More proof that I'm insane.

I cut my hair. Drastically. And all by myself. I quite like it though. It kind of looks like I dyed it red in this photo. I may just go ahead and do that.


In other news, we went camping. The spot was near Umpqua Lighthouse, in Winchester Bay. That's Oregon, for those of you not in the know.


We camped on Lake Marie, a small lake about a mile around, and full of trout that evaded us the entire time.


Our campsite was "cozy". The Loud Family stayed next door. Here we are setting up camp.



Someone didn't help. She just sat there smirking.


Tania had her own little tent. She's so brave. I'm such a wuss that I had to wake Joey up to pee with me at night.


Someone also thought 5 a.m. was a good time to wake up.


Here's the breakfast crowd.


Someone ate all of the sausage.


Tania and Tutu did some bonding.



And at some point, Tania got really tired of having to pose for the camera.








Someone never tires of getting her photo taken.


Tania did find her true love on the camping trip, though.



And Someone got in a lot of walking and exploring.


No, you're the man.


We looked and looked and looked in the woods for fairies, but they totally hid from us. They can be such a-holes. We know they were there though, because we found their hiding spots.




I think Tania got her fill of helping with Lu. She's over it for a while.


She also insisted on folding her tent up all by herself and protested about my uncoolness when I had to take a photo.


Back to civilization.

My baby walks.

Finally. And thank God, because I was getting really tired of people's comments and questions. "Why doesn't she walk yet?" "Ohhh, my grandson was walking at seven months." "What does the doctor say?"


So I think it all made me go temporarily insane. I started making up reasons why my baby didn't walk yet.

EXAMPLE ONE:

Lady: Wow, she's huuuuuge. How old is she?
Me: 14 months.
Lady: Oh, she's not walking yet?
Me: No.
Lady: Ohhh...I thought they started walking by one year.
Me: Oh, well, it's because of The Accident.
Lady: Oh?
Me: Yeah...her um, dad, uh...threw her down the stairs. She's paralyzed from the waist down.
Lady: Oh my gosh!

At this this point, Joey walks up and picks up Talula and says, "Here's your daddy, Lula!" Lady looks horrified. Then Joey puts her down and she stands up for a while.

Me: Oh my God! It's a miracle! She can stand! She can stand!

Joey looks confused. Lady shakes her head and walks away.

EXAMPLE TWO:

Lady: What a chubby little thing! How old?
Me: 5 months.
Lady: Only 5 months!? Wow!
Me: Yeah, she was 15 pounds when she was born.
Lady: Oh my God. That's amazing! And she's crawling? Wow, just...wow!
Me: Yeah, I was the same way. So was my other daughter.

EXAMPLE THREE:

Lady: You cute little chubby thing! How old are you?
Me: 29.
Lady: Oh, ha ha. No, how old is the baby?
Me: Oh. 14 months.
Lady: Well, does she walk yet?
Me: No.
Lady: Hmmm...well, I'm pretty sure she should be walking by now.
Me: Ohhh...yeah, well see the thing is, she's really, really, really stupid.
Lady: What?
Me: No, I'm serious. She's really stupid. My other daughter was never that stupid.
Lady: Really?
Me: Yeah, watch this. Talula. Talula. What's two plus two? See? I mean, who doesn't know what two plus two is? Stupid. Stu. Pid.
Lady: You can't be serious.
Me: What do you mean? Don't you know what two plus two is? Watch this. Talula. Talula. Who is the president? Yeah, see that? Everyone knows that. Stupid.
Lady: Uh, this is weird.
Me: Yeah, tell me about it.

Our morning walk

Lu and I like to take a walk in the morning to say hello to all of her friends. This is Morning Lu, ready to face the day, armed with a smile and a bag full of cuteness, no one can stand in her way.


We say hello to her chicken friends. They like to peck at things in the vineyard.


Hello, rooster friend. He looks for hawks while the hens get their pecking on.


These hen friends are new-ish and have not been socialized with the other chickens yet. Tonight. Big night. Party in the hen house.


We say hello to Lu's piggie friends. They're busy sleeping and cuddling.


Some of her horsie friends are grazing.


One of them stares at us blankly.


And then there's these guys.



We see a couple of her doggie friends.


And a couple of her moo-cow friends. Moooooooooooooooooooooooooo, we say to them.


Poor little Lu has thrush, and so I can't eat these lovelies.


And that's our morning walk.

By the way, my girl can wear pigtails now.

Oh my God. I'm back in blog world.

Yay. I'm finally hooked up to the internets and found my camera cord. Obviously, I can't catch up completely or I'd bore myself to death, but here are some things we have been doing lately.

Eating dirt:


Going to the Oregon Country Fair. My brother Bryan and some handsome devil named Joey. Yes, my brother dresses like that all the time.


Joey pulling Tania.


Talula looking adorable.


We've also been working to get the barn built. In July, we started laying concrete. Big job. I'm glad I have a baby. Otherwise, they might have asked me to help. Instead, I was on photo duty. I must have taken a hundred (yawwwwwn) photos, but here are just a few.

