Surprise! Dirt Bikes!

So the grandparents came to visit this past week and brought dirt bikes for the kids!  I know, I couldn't believe it either!  Even though I knew about it months ago, it was one of those see-it-to-believe-it type situations.  We never got stuff like this as kids. My kids are so lucky

Poor Oliver can't reach his feet to the ground though, so he gets to ride with Dad.  They found that if Partner #1 jumped off the back while they were going, Ollie could drive no problem by himself.  He just needs someone there to catch him when he stops as his only stop option until he grows a little taller is to bail and let the bike stop itself...

Once past his initial panic attack prior to getting on, Silas took off like a rocket once he figured out what he was doing! Choke (the dog in the picture) really got her work out chasing after him!

Isabella was really nervous and took a little while to get the hang of it. Even now that she has, she is still super cautious.  I was really proud of her, she kind of bailed while she was trying to show off a bit and despite being really embarrassed she managed to hold it together and get back on.  If you knew her, you would know that this is a huge accomplishment as she is prone to a total freak out over minor things if they test her boundaries... 

Silas who has been saying that he wants to be a stunt driver for forever was already starting to take jumps just a handful of hours after he first got on! We have yet to teach him that there is even more gears then just 1st because he is maybe getting a little over confident... Partner #1 figures he needs to have a minor crash sooner rather than later just so he knows what its like and they maybe he will adopt a little bit more cautiousness... 

The next day, Grandma and Bucca (aka Grandpa) took the 3 kids into town to get them helmets that were all theirs! Now each of them have these super sweet, super flashy helmets, that I am sure make them feel like they can go even faster! Silas loved his so much he did his math the next morning with it on lol. 

Sometimes (often) I just can't believe how lucky my kids are! There was no way Isabella would have had an opportunity like this living in the City. And, you know, I think this new found skill will go a long way in boosting her confidence. It's so cool. My kids are so lucky. 

The Definition of Cabin Fever

I had a good friend suggest that I elaborate on the definition of "Cabin Fever" as I seem to use it fairly often.

"Cabin fever is an idiomatic term, first recorded in 1838, for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do for an extended period. Cabin fever describes the extreme irritability and restlessness a person may feel in these situations

A person may experience cabin fever in a situation such as being in a simple country vacation cottage. When experiencing cabin fever, a person may tend to sleep, have distrust of anyone they are with, and an urge to go outside even in the rain, snow, dark or hail. The phrase is also used humorously to indicate simple boredom from being home alone."

Yep, that about sums it up. Other synonymous phrases include climbing the walls, feeling bushed, boredom, the desperate need to see people, get me out of here right now!!, and The Shinning.

Yesterday, for example, while Partner #1 was vacuuming she asked me to help her moved the couch. Which naturally translated into "Lets rearrange the whole living room!". No small undertaking considering our living room is huge and is composed of a t.v area, piano practice room, and children's library.

Just a typical Tuesday afternoon activity, right?

Several hours and multiple arrangements later, we have our living room divided in half by our sectional with the kids library on the back side of the couch and our t.v area separated. Silly me thought that might keep the explosion of kids books that happens every day in a smaller contained area. No, it just means we have to make our way around obstacles now when we clean up.

One time we decided the entire house needed rearranging. I think that endeavor took 2 days. Now the downstairs floor is officially the "Kids Floor" whilst the upstairs is the "Adult Area" and now I have this lovely office to work and write this blog from!

We have also rearranged out mudroom several times, the playroom, Partner #2's office, our bedroom, the garage, etc. I think you are getting the point. We get bored, we rearrange. We also clean a lot.

I have also abandoned ship once and made an Impromptu Edmonton Trip simply because I thought if I didn't get away, I might do something I regret.

What I find for myself with cabin fever, is that things that wouldn't normally bother me if I wasn't so caught up in my minute little world, really really bother me after a week or so at home. That empty box that has been lying in the hallway for 2 days, those empty bags of dog food that pile up, the dirty socks I find everywhere but a laundry basket, all have the potential to throw me into a pent-up-house-wifey rage! If I get to town with some regularity I find that I am able to grasp that there is more out there then my tidy little world. It gives me some perspective.

Usually at least once a week we get into town for the kids lessons. Currently I am in the tail end of my practicum and in a moment of generosity (or temporary insanity), Partner #1 offered to take the kids to town by herself so I could stay home and bank some hours. Very generous. But that means that I wont have gotten into town for 2 weeks before our next town day! Hopefully I can hold it together until then.

The light at the end of the tunnel is the promise of a Mom Day in the future!! (If you want to know what that means, and why I am so excited, find out here MOOOOOM DAAAYYYYY!!!)

