SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!

We have been a little busy around here the past few days packin', cookin' and keepin' cool.  The last one has been the hardest!

So far tonight, trailer is packed with all cattle supplies, kids stuff and clothes for all.  It also just pulled out of the driveway with the wethers on, as the wethers are going to go to show in Jerseyville, with cousins while we are gone and Boy 1 will meet up with them on July 10 in Jacksonville to show.
When the trailer gets home the last thing to go in is the snackie food as really don't want it to melt in the driveway. 

Boy1 and Boy2 went with Hubby to take wethers, Boy 3, Princess and I are all showered and now Princess wants her nails done-thanks neighbor lady!!!

I am going to try to blog a little every night and hopefully put some pictures on too, NO promises. so all of you can see what we are doing at JNHE.

 So to recap, all things cow-packed, all things sheep-packed, all things people- packed, if not there is a Wal-Mart!

Have A Great Day:)

Heat Wave or Heat Dome!

Hi it's me, I know long time no hear! Sorry. Tuesday we went to the neighbors lake, wonderful temps, 84*, that is my favorite temp!! Now yesterday, was not my favorite temp., the morning was beautiful, kids and I fed, tied and played outside. By noon everyone was inside, by 3pm untied heifers and put them out with the shade trees. Finally chored last night at 9:20 and it was still 96*. Where was Hubby? Hubby was in the hay field, he came in about 4:30pm to eat grapes, a small lunchable and sweet tea, here is a thing about Hubby, he will NOT eat when it is HOT, so I have to be creative and get a little cranky with him. He went back out to the hay field and did not see him again u til 10pm. Hubby's alarm went off at 5am and he was out to the hay field at 5:30am. No heifers tied, fan on sheep and pigs in the shade and wallowing!

Stay cool out there, pray for our friends in the fire zones.

Have A Great Day:)

Great River Honor Flight

I know I don't usually post on Sundays, but today hubby and I had the best experience ever! Tomorrow I will tell you about weighing the lambs and pigs, today I want to tell you about the Great River Honor Flight Banquet. The honor flight is for WWII veterans to go and see their memorial in Washington DC. We unexpeditedly got to go with hubby's grandparents as hubby's dad is still not 100%. It was amazing! All these vets, they were dropped off at an airport and most hitched hike back to their homes and went and found jobs the next day. No parades, no thank yous, nothing. So the honor flight some 60 years later is thanking these men and women. It is very humbling. If you get a chance please tell these veterans thank you, even better if you get the chance to go welcome home a honor flight GO! We were at a table with a couple that had met during the war and have been married now for 66 years. She also called him a "putz", my new favorite word! It was awesome to watch them as the speakers spoke and how emotional it was for them. (Okay, have to brag a minute, hubby's grandparents have been married65 1/2 years.) The average age that goes on the honor flight is 84 and most are hard of hearing, but it was awesome listening to all their stories.
It is late, but tomorrow I will add pictures. A HUGE thank you to my in laws for letting hubby and I go!
Sleep Well and remember why you get to sleep well at night!
God Bless America

Here is the full story about this afternoon.

Rain, I think!

We had some liquid come out of the sky this evening, it was a little rain, enough to settle the dust. Anytime that I do not have to water flowers or tomato plants is welcome!!

Cleaned the barn today, oh the joys of mucking out the barn and really there is no mucking it is shovel, pitch fork and broom and several wheel barrows later the heifers were back n where they belong.

I tried to make fried chicken tonight and I tweaked the recipe- BAD IDEA! Always follow the recipe!! The my mixer broke, so the ooey, gooey butter cake is more chunky, yucky butter cake. So now I have an egg casserole in the crockpot, I will let you know on that!

Good Night All!

To End Crabbiness!

How did we end crabbiness? A baseball game outside with mom as the pitcher, very, very comical. A lunch of leftover pasta chicken and then here it is the biggy- beads, yes beads! Beads to make bracelets with, not just Princess, but all 3 boys. It is wonderfully quite and there are actually giggles. I Love BEADS!

