Right Now

Right now, I am sitting in my house with all the windows opened and the attic fan on....

Not because it is such a beautiful and warm day (but it is really nice outside), but because of this little guy...

My beloved Jasper....well he's not so beloved right now, actually he is on my bad list.  

Why?

Well, last night about the time we were laying down to go to be he decided he needs to start barking...at coyotes and the moon. Annoying, but really not that big of a deal. But then we wake up some where around 1-2 A.M. to a smell...No it wasn't Caleb passing gas, sadly I would have preferred that to this smell it was...

SKUNK!

YUCK!!! Apparently Jasper, who was assisted by Hank and Kit, Scared the "stink" out of a skunk and it sprayed right on our heater/AC that is sitting out behind the house. 

We have had this happen twice before...yeah I said twice, it's very sad....but both those times it was in warmer weather, and we could open the windows without a problem. But it is still winter here, and it's cold and it was way too cold to open any windows last night, so we had to try and sleep through the night with that nasty smell lingering in the air all night. I woke up sleepy, with a headache and my eyes burning from the smell. 

I had a meeting this morning, so I opened all the windows before I left, and then I spent the afternoon hanging out at a friend's house to keep away from the smell. But now that I am home I have all the windows opened and candles burning, trying to get this nasty smell out of my house, so we can get some sleep tonight.  

But most likely when I am done with writing this I am gonna go put some gloves on and a pair of long underwear on, cause it's cold in here!!

On a positive note, the Skunk was dead!

JP             

WWIII - Battle of Frog Pond

Early this morning we got up and Caleb headed out to get the tractors ready to start planting wheat again. After getting Chester up and dressed we went out to tell Caleb something and I found a pitiful looking group of dogs.
 

Jasper

 

Hank

Kit

I have no idea what happened, but my from the looks of them I am guessing they took on a big ol' battle down by the pond, cause they are a disastrous mess! Jasper was beat up and pouting so my guess was it was a raccoon, cause if skunks, possums, armadillos, and turtles don't fight back like coons do.

Hank was a little beat-up too, which kind of surprised me cause I didn't think he ever helped much, but I guess I was wrong.

And as for Kit, she was just fine. She has been running around like a crazy dog and chasing birds, just like nothing happened.

Did they kill the raccoon?? I don't know. I haven't been down to the pond to check. All I will say is it was an epic battle. 

 

A Weeks Worth of Catching Up - A List

I know it's been a while, but I was gone all last week and was crazy busy the entire time I was gone, but there will be more on that later. I thought I would give you a little up-date / catch up on what's been going on around here.

1. We have gotten all the fescue mowed, raked, baled and put away.

To be honest I really didn't do all that much this year. I raked some and hauled some, but that was it.  I love mowing but Caleb didn't share the mower one bit this year he keeps sayin' something about me being pregnant...

Wait I am pregnant....

And here's the belly to prove it....lol

I can still see my feet, but I am sure it won't be long till I will forget what my toes look like.

2. The wheat has been turning fast!!! We have had at least two weeks of 90 degree weather with no rain.

In some fields there is still a little green, but they started cutting this past Friday, but then it rained...

But we really wanted the rain so there were no complaints.

And Actually Caleb said they were gonna get back to it and start cutting again this afternoon, so there will be a lot more wheat pics to come!

3. Like I said I was gone this past week. My sister and I took a spur of the moment trip to Nashville for the CMA Music Festival.

It was HOT, but we still had a blast! We got to hear some great music.  My favorite was Brad Paisley and Alabama, as well as Jason Aldean and Zach Brown Band. I wasn't too impressed with Reba, to be honest she was my least favorite. 

Stinker also like Jason Aldean and Brad Paisley.

I left last Tuesday morning and got back home Saturday night.

I didn't take all that many pics, cause I really didn't want to lug my big ol' camera around with me. I mean I am already hauling around an extra 10 pounds in this 90+ degree weather and since I don't have a zoom lens for my camera it really wouldn't be worth the hassle.

I did take my little point an shoot, but I am not all that happy with the pics.

4. Before I left I had to get some things done, like Pick and pit all the cherries. There weren't near as many as we had last year, and they were barely worth my time.  They were really wormy this year and there was barely enough for one person.

I am planning on canning them like I did last year, but since I didn't have a lot of time I just pitted them and froze them as well as all the juice I got from them. Later this week I'll get them out and can them, but until then they are doing just fine in the freezer.

5. I also had to cook my hubby some meals before I could head out, cause I didn't want him to waste away to nothing while I was gone.

6. Jasper is rotten!!!

End of story.

