Life & Times at The McCash Manor: 2017

September plantings

Beets, Garlic and Corn!

I planted 4 different types of beets, of which we'll bring down when they are ready. Robert can be the judge of which are best. I'll boil and can them before we bring them down.

I must guard the beets from the chickens. Who knew they love the eat everything?

The chickens have been sampling the corn as well. Grrrrr.....

These are the sprouts of galic. I've planted these in two locations along with yellow onions which haven't sprouted yet.

Tomorrow we are going to build a picket fence to keep the chickens away from the gardens until wanted.

~ Garrett

Hello,

We've been very busy due to work staffing. Lee has been working 6 days a week and when off she still has been dealing with issues. Hopefully things will settle down and we can enjoy a little bit of life.

We did have 2 days off this past week together and decided to make a new home for our chickens. It was a good time together but we were exhausted at the end of day two.

I have a night light set up inside to help them get situated. One of the three chickens has made the B&B home but the other two are a little slow. Every night I have to pick up the two hens that sit outside our bedroom slider and move them to their home. Lee thinks they just love us and want to come in the house with us. They have graces us with their presence on several accusations.

~ Garrett

Welcome to the Family Chanty!

Bonjour petit chanteur! Gary surprised me with a singing canary! He purchased him from Magnolia Bird Farm in Riverside and the gal warned him that a bird in a new environment may take up to 3 weeks to sing! Well, guess what, he sang for us on day 2!! He is such a delight and just what I needed.

Poor Cash can't seem to reach his new brother to say hello ;)

~LA

Sunflowers!

Gary planted another wonderful sunflower crop this summer. These were the same variety of seeds that he planted last year but this year they were HUGE!

~LA

The Great Pool Rehab

Buying a house wasn't necessarily something that we were planning on doing right away but when our landlord told us they wanted to move back into their house and gave us 30 days to move we had to act fast! I think we looked at 10 or 12 homes over the course of 4 days. Then one morning I woke early to browse the MLS and I saw 1. a corner lot & 2. a pool home!! Gary looked at it that day and we made our offer that afternoon. 21 days later we moved in. This was an investor owned home and was a rental for quite some time. A little run down but had good bones! Just enough of a fixer upper for Gary.

Now about the pool...

This first photo was taken on April 19th, 2015. You can see some discoloration on the bottom of the pool. I think it kind of resembles the shadow of a tall man.

Next we have the photo taken on April 23rd, someone has definitely cleaned the pool and it looked great! What we didn't realize was that they had just painted over the old cracking plaster with blue paint! So over the next year and a half it slowly brushed away and revealed the damaged plaster underneath. Not to mention the effort Gary put in to keep it clean with the rough and uneven surface. We also were aware that the pool was losing water quickly and we suspected it was leaking due to the cracks in the plaster. We made the decision to empty the pool and Gary was going to do the work himself. I wish I had some photos of him moving 20K+ gallons of water out of the pool with a 5 gallon bucket and a rope. I guess I could show you a picture of his arms :) When most of the water was gone Gary began to demo out the plaster at the steps. Many hours with little progress. Larger tools were needed! We got an estimate with a price that was better than the hours it would take Gary to do it on his own and it took 3 days on the job for it to be completed!! Demo, tile, plaster and fill the pool!

October 2015

August 2016

Little Raider! August 21st, 2016

April 2017

April 24th, 2017

April 28th, 2017

April 29th, 2017

Our beautiful pool is back and should give us many years of enjoyment!

~LA

It's a BOY!

It's official...Henrietta is a HENRY! Our little buff orpington chicks have been growing quickly and we finally have a "crower". Henry is officially a cockerel until he is over a year old and then he is a rooster. The pullets (young hens) all follow him around like he is their fearless leader. He isn't too noisy yet. He is still working on his technique. Hopefully we can learn to sleep through his "alarm" because he is already part of our little farm family. Here are some updated photos of the flock.

Molly, Polly, Penny & Henry

Wait, that's not a chicken! Just kitty Cash keeping a close eye on the garden.

~LA

Chickens in the corn maze!

One day I can find the chickens in the garden and two weeks later they are lost in the corn maze.

~LA

June 15th to July 2nd!

Where does the time go?

I am convinced that time moves faster as you age. I feel like I blinked and the months of May and June have disappeared. In my business the whirlwind starts a week before Mother's Day followed by a month of local graduations and just for good measure the company throws in a few restaurant audits and inspections and BOOM! it's almost July! I had the idea of making a few posts that were organized and somewhat coherent, but alas our lives here at the manor are not always organized OR coherent. Instead I have decided to dump the month(s) right here in a long stream of photos...

We started the month of May with the completion of the pool rehab and what a great investment that has been. How many heat waves have there been in the past couple of months? We went to an Angels game. We had Carltin visiting from Washington. During his visit we ran our Stage 5 Tortoise Tour Race. I did go to work on my birthday but my great staff celebrated with me. Gary & I celebrated 8 years together and 4 years of marriage. We traded in the Optima and bought a NEW Kia Sportage! We took care of the grand kids for 4 days while their mom and dad vacationed in Hawaii. Our garden has grown and our chickens are bigger. We found out that one of the hens is a ROOSTER! We now have Molly, Polly, Penny & Henry (formerly Henrietta!). We completed Stage 6 of The Tortoise Tour! And somehow we still find time to splash in the pool and get together with friends.

Enjoy the month(s) in review.

~LA