Singing

Our 5 and 3 year old children were singing today and this is what I over heard:  

"It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring, he went to bed and bumped his head and couldn't get it up in the morning". 

Evidently they know a little something about how a head injury affects labido! Hahaha! 

All joking aside, they DID just learn the song about 5 minutes before so I'm actually impressed they correctly sang the amount they did! 

Out of the mouths of babes :-) 

Been a while

I know it's been a couple weeks since I posted anything but the days are flying by and I just lost track of time. 

Several things have happened since I last posted: 

1. Our oldest son satrted Kindergarten! 

It is bittersweet to have him (already) going off to school. 

We are so proud of him but we miss him during the day. 

To us, starting kindergarten is a big deal. Now starts his school career. We made a really big deal out of the first day and starting school in general. 

Thanks to my loving mom (and best grandma ever) and my awesome older brother Jeremy, our little man has a pretty slick wardrobe. Getting him dressed for school is actually kind of fun! 

We walk him to school each day which is so nice for us because it's about 2 miles round trip so we get some exercise. 

Even though we miss our little guy during the day, it is amazing how having 1 of the 3 of the kiddos gone has made it possible for us to get so many more things done! It's not that our 5 year old is the issue or anything, he's actually quite independent and helpful. It's just having one less kiddo to wrangle is sooooo much easier.  

2. We've completed a few more small projects. 

I made a bulletin board for our little kindergartner's bedroom so he can hang up all of his special little trinkets like his award for mutin bustin' at the county fair over the summer. 

We did some furniture rearranging and other things throughout the house because I was getting antsy and needed change. Luckily we happen to have an extra living room set we can switch out as needed so it worked out and was free. It also opened up the living room quite a bit. 

3. We're preparing to have little lambs soon. Not much to do there but we had to move the sheep into one of the stalls in the goat house to prepare for birthing. This will be a new experience for us because we're hand raising them so they're friendly. They only get to nurse on mom for one or two days to get all the colostrum they can then we're pulling them off and bottle feeding them. 

So, there's some prep work involved there. 

4. I started volunteering in the kindergarten classroom! I love it and think I'll do it more often but I only committed to every other week for now. Eric is volunteering 3 days per week! 

5. We started and finished (we're current) 2 TV series; Drop Dead Diva and Hart of Dixie. I've seen Drop Dead Diva in the past but Hart of Dixie was new to us. We're addicted to both and impatient for new episodes to be released. This tv watching happens after the kids' bedtime. 

6. The 3rd novel of the trilogy I'm reading was released and I started reding it. The problem is that I'm having trouble remembering details from the first two books so I've decided to go back and read them both again before getting too far into this one. 

The books are written by Deborah Harkness and are the All Souls Trilogy. They are an EXCELLENT read. It's just hard to do with the kiddos. 

7. We're preparing for our daughters 4th birthday in a couple of weeks! It's hard to believe she will be 4! Time is going by way too quickly. 

We will be making soap soon and I'll try to take photos of the process to post here. 

That's about all we have going on for now. It's an adventure daily but we're having a lot of fun. 

Farewell Diva

On Saturday, our horse, Diva left to go to her new home.

We "interviewed" many different prospects for her but I was having trouble letting her go. 

Some of the people I didn't trust, some of them weren't familiar enough with Mustangs and some I just plain did not care for. Plus, I kept changing my mind and wanting to keep her since I love her so much. 

However, since I do love her so much, she needed to go to a home where they will train her and use her to her potential. She's a special horse and I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. 

So, when a nice woman named Joanne came to look at her, I was ready to get all defensive again and not really give her a chance. 

When I saw how much she loved Diva immediately and how Diva responded to her, I was a little more interested in hearing more about Joanne and what her plans were for Diva. 

She is skilled at training and has desperately been wanting a buckskin mare. It was obvious she had a "thing" for Diva right away too so I warmed up to her pretty quickly. 

Anyway, we decided that Joanne was our girl for Diva and we agreed to let her come Saturday to pick her up. 

I was sad for her to leave but it was the right thing to do. 

When Joanne arrived Saturday, I felt even better when I saw Diva load right up in the trailer for her. Joanne also told us she bought a new round pen to start her training and was eager to get started. She already sent us photos and agreed to keep us updated on her progress. She also agreed to never send her to a feed lot and I made it clear that if she ends up not wanting to keep her, I'd rather take her back than have her go to an unsuitable home or feed lot. 

Anyway, I'm hoping we will be able to go see her when she's trained to see what she's learned. I cannot wait to see a rider on her, I think she'll look magnificent! 

I will miss her but man, is it nice to go from 7 horses down to 3! Even though I miss them all, it helps with our feeding routine as well as the feed bill. :-) 

Here are some favorite shots of The Beautiful Diva:

Roscoe & Otis

Recently we decided it was time to shave Roscoe and Otis. 

