Tuna Day

Steve has dreamed of going tuna fishing for several years now. He couldn't go with his first boat because it couldn't hold enough gas. Tuna are ususally out 60 miles. Well he has a lighter weight boat now that gets better gas mileage. He has never gone tuna fishing before though so he was trying to hook up with one of the experts around here. Today was the day. The guy took him out in his boat and taught Steve all the tricks of the trade. As you can see he caught 10 Tuna!!!! They ranged in size from 20-30 pounds. I have my work cut out for me!! I have to go buy a pressure canner, jars, and can and freeze all that tuna. Most people buy 1 or 2 tunas a year. The next challenge will be doing it by himself in his own boat. Pretty exciting!!!

Named the Goats and a Scary Goat day

Well, today we decided on the goat names for sure, the little boy is Patch, and the little girl Piper. Brenley gave us the suggestion because Steve mentioned she talks a lot. Yells would be more like it. Every time they see Steve or think they are going to see him they start baaaing. Its pretty funny. I had a huge scare today. I was talking to Danielle on the phone and making our dinner, I needed to go out to the greenhouse to get some chives. On my way out the door I see our neighbor carrying Piper. I about had a heart attack. My mind could see her out on the highway. She got out under the fence and was over by our neighbors that never used to talk to us until we got Georgetta, and started baaaing. Thankfully Piper is friendly and Betty Ann our neighbor could catch her. Well, since Piper is a jumper, I didn't know how she got out. The hard part of the story is that Steve was out Tuna fishing. I put her in the pen and then waited to see what she would do, she wasted no time. Her little nose was trying to nudge up the fence. I hurriedly put my foot on the fence and then tried to get into the pen to catch her. The whole time this is going on Patch is sitting in their house very unconcerned. After a while he came out and started eating. So I picked up Piper carried her to the house where I got my keys so I could open the garage door with my garage door opener in the car. I didn't want to carry her all the way in the house to get to the garage, for fear she would go to the bathroom in the house. Then I had to climb with Piper in my arms over Steve's junk, a very dangerous proposition, to get to the tent pegs out of our emergency kit(thankfully I had that in the garage, I can't imagine carrying her into our house, up the stairs and opening our attic stairs to get the tent pegs out of the attic. One more reason to have a three day emergency kit in your garage). I then took her back out to the pin and pounded stakes into the ground through the fence. I went out to check on them all day. Well, after dinner Steve decides to go out and check on them, they had been calling him. What does he see, shes over visiting with the neighbors! We took her back to the pen and searched for a hole. We can't find one so we put her in her pen and watch her. Well the little jumper takes a running start and jumps almost over the fence. We knew then that she could jump the fence. Well, by now it is 8:30 at night. Remember we live in the sticks. Everything in our town is closed, and Fred Meyer in Newport is a half hour away and it is going to get dark soon. So we cut up an old belt, made a collar out of it, attached a rope to the collar and to two cinder blocks. An hour later we have her tied up. We used a very thick rope about 3/4". Monday Steve will have to build a taller fence!! On the internet they said all we would need is a 4 foot fence, not so with our little jumper Piper.

Today

Well, today was a good day. Things were slower than I wanted, but what else is new. We made huge progress with Patch today, he came up to the fence and let us pet him and stayed there while we rubbed his little head. The girl goat (we're still working on her name) got a little jealous if that is possible in the animal world. The girl goat jumps so high. It is a little scary, if she had jumped just a few inches higher I think she could clear the fence. If she continues to be that good of a jumper, we will have to put an electric wire around to keep her in. Patch is contented to just climb on their house, chair and stool. Otherwise he just eats. The girl goat climbed on my back with all fours when I was trying to get Patch to come to me. I had to get her off twice!!

We actually do other things besides play with the goats, Steve worked some, I worked some and we watched the best movie tonight, Freedom Writers. It had me in tears a good share of the movie.

