Why my mother-in-law is the BOMB!!!!

I definitely have a great mother-in-law.
Yesterday at 5:20 (yes, that's a mere 20 minutes after getting on work in Longview) I arrive at Granny's house. B had placed a frantic call to me approximately 5 minutes earlier that was a mixture of a broken connection and hysteria. When I arrived, B was walking down the street with a six foot long post, Granny had her walking stick and was standing in the front yard, and Sissy (B's mom) was standing in the driveway with her rake. ???

One word. OTIS.
Yes, Otis. The Emu we have had only for a week.

Sunday we re-arranged our animals. We had to separate the heifers from the bulls and moved the horses and donkey from one pasture to the other where the goats, sheep, and emu live. Apparently, this pushed Otis over the edge. As of Sunday, he was a pleasant, inquisitive creature with a bright future on our farm. This just goes to show even animals can have a bad Monday.

I'll take you back to Monday morning. I get a call at work from my mother-in-law. I just figured she was calling to tell me she was coming into town and would pick up Ken. Nope, not this time. She wanted to let me know that Otis had gone mad and drove all the animals (and Granny) crazy during the night and that he ran our big Brahma bull through the fence, scratching him all up. All the animals were in a frenzy and in a different place than we had them Sunday. Animals apparently plowed right through gates and fences, and were frantically running from the Emu all night long.

Have you all seen an Emu? There are photos of Otis in previous posts, but let me describe him to you. Otis is over 5 foot tall, and probably weighs in at 140 pounds. He is the color of black and white TV. His feet, no joke, are claws the size of a small ceiling fan with toenails as long as Uncle J.'s ponytail. These mammoth feet are attached to black legs that look like tree trucks and make up the majority of his height. He has deep red eyes, a huge dinosaur-like beak, and his neck is over three feet long and slithers like a snake. He can turn his head completely around. I think his neck contains no muscle or cartilage. His ears and part of his neck turn an unusual color of blue when he is upset. Needless to say, It has been this color for about 48 hours now. He has a large patch of feathers missing from the battle to put him in the cattle trailer the day we bought him in Henderson. I sprayed him with purple animal antiseptic spray, so the area of pink bare skin is masked with a lovely purple stain.

Ok, so now that you have a mental image of Otis, I'll continue with the story. Back to yesterday morning. My mother-in-law managed to run Otis into a pen and lock him up-away from all the other animals. That in itself is pretty amazing. Keep in mind this animal took down 4 full grown men the day we brought him home. He cannot be bribed with food or walked on a leash, or picked up and carried. We may be able to bribe him with food if we knew what he ate, but that is yet to be determined. We honestly have no idea what to do with this animal. The bulls, in the mean time, are still with the heifers, and there are still plowed over fences and gates. B will have to correct this when he gets off work. So, that being said, I thought all was well with Otis.

So yesterday after 5, B calls and says, with a bad cell phone reception, "What do you want me to do with this bird? He has lost his mind!We have to shoot him!"
I don't really know what B expected me to do about the bird. The animal is bigger than me and I have no idea how to calm a mad, 140 pound bird. I couldn't catch him and certainly would not shoot him. So, when i got there and saw that everyone was standing around with weapons, I knew all was not well. Otis had escaped from the pen. According to everyone's reports, he stood, flatfooted, and hurtled over the fence, completely out of control. Wow! Who knew they can jump that high! I walked up the street screaming, "Otis, here boy, Otis, come to mom..." like he was really going to come running wagging his tail expecting a treat. He was standing in a clearing across the street, so Sissy and I walked up to him. He had a lasso around his neck--yes...his neck which is about 2 inches in diameter-- from when B apparently tried to rope him (?). We grabbed the rope and proceed to drag him home. This bird flopped and kicked and dragged the two of us around until somehow, the lasso came off his narrow little neck. When it did, he lunged toward me....Oh my gosh!!! He wanted to kill me for choking him with a lasso! My mother-in-law stepped in with her rake and scared him into forgetting he was in attack-mode. She saved my life. After hearing what Otis had done to ouu bull, he would have torn me into shreds. Bless my mother-in-law.

Ok, so after that B and Sissy managed to lead Otis to Granny's front yard where Granny was still standing with her walking stick. The idea was to just direct him into the gate. Sounds easy, right? No. He bolted. He runs across the street and B decides he may need to shoot him. He takes the gun and goes after him. I put the girls in the car and make sure they don't look. B chased him in to the woods but didn't shoot him. Our hope, at this point, is that he runs away. We don't have to worry about coyotes getting him. They will be afraid of him, too. Poor, lonely little guy. Can Emu's get rabies? Hopefully Otis can just be a wild Emu. Some time ago the neighbors Kangaroo escaped. Maybe they'll meet up and be buddies.

