The George Family Journal

Monday, September 15, 2008

Ewe Snakes…

This was in our yard last night.

Pleasant, no?

Ick.  Ick, ick, ick.  Keep in mind, please, that Stuart Dean wanted me to post these…

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Peeps arrived

So the peeps arrived. I got a phone call at 7am to come get them. Wow they are noisy little buggers! They found there food alright and some are drinking, I will let them adjust for a while and see how things are going…

The downside? We ordered 8 (wanted 4) and all 8 survived! So now we have to pick 4.. Some are a week or so older than the others too, they are getting their wing tip feathers.. I think they are the barred plymouth rocks.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Baby Chickens

So, today we ordered baby chickens!

All the chickens I ordered are good brown egg layers that will produced 4-5 eggs a week, they drop off production a lot when its super hot or really cold, but these are breeds that can handle much colder winters than we get, so that is a good thing.

They will leave the hatchery as day old chicks and take I think, two days to arrive here via USPS…

So what did we order?

2 Australorps (An Australian breed!)
2 Barred Plymouth Rocks
2 SexLink Red Stars
2 SexLink Black Stars

Yes, 8 in total. That is the minimum for postage as there will be fatalities, the plan is to keep the strongest 3 or 4 and free-to-good-home whats left. (Might give them to Morgan if she wants them)

The sex-links are a hybrid breed good for egg laying, but most importantly when they are born the sexes are different colours (because nobody wants roosters), they are crossed Rhode Island Reds with Plymouth Rocks.

The Stars are very good egg layers and very hardy birds.

We will have pics when they arrive, but I’m not expecting them for a while. 

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Before and After

Check it out:

Bathroom: Phase Two

Tile and grout is down, ladies and gents!  now I’m just waiting to hear about the expense of a dual-flush toilet before we put our old one back in.  But we’re getting there and it’s B-U-T-ful!

Headed to DC this weekend to visit Amy, Chuck, JJ, and Caroline (the peanut who is due in January) and to help paint house.  Hopefully they won’t ask us to tile anything....

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Bathroom: Phase 1

No, not peeing, dear family, remodeling!

Stu and I loved the tile bathrooms in Oz so much that we’re working on redoing our bathrooms!  Or, bathroom, rather.  The master bath will soon be covered in tile.  So far we’ve had to hacksaw some bolts, but we’re getting there.  The vinyl is up, the floor is now swept.  I’ve got to take the door off and get that little white ring and the toilet’s wax ring up today and then we’ll be ready to lay the backerboard down!

On another note, we think the little man may be teething, this time some molars, which are apparently very painful.  He’s very clingy this morning, wouldn’t let me put him down for over an hour, and then finally he just conked out.  It took a bit to weasel out from under him, but I did and this is what remains: 

I promise, this week I will post Oz updates and photos!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Mulch!

Well, it’s springtime, and that means time for working outside!  Today we got a HUGE load of mulch dumped in the driveway and I began mulching with the help of one of the other members of the George family.  Guess which one??

(oh, and check out my new hairdo!)

In other news, we are eager for the little man to get over his cold/virus/cough/teething as soon as he can so we can get some sleep and actually get some things done around the house.

We are planning to tile our bathroom as soon as we can get around to making a big purchase at Lowes--maybe this weekend.

I’m looking forward to my all day trip on Friday with my 7th graders.  I’ll be taking them to Baltimore, Maryland to go to the Baltimore Aquarium.  They have a special exhibit on Australian animals and everything!  We’ll see the dolphin show and the 4-d movie, too.  We’ll leave school at (gasp!) 3:45am and return about 11pm.  Good thing it’s a Friday and Grammy is babysitting the boy all weekend so I can recoup!

Hope everyone is well!

Monday, March 03, 2008

The new family next door

I brough gwyn in from outside last night, she was going crazy at out new neighbors (but it was pitch black so I couldnt see what she could see)… This morning I took her out and the new family was out as well..

Two foxes running around in the scrub next to our house. I believe they are gray foxes, and because adults are small its hard to say if they are full grown or not..

Anyway, if we start hearing babies scream in the middle of the night, its probably the foxes. At least they might take care of our feral cat population that keeps on spawning in our scrub as well as the ground hog (I dont want him getting into my garden!!).