This picture really doesn't have anything to do with cabin fever except maybe to display the vast expanse of not a lot on our property? That and the thumbnail when I share this post on Facebook is a giant picture of me and this picture is prettier then that...

Devil in Diapers

Lets all take a moment to appreciate the enigma that are 2-year-olds....

If you are or ever were the parent of a 2-year-old, you may have laughed at that and now we have bonded.

Currently my lovely 2-year-old daughter is sitting high and mighty in her high chair dictating orders while waving her fork around like a royal scepter. God help you, if you don't understand with "LHFNAOHFA" means! I think it loosely translates to "Off with their heads!!".

Toddler Dictionary

TadOO:       Towel.
FuUk:           Frog.
ShaDaDO:   Shut the door.
Mine:           Boobs.
CaOO:        Cows or Cal.
TradOO:      Tractor
SYE:            Silas or Outside.
Nani:            Natalie :)
Pada:            Ipad
ShaUHH!:    Shut up (Reserved for the dogs only)

It is a little early for lunch right now. The reason she is on her throne is because she cannot, under any circumstances, refrain from terrorizing her other siblings who are trying to learn. At least in her high chair she is contained, although I fear not for long... And this way I can continually throw tidbits of food at her from a safe distance. Today, while making her food (!) she came up behind me and raked her nails down the backs of my bare legs!! This is one of the first days since spring started making an appearance, that I have braved bare legs, and then she goes and does that. Serves you right for not wearing tights, silly woman!

If the day is a bust and all else fails, you can always give her free range of the bathroom sink. She has a towel bar she hooks her legs in and sits on and a hand washing song she sings, so she is content for a long long time just washing her hands over and over. You just have to be okay with soaking wet mess. This is a last resort type option.

We have also discovered that she is terrified of ice and cars. Ice because she doesn't have the dexterity to stay upright and that is super frustrating, even if you are half a foot from the ground and have a cushion literally attached to your rear end. And cars because she hasn't quite figured out that they are not actually big steel monsters looking to run her over no matter where she is walking. She is totally safe if she is up off the ground though... Cars wouldn't dare attack her if she is in her stroller/moms arms/shopping cart/etc. Rather convenient, I say, if you don't feel like walking.....

Whats frustrating is that, for a toddler, she is actually a really good kid. I think the isolation and lack of exposure to other 2-year-olds (with good reason!) has caused me to lose perspective. Many many toddlers are horrendous! And it's not their fault! It's just the way toddlers are - all ID with no Ego or Superego to help counter balance themselves.  They don't understand why they can't have everything and anything they want, when they want it, which is usually Right-Freaking-Now!

She understand rules and boundaries. She may not understand why she can't have everything, she just knows she is not allowed to. She needs to be reminded of that fact frequently and sternly. It is really funny when she thinks she is getting away with something. You should see how high she jumps when she gets caught! And then when she is on the pout, its a complete cliche - she pushes out her bottom lip, get the big crocodile tears going, chin to her chest. Its hard to be upset with her sometimes. But when your are about to lose it, there are at least 2 other adults who can step in. I think the fact that our little monster has 3 parents has a lot to do with her pretty awesome personality.

I feel, like many things in the last year and a bit, that I am able to appreciate this stage in my kids life much more then I have in the past.. With all of them, I am much more calm, and I have a much better understand of the different stages they are in. Although sometimes it really doesn't seem like it.


Things I have learned since moving to the ranch:

18)  Cows are far more athletic and agile than one would think.
19)  Every once in a while, you are going to get covered in Poo....Deal with it.
20)  You have to be okay with death. Tip to self, don't name the animals...

Its Over 5000!!

(If you do not get the reference in my title, don't worry. It means you are far cooler than I am.)

This kid feels me

I cannot believe it! Monogamy is for Manhattan has reached over 5000 views! I am in shock. And awe. And gratitude! It is so cool that so many people are interested in hearing what I have to say. It is both humbling and ego boosting!

If you are a regular, you may have noticed a couple changes to the blog. I am trying to revamp things a little and make this site a little more then simple story telling. So far all I've managed to figure out how to do is to add an 'About' tab..... I think I need a tutor to show me what I am doing here.

For the future, I'd like to add a 'Links I love' tab so I can share with you guys some of the awesome things that are happening out there. I am toying with the idea of making this tab more Polyamory related as I have had a lot of interest from that side of the world. I'd also like to add a 'Photography' tab. This I am rather excited about! Partner #2 signed me up for a free, short-but-sweet photography course, and I have been learning quite a bit! With summer coming and a new summer bucket list on the horizon, I imagine I am going to be taking a lot more photos and I'd like to have a place to post them without taking up a whole blog post. Plus that way I could add a lot more then just a few.

