10th Anniversary!!

I can hardly believe we're quickly approaching our 10th Anniversary at the Windy Hill Fowl Farm and Puppy Ranch! I should briefly explain the name for those of you that don't know. The first part is pretty self explanatory. We live on a hill and there's nothing between 'us' and Nebraska. Thus, it's WINDY!! Fowl Farm comes from my birds! In the spring of 2000 I started off with 7 chickens and 6 ducks. Since, we've never been with out birds. Puppy Ranch came from Bill's employer, they dumped it the 'puppy ranch' since we had multiple dogs and lots of fun toys!! AKA - Agility equipment.

Here's what our house looked like 10 years ago.

It's your basic 4 square farm house, built in 1890. Looking back, I do have to wonder, "What the HELL was I thinking!!!". The house obviously wasn't my priority. It was the 6 acres that went with the house! The barn and moving out to the country!! It took a long time to find an acreage that would fit our budget and be a reasonable distance from 'the city'.

Many thanks to Marsha, Melinda and Sandy who helped us tidy up
(as best as possible) and get moved in!!

It did turn out great. The land is flat enough for a couple agility yards. There's enough pasture for two horses, and room for the dogs to be able to get out and have some fun running. We really do love the country, even though Bill wasn't too keen on it at first. I don't think he'd ever move back to 'town'.

It didn't come without some issues however. I might blog about those at some other time. Let me just say, the whole interior of the house was painted either baby blue or baby pink! Walls and ceilings! It was horrible! The bathroom, well that along deserves a blog page by itself.

It didn't have any fences, so we had a side yard put on in December 99. Then some friends and family came out in March of 2000 to dig posts and put up 2"x4" horse fence out front. This was to become one of the agility yards. Thank you Melinda, Jeff, Dawn and Chris for your help!!

By January of 2002 it didn't look too much different. We did had the fencing and there were some red wood bushes added. Other than that, not a lot changed.

North - East View

East - South view

Winter of 2001-2002 it was apparent we needed a new roof. Looking to get some color on the house and move away from the boring white farm house. I suggested RED!! More on that in the next blog!!

Today I'm thankful for the wonderful weather!!

Things that make you go.....HUM....

Out here at the Wind Hill Fowl Farm and Puppy Ranch, we're having some work done. Actually, we're having our house sided. No more painting!!! Well, not as much anyway. More on this later.

This post is specifically about one of the workers. I'd say, 'your typical construction worker'. I'm not sure what that is anymore. So, let me describe him: 40's, a short stocky guy, kind of 'bar ruff' looking. Someone your Dad would love, as long as he wasn't dating his daughter. Your Mom would like him because he'd cleans up his plate and ALL the left overs. He drives a beat up Chevy Pick Up: Multi-Colored Red Neck type with Primer, rust, holes and a junk yard new fender of two tone brown/cream. In the back is a shiny new truck tool box. His pride and joy.

I met him Monday Morning as I had to go and rescue him from the "attack" Tom Turkeys. Leonard and Skynard. Yes, after the Rottweilers in Without A Paddle. The boys had him 'trapped' in his truck and he was afraid to get out. I guess I can understand. Two 20 pound birds making all kind of racket and strutting outside your vehicle. It could be alarming. They are actually very nice birds and great yard alarms.

Do you get the general picture?
Here's the truck.

Do you notice the "I Love My Dog" Bumper Sticker?
I did.
So I'm thinking Rottweiler, Pit Bull, etc......

BOY WAS I WRONG!!!

I got a good laugh out of this one!
He's really very nice, he feeds Rosie, our little chicken,
his bread crusts at lunch.
I told him he's never going to get rid of her now.
He just laughed.

Halloween Treats!!

It just must be something about being born on Halloween that requires that you make the BEST Halloween food! Carrie continues to outdo herself with her Halloween food prep. I am a bit concerned however that everything seems to be in the 'finger' or this year, 'toe' theme.

Hum.....carrots for fingers?
It worked!

Then her bread creation of fingers and toes!!
Her first making of bread, with yeast and everything!
They were DELICIOUS!
Reminded me of one of my favorite movies - Sweeney Todd

I stole an idea that Meme used several years back.
Lime Jigglers - for Rat Bait!

Then the Eye Balls!!
Sue Ann made some with cheese centers and tomato casings
They were AWESOME!

Carrie's creation involved doughnut holes and life saver gels!
Very cute!

What's Halloween without Swamp Water Punch!!
(See the recipe on Exercised Finished)
It is AWESOME!
You get use to the fleas!



Here's Mike during clean up.
He apparently likes to be blog fodder!
Mike, you play nice with Aragog!

Happy 88th Birthday!!

Leo Greco!!

I LOVE LEO!!!

Okay, so if you don't know who he is, he a radio personality.
He's on WMT 600 AM every Sunday Morning!!!
He tried to retire once, about 8 years ago.
It's lasted about 2 weeks!!

Leo plays "oldie" (real oldies) music.
It use to be a lot more polka, but he's branched out.
He's so fun to listen to, you can't help but smile.
Okay, maybe it's because I grew up with him!
(He's just a titch older than me!)

"Okie Dokie"

Leo....this song is for you!!!



Today I'm thankful for the sunrise at 6:30!!
Nice to see some daylight earlier!!

Entomology - Do Bugs Bother You??

