August 2022

 Another full month.  Cainan ended up getting Covid, but the girls did not, thank goodness.  Everyone has recovered well - only the cough lingered a long time.  Finley participated in the Boston Fan Expo again with her art and made about $800.  Her table wasn't in as good of a spot as last year,but she still did very well with her selling.  We picked our puppy - we have a new dog joining our family at the beginning of September and we cannot wait.  It has been 5 months since Scooby died, and we are ready for another dog.  Arlington moved into an apartment for her junior year at UMass.  Her first time living off campus, but she isn't far away. And she has her car.  We went on a 5 day vacation just a little north of us to a lake in New Hampshire.  Just a change of scenery to end our summer.  School starts on the 7th of September.  We are not ready for the lazy days of summer to end.

Finley at Boston Fan Expo (Comic Con)

Arlington's apartment is really cute.  She is sharing it with a roomate.  It is two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and two floors.  A nice starter place. We got her all settled with a Uhaul and two cars.

Right before we went to the lake we found out which puppy we are getting.  Our breeder does the Volhard Puppy test for temperment and we actually got our first choice (After seeing the test results).  We were thrilled.  The kids decided to name him Pluto.  He is a merle bernedoodle (mix of bernese mountain dog and a poodle).  He has one blue eye and is just the cutest.  We cannot wait.

We had a wonderful time at the lake in New Hampshire.  WE found a gorgeous house to spend the week right on the lake.  IT was private, and had all kinds of toys for the water, and a small beach to sit on.  It was a nice "puppy moon" as we were calling it to celebrate the last weeks of peace and quiet and the end of summer.  We swam, played games, and just relaxed.

Finley and I were talking about Shrinky Dinks one day and she wanted to know what they were.  Of course - Amazon had some, so we had to get them.  The kids had fun making them and watching them in the oven.

We love these one off mystery games, so we brought one along we play.  

I found a clever puzzle on Mosaic puzzles that had really unique pieces.  It was quite the chalenge, but so fun.  Here are some of the coolest puzzle pieces

A few random shots from the month of our chickens

Hennifer is our head chicken.  She is the boss of all the ladies.  When there isn't a rooster, one hen usually takes the place.  She makes sure they are all in bed at night and is the protector when people come close.  

We finished our sign for the coop of all the ladies' names

We finally have one hen laying.  Eggy started laying eggs this month.  Hopefully the other hens will follow soon.

July 2022

 Summer is well underway now.  Cainan has taken and passed his driver's permit test and we have started driving around.  He is super cautious, but doing well.  I turned 47 - yikes.  Finley turned 16!  Since she won't be driving, her big present is a trip anywhere she wants to go.  We are going to take the trip next summer - let one more year of Covid pass.  She has chosen to go to Scandanavia.  Looking forward to getting back to travel. The bathroom remodel is complete! So glad.  Cainan started his first summer job at our local grocery store.  I went to visit my parents for a long weekend in PA and ended up getting Covid.  That was a tough break after 2 years of working as a Covid nurse and never getting it.  Luckily it was mild.  Mat ended up with Covid as well.  Hopefully the kids won't get it. 

Chickens are doing well.  This is my name sake - Hennifer on my birthday

Not that I wanted to spend the morning at the RMV on my birthday, but it was worth it when Cainan passed his permit test

On July 5th Finley turned 16.  She spends time with her chickens every afternoon.  They love her.  She has a favorite (that she is holding in the first picture) - Eggy

I finished making the chicken coop area pretty.  I wish I would have taken a before picture of this area.  It was all overgrown and all woods.  I painted the old dog fence and lined it with hardward cloth.  We lined the ground with hardward cloth as well to keep out predators.  Then I covered it all with stones and plants and made a walkway.  It was a fun project, but I am glad it is done.  Tons of work.

The bathroom remodel is DONE!  We are so happy with how it turned out.

We designed the whole space around the vanity.  We had it custom made out of reclaimed barn wood. Mirrors too.  We love how it turned out.  And it smells so good.

All of our fixtures are a matte black shade to match what we have in the downstairs.

Our contractors custom built this cabinet for us.  The last bathroom had so much wasted space and we had room for this great cabinet.  We had no storage in this bathroom before.  This is perfect.

Yeah I took a picture of the toilet.  I really wanted a flat toilet that made it easy to clean.  And it has the European style of the two buttons on top.

