freezer corn post will be up...

Sorry girls for the corn delay, but The Farm has taken over the last couple of days. We are bailing hay, combining oats, bailing straw, moving cattle and trying to keep the garden at bay. I have corn to do, saur kraut to can and re-crock, tomatos to can, pickles to make, potatoes and onions to dig.... Some people wonder why I do all this, but truth be told we live on less than $18,000 a year so its very important that I have a big garden..... no kidding - we do. The last time the Milk Man and I went out to eat alone together as a date, was sometime in the late 1990's - no lie!!! LOL The farm takes most of the cash it generates because fuel, seed, medicine for the cattle/animals and parts for machinery is SO SO SO expensive. The $ we live on is what I can make working part time and if we sell some beef cattle to locals for meat. The price of milk that you pay in the store is MOSTLY the creamry, the store and shipping being paid - we see VERY VERY little of it. Not trying to be a downer!!! Man this seems sad!!! LOL

ANYWAY!!! I will be posting today about corn for sure and hopefully the saur kraut process also. That is really pretty cool - anyone ever eaten home crocked saur kraut before?

Rocks in my dryer is nothing.....

Good Morning Sports fans!! I just have a short post today to show you just how much fun it is to have 5, let me restate that 6 boys in the house. Milk Man has officially been dubbed a child..... ya all knew it was coming didnt you? He really is a great husband and works so hard for our family. Then he comes home and tries to help out. He has always been good to try to help with the laundry, the barn cloths to be exact, but I am a bit like Train Wreck - I like things done a certain way. HOWEVER!! I have learned to let him do it, because it makes him feel good... then I just, at times, redo it - dont you dare tell him.... or we're through for good!! LOL

Yesterday morning started out as normal, I made breakfast at 4:30, cleaned up the kitchen and looked at my meal planner for lunch and supper info. I then went down stairs to see what mayhem lay in store as far as the laundry was concerned - and the older boys' bedrooms, can we all say together - "toxic waste dump site" Sheesh...
Anyway, the Milk Man being the great guy he is had thrown a load of barn cloths in the 'old' washer. I have 2 washing machines because one cant keep up with this family AND because the barn cloths have so much crap on them I do smaller loads so that they wash better. Also so I dont have left over manure in the washer when I put in good cloths, its happened trust me. ANYWAY!! The older boys come into the mudroom through the walkout basement door. However, they prefer to take off thier barn cloths by the back door and leave them in a tub outside so they dont stink up the basement... good kids... This is where the trouble came in yesterday... Milk Man had put a load in from the tub that is outside - this is what I found when I went to hang that load out on the line - be prepared...

This is the old washer...


See anything?


How about now?


See the TOAD IN MY WASHER?!?!?!??!?


He must have jumped into the luandry tub outside and Milk Man didnt see him. The poor little bugger LIVED through all of the soap, softner and whirling around!!! He was released back into the wild of our back yard with great fanfare!! LOL I told Milk Man he had been reclassed as a child - he said that he didnt look in the tub before he threw the cloths in. I always do because crickets jump in there and I also find various objects such as cars, chap stick, pocket knives, washers and bolts, screw drivers, wrenchs, and the ocasional tree frog....

SO, starting on a differant subject. Does anyone one to see how I make freezer corn? If so, I will post it here later today....

Last but not least here is a Milk Dud picture taken the other day at my mother in laws while she was making freezer corn... sniffing my ensue!! LOL



See the baby clevage!! He is getting FAT!!!

I got an award..... actually 2 of them...

First of all, Nancy gave me an award that I had not picked up. I am feeling SO shamefull and hopefully she wont be upset with me that it has taken this long. I have to tell you all that Nancy is one of my favorite people ever! She is like a second mom to me for some reason. I LOVE how she is always thoughtful, caring and wants to be supportive for anyone she can be. She is one of my first reads everyday! LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Second - Spanki gave me an award also...



1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2. Link the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 5 other blogs.
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you have nominated.
So, here is who gets my "I Love Your Blog"

Please forgive me not linking to the blogs that I love.... I dont know how!

1. At Home with the Farmers Wife
http://www.athomewiththefarmerswife.blogspot.com/
This woman is such a great insperation for me. I love how she always seems to be doing somthing that I want to be doing! Like the plant thingy today!!! LOL Suzanne has been so supportive with my blogging. I appreciate how friendly she is and that she is SO genuine!!! Please go read her blog because you will love her too - I promise!!!

2. Hidden Haven Homestead - http://hiddenhavenhomestead.blogspot.com/
The woman is the apple of her grandkids eyes! Shes also is a bit quirky - she dress's her goats up in princess clothing - MY KIND OF GAL!!! LOL She loves her goats like her grandkids. She is with them when they have thier babys and it doesnt matter if its raining, sleeting, snowing or if she is elbow deep in laundry. One thing I loved when I first read her blog, was the fact that she does her laundry in WASH TUBS with a ringer washing machine!! How freakin cool!! Thanks so much for being a great blogger and friend - I love ya!

