Day 2

Just because I know you wondering if The Peabodys were still alive:

Bonnie is also still alive, but camera shy.  We're working on that :)

New Year New Me

Not really...

DJ gave me a new lense for Christmas so my goal for the new year is to post a new picture each day.  We'll start with this being a January goal!! :)

Here's the first one--  I'm new to this photography thing so would love feedback.  Good or bad-- it'll help!

Happy New Year :)

The Peabody's

When I got the Peabody's, I got them with the intentions that they would be free rangers.  Ya know, like power rangers.  When I got them home, I put them in the old garage to keep them from Josie any predators.  After awhile I decided to open up the front gate and let them wander out on their own.  After they didn't come out I decided I'd move the whole gate so it would be easier for them to see it's down and they can come and go as they please.  They never went.  They'd stay in the garage.

Finally one day I was able to get Francis outside and threw her some bread, only for her to fly back in.  She CAN fly, noted.  

I continued leaving the gate off and moved their food and water closer to the gate and eventually outside.  Still, they wouldn't go waltz around the yard like I'd anticipated.  

This past Friday, Hasty came over and he decided they were coming out.  He got Francis out and she just sat there.  Once he got Floyd out, he flew to the top of the old garage and sat there watching us below.  Francis didn't move for awhile so eventually we put her in the shade and I put some food and water there with her, along with bread pieces.  She still didn't move.

When the guys came back, Floyd was still on the roof.  Hasty decided it was too hot for him to be up there and he was going to grab him and bring him down to Francis.  What actually happened was Floyd took off to a tree.  

The next morning, I woke up to honking.  Peafowl honking, not car honking.  Plus, there was evidence they'd moved.  They'd left us a nice little present pile of poop at the front door.  DJ cleaned that up and I went to locate them.  I found Floyd in the same tree, but higher.  There was no sign of Francis.  She had moved and I couldn't find her in any of our trees.  I'm no hunter though, so I still held out hope she was hanging around somewhere.

Saturday afternoon I went around searching again.  Floyd was accounted for, Francis not so much.

Sunday morning, I woke up and headed out to get an update.  They're both MIA.  We were having a Father's Day get together at our place, so I sent out a mass text saying there would be prizes for locating the Peabody's.  DD got there and decided to take the boys on a Ranger ride.  They came back and said they saw one of them in a bean field. 

I put on my rubber boots and a long sleeve shirt (I'd just showered and got half way presentable when I learned there'd been a sighting...).  He drove me up to where he saw it and sure enough, there was Floyd.  In the middle of a bean field.  Of course it's not our bean field, so the neighbor comes out to see what's going on.  I was able to catch him; he may or may  not have lost a feather or two in the ordeal.  Lucky for me, the only documentation of this was on Snapchat, so that should be gone by now.  We headed home with him and I put him back in the garage.  The door is open, but he was still in there this morning.  I'm hoping he calls her back, but I'm not sure that'll happen.

I'll be sure to keep you updated. Maybe I'll start a new hashtag to raise awareness: #bringfrancishome 

I Forgot to Mention...

I think I left off a couple weeks ago with my weekend plans.

I left out one thing.  I was afraid Char would read the blog and bail on road tripping with me. (Turns out she didn't read it until after the weekend.)

Earlier that week I asked her if she wanted to road trip and she asked where to, so I told her.  She said sure.  Perfect.  Then she started getting nosey and wondering why we were going.  I told her for a Craigslist buy (truth).  She let it be.  Later, she asked what I bought.  I said nothing yet (truth at the time).  Then a day or two before, she asks if we're getting something alive.  How did she know?!  Who told her!?  I don't remember what I told her, but I didn't tell her it was alive.  She then started referring to it as a creature.  I laughed.  I think I told her it was a surprise or something.  She told me she thought maybe I was messing with her and it was actually furniture or something.  And then she got in the car, where she noticed the dog kennel.  The majority of the ride was her trying to figure out what kind of creature we were getting and how many.  I told her she could be in charge of naming the creature, which I'm pretty sure I had her convinced it was a fire-breathing dragon.

