Playing with the pigglies

Country Girl giving Wrangler kisses!

Wrangler and Ripper smiling for the camera.

 A day of nice weather and we played outside with the pigglies.

Isn't Wrangler so cute?

cats...and pigs

I love my cats. Well, my kids' cats anyway. They tip over every drinking glass. They play with my hair clips, swatting them into tiny hidden spaces. They shred full rolls of paper towels. They eat your food when you aren't looking.

They cuddle with me. They talk to me. In cat language. One has learned to sound like he's saying hello when he meows though. I'm the only one that can understand him...

And I get to buy new hair clips once they have all disappeared.

Moving beyond my cat therapy...

We have added to the farm! 4 little piggies now call our place home. We have Ripper, Wrangler, Bruiser, and Sampson. We were all ready to build their little house down below the goat yard. Then it snowed. So we built a temporary house between the retaining wall and the shed up in the driveway. We could check on them and keep them tarped in out of the cold. For a few days it would be fine. Then it snowed again. So we ran the extension cord and hooked up the brooder lamp. Pigs get cold easy and and then they get sick. Sick pigs are not what we want.

Facts about pigs-
Pigs are VERY LOUD when they squeal, leave them be and and they will be quite. Don't harass the pigs.
Pigs, although noted for being very clean animals, STINK! Its worse than goats and chickens combine.
Pigs are noisy eaters.

After quietly watching pigs, as to not make any of them squeal, I understand now where the terms making a pig of yourself, hogging something, and eating like a pig come from. It all makes perfect sense now.

Left to right-
Wrangler, Sampson, Ripper, and Bruiser

Menu Planning...until life intervenes.

Second day of school. So far so good. I took last night and today to compile a menu for the month. Breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Not really knowing the kids' schedules this far out, I am kind of taking a risk. I did plan on softball practices and tournaments. At this point I am looking forward to baking rolls and simmering soups. What usually happens is I don't take the time to prepare accordingly for the listed meal or the store is out of the ingredients I need to create the meals. It will take forming a new habit to look at the menu every evening and get in my head what I need to do in the morning, whether it is starting the crockpot or making bread. I will also need to take the meat out of the freezer with enough time to thaw. Which explains why I still have a whole chicken in the freezer....by the time I think about what's for dinner, there is no time to thaw it out. And because Murphy's Law rules in my house, I will end up getting the job I interviewed for yesterday and I wont be home to cook dinner anyway....I guess worse things could happen. So here is my menu plan for September. I'm crossing my fingers I can make it work.

September Menu Plan
		Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
1	Thursday	ham and egg cups	meat and cheese sandwiches	bbq chicken, corn, salad
2	Friday	hash browns and fried eggs	ravioli's garlic toast	quesadillas, salad
3	Saturday	french toast	frozen pizza	sweet and sour pork, rice
4	Sunday	ham and eggs	burritos	hot dogs, mac & cheese, apples
5	Monday	cinnamon rolls	chicken nuggets	rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans
6	Tuesday	sausage and egg sandwich	chicken salad sandwiches	tacos
7	Wednesday	breakfast burrito	pizza pockets	spaghetti, garlic bread, salad
8	Thursday	apple and cheese quesadilla	peanut butter and jelly	chicken and dumplings
9	Friday	cheesy eggs on toast	egg salad	cheater chilladas, chips and salsa
10	Saturday	breakfast kebabs	nachos	hamburgers, pasta salad
11	Sunday	cereal	pasta salad with ham	chicken salad sandwiches, chips
12	Monday	muffin and sausage	peanut butter and banana	san francisco chops, noodles, veggies
13	Tuesday	breakfast burrito	pork sandwiches	chicken and rice, broccoli
14	Wednesday	hash browns and fried eggs	ham and cheese rollups	pizza
15	Thursday	ham and eggs	pizza pockets	beef and barley soup, rolls
16	Friday	apple and cheese quesadilla	peanut butter and jelly	fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw
17	Saturday	pancakes	chicken nuggets	chef salad, peppery popovers
18	Sunday	french toast	chicken salad sandwiches	veggie soup, rolls
19	Monday	muffin and sausage	meat and cheese sandwiches	pulled pork, coleslaw
20	Tuesday	breakfast burrito	pork sandwiches	chicken parmesean, noodles, broccoli
21	Wednesday	egg in a hole	peanut butter and jelly	pancakes, eggs, bacon
22	Thursday	cereal	egg salad	ham, mashed potatoes, carrots
23	Friday	breakfast kebabs	ham spread	chili, cornbread
24	Saturday	cheesy eggs on toast	frozen pizza	pork roast, rolls, salad
25	Sunday	ham and egg cups	cresent dogs	biscuits and gravy, eggs
26	Monday	breakfast burrito	pork sandwiches	tomato soup, grilled cheese sandwiches
27	Tuesday	apple and cheese quesadilla	pizza pockets	taco soup, chips
28	Wednesday	sausage and egg sandwich	ham and cheese rollups	meatloaf, french fries, carrots
29	Thursday	hash browns and fried eggs	peanut butter and jelly	lasagna, garlic bread, salad
30	Friday	cereal	meat and cheese sandwiches	split pea soup, cornbread

Ahhhh......fair is over.....

We had no idea what we were doing. We joined 4-H. We got some goats. We got some chickens. We went to fair. The preparations were the kind that make no sense at all until you actually go through it once. Record books, posters, market, breed, fitting and showing, showmanship, herdsmanship.... we learned a whole new language.