3. Fresh Fixins - http://freshfixins.blogspot.com/
What can I say? Debbie baby, your Da Bomb - insert gang sign here! LOL
You make me laugh hard or think hard everytime I stop over, that is daily of course! I cant believe how commited you are to your family and the sacrifices that you make for them. You are to be truely admired and supported for all that you are doing for your family.

4.Nancys Nonsense - http://nancysnonsense-catlover.blogspot.com/
Everyone, this is one of my mostest, favoritest peoples in the whole world! There is nothing I can say about Nancy that would surprise any of you - she is a wonderful lady and I feel blessed to have her be a blogging friend. Nancy, there isnt one person in the blog world that I know of that doesnt love you with all thier heart!! Thanks for being such a solid, loving lady - you are so loved by me and everyone that I have on my blogroll!! **BIG HUGS**

5. Train Wreck - http://www.cowboysandsunsets.com/
This gal is a soul sista to me. We think alike and seem to have a bit of the same ideas - like, well I better not go into detail. This gal is one of my favorite reads too. She likes cowboys - at least one in particular and her name makes me laugh... Train Wreck! LOL She is an official auntie of my boys - and a long distance God mamma to my new Milk Dud.... So there ya go Train Wreck, chew on that one baby!

I am gonna name another one because she is one of the best friends, if not the best friend I have in the bloggin world.

6.Mrs. M - http://horsefeathersdailyjournal.blogspot.com/
She is a GREAT mom, friend to four and 2 legged animals and I would love to call her my sister. I really think we are related, we think so much alike that its scary! So here is to you Mrs. M - your the best and you are the most deserving of an award.

It was SO HARD to pick anyone - if I read a persons blog I love it so there is no one that is more important than the other... in my eyes.

SO - I also have another meme to do .... from Take a Deep Breath..

If you are tagged, you must first post the rules:* Write 7 strange characteristics about yourself. They interest us all!* Tag 6 other people at the end of your Post.* Visit everyone that you have tagged and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged.

1. I eat ketchup on my popcorn - freakish I know.

2. I have never tasted beer - dont plan to start now.

3. After 3 c-sections my stomach looks like an anchor from a boat. 1 c-section was the bellybutton down and the other 2 were bikini ones...

4. I LOVE 4 inch heels, but never have a chance to wear them - except in the dinging room for the Milk Man.. LOL

5. I love to eat fried eggs with the yoke runny in the middle - the white part has to be fried good, but I dip my toast in the yoke juice. YUMMY!!

6. I have freakishly long toes - I can pick things off of the floor with them... seriously.

7. I HATE HATE HATE HATE insects of any kind that have a hard surface.... I break down in tears and get hives at the thought of touching one or worse yet finding one on me that I didnt know about!!! Snakes, lizzards, poop or anything else is no trouble but DONT give me no STINKIN JUNE BUGS!!!!!

I am tagging

1.Train Wreck

2.Country Doctors Wife

3. Mrs. M

4.Spanki

5.Debbie K.

6. Bayou Woman

Have fun girls!!!!

I have been tagged by Karen D....

Karen D. tagged me, if I wanted to or had time she said - well, I really wanted to do this - I cant believe some of the things she said are SO close to mine!! LOL

7 Things to do before I die... what a downer this one was... LOL

1. Lern to dance the Paso Doble or any latin dance - Salsa, Cha-Cha, Tango....

2. Get back into my high school jeans - Dont you dare laugh, I can hear you ya know!

3. Raise good, solid, Jesus loving kids....

4. Go on a trip with the Milk Man - anywhere is fine

5. Have a tummy tuck and a booby lift...not elargment for God sake. Milk Man says he can fix both problems for me by buying me a better bra that lifts them up and tighter pants that holds it all in - so what if I can breath and I walk around with a swagger like John Wayne.

