Winsday!

Name it and win!

*******************

You may recall my telling you about the family secret, and how Aunt Tillie went to her grave never telling what caused her brother in law to not associate with his late wife's family. Last week while visiting my grandmother I saw that Aunt Tillie's old home is for sale. Unfortunately, it's zoned commercial, which means it will be torn down. I feel a twinge of sadness over this, although I've never been inside the home and certainly Aunt Tillie passed long before I ever came into the picture. Still, it was part of the family farm nearly 100 years ago.

Aunt Tillie's place

Peter's Dairy

I spent many a wonderful time in this old barn as a kid. My Aunt B lives there now. Not in the barn, mind you, but in the house. I brought Darling over there the other day so she could snoop around and shared with her a place that holds so many fond memories for me. We climbed into the hayloft where there were no creepy things to be found (thankfully) and I pointed out where the calves used to be kept, and told her how I'd roped one with baling twine once, then couldn't figure out how to get the rope off a wild calf.

If you like these two photos, better leave a comment. I think it's party time! That's right, I do believe we'll hit 10,000 hits today. And I'm going to send someone two 8x10 photos. Why...I'll even let you choose, because black and white isn't every body's style. Perhaps you'd prefer one the bleeding heart from yesterday? Or the Whatcom Falls shot? Hey, whoever wins can let me know.

I wanted to give a shout out to Bossy, who I noticed has been nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award. Way to go, Bossy! Y'all can trot on over and give Bossy a vote, I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

And while you're on the voting band wagon, don't forget to cast your vote for me at the Blog For a Year site! I'm climbing steadily in the rankings, but falling further behind Melanie. I need your votes if someone's going to come visit!

Now I'm going to go out and celebrate, because I get to drive today!!! Maybe I'll do something wild and crazy...like visit Dodsons =) Y'all take care!

Silver does not want to give up her eggs...or anyone else's, for that matter!

If you were to just pop into my house, and open up my refridgerator and see my eggs, you'd probably freak out. They're dirty! Yup. I snatch them from under the hen and pop them straight into the fridge, even if those hens have been walking through the mud to get to their nests and the eggs are dirty.

Why wouldn't I wash them? Well, I do wash them when I'm ready to cook them, but not before. When you wash an egg, you risk the water soaking through the pores of the shell, carrying bacteria inside the egg. If this bacteria is harbored long, you run the risk of contaminating it and making yourself sick when you eat it. The risk of salmonella is incredibly low in raw eggs, did you know that? Most salmonella is on the outside of the shell, which means if they've gotten wet and sat around, you've got yourself a potential problem. Personally? I still eat raw cookie dough =>

I sat down to the computer the other day and as I began pulling photo off my camera I came across a set that I hadn't taken. Judging by the looks of the fingernails in the photos, Darling hadn't taken them, either.

This pic shows the chick's third eyelid.

The turkey eggs never hatched. I got word that the one remaining hen turkey over at my friend's managed to hatch out nine babies. But the incubated eggs? Well, they just went through too much stress. Too cold, I suspect, between loosing their mamma and getting into the incubator here.

We're down to two ducklings. One died the first week. The three remaining ducklings had been moved outside to a pen alongside the horse and sheep. I got up the other morning to feed and found the yellow duckling missing. I'd hesitated putting them in with the hens, as chickens can be very aggressive. However, it was worth the risk for the last two ducklings. Thankfully, they're bigger than the hens and everyone is getting along fine.

Another loss. One of our chicks died. I found it with it's head in the water, no doubt trampled by it's brothers and sisters while trying to get a drink, causing it to drown. That is the sad side of farm life. You invest time and emotion, and you suffer loss. After a while, you begin to accept the losses without so much grief, especially with poultry; they do everything they can to kill themselves, and they're quite good at it. I suppose I don't feel the same grief because I've invested more emotion in sheep, dogs and horses. Which isn't to say I've never felt sad when we loose a chick or duckling. But it's part of life.

Don't forget to vote today! http://www.blogforayear.com/profiles/desperate-horsewife

Did I Hear You Correctly?

So there I was, merrily skipping along, minding my own business, when I came across a blog that had a little link that said something like "Hey, you! Vote for me so I can make a ton of money next year doing nothing more than writing my really stupid blog!" And I thought...what? I have a stupid blog. I'd like to get paid a ton of money to write it!

Now, I know all of you are out there saying "Get paid to write stupid stories about creepy things? How cool would that be?" And I'd have to say, way cool! And then you're probably wondering how much a person gets paid. And the answer to that would be...are you ready? Up to $80,000! Of course, winning involves none other than you...

Here's the deal. Other bloggers are signing up for this contest, too. I've read through the top ten vote getters so far, and each of them is after the money to do some silly thing like, oh, put their kids through college or end world hunger. At least one was brutally honest and said she just wanted to go shopping!

And though I'm certain they're very worthy individuals, you love me best, right? And why do you love me best? Because if even a quarter of that prize money shows up, I'll be flying one of YOU to come see me, HERE, at Carpenter Creek! I did hear your correclty, didn't I? That you wanted to come visit? That you wanted to sleep in the Little Loft of Horrors? Well, this is your chance, folks!

So please click on the link I've provided you with. Click it every day as though your very life depended on it! Not only that, please spam contact all of your friends and relatives. Ask them to vote at least once. For me, of course. Once for me. (Or twice would be better, but I'll accept just once from total strangers.) The more they vote for me, the more they're really voting for you!


So here's the link. Click it. Vote. Spam your friends and family. And thank you. Thank you very much!

http://www.blogforayear.com/profiles/desperate-horsewife

I do look desperate, don't I?

PS...Darling would like to select the winner for yesterday's contest (seeing as how they were her boots and spurs!) I'll get it posted a bit later today, so be sure to check back and find out who won!