TGIF

Thank God It's Friday.  I have the next four days off.  Yeah.  I hope to be very productive around the house.  We will See.  If you do not hear from me this is why.

Things I Am Not Thankful For

You may ask why I choose to live the way I do after you read my list of things I am not thankful for.

1.  mud
I do not like mud it is sticky and wet.  Of course the ducks love the mud.  I dump their two kiddy pools every other day and refill them.  The ducks get so excited and quack, quack, quack.  Then the waddle over to the new puddles and quack and quack.
2.  Poop
I do not like poop.  Yet I have so much.  I do know that poop has many benefits.  When you are cleaning out pens you are not thinking about those benefits.  Since I have not successfully had a garden I have not used the poop to its potential.
3.  Loud Noises
The minute I step out the door I hear every voice.  The are saying.  Mama are you bringing me something to eat.  Mama did you see what they did.  Mama please pet me.  Mama look at my present.  Mama, Mama, Mama.
4.  Bugs
Spiders, Crickets, Ants, flies, Creepy Crawlers.  Need I say more.  They love hay and corn, and poop.  Not to mention the water.  In the morning we have the flies bothering us until they find the fly catchers and then they do not bother us anymore.  At night time the past week we have had one or two mosquitoes.  Because we do not let our water stand sitting for more than a day we do not have very many mosquitoes. 

I'm sure there are more things but who wants to read more. 

Poor Sad Little White Chicken

Poor sad chicken.  Let me tell you about our two remaining white chickens.  They came with 8 other chickens from a friend.  She no longer wanted them because her children grew up and moved away.  She was getting to many eggs.  What, too many eggs?  Like most of the smaller animals we transported them in our dog kennel.  They came from high up on the mountain.  They rode in the back of the pickup.  When they arrived they were a little windblown.  We put them in with the other 8 chickens that we already had.  Right away they began to push the other chickens around.  Pecking anyone who got in the way.  They were the first to eat.  They got the first treats.  When we watered in the morning they were the first to drink.  The first to roost too.   They are very old.  They came to us used.  2 years old at least.  So when they started to die I thought it was okay.  Now when I took the baby roosters out of their tractor I expected some pecking.  But I did not think it would be that bad.  So anyway I moved the remaining teenage chickens and the two white chickens back into the old chicken coop. Leaving the 16, yes I counted 16 live baby roosters.  In the new coop.  I want to give them a chance to grow.  I expected the two white chickens to rule the roost again.  But only one did.  In fact she picked on everyone including her white sister.  Poor sad chicken has a sore foot, no tail feathers, and a hurt eye.  I scooped her up.  Put her in with the baby roosters.  She is eating, drinking, and pooping.  All good things.  I even got an egg from her this morning.  If she survives this I will be surprised.  She is a sad sight.  I will give her a little time to see if she heals.  I like to give them a chance.  Old white chickens do not have much meat on them, if you know what I mean.

Heed Your Dreams

Early this morning I woke up from a dream.  June our deceased mother dog was stuck in the home of terrible men in a room with growly snarly dogs.  I had to get her and walk through those mean dogs.  When I carried her out we had to climb stairs.  At the top of the stairs were hundreds of puppies.  Some were dead, some were chewed on, some were bloody, some were wanting attention.   I woke up and went back to bed thinking it was just a bad dream.  When we went outside to feed the animals we saw them 4 dead baby roosters.  Their little bodies were still warm.  If only I got up to check on them.  It seems like in the early morning light the older chickens scared the baby roosters into the corners of the pen and they smothered each other.  We let the baby roosters out of the tractor yesterday they got along fine.  4 dead, 2 pecked. There are 15 left.  We banded the teenage chickens with zip ties.  and put them in the old coop with the old chickens.  I also put the chicken who was in with the duck in the coop at the same time.  I will call her the crocked little hen because her tail grew back in crocked.

no menu

a menu is impossible for my family to follow.  It sounds good when we are doing it but during the week it does not work.  Because of my work schedule my husband is home alone for dinner 3 nights a week.  My oldest son gets home from school after 9:30 during the week.  I have jotted down a menu in the past.  They do not use it.  So I try to buy easy food for them.  My oldest eats mostly french fries.  He uses the deep fryer.  This is life.  I must come to an understanding with my family so we see eye to eye.

