My New Wheels :)

I have been begging asking Matt to get a riding lawn mower. We have a LOT of grass to mow around here...not just around the yard, but by the pond, around the chicken house, and by the barn. Of course, Jacob always mows the yard and he really doesn't like it when anybody else does it. :) Apparently, he doesn't like the way we mow. :) (He always takes his time and does such a good job.) But that's ok...I don't like mowing with a push mower. And we've never ever had a riding lawn mower. But I have always wanted one.

So, Matt being the kind husband he is, finally got a riding lawn mower for me last week. Granted, it's not a new one. No where close to being new, in fact. But that's ok. It's a rider and it mows. :) I was so excited!! Meet my new $100 ride...

Now that I've given it a whirl...or two...and "mowed" the yard (let's see, I think Matt actually used the word "butchered")...I'm wondering why I really wanted one. :) Do they require a driver's license to drive these things? I thought I could just hop on it, put it in gear, lower the blade, and go-o-o-o-o! Within the first 20 minutes, I had chipped a good-sized chunk of concrete off the concrete pad at the bottom of the back steps (don't ask)...pushed over one of our year old pear trees (I heard it crack, but it isn't wilting yet so I'm assuming it'll live)...threw the belt off the transmission (or it was something like that I heard Matt mutter while looking under the mower)...and covered the cabbage plants in grass. :) Matt wasn't happy about the concrete or the cabbage...I didn't actuallly "confess" what I did to the pear tree until the next day...I looked out the window first thing the next morning to see if it was dead. When I saw it was still standing, I, as casually as I could, mentioned the little "accident". And Jacob was not happy that I had "butchered" the yard. Personally, I didn't think the yard looked that bad. Sure, I had missed a swipe or two here and there, but it didn't look awful!

To appease the angry mob, I promised I would not mow the yard again. I am confined now to just mowing around the barn and possibly around the chicken house (at least the chickens don't mind what the grass looks like).

After supper tonight, I told Matt I thought I'd go mow around the barn. It went smooth this time, honest. Looks nice and neat. Pleased with my efforts, I head towards the chicken house. I'm mowing happily along...cut grass flowing out the side of the mower. Life is good. The grass seems a little thick here and there, the mower seems to bog down just a bit, but it's still moving forward (albeit a bit sluggish). I see Jacob running toward me waving his arms...I see his mouth moving but can't hear what he's saying....looks like he might be saying, "You're chugging it down...grass is too thick. STOP!" Yep, that's what he's saying allright...I hear that last word "STOP" as the blades start making a loud racket and the mower shuts down. Gray smoke boiling from the blades and the engine.

My mowing days are over. I'm through. Jacob took my keys.

Holiday

It seems that vacation is barely over and here's another holiday! :) But I'm not knocking it. Matt worked a whole "not quite 2 full work days" and here we are vacating again. :) Gotta love that! Today we got up very early with full intentions of taking the boat to the lake. But at 5:00 AM, the sky was full of clouds. So we waited a while, spent some time "hilling" the potatoes, and by 11:00...trust me, we were ready to go to the lake. :)

It was still cloudy when we got out on the water...and we did get a little shower or two. (I'm grateful for that bimini top!!) :)

Katie has been aching to catch a big ol' catfish. Today she had her chance. She (with the help of her Daddy) hooks a big juicy worm, and lowers it to the bottom of the lake. She patiently waits for about 5 minutes. Then, lo and behold, she gets a bite. It's a big 'un and it bends her pole. She reels it in with all her might...giggling all the while...she gets it close to the surface of the water, gives the pole to her Daddy, and she grabs the line to get him out of the water...just as she was pulling that whopper over into the boat....the line breaks and he's gone...hook and all. :) I was so disappointed for her. But she's a trooper...all the more determined to get one next time.

Matt, as usual, spent most of his time baiting hooks and fixing things when we got all tangled up or hooked on something in the water. He has the patience of Job! :) I spent my time waiting to be baited, or get unhooked. :) If you know me at all, you know I love smilies. So just for the record...I use a smiley bobber-thingie. :)The remainder of the day was spent doing absolutely NOTHING but relaxing and watching the water go by. My kind of day. :) Hope your holiday was just as relaxing and enjoyable.

