Meet Pretzel & Midnight

These 2 ladies are my birthday present this year! Pretzel is a Katakin cross sheep and Midnight is a Black Hawaiian sheep. Both are supposed to be bred-time will tell!

I do believe that Kaytlynn & Pretzel are becoming close friends! Pretzel is very friendly while Midnight is still very skidish!

We had another eventful week-Spent Monday & Tuesday in Conroe visiting a friend's mom who was in the hospital-we went up to Mom and Shorty's on Thursday and spend the day-and the next-mowing the pasture and cleaning up. They have 2 new calves-so cute! We met our friends Pat & Randy who owned the beach house next to us in Cleveland on Friday night and had the best visit! It was so great spending time with them again!

We started the incubator with 25 quail eggs this afternoon-2 weeks will tell if they hatch! The young pullets having started dieing off-we've lost 4 this week! Now we are down to only 6-so we changed their pen and will get some wormer for them tomorrow. They are very thin-although they have feed in their pen all the time.

I go back to work tomorrow-I really am ready-I know I'll have lots of things to catch up on! Ricky got the house pressure washed-so now we are ready to start painting it-but we have a 50% chance of rain most of the week-maybe by the end of the week we can get started on it!

Have a good week!

Happy 50th Birthday, Jeff!!!

Jeff with the cake Alana made for him!

The flounder he caught at Rollover Pass on Wednesday morning!

Hubby has made it to the half century mark!! He isn't having a very good day, either-major back pains today! But he won't slow down and let it get the best of him. I surprized him with a quick trip to High Island for the night on Wednesday so he could spend some beach time! We had a great time-but he fished a little too much-and was in so much pain-we came on home a day earlier than planned-still had fun though.

The bathroom is completed-finally! I'll post the before and after pics later. Nothing matched up so it became quite a nightmare-took WAY longer than expected and many trips to the hardware store.

The quail have started laying-Jordan ate 5 of them fried and 2 hen eggs for supper the other night-he loved them! I am planning to wait til we are getting about 5 eggs a day-then run an incubator with some and see what hatches. The young rooster started trying to crow just this morning-scared me to death-I was still asleep and heard what I thought was Jeff hollar in the backyard-I thought he had fallen! I ran out there and it was just the rooster! Thank God! We have lost 1 of the mamma rabbits-don't know what happened to her. Jeff is butchering fryers now-our out of town customer is ready for some more! We did get the steer back from the locker plant-320 pounds of grass fed beef-YUMMY!! The steaks are SO tender-they just fall apart in your mouth! The heifer is up at Mom and Shorty's being bred. We are still thinking about getting some meat goats-but what we've looked at so far wasn't healthy looking-so we passed on them. The grass in both pastures will have to be mowed-it is getting out of hand-hard to find the pig pen.

I have 1 more week of vacation then back to work! I've really enjoyed the time off and we've gotten a few things accomplished. Jeff got the pressure washer started yesterday-so now the house needs to be washed so we can repaint it. It is too big of a job for him so the boys will have to get in on this one for sure! We have some fence that needs to be repaired so the guys will need to get on that before too long also. It is just so hot and humid right now-it's hard to get outside to do much for too long.

Vacation Pics!

The crew with the Penquin at the Aquarium-Mady doesn't like him at all-Kaytlynn didn't either after this pic was taken!

All of our penquins!

Well, my summer break started today. It was so hard leaving work yesterday knowing I wasn't coming back until July 26th. We have so much still to do before school starts back again. I let my boss know that she could call me at anytime and I'll come in and do whatever needs to be done. But I do have lots to do at home before then!

I have an eye appointment in a little while-I've gotten to where I can't see with my glasses and can even see better without them! The crew has been working some on the bathroom remodel-but we've hit a snag-the clawfoot won't quite fit in the area where the old tub was! So now the plumbing will have to be rearranged to make everything fit! So much fun!

