Our New Pet, Bear

We got a new dog! His name is "Bear." (For the time being...)

Because, what's a farm, without a dog, right?

I was totally on board with this idea. I know, it's crazy, but it's true. For some reason I decided I would like having a dog around. And I'm going to be so nice to him so he will protect me at nights when my husband has gone off baling or whatever. Him and my gun under the bed. I'm all set.

And, I think he already likes me. Yeah, it's working! He's such a happy, friendly dog!

We got a great deal on. My husband has always wanted a dog, so I asked him about it. Asked him if it was time to get a dog, and he thought that was a great idea. So I hopped onto Craig's list and found a family who didn't have time to care for their energetic dog anymore. They even posted, "He would be a great farm dog!" I told my husband that he was an Australian Shepherd/Blue Heeler mix and he said, "That's the dog I want, right there." So we called the owner and a few days later, he was off to pick him up. He came neutered, vaccinated, and with plenty of toys, a leash, and even a kennel. For free.

We brought him home and since it was late, we put him on a leash and tied him up for the night. He did not...stop...barking..all..night. The poor dog. Everyone else could sleep through it, but I had to go downstairs.

In the morning, he got to experience his first day as a farm dog and he seemed to love it. So did my husband. He went everywhere with him. They went to check on the pumps, the cows, change water, and whatever else they do. Then he hung out with him at the shop.

They found a dead cat in the combine from last year. Bear tried to eat it. Gross, gross, gross. But then he got to meet our real-life cat. Moley came over to check him out. I actually think she was trying to let him know who was boss.

She wasn't really afraid of him.

He kind of gave her a snarl. They sniffed each other and I thought that was that. I was pleased. And then Moley attacked his face. Bear chased her off. Hopefully they will get used to each other! The rest of the day, Moley gave him warning meows, but didn't bother him again.

Oh, and as for the name, "Bear," my husband doesn't like it. He says that he wants to name him something else. I pulled off a huge list of dog names from the internet. He didn't like any of them. I think of new ones and suggest them to him randomly. He still hasn't liked any. I keep saying, "Honey, this dog needs a name! You need to choose!"

I feel like we are going through the names for our children again. I swear, it was the same. He didn't like anything! The problem here, is that we don't have a deadline. I'm not leaving the hospital with "Bear" tomorrow and I don't have paperwork for his birth certificate to fill out. So I'm afraid it's going to take a LONG time for this dog to get a name. This is why, for our next child, my husband and I made a deal that I, yes I, would get to name it all by myself. :)

Climb Every Mountain

Guys...

I've realized that I have a schedule comparable to my husband during this "Hay Season" he is having.

You see, between getting buried in the sandbox, riding bikes, playing in the mud, pooping in pants (the little boys), feeding cows, riding with daddy in the tractor, changing water, etc, there are just mountains and mountains of laundry around here. I didn't know that boys could go through so many changes of clothes each day.

So after I have done my daily duties of feeding them breakfast, chasing them all over the yard, changing their clothes after poopy diapers that didn't hold up, sending them with dad to ride in the tractor, feeding them lunch, chasing them all over the yard, changing their clothes after the sandbox, sending them with dad to feed cows, changing their clothes, feeding them dinner, chasing them all over the yard...

it's on to gathering laundry, piling it, sorting it, applying stain remover....

AND .....realizing that it HAS been and STILL is 85 degrees INSIDE my house (because no one believes in A/C or even an evaporative cooler)...

It is then my only choice, but to do my laundry (as in run my washer and dryer).....in...the...middle...of...the...night!

So see, we are the same. It's a great partnership.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

A few things to update you on.

My brother asked about my lawn-mowing. What lawn mowing?

Yeah, that's right. I don't do it anymore. You see, have a (slave) nephew that I (demand) ask to come and do the job for me.

Until I figure out how to mow with two toddlers sitting on my lap. It's just easier this way cause you know. It's summer. He doesn't have anything else to do. (Besides his own chores, his own lawn, feeding his cows and pigs, swimming, etc.) Plus, these guys love to mow the lawn with a riding lawn mower. I have another brother that is begging to come up and mow the law for me. Why not let the kids have some fun? Heck, if they love it so much, they can do it. Cause I surely don't love it...

