Some Shraddha time!

Good Morning! and Welcome!

It was early in the morning when Shraddha decided to start taking pics of Mama!



Time to go out and hold her babies! This little bantum chicken's name really is Baby.

No, she isnt being treated badly... actually she is in chicken heaven!

Baby loves when Shraddha holds her, even if on her back, not only will she put up with it...

she falls alseep there too!

I never realized how much fun we would have with chickens. We are always so excited to run out and feed them leftovers and they jump all over us in excitement whenever we come to visit...especially when leftover oatmeal is with us.

Working on a badge there somewhere for Spiral Scouts.... We are noticing and taking pics of all the wildlife that wanders in our yard (at least for those that wait around for us to take a picture!)
This white butterfly loves our lavendar spearmint flowers. I wonder if the nectur is minty?

And THIS cute little guy a juvenile cottentail finally hopped close enough for his props too!



Just one of the many beautiful sunsets we watch in the evening!

Top 5 strangest things in our garden this week.

5. Now this is also one of my favorites! Black Hollyhocks! Yeah they finally bloomed and I love them. They are striking and weird and gigantic at 8-10 ft tall! Only took almost 2 yrs to see so enjoy! I am already planning where and how many more for the next couple of years.





4. Check out this brown fuzzy hairy caterpillar! I figured out from http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/ that it is the larva to a ....



Giant Leopard or Tiger Moth as seen on BugGuide.net



I remember we had quite a few of these giant leopard moths....in November... here is the pic of one laying eggs on the side of my house on 11/04/07











3. Alligator Lizards! I thought this was a skink! but on closer look... it seems it is not. We do have skinks and blue belly lizards but I have never seen a lizard that big up on our house! This guy was huge at about 16 inches long. But all skinks and lizards are very welcome here!


more on Alligator lizards.










2. What the heck! Is it a spider? Is it like a potato bug? ugh! Whatever it was... it was crawling toward me while I was folding laundry....EWWWWW! But you can be relieved to know it wasn't squished. It was gently placed back into the garden.... for us to find again later I am sure.


Here is what we learned from WhatsThatBug.com:


"The Solpugid is not an insect, it is an arachnid. It is related to spiders and scorpions, hence its common names Sun Spider or Wind Scorpion. In some places they are called Sand Puppies, but they are not related to dogs. Unlike Spiders and Scorpions, Solpugids do not have venom. They are harmless unless you are small enough to be considered food, in which case gram per gram, they might be the fiercest predators on the planet. We are lucky they don't weigh 150 pounds. They will eat anything they can catch, which is a benefit in the desert. "



1. Top strangest thing found in our garden this week!!!! AHHHHH!


Opossum with a huge long nose and huge long tail...eating out of Sadie's dog dish in the middle of the night. That thing was almost as big as our 16 lb cat Chamois! Now we know who made a huge den at the edge of our play yard. This seems to be an unusually fat Opossum, with a HUGE head! Must have been munching in Sadie's bowl for the past couple of years! Would that make it our pet? EWWWW!









This is one I found in the front yard on 5/26/07 wonder if it is the same one? Here it is in my hat... i was just too chicken to hold it in my hands. It was so cute when it was tiny!

Trippin and falling on my astral body

Ok, so half of you are going to think I am nuts and fell off the deep end and the other 2 of you are just not going to know what to think.

So, today I was going through deleting tons of email that is clogging my account we are talking in the thousands here. This is a job I absolutely hate.... I must be feverishly working on it to avoid the dishes and laundry and toys and mail and ...... whatever other monotony my days off are consumed with...

I found a site sent to me about 9mo ago about Kundalini and mysteries of the Goddess. Maybe this is news to you but I have been known to read up on Kundalini every so often. The author, El Collie wrote some very interesting things about how thoughts manifest themselves and how people going through or are open to spiritual enlightenment tend to be more open to visitations from spirits. She spoke about how they can manifest themselves in a number of ways, sounds, changes in temperature, feelings, and especially animals and how to communicate with them or ask them to leave.

Right at that moment I was reading, the dog sleeping besides me, started running in her sleep. When I looked down at her I noticed 5 huge black wild turkeys taking a stroll through my backyard. I started cracking up. Not the "I've lost my mind" type of crack up mind you! The Oh my gosh its funny type of crack up. Thank goodness I live too far out in the hills for the men in white coats to find me. Not that I am paranoid or anything. he he he.

Playing Opossum

Madhava was telling me yesterday that he would really like to see a opossum. I explained that they were sure to live out here but that I haven't seen even one. Then, of course, tonight I open my front door to see what the dog is barking at, to find a baby opossum hanging on the fence we put around our lilac tree.

Cutest little thing hissing at me and showing me his/her? 50 teeth when I got too close. But somehow decided it was ok to let me put it in my hat to bring in the house and show Madhava. I just now realized that those huge city sized rats that the dog/cat have been leaving at my front door were not really rats. It seems this opossum's siblings probably played possum and the dog/cat had their fun. This one here was the only one smart enough to climb UP!

