Country Chicken Girl

Country Chicken Girl's Bathroom Remodel

2012-01-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

Well peeps, I can finally show you my master bathroom remodel that I started in September 2009 and FINALLY finished this month... January 2012. I can hardly believe it took that long to finish one remodeling project.

Let me explain before you think that I am the world's slowest remodeler or whatever you want to call it. I am not, but my trim-man, Dan the Trim-Man is the biggest procrastinator that I know when it comes to finishing certain projects, and most all of my projects that he gets roped into helping me with fall into that category. Sorry honey, but it's true... don't make me mention the master bedroom.

It didn't take me too long to remodel the bathroom, but it took forever to get Dan the Man to finish the trim and I could not take pictures and post them on my blog until the trim was done. Period.

So let's back up and I'll tell you what I was dealing with.

We live in a double-wide trailer house. I like to say mobile home, it sounds a little nicer, but the fact is that it is a trailer house.
Our trailer house has ugly disgusting wall board in every room.
The master bathroom had carpet in it. I hate carpet in bathrooms.
We had water damage on the ceiling that looked gross and was embarrassing for me.
We had two GIGANTIC mirrors in the bathroom that made we want to puke every time I had to look at myself naked in them. What a harsh reminder that I no longer have the body of a 20 year old. Egads... what happened???

So, it was time to remodel. I actually have been trying to remodel the whole house, but as we all know, that takes time and money. Two things I always find myself short of.

I did this remodel on a very modest budget... probably didn't spend more than $500 dollars on it. I can't be sure because it was so long ago that I bought every thing I can't remember the cost. Here is a list of what I spent money on and how much I spent as best as I can remember:

New laminate flooring, got on clearance and I think I spent about $125 or so on that.
New counter for vanity. Don't remember, but it wasn't much.
New sink and faucet, around $100 for both on eBay. I think the sink is what "makes" the bathroom.
Paint and Primer for walls and cabinets.
New hardware (pulls and hinges) for the cabinets.
New light fixtures and towel bar.

So without further ado... Here are the pictures!

I painted the cabinet an espresso color and added new knobs and hinges, new counter top, new sink and faucet. We didn't really need two sinks. I like the extra counter space the one sink provides. As for the two mirrors... I turned one sideways and Dan the Man made a frame for it which I painted the say color as the cabinets. New light fixtures too although they are hard to see in the picture.

I got rid of the hideous mirrors around the tub and painted the tree! Also painted the bathtub surround thing. Notice the nice new flooring not the gross green carpet. Oh and Sammi wanted to be in the picture too!

I added a chair rail to separate the two new colors. And here is the other mirror that was over the vanity, again turned the other way with a frame and also a little ledge that Dan the Man made, painted the same color as the cabinets.

Here are some more pictures of before and after.

Never mind the broken window... that's still from the July storm.

The outside pane is broken, not the inside.

Don't worry, we are not living with a completely busted out

window in our bathroom.

I took this picture so you could kind of see the shower which is situated

to the right as you come in the door.

Almost impossible to get a picture of it.

Painted cabinets... so much better.

Well, there you have it! I LOVE it!! If you want more details on products that I used or how I did anything, don't hesitate to ask in the comments. If you'll excuse me now... I think I shall retire to the spa and soak in the tub for a while!

Country Chicken Girl to do Cooking Demonstration

2012-01-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

I should have posted this earlier...

but I just didn't think about it.

Anyway... I am doing my first cooking demonstration, no I take that back, this will be my second cooking demonstration, today at the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market. You can see the little poster below for details. If you are in the area I hope that you'll come see me!

One friend wished me luck on Facebook. I'm going to need it because when I get nervous, I usually do goofy things, so it could be humorous as well as informational. But I know by God's grace... I will get through it. I don't need no stinkin' luck!

This demonstration will be for all you girls and boys who do not know how to cut up a chicken. For all you cheaters who buy packages of frozen chicken breasts... You know who you are. Just kidding... I use to do that too, I am not judging you, but I do want you to know that there is an alternative... You know a chicken has more to it than just the breast meat. And actually... I think the breast meat is the least flavorful... the flavor is in the dark meat. That's just my own opinion.

I will be giving away one of Open A Bar 2 Ranch, LLC's pastured chickens to some lucky participant. And to make things fun, I am going to auction off one of the dishes I will be making, Artichoke-Olive Chicken Bake, which the winner will be able to take home and bake for dinner. The proceeds from the auction will be donated to Camp Grace, our featured non-profit for this week's market.

Beth Everett of Meadowlark Hearth CSA and Maddy Soule of Soule Organic Farm & Ranch will be doing a cooking demonstration today also! They are making brats and sauerkraut! Ummmm.... I can smell it now! Their demonstration will follow mine.

Should be a good time!!

I'll try to get pictures and maybe even a video, but you know I am usually the picture taker so I'll see if I can find someone who is willing. Dan the Man will be manning our booth so he won't be able to take the pictures, which might be a good thing. Some of us know picture taking is not one of his strong suits! (But you know I still love you honey! I didn't marry you for your photography, I married you because I could say you are Dan, my man! My Man Dan! Dan is my man! Okay I'll stop now).

Hope you'll come if you can!

Ooo La, La... Cream Puffs

2012-01-12T16:59:00.001-07:00

I can not believe cream puffs, such a decadent looking and scrumptious dessert are so easy to make! I just have to share with everyone!

On Sunday, Skyler asked me if I could make dessert for a luncheon at school. He is usually assigned to bring the dessert because I actually like to make desserts and usually don't buy the kiddie cupcakes at Wal-mart! He needed the dessert on Tuesday, so I had several days to think about what I was going to do but I didn't need to think long about it, I already knew what I wanted to do... a Cream Puff Tower!

I saw the idea some where... now where was it??? I started combing through all my recent issues of various magazines that I subscribe to. I look and look... and look and look... and look some more. I start to panic, because I am so obsessed with the idea of the cream puff tower that nothing else will suffice! After I had combed through about 12 magazines, I needed to take a break.

I picked up my Kindle, my new play toy that I absolutely love. Love, love, love! I love my Kindle! I am scanning through the carousel, which is kind of like your book shelf. It shows all that you have on your Kindle when all of the sudden I spy a Country Woman magazine that I had downloaded. "That's it!" I scream! Gleefully I start flipping through the pages of the magazine. I know it has to be in here some where. And it was. Oh happy day!

They sounded almost too easy to make. I posted on Facebook that I was going to try my first attempt at making cream puffs. One friend had commented that the only kind she has ever seen were the frozen ones from the grocery store. I was in this same category and I love those little balls of fluff and often buy them. A few other friends, including my mother-in-law assured me they were easy and a few offered to be taste-testers.

Well, I sure hoped they were easy and turned out, because I did not have a back-up plan and the dessert needed to be delivered to the school in less than 3 hours. I actually used two recipes... the original one I am posting below and the one from my vintage Better Homes & Gardens (red checked) cookbook. I was just using the BH&G cookbook as a reference. I trust the BH&G cookbook and wanted to make sure I was doing it the way they said to. The BH&G cookbook also has pictures. I like pictures!

So with both cookbooks, I felt prepared. I followed the ingredients from the Country Woman recipe, but tried to follow the mixing technique from the BH&G recipe. The BH&G recipe told me to stir the batter with a wooden spoon, but let me tell you... that wasn't going to happen! After stirring the first egg in with a wooden spoon, the batter was a globby, stiff mess and I was running out of breath with 4 more eggs to go. I abandoned this idea and threw the batter in my Kitchenaid mixer and let it do the work. Don't try to stir with the wooden spoon...

I got the batter done, it was so easy once I switched to the mixer, and dropped the batter onto the greased baking sheet just as the recipe said. Oh, and I also tasted the batter and it tasted like ...flour and eggs, not very pleasurable on the palate. I was thinking... shouldn't there be sugar or something in this batter to make it taste good? Oh well, into the over my little puffs went and the timer was sent for 20 minutes.

I looked after about 5 minutes and my little puffs still looked like dumpy little blobs of batter. I was a little concerned, but had faith that they would "puff." After 25 minutes they were golden brown little puffs!! I removed them and cut the small slit in them for the steam to escape. I needed about 60 puffs, so I had to make two batches of them which made about 80 puffs.

The Country Woman magazine said to fill them with creme de menthe flavored whipped cream. I didn't really think I needed to serve creme de menthe whipped cream at school, so I decided to fill half of them with white chocolate pudding (just the box kind) and the other half with caramel flavored whipped cream. For the caramel flavored whipped cream I just added a little caramel flavored syrup (the kind you put in coffee drinks) to the whipped cream. Easy peesy!

I assembled the tower as per the recipe and drizzled it with chocolate glaze! I must say it was a success! You should try it if you ever need a fancy-smacy dessert sometime!

Cream Puff Tree

1-1/4 cups water
2/3 cup butter, cubed
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
5 eggs

FILLING:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup green creme de menthe

GLAZE:
1/3 cup butter, cubed
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 to 6 Tbsp. hot water
Additional confectioners' sugar, optional

1. In a large saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir until smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat, let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets.

2. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Cut a small slit in the side of each puff to allow steam to escape. Cool puffs.

3. For filling, in a large bowl, beat cream until soft peaks form. Fold in creme de menthe. Pipe about 1 Tbsp. into each puff. Refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

4. For glaze, in a small saucepan, combine butter and chocolate. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Remove from the heat. Stir in the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough water to make desired consistency for dipping.

5. To assemble tree: Separate puffs according to size and shape, choosing the flattest ones for the bottom layer and the smallest ones for the top. For bottom layer, dip the bottoms of the 21 flattest puffs into glaze. Place on a 10-in. round serving platter, forming a solid circle.

6. For the second layer, dip glaze on the bottoms of 15 puffs, them position on base layer. Continue building the tree, using about 11 puffs in third layer, about six puffs in fourth layer, about four puffs in the fifth layer and one puff on top.

7. Drizzle remaining glaze over tree, thinning with hot water if necessary.

8. Loosely cover tree with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 hours. Just before serving, dust with confectioners' sugar if desired.

And last but not least... ENJOY!

Something is Different...

2012-01-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Something is different with this picture. Can you tell what it is?

Hint: Something is missing.

Danny and Squeakers: Sunday, January 1, 2012 1:06 pm

You have to admit Squeakers is pretty darn cute tucked under

Dan the Man's arm. She won't let anyone else hold her like this.

Only her daddy.

Holiday Open House at the Winter Farmers' Market

2011-12-17T08:36:00.002-07:00

For those of you who are not on Facebook and are Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market goers, I wanted you to know about the special farmers' market coming up on December 23rd from 4-7 pm at Aulick's TLC in Scottsbluff.

You should be able to click on the link below and go to the event page on Facebook that gives you the details.

If you hit the link, it'll take you there. To get back to the blog, hit your browser's back button.

Holiday Open House at the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market

But in case that is not working and you just don't want to go to Facebook, here is the 4-1-1 (information) on the shindig.

Who: Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market

What: Holiday Open House

When: December 23, 4-7 pm

Where: Aulick's TLC, 3109 Avenue B, Scottsbluff, NE

Why: Why not? or because I said so! hee, hee!

The Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market will be hosting a special holiday open house at the market on December 23 from 4-7pm. There will be live music provided by the Green Valley Homesteaders along with refreshments!

This week's non-profit will be the Lakota Lutheran Center. We are asking that market goers bring mittens, hats, gloves and scarves to donate to the Center. The Center will distribute all donations to children in the community who are in need. A special "mitten tree" will be set-up at the market and we will decorate the tree with the donations.

At 5:00 pm Mrs. Santa Claus will be reading the book "The Mitten Tree" by Candace Christiansen to all children who come to the market. The book tells the story of an elderly lady who notices a young boy at the bus stop without mittens, so she knits him a pair and leaves them on a tree where he'll find them. She continues to knit (anonymously) and leaves mittens for the children who need them. One day, a large basket of yarn is left on her doorstep, enabling her to continue her work.

All children present for the reading will get their name entered into a drawing for the book after Mrs. Santa is done reading it!

We are hoping to start the tradition of our own community "mitten tree."

If Santa Claus can fit it into his schedule, he will also be in attendance.

So mark your calendars and bring the kids (and a donation to the mitten tree) to the market.

Hope to see you there.

Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5...

2011-12-13T08:23:00.000-07:00

Back to my little project of "Operation Napping Picture of the Day." Don't know what I am talking about? Go back a couple of post and you'll catch on.

So, as you can see by the below pictures...

This is indeed what a Farmer/Rancher Does in the Winter.

But since this project is starting to get extremely boring, I will be discontinuing it effective immediately.

I do want you to take note of Dan the Man's fashion sense... This is all he wears in the winter, except on church day or if we have a meeting to go to. Turtleneck (dark colored), Carhartt outer shirt (dark color) and blue jeans. Every day... I didn't want you to think he was wearing the same dirty clothes for three days straight. It's just that all of his clothes are the same.

Oh and an update on the last Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market. I am so excited to let you know that we collected $439.66 and numerous donations of pet food, toys, cleaning supplies, etc. for the Panhandle Humane Society! Thank you to every one who donated!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 2:45 pm

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 3:39 pm

Thursday, December 8, 2011 12:27 pm

I will try to get back into some interesting posts. Thank you.

Scottsbluff Winter Farmer' Market to Collect Donations for Humane Society

2011-12-09T08:00:00.001-07:00

Some of you know that I organize and manage the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market. And some of you know that we feature a non-profit organization at each one of our markets. We collect donations for these worthy organizations at each market and those who donate get their names entered into a drawing for a gift basket full of goodies from all the vendors. The gift baskets usually contain anywhere from $100-$200 worth of goods!!

I wanted to bring extra attention to this week's non-profit, the Panhandle Humane Society of Scottsbluff.

Last week the Star-Herald published this story concerning the Humane Society.

Shelter needs supplies for a dozen new dogs

The article said:

The Panhandle Humane Society in Scottsbluff has 12 more mouths to feed and is hoping the community will lend a hand.

Earlier this week the society accepted 12 border collie dogs, including seven puppies, said Assistant Director Heidi Anderson. She said the dogs came to the shelter as part of an animal-hoarding investigation in the northern Panhandle by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Officials with the ag department contacted the shelter and asked if it could take some of the dogs.

Anderson said 50 to 60 dogs were found on the property and that the other dogs are still with the owner. The dogs brought to Scottsbluff are under quarantine right now, but Anderson said they all appear to be healthy and are available for adoption.
However, with adding 12 more mouths to feed when the shelter is at capacity, it has caused a financial strain.

“We are asking for help from the community to donate dog food and cleaning supplies. Cash donations are always appreciated as well,” she said.

People interested in helping can drop off donations at the shelter. For more information, contact the shelter at 308-635-0922.

Since I hadn't confirmed a non-profit for the December 10th market, I thought what a perfect opportunity for the Humane Society to be our non-profit, especially when they just took on these 12 dogs.

On Monday, Dan the Man and I went to the Humane Society to drop off some donations and to see the dogs. While we were there I took some pictures of a few of the Border Collies that are available for adoption.

Josh with Diane.

Diane is 3-5 months old and very sweet.

Darla, also 3-5 months old.

Darla was a little shy and very quite.

I think she'll need a very loving and patient family

to shower her with lots of hugs and kisses!

And here is Drake!

2-3 months old and with a belly as soft and round as Santa's!

Drake would make a great Christmas Puppy

for a forever home!

I urge you to come to the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers' Market on Saturday, December 10th from 1-4pm at Aulick's TLC (3109 Avenue B) and make a donation to this worthy organization.

For donation ideas, the Panhandle Humane Society has a "wish list" which includes:

Shelter Items

Laundry Soap
Dish Soap
Paper Towels
Hand Sanitizers
Lint Rollers
Duck Tape
6 X 9 Envelopes

Animal Items

Puppy Food
Kitten Food
Large Knotted Rawhides
Kongs (Toys)
Cat Toys
Kitten & Puppy Milk Replacer

If you have more questions about these dogs, call the Panhandle Humane Society at

308-635-0922

email: catsordogs@vistabeam.com

http://www.panhandlehumanesociety.org

Make sure to like them on Facebook!

