A Little Less Redneck

One way to judge how much of a redneck you are is by counting the number of junk cars in your yard. Well, I am very happy to say one of ours is gone!! Yes, there is one more but it is way back in the woods and no one can see it. So it doesn't really count, right? :)


We got some help from Liz (who is working for Jeff and staying in our guest cabin this summer) and her boyfriend and managed to drag the beast out of the woods and onto the trailer. I had my doubts and it definately took some ingenuity but it worked!

They used the winch on the four wheeler to pull it up onto the trailer- notice how far off the ground the front tires of the 4-wheeler are.
The registration on the plates expired in '84.

Yippeee!!!! It's gone!!!

Oh, if your wondering where it went, Jeff's buddy John has a big gravel pit on his property that he is trying to fill, so they dumped it in a big hole and it will be buried.

* Note: You might also be a redneck if you ask your friends to bring over their junk cars so you can bury them in your yard :)

No Room at the Inn

The pigs are here!! And yes they are cute :( Which is bad becuase they are destined for the freezer. I can't help it...I am out there hand feeding them and petting them and yes they have names, Tocino and Scrapple. They are pretty entertaining- they make funny pig noise all the time, chase each other around the pen and rassle. It will be a sad day when they go- I won't be around, that's Jeff's job. But I do really like bacon so I guess I will have to get over it. At least I know that will have had good lives before they end up on our table.

So, if you have lost track the Mason homestead now hosts 2 sweeties, 1 sweet pea, 3 dogs, 3 goats, 14 laying hens, 12 meat chickens, 2 turkeys, 2 pigs and a couple buzzzillion honey bees. Needless to say that I am keeping very busy feeding all those little mouths. Plus there are a lot of little plants that need to be tended to. The new greenhouse is now up and running and our first radishes and greens are popping up in the garden. We can't hardly wait for that first garden salad!!

Wyatt likes to smell the flowers...and rip them out and dig in the flower pots. Such a good helper! Actually he has been helping get the eggs, he gets all excited and runs out to the coop saying "eggy, eggy, eggy- get it!" He will reach in the box and grab them out one by one and put them in the basket, we have only lost a couple so far :) He also really likes to throw grain out for the chickens to eat all the while saying "chicken eat eat eat". Wyatt has been stringing a lot more words together now. I was very proud when he pointed at himself and said "Wyatt, name" then pointed at me and said "Mama, name". Lately he has been really into holding things. He goes around pointing at things and saying "hold it". He carried a dandelion the entire way on a 30 minute walk and then we spent another 15 minutes sitting in the woods so he could rip up bits of moss and have Mama hold it.

The kids are getting a long well, Nugget really cracks Wyatt up. He has gotten butted a few times which is pretty cute right now because Nugget is too little to do much harm but it will have to stop in a month or so.

I guess we should have gotten the double wide!

Just a couple random shots of one of our finger painting adventures..or should I say belly painting?

That is all paint- no bruises!

We Did It!!

We successfully completed the 2008 Gold Nugget Triathlon!! It was a 500 meter swim, 10 mile bike and 4.1 mile run. I went down to Anchorage with Rachelle and Ellen but there were 9 women from Delta that particpated and 1400 women total!! We had a great time and were all pretty happy with our times but of course we are all talking about the ways we could have shaved off time. This is a great race for beginners, there are all ages from 6-80 and every shape and size of woman you can imagine. Some ladies are very competive then there are others just out for fun and excercise. Everyone is super supportive, racers cheering each other on along the course and there are tons of spectators also cheering.


Pre-race photo, we caught up with Sam at the bike drop-off.


1400 bikes!! The race officials did a fantastic job, everything was extremely clear and ran very smoothly.

The first ladies were in the pool at 9am the last in around 3:30, thats a long day for the volunteers.
We did it!!

Delta's triathetes!! (Lynetta and Sam were missing from the photo). A special congrats goes to Cindy- she finished 51st, just 15 minutes behind the winner!! If she would have traded in her Huffy for a real bike she would have been right in there!!

I saw this guy near the finish line with a bouquet of flowers for his racer...aww, isn't he sweet!

Not much left.. man it would be a bummer to have been the last person out of the pool!!

Well, there is another tri at Chena lakes in late July, we are thinking about doing it. It is about the same distance but it is a mass start and an open water swim- definately more intimidating. We need some motivation to keep up the training.

All you ladies reading this should put next years Gold Nugget on your calendar!!

The New Arrivals

Big excitement on the old homestead...the baby chicks arrived- 4 layers, 2 turkeys and 15 meat birds.

But even more exciting was the arrival of Cali's beautiful baby boy!!! I was laying in bed saturday morning and heard Cali making noise so we got up and ran out just in time to see the little one being delivered. Here is he is within an hour of being born, so CUTE!!!

He was up and on his feet within 30-45 minutes and was trying to nurse but not quite getting it. I had to help get him looking in the right spot and help get Cali to stand still for him. I named him Nugget because I was supposed to be leaving for the Gold Nugget Triathlon, our departure was delayed until he was all settled in.

Wyatt has a new buddy :)

Cali has been a great mom, she is very protective of little Nugget especially when the dogs are around. She won't let him get more than three steps away from her. In these pictures he is about 4 days old.

Did I mention how dang cute he is?

Nice Day for a Picnic

Sara invited us over for a pizza picnic in the woods. It was a great day and the boys had a blast eating pizza, climbing hills, picking grass and of course playing on anything with wheels. The Moms enjoyed just sitting back and watching the boys play.


Torsten is getting so big now!

The Brewmaster

After about a 10 year break, Jeff has taken up brewing again. His first batch, a Nut Brown Ale, was a huge success. He just got done bottling his second, an IPA, and we can't wait to try it out. Stop by for a beer sometime, we have plenty!


The 12th was also Jeff's Birthday. His buddy John got him this sporty little helicopter. Sounds like John and his co-workers spend most of their time at work flying one just like it around his office, no wonder why so much of our state burns every summer (John works for Forestry).

Boys will be boys!!

The Simple Pleasures

We are all so happy to be outside again!!



Sometimes its hard to get pictures of Wyatt becuase he usually comes running for the camera as soon as he sees it. I just barely got this one :)



I couldn't help but take about a million pictures of Wyatt last week as he was playing in the puddles and picking up rocks, ah...to be a kid again. I had a blast just standing by and watching him explore.





We really do have to watch this kid now, he can certainly cover some ground and doesn't seem concerned at all about being too far from Mama and Papa. Jeff and I watched him take off down the trail behind our house, we kinda let him go to see how far he would actually go. We finally went to catch him and I got around the corner all that I saw was his little hat laying in the trail...he was still cruising off on some sort of a mission. Scary!!