Sam's 1st day

Here is my nephew Sam on his first day of kindergarten. I am pretty sure he is going to go straight from kindergarten to 5th grade because he is SOOOOOO smart! And handsome too!

1st Day of School

Here we go again -- school has started and I am not sure who is more disappointed, the kids or me!

Drew is going into 5th grade and will be in a 4/5 combo class. He is with all the same kids he was with last year because the class was suppose to be "looping" to do another year with the same teacher. However, the teacher found her dream house in Oregon over the summer and retired! BUMMER. The good news is that she is staying until October to help out the new teacher. And the other good news is that Drew had the "new" teacher in the k/1 combo class he was in when he was in 1st grade and she is fantastic and really into science.

Gracie is going into 1st grade. She is actually repeating 1st grade because she had some trouble with reading last year. She has worked really hard over the summer with both reading tutors and speech therapy - so we are hoping that positions her well to excel this year....as only someone with the nickname "Bones and Dynamite" can do!

They both have great teachers so it is shaping up to be a good year.

What the Cluck?

Here is the exact reason why chickens should NOT wear pants!

In addition, if they were going to wear pants, they should wear something a little more fashionable! The shirt does not match the pants!

PS - thanks to Mari for this crazy pic!

Tubing

We spent all day on Saturday at the lake. We would tube a little, knee board a little and then stop to swim a little. The weather was perfect - warm water and warm air.

This is Gracie and Drew on our new inner tube. It was great fun.

Bones and Dynamite

Bones and Dynamite is Gracie's new nickname because that is what she is made of! This is her kneeboarding this weekend at Lake Don Pedro. It is her second year kneeboarding and she is awesome at it! There is a lot of power in that skinny little package!

The view from my office

The view doesn't look like anything special...but you can't see the chickens running around! I have a perfect view of them as they sun themselves and take dust baths.

The words above the window says (in french): "Eat ice cream and run naked". It is to remind us not to take everything so seriously all the time! The saying is perfect for us because Jim likes to eat ice cream and I like to run!

Jim's desk

This is Jim's side of the new office. Note the sticker on the chalkboard that says "I love chickens". What you can't see is the magnet that says "What the cluck?!"!!!

You can see Jim's "ditch bag" under his desk - this is the bag that he uses when he goes fishing. It contains all kinds of emergency gear. I always wonder why it ends up under his desk.... does he think an emergency is going to occur at his desk that will require a gps, bottled water and power bars?

My new office

Here is my new office. I LOVE it! The kids desk is on the right side and my work station is in the corner. See my new Dell flat screen!? LOVE it! We still need to get new chairs but I have not found any that I like.

Chicken Miracle

Rowdy is back to normal - she was on her roost when we went to bed last nite and got there herself. Three weeks ago, I never would have thought she would have made it. Most of the time when a chicken shows signs of illness, it is to late to save them. And she was REALLY sick!

So, you can call me the chicken whisperer, the mother teresa of chickens of Dr F, DVM. Oh - and special thanks to my assistant, Lani, who was responsible for getting Rowdy to turn the corner!

Rowdy's weekend as a chicken.

We put Rowdy back in the coop with Maverick and Betty. She seems to be doing fine. She has been eating with her chicken friends and is interested again in treats (cheese, corn on the cob, etc). The only thing is she is not going up to roost. The first nite, she was on the floor of the coop and Jim put her up on the roost. The second nite, she was trying to go up the ladder but mean Maverick was pecking at her. Jim shooed Maverick with a broom and let Rowdy get up. I think she will be back to the roost on her own in a couple days.

Delight!

Little Amelia cracking up and Big Brother! He is a funny guy!

My niece

Here is my darling niece complete with mohawk!

Where's Rowdy?

2 nites ago we came home late - it was already dark and we figured Rowdy would be frantic at the back door trying to figure out how to get into her bed in the laundry room.

We went to the back door and no Rowdy.

Jim went into the back yard to get her and couldn't find her! So we all head out with flashlights and start hunting around. No Rowdy but also no signs of bird trauma - no feathers, no blood!

