On the Road

We have this handy dandy gadget that plugs into our laptop that picks up cell reception and lets us use the internet on the go. I am so enthralled by this that it borders on obsession. So I am going to be a major doofus and write while we cruise on down the road. We are heading back to our wonderful ranchland tonight. So much later than we planned due to a major mess up at the bank and a much needed chat with friends. M & S spent the day with aforementioned friends hiking to a settlers cabin and learning all about how the pioneers lived. It sounds like they had a blast AND were able to learn quite a bit. Plus, it wore them out so that they promptly fell asleep in the truck. Sleeping kids can make a long nighttime road trip go so much smoother. We are driving my parents' truck hauling a trailer with Hubbys' truck on it, both of which are loaded with a combination of bikes, troughs, a rabbit hutch, an a/c unit and a screen door. The random things that were left behind when we moved. Sister was kind enough to store them at her house. This load is making a long trip even longer. And poor Hubby has to be heading out to work by six-thirty a.m.. It is eleven o'clock now and we still have a good two and a half hours left on the road. That's when sleeping kids are not so good. They will get their full nights' rest and be ready to run tomorrow, while Hubby and I will be seriously dragging. Oh well.

More of the Big City

We lived in Fort Collins five and a half wonderful years. We have lived in ranchland two months. Already ranchland feels like home. I still hold an insanely sweet spot in my heart for this city and especially all of my friends here. But I feel like I am just visiting Fort Collins. Which I am. With no homesick feeling about leaving here. Today we wandered around downtown. Well, Hubby and I wandered while the children leapt about. While we wandered we came up with a list of things we love/miss about Fort Collins and a list of things we don't love/miss about Fort Collins. Here they are for your reading pleasure.

In no particular order the things we love/miss:
Friends!
Downtown
Amazing restaurants
Breweries
Tree lined streets
Good, healthy grocery stores
Bike lanes
Running into familiar people in random places
Trains rolling through downtown
Parks galore
Our homeschool group
Osprey

Downtown Fort Collins

In no particular order the things we don't love/miss:
Inconsiderate bicyclists
Traffic
College students
Dirty, dirty hippies
Noise
Light pollution

I guess the things we don't love/miss are fairly typical of most cities. To be fair, without all of those annoyances, it would be too easy to take Fort Collins for granted. Thank you little big city for giving us all that you gave us and setting us free when we needed to go.

Big City Visit

Here we are, back in Fort Collins for the next few days. T has his last follow up eye appointment. After this we should be good for another year as far as eyes are concerned. It gives us an excellent reason to stay with my Sister and catch up with friends though. The drive over the mountains was as uneventful as it gets, which is just the way I like it. We did go through the standard minor March snowstorm between Vail and Denver. It is good to be back in this neck of the woods even though I already miss my barn and all of its' occupants. Tonight we ate take out Chinese food, which we can't get in ranchland. I was able to catch up with a dear friend and my Sister and Hubby was able to go hang out with some guy friends. We will soak up the city life and live it up while we can before heading back to our quiet mountain town.

Feeding Time

I start my day feeding all of our beautiful barn animals. There is a special feeling that comes when you are solely responsible for the health and well-being of animals. And it makes it even more special when those animals show how excited they are to see you. Just getting into the barn means I have three dogs to scratch and praise. The goats hear me and they start to bleat. All of this wakes up the cats who yawn and stretch and try to look equally bored by and annoyed at the noise. The chickies are already cheeping, because really, they never quite stop. I feed the dogs first, all separately from different bowls, although it still doesn't stop Mollie from trying to steal bites out of Jessie's bowl. I lock them in their stall and move on to the chicks. I water them and check their feed, scooping a few up for a little lovin' cause they are too darn irresistable. I make sure they are safely covered up again and go to the goats. I give them fresh hay and grain and make sure they have fresh, clean water. Then I sit on the cinderblock in their stall and let them rubbings commence. Roxy loves to be scratched all over. Luna and Nelly avoid me until they think I am not looking and then they try to climb my back. Luna will eventually climb in my lap and let me squeeze her a bit. Nelly takes a bit more coercion. But once she is in my lap she settles in for a scratch of her own. After a bit, I come to realize that my children might actually need me and after a quick goodbye and another scratch I head over to the cats. They are easy due to their almost complete disdain for me. I can generally get a swift scratch down Adams' back before he has too much, but Liza would scratch back if I even dared touch her. A little kibble in their bowl and they are set. Although, maybe the cats like me just a little since I got an oh-so-special kitty present today of half a dead mouse. After releasing the dogs to roam once more, I head upstairs to feed the rest of the animals, oops, I mean my children.

