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!

New Additions

Friday, we brought 3 wonderful Holland Lops into our family. It seems like we have always had bunnies at our house but rarely are they show quality. Which is difficult when it comes to fair time. After fair this year, we decided that we were going to invest in a couple of quality rabbits and try to raise some quality babies. Then we had to decide what breed we wanted. I have always been partial to lops so naturally I gravitated in that direction. We decided that we wanted Holland Lops because they are small enough for Gunnar to handle and they are so sweet. I found Hillsboro Hollands on the Internet and contacted Robin. She was so helpful. She had a buck and doe that she thought would be perfect for us. So last Friday we went on a road trip to Hillsboro to meet Robin and the bunnies. Well, she had a few choices and it was SO HARD to choose! They were all so sweet. We picked Titan a little tort buck and he is quickly becoming Emily's favorite. Then there were the does to choose from and that is when our plan for two rabbits became three. I know I wasn't shopping for myself but I fell in love with Ruffles, a beautiful siamese sable. She is a little shy so she isn't a good candidate for us to use for show. And Emily had her heart set on a broken. But like I said, I was in love. Robin was sweet enough to sell us two does. We brought home Ruffles and Eden, a broken blue tort. The bunnies have settled into their new home and are starting to get used to the family.

Titan (He's becoming a love bug)

Eden (Such a cutie! And photogenic too!)

Ruffles (It's impossible not to fall in love with this sweetie!)

Here's a link to Hillsboro Hollands

www.hillsborohollands.com

County Fair 2009

County Fair is a big thing in our family. Emily has been in 4-H for 7 years now and Gunnar was a Cloverbud this year. I was in 4-H for a little while when I was a kid but hated it. And here I am as an adult and up to my nose in it. We live in town so the kids don't do the big animals. Emily has chickens, pigeons, rabbits, and occasionally ducks or geese.

Gunnar had rabbits. Next year he is planning on getting a chicken or two.

Both kids are involved in cooking and at fair time my kitchen looks like a tornado has hit. (especially with both kids cooking this year!) It seems that we suddenly need to try new recipes for fair instead of the good old tried and true recipes. Which sometimes means disaster. I have learned the hard way to never ever forget the recipe or the magnificent cookies that would have gotten a purple ribbon get knocked down to a blue. One of the most devastating moments of my life. There's em smiling at the judge while she hears this and I'm thinking,"It's my fault cause I told her we didn't need one when she asked me!" I cried off and on all that day. She didn't. Now we make extras of the recipe and triple check. Oh, the lessons we learn when we make mistakes. This year our lesson was to read the fair book more closely on matting photographs. We barely avoided another ribbon catastrophe thanks to some friends who told us that her photos were mounted wrong before we got to the judge. Luckily, I'm paranoid so I brought mounting supplies with us and was able to pull the photos off the board and remount them. Whew!

Emily also does Fashion Revue where all she has to do is shop for clothes and model them. Which is easy for her since it seems like shopping is all we do. And for some strange reason she loves to get in front of people hence all the acting, dancing, and singing activities. She's really good at it too. (must be recessive genes)

All in all Fair 2009 went really well. Once the hustle and bustle of the shows and judging are over it is always nice to sit back, relax and enjoy the family and friends that are involved in the same things.

Bad Blogger!

I have been a bad blogger! I started this blog with all kinds of plans and ideas for the summer and suddenly it is August and I haven't posted a blog on here all summer! What can I say.....I'll try to do better.

2 Dogs - Sophie & Lola

Meet Sophia and Lola Grace, our 2 dogs.

Lola is the big goofy one and Sophie is the Diva in the background. I love the name Lola, it was my grandmother's name but I didn't think I needed to have another child just to put it to use. So I suggested it when we brought home our adorable clumsy sweet puppy. It was the perfect name. Besides, who can't resist breaking out into song whenever you call the dog......Lola!LalalaLola.... :) Because she was SO clumsy, she earned the middle name Grace. She only gets the full version when she is doing something that she isn't supposed to, like eating purple frosting out of the trash.

Sophia is around a month younger than Lola and was a gift for me from my mother-in-law who bought Sophie's sister Molly for herself. We had a terrible time finding a name for her! She was such a diva back then. We would try out all the names we liked and she wouldn't respond to any of them. None seem to fit. My friend Marie who gave us Lola said that she needed a royal name since she obviously thought she was royalty and should be waited on hand and foot. We tried out a few and when we said Sophia she stopped and turned around and looked at us as if to say, "Well, it's about time!" So Sophia it was. Later it got shortened to Sophie because my son had trouble saying her name. It came out Sophie Phia.

When they were puppies I was so worried that Lola would hurt Sophie but it didn't take long for me to realize that Sophie is the Alpha dog in our house and she can take care of herself. I did however have to take off her collar because Lola would pick her up and carry her around by the collar!

Smoky & Bandit

Ah! Our newest additions, Smoky and Bandit! Randy found them huddled together in the middle of Main Street on a rainy morning at 4 am on his way to work last summer. Being the sweetie he is, he picked them up and brought them home and said, "Here! Find a home for them!!" Well, we tried but it seems like they knew we were trying to get rid of them and they turned on the charm!! Bandit (the black and white kitty) was so loving. Smoky (the blonde kitty) was just a pest. He was always getting into things or trying to keep Bandit out. So, we would pick up Smoky and hold him to keep him out of trouble. Now he is the luvvy, duvvy one that turns to mush and purrs with the volume on high.

As to finding a home for them............Well..........It seems they found a home for themselves; right here with us.

Fishing

Randy and the kids love to go fishing. Personally, I hate fishing. So I usually stay home and try to clean house or just relax and enjoy the semi-quiet (since the animals are still home). Emily is our fisherwoman in the family. I think she sings to the fish and charms them onto the hook.

I think Gunnar likes to fish just so he can eat whatever his daddy packs. This time it was McDonalds cheeseburgers!