Tornado Alley

I've had a few email (and call) and ask if I was alright.  The tornadoes/storms seem to get to our county and split like they're receiving direction from Moses. They must be allergic to us.  I'm glad we didn't have the storms, but we also haven't received any rain.

Wheat harvest should start in the next few days, and we're hoping for just enough grain to save for next year's planting.  The drought we've been going through has really made it a hard year...but there's always next year, right?!

I could post a video of a tornado that was about a mile from the farm where I grew up, but it's got too much commentary on it.  There's been so much devastation in our country, I'm ready for some calm.  I hope this is a healing summer for all of us.

She liked it!

My swap partner actually liked what I sent her!  I know I have a strange sense of design and color humor, but somebody actually liked something I made!  If we see it in her birdcage, we'll know what she REALLY thinks of it! haha

Go visit Stacey --she has some really pretty quilts on her blog.

She Sews

In-between all of the other stuff going on I have done a little sewing.  Little is the key word:  12"x12" "something from nothing"  that I participated in for Victoria's Swap
I haven't participated in anything like this for awhile, so thought I'd give it a shot.
I can't say where this is going, but it's already in the mail.  Hope she likes it!

babies

This is my oldest, Travis holding my two youngest Grandchildren.  Ava is 1 month old now, and Tyler is 4 months.  Just a little difference in size, but they're definitely related.  Don't know what the weird look was on Trav's face, but he was probably trying to decide which diaper to change first!

Aren't kids wonderful!?

Wednesday

1. Have you ever been served breakfast in bed?  No
Do you enjoy that? I don't have a headboard tall enough to lean against.  I'd rather just get up, go to the kitchen table and let somebody do the cooking. 
If someone were serving you breakfast in bed this coming weekend what would you hope to see on the tray?
I'd enjoy hot tea or coffee w/cream, scrambled eggs, crisp bacon and toast...but who am I kidding?? I'll probably even cook lunch for a crowd!

2. What is one piece of advice you would give a new mother?

Enjoy your time and don't wish him to be bigger.  Who cares if the dishes are done...get on the floor and play.

3. When was the last time you wanted to scream? Explain.  I'm not a screamer...and an usually annoyed when people do.  If you're screaming you better be bleading!

4. Can you hula hoop?  YES.., quite well.  I have a weighted one that I like to use too.

5. What is something people do in traffic that really bothers you?  Pass me and then slow down.  Why can't you drive the speed limit and talk on the phone at the same time.

6. What do you do when people don't admit they're wrong?  Just watch their reactions...and laugh inside when they try to hide it.

7. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word 'fun'?  Scarcasm, because people don't usually "get" the kind of fun I like.

8. Insert your own random thought here. It's Tuesday and I'm setting in an office building all by myself.  Why can't I take my laptop home and work from there?  I'd get just as much done!?

Easter Weekend

You better have a darn good reason for driving across my yard with the tractor. AND, in this case they knew they didn't need permission.

This is two of the boyz taking my new building off of the delivery semi. It was drizzling (notice I didn't say rain--another 4-letter word around here), and cold, but they got it unloaded. This is going to be a quonset-type building that goes over the basment from the old house. I can see my lawnmower, weed-eater, hoes, shovels and hoses stored in it. It might also be the place I get to start a few seedlings in.

Took me 3 1/2 years to get my building...it's delivered, so we'll see how long it takes to get it setup.

Sunrise on the Prairie

I put a new picture on the header and if somebody can help me get it all across the top, I'd appreciate it.  I don't have the patience with this box like I use to!

I FINALLY found the cord to my camera....it was in the backseat of my car..right where I left it, so hopefully I'll get some pictures posted from the past month.

The garden is started, babies are growing and it's still not raining.  Yep...life on the prairie.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

This week's Hodgepodge from Joyce: 

1. Would you rather talk to everyone at a crowded party for a short time or have a significant conversation with two people?  Sometimes I mingle and sometimes I get stuck with just a couple of people who will-not mingle!  Guess it depends on how many people are there and where it's at.  Some situations it's just easier to mingle.

