Changing times

Spring time is also a time of change on the farm. The Ewe go from fat to thin and pop out babies. The geese at the pond stop screaming and start sitting on their nest. Even the color of the world starts to change. The brown dry grass gives way to softer, greener grass. New plants start to break through and poke out there heads … And some poke out their heads that you think you already removed.

A Few days ago Mom and I noticed that the bulbs I dug up and moved last fall came back … in the very same place. You know what that means. I missed some. Okay I have a confession … I missed alot… Not only this …

But this too. We had a half of that big tote full of them…

So Mom and I planted them in front of the house…

I tell you it almost killed me… LOL

Okay maybe not kill me but it sure was alot of work. And we did it in the wind.

As for the rest of my day I can’t really say I got anything done. You see my grandparents are getting older. Most of my readers know that My Mom’s Grandma is still alive and well. She is 94 yrs old and still lives on her own with Minimal help from others. We go once a week to take leftovers for the fact that cooking for one with her sometimes leads to enough to feed an army. And she will never grill out so grilled burgers and weinies are a must take staple.

Anyway, what you might not know is that my Dad’s parents are now 82 and 83 years old. No, Stop right there… My Dad isn’t that much older then my Mom. He is fours years older then her. His parents just waited to have children until they were over 35 years old. My Mom’s mother however had her children at 20. Hence the almost 20 years age diffence in their parents. So what does all this have to do with my day? Well, Dad’s parents aren’t doing so hot. His Mom is actually the one in poor health but his Dad is working himself into an early grave trying to take care of her alone. (Mom’s words not mine) So as a family we are now taking on the care of my Grandparents. Mom says she will be going to sit with my Dad’s Mom at least once a week so that My Dad’s Dad can have some “Him time” They have even informed me that he might even become my shoot help just to get him out of the house… Mom said I am to make him feel needed here so that he will leave his house for a few hours…. Let the games begin …

Interesting … Very Interesting

Today we had a few things that Mom wanted to get done … okay it was really a long list of stuff but hey who is counting? Anyway, we started like any other day. Mom did dishes and got the bread making. While I did chores and got my breakfast. After that Mom did her milking and when we came in we were waiting for the bread dough to come out of the machine when all of the sudden Mom lets out a scream. It wasn’t a scream like a girl scream. It was more of a “OH NO YOU DIDN’T” Scream.

After that She started tearing apart the front room. She pulled out the couch and even pulled the bed out of it … Then she took everything from one side of the room and flipped the couch over. I tell you I thought she had lost it. Turns out she says she saw a mouse. There is one thing that Mom can’t stand and believe it or not it isn’t the mouse it’s self but the fact that the mouse was in “Her House” She also detests Spiders, snakes and bugs in the same way. She says she doesn’t care that they are around and exist. She detests the fact that they feel the need to live in her house as she puts it. Anyway, for almost two hours she tore the house apart cleaning anywhere she thought that mouse could have gone. I have to say I never saw the mouse and we never found it so Mom could have just imagined it!

After all the hubbub I got to work moving all the poultry out of the bathroom. Over 20 birds are now settled in to what I hope to be there temporary home until they are grown enough to move to the chicken coop. Well, half of them are in their temporary home the other half is in the chicken coop penned off until they get just a bit bigger. Then they will be turned out with the other hens.

When I got all the birds settled in I did a bit of riding and ended up checking the neighbor’s cattle. Turns out he has one that needs to be doctored. First thing tomorrow morning I will be heading out to rope the calf and help him get that done.

As for unfinished business … first there is that box of fiber and yarn sitting on the bar waiting for it’s new owner…. Well, I was a bit late doing the drawing due to the whole mouse issue but we did get the random generator to pick us a number … So if you are the Mary that wrote

I’ve never gotten a box…probably a combination of right place/wrong time or wrong time/right place…I’ve had to take a break from blogging as mum has been diagnosed with a nasty illness…but we are getting through it.. If I were to get this box, I would steal your idea and pass it on as a I start reblogging. It would be a great way to thank a reader..

