This is What I'm Doing Today.........

I am babysitting my daughter's dogs today....her Dachshund Merlin and her Jack Russel mix Aadi.  Along with my 3, we definatley have a housefull today. But, the weather is nice, so they will get to go out and play after while. Right now everyone is napping so I had a chance to post, and it will probably be the only chance I will get today, LOL!

Here is a picture of everyone when they first got here....

I can't believe I got everyone in the shot, they were so excited and running around

I finally had to shout, "Hey everybody look" to get them to stop and look at the camera! The two in the front are Merlin and Aadi

Ruby Jane (my Jack Russell) doesn't know what to think of baby Merlin

here she is giving him the "what in the world is that" look, LOL......

Aadi is still looking out the window for her mommy and daddy, but she got over them leaving pretty quick...

Here is a close up of Merlin

He is adorable and so sweet....

We are gonna have fun today!!

Update on the Twin Calves...

A week or so ago, I told about how I had a bottle baby,we had a cow that had twins. Well, we kept him up and bottle fed him for about 4 days, and then thought we would try to get the mama cow to take him back. Thankfully, it worked! She accepted him right back when we put them up in the barn, and I guess she figured she couldn't get away from him, so she let him start nursing. We are going to keep them up for awhile to ensure that she won't run off and leave him when we turn them back out, or to at least make sure he is strong enough to keep up with her if she does! I went to the barn this morning to feed them and took some pictures. We are still supplementing the bull calf with a bottle, but he is doing great. The heifer calf won't get near us, but the little bull, runs right up looking for that bottle....here he is trying to nurse on my fingers........

He figured out real quick that wasn't what he was looking for and ran back to mama and sis......the mama cow was busy eating, but she stopped occaisionally to look and swing her head at me, she wasn't too thrilled that I was there, LOL..............

Before I left, I snapped some pictures of the rest of our herd...............

One of our newest calves very curious about what I was doing......

A couple more of the girls.......

Some of the younger cows checking me out........

On my way back home, I encountered a flock of Guineas crossing the road. By the time of got my camera, they had already crossed and were moving quick, but I manged to snap a picture............several had turned to look at me I guess they were thinking about what I was gonna do next, LOL....

Hope everyone has a great day!

~DEANNA~

Chance to Win a Temporal Thermometer...

Carrie, over at Farming on Faith is having a giveaway where you can win a Temporal Thermometer. You can head on over there for a chance to win. She has a wonderful blog, chock full of recipes, homemaking tips, frugal living, and much more. You can find her here:

  http://farmingonfaith.blogspot.com/

Or I have a link to the blog over in my links column. Good luck everyone, and thanks Carrie, for the chance to win this great product!

Fugly Horse of The Day, Where Art Thou?

I went to check my favorite blog, Fugly Horse of the Day, and I get the message that the account has been suspended!!! What is going on?? Fugly Horse of the Day is a very informative website for all horse owners and enthusiasts. The woman that operates it has been known to step on a few toes, but 99% of the time, those toes needed stepping on! She speaks out against irresponsible breeding, horse slaughter, bad training, and anything else of importance that is going on in the horse world. She has been an advocate for horses, by outing abusers, and uncovering neglect and bad situations for horses. She's not afraid to name names, and I really admire her courage and fearlessness for speaking up for those that can't speak for themselves...... I really hope she can get the problem straightened out, I'm not sure what's going on with the website, but if it has to do with the topic yesterday and the blasting of the Parellis, she was right on.... come back soon Cathy!

My Latest Haul from CVS.......

I went to CVS this morning looking for the perfume sets that were supposedly marked 90% off, but my CVS didn't have any of them clearanced... boo.. :-(    But, all was not lost, they had several other items marked down including Gillette deodorant, and paired with coupons, I made out very good if I must say so myself.....Here is the picture of everything I got.......

Here is a breakdown of what I got with the prices, then I will list the coupons I used with final totals...

(2)  1 Gallon jugs Arizona diet green tea marked down to .75 cents each ( no coupon but still a great deal)

3 pack of CVS paper towels  marked down to 1.99

12 pack Diet Coke with Lime 4.29

Almond Joy Pieces  3.59

(4) cans Ocean Spray Cranberry sauce marked down to .40 cents each (no coupon but still a good deal)

(2) Sure for Men Deodorant clearanced to 1.50 each

(4) Gillette for Men Deodorants marked down to 2.25 each 

(1) Gillette for Men Body Wash  4.99

OK, here are the coupons I used:

1.00 off CVS paper towels from in store scanner

FREE 12 pack Coke coupon from saving Coke codes

FREE coupon for Almond Joy Pieces for sending in a Reeses wrapper

(2) 1.50 off any men's Sure Deodorant

(2)  4.00 off any 2 Gillette deodorant coupons

1 coupon for Buy any Gillette deodorant get Gillette body wash FREE

I also used a $2 Extra Care Buck from previous CVS purchase

So, the total for all this was only $5.60, with $2.52 of this being tax...( I know, for all of you who are gasping, our sales tax is 9.75% here in Tennessee)  And, I got back another $2 Extra Care Buck for buying
the Gillette deodorant, so the final cost for all this was only around $3.60!! Don't ya just love it?? It really pays to use those coupons!!

A Nice Sunday Afternoon......

It is a beautiful day here, with lots of sunshine and warm temps in the 60's!! My daughter Olivia and her boyfriend came over for lunch, and afterwards she and I gave Greta a much needed spring haircut.  Later we went for a wagon ride, and I got lots of pictures. So, I thought I would share a few with everyone..... if you don't want to see a lot of pictures, you may want to skip today's post, LOL.......

This is Greta before..........

