funnies....

sometimes it is nice to just think about the funnies in life don't ya think? instead of the daily stresses and pain in the asses that just won't go away. The funnies that take you away from the daily grind of life, that make you smile and warm your heart.

With three dogs running around the acres now, I can say...its NOT funny to be woken at 5am with a smack in the face by a giant paw, but is funny how fast the same paw and dog can nuzzle in and slurp up your face (and the blood) just to say...'oops I am sorry....I didn't realize what a BIG goomba I am"

with the quad back out of the barn and on the trails its funny to hear the squeals of my children ... "LOOK at the mud on me now Mom" the mud can be a funny thing now, once again as the washing machine is fixed...working ... washing...ahhh!

and the looks on the kids faces when they wake up Sunday morning after sleeping in...past 7am only to find their Dad who was Grizzly Adams the day before ...was now shaven...clean ... well almost...but still sporting a goatee. Ryki running back to the bedroom yelling for Jane..."Jane come see dad...he looks like a psycho!! wait til you see what he did" He was called a psycho with the beard...and the looks on the faces of the neighbours and friends? Surprised to say the least....everyone thinks My Love is looking skinny now....guess they never realized how much hair~ FUR there really was on his handsome face. (note on this pic...My Love will kill if he knows its posted...he is more anal than the prettiest women I know about his face and skin...he is the 'girly man' in our family, treating, pampering and maintaining his face...another funny in my day. I have been instructed NO PICS til he is in better shape...ie/ without the happy hat tan line, the red skin from being covered in hair all winter, but I managed to sneak this shot..another funny~! my handsome love!)

But the best funny of my day ...the end of the day, time for good night kisses and the nightly 'tuck'n in" I found my Ryki, up on the top bunk on his hands and knees with his ass an inch from the light. 'what are you doing Ryki' I asked...

"I am just charging my butt Mom! this light works the best and I want to be charged up for the night" the charge, the cute little butt and the glow in the dark undies that covered it.....a gift in the mail from our friend Gail. Thanks Gail...nothing better than a smile and a giggle before bed!

Season2 of the Goonies on the Acres Begins

Despite the fact it is pouring rain today...I am a happy Mama. Following a week of nothing but sunshine it is nice to see the snow melting and the green popping around here again. And even though that also means endless hours of raking, digging, and planting...I can't wait for summer to finally be here.

A busy week around here, and the official start of the season of Goonies on the Acres. Between my two Goonies and the Goonies down the street there has been more running, laughing and mayhem then there has been in months. There is of course the usual reminders...don't climb sooo high in the tree boys, stop swiping Dad's building materials for forts...cause you never put them back...get the stuff cleaned up before your father gets home, and stop fighting over "property lines" it my property..not girls vs. boys. Funny how they team up and bug each other, the boys casually dropping mud on the freshly cleaned kitchen, or the girls swiping the nerf bullets from the boys and their guns ..just to bug, annoy and torment.

And now a new mission, as I have discovered our winter track for skidooing at the top of the mountain is actually a giant sandpit under all that snow!!! Time to make some quad runs with buckets because this summer...I am filling the wrecking yard with sand. I had been eyeing up some sand by the creek, but the labor involved in keeping the kiddies OUT of it while I let the sun bake the 'fish' out is too much work, and to be honest last years method was too hard, and not enough sand. Being the cheapskate I am, and not wanting to pay $6/bag we would go for a swim to the beach down the road, with empty knapsacks in toe....kiddies swim while I stupervised filling the sacs with sand...that's not theft is it???

The hounds are getting along like bandits one week after the arrival of Trixie Tracee. While Daisy is still enjoying having someone to boss around, they play and play and play some more. Turning out to be a great addition our new little friend....as long as you R watching her of course...she is a chewer...anything she can grab, gnaw and chew works for her...not so much for me!!!

its the laughter, and the running and the smiles that remind me how much I love it here, how much no matter what else is going on we have this space, our acres, our peace of paradise to just be....happy!

I can't wait to see what adventures are had, what creatures are caught, and what flowers bloom....ready for another season of the Goonies on the Shoeless Acres!!!

play'n with the links...music is the link today!

Last month I got news of a loss to the world of blues, it brought back memories for me, of times long gone, spent nightly listening to the sounds of live music...jam'n .... life!

