It's moo-thirty a.m....do you know where your cows are?

I mean...2:30 a.m.
The husband's cel phone rang this morning at 2:30, it was Antonio the night milker - there was a cow having a calf and he needed hubby to come over and "pull a calf"...guess you could call him the mid-wife for cows.
Hubby heads out to the other farm, I snuggle in hoping to go back to sleep. I start to drift off...
I hear a moo, the moo is coming from the wrong direction. After living here for thirty years a girl gets to know which direction a moo should come from, if it's a stress-moo, a horny-moo, a pain-moo...you get the picture. This was a stress-moo...and it was coming from the northwest - moos here should come from the south.
That's it, if a moo is coming from the wrong direction this could spell serious trouble.
I got out of bed, went to the upstairs window to listen, "moooo, moooooo".
Downstairs I go, outside...in my jammies and sandals. Walked into the backyard and out to the veggie garden, no moo. Walked back to the house to get a flashlight, moo, dang it...moo bouncing off buildings. Walked out to the silage bunker, hear stress moo. Brain wakes up a little more, perhaps it would be"hoove" (pun intended) me to get my car so I can drive behind the barn and use my headlights to scan the field...grab the cel phone and dog too! Drive out...and there she is - what the cow-crap??? She's brown - at least I think it's a she...the bovine is in the field and with the lousy light and long grass I can't see so good and I for sure can't see her "privates"! I know I can't chase her alone, in the dark, with a bad ankle to boot. If I did chase her...where would I chase her to? I don't know anybody in the neighborhood who has reddish brown cows - where on earth did this beast come from.
Think to call hubby, who I think is still at the other farm, get hubbys voice mail - I'm thinking he's busy with maternity duty and can't answer. Sooo...I go back to the house, thinking I'll wait for hubby to come back...then I hear the beep - his cel phone voice mail alert...he doesn't even have the stinking phone with him.
What's a girl to do?
Go back to bed, not my cow, can't chase it alone, where would I chase it to?
It's stinking dark, my ankle hurts, I walk verrry carefully - I dO NOt RUn!
Go back to bed is the only clear answer, I wouldn't even know who to call because I don't know anyone who has cows that look like that...in the dark I was guessing she was a beef cow. She's in the field, there's lots of grass...settle down missy and we'll deal with you in the morning and don't you daaaare get lost in the corn field...cuz we'll neverrr find you in there.
Hubby comes home an hour later...he had been home earlier but when he didn't see my vehicle he went down the road where he saw a lot of other trucks. When he was at the other farm there were two cows on the road, he also had no idea where they came from...so he locked them up and came home, he figured when he didn't see my rig I went to help with the rodeo-round-up...little did he know I was in my rig behind our own barns scanning the field for strange bovines.
We jumped in his truck, ( I changed from jammies to jeans fyi ), there were more cows, more guys in trucks, and some ATV's...while we were telling them about the beast at our place two more moosies came running out from some body's back yard. They were WiLD! CRaZy! BEaStS! The other farmers told us where the strays came from, and it was wayyy up the road, and they were scattered over a couple of miles - these gals crossed busy roads and nobody got hurt...a-freaking-mazing.
When we got home we checked the pool for cows, just in case - cuz it's happened before. No cows taking a midnight dip...whewww.
This morning when the sun came up there were three brownish/red cows hanging over the fence trying to make friends with our black and white girls.
Somebody came while we weren't home and loaded them up in a cattle trailer and took them back to wherever it is they belong, I hope they ship them someplace far away, becaue these girls obviously have a serious case of wanderlust.
Somebody owes me somethin', I hear the cattle hauler that was housing them at his place was out fishing or crabbing or something ....I think that a nice fish or a dungeness crab or two would be a lovely trade for a lost night of sleep.
Doncha think?
Just sayin'

The Happy Cook

Oh my...I'm a happy little cook.
The kitchen isn't finished, but it's in hold-mode so that we can take some time to enjoy the last bit of summer. Remodeling isn't for sissys, especially if you're trying to do a lot of the labor yourself - but I wouldn't change a thing.
Last week I put the kitchen to the test and cooked like a maniac for our annual Garden Party...oh.my.stars!
I loooove my new kitchen.
I have counter space, and lots of it! Well, I guess not compared to the McMansions that I've seen, but when you consider that my washer and dryer took up a lot of space in the old kitchen it was always a little challenging to do serious cooking.
But now? Ooooo la la!
This girl has room to spread out! The photo is of the bar which has become command central in the kitchen, I can really spread out. I can cook three recipes all at once, I can get out all of the ingredients and line them up like little soldiers in my cooking army! I know I sound over-the-top giddy but cooking in the old kitchen was like cooking with one arm tied behind your back.
Now that I've rambled on and on about counter space...can I tell you how much fun it is to cook really seriously with a dishwasher? A dishwasher! Now that's somethin' I tell ya...washing dishes never really made me cranky, but it ate up a lot of time...especially during a cook-a-rama. I'm calculating that I can cook twice as much stuff in half the time with my little friend from kitchen-aid.
I gotta watch it, I don't want to have to buy bigger jeans because of all of the good food I'm planning to make.

