February Barnyard

Well, someone is strutting his stuff. 

Oh yes, you, sir, are handsome, and you know it. ;) 

Someone needs to lay off the raisins, me thinks. 

And how could I forget our Mr. Collins?

LIZZY! Crazy goat... :D

Trip to the ER: part 1

Whew... It had already been a long week. By Friday afternoon we were all pretty beat and ready for a quiet weekend. Mom and Dad were in town finishing some errands, Jake was out on his bike ride, Eli hanging out in his room, my sisters and I just chillin'... nothing much.

I was getting dinner started when Jake comes staggering in the kitchen, "What day is it?" I turned to look at him... I think my jaw hit the floor and my eyes became the size of dinner plates. "What happened?" was all that I could manage trying to take in the sight of my brother in a very bloody state (I could use a more descriptive word... but I'll try to keep this rated PG). His knees were thrashed, his gloves had been shredded, and his face had a serious case of road rash. "What day is it?" he kept asking Okay. Umm... after a few moments of starting to clean up the wounds, my sisters and I realized that this was more serious than our first impressions. Just getting him to sit still was a challenge - he kept trying to see what day it was. I started asking him what day of the week it was. He didn't know. What month? Still drew a blank. Okay, how 'bout year? "2012." :blink blink:... What happened? He couldn't recall anything that happened that afternoon. He hit his head harder than suspected. We tried calling Mom and Dad but to no avail... we called oh, about a dozen times in 2 minutes with texts thrown in for good measure. Inhale. Exhale. Think. Delegate. Umm... You - stay with Eli and hold down the home front and try to get a hold of parental units and Oma. You - come with me, Jake might need more help than what we can offer. We get Jake situated in my car and start down the driveway, lo and behold... the empty tank light was on. Oh snap. At least everything is downhill from our house. ;)

I would have flown down the mountain, but the curvy road proved painful for Jake. All the way there, I asked him basic questions that he would know the answer to. Everything that he could remember was very slow in the coming with major points missing... At least he remembered having 'evil geese.' I whooshed into the parking spot closest to the door that wasn't for handicap. Although, in retrospect and considering the situation, it might have been fine...I rushed in to the front desk to get him signed in while Jess helped him hobble up. "Was he wearing a helmet?" "When did it happen?" "Does he remember what happened?" So many questions. When they found out that he was having memory issues, they said he needed to go to the ER for a CT scan. I think my car can get there... it's already sucking fumes though... And in walks Oma. I think I heard a fanfare when those doors opened. After they checked his vitals, we loaded up in Oma's car and headed around the mountain to the nearest ER. We still hadn't gotten a hold of Mom and Dad...

...to be continued...

Super Bowl

Okay, I'll admit it. I've never sat through an entire game of football in my life. Ever. But some friends of mine threw a party for the not-so-into-football-people. I went. ;) And strangely enough, I sat through the entire game. Remind me again who's playing? I think I learned more about football in that one game than I have over years of 'gleaning' tidbits from my die-hard friends. I mean, really, did you see that 109 yard spring across the field? Jaw dropping moment in the sports world. Granted, we were jumping all over the place (I love tivo). To let the game time buffer a bit, we watched Princess Bride (Inconceivable!). Then we skipped all the random commentary fillers and jumped right to the plays. And since Beyonce was doing the half-tiem show, that was skipped completely. When it came to commercials, we held the power to skip if we so decided. While the stadium power was out, we watched Avengers blooper reels. There was also a card game going on in the next room. I think we're ADHD football fans. 

In the thick of all the craziness and commercialism, there were a few moments of fresh air. Most notably of all, the Ram truck commercial featuring Paul Harvey's, "So God Made a Farmer." It was beautiful. Except for the Ram truck at the end; it should have been a Ford. :P

A little bit behind the commercial

Winter Scheming

Winter is a wonderful time to kick back and catch up on your reading list. For me, that means herb books, health books, books on inflammation and allergies, some chewing gum (did anyone say, 'Silmarillion?' I'm on a Middle Earth spree right now), and a general assortment of mish-mash from the library. Here's a sampling of my library book basket conveniently placed next to my chair.

What? You see a pattern? 

"I've got worms!"