Mel Brown was Tuesday nights, jam'n with the folks, playing the blues while I tapped my foot, smiled, and even danced. I will never forget the night I turned 20, a trip with friends and many a shooter downed he sang the blues, then he sang for me...Happy Birthday while my friend Riki Neu beat on the drums. An amazing musician, and since hearing of his death I have found myself looking up the others...the musicians, the peeps that filled my nights with smiles, that let me dance and be free to the music. This blog is for them...and of course the only way this loony can learn how....here goes nothing.....

the blues....Mel Brown

one of my fav's of all time, a travelling buddy, a sista friend, a voice that still gives me goosebumps all these years later...Erika

some reggae.... Errol

a true Canadian Musician...Danny

and last but not least for the hippy in you...my buddy Ricky Neu and the band Diesel Dog .....more miles were driven, more adventures were had, and more drums were beat with my friend Ricky Neu...how I miss those days!

I will have to add more to my list of fav's one day....but all those listed here are those true musicians, that keep the music playing, that brings smiles to my day, and remind me to keep the music playing!!!

Check them out.....dance a little, and smile that there is music in your day!

Home...stuck in the snow whatever can we do?

I am stuck a little right now on the word home? where is home? where the heart is? where you live? where you grew up?

Sunday I was packing the brats into the car and heading back to my sister's for cake and ice cream, and when my Mom asked..."where are you going" I said..'home for cake and ice cream'

She corrected me and said...that is not your home?! and while I know ...it is not MY home, I really consider it home, because that is where my sister is, my nieces, my family.

For us ~ going home usually means back to the farm....Uncle Fred's. A crusty old farmhouse lived in by a crusty old redneck. You know there is a stack of dishes on the counter, dirt on the floor, and you better check the couch...just incase the old man was removing porcupine quills from one of the dogs and left one behind. Not the ritz...but always home. You know you can do what you want...including staying in PJS for a couple days, you can say what you want..including Ryki running thru the kitchen yelling..just going to take a piss don't change that channel, and even in a snow storm when its tooo crappy to go outside, when the cupboards are bare...cause lets face it...old single rednecks generally don't eat alot you are home.

Uncle Fred searches his stash and manages to bake a chocolate cake, find the last of the balloons to have some fun, and presents Aspen with a stack of newsprint...something they wrap the flyers in now...but also giant paper for ART~! and of course the usual round of 'teach us how please...we want to call the birds too.

Home is where the heart is.......

Home to me is unconditional welcoming...unconditional love...no expectations other than be here...be well...and feel at home

it was GREAT to be home!

Home

we R home~! after four days of visiting home, and being stranded in the Grey County Snow back at home on the farm. I consider myself lucky to have so many homes, but very happy to be back in our family home on the Shoeless Acres.

So I might as well get it out there (not that it isn't already) but...we came home with a puppy, a Trixie Tracee Hunter...6months of lovable damn dogness...she is Daisy's cousin!!! Something I was avoiding at all costs, til I found out little Trixie was soon be left on the farm alone with the girls (her Mama Libby and Sabby too) for three days a week as Uncle was going off to work in the big city. She's tooo little to be left alone! so now...she has come home!

(???WTHamIdoing???)

Our new Star

I am sure there will be moments of ..oh crap in our near future...but after spending the last four days with the little furball....she is a pretty good dog (I am not getting into how BIG I think this dog will be because I am not sure I am ready for that reality yet?!)

Kissing Cousins

The farm...so relaxing to spend a snow storm in...lay back veg out to satelite tv, drink tonnes of tea and watch the snofall....there was no snow when I arrived Sunday night ....I woke up to this Monday Morning...

but this is the view after the storm

the will be more stories to come of our trip home...what to do when you R stuck inside....what to cook when your at your uncle's (single old man) stories from home.....exciting FUNNY moments from Princess Ilonna's Fifth birthday....... for now, I have to unpack, cook dinner, and get our Trixie Tracee Hunter used to being home.

