Yo Momma is NO Picasso!

Aright everyone! Enough Doom & Gloom for a few days!

Here is my latest creation...

I have been working on repainting my toddler's room. You will soon start to learn that I repaint the rooms in my house A LOT. I swear each room has been painted at least twice in the seven years that I have lived here.

Here's a little more on my OCD paint addiction. Did I mention I don't use your traditional painting tools??? Most people use power painters, paint sticks, large brushes or rollers. Um,... Gosh, now I'm really going to sound strange.... I have painted entire rooms of my house; living room, kitchen, hallways, master bedrooms, laundry room, 3 bedrooms...(and don't forget-TWICE!!), with a two inch foam brush. Yep, one of those dinky little .25 cent jobbers from Walmart. Black foam, wood handle... Mainly used for cutting in around windows and molding. If you don't know what I'm talking about- You clearly need to do some repainting around your own home! lol.
BUT- The good news is that I have graduated from that 2" foam brush to a 2" bristle brush!

Why do I use such a ridiculously small brush to paint such large areas you ask??? I honestly don't know the answer. The only thing I can come up (are the tiny voices in my head telling me to use that brush!- Na, I don't hear voices... I'm not nuts you know! *snark*) is that with all of the molding in each room it was easier to use the little brushes instead of the big rollers- because I didn't have to clean up as much when I got paint where I shouldn't have gotten paint. So I think instead of constantly switching brushes, it just kind of stuck with me. And I find with the very textured walls, it was easier to stipple the paint into the grooves.

All in all, you have NO IDEA how long it takes me to paint a room. But, clearly after so much wall space and practice, I can really motor along with my little brush! Heck!! I bet I'm even better than the Karate Kid ("Daniel son, show me paint the fence!") LOL!

The one thing I absolutely hate about painting is the clean up. I cannot STAND washing brushes- Hence: cheap brushes = instant trash = no clean up! Yeah!!!

The first time I had painted this room I had painted it a color called "Indian Moccasin" That of course was during "L.I.P" (life before Pierce) lol. It was an alright color to look at for awhile, but over time the more I stared at it, the more it became peach colored in my eyes! Especially after you put a BOY in the room.

This time around I decided to paint it a really dark colonial blue/grey. It is an awesome color! Just love it!

Then I decided to get more creative... This is something I had never attempted before. Sure, I took quite a few art classes in High School, but I flunked out of painting and drawing class!

I hand painted some whimsical fish on the wall. With a wall color that dark it just screamed "water" to me. Below are some of the fish I have done. I first drew them on the wall by hand in pencil, and then mixed up some fun colors to bring them to life! Pierce knows that the first fish on top is referred to as "Daddy's fish", then below that one is "Pierce's" fish, then comes "Mamma's fish" and lastly is "sister's fish". So they all have this feminine touch- But Hey!, He's only TWO- and doesn't seem to really care :)

Next came his name train!

I am not finished yet, but I figured I would give you a sneak peak! My idea behind this was to have a different sea animal haul each letter and be tethered to the letter in front of it. I am thinking of putting a giant snail in between the letters "P" & "I", another fish between the letters "I" & "E", of course you see the sea horse in between the "E" and "R", I am thinking about putting a lobster in between the letters "R" & "C".. then you see the fish between letters "C" & "E". In case you were wondering what those round pink dots are by the letters- They are snails in the making! And of course those red "things" that look like flowers- are my not very artistic star fish (some still need their yellow spots added).

This wall has been kind of a labor of love. And no, I'm not painting it with a two inch brush! lol. I'm using teeny tiny art brushes for this! lol. It's amazing what kind of colors you can make from a few tubes of cheap primary colored craft paint.

As you can tell, I'm definitely not the next Pablo Picasso! Some of my lines aren't the straightest, some of my shadowing doesn't make sense, and my sea horse could have been centered better (I will prob. add a school of little fish behind him so it doesn't look so out of whack). But it has been fun- and the boy just loves his train, and that's all that really matters! ...Ugh.... Until he turns 5, and then wants something that will be WAY out of my league to paint!

Is "Pee Knuckle" really a word?

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out...

The worms play pee knuckle on your snout...

They eat you up and spit you out..."

Last week I had to strap on my "manhood" again and do something I would have rather not. It has taken me well over a week to write this, because only now has the heartache subsided enough to write about it.

2 years ago a misplaced adult male cat wandered onto our farm. I found him one dark night eating the cat food out of the dish on my back porch. He was a beautiful cat! Long dark striped fur, white belly up to his chin, and 4 white paws, and huge- He must have weighed over 12lbs. As with every new cat that just shows up, I went outside to see if he was friendly. If I can pet them I cop a quick feel (sick- yes, I know) to see if he is carrying a man purse. I prefer to have males around than females. Less kittens that way!

Anyway, ever since that day he never left my porch. I named him "Socks". Yes, I know- How original. He was so friendly. Heck he even tolerated standard toddler abuse. Toddler abuse gives new meaning to "heavy petting"! Nice kitty- *mash, mash*. Because he was so friendly I had always wondered where he came from. His fur was in great shape, he was in good weight... He had to be someones house cat. (??)