But problem is, I have to figure out how to set all this up and youtube tutorials are only taking me so far...

Anyways! A huge, gigantic thank you (and hug) to everyone who has made my blog more then a flop! I really love writing it and love reading all the wonderful feedback you gorgeous people give me! So thank you everyone!

5000!! Eeek!

My Birthday in the Sticks

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!

I don't know why I am so excited, I am slowly descending into the dark abyss that is old age... Not really. I suppose I should be more sensitive. I know there are plenty of people who read this who are older than me (I'm sorry! You know who you are). I suppose I am only 28, but I feel like that is really not young. I'm almost 30. Which is the age my younger self kind of figured I'd have all my stuff together, my life in order, my ducks in a row. That makes me sound like I am just floating through my life... no direction. Not entirely true. There are a lot of goals I have reached these last couple years that I had for myself in my early 20's. I'm settled down now with not 1 but 2 wonderful partners. And bi proxy, "I" have a large property, great house, more than enough dogs and horses, and a pretty wonderful life for my daughter. Maybe it's the fact that I can check all these goals off my list now but I didn't necessary earn them for myself, that makes me feel... I don't know... unsatisfied? That's not quite right. Maybe unaccomplished? That's not quite right either. Am I going through a mid-mid-life crises?! I'm am sure it is just the fact that it's my day of birth that I am feeling this way. Most every other day of the year, I am pretty damn proud of myself! I have done/accomplished some pretty dang wonderful things since my last birthday! One of those things being this blog, which has gotten some pretty high calibre recognition lately AND I am less than 100 views away from 5000 views!

Sigh. Alright I feel better now :D

This morning started out pretty great! The kids had made me a super delicious breakfast before I even got out of bed. In fact, I was sent back to bed because it wasn't ready yet.  They even had my favorite coffee mug and all my coffee fixings laid out for me in my spot at the table. It was like half-sleepy heaven. 

Then when I decided I should maybe get some "work" done, because what else am I going to do on my birthday in the sticks? I sat down at my desk to this lovely image:

Originally, there were minieggs in this picture too.... But I couldn't get my camera out quick enough and they disappeared....

This was about the time I realized I wasn't going to get any work done this day. 

Fast forward to my Birthday Wish! I have been finding it so shameful and sad that I have been here for going on 15 months and I have only gone riding a handful of times. A lot of that is my fault. Riding horses is not like riding a bike ladies and gentleman! A lot of that has to do with the quality of the equine I was riding and the equine we have here on the ranch... They may as well be different species. So on those few occasions when I did get a chance to ride, I was so rusty that I more or less scared myself. Which was both disappointing and embarrassing... 

Anyways! My birthday wish was to finally bring in our oldest draft mare (of which we have 3) and give her a go. We figured she would be a good get-reacquainted-with-the-whole-idea horse and she really was. I really enjoyed her! Considering she is a draft mare who has only ever been harnessed and this was maybe the 3rd time she had actually being saddled and ridden, she was really pleasant! It took some figuring each other out, but I felt like I kind of, sort of started to get her, and she get me. What I liked was that she may have been unsure of what we were asking of her, but she was really trying to figure it out! I don't know, maybe it was her size, but she just seemed really sweet. I think her and I could really get along. Neither of us really knows what we are doing, though we have a rough idea, so we could just work together to figure each other out. 

I think my favorite quality about her is that even if she decides to take off on me, she isn't going to go very fast... or very far. 

At the end, even Isabella got a chance. She was very pleased with herself. Look how big she is! 

I am not typically a food-photo-taker, but this burger had it coming!

For my birthday dinner, I chose BBQ burgers and god were they good! I highly recommend adding avocado to your next burger. It's amazing! Following dinner, was salted caramel chocolate pie! Also amazing, but so rich. Salty chocolate is one of the best food combinations nature have ever gifted us with. 

Then arguably the best part of the day, Presents!! Partner #2 had taken each of the kids seperately to get me a little gift, which was really really sweet. I ended up with a lot of chocolate, a couple of tattoo magazines, a notebook, Starbucks salted caramel hot chocolate (which I may spike with my salted caramel liquor I got for Christmas!) and lip smackers. From Partner #2, I got a gift certificate for a massage, a luxury I have desperately been missing since moving to the forest. I am very very excited about that! And from Partner #1, I got a two-part gift. Part 1 was new wine glasses and a decanter. Part 2 was a joint gift for Partner #2 and I, as her birthday is in a couple weeks as well. He made us a whole batch of wine at the U-brew in town! 35-freaking-bottles! That's 17 for each of us, and 1 for him... as a thank you. Problem is, we have to bring in our own bottles for this, and we don't have nearly enough. Which means in the next couple weeks we need to, somehow, someway, empty roughly 35 bottles of wine and/or craft beer. I think that's a little much, even for us. Maybe we should throw a party? 

