Old School

I've known this little baby was in our house. I've moved it from place to place to place many times over the years, but never really thought much about WHAT it was.  My husband bought it when he was in the Navy,to photograph all his travels, and barely used it. And I don't think I've EVER seen it in action since we've been together.

Jake was snooping around the basement and found it.  So we bought new batteries for it, and are going to get some film.

I think Jacob and I are about to have lots of fun!!

It's hilarious. My kids think this thing is such an antique and can't begin to figure out film and winders and how it is "sooooo weird"  not being able to see what you caught until after you get your film developed. PUHAHA!

I've been having a great time playing with the zoom lens and REALLY need to read the manual. (Though I'm not sure I really will understand it.)

Hope you can still get film and get it developed around here!!!

Today We Celebrate

Happy 11th Birthday to Tristen!! Wow! 11 years ago I was thinking I would be pregnant FOREVER!! It was a long day, filled with anxious tears, excitement, and a couple of  reassuring leg pats from Dr. Cannata.

He came into the world bruised, scratched, and screaming. Not much has changed--he's usually still bruised and scratched and still screams a lot. ;)

Lizards are very cool in his life right now, so that's what he requested on his cake.  He's been wanting some cowboy boots, and we went to Dodge yesterday, but didn't get them. Evidently, Tristen is in a "weird" shoe stage in life, where they don't keep sizes that big in the children's section, and they don't keep sizes that small in the men's section.  So we figured out what size he needed, and came home and ordered them from the internet. ranchoutlet.com saved the day!!

My parents, sister, brother, sister in law and Hope come over for Easter/Birthday lunch. It's a tradition at our house that the birthday person gets to pick a birthday meal.  So, we had grilled hamburgers and birthday cake for Easter today!

Grandpa with his grandkids!!

 I can NOT believe he's 11.

Baby Update

Remember the doe we were waiting on to kindle? The one that looked miserable?  *11* babies were born mid-morning yesterday! BIGGEST litter we've EVER had. There were 2 DOAs. It looked like they probably had gotten stuck. There are a couple little guys in that mix, and we have several mini rex due today, so we are hoping for smallish litters so we can foster a few of the little ones out to give them a better chance at getting some dinner. (Bunnies are great foster moms!! They usually do not care who they feed!)

This doe is black but her dad was a chocolate, and she was bred to a chocolate buck. Jacob was hoping for some more chocolates, but it looks like he got ALL blacks!! (I know they look brown in the picture, but they are dark in real life.) Just when we think we have the genetic thing figured out, we get surprised. I can't believe he didn't even get ONE chocolate! I can't wait to watch these guys grow up. Their mom has been a kick butt little doe for Jacob and I hope she's passed that on!

As I said we have several does due today and the barn is busy with nest building. To us in the bunny world, this is just as exciting as Christmas morning.

Devotion  has a BEAUTIFUL nest built, but has stopped and is in "the trance." Shes spending most of her time in her box with her eyes closed, concentrating. I'm guessing this is when we humans start screaming for the epidural! Hopefully by this evening there's babies in her box!!

Poor sweet girl!

I've caught myself kind of shying away about blogging about our bunnies, but really, this blog is MINE about ME and MY family and, well, this is what we love and what we are passionate about. Some people ride Harley's for therpy.  Some people garden or write. We play with rabbits.
So I told myself I would no longer worry about what others thought, and if I felt the urge to write about bunny births, then I just would. =)

Go Go GO!

That seems to be the name of the game right now! 

4am on Saturday, we stumbled out of bed to load up and be on the road by 5:15 to head to Hutch for the Salt City RBA show.  We didn't get home until after 10pm so to say it was a long day is an understatement.  Jacob's 12 week old Havanas got some great remarks but didn't place anything. They all have some nasty baby coats, but he took them out mainly to get comments on bodies and so they can start learning their show manners.  All of our good bunners are heading to the nest box to have babies OR have babies on them. It stinks not having anything real exciting to show, but we have hopes that the later show season should be fun!

We have several does due Wednesday and Danny swears they will be delivering Tuesday as it's a full moon.  We stick our nest boxes in on day 28, but they usually do not deliver until 30 to 31. Anyway, today was the day we stuck boxes in, and Danny's lynx mini rex, Devotion, suddenly looked very frantic and started getting to work on getting her nest ready.  It's pretty fun to just sit and watch them build and tidy things OBSESSIVELY, picking up any stray hay/fur to add to insulate the nest.

Jacob's black Havana, Ava, is due Tuesday and looks like she's swallowed a cantaloupe.  I'm anxious to see what pops out, as his last doe that kindled didn't even look like she was pregnant and she ended up having 6. She's a black doe, with a chocolate background, bred with a chocolate buck. Jacob's really hoping for some little chocolate bucks!

We had a couple of days of horrible winds, but since it's settled down we've all been enjoying the wonderful weather again... ALL of us:

If you build it..

...they will come.

What an exciting day we had in our yard!

