Busy Summer!

The first week in June my parents and younger brother came to visit. We took them on a whirlwind tour of Nicaragua seeing volcano’s, markets, the ocean and of course camp and where we live. It was really fun to have them down and to be able to show them what we do here. My parents stayed for only a few days but my younger brother has been here for two weeks. It has been so much fun to have him here. He is great with Ashlyn; she just loves him and follows him around everywhere. He has also been a wonderful help around the house; mopping, taking out the trash, helping with supper. I will miss his help and just having him around.

After my brother flies out this Saturday we have a few days to leave the country and re-new our visas. Then my cousin, Camille flies in on the 26th to help me out when the baby comes. I am so glad she is coming. Adam and I have been trying to figure out who will watch Ashlyn when I go to the hospital and who will help me keep the house clean ect...after the baby is born. Camille not only volunteered to come down but raised the money to do so! We feel very blessed to have her come and help.

This is the first summer camp will be running kid camps all summer long! A team from Chop Point came down June 4th and they are camps all through the end of July. Then we have mission teams coming from different churches in the US the whole month of August! Needless to say Adam has been very busy!

Some other “events” this summer are...Baby Todd # 2 is due July 5th; only 15 more days to go! Adam and I will celebrate our fifth year wedding anniversary on July 12th and I celebrated my 27th birthday on June eighth.

Me on my b-day!

My brother playing with a crazy monkey.

Flying Hen

Ever since we bought our chicken’s one of the neighbors hens has been spending a lot of time in our yard. Not only does she eat our chicken’s food but I’m worried our chickens are going to follow her back to the neighbor’s yard.
Well today she was in our yard once again and Adam said “let’s get her!” So Adam grabbed a big tarp and I armed myself with a jacket. Usually it doesn’t take so much effort to catch a chicken, but this is one amazingly fast hen and she knows we are not friendly.

Once we cornered the hen she came running at me with her scrawny legs flying and wings flapping. I attempted to stop her but she slipped past me (Adam later commented how funny it was to watch me chase a chicken with my big belly.) Amazingly enough she ran onto our porch and right into our house! I ran in and was able to trap her in our bedroom. Adam went in and after some flying feathers and a lot of squawking she was caught.

We then proceeded to cut her wings as short as we could get them. After a good clipping Adam went to throw her back over the wall. Our wall is about nine feet high with barb wire on the top making it about ten feet tall total. Adam didn’t want to throw her right into the barb wire so he threw her really high. A little too high; she went sailing straight up into the air about twenty feet. Then she started squawking and flapping her wings, but of course we had clipped them. So down came the hen falling like a rock straight onto our neighbor’s roof. She landed with a thud and a loud squawk.

Our neighbors were out in their yard when we threw her over. I can’t imagine what it looked like to them. Watching their prize hen sailing high in the air flapping her now useless wings, only to crash land on their roof.
Poor hen, I doubt she will be back.

Rain, rain and more rain!

The beginning of this month officially started the "rainy season". Yet there was practically no rain to be seen; it was hot, humid and dusty. In fact it was the hottest, most humid and dusty it has been since we moved here.
Then this week the heavens have opened! The heat has vanished to a refreshing 70 and 80 degrees, the humidity has been replaced by rain and the dust has turned to mud.
It has rained everyday this week and yesterday it started raining around 4 pm and has not stopped. It rained all night, all morning and now its 1 pm and still going strong. Our dust bowl of a yard has become a lush, green swamp! The dogs are on the back porch huddled in a dry corner and chickens are on the porch front porch doing the same. I venture out occasionally with my giant squeegee to push the water back from seeping under the doors.

Everything is wet and muddy but its kind-a fun. Who wouldn't enjoy slipping around on their porch trying to squeegee around chickens? I also love the sound of the rain; it's relaxing and so much cooler!


Our very wet yard.

