Measles

Alex has been running a high fever for a couple of days and this afternoon he broke out all over. It seems he has the measles. We figured he had just picked up a bug but now we know exactly what bug he had picked up. Luckily he has had all his shots so his breakout is pretty mild and except for when his fever goes up and he gets so tired and cranky he acts his normal self.

We have been having such mild weather here. It is still cold enough for the holidays but of course we are all hoping for some snow soon. It will be Alex's first snow. Clay and I are going to Springfield next week, going to do a big pickup from the library and do some Christmas shopping. Looking forward to it. There is talk about a Super Wal-Mart being built in Buffalo to replace the small one we have now. That would be nice but still the Super Wal-Mart is only another 18 miles in Bolivar from here. I don't really care how big Buffalo gets because the 6 miles that we are from it, it's growth will never affect us here in our country setting. At least not in our lifetime.

Cold, Cold, Cold

Everything was covered with ice this morning. It made everything look like such a winter wonderland. We are getting 11 eggs a day now. We only have one more hen to start laying then all of them will be laying. We have 12 hens, 2 roosters and 3 guienas. So with the 3 major attacks we had on our original 31 that is what we are left with, we started with 25 chicks, 1 turkey and 5 guienas. It surprises me for them to start laying in this cold weather. The frost was so thick last night that when the sun came out this morning we had water dripping off the eaves of the house. If it had been cold all through the day we would have had icicles hanging off the house.

Alex has a cold and Drew didn't feel very well last night and I was up most of the night with a sore throat and headache. When I was in the hospital they gave me a flu shot so I shouldn't have to worry about that at least.

Drew starts college next month to finish up his degree and Clay is hard at work on his school work now.

Well Erin mentioned how Alex and John in the previous picture at the end of the meal woke up and started screaming together, which is true but at least they slept peacefully all during the meal and it wasn't until we were getting ready to leave the table that the scene below happened.

Thanksgiving 2 Years Ago

The difference 2 yrs can make in a little ones life. This picture was taken 2 yrs ago during our Thanksgiving meal. Bella was at the table eating with us but our 2 new guys were sleeping right through it. The holidays bring back so many memories of past holidays and seeing little ones grow so fast makes us realize just how fleeting life is, how quickly it passes, how quickly things can change and we can't ever get those times back. We just have to be thankful for the moment and what we do have. I am very blessed.

Day After Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a success. For it being the first turkey I ever cooked in my life I have to say that it was delicious. 3 things we did that we had never before made all the difference. First was the brining overnight and then stuffing it with oranges, lemon and onion and then waiting 30 mins. after it came out of the oven before carving it. When Clay sliced the first piece of white meat it was dripping juices. So moist and tender. I also added pecans to our sweet potato and marshmallows this year and it gave it such a nice flavor. Dinner was delicious.

Drew (with Alex's help, ok not really a help but he thought so) put the tree all together. It reaches to the top of our vaulted ceiling then Clay put all the lights on it. It didn't snow like we had hoped but it is nice and cold just like the holidays should be. Frances and I got a lot of popcorn strung and Alex ate handfuls at a time. After I get off here I'm going to work on stringing more, with such a big tree it takes a lot. When we take the tree down we will take all the popcorn off the string and feed it to the chickens. Next year we want to pick a tree outside and decorate it with things for the wild animals to eat. Things like pine cones smeared with peanut butter and then rolled in bird seed and strung popcorn and other things like that. A Christmas treat for the wildlife.

Our first Thanksgiving on our farm. The only thing that would have made it any better than it was would have been to have all our family here. Maybe some year, of course if I had to chose I would always chose Christmas as the holiday to spend with all our family.

Thanksgiving Day

Today for the first time in my life, I baked a turkey. Clay had always cooked the turkey, one, because he really enjoys doing it and two, because his family raised turkeys on his farm growing up in Washington.

I have been watching cooking shows and saw one on brining the turkey overnight so Clay put together a brine got the turkey in it last night. Clay had to work today so the dinner has been mostly up to me. I just finished mashing up the sweet potatoes to get them ready to put the marshmallows on top and into the oven when the turkey comes out. I stuffed the turkey with oranges, lemon and onion for flavor and of course we won't eat the stuffing but again saw it on a cooking show and it sounded nice.
We are having the usual Thanksgiving dinner, turkey, mushroom stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows melted on top, mashed potatoes, peas with mushrooms & onions, cranberry sauce, gravy rolls and naturally pumpkin pie for dessert.

