Rant/ Rave List

Rave

(I am practicing balancing my negative self with my positive self.Therefore, I am beginning this list with something VERY positive).

Karli, without any prompting and with her own money, bought me NEW BARN BOOTS!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!And let me tell you, if you don't have muck and mud to slosh through to feed animals, then you simply have no idea how warm and secure one can feel in leak proof barn boots!!! It made me feel sooo special, and it wasn't my birthday or Mother's Day!!!Totally cool thing to do, Karli.Thanks!

Rant

Local businesses that you want to support, but they really don't deserve it.You know, shop local and all that. But when their attitude toward customers is so pathetic, how can you? Local businesses that I'm ticked off with? The local theater and the local feed store. Goodbye. No business of mine for you.Ever again. Or at least until I run out of pig food unexpectedly and don't want to make a run to Burlington. The theater, however, will NOT be seeing me.

Rave

Steven and I have been married for 25 years on November 17th. Let me ponder this for a moment and try to understand how on earth we got here....(sigh)...I still don't have a clue...25 years?! WOW! Amazing! Truly it is, since very few marriages make it this far these days, or even half of this far.

Rant

Rebel rousers. You know who you are. I'm just soooo tired of people that want to argue and split hairs over things, just because. You people exhaust me! Now I enjoy a good debate as much as the next guy (or gal) , but when you want to argue because you don't like people in authority, you really tick me off. Stop it. Now.

Piggy-back Rant

What makes me doubly mad is the fact that I let these people get to me! I really tick myself off. Stop it, self. NOW. God reminded me that I can choose to serve this frustration and feed into it, or I can let it go. Deep breath; let it gooooooo.

Rave

Husbands that secure pig feeders to buildings the right way, unlike me, who nail it up, wrap some wire around it a couple of times, and believe that it really is going to stay. Enter the Pig, who's snout can lift a one ton horse if he wanted to. And if the horse would let him. Just think how many rebel rousers I could push around if I had a nose as powerful as that! But then I would look like a pig. Not cool.

Rave

Falling in love with baby Henry! I haven't even formally met him yet, but I just know that I'm going to fall in mooshy love with the guy! I can't wait to meet our very first grandson come January. I love you, Henry!!!

O.k., I feel better now. I think that I can sleep. 'night!

Hobby Farm?

As I waited for my turn to check out at the local Albertsons, I flipped through one of those magazines in the stand so as not to begin tapping my foot and stare a scream at the lady in front of me. Have you ever caught yourself doing that? You know, when the cranky-mean voice in your head is screaming, "Are you serious? You have 20 items in a 10 item express lane, with coupons to boot?!!Your killing me!!" But your careful that your stare doesn't give it away, right? Well, I was about to lose it, so I grabbed a magazine. But that's not what this post is about.

I picked up a magazine titled," The Hobby Farm".Looking through it I saw very clean, very happy,very clean,color coordinated, clean "farmers" on new, clean, shiny clean farm equipment.People who farm for fun and profit. I said fun and PROFIT.Yeah, right.
Our Hobby Farm
O.k., we have
two horses,

one pig ,

two turkeys that will be the center piece for that special feast coming up--don't cringe at me;do YOU know where your turkey has been? I do.,

I don't know how many chickens,



four useless dogs
and one very stupid cat. Stupid cat is not pictured. Note shredded screen door. You see what I'm dealing with here? Stupid cat.

Our little farm (12.5 acres) is fun, especially when the sun is shining and there are fresh veggies to glean from the little pitiful garden I created. Or the times I climb up on my old horse for a ride. But this time of the year, when the pasture is a mud pit and I suddenly discover that there is a leak in my boot,
and it's dark out at 4:00pm and I have to trudge out to feed with a flashlight when it's raining pitch forks (one of many G'ma sayings that I'm trying to incorporate into my daily conversations) it's not what I call fun.
I Must Be a Millionare
And the profit thing?What?!! O.k., so maybe I sell a dozen eggs for 4 dollars. However, I feed about one bag every two weeks at 15 dollars a bag.Not to mention that the few hens that are laying have now decided to hide their eggs from me.
I know that I did this to myself, so I can't blame any one else!In May I picked up two cute turkeys because, after all, our 12 year old never had this experience.Poor thing.And now these two godzilla birds devour a bag of feed a week and scare the poop out of me when they squeeze themselves out of the coop to eat!!I am avoiding the day that we have to do the deed...

