Behold the Sqirrelinator

ADVISORY: If you are one of those people who think that no creature should ever be killed, including flies, mosquitos, fleas, gophers, and other vile critters mentioned in stories of plagues and pestilence, please stop reading this now.  And remember, "Judge not, lest ye be judged".  That is all.

We have ground squirrels in our chicken coop.  This is bad, horribly bad.  It's an amazing set-up if you're a ground squirrel: being inside the coop keeps you and your family (of millions, it would seem) safe from the dog and the cats, safe from the poison pellets I would otherwise cram down your hole but don't since I don't want to hurt my hens, and gives you unlimited access to fantastic table scraps, lay pellets, and two delicious fresh eggs every day. That's right, the little buggars have been stealing our eggs.  I put two plastic Easter eggs in the nesting boxes and they both disappeared, one at a time.  One later reappeared with a hole chewed in one end.  What a disappointment that must have been!


Tuesday was the last straw. I was out in the yard early planting the garden before it got too hot.  I have taken to checking for eggs about every 20-30 minutes from 9 a.m. on when I am at home, trying to gather them before 'the devil critter' can steal them.  On this day, I finished planting and gave a final check (no eggs yet, but a hen was just getting into her box), then put away the tools. In the 15 minutes it took me to put away the tools, those blasted squirrels took 2 eggs, ate the insides out, and left the broken shells by their hole for me to find.  I thought I could hear them snickering at me.  Maddening!  I went inside the house with tears in my eyes because of my frustration. 

About 30 minutes later, Jamey came through the back door saying the following words that brought joy and hope to my soul: "Hey, want to light a Roman candle and shove it into that hole and see if they come out so we can shoot 'em?"  That's why I love him.  Alas, the candle did nothing.  So, after a visit to Grace's place of employment, the Santa Margarita Feed Store, we invested in The Squirrelinator, a trap with two doors that comes in a box complete with a photo of a squirrel in the crosshairs and a redneck guy who has apparently is the world record holder in stuffing a trap with squirrels. We set it up in the coop, just under the nesting boxes.   I have personally heard from families who have caught up to four at once. We were just happy this morning when we heard Max-the-dog's "critter bark" and found our first squirrel in the trap.  First, I hope, of many.

Finishing

While spring is usually a time of beginnings, for our family this year it is a time when many things are ending.

Things at Cal Poly are heading to a wrap-up.  Once again we celebrate our graduating seniors and second-year interns who are moving on.  It's hard to imagine SLO without some of them!    

Freshman high school baseball ended with a close game, Jason beating out yet another throw to first, a tri tip barbecue and a banquet, and one last picture of mom and son in his uniform.  When I looked at this picture I noticed something odd - Jason is so much taller than me now.  At the start of soccer season, just 7 months ago, he was just shorter than me.  This explains why he has been so hungry!  And why he started the school year in size 8-and-a-half vans and is ending them in size tens.

Grace is experiencing a bigger ending - the end of high school.  Graduation is in a few short weeks.  I have never really worried about Grace doing anything well - she is weirdly good at just about everything she tries. Recently she learned to sew and made me 5 pillows that look like they came from a designer home store.  So it has been no surprise to me that about once a week we have gotten a nice letter from the high school inviting us to some kind of event to celebrate great students, meaning Grace.  This week we will be going to the 'Top 30' Reception.  Next week, scholarship night.  I will try not to gloat too much, but it is really difficult when you know that your child is the best of the bunch.  It's strange for Jamey and I to feel so conflicted - proud, joyful, and excited for Grace's accomplishments and future, and yet sad and a teeny bit scared that she will be heading off into the world (ok, I know that 'the world' is Cal Poly SLO, a mere 8 miles from our door, and a place we go just about every day, but still...it's symbolic).

 After all of the 'end-of-the-year' events are finished, I am really really looking forward to a little down time with these amazing kids, just enjoying their company.  And trying not to get too nostalgic and sentimental.  

T-Shirt Weather

Under the category "Global Warming Messes With Our Weather", we've been going from winter to summer and back again the last few weeks.  One person in the family threatened to write a letter to "The Weather People" and tell them to make up their minds so we know what to wear in the morning.  (I won't say who, but if you know us, you know the one who cares about what she wears and always looks cute and put-together, unlike her brother, who I really think would wear the same thing every day if possible, washed or not).