I look forward to seeing more from you and your fiber farm in the future..

If I don’t get the box..how about one of those babies you are birthing on your farm!

You have one week to email me at rj@barnontheweb.com if I don’t hear anything I will draw again.

And Finally, we have one garden left to find a home for. I was hoping it would go to a school class somewhere in the world so if you know of a class interested, have them email me and I will get it address to go out with the rest of them in April.

Teen Leader

In case you missed it I have been gone yesterday and most of today. I was busy being a teen leader for a 4-H camp that was geared to build confidence in 5th and 6th Graders. They had group activities as well as things like shooting BB Guns, a zip line and paint ball. We had a blast but to be honest those kids wore me out. They were up before my alarm went off and were still chatting after the lights went out … Who knew 5 ten and eleven year olds were so much work.

Anyway, Just to fill everyone in we have cards from our Gardens going to Australia, New Zealand, Florida, Texas, California, Wyoming, New York, South Korea and Germany. So I think we have a nice kick off to start and I have the button on the web page so that people can start sending them to their friends. You can check it out HERE

As for me, I am off to bed and hope to get back to normal by tomorrow and actually get something farm related done too … LOL … Good night

QT Gardens

Today I will be launching my world wide garden movement… Okay that sounded cool but it really isn’t that exciting. Let me explain. As most of you know I always want to leave a positive mark on the world. And if you have followed me long you know my family believes we should sow good with our marks on the world. What you might not know is that April is Lawn and Garden Month. The first week of the month is also Keep America Beautiful week and the second week in the month is Garden Week. So I think I have found away to sow all three causes and bring a smile to peoples faces with what I am calling QT Gardens Around the World. (Do you think I would be able to get “Keep America Beautiful Month” Changed to “Keep the World Beautiful Month”?)

When I was at the Capitol I met some really nice ladies with the USDA. (That stands for United States Department of Agriculture for those of you not familiar with it) As we chatted and learned more about each other’s programs/business an Idea was born in my head (I know all ideas come from someone’s head … LOL). I have to admit I am excited to see what happens with this project and just how big we can make it. You see the USDA was handing out promotional postcards. No big deal right? However, these postcards are very special cards. You see, they are Plantable. What does that mean? Well, they are postcards made from recycled paper with flower seeds embedded in them. The idea is that you can send a short note to someone and then that person can plant the postcard and it will sprout flowers bringing a smile of remembrance of the message or person who sent it to them.

My goal with this project is to have QT gardens in every corner of the world. To kick this off the Ladies from the USDA gave me 10 cards. The plan is that after these 10 are mailed out and this gets into full swing, I (Okay Mom and I) will be making these plantable cards ourselves but these first ones will give me time to get seeds and get ours made. So last night and today I spent time finding a few select people who would agree to help. I have heard from most of them and they have all agreed to help with the kick off. I have chosen to make sure we include other contintents in our kick off and it will at least appear as a nice flow of area covered on my world map. For the US I have California, New York and Texas and I have Australia already marked with people to get the cards. Ireland and New Zealand are countries in waiting but I hope to have people there that are willing to take part too. (I have two ladies I am waiting to hear from but I have faith they will let me mail to them. The lady in Ireland loves flowers and has a huge heart so I am pretty sure she will. The New Zealand person however is a new friend so I am just kind of hoping)

That leaves 4 more cards for the kick off and that means I am still looking for 4 people to let me send them one of these special cards. With that said if you are from the North Central or North West US or a country that isn’t Astralia, New Zealand or Ireland email me at rj@barnontheweb.com and let me know if you would want to be in the kick off. All you would have to do is plant the card when it arrives and then let us know if it grows.

