Blahging About Blogging

My very best blog friend 4 Shoes is back to blogging!
You really have no idea how happy this makes me, she has inspired me to blog again and now I want her to blog every single day!
It seems as though most of my circle of blogs fell out of the loop somewhere along the line and moved to the ever expanding, thought sharing, junk food shaming, over memeing, totally addicting, soul sucking Facebook.
There I have watched children grow, marriages come and go, holidays celebrated and meals prepared.
It is so satisfying and such a quick fix, but here's the problem, I have no reference on my life.
I don't post about the happenings of my day or the funny or horrible or horribly funny things that happen and even more often don't happen in my own life.

When I started this blog it was The Trailerparks Farm.

It was a place for me to post every day about what was happening within my family and for my family as I cared for our aging grandparents, but it quickly turned into a thing that I loved to do and I found a community that made me laugh and sometimes even cry as they shared their lives with me and the rest of the world.
And so, I blogged.
And blogged.
And blogged.
And blogged.
And then, I stopped.
And now I have no reference to the things that have gone on in my life, except for what sticks to the sticky part of my brain and the BIG stuff that I would remember anyway.

I want to get back to my blogging basics and start posting all the boring stuff.
Pictures of cats, crappy arts and crafts and I want to talk way too much about the kid that calls me "Tranny" because he can't pronounce a hard "G".

And I suppose if I talk too much about that stuff, you could just click out and go find something interesting on Youtube or call your mom or something.

And I guess if you're one of the thirtytwoeleventeen people that end up here because you think I'm the Dirty Jobs Fat Bottom Farm (I'm not) you will figure it out and keep looking for them on Google
(They're not there) and just for the record, our farm is NOT named after their farm, we were fat before they were on T.V and our fat bottoms are donkeys not goats.
Jack asses, fat donkeys, fat asses, can't say fat ass on the internet, fat bottoms, Fat Bottom Farm.
Donkeys.
And I do make soap, but I do not make goats milk soap because I do not have goats.
I have donkeys.

And a pig.

And sheep.

And dogs and geese and chickens and some cats.

None of which would make very good "milk" soaps so I stick with the basic home made, cold process milk free soaps that you can buy here at the Fat Bottom Etsy.

So, what all of this has been about, is, I'm going to try to get back to some basic blogging, and if most of my other blogging friends are gone, I hope to make a lot of new blogging friends who like to talk about a lot of boring stuff and look at pictures of cats and kids and crochet projects, and cake, and soap and failed craft projects that would have been better off just left looked at on Pinterest.

Sound good?
Good!

Peas.

Ramblings...

Um, I think it was yesterday that I said our year was off to a great start.
I spoke to soon.
We lost Timber yesterday and I now believe it was a parasite carried by white tail deer that hit both Tina and Timber. I found them both laying in the same position within a month from one another.
My heart is broken beyond words.
I can't talk about it anymore.

Wyatt goes back to school tomorrow and even though I love having him home, he also kind of sort of drives me nuts.
Today we will spend the day crafting together and maybe make a cupcake casserole and finish off his last day of freedom with Hamburger Helper (gag) for dinner.
He'll eat it, not me.
It's his last box of Christmas Hamburger Helper and he has loved each box more than the box before. (gag)

I think I'll make some soap today and maybe start a rug.
I need to do something to keep my mind occupied because if I don't I start bawling just like I'm doing now because I'm talking about it after I said I wouldn't talk about it.

6 is on his way home from the frozen north and should be able to spend at least one day at home this weekend.
I start thinking of all the projects we can get done in a short amount of time the minute he tells me he's coming home.
This weekend I think we need to tackle the big burn piles left over from when we had some hazard trees taken down in the mobile spaces.

I really wish he could get a week off and that we had a bazillion dollars so we could do something about the falling down barn.
It's not one of those cool old falling down barns, it's just a mid century fixer upper that has past fixer upper stage and gone straight to falling down stage.

I have to say, I'm really happy to be back on Blogger.
I missed my updating blogroll and love feeling like part of a blogging community again.
A friend of mine just started a knitting blog, Grammie Vee's Knitting and I'm so glad she chose to do it here.
If you love to knit or crochet you will love her blog, go check it out!

First Yearly Report

Good Morning and Happy 2011!

Who would have ever thought huh? That sounds so sophisticated... 2011, like we should all have our act together or something.

