Garrett

Lazy Sunday!

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31 May 2026

The usual start to the morning today, moving the birds and letting them out.

I had to help the goslings out again, they still haven’t figured out the ramp. One of them later got its foot stuck in the fence. It seemed to have pulled or strained it, it wasn’t working quite right. So we put that one in the baby pen to keep it away from the bigger birds while it recovers. Evan said it was doing a bit better. I’ll check on it tomorrow.

We had company over coffee in the morning, had a nice conversation with our neighbor. He’s going to help us teach the kids some subjects in the home school, which is pretty awesome.

Then it was out to the pool. I think the battle with the mustard algae has turned the corner. I’d left the pump off for a day and a half, and the water was pretty clear, although not crystal clear. I had previously added clarifier to help the particulates settle/filter. There was a good layer on the bottom of the pool when I started.

You can see the line here where I’ve vacuumed and have not yet. I got it all done, and adjusted the water chemistry a bit and told the kids they could swim. They were very excited!

Upon the recommendation of a neighbor, I got a PoolRX mineral algicide and installed that in the pump body. That is supposed to help keep the algae down, so we’ll see how that goes!

After pool clean up time, the kids helped out by cleaning up the house for our Family Dinner night, where we host a number of guests for dinner. Then they went swimming and had fun. Garrett worked on his swimming with Meagan. Jarek performed the Star Spangled Banner on the violin for us, and Evan played the Mysterious Casbah for us on Piano.

While the kids did that, I took some time to nerd out and move Jellyfin to a postgresql database. Hopefully that will stop it from crashing as much. Nothing more irritating than being gone and getting a text from Meagan that the movies won’t play!

After dinner, it was coloring time for a bit before bedtime!

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#life #moments #chickens #homestead #pool #geese #kids

Kiddo update

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We did one of Jarek’s Cub Scout adventures, cast iron cooking. The requirement for him was to cook a meal over a fire. We started the fire using a flint and steel. Jarek learned a lot about building a fire and having the fuel ready to go. It was a good introduction to fire basics.

We made an impromptu stove with a couple bricks.

While waiting for the wood to burn down, Garrett came over and, being super cute, asked “Can I join?”

Arya got in on the cooking as well.

Burger cooking underway.

Randal got the first part of his third tooth out! We will be very happy when it’s all the way out, as the teething process has been a bit frustrating for all involved. Randal has been sitting up and crawling about now. He’s working on pulling himself up to a standing position. He’s done that once or twice so far.

A happy Garrett at Fox Meadow park during a home school meet up play session.

Garrett went with Meagan and Arya to dance class. While waiting for Arya to finish her dance lesson, he picked up a book and said, “This is my book” and took it inside to read.

A Ducky Moment

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Ducky was working hard on his Legos. He took the napkin, and after cleaning his hands and face, wore it like an ascot. Then it fell off and he said *oh shi(p/t). Our neighbor, Jill, lost it laughing and I told her she was feeding the monster. A few moments later, Duckie roared, “I dragon – roar!”