Fiona's A Mom!

Saturday, Fiona gave birth to a very tall and lanky girl! Mama is fiercely protective and already an excellent mom to her, but I did get a chance to hold her when we fed the group. I have no shame, my cows love their food and I use it to my advantage! 

Fiona did see me though and came charging from the back pasture, but we already had the mule in gear and was away before she got there. The little one is a chocolate dream! Now, I've been told their brown coloring can change after the initial baby coat, but I've got a feeling she's going to stay a dun. I'm going to have to discuss with my friend who has already staked claim on the first heifer what her name will be. Right now, she's the Little Coo. 

We still have two mamas left to drop, but who knows when that will be? Exciting! 

A New Me

Being blonde was fun for a year, but I was ready to get back to being mostly me. My girl Shy came through in a big way and I love the results! 

It took four hours and I've still got to go back tomorrow or the next day to fix one stubborn blonde spot, but it's exactly what I wanted. I've worked hard on getting my hair healthy enough to accept extensions and I'm never going short again. 

Also, Rory is doing great. Cíarin is more protective of him than she was with Callie. I'll pet me pretty, I just need Rob to cover me! 

Brogan's Boy!

We had a newborn calf today! This is the first from our sire Brogan. Good job boy, you did it! Surprisingly, the mother is the only heifer we didn't think was pregnant, the Fur Real Farms Mama with the mostest, Cíarin!

For those keeping score, Cíarin has been bred three times total. Her first, Coorie, we lost earlier this year to bloat. However, she also calved Caledonia, the first calf ever to be born on our farm. Yet here she is showing our other cows how it's done. Introducing, Ruairidh, but we're just going to call him Rory. It means red king and he's just so adorable. 

Rory spent the afternoon in the hay stack and all the cows and donkeys came to greet him. By this evening though, Cíarin recovered enough to become the over protective mother we know she is. I'm going to risk her wrath tomorrow to stay close to him. Yes Mom, I'll be careful! 

Late and Later

I almost forgot to write the blog tonight. It's been a busy day! Meetings and visits galore, but it was a productive day. I've signed up more members for the Chamber, got more involvement from groups for National Night Out, and possibly have found a venue for a Christmas play! 

Tomorrow is more meetings and more work, but don't worry, I've got something fun planned on Thursday. No, I'm not giving any hints. I'll just share on Thursday's blog. 

For now, I've got to head to bed and read for relaxation. My brain has been buzzing too much today and it needs to calm down. Stephen King should do the trick, right? 

Volley Girl

This afternoon, I took in our local volleyball game. I know two of the girls playing so it was fun to watch them play. Unfortunately, they didn't win, but they've got some real skills. If I was the coach (and no, their coach is great and I don't want the job), I'd get them to practice spiking the ball and also knowing where the out lines are. If they get those two things down, they'll be unstoppable. 

For me, I volleyed a lot today and still didn't get everything done. I got an excruciating headache by seven pm though, so I was done. The headache is getting better, but it's still there. It's a sinus and tension headache and I know them both well. Nothing a good night's sleep won't cure. 

Tomorrow though, I'll be gearing to finish my to do list and spend some more time with my animals. I've got to take pics of the kids and get them ready to sell. Time goes so quickly! 

Watermelon Sunday

I'm doing a little research project of trying to find fresh fruits and veggies my livestock likes. Tonight's test was with watermelons. Out of all my goats, only S'mores took a bite. Out of all my cows, only Josie enjoyed it. The donkeys and sheep were uninterested. I'm actually surprised because they eat those stupid buffalo gourds that grow around here. Oh well. 

It was nice spending a quiet evening with them though. They were all relaxed and enjoyed just being together with us. Brogan and Flora got their hair brushed and Rose even let me pet her a little. Jewel is getting closer to me, but still wary. The one thing I didn't grab a pic of was our new laying hens. We picked up ten from a farm up the road and hopefully we'll be flush in eggs again. The last few weeks our hens have barely laid with the heat. 

Overall, life is great on the farm! 

End This Week

I think we're all ready for this week to be over. It's heating up again outside and we should have a quiet weekend. 

All of our animals act like we don't feed them and y'all know we do. We feed them extremely well, and yet they're all getting into things they shouldn't for more food. Dogs getting into the trash, cows surrounding the mule like it's a driving buffet, and the donkeys just being what they're good at. At least the goats and sheep are a little more respectful. A little, mind you. They still act like they don't get enough while also getting stuck because their midsections are on the chunky side. They must feel like it's going to be a hard winter ahead? I don't know what else it could be. 

Have a great weekend ahead. I'm going to finish off this cold and get ready for some busy weeks coming. 

Maesie looking sweet moments before she headbutts someone else to move away from the food

Weird Wednesday

I'm almost over this stupid head cold, but it's beaten me up pretty badly. I know it's become a problem when I took a nap this afternoon and literally dreamed about breathing in fresh air. Imagine my shock and horror when I woke up and still couldn't breathe normally. Just rudeness, plain and simple. 

On a happier note, I had two wonderful meetings today. The first was at my home away from home, City Hall, to meet with the city, fire and police to plan the National Night Out happening the first of October. I'm wearing two hats for this event: Chamber and Lion's Club, but it still should be a lot of fun and not too much work. 

The other was with our non profit thrift store in town to bring them into the Chamber. This was a big move as these ladies are the old school version of our town and I hopefully made it extremely clear I'm not wanting to change our town, just revitalize it. Our main street is pretty much unusable at the moment and that's the Chamber's main focus, to make it usable again. There's always a lot of charm with Main Streets throughout America. I'd like it here, too. 