Vacation!!

Last week saw us packing up the van and headed towards the NC coast to visit my parents for 5 days!! We were all so excited! :) Matt wanted to take the boat down so we could do some fishing in the Intercoastal Waterway. Dad was going to take his boat out too. So we got there last Thursday night. Dad already had his boat hooked up and on Friday morning, we planned to load up in the boats and spend the day on the water. Ah, but things don't always go according to plan, do they? :)

During the night, around 2:00 a.m., my Dad woke up with pain from a kidney stone!!! By morning, he was in bad pain. Then, Jacob wakes up having asthma problems. So instead of going boating, Matt and I headed to town to get an inhaler for him. Later in the day, when it appeared that everybody was "stable", Matt and I went out on the boat for a while. We fished. Caught one. How big? Don't ask? LOL!

So, the next day, Dad is much worse...he's getting dehydrated and the pain is bad; Matt and my mom end up at the hospital with him for several hours. They pushed fluids and loaded him up with pain meds. He comes home and sleeps. Matt and I go back out on the water for a while. One more fish. How big? Smaller than the first one. hahaha! Sunday morning finds my poor Dad a bit better...but not for long. He's pretty bad in the evening. But Monday morning, he is MUCH better....though pretty wiped out. Monday turns out cold and rainy. No boating that day...but ya know what? All things considered, we all had a most enjoyable visit. I felt so badly for Dad. But "somehow" (hmmm, must have been the Lord)...we just had so much fun being together. Even with Dad being so sick, we did lots of things...Mom was able to take the kids to the beach every day except Monday because it was raining.

We had a Graduation Party for Jacob... We took family photos.... And more family photos...
Preserved good memories for cousins and best friends...
Thoroughly enjoyed my Mom and Dad's gorgeous back yard. (Mom spends hours per day out there working in the hot sun, don't ya, Mom?) :) And to top it all off, Matt and I even got to get away overnight for our own little vacation. :) So, yes sir, in spite of kidney stones and asthma problems, I have no complaints about this year's vacation. Couldn't have asked for a better time or better company. :) More good memories socked away for years to come.

You Just Do What You Gotta Do...

Like most other children, I had big dreams of what I wanted to be and what I wanted to do when I grew up. Being a veterinarian was not one of them. :) I loved animals just as much, if not more, than most other children. It's just that I like the part of playing with them and having fun with them....not the "fix-their-booboos" part of it. But...like many other things in life, there are just times when ya just do what ya gotta do. :) So, this week, I've pretended I was a vet.

We have had a very sick little calf this week, and have spent the better part of the past 4 days in the barn. I told someone earlier that I don't think I've ever seen a calf or cow this sick and they didn't die. This little calf has somehow endured.

We've only had her for about a month...and though you couldn't exactly put your finger on it, there was just something "not quite right" about the way she acted. We'd give her medication and she'd get better, then she'd get "not quite right" again. Finally, Monday, she just went down. She literally could not get up. We moved her into the barn, (in the midst of a downpour...no easy feat) and called the vet. From being "sickly" off and on...and we don't know how she was treated before we got her...she had gotten dehydrated, and the doc also said she had lost quite a bit of "muscle." To top it all off, she had also developed pneumonia. He gave her 5 or 6 shots, drew blood, and handed us a big bill. :)

We had to call him again today because she was still sounding pretty "raspy"...he gave us 4 more shots...but these we had to do ourselves. I would loved to have waited until Matt was home from work, but he said to give them to her right away. Just look at the size of one of the shots!!!

It was as big as a tree limb!! :) Well, maybe not quite that big, but trust me, it was BIG! But just look how brave I was. (yeah, right!)
Actually, I wasn't brave....I just did what I had to do. My legs felt weak as water! :) Thank you, Lord, for a big strapping 17 year old boy!

Because the calf still isn't about to get her up her own, we had to get her up. We had to rig up something that looked like a form of torture, but we got her up. We then pretended to be physical therapists for a while. :) Thank you, Lord, again for that big strapping 17 year old boy...this little calf has done nothing but lay there and eat for 4 days! :)

So, though I've spent a few days doing things I never thought I'd do to a cow...I can at least say I've learned something new. :)