Smell my dairy air

Hay Day

2012-01-22T09:14:00.010-06:00

Yesterday we had to restock our hay supply. Our hay monger lives about 3 miles to the north from us so it wasn't a long trip. We pay a little more for the convenience of choosing to get it from this guy, but the Hubby thinks it is well worth the extra money as the hay is always good, it's close, they are nice folks and we don't have to buy in bulk.

The mister of the operation was actually in AK trapping in Cantwell so his wife did the loading.

I was majorly impressed with her skid steer skills.

And told her if she ever gave lessons, I'd be first in line to learn how to maneuver that machine so smoothly!

It was about -5 with no wind, thankfully. The sky was a spectacular shade of blue.

The bales in the truck are straight alfalfa and on the trailer are a grassy alfalfa mix.

The end result. Ready for the trip home.

Backing up to the barn so we can use the wench to pull the bales off into the barn.
Scotch watching intently.

Our hay monger quit bailing the small squares a few years ago and not a lot of farmers in this area still put out the small bales, so we get the big squares. They weight about 900lbs. Depending on the weather we go through about a bale a week.

Colton has started weight bearing on his right foot and using one crutch. He is doing well and the foot isn't hurting at all - YAY!

Football playoffs today!

BURRRRRR! Winter has arrived!

2012-01-19T19:56:00.003-06:00

The high temp today was -3*, add in a biting wind we are talking about -20*ish.. Damn cold!

You'd think this kind of weather would keep my kid indoors right? Nope. Soon as we got home from visiting Krissy at the library (twice in one week I've seen that gal!) she had to drag out a few horses. Today's big idea was to pony Jenny with Scotch. You can just barely see the blue of her coat through the willow and maple branches.

Scotchie was an angle and Jenny apparently decided to try kicking Shasta and somehow ended up tugging Chyann off Scotch. And what was I doing? Watering the cows - freezing my arse off!

Can't have a day without horses you know, regardless of the weather. Wish I had a horse at her age.

Anyhow, I had a nasty surprise yesterday. I put the dogs out on my break, did a little laundry and sweeping, then called the dogs back in. Wasn't really paying much attention to them.. Came back down for lunch and see something odd on my couch. Turn on the light and discover one of those rotten dogs had brought in a frozen chunk of horse shit to gnaw on while I wasn't looking! OH WHAT A MESS! Good thing it was on my old couch and I can easily strip off the covers and wash.

I'll be watching those gal's a little closer from now on....

MLK day and 2 yrs of being a non-smoker

2012-01-17T14:40:00.003-06:00

MLK day was yesterday.
I had it off and enjoyed a surprise visit from Krissy. Had not seen her in a coons age (funny I had dreamed about her the night before too). We had lunch and got caught up on life and such.

It was also my 2nd anniversary of quitting smoking!
So pleased that I can say that - 2 years being a non-smoker - YAY!

Seemed like once I really decided to quit that was it for me (had to stop mind screwing myself first though. You know how you tell yourself - I'll quit tomorrow or I wont be the one who gets cancer or the best rationalization for smoking I NEED THIS CIGARETTE BECAUSE IT IS GOING TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER/TAKE AWAY THE STRESS - whatever. Smoking for me was a bullshit crutch and I decided I was sick of it.

Course I had all the miserable cravings, which I was able to get through by taking as deep of a breath as I could and holding it for as long as I could. At first I sure couldn't hold it long and usually ended up coughing, but now I can hold my breath for a good long time with no coughing and I don't get out of breath unless I'm really doing something that warrants it. Still haven't lost the 10 pounds that I gained, but I haven't put on any more than that either, so I'm ok with that - well not really, but I hope to get more active now that I'm on a good schedule and have more daylight hours to work with. Glad that I don't stink like an ashtray. Amazing to me how bad smokers smell and they have no clue.

Life is good - especially being a non-smoker :)
Here's to it being a short week and more football this weekend!

PS - yes I'm bummed the Packers tanked it, but there is always next year. Can't decide if I want the 49er or the Giants to win...

This, that and the big 14

2012-01-14T08:27:00.005-06:00

I have no idea what has kept me so busy this last week. A few highlights were:

Going out to dinner and getting a full, huge glass of lemon-aid spilled in my lap. Almost hitting someones horse on the way home in the dark. Trying to catch the little guy when no one was home, calling the non-emergency police line to let them know. The football playoffs are here. Having the most gorgeous spring like weather for a few days; spending all my time outside cleaning up crap and enjoying the fresh air. We even had a record high temp on Tuesday of 53*. Then of course it got crappy and by Thursday our high temp was only 16* and windy as hell. We ended up getting about 4 inches of snow too - burrrrr. Winter is here. Can't complain about it too much since we'll start seeing the real spring present itself in about six weeks or so. I can handle that, especially since the days are definitely getting longer. With my new schedule it feels like I have a new outlook (yes, that probably means I'm not so bitchy). I've got time again to do baking and try out new recipes for dinner, instead of relying on the quick and easy standbys.

My baby, Shasta Breeze and the new LEGO CITY!

Colton, getting some fresh air. Last week's doctor appointment confirms that he is growing new cartilage and should have a good outcome from the operation. One more week of no weight bearing. He has been a trooper, hasn't even taken any pain meds for 10 days. Getting a bit of cabin fever though.

And last but not least, the lovely Chyann turned 14 yesterday! Hard to believe, but true. She is growing into a wonderfully beautiful young lady with loads and loads of potential to do anything her heart desires. I'm so proud of all that she has accomplished and continually amazed by her determination and force of will, course these strong traits can be a problem on occasion as well, but more often than not are a good thing.

Happy 14th Birthday Chyann!

TGIF

2012-01-06T15:30:00.004-06:00

Yesterday I was able to enjoy the following:

Caden trying to make a snowman with what little snow we have left and Casper watching.

Casper appearing quite befuddled at the strange ball of snow.

Jenny and Chyann checking out the strange mound as well.

A lovely sunset while brushing horses.

On a mild January evening.

With my children outside.

all because

I GOT MY REQUESTED SCHEDULE CHANGE!

STARTING IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!

Gaining Daylight

2012-01-04T08:45:00.003-06:00

We are gaining about a minute plus of daylight every day and the temps are going to be in the low to mid 40's tomorrow and Thursday. Giving us all hope that spring really is coming.

Although it really hasn't been a bad winter so far, I'm just tired of the short daylight hours and working during all of them. Can't complain too much about the daylight either, at least I don't have to deal with the extreme darkness of living in AK during the winter anymore. Hoping to find out if I'm getting a schedule change soon - fingers crossed.

Chyann and Caden are back to school. Christmas vacation seemed so short this year.

Colton is taking this semester off due to his operation and other factors. He has applied to UW River Falls for the fall semester. Planning on working full time after he recovers from the ankle operation and saving up some money.

My refrigerator, that is only about five years old, started acting funny - not being cool enough, over the weekend. The Hubby cleaned all the lint/gunk from behind and below it. Then we held our breath to see what it was going to do. This am I had some leftover taters along the back wall and a few eggs that were frozen. Hmm.. so I turned it to a slightly warmer temp. Let's hope it is not going out.

Enjoy your Humpday

Another 365 days have passed

2012-01-01T08:57:00.011-06:00

Goodbye 2011 and HELLO 2012!

I'm going to say 2011 was pretty momentous for our family. I think I'll do a year in review blog later in the week.

We went to a fun New Years Eve party at my good friend Sherri's place. Great company, good food - really the best best garlic cream cheese sour cream dip stuff!, lots of laughs, some games too.

I petered out early due to having had to work yesterday AM and apparently not getting a long enough nap so we were home by about 1130p. Good thing too because it had started snowing earlier and the roads were really crappy. A drive that usually takes about six minutes took almost a half hour, that's how snotty the roads were.

And we came home to find Chyann and her buddy that spent the night, outside riding Gypsy double bareback in the snow with no helmets, bridle, or even a halter and did I mention it was DARK or that Gypsy had not been ridden in about a month?!?! All Chyann had on Gypsy was a rope around her neck - she neck reigns.

Of all the dumb ass things to do!

Really.

Funny we had just been talking earlier in the evening of the stupid shit we all did as kids and how it was amazing that we lived through adolescence! Most of the stories we told involved booze, smoking and sneaking out. Guess I can be grateful Chyann's idea of stupid shit didn't involve any of that, but still mighty dangerous all the same.

By the time all the horse confessions were over with it was just about time for the ball to drop.

The Hubby took the kids outside to blow off a few fireworks in the falling snow

and I was snoozing before 1a.

This morning it's trying to snow again and a bit windy.

Little Millie is not so little anymore. Six months and a week old the Hubby is making noise about weaning her.

Gypsy and Jennifer this morning.

You can still see butt marks on Gypsy's back from the girl's midnight ride.

The lovable Sparky.

Hope you had a safe New Years Eve and have a wonderful New Year!

And so it goes...

2011-12-29T07:13:00.004-06:00

AAh Christmas is done.

Since we rarely have family here for holidays (or any other time) I think the kids will always remember having Mom and Gerry with us to celebrate this holiday.

Mom, Chyann and I played numerous games of Scrabble and if you can believe this - Chyann kicked our buns most every game! And that is not even letting her win! She was coming up with seven letter obscure words that knocked our socks off!

Watched a few favorite Christmas movies.

Wrapped the last of the presents.

Had so much fun cooking with my Mother and even doing all those damn dishes.

The weather was unseasonably warm, mid 30's on Christmas day and the wind was blowing so that made Chyann's Christmas day ride a bit blustery and cold. She had to try out her new pink helmet and the ear band that fits perfectly under the helmet.

Jenny banged up her shin so she took Scotch and ponied Casper.

She was irritated that I didn't come out and ride too. What can I say I'm a big pansy, it was too cold for me.

Mom and Gerry left on Monday about noon and had a miserable trip back to OK due to numerous flat tires and other little mishaps. Then get home to find most of their 30 cows have went through the fence. Good thing Gerry has them trained to come running at the sound of his voice. Didn't take him too long to get them rounded back up and back in their pen.

Colton is really doing well. Not a lot of pain anymore and has figured out the crutches. I'm taking him in today for a bandage change so we'll get a good look at his ankle.

Toodles :)

Christmas Eve and more

2011-12-24T08:53:00.002-06:00

Happy Christmas!

I can't believe it's already Christmas eve.

Colton's surgery went well yesterday. The doc cleaned the area all out and said Coton's prognosis is good - if he doesn't smash that new cartilage. He had a nerve block and pain yesterday afternoon was pretty minimal. Even going so far as to make plans to have the girlie-friend pick him up on Christmas day to spend some time at her family's house. BUT the nerve blocker wore off last night and he was about 40 minutes behind on the pain meds and was miserable for literally hours. Finally got enough meds in him for him to sleep at about 5a.
He's never had this kind of pain before and has no idea how to handle it. He keeps bring up Chyann and the bone operations she's had in the past and saying he is a wimp compared to her - how did she do this - and he is a major klutz using the crutches, saying how'd Chyann make using crutches look so easy? She has been giving him pointers, but he is not getting it.. Practice grasshopper I tell him. He will get the hang of crutches and get through this.

Mom and Gerry arrived yesterday about a half hour before we got home from the surgery center. They ran into a few snow showers on the way here, but nothing significant until they hit our neck of the woods. We get about a half inch of snow that made the roads slicker than snot. Looks like we may have a white Christmas after all. Course on Monday we are forecast to get up to the low 40's so it wont last long.

Caden thinks he broke his nose at school on Wednesday. He was doing a flip and fell hitting his knee into his nose. OUCH! Had quite the bloody nose at school he said. His nose is only a bit swollen and definitely has a new bump on bridge and a slight black eye on the right. Christ o mighty!

What else?

The pigs got hauled to the butcher on Wednesday.

We got the cows back from the butcher. I'll have to take a pic and show you what almost 800lbs of beef looks like.

Packers got spanked by Kansas City last week, looking forward to this Sunday's game.

All else is well.

Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas!

A talus bone tale

2011-12-21T17:51:00.002-06:00

Friday Colton is having surgery on his ankle.

The official diagnosis is Osteochondral defect of the talus.

Basically this means a piece of bone and cartilage has broken free from the end of the talus bone - the ankle. If the detached piece of bone stays put, lying close to where it was detached from, there may be few or no symptoms and the fracture will occasionally heal on it's own.

In Colton's case the fragment of bone has moved and is continually getting smashed around in his ankle joint. This has caused cysts to form in the bone area above and below where the chunk of detached bone is smashing around.

The doctor is going to go in and take out the floating bone fragment, dig out the cysts that have killed bone/cartilage. Then drill holes in the cleaned up bone area to get it to bleed profusely in order to encourage new cartilage growth. At this time that is the plan any how. When the doc gets in there he'll know how deep the cysts go and if a graft of cartilage from his knee is needed or even one from a cadaver - depending on how big of an area is damaged.

Then he can have absolutely NO WEIGHT bearing for a minimum of six weeks. If he bears his weight he could smash and ruin the new cartilage growth and the operation would have been for naught.

So, since this is his right ankle that means no driving himself anywhere. A huge impediment in a 19 year old's life. Merry Christmas, eh?

Anyhow.. that is our talus tale.

Happy Hump day ~ Toodles :)

An open letter to Mr Dishwasher

2011-12-18T20:10:00.006-06:00

Oh Mr Dishwasher how I miss you.

It has been one week since you went to appliance heaven - although your current resting place is still in my kitchen, you are indeed gone, gone, gone.

Every time I walk by you I wish you were back with me.

I long to push your buttons, to turn you on and hear your motor run.

As I slather my red and chapped hands with lotion I realize how much I took for granted that you would always be with me.

When we first looked at this house with the Realtor I fell in love with it.

I told the Hubby how perfect this house was for our family and he said "but there is no dishwasher." I promptly responded with "I'd live in that house forever with no dishwasher!"

(no shit i really said that)

We bought the house and began this fairy tale life.