Have A Great Day:)

We have CRABBINESS!!!

It is not all Jolly Holiday here, we have CRABBINESS too!  We have crabbiness over who will lead what lamb, we have crabbiness over it is hot, we have crabbiness over making beds, we have crabbiness over who can read which book- I don't understand this one, we could have our own library, but we are crabby over 1 book!  Even though we are kind of crabby today, I am very amazed that the two littles are playing with "their farm" upstairs and there is no T.V. on.  So the crabbies are not that bad.  Do you have crabbies?  What do you do about them?  I think we are going to bake something and they ALL can help:)

Have A Great Day!

Before 9am

It is a little cooler this morning and we did have a few sprinkles, so before 9am, 4 show heifers were tied and fed. Sheep water filled and Fred & Franky were walked 3 laps and setup a few times on those laps. Biggs and Dity did not want to miss out, so they were walked also. This evening I have been informed that the pigs will be walked in a bigger pen, which means the just weined heifers, Fine Wine, UNO and Elba (better known as Elbow) will be moved for a short time for the pigs to walk! Kids and I have been outside playing all morning, love the cooler weather, even though the humidity is at 90%.

Have A Great Day:)

Heat Wave!

3 1/2 hours at the lake yesterday and guess who got fried, yep me lobster red!
Came home showered all kiddos took naps, then ate K7 pizza, fed, doctored two calves eyes, bred Moonpie and Optima, walked lambs and pigs. Also, kids played kickball in the dark.

This heat has really got our times off. Wake up early and go outside, come in lounge in afternoon and go back out about 7:30pm when it gets cooler and stay out until after 10pm.

Stay Cool Everyone!
Have A Great Day:)

Lambs before COFFEE!

Since we are having some of the hottest days so far this summer, Boy 1 had me up early to walk lambs.  Even before the coffee pot was done brewing!  You know I love him when I willingly put my flip flops on and go walk lambs.  At least there is a breeze this morning and it really is not a hardship as early mornings are quite here on the farm with the sun coming up and a nice breeze.  Down fall is it is already 80* and humid, so we know it is going to be a hot day in the Midwest.  After our nice little walk, lambs are put back and fans are on for them.  Tied heifers as heifers got a day off yesterday,  fans are on them also.  Biggs & Dity are in the coolest shadiest mud hole and happy as two muddy pigs, Boy 2 will have a blast washing them, he really will- he thinks its fun to wash the pigs!

I think we will do an early swim in the neighbors lake and then come home and stay cool in the A/C!

Stay Cool and Have A Great Day:)

My View

I wanted to show you my view on the way home from the preview show.
Front View:

To my right:

To my left:

 To my back:

The two littles did not even make it out of Georgetown and the two bigs didn't make it to Champaign, average sleep time 3 hours!  Very quite ride home:)

Have A Great Day!

Preview show

We made it to and through another Illinois Hereford Preview show. The kids did great and we all had fun. After we blew out a tire on the trailer on the way Friday, we were a little
late, but that was okay, we made it safe and sound. So why is it that we went 4 1/2 hours across the state of Illinois for 2 days? That is easy for the love of Hereford Cattle, for our kids to build more responsibilities, for the kids friends and to show! Very proud of Princess who wine the 4th grade prospect award and very proud of Boy1 for wanting to be a director on the IjHA board.

Now off to doing all this laundry!

Have A Great Day:)

Simplify, Laugh & Smell Like Sheep!

*This is from Wednesday, I did not press the publish button-sorry*

My New Years resoulution was to simplify, and other than a few times, I think I have done pretty well.  We are not doing any camps this summer, we are staying around the farm except for shows and we are not getting in the car everyday.  So yes, we are even doing pretty well this summer.

