Spring

The Day I Lost My Cool – Coronavirus Day 35

Oh gosh, they never tell you how hard being a parent is. Throw in a pandemic and gosh, I fail. I receive a Big. Fat. F. This is one of those tales…

First, can you look at the picture above and see what it is focusing on? Maybe… maybe not. I’ll give you a hint… look at the hair.

They tell me every little girl plays hair salon at some point in their life. Mine happened when I was in 2nd grade. The difference was I didn’t cut my own hair. My cousin cut my hair for me so I’m told. I don’t remember that.

So let’s paint the picture.

I am having Major allergies right now. Hello, my gray truck will be green from now until June. My allergies have been in overdrive. So I took a Benadryl on Thursday night to dry me up. Those usually kick my butt but help too so… (more…)

Starting Vegetables from Seed… Coronavirus Day 35

I got a little excited back at the end of March trying to get plants in the ground. In case you wondered… none of them germinated. None of them came up. I decided to give up… although Grandma told me to give it just a little more time. But I don’t have high hopes. So I decided to go the route of starting them indoors and then transplanting them. What do I have to lose at this point? I still have time to try this method and if it doesn’t work, try planting directly in the garden again. I guess that’s one good thing about starting early.

I still haven’t given up hope on finding potato starts, but I’m not finding them either. Fingers crossed I find some… but…

Back to the day at hand…

Starting Vegetables from Seed.

  • You’ll need a good potting mix. Typically I try to use from our soil pile, but I actually bought seed starting potting mix. 
  • Seed trays that include an outer tray, inner tray, and the clear plastic dome.
  • Seeds (of course)
  • Water.
  • Optional: Seedling markers.
  • Optional: Seed Dibber or pencil. Helps measure how deep to plant the seeds.

First things first, you’ll want to put the soil into the individual trays. (more…)

The Day I Drove My Husband Nuts… Coronavirus Day 34

Honestly, why am I recording all of this? Because someday I’m going to look back and see this and remember. Truthfully, maybe I don’t want to remember some of this. This Pandemic is nuts. It sucks too. But I’m trying to make the most of it. Plus, I can’t seem to sit still. It’s not like I went a lot of places before all of this, but the thought that I can’t has me stir crazy. Stir crazy enough to go all over our place looking for scrap to haul off. Not because I want the money, but because I want the crap gone.

Once I was done with our house, I went off to my parents. In fact, the more I think about it, I might be driving my dad nuts too. (more…)

Expecting a “New One” – Coronavirus Day 32

For the record, It’s NOT me. Now back to regularly scheduled programming. haha.

Since we’ve been home on this self-quarantine type whatever you want to call it, we’ve been doing a lot of riding. This has been our form of social distancing. But it has also been our form of not going mad in the house. Before this week, I’m pretty sure we’ve only missed riding a handful of times in the last month. That’s not bad, right? So why have we missed so much this last month? Well, because we started questioning if Aloha (the horse) was pregnant. 

We’ve had a lot of times in the past few years we thought she was bred. Always turned out she wasn’t. We’ve only had her checked by a vet for pregnancy one time. That was the only time we really thought, fingers crossed, she might be. She wasn’t. She was open (not in foal). 

Now one thing about this mare (female horse) is that she is kind of short and chunky anyway. That’s just her build. Big-boned as some might call it. (more…)

The Coronavirus Easter… Day 30

I’m pretty sure most people would agree this wasn’t the Easter we planned on for 2020. Everyone talked about the Roaring ’20s but I seriously doubt this Coronavirus is what they had in mind. Honestly, truth be told, this is probably the Easter I don’t care to remember. Not because I want to forget the true reason for this season. In fact, Jesus is what is getting us through this. Him and God. Otherwise, this would suck a lot more than it does. I love that a lot of churches were broadcasting Easter Church services online because we’re not allowed to congregate at Church right now.

But Easter with my family this year could have gone better. I seriously think I’ll just leave it at that. 

At least the Easter Bunny was able to make it through to our house. Whew!!

What made it “perfect” was the fact that the little said that she loved this day and couldn’t wait until next Easter. That right there and Jesus are the true reason for this! (more…)

The Coronavirus Haircut… Coronavirus Day 30

We’re in unchartered territory here. Heard that a lot lately? The other day I watched a video of a girl who was crying her eyes out because she couldn’t get her hair done or her nails done and she said, “This is the year of the farm wife.” I kid you not. So supposedly farmer’s wives, daughters, female farmers are ugly and don’t care about their looks. That’s what I gather from that.

