one fine day....

yesterday was sunny and 60 degrees!

IT WAS ONE FINE DAY!!!

we've been living in a snow globe for the last 3 months.
**see previous posts

but yesterday.....was a FINE day and here's how it went down.......
slept in
had a bowl of Wheaties with a banana...yummm
visited with my mother and father in law
put together My Girl's trampoline with the help of my father n law
watched My Girl jump
got to see the BIG FAT HOG that Jimmy Earl caught
(seperate post to follow)
watched UP (must see movie) in the livingroom with the windows open
took a catnap with My Man
wormed and fed the cows
took some really sweet baby calf photos
and had a yummy dinner. 

and for the record.....fried cabbage is waaaay underrated

have a lil look at our fun, fine day!!

one fine day......

it was enjoyed by all....

but i bet someone shakes the snow globe again......before spring actually arrives.

ICE STORM 2010

i told you that THEY were gonna name the recent storm we just went through, but seriously...as bad as this storm was............the name was a total let down!

ICE STORM 2010?
what?  it should have been
Artic Blast
Winter Whiteout
heck, Winter Wipeout

anything other than just plain ol' ICE STORM 2010 would have been better!

this storm was not like ANY other storm that i have witnessed in my 33 years.

there were poles down everywhere.  there were metal poles shattered.  there were cross country poles down for miles.  it was like a domino effect!! 

almost everyone i know lost electricity and some are still without after over a week.

here are a few pictures...they do NOT do it justice.

That line across the picture on the left is an electric line covered in 3" of ice!!! 

burrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

flashback to falls...past

did i ever tell you how much i like fall?

i am dreaming of fall at this moment.

instead we are sitting here in the livingroom....in the light of 20 candles!

we are having a bad ice storm.
we have been out of electricity for the last 6 hours and i have heard that it may be several days before we get it back on.

when you live out in the country and you don't have an address or neighbors....your the last ones on!!

tomorrow they (the news stations or the Daily Oklahoman) will have named it.

storm names of the past....
May's Fury
Blizzard 09
**i'm drawing a blank, but it's a new one each time.

we are having a nice time and making the best of it.  My Man is playing the guitar and My Girl is singing, dancing, humming, eating, and drawing.  i am taking advantage of the 1 hour and 47 minutes (57%) of battery time on my laptop and my Sprint aircard.

ok......so i am thinking happier, warmer thoughts.
thoughts of fall.

look how much fun fall has been in the past!

2008

2009

warmer fun fall days!!

my how time flys when you are having fun in the fall!!

brrrrrrrrr.......

well, well, well, i have been soooo busy with work and Christmas preperations that i have not had time to blog!

but now we are in a full on blizzard so i have lots of time to blog!

this happened today, in my courtyard!

and you can't see out half of our back door!

and the winds are amazing!!!!

and baby it's coooooooold out siiiiiiiiide!

i sing while i freeze tra la la! freeze tra la la! freeze tra la la!

la la!!

a man with a plan...

today i slept in BUT when i woke up

my man had a plan and i had no other option but to get up and just go along with it.

but here's the deal...

in the beginning i was a trying (but not on pupose) to be a big monkey wrench in his plan.

of course i worked BUT lemme tell ya....i did lots of complainin'

"my ears hurt!  i can't work in the wind.  i have an ear infection.  everytime i am in the wind my ears hurt.  oh, man.  my back is killin me.  you know my hip has been killin me.  i have been nursing my hip and now i am in lots of pain.  i need some ibuprophen and a FIORCET!" 

o i said more, but THAT was the jist.

anyway i knew that there wasn't a thing i could do to get out of it so, in the words of Roger Miller, i just knuckled down, and buckled down so i could do it , do it, do it.....and fast.  I WANTED TO GET IT OVER WITH.

ps...he said it would take an hour or two and it took all day.

so finally i shut up and got after taking down the old orange panels and helped MY MAN whenever he needed a hand.

when it started looking like we were getting "down to the short rows" we needed to run home to get the bolt cutters to remove a section of the fence. 

at that point MY GIRL and i hatched a plan for a picnic.  MY MAN thought we should just grab a bite to eat at home but he got overrulled by the girls 2-1.

we ran home and grabbed a blanket, cutters and a ice chest.  stopped at the store for some freshly made bologna sandwiches, A&W root beers, chips and some candy.

we made it back to the farm and layed out the blanket and had the best picnic...EVER and My Man loved it.

i said, "wow, we have a great life!"  My Man and My Lil Girl agreed.  ALL WAS RIGHT IN OUR WORLD!!! 

it's funny what a picnic with the ones you love the most can do for your attitude.

we finished our job....mostly.

and it looked great and it will help us catch the calves....A LOT EASIER!!!


a few things crossed my mind today...

hard work is good for you.
i love watching My Man work.

food tastes better when eaten outside.
fall is my favorite season.
my daughter is perfect in EVERY way.

i love candy.

i love the country.

i love my lil family
my boots are so comfortable.
the acorns my lil girl found will look great in a hurricane vase.
TODAY WAS A PERFECT DAY.

you live in the country?

i told you that i would tell you all about living in the country...

but i haven't really because there's not much going on right now.

we will be catching calves soon to take to the sale.