Thursday, January 17, 2008

We’re back…

Hello all.

It’s been awhile since we wrote.  Things have been very busy here.  My grandfather passed away on January 3rd so we were up in Harrisonburg for about a week just being with family and helping around my parents house and my grandparents house.  We’re all getting by, though it’s definitely hard.  Thinking back, I guess it was two weeks ago today, at about this time (noon) that he passed away.  My grandmother, thankfully, was with him and he just fell asleep.  He had a lot of dignity in the last few days that he hadn’t had for a few months so we are all grateful. 

The funeral was very nice, as far as funerals go.  Stu got to meet a Virginia Senator, Senator Hanger, who was a good friend of my grandfather’s, as well as the Mayor of Elkton (who I could have punched in the face for saying something at the viewing that I didn’t like) and the Mayor of Harrisonburg.  Pa-pa was buried next to his mother and father in Elkton and had Masonic (read FREAKY) rites at the cemetery.

Under the cut is the program passed out at his funeral, the obituary that the family wrote for him, as well as an article in the Harrisonburg paper about him.

Click HERE to read more

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Some Pics

Here are some pics of Joys new car and our weird trees. We have four trees of the same type, except one things its not Autumn yet and wont change, the others are a beautiful deep ruby red colour. You can see the lack of rain has really taken its toll on our lawns.

The Saturn Ion is the same as the Chevy cobalt.

Friday, October 12, 2007

Gardening

The veggie patch is now knee high weeds and dry midget corn stalks. Joy and I did find one tiny bell pepper plant still growing in the weeds when we looked the other day. I really need to hoe it under, cover it in some straw + fertilizer and cover the top in black plastic and let it sit covered all fall + winter.

Our haning basket plants have withered up and mostly died off for the autum. Leaves have turned and are dropping all over the road, so all we need is a little autum shower and the roads will be very slick and slippery.

Temperatures have dropped. Wednesday it was 90’s (30c) and Thursday it was low 60’s (17c). Last night the heater came on so I know it dropped down low...Lets hope the unsually warm October weather is passed us now, we really need some rain/snow this year.

Joys rodeo is slowly dieing, its consuming coolant in vast quantities but nobody knows where its going, engine oil is not creamy so its not going into the engine.. no puddles on the ground. Garage did a pressure test and that was ok. We are going to get the radiator flushed and hoses changed and will just nurse it along with extra coolant every other day, as the option was to deplete our savings and look for another car, but we decided not to do that as having a savings buffer is too important right now.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Sleep anyone?

Oy vey!

Alexander has his schedule that I had worked on so hard for the past two weeks all out of whack.  When I say sleep, he says cry.  When I say eat, he says cry.  When I say change diaper, he says cry.  Basically everything’s all messed up.  So much so that I had to sleep downstairs with him last night so that Stu could get some sleep for his meeting today.  He’s been working very hard (Stu, not Alexander) on a project and today he has a meeting with the people he’s done the project for.  We hope there’s not lots to change/fix because Stu needs a weekend off, darn it, and he’s coming up to Harrisonburg this weekend come hell or high water!  The mamma has spoken!

Anyway, this morning, Alexander ate at 4:00 for about 20 minutes, 7:00 for about 20 minutes, 9:00 for 40 minutes, 11:00 for 20 minutes, and then slept until 3:00!  Now, I’ve just put him down and it’s 4:15.  Who knows when he’ll wake up again and want to eat.  I think I’ll wake him at 6:00 and feed him at 6:00, 9:00, and then have Stu feed at 11:00 to see if he’ll sleep for four hours during the night.  It would be so nice.  And it would really be nice if he wouldn’t make all these growling noises while he sleeps.  That’s what keeps waking us up.  Then again, he hasn’t pooped since Monday so the growling could be tummy problems.  If he doesn’t poop by morning, I will be calling the doctor.  Boy, the doctor is going to be so sick of me.  Can doctors actually make you stop being their patient?  If so, Alexander’s probably in the running!

Anyway, just a few photos from the day, and a photo of the hanging pot flowers I did in preparation for the Aussies arrival on WEDNESDAY!  Stu’s so excited to see his parents, but I may have him beat on the excitement front, just because I’ll have people around the house who want to hold Alexander and do things so I can sleep Can’t wait to see you John and Gayle!