Day Two... What a Farmer/Rancher Does...

2011-12-06T07:47:00.003-07:00

I am so totally bummed out that my little escapade concerning the "Dan the Man and Squeakers daily napping episode" has already come to a screeching halt.

Due to our work schedule yesterday, the second day into the "napping project," I did not catch Dan the Man and his beloved Squeakers napping together. Dagnabbit!! I was most certain that I would get a daily picture for several days in a row... not just one.

Oh well... I have not given up though. This is just a freakish interruption, I am sure.

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you need to back-track and read my previous post.

Well, since there is no picture from yesterday... I can at least tell you how we acquired Squeakers and her three other sisters, Bridgette, Camille and Sammi.

Some of you already know this story, I know. But many of you don't so here you go.

In 2006 we had a massive hail storm that lasted for close to an hour. (That ain't normal folks! Hail storms normally don't last that long.) Anyway, after the hail storm, Dan the Man found a stray cat dead in one of the alfalfa fields, presumably she met her demise in the hail storm. Poor kitty, I know.

A couple of days later, the boys then discovered a batch of kittens in one of the haystacks. You guessed it, the dead stray was the kittens' mother.

When the boys told me about the kittens, I just had to go have a look see for myself. Sure enough, 5 cute, cuddly, abandoned kittens. What ever were we going to do? We couldn't let them fend for themselves... they were much too young to survive on their own.

So I took food out to them, thinking that they probably weren't old enough for solid food, but I thought I would try anyway. It took a while to coax them to all come out of the haystack, but eventually, day by day, they came to trust me and more importantly, wanted what I had to offer. I mixed a little milk with the dry food and they all were able to eat it without any problems.

This became a daily activity that I looked forward to. I eventually moved a couple of lawn chairs out to the haystack so I could enjoy the kittens in my free time. Dan the Man would even join us on occasion. I was getting extremely attached to the little bundles of joy and I believe they were starting to enjoy my company as well. Soon they all had names, all five of them, and all girls: Bridgette, Leona, Camille, Chloe and Sammi. I use to joke that these were the daughters that we never had. (For those of you who don't know... we have four boys!)

As the weeks went on, our bond grew stronger. Soon the kittens were not content to spend all their time at the haystack. When it was time for me to go back to the house, Bridgette was the first one to follow me home and soon the other four were trailing behind. We already had two "house" cats at the time and really did not intend to add more. But our house has a "dog door" which allows the two house cats to come and go as they please.

Bridgette was also the first kitten to learn how to use the dog door and before I knew it, the others soon followed suit. Dan the Man would yell at them when he would catch them in the house and they would scurry as fast as their little feet would take them and run back outside through the dog door. It was a fantastically fun game for the kittens. All the while Dan the Man would grumble about not needing any more cats in the house!

As the months went on, it became apparent that we now had 5 more cats in the family. And as our affections grew stronger for these five little girls, it also became apparent that they would be allowed into the house, besides winter was fast approaching and where were they going to stay outside and remain warm?

One stipulation that we had, if we were going to keep all five was that we would have to spay all five of them. Thankfully my vet gave me a "volume discount!" There is nothing more that we despise than cats who are allowed to have kittens batch after batch after batch. The world has enough feral cats and we didn't intend to add more. I'd better not get started on this topic...

Anyway, so that is how we came upon the girls. Unfortunately we did lose one about 6 months later. Dan the Man found his favorite (at the time) Leona dead one morning by the drive. It appeared as if a predator had gotten her in the night. We were all very sad about losing Leona and I often think about her, wondering what she would be like as a full grown cat, now 5 years later.

Here's a couple of pictures of them when they were still kittens. I have this first one framed and hanging in our living room.

Starting on the left side is Bridgette, Squeakers (aka Chloe), Sammi with the white on her face,

Leona with her head down and Camille (aka Millie) in the middle.

Sammi and Bridgette are both short-haired while the other three are long-haired.

Can you see the "M's" that are on their foreheads?

"M" for Manville! LOL!

Sammi and Squeakers lounging on the bed a few months later.

What a Farmer/Rancher Does in the Winter

2011-12-05T07:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Sunday, we were enjoying a lazy afternoon, relaxing and napping on the couch. I woke from my nap and looked over at the other end of the couch to see if Dan the Man was still there. He was there when I fell asleep and I was wondering if he too decided to take an afternoon siesta and yes, he had.

He was in his usual napping position with his faithful napping partner, Chloe, more lovingly known as Squeakers.

I thought to my self, so this is why we farm/ranch. So in the winter time, we can work only 30-40 hours a week, instead of 70-80 hours a week like we do during the spring, summer and fall months.

Then I thought... Squeakers sure loves her man Dan. I bet they nap like this everyday.

Actually, I bet you I could get a picture of them napping in this exact position every day.

ACTUALLY... I wonder how many days straight I can get a picture of these two in this exact position without Dan the Man knowing... hee, hee.

And so the "Operation Napping Picture of the Day" begins.

DAY ONE: SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4TH, 2:40 PM

Moon Boots, Tree Limbs, Little Boys and Memories

2011-11-06T06:59:00.001-07:00

The other day when I was looking through some old photos I ran across these pictures of Nick and Chris. These are some of my all time favorite photos. I still laugh out loud when I see them.

The pictures were taken in 1996 up at the cabin. Nick was 8 years old and Chris had just turned 6.

The boys were playing around outside and I just happened to have my camera. I think we had just finished taking the pictures of the boys in the previous post. Nick wanted me to get a picture of him hanging from the tree branch.

Chris thought that seemed like a pretty cool idea and wanted his picture taken as well.

Okay, who remembers moon boots? Well, Chris was donning a pair of vintage 1980's moon boots when all of the sudden he ran into some trouble.

(Let me tell you, the cabin is a kid's paradise for weird and funky clothing from days gone by. Nothing ever gets thrown away at the cabin, therefore there is a plethora of various articles of clothing from several different time periods. Chris, never wanting to be slowed down by having to tie his shoes, often chose to wear the beloved moon boots. Perhaps, not a wise choice for hanging from tree limbs.)

Whoa!

One boot off in the grass...

One boot securely snagged on the tree limb...

One older brother laughing hysterically ...

while all the blood rushes to the younger brother's head.

Meanwhile... mother is also laughing hysterically

while taking pictures.

Has It Really Been Two Years?

2011-11-05T15:43:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it has been two years since I started this blog?I really hadn't given it much thought until one of my readers sent me an email and asked for an update on our four boys. I realized the information I had on them under the little "about me" paragraph on the blog was entirely out of date.

So, let's start with the oldest, Nick. Nick ended his tour of duty in Japan last year. Is that the right wording, "tour of duty" or does that only refer to times at war? Well, in any case, he was stationed in Japan at Yakota Air Force Base for two years and we were lucky enough to be able to go to Japan over Christmas in 2009. I wrote several posts while we were in Japan and if you wnat to read them, just go to the "Blog Archive" on the left hand side of the blog and click on "2010" and then "December."

In July of 2010 Nick was then stationed at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico and remains there today. Nick was also deployed to Germany for 6 weeks in the beginning of the year. We praise God for keeping him safe.AND... Nick has recently married!! How exciting for me to have a girl in the family!! We love Sarah! Sarah "passed the test" when they came for a visit in June and she volunteered to help process chickens! LOL! Who can't help but love their daughter-in-law when she volunteers to help with the worst job in the world?

Nick & Sarah

Photo taken by Sarahs' mom, Rita.

We also had another test for Sarah that she passed with flying colors. That test is known as the "Can You Handle A Manville Holiday Test?" I went through the same test when Danny and I were engaged. The test involves spending a holiday with Dan the Man's family at his parents cabin in the middle of nowhere in the Colorado mountains.Here is a recount of one of those holidays. Manville Family Christmas, Part One. Sarah fit in perfectly with this fun loving, crazy, loud and lovable family. I think Sarah's mom, Rita, will also fit in just fine! I hope to get her to the cabin for one of our holidays!

(Side note: Nick just wrote on my Facebook wall and said "You need to update your blog, I'm no longer in Japan...." How funny is that?

Nick & Sarah's wedding was in Clovis on October 15th. We all went down for it and it was so special having all the boys together. I am sure I will blog about it, but I must share this picture from the wedding in this post. All our boys, so grown up... now I'll have to find a picture of when they were little to post at the end.

Handsome group of men, if I do say so myself!

(Left to Right: Skyler, Nick, Chris and Colton)

Here we are at our wedding in July of 1996!

(Left to Right: Nick, me, Chris, Colton, Danny and pouty Skyler!)

So keeping in chronological order, that would bring us to Colton. Colton is in his senior year at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City, South Dakota. He will graduate this coming spring with a degree in uh... ummm... something that has to do with computers! I don't know exactly what his degree is in, but I DO know it is some technical thingy concerning computers. Geez... you'd think I'd know, but what Colton does is completely over my head. He is very intelligent and his understanding of how things work is amazing. I can't even begin to imagine what the little hamsters in his brain look like when they are busy processing data.

Colton has held internships with Microsoft in Washington State for the last two summers and more than likely will do another this coming summer. He just got back from flying to Seattle for his interview. He will continue his schooling at SDSM&T and work towards his masters.

Colton is also very active with SDSM&T InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, a student-led Christian organization on campus. He is one of the small group leaders.

Colton is going to India 2nd semester. His senior design team is working with a company in India and they are going to go visit the company. Wow! Colton as been very fortunate in visiting many places because of his chosen field. I know at Microsoft, they plan GREAT trips for their interns and give them lots of FREE stuff. A computer geeks paradise!

I stole this picture of Colton off his Facebook page!

Let's see, that brings us to Chris. Chris has since graduated from Western Nebraska Community College in Alliance with a degree in Powerline Maintenance & Construction. He is currently living in Kearney, NE where his girlfriend, Katy is attending nursing school at UNK (University of Nebraska - Kearney).

Chris & Katy at a hockey game in Kearney.

(Also stolen from Facebook.)

Chris works for Charter Communications as a locator. He is patiently waiting for a job opening as a lineman. Remember this old song by Glen Campbell? I think of it every time I talk about Chris being a lineman! LOL

Chris is enjoying his life and keeps busy with softball, working out, fishing, garage sale shopping and spending time with Katy. Chris also gets brownie points for being the child who calls his mother the most often.

Last, but not least, Skyler... Skyler is a senior this year at Morrill High School. The last one to fly the coop. He plans on going to college but is undecided as to where. He would like to get a degree in business and has been looking at the Colorado State University, the University of Wyoming and the University of Nebraska (both the Lincoln and Kearney campuses.) Dan the Man and Skyler are going to Lincoln this weekend to tour UNL. That's kind of a scarey thought... Dan the Man in Lincoln without me there to navigate... I will stay home and tend to the livestock.

Skyler did not go out for football this year so this marks the first year in the past 8 years that we did not attend a football game. That was weird. I actually missed the Friday night games, but I think I really missed the grilled hamburgers at the Morrill home games the most! Skyler is the student council president this year and is also a member of the National Honor Society. He is definitely ready to be done with high school and move on to college.

Skyler also has a girlfriend, Sara. I noticed on Facebook this morning that it's "official", Skyler changed his status from "single" to "in a relationship." Before, they were just "talking." I guess that's what they say now-a-days. I guess you are friends, then you start "talking" which includes dating and then you advance to "in a relationship" on Facebook. LOL My how times have changed.

Skyler and Sara

(once again, picture stolen from Facebook!)

Dug these pictures out of an old photo album.

I taken up at Dan the Man's mom and dad's place,

more loving known as "the cabin."

This is also where we got married.

Beautiful Autumn colors in the aspen trees.

Skyler 1996

Chris 1996

Colton 1996

Nick 1996

So, there you have it. The kids are growing up and becoming adults. We are so proud of each one of them. Dan the Man and this Country Chicken Girl have been truly blessed in the department of children. So glad God has a plan for each and everyone of us and I am so grateful that His plan for me was to married my man, Dan, and join us all together as a family in Christ.

Update on Victory Hill Farm

2011-10-28T06:44:00.001-06:00

Congratulations are in order today for Sarah and Lee Pinet over at the Victory Hill Farm!

One of Sarah's pigs had 4 little piglets yesterday!

Awww, piglets are so stinkin' cute. I will HAVE to get over there and get some pictures.

Here are the pigs laying around without a single worry in the world during the "VICTOBERFEST" on Sunday.

They were all suppose to go to market, but Sarah discovered that one was pregnant! Lucky pig!

...and this little piggy along with her four cute, cuddly, adorable, "oh I want one so bad" babies got to stay home!

PS, Sarah, Hope you don't mind that I snagged your picture off Facebook!

"Victoberfest" - Don't Miss It Next Year!

2011-10-27T09:19:00.000-06:00

On October 23rd my friends, Lee & Sarah Pinet, hosted their first annual "Victoberfest" at their goat dairy, Victory Hill Farm. WOW, WOW, WOW, was it ever a success! I am extremely sad for you if you did not make it to the festival. You really did miss out on a FUN event. Victory Hill Farm is the only dairy goat dairy located in Western Nebraska.

The fall weather was absolutely perfect with temperatures in the mid 70's and just a slight breeze and a few small gusts of wind at times. We were so blessed with the weather, especially since Fall in Western Nebraska can often mean snow and huge amounts of wind!

The festivities started at 11am and continued until 4pm. In essence, it was an open house plus more! There were "penny carnival" (farm style) activities for children to do, lunch was offered, live music and a farmers' market. We, the Open A Bar 2 Ranch, participated in the farmers' market.

Allow me to tell you more about the festival through my pictures. (Remember you can click on a picture to see a full-screen view of it and then just hit your browser's back button to return to the blog.)

First I'll start the vendors of the farmers' market. I am missing one picture of one of the vendors who was there. He left a little early and I neglected to snap his picture. So sorry. I am not even sure what his name is, but he was selling some gourds and zucchini.

Dan the Man with Open A Bar 2 Ranch

Ernie Griffith with Ebee Honey

Nancy Butcher with Jam & Jellies Just For You

Farmer Dan Weitzel with Mitchell Valley Farm

Jane Sedman with Mama Jane's Artisan Breads

Kethera Moran with My Friend Kethera

Nick Gompert with Spotted Tail Farm

Laura Whelchel with Double L Country Store

Laura was also manning the Victory Hill Farm store and

selling tickets for the activities.

She was busy, Busy, BUSY!

And now for some of the kids, animals and activities.

Group of kids having a great time.

Check out those smiles!

People enjoying lunch.

A young man enjoying the company of this bunny!

Face painting!

Bill Snocker providing some live music
on his guitar and harmonica!

CHICKENS!

Bales of hay to climb on!

A big black horse, of course!

A goat resting amongst all the commotion!

Love this kid's hair!!

More goats!

What personalities they have.

That's what makes goats so fun, they are so animated and entertaining.

Lazy pigs!

This piggy wanted to know what I was doing.

Cute!

A little hesitant!

Milk A Goat!

Can't tell who is having more fun, Sarah or the girl milking!

The "Corn Dig". Candy surprises were buried in the corn!

Free picture taking station complete with wagon and pumpkins!

Gramps "hanging out" with his little man!

There was even a LIVE TURKEY Raffle!!

I wonder how many children were "allowed" to enter that one?

AND... who is going to butcher that turkey?

Check out this little girl's face...

right after the turkey did a very impressive...

gobble, gobble, gobble!

The "tomato toss".

The child with the highest score receive two ticket

to the "Spooktacular"!

Such concentration!

Ahhh... the pony rides!

Ahhh...

the pony ride clean-up crew!

So, if you missed it this year,

I hope that you will make a point of

attending next year!

THE END

The Scoop On The Gourd

2011-09-27T11:01:00.006-06:00

Some of my Facebook friends are probably wondering what the post on Facebook was about the gourd that I painted. I was going to add "with chickens" at the end of the previous sentence... but that just seemed silly... sounded like I painted the gourd using chickens! Hee, hee!