As I am getting all the last minute things done Tuesday morning I go our side to find Kit and Hank being goof....for once and then I find Jasper looking like this...

Why, you may ask, does Jasper look like this??

Because...

He did this to the place where I had some of my plants.

Ya see I go out side to find him trying to get an armadillo back here in this spot.  The armadillo had dug a hole that was about 10-12 inches deep.

This is what is left of my citronella plant...

and here are the rest of them...

One was completely destroyed and another one was luck to still be alive.

Needless to say I wasn't a very happy person when I found this.

This would make at least 5 if not 6 armadillos that have lost their life here in the past 2 months.

7. Since I took enough clothes to last a month, I have a lot of unpacking to do as well as laundry.

Well I had better get back to it.

Lots of Love,

Janet

Things Aren't Always What they Seem

So about two weeks ago Caleb and I were awoken to barking dogs early in the morning. They were at the other end of the house so they really weren't bothering us all that bad so I didn't bother getting up and yelling at them.

Later after getting up, eating breakfast Caleb and I head out to go our separate ways...

He was headed to put anhydrous on and I was going to check and feed all the cattle.

As we walked out side we found what they were barking at...

a possum.

Now this isn't the first time we have had a critter like this laying in the yard, with a jack russell it is a common occurrence.

Well I head off to feed a group of cows down the road and then head back to the house with a bale of hay to feed the group that was there.

Well after feeding them I stop by the house...

Probably to get food. Currently food is ruling my life.

Anyways when I was walking towards the house I noticed something in my tree that isn't usually there...

Yes that would be the possum that I thought was dead.

Evidently it wasn't and was able to crawl away when Jasper and the others weren't looking.

It crawled up here in the tree thinking it would be safe...

But it wasn't expecting me and my pliers to come along and pull him out of the tree.

Oh how excited Jasper was for this.

I let him play with it for a while and then I "took care of" the nasty pest.

I could of let Jasper take care of it, but that would mean I would have this dead nasty critter in my yard that would start stinking and well I didn't want that.

After taking care of the critter I put it on the back of the truck along with the raccoon that I had seen a few weeks ago (I thought it was gone only to be wrong in finding it again).

So they were both loaded on the back of the truck and taken a long way away to another farm where the dogs couldn't get a hold of it and drag it back into the yard...

Because as of today there is another dead possum in the yard (that Caleb threw across the road and the dogs retrieved) as well as what it left of a calf that died a long time ago...

Oh the joys of having dogs.

I hope you all have a great weekend and hopefully I will get the chance to do some more posting next week...

No guarantees.

Have a Wonderful weekend!!!

JP

Helpers

So the other day I showed ya'll a picture of me and my helpers. Well it turns out they do more than just add a little weight to the bale....

Wait let me re-state that "They try and do more"....

Wait that's not quite right, "Hank tries to do more"....

 

If only he could get on the right side of the bale!

There, that's better....

Wait, I thought you were helping?

Hank: "It's too big for me to push, I need a break!"

There we go, he's back helpin' again, and look Kit is there "helping"....more getting in the way while practicing her log rolling skills.

Kit: "That's enough practice for today, now I'm gonna go stare down a cow."

I like it when Caleb gets some help, that means I don't have to help and I can take more pictures.

Caleb: "Thanks for all your help Hank, you're such a good dog!"

Hank: "Are you going to pet me or what?"

Jasper: "I think this looks like a good spot to go pee"

Wait what are you doing here Colby, you weren't helping?

Colby: "Where's my feed? I'm hungry!"

You're already fat enough, go eat your hay.

"Hank, Why are you way back there?"

Hank: "This work stuff is for the birds, I think I am going to go back to the house and take a nap."

Well at least we got some help out of him.

JP

The Table

So as I promised last Thursday here are some pics of my new dining room table in our house. 

I love my new table, but it's kinda hard getting use to seeing it in here. 

I was soo very excited when I finally found it and it was just what I was wanting....and what Caleb was wanting.

I had looked at a few different tables that were this rustic looking type of table, but they were all very expensive and they didn't have leaves....

is that how it's said and spelled?!?!

I don't know why I asked that it's not as if I have ever cared how something was said or spelled before....

anyways back to the table, I wanted an 8" table that had leaves in it so I could shrink it down when we didn't need one that big.  My thought being that we are thinking about starting a family one of these days and I want a table that will fit our family plus anyone that comes to visit, so I wanted a table that could seat 8 people.

All Caleb wanted was padded chairs....

I wasn't to excited about that thought, cause all the padded chairs I would ever find were...in a word...

Nasty!!