Friday Fun on the Acres

its fun..just cause..ITS FRIDAY!!!

and while normally my first thing to do would be to check on Jane Devin's Blog for a WTF Friday post...this Friday I know ...sadly there will be no more. A friend on the net, someone I have been lucky to connect with has brought her blog to an end. A powerful, inspiring writer.....who in the short time I have read her stuff has made me think...I love it when I come across someone new...that makes me think! Something I will sorely miss I am sure, but also something I can understand...but still....WTF?! Good Luck my friend~! May your future plans be exciting and bright!!! (and somewhere involve a detour to my Acres!)

edit note...cause I think I figured out how to link! if I did..duh! that wasn`t rocket science was itÉ if it didn`t I will find out when I post I guessÉÉÉÉ damn keyboard)

Yesterday was a bright and sunny day around here, leaving for a good day to skip the books and enjoy the sunshine. The brats of course awake and out the door before nine, Aspen's daily ritual of cleaning her kitchen, Ryki racing around on his bike...then racing inside for SHORTS?! cause it was really warm out...it wasn't that warm! and oddly enough one minute he was wearing shorts outside, a couple hours later back to pants and sporting his bella clava?? I began my outside chores...the manual labor I really detest..the raking the digging the sorting. I started with taking out a snowbank to increase the melt factor, moved on to the garden boxes, raking up another garden and then the tree....the zone ... it was time for the to-ewww list...raking up the mounds, piles, the never ending border of CRAP! The Acres official plan has been drawn up, I completed section 7 yesterday, with only six more to go!

We have moved into summer dining hours now as well, dinner is served around 7pm here now...so if your hungry...that's a good time to show up! Last night we were spoiled with a pot of homemade pork and beans...soo good, maybe even the best I have ever tasted...thanks to a certain backhoe hero in our lives..now the Beanmaster too! After dinner while relaxing Ryki came thru the door, with tears in his eyes...shaking his 'its just not fair' hair back and forth, tripping over his bottom lip. "MOM...Aspen gets to go around and around and I get like 2 seconds"

The BAJA was brought out of the shop last night, equipped with its new plywood seat to accommodate the short people in the family, as the original seat was four inches thick...and Ryki was a little peeved that he only got to go back and forth three times...and Aspen went around three times...AND THAT'S MORE THAN ME!!! I was then peeved because no one called me outside to watch the fun. So because he is Mama's boy, I yelled out the window giving the head's up it was Ryki's turn, thru on a coat and out I went. Now Ryki, being perhaps a little height challenged, still requires assistance, with Dad standing on one side and the neighbour on the other sending him back and forth as he masters the gas...and brakes..not at once!! hand off the gas!!!! VROOOM! I am pretty sure he will have it mastered in another few tries...then I am pretty sure it would be worthwhile to get our hands on another BAJA cause once Jane jumps on....away she goes! What was supposed to be 'just around the garden' was really around the yard...in between the new truck and car with Daddy shaking his finger "don't hit my truck!!` there is a reason we have called her Kamakazee Jane since birth. She was smiling, squealing, WAVING with one hand!!! (also against the official safety first rules) Something tells me we are in for some fun this summer with the shiny red Baja! I managed to grab a shot of Ryki, but missed Jane...damn batteries!!

(WHY does it go to the top..what if I want the pic in the middle wtfÉÉÉ and now my keyboard too...anyone know what the hell I am hitting to make my question marks ÉÉÉÉ argh! edit note again...i figured out how to MOVE the pic...but think I warped it along the way...ÉÉÉ still thought...the keysÉ WTF!)

Another new activity was discovered this week...something to amuse occupy and procrastinate my (our) time....new things to do with the feet! and since I have so many (hmm...at least a couple hundred) a good way to dwindle the pile. So while Aspen has always enjoyed painting the feet...now we can carve them too!! using simple tools, like the pen that's outta ink, the various sets of random keys we have around, even for the best detail..my good tweezers! its been great fun...taken outdoors of course, and now...the latest rule of thumb when creating feet art...STOP using Dad`s pummis(sp...you know the foot thingy) stone..his face looks all scrunched up and red when he finds out. We know from experience that the water color does not last forever on the feet when placed outside in a garden, but it can be fun to watch the colors change and fade away...and then..you get to paint them again! A nice relaxing activity on the sidewalk in the sun!

Today is a rainy day...grey and cloudy and hopefully melting the snow as it falls..its almost gone! a good sign, time to get dirty in the garden again! A good day to procrastinate the cleaning, and find the batteries for the charger cause the cam batteries R dead...and I can`t take pics that way can I...ÉÉÉ

and I am off....finished my morning chai, (just tea with some cardomon, and cloves..not REAL chai) and ready to start my day!

hope its a fantastic weekend peeps!!!