My Little Graduate!!

May 22, 2008 Emma Faith Cox graduated from preschool!
I see a future American Idol here, get ready mom and dad!!

Look Ma I am standing right where I am supposed to be on the letters E M M A !!

Those other wise guys beside me aren't! Do you see me Simon Cowell, see my proper form, huh?

What a group!

Don't tell anyone but this dude beside me in the next pic is my beau

Colby .. isn't he cute! .....hehehe....shh....Mama and Daddy are reading this!!

Emma was singing to her brother "I love you, because Jesus tells me to" and she was grinning so big and pointing her finger at him, and what was he doing......
.....THIS....this is what he was doing back to his sister...is this "Brotherly Love" or what!!!

Colton I caught you!!! and now your mother and father have too!!!

I know my dad was enjoying my little concert too, look at that big smile of his!!!

"Sage" this is for you!!

Here is my walnut dough bowl and rolling pin that I found at a yard sale last summer for $35. It is shown with my rendition of a Bob Ross!! The spinning wheel lamp is an Ebay find!!

I made the mini log cabin quilt!

A closer view! Man I am craving a hot buttered biscuit!
Look at that grain! Oh and the chest of drawers is OLDER than ME!!! Yes, older than dirt!!

I have had it my entire life. It has been with me as long as my skin has!!
And this is my incredibly clean quaint living room. Thanks to you I have a lot of clean rooms this week!! You can just barely see the edge of the wood basket that is beside the wood cook stove and it has some newspapers sticking out, maybe not as clean as I thought, huh?

The sectional is just right for the two of us, his and hers! The big enormous crock in the corner came from an antique's store and I am planning on a big batch of 14 Day Pickles, just like Mama used to make, this summer and some kraut this fall. The coffee table was another yardsale find. The entertainment center was a wonderful buy from Leslie and Travis cuz they had to have a big screen HDTV!!! their loss right? And I made the curtains and painted the floor red!!!

Pretty frugal, huh?

The portraits on the wall are my precious little girls that I reproduced in acrylic, don't look too close.

And if for some strange reason you happen to see three different colors of paint on the wall you will need to get your computer serviced. I have heard of some of those puters that do just that and if in fact you do see three different colors please don't tell anyone just get it fixed soon.

My first trip to "THE POND"

I usually pull the boat, haul the feed and hay, camping supplies and pull the camper around!
Well Dad had a great idea one afternoon that he needed to put me in the FISHPOND...what?...to make sure I would crank when I got him on the lake this summer......OK!

That is it was OK until he found out that I had NO GAS and I WAS STUCK...... HELP!...GET ME OUT OF HERE!!! I HEARD THE STORIES ABOUT THE MUD TURTLES....I KNOW THEY BITE!.....AND OMG THERE ARE CATFISH IN HERE....GET ME OUT! ...HELP MA!!!!!!

DAD DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING!!

HOLD ON SON I'LL SAVE YOU!! HAVE NO FEAR WONDERBOY IS HERE!!
WONDERBOY WHO HAS LOT'S OF BIG BOY TOYS THAT IS!! GOOD THING THE SKYLIFT WAS HERE SON OR YOU MAY HAVE BEEN A GONER!!All gased up and fired right up like a Chevy!! Now for the pond aeriation....I'll scare those big ugly white catfish!!! They don't know who they are messing with!! OK Wonderboy anytime now.. here comes a bluegill and look at all those Crappie...OH CRAP!! ...oh Wonderboy do you hear me??... anyone?...

A few of my play toys!!

1984 Checkmate 18' with a 140 hp Johnson outboard!
Many great hours spent on the lake last year in this baby! Yes that is a John Deere Gator that was used to pull it! The Gator is my favorite Farm and Garden Tool!!
This is my baby!!! My baby Jag!! 2003 Jaguar X-type 2.5
This was and still is the car of my dreams. I have had it for almost two years and it still has less than 40 thousand miles on it! (Cuz I'm a homebody) Get's from 23 to 29 mpg and averages, on our country back roads 25mpg. Not too bad for being so powerful and all wheel drive too. Like I am really going to get it in the snow, huh!!!!

