Day at the Farm

Hello again...

2 posts in 2 days! WHAAAAATTT?!?!

Thought i would shoot a post out about some of the recent happenings on our family "farm." As some people know, we (Justin, Hunter, Benny and I) own some land a little bit west of town that we call "the farm."  Its real name is Cedar Gap Ranch, because that is the name some former owners gave it.  It is a beautiful 200 acre piece of land that has been used in the past as an orchard (pears and apples), a dairy farm (Hiland Dairy) and apparently was the first place Laura Ingalls Wilder stopped when her family got off the train on their way to Mansfield, MO.  I dont know if that is true or not, but we are directly on the train tracks, and there was an old train depot there at one point...so maybe it is true.

Justin keeps this land to use for hunting and general boy-stuff...tractoring, and whatnot.  We also have some landkeepers, Tim and Keith, who live on the land and help to upkeep it.  They are sort of drifter-types, but are very good helpers, and we really appreciate all they do.

Anyway, we went out to the farm the other day to see some of the progress being made this summer.  Justin and his Grandpa, along with Tim and Keith, have been planning this project to get the cabin newly painted, and to add a bath house, next to the well house. There is no running water to the cabin, but there is electricity.  I was amazed by how much had been done.

To the far left is the well house, then the new bath house, which is a simple portable building on the outside, but has a shower, toilet, sink and water heater inside. Insulated, lighted, very nice (for a bath house). Then to the right is the cabin, which is a cinderblock building with a fireplace, kitchen, beds, etc inside. Like I said, no running water.  Behind the cabin used to stand a large wooden barn, which burned down about 4 years ago in a fire that miraculously did not hurt anyone, but could have easily killed Justin's grandpa who was working on a car inside when some oil leaked out onto a light and caught fire.  Justin was in town getting some tractor parts or something at the time it burned and could see a mushroom cloud.  It was a serious fire.  When I took this picture, I was standing in front of the new barn which matches the other 3 buildings, but is much bigger.

And here you will see the two cutest farmhands ever.  Drinking some Gatorade before we headed out on our adventure.

I saw this leaning against the cabin.  It says "Whoop A$$ stick" and has a picture of a coyote and a wolf on it.  Apparently Tim and Keith were "attacked" by a pack of coyotes or something, and created this as a defense.  This story is highly suspect, but the stick made me laugh.

This is my favorite view at the farm.  It is not a great picture, but we are sitting on top of a hill, at the bottom to the left is a pond, and to the right are a bunch of blackberry bushes.  You can sit up here and see all kinds of wildlife, but usually just a lot of birds flying from one tree to the other. 

At the bottom of the hill, we saw this white horse.  It has a bridle on it, so maybe belonged to someone.  Justin called all the neighbors to see if anyone knew where the horse came from and nobody claimed him.  He looked to be in pretty poor health, which concerns me, so we are having a vet go out there and check on him, letting us know if he needs treatment or perhaps to be put down.  In the meantime, Tim and Keith are looking after him.  If we can get him in better health, we will hopefully find him a new home. This does not happen usually.

Justin and his boys picking blackberries. yum yum.

We found some turtles walking down the trail.  The boys were very excited! This, unlike finding a horse, happens most of the time.  

I hope you enjoyed your little farm tour.  It is such a beautiful place to visit, and we hope that the boys can grow up there learning about the beautiful world we live in.  Now that there is a bathroom out there, I will be more likely to accompany them.

Buh Bye.

The legend of the raccunk

This is a true story...kind of.

One dark and quiet night, I was sleeping soundly in my bed, with the boys all nestled into their beds, when I heard the most dreadful sound.

*mmmmeeeeeeeoooowww*

(Have you ever heard the sound of a cat in distress?)

I looked at the clock and it was 3:30 AM, so I stumbled or of my room and into the living room, thinking "that cat is being attacked by something"

(Sidenote: the last time I heard that sound, I lived with my parents, and went outside to discover their cat about 5 seconds away from being eaten by a fox...No joke. )

Anyway, in my sleepy daze, I opened my backdoor, turned on the light and saw...

A SKUNK!!!

I SCREAMED!!!

THE SKUNK HISSED,

Then the skunk jumped off the porch (a long way down)

I stopped screaming, ran inside, then realized I still hadn't found my cat. She was on the ledge right next to where the skunk was.

Once I got inside, I started thinking. ..

Why didn't that skunk have a stripe?

Do skunks hiss?

Why, oh why, did we not get sprayed by the skunk?

What kind of person sees a skunk and screams? Probably not the best idea ever, to scare a skunk (see above).

Upon further reflection and a few discussions with my trusted advisory team of friends and family, we decided it must be...

A RACCUNK.

ok, I actually think it was a black racoon, that is an actual thing. Wikipedia it.

So, we went to the lake for the 4th of July, and when we came home, the raccunk had definitely been here. The garage was ransacked (or shall I say raccunked) and that darn critter had left MULTIPLE piles of feces right outside my back door. Right by where I screamed and sent him careening off the porch.

The moral of the story? Well, it has three parts:

1) never scream when you see a skunk, you probably won't get as lucky as I did.

2) when you go to the lake, make sure your husband is with you so that he can pick up the unbelievable amounts of raccunk poop. (I actually did do this one right)

3) cats should be armed. Fact.

I sure miss you, blog.