Monster week1

It has been 1 week since we started the treatment on Monster. I believe she is doing better! She is up walking more and she isnt flipping over when we set her on the ground. She is still living in the garage and getting treated like a princess chicken. Im hoping she will continue to improve so we can get her back outside. I have had alot of people tell me im crazy for trying and I should just kill her but I can't do that yet. I surely cant kill her myself! That requires chopping off a head and I think I would rather suffer through the crazy thing living in my garage! So thats the good news before Christmas.
I finished my finals last week so I am shopping and baking like a crazy person this week to catch up to everyone else. I have a few weeks before I start my next semester but im sure it will fly by!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bip9GdicECY

Ashlyns Birthday

The front of the restaruant

One of the dinosaurs outside

A baby T rex at the front

Ashlyn waiting on dinner

We like to celebrate Ashlyns birthday early since it is on Christmas day so she decided she wanted to go to T rex restaurant to eat dinner. It was really neat! It is in the downtown Disney market place. It is full of animated dinosaurs. It has an ice cave that looks like a dinosaur is fossiled in the wall. Every 15 minutes a meteor shower happens and the whole place gets darker and the lights flash. She seemed to have a really good time. We walked around the shops and even seen Santa! Santa is the real deal at Disney! She didnt want to go get a picture with him, just look from a distance.



These were the dinosaurs at our table! They roared while we ate dinner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQVZo0Das2c

Ashlyn's Bear

The 1st grade classes at Ashlyn's school had a teddy bear contest. Ashlyn won with her Bear! She got a candy cane full of M&Ms and a chocolate teddy bear. Im pretty sure this Bear came from ID and Ellie because it just looks like a TN bear!

Monster Chicken

This is the last week of school for me and the kids and was hoping for a nice vacation but not so. Monster chicken is very ill and we have looked and looked on interenet to figure out whats wrong. I think she has Wry Neck.. She is having some sort of neurological issues going on. We researched the internet and are trying some experiments to try to fix her. Im thinking she is not fixable but I am going to give her a few weeks. Only I would have a strange issue like this!



http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IhSQHyvzlM



this is the video of her!

Kids Having Fun!

Yesterday afternoon, the kids had a nice ride before the down pour came. They have been riding alot lately since the weather has been so nice. Ashlyn got an english saddle just like Brooke so she likes to think she is just like her now! Brooke has been helping her by giving her "lessons". Brooke has her telling everyone that her trainer is Brooke Miller. Yesterday they sang Christmas songs the whole time they were riding. I will load the video at the end.

We discovered yesterday that Leah has grown up to be the nice farm dog she should be. Tony didnt know the chickens were out yeasterday and let Leah out the back door with them. He looked out the window and then realized it. He ran out but everyone was fine. She didnt even run after them. She seems to be a little scared of them just like Wyatt was. I sat out there and watched her and she acts like there not even there. One of the brown hens did run at her but she ran for her life! Im very Happy! Leah will be 1 year old tomorrow and she has turned out to be such a good dog. Wyatts shoes are hard to fill but I think she is headed that way.

Science Project

Brooke's science project made it to science fair. She was very surprised and didn't want to do it but she did. She got honorable mention and a $10 savings bond as her award. She did her project on "How does grooming affect a horses heart rate?" She had to work all 3 horses for 3 minutes then let them rest alone for 1 minute then take their heart rate. She repeated the same thing except instead of the horse resting alone, she groomed the horse. We all thought for sure that grooming would bring the heart rate down but it didn't happen that way for the most part. Some of the times it came down, others it was the same for both. The teacher liked the fact that she posted the many things that could have changed the results such as the cold front that came through, the fact that it was biketober fest (I hate motorcycles and I think the horses do too!), the 101 airplanes that seemed to fly over our house everyday and the horses different personalities. The project was a mojor pain but it turned out very good. Now she has to get a social studies project done by Jan. 9th!

Chicken Day!

The kids had a blast at chicken day! They came home with a few awards so they were happy. Ashlyn got 2nd place in the pee wee division for the dressed up chicken and got 2nd place on her record book in her division. Brooke got a third place for her chicken photo in the intermidiate division and got 2nd in her division on the shill a thon. That is a test of your knowledge of chickens. The top pictures are of the chicken race. Ashlyns little one didnt go anywhere but out the way she came in and Brookes turned around a few times but did finally make it to the end. There were some that just ran like the wind to the end of the tunnels! Fair is over and Im ready for some sleep!!!!

