Heart in the Right Place

I can find the funniest things in my farming catalogs/magazines. I can't seem to read enough and learn enough about our new farm life. So I was pleasantly surprised to find a section in one of my new magazines with Book Reviews! I thought... 'a book review by someone that lives a life very similar to mine may be a good bet'. This time it was a wonderful BOOK, Heart in the Right Place, a memoir by Carolyn Jourdan.

The summary given of this book was just too intriguing for me to pass up. Carolyn was a US Senate Lawyer who had to return home after her mother suffered a heart attack... and she chronicles the events that followed.

Wonderful tale of family, priorities, truly good people, and the roles we all choose! My favorite 2 pages of the book were 296 and 297... the last two pages of the book! Don't you just love when a book comes full circle and goes out with a BANG, or in this case a quiet, peaceful reflection!

I hope I can now look at people differently, not be so quick to pass off a certain character trait as simply a 'quirk', but look deeper.... and hopefully others would do the same for all my many imperfections... aka flaws AND strengths, grin!

Callahan Original

The Chicken Coop is done! With only one major setback, my mismeasured roof... totally my fault, grrrrr. To regroup from my flub and stay on my strict budget, I ended up with a wood slat roof and actually really love it!! I didn't do too bad as chief architect, but the HUGE truth is I couldn't have done it without my husband. For such a small structure, there was some heavy lifting and he was wonderful being the 'muscles' of the construction crew and letting me be creative.

This coop should get better and better as it ages. A tad prestine now, I'm sure the chickens will do a fabulous job roughing it up for me, real quick!! I love the arched door and the hardware, my faves. I also think the front shutters are precious. So do you want a tour?

This is the interior. Notice the yellow paint that I got for $5 on mismatch table at Lowes. These are the 3 perches and the little door that can be raised and lowered to let the chickens outside to their run.

Lots and lots of nesting boxes. I splurged on these, in fact I had to get really creative on other items to stay on budget.

My perches and perch brackets were all nature provided, aka FREE!

Here's the outside 'plank'... do not know what its official name is... Ty just calls it the plank, so it is!

Here is the backside. I went cheapskate and used fencing wood instead of the cedar shakes. There is a large window with shutters, there is great ventilation in the coop along with the front window.

The chickens were ooohhhhing and aaahhing right away. Mr. Roo seemed especially impressed... a rockin' new pad for him and his ladies.

For now we have this temporary outside run for the chickens. Eventually... there's that word again... we will have a fence around the coop and the chickens can free range. So just a couple more weeks and we should be getting fresh eggs, yippee! One major project completed and only 1 MEEEEllion more to go!

yippee

There is this little spot above the kitchen sink that has had me stumped!! Not big enough for something substantial, a tad too big to ignore. Then I thought I could paint something there. So I literally have been trying to decide on WHAT to paint... and I think my solution is so very clevaaaah!! Hee-hee!


Sorry the photos are so dark... clueless how to take photos when shooting right at a window like that.

Now this week, I'm hoping to get our mudroom functional. Wait till you see these before and afters. When the money ran out during the build... all closets, and smaller rooms like mudroom and laundry were left undone. So we keep plugging away... plug, plug, pluggedy, plug.

Rough Ride

Savannah first rode a horse several years ago at a summer camp she attended. She was hooked instantly. She went to that summer camp for 4 years and hanging out at the stalls was where you could always find her.

So when we bought this land, it was never a question that she wanted to eventually own her own horse. That hasn't quite happened yet, we hope it will soon. But meanwhile, several of our neighbors have and board horses. Our neighbor, A, invited Savannah to ride with her yesterday. Savannah was thrilled and she rode Buddy, one of their boarder horses.

Next time I set eyes on Savannah, this is what I saw....

Seems Buddy got tired of being ridden and took Savannah on a little trek through some trees. She got a slew of scrapes across her face and arm. In typical Savannah fashion... she was very unphased. I asked what she did after the rough ride? She just shrugged her shoulders and said that a little after the 'riding through the trees' episode, she actually fell off too! What?! "Mom... it happens!" "Now can I got right back over?"

She is such a tough chick!

When I saw her for the first time this morning I mentioned her 'flesh wounds'. She looked at me perplexed, totally confused, she had totally forgotten about her scratches. Rough and tumble, I guess I should just be glad she is made that way!!

