Almost like Lions and Tigers and Bears- Oh my!

Our friend Carson has a game camera set up at the back of our place. We checked out the pictures on it last night and I thought I'd share what the camera caught.

First, there are a few deer that we've been watching for months now and you'll get to see the older one- Sam Elliot (yes, they get named). Secondly, there are a lot of wild hogs (terrible creatures) that come through and tear up things. They get huge. The one you will see has been named... Mr. Balls. (I didn't name him.) Then we see a family of racoons, I counted nine on one of the pictures. They climb the legs of the feeder and hang upside down trying to get to the feed. They climb on the camera, too.
Ah, but let's see the pictures!

Sam Elliot

Mr. Balls

Roxanne (I did name her)

The racoons crack me up and I will probably do a post with just them sometime soon.

I've saved the best for last. Here's a rare sight- a bobcat. (At least it wasn't that damn mountain lion.)

This was the last picture on the card, taken yesterday morning. I saw it and promptly flipped out. It's a big bobcat, too. The boys absolutely went crazy with their questions. Watch out Roxanne.

This morning on the way to school we saw a coyote run across the road and into a field. D was so excited because he saw it, too (the kids rarely get to see coyotes, but they do hear them a lot). He couldn't wait to tell all his friends at school about the bobcat and coyote.

And that, my friends, is part of this life in the country. I think it's a lot of fun.

P.S. I think we came up with a name for the bobcat last night, but I can't remember... any suggestions? Maybe Bert?

Comfy Cozy

I'm not sure why our dog does this, but he likes to nap in this big tub that I had flowers in during the spring. He curls up and nods off. I guess the soil in it is nice and soft.

The title is courtesy of Ry, as he is quick to declare blankets, beds, clothes and chairs... "comfy cozy!"

picture collage and farm update

Someone asked where the pictures were at in yesterday's post. It was not through a comment on the blog, but directly to me while I was eating my third helping of potatoes last night.

T: No pictures?!
Me: (chewing thoughtfully) Um... no? I wasn't sure if I should?
T: .....   (probably thinking about me begging him to go take some pictures FOR me while I scarfed down both pieces of our cake.) (He's a good man.)

So, while he was drawing our future house plans I was making a collage. (I saved you from scrolling through nine pictures, okay? You're welcome.)

I'm such an artist. And a preserver of memories. 

I have no transition here so we'll dive right in with the...

Farm Update

We went from a micro herd of cattle to a mini micro herd. If that even makes sense. They are my brother's and he picked up the two calves and one of the cows last night. So we went from 5 to 2.

Next up are the chickens. We have 22 or 23 chickens. They have steadily dropped their egg production to four eggs (at the most!) a day. I thought, at first, it was just the seasonal drop off... but let's think about it this way: they are getting old, which means fewer eggs, which means I am buying $15 of feed a week for 28 eggs (at the most!). Wow. Those are some really expensive eggs... are they made of gold or least silver?? That's something like 0.53 an egg.  Anyhow, it's not worth it for us to be sinking money and feed into non productive chickens. We do plan on getting a new flock next year, though. I enjoy my chickens for the most part and love the fresh eggs we get. However, I only plan on getting 6-12 chickens. Our main goal in this farming thing we are doing is to feed our family, first and foremost. I guess that's all I have to say about that.

I guess I'm off to try to make some bread. Maybe, or not, we'll see. (leaning heavily on the or not) I try to bake when it's cold out, but I also don't feel like moving much. It's pathetic. Especially since yesterday I did one load of laundry (wasn't even clothes) and didn't even bother taking it out of the dryer. This is a new low for me. Of course, Rose is punishing me for leaving her for two nights in a row this weekend... Velcro child at the max. Hopefully I'll be slightly more productive today.

update: it's always fun to catch errors after you publish... I know it's collage not college. Try to ignore it in your readers, okay? So sorry.

The Week In Pictures

Taken Tuesday after we had some rain and were feeding the chickens.

