Cookie Time

My daughter is a girl scout.

This is  her first year, well kind of the middle of the second year.

Any way, this is the first year we have taken part in the whole Girl Scout Cookie mania.

Last Saturday night we made the trek into Austin and set up outside Sams Club and began to ask
people  if they wanted to buy girl scout cookies.

As customers came out with their purchases the girls would smile and ask "would you like to buy some cookies?"  and 9 out of 10 people would stop and look and buy what they could.

Now, I don't know if you have ever been to Sams Club, or any sort of place like Sams Club, it's a place people go to save a little of money usually by buying large amounts of items, so customers coming out had already spent quite a bit....and here is what I want to say about the people going in and coming out....
Nice, hard working people.

I mean honestly these people were spending their Saturday night in Sam Club and still coming out
and taking the time to buy cookies from 2 young ladies asking them to spend more money!

I can be a cynical person but the whole experience was uplifting. For the most part we Americans are good
people, we will support causes, like girl scouts or what ever, and we don't have to. We do because we
 either were a girl scout at one time, or know a girl scout or just want to promote young people taking part in wholesome activities.

The media can make it sound like we're going to H--- in a hand basket, but we aren't ... we the American people aren't, we're doing fine.... and we like cookies!

Art Therapy

As  you probably know, my husband Jerry is a carpenter, also a musician....
but for today what I am talking about has to do with the carpentry.
The wood left over from his jobs to be exact.


He leaves the job and all these little pieces  come home to my driveway...

Usually we just end up using them for
firewood.

But recently I decided to start using them for art works.

Drawing for me is very relaxing....
I don't really know what I will do with the pictures I end up with, but I like to
make them....

I wanted to share these first works with ya'll.
Part of the fun is taking a piece of "trash" and giving it a second life so to speak.
They can stand on a shelf or hang on the wall.

What do ya'll think?
I have been using oil pencils, but I might try paint or oil pastels...

Any tips?

Today I had a scare...

You see I am selling Novella and Lana.
I don't really want to, in fact you could say I don't want to, but the fact is sometimes one has to do things they don't want to do.

I have had to face the fact that this property is just too small for all these girls.

I have been looking for a larger place, and hopefully with an ag exemption. In fact there is a place I think may work, but of course the details... still I keep dreaming.

Any way, so I posted Novella and Lana for sale together as a pair. I had a few responses and one woman came out today.. with her trailer. She was very sweet. I showed her around and when we went to look at Novella and Lana she says, "I really was hoping to only take one of them..." I didn't say anything.

We talked some more, and I explained that she really needed at least 2 so when it is time to breed the cow you can tell when they are in heat.... she said she planned to put her with her meat cows to determine when to breed.  As we talked more I began to realize that Novella would be the only cow, in a yard on a lot smaller than mine.

Long story short I told her no.
I have called off sales before. When I determine that the buyer is not ready in some way, maybe the wrong place, wrong situation... you know what I mean?

Lucky my husband supports me in this, he says to find her a good home, with her baby. When I know it is the right place then sell her.

So for now we are all together... maybe there will be a miracle and I will find a bigger place and everything will fall into place and we will stay together.

Years ago when we lived in Austin, and my kids were little we had guinea pigs.

Of course we kept them in cages, small boring cages.

We also had one or two rabbits, that we also kept in a cage, well a hutch but really the only difference is that a hutch is outside, but it's still a cage.

One by one we would tire of these poor animals because really... all they did was exist in these wire boxes... and the task of caring for them became a pain.

Yes, I heard about "house rabbits" but at least our attempts at litter box training , left much to be desired. Our rabbits always dropped  balls of poop all over the house. Tthe rabbits would hide from us, and try to chew cords and baseboards. Which is not really my idea of a good house pet.

I told my kids, "I'm done with rabbits that run away from us!" I mean really, is that fun?

Then I learned about Flemish Giants. They are a breed of giant rabbit, originally bred for meat, but they are also known as "gentle giants". Our dear girl, Bonnie  ( a flemish giant) actually comes to us when we go out for feed her.
 We don't keep her in a cage, she shares a pen with 2 rescue guinea pigs.

 This group of girls are a delight to watch. They serve no real purpose except for the pleasure of their company.

I have heard that since guinea pigs need vitamin C and rabbits don't, keeping them together is hard because of the  feeding , but I just serve a varity of grains, greens and hay and they all seem to be thriving.

I would recommend this set up to any one wanting to get their child/ren these sorts of pets. As long as you provide shelter they are very hardy and so much fun!

The farm  co-op kids LOVED Bonnie and the girls like crazy. You'll be surprised how fast guinea pigs are when they aren't caged!

Fun, fun...

Here it is another year.
Seems like just a few weeks ago I got used to writing 2013 on my checks and now  I have to start all over with 2014!

  It's just another day, but for some reason it feels like a clean slate. Like the first day of school, you know,... before you got behind on all your assignments and you still had an A in every single subject. That magical wonderful time of possibilities.

Most people set resolutions for themselves, promises to be the kind of person they wish they could be.
Then sadly, many break  those promises to themselves and become discouraged. They give up, they
don't even try.

I have done this very thing myself. Set goals for myself, and then when I don't reach them in the way I hoped,  I  felt so disgusted  I  told myself "why try?"

 It's not the slip up, the eating of the chocolate cake or what ever... . it's that we listen to that inner voice.

My resolution this year is to not listen... to be kinder to myself and to everyone else around me.
There is no shame in making mistakes or even failing... the shame is to believe that our mistakes define us, that our mistakes are us....

Those mistakes are life, and this is our journey.

Hoping for a rich, wonderful 2014, for us all.