Bundled up

Some might be covering and tucking in their flowers...

We rush out to cover and tuck in horses n ponies when the weather changes suddenly.

(My flowers are all tattered n not worth saving tho I pulled a few pots inside)

Yesterday the temps plunged and rain was imminent so I asked the kids to run out and help me bring up their ponies before it became too miserable...

Bless their sweet hearts, they ran right out in jammies in bathrobes with added winter gear n wellies!

I came 'round the corner and quickly caught this sweetness with my cellphone.

These are the days.

Sarah n "Piggy" and Jack n "Merit" 

How we spent our summer pt II

I shouldn't make promises of future posts, huh?!

Life (and boondock internet connection) keeps getting in the way of my blogging.

Still, I blog to journal our family events...

So I'll keep pluggin away;

 I'm making a BIG DEAL about this school year.

Soon my kids will be too jaded to care about my silly theme parties etc

But this year (as when Sarah started Kindergarten) we hosted a meet n greet for Jack and all the littles just starting at our school... 

This year it was all fish themed with shades of blue n green for accents.

My dear Mom pitched in with a jumbo fish balloon (which Jack released before I got a pic), help with fish cupcakes and much more (as usual). 

We even made a poster and invites for the school entry that I had printed out for mere pennies!

(I use Staples for all my Pinterest finds. Thanks Mit!)

"It's  O - fish- al

You're a Kindergartner.

We're so lucky to be in the same school!"

We served goldfish crackers in glass bowls, set out One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and even had a live koi from our pond in a tank.

I used blue punch with a fish ice cube mold found at Ikea and set out fish bait.

We had a ton of fun using Pinterest.

Please visit Karaspartyideas.com for  a beautiful fish party as my pics stunk.

photo not mine - see http://crissyscrafts.blogspot.com/p/my-parties.html

The kids cut out fish using paper plates and we also used their Rainbow Fish school projects.

I'd thought we might play pin the scale on Rainbow fish but the slip n slide kept them occupied.

My guppie has no shark teeth so sadly no personality either!

I passed out fliers at Kindergarten readiness camp and again at orientation.

The awesome Principal, Ms. Townsend, even had me stand and be introduced while encouraging all families to attend...

At that point I panicked, not sure if we'd have 12 or 120 join us!

I must say that the response was disheartening.

Not helped by the rain at party's start time.

But we did meet new friends and have much splash play!

Hope you're finding fun in these early fall days!

I'll try to be back quicker as I have lots of summer catching up still to do!

Some mornings...

Some mornings just aren't as you planned.

I was going to share some fish party pics.

But we live like with animals.

I came down stairs to bird feathers  everywhere.

(thank god no juicy bits found. yet.)

Walked in kitchen to find a precious egg from three remaining hens knocked off counter.

s p l a t 

Over to coffee maker (must.have.the.coffee.before reality.cleaning)

stepped over a black glob of ants.

very nice.

Jack cuts up his own apples into funny chunks w/a plastic knife.

One ended up under counter.

Tho seems to be making it's way across the floor.

Maybe those industrious ants could sweep n mop on their way out?

I'm bettin y'all take back any mention of wanting to come visit me here!

Oh yeah, here's a token fish pic.

I want to float away.

I hear at least hurricane Leslie was in the tropics.

How We Spent Our Summer part I

It has come to my attention that I am a big wussy whiner.

I apologize.

This blog has been over run with sniffs n sobs.

No more (at least til my hormones beat me again)!

It's time to count the many blessings this summer brought our family!

Our summer's been full of colorful fun, friends, farming n finds.

(Plus another huge project that will soon be revealed.)

I think I better remind myself of some of the highlights. I'll attempt to post a few more in the next week.

Last night we quietly prepared for our second week of school and enjoyed having friends over for burgers and sweet corn and leftovers from our big back to school party last weekend. 

This was my attempt at a classic school mantel using the perfect print from http://www.sweetcoconutlime.com. I picked up felt apples in the clearance bin at Walmart. I found a mini 1st Day of school frame thrifting and it's colors match the print perfectly so I felt I had a theme started... ;-)

The apples in the picture came from Mrs. Plank's farm. She's the teacher's aide for Jack's class. We didn't know she had a farm til we saw her selling at the farmers market last weekend!

Sarah saw me buy the gorgeous green and yellow squash (not captured well in the am sun) and rightly guessed it's color sold me. She then pronounced I should show it on my blog! The other squash are from The Farmer's own garden. He did really well with an abundance of awesome sweet corn, a few watermelon and squash. My own tomatoes are spindly and other than asparagus, grapes, herbs and horse radish my "potager" has not yielded much. I'm definitely more interested in landscaping with trees, shrubs, flowers and object's de 'junk (say it with a french accent and they can seem more suitable for a garden club  teehee) than I am with veggies. Kinda embarrassing for a farmers wife who believes in eating local. Good thing I'm super supportive of farm stands! 