Doesn't he look great?

AND....

Moley had another batch of kittens. Yep, it's true! The little turd. We came home from our June vacation and she was fat. She had them a few weeks ago now.

Here's the story. I walked out into the garage and heard some teeny tiny meowing. I looked around and I found this.

Yes, that is Moley in a box of Christmas lights. How comfortable, huh? Strange cat.

So I got after her, put my gloves on, and picked her and her kittens up and put them in a box with towels. Much better.

She ended up with FIVE kittens. And they are pretty cute. There are only two kittens left from her last litter. It's interesting living in the country. It's has it's own pet control. Poor cats get eaten and run over very easily. Sad, but true. So the two that are still alive are at my neighbor's house catching mice, and she's grateful. And I might already have owners for four of these cats. Everyone needs a cat up here. It's cheaper than dozens of mouse traps in your house.

Scenery

So.. I'm pretty sure that Microsoft came here to take pictures for their screen backgrounds.

Don't you think?

I actually think it's pretty, pretty out here in the country.

The hubby works in the garden and I take the pictures. Again, a great partnership.

Here's a field of wheat in our backyard

And here is the view I can see from my window while I do the dishes....Actually, I haven't done the dishes for a while. I gave my husband dishes duty until he took me on a date. That was about 2 months ago and he's still doing the dishes. Hee hee hee. Try it ladies! It's wonderful!

I don't know why, but everytime I look out the window, (at this view pictured above,) I start singing, "Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word. And the skies are not cloudy all day."

Do you know that I just barely understood one of the lines of that song correctly? All growing up, I thought that the song meant, you shouldn't say the word "seldom" because it is a discouraging word. I think it was just because of the phrasing. It was like I was singing it, "Where 'seldom' is heard, as a discouraging word...." But now I finally get it. It means that seldom do you hear a discouraging word. Right? C'mon, haven't you ever sang a song incorrectly?

My cowboy was once singing Whitney Houston's "The Greatest Love of All" and he sang, "No matter what they take from me, they can't take away my LIBERTY!" in front of a group of us and everyone started laughing. Or you know that song that goes, "Don't go chasing waterfalls..." Well, my friend sang it, "Don't go Jason, what if all.." :) Funny huh?

Anyway, this fall, when the grain fields are ready to be harvested, I already know that I won't be able to get the song by Sting out of my head. "As we walk in fields of gold....You'll remember me, when the west wind moves. Upon the fields of barley. You can tell the sun, in his jealous sky, when we walked in fields of gold." Is it stuck in your head now?

(I actually had to look up the lyrics to this song, and guess what. I've been singing "You can tell the sun, in it's yellow sky.." ALL THESE YEARS! Yep, just found out it's "jealous." How bout that?)

(I know this was a totally random post, but that's just the way I am sometimes.) :)

Hay Fever

Wow, it's been a while. Things have been busy around here! I'm hardly getting any sleep cause they hay is up and ready. That means that after I've cut it, raked it and it's all dried out, I then have to bale it in..the..middle..of..the..night......

Wait, that's not me. That would be what my husband does. Of course.

Okay, so even though the husband does all of the manual labor, I have been involved in hay season. My cowboy cuts it, rakes it, and bales it, and I sneeze the whole time. It's a great partnership.

So anyway. Let me show you one of our fields. The other day, I saw this happening..

It looked like my nephew, so I called my sister-in-law and asked if her son was out plowing that field. She said, "Yes, that's him." Then she paused, laughed, and said, "Oh, that's cute. 'Plowing.'" I then realized my mistake.

"Ahh!" I said, "That's not plowing, huh?! So what's he doing?"

She said, "Well, he's in a swather, so he's swathing."

Okay. There you have it. "Swathing." or, "cutting the hay" as some others might call it.

So he swathed the field, then we let the hay dry. Like this.

Do you see our horse staring longingly at this huge field of freshly-dried hay? I don't think she moved for two days. I'm serious. Every time I looked, she was standing right there! She finally moved after the second day. I guess she realized she'd never get to it.