The Weekend

Todays' post will include all of the things that have happened in our barn from Friday through last night, Sunday. I will post again tonight for today. Allright, here goes. On Friday we added to our brood by bringing home 16 chicks. We have a mixed flock of Dominiques, which are a heritage breed and are prolific brown egg layers; Aracaunas, which are beautiful as adults and look like chipmunks as chicks and which lay green and blue eggs, sometimes even pink; and a mixed breed bird of which I can't remember even one breed, that is a good winter layer and also a good meat bird. I am not sure we will turn any of them into dinner, but I can't wait for them to start providing us with breakfast. In the meantime, they are being loved fully by the two older children. T will poke at them with one finger and one finger only. He absolutely does not want to touch or even see their feet. He mostly enjoys looking at them from our bedroom window. We set them up in a big rubber trough with chicken wire over the top in the stall directly under our window. That way we can keep watch over them. I was afraid the barn cats might think we had brought them home a very special treat. Which proved to be correct. While curiousity might have killed the cat, it has not, as of yet, helped the cat kill any chickies.

 Our other big addition on Friday was one that I have been dreaming of for years. We are now the proud owners of three Nubian Goats! We adopted Roxy and her twin girls from a local farm/CSA, Zephyros. http://www.zephyrosfarmandgarden.com/ The baby girls are now named Nelly and Luna. They are 6 weeks old and Mama Roxy is four. We are going to keep the girls on Roxy for another week and a half and then we will start bottle feeding them and milking her. Fresh, raw goat milk and chevre (cheese) will soon grace our table. The addition of goats to our barn has already brought much joy and amusement. Baby goats are hilarious. I love that our barn is now home to more than dogs and cats.

M and Luna

Roxy



Roxy, Luna and Nelly



Nelly

Friday also brought the long awaited visit of my big Sister, her Mister and their sweet pooch, Cosette.

Cosette wearing a very special crown made by M.

 While not necessarily being country people, they at least know how to enjoy it. Friday night we had a potluck with them, our folks and Hubbys' folks. Saturday they were able to feed the cows, ride the mule and tractor, eat out at our towns best restaurant (which is and isn't saying a lot...), and to meet and love on our whole crew. The Sandhill Cranes gave us a spectacular show on Sunday morning. They spiralled upwards directly over the barn. The noise and sight is something to remember. My sister and I have always lived close by each other, if not actually in the same house, which has happened twice as adults. There was one short period of time when we lived in Colorado and she still lived in Arizona. Living five hours away from each other is a hard thing to do. But I am so grateful for the time that we do get to spend together.

I don't know why the only picture I managed to take
 of them this weekend was when we were out to eat. 

I think that about sums up our weekend.  

Coming soon...

We are enjoying a wonderful, but very busy weekend with my Sister and her Mister. Blog will be caught up tomorrow night. There is so much to post and so many pictures to share.

Water Witching and Such

For todays' readers pleasure, a picture heavy post. We have had so many new experiences since moving to ranchland. I feel that some are best expressed by picture.

S, Papa and the Frog dog driving through the fog.

M water witching. Sweet thing couldn't get it to work for the life of her.

Me water witching. Turns out, I'm quite a witch!

It's so weird to have the rods turn in your hands all by themselves.

T "driving" the feed tractor with Papa

S on the old tractor in the shop

M and Papa in the feed tractor

T bottle feeding "Flame". Calves are so strong, they really
 push the bottle back at you. T didn't know what to make of it.

