Baby Chance

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on October 16th at 8:07 p.m., just a few hours shy of her 38th birthday. He was born a few weeks early according to an ultrasound due date, but weighed in at a healthy 5.5 lbs, was 18 1/2 inches long and had an 8/8 apgar score. My mom said he was screaming as he came out and was more developed then expected. She and her boyfriend named him Chance Timothy Smith. She gave his middle name Timothy after our brother.

Her water broke on the evening of October 15th, just days after being told by her doctor that her son will need life saving heart surgery immediately after birth. From what we were told his heart has 3 issues 1)Double outlet right ventricle, 2)Ventricular septal defect and 3)D-malposed great arteries. My mom traveled to her the following early morning, they all went to the hospital and baby was born that evening. After his birth, mama got to hold him for only a brief moment before doctors swept him away to do diagnostic tests on him and his heart condition. Because he was breathing well and was stronger and more developed then they originally had thought, surgery did not happen immediately, but he still had to stay in the NICU away from mama.

The next day, not even 24 hours old, Chance had his first heart surgery. He was on a respirator for almost 24 hours after the surgery because he didn't wake up. He must have needed his rest and has since woken up, is off the respirator and becoming more and more alert and stronger with each days passing. The doctor said the surgery went well and baby Chance is expected to recover within a few weeks. He will more than likely undergo more heart surgeries in the future, but we are all unsure how soon or how many. 

To do the surgery, doctors went in through the femoral artery. His oxygen levels are much better after the surgery and his coloring is better as well. 

 Mama and Daddy finally got to hold baby Chance for the first time since birth, 4 days later. He isn't strong enough to nurse yet, but he is getting pumped mamas milk through a tube, only a tiny bit at a time.

We are hoping and praying for continued healing and wellness for baby Chance. He has a long road ahead of him, but he is strong and beautiful.

My nephew - Love, love, love him!!!

Medicinal Treat

I'd made elderberry syrups from dried berries before, but never had the fresh ones. They do grow around here, I just don't know where. When my friend Jenny wrote up a blog post about her kids picking elderberries and making syrup, I was inspired and determined to find some elderberry bushes near me. I had also just finished up with all of my tomato canning and was itching to find something more to preserve. Finding elderberries around here was a little more difficult than I had hoped. By great luck, I finally got my hands on some. Someone I don't really even know, yet got word that I was looking for some, picked them from her neighbors property and then drove all across the County (literally) from Woodland/La Center to my house in Camas to bring them to me! I gave her a dozen of my chicken eggs but wish I'd had more to thank her with. There really are amazing people out there who help people with no expectations in return. I'm forever grateful! 

As soon as I had them in my hands, and after I put the kids to bed, I went to work. It's been a few weeks since I did this, but knew I needed to write up my recipe and process for future reference before I forget.

 Picking the tiny berries off of their little twigs was a therapeutic and rhythmic break from my usual evening routine (especially since I did this while the kids were sleeping).

 I started with 2 cups of berries for my first batch of syrup

 Simmered them in 6 cups water (clean and purified) for about 45 minutes. The liquid cooked down to about half.

I strained the berries and squished all the juice from the berries threw the mesh (cheesecloth would probably work better). This keeps the skins and seeds from being in the final smooth liquid. The seeds (in addition to the leaves, twigs, root and branches) are pretty toxic so this is an important step. And while I'm thinking about it, I guess I should mention (in case you don't already know) eating the berries raw and whole is not a wonderful idea unless you spit out the seeds. I'm not here to give a full report on why, just don't...or at least do some research if you decide to anyways. The berry pulp, juice, skin and the flowers? Perfectly fine and wonderful to consume in huge amounts, in fact magical.

 I added a bunch of raw local delicious honey after it cooled off a bit. About 2 cups. Honey (when raw) provides it's own additional health benefits as well. 

I poured it into glass bottles and it will keep in the fridge for several months, if the kids don't drink it all sooner. The honey acts as a preservative, so the more you add, the longer it lasts...and the sweeter it is. The small bottle in the picture below is organic elderberry syrup I bought from the store last year for something like $12, maybe more.The quart size jar cost me about $3 to make (thanks to that super good deal I got on honey this summer, and the free elderberries of course).

I made a couple more batches, one of which I added a cup of organic apple cider vinegar to give it an even bigger and better healthy boost. I haven't even attempted to give the kids the one with the vinegar, but it's actually really good in my opinion. I've found myself more than once drinking a little to curb a sweets craving, and it works. Esperanza asks for the medicine several times a day and Ezra just does whatever she does and wants whatever she wants. That quart jar above is already half gone. We've got plenty more

I kind of had an abundance of berries, so I froze some...

