Saturday, March 27, 2010

No more workie and animals galore

Yesterday was my last day at work.
It's a strange feeling to walk out that door
for that last time and not know if or when
you'll be coming back.

We had an extended lunch with our boss at Culver's.
That was fun.

Today Krissy, Chyann and I left our house at 530a
for an animal swap in Neillsville, WI.

Krissy wanted some Cochin chickens and wasn't interested in the
hassle of raising them from chicks (good plan, as it's a lot of work).

Anyhow, the swap was held at the local fair grounds
and the weather this morning was a bit cool and probably wouldn't
have been too bad, but the wind was blowing from the North
making it seem a lot colder! Wish I'd have worn my long johns
(and brought more Kleenex).

There were a lot of folks hawking their animals and even more
folks looking for a deal.
I'd say there were more rabbits than people in attendance tho.
After rabbits there was a lot of fowl - the feathered kind,
then maybe a dozen goats, 3 miniature horses
and a smattering of pups. A few free cats too.




Not a lot of Amish, but a few were there also.


If these chicks would have stayed their crazy colors
I might have gotten them.

This strange building was across the street from the swap.
I guess it is a radio station.


In their parking lot was this huge cow.
And for a quarter you could hear Chatty Bell,
the worlds largest talking cow, give her spiel.


This is one of Kris's chickens.
The seller was helping her put them in her truck tool box.
As I took a few pic this one appeared to try to escape!



Scared the shit out of me!
I have a small chicken phobia.
I may have even let out a scream.


Chyann wanted a rabbit in the worst way after seeing
all the furry sweet bunnies.
I was standing firm tho.
"No rabbits at our house!"
She even said "Mom don't be so firm, I really need a rabbit."
Need a rabbit? What are you going to do with a rabbit?
No real answer here, but still the insistence that one was needed.
It seemed that she had given up on getting one
when the gal Kris was getting her chickens from
offered Chyann a rabbit for free.

Lots of Oh, please Mom, then.

I decided what the hell.
Free rabbit? If nothing else the cats get a meal, right?

Chyann was grinning huge with the good news.
Saying how she couldn't wail to tell/show
her buddies the new rabbit. Even trying out some names.

When out of the blue she decides, No she really didn't want
that rabbit. I am totally amazed because the WHOLE
time we were there that was ALL she said!!!
(no kidding)

Her reason for deciding not to take the rabbit was simple.

If she had it, it would be housed in her room and she
didn't want her room to stink.

Not believing my good luck,
we got out of there quick before she changed her mind!


Then ALL the way home she was wishing she'd have
gotten the rabbit. Kids, I tell ya..

We even stopped and had Gouda cheese.
I don't think I'd ever had Gouda before and it was interesting.
I liked the less aged, creamier stuff than the older stuff
that had a weird texture to it (Kris liked that best).

Krissy and I have decided to take cheese tasting road trips now,
because this is WI and there are a ton of cheese factories in
our neck of the woods within easy driving distances.

All in all a really fun day.

ps
Don't know what I did to change my font, but
I am unable to change it back!


Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Sugar time

Must be sugaring time.

We don't tap our Maples, but apparently
the Hubby ran into this one with the truck over the
winter and smucked it up a bit.

How could he have ran into it you ask, well
he would say we live on a hill and leave it at that.
I will say that after cutting a load of wood he was trying
to back the truck up to the wood shoot and slid over
to tag that tree.

Anyhow...

Chyann noticed the sap was running and decided to
try catching it.


She got a bucket full in just little under 24 hours.


Pretty cool, eh?

Please note that we have NO SNOW and
you can really see green grass coming up already.
Isn't that wonderful?

I love spring.


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Say what?


Casper, dude you are filthy!

I took this picture of him last Saturday am.
Things around here have dried out a lot since then.

We have absolutely no snow at our place.
Gotta love these unseasonably warm temps.

One more week of work for me
and I'm really looking forward to not getting up at 4a!
I've decided to do some spring cleaning and painting first thing.
Imagine my surprise when I look at the school calendar and
realize all my kids are off the last week of March too!
Guess I'll be having some VERY reluctant helpers
in my spring cleaning adventures - insert evil laugh!!

My eldest son, as I believe I've mentioned before is
in the school play again this year. The cast has been
working long hours in practice, so much so that we hardly
see the kid anymore. When he is home I really
drive him nuts with all my questions and pestering him
to talk about what is going on in his world.
So...
Last night he was home relatively early (630p) and I had started
my inquisition, when out of the blue
he asks if I know what happens in 7 and a half months?

I kind of pause, going through my mental filing cabinet,
and come up totally blank.
I have no idea what could possibly be happening in 7 1/2 months.

I tell him I've got no clue.

He looks at me with this face that I can only describe as
totally thunderstruck!

And I'm like WHAT!???! What is it?

He says I'm going to be 18 is what
and without missing a beat he goes on to say that he
and a friend (who is already 18) are going to drive
to St Paul and go to a strip joint!

Holy Shit!!
My jaw is on the floor and his daddy is laughing his head off!

Welcome to my world.




Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Same ol', same ol'


This is getting to be a tired old story right?
Too busy to blog - blah, blah, blah...
BUT
That will soon be changing
as I've recently learned that my contract
will be done on March 26th.
This news is both good and bad,
good because I'll be home for the summer
with the kids and bad because I covet their
medical insurance.
(Although I surely wont miss getting up at 4am!)
Our hens have started laying again and
boy are some of them monster eggs!



Here we have Chyann with a regular egg and a pullet.

Please note how short her hair is. She got it

cut a few weeks ago and can barely get it into a pony tail.

Very cute, I tell ya.

We butchered pigs last weekend.

If you checked out Krissy's blog you saw some of the fun.

Lucky me I got to handle all the fresh meat.

Talk about nasty!

While there Caden decided to try out our friends

grandson's mini-motorcycle

(With no helmet of course when no adults were looking)

and ran into a semi-trailer.

He managed to only wound his chin

and it's a doozy. I imagine he will get a nice scar.

He also made a pig tooth necklace.

Picked those teeth out of the boiled skull himself,

his daddy drilled holes in each tooth and I helped

Caden put them on a length of fishing line.



Colton and one of his friends are doing a

disgusting squirrel project for advanced biology.

More on that later.

All else is well.

Be back soon..

P.S.

Those cows on my new template resemble how I feel most days.

Monday, March 1, 2010

WHAT??

As you know I made some fantastic pizza
last night and was sooo looking forward to it for
lunch today..
I got it out of the fridge here at work and
my two precious pieces are
FROZEN SOLID!!!
It took me 3 minutes to thaw it, no kidding.
I figured I'd just scrape off all the veggies
cuz they'd be all mush and just eat the crust,
but nooooo the crust was soo hard on the
edges and soggy everywhere else!!
Man oh man.
That's apparently what I get for thinking it was good to be me
and getting to eat that pizza all by myself.
P.S.
My diet Pepsi was frozen too.
I ended up throwing it in the trash cuz I couldn't
suck up all the spewing soda fast enough.
Lunch for me today was a candy bar from the vending machine..