Crazy Weekend!

What a weekend & holiday! We had Thanksgiving with my Dad's family at my parents' home. It was a great time to see everyone--and we even had a few snow flakes in the morning! My nephews stayed the weekend with us. Amy's boyfriend, Zach took the boys squirrel hunting on Friday. They had so much fun. The weather was great to be out doors. The "guys" shot about 6 squirrels and Zach cleaned them and fried the meat for the boys to eat! I had made spaghetti(which I enjoyed instead of wild game)

The mouse visitor had "vacated the premises" the evening before Thanksgiving. So, we didn't have any unplanned sightings or rustling in the closet. Yuck...mice!

Saturday, Joe, I Chad, Amy, Zach, the boys and River went to a bred Ewe sale on the U of I campus. Chad came home with three ewe lambs and River was a good puppy! I don't believe that the boys had ever been to any sort of auction before. We capped off the night with a bonfire and pizza!

Yesterday found me delivering the boys back to Mom and seeing off Amy & Zach, but not before Amy had our Christmas decor and tree up. Thanks Amy!!!

Last night, "A DOG Named Christmas" was on T.V.--which of course I watched. I had just read the book, and the movie followed the story pretty closely. I enjoyed the movie.

Farming is almost complete in the acreage North of our place. So, besides the hunters, we should be quieting down around home.

Tonight, the dogs get my full attention. They are feeling neglected!

Visitors?

We had our first Holiday visitor show up the other morning. Joe heard some rustling in the storage closet, and upon opening the door...saw a mouse! I hate that. This is the closet where I keep the dog food, extra Tupperware containers, the sweeper, and other general junk! We are lucky. We haven't had many mice in our house over the 15 years that we have lived on this farm. But when one manages to get in, it seems to go to this closet. After setting 5 traps, we still didn't have the little beast this morning. Hopefully, we will by nightfall.

The other strange occurrence on the farm is the disappearance of barn cats. We are missing cats! When we were at the State fair, we came home to find that some kittens had gone missing. Last week when we were in Louisville, we lost some more cats. Oddly enough, Joe heard a strange noise the other evening when letting the dogs out. He wondered if it was some kind of stress alert call from a white tail doe, but after talking to some guys at work, he thinks it might be a fox. I also heard a sound like this at summer's end--about dawn. That would explain where the missing cats are. However, it makes me sad to think that a fox is coming that close to the barns to catch my little cats!!

Visitors

My two nephews are coming to stay overnight this weekend. They live in a small town and love to come to the chaos of the farm. I believe that it is vital to expose our kids to rural life and nature in general. Many kids of this generation seem to thrive on video games and television.
These boys don't fall into that category--they are quite active in sports.

I'll have them such a short time. We like to spend time outdoors exploring and playing with the dogs. However, this weekend is shotgun hunting for deer. Always a bummer when you can only be in certain parts of your property to keep safe from wayward shots!

After last night's frost, I have plenty of chores to do near the house. All the tomato and pepper plants that were planted among the flowers have wilted and need to be pulled for compost.

Keeping busy on the farm...

Well, here we go. I now have a blog. Will I have enough in my life to write about?

Joe & I just returned home from a four day trip to Louisville, Ky. We went to the North American International Livestock Expo. There were thousands of head of sheep and cattle there. We watched the Montadale and Southdown sheep shows. Saw some pretty uniform looking Southdowns. We both agreed that the breed is looking good---not too many "exotic" looking Southdowns in Louisville.

River & Willow--my Little Mini Aussies went with us. It is a four hour drive and they did well. It was their first time to stay in a hotel, and after the somewhat sleepless first night, they settled in .

Last night was the Canine Good Citizenship test at the Dog Training Club. I didn't think that River was quite ready, so I didn't test him. I drove over to help out. This is an AKC sponsored test that measures the good behavior of your dog. At our club, the dog must pass to advance to more challenging classes. It is a pretty important to have a polite dog.