We finally got to "the outskirts of hell" as she called it.  It was perfect.  They had all sorts of creatures everywhere, so she still wasn't sure what I got her into.  Then they split us up and she was certain they were killing us.

We got out alive and I am now excited to introduce to you, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd and Francis Peabody!

Francis and Floyd, the Peabody's

We drove the whole way home with the windows down because they stunk.  Turns out it probably wasn't so much them as it was their poop that was all over my back seat...

Needless to say, Char's going to be a little bit more inquisitive before she says yes to another road trip.

Busted!

The new pony decided to wait until Monday (rainy workday) to stir things up at the ranch.  And by ranch I mean the Shitmon.

I went out to do chores only to find they had gone through a fence.  I fixed it enough to not cause any injury while I was at work.

As I neared home, I saw they were in a different pasture.  Guess I'm fixing more fence...

I got home and changed and headed out to see the new damage.  It was an easy fix, so I took care of it and headed over to the initial mess.  While I got my supplies gathered up, they decided to move over to that pasture.

And then all hell broke loose.

Hooves were flying.  Mud was flying.  Horses were flying.  I knew it was only a matter of time before more fence was flying.  I stopped what I was doing and went to grab halters to tie them up to settle down.  And then they went through the fence.  I couldn't see exactly what happened or who went through what, but they ended up in two different pastures that they were locked out of.  And the fence between them was now down as well.

After some cussing at the top of my lunch coaxing, I was able to get them settled down enough to catch them all and separate them.  I was able to fix most of the fence.  I ended up having to take one down because I didn't have parts or daylight to fix it and didn't want anyone getting caught up in it.  I decided the youngin' would spend the stormy evening in isolation the round pen.

I went out to check on everyone before I went to bed to make sure they had settled down for the night.  I got to the barn and turned the light on only to see Miss Stella had a visitor over.  BUSTED!!  Here's to hoping there aren't kittens in 66 days-- gonna be a chilly first few days for them!!

Farming

I haven't seen DJ much since they've  been in the field (and it finally stopped raining-- I just jinxed that...) so he called today last Saturday and asked if I wanted to ride with him.

I rode with him earlier in the week to take a couple loads of corn to the co-op and then helped move vehicles to the next field.

This time, I just rode with him.  I imagine it can get lonely in there all by yourself, so when he asked I jumped at the opportunity.

The view when combining corn

Loading the wagon

Loading the semi

I didn't ride with him long, but we finished that piece before I took off.  It was way past dark before the guys quit for the day, but they had a productive day.

Home Sweet Home

This weekend was a busy one. 

Gma and Gpa are getting ready to head back to Arizona so Uncle Toad came out to drive them.  I decided (last minute of course) to put together a little get together back home to see them all before they left.  Once DJ got off work, we headed back.  After waiting for Ma and Pa to arrive, I decided to invite my old roommate as well.  We all ate and had a drink laugh or two.  I decided to meet up with some old classmates after that.  Saturday morning came early!

DJ got up and made breakfast and his dad and uncle came over to eat.  They went out to work on the barn door while I ran into work before Peter and Wisconsin got there.  I stopped in to see how things were going and was sent on a parts run.  As I was walking to the car, Chuckles comes screamin in.  She took me on the parts run and as soon as we got back, in pulled the horse trailer. 

We got the horses unloaded and in the pasture. 

Then it was off to work.  We had to finish building fence!  We got our supply list and we girls headed to the store.

FYI:  Bomgaars does NOT return items you purchased at True Value.  Weird.  I know.

We made a couple other stops and then had BWW's for lunch before returning home to put the fence up.  We managed to get it up and the horses haven't got through it yet, so we consider that a win!

We went on a little ride before calling it a night. 

Sunday was spent recuperating!   

Whoops

The week snuck by me and I can honestly say I don't remember why it was so busy!!

The barn is getting closer to complete-- woot woot!! We have the measuring wheel to figure out fencing supplies.  I'm hoping to get the fence in before harvest starts so that way when it's time for the hippos to move in, I won't need to pull DJ out of the field.  We  Mainly DJ, got the millings all spread out last week and then the guys formed for concrete.  If it ever decides to stop raining every other day, we might get that poured!  I think after that we'll just have the waterer to hook up.  The stall(s) probably won't be put in until spring.  They'll still be able to get into the lean to and if the weather gets too bad we will figure out a way to get them completely inside and away from the wind. 