Golden Girls

I pretty sure 98% of the population in Nicaragua owns a flock of chickens. Adam and I were the odd man out…until now. I’d like to introduce Blanche and Rose our two “Golden Girls.”
We finally gave in to getting chickens for three reasons. First I discovered they don’t need a rooster in order to lay eggs. I am not a big fan of roosters, mainly because of how loud they are. Our neighbor’s roosters start crowing at 3 am and don’t stop until around 7 am. I’d go crazy having one right outside my window crowing away.
Second, they eat bugs which include ticks! My theory about our tick infestation is our yard was the only chicken free yard within miles. It was like a tick sanctuary, no wonder they took over!
The final reason is the obvious one; fresh eggs to eat! Blanche and Rose will start laying eggs in a few months and then we shall feast. It will be a really small feast with only two chickens but that’s ok. ;)

So far we’ve really enjoyed having them. They are fun to watch peck away at the ground and Ashlyn loves feeding them. They’ve even made a friend from the neighbor’s flock who flies over the wall to visit them a few times a day (although I’m starting to think she’s coming for the free food).

Blanche is the lighter one and Rose is the darker one.

Crazy Days!

It’s been awhile since I’ve last blogged. For some reason I have been unmotivated to do much of anything lately. I’ll blame it on the heat.

I thought I’d share what a crazy last two weeks we’ve had. It all started at camp with the septic tank collapsing, the water pump breaking and the power poll breaking.
Then it started to get crazy around our house. I managed to shatter our glass top coffee table. A dish slipped out of my hand and everything shattered spraying glass everywhere.
The next day Adam got in an accident with his motor bike (a taxi decided turn without looking and ran right into him). He ended up having to get some stitches in his hand.

Then a few days later we came home after a rain storm to find power was out and our dining and living room was flooded. Adam got out the flash light and walked around everywhere trying to figure out what had exploded or leaked. But there was absolutely nothing wrong with the house. After noticing our two back porches were also under water we concluded it had rained so hard and at such an angle the water had poured onto our porches and right under the doors. We spent a few hours using the squeegee and mop by flashlight to push all the water back outside.

Now for the on-going problem we have been fighting. It is rainy season here (thus the flood), which means the bugs are out! We started finding ticks crawling around in our bedroom. Gross! We thought our dog (who often sleeps under the bed) must have brought them in. So the dogs were kicked out of the house…problem solved, right? Not so. Evidently one of our dogs must have brought in a pregnant tick who promptly hatched in our room. After some research on the internet we found most ticks hatch about 5,000 babies at a time. So we have about 5,000 baby ticks crawling around our house.
They were crawling on floors and up the walls, it was disgusting! So we called in the “exterminator”. Who also happens to live behind us and is also a self-proclaimed vet. He showed up riding a bicycle with a huge pesticide tank strapped to his back. His friend showed up next with what looked like a huge leaf blower.
While they poisoned our house and yard (they even managed to get one of the dogs sick)
Adam, Ashlyn and I took off on a two day get-away. We had been planning on taking a mini-vacation as a late mother’s day/early birthday present for me. Our house being bombed with poison was a good excuse to go.
We did have a nice time at the hotel and Ashlyn had lots of fun playing in the pool. However, we all ended up getting sick from the food which gave poor Ashlyn a horrible diaper rash. We were certainly ready to stop eating contaminated food and back to a tick free home. Unfortunately that was not the case. On returning home we found there were still ticks crawling on our floors and walls. It was very frustrating to say the least. So our “exterminator” is coming back tomorrow to re-bomb the house. We are hoping this will wipe them out. If not I’m considering letting the ticks have the house and we will move.

Oddly enough last night a truck went up and down our neighborhood spraying pesticide into the air. I guess this is standard during the raining season to keep the bugs from taking over?? Or maybe he heard about us and was trying to help out!
Our latest “disaster” happened last night around two am. Adam and I were jolted awake by the sound of glass shattering. One of the pains of glass from Ashlyn’s window had fallen out and shattered all over the floor and of course gotten in her crib. So at two in the morning I was giving Ashlyn a bath while Adam swept, mopped and changed sheets.

I’ve heard a few missionaries here say they feel like they’re about five minutes away from utter chaos at any given moment. I would have to agree, we are feeling the same way! Regardless of all our “disasters” I am very thankful Adam’s accident was nothing serious, the flooding was easily taken care of and none of us have gotten cut on glass. As for the ticks…I’ll be thankful when they’re all dead. ;)