Goat Show

The goat show has been quite the experience! We have never shown goats and know nothing about what they are looking for but both girls did very well for their first time. The goats went in Friday at 2 pm. Everyones pens were not right. Gabby and Bambi got seperated very far apart and Gabby wasn't having any part of that. She couldn't see her baby and she was coming out of the pen. We finally just put them in the same pen to keep them calm. The show was to start at 6 pm but it got moved back to 7pm to try and correct the pen mess that everyone had. It never got fixed. Right before the show started, I went back to help Ashlyn with Gabby because she has a hard time handling her in open spaces. The fair people said I couldn't go back. I explained she is by herself, has never done this and she has no 4-H leader back there to help her. They didn't care and told me I would have security called on me if I went back! (Second time this week I have caused an uproar, I will try to post on that after fair!) I ended up finding Jen, the 4-H leader ,to go back and help her. Ashlyn got 6th in her showmanship class last night and 5th in her dwarf class today. Brooke didn't place last night in showmanship, there were alot of juniors! She got a 5th in dwarf goats today. Bambi was like a cat on a leash last night in the showmanship class, it was so funny. So our goat show is over and chicken day is tomorrow. The fun will now begin!

Sad Chicken

Onzo, the chicken, had to come home from the fair last night. She was one of the chickens that Ashlyn had taken. She has been really depressed and not eating or drinking so I got a call last night to come get her. She is doing well today and eating so she just doesnt like the fair! Ashlyn now has to do the whole chicken day with little Butterscotch chicken. She was upset but I told her that little chicken can run just as fast as the big chicken. She wanted to use Onzo in the chicken race. We are heading back to the fair toniht so the kids can ride some rides. It is the first day that we have nothing going on at fair! The kids start showing agin on Friday.

Gameboards

Ashlyn and Brooke did gameboards for the fair also. The gameboard has two wires that you match each side with and if the anwser is correct a little light lights up. Ashlyn did the eggs and Brooke did the sheep. Ashlyn is a cloverbud which is ages 5-7, she doesnt get to compete for 1st or 2nd and so on. 4-H doesnt want the young ones competing so she just got a participation ribbon. The 4-H agent thought it was so good that she said if Ashlyn was able to compete that she would have gotten best over all gameboard! She said she needs to do it again when she is 8. Brooke ended up getting a blue ribbon and best over all gameboard! The girls are having a good fair so far.

Sheep Show

Brooke showed Lily last night and their were 94 sheep! She did really good. She got 2nd place in her class out of 6 sheep. She still got a blue ribbon because the judge liked her. The boy that won her class has really nice sheep and usually always wins. All of the 1st place sheep got to go back in for grand champion pinning. Who ever wins grand champion, they pull the person that got second in the original class and let them join the class for the reserve champion pinning. The boy from Brookes class won so they called her back in to compete for reserve! She didn't get it but it was so cool that she had the chance to come back. The judge also picks who is coming back for showmanship and he called her back for that. Lily wasn't behaving so well for that class but Brooke did a good job holding on to her.Brooke says now that she wants to go to state fair with her so I guess we will try that with her in the spring!

Chicken Placings!

The chickens got judged and they did pretty well. Brooke's chicken did the best, she got a blue ribbon and then got Reserve Best in Breed. Butterscotch, that is like Brookes, got a red because she doesnt look very well with her molting. Onzo. the buff chicken got red, we knew that was going to happen because she has the wrong color legs. We were going to leave her home but had to substitute her for the other buff chicken because she was molting too bad. Lastly, Taco, she got a blue ribbon in the mixed breed contest. We put her in the mixed breed because we were not sure exactly what she was. Come to find out, she is a commercial rhode island red. They are not pure bred but have their own division in the commercial department. They mix rhode island red and new hampshire chickens to get awesome egg layers and they are the chickens that lay the really nice brown eggs. He said if we would have put her in the commercial section she would have got Best in Breed! The judge was very nice at helping us understand his way of judging and what we can do to improve them. Im still amazed at all the new things I learn about the chickens every year. Our new thing this year will be changing their feed to show bird feed to make their feathers look better. I never knew how to make show bird feed and now I do!!!

Fair Check in

Check in day went well! We got to the fair grounds at noon and left by 7pm. We only took 4 chickens instead of 6 because 2 were looking kind of rough from the molt. Lily seems to be settled in and has many sheep friends! Brooke and Ashlyns picture got a blue ribbon in the poultry photo contest. Brooke also got a third overall for the intermidiate division. Tony took off work to help with fair. We have to go out there 2 times a day to get Lily fed so he is doing the morning run for us while I work and me and the kids go to school!