DJ spent the weekend getting ready for harvest and I did 89 loads of laundry. 

Ma came up yesterday and we went to a couple bridal fairs.  They didn't take us too long to get through since we have a photographer and venue already.  We meet with a caterer for a tasting in a couple weeks.  Little Radish's flower girl dresses came in and I can't wait to get them to her to try on!!!  She's gonna be adorable!! 

I got a call after we left those that I had won.  I thought she said something about a pan.  I went to pick it up and turns out, I won a trash can.  Am I the only one who thinks that's odd!? 

Hope you have a great week!!  We're down to 16 weeks until the big day!

Down to a Dozen

The kittens were all sorts of different sizes.  We had a couple with bad eyes that needed cleaning.  I got a tiger stripped one all cleaned up and was down to nursing only one.  (Sidenote:  Tea works wonders for cleaning kitten eyes.)  It was the smallest of them all and wasn't entirely psycho.  I kept it in a kennel so I could clean its eyes out until they weren't bad.  Once they were staying clean on their own, I left the kennel door open so it could run around with the others.

I got home from work one day and emptied the litter box and was walking through the yard on my way to get rid of it.  I happened upon the little kitty.  Dead.  I am now am on the lookout for the culprit...

The motif may have to do with jealousy...

Cat Ranching

This spring I was leaving to go to a bachelorette party and stopped at the mailbox to grab the mail as I went by.  I randomly looked toward the passenger side and saw two beedy eyes staring back at me.  A mouse had crawlen out of my hood onto my windshield. 

That was it.  I informed DJ that we were getting a cat.  Fast forward a couple months, lots of traps, and a hood liner in the car, DJ found some kittens for us.  His physical therapist was going to pick them up and drop them off for us.  Perfect. 

We got three older kitties.  When I say kitties I do not mean the cute little cuddly furry ball of love.  These things were the closest thing to a demon as I've come in contact with.  That's my kind of cat-- stay away from me and we'll get along just fine! 

A couple days later I get informed the lady found another that was from the same litter so I go and pick it up.  It was actually not from the same litter, but about a quarter of the size of the others.  Details... right!? 

Fast forward a week or two and we have thirteen cats.  uhhh what!!  How did that happen?!  I may have had a weak moment or two.  I went from a dog person to the crazy cat lady practically over night.  While I wasn't impressed with myself, DJ was absolutely going to kill me thrilled.  Or something. 

I'm thinking maybe we'll be able to have kittens for party favors at the wedding...

Weekend Recap

We survived Beers N Ears! 

My freezer is full(er) of corn and my fridge is empty of beer.  Success. 

Peter brought the save the dates for me (pre-stamped-- awesome!) and helped put addresses on those.  We handed what we could out that night and I was able to put a handfull in the mail yesterday.  I'm hoping to finish those up tonight.  Start checking your mailboxes!!

We had a friend a smoke some ribs, chicken, and pork.  It was amazing.  I gorged myself on that (big surprise there!!).  Everyone brought a side dish or dessert so there were plenty of options for everyone.  The dogs got their share of scraps too.  Clyde got more than his share; I woke up Sunday morning to him gagging.  Luckily I grabbed a bucket just in time! 

After a failed attempt at some cat herding, I headed to Juice's to work on wedding things.  I get there and start getting our craft area in order, only to realize I forgot the paper.  Fail.  I ran to Walmart to get some and we started chuggin away at it.  And then she started stamping...  apparently the ink pad was out of ink because you could hardly make out what she was stamping.  Second fail.  We ended up mainly catching up and playing with TJ. 

Maybe next time!!

Corn Corn Corn

It's that time of year-- Sweet corn time!!  Yum.

I've only had it once so far, but this coming weekend we're planning "Beers and Ears."  Basically friends and family come help us freeze some corn and take what they want home with them.  Oh yeah, and we have beers...

