Our New Critters

This is what I came home to the other day. I rounded the corner from the entry and I just about jumped through myself. I thought for a second that I'd left the back door open and a hog and some bobcats had came on in and made themselves at home.

Then, I remember that KD had said to leave the front door open,

that this guy was going to deliver something for him.

I'm telling on ourselves.... we're so country that the taxidermist delivers to our house.

But let me tell yall my husband, Mr KD, he is so flipping excited about these critters.

And I have admit, the baby kitty is kinda cute.

This guy though, Harry the Hog we'll call him, he's not soo cute. In fact, he's flipping UGLY!

But guess what yall, he'll be on my wall, IN MY HOUSE.

Toes

I hosted a toe painting party last week.

You pick your color! What eva you like we do for you =)

Judy and Sierra look over the book to pick their design.

Tam, Leigh and Rosa

Judy Bug loves to get her toes did.

Jules, Les and Tam

Kimmy getting a cute paint job from Miss Mimi!

Trace got cute toes too!

OMG look at those feet! Now that's a funny tan line..... Barb =)

Mimi is so talented and artistic!

There were soo many cute toes and tan lines too!

The sad thing is that all these tan lines and cute toes will soon be gone,

hidden under yucky ole socks and shoes.

We will soon be saying good bye to flip flops too!

So until next spring....

goodbye cute toe nails, flip flops, and weird tan lines.

Cuttin' Silage

They're cutting silage. Yes it's already time. We had this beautiful corn across from our house and it's GONE now. Gone to the feedyard to make the cattle FAT so we can enjoy that juicy ribeye.

This little machine, I say little... it's a tick smaller than a combine, but it cuts 10 foot tall corn, chews it up and spits it out.

It doesn't take long at all to fill up a truck.

On this day, it came a shower and shut down the whole crew. Guess they needed a break.

I love taking pictures of farming and every season and every harvest.

Kerry Don paid me to say that =)

These are my babies!!!

These are my babies.

Yes I know they're 8 and 11 and that doesn't exactly make them "babies."

BUT they'll always be "MY" babies!

Tate started 3rd grade and Pake 6th. The scarey part is Pake is in Junior High.

But I don't want to talk about that right now.

About Pake, KD took him to Dallas today for another follow up and for once, it was positive! They said that KD is indeed a good doctor. See he had told the hand surgeon that by-gosh he was a good cow doctor and he could take care of Pake's arm too. Anyway, they said that we have been doing a good job with the bandage changes, and that it looks good. I still don't think it looks good, but I am getting used to looking at it without freaking. It's still going to be a while before its completely healed but it's looking more promising. Anyway, hopefully Pake will be starting therapy soon!

Goodbye Summer

Today this happened =(

The big brown bus left the lake and came home.

Everyone is sad.


We all love Lake MacKENZIE.


Time at the lake is relaxation, boating, fishing, sking, tubing, ATVing, floaties, suntans, cookouts, firecrackers, horseshoes, washers, redneck golf, water balloons, hiking, friends, family, freedom, fun, fellowship, smiles, laughs, and much more.

BUT we'll be back next summer =)

Pickle Predicament

I've gotten my self into quite the predicament.... a PICKLE predicament that is. See everyone at my house loves pickles! DILL pickles and we have to make regular trips to Walmart to buy the biggest jar they sell. So the other day Colene and Layne gave us a box of fresh cucumbers from their garden. I was supposed to share the cucumbers with my neighbors but they were so good I didn't want to share. And I got to thinking about how popular pickles are around here, and I thought I could make homemade pickles. So I'm not in a pickle, I just want to make some pickles =) OK stop laughing..... I had to call about 10 people to find out what to do...

"Hey 'so and so' do you know how to make pickles?"

"WHAT? Girl what are you talking about? Tandy have you lost your marbles?"
or
"Oh sure my grandmother use to make pickles and they were so good,

but I don't know how to make them"

finally

"Anna just made pickles..... call her" So I called her and she was so sweet and she told me exactly what to do and it was really easy. I didn't actually seal the jars (now that would be too much trouble right?) but she said you can store them in the fridge for at least a year. So here's my pickle story and I'm stickin to it!

