The ol' homestead

Folks, it's just plain sweltering here! I hope you have found a few ways to cut back on the heat -especially in your homes. There are few things I have done have helped keep our heat down in the house and also the electric bill from jumping out of sight. One of the main things that has helped this summer is that I am using my clothesline for all wash -yep, all of it. I have been doing this for the last few months and what I have noticed is a that: 1. white clothes are crisper, whiter, and disenfected naturally better by the sun. 2. Towels are definatly rougher on your skin BUT, they absorb more quickly and actaully do their job better. 3. They just smell and feel so much better. 4. I enjoy the time that Little Miss helps me with it (and the way she looks through the damp laundry for a kitchen towel to wrap over her head to keep her cool while we are out there hanging it up in the 100+ heat) 5. It takes about 10 minutes for a load to be completely dry in this heat! How can it not set your heart all a twitter to look out and see your line full of clothes blowing in the breeze.

I have also been cutting out all un-necassary baking with the oven. That means I am making only our daily bread for now and doing that only twice a month. As I said before, the garden has burned up but we have been blessed with squash and tomatoes and corn by friends and family and I do appreciate that!

The turkey's are doing great and look half grown now and the little chicks now are no longer little but roam all day with their momma's. I do have another hen who has decided to try to set in this heat and I keep trying to break her up but she is determined and I really expect to go out one day and find her expired from heat exhaustion.

This is TJAF...

She is beautiful isn't she?

She looks so...innocent doesn't she?

She's not.

She turned me on to this...

And it's becoming a problem. I need another habit like a hole in the head. Really, though since we are both dieting, things are not so bad. TJAF is on a low carb diet and I am on a I think I am starving low-calorie diet. She is now NOT drinking the asaidfore Dr. Pepper and I am. But I am proud that I have been drinking water too  which is quite difficult for me.

Remember all that corn that we shucked? We made some into Margarita Corn. Yum -Yum-Yum. Now this may sound like inebriation is involved but, it's not. (Not to say you can't have a nip of the ol tequila while your cooking it if'n you have a mind too) But this corn is on the up and up. Can you say dee-lish?

Frontier Man is having to leave at 6:00 for work now as the thought is that they can beat the heat and be home in the afternoon. I have yet to see him home that early and seem to think all they are doing at this point is making the men work longer hours in this heat. Anyway, I have been getting up at 6:00 every morning as he is leaving (he gets up at 5.00) I am getting up to pray for his safety every morning as it is still dark when he leaves riding that bike to work in the dark is much more dangerous as vermin and animals all are on the move at dawn and dusk. He seems to be making the best of it all though, even though he is not getting near enough rest.

We are missing Big Miss who has been MIA since last Friday. She is in Washington with family and I have it on good authority that she is having a great time. We can't wait to have her home -as all of you know, she is pure life, and when life is missing things don't seem the same.

Lastly here I want to make sure I thank Sunshine for our stay with them. She goes to a lot of trouble to make us comfortable and well fed and I appreciate her. She is a gem!

Look at that smile - doesn't it just brighten your day?

Pure Sunshine!

When we camped at Turner Falls for a few days, we thought we would be going swimming alot, but we found ourselves hiking and caving?, most of the time. It was really neat to be able take off on a mountain -or what looked like small mountains to us anyways and make small hiking jaunts all over the terrain. The caves were high up on the ledges but Frontier Man left no stone unturned and no cave unexplored it seemed. I would like to say I was right there behind him every step of the way, but the fact is I am way too out of shape for that. So Cowgirl Cutie tagged along because she wanted to... and because she is 16. I know, I know, Frontier Man is not 16.... but he. is. un-natural. He defies a body and energy of middle age. I just don't think we were made to lap our teenagers 3 to 1. It seemed everytime I looked up from our campsite to the hills and valleys, there was Frontier Man on another mountain top. Maybe the hills were calling him, maybe he just loves the outdoors, but I just don't think it right for him to show me up like that. Once, just once, I would have liked to look behind me and said "How ya doin there honey?" But how could I get mad at him, it's not that he left me, no, he would stay right there with me while every 100 feet or so, I would bend over and try to suck air. Which made me want to be mad at him for being so sensitive to my needs and not running ahead anyway! I think there is something to learn here... but I just haven't figured it out as yet.

