Anticipation

Andy and Alex have been up since about 7 am, with NO Fighting.  Imagine that.  I don't count on it lasting, it never does. 
Mischka and Ringo had two dead pullets this morning, I don't know who killed them but they are both in the doghouse, so to speak.

Picture of Jack, mostly because I'm annoyed with Mischka and Ringo

Anticipation...school starts in 1, count it 1, weeks from today.


John Martin Reservior

Last weekend we went camping for one night, that's all I can handle in a tent. We like to go to John Martin Reservior by La Junta.  We played in the water, Peter fished and we cooked hamburgers on the fire.  Alex and I slept on the cots outside the tent since it was HOT.  And it didn't rain.  You can see who slept in the tent.

Taken thru the window netting, Andy and Peter sleep in on Saturday morning

Peter preparing to set up the tent

Alex getting his camping pillow for a nap after swimming

Coyotes to Wolves

This evening I was sitting outside by the blue barn, watching the storm clouds go overhead, dropping a few pitiful drops of rain.  We just moved the 16 buff orpington teenage chicks in with the bigger chickens tonight.
Alex came outside and wanted me to come inside so he would feel safe.  He thought there were coyotes up by the truck.  I had heard some howling earlier off to the south.  I told Alex that the coyotes wouldn't come up because the horses would chase them off.  So Alex then asked about wolves.  He's convinced that wolves could hurt the horses. And then what he do?  I told him he could climb the gate and get on top of the blue barn if a wolf came around.
This morning, prior to moving, I was feeding the buffs and turned the bag of feed around to open it.  There was an inch or so long centipede on the bag.  I flicked it off and one of the pullets grabbed it and then lost it to another pullet.  We can get some huge centipedes out here.

Cousins

We recently visited with the relatives from Idaho.  One of which was Reilly, (Andy's cousin Allison's daughter).  It's a cute picture of the kids so I thought I'd post it.  Picture taken by Reilly's mom.

And to make it fair.

Alex recently lost his two front teeth.  Finally.

Goats

Gloria, who is due to kid November 15, keeping an eye on  4 month old Ringo, the border collie, black lab mix

Gloria, Arthur the wether, and Clara

Sasha, the daughter of Sage who was our alpha doe for many years.  Sage died soon after Sasha and her two brothers were born.

Barbara and Tina, not related to anyone, at four months old.

Tonight's sky

Not sure what that is obscuring Pike's Peak, but needless to say, the rainclouds didn't drop any on us

Taken the same time as the top picture, just a little to the north of the Peak



For my Dad, a big fan of the Duke

9 on the 10th

So Alex is now 9 years old.  The celebration started on Sunday at his Grandma Evelyn's house (Peter's mom).  We had one of Alex's favorite meals, ribs.  With ice cream cake.
On Tuesday, his actual birthday, we met my parent's at Chuck e Cheese.  We had pizza, salads and cake.  Alex and Andy played a number of the games, Alex won several jackpots.  Met the big mouse thing.   Put Alex in the wind tunnel to get more tickets.
Then the four of us were going to go to the carnival, the grandparents passed on the carnival.  We got there and it wasn't open yet so we went up to Manitou Springs and spent the rest of the day at the Arcade and then drove around Cheyenne Canyon.  If we were to move to town, that is where Peter would like to move and I think I could live there.  Andy was in favor of moving to town if we moved to Manitou, mostly because he likes the Arcade and the park with the creek running through it.
So all in all, Alex had a good birthday.



Alex receiving his birthday crown

Alex in the air tunnel catching tickets

Alex loves Pokemon

The "boys" at Manitou Springs Park

Alex and Andy on the big rock at Manitou

Welcome bugs

We, mostly Peter, moved Bear's old dog house up next to the house for Max and Ringo.  There were about 30 dragonflies flying around the ash tree.  We had about 1/2 inch of rain last night with more expected tonight.  Will this help the pasture? We will have to wait and see.  But I'll take any rain I can get.
I have 8 white rock juveniles to take to the auction tomorrow.  Keeping the buff orpingtons.  Will be ordering another batch but not from the same hatchery.  Order from Ideal in Texas.

Go Away

The oh so annoying miller moths are still here. Their numbers have increased rapidly. I need batteries for the camera or I'd take a picture of the pan in the bathroom with the little lamp.  I have dumped the pan twice in the last four hours and there are still so many flitting around.  Someone on FB said the reason the pesky things haven't left is because of the fires in the mountains.
We can see the smoke from the Waldo Canyon fire.  We've had the smoke drift past here.  Peter didn't go to work on Wednesday and came home early Tuesday.  His boss and the family are staying at the shop.  They were evacuated from their home in Chipita Park.