How do you like me now? The blog that is.

Colton and Emma! Now don't they look innocent!
Of course they are!
Look's like he's just my size!

I was right he is my size! Dad you should have picked bulls

to ride that was this close to the ground!!

Sticking to it!!

Oh yes! Finally a cleaning schedule that is going to work!! I am sure it will have some glitches here and there but for the most part I can see it working out very well. There will be days that other plans will get in the way whether scheduled or not and this plan should workout well if I have to miss a day here or there. After all I had to play catchup to get this far in the week where I started late and there has been plenty of time for that.

It really feels good knowing that I am leaving each room finished! Not half way cleaned but cleaned very well. Of course there are other things that I want to accomplish in each room now that I have no clutter....ie...the doors on the bathroom cabinet are shot but the cabinet is in great shape so I am ready to make some fabric curtains for there. The trim in the new bedroom has to be finished, small job, but... and the bedskirt and curtains for that room have to be finished. I am hashing around plans for a quilt/comforter/duvet cover for that room also....we'll see!!

Then on to the foyer~~~~ curtains to be made ~~~ kitchen needs new curtains too. I have to make a cushion for my glider and paint it.....paint my kitchen table...paint the kitchen and breakfast room floor....and the list goes on and on.....maybe I'll get some of this done this weekend while dear hubby works!!! maybe I need a list for these projects too!!!!

Off to enjoy my clean house!!!!

My new cleaning schedule!

My wonderful friend Sage from down south has inspired me to make out a cleaning schedule to use each week for cleaning my house. She has an assignment for each day Mon thru Fri with the anticipation that the house will be clean come the weekend and only a little maintenence is due on those days. I have now adapted a similar routine for my house.

I have made an assignment for each room or rooms to be cleaned on a different day and it will remain on that day each week. It took a little thought on how to group these rooms together and which days would work best. I came up with a plan where I will also add vacuuming the whole house twice weekly on Tues and Fri. The laundry and mowing of course will have to fall whereever necessary according to the weather.

Monday= kitchen and breakfast room

Tuesday= Laundry room and foyer, vacuuming

Wed= porches/hottub room/ barns and outbuildings (gathering tools to one central area and a little more than just maintence on these areas)

Thurs= Bedroom/ half bath/ office

Fri= Living room/ dining room/ big bathroom and vacuuming

If these areas are cleaned every week as assigned it shouldn't take over 1 to 1 1/2 hours tops to clean each day. Of course I still have the daily chores of kitchen duty and picking up and straightening up in each room, preferably 10 minutes or less in each room.

I got started yesterday which was Wed and I got those things done and actually backed up and cleaned a couple areas from the previous days trying to get on track with the new schedule so that things would be looking good come the weekend. I would love to have some Saturday mornings, if dh is working, to be yard saleing or thrifting instead of doing housework or we could even be out on the lake. I am not sure of how much of either of these pleasures I will be able to partake in this year due the high gasoline prices....that stinks too.... maybe I'll just stay home and garden and sew!!!

I really feel that this system will work for me because I will stay focused on one room at a time and not stray away from the assigned area. I have always spun my wheels it seems where cleaning is concerned and I felt that all I ever seemed to accomplish was surface cleaning. I am ready to get in there a little deeper now!!

Let me know if you have a similar strategy for cleaning your house!

Have a blessed day!

Such a beautiful time of year to have a broken heart

It is finally warm and sunny in the neighborhood. Yesterday was the most beautiful day I have ever seen and today is actually warmer but a little cloudy it's supposed to be 80 today though. I have the laundry in the wringer, most of it done and on the line in the sun, the dirty boy jeans are still being beat clean in the wringer. That's the main reason that I use it is because my dh gets soooo dirty and his jeans have ground in dirt, grease, oil you name it's in there and doesn't like to come out.