Anyway... one of our local museums is having a fundraiser which involves people decorating gourds for a contest and auction. The museum is the North Platte Valley Museum in Gering, Nebraska. What? You've never been there? Well... I hadn't either until a friend of mine, Katie Bradshaw, was named the executive director and invited Dan the Man and I to a "Business After Hours" party at the museum last month. Wow-wee, were we in for surprise! What a great museum full of many, many interesting exhibits. There was way too much for us to look at so we will be planning a trip, actually it'll probably be several, to see all the neat stuff. I LOVE that kind of stuff and all the stories that go along with the artifacts. I think I should have been a pioneer... I always loved "Little House on the Prairie" and wished many a times that Laura Ingalls Wilder was my friend while I was growing up and I was on the prairie sharing in all her adventures.

So anyway, back to the contest. This is the info I received on the contest.

"The North Platte Valley Museum will be hosting a contest for area artists that will serve as a fundraiser for the Museum. This contest involves creating an original work of art from a birdhouse gourd, which have been donated by Gene Koenig. The gourds will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Gourds can be picked up beginning on Tuesday, August 16 at the NPVM. Hours of the Museum are Monday through Friday, 9am-4pm.

Artist can decorate their gourd and return it to the Museum by September 26th, where they will be a display through October 21. The community will be invited to vote on their favorite gourd. Votes cost $1 each, and people can vote on as many as they like, beginning on September 29. The winner will be announced on Sunday, October 23, at the kick off 50th Anniversary Celebration of the North Platte Valley Museum."

So, that is the scoop on the gourd. I decided to join in on the fun and pictures of my gourd are posted below. When I turned my gourd in on Monday I got to see some of the other ones that people had done. There are some really cool ones and if you want to see them you HAVE to go to the Museum and check them out for yourself. I know several of the artists and hope you do take a few minutes to run over and see them and cast your vote.

Remember you can vote as many times as you like! Let's raise some money for the Museum. And don't cop-out on me by saying you can't because you live out of town. What nonsense... I already took care of that. When I was dropping off my gourd with Katie at the Museum, I asked her if people from out of town could vote by sending a check made out the Museum and enclosing a little note saying that they were voting for a specific gourd (like mine!) and she said that would be wonderful. So family and friends from out of town... I am counting on you to send a little donation. Please and thank you!!!

Send your donation and vote to:

North Platte Valley Museum
P.O. Box 435
Gering, NE 69341

Be sure to include a note that you are voting for the gourd fundraiser! And if you want to vote for mine, you'll have to specify that you are voting on Kathi Manville's gourd. Although you could probably say the "Country Chicken Girl's" gourd and they would know it was me!

PS... I know I say this all the time, but if you want to see a larger view of the picture, simply click on it! Hit your browser's back button to return to the blog.

The Gourd BEFORE.

Top of the gourd with a painted vine with berries.

The Museum is located in Gering at 11th & J Street!

You can also "like" the museum on Facebook.
Search for "North Platte Valley Historical Association"

Oh...
and Sammi says...

The END.

Perhaps Mother WAS Right...

2011-09-13T22:04:00.003-06:00

Do you remember your mother telling you things as a child that you thought were ridiculous. Things that she warned you not to do because it would result in some disastrous outcome?

I am talking about warnings like:

Don't run with scissors, you could fall and stab yourself.
Stop looking cross-eyed or your could permanently become cross-eyed.
If you drink coffee as a child it will stunt your growth.
We won't buy you a BB gun because you'll shot your eye out.

Well... perhaps mothers are right when they tell you not to pull off the tab from your soda can and put it IN your soda can while you are still drinking it... it COULD come back through the hole and you COULD swallow it.

Oh pleaseeeee... really mother? Don't you think I would notice that the tab had come out, into my mouth, BEFORE I swallow?

Well, yesterday morning I was making phone calls to my chicken customers letting them know that their chickens for Batch #4 were going to be ready this weekend. I was sitting in the office/spare bedroom at the desk enjoying a soda while I was making my calls. Sometime during the course of the calls, I pried the tab off the can and mindlessly dropped it into the hole. Something I do, I don't know why. Such a random act of reckless abandonment.

So there I was talking to one of my customers when I took a drink of the pop while they were talking.

EGADS... what was that?

Was THAT the pop tab?

Did the POP TAB actually go into my MOUTH??

Customer: Blah, blah, blah... Don't you think?

Country Chicken Girl: Frantically thinking what to do with the pop tab that is in her mouth, tries to take a tiny swallow and catch the tab between her tongue and the roof of her mouth.

Meanwhile Customer is waiting for a reply.

The Country Chicken Girl panics and swallows a bigger amount of the pop than she had intended to and swallows the pop tab!

Yeppers, down the old hatch it went.

My mother's voice (in my head) says, "Now didn't I tell you that would happen? I don't know why you kids never listen to me."

Well, there was nothing I could do about it now. It was gone, but I could feel it about half way down my throat. I carried on with the conversation on the phone like nothing had happened. I couldn't let the customer know that I had to go because I just swallowed a pop tab. What would they have thought?

They would have thought... "Doesn't she know not to ever do that? You could swallow the tab if you drop it in the can."

I ended the conversation as soon as I could, hung up the phone and sat in my chair stunned.

Now what? Do I try to throw it up? Do I just let it pass on it's own? Do I tell Dan the Man who is in the next room?

As panic sets in, I decide to try to throw it up. I decide to let Dan the Man know what is going on in case something drastic happens and he needs to call an ambulance! Let me tell you... crazy thoughts run through your head when you have a semi-sharp piece of aluminum lodged in your throat!

Country Chicken Girl to Dan the Man: I just swallowed a pop tab.

Dan the Man: You WHAT?

Country Chicken Girl: I just swallowed a pop tab.

Dan the Man: How in the world did you do that?

Country Chicken Girl: I pried it off and dropped it into the can and while I was talking on the phone I accidentally swallowed it.

Dan the Man: You should NEVER put a pop tab in the can. Why didn't you just spit it out?

Country Chicken Girl: Because I was TALKING on the phone and I couldn't just say... excuse me, I have to go spit out a pop tab! Do you think I should throw it up?

Dan the Man: I don't know... I would.

So I go into the bathroom and grab a toothbrush and stick it in my throat to try to make myself throw up. I HATE to vomit. Absolutely HATE IT! First try, nothing. Second try, a little cough. Third try, a little gag and a cough. Fourth try, I am starting to panic that this is NOT going to work and I am going to have to go to the hospital and explain that I have swallowed a pop tab. But, after several tries, I am FINALLY successful! I had never been so happy to vomit before in my entire life! Out came the pop tab! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

I go into the living room and let Dan the Man know that we won't be needing to go to the hospital after all!

Dan the Man: I can't believe you did that.

Country Chicken Girl: Me neither.

Moral of the story... Mother is always right!

Early Morning Confessions from Dan the Man

2011-09-09T07:35:00.003-06:00

I know I shared this on Facebook, but I thought it was just too funny that I had to share it with the people who read my blog but are not on Facebook.

Yesterday morning as I was beginning to wake up and wipe the sleep from my eyes, Dan the Man mumbled, "I dreamt about processing chickens all night long."

Me: "What?"

Dan: "I dreamed about processing chickens all night long."

Me: "Are you serious?"

Dan: "yeah, I kept grabbing whatever cat was laying next to me in bed and was feeling their legs thinking this isn't a chicken, it has four legs."

Me: "Where you trying to put the cat in the killing cone?"

Dan: "I don't think so, but I would find myself sitting up in bed feeling the cats legs!"

Both of us: laughing out loud!

Good thing we only have approximately 800 more to process for the season. We should be done by October 5th or so! Thank goodness we don't raise chickens all year round.

Dan the Man has had some pretty wild "action-packed" dreams in the past from chasing wolves while growling at them to setting irrigation tubes off the side of the bed! Hee, hee!

Dan the Man with his co-pilot for the day.

We Are So Tired of Laboring BBQ at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch

2011-08-31T07:09:00.004-06:00

Dan the Man and the Country Chicken Girl are so tired of laboring that they have decided to take a day off and have a BBQ on Sunday, September 4th at 6 pm. Please accept this post as our invitation.

We will furnish the hamburgers (Open A Bar 2 Ranch all-natural beef, of course), smoked chicken (once again, Open A Bar 2 Ranch pastured poultry) and something to drink. You bring a side dish, dessert or whatever else you would like to eat. You also might want to bring some lawn chairs if you have them.

If we are really having a good time enjoying each others company, perhaps we'll have a bonfire and roast some marshmallows and make smores!

PLEASE RSVP by Saturday night so we know how many hamburgers to grill.

PS, if you are a dear friend, please don't wait for me to call you and invite you. I don't have time since we are taking time off. This is it... this is the only invitation you will received. Don't wait for one to show up on your doorstep upon a silver platter. It ain't going to happen. That is all.

Hope to see you there.

(Not so) Fine Print: Please do not plan on coming if you are some wack-o we really don't know or are an escaped prison convict. Sorry to set such stipulations, but in today's world, you never know!

Dan the Man and I had a good time with the picture for the BBQ! Here are some of the other shots.

One of my friends on Facebook suggested that I blow this
one up real big and hang it in our living room.

hmmm, I might just do that!

Or what a perfect Christmas gift for our children.
They can each have one to hang in their homes,
well, Skyler isn't moved out yet, but it would look nice in his bedroom
and I would let him take it when he leaves.

Another friend commented that she loved the fact
that Dan the Man was willing to go along with my antics
and pose for this picture.
I told her Dan the Man normally doesn't want to have anything
to do with my crazy ideas, but for some reason he didn't
complain or hesitate about this picture.
He must be getting "soft" in his old age.

The end.

Bee Flies and Dragonflies, Oh My!

2011-08-30T21:20:00.008-06:00

Two things that we have had swarming around this summer are Bee Flies and Dragonflies. I am fortunate enough to have a friend who is an Entomologist, Dr. Jeff Bradshaw, aka known as the Bugman by his adoring wife, Katie Bradshaw of SCB Citizen. When ever I have an insect question, all I have to do is post a question on Facebook and Bugman comes to my rescue with his knowledge! And free of charge!

So anyway...

We've had tons of these little bee flies around here and Bugman so kindly provided me with this information: "They are Bombiliidae. Also know as a bee fly. As larvae they feed on grasshopper eggs. You have a lot of bee flies because you have a lot of grasshoppers."

Aren't they cute?

Oh, and do yourself a favor and click on each picture to view a full screen shot of the photo. Hit your browsers back button to return to the blog.

And Bugman also filled me in about the dragonflies. See his blog post. Click here. According to Dr. Bugman,

The last couple years, there has been more rain than the 10-year average in the panhandle of Nebraska. Due to an increase in habitat and food, dragonflies have done well. In fact, they have done so well that some people are actually concerned about their large numbers. However, what some people do not realize is that dragonflies are predacious. Fortunately, they feed on pest insects that also benefit from all of the rain that we have had, such as, mosquitoes and biting flies. They scoop them out of the air with the long setae that coat their legs. So, you see, it's a natural phenomenon and could be considered a balanced ecosystem process that benefits us greatly through the reduction of disease vectors -- dragonflies provide ecosystem services.

Who knew?? Dr. Bugman knew, that's who!

Love the sparkles on the wings!

The End.

Cows at Summer Camp

2011-08-29T07:20:00.007-06:00

It's kind of quiet around here now that most of our cow herd has been moved to their summer pasture. We don't have enough grass here at our ranch to pasture all of our cattle for the entire summer, so we lease some ground down by the North Platte River south of Mitchell from some friends of ours. The area is part of the Bay State Ranch. I have tried to so some research on the ranch, as it is one of the earlier ranches established along the North Platte River, but alas, my time is limited and the chickens are calling to be fed, so that history bit will have to be another time.

Anyway, I thought I would continue with my "pictures from this summer" and post these. I took these one day (July 28th) when we were down there checking on the cattle. They seemed happy and are enjoying their time away at "summer camp." Too bad they don't need a camp counselor down there or else I would volunteer for the job. Would be kind-of fun to be a summer camp cowboy, er... cowgirl that is! You know some cattle outfits do indeed have cowboys that go to remote locations with the cattle and stay with them all summer long. Their only duty is to make sure the herd is safe, is where they are suppose to be and to make sure the fences are all in order.

These remote locations are referred to as cow camps. Some cowboys rough-it in a tent, while others have actual little cabins to stay in. When I live in Winter Park, CO, I knew of one such cowboy who spent his summers at cow camp. I was always very envious of that job. Would probably get a little lonely, but what a nice vacation!

Anyway... on to the pictures.

IMPORTANT: For your full enjoyment of the pictures, please click on them to see a full screen view of the photo, then click on your browser's "back" button to return to the blog.

Cows gathering at one of the waterholes with
Scotts Bluff National Monument in the background.

View of SBMN in the background with grass in the foreground.
Unfortunately, the cows do not like this type of grass, it is abundant
out there. I love the color of it and the wispy-ness of the seed heads.
Does anyone know what kind of grass this is?

Mom and baby.
Well, actually this is not this mother cow's baby.
You can tell from the ear tag number.
The top number on the tag is the calf's mother's number,
so in this case, her (purple tag = girl, blue tag = boy) mother is #756
and the mother cow behind her is #735.

Stinkin' cute!
Love how when they are young, they have those dark circles around
their eyes and noses. As they grow older, they will turn mostly black.

Scotts Bluff National Monument.
Landmark along the the Oregon Trail and Mormon Trail.
People who move away from here, miss this
beautiful bluff once they are gone!

Black and White of the Monument.

The pastures are abundant with birds.
This one is an Avocet.
Found out that bit of information when I posted this picture
on Facebook and asked if anyone knew what kind of bird it was.
I had an answer within a couple of hours!

Notice his unique upturned bill?

Click here for more information on the Avocet.

Oh, and of course the pasture is teeming with dragonflies!

Awww, so precious, at least in my own humble opinion.

For more information on Scotts Bluff National Monument, click here.

THE end.

Western Nebraska Storms and Sky

2011-08-24T07:11:00.007-06:00

In my last post I told you that I would post some pictures from this summer that I have not previously shared. When trying to decide which ones to post, I realized that there were just too many to jam all in one post, so I've decided to split them up into several small posts.

This first one features a few pictures of various storm clouds that I caught with my camera. One thing that I absolutely LOVE about Western Nebraska is the sky. Montana is know as the Big Sky Country, but I think that Nebraska has a BIGGER sky! How could you ever tire of gazing upon beauty like this on a daily occurrence?

This first group of photos were taken on a stretch of barren highway between our ranch and LaGrange, Wyoming. We travel this road whenever we go to Cheyenne. Part of the pictures were taken on Stegall Road and part on HWY 85 east of LaGrange, for those of you how are not familiar with the area, you can Google it!

Oh and please click on each picture to see a full screen view of the photo. They are so much more enjoyable if you do!

Big storm cell.

Love these bluffs that are along Stegall Road.
Wish I could find a map that told me more about them.
I believe that these bluffs are considered part of the Wildcat Hills.

Love the faint rainbow color thing in this picture!

Oh and by the way...
all three of these pictures were taken with me holding the
camera out the pickup window going 65 mph.
Not bad, heh?

I remember this evening back in June.
The clouds in the west were so incredibly pink and orange.
Photo taken at 8:23 pm.

Love this picture!
Jet streams intersecting.

Panoramic view of sunrise.

Well, that's it.

Just Checkin' In!

2011-08-23T07:48:00.002-06:00

Just thought I'd check in, just in case you might have thought that I was no longer blogging any more, especially after my last post.

Well, I am happy to report that Dan the Man still has not read that post, so our secret about the bandaid on the waistband is still safe. Hee, hee. And I still have not heard him mention once the bandaid or the possibility of needing new underwear. And I still have not bought him any either. I'm going shopping with my sister tomorrow, so perhaps I shall pickup some tomorrow for him.

