Archive for Animals

Week #9 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

That time of week again – to laugh with the Goulds again! We have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #9 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. The children brought me a dozen eggs telling me they were bad. We just got them from a friend’s farm last week so I knew they weren’t bad. Come to find out when we picked up more eggs they are a cross between Easter egg layers and brown layers so the color of the eggs is really unusual as you can see from the photo below. They kind of do look “sick”.

FFR Funny colored eggs

4. Not all of our children have stockings and I have been eyeballing the stockings at Pottery Barn (eeks, I know) but I want them to have something nice that will last. Plus it’s something they will use or pass on to their own children once they leave home. Thanks to my paper route tips, I can actually afford to treat the children. Well, I was telling my husband that because the stockings were half off I went ahead with the “mammogramming”……my husband goes, “Mammogram, isn’t that like for a breast exam?” I paused and thought about it and then burst out laughing at my own mistake….it’s monogramming….wonder where our Amelia Bedilia gets it from! lol! :0 I’m serious, if you could see me I would be blushing right now. I also said, “Guess, I made the Saturday Top Five Laughs, this week.”

3. One morning B went out to milk Miss Moo and discovered her stall open and Miss Moo gone. Eeek!? Guess where B found her? She was just outside eating from the hay wall my husband built to keep the barn warmer. The barn is older and the lower level is pretty much all open as the old doors must have rusted off and since we are renting it isn’t like we want to put a bunch of money into improving something we could leave. Thankfully Miss Moo was a good girl and stayed at home. Good thing we have food to keep her here! I hate to think what would have happened had she ventured off……argh. I wish we had a picture of that too because B said she was just standing there chewing her cud and looked a Rebecca as if to say, “What are you doing silly?” Like B was the one doing something out of the norm!

2. Our three year old has this funny little habit of saying, “Me go pee on my potty” when he’s asked for something and we say no. It’s like his going pee on the potty gives him license to ANYTHING he wants. I think the praise of going on the potty got crossed in his brain somehow.

1. Our three year old grabbed my husband’s phone while in my husband’s lap and said, “Me want to text you.” It just cracks me up. Of course it was mostly jibberish, the word “school” was my husband’s doing obviously.

FFR Text from Jr


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Week #8 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

I was not good at writing down the funnies this week. But regardless, join us as we participate in The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs – Week #8 for us – I think we are on a roll with eight weeks in a row!

5. My husband was filling waterers and carrying our dog’s 5 gallon water pail to him and our horse, Blaze, comes right up behind him to steal a drink. My husband was completely unaware until Blaze drank. Blaze didn’t have a care about the dog barking at him or the fact it was not his waterer. He simply knew it was closer than the pasture and barn water! It was funny to watch. Too bad we couldn’t get a photo.

4. Listening to my children’s laughter as they watched the movie “The Croods” was hilarious.

3. Listening to my children’s laughter as they watched the movie “Denise the Menace”….I actually fell asleep. Nothing like laughter to lull a tired mama to sleep, eh?

2. I smile every time I look at the side of the tree our three year old decorated because many of the ornaments are just laid on the branches or are in clusters. ;)

FFR 2013 Christmas Tree buying

1. We got our Christmas tree last Sunday and it brought back memories of getting last year’s tree, which was so huge it would not fit in the van. We had to shove it in and the children had to sit ducking underneath it’s branches! Getting our tree this year was pretty uneventful.


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Babydoll Sheep

FFR Babydoll sheep

Our farm is going to grow yet again! I’m kind of nervous thinking about it but excited at the same time. When we bought the wool dryer balls from the sheep farmer we also put down a deposit on a breeding pair of sheep for our oldest son! We will get these lambs in the spring so there’s lots of time. It’s just fencing, shelter etc. We do not want to put much money into permanent infrastructure like stalls in the barn because we cannot take it with us. We will probably do temporary housing outside. I know the sheep farm uses calf huts, but I think those can be pricey so we’ll do something like our little hoop house over our raised bed.

The sheep in the photo above are from the sheep farm but owned by our neighbor. When I went there with my friend to look at their Dutch Belted cow, I snapped a photo of the Babydoll sheep. Our neighbor knows the sheep farmers, which is what prompted me to get in touch with them, remembering I had their business card from the Green Expo. I had inquired earlier in the year but never got around to calling them back because we were not at a place of being ready for more animals with all our delays in fencing and waiting for pasture to grow. But our son has been asking so we took the leap of faith and put a deposit down knowing we have to plan ahead for things like this, especially if we want unrelated lambs to breed. Thankfully, we do not have to worry about shearing wool until spring of 2015 and the ewe won’t be bred until she is a year or two old.

