Sunday, December 27, 2009

All done and moving on


Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

We were all snugged up in our warm house during the storm
and enjoyed a quiet Christmas.
Our son's girlfriends family didn't end up coming over,
so it wasn't a huge scurry all over to straighten up the place.
Instead I took 3 - yep count em - 3 naps!
I have been fighting some bug or another and really
needed the rest apparently.

My hubby cooked apple wood smoked prime rib
and it was really very good.
Add all the trimmings, including 2 pumpkin pies
that I didn't drop and a feast was enjoyed by all.

Caden had to show off his new football uniform!
This was the best present by far for him.
In fact he was worn it 24/7 since Christmas morning.

And if you'll notice he got his 2 front teeth too!

What a lucky kid..

Lot's of snowmachine riding today as
it was a beautiful day with mild temps and
an abundance of sun!


I love Christmas, but am glad it's in my rear view mirror.
We only have one gift to return for another size and
I don't plan on doing that until some of the Christmas
return rush is over.
Krissy gave us a bop-it game and the challenge is on
with Chyann and I. Currently I have the high score of
100, but she is determined to knock me off my pedestal
and soon!!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Getting closer

It's been an incredibly busy week for us.
I'm glad it is over.

I'm not going anywhere today
and will probably take myself a nap.
Two nights last week were kid Christmas programs
that didn't get us home till 8p.
One during the day also.
Managed to figure out how to transfer the video I taped
to the DVD recorder and make copies for the Grandparents.
That was a huge feat, I shit you not.

Got packages in the mail for the Grandparents, also
Christmas cards done too.
Finally got started on Christmas shopping
Thursday after work.
Got the majority of it done
and the rest yesterday.

All that's left is the wrapping.
AND
Cleaning house because the HUBBY
invited our son's girlfriends family over for Christmas
dinner. Krissy is abandoning me in this time of need for
relatives in MO.
(how's that for guilt! HA)

The snowmaching or sno-go or snow-mobile
(add your regional term)
is out and the kids have been riding it all over.
Pic to be posted one of these days.
I enjoy riding also, but can only manage to drive
for about 30min before my bum shoulder starts acting up.
That'd be bursitis - it's a bitch to get old and start breaking down!

Anywho..
Our three-footed cat Trip has somehow managed to
scrape up his stump. It's been bleeding on and off for a few
days now, but doesn't look like it's getting infected - yet.
The kids tried to bandage up his stump, but as you can imagine
that didn't work. Picture three-footed cat freaking out trying to
scurry away on two feet while keeping stump in the air.
Not a pretty sight.

Purchased myself an el-cheap-o mp3 player about a
month ago and it quit working last week.
Took it back and they gave me a new one, no questions
asked (wow, that almost never happens).
Tried to put music on it and our windows media player
is corrupted. When did that happen? and how?
Don't know.
Tried all sorts of things to fix it and now the internet
is not working properly. Great..
Gonna get on the phone to Dell - through whom
I have a software warranty. Hopefully I can get this
resolved, because being without tunes at work makes
for a very long day.

That's all for now..

Hope you are stress free these last few days before Christmas.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Pull over!

Yep, you heard it.
I got pulled over by the POLICE today!

Having NEVER had any sort of driving violation
I was a bit scared.

I was coming off the highway off ramp
and down at the bottom of the hill there
is a traffic light.
When I was about 15 feet from it,
it turned yellow.
No one was coming so I went through it.

About 100 yards down the road I see lights in
my rear view mirror.

CRAP-OLA!
He must mean me!!

So, I pulled over and got out my license.
The officer ambles over and asks
me if I know why he pulled me over.
I said maybe because I went through a stale
yellow light?
He said, I was right behind you and it looked like
a red light and I didn't have a hard time stopping.

Well hell, I'm sure it was yellow when I went through.

He took my license and went back to his unmarked
chevy blazer to run me through his computer.

After about 5 minutes he comes back and says
he is going to give me a verbal warning.
And makes a comment about my being from Alaska
and knowing how to drive on ice/snow covered streets
since I've had my license for 22 years and
never had any kind of violation.