So when I found this table I knew I had a winner, because it was just what I was lookin' for as well as it had the padded seats for Caleb.

So here it is....

It's not perfect, there are some scratches here and there, but for the price they sure don't bother me a bit....

they give it some extra character.

It also came with 6 armless chairs and 2 arm chairs.

The picture doesn't do the fabric on the chairs justice, it's a lot prettier in person...

Also the seat on the chairs is huge....I'm pretty sure Caleb and I could share one chair between both our booties!

Beside that chair is the chair that goes with our old table....huge difference.

Well there you have it there's my new table, I will say that it is no longer clean, I been unpacking boxes and there is now a huge mess all over the table as well as the floor.

Oh well I will get it all cleaned up soon.

* While I was writing this Hank (my lab) stared barking....he only barks if something is wrong. So I go out the front door and call all the dogs to see what is going on. Everybody, but Jasper (the Jack Russel) came. Usually this means he's chaisin' or attaching something, but this time I didn't hear him barkin'like crazy....which is what he normally does. I keep callin' him, and still he doesn't come.....then I finally hear him bark a little from the back side of the house. So I go back in put Caleb's boots on and grab a coat and a light and head out to see what he's messin' with.....I am still think that it's really odd that he's 1. not comming to me 2. since he's not coming to me he's also not barking. I make my way towards where I heard him earlier....over by my garden and the sheds....it's then that I see a little white nose stickin' out of the hole in the side of my garden shed. Ya see there is a hole that is just big enough for a cat....and evidently a Jack Russell...to crawl through, but the thing is, my cat can make it back out and my Jack Russel can't. So he was probably chasing the cat and made it into the shed, but he couldn't make it back out when he was done. I laughed pretty hard when I found him in there, and all he wanted was out! So ol' Hank was barkin' to let us know that his big brother was trapped and needed help getting out.

I just had to tell ya'll this while I had your attention....

Catch ya'll later,

Janet

Gifts from My Dogs

I look out my window and what do I see?
A dead raccoon staring up at me.

Say what?!?!  


You heard me. This was my view as I looked out my window Thursday morning.

Let me back up to Wednesday night at about 10:30 when Caleb and I had just crawled into bed to go to sleep. When the dogs started barking.

First lets go back and look at my dogs.

Jasper

He's just a little stinker and likes to kill things and he's our barker in the group.  He barks when any new truck pulls into the drive. He's out little watch dog and even though he's the smallest he rules the roost around here.

Every night he's usually up barkin' at something.

Kit

She's my sweet heart. She follows Jasper around and does what he does.  When he barks, she barks.

Hank

He's grown since you last saw him, but he's still as lazy as ever and he rarely ever barks. Usually the only time he will bark is when the other two dags are doin' something they weren't suppose to be doing.

OK, now back to the story. We had just crawled into bed when the dogs started barkin' up a storm. I didn't think much about it, but Caleb got concerned a little cause Hank was barkin' too. Caleb thought that someone must be out there.

That thought never crossed my mind cause if there was a person out there Hank wouldn't be barkin' at them he would be up there beggin' for some lovin'.

Well I open my bedroom window and holler at them and it was then i heard it. Along the the sound of barking dogs I heard this squealing noise. It was then I realized that Jasper was fightin' with a raccoon.

I don't mind him messin' with any of the other little critters, but coons bother me cause of the thought of rabies.

So I put on my boots and go out there to see what all is goin' on. That's when I see it's a young coon so I wasn't to worried but I still wanted it to stop so they would quit barking and we could go to bed. 

So Caleb grabbed a shovel and finished off the little coon and hauling it off out into the field while I held Jasper, and let me tell you that Jasper was grinning from ear to ear about conquer of the raccoon.

So now the little beast is dead and tossed out into the field and we can go to bed.

Well the next morning I wake up only to look out the window to see that the rotten dogs had gone back out to the field and found the dead raccoon and drug it back up into the front yard for me to look at in the morning. 

Seriously, what am I gonna do with these rotten dogs!?!?!

Hope ya'll have a wonderful weekend.

I'm gonna go and toss a nasty coon away and then head to MO for the weekend

Janet

A GREAT Surprise!

So about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks ago my cat, Dottie...

you know her, she brings dead rabbits into my garage, leaves half eaten rats on my back door step and is more annoying than that purple dinosaur

She was hangin' out in my garage one night and the next morning she was gone.

No big deal, right. She's back and forth from the barn all the time.

A few days go by and I haven't heard her. Usually she's hangin' out in my garden shed and she will start hollarin' at me for some attention.

