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Returning a Gift – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on June 25, 2014
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gift Ideas, Girl Stuff, Kids Stuff, Parenting, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Have you ever tried to surprise someone? It takes a lot of work and secrecy, even then plans can be thwarted. We successfully surprised our 14 year old daughter three weeks ago with the gift of a Palomino horse (she’s a quarter horse), on the condition that we’d keep her if she passed the vet’s pre-purchase exam. Sandy is an 18 year old Quarter horse, give or take according to the vet’s look at her teeth.

Over a week ago the vet did a pre-purchase exam and could not pass Sandy based on some lameness issues. The issues are fixable but would cost money and could cost us a good horse if she went completely lame. We were hoping for an easy keeper since Blaze his a hard keeper.

lameness
lame
1 [leym] Show IPA
adjective, lam·er, lam·est.
1.
crippled or physically disabled, especially in the foot or leg so as to limp or walk with difficulty.
2.
impaired or disabled through defect or injury: a lame arm.
3.
weak; inadequate; unsatisfactory; clumsy: a lame excuse.
4.
Slang. out of touch with modern fads or trends; unsophisticated.
verb (used with object), lamed, lam·ing.
5.
to make lame or defective.

We had hoped to keep Sandy for a good long time and let her get her weight up on our yummy pasture. Her stables do not have access to pasture. The horses live in their stalls.

So we say good-bye to Sandy tomorrow evening when her owner comes to pick her up. We had her here on a trial basis. Kind of sad to see her go. Our daughter is handling it like a champ and we are proud of her.

It is hard as a parent to successfully surprise your child with a gift she’s wanted since she was nine and then to have to turn around and return the gift.

Have you ever had to return a much wanted gift?

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Week #25 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on June 14, 2014
in Animals, Family Stuff, Humor, Kids Stuff, Saturday Top Five Laughs, Uncategorized

Can anyone help me slow down time? I cannot believe another week has sped by! I wasn’t very good about keeping track of our family funnies but I’ll do my best to give you a few for our top laughs, as we join Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #25 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. Miss Moo had quite the adventure this week dragging us with her. She got out of her stall and tramped through the garden, through the pasture and right into old barbed wire fence. At least it stopped her and she wasn’t hurt, just a surface scratch. I watched from the window until I saw B go down and Moo go over her….yeah, talk about heart failure. Thankfully, Moo jumped over her and did not walk on top of her. Seriously though, it was like that scene in Anne of Green Gables where Anne is chasing after what she thought was HER cow through Rachel Lind’s garden, but it turned out to be Rachel Lind’s cow. Do you remember that scene? It’s funny now, but I wanted to turn Moo into ground beef if she didn’t stop running. Once she got caught, B was able to talk her down.

4. There was a ding dong on the door. I went to answer it, while walking to the door it ding donged again and I knew it was the children because no one else rings the door bell that many times in the span of a few seconds. When I answered the door Jr. was there and said, “I have 99 eggs?” We have been having quite a few customers come buy for eggs and other products so they younger children have been ringing the door bell and pretending to be customers too.

3. O’s face when she saw a new visitor on our farm:

2. I was talking to my mom and we were talking about animals and she told me how she had always thought rabbits and cats tried to mate each other. I go, “What would those be called catbits or rabats?”

1. My oldest son just said to me, “I”m not short, I’m fun size!”

What’s your funny of the week?

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Haying with Horses – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on June 11, 2014
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Things to Do in Chicago, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

I am barely getting much blogging done lately. It’s been busy here on the farm, plus we are homeschooling through the summer and I’ve just been enjoying life too much to sit very long in front of the computer!

Haying with Horses

Yesterday we went to a fellow farmer’s to learn how he farms with draft horses. It was very interesting. He owns two Percheron horses, along with two Morgans which is is also training to work like his Percherons.

We actually got to see Farmer L hay. He had already cut the field so we got to see him use his hay loader (which he purchased for just $90, if I remember correctly) and a hay wagon he built himself.

The reason Farmer L farms with horses is because of his dislike for the use of petroleum. He is self-taught and very good at what he does. He teaches driving lessons (learning to drive a team of horses) to another farmer friend of ours and she is enjoying the lessons a lot.