Why was this little guy in my yard? I was thinking it was the dog food but since the first "rat" showed up we moved it. But our yard has a plethora of slugs, grasshoppers, frogs, lizards, mice and vegetation. A regular 'possum smorgasbord!

Here is the little marsupial in my hat and everyone but me the cat and dog are asleep. Check out that cute little prehensile tail.

Here are a couple other visitors that are not playing possum. A skink and blue belly lizard.

More posts to come.... Mother's Day pics, Mr. Play-dough Head, More on Potty training.

Family Time!

Another beautiful weekend here again. Sunday was 80 degrees! How odd. It is supposed to still be cold and rainy with chances of snow LOL! It was so warm the kids were playing with the water-hose. watering the weeds, the mud, the house, the dog and eachother. We played with bubbles too but the hose was way more fun.

We went to Sunday service and started Madhava back in Buddhist Sunday School. Both kids enjoyed the Family Dharma Service and even Shraddha was singing along and participated in the sermon by demonstrating peek-a-boo with the speaker in front of the Sanga. Of course, she just looked at the speaker then hid her face in Daddy's chest.

Here is the Blue-tailed Skink that Madhava found. Unfortunately, the only picture that was in focus was the one after the little skink lost the last 2 inches of his cobalt blue tail!

Saturday we ventured across the street to look for the stream and waterfall that we hear all the time. We found a stream under the grass we were walking on. Madhava and Roger holding Shraddha slid down the side of a granite slab in a muddy slimy grassy water slide. A fallen tree stopped them from sliding the whole way down. Then Sadie went tromping up to them and slid down the slimy stream getting her head stuck under the tree. (I can still hear her "Scooby" feet trying to get traction LOL!) Her feet were slipping as she was trying to reverse out from under the tree and I was way back in a safe dry spot laughing at that goofy dog. I was laughing too much to snap the picture!

Then we found ourselves in a poison oak jungle! After we escaped that mess unscathed, we sat on the side of the hill picking flowers. What a fun adventure! We all slept for hours - well, everyone but Madhava he rested while watching hours of Scooby-doo! "Like that was fun! he he he he he he"

Shraddha is 21 months.

Pumpkins & Spiders!

We have eight pumpkins the largest was about 7 inches high. And today is the very last day they could grow. It was the first official frost .... Make that a real freeze! Some of the littlest ones on the vine were pretty frozen and the vine and leaves were all crunchy...As well as the tomatoes. Anyone have any good fried green tomato recipes?



Here is a tarantula just passing through our front yard. Both the baby and the dog were quite uneasy about this little guy... (little HA HA HA) I put him in an old fish tank for the day until Madhava got a chance to take a look at him and let him go. I had to keep it in the garage (with a huge rock on top of it) to keep Shraddha from whining about it. Isn't it funny how naturally we are afraid of spiders?

TV Time

Madhava 4 1/2 yrs., Shraddha (was 15 months in pic NOW 16 months!) Watching Baby Einstien.

Ok, since this blog is meant to be a type of journal/scrapbook of our family it is fitting to discuss the stuff that just seems so silly to me right now....TV. I know years from now it will be interesting stuff but it is just really silly to me now. First off we USED to have cable (digital even!) Oh how wonderful that was when I was on bedrest with Shraddha and I had an on-screen TV/cable guide and could just click on the shows I wanted to watch!

No, cable for us woodland folks. The techs actually laugh when you ask when it will be available. Apparently, we are lucky the phone and electricity work most of the time. That is... it works when the woodpeckers and squirrels and snowfall and lightening don't interrupt the service LOL!

Anyways.... back to the shows we watch.
Not much really these days. We only have a few channels so I end up watching things I wouldn't normally have. However, this only happens when I am nursing Shraddha to sleep or making dinner.

Game shows.... Deal or no Deal. This is really quite boring, yet I can't seem to turn away.
There is a new one I was just watching not sure of the name but they say "do you want the money or the mob?" Now that was good. It is kind of like the "Do you want to be a millionaire show".

The amazing race, I do tend to miss this one alot. I like the traveling but I just don't like the reality tv arguing/drama/stategy thing. But it is on my list to watch tomorrow night....Sunday 8pm CBS ch47

Studio60 It is a docu-drama show simulating the filming of SNL and full of dry humor. Wow just found out I can download Ghost Hunters from that site! LOVE that show! We like House too, but it is either on too late or the reception is not very good.

So that brings me to the shows I miss from not having cable.... Ghost Hunters, anything DIY, National geographic, and other Discovery/history/Nature Chanels or shows. But between BlockBuster and Netflix.com we are set.

Netflix.com rocks by the way. I can rent many of the shows that I don't get anymore only no commercials and I have pause and fast forward. (by the way, I'm sticking out my tongue to those of you with DVRs/Tivo you know who you are! I am so jealous!). We are getting caught up on House, Ghost Hunters, and now get to start watching Kratt's, Be the Creature. As well as watching music documentaries. JAZZ, Blues, and Rock&Roll.
Roger just rented this wonderful movie about a woman musician that was deaf but could hear sounds by vibration and is a world renown percussionist. Do I remember her name or the name of the movie...NO! gotta look that one up. Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey with Evelyn Glennie (2005). This is a definate must see - both Madhava and Shraddha loved it.