Dh and I took the grandpunks camping on Sat. We had the popup on our land near Philpott Lake and we stayed there for the first time since we bought the land. It could possibly be our last time too!!! The punks were great, so well behaved and had a lot of fun too. We decided that all Leslie needed to do when Colton and Emma were fussing that they were bored was to give them some paper and sticks and matches and a container such as a fire ring to play in. I have never seen kids spend so much time playing in the fire!! Dh was OK but was really NO help and admitted it!!!

Berk and Brenda, dh's sister and her husband who live about 7 miles away from there came over and ate with us that evening. That was as always a lot of fun.

The reason that we may not EVER go back camping was not the human company that we kept but the canine variety. We had a dog barking the ENTIRE night and he had about at least 20 friends that stretched out for 3 counties and they sang all night long!!!

I really missed by bed and my fan that is in the bedroom for nights like that. I had a fan but we did not have any power except from a battery for the inside lights in the camper. We did finally use the furnace to drown out the sound so we could get a couple hours sleep.

My heart is breaking in two right now. I have made my dd so mad at me and she won't talk to me. We had a discussion and she took some of the things that I said and turned them into something that I did not say. I love her so much and only want her to be happy. If it is without me in her life I will have to suck it up and deal with it. However I pray that is not what she wants. If I do get her back in my life again I will vow to never ever say anything about what goes on in her life. I did just that for her entire grownup life not stepping in and saying what I was feeling and she knows that. I felt this time that she was asking for my opinion and I gave it to her and I should have kept my mouth shut. It is hard to be quiet when your shoulder is being cried on so often and your heart breaks with each and every tear. All of you Mothers out there know what I mean. We always want our children just to be safe and happy.

Better go and get the threads out of the machine now!!!

I can't believe I'm telling this on myself!

I have felt the need to share funny stories with you guys today whether you want to hear about them or not!

A couple years ago I owned a BRIGHT SCREAMING SCHOOLBUS YELLOW Chevy S-10 pickup that is UNFORGETABLE and very RECOGNIZABLE!!!! Visualize this now so you can get the picture.

Robin and I were in Christiansburg one Sunday afternoon about 2 years ago in my yellow truck. We decided that we had to go to ChickfilA which is at the front of the shopping complex with all the big stores like Target and Home Depot and many others, you know it's the happening spot. Of course you would HAVE to run into someone that you know every time you go there and especially if you go and do something really stupid you will be spotted.

As we were turning off of the main highway that circles around to the back entrance of ChickfilA we noticed Robin's EX and his new wife and the 3 girl's, Morgan (Robin's daughter) included, was coming up beside us and proceeded thru the light and then made a right turn on the other side of ChickfilA which takes you to the front entrance to their parking lot. When you come in the back way you have to circle the whole building in order to get in line at the drivethru because of a BIG CURB that you would have to negotiate that is almost immpossible to maneuver around.

WELLLLLLL!!! I got it in my mind real quick that they were going to ChickfilA's drivethru also and said "I be darned if they are going to beat me there". You know it's the principal of the matter~~~~~~ SO I took off and decided while going in on 2 wheels that the curb would be no real problem for my little truck and kinda 'jumped' it. There was no one else in the line at the drive thru OK... Well I threw Robin up in the air and she hit her head on the ceiling of the truck, good thing she is hardheaded!!

We beat them!!!

They actually just kept going on over to the other stores. So there we were first in line for MONDAY morning cause they are closed on Sunday anyway!!!
We have never laughed so hard in our lives!!!!!!

I asked Morgan if they watched us and she said they didn't even see us!!!! Boy did they miss a good laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!

A little digging up the past here!

My new and very dear friend from down in Sunny South Carolina (yes that was meant to be sarcastic cuz it is COLD and raining here) shared with all of us a really funny story on her blog today about LOO the mouse so I thought of a past story about a "Critter of sorts" in our house. The friend I am speaking of is The Hedgewife, Sage, you can reach her from my link and you should go visit her cuz she is a lot of fun and inspiration!!!!