Did I mention that I was pregnant when we moved in? And that it was the hottest summer on record, with high humidity and temps 90* to 100* for most of the summer and we had an Indian summer in Oct as well? And that we are from Alaska where the high temp is about mid 70's? And we had no air-conditioner?

Well, all that is true and I washed the damn dishes by hand everyday, sometimes multiple times a day because we are a family that likes to EAT and I had young children that had no concept of using one freaking glass a day.

All was well.

Until my Lovely Mother and Gerry came for Caden's birth.

I was one miserably fat and horribly swollen gal.

This pic was taken two days before Caden was born. It's hard to see, but my ankles were about the size of my knees.
And this is when my (as previously stated) Lovely Mother and Gerry decided I needed you as a house-warming present and brought you home to me.

You were not just any dishwasher, but a state of the art portable dishwasher since the kitchen wasn't built with a dishwasher in mind and there was not a lot of time available for Gerry/the Hubby to install one.

I fell in love instantly! Completely and totally realizing what a help you would be in my life. Allowing me more time with my infant son and two older kids - especially Chyann who was massively jealous of Caden. And in later years making it possible to escape the kitchen and learn new things like gardening and renewing my love of horses.

I miss you Mr Dishwasher.

But you will be replaced.

I'm not sure if it will be with another portable model or one that is installed under the cabinet or exactly when your replacement is coming, but one will be and hopefully soon.

Forever yours,

xoxo

What's happening?

2011-12-14T05:53:00.002-06:00

Got thrown off last Thursday morning by unexpectedly having no Internet service at home, then having to scramble around to make it into the office on time. Was great to see everyone though.

Mom and Gerry came up on Friday night and spent the weekend with us. Gerry went for hay and Mom did a marathon shopping expedition with me. They left Sunday around noonish and I got a good nap in, then watched the Packers spank the Raiders - did you kick the TV in Jeff?

I was nominated at work for a Service Hero award with the grand prize being a trip to Florida in February. I didn't win the trip but was taken out to lunch yesterday with the other nominees and received a nice certificate.

Colton has finals this week.

Christmas is a mere 10 days from now and I still have a snot load of shopping to do.

Mom and Gerry are coming back up for Christmas, this will be wonderful as I haven't had a Christmas with them in probably 14 years.

Chyann and Caden have the most awful coughs. I am feeling the crud creeping in again as well...

It has warmed up here and the snow has mostly melted. Sloppy mess.

My absolutely most favorite appliance - the dishwasher, took a shit on Sunday night. The kids and I have been washing dishes by hand, eeew. New experience for the kids since we've always had a dishwasher. Why does this kind of thing always happen right before a holiday or some other time you'd least like to have to replace it?

I got all the Christmas cards done last night and will be mailing those suckers today!

Chyann is keeping the cats locked in her room at night so we haven't had the tree knocked over recently. Gracie will occasionally try to climb it, but not as often since I throw pillows at her any time she is near the tree.

Got to get moving as I'm working in the office again today to attend a meeting and a holiday celebration.

Happy Hump day :)

Aaah the snow is here..

2011-12-07T20:23:00.003-06:00

Sure is starting to feel like the holiday season here with all the snow we got this last weekend.

About 3" and it is here to stay if the cold temps after the big snow are any indication.

Yes we got that pool cover, but haven't put it on. Any bets that we end up not doing it at all? Just stuffing it in the basement until next fall - that's my guess. We've never not put a cover on and I wonder what the water will look like in the spring.

Got the Christmas picture taken too - maybe this year I'll find the time to ACTUALLY get it sent out (fingers crossed).

How's your Christmas stress level this year? Me.. I'm starting to worry a bit.

No shopping even started for me yet. I'm planning on doing some online shit shit weekend and hitting the stores on Saturday after work - yes I'm working on Saturday, possibly Sunday too.

We've got some mandatory OT going on at work. Which is relatively easy to do working from home.

Although I will say I was surely pissed off tonight when I came downstairs and see no dishes done, the table loaded down with backpacks/books/dirty dishes and the entryway loaded with messy shoes/coats and no one even thinking of dinner - Except to say "what's for dinner ma?". This after working from 730a - 635p.. Really? Are you shitting me!?!

So -- I had to get pissy.

THEN everyone starts to get into action; table cleared, entry way straightened, dishes unloaded, laundry unloaded/put away and all that - even had help making dinner.

There. No what wasn't so hard now was it? And your mama is a much happier gal.

Deep breath now..

That's better....

So..

Happy Hump day :)

Only 17 more shopping days till Christmas

Early Christmas surprise

2011-12-05T08:05:00.004-06:00

Chyann and I received a lovely surprise in the mail.

Completely unexpected my wonderful brother Jeff sent me a card that made me cry and necklaces that his son's wife made - guess that would make her my niece in law? Funny too that her name is also Kelly, spelled different, but again there is a Kelly Wilson in the family.

Kelly is back in AK while her Hubby, my nephew Cody, is in pre-ranger school.

Kelly is a quite the crafty gal and has her own etsy shop. You can check out her items here http://www.etsy.com/shop/kellyannwilson

Chyann is trying not to look too thrilled, as one of her friends is taking the picture.

Closer pic of Chyann's heart.
It didn't occur to me to have her take a pic of mine till I was posting this today. Not the best self portrait. If you can't tell my heart is white w/yellow (my favorite color) polka dots and my initial K. We love our heart charms and the chains are of very nice quality too!

They are such a hit several of Chyann's friends are going to order necklaces as well. You wouldn't know it, because he NEVER comments but my brother is an avid reader of my blog. He usually reads it at work - he works the graveyard shift at the airport in Anchorage and apparently all his co-workers are readers as well - So HELLO to all you DOT workers in AK! Finnish your coffee and get back to work :)

Thanks Jeff, you really made my day! I love you xoxo

Have you ever heard of this this gal?

2011-12-01T08:24:00.002-06:00

Her name is Adele and she has the most amazing voice.

Do you see what I see?

2011-11-29T08:41:00.004-06:00

Gracie in the tree.

She is quite stealthy.

This is an old artificial tree with those wire branches that have the fake pine needles on the ends.

Yesterday I was upstairs working, when it sounded like all hell was breaking loose down there, so I went down to investigate. All was quiet - with only Shasta wagging her tail and looking up into the tree, which is how I happened to spot Gracie laying on the wire branches looking ever so guilty.

She hasn't knocked it over yet. The star on the top has been found hanging off the side and a few balls have been broken.

A cat continually in the tree shall make for an interesting holiday season.

Wood and NOT a stray cat

2011-11-27T08:47:00.008-06:00

We spent most of the day outside yesterday.

With temps in the 40's we got rain instead of snow. Which was ok by me.

This is the load of wood we split and got stacked in the basement. Man am I sore today.

With almost no grass left in the horse pasture - it's been nibbled down to nothing, add in all the rain Friday night and pretty much all day Saturday it is a sea of mud back there that Casper loves to roll in, YUCK!

Came in from doing wood and what do I find with Caden on the couch?
The neighbors cat, which he seems to think is a stray and he will get to keep.
He says "Well Mom, he was just sitting on the porch when I came in and he looked hungry."
Are you kidding?
Do you see how BIG this unneutered male cat is? He has been eating and eating well - at the neighbors house to the West of us (not the dopes to the East that forget to feed their animals).

He is a very affectionate nice cat, that even seemed to like Shasta, but he is not ours and we don't need any more cats.
Poor kid had to go put him outside, I'm such a meanie.
Today he is sitting on the step, waiting to be let in, damn.

Thankful for so many things

2011-11-26T09:32:00.008-06:00

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays and not just because we get to feast on the best holiday dishes around.

My list of reasons to be thankful is mighty long.

The snow is gone, although we expect to get a bit tonight. I actually hung sheets out to dry on Thanksgiving day - that's how nice the weather has been here.

The willow in the front yard.

A Thanksgiving toe story

Thanksgiving morning Chyann got a call from the neighbors saying they were in such a hurry to get where they were spending the holiday that they forgot to feed their rabbits and dog - really are you kidding me? How could you forget that? Anyhow she rode Scotch up to take care of their animals (they even forgot to close their garage door). When she got home she was putting Scotch away and he stepped on her right foot. She heard a pop and felt a sharp pain. Being the tough gal that she is she continued on putting him away.

Now let me say that due to nerve damage she has almost no feeling in her right foot, so for her to have actually felt pain it must have hurt like hell!

When she came in we looked at her foot and saw that her pinky toe was swollen to about four times it's normal size and bleeding from under the nail and blackish/blue/purple in color.

Not much you can do with a possibly broken toe on Thanksgiving day, so we took her in to the doc yesterday for xrays. No broken toe thankfully - but still massively swollen and an infection already brewing under the nail. drat. Good thing we took her in and that she was actually wearing heavy boots otherwise she might have really broken some bones.

Sloppy eating horses.

Jennifer is flinging up the hay onto Gypsy to get all the sweet little bits underneath.

The Hubby put a rail around the feeder to keep Lily out of it because she about tipped it over twice trying to get out of it.
She gives us the ol' stink eye now.

I turn around to find sweet Casper eating out of the wheelbarrow.

Hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving weekend, I know I sure am.

The first snow and other blither blather

2011-11-20T10:01:00.005-06:00

Can you imagine this big ol' cow climbing into the feeder?

I told the Hubby Lily was climbing up there and he couldn't believe it, so I had to take some pictures.

We got our first snow yesterday. Only about 2 inches, but enough to remind us all that it is wintertime.

Grandpa drove up from Oklahoma Friday night and headed back out with a load of hay yesterday. He got caught in a blizzard going through southern Minnesota and it took him six hours to get to the state line, which is when the snow quit, of course..

Our old pool tarp was too worn to put back on this winter. I've ordered a new one and it should be here soon.

Colton is finally feeling better, only took four trips to the doctor and almost two weeks of missed school/work.

Although now there is a new issue to deal with. On one of his first trips into the doc he told them that his right ankle had been bothering him a lot. They did an xray and said they'd let him know what the radiologist said. Two days later we get a call saying he has been referred to a Podiatrist/Orthopedic surgeon. Had that appointment the other morning and it appears that he was incorrectly diagnosed back in 2008 with a sprained ankle - he actually had a fracture. So, what does this mean? Surgery for sure - more on that to come.

Chyann sold her little pink saddle on CraigsList! She was soo thrilled!

The first quarter of school is over and both kids brought home report cards with straight A's! How awesome is that!!

And as requested a picture of me with my goofy ass dark hair.

Currently it is only half as dark as what I started out with and have a very attractive blond streak on the left side of my head - I didn't do the best application of dye apparently.

With me is my very dear friend :) xoxo

Still here...

2011-11-13T08:23:00.005-06:00

but sicker than hell.

Colton has bronchitis, sinus and ear infections that has caused him to miss five days of school and work (so far - maybe more cuz he is still not well). Now Chyann and I have it.

Cairo

Wednesday we dodged the first major storm of the year. Folks just 60 miles to the East of us got up to a foot of snow! While we not nothing! Which was good because Chyann and I took a trip to the cities for some doctor stuff.

She was cranky at having to leave school.

About 20 min into the drive she grumps at me "Did you FART!!!" and rolls the window down about half way. umm.. no, you are smelling the shit the farmers spread on the fields and since the window is now down it really stinks in the van.
She mutters about stinky farmers and tries to roll up the window. Huh, guess what? It wont roll up. Electric windows - great technology if it works, right? I pulled over and tried to get it up to no avail. So off we go - to the cites. It's about 44* and we are going about 70 down the interstate.
It was LOUD and cold in the van even with the heaters on full blast - did I mention it was also windy? Blowing about 30 from the North? Which was right into that open window.

Well let me tell ya it was tremendously loud and quite freezing. Chyann of course is such a cool kid she only wore a sweatshirt jacket up to the bus stop that morning. There are blankets in the back but they "stink".

My lovely daughter had her fingers in her ears just moments before I snuck this picture of her.

After about 30 minutes she was able to go get the window to roll up - and boy were we happy about that! Lots of tapping and smacking on that window button, it must have a short in it or something.

Seahorse at the hospital

Thursday we got the steers, Eight ball and Cinnamon, loaded up on my lunch break and the Hubby took them to the butcher.

I was able to go to the school Friday for the Veterans day program. The school always puts on such a nice program with a guest speaker, singing and patriotic music.

Saturday the Hubby went and picked up Lilly and Marble from the farmer down the road. They are both three months pregnant!

Also
My hair is still a darkish brown.
18 more washes left - supposedly.
Although I do see a slight difference in the color.
I no longer scare myself when I look in the mirror and that is a bonus!

Mr Pool Shark

2011-11-07T08:27:00.002-06:00

With the cooler temps and not spending as much time outside - it's pool time again.

Caden is quite the pool shark. He wears his fancy hat, uses his lucky stick and wins more than he loses.

Yes, this is my basement and I need a basement make over!

I did it again. I don't know why I do this, but I can't seem to help myself.

I dyed my hair.

uGHGU

Or rather I put a semi perm color on my hair. It's only supposed to last for 28 washes.

The color is light brown - chocolate truffle. The top doesn't look too bad, but starting at about my ears it starts getting REALLY DARK! Like almost a blackish.. shit..

For some reason I see myself as a blond, but I'm not. Maybe a very dirty blond with lighter highlights or something like that. Last time I had my hair done (highlights done by a professional) was for Colton's graduation. I could not stand the grow out any longer and on impulse got a box of dye last time I was a the store and yesterday while watching football decided to give it a whirl.

Oh my. I really hope it washes out soon - only 26 more washes left (hopefully).

Animal Friday!

2011-11-04T07:57:00.002-05:00

TGIF!

Silly Gracie camping out on the slouching Chyann.

It was chilly out this AM, even a light skim of ice on the pig water. Going to be a gorgeous fall day with clear blue skies though.

It's been an interesting week.

Chyann has decided that she has grown out of her pink synthetic saddle that she's had since 2008 and now wants a new one that is several hundred bucks.

Now begins the quest to sell her old one.

