Three Aunts, Two Cousins and a Daughter

And Dave!  Can't forget Dave for sure!  He's not so nimble today.  He pounded nails all day yesterday until it rained as darkness began to fall.  Today he is feeling quite sore.  Today he thinks he'll relax and hang with the girls.  We'll see how that goes :)

Well... I forgot to report my stats yesterday so I better not forget today.  Glucose was 78 which is low/fine but the fatometer actually said to me this morning when I stepped on, "Suuuuuuiieeee, oink, snort, you big fat pig!"  What abuse!  I'm about to get rid of that thing!  Hhmfff!  157.8.  I was supposed to be losing a bunch of weight. Apparently I lost my focus.  It will be me stretched out on the spit over Memorial Day at this rate.  To quote a favorite phrase of my daughter KTBug the birthday girl who turned 22 today (April 15th), "I suck at life!"  :)  Oh well!  There's always tomorrow... until there isn't.  So I'll either have the opportunity to do better tomorrow, or they won't be saying as they stare at me in the box, "she looks good doesn't she?"  At least I know my hair will look great, my bff Brenda promised to make sure of that.  I don't know if I should trust her though... she may just take the opportunity to pay me back for all the times I experimented on her in our early days of being hair dressers.  Like one Halloween...  Oh man, how does this happen?  Someone throw me a line before I drift off into oblivion!

Too late!  I was gone.  And that was as far as I got that day.  Here we are... May 28th.  Fat still!  156.6 glucose 99.  Some time ago my dad told me I should rename my blog "The Unsuccessful Dieter".  He was right.  :) Major fail!  But... there's always tomorrow... until there isn't.  Oh yeah!  I already said that.  Well... back to the title of the post...my Aunts who are my dad's sisters, my cousins, Aunt Joyce's daughters came to visit me... last weekend.  I thoroughly enjoyed having them.  What a treat!  Aunt Joyce and my cousin Karen traveled all the way from Tacoma and brought with them my other aunts, Marge who traveled all the way from TN and Anetta who traveled all the way from Germany!  Cousin Cheryl lives in the Tri Cities area and we were very fortunate to be able to steal her away for the night.  We ate (naturally) played games, went on walks, played games, drank cousin Karen's home made Green Tomato Wine, played games and admired Daffy.  Here are a few of the pics from their visit...

This is Aunt Joyce on the left, Aunty M, Aunt Netta and me getting ready to go out and feed little Daffy.

Aunt Joyce and Aunt Netta playing Mexican Train

Aunty M and Cuz Karen, more Mexican Train

Here we are clustered around the counter eating... oh... I think that was salmon topped with citrus spinach and veggie quinoa.  Looks like some green tomato wine going on too.

Again, clustered around the kitchen counter at breakfast time, coffee cups in hand.  Check out Aunty M's stylin jammies :)  This is me, auntys and cousin Cheryl.  Too bad you can't make out the beautiful colors on the baby blanket Aunty M made to send to my new little granddaughter who is due in July.  I would tell you her name if only her parents would decide what it's going to be.  Here's a suggestion... Mary Camille Muhammad.  She would be named after her favorite people in the whole world, her Mommy, Her Mumsey and of course her Daddy.  Works for me!  :)  It's not that hard!

This is me, cuz Karen and aunts standing on what will be the front porch of my garden shed that my awesome husband is building while he is recovering from his surgery.  Which reminds me.  Today we are rejoicing because he is getting his cast off.  Typically I go shopping while he has his check ups but today I'm going in with him because I just have to see the look on their faces when they see the crumbling cast they will be removing.  I doubt whether any other cast has seen this much mileage.  :)

In this pic it's a long way from finished... but tell me.  Who else has a front porch on their garden shed?  Hmm?  I love my husband!  :)

Amberlyn also came over and spent the weekend.  She slept a lot and did homework a lot so we didn't really see that much of her.  She stayed most of the day on Sunday though so we got to visit with her then.  Here she is feeding the adorable Daffy

Well... I better just let this be the end of this post because I also have to write one where I show Aubrey hunting Easter eggs :)  But not today.  I best get to work :)

Ciao!

Jack's Back!