We search and search, under bushes, behind the bbq... NOTHING.

I head off to the side of the house looking around the garbage cans - NOTHING.

We had come in to the house thru the garage so we knew she wasn't there, but I decided to double check. I turn the corner, walk in the garage and there she is --- all bedded down on the dogs pillow! I am sure she was there when we walked in thru the garage and no one noticed her!

So now she is a chicken that sleeps in doors on a pillow!

If evolution applied to denim skirts

If evolution applies to denim skirts, in 10,000 years they will all be head scarfs.

Following my thinking:

Everytime I buy a denim skirt it looks great on the hanger.

Then I put it on and it looks good on me - as long as I don't move a muscle!

The minute I start even attempting to take a breath the skirt starts moving up my body.

God forbid that I attempt to walk in it - I think it moves further north on my body at a rate of 1 inch north to every 10 feet walked. Going up stairs increases the movement north by 14.38%!

So once I complete my walk from my car to my office (approx 400 feet) the waist band of my very stylish Banana Republic denim skirt is up firmly placed under my boobs!

Ah ha! The speed bump of female breasts that the denim skirt will encounter will probably slow its evolution to head scarf by 2000 years.

Just remind me not to buy anymore denim skirts. Denim obviously needs to be worn as pants because a crotch is required to prevent them from movement towards a head scarf!

A Fairy Tale: The Ugly Red Headed Princess...

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. OK, she wasn't a princess but a white lab who does have a sweet princess type temperment. One glorious weekend the princess/lab went to a far away land in search of adventure. (Actually, it was Manresa State Beach right over the mountain.) Adventure was there to be had: chasing seagulls, running circles on the beach, fetching sticks and romping thru the waves. But like all good fairytales, there has to be a bad guy. That guy was a mean, ugly, quasimodo type skunk - this was no "Pepe Le Pu" (alright no one actually saw the skunk but we are sure he was nasty ugly!).

The princess had been sleeping in her castle (AKA tent) when she wandered out to see what was happening in the land of adventure. Out of no where the skunk sprayed the beautiful princess with his hideous skunk juice. The princess was covered with the foul smelling juice, which caused the princess to become the outcast of the family (King Jim, Queen Chris, Prince Drew and Princess Gracie) and their guests.

The Princess was banned to the farmhouse on the outskirts of town (actually it was back at our house in San Jose). It was there that she was given a special treatment of eye of newt, wart of a toad and flowers of a magnolia (actually it was peroxide and baking soda). This potion worked wonders on her princess body but could not be used around her sensitive eyes and nose, so her head and snout (don't be alarmed that the princess has a snout - remember she is a lab). So the princess' head reeked! This led to more banishment from the castle, which upset the Queen who loved the princess so.....

So the Queen ordered one of her servants to wash the princess' head in a new magic potion of juice from a tomato. (Actually the Queen has no servants so she had to do it herself - which meant she had to go to Nob Hill and buy a bottle of Tomato Juice and dump it on the dog's head). This new special potion was miraculous and cured the stench. But it left the princess with a red head! (Red juice on white fur leaves quite a stain.)

This meant that the princess was no longer banished and could return to life within the castle!

And they lived happily ever after....

Rowdy - the perky chicken

While we were off being sprayed by skunks and handling vicious dogs this weekend, my friend Lani and her daughter Madison were taking care of Rowdy (who on Friday, was looking like she was headed for the big chicken coop in the sky)....

When we came home on Sunday, we were ready to do the humane thing and euthanize her - she had been sick for two weeks and was not getting better.

But much to our surprise, we come home to a chicken that is perky! She was strutting around that backyard picking at the grass! Lani had fed her meal worms which she scarfed up!

She is not out of the woods yet but she is definetly looking better. She actually followed me in the house last nite and walked to the laundry room to go to bed!

My Very First Guest Blogger

A faithful friend and reader of my blog, graciously shared the horror of her dog's brush with a skunk.  It was so bad (and funny, in a way) that it made Daisy's situation look like a walk in the park.  So, I asked and she agreed to be my very first guest blogger.  Her story is below.

