Around the Farm

It certainly doesn't feel like much of a farm around her with the first year and a good while for us to NOT have a garden.  There's just been too much going on around her to get to planting.  I'll have a late garden, but I'm not holding my breath.  We've been too busy clearing land and working with animals. 

I creepy sight seeing both horses snoozing in the yard!

Abby snuggles with Gracie as she drives the mule to the mailbox. 

Clearing = piles of trees.  Piles of trees = lots of fires.  Lots of fires = lots of roasted marshmallows.  Roasted marshmallows = gooey marshmallow in hair.  Almost always.

Gracie and Lucy are beginning to really connect!  They are having a great time riding many times each week.  Gracie (and Lucy) is enjoying the speed!

You never get too old for a big, family wrestling match.

We uncovered a large bee swarm as we were clearing.  I googled area beekeepers and a very eager beekeeper was excited to come and take it away.

You see what I live with?

It's that busy time of year

For us, the Spring is always crazy.  Mainly due to softball, baseball,ministry demands, and keeping up with the animals and trying to keep up with spring growth of our property.  We've been on the go so much lately - we can't wait to slow down a bit in the summer months!

We're clearing!  The back 5 acres of our property has always been covered with nasty, useless Mesquite trees.  I'm a tree lover, but these trees are truly good for nothing - except smoking barbecue.  We've had more flat tires and hurt feet from their thorns than I'd like to count.  Recently my dear husband was riding Gracie's new mare and she took off with him and smacked him into several of these thorny trees and that was the straw that nearly broke his back.  He declared no riding in the back and the trees had to go!  So, we had a young man come out with a backhoe and push them over to make more grazing and riding area.  It looks amazing in just a short time too!  I can't wait to see this beautiful back area transformed into a grassy meadow!  For now, there are lots of large holes and many, many piles that need to be burnt.  Weinee Roast at the Ayers' house!

Daniel has junk food issues.  Yes, he's fond of junk food, but unfortunately, it isn't very fond of him.  Since he was very young I have called him "junk food intolerant."  He eats junk and gets a tremendous migraine-like headache and then throws up and he's better.  As a toddler we called him the "one puke wonder."  This has gotten worse recently and we decided to have him allergy tested to see if we could get to the bottom of it.  I've always thought he was allergy to nitrates in processed meats, but we'll see when the results are in.  He had to give quite a bit of blood - which means you have to refuel with chocolate dipped donut holes with sprinkles and chocolate milk. 

Baseball is in full swing.  The practice season is always busier than the actual games. 

We love singing crazy in the backseat!  Our whole family shares a prolific ITunes account and we love blasting music and singing with our kids as we travel down the road.  Byron's phone syncs to his truck and we all 5 take turns choosing fun songs as we travel.  We are pretty choosy about Christian only songs - with very rare exceptions - although the song being belted out in this picture is "Call me Maybe?" 

Gracie calling for the horses in for supper.  Her favorite clothes.  Overalls tucked into boots.  I wish I'd have gotten her picture riding last week with 2 pigtails, crazy shirt, leggings, shorts, boots and a green tutu.  It was quite a get-up.

Even when you're 15, terribly mature, and have your driver's permit; when you are at your grandma's house at Easter, you gotta hunt some eggs.  But mostly, you just gotta do silly poses and be goofy.

Gracie surveying the piled trees and (literally) dreaming of greener pastures and loping on a horse through those pastures when all the work is done.

My parents some times drive these crazy trucks and the boys had to check it out.  My boys have enjoyed all the recent exposure to cool trucks and backhoes and all that manly fun stuff.  

 

I'll try my best to be a better blogger!  Pictures of land clearing and large bonfires soon!

Bunnies

Our dog killed a mama rabbit with 5 babies. We rescued them and fed them with eye droppers.  We were overrun with the pesky varmints who nearly destroyed the garden last year & we do not want them as pets.  I'm not sure what we'll do with them, but they sure were cute and HUNGRY.  The kids enjoyed feeding them.

Livestock Show

Today is the day!  The County Youth Expo!  We had given up hope that our pig would qualify with the required 215 lbs.  Just 2 weeks ago she was only 168.  Saturday night we weighed her again just to be sure and there she was at 202lbs.  We couldn't believe it.  So, we head to the store and buy massive quanitites of anything junky and edible.  She has a bit of a sweet tooth, so we purchased 15 boxes of honeybuns and LOTS of chocolate milk. 

Here I am in the final hours before weigh-in spoon feeding her.  Never thought I'd stoop to that.  WOW.  Did you know I was voted most likely to succeed in my high school class?  My life!  Great, isn't it?

She LOVES water!  We figure at the least we can pump her full of a few gallons of water at the last minute. 

Last night we rushed to complete all the preparations we weren't really ready for,  a bath, a haircut.

This pretty lady has consumed most of our Spring Break and the last minute show preparations have been hectic to say the least.  Gracie's quilt project was shoved far to the back of her to do list.  And her food entry - Amish Potato Bread turned out to be a total flop - didn't rise at all!  I'm not sure what she did, but she made 4 loaves of beautiful bread bricks.  We tried to get the pig to eat them, but she refused. 

All in all, we REALLY enjoyed a wonderful, and relaxing Spring Break!

Riding Together

Daniel gets to ride Saxie and come along with Gracie and Lucy.

Gracie and Lucy are still in the "getting to know who is boss" stages.

They have enjoyed hanging out and riding together, though Daniel's saddle is too big and Saxie still has much to teach him.  I think we are going to turn that boy into a horseman yet.

Lucy is still pretty buddy sour, but we are quickly making progress.

Over the Moon

My Gracie Pearl is over the moon for her new horse.

Meet the newest addition to our Farm Family.  This is Lucy, she is a 9 year old Paint!  A Paint, though she doesn't have Paint horse markings.  She was a little jittery on her arrival and is taking a bit to get acclimated to all the changes in her life, but she's going to fit in quite well. 

Gracie was a little disappointed when she chose to investigate her knew home instead of snuggling and loving on her like Saxie does.  But, she realizes that these things take time.  Lucy is going to be a great riding horse.  I'm sure I'll be posting some pictures as we spend ALL next week on Spring Break riding and playing outside!  Lets all say a prayer for some beautiful weather!

Saxie and Lucy seem to be getting along quite nicely too!  We weren't quite sure how they would fit together, but they quickly have become inseparable.  The bets are still being taken about who will be the dominate mare.  I am betting on Lucy.  She finished her food and went after Saxie's and didn't get much protest.  We'll have to keep them separate during feeding time.  Daniel is excited because now he can ride along with Gracie on Saxie.

There's an APP for that...

We LoVE this new App called How to Share Your Faith.  Very simple.  If you start to share your faith and you get confused about what to say, just flip through the pictures of the bridge/cross diagram.  You can click a button at the bottom for common sense worded insight explaining each step, then you can also click on the button that says verse and the verses will pop up on the bottom of the screen too.  Awesomeness!