Our son’s sheep will be registered Babydoll sheep. He has his names picked out already – Atlas for the ram and Juno for the ewe. It’s always interesting to see what names they come up with. I questioned him gently making sure those were names he wanted before I sent them to the breeder. I just wanted him to be sure. I also asked him if he was going to be able to sell his lambs. He said yes, but we’ll see.

Babydoll sheep are a recovering sheep breed on the Livestock Conservancy priority list. We chose them because they are smaller, plus they are cute!


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Week #7 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

I think I did better writing down funny things as they happened this week so it is officially time to laugh with the Goulds again! We have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #7 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. We were talking about the Prince and Duchess of Wales and our Amelia Bedilia said, “They live in whales?” I believe she knew what we meant but was trying to be funny because she repeated it to her brother next to her and then they high-fived.

4. Love the honest laughs of my children. Nothing makes us smile more than to hear their genuine laugh.

FFR Kitty playing with Jr

3. The kittens were their playful selves again. Our three year old son was told to clean the crayon off the patio door and while he was wiping, Freckles was trying to grab Jr.’s cloth!

2. We had one of our sons get sick yesterday, which made our older son paranoid about getting sick. My son applied DiGize essential oil to help ward off a tummy ache. My husband pulled a fast one on him by asking him which way he applied the DiGize clockwise or counter clockwise. My son replied, “Counter clockwise.” My husband proceeded to tell him if he circled counter clockwise everything would come up, but if he had of applied it clockwise everything would stay down. My son goes, “Arghhhh!” And my husband comes in our bedroom laughing that he couldn’t believe he fooled our son. I chuckled and told him to go tell him the difference before he thought he’d be sick!

1. Last night while I was working on my laptop our children were all watching the movie “The Croods” next to me. I loved hearing them all burst out laughing. I was listening to their laughter more than the movie so now I have to watch it for myself! Gotta love the sound of children laughing! This is kind of a repetition of #4, oh well! I was doubly blessed this week to think of it twice! ;)


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Wool Dryer Balls – Dryer Sheet Alternative

FFR Wool Dryer Balls

About a month ago my 14 year old daughter “B” and I went to a Green Expo to promote our farm. We collected a few business cards, one of which was a local sheep farmer. I finally got around to visiting their website and discovered they sold wool dryer balls. These wool dryer balls are handmade by M.

When my older girls were little I had to stop using dryer sheets because a couple of them broke out with rashes. I never liked the expense of liquid fabric softener so we’ve basically gone without. I have used a rag with vinegar on it to get rid of static cling.

That’s why I was excited to try the wool dryer balls come in as an alternative. We have been using them since the weekend and they are working. We do not seem to have to turn the dryer on for a second cycle on our larger loads so it is doing what I hoped they’d do in reducing dryer time by soaking up extra wetness. No one has said anything about static cling yet so I am hoping that will be rectified as well.

I think I’ll get my mom a set of dryer balls the next time she comes to visit.

Do you have any dryer sheet remedies?


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Week #6 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

Ha! Getting into the habit of keeping track of our family’s funnies! These are not all necessarily from this past week though. Can’t believe I made it to six weeks of participating in The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs! I think I’ve made it a habit or at least I hope so!

5. My husband was doing laundry and came out of the laundry room holding a skirt saying, “Really, we are keeping this?” It was “B’s” black skirt. It has a rip down the side. See the photo below. B said, “Yes, I need it” laughing. Then he proceeded to go on a tirade about how I throw out his holey clothes (I don’t throw them all out), but he’s right that I have literally ripped one of his old, holey t-shirts off of him in order to prove my point that it needed to be thrown out. Let’s just say B and I were more humored about the skirt than he was! He thinks it’s ridiculous that B wants to keep the ripped skirt.

4. I forgot this one on one of the other Saturday Top Five Laughs post. Padfoot, our dog, was barking so my husband went to the window of our room to see what he was going on about. Turns out Padfoot was barking at a caterpillar! The caterpillar was just out of his reach and he wanted to get it. Silly dog.

FFR Jr. raising eyebrows

3. My husband has this particular way of raising and wiggling his eyebrows when he’s being goofy. Our youngest has started doing it. It’s very cute, though because his eyebrows are not as dark as his daddy’s it doesn’t have quite the same affect.

FFR How to take over the world -B's note on door

2. Our daughter “B” posted the above notice on a couple of our bedroom doors.

FFR Bear in the house

1. Bear in the house! We have a couple of those adorable animal hats with the mittens attached and my little guy kept coming up to us with it completely over his eyes growling at us. ;)


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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving 7

Just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! We are chillin’ at home as a family. We cooked our turkey overnight now we are in the throws of washing potatoes, making pie dough and preparing veggies. Robert is carving the turkey (which was homegrown and is so yummy!), I’m making cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls and the girls divided up the rest of the work among them and the younger ones.

