Just had to share

I took this picture to send to the kids Grandfather but it came out so good just had to share it with you all.


Denise

Raining Toads and Tarantulas

Finally, it's raining like I thought rainy season should be. I guess you really can't expect much rain at one time when the entire season adds up to only 8". It's the funniest thing to actually see toads hopping across the road here in the desert, but just like New Hampshire, when it rains they come out. The tarantulas often get flooded out of their homes this time of year and can often be seen crawling around your yard, like our pet tarantula we have.

Saturday we had a good day. Finally we buthchered little Walnut. He was stealing all of my milk from his mama. Now she gives me a little bit over half a gallon twice a day. We went over to our friends house, the Stephenson's, and our two amatuer husbands did the buthering. They did an excellent job I might add. Butchering the goat was much easier than I expected (especially since I only supervised), and we plan on butchering our kids each year.

Muffy Stephenson found out the day before my birthday that it was coming up soon and determined to do something about it. She's a very giving and loving person and on Saturday she prepared a yummy mexican meal with green chilies. Then she prepared my favorite dessert, pecan pie, YUM!! On top of that she ordered 6 broilers for us as a birthday present. I couldn't ask for more, she's been a real blessing to me.

Mike took me out Yesterday for a birthday dinner, which is our usual present to one another for birthdays and mother/father's day. We dined at a Chinese restaurant and the food was delicious.

I took pictures of the butchering of the goat as a reference for those who are interested. Some of my friends are squeamish, won't mention a name, but it starts with Ellen. Others are curious creatures like myself and enjoy seeing how these things are done. So if you don't mind looking then please click on this link http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos and look for the album titled Butchering Walnut.

Denise

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Well today is my birthday, or my double birthday as the children would call it. I'm 28 on the 28th. Today for a present the girls are giving me a tea party, complete with Hello Dolly squares. I also received a gift in the mail from Moyers Chicks. Ok, so I did buy it, and I didn't intend it to be for my birthday. Nonetheless, these cute little fluffy furr balls came on my birthday. We are looking forward to getting fresh brown eggs from them sometime in December.

I've been very busy reformatting ebooks for printing and binding to use with school. It has been lots of fun but my bottom gets sore sitting here in this chair. I've been up til after 1:00AM, or until I can't hold my eyes open anymore working on this project. I know it will be so rewarding when these good wholesome books are sitting on our shelf ready for the kids to read. Besides I'm always looking for a new craft project and book binding had never crossed my mind before. In fact if it weren't for my friend Sue Forcier I don't know if I would have ever even give it a tid bit of a thought.

Sue binds her own books using the Robinson curriculum, which is rather an old fashioned method to homeschooling, and she, through email and digital pictures, has taught me how to do it myself. So far I've only printed a few out so I'm not quite ready for the binding part, but thanks to Sue I certainly feel capable of doing it.

Well hope you are all having a nice day on my birthday.

Denise

Katie

This time I'm going to write about Katie, as if you couldn't guess. Katie is now about 8 1/2 months old. I started Katie later than normal on baby food, as an experiment. She certainly didn't suffer from it, and it was much easier for her to start eating solid foods since she was more coordinated. She's only been eating them for about two weeks now.

Katie is on the brink of crawling. If she could just figure out how to move those chubby knees around once she has them under her she would be on her way.

She's very talkative. She says Dada and Mama. Though I don't believe she knows what she's saying somehow she manages to say Mama when she's crying for me. So only Katie really knows.

I bought this Johny Jump-Up for her to use in the barn while I'm milking. However we found we had less space than anticipated and so there's no room for it. It's worked out better for her to stay inside playing while she is still mostly immobile anyway. So we keep it in the house now and put her in it from time to time. She's the first of our children who has ever had one of these. She really isn't quite sure what to do with it. Rather than jump up and down as it is designed for, she spins herself around in circles winding up the rope, and then picking up her feet and whirling around. I guess there's more than one way to use it.

Katie reminds me in build of Faith. However she still has the darker hair like Becky and Leah. She has a very sweet personality. She responds well when being told no, which is very nice for me. I'm sure she might challege that a little more as she gets older but it's to be expected.

Oh, the last thing that I can think of concerning her babyhood is her teeth. This will be short since she doesn't have any right now.

Sorry I haven't a clue as to her weight. I've missed several appointments and so we need to play catch up with her shots now.

Stay tuned for another blog on another of the Perry children.