Okay here are a few pics of our "o-fish-al" back to school party as a tease...

I think we all had fun(?)! Maybe not Nick.

I'll be back with more soon!

As usual, I ran outta time forgot to take pics of staged table before. Doh!

Come back soon friends. I PROMISE to begin posting more!

Off they go

Like most, my kids have been playing school for years.

Either in a "classroom" or leaving with backpacks...

It made my heart so happy...

And it made for giggles...

Sarah wrote this on the wall w/wicki sticks to "help" Jack!

Today they're BOTH really in school.

All. Day.

Sarah starts third.

Jack starts Kindergarten.

It's so hard to watch them  GO  GROW.

This morning's pictures will be saved (as soon as I find my cord. Til then I just have this phone pic) along with a questionnaire I adapted from Pinterest. Instead of using it for Bdays I changed some to capture favorite summer memories and what they are most looking forward to and most worried about this school year.

Here are few of their answers:

Jack wants cupcakes every meal and is most worried about math and that he can't nap in school. He's most excited to see his preschool friend Kaci.  One of his favorite memories of this summer is the hunt club trail ride and camping with his Nanny. He also wants to be a carpenter / farmer when he grows up. Hmmm, wonder how he chose that? I know one carpenter / farmer who's really missing his little helper this morning.

Sarah wants tuna sandwiches (Not Nutella suddenly) and is looking forward to field day. She is most worried about the MSA tests and wants to be a baby sitter (?!) when she grows up. One of her favorite memories of this summer is that she just got her ears pierced.

Now please excuse me, it's time to break out the Bailey's n Kleenex.
Yes it's barely 10 am.
Don't judge.
This morning was waaaaaay waaaay harder than I anticipated.
Wishing all my mommy friends a great unofficial start to fall! THANKS to all of you kind souls who encouraged me after the coon carnage! I'll be back soon with posts on how we spent our too short summer. XOXO

Knocked down, stood up, knocked down, bloody and bawling

Hey friends, I haven't had any time to blog and miss you all ~ especially today. 

Life on a farm is always full of hard work and often emotional but I'm usually able to take a few sobs followed by deep breathes and continue on. 

Most mornings, no matter what's happened the day before,  I try to start with a fresh outlook. 

I pour my coffee and go let out my hens so that we can do chores and enjoy the gardens together.

One of my favorite views. 

In fact, I've been meaning to do a special post about the circle of life and the comings n goings on our farm.  

We've lost some extra special horses and goats. And been joined by cute new ones.

They will have to work hard to challenge past titles of extra special tho!

My most favorite pony will soon get his own post. RIP Neil Diamond.

Bert died shortly before the  new kids were born.

Meet Max n Ruby. Our New Kids on the Bale.

My mother lost her beloved old German Shepard and my brother got an adorable Boxer.

Ike was a Katrina rescue and so appreciative to have a family.

I've had an occasional hen plucked by a fox and bought or hatched new ones...

This (now dead) pullet hatched guinea keets after a fox took their mama from the nest.

But senseless carnage and massacre is hard to swallow.

TWICE.

You guessed it. A demon raccoon.

It's been a personal thing for this monster.

First the cat food on the porch.

I locked it up.

Then it DESTROYED my porch and dumped n dug all my flowers

leaving poop on my grill in case I didn't get the message.

Two nights ago it broke into my coop.

A nightmare of carnage so bad I could not even believe my eyes.

I was in shock.

Clearly this was just a sport to the creature.

Hens without heads or guts but their eggs still there.

I can handle a fox feeding cubs.

I.can.not.handle.a.coon.killing.for.fun.

I toughed it out (it was after a grueling day before on the farm)

Romeo was driven down by my BFF in MI

I mourned and cleaned the coop and doctored the dear sweet Romeo Rooster who had fought hard and lost but not quite died.

I celebrated the hens who'd been nesting elsewhere.

And my beautiful young pullets just bought last weekend and isolated. 

I acted tough n told clients n family that it's just an ugly part of nature.

I reinforced the coop (which was pretty darn secure already!) and set a trap with marshmallows.

I sweet talked poor Romeo and tucked him and the others in with a promise they need not worry.

I lied.

The *&%$#! beast broke in and killed them ALL, even the pullets somehow!!!!

Worse. 