These fresh little cucumbers chilled out in ice water for about an hour. This crisps them up!

Then, I cut them into spears.

Next, I put a fresh garlic clove, a bay leaf, and a sprig of fresh dill in the bottom of each jar. In the meantime, I boiled vinegar, water and the pickle spices packet.


After that, I stuffed all my little cucumber spears into my jars. Aren't those little suckers cute?



Finally I ladeled the vinegar mixture into each jar, screwed the lids on and stuck them in the fridge. Some say they must pickle for a month to be tasty. Kerry Don said you know I'm not going to wait that long. I hope they're good.... yall come see me and we'll have a pickle party =)



All this pickle business made me think of this saying my Dad used to always say.....


Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?
If Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Can you say that twice fast?

Taking Lunch to the Field

So the guys on the farm are WAAAY behind.

First we had lots of rain this summer (not griping about it... we love it, but with lots of rain comes lots of weeds), we had major big tractor breakdowns, our hired hand quit (well the railroad hired him back.... we miss you Brad), and then it rained some more.....

KD said he's soo far behind that he thinks he might be in first place.

Kerry Don calls me and says, "Did you cook lunch?"

I say, "Yes and I cooked your favorite"

"Can you bring it to the field?"

"Sure honey wha eva you like we do fo you!"

This here is Pioneer Woman Meatloaf! If you don't know who she is, you're missing out.

So I packed up a lunch for him. I think it's the perfect summer time lunch:
PW meatloaf (yes that's bacon wrapped around it), fresh corn on the cob (from JoeByrd's corn patch), fresh cucumber (thanks Layne and Colene), and fresh watermelon (from a fruitstand on the road back from Dallas).


I love fresh stuff. This corn was really good.... but yall already know that!

I even ended up putting up 30 quart bags of corn. I cut it off, blanched it and froze it. I was so proud of myself, I felt like Betty homemaker... (this is alittle out of my charcter)

But anyway, we are going to enjoy this great corn this winter, too!

I'm going to try to enjoy my LAST week off =( yes it's BACK to SCHOOL!

So maybe KD will get a couple more homemade lunches this week.

Yall enjoy what's left of summer and enjoy all those great fresh veggies!

Fishing Little Fools

Pake got to go fishing this morning. He hasn't been getting to do too much, so he was pretty excited! They went early when it was still cool out. 5:30 in the morning early... too early for me! I caught up with them about 8:00.

They didn't have the best luck.... but Pake did catch one little sandy.

So, we took Pake back to the Big D on Friday. The good news is the graft is taking and everything is healing. I'm not going to lie though.... his arm is not pretty. The doctor thinks we've had so many problems because the blood flow is not normal in the malformation. Hopefully we're on the right track now. Pake is sooo brave and sooo tough.... I can't even begin to tell yall how much he's been through this summer =(

This morning was really special for him. Well and plus the boys found a fishing boat! I told them they could have bought me a diamond ring... they laughed at me and told me that was dumb.

I like the boat too though and it's red.... I told them they better watch out I might out fish them.

BURN baby BURN

Kerry Don has been having to burn wheat fields. I think they were supposed bale the stalks but all the rain we got messed that up. Anyway, the fields just won't plow good with all the wheat stubble out there. So he's been spending hours starting each winrow on fire.

The RZR came in handy.

That's my HONEY!

I happen to think he's kinda HOT too!

OK, OK I'll stop!

But he's a pretty awesome fantabulous great guy

and I'm pretty proud to call him my hubbie!

SWEET Corn

The sweet corn is ready!!!!! The sweet corn is ready!!!!!

The boys went with me to pick.... we made Pake sit in the pickup.
But my Tater man was great help!

Maxie really wasn't much help, but she was happy to go along for the ride.

It's soo good it'll make you wanna slap yo Momma!
I really wouldn't slap my Momma.
Ever....
Really!!!
She'd give me a whooopin'.

But the CORN is super good..... I mean REAL good!

If you want some holler. I'll hook you up.