6. Learn to sew better.

7. Give back to those who have been so good to me.

7 Things I can do.... Oh Gosh, this will take some real thought..... I'm gettin a headache..

1. Ride my Harley - yes I have my own.

2. Kiss the Milk Man and not get into trouble..

3. Break and train horses

4. I can cook - I was a personal chef at one time.

5. Have the Milk Mans baby and not get into trouble....

6. Operate/drive various machinery

7. Milk cows

7 Things I cant do

1. Sit down for long periods of time.

2. Ignore some ones pain - wether emotional or physical

3. Stay angry for very long.

4. Balance the check book well

5. Leave the Milk Man alone... *wink wink*

6. Touch 'crunchy' bugs - NOTHING with a hard shell, freaks me out completly!

7. Weld - Milk Man has tried to teach me. I can do it a little bit but so NOT good at it.

7 Things that attract me to the opposite sex.

1. Passion and Love for Jesus Christ.

2. understaind of my many flaws

3. Acceptance of my many flaws

4. Genuine love for family and friends.

5. Sense of humor

6. Sensative/Patient

7. A good father

7 Things I say often

1. I'm pregnant

2. Wanna have more kids?

3. Where are the kids?

4. The kids did that..

5. Do you want to buy my kids? Can I pay you to take my kids?

6. He cant be hungry already!!!

7. SUPPERS READY!!!!

7 Celebrity admirations - no crushs... Ta heck with that - these are all crushs.

1. Antonio Banderas - there is NO OTHER TO MATCH HIM...

2. Sam Elliot

3. Sean Connery

4. Rodney Grant

5. Tom Selleck

6. The Rock - he so does....

7. Robert Duval

Of course the Milk Man has everything that these guys do..... ***blank stare*** Sure he does!!

Thanks Karen D. that was fun....

Combining oats....

Here is part one of the post about combining oats. I dont know how many posts it will take me to get through the process, but I hope you are all willing to at least come along for the ride! I am going to start at the begining, since thats the normal place to begin.... the begining.... I think all the chocolate I am not having is affecting my brain....

Here is a picture of one of our oats fields, its next to one of our hay fields and corn fields....


I am not real good, I stink in fact, with this camera.... I want to be able to zoom into some of these pictures so that I can show you the detail of it, but its not working for me. I guess I better read the manual huh - yup I better...
This is a picture of oats that are ready to be harvested. They are a golden color and are 'headed out' - which means the oats have formed and are hanging off of the stalk. I think this is a beautiful color, but I am partial because it remeinds me of butter, I have a thing for butter.

This is a picture of the combine that we use to harvest the oats. Its OLD by todays standards, its from the 50's. But it works great for the oats and my father in law is the one who drives it. He just turned 74 on Tuesday and he works as hard as he did at 40. Notice how dirty his cloths are? That is from 1 DAY working in the oats field. They are SO dirty to work with because they are dusty like nothing else. I am going to get a picture of the 'cleanings' as I call them. That will show you how much dirt and dust there is in this process.


This is a picture of the cab, where you operate this hunk of tin. It has lots of foot pedals because you have to be able to move 'reel', 'sickle', and the feeding auger all at the same time, plus stop and go. I get a headache thinking about all that goes into driveing this thing. If you look close at this picture you can see a plastic gunny sack haning to the right of the door. That is where the cleanings come out - I will get a picture of that I promise.


This is the same picture as before, but I want to show you what the 'reel' is. The 'head' of the combine consists of the reel, sickle, feeding auger... are you taking notes? There will be a quiz later... *snort snort* sorry, just kidding.


The reel pushs the oat stalks up against the sickle. This is the sickle:

The sickle has TONS of little teeth and moves left to right cutting the oat stalks and then the feeding auger grabs them and takes them into the the screens that seperate the stalk from the seed. I could not get pictures of the screens because the gaurds were shut because the machine was running. I will see if I can get pictures of that a bit later. This is a picture of the feeding auger:


After it goes into the feeding auger, through the seperateing screens the oats and straw come out in seperate places. The oats goes into the 'hopper' on top of the combine. This is a picture of that:

Who's bored yet? Anyone, I can stop here if ya want me to??
Anyone, anyone, Bueller, Bueller??
This is the unloading auger, it takes the combined oats and unloads them into the gravity box.



These are pictures of the gravity box.



Lispy is clothing challenged. Its a challenge to keep clothing on him - he is proud of his body and wants everyone to know it. So unlike Big Son...
This is the back of the combine - this is where the straw comes out and is lain back on the field in a row.


This is the straw - we bale this for bedding for the cattle...


Well, thats it for the first post. I hope I have not bored you all to death with this. Please ask me questions so I can explain details that I might overlook. I would love to explain things to you all.

My favorite part of oats is rolling in the loose straw.... need I say more.. probably not!

Guess What Mamma's Got!!!!... besides milk.....

I bought myself a CAMERA!!! No more drawing on cave walls for me - I got me some technology! Now I have to figure out how to use the dang thing - after I clean the house, change the baby, feed the baby, snuggle the baby, feed him again, and again and again.....Water the garden and haul gravity boxs (grain wagons) for the Milk Mans dad. We are combining oats today and for the next few days. I am going to take pictures today of that and if I am able, I will post them with explinations today. I dont know if I mentioned that last fall, November 30th to be exact, our machine shed - work shop - granery burned to the ground..... It was bad - the saving grace was that no one got hurt. However, we lost 5 of our tractors, our chopper, 3 grain wagons FULL of shelled corn, our JD gator, ALL of the shop tools from hammers to huge power drills that we used to take the silo unloaders 'up', which is another post all together - we also lost all of our seed oats and feeding oats, the 'fanning mill' that we use to clean the oats with, and SO SO SO much more. Needless to say, insurance is NEVER NEVER NEVER what you are told it is.... BUT - enough saddness - I got me self a camera and I cant wait to try it out on all of you!!!