I only need 1 bazillion MORE...

I am addicted to hydrangeas. Seriously addicted. Do you suppose there is a support group for that? But I have a real problem, because I love the blooms on the plant....


then I get clippers in my hand and go crazy. If I didn't control myself I would have a bunch of nakey hydrangea bushes and blooms in every vase I own! So there is only one thing left for me to do....


plant AT LEAST 1 bazillion more hydrangeas and then I won't have to choose. SOLD!!!

On the Flip Side

Well, I posted about how May has offered some challenges, BUT I just must point out the wonderful things about May too. Its only fair and just!!

First, our baby goats were an absolute joy. It is still amazing to me how quickly they are up and about. These kids were quick learners and I had to quickly shew them away from munching on my 'pretties'. These cuties now live with a sweet young family with 6 children, so they are sure to get plenty of loves and attention.

Lots of homeschooling on the back porch!! May offered quite the range of weather, but through rain, sun, quiet breezes, etc... sitting on the back porch doing school was a HIT. Confession... Callahan School took a very extended Christmas break, so we are still finishing up school. Should be done in about another week.

We adopted a little kitten. He will be an outside cat, and so far he seems to blend well with our other animals.
We'll call him Sox. He has little white paws, and when he is dashing back and forth, that is all you can see is the flashes of his white sox.

I've enjoyed planting this month too, when it wasn't raining, grin. Spruce Globes make me smile. They just do! I have 2 of these and hope that when we get our front lawn done, these will be planted at our gate. So cute, and funny!! Now I have some massive weeding ahead of me with all this rain. I usually like the tediousness of weeding, actually relaxing for me, but the task is so large... I fear that I will never get it under control, grrrrr.

Now for our weird animal sightings. I was out and about real early one Friday and noticed the cat was having a fit over something on the driveway. As I got closer, this is what greeted me.

It was so massive, I mean HUGE! I immediately went inside to wake up my slumbering family to see it. And I wanted Shawn to pick it up, hee-hee, cause I was too chicken! I thought turtles, even ones as huge as this one, were s.l.o.w...... NOT SO! When Shawn tried to heft this big boy up, it snapped back and I screamed real loud to add an extra dose of drama. It about got a chunk out of my sweetie! It had the most vicious set of claws and even its shell was spiked!

And I've never seen such a long spiked tail on a turtle. Since it was so defensive after the whole 'pickup' attempt, we couldn't get very close to it without being hissed and snapped at. Sure wish I could have taken a picture of something next to it so you could fully realize its mammoth size, whew!!

Just an hour after this turtle sighting... Shawn walked outside again and lo and behold... a wild turkey was just standing next to the truck. Shawn just assumed the noise he was hearing was Mr. Roo (our rooster) and was quite startled to see a big turkey. Crazy Day.

And of course, May was a wonderful month of baseball! Ty would even sleep in his uniform, nevermind it was filthy... little boys don't seem to mind that kind of stuff, no matter how yucked out their moms get.

So to clarify... May was a normal month of ups and downs, but as I think on them... those ups sure come more often, thankfully! Now I am off to do some weeding.

PS - Shawn ran into town late last Saturday to get some gas for the tractor. Do you know what he came home with?! A weeks worth of groceries!!! Let me preface by saying when my husband usually goes to the grocery store, he comes home with random ingredients that don't much go together, giggle! BUT this time, he made 6 dinner menus, got everything from fresh fruits and veggies to snacks, etc. I had no idea he was doing this, he had me a tad worried because I wondered what was taking so long getting gas, but when I saw what he did, all was forgiven :) I really, really, like my guy!! And he was the one that found the camera so I could post with pictures again! Life is so good for this bride!!

The Great Popsicle War

Christian was away from home all day on Saturday. Which he took to mean that he could eat whatever he wanted therefore proving the point... you CAN eat until your sick! And at 11:30pm, he was learning this lesson. Poor guy!

So come time for church the next day and he was still very much regretting his food choices of the prior day. I was not thrilled to leave him home alone sick, but Shawn and I both had assignments to see to. So we went on to church and I worried about my son the whole time.

Upon our arrival home I immediately was reassured that Christian was ALL better. Seems he felt better about an hour after we left and so he got bored. Until he found Ty's box of 1000 popsicle sticks. And this is what he created in the TV room while we were gone....