Taking over

My DD received a darling flower/ button clip for her birthday from her friend. It was so cute, but very limiting since it was bright pink and neon green. DD wanted to wear one every day that matched all her clothes, so she spent her birthday $$ on a hot glue gun and flowers (buttons provided by me.....) with the intent of assembling some flower clips when she got home from school today. I was curious, and wanted to make a prototype, so that it would be sure to go smoothly later on today.....it was just a little too fun, though. Won't she be surprised when she comes home and I've already made 10?? I better back a way from the glue gun for now and let her do some or she'll be pretty upset. ;)

As requested

A picture of a variety of egg colors. This was the collection of eggs yesterday morning. There were several more in the evening, but still not a ton for the amount of hens we have mooching chicken scratch from us. I wonder where they are hiding them all...

Treating myself

Sometimes, I just want something more then a gross corn tortilla quesadilla for lunch. On most of those days, I just don't have anything. But on a few precious of those days, I choose to treat myself. Yesterday, I heated up the grill (yes, it was about 115* when I did this) and grilled a bunch of chicken, just for topping a salad. Lots of parmesean and ceasar dressing and cheese crisps. It was kind of silly to spend so much time on a salad, but it was good. I want one today, too.

Hidden costs

Today (as I was riding the Fraken-mower for *2* hours) it hit me that it costs nearly $9 to mow the lawn. $9. Ridiculous.

This week, I learned....

....that Cheetos are gluten free! Yes! Cheetos! Not just the spicy fire flaming hot ones, but normal every day, get them in the lunch packs of chips from Walmart Cheetos! Yay! One more junk food I can eat.

Also, the Ellaroo does not belong in the washer with 3 pairs of tights, 4 jeans, 3 sweatshirts, and several string-tie dresses. I 'bout dislocated my shoulder trying to pull it all out of the washer. What a stretchy twisted mess.

White egg

Of the 4 leghorns we got several months back, 1 died (drown in the cow water) 2 are roosters, and one has started laying! It's been a long time since we had white eggs, and I have to say, it's fun for a change. We're back to having 3 colors (in their varrying shades): white, brown, and green.

Craft Show

Snowflake was dang hot, I gotta say. I was hoping for some relief, but it was still upper 90s the whole time (when it wasn't raining). Despite the heat, a bunch of people came out between the the two days, and we far surpassed our booth fee. Lots of vendors I talked to had really low/ slow sales, and I felt kind of bad for them; I think we stopped everyone at our 'shop' and they spent all their $$ with us, so they had nothing left for the others. ;)

I got pretty sick half way through the trip, but somehow was able to grimace gracefully enough not to scare people away.

I also made a lot of useful contacts, in particular a gal who was interested in putting the soaps in her gift baskets she does for her business, and a gal who makes custom cakes ('Anything you want, I can make!') that would come in handy for SIL's party business.

I missed the rodeo on Saturday 'cuz I felt pretty bad, but I hear it was awesome. Bummer; but I'll make it next year.





Can you see our booth? Look for the shiney soap barn....

Lots of moms were excited when I mentioned I used the soaps on my babies.....I did explain they were NOT tear-free, though, so to keep them away from their face. Still, it was novel to many that you could use soap on a baby....

A very satisfied customer leaving our booth..... ;)

Barter System

I love to barter. Perfect example of how this works in everyone's favor: I needed a name tag clip for the show this weekend. I wanted something snazzy and pretty that looked nice with everything. A friend of mine agreed to make a couple for me, in exchange for soap. She wouldn't even consider accepting money (not even for supplies), she just asked me, 'What can I have that you've got?'. Love it. She got some bars of soap, and I got a couple of necklaces for our name tags.

She did a great job with the necklaces. They look fantastic with the aprons. She matched the colors perfectly!

Finally made some aprons

I don't know why I don't make more aprons. I love aprons, I wear them constantly, and they can be SOOOOO easy to sew. I did 3 out of a remnant of decorator fabric from Joanne's that I snatched up for $6. Perfect tvala colors, and so cute with the paisley print. I made nice deep pockets for all the 'supplies' I want on hand for the show. Tape, scissors, pens, calculator, etc.

Like the sneak peak of the soap barn??

...Sidenote, I got a long overdue hair cut and I'm lovin' it. ;)


Edited to add: I just noticed how similar this pose of me looks to the Cinderella pose below. Cheese.

Stocked up

Dancer, our angus steer, yeilded us 762 lbs to pack into the freezer. That's a lot. Both freezers are now crammed with gorgeously marbled meat. It really was too bad that there wasn't any room for the Rocky Road anymore....we had to eat it for breakfast so it wouldn't waste. ;)

I'm disappointed that Syrup kicked the bucket so unexpectedly and that we don't have another steer beefing up for us at the moment. We'll use what we have for now, but we'll probably be on the lookout for a nice angus or limousine steer as a replacement.

Surprise, I know.

Can't believe it. Cinderella?

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Let's hear it....who are you?

Oh.

I saw this link on another blog, and thought it would be interesting to see if I was a 'good 1930s housewife'. Turns out, I'm not.

21 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Poor (Failure) Take the test!

I found myself laughing out loud as I went through the questions; I guess I have a lot to improve on....c'mmon. Do it. I know you're curious....just takes a couple minutes....

Brutal

We lost our steer yesterday. First we just lost it, and then WE really lost it, and finally we REALLY lost it.

Explain:

Syrup, the steer of the Funny Farm, decided to role play the cow jumping over the moon. He lept the fence and galloped around the empty yard a bit. Funny, and BIL & I tried to round him back up into the yard. Syrup didn't agree and plowed through our neighbor's fence. Through their RV gate and out into the street. That's when we lost him.

Ran around the neighborhood a bit, tracking him down. Thankfully, SIL a few streets away had spotted Syrup and was able to direct us. 115*, BTW. 2PM. No clouds.

I jumped in SIL's truck (SIL #2 of 3 that were in the neighborhood) and we drove after him. At the end of the road, expecting to turn left to where he was last spotted, I happened to look straight ahead and saw a brownish/ black mass, bounding through the acres and acres of alfalfa.

After about a mile and a half, part running/ part driving, we (with the help of a farm Jose who was working the field) managed to run him down and have him 'cornered' in a triangle of the 3 of us. Just me, SIL, and Jose.....still 115*......2:45ish...

We all got a chance to play rodeo clown, getting tossed and plowed and mowed. Finally, we got a rope around him and waited for our friend to bring his trailer.

3:15ish....in the trailer, on the way back home. BIL managed to back SIL's van into the irrigation ditch, where it was high-centered and stayed there until later....

Syrup was home, and we turned him into the pen. He walked around in a circle, layed down with a couple desperate 'moooooo's.....and died!

Today, I feel like I was hit by a car. Maybe a truck. I'm pretty beat up, and so is poor SIL, who took a couple plows (and was drug as she hung onto the rope)....Mostly, I am TO'd that we now have to pay $250 to have the carcass removed, after loosing all that beef. ($500 inital investment, plus feed since we've had him....). At this point, though, I am just glad we are all ok, and that when I really needed help, I had oodles of family nearby and a friend who dropped everything at a moment's notice to take part in the excitement. ;)

In the end, as I was whining about my injuries, DH pointed out, 'Well, you won!' (vs. the steer). Yeah, we sure showed him. Dang fly-covered lump in the pen......The cow's gone Home.