Our puppy has landed

I dont think it's a big secret that Todd loves to hunt. Anything that can be hunted, will be hunted during the appropriate season.




Last February, our Jack Russell died. Todd's rabbit dog (a beagle) is gun shy. And his bird dog (a german shorthair pointer) passed away a few weeks ago, but really, hasn't been able to be hunted with for the last few years due to old age.

We put off getting another dog, mainly because I was enjoying not having a dog in the house. We could go away for the weekend and not have to worry about a dog being inside, or sending the dog to either be boarded or to other people's houses.

But this fall, Todd started talking about wanting to buy another bird dog. A German Wirehair Pointer. Supposed to be good hunting dogs, and yet, good with kids (which is a must in our house). So I said fine, go ahead and look.

Um.....yeah.

Around the 1st of the year, he looked, he talked to a bunch of breeders, one of them being a breeder in MINNESOTA, and I ended up mailing off a check for a deposit on a female puppy. Who was born yesterday.

So here the middle of March, Todd and I will be driving to Minnesota (to a point just south of Minneapolis) and back over 2 days to pick out and pick up our puppy. And no, the kids are NOT going with us. Rather, they will go to my parents for the weekend. I'm not that with it to haul 2 kids 13 hours away in one day.

What was I thinking?

Winter Chores

I really, really do not like winter. Especially the older I get......

Usually, Todd is home from work early enough that while I cook dinner, the kids and him go out and do the chores.

But last night, he was at fire practice. And the kids were at basketball practice (yes, only Jessie is on the team, but the coaches son is a friend of Tyler's so Tyler goes to practice to play with Braden and they keep each other occupied). So I had to do chores.

Hello chickens.

Only 6 eggs today......slackers.

Actually, I should be thankful there are only 6 eggs today

we have 5 dozen sitting in the fridge!

Hello David the bull.





Hello Piggies.

I cannot wait until you guys go to the meat locker the end of February.

Hello horses.






Hello cows





Hello steers.

Yes, Punx really, really needs a bath......when it warms up a little bit

I'll get out here more and get right on that.

Hello heifers.

Yes psycho heifer (the one in the very back),

I am leaving so you can eat in peace and quiet.

On a good day? I can do chores in 20 minutes usually. When all the water troughs are full. On a bad day? 1 hour to fill all 3 water troughs.



Last night was a good night.

Mud, knitting and more basketball

Yesterday we had buckets of rain. I wouldn't know how cold it was as I didn't venture out of the house:)

Today is grey and gloomy. And very, very muddy.

Instead I worked on this sweater - hopefully it will be done by the weekend. 1 1/2 sleeves to go.

I think I did the sleeve cap wrong, but I'm not ripping back and fixing it - nope, not me. I've already ripped it back once, it's not happening again.

Jessie's basketball game on Saturday? Another win for the girls 24-4.This game was interesting - Todd went to high school with some of these parents, and Jessie went to preschool with 3 of the girls on the opposing team.

I tried to catch the expressions on some of the girls' faces - they get these really nasty looks on them they are concentrating so hard.

But I haven't taken the time to learn all the settings on my new camera - yet.

This week will be a busy week for us, with basketball practice two nights, Todd has fire practice, and we are going to pick up a usedbutnewtous portable basketball hoop and stand. Jessie's been after us to get one so she can practice at home and I found one through one of the Churches that I work with.

Way to go Huskies!

I completely forgot about the basketball game that Jessie and her friends WON on Saturday.

14-6

Yep, that's right. They won. And it is soooooo educational to see your daughter grow and develop her defense. ahem.

• We won't talk about the body check she did on some poor girl on the other team that resulted in that child landing flat on her back.
• Or about the pushing and shoving match that was the end result of a fight for the ball that the referee had to get inbetween the two girls to break it up.
• Or the 8 pile ups on the floor over the course of a 40 minute game when both teams were fighting over the ball.

Lets just say.....that our girls are scrappers. And this is coming out more and more with each practice they have and each game they get under their belts.

And Thank God for wonderful referrees who used the game as teachable moments......

Now if they could all just connect with the basket on a regular basis, life would be good! Oh well - that will come with age and experience, I hope:)

Kris

Meet Frosty

The kids' busdriver is having a snowman building constest. I haven't heard what the prize is, but.....

....the kids spent a good hour and a half creating their snowman at the end of the driveway on Sunday afternoon.

I'm so glad they found a use for Todd's ripped rubber boots and my old broom:)

Too bad they couldn't have built him yesterday - it might have stopped some of the bickering that was present in our house between the two of them!

Although I did manage to get more done in the laundry room:

I got the peg shelf and the bench in my laundry room all finished up - just in time for Todd to come home and say "yes, I like it go ahead and do the new cabinet the same way". What a relief! He likes wood to look like wood, if you know what I mean:) Tonight I will start on the cabinet - at least get the inside done so I can get everything put away.....

See that little quilted mat on the bench? Yes, I made it yesterday in about a half an hour. Nothing fancy but it sure beat paying the $20 they wanted for a little braided rug to fit on there! And it came out of my stash.......

Enjoy your day!
Kris

Laundry room makeover

I'm home today....our normal babysitter is sick, and I didn't feel like calling all over the county to find another one:) due to the holiday.


Friday night we installed the cabinet above my washer and dryer, and went from this:




To this!:






I love it. I have to finish it yet, but hopefully that will get done this afternoon. Tommy (one of Todd's friends who builds fantastic furniture) brought it over - and it was a tight fit to get it wedged in there. We previously had a metal shelf in there, but I'm on a kick to spruce up the house this year, and probably next:) It was waayyy cheaper to have him build it from scratch than to go and buy a premade cabinet. And it fits in there exactly.



Tyler thought it would make a nice hiding space before they lifted it up. We wondered why one end was soooooo heavy! lol.



This morning I played around with paint and stain. I know what I want, but.....acheiving it was another matter. I think I finally found the look that I like:






flat white paint with walnut stain rubbed on gently over top. I want the distressed look, without all the beating up of the furniture. I didn't want to sand any corners off of this peg shelf, as it is painted blue underneath the white, and I certainly don't want that showing through!


Enjoy your day! I'm off to do some more painting and staining:) after I hunt up a pair of rubber gloves...............
Kris

Sun

I think we are finally on the upswing temperature wise. 30's the rest of the week and with any luck, high 40's on Sunday. I'll be loving the sunshine!

Jessie's steer is continuing to do well. He's on a little break right now - every cow/calf/steer on the place has a nasty case of ringworm. So he didn't go to the show last weekend and probably won't go to another show until the end of February. Which is fine with me - washing and drying him in the 20 degree weather is no fun at all! Although tonight our friend is coming to clip him - his hair is really, really long and I guess it is easier if you keep up on it?

I had to break down and buy myself a new camera. I loved my canon, but 3 pictures and the batteries would go dead. Didn't matter if they were new batteries, newly charged, super nice batteries, deader than a doornail. I went through 4 sets of batteries at the basketball game on Saturday. Enough was enough! So I brought another Canon, on sale and have really been enjoying it.

And my newest knit? Tang from Custom Knits. Very, very fast.

A simple turtleneck sweater, knit almost entirely in the round. I started this on New Year's Day weekend (during our 8 hour driving marathon from Pennsylvania and back) and now that my Pimlico Shrug is finished, I want to get this one done. 5 more inches on the body, the sleeves and the turtleneck.

I'm working on getting the laundry room ready for the cabinets to be installed tomorrow night after work. Then it's onto the kitchen - I really cannot wait for this to be done.

Have a warm Thursday!
Kris