radishes

I have harvested 18 radishes and 1 little jalapeno!

I will also have some zucchini this week ! yum yum!

no more bottle!

Case is weaned from the bottle! woohoo!

science lesson #1

what is this above you may be asking yourself? Well, the pictures are of a soft shelled egg.

Since school is out for summer, I am really missing teaching. so, I decided that whenever I find something cool or unusual around the farm, I am going to take a picture of it and give all you readers a short and interesting (possibly useless) science lesson.

So today, when I was out feeding the animals and checking on them, I saw that one of our hens had laid a soft shelled egg. Now what this looks like is a rough feeling balloon with the white and yolk inside. You can see it, but it is translucent. Now this happens when a hen is not getting enough calcium. You see, shells are primarly calcium, that is also why it is good to recycle them, whether you compost them for your garden or feed them back to your chickens as an organic source of calcium - anyhow, when a chickens diet is lacking clacium or their diet is varied, it is important to feed grit and oyster shell which too serves a supplement for calcium.

swimming in Tucson

as many of you may know, Case is a BIG fan of water. He loves to take baths, splash, play in mud puddles, yesterday he even tried to climb into the goats water until he figured out that he is not tall enough to climb all the way in and didn't know how to climb out. it was pretty funny.

Well, my parents have an open room in the middle of their house, called an atrium and they have a kidde swimming pool. I didn't know this, so I neglected to bring any swimmers diapers of his swimming trunks. So, Case got to swim in the nude, and boy, he had a fun time!

memorial day weekend

Well, our weekend has been pretty good. Saturday we worked around the house, doing honey-do's, irrigating and working in the garden... oh and of course the normal chores of laundry, dishes and housework. 

Sunday we went to the Southern Baptist Church as our friends go their and we have heard the Pastor was good. I enjoyed it it, partly because they have a nursery, which according to me is a must when you have a  1 year old!

After church I left town and headed west towards my parents house, my dad and I had big plans to accomplish! So far, this is what we have done:

• made 14 pounds of chorizo (from scratch, mind you)
• unloaded 6 chickens and made them a home (my students raised them in Duncan)
• talked some about welding aluminum and me becoming a CWI/CWE (for those of you unfamiliar with welding slang, that means a certified welding inspector and educator)
• got my truck detailed (it took 3 hours, must have needed to be done!)
• talked some about our Spur making workshop we are doing together this summer

Oh yes, and we still have more to do! if you are nice, I might just share the recipe, it is pretty dang easy!

future FFAer you think?

Case refuses to wear hats. in fact, he hates wearing hats... except, he has taken a strong liking to an FFA hat I got for Eric awhile back. He loves this hat. He plays with it, carries it everywhere and will actually wear it for a few minutes.

I did it.

back in January, I took 9 of my students to compete in a NATIONAL public speaking and cattle judgin event. They told me that if they won, I should dye my hair purple. I agreed to it. Oh dear!

So 4 of the public speakers placed very high.. as in , 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th overall (there were 13 speakers from a cross the country) So looks like I had to dye my hair. I bought the hair dye and swore I was going to do it.... and February passed, march, april passed.. oh, its almost the end of the year. So I did it last nght, and I can dye my hair fine normal colors, but it seems I have dyed my scalp as well after taking horrible pictures for all of you to see... we shall call them abstract.

oh, and the dye is only semi-permanent.. so, It shouldn't last forever right? but to be honest, I think its quite fun to have purple hair.. I don't even own a purple shirt, might as well have purple hair!!

oh.. and Im not quite sure Eric knows.....

vocabulary

Cases' vocabulary is getting greater everyday:

1. dad
2. mom
3. light ( favorite word)
4. is that (as in, what is that?)
5. oon (moon)
6. more
7. ba (bottle or sippy cup)
8. shakes his head no, but doesn't say no
9. yes

harvest

I had to share with you my first harvest from my garden!! A beautiful radish!

who loves football?

Case has found an old football of Erics' from high school. He has adopted it as his new favorite toy. This boy loves balls! He plays with the football, a dirty old baseball (one of the practice ones from the high school) and a red bouncy ball Janie got him for his birthday!

I think we have a future athlete on our hands!!

see his new kicks? Those are ones that Papaw Udell bought him for his first pair of real shoes! what a cool Papaw! They must be magic because Case loves to wear them, and when he is wearing them, all he wants to do is walk all over the place!

spring branding #3

spring branding #2

By far the coolest picture of the afternoon, I am going to zoom it in pretty good and then you can see my dad roping this calf, the loop is open and everything!

cow 111 got a little ornery, Eric is here putting in a premise tag.

the first brand, just got done with the E


here is cow 111 getting fiesty, we thought she was going to jump the head gate.. but, she didn't make it!

branding her!

spring branding

Jake, the infamous Bull.. we thought we had him caught to put a premise ID tag in his left ear, and whamm-ooo, he turned around and escaped! Darn! that will be the last time we have him caught up before we take him to the sale.. anyone want to buy him?!?

How do you keep a 1 year old at bay during branding? You give him his own corral! Redneck or not, it served its purpose, kept Case safe and allowed mom do get the ear tags, vaccines and bedeezers for dad and grandpa.

This picture is before we branded, when Case was still able to roam free while dad and grandpa were bringing up the cows.

Once again, keeping Case busy while preparing to brand. He loves tires and wheels.


Here Eric is moving our 100 year old squeeze, and you know what? It worked like a charm!

Cute boy named Case!

Caught in the act.. but mom, its so fun to take everything out of my drawers!!

such a smart little fart!

loves his fruits!

playing with dad

first hair cut!

Case was preparing to have a mullet, so I decided since we aren't THAT redneck to give him a trim. The pictures aren't very good, but here he is!