We had quite a lot going on this holiday season and I can honestly say I'm glad we're on the other side of it now. Not that it wasn't all warm and wonderful, but I swear, holidays don't necessarily bring out the best in me. I think I come from a long line of holiday misfits. I nearly had an all out emotional breakdown over the whole Wendy/douchebag situation bright and early on Christmas morning. I seriously have never felt such contempt for another human being in my life, and that's saying a lot and thats all I have to say about that.

We had some serious livestock management issues over the holidays too. Joe somehow managed to squeeze his way through a break in the fence and was found loitering in the mobile spaces on more than one occasion which landed him and Molly the Mule on lockdown in the yard.
And by yard I also mean patio.

Ew. Skunk.

6 wasn't home enough to get the fence fixed when the ground was thawed out enough to drive new fence posts in so their three hour tour in the yard ended up being two weeks in the yard and let me tell you, that's a lot of horse poop in the flower beds!

After months long and heart felt deliberation we decided to find Joe a home with a kid who would give him a job. Wyatt had good intentions when we got him, but he kind of lost interest somewhere around the feeding and caring for part and that isn't fair to Joe.
So old Joe came to us in pretty skinny sorry shape, but he left here with a fat belly and a warm wooly winter coat to go to live with a twelve year old girl, and really, is there any better way for an old horse to start a new year than with a twelve year old girl to love... I think not :)

Wyatt is still home from school until Thursday.
Whats up with that?

You may have noticed that you came back to Blogger to read my stories today... My brave and daring move to Wordpress wasn't all that I'd hoped it would be. I wanted to set up a page where I could sell my wares, and Wordpress doesn't support any kind of sales platform, only donations. They are pretty restricting as to what they allow unless you host your own blog in which case you can do whatever you want, but Blogger is easy and free which made it the best plan of action. So welcome back everyone!

Ok, I have to go feed everyone, see you tomorrow!

Another New Blog...

I decided to take the leap to WordPress and I am SO glad I did! The format is so much better than Blogger, I wish I would have made the change a long time ago. Now I kind of feel bad for encouraging everyone to start a blog on Blogger.

Nothing has changed much with Wyatt. They discovered that he has limited blood supply to his right foot, but not sure why. I am waiting to get a phone call from scheduling with a new pediatric orthopedic.

We have five new calves in the lower pasture and they are so fun to watch. They make SO much noise, which I love, because I can't stand the neighbors and anything that could possibly irritate them is music to my ears.

Ok, it's taken me over an hour to write this much, I'm going to bed.

Ciao'

Pick Your Family

I forgot to tell you yesterday that along with Wyatt's birthday, the three year anniversary of the blog is coming up.
February 16, 2007 was the first post.
It's fun looking back on those old posts, and some of them even make my eyes a little wet because I started the blog to keep my family up to date with how our grandparents were doing.

Looking back I also see how really whitetrash we are.
If you had to compare your family to a t.v family who would you be most like?
The Conners, The Simpsons, The Ingalls or The Griffins?
I think we would be most like the Conners with a little bit of The Griswolds mixed in.
There would be a different dad instead of different kids in every episode.

I forgot to take the garbage out and I need to go fold the laundry.
Ciao'

QC and Wii

Let me just say this, it was a GREAT weekend!

The kids had a great time even though the weather was crappy. We took them to Barnes and Noble earlier in the week so they both had good new reads to keep them busy and of course a movie or two. I not only had my great new Quinn Cummings book to read, but I also got a Wii Fit on Saturday that I LOVE!

Then, on Sunday you'll never believe what was in my email when I woke up...

An email from one of Quinn Cummings "people" asking if I wanted to participate in her blogging book tour!!!!

Can you even believe that?!

Her book was released on July seventh and I bought it very soon after that not even knowing who she was, I just saw the book and knew by the cover it was a must read. Then I found out she was a blogger and went to check that out, loved it, left a comment and then Sunday I got an email!

So I thought all day about the questions I wanted to ask her and they all sounded really dumb and cliche', but I sent them off anyway and then late last night I got an email from Quinn personally saying she was looking forward to her stop at my blog... That means she must not think I'm a TOTAL dork.

Anyway, she'll be here in a few days, so stay tuned here for more info and watch Facebook and Twitter for updates.