But yet I wouldn't trade it for a spec. house in town. Yuck.

I love hearing my Rocky whinny a good morning to me ;watch our son tear up the back acreage on his ATV; hear the squack of a pheasant smart enough to elude the hunters, and pause to enjoy the sun rising over the pasture next door while the fog still lays sleeping on the ground.

O.k., I'll keep my hobbies.

Animated Films

I've spent way too much time this weekend on this blog and snooping around on other ones! But I found a blog centered on stop motion films that is so interesting! Especially films by Jana Wericha, a Czech film maker. And I'm so stinkin' proud of myself because I figured out how to put it on the blog!! Woo Hoo! So you better take the time to watch it, 'cause it took me a lot of work!!!

Blogger Envy

Hmmm... I always have grand ideas of writing long, witty blogs, like the ones that I have flagged and keep up on.

It feels kind of like stalking...I don't know these people, and it amazes me how open some of them are! And through it, I'm kind of getting to know them. Weird. Two of my favorite blogs are both sooo different from each other. Cath's pennies at http://cathspennies.blogspot.com/ is this older lady who is obsessed with creating and designing these candle mats and table runners. (What's a candle mat anyway, and who really needs a mat for their candle? But they are so cute!!) You should look at them. Makes you want to sew something. Or just think about sewing something. At least it makes me feel like I'm being creative just by looking at all of her adorable little fabric scraps.

The other blog that I'm snooping on is by this New York city gal who moved to London. All that I really know is that she is a married Mormon with two really cute dogs. I don't really care about the Mormon thing, but she mentions it a lot. Not to mention that she has this really big bulletin on the side of her blog that says, "I'm a Mormon" and for a while I was misreading it as, "I'm a Moron!"Anyways, that's about all that I know about this gal. But she is funny! and I sooo wish that I could write like her. Just on and on of thoughts randomly running through her brain and out onto her blog, but it is stuff that anyone can really relate to. At least I think so. Her blog, Nat the Fat Rat, has over 1000 followers- isn't that crazy? that means that over 1000 people, who probably don't even know her, know her. Wow.

So I was really hoping that I could be blogger savy and put a link to both of those blogs. Obviously I need to have the "I'm a Moron" in really big letters on my blog.

Mom hasn't...

Mom hasn't posted anything in a looong time, so I decided to just put up these pics of Hans! The picture of Hans in the wig is at Island County Fair. The one with the Brown Lab has is at Aunt Dawn's house, when we were going to the state fair... the Brown lab is Aunt Dawn's dog, Maggie.

Field Trip to Grouse Mountain

Today we had the opportunity to travel up to Canada, specifically Grouse Mountain. We climbed onto the bus at 6:00 a.m. Uhgg. But it was well worth it! When the bus pulled into the parking lot at the base of the mountain, Karli looked up the and saw how high it was (Yikes!). But she got the nerve up and climbed on. She ended up enjoying it so much that she sat in the very front to enjoy the VERY steep drop down. If you ever get a chance to go, you definitely should. It was a great experience! We had a special program for our little school, but they also have about 5 ziplines, a lumberjack show, restaurant, ski lifts (of course), and soon an ice skating rink. We had a REALLY long but a great time!



We climbed into this gondola for our trip up the mountain.




The view of Vancouver, WAAAAAY up in the air!



The view from down below. Scary!




Once up on the mountain, we headed over to the Indian chief lodge (oops, in mean First Nation, got to get used to that), where we heard stories, chanting and then had the privilege of dancing as wolves and eagles. Boogie down, Stevie!




After the dancing and signing, we had science time. Learning about the ecosystem and identifying prints and skeletons of animals in the area made for a pretty exciting experience!

Gondola track at the top.


One of the ski lifts.



One of the two bears up there.




The gondola when it comes in at the top.