Once upon a time circa 1989ish ---- The girls and there father and I had just returned from somewhere, anywhere, nowhere don't remember where and it was almost dark. We were renting a VERY LARGE and VERY OLD farmhouse at the time that had a very dark foyer. Robin was about 12ish and Leslie 8ish and I was 16ish at the time. hehehe We opened the front door and all of us came kinda rambling in tripping over each other pushing each other, you know how a family of four can be. On the wall of the foyer were a couple nails that once hung pictures from the previous tenants and of course I had not decorated or removed the nails and I did not worry about them I just KNEW that they were there.

Leslie being the youngest was the first to venture thru the foyer and stopped dead in front of me, the other 2 stumbling into us of course, and looked up on the wall of the foyer for a brief second and yelled at the top of her lungs "MOUSE".

What a mouse on the wall? What?? I was eyeball to eyeball with this "MOUSE" and all I could think of was 'how did a mouse get up on this flat wall' ---'was he dead or alive' --- and then I noticed a long tail and I thought 'Danny must of caught him or found him and hung him by the tail up on one of those nails to scare us.' I had 6 eyeballs staring over my shoulder and 2 eyeballs staring me in the face approximately 4 inches from me while I was trying to decipher what the heck was going on. Danny really did it this time if he in fact had hung a dead mouse on a nail in the house, how cruel and stupid a trick. I KNEW that those sissy girls I was raising was just like me and they wouldn't come near a mouse by choice, so why in the world were we all standing there for what seemed like 10 minutes staring at this one in the face? Big Question!!!!

Well all of a sudden at the same time all of our brain cells started working again after the initial shock wore off I guess, and all 4 of us belted out at the same time in an ear pierceing shreek """BAT""". You should have seen 3 of us scramble in place, pushing each other not being able to decide which way we should go and covering our heads while still screaming over and over "bat" " bat" "bat"... like that bat wasn't having a hayday over the show we were giving him for free...

Well Robin and I took off upstairs together, it was to each his own but I think she dug fingernails into me and I drug her with me or maybe it was the opposite I am not sure but anyway we went to her bedroom at a high rate of speed and SLAMMED the door.. lol.. Leslie at the same time, see she was farther into the house than any of us and she could NOT go back by "THE BAT" ,had to take off thru the dining room and also slammed the door.

This left Danny in the foyer with this "BAT" all by himself. Well being the great white hunter and protector of his whimpy little family of "GIRLS" he proceded to do what any hunter of big game would do===== he pulled off his ball cap and scooped it off the wall and instead of turning around and throwing it out the front door cuz it was closer, walked thru the dining room and kitchen and threw it out the kitchen door to safety, or so he thought. You remember our least little frail girl child was in the dining room right. Well we thought so until we heard screaming from outside. She decided that behind the diningroom door was not safe enough and if the bat was inside then she would go out the back door and sit in the car!!! That was OK until her dad decided to throw that creature out the back door next to the car!!! She screamed bloody murder I mean to tell you until we went out and got her out of the car!!!!!!!!!!!!! She gets it from me!!!

Don't cry over spilled milk!

You sure can get in a good laugh over it though if the situation is just right. I have had many times lately that my dairy goat kicked over the milk pail and I did not laugh. Today however was different. You see in my quest to be a pioneer woman and self sufficient I felt that I had to put all this good fresh milk to good use and learn how to make goats milk butter.

In order to do so the milk has to be separated with a machine. I won an auction for a nice cream separator last week on Ebay, one of my favorite pastimes-- ebaying!!! The much anticipated day came today when the separator arrived. I could have hugged the UPS guy but I didn't, I didn't want to scare him off, I still ebay you know.
Any way I read over the manual and I knew about as much afterwards about how to separate milk as I do rebuilding a lawn mower engine. SQUAT!!! But my dh was raised on a dairy farm where the milk was separated to make butter! ah ha!!!

Well my dh came home and of course he knew how to use it. I milked the evening milking obtaining a little over a quart. Remember this amount. While the milk was warm we put the newly washed and dryed separator together on the dining room table. He said "pour in the milk" so I always do as I am told and poured all the milk in while he started cranking and all of a sudden the table and the floor was full of milk. OOPS!! did we do something wrong? DH was OK at this time.

