FFA Creed

FFA chapters have been competing in reciting the creed for many years.  However, Sycamore has not had anyone compete in a couple of years.  This year Mr. Silvy, Tina's FFA teacher, asked her if she would be up to the task of learning the creed and going to compete.

Competition day comes and Tina can't find her black skirt.  There is a strict dress policy for the girls that includes a black skirt, black hose/stocking, black shoes, white button up shirt, and the FFA jacket.  So we are scrambling at 6:00 in the morning and there is no skirt to be found....  So she takes one of Tori's that doesn't fit and heads to school.  The competition was at 3:00 that afternoon.  All morning I just couldn't stop worrying about her not having a skirt that fit and how that would shake her confidence... So lunch time comes and I send a message to my co-worker and tell him I will be about 15 minutes late coming back for lunch.  I jump in the car and head to Kohl's in Clarksville.  They had a skirt and I bought it.  It was full price... who pays $40 for a full price skirt at Kohl's?  This mom that was trying so hard to help out her daughter.  If you have ever shopped at Kohls you know that they always circle what you save and tell you.  The cashier had already started talking saying "you saved" and then she realized I saved NOTHING.  It was funny when I told her "yep, I paid full price".

So I drop off the skirt at school and I just felt so much better.  2:00 pm comes and Mr. Silvy and Tina leave school to head to TSU.  I worked until about 2:45 and headed down to the competition.  I had been there maybe 2 or 3 minutes when Mr. Silvy gets a call that the competition was cancelled because of the impending weather and postponed to the following week....

So now that we had a skirt, the next week was much less drama.  She didn't win, she took 3rd place behind the two power house teams - Waverly and McEwen.  We were all very proud at how well she did.  There were a lot of kids competing and she should be proud of that 3rd place finish.

In case you wonder what the FFA creed is...

I believe in the future of agriculture, with a faith born not of words but of deeds – achievements won by the present and past generations of agriculturists; in the promise of better days through better ways, even as the better things we now enjoy have come to us from the struggles of former years.
 
I believe that to live and work on a good farm or to be engaged in other agricultural pursuits, is pleasant as well as challenging; for I know the joys and discomforts of agricultural life and hold an inborn fondness for those associations which, even in hours of discouragement I cannot deny.

I believe in leadership from ourselves and respect from others. I believe in my own ability to work efficiently and think clearly, with such knowledge and skill as I can secure, and in the ability of progressive agriculturalists to serve our own and the public interest in producing and marketing the product of our toil.

I believe in less dependence on begging and more power in bargaining; in the life abundant and enough honest wealth to help make it so-for others as well as myself; in less need for charity and more of it when needed; in being happy myself and playing square with those whose happiness depends upon me.

I believe that American agriculture can and will hold true to the best traditions of our national life and that I can exert an influence in my home and community which will stand solid for my part in that inspiring task.

Union Bound again...

Well I just hugged Tori and sent her out the door headed back for her second semester at college.  We are fortunate that she comes home almost every weekend and this break from mid December until the end of January has been great.  But just like a drug addict, I will probably be in a little bit of withdraw with her heading back. The biggest thing I miss is knowing the simple day to day things about her life.  I am very proud that she has adjusted so well and loves school.  I didn't blog in August about when she headed off to school because I wasn't doing a very good job keeping up with it...  She was really sick, we didn't know what it was, and it was very upsetting.  It ended up just being mono and some minor complications with it.  She is all better now and no doubt sending off a well Tori is much better than a sick one!!!!

So here is to a great Second Semester!

Since I didn't post pictures back when I moved her in - here they are now :-)

Moving into her room.  She has her own bedroom!

The kitchen and bathroom.  She shares the bathroom with one other girl, and the kitchen will all her suite mates

The quads

Her suite mates.  They all get along great!

Happy Birthday Rod!

Happy Birthday to Rod!

So I went a little overboard on Christmas this year for Rod and told him "All these presents are for your birthday as well"... Thinking three pair of new Timberland boots and a Northface Technical Pack was plenty for both rolled into one.

He started this week off saying work was going to be really busy and he didn't think he would be able to take off on Friday for his birthday.  Then as the week went on he realized his upgrade was going better than he hoped and it looked like he could take off.  Thursday night it was official he was going to be off on Friday.  Like typical fashion, Rod can't just rest.  So he planned to work all day at the house on his birthday.  Yes, I know the weather forecast was that Friday AM it was going to be about 5 degrees here!

We lined up for Matt, Tori's boyfriend, to come help at 9:00 AM Friday morning. So this means Thursday afternoon Rod is getting everything ready.  He comes in and says "my chainsaw will not run"... Can you guess where this is leading?

About $470 later (tax, the oil package- that buying doubled the warranty, and the saw).. Here is Rod's birthday present:

And now I have been sitting in here working all morning and all I hear is him playing with his new "toy"!  And look he is wearing eye protection!!!!

