Happy Independence Day!

Yankee Doodle went to Town, riding on a pony. Stuck a feather in his hat and called it Macaroni!

Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding;
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty pudding.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

There was Captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A-giving orders to his men,
I guess there was a million.

And then the feathers on his hat,
They looked so' tarnal fin-a,
I wanted pockily to get
To give to my Jemima.

And then we saw a swamping gun,
Large as a log of maple;
Upon a deuced little cart,
A load for father's cattle.

And every time they shoot it off,
It takes a horn of powder;
It makes a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.

I went as nigh to one myself,
As' Siah's underpinning;
And father went as nigh agin,
I thought the deuce was in him.

We saw a little barrel, too,
The heads were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little clubs,
And called the folks together.

And there they'd fife away like fun,
And play on cornstalk fiddles,
And some had ribbons red as blood,
All bound around their middles.

The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces;
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.

Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For' lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.

But I can't tell half I see
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off, made a bow,
And scampered home to mother.

Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cocked it;
It scared me so I streaked it off,
And hung by father's pocket.

And there I saw a pumpkin shell,
As big as mother's basin;
And every time they touched it off,
They scampered like the nation.

Yankee doodle, keep it up,
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.

Dancing on ceiling Fans

I ran into town yesterday, and at the corner there was a white and red sign that read "Fireworks are Illegal in this community." What!?! When? We are not under a burn ban, fireworks shouldn't be illegal, they have never been since I have been living out here. Now this puts a huge damper on Fourth of July for us. We base our celebration on (besides the obvious) being able to shoot of fireworks in our driveway.

When I returned, the sign was gone. Now I am really confused. I have no idea if they are legal or not, and I sure don't want that $1,000 fine it was boasting about. Luckily for me I live close to a Sheriff. She is going to find out what's going on. It was suggested that it had something to do with the covenant code out here. I however do not fall under that covenant, as I am 3 owners away from the contract which nullifies it.

Take me break me, tell me a good one, and maybe I'll die.

Today I am thankful. Just watching Mama severely clean her baby boy off brought a few things into perspective.

We need some Craic around here

I was going to take some photos of my garden, as i know how much you guys love that stuff. Camera went dead after I took one sorry photo of a single pepper growing on a pepper plant.

So my whoring for Farm Aid begins today. Those of you that are new to this, it goes by the name, Blogathon.

What is blogathon you might ask. Blogathon is a day when 100's of bloggers stay up blogging for 24 hours straight, posting every 30 minutes to raise money for the charity of their choice. I always choose Farm Aid. This year it starts on July 25th at 6am pacific time.

Click badge to see the Farm Aid site.

More than every Farm Aid needs our help. So many farmers are losing their land because of financial and legal issues, and Farm Aid helps them with their fight. Keeping family farms in the family. Besides, who doesn't love Willie?

So how does this work? It's a lot like a walk-a-thon. You go over to the blog-a-thon website and choose a blogger to sponsor. Different blogs have different charities, and you pledge so much (any amount you want) to the blogger whose charity speaks to you. The blogger nor blogathon ever sees your money. You only pledge through us. After the blogathon it is up to you to go to that charity and donate.

And I have incentives. For those that pledge, you will be placed into a drawing for a $100 gift certificate for Outer Sports, or for 2 longabeger baskets from Melissa's Ramblings, or a Stun Gun from American Preppers Network. There are more incentives on the way, I am currently talking with a very popular magazine about what they wish to donate to the cause, as well as a couple other business. If you are a business or just a fellow blogger that wishes to help out by donating a prize, please email me.

Usually by the time blogathon rolls around we have a pretty good prize donation group( does that make sense?)

If you can't help with prizes or financially, please think about staying up late with me, to cheer me on. Your replies at 3am can really help keep me going. Plus I tend to give out prizes at that time, just to see whose around. You can also help out by linking to my pledge page.

http://www.blogathon.org/pledge.php?blogid=110



Click the banner to pledge
Make sure you snag the above Farm Aid Badge above when you make your pledge.

Blogathon is my way of giving back the best way I am able. I don't plan on changing the world, but I can make sure that we keep it fed. Thank you, all of you. Not just for helping me on this, but by being here.

A Horse, A Gate, and a Neighborhood

Sammy, an 11 year old quarter horse, saw her chance. Someone had left the gate open. She looked around, one human was using a maddox to remove a cactus like plant from the ground, the other was watering in the garden. Of course the two children were sitting right there, looking at her, but she knew they would never tell. Sammy took her opportunity and ran with it. She was out the gate before anyone at her homestead was the wiser.

She ran a few houses down, and decided to call in on a few friend of hers. Ones that she sees from only one side of the fence, now she could see what they looked like from the other. She approached the fence, but her friends all seemed to be busy. Clover and her rider spotted her, and they came racing over. The rider gasped Sammy's name, and jumped off Clover to approach her. Sammy wanted nothing to do with the person, and turned. She ran as hard and as fast as she could. She could hear shouting from both humans and horses.

