Pig In A Haystack

Seems like it was a really long weekend and I didn't even really do anything...
Well, I guess I did A LOT but it really doesn't amount to anything.
I made chocolate chip cookies and loaded tacos on Friday night
AND
the Neighbor slept over.
He decided not to have tacos and instead went with pickles, bananas, pineapple, yogurt and hot dogs.
I guess that's what a super hero eats.

Notice Rockets water bottle thawing in the background

I don't remember what I did Saturday so that must mean that I did laundry, ate Fridays cookies and watched Lifetime.

I'm not 100% sure.

Sunday I cleaned out the chicken coop and pen and put new straw in the pig house that Pearl moved out of. 

I think she got tired of all the goose racket so she moved up to the barn and turned into a loose hay hoarder.

Seriously, she has hay piled a mile high and still goes in search of more.

She also has stashed apples, rotten eggs and any other delicacy she can get her little pig feet on.

Hoarder Hog

So Pearls old pig house is now Dingles new lamb house. 

She doesn't sleep outside yet because of the coyotes, but she is getting used to being in the barnyard during the day.

She's gone from thinking she's a dog to thinking she's a chicken.

If she was an Indian like Kevin Costner her name would be Dances with Chickens.

Oh well, whatever gets her out of the house and off the deck.

Speaking of chickens, I'm getting eggs again.

I'm not sure if it's a nature thing or what, but even with a light on a timer we haven't been getting eggs. 

I changed their feed to wild game bird crumbles because I read somewhere that will kick start egg production and guess what... 

It did!

Maybe.

I'm not sure if it was the new feed or Mother Nature because I know other people (Margie Aaron Patrick) who also started getting eggs almost the same DAY as we did.

Oh well, I'm going back to layer feed when the game bird is gone.

I also mix in some scratch for heat during the cold months.

I need to keep my girls warm.

I don't always keep them wrapped in blankets...

So that's about it.

I need to go vacuum before the neighbor gets here, and I have a BUNCH of hooking to do today on some dishcloths I promised Karen last week :)

Peas

Rings & Things

I think I've turned the corner out of Sicktown.
This has been such a drag, horrible chest pain, headache, earache, so congested it feels like my teeth are out of alignment and a cough that will. Not. Quit.
But enough about that.

During the last four days I've become obsessed with the Monarchy.
It started with The Other Boleyn Sister and took off from there, and stupid Netflix has done nothing but feed the craziness and now I'm going to have to go "paid" to see Elizabeth and all the other good stuff that they hold out on you.
Maybe it's because I haven't been able to watch season Two of Downton Abbey so of course I can't watch season three and I'm feeling a bit deprived and left behind.
I don't know.
My biggest fear is that I'm going to start speaking like I'm part of the Royal family and wheel into the devils playground Winco for some groceries and then wait around for a footman to help me out to the parking lot with my "buggy".

It's time to wean Dingle.
She's outside all day now but all she does is cry wanting in.

Excuse the dirty window and Wendy's "butt" bucket.

It's been a week.
Shouldn't she be over it by now?
I guess the fact that she still sleeps on a blanket in front of the dryer at night doesn't help matters, but it's just to cold to leave her out at night.
This same thing happened with her mother, Belle.
Belle thought she was a house sheep until she was about six months old and given the opportunity would still come in the house and take a nap.

Belle and boots

Every time you would open the door she would muscle by you trying to get in the kitchen for a snack and finally she got so big it took two of us to wrangle her out.
The day we put her in the pasture for good was so sad because the rest of the sheep thought she was a weirdo and and wouldn't have anything to do with her. To this day she prefers the company of lamas over sheep because she thinks she's better than them and just looks down her nose as she passes by.

I'm taking Wyatt to the rock store today to restock.
Sounds funny... Restock the rocks.
He's doing really well with his new jewelry business and can't even keep his coolest rings in supply, which of course is very good news.
I think I told you that a local school asked if he would donate a ring (he sent them three) for an auction and did a feature on him as a young local artist.
Pretty exciting stuff.
Mike's log truck bosses wife Coco is a jeweler. She asked to see some of Wyatt's work and really liked it and has offered to teach him how to solder and a few other tricks of the trade.
I know I show you his stuff all the time, but what can I say, I'm partial to his work :)

Peas.

Quarantine

Well I think it's safe to say cold and flu season has made it to our house.
Mike got it first and I have to confess I am the MOST unsympathetic wife when it comes to sick husbands.
Seriously. Ask any of them.
So while he was sick I convinced myself he was really just faking and wanting to sleep in.
I was wrong, really wrong. He. Was. Sick
How do I know this you may ask?
Because now I'm sick.
I've been fighting it for the last two days, but I give up, sick wins, I'll take my place on the couch with my box of kleenex and with my sickest scratchiest voice I will apologize to my husband for not acknowledging his sick and ask him for a cup of tea not to hot and not to sweet in my special cup.
Then I'll ask him if he could please feed the ewes and lambs in the maternity ward, check the chickens, collect the eggs, make sure the herd (geese, llamas, sheep and donkeys) have water and don't forget to feed them this afternoon, check the dogs and cat food and don't forget the fish, OH and don't forget the little birds inside, they need their water bottle checked, food cup filled and the bottom feeders quail need to have their food checked too.
I think that's all.
I think I'll do it myself and just stick with asking for the tea.
I wonder when he'll be home.... I guess I'll get my own tea.