Last week, I drove Jason and his friend Deven down to SLO to go to youth group, but we ended up having about a 45 minute time in between dinner and drop-off, so I 'made' the boys go with me to look for an Ipad cover (I have been saving up for one, and my dad, once again, spoiled me by purchasing it for me.  I guess it's true - dads never stop giving gifts to their daughters.  Thanks again, Dad!).  The boys surprised me by being excited to go into Ross to 'look for cool stuff'.  Sadly, the only Ipad covers available were black with neon accents (too much like high school, I've already lived through the neon phase once, and I refuse to do it again).

However, the boys did find two "Swag" t-shirts that they talked me into buying for them so they could wear them to youth group and be funny (for those of you who don't know, "swag", according to the Urban Dictionary, is "a term used by cool kids to measure coolness and swagger.  It cannot be explained.  You either have it or you don't").

So, in the photo here, we have two boys with swag.  Each is being very much himself, which is what I love about it.  One tries to look as debonair as possible at all times, and the other couldn't take a normal photo if his life depended on it.  This is as classic as it gets!

Sourdough Saga

I was given a jar of sourdough starter from a farmgirl friend.  We learned about starter and how to use it at last month's Farmgirl meeting.  One of the ladies has been using the starter for years and makes bread for her family a few times a week; I, on the other hand, would be so happy just to make one good loaf.  But alas, it seems I am lacking whatever it takes to make it work.  The starter (I learned that my starter is a daughter and that the original starter it came from is a mother - and I will refrain from making any smart-alec comments here) sat on my counter and bubbled away happily.  I fed it every morning and kept it covered with a damp towel all the time.  I scraped the "black stuff" from around the edge and threw it out (I learned that "black stuff" is normal....if however you notice any pink or red stuff, your starter has become deadly and must be thrown out completely, leading me to wonder "just what kind of stuff am I making here?").  The night before making bread, I added the appropriate flour and water and let it "sponge".  And then I began making the bread.....and nothing happened.  No bubbles.  No rising.  No action whatsoever, even after 30 minutes of kneading (mostly by hand, because my Kitchen Aid mixer, although it does fine with all other breads, for some reason doesn't like sourdough and refuses to knead it).  Two times I tried, and two times I made nice bricks of sourdough.  The first time, I threw it away.  The second time, I thought the chickens might enjoy pecking away at the brick, and put it in the coop.  It stayed there, untouched, for about four days, until I broke it in half.  With a shovel (I couldn't break it by hand or even stomp it with my boot).  The chickens were a little bit interested.  Finally, hours later, I noticed Max-the-Dog working at a half-loaf like it was a piece of jerkey (he must have reached his head through the tiny coop door to get that thing out).  So while I have greatly failed at making sourdough bread, it seems I succeeded at making the world's most expensive and long-lasting dog biscuit.

Why I Love My Job, Part 2

I've learned to upload videos!  So here are a couple from this year at Cal Poly and SLO Cru. Back in November, we had the opportunity to organize an event that included the entire campus and quite a bit of the county, as we packaged meals for Feed My Starving Children. Our wonderful friends Tim and Melissa Niegocki (we all went to college together, back in the 'olden days', as our kids tell us) came up because Tim does videotaping projects for Cru in our region, the Pacific-Southwest (or "PSW", as we call it.  We just can't get enough of the initials).  He put together this video that shows what we did over the two days.  It made me so proud of all of our students to see them work so hard at this, and to see the whole community coming together. Over 200,000 meals were packaged in two days - enough to feed 500 kids for a year. 

There's another proud mom in California, and that's the mom of the three Holliday boys, who created the second video for an annual contest/social that we have called "Night At The Oscars" (and yes, that would be "NATO", of course). I believe we had about 900 students there that night, most dressed up just like they would for the real red carpet.  One awesome boy even wore a kilt with all the trimmings.  As I was passing by, heading to my seat, I grabbed his arm and said, "I LOVE it that you wore the kilt!"  He looked a little alarmed; I'm not sure he knew exactly who I was.  Anyway, the videos were mostly amazing, and all completely done by students.  I believe they will all eventually show up on YouTube (search SLO Crusade Night at the Oscars 2012).  The Holliday boys won the evening's grand prize (voted on by the audience).  All three brothers go to Poly - two twins and one younger brother.  For years I've thought of them as just quiet, blonde surfers.  Who knew?  Although this video is simply entertaining and fun, our students have quite gotten into the idea of 'giving back', so money raised from ticket sales at this event went to Lifewater International, an organization based in SLO that digs clean water wells for communities that have none.
Enjoy!