Now on to The Castle

More pictures of Turner Falls...

What a glorious day *today* is!

*Today The Little was born. What a doll he is.

*Today because of The Little Being born, I had all my children in the same room, which is a huge thing anymore...

*Today I french braided Little Miss's hair.... Okay not really as you can tell, this is not french braiding but fishbone braid. Oh well, I am still working on it.

*Today I rode with Frontier Man in the wind. I was really trying to concentrate on the beautiful scenery, the cows in the pastures and that cute white colt with its momma. But the wind, the wind, kept forcing Frontier Mans smart smelling cologne into my nostrils and I kept getting side tracked. I tried, really, I did, but some things are just beyond my control. Now, going 60 on that bike feels like 80 and I kept telling myself I AM NOT going to dig my nails into him, cause then he would know I was chicken ( and I want him to think I am as tough as he) So I was brave and I kept concentrating on that beautiful scenery.... and trying to ignore that cologne. And my butt going to sleep. And it almost worked too..... I just kept telling myself that surely I MUST look good on this cool bike...behind this cool man.... but there was that little voice in my head telling me that the people driving behind us must be totally repulsed by my underarm fat flapping in the wind....

And how could you enjoy your evening ride after that ?

Even with a great smelling Frontier Man in charge ???

Good morning! We had a productive day on the homestead this week-end. It seems we worked sun up to sun down every day and few is the evening when we come in before dark thirty anymore. There is just so much to do on the place this time of year. The garden is coming along quite well now. We have blooms on almost everything and small green tomatoes but no red yet.

And the asparagus bed is in...

On Friday, we went to the Ok City Summer Classic Dog Show. Little Miss was just delighted by all the different breeds and watching them in obedience and Rally was really enjoyable. We laughed at the many antics and of snooty odd breeds (Chinese Crested?) and some looked like giant pandas, some like puffballs and some like mops. Little Miss's favorite of course, was the spotted Dalmatians. She even met a pair up close and was rooting for "Leo" and "Dixie."

I believe we are on the verge of an explosion of babies. Yesterday we seen 2 more chicks peeping out behind another hen. So cute! But we have more sitting and so we will have to see how they are all going to co-habitate with each other. I know they don't like the turkey chicks and so we have graduated them out of the run in the daytime now. Last week-end we ran across a chicken snake that had his mind set on chicks but Frontier Man changed his mind for him and then yesterday we found another snake who just expired from swallowing a decoy egg. Sorry for this to be so graphic but this is the real part of animal husbandry and if I report the good, you have to know the bad to get the whole picture. Keeping vermin away is an everyday challenge when you have animals and the wild is looking for it's next meal.

The big Marshmallow says "Get out here so I can heard you little guys!"

Our good friend Max stopped by the other day to show his his old 1972 VW bug that he had restored for his daughter. She lives in Tx and was taking it to her this week-end. What a surprise she will have! She didn't know it was being done and it took 2 years to be restored. Beautiful huh?

I talked with Pianomanjess yesterday and it looks like the baby is full term and they do not want her to go much further because of size and so they will be inducing Grand-Doll Mom on Wednesday. So looks like The Little will be making an entrance real soon. I just went and picked up some baby things and can't wait for the time to get here already!

Well, we are all getting ready for the yearly river trip. All the kids are excited and we are too, but we have to work around all the animals and get them situated before we go. We work so hard on the garden, just to leave it every year right when it is time for the veggies to be picked. We either get sister or son to keep it watered until our return (10 days) along with the animals.

This is Frontier Man's motorcycle sanctuary in the works.

"I can't wait to take this bad puppy out all by myself..... the wind in my hair...   sun on my skin...   uh...bugs in my teeth"

Until then... you can be my bug protector dad!