Ah, September.

Ugh, this is the first of FIVE posts...why do I get behind and do this to myself?!

This photo is from a year and a half ago!!  But I just found it and thought it was so awesomely neat that I HAD to share.
I had seen a study done where they fed ants colored sugar water and their abdomens changed color, so we wanted to try it for ourselves...SURE 'NUFF!
It was so neat!  You can click on these photos to view them bigger, too.

Another "Sleepy Boy" photo.

Mmm...homemade cheddar.

Brin and Ellie, BFFs Forever...well...not so much forever, as she now lives in the freezer.

Who wants popcorn??  Brin and Ellie do!

We checked out the New Mexico State Fair this year!
We were waiting for Russ to meet up with us, and Brooklyn and Sam were pretending that Sam was her cat that she had to feed and take care of.
All cats eat cotton candy, right?

We went into the NM Parks and Wildlife building and the craziest thing happened...a fish jumped OUT of the water and on to my feet!  He was NOT a small fish, either!  At least 18"!
I looked around, stunned, picked it up, put it back in and felt quite awkward when people started applauding, lol.
I went and asked the rangers working there how often that happens, they said, "Oh, he's done it a couple of times before...wait, did he do it again!?  Did he bite you?!"  Whaaaa?!

So we go and wait for Russ, and the kids want to show him the fish.  Sure, no problem.
We walk back in and CAN YOU FREAKING BELIEVE IT...

that fish jumped out onto my feet again.

The kids said, "Let's go back and see if he does it again!"
I'm good, thanks.

And the kids wanted a photo of a miniature boat.

Time for rides!!  I asked three times if the kids were Absolutely Sure that they wanted to try this gyro ride thing...YES YES YES!
He stopped the ride after a minute or so to see how they were doing, "We are done!!" lol

These were a big hit though!

Look at 'em go!

I haven't been on Fair rides since I was in college.  Russ bought us the All-You-Can-Ride wristbands and I got sick after the first ride.
I was a bit nervous about doing it again, and this time with two kids in tow, but I survived.
Russ sat this one out and watched me pretend to have fun (and sometimes really have fun), instead.

The swings were by far all of our favorite!

This summer/fall I also got hooked on Doctor Who.
Now I'm wondering how I ever lived without him!

Bubba and Grampa Jerry came for a visit!
I was happy to relinquish my role as bottle-filler-upper to Bubs.

Bubs, getting schooled on all things Pokemon.

It was SUPER rainy one night and Ellie didn't really have anywhere to sleep, so we tossed her in here for the night and she was perfectly content, lol.

Russ had been reading about rabbits for quite awhile and after finding out about a local poultry-swap (that included all manner of things--chickens, ducks, turkeys, goats, puppies, kittens, rabbits...), he found himself 2 female Californians, 1 male Californian, and 1 female New Zealand.
They lived in the garage for about a week...even with leaving the garage doors open, it didn't seem like a very fun place to be.

Here's Thumper/Hopper/Bumble.
We got two sisters that Russ can never tell apart, except by which cage they are in.
Since then, one has had one litter of kits that didn't make it and we are expecting a litter from her sister this next week.

Russ and Sam playing Tic-Tac-Toe.  It started with the standard game then quickly morphed into stars and circle Tic-Tac-Toes.  It was pretty funny listen to the game rules being made up as they went along.

More chicks!  These are the layers.  They now live out in the geodesic coop, but spend most of their time sprinting around the backyard, which is absolutely hilarious.
Although now that there is snow on the ground, the refuse to come out of their coop.  Stinkers.

With the grandparents' help, we nearly finished cutting down all of the dead, diseased pine trees lining our driveway.  I am eager to find something to replace them, as I loved driving through them.

Know what makes stew taste better?  A tutu.

Mr. Handsome Dude.

Sam and I, trying to make a milk jug skeleton.

"Can I iron?"
Of course!

We also had the opportunity to stay in an earthship in Taos with friends.
It was a lot of fun!  All 3 families decided that we totally should have built earthships instead of gotten mortgages, lol.  Maybe down the line...
I think of it often as I'm sitting in my 51* F house right now...brrrr.  (And earthship doesn't get much below 65* or so, even without a heater (other than the sun).)
I didn't get hardly any indoor photos, but HERE is the exact one we stayed in.

It started HAILING while we were there and in this little entry room, it was LOUD.

Running out into the rain/hailstorm.

Lookie what we found!...

...a baby tarantula!!

Back home to the animals.
This is Derpy, our male Californian.  He's running around in the Run-Around pen Russ made for them so they can dig a bit and hide and munch on greens.

So, we'd ordered 15 chickens and got 16 (they send extra, just in case).  Turns out our "extra" isn't exactly what he ordered, based off of the garbled "Cock-a-roodle-roooo" that leaves us scratching our heads at.
That's okay though, we wanted one roo for our girls, given the packs of coyotes we've seen run across our property and the hawks circling.

Putting those dead pines to use!

We may or may not have clipped some spider plants and citronella from the giant plants in the earthship.  After seeing all of the plants growing there, Brooklyn was determined to save any sort of container that could possibly hold a plant...you should see the collection that we have amassed.  Excited to get started on seedlings in a month or two!

One of the Pumpkin Buddies.  This is Brooklyn's buddy.

Wow...no idea why some of these photos are showing up SO large...sorry about that.
Here is Sam's buddy.  He said it's his Best Friend and sleeps with him at night.
True story.

Out digging up dirt to see how much clay is in it (if there was a decent amount, Russ wanted to try making clay bricks or something, but we have very little clay).

After you dig up some dirt (we filled this guy about 1/2 way), fill it with water and wait.
The silt and clay will separate and the top of the water will be clear.  We actually still have ours on top of the fridge because it's just cool to watch--we'll shake it up and watch it re-settle over the day.

Digging led to filling up buckets, hoisting them up the fort, dumping them into new buckets, and me dumping them back out, only to fill them up again.
Pretty fun!

The layers get a new home!  And Brin is having a blast trying to herd them...sigh.

We also got fish!  3 little fish, a bala shark, and 2 crabs (and these petrified dinosaurs) live in a 100 gallon tank...it was meant to be for aquaponics, but we've put that on the back burner for the moment.

After seeing these neat pieces of leaf artwork at the library, we collected some leaves and made our own art...here's Brooklyn's Leaf Man.

Leaf Man now hangs on our wall of art (behind the sweet, cute kid  :D ).