Heatwave: July 21st Edition.

All you folks out there that complain of 6 below temperatures this winter, I have one questions?

"Are you happy now?"

Personally, I'd take 20 below over 95 with a heat index of 105 and humidity ANY day.

Seriously!

I'm not exactly going to say I long for days that look like this, but I could handle some cooler temperatures:

Sure, a lot more clothing is involved, but has anyone noticed it is far easier to HEAT a home than it is to cool it?  Well, at least at our house where our fuel is not only free,  but abundant.  It would take us a long time to burn all the trees on our property - if we had to.  We don't have to - don't yell at me about the environment.  We only burn already fallen trees or trees that are starting to die or will not grow because of the over growth in the vicinity.

Not that I'm complaining though.  We are very fortunate that the pool is FINALLY set and we've been swimming constantly all week.  We actually got the liner correctly last Monday, scheduled water for Tuesday and got all three tanker loads in with NO incident.  We even managed to work together to cut the liner for the skimmer and patch a few small holes that we got in the liner due to the overworking of it the previous two weeks.

It is heavenly.

Everyone in the family LOVES it and we're happy to have our friends over to swim with us!

 The kids are exploring all the new pool toys I've been able to buy on clearance since summer is half over : )  I'm thinking pool toys/rafts/beach towels will be GREAT things to stock up on for stocking stuffers and Easter baskets.  Someone please remind me to do that as I do not ever want to leave the house again since I can stay immersed in the pool all day!

The people we bought our pool from used had a box of pool things they threw in with the pool.  In the box were some plastic sharks, dolphins and an alligator.  Willie loves that alligator.

 Hello, Walker.  These giant green goggles are the only ones that fit him.  I cannot find any goggles to fit my kids faces.  Even the Youth 4+ goggles I found at Walmart, where the eye pieces are the size of quarters don't fit them.

We had my niece and nephew stay with us for a few days.

 Our schedule went something like this:
Wake up.
Eat
Swim
Eat
Swim
Eat
Swim
Make kids get out of pool and rest even though they don't really want to but bribe them with a movie and a sweet snack.
Swim
Eat
Swim
Eat
Brush teeth
Bed

The times of these events really don't matter - in fact, I'm relearning that when you have a pool, the time doesn't matter.  You just rely on your carnal instincts to tell you what your body needs.

Today some of the girls from my book league managed to drag their sweaty bodies to my house for a swim party.  We were supposed to also discuss the book we recently read, 

but apparently only me and one other girl (who was unable to make our meeting today) enjoyed the book, so our discussion was pretty much just a poll of who actually read the book, who liked it, and then silence.

But we got to visit with this little fella.

And everyone hung out in the pool.

The kids jumped and played and swam.

 and noodled

 and splashed

and smiled.

And I smiled.  Because we were fortunate enough to be able to put in this pool and we have wonderful friends to share it with us.  These memories are what will keep me warm when the days once again look like this:

Update: End of Spring, Beginning of Summer 2011 Edition

The last two months have FLOWN by.

Don't I say that every post?

Since I last posted:

This guy had a first birthday.

And a first birthday party complete with a blow up slip n slide.  He didn't get to partake in the slip n slide portion of the party, but other kids did and they had a blast.

 Willie James, our little daredevil, flies down the slide with no fear!

 Guests sit on the deck and enjoy the beautiful afternoon.

 Will on a tummy slide.

 Maggie gets in on the slide action too.

 Crashing at the bottom.

 We had a froggy theme birthday complete with a froggy cake.  The little cupcakes to the side of the frog are supposed to be decorated with flies.  I ran out of black food coloring, so I had to make them red.

 Whit was a little hesitant to eat his cake at first,

 but once he saw his big brother, Will, scarfing down the cake,

he dug in pretty quickly with his hands.

 At the end of the day we had lots of sleepy

 It was a huge success even though we didn't get our pool in by the time of the party.  The day was beautiful, and as always, we have wonderful family and friends who make every event so special!

This girl had her last day of preschool and is now officially a Kindergartener!

Maggie May on her last day of school with her super sweet teacher, Mrs. Yam.

