Udderly Ridiculous

Hello, my name is Phelan. And I have been diagnosed with. . .

Plumbers Butt Burn.

The main type of people that this illness appears in, are gardeners that spent long hours on their hands and knees, weeding. The cause is wind, sun and pants that are too big for the sufferer. It looks similar to a sunburn, only affecting the small of the persons back. The only known preventative is a sunblock. The cure is unknown, but symptoms will disappear after a few days.

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Edie, my pregnant dam.



I know that her udder can get bigger. But this, this looks painful.

Dread, Hope and Kenny Chesney

Summer heat is coming. This is not something that I look forward to. Heat stroke, more ticks, sunburns and limited time outside working. But you have to deal with it, if you want to live in this type of lifestyle. It will be nice to get to a place where I can just dive into a pond when it gets too hot.

Cow report: Edies' udder are HUGE! I watch her walk and sympathize with her engorgement. It actually makes me cringe, as they bounce off her legs. I honestly can't see them getting any larger without exploding before having this calf. I barely squeezed her into the milking stanchion last night, and noticed that if cow bellies can drop, hers looks like it has. No dribble mucus to report, but she seems to be prolapsing in a certain female area ( sorry boys, should have warned you TMI) I am excited about a new baby, from both Edie and Delilah the Angora.

Contest: Looks like Kenny Chesney is the winner. Thank you for those that helped out. If you are going to Sturgis or know someone that is, I am holding a contest over on Following the Yellow Brick Road. The contest will keep the theme of my blog. I will be accepting submissions on Monday, ending on Friday of photos taken from the back of a motorcycle. Then allowing readers to vote on their favorites. If you could help spread the word for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Full details will be up on the bike blog in a few.

HAIL!

The one thing that gardeners fear, hail!

Monday evening we were out in the field, tack fences and talking to a neighbor. The rain came in, and I told my husband I was done. The rain was too cold. I was a few feet from the house when the rain became fat and a dark color of white, not hail, but a sure sign that it would become it. I yelled out into the field, HAIL! And ran into the house. Soon it sounded like softballs landing on the roof. I looked out and hail varying from the size of nickels to golf balls was falling and I couldn't see the neighbor or my husband. After it passed, I found them in the garage, they got hit with some of the hail, but was able to make it to shelter before the big stuff came down. No major damage.

This was the 5th straight night that we had to deal with sever storms, and tornado warnings. We went out to look at the garden between storms. Some of my corn is on its side, but it will still grow that way. Actually the cows walking through it Saturday morning did more damage, then the straight line winds and hail did. Soon another storm came up and we were forced back into the house. We lost power shortly after that. The next morning I came out to find a lot of my garden underwater. Luckily it hasn't rained as much since then, and it is slowly draining off.

Now this might seem a little odd here, but I would love your input. I have 2 tickets to give away for Sturgis Rock'n the Rally Show, but not sure which ones to give away. I will be having a contest on my motorcycle blog next week, but until then.....

The Announcement

I did attempt to post this yesterday, as I said I would. But, between Flickr taking 2 hours to upload a few photos, Blogger giving me blank screens, and losing power because of the storms, I was unable to.

We decided to take a 60 mile jaunt, into the middle of Nowhere, Kansas.

After 50 minutes or so, we finally found the dirt road we were looking for.
Hey look mommymommyland, them there be hills!!!

7 miles of it, before finding the driveway,

We met up with my mother and her husband, my brother and his wife.

and the abandoned house.

The cellar has caved in, and seems to have a underground fresh water spring running through it.

The barn isn't in too bad of shape, but the corrals are collapsing.

My husband took a look at the windmill. It has seized up, but he is confident that he can get it going again.

This farm is 120 acres, and belongs to my mother and stepfather. The fields have been leased out, but the first 5 acres have sat, unused, for the last 8 years. We are currently talking with them about moving there and steading the land. Once all the details have been hashed out, my boys and I will be moving out there to get the farm ready for animals, my husband out on the weekends to help rebuild the house for our use. And hopefully in time we will be making enough money to be able to purchase a large slice of land for ourselves.

As for the Neophyte Homestead, we are not sure of it's future as of yet. We have talked about selling it, but as we have put our hearts into it for the last 5 years and have turned it from a horse persons yard into a working homestead, we are also thinking about renting it to someone the wants to learn how to homestead. Allowing the Neophyte Homestead to live up to it's name, and giving someone else a chance to improve and work it.

The theme of this blog will be changing rapidly, once the agreements have settled. Hope you hang on, it is sure to be a bumpy, and mistake ridden, ride.

This is How We Party on the Prairie

Friday night was interesting to say the least. The owner of the '73 shovel ( if you read my motorcycle blog ) came over. I went out side to met him, when I saw my neighbor running in from her field. I turned and saw flames. So I turned back and ran into my house to retrieve the fire extinguisher. But I was a little late to help. As I ran to the fence, her husband came running out of the field as smoke billowed behind him.

They had just corralled the horses for the night. The fire was too close, so they ran back and pulled them out. They headed over to our property so that we could hold the horses.

It took about 20-30 minutes for the fire department to show up. Longer then that for the Sheriff to make an appearance.

Yes, that is my husband, sans hat.

After an hour the flames were finally doused, and here is the aftermath.

She had got hung up and uneven ground and hay. She tried to back out, but couldn't. The dry hay caught fire, spread into the engine and soon the truck set off a series of explosions.

But wait, you aren't here, to hear all that are you? You're here to read that Saturday morning, the storm blew down the gate and our cows escaped. I found them 1/2 mile down the road, and had to lead them back.