First Day of School-2010!!

Well-today was the day! Only Kaytlynn got to come back home-Pre-K doesn't start until tomorrow and no one bothered to let us know! They had a great day, though!

So much has gone on around here this last month-and for most of it-we weren't even here! Mom went into the hospital on July 26th and stayed almost 2 weeks-we stayed at their house to keep an eye on Shorty and his blood sugar. We came home on my birthday and spent the night-but went right back the next morning and stayed another week. She is doing better and has an appointment with a new GI Dr. that she really likes and he thinks that she has been mis-diagnosd this whole time-testing will tell!

Sad thing though-while we were gone-a varmit seemed to have moved in-it wiped out all but 2 of our hens-including the new rooster!! We are SO upset-and Jeff can't seem to get it in the trap-this is another smart one. The quail eggs did hatch-13 of the 24-so I was very happy-so was Alana-she was the one who ended up tending to the incubator while we were up at Mom's. We bought 20 bitties from a friend of Mom's last week-but we have got to find some layers-I DON'T want to have to buy eggs!

The sheep are doing well-Pretzel is pregnant-and we've come to the conclusion that Midnight is a very old ewe-she appears to have arthritis and has trouble getting around sometimes-she hasn't put on any weight or gotten rounder-so we really don't think she's bred-and might not be a good idea for her to get that way!

The pigs are growing like crazy-the biggest one's days could be numbered! Jeff is already saying he's gone the first really good cool snap!

It has been SO very hot here! It was 101 degrees today-and my babies had to ride the bus home!! We are very ready for Fall to arrive! The guys started painting the house today-got the back and 1 side done and will work on it more tomorrow. It sure looks good-barn red and we'll trim it out in white. I want to paint all the out buildings when it cools off so everything will match-probally give the grandkids a brush and let 'em go at it!!

Long Time-No Posting!

A pile of baby rabbits!!

Squash and peppers we put up today!


I guess there really isn't much of an excuse for not posting-other than just being busy with the normal end of the year school stuff and having a mild case of poison ivy and a chest cold! We got all the year end awards and Kindergarten graduations finished. We are on the count down for Jeff's Social Security checks to start coming in-it will be SO nice to have a paycheck coming in again!

The garden is about done for-we've picked green beans 2X's-only about a gallon bag full so far. We have a few small green tomatoes-but aren't holding out too much hope for them. Our friends-Sheila & Alfred gave us some of their surplus-so we've been busy putting some of it up, too. The hens are back up to 2-sometimes 3 eggs a day!!Yeah!! We've got 3 litters of bunnies right now-Jeff killed a BIG chicken snake last week in 1 of their cages. It had eaten 3 or 4 of the babies and the momma rabbit was biting the snake! We've got 6 fryers ready to butcher-Jeff will most likely get to them this week while I'm at work.

We are planning a family vacation to Galveston in a few weeks-gonna take everyone down and visit Moody Gardens and just hang out at the beach for a few days! I still have 12 days to work this summer-We work 4-10's in the summer-so I'll work 3 days a week through June then be off most of July. Time off will be nice this year since Jeff will be home!

ClawFoot Bath Tub Refinishing!

This is how BAD the old tub looked-it had been outside for along time-we sand blasted it and gave it a new coat of paint on the outside.

This is the finished product. We bought a refinishing kit from Lowe's-it wasn't very hard to do-just took almost all day long! Next we have to start tearing out the old bathroom and start the remodel on it!

HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY, JULIE!!!!

Our oldest daughter turned 29 today-someone PLEASE tell me where the time goes!!

We've been staying pretty busy around here lately-mostly with Doc appointments for parents and such! Everyone is doing fairly well at the moment-Thank God!!

School is winding down and the kids are getting excited about their summer break. I have to work 12 days after the kids get out then will be out all but the last week of July. We are trying to plan a big family vacation-my Mom & Shorty are wanting to go to Moody Gardens in Galveston-so it looks like we might take a big group of us and stay for few days-we just have to come up with a date when everyone can get away at the same time! Our friends -Sheila and Alfred are due back in today from their week long cruise to Alaska-we can't wait to talk to them! We know they had the time of their lives!

We went to the Trades Day in Conroe last Sunday-it was actually better than the last few times we had been-we did miss both shows last year. Jeff decided to get a few quail-so he bought 10 freshly hatched ones-SO tiny! We also got a new aracauna rooster and 6 pullets-3 aracauna & 3 marans. We had 1 old hen die yesterday-so it really is time to restock! We had a litter of bunnies born this week and another due this week.

The garden is still sick-but some things are still trying to grow. Jeff got 2 small squash and 1 new potato-the squash were really good! The green beans are blooming like crazy-so we'll have fresh ones soon. Only have a few small green tomoatoes so far.

We finally have 2 hummingbirds coming to the feeders and have a nest of wrens on the back porch. We moved the porch furniture around to the back porch and have been spending quite alot of time out there-it is so peaceful out there! The hot tub has been used alot this week, too! The kids are really enjoying splashing around in it in the evenings.

We have a long weekend coming up-school is out on Friday-a bad weather day and on Monday for Memorial day. We don't have any plans yet-other than going to Conroe on Friday to see if we can talk to the people at the SS office to make sure there isn't anything we need to do before Jeff starts getting his checks. And I have end of year awards at work Thursday evening-so we'll stay at Mom's that night.

We've had some pretty warm weather this week, too-so I guess summer is creeping up on us. We haven't done any fishing lately either-Jeff is really getting antsy to get out and start running his lines again-it's just been too windy to get out on the lake. Maybe one day this week!! Have a good one!

First day of School!!

Jordan, Hailey and Cayden-ready to get to school-back packs and all! Look at those smiles-can you tell they were excited??!!

Well-the first day is over! Hailey made it through her first day of 4th grade and James Street Elementary survived a full day of Jordan and Cayden! Actually they had a wonderful time on their first day of Kindergarten and they plan to return tomorrow! Jordan almost missed his bus-he said he was playing on the computer in another class. Cayden said she learned how to play with Playdough and how to sleep! I'll take all 3 to school starting tomorrow-I just hope they decide to get out of the truck when we get there!

I'm trying to get a new truck, too. The dealership is looking for a blue one-but with the Cash for Clunkers program-stocks are very low. They even starting looking for a red one today. The nearest blue one is in Temple. They seem to think they can get one in for me tomorrow-sure hope they can find a blue one-they sure are pretty-Oh-it's a Dodge Ram quad cab.

We did get the hot tub last week and Jeff and the guys got it in its' place in the deck yesterday! The kids are having a ball-they played in it before they got the pump going! The heater isn't working-Jeff wants to run some tests on it-but it feels good-even being cool at the moment. We all got in last night-Randy stayed in it for hours-he even drained the water heater for the house into it!! We still have alot of work to do on the deck-I'll try to post some pics of the hot tub going in tomorrow morning-I tried this morning-but my internet was acting crazy!

Have a great evening!