She posted the ad on Craigslist and someone deleted it. After three attempts to sell it on Craigslist- even going so far as to say DON'T DELETE MY AD THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT!! It keeps getting deleted/removed. She decided to move on to Ebay.

We've never sold anything there, but she figured it out and has it for sale there.

No bids yet, but she is hopeful.

For the Physical therapy program Colton is in you have to first become a CNA - certified nursing assistant. He has completed all the class work and last week began working in a nursing home. First day was basically shadowing another CNA to get to know the place, ect. Yesterday he preformed all CNA duties on his own. He said it was the saddest thing he's ever had to do, but made him feel good about helping the people who couldn't help themselves.

The clinical at the nursing home lasts for six more weeks and he will be glad when it's done. Having decided maybe health care is not the field he wants to get into. A transfer to River Falls for the 2012/13 year is in the works.

It's time to load the basement with wood. We'll be busy with that this weekend.

Have a good one!

Halloween

2011-11-01T08:00:00.001-05:00

Colton turned 19 yesterday!

His girlie friend made him a very cool cake.

Check out Gotham City on the side.

He is so very handsome, I think.

The kids - plus girlie friend all dressed up.

And
It's our 20th Anniversary.

Somehow we went from this:

to this.

20 years is a long time to be married.

We've had many more good times than bad

and definitely some shit times I didn't think we'd make it through.

Here we are though with three great kids that are smart, funny and beautiful.

I will even say - It's a wonderful life :)

Hay and more

2011-10-30T10:10:00.005-05:00

Grandpa arrived on Wednesday while Chyann and I were in the cities seeing her Doctors.

The Doc's are quite pleased with her bone healing abilities, but a somewhat worried that she is outgrowing their predictions on how tall she is going to be - currently she is 5'3''. New bone age xrays show she still has a lot of growing to do and that is problematic as they grew her right leg only 1cm longer than the left leg and the left has already caught up with the right. The right (is still growing, but at a slower rate than the left due to nerve damage and other factors) needs to be a little shorter than the left - which they planned on but it can't be too much shorter than the left.. Did you get that? So, they are going to keep a close watch on her lengths and if needed will go in and stop the left from growing. FYI she has almost full mobility back in her right knee!

So, when we got back from the cities Grandpa is taking a nap, planning on heading out that evening with the kids to Oklahoma.

After dinner they left. I cried.

When I got a hold of myself I was going to call my Mother and let her know they were on the way. Chyann called instead and said something was wrong with the truck and they were coming back. !! really?

Grandpa said the truck had no power going up hills and a code had been thrown - you know all new vehicles are ran by computers and you have to have a specialized thing to read the codes (the Hubby has one, but not for vehicles that new).

Next morning Grandpa is up early heading for the Chevy dealer to get the code thing figured out. He is back within a half hour saying the code was cleared and let's roll!

Kids hurriedly threw their stuff in the truck and they were off within 20 minutes!

I cried. Happy that they were going, but worried all the same.

I went upstairs to tidy up and get ready to start work, when the door bell rang!?! The kids were back!

Grandpa's truck was still not running properly and he didn't want to take the chance of getting stranded somewhere with the kids. Off he went to OK. He made it safely and the truck is getting fixed.

The kids were bummed about not going - Caden had big ideas of fishing in their pond and riding one of Grandpa's four wheelers - he has two and a go cart. Chyann brought a bunch of horse "stuff" because she was going to ride their horse Sonny - who use to be used for barrel racing and is a paint. She wants that horse soooo bad (Grandpa would probably give him to her if she could talk her Daddy into it). She also had ideas of cooking for Grandma and taking care of her - she just had a shoulder operation to fix her rotor cuff.

Getting ready to leave (the first time).

Chyann bought herself a camera for the trip to OK. Finally someone else to take pictures!

Below are some of her first shots.

Shasta breeze looking for Caden to throw that toy for her.

Casper pestering Jenny.

We have been having some of the best weather lately. It gets cool at night and warms up to the 50's during the day. Love it!

Hey! Almost forgot - I got an Excellence award from work on Friday! $$ and a certificate! How cool is that!

Are you Kidding me!?!?!?

2011-10-25T08:27:00.002-05:00

My personal hotmail account got hacked!

How and why does that happen?!!??!

I was locked out for a few days and was finally able to verify I was really the owner of the account and let back in. The hotmail folks said my email address was hijacked to send spam to people - not folks I knew, but random strangers - how rude is that?!

Caden had a swim party for his birthday last Friday after school. The lifeguard had her hands full trying to keep an eye on all the wild animals we let loose on the local pool.

A few local guys have opened up a nice little restaurant called the Green Cow. They make their own ice cream - which is wonderful, use local beef in their food and are really doing well. They are going to start making their own bread soon as well.

We took the kids their for lunch on Saturday and had a great meal. The Italian Chicken on homemade Texas toast is fantastic!

My lovely babies

Chyann had a friend over on Sunday and the three of us rode horses. Was a lot of fun! First time in a while that we've had anyone ride with us, on our horses. All the horses were well behaved and Chyann's friend showed that she was well able to handle riding Scotch.

Grandpa Gerry is heading this way today to get some more hay and pick up the kids -minus Colton, for a long weekend in Oklahoma with the Grandparents! Wish I was going too!

Have a good one!

A little of this and that...

2011-10-19T08:16:00.004-05:00

At work a few weeks ago we did a team building exercise and tie dyed shirts to wear to a company meeting - which we rocked! We played Let's Make A Deal. Which I had the pleasure of being a contestant by shouting out who the original host was "Monty Hall!" I started out with a nice company pen and traded up for the big box #2 which turned out to be a crown and pom-poms! Good fun :)

Caden thought the shirts I did were so cool! So we did some ourselves this last weekend.

Everyone did at least two shirts. Cutting the bands and unfolding them was exciting!

As they dried Gracie had to check them out too.

What a goofy cat.

Gerry made it home with his massive load of hay safely.

I should have taken a picture of how loaded he was. Next time.

It has been crazy windy here all this week. We are being squeezed between several different pressure systems and that sure makes for some blustery conditions. Definitely feeling like fall.

Working at home is a fantastic deal!

Two other gals in my work group have been approved to work from home as well. Before too long I bet half of us will be at home.

Happy Hump day!

Animal Friday!

2011-10-14T07:41:00.002-05:00

Once again it's that longed for day of the week - FRIDAY!

Shasta Breeze taking a snooze while we play domino's.

The view from my "office" window. I just happened to look out and they were all laying down. By the time I ran downstairs and back up to take the picture Gypsy and Casper were standing again.

You can just barely see Jenny and Cowboy laying down behind the Elm branch. Casper is terribly muddy from the rain the night before.

For the first few hours after I started work Chyann's cat Gracie had to be right there rubbing, trying to walk on the keyboard, laying on the desk and shedding alllllll over me! Yuck! Not to mention I had one dog or the other in my lap all day.

All in all it was a great first day of working from home. No technical issues what so ever! Just logged on and went to work, that was so nice. And I have to say that for the most part everything was just as fast as when I was in office, with only a few exceptions that I can easily deal with.

I did miss the going away potluck for my good friend Steph at work and that was a bummer, as they had some fantastic food - or so I heard.

A little OT on the books for Saturday AM as our busiest time of year officially starts tomorrow. It's the Fall open insurance enrollment for Medicare eligible folks.

Gerry is also coming up late tonight or early tomorrow to get pick up more hay. Mom is staying home and taking it easy this weekend.

Hope you have a great weekend!

The big 9!

2011-10-13T07:56:00.007-05:00

My Baby Boy turned 9 this week!

Blew out all the candles on his cake.

The siblings we in attendance as well and had fun trying to give him the required 9 swats.

That evening was Caden's last football game of the season, played under the lights.

The soybean field next door was harvested this week too. I don't remember it being such a dusty process in previous years, but boy oh boy was the dust thick.

Chyann is thrilled that they are getting the soybeans off now so we can ride in the fields since it is deer bow season and Daddy'O is not too wild on us riding in the woods.

We had a big wind last week that blew off most of the gorgeous leaves and broke a huge branch off my biggest lilac tree.

Today is my first day of working from home. I brought all my junk home last night and got everything set up. When I'm done here I'll be heading up to my "office" and logging in!

Toodles :)

Animal Friday

2011-10-07T08:35:00.007-05:00

TGIF!!

And what a long week this has been!

The folks got off early Monday AM. We sure loved having them here. Due to the hot and dry conditions in OK this last summer it looks like we'll be seeing more of them since they plan on driving up here to buy all their hay for the winter. LOVE IT!

The piggies have completely recovered from their ailment and are getting big. So big that they stand on their hind legs to look out the stone wall. Not the best picture of that, but you get the idea.

Thought I'd throw in a picture of the cows. Millie sure is getting big.

Lily and Marble, who have been running with the neighbors bull down the road, will be getting preg checked next week and returning home if pregnant or taking a trip to the butcher if not...

Chyann taking a spin on Gypsy the other day. Sure wish I'd been home earlier every day this week to have ridden with her since the weather has been absolutely beautiful - Indian summer with temps in the low 80's. She's been having a blast.

Chyann has been hired by the neighbors to bring Casper up to their house and give pony rides for their daughters Birthday party tonight. She is planning on painting Casper all up with pink paint and glitter. I told her to take some pictures for me since I'll still be at work.

No big plans for the weekend..
Tidy up my new office some since it is getting wired for work on Tuesday. Looks like I may make the deployment date of Oct 13th if all continues to go well.
Sure am glad I wont have to be driving to and from work soon as the sand mine that recently began operating in our Township started hauling the sand on Oct 1 and the roads, which are not all that great to start with, are being overtaken with huge semi type dump trucks. Today on my way to work I had nine of the buggers pass me and I sware they travel with their drivers side wheels right on the center line! Making me have to practically get in the ditch to avoid getting hit.
More on the sand mine at a later date.

Anyhow.. Hope you have a wonderful weekend :)

Having a great time!

2011-10-02T09:07:00.004-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa with Maggie too, arrived in the wee hours of yesterday morning!

The kids were so excited to see them - me too of course!

Caden with Grandpa and Maggie. Maggie is the spitting image of her mama Beegee, except for a bit smaller. Grandpa carries her like a purse!

Flat Stanley, who enjoyed many adventures and the road trip from Oklahoma to Wisconsin with the Grandparents came home as well! Caden can't wait to share all Flat Stanley's amazing trip with the kids at school tomorrow. I got the best laugh when Mom was telling us how they got out of the truck in Kansas to take some pictures of Flat Stanley playing in some gorgeous flowers, when a lady come up to them and asked if that was Flat Stanley? And told how Flat had been visiting her as well and took a road trip with her family from Wisconsin to Oklahoma! That guy sure gets around!

The Grandparents got to come to Caden's football game and see him get a touchdown!

Chyann had to show-off with Scotch a little too.

My Mother with Gracie while playing some Scrabble - our favorite game.

We stayed up waaay too late last night watching old family videos and part of Colton's last play.
I love it when my Mother is here. We always laugh so much! Three times yesterday I laughed till I cried. Isn't that just the best!

Oh, the lovely leaves and Animal Friday

2011-09-30T15:00:00.001-05:00

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!

This and that

2011-09-25T09:00:00.007-05:00

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 :)

Happenings in our neck of the woods

2011-09-19T12:13:00.003-05:00

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!

The Moon

2011-09-14T05:47:00.002-05:00

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...

Little Drummer girl and the Thrift sale deal of the summer

2011-09-13T05:35:00.009-05:00

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!

Exciting stuff

2011-09-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

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 :)

First day of school, football and a pig tale

2011-09-03T08:49:00.005-05:00

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 :)

Silly pups and some blither blather

2011-08-30T07:00:00.003-05:00

de' salsa, it be calling my name and burning my fingers.

12 pints last night after work.

Have you noticed a lot of bloggers have recently quit or just stopped? One of my favorites The Horseshoeing Housewife or aka Postcards from Arizona has, she is going to write a book about her adventures instead of blogging about them. I will be eagerly awaiting her first book.

In the amazing category - Did you hear about Nie -burned 80% of her body in a near fatal airplane crash, is now pregnant with her 5th child!?!?!?!?!? Phenomenally wonderful!

The kids have an open house at school tonight that I am missing because of my shitty hours. I am taking off on Thursday though to take them to school on the first day. A family tradition of sorts. We take pictures at the school sign every year. Funny Colton didn't want us to come with him yesterday to take pictures. Also I will add that having him go off to college (yes, I know he still lives at home and I will see him most every day) was harder than him going to Kindergarten.. I was a bit teary all day yesterday just thinking of it.

Ok, me and my bruning fingers must get ready for work now. Toodles...

Weekend fun

2011-08-28T09:06:00.007-05:00

The last weekend of August is here.

The pumpkins are ripening and I've got about a bazillion tomato's to do something with. Unfortunately my tomato to pepper ratio is off and I needed additional peppers this year. My pepper plants set all their first flowers well, but didn't set any more flowers till about two weeks ago so I just don't have enough of those baby's.

This pigs are recovered from their sunburn. You can still see a bit of red on their ears though. The porkers keep tipping over their feeder. The hubby anchored a tray thing to a pallet so they cannot tip it over anymore.

Chyann has decided to try out the cart for Casper again this year and after two days of working with him, has success with him pulling her.

Up and down the driveway they went. And if you're wondering why her leg is hanging out the side - it's because she wanted to be able to launch herself out in case of an emergency and not have to worry about getting it tangled up.

Caden gets a ride too. Shortly after this picture was taken they had a minor cart incident with a pole breaking. No one was hurt and the Hubby can repair it.

Colton starts school tomorrow. He is excited, but admits to being a bit nervous as well.

I know he plans on going to the tech school for at least this semester, but he'll probably try to go to a four year college - with dorms in January or at the latest next fall. He has all these new ideas for things he'd like to do... And I guess that is normal? Everyone I've talked to have said that they changed their mind at least twice during college (one gal told me she changed her mind FIVE times!).