As crazy as it sounds, I’d love to farm with horses. It would give me an excuse to own horses because it would give them a purpose on the farm. Not sure I could convince hubby though as he is very much a tractor man.

What do you think of farming with horses in this day and age?

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Week #24 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on June 7, 2014
in Animals, Family Stuff, Humor, Kids Stuff, Saturday Top Five Laughs, Uncategorized

Another week has sped by and it’s time for Saturday Top Five Laughs with Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #24 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. You know you live on a farm when your daughter says, “I hate it when I go into heat.” Then goes, “Wait, I’m not a cow.”

4. Our goose was attacking Annabeth (our pregnant goat) and Lokie (the new “kid”) actually pummeled the goose! I am proud that he has such spunk but a little concerned at the same time when thinking ahead to when he is older. We will be keeping him since B gave him to O for her birthday.

3. We discovered Atlas, our male ram, was nursing off of Hazel, Lokie’s mom. As endearing as it is, he shouldn’t be! So we had to go back to separating the goats and sheep.

And I was horrible keeping track of things this week so only have three things.

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Sheep – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on June 4, 2014
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Couldn’t resist sharing more lamb or sheep photos!

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Week #22 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on May 24, 2014
in Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Girl Stuff, Humor, Uncategorized

Can’t believe another week has come and gone already! But it’s time for Saturday top Five Laughs with Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #22 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. This one happened when we went mini golfing a few weeks ago. I only remembered it when I posted the photo yesterday. Mini golfing as a large family is hilarious! Especially when half our children had never mini golfed before. They start out by hitting the ball like it’s a puck in a hockey game and you know what happens then! The children loved it and can’t wait to go back. Next time though, we want to go when the go-carts are open!

4. Lokie is fun to watch, though this week I haven’t had much time, but the children have. He even climbed the manure pile only to roll down it, lay there and wait for his mother to fawn over him!

3. I told O to plant shelling peas at the end of the rows already planted, meaning the last bed, but she planted them at the end of the tomato beds after the tomatoes. Tomatoes and peas cannot be planted together because of the negative affect one will have on the other. Another Amelia Bedilia moment in which she took me quite literally. I also think she didn’t hear part of my instructions because she was heading down the hallway to the door.

2. Jr. and JAG (our 10 year old) were running around outside. JAG was doing this super hero run and paused with his arms in a pumping motion. What does Jr. do? The same thing. Too cute!

1. We went to the park yesterday afternoon after the children worked hard planting in the garden. They wanted to take Padfoot, our dog, so I let them. Well, we forgot to bring him a water dish so he got to use a Dixie cup like the rest of us!

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New Kid on the Block

Posted by html404 on May 21, 2014
in Animals, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Pregnancy and Birth, Uncategorized

There’s a new kid on the block! B’s goat Hazel had a male kid on Saturday late in the afternoon. We just missed the birth as he was pretty slimy and slick when we found them. B named him Lokie. He got into trouble within the first hour after birth by getting stuck in between the pallets of the stall. We completely forgot about “kid” proofing since we are slightly out of practice. He’s cute even if he is troublesome!

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Meet Atlas Our Babydoll Ram Lamb

Posted by html404 on May 14, 2014
in Animals, Business, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Fun Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Atlas, our Babydoll ram lamb and third lamb (we still have our loaner Oopsie), arrived on our farm on April 28 at eight weeks old, which is the recommended age of weaning and going to a new home. We brought him home in the back of our “truck”, like we did the other lambs.

We already got our papers for Atlas, since he is a registered Babydoll sheep. We are still waiting on Juno’s, her breeder sends all her lambs in at once.

It has been fun watching our son and all our children fall in love with our sheep.

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Week #20 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on May 10, 2014
in Animals, Saturday Top Five Laughs

Guess what? It’s that time of week again! Saturday top Five Laughs with Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #20 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. Our six year old’s second question from last week was, “When do I get my mustache?” Then he laughs and says, “Just kidding!” Or something like that. Goofy boy!