If you've met my little brother, you'll know what sort of non-stop character he is. Anything can spark his imagination or pique his interest. We were at the county fair one summer meandering through the master gardener section, and someone was there with a booth about worms. No, not parasites... earth worms. The wriggling kind that aerate your soil, help eat the compost pile down, and become chicken fodder. Nothing exciting there. But he thought the idea of having a bin full of worms as pets was the coolest thing ever. We already had the tiered worm bin from our previous attempt at keeping worms, Dad ordered some worm bedding (I think we ended up with some coconut shell stuffs), and Eli was all set to welcome his worms home. He had studied the handout from the worm booth and some books that we had on the shelf. I think he memorized them actually... He saved up his tooth fairy money to buy himself some new pets. His box of worms finally arrived via mail carrier. Actually, there were some worms that worked their way out of the box and into the mail truck. I feel sorry the the mail lady. I'm sure we have developed a reputation at the local post office... He came running up yelling, "I've got more pets than you! Do we have anything we can feed them?Look at them! Aren't they cute?"

Fast-forward about a year. My dad's aunt is visiting (we hadn't seen her since... well... I think I was but a wee tot); she hadn't met the charismatic storm that is Eli. Immediately following introductions and welcomes, Eli comes bursting in saying proudly, "I've got worms."

...

The look on my poor aunt's face. You could tell that she was thinking the problematic kind of worms. The kind that plagues carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores alike. The symbiotic relationship that is rather one-sided. We couldn't fill her in immediately. We had to relish the moment. The thought of having parasites is not exactly pretty. Let alone being that enthusiastic to inform others to your, umm, plight. We all had a really good laugh after explaining that it wasn't what she thought it was. 

Anways.

Sorry, random story. That memory came flooding back after watching The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. 

A New Hobby

My parents said that I was being hard to shop for. Having a birthday close to Christmas has its pros and cons. What? I gave them a list with Hobbit Lego on it. There's nothing wrong with that -  an adult wanting legos... Just as we were finishing that conversation, Jake brought in the mail with the local gun club newsletter with a little blip about an upcoming archery class. Dad didn't believe that anyone would want to go. :raises hand sheepishly: I would. :) So we went to the now not-so-little archery shop to get a certain someone's (ahem - your's truly's) birthday present. We got the wrist brace, arrows, finger tabs, targets... the bow. ^_^ 

A gorgeous 62-inch, 35 lb pull Samick Sage. 

[Gollum voice]My precious[/Gollum voice] 

It's really easy to do a Gollum imitation when a frog has taken up residence in your throat. Anyways...

Dad told the guy at the shop that I had farm arm... Thanks... So the employee strung the bow (with great ease) and handed it to me to test. Then he had me string and unstring it myself. Oof... Yoga is not my thing. I'm going to have to do some bowflex to be able to really enjoy playing with this thing. But a little muscle building wouldn't hurt. ;) 

But lo - with all this cold weather, we've been using up straw like no other. So I don't have anything to shoot into. 

Yet. 

We will change that tomorrow. 

The cat on my bed is obviously completely unawares of what he decided to sit next to. He isn't worried at all. 

Deck the Halls!

This year's Christmas decorating ideas are brought to you by Pinterest. 

This was the tree that was on the front porch. But come the first strong gust... well, let's just say that it was quickly brought into the house. ;) Perfect size for the porch, a bit big for the living room. 

Our solution for displaying Christmas cards. :) 

We even got a hand-signed by all the employees Christmas card from our local farm store. Does that tell you how often we go there? :D

Our neighbor brought over arm-loads of holly. It ended up in just about every corner we could cram it in. ;) Then we shared the rest with some friends. There was that much holly. 

If you go through the pinterest board, you'll see inspiration for this. ;) 

And the cat helped too. He supervised. 

That tree. I want to climb it. 

"My brother is guessing his presents." -Eli's self-caption.

There and back again

Why did we do it? Because we could. And since we didn't get to dress up to see the Hobbit... ;) But my poor hobbit feet! They're most grateful to be back in their slippers again. We would have taken more had my camera's batteries not been dying.  

Trying not to look cold. 

(In a Gollum voice) I stoled it! I stoled the precious. 

A warg even followed me. ;) 

I'm Dreaming...

...Of a white Christmas!

Actually, I don't think that the white stuff if going to stick around that long, but hey! 

We have snow. :-} 

Our Christmas porch just got Christmas-y-er 

It's a Dr. Seuss tree!

And the chickens were not excited about their new environment. One of the girls flew out of the door only to have a bouncy landing when she found out that the ground was, indeed, very cold. 

What do we do now? 

Mowing season is long past. Time to hibernate.

The one time that the geese have some sort of a camouflage. 

He looks cold. 

I wonder what it would look like if I turned the lights on. Hmm...

The goats don't take 'snow days' like the rest of us. ;) 

'Olo llama. 

And he drew a smiley face on my car. :) 

You will not get me out of bed this morning. 

Pre-flocked Christmas trees. 

"The snow needs some salt. And maybe some Montreal seasoning. It doesn't have much flavor."

Uhh...