i am in serious prayer about it right now.  i am praying it's not as hard as it was last year!

it took us 10 (ok 5) trips to the sale.  it should take two.  in a perfect world we would catch the calves from our home place and haul them to the sale on one day and then catch the calves from our other farm on the second day.

the problem is.....the calves at the OTHER farm are crazy as "all get out!" 
ANYWAY..thats coming up and it's always like a rodeo so look forward to some fun pictures. 

if i can get a picture of MY MAN giving me that look i will post it!  it's a look that says, "ALISON are you KIDDING me?  We are trying to catch cows and YOU are taking pictures? uhhhhhhhhh!"

for now i will just post a picture of my new car that i love so much!  it's not really what you expect to see on the farm but it's mine and i am determined to make it feel at home on the farm.  i ordered a sticker with our brand on it today!  i will brand that baby and she will forever be a part of the WF "ranch!"

apparently she will be a part of the WF for a long while.  my man told me that when i am finished driving her..."i'm gonna take the seats out of the back and use this ride for a feed truck!" 

and....he's serious.  yep....we live in the country!!

livin like it's 1899! or at least not 2009.

for the last 11 years my husband has wanted the world to "come off its wheels."  he only says that because he has some serious need to go back to the old ways of living.

he wants to live off the land. i almost think i would like it too....BUT.......

he wants me to grow a garden (i have and i do it well).  he wants me to can and preserve my bounty (i have and i do it well).  he wants me to milk a cow (i can do it).  he wants me to wash clothes (i do lots of that). BUT....without electricity?  what? 

no electricity? no garden growing, canning, milking, or clean clothes!  "but kev, we HAVE to have electricity!!"

"well we could have electricity, but where we gonna get 1200 dollars and thats if we just use it a little?"  "uh duh kev, we like sell a cow or two?!" 

(BTW, that's always my answer.  we need money for vacation?  we need to pay for the kids college?  we need to have work done on the farm?  we need to do blah, blah, blah.....sell a cow.  WHEW!  thankfully he doesn't listen to me.  we wouldn't have any cows left on our farms.)

ok, back to muh story......

so he brings this up from time to time and he even gives it some thought.  he goes through the "how" we would make it work from every angle.  and i am like uh huh and yes because although i think it would sorta be cool and i am pretty sure that we could do it and probably do it well....its NEVER going to happen. 

anyway, tonight he stumbled accross this show on National Geographic called Alone in the Wild.  its pretty cool.  i am enjoying it.  so is he, but i know he's thinking he could do it better.  "dead eye" as his grandpa Paul Williams called him could deliver on the hunting.  he's not really scared of bears, it seems, so i know he would totally enjoy trading places at the farmer's co-op with the fellow who's scared almost to death out there in the Yukon!

so as he watched this show tonight he began his grand plan....hmmmmmmm.  it sounded nice, but i just said, "well lets think about it some more and write out a plan."

he said we would never do it because we'd be to scared to totally let go of our current day to day!  i am mainly just scared of not being able to get nice sharp razors.  these legs grow forrests and for that reason alone...i am not sure it will ever happen.

wait.....we will need lots of razors?  we could just sell a cow?!  :) we could totally do it.........

i will let you know. 


p.s i love this man!  did i say that yet?!?

"alison...your life is not typical...what we did yesterday is not typical."

how did i get here?  i said i wouldn't be here!  i already said that i said that i wouldn't be telling people all about my life but it seems that it was a natural progression.  several months ago my cousin Renee told me about the pioneer woman.  i wasn't really interested but then she was talking about how this girl, Ree, was married to a cowboy and how wonderful her recipes were and how she lives in Oklahoma!  it took me a while, but i did go look and do you know what i did?  i feel in love.  i fell in love with her humor, her dog Charlie and her retarded brother (her words not mine). i told all of my friends and made them read all about my new friend PW.  i MADE my Katie read it.  i turned on her computer and MADE her read!  seriously, i held a banana to her head (not really).  she too fell in love and was inspired to create her own blog.  She said i should start a blog myself and i said, "really?  what the heck would I write about?" she said i need should write about the things that are important to me. she said to have a purpose (ha) and write about it.  i gave it some thought and thought, "why the heck not?"  all in one day we had the conversation and alisnwonderland was started! 
the next day, i was so happy to tell her what i had done.  she read it and said she LOVED it.  she said that my page should be whimsical and i said, "i am not sure how my life will look in "whimsical."  i am trying to figure out how the things that happen in my life will be displayed in a blog.  i am a farm girl.  i (along with my husband and daughter) raise a few beef cows.  we have 3 chickens (children) and i cant wait to tell stories about them!!

Katie said today, "alison...your life is not typical....what we did yesterday is not typical."  we helped Kevin take our bulls off of our momma cows so that the bulls can always do their business in a set breeding season!!  IT'S JUST WHAT YOU DO, and depending on who you are......it may be typical.  if it is not then i cant wait to share some of our lil ranching stories.  sometimes you'll learn something and sometimes you with just plain say, "YUCK!"   To my new blogging friend PW this is typical, but what is not typical is how all in a few months...i read my first blog, met the blogger herself (story to come) and started my own.  Here we go.......