First these guys showed up. I had no idea what they were, but later learned from M that they are Cedar Waxwings.  I loved thier little masked eyes. They reminded me of raccoons. Later we were all sitting on the porch, with Tristen sitting with his legs spread out, with one of each side of the fountain, when one of these dudes swooped down, got a big drink, looked at T like THANKS MAN, and flew off.

About 10 minutes later my boys came running inside. "MOM! There's a HUMMINGBIRD out here."  In no way did I believe them, but sure enough!!

 Danny looked him up on the internet, and between that and my book, we think he is a male broad-billled hummingbird.
I've got my hummingbird feeder up now close to the bush he was drinking from. I hope he stays around for a few days.
He is gorgeous and I think we all could have sat out for days just watching him.  He provided Jacob and I some pretty nice photo opportunities. 

Between these guys and the stunning butterflies flying though today, it's been a wonderful day!!

Saturday Blessings

Yes, I am feeling better today! =)

It is hot and windy here in Kansas today. I wish wish wish it would rain, but it seems that moisture just does not fall from the sky here anymore.

Even with the ick weather, we spent a good part of it outdoors. Melanie brought me some some plants she has split from hers, and I had some butterfly weed to plant, so late this aternoon found me hot sweaty and dirty from planting. It was wonderful!!

My men are trying so hard to get this stupid stump out of our yard, but it's complicated due to 1. it grows UNDER our porch. 2. There are plants/flowers planted near and around with care that must be given or Mama will be mad. 3. The roots on this sucker may be some sort of record.  I've asked them to please hurry and get it out--I'm itching to get some sedums split and planted there. They just don't think I'm very funny. ;)

And Mom... Tristen is JUST HOLDING the chain saw. Calm down!

And this Auntie got a bit of Hope time in this morning while her parents were working. She got to play cars and trucks, and go on a stroller ride around the yard with Tristen.

The fountain continues to be the "hot spot" for the birds to hang out! Love it!!  We came home today and there were probably 50 of these Grackles in our yard.  They ended up almost completely draining the reservoir and I had to refill it. I'll probably be doing that a lot this summer.

Really hoping it cools down just a little bit, and we get some rain soon!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Frustrated

I really try to keep my blog a "happy" place, and not write about anything negative, but I am just incrediably frustrated this evening, and thought I'd see if writing would help ease some of it. I'm not even sure I am going to post this, so if your reading this, feel free to just skip this post, ok?

I am frustrated with this really strange place both of my children seem to be at the moment. I hate Jr High. Hate it. I barely survived my jr high-high school years and thought it was awful, but it's 1000 times worse when you have to watch your child go through it. Everything from the mood swings to the drama with friends--it all stinks. Can't WAIT for high school. HA!
My youngest isn't quite in Jr high yet, but his attitude is. He's exhausting me.

I'm frustrated with hectic schedules and appointments and our calendar that looks like a road map. I get like this EVERY spring around this time. Summer is sounding heavenly.

I'm frustrated with the people I feel only want to be around me when they want or need something.

I'm frustrated with my vacuum cleaner. Why can't they make things that last longer than a year or two anymore?

I'm frustrated with my kitchen and how it never ever seems to stay clean. And my carpet, and the mystery stains that just seem to appear out of thin air when I walk back into a room.

It just seems no matter how hard I try I just can't seem to get THERE, wherever THERE is.

It's quite possible I have a very mean case of PMS...

Happy ALMOST Birthday to ME

My ** nd birthday isn't until next week, but I couldn't wait to show everyone what my oh so handy hubby made me.  We got the plans for this little water fountain out of a project magazine my gardening buddy M brought to me to look at. I've wanted something "water-ish" for our yard the past year or so, but knew we weren't ready to take on a pond or anything like that. This, however...THIS was RIGHT up our alley!

 Forms all ready to go

Danny and Jacob mixing the concrete

 

Fill'er up!

Adding the rebar for support

Filling up the bottom part, (and making a mess!) while Tristen holds the copper tubing in place

All set up

Dan getting the bucket level

Bottom part is now concreted into the bucket.

Almost done!! He's got the pump attached now, and is covering everything with wire mesh that will be hidden by rock.

TA-DA!

I am LOVE LOVE LOVING it!! And so are the birds! I was super excited to see visitors already today! I was afraid it would take them a bit to find it, but it sure didn't take them any time at all! 

I bet they will REALLY appreciate the cool water later on in the summer heat!

The Teenager Invasion

I am the mother of a teenager. How on EARTH did this happen? It doesn't seem possible...

Though his birthday wasn't until today, we had a family get together Saturday evening. Pioneer Woman Chicken Fried Steaks (14!! of them), mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, birthday cake and ice cream.

For his main gift he got a white tail deer bed set from Cabela's from us and his grandparents. Another first for his mom. Who would have thought I would be ordering bed sheets with DEER on them..ON PURPOSE!  We are hoping to get his room painted in the next few weeks, but I'd be happy if it were done by the end of summer! HAHA He picked out a chocolate brown and a kind of camo green to go with his new "outdoor-hunting" theme.

Becoming a teenager means lots of other things will be coming up soon. Like this:

I'm off to buy hair dye! Have a great Monday everyone!