New canning thing-a-ma-jig and poor porkers

2011-08-24T15:30:00.000-05:00

Check out my new completely custom made canning station!

Conveniently located right off the back porch.

And it works great! Got 10 quarts of salsa done over the weekend.

Horse update: Vet doesn't really know what the horses have got. He is positive it's not strangles though. Scotch is completely healed up, with only a small scab under his jaw. Gypsy obviously had a more extreme case of whatever this is and is now scabby with no more oozing - but looks/acts less thrifty to me (meaning I can catch her easily). The other horses show no signs of this crap - yet..

And as such Chyann has been riding Jenny everywhere. A renewed love for this gorgeous gal.

PS The pink pigs are no longer pink - try sunburned red. The poor porkers are not liking being confined to their pig house during the heat of the day since they are apparently enjoying the dirt so much they are ignoring their skin turning into pork rinds.

Hog Heaven

2011-08-22T06:51:00.002-05:00

Marco and Polo have spent their first few weeks with us in the barn and it is finally time to move them to their new home - the pen outside.

Having been born and raised until now in barns with concrete floors they were literally in Hog Heaven when they met the soft dirt and can now root around!

This pen has not been used for a while and had lots of greens growing in it, that the pigs loved! They completely exhausted themselves on Saturday just rooting around, enjoying their new world.

In other news, our mare Gypsy appears to have the same ailment that Scotch had last week. WTH?!! He supposedly had a puncture wound that got infected? She started showing symptoms on Saturday morning - oozing yellow from along her jaw bones to the base of her throat - no punctures anywhere. Yesterday she was starting to swell. I cleaned her all out, she seems to be having more pain than Scotch did, and gave her a shot of Scotch's antibiotics.

I'm going to call the vet this AM and see what they think. I'm sure it's not strangles, but have no idea what it might be..
Interesting enough Chyann volunteered to help give shots and has now given Scotch two! wowo!

Animal Friday again...

2011-08-19T06:47:00.002-05:00

Sure it's animal Friday again. Where has the last two weeks gone? Who knows..

Anyhow...

Chyann has been setting up jumps and obstacle courses for the horses. Her current favorite riding partner is Scotch, he really likes to jump and that thrills her.

Scotch has somehow managed to get a puncture wound between his jaw bones. Chyann first noticed a lump about the size of a quarter that was a bit wet on Tuesday evening. We thought it might be a bug bite he was having a reaction to since 1- the bugs at our place have been ferocious this summer (we've went through so much fly spray this year) and 2 - all the horses get bit in that area some. Wednesday AM I went out to feed them and holy cow Scotch's face was scary swelled!! Looked like a huge friggin goiter about the size of a baseball, not to mention how it extended out on either side of his jaw too. It was hard and oozing infection! Of course this is the day we go to the cites for Chyann's doctor appointments. Colton was home if the vet could come out while we were gone, but it worked out that the vet after a doing a few other emergency calls was able to get here shortly after we got home.

A good cleaning, tetanus shot and 20cc of antibiotic, followed by 10cc of antibiotics twice a day for another nine days and he will be good as new.

It's been a while since I've given any shots. Yesterday morning I stood there with the syringe full of medicine and contemplated if I could do this.. I managed to work up the courage and got it done. Last night was much easier. He already looks much better.

I've started canning too. One big batch of salsa and a batch of spicy beans and brussle sprouts - Yum!

Also of note Chyann's range of motion is now at 103*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, the doctors were totally thrilled with her progress - all smiles and pats on the back, with I knew you could do it thrown in. Course they are now talking about looking at when to take out her hardware when she comes back in October, guess we'll see.

TGIF!!

Yadda, yadda, ect...

2011-08-07T08:10:00.003-05:00

Here it's been another week plus of no posts.

Can you believe it's August already? My Dad in AK says he can already smell winter coming. My Mom in OK says it was 113* at her house the other day. Us? We've got a cool down coming this week with temps only in the mid 70's.

Marco and Polo arrived a week or so ago. We've had to put them in the chicken coop in the barn because the outdoor pig pen was flooded from all the rain we've been having.

I like having pigs. They eat all the kitchen and garden scraps and nothing goes to waste.

Chyann had a good time in MN at the horse show. She ended up coming home with Nan's folks on Saturday afternoon. It was 98* there with 100% humidity - minimal shade. They showed early in the morning and by noonish she was totally done in by the heat.

It was all a great experience for her though. There is another show over Labor Day weekend that she won't be able to attend because of school, and 2 parades she'll be marching in.

Chyann is with Corva who is pretty young and Nan is holding Ellie (Nan's sister in the blue, I've forgotten her name).

Have you noticed grocery prices rising in your area? Seems to me like everything has gone up! From milk to fruit to taco sauce. For example I like Taco bell's hot sauce. It comes in a 7.5oz bottle. Last year at this time it cost 1 dollar even (plus tax of course), yesterday I got the very same bottle and it cost 1.46! How's that for inflation!

Corn is ripening in the garden and it is so delicious! The green beans are about ready to be pickled. I'm having to trim back the suckers on my tomato's to get some air moving between the plants to dry them out. The few that have ripened have had wonderful flavor. I love a fresh tomato sandwich.

I'm on the hunt for a recipe for spicy pickled brussel sprouts for my Dad. If you've heard of a good one let me know :)

PS Chyann got 94* at PT this week! This kid is phenomenal! and wont her doctors be surprised when we see them later this month ~ or maybe they'll just say we told you it would come, patience was all you/she needed.

Animal Friday and more...

2011-07-29T08:47:00.016-05:00

TGIF!

Although I can't really complain much, I took both Thursday and today off work so I had a short week.

Chyann is off doing her first horse show in MN! I talked to her this morning and she said it was very exciting! I miss her already.

She and I had a nice ride on Tuesday before the temps started climbing again. The gnats were absolutely terrible though! If you stopped you were immediately inhaling them, yuck!

Check out how nice and bendy her knee is! A few degrees makes a world of difference in getting her foot in a stir up or not. And riding horses is wonderful exercise for her, it works every single muscle she needs to build up ~ plus a few.

After the ride I had some visitors while I cooled off on the back porch.

Bugsy.

and sweet BeeGee.

I picked up the new lenses for my glasses and sunglasses on Wednesday after work. Love the nice clear lenses for my glasses, but am not too wild about my sunglasses. They may actually be considered stylish because they are on the large size - I don't mind that much, but definitely do not like the straight arms on them. They don't wrap around your ears to hold them on so I think I'll be checking into getting new arms or just another pair entirely if that is not possible.

Did I ever tell you I'm a HUGE KISS fan? Well I am and have been since I was in probably second grade (My brother was the guiding influence in my music preferences when I was a kid). We went to see them when they were at Rock Fest in 2007. I loved it! The best concert I've ever seen!

We started watching the Gene Simmons Family Jewels the first season and have enjoyed watching the series. This is the only reality TV series I've ever been interested in.

Did you see this seasons finale? The Hubby thought it was all staged and fake. Me I don't care if it was or not. I enjoyed it :)

Our Redneck ways

2011-07-26T07:57:00.009-05:00

So, I kinda took my self a little blog-vacation (and I was doing so well posting more often too!). I just wasn't feeling it. When your arse is parked in front of a computer for 8hrs a day sometimes you just don't feel like coming home and sitting on your arse some more.
Added to that, it took almost a full ten days of antibiotics to clear up my sinus infection.

We've had some hot weather here. Sure we don't have A/C, but hell this weather wont last long and really it'll be snowing before we know it, so I WILL enjoy this weather for as long as it lasts!

Our main cool down is the pool. Unfortunately the pool pump conked out on Saturday. With the weather this hot you've got to keep your water moving so it doesn't get nasty. Good thing the Hubby is a resourceful kind of guy and has a little bit of anything/everything you might ever need.

He rigged up this cool water circulater for us until the new pump comes in - hopefully that will be today. When we were in the pool we take the little motor out and put it back in afterwards.

If you're wondering what the cones are in the yard, Chyann has an obstacle course and some jumps set up that she has been taking the horses through.

And yes that is my corn all tasseled out and looking good in the background!

For such a little electric motor it sure had some water moving power! After it had ran for a bit we got a nice whirlpool going, which was nice as it put all the dirt/bugs in the center for easy cleaning. We may be just a little redneck and that's not a bad thing :)

With this hot weather and drenching rains my tomato garden has really taken off! It's literally an overgrown jungle! I'm going to have to get out there and do some trimming to even find the tomato's and let the breeze get in to dry it out a bit.

We keep the tractor handy to deliver my garden straw. Having a thick bed of mulch this year has really helped on the weeds and fungus I think.

Check out this amazing clutch of tomato's! I've never seen so many Roma's clustered together like this before. They are huge!

FYI ~ Chyann got 90* yesterday at PT!!

The wet

2011-07-16T13:57:00.008-05:00

We got about 2 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. Washed out a bit of the driveway, short power outage this AM, tons of thunder and lightening.

Glad we got the rain as we are fore casted for some hot weather this next week. High 90's and equally high humidity.

Colton stayed up all night last night and left home at 430a to go to the Rock-Fest grounds. He cleaned up the grounds in the pouring rain to get a free ticket for tonight's shows. I was pretty surprised that he did it this year because none of his friends were able to go with him. He drove there, signed up, cleaned and came home soaked to the bone. Some kids he knows are camping there and he plans on hooking up with them at some point during the concerts. Colton said the concert area was a sea of mud when he left this morning. Will be interesting to see how much mud, if any at all, dried before the concerts start today. I can just imagine a bunch of drunks flailing around in the mud.

Casper standing on the ramp behind the barn munching on the hay I dropped when I fed the animals this morning. One of these days he'll get brave enough to walk right up it and into the barn.

Chyann went with our friend Nan up to the Barron County Fair in Rice Lake. They are going to watch the horse show for Chyann to get an idea of what it'll be like in two weeks when she shows with Nan in MN. I would have went with them, but a nasty headache for two weeks equals a whopper of a sinus infection and I'm laying low today.

Millie is sure getting big. She is pretty funny jumping and running everywhere, kind of like a little gazelle.

Toodles :)

Animal Friday!

2011-07-15T06:40:00.005-05:00

TGIF!

After work last night Chyann and I went for a nice ride. The Hubby took these pictures from quite a distance away.

Jennifer was irritated that I would not let her eat the sweet beans that are now growing in this field. I was irritated that she kept trying to eat. We went round and round on that for a while - literally. She finally got the idea that eating the beans was not a good idea.

Scotch did very well for Chyann. The perfect ride for her. They walked, trotted and cantered circles around me and Jenny.

Look at that leg! She can get it in and out of the stir up with no problems. 83* as of yesterdays PT!!

Coming up the driveway she was cruising and the Hubby really only caught her smiling face. I sure need a camera with a faster shutter speed.

Then there's me. Bringing up the rear.

All I can say about this picture is that Jenny sure is a beauty and I really take the worst pictures.

Yesterday's high temp was about 70* and both Chyann and I were wearing sweatshirts.

Lily and Marble have been taken to a neighbors place to run with the bull. They'll be gone about six weeks or so. Their baby's from last year, Eight Ball and Cinnamon cried all afternoon and evening for them.

Hope you have a nice weekend!

Hump Day

2011-07-13T08:11:00.003-05:00

All is well.

The super stepdad is going to be fine (indigestion - acid reflux?). Really.

We will definately take that over an actual heart problem :)

I had a hard time getting out of bed this AM. I hit the snooze for about an hour and I still have time to sit on the computer before work. Not much though as I've got to get on the phone and start harrassing the insurance company and hospital Chyann goes to, to submit the correct shit so bills will get paid! These Huge companies are driving me nuts! And I know just ONE key stroke will fix most of the issues holding up the claims.. Very flusterating.

Happy Hump Day!

The weekend and other news

2011-07-12T07:00:00.004-05:00

Another hot and busy weekend is over.

We got lucky and had a nice breeze blowing directly into the barn helping to keep us cool while we stacked hay.

I got all, but two rows of corn weeded in the gardens. A few zucchini's are about ready to be picked even. A gal at work and I are going to trade zucchinis for her cucumbers when they start coming in. Somehow I didn't get any cuc's planted and I had big plans to make spicy pickles too. Guess I'll have to hit the farmers market for those when it's time.

Some whopper storms on Sunday AM and late PM gave up almost 2 inches of rain that was very badly needed. The super humidity and heat seem to be over till Thrusday so Chyann and I are going to try and get some horse riding in.

Chyann got 80* at PT yesterday too! AMAZING!

My fantastic step-father is going in today for a heart stint procedure.

It's my understanding that three things can happen

1 - nothing, all is well

2 - place a stint or two if needed

3 - bypass is needed, do nothing and schedule surgery

I'm hoping for nothing, but realistically something is probably going to need to be done. He wouldn't be there having this done if something wasn't wrong.

I'm sure he will be fine, he is tough!

Animal Friday

2011-07-08T06:51:00.002-05:00

TGIF!!!

I heard about animal Friday's from PAK-ART and decided to try it out.

Here are Chyann's cats Gracie and Cairo lounging in the bathroom window last night.

Now that summer is here and the windows are open most of the time those cats are almost always right there, watching birds and napping.

No big plans for the weekend. Lots of stuff to get done though.

Mowing, putting the hay in the barn - sounds like we are going to get up at 4a tomorrow to do it as the weather is gonna be really hot with high humidity and that will be the best time to get it done - and the standard weekend stuff (laundry).

New salad recipe that I think is amazing!

1 head of cabbage shredded, 1 head of cauliflower and 1 of broccoli chopped up in bite sized pieces, a bunch of green onions sliced, about 2-4 cups of red grapes (however much you like), 4 pieces of crispy cooked bacon crumbled.

For the dressing 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, 1 1/2 cup miracle whip and enough milk to think it down to a consistency you like. Pour dressing over salad and mix up. I usually eat right then, but some folks say let it sit in fridge for a bit then eat as your bacon will get a bit soft and transfer the bacony flavor more. But whatever you like is good.

Trust me it is the best salad I've had in a while!