I was REALLY looking forward to this part of the campus visit. I had visions of picking up large scary cockroaches and tarantula's crawling up my arm. Millipedes taking a nap in the palm of my hand. Well, you get the picture. By now you're either really excited, or totally grossed out and looking for another blog to read. I was one of those kids that had a butterfly collection and tossed poor helpless grasshoppers into the garden spider's web. SORRY!!!!!

The Lecture was very interesting and I enjoyed it. I was SO looking forward to the "Lab". Alas, I was disappointed. Although they had these bugs present, we didn't get to hold any of them. I did get to 'stroke' a giant Millipede, but lets face it, it's NOT the same. Yes, I'm also the one that gets bitten by the rats at the pet store! Bill is the one that reads the sign that says, "These rats bite". Hum......

During the lecture there was much discussion regarding the Japanese Beetle and the Multi Colored Asian Beetle. (Both pictured below) Many people use these names interchangeably as the same insect. I know I sure have! So, now you know they are two different insects and don't remotely resemble each other!!

Japanese Beetle - Eats LOTS of plants.
Favorites are the Rose, flowering crab apple, flowering cherry,
Japanese maple, linden, elm, viburnum, Virginia creeper, grape.
They don't have any known 'good' qualities.
I personally think their coloring is rather pretty.

Picture credits below -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jbadult.jpg

Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle
This insect is GOOD.
Even though they do tend to bite! OUCH!!
They also STINK when you try to get even for the bite.
I find that the good old finger flick is your best defense.
They eat the aphids off the soybean plants, so they are good!
They also leave the fields in September or October to find warmer
places to hide. This coincides with harvest. GO FIGURE!

Okay, now on to the pictures of the bugs we got to play with.

Manduca Moth

I'm pretty sure I had one of these behind glass
when I was MUCH younger!

Where did it come from?

From the Pupa of course!
It's quite amazing how a caterpiller
can turn into a moth or butterfly.

Below are some tiny little Tomato
Hook Worms hatching. They will
turn into those HUGE caterpillars that can
clean a tomato plant of it's leaves in a day.
They'll also eat all their 'siblings'!

Here's a fun type of walking stick.
Not the kind we see in our area.

Finally, the millipede.
It was the size of my pinkie finger!!
AMAZING!!!!

Well, that's the end of the Tour!

Until next time....today I'm thankful for all the chocolate I ate at work!!

A Break From the ISU Tour......

Tomorrow night I promise to do the "Bug Post"!!!

Every thing is amazing no body's happy

Watch this clip, it is pretty funny!! We take so much for granted anymore!! We don't sit back and just enjoy life!! I'm the same way!! I enjoy a sunset for about 3 minutes TOPS and then I'm back to working on something else!

I could only DREAM - 20 years ago of being able to talk
to my friend all the way to her house!!
Now, you can't walk into a store without seeing half a dozen cell phones.
I'll be honest, I don't have a 'real' cell phone, I have a tracker for emergencies.
Who are all those people calling?
Do they people they are calling NOT have a job?
People at work on constantly checking their phones.
Really, if it was a true emergency, do you NOT think someone would find you?
Ring Ring.....I'm in the women's bathroom, stall 3, need toilet paper!!
It's probably just me!

Do you remember Crank windows in your cars?
No Power Steering?
Actually needing to look and read a MAP!!!
Needing to be "HOME" to watch your favorite show or you REALLY missed it!!
The only channels you had were 2/7/9 and 12!!
FM Radio!!
8-Track and Cassettes!! I still have a BUNCH of 80's music on cassettes that I just can't seem to part with! I can't even play them in our vans!!

I often wonder how many hours are wasted while people at work "cyberslack"?
We didn't have Internet available to all our employees until 2003.
How much more productive were we then?
Did we know our co-workers better?
Did we have better social skills?

Anyway, watch this clip.
(From Susan Garrett's site)
You might realize how spoiled we really are.

I'm also going to copy what she does at the end of her posts.
Something you're thankful for, there's truly so much!



Today I'm thankful for my co-worker who
brought in a bunch of pumpkins to give away!

Green House Tour

Did you guess?

It's a Carrion Flower!
It's very pretty, however smells like rotten meat!
Yes, I had to smell it!!
Yes, I was the only one 'stupid' enough to do it.

During our first "Lab", which was on Botany, we got on of these handy
dandy little magnifying glasses.
I was really impressed as it wasn't even made in China!!

Here's Karen from "Linn" County. She's under the HUGE Banana Tree.
They said sometimes it even has bananas.
Sorry Karen, you'll just have to go hungry!

Here's a 'Pitcher Plant'.
It's a carnivorous plant.
Flies or crawling insects enter and fall into a pit.
Never to return.

Yes, I wanted to stick my finger in it!
I didn't!

This is a HUGE upside downy hanging, crawling plant.
I don't know what it is, but as we say back home,
"It sure be Purdy".

What's a green house without Orchids?
There pretty, but look like WAY too much work for me!

Here's a "Iron Cross Begonia" for Martha.
This one is made in china!

Below is a gigantic Lemon.
You can see the 'normal' sized lemon on the branch to the right.

Off to Bessey Hall to learn about plant diseases!

Next time onto Entomology - AKA the study of bugs!

I'm sure you're wondering if people were looking at me kind of funny taking all these pictures.
At first I think they were, then I think they wished they would have brought there's!