New Addition to the Family

Meet Jerry. 

There Goes Another

Hold up, it's June.  What the heck?!  That's crazy talk. 

I spent Friday shuffling horses around.  My tub is now at OS's with one of hers-- I think that means we are one step closer to actually riding said horses!!  Now to find a free weekend...

We've been having some crazy weather here the past few days.  It'll drop 10+ degrees in a minute or two, pour like crazy for about ten minutes, clear up, and the temp goes right back up as fast as it fell.  One side of my yard got watered, the other was dry. 

The barn is supposed to be going up this week-- whoop whoop!!!  So exciting!!  And I think we're getting our mousers this week(end) as well.  Oh, and I'm hoping when I get home, the A/C is fixed.  There's a reason this girl wasn't born back in the ol' prairie days!! 

DJ has big plans to tile around the house this week and then I'll finally be able to do some much needed landscaping around the house.  Hopefully this also fixes the basement window from leaking during downpours. 

Have a great week!!!!

A Blogger?

I used to think my life was too boring to have a blog.  I mean, what would I write about??

Clearly I was right.

It seems the stories come in waves.  One day I'll have ten things to write about (but only write about one, because I'll remember) and then the next my memory has failed and I'm stuck writing about how I have nothing to write about! 

I thought the iPhone was going to help with that?!  Fail. 

I did finally get some stuff out of my weed patch garden.  We had a lettuce salad last night that came from it, although neither of us liked it.  Way too bitter for us.  I also made some guacamole with avacados that came from the grocery store, and then onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos that came from my garden.  It most definitely beat the salad.  I'll have to update you with all my flowers.  Some have decided to bloom.  Others decided to die.  So goes my green thumb...

Hopefully I'll have some good stories come up here soon.  For your sake.

The Calm Before the Storm

A couple few weeks ago on a Sunday I decided I was finally going to put my garden in.  So I did:

Pretty.  Nice.  Straight.  Alive.

And then my asparagus and pumpkins:

Asparagus trenches and my little baby punkins.

 

And then about six hours later 108mph winds came ripping through throwing little frozen peas around... 

 

I will have to get an updated photo to show you how everything is fairing after the wind/hail. 

I Suck-You-Lent

It's only been a day or two since I last wrote, right?!  Right.  I tried something new this year with my black green thumb.  Succulents.  My neighbor gave me a couple jars this spring and I knew I wanted to try an atrium.  And when I told her what I was thinking, she said she had some succulents I could use.  And then we went to the greenhouse and I couldn't help but buy a few more, which I don't have pictures of yet.  It has nothing to do with the fact that they are still in the pots I bought them in...

Here was one of my original jars with not the plants I had planned on putting inside!  Turns out that hole is much smaller than I thought.  I couldn't fit the plant and my hand both in the hole.  It got stuck with the small leftovers.  They may or may not have died already, leaving the jar sitting on the deck with just dirt in it.  You'll never know!



Little baby jar

I sent my neighbor a picture of the first one I did, which I think I put a picture on here, but really it's hard telling at this point. She said she had a bowl I could use for another.  I picked it up and instantly thought of a few of my friends that I thought would love the bowl.  So I put something together in it.  I can't tell for sure if the little evergreen tree is going to make it or not-- it definitely wasn't that green when I gave her the bowl...



OS's birfday present

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! 

Garden Tour Two Point Oh!

Long time no see!  I've been busy.  You'll see!!

Hope you're ready to tour more of my yard!! :)

A couple weeks ago, before the boys started planting, the neighbor and I went and picked up some rocks out of the fields.  Here's what we came up with:

DJ wasn't impressed with our pil

We thought we did pretty good (I have no idea why this is typing underlined, but it won't stop so I'm going with it so MS will get off my back about posting).  We took three trips, each one getting smaller rocks!  We got a couple big ones  (not including the big one on the right of the picture).  We planned on getting more, but now all the crops are in the ground so we might have to wait on that.

Take THAT DJ!

DJ was not impressed with our little baby rocks, but I used them last night!  I used them as a border for my poppy bed!  Hopefully they come up and the dogs don't decide this is their new hang out...

In other exciting garden news, I bought a bunch of gladiola bulbs earlier this spring.  Sixteen to be exact.  I didn't know what I was going to do with them so I went ahead and just put them in cheap little pots to get them going.  One day, DJ was gone and he asked what I was going to put around the propane tank.  I said I didn't know, but that maybe I'd do my glads there.  So out I went with my little spade and started digging.  I decided that was way too much work.  So then I thought... and this is what I came up with:

Tractor tire rim

I remembered seeing a rim in the trees when I was mowing.  I told myself if I could get it out of there, it was mine!  And so I got it out.  My next problem was figuring out where to put it that I wouldn't get in too much trouble by DJ for killing grass. So I put it where there is no grass.  Which also happens to be where he is planning on pouring concrete, because we can't grow grass there...  I filled it up with my glads then put two lupines in the middle and sprinkled some poppy seeds in there.  And then the storm came: 



Hail + Wind = My Sad Little Rim

This was the aftermath.  I'm hoping they'll still be alright.  I'm telling myself they will be anyway...

