Back at it with a bang!

After remembering last week I had my blog I have decided to come back to keep track of more memories! Man are there many that I have missed since last posting. There is no way to catch back up on those but if the opportunity from other posts allow me to touch back on them I sure will.

So right now I'm sitting in the house at 5 am thankful for all I have. This time last week I was preparing for Hurricane Matthew and wasn't sure if we would have a house to come back to. My biggest fear was our trees. We have many of them and I wasn't sure what would be taken out by them. I knew for sure that I had to get the animals out of here because of the trees. I got remarks from some that I was over thinking it, I should just stay it's nothing to worry about, but I had to do what my heart said to do and I was so glad I did. The big massive oak tree that I thought would go did not move! The healthy ones snapped like tooth picks. Crazy how that happens. Tree through our barn roof, trees down in each pasture. It will be a mess for a while but for now we are functioning. My house was unharmed! So very thankful for that.

Saturday after the storm Tony came back home while we stayed at my moms so he could evaluate what needed done before bringing the animals back.( He wouldn't allow me to come because my back is out!) Main thing was stabilizing fences and the barn. John, Tony's brother, came over to help with that effort. They worked really hard on getting that done!

The first Challenge was the roads! This is the road in front of the house and you can see that the trees are blocking all the way down the road. The whole neighborhood look like a bomb went off and exploded the trees.

At first glance from the house it just looks like some leaves and limbs but you would really have to be here in person to see the size of the massive trees on the ground next to both sides of the barn.

The big oak tree that I was afraid of coming down lost one of its huge limbs into the barn. Thank goodness the sheep where not here to have to witness this! I am afraid they might not have survived.

This big tree shaded our back half of the property. Not anymore! I didn't realize the center of it was even rotting like it was.

Its hard to tell in this picture but there is another massive tree on the other back side of the pasture. It will remain there for sometime because the water is just too high to be going through to cut it up. Surprisingly all the flood waters in the barn were soaked in by the time we got the animals home.

We ended up leaving Kisses at my mom's house so we only had to worry about a place to keep the sheep. Right now we have roughly 20 days till fair! Our main goal right now is to keep the market lambs growing and gaining in a comfortable safe area. I think we have managed that so far.

Carey and Jason came to help us on Sunday haul many limbs to the road so the county could pick them up. We have months and months of tree work to do but slowly we will get there.

I am on week 2 of my back being out. I really hate that I have developed a back problem. All I did was turn wrong getting in the car and out went my lower back. Shooting pain down my leg to the point I can barely walk. At this point I don't know if my back or my leg hurt worse, all I know is I want it to go away so I can get on with working in my yard!

Well that was my first post back on the blog and I hope to keep up with this for all of you and for myself. I really do love going back to see the memories that we had that just seem to slip by my memory. See you again soon!

Counting down!!

The countdown to fair is on! The Saturday before last we had barn workday to set up all the pens for the animals for fair. The kids all work together to make this happen. They have to put in the shavings and wash all the water and feed bowls for the chickens.

 

 

Brooke spent the rest of the week working on science project. Of course I didn't get a picture of that!! It was on which color crayon melts the fastest. (the white won).

 

Last weekend we had 2 days of Fall Festival ( Really 4 days if you count set up and tear down)! It was a lot of fun for the kids. We helped work the petting zoo most of the time.

 

 

Brooke fell in love with the Donkey! She wants him for Christmas and I said NO!!!!

 

 

 

He is really cute!!! Look at that face.

 

 

 

She really wants him!!! When she moves out he can be hers. LOL

 

So the rest of the week has been preparing for fair and doing the usual running around. Brooke had after school FFA meeting and when I returned, I found this..............

 

 

 

Bambi stuck in the porch canopy! I really don't know what she was thinking to get herself in this situation. Tony had to bend the piping to get her out. Afterwards, Gabby was running around ramming us. I guess she was really upset and maybe thought we did this to her. They are not very smart!!!

 

So that's about all for now. Brooke has a 4H dance tomorrow and Sunday begins the shaving of sheep and goats and washing of the chickens. Our 12 chickens are down to 5 because they are coming down with the pox. Hopefully no more get it!!!