I can not believe how busy this summer has been. I am so sad that my blog has suffered so. I can not wait for the end of the chicken season to come. I still have to blog about the storm that hit us July 2nd.

But for now, I have a few random thoughts and events to share with you...

Last night one of the cats brought into the house (through the dog door) a rabbit. Not sure if the rabbit was dead when the cat brought it in, I was sleeping. So this morning when I awoke, I found a dead rabbit with its head chewed off, laying next to the body in my living room. Nice. Not. Don't worry I didn't take a picture of it.

Speaking of pictures... I have taken a few nice ones this summer that I don't think I've shared yet. I share them on Facebook and forget that not all of you are on Facebook. So for those of you who are not on Facebook, here you go. Just random, no order or theme...

Actually... I think I will post the pictures in a separate post later today. I really should be doing chores now, now playing on the computer. So, later my friends! Have a fantastic day!

You Might Just Be a Redneck if...

2011-08-11T16:00:00.004-06:00

I don't know, there are so many fitting titles to this post I just can't choose!

You Might Just Be a Redneck if...

You Might Have Overly Sensitive Skin if...

You Might Need New Underwear if...

You Might Just Kill Your Wife After You Read This Post...

You can let me know which one you think I should use after reading this post.

Okay, here is how the story starts...

One day the Country Chicken Girl was busy folding laundry, nothing new, she has done this for most of her life... la, dee, la, dee, dah... boring, some mundane task...

When all of the sudden she stumbles upon something particularly strange in the laundry basket...

a band-aid stuck on a pair of Dan the Man's underwear.

Band-aid stuck to the underwear.

"Hmmm.... that's odd, I don't remember anyone requiring a band-aid this week" thinks the County Chicken Girl to herself.

She was thinking that somehow the band-aid ended up in the dirty clothes, just like how kleenex or movie tickets and sometimes even money end up in the laundry. Surely you all that do the laundry know what I am talking about.

As she started to peel the band-aid off Dan the Man's underwear, she began to contemplate the location of the band-aid and noticed how it was "too" perfectly placed on the waistband of the underwear. Placed just so delicately as to cover the part where the tag usually is.

Now mind you this was no ordinary "plastic or vinyl type" band-aid, it was one of those soft, fabric type ones.

As she was removing the band-aid, she noticed that the tag of the underwear was also missing and the seam on the waistband was coming undone.

Now being married to Dan the Man for 15 years, the Country Chicken Girl feels like she knows him inside and out. She chuckles to herself because she realizes that the band-aid had indeed been strategically placed on the waistband of the underwear by none other than Dan the Man.

You see, Dan the Man has extremely sensitive skin and can not stand any tags that touch his body. Apparently even the ones in his underwear! And being the ingenious man that Dan is, his solution to the problem was the band-aid.

See how the band-aid was strategically placed over the seam that was coming apart?

The Country Chicken Girls continues to chuckle to herself and decides to place the band-aid back in it's location, folds the underwear and puts them away (but not before taking a picture of them, this was too good of a blog post to pass up!). The Country Chicken Girl continues with the folding of the laundry all the while wondering if Dan the Man was going to say something about that pair of underwear. She also contemplated over writing a blog post about the discovery or to not post anything.

She finally decided that it was much too funny not to post about. People need a little giggle every once in a while and surely Dan the Man won't mind. Or will he? She figures she is safe for several days... maybe several weeks since Dan the Man is so busy and has not been reading her blog. She also wonders why Dan the Man didn't just throw away the underwear? and will he wear them again when he comes upon them in his drawer?

I think I will buy my man Dan some new underwear next time I am at the store!

The End.

I knew I Heard Something!

2011-07-29T08:00:00.003-06:00

Last night I was laying in bed waiting for my alarm to go off at 1 am. I had my alarm set for 1 am because we had just got a new batch of chicks in yesterday and I needed to get up and check the temperature of the brooder to make sure it wasn't too hot or too cool in there for the chicks. As I was laying there, waiting for the alarm to go off, I could hear a cow or something making a weird noise.

We still have two cows who were bred late last year who still need to have their calves. Earlier in the evening, just before we went to bed, I was out checking the brooder when I heard a cow moaning or something. I told Dan the Man that he ought to go out an check the cattle, maybe one was calving. So he took the flashlight and headed out to check the herd. He came back in a few minutes later and said nothing looked unusual and no one was calving. So we went to bed.

Having my alarm set for 1 am made it hard to fully fall asleep, especially since I knew I needed to get up and check that brooder. So I drifted in and out of sleep until I finally decided to get up at about 12:45. I kept hearing weird noises outside. The window was open. At least I thought the noises were coming from outside. I couldn't be sure if I was dreaming and the sounds were coming from my dreams or if they were really coming from outside.

I put on my cowboy boots, grabbed a flashlight and headed outside in my "sock monkey laying on the beach" night shirt. I no sooner got to the driveway on the way to the brooder when I was startled by Charlie, our 4 year old half-blood Lowline bull.

Country Chicken Girl: "Whoa! Charlie, what are you doing out here???"

He was on a mission to get into the field with the cows. We don't put our bulls in with our cows until August since we like to calve in May.

I yelled at him and told him "no, no!" but he just proceeded to push right past me towards the cows. Naughty boy! I ran after him, while yelling at Danny who was sound asleep in our nice comfy bed. Good thing our window was open or he probably would not have heard me.

Country Chicken Girl (chasing Charlie in her jammies and cowboy boots, running past the house): "Danny, Charlie is out and trying to get in with the cows!"

Dan the Man: " Huh?"

Country Chicken Girl (finding it hard to run in cowboy boots and jammies): "Get our here! Charlie is out and trying to get in with the girls."

Dan the Man: "OH! Wait, I have to get dressed!"

I don't know why he couldn't just put on HIS cowboy boots and come out in HIS jammies, but no, he had to get fully dressed! Like anyone was going to see him!

So meanwhile I am trying to contain Charlie, who is a tamest bull we own. Probably because we showed him when he was a calf at the National Western Stock Show and The NILE. So, needless to say, he isn't afraid of me and knows I won't hurt him, so he just trots right past me. I run in front of him and "boink" him on the head with the flash light.

"That'll turn him," I think to my self.

Charlie squinting his eyes like I'm beating him on the head with a baseball bat: "Oh, oh, don't hurt me!" but still pushing onward towards the girls.

Country Chicken Girl: "Charlie, NO, NO! STOP!!!" More "boinking" on the head, "boink, boink" with the flashlight to no avail.

Finally, Dan the Man comes out and yells at Charlie and we finally get him turned away from the cows and headed back to the corral where he belongs. Why does Charlie listen to Boss Man Dan, but totally ignores the little Country Chicken Girl in her sock monkey jammies and cowboy boots?

Wow, exciting night life here at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch last night. Oh, you wouldn't have believed how clear the sky was and how bright the stars were. The milky way was "out of this world" and I saw a falling star.

Sorry there are no pictures for this post, but I'm sure you can use your imagination and come up with some visuals of the story yourself!

The End.

Sorry Kid-o, But You Are Off the Team

2011-07-21T16:13:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, one of the heifers (as in a girl cow who has not had a baby yet) made a very bad decision that got her kicked off the Open A Bar 2 Ranch team.

Dan the Man and I were sorting the cattle, since we were taking a few of them to greener pastures down on the river near Mitchell. We are summering several of our cattle down there on pasture that we are leasing. We still had four heifers to take down there and those were the girls we were sorting out. These heifers are yearlings, they were a year old in April. Sometimes heifers can be a little ditsy, but I think it's because they have no idea what we want them to do since they are so young. They have never been off our ranch before, except to go to the veterinarian for their bangs vaccination. Bangs vaccinations protect cattle against Brucellosis.

So, we were moving the group of cattle (we were on foot and 4-wheeler) from the pasture to the corral. Not a long distance. All was going fine, the herd was just kind-of moseying along towards the corral. The majority of them went right in, but one heifer #038 decided that she was NOT going to go into the corral. So as fast as she could, she made a break from the herd and headed in the opposite direction. Big mistake on her part.

Dan the Man was on the 4-wheeler and not in the mood for any shenanigans because #1) it was too hot to be chasing heifers and #2) we had too much work to get done. He told me to get everyone in the corral and we would see if the one that took off was one that we actually needed or not. Of course, it was one that we needed.

After we got the three good girls sorted from the group that was staying, Dan the Man went after the little renegade. Usually it is very easy to run a stray back up to the corral because they would rather be with the group, than alone. But this little girl had another agenda. She was not about to go up into the corral. Danny chased her on the 4-wheeler and she eluded his every move. She then proceeded to go through fences in order to get away from him. That only made Danny madder. He probably should have left her alone for a while, but we really didn't have time. She needed to get on that trailer with the other girls so we could get going. Danny continued to pursue her on the 4-wheeler and she continued to run away... through three electric fences and straight over to the neighbors pasture in with their cattle.

Naughty, naughty, naughty! These are exactly the kind of cattle that will "wreck" a nice herd. If you get one that decides to "bolt" while you are gathering, the whole herd might decide to run with them instead of going where you want them to. We had a cow who would do exactly that and we got rid of her because of it.

Now we were faced with the same situation. Dan went over to the neighbor's and explained the circumstances. They both decided that it would be easier to get her out of their herd the next time they had to run their cattle into their corral, so the plan was just to leave her in with the neighbor's herd until then. Dan the Man came back and told me that she just lost her spot on the Open A Bar 2 Ranch team. He took the other heifers down to Mitchell and left her here.

What a shame, she made the cut and was a shoo-in for the team, but then she had to pull this stunt and go herself kicked right off. I guess someone should have told her that Coach Dan doesn't play around. One strike and you're outta here, especially when it's 100 degrees outside and he doesn't have time to give you a second chance.

This morning Dan the Man saw her standing with the neighbor's herd right in the corner of the pasture that borders our pasture. He figured he could coax her out of the neighbor's herd if we ran our herd down there and she could see them. So we went and told the neighbor what we were doing and they came on down to help us. At first it looked as if she was going to be a jerk and try to run away, which she did, but she actually ran up the fence line and went through the four wire fence and ran back in with our cows. As my grandma would say... Ay Yi Yi... while she shook her head back and forth and clicked her tongue!

Here she is, back in with our herd.
Looks like she found a little mud over at the neighbors.
Maybe she just wanted to go over there for a quick mud bath?

So it's with deep regret #038, that I must inform you that you have been kicked off the Open A Bar 2 Ranch team. Sorry kid-o, but we have no room for renegades in our herd.

I don't want to tell her, but now she is destined to become some of Open A Bar 2 Ranch's all-natural beef. That's ranching.

Naughty little girl...

Open House!

2011-07-15T06:15:00.001-06:00

In order to catch you up on the goings on around here this summer, I need to tell you about the Open House that we had here on the ranch on June 18th.

Now, before you start bellyaching that you didn't know about it or wasn't invited... don't worry, we are having another one in October! Date to be determined...

Dan the Man and I have been wanting to have an Open House here at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch for some time now. This is not our first one, some of you chicken customers will remember the one we had a few years ago when we raised heritage turkeys. Actually that was in 2008. Anyway, I'm getting off the subject.

Dan the Man and I want our customers to feel as the Open A Bar 2 Ranch is "their" ranch. We want everyone to be a part of what we are doing out here and to get to know us and our operation on a personal level. We want our practices to be transparent.

The Open House was on June 18th. People who had pre-ordered chickens for Batch #1 we able to pick up their chickens at the open house. But that was not all. I decided to invite several of our "farmers' market" friends to also come set-up and sell their wares. We had 9 vendors who came!! They included the following: Diane Edwards with Wind Harvest Farms who brought some of their most delicious strawberries! Dan Weitzel, with Mitchell Valley Farm (a local CSA) who brought some yummy radishes and information on his CSA. Nancy Butcher, Jams and Jellies Just For You, surely you can figure out what she brought. Flower Field Farm, Nathaniel & Rylee McGown, who had free ice cream cones made with milk right off their dairy. Sarah Pinet, you know her as the "goat cheese lady" of Victory Hill Farm, brought her delicious cheve and other goat cheeses! Jennie Salters, Chalk Butte Pottery, you know the awesome chicken roasters... (see this post, and yes, Dan the Man bought me another one!) Laura and Jim Whelchel with Double L Country Store came with their goat milk products such as lotion and soap along with a vast array of other neat-o stuff. Beth Everett of Meadowlark Hearth CSA brought veggies and seedlings such as lettuce and last but certainly not least Jane Sedman, who you know as the bread lady or Mama Janes' Artisan Breads, who has the best buttermilk cinnamon raisin swirl bread on the planet.

We had our own mini farmers' market going on out here at the ranch. Thanks again to all of you vendors who came!!

The Open House started at 1 pm and of course, wouldn't you know it that a storm moved in around 1:45 or so. We are talking wind, rain and hail folks! Actually it would appear as if "Wind, Rain and Hail" seem to be this summer's theme! Thank goodness we had room for everyone to get out of the storm in the shop and studio. People were great and just moved inside and visited.

Here comes the storm.
Picture courtesy of Katie Bradshaw.

Dave & Laura Whelchel, Double L Country Store waiting out the storm.
Picture also courtesy of Katie Bradshaw.

After the storm cleared, we continued with the festivities. I was afraid that the storm would put a quick end to the open house, but when the sun came back out, the people began to come out as well. Some even told us that the radio had reported a tornado sighting in Stegall which is 3 miles east of us!

Dan the Man gave tours of the operation to several people who went out in two groups. That was after the storm... good thing we had plenty of rubber boots to share! The children loved seeing all the baby chicks and the baby calves.

We had plenty of help with the open house. Our oldest son and daughter-in-law (Nick & Sarah) were here on vacation, Chris came home from Kearney for the weekend to help, Danny's parents (Bob & Penny) came down from Colorado, and Danny's sister and brother-in-law (Carla & Jim) came up from Casper. My sister, Lori, bought and helped me plant several flowers the week before to help pretty-up the place. Too bad most of those flowers got destroyed in the July 2nd storm.

Anyway... I think it is fair to say a good time was had by all. We had a wonderful turnout and can't wait to do another on in October. I hope I can convince Dan the Man to offer hay rides! We will also invite vendors. I can see it now... hay rides, hay castle for the kids to play in, pumpkins, gourds, indian corn for sale from the vendors, apple cider, cookies, smoked chicken, bonfire for making s'mores... awww yes!! Come on FALL!

Yes, I am still alive...

2011-07-13T07:08:00.004-06:00

Egads, it has been for-ev-er since I last blogged. Some of you are probably thinking I have fallen off the edge of the earth. Well, that isn't the case. Things have been a little busy and disorderly here at the Open A Bar 2 Ranch that i just haven't had time or the motivation to blog. How sad...

So I am going to try to do a few super fast posts to catch you up on all that has been going on.

One MAJOR event that has taken time out of my blogging was a MAJOR storm that we had on July 2nd here at the ranch that cause lots of damage. I'll post on that later. This post will be to get you caught up to the storm.

So where did I leave off... oh yes, The Robins: They've Hatched.

Yep, they hatched and them there flew away! There now you are caught up with that story! LOL. Actually I have more concerning the robins. Let's see, oh yes, two of the robins hatched.

I took this picture of the on June 12th. They were so stinkin' ugly that they were so stinkin' cute!

Newly hatched babies.

I got busy and didn't have time to check in on them as often as I wanted to so the next time I peeped into the nest this is what I saw. I wanted to get a picture of one of the parents sitting on the nest, so every time I went to go check on the nest, I would try to sneak around the corner of the barn and snap a picture, but the robins were to smart for me and would detect what I was up to before I could get the camera around the corner and focused on them. But this one day, as I rounded the corner with camera zoomed and ready, the robin just sat there and posed for me.

Robin sitting in the nest.

