Life Is Too Short To Be Anything But Happy!

I hope everyone had an awesome Friday night and a great Saturday!   I had a long day at work yesterday, but chose to have a quiet night at home just me and the hubby last night, and we enjoyed just chilling on the couch watching videos of animals on YouTube.  Does that mean we are officially old? lol 
Today we hit the floor running.  We went and let our feathered friends out of the coop and opened up the outdoor enclosure for the pheasants. We heard a "cock-a-doodle-grrrr". Yea we thought we had three pullets.....I am thinking not!  I just hope we don't have three Roos!  After that it was off to run errands to all the usual places....Gebos, Feedstore, Grocery store and Gas station.  Then it was back home to work on the chicken run......

We made them a "Dust Bathing Area" with sand.....hopefully they will enjoy it.

We made Mr. Wiggles,(the duck) a pond and set him up with a place of his own!

And we mowed and we tilled

 and we lay down straw

 and we framed out the doorway for the coop and ......we are tired. Very tired. And to finish the day off I dropped my cell phone in the chicken run....

I really hope that is dirt on my phone and not chicken poo!!!

We had a very productive day! Guess I will mow and weed eat tomorrow and we will work on the coop again tomorrow.......

WEEKENDS JUST GO TOO FAST! HAVE I SAID THAT BEFORE?????/
Well I am one tired country gal and I think my big comfy bed is calling my name!
Good night and God Bless.

Rain, Rain And More Rain~ But I Am Not Complaining~

Four nights and counting....that is how many evenings I have not worked on my chicken run because of rain.  Is it frustrating? Yes. But we need the rain so bad that I am willing to be patient and wait.  It has poured down in rain every night since Monday night. We have had a tornado touch down about 11 miles away, we have had baseball size hail 20 miles away, we have had wind in excess of 60 mph less than 10 miles away. But at our place we have had rain. Good old soil seeking, tree loving, grass growing rain.......and tons of weeds! lol. That is ok too though because I will take the weeds if that is what I have to do to get the rain.   Of course, now that it has rained for four nights in a row I am sure I will spend my weekend trying to mow down this 2 1/2 acres and working on the coop and run.

My heart goes out to those losing their homes in Colorado to forest fires.  I can not imagine what they are going through and to the  people in Oklahoma who lost their homes to tornadoes.   Sometimes I think we are guilty of getting so caught up in our "worries" that we don't stop to take time and realize that probably more times than most our " worries" are so small in comparison to others.

I complained to my hubby that we didn't get around to replacing one of the fiberglass "skylights" in the barn before the rain hit on Monday.  What damage is being done? Rain is pouring down on the dirt floor directly below the damaged area.  The rain is doing no harm whatsoever, but just the thought that we didn't get it fixed before the rain annoyed me....oh well, I can get over it.  There are people in Colorado that don't have a barn or a house because of the fires, so my worry is small in comparison.

So tonight I ask all the wonderful people out there to please take a break from your busy life and all your worries, and say a prayer to all of those out there that are going through hard times right now, I am sure they would appreciate an extra prayer or two.  
God Bless from my family, my feathered friends, and my fur buddies.

Oh What A Beautiful Day!

Today is a most wonderful day! Nineteen years ago today I became the Mommy to a wonderful young man~ my son Joshua!  So today was all about him! He got to sleep in, and when I got off work I made him his favorite treat, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and then cooked him his favorite meal, Cheese Enchiladas, Black Beans and Spanish Rice.  He is the best son ever and I am so privileged to have him. He is super intelligent, and super kind. He has such a good heart and has good christian values and morals.   Like I said, I could not be more proud of the man he is becoming.   I love you Joshua!

The storms came in this evening and brought some strong winds, but doesn't look like any damaged was done; however, we did get some heavy rain, which we need desperately!

Hopefully the rain will seep into the soil slowly during the night.  We have been in Exceptional Drought conditions going on two years now, so this is definitely welcomed!

Tonight I am being kind of random, but I am in a random kind of mood! Went to hang out and pet the horses yesterday afternoon and I discover that Beauty, our miniature black Arabian mare has a swollen eye and it is full of gunk! We had just started the male miniature Arabian horse on allergy medicine because he had been snorting a lot! So I started Beauty on allergy medicine and I am happy to say that they both seem to be doing lots better tonight!

Then I noticed last night that our cat Mittens had a swollen front leg and was limping!!! I am happy to report that he came up on the porch earlier and seems like he is fine. All swelling gone and walking ok.

 Well I guess that is all for me tonight. Done a little crafting and a little blogging, now it is time to do a little laundry and then off to bed.  
I hope everyone has a wonderful restful night sleep.
God Bless.

   

Weekends End Way Too Soon.......

I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, and if possible I hope you were able to celebrate a father in your life!  I wasn't able to spend Father's Day with my daddy who I love dearly, but I was able to spend it with my sweet husband who has been a daddy to our kiddos since 1993. I can't even begin to describe what a wonderful daddy my husband is to our kids.  He has always been there for the kids when they needed him, no questions asked.

And......he is just as devoted to his animals! As you can see, there are three things in this world that makes my sweetie very happy.....ME, his kids, and his animals!!!!


This awesome man and I spent most of the weekend working on the chicken run and it has came a long way, but we still are not finished. Early mornings and late evenings made dents in all there is to do, but the midday heat sure slowed us down at times.  The following pictures are some of the activities that went on at Itty Bitty Acres this weekend!

