Holy Blooming Dogwoods

We have about a billion dogwood trees on our property and they are starting to bloom right now, it is really nice. I thought I would share.

At least I'm not a pansy.

My latest project has been working on putting in the garden. I am going to make a pretty big one that will produce enough vegetables that I can freeze and can to sustain us for most of the year. It will be next year before it will be completely ready and I will be able to do everything I want. There was not a garden here when we moved in so I am making it from raw ground and it is taking some time because I am trying a new type of gardening. This year I will just have a few plants because I am still working on getting it set up and improving the soil. I will post some pictures soon when I get more of it done and I will explain my new type of gardening I am trying. For now I thought I would put up a picture of me with my tiller.


Also, Molly and Dylan had this thing on their blog. You can go to a website and answer some questions and it will tell you what kind of flower you are. I thought it fit in with the gardening theme, so here is mine. At least I'm not a pansy.

I am a Violet "You have a shy personality. You tend to hesitate before trying new things or meeting new people. But once people get to know you, you open up and show the world what you are really all about."

I Love Fire and Squirrels

This past week I got to work on a little project that I have really been looking forward to completing. It wasn't a project that was vital to the farm but more for our enjoyment and the enjoyment of people who come to visit us. The project was to build a fire pit. We got to try it out for the first time last night. We roasted hotdogs and made smores, it was a lot of fun. The best part was just sitting watching the fire on a cool night. We hope some of you can come by and give it a test drive sometime, I think you will really enjoy it.


On a side note, we have tons of squirrels out here in the country. One of them perches itself on a fencepost that you can see out the back window. I finally got some good pictures of it the other day so I thought I would post them. So, here you go.

New Nephew

The extended family is growing. Margo's brother and sister-in-law had their baby today. His name is Cooper Harland Daniel (I may just call him mini), he came out the size of a 4 year old (9lbs 5oz and 22inches long(some men are longer than others)). Megan (the mom) is doing good and Mini is doing pretty good, he came out a little too fast so that caused some problems but nothing major. This brings us up to 4 nephews and 2 nieces.

I am Mary Francis if you please, I am Mary Francis if you don't please

We have another new addition to the pet collection. We have a new cat. One of our other cats ran off with its lover and so we were down to just one cat (Spot). Spot has been our most loyal cat, two others have gone but she is still here and she was one of the original cats we got. Back to the new one. A friend at work gave her to us. She was an inside/outside cat at their house and was not working out for them so she asked if we could take her on the farm where she would just be an outside cat. Her name is Mary Francis and she is a Siamese and she is kind of old. She is awesome looking though. Hopefully she will stay around because she will be a nice addition to the farm.

Meet Jake

Our collection of animals got a little bigger today. I have been wanting to get another dog, one that is more aggressive and protective. I like our current dog Macy just fine but she is pretty much worthless as a farm dog. She does not bark when people drive up or other dogs come around. She roams over to the neighbors houses. She is just too friendly. I happened to see an add in the Star Shopper this past week for a free 1 year old dog, and it was the exact breed that I have been wanting. The owner was getting rid of it because they weren't home enough to give it the kind of attention it needs and it needed more room to run and play which we have plenty of. The new dog is a red Australian Cattle Dog (aka red heeler) and his name is Jake. He definitely is going to be more protective because he is already barking at stuff, the only bad thing is he is not used to us being his master (I love calling myself the master, if only Margo would call me that) so he barks at us. But I think he will be great once he gets used to us and the new place as long as Macy does not lead him to the dark side. Here are some pics.

You might be a redneck if.....

It seems that our billy goat got injured. I am not sure what caused it, but he has an open scrape area on his right side behind his front right leg. Either he caught it on something or one of the other goats gored him with their horns. It is not too bad of a scrape, but he won't quit messing with it so it won't heal. So I decided to play goat nurse tonight and Margo was my lovely goat nursing assistant. I sprayed the area with some antibacterial stuff and then taped him up so he is not able to mess with the open area and keep it from healing. I don't really have official goat medical supplies so I made do with what I have. It worked pretty good it just looks a little redneck. I think we were already a little redneck because I think anyone in the world that actually has a billy goat can be considered a little redneck. Back to my goat ER story, check out the picture below and you will see why my medical patch job is redneck.

It's called duct tape and it will fix anything.