Steve is going Tuna fishing tomorrow with a major tuna fisherman. I hope he can catch some and learn the tricks. It is the fishing of all fishing, so I hope it is a good day. We will keep you posted on that. I am sending the camera with him, a scary thing for me!!! Well, I have dishes to do, clothes to wash and sandwiches to make! Fun! Fun! Love you all!!!
mom

Update on the goats

The doe will get to be about 17-19", the wether will be 21" or so. They start baaing as soon as they hear the front door open. It is pretty funny. The boy is still more shy, but we will continue to work on him. I thought I would post Steve's comment about the goats:

I'm glad you like our dwarf goats. They are even cuter in person. The little brown doe (girl) never stops talking. Just like humans. The little boy, patch, hardly ever says a word. Also just like humans, (but with a few notable exeptions). This tiny breed of goat originated in west Africa. Believe it or not, the little brown doe is a dairy goat. If she were ever bred and had a little "kid" she could then be milked. One of these little goats will give up to a half gallon of milk a day. I figure that because I work to provide fish for the dinner table, that Sharon's job can be to milk the goat. Because I was raised on a dairy farm I can "train, instruct, and supervise" Sharon in her milking chores. That should go over really big. Hey my mind is just getting started. I think Sharon can also make some goat cheese. And of course she can shear them in the spring and sew us up some nice goat hair clothes.
Love you all,
Dad

The goats are here

That is not a misprint, we have two Nigerian dwarf goats. After a week of Steve studying the internet, we decided that one dwarf goat would be all that we would need for the size of our property. But then we learned that you can't have one goat, goats need company. After more research and searching to see if we could even find some, Steve started to get discouraged. That lasted an afternoon and then he decided he still wanted some. We will only have to supplement them with hay in the winter and not that much. They are cuter than heck. The one I am holding is the doe (little girl goat), the one that Steve is holding is a wether (castrated boy goat). Even though he is snuggling up to Steve, he is actually not very friendly yet. He is scared of us still. We are going to keep going out and holding him and trying to get him to warm up to us. The girl on the other hand has been literally snuggly since the first night. They already tried to get out of the fence. We made a temporary pen until we can fence in our property. Steve butted it up to the neighbors fence, the holes in his fence are bigger than ours. Sure enough this morning they started to go through and the girl made it through before we caught her. It was pretty scary for a second, I ran into my greenhouse to put my camera down and when I got back into the pen, she jumped back into me. Now the poor little creatures are inside the kennel thing until we can put up new fencing up against the neighbors fence. They love to climb and jump as you can tell by the pic. Well, it is going to be an experience!! We are now in the livestock mode! HA! HA! Who would have ever thought!! We are thinking of calling the boy patch. Any opinions? ( I actually do wear makeup and wear clothes other than my workout clothes)

Update on the table

Well, three and some four coats later, my table and chairs are done being painted , I think. I am going to the temple tomorrow, so will put them together on Wed. I won't be able to sand them for awhile still. I didn't wait as long as I should have between coats, so I will need to let the paint cure for a week or so. Will take some pics after it is in my greenhouse. Also got my fountain out and am going to put it together, I am really excited about that. I want the greenhouse all ready for a tea party this July when the Leslie's come. Maybe even Ruby and I can have one when she comes. Well, I am tired. It was a gorgeous day on the coast.

Today was a greenhouse day. I had to pull up two tomato plants, boo hoo. I had an overwhelming aphid infestation in one bed. I didn't get to it fast enough. Oh well, live and learn. After the millions of aphids die, I will plant another two plants, I am thinking they will grow and produce before the cold season because everything grows so fast in there. I have lettuce galore and it is tasty.

I also did some frivolous things for my greenhouse. I started painting my table. Steve thinks I am silly of course. It had a beautiful finish on it and looked like it came right out of Pottery barn. I saw one just like it in the catalog. But I wanted mine to look old. Steve thought it was the hippie coming out in me. He had plenty of smirks today. I deserve a few. I will post some more pics when it is done.

Father's Day

Sunday morning started out with bacon, eggs, and pancakes. I was going to do hash browns but all good things have their limits! Steve then decided to open all his presents. He loved them all, a rare thing as we all know. I renewed his subcription to his fishing mag., some suspenders for fishing which I will have to take back, (forgot they didn't all workout) and a whole day or two in the garage. I told him I would help him organize his stuff and include organizational containters. He got a laugh out of the last part.

Megan and Greg came out in the afternoon, it was a gorgeous day. They stayed until tuesday morning(today). We visited, ate, and watched movies. It was a great time.

Our Grandkids

Aliese is 9 years old and lives in Idaho




Anna is 6 and lives in Idaho.




Gracie is 2 and lives in Idaho.




Ruby is 2 and lives in Oregon.




Tanner is 2 and lives in California.




Kate is 5 months and lives in California.