From left to right, Jim, Some Guy, Some Other Guy, Bryan (crouched down), and Joey. They're leveling the concrete.


From left to right, Bryan, Joey and Jim. They're shoveling excess concrete out.


With some of the excess, we made personalized stepping stones. Here is Tania, handprinting the Aiston stone.


My dad and mom, enjoying a *gasp* beer??? What kind of vineyard is this? For shame.


My dad writing his name in the finished cement.


Tania making things out of excess concrete.


Tania and Talula drive the tractor now. Totally safe.


Been trying to work sometimes. It was kind of doable for a while, but then Lu decided she wants to try to walk all the time now, so now it's really hard unless she's asleep.


And the latest thing that we've been up to...recovery from this incident. 3 plums + 1 peach = diarrhea for days.


Will check in regularly from here on out.

Oh, bloggy-poo, I miss you so!

Alright, here's the deal. I figured out internet with my computer. But then I realized that I lost my cord to upload photos. I want to kill myself.

Instead, I'm going to attempt to explain what we've been doing, without the use of photos as my guide.

So, first of all, Joey's mom, sister, and brother came to visit us in Portland. It was really great to be with them. They're wonderful people and we just had so much fun. His mom is so sweet and would kick me out of the kitchen and cook and do dishes and just do everything she could to help out. His sister and brother are both so funny. They alternately had me cracking up the whole time.

Then, we all came down to the vineyard. The vineyard is owned by my parents, and it is in Winston, Oregon on the Umpqua River.

The day after we got here, we celebrated Talula's 1st birthday. We had Hawaiian food and it was very low-key and mellow.

We just sort of hung out while Joey's family was still here. His sister ended up being a total natural at fishing and caught tons of bass. His brother had fun swimming in the river with Tania. They all had fun picking cherries and raspberries at the orchard next door.

It was really sad when when they left, but we plan to visit them in Phoenix for Christmas.

After Joey's family left, Joey got into working. He's helping to build a barn and winery, along with a million other vineyard projects. I have worked pruning in the vineyard a bit. It's a bit difficult with Lu, but it can be done. I rotate between carrying her on my back in an Ergo and letting her play in her wagon.

We got 6 chickens: 2 rooster and 4 egg-laying hens. They're cute and hilarious. We planted an enormous garden with corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers...ummm...and more. We're planting herbs in half wine barrels and we have lettuce in the greenhouse planter box.

Every day, we wake up early and Joey goes to work. Then Talula and I have our walk around the vineyard. On our walk, we pass by two pigs, a bunch of horses, and sometimes a whole herd of cows. If we walk off the vineyard property, we can see lambs and sheep and goats. Sometimes we stop to say hello to Joey when he's working. Our kitty comes with us on the walk too. Then we feed our chickens. I've tried out all kinds of fruit and vegetable treats on them. They love green onions and watermelon.

We brought a little pool down by the river and poured sand over the rocks so that Talula can have a little play area. We usually go down there in the afternoons, because that's when it gets hot. It can be a good 20 degrees cooler by the river.

In the evenings, we drink wine and play cribbage. It's quite a life here.

It is very..."rustic"...shall we say? There aren't any buildings. It's a bunch of trailers. Yes, like a trailer park. And there's a bunch of crap everywhere, just like a trailer park. But I'm really proud of how far my parents have come here. When they bought this land, it was a former cantaloupe farm with nothing on it but a trailer pushed halfway into the river. They planted their first cuttings in 2000, and have had, I believe, 5 harvest years since. They have won awards for their Merlot and Syrah. Even thought the conditions are pioneer-like, it's sort of exciting. They rigged the irrigation system from the river, initially, and now have fresh water tanks for bathing and doing dishes and stuff. Their first toilet was a chair with a hole cut in it, placed over a composting pot! Then they graduated to an outhouse, which is still here, but they now have flushing toilets. You still can't flush toilet paper, but it's a good system. All the waste is turned back into dirt.

What I love about being here is that my parents don't just go out and buy things without thinking of how they can do it better for less money. It's a very pioneer-like. I've realized, too, that building a farm property takes so much work and time. You can't just throw out 15 ideas and expect them to happen over night.

We have been talking about ways to go organic and green. These issues are very important to me and my parents are totally open to it. I'll have to post later about our plans.

My darling daughter, Tania, has been on the east coast for the past two weeks. She flew into New York, then road tripped down to North Carolina. She's coming back today, and I am so excited to see her sweet little face.

Well, I am sure I am leaving out a ton. I will hopefully get that damn cord soon so I can put photos up.

Good day, sir!

For the sake of not killing my blog dead

I have yet to hook up my computer since coming down to the vineyard, and I just got my camera charger back. I have a ton of photos to share, but that will have to happen later.

The vineyard is great. There's a lot of this, of course:


But in this small rural town, there's also a lot of this:


And this:


But we've been really busy getting settled in, having a birthday party, building a barn, planting a huge vegetable garden, raising chickens, pruning the grape vines, seeing Tania off to New York for a trip, and all kinds of other stuff. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of the blog thing soon enough. Take heart, dear reader.