Today we go pick up Maddy's new glasses, she is SO excited. We went to Americas best and got the two for 69.00 that includes an eye exam. That is so cheap it almost scares me. Remember in the movie The Jerk when Naven invents the "Opti-Grab" and everyone starts wearing the glasses with the nose holder only to find out a year or so later the Opti-Grab makes you go cross eyed... Thats my fear about Americas Best two for 69.00 with a free eye exam. What if they're so cheap because the frames are made of asbestos and the people doing the eye exams are juvenile delinquents out on work release. I swear that nobody working there is over twenty five years old.

Oh well, fast and cheap, it's the American way.

I mean really, who want's to pay more AND wait longer?

So, my new Wii Fit.

If you don't already have one, get one.

Not only is it fun and interactive, but it really is a GREAT workout. I was so sore yesterday I hobbled around the house like an old woman, but it felt so good to have used muscles I forgot I even had. There's skiing, tennis, hulla hoop, bowling, yoga, aerobics, stretch, you name it. It is the best eighty nine of #6's dollars I have ever spent, and he will get to enjoy the return on his money as much as I will = )

I figure I can justify the 89.00 by the lack of Recees and Marlboros he would otherwise be buying me, it all works out in the wash.

So that about sums up our weekend, a good time was had by all!

Hmmmmm.....

Yesterday I made and passed along a lovely award about angels singing to my good friend Venom.
Today she gave me this...



Am I the only one sensing hostility?

Special Award

This award is for one of my favorite bloggers.

Venom at VSL.

There are no rules, only love.

TIFFANY...Your rugs done!

From a pile of thrift store sheets.To stripped and sewn

To crocheted with a big blue hook


To a finished rug for Tiffany!

Send me your address Tiffany, theres a rug on the way :)

Check Her Out

OMG, yesterday was Andrea's Birthday and you outa see what she got from her family!
I swear, you will be SO jealous.
Go look...
Swamp Suburbia

Follow Feature on Blogger

I just found this posted on the help site...


We are in the process of integrating with Google Friend Connect, which may temporarily affect the Following feature for some users. Specifically, users who already use Following and Friend Connect may notice missing blogs in their profile, as well as a decrease in the number of public Followers on their blogs.

This is because we have set these users to "anonymous" to avoid linking the profiles of Blogger and Friend Connect users without their permission. They are still following privately and will able to make themselves public again.

After the official launch of the Friend Connect integration, we will communicate with the affected users and instruct them how to reset their relationship to public. To reiterate: the number of Followers has not changed, and we believe that the launch will improve the visibility of your blog and community. We will post more details on Blogger Buzz as the launch approaches.
— LATEST UPDATE ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2009

!!!CELEBRATION!!!

Today is Wyatt's TENTH Birthday!

And... it is the second anniversary of the Blog!

It seems as though everyone is doing a "my first post" post, so who am I not to follow along...

I started blogging to keep in touch with my family after moving to Oregon to care for my Grandparents.

It was cheaper and less time consuming to do one update to everyone once a day, but I really had no idea about the concept of "blogging" until last summer when I started reading a few blogs here and there and found out what a GREAT community this is.

So today we're having a party here at the Parks Farm!

Everyone's invited to share in our celebration, so grab a fresh cup of coffee,

and a yummy piece of homemade cake.

Because I'm sharing Wyatt's past birthday posts and celebrating the anniversary of the Blog :)

Theres a gift for everyone, so don't forget to take yours when you leave.

But first, there is one thing I need to say...

Happy Birthday Wyatt, I'm sure glad your ten because I don't know if I could of stood one more day with a nine year old!

#1  First Day of Eight

#2 Later During the First Day of Eight

#3  Second day of Nine

Now, since this is a celebration, I am going to take advice from my BF (blog Friend) Angie and have a 

GIVE-AWAY!

Tomorrow I will put everyones name who leaves a comment today in a bucket and have Wy pull a lucky winner!

What will you win?

A rug of course : )

Once you win, all you need to do is choose your colors and I will get busy on a special rag rug just for YOU!

As you know these rugs take a little time to whip up, so you will need to be patient, but I promise to have it to you ASAP. 

Ok, so tell your friends and tell your neighbors, tell your friends neighbors, tell everyone that today Wyatt Parks is Ten and theres a party at the Farm!

Welcome!

Thanks for taking the time to stop in from Georgies and I hope you enjoy your visit : )

Much to my dismay, I do NOT have fake breasts although there are times I would sell my soul for a high and tight, not bigger, just better.

Some of you may be familiar with "the Farm Blahg" which with one stroke of a key I annihilated last week.

I cried myself to sleep the first night but awoke the next morning with a renewed sense of power and decided that from the ashes, I would rebuild.