Hope to see you later today!!!

Without further delay - I introduce..... Milk Dud

Hello everyone!!! I have been so lazy with this baby that I have put off introducing him long enough. That and my sister LOST her camera!!! in the lake!!! BUT, thank God for mom and disposable camera's that she brought for the delivery!! Just got them developed, and sister in law let me borrow her camera for this introduction. Can you tell I have been cooped up in this house for over a week - I am making less sense than normal. Whats normal... not me... SO here is a description of what I have been up to - in pictures...



I am trying to get a sponsorship from Pampers or Huggies!! I will have to ask PW how this works - how to get sponsors.. :)

BUT - Here is how the day that Milk Dud came into the world went....
I got up about 4 - made breakfast for the minions, showered making sure to wash all the 'areas' nessicary to be clean for the humiliation that was about to take place. Really, I could show it to anyone at this point and not feel embarrassed... I mean - they all look the same, sorry - got off track.

Kissed the older boys goodbye and told hubby to take it easy on that cow that was delivering - I knew how she felt and she needed him to be kind. My mom and sister went with me, I drove - I hate to ride with anyone else, makes me nervous...
We got to the hospital, checked in and went to my luxury suite. They put me in the room that I was going to be in for the duration, so it was nice to be able to get the room set up how I wanted it before we got into the thick of things. So here is the LONG awaited belly shot - no I dont have a beehive hairdo, my moms purse was on a shelf right behind my head so it looks like my hair is from the hayday of BIG HAIR!!

After this we had to get ready for the main event. My mom suited up and braved the O.R. since the Milk Man was helping a poor damsel in labor distress.... frigin cow.... Did I say that out loud??? Sorry...
This is my mom -

Then it all went off without a hitch - we both did great and these are some after pictures. We couldnt take a camera in with us, but the nurse made sure that we got some great pictures of Milk Dud in the nursery getting ready to come back to me in the room.

Getting his prints:

This is my sister giving him his first bath - she is 13 year younger than I am, yes we have the same parents they just felt frisky later on in life ok! I have a brother that is also 16 years younger than I am.... I take after my mom... frisky.
Anyway this is my sister..

Lispy didnt know what to think at first, but he got over not likeing the baby and has pretty much taken over his care - to an extent. He wants to give him a ride on his 3 wheel trike....



Then the Milk Man came to see his new son - the day AFTER he was born... I know what you guys are thinking, but its really HARD to get away from the farm and I knew that when we married. I dont get angry about it, because I know in my heart he wanted to be there - its just as disapointing for him as it was for me - so why be angry at him.
This is my beloved Milk Man and Milk Dud meeting for the first time...



What is it that PW says about fore arms??? These are not the greatest pictures of him, trust me he is MUCH hotter in person - that chest, forearms, smile... I want to have his baby's - wait - I just did - SO what I want another one or at least a chance to 'try' for one!!!

So now I leave you with the lateset picture I have of my dearest baby...


And last but not least, for those with a baby foot fetish, heres your fix...

Milk Dud is HOME!!

Hello everyone!!! We are home and well - but exhausted. My age is really showing, dont tell anyone though ok? Thanks.... I knew I could count on you all!

Milk Dud arrived at 9:48 on Wednesday July 30 - he weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 20 in. long - he has LLLLOOOONNNGGG toes and fingers and BLACK hair!! We are all browns, blondes and reds..... oops.... but my mom and dads folks had black hair so I am blaiming it on them!! LOL He is GORGEOUS of course and loves 'titty time'. He eats like a horse and then some. There were 16 women that had babies in the last 4 days at the hospital that I was at. That was a lot!! There were at all times at least 4 women in labor and more comeing in - they had to call some of the schedualed inductions and put them off a couple days till they could move people off of the wing!!!

We have pictures BUT - sister took her camera with her today on her fishing trip. I wasnt able to upload any of them because - well, I was tired girls sorry....
I probably wont be posting for a couple more days - so I hope no one will forget about me!

I feel pretty good, my mom is here to help and she is a saint. I know you all love your moms, BUT I truely have the best mom in the world. She was there for ALL of it and even got to watch the c-section, cut the cord and take him to the nursury. They Milk Man was a no show because a cow was calving.....yup I am serious!!!! LOL

Talk to you all soon - miss you and love you all...

Train Wreck and Mrs. M - his head smells SSSSSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good - I made sure you each got your own sniff.. :)