Of course when I say Jack I am referring to my awesome husband Dave.  Why do I call him Jack?  Well, a few reasons come to mind.  First of all, he really is a Jack of all trades.  And then he reminds me of a jumping Jack because he's never still for long.  My bff Brenda must be shaking her head and thinking, riiiiight!  Her pet name for him, and the heading on his contact in her phone is Jackass!  Well... that's a different story and we won't go there - although it did just make me smile.  Memories :)  Of course I have to confess that my name in her phone is Lame Ass.  Apparently we are the Ass family.  :)  Ok!  Moving on :)  Anyway... for the last few months Dave's been a very sad Jack since he's been out of commission for months now.  But like I said... he's back!  He finally got clearance from the tower to begin putting a bit of weight on his foot.  Now I probably won't see him again until winter.  Of course he didn't do just nothing while he was down.  He planned and schemed and even started my garden shed.  He didn't get too far crawling around on his hands and knees.  Still it was an impressive effort... remember, hands and knees.

Yes... he's pretty resourceful.  Somehow he talked our neighbor Denny into letting him plant his large field just on the other side of our driveway with oats.  Just for fun.  Then he talked our neighbor Ed (he's a REAL farmer!) into providing him with a seeder full of oats.  Dave drove his tractor up and over the hill through a couple of neighbors places to get to Ed and Donna's farm where the seeder was.  I'm not really sure how that worked.  I was upstairs working while this all happened yesterday.  And poor Ed had to take time out from "real" farming to come show Jack how to hook up the seeder... and you should have seen the look on Jack's face!  He was having more fun than any injured man should.  He still has the cast on for another two weeks.  I'm sure I'll be amazed at all he accomplishes by the time the cast comes off and he can really get back to work!  Anyway... here is is "sowing his oats".  You can see our little house and barn in the back ground.

If you want go check out the tiny video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy_RiueElbg

He finished up that task and moved back to the shed...

I'm not sure what he's doing now.  I don't hear any power tools running.  Wonder what he's going to do tomorrow... :)

Well... on Monday we got Carol and Granny to come over and help us round up our little man, Chuck so he could join the boys choir.  :(  Such a sad business!  He was very brave about it though.  It's a great thing to have such wonderful neighbors.  Dave was still on crutches and I'm just useless when it comes to tackling cows and such.  :)  But he's much happier today.  Perhaps a little sore.  Here are the kids coming to see what's for dinner ... Daffy in the back, Chuck up front.

Such cute babies.  Daffy knows when it's bottle time.  She comes running.  Check her out...  and good ole Tank is all in there :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xrUAQYmV0I

Ok I'll quit pestering you with my silly little videos.  Hmm... not sure why but I'm getting super hungry.  Think I'll go grill some rib steaks!  :)

Ciao!

22 Degrees - REALLY?!!!

It's so cold out there the calves are huddled up to the big pile of poop and straw!  I don't even want to go out and feed them.  This is stupid!  Oh well... it also means the sky is clear as a bell and we should see a high of 53 today.  Yay!!!  Perfect weather for another round of roto-tilling.  My little spinach and lettuce seeds Dave has been hovering over down in his man cave have sprouted are now reaching for the light so I want to have the garden ready soon!  Now if only the darn belt will stay on that machine!  He wants to buy a tiller attachment for the tractor.  For my small garden that would be like... two passes and done.

So this morning the fatometer read 155.9.  Creeeeeping downwards ever so slowly.  I'll be excited when I get back down to the fatness I was when I came back from the cruise!  :)  Glucose was 80.  A good sign.  Means I'm doing something right and if I keep it up then zipping my pants is in my foreseeable future.  Awesome!

A couple of entertaining events occurred in the barnyard yesterday.  First... I'm still supplementing Daffy with two bottles a day.  When I fed her yesterday evening Tank who always has to be right in the middle of everything, stood right there and licked her face the whole time she was drinking the bottle so he could have the milk foam she was dribbling out.  It was so funny to watch I just couldn't stop him.  I do hope he's smart enough not to try that when she's nursing off mama!  Ginger will not think it's funny at all and will kick Tank's dogie butt to the moon.