I would build a better blog, one to stand throughout the internet ages.

A blog that one hundred years from now someone will stumble upon and say, "what the hell......"

Anyway, look around, leave a comment and come again soon!

Sage green and brown you say Georgie?

I'm on it like a bonnet!

I fixed it!!!!!!

I just added a third column and called it in as my sidebar and walA!

It worked : )

How I figured this out before coffe is beyond me, I must  have been touched by the blog gods.

Whatever, it WORKS : )

Arrgghh

First...

It's snowing again!

Whatever.

Second.....

I wiped out "Thetrailerparksfarm" last night by getting a new domain.

Thats all I'm going to say about that.

I'm not going to go into the hours that I had to spend re-doing everything or how I have lost all my subscribers and everything linked to "the farm Blahg."

I'm not going to do that.

The Parks Farm will be the same blog you know and love just minus the trailer, which is ok because we have been out of the park for a number of years now. 

We are officially on the farm now. 

The Parks farm.

Well really, the Fahrenholz Farm, but my Grampy asked us to keep an eye on things around here for him and since no one can ever get the spelling right on Fahrenholz, for the sake of blogging we'll call it the Parks Farm.

Mike is home today, and I don't need to remind anyone of his ability to suck the creativity from me and he really just did a number on me by saying when I was done with this we needed to do our taxes.

So, it's goodbye blog, hello Turbo tax.

See ya tomorrow.

Out for Repairs

The side of my blog slipped down to the bottom of the page.
I just came in to check on things and catch up on everyone's posts and something was definitely wrong here.....

If your going to stick around, be sure to wear a hard hat and safety goggles.
I try to live up to OSHA standards and I would hate to see you get hurt by falling objects.

Bling a Ding Ding

Ok, I love me some blog bling just as much as the next guy, so usually when I have been graced with one, it is with warm heart that I give a sincere thank you and think I'm pretty hot stuff for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, I was awarded the Hamfatter Award, and as you can see, it's my kind-a-bling 

(I'm visualizing Frank Sinatra in the barnyard with muck boots singing "Myyyyy kind of bling, Hamfatter is, my kind of bling...")

Okokok, so anywho, this prestigious award came from none other than Andrea at Swamp Suburbia and she said to pass it on to five funny friends, and then they pas it on to five five funny friends and so on and so on and so on!

You need to be sure and stop by Andreas and see what it meant five thousand years ago when you called someone a ham. 

I did and I learned a lot... retained nothing, but learned a lot.

So, here are just five of my favorite fun filled blogs:

Dana at Life Is Good

Jill at J2B2

Mahala at Hidden Mahala

Debbie at Suburb Sanity

Paige at Malfunction Junction

Now, here's the part I don't like.

Those are just five of my favorites, all of my other favorites are listed over there to your right, except you Landshark, you make me crazy but I decided that you needed to lighten up and have some fun! 

We are having fun right?

I thought so.

Blog Bread

Amy and Jill spent the weekend with family and came home with Amish Bread starter.

Amy baked hers yesterday and it looked so good that I suggested to her that we start a "Blog bread" and since it was my idea I got to chose who would be in charge and I chose her.

Amy said she was to "busy" whatever and I understand so I guess it's up to me to get this blog bread ball rolling.

Me being in charge of anything rarely ends well so I want to pass this off as quickly as possible.

I need two people to volunteer, so if you want to participate leave a comment below.

If nobody volunteers, I will choose two people at random and stalk them until they give up their mailing address.

The only rule is when you get your "start" in the mail, you have to post that you received it along with a photo and choose two more people to pass it on to.

Easy huh?

The goal is to get everyone involved.

We can't rest until our bread has risen.

So, leave a comment and I will tag the first two people and SO help me you, if nobody comments you can all watch you backs because somebody's gonna play, like it or not.

Okeydokey Artichokeys, who's up for a little Bloggy Bread?!

You guys are SO bad! 

I can see how many of you have come and gone and not left a comment for the bread.

Don't worry, it may not be today, but the bread will come to you. 

The bread will come.....

A Nice Little Video

This is for Angie, she hasn't heard of Bob Ross.

And you people think I'm sheltered....

Bob Ross “experiments” with paint on Comedy Central’s Home Grown

OKOKOK!

Nobody liked the funky brown background so I went with a safe pre-made layout.

I promise to keep my fingers out of the background bucket for awhile.