Almost halfway through

We're already almost halfway through 2009. It's the end of May. I haven't quite figured out why it seems like the years fly by faster and faster the older I get. I was discussing Christmas the other day, and the kids were looking at me as though I'd grown a 3rd head... don't they realize that it's only 7 months away? Good grief!

It doesn't help that we've started a new venture this year. We've been clearing out people's scrap metal and junk items & cars and recycling them. Since HP cut back every one's paychecks this year, we've been working on finding ways to replace the difference. So we published www.scrapnjunk.com and made business cards, and we've been getting calls. It's really cool! We've also managed to re-home a LOT of items to people who need it.

I've also joined the Face Book & Twitter "revolution" - It's fun. I've managed to reconnect with several friends & relatives that I hadn't seen in years, and that's definitely great. I've also made some new friends this year, and that's even more outstanding.

We switched out the curriculum we were using "mid-stream" this year, so the school year has been totally wrecked... but I'm enjoying the Switched on Schoolhouse, now. I don't think it was quite right for us when we tried it several years ago, but it's definitely perfect for us now, and I'm thrilled to have gone back to it. Of course, it's been upgraded several times since the last time we tried it, but the 2009 version is perfectly on target for our needs.

We're working on gearing up for the summer after getting our Spring birthdays out of the way (2 in April, 1 in May). The summer brings lots of get-togethers for the kids with their Bible Study groups from church, and time to spend with their friends who follow the public school calendars. There are several fun movies coming out that we all want to see, so I'll be hunting for ways to earn free movie passes again this year. I only have 7 left from last summer - which adds up to one family movie.

It's time for me to go ahead and hit "publish" - we're heading out to pick up a couple of round bales of hay for the zoo that we have going on here. Have I mentioned that we're up to 1 horse, 1 longhorn, 3 goats, 12 sheep, 2 Chihuahua's, and a smorgasbord of kitty cats? There's never a dull moment around here (although I wouldn't mind some on occasion ).

Going going going.... that's my life!

We all know how crazy life tends to get on occasion... and sometimes,  mine seems to get a tad more so than it should...

Last weekend was absolutely fun. We rented a horse trailer from the Uhaul (yes - they DO rent out livestock trailers at some locations). We were given a beautiful paint yearling pony from someone on Craigslist. His name is Clayton... he's visually impaired. He can see shapes of things around him, but not detail. So he got a bit spooked and I ended up getting trampled somewhere in the melee of attempting to get him corralled into the horse trailer. We did finally get him loaded and brought him  home, and he's doing wonderfully. He was picked up on Saturday.

Sunday brought us a dozen Barbados Sheep and a Longhorn Heffer from someone on my husband's boards that he reads. The sheep are "on loan" for a few months while their owner tends to tearing down and building new fencing on his property. The Longhorn is ours to keep as Babysitting Fees. How cool is that? We've named her Lucy Longhorn. Silly - but there it is.

I was actually able to get Lucy to come eat out of my hand yesterday... a very cool accomplishment considering that she's still a bit skittish around us. (Okay- I thought it was cool).

The week has been pretty much normal - we acquired a 3/4 ton pick up that we need to do some repairs on. It's a big ol' beastly thing, but heavier duty than my suburban. We paid $200 for the pick up, and probably have around $400 in repairs to get it running right. So not a bad price for something that shouldn't have a problem hauling anything we throw at it - and it's even set up for gooseneck, which is a HUGE perk! 

We've made 2 trips to someone else's property to pick up fence panels that they retrieved from other people after Ike. The gentleman we're getting them from was paid to haul them off, has sold a lot of them, and was simply going to burn the rest after their burn ban gets cancelled. We talked him into letting us provide a solution. We've taken away 4 trailer loads so far. We're keeping half, and giving half to a friend of ours who need to fence their property as well. They go with us each time we pick up a couple of trailer loads and help us load, so it's a win-win thing. Gotta love FREE when you have several acres to fence.

We've done all the usual stuff this week, too. Youth group, the recycle center, grocery shopping, Sit & Stitch and other errands. Today is Friday, and I'll be dropping off one of the Front End Loader tires at discount tire, shopping for Vicki for something nice to wear to a wedding that we're attending tomorrow, hitting walmart with some coupons for things I need to pick up (like salad dressing for 8¢, A-1 sauce for less than 50¢, and a few other things), Anderson's Feed Store for their B1G1F sale on "All Purpose Feed" for horses & cattle... and then home again to check everyone's school work and tend to the usual chores. 

The "to do list" is still 8 miles long around here - no matter how much we get done, it never seems to get shorter... I have NO idea how that happens LOL

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll be posting pictures later so that you can see all of our new "pets" on the farm. :-)