Celebrate!

The cabinets are coming, the cabinets are coming!

Ok...they've been in the garage for months...but tomorrow they're getting installed, I wish it was me (and hubby) doing the installation but he's drawing the line - he won't budge - he won't install cabinets with me.

Sunday we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, two months ago we took a wonderful sailing trip, a gift we gave to each other...we think thirty is a really big deal, we love sailing so that was how we opted to mark this memorable occasion.
The photo is of us after a great week on the boat...bliss baby.
We both want to take another sailing trip, the dream is to go to the South Pacific.
What do sailing and cabinets have in common? In my cajoling conversation with hubby about cabinet installation...he said "you really think we'd still be married if we tried to install those cabinets on our own?"
He has a point, cabinet installation is tricky,
and I want another anniversary so we can go sailing again.

I give.

My New Reflecting Pond

I love reflecting ponds.
When I travel I love to go to beautiful gardens... water features always catch my fancy.
My new reflecting pond was installed last night courtesy of my upstream neighbor.
He mowed his ditch...all 40 acres of it...and then he let the long canary grass fall into the ditch....and then it rained last night...and it rained some more.
All that canary grass worked its way downstream - until it ran into my culvert -
where it stopped.
And it plugged.
And the water had nowhere to go.
Except my back yard,
and my front yard
and my field,
and my veggie garden,
and my party barn...
where I was storing my dining room chairs,
and my rugs,
and some furniture.

I would like to take this opportunity to present my upstream neighbor with...
drum roll please....

THE DARWIN AWARD.
OK...so nobody died...and to officially qualify for a Darwin he would have had to trip and fall into the ditch and croak.
Can I just give him the "ISNY"?
That's Inconsiderate Stupid Neighbor of the Year Award...
works for me.

I have to go now...I'll check back in a month or so after I finish cleaning up the mess.

Here Chicky Chicky

I want chickens.
Everywhere I look I see really groovy chicken coops, cute chicks following mama hens. Hubby is totally against the idea, he says I'm too busy...and he's right.
The kitchen remodel is still hanging in the balance.
There is a garden to be weeded and planted.
The cabin is a work in progress.
There is a half-finished waterfall in the back yard.

Monday was the frosting on the cake, we were standing in line to board our plane on the way home from vacation...and there were chickens on the runway.
I think they're trying to tell me they want to come live at my house.

Floored

The kitchen floor saga continues.
If Bob Vila was doing and episode of "This Old Farm" and someone had asked if this old kitchen floor could be saved, two days ago I would have said no...give up girl...go shopping for something to cover up that nightmare.
But today...the sun is shining...and the floor looks like something I just might be able to live with.
The journey to this point was long and arduous.
It consisted of peeling off all of the layers of old flooring - I won't go into that since I already posted about our escapades on the floor peel-a-rama.
Next up came...
sander rental, big...
but not big enough or mean enough...call it the sissy sander...
another sander rental and the meanest roughest sandpaper on the market...
two buckets of gap filler goop...
a palm sander for edges...
a random orbital sander to sand out the ruts and gouges from 100 years ago...
four batches of stain color trials...
first coat of stain...yuck
next coat of stain...uh ohhh...nooo likey!!!
fix it with the third coat of stain...
Hubby peeked in at it last night when I was close to finishing up the final coat of stain..he said "looks good hon"...it was like music to my ears. I think both of us thought this floor was probably more work than it would be worth...but neither of us wanted to spend a bunch of money on new flooring - since I was willing to tackle it he got out of the way, smart man that one ;)

This morning - - the floor looks decent. I think I'm ready to put on the first coat of sealer.
Unfortunately I don't think my knees will bend for me to get down there with a bucket and a brush.
I don't even want to think about how many hours I already have in this floor...and there are still several more to add to the tally.
Where the heck is that ibuprophen?

Hurry Hurry Stop!

We pulled it off.
Everyone is happy.
I love spending holidays with family.. but sometimes it's a bit of a challenge to make sure that we don't play favorites.
Easter Sunday was fun, lots of family, food, chatting, driving...and it went off without a hitch.
But then I saw this field of tulips...take a right and pull over honey!
Hubby pulled over, he doesn't really get the whole photo thing...sweetie...I really need you to come to a full stop so I can get a good shot ;)
I really wanted to get out and take more photos, actually I just wanted to stand and stare at this glorious riot of color.


Isn't this just crazy beautiful?