Nice of him to give me a warning don't you think.


Sigh..
I'll really be driving like a granny now..

Friday, December 11, 2009

The Brain is gone and more...

So, Tuesday night just as the big storm was beginning
my hubby and the kids loaded up the Brain to
haul him to the butcher.
Who is the Brain you ask?
Well he is one of our pigs.
We name all our animals and this pair of pigs'
names are Pinky and the Brain
after those cartoon mice from the 90's.
Apparently the Brain was very reluctant to get into
the trailer and it took forever to get him loaded up.
I sent Chyann out with the camera and none of
the pig pictures came out good, but she did get an
alright one of the Turkeys..
Aren't they getting big?



Yes, I this is my eldest son.
He doesn't care for his pic to be taken so
he usually makes himself scarce when the camera
comes out.
I cannot stand the long hair on boys that is
popular these days, but you have to pick your battles
when your kid is 17, so he can have his hair as long as
he wants if it's kept clean.
He really has the best hair in the house thick and curly.
He detests it tho, longing for pin straight hair like Caden.


Sunday even though it was colder than crap
Chyann was out working with the horses.
Jenny has lost even more of her tail.


We made Christmas tree ornaments too.
Check out Caden's toothless smile.
He lost his other front tooth and looks adorable.
Earlier in the day he found a cow tooth and decided to
put it under his pillow for the Tooth fairy too.
Much to his surprise the Tooth Fairy didn't take it.


Back to Wednesday.
My hubby took that big green truck you seen in this pic
and busted the drifts up the drive way just to make sure we
could get out in the van.
As we were getting ready to leave he says,
you think we should take the truck? I said yes.
He said, I think we can make it in the van.
So off we went at 455am, the temp was 18*
with a North wind gusting to 40.. .

We were busting through drifts with no problem
until so much snow built up under the hood that the
alternator belt was blown off.
Not a good thing when the van dies right in the middle
of a drift and you are about 5 miles from home.
Good thing my hubby can fix anything.
He got out and managed to get the belt back on
without the belt tool. See how handy he is?
Now we just have to get out of the drift.
And do you think we had any shovels?
Nope, just a few snow brushes.
An hour or so later we are back on the road
soaking wet.
I was 45 min late for work and he was an hour late.

The kids had a snow day and were out shoveling when
we got home from work.
Colton had cleared off the porch and had made a good dent
in removing the drift from around the car and garage.

And where was I when all this shoveling and snow blowing
was going on?
In my nice warm house watching from the window!



Saturday, December 5, 2009

Pet Peeves

I have to vent about ONE of my biggest
Pet Peeves!!

These last few days we've gotten a little snow.
And that's fine, being that it is December and all.

BUT

I absolutely get my nickers in a twist
when people don't clean the snow off their vehicles!!

They clear off a portion of the windshield and leave
the rest on, to blow off and obscure other drives visibility!!

How lazy and inconsiderate some people are!!

Last night when I left work it had already stopped snowing,
was dark and I had about an inch
of snow on my van. The wind was blowing some too, but
I got out my handy snow brush and cleaned my entire van off.
(bumper to bumper and the roof too)

Other folks that were leaving just jumped in their rigs and sped off
snow trailing them.

When I got out on the highway heading home (rush hr traffic)
the visibility was soo bad
from snow blowing off vehicles that speed was
reduced to about 30mph - for 10 stinking miles!

It amazes me that people don't realize how dangerous
not removing snow from their vehicle can be.

Do you have an opinion on this?


P.S.
Only 20 more days till Christmas
and I haven't even started yet!



Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Christmas tree, Hair cuts and other stuff

I thoroughly enjoyed my four day weekend.

Got caught up on a lot of stuff around the house.
Like cleaning out closets, the entry way and
other odds and ends.

The tree went up on Saturday night too.
We were going to get a real one again this year, but
the kids wanted to do it right then, so we broke out the
old fake tree that we've had for about 19 years.
It may be old, but still looks good.

We've hung up all the Christmas decorations the kids
have made throughout the years.
Some of them are looking pretty rough, but
how can you throw out the first reindeer your kid made?

