Little Visitor

We had a little visitor on Friday.

He was lost.

The cows were fascinated!

CJ (horse) isn't impressed.

He was understandably shy.

But boy oh boy he wanted to get under / through 

that darn fence!

Rod to the rescue!!!!!

(He was pretty big!)

(The turtle... not Rod...)

We found a spot and slid him under the fence.

He took a little bit to decide it was ok.

Of course, once there was ZERO chance it could get her,

Bandit was FASCINATED.

Chicken dog.

Happy trails little turtle!

Great Class, Good People

Whew!

That was quite the class.

We had a full house.

At one point I had to set up another table to 

stuff a couple of extra people in.

The people were LOUD.

They were engaged.

They were friendly.

They were supporting.

They were LOUD!

(My voice is still a little sore...)

But we had a really good time.

And they learned a lot.

And I think they were happy...

They pitched in together and got me some

pretty flowers, a new water bottle,

and a pack of cute 3 x 5 cards so

I could "update" our review game.

Nice folks!

(But they sure were LOUD!)

Dirt

So, the other night my chicks arrived.

And it was raining.

And the dogs were soaking wet.

When I got home, I let the dogs into the garage.

Then I brought the chicks into the house.

Then I hooked up their heat lamp.

Then I found, cleaned and filled their

waterer and feeders.

Then I took them outside.

Then I watched them for a little while.

Then I realized I was soaking wet and freezing

so I went into the house and changed my clothes,

wrapped up in a blanket and sat on the 

couch trying to thaw out.

Shortly after that, Rod came home from work.

He let the dogs out of the garage.

And this is what he found.

(This is mid-clean up)

There WAS a 50 pound bag of dirt

laying on the floor by the pool table.

But HIS puppy thought it looked like

a fun thing to play with.

She ripped it open.

I'm sure KYLE'S dog helped.

Result?

50 pounds of dirt spread all over

the floor of the garage.

Luckily we had an empty 

trash can down in the barn,

and now the dirt is safely in the can.

I'll bet it was FUN though!

Baby Chicks

They arrived!

It was rainy and "cold".

Perfect weather.

Blech.

There are 41 little black star female chicks

and one "rare exotic mystery chick".

Hello little random dude!

Significantly larger than the others!

I brought them out to their new brooder

where they got all snuggly under their light.

They are kind of noisy

but not nearly as bad as my last shipment.

That one was 110 chicks!!!

(Half were for my neighbor)

They got it all figured out.

They are kind fun to watch.

(that's rain on the metal roof you can hear)

Like little black ping pong balls.

Night girls!

New(ish) Brooder

Ok, it's not really "new".

It's re-purposed.

We finished up with our rabbits.

We enjoyed having them.

The babies were fun.

(When we were successful 

HAVING some babies...)

And therein is the rub.

My rabbits were NOT your

stereotypical rabbits.

They did NOT breed like rabbits.

So, they are "no more".

(Several of them got a 2nd chance

with a friend, we'll see if they do

better over there...)

But in the meantime, I was checking

my records and realized it is TIME

to refresh my chicken flock.

Last week I ordered 40 new little baby chicks.

I'm hoping they arrive tomorrow morning.

In order to get ready for them, 

Rod spent several (SEVERAL) hours over the weekend

fixing the rabbit hutch complex to accommodate 

the new chicks.

First he took out the wire floor.

(It was definitely ready to be removed

or repaired...)

Then he replaced the wire with some plywood and

covered it with fresh wood shavings.

The front side is separated into 4 separate cages.

We will be using these to house my older 

chickens to test to see if they are still laying.

The other side is one large enclosure and that

is where we will house the babies until they are

big enough to move to the "condo".

Of course, first I'm going to have to retrain the

girls that are sleeping in there now.

Sigh.

One thing at a time.

Nom Nom Nom

Our horses are messy eaters.

And wasteful.

The other day, Rod lucked on

some big blue barrels

which used to hold food grade aloe.

For a ridiculously low price.

(The barrels, not the aloe...)

So he purchased THREE of them!

And proceeded to re-purpose them.

(We did NOT invent this idea...

Reid and Nancy's horses have been

dining from these for years!)

I had a real hard time taking these pictures.

If you look just above CJ,

the sun was going down and the sunset

wanted to take over EVERY picture.

Which is why there is a LOT of dirt in 

this picture.

Notice, Buddy is eating hay in the

very back of this picture.

Buddy doesn't normally EAT hay!

But yesterday he was!

CJ had some trouble with the concept

at first.  He pulled all the hay out

and then ate it off the ground.

He is getting better.

But is still messy.

Andy came by for a visit.

HELLOOOO Andy.

No, this is NOT a treat.

The boys (and the chickens) are

loving their new hay troughs.

Thanks again Rod for taking such

good care of all of us!

We love you!

Our "garden"

You might be familiar with Jim's gardens.

He has a green thumb.

He got it from both sides of the family.

Rod's Mom could grow a tree from a dead stick.

(And did on a couple of occasions...)

And of course, Mom & Dad's garden was

legendary!

(As were the Daddy Long Legs in the beans...)

However,

somehow that gene seemed to skip a generation.

I am NOT a good gardener.

For the most part.

I grew some killer okra.

Back before I knew what to do with it.

And I've been moderately successful with

green peas.  (Shhh, Kyle and I always ate

them right out of the garden, I don't think Rod

ever knew they grew!)

But for the most part?

Fail.

But we are trying again!

This time we are using a nifty bucket method

Rod learned about (and researched exhaustively) online.

I give you...

Buffaloe Acres.

Ok, there are only 6 buckets.

But aren't they colorful and cute?

We have high hopes for these.

There are 4 cherry tomato plants

and 2 mini sweet peppers.

