Pee Wee Wrestling

Posted on December 19, 2014 by farm2011

Now I’ve never gone to a Pee Wee Wrestling tournament before and I swear that I’ve been missing out on something that is just one of the best entertainments that you can buy for a $4 cover charge. My nephew was wrestling tonight and so we wanted to go and watch him for a little bit. We got to the school about 45 minutes before it started and the whole parking lot was literally jam packed with cars. We couldn’t figure out just what was going on other than the wrestling but for sure all these people weren’t there for wrestling were they? And then we walked into the gym. I have no idea how many kids were there, but take my word for it that there was a lot! The whole gym floor was one huge mass of all these kids. With this tournament an annual one for our school, it was mentioned that maybe there was around 10 schools there in the competition. When we sat there just checking everything out before the matches started, it was so much fun to see even though the kids all looked the same, they sure didn’t all act the same. There were the ‘bigger kids’ that were at the top of the age groups (7 to 8 year olds) walking around acting both tough and cool at the same time and there were other kids who were just there to probably have a good time. Now the matches were starting and I think they called the first category Super Tiny Tots and these kids were LITTLE! They were pre kindergarten and kindergarten kids so around 3 to 5 year olds and just guessing 30 pounds? We had a cat one time that weighed more than these kids!  We only could stay for a little bit, but was able to watch most of the first two rounds of wrestling. I found out soon though we didn’t have any of our kids wrestling there, that it still takes a lot out of you when you’re watching someone you know wrestle.

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Clark Griswold

Posted on December 18, 2014 by farm2011

I went to town tonight after work and found that Christmas lights were 70% off in the store that I was in. SCORE right? Now did I need them? Heck no. But was I going to buy them? Well ya! The ones that we had bought a couple of weeks ago for the front of the house were not on sale, so for some reason I thought that if I could buy these cheap well this is kind of a revenge to all those light factories in the world. OK, I know that sounds pretty dumb (even to me it does) but that’s what I was thinking. So into my cart they go. There were 3 huge rolls of lights left on the shelf and 2 extension cords and I felt like I won the lottery or something. Now to just to figure out where I should hang them.

Once I got home I went straight to work. The first thing to do is was to figure out where I can add another extension cord for the lights. I had a couple hooked together close by for the lights on an old wagon and it was the perfect spot to add just one more. But when I was messing with it, I got a little tingle. Weird. Now it was pretty wet outside and the lights were wet and I was kinda standing on wet grass, but why was I getting a shock? It wasn’t a bad shock so I grabbed the lights and well let’s just say that this time it had a little more juice to it. Literally! But I didn’t die or anything and I wanted to get the new lights up on the calf shed before Daryl came home so I kept working. With my new extension cord ready for the lights going up tonight and having the extension ladder and step ladder beside me, I was in business! I was working fast because it was still pretty cold and I wanted to surprise Daryl when he came home. After dropping quite a few nails because my hands were so cold, I did eventually got them all up on the shed. Now what I thought was going to take at least two of the light rolls that I bought, only took one roll. And just as I was hanging the last of the lights up, I turned around and saw the truck just pulling into the yard. Yup it was Daryl. He agreed that they looked good and said that he was going to start calling me Clark Griswold from the movie Christmas Vacation because of how I keep adding lights to the farm. Then I asked him about the extension cords and that I was getting shocks from them. He gave me one of those looks like I was speaking in Alien tongue or something and said… “What?” I told him again and I was just worried that it might start a fire. But finding out that it’ll just keep kicking out the breakers – that’s not such a big deal. I just have to make sure that I unplug them before I mess with them again.

But later we were driving on the highway that’s just across the section from our farm and I noticed a glow off in the distance towards our farm. So I don’t know if it was just how the air was that night or not, but when we were talking about it in the car Daryl thought that it could be the lights on the farm. And to quote Clark Griswold from the movie  “That’s all part of the experience, honey”

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Mystery Photo 12-17-14

Posted on December 17, 2014 by farm2011

Let’s see if you can guess this one. The only clue is that it is very common on the farm.

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Mystery Photo 12-10-14 Results

Posted on December 17, 2014 by farm2011

You nailed it Bruce! It was one of the milk can’s from the barn.

Here was the clueDSC_0365a

And here it is now on our porch. For some reason our cats always have to be in the pictures! DSC_0365

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Come and get it!