 Laugh, the kids have made me laugh so much today, it was the first time they washed Fred & Franky (the wethers) well, the washing went well until Princess came running in and said there was a big pop and the barn had no electricity.  Yes, Boy 1 and Princess decided to use 2 blowers (big hair dryers) on the wethers to dry faster,  great idea except they put on the same outlet and the barn has the old screw in fuses-Hubby was thrilled with that phone call.  So we had to run an extension cord through the barn to the clipping room plug a fan in there for the heifers and off to the great outdoors with the wethers and 1 blower.  Plugged the blower into the house and pop, the plower cord is fried, should have looked before I plugged that in. (Good thing that is the farm blower and Gpa is going to fix that.)  Back to the barn with the traveling circus, unplugged fan, plugged good blower in and blew the sheep out quickly as Boy 1 is holding the wethers and I am blowing I start laughing and Boy1 starts laughing and says "Mom, we do look pretty funny!"  If you ever have washed a sheep you know that is the Smell Like Sheep part:)

Now the kiddos are out walking pigs, no more washing today for me!

Have A Great Day:)

PS- If you are looking for an inspirational blog or a blog to tell you something worth while, this is not it!  If you need a good laugh and bad humor this is it!

Preview Show Weekend

It has finally come! It is Illinois Hereford Preview Show weekend, it comes every year around Father's Day.  You know it is coming, you have hotel rooms, you have clothes washed and packed, you have food stuffed in a cooler and in the "food tub", you have all electronics charged, you have health papers for cattle and registration papers.  So why is it when you get up, you are still adding more stuff to suitcases, deciding to make one more batch of cookies, we have more bags than people to carry them we have the trailer loaded and the truck loaded and still need to get cattle and kids in.  I just seen the new forecast for the weekend, is it going to be wet now? Not just hot and dry? So that is a whole other, wardrobe! Oh my, Oh my, Oh cattle shows! 

Have A Great Day:)

Open the windows!

Boy 1, Boy 3 and I chored this morning and tied heifers, it was cooler outside than inside.  God has blessed us with a beautiful morning, birds singing and the sun is shining.  So we are going to give the air conditioner a little break. 

More laundry to do today and lambs need to be washed and clipped, they are getting a little woolly!!!  Okay, sorry, but that just had to be said.  Pigs are loving this cool morning and they are out running and playing.

Have A Great Day!

Finally a good meal!

With the wedding and all the running around, we have been eating leftovers, cold cut sandwiches or whatever you could find.  Finally tonight an actual meal! Spaghetti, broccoli and homemade breadsticks.

I know I said wedding pictures for today, so here are a few,

 I don't think they are happy I flashed them with the camera!

 Pretty girl!

 To much wedding for boy 3! Do you see Hubby's white ring around his head? To much sun and tractor time.  He says it is halo and after this past week I am starting to think he maybe right. 

Boy 2 and a good friend are having a blast playing! Do you think they even know we are at a wedding reception?

Since it is ver humid out we will be eating before working with all the animals tonight.  So off to make supper.

It is baby cousins wedding day!!!! 

Last night was rehearsal and cookout.  Check out all this food, look at those cakes, if I do say so myself the white Texas Sheet Cake was amazing-it was my first attempt ever.

Here is the happy couple, notice that bride-to-be is smiling and groom-to-be has deer in the head lights look, well I think if he would take off his sunglasses.

Look at these four little angels, they were great help last night and were
 awesomely (boy2 word) good!

HAHA! They look so happy don't they? How about BORED!

After we cleaned the church up and did the dishes, we came home and had to breed boy1's cow.  Yes, it was late, yes it was dark, but she had to be bred. Good thing we have lights outside and she was not one of the Angus cows!

This morning, the kiddos are all outside playing,  and watching GGpa's cow to see if she will come in heat, so far I have been told she is being a pain in the butt to the other cows.  Whatever they say!

Later today Baby Cousin is getting married, everyone has clothes to put on, even me at 8:30 last night I found a dress, sorry no swimwear for me.

I have posted to everyone the kitchen is closed until tomorrow night or Monday morning.  To much to do, there is plenty of stuff for sandwiches.

Tomorrow or maybe Monday, beware I will post wedding pictures!

Have A Great Day:)

PS- Baby Cousin- we love you!

Hubby and I are on a Non-Profit Organization that is near and dear to our hearts, last week there was a commercial at one of the farms and who do you call to hang a banner out of the hay loft?  You guessed it, Hubby!