This guy finished first grade with all A's and B's and despite having all A's and B's, he was worried he wasn't getting into second grade.  I reassured him he passed and he's now happily working the summer away waiting to start second grade while I pray that time slows down so I can have him as my little boy forever.

First day 2010:  

Last day 2011: 

 He's actually wearing the same outfit, you just couldn't see it on the first day because he wore a sweatshirt.  You can't tell, but in the first picture he is missing teeth and his teeth are crooked, and the last day, his teeth have all come in, they are straight and he's wearing braces and expanders.  He's getting all grown up looking and I can't even stand it.  So far since school has been out, he's chosen to go to work with Erik more days than he stays home, he talks and acts like an older boy, and I can tell that as the summer wears on, he'll lose the remaining "little boyishness" he has left.  It makes me extremely sad.

This guy:

hasn't changed a whole lot except his vocabulary is becoming more four year old than three year old.  He  can swim without a bubble for a limited amount of time, dives into the pool, swims underwater and can dive for things on the bottom of the shallow end of the pool.  He may be my Michael Phelps.  He only has had swimming lessons since September of 2010 and we quit all lessons for all of the kids for the summer so we don't have to adhere to a schedule so we could enjoy our new pool.

Which brings me to THE POOL!

We found a used above ground pool for an amazing price.  It is an old aluminum one and when Erik went to look at it back in MARCH, he said it was in great shape, the people took really good care of it and it was perfect.  

We didn't even begin to tear it down until the beginning of June.  If you can remember, prior to this drought, we had a month of rain.  Even if it had been dry enough for Erik to go get the pool, he was busy catching up on work from all the days of rain we had.  So, the pool party I was planning for Whitaker's first birthday became a slip n slide party.

Enter mid June, we finally get the pool to our house and set up.  Our awesome friend, Fred, spent the entire afternoon with Erik along with another friend that sometimes works for Erik, we got the pool set up and the liner installed.  It was the hottest day of the year by far, and they were working with brown aluminum.  I should have known it all went too easily.  

The three men got the 27 foot pool up with what I would consider little difficulty.  It was hard, physical work, and they made it look very easy.  

By the time evening came, the liner was in, all the pieces were in place and by amazing fortune, a local Volunteer Fire Department happened to return my call saying that they would be able to deliver water to fill the pool so we were able to cancel the more expensive delivery of water from a water service.   Once the liner was in, Erik commented as they were putting the caps on, "Wonder if we should have tried flipping the J-channel to see if the liner was supposed to fit the other way?"  Those words would turn out to be might fortuitous . . . but in the meantime I was dancing a jig that in just a measly 24 hours, we would have a pool to swim in!  

They were going to deliver the water the day after we got the pool put together.  PERFECT!

Enter the 5,000 gallon tank delivery truck.

The volunteer fireman begins filling the pool up with water.  I'm watching, contentedly knowing by afternoon we'll be swimming in our very own pool!

Just like that, tragedy strikes.  I look away for two seconds and the liner has fallen out of the track and the day is over.  Turns out Erik's prophecy was correct and we did indeed have the J-channel upside down.   I politely ask the volunteer if he can please stop, almost have a heart attack as I check the liner thinking that it has torn, not just fallen out, and then I go inside and cry my eyes out.  Not really.  I called my husband in a panic, we mayday/sos message all of our friends and set up another work night to get the liner pulled back into the track and get the pool fixed.

We are blessed with an amazing group of friends who rolled up their sleeves and helped us out so much. God has truly blessed us with such amazing people in our lives and I can't praise them enough for their sacrifice and love.  They all know who they are and know that they now have a lifelong pass to the Schwalm pool!

I finally arranged today for delivery of the final 16,000 gallons of water to our pool!  Hopefully by Sunday afternoon, we'll be sitting in our pool rafts sipping an icy beverage while the kids splash around us.  

Of course, that's the plan and you all know about the best laid plans.

Blue Jeans

Maggie got a copy of Tangled for Easter.  As a result we've been watching the movie on a regular basis on these rainy afternoons when the kids have been restless and normal activities are not occupying their time.

Today, after swimming lessons, while Maggie is eating peanut butter crackers, we have this conversation:

Maggie:  Can I play Barbies in my room after Whitaker wakes up from his nap?


