Five on Friday

1. I have been watching my fiance's niece and nephew this week from 5 to 5:45.  It's kind of fun because they are at a pretty good age. We went for a walk around town with the dog one day and then to the park on Wednesday. This is Aidan and Genevieve on a so called teeter-totter. 

     

2. I got a wild hair up my butt the other day to make Pumpkin rolls. Yikes! This was a challenge and I read many horror stories of making them. They seem a little bland. I think I need to look at some more recipes to figure out the problem. They also cracked a little when I was rolling them up, but it didn't crack all the way through.  Oh well, I still ate it.

3. It's prime time for morel mushroom hunting! I went on Sunday night with Chris and again last night with Mom and Chris.  We averaged around 15 mushrooms each time. Last night they were all huge! Here is some that we picked.          

                

4.  In a week I will be done with my first semester of Graduate school!

5.  I ordered my wedding dress yesterday! It is a Casablanca Couture dress and will be arriving in 3 or 4 months. All of the wedding party attire will be boughten/rented from Always and Forever Bridal in Dyersville, Iowa.  After the dress comes in, I will tackle the cathedral length veil.

The Past Few Days

It has been awhile since I blogged! I have much to tell. Saturday was my Mom's birthday and my parents came over to our apartment for supper and cards. I cooked fettachini chicken alfredo along with garlic french bread. It was delicious! Then we played a game called Up the River Down the River. Mom lost almost every bid she played. It was birthday luck for sure! Us kids gave her a facial to Contempo Salon in Dubuque. She is going to love it.

Another exciting event was that I brought my horses up from the timber and into their pasture by the house. Mom helped me bring them up and also comb out their tails. What a trooper! Today I finished with all their tails and manes, but still have a few cockaburrs in their forelock. The reason I got them up from the field was to get their teeth floated. I brought them to Kundes and had Christine Woodford preform the task. Precious and Flash had to get double tranquilized, while Woody was an angel as always. I took a few pictures of her in action. Check out her business of VIP's. She specializes in teeth, chiropractics, and acupuncture for horses.

She had awesome equipment and a flashlight that shined into the horses mouth. This is not one of my horses but just another of the 19 patients of the day.

Chris convinced me to come sit on the tractor and keep him company while he plowed on Saturday. It was warm and sunny but pretty windy. My hair was everywhere and was terrible to comb through when I got home. It was my first time experience with this type of plowing and it was interesting to watch the ground get folded over ever so gently. It was kind of weird how peaceful the plow dug into and rolled over the earth. I took a picture of the first dig into the 10 year land back in commission. I almost forgot to mention that I almost died. Chris stopped the tractor suddenly and I went flying forward-luckily he caught me!

Gloomy to Bright and Beautiful

So today started off a little dim. I was in a bad mood and nothing was helping. I had a good cry and let it out, talked to my sister, and confided in a few good friends. The day was slowly but surely getting better as it went on. I am on my fifth load of laundry! Look out, I am on a roll. Next I have to tackle a weeks worth of pots and pans that are flooding my kitchen counter top. Yup a weeks worth-I am not over exaggerating. I am not looking forward to an hour of my life dedicated to Dawn dish soap. 

The usual grind of homework is keeping me busy and not very adventurous. Although this weekend should bring a little more excitement. It is my Mom's birthday! My parents are coming over tomorrow night for supper and some card games.  I did come across my gnomes along the side of the house. They send their Spring cheer to everyone! 

Pastry Bag Fail!

Today I went down to visit my 3 horses in their pasture connected to the timber. I needed to see if Woody's eye was getting any better-he seems to have poked it with a stick while grazing, and it is now all watery and extremely uncomfortable for him. Tomorrow I will treat it with a triple antibiotic and flush it out with some Clear Eyes for horses. I decided since I was down there I would walk the pasture and pull out any cockaburrs. Long story short, I was trying to pull a giant one out of the ground and they ended up getting all in my hair. Seriously. It was terrible. I can relate to my horses now.

Yesterday I baked some amazing cupcakes. We had left over filling from Easter so I just needed the cupcakes. They turned out great and today I needed to fill them. I didn't have a pastry bag so I decided I would improvise with a plastic ziplock bag. It was going surprisingly well. I had two done and then in the middle of filling the third one, it blew a giant hole out the side seam! What a disaster. I had to clean that all up, salvage what filling I could, and then think of a new idea. I ended up using scotch tape to reinforce the seams on the plastic bag and it worked like a charm! The end result of the cupcakes is pure bliss. I can't take credit for it. Rather than me typing the recipe out, here is the link for Heavenly Surprise Cupcakes. Enjoy!

Lumberjacking

This morning started off like usual-the alarm going off at 5:30, eating breakfast, milking cows, and the usual chores. Little did I know that my Dad, Steve, had big plans for us. He wanted to pull out fallen down trees and clear away brush from the fences located in the pond field. The pond field is a about a mile away and Dad told me that I had to walk there with the Maggie, while he drove the tractor. What a rip! It is full of hills, rose thorns, and broken trees everywhere. Needless to say it sucked walking to and from.

We spent the next 3 hours cutting up dead Elm and Oak trees. Dad would cut the trees into sections that I would then throw into the old rickety wagon. I pulled my armpit muscle the day before throwing hay bales around, so throwing logs for three hours the day after was not pleasant. My persistent whining to Dad about quitting was not working. He just kept saying, "Just one more tree. Here, hook the chains onto it" The only exciting part about this was a giant elm tree trunk that was infested with a colony of ants. The discovery happened after Dad swung the ax down to split the log in half. They went everywhere! They were huge-some were like an inch long! They covered the ground quickly as they all evacuated. I noticed them crawling on my shoes and made a run for it kicking and flailing me feet. What a site! My dog later felt the pain-She was soaking up the sun when all of a sudden an ambush of ants was crawling all over her. Maggie was biting at them frantically, but I imagine she ate a few in the process.

Finally Dad called it quits and of course I had to walk home with the dog. She was tired and was following right behind me like a little kid. I managed to maneuver around a rose thorn bush, but it got Maggie's leg. I look back and she is just standing there looking helpless holding her caught leg in the air. Of course I came to the rescue- and then we continued home.

A little something new...

So here I am, starting a blog. I never dreamed I would be doing this, but the time is right I suppose. I should be doing homework, but instead procrastinating the long boring assignments sounded more appealing. I am undecided about what to post on my new blog, but with time I hope to find a few inspiring ideas. Most posts will surely include: my three horses, farm animals, and wedding progress. I need to find my camera!

I am very busy right now with work, graduate school, and planning for my wedding. I seem to be doing homework at nights now, due to Chris, my adorable fiance, farming all the time after he comes home from teaching. He is extremely busy helping run an organic crop farm with his dad and brothers. They are tending to the fields preparing for planting season, which takes place in the Spring months. It is 6 o'clock and I should do some homework before my TV shows come on- Dancing with the Stars and Castle.