Jeff made 14 pints of pickles on Monday and I finished up the juice with 4 more this morning. We are still waiting on the call from the locker plant to pick up the steer-sure thought it would be ready by now-but the longer it hangs in the cooler-the more tender the meat! Jeff's been tinkering with the welding machine-the valves are stuck and it won't run-Shorty was needing it to finish up his new catch pen-he's making a little headway-only 1 valve is still stuck.

Hurricane Alex is not sending any rain our way it appears. It has given us cloudy days which mean cooler temps though! We do get a slight shower every now and then-but hardly enough to even drip off the house.

We are having Jeff's dad's 80th birthday party on Sunday-he still isn't doing very well-should be a pretty big crowd-he has a very large family. Gonna have hamburgers and hotdogs and birthday cake! We still have a good chance of rain on Sunday-but we'll just make the best of it!

Have a great day!

Time DOES Fly When You're having FUN!!

Can't believe I can't keep up with this all of a sudden! Well-we got back yesterday from vacation in Galveston with the whole family-minus Randy and Rascal! We had a blast at Moody Gardens and just hanging out at the beach. The weather was wonderful-even if I got sunburned the first day and at Moody Gardens no less! Alana and crew went home on Saturday-so we called Shelia and Alfred and they came on down for the night. The guys fished at the beach and caught a few small sand trout and gaff top. A great time was had!!
Jeff finally got his first SS check-YEAH! He won't be getting the back pay, though, but we are grateful to just have the income back! He's making pickles today-we stopped by the farmer's market on the way home and got a few cucumbers-Our garden is just not worth speaking of anymore-and so are alot of others around here. It has really been a weird year-either you have veggies EVERYWHERE or none at all.
We took the steer to the locker plant before we left-so we should be picking the meat up today or tomorrow-can't wait for a fresh steak! We are thinking about getting a few goats to keep the pasture eaten down-and they will be easier for us to handle than the full size cows! The pigs are growing and we still have rabbits to butcher-I won't breed them anymore this summer-it's just too hot for them! The quail are starting to sound off-they sound so cool-eggs will be coming before too long!! The pullets are coming along nicely, too.
All eyes are on the Gulf now-with the threat of the first hurricane of the season looming. The oil spill is bad enough-we really don't need that making it worse! Galveston beaches are still ok-just lots of seaweed! I'll try to post pictures later-took some really good ones this weekend!! Have a great day!

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!

Happy Mother's Day 2010!!

I was blessed with roses this Mother's Day-I have a total of 40 on the dining room table!

These are the catfish Jeff & I brought in last weekend-boy was it fun!!-Jordan, Mady, & Aiden are checking them out!!

Hope everyone had a great day-I sure did!! We watched the girls for Julie today-they scheduled her to work-how sad is that-a single Mom having to work on Mother's Day! The weather has been cool today-I don't think it even got in the 70's-maybe lower ones. It was cooler outside than inside with the a/c on!

We've been to the lake a few more times-Jeff picked me up after work on Monday and we got 18-then Jeff & Randy went later in the week and got 29. Randy and Ricky went Friday and got 9 off the lines-and now it has been a little too windy to get out on the lake-maybe they can get out there in the next few days. Jeff fried fish for supper tonight-Yummy!

We stayed at Mom and Shorty's Friday night and spent a great deal of yesterday cleaning up the yard and mowing-got most of one side of the yard done-it looks really good! Bubba cooked crawfish-so we had mud bugs, corn and potatoes for supper. Shorty sent some kind of citrus tree home with me-he just sticks seeds in the ground and they come up and then he can't remember what he planted! I tell him all the time he could put a dead stick in the ground and it would grow-people with green thumbs!!

Well-they have stopped Jeff's short term disability-now they are saying he wasn't supposed to be getting it. He was only supposed to receive it for a few more weeks-then the Social Security Disabilty is supposed to kick in come the middle of June. It'll just be a long time in between paydays-only having my check from school to depend on. But God is in control and everything will work out in the end!! Have a great week!