Chuck

This is the Mean Chuck! 

Mr. Flopsy

This is Mr. Flopsy. We got him from Papa Bob for Christmas. I just realized that I've never posted a picture of him. He is a mini lop rabbit who is litter box trained. He is awesome. He loves carrots and dried fruit and is not afraid of Henry, which is weird.  

FIRE!

Our first fire of the season. We picked up these Adirondak chairs at Harbor Frieght Tools for $25! What a steal. They are awesome! We enjoyed a lovely evening by the fire while we watched the sun go down. 

Ducks!

Here the ducks are at about 5 weeks old.  

Audrey

Audrey came over to play. She thought it was funny when Brett chased her. 

Another 100% Math Test

Brett got got 19 out of 19 on his math test! This test was on fractions. He is doing really well in math!

Duck Pool

Charlie bought the ducks a pool. They love it! 

Rain Rain Go Away

Well, we had the most beautiful weather on Friday. Too bad we were all at work. Saturday was supposed be "Field Day" where the coaches and parents of instructional leauge baseball prep the field for the upcoming season, but it was a completely dark and drab day. It was raining all day and really hard at times. Late in the afternoon, the rain finally stopped so Charlie decided it was a good time to clean the ducks box out, as they are still living in our family room. So, he took the box out the front door and put the ducks on the grass. We decided to take them for a walk. They are sooooo cute, as we start to walk away, they follow. So, we started heading down the hill on the side yard and they didn't follow at first, and when they did start, they ran. They were so funny running down the hill! The two blacks ones are very fast and the three yellow ones just looked silly with their heads bobbing from side to side. We got close to the tree line and we stopped. I told Charlie to listen, that sounds like water rushing, let's go check it out. We walked down to the creek, which is usually either dry or only a trickle. It looked like you could go white water rafting down our little creek! We decided to look at other areas of the creek. The ducks followed. We got to where we cross the stream, it has a buried duct, and their were some nice size puddles there. The ducks were a little shy at first but once they realized that it was water, they all jumped in and we could not get them to get out. Finally, Brett coralled them out and we continuted on down the path. It was awesome out, wet, but awesome. We have never seen that much water running in the creek bed. To get home we had to walk back up the hill. I thinks the ducks were getting tired, the yellow ones took several breaks on the way back up the hill. We all had lot's of fun on our little walk after the rain.

What up Spruill Family?

Hey! I wonder what the Spruill's are up to? Give us a call! 

5 Toddler Ducks

The ducks have doubled in size!! 

J Bar W Ranch Rodeo

We went to the J Bar W Ranch Rodeo at the Carrol County Ag Center in Westminster MD. The indoor arena is only about two years old. It is a really nice place. As soon as you walk through the front door the smell hits you and you know there are animals near.
The show started at 7pm, there were 32 riders. It was the last night of the winter season, so the 32 cowboys were the top points scorers for the season. This was my first rodeo, so I was a little nervous, I did not want to see any injuries. The first couple of guys got tossed and a few were hit. It scared the crap out of me. No one was hurt very badly. They all got up and walked away. All of the bulls were from the J Bar W Ranch in Union Bridge MD, and some of them were HUGE! You can visit their site at http://www.jbarwranch.com/. They have a summer series, so I think we will be going back.




Tanner and Brett got all of the cowboy's autographs. They even got to say hello to the clowns. There were two of them, and they did a great job!

Rodeo2

This bull would not leave the ring. They had to bring out a second bull that he started to follow around. When that wasn't working, they let a dog come out and chase him around. After several minutes he finally followed the other bull out. He was a scary one. He was chasing everyone in the ring. 

Rodeo3

This Cowboy got his face banged up by this bull. He got stomped again on his second ride. We saw him later in the autograph line and he seemed ok. He said to ask him again how he feels in the morning, it will probably be a different story in the morning. 

Tanner, Brett and Chuck.... we had a good ride. Now we are all hungry and cold. 

Tanner's First time on the four wheeler. 

5 Baby Ducks

Charlie brought home 5 baby ducks today. So far their names are Abe, Gus, Bob and George. Tanner will get to name the fifth when he gets here tomorrow.

My Little Tree Monkey

This is where we put our berry bushes. We put in three rows with 7 plants each.

Garden Prep

We hit a small boulder right about here. I dug it out for Charlie. I might wash it off and put it in the flower bed in front of the house, that is if I can pursuade Charlie in moving it up there for me.
We are going to grow corn, tomoatoes, squash, green beans, peppers, lettuce and cucumbers. Brett plans to grow watermelon and cantelope in some patches next to the main garden. Charlie and I drew up a plan on how we should plant everything and we are going to keep a garden log so we can track our progress.
We also got our berry bushes and strawberry plants on Saturday, so we wanted to put them in the ground today, but it is raining. I have an awful sore throat, so I don't want to be out in the rain. We may have to do that later in the week, unless Charlie wants to tackle the job alone.
Charlie and I took a break yesterday and just laid back on the grass, the sun felt soooooo nice on our faces and I'm just so thankful for everything that we have right now. I couldn't ask for anything more. Except maybe for my family and friends to be here to share it all with me. Well, that and for this darn sore throat to go away.

Mike's Goat Manure

Charlie went to Mikes and pitched up a load of goat manure to spread into the garden.Mike had 89 goats when we moved out here. Since then he has sold nearly 30 of them. Now with 16 does having babies, his herd will be back up to 90 in about a month. We went over there yesterday to get the manure about an hour after another pair were born. We didn't get their names this time. They were so cute. Their little legs were still wobbly and they were only about an inch shorter than the older ones.With the tiller that Charlie's Mom gave us, he tilled the manure into the garden soil. Hopefully all the vegetables will grow well. I can't wait to have tomato sandwiches and sauteed zuchinni!We would like to try to can and freeze some things also. So, if anyone has any canning jars that they want to get rid of, we will gladly take them off your hands.