Stars

Our internet is down so I am double posting today. The older kids and I are up at Meme and Papas' place using their computer, so there will not be any Mollie pictures added or any pics for the Wednesday Wonder. The next post will have some pics for the Thursday/today post.

Our Wednesday Wonder is stars. I know, I know, generic. Millions of things have been written about stars. But here is our version. We have always had a deep love and fascination with the stars. Generally though, they are not easily viewed unless we are camping. Or at an observatory. Living in the middle of nowhere has changed that. The stars are breathtaking. They are so clear and so bright it makes you feel like you could climb to the top of the ridge and touch them. What is it about the moon and stars that make you feel so big and so small at the same time? The stars are timeless. I glimpse them, turn my head to focus on them and have to catch my breath everytime. I love learning the lore of the constellations. I love it when the kids learn something about them and share it with me. I love a full moon night when everything is lit by lunar light, but I equally love those moonless nights when the stars have their turn to shine. The stars are a wonder every night, not just Wednesday, but with the waning of the moon, especially after the "Supermoon", the stars deserve their chance to be a post.

Mollie

The second addition to our family is our amazingly sweet, overweight-no-matter-what-she-eats, floppy eared Mollie. I wanted a Beagle as soon as I saw one as a puppy and thankfully a dear friends' Beagle had just had pups. Her moms' name was Henny Penny Jenny, called Jenny, so we named ours Hollie Pollie Mollie. Her dad was called Gump, as in Forrest Gump. Mollie came into our lives about four months after we were married and about three months after Jessie came along. Mollie has had a strong personality from the beginning. I thought we would never get her house trained. She still enjoys messing in the house when she perceives that she might be getting a little neglected. As in, we went on vacation. Or, we moved across the state. Or, Mom got sick. You know, that kind of neglected. She is the smallest purebred Beagle we have ever seen, but what she lacks in size she makes up for in attitude. She is definitely the leader of the pack. Which has made it hard for her since Ranger came along. He is a big, dumb pup that is still learning to listen to Hubby and I. He really doesn't know what to make of this small snarly thing that he often runs over in his excitement to be alive. And she doesn't know what to make of this ugly beast with a tail like a whip. I know she is plotting away and will someday soon rule her small kingdom again.

 She endlessly makes us laugh with her "smile" that she makes when she is getting scolded, or her snorty sounds that she makes while eating, sniffing and sleeping. She has many nicknames such as: Wolverine, Fatty Kazoo, Mollie Mollie Two by Four, Emoll (which is what S called her when he was learning to talk), etc. We love her so much and like her big sister Jessie, wish that she could always be with us. This year she will have her eleventh birthday. Here's to many more years of loving and being loved by this special dog, Mollie. 

4-H

We went to our first 4-H meeting in ranchland tonight. This is the second year the children have been in 4-H. M is still a cloverbud and therefore cannot do too much, but S is full-fledged this year. He has chosen to be in the model rocketry club, the sport shooting club and the leathercraft club. What this means is that I am going to be even busier! Apparently, so is Hubby since he decided spur of the moment to be the sport shooting leader.  I love 4-H and was heavily involved in various clubs growing up. The lessons a child can take away from their experiences in 4-H will stay with them a lifetime. Our new club is small and new and still figuring everything out, but I think it will be a great club to be involved with.
Todays' weather was some kind of crazy. The wind blew with such force all day and around one p.m. dirt and smoke started blowing through. I have no clue where the smoke came from, but I was told the dirt came in from Utah. Is that because Utah blows? It didn't clear up until nightfall and now the wind is blowing again. It just isn't Spring in Colorado without the wind.
The children had so much pent up energy from being inside today that I thought we would all lose our minds. They must have just a little, because tonight they decided to sleep on the shelves in M's closet. This might have worked if the shelves were longer than two and a half feet. It worked about as long as I thought it would. Maybe five minutes. Sometimes you just have to let a child see for themselves.