Wake Up, Wake Up

It is time to wake up the hay fields.I took these last week when the guys were working the fields.

I had just come home from work to find the guys and tractors still working away.


I sort of miss not seeing the farm work on a daily basis.

So it was nice to be able to capture this early spring work and to see the little green alfalfa plants as they start to awaken from their winter slumber.
Spring is on the way! Now if only the temperature would warm up a bit!

We had 70 degrees on Saturday, which was nice, but today was chilly and only in the high 40's!

Windows & Weather

The day dawned bright and sunny. The weather forecast said we would hit 70 today. I decided to clean windows inside and out. Heaven knows they needed it! It really was a beautiful morning for being outdoors...even if I was cleaning windows. It really didn't take all that long to accomplish the job. Then I went about the rest of the house cleaning...or "house-blessing" as I like to call it (thanks to Flylady). I heard the wind pick up sometime around 3 p.m. It really started to blow.....dust!I went outside a bit ago to do a few chores...the temp has dropped, the wind is blowing still and this is what greeted me as I came around the side of the house........dark, stormy looking clouds! Figures.....every time I wash windows or the car it rains the next day!Well the windows are clean for now....guess I will go enjoy the view before the wind and rain make a mess of them again.

A Bit Of Excitment At Work

And it wasn't the good kind! Our County truck that is parked outside our office was vandalized on Monday night! The side mirrors were broken out and the holders destroyed. Then the offenders took a fire extinguisher and sprayed the entire truck with it. We got off easy with just those few things as there have been a rash of more serious incidents going on all over town. A few weeks back several vehicles parked at the high school parking lot were vandalized...some had all of the windows broken out of them and their tires slashed! What ever possesses a youth or youths to do such horrid things? Is it boredom, anger, lack of parental supervision...what! Do they think they will never be caught? The night our truck was vandalized, they also hit several others....and were caught by the police. Do we place blame solely on the youth or do we blame the parents as well? What are the youth of today thinking...or not thinking? They don't care about themselves, their communities, their country or their world! And they certainly don't care how their actions affect others! A shame indeed to see the lack of concern in today's youth!

Wine!

Wine does not make you Fat.

It makes you LEAN....against tables, chairs, floors and walls!

Happy Monday....now go have a glass of wine!

Sunday Hike

Hayman's hike last weekend.

The trail... The creek...yes there are fish in it. That was the whole purpose of the hike!

Overlooking the valley. This area is located north of our valley...about 25 miles or so.

Parts of the trail still had snow on it.

Heading up the trail you see the waterfall, which was a tad frozen last weekend.

In another few weeks, this area will be green and the waterfall will be flowing full on.

Where is Hayman today? Why he is out once again, hiking the canyons and finding those secret little fishing spots!

Happy Spring!

Happy First Day of Spring!

On my way to work this morning, I noticed a tiny hint of green beneath the winter brown landscape...it seems as if Spring is finally trying to make itself seen. Oh how I wish these lovely flowers were blooming in my yard. But alas they are not! I don't even have a yard, just gravel. My goal this spring is to find some charming planters and get some flowers planted and then I must start thinking about the garden.....I need to convince Hayman to build another raised garden bed as well.

Enjoy this first day of Spring no matter where you are in the country. It might be warm or chilly where you are, but if you put a smile in your heart, it will feel like Spring!

Morning Chores

We made it back from our 4-H retreat very late on Saturday night or should I say early Sunday morning. Everyone had a great time and we came away with new ideas and information to bring back to our clubs, projects and county program. Later on Sunday, Countrychick announced she was not feeling well. By yesterday, I knew she had the flu. Poor kiddo! I have had to go out the last few mornings to get the chicken chores done before I head off to work as Countrychick is in no shape to go outdoors to feed her critters.

This morning, Einstein landed on my back as I was crouched down putting feed in the feeder. He then proceeded to climb all around my back and onto my right shoulder. He stayed there the entire time I did chores. At one point he crowed loudly and I about jumped out of my skin! He is a sweet, gentle boy and loves attention. He seemed rather put out when I placed him back on the ground before I left the coop. I emailed my sister when I got to work this morning and told her about my morning chore experience. She provided me with the Proverb of the day which is:

"A Rooster On The Back Is Worth Two On The Head."Happy St. Patrick's Day to Ya!

Off and Running....