These seeds are from hardy flowers that only require 4 hours of sunlight a day and you can plant them in a pot inside as well as outside if you like. No Green thumb or skills are required for this. As the paper decomposses it is compost and nutients for the flowers so there are no worries in the care of them. It really is just that easy. “But what if the cards don’t grow”, you ask?? Well, Remember these gardens are meant to sow smiles as well. Who knows you might just end up with a funny story of the garden that didn’t grow … LOL

What if you really want to help but don’t have a place to plant a card or you just don’t think it is for you. Well, we have other ways you can get involved that doesn’t take planting a card. The first is I need seeds. You can donate seeds for the cards I am going to make by popping some in the mail to me. We just ask that whatever kind you send are consided Hardy because climates change. Another way you can help is to look in your cookie cutter stash (Most baking Mom’s have one … LOL) and see if you have any that you could share with us. I think it would be fun to make our cards different shapes. The only thing you have to consider is that they need to be the kind open all the way through. It can’t be the ones with detail on the back as I can’t press the recycled paper out of the shape if it is … They can be metal or plastic Here are two pictures of examples of the kind we need.

You can mail donated items to:
RJ Straw
HC 61 Box 16
Lenapah, Ok 74042

And finally you can donate postage to the cause … remember these are post cards so even a dollar will mail out two cards in the US or one Overseas. Every little bit helps. For this I am making a donate button for the web page.

My plan is to make people smile while planting QT Gardens all over the world. I am even going to have a thread on Ravelry so that all of us can chat about it year round. When I get mine made (I will be gone tomorrow and Saturday so I will be trying to get more made after that) Then I will need your help once more … In the form of names and addresses of people who will need a smile. Think of your neighbor having a hard time. What would it mean to get a card in the mail with a nice note of cheer that they can plant and grow flowers with??? Or what about a class of school children getting a smile and taking on a small project to make their school a better place??

I sure hope all of this makes sense (sometimes I have trouble getting my ideas out of my head and on the blog in an understandable way) and just so you know I hope it gets so big the next time I ask for your help I can say I need people to make the cards and mail them out because I can’t keep up … LOL … So what do you think? Are you willing to help out in any of the ways we need?? Let me know if you can with a quick email to me at rj@barnontheweb.com

A short call out to “Pat” a retired school teacher that I hope still reads my blog … Do you know of a school teacher with a class that might want to be in the kick off???

Ag Day at the Capitol

One of the things that every American learns is about your government. You learn how it works and who the players are. Well, today I got a chance to take that one step further. We left home very early for the 3 hour drive to our State Capitol in Oklahoma City. We had a bit of trouble getting to where we needed to park to get to the 4th floor. When we finally got there, I got all my Made in Oklahoma products set up and was ready to talk business.

When a Fiberholic named Mary Kay saw our products we were in trouble. She loved the yarn so much that she really wanted some … However, at this event the laws were clear. No selling of product of any kind. So we had to take our deal out back … It was funny but kind of made me feel like I was selling something I shouldn’t … LOL … We found a new friend in Mary Kay and I am looking forward to seeing her next year at the Capitol … If we get invited back that is

About 10 minutes before the fun started My State Representative, Steve Martin, came and took me off the floor and to his office for a little chat. They even remembered the Citation they sent Ice and I two years ago for our preformance at 4-H Regionals

After that I met so many people that I can’t even remember all their names. Everyone was very nice and I learned alot.

Senator McAffrey was really cool and he even loved Mom’s hand carders and made jokes about grooming his poodle … His picture is blurry but I am posting it anyway.

I ended the day by meeting up with Oklahoma’s Youngest Senator, Senator Dahm. He is really cool and he is only 31. I am sure he will be doing great things at the Capitol for along time.

As for me I happy to have been there but very tired and glad to be home. Tomorrow I have a little project that I think some of you might want to try.

Opps ….

Okay so it doesn’t happen very often but it does happen … Yesterday I forgot to blog … It isn’t that I was to busy or had something so exciting going on that it took all my time … I just forgot.