Have a good one!

Odds and ends

2011-07-06T07:06:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I finally got off my arse and got a package mailed to my Dad. I've been going to send the box to him since - oh say October? That's terrible, but it's finally on it's way and because I feel so guilty I am GOING to send another one tomorrow, just need to get some more bubble wrap for wrapping up the jars - I am sending him salsa, Krissy's pickled beats and his favorite spicy dilly green beans.

A gal at work put in her two weeks notice yesterday. She got a job with better hours at a small local company. I'm jealous, but happy for her.

Never got the lawn mowed this weekend.

Around here they (the farmers) say if your corn is knee high by the 4th of July you'll get a good crop. My corn is a smidgen more than knee high as of Monday so that's encouraging.

We've got bunnies everywhere this summer.

No moles or gophers yet to tear up the yard. Someone mentioned to me that maybe that is because the kids have been riding the go carts a lot this year the the digging animals don't like the vibrations in the ground from that? Hmmm, maybe?

Happy 23rd Anniversary to our friend Rose and her Hubby!

Chyann made some jello no bake stuff that tastes like Reece's peanut butter cups in a pan that were delicious! I could have eaten them all they were that good.

I'd sure like to go windsurfing again.

I can't wait for that first tomato from the garden.

Lucky was our main farm alarm (barker) when someone would come over.

Casey seems to be looking for Lucky.

Isn't this just the cutest picture! Chyann and Lucky both with their tongues a hanging!

Happy Humpday!

Independence fun

2011-07-05T07:26:00.013-05:00

We went to a friends place 90 min East of us on Saturday for a pig roast party/family reunion.

Was a lot of fun.

Caden is the only kidlet that came as Chyann was camping and Colton was working.

Caden had a blast playing in their pool with all the kids and their dog Bruno, who absolutely loved being in the water!

I had just decided to go to bed at 1230a when Colton called telling us that his dog Lucky had died. Apparently when he got off work at 10p, fed the animals and realized he hadn't seen Lucky since he had gotten home he went out to look for him.

I think he died of old age. He was two weeks younger than Chyann, so about 13 and a half years old.

Lucky was a good dog. He will be missed.

We decided to drive home that night and arrived at 230a. Dog funeral on Sunday was a very teary affair.

Chyann, coincidentally hurt her knee somehow while camping and came home about 9a Sunday. I think since she is getting more mobility she's able to stretch and pull that scar tissue more than ever. 1 advil and an icepack later and she was good as new.

The rest of our weekend was pretty uneventful, but fun.

Krissy came over and I talked her into trying out the pool, which she loved and we stayed in for quite a while and the Hubby cooked us dinner. Which was delicious! We never did pick any cherries either- too much wine and pool.

I did a ton of laundry and weeding of the garden. Way Too hot for horses, but hopefully soon.

We did some fireworks too.

Looks like Colton is now interested in a Physical therapy program at the local tech school. Interesting, as I did not know he had any kind of interest in physical therapy and we've been seeing one on and off for years.

He says he plans on going with Chyann and I and talking to the PT and PTA on our next appt. Now we'll shall see what happens next..

Speaking of PT, Chyann got up to 75* on her own today!! Amazing!

Here's to this short week going fast!

Toodles :)

still strange spaces i can't remove..

The heat has arrived!

2011-07-02T09:34:00.008-05:00

WOW!

We've had temps in the 90's with incredibly high humidity.
Course I like this kind of weather when I can enjoy it. Unfortunately I've been stuck in an icy building working away. No kidding, when I go outside for my breaks it feels so good to finally warm up!

A month behind, but the cherries are finally ready to pick.

Krissy is hopefully going to come over sometime this weekend and pick some too. Not to mention enjoy some of the amazing wine I got for my Birthday!

Millie is a week old now. We were a bit concerned earlier this week that she wasn't nursing enough because her Mother's teats were so engorged and sore that she was barely able to get on to eat.

A look a the long garden.

In the foreground we have pepper plants - that look pretty puny so far, although there are a few with peppers on already - cabbage, brussel sprouts, summer squash, onions to the far left, pumpkins at the base of the corn. And yes that flimsy pink tape keeps those pesky horses out of the garden! We put down a snot load of mulch to prevent fungus if it turns out to be a wet year like last year. Another bonus of the mulch is that is it a nice weed inhibitor.

The tomato garden is really doing well though, we've got a lot of small fruits already set.

And just what did I do yesterday after work on one of the hottest days we've had so far?

Hay.

OMG! Was it hot!

The Hubby got a call from some of our friends saying if he wanted to help there was free hay for us. Of course you cannot pass up free hay when you have animals to feed regardless of how stinking hot it is. I went by after work and only helped for 2 hours, but it felt like 8!

This is not the best picture, but you get the idea. Huge car trailer piled high with hay and some in the pickup bed too. We got home right at dark, put a ginormous tarp on the hay and barely got inside when the storm hit. We didn't have it too bad, but other folks to the North of us had trees down on their cars/houses.

In other news -

Chyann was jumping on Scotch bareback on Tuesday evening and somehow stubbed her right foot on the ground jarring her knee. Her knee was sore for all of Wednesday and at PT on Thursday her knee now bends to 72*???!!!! Did she jar some scar tissue loose? Just happen to be able to bend more than ever? Who knows, but she is one happy camper! Literally - as she is up camping with some friends this weekend..

Poor Caden had the stomach flu for two days this week. It must be miserable to be puking and having no fun when all the other kids are busy playing in the pool.

Colton is possibly re-evaluating his college plans. More on that soon (i hope).

Busy Holiday weekend ahead.

Lots to do around this place - a mountain of laundry, although I will say that Chyann did some this week - only hers though, which is fine - less for me to do. Mowing, putting all that hay in the barn, jam and more so I'd better get started!

ps - what is with all the crazy spaces? I cannot get rid of them!

Queen for a day!

2011-06-26T08:57:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was my 40Th Birthday!

It amazes me still, how fast these last 20 years have flown. Will the next 20 go just as fast?

Have I done or accomplished what I want with this life? Are there any regrets? What will I do going forward? Does everyone feel this way at some point?

Just a few of the questions rolling in my head lately.

ANYHOW

For my Birthday yesterday Molly had her baby!

I heard some mooing at dawn and went out to investigate. It wasn't Molly creating the ruckus it was Lily (her mother) and I think she was trying to seal the baby - who looked to be maybe 30 minutes old and still wet. Lily didn't end up getting pregnant this time around and really wanted that baby! She was keeping the baby from Molly by continually getting between them both and even going so far as trying to heard the baby off in another direction.

She didn't want to go, but we got Lily moved into another pen, where she mooed nonstop for hours. I was afraid she'd go through the fence a few times, but she finally calmed down.

I think the new baby's name will be Millie.

She looks very healthy and Molly is doing well too.

Also, that dratted Eight ball got out on Friday morning, went to the neighbors house, the neighbor tried to force him back through our fence (what? why didn't they call? the kids and I would have gone to get him), couldn't do that so herded him up onto the road where he was almost hit by a red truck, ran him down our driveway and into the barn where he will now stay till the Hubby repairs the fence and hooks up the new fencer. Which will hopefully be this week some time.

We had some friends over last night for pizza, beer and a bonfire. The kids did a little swimming and frog catching too.

A good time had by all :)

Summer Solstice and more fun

2011-06-21T14:00:00.001-05:00

Today is the Summer Solstice.

June 21st.

In other parts of the world it's just another day.

For those in the northern parts (southern too) of the world it is the turning point from gaining daylight to loosing daylight. My Dad always says after today you can feel winter in the air - course he lives in AK and tends to see the glass as half empty.

We've quite a few storms dumping huge amounts of rain. Some flooding in Eau Claire and out in the country. Even knocking my telephone and Internet service out this last weekend that sure put a damper on my blogging.

I planted this peony as a tiny sprig and it took two years for it to bloom. Sure is a gorgeous color.

Eight ball, he's been a bad little steer lately.

But not as bad as Cinnamon.

Both the boys have decided that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence and are going right through it and up onto the road. Which is really pissing the Hubby off, because they are wrecking all the electric fence insulators and really stretching out the wire, not to mention could get hit by a car!

Little farts. The fencer is going to need replacing and quite a bit of fence line as well. Until that time Cinnamon is going into the barn and Eight ball will to if he starts going out on his own.

Molly is about ready to pop, she's got a huge baby bump!

All bagged up too. The kids can't wait for a new calf.

Chyann and I went riding last night after I got off work.

It was a bit windy, we saw two deer, someone was riding a three wheeler nearby and that was enough to make Jennifer a nitwit. She did pretty well until the three wheeler made an appearance then decided it was time to head home, which was fine with me -- get her back into her comfort zone and then we'd try again.

As we got closer to home she calmed down enough that I thought we'd try heading back out again and she decided to throw me off on my ass!

It happened so quick -- one moment I was on, then on the ground, then back on my feet -- I even managed to keep the reins in my hand too.

Chyann was like what was that? She just bucked you off! I apparently bounced better than last time I fell off, cuz it didn't hurt at all (not even today- knock on wood).

Well, I couldn't let it end there, so we went home and I put a saddle on her and we headed back out. She was still a nitwit, but didn't try to throw me off again - thankfully.

Classic example of needing to ride Jenny more.

Anyhow.. We finally got the pool uncovered and are in the process of getting the chemical balance correct. The kids can't wait! Course the weather isn't really warm enough to use it right now, but they don't care.

That's it for now. Have a good one :)

Birds, work and doctor fun

2011-06-16T06:41:00.004-05:00

I took this pic of the baby birds on Monday and they must have flew off yesterday, because they are gone this morning. Cute little buggers were practically overflowing the nest.

I realize it is only Thursday, but I tell ya this has got to be the strangest weeks I've had in a while.

Huge upheavals at work.

My supervisor has been reassigned to a new position, the mentor steps into the supervisor role, new mentor from a different team, we loose a few key knowledge holders and get a replacement from a completely different team. Not to mention the whole billing team is loosing their jobs. Crazy shit. Guess we'll have to see how all this shakes out.

We went to the cities for Chyann's check up.

The doctors, which we saw separately, both think she is still on the right track. They said they believe she will regain the mobility in her knee - it just takes time.

Now if she was unable to straighten it out and had not gained any (less than 2*- which is all she had in the last month) of motion since we saw them last they would reconsider the need for surgery to lengthen her muscles and remove the scar tissue.

In fact one doctor said if we went to AK for a year and did no physical therapy at all, when we came back she'd have perfectly normal mobility. I'm like what? are you kidding? He said no, her body is healing but very slowly. He popped up some xrays from when she was wearing the fixator and said look how far she's come and to come that far it takes a while to get back to normal. Even going so far as to say if she'd had done the fixator a year ago she'd still be wearing it until July, but due to the rod laying next to her femer it was able to be removed early.

Her other doctor asked her if knowing everything about the fixator and all that comes with it - the pain, the infections, knee issues, etc was it worth it? and she said with no hesitation yes. He addressed the emotional stages she was going through now (the anger, smart mouth, and other fun) was also part of the healing as a whole. Which I guess makes sense. You'd think after all the operations this family has had I have know that, but I guess I didn't.

Apparently we've all been too impatient for her to "get back to normal".

It's very hard for me to see her so completely different than how she use to be. Previously she was all go all the time. Now some times when I come home from work, she's literally been on the couch all day.

Patience grasshopper, patience.

And we rode...

2011-06-13T07:59:00.006-05:00

Chyann and I rode both on Saturday and Sunday.

We had the BEST time!!

Caden actually thought to get out the camera and get some pictures of us. We were quite a bit away from him so the quality isn't the best, but you get the idea.

We saw a deer and the horses didn't freak out at all. They both stopped and took some deep breaths smelling the deer and we moved on towards it. The deer was frozen watching us approach and I'll admit I was worried about what was going to happen next.

Fortunately the deer decided to bound off into the woods and all was well. We did hear turkeys and pheasants, but didn't see any. Riding through that old corn sure makes a lot of noise too.

Chyann was riding Scotch and at this point he was ready to go home. Chyann had to work a bit to get him to slow'er down and take it easy. I was worried she'd loose her balance and take a tumble into the corn stalks since she is only using one stir up. I bet all those old dry corn stalks would hurt if you took a tumble into them. Fortunately we didn't find that out this weekend.

Coming up to the wash.

Jennifer and Scotch both kept an eagle eye on Caden too.

Sure was fun. We have to make more time to get out and ride.

Everyone pitched in and we got the gardens weeded too. The boys played some golf, knocking balls into pasture and Shasta shagged/fetched a bunch of balls for them. That was pretty cute.

Alas, the weekend is over. I'm feeling better - Allegra is good stuff folks.

Back to the grind of working for the weekend.

What a week

2011-06-10T07:02:00.007-05:00

TGIF!

I can't say that enough.

This has been an incredibly long and crappy week on many levels.

Most of which I'd rather forget ever happened so I'll just hit the highlights - allergies are all of the sudden kicking my arse! My head needs to be removed and drained! I've been trying different OTC meds and none seem to be doing the trick so I may be hauling my miserable self to the doc in a box for some good drugs soon.

We had some wonderfully hot weather the beginning of the week! But I didn't get to enjoy any of it as I was at work (insert whine).

Now the weather has turned cool and it's is drizzling out. That's a good thing since the garden is really needing a nice soaker. Someone HAS to get out the and pull some weeds. Who and when I have no idea. I can't even pay the lazy kids to do it.. sheesh.

This is also the first official week of summer vacation.

Caden is doing swimming lessons through the school in a neighboring town and loving every minute of it!

Chyann is still doing intensive PT. Next week she sees the docs and hopefully they will decide to release her knee. She has not gained a degree of mobility in 2 mos. She, as you can imagine is pissed off and tired of all this shit.

Colton is driving me nuts! He be the big man now, but mostly acts like a surly 14 year old. What is up with that? I'm sure I was never like that at 18 - course at 17 I had already moved out and was doing my own thing so maybe that makes a difference.

