We won the Showmanship Award in 4-H. I showed sheep, hogs, rabbits and horses and my favorite was horses with sheep being a close second!Giving a young friend a ride. Candy was the daughter of a dear friend of my mom’s.These last pictures were taken at Lake Yenrougis by my high school science and photography teacher, Bud Seip. He also photographed my wedding!
Every girl should have a horse! I’m sure I’ve shared a picture or two of this old man before but I came across these pictures again and had to share. The first two were of Cherokee before we got him and I love that I have them now! I was around 10 when he came to live with us and I had wanted him for oh so long. When the girl who owned him decided to sell him as she was going away to college my dad and mom surprised me with him. And he was my best friend from that point on! I loved him dearly and still miss him after all these years. There’s nothing like the friendship of a good horse.
I’m sitting here munching on dehydrated apple chips from the apples we picked at a friend’s house this past fall. They sure taste good on this cold, foggy winter day! I’m thankful I broke down and bought a dehydrator. I got it thinking we would make beef jerky and so far, that’s the one thing we haven’t tried!
It’s been a quiet few days around here. It’s cold and there’s lots of snow on the ground. I enjoy these days and would enjoy them even more if Drew did. He needs to be able to get out and run. Being cooped up is not for him. We’re planning a trip to the library later this week. We have to make an appointment to be able to get in. Hoping to find some books for our mammal study we’re starting and hoping to find a good book for him to read. With all the books in this house that his siblings read you would think something would grab his interest but so far nothing.
I’ve been busy stitching orders and am finally caught up so last night I switched things up and stitched a chicken. No reason. Just ran across the free pattern, had some fabric begging to be used and ran with it. A little bright spot in the kitchen to cheer us up on these cold winter days!
Drew learned to run the snow blower and got to put it to use over the weekend. He thought it was fun to try and bury me in snow! We went on a road trip before the snow hit. Joe showed us where they hunted for deer and told us about the hunt! Drew and Rambler must have gotten bored, they both fell asleep! There’s been a lot of fort making going on and I’m ready to have my living room back! And then there’s Possum, just enjoying being King of the Castle!
We were supposed to wake up to 6″ to 8″ of snow on Saturday. Instead we woke up to ice. Ice everywhere. I was so thankful Eric came home Friday night before the nasty weather started. He needed an oil change, he had two tires leaking and his door handles weren’t working right. Well, his dad changed the oil and replaced two leaky valve stems but the door handles we picked up at the salvage yard awile back were the front handles and not back handles so that means Eric will have to come home again some other time. Yeah!!!! So what to do on a cold and icy day? Well, I had started the process of mustard making and that was ready to be finished.
Gotta let these sit for two days to absorb all the moisture.
Oh my goodness – the beautiful colors, smells and taste of Homemade Lavendar Mustard. And it was so very easy. I’m positive I’ll be making this again and I’m thinking it will be a perfect Father’s Day gift for my dad as he loves mustard.
It’s so pretty!
Then Joe helped me pull Drew’s bed out so I could finish painting his room. This kid and all his treasures. After getting the room done and everything moved back the way he wanted it, he went through the house, through cupboards and drawers, all the nooks and crannys and he “shopped” for things to decorate with. It’s funny what he chose to use from around the house. My old roller skates, some of Grandma Houseal’s dishes, old Sucrets tins, whatever he could get his hands on. Gotta love him!
What a mess!
Then sweet Humphrey got a nice clean rearranged home. Drew decided on a camping theme this time around. With white bedding so he’s camping in the snow! We found some timothy hay and something called Nature’s Salad for him and also scattered some carrot and celery pieces around the cage for him to find. He was one happy camper when we put him back in the cage and he explored for ages. Then he knocked his camper over, decided not to bed down in the timothy hay and instead made a new nesting area and promptly fell asleep!
Not a good picture but this little guy is constantly on the move. I have yet to get a decent picture of him!
We had bacon and eggs for breakfast so instead of crushing the eggs up this time around and giving them back to the girls, I let them dry all day and crushed them up and put them in a jar. Since then I’ve added egg shells two more times to the jar already. Those shells will go in the ground this spring along with the tomatoes we’re going to plant. It feels good to get started planning for spring even though we’re living in an ice covered world at the moment!
I think the fire is a little big compaired to the tent but oh well – it was fun to make anyway!
