for her annual summer visit. It is SO nice when she is here, I really cannot fully put it in words! It would be incredibly nice to have her closer her ALL the time, (Hint Hint!!)
But, nonetheless, we enjoy her summer visits immensely. We are enjoying our river life here more than ever. With the kiddies, it is so hard to travel, and the fact we live in a place where most people travel to vacation is wonderful for our current life! July and August are paradise up here...hot paradise, but great overall with the river flowing by.
With our little neighborhood group and their fabulous houses and outdoor spaces they love to share, all of our family and friends visiting, and the river and the fun that goes with it, we are soaking it up!

Oh to sleep like a baby....

'Ode to Aunt Nat and Happy 4th Everyone!

Just a little check in here as we take off to our neighbors for our own little ""Block Party" (?dirt road party??) Alex, Matt (come visit him friends!!) and Forrest just took off on the quad and T baby is finishing up on a evening cat nap, so we'll be joining him soon.
Today we went to the Arcata 4th of July Festival with both kiddies and Forrest fell in love with fire trucks all over again. He was lucky enough to ride on TWO old timey trucks around the city, first in the back with Mom and last up front helping drive with Dad. He then wanted a chance to ride on the BIG truck with the mammoth ladder, (how tall is that thing anyways Nat?) We told him he would have to ask his Aunt about that one, given her firefighting expertise in Massachusetts. We may need an insider for that request!

And...there is little T baby waking up from his evening nap. Hopefully he will be a fully recharged 13 month old for the neighborhood fireworks session with goodies and drinks. Gotta love the River Bender neighborhood! Happy 4th of July everyone!!!

Snipits of Summer

Home made popsicle love, Talin's first!!!

Late June beautiful Ranch afternoon

Swing Bliss

Rockin the funky hats on our walk

Cutest watermelon face you ever did see!!!

The "bear hunters..." who only found bear poop but no real deal this time!

And to end it, yes, that's ground squirrel. The enemy of our family and garden. They and 15 of their cousins are now toast, (figuratively NOT literally) and the garden lives on, much to Alex's delight! (he's been having fun with his new vermit hunting gun....boys will be boys...)

Kings River 2012

Our annual family reunion/camping trip was last weekend and the kiddies had a blast! Despite the fact our little guys live next to their own river, the fact that they got to camp on the Kings River surrounded by 30 + family members all celebrating birthdays, vacations, and the like was very cool. Add in boat rides, homemade ice cream, pinata's, the best slip 'n slide EVER and loving aunties, cousins, Granny's, and Grandpa's and you have a memorable trip! (minus the toddler and baby meltdowns, and mama meltdown's just to mix it up a bit ;-)
Pictures follow....

Cousin Chelsea giving the two little's a ride!

Best baby cousins...Talin and Troy

River Fun with Grandpa

Aunt Meg and Mike

My crazy boy ;-)

Yummo birthday cake!!!

Once the Kindergarten teacher, ALWAYS the kindergarten teacher!!!

Best birthday cake ever!!! Thanks Mom!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Grandma Sheila joins in on the birthday fun

Talin loving the sand fun

"Papa" and Forrest, enjoying the boat

Alex got a little wrapped up in our sea serpent!

Great boat ride with Uncle Jesse

Forrest and Alex get to drive!

I'm ready Mom!!!

Sea serpent fun

River boys

Loving Troy's Trike....this may be in our future!

Fun with Aunt Meg

Chelsea on the BEST slip n slide ever!!!

Little Cole having fun

Beautiful preggo Jen and Kyle carrying baby boy # how many? for family!

Jesse and Janet....newly retired and looking very nice!

Whew, if you're exhausted by the pictures you have a right to be! And this is minus float fun, ski ride craziness, flip cup action, pinata play, homemade ice cream deliciousness, and a ton of other great stuff. All of that crammed into 2.3 days. Fun times, great people, and the Kings River will always be there for us come next year :-)

"WWOOFER" to the rescue....!!!!

And, what is a WWOOFER you ask? One of the canine species? Or perhaps one that trains canines? NOOOOOO! Nothing do do with dogs at all, other than our WWOOFER happens to have a very cute puppy of his own.
W.W.O.O.F. stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.
The people who take part in this organization travel around to various farms, sometimes multiple in a year, sometimes only one a year, and work and learn....in exchange for housing, meals, and education on what it takes to create and grow an organic garden or farm.

So, insert Matt, our very own WWOOFER. He prefers to just explain it is a work/trade dealio...much easier. He works 5 hours a day, and we give him his own room, meals, and the experience of it all. Matt is great. From the midwest, used to work for apple, (you mean I have my own apple tech guy for all my crazy Igadget questions???!!!!) and is totally motivated to be on our beautiful property and land.
And....well.....we probably wouldn't have had a garden without Matt. Seriously.....with the two kiddies, myself working full time, and Alex doing the same, our beautiful organic greatly producing garden would have been kersplat! Not to mention the dire need of our fence keeping the bears out, the road getting rougher by the day, and all the other odds and ends that go into creating a somewhat smoothly running property such as this one.
Yes, sometimes I do lust for the simple surburbia that most of my fellow Americans coexist in, simply because running this household/farm/ranch is TWO (at least) full time jobs in itself!
But, Matt is coming to rescue us. He came from a good friend's farm, had been there for quite awhile, (they have quite a few WWOOFER's regularly) and was ready for a change. We snatched him up for our very own WWOOFER experience.