Things I am thankful for this year are:

  1. Family – near and far – miss those of you in Canada!
  2. The ability to work from home and be here for our children.
  3. God’s provision – financially during this time of unemployment for my husband, leading us to the animals we have (I think we have awesome animals!), giving us solutions to life’s problems
  4. Living our dream. Living in the country, growing our own food, giving our children the privilege of raising animals. I was telling someone this week our children spend more time with our animals than with toys most days.
  5. Our health. So very grateful we are all healthy.
  6. Being nearly a week ahead in blog posts, thanks to my contributing writers’ help! ;)
  7. Time with Friends. I went out with a friend yesterday to look at a Dutch Belted cow for a friend of hers at my neighbor’s (a new friend) and we had such a fun time with stimulating farm conversation! ;) 4 hours worth! Grateful for my farm friends especially this year because they “get” us and what we are trying to do. They also lend a hand and are there for us. Makes me feel like we are finally a part of a community and it’s been a long time since I felt that way, since leaving my native Nova Scotia.

Wishing you a very grateful 2013 Thanksgiving!


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Silly Kittens! – Wordless Wednesday

FFR Kittens climbing wall_

In light of Saturday’s Top Five Laughs post, thought I’d share this photo of Freckles at the beginning of her climb and Selene as she looks on because I think they look adorable!

Today the kittens were out in the snow for the first time and they batted at it! Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of it.

The kittens climbing all over the garage and my husband says they think it’s their own jungle gym and I tend to agree.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday is almost….wordless!


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Waiting Again….Miss Moo

Last Monday we had Miss Moo AI’d (artificially inseminated) again. We are hoping it sticks this time. Our vet told us if we see any signs of heat to call him to come back not rather than wait the 60 days, so we’ll do that. “B” is usually pretty good at telling when Miss Moo is in heat, thankfully.

FFR Miss Moo 10-18-2013

For example, last weekend we had those huge storms with about 70 tornadoes being reported across Illinois. On Sunday, Robert had taken the four older ones to the Chicago Field Museum for the day. That left me with four children 10 an under. Robert had left our son in charge of chickens but we also had to get Blaze in because he does not like to be out in the elements. Remember he’s old. However, when I called Robert to get him to ask about “B” about Miss Moo, “B” told me she’d be fine. And she was. She just stood there chewing her cud in the wind and rain, not bothered at all. However, she did run around a bit kicking up her heals. Something she does when she’s in heat. There were other signs “B” said Miss Moo was exhibiting before they all left for the day too.

So we are anxiously waiting again to see if Miss Moo will be with calf. That means a 2014 late summer or early fall calf. As long as she calves before winter, I’ll be happy.

As a side note, our horse and cow have bonded. It’s been so sweet to watch Blaze follow Miss Moo in the pasture or hear the children tell me one or the other won’t go out or come in without the other one.


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Week #5 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

I was a little lax this week with writing down funny things as they happened, but then Thursday and Friday I hit the “jackpot” so to speak and several funny things happened! So are you ready to laugh with the Goulds again? Once again we have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #5 – for us! – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. I do ask my older children if it’s ok to share their funnies in my Saturday Top Five Laughs. They have even been known to say, “You know that’s going in mom’s blog post!” Hey, I’m making this my number 5 this week!

4. My daughter “B” came into my room on Thursday morning saying she had a bad dream. She called it a nightmare. She started by saying she dreamed she slept in until 9am. I interrupted her to say that most people would not consider that a nightmare, let alone a bad dream. ;) But I knew where she was going because she’s our dairymaid and does the milking so sleeping in until 9am is definitely a bad thing, considering it’s 3 hours past milking time! Then “B” went on to say that wasn’t the worst thing, that I told her she couldn’t have chocolate forever!

FFR Kitten Climbing Wall_

3. Our kittens are getting big. Need another photo shoot. Anyhoo….They were up to their cute antics again. Freckles actually climbed the wall of our brick house! They tried during our SHEBA photo shoot but did not succeed. On Thursday, Freckles succeeded. I think her motivation was her mama, who was perched on the kitchen window sill, which is on that wall. The cats like to sit on the ledge and perch or watch whoever is working in the kitchen. Hoping for handouts!

2. We were having sandwiches for lunch the other day and my daughter, “Amelia” or “O”, informed my husband that she liked IF’s (grocery store in the town we use to live in) deli meat better than the stuff he bought at the “Pig” (Piggly Wiggly in our town). Then she said, “It smells like gas (but she used another term).” Sigh. Manners seems to have flown the coop with that child.

1. This one is just plain goofy. I’ve had a pain in my left arm pit most of the week. One day I blurted out, “Does anyone care that my arm pit hurts?” I was answered with a bunch of giggles. Then I said, “So no one cares if my arm pit hurts? Hmpfh.” They all proceeded to state they cared. Like I believed them. Hmpfh.

Guess that’s all I could come up with for laughs this week!


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