Why I Love This Town

Grace worked for weeks on this year's Mock Rock competition at the high school.  Her friend Alison (see the last blog entry) was actually in charge of the whole event.  Mock Rock is basically a lip-synch contest, but the winners are usually large groups that recreate numbers from musicals (this year's winner was in fact a group of 16 that did a song from "Hairspray").  And the two top entries from each high school go on to compete at the county-wide Mock Rock competition in April.  Anyway, Grace and Alison were in charge of the tryouts, when a sweet boy named Cole performed a song by Peter Frampton.  Cole is one of the special ed students at the high school and is always full of joy, making him a favorite of everyone.  I love seeing photos of Cole appear on Facebook during homecoming week, Mr Greyhound competition, etc. How could anyone say no to Cole?  They could not - so into the competition he went!  And what a great job he did - it brought tears to my eyes as the crowd clapped along to the beat, and cheered him loudly as the song ended. He looked like he was having a blast!  Now, this probably would have been fantastic enough by itself, but because the students at our high school are awesome, a special award category was introduced this year.  Jamey and I knew about it because Grace came home this past Thursday covered in splotches of paint, after making all of the awards (see the photos to see her creations!).  The new category is "crowd favorite", voted on by applause and noise, and determined by the emcees.  I wish you all could have seen the delight on Cole's face as he received his award....and I really don't think there was a dry eye in the whole gym, but I am not sure, because I couldn't see anything; it was all blurry.  Fortunately another dad, Ron Wulff of Ron Wulff Photography, was there taking photos, and captured this wonderful moment.  I have added another photo as well, with Grace on the far right presenting the first place award to the "Hairspray" kids (Ron's daughter was in this number, I think). On the left are the "Blues Brothers" who took second.  They will represent our town very well, but as far as I am concerned, our kids already have the best prize of all!

Answers to the Questions in Your Head...

I know what you are thinking - "Wow, who is that gorgeous girl?"  Well, that of course is my daughter Grace (and her lovely friend Allison). Grace is a little scary, because in addition to being beautiful, she is also really smart.  Proof of this:  she was accepted into Cal Poly in December; two days ago I found out that a record number of high school seniors applied to Poly this year - over 45,000 to be exact.  So, even though I knew she was utterly qualified,  it seems she is even more exceptional than we thought!
"Why are they dressed up like that?"   They were headed to the Winter Formal.
"Where do you go to write these blog entries, anyway?"  My favorite place to go is the amazing coffee house / used bookstore Kreuzberg Coffee and Books in SLO (I love the atmosphere, but, and I feel a little sad saying this, their coffee is way too strong for me).  I wrote most of this one sitting outside the Atascadero Starbucks enjoying a small (excuse me...tall) coffee, also too strong for me,  and using their free internet.
"Why don't you just stay at home and save the money and make your own coffee?"  Sometimes I do.  But sometimes I like to hang out at coffee houses and feel like a real writer.  At Kreuzberg, they have portraits of poets and novelists all over the walls.  It's a rather bohemian place (with a cool vibe, bad coffee and free internet).
You may also be wondering why this picture of a really cool-looking bedroom is up here?  Not only is Grace beautiful, and smart, she is also really creative.  This is her bedroom - for fun on vacations and weekends, she cleans, organizes, and redecorates it.  She makes the coolest wall decorations out of canvases, paper and wire (I have told her she could sell them on Etsy.com.  If you haven't browsed Etsy, it's pretty amazing).  The walls were lime green a few weeks ago, and I was thinking to myself, "Wow, when Grace moves out, I should repaint this room a more neutral color.  But I hate to paint.  Ugh!  How can I get out of painting this room?  Who can I pay to come and paint this room?"  and lo and behold, Grace asked if she could repaint the room over Christmas break.  Hallelujah!  It is now a modern, lovely gray color (gray is the new beige, in case you didn't know).  I love it!
"What's Jamey been up to?"  Poor Jamey is still in shock.  We just got our first bill from Cal Poly.   I suppose this is when dads know college is "real" - when they have to start forking out the money.  When he gets over being stunned, he will go back to leading the ministry at Poly, fixing things like our cars, fences, and old doorknobs that are always breaking,  and mountain biking as usual.

I hope that this has answered some of your pressing questions!