Frances got up first thing this morning and put a Christmas CD in to listen to. Drew makes sure that no one here listens or takes out anything Christmas until today. Clay is on his way home now and we will eat then put up our tree and decorations. Drew and Clay are in charge of putting the tree up and lights on it. We are going to build a fire when it gets dark and pop popcorn to string to put on the tree. A big tree so it will be an on going project for the rest of this month.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Thanksgiving Week

Got some really exciting news this morning. It might snow the night before Thanksgiving. It is so wonderful to have seasons and to have cold weather for the holidays.

We absolutely love our farm. Clay and I so wanted this kind of life for our kids while they were growing up but being in the Navy really prevented that so we are glad to have this place and watch our grandchildren enjoy the freedom that it gives them.

I take Alex outside every afternoon lately and he rides his bike and burns off some of that energy he has so much of. Clay put some blocks next to the trampoline so that it is easier for me to get on and off of it and yesterday while outside I told Alex he could get up on it himself and so now he gets on, runs a circle around it, then jumps and throws himself down in the middle and then gets off. Of course then he repeats that over and over again.

I actually have the place to myself today. Drew and Clay are at work and Frances and Alex went to spend the day at a friends house.

We are all excited about Thursday. Clay has to work in the morning but will be home by 1pm. He is going to bake the Turkey Wednesday and then I am cooking all the sides for it on Thursday. We will eat when Clay gets home and then put up our tree. Our 10' tree fits nicely in our living room and we are putting lights up outside also. We will watch "Garfield's Christmas" on Thanksgiving but will save "National Lapoons Christmas Vacation" for a later date.

Our traditions of decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving Day comes from being in the Navy and not having family to spend the day with I started making the day special by us having our Thanksgiving dinner and then the rest of the day decorating for Christmas. Then the "Garfield Christmas" dvd and "National Lapoons Christmas Vacation" movie came later. I am not one to watch a movie over and over but these 2 movies make me laugh every year even though I know what is coming.

We are going to be baking cookies this year and giving them to our neighbors and our mailman. With my diabetes I won't be able to enjoy them much this year but I don't need all the calories anyway. I still haven't been able to control the diabetes the way I need to with some medicine and diet and exercise so I am considering going on insulin. Didn't want to do that but my feet are already pretty numb from nerve damage and my fingers have started tingling and I DO NOT want to lose my feelings in them also.We don't have much money for Christmas this year but for the first time in a long time it doesn't matter.

Just living here and decorating and the cold weather is so enjoyable it makes up for any material gifts I could ever get or give.

Lots Of Eggs

It has been a busy past few days. Clay, Frances & Alex put up a fence around a really big area that is attached to the chicken house.

The chickens have been found out on our road and headed toward neighbors. It is a long way to the road for them but with the cold having come in there just aren't any bugs for them to forage throughout the day the way they were used to.

I thought of the idea of clipping the hens wings so that they wouldn't fly out of the fenced area. The next day we all went out and took care of that. We have had lots of practice clipping wings having taken care of Yaco for about 15 yrs now. The clipping did the trick. Chickens are such lemmings. Where one goes, they all go, one runs, they all run. The are very entertaining to watch.

Finally Drew was convinced to change his family plan cell phone numbers to local ones instead of hawaii.So now all 4 of us have Missouri cell #'s.

Today was an all time record, we have 8 hens laying now, 8 eggs a day. It is really nice because with the holidays coming and the cooking and baking it is that much less we have to get at the grocery.

Things That Are Fowl :)

We have 2 roosters. The one below is the 2nd in the "pecking order" We have not named them yet. We intend to keep them for a long time. So they will not be joining us at the dinner table any time soon.

This is our most dominate rooster with one of the "lady hens"

This is this roosters favorite lady. They are always together.

Alex loves the chickens. He calls them, "babies."

The chickens let Alex come up behind them and pick them up and carry them around. What is the most amazing thing is that the roosters let him carry them around also.

We are now getting 5 eggs a day now. We have 3 that lay first thing in the morning and 2 that lay late in the day.

Pictures of "our men" all three of them hard at work :)
Getting ready for the cold. Looking forward to sitting, looking at the Christmas Lights and a fire in the fireplace. LOVE the cold. By the end of Jan. I will be sick of the cold but it is so nice to have seasons again.