I also cut Chyann and Caden's hair.
Chyann got about 8" cut and she says she feels naked.
Her hair is still long about shoulder length instead of butt length
so I guess I under stand that.
Caden just got a cute "cowboy" cut.
He actually wanted a flat top, but I don't know how to do that.

The big push is on at work and I've been doing 10hr days and
planning on getting at least 6 in on Saturday (maybe 8).

Colton went to CVTC - Chippewa Valley Tech Collage
on a field trip yesterday and met with a bunch of
professors to learn about their programs.
He still is not decided on what he wants to do, but
he KNOWS he doesn't want to dig ditches or something like
that, so an education is a must.


Only 23 more shopping days till Christmas
Are you ready?

I'm not...

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving.
I hope you all our there had a great one too!

Krissy came over and enjoyed the day with us as well.

We had a delicious ham, mashed taters, gravy,
baked yams, green bean casserole, a veggie & rice dish,
stuffing, rolls, green fluff (otherwise know as pistachio pudding),
and pumpkin pie.

It's a good thing I made two pies because I dropped one.



Who knew that my cake curse would carry over to pies too?

Cake curse you say, yes it's true, I'm not allowed to carry
cakes ANYWHERE at my house.

See it started about 15 years ago when I purchased a cake
for my Daddy's birthday. We had went out for dinner at
a nice restaurant and then back to our house for cake.
I was carrying it in and was about two feet from the table when
I dropped it. The plastic lid flew off and it landed frosting side
down on the carpet. OOh, it was a mess!

From then on I'd drop at least one cake a year until
my hubby said no more cake carrying for you.
Even here at home I can't even remove them from the oven,
cuz I will somehow manage to have it slip from my
fingers into the oven or on the floor.

But I have to say I never had this problem with pies till now!

What is up with that?

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Monday, November 23, 2009

Toothless

Caden has lost his third tooth!

And his other top tooth is very loose too.



I told him before long he will be singing that song
"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth".


Sunday, November 22, 2009

Where did the weekend go?

This weekend just flew buy!

I suppose since I worked 7.5 hrs of OT yesterday
had something to do with it...

We are really busy at work and I'll more than likely
have more OT offered to me than I can handle and
I'll take ALL I can handle.
Cuz you know Christmas is coming,
bill's to pay and all that...

My Honey and the kids took a load to the junk yard
yesterday and you can't even tell.
But at least it's a start.

We took advantage of this wonderfully mild day
by grooming all the horses.

The boys are awaiting their turn.


Chyann and Jenny.
Can you see how her tail has been nibbled on even more?


We are taking the tail eating pig in for butcher this week
and I'm soo glad for that.
We'll hang on to the other and butcher it in February.

Winter like weather is supposed to be moving in
by Wednesday and I'm not looking forward to it.
This nice weather has been wonderful!
Only lighting the furnace every other day has been great too.

On another note, if there are any Price is Right fans out there
My Honey's cousin from ND will be on the show
the 25th of Nov.
Julie wouldn't tell us what the outcome was, but she
was smiling real big so maybe that means she won something.


Friday, November 20, 2009

Hoodwinked

Yesterday the kids come home from school and
got right on their homework.

When that was all done Colton says
he's got something to show us.
We all gather around the computer.

He says in school today a friend showed him this
web site http://askjud.com/
and it was pretty cool, check this out.

He said it was a site that you could ask
questions of Jud and
Jud would give you the answers.

So, we tried it out
and I was just totally amazed!!

Colton asked it questions like
What color are Chyann's glasses,
it answered RED. Correct answer.
What color are Caden's eyes,
it answered Blue. Correct answer.
What is the name of mom's friend that moved
here from AK, it answered Kris. Correct answer.
and on and on it went...
I was totally wowed.
My hubby on the other hand said,
that it was foolery and fake. He didn't
believe a word of it.

I called Kris and told her about it and she says
I gotta check it out.
Didn't work for her or me when I tried it.