Today, I am leaving to head out of town with three of my adult 4-H leaders and two teen 4-H leaders. We are going to spend the next few days at a 4-H Leader/Teen Forum. The weather is lovely even if a bit on the chilly side. There will be several workshops held outdoors tomorrow, so we are hoping for plenty of sunshine and a bit of warmth. I think the next two days are going to be fun and informative for us all.

I went to get the car washed this morning. As I was sitting there, I realized that I had to go to the bathroom. Sitting in a car wash is not the place to be when you suddenly realize you need to pee! It struck me as funny and I started to laugh, which did not help either. Good thing my office building is not to far from the car wash as I had to make a mad dash to get back to the office...it was rather comical, but I guess maybe you had to be there.

"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate."

Happy Friday and Enjoy your Weekend!

Wednesday Quotes

"If you truly love what you do, you will never work a day in your life."

Yesterday, I spent my morning working with our local FFA (Future Farmers of America) advisor and a very large group of FFA kids from around our region. They were here in our town for a regional conference before heading off to the State conference next week. I was asked at the last minute to judge record books and do interviews with the youth. I have judged 4-H record books for many years now, but never FFA record books. I was very impressed with the record keeping skills of the youth that were assigned to my group. I and two other people looked over the books and scored them accordingly. We then conducted interviews with each youth. One young man really stood out. His records were outstanding and his oral interview was amazing! He at the age of 17 interviewed better than a 40 year old who has been working for many, many years. During his interview I could feel the passion in him for what he has chosen as his profession. The goals he has set, the plans he has made, the enthusiasm that he has for what he is doing really touched me and it made me think of the above quote. He has at the age of 17, already started his business in welding and fabrication and is doing very well. He will graduate this spring from high school and move on to college all while continuing to grow and work his business. I wish him well in his endeavors and even though I had never met him before yesterday, I'm proud to say that I now know this young man and his dream!

Third Folder, Seventh Photo...Snow, Snow!

I was tagged by Colleen over at Living my life in a nutshell to do the third folder, seventh picture meme. This is what was in my third folder and this was the seventh picture. That is Countrychick way back in 2005...she had just turned thirteen at the time of this photo! We had a lot of snow that winter and the trees were just laden with it! We also had some killer icicles that year as well....see the photo below this one. This has been a fun tag to do, I get to look back and reflect on these photos. Time sure does fly by fast!! This photo was taken a few days after the big snow from above....everything was really starting to melt, but the nights were freezing and we would awaken to this each morning. The photo was taken looking out the kitchen window of the house we were living in at the time.

Sixth Folder, Sixth Photo

I was over at Living my life in a nut shell the other day and she had done this tag where you look through your photo folders. You go to the sixth folder on your computer that contains photos, then you look at the sixth photo in the folder. So I went to my photo folders and clicked on the sixth folder...the photo below was the sixth photo in the folder. It was taken in the early spring of 2006 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We had traveled to Wyoming for the snowmobile races that are held in Jackson Hole in the spring of each year. A group of us stayed at a condo for three days. We were able to see the sights, watch the snowmobile events, eat at some great places and experience night life in Jackson Hole. It was a great time! The photo below was taken when we took a tour of the elk wintering grounds just outside of Jackson Hole. We rode in a horse drawn wagon through the field and were able to see the elk up close and personal. This big fella below seemed uninterested in us as we passed by...he was more concerned about holding down his patch of snow. If you would like to participate in this photo tag, feel free to do so. Let me know so I can check out what you post.

Happy Friday to all!

Quirky Cat

This is Shopcat. I do believe she was meditating when I took these photos. She is a strange cat in that she loves to sleep in odd positions and sometimes will tuck her head between her paws which actually makes her look like she is praying. Shopcat came to us one year out of the blue. She just showed up at the farm shop out of nowhere! Hayman was working on a tractor one morning and out of nowhere this full grown cat climbed up on his chest and sat down. Scared the crap out of Hayman since he didn't know what it was at the time or where it had come from. She hung around the shop for several years and earned her keep by doing rodent control. She finally made her way indoors just before we planned to move. She adjusted to indoor life pretty well, so we took her with us when we moved across the valley. She has always been very friendly, to the point of being a pest at times. She has never been afraid of dogs and she loves to follow you around until you sit down so she can get in your lap. When company comes to visit, she is all over them much like a dog would be, making friends and demanding attention.
Silence human! I am meditating!


Take your camera far, far away....you are messing up my Chi!