2. What objects do you remember from your parent's living room?

I remember a big clock hanging on the south wall above the television (which I didn't inherit) and also Mom's two china cabinets...which one is in my living room right now and it's full of American Fostoria.

3. Do you hog the bed? Steal the covers? Snore?

Hog the bed..no, when we moved into the new house I wanted a King Size bed because my significant other gets up and down all night long.  I wanted to be able to sleep all night without feeling him shake the bed.  Steel the covers--I'm a quilter...we own more quilts than shoes.

Snore--He says I do, but it doesn't bother me.  If my allergies have been bothering me, I snore.

4. Speaking of Easter dinner....what is your favorite way to cook/eat lamb? Or does just the thought of that make you squeamish? If you're not cooking lamb what will be your entree du jour on Easter Sunday?

Were we speaking of Easter dinner?  Never ate Lamb...we eat Ham...or roast beef.  And have to have some kind of jello-fluff...'cause Mama always did.

5. Let's throw some politics into this week's mix-oooohhh...Do you know the whereabouts of your birth certificate and when was the last time you had to produce it to prove you're you?

My birth certificate is in my safe-deposit box.  I had to get it out when I applied for a concealed weapons license.

6. As a child, how did people describe you?

The tall, timid, clumbsy girl.  Now, I talk too much but am still clumbsy and still very tall.

7. What do you complain about the most?

I'm not a big complainer or whiner...I just live with one, but here lately the weather or lack of rain has really irritated me.  It affects our future income..so I think I have a right to complain when it's something I have no control over.

Oh, my ankle still hurts on some days, so you'll see me limping before I complain a lot tho.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I am really looking forward to this summer.  Maybe it's because the grand-girls are getting bigger and we can play outside more, or maybe it's because I feel better than I did last summer....hopefully the surgery has healed my aching ankle!

Don't pet Stella..

Stella is one of our landlord's dog.   She's a red-heeler-something dog. 

We've farmed Stella's land for several years, but I remember the first time I went there.  "Don't pet Stella"  is something DH, and DSs told me time after time. 

 They know I love other people's animals and it's so hard NOT to pet her, but after you hear that first time Woo-Woof...nope, don't think I'll pet Stella...ever!

I'm just glad they keep her penned up when they're not outside.

Yep..she's more intimidating than me!

How about some calves?

I haven't showed any of our spring 2011 calf-crop, so last weekend when I went out to "help" I took my camera.

I just love their faces..Wish they would hold still so I could go rub on them all the time. They're so soft.

This poor cow (and calf) were taken to the barn.  She had dust pneumonia.

 Another farm, but same cow-family.  I love how this calf is a different color tan/brown than her Mom.  Her Dad is red Angus, and she's dark brown...hmmmm.

 We call this Milk Coma.  Licking the milk off of his nose and it drips off his chin.

Can you see the newborn hiding in the grass? 

 This cow's name is SuperStar.  She will eat you if you get between her and her calf.  She's a good mama, but stay away from her.  Her calf is a heifer, and I want to keep her in our herd.  Superstar is getting some age on her and will need a replacement in a few years.

 This is one of DH's tame mamas.  He always tries to have a few of these so they'll train the other cows to the pickup.  Spoiled pets....gives him someone to talk to when I'm not there.

 Here's one that still has a calf in her...or she's been eating too much hay.  I know exactly how she feels.

Red Mamas and red Daddy and the babies have white streaks across their faces.  I love it.

I think these two got into the marshmallow cream when Mama wasn't looking. 

The next time I get to go help, they will be a lot bigger.

I told you it was dry.

This is our private fishing hole.  No, I won't give you directions. And yes, I clean and cook everything I catch outta here.
Right now, it's so bone-dry that I don't know how many fish are going to survive.

I'm standing where the water should be about 3' deep.  You might get tired of me whining about it being so dry...but now you'll understand one of the reasons it needs to rain!  This is a main water source during the summer months for our cattle.  We have a fresh water well at the top of the hill, but they love to come down here and cool off their hoofs.