But before I get to that, this issue of "guest blogger" is now opened and any one of you who has a story to tell is welcome to become a guest blogger.  There is no money, only fame!  Just think - you can tell people you were were published on pontoon mama's blog!  Almost like being a movie star!

Enough about that, here is Teresa's story:

"We moved here in Dec.  In March, we were throwing a house warming party with
50 people including new neighbors, old neighbors, friends and out of town
people flying in from LA.  I was going to get the catering platters from Safeway
but my friend volunteered to do all the shopping and make platters (basically
cater for me since she stays home all day). 

That Friday morning, I get a call at work from my friend.  She had come by the
house to drop off a bunch of stuff for the next day.  She says Blaze got a skunk
in the back yard and killed it and got sprayed. I rush home.  Well.... we had a dog
door so after she got hit the first time, she came in the house and rubbed all
over the carpets and beds in EVERY room.  She continued to go in and out
(because the skunk was actually still alive and wedged in between fence boards
spraying her each time she nosed him.)

So, we hose her off and use Dawn on her and try our best to get her clean (my
shoes ended up in the trash can afterward).  We call Animal Control and they
come immediately to kill the skunk and dispose of it.  He says "did any of you
touch the dog?"  Of course, we had to clean her.  "Well, you are all in quarantine
until we call you in 5 days to determine if the skunk was rabid."  I had to keep
the dog outside during the party and away from Peter (the husband) and Kristen (the daughter) for the five days.  It didn't matter if I touched her again as I
was already contaminated.

The skunk was not rabid and the party went on.  We hired a cleaning crew to
clean the entire house and carpets, did loads of laundry, made numerous pots
of strong coffee to get rid of the smell and didn't let anyone go out to the
garage as it stunk for a long time."

A Stinking Camping Trip

We went camping over the weekend with the kids' daycare to Manresa State Beach. We go every year with the same group and always have a good time. This year was not as much fun as normal...

We always bring Daisy Mae as she goes all over the place with us and travels well. The only thing about bringing her to Maresa is the first nite she is up ALL nite wanting to get up and go for her morning run. But after I take her on the run, she is good to go for the rest of the day and spends all day on the beach with us and is on her best behavior.

This year our friends decided to bring their yellow lab, Jeeter. Jeeter is about a year older than Daisy and one of Daisy's friend. Jeeter is a family dog who hangs around the house, which includes all the comings and goings of a busy family. On Saturday, a group of us were heading down to the beach for the day and the kids and I and the two dogs headed down first. Gracie was walking Daisy on a leash and Drew was walking Jeeter on a leash. I was carrying a bunch of stuff and pulling a wagon. Both dogs were well mannered (ie not pulling at the leash) and we were passing folks walking up the hill. Out of now where, Jeeter lunges for an old man and bites him in the butt and arm!!!! We were shocked! Drew pulled him back and I dropped everything and ran to the old man. We still don't know what made him do it, he has never done anything like that before! To make a long story short, the ranger came and found us later in the day and took a report. I thought Drew would start crying when I told the ranger it was him with the leash! Anyway, Jeeter will have to be quarantined in their yard for 14 days. The good news is that Jeeter's family are responsible dog owners and will do whatever is needed to be done.

That whole event was quite traumatic, but little did we know it would get worse....

After dinner, we were all sitting around the campfire. It was a bout 9:30 and I was going to get our toothbrushes from our tent. Daisy had been sleeping in our tent for a couple hours, so when I unzipped the tent she came out. I reached in, got my toothbrush and called her to come back -- she was in the bushes about 5 feet away from the tent and behind Tina's tent. It was at that point that I heard Tina screaming from inside her tent...."Daisy was sprayed by a skunk". And she was right! The smell was horrific - a cross between rotten eggs and burned rubber. It was so bad it made me nauseous and the dog was covered in it. I can not even explain the chaos of the next hour while we sent Jim home with the dog, we moved tents, moved bedding from one tent to another and lit gardenia incense to help with the smell. Poor Marty had skunk smell on his nose from smelling all the items that came out of his tent to see if they were hit by the spray. At one point, he was rubbing tomato under his nose to counter act the skunk smell.