Anyway, after it dries for a little while, they go back out and rake it... so it can dry more thoroughly, I suppose.

(Don't you just love how this city girl tries to describe all the processes and happenings on the farm? Me too.)

And then, when the hay is dry enough, they bale it. Now, why don't I have a very good picture of them baling the hay? Well, because I was asleep. I sleep from about 11PM to 8AM. Lately, my husband has not been sleeping. He's been out baling. Usually with my nephew, so the nephew is not sleeping either. Anyway, I was lucky enough that this was an early-morning-baling day, rather than a late-at-night baling night. So when I woke up, I grabbed my bathrobe, ran out to my front porch, and hurried and snapped these pictures.

You see, it's okay that I stood on my porch in my bathrobe, because most people are too far away to notice. My front porch is too far away for anyone to really see what I'm wearing when I stand on it. That's why one night, I even dared to run out there withOUT my bathrobe, so I could save my potted Easter Lily. Now that was a weird feeling. Never done that before. But it was dark and remember, we have no close neighbors....nobody saw....

Poor horse. She went back to her spot to stare at all that hay...

And they load it up and drive it somewhere else... (Pretty good details there, eh?)

And finally, the baler. It's hooked up to the tractor. Yeah, the red thing. That's a baler.

And there you have it folks. It's hay season! Hip Hip, Ho-ray! Hip Hip, Hor-HAY!

Well, Since we are on a snake-kick...

Are you grossed out with snakes yet? I am! Especially from what happened last night.

We had a lot of family over at our house for dinner, and just as we pulled out the gallon of ice cream from the upstairs freezer, my nephew pulled out a gallon bucket from my downstairs freezer.

Do you see what's in there? Want a closer look?

A FROZEN RATTLESNAKE!!

And I thought finding frozen cow hearts was bad enough.

Ick.

Isn't that snake about the yuckiest thing you've ever seen? I can not believe it froze like that. I mean, you can tell that it was an angry snake 'til the end of it's life.....freezing to death.

I posted this crazy find as a status on my facebook page. This prompted my sister-in-law to call immediately and she said, "You found the frozen snake?! My dad will be so happy. He has been looking for that!"

Oh great. lol

She told me it was about 10 years old, and wasn't it so cool-looking? Uh, sure. Hahaha. She also told me that she took it to her work one day and put it on the chair of her co-worker. Oh, that would be a good practical joke. Can you imagine? That thing would scare ya to death! WOW!

So we started discussing snakes. She thinks they are cool. She asked, "Haven't you ever played with a blow snake or a garden snake? It is so much fun! If you would just play with one once, you would really like snakes!"

.....

Sorry to say this sis, but probably not.

By the way, we put the snake back in the freezer. I'm too scared that if it thaws, it's going to come back to life!

Plus, I guess the father-in-law still wants it.....

How To Skin a Copperhead Snake

Well, as I promised, here we go!

The day after the "Snake Bite Episode," they got the dead, headless snake out of the pillowcase and my husband decided to skin it for his brother. My husband.

As I have written on this blog before, he has many hidden talents, that have now come to surface since we've moved to the farm. Apparently this is one of them. I have never seen him skin a snake in the 5 years we have been married, but here we go!

First you have to get a razor, and split the skin down the middle of the belly...starting from top to bottom.

Then you just start pulling it away from the tissue of the snake. It's very slick.

......No pun intended...okay, pun intended. :)

Almost to the tail-end!

(Yes, that one was intended too..)

There you go - snake skin, and snake insides.

Would any science students like to dissect this snake for us?

Oh, and I helped with the proceedure too, are you impressed? No...those are not my hands helping him. I was the one who found that stick!

Now you just have to roll up the snake skin on the stick.

(Hey, anyone else notice the farmer-tan-arms above?)

Then you soak it in some alcohol....rubbing alcohol.

My favorite part about the above picture is that the jar says,

"So Close to Homemade."

So now what do you think we should do with it? It was suggested that we make him a snake-skin belt. What do you think? A belt? A Plaque? Boots?