Yesterday Today I was going to show you the bib I made for the neighbor, but he wore it home and threw up on it because he's sick too.
We'll talk about bibs on Monday

Peas

Caramel Corn Recipe

Not much time this morning so here's the recipe for our all time favorite any occasion snack!
Caramel Popcorn

INGREDIENTS 

Cooking spray

4 quarts popped popcorn(2 scoops if you use an air popper. I use about 1 1/2 though)

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Spray a large roasting pan with the cooking spray and place the popped corn in the oven at 250 to stay warm until the caramel is ready.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt and bring to a slow boil on medium heat.

Boil unstirred for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda and vanilla and stir until completely combined.

Pour the caramel over the popcorn, stirring as you go to make sure the popcorn is evenly coated.

Bake for 45 minutes stirring well every 15 minutes
.
When it's done, dump it out on some tin foil, let it cool and enjoy!



I have to get going, The Neighbor is coming this morning so I have to get the dishwasher unloaded and the laundry folded so we can make some bibs today.
I'm seriously thinking I need to find some new assistants.
The sheep and the neighbor baby cause more chaos than completion.

Peas.

Kitchen Crayons

The other day I asked if I had told you about the crayons I made for the neighbor, and looking back I don't think that I did.

Today I'll give a little tutorial about how I made them and by little I mean short and sweet because there isn't much to it!

I could probably look up something on Google and get the exact how to's but I usually just wing stuff like this.

First and most importantly make sure you have a good assistant.

If you can't find a good assistant a sheep will do.

Heat up the oven to 200.

Don't you wish that self cleaning really meant self cleaning and that every time you opened your oven it was clean because it had just self cleaned itself?

Me too.

Then decide on a mold. 

I have quite a few silicone molds that I use for soap and smellies, but I think I'm gong to go with the bumpy one that's fun for little fingers to hold.

I get my crayons at the Dollar Store or Walmart, but if you have kids you already have a gamillion broken crayons around the house so just use them.

Remove the paper from the crayons while wishing your assistant had opposable thumbs so she could actually be of some help.

Like this....

Now break them all up. 

I like to leave them in medium size pieces so you get more color bang for your buck.

Ok so now you have this

Now load up your cups.

 And put the mold on a baking sheet.

And place the baking sheet in the oven and make yourself a cup of tea while you wait for the magic to happen.

In about 20 minutes they will have melted and look like this...

Now turn the oven off, crack the door and let them sit until they cool.

I know, I know, they're already "cool" but let them sit until they're set.

And that's it!

You're done, now all you have to do is find a nice white wall some paper and start coloring!

Have fun :D

Peas.

The Kitchen Sink

A little boy that stinks and smells
Put him in the sink and he laughs and yells

Bubbles on the counter
Water on the floor

Splishing and splashing and squeeling for more

Soaking wet we laugh and play
It's amazing how love
Grows
Bigger
Each
Day

Peas.

Got Milk?

I've been derailed on my diet the last few days because I have this horrible no good very bad HUNGER pain that will never go away so I feel like unless I eat I'll die.
It seems like drinking milk is the only thing that tricks my belly into feeling better and I hate milk and when I even think about milk it makes me gag, but much like one of those toilet paper eating weirdos on t.v, I'm compelled into drinking it.
But it doesn't ever feel better.
Last night Six reminded me of my ulcer and asked if I was still taking my ulcer medicine and I told him,
"No, duh, it quit hurting."
So today I will be calling in a refill on my ulcer medicine.

I just Googled stomach ulcer images, and I highly recommend no one ever doing that.


I tried to make a diaper for Ding last night and it actually turned out pretty good and looked pretty sharp.
Until she peed.
And it didn't work.
At all.
Back to the drawing board.
Why can't Huggies just make disposables for lambs.
They could call them Good Niiiiiiiiiiiiights.
Or Even Tena, they could call them "Just for Sheep".
Maybe I could Pattern my own and call them "Fat Pads for Ewe" and make a line of slim fit for Junior ewes too.
Goats could wear them too I guess, but goats get everything, everybody loves goats, it's the forgotten sheep having to wear a dish towel and saran wrap that I'm worried about.


Everything else is pretty uneventful.

Wendy is loving her job.

The Neighbor is onto and now even off of the one year old charts.
No more acting like a preemie for him, he has begun plotting his take over of the universe one giggle at a time!

At least he'll have his trusty side-kick Dinggle

Wyatt is back to school today.
I'll miss him.

Six is working.
Every day.
As usual.

And all the babies are up in the barn doing what baby sheep do.
We keep checking to see if Danggle's still Dangling and so far he is.
Should be any day now that his boy bits fall and he just becomes the barn wether.
Rex is counting the days until he can be with his best sheep again, but I don't think Belle, misses him to much.
I think she's happy in her bed and breakfast setting with daily catering service.

Peas.