Long Time No See

A lot of life has been lived since my last post. Lately I feel like I've finally been coming back around to "me". I think part of me was lost for a little while. I'm still knitting and can't imagine ever not knitting. Our boys are growing and we are so proud of them. I've been making lots of blackberry desserts and canning blackberry jam. Now I've got lots of tomatoes to work up and green beans. Today I dyed my hair with henna. It's lovely, the color should deepen over the next few days. It was a messy process but gave me that little bit of red I needed. I'm hopeful I will get back into the swing of regular blogging but if not that's okay. This blog started out for me, a journal of my life. I would like to get back to putting life's little details down. Until next time.......

What's Consuming Me

KNITTING.

That's all I want to do. It's what I've been doing in every spare moment and the not so spare moments as well. I'm fitting it in between 7th grade basketball games. That's the other thing I'm doing. Lots of driving these days and in between I knit.

Goodnight Sweet Princess

Chiquita Renee Asplin

May 12th, 1995-November 5th, 2009

Cooking with Clara

I just love this little lady, Great Depression Cooking with Clara on you tube. Thanks Suzanne for introducing me to her show.

Weird Dreams

I'm kind of known to have bizarre dreams. This morning I woke up having had one.



In the dream it was winter time and I was on my way out to take care of Butter and her pups. As I neared her kennel I could here deer in the woods to my left, I hurried into the kennel and shut the door. Immediately there were deer on the outside of the kennel pushing and shoving wanting food. I was uneasy and turned to find a deer in the kennel with me. I reached out to feed it and it clamped down on my hand. I screamed, "let go you're hurting me", then I woke up.



Weird, huh?

Life, etc, etc, etc

It's been a while since I stopped in here. The summer finally caught up with me and I decided to take a break.

So, much happened over the summer: Camping trips, vacation, the loss of five chickens (including Rooster), the ending of a ten year friendship (a friendship I thought would be lifelong, my head still spins a little about it), a garden that did not do well, my father started bringing produce in from a fellow employee and that has kept me busy for weeks!

And the biggest thing is that I started knitting for money. So, I'm not on here much. I'm sitting over there in the corner knit, knit, knitting. And loving it!

So, I will pop in from time to time, if I have time, and jot down a note or two about life.

The Hives Of July

Soooo, G broke out in hives Thursday. Out of the blue, completely covered in them.

Hmmm, what brought this on I thought? No new foods, no new soaps or detergents. Hmmm, he wasn't feeling good on Sunday, but no fever and that was four days before.

Dr. said, pretty sure it's viral. And it's quite impressive G. Textbook for severe case. Big, huge smile from G on that one.

These are pictures after I took him to the Dr. and he's been on a steroid and antihistamine for 24 hrs. You should have seen him before that.

If you look closely you will see peanut butter at the corners of his mouth. Usually there is something there. lol

On his ears, eyelids, etc

This looks soooo much better than it did. His belly and chest area was one big red mass yesterday.

The back looks better too believe it or not.

Itchy, itchy.


Looks like some kind of disease, doesn't it?

Want To Win A Wii?

We love our Wii! It's the first time I've been able to play video games without getting sick. LOL
Bowling is one of my favs and now that we have the Wii Fit I enjoy boxing and step aerobics!

If you want to enter for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii system check out this giveaway at Christian Personal Finance.

Happy Birthday Papa!

Happy 63rd birthday Papa!

For Papa's birthday we took a day trip down to Sikeston, MO. Now it may seem like driving three hours for lunch is a bit extreme but you gotta understand that this is no ordinary restaurant. Lambert's Cafe is the "Home of the throwed rolls", yes that's right they throw the hot, fresh rolls at you! And they walk around offering up fried okra, fried potatoes, sorghum for your rolls, black-eyed peas and macaroni & tomatoes. This is in addition to whatever you may have ordered. I was a little worried about eating here, since my surgery in December, over eating is a not a good idea unless I want to feel like I'm dying for the rest of the day. But I was just extra careful and all was well.


G had to try out the fast car as soon as we got there!