A week goes by and still no cat, I wasn't to worried cause this has happened before. She'll be gone for about a week and then she'll show up.

Then it was getting close to two weeks and still no cat. By this time I am beginning to think and believe that my cat is gone...

...either a coyote got her, she got hit by a car, or someone shot her.

By this time I was getting pretty sad and belivin' my cat is no more.

Then last night I get home after pickin' up my new washer and I go out to see my dogs and give them some lovin' before I go to bed, that's when I hear this sound that sounds like my cat meowin'. It was a very faint sound...

...could it be

...naw, it's not my cat she's gone

...then the noise grew louder, and louder

...and then I saw a pair of eyes and there she was. There was my annoying little cat, who wasn't soo little.

No she's not pregnant, she's been out catchin' mice and rats and is fat as a tick and now has the prettiest and softest coat.

So I am a very happy girl now.

Goodnight, I'm gonna go and pet my cat.

Janet

What to Say?!?!

I have no idea what to say about this picture but it cracked me up and I wanted to share it with ya'll.

Got to head back to the field so I will catch up with ya'll later.

Janet

Snake Problems....

So to start things out one of my many nicknames, from my ornery brother, growing up was "reptile-amphibian" or "reptile" which ever he was in the mood to say. Well from that little bit of information you might gather that I was a little infatuated with frogs, turtles, toads and any other little critter you might find around ponds, under rocks, in the creek or where ever. I just loved the little guys.

However, back then I wasn't as much of a fan of snakes.  I wasn't scared of them, I just didn't know what to do with them. It wasn't till I got older and learned more about them and how to handle them that I grew to like them more.

Now I don't have a room in my house full of the little creepy crawlies, I just don't have to kill them or run away screaming every time I see one. Usually I chase after it and try and catch it then go and release it somewhere safe and away from harm of the snake haters.

I did have a 'pet' one for a while. Well it was more like one that was hangin' around the house all the time. On several occasions, when Caleb and I were remolding our house, we found a big black rat snake hangin' out inside of it...before you freak out too much a lot of the floors were ripped up at the time and we technically found him under the house. I named him Sysco....and the reason he was hangin' around our house was cause there was plenty of food in supply, cause we had a slight rat problem at that time. There was one time that we actually found Sysco chasin' a nasty little rat. The guys we had helpin' us tried to kill him on a number of occasions but I would not let them.

Now for all of you who are freaking out about the snakes and rats and vow to never come visit...well we no longer have a rat problem thanks to our cat and as for Sysco, I've only seen him once since we moved in and that was out by the barn. So you should be safe, but I can't make any guarantees cause we do live on a farm and in the country so ya never know what might happen around here.

Now for those of you out there who are more like my mother and my sister and are petrified of snakes well you will be happy to know that if you did come and visit, though I can't make guarantees, you most likely won't run in to a snake by my house for one reason alone.....

...because I have a snake killin' machine on my hands. Yes my little Jasper hates the little things. To be honest he hates anything that is smaller than him. 

So Like I said probably won't find any live snakes crawlin' around if ya stopped by, but you migh find a dead one every now and then.

Now back to the corn field I must go.... 

Yours Truly,

Reptile-Amphibian

Jasper, Oh Jasper

It was a nice warm afternoon the other day when I was working in my garden. Both dogs were off their chains out playing and havin' a good ol' time runnin' around like ying-yangs. After a grueling time of trying to catch frogs in the pond (seriously these are dogs after my own heart) they decided it's time for a nap.

"I want to chase frogs and take a nap! Why can't I do that too?"

Cause you're a big girl now and you have to get your garden planted if you want to have anything to eat from it this summer.

"But I want to go catch frogs a take a nap! This isn't fair!!"

Suck it up buttercup, cause life aint fair!

Sorry, I got off subject. My mind and I kinda go at it every now and then.

So my little Jack Russell, Jasper, was in there next to the garden just completely wiped out. Since I don't usually get a chance to take pics of him like this I grabbed my camera and hoped he wouldn't wake up till I got a picture. So here's what I got of the funny little turd!

  "Oh, I'm gonna catch that bunny. I've almost got him...

....wait what was that? Did I hear some thing? Is some one taking my picture?

Oh it's you!

I'm sorry I didn't mean it. I love you. Please don't be mad at me.

Oh brother, I'm gonna get it now.

You want me to do what?

But I don't want to come over there.

OK fine...

I wasn't in your garden. Are you mad at me?

I'm here.

I'll never be bad again. Let's shake on that.

Oh come on, won't you please rub my belly?!?!

Did I hear a squirrel?

And just like that it was over.