Farewell Sweet Chloe

Gunnar lost a good friend today. His first bunny, Chloe, died. She was rather fat and I think all the hot weather we have had the last couple of weeks got to her. But trying to make a little boy understand all that is rather hard.
Chloe was the product of what happens when I let my husband take one of the children to a feed store without me. The boys came home and Gunnar was SO excited because he had a suprise in a box. (Always beware of suprises that come in a box from the feed store) It was mini-rex that reminded me of a calico cat. She was the cutest, sweetest bunny and I have such a soft spot for them that I couldn't say no. We even bought a cage and put her in the house with us for a while. Chloe was spoiled rotten and loved being petted. So, I took her to the library where I worked and she entertained the children at storytime. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more, the bunny or the children!

Baby Chloe

Like I said, it has been a sad day at our house and Chloe was loved by all of us and will be missed.

It's So Hot the Pop is Sweating!

Today was HOT! It was so hot that the orange soda I bought my son was quickly covered in condensation or sweat as we like to call it around here. He went to pick it up and said, "Mom, there's something wrong with my pop, it's all wet." I looked at it and replied, "No, it's sweating 'cause it is so hot outside." There was a long pause, then my son replied, "I don't think so Mom, 'cause I smelled it and it doesn't smell bad."

Yep. It took me a second for that logic to sink in too and realize where we went wrong. Guess I should have said it had condensation on it but I knew THAT would have led to an even longer discussion and I wanted to go inside! Good ole Gunnar, we never know what he's going to say!

Letting go

My little girl is 16. That means she now has a driver's license. And that means she wants to drive. But not just around town anymore. Nope, she wants to drive to towns that have designated lanes and stop lights and TRAFFIC. And the worst part is....she doesn't want me to go with her! Some of you are probably thinking that I'm overreacting and you're probably right. But this is my baby and she doesn't like to drive. I still drive her to school most days! So it is a HUGE step for her to want to take a friend and go to a mini-city. I'm going to let her go but I think I'll probably drive to the city too. I need to run some errands and buy some groceries, and on the off-chance she needs me, I'll be close by.

Starting Over

Once again it is summer and I feel the need to start blogging; probably because I'm not at school and my brain is refreshed.
This is Gunnar's first year as an official 4-H member and his sister is the president of the club. Talk about busy! He is following in his sister's footsteps and enrolled in rabbits and poultry. Much to her delight, he is now forced to help with chores. His job is to feed the rabbits and gather the eggs. I think he secretly likes to upset the chickens when he is checking for eggs.
We decided to get goats this year and BOY has that been an experience! Goats are kind of dumb but very cute and it has been kind of fun, so far. Of course that can all change since I discovered last night that we will need to SHAVE them before fair. Hmmm...we get to tattoo our bunnies, bathe our chickens, and now shave the goats. Why didn't anyone warn us?

Busy,Busy, Busy!

Wow! Is September almost over?! I can't believe it! We've been busy since my last post. 4-H Record books are finished, turned in, and judged. We've had elections and Emily is President this year. Yeah! Then there was State Fair. We didn't take any animals since there wasn't a 4-H pigeon class this year and that is the only animals we had that qualified. However, Em sent a photograph and Hungarian coffee cake out to be judged. And last weekend she participated in the Poultry Judging with a Senior team from our county. This was the first year as a senior member and her goal was to place in the top three if at all possible. In the past she has gotten up to fourth but they only give pins to the top three individuals. We were also hoping for the team to win since three out of the four members have scored high in the past few years. It must have been our lucky year because Emily placed 2nd for the individual scores and our team won 1st with 3 members in the top ten!!! So, they get to represent Kansas at the Nationals in Kentucky!! We're so proud of them but kind of sad too. This will be the last year Emily will get to do Poultry Judging at State Fair since she has reached the National level. Guess we'll have to find something else to judge!
Hopefully, things will start to slow down now and I will try harder to keep posting.

Learning to Crow

Our young roosters are learning to crow! And they think it is necessary to practice ALL the time. If they didn't sound so funny it would be annoying. Of course, Goldilocks, our old rooster has to join them and show everyone what a real rooster sounds like. Goldilocks is a Heinz 57 of the chicken variety and he is Emily's baby. You're probably thinking what a strange name for a boy but that is what happens when you let a pre-teen girl name a baby chicken. Once we realized the chick was a "he" instead of a "she" the name had already stuck.

Notice the short tail feathers. Goldilocks ventured out into the backyard and Lola wanted to see what chicken feathers tasted like. She pulled the whole beautiful plume out! He made so much racket that Lola instantly dropped the mouthful of feathers. Poor handsome rooster.

Isabelle

Meet Isabelle. Yes, she looks grumpy almost all the time....even those rare instances when she actually purrs. We got Isabelle from the Humane Society almost 10 years ago. I got my first teaching job about 90 miles from home so Emily, who was starting 1st Grade, and I stayed there in a trailer during the week and came home to Randy and the animals on the weekends. It was really hard for her to be away from Daddy AND her pets. We tried hauling a couple of the cats back and forth but they did NOT appreciate it. One cat got carsick, one got a urinary infection from the change in water and one learned to hide on Fridays and Sundays.

So, we decided that one more cat wouldn't kill us and went to the Humane Society to pick one that would fit in with the family. Isabelle was probably close to 6 months or a little older. She loved up on us and made fast friends with Emily. Of course, we brought her home. She wasn't the prettiest at the time so we thought we would give her a beautiful name to make up for what she lacked in beauty....hence, Isabelle.

Isabelle was a funny cat. She knew when bedtime was and would start pacing the trailer if Emily wasn't in bed on time. As soon as Emily would crawl in bed, Isabelle would jump up on the bed so she was laying half on Em's chest and would reach out and touch her face with one paw. She would purr and lay like that until Em would fall asleep then she would move to the foot of the bed. Once I went to bed, Isabelle would follow and sleep with me the rest of the night. We had our own personal Nanny without the cost!

What Isabelle couldn't tell us was she was meant to be an only child. The poor thing has had to put up with the other animals ever since we moved back home. And as you can tell, she lets everyone know her feelings without being able to talk! Even though she appears like the grumpiest cat alive, she still loves us and wants to be petted all the time....So don't let the grumpy face fool ya!