Friday, September 30, 2011

Oh, the lovely leaves and Animal Friday

I just love this time of year!





My favorite tree.





A view up through the maple tree by the house. Pretty cool, eh?





I had a whole post written up about my eldest son, but deleted it instead. I shall just say the we are having some growing pains. I never knew it would be so difficult to have an adult child (is 18 almost 19 really and adult?!?! - im thinking NOT) living at home.





I just want to kick his ass when he doesn't make sound decisions.





Anyhow.





My Mother and Gerry are on their way here. Should be arriving late this evening.





Chyann has been elected to the student council at school and going to the homecoming dance and football game tonight. Very exciting for her!


I'm thinking Casper does not apprecieate green hairspray.


TGIF!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

This and that

The leaves are changing. My favorite tree has just the most vibrant colors.




It is the beginning of deer bow hunting season here and the hunters are every where. We moved the cows behind the barn so we can ride in the front pasture area. Which needs to be replanted due to the weeds trying to take over.



Chyann out on Scotch. She has a new obstacle course set up. I'll have to get a video of her doing it - pretty cute.







Caden gathered all his favorite pumpkins up yesterday and plans on carving a different face in each of these guys. We had a bumper crop of pumpkins this year - tiny little ones, perfect jack-o-lantern ones and ones that are so big I can barely carry them.






We found this one growing in the lilac tree. Crazy, eh?



Had to throw in a picture of my Dad, the kids and I. We were checking out all the pumpkins.



I'm still messing with tomato's from the garden. Yesterday I made a batch of tomato wild rice soup that was wonderful! Today I'm going to do some kind of tomato vegetable soup. Ride horses and watch football! Not necessarily in that order.


Looking forward to working from home, deployment date is still Oct 13th. Need to get my office all straightened out - put away/move the sewing stuff, decide if I want to keep the twin bed in there, get a cork board for hanging stuff I need to see on a regular basis and more that I can't think of right now.


What the hell is up with this adult acne shit? I tell ya - it sucks! Hormones, oh hormones...


On that note I must get busy. Have a fine Sunday where ever you are :)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Happenings in our neck of the woods

I've been trying to get this post out for two days now.. eek..
I worked 4 10's last week to have Friday off to spend with my Dad who came for a visit.

The visit was waaaay to short, with him arriving on Friday evening and departing early Sunday afternoon. We absolutely loved having him here! His 69th Birthday was on Saturday too, this was the first Birthday of his, that I had spent with him in probably better than 25 years. We made a cake and had all the birthday fun including a bonfire that night. He was even able to go to Caden's first football game of the season as well - which really thrilled Caden!

Chyann woke up to a lovely mouse present that her kitties brought up to her room from the basement yesterday morning.

I had a fire in the oven last night. The element must have blown and caught fire burning all the way around it. Was scary.

The bearing in my dryer is going out too. It squeals like crazy when I run it..

Tentative deployment home to work is the 13th of October!! so exciting :)

Was able to save most of the tomato's in the garden from the hard frost last week = more tomato work come this weekend. Need to come up with some new tomato ideas. Do you have any?

Also good news is that my Mom and Gerry are coming for a visit next weekend! We are most excited to see them too!!

All else is well - Happy Hump day!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The Moon

A cool picture looking through the apple trees, up into the pasture where you can just barely see Gypsy's hind legs and tail swishing in the twilight with the big ol' moon coming out.


I sure felt a nip in the air this morning when I when out to feed the animals. Quite a change from two days ago when it was almost 90*. The forecast is even calling for some frost tonight. We'll be covering the tomato's to try and save them as I'm not done with them yet and there are still so many. I've had quite the bumper crop this year.


Where did summer go?


Welcome Autumn ready or not...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Little Drummer girl and the Thrift sale deal of the summer

Saturday was the Fireman's Parade and Chyann marched in it with the Middle school band.


Pretty cute how all three of these drummers are pursing their lips. Must make it easier to carry the drum, ya think?


Poor Chyann was completely and totally wiped out from marching in the hot sun and carrying the snare drum.


And look who we saw.. Course I think he and his buddy were trying to sneak in and out of the Cenex without us seeing them, but I did and whistled as loudly as I could to let him know he was seen (and I can whistle pretty loud). They dithered for a few moments then decided to come over and see us. He hadn't came home the night before and I had to harass him some (a whole lot actually) for not calling to let us know what was going on. FYI - the phone I pay for will be shut off if it happens again, cuz really if you can't use it to call me you must not need it :)

Was nice to see him though since it seems like we never do.