 And dehydrated some...

Dried berries

While there are many, many medicinal benefits of elderberries, we use it as an immune booster during the winter months to stay healthy and to help get better quicker when we are sick. Typically, because of the store price of the syrup, we would only use it sparingly when we would feel a cold or illness coming on. Now, we can use it as much and as often as we want. Did I mention how grateful I am to that woman? So grateful!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! And to my super duper close family/friends...I might be willing to share, you'd just have to come visit me to get it.

Beginning of Fall

Whew, where did the last month go? I can't keep up with anything anymore. So, real quick, here's a recap of the first few weeks of Fall around here. Or at least up until the first week of October or so, I can't find my camera cord to upload pictures. Up until a little over a week ago, we still had high 70's dry weather, so we were outside playing a lot as you'll see in all of these pictures. My next update will be wetter I think.

On the first day of Fall (yes, a month ago), I closed back up the chickens away from my kitchen back door because they poop everywhere and we like to play outside, but not in chicken poo! I had gotten these pallets from a friend with the intention to turn them into raised beds. Well, the nails were varigated and there was no way I could take them out without splitting the wood. So, they became a gate to keep the chickens contained. 

As for my garden and garden beds, Armando convinced me it would be cheaper to just buy wood rather than continue to scrounge and drive around picking up used salvaged wood pieces all over town. Gas is way too expensive! I gave in. Within a few hours, I had raised beds!!!

I still need to make dirt for them. I do have a plan...I just need to gather all the stuff and get it going.

Later that day, we drove up to Armando's uncle Rafaels house/property to pick green tomatoes. They live at a high elevation and were expecting frost any day. With hundreds of green tomatoes still on the vine, I got first pickin'! We arrived while they were shelling and drying beans. Unfortunately, all my good pictures are on my camera, these are from my phone.

compost pile decided to grow a squash plant

Honey bees

Lots of tomatoes and other veggies

Ezra helped shell the beans

70+ pounds of green tomatoes. I was kinda scared they wouldn't ripen. They sat on my kitchen table like this for a week, slowly ripening from the little bit of sunshine that came in through the west window.

Fresh picked beans! They are called Peru beans. Rafa and Danette had hundreds of plants and let me take as many as I could pick in the amount of time the kids allowed me. The beans are white and creamy when cooked and delish. I've never before cooked fresh beans before. As in picked and cooked the same day...before they are dried or canned. Amazing difference!

We went to pick grapes at our friends house down the road a few weeks ago.

They also have pears!

I spotted a fig tree!! These people have so much food on their property! I'll have to come back for those!

Within just a few days, almost all the tomatoes were ripe. I did process them in several different batches, several days in a row, so that I was using only ripe tomatoes for each batch. In the end, I only lost 2 or 3 tomatoes.

I didn't think 70 pounds of tomatoes were enough, so we went to a local farm and picked more

My mom and Mary came with us. 

 Romas for sauce

Tio Rafa's beautiful tomatoes

tomato sauce underway

Done!

Stuffed baked pumpkin one afternoon

Sibling Love

 On a walk, with the Ergo and no stroller. Guess who wants to be carried?

The kids help with putting dishes away. Ezra hands them to Esperanza and she puts them away. Ideally, I should go and reorganize, but that doesn't really happen in my house. It just stays a mess.

I asked my brother in law to bring me tomatillos. He did. I made and canned salsa verde with them.

Playing at the park

She's becoming more daring lately. And more coordinated thankfully.

Ezra loves going down slides

 We met one of Esperanza classmates Max and his mama down by the river near our house one afternoon. They are big river explorers like us, probably bigger actually. Max's mom decided a walk across the river was in order. Ezra wasn't feelin' it so we stayed and played in the water. 

Ezra has a fixation with BIG trucks and tractors. This big tractor did not go unnoticed by him while at the Washougal River one afternoon. It was a weekend and it was just sitting, so we walked up to it and he got a very up close look at it. 

Grapes!

I made a batch of spicy salsa from the last of the tomatoes

 Ezra and Esperanza on the slides at a park

 Loving some Fall strawberries

 Playing with Lucy

A fall birthday party for Kiera

 Ezra runs to the door whenever he hears a big truck drive by, which is often. Even though we live on a narrow road in a little neighborhood, somehow our street is used by all the big City vehicles and even a semi or two every day. Keeps Ezra happy. He'll point and say "WHOA!"

 They'll be spoonin' with each other soon and I might get to sleep someplace else

 Nursling...just the one side though. He's picky.

Kids and I are in love with this $20 double stroller I scored awhile back! WAY better then them lapping it in the single.