Posted on December 16, 2014 by farm2011

Daryl and I usually always order from kids who are selling things for school. And come to think of it, I can’t think of a time that we didn’t order something or get raffle tickets when there was a function going on. So when the school kids were selling pizza’s and other things it was a no brainer.  I was glad that the kids were selling pizza’s and other things because in the past weeks I had come home with chicken and rice soup, brownie cookies, and some bread bowls. So pizzas were a good idea – well at least I thought! What happened is that I got a text from the girl who sold me the pizzas and some chicken, and she said she would just drop them off at our house. OK, no big deal. I have to admit I was a little worried about her putting them on the porch, but we have a table on it also so that’s where I thought she’d put them. Well, what I found out was that she literally dropped them off on the cement on our porch. When I first heard that she was going to bring them I thought it might not be a good idea if I wasn’t there – but I was at work so there wasn’t much I could do until I got home. Well when I got home I found thisDSCN9314

Now to be fair – how could the kitty not eat it? I was only surprised that there was just one cat on the porch. Usually there’s at least 5 and sometimes even a couple of peacocks are there to greet me. So when I looked down at this kitty she just looked pretty darn cute and well I guess it’s really not the end of the world. I was able to save one of the pizzas and I don’t think she really got into the bag of chicken. I could see that she made an attempt at the chicken- but that looks like about it. Oh well, it goes to a good cause – both the kids at school and this darn little kitty!! I guess I’ll have to be more specific when I tell someone that they can just ‘drop it off”

As for the rest of the night, I had a pretty good productive night which I was really glad about. Last night was really a very lazy night for me! But tonight Daryl had the show Charlie Brown’s Christmas on in the living room and I only watched a little bit of it and then worked on getting more candy made. It’s kind of weird. Once you have the ‘big’ day of making candy behind you, then after that it doesn’t seem to consume all your time when you’re making extra batches. I’m not sure why, but for whatever reason it works for me! After a couple more batches of candy made,  I was also able to get some things packaged up to be mailed out tomorrow that I’ve been procrastinating on. That also is a good feeling. But what I’m not that happy about at all is that one of my burners for my stove died the other day, and this really isn’t a good time to have one of your big burners go out. I mean there is a lot of cooking going on in the next couple of weeks and you really don’t want to be limping along with only one big burner. So tonight I think I might have found a replacement for it. It doesn’t seem like it’s really the same size but I ordered it anyway. It was the only one available and I’m hoping that I just am not smart enough to know what size I really need. It’s one of those times when you literally are saying to yourself, ‘sure it’ll fit’ but secretly you’re thinking ‘oh well it’s only 10 bucks’. It’s scheduled to come yet this week and I guess I’ll find out pretty soon if it’s going to work. Below is a picture of the one that broke. There were three pieces that are missing now out of the middle. Not cool at all. DSCN9316

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Baby it’s foggy outside

Posted on December 14, 2014 by farm2011

We are still in a warm front and I must say that it’s not such a bad gig. I mean – with December almost over it will make the winter cold weather seem so much bearable. Well, anyway that’s what I’m going to count on.

I spent most of the afternoon today going through some things that were destined to be disposed of. With both of Daryl’s parents gone now, his family had gotten together awhile back to sort out the remaining things that they didn’t get a chance to do earlier. But before they got rid of them for good – I had asked if I could see what they were going to throw out. I knew that there was some old photo carriers in the trash bag that I wanted to keep along with some of the vintage birthday/get well cards. I didn’t get through everything that I wanted to today, but I made a good start. Now what am I going to do with some of the stuff? I’m not sure, but I’m sure I’ll find something useful to use it on. But I do know that I saved wayyyyy too much stuff and will for sure have to down size it later.DSCN9304

The weather has been exceptionally warm lately and it’s been just awesome! Normally I’m a snow kind of person, but after how cold it was last year – I’m thinking that I’ve changed. But with the warm weather also comes the fog and we’ve had a lot of fog this past week. I wanted to see if I could capture it on a photo tonight while I was outside – but I didn’t have so much luck. This is one of the pictures that I did take from our yard and you can see just how dark it is outside. DSCN9302 Then I took this one with a flash. The picture is that of the front of our house.DSCN9295Too funny!! I guess you can literally see how much moisture is in the air.

And while I was outside I decided to lock up the dogs for the night. I couldn’t help to snap this picture of Waffle and another barn kitty that were together in the barn. The cats like to lay in the gutter because they’re filled with straw and it keeps them warm.  Looking at the picture, I’m thinking that Waffle found a new friend this afternoon. I think if you were looking for a visual image for the word “cuddling” – this would be it! This photo kind of makes you smile doesn’t it?

New friends

New friends taking a nap

Posted in Farm animals, Picture of the day | 1 Comment

Today’s job

Posted on December 13, 2014 by farm2011

I wanted to get the first candy gift baskets done today, so that was my only goal for the day. It shouldn’t be too hard to do – well anyway I’m hoping!