When I googled this web site I got
a bunch of hits and clicked on this on
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Ask-Jud
Apparently it's all bunk.
But it sure was fun.
Apparently I'm pretty gullible.

Try it and amaze your friends..


Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Monday, November 16, 2009

Pulling time

Today Chyann is getting Casper into
practice for pulling this winter.

She rigged him up and gave Caden rides around the yard.



Caden is still football crazy.
Kicking and throwing it at every opportunity.


Chyann had to get a ride too.


Then she decided to try out Scotch.
That went alright in the yard, but when
the sled went over the driveway poor Scotch
thought it was after him and bolted back to the barn.


This is all in preparation for winter snow when Chyann
will hook up the sled and have Casper pull her all over.
Last winter she and a friend spent 2 hours outside
in 10* temps being pulled all through the fields.
I thought they were nuts, but those
horse loving girls thought otherwise.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Too busy

Yeah, I know it's been awhile since
I've blogged.
BUT I've been busy..
Poor excuse I know.

Last Sunday we put two pick-up loads of
wood in the basement.
Thankfully it's about full.

Rode a little horse and had a good time.

Missed the kids' Veteran's day program at school
because I had to work.
They said it was a nice program with a good
speaker.

Thought I had broken my right ring finger at the
second knuckle when I smacked it into a
bookshelf on Wednesday.
(just call me Grace)
It swelled up like you wouldn't believe and I
could hardly move it.
Made it really hard to type on Thurs and Fri
and ya know that's what I do for my job
all day everyday.
It's better now, just black and blue.


Report cards came home from school on Friday
and I must say ALL my kids are doing
Fantastic!!

O's and S+'s for Caden
Straight A's for Chyann
and
2 A's and 5 B's for Colton

Now if that's not just the best, I don't know what is.

Yesterday was devoted to the weekly swabbing
of the house and
today I don't have much enthusiasm to do anything.
I should go out and enjoy this beautifully sunny day,
but I may need a nap first.
We'll see.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Harvest day and other stuff

Thursday afternoon the folks that rent the field
next door from our neighbors got
busy with the soy bean harvest.

They used a big combine to harvest the pods
then a tractor to cut the bush, rake them
into rows and finally a round bale thing
to roll them up.

Working late into the night they got about 80 acres done.
Now all they have left is going around and picking
up all the bales.



Caden was king of the world for a bit...


It was so beautiful yesterday.
Gorgeous blue skies and temps around 65*
with only light winds.

Cal and Colton went and cut wood
until about 5p.

Chyann, Caden and I cleaned house
then goofed with the horses for the rest of the day.

I was going to ride Scotch out in the field, but that
bugger, oh that bugger, wasn't interested.
Enough said..

Chyann and Caden rode though and had fun.

Gypsy's rain rot is clearing up so hopefully
I'll be able to ride her today.

Jenny got a good workout too.

When we fed the animals I sent Chyann to the
cow barn to check their water and she got stuck
in the muck. I went to her rescue and ended
up pulling her out (minus her shoes) and falling
into the muck myself.
Not good.
Talk about nasty...
Covered in cow crap and mud!
Oh, well we all had a good laugh.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Mystery solved...

I went out to feed the animals and
discovered a hunk of Jenny's tail
in the barn next to the pig pen...
I held it up and the pigs went nuts
trying to get at it!

What is up with that?
Can it be possible that our dumb ass horse
would stand and let stinking pigs eat her tail!?!



Check out that short tail!


I am just amazed!
I don't even know what to say about this.
I guess I'd have to see this actually happening
to believe it, but the evidence seems clear.
I have horse tail eating pigs and a horse that will let them.


Strange, really strange.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Time flies..

Saturday was Halloween, a big day at our house.

Chyann went trick-or-treating with some of
her friends then had a sleep over.


Caden and Pipi set out to get lots of candy too.


We were going to do the local haunted house,
but Caden wanted to go home.
I thought maybe he'd just gotten chilled,
but no he had the flu.
Been sicker than a dog since then.
Temps up to 103*, body aches,
sore throat, tossing cookies and
all that.
Don't know if it was the dreaded H1N1 or
the regular flu, but he is doing better now.

