Gorgeous Etsy

I've been noticing a LOT of Pretty being thrown around on Etsy lately... I thought I'd share some of it with you. Aren't these great?



Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know that it's not typical that a Mixer is beautiful, but it is in my weird "mutant" eyes!

Our First Egg!

Our hen "Mary Poppins" (Finnegan picked that name... Brandon named the other one "Nugget") gave us our first egg this morning. A perfect, tiny, light brown egg. Here's a picture of an excited toddler inspecting it, with proud egg-laying Mary Poppins in the background. Also a comparison pic next to our VW key to show how little this first egg is. Still a pretty exciting day in the McG house!

Dancin' in the Streets

Ballard's Seafood Fest 2008

Wood Block Building

Last week, when Brandon was building the chicken coop, he took a little time out to make Finnegan an airplane out of scrap wood blocks.


Today... Finnegan asked me if he could play with some of the wood scraps that Brandon had set aside in a box for kindling. I grabbed some pieces out for him, set them on the patio, and left him to his creativity so I could get him a snack from the kitchen. When I came back, this is what I saw...


Brandon's airplane on the right, Finnegan's airplane(sans screwdriver) on the left. I showed Brandon the photos when he got home this evening, and you could say he was no less than absolutely proud of his little boy. A little boy lookin' up to his dad.

They're Here!

The coop is complete, and the Chickens are here! We took a small family roadtrip Sunday up to Stanwood, and picked out our 2 chickens and brought them home. One is a Buff Orpington (tan colored) and the other is a Barred Rock (black with white speckles). Finn is convinced that the Buff Orpington is a "Mommy" Chicken and the Barred Rock is a "Daddy" Chicken. We've told him that their both "Mommies", but he's not convinced.

Rainbow Muffin Tin

Here's our RAINBOW muffin tin... check out SycamoreStirrings(click on the pic) for more details...

Applesauce(yellow), Avacado(Green), Goldfish(Orange), Watermelon(Red), Tillamook Mountain Huckleberry yogurt(Purple), and I couldn't figure out blue, so I threw in some fruity Cheerios as an ode to the RAinbow!

We're Gonna Give it a Try...

I found a link to a great contest on Enviromom. The ONE CAN A MONTH CHALLENGE!!! The whole point is to get down to one can of waste (not including recycling or yard and food waste) a month. We're going to give it a shot. I'm keeping the expectation that we probably won't be successful in the first month, and maybe not even the second, but we'll get there!

Check it out here, to get details and tips on how to get it done, and give it a try in your home too:

Chicken Coop Progress...

The Chicken Tour last weekend, was nothing less than motivational... Brandon got working almost as soon as we got home that evening.


The frame is put together. We found a great little door, and the nesting boxes are in...


And I painted it today. Blue with an Orange door.


Next up:
Enclose the boxes with side doors for easy access, Wire, Perches, and the design and construction of our GREEN ROOF!!! You heard me! Oh yeah, and some chickens would be good too.

The Seattle Tilth City Chickens Tour

We had so much fun today exploring all the different City Chicken dwellings in Seattle. Click on the above pics to find out more...

Who's He Look Like Now?

Trying on Daddy's glasses...

Finn's Kayaking Adventure

Finn took his first Kayaking trip with Daddy yesterday. Not too long... just from Fremont to Ballard along the canal. He loved it!!

Muffin Tin Monday...

Guess what I broke down and bought. Not necessarily just for the purpose of lunch on Mondays, but for the muffin makin' purpose as well. This week and from now on, we'll be sharing our muffin tins with our new friend Cohen. Click on a photo for a better intro to our new friend.

Ranger cookie, PB&J, Grapes (which were quickly devoured and replaced with Edamame), Cheerios, Golden Kiwi, and Banana.

Cohen ate EVERYTHING!!! Finnegan, not so much.

The Bridge on Maui

Most of you know that we traveled to Hawaii in April, and I still need to post more pictures from that trip, and I will someday. We were there on vacation to relax and forget about fleece hats and Bridges. But it was kind of difficult to rid our selves of the latter, since we were staying at the house that Brandon's company is renting, and we visited the site where the crew would be, and are now building a 360 foot suspension bridge. It's been a bit difficult for me to imagine the bridge that Brandon designed sitting on that site, since there was nothing there when we visited. This is what it looked like then...


Thanks to Patrick "The Bridge Guy", who has been a guest bridge builder for this project, I'm able to show you these photos he took, of the last few weeks of progress on the Kapalua Suspension bridge that Brandon designed.



Click on any of these images to go to the SAHALE website to see more of Brandon's bridges.