THANKFUL FOR....

Here we are at Thanksgiving week already!  What are your plans?   Staying in and cooking?  Going out?  Get-together's with friends and family?  I know it sounds funny to some, but I can't wait to cook Thanksgiving supper this year!
With working full time again, I don't have the energy to cook as much from scratch as I used to, and at least two days a week we eat our meals out partly due to both our work schedules, Andrew's hockey schedules and more.  I really miss one of the things I love doing the most!   GIVING AND  NURTURING....

This year, we're staying home and having some of Hoss's family over for great home cooked, home grown food, and lots of fun and games.   We looooove board games and will be sure to have Scrabble, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, and Tripoley set up.  My adorable nieces will be staying with us all week too!   I can't
wait to have them up, and just hang out with them!  I'm even going to take them to the mall - can you believe it?   You all know how much I abhor shopping malls, but   I will happily do it for my girls!   I'm also meeting a few girlfriends for lunch, and will visit my Auntie Mame for a few hours.  A LOVING FAMILY AND GOOD TIMES....

We'll have our family's favorite dishes, like Grandma Karnes' fruit salad, but I'm doing the entire meal from the Country Living magazine November issue.  You can read the menu and begin drooling here!  Have you heard of the Fabulous Beekman Boys?   I have never seen their show, but loved the article and their recipes.   Hoss loved the idea for something a little different this year, especially fresh cranberry sauce.  He really dislikes the canned stuff.  My sister in law, Gretchen will bring the pies and the fruit salad and we'll do the rest.  SHARING AND CREATING...


Work is going so well, and great big exciting things are happening fast!  I'll fill you in after the first of the year but it's all about amazing growth, both personal and professional.  What could be better than that?       KNOWLEDGE, GROWTH, AND OPPORTUNITY...

Andrew made the high school hockey team this year, and now it's just a matter of who will have the heart, desire and skill to be starting goalie.  He knows he has his work cut out for him!  As team mom this year, it will be all about delegating!  We have so many parents that I know from year's past club teams that are new to the team this year and are all ready to dive in and help with whatever needs to get done.   Our big fundraiser was another success this past Friday, and I know it will
be a great year.   HARD WORK AND FAITH...


Finch is much better and healing well so far.  The drain came out yesterday, but he's still on antibiotics to stave off infection.  Juma is jealous that he's been getting so much extra attention.   No sign of That Owl, but not taking any chances yet.  It's time to get up the bird netting to cover the chicken coop area now too.  They've started to lay regularly again, and don't seem as traumatized.   The boys are well and looking a bit fuzzy with their winter coats.  Even though they have blankets on, it's been pretty cold at night so it's grown out a lot.  Down to 16 degrees last night but clear and gorgeous and in the '50's during the day.   COUNTRY LIFE....

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Circle of Life or...Pick On Something Your Own Size!

Living in the country has its pros and cons but personally, I couldn't live any other way at this time in my life.   With all the challenges, bad decisions, obstacles, highs and lows, temporary setbacks, and more, it is undeniably the way I choose to live the last half of my life.  I can't imagine going through the last two years without having the privacy, nature, beauty, wide open space, and quiet that I get to come home to....no, more like get to belong to, be a part of.  I belong here, and there's no place like it.

Living in nature inevitably brings beauty, and unfortunate cruelty.  I've spoken of it recently, losing some of our sweet hens to a barn owl.  Five total.   I can't imagine the trauma they went through, and their hen friends are just now starting to lay again since witnessing their demise.    Since closing them in the barn at night, we haven't seen That Owl.  That Owl, that is so big and beautiful and magnificent, and intelligent.  I welcomed him at first,  thought it was a sign of good luck or something silly like that.  But after a few days of lurking around and seeing the hens were safely put away, he decided to train his sights on something else.  

I never heard a thing, but there's no doubt there was a struggle, and shock for the raptor that thought he could pick up his dinner and fly away with it.  When Finch came in the house, his back side was shaking, but not so much that I thought it was an injury, but rather just chilly from the snow and cold outside.  The next two days were normal, then he could hardly walk.  When I felt around for what it might be, he yelped so loud my ears rang for a minute or two.  I felt a long scratch and a scab, and some swelling, but nothing that alarmed me.  I would just watch it for a few days.  By Friday,  it was an open abcess.   Off to the vet's office to get a better look.

Lo and behold, a one inch round wound an inch deep, major bruising underneath, and several other smaller scratches on his back were found.  None of it made sense to me, and I thought maybe Juma bit him.  I'm thinking.....coyotes run in packs,  do weasels bite or attack small dogs?  The more the doctor talked about the entry wound being from something above, the more it made sense.   That Owl.  That Owl came down on Finch's back, held tight with his claws and pecked a hole in him.  I don't know how he got away, if Juma came to his rescue.... or did That Owl just give up, realizing it wasn't a chicken?

After surgery,  Finch is home and resting.  I don't think you'd want to see a picture of the wound, as it's pretty grotesque but you can imagine.  He's such a trooper, and doesn't even mind that he has the big e-collar on most of the time.   He's wagging his tail again, and is getting treats that I hide his pills in.  Yum!  He'll be back to his old feisty self in no time.

And so,  the circle of life in nature.  Can I blame That Owl?  He's hungry too and they're smart enough to take the path of least resistance if something looks good to eat and is right out in the wide open, right?  You can bet that I'll be on the watch for That Owl, and make sure that Finch is out to do his business at night PDQ, and right back in again.

Hakuna Matata!                                                

Loveliest Autumn

Hi Friends!
Here we are....how on earth did it get to be mid October already??   Cannot believe it!

Fall delights...so much goodness all around.   Hoss has winterized the garden.  We already got our first snow last week.  It killed the squash plants, so he picked the rest of it all, plus the root veggies.  We still have spinach and lettuce going strong as well as some beets and interestingly enough...strawberries!  I spent Sunday baking zucchini bread/muffins all day and catching up on laundry. Heaven!   It was super windy, so didn't ride.   Perfect day to get caught up on inside chores.

The ponies are getting their winter coats, and enjoying the last bits of pasture grass before coming into the barn for the majority of the winter.   The sad news....after 3 1/2 years living here with no loss,  we've now lost 3 sweet laying hens to predators, within a week's time.     I guess keeping them in the barn stall has always kept them safe.  Since having the chicken coop, not so much luck.   We know it's at least one weasel, as we found him expired in one of the stock tanks filled with water.

Our owl returned in late August as well.  He was magnificent! His wing span was enormous!  We wondered if he was the chicken predator at first, but he most likely would have carried away the hen, instead of leaving behind the carcass.    Ahhhh, life in the country.   Nature going on all around us!   We heard a cow on Sunday in total distress and moo-ing for hours.  It was either dying or giving birth....we drove around trying to find it but couldn't.  I'm thinking it was giving birth...it's that time around here for calfies being born.

Biscuits and sausage gravy has been the fare the last two Sunday breakfasts...so decadent!
Have you ever made it?  Hoss likes his with two over-easy eggs on top.

load of laundry, as usual!

lots of zucchini bread and muffins!

overbaked biscuits are now dog treats!

Cleaned the barn and brought out the heated stock tanks to get ready for winter, and snow should be here by Wednesday, with the high at 32.  Brrrrrrrsies.  Hoss has cleaned all the pony blankets so the boys will  be nice and cozy this week.   How are you enjoying your fall?

                                               Enjoy the season!!