And the deal Thrift Sale deal of the summer was this gorgeous PIANO!



While at a sale this retired gal asked me if I knew of anyone looking for a piano and it just so happens that I have been looking for one, but haven't found one yet that I could squeeze into the budget.

This gal says she purchased it about 10 years ago for 800bucks with the intention of taking lessons and learning how to play. That never happened so it's been pushed from one side of her living room to the other for 10 years and she is getting her wood floors redone and needs to have it gone. Before I could even ask how much, she says 20bucks takes it since you have kids that would enjoy it!

The Hubby rounded up his good friends and brought it home on Sunday. I have no idea where we are going to put this ginormous piano, but do know that the kids absolutely LOVE it!







Friday, September 9, 2011

Exciting stuff

I canned all last weekend and got a monster load of tomato's done. 5 batches of salsa, 2 batches of crushed tomato's and 1 batch of a newly found recipe for jalapeno cranberry jelly. I'll be doing even more this weekend - probably some tomato soup, spaghetti sauce and the jalapeno cranberry jelly. I think I'll even try a recipe for jalapeno apple jelly. Oh and applesauce...

I sure love the yellow and orange tomato's they are so meaty.



I filled my kitchen table two times with tomato's like this.



This is just a fraction of the peppers I used.




The kids are all doing well at school.

And on to my EXCITING news...

It looks like my Dad is coming to visit next Friday! You know what that means, right? Anxiety over a clean house. Not that we are pigs or anything, but I will be doing a good swabbing of the place before he gets here.

And even more news...

I have been approved to work from home!!
Same shitty hours, but we'll be saving about $375 bucks right off in gas! How about that??!! I'm quite thrilled at the prospect of working from home and I'll still be eligible for any schedule changes that come available.
After my Dad leaves we'll be fixing up the extra bedroom to be my work area. The company previously would supply everything from the computer to your desk and chair, but now days you just bring home the computer you were using at work and use your own desk, chair or whatever else you need. It will take three to four weeks to get all the connections made here at the house and I'll be ready to work from home!

Busy weekend ahead. Hope you enjoy yours :)




Saturday, September 3, 2011

First day of school, football and a pig tale

School has started!


Much to Chyann's irritation we got a few pictures outside the school on Thursday.


Upon entering the busy halls of school most every kid and teacher we passed asked about Colton - How is he, where is he, tell him to call me, etc... Which was nice. Made me wish he were back in High School though..



Caden had his first football practice too. Holy shit was it a hot day. About 91* with high humidity and the BUGS were ferocious! Caden made the mistake of guzzling some water right before practice started and felt sick to his stomach for a bit, but made it through.




Let me tell you a pork story.



Once upon a time there were two pink pigs. They lived in a cute pig house with a nice yard where they could root to their hearts content. Unfortunately these pink pigs were unaware that the glorious sun could turn their delicate pink backs into pork rinds on the hoof and became RED pigs from sunburn. In an attempt to protect their delicate red backs from more sunburn they were confined to the pig house until healed. Upon release from the pig house they began to root in earnest - possibly thinking in their little pig brain that they'd better get in as much rooting as possible in case they were confined to the pig house again. Coupled with the sunburn, which is really not a big deal, but add the stress of continually rooting and you will get pig exhaustion which equals pneumonia.



Yes, the porkers got pneumonia from rooting until exhaustion over took them.



Another trip to the vet and we came home armed with needles and antibiotics.



You would not believe, even when ailing with pneumonia, how strong pigs are and how their screams make your ears want to bleed.



Alas, all is well and the porkers are on the road to recovery.



Moral of this story: Consider using sunblock on pink pigs in the future as recently suggested by a gentle reader or return them to the barn with cement floors if they start the continual rutting again. (If you are wondering about the tire in there? The pigs play with it - kind of like a border collie with a ball.)



A question posed by the Hubby about the pigs getting pneumonia from continual rutting is: What do pigs do in the wild? My answer is domestic pigs and wild pigs are two completely different species now days. Consider that the domestic pig has been raised on concrete floors in huge barns for generations now and the switch to shut off the rooting reflex is either defective or been bread out since they cannot root on concrete.


Why we've only just now had this problem with the pigs we raise? Who knows, especially since we've gotten our pigs from the same breeder for about five years now.





Enjoy your weekend. I'll be here canning away :)