Out Of Season

According to Weather.com, it's supposed to be 9o degrees in our hometown of Alturas, Florida, today, so I thought I would post a refreshing, cool-you-down sort of post from January up here in Arkansas.

These are videos taken of "The Great Ice Storm of 2009." I am just now figuring out how to get them to play. I'm sure y'all are very impressed by my computer prowess.

The Millers are always on the cutting edge of technology, like posting videos-can you believe it-on their blog, but our high-tech sled outshines all the rest of those new-fangled inventions!

Can anyone guess what they are actually sliding down the driveway in? If you guessed a wheelbarrow without the wheel, you, dear reader, are correct! Only in Arkansas, my friends...only in Arkansas.

Posted by Mama

Spring Additions!

Our "faithful" chickens...at least they're not eating the broccoli! If you look carefully, you might be able to spot a broiler or two. Those are our new chicken additions.

Some wild hogs were trapped at the ranch where R.G. and Matthew work, and the owner of the ranch asked the boys if they wanted to take them home. The boys were glad to take him up on the offer, so we are now the proud? owners of two wild hogs. They may not look like much now, but they'll look great at about 240 lbs, neatly wrapped in white butcher paper!

Little wild piggies learning to be tamed.

They're gradually getting less skittish.

We are really farmin' now! Today we got our first two heifers: they are pregnant and will calve this fall. The boys worked so hard to get the fence finished so we could finally get some cattle! One of them is R.G.'s. and one is the family's. R.G. said he'll choose his after they calve. I think he's hoping for another heifer!

Here is the first of our herd starters, #23.

And joining her in the field is #78.

We haven't considered naming them yet. The older boys are adamant that they don't need names, they say real farmers just call them by their numbers. We'll see about that. Miss Rachel and Mama might just take a walk out to the field and start calling them "Bossy" or "Bessie" or maybe even (gasp) Oreo!!!

Hey, where did these little monkeys come from? I don't remember buying them!

Well, that's all the news from Lake Woebegon...oops, wrong sign off!

Thanks for stopping by and catching up with us!

THE BIRDS!!!

You know the saying, "Birds of a feather flock together?" Well, if that saying has any truth to it, then we've got problems! We've had a few encounters with birds today. It was really pretty enjoyable, you know, all that nature stuff!

THE BIRDS PART I

Joey came running up the driveway yelling, "I found a chick, I found a chick!" At first, I thought one of our hens had hatched a clutch of eggs (Wishful thinking. My hens are too busy eating all the broccoli out of the garden to do anything else. But I digress.)

Upon closer inspection, we saw that Joey had a baby killdeer. The fact that both the mother and father were frantically calling and pretending to have broken wings about thirty feet away might have helped with the identification!

Of course, we made Joey put it back where he found it. We're sensitive, earth-loving, people...after we took these pictures. I'm sure that the chick is now happily re-united with its parents, warning all of its siblings about the dangers of the great world beyond the nest.


THE BIRDS STRIKE BACK
(Not really. I just thought that sounded like a good second title)

Daniel is holding a hummingbird. I'm not sure what type it is. I'm hoping the family's resident expert on all things hummingbird (Abby) will leave us a comment and tell us what kind it is. We took such a great picture, I'm sure she'll have NO problem identifying it!

Here is a better picture. They are amazing little creatures. Beautiful, teensy-weensy things. They also have quite a bit of audacity and spunk! And they don't like to hold still, thus the not-so-clear pictures. This is the second time we've caught one in our cabins in the past week!

Well, those were our encounters with our feathered friends today. I guess I could throw in a few pictures of the chickens to go with the bird theme, but I'm holding a grudge against them right now. In fact, I'd better go check the garden and make sure the broccoli is still standing.



Posted by: Mama

Follow The Yellow Blog Road

Hello! If you hadn't noticed yet, I (Katie) posted a wonderful blog about our recent remodel of our little cabin. But...I posted it on R.G.'s political blog instead of this one, which is dedicated to our life in the Ozarks. Oops!

Well, just "Follow The Yellow Blog Road" and click on the Southern Nationalist link to the right and you will see "The Great Remodeling Adventure".

Thanks for putting up with me in my blogging infancy!

Katie

The Ice Storm of 2009

Last week we experienced for the first time an Ice Storm. To put it honestly, it wasn't all that bad, except for the bitter cold, hard and slippery terrain, and lack of power for a couple days. The worst effect of the storm was the fact that our water lines froze when the power went out, and it took forever to get them thawed. We did have plenty of drinking water, but we had to haul it up from the Spring. We now have power and water back and are enjoying life getting back to normal.

Matthew made chocolate snow ice cream

Daniel prefers vanilla snow ice cream.

The kids enjoying their frosty treat.

Joey and Sam drawing in the snow

Matthew doing something to a truck

Daniel's Alter-Ego. Chad the Snowboarder.

Trees Covered in Ice

Our dog Daisy

The fence.

Samuel with an icicle

Rachel and Sam by the creek.

The Spring never froze, in fact it was flowing better than ever after the storm.

Fence Building

Y'all,
Here are pictures of our new fence we are building. By the way, I was busy WORKING at my job while these pics were being taken. I put the wire up, but didn't get my picture taken.

Samuel with our first bull.

Looks like we'll have to AI for a while.

These are backwards, but this is the finished product minus hanging the gate.

Matthew cut these cedar line posts off our property.

Daddy and Daniel measuring an H brace.

Setting a corner post.

Using the auger made digging easier. Daddy ran the tractor, Daniel hung on the auger, while Matthew guided it.

Still digging....

Here is our Ford 8n Tractor our Uncle left us. It was built in the late 40s and is still working great.

We've been tagged!

We have been tagged by Grandmama and the Franklins in an attempt to make us FINALLY post on our blog, and it succeeded!

Now, 7 things about 7 people in our family:

1. Mama is wrong-hand.... I mean left handed haha. When she was a teenager she subscribed to a magazine for lefties where you had to read from right to left.

2. R.G. is perfectly normal with no interesting attributes.......

3. Matthew can sound more like a black person than Jesse Jackson.

4. Daniel currently has a slice on his upper thigh from a chainsaw....... too bad he can't show off the scar..... but wait!!!!! Speedo man is coming out next summer!!!!

5. Benny got us in trouble with the school board in Florida because, as he said it, "we don't go to school".

6. Andrew was the biggest baby, at 8lbs 8oz. He likes drawing and he obsesses over mammoths, bulls and elephants.

7. When Rachel found out Samuel was a boy, she started crying, but a few minutes later when she held him she didn't mind anymore.

We are now humanely, painlessley, quietly euthanizing the "tagging" monster, as we have no-one left to tag. (R.G. now goes out back with a pistol and shoots the tagging monster in the frontal lobe of the cerebrum)


RG