Busy Busy!!!

It has been a busy week! I did 4 chapter tests of psychology on Friday and read like a mad woman all day off and on to finish the next chapter. I woke up early this morning and took all four test on that chapter. Im trying to get ahead so I don't have to worry so much about school during fair. We finally finished Brookes science project that goes in Monday and spent pretty much the whole day washing Lily and the chickens. The chickens look thrilled don't they?! We had to blow dry everyone after so they had to wait patiently in their chicken burritos till we got to them. The second one from Ashlyn in the picture fell asleep for a little while. I think she is sleeping in the picture. Tomorrow we will shave Lily and then we should be done till Wednesday when we check them into the fair.

Brooke and Kitty

I love this picture of Brooke and Kitty! One of the 4-H girls took this picture of them. She did a really good job! For those of you that don't know the story of Kitty, it has been a long road. Kitty was originally bought by my mom and Vince. She was a bag of bones and came to live with me because I had time to hopefully save her life. I fed her small amounts many times a day to bring her back to weight. The vet I had at the time said she thought she would not make it and I shouldn't get my hopes up. She was so bad that I was scared to take a picture of her!! The first picture taken was after 6 weeks and my mom did that. Kitty obviously survived. She went back to live with my mom and had a baby. In 2008 I brought Kitty home to be Brookes horse. Brooke needed something to show and Kitty was a show horse in her earlier years. At first, it was perfect and Brooke showed her and it was a match made in heaven. Then , Kitty was sick alot! She would colic every couple days and was not good. The vet said she had ulcers! So we started her on ranintidine, horse zantac, and she was all better. She was doing so good that she was full of herself and suddenly Brooke couldn't get along with her. Kitty then became my horse. I trail rode her and exposed her to everything I could. This summer Brooke started taking lessons and is getting really good at her riding. She is doing so well that she is riding horses for other people. She decided that she wan't to try showing Kitty again. She took her to the show last month and did great! This is when this picture was taken. She showed her again last weekend and it went ok but not great. I can't blame the horse completely because it was the worst weekend in the world to try and show a horse at a show. It was complete tropical storm weather! It didn't stop raining the whole day and the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing the rain into the covered arena. Most people harbor theirselves indoors when it rains, but not us, we tackle the outdoors like a bunch of crazy people! So that is the story of Kitty, she really is a good horse but has a little emotional bagage to haul around with her but I really can't blame her. If I was starved and left to die, I think I would be the same. Brooke says she is going to show Willow at the next show but I'm sure she will show Kitty again.

Countdown to Fair!

So fair is 3 weeks away! The girls are getting really excited. Brooke is showing the sheep, a goat and chickens. Ashlyn is showing a goat and chickens. We brought Lily, the sheep, to our house till fair. It will give Brooke more time to work with her if she is at home. After fair she will be going back to John and Kim's. All of our chickens are looking kind of rough. They are all molting so they look very bad with all the feather lose. Both girls will be doing the chicken Costume contest again. Nana spent a lot of time making those! We are in high gear now trying to get school work done, and science project done. Yes Brooke has a science project due 2 days before fair starts! She is in advanced classes in school and this science project is a pre college level. Im starting to double think the idea of putting her in that program! When the teacher said it would be alot of work for the parents too, she wasn't lying! Anyway, we are on a roll and can't wait to have some fun at the fair. I'll will try to update fair as we go if I have time.

First Week of School

We servived our first week of school even with all the chaos in our life. The kids had to go back to waking up at 6am, I had to get in the hang of taking the kids to 2 different schools and picking up from 2 different schools and fit my work schedule into the middle of it all. Brooke had drill team Monday, I had to have tree estimates everyday to take care of our dead trees and then Brooke had to go to her lesson that was Thursday during the start of the storms from the hurricane. Pouring down rain and 25 mph winds doesnt stop her from riding. I am really glad the week is over! The kids both had a good week at school so that was a bonus to the whole week. I hope next week goes ok. We have the tree people coming at 8am Monday morning and I have to move all the animals from the barn and get the kids to school and my classes start ,so I may be a little crazy by Tuesday.

The Stray!