The decision was made for the following several reasons: 

1. We have a serious issue with fox tails and they seem to burro into the skin of the Collies way easier than the Anatolians (Callie & Bear). Otis has them so bad in the spring and summer and even checking him nightly doesn't catch all of them. He then will have an infected lump that we have to tend to and make sure we get the whole fox tail out of or it is really dangerous for them. 

2. They bring all nature has to offer into our home. Leaves, grass, sticks, extra dirt, feathers, fox tails, etc. all comes into our home via the long locks of Roscoe and Otis. This is especially frustrating after we clean the house since I'm delusional and expect it to stay clean for a whole month after we clean one time (haha). 

3. They get serious "dread locks" in their fur. Roscoe was looking especially Rastafarian recently and it seemed like no matter how much we attempted to brush him out, it did not get any better. Otis had a tendency to get the dread locks near his hind quarters and they were really difficult to brush out. 

The main reason was the fox tails, however, since they are so dangerous. 

Anyway, here are the newly made-over Border Collies; Roscoe and Otis: 

Roscoe

Roscoe 

Otis 

Roscoe & Otis 

The clippings 

The clipper set we bought. I ended up being very pleased with this set, it worked very well considering the messy state both of their coats were in and did not cost very much at all. 

I'm loving the new look but Eric thinks they look weird. 

I think they look like puppies again and am loving giving them more scratches and rubs now that I can get my hands and fingers on their bodies and not get tangled in their fur. 

I'm also hoping they'll stay cooler in the summer but research I've done says the longer coat actually keeps them cooler... We have their pool filled and ready for them anyway so they should be fine. 

Here is a "before" pic 

Birthday

Well, another one in the books. 

I'm officially IN my 30's but I really do not feel much different. 

Eric, the kids and I went to dinner with my Brother Jeremy, Sister-in-law Kate, Niece Madison, Grandma Judy, Mom Cindy and Sister Kelsey. It was a great time as usual and also as usual, we didn't take many photos. 

Here are the ones I did manage to snap: 

Madison is such a love and is always a huge hit everywhere we go. I love her! 

Thanks everyone for the fabulous birthday! 

Mother's Day gift

Well, it's been a little while since Mother's Day and I almost have my gift in hand. 

Eric wanted to do something special for me and cast the kids' handprints in plaster as a keepsake. His first attempt I found out was the day prior to Mother's Day but the kids weren't very cooperative so the casts didn't turn out and ended up in the garbage. 

Anyway, he ordered new stuff (with extra) a few months ago and with a small amount of "hounding", I convinced him to do the job yesterday. 

Our one year old would NOT cooperate with his handprint so I have a messy little footprint from him :-) it's perfectly imperfect. 

I love each one and I especially love seeing all of the character of each tiny little hand and footprint. 

They are so special to me and I am betond happy to have them. 

Here is the project prior to paint: 

I am so lucky. Sometimes our little family hits me hard emotionally because I feel so lucky, humbled and stunned that we have these three amazingly smart, beautiful, well behaved children and to see their little hands and feet like this just melts my heart. 

Thank you, Eric! I love you, I love our children and I love my gift. I will cherish it forever. 

Dahlia

I picked these from the yard today. 

Many more buds to bloom! 

I'm looking forward to them blooming; they're one of my favorites. 

Pickles

We finally made pickles out of our cucumbers! 

When I say "we", I actually mean Eric did all the work. 

Anyway, he found a recipe for Bourbon Pickles and decided to try it out. 

We had to triple the recipe since we had so many cucumbers but if we like them then I'll be glad to have so many jars.  

The end result was about 15 pints (although he used pint and a half jars and a couple quart jars). 

Today's Garden Haul

Since it is summertime, I'm afraid that most of my posts are about gardening and our produce because that's what we are absorbed in currently. 

Anyway, our garden has basically gone crazy and is producing a ton of produce for us. We could not be more thrilled. 

The amount of tomatoes we are able to pick several times per week is incredible to me since we had nearly twice as many plants last year and got maybe one dozen tomatoes total, for the entire season last season. 

In addition to the tomatoes, have melons coming in now as well. We've eaten two cantaloupes and one tiger melon so far. 

We have pickling cucumbers, eating cucumbers, carrots, two kinds of radish, zucchini, two kinds of squash, a variety of peppers, a variety of tomatoes, strawberries, green beans, several variety of melon, basil, dill, parsley, cilantro, onions and several variety of pumpkin. 

We are hoping to can some tomato sauce, paste and crushed and stewed tomatoes for homemade pasta sauce. 

In addition, we are also canning salsa and pizza sauce. 

We're also blanching and freezing carrots since they're basically done for the season. 

It's been a lot of fun this year and it feels like our hard work is paying off. 

Here are a couple pics from the haul today: 

Zucchini, pickling cucumbers, eating cucumbers. 

Pear tomatoes, black prince tomatoes, German orange strawberry tomato and a bunch of San Marzano tomatoes. 