Imagine that, the Knollies are having a party!! :)

Week Recap

I really need to blog from home one of these days so I can get pictures added to some posts.

This week has been full of rain and trips to the local muffler shop for us. 

I woke up one morning to rain pounding the windows.  I looked at the radar and it was pretty much pure red.  I zoomed out and decided it was sticking around awhile, so I put a pillow over my head.  LR text me just then saying she and the cat were scared.  We chatted a bit and then I went back to sleep until my alarm went off.  I got up and looked out the window and discovered one of our trees in our windbreak had broken.  I was hesitant to go look at the porch.  Since I didn't think the storm was going to hit us I hadn't moved anything out of the wind.  Surprisingly, nothing had moved. 

Three of our five vehicles had to be taken to the muffler shop for various reasons.  Flat tire, new muffler, something was plugged, a/c, who really knows what else. 

Wednesday we I decided to road trip a couple hours for stall fronts for the barn.  DJ was almost impressed!!  Either he thought they were a pretty good deal or he doesn't trust me pulling a trailer, cuz he went with me.  We stopped at a little bar on the way home and had their pizza.  Last time we stopped there, RAGBRAI was going through town so the place was a mad house.  This time it was almost as crazy!  We stuffed ourselves and headed home.

We've gotten over two inches of rain (that's only from when I actually remember to look...) this week and my flowers are loving it.  They are not so much loving the wind that tends to come with the rain. 

Looks like the weekend is full of rain too, so maybe I'll get something accomplished inside?? 

Have a great weekend!

E-I-E-I-O

I can't say this enough times, but I am so thankful for farmers!! While most don't portray the picture that the song "Old McDonald" paints, they've had a huge influence on my life! My childhood, my education, my jobs, my present, and my future.

While I didn't grow up as the farmer's daughter, I did grow up in a farming community.  Pa has always worked in the agricultural field, working early hours and late nights to provide his services and products to the farmers.  I would often ride with him.  I loved being in the sprayer, "Bear" (a semi truck-- hmm, see DJ and I really are meant to be- ha!), tractors, combines, or even just his truck driving around.  I always asked ask who lives there, or who farms that?  I'm not sure if he really knew or if he just said a name-- it's a complete toss up really!!  We'd drive around and look at crops and get out and walk fields.  I was his little helper.  I spent many afternoons/evenings standing around some farmer's shed with the guys. 

My grandparents owned a farm and did both row crops and livestock.  I was always there riding or helping Gpa with the horses.  We would ride back around the field to check on the cattle.  I was in FFA and on the beef team in high school.  I worked at the chicken ranch, not to be confused with the Pizza Ranch!!  The chicken ranch was the term we gave the egg packing plant.  There were maybe three of us girls working there through high school.  It was not the most pleasant, but we would rather be there than all dolled up working retail or something!  I went off to college and helped in the hog barns.  I graduated with a BS in animal science. 

I worked summers at a crop dusting company and fell in love with it!  I decided that I needed to take some classes in agronomy.  Then I found my internship, which led to my job, and DJ.

Now I'm back to riding in the trucks, tractors, semi's, combines and standing in sheds with the guys. I'm back to going on crop tours and giving the guys rides when they need it.  I check the rain gauge.  I go out and feed the "hay burners" in blizzards.  I haul hay racks home in the heat of the summer. 

I am one of the very few lucky ones who get to see first hand the hard work that farmers put in throughout the year.  I see the risk they deal with first hand.  So next time you see a farmer, thank him or her, your belly is full because of them!

He's Here!

As promised, here is the newest member of the family!  Sorry for the terrible quality pictures, they're all from my phone since that is what I usually have with me!!  And NOW...

Introducing, MC.  

(and the crowd goes wild...)

DJ and I went down to see the puppies.  She had had two litters within three days of each other and I believe she had a total of 15 puppies.  They were 4 months old when we first visited. .

MC at 4 months

We drove down to see him and his sisters the week before we left on vacation.  As soon as she opened the pen, legs and tails went everywhere!  MC was the first puppy to come over to me, so I was thrilled to know that it was the only male left!  After we asked lots of questions and played with the puppies, we asked the breeder if she would be willing to keep him until we got back and then we could pick him up.  She was more than happy to do that for us.

