Pictures!

I have pictures!  

Hope you wanted to see some. 

LOL

Welcome to the world little ones!

Looks like 5 bunnies to me.

All pink.

And warm.

And hairless.

Just 2 days later they are getting hair.

Silky fine, but hair.

Eyes are still closed.

Cuter though...

This is Rod's nifty nest box

before there were any residents.

The moms brought in more hay

and LOTS of fur

and 5 (so far) babies.

The boys enjoying a little snooze in the sunshine.

This is what you have left when you leave a turkey carcass in the chicken yard.

Looks like something you would find in the desert!

They stripped those bones CLEAN!

Nobody seemed to mind that it was a cousin.

Chickens.

Goats with feathers.

And a quick fuzzy look at my "new look".

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I hope you had a GREAT Thanksgiving.

We certainly did!

This year we stayed home instead of doing

the "entire herd" thing.

Rod still drove up and picked up his Dad.

But instead of 30+ people,

there were 6.

It was wonderful!

Rod and I have been eating clean.

Which means no gluten,

no milk (but LOTS of dairy)

and NO SUGAR.

A good diet for warding off nasties

like cancer and alzheimer's. 

And, as a side benefit,

we are both skinny.

He has lost 32 pounds

and I have lost 16.

(I got back in my size 6's the first of November!)

And, luckily, Thanksgiving is the perfect meal

to eat clean - it's already lean and mean.

We baked a turkey in a bag.

Moist, yummy, and EASY!

(I like to read recipe books, but don't really

like to do the actual cooking thing.  LOL)

We made mashed dirty potatoes and gravy

for the kids and Dad.  (Red potatoes boiled

with the skins on and then mashed with a stick of

butter and a BIG glob of sour cream.)

And, of course, the required sweet potato casserole.

(except I forgot marshmallows - a national crisis!)

And Stove Top, cuz NOBODY makes stuffing

like Kraft.

And then I roasted some brussel sprouts (ick),

steamed some broccoli with lots of butter,

and roasted some sweet potatoes with butter and

lots of cinnamon.

Those nearly didn't make it to the table!

They were like eating CANDY!

SO tasty!

The Rhodes rolls didn't rise as much as they should,

so I was happy I wasn't eating bread anyway.  LOL

Oh.  And I made my own cranberry jelly.

WHY have I not been doing this all my life?

That was SO easy and tasty!

I put the last of it on my breakfast oatmeal this morning

and some on my sweet potato, cranberry, turkey casserole.

I can't wait for lunch!

(grin)

There were brownies with cream cheese for desert.

But everybody was too full.

And Rod and I were both DOWN in pounds this morning.

LOVE THAT!

Meanwhile...

CJ is turning into a really good patient.

Sometimes horses get worse every day about

taking their medicine,

but he's resigned and is pretty good about it.

The first morning it took FOREVER.

This morning we did it in 15 (cuz you have

to wait 5 minutes between each salve)

AND

We FINALLY have baby bunnies!

I took pictures.

I left my iPod at the house.

Sheesh.

I'll post them tomorrow.

Cuz you want to see a bunch of squirmy

naked rabbit babies.

LOL

For her first kindle she only had 5.

But she'll catch on and get better.

Somebody else built and lined a nest yesterday,

but it was empty this morning when we fed.

So we'll be keeping an eye on them all.

AND

The baby chicks that we hatched this summer?

Out of 12 eggs, we ended up with 3 chicks.

(And the hawk enjoyed breakfast while we were in Utah...)

Two of them have fancy tails.

And have started CROWING.

(a young rooster learning to crow is HYSTERICAL)

Like a boy going through puberty.

Cock a Doodle Doooohack cough cough hack.

Egg production is down.

But I think its because the weather has been nuts.

It was 41 yesterday morning!

(Rod and I both had on long johns!)

It will be 80 tomorrow.

We changed the timer on the coop light so it is

coming on at 3:30 instead of 5:30.

Hopefully that will help.

I got 17 eggs on Wednesday

and I got 24 yesterday.

Two weeks ago I was getting 38!!!

Get back to work girls!

Christmas is coming!

Anyhow - enough rambling.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are all at work today.

Planes have to fly, (Rod)

horses and chickens have to be fed and tractors fixed, (Kyle)

and $$$ has to be posted (me).



Day "Off"

Jim invited me to the movies on Monday.

During the day.

So I emailed my boss and took Monday off.

Monday morning was a little less cold,

but there was still a blustery wind.