Other than cooking a bit more food each day, (something I need to get used to anyhow due to my two growing boys!) we really have not noticed any more burden. And the quantity of food Matt is helping us grow is going to be far and away more than what he eats. And great food for our family and kiddos!!!

artichokes abound, and new young melons, squash, corn, tomatoes and peppers...and our lovely bean teepee pole!

young summer garden, peppers and tomatoes

So, win win....you think!!!???
For more information on WWOOFER's go here....
http://www.wwoof.org/
(Even good for a family vacation....great story about a family with young kids who went to Costa Rica and worked on an organic farm....and, this story about one example of a person who decided to try WWOOFing out...   http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/25/local/la-me-wwoofing-20111125

Brotherly Love....

 

....really, seriously...LOVE. Or at least moments of love, because having a one and three year old in the house, plus or minus my eldest boys unique temperament, makes you thoroughly enjoy these moments of love.
And what does love mean, actually.....???????
It means..... (from a Mama's the glass is half full perspective....)
***They really can't wait to see each other, if they have been separated. It is SO cute to see Talin....or Forrest....when I pick up the other from daycare. They wave to each other, (yep, even Talin!) and give the hugest smiles.....the BEST!!!

***Games...yes games...!!! In the pool they were playing the most thrilling game of throw the cup. Before you stop reading due to boredom, please keep reading out of cuteness! One would yell in the cup in the kiddie pool and then throw it to the other to do the same. Talin was all about it. Forrest would even be kind enough to empty the water out of the cup to avoid a sputtering 1 year old on the T side of things...what a good big brother F can be!!!

***Sharing...yes, it can happen at this age! Especially when you have a super duper amazing pirate chart on your side!!!(See previous post :-)

But really now....even without the beloved pirate chart, both my little boys were swapping back and forth cell phones just 2 hours ago. Yes, cell phones, techy guys they are, on this backwoods Ranch they live on. Talin, (and F for the matter,) is obsessed with my iphone. We dug up my old blackberry flip phone as a second and between the two they are happy campers :-)

***Their pact to break up each others naps...especially if Forrest is napping and Talin is awake. He, rather firmly and stubbornly marches himself over to Forrest's door, (okay, crawls himself over.....;-) and insists he wake up....insert bang bang bang, "laaaaa....waaaaa....shreeeeechhhhhh.....bababababababababababaaaaaaaaaaaa"

***And my favorite....our walks. With Talin on my back, and Forrest in the BOB stroller, both of them hoot, (literally, owl's hoots...if we're lucky one calls back!!!) and holler, with the other echoing. It is SO cool. Mainly to hear little T baby respond to his big brothers verbal cues. 

I never had a brother. So to see these two connect and really enjoy each other is a joy. And also promise of good times to come :-)

Thank goodness for baby sisters....

Megan is amazing. At 24 she has more skill, intuition, and patience with Forrest than I think I will ever have as his Mom! We are so lucky to have her helping us with these crazy toddler years.

Mr. F, as many of you gather, is quite the challenging kid. His activity and energy levels are SO high and very overwhelming, which by itself isn't abnormal for a 3 year old. However, his aggression, continued lack of verbal language, and the bad juju that go along with all of this can be downright maddening at times. We're chasing it on all fronts, hearing check, speech therapy, gluten/wheat free diet trial, and enter Aunt Megan, the super duper Forrest Whisperer :-)
Using behavioral modification, ( that she otherwise uses on a daily basis as a behavioral analyst in Santa Barbara,) she has given Forrest his best day at daycare ever. I think I actually teared up when I heard he had gone the entire day without getting in timeout. This truly, has never happened, minus one day he was sick and feeling crummy.
We have started using timers for Forrest for everything, a picture board plan of his evening, (often his more challenging times), and the now beloved pirate chart.

 

This chart is Forrest's reward system. He moves one step closer to the pirate boat with his little pirate each 5 minute block, (or 10, or 15) he can play well with himself or his brother, or just when he completes a non-preferred task, (getting dressed, diaper changes, etc). He LOVES the timer...we're currently using our iphone/ipod barking dog timer which is great for him, but planning on buying him his own kiddie timer. A reward is earned when he makes it to the top, with the trick being for him to keep making it to the top often enough to keep him motivated, but not so often that it's too easy.
So far, our 'treats" (99 cent race cars, popcorn and a movie of his choice, and currently he is working towards a glow in the dark moon for his room :-) keep him plenty motivated on most days.
We're still having bad days, but not like they had been. This is SO nice, I can't even communicate how wonderful it is to actually see a change for the better in our little cute but very frustrating 3 year old.
So thank you sister, for what you have initiated in our home, (sorry those sea monkeys didn't make it!!!), but mainly for the awesome connection you and Forrest have, (despite him calling you Aunt Nat most times....:-)
He loves his Aunt Megan and asks to talk to you most days since you left. You have a gift and thank you so much for sharing....