Abby

This is Abby she started it all.  Abby is a lamancha.  Lamanchas are medium size to small goats.  They give nice quality milk.  They have the most unusual ears or lack of should I say.  They can hear, they have little bud shape ears.  She is standing on the milking station.  I open the gate to the pen and she jumps right up.  She is so quiet and has a kind personality.  If I call her she will come.  Not because I have treats.  She just comes and she will stay.  The others will only stay if I have treats.  She came to our house with her own house.  She likes to lounge in it or on it or by it.  But mostly in it.  I have put collars one all the female goats.  It makes it easier to handle them.  I really only have to handle DQ.  She is very stubborn and hard to deal with.  The other goats know exactly what to do and where to go.  The older females have no horns.  We chose not to dis bud our new goats.  I like the horns.  They look normal.  We use the horns as handles.  Besides the little horns that are burnt off sometimes grow back.  They come back in unusual shapes.  They are not strong and they break off easily.  The can also grow around into the scull.  So this means we must cut them.  They do not like this one bit.  I can imagine they experience pain.  Their horns are attached to the sinus cavity.  So we chose not to dis bud.  I feel bad for them when we have to cut them.  Heidi had a horn/ scur break off last week.  This coming week I will have to trim the horns again.  Abby's grows towards her eye.  Heidi's grows towards the center of the horns but into the scull.  So far Coco and DQ have not needed a trim.  I haven't seen any growth on them.  I believe the females are pregnant.  They have a nice shape to them.  It is hard to tell with goats.  There is no urine test for goats.  Wouldn't that be funny to see.  All the farmers crouching under their does with little sticks waiting for them to pee.  

8/18/12 Reviews

Dolphin Tale

A quiet boy who struggles with school stumbles upon an injured dolphin on the beach.  The Rescue hospital takes the dolphin in and must amputate her tail fin.  Meanwhile the boy’s neighbor goes into the army and is injured causing him to wear a leg brace.  When the boy goes to visit his neighbor he sees all the veterans wearing prosthetic s.  This gives the boy the idea to use a prosthetic fin to help the dolphin swim.  The Rescue hospital is a nonprofit and they cannot afford to stay open.  When a young girl, who also had a leg amputated, comes to visit the dolphin the boy has an idea to help the hospital stay open. 

 Courageous

This book is about a group of law men and a hard working Mexican.A father loses his daughter and he realizes he has not been a very good father.  He looks thru the bible for advice.  An African American is new to town and is car jacked wright off the bat.  He has a teenage daughter who wants to date.  Her new male friend is with the same gang that tried to steal his truck and is a drug gang.  They catch them and the young man goes to jail.  One of the sheriffs is caught stealing drugs from the lock up and goes to jail. One of the sheriffs has a four year old daughter that he does not know.  The hard working Mexican is looking for a job when he asks God for help he hears his name and begins to work for the first father I mentioned.  This father has connections and is able to get him a steady factory job.  After the first father loses his daughter he makes a resolution to be a better father.  Not a “good enough” father.  These men all sign the resolution and they strive to be better at their lives to show their children thru example.  The first father challenges you to do the same.  

Journey 2 the Mysterious Island

A teenage boy receives a message from his lost grandfather.  He and his step father do not see eye to eye.  They must decipher the code to rescue the grandfather.  They charter a helicopter to fly to the island.  This brings in the broke helicopter pilot and his teenage daughter.  When they crash they realize they are in another world.  They had to use different books to navigate thru the island, (Gulliver’s travels, Treasure Island, 80 leagues under the sea).  When they discover Atlantis the island was sinking.  They needed to get to the other side to find the nautilus to get home thru the storm.  In the end the broke helicopter pilot uses the nautilus to give tours creating enough money for his daughter to go to college in the states.  The teenage boy is gifted journey to the moon as a birthday present by his adventurous grandfather.  The step father is very excited to take another adventurous trip.