She is now 4, and I have kept her shaved nearly her whole life, but we let her grow out this winter just to see what her coat looked like.....I loved her long dark red tinged dark hair, but with the weather warming up, she was getting hot and panting alot. And , it is soooo much easier to keep her clean with short hair, not to mention the shedding, so I decided it was time for her hair to go.

Here she is today showing off her new haircut....she was ready for it, she jumped right up on that grooming table and loved it!!...........It's a little short right now, but in a couple weeks it will look great and she will have a jet black, shiny coat! Then in about 8 weeks or so, we will do it all over again............

 

Olivia and JC brought their two dogs with them today, Audi, a Jack Russell Terrier / Beagle mix, and their new Dachshund puppy, Merlin.........

Here's Audi on the wagon ride, she was a little nervous, but she did great!........

And here's little Merlin....9 weeks old.....isn't he adorable.............

Here's the two Jacks together, (Audi, and my Ruby Jane), with Ralphie playing outside......

Audi and Ralphie wrestling, LOL....so cute......

Terry's sister and his nephew Cannon went on the wagon ride today. Terry let Cannon dive the mules, and then gave him a lesson in unhooking the mules from the wagon, and just the basics of handling them....Cannon did a great job.

Cannon driving the mules..................

Unhooking the boys...................

Terry "teaching" Cannon the basics, LOL............

Cannon leading the mules back to the barn..........

These are the latest mules that we bought, they are unbelievably well trained, calm, very easy going and laid back.  They were the perfect pair for Cannon to learn with, they gave him no problems at all....

.....so we had a nice day today, hope everyone else had a great Sunday     :-)

~~Deanna~~

Gunner's leg today....7 Weeks After Injury.......

****WARNING ~~~ GRAPHIC PHOTO BELOW*****  For those of you that are squeamish!

I finally got some pictures of Gunner's leg today. As many of you remember, 7 weeks ago he rolled over into the hay ring and somehow caught his leg and gashed it open in two places on the inside rougher part of the ring.  Up until just the past week, we were worried about the lower cut on the cannon bone...it still had a huge, hard, hump on it, and despite rubbing it down alot, it still would not go down. Well, over the past several days, I have seen a HUGE improvement... the swelling and hardness has went down tremendously....YAY!! The incisions look great, the hair is growing back in, and best of all....no proud flesh! The upper cut still has some scabbing, but it has almost completely filled in and looks great. I don't care how much hay they waste, I am not using the hay rings again...it's not worth the risk. We are very lucky....it could have been much worse, he could have ended up permanantly lame, the cut on the hock was very close to involving the joint capsule....(then we would have had big problems) or he could have easily snapped his leg trying to get out of the hay ring.  Anyway,  this first picture is when I first found him, and as they go down, how they look today......

Notice all the mud.....yuck! We have not had hardly any rain for a few weeks, and it is still muddy, but nowhere near as bad as it was 3 weeks ago ~it's gonna take alot of sunny days for us to dry out! It is beautiful here today, the horses and mules are all laid out enjoying the sunshine, and I even cleaned my truck out....can you believe it?  Have a great day everyone!!

Deanna

I've Got A New Baby......

When Terry got back from checking the cattle last night, he brought me a suprise.... a new baby. Monday night when he checked the herd, one of our cows had just delivered a heifer calf, the baby was trying to stand, mama was cleaning her off, everything looked good, etc.  He made his rounds, fed, then came back home just like usual. Well, when he went to check everybody last night, he saw this little bull calf, running around bellowing looking for anything to nurse on, LOL...Apparently the same cow delivered this little guy after the heifer, and as cattle sometimes do with twins, she only accepted the heifer and would not let the bull calf nurse. So now I have a bottle baby, and he is a cutie pie, he is a big, stout, strong guy, and takes his bottle right down without any problems. We had to give him a bottle of colostrum first thing, because we just don't know if she let him nurse to begin with, so to be on the safe side, he got the colostrum. I usually end up bottle feeding a couple every year, occasionally we will have a cow that won't have enough milk, or other problems that warrant bottle feeding. I really don't mind, I enjoy it, I love watching them run around bucking and playing.  After we wean them and they are eating good, then we turn them back out with the herd.  Here is the little guy, now I have to come up with a name.......

Here he is after his bottle...wanting more.......

Do You Think I Should Stop For Awhile???

As many of you know, I am a coupon fanatic...I love a good deal, and I use coupons religiously. I can't pass up an item if I can get it for pennies, or best of all FREE!! Here are some pictures of my stockpile room....some people may think this is crazy...but I get A LOT of free items, and I pass them on to my son and daughter. It helps them out with their household expenses, and they really appreciate that I can give them items out of my stockpile (or at least I hope they do, it's alot of work....LOL.) This is not all of it....I have alot of smaller items such as toothpaste, deodorant, etc. in storage totes. And, if we were to be faced with a natural disaster, or some other crisis, and couldn't leave the house or buy items, we would be set for a loooong time!  Believe it or not, this is nowhere near what I usually have, I have cut back A LOT on buying in the last 4 or 5 months........

This is my health and beauty shelf, shampoos, kleenex, razors, lotions, soap, body washes, etc......

This is my household items shelf, paper towels, toilet paper, cleaners, candles, air fresheners, etc....

And, this is my food shelf..............

Almost all these items were purchased either with coupons, or they were marked down on clearance, or I sent in and got a rebate on the item. Since I have such a good stockpile, it puts me into a position where i almost NEVER buy an item at regular price, especially with the health and beauty items and household items, they will keep almost indefinately. And, this hobby is very fun.....I love going shopping and seeing what all I can get for very little money! So, do you think I should stop........Naaaahhhhh....not a chance!!