Beautiful Fall Drive

Yesterday was my 21st wedding anniversary, as well as Veteran's Day. John and I have always been proud to share this day with the many brave soldiers, airmen, marines and sailors that have kept our country safe.



With both John and I (but especially me) moving slower than usual we decided to go on a drive and spend the day together. We headed out of town towards Tulelake Wildlife Refuge and the Lava Beds National Park. It turned into a beautiful sunny day. I took my new camera to play with and thought I would share some of the better shots with you.

Mount Shasta


Big Buck in the grasslands near Tulelake. On the other side of the road are alfalfa fields that keep him and his herd of lovelies well fed.


I think the rock formations are so interesting and beautiful.


Hope you all had a good Veteran's Day. I have been doing a couple of Thanksgiving projects and I will share soon

County Fair

Our County Fair starts on Thursday, so we are in high gear around the farm. I am a swine 4 H leader and I am racing around trying to help the kids get ready, get myself ready, and keep my home from completely falling apart this week.

Daniel has been great at taking care of his pig "Pebbles" with out any reminders. She is a rambunctious and funny pig, who took great delight in dumping her water out every day, and I don't think Dan will be sad to see her go.

Erin has enjoyed her lambs as usual, but even she is looking forward to not feeding them anymore.

Erin is showing both FFA and 4H this year, she enjoys the showing of animals more than Daniel and is looking to repeat last year's success. While Dan is hoping to go to the destruction derby and a large financial pay out.

I love fair time watching my own kids as well as my 4H kids. My 4 H kids are all great, and so are their parents. We always camp at the fair grounds with most of the members of our club, and all hang out and have dinner together most nights. John even manages to get away from the haying for an evening or two. The next week is packed with pen set up, decorating, stocking the trailer and get it to the fair grounds, shearing, completing record books, rodeos, fair food, showmanship, market classes, breeding classes, barn duty, early mornings, hot afternoons an auction and lots of good times with good friends.

Hope you all got a chance to enjoy the county fair this summer.

Magggie May

This is Maggie May. I love her , she is a good horse and she scares me a little. I have had horses since Erin was in the 4th grade (she will be a senior this year). Erin was the rider in the family and she did 4H and High School Equestrian team. She started with a horse named Sally but out grew her. Maggie was supposed to be Erin's new horse when she was a freshman, but Erin and Maggie butt heads, the are a lot alike, headstrong, sure of themselves, convinced that their way is the right way, beautiful and young. Maggie is now my horse, she is not my only horse I also have Maverick, but I will talk about him another day. Maggie has had a few years to grow up since Erin first bought her , and I believe that she has grown into a great horse, but that doesn't mean she doesn't scare me. I came to horses later in life and didn't start riding until I was forty. I have had a few set backs , but believe that Maggie and I will have a great partnership. I have been promising myself for two years that I would ride her, but I have not made it a priority, and let my fear stand in my way. Wednesday I am taking a riding lesson on Maggie, and I am looking forward to it. I believe that doing something that scares me is a good way to stretch myself, and I want horses to be a part of my life and refuse to be cowed. Wish me luck. What do you do that scares you?

Another Dish Towel

Here is another towel for the soon to be opened Etsy shop. I am not being as creatively productive as I had hoped, but stuff is getting done.

We had a great time with Mom here, it seems like we always think we can do more than we have time for, but it was a really fun rush.

Daniel (my son) weighed in his pig for the fair. I am his 4 H leader and I really enjoy all the kids in my club and their animals. Our Fair is the first of August and Daniel and the other kids are all busy making sure their pigs are well fed, have plenty of fresh water, and spending time with their animals, learning their personalities and working on their showmanship skills. I look forward to fair every year and this year it looks like all my kids are on track to do well and have a great time.

Visit with Pam

I spent three days at the farm with my daughter Pam. We talked about the blog, ate good food, shopped, and enjoyed the animals. Of course it is always good to get a grandkid fix as well!
Pam loves to look for treasures and at one of her favorite shops I found this cute teapot with a copper cozy. Mom and I had our tea in it this afternoon. A local restaurant has these yummy lemon bars and chocolate mint bars that Mom loves, so I brought some home to go with our tea.
At a previous visit one of my finds was this rooster pitcher. I love it, but haven't decided what to do with it... use it for a pitcher, or a vase, or what...?
It seems to call to my love of chickens and pitchers .

We had a busy time, including a trip with grandson Daniel's 4-H pig to the weigh-in.
She is a calm, easy-going animal and I'm looking forward to seeing Daniel show her at the fair this summer.

I took O'Reilly with me, and he had fun with Pam's 3 dogs. They are all adults, and he is still a puppy. He was a source of fun, but they just wanted peace sometimes, and he doesn't get that. Also, he has a bit of the "hoover" in him, and thinks anything on the floor is fair game. Oh my. Pam's floor is much cleaner now than when we arrived!
Remember when I talked about O'Reilly's training. Well, I am interested to see how that goes this week, as last week he simply refused to do anything that was asked of him... acted like he didn't know what I was talking about, and anyhow had other, more interesting things to do... like playing with the other dogs, ignoring my commands unless I offered a treat and generally being obnoxious. I plan to walk him an extra long time before class this week and maybe wear him out so he won't have the energy to misbehave. Wish me luck. More on this later.

Baby Owl

Look what Missy (our Cocker/King Charles cross) found in the yard this morning. Missy really wanted to eat it but after chasing her around the tree eight or nine times in my robe, I convinced her that it was a bad idea. The poor thing must have fallen out of the tree early this morning. Mom and Dad owl were in the tree above the baby, hooting, clicking and making a sound like a dog bark and baby had his wings out his fluffy feathers puffed and was clicking at us too. After I got the dog back in the house, I watched him from inside for quite a while, I don't think he could fly yet and was attempting to climb the tree without much luck. A neighbor stopped by soon after and picked him up and put him on one of the limbs (out of dog reach). The baby spent the next hour hopping from limb to limb but not gettting any higher. I had errands to run, so I kenneled the dog and wished him luck. When I got back he was not in the tree, and not anywhere that I or the dog could find. I saw Dad owl in another tree later that day so I think Baby must have been close. Encountering baby owls in the yard at 6 am is just one of the great things about living on a farm. I have heard Mom and Dad owl talking to one another early in the morning and in the evening for months. I'm so glad they chose our big trees for their nest. Hope your home and yard are a blessing to you also.
Pam

Prom

Its hard to believe that my daughter is old enough for the prom, it all goes by so quickly it really doesn't seem like all that long ago that I went to the prom. Prom in my day was a lot different, you had to have a date and it wasn't really a group thing. I think prom today is much more fun. Erin didn't have a date this year but had more fun with a group of her friends than she would have on "a date".
Prom also reminds me (as well as the kids daily count down) that school is almost over and a busy summer awaits. Erin shows sheep and Daniel my son shows swine at the local county fair.
Daniel got his pig for 4H two weeks ago and the morning after prom, we picked up Erin's lambs for her FFA project. They are so cute.

Have a great day I have many projects I am working on and will have pics soon.