 

I will be back soon!!

 

 

 

 

 

Awards Night

Another week has come and gone and there has not been a spare minute wasted! The kids had their 4H awards night on Saturday. Brooke had to be there at 1:00 to decorate and prepare for the big event at 6:00. The kids got lots of awards for all their hard work on projects during the year.

 

Brooke had a ceremony at beginning to welcome her and the other kids of the board into the new year for the county council of 4H. Brooke was and still is the parliamentarian.

 

The rest of the week was spent catching up on fair projects that are due tomorrow! Pictures of the chickens still had to be taken and record books had to be finished. Might I add that the science project is still not finished!

 

We had one of Ashlyn's show chickens come down with fowl pox. It is a bad case of it! The pox formed on her eye and it has swollen her eye shut. She is not eating very well either. She won't be going to fair for sure. I am hoping nobody else gets it! It is very contagious and can cause secondary respiratory infection so the whole coop is on antibiotics to hopefully keep that from happening.

 

 

 

There is really not a dull moment around here for sure! We have barn workday at the fair grounds tomorrow to prepare for fair. 20 days till fair!!!

 

Fall festival will be next weekend!! 

 

Drill Team

So another week has come and gone!!! Last weekend Brooke had a drill team competition. She has been working all year toward this and did very well at every practice but........ Kitty lost her mind there! Poor Brooke had to ride her with her bouncing off the walls. She did so well controlling her. Needless to say Kitty will not be returning to drill work!

Kitty- theme-Angels (which kitty was not an angel at all!)

 

After that ride was such a disaster, Tony went home and got Willow. Poor willow got pulled out of the pasture with no practice on this drill since may! That didn't go very well either. It was much better than Kitty but still not a great ride. We were all ready to go home for sure!

 

Willow -theme- Men in Black

 

 

Monday Brooke had to be at school at 5:45 am for an FFA leadership training field trip. With the amount of leadership training classes she has she should be able to lead the USA by now!!!

 

FFA chapter

 

 

We finished out the week with the dentist (more cavities... never ending nightmare), county council meetings, review board, 4h meeting and lots of homework. This weekend we have 4h awards!

 

No cavities for Ashlyn!

 

 

 

 

 

Beach and show fun

Last 2 weekends have been busy. The week before last we had International Coastal Cleanup at the beach. The 4H group went together for a community service project. Brooke was not able to go because she was at a District 4H officer training class. Ashlyn did a really good job at picking up trash. We were only able to keep the kids attention for about 1 1/2 hours! They ended up gathering about 30 pounds of trash in that short time.


Ashlyn losing interest in trash!!

 





Ashlyn in the beach with her friend Ashlinn

The kids were happy to get in the water with it being so hot! Afterwards we met with Ellie to have lunch with her because we had to shave sheep the next day and would not be able to see her at the family cookout.

 

This last weekend the kids had a Jackpot Sheep and Goat show. It was nasty, rainy weather at the beginning but did dry up a little toward the end of the day.

Ashlyn and Gabby

 

 

Ashlyn got 5th out of 6 people in showmanship. The judge told her that she needs to be a little more attentive but has what it takes to be good. Lets see what she does with that!!! Gabby got last in her class. She is just not show quality! Got love her anyway.

 

Ashlyn in her class

Brooke did not place in showmanship but she won her class with Lily!! She was so excited! She has been working really hard with her to get her fit back up after the baby.


Brooke and Lily (Brooke in pink)

 

So we have had some fun! Now the fun continues. This week we are preparing for drill team competition next weekend, working on 4H group fair booth, trying to finish up gameboards, posters and record books that are due for fair in the next 2 weeks. Oh and that dreaded science fair project for school! (I am really glad this is the last year for science projects for a while. )

So that's it for now!

 

 



Countdown to fair!!!

