6 Days and Counting

It has been six days since this little guy came into our home…

In that time, The Farmer and I have learned A LOT!

1. white carpet?  NEVER a good idea when getting a puppy…

2. Hydrogen Peroxide is an AMAZING carpet cleaner and got coffee and dog remnants out of our carpet

3. We can function on very little sleep… we just don’t look very good doing it

4. Training a puppy is harder than it sounds

5. You will look at each other at least once (a day) and say.. “are you still glad we got this dog??” knowing full well that you will always say yes but on some level mean no just a little bit.. but yes ALWAYS wins out especially when he is curled up next to you sleeping…

6. Having a puppy has definitely brought us closer together and made us work as a team.  It has definitely been a challenging week but I think we have gotten A LOT closer (really didn’t think it was possible) since we brought him home.

7. You start not only talking about number 1 & number 2 (think bathroom) but you know it’s bad when you start praying fervently that this dog will go #2 b/c it is 2 AM, cold and windy and all you want to do is SLEEP!  But all he wants to do is eat snow and chase leaves.. God Help Us!

8.  Puppies go to the bathroom WAY more often that I EVER imagined…

9. That when we eventually have kids we will be the ones that have them at the doctors office nearly daily.. b/c (and I can’t believe I am admitting this) we have already called the vet twice and gone in once and it has only been SIX DAYS!

10.  And the 10th thing we have learned is that despite the biting and the misguided urinating… we really do love this dog…

Sarge with his toys and blankets… he loves his blankets

For some reason he doesn’t mind laying on his back… and will sometimes just roll around on the floor sometimes 2-3 rotations at a time.

The Farmer will make a noise like he is crying and Sarge will come RUNNING and try to console him… He gets very concerned when The Farmer is distressed…   It is really funny b/c if he makes any other noise Sarge will think he is trying to play and react very differently.

Introducing…

Sarge!
Your eyes do not deceive you, we are indeed becoming the proud owners of a real live dog.  Sarge will be coming home at the end of January and we are very excited to have him… well we will be until the crying through the night and the house training…   We decided to get a dog a few months ago and after some searching we found a breed that we could buy close to home and that DOESN’T SHED!!  And, on top of all that is really cute.

We have been to see Sarge twice and will be going at least once a week so he can get to know us before we bring him home.  The following are photos from our second visit.

Happy Birthday

So, this post is very late but Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!! Thank you my love for being such a strong leader and all around great husband.  God really blessed me with you.  A pic from our Birthday dinner for Greg.  He is wearing the new tee-shirt he received as a birthday gift from Gabe and Carolyn.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Every year I vow to myself that I will get my Christmas shopping done well in advance of Christmas… and every year on the 22nd of December I realize that Christmas is only DAYS away… I usually know what I am going to get everyone because I have been thinking about it all year but actually getting to the stores has been the problem.  BUT this year… oh this year… I have finally reached my goal.  I was 95% done with my Christmas shopping by the first of December AND I even had our tree up and decorated by the first week in December!! Oh Joy!! Oh Bliss!! Oh Happy Day!!  The bells were ringing in our household.

To give you an idea of the Christmas cheer going on on in our neck of the woods… the following is a photo of our tree that WAS UP THE FIRST WEEK IN DECEMBER!

Every year I look forward to this time of year and every year I am so sad when it passes.  Not only do we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  But I am blessed to have family near enough that we can all get together for the holidays.  I love baking and decorating Christmas cookies, listening to Christmas Carols, wrapping Christmas Presents, seeing Christmas decorations, ice skating (since I now have my own skates) and most of all just hanging out with family.

One thing that will carry our Christmas Spirit into January is my and my husband’s Christmas gift to one another… be prepared for cuteness to follow!!

Shout out to C!

My sister in law, C, has been invited to sing the national anthem for a certain Presidential Candidate with the initials JM.  Go C!  This woman has a beautiful voice AND a beautiful heart.  So Break a Leg C (not literally) we will be thinking of you!

A new thing that I am going to TRY to do is Farm Fact Fridays!  Instead of a Word of the Day I am going to do a Farm Fact on Friday.  This Friday I have exactly 23 min to get it in before it becomes Saturday. 