Tomorrow I'm going to be laZing around like sweet Gracie is. Or at least sleeping in till 7a!

In other news the Hubby who is always planing ahead, bought a semi load of wood from some folks that are having their land logged about 2 miles from our house. Apparently this is a good deal as he didn't have to pay much for the trucking and delivery of it.

Pretty cool how the crane is right on top of the trailer and the driver can unload it all on his own. With any luck all this wood will last us three to four years.

Lots of pretty flowers are blooming.

Big plans for the weekend are to assist in getting the pool scupper/skimmer replaced, weeding the garden and riding horses. Not necessarily in that order either.

TGIF!

Thrift Sale deal and a Dog party plus Bugsy

2011-06-05T07:50:00.013-05:00

Friday was Chyann and Cadens last day of school and they both spent the night a some friends' house, which left The Hubby and I to our own devices, which included a dinner of beer and peanuts then riding go carts at twilight.

We got up early Saturday and decided to hit some thrift sales.

The best deal by far of the day is this very cool porch/deck chair/lounge thing. The Hubby did not want it - I said for $10 how could I not get this piece of luxury furniture? He said whatever like a good Hubby should and we stuffed it in the van. After dropping it off at the house we went and picked up the kids.

Chyann did not go to bed until almost 4am and got up at 730a. Nice. Oh man, talk about cranky! Caden was in just about the same shape having not gone to bed till midnight and up at 6a. Jeez and they wanted to go hit some thrift sales too.

We did for a while until the bickering became unbearable.

So we went home and set up my cool lounge thing.

With the cover removed. You can set the head and feet sections at different angles too. Now tell me, how could I have passed this up? It will be perfect when we get the pool going. Speaking of pools, I had to order a new skimmer for it because the old one developed a crack over the winter that could not be fixed. The new one should be here on Monday. Which I'm sure will not be soon enough for the kids as the weather has finally turned summer like with high humidity and fantastic temps in the mid 80's! Love it!

Check out my poor bleeding heart plant that got mutilated last week with all that wind we had.

And Cowboy. He sure is a pretty boy.

I came back from taking pictures to find Chyann zonked out on the cool new lounge thing.

Sweet Bugsy decides to visit.

Beegee has to check out whats going on too.

Casey starts whining and crying to get up too, so I put her up, which runs Beegee off.

Shasta has to check it out now.

Beegee comes back

And finally the ever allusive Tater comes up too - Casey is the ear licker and does everyone, including Bugs. No Bugs doesn't have mange, he has a bad hair cut thanks to Chyann cutting out some mats then trying to "fix" it.

The horses start goofing around which prompts all but Casey to go check it out.

Chyann popped her head up and very crankily says get these dogs away from me.

Aaah, Saturday fun.

June is here!

2011-06-02T07:31:00.003-05:00

My favorite month is here - June!

And not only because it is the BIG birthday month for me, but because the kids get out of school tomorrow, the garden will really be growing, new baby calves born, maybe some kittens, our local fair, we open the pool, depending on Chyann we'll be riding horses more, maybe some camping, hanging out with friends, BBQ'ing most every night, nice cold beer, thrift sale season really gets started (I love a good thrift sale!) and much more.

I'm bummed because of the late hours I work. Not getting home till 630ish every night is really going to put me in a bad mood.

There is a chance of getting a schedule change at work, but nothing for sure.

However a job may be opening up in our town. Fewer hours - more money an hr though and closer to home (maybe a five min drive).

Decisions, decisions...

Oh! and lets not forget that in my current job there is also the possibility of working from home come October.

Anyhow..

The wind is still blowing like crazy here. I'm so sick of it! My poor spindly tomato and pepper plants are sure taking a beating.

This is a rhododendron bush/plant that was here when we moved in nine years ago. It has only bloomed once or twice over the years - I even fertilize it regularly.

On Monday it had this one bloom coming.

This morning when I went out to feed the animals it had bloomed. Sure is lovely and it looks like more blooms are on the way.

In other news....

Colton is enjoying his job at Taco Johns. He says the folks there are very nice. It is nothing like his experience at Hardies last summer - thankfully.

Chyann is going to start working with our friend Nan's shire horses this weekend. Draft horse show season is only a month away.

My allergies are driving me nuts.

Blogger was really pissing me off yesterday! I had the hardest time commenting on blogs! It was like a big loop - type your comment and sign in - over and over again. I ended up just being anonymous a lot.

Happy Thursday!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-05-31T08:20:00.010-05:00

The unofficial start of summer!

We finally had some warm, border line hot weather yesterday!

You wouldn't know it from the pictures because it was so overcast, but believe me it was HUMID with temps about 85*! I loved it!

Chyann was in our local Memorial Day parade yesterday. There sure weren't very many folks watching the parade and attending the cemetery service this year.

Usually the streets are lined up with folks.

Middle school band. Chyann was able to march without her crutch from the school to the cemetery. She generally plays the snare drum, but the band teacher figured that would be too much for her, so he had her play the symbols. She said they were crazy heavy by the time they got to the cemetery.

At rest waiting for their turn to play.

She was so hot and tired all she wanted to do was lie down, but like the trooper she is she toughed it out.

Got Colton mowing when we got home. Speaking of mowing, look at that hair cut the kid has got! He finally got it all mowed off! Looks pretty good too.

I'm going to have to ask how it felt to see the High School band playing without him. I wonder if he wishes he was playing too.

We had a power outage yesterday for about five hours as well. Chyann and Caden passed the time riding go carts.

and tearing up the yard!

Power still out come dinner time and it was windy as hell, so we moved the BBQ around to the front of the house to cook up some dinner. Ol' Casper had to come see what we were up to.

Yes, we actually sit on those crappy chairs. One of these days I'll get new cushions, but until then they will work.

Baby Birds, Shrek and Awards? Oh my...

2011-05-28T07:47:00.009-05:00

Sure, I only worked three days this week, but somehow that made this one of the longest weeks ever!

The company is doing this great walking race that starts on Monday, you put together teams of up to 10 folks and record how many miles you walk each day. The first team that makes it (on paper) to Cypress, CA and back wins.

The walking only counts for your breaks, lunch and any walking you do outside of work. So walking to and from the bathroom/lunchroom doesn't count. They've got it figured out if you walk three laps around the building that will equal one mile and if the weather is bad you can walk inside the center part of the building, eleven laps equal a mile. Yesterday a friend and I walked three miles during our lunch break and that was really putting on the speed. We figure we can do about five miles a day at that rate. Hmm. we'll see I guess.

Anyhow, check out the baby birds Chyann has found. These are barn swallows, located where else, but the barn. Can you see all the horse tail hair in the nest? I can't quite tell how many are in there, but it looks like about five.

We're not sure what kind of bird these little naked babies are. They are down in the shed.

Last night Chyann and I went to put the horses away and I realized I never put any shots of Shrek up. He is a huge stuffed animal the kids got from some free box at a garage sale. He had a tear in his neck leaking all his stuffing out, I sewed him up and he promptly got stuffed into a closet. During all my cleaning this last month he was found and I threw him away. The Hubby rescued him from the trash and put him up in the back yard as a kind of scare crow.

The horses will occasionally be standing by him and it will look like Shrek is riding them.

And we found a new lilac bush just growing randomly in the back yard area.

Imagine my surprise when I went to one of my favorite blogs, The Giggle Fest. and see that she has given me an AWARD!

The rules are simple. Post the award, Tell who gave you the award, and pass it on to five other bloggers.

Of Course I must pass it on to Krissy at Transplanted Alaskan. She is my best buddy from Alaska and the one who got me interested in blogging.

Jenny at Crochet Life. We share a love of lilacs! Not to mention books.

Lisa at TainterTurtles. Has the sweetest HUGE cats and is a bicycle enthusiast.

Patty over at PAK-ART Alaska. She is a wonderful artist, posts pictures of my old home town and just happens to be Krissy's beloved sister!

and last, but certainly not least

Lisa at Spring Peeper Farm. She is a Canadian gal who with her family raise animals, make soap and have a lot of fun.

No big plans for us this Memorial Day weekend. Although I will get the garden planted and lawn mowed - probably :)

Part 2 also done

2011-05-24T07:55:00.004-05:00

Part 2 - The party on Saturday

Started out dreary and misty. Folks started showing up five minutes before noon and I was just about ready for them.

By 1pm it was a complete downpour outside!

The living room had 22 kids packed into it watching old family videos that I had turned on earlier. They watched video after video and laughed their buns off the whole time!

Meanwhile the dining room had three tables loaded with food and about ten folks packed in. All I could think was can I be done now?!

There was a sea of mud on my floor that I had to try cleaning up because I'm weird about my floors and as soon as I had it about done, someone else would come in and there would be more mud. I'm sure some folks thought I had OCD! oh well. I just didn't want the place to look like hell.

About 4pm the rain stopped and the sun came out! It turned into a beautiful afternoon! It even dried up enough for the kids to have a bonfire. Most folks left by midnight, but there were a few stragglers that stayed till 2a.

I think the party went well.

Sunday was spent cleaning up and dodging storms. We didn't have any tornado's in our area, but to the South and West in MN there were a few.

Yesterday I took two naps. Man was I tired. Still am actually. Today I'm going to try and plant some in the garden, maybe mow if it dries out and tackle the mountain of laundry that has accumulated.

I took this picture this morning after the kids got on the bus for school. It is an ornamental flowering crab apple tree - I think. Sure is pretty. I love the color.

The lilac tree is about to burst! It already smells so good!

And wouldn't you know it, one of the apple trees started opening up on Saturday after the rain. The other apple trees are now blooming.

I figured we'd give Colton a few days to rest up before I started nagging the shit out of him to get a job, when low and behold Taco John's called last night and offered him a job!

He starts orientation tonight at 7p! YIPPEE! Because really there are not a lot of jobs around for a kid just out of school.

Personally I wanted him to go to AK this summer and work at the airline his Grandpa works at, but he didn't want to leave the girlie friend - Oh well, Taco John's will do I suppose.

I'm back to work tomorrow. I sure have enjoyed this time off, even if it was stress full and very busy.

Part 1 is done

2011-05-21T10:01:00.006-05:00

Colton got Graduated last night!

It was a wonderful!

He had not put on his nice shirt yet when we took pictures.

Some of the pictures were a bit blurry.

Walking out.

We got the best seats - right behind Colton!

Afterwards with the coveted diploma.

Me and my baby.

And I only cried a little, really.

Now we're getting ready for the party and it's not raining - yet.

More pictures to follow!

Today is the day!

2011-05-20T07:09:00.003-05:00

Graduation Day is here!

It is a beautiful sunshiny day - so far, as you can see from the pictures I took this morning after I fed the animals and accidentally fell out of the barn with a load of hay. My knees are going to look just lovely all black and blue with my nice blue dress. I may have to wear some hose to camouflage them.

And where is the Graduate this morning? I have no idea. Last night was the senior banquet at the school and he went to two different parties afterwards. I assume he spent the night at a friends house, but I don't know who or where. nice. He needs get home and finish mowing the yard.

Sour Cherry tree in bloom.

The white you see is wild plum trees and grape vines blooming.

Two of the apple trees are about to bloom as well, they are going to smell so good!

Chyann's doctor appointment went pretty good.

They are going to give her another month to get more range of motion before they do arthroscopic surgery to remove the scar tissue and lengthen her muscles.

She was disappointed they didn't want to take her in right then to do it!

Unfortunately my Mother is not coming to the graduation and the freaking weather!

On Monday it looked like we would have wonderful weather for the party on Saturday. Every day the chances of that have deteriorated.

Today the forecast is to have thunder storms starting about noon for the WHOLE day! Damn..

Hopefully I don't bawl the whole time tonight. Wish me luck :)

Strange Dreams, Sweetness and doctors

2011-05-18T05:52:00.011-05:00

For the last month or so I've been having this crazy reoccurring dream.

It takes place in AK at my old job with a commuter airline when we were located on Lake Hood.

I apparently had closed the night before and had come in to work the early shift. I walk into the office and find that somehow I had forgotten to make the schedule for that day!

The phones are ringing with pilots wanting to know their schedule, the mechanics are trying to find out which planes to launch first, the rampers need to know which plane is going where so they can get the mail! And I can't find the schedule that the chief pilot hangs on the board!

It is complete chaos! All through the dream I am completely panicked!

Obviously the dream stems from my anxiety over Colton graduating and the party on Saturday.

Usually I really like to dream about my old job. It's like having a visit with old friends that I miss and love dearly, but this crazy one over and over? I'm done with it (please)! I don't want to wake up again with knots in my tummy and sweaty pits. Good thing this will all be over with soon.

All I've got left to do in the house is wiping down kitchen chairs and cabinets. Course I'll have to do all the floors again on Friday, but I'm not counting that. Oh, I also have one more flower bed to tidy up, but that's pretty much it. Except for ironing and maybe a load or two of laundry. And a last run to the grocery store.

Chyann let Casper out in the backyard on Sunday and they were taking a little siesta before I came and disturbed them. I could hear her softly talking to him. I imagine you can tell your favorite horse just about anything.

Goofy Shasta and Casey have to to be anywhere Chyann is.

Today I'm taking Chyann to the cities for a check up.

In the last month she has progressed from 31* to 50* range of motion in her right knee. Not exactly the 90* the doctor was wanting.

The physical therapist said her doctors may decide to put her under anesthesia and bend it for her or if the muscles start to tear while they are manually bending it, go in and cut the muscles to lengthen them.

Shit-O-dear. Not fun.

Chyann is actually all for doing this. She told me the other day that she could not even remember what it is like to walk right and just wants to get back to normal. I sure can't blame her. Guess we shall see what the doc's say.

And hopefully my Mother will be arriving tomorrow.

Happy Hump Day!

Green, green as far as I can see

2011-05-15T08:45:00.015-05:00

Now that the leaves are finally coming out, when I drive down the road I get a good "green" feeling.

I absolutely love the green haze the trees have and the varying shades of green the fields are, from that deep green to the lightest. Makes me feel good.

