Spring 2010

This past spring was filled with lots of stuff. Mike and I had Mike's brother Shawn's 4 children living with us in addition to our own 7, making a house full of 11 children. Rhett, Amy and Austin played baseball. Josh and Joe were on the track team. I was a bad mother and got pictures of nothing, although I was at every game (did I mention I don't even like baseball?) that I wasn't working, and every home track meet and some away ones! Joe did very well in the the 800 and the relay. Josh did shotput, discus and javelin. Rhett and Amy were on the same team and played outfield, while Austin played 3rd base. Mike was still going to school for nursing on nights and weekends, so he was gone most evenings of the week. It was a crazy time. But I enjoyed it!

You remember how last year all the baby animals being born were boys? Well, this past spring, we were blessed to have many baby girls. Starting with Rose Petal (RoseBud's little heifer),

then came a little doe, Caramel,
and then Stardust was born. Stardust was a friendly little filly, and we sold her to a nice family late summer.

Taxi had another bull calf several weeks after RosePetal was born. We sold the calf after just a short time. We milked Taxi and Rosebud for a few months before deciding to sell Taxi. She gave good milk, but she wasn't the easiest cow to milk!

Mike was the only one that could milk her, and he had to tie up a hind leg to keep her from kicking. She wasn't a mean cow, just very skittish. I milked her once... got kicked even with the leg tied! So, we sold her. Unfortunately, I really missed the milk. I had gotten used to being able to make icecream and butter, and not having to buy milk! But our other cow decided not to have her baby for longer than we thought, so I had to buy milk.

Our donkey, Dot, had another little jack. He was cute, and she was, too, but we decided to sell some of our animals to cut down on feed costs. They both went to nice homes. All the kids were glad to be done with the cold winter and enjoyed the outdoors in the spring. They always enjoyed going up and down the driveway on skateboards,

and Ben had a good time hanging in the trees.

They would ride the miniatures thru the summer, too. Triple T has always been the preferred steed!

Remember how excited we were to have a little filly born last year? Well, little Sugar Pea stayed very tiny. Unfortunately, she was small enough to get out from under pretty much any fence we had her in. So, we sold her, too. She was a beautiful little horse!

Such is the way with the farm. Well, that's about all I can think of for Spring for now!

I'll never catch up!

Well, here it is, another school year. So much has happened in this past little while, that I'll never catch up! There are things I would like to post from the summer, things from football season, etc. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, I can try to post some things, but I'll never be able to get it all!

Starting out Spring

Well, my husband has a new girl added to the family... the four legged kind. Last year, baby after baby was a boy. This year we're starting out much better (as far as farm life is concerned). Our young heifer became a cow on Rhett's birthday, giving birth to a heifer of her own. The smallest calf we've had yet, measuring just 22 inches at the hip. She's a friendly, cute little thing, and Rosebud was good about letting us handle her. Of course, a bucket of grain aids in the encouragement, too.

Austin was so excited! Rosebud (the momma) is part his, so he was out with Mike as soon as he got home from school, helping with anything and everything. He even ended up getting two baths cuz when Mike got home from class and went out in the dark with Mike Jr. to arrange a separate pen for Mom and baby, Austin trudged out, too, getting muddy in the process.

Rosebud is a small cow, as you can see in this pic, and her baby is just tiny, too! The kids spent the afternoon mauling the little thing. Rosebud would check out the intruders, but was ok with them handling her little girl.

Carolynn woke up from her nap quite cranky, but quickly cheered up when told there was a new baby for her to pet. She loves it! We were thinking of naming her Rose's Crocus after the first flower of the spring and her mother. Crocus is kinda a odd sounding name, tho, but it can work for a cow! After all, one of the girls in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers is named Dorkus. I think Crocus is better than that!

Rainy Day Fun

Last week we had several days (I think it ended up being about 4 in a row) of yucky rain. Sometimes it was actual rain, sometimes just a miserable wet drizzle. Unfortunately, the kids start to go stir crazy after a few days of yuck weather when they can't go outside to play. That's when they get creative. It just so happened that a friend from church stopped by one of those days and had her son exposed to my home's chaos as well. I don't think I really need to do much explaining of their creativity...

By the way, the kids took their own pictures to document their creativity...Here's Ben playing Tarzan.

And Trevor's turn at King of the Robinson Jungle.

Just gotta love the hair, Austin!

Austin was sweet enough to let Carolynn in on the fun. She was too afraid to actually swing on her own, but she wanted a turn. Austin is always so good to help others! This last picture is posed... she was standing on Austin for the pic, but it was cute!

The Big Snow 2010

This past February, we were blessed with lots of snow. This storm wasn't as big as one I remember when I was a kid, but we had two storms almost back to back... the first one dumped about 8-10 inches, the second about 4 days later gave us another 2 feet. The place looked beautiful, but driving to work was not easy! The kids ended up missing 4 days of school last month due to the snow. They aren't happy about having a short Spring break now! Here are some pics to give ya'll an idea of how much we got...

Here's the back porch from my balcony's view. And below is the back yard.
Here's the driveway after Mike plowed, and the pile next to his tractor. It made powing the long driveway possible!

Here's poor Scout trying to get thru the snow. The dogs finally decided to stick to the paths the kids dug thru the snow to make feeding the animals easier. These next pics are taken several days after the storm.

The kids dug a tunnel in some of the plowed snow piles.

Here's my sister's son Damean with Rhett and Amy in one of the tunnels. Below is a pic of Liz's son Finn as he's crawling in.

And last but not least is the violence that occurs when icicles are formed... Austin losing his temper with Trevor... Fortunately, he was posing as can be told by the smile.