Today we are going to explore the wonder that is a Soybean Aphid.  My handsome husband came up with this particular word for Farm Fact Friday.  Per usual I will tell you what I think it is and then tell you what it actually is.

My Definition:  I actually have NO IDEA what this could possibly be.  I know it has something to do w/ Soybeans and while I am usually pretty good w/ vocabulary words I am at a loss as to what Aphid is.  I am going to guess that it is some type of shell on the soybean that has to be taken off… ???

Actual Definition:  OK, so… EWWWWWW!!! THis is a BUG!!!! And a VERY GROSS looking BUG at that!!!

Soybean aphids cause damage by sucking plant sap. Symptoms of feeding damage are  plant stunting, yellow and puckered leaves, and reduced pod numbers. Yield loss is related to aphid density at specific crop stages and on the condition of the crop.  Risk of yield loss is greatest when aphid populations peak at beginning flower because of the impact on pod set.

Definition found at http://www.plantpath.wisc.edu/soyhealth/aglycine.htm
Photo found at www.ars.usda.gov/…/Soybean%20Aphid2.jpg

10 teenages, 1 video camera, and 1 near heart attack…

For you to understand my near heart attack story I need to give you a little background on where my handsome husband and I live.  We live in a second floor condo with a deck.  The deck is VERY far off the ground… I would give you an approx # in feet but i think my handsome husband would die of embarrassment b/c I am ALWAYS wrong on those approximations.

The other night my friend M and I were had just finished with Awana’s and returned to my place for an evening of Project Runway while we waited for our husbands to finish with their respecitive activities.  We had just gotten settled on the couch with our glasses of water when all of a sudden we see a BOY outside the patio door on our SECOND FLOOR DECK!  (Mind you there are NO STAIRS to get on said deck)… I FREAKED OUT!  M on the other hand nonchlantly said “oh that’s my husband J’s cousin”… like this sort of thing happens all the time… Then we see a crowd of teenagers on the lawn yelling at us to open the door… So after having M confirm for the FOURTH time that it was indeed someone she knew… I proceeded to open the sliding glass doors to find a group from the youth group at our church on our lawn, video camera in hand.  Apparently they were tasked during a scavenger hunt with finding a FARMER so they thought it would be a good idea to scare the pants off The Farmer’s Wife… After I told them my Farmer wasn’t home they figured that a Farmer’s wife was a good enough “item” so they did a short interview about the wonder’s of “cowpies” and what you would drink w/ that delicious treat…  Then they ran joyfully off our lawn, happy in the knowlege that they had gotten one more item for their treasure hunt… while I on the other hand… still shaking from the experience went back inside w/ M and waited for my heart to return to it’s normal rhythm… all i have to say is that boy am I glad that M was there… b/c I had no idea who that boy was and my husband takes home security VERY seriously…

Return from my Sabbatical

I have returned from my posting Sabbatical.  During my time away “The Farmer” and I have:

Packed

Moved

Unpacked

Painted

Decorated

Made Friends

Swam A LOT

Bought Furniture

Returned Furniture

Found new Furniture

Traveled to Des Moines a few times

and, Had a few visitors

All in all it has been a busy couple of months in our household.  During my break from blogging I realized that readers (well if there still are any)… might be interested in not only our immersion into the world of farming but also about our everyday lives… So my posts may change a little but rest assured that my education on farming is not over.

Word of the day: Disc

(Picture From http://www.farming-equipments.com/)

Thank you G’pa Bill for this word of the day, Disc. When I think of the word disc I think of a compact disc. I can’t imagine what you would use that for on the farm besides listening to some Alan Jackson tunes on the tractor. “Well I learned how to swim and I learned who I was, a lot about livin’ and a little ’bout love”…

The correct meaning of Disc:
Apparently a disc in farming terms is used on a chisel plough (wikipedia uses this spelling). The disc digs into the ground about 3-6 inches turning the dirt over. You do this after the corn is harvested to break up the root system. And, by putting the stalks under the dirt you are adding nutrients for the following year’s crop.

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday to you… Happy Birthday Dear Michelle… Happy Birthday to you… Since I am not there to sing a Happy Birthday song, I am posting a Happy Birthday song to you. Happy Birthday, Michelle!!