 

The state inspector came out today to test the out of control chicken population we have now for fair!! He was shocked at the fact we have 16 chickens now. I believe they will all test fine but it is a requirement for them to enter the fair. The kids were in school so I had to chase down 8 hens and 1 rooster, hold them while he stuck a cotton swab in their throat and then stuck a vein under the wing to get blood. I was cover with blood afterwards! One day my kids will love me for the little things I do. :)

 

We have a busy couple weeks ahead. The kids have a Critter Crew 4H meeting tonight to vote on officers, Brooke has a district 4H meeting Thursday and this weekend hopefully start the dreaded science project of Brooke's.

 

Next week is full of drill team, mandatory fair meetings, 4H meeting, open house for school, District 4H officer training, coastal cleanup and shaving sheep and goats for sheep and goat show. Me and Tony have homework and tests to fit in somewhere and maybe try to sleep at some point!! Love this time of year though because it is so much fun. I love my busy life because it means my kids are having fun!!

 

 

Horse Judging

The horse judging went really well. Brookes team backed out at the last minute so she had to judge by herself. She was able to go for an individual score. She didn't mind at all and she had a really good time.

The had 8 classes total that they had to judge. She scored perfect on 3 of them. this was her first time judging and I thought she did really well for her first time. She had a total score of 394 out of 450.

The most exciting thing was that one of the horses they were judging was a horse that we had owned! It is Danny. We had started breaking him so that Brooke could have him but we discovered he had a disorder called HYPP. It caused him to have really bad seizsures so we gave him to a home that was going to put him to pasture. Apparently that didn't happen! He looked really good.

Kittys Last Show

Last weekend brooke went to her 4H horse show and showed Kitty for the last time. Brooke won all 3 of the classes she went in and had a good time. She will continue to ride her in drill team and trail ride her till I finish my classes in May. At that point we will take her to my moms and bring home Stan, Brookes new horse.

 

This is Stan. he seems to be a really good boy. Brooke has been going up and riding him at my moms and just waiting to bring him home. He needs alot of riding and working with so that is why Brooke has to wait till I finish my classes. I have the whole summer off so we will have plenty of time to really check him out. I am hoping this horse works out this time!!!

 

 

Ashlyn has already gone to her first horse show with Willow. She is so excited to go to another one. I think she will be going in April. She doesn't seemto be as serious at it as Brooke but we will see if it starts to grow on her! She loves to just ride and have fun. Thats fine with me if thats all she wants to do!

 

We are off to our first weekend of State Fair Saturday. Brooke has horse judging contest for 4H. She seems to really enjoy doing it. Be back next week for updates!

 

Long Time No See

 

So it has been a while since I have posted! I tried the whole Facebook thing but to tell you the truth I don't like it so much. I started it so I would know what I was doing when Brooke got it but she doesn't want it now so I am going to start backing away from it. I just don't feel like I can relax about my stuff on there!

Anyway, things are getting busy around here. I am on week 4 of school and it is really tough. Anatomy just is not an easy class to get through! I am done with all the classes I needed for Radiography program so I am just taking classes to keep my student status with the college till I get accepted into the program. I am taking classes that go toward an AA degree since I may not get in the program first try.

In January I started couponing and it is so amazing! I can't believe how much money I have saved in 4 weeks. I calculated the costs and I saved $365 and only spent $347. My cabinets and freezer are really getting stocked on top of that! I can't believe how much I save and how much more food I have. It is really so easy that I wish I would have started this a year ago! My sister has helped me and pointed me in the right direction and I am so grateful for that.

This weekend we head to state fair for Brooke's horse judging competition and the following weekend we go for 3 days for the sheep show. Both kids are so excited and it will be like a mini vacation for us. My mom is going with us so she can experience all the fun with the kids.

Well that is all for now! I will try to come back more often to keep everyone up to date on whats going on with the kids!