When I was growing up, my mom had a job outside the farm (so did my dad… the used that to pay for the farm)… But my mom had her nails done every what is it 3-4 weeks. Whatever the time frame is. I’m not into long nails. They drive me nuts. I tried them for a while. I’m good without them. 

Anyway… my mom wore gloves on her hands when she was doing anything around the farm from working horses to driving a tractor to bucking square bales onto the trailer. So when she went to work, people figured she was a “city girl.” Nails were her thing. Nice hands were too I guess. I was a little kid, I dunno. But the point is… I’m pretty sure we all care about our looks to some extent. Whatever…

Now with this pandemic thing… (haha)… getting your hair done is kind of unheard of. I poke fun at my husband a lot. I’m mean like that. I tease him because he’s a little light in the hair on the top of his head. But by golly he can grow it everywhere else it seems. (more…)

Bottle Calves – Coronavirus Day 28 & 29

 We now have bottle calves. How on earth this happened I’m still scratching my head to figure out… but… Let me paint you a picture…

Last night just after normal chore time, I got a text message from both my parents saying my dad needed help and how fast could I get there. Real fast. Abug and I threw our shoes on and out the door we went. Good thing we just live down the road. She was in play clothes so she went into my parent’s house with my mom (too cold for how she was dressed) and I went out to see what was going on. I had been there about an hour before and a cow was laying funny on the hillside. Turns out, momma was pregnant and trying to calve. 

She got the calf out all right, especially for a first-time momma, but then she ran off. The baby needed a little assistance. So dad and I grabbed some towels and off to the field we went to try and dry the baby off. It wasn’t cold out, but it was cool and just coming out of mommy, the calf was cold. Momma cow wouldn’t come near. I think part of it was because we were there but she was a first-time momma and sometimes they don’t have those instincts they’re supposed to. (more…)

Time to Play on the Horse Walker (again)… Coronavirus Day 19

When I was a kid, my parents bought this horse walker. What is a horse walker? It is exactly what it says, a horse walker. There have been times we had horses get hurt and we had to slowly bring them back (think physical therapy for people, but for horses). You can put them on the walker and it helps build back muscles. Say you have multiple horses and you need to warm them up or cool them down, you place them on the walker. Say it is winter and you want them to get outside and stretch their legs, hello horse walker.

It’s a machine that helps the horse walk around in a controlled manner.

When I was a kid, one of the arms had a swing put on it for me to ride on. The horses learned how to stop the machine and as a kid, I loved to ride the thing… it was my job to keep the horses walking. (more…)

She’s Saddled – Coronavirus Day 18 (also)

This is Granny. Everyone, meet Granny, Granny, this is everyone.

She is a 2-year-old mare that we have. The youngest horse we have on our place. And it is time that we start doing something with her. She needs to earn her keep. haha. A few years ago I broke Bucky to ride. He was such an awesome horse. We sold him last year and to say I’m a little bitter about this… I am. I hear he’s an awesome horse though and the people who bought him are in love with him. That’s good.

A few years before that I broke Barbie to ride. Now… Once I got her broke, then I got pregnant and was “grounded” from riding horses for 9+ months… so my dad finished her for me. Because of potential complications, the doctors wouldn’t allow me to ride.

But now… we have Granny. That’s her barn name. A barn name is what you call them in the barn, etc… but they also have a registered name. Anyway… (more…)

I made Homemade Pretzels… Coronavirus Day 18

I really think I should start calling it social distancing or homebound or something other than coronavirus. Ugh!

Earlier this year I went on the Keto Diet. Right now, I say screw that. We’re really supposed to stay home and out of stores, etc. So buying all the extra, special items to make Keto meals seems silly, plus I just want a little comfort. I love to bake and cook. And truthfully, while I tend to be a homebody, I’m sick of this staying home. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched Frozen 2. Not as many as Frozen (the original), but pretty darn close. Although I have to say I think I like the original Frozen better. My little thinks that they are going to do a Frozen 3. I’m not sure. It’ll sure be interesting, that’s for sure.

Anyway, I think I totally digressed. That’s where my brain is these days. Half the time I really have to think about what day it is. The little’s dance classes have moved to online. Last week, we missed 2 of the 3. I just plum forgot. So my goal for this week is to make all 3. I made yesterday’s and today’s, so that’s 2 of 3. Now just 1 more to go. I’ll let you know how I do. It’s the little things in life. (more…)