Cainan has to dress up for work.  They have a strict dress code.  He looks like a Bible saleman, but so handsome

My positive Covid test.  I didn't feel terrible -mostly just tired.  In the end the cough was the worst, but never got a fever, or even much of a stuffy nose.  It was like a bad cold for just a few days.  Mostly I was just bored in isolation.

Our turkeys that visited our yard all summer have been missing for a few weeks.  Now I know why - Turkey babies!

June 2022

 It is finally summer!  This was the last month of school, last month of me helping with Covid testing, and a big leap forward for the bathroom remodel.  It is almost done.  Cainan turned 16 - how is that even possible?  Finley and Cainan wrapped up their first year of high school with straight As and highest honors all three semesters.  They even got awards in many of their classes - so proud.

Let's start with the remodel.  It is moving slowly, but it is moving.  The longest part, as always, was installing plumbing and electrical- hard to get those guys on the schedule.  Once that was done, things started to move a little faster.

We are getting new everything, and the tub went in recently.  We picked a square tup with a matte finish to match the rest of our house.  We also got a black drain and overflow valve installed to match the black fixtures going into the space.  I love this tub.

We chose a tile for the shower by Anne Silke.  It looks like wallpaper to me.  It is blue stripes.  For the insert we picked a matte, rough pencil tile to give it some depth.  For the kid's bathroom we decided to keep the tub and shower surround.  We will be doing something different when we remodel the master.

The floors went in next and we really love them.  Before they were a weird 90s blue tile and so we deicded to go more for a wood look in a white/gray.  We didn't want anything dark because of the dark wood floors right outside this bathroom, door, and this really made the space feel bigger.

Our main wall in the bathroom we did a wood shiplap.  I love how it is looking so far.  We will be leaving this wall white while all the other walls will be blue.

Cainan turned 16 on June 2nd.  It is so hard to believe.  We got him a used Toyota Camry Hybrid for his first car.  He is excited to get started driving.  He wanted to wait and take his permit test after school ends, and then we will be off and running

End of June came the end of school.  We had quite a few snow days so there were a lot of days to make up this year.  Bring on summer

We wrapped up 1 1/2 years of Covid testing at the schools and all the nurses rejoiced!  This past fall was a BEAST, and the beginning of the new year wasn't much better.  However, for the last few months, things have slowed down and we are so grateful for the end of testing.  Our guess is it won't be back next year unless something really changes.

We worked our tails off to finish the chicken run and now the chicks are offically in their outside home.  It was weird having outdoor animals.  Mat did a great job building the whole thing and next will be for me to make it pretty.  It is made out of weather proof wood, and hardward cloth - which is everywhere to keep predators out.  We have a door and locks and alarms all over this thing.  We used greenhouse roofing for the top to protect them from weather and of course, predators. It was fun to put together.

May 2022

 These months are FLYING by.  End of school is near.  Covid is still a big problem, but thankfully vaccines are making dying from Covid less and less.  Our family still has been able to avoid it which is a miracle in itself.

We had another fun month.  Our bathroom remodel got underway.  We decided to start with the kid's bathroom because it was the bathroom that had a leak last year and the hole in the wall is still there.  I cannot wait to see the finished product in a few weeks.

The chicks are getting bigger all the time.  Finley and I handle them every day to make sure that they learn to trust us.  This will come in handy if we ever need to catch them in the coop or deal with them if they get ill.  They are all really sweet.

We started the coop area.  We had an old dog run area at the back of our property that had just gotten overgrown.  We decided to learn it out and make that the area for the chicks.  We decided to buy the coop - and we assembled that first. Mat was a little unsure about building a coop, but not the run.  It was easy to put together and will house our 6 ladies at night.  We live in a high predator area, so they won't be out to free range.

I love our pear tree.  It is always one of the first bloomers and just has gorgeous flowers. 

Mid month our bathroom remodel began.  It is going to be a bit of a trial for 5 of us to share one bathroom this spring, but we are so excited to have this project done.  We hired a different company that who did our downstairs because they didn't do bathrooms.  We are excited to see the end result.  

By the end of the month the chicks have gotten so much bigger!  They still have a few more weeks indoors before they can be outside full time, but they are now able to go out on short trips to peck around in the grass.  Since they cannot free range, we got them an enclosure. My plan is to use this often this summer to let them get some fresh grass and change of scenery.

Arlington finished up her sophomore year and is home for the summer.  Her bunny was interested in the chickens.