We really thought their tent was a loss because the stench was so bad in it, but it turned out this morning that it was ok.

While we were dealing with the biohazard of the camp site, Jim went home and did some quick internet searching to see what to do with the dog. The recipe for success was peroxide and baking soda - so at 11 pm he is running around SJ buying all the peroxide and baking soda he could find. He washed the dog 4 times last nite and again today. Her body smells better but her head and snout still have skunk odor. As does his truck and the garage. He read on the internet that if you wait to long to wash the dog, the odor can stay in the skin for up to two years!!!!

Jim came back to the campground this morning and helped us pack up camp and we headed home. NEVER have we been so happy to be home! Now if only the dog didn't reek!

Tuna Time

This is what 2 crazy men who went 78 miles offshore look like the next day! These are albacore tuna and weigh about 10 to 14 pounds each. Once you eat this fresh tuna, you will never eat canned tuna again!

Check out the house behind them. It is right across the street from us and they have been doing the remodel for 2 years and they are on their 3rd contractor. The first contractor is in jail and the second one gave up trying to fix all the screw ups of the first one. The original one story house is still standing inside this house and they are living in it! The poor people - we feel so bad for them.

That is a rare yellow houndus in the background (aka Daisy Mae hunting for fish guts).

American Heart Walk

Just a reminder to those who are interested, we are walking in the American Heart Walk in September to raise money for the American Heart Association. This is a great organization that fights heart disease and strokes - something that everyone one of us knows someone who has been effected by.

We always walk with my Dad and his heart transplant support group and this year we will walk in honor of my Grandpa who died in July when his heart valve gave out. My grandpa had the valve replaced once 6 years ago. That surgery allowed him 6 more years and many more Pabst Blue Ribbons (for those of you who don't know, that is a nasty midwest beer)!!!

If you have not already made a donation and have it in you budget, I would appreciate it. My goal is to raise $3000 and I have $1000 so far. I appreciate any donation you make!

In another life

When you die, if it is before me, you should make a special request to come back in your next life as one of my pets. Tonite when we were putting Rowdy to bed in the laundry room and giving her some food and medicine, Gracie said to me "let's just give her a little buffet"! We had a paper plate with a little pile of grapes, some egg and cheese flan and some shredded cheese! Yep, our sick chicken gets a buffet in an effort to entice her to eat. No luck on the food tonite but I am adding a new medicine to her water and hope it may make a difference.

She has been sick for 1 week now. The kids say she is a little better each day but I think that is a little wishful thinking. She is better then last week but still a pretty sick little chicken. Her only hope at this point is that she is a young chicken.

Oh! another funny thing that happened: last nite we were all in bed and we heard some strange type of dog bark coming from downstairs. We all jump up thinking something was wrong with Daisy. We hunt around the house and find Daisy in the corner of the laundry room afraid to pass Rowdy in her laundry basket. Apparently, she was nosing around Rowdy and Rowdy pecked at her and Daisy was afraid to run by her to get out! That fiestyness in Rowdy is a good sign.

Keep thinking positive chicken thoughts!

Masters Swim

Jim's cousin Bean is staying with us for 4 days because she is swimming in the World's Master Swim meet at Stanford. We went and watched her today and it was an awesome experience! She is 42 so she swam with the other women who were aged 40 to 44. It was awesome to see her swim and she did great!

The biggest thrill was watching women age 80 to 84 swim! Some of them needed help getting up on the starting block but watch out when they hit the water. I am sure ALL of them could swim faster that me.

It is so cool watching people do what they love just because they love it - not because they are going to get rich or famous doing it but because it makes them happy!

Rowdy the spoiled chicken.