 

Christmas Cottage

Young painter, Thomas Kinkade returns home for Christmas only to find it in disrepair.  His mother is out of work and behind on the mortgage.  His Mentor is suffering from old age and is uncap able of finishing anymore paintings.  The young painter takes a job painting a mural for the town to bring in money.  His mother is involved in the town Christmas Pageant and everything goes wrong.  The mayor is furious.  The young painter’s father speaks up and says it is not a failure.  The town’s people agree.  The have a candle service out to the mural and love it.  The old mentor completed his last painting and gifted it to the family.  He tells the young painter it is all in the light.  They sell it and never have any bills to pay. 

Debbie Macomber

Heart of Texas Vol 1

This book is divided into two stories:
Lonesome Cowboy

This is a story about the lives of three people really.  They live in a small town.  Their parents died suddenly leaving them with a ranch and an inheritance.  The youngest brother, Richard was a user and a shaker, low life.  He stole all the inheritance money and disappeared.  The oldest brother, Grady had to work the ranch to save the home.  He was angry with Richard and everyone really.  Throughout the story he tries to date Caroline, Savannah’s best friend but mucks it up.  The middle child was Savannah who had a hobby business in roses.  She even went to old ghost towns to collect them. The ghost town Bitter End is the most recent.  On her way home she picks up a drifter, Loredo.  He enters the story and becomes romantically involved with Savannah.  He has nothing and eventually leaves her heart broken only to return in the end to ask her for her hand in marriage.  Richard returns expecting the family to forget and forgive.  He is using them for expensive purchases and a huge party.  Of course they do not realize this.  He is showing interest in the feed store keeper’s daughter, Ellie.

Texas Two-Step

 This part of the story is about Ellie, the feed store owner.  Her father passed away and her mother moved away leaving her with the feed store.  She is romanced by Richard who sees dollar signs when he is with her.  She is also romanced by her old time friend Glen, a local Rancher.  Glen has a hard time finding the right words to tell Ellie he loves her.  She finally agrees to marry Glen.  Richard is going around town racking up bills and he is planning to run away to hide in the ghost town.  When the store owners contact Grady about Richard’s bills he says he paid them.  Grady is still interested in Caroline but he is unable to show it.  Cal, a Rancher who is Glens’s brother was left by his fiance and he has a cold heart to all females.  At the very end Ellie tells Glen she would like to find a new love for Cal.

 

Heart of Texas Vol 2

This book is divided into two stories:

Caroline’s Child

Grady and Caroline work at a romance.  Richard is racking up a huge bill all over Promise so he can go disappear in Bitter End, the ghost town.  Dovie a 50+ Antique store owner and Sheriff Frank have a relationship for over 10 years but are not married.  Ellie and Glen get married.  Savannah and Loredo are building a house.  The City, Dr. Jane doesn’t fit it and Dovie sets her up with Ellie to make friends.  Ellie tells Dr. Jane she needs to change so Texans will start to like her.  Richard leaves Promise to hole up in Bitter End while running away from the law.  He has warrants in other cities as well as owing the shop owners of Promise upwards of $8,000.  Maggie, Caroline’s daughter falls asleep in the truck Richard steels from the ranch. When he finds out he threatens Maggie telling her Caroline will be hurt if she tells where they were.  She takes an antique doll from the Ghost town. Caroline and Grady are so happy when she walks into the ranch that they want to get married.  Caroline tells Grady that Maggie is really Richard’s daughter. 

 Dr. Texas

Dr. Jane is from California.  She took a government contract to work off her student loans.  She must learn to be a Texan to fit in.  So she changes her look, plays bingo, listens to country music, and takes horseback riding lessons.  She takes these lessons from rancher Cal.  They start dating.  When her parents come to town Cal feels like she will return to California and he breaks it off.  He had a previous engagement where his fiance left him 2 days before the wedding to go to the big city.  At Grady and Caroline’s wedding the preacher says there are no guarantees with love.  Cal asks Jane to marry him.  Telling her he will sell everything and move to California.  Jane tells him she loves Promise and plans to stay.  The town folks figuer out Richard is in the ghost town because of the antique doll.  Richard is found in a collapsed building in Bitter End injured.  He is flown out to Austin for internal injuries.  Grady pays all his debt to the merchants of Promise.  Dovie and Frank break up at Ellie and Glen’s wedding.  Frank said he wasn’t the marring type.  Dovie goes on a singles cruise.  Frank dates the town gossip.  During Caroline and Grady’s wedding Frank asks Dovie to marry him