We were able to retrieve about a pint of fresh milk. We moved the machine to the kitchen counter and reassembled the machine and tried it again. While watching the skim milk come out of one spot and the dribble of cream out the other spout I was really interested in the process and did not realize that I was leaning over and holding on to the top of the separator and all of a sudden the bowl popped off and we both got a sudden milk shower!!! So did the upper cabinets and lower cabinets, the dishwasher and the entire kitchen floor. What a mess. It was only a pint and I had almost a pint in the milk can. How could so little milk go so far.


I laughed and dh stomped outside saying "I am going to go work on my bulldozer." I went outside in a few minutes and asked him "What makes you think you can work on something that big and can not use a cream separator?" He growled at me!! LOL

Thru the eyes of a child

Emma had the best time yesterday running thru my laundry that was hanging on the line. She loved the quilt, which by the way was my yardsale find last Sat.

Emma stayed with me all day and we had a lot of fun. Robin came over and we went fishing in the pond, caught 5 bluegill and threw them back. Colton and Leslie showed up while we were fishing and Colton got to fish too. He is such a "boy"... "I can cast by myself leave me alone" ..... and yes he can!!

Beautiful weather here today!

Sunny and warm in 70"s and just a lovely day for a picnic. The girls came over and ate lunch with us this afternoon. I understood the weather to be cold today so I had planned on an inside meal but we ate it outside. Danny had built us a very big picnic table several years back and it holds the whole family at one sitting.

We had a great meal of chicken and dumplings, green beans, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, raspberry cupcakes and yummy homemade goats milk raspberry ice cream. We are really enjoying this milk.

Colton couldn't hardly sit still to eat because he had Jet, the baby calf, on a lead walking him and tied him to the fence to eat and then went right back to playing with him. I am not sure who had the most fun Colton or Jet. Emma is scared of the calf unless he is on the other side of the fence and Colton loves to fret her.

Danny had a BRILLIANT idea today to take the boat down to the fishpond and back it in far enough to be able to crank the motor to check it out before heading to the lake next week weather permiting. Sounds like a good idea, huh? Well I wasn't sold and most of the time I am right (Of Course!). It turns out I was semi-right. He got the boat and trailer stuck in the fish pond and it was so funny to watch him try to retrieve it. He had to go up on the hill and get the Skylift and pull it out. It was a big ordeal but at least he was happy that the boat cranked right up and idled really good. I took a lot of pics that I will have to post soon. ...too funny.

I can't wait to hit the water.

Tonight after milking and feeding the mongrels on the funny farm we went fishing in the pond. We were fishing for Crappie but we had terrified them so badly that we didn't even see a bluegill and they are usually all over us. So that was a dry run.

Happy 7 year anniversary in our home!

This is the inside of my new dairy barn and milking stanchion. The barn is shown below near the white picket fence. Not intended to be a barn but sure made a nice one. The doorway is about 2" too short though and I have cracked my head on it too many times to count, maybe one day I will learn to duck.

Look at my old wringer and wash sinks. I love to use them!!

It is hard to believe but we moved in 7 years ago today. I wish I could post the before pics because we have done so much around here. A new roof, vinyl siding, foundation and rock, lots of buildings, a new bedroom on the back of the house, tons of landscaping, a garden pond and a 1/2 acre fish pond, dairy barn, picket fence, more fencing, 2 new covered porches and 2 new patios, and lots and lots and lots of bulldozing and we cut or push down or top another tree every year (so I will have something to do cleaning up the mess) and I can't even remember what else we have done cuz I am wore out. I really enjoy it here though. It is so peaceful nothing but the birds and goats talking.

More pics

All in a days work

I did a lot today but not all of my list is yet finished. I mowed the back 60 it feels like. I truthfully couldn't tell you what else took all day, but I was really busy all day long and things look good around here. I took a gazillion pics today and if I can post them I will now. Last night for some reason I couldn't add pics on this blog.

I have a lot of work to do around the little buildings which will be my hair salon. We have been working on it and have everything tore up. The other pic is the used to be greenhouse that now holds the hot tub. I will be in the hot tub tonight.