Happy Father's Day

To all the fathers out there, enjoy your day.  Go Fishing.  I don't have a picture of my dad and I together that isn't in the photo album but this picture is of him with his oldest grandson, Andy.
Andy was about 9 months old at the time.

Please excuse the photo quality. I'm now learning a new photo program and am having issues. Update: I fixed the issue. The other issue being this posted a week early, originally.

Be careful what you wish for

I've been wanting it to rain for some time now.  The pastures are dry and eaten down.  The grass won't grow without some moisture. Thursday night it rained and hailed. The city got hit very hard with hail.  Cars were buried with hail, it was that bad.  We had about quarter inch of rain plus the hail. Friday night the same thing happened except we didn't get any noticeable hail.
What we did get was an automated call from the sheriff's office saying that a tornado had been spotted in our area and we should move to a secure location.  For us, the bathroom seems to be the best option. I had Andy and Alex in the tub.  Peter and I were sitting around and Mischka and Ringo were laying on the floor of the bathroom.  Max was outside barking at something.  Jack was laying in the kitchen. Mischka had actually been trying to sit on my lap earlier when the power went out and it started to rain. But by the time we were sent to shelter she had calmed down.
The call from the SO said they would let us know when it was all clear.  We never had a phone call from the SO about the danger being over.  For as calm as the dogs were I didn't think that a tornado was anywhere near us.

An unwelcome visitor

Saturday afternoon I went out to the chicken house to let the chickens and geese out.  Ringo, the puppy, started chasing the birds and was soon chased by the rooster and one of the hens.  He runs into the chicken house and I went in to get him.  I heard a hissing noise and looked up to see a raccoon on a shelf. It is the first raccoon I've seen around here.  We spent the next half hour trying to get it to leave. The kids were all yelling, throwing rocks.  All from a distance with a fence in between. Max was trying to get the raccoon.  The raccoon got into an old tire on the roof and Peter shot it a couple of times.  It crawled into the chicken house and died.  The chickens were pecking on it.  Is that karma, how many chickens has that raccoon killed?  Neighbors down the road had a raccoon break into their chicken house, literally tore the door apart, and killed all the chickens, didn't eat any.  Peter felt really bad about shooting the raccoon but I'd rather have my chickens, eggs and cats.  My only other experience with raccoon was years ago in Arkansas when I went fishing with my great-grandpa and we put our catch in his holding pond.  The next morning all the fish were gone. Grandpa said the raccoons got them.

School Awards

School finished last week for the summer.  On Thursday afternoon was the elementary school awards.  Alex received an award for excellence in math, good attendance and citizenship award.  The citizenship award comes with a $2 bill.  He and Andy would have had better attendance awards if we hadn't gotten snowed in.
Andy received an award for excellence in art and attendance.
I received a certificate and gift bag for volunteering
When Magie was at the school today, she learned that there was a change in classrooms for next year due to the large number of siblings and cousins who would have been in the 4th/5th grade combo.  So next year we will have K/1, 2/3, 4th grade (Alex) taught by Mr. Frank who Andy had for 4/5 this year and Ms. Hotop will teach 5th grade (Andy)  Andy's pretty happy about it as Ms. Hotop is really into the sciences.

Alex receiving his math award from Ms. Hotop



Andy receiving his art award



Respect

In honor of our veterans, which includes my dad, we are flying the colors today.  In the wind. My Grandma always wanted the boys to salute the flag whenever we had it out.  We don't always fly the flag on the appropriate days due to the wind. After lunch we are going fishing. 


Alex putting the flag up




Andy and Alex saying the Pledge of Allegience



Hitchhiking

We have a little pond where we like to go fishing.  It has trees, a bathroom, picnic tables, all the things necessary for an enjoyable day of fishing. It is stocked with blue gills and lake trout.  Alex likes to find snails and tries very hard to bring them home.
Sadly, the fishing pond is right next to the water treatment plant.  We don't often get the smell from the plant but we don't eat any fish we catch there either.  It's entirely catch and release.  Alex is actually turning into quite the fisherman. He generally catches more than Peter.

The last time we were there, the turtles were out in force.  I caught this small turtle catching a ride across the pond.

Morning visitor

Snake in the chicken house

This morning I went out to feed the chickens and rapidly left the chicken house.  We had a visitor.  Not a coyote this time but a snake.  Just not any snake but a really big snake.  I hate snakes.  Tigger and Smokey, the barn cats,were in there as well.  Tigger, being older and wiser, was keeping his distance but Smokey being young and well, stupid, kept getting closer to the snake.  Peter came out and I had him get the snake out.  And kill it.  It was only a bull snake but I can't have any snakes in the chicken house because they will eat the eggs and might go after the pullets when I put them out there in about two weeks. 