Margo's not dead, No, She is alive

We had one interesting night tonight. Let me start from the beginning. A few days ago Margo started having bad neck pain and headaches. Then today she started having a high fever, nausea, chills, and dizziness. The first thing I thought of with these symptoms was meningitis so I told her to go the doctor. The only one she could get in to today was a walk in clinic so she went there and they ruled out everything they could. They recommended she go to the ER so they could make sure it was not meningitis. We headed to WRMC, which for all of you who don't know has the busiest ER in the state.
Here is a quick rundown of the experience.
2 hours waiting until she got checked in and triaged
1 hour waiting after being triaged and put in the "urgent" category to be taken to a room
1 hour waiting in the room on the doctor
1 urine test
5 minutes with the doctor
Here are some of the things we got to experience while waiting.
1 little girl puking
1 teenager with a broken finger
1 guy with a broken foot
1 guy who got hit in the face with a baseball
too many kids to count crying because they were sick
1 girl brought in by ambulance who got hit by a motorcycle after getting off a bus-she made the local news tonight
1 guy who OD'd on meth
1 cockroach
lots of other random injuries and illnesses
The verdict
the good news-Margo is not going to die, she just has some random virus that they don't know what it is
the best news-Margo is not pregnant
the bad news-we missed the Office

Spring has Sprung

I am making the official declaration that spring is here. Not to say we won't have any more cold weather but not much more, and the majority of the days from now on are going to be warmer instead of colder. How do you know this you may ask. One simple way......the frogs. It seems that yesterday for the first time since last fall, our millions of frogs in our smaller of the two ponds started singing. It is such a great sound, click here for a sample of what it sounds like. It is so nice to sit outside and just listen. You should all feel free to come have a listen anytime, it will sooth your soul.

Home Again, Home Again

We got back from Denver late last night, that is such a long drive. We are happy to be home and we had a great time in Denver. It is a great place but what made the trip truly special was getting to hang out with Walt and Annie. They are such awesome people and so much fun. I felt like we really got to know them better as a couple. I wish we lived closer to them so we could see each other more. Here are some pics of them in case you don't know them.

I love the Serengeti

Yesterday we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was really cool. They had lots of good exhibits and lots of cool interactive stuff for kids. It kind of made me wish I had kids and lived in Denver so I could take them there. They even had dinosaur fossils which was really cool. Also at this museum, there was an IMAX theater and a planetarium. We watched a show about black holes at the planetarium which wasn't all that great but it was narrated by Liam Neeson which was nice. The IMAX show on the other hand was awesome. It was about the Serengeti and all the animals. It was so amazing. It made me want to go live there... or maybe just visit. It also made me wish we had an IMAX theater in NWA because I think I would go see every show. They are so cool and interesting. Going to this museum today kind of made me wish we lived in a major city so we had cool stuff like we saw today. Be sure to check out the pics.
On a side note, I just wanted to tell everyone that everyday we have been here except Sunday, it has snowed. It has made the vacation even better because it really makes you feel like you are in a different place. I personally have been really digging Denver. I could totally see myself living here, it is such a great place. I hope that NWA turns out as good as Denver as it grows.

History, Money, and Beer

These are a few of my favorite things. Yesterday on our trip we did a few tours of things in Denver. Our first stop was at the Colorado History Museum. It was an ok museum, they had some cool indian stuff and pioneer stuff to look at but I don't think I would recommend it to anyone. Our second stop was at the U.S. Mint. It was free which was nice and they had lots of old money which was really cool but we couldn't take pictures which sucked. They even had money from Roman times and Bible times like they had real mites like the woman gave in the Bible. It was a very interesting tour and they gave lots of good information and facts, for instance the average house had $70 worth of coins in their house and it costs more to make the penny and the nickel than what they are worth. I highly recommend that tour to everyone. The next stop of our day was at the Coors Brewery which was a great tour. We learned all about how they make beer. It was very interesting and we learned lots of cool facts like the the original Mr. Coors invented the aluminum can. They best part of that tour though was that we got free beer. And just let me warn all of you who may someday take a trip to this Mile High City and decide to drink a beer, the altitude makes the alcohol have a much greater affect on you. We were told that one beer at this altitude makes you feel like you had 3 beers. I did not really believe this when they told me but I believe it now.

Holy Ski Day

Yesterday was the big day of skiing. We were a little nervous about it but it turned out pretty good. We enrolled in ski school and learned a little about controlling ourselves while on skis. It was actually really helpful and I recommend taking a class to anyone out there who has never skied before and plans to go. We fell down a lot but I think overall we actually did really good. The best part was being up in the Rocky Mountains, it is really beautiful. It was a great day and it snowed quite a bit which was nice. Be sure and check out the rest of the pics by clicking on the link on the side. After we got home last night, we went out to the Melting Pot with Walt and Annie for dinner. It was really good and I don't think I have had that much fun in a while.