So if you live in our neighborhood and see a giant bird roaming through your woods with a purple stain and rope burn around him neck, beware. Don't try to catch him or play with him. He could be the rabid Emu from the farm down the street.

Corn

After a weekend spent watching my father-in-law, husband, and brother-in-law battle plumbing issues, I began to wonder....

Why doesn't corn digest? Apparently I am not alone in my curiosity. When I Googled it, there were 377,000 results. The most interesting post I found was from a guy calling himself "I am Legend" that says since corn never digests, people should eat only a diet of corn to loose weight. I can see how this would be effective. Or, work on a septic tank. This will also lead to weight loss, as you will never be able to eat again. Especially corn.

I think it is important to remember this fact when consumming your favorite cobbed veggie. How is a person to know if this is recycled? In today's economy, it seems everything is being recycled. Lets hope this trend is limited to plastic and aluminum.


I attached the link so you can read for yourselfhref="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061128202256AA2xQhL">

What's in your garage?

After a hard day at the office yesterday, I get home to see one of my blue storage containers in the garage, in front of where I park. It had a light attached to it, so obviously whatever is inside, needs to be kept warm.

Would you believe that BT picked up 2 ducklings and 6 baby chicks at Tractor Supply?! Last week HE was telling ME "No more animals! We need to start selling something!" But I HAD to have the Emu! It was B that needed the donkey. So, now I guess we'll raise this babies in the garage until they are big enough to live on the farm. This should be great for our realtor and potential buyers of our house. At least they'll remember it.

The girls were excited about the new babies. I have never seen baby ducks so I had fun bathing them in the bathroom sink. I will post pics (with names) later.

We also had a delivery of 3 new Brahma cows today. Fortunately, they belong to Uncle Jeff. What a relief. They do, however, all live together, so hopefully they can get along with the goats, sheep, emu, donkey, horses, chickens, and existing cows.
(2 of Jeff's new cows)

Smart Kam

Kam got her TAKS test grades today........

drum roll.......

She only missed 3 questions!! She got 33 of 36 correct. We were worried for nothing. For those of you that don't know, her reading teacher informed me she may not pass the TAKS and put her in tudoring even though she does well in reading on her report card. We told her to just do her best and if she didn't pass, no big deal. She could retake it later. I guess taking the pressure off her like that did the trick. We are so proud of her! She was proud of herself, too. You could tell a weight was lifted off her sholders.

Now we have the math portion April 28th to prepare for!

Funny Ken

Funny things Ken has said lately:

Yesterday in the car:
"Momma, I sleep a lot and I'm beautiful, that means I'm sleeping beauty."
Last night looking out the window:
"Momma, the yard is floating." ((due to all the rain)
Anytime she talks about softball:
"Momma, my sneaky cleats make me run fast when I play sockball."
Yesterday morning at home:
She comes into the bathroom wearing socks and plastic toy high heels. "Momma, I'm wearing high heels because you do." So, she did. All day.
All the time:
"I want a skinny pig." (this means guinea pig)



Last night I went to tuck Ken in and this is what I found:


Sleeping Beauty.
Aunt Krystal gave her this princess dress for her birthday. When I got home from work she was wearing it and after bathtime, she put it right back on.

This is a picture of our "floating" backyard:


If the rain continues, we may need to bag sand to save the back porch.

Granny and Otis

This is Granny visiting with Otis while talking on the phone....I think she likes him.

New animals

This weekend, like all others, was exciting on our little farm. Thursday night we went to Henderson in search of an emu I found on the Internet. We found him alright, along with a donkey. Otis, the emu, is a friendly little fellow. When he stands up straight he and I are the same height. He didn't much like being man handled and thrown into a cattle trailer but was calm by the time we got him to Diana. He is missing half of his feathers from the battle so I sprayed him with antibacterial animal spray yesterday. Now he is purple where he is bald. Poor thing looks to have sunburned where his skin is exposed. We discovered that he thinks he should be the only bird around. Yesterday he chased a crow away. Maybe he'll eat snakes. Roscoe, the donkey, is only 9 months old. We took him from his mom so he is a little depressed. He has taken to me and girls and has started to eat out of our hand. He doesn't seem to care for BT. When we get there he talks! You know the sound donkey's make, right?

I attached some photos.

Jezabel's lips


Rocky meets Otis


Kam & Otis


Ken...posing.


Ken & Monte


Ken, a tired little farm girl.