Me:  Sure you can.

Maggie:   Momma.  I need to get thin wire.


Me:  Um, Ok.  Why?


Maggie (in a haughty, you ought to already know tone):  You know!  For blue jeans.


Me:  Wait?  Who's blue jeans.  Why do you need thin wire for blue jeans?


Maggie:  For Rapunzel


Me:  Oh, you mean your horse?  Did you name her Blue Jeans ?  (here I was thinking I was cleverly catching on to her train of thought by remembering that in the Hannah Montana movie, she has a horse named Blue Jeans so I thought Maggie had named her Barbie horse Blue Jeans).  What are you going to do with thin wire and Blue Jeans?


Maggie:   I need Blue Jeans so he can marry Rapunzel


Me:  I still don't understand why you need thin wire!?


Maggie, thoroughly exasperated with me:  Mooooommmmmaaaaa!  Thin Wire is Blue Jeans.  That's hims real name in the movie.  When he's a stealer, he's Thin Wire, when he's gonna marry Rapunzel, he's Blue Jeans.




 Let me introduce to you Flynn Rider also known around our house as Thin Wire.  His real name is Eugene  or around our house he's Blue Jeans.

I'm so thankful I can count on my kids to provide some comic relief to my day.  I wish I could capture in printed word the frustration, irritation and exasperation in Maggie's tone as we were having this discussion.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that in just a few short years, she may be speaking to me in that tone all the time.

In case you were in need of some more clarification about the characters of Tangled and all things Disney:

 the horse in Tangled is named Mass-i-mus.  


Cinderella  has a fairy godmudder because fairy godmudders are good.  


It turns out that Mother Gothel, the woman who steals Rapunzel from her Royal parents, is a Fodder-god-mudder.  Fodder-god-mudders are bad.  


I'm glad we don't have any Fodder-god-mudders around here.  

Schwalmish

Our family is a little enamored with the Amish.  We are lucky to live in an area where there are still a few Amish communities relatively close and we take advantage of their proximity by visiting many of the communities and purchasing goods from them.  Walker's loft bed was made by a friendly Amishman, Christ Miller.

We got our play house at an Amish fundraising auction.  These types of auctions can be found almost every Saturday of the summer.  Most often, the auctions are used to raise money for Amish communities to use toward community needs - to raise a barn that had been destroyed by fire, to build a new schoolhouse, and most often, to raise funds to pay for medical bills for a family.  My mother in law first introduced me to these auctions and she was the one put in charge of finding the playhouse.  I frequently give her a list of items I'm looking for and most Saturdays I keep my cell phone handy waiting for a text asking how high I'm willing to go on a certain item.  The play house was an amazing steal - we got it for thousands less than we would have paid to buy one in a kit at a box store or to even buy the materials and build it ourselves.  Thankfully, Erik had the tools to get it home (a truck and large flatbed trailer) and we moved it right in pretty easily.  It's been a dominant feature in the children's play just about every day and it serves as a great dog house for our pack of farm dogs!

From applebutter to rag rugs, we turn to the Amish for a lot of things at our house.  One thing that I've become envious of as we drive around Amish country and visit the businesses in search of some goodies is their clotheslines.  Many of the women have extraordinary clothes lines that start at the back door and are strung up to a tall tree a hundred feet or so away.  The lines are on a pulley system so all the launderer has to do is step outside the door with the dirty clothes, pin them on the line and pull the opposite line to get the clothes to climb up the pulley and hang in the breeze.  

Erik actually bought me the tools we would need to create such a line for Christmas.  The bag of stuff has sat on a shelf in the decorative Christmas bag for months until this past week when we had to take the old clothesline down in order for Erik to dig a large hole in our back yard to prepare for the installation of a fun summertime toy.  

Erik had borrowed an extension ladder from our neighbor, a general contractor, in order to plug a hole in our house pecked out by a woodpecker.  As he was filling the hole with expandable foam insulation, I said, "Hey!  While we have this ladder, why don't we put up the new clothes line?"  So he did!  He attached one pulley to a sturdy cherry tree out in the woods (after clearing some poison ivy off the left side of the tree - you can see in the picture that the trunk V's about  feet up).  

