A little of this and a little of that

I usually always upload my camera and "clear" it out after each event that I'm taking pictures for.  It makes it easier.

I used to carry my point and shoot camera around in my purse, which made it so much more convenient to take pictures, but now that I have a bigger camera with a large lens, I don't carry it with me anymore.

I LOVE my new camera, but it's big.

This afternoon I decided to upload what I had on the camera.  I had 87 pictures.  Ugh.

So, here are some snippets of our life from the last 5 months.

We've had:

2 birthdays
a late season snow
the start of jr. high track
a field trip to Chicago
4-H pigs
warm open window weather
pets
AND
a new trampoline so generously purchased by my parents

It's been busy, but good!

Not the way to start a morning

Yes, I'm a farm girl.

I grew up on a pig farm, and now I live on a farm with 4-h pigs, lambs, chickens, a dog, and a cat.

I should be accustomed to what gross things can happen with an animal.

It's just that 3 of them happened to me this morning within about a 1/2 hour time span.

Since it's summer, and I'm home from work, I usually sleep most nights on the couch.

I stay up later than Brent, and like to watch TV or read a book.  I'm a night owl, he's a morning person.

Still can't work out the differences after 15 years of marriage (but that's not the point.)

So, I awoke this morning around 6:15 when I heard Brent being loud in the kitchen.

I knew he wanted the kids to get up at 7:30 and wash the pigs.  (YES, there was ALOT of grumbling about this particular subject.  Not just the fact of getting up early, but of washing the pigs...each morning until we take them into the fair on Friday.)

So, when 7am rolled around, and I called upstairs, and heard NO ONE respond, my day took a nosedive.

I finally roused them, and looked down the hallway towards the laundry room, and the door out to the garage, and saw the first disgusting animal thing....cat puke.

Our cat Oreo, as cute as she may be, can also be incredibly stupid sometimes.  She usually eats quite a lot, and then deems it necessary to run around the house as fast as she can.  Then she pukes.

I guess that's what happened this morning.

I cleaned it up, and by then Grace and Evan were both downstairs.

I told them to go get the wash pens set up, and I would handle getting the pig's feed.  While they washed a pen of 2 pigs, I would feed that pen so that when they were done being washed they could eat.

While the kids were getting the wash pen set up, the family that keeps their 4-H pigs at our house showed up to feed and walk theirs.

As I was getting our pig pen shut, they were getting theirs opened, and this little nose...

went right up my backside.  A wet, cold, clammy, and muddy kiss.  Right up my shorts.

Gross animal thing #2.

I shook it off, and went to help the kids get the washing taken care of.  As I picked up the hose off the grass, I stuck my hand right in a pile of pig poop that was clinging to the hose.  Seems one of their pigs walked past the hose and took his morning dump.

Gross animal thing #3.

It's now 7:30 in the morning, and I've been grossed out 3 times.

When Brent called after we got inside to ask me something, I was pretty upset.  He asked what was wrong, I told him, and he couldn't contain his laughter.

I hung up on him.  

He called right back.

He laughed again.  As soon as I answered the phone he was laughing.  

Not really funny. 

Probably REALLY not funny for someone not accustomed to a farm.

Still, it's gross, and not a way to start the morning.

Hope yours was better!

To eat or not to eat...that is the question

About a week and a half ago Grace used her hard earned allowance money and bought a beta fish for a 5th grade school project.

She had to give a "how -to" speech about something. She decided to talk about how to set up a fish bowl with stones, water, a plant, a fish, etc., and then how to take care of the fish.

She was keeping "Flippy" (that's right, that's the fish's name...) up in her room. That is, until we discovered Flippy wasn't moving around alot because of the coldness of his water. We had to move him downstairs where the temperature was more moderate. (crappy drafty windows!)

It took only a couple of days to notice funny things were happening. First we'd see a little water outside the bowl. Only drops at first, but then much bigger pools of water.

We never actually "caught" Oreo in the act, but knew it had to be her causing this curious water spillage.

The other night, I actually had my camera within reach, and snapped a few shots.

At first it was just an innocent perusal of the fish bowl. I wasn't clear on what her exact intentions were toward Flippy.

Her head got lower

and lower... until she was actually taking sips out of the fish bowl.

Of course I scolded her, and asked her to get down. As you can see, that didn't go so well.

I think she's staring him down on purpose!

She's definitely got the intimidation and size thing down pat.

Until I actually entered the room with her, she stayed in the intimidation pose.

We're watching her closely, and monitoring her every move around this poor fish.

He's keeping his distance from her as well, and hiding in the blue shark at the bottom of the bowl whenever she is near.

Is she really just interested in the water? Who knows, the poor fish might just have a heart attack before his 1st birthday!

I'm linking this up to my friend over at Verde Farm for Farm Friend Friday. Come over and join me and check out all the other links.

Have a great Friday ya'll!