First things first. I wanted Daryl to get everything that he needed to get done in the kitchen done before I even started. Even though we have a pretty big kitchen, for some reason when I am making candy it never seems big enough. To let you know how much room I seem to need,  I even take out the kitchen chairs before I start. So after a Saturday morning breakfast – the kitchen was mine! Below are the remaining steps that happen when I’m in the Christmas candy mood….

Step # 5 : Decision time. What do I need to make that needs to chill in the refrigerator. I wanted to make 2 large baskets today, 2 small baskets, one small container for Ma’s mailman, and another small container if I had some left.

Step # 6 : Git-R- Done! After spending literally all day in the kitchen, I was able to get everything that I wanted to get done – done! It’s a good feeling and to be honest I’m kind of sick of taste testing the candy already. I know that the candy making is just started, but after the first oh… ten pieces, it’s enough for me.  It’s a good thing that Daryl usually isn’t too far away when I’m in the kitchen and I’m finding him to try some of the homemade caramel or peanut clusters. DSCN9288

Step # 6 : Packaging. Now this is the tricky part. You want it to look good when you’re done but also look like you’ve got a wide variety inside the package. I’ve got quite a few different packages that I can choose from to start with, so finding the right container is usually just a hit and miss activity until I see the right one.DSCN9290

Step # 7 :  Coors Light 🙂

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Get ready……. get set…….

Posted on December 12, 2014 by farm2011

GO!!!

I’m starting to make candy this weekend for Christmas and I think I’m ready. Well, at least I can give it a good shot. But there are some steps that I take before I can even think of doing anything in the kitchen. I know that how I do things are a little… well ‘odd’, but if it works for me that’s all I care about right? I have to have the project organized before I can even think of starting. Now some may call this some type of obsessive-compulsive behavior, and … well maybe it might be true just a little bit 🙂

So here are my steps that I take:

Step # 1 : Make a list (hahaha – didn’t see that one coming now did you? ) As far as I know, I’m planning on making 13 different platters this year.

Step # 2 : Make a grocery list of what I will need. I just kind of guess at this step because I know that I change my mind of what I want to make and then what I actually make. No big deal if it changes, I just need to have to have the basics.

Step # 3 : Get groceries. So tonight after work Daryl and I headed to town to pick them up. I also wanted to stop at a couple other stores while we were there, so not a problem and it’ll work out well. I had my list and some coupons and off we went. While I was in one of the stores at the checkout I overheard someone beside me asking why her coupon didn’t work on her clothing purchase. They were right beside me, so it wasn’t hard to hear the answer. Her coupons were expired. Well I knew after what I bought it was the last thing in the mall  that I needed so I reached into my purse and said that I had some extras. This lady said that she couldn’t take mine, but after I said that I was done in the mall tonight – she agreed. But when I reached into my purse and pulled out around 8 coupons for some of the businesses in the mall, I must admit she looked at me a little weird and maybe kinda scared. I think she thought that I only had one. Yea, like that was going to happen right?  With the mall being open tonight until 11:00 pm, she said Thanks and she said that she was going to have to call her husband to tell him not wait up for her to come home. Too funny! OK, with what I wanted to get purchased at the mall I went back to the car where Daryl was waiting and then I thought – crap!! I think I just left my grocery list with her. But Daryl said that he had it and now off to get the groceries. We found most of what I wanted and the rest I can pick up as the week goes on. I should have enough to get started. DSCN9287

Step # 4 : Organization. I literally take over the kitchen. With the groceries organized to what I’ll be using, along with containers that I can choose from – I think I’m ready for tomorrow.

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We are in the 2 week zone

Posted on December 11, 2014 by farm2011

It is now two weeks until Christmas from today! Holy Cow can you believe it? Well, it’s a count down to Christmas and I’ve still got way too much stuff to do and feeling a little nervous about it to be honest. I’m making lists and checking them twice (hum…) to see what I still need to do. Do you ever feel that one day it’s the beginning of November and then you look at the calendar and you’re already in December? I sure do.

So for the gifts – I still have a couple to buy, but I know what I need so I’m not expecting that to be a problem. Most of everything that I ordered is in and that’s a sigh of relief. And for baking? Well I hope to have more of an opportunity to do that this year. If you remember last year Daryl had heart surgery in mid November and my Mom had surgery in December. So this year everyone is doing so much better and that’s really great! We are NOT expecting any more surgeries this winter in our family and I hope to keep it that way. My plan is to get the groceries that I need for baking tomorrow night after work and then spend the weekend in the kitchen. I’m pretty excited to get started and now I just need to figure out my grocery list. How many lbs of pecans do I need again??

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Mystery Photo 12-10-14

Posted on December 10, 2014 by farm2011

Here is the picture of this weeks Mystery Photo. The only clue this week is that it’s metal.

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Posted in Wednesday's Challenge Photo | 2 Comments