Miracle Puppy

 

 

Leah is a true miracle! Sunday morning we woke up and Leah had no control of her back legs. She was swaying all over and if she tried to run she would fall down. She could not walk on the kitchen floor without falling. We decided to take her to Deland Animal Hospital. When we got there they looked her over and had asked if we had found any ticks recently. I told them no. I rub her everyday and have not felt anything. They were stumped over what it could be. The Dr said it could be GME. That is an immune disorder and the only way to find out is to go to the University to have an MRI and a spinal tap done. He sent us home and said to just watch her. We decided we would go to our Dr Monday morning and have him look at her. As the day progressed, she got worse. During the night she became completely paralyzed and her breathing was getting bad. I called my mom at 4AM and asked her to come watch my kids while me and Tony take her back to the hospital. I was convinced that she was going to have to be put down and I wanted to be with her when that happened. She is not as close to Tony as she is to me and I knew she would be scared. I then began to wake the kids up at 5:30 to explain to them that she was very sick and if they wanted they could come sit with her because I wasn't sure she would be coming back home. That was very hard!!!! I told Tony I wanted to sit in the back with her so I did. She layed on my lap and I just began rubbing her to comfort her. We got a few miles down the road when I felt something. It was a tick!!!! That's when I began to have a feeling of maybe she doesn't have to die today. When we got there we told them we found the tick and they immediately pulled it and began her on IV fluids, steroids and antibiotics. They said they would keep her till the next morning. We called at noon and they said she was not any better. I just had a feeling of doom! At 4:30 Tony called to check on her and the said oh yes you can come get her. Tony then asked if she was better and they said she can stand but is wobbly. He asked if she could walk and they said no. Another girl said she is really not any better than she was when you brought her this morning. We decided we were just going to get her and bring her home. So we got there and waited for along time. Finally they brought her in the room and she was running around!!!! Totally not what I was expecting from the phone call 2 hours prior! We took her outside and she ran all over their yard. It was a miracle.

I am so glad I sat with her and found that tick! If I had not done that we would have put her down. When we brought her home and she ran in the house the kids were so excited! They couldn't believe it. I have a huge vet bill but I don't really care. I have my puppy!!! She is so much part of our family that I can't imagine her not being here. Thank you Lord for allowing us to continue to enjoy her!

 

 

Summer is Over!

The summer is over and the kids are back to school. Most people are really happy their kids go back but not me, I have been very lonely! They are having a great time and love their teachers so far. Brooke has a huge work load this year. She is taking Algebra 1 honors, advanced civics, advanced science and spanish 1! She will be a busy girl for sure. All of these classes are high school credits and she is only in 7th grade.

We didn't do much for the summer but the kids ended the summer with a chicken clinic for 4H so they could learn more about chickens. Pretty much it was just to go because I don't think we really can learn anymore!!! Brooke got a new chicken that is only the size of a pigeon. She is so cute but has to stay in her own cage because the other chickens try to kill her. Her name is Lemon.

New chicken- "Lemon" sleeping during class

 

My friend Karin had to find a home for her 2 chickens so we offered to take them also. They are cute! They are Cochins and are only 5 months old but they are bigger than our laying hens so they will be giant for sure. I have a picture but for some reason it won't post right! It is sideways but here it is anyway! HAHA!

Weird I know but what can I do! Spotted one is Bobalena and black one is Cozy! I did not name them!!!

I start back to school on Monday and I am really nervous about this semester. Two of my hardest classes on top of fair time! I hope I can dissect that brain and eyeball without throwing up! I just keep telling myself it is only 15 weeks but that seems like a lifetime.

So not much else going on. Brooke starts the new show year September 8th and Ashlyn will start December 1st at her show. So I am praying it will all go well and they will be safe. Fair will be in November so it will all be a very busy few months.  I will try to keep up with posting but I'm not sure how good I will be at that!

Busy!

It's been so long since I last posted! It has just been a tough month and a half!

The babies are growing fast. We had a little set back though. We found out that they are not pure bred chickens so the kids can not show them! Becky made a mistake because she thought there had been enough time passed when she took the other rooster out of the pen but there must not have been. She gave the girls 2 pure breds of hers and ours went to live with my mom.