Andy and Ringo with the five foot snake

Ice skating

Our little friend, Jenny, recently turned 7.  I remember when she was so much younger.  Anyway, she had a ice skating park at the rink in the Springs.  It was Andy and Alex's first time on ice skates.  Kids can have a big pile of buckets for stability.  Andy liked the skating, Alex not so much.  That's probably related to the amount of falling down Alex did.

Happy Birthday Grandma

Today would have been my Grandma's birthday.  She was born on April 30, 1920, in Howell County, Missouri.  She wanted to be cremated and have her ashes scattered there, but that didn't happen.
She was the oldest of three.  Her family moved around alot when she was a child but eventually they settled into Kansas. Her dad worked in the oil fields.

The picture is from 1998 and is my mom, Grandma and me.  My dad was running for sheriff (he won) and a new prison was being built in Burlington with an open house one night (before the prisoners were put in) and you could have your picture taken behind bars for a charity donation.

Diner

We normally don't have school on Mondays. We didn't today. Stayed home all day. Andy and Alex spent the day playing together, without fighting. When it was time for lunch, I called them over to get their mac and cheese (their choice) and Andy said "Let's pull into this diner for some lunch"
We had leftover apple pie as well.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from Green Gates Farm. This will probably be the last year the Easter Bunny visits here. Andy is 10 and Alex almost 9. But mostly because if the Bunny hides them outside, Mischka and Maks help themselves. And the Bunny does not like to be running around outside at 11 p.m. trying to hide 40 eggs.


See...I do have chickens

We had Easter parties at school on Friday. I ended up filling in for the Kindergarten/first grade class. Several of the parents couldn't make it. I had missed out on Alex's first grade Easter party since he skipped that grade. Karma.

Peter made strawberry blintz's for breakfast this morning. I had offered to make raisin french toast but the boys chose the blintz breakfast. While watching "Dirty Jobs".


Does anyone know what type of bird this is? It has white on it's upper wings when they are open. Can you see the bird well enough, that's as close as I could get.

Spoiled

When we first moved to the farm, we had a cat named Esmerelda. I had found her in the parking lot of the car dealership I was working at. I later took a picture of her curled up with Peter. Sadly, the coyotes or something got Esmerelda.
So now there is Smokey. He is supposed to be Alex's cat but has attached himself to Peter. Smokey's not the brightest cat. Maks, the giant puppy, carries Smokey around like a toy. Maks tried it with Tigger once. Just once.
And can we turn off the wind, they are reporting that the wind is blowing 60 miles an hour here, and they are probably right.

Farm Sounds

Tomorrow is the first day of spring. And nothing signifies spring on a farm like baby animals. So I went to the auction today. Came home with 8 hens, one rooster and 10 baby chicks. Sometime this week the goats will be arriving back at Green Gates Farm. And then we start building the new horse barn.

No we're not

Moving, that is. We had a house found but then the price went up five thousand dollars. Not going to deal with that type of behavior again. So we will stay country people. I did get a new dishwasher. And we are going to spend the new house earnest money on a carport. And a new barn for the horses. Monday the goats come home and maybe I will buy some chickens at the auction. Need to order some baby chicks to raise and sell. I'm thinking buff orpingtons, buff brahmas, amercaunas and two other breeds. Maybe austrolorps.
It was horribly windy here today. There was a fire a couple of miles away. It burned 80 acres and one unoccupied house. Because of the dust, we couldn't even see the smoke.

Bigger steps

For the last several months I have been working on moving into town. We've lived out here in the country for over 10 years now. I'm tired of the wind, sand, snakes, cows, flies, travel distance and HOA. The snow storm a couple of weeks ago was pretty much the last straw.
I have sold all the poultry except for the ones the coyote got. The llamas have gone to a new home. Magie is taking Sophie and Comet for her girls. Sara is determined to turn Sophie into a rodeo horse for barrel racing. Gypsy will be sold.
I have a new home for two of the cats which will leave us with Sheba and Tigger. Finding a new home for Maks which will leave us with Mischka and Jack for canine companions. Plus Dirty Mike the hamster and Andy's fish tank.
Today we put earnest money down on a house in town. It is three bedroom, two bath with one car attached garage. It will need the carpet ripped up in the bedrooms and wood floors put down. A window replaced in the kitchen. The cabinets are very nice in the kitchen and both bathrooms are in good shape.
I'm thinking the weekend before we officially move we will have a garage sale at the new house to sell the stuff we don't need or have room for. I had taken some things to the auction and didn't do well at all.
So we will see if we get this house or if we keep looking.