It was a pretty wonderful birthday overall. I got to relax, got to go riding, got to enjoy good food and chocolate, and basically bask in the birthday girl pampering. It is pretty wonderful being able to celebrate surrounded by people who care for you. Birthdays can be kind of a let down sometimes when your family doesn't live close, especially when you are getting older lol. 

The Blast Party

Several weeks ago, some neighbours of ours up the road had a bolder roll down the mountain and land smack in the middle of their driveway.  Looking up at the mountain is rather disconcerting, because you can see all these other boulders there just hanging in limbo, waiting to fall. And if you look down the bank from their driveway, there are several other much older boulders just sitting there. Almost like an ominous guarantee that it is going to happen again.  Luckily for our neighbours, their driveway is absurdly long like ours, and so this boulder was no where near their house. Just really very inconveniently placed.  The funny thing about it was the boulder rolled and then bounced over their fence and landed perfectly center in the road. It would almost have seemed courteous of the boulder not to take out the fence if they hadn't had to then take down their fence themselves in order to drive around the boulder....

So what to do about this boulder predicament? Blow It Up! Obviously.... 

This is how I like to imagine the men's conversation went: 

"No it's too big. I don't think my tractor could move it. I don't want to risk it. Should probably, yeah definitely, blow it up. That's the safest option...." 

"Yeah" 

"Yeah" 

"Better safe then sorry. Good call Dusty" (No joke, his name was Dusty)

We got a call on Sunday from the neighbours saying that their neighbours just happened to have some (perfectly legal!!) explosives lying around, and would we like to come see the thing blow up? Heck yeah, we do! Great! Can you be here in an hour? Uh.... right. 

Loading up the kids on a moments notice is a whole other story in itself. I don't think our kids do well with sudden changes of plans. But that's not really the focus of this story. 

We manage to get there in time, and they are only just starting to drill the holes in this thing necessary to stuff the explosives in. So we had some time to hang out. 

As we are hanging out, waiting for the excitement to start, more and more people begin to show up. It's shaping up to be a full on party! I bet all in total there was around 30 people, kids included. I'm pretty sure it was the whole neighbourhood. A neighbourhood boulder blow up party! That's how redneck my life is now... 

The kids basically just ran around screaming, or climbing trees or snowbanks for hours. 

Oh one more fun, little tidbit! The explosive was basically just powder stuffed into a bag, stuffed into a whole in a rock. So how does one ignite a bag of powder explosive? Shoot at it! Duh. 

That tractor that I imagine wasn't tough enough to push the boulder made a really great arm rest for our firing squad.  I don't know if it was the rifles themselves, or the close proximity to the mountain, but it was really really loud! Also, scary, considering the boulders teetering in uncomfortably close proximity to us...

The problem with shooting at a small bag of explosive that is stuffed in a hole from 75 feet, is that the whole bag didn't go off at once. They kind of only chipped away at it and made small little explosions, hardly worth mentioning. By the end, there was just a tiny bit left and with each shot they took it would just fall out of the hole, and they'd have to go back, replace it, and fire again. 

Inspecting the damage and replacing the bag, again. 

I included the dog for proportions....

After all was said and done, all they managed to do was create a slightly bigger hole in the side of the boulder. It was very, very anticlimactic. In the end, they rigged up a cable and pulley system using one of the other boulders down the hill as an anchor, and just moved the rock to the side of the road. Like I said, anticlimactic. 

After all the excitement died down, we all gathered at the neighbours house for a sort of potluck lunch! I'm not even kidding, there was even food at our neighbourhood boulder blow up party! I love the kind of things that bring people together in my new community. 

It was such a lovely gathering too. Lots of old cowboys, ranchers, and their wives. People of all different ages. I am pretty sure I was the youngest adult though.... And kids everywhere! Which was great. 

It just blows me away (pun fully intended!) the kind of community I moved into. I love it. Boulder blow up parties, tail gate trick or treating, branding parties. So positively redneck!

Things I have learned since moving to the ranch:

15) Hank, Dusty, and Buck are real cowboy names. It's not just in books!

16) Camouflage is perfectly acceptable attire no matter the occasion. 

17) If there is an excuse to blow something up, you know the whole community will be there to participate!