JW wasn't real sure what to think of him.  He blew MC off when we brought him home.  I think he is figuring out that this is his new partner in crime and it won't be too long until JW leads him astray!!  It seems that MC picks up on only the naughty things JW does!  (Mainly annoying things for a dog his size, but things I want to prevent becoming habitual for a dog that will be bigger than me.)

JW decided to let MC on his bed with him.

We got him when he was around 4.5 months old.  When we took him to the vet, they looked at his teeth and discovered that he still had some baby ones.  So far I've found three of them.

One of his last baby teeth. 

He is really learning things quickly.  He can entertain himself for quite awhile outside with his toys and the sticks that he can find.  He also loves to pull weeds (and occasionally some flowers) for me.


 

Helping mom plant some bulbs. 

Ehh, I guess we can keep him...

He's also figuring out that five letter word that every dog should know:
Treat!!

Mmm, a treat!

He isn't nearly as picky as JW about those, but he does eat them pretty slowly and off away from everyone else like JW.

While he does remind us a lot of UC, he definitely has his own personality!  Luckily he doesn't mind water and it will be fun to see if he will go swimming when it warms back up.  I'm also excited for the first snow and to watch him play in it.  UC loved the snow and would roll in it and cover his face in it.  Hopefully MC does too and isn't quite as wimpy as JW when it comes to the cold weather!!

Stay tuned for more UC and JW updates... I'm sure they're plotting their first adventure!! 

Life w/ a Farmer

I ran across this blog on Facebook.  A couple of my friends posted it.  Check it out.  Here's my opinions from my personal experience thus far... (note: neither of my friends are married either... that must be a farmer thing!?)

1. 10. Directions.  Act completely clueless as to what he is talking about (because he is terrible at giving directions...) and wait until he has his brother call you with directions simple enough for the dogs to figure out...

2. 9.  Dinner conversations.  Who has time to talk?  We're eating.  Hello... we love food!  Okay, I can relate to this one, but I've learned not to ask questions because then, the smart ass that he is, will go step by step as to how to do something I will never do and half the time don't know most the words he is using.  Smile and nod girls, smile and nod.

3. (crap.  I just noticed she started with 10.) 8. Date nights.  HAHAHAHA  that girl is funny.  What are date nights?!  Oh, sitting at the shop with a cold one in hand??  Yeah, he's a romantic...

7.  Random things in the dryer.  Oh yes.  This happens when he does laundry.  I haven't had any permanent markers in there drawing on my clothing for awhile...  I try to be the one to do the laundry so that I can empty the pockets-- finders keepers = a trailer for me someday!! 

6.  Supper times.  This has always been my life...  or maybe I just always eat??

5.  RSVPs.  Oh, you're supposed to fill those things out?!  Actually, most of our friends and families are in the same industry so we don't run into too many events during planting and harvesting.  (But if it means free food and drinks, you can probably count us in!!)

4.  Out of town trips.  Our roles might be reversed in this one!!  A lot of the times he is the parts runner, so I'll have him stop and pick something up at the store for me while he's there.  It works out well.

3.  Going with the flow.  Again, what are these dates she keeps speaking of!?  This one is pretty true, but I'm usually flying by the seat of my pants as well, so having plans is pretty rare.

2.  Glass half full.  This is something that was a huge surprise for me the first year we were together.  The Knollies don't get too worked up over things they can't control.  It is awesome!!  Instead of worrying about the rain (or lack thereof...), they just get everything else they can control ready for when it's needed.  That was a nice surprise.  No crazy worrying over every little thing here!

1. Mother nature.  Ahh, Luke Bryan was so right, Rain is a Good Thing!  I've grown up around the farming community my whole life and it still amazes me at how much or little rain the plants can take.  Knee high by the 4th of July with very little time and rain-- impressive.  Someday I'll get around to doing a blog series about corn growth.  Some.  Day.

And the Beat Goes On...

It started out to be another normal morning.  Get up, get ready, go to work.  Get a text from DJ that the barn is on fire...

