Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend marks the 2 year mark of living in our new house.  Wonder how long I can continue to call it "new"?  Guess I need to drop the "new" when I refer to the house.

The holiday weekend started off on Saturday morning with Rod and Tori going to for a ride to Lovelace Cafe and then continuing down Natchez Trace Parkway.  Rod is still amazed with how well Tori is doing on her motorcycle. 

Granny with her hat

Saturday afternoon was the 86th birthday party for my Granny.  We all made "funny" hats with a theme of 86.  Lots of family showed up and it was a blast. 

Tori, Tina and Rod

The entire hat gang!

Saturday afternoon Tori and Tina headed to Destin, FL with Laine.  

Sunday wasn't too eventful - Rod brewing beer in the morning, and us going to dinner in the evening.


Monday - Granny, Aunt Sandra, Aunt Carol, Uncle John, Mom and Dad all came over to grill out.  Luckily Granny brought her dog, Scooter, to provide entertainment for us.  He is a dachshund and at one point Bear was laying in the kitchen and Scooter came over to sniff his butt.  Then Rod says "look Bear is taller than Scooter laying down with Scooter standing up".  It was a big day for Scooter - meeting chickens, pigs and goats.

Monday evening had Rod working in the "motorcycle repair shop" that is in my rec room!  I did INSIST that he push it outside before he tried to start the triumph.  He was excited that it did turn over and start... but... it is leaking around the head.  So right now he is down there pushing it back inside so that he can work on that.

Four

Four - This is a nice even number.  It is the number of people in my family, the number of dogs that we have, the number of baby goats that we have, the number of tires I have to buy for my suburban.  When I was a kid I thought it cool that 2 + 2 = 4 and then 2 X 2 = 4 also.  (OK, I was a math nerd).  It is the number of letters in both Tori and Tina's names.  It is the number of exterior doors in our house, the number of chairs in at my kitchen table. I could go on and on about the number four.

Now to the reason for this post... it is also the number of MOTORCYCLES that I have in  my rec room right now!  The garage is scheduled to be built at the end of June and to say I am anxious is an understatement.  Rod insists on storing his and Tori's motorcycles in the house until we have a garage and now he is in the process of rebuilding two more motorcycles down there.

And here are the pictures to prove it:

See the mechanical room door is open because that is where his tools are.  Tori's is on the left, Rod's is next, then the old triumph that Dad gave Rod 18 years ago when we got married, and the far right is one that he bought the frame recently.

I guess I should disclose that when we got married... he was rebuilding a Harley in his kitchen... so I guess I should be happy that these are not sitting in my kitchen!

SMS Awards

Awards Day 2012 - has Tina adding to her collection.  Straight A's in all subjects all year had her receiving an academic award.  Then with the highest GPA in Science awarded her the Science award.  She got an additional award for "exceptional workmanship on projects".  Regardless of awards and accolades - I am very proud of Tina!

Mother's Day Tea

Christy, my sister-in-law, decided this year she was going to have something just for Mothers on Mother's Day Weekend.  So on the Saturday before Mother's Day, she had a tea.  Everyone in attendance was a mother.  For me personally, there were 3 generations.  With everyone from my Mom, my mother-in-law, Aunt Sandra, Granny, etc in attendance, it was great!

The entire group:

Coaltrain update

I called Tina this morning and she said "Mom you should be here this week".  I wish I was there to help them, but I am so proud of all they are doing.  This morning Tori and Tina got up at 4:30 in the morning to do hydro therapy on Coaltrain.  After that they had to put his medicine on, let the momma outside for a little bit, bring her back inside (against her will).  Then it was onto the other daily chores: feeding the pigs, 25 baby chicks, 50 adult chicks, 9 other goats, 4 dogs, and 2 horses.  All before school on a day where Tina even has exams.  Wow Rod and I have some amazing kids :-)

Here is a picture from last night of Tori and Tina doing hydro therapy.  This has to happen twice a day.  I am not posting the picture of the wound because it looks REAL bad! 

Always while I am out of town - Coaltrain

I'm out of town for work.  As ALWAYS this means something is going to happen at my house.  I could recount things that have went on through the years, but no sense in rehashing things I have said before :-)

I flew to Orlando last night for work.  First thing this morning is a text from Tori saying "go look at my facebook".  So I go look at her facebook, only to see a picture of Tina holding a baby goat that is bandaged up and Tori's caption that read:

Yep just another morning. I came upstairs and Tina hollers, " Would you put peroxide on this?" I expect to see her with some scratch, but when she turned around, I saw that she had a baby goat with a chunk of skin about the size of a baseball missing. So I did what any teenager would have done. I cleaned, medicated, and bandaged the laceration :)

They are not sure what happened.  Tina went over to feed everyone and found him that way.  I am so proud of my girls for knowing how to keep their cool and take care of what needed to be done! 

4 New Additions (Coaltrain, Mason, Alpha and Omega)

During the tour of homes we met John, another person that has goats.  After some talking, we agreed to let him borrow our "stud" goat, Billy.  We got Billy as a baby and he has lived a great life and has sowed his seed many a time.  On our farm he has fathered: Banelli, Esme, Bonnie, and Lily.  Then for John, he fathered 8 additional goats.  This past February, we decided that we have finally increased our heard to what we wanted and I took care of the problem.  However, before that happened, we had 3 additional pregnant goats.  Marie had a baby about 6 weeks ago named Italy.  Unfortunately,  Italy life was very short and she was killed at only 1 week old.

This left us with only 8 total goats: Billy, Toby, Marie, Banelli, Bonnie, Lily, Maple and Josie (Esme has also lost her life at the hands of a predator).  Then in a matter of 12 hours... we increased our herd by 50% - 4 babies born.  We now have Mason and Coaltrain (twins from Banelli) and Alpha and Omega (twins from Josie).  I missed all them from being born by less than 30 minutes.  I was checking on them, went back to the house for something, came back and they were wet and laying on the ground.

I have to admit that next to human babies, baby goats are probably the second sweetest babies I have ever seen (even better than puppies or kittens)!

Coaltrain playing in the pipe - he is only 2 days old here.

Omega getting some lunch

Alpha

Mason