The second was the chickens.  I mentioned a couple of posts ago that our little mama hen was sitting right?  Well she is seldom off the nest now.  About a week ago she was feeding in the chicken yard and I happened to be out there.  I took a peek to see how many eggs she was sitting on and noticed there were six.  I had helped by placing two eggs from the other hens under her myself.  Then yesterday I noticed once again that she was off the nest feeding so I checked back again and there were probably a dozen eggs!  I couldn't figure that out!  I didn't know they kept on laying eggs!  How ever would they all hatch at the same time?   Well... later in the evening when I went back in to check for eggs that the other hens might have laid I glanced over toward her...

I had to do a double take.  Up until today I've only seen our little blonde hen sitting and now it appears we have two "sitters".  The hen on the right is her little chick from last year.  Out of the five eggs she hatched last summer four of them were roosters and just the one little hen.  Mother and daughter sharing the nest.  How cute!  I'm not sure what this means since the newer eggs were laid more recently.  As you can tell I'm not a chicken expert!  We'll see what happens.  One thing I do know is that we need a better hen house.  That's also on Dave's project list for this year.

Well... that's all folks!  Have a great weekend!

Miscelaneous News From The Farm

Good morning!  :)  It's 5:45 and dawn is just breaking.  First light.  I love it.  Dave has not crawled out of bed and begun to ask me to go find his glasses or bring him more tea.  Poor man.  He wants to be off of his crutches as much as I want it.  He realizes he did not marry a nurse.  He said if he ever becomes paralyzed to please just shoot him.  You are all my witnesses.  He asked for it!  :)  Ahh... humor!  How energizing.  Especially the kind aimed at someone else.  That is unfortunately a genetic flaw.  :)  I apologize for the sins of my father.  :)

Well.. first of all... my renewed commitment to drop a few unwanted winter pounds is almost discouraging!  I'm two weeks in and I've only lost a few pounds.  156.6  :(  But... my glucose level  is staying right where it needs to be.  It was 78 this morning and I'm eating super healthy stuff.  Here's an example of some recent creations from my kitchen that either are healthy - or I have deluded myself into believing they are...

Breakfast Parfait made with plain Greek yogurt mixed with sugar free strawberry syrup and crunchy bits like sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds (my newest addiction).

Beef & Tofu Stir Fry topped with slivered almonds.  Made from the left over roast.  I know... a sweet potato!  But!  It's only a quarter of a spud.  I realize this looks like an enormous plate of food but it's a salad plate.  I usually eat off of a salad plate.  Small portions look pathetically small on a diner plate!  It's the oldest trick in the book but pretty effective.  And pretty fun if your husband is not on a diet.  Make's him feel like a big fat pig when I bring his big fat plate   :)  That's a little mean but it's  pretty emotionally satisfying especially after having to witness ice cream being consumed.  This is not the case right now... but in the recent past I have had to witness such atrocities.  Hmm... I must be feeling mean this morning.  A great day to make some collection calls.  :)  Anyway...moving on...  how bout this...

This was dinner last night getting ready to go in the oven to roast.  Sausage and lots of veg.  Sausage is healthy you ask?  Well... not really except that it's a pretty small amount.  And very lean for sausage.  This is a toaster oven size pan.  Also this is special sausage.  Crafted specially for us from just one cow, which is why we call them Panda Dogs.  :)  I know... I'm sick!  Poor Panda!  She is so tasty!

Or for lunch... Turkey Lentil soup with a lovely salad with mozzarella cheese and pistachios.

 I'm starting to get more exercise now too.  For instance, on Tuesday because Dave is still on crutches I had to fork all the hay ( a wonderful gift from our super star neighbor farmer Ed) from the trailer out into the pasture.  I was pitching it to them a little at a time but when we got close to the end Dave said to feed them the rest.   We had to unload it in order to take a road trip to Spirit Lake, ID to pick up some wooden fence posts and rails for Dave's spring fence project.  Of course he can't actually work on it - with the crutches and all, but the material is here.  I had to drive the truck and trailer since it's his right foot.
I really don't like driving anything big but I didn't really have a choice because... he'd already made up his mind :)  It was a fun trip though.  It turned but to be partly sunny all day and we took the back roads.  So pretty.