4. We brought Atlas home in the truck, as we did the other lambs. Atlas was much more vocal though as he baaaa baaaa baaaaa’d his head off. O was having a conversation with him, but JAG said, “I need hearing aids” meaning ear plugs.

3. Another question from our son this week. He wanted to know why he couldn’t have “zebee” pants like his dad, so I decided to see if Zubaz had any kid’s apparel. Well, on their home page a bikini clad woman comes up, which led to this conversation.

Son – What does bikini even mean?

Me - I don’t know why women want to go around in their bra and underwear.

Hubby - It means embarrassment.

O – Google it.

Me – Then images will come up.

Hubby – Google ‘what does bikini’ mean and no images will come up.

Here’s what we found out:

bi·ki·ni
biˈkēnē/
noun
noun: bikini; plural noun: bikinis

a very brief two-piece swimsuit for women.
scanty underpants.

2. Conversation with Jr. as he was icing his bump (he jumped on his brother’s bed and landed head first onto a BB gun!):

Me – Do you like the sheep?
Jr. – Yes.
Me – Do you like the goats?
Jr. – What goats? Goats pass gas.
Me – Do you like the geese?
Jr. – No, they poke my eye out. (They haven’t but they do bite! But have only bit B)
Me – Do you like the cows?
Jr. – Yes.
Me – Do you like Blaze-y-boy? (Our 30 year old horse)
Jr. – Blaze-y-boy have baby cow?
Me – No, Blaze-y-boy is a horse. He can’t have cows. (Didn’t get into the gender/gelding (castration)
Me – Do you like Padfoot?
Jr. – Yes.
Me – Do you like the chickens and turkeys?
Jr. – No, they poke my eye out. (We have roosters who have tried to do this but don’t have any roosters right now.)
Me – What?! You goofy boy!

1. Hubby was feeding grass to the cows and each one of them tried to eat the grass from the the other’s mouth! Goofy cows!

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VetIQ Minties Dental Treats for Dogs

Posted by html404 on May 6, 2014
in All Natural Products, Animals, Pet Food, Pet Products, Pet Treats, Reviews, Uncategorized

We love our dog. Once he hit two it was like a switch went on in his brain and all the training the children put into him all seemed to pay off. He’s a good pooch. As you all know we feed him as we feed ourselves, basically. We buy him dog treats on special occasions. That’s why I wanted to try VetIQ Minties Dental Treats for Dogs.

Last summer when the vet was here to give Padfoot his rabies shot, he commented on how white Padfoot’s teeth are. The fact that the vet opened and showed his assistant and made that comment told me that he was surprised. So it’s not that we were concerned about Padfoot’s teeth or even his breath, it was more like I was curious as I usually am when a new product comes across my path.

Minties dental soft chews and bones are actually made with pretty healthy ingredients, which I like. I also like the fact that the products and ingredients are made right here in the good old U.S.A.

Minties Bones

Padfoot loved Minties Bones and our younger sons loved feeding them to him! The only thing I didn’t like about these was the fact only four came in a package!

“Ingredients of Minties:

Rice Flour, Vegetable Glycerin, Water, Natural Chicken Flavor, Calcium Carbonate, Lecithin, Garlic, Tricalcium Phosphate, Brewers Dried Yeast, Chlorophyll (Sodium Copper Chlorophyllin), Parsley, Fennel, Dill, Peppermint, Cholecalciferol (Source of Vitamin D3), Mixed Tocopherols (Natural Source of Vitamin E)”

Minties Breath Fresh Soft Chews

There were more Minties Breath Fresh soft chews in the bag but they are smaller portions. Again Padfoot loved them and sat pretty for his treat. One thing I didn’t get a chance to do was smell Padfoot’s breath after he ate these products. It’s neither here nor there because he doesn’t have regular bad breath. Both products do smell good on their own. Update: My daughter just said Padfoot’s breath smells good after he has his Minties.

VetIQ has several different dental products for dogs, plus other lines of products. Each one comes in various sized bags, amounts and according to the size of your dog. You can check out other VetIQ products here: http://www.vetiq.com/products/