We've done it again!

Well....it happened again.   We just can't help ourselves.  This time though, it's a little boy and his name is Tug.

We were headed home from the farm and a lady who was riding the ferry with us told the husband that she had some blue heeler pups to give away.  When we adopted Petie, we were looking for a heeler pup, but the one promised to us never materialized.  So when this opportunity presented itself.....what else could we do?  Besides, we felt that we were rescuing this little guy.  When he was brought to us, he was with two of his remaining brothers.  Each of the dogs was absolutly covered in ticks.  They had so many ticks between their little toes that they were all splayed out.  They were all in their ears and under their arms.  We probably spent 2 hours picking off about 300 ticks.....it was AWFUL! 

We decided on the name of Tug, since his possibility of adoption came about on the ferry which is

powered by a .....tug! 

He went to the vet today.....got his first puppy shots, worming and weighed in at a healthy 10 lbs.

So now, has anybody got any good tips on training a heeler? 

Spring has sprung!

It's spring in the Ozarks and it is beautiful!

We have waited through the cold and gray and the anticipation for warm and green and lots of other colors. 

As I drive around, all of the beautiful trees are bursting with colors such as white pinks and mauve!  And if you can find a redbud next to a cedar...oh my what a sight!

 The dogwoods have opened their blossoms over night and what a sight they are.  So the absolute best is if you can find a cedar a redbud and a dogwood all together....it just don't get no better than that!

While I was out walking this morning, I was still looking for the elusive morel mushroom.  I have a special spot that I check each spring, but nothing yet.  I'm wondering if anyone else has found any yet?

Go out and take a walk and see what beauty you can find!

I've been outed!

Dear readers,

I have been writing this blog for a while now.  I didn't tell any of the family or friends.  I just wanted to test drive for a while and see if anyone was interested.  Well......I got found out!  I'm officially out of the closet!   And it's a funny story if you read my daughter-in-law's blog http://www.mrs-adventure.com/2011/04/i-found-her-and-shes-coming-out-of.html#comments.  She's so funny and such a good writer...maybe I was a little intimidated.   Even my husband didn't know, so I had to confess to him too.  Ironically though, he had made off handed  comments over the last couple of months, that I write a blog.  Little did he know!  And it wasn't that I was trying to be secretive about  the whole thing.  Haven't you ever tried something and not told anyone....maybe started a diet or started exercising with out telling anyone?  Maybe we don't do that so we won't be held accountable.  Maybe we think that if no one knows and we fail, then it's only us that knows about it?   Anyway, I'm out and here I am!  Thanks Rachael and Aaron, you've helped me with my little secret and it couldn't have turned out better!

One Kings Lane

Have you visited One Kings Lane yet?  I've signed up and get emails from them.  They have sales from many different vendors.  Some may interest you and some may not.  I've ordered a couple of times from them and have been very pleased.  I needed a new scale for the kitchen and ended up with a nice digital one for about $12.  Check it out!

https://www.onekingslane.com/invite/ChristiWest

What am I doing?

As I sit here tonight, I am wondering what in the world am I doing?  We just finished spring break and

 started back to class today.  We had a boat load of stuff due....projects and they weren't little ones either.  I

 mean one of the projects took about 25 hours worth of work to complete.  And then to top it off, we had a

 bugger of a test in our last class of the day.  Whew........and now time's a tickin....and the end of the

semester will be here soon.  That's a good thing and a bad thing....that means finals and then.....summer

 classes start June 1st til July 1st....yuck!  But, looking on the bright side....next fall....I'll be a senior!! 

Wahoo!  And in the spring semester.....we're interns   or   student teachers!!    I will have to say though, the

program I am in does seem to prepare you very well for the classroom.  I'm anxious to put all of this

knowledge into practice in my own classroom.

Building Fence

Well.....it's been a while since I posted, but I've been out and about!  I and three other students were chosen to go to Atlanta this last weekend and present to the FEA conference!  What a treat to go south for a visit.  I've been to Atlanta before and enjoyed the visit.  The other friends I was with hadn't been there before, so it was fun showing them the little bit that I knew about it.  I wish though that we had more time...there are so many things I would like to see and do and we just didn't have the time. 

But now with that aside...I want to tell you all about building the fence at the farm.  When we purchased it, there were just some scraggly remains of an old fence.  So, we knew we needed to get it done...you can't keep your cows in if you don't!  After measuring the perimeter, we figured it was roughly about 2 miles of fence.  We started purchasing posts and barbed along until we felt that we had enough.  If you purchase a pallet of posts you'll sometimes get a little discount.  We purchased about 1000 posts which gave a little leverage when it came to pricing.  If you will call around for prices, sometimes stores will match prices.  You've got to do what you can to save money in these times.  We watched for specials and did a lot of price checking. 

Last spring we hired a man to weld the corners and the entrance gates.  Your fence is only as good as your corners and we want this to last. 

We hired a local man to do the welding and purchased the pipe in bulk from a company that specializes in pipe.  The welder told us what we needed and I ordered it.  The problem we encountered though was that the pipe was longer than anything we had to haul it.  Fortunately, the welder had a long enough trailer and he hauled it to the farm for us. 
After he was finished, we were ready to start pounding posts into the ground. It was July and we were ready to get started.  We knew we could do this! 

We stretched our string from welded post to welded post, laid out our posts at 10 foot intervals and began pounding post in the ground.   After about 50 of these buggers we thought maybe we should hire a local guy who had been bugging us to hire him to put in the fence.  We're no spring chickens any more and thought maybe we ought to give him a call, besides it was HOT and we just don't have a lot of time.  So we called him, he came and he and the Mr. shook hands on a price.  Well after waiting 6 months on this guy to start, we decided he didn't want to work.....imagine that!  So, we put our gloves back on and got to pounding posts again!

866 post later, we  had put in 5 1/2 ft. steel fence posts with 5 strands of barbed wire all around the place. There is great satisfaction in driving down the road that borders our place and seeing all of that fence that WE put in!  If I do say so myself, it looks pretty darned good!

Burden on my heart

Do you just ever wonder....what might be your purpose for being on this earth?  I'd like to think I'm doing

and walking the path that I'm supposed to.  We raised two fine sons to adulthood.  One is happily married

and the other is still searching for his lifemate.  We have plans to move to the farm after I graduate.  We still

need to build a house and are waiting for our other farm to sell, to be able to start that.  But, I have a burden

on my heart that keeps surfacing.  I keep thinking about children who need a home.  Whether they need a

foster home or they need to be adopted doesn't seem to matter.  I keep thinking about them.  I keep thinking

that there are children that don't have parents that love them or a place to call home.  That is so vital to a

child's well being.  Every child deserves that.  I'm curious to see what the future brings to us.  We can't do

anything right now, but what about in the next couple of years.  I wonder what our grown sons would think

about another sibling.  In the meantime...I'll just keep praying that I am walking the path intended for me.