Bye Bye Birdie

Bye Bye Birdie
Im gonna miss you so
Bye Bye Birdie
Why'd you have to go?

Crap!  So I totally jinxed myself and shouldn't have mentioned chicken taxidermy in my last post.  Birdie kicked the proverbial KFC bucket last night.  Not sure exactly what happened, it doesn't appear that a Chupacabra came and got her, but Dave found her perfectly stiff and asleep.  So I am sad and a little pissed today.  She was so pretty.  Prissy as all get up, but pretty none the less.  I totally passed on ordering any new chickens from the feed store earlier this week, because there is no way I can keep baby chickens alive during this renovation.  Someone is going to have to go buy food for a bit, because if I head in there I am going to come home with 15 or so new Birdie chickens with no intentions of eating any of them.

Anyway, moving on.  Hi there!  Long time no speak.  My brain is a bit fried so I am just going to numerically list off all of the craziness that has happened since oh....the middle of January.

1. Went to ProGreen.  ProGreen is a large landscaping convention in Denver that we attend and take classes at to better ourselves and our business each year.  This year Dave took and passed the 1st half of a hardscaping certification.  He has a hands on test later this summer to complete, but unless he forgets to put on safety goggles or something stupid first he should do fine seeing as that is the stuff he does everyday.  My mind was on the marketing and internet search engine optimization track.  Good God, I had no idea all of the junk I should be doing and what it can do to make the phone ring.  I mean I did, but to hear about what everyone else around me was doing, and my lack there of, made me feel like I was hanging with Fred Flintstone when I should be BFFs with Judy Jetson instead.  I guess having babies and weathering a recession were not excuses.  But in all fairness, Fred Flintstone does work with rocks and hardscaping too.  Needless to say our entire website is getting re- done.  This leads me to # 2.

2. Redoing the website on top of all the other crazy spring startup tasks.  I am so glad I am doing this, however I had no idea what it would take workload wise.  Thank goodness we are working with an amazing company, Rocket Jones, to help us build a content management system.  This platform will allow me to make additions and changes to the site with new pictures, and content on a regular basis without having to pay a designer to do it for us.  I will also have a blog though it that will allow me to post fun job construction pictures and articles.  It will also have a link to all of my Pinterest board ideas for clients.  Now I just need to start a new account and get them off all of my boards named "crap."  Rocket Jones has also hooked us up with a really neat designer, Launie Parry at Red Letter Creative, to help me get the overall design changed using our existing circle mountain logo.  Yes, I showed up with an entire Pinterest board aptly named "website crap" full of ideas to try and help get our design ideas across.  www.pinterest.com/callabee  Feel free to log on and see if you can figure my brain out.  We have such a neat property out here with our home and shop, and office in the barn, that we have decided to focus on relaying that feeling to our clients and giving it a bit more of a "local" homegrown feel vs. a stuffy I am trying to be the best most expensive landscaper in town.  Make sense?  I promise I will share things when they get developed.

3.  Plans and permit went to the County for the house.  Yipee!!  The next day we decided to change things.  Of course we did.  :)  But for now we are sticking with them.  Some are internal like swapping the location of a toilet and closet and don't really make a difference to the County, but we decided to wrap the deck.  Technically if we change the deck we need to resubmit a new engineered plan, and entire permit with all new drawings.  F' that.  We'll just deal with it later Scarlett, because tomorrow is another day, and if we mess with it right now the dan thing will never be built.

4. Chances are good the girls and I will be living with my parents throughout this whole shebang.  Dave will live at home because he can deal with a jug of water and a port a pottie.  Not to mention it is easier to mobilize work stuff from our house esp. if it snows.  He'll have a bed, Direct TV, and electricity, so he won't be exactly suffering.  The idea of taking Calla out to the port a pottie at 3 am in 2 degree weather is not that appealing to me.  Call me a princess, but I really don't feel like channeling my inner Laura Ingalls at our Little House on the Prairie to do this.  If I had no kids then sure, I would rough it with the jug and basin, but with Cinderella and Tiana over here, it ain't happening.  I will still be coming out to work on a daily basis, and will just refill a laundry basket each day with stuff I need.  Technically it is closer to take both girls to school from my parents house anyway, so it won't be bad at all.

5. India started ballet for the first time.  Oh my stinkin heck she is so little and cute in her tiny shoes and ponytail.  Sadly, I don't have a picture but I will get one.  I am having a hard time remembering Calla to be that little.  I cried internally for a day or so about how big she was getting until she called me a "honkey" on the way to ballet this Tues..  Well.... that was enough to shock me back into reality.  Later that day I caught her repeating the words, "Is that your grandpa's coat..... honkey?"  over and over again.  We had a little talk about how that is not a nice thing to call people,  and Macklemore's "Thrift Shop" went onto another playlist.  I guess that is what I get for having attentive children.

I am sure there is more to discuss, but I am tapped.  I am spending the weekend cleaning out the basement so everyone has space to work on mechanicals down there.  It looks like Mr. D will be plowing snow Sunday am.  Saturday into Sunday snow work is about as ideal as one can get in this business.  Not as many people out and about, and the stores open late.

Have a good weekend and stay warm if you are expecting snow this weekend too.  :)