Yesterday Drew and I were both under the weather. Thanks Joe – it all started with him over the weekend! Anyway, we spent most of the morning sitting together in our easy chair watching YouTube videos on hamster habitats and Drew decided it would be fun to change out Ollie’s cage to a camping theme. We just cleaned him out over the weekend so we won’t be doing a complete overhaul again for two or three weeks but as we were both feeling a little better in the afternoon I helped him drag out all our supplies and we got to work. I really get frustrated with YouTube and Drew wanting to spend his time watching pointless videos of other kids doing nothing but there’s also some really good videos and tutorials on there too. My one stipulation was we could only use what we had on hand as whatever we make is going to get crawled over, chewed on, pooed on, and basically destroyed, so we’re not going to spend extra money. In the end we came up with a tent, campfire (with a battery operated tealight) and a cute little sign. I also want to try making an adirondack chair out of popsicle sticks at some point too for little Ollie to enjoy!
Hi Ollie! Who knew a little tiny hamster would provide so much entertainment!
Later, while watching the Queen and Adam Lambert Story, Drew decided he’s watched enough videos on taming hamsters to try and get Ollie out and hold him. This has been his goal from day one when we first brought Snowball home. He was so excited he could hardly contain himself and we had to get him to calm down so as to keep the poor hamster calm too. But, this little guy took to being held right off and Drew and Ollie had a blast together. As least Drew had fun anyway! Ollie on the other hand, decided to crawl into the sofa and we had to find him and contain him before Pierre realized there was a free running rodent in the livingroom to try and play catch and release with! All in all, even with none of us feeling the greatest, we had a nice day. Drew learned a few new things on YouTube regarding his hamster and Ollie I think decided he liked having some human contact and love!
Drew got a hamster back in December. Something I swore I would never have! And darn if she wasn’t fun to have around. She was extremely active, spent her time filling her pouch with food, running on her wheel, chewing on everything in sight, and biting fingers every chance she got. Of course we came home with a hamster and a cute plastic cage that looked like a house. And then Drew did a bunch of research on YouTube and discovered those cute plastic homes they sell at pet stores are really not good for your pet hamster. So he drug up an old fish tank from the basement that was home to Larry the Lizard back in the day when Eric had his lizard. We spent hours getting it all cleaned up and set up only to decide it wasn’t big enough for a hamster. I wan’t willing to spend money on a large fish tank to I went to Facebook for ideas and Jeremy’s mom offered us their 100 gallon fish tank that was home to Jeremy’s pyrannahs. I now have a gigantic fish tank in my living room, directly under the TV. Oh what moms will do for their kids! Unfortunately, as we were in the process of setting this tank up, Snowball escaped. She was missing from Saturday night until Thursday when we found her on the backporch of all places. She was hurt, her back legs weren’t working. We put her back in her cage but she passed the next day. Drew was heartbroken. I never dreamed he would become so attached to a little critter that he couldn’t even pick up for fear of getting bit in such a short amount of time but he cried and cried. Then he asked if we could go get another one. And we did. We are now the proud owners of a Black Bear Syrian Hamster named Boo Boo Bear!
This is Winston. We met Winston when we went camping at Lake Darling. Winston kept everyone entertained – especially the littles but he had the adults wrapped around his little finger too. Winston was so sweet – I decided he needed his own blog post!
Like I said – the littles loved him but as you can see the big kids loved him too! Winston acts like a dog. He follows his owners around just like a dog would but without a leash. He spent Saturday night with us while we sat around the fire. He would wander from person to person and want to be petted. But he never let his owner get too far away. He kept his eye on her!
He wore a bow tie on his collar and he wore diapers and a onesie to bed at night and slept in the tent with his owners. Now that is where I would draw the line! No goat diapers or goat sleepovers for me! Winston is used for goat yoga and I’m guessing he gets loved on a lot. He’s also hosting a family movie night this weekend in his barn where you can come watch a family movie and pet him and his goat friends. He also was a big incentive in what is now a new member of our family. I think I’ll leave that for another post!
My mom shared this picture on Facebook over the weekend. I have no idea why. It hangs on her wall along with a few other shots of me and Cherokee and pictures of my sister and her sports. They’ve hung there for years. I’m not sure what triggered her to share this particular one at this particular time. It’s funny how you walk by a picture all the time and think nothing of it but then all of a sudden you see it in a different light and it brings back so many memories!
