Week 45 - Happy Halloween (one day early)

Mom and I went on a mini adventure yesterday. We started at a PopUp Shop that my friend and knitting mentor, Lisa, was doing.  It's hard to explain a PopUp Shop - basically several shops get together and just 'appear' at a vacant storefront for the day.  Folks drop in and shop and at the end of the day, the shop is vacated again.  You never know where or when they will PopUp again.

This PopUp Shop took place in Nixa - about 40 miles southwest of us.  We drove to the locale and started browsing.  Bought some yarn - Lisa sells yarn at her yarn shop, One City Market - and then browsed in a shop next door.  Anjie's Boutique knew about the PopUp going on and prepared for it with mimosas and spiced/spiked apple cider and mini muffins.  They are a high end women's boutique. We each found a cute top and then drove back home.

All the time we were gone, John was killing chickens!  Between us and our neighbor there were 86 chickens that needed a trip to Freezer Camp.  There were evidently 7 folks over there working different processes...

In the background, you can see the Kill Zone with the cones and the yellow wheelbarrow.  The Blue thing to the left is the WhizBang Chicken Plucker...you can see how it works on YouTube.com.  Fascinating!

And here you have chickens being cooled down really fast.  

Today they weighed and bagged 51 chickens.  All those belong to our neighbor, John and his family.  Next weekend, they will process our 35 chickens...and we will be set for chickens for the winter!

On another note, John's 7 Brown Leghorn chickens are finally venturing out of the barn during the day. He leaves the barn door open and only recently have they started to come out. I call the rooster Foghorn.  Here he is with his 6 ladies, the Harem.

Ever since we moved here, I've wanted a flag pole.  But the farm was the priority and John just didn't have time to install one.  When Mom moved in with us, she really wanted a flag pole and she decided that she was going to make it happen.  We ordered a flagpole and flag, a Navy flag, and a solar light.  Then we called my handyman and asked him if he could do it.  In all its glory, here is our new flag pole, folks.  Ain't it purdy?

Thank you all for stopping by. 

Week 44 - In Which One Gets Older

No, it wasn't my birthday. But it WAS someone's....Our youngest granddaughter, C, turned 4 this past week.  She is sassy, and smart, and totally the baby of the family and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Aren't those dimples To Die For?  Happy, Happy Birthday, Miss Bear Bear!  

On another note, her daddy is up for re-election this November.  He has already served 2 terms in the House of Representatives and it thrills me when I see his name on the Utah ballot.  

While we don't get to vote in Utah, it's still fairly obvious that we would definitely vote for him if we could!

And one last note...to anyone who says that knitting is a hobby?  I have this to say:

I'm certainly ready if the time comes...both in needles AND yarn.  Bring it on!

Have a wonderful week, my friends. Thanks for stopping by.

Week 43 - A Short Week

Sometimes you just need to take a day off.  That was me this past week.  I took Friday off, in spite of the fact that Monday had been Columbus Day holiday and therefore no work for me, and my regular day off is always Tuesday.  Friday is John's day off so we all hopped in the car and went to Silver Dollar City for the day.  Currently, they are in the middle of their annual Festival of Craftsmen and Cowboys.  This, along with their Olde Tyme Christmas, are our two favorite festivals at the City.  We rarely miss seeing these festivals each year.  There are basket-makers, weavers, woodcarvers, animal trainers, glassblowers, potters, jewelry-makers, quilters, coopers (barrel and buckets), folks who make sell honey products, vendors who make natural creams, lotions, soaps, salves, and balms, amazing cooks offering food from huge HUGE outside wok-like skillets to the usual kettle corn and dipping dots.  And the autumn decorations are out of this world. See?

The workers were busy putting up lights in preparation for the Olde Tyme Christmas festival that starts on November 5th. 

There will be a total of over 5 million lights throughout the park.  We will post more about this festival later in December.  

Mom and I went into the Pottery shop...John ambushed us when we came out.

That's a lady named Joanne behind us...she inadvertently photobombed us so we introduced ourselves...never saw her before or after!  TeeHee.

We had a wonderful time at the City...ran into our nephew and his wife and children while we were there...it's always neat to see folks you know at the City.  

Of course, we went to Brown's Candy Factory for fudge and brittle - Pecan, Cashew, Black Walnut, you name it, they have it!   Then it was on to the Taffy Shoppe - pear, mango, cherry coke, peach jalapeno, banana, watermelon, cinnamon.  And, of course, some Cherry Mashes for John and Mom...they were in heaven! When we first arrived, John rushed down to Sullivan's Mill and ordered 2 loaves of fresh Indian Bread...we picked it up after 3:00...while waiting for it to cool enough to be put in bags, we also picked up some freshly ground corn meal, and some sourdough bread mix as well as a 5 pound bag of Indian Bread mix so we can make it ourselves.  The head baker there told John that their sourdough bread mix works equally well in the bread machine!  I see sourdough bread in our future much more often.