Saturday was also Colton's 17th Birthday.
Hard to believe he is that old already.
No pictures of him cuz he went to a friends
Halloween party.

Saturday was also our 18th wedding anniversary.
Yes, it's been that long.

Colton wasn't due until Nov 7th and lots
of folks said wouldn't it be funny if he were born
on your anniversary. I said No, but the fates
decided otherwise.

Since Caden was sick we didn't do much
just watched movies and ate nachos.



Thursday, October 29, 2009

It's a mystery....

This is Jennifer Rain.

She is 4 1/2 years old.
Her daddy is a registered QH.
Her mama is Gypsy our 1/2 Arab - 1/2 ?.

She has had 6 weeks of professional training
with the Parelli method, the summer of 08'.

Even with all this training ($) she is not quite where
I'd like her to be.
So, more money will be spent to get
her where I want her, but that wont
be till this coming spring.
I'm not sure if I'll take her back to the same trainer,
whom I really, really like or go with someone else.
Decisions, decisions...


Anyhow, this is her a few weeks ago.
You can't really tell in this pic,
but her tail is nice and long.


And today when we went out to pet/brush the horses
I saw that her tail looks like it's been hacked off
on the bottom!


Not sure what has happened to her,
but could not find any hair anywhere!
(that sounds funny)

My thought was she was too close to the pig pen
and one of them had a nibble.
My hubby doesn't think that is an option.
He thinks she got it caught on something and
tore it off.
Chyann thinks someone came to our house and cut it.
Who, I ask and she say's the same person who took
our halter and brought it back.
--
Chyann forgot to take a $40 halter off Gypsy
and the next day it was gone.
This was back in August
and she found it on Monday out
in the pasture.
It was right out in the open,
where we'd see it if it were there before then.

That's my mystery.
Lost then found halter
and
Jenny's tail cut.

Strange.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

After the snow...

You'd never know,
with the exception of the mud,
that we had snow last Friday.
Chyann decided to rake leaves,
thinking that I would pay her for it.
She was mistaken.
As far as I can tell, raking leaves is not
worth the effort and makes good mulch for
the lawn.
Monkey boy likes to climb trees.
Scares me to death though.


Just me, petting Scotch.

My hubby helped a friend casterate bull calves too.

They had a hell of a time with the bigger guys,

as you can probably imagine having seen how big

their "Rocky Mountain Oysters" are.

All else is well here.

Expecting some more snow this Friday,

but let's think positively and hope not.

(Can't figure out what is giong on with this double spacing)

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Man, that was heavy...

We got about 2-3 inches of snow on Friday.
It was the really heavy wet stuff.
So, heavy that my trees got all
bent over and some broke.

This is the choke cherry along the driveway.

A poor little maple. It had a branch broke off.

These are the lilac trees by the barn and
cow pen. We ended up having to cut down
three branches that fell and fix the fence.
The cows ate all the leaves off the ones that fell.


Chyann had to coax the mini's into the barn
as they didn't want to navigate the
sloppy, muddy mess in front of the barn door.

We had a power outage that lasted about 13 hours.
Cal fired up the B-B-Q and cooked some hot dogs for dinner
and we played card games till 8pm then went to bed.
It didn't take long for the snow to melt yesterday
since it got up to about 50*.
Hopefully, that will be our winter teaser till December.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

FYI

This whole working full time thing really is
putting a cramp in my blogging time!

Not to mention that I now
have incredibly busy evenings!!

There is homework when the kids come home,
dinner to cook, dishes to do,
a load or two of laundry to be washed or folded,
floors to sweep and mop,
animals to feed and brush,
lunches to be made,
and
finally
fall
into
bed.

Then get up and do it all again.

Not that I'm complaining,
(at least not too much)
because
I really LOVE my paychecks!!

Boy, oh boy are they nice!!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Monday, October 19, 2009

Rainrot


Our ol' gal Gypsy appears to have a mild
case of rainrot.