Yep.  Just another day!

Ponies are safe and sound and that's all that mattered to me!  Things can be replaced.

UC was watchin over the ponies just like he did when he was here!  :)

In the Middle of It All...

As I've told you, we had some crazy weather last week.  Or a couple weeks ago.  I don't really recall when.  We lost some siding and some limbs, nothing too big that I couldn't drag up out of the rode by myself.  And to the two trucks full of guys driving by looking at damage, watching me drag limbs to the pile and not offering to help: thank you very much.  I really appreciate the thoughtfulness.  Enter mean names here.

One of the big storage sheds had part of its roof torn off, but nothing like losing a whole barn/shed like our neighbors did.  I thanked God that night for sparing us from too much damage, as DJ wasn't home (and didn't realize anything was going on...thinking I was crazy for going to the basement when the house started to whistle...). 

The next night I went up the road to our neighbors and this is what I saw:

 

God's Promise

  A big rainbow! It reminded me that he has a plan and is watching over me.  (Seriously, whats with the underlining?!  Does it show up for you?!) 

Later that evening we stood in awe as this went by.  He spared us from getting any bad weather from that one, which I was extremely thankful for!!
 
The more it moved the more layers it seemed to have!  We watched it until it got too dark to see the clouds and we went in.  We keep getting rain, but I'm not going to complain, as it could be raining and I could have nowhere dry to go! 

Movin on UP!

I did it.

I finally gave in.

I joined everyone else my age.

I upgraded to an iPhone.

Don't think I'm moving too fast though, it's an iPhone 4 and is probably one of the older of those!  It already has a crack in it (stupid Otter Box lied!).  I've had it for quite awhile now.  I lived in the rental when I got it and have been using it as an iPod since my old school, student loan bought original iPod gave up.  I shouldnt say it gave up.  The battery is just messed up.  I bought a new one but that didn't help.  I can still use it if it's plugged in, but who knows where that charger is!  Apple thought it was necessary to change the plug ins too, even though they look the same and it fits in the iPhone charger won't work.  Lame.

So far I can say I have been less than impressed.  Luckily I didn't spend much money on this thing!  It doesn't get service.  Anywhere!!  It says no signal or whatever in most of my work building, otherwise it's just flat lines.  I can barely get a text out to someone!  My old phone, I could talk on it from anywhere in there!!  Next, I had an appointment and they wanted to change the times, but since I didn't have service at work, it didn't ring.  You'd think so what, leave a message.  Well it tells them my voicemail is full.  Uhh what!?  Stupid.  It wasn't full when I had my old phone, it's not full now!!  And  my third and final dislike, it doesn't ring!  The neighbor and I were picking up rocks out of the fields and I called DJ (also an iPhone user; he's fancy though-- 4s)  and he didn't answer.  I called at least 5 times and he didn't answer.  He finally called me back, only to inform me that he had one missed call and had actually tried calling me back 3 times.  Handy iPhone.  Real handy.  Luckily I was only picking up rocks and not stuck under one and needed rescued!! 

The one good thing about it, Facetime.  I can now Facetime with MS.  Speaking of which... I'm considering changing her name on here...  I'll leave that for another day.

Fashion Statement

The other day I had given up on DJ to come home, so I decided to go do chores.  I text him what I was doing once I got to the barn.  He said okay, come pick me up at so and so's farm when you're done.  OOOOOOOoookay, be there shortly.

I had three dogs with me, so when I get there he said oh, well let me go get UL and he can take the side by side back out to where the guys are.  I said I'll ride along.  And then I got out of the vehicle.

He said wow.  You've really got quite the fashion statement going on.  Oh yeah.  I knew.

I had on my sunglasses (bright pink and orange, $1 from Target), a gray PCI hooded sweatshirt, pink Victoria's Secret PINK capris, and brown "cow-person" boots.

I really should have had him take a picture of me, so he could set it on his nightstand, looking my best.  Anyway, we get back to where they're working and good 'ol UL didn't know what to think of my get up.  All I could say was my pony doesn't care what I look like as long as I feed him!!

I'm already planning my outfit for the next time I have to go pick him up somewhere.