 
It was an amazing experience. We camped at the fairgrounds. The kids were at the barn every morning at 7 AM, except for the last day when they let the kids sleep in an hour. They cleaned the stalls, cleaned the barn, and basically made everything presentable for the public. As soon as that was done, it was show time. Country Boy showed two chickens and a market pen of 3 chickens. Country Girl showed one of her goats. Country Diva showed a market pen of 3 chickens and one of the goats.

We got to know more families in our 4-H group. The kids made friends with more kids from the group. We learned more about what it means to go to fair. I never before realized how much work the kids put into the barns and project animals they bring to fair.

The next time you walk through the animal barns at the county fair, do so with the understanding these kids have been there all week- morning, noon, and night. They get up at the crack of dawn to care for their animals and get the barn ready for visitors. Then they have the nervousness of showing their animals and trying their hardest to be the best. There are some kids who have worked all year to raise a market animal that they, more than likely, have become very attached to. They know on the last day of fair they will be saying goodbye to that animal. This is a lot for kids to deal with, but they all do it with grace and maturity. I was so impressed with every kid in all of our barns and how much they worked and how respectfully they treated all of the animals.

As for the new things we have learned... Fitting and showing is the same as showmanship. Record books are best worked on all year, not the week before fair. Posters need to be created to hang horizontally, not vertically. Herdsmanship is the time the kids volunteer to sweep the aisles of the barns durning the hours the fair is open. They get ribbons based on how well the barn is cleaned.  The kids get ribbons for everything. Ribbons are awarded differently than I had thought. There can be multiple blue, red, or white ribbons awarded in a group. Then there are the top two exhibitors in the group who get champion and reserve champion ribbons. Pigs fight when in the show ring. Goats can pick locks. Cows tear paper off of bulletin boards. Chickens used to free range don't like sitting in cages all week at fair. Cranky chickens bite. Animals used to well water will not drink city water. River water is a good stand by. If that wont work, try Gatorade. Our goats like Gatorade....

The exhibit hall was fun...Country Diva got to find the school projects her teacher had submitted for the class. Country Diva also submitted two photographs for 4-H. Country Boy submitted 12 photographs for 4-H. I submitted 3 photos for open class and a jar of mango jam.

The ribbon count for the family goes like this- Country Boy got 2 reserve champion ribbons, 14 blue ribbons, 2 red ribbons, and 3 white ribbons. Country Girl got 1 reserve champion ribbon, 4 blue ribbons, and 1 red ribbon. Country Diva got 7 blue ribbons and 6 red ribbons. I ended up with a blue ribbon for my mango jam and 3 red ribbons for my photos. The kids earned 5 blue ribbons each for herdsmanship, but they don't award the ribbons, they just pay the premium money.

Premium Money!! As far as we understand, blue ribbons are worth $3 each, red ribbons are worth $2 each, and white ribbons are worth $1 each. Then on top of that, Country Boy and Country Diva sold their 2 market pens of 3 chickens for $200 each pen at the livestock auction. Country Girl has plans to sell a pig next year and make $1000. My kids have found their money making opportunities.

We are already thinking about next year's fair....

A Day to Celebrate!

We have an egg! One of our Black Sex-Link market birds laid the first egg of our flock today! So roughly it breaks down to a $350 egg. It is the cutest little brown egg! I am so excited for the girls!
We will need to check the nest boxes several times a day now. We will also need to check the goat barn since the hens have taken to hanging out in there during the day.

In the nest box

Hanging out in the goat barn

Oh my gosh! It's like Christmas! I gotta go check the coop again!

Front Porch Progress

I had the plants all planted in time for Country Girl's softball team party. We got the gates on the deck done in time too.  In addition to building a picnic table and putting up a screen door, both of which we painted barn red (what other color is there, anyway?). It was quite a  whirlwind of activity. The party was tons of fun. The girls all got to try and catch a chicken. That was pretty hilarious. Since the yard was ready and we had plenty of food leftover, we hosted the family 2 days later for the Fourth of July cookout. I made my first ever beef brisket on the grill. It was fabulous. The view from the house of the fireworks was amazing. You never knew where to look. There were fireworks going off all around us. Just beautiful. The kids got to do sparklers and we had purchased a few small fireworks to do in the driveway. The rest of the evening was spent sitting around our fire pit. It was a great night.

Strawberry Garden

I am on a mission to create a unique garden area in front of my house. My goal is to find unusual containers to plant edibles in.  The first planter is the wagon I rescued and re-purposed from mom and dad's house. This wagon was left by the previous homeowners and dad had relegated it to the back of the property with other dead, dying, or otherwise decrepit pieces of equipment. Since I love all things red, I just new it would have a great life at my house...I had considered planting watermelon in it, putting red and white geraniums in it, something cutesy and country. After visiting with my sister and seeing how well her patch of wild strawberries were doing, I decided to go on a wild strawberry search on my property and see if I could get a good patch started. It didn't take me long, literally it took me longer to walk down the hill than it actually dig up and transplant the strawberries. I love this little planter bed. I will need to add some garden mesh over it to keep bunnies and deer out, but for now it is good. The next planters are some old enamelware coffee pots without the inside pieces. Those are screaming for geraniums and a prominent placing on the steps up to the deck. Since it is a rainy yucky day, I think I will venture into the garage and search for the camping box....