Wednesday Hodgepodge Foolishness...Vol 20

From This Side of the Pond by Joyce


1. April rolls in at the end of this week and in celebration of that infamous date (April 1st) answer this question-What is something foolish you've done?
This one is actually hard for me....I'm horribly clumbly, so I fall down all the time...I talk too much, so I'm always saying the wrong thing, and I ask WAY too many questions.  DS's caught me dancing and singing in the backyard one day when I was working in the garden and I didn't hear the end of that for a long time, so I'd have to say it doesn't have to be April 1st for me to be foolish!

2. With April comes Easter and that classic edible treat known as Peeps...so tell me...what's your favorite way to fix/eat chicken? That wasn't what you were expecting, was it? I 'fooled' you. teehee.

I LOVE fried chicken, but don't like to clean up the mess.  I also love baked-fried chicken, and last night I made a chicken/stuffing casserole that I got off of the stove-top box.  I don't like BBQ, but I also love grilled chicken-if you don't let it dry out.

3. What's the best museum you've ever visited? Or your favorite? Or the one you'd most like to visit?

Oklahoma isn't known for it's museums..so, I'd have to say the  JFK Museum in Dallas or the hundreds of museums we visited in DC(we visited when I was 14)  If it has quilts in it, i'm all for going tho.  Guess I should note that there's a museum in my town (that I've only been to once) that is a collection of artifacts from our area.  I need to go visit more often. I know I'm probably a minority, but I'm not a museum person. 

4. You know what they say about April showers...what's your preference-a shower or a bath?

The only bathtub we have in our new house is the one-compartment sink in my kitchen.  We're shower people, but I LOVE a hottub.

Remembered I had this pictures on my computer.  Goes to show, if you get dirty at Grandma Sauce-a's house, you get a bath in the sink!  After I looked at this, I saw there was Soft Scrub, Comet, and Dawn all setting there, but what doesn't show is the Baby soap that I keep on stand-by for just this occassion.  Tyler is blurry, but I think it was his turn to get scrubbed.

5. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"...fact or fiction? Why?

I have no idea, but there's some people absent in my life and it wouldn't make my heart any "fonder" if I got to see them more often!  (probably not the response you wanted)

6. What's your favorite product made/grown in your home state/province?

Hard red winter wheat (if it doesn't rain there's not going to be a crop) and homegrown Angus Beef.

Oh, and the three boys that I made and home-grew!

7. What is going on in the world today that affects you the most?

The economy.  How in the world are our grandchildren going to make it in the world the way everything is changing so fast and everything becoming so expensive.  Every product advertised is a "convenience" product that they really don't need.  I hope their upbringing gets them through life.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

This week has been a rough week here at work.  It's cold outside and the wind won't stop howling.  I'm ready for spring to show up and give us some April showers so we can have a better outlook on life.

Yard Art for Sale

FOR SALE:  Everybody needs one of these in your front yard.

Guaranteed to start...well, make sure you have a can of starting fluid.

Lots of tread left.

Includes the engine..

windshield wiper, exhaust

hydraulic plug-ins,

hydraulic seat...keeps the ride from being so bouncy-bouncy

pedals...break brake and clutch

levers to make the stuff you're hooked up to goes up and down

all kinds of warning stickers

large steering wheel with all sorts of gauges,

air-conditioner..that I guaranteed you will need,

state of the dust art stereo--does not include jeans or Red-Wing boot

lots of hoses

other side of the engine..see the hoses are hooked up here too.

Come on...SOMEBODY out there needs this Versatile tractor!  There's only ONE more left, so you better hurry and make up your mind.  The other one sold only last week.  This one will go fast!

Just leave your contact information, and one of our friendly salesmen will get back with you.

New Granddaughter Ava

Ava Elizabeth was born yesterday (7lbs 3 oz) and with all Grandchildren, Sauce-a was right there.  She is a precious little Angel and is a blessing to our family.

Welcome to this crazy world Ava, from Grandma Sauce-a.