Hmm... I thought as I took a few pictures of it. Then all of sudden it flew away... well, kind of. I thought it had flown away since I was busy looking through my camera view finder and not looking directly at it. Through the corner of my eye, it seemed like it just kind of fluttered to the ground by the chute (as in cattle chute). I looked down by the chute and sure enough, there it was. That's odd, I thought to myself. Then all of the sudden two of my cats show up! It was at that moment that I finally realized the the robin on the ground was one of the babies and it was going to need my assistance or it was going to be a kitty treat. As soon as the cats showed up so did the parents. What a commotion! Cats ready to pounce, parents trying to dive bomb us and baby on the ground!

Baby on the ground. At least it was a soft landing in the straw.

I immediately told the cats to back off. This baby was off limits. Surprisingly they listened and obeyed, probably because I practically yelled at them! I hardly ever yell at them. Anyway, this little fellow was going to need some assistance getting himself back into the nest where he would be safe and sound. I gingerly picked him up and placed him back in his nest. Poor baby!

He was so scared, his heart was beating a million beats per minute. Meanwhile, the mother or father kept trying to dive bomb me and the cats. I carefully climbed up on some stuff to get to the nest and placed the baby back in the nest. He was so frightened that he just kind of melted into the nest trying to blend in and not be seen.

Trying to hide in the nest.

What an ordeal. I hoped that the baby wouldn't try that stunt again until he was a little more able and prepared!

So I have no idea what happened to the other baby, but I suspect that he might have perished on his maiden flight. I suspect that the cats might have been waiting for the little unsuspecting fellow when he made is first flight. Naughty cats.

The next time I checked on the little fellow who I placed back in the nest, the nest was empty.

So there you go... at least I didn't leave you hanging about the Robins.

That's all I have time for now, so later tater!

PS, I am not going to proof read this because I simply don't have time. So please don't criticize or poke fun of my writing skills or lack of!

The Robins: They've Hatched!

2011-06-23T06:10:00.004-06:00

Oh my gosh... I am so far behind on my blogging. We get SO BUSY this time of year that it seems like I never have any spare time on my hands. It seems as if we work from sun up until sun down and any spare moment I have I spend sleeping.

I hope I haven't left anyone "hanging" about the robin eggs??

... as in this post, The Robins, that I wrote eons ago. Remember?

Well, I have been checking on the nest and the eggs hatched, but the morning that I checked and had saw that they had hatched, there were only two babies in the nest. I have no idea what happened to the other two. Oh well, God only gives you what you can handle, I guess He wanted this robin couple to raise two, not four.

These pictures were taken on June 12th, the first day that I had noticed that they had hatched. I don't know if this was the actual first date they hatched, but it has to be pretty close.

Sleeping... shhhh

When I moved my camera close to the nest, they would
put their weak little heads up and open their mouths!

So ugly, cute, fragile and fascinating!
Check out the size of their eyes and mouths!!

I checked on the little ones a couple of days ago while Nick and Sarah were here visiting. I wanted to share this little glimpse into nature with Sarah. When we peeked into the nest, I could not believe how big they had gotten, but then again, I guess they were probably a week old when we sneaked our peek. I will try to get a picture of them today. You won't believe how many downy feathers they have now. They don't look quite so naked.

Well, gotta run. It's been nice chatting, hopefully we can do it again sometime soon!

Two Things You Might Like to Know About Dan the Man

2011-06-03T06:38:00.004-06:00

Thing Number One:

One sure way to get him out of bed early in the morning is to say... "The cows are out." He jumps out of bed like someone has just yelled "FIRE!"

LOL, I'm still laughing every time I think about it because it sure was funny watching him fly out of bed this morning at 5:30 when one of the cows was on the other side of the road when I looked outside!

Thing Number Two:

At 12:22 pm on June 1, 2011, Dan the Man officially retired his long johns for the season. Note the time, because he was actually going to wear them all day, but decided at noon, that he didn't need them. Summer must be here folks!

PS, To my man Dan: I love you honey!

Lark Buntings

2011-06-02T06:05:00.000-06:00

We seem to have an unusual number of Lark Buntings here at the ranch this year. Don't I sound so smart knowing the names of some of the birds that live around here? Well, don't let the fact that I know the name of one species fool you, I am no bird expert! The only reason I know they are lurk buntings is because one of my friends on Facebook made a comment about having some at their place and posted a link about lark buntings.

I read about them and found out that they lay "4 or 5 light blue eggs in a loose grass nest placed in a scrape with rim flush with the ground; often protected by weedy patch." So every time I check on the cows in the pasture, I have been keeping my eye open for a nest. Thus far, no luck at finding one.

The birds like to hangout with the chickens that are out on pasture. The males sit on the electric netting and sing to me when I am feeding and watering the chickens. I don't know why I've never really noticed them before this year. I am sure they have been here every year we have lived here. But I think one of the main reasons we are seeing so many this year is because we torn out the field where they are hanging out a couple of years ago, it was in alfalfa, and planted pasture grasses out there. And with all the rain we have received this year, the grass is really coming on this year. Must be perfect conditions for them.

Here you can see a couple of the chicken shelters out on pasture and the cows grazing along side them. This is where I have seen several of the lark bunting. You can also see the electrified netting that the birds like to sit on and sing to me.

Danny checking the cows on the other side of the poultry fencing. If you enlarge the picture (just click on it) you can see Dan the Man on the 4wheeler in the left hand corner of the picture among the cows.

In these last two pictures if you look down the fence-line, you can see another
bird sitting on the fence, but he is out of focus.

I'll keep you posted on whether or not I find any nests.
That is all.

The Robins

2011-06-01T06:23:00.004-06:00

The other morning Dan the Man asked me if I had noticed the nest that some birds were building on top of the fence charger in the calf shed. I hadn't, but having a fond attraction to nests and birds, I wandered over to take a look. I asked Dan the Man what kind of bird was building the nest, but he said he had no idea. Personally, I just don't think that men are as observant as women.

I say this because I knew before I even got to the nest that it was being built by robins. On my way to the shed I noticed a couple of robins flying in there. When I got there, sure enough, there was a nest right on top of the electric fence charger. Wow, look at all that fly poop on there. Someone should clean that thing. I'll tell the maid to get right on that.

I'm slightly surprised that Mrs. Robin would choose such a place for her nest. Granted it is protected from the weather and up high away from predators, but an electric fence charger makes a ticking sound constantly while it is plugged in. Just like a clock, and loud... TICK... TICK... TICK... I think that might drive me nuts or perhaps it is kind-of calming once you get use to it?

I was curious if there were any eggs in it yet, so I climbed on some show panels that were leaning against the wall for a better look. Upon peering in, I saw no eggs. Hummm, I'll have to keep on eye on it. Sounds like a good subject for a blog post, I thought to myself.

A few days later was when Nathan came to help us for the day. As I was showing him around the place, I decided to let him in on my secret and took him over to the nest. We looked again, and still no eggs.

Then on Monday, when I was out and about taking pictures I looked again and there are now four beautiful blue eggs in it.

Mr. and Mrs. Robin kept a close eye on me as I was eyeballing their children. I told them I promised not to touch if they would share their babies with me and my blog readers. I told them not everyone gets to see a robin's nest full of eggs. And if they would be so kind, I would like to document the hatching of the eggs and share it on my blog. The didn't dive-bomb me, so I think they have agreed to let me take pictures every once in a while.

Mr. Robin keeping me in his sight.

Still watching...

I also found a swallow's nest, but I'm not sure I can get such great pictures of it because it is built so close to the ceiling of this shed, but I will keep my eye on this one as well.

And so begins the documentation of "The Robins."

Ode to May, Continued...

2011-05-31T07:15:00.006-06:00

I showed you the hoo-humm side of May in the previous post...

this is the beautiful side.

PS, Do yourself a favor and click on each picture to see a full screen view of them.
They are meant to be viewed full screen.

Dandelion almost dande-done.

Raindrops on pasture grass.

Raindrops on chives.

Rain caught in Sedum.

Blue Flax, grows like wild here!

Who knew a naked Dandelion could be so beautiful?

One lonely seed left hanging on to the Dandelion.

Raindrops on Sedum.

Raindrops on chive blossoms.

Raindrops on chives.

Salvia in bloom.

Raindrops on pasture grass.

Raindrops on chive blossom.

Crack Head.
What happens when you overdose on rain.

An Ode to May...

2011-05-30T17:31:00.008-06:00

It's hard to believe that this is the end of May.

Where has the time gone?

I have worn shorts only once so far this year...

It has rained what seems all but two or three days this month.

I don't remember the last time there was no mud in the yard.

The rain has provided green pastures, but without the warmth, the grass isn't growing as well as it could.

The rain has been hard on the cows and calves, they continue to look for dry spots in the pasture and have mud caked on their heads.

The rain has been hard on the chickens in the pasture. It's no fun to run around in wet grass ALL the time. I kept telling them while they were in the brooders that they would enjoy it when they were old enough to go out to pasture and run in the warm sunshine and eat the tender shoots of grass. They think I have mislead them and prefer to spend the majority of the cold, wet days in their shelter out in the pasture.

The rain has been hard on the Country Chicken Girl and Dan the Man. It's no fun doing chores twice a day in the rain and mud. The rain only makes the chores harder to do, takes more time and makes the Country Chicken Girl cranky. Dan the Man is still wearing his turtlenecks and long johns.

The rain is hard on the cats who now have a severe case of cabin fever. Although, they do go outside and come back in, tracking the house full of mud. Dirty paw prints are everywhere. The Country Chicken Girl wishes the cats would learn how to wipe their feet.

Goodbye May.

Dear June, I would like to pre-order some sunshine and nice weather for when you come. That is all. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Country Chicken Girl

PS Below are some random shots of May on the Open A Bar 2 Ranch, the home of the Country Chicken Girl and Dan the Man. You can click on the photo for a full screen view of it if you want.

Angel and her little heifer nursing.

Cupcake, she is always convinced that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence!
She has this maneuver down to a science so she does not get a shock from the electric fence.
Who knew a cow could be so nibble?

Dan the Man checking on his cows, still wearing his winter gear.

Chickens out on pasture.

Cat tracks in the mud.

Country Chicken Girl tracks in the mud.

Driveway... full of mud.

Update On Mystery Egg

2011-05-28T07:17:00.004-06:00

Well, after several suggestions as to what the "mystery egg" was in my previous post, the general consensus is that it is a quail egg. So interesting, because I'm not sure I have ever seen a quail on our property.

Mystery Egg appears to be a quail egg.

According to Wikipedia:

"Quail eggs are considered a delicacy in many countries, including western Europe and North America. In Japanese cuisine, they are sometimes used raw or cooked as tamago in sushi and often found in bento lunches.

In some other countries, quail eggs are considered less exotic. In Colombia and Venezuela, a single hard-boiled quail egg is a common topping on hot dogs and hamburgers, often fixed into place with a toothpick. In the Philippines, kwek-kwek is a popular street food delicacy, which consists of soft-boiled quail eggs dipped in orange-colored batter before being skewered and deep-fried. In Vietnam, bags of boiled quail eggs are sold on street stalls as inexpensive beer snacks.

Quail eggs are often believed to be very high in cholesterol, but evidence shows their cholesterol levels are similar to chicken eggs."

I really think it was sweet Tay-tee Cakes that brought the egg in for his beloved mother (me)! He is such a mama's boy.

Tay-tee and his mother, the Country chicken Girl

Oh the Joys of Calving Season

2011-05-25T07:06:00.005-06:00

Just in case you didn't catch my column in the Gering Citizen Newspaper last week, I thought I'd post it here for you. I don't always repost my columns, so you really should just subscribe to the Gering Citizen! It's a great paper and well worth the measly $30 bucks for a WHOLE YEAR or subscribe to the eEdition for only $25 smack-a-roos!

THAT CALF BETTER NOT...

Friday night, May 6^th, was my niece's graduation from EWC (Eastern Wyoming College). We are all so proud of her! Friday was a hectic day from the “get go” and I needed to be in Torrington by 6:30 pm for the graduation. I was busy feeding and watering the chickens and trying to hurry so I wouldn't be late. I happened to look out in the pasture, to make sure everything was okay with the cows and calves before I headed back into the house to change my clothes and get ready when I noticed a calf flat on his side looking dead as a doornail. (What a weird idiom that is, dead as a doornail!)

So, I trudged out to the pasture to check on the little guy. Just what I didn't need now, especially since I had somewhere to go and was needing to be getting ready. It seems like these things never happen at a convenient time, but then again, I don't know if there ever is a convenient time for situations like this. As I approached the calf, he remained lifeless, not even a twitch of his ear or flick of his tail. To make matter worse, the mother cow standing near him was "JD", not an especially friendly mother cow. She is the winner of the “over-protective mother” award each year. As I approach a little closer, I saw that he was at least breathing. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. That was a good sign.

JD noticed that I was making my way towards her calf and started making her way towards me. I softly tell her I just want to make sure he is okay and she snorts a warning sign to me that I'd better watch my step. No funny business or she is going to make me her lunch. Not wanting to get too close and cause her concern, I wanted to make sure he was not just sleeping so I whistled real loud and clapped my hands to get his attention. That sure got JD's attention and she snorted and pawed the ground in front of me, but the calf still did not respond.

I cautiously inched my way to the calf, all the while talking softly to JD reassuring her that I meant no harm to her calf. She was on one side of the calf and I on the other. I gingerly squatted down to the calf while concernedly keeping one eye on JD. Slowly I reached out my hand to touch the calf while JD inched closer. She lowered her head to smell the calf and I lightly touched him. I thought that if I could touch him, he would wake-up if he was just sleeping. Nothing, he continued to lay there, not opening his eyes, but still breathing. I tried again, this time a little more forcefully, rubbing his belly. JD snorted again and threw her head a little, but the calf just laid there.

Once again I assured JD that I wasn't going to hurt the little guy, I just wanted to make sure he was okay. One more time I reached out and tugged on his ear. He finally opened his eyes, but that was it. I picked up one of his back legs and gave it a tug. No resistance and when I let go, it dropped to the ground like a dead weight. Now JD was getting a little more agitated with me.

Well, it was clear to me that this little guy wasn't feeling so well, so I went to go get Dan so we could get this calf back to the corral and attend to him. There was no way I could take him by myself, not with his vigilant mother. Dan was plowing a field, so I had to ride the four-wheeler out there to get him.

Dan asked me if the calf was just sleeping and I said I didn't think so and explained all I had done to him and he hadn't responded. Dan and I went back out to the pair and Dan examined the calf. He also agreed that we should take him in and examine him. Besides, he hadn't gotten his ear tag yet, because Dan didn't want to do that by himself knowing that the mother was a little over protective. Dan said we'd better get the truck because he was afraid the mother would try to take him, if he took the calf.

Dan's pickup was hooked to a trailer so we couldn't take his, so we had to take my truck. At first we were just going to nab the calf and put him in the pickup bed. I would drive while Dan would ride in the truck bed with the calf but then Dan changed his mind and wanted to put the calf in the back of the crew cab. I wasn't too keen on that idea, especially since we were using MY truck. I finally consented to the idea, because I was afraid of the mother cow and a little fearful for my husband's life. I also said, "That calf better not poop in my truck!"

Dan promised me the calf would not make a mess, besides, we didn't have that far to go. After we discussed operation "nab the calf", we headed towards the pair. I was to drive between the mother and the calf while Dan jumped out of the truck, nabbed the calf and jumped back in with the calf. Sounded like a plan, but these things never go as planned. I have learned this from numerous "operations" such as this and each one never being executed as planned. I could just picture JD getting all worked up and smashing into my nice truck which I wanted to keep looking nice. My concern was also growing that I was going to be late for my niece's graduation.

We approached the pair and miracle of miracles, JD had wondered off just far enough that I was able to drive right between the two. Dan jumped out of the truck and scooped up the calf with lighting speed and had the calf safe in the cab in record time before JD even knew what we were doing. As we sped towards the corral, JD stood there in wonderment looking for her calf. Wow, that was unbelievable! Our operations never run as smoothly as that! As we were racing towards the corral, the calf suddenly became alert and alive! He must have been thinking, "Whoa, what just happened to me? Hey, you're not my mother. Get me out of this here." Dan had to hold onto the calf with all his might until we got to the corral.