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to focus on the theater stuff. Time to bring in some more drama! 

Touchy Tuesday

I started out great this morning, but by afternoon I was feeling bleh again. I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be even better. I was at City Hall in the middle of a discussion this afternoon when it hit me like a ton of bricks and I just rapidly got up and left. It's a head cold and this afternoon, it all swam up in my head at once and I would have just laid down on the floor if I could have. Yes, I'm weak. 

Aside from that, things are going well. We finally got our air conditioner fixed (we have two, so we weren't in dire need) this afternoon and it was all under warranty. Rob picked up mash and the cows had their feast. And I even practiced the piano some today. 

Here's hoping tomorrow I can breathe out of both sides of my nostrils at the same time! 

Sick Day

As mentioned yesterday, I took a sick day today. I've got essentially what is like a head cold, but I had a fever as well. Luckily, I think I'm past the fever stage, but we know how colds like to stick around. 

Now, while technically I didn't go anywhere because I was sick so I wouldn't infect anyone else, Rob did make me drive him 90 minutes away to pick up the truck. As soon as I got back from that three hour trip I slept. Then, I tried to do some work online until my brain said it was enough. 

Not to be deterred, I still took the mule out and visited my animals. I didn't take the most flattering image of Rose, but then I wasn't feeling great either. At least she enjoyed my saying hi. 

Not So Swell

I think the absolutely wonderful cold front we received brought a little something extra to me. I was feeling great this morning, but this afternoon I started to feel a scratchy throat. Now, came back from his trip with what seemed like allergies (sneezing and some coughing) and I've just got a scratchy throat and yuck feeling. I'll stay home and rest tomorrow if I need to. One of the perks of being my own boss. 

Other than that, it was a good weekend. We did the usual things and had the usual fun. Originally, I was supposed to take part with my cupcakes in a fundraiser, but it didn't seem like they needed me and I really didn't have the time. I do hope they did well though. 

Tomorrow, my piano finally gets tuned! We'll also have to pick up the truck from the mechanics an hour away, so let's hope I wake up feeling good to go. 

Frogs Abound

The pool guy came over today, and as he was new, I noticed he was sort of looking around like he didn't know what he was doing. I went outside and introduced myself and asked if everything was ok. He told me he was looking for something for the frogs. 

I decided to sit outside and watch him to see what he meant. Well, our skimmer basket was completely full with frogs! At least half were still alive. Here's the thing though, I had just spent the last three days in a row "rescuing" these things. I guess it didn't rain cats and dogs, only frogs here. Ribbit!

Have a great weekend. I've got no idea what we'll be up to. I'm actually still feeling like today is Wednesday! 

Look closely, there's two knuckleheads in this pic

Truck Trouble

Unfortunately, Mr Anderson decided to conk out on Rob during his return home. About four hours later, he and I are now back home. Thankfully, we have another truck! 

The truck will be towed in the morning by a towing company to Temple and hopefully they can fix it. I don't have the highest hopes though. Both the oil and the coolant disappeared and the engine started smoking, so there's that.

At least, I spent the day with friends and got a little online shopping in!

Rainy & Alone

In the future, I'm not going to let Rob leave when it's rainy. While he did a fantastic job prepping all the stuff to make it easier for me to feed the animals tonight, he left when we've had solid rain all day. 

In case y'all don't remember, the animals have taken care of all vegetation in the pasture, so it's just mud. I took the brief allowing down of the rain as my opportunity to feed them and I did it! I even got the goats in the stall of the barn with only two littles and one mama out. They were stubborn and I realized they could handle a night apart from the others and just have the rest of the barn to themselves. 

Tomorrow morning is going to be loads of fun though. It's only continued to rain and I already don't do well in the mornings, but at least the chores are less at that time! 

No Labor Today

I did it! I went a whole day with barely doing anything. It was raining off and on, so I took naps off and on. I needed this "extra" day and I'm glad I took full advantage of it. 

Now, Rob's going back to school tomorrow which will be exciting. Ok, I'll rephrase. He's going to A&M where he graduated to speak with coming graduates about choose a career with HEB. Yep, he's now one of those recruiter types. 

Finally, the cows absolutely have loved this rainy and cooler weather. They have been literally running around like little kids and it's been equally terrifying and fun to watch. They're really big y'all, and it's really muddy out there! 

Wet Flora saying hi

Labor Day

I debated writing a blog tonight as I'm planning on doing nothing tomorrow. But, I still did stuff this weekend, so I shouldn't deprive y'all. 

Friday was the documentary about wind turbines. They only asked me two questions about that and then asked more about why I moved here from Austin and why I decided to start a Chamber of Commerce. It's ok, I did my best and had a new adventure, even if I wind up on the cutting room floor. 

The most surprising thing though was I didn't film where it was originally arranged. A friend of mine and her husband had agreed for us to use their ranch where they actually own wind turbines, but once they realized I was opposed to them, they called Mayor Bob heading this all up and told him I wasn't welcome. I'm glad I had texted her saying it was great she was allowing both sides to be heard on her property because that's what started this mess. She said she didn't pass judgement on anyone and then I got booted. I told them no hard feelings, and I mean it. I have no problem hearing other people's viewpoints, but a lot of people do. Although, I won't discuss presidential politics, nothing good ever comes from that! 

No matter what though, it was an adventure like I said. Maybe I'll become a star in Australia now as Sky News Australia was the one filming the documentary!