Socks loved being by us. If we sat outside, he was always at our side. He would always outstretch a paw to get your attention. It was not uncommon to see him in our house sleeping on the back of the couch!

Life went on, and Socks seemed to always be part of it. Except for one time earlier this spring when he suddenly disappeared. I was so worried because he never had left before. Weeks went by and still no Socks. I searched the roadside ditches almost daily, each time coming up empty. I watched the food dish waiting for him to return... no sign of him. I pretty much wrote him off as dead. My husband (who doesn't like cats much to begin with) told me to quit worrying, he came from somewhere and perhaps he just went back home.

Just when I had given up all hope, he returned! He was the same old happy to see you Socks. I told him how much he had me worried (yep- I'm the crazy cat lady) and how happy I was that he had returned. I always wondered where his adventure had taken him...

Again, life went on...

About 4 weeks ago Socks started getting a cold. Not uncommon around here with the cats. It seems that they get some kind of "cold" once a year. I find it usually when the major seasons start to change, and the nights are more damp and cold from dew. I just kept my eye on him waiting for it to run its course- like I have seen it do in other cats. Socks started to get more and more congested. I could hear him in the grass coughing. I get so frustrated because unlike other forms of livestock, cats are really tricky to treat. Either my medications don't break down into small enough doses for cats, or it is poisonous to them and could kill them instead of cure them.

He continued to get worse and worse. I was really starting to worry. So I jumped on the Internet to see if there was ANYTHING I could do for him. I ended up giving him an injection of Penicillin. And I waited another day... No improvement. So I gave him another dose. And I waited... He was still so sick. By this time his robust body shrunk down to nothing but fur and bones. His fur lacked its usual luster, and he was still so congested.

His worst day came on the day we started constructing our pig shelter. He was laying flat out in the grass by the gate to the steers pasture, and every time we opened the gate- He was so weak he wouldn't get out of the way for the gate. I didn't want the gate to hit him so I picked him up and moved him out of the way. He had lost so much weight. I bet he was down to 6lbs or less. He was so weak he could hardly move out of his flat position. When I looked into his eyes I knew just how bad things had become. His third eyelid was halfway across his eyes- A sign I have seen before on a cat before it dies. He smelled so bad. He didn't smell like urine or feces, it was more like a pungent sour smell. When I laid him down on the grass my daughter was kneeling beside me. She too noticed his "smell". I lifted up his tail to see if he was soiled and to see if that was where the smell was coming from.

What we saw was horrifying. We saw millions of white small (smaller than white rice) maggots around his anus area. Because of the long fur on his tail, we never saw them before. The only thing I could think of was that he was so sick, he wasn't pottying right and perhaps getting it all over his back end- Thus attracting flies. My daughter thought it was gross, and went off to do other things. My husband was "too busy" to muster up any advice other than to kill him because who knows what he has and he can make everything else sick.

I ran to the house to grab some rubber gloves, some paper towel, and some warm water to wash his bum. I had also mixed up some sheep milk replacer to try to give him with an oral syringe to get some fluids into him. I sat down on the grass next to him and opened his mouth to give him some fluids. He barely could swallow. After a few cc's worth of fluid I looked at him closer. Those worms were crawling around in his nasal cavity and all around inside his mouth. I started to cry to myself because I knew I had been too late and there was nothing that I could do for him. There Socks and I were, all alone sitting in the grass. Neither daughter nor husband could bother to take time out of their precious day to lend a hand.

So I talked to him and stroked his head. He looked up at me with his glassed over eyes and started to pur. I told him what a grand cat he was and how much he was loved. I told him how sorry I was, and how I should have fixed him.

Then I quietly stood up.

Through my tears I walked back to the house, went to my bedroom and got my gun. Through my tears I loaded it. Through my tears I pulled the trigger. Through my tears I buried him in the special part of my yard reserved just for grand souls like his.

"Stupid is as Stupid"... OK, some days I'm just plain Stupid!

The other day I received a letter from our local utility company. I opened it while I was walking back to the house from the mailbox. It stated that I had some form of "brush" by my meter and my meter reader could not read it. It also asked if I would remove said "brush".

As I continued to read the letter I stopped at my meter to look at it closer. Granted, I see it everyday- It's on the front of my house right next to the sidewalk up to the door. What a gosh awful place to put such an ugly monstrosity I must add! And because it is SO ugly I decided to grow pretty petunias in front of it this year.

So I stopped, looked at the letter, looked at the meter... And all I kept thinking was what kind of MORON couldn't read THIS meter? Sure, because of the decorative fencing I have up to keep the toddler out of my flower bed, you MAY have to bend forward a bit- But it is still clearly visible!

The more I looked at the meter, the more disgruntled I became. I was SO mad that I went inside the house and grabbed my camera. I took a few pictures of it insisting that I was going to write them a "lovely" letter back with photos - telling them politely to go get bent.