Look at those lovely red maple leaves!

I think I'll be making fresh rhubarb pie for the party on Saturday.

The apple blossoms may just wait for the graduation as well!

Since the weather has been so cool, we haven't decided if we are going to take the cover off the pool or not. It will look nice if we do, but then the up keep starts.

Chyann got outrageously dirty from riding the go cart the other day and tore up the field doing donuts.

I think we are almost ready for the GRADUATION.

I'm working tomorrow, then taking the rest of the week off to finish up and take Chyann to the cities for a check up - hopefully picking up my Mother that day too -

Garage sale good deal of the day was two practically brand new full sized futons, the ones that fold out into a bed or couch and 1 chair futon thing, all for $6! I figure Colton can take them to college in August.

I've also been working on picture boards to hang up and it sure has been fun going through the old pictures - like this one. What a sweetie and I'll say again -- where have these last 20 or so years gone?

Blogger must be having a hicup today, as I cannot get rid of all those extra spaces!

Mother's Day weekend

2011-05-09T08:12:00.006-05:00

Happy Mother's Day!

I had the BEST Mother's day weekend.

Chyann, Caden and I rode horses.

Chyann didn't ride for long because her legs got so shaky, but she was up and riding again! A wonderful sight!

I think it did her spirits a world of good, not to mention gave her muscles a good work out.

Four out of our five horses got ridden. Gypsy missed out, but did get a good brushing.

Chyann with Jenny.

Chyann giving Caden some pointers on riding both Casper and Cowboy.

Caden fell off Casper twice, but got back up and rode again both times. Casper is pretty smart and knows Caden is not an aggressive rider so he takes advantage of that by trying to eat, trot - basically do what he wants while Caden is riding him and since Caden doesn't have good balance yet he ends up on the ground. Good thing he bounces well.

Caden riding Cowboy with Shasta following along. Chyann with Casper looking on.

Since the weather was so nice we got the yards all tidied up.

Who knew having a big party was going to entail so much work.

The carpets upstairs even got shampooed - vehicle carpets too, flowers in the flower boxes, a mountain of laundry, yard raked, poop scooped, a bit of mowing, weed pulling and window washing.

And there is still a lot of inside stuff yet to do. I'd make a list, but somehow can't get past the washing of buggers off the walls part - who does that! No one will confess to being the culprit (caden?), but they are all going to get cleaning on that task!

and last, but not least

Happy Birthday to my fantastic Mother! xoxo

Spring concerts and other news

2011-05-07T09:47:00.006-05:00

Spring may finally be springing around here as evidenced by the maple and willow trees. The birds were just singing and tweeting this morning. Last night I even heard some crickets chirping!

The rhubarb is really growing. I got a few plants for the garden yesterday too. The guys are busy preparing the soil with compost and working it in. It'll be interesting to see how much time I have for the garden this summer, as this will be the first summer that I've worked full time in a while.

Mr Blue Tooth! His lips were about as blue as his eyes.

Chyann and Colton had their spring concerts at school on Tuesday. I love watching them play.

When Colton came out with the Choir my first thought was jeez, could you have combed your hair or worn some nicer clothes.

Apparently combing your hair straight forward is the style, but it doesn't work for him because his hair is so curly.

He's got the best hair in the house and it needs to be combed straight back or just shook out. Can't tell him that though.

Anyhow if the spring concert and the awards ceremony afterwards for the seniors is any indication of how hard/terrible the GRADUATION is going to be, I'm in soo much trouble!!

I bawled and bawled through most of the songs Colton sang with the choir and played with the band. Caden kept asking what was wrong and banging into my knees while I was taping, sweet kid, but quit asking because it's making me cry more!

On that note it looks like my Dad is not coming because his wife is having health problems and my Mother may not be coming because my step-sister has mersa and is in FL while my Mother is taking care of her FOUR kids in OK. I'm feeling some stress here folks.

I leave you with a short video of Colton and the choir singing Dancing Queen by Abba.

May day and Prom

2011-05-01T09:49:00.005-05:00

Aah, it's May Day.

No bonfires were lit to mark the coming summer because it's so damn windy here today!

The apple blossom picture below was taken April 27th of last year. The apple trees were in full bloom for Mothers day. This year the apple trees barely have buds on them so maybe they will be blooming by the Graduation.

Yesterday was Prom.

Colton and his girlie friend went.

I didn't realize that my camera lens has a dried water spot on it until I downloaded the pictures I took of them. How tacky, a nice water spot right on Colton's chest. It had been raining all day long, but it quit and the sun came out just in time for pictures.

The school district supports an after prom all night party lock in.

Every year it's some place new. This year it was at Action City in Eau Claire.

They have laser tag, bumper cars, rock walls to climb, video games, etc.. and all you can eat free pizza and soda. Not to mention lots of prizes to win.

When Colton came at 7am this morning he said they'd had a great time! He even won some good stuff. I didn't have time to hear what he'd won as the dogs were barking like maniacs in the backyard!

It was Cowboy, who has somehow managed to get out of the back pasture for the second day in a row!

He must be laying down and rolling under the fence, because it is not down or stretched anywhere. I'm knocking on wood that none of the other horses decide the grass is greener in the backyard or the neighbors land to the East and make their way out as well. Especially on a day when no one is home.

Anyway, by the time I got back into the house Colton was already in bed.

Chyann has started swimming on Friday's as part of her physical therapy regime and she enjoyed it, but it took so much out of her she was literally wiped out that night and all of yesterday.

I am amazed at how long it is taking her to get her strength back. The range of motion in her knee is coming slow as well, but she is gaining there - thankfully.

Umbrella tale

2011-04-28T06:43:00.001-05:00

Why yes, it did snow again yesterday and today. And yes they say winter really will be over soon. Like tomorrow - forecasted high of 58*! Whoopee! So yes I will be able to muster through this last day of yucky weather.

I've got an umbrella story for you.

I'm from Alaska and true Alaskans don't use umbrellas so I've never owned one.

Here in WI EVERYONE has an umbrella.

I picked one up at a thrift sale a few years ago and recently found it again.

Tuesday morning it was pouring rain and a bit blustery when I went to work so I thought I'd try out this dusty umbrella.

Now I don't know much about umbrellas other than it's bad luck to open one up indoors.

So, picture this - I get to work open the van door and get out, I've got my purse and lunch slung over my shoulder while I bump the door shut with my hip, I'm hoisting this umbrella and opening it all at the same time. I was standing into the wind so the umbrella would not get blown backwards - as I opened it a ton of dust/dead bugs are blown into my face so I quick turn and the wind grabs the umbrella and turns it inside out kinda pulling me down the parking lot!

It was just like in the movies where the wind is howling and the rain is pouring and the ditzy gal has her umbrella blown backwards - except for the dead bugs and cobwebs stuck in my hair and face! Real classy.

I marched into work soaking wet with nasty shit all over me and threw the umbrella in the trash!

Moral of this story? Not sure other than I'm not using an umbrella again!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Brother! Love ya!

Weekend rewind...

2011-04-25T06:49:00.011-05:00

Random cat picture. Don't Cairo and Gracie look comfy.

Chyann and I spent a good chunk of Saturday over at our friends place with her and her horses. Nan has Shire's and Chyann is going to help her show them this summer, specifically Ellie who is in the picture below. Ellie is five and exceptionally well behaved. The Draft horse show season doesn't start until July, so Chyann will probably start going to Nan's on a regular basis next month to start preparing the horses for the season. Lets hope she can get that right knee nice and bendy soon!

Caden got told to go suck an egg while we were doing up the eggs and of course being him, he did!

We sure got some vibrant colors this year.

Easter Sunday was a gorgeous day! Chyann in her quest to become more mobile and independent went out and brushed all the horses. Talk about a shed fest!

For me Sunday was just the best, spending almost the whole day outside! I even remembered to put on sunblock, so my freckles today are pretty minimal and no actual sunburn at all! ha!

We cut down three trees and a ton of ground shrubs that had died and hauled them away. Got the flower beds all cleaned up, yard raked, cans crushed and ready to be taken to the recycler, took Jennifer on a walk to get her use to being out again before I attempt to ride her.

Sure wish I didn't have to go to work today because it's going to be an even nicer day than yesterday and there is still so much to do! I really just want to ride horses :)

Anyhow. I found this in the bathroom yesterday evening and laughed my arse off! That Caden sure is something else!

Hope you had a nice Holiday!

Happy Anniversary!

2011-04-22T07:45:00.003-05:00

Nine years ago we arrived here in WI!

We rented a van in Minneapolis, drove to Eau Claire, checked into a motel, slept for six hours and woke up to 3 inches of snow and snow thunder!

What a welcome.

We moved to our town not knowing a soul. Never having been here before we were all breaking new ground. It was scary, but has definitely been worth it!

We've made some great friends, learned tons of things we never would have without having lived here.

Yeah, sometimes in the beginning I thought what in the hell are we doing here, but I can say without a doubt that I love it here and we sure have a good life.

Random horse picture from a few weeks ago when we had that nice spring teaser.

27 days till graduation. Damn I've got to get the invitations in the mail.

Chyann's physical therapy is going slow. Apparently the technical term for what she has going on is frozen knee. Not good. Lets hope she can get it moving soon, as the therapist says the alternatives are very unpleasant.

TGIF!!

Cats and snow

2011-04-18T08:20:00.005-05:00

Gracie has found my plant. She has not yet attempted to use it as a litter box. She likes to lounge in the dirt and bat at the leaves.

Got a few more things crossed off my list of things to get done before the big graduation. All that's left for the upstairs is to shampoo carpets. I'll be waiting for warmer weather to get that done.

Speaking of warmer weather - WHERE IS SPRING!??!?!?!

It snowed both Friday night and early Sunday am. 6" of snow is predicted for Tuesday night as well!

Good News and talent galore

2011-04-16T10:14:00.011-05:00

First off let me say outside my window this morning is about an inch of snow!

Yesterday was so gray and blustery! The news said it could blow up to 60knots last night and I bet it did! Sure reminded me of Cold Bay - the toilet water was sloshing around. Why it does that in high winds I don't know, but I digress.. SNOW! Outside today! I hope it melts and the ground drys out soon! I've got so many outside things to do within the next 33 days!

Anyhow.. Here is ol' Scotch lounging in the hay after his breakfast last Sunday. He seems to be saying just give me a bit and I'll get the rest of this all eaten up.

Chyann and I went to the Cities on Wednesday and the news couldn't be better!

Her doctor is sooo pleased with her bone healing! Ony problem is she has almost no range of motion in her right knee.

This is due to when she got the fixator off it hurt to move so she didn't and the muscles that were already protesting about the stretching/growing they had to endure have locked up and gotten super tight. This is pretty normal and intensive physical therapy is moved up to now, instead of after she got off crutches - that would have been for gait training.

Luckily we have a relatively new physical therapy place with an outstanding reputation right in our little town so we wont have to drive all over for that. This is especially nice since gas prices are now up to $3.89 a gal!

Check her out cruising with one crutch and bearing all her weight on the right leg! I tell you it felt like Christmas to see that!

Later that evening we went to the school for the first annual talent show! I heard that my eldest boy and a few of his friends are the ones that came up with the idea to raise money for the music department. It was $5 bucks a head and a dollar a vote, to vote for your favorite act. There was a lot of singing, dancing, comedy skits, the school jazz band, show choir, and of course the eldest son's death metal band.

I can't tell you how amazed we were to hear some of the kid's lovely singing voices. Our school definitely has some talented kids.

Caden's favorite part is when the jazz band played the limbo! He got pretty low and was one of the last ones going under. He was disqualified after this backwards slide though.

The MC introducing Colton's band. Moments after this picture, three girls ran up on stage as "groupies" and wanted to introduce the band. The MC said ok and they squealed the band name, gave some whoops and hollers and while exiting the stage called out "Colton we love you!" Apparently he has some fans :) A good time had by all!

What a weekend...

2011-04-12T08:09:00.012-05:00

After a late night on Friday, Saturday started out too early and gray.

The annual pig butcher at our friends' place.

Not a lot of folks do this kind of thing anymore. It is economical and we sure have a good time though.

The guys butchered 17 pigs. Usually they are hung to cool overnight, but since the weather was pretty warm they put them on a trailer covered with snow.

In past years I'd be there all day wrapping meat, but since Chyann was sick I only went down to help wrap our meat. It's quite the assembly line.

Pork chops anyone?

More signs of spring! The rhubarb is making it's appearance.

We had a whopper of a storm on Sunday afternoon. Shasta got caught out in the hail for a bit. Even some tornado's 40 miles or so south of us.

After the big storm the guys did some target practicing with muzzle loader guns. Caden is very patiently waiting his turn.

Colton showing off for his girlie friend.... Jeez.. I wonder what's with the rolled up pants? New style? Really want a pair of capris?

Meanwhile Chyann brushes, trims and loves on the pups.

Hard to believe it was 80* on Sunday with all the wind that we had, both before and after the storm - sure fellt like North Dakota..

We are even forecasted to possibly get some snow come Friday too. blah.

The House of ROCK!!

2011-04-09T08:51:00.010-05:00

Orchard Warden Rocked the House of Rock last night!

The bar had an interesting set up. There were two sections, the stage and dance area with some seating, separated by the bar and another seating area with a small stage and TVs to watch the bands on.

It was so friggin loud that the ladies and I sat in the furthest area way from the stage and watched the band on the TVs. You could feel the drums and bass in your chest. I think that anyone with a heart condition should stay far away from this band! They are libel to keel over!

I was surprised at the age group of folks there to listen to a death metal band. Since it was a bar anyone there was over 21, but most of the "kids" looked to be mid to late 20's? Mostly dressed in black, some with mohawks, lots of piercings and tattoos, super short skirts - not a lot of gals there though. Interesting crowd of folks to say the least.

The band did very well if the crowd reaction was any indication. They even had fans moshing on the last song. Why they or anyone thinks moshing is dancing or fun is beyond me.

My very brave friends and I were wishing we'd brought ear plugs towards the end of the show!