We fed the animals and then had a yummy breakfast.

Rod had his usual 2 eggs with bacon

(cooked super fast and crispy in the new microwave)

and I had a "Butter Pecan" muffin in a mug

in a cute mug!

The farrier showed up about 9:00-ish to do the horses'

pedicure.  (Talk about spoiled!  LOL)

We chatted for a few minutes and then all 3 of us

jumped in the truck to drive over town to meet Jim.

We saw Hunger Games 2 (Catching Fire)

It was really good!

Of course, the book is better, but they did

a pretty good job of catching the essence...

Then back to the house to borrow the neighbor's horse trailer

(our's isn't road worthy right now)

and load up CJ.

He's had a weeping eye on and off for a couple of weeks

so decided to take the opportunity to run him to the vets.

If you have the vet come to you,

there is a $60 "barn call" charge.

If you bring the horse to him...

Nada!

Pretty good deal!

Except CJ is claustrophobic and HATES trailers.

But he loaded up well and was happy to see

a big pile of hay for him to eat.

Turns out he has a corneal ulcer with secondary fungus.

Which means...

2 expensive, gooey salves in his eye three times a day for 7 days.

1 expensive, gooey salve in his eye twice a day for 2 days

and then 1once a day for 5 more.

And a squirt of banamine in his mouth for 3 days.

He loves it.

NOT.

And then he gets to ride in the trailer again NEXT Monday

for a checkup to make sure its all good.

I'm not taking next Monday off.

Rod and Kyle make a good loading team though.

After all THAT fun,

we got home to find a yard full of trucks and trailers.
(ok, there were only 2, but they were parked all

over the place, so it looked like a yard full... lol)

The guys and some friends had loaded up their

4-wheelers and headed out into the woods to ride.

Sabrina came over after work

and the guys showed up WELL after dark around 6:30-ish.

They had a great time.

Were soaking wet,

but happy.

I had put some General Tso Chicken in the crockpot in the morning

and some brown rice in a pot an hour earlier

so we had a yummy "chinese" dinner.

(Made some Asian veggies in the microwave...)

While we ate, we watched Hunger Games #1

on dvd.

Since Rod was pretty sure he fell asleep

watching it last time and was lost.

And then it was back out to the barn to

put gooey salve in CJ's eye before bed.

This morning started early.

Rod was up at 5:30 and I followed 15 minutes later

and we headed out to do CJ and feed everybody.

Still no baby bunnies.

Sigh.

They better get on the stick!

OH.  And we washed all the eggs and took them next door

last night before dinner.

Thursday is their usual "share" day, but with it being

Thanksgiving, they moved share day to today.

They don't have enough eggs, but oh well.

The girls are down in production again.

I think it's this crazy weather.

It was 80 on Saturday.

60 on Sunday.

78 on Monday.

80 today.

70 tomorrow

and we'll be lucky to hit 60 on Thanksgiving.

And back to 80 by the weekend.

PICK A SEASON!

LOL

Better get back to work.

Thanks everybody for the Birthday Wishes.

It was a great long weekend!

Happy Birthday to... ME!

So

I always do a post for family birthdays.

I guess I need to do one for me.

LOL

Last night (since my Birthday fell on a Sunday this year)

my darling husband took me out to dinner.

We had a $50 gift card to Outback.

It was actually Kyle's, but he gave it to me.

Last year.

LOL

I guess Outback isn't our favorite place.

We're more of a Taco Bell / Wendy's

kind of family.

*Can't forget Bamboo Panda!

Anyhow, we had a nice dinner of chopped salad,

steak and roasted vegetables.

(Mixed for Rod, asparagus for me...)

Just as we were getting ready to leave, 

Rod sent me into the kitchen.

Where I discovered a new microwave!

YEA!!!

Our microwave died.

Can't remember if it got struck by lightening or just got old.

But we have been using the little tiny one

we bought for the guys to use in their truck.

It takes 5+ minutes to do 2 pieces of bacon.

And you only have enough room for a cereal bowl.

Now we have POWER.

And SPACE.

And Bacon in 3.5 minutes!!!!!

SCORE!!!!!

So after dinner we went to WalMart to pick up

a nifty bacon cooker thingie (with a lid)

(no more bacon grease EVERYWHERE)

And ended up getting some other fun gadgets.

That's my favorite department in WalMart!

We had a "cold front" blow through over night.

Yesterday was glorious.

I sat out in the yard in the sunshine for a little bit.

Today was overcast, rainy, and COLD.