Back at the homestead, Phelan, the human woman that was watering the garden, was walking out from the back of the house when she saw that the front gate was wide open. "Did I lose a horse?" she called out to no one. One of the two children that watched Sammy leave told her that yes, the horse walked right out. Phelan saw the cowboy hat of her horse neighbor "did she come back?" he asked. Phelan was confused for a moment. "Did I lose a horse?" She asked again.

The horse neighbors informed her that the other neighbors said she had ran to the west. They grabbed their lasso's, lead ropes and halters and grain buckets and headed west to find the rogue mare. They walk a half mile, the sun was setting quickly. No sign of the mare. Suddenly headlights lite them up, and another neighbor came pulling up. "You went the wrong why, she was headed east. There was only room for one of the three walkers in the car, the woman decided to stay on foot, while the man in their search party decided to take the ride and get to the east faster.

The two woman of foot chatted, and giggled nervously about what might happen. When they made it to the east, yet another neighbor was standing in the road. Him and his wife told us that there was no sign of her, and that the car and driven around the block. They were getting concerned because twilight was fading, and soon it would be too dark to see.

The horse neighbor and the car returned without the horse called Sam. The horse neighbor decided to get the tractor with the flood light and see if that would help finding her. Phelan walked back home to get a much needed drink, and to get her own car, driving the opposite direction than the horse neighbor.

On her journey west, and then back east on a different road, she found her husband and her two children that had watched Sammy leave. Unknown to her, they too had taken up the search for the lost Sam. They were having no luck at all. Bad thoughts rushed Phelan, like she was in the corn fields. Visions of her being hit by a car swirled in her head. She made it back onto her road, headlights blinded her. Slowly Phelan approached, she could see the outline of some one walking in front of the blinding lights, towards her side of the road. It turned out to be the wife horse neighbor.

"We found her!"

"were was she?" turned out she had been in a field only 3 fields away from her own She was hot and sweaty, for she was enjoying her freedom. The horse neighbor had her with his own lead, and offered to take her home so that Phelan could find her husband and her two children that were walking the dark streets. Phelan offered some milk as a think you, it was turned down. Instead the only reward that horse neighbor wanted was,

"You can't move. We really like you as neighbors".

I don't know

I am sitting here staring at my vampire skull that my boys decided looks better on my computer desk rather than on my bookshelf amid the horror novels.

Good neighbor brought over some pepper plants that were started a tad late, last night. They look good. Got them in the ground in various places. Don't think my garden can hold much more.

I keep getting invites to facebook, 12 to be exact. So I guess I am on facebook now. Do I do a little dance or something?

We decided or our math decided for us, that Uma should calf in the beginning of July. Eddie should calf the beginning of August. We should have paid better attention, but to be honest we didn't realize that Uma was old enough to go into heat when we had the bull over for his visit.

Yesterday I sent the boys on a mission. Get the dog collar around Courage. That didn't work. For credit, they did try. Husband got a hold of her with a lasso. We got her down, and as I tried to get the collar on, Murrial jumped the fence to save her baby. We had to stop at that point. I have learned my lesson, as soon as the pop out, collar on, next day, start dragging them around. The next two calves should be easier to get near, because their mom's are comfortable with us. Poor husband, he did a wonderful flip and roll while holding onto Courage.

Except for the massive Migraine

It was a pleasant weekend.

I smoked some skull cap for the migraine. It didn't get rid of it like my friend claimed it would, but it did help me sleep and kept me asleep a little longer than normal.

Skull cap is in the mint family. But when smoking it, it tastes a bit like a whole other herb. So I went in search of what exactly skull cap is all about, and my side now hurts from laughing. (all the bad kids know why) I found out why it didn't help my migraine, I don't have nervous headaches, or stress headaches. Mine is a chemical imbalance. But it helped me sleep, and that is usually the best thing for my migraines. Go here to see what all skull cap claims to be able to do.


We have a pepper! And several squash are coming in. All the tomatoes have blossoms, and a finally have cucumber up. The bloody Butcher corn I planted came in fast. It will be knee high by the 4th.

oh! Coffee's done. I am late getting up this morning. I was up late last night, trying to get some of the things done that I couldn't with the migraine, and with the heat. But it is only suppose to be 90 F today. I should be able to get a bunch more done.

I was just chatting with husband, he says in theory that the skull cap should help my restless leg syndrome. I told him the next time I get jumpy, I will try it and see. Does anyone want to know if it works for me?

As soon as I am done with my first cup o' coffee, I need to go milk. Some days I am just not motivate to go out there. I really dislike that part of myself, but I force myself to go. It's only 30 minutes out of my day, and it's not like I have a bunch of other things to be doing. I milk, working in the garden until it gets too warm, then I do inside chores and play with the boys until it starts to cool back off and then go out and work in the garden and milk again. Life can get a bit boring at times. I think that's why I am looking forward to this party. Melissa, you guys still coming?

We actually have enough money to buy groceries this week. WHOOHOO! I need something in my diet besides pork. Seems like that's all we have been eating for the past month.