As I put the truck in park, a distinct smell made it's way to my nostrils. I knew that ill-smelling smell which made my nose wrinkle up! I said, "Did that calf just poop in my truck?" Dan replied, "Uh, just a little."

I was not in the least bit amused at the situation. But on the bright side of things, it would appear as if the calf was just sleeping (very soundly) and nothing was wrong with him. We safely got him tagged and let him back in the pasture where he immediately reunited with his mother. Meanwhile, I drove the truck back to the house and grabbed a bucket full of soapy water and a scrub brush. As I cleaned the mess up, I was thankful that it was a false alarm with the calf and that he was perfectly fine. I also wondered how many other people had to clean calf poop out of their truck before they could go to a graduation?

Just in case you've never seen it...

ooey, gooey, smelly calf poop!

Although it's not much, it's still a massive amount of ick!

Well done Shaina! We are so proud of you!

Now on to nursing school!!

EWC Graduation Class of 2011

Lori (my sister), Shaina and Mark (my brother-in-law)

Adam (Shaina's boyfriend), Shaina and Morgan (my other niece)

Free Range Chickens and Gardening

2011-05-15T06:18:00.001-06:00

There is one drawback to "free range" chickens.

It's not...

... that the chickens do not stay home. Oh they do. I don't think I've even seen them across the county road. I've seen them wander all around, but for the most part, they stay in the yard and around the house, usually within eyesight. But then again, our yard is pretty big and when I say "yard", I don't mean just the front yard and the back yard, I mean the whole "farm yard" which includes the area with all of our buildings. For you city folk, I guess you might say that our "yard" is about the size of a city block.

{PS, as always, don't forget you can click on the picture to see a full screen view of it. Just remember to hit your browsers back button to return to the blog. The girls (chickens) wanted me to make sure you knew that because they want you to see how beautiful they are. They are so vain!}

... that the chickens lay their eggs all over the place. The chickens almost always return to their nesting boxes in the coop to lay their eggs. Very rarely do I find any outside the coop. Occasionally I do find an egg outside the coop, but it is always close to the coop. It's almost as if the chicken is caught off guard and realizes that she has to lay an egg and can't hold it, so she drops it right there. Kind of like your kids when they wait too long to go to the bathroom. LOL I can just picture the chicken running through the yard back to the coop, trying to get to the nest box before she has an "accident." hee, hee!!

... that the chickens will get eaten alive by wild animals. That has only happened a few times with the egg layers. If I remember correctly, we have only lost two of our egg layers to predators. We are very lucky because some of our neighbors have lost several chickens to fox, dog and other critters. I have lost a couple of my egg layers to a hawk, but that is it. Oh, and the chickens and cats get along just fine. The cats don't bother the chickens and the chickens don't bother the cats. We don't have any dogs. And we seldom have the neighborhood dogs or stray dogs wander into our yard.

... that the chickens will not come back to the coop at bedtime. The chickens always come back to roost in the coop when it is bedtime. It's not like we have to go "round them up" and put them to bed at night. They are such good girls, they are always home before their curfew and all that I have to do is shut the coop door at night.

The one drawback with "free range" chickens is that they love to dig in the dirt. Watch the video and you'll see what I mean. As soon as they hear me start the rototiller, they come running like a herd of buffalo. You can almost hear the "thunder" and feel the ground shake as they all come running.

Not only do they dig and scratch the earth, but they don't care where they dig. I constantly catch them digging in my flowerbeds. Just the other day I planted a few small annuals, alyssum actually, and as soon as I turned my back and went into the house for a few minutes, some chicken managed to dig up three of the six plants that I had planted. Not only did they dig them up, but they demolished the plant. I could not believe my eyes as I walked past the flowerbed and saw that some dirty bird had already dug in that one spot. Oh and let me tell you about mulch. I put the mulch in the flowerbeds, the chickens kick it out when they are scratching and digging. I put the mulch back in, they think they need to throw it back out. This is an endless battle that happens on a daily basis.

So, if you are planning on having "free range" chickens and gardening, take heed to my warning... Anything you don't want the chickens to ruin, you will have to fence around.

Recipe: Cherry-Almond Vanilla Cupcakes

2011-05-11T08:02:00.004-06:00

I know it has been forever since I last posted a recipe, well, besides for Dan the Man's grilling, so I thought it was high time I spread a little love with these scrumptious and cute cupcakes.

I made these for Skyler to take to school for a lunch that the student council prepared for the teachers. I must say that in my opinion, they were quite tasty. I hope the teachers liked them! I also made some chocolate cupcakes and used the frosting I had left over for them.

I used a different frosting recipe than what is listed on the cupcake recipe. I used a standard cream cheese frosting flavored with vanilla and almond extract, half of which I tinted pink with food coloring.

Click here to the recipe:
Cherry-Almond Vanilla Cupcakes

Happiness is...

Why Thank You for Such a Thoughtful Gift

2011-05-09T06:57:00.004-06:00

The other morning I awoke and stumbled out of bed without my glasses on to make a trip to the bathroom. I noticed something out of the ordinary on the floor on my side of the bed and couldn't quite make out what it was without my glasses. I figured I would investigate it more closely upon my return from the bathroom with my glasses on.

I put my glasses on and was surprised to find that the UFO (unidentified floor object) was actually an egg.

Hmm... I wonder what kind of egg it is?

Anyone know?

Mystery Egg next to a regular egg.

I find it amusing to picture in my mind one of the cats finding this in the field (actually who knows where) and carrying it so very carefully all the way back to the house in their mouth, being cautious not to break it on the trip back. Then gingerly making their way through the dog door and into the bedroom and then placing it strategically on my side of the bed so that I will notice it. They did break the shell in a couple of places or else it would have been fun to hatch it.

Maybe it was a Mother's Day Present?!

Dan the Man the "BIG RED" Kamado Kooker

2011-05-03T06:50:00.004-06:00

For Christmas this last year, Dan the Man received a few gifts cards for Mernards from our boys. For those of you who do not have a Mernards where you live, it is like a Home Depot or Lowes. Danny has been sitting on those gift cards all this time waiting for the summer grills to come in stock so he could use them to help purchase a new grill. Danny has been wanting a new grill, a charcoal grill, for a year or so now. We currently have a gas grill that never seems to work right.

He originally did research on charcoal grills several years ago and ran across one called the "Big Green Egg" or some such thing. He has been obsessed with getting one since. The only thing holding him back is that they cost around $800 and while Danny can easily dish that kind of money out for some piece of machinery or equipment for the ranch/farm... he has a hard time spending that amount on something that falls in the "household" category.

Well, he finally found a "knock-off" version of the "Big Green Egg" at Mernards! Oh happy day! It's called the "Big Red" Kamado Kooker of which Dan the Man is the new owner of. It is about the third of the cost of the egg one. I like it, because it is red and matches perfectly with the Cleary building. Green would not have looked so good!

"BIG RED"
Kamado Kooker

(I just noticed his grilling "tools". What is my garden spade doing hanging from there?)

Oh my gosh, can I just tell you he has been like a little boy at Christmas with his new hot wheels race track that he simply can not get enough of! He has turned into an OBSESSED GRILLING MACHINE! Hee, hee! I'm not complaining, I've actually have enjoyed someone sharing the daily cooking chore with me! I am in charge of making sure there is something thawed out for him to grill each night (unless we are having left overs) and he does all the research on the internet as to the best way to prepare it. Sometimes this can take hours or even days!

We started out easy with hamburgers. Then moved to steaks and chickens.

At one of the winter farmer's markets I bought a chicken roasting pan that Jennie Salters of Chalk Butte Pottery made for me. Dan the Man just HAD to roast a chicken using it in his grill. I succumbed to the notion, but told him specifically, it could not get any hotter than 350 degrees or it could crack. He promised me, that it would not. I told him if it did, he would owe me another one.

Beautiful Open A Bar 2 Ranch Pastured Poulty
(Seasoned with Famous Dave's Country Roast Chicken Seasoning)
5.5 lb Roaster waiting to be roasted in my beautiful
chicken roasting pan, hand-made, just for me...
which by the way I hadn't even got to use yet.

Potatoes with a little olive oil and seasonings ready to roast.

Dan the Man, the chicken and my chicken roasting pan...

Dan the Man carefully setting everything in the grill.

He roasted the chicken for about 2 hours at 350 degrees. One of the nice things about these grills, is that it is extremely easy to keep the heat regulated in.

The finished chicken!

The finished potatoes.

The chicken turned out great! Very moist and juicy. The potatoes... well... since Dan the Man didn't know that he should probably turn them half way through cooking they were pretty brown... well, actually they were BLACK on the bottom half. And perhaps 2 hours was too long for them. And my pan, you are probably asking yourself... CRACKED! Boo, hoo. I am so sad. Guess Dan the Man owes his Country Chicken Girl a brand new chicken roasting pan from Chalk Butte Pottery! Oh Jennie....

Yesterday, he made a huge leap and smoked two 11 lb. chickens! That's not a typo, by the way, the 11 lb. chickens... Some of you know the story about the BIG chickens!!! Those of you who don't... in a nut shell, we had our commercial freezer konk-out on us last year in the middle of chicken production and ended up growing some pretty big chickens, as in 10-13 lb. chickens which we coined as our "churkeys"... chickens as big as turkeys! So these two chickens were from that whole episode.

Anyway, Dan the Man smoked them for 5 hours at 230 degrees and used apple wood chips. Oh my! He might be on to something. Perhaps Open A Bar 2 Ranch will soon be offering smoked chickens! Dan the Man's Smoked Chicken!

I'm just wondering how long this "grilling fascination" will last until it becomes "work" instead of "fun"! When that happens, the grill will end up being my duty!

That's a LOOOOOOONG Egg!

2011-04-27T16:17:00.001-06:00

Today's Eggs...

"One of these things is not like the others,

One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others

By the time I finish my song?"

Go ahead and watch the video...

I loved it as a child and after watching it again,

I realize I still like it!

Such a catchy song...

Bet you're smiling... :)

(Did you catch Bob's plunder?)

Mama Didn't EVER Say There'd Be Days Like This...

2011-04-25T07:31:00.005-06:00

My mama never told me there would be days like the ones we have been having here on the ranch.

Maybe because my mama never dreamed I marry some back-woodsman known as Dan the Man, live in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, raise 4 boys, run a herd a cattle, raise 3600 chickens and wear Groucho Marx glasses!

I guess you could say things have been a "little" crazy around here, not running as smoothly as I would like, but that is how things operate around here and I am learning that this type of day-to-day chaos is completely normal. Even though I know this is how things operate when you are dealing with cattle and chickens... I still want to be the one who is in control!

The chicks are finally doing well. See...

Chicks now 12 days old.
See how their wing feathers are coming in?

Coming out of the brooder now to eat.

We had another interesting episode the other night concerning the chicks. Around 11 pm our power went off. It was cold, windy and starting to rain. No power meant no lights on in the brooder to keep the poor little chicks warm. As if they hadn't already gone through enough. Geez! So I got on the phone and called the power company to see what was up. They were already on it and on the way out to check things out. When the power goes out in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, you never know exactly how long it is going to be out for.

Last year during the football season, Morril was playing Imperial at Morrill, when during the 2nd quarter (I think) the power went out. It was completely dark on the field since it was a night game. We sat and sat and sat in the dark waiting... nothing. Complete darkness enveloped the field. To make the long story short, an owl had flown into one of the transformers causing a very large area of Morrill and Mitchell to lose their power. We ended up having to drive all the way to Torrington, which is in Wyoming and 20 miles away to finish the game that night.

Anyway, back to life here on the ranch. Where was I, oh yes, the power went off, no lights for the chicks. Not knowing how long the power would be off for, Dan the Man announced that we would have to get out of bed, get dressed and go set up the generator to run the power to the brooder so the chicks would stay warm. Thank God we have a generator, or I am not sure what we would have done. So... up out of bed, get dressed and head out into the cold, wet, dark night. Thankfully, I have gone through enough of these "middle of the night with no lights" crisis, that I know where the flashlights are and make sure they all have working batteries. That lesson about "always knowing where the flashlights are" and to "make sure we have batteries for them" only took me about 5 years to learn.

It only took us about 20 minutes to drag out the generator, fill it with gas (once again I was very thankful that we actually HAD gas to put in the generator!) and get the brooder's electricity hooked up to it. At least the chicks would be nice and warm for the night if the power did not come back on. So then it was off the bed and back to sleep... or so I thought.

Once Dan the Man wakes up in the middle of the night, he has a hard time falling back to sleep because his mind starts thinking about everything we need to get done, or he decides to totally revamp our farming operation in his mind... That night he tossed and turned in bed thinking about how we really needed a generator to run our huge freezer in which we keep all of our chicken and beef in. We would really be out a large amount of money and product if that freezer ever went down for a long period of time.

We flirted with a similar disaster last year when our previous freezer conked-out. Thankfully we have several great neighbors who were willing to share any extra freezer space that they had with us. That was fun (NOT), transferring all of our stuff to other people's freezers until we got ours fixed, and then having to go pickup all the stuff after it was fixed.

The power finally came back on around 12:30 pm, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Sunday, as in Easter, was another "trying" day. Chris had come home for the weekend and Skyler and he had gone to a friends house Saturday night with a curfew that Dan the Man had given them. Shortly after we had gone to bed, Chris comes home asking for some jumper cables to help a friend who couldn't get his truck started. After getting the cables and waking us up from a dead sleep, he was off again. Soon the curfew approached and the boys did not come home. Dan the Man was now wide awake wondering where they were. I too, because of Dan the Man, was wide awake, but trying my hardest to stay half asleep but Dan the Man insisted that we call them and see where they were. I say "we call them" because this is how it goes...

Dan the Man: You need to call Chris on your cell phone and see where they are.

Country Chicken Girl: okay.

Dan the Man can't call because he doesn't have a cell phone and he doesn't (or pretends he doesn't) know how to use one, so I have to dial the cell phone and then hand it to him so he can "do the talking." I know it us pointless for me to "dp the talking" because Dan the Man will sit there and tell me exactly what to say. It's much easier if I just hand him the phone. Of course Chris doesn't pick up his phone and it goes to his voice mail.

Dan the Man to Chris' cell: Chris, this is Danny. Where are you? You need to be getting home now.

Dan the Man to Country Chicken Girl: He didn't answer. I wonder what they are doing.

After several minutes of irritated grunting and tossing and turning Dan the Man tells the Country Chicken Girl to dial Skyler's cell phone number. Of course, Skyler's phone goes straight to voice mail too.

Dan the Man: Skyler, this is your dad. You guys are suppose to be home by now... Where are you and what are you doing.

Dan the Man: I can't believe they are not answering their phones. (more grunts of disgust!)

He lays back down but of course continues to grunt, moan, groan, toss and turn. So much for sleeping as I lie there WIDE AWAKE now.

Fifteen minutes later...

Dan the Man: You need to text Chris and see if he will answer. (At least he knows the term is "text" and not "tech" which is what Dan the Man's father use to say! LOL)

Sometimes our cell service is not the greatest out here in the middle of nowhere Nebraska, so it is a possibility that they were somewhere that they don't get "talking" service, but can still receive text messages.

Just as I am completing the text message, Chris calls saying that they will be home shortly. Good, maybe I can get some sleep as soon as they get home.

After they got home, I waited for Dan the Man to finally fall back to sleep, but he continued to toss and turn. I wondered what he was thinking about this time.

Soon I found myself having wild dreams about foxes in the hen house, a stray herd of cattle on the lose causing havoc with our cattle and finally a grizzly bear causing calamity in the neighborhood. So much for a restful night of sleep.