Cigar Flowers

This was a project that I started long ago.  My original plan was to put succulents in this jar.  Turns out its more difficult to get my hand and a plant and dirt in there than I expected.  And then I found my cigar flowers again so I stuck them in instead!  I love it.  it's just so cute.  Speaking of cute, look at the little puppies in the top of that picture.  Too cute!

DJ and I both love bleeding hearts.  I found a really cool one back home at the greenhouse.  It's got bright green leaves, it's on the left of the wheel.  If you look really closely, you can see the plain jane one on the right too. 

Bleeding Hearts

 

Of course I put those in before the big storm and they didn't fair so well.  I didn't take a picture, not that you would be able to see anything.  Maybe a dirt spot where they were...  At least they don't really bleed... that could have been messy.

 

My garden got beat up pretty good too, as well as our trees.  And siding.  But no buildings and no lives were lost so I'm not complaining!  God is good!

 

There will be more garden pictures coming soon!  :) 

Garden Tour

With the amazing weather we've been having, I got a little excited about flowers.  I've made a couple few stops to the greenhouses around here and have made more than one purchase.  DJ is thrilled.  I just know he is!

I thought I'd show you some pictures of what I have so far.  Don't get too excited, I only snapped a couple pictures so far.  As more pop up/I think of it, I'll post more.

So pull on your boots and let's go!

Tassel Salmon Pink Fuscia 

Not real sure what these are, but I thought they were pretty cool.  I transplanted them into this pot since it was bigger than what it was in.  Maybe it will make it into its forever home sometime this year.  (Or with my gardening skills, this is it's forever home and forever isn't very long for flowers around the SHITMON)



I'll have to look on the tags again to see what these are all called... yeah, I'm on top of it.
 

My original idea was to put these in two different glass jars.  Turns out my jars weren't as big as I had thought, so I found this old pan and stuck 'em in there.  We'll see how long these make it.  It's my first attempt at a terrarium, so I'm not expecting great things for these poor suckers.

Alright, that is all so far.  Next time will be better.  If everything lives until then......

Just Another Reason to Love Me

Last week, after a late night for DJ and myself, I got up to get ready for work.  I take a shower and get ready.  Things are looking good.  I'm going to be to work early for a change.  And then I remember I'm out of Toaster Strudles at work.  I look in the freezer upstairs.  Not there.  I run downstairs.  Not there.  Crap.  They're in the garage.  Now I'm going to be right on time.  If I'm lucky. 

I pull out of the garage and put it in drive.  And then get stuck.  I pop it into 4wheel drive.  I manage to get through the big drift, only to get stuck in the small one right past it.  Crap.  I try backing up, flooring it, everything I can think of.  And then I call DJ. 

"I'm stuck" 
   "Where?" 
"The driveway"
   "Put it in 4wheel" 
"I did, thanks"
    "Oh"
"Are you going to come pull me out or should I just take your truck?" 
   "Is there a place to hook it up?"
"I don't know.  It's dark"
   "Do you need a flashlight?"
"Yes"
   "Go get one"
"Get out here"
   "Is there a place to hook it up on the back?"
"Not that I can see"
   "If you wanted to pull a trailer right now, could you?"
"No.  That's why we have that thing laying in the garage."
   "Oh.......How about on the front?"
"Uh, not that I can see"
Silence
"Did you hang up on me?"
    "Uhh, no"
"So are you coming?"
"Yeah"

So I text my boss that I'm stuck and will be there when DJ rescues me.  Noticing the dogs are out, I look around for DJ.  Nothing.  I head inside.  He's wandering around the house with just his sweats on. 

"What're you doing?"
   "Uh, looking for shoes"
"You might want to put a shirt or coat on"
   "Yeah"
"Pick it up bud, I got places to be."

I head back out and wait for him.  He eventually makes it out in his truck.  He gets out to hook it up and looks at it. 
   "You're stuck?"
"Yep."
   "How?"
"I don't know.  Feel free to hop in and drive it on out."

He goes ahead and hooks it to my car and his truck and we hop in.  I'm pretty sure if I could have got a butterfly to give me a little bump, I could have drove it out, because that's about how hard it was for DJ to pull me out. 

We hop out.  He unhooks it.

   "You were stuck?"
"Yep"
  He shakes his head
"Thanks!!  Love you!"
   While laughing-- "Yeah, love you too"

I'm pretty sure I laughed the whole way into work.  He went back to bed.  I'm sure I will never live this down.

ER

DJ got Thanksgiving off so he had to work the following Saturday.  I had to run in and do the weekend chores at work and then pretty much had a lazy day.  I decided to run to town because there was an awesome deal at the fabric store.  It was a pretty nice day out so the dogs were outside.