Doesn't he do good! If you need a banner hanger call Hubby:)  I might get it for that, but it is for a wonderful cause.

Baby Cousins wedding is tomorrow, oh my, oh my!  So far everyone has clothes to wear except for me, oh well, it is to be hot and humid, swimwear maybe- just kidding, I would not subject anyone to that.

Last night for my birthday dinner, Hubby did offer to take me out to dinner, but really taking four kids to a restaurant and paying that bill-AAAAAA!!! So instead I made grilled Italian chicken breast, baked potatoes and garden rice.  Birthday dessert was store bought angel food cake and strawberries. Better and cheaper than a restaurant!

On the agenda today, get the three Texas sheet cakes out of freezer, make ranch pasta salad, all for tonight's rehearsal cookout.  Hubby & Boy1 are taking Georgian (Angus Cross Recip.) to the the embryologist to have an embryo put in. All day watch for Magenta (One of Boy1's Hereford cow) and My (GGpa Hereford cow) to come in heat so Hubby can A.I. them.  Keep an eye on Tequila (Shorthorn Plus Cow) because in the words of Dr. Dave last week, she has a monster in there! This is not what you want your vet to tell you.

Hope You All Have A Great Day:)

It is a quit morning here so far, it is only 7:30am. Boy 2 and Boy 3 are upstairs playing with legos, the other two are still asleep.  This really does not bother me as we have not been coming in from outside, working heifers, walking sheep and working pigs until 7pm or 7:30pm and eating supper at 8pm, shower and bed.

Yesterday for something a little "educational" we had to come up with something from A-Z that was in the kitchen/dining room only.  They did get pretty creative and the best part, they did not even know they were "learning"!

I am running in to a major food rut! Spaghetti, tacos, burgers, roast, pizza,repeat.  If you have anything kid friendly/cowboy friendly PLEASE send, I am in major need!!! I am afraid we might start turning into a walking taco,spaghetti, baked potato.  Although, no one ever complains, I am wanting and needing something different:)

On the agenda today, make 3 Texas Sheet cakes for baby cousins wedding rehearsal, so I can have those to the church and put in the big cooler in the morning.  Oh my, Oh my, baby cousin is getting married! I have moments-sorry:)  Find all socks, for some reason Boy 1 and Boy 2 are missing socks, could they be under their beds, in their closets????  Figure out what we shall have for supper.  Spend hours in the barn, with sheep and heifers and laugh at the pigs, pigs make me laugh!

Have A Great Day:)

SORRY!!!! I am sorry it has been a few days, first full week of kiddos me and dance rehearsal everyday.

I know I gone about how much fun and how spoiled animals that live here are, and really they are!  Today is a a hard day as a parent and as an adult, as you know the vet was out on Wednesday, remember the Fab. Anniversary present, the vet and I ultrasounded all of the cows, and there were 3 that are not up to our standards.  I know this is a business and the kids know that, but it is still hard.  Boy 1 had to sell his first Shorthorn, Princess had to sell Belle, and if you know Princesses cow herd history, poor girl! Clint & I had to sell Red the Cow, our first red angus x hereford we owned as a couple and one damn good recip.  We all know we will have others, but it is still a little sad, okay at least for the mom it is!

On a much lighter note, yesterday was great. GreatGpa came and hooked on to the trailer at 5am, took hubby, Boy1 and Boy 2 to a jackpot show.  Boy 3, Princess and I went a few hours later as Princess is getting really ugly with lack of sleep.  First time we went to this show, little show took less than 4 hours and the kids and heifers did great! All that "Go to the barn" has really paid off, the kids or heifers worked great with each other.  So proud of all of them!

Once we make it through today, 2 dance recitals, the beginning of next week should be easy.  I have to make 4 Texas Sheet Cakes, 2 white, 2 chocolate, for baby cousins wedding.  You will see pictures of baby cousins wedding.  I promise! 

Off to pull feed pans and wake Princess for another round of hair and makeup!

Have A Great Day!