With the fencing loaded onto the 20' trailer we wound our way through the Pend O'Reille valley then up over Flowery Trail Rd and flew past the ski resort at an astounding 30 miles per hour.  Good thing there was pretty much NO traffic all the way from Idaho.  It's one of the benefits of living out in the sticks.  Anyway, I did a nice job driving.  The trailer is parked as requested right alongside the chicken coup waiting for the cast to come off.  Unfortunately we have to make one more trip back on Saturday to pick up the rest of the fencing.  It didn't all fit on the trailer.

Next week while he waits for the cast on his right foot to come off he thinks he can get my garden shed and green house framed in.  Here is a pic of a garden shed that is similar to what mine may look like when it's complete... a mini barn.  Won't the teeny tiny weather-vane that sits up on our barn look adorable on top of this?  Yes!  You can barely see it on the barn.  I'll probably have to go up and get it down though.  :)

I got back in the garden with the roto tiller again.  That's a work out!  :)  That machine feels like it's beating the hell out of me!  But I love to see the soil being worked and turned.

And once again... the most exciting news of all is our newest baby...

Meet Chuck!  We deliberated over the name for a few days and this is finally what Dave likes best.  Short for Chuck roast.  I know... boo!  He was born Sunday morning and is beautiful and healthy.  This was taken just a few hours after he was born. He's up and about now, bouncing around the pasture with his mommy Mumbo.  Here he is meeting his sister for the first time...

Chuck is on the left.  Daffy is on the right.  Yesterday we moved the mamas and babies into the same pasture which meant we could let Red Bull out of his small pen.  He has his own pasture now.  I think he was glad to have a bit more room to move around in.  

Here is Mumbo with Everett (on the right) and baby Chuck.   Everett is Mumbo's calf from last year.  I took this yesterday.  It was sweet to watch them.  Baby was nursing and Mumbo was grooming Everett (named because she was born on 4/25 which is the Everett area code).   We think Everett will be a good mama too.

It is not a great pic but it shows you Mumbo's little family.  Everett looks just like Mumbo!  Little Chuck is very dark red courtesy of his daddy Red Bull... the Red Angus. 

Red Bull is just a youngster too.  He is two years old so he still has some growing to do.  He obviously did a fine job this year.  Dave has only attempted to ride him once so far.  It was only a half hearted attempt and not very successful.  I'll request that he let me video the next attempt as it may be his last appearance on camera.  The likelihood of him becoming paralyzed and therefore shot is quite high!  :)

Ok... gotta get rolling.  I have cows to feed and breakfast to make and tea to deliver.  And... it's Thursday already.  Wow!  Where did the week go.  Happy Friday Eve!

Ciao!

Turkey Day!

Apparently Dave was very inspired by watching the toms out in our pasture puff themselves all up and strut around like they've been doing all week.  What did he do?  He excavated the frozen turkey from the freezer.  We bought an extra last Thanksgiving and he decided that now is the time.  Man!  We are ON A DIET!  This week he brought in from the freezer ground beef, sirloin steak, a chuck roast AND A TURKEY for me to cook.  Give me a break dude!  :)  Well... the ground beef still waits.  The sirloin was very tasty on Tuesday night.  I only ate part of my steak so the rest of it was sliced really thin and became a big veggie stir fry.  No rice!  That in turn became mini frittatas every morning including today.  The roast was very yummy.  Dave tanked up on it.  I had a little and the rest will become... I don't know yet!  And then there's the turkey!  We will certainly enjoy it tonight.  But what to do with the remnants of a 20 pound turkey when there are only two people... and one of them is restricting all starches for a while because she can't fit into her pants?  Turkey sandwiches?  No.  Turkey and rice soup?  No.  Turkey tetrazzini?  NO NO NO!  See what I mean?  Turkey, with mashed potatoes and gravy?  Now I just feel like killing someone (named Dave)!  :)  Ok... I'll figure it out.  But... what a bird!  Just looky!

I long to rip into that crunchy turkey skin!  :(  Well, minus the skin it is a nice lean source of tasty protein.  Think I'll go have a slice.  I can at least get a tryptophan rush and have a nice nap!  :)

Ciao!