Kam & Roscoe


Ken & Rainbow


Otis


Pop meets Otis


Roscoe meets Comet


Roscoe


Otis


Roscoe


Otis



***total farm count to date***

3 Brangus calves (1 bull, 2 cows)
1 Bramah(sp?) bull
1 Pigmy goat
4 Nubian goats
1 Sheep
1 Angora Goat
1 Emu
1 Donkey
3 Horses (2 pregnant, 1 Alli's)
2 Chickens

This morning

This morning in the car:

Ken: "Momma, when I was in your tummy my eyes could see."
Me: "They could?"
Kam: "I could see too."
Ken: "I could see your brain."
Me: " I doubt you could see my brain from my tummy. There's too much other stuff in the way."
Ken & Kam: " Yes we could, Momma. We saw your brain."
Me: "Ok"

They are convinced they could see everything, even my brain, while in the womb. Wow.

An afternoon on the farm

Check out my husband's new bull...

He's mean!

Kam and Rainbow

Momma goat

Pretty Boy

Me and Rainbow
Coconut with his tongue out. Just like his dad.
Coconut and Rainbow
3 anti-social cows...
Ken with her egg bucket on the way to see if there's an egg...

Ken's prayer this morning...

Ken: "God thank you for flip-flops."

Coconut and Rainbow

Meet our new babies!





Coconut (Kam's) is on the left, Rainbow (Ken's) is on the right. They are so cute. They have the sweetest little voices. They almost sound like a baby person when they cry. They have long legs and soft fur. One of them was jumping around yesterday. I wish you could all see them!

Total farm count to date:

2 chickens: Pretty Girl and Pretty Boy (Grannys')
3 Horses: Comet (Kamryn's) ((Pregnant))
Abby (Kennedy's) ((Pregnant))
Ginger (Alli's) lives across the street
3 cows: Jezebel, W.H., and Precious
1 sheep: Wooly
6 goats: Bernie Mac, Nanny, Coconut, Rainbow, Monte, and Ike

BT is considering ducks and geese....I'm excited!

***Baby Goat Update***

Coconut is a boy, Rainbow is a girl.

***Pretty Girl Update***
Pretty Girl "Dropped" an egg yesterday and the best part....Ken didn't break it! She used her basket to carry it in and was so proud of herself. After supper, she made me cook it for her! ...funny little girl...

Anxiety!

I am so excited to meet the baby goats that I can hardly stand it! B and the girls went after church last night to check on them and fed them. I'm so jealous! My anxiety is similar to that I had waiting on my children to arrive. Pitiful, I know.

We are so fortunate to have twins. Ken already named her baby goat Rainbow! Kam is a picky namer. It has to be just right. After all, she did once have a fish named Casserole. So far, she is leaning toward Cocoa and Junior (for Bernie Mac, Jr.). We'll see.

***Pretty Girl update***
No egg yesterday. Ken was upset. Maybe today.

New life

Yesterday when B and the girls were on their way home from feeding the animals they got to see a calf being born! While B and I were excited, the girls were grossed out.


This morning, maybe 20 minutes ago, our nanny goat had a baby!! We are so excited. I will post pictures as soon as possible. We don't even know if its a boy or a girl. B and I won't get to see it until tomorrow night! Granny says it's dark like his dad, Bernie Mac. As far as I know, mother and baby are doing well.

TAKS

Kam takes her TAKS test today. She is really nervous. Please keep her in your prayers!

Softball Season is here!

This year we have 2 ball players!

Kam starts practice Friday night (after the TAKS is over) and Ken practices Saturday morning.....at 9AM!!!

Ken is so excited to be big like Kam. She can hardly wait. Last night, this is what they did in the hallway.

Pretty Girl

As many of you know, Granny has a rooster named Pretty Boy. Last week, a family friend brought Granny a hen. Guess what her name is? Yep, Pretty Girl.

Kennedy has adopted both chickens as her own. She feeds them everyday. She isn't afraid of them at all. She climbed right inside their pen-no big deal.

Well yesterday, there was an egg in their bed! She was thrilled! Eggs come from chickens?! B said she couldn't wait to get home to show me her egg. Well, the shell on fresh eggs is not as thick as those you buy in the store....she dropped it in her daddy's truck. B said she was devastated. She couldn't even look at him. When they came home she ran into the kitchen and hugged me, she was in tears. Poor little thing. When I washing her hair last night we were talking about the chickens. She said if Pretty Girl has another egg, she's going to let Kam carry it.

Sweet girl!!



***UPDATE***
Yesterday Pretty Girl "Dropped" another egg, as Ken puts it....
What happened? Ken dropped it, too. Again. Sissy has decided to make her a basket to carry her egg in in the future!