Rowdy drank water by herself tonite, ate two hanfuls of cheese and 1 grape!!! She also came to the back door to be put to bed in the laundry room, and when no one went to get her, she went to the other back door!

A call from the Coast Guard

We got one of those calls tonite that makes your stomach drop. Jim was out fishing for tuna - 61 miles offshore and at 7:30 pm , I get a call from the SF Coast Guard station! Drew and Bean (Jim's cousin who is staying with us) were on the edge of their seats while I was talking to the Coast Guard. (Bean's boyfriend, Richard was with Jim.) My first thought was that the boat had sunk and they had been rescued and I had to go get them at some hospital. I was not worried about them being lost at sea because Jim has all the emergency gear created. They only thing I think could actually kill them out there is being run over by a freighter or hit my a meteor. They have radar so a freighter hit is unlikely. And I am not really concerned about a meteor.

It was none of those things.

Jim was incredibly responsible and called the Coast Guard to tell them to call me and let me know that they were running late and were still 55 miles out. That was a great move on his part so that his wife would not worry and so his kids saw their dad modeling responsible, respectul behavior!!

Once he got close enough for cell reception he called and told me they got 9 tuna!

Girl Power!

Today, the kids, me, Tina and Marty went for a bike ride. We rode from San Jose to Los Gatos which round trip was about 10 to 12 miles. Gracie had awesome girl power and went the whole way with no complaints! We stopped at Vasona Park for a little break and then went on to have lunch in downtown Los Gatos. Next stop: a cool new candy store where we loaded up with some goodies. Then we rode on and I showed everyone the cottage where Jim and I lived in Los Gatos for 2 years after we were first married. It was fun for the kids to see it. It was a really great day!

maybe a turn....

I think Rowdy is getting used to sleeping in the house. Tonite, instead of waiting outside the hen house, she came to the back door wanting to be let in! So we put her in the laundry basket in the laundry room and she made some chicken warble noises and hunkered down for the nite. But I wanted to get some water in her before she went to sleep so I forced a little down her mouth and then she started to show interest in drinking it herself from the dropper. After that success, I tried some grapes and she ate two cut up grapes! So hopefully this is the beginning of the turnaround.

Hola Amigos

The kids are putting on a Fiesta for all the parents at daycare next Wednesday. Drinks and appetizers at 5:30 and dinner at 6:30. They have developed what the menu would be and even designed the menus we will use to order. Drew made sure there was diet pepsi and vegetarian options for me! They have a process for receiving RSVP's (Gracie and Maddie are in charge of that!) and are having aprons made out of fiesta typ of fabric (I think it has chile peppers on it). The kids will be the waiters and Tina will be helping with the food. They have made and bought decorations.

I will be sure to take pics and post them next week.

Chicken nurse

Rowdy is the same today. I have not seen her drink and I have only been able to get her to eat a little bit of cheese. So today I started giving her water by eye dropper. The water has antibiotics and electrolytes so I think it is important to make sure she is getting those. She showed a little interest in a spaghetti noodle today but picked it up and did not actually eat anything. Yesterday we had a weird oblong shaped egg in the nesting box that I thought might have been hers, thus she would be feeling better - but there has been no changed. I am COMPLETELY stumped.

The good news is I had a bible study group praying for her last nite.

Rowdy Update

Thanks for everyones concern for Rowdy!

She is about the same as she was 2 days ago. But rest assured we are being responsible chicken owners and doing everything we can to help her. She is still on antibiotics and electrolytes. We put her in a warm bath to see if she would lay an egg - warm baths are suppose to relax them and help ease an egg out if it is stuck or too big. Wet chickens don't smell very good.... We have checked to see if she is eggbound or had broken egg shells stuck in her and that was negative. (I won't go into the details of how that is done but let's just say we have enough knowledge and experience to become chicken gynecologists!)

She has been sleeping in the laundry room in a laundry basket so that she is not using any unnecessary energy to try to perch at nite with the other chickens. I have been making her special meals but she has not been very interested. Last nite I was able to get her to eat a little bit of cheese.

Will keep everyone posted.