Mmmm, diggin in.

Yes, the food IS this good!

Notice G has his mouthful and so does Papa!

Me n my boys

After lunch we took the scenic route home, going through the Shawnee Forest area and making our way up to Bald Knob.

The view was gorgeous. Notice the welcoming committee in front of the welcome center? Daisy and Athena were quite friendly.





The four of us with Papa

The Cross on Bald Knob has seen better days, in fact, it looks as though it is being torn down. But the website says it's being restored.

The Mohawk

G loves to get a summer hair cut. Shave it down Mom, as short as you can. But before that he sports a mohawk for a couple of weeks. This year we let him have it early because he had been growing his hair out for it.








Here he is pre-haircut. He's on the right.











And this is after.














You gotta have a little color for the Memorial Day Parade.





Here's the funniest part about that day. After the parade the In-laws took him to the nursing home to visit and show off his mohawk. Several of the residents commented that he was a scout so he must be a really nice boy. Here he is lookin all punk rock but because he's a scout they totally overlooked the hair.






Rockin it!

A Big Scary Snappin' Turtle

I looked out the kitchen window last night and noticed we had a visitor.

This fella (or maybe Filly) was pretty good sized.

At this point I'm thinking just how fast can a snappin turtle move?

That's a big ol tail.

The token boy with a snappin turtle shot.

Here's the best part though. We caught him and left him in here for C to see when he got home. Three hours later, C walks in the door and says where's the turtle. It got out and somehow did not turn that big tote over. Crazy!

Lessons on Farm Life

Recently, I casually mentioned a Spring Surprise. I ended up with a broody hen this spring and decided to give it a go. She's been on five eggs and all was going well. Yesterday chick #1 hatched out and we were all very excited. I had decided not to separate the hen and chicks from the rest of the birds, hoping that the Mama would take care of things. Well, she didn't. I'm not sure if she just felt pulled to sit on the remaining eggs or what but the other chickens got a hold of that chick and well they did what chickens do. When we found her she was quite mangled and barely alive. I was just sick to my stomach about it. What to do now, I asked my chicken mentor and she gave me the details on what had to be done, for the dying chick and the mama and possible other chicks. Sooo, with a sad heart I put the chick out of it's misery and then went about moving things around to make sure the remaining eggs/chicks would be safe.

It was a hard lesson to learn. I guess what I wanted to happen was just not going to work with the nature of chickens. So, now the hen and chicks are in my garage safe and sound.

And here's the good stuff:

Holding pen.

Don'tcha love my nest box.

I think she looks pretty cozy in that shirt box.

Checkin out the food supplies.

Mama Hen and three peeps



See the little peep sticking it's head out. There's actually two of them in this picture. One in front and one in back.

Can you see the peep in this pick. It's like an I Spy Pic.

A Country Livin' Surprise

This is a spring job our boys "love" to get called on to do, cleaning out the window well. It was G's turn and he was less than thrilled but he went on down there to dig out all the nasty leaves and the toads and the frogs that get down in there.





See he's headin down, no problem.

Then, Oh my goodness what is that? After much discussion he decided to go get his big brother for assistance.

Big brother climbed in and got a box and a rake to pull this guy or girl or whatever out. Can you see it? Here's a better look.

Those are some big ol pinchers on that thing.

Here it is up close and personal. It's huge!

Ha! not really, but it looked really big and scary to G.

This picture is pretty normal around here. P is sitting all calm and G is moving so he's blurry. Hold. Still. For. Just. One. Picture. Please!

This is the crawdaddy rescuer headin out to move Mr. or Mrs. Crawdaddy to a safe location. Well, unless a raccoon finds him or her tonight.

Playing Catch Up

Boy we sure have been busy around here. Once the rain left we got busy on all the outdoor stuff.

Garden bed #1 ready, check.

Flower beds weeded and flowers moved, checked.

Two new veggie patches tilled and amended, check.

Laundry on the line, check.

Spring here in all it's green and flowering goodness, check!

Chickens happy and growing, check.

A lovely Mother's Day gift, check.

A spring surprise, check.