Mud Hole

Our family usually resorts to unsightly things such as this on hot summer days.

All in the name of 'cooling down.'

But no. . . It's much more than that!

It's an exhibition of 'brotherly love.'

A nature study.

But especially. . .

A time to get wet.  

And muddy.

You don't even know the joy of throwing your brother into a freezing cold, muddy ditch on a hot summer day.

It's just a thing that you need a taste for to appreciate.

Oh yes. . . .

Life on the farm at it's best.

Happy Fourth

All I'm gonna say is. . .

YEAH RIGHT.

Typical

Unfortunately, this is the typical situation of feet (mine at least) at our farm.

You see, a flooded field by an ignorant neighbor + crocs + chore time always equals this.  

Luckily there's such thing as washing.  

Ahh. . .

But a few hours later. . . .

Oh well.  I guess that's farm life for ya.

Not to say that my brothers really care about the mud. :)

California Dreamin'

So I guess we'll begin our long long story with the trip to the land of men in high heels and the golden gate bridge. :)

First of all, the trip was horrid.  It was so long that you can't even imagine the torture of it all.  Let's just surmise it by saying that there were 5 restless kids in the car.  That usually isn't the best sign!

Luckily, after hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours (shall I go on?) and hours of driving we were finally saved. . .

There was also a seedy little Nevada town with an illegal fireworks stand and an amazing sunset.

There's just something about Nevada mountains.

But back to reality. . .

We continued to drive until we finally wound up in the tiny town of Winnemucca where we stayed the night with family.

The farm is down a 20 mile driveway through picturesque fields and wonderful mountains.  

'The farm' equipment always makes me smile. 

There's always just about 5 of everything.  All of it necessary, of course!

Let's just say that the morning in Winnemucca was one of the highlights of the trip.

Which basically means that we weren't driving.

Sorry For the Delay. . .

But you see. . . I've been busy.

But I'm still alive.  :)

I'll talk more about "Califrisco" and Girl's Camp later.

Zap

Tada!  It was a skunk again.

Do all of you remember when

One killed the banties, every one?

Back then the war had just begun.

Curious to how we know?

I wasn't very long ago. . .

15 birds lay dead on the ground.

And with our senses so profound

We promptly guessed it was a fox

Who'd broken into our Fort Knox.

The story changed a night ago,

Helping our small confidence grow.

We all stopped to sniff the air

And caught a whiff from Skunk's darriare.

We figure he returned for a feast

And got a zap from the fence, that beast!

Very, Very UNfantastic Mr. Fox Part 2

Guess what??

ANOTHER ferocious animal got in and killed a bunch of chickens again.  This time we think it really was a fox, because he actually ate most of them instead of just killing rampantly like the skunk did.   

Out of our about 62 chickens, he decided to be considerate and only kill 15.

Personally, I think that's a ton.  So. . . . The people of Crabapple Farm are on the warpath again.  Right now we're almost wrapping the chicken coop in electric fence, burying more fence for their run, and shutting every single little hole in the chicken coop at night.

This has obviously not stopped the rabbit, because at the moment he has escaped from his cage AND the chicken coop and is probably off to go "visit" the neighbor's kittens.  UGH!

Stay tuned for "The Knotheads" sometime later this week.