Interesting side note: That was the absolute cleanest bar I've ever been to! No kidding the tile floors throughout the place were so clean they shined! Even in the bathrooms!

Short video of the TV we watched the band on. I did end up going into the other side of the bar to take more pictures and videos, but this is the only one that would load on blogger today.

In other news.

Chyann completed her first week back to school with only a few bumps along the way. She continues to get stronger every day.

We went to the FFA banquet where Colton received an award for 1st place in soil judging. Funny when we first moved down here I could never say FFA (future farmers of America), it always came out as FAA (federal aviation administration).

This is also the big pig butcher weekend. Caden is evidence that it is a real dirty job.

Buds are here!

2011-04-06T08:24:00.002-05:00

This morning when I came home from taking the kids to school I noticed the maple tree in the front yard was getting some nice buds on it. Pretty cool nest too. I think it is a swallows nest, but I'm not sure.

We got up to the low 50's yesterday and a ton of snow melted. By this weekend it'll probably all be gone. It is even forested to get up to the high 60's possibly 70 by Saturday!! Spring has finally sprung!

Colton's band has a show at the House of Rock on Friday night! This will be my first time seeing them live since the Homecoming bonfire last spring. I'm looking forward to checking out all their new moves and stage antics.

Happy hump day!

The KING

2011-04-02T18:53:00.002-05:00

The Play last night was beyond FANTASTIC!

I absolutely loved it!

Everyone said that Colton stole the show!

As the mute king he had almost no lines and carried the show on his facial expressions and outrageous gestures.

I didn't get any good pictures of him after the show because he was mobbed by folks wanting to congratulate him on his performance.

Chyann's first whole day of school yesterday went well also. A friend helped her to and from all her classes. Best of all she only had to have 1 advil after school to get rid of her aches and pains.

Report cards also came out yesterday.

Colton is doing great with mostly A's, 1 B and 1 C! Even with missing almost a whole quarter of school Chyann managed to hold on to her status as an A student on the honor roll! Except now she is getting an M (medical) in band and PE. Caden is O for outstanding as well, having moved up to a 3rd grade reading class!

My kiddos are super smart!

As for my first day back to work -- It was a long day. I detest the hours I work. 930a to 6p with a half hour drive home, that puts me here at 630p with dinner yet to get on the table. blah. And there seems to be quite a bit of discontent within my work group as well. That is always fun.

Any how...

I am sooo pleased with my young King! I never thought he'd enjoy something like acting, but you just never can tell how kids will surprise you.

No kidding, really...

2011-04-01T08:09:00.006-05:00

It's a beautiful sunny day here! The snow is melting, the trees have plump little buds on them, and the kids are at school. I've become a lady of leisure and quit my job to stay home! I'll now be getting dinner on the table no later than 6p every night, I'll have time to hang clothes out on the line, keep a weed free garden, makes sure everything is 100% ready for the big graduation and party to follow and have plenty of time to ride horses everyday!

Yeah, I know I'm full if shit. April Fools any way.

It's frigging snowing out today, the snow is not melting, there might be just a hint of buds on some variety of trees, the kids are at school and I'm going back to work today. Damn.

I've had fun this week hanging with Chyann at school and I don't think I've embarrassed her too much. Every day she's gone for a few more hours and today she's going to do a whole day. She sure is sore in the mornings and is totally tuckered in the evenings, but has more strength every day. As evidenced by the below picture of her going outside on Wednesday for the first time to see the horses.

Tonight is opening night of the play too! I got to see it yesterday at the school when they put it on for the school and man was it wonderful! Colton as King is soo funny! He gets the crowd really laughing in a few scenes. Really looking forward to seeing it again tonight.

TFIG!

Who knew?

2011-03-27T21:17:00.005-05:00

That Cairo and Shasta would become good buddies?

And that ANY cat would hold still to be blow dried?

Surprising stuff to be seen everyday.

Chyann is going to try and go to school for a half day tomorrow on crutches. I'll stay at the school in case she needs me, some pain meds, the wheelchair or just to leave. I hope she is able to do it, as she's been worrying about missing soooo much school and feeling like she is completely out of touch with her friends.

A few things she's done that she probably would never have experienced before this ordeal:

Gotten completely addicted to watching The Golden Girls and is now able to sing the opening song for start to finish. Is a huge Betty White fan. Can't believe the other gals are all deceased. Is more mature than any 13 year old should ever be, can take huge amounts of pain with only a small grimace. Likes to make fun of her mother because I apparently talk in my sleep and laugh while sleeping almost every night - I've been sleeping on the couch in case she needs anything so we've gotten to know each other very well -we have recently started sleeping back upstairs though, she goes up and down the very steep 14 stairs on her butt with me holding her leg up. Gotten closer to her Grandma than she ever would have before. She has a wonderful appreciation of how GREAT her grandma really is and misses her so much. Thankfully she hasn't had too hard of a time coming off all the narcotic drugs she was taking. This kid is so fantastic I can't even believe it!

Wish her good luck for school tomorrow!

What's happening?

2011-03-25T10:00:00.001-05:00

Wacky winter storm Tuesday night and into Wednesday that we got about 10 inches of snow/sleet, even a bit of rain from. The kids got a snow day Wednesday too, which the boys were very happy for - especially Colton who used that extra day to finish a big project for English class. Now our temps are not expected to get much above freezing for then next week. So none of the snow we got will be melting any time soon. That really burns my butt as we just about had all our snow gone before this last dump.

Chyann continues to regain strength. It is a very slow process though. She is now using her crutches some instead of relying on the wheelchair all the time. She is absolutely terrified of breaking the new bone or bending her knee still. The docs say she'll get more bold (back to her old self) as the pain fades and she gets stronger. All her leg holes are healing well too, apparently they had to cut more holes in her to get the pins/wires out. She ended up having 15 total wounds on her leg instead of the original seven.

Colton is down to the last week before the play opens at the school. They are putting on the Princess and the mattress and he is the King. His character is that of a lecherous king, who ogles and chases all the women in the castle. The King was enchanted by a witch and he is unable to speak so most of his role is gestures and body language until the end. Should be interesting. Last Sunday the cast put on a Royal tea for the community. The cast wore their costumes, but no make up. Lots of kids came dressed in their best princess and knight outfits. They were all very cute.

Gracie plopped herself into Chyann's math book.

Got a little wild when it was attempted to remove her.

Now looks like a princess when she gets her way.

Don't you love those spots on her tummy?

Mom this is just for you!
I finally beat your high score!!!
HA!

My Mother is the Yahtzee Queen and I've knocked her off her the pedestal!

Tis done

2011-03-16T17:02:00.004-05:00

I'm happy to report that Chyann's fixator came off today with no big complications and she is currently snoozing on her bed in the living room!

The operation took about 30 minutes longer than anticipated and she woke up from the anesthesia completely miserable!

They had to give her soo much post-op pain medicine! More than enough to knock out a large man they said, but only barely made her comfortable. Apparently she has built up a bit of a tolerance to all the drugs since she has been taking tons of them for six weeks now.

They've left her seven pin/wire holes open to heal from the inside out with only gauze pads covering the holes so they will drain. The whole leg is then wrapped in a cotton batting type material, wrapped with an ace bandage and the new knee/leg brace with a hinge over that.

Seems kinda flimsy protection compared to the fixator, but apparently enough due to the rod holding the bone together on the inside.

She will be able to bend her knee now too. Which she is thrilled with, but scared to death to try because it might hurt. I can't blame her there, as a wire went all the way through her knee and it was straight for six weeks. Those muscles that have been stretched, had holes punched in them and not moved for so long are going to scream the first few times she tries it.

We saw all three of her orthopedic doctors today too.

The two that were in charge of the fixator part and her original ortho surgeon.

All three made a point to tell us how absolutely amazing Chyann has been through this whole ordeal and the head fixator doc even went as far as saying that she was the bravest young patient he's ever had and that we should really be proud of her. sniff, sniff you bet we are.

Now the healing begins.

Sounds like she'll have to wear the knee/leg brace and be on crutches for about 2 months. She'll have to get some strength back before heading back to school as well. Half days at first then full days as her strength increases.

This whole process has been so much more than we ever imagined, really.

Hell, I read everything I could find on it, talked to folks that had it done before and still it was more.

Like we thought she'd be back to school after two weeks or so, but she's been out now for six weeks, with another week maybe before she tries half days. Being confined to the wheelchair -loosing her independence, unable to walk for the most part has been so hard for her, this girl that is usually so active and always outside!

I reminded her and myself continually that it will all be worth it in the end. A nice straight spine, an even gait and no shoe lifts :)

Exciting News!

2011-03-14T17:20:00.004-05:00

Chyann is having her operation on Wednesday!

The day after tomorrow!!

We are sooo excited!

It's should only take about an hour to remove the ilizarov frame and affix the femur to the rod lying next to it.

Day surgery, no hospital stay unless there are complications of course.

Random picture:

Me dreaming of summer. Jenny munching on the sunflowers.

Right in front of our house is a 100 plus year old Elm tree. We think it contracted dutch elm disease last year and has died. We were going see what happens with it this spring before doing anything with it.

These last few weeks I've been seeing lots of bark in the snow that has fallen from the branches and was thinking it might need to come down before then if it were really that rotten/decayed/weak to loose so much bark.

The picture below doesn't really show how much has fallen down, but gives you an idea what I've seen.

Yesterday I spied the bark culprits!

A pair of woodpeckers are pecking all over my tree!

They don't appear to be making a hole anywhere, but are skipping here and there pecking at the bark.

I wonder if they eating bugs or something?

And what do you know? Two blog posts in two days. WOW!

Cat craziness and more...

2011-03-13T10:07:00.009-05:00

First off, I'll say that last week was the most painful for Chyann to endure through this whole growth process.

It was so bad I was beginning to believe she might have a bone infection, hence the two calls to the doctor's office, RX refills and a cancelled hair appointment because she could literally NOT get out of bed.

But the news is good!

The desired growth has been reached! 40mm!!

Her computers have been turned off and removed from her Ilizarov frame!

Almost immediately her pain levels went waaaay down!

She still has pain, like you'd have from a broken leg (which technically she does have), but the pulling and stretching of the muscles, tendons, skin and all that are no longer a factor for increasing pain -- which is very good.

At this time we are waiting to hear from the doctors office to see if they'll be able to squeeze her into the schedule for surgery on Wednesday or if she'll have to wait until Friday to get her frame removed. We are sooo hoping they can get her in on Wednesday!

Meanwhile she appears to have a mild case of the flu, great right? Poor kid.

Anyhow now the cat crap.

We've had a stray cat in our barn off and on for the last six months or so. Never had any problem with him. He'd be here for a few days then gone for a few weeks. We think he's been in some fights with our two barn cats, but nothing major. You could never get close to him, he always ran away from people.

So, one day last week Colton and the Hubby were out feeding the animals and came upon him in the tack room sleeping in our cat Sparkys bed. Colton for what ever reason decided to pet/pick up this cat. Dad not too far behind him barely had time to say "Leave that cat alone" before the cat attacked Colton! No joke.

(colton and sparky)

The cat bit through his coat, sweatshirt and shirt. A huge hissing scratching fight ensued with Colton unable to get the cat off of him. The Hubby grabbed the cat and ripped him off Colton.

Then did what had to be done in case the cat had rabies.

Did you know that 80% of cat bites become infected? They do.

Of course urgent care was closed already so we went to the ER where he was given a shot and antibiotics. Xray's too in case a tooth got broken off in the muscle - it hadn't but sure was a deep puncture wound.

THEN we got to go to the county sheriffs department and fill out a bite report.

We just heard back yesterday that the cat did not have rabies, which is a relief.

Meanwhile Chyann has been bugging her Dad to get her a kitten.

He did - two actually.

So below is Cairo - the orange gal and Gracie - the gray baby.

All I can say about these two cats is that they did and are really cheering up Chyann and that they use the litter box.

Mom and Gracie.

WE miss you already Mom!

In like a lion...

2011-03-06T10:30:00.005-06:00

we welcome the month of March!

It's been cold, windy and more of the same is expected.
With any luck this month will roll out like a lamb!

Daylight savings on the 13th and the first day of SPRING on the 21st!

I've managed to get a bit of a cold this weekend. I think I've been burning the candle at both ends for too long and it's caught up with me.

Chyann continues to make progress growing new bone. As of last Wednesday she was up to 30mm! The muscle spasms are even more brutal now too though. Hopefully sometime the week of the 14th she'll have the 2nd operation to remove the hardware and screw the bone down.

Her physical therapist got her up and moving down that long hallway you see behind her. She didn't walk "conventionally" using the crutches - she picked up her leg by the pins/ring coming out of her hip to pull her foot forward, set it down and move the other foot and crutches up to take a step. This turned out not to be the best idea as you can imagine, it irritated the pin holes something fierce and she will no longer do that to move on the crutches. She will still get up and stand a few times a day to get the blood pumping and stretch though.

Also of note we got her on the scale and found that all her hardware weighs right about 9 lbs!

She was growling at me to hurry up and take the picture here.

My Mother and Caden.

I've probably said it before, but I'm going to say it again - we have absolutely LOVED having my Mother here. Sad to say she will be leaving the end of this coming week to go back home to OK, where we are told the dogwood trees are blooming, new grass is growing and folks there are enjoying wonderfully mild temps of 70*!

Here is a shot of the pants I've worked out for Chyann. After numerous attempts of actually making a whole pair of pants this is what works best for her.

Buy a pair of incredibly cheap sweat pants - I got hers on the 50% off rack at Wally's so they were only 3 bucks!

Cut the outside seam on the leg you need to insert the pocket.

Make a pocket with leftover cute scrap material.

Sew the pocket on and add Velcro up and down the leg to close it up.

Easy as pie!

Colton's band had that show in the cities at The Garage on Friday too.

I think he said there were eight different bands there and his was the only ones that got to back out and play an encore!

He said by far they were the best band there!

He and the boys are so jazzed!

Until next time, have a good one.