Denise

Fun Day

I have been asked if we made it to the horse back riding and swimming this last Friday. We did and I have pictures to prove it. See them here. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos Enjoy!

Denise

Challenge

I have a challenge for those of you who like them. See if you can figure out how to balance 14-3" nails all on the head of one nail. I will post the answers in pictures in a week or so.

Denise

Poll Answer

The answer to this weeks poll was 13 seconds.

Denise

Becky

Ok, I finally have a few moments to do this. Today a friend of mine here in Chaparral with 7 kids called and reinvited me to a kids Bible time that another lady who has 9 children was having at her house here in Chaparral. So with our six, Stephenson's seven, another families 9, and yet another families 6, and a few visiting kids, we had quite a crew. I had forgotten that they were having this event this week and didn't feel much inclined to go anyway not really knowing the hosting family very well. We enjoyed going today though, and will be going tomorrow. There will be a hot dog cookout, horse back riding, and swimming tomorrow.
Anyway, onto the subject of this blog, Becky. Becky turned 7 on June 11 of this year. She has been reading very well since she was six. Lately if you are looking for Becky you will find her in one of various positions either on the couch or the chair with a good book. Within an 1/2 hour reading period she will have been in 10 different positions or more. I have to often remind her to keep modest as she gets herself into the positions absent mindedly. Both Debbie and Becky have shown such interest in books, I wish I had the resources to get them some different ones but that will come.
Becky is getting to be such a big help around the house as well. She accomplishes the tasks of washing and drying dishes, sweeping the floors, and some mild cleaning with ease. She's been folding clothes with Debbie since she was five. Her usual job in the laundry department is to fold and put away.
Becky has become very fond of Leah lately, I guess a she's developing her motherly instinct. She will often keep Leah under her wing, making sure she has everything that she needs and is having fun as well. She tries to help with Katie but since carrying Katie is much more of a lump than carrying than Leah it's more of a chore for her. Sometimes I may need her to carry Katie for short distances, but mostly she helps by holding her at times when I may not be available, or providing some interesting toys and fun play.
She and Debbie have on a few occassions made cookies all by themselves. Both of them very much looking forward to Daddy's approval of their taste. Perhaps if possible I will allow one or the other of them to enter some baked good into the local fair.
Becky always has the sweet smile when she is happy, and the saddest face when she gets into trouble, which is few and far in between anymore. She's our blue eyed brown haired beauty. We love our Becka!!!

Mom (Denise)

Denise

Great Idea

I had an idea sometime during the day today about how to post more pictures of the kids. I think I will do a blog about each one each day, until their done, with a picture of them. To start on Thursday.

Denise

New Pictures of Kids

Ok, I've been good at taking pictures of the kids, but still haven't taken them of the house yet. Today we made homemade bread and I finished up Becky's jumper. Debbie and I have also been working on knitting some dishclothes. The ones we have are starting to fall apart.

Too see the new pictures of the kids visit this website http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/baabaamilker/my_photos and view the file Kids 7/19/06.

I will add more as I find them in the right poses from time to time, and I'll let you know when I post them.

Denise

Farm Addition

We've added a new member to our farm, albeit this one will be added to the inside farm. Last night when Mike was preparing the items he needed for work today he noticed that Sandy was playing with something. He found the above pictured animal, which I'm sure everyone is knows what it is, but just in case not it's a trantula. We haven't found out exactly what type of tarantula this is ( hopefully not a Goliath Birdeater) but we'll be checking it out. This tarantula is about the size of a golf ball including it's legs.
Yes, us crazy homeschooling Perry's plan on keeping the critter, yes, inside. My mom never would have allowed this, but my Mom was not a homeschooler, and I find the creatures God created fascinating myself.
So we will get him/her a proper container for all to view, rather than the milk jug we currently have it in. Eventually it will also have a name. We've also found out the proper way of taking care of it after some research on the internet.
We thought we had lost Sandy when we couldn't find her for a day and a half. Last night Mike finally found her in the shed. She snuck in when the door was open and then had the door closed on her. It's gets over a hundred here during the daytime, and it was a metal shed that she was in, so you can only imagine how hot it got in there. We figure she's down to five of her nine lives now, and she's still so young.
My apologies about the pictures of the house. My rechargeable batteries died on me, and until I did some real digging (like in my camera case) to find some throw away batteries I thought I had none. That's why I haven't made an effort. No promises but I'll try to get it done today. Right now I'm working on making a new car seat cover that we've had since Debbie was little. We'll see what's on the agenda after that.
By the way the one of the two hooligans playing with their tongues is not the new critter, just thought I'd clarify that.