My alarm went off at 5 am. Yay, it was Easter Sunday! But I had a lot to accomplish before church so I needed to get up and get going. Dan the Man got up around 6 am so he could get all the chores done before we left for church. After an hour or so outside, he comes back in and announces that 3 new calves were born and there seemed to be a little confusion between the cows as to what calf was whose. Also one of the cows hadn't cleaned or done anything with her calf. The weather was cold and rainy and if he didn't get that calf dried and warmed-up, it wasn't going to make it. He also had to figure out which pairs belonged to each other since the cows were acting like they didn't know. There was only an hour left before we had to leave for church, so it didn't look like Dan the Man was going to make it.

That's the way the ball rolls out here and on most farms and ranching across the world. Just when you think things are under control, something happens. It is almost impossible to operate on any certain schedule, because you are not in control of so many different variables. I am slowly learning this harsh reality, but I still do not like it.

Oh and by the way, while the boys and I were at church, another calf was born.

One of the calves born on Easter day.

Chick Update

2011-04-20T07:58:00.005-06:00

Chicks sleeping except for Mr. Curious,
the little guy in the middle!

I finally had time yesterday to take pictures of the chicks for you.

It would appear that we are finally getting everything under control after the not so great start that we had. If you don't know what I am talking about, then you need to read the previous post.

We are implementing two new components to our "nursery" this year. In the "BIG Brooder" we are using an "Ohio Brooder" which I will explain in an upcoming post and we are also installing an automatic watering system in the brooder.

Although the weekend was a tough one concerning the chicks, it also had its bright spots as well. Here are two of the bright spots.

Colton and Skyler's grandparents came for a visit so they could see Skyler's all-school play and look what they brought and then left behind for us! I highly recommend these! They are yummy and addictive! I think they get them at COSCO.

Pansies, Cry-Babies and Sympathetic Tender-hearts Need Not Apply

2011-04-18T09:46:00.007-06:00

Let me warn you if you are a pansy, cry baby, sympathetic, tender hearted, pantywaist, weakling, namby-pamby or lightweight, you might not want to read this post.

Wow, that title certainly tells it like it is. No sugar-coating it around here today.

We had a rough weekend here at the ranch and I've decided to share it with you.

Most businesses don't care to share their failures and hard times with their customers. We all like to share the good stuff in life and quietly speak about our failures to only our closest confidants.

I've decided to give it to you like it is. That's ranching... there are good times, and yet as hard as we try, we also have bad times.

Our first batch of chicks this year will be remembered as one of those bad times.

Our first batch of chicks, all 400 of them, were to arrive on Friday morning. The chicks were hatched on Wednesday morning in Iowa. They are packaged and shipped via the USPS and guaranteed to be delivered within 48 hours. I don't necessarily like the idea of shipping chicks in the mail, but since we have no local hatcheries I have no choice but to have them shipped to us.

The hatchery sends them in very sturdy cardboard boxes, with several air-holes. Ours come 100 chicks per box. The box is divided into 4 compartments with 25 chicks in each compartment. The chicks are packed nice and cozy so that they can keep each other warm during their trip to our ranch. I'd show you a picture, but I don't have one. I'll post one I'm sure in later posts or you can check out this POST from last year to see what I am talking about. As you read the post, you'll understand why picture-taking was not on the agenda when the chicks came.

Like I said, the chicks were suppose to arrive on Friday morning, but on Thursday night, Central Nebraska had a spring blizzard that dumped several inches of snow causing I-80 to close for over 16 hours. I had been tracking the storm on Thursday night, via facebook friends that lived in Central Nebraska and one friend in particular that was actually stranded on the interstate for about 5 hours. I was worried about the chicks when I went to bed, but figured the interstate would be open come morning time. We didn't get any of the snow, just some rain.

When I woke in the morning, I checked the road conditions and found out that the interstate was still closed! I called our post office and asked if they knew anything about my chicks and they told me I should "backtrack" their route by calling the post offices where the mail stops. I was thinking that if they made it to at least Alliance which is 60 miles from here, I would go pick them up myself. So I called Alliance and they told me that they would actually be coming from North Platte straight into Scottsbluff which is only 20 miles from here. So I called Scottsbluff and they couldn't really tell me anything except that the interstate was closed and the truck had not left North Platte. I told the guy I was really concerned about my chicks and he told me that someone else also had chicks on that truck and had already inquired about it. Then I told him I had 400 chicks on that truck. "Oh, geez..." is what he said. Now THAT was comforting.

Well, there wasn't much for me to do except to stand by and wait for good news about the road. So wait I did... and wait... and wait... and worry... and worry...

I checked the internet every hour to see if the interstate was open yet.

I called the post office in Scottsbluff again around 1 pm and asked if they had heard anything at all. He said that they hadn't. He also said that if it got too late in the day, they would not send the truck even if the interstate opened. It was beginning to look more and more like I would not be getting the chicks until Saturday morning. I should have asked the guy at the post office what time "too late" was.

We had planned on going to Skyler's school play that night which started at 7:30 pm. I figured the chicks would come while we were at the play. Finally around 3 pm, the interstate was opened. Hallelujah! Now the question was... was it "too late" or would the truck still come. I made Dan the Man call the post office this time, since I figured the man there was getting tired of me asking him questions he didn't have the answers for.

When Dan called, the guy said that yes, the truck had left and would arrive in Scottsbluff around 7 pm and we could come pickup the chicks at the post office if we wanted to, otherwise, they would be delivered to the Lyman post office in the morning. Dan told him we would be there to meet the truck. For the health of the chicks we knew we couldn't wait until morning. Besides, we had the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers Market to get ready for in the morning.

So we anxiously awaited the chicks arrival. We showed up at the post office at 6:30 pm. We wanted to make sure we were there when the truck got there because the guy at the post office said they would not wait for us if we weren't there. I noticed another vehicle sitting in the "back lot" of the post office and it appeared as if they were waiting too. Must have been the other person who also had chicks on that truck.

At just a few minutes after 7 pm, the truck rolled in. Ah... relief, but what kind of condition would the chicks be in? It took them several minutes, probably 20 or so, to unload the truck which gave us sometime to talk with the other gal waiting for her chicks. She had 25 egg layers, her children's 4-H projects, on the truck and her children were anxiously awaiting in her van. I was really hoping that her chicks were all okay. What a disappointment for the kids if they weren't. Hers were also coming from Iowa, so they had been hatched on Wednesday as well.

When we finally got the chicks, we loaded them all up in the back seat of the truck. It was going to be a noisy drive back home, the 20 miles with 400 chicks peeping at the tops of their lungs. But I didn't mind, at least there was some peeping going on.

We got home around 8 pm and took them straight into the brooder and began taking them out one by one and dipping each beak into the water to get them to drink right away. Dan did 200 and I did 200. It was amazing that only 8 had perished during the trip, but it was also apparent that several of them were very stressed. I suspect that they spent the majority of their down time in North Platte on the truck in the freezing cold. Poor babies.

After we had all the beaks dipped we continued to stay with them in the brooder to see how they were going to do. It was going to be a long night. After the first hour we had lost about 20. I couldn't take it any longer, it was breaking my heart, and left Dan the Man and came into the house. There isn't anything worse than watching them die and not being able to do anything for them. We were doing all we could do, but it just wasn't enough.

Dan came in about 45 minutes later. Wasn't much we could do, but pray and hope for the best come morning.

Morning came and I dreadfully went out to the brooder to check on the chicks. I really didn't want to face what I knew was inevitable. 60 dead and a few more that I knew were not strong enough to make it. I felt like puking. We have never experienced a death loss like this. I am not cut out for this. My heart was aching deep within.

I wasn't worried so much about the financial loss, or production loss, but the senselessness of the situation and my helplessness. And to put more agony on the situation, we had to go to the winter farmers market and would not be able to monitor their condition for a good part of the day. Ugh... but I guess that wouldn't have mattered. The ones that were stressed were going to die regardless if I was there to watch them or not.

We did have one ray of sunshine Saturday morning. The first calf of the season was born during the night and was up and nursing on his mama! A healthy little bull calf!!

The lil' guy

Mama and baby with another cow coming
to check out the new addition to the herd.

Lil' guy feeling a little spunky
and running away from mama.
Mama running after him!

As of Monday morning it would appear that the death loss had pretty much evened out. Those who were too stressed to make it have perished. We've lost a total of 133 chicks. The hatchery is refunding us the cost of those chicks which we have lost, but we will not be able to replace that number into our production this year. Since we are on such a tight schedule and limited on the number of chicks that we can brood at one time, we are not able to re-order that number. Do you know what I mean? We'll just be out that many.

But, that is the way the ball rolls out here. Life goes on. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. It's not the first "disaster" we've had and it won't be the last. When you are dealing with life, anything can happen and does. But knowing that in my heart, doesn't make it any easier to deal with the loss of a life. The only thing that keeps me going is that I know that my God is in control, not me.

He Maketh No Mistake

My Father's way may twist and turn,
My heart may throb and ache,
But in my soul I'm glad I know
He maketh no mistake.

My cherished plans may go astray,
My hopes may fade away,
But still I'll trust my Lord to lead,
For He doth know the way.

Though night be dark and it may seem
That day will never break,
I'll pin my faith, my all in Him,
He maketh no mistake.

There's so much now I cannot see,
My eyesight's far too dim;
But come what may, I'll surely trust
And leave it all to Him.

For by and by the mist will lift
And plain it all He'll make;
Through all the way, though dark to me,
He made not one mistake.

(A. M. Overton)

Did You Get One?

2011-04-14T20:15:00.001-06:00

I sent out the 2011 Pastured Poultry Order forms last week. If you haven't received one by now, then you aren't on the mailing list (or I haven't brought it over to you yet, sorry neighbor! I haven't forgotten about you.) If you want one, send me your address and I will mail you one. Or if you are tech savvy and I am guessing that you are since you are reading this blog, you can just print one if you click HERE. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page with the order form on it and click the "print this page" button.

Below is a copy of the order form. I have also posted the letter that accompanied the order form. Important stuff in the letter explaining the price increase and new policy on pick-up and delivery of chickens.

2011 Chicken Order Form

$2.75 per pound dressed weight

Name: _______________________________________

Address: _____________________________________

City: _________________ State: _____ Zip: _______

Phone: ______________________________________

email: _______________________________________

Please indicate how many chickens you would like from each batch.

Remember these are approximate dates!

____ Batch 1 (Mid June)
____ Batch 2 (Mid July)
____ Batch 3 (Mid August)
____ Batch 4 (Mid September)
____ Batch 5 (Mid October)

Here is a copy of the letter that accompanied the order form.

April 7, 2011

The first batch of chicks have finally been ordered and will arrive on April 15th!

Enclosed you will find your 2011 Chicken Order Form. Please take time to fill it out and return it to us. All chickens will be sold on a first come, first served basis. Once we run out of chickens, that will be it until next year. We plan on raising 3600 chickens this year.

This will be our sixth year for raising pastured poultry and we are so pleased that you have chosen to support us. Our goal is to be able to offer our farm fresh poultry year round. We fell short of this goal last year due to the untimely “death” of our commercial freezer right smack in the middle of our pastured poultry season. We are happy to report that the freezer problem is far behind us and we now have a wonderfully large walk-in freezer to accommodate our needs.

We continue to strive to provide the highest quality product for the lowest possible price, but due to the extreme price increase of grain and fuel, we are forced to raise our price this year to $2.75/lb. We still believe that this is an exceptional price due to the fact that our competitors are charging anywhere from $3 to $4 a pound.

As in the past, you will be notified when your order is ready. However due to the large volume of customers we now have, we will not be able to make home deliveries. Chickens can either be picked up on the farm, at the Scottsbluff Farmers Market or at the Morrill Farmers Market. We will also be scheduling specific dates when we will be delivering chickens at a central location in Scottsbluff. Pickup arrangements can be made when we notify you that your chickens are ready.

Once again, in 2010, we completely sold out of our ¼, ½ and whole beeves. We will begin taking orders from now until August for 2011. If you are interested, I urge you to call and discuss this with us at your earliest convenience. We only have a set number of beeves available and all orders must be in before August. This beef will be delivered the end of December 2011. We had to turn away several people this past year and we don’t want to leave anyone out.

We look forward to seeing you again this summer and we feel blessed to be able to offer you our pastured poultry, farm fresh eggs and all-natural beef. We so appreciate your continued support and business.

Sincerely,

Dan & Kathi Manville
Open A Bar 2 Ranch, LLC
(308)787-1111

That's NOT a CHICKEN!

2011-04-12T20:44:00.004-06:00

Dan the Man and I were working on one of the brooders today in preparation of the 400 chicks that will be arriving on Friday.

We realized that as with all projects that we do, we didn't have all the material that we thought we needed and would have to make a trip into town for supplies.

I hate that... especially with the price of gas right now. Twenty miles to town also means an automatic hour of the day spent traveling to and from town. Plus the time that it takes to get what you went for.

No wonder we never get anything accomplished around here!

Anyway, as we were walking to the house to get ready to go to town, I was surveying the yard as I normally do, to see what the chickens (egg layers) were up to. The girls were up to their usual antics, digging in my flower beds, scratching all the mulch out of my flower beds, reeking havoc in my FLOWER BEDS... when all the sudden I spied three very large looking chickens!

Whoa, where did those chickens come from?

They certainly don't look like any of my hens!

Well, holy cannoli... those aren't chickens, them there birds are TURKEYS!!

I ran into the house to get my camera and then Dan the Man and I managed to chase the turkeys all the way around the house. Dan the Man was hoping we could corral them into the chicken yard, but they were smarter than that! The made a bee-line for the county road and headed south. Just as they made it up onto the county road a vehicle came down the road. The turkeys ran down the middle of the road in front of the truck for a little ways before they decided to make a break for the borrow pit. Wish I had my camera set on video for that, it was quite humorous!

The turkeys running past the chicken yard that
Dan the Man was hoping they would run into!

Later on, I happened to be talking on the phone with my neighbor who lives south of us and mentioned the turkeys to her. We hardly ever... well I should say, this is the first time we have EVER seen wild turkeys on our place. Cori, my neighbor said they were in her yard a couple hours after we spotted them here at our place. Cori lives about a mile south of us. She was just as surprised to see them as we were!

Such excitement here in the neighborhood! Did any of my other neighbors see them?

THE END... and no, I did not proof read this, so deal with the typos. Thank you and good night.

Who Is Responsible For This?

2011-04-08T07:13:00.002-06:00

This is a video post. I have two videos for you to watch.

You can watch them in any order. If you are a cat person, you might enjoy watching mine first.

If you are a dog person, perhaps you might want to start off with viewing that one first.

Some of you may have already seen the dog video. It was circulating on Facebook. I thought it was extremely entertaining, and it is what gave me the idea to do my video.

Enjoy, and hope these help to brighten your day.

Warning, the first video contains pictures of some hideous green carpet that desperately need to be replaced!

Things that Amuse Me

2011-04-07T07:53:00.003-06:00

Here is my cat Tatum, aka Taytee, aka Tator, aka Taytee-Cakes...

Don't know Taytee's story, will click here and here if you are curious.

Curiosity killed the cat, but it won't kill you if you click on the above links.

Anyway...

Back to Tay-tee, my main squeeze! He's my main squeeze because there is so MUCH of him to squeeze!

Tatee-Cakes likes to wear the Groucho Marx
glasses just like I do!

I was teaching him Native American sign language
the other day.
We were working on "HOW" like as
in a greeting...

Tatee thought he could use any of his feet.
I told him, it would probably look better
and be more accepting if he
would raise a front paw instead of the back.

THE END.

Wednesday Morning Inspiration: April 6, 2011

2011-04-07T06:30:00.002-06:00

I haven't done a Wednesday Morning Inspiration in a long while. I have no excuse, except for being lazy and not being in the word as often as I should be.

I started this yesterday, Wednesday, but forgot about it, so I know it's Thursday and not Wednesday, but hey, this is my blog and I can do what I want, right?

Anyway, this is one of my current favorite songs. Love it. Please listen to it.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

¹⁴For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;

¹⁵and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

What are you relying on to enter heaven? Do you think that if you are generally a good person, then you will be allowed in? Do you think that your salvation has to do with the good works that you do while you are here on the earth?