I finally found Corduroy as a board book and the kids love it. I love that they can't rip the pages.

These were from a couple of weeks ago, but I see it everyday.

Ry was in a really silly mood Wednesday at his appointment. He couldn't stop moving.

I didn't want to go on rambling about my boring trip to the grocery store this morning, hence the photos.  Unrelated to the above pictures I need some advice:

• what is a good home remedy for a deep conditioning hair treatment?
• how do I get a child I know to stop whining?
• other than the obvious (nudity) how do I stop all this laundry from accumulating? I wash laundry every stinkin' day. It's tiresome. 
• I think I've been half asleep all week.

I hope everyone has a marvelous weekend! G'bye for now.

It started out great until my facepalm moment

1. Furry Mammals 
Yesterday D and I went to feed the chickens and something small darted across our path and hid under an old bathtub (we use it for compost and such). Upon first peripheral vision glance (while it was darting) I thought it was a toad, but then my brain and eyes caught up with each other and added fur. I was kind of freaked out about seeing a furry toad until I figured out a way to position myself for a quick peek while simultaneously positioning myself for a quick escape... in case it was vicious. I was glad I had thought to bring my camera (as well as D- he was acting as my fearless bodyguard) so I could snap this picture

Not a fur covered toad after all. It's a baby bunny rabbit. Later D was telling me that he'd like to have a pet bunny (this is NOT an acceptable birthday gift!) because they are cute. Oh honey-child, what I couldn't tell you is that "pet" bunnies usually end up on your dinner plate. I can't cook that so it ain't a-happnin.

Our second mammal was a mouse. A mouse that had been extremely careful and had managed to eat/lick the peanut butter I smeared on the mouse traps without setting any of them off. I was a tiny bit irritated with said mouse since I keep discovering evidence and have actually seen the perpetrator run across the floor (Mama is not happy when these things happen). Well... the mouse got thirsty, or maybe he wanted to go for a swim. I don't know. Beard-O went in the bathroom this morning and I hear, "Oh! That is GROSS." I'm thinking that a kiddo forgot to flush, but he tells me to come see what he's talking about. (Have you figured this out, yet?) There was a mouse. Swimming!! in the toilet. Ugh. Now I have to worry about that in the middle of the night when I'm doing my "check the children and pee since I'm up anyhow" routine. yea!!!

2. When I started this post I had multiple things to address and now I can't remember them.

3. I really want to bore you with the amount of clothing that should be put away, the baking I want to do but don't want to clean up after, how the frito pie yesterday was a bad decision, that I may or may not be designing a 49 square foot kitchen, how it's becoming increasingly hard to be motivated in my housekeeping duties, I want some retail therapy, want my hair to look nice, am looking forward to this cold front tomorrow, am disappointed in my chickens laying 5 eggs instead of at least a dozen thus making me even more upset about the price hike in feed. Venting and facepalming is apparently my specialty today.

via

 4. I'd like to publicly thank Beard-O for everything he does and for being so kind to me. I have been in a funk over the last couple of days that I have no explanation for. I just feel bleh/meh. You never complain about my lack of putting clothes in proper places and that I continue to allow the dryer to become a closet, that we had an impromptu pizza dinner (cause that's what I felt like) at 8pm last night due to my poor planning and time management, that you have taken the kids outside so I can have 20 minutes of clear thinking while I'm cooking, thanks for taking charge of bath time with the kids.... I don't know why I get impatient but you are awesome for letting them splash you and listening to the ever present shrieking about water getting near their faces. You are more fun than me, tell better stories and seem to enjoy them using you as a human jungle gym. I feed them so they love me for that, though. I really appreciate you.

5. Picture of an adorable child to make up for all the nonsense of #3:

 

I'm done here. I'm going to bake something to see if I can find some motivation in sugar, butter and flour. It's there somewhere, right? Oh, it's also my brother's birthday today so baking cookies can double as a gift. Winning. (sort of)