Denise

9 Lives

Yesterday when Mike arrived at work, after a 20 minute drive he found Sandy laying on top of his battery. We figure Sandy is testing the truth of the 9 lives for kitties. Once he finished up some morning work there he had to drive her alway the way back home. She can't be making a habit of this or she might just become the motorpool (the place where Mike works) kitty.

Denise

Kittie Story

I forgot to add a cute little story about our kitten, Sandy, whom we believe to be between two and three months old.

Last night while we were getting ready to go to church we checked to see if Sandy was in her usual hiding place under our van. Sure enough she was. Mike started up the van expecting it would spook her out from underneath of it. He checked to see if she was gone and he couldn't see her anywhere underneath there. After we had driven about half an hour and were nearly to church Debbie stated that she thought she heard a cat meowing.

When we finaly arrived after the 40-45 min. drive there while it was raining sure enough if there wasn't meowing coming from underneath the van. I got down and found that Sandy our kitten had hitched a ride through rain and all on our spare tire mount. I wonder if she will ever do that again?

Denise

Rainy Season

Well the rainy season has come. Yes, we do get rain here, but only during a certain time of the year known as monsoon season. This rainy season lasts July and August. During this period of time we get approx. 8in. of rain. This is the sum total rainfal average of the year for this area.

Yesterday, Muffy, a friend of mine who lives here in Chaparral came over for a visit. While they were here we could see looking west a large wall of rain, that appeared to be coming our way, but it never seems to get past the mountains. At 5:00PM Mike came home and that the intersection of two roads he has to come through to get home was totaly flooded over. Around 6:45 we headed out to church and the "flood zone" had moved closer to our house and that intersection he had to swim through was now dry.

So what had actually occured was that it rained sheets of water on the mountains which ran down our direction flooding out the road, and then it just kept coming this way flooding out mail boxes and other side dirt roads. Eventualy it does all sink into the sand but it can take a while to do that.

As long as the clouds have the sun covered the temperatures are nice, about high 60's, the rain is nice and cool, and the humidity is bearable. If the sun does come out though the humidity rises and our swamp cooler doesn't do anything but blow air around. Everything feels so sticky when the sun comes out and the humidity is high. I have to admit that it is nice to see rain though.

Denise

Fine Tuning

There were a couple of things that made our house a little difficult for a family our size. First of all the closet space is very minimum. There is no coat, storage, or linen closets. The cabinet space wasn't very large either.

Initially the dining room, which is a good size, had carpet in it. Those of you who have or have had small children would be able to testify that carpet in the dining room just doesn't work. So We requested for them to put down linoleum. That has been completed, and they did a good job. There was no light in the dining room, not sure why, so we fixed something up for that. It's nice now being able to see what we eat.

Mike also built some shelves to go into an area that looked like it used to be the pantry. Eventualy we hope to put some doors on it, for now I can plainly see what I have available to cook with.

I'm still working on pictures of the outside and other areas of the house.

Today Mike is building us a front and back porch since they only left us a temporary set of stairs. In New Hampshire it is unlawful not to have a permanent set of steps in front of your house, not so here. In New Hampshire you are required to have railings on your stairs, not so here. There are a lot of differences, which makes it easier on the budget of the buyer when you don't have to include all the extras. I like being able to use a temporary set of stairs if I choose too without being told I can't, but on the other hand being able to upgrade it to a nicer porch if we so choose.

There were a lot of do it yourself projects that didn't require someone licensed to do it. Like connecting your water pipes from the source to the house. Connecting your sewer from the tank to the house. Since this is an area that we've never ventured into before we decided to let someone who knew that they were doing do it for us. However Mike will be running out our grey water from the house onto the ground to water trees, garden, etc. if we ever get any. This is another thing that is unlawful in New Hampshire. It only makes sense to do it here since it is so dry.

I will attempt to get more pictures of our house as soon as is possible.

Picture one is of the shelves Mike built for our pantry. Picture two is the dining room before the light was installed.
Picture three is of the installation nearly complete.

Denise

Poll Results

Ok, the answer of the "Pick my Favorite Color" poll is Lilac. The two people closest to me got the correct answer. My best friend Ellen, and my husband.

Denise

PS Pictures of the house to come soon.