If this is what you think, then you need to read God's word, the bible and realize that it is Christ's death, burial and resurrection that saves us from an eternity in hell. Christ has done the work, you just need to trust and believe in Christ.

Some Days It Must Just Be Too Hard

2011-04-04T19:48:00.004-06:00

Some Days It Must Just Be Too Hard... to lay a regular sized egg.

Because every once in a while
I find one of these half-pint sized eggs in the coop.

See the little blue-green one?
It's a chicken egg,
not a robin egg.

So what am I suppose to do with that little egg?

I guess this is one idea?!

Are you smiling?

Hope so.

:)

Oh Say Can You See?

2011-04-04T07:04:00.004-06:00

The flag at Perkins in Scottsbluff is magnificent! Truly breathtaking. I took these pictures on Saturday, April 2nd, after the Scottsbluff Winter Farmers Market. Perkins is right next to the Hampton Inn, where we have the winter market. The wind was blowing perfectly to hold the flag out in all its glory.

I was thinking this morning that I wanted to put the pictures of the flag on the blog, but wanted to know more about the flag itself. So of course I googled "how big is the perkins flag?" I only found a few results which only heightened my curiosity as to how big that flag is.

So I called the restaurant and asked for the manager, who was not in yet. They said to call back around 8 am so I am writing some of this now, while I am waiting for 8 am to roll around.

I hope they have the answers to my questions, because I would really like to know the following:

How big is the flag?
How much does a flag that size cost?
How often do you replace it?
How many people does it take to lower and raise the flag?

Look how big the flag is in comparison
with the vehicle in the parking lot.

I especially love it when the fly the flag at half mast.
That is really a sight to behold.
Flying at half mast, it appears that much larger.

Waiting, waiting, waiting until 8 am.

I just took a drink of my coffee and missed the majority of my mouth causing coffee to dribble on my beautiful mint green fluffy robe. Oh dear, I hope it doesn't stain!

Wow, this is going to be a long 20 minutes.

Oh, hey, look at this picture I have, speaking of big flags!

This is the home of Paul Christian in Mitchell, NE (my hometown).
The house is located right on Broadway which is also HWY 26,
the main road that goes through town.
I took this picture in 2009.
They put up this flag for every 4th of July.
I love it. I wonder what the story behind this flag is?

Okay so I just got done talking to Luke Hale, one of the assistant managers at Perkins and this is what he told me.

How big is the flag? 25' x 30'
How much does a flag that size cost? around $500
How often do you replace it? maybe once a year
How many people does it take to lower and raise the flag? two or three depending on how windy it is.

Luke told me that there is a seamstress in town that repairs the flag on a regular basis and that is why they don't have to replace it more often. Luke didn't know who she was. Anybody out there know who this Betsy Ross of Scottsbluff is? Can you imagine sewing that?

Well, now I know. I guess I can go on with my day now.

The End

You Call That an Egg??

2011-04-01T06:27:00.005-06:00

Here is the winner of the ugly egg of the day contest.

Some hen should be ashamed of this creation.

This egg is not even symmetrical.

What happened ladies?

And what is with all the lines and creases?

How do such deformities happen?

Don't ask me...
I have no idea.

May I Present to You...

2011-03-31T16:44:00.001-06:00

...This morning's sunrise!

and yes...
I am in my pajamas!

Actually my fashion ensemble consisted of...
beautiful lilac colored sleepwear from Le' Target,
a soft and cuddly light mint green colored robe from Le' Target
and to complete the outfit...
a pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots from The Grande Murdocks.
The right pant leg tucked into the boots, the left pant leg on the outside.
That's the way they do it in Paris,
so I hear.

and no...
I do not care of the neighbors see me!

Did you see me Peggy???

Panorama Collage

So many pretty shots to chose from...
I'm having a hard time deciding which one to post.

So here,
I'm posting all of these.

pssst...
click on the photo for a full screen view.

That's Peggy's place there on the left with the lights.

My sister said she thought of me this morning
when she saw the sunrise.

Bet she didn't think that I was out there
in my jammies taking
this picture!

Actually I got one of the cows to snap this picture.

Just kidding...
cows can't take pictures.

I used the timer and a bale of hay for the tripod.

Ta da!

THE END.

Things I Like

2011-03-30T18:40:00.003-06:00

My nose hairs still smell like burning weeds from yesterday.

So I wanted to focus today on smells I like.

I noticed yesterday, after burning the weeds, that my home plug-in smelly things from Bath & Body Works were out of smelly stuff, the bottle thingy was empty. No wonder it smelt (hee, hee... smelt) like burning weeds in the house.

I dug through the cupboard where I keep the smelly bottle refills and found that I had a back-up, Kitchen Spice. Hmmmm.... that was a new scent for me. I changed the bottle and wow-wee does it smell yummy. According to B&BW Kitchen Spice is an" inviting aroma that blends hazelnut, marzipan, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla notes."

If you haven't tried it, I recommend it.

Last time I was at B&BW, with my sister during one of our retail therapy sessions, I pick-up my free travel size lotion. If you shop B&BW but don't get their coupons in the mail, then you are missing out! Seriously, get on their mailing list.

Anyway, I got Apricot Vanilla Body Lotion. Ooo la, la! This I like. I put some on my upper lip to try to get rid of the burnt weed smell.

And last, but not certainly least... Hazelnut Latte Chak Lick. What the heck is Chak Lick? It's the best gosh darn lip balm on this planet made by my beloved friend, Christina Armstrong. You all know Christina, she is the gal that makes the Beeloved Jam. You can get your hands on some of Christina's Chak Lick at the Scottsluff Winter Farmers Market. Mary, with Creative Bubbles, will have some at her booth.

Check out this post I did on Christina last summer.

This flavor I have is Hazelnut Latte and you know what it smells like?... a Hazelnut Java Chiller from Sonic. My, oh my!!

I'm not sure how many different flavors Christina has, but she has quite a few.

Just thought I'd share.
The End.

A Little of This and a Little of That

2011-03-30T07:07:00.007-06:00

The weather is finally resembling spring here in Western Nebraska. Yesterday was a perfect example of what I consider spring weather. The temperature was perfect, a little too cool for short sleeves, but long sleeves were sufficient and no jacket was required. The wind was more of a breeze and actually quite pleasant. Did I just say that??? I can't believe I combined "wind" and "pleasant" together in the same sentence!

Since I hadn't taken any pictures of a while I grabbed my camera and wandered around looking for photo ops.

This is what I can up with.

I know some of you have already seen most of these pictures since I posted them on Facebook last night, but not everyone is on Facebook so I'm posting them again. Remember, you can click on the picture for a full screen view, and I highly recommend that you do.

Actually, what prompted me to grab my camera was the sky.
I just love it when it is incredibly blue and the clouds have so much definition.
One of my friends asked it this was real last night on Facebook.
Made me think of Colossians 3:1-4, look it up!

I finally took the Christmas wreath down from the front window.
It was so pretty and I wasn't quite ready to part with it, so I
took off the red bow and hung it from this gate.

The egg layers were out and about also enjoying the weather
so I snapped a few pictures of them.

We have four different breeds of egg layers.
Looks like I got a picture of each one except for the Buff Orpingtons.
Sorry girls, I didn't purposely leave you out, I promise.

The is an Ameraucana.
They are the ones that lay the beautiful blueish/greenish eggs.
I love the details of their feathers.

Shhhh... this Barred Rock is catching a cat nap after lunch.

Red Star, not to be confused with a Rhode Island Red.
They are a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a White Rock.

BFF's resting and chatting under the sumac trees.

The daffodils are blooming.

Macro of the daffodil stamen in black and white.
I'm thinking this photo would look pretty in my bathroom.

Ahhh, the Nebraska sky...
so peaceful out here, the cattle were relaxing, the hens were relaxing,
the birds were chirping, the daffodils were blooming,
oh, did I mention that I burned some weeds in the back yard?
So the air smelt like burning weeds,
now that really smells like spring...
burning weeds.
Also smells like fall.
I actually kind of like that smell.

Is "smelt" a word?
I probably should use the word "smelled"
but I like to say smelt.

Smelt, smelt, smelt!

All that work sure made me tired.
So the Country Chicken Girl decided she needed a little relaxation...
shhh... don't tell Dan the Man,
he thought I was busy working outside!

It's easy to hide from sight in a tractor rim.

THE END

Welcomed Messengers

2011-03-22T07:37:00.007-06:00

Spring is trying to arrive here in Western Nebraska and is doing a pretty fine job of it, I must admit. But I know you too well Mr. Western Nebraska and I know that there is a lingering snow storm yet on the horizon. As much as I would love to be positive about this Spring weather, I just can't help being a little pessimistic about it. Fooling myself into thinking that Spring was actually here would be a foolish action on my part. It would be news that is just too good to be true.

We ALWAYS have Spring blizzards, so I am not getting my hopes up too high that my beloved Spring has sprung.

These lovely little ladies have come out of hibernation to brighten the flower bed. Thank you ladies, you are beautiful! Remember you can click on the image for a full screen view, which I highly recommend.

Make sure you click on this one.
Incredible!
In my own opinion, of course...

and here it is in black and white.

I will enjoy these lovely Spring days now,
but I will not put away my Winter gear...

just yet.

Bedroom Remodel

2011-03-21T07:05:00.001-06:00

One of the things I really LOVE about Dan the Man is that he is very handy when it comes to construction. Could be due to the fact that he has a degree in construction management and worked in construction for probably 15 years or so.

I love to remodel and wish I had unlimited funds to do so. But, I do not. I do like our trailer house, it is spacious and open as trailer houses go. But there is just something about pre-papered wallboard in every single room that I really detest! Slowly I have been working on each room to make it look more like a real house, and not a trailer house. Begone with you, you stinky ugly wallboard with furring strips every 4 feet to hide the joints of each piece of wallboard that is assembled to build this house. Begone you hideous green carpet!

I started with the master bedroom. I'll post pictures of all the rooms later. Next after Nick and Colton moved out, was that bedroom. Then the master bathroom and now that Chris has moved out, it is this bedroom's turn.

I can remember when I moved out of the house I grew up in and went away to college, my parents did some major remodeling, finished the basement and added a hot tub, bathroom and exercise room all in the basement. I can remember being a little bent out of shape because I sure would have enjoyed those amenities while I was living in that house! So sorry boys, I guess that is just what parents do, remodel the house after the kids leave! You can enjoy the room when you come to visit. Yes and Skyler is the spoiled one because he is the baby and gets to enjoy some of the remodeling now.

Anyway, the first thing that had to go was the UGLY green carpet, which still resides in the living room and master bedroom. This carpet was not the top of the line carpet when we got the house because we bought one that was already manufactured, so I didn't get to make any choices. It has since seen it's better days and now I detest green carpet and never want to have green carpet for as long as I live. I pray there is no green carpet in heaven. Not sure I can handle being stuck with it for an eternity!

Carpet and pad ripped-up and ready to haul out.
Good riddance you despicable excuse for carpet!

The next annoyance to deal with is the furring strips
that plague each wall of this house. Each strip has to be pulled off
which reveals the joint of each wallboard panel.

Then each seam and corner has to be taped with drywall tape
and then drywall mud needs to be applied to each seam.
It takes at least three coats of drywall on each seam.
Each coat of drywall requires sanding in between to keep it smooth.
Dan the Man did all the drywall and sanding.
It is an extremely messy job with all the drywall dust.

Look, nice smooth walls!
Dan the Man does nice work!

Walls and Ceiling now ready to paint.
Dan the Man gets the paint sprayer ready.

Dan the Man has to test out the sprayer before the County Chicken Girl can use it.

Ah ha, my turn!
*Insert "James Bond" or "Charlie's Angels" music here*

This is a low budget blog, so you have to humm the music yourself.

Painting the ceiling.
Sprayer makes light work of this task.
Especially nice since the ceiling has the stupid popcorn texture
which really sucks to paint if you have to roll the paint on.

Like my professional painting hood?
I was thinking I need to paint the top red so it looks like a rooster's comb!

Sometimes we work well together,
sometimes we pretend to work well together,
sometimes we don't pretend!
Sorry if you have to witness those times!

Looks like I'm pretending...
looks like Dan the Man is not pretending!
Why aren't you smiling Dan my man?

Ooo la, la!
Starting to come together!
Southeast wall by closet.

Southwest wall.

Northwest wall by door.

Northeast wall.

Dan the Man laying the floor.

Lookin' nice Manny Danville!
Did you know Dan the Man also know as Manny Danville?

Did I mention that Dan the Man even built a headboard for the bed?
Thanks honey!

Danny said I had to post another picture of the headboard,
without the pillows up so you can see the details of the headboard!

Southeast wall, closet door.

The office has moved out of the kitchen and into the spare bedroom.

West wall.

Northwest corner, door leading into the bedroom.

I plan on framing some of my photos (black and whites) in black frames for the walls.
Now I just have to choose which ones.

Sammi is camera shy and doesn't want to look at the camera,
but she wants to be in the picture!

Reservations are now being taken for the guest room. Why not take a vacation and enjoy a relaxing visit to the Open A Bar 2 Ranch? We'll even let you help with the chores! You had better hurry and book your reservation. The chicken processing dates are really starting to fill up!

Trying to Kill Dan the Man

2011-03-19T20:34:00.005-06:00

The other day I was at the grocery store buying some toothpaste and noticed a spiffy new kind of Listerine in a "purdy" purple bottle.

I thought to myself, "hey, I think I need to try that fancy new mouthwash!"

Hot-diggity-dog, looks like it darn near does everything 'cept for walk the dog.
And the package is so darn "purdy."

The next morning I was so tootin' excited to give that there stuff
a swish and a swirl in my mouth.
I looked on the cap for a "fill here" line but couldn't see one
so I filled the cap a little over 1/2 full.
There, that should do me.
The more the merrier, right.

I started swishing and a swirling and then decided to read the directions.

Vigorously swish for 1 minute?
Holy smokes, this stuff is burning my mouth and it's only been about 30 seconds!

Swish, swish, swish, some more, but it gets too dang hot I think I'm a going
to spit it all over the mirror if I don't spit it out soon in the sink.
My mouth also felt like I had swallowed a 1/2 cup of baking soda
and followed it with a cup full of vinegar!

I couldn't stand it any longer so I spat that fire juice right into the sink.
Egads! I felt like I had just swished with peroxide!

I even had foam in my mouth, not just a little, but a whole lot.

What is in this stuff anyway???

HYDROGEN PEROXIDE!
No wonder it felt like I had just gargled with peroxide.

I thought to my self... "Man, I have got to get Dan the Man to try this stuff and see what he does. It'll be so funny! Hee, hee! He'll think it's just like any other mouthwash. I can't wait to see his reaction to that bizarre chemical reaction."

So I waited for him to come into the bathroom to brush his teeth.
Hee, hee!
I knew he'd be in any minute because he just got done drinking his morning tea.

I said... "You should try this."
I left the bottle on the counter and went into the bedroom to get dressed.
As I was dressing, I kept nonchalantly looking into the bathroom to see if
he was trying it. Well, he brushed his teeth and then left the bathroom.
Ugh, I couldn't tell him to try it or else he would know that something was up.
I would just have to wait until tomorrow.

So the next morning came and I made sure I pointed out the mouthwash.
Hee, hee!
He finally fell for it.
Dan the Man: "How much do you use."
Country Chicken Girl: "About 3/4 of the lid." hee, hee!
I watched as he swished, swished, swished.
Country Chicken Girl: "Make sure you swish real good, it says to rinse between
your teeth."
So Dan the Man swishes harder!
His eyes start to bulge a little.
I tell him it says to swish for a minute.

He finally can't take it any longer and spits it out.

HEE, HEE
HA, HA
HARDY-HAR-HAR!

Dan the Man: "That stuff taste like TOILET BOWL CLEANER!
What are you trying to do? Kill me?"

I love starting the day rolling on the flooring with laughter.

Love you honey!
Please don't be mad at me.