(Well, Florida's fall version of cold...)

When I went out to feed everybody,

it looked like one of the rabbits was 

getting ready to "kindle".

So Rod kindly whipped together a nifty

wooden nest box for me.

(I forgot to take a picture)

No babies yet, but Mama is really enjoying

getting a nest ready in her box.

Speaking of boxes,

UPS delivered a nice big box for me on Friday.

I was a good girl and didn't open it until today.

It was HARD.

But worth it.

First, I LOVED the box it was packed in.

SUPER cute!

And the cups and tray are PERFECT!

I can see drinking hot chocolate out of them.

But better than that, how about a big steaming mug

of brocolli cheese soup?  

Or even a "Muffin in a Mug"?

I've been using mugs a LOT lately!

(And how cute is that fat bellied cardinal?)

And in keeping with the "stay warm" theme,

Nancy included a YUMMY new "fur" throw.

It's softer than bunny fur and BEAUTIFUL!

It looks perfect on my black leather sofa.

And talk about cozy!

It has this wonderful velvet stuff on the back.

Soft front and back.

And toasty warm.

Does my family know me, or what???

This is going to be the warmest Florida winter EVER!

(Which is good, because I have a feeling this

is going to be a COLD Florida winter!)

Thanks everybody for the birthday wishes and gifts!

I feel very loved!

(And Rod even did the dishes after breakfast!)

SPOILED!

What's Up???

As usual, we are busy around here.

And, we are BLESSED!

This weekend, Jim and Sabrina were pulling into

the gas station on Jim's Yamaha V-Star

(big black motorcycle he rides to work every day)

Somebody backed right smack, dab over them!

Knocked the bike over.

Dented the tank and pipes.

Bent some stuff.

Luckily they jumped off and were not hurt.

I'm not sure Sabrina will get back ON again

any time soon...

But at least they are ok.

And the guy has insurance.

So... the bike was loaded on Kyle's flatbed trailer.

(Kyle to the rescue - again... lol)

and hauled up to the Honda shop for Uncle Scott

to fix.

It's so awesome to have your own personal mechanic.

All your life.

Meanwhile, Jim is driving the Isuzu Trooper.

Don't get too spoiled bud!

+++++++++++++++++++++

In other news,

Ethel, Bob's primary mate, had a baby bunny yesterday.

Just one.

A BIG one.

But she's lacking in maternal instincts.

I doubt he will still be alive when I get home tonight.

She didn't make a nest before giving birth.

I found him on the wire floor when I got home.

He was freezing cold.

So I got some dryer lint and made a little nest

under the red light we still have up for the chicks.

This morning his little nest was gone

and he was back out on the wire.

And of course, this was the coldest night so far

this year.  Low 60's, but a STIFF wind

coming straight out of the north.

Brrrrrrrrr.

She might be a dud.

Or she doesn't know what she's doing.

I'll give her another try.

But then she's fired.

The other two should be giving birth around

Thanksgiving weekend.

Hopefully they are better at this stuff.

Busy Busy Boys

The boys were busy over the weekend.

All 4 of them.

The Stake had a Family Fall Day

and asked if we could bring our horses.

Every year we have ridden our horses

over to the local park for our church

July 4th picnic.

The horses patiently walk around with little

kids on their backs for hours.

The only rules are:

Kids only

NO wet bathing suits.

(We still have to ride them home...)

So...

We borrowed a friend's nice aluminum trailer.

And then we spent the week practicing loading.

Our horses haven't been in a trailer in about 10 years.

They did pretty well.

When the big day came, we decided to

hedge our bets and give them each a

mouth full of Quietex (valerian root).

I was in Boynton, but Rod texted me

and said they loaded like a dream.

Drove 30 miles up the road to the Stake Center.

CJ waiting for the fun to begin.

Andy ready to roll!

They have some woods next to the parking lot.

Rod and Kyle walked the horses around

a nifty trail they figured out for about an hour.

Then Rod traded off with our friend's daughter,

Carly, and she led CJ for the rest of the time.

Rod led for an hour and then he and our friend,

Linda (she owns the trailer and is Carly's Mom)

loaded kids on and off the horses.

Kyle led Andy for the whole 3 hours!

When they were all done,

Rod said the horses nearly JUMPED in the trailer.

LOL

The stake was expecting about 200 people.

They ended up with 500!

The guys figured they did 360 rides.

Everybody got Bute when they got home.

(Well, the horses anyway, the guys got Aleve...)

I was sorry to miss it.