4-H camp

So, not a day goes by where I don't just "adore" RT and Bee... well, maybe not adore, more like "enjoy". OK, enjoy might be too strong a word on some days. How about "tolerate", that seems like a pretty appropriate word. Yes, if I'm being honest, there are even a few days where we just try to "weather" them until bedtime. And on those days I would give any amount of money for a break - a short time without Bee's crazy voices that she does or RT screaming through the house, "Where's my hat?" Sometimes I just go in the bathroom and sit and enjoy the quiet - for a brief 3 seconds before I'm guaranteed to be joined by at least one cat, two dogs and for sure one child. I love my little kiddos, but i-yi-yi.....

Well, I used to feel this way, right up to 36 hours ago. Bee and RT are at 4-H camp. They are hiking and swimming and sitting by the campfire telling stories. I am supposed to be there with them chaperoning the fun. But, no........ I am icing my back every hour and visiting the Dr. for what feels like 56 herniated disks, or a pulled muscle. Our house seems to have tripled in size and become soundproof. It's so quiet. It's so clean. It's so boring...

Come home, little campers!

sweet Bee.

I have the sweetest daughter. She literally smells sweet - she always has. Since she was a tiny baby she has had the most perfect scent that I can't quite define ... kind of like hard candy mixed with sweet peas mixed with sugar. It's just her scent. She is the most amazing little person. She is a total contradiction in the body of a ten-year-old. She is fiercely brave, yet at so many times scared and unsure. She is adventurous and curious, yet the biggest home-body in our family. She lounges in girly bubble baths, yet can rock a mud fight in the garden like nobody's business. She's so interesting. She studies the world around her. She's the most detailed oriented child I've ever been around. She can master anything, but doesn't think she can... silly rabbit...

Things Bee loves: to write, to ride, new chicks, cats, converse low-tops, listening to stories, HORSES, her bed, ice cream, hugs and kisses, cooking, to read, making faces, laughing, her family, saying bedtime prayers, snuggling.

Things Bee doesn't love: cleaning the cat box, making her bed, lasagna, things that happen in life that aren't right, putting her dirty clothes in the basket, thunder, being away from home.

I love my sweet Bee with all my heart. She is a gift that I thank God for everyday.

2011 County Fair

I'm not exactly picking up where I left off, but where we are currently in our little life on the farm ... recovering from the 2011 County Fair. We prepped. We loaded in. We showed our best. We represented. We loaded out and came home. A very successful fair for everyone! Both kids showed goats, chickens and eggs. Yes, you can show an egg. In fact, RT's eggs showed quite well... Supreme Champion Dozen Market Eggs. The Grand Poobah of eggs. That silly little dozen earned him a Champions banner, a Supreme Champion silver belt buckle, and an auction spot in the Champions auction that resulted in $250.00 purchase price! Yes, for a dozen eggs, and no, Grandma and grandpa didn't buy them... that was Izzy's dozen. Second place winning green eggs! So proud of those pushy old ranch hens - who'da thunk it??

But the success didn't stop there. Izzy won Jr. Novice Goat Showmanship, placed second out of nineteen in Jr. Novice Poultry Showmanship. Bee's chicken, Bridget, was one of the top 7 chickens at the fair, the best Rose Comb Clean-Legged chicken. Ri Tom's chicken won best in variety for her class, and the goats also did well. Oh yeah, and one of my favorite photos won second place, an artsy photo of dairy cow hides. what a strange secret hobby I have... Ag Photography. Oh well, I love it!

All in all, super job done by everyone. All chickens survived and are healthy. Only one goat and one day's worth of bowel issues - one dose of probiotics seemed to iron that out. Kids are relaxed and happy. Our only problem is figuring our what to do with the eight dozen eggs that are still left in the fridge - with only six hens laying - you have to save eggs for awhile to get a winning dozen!

Can you say breakfast for dinner??

Cool.

Nothing is more fun than driving down the gravel driveway and catching a glimpse of your daughter fiddling with her pony. Clean, braided, leg-wrapped... the pony not the daughter. Watching her saddle up by herself, bridle by herself, and head out into the pasture by herself. Well, not actually by herself - as always, there are four goats in tow...

A mini!

Yesterday we had a visitor for the day - a mini. It was Juice Box. She spent the day with us and we all had a great. She learned a lot about living on the farm. She learned that you can't wear Crocks outside in the morning because your socks will get wet. She learned to identify horse poop when we cleaned stalls. We called it cleaning Tessa's bed. She learned that you have to give the goats the fresh-picked grass that you have in your hand quickly otherwise they will mug you like the little thugs that they are. "Give us the grass, kid..." She was fascinated by the ladies enjoying a dust bath in the newly plowed garden. "Go see them chickens."

Fun to share all these things we love with our little juicy that we love so much!

It's a sign...

As winter drags on and our crummy luck for 2011 continues, it remains difficult to be "glass half full." Another surgery for Bryce the service dog tomorrow - this is after an extremely expensive CT scan that was needed to get a clear view of the tumor that is reappearing. A spay for Katy Kitty. A trip to the ER for izzy after two falls during a riding lesson. A CT scan later shows no damage, just a whopper of a headache and strained neck muscles. Assorted winter colds, growing pains, shoulder surgery rehab, the list goes on.

But, in the middle of all this "life" that is overrunning us, we received a sign. A sign that there is hope for us yet... One small green egg lying in a nesting box.

All I wanted when I moved back to the country was a chicken that laid colored eggs. And all of our chickens have NOT laid colored eggs. Beige. Beige eggs. Healthy and sooooo tasty, but beige. Ug. Until last week... I arrived home after work to an amazing surprise. Turns out that Bee's chicken, Pip, had not started laying yet - we thought she had. Nope. But last week she gave us the most awesome gift, a beautiful sage green egg. You'd think she laid a blue Tiffany's box, I was so excited to see that egg. That egg was a sign that despite the fog, the cold, the drama of life, there is goodness in the world. I mean, how can a girl's outlook on life not be changed by a green egg. Do you hear me? A GREEN EGG!

Life is good.

Giddy Up!

Today was the perfect day to ride! We haven't seen the sun in what feels like two months... just gray, cold, damp, frosty, foggy weather. No sun. None. But this afternoon it came out. And standing watching Bee's lesson, feeling the warmth from that sun on back, made it a perfect day to ride. Granted, Nick the lesson horse also felt the warm sun and the cool air - a lethal combination when you're a young rider. But Bee did great. It was her first dressage lesson. Turns out that the barn Bee has been taking lesson at for the last few months is an eventing barn. Dressage, cross country, stadium.

Now a beginning dressage lesson looks awfully similar to a regular lesson. But, I appreciated immediately the emphasis on control, heads-up riding with a plan, paying attention to your horse and proper posture. And it's a different posture. "Like ballerina on a horse," Cheron explains. Sitting very straight up and down, which is good for Bee because she usually ends up hunched over the neck like one of those monkeys that ride the australian shepards around the barrel pattern at the rodeos. Hilarious for sure, if you're a monkey...

Good day.