Rainrot often affects horses in wet weather. It is
caused by a fungus-like organism that lives in the soil.
The combo of water and dirt, as when a dusty horse
gets wet and rolls, makes an ideal place for this nasty
stuff to run-a-muck infecting the skin.

The hair gets matted in clumps that detach, leaving
oozy bald spots. The bald spots then scab up.

So, how to treat this problem? I talked to our vet
and he said to keep her in the barn - nice and dry
for about 10 days, grooming everyday, but no picking
the scabs! If that hasn't cleared her up, he says we'll
do some antibiotics.

I've read a lot of info about rainrot here on the Internet
and there appear to be a lot of different methods of
treatment. Since we've never had this particular problem
before I'm not sure what other avenues we should be
pursuing. Any ideas, let me know.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Busy, busy...

I got a haircut on Thursday night while Caden was
at his last football practice.
About 2" off the back and WAY too short
bangs. I look like a dork (good thing it grows fast)...
That's what I get for running my mouth and
not paying attention to what the gal was doing.
I suppose you get what you pay for and since
my cut was only 11 bucks, I did.
I'm cheap like that.

Friday was the big Homecoming football game.

Chyann and a bunch of her buddies got together
after school to paint their faces, spray hair
and dress up in cute Viking clothes.
All to cheer on the home team, you know. Didn't
have anything to do with the boys that would be at the
game or so I'm told...

Caden had to have his hair done too.



Colton was there too.
The band played at the beginning of the game
and during timeout's.
But the big draw was the half time show.
With the combined talents of the band and
dance team they did a great production of
Michael Jackson's Thriller, complete with
zombies and Ol' Michael coming out of a coffin.
Plus a Batman, Dark Knight song, and
a Harry Potter tune.
I got it all on video, but can't quite figure
out how to put it on here.

It was freezing that night, but the stands were full.
Too bad our team lost.


Next day, Saturday,
Caden had a football game.
He wanted to do his hair red again, so
we did. His team did well, but
no touchdowns for Caden.


After the game we took three of his buddies home
for two hours to play until
the bowling alley opened at noon,
then we went bowling.
One of the kids was difficult, bouncing
off the walls and in general causing mayhem
the whole time!


Both Cal and Krissy took a turn bowling
in their socks and threw some good balls.

The party included bowling for an hour and a half,
2 pizzas, soda pop, treat bags and
a real bowling pin for the birthday kid.

I must say and this is probably TMI, but
I am a very regular gal in the bathroom.
With the new work hours and sitting on my bum
ALL day long my very efficient system has been
thrown completely off,
until I had some pizza at the
bowling alley..... Enough said...

Had to come home and take a three hour nap.


Today probably wont be any less busy.
I've got lots of housework to catch up on
and my Hubby wants to load the basement
up with wood...





Thursday, October 15, 2009

Winter coats

The horses are getting their winter coats.

They are so soft and furry.

Cowboy is the guy who has the most dramatic
change with his coat.
He gets very dark, then
in the spring he'll get very light.


This is Cowboy and Chyann, picture taken
just the other day...


And this is them in July of 2008.
Quite a difference.

Scotch, he's a Welsh Pony and gets a nice thick coat.



Poor Gypsy and Jenny, they both have some
Arab blood and don't get very fuzzy like the
boys do. They get blankets instead.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

New Author

I've found a new Author that I love!

His name is J. A. Konrath.

His main character is a tough Chicago cop
named Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels.

If you like Janet Evanovich , Sue Grafton,
Karen Kijewski or Lisa Lutz you will really
LOVE J.A. Konrath!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pumpkins and Cake

This morning the kids and I went to
Krissy's to feed her animals.
Burr, was it cold out.

Afterward we went to the Grain Bin.
A local bakery located in the middle of nowhere.
We'd never been, but heard lots of good things about it.
They had huge pumpkins for sale, 10 bucks each.
We got a bunch of cinnamon rolls instead
and they were delicious!


These are the pumpkins I bought at Aldi's.
They were the cheapest I've ever seen pumpkins
selling for, a whopping 2.69 each.


After carving they weighed
16, 26 and 18lbs!


My baby, 7 years old today.