 He then attached a second pulley to the side of the house about six feet above the deck.

Thankfully, we had some beautiful days last week and I was able to hang some clothes outside.  The first day I hung clothes out, I didn't have enough clothespins, so I had to make do with what I had, but I have to admit I was very disappointed that I didn't have enough clothespins.  

I got more clothespins now and I think I'll have enough space to hang almost all of our bedsheets at once!  

I can't wait for the sunshine to finally arrive so I can test my new Schwalmish clothesline to the fullest!

Farm Fresh is ALWAYS Best!

I haven't had to buy meat from a grocery store in years (going on 5 years) now.  We get all of our beef, pork, poultry, etc., by raising our own or by purchasing it from a local farmer and having it processed at a local butcher.

I am low on beef and pork now and I saw in a local grocery store ad that they had pork tenderloins for $3.99 a pound which I thought was a good deal.  Given the rising cost of groceries in general, I was psyched to find such a good deal.  Add to the good deal the fact that I needed to have some pork on hand for some upcoming meals I was planning, it seemed like a win-win situation.  Normally, I am strict about buying locally, but I figured since we don't have enough cash on hand yet to buy and process the entire hog, I would get by with purchasing some grocery store meat.  Since I haven't done it in five years, it seemed like an OK plan.

I purchased the pork tenderloin on Monday.  The "sell by" date was 5-11-11.   I opened the vacuumed sealed pork the morning of 5-12-11 to find a slimy rancid piece of pork.

After sticking my nose into it a few times, hoping each time that I would come up with a different result, I had to finally admit that the meat was spoiled.  I grabbed a baggie from the drawer to put the meat back in so I could return the meat to the store and as I was grabbing the packaging to show the manager, I realized that there were actually TWO stickers on the package.  One was overtop of the other.  I held the package up to the light and was able to see through the label that the first "sell by" date was actually 5-5-11.

Infuriated that the store did that, I went online to research whether that practice was illegal and it turns out it IS NOT!  According to the USDA website:


What is Dating?
"Open Dating" (use of a calendar date as opposed to a code) on a food product is a date stamped on a product's package to help the store determine how long to display the product for sale. It can also help the purchaser to know the time limit to purchase or use the product at its best quality. It is not a safety date. After the date passes, while not of best quality, the product should still be safe if handled properly and kept at 40 °F or below for the recommended storage times listed on the chart (see below). If product has a "use-by" date, follow that date. If product has a "sell-by" date or no date, cook or freeze the product by the times on the chart below.

[Top of Page]

Is Dating Required by Federal Law?
Except for infant formula and some baby food (see below), product dating is not generally required by Federal regulations. However, if a calendar date is used, it must express both the month and day of the month (and the year, in the case of shelf-stable and frozen products). If a calendar date is shown, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as "sell-by" or "use before."

There is no uniform or universally accepted system used for food dating in the United States. Although dating of some foods is required by more than 20 states, there are areas of the country where much of the food supply has some type of open date and other areas where almost no food is dated. 

Refrigerator Storage of Fresh or Uncooked Products Product Storage Times After Purchase Poultry 1 or 2 days Beef, Veal, Pork and Lamb 3 to 5 days Ground Meat and Ground Poultry 1 or 2 days Fresh Variety Meats (Liver, Tongue, Brain, Kidneys, Heart, Chitterlings) 1 or 2 days Cured Ham, Cook-Before-Eating 5 to 7 days Sausage from Pork, Beef or Turkey, Uncooked 1 or 2 days Eggs 3 to 5 weeks

According to these guidelines, I should have had three to five more days to cook the meat based on the date that was clearly visible on the package!  


Obviously, I'm going to return the meat to the store and demand a refund and strongly  suggest that they stop re-labeling meat and selling it to the public.  When I think of the ways things could have gone wrong - what if I was an inexperienced cook who did not know that slimy, smelly meat meant it was spoiled? It's scary!  What if I had still had a head cold and hadn't been able to smell the putrid odor coming from the pork?  it is irresponsible for that grocery store to sell items that could be a health hazard.