I love all these outdoor pictures of the guys. I will be really happy when we can finally have pictures of the front porch being built. We are going to build it to stretch all the way across the front of the house. Eventually we will screen it in.

Blogger Problems

Well I've tried all day to upload some new pictures and there is a problem with the blog site.

We are having 'coon problems again and so last night Clay and I had been asleep for awhile and I turned over toward the door and realized a light Drew and Frances use on their side of the house was on, it was almost midnight. Then I heard one of the outside doors close. Clay got up to check on things to find that Frances had seen 2 'coons on top of the hen house and she woke up Drew and he told her to just scare them off (I can't imagine why he didn't want to get out of his warm bed to go chase down wild animals:)
So Frances goes out to scare them off and she turns around and there is Drew, they don't see the 'coons anymore but here something moving around in the woods (crunchy fallen leaves gives them away) so they go off into the woods chasing, whatever, and Drew sees something and shoots, it's just an armadillo. By then Clay is outside so Drew comes in and Clay and Frances look around and check on the chickens. Finally they come in, Clay goes to bed and then finally gets up again to tell Frances to go to bed and stop worrying about the chickens.

Frances is incredible around here. She is thriving on the farm life. Her and Alex both call the chickens, "babies" plus she feeds and waters Yaco (our African Grey Parrot) every day also Erin's 2 cats that are living here for awhile. In the spring we will be getting 2 baby feeder pigs, then have them slaughtered in the fall and we are going to also get 2 pygmy goats. There is a guy at the Sheriff's Office that has a friend who raises them so we are set to buy them in the spring. The goats are going to be for weeding our acreage but mostly just pets. Frances used to spend so much time in Hawaii watching tv. It was too hot to do anything else. Here though she is always outside and always finding something that needs to be done. Our family is so blessed that Drew married such a wonderful person. We love her so much.

Well I will try and post new pics tomorrow but that was our adventure last night.

love you all

Neighbors Across Road

Alex's favorite neighbors, he goes and visits them at least twice a week. We can see them from our living room in the winter when the leaves are off all the trees.

First he pets them.

Then he feeds them, usually apples or carrots.

Then before leaving them he gives them big hugs.

Eggs Finally

Well our hens are finally earning their keep. We now have 2 hens that are laying. The first 2 days it was only one hen, 1 egg a day, now we have 2 hens that lay once a day. Considering winter has set in we are happy to have the eggs we get.

We love it here in Missouri. This is our first Fall in quite awhile. We are so looking forward to the holidays. It is just not Christmas when you have all the doors and windows open and trying to decorate the tree with sweat running down your back because it is 85 degrees outside. When you walk around the front yard the dry leaves crunch under our feet. Drew bought a snow sled the other day. We are going to have a "kitchen garden" next year so we are going to go ahead and take the topsoil off that area and when we know that there will be enough days of freezing weather we are going to make an ice skating area out of it.

The hens aren't the only one "earning their keep" :p

Erin's cat, Tabbers, laying in wait for her mommy to come back and get her. OK, ok, she is really just a big lazy cat snoozing in the window.

Well I am finally updating the blog. I've been home from the hospital for a couple of days and am still feeling exhausted. I'm doing better than ever. Got my medications adjusted and some much needed rest and my

diabetes under control.

Learned so much about diabetes and also want to share with those that don't already know, Since Jan, this year I have lost 66 pounds. I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF. I just finally am in control of food instead of food controlling me. I have 44 more pounds that I want to lose so this time next year I will be older but oh, so much more less of me.:)

This is a Halloween WAY past. That masked "man" is an adopted son of ours. OK, not legally but love him just the same and are still in touch with him and wanted to share this picture of that special Halloween. In case you can't read his name it is Aaron Freeman. We lived on Adak one of the Aleutian Islands off mainland Alaska in this picture.Alex one year ago. Alex was a Monkey and had a long skinny tail that you can't see in this picture. He was getting ready to go trick or treating.

What fun and look at Alex's new "wig"

Drew doing the intricate work on our "Ursula" pumpkin

No, the one on the left is not a picture of me :) almost could be me though, hehe and of course the one on the right is Tigger

Fun games at the Halloween Festival

The people on the right we don't know but this is Alex in his row boat getting ready to go fishing. Who is that Lion Crawling up on that bale of hay???
I am Lion hear me ROAR


Hey, let's get this thing loaded and start the hay ride.