On Father's day Brooke's new horse, Summer, got sick. She coliced for 2 days and the vet said she needed surgery. We just couldn't afford to do it so I was going to put her down. They wanted me to wait but everyday she was sick was vet bills that were rising. The vets husband said he would take her and try and save her so thats what I did. She ended up living but we don't own the horse anymore. It was a huge blow to us! With purchase price, vet bills and other things done to her we have nearly $6000 in her that we have lost! I am still paying on the vet bill she incured while she was sick and I owned her so every week I have to pay on a bill that causes me to just be ill. I am just ready to move on and forget the whole thing. In the mean time we have brought Kitty back home and hopefully we can make her work for Brookes shows right now. There is noway I can get her another horse right now.

On top of all of that my truck blew its engine!!! I have been without it for 2 weeks now. They are putting 2 new heads on it this week I hope and maybe it will be done by next week. The guy that is working on it has been really good at trying to get us the best price for the fix. $1600 is what it will cost and we have been told that it is a good deal by other people.

So our summer plans have been really pushed to the side with all this set back. Now I am focusing on getting what the kids need for school. They start back August 20 and I start back August 27. It seems to be right around the corner! It has seemed like a really rushed summer and its getting b use so quick.

The kids bought a pool with their gift cards from Christmas so we have been chilling in there. Its nice to be able to cool off when its so hot!

I will try to post back soon!

Hatching early!!!!

So the babies are coming!!! Let me tell you they were supposed to start Thursday but they picked Tuesday. Two were hatched yesterday and one hatched over night. I spent an hour yesterday putting crates together and putting the chickens and their babies in them in the garage. Now the garage is a chicken nursery!They are so cute!!!!

Here is a little one peaking out!

They are just too cute!

Each Hen has her own cage. One hen has 1 baby and the other has 2. We will see how many actually hatch. There is a total of 10 eggs that I put under them. I seperated them because yesterday one hen took the other hens baby so they were not happy about that. Now they dont have to fight!

One Little chick

Our experiment with the 4 eggs under the chicken failed. The day after i put the eggs under her 2 eggs dissapeared! the other 2 were not fertile. So i got 5 more eggs and put them in a friends incubator. Only 1 of those eggs hatched and now we have peeps the chick.

Last week Becky gave me 10 more eggs so I have two chickens that are broody and they are laying on 5 eggs each. They are due to hatch on the 31st. Hopefully we get atleast 1 from that batch so this little chick will have a friend! The hens are sitting in the same nest together laying on there babies. If this doesnt work this time, we are done for this year. They are both getting really skinny because they don't like to eat much. They don't want to leave the eggs for very long.

I will update as soon as we have babies!!!!!!

Drill Performance

Brooke had a drill team performance at Cracker Day. We just met the group at 11am to do the performance at 12 and then had lunch and came home. It was way too hot to be hanging out there all day. It seemed to be 100 degrees out there. Willow did awesome and all the girls looked and did great! They all worked really hard all year and it was nice for them to perform for a crowd. I posted a video for all to see. It is a little shakey because I was standing on the bull shutes and they were moving.

Drill Team Performance Video

Project of the Month

This is Chelsea chicken. She is the baby we got last year and raised with the stuffed animal bunny! She is sitting in this nest because she is broody. This means she is laying on eggs, that are not hers, because she intends to hatch them out. Only problem is, we don't have roosters and it doesn't matter how long she sits there, there will be no babies!!!!

The eggs she took over were not even her eggs. They belonged to the big chickens so they were double the size of her eggs. The picture shows the big chicken egg on left and her eggs on right. Very big difference! Soooooooo.....

My friend Becky has bantam chickens and does have a rooster so she brought me 4 of her eggs to trade out for the big chicken eggs so Chelsea will not be sitting for nothing! I hope they are fertile! So we wait now for 21 days to see if Chelsea will become a mother to babies that are not hers. In the mean time we have to take her off her eggs 2 times a day to make her eat and drink because she insists that she is not leaving the eggs.

I really don't know how I get myself into these things but it is what it is! I should really be worrying about my math final in 3 weeks but to be honest, this is more fun! I should really think about changing my career plan to being an AG teacher, but thats probably not a good choice! Anyway I will keep every one posted. I will check the eggs in 10 days and see if I can see a glimpse of the little guys in the eggs by using a light.