And this last shot, I just love.  Not only is his butt in the picture, you can see that they were skeet shooting a couple of nights ago and a unshot skeet landed in the tree.  (I didn't get a picture of the arrow that he also found down by this tree that must have been lost weeks ago - when he practices shooting his bow from the deck)

The last thing that I want to say here is Happy Birthday to the hardest working man that I know.  I love you and I am so thankful that I picked you to spend my life with.  I can't imagine how it could be any better than what we have!

After posting this I had to come back to edit it to put a picture of the great cake Tori just got finished making for him.  It has his backhoe toy on the top with stuff in the bucket and the front loader!

Brillo

I can't post about Tina's new addition, Rose, without posting about Tori's new addition - Brillo!  If I gave you 5 guesses... I doubt you would guess what Brillo is.... go ahead and guess.... not a soft, fuzzy boy at all!

ok, if you guessed a Hedgehog - way to go!

4 legged Joy

Although the horses are gone, we still have 60+ chickens, 7 goats, 2 pigs and 5 dogs.  So what is all of this like?  It causes me Annoyance when they get into something - like the goats eating something I wish the wouldn't.  Heartache when something happens - such as when Bear killed the baby goats, or Molly is nearing the end because her arthritis is getting so bad that I am medicating her every day to keep her from being in pain. Worry - the cold weather has me worrying about all the outside animals (have you ever read my blog post about the pig heater? http://tntacres.blogspot.com/2012/11/pig-heater.html Lets just say when we were in the single digits I was getting up 2 or 3 times a night to turn the dryer on for the pigs.  Additionally there is bringing all the dogs in at night trying to make sure everyone gets along.  Pain - if you know me, you know I have a circulation problem and the cold is painful to me.  Feeding this group every morning and evening is painful to me many days.  Money - anyone want my feed or vet bills?

But that is all the negative - what do I really get out of this bunch of 4 legged animals?  A TON of joy. They make me smile and laugh so often.  Today for example, I laughed when the Schwan's man came with a co-worker just to see the "big" pig.  I loaded my truck up to take the trash to the dump and all 7 goats came over to walk with me from the trash can to my truck - all three trips.  While sitting in my office working, I looked out my window to see all the goats and chickens grazing in the front yard.  I walked into the living room during my lunch break, looked out the window to see Abby and Rose jumping on the trampoline... And all of this was just the joy they brought me today!

Here is a picture I took of the goats after I went back in - the were waiting to see if I was coming back out

and this is a picture of Rose and Abby - unfortunately it is not a very good picture, but it was the only one I was able to get where Rose wasn't laying down!  I see them on the trampoline almost every day.

Rose

A lot happened in 2013... and I just didn't get it all blogged.  But one of the big things is we gave the horses away.  The deal we made with Tina was if we gave them away she could get another dog... and she picked a Great Dane which she named Rose - she is as close to a horse as you can get!  I'm sure over the next year as I try to blog more, there will be many stories about Rose.  She is a very big character around our house.  She celebrated her 1st birthday on 1/9/14.

Since I didn't blog when we got her.... here are a few of my favorite Rose pictures:

We had her about 2 weeks here - she was 4 months old

Bear is not too sure about sharing his bed

She really wants to be a lap dog

Ice cream is yummy!

6 months old - now at 1 year, her legs are as long as Tina's LEGS

Her first Halloween

I think Bear is still not too happy about sharing the bed!

Christmas 2013 - Rose is saying "Mom made me put them on"

I think I'll just rest my head here on this house

Skeet Shooting

Rod wants Tina to learn how to skeet shoot.  He has been talking about it for a couple of weeks.  Saturday, everything lined up where he finally got Tina to go skeet shooting with him.  We went to Granny's house because she has a field that is perfect for it.

Prior to going, Tina determined that she is left eye dominate.  Rod did a little research that suggested that if you are left eye dominate to just learn to shoot a shotgun left handed.  She started out using Tori's 20 gauge.  Out of the first 25 skeet she missed all of them with the 20 gauge.  Then Rod switched her to my Granddaddy's 12 gauge and after 2 or 3 more she finally hit one!!! Rod was on the edge knowing that if she didn't hit one soon, it would all be over and not any fun for her any more!

The end of the day had her laughing and loving it.  She is sore (something about how she was holding it really hurt her left wrist) and we went back again today to do just a little more.  Today she managed to hit the 3rd skeet that she shot at- WHAT AN IMPROVEMENT - and that with her wrist and shoulder both sore!

Might have to zoom in, but this one was a HIT

Rod was all smiles pulling the skeet thrower

She really had a lot of fun

Rod got to take his turn as well - this one is also a HIT

I tried many different angles and shots to try to get the person shooting in the frame as well as the skeet.  I only did 2 video's of Tina and here is the one where she hit the skeet.

2014 - A New Year

A new year and a new resolution!!!  I am going to try very hard to blog this year!  I basically took most of 2013 off from blogging.  Not because strange and funny things stopped happening around us, I just got so behind that it was hard for me to catch back up.  I decided that I will just have to let go what I missed and start back up from a current timeline!  So here is to 2014!!!!!