The girl who had owned Cherokee before me commented on Facebook on the picture. She stated she has a picture of her with him that is almost identical to this one. For some reason it dawned on me just how hard it had to have been for her to sell him. Alice lived in town and kept Cherokee in town and would ride him all over. Everybody was familiar with him. He was a calm, gentle soul and you could walk right up to him and pet him. But then she was going away to college and had to sell him. I wanted him so bad but Dad and Mom said no. Money was tight and it just wouldn’t work out.
But then they surprised me – and he was mine! I would go over to Alice’s periodically and she taught me all about how to take care of him and how to ride him. Her sister had a pony and we would ride around town on them. I don’t remember how old I was at this time. I think we had the acreage but still lived in town so I would have had to be 10 or younger. I don’t even remember the day they brought Cherokee to our place. I just remember thinking I was probably never going to see him again and then one day he was mine. We had him for years and I remember when Mom called and said Dad had found him down in the timber and he had died. I was married and had my own family by then. He had gotten so old you couldn’t ride him anymore but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was loved beyond measure, first by Alice and her family, then by me and mine and he was part of the family. That acreage was his home.
I remember Alice would come home to visit and she would come out to see him and to ride him. I can’t imagine how hard that had to have been for her. To have to sell him and then to come home and visit him. I was young enough that I didn’t appreciate at the time what it must have been like for her. I was too exctied to be getting him, I wasn’t really thinking about her losing him. We both have such great memories of this old horse. He touched the hearts of two young girls – he was one special horse!
Blackie didn’t get to roam quite as much as the others – she got to sit on Drew’s lap and be cuddled and loved! She seems to enjoy Drew – she doesn’t give much of struggle to be picked up!
Drew was so excited yesterday. His dad let him let the chickens out to free range for the first time. They loved it but were a little “chicken”! They didn’t wander far from the coop. I’m sure that won’t last long and soon they will be all over the yard. Poor Isee was put in her kennel so they could roam but after awhile we decided to go ahead let her out and she was perfect. She tried a couple of times to check things out but as soon as someone called her off she was fine and soon forgot all about them. Not bad for a bird dog! The chickens went right back to their coop when Drew went to put them away and they were exhausted – they all sat down and fell asleep!
I won’t be posting again until after the 4th. Lots to do the next few days and hope to stay away from electronics and just enjoy these next few days!
We visited my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie today. Dad, Mom, Drew and I. Aunt Konnie is my dad’s twin sister. They live just up the hill from a teeny tiny little town called Rubio. I have always loved visiting here. They have a beautiful farm and farm house. Aunt Konnie has such pretty flower beds and Uncle Jerry always has different fun animals to see. I remember staying with them for a few days during the summers. My sister and I and our cousins Terri Jo and Todd would spend a couple days with Grandma Ward in Richland and then a couple days in Rubio at Terri Jo and Todd’s. It was like a different world to me. Aunt Konnie didn’t work and Uncle Jerry was a farmer. He had crops and cattle and hogs. We would walk down to Rubio and get an ice cream cone and visit the Post Office. There aren’t any buildings left in Rubio besides the train depot and houses. The train depot has been kept up and we have attended many a family reunion there over the years.
For years we would celebrate Thanksgiving at Jerry and Konnie’s. Aunt Konnie is the best cook – everything was always homemade and delicious. We would have a turkey Uncle Jerry had hunted and all the traditional fixings and the most wonderful desserts. Then the men would spend the afternoon hunting pheasant and the women would make a craft. Usually something Christmas related. I can remember making Christmas tree pins out of cinnamon sticks one year and Christmas tree sweatshirts out of fabric yo-yos. Then we would watch the men clean the pheasants they brought home. Thanksgivings at Uncle Jerry and Aunt Konnie’s are some of my favorite holiday memories.
The weather was windy and warm but comfortable. We wandered around the yard and Drew got to see some of the animals. He played with the kittens and found an egg in the hen house. He got to pet their pet goose that follows them around outside. We checked out the flower beds and the garden then sat on the deck and visited and had root beer. It was a perfect afternoon and something we need to do more often.
Drew and I and Izzie went for a wander this evening before getting cleaned up and settling in for the night. I don’t have beautiful pristine flower beds. Although I love to see that kind of flower bed my wild beds work for me! I have lots of weeds and nothing is really planned out. I just let everything grow willy nilly and enjoy what blooms!