I started my day at the Dentist. Even with some of my teeth sealed I still have a small cavity starting in just about every tooth in my head. My teeth issues started when I had to have surgery when I was about 3 years old. I didn’t even have all my teeth then and as they grew in they already had cavities that had formed before they even broke skin. It isn’t anything terrible but I just Hate going to the dentist just to get more bad news. First my lungs, then my eyes, Now my teeth again … Ok I am done whining about it. It comes with my life and that which does not kill me will make me strong. (Honestly God must think I am pretty strong and much stronger then I think of my self as being … LOL)

Moving one for today’s cute factor I bring you our only bottle babies this year … Biscotti & Spritz! They are now bold enough to come right into the house when they are hungry … That doesn’t mean I am always ready for them!

Tomorrow I will spend the day at the capital building for what is called Ag Day … I will take pictures and fill you in when I get home…. Don’t forget to enter to win that nice box of goodies we will be drawing for on the 30th at high noon!!

Phat Fiber Box Give Away

Since there were no babies born today and I was gone most of the day roping, I thought it would be the perfect time to do our next give away. I didn’t do much good roping but good luck winning this Fibery goodness. Yup, it is Phat Fiber time. We got the box a few days ago and recorded the Video and as you hear on the video we waited to post it so we don’t over lap great news.

So how do you win this box of fiber and yarn … Well, watch the video and find out … LOL

A random drawing from all the entries will be held on March 30th at High Noon!!! Have fun …

Weird Day

So yesterday was just kind of a weird day. We had 4-H competitions from about 10 to 4. It started with the speech competition and that took most the morning. There was a chili lunch and then the Fashion and Fabric competition. The day was rounded out by the 4-H has Talent competition that Mom had to judge. I found time to set one of Mom’s posts for her and then Mom and I did get a bit of cleaning done around the barn yard. It was one of those off kind of days where you worked all day but didn’t seem to get anything done. I guess us farmers have those sometimes too. Oh Well …

This morning the family slept in late. Okay maybe not late for the world but late for us. We didn’t get up until about 8am and that was just because Mom’s phone went off. After that we got up and around and as I got to the barn I found Poppy popping us out a beautiful Baby boy. I think I am going to name him Double Stuff (He is double stuffed all right, Mom says he is full of Piss and Vinegar and he is just hours old … Man is it looking like he going to be trouble LOL) … I got both Mom and Son in the jug and did my chores.

After that I helped Dad put the baler back in the barn where it goes and later I will be heading out to a roping … so for now here are some pictures to keep the cute factor rollin’!!!

Pistol shot out a good one

Today was another Popper of a day … LOL I woke up to Mom telling me that there was a little blob in the pasture. Mom made it to the little one before I did. I don’t think I have ever tried to dress so fast. I couldn’t get my clothes on fast enough and then I couldn’t find my boots. I finally got it together only to bolt out the door and realize that I needed a coat because it was cold out.

When I finally got it together This is what the fuss was all about …

Isn’t Toffee the Ram Lamb a cutie?? Yuchi and Piper also got to take their babies to the pasture today … we are getting better about only having the Ewes and their babies in the Jugs for the 24 hours Mom learned about in her course.

Pay the Piper

Today Mom and I both woke up with headaches. To bad we didn’t have time to deal with them. At the start of the day I found this in the pasture…

While the picture seems calm I can tell you there was a whole lot of noise going on …

As I got there some of the Ewes left ….

Then there was this … at first fear hit me … Who belonged to Whom … How was I going to figure it out …

Then this happened … And my heart calmed down …

I moved Piper into a jug so that her and her two beautiful black lambs could bond. She had one Girl that I am calling Oreo and One boy that is called Moonpie.

Here is a better picture of Oreo and her brother looks just like her but he has a dash of white on one side of his face as well … They are jet black and oh so BEAUTIFUL!

And not to be forgotten Fudgie took her baby Sandie out onto the pasture for the first time. She is making such a great Mom…