We planted five Butterfly bushes and surrounded them with fencing so the birdies don't eat them, made a center support system to keep the netting up higher, and made a gate to go into the chicken run.  Still not done, but we made a lot of progress. When the run is finished we will start on the coop.  Baby steps, definitely baby steps.  
Well that was my weekend in a nutshell, how was yours?
God Bless

Busy Saturday

Whew!  Boy am I tired tonight! I got up at six o'clock this morning and I hit the floor running.  I managed to sweep, dust, fold laundry, clean both bathrooms and pay a few bills before 9 am!  Then my sweet hubby and I headed outdoors. We fed all of the animals, let the chickens and duck out to free range, and started working on the chicken run some more.  Den started digging post holes to put up two support poles in the middle of the run to keep the netting up and I continued to attach the chicken wire to the pole fencing that is already up.  I think I have twisted and snipped off so much wire that I am going to dream about it in my sleep!   Once we got the two poles in the ground and filled with concrete we started digging holes to put the five butterfly bushes in place.   Den dug(thank goodness) while I put the bushes in place, and then I placed some landscaping brick around each bush.  Tomorrow we will place chicken wire and screen around each bush so that the chickens can peck at them. Hopefully this will provide them with some shelter and shade in the future.   After being outside for about 4 hours and starting to really feel the Texas heat, we decided to go in. After cleaning up we headed to go run errands and buy groceries. By the time we got home it was already after 4 O'clock.  We unloaded groceries, put everything away and once again headed outside.  A little more work on the chicken run, some yard work and pet time and then back indoors we went. 
I made sausage gravy and biscuits for supper~nothing like breakfast for supper and then we ate, cleaned up the kitchen, went and put all of the animals up for the night and here I sit at almost 10 o'clock and I can honestly say that I am ready to call it a night and go to bed!!!
Hopefully I will get pictures posted tomorrow so please stay tuned!
How was your Saturday?
Hope it was awesome. Goodnight and God Bless.

Weekend Here I Come!

Is everyone as excited as I am that the weekend is here? I am so glad to finally have a few days off to just hang around the place and do what I want!!! We plan on making a gate for the Chicken Run, maybe planting some plants, and of course fencing them off so that my feathered friends can't get to them yet, and hopefully get some more yard work done, repair some areas in the barn roof and finish my crafting storage cabinet so that I can start re-organizing my craft stuff!

I worked until 3pm this afternoon and then came home and used the weed eater and 3 hours, and a lot of screaming later I managed to get about 2/3 of the property done! Hopefully I can finish up this weekend and I might even manage to convince myself to use the riding lawn mower to mow the ditch down the side of the property!(The ditch has a steep incline and makes me super nervous when I mow it).

We still have to move a couple of really large branches that fell during the storm this last week. My hubby will have to use the chainsaw on those before we will be able to move them though. I love living on our Itty Bitty Acres. It is only 2 1/2 acres, but with both me and my hubby working full time, we seem to always be busy trying to keep the place up, add to that taking care of animals, having one kid in college and living at home, crafting, cooking, gardening, antiquing, going to garage sales,and refinishing or re-purposing old things.......we stay soooooooooooo busy! Trust me though I AM NOT COMPLAINING! I love it! Wish I had more time to do more! I love to read, cook, clean(yes I know that is weird), scrapbook, craft, garden, do yard work, raise animals, refinish old furniture, re-purpose old things, recycle, sew, crochet(scarves only, I suck at anything else), canning, cruising on the pontoon at the lake, renovating our house, gutting and redoing our "itty bitty" travel trailer.....and the list goes on! lol We have a lot of family and friends that think we are crazy. I have had more than one person ask me, do you ever relax? I do relax, because when I am doing things that I love, it is relaxing. Do I get tired? Of course! Whether I am scrapbooking, or cooking or even if I sit down and read, if you do anything for a long enough period of time, it can make you tired, but for me it is a good kind of tired!

Well that is my two cents worth for today. Feathered friends have free ranged and we have tucked them into their coop, the goaties are all snug in their beds and the horses are chilling in the barn, while the pheasants are roosting high in the rafters. The dogs are crashed out on the back porch and the the cats are all out and about in the cool night air and I think this lady is going to call it a night so that I can hit the floor running tomorrow.
Goodnight, and God Bless.

Peace

Peace. Isn't that what we all want? Good old peace of mind.  After some potentially scary news(job related) yesterday, I stressed out, freaked out, and blew everything out of proportion I am sure.  Today after spending the day at work worrying and then coming home and as I pulled into my driveway I could see my horses grazing in the side lot, I could see the goats in their pen chilling out and I realized that if I would just let go and let God handle my job situation that all would be fine.  In that moment, I just let go.  Wow why didn't I do that yesterday?  I slept very little last night worrying about my job and what I should have been doing was praying for God's guidance. Not sure why we choose to hold onto worry but we do!  I came on in the house and when I got on my facebook page this is what I found:

Perfect. Wouldn't you say? Thank you Holly Parper for this. I needed it more than you know.

So I can honestly say that I have officially got my "happy" back and peace in my heart because I am confident that the Good Lord will steer me in the right direction.  Everyone have a fantastic evening.

God Bless