We're not in Kansas any more, thank the Lord

Well, we left the farm yesterday and started our vacation. We drove forever through hell (Kansas) and reached our destination of Denver last night. It was an interesting trip filled with great peril (not really, I just wanted to use that word). We made it from West Fork to Annie and Walt's house in Denver in 12 hours which is pretty good time I think. Kansas was very boring to drive through and I don't think I would want to live in there. There was like 1-2 feet of snow on the ground which was kind of cool considering I have never seen more than a foot of snow before. I have also never seen more anti-abortion signs in my entire life either than what there were along the interstate in Kansas. The big news of the drive though was.....I got a speeding ticket. As most of you know, I drive really fast and I have never gotten a speeding ticket. That streak came to an end yesterday in Kansas. The cop got me at 83mph in a 70mph zone which equaled $114. I am just glad he didn't get me when I was going faster. I tried to cry my way out of the ticket but that didn't work(just kidding). The other big news from Kansas is they have the world's biggest prairie dog. Very exciting. Today we are just going to hang out with Walt and Annie. We went to church this morning with them and that was pretty cool. As a visitor we got a free Nalgene bottle which I thought was very Denverish and for lunch we had Ethiopian food which wasn't to bad. Tomorrow is our big day of skiing which should be very interesting. I decided to make a picasa web album to put all our vacation pictures in so everyone can see them. There is a link on the right named "pictures" that will take you there.

Baby

Everyone has asked us ever since we got married when we are going to have a kid. Well, I have good news for all of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had one. That's right, we had our first baby goat on the farm today. We are really excited. We are a little unsure who the father is because the mama was running with 2 billy goats during the summer for a little while. We are hoping to get on Maury sometime so we can find out. Here is a picture taken with our fancy new camera. Our neighbors are going to look after the animals while we are gone on vacation. I hope it makes it ok while we are gone.

Snow

We finally got a decent snow this past week. Unfortunately I had to work so I did not get to sled or play in the snow very much. I thought I would post a picture of our house in the snow. You can also see what I have been working on the past few weeks. I have been trying to clear out some of the trees in the front of the property. You can see the wood from those trees that Margo and I stacked underneath the deck. The supports for the deck make an excellent place for the wood. This wood will be for us to burn in the woodstove next year. I also thought I would post a picture John sent of me of last year when we were playing in the snow. I had quite an outfit on, it is a really funny picture.

Painter Prodigy

Martha had a link to this on her blog. This is an amazing 12 year old girl who paints pictures and talks to God. I was amazed by it so I thought I would share with everyone.

http://tinyurl.com/yxewot

I'm not a Rebel

I realize a lot of you may have a big question mark in your head in regards to this posting but I needed to post this (just needed to give someone a hard time). This is for John (and Trav). John this was taken from 10 feet away with a 5 year old Canon 2MP Powershot A40.

Santa vs. Jesus

Well, Christmas is over and I am happy about that. Overall it was pretty good. Here is a quick rundown of what we did. We hung out with friends on Friday night at John’s house in honor of the Tokar’s being in town. On Saturday, we picked up Annie and Walt at the airport and drove them down to Mena and stayed until Sunday. This was a lot of fun. We love hanging out with Walt and Annie and some of my favorite people to visit are her parents. You just feel good and when you are at their house and hanging out with them. It is like you don’t have a care in the world and you are just happy. I hope someday that people will feel like that when they come to our house. On Sunday night we went to Margo’s grandmother’s house and hung out with her family and then to her parent’s house to open presents. On Monday, all of my family came to our house and we cooked a big meal and opened presents. It was a very busy weekend and overall it went pretty good.
I do have some issues with Christmas. It is getting to be a little to much with the Santa Clause and all the presents. It seems like there is so much pressure on getting presents and getting the right one. And kids these days just want more and more and bigger and more expensive. I find it ridiculous that people go in debt over buying presents for their kids. I wish we would concentrate more on Jesus (of course) but also more on family. I like getting presents for people and receiving presents but there has got to be a better way. Maybe we should only be allowed to give each person one gift and that gift has to be something you make yourself. I told Margo the other day that we really need to come up with how we are going to treat Christmas once we have kids because I don’t want it to be like it is for a lot of families. One thing is for sure, my kids will not be taught that Santa Clause is real. I don’t want them to believe that if they are good all year than this jolly guy comes down in a sleigh with his flying reindeer and brings them presents. I would much rather teach them Jesus and make them excited about him.

Merry Christmas

For any of you who did not get a Christmas card from us, here is our picture that was on our Christmas card this year. I think it is our best one yet.




We tried to make it as much like the painting as possible, even the solemn looks.