A Sunday Tour

This is our chicken coop. It started out small, but has since grown in size to accommodate all of Countrychick's 4-H roosters and hens! There are 9 roosters in our bunch and 13 hens. All of the roosters are separated except two. The first year of a roosters life, they can be mixed in with other roosters their own age, but year two will bring a difference in behavior as they start to compete for the attention of their "girls." We had to add on to the coop in order to have plenty of room for all of the birds. Countrychick will not part with any of the roosters as she raised them all from chicks. When they arrived two years ago, they were sickly and we lost eighteen out of the thirty-four chicks that we had ordered. Countrychick spent a week sleeping on the floor of our spare bedroom watching over her little flock. Talk about dedication to her 4-H project! We do not eat any of our chickens....they are with us for the duration of their life. The hens reward us with fresh eggs and the roosters serenade us with their lovely crowing.....which by the way, usually starts around 4:30 a.m. every morning. We know each rooster by his crow and each and every one of our chickens has a name. So come with me on a little walk around the coop and I will introduce you to them all. This is Einstein. He was supposed to be a bantam white crested black polish, but ended up being a mid-size golden lace/black polish cross. He is a handsome little man. Countrychick used him as her 4-H showmanship bird last year and she won reserve grand champion. Einstein is not camera shy.

Hello Sugar Daddy. Sugar Daddy is camera shy and he is not very friendly to me. He likes Countrychick well enough, but he attacks my feet every time I go into his pen. Sugar Daddy is a bantam blue buff Cochin, but due to a recessive gene, he ended up being more white than blue. That is very common in blue varieties of poultry.

Below are Barney, Roxy and Laya. Barney is a silver duckwing Old English gamebird. He loves to strut his stuff and show off. Roxy and Laya were more interested in eating then photo taking, so all you see of them are their backsides. Roxy is a blue brassyback Old English game hen and Laya is a Golden Sebright. Sebrights only come in one size, bantam, which means there is no standard size breed of them. Laya is one of two Sebrights that we have.

Back off Azule! Azule likes to peck you when she gets the chance. She is a bantam blue Cochin. She was originally Sugar Daddy's mate, until he decided to beat her up. We fondly call her the "blue devil" chicken as she loves to sneak up, grab exposed skin and give it a good twist or peck.

Here you see Cricket getting a drink, Peanut strutting next to the food bowl and Mumble coming out from under the house. Cricket is our other Golden Sebright. She is very friendly and will fly up and sit on your shoulder while you are doing chores. Peanut is a ham! He loves Countrychick and gets very jealous when she pays attention to the other birds. He will follow her around like a little dog. Peanut was supposed to be a white blacktailed Japanese, but he ended up being an old English game bird cross. Mumble was so named because when he was a little chick, he looked just like Mumble off of the movie Happy Feet. Mumble is very shy and tends to avoid me, but he does like Countrychick. Mumble is a bantam Light Brahma.

This group is made up of our original twelve birds that we got five years ago. There are three bantam silkies...two white silkies, Simon and Little J and one black silkie, Millie. The two big black birds are Black Australorps. They are Pearl and Daisy. They give us lovely brown eggs. The mixed color bird is Coco and she is an Ameraucana. She give us lovely green eggs.

This is Luke. He is a Modern Game bird. They have very long legs and are used as exhibition show birds in the poultry world. I had to pick him up because when I went into the coop he kept attacking my shoes and hanging off of my pant legs. He and is counterpart, Bo, think they are very mean, but in all reality, they are sweet, harmless little fellas.

In this photo you can see Bo in front of Luke. Last year at the county fair, these two birds won grand champion and reserve champion in their division. The other two in this photo are Molly and Little Pretty Princess. Molly is a bantam white crested black polish and Little Pretty Princess is a blue modern game hen. She is very tiny and very sweet. She will even come to you when you call her name.

In this final group you will see Betty, Java and the tail feathers of Captain Morgan. Betty is a white crested blue polish and Java is a mottled java. The Java breed is one of the oldest breeds of poultry and the name comes from the Island of Java. Our Java is a beauty!!

And finally we have Captain Morgan. He is not very friendly and loves to attack. He is a beautiful boy, but he needs an attitude adjustment. As far as his breed.....well that is a mystery to us. I believe he has some Ameraucana in him, but the rest....well we just don't know.

Thank you for joining me on this Sunday tour of our coop. Now go enjoy your day!