One of the issues that modern day farmers have great debate over are situations like this.  It is only common sense that small farmers must practice ethical, safe and healthy ways of farming in order to build a reputable business.  Unfortunately, there are TONS of rules and regulations that small farmers must follow, hoops to be jumped through, and red tape to cut in order for a small farmer to have a successful and profitable business.  However, the government has less strict standards for larger industries.  If you boil it all down, what most farmers feel is that they are paying (literally) to be allowed to farm and larger farming institutions (and those related to those larger institutions such as grocery stores) are able to do whatever they want without the same standards.  Larger farming institutions are not hurt  if one of their product is substandard, but if one of our products is substandard, it hurts our reputation and our business for a very long time.  


Additionally, paying the fees required for certain classifications within the USDA guidelines are more than most small farmers can pay when they are starting up a business.  Most of the farmers I know practice many components of farming that would be considered "organic." However, having a farm certified organic is often such cost to a farm that any profit that would come from obtaining the certified label would be more than they could spare.  


Now, I'm not saying that buying organic is not a good option.  As I've said in other posts, these words are just my opinion, and should be recognized as such.  I am not an expert, I'm just telling you the experiences I've had as someone (relatively new) in the agriculture industry.  In terms of the purchases for my family, it is more important for me, right now, to buy products that are grown locally.  Especially beef, pork, and chicken.  Right now we are in the process of raising our own chickens again.  We have also purchased Berkshire pigs but the sows are being raised to be breeding stock, so it will be a while before we have Goodness Grows Pork available for our own consumption and sale, but in the mean time, we have a friend that raises beef  and pork so we will be purchasing beef and pork SOON!


If you are looking for a local farmer to purchase product from, talk to your friends and neighbors and see what they are doing.  Stop at a local feed store like an Agway or something like that and ask if they know of anyone who is raising animals for sale.  Produce farmers are a little easier to find because of the recent rise to popularity of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and Farmer's Markets.  Lots of times, if the farmer you contact doesn't have something you are looking for, he or she will know someone that they can refer you to.  And you can be happy because you are buying a product that is healthier for you and you are supporting your local community.  


My main motivation in purchasing the pork loin was that it was CHEAP. I have officially learned my lesson. I'll be taking my refund from the chain store grocery, running to my local butcher who only sells LOCALLY RAISED beef, pork and chicken, and buying a new piece of meat.  Sure, it will be a little pricier, but I will be getting the quality that I'm paying for.  And that is worth more than anything.  

Al Fresco

We did something tonight that we haven't done in a long time.

It was a little bit risky.  It was something we used to do all the time.  It didn't involve much clothing.

We even let the kids join us.

We finally got to eat our dinner outside on the deck!

No long sleeves, not coats, not hats, mittens or snow pants.  Boots were still involved, but boots are a staple of our clothing at the farm.  

It was amazing!

It was one of those glorious days where the temperature was perfect, the sunshine was so very welcome, and being outside was truly a joy.  The kids played outside all day, which made me VERY happy because I had forgotten how clean my house can stay when NO ONE IS INSIDE ALL DAY!  Woo-hoo!  I did a few chores with limited interruption, was able to start a few projects as well as enjoy a little time outside.  Hooray!

I could really get used to this.

The only drawback of the day?  An annoying woodpecker pecking the side of our house waking us up early!   As Maggie said, "Yeah, that woodpecker kept me up ALL morning!"  He sure did make sleeping difficult, and I am afraid he may have done some damage to our  lovely exterior.  Obviously, he couldn't damage the look of the house, but I do think he managed to put a good hole in the insulbrick.    Of course, it had to be on the side of the house where reaching the 2nd floor  is all but impossible without some sort of bucket truck.  I have a feeling he'll be visiting us again tomorrow morning and then my day will include a trip to Agway to see if I can buy one of those silly plastic owls to hang out of Maggie's window in the hopes of scaring the woodpecker away.  The frustrating part is that it's not like we aren't surrounded with 20 acres of woods, some of which we specifically avoided timbering so that we could provide an ecosystem for the variety of animals already in residence on our property.  We have on tree in particular that we've seen many redheaded woodpeckers utilize but not this guy.  

It looks like tomorrow will shape up to be very similar to today.  I can't wait.  I'm hoping Erik will have time to finish this big hole he started to dig in the back yard.  Details regarding the hole to come soon!