1st Grade Field Trip

Greta and her first grade class got to go to the same wildlife park that Wesley's class went to a few years ago. Once again it was cold and damp and once again all the kids seemed to have left their jackets at school. Poor freezing kids.The monkeys seemed to have the same feelings about the weather. 

It did warm up after a bit and the sun actually emerged. It was lovely seeing all the animals. They have a nice petting zoo with big tortoises (several large sulcatas, same tortoise that we have). I can't wait until Billy Bob is this size.

Feeding of giraffes was a kid favorite.

Greta and her best bud Jackson.

My favorite picture of the day was the family of baby ducks competing with the giant koi for food being thrown out. I kept thinking those tiny ducklings would fit in the mouths of those giant fish, but they left them alone thankfully.

The Birthday Horse

When we moved out here nearly 13 years ago I knew I wanted horses. But with only 5 acres I knew those dreams might not include a full sized horse but rather a couple of miniature horses. So I brought Rocky home as a 6 month old colt and the following year I bought Desi who was 9 years old. These two little horses filled that void that I had for a full sized horse. They sure take as much care as a full sized horse....just as many visits from the farrier, just as much manure and just as much hay.

Yesterday Desi turned 20 years old. You might ask "Is that old for a horse?". Well, not really. The farrier said he routinely sees them go into their 30's without any problems. So we're hopeful little old Desi will make it at least that long. Happy Birthday little horse!

Oh and I couldn't not post the outtake from the birthday picture above. I'm crouched down trying to get a picture with Desi and Rocky was having none of it. He needed to see what was going on and investigate. Rocky usually "investigates" with his teeth. He's a mouthy horse. So he tasted my hair for awhile and showed some interest in my earrings. He did not draw blood, for a change. Desi thinks this is pretty funny stuff.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! It's been a lovely weekend full of egg hunts, church and candy, candy and more candy. We hit the big hunt yesterday in town. They put lots of quarters in the eggs so the kids particularly love this hunt. It's only for 9 and under so it's the last one for Wesley.

I got crafty with their Easter baskets and found a tutorial to make the baskets into Troll baskets using tulle. Greta was super excited as she loves the movie Trolls. Wesley thought it was cool but quickly asked me to take it off before taking the basket to church for their hunt. He's much too cool for that.

Pup Surgery

Winston had a big visit to the vet clinic the other day. Can you see in this picture that one nostril is bigger than the other? The big one is the only working one, the other is closed. So the vet recommended that when I brought him in for his neutering that they go ahead and use some of the tissue from the neutering to open up his other nostril. Apparently this pretty common with the smushed nose breeds (pugs, bulldogs and boxers).

He did great with his surgery and now he's slightly less noisy. He's just as crazy though. His new favorite activity is sneaking through the back door when anyone goes in or out and racing around the yard not letting anyone catch him. Good thing it's fenced. The horses and goats have always been intriguing to him. Here's one of my favorite pictures.

Spring!

Boy spring has sprung around here! I love this time of year. So much to do, and it's fun stuff! The garden is being planned and I got a fresh plot rototilled this past weekend. We generally rent a rototiller from the local rental store but we've decided it's time to stop relying on the rental store and just start accumulating the things we use most often (tiller and trailer are the top two). So we bought a little electric tiller made by Sun Joe. It's a 16 inch, 13.5 amp tiller that I just hook up to an extension cord.

For places away from the house I use the generator that is placed on a little wheeled garden cart. It worked great! It helps that it rained all last week and the soil was in perfect condition to till. I will admit that the reviews were correct saying that you'll feel like you wrestled an alligator when you're done. My arms hurt and felt like jelly afterwards. It was quite the work out.

I tilled up a 6X20 foot plot up by the house to just be a big flower garden (I might mix in some cucumbers). I like the idea of attracting and feeding the bees with a big flower garden. Can't wait.

It doesn't look like much now, but it's going to be packed full of zinnias (my favorite garden flower).  The back garden will be full of tomatoes and squash. We are looking forward to the blackberries arriving and I planted three raspberry bushed yesterday. So I hope to have raspberries next year. Yum!

Sean spent the weekend working on the F250 trying to make it start better. The fuel pressure has always been weak so you have to turn the key on and off several times until the pressure is high enough for it to start. He decided it was time to replace the fuel pump which, of course, is under the bed of the truck. So after watching a few YouTube videos and enlisting a little help (thanks Mom and Dad) we got the bed of the truck removed. Turns out an engine hoist works great. He was able to replace the fuel pump and now if starts great! Yeah!

Birthday Weekend

Last week we traveled to my sisters house to celebrate my youngest nephews 6th birthday. They kids always have a great time playing with their nephews and this time was no different. Happy Birthday Bennett!

My parents decided to change things up a bit and hid Bennetts birthday presents so that he'd have to complete a scavenger hunt to find his goodies. They gave him hints as to where they were and all the kids would set off to help him find his presents. The non-birthday kids even got a few goodies. It was fun.

We had the privilege of seeing Emery preform in his very first piano recital while we were there. He did a fabulous job!

 My Dad likes to make big breakfasts (that the kids gobble up!) and he made quite the feast Sunday morning.

Before we left to head home we went to Cabela's to see all the animal displays. There were some massive displays of mounted animals throughout the store, with streams full of trout. It was incredible.

There was also a shooting range with guns fitted with lasers that you shoot at targets. It was very kid friendly and Wesley had a lot of fun (as did Papa).

They all wanted to go see Nebraska Furniture Mart and since I've never been I decided to make a quick stop. It was a massive store, that's for sure. Next time I need a new couch or pretty much anything, I'll make the trip up there. The kids were diggin' the headphones. It was a nice trip.

Nature Center

The Cub Scouts did their annual outing to the local nature center a few weeks ago. I found the pictures on my phone and thought I would do a post. They got binoculars and spotted quite a few bird species, but for the most part the wildlife wasn't out yet. Amazing how much can change in three weeks, wildlife is out and trees are blooming now.

It was a brisk cool day and by the time we made it back to the car we were all chilled to the bone. Not wanting to go home, I decided to take the kids to Applebees and let them pick a dessert to warm them up. They both went with the most decadent brownie sundae they had. Good times!