Poor Romeo is not quite dead. But nearly. And no one but me is here to deal with it.

The marshmallows are gone and trap was sprung.

The Farmer thinks its a huge raccoon.

I can not cope. 

The Farmer is gone getting tractor parts.

Kids are at the beach with his mom.

I am alone with my blog to grieve and condemn. 

And whine that farm life in this economy of no help and no vacations is just too much for me somedays.

My poor poor birds.

I let them down.

I am devastated.

Ironically sweet Henny Penny is alive because she lives in a rabbit hutch and free ranges due to constant attacks from the other hens.

She is four years old.

She still lays eggs.

Been found near dead too many times.

Eaten yogurt, blueberries n scrambled eggs, been filled with triple antibiotic and recovered.

Yes, she and my floor both look gross. That's part of farm life too.

I might just have to become the crazy chicken lady and let her live in the house.

Permanently.

The thought of her head being ripped off after all she's been through will sign my note for the mental ward.

I've had one foot in the door there lately anyway.

My fight feels gone.

I wanna live in a condo and work at Walmart.

Really.

But since I can't I stole this from the always inspirational Coop Keeper.

(As I searched her early blog I fell in love with her all over again. The blue chair, the blue pool, the chicken whispering and garden tour lust... We must be kin. Too bad she got the looks and the talent!)

Thank the Lord I can still laugh while I cry.

I pray that soon I can sing a similar song and show a dead coon.

Jayme sings like she does everything ~ bravely! Go watch here.

Lock up your girls and get your guns.

This is war. 

Loved you ladies. Don't worry, I 'll get 'im!

End of an era

I'm a wreck.

It really hit me now that Jack started Kindergarten camp.

My babies are officially no longer babies.

sob.

gasp.

sob. sob. sob

After 5 1/2 years we've officially left our lovely preschool family.
sob

We adore Union Bridge Early Learning Center and Ms. Martha!

Sarah started at age 3 in Jan '07 and went through til she was 5 1/2

I thought she was ready at 2 1/2 and wanted her to be accepted in the fall...

Wise Ms. Martha said uh uh.

You can't argue with Ms Martha. She has THIRTY YEARS experience!

She's a legend in this corner of the world.

A very quiet, humble, generous, comforting and wise woman.

Her assistant Ms. Heidi is awesome as well!

 Ms. Heidi's own darling boy was in class there with Jack this year.

Jack started at age 3, but because we held him back from Kindergarten due to a late birthday, attended three years. That was one of my smartest mommy moves. ever.

Last year, we considered moving him to a new preschool with all day classes 5 days/week...

Then I thought, why mess with a great thing?!
(And I wasn't quite ready to give up my baby boy time.)

Preschool is just down the street from the elementary so we drove them both.

I hated Sarah's 1 hour school bus rides home with bigger kids so choose to drive back n forth.

M,W,F that's three trips 15+ minutes each way/day = 1 1/2 hrs.

But as I've mentioned in this post, it's a gorgeous and relaxing drive.
Lately we've been belting out Adele together the whole way.  :-)

Life on the (horse) farm means that often dinner time and schedules vary.
Taking the kids to school and tucking them in are two of The Farmer and my favorite family times.

The preschool is in the church and the "basement" is set up with trikes n all sorts of fun toys n games. Almost every morning before preschool we'd arrive early(cause Sarah's school starts earlier) and play basketball etc with Jack.

Good times never to be forgotten.

We'll still make the same drive. We'll just never pull up here again for school.
(sob)

Thank the Lord they offer the best VBS  and a kids club in winter!

I'm not ready to let go of Ms. Martha's hand just yet.

We  gave farm themed goodies, gift cards and loaves of our family poppy seed cake.
Ms. Martha had said she'd miss that annual Christmas gift (almost as much as my kids).
(I used these lovely tags by Good Gravy Designs and also cute recipe cards from sweet Janette, )
So just to share the love, here's a copy of the recipe for you!

Leslie's Poppy Seed Cake Recipe

Preheat oven to 350

3 cups flour

2 ¼ cups sugar

3 eggs

1 ½ cups milk

1 ½ cups oil

1 ½ Tablespoon poppy seeds

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp almond extract

1 ½ tsp butter flavor

Mix all together 1-2 minutes with mixer

Pour into 3 small greased loaf pans or 2 large
This is a heavy cake and doesn't rise a lot.

Bake 1 hour at 350

GLAZE

¼ cup orange juice

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp butter flavor

½ tsp almond extract

½ tsp vanilla

Mix and drizzle over warm loaves while in pans. Cool in pans

 (I poke holes in loaves first with a toothpick to help glaze penetrate)