The Computer Curse

Most of you know that I am in school and this is my second year. This year has been my most challenging so far. When I started school last year, Tony bought me a laptop to do all my work on since I was taking online classes as well as in class. It was a very nice computer and I loved it. Well 1 week before I started school this January, My laptop crashed! It is only 1 year old and 9 days out of warranty. Needless to say I had a major breakdown and had no idea how I was going to start school. Especially when the online class was a computer class on Office 2010!!!! So I race it down to the computer guy begging for help. He said it would take a few days. He called me several days later, we are now down to about 4 days till class, and said to come in because he thinks it is fixed. I get there and he turns the computer on to show me how well it works but the screen is black! Really?! I knew then that I was in trouble. He says he needs to keep it and look into it more.

Tony decides we will go buy another computer so I can start school and when my computer is fixed he will take it because he needs a computer to start back to school himself.So we go to Walmart to get a new one but this time get the extended warranty. Don't need anymore breakdowns for school!From day one I hate the computer, it just wasn't like my other one. 1 week later computer man calls and says to come get computer, it is not fixable because it could be 1 of 3 things and it would cost more than the computer cost us originally. Now I'm really freaked out because now Tony still needs a computer and that one was only a year old.

Well time allowed me to chill until my new computer, which is only 3 months old, crashes on me this week!!! I have 3 PowerPoint presentations due Friday and have a broken computer. I call the warranty, they send me to Dell and I get to talk to people that can barely speak English. They walk me through a bunch of tests and say the computer is fine. I just about lost it, the computer is not fine.They say they fixed it so today once again it has crashed. I made Tony do the call relay tonight, they found 5 crashes to the driver and now say it is fixed. We will see!!! I'm using it now so we will see if it can hold up.

So I am now sitting here waiting till midnight because fall registration opens the 4th and I need an online class that has only 27 openings.I really need this class!!!  I have 2 classes left and then I can apply for radiography. I am hoping the computer will be OK and allow me to register. Mean while we have ordered computer # 3 that will be deliver Thursday so I can at least finish this computer class, in the event this computer goes out again, and allow Tony to start back to school next month. I think I have for sure been slapped with the Computer Curse!!!!

New Horse

This is our new horse, Summer! Brooke needed a horse to move up to because she is getting too big for Willow and Ashlyn would like to have her pony back! HaHa! We have only had her for a week and she seems to be a very nice horse. It is a big adjustment for all of us because she is much younger than the other horses we have owned and she is also much bigger than our other horses. We are learning more and more about her everyday and are hoping she will be a nice horse for Brooke to grow with. The journey begins and hopefully it leads us into many wonderful things!

Sheep Show

So Saturday Night Brooke showed Lily in Showmanship. It is judged on the way the person handles the sheep and sometimes they ask them questions or feel for how clean they are.

She did a really good job. There were 41 kids so they split the class into 4 separate classes and just brought back the top 3 or 4 from all 4 classes do judge the final class. Brooke didn't get called back but she did receive a red ribbon and she will receive $40 for that class.

On Sunday we pretty much spent the day at the show ring. It was the day of the sheep show. They judge on the quality and the way the sheep are built. It started at 11 am so we just had to hang around till her class came about.

Lily waits patiently for her class!

Brooke is in the center with the white shirt.

Walking the sheep so the judge can see a side view.

Lily is one of the smaller sheep in the class

Brooke ended up with 7th out of 9 so she wasn't last. Lily just wasn't as big as the other sheep. Alot of them are pregnant so they do give the illusion that they are bigger. The judge did give her a blue ribbon so she will receive $50. Brooke had alot of fun!

While we waited, me and Tony took turns floating Ashlyn around the fair to look at things. Mostly the chicken barn and the milking parlor! There were alot of chickens for sale so she kept going over to tell me she wanted to buy another chicken. We have no more room for chickens so that would require a new coop. She says well just build one!!!

She liked watching the chicks hatch. They are so cute!

Alot of chickens to look at!!!!

We didn't get done till about 5pm so we ate dinner at the fair and headed home about 6:30. It was a very good trip and a wonderful experience for the girls.