Destination Imagination

Alex has spent the last several months working with Destination Imagination (DI for short). He's had a lot of fun. Andy didn't want to do it, so he'd go to Magie's after school.
I asked Alex to describe DI but he was too busy playing Wii with the girls who are visiting.


His group built a structure which was to catch and hold golfballs while maintaining it's integrity with weights being placed on it. It held the weights but didn't work with the golf balls.
They (a group of five boys) also had a play to perform. It involved money, a bank, a bank robber.
The boys didn't place at Regionals on Saturday but they did get medals for the DaVinci award which is for creativity and perseverance.
I was an assessor for the Instant challenge portion of the day. It was a lot of fun.
It was a busy weekend. Friday night we went to the Pediatrics (high schoolers) vs. Geriatrics (adults) basketball game. Just like last year, the Geriatrics won.
Saturday night after a day of DI, we went to the community play "Great Smokies". It was really fun. There was also a talent show. For a small community there are alot of talented people.
Sunday we went to Fargo's Pizza for Andy's birthday dinner.

Stamps

Way back when I was a young child, I started collecting stamps. My grandma Smith actually got me started right before my family moved to Germany. While I was living in Germany (dad was in the Army) I learned about soaking the stamps to get them off of the envelope.
When we came back from Germany and I was working on some stamps and put them in water, Grandma was (I think) a little shocked. She had never heard of doing this.
A couple of weeks ago, Magie and I were at a friend's house helping the friend get ready for a moving sale. This friend, Kathy, gave me some stamps for Andy's collection. He may not get them all.
What brings up the stamp story? My mom called this morning and said that Grandma had passed away early this morning. There will be a graveside service on Wednesday back in Kansas.

Shoes

We have a thief living in our house. His name is Maks (Maximum Force Against Coyotes). Maks is currently three months old and loves shoes. I can not find at least four shoes. I have half of a pair but the mate is missing. And I have looked. I'm wondering if Maks ate the shoes. I hope not because I really like my slippers. For a Great Pyrenees, Maks is a soft, sweet and so obnoxious dog. We had one when we first moved to the country. Bear was a GP crossed with a malamute. He would chase down a coyote and shake it. Right now, we are keeping a real close eye on Maks, not only is he too young and small to deal with a coyote, he's probably try to play with it. And while he may enjoy hiding my slippers, his favorite chew toy...either cat, Ming or Smokey. He's learned NOT to mess with Sheba.
In other news, with the snow we had last week, I am ready to move to town. So is Alex and Peter is almost there. Andy doesn't want to move. It snowed Thursday night, we had a snow day from school, Peter didn't go to work. With the drifts and no one to clear the HOA roads, it was Tuesday before Peter could go to work. I wasn't willing to risk getting stuck so the boys had an extra day. It was the first day they had missed all year, so much for perfect attendance. The HOA road grader cleared two roads and the battery failed after that. Before they did our road. So part of the two miles to county road, we are driving on pasture, it has less snow than the roads which have sunk below the pasture ground level and tend to fill with snow. Driving across the pasture definitely isn't good for Peter's car and I don't like taking my truck across. There are way to many bumps and we've gotten flat tires from the sagebrush.

Mad Scientist in the House

Our school participates in a regional science fair. The kids start out in the 4th grade getting ready for this. In the 6th grade they actually compete. Andy did his project with litmus and that's all I know. Something about how chemicals change the color of the water and back again.



Anyway, Andy took second place in the 4th grade and will be attending the BFL science fair next Friday. Pretty darn proud of the kid.

Meet Dirty Mike

My boys are big fans of the TV show "Dirty Jobs" so when Alex got a hamster, he had to name it after Dirty Mike. For Christmas Alex (or maybe it was DM) got an additional part for the hamster cage. Alex has been very good about taking care of DM. We've had a few other hamsters over the last year. The cat got one, and another died. But DM seems to be thriving.

It's January but these are Christmas pics

Andy was an elf in the school Christmas play.

Alex was a dog in the same play

Santa visited the school with gifts for all the kids after the play.

It's a family tradition. Many, many years ago when my dad (denim shirt) and his brother (white shirt) were little boys back in Moundridge, Kansas, the whole family would attend Christmas Eve services at the church. Each family would, at the end of the service, be given a bag of fruit, nuts and PEANUTS. The children would have to wait until the older men would eat All Of The PEANUTS before they were allowed to open any of their presents. Sadly, this tradition continues. Having been the victim of this insideous plot for more years than I care to think about, when it is just the four of us at home, Andy and Alex don't have to wait for peanut eating.

But after the peanuts are consumed, the boys get to hand out the gifts and open theirs. Usually we start with the youngest, which is fortunate for Alex because he's not the most patient creature in the world. That's my mom in the red and aunt in the blue.