Almost forgot to mention football. NFL. 49ers Fan here but I also like to follow the Raiders, Broncos, and Chargers (not that I really have time to 'follow' them LOL!) Just about any professional football game is fun for us, sometimes basketball. You won't find me watching baseball unless it is little league!

Our all time favorite shows to watch are American Idol and Rock Star (You have to see their site!). The kids even get into watching those shows.

Blue Lizard Tree Ranch (revised)

Ok, here are some more pics of our property at Ryan's request (that's my brother). He hasn't had the chance to get up here to visit because of his tour bus company in San Diego, Epic Limo.
This is Blue Lizard Tree Ranch. I'm trying to see if this name will stick. It was named after the huge Oak tree above where a number of Blue Belly Lizards live. I have some pics of one of the cobalt blue jeweled Blue Bellies that Zoey found for us... but I will post that later.




These are the BEFORE pics. The AFTER pics will come when the AFTER finally gets here. What I am trying to say is that we have a ton of landscaping to work on. Our plans consist of a nice grassy play yard, an aloe vera, herb and rock garden in the front yard. Gotta love rock gardens...those rocks are great for novice gardeners and the gophers seem to leave them alone. We also plan on making a vegetable garden and planting fruit and nut trees. We had millions of wild flowers in the spring , now we have nice golden hills.

YAY! I am back online!

I am so happy that I can be back online posting again! So, I will get right to it.

Summer is over and I am ready for cooler weather. It's a nice 67 degrees out now (but then it is also fairly late at night.) I will take whatever I can get for now LOL!

I saw the first tarantula a couple of days ago. It was crawing back into its nest only 5 feet from my back door. I also found a 4 ft long garter or racer snake. It noticed me LONG before I notice him. Needless to say, I am no longer walking around the property in the evening or at night to toss the trash or hang/get laundry. I get the creepy crawlies whenever I think about it... it isn't even October yet! I think I will be ok if they just not come in the house like the scorpians do. Haven't found any scorpions under the sheets for a while but I won't climb into bed until I check everything...even under the pillow. But I always wonder, if they climb in there when we aren't there.... then what keeps them out when we are in the bed?

Madhava started kindergarten this week at 4.5 yrs old. He is starting a year earlier than we planned and it may just be for fun for now. He is just loving it though. His favorite thing is share day, when everyone gets to bring in a favorite toy to share with each other. I want to get some pictures up but can't figure out how to upload them from the camera right now. I will try again tomorrow.

Right now he is very into robots. He loves to watch movies but Jumungi and Zathura are his favorites right now. I still think they are just too scary for him but he keeps asking his dad if he can watch it again and again. He can write his name when we give him an example. He can spell his name when asked. And he can write almost the whole alphabet as well as come up with words for the different sounds. I just started working on site words with him and "the" is the first one we are working on. He finds it on signs when we are out and about. He is still working on understanding the time of day, and past and future tense. I spent quite a bit of time explaining what yesterday and tomorrow means. He still thinks it is morning time when he wakes up from his nap ~ but if I slept for 4 or 5 hours in the middle of the day, I would be a bit disoriented too. I'm just happy to be sleeping that long without being woken up at night. He also just loves playing with Sadie and Shraddha. It is so fun to see Shraddha screaming with glee while Madhava runs around saying ,"You can't get me, baby!"

Shraddha, now 14 months is learning ASL along with the rest of us. She knows: eat, dada, thirsty, drink, water, bath, diaper, banana, mama, nurse, car, bird, tree, elephant, cat, dog, duck, flower, dirty, cracker, cheese, peach, ball, book, more, music, hat, shoes, bread, apple, cereal, bed, toothbrush, hot, cold, all done, down, cow, night, moon, stars, fan. 42 signs. She is a sponge... asking me "what's dat ?!!" and watching to see if I will teach her the sign for what ever she just noticed She is also making up her own signs. She saw a picture of a pterodactyl and signed elephant-bird.

Her speech is coming along too. She says, mama, dadda, daddy, bubba, Elmo, meme, mooo, book, up p p p , dadoo for thank you, adie for sadie, itty for kitty, mmmmm for yummy and flower while she signs flower, iaper for diaper, apple. She is also demonstrating great understanding. I will tell her to go give daddy a kiss and off she goes to plant a big hug and kiss on daddy. She understands brush your teeth, feed the kitty, where is...., go outside, time to go to sleep/bed, watch a movie.

Shraddha loves watching her Signing Times and Baby Einstein and Elmo movies. She also loves to pull out anything new she can find in the cupboards, LOVES reading books and just can't get enough of that. SCREAMING for fun, especially to chase the cat or bubba. Our cats and dog get plenty of hugs and kisses from Shraddha. She also loves watering the plants, smelling the flowers, looking for birds and of course.... waking bubba up from his nap.

So much for getting caught up on dishes, laundry, and sleep LOL! I don't even know what that is like. Does that ever happen? If it wasn't for Roger's help, I don't think I would ever see the bottom of my sink.