I got back from the store and they weren't there to meet me-- odd.  So I decided to go see if I could find them.  There are four houses in the family all within a mile of each other and sometimes they like to go visit-- go ahead and tell me how terrible this is that we let our farm dogs run around...  just wait!

I pulled out of the driveway without stopping to unload the car (I had also stopped to grab some eggs, bread, milk, butter, and beer...).  I headed towards the creek and I saw UC lying in the grass.  Hmm... okay.  As I slowed down he sat up and looked at me.  I pulled over and rolled the window down yelling at him.  He didn't come.  That's strange.  I got out and went around the car and he started walking up to me, but then turned back around so I followed him.  He took me down to the creek where I found JW.

A muddy, muddy, muddy JW just lying in the mud.  He was stuck in a trap, not even fighting, he just looked at  me like, "help me, mom" so I jumped in the creek and tried to get him out.  Between all the mud, UC trying to be right there seeing if his buddy was okay, and not being familiar with traps, I soon decided that I wasn't going to be able to get him out of it.  I was able to pull the whole thing out of the creek.  It was a struggle to get him and the trap and me up the bank.  UC was trying to help, but was more in the way than anything, we somehow got the trap stuck to his collar-- found that out when I tried putting JW in the car!!  I got them unhooked and both of them (still muddy messes) loaded into the car.  I called DJ's brother but didn't get an answer.  I then called his mom and asked if his dad was around and if he could help me.

I arrived at their place and his dad was able to get the trap off JW after fiddling with it a bit.  I wrapped him up in a blanket and held him while applying pressure to his back foot to slow the bleeding down.  I was sitting in the passenger seat and UC was in the back seat leaning through and trying to clean him up.  He was so worried.  DJ pulled in about then.  We got UC out of the car (much to his disliking) and DJ's parents took him home.  He was less than thrilled with the idea of leaving his little brother.  We headed to the emergency vet hospital and got him in right away.  They cleaned him up and decided to take x-rays to see what everything looked like.  I was sure his back leg was broken, as it took the brunt of the beating!! 

After awhile the doctor came in and said nothing was broken but the trap had gone through toe of his little toes so we had to give him pain meds, antibiotics, and anti-inflamatory pills.  They had given him a shot for pain so he wasn't limping when we went home, just very tired.

UC was quite glad to see his lil brother when we got home, however JW was a little crabby and just wanted to drink/eat/sleep.  So we gave him his pills with supper and put him to bed.

He was sore the next few days and wasn't himself.  He laid in bed except to go outside.  About a week later he was more himself so I let him outside for a bit.  When I let them back in, he was limping.  I took that as a sign that he wasn't quite ready to go back to his normal routine, so he stayed inside most the time, but would still run around in there.  He still limps if he is on it for too long and goes up and down stairs on three legs.  Also when UC steps on one of his bad feet he will yelp and favor it, but usually forgets about it after four seconds.  I think he would go out and play more, but he is not a fan of the cool temps we've been having so he usually goes out to do his business and runs back to the door! 

FYI: the trap was set illegally, so yes, you can say we're bad pet owners for letting them run around, but the trap shouldn't have been set there in the first place.  We have also installed an underground fence now, so hopefully they will learn their boundaries quickly.  (I'm sure I'm a bad parent for using a shock system-- but I've been shocked and I learned quickly!!)   Now go ahead and judge me :)

Front Yard Fun

With the rental went the electrical pole in the front yard, which just happened to be what the climbing rose bush climbed.  I'm not sure where I was when they tore the pole out, but I was a little sad to see the rose bush gone.  And then I was told they had saved it and it was laying by the garage.  Perfect!  So I went to work digging a hole and stuck it in and watered it.  And watered it.  And watered it.  And nothing.  Finally DJ ripped it out and sent it to the burn pile.  Sad. 

Fast forward a couple months when DJ was mowing one day and low and behold:  They were growing back where the pole had been!  And he didn't mow it over!!  That's right.  Made. My. Day!  Whoop Whoop!!  And then another little one popped up.  And then another.  WHAAAT!!!  Awesome.  And they kept growing.  And growing.  And growing.  After watching them grow like weeds, we decided they needed something to climb.  The big one was at the point of just falling over.  I told DJ we could put the flag pole there, but he was not a fan of that idea.  I suggested picking something up at Home Depot or Menards.  He pretty much ignored me. 

And then he had an idea. 

I love it!  I bought this old wheel from my grandparents' auction without having an idea where to put it or what to do with it.  I guess DJ got tired of it sitting behind the shed and decided to put it in the front yard!  (Ignore poor Teddy hanging out in the background... he might've lost a nose that day...)  I'm hoping once the other smaller ones start to grow I'll be able to weave them in the wheel as well.  I'm pretty excited for it to bloom next year!

I don't think DJ considered the fact that he just added something to the yard meaning he'll have to weed eat around it!!