Sunday, May 9, 2010

Silly Story

I have tried to teach my children not to be bored. Occasionally, they forget and I hear those words "Mom, I'm bored"....
Well, Emily slipped up so I had her help me write a new story. I write a few lines...she adds a few lines...until the story is done or they find something un-boring to do. Here is our silly story creation:
 
In July, it's hot and dry.
So, I grabbed the cat and went out back.
On the way, I.........
Kissed a Frog...
 
That was sitting on a dirty log.
He looked at me with certain dread.
I thought for sure that I was dead...
 
But then the frog, he ribbit and croaked..
He told me that my shirt was soaked..
and if I would just bring him a dollar,
He promised he wouldn't tell or hollar.
 
It made my day that he felt that way,
And I thought, well...what the hey.
Since he had such a good attitude,
            THE  END

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

On the firing line

Rachel is a member of two different shooting sports clubs. For 4-H, she's on the Junior squad, and for the Skeet shooters she's on the Pi sqaud. She's also completed and earned her Hunter's Safety Ed certification.

What's this called?

Rachel is trying to teach her birds too many tricks at one time. But hey! at least she's paying attention to her pets.
This is not a piggy back ride. The 'big' bird is a two week old 4-H bird and the rider is a one week old Cherry Legger.

More 4-H

4-H is keeping us busy. The girls led the Pledges at the annual Banquet. They are also Honor Members again. Rachel competed in Indoor O'Rama performing "It's a long road to freedom" acapella. She didn't win, but she did a very good job for her first time. Emily went on to District competition in Broiler BBQ and placed 3rd. Also a good job. Next week will be Outdoor O'Rama and both have plans to compete in dairy foods and baked goods.

Broiler BBQ comp.

Last month was our County Broiler BBQ. Both girls competed and Emily took first place! I wish I could have got a photo of her when they announced her name. Those pretty blue eyes were dancing. She was so thrilled that she pulled me in front of her and tried to hide.

Spring

You know spring has finally arrived when you start finding the wild flowers popping up. After all of this years snow, I'm more than ready for green things.

Calendar Op

Rachel loves trying to pose her chicks. These are the new 4-H birds at 3 days old. She wants to train one to do tricks and has settled on teaching one how to beat a drum.

Here we go again

It's that time of year again. Our chicks have arrived for this year's 4-H Poultry Chain. Twenty Five one day old fluff balls. This batch seems to be much more aggresive than past years, but they are going to fit into our schedule just fine. It's kinda funny to have birds that want to stay up all night though.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Holy Snowflake Frosty!

Ok...I was just feeling fine until I read the forecast for tomorrow.
 
I don't need 4-8 inches of snow...I've still got leftovers from last week.
 

Saturday, January 30, 2010

snow for my princess

So, guess who's not going any where? LOL Yep, that would be me. Snow in Arkansas is usually limited to a dozen flakes or so. This year, I think we're making up for all those years of no snow.

I'm not sure who likes it more....the Huskey's or the twins. You should have seen Bob. He tried so hard to find his ball buried under all of it. He still hasn't...and both he and the girls have dug all over the circle yard trying to locate it.

I love how this old cedar trees weighed down with snow always shelters the rabbits. It makes such a great wind break that they're nice and warm....as much so as if i had a heater in there.

Wally and his ladies were not as fortunate this storm. The wind direction must have changed during the night and caused the drifts. In any case, he's not letting his girls far from his sight. They are still laying...ten eggs today from 7 layers. I got 6 yesterday.

The poor guineas and wyandottes...They're my free range birds. Guineas, for those of you that don't know; are an African bird. They do not know what to think of this snow. They wouldn't walk out of thier coop....more to follow.

Mr. Wyandotte. It's a good thing he doesn't weigh much and can pratically stand on top of the snow. Otherwise, it would be past his belly.

Mrs. Wyandotte...and the Guinea is "Miss Ginny". I laugh when I see these two. The only thing missing in the photo is a fence that they can gossip over.

Looking out at the woods from the back yard.

more back yard...

Camalinda rode around on Rachel's arm until I made her put him down. The snow is deeper than he is and he does not wish to try and tunnel through it.

From the edge of the woods looking out over the house towards Uncle Tim's mountain. If the sun were shining, it would be blinding. The twins wanted to know if this was a blizzard. They were both sure that it had to be. Nope. just a heavy snow......The stinkers had to get confirmation from grandma that it was not a blizzard. They've come to the conclusion that this is more snow in one day than they've had in their entire lives.

The road to the pond....

and the pond...completely frozon over, but not thick enough for skating. No animal tracks either so the bear and deer are not moving out of their dens yet.

They're ready for snow ice cream. Good thing about country snow is it's pretty clean.

Rach, trying to get even, caught in the act of shaking the tree so that it would dump snow on Emily.

How come grown up's don't appreciate snow the way kids do?

I guess I'm more of a chicken.....I'd just as soon not be in the snow.

Miss Ginny has decided to roost in a tree. Mrs. Wyandotte was under her on the ground and not at all happy that she couldn't quite get high enough to join her.

All of the schools are closed, a good number of the businesses, church has been cancelled, some of the towns are even keeping their officers home unless called out for an emergency. We ended up with a total of one inch ice buried under 6 inches of very wet heavy snow. The kind that is perfect for making snow forts and snow balls and snow angels.... It seems like much more trying to walk through it. I do wish I had a 400 mm lens for my camera. I'd love to photograph some of the song birds. They are most lovely against all the white.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

QT Posters

Here's one for ya! Every year in Scouts, I have 'my' girls make body posters. This year the twins helped and made some too. After they finished them, we cut them out and taped them to their bedroom doors. Just another fun thing to keep us busy.

Snow!

The new year brought snow. Anyone care to have it? I've seen enough of the white stuff to last me the rest of my life. Chickies weren't to excited about it either. They wouldn't come out of thier coop for days. They acted like they were afraid to step on it. As you can see in the photo, the girls tried to 'encourage' them by putting Carmalinda outside.......first chance he got, he flew straight back into the coop.
I should also mention that the bantams started laying. Surprised all of us because of the extreme cold and lack of sunlight.