The San Marzano tomatoes are great for pizza sauce and pasta sauce. 

Tiger Melon and Cantaloupe. 

Well, I'm off to slice up a cucumber for snack! 

Green Beans

We harvested the green beans from the garden and ended up with quite a bit. 

We decided to freeze them in sealed baggies so we can pull them out for dinner throughout the year. 

We ended up with 6 decent sized freezer bags of green beans and this is just our first haul of the season. 

I'm loving how our garden is finally paying off! 

Summer Rain

I am just loving the rain today! 

I truly enjoy a summer rain. I love when it has been hot out and the rain comes to knock the dust down, wash away pollen, water my plants and just kind of give us an overall cleanse. 

Plus, the rain generally brings out these beauties: 

These were taken in my back yard. 

Eric was able to get a photo of the ENTIRE rainbow with his wide angle lens but I was using my phone so I was limited. 

A double rainbow and we could see the whole thing! It's the little things that make me feel happy. 

Now, we're off to sit in the hot-tub and enjoy the rain around us. 

I love Mother Nature! 

Relaxing

My brother, Jeremy and sister-in-law, Katelyn gave Eric and I a freestanding hammock last year and we've been anxious to put it up since we've had it. 

It did not have a stand with it and we do not have two strong trees close enough together to hang it from so we finally ordered the stand and assembled it yesterday. 

I am already in LOVE! 

It is so comfy and easy to move around the yard into shady spots. 

The kids were all very curious about it and the baby was having a blast climbing on and off, over and over again. 

We relaxed in it for a little bit yesterday and I snapped a few photos of Eric and the kids and one of him and I. 

Thanks again, Jeremy and Kate! We love it! 

Guinea Hens

Recently, we purchased Guinea Hens to assist with our snake "problem". 

They are supposedly quite good at notifying anyone and everyone around that there is a predator or just something unusual around. Basically, if it doesn't belong, they let us know. Not to mention, they will eat a baby snake. 

All of that convinced us to go ahead and get the creatures with faces only a mother could love. 

I happen to enjoy the Guineas (and I actually think they're kind of cute) but that could be because they were such cute chicks and we have had them in with Hunny Bunny on the back lawn since they were just wee little chicks. 

So, fast forward to tonight... We now LOVE the Guineas. They have earned their keep already and have a special place on our ranch and in our hearts forever. 

They notified us of a decent sized Rattle Snake right past our back lawn tonight. The little killer was all curled up in our dead iris leaves and they set off the alarm bells. 

The scariest part is that our 1 year old was playing on his swing set about 8 feet away and all the dogs were out lazing on the lawn close by. Thank God that Eric heard the commotion and was standing right on the back porch at the time. He quickly ran over and grabbed the baby. As he was headed in, I could see something was wrong so I asked of there was a rattle snake out there. Eric said yes so I quickly went out and called all the dogs inside (which was like offering them a steak dinner, they love being inside). 

Of course, the baby was having a fit because outside is his very own Disneyland AND he can open doors now so we had our oldest lock the doors while Eric and I dealt with the snake. 

I kept an eye on the snake while Eric loaded his gun. He needed to use a different method of "disposal" this time because he would have had to reach a hand in the plants to evict the snake and that was too dangerous. 

So, the snake was dealt with by a couple of .22 rounds. Good thing Eric is a good shot, he was a goner pretty quickly but man, was he pissed. 

After the head was removed, we let the kids come outside to take a peek and gave them yet another snake lesson. 

Here is the little killer (and the snake, haha): 

This bad boy had 4 buttons and was quite fat. He was maybe about 26 inches long, give or take. 

He had his mouth open because he started to strike when Eric took his first shot. 

So, this year we have had 6 rattle snakes and are delighted to have Guinea Hens! 

Thanks, Girls! Great job. 

Ground Beef

Ever since the first time Eric made homemade ground beef, I cannot eat the other crap bought at the grocery store. 

Ours is free of the pink slime, is fresh and has very low fat content. 

It is made from: 

Brisket, Sirloin or Tri-Tip (we mix this one up each time) 

Beef Short Ribs 

Chuck 

I cannot bring myself to buy ground beef at the store anymore, it has to be the homemade stuff or none for me now. 

Eric has his meat grinder that I bought for him at Christmas and he loves to use it so it is a win-win for me. 

Here is our recent batch of ground beef: 

This is about 10.5 lbs. 

I cannot wait to have hamburgers tonight! 

Pickling/Canning: round 1

We are still early in the growing season but our pepper plants were full to capacity. 

We harvested all the peppers from the plants and had over 10 pounds of banana peppers and 7 pounds of Jalapeños. 

Here are the results of the first pickling day of 2014: 

Those bowls are full of Banana Pepper rings. 

We ended up with 26 pints of Banana Peppers and 21 pints of Jalapeños. 

Not bad for the very first haul of the season! 

Now, to find more jars for cheap, we're going to run out this year for sure.