On Friday we went to Blizzard Beach for the day. We had a really good time and were wore out. We got home about 10:30 pm and went to the barn to give the horses hay and found this chicken in the barn. It is not one of ours. So we now have a stray chicken! Leave it to me to have a chicken just wonder up to my house, especially were I live. To top it off it is a rooster! So the kids have been playing with him and feeding him until I can find were he lives or I can find him a new home. I think all my neighbors would kill me if I kept a crowing rooster! He is not crowing yet but he is still a baby so I guess he can stay till he finds his voice. I think my chickens told him he can eat really good here if he stays!

Ashlyn's First lesson

Ashlyn had her first riding lesson. She did so good! Brooke normally takes a lesson every week to work on her jumping but she is at camp so we put Ashlyn in her place this week. Tony said she wouldn't last 5 minutes but she made it an hour and a half. It was the first time she got to ride in the arena by herself and she was so proud of herself. She got to do balancing games, do patterns and go over ground poles. She did a very good job. Willow was such a trooper. I love that pony! Bridie, the instructor, has named her super pony. Everyone just loves Willow. If every little girl could have a willow pony, it would be a perfect world!

Summer Camp

Brooke went off to 4-H summer camp today for the whole week. I took her to the Ag center to meet the bus at 8:30 this morning and she won't be back till 4pm Friday. She was so excited to get away from us crazy people! Ashlyn was really bummed that she is not old enough to go but we are going to do some fun things this week. We are going to go to the movies, the beach, and Ashlyn is going to get a riding lesson like Brooke gets every week. She is looking forward to that one. We miss Brooke already and can't talk to her till she comes home but we know she is going to have a great time!

Strawberry Jam

Me and the girls finally got to make strawberry jam! We canned it also and it turned out great. It was alot of mashing and the kids were shocked that 7 cups of sugar actually go in 9 jars of jam. It was a bit nerve racking for me because I have never canned anything and was sure I was going to blow up the kitchen ,but thanks to step by step instruction from Pioneer Woman (she has a great website of everything) it came out perfect. We are going to do pickles next before the kids start back to school. It is actually fun to do and Im looking forward to doing it again.

Leah

Leah is 7 months old now! She is getting so big. She weighs about 30 pounds now and I hope she stops growing soon. She is a trouble maker for sure, chews shoes, socks and every stuffed animal she can find. The kids are having so much fun with her. They just laugh all the time because she is so funny when she plays with them. Ashlyn has a tunnel that connects to a tent and Leah runs throuh the tunnel and whips it around the room. The kids think that it is really funny! Anyway, I think she will be a real dog soon, she has learned sit, shake, lay down and roll over. When she gets real excited she does them all really fast just to get a treat faster. If I could just get her to bark, I would have it made!

Ashlyns Funny Ways

The girls have 4-H day camp all this week. They are doing cooking, sewing, jewelry making, scrapbooking and learning healthy nutrition. They are having a blast. Yesterday they made freezer peach jam. I was in the jam class helping and all the kids had fun but what a challenge when you have 10 kids at a time trying to make jam! In the nutrition class they made yogurt and fruit bowls for a healthy snack. Iasked Ashlyn if she ate her yogurt. She said, "Yes, but I only put blueberries in it because I dont like pineapple". I said, " I thought you liked pineapple?" She said, "No! I tried it back when the dinosaurs were alive and I didnt like it!" I said, "What?!!!!, Ashlyn, you werent alive when the dinosaurs were alive". She said, "Oh!". I dont have a clue where that all came from but it made for a good laugh all day today! Ashlyn works the sewing machine on Thursday and Lord help us all! Hopefully she doesnt sew herself to her apron.

Ashlyns Award Program

Ashlyn graduated to 1st grade! She is doing so well and loves school. Her teacher was great! I was worried because Ashlyn is such a unique child to work with but her teacher said she was great and was one of her best students. It is amazing how well she reads now. She reads words that I can't figure out how she figures out. Hopefully learning comes as easy to her as it does to Brooke. At her program they sang songs and got an award for finishing Kindergarten. She says she is going to become a big girl next year because she doesnt have to have Brooke help her at school now! Next year will be exciting, 3 different schools at all different times. Should keep me crazier than ever!

Brookes Awards

Brooke is moving on to sixth grade!!! She is growing up so fast. She had her 5th grade awards and got 9 awards! She did really awesome this year. She excelled in math so she got an award for that. She had over 300 reading counts points so she got a picture with her favorite book taken and enlarged. Her other awards were for great grades and overall achievement. We are so proud of her. She says it is really sad leaving her school to go to another. She will never be in the same school as Ashlyn again either! That will be a challenge for me! So new school and new friends and alot of growing up!