My brother recently retired and his wife sent us this picture.  The only thing I can say about this is - I am totally jealous!

Have a wonderful week, my friends.  Thanks for stopping by.

Week 42 - Some Surprises this Week

Most folks who know me know that I really don't like surprises....I'm a bit OCD about schedules and plans and when something happens to my plans, I get a bit - scattered.  I carefully plan my days off to get a lot done, mostly in Springfield; shopping, appointments, meetings, etc.  I had such plans for this last Tuesday.  Some necessary and some fun.  Mom and I left the house and did several errands and while in one shop, I got a text.  It was from a nephew telling me he and his family were arriving in Springfield at around 1:30.....TODAY!  Now, I mistakenly wrote down their visit for a week later.  Fortunately, I wasn't actually driving yet or I might have needed to stop the car to process this wonderful news.  Mom said she'd not seen me like that - twitchy and undecided on a course of action.  I mean, I had things to on my plan for the day and this was gonna really throw the spanner in the works.  Once I got my head a,round the thing that I wouldn't get done that day (believe me, it was nothing special, just part of the plan), I was excited about their visit. 

We kept in touch via text all the while they were driving down to see us.  Finally met up with them in a parking lot and after many hugs all around, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch. Then off to the farm.  

The last time I saw my nephew, he was 16 years old.  The day they visited, R was turning 40 the next day. R and his wife, T, and their two children, E and A spent the afternoon and part of the early evening with us.  Mom and I had not met T nor the children and I must say, they were delightful.  Here are some pictures of this wonderful family.

This is T, R, and me...picture taken by the indomitable E. (You will note he is much shorter than the adults, being only 6 years old)

 Mom and A (A is 5 years old and a kindergartner)

 Mom and E (7 years old in December, he is in the first grade. He has been sending his Nana Bette emails every time he loses a tooth - her mailbox 

is getting full!)

Mom, R, and T. 

R is the principal at the High School he attended.  He is smart, erudite, funny, and loving.  T. is a preschool teacher specializing in Bi-lingual education. She is a perfect partner for him. She is fun, sweet, smart and a really good mother.   T speaks Spanish to the kids at home and R speaks English...They think and talk in both languages seamlessly.

The children got to spend a lot of time out with the chickens, and the vacas (cows).  They asked quite pertinent questions and were answered with details.  I took them into the barn and they seemed to like it. When Uncle John came home, he took them with him to feed and move the chickens...And E was fascinated with our compost pile - John has just cleaned out a huge bunch of manure in the field and it was on top. E was interested in why we had poop on the grass pile.  When his dad explained how compost was made, and I explained why we used compost, he was perfectly satisfied...even went over and picked up a big handful to feel what it was like.  We then commenced to show him the water spigot for washing. They looked at bugs and caterpillars and used their mom's cell phone to take pictures and movies of all the creatures on our farm.  

I'm participating in a yearly Knit-A-Long again.  The project is a shawl - the rest of the information about it is a mystery.  I've done it for the last 3 years.  The designer is Stephen West and he is a wonderful designer - albeit a bit OUT THERE.  To say he is flamboyant is tame.  But I love his creations and always, ALWAYS learn something new.  So I pulled out some yarn (no, I agonized over my stash for hours) and finally settled on 4 colors that I thought would make me happy and this past Friday the first Clue came out..each successive Friday another Clue will be released until all 4 are out and we can finally see what we are making.  I'll show pictures next week once I get a little more into the knitting...right now it's just a small mess!

Thanks for stopping by.

Week 41 - Moving Chickens

Well, the baby chicks that were born on August 31st have enough feathers on their little bodies that they can survive being in the environment now.  So yesterday, John and our neighbor, also named John, moved all 89 of them to their respective new homes, i.e. chicken tractors.  Here is how they moved them from the brooder in our barn to the tractors. 

Yep, a few at a time into a 'travel'cage and then into their new home. Needless-to-say, this took several trips.

And here are our 37 chicks in their new home.

John is in there trying to adjust the waterer behind him.  Those chicks were so tiny when they first came to live with us...each one fit perfectly into the palm of my hand...now they weigh about 2 pounds and are halfway to their full size.  Another 4 weeks and they will then be butchered and put in the freezer.

When I drove home from work earlier this week, I glanced at a small strip of 'meadow' behind our house...there was a flock of wild turkeys pecking their way across the meadow...here is a small portion of those turkeys.

They worked their way along the meadow and disappeared into our grove of trees.  I've not seen them since.  But, then again, Friday started Turkey hunting season around here so they may be in hiding!  Turkeys are smart like that!

Have a wonderful week.  Thanks for stopping by.