If these survive, I'm hoping to add green peas.

But I doubt they will do well.

(wink wink)

And I can Park

Not only am I NOT the worst shot,

I can also park.

So...

A couple of days ago there was a

Facebook post on the Bangor Maine

Police Department facebook page.

(If you don't follow these guys, what

on earth are you waiting for???)

Bangor Maine Police Department

Anyhow.

As they hire new officers, they like

to introduce them to the world.

They hired a guy a little while back,

he's a new recruit fresh out of college.

And he can't seem to park.

Case in point...

This is his private vehicle.

And his work vehicle.

Notice the continuity in not parking IN

the spot, but at least he's consistent!

Anyhow.

Rod and I were talking about it 

while driving up to Samsula to pick up feed.

And later that day I needed to go to the church.

I successfully BACKED the VW into a parking

spot at the Stake Center.

But let's be honest.
It's a VW.

How hard can it be?

So to prove the point...

here is my truck the following morning

at our local chapel.

TA DA!!!!!

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm NOT the worst shot!

I listen to a country music station in the mornings

on the way to work.

Because the Grammy's are this weekend

they decided to try to predict who the

winners will be by having the female host

shoot at a target using her pellet gun.

I gather there is a grid like a Bingo game

and it's stuck on a cardboard box.

They are standing pretty close.

And yesterday she MISSED the whole box.

By like 3 feet.

And BOY was she hearing about it!

Are your eyes open?

You have an inner ear infection, maybe you

kind of fell over?

Etc etc etc.

Kind of reminds me of the first time I

shot my new .22 rifle.

I couldn't hit the target to save my life!

I tried everything!

I was SURE the sites were off.

But Kyle tried it and hit the bulls eye.

(show off)

Turns out, I had one eye closed, like Rod

told me to do.

Unfortunately, it was the wrong eye.

Sheesh.

I will NEVER live that down.

But back to the radio show.

One of the other hosts "inspected" the gun

to see if it could be a mechanical malfunction.

Yup.

It's her gun.

She brought it from home.

And she loaded it.

Backwards.

All the pellets were in there backwards!

Imagine hitting a badminton bird with the feathers

facing forward and you see her problem.

The pellets were leaving the gun

and practically dropping straight to the ground.

This morning she did MUCH better!

Whew!

Nice to know at least I didn't do THAT wrong!

(of course, I don't load my own gun, my

darling husband does that for me!)

Hmmmmmmmm

Yum!

I had planned to make "Lazy Lasagna" 

for dinner last night.

But I used all my cottage cheese

for a batch of my favorite salad

(cottage cheese, green apple, celery, walnuts)

don't forget this salad - it's SO yummy!

Anyhow.

I was out of cottage cheese.

And the only ground meat I have is some

pretty pricey ground bison.

Not hiding it in lazy lasagna!

So....

I had several chicken breasts already cooked

up (I did them in my pressure cooker over the

weekend) so I grabbed a couple of them,

put them in a 9x13 pan, put a slice of 

provolone cheese on each one and covered

it all with some sugar free tomato basil marinara

that I bought from my favorite grocery store.

In my "on plan" eating plan, this is considered

a Fuel Pull.  (No significant carbs OR fat!

but lots of great protein...)

Stuck that in the toaster over to heat up.

Then I dropped a couple sweet potatoes

into my pressure cooker and set it for 20 minutes.

Should have done 15. But they were still great.

And then I quickly mixed up some 

"Tummy Tucking Ice Cream"

and poured that into the ice cream maker.

20 minutes later we had a GREAT meal!

The chicken turned out really good,

sweet potatoes in the pressure cooker come out 

soft, sweet, creamy.  The peelings just slide off,

and then they don't even need butter or brown sugar!

SO delicious!

I had a side of steamed broccoli to round it out.

And then a little later we had some fresh

blueberry ice cream for desert!

Aaaaaaaaah.

And there was enough for lunch today!

Is it noon yet????

Piano

I haven't played the piano in a LONG time.

I have one.

Sitting right there in my living room.

And I think about it sometimes.

But I don't do it.

The last time I played the piano was 

at Mom and Dad's (when they were in the

Casita so not THIS year's trip, last year's...)

She had her old Moonlight Sonata music

out and I gave it a whirl.

Hahahahahahahahahaha

So anyway.

Yesterday was our Stake Conference.

It was also our one year anniversary-ish.

We are a brand new stake.

And our stake building is Teeny Tiny.

So they piped the meeting in to the

local meeting houses.

So anyway.

Rod got to conduct for our building

(since he is the High Councilor over our ward)

and being Rod, he arrived an hour early

just to "be sure".

And there were no chairs set up.

Luckily some other ward members showed up

shortly after and by the time I got there 

at 10:25 the chairs were all set up.

(Started at 11)

I really didn't want to just sit in the pew

for another 30 minutes, so I wandered off

to the Relief Society room and sat down at the piano.

It felt great to play a couple of hymns.

Muscle memory is an amazing thing!

At 10:50 I decided I had better head back

into the chapel.

And what I found there were a bunch of 

noisy people chatting happily,

and Rod and his IT guy frantically trying to

get the live stream to work. 

They finally had video, but the audio wasn't working.

So I headed up to the stand and opened 

the baby grand to play some prelude music.

I was pretty happy the Lord had me warm up first!

By the end of the 2nd verse of 

I Am A Child Of God

(I sometimes think if we do Primary songs,

it catches the ears of the kids and at least THEY

quiet down a little bit... lol)

they got the audio going and we got to enjoy

the Stake Choir for another minute or two

before the service began.

The meeting was excellent,

our Stake President was our Bishop minutes before

(well actually concurrently) when he was called.

He's an amazing young man.

And, of course, Rod did a great job.

He is getting good at this stuff!