Here are my meter photos:

See? Nothing that I felt warranted a letter from them- Grr!!! Was I mad!

All day long I was stewing... By the time my husband came home, I was REALLY frustrated about it. I didn't want to get rid of my flowers, I tried so hard to hide that ugly area without covering that dumb meter- And yet they were complaining about it! Grrr!!!

So my husband took my letter and read it...

And says...

"They are not talking about THIS meter, they are talking about the GAS meter"

My response: "We *have* another meter?"

He rolled his eyes as he led me to the backside of the house and showed me where the meter in question is located. And this is what I saw:

OMGosh!!!! I was so embarrassed! Talk about eating Crow! Because of the direction my house is situated on our property- When you pull in my driveway, you don't see the "front" of my house- you see the end side of it. The front of our house faces our pasture, and the far end of our house is considered the "back yard". So the back of my house is a very desolate area that hardly ever gets visited. Hence, why I didn't know about this meter. I couldn't believe how worked up I got when clearly they were in the right and I was in the wrong! Now I started to feel bad. I couldn't even SEE the meter, I couldn't imagine having to try and crawl in there to actually read it!

Now I was in a pickle... That huge "bush" you see is a Hydrangea bush. It blooms beautiful huge white pom-pom flowers in the late spring. It has become a tradition to pull off the flowers and have an early summer "snowball" fight. The kids and I have a blast running all over the yard trying to hit each other with them. So I didn't want to cut it down.

So I gave it a "trim"- OK, more like a total hack job!

Oh look!! I *do* have a meter! Guess I won't be hearing from them again...

Itching to be Organic

Our 3 new little piggys are really starting to settle in! These 3 pigs were purchased from an Organic farm, they were born in June and currently weigh 40lbs a piece.

But on a side note, we have *finally* built a pig pen! Before, all of our pigs were housed in various pens & stalls inside our barn. But because of the heat, flies, and a pigs natural tendency to root- Having them in the barn became a real pain, real fast.

So... We built them what I have termed "The Shitty Shack". All of our other small out buildings were made really nice!... The chickens have an upscale condo complete with roof shingles, a larger than life vent, plus a window! The sheep have an enormously long beautiful shelter and the steer's shelter is so nice I bet that the steers down the road are envious! But hey, times are tougher now (Thank You Crap Economy!) and like everything else, building materials have become more expensive- AND I can be pretty frugal when I have to be :)

And so the "Shitty Shack" was made. OMG is this thing a hodge podge! The walls are constructed from pallets stood on end, and the roof is some weird piece of framed metal we had lying around the farm. It's a beauty let me tell you! (can you taste that?? That's the taste of sarcasm!)

I was so unsure if this whole hodge podge of materials would fit together correctly that I actually made a to scale model of it prior to construction. I sat at the table like a 5 year old with my scissors, tape and old shoe box. Plus of course I had to plea my case to my husband, so I needed a visual! I have to add that my model of it looks a lot nicer than the final product! (better materials with the shoe box! lol)

So hubby wasn't at all thrilled about my idea of the "S.S" to say the least, he even brought up how much of an eyesore it will be in our yard. That made me laugh! Like huh??? We suddenly became pretentious?? Because the cow shit, dog shit, horse shit, pig shit, flies, weeds, toys, a zillion vehicles and trailers, and chickens... Don't ALREADY make our place look like a dump?? *scoff!* That's OK though, I politely reminded him that *I* didn't have to look at it outside my back door- It resides on the other side of our pine tree line that runs between our property and the next door neighbors! They have to look at it!! Ooh oh! I better make sure my name doesn't come up on that rotten neighbor website! lol!

Anyway, let me get back on track...

Ok, where was I? Oh Yeah!! The 3 little pigs... The 2 men we purchased them from were "good people". I found myself chatting up a storm with them, really enjoying our conversation. We shared in quite a few philosophies about raising meat. They are strictly Organic, where I still consider myself to be more "natural" when it comes to market animals, hoping someday to become true organic.

This is where my loyalty to being Organic falls short. When these 3 little pigs came home, I had noticed that they were scratching their bodies like mad. I didn't do anything about it right away, perhaps I was over thinking it and they only had an itch. Time went on, and they still itched. More time, and still more dang itching! So I caved, I dosed them with some Ivomectin in order to kill whatever parasite (mites / lice) are bothering them. The nice thing is that product will kill two birds with one stone! It takes care of the internal parasites too.

So what's my point in all of this you ask?? My point to all of this is that it is a struggle to raise a market animal from start to finish being strictly organic. Take these pigs for instance... I'm SURE they are loaded with internal parasites from not being de-wormed (ever), and they came to me with some form of external blood sucking parasite. And if I didn't give them that product they would have continued to be driven insane by itching their hides off- Plus, my rate of gain for them wouldn't be that great (meaning it would take me longer to get them to butcher weight) because of gut worms. So all in all it sucks. I can't seem to become truly "Organic" all while maintaining a healthy farm. Some day I will get there- As soon as I figure out how to keep animals parasite free!