He Thinks He's People

Mr. Darcy's new favorite spot:



In case you can't tell, it's Jude's high chair. Jude sits in an easier-to-clean plastic booster seat at lunch and supper, so Mr. Darcy even gets to sit in the chair during meals, which he does with great relish. He's sure that one of these days, we'll let him eat human food with us.

Meanwhile, Jude's favorite spot is the cats' food and water dishes.

Go figure :)

Larry White

Ray and I own half of a calf! My parents got the opportunity to "save" an injured calf from death (ironically since he's going to be butchered in another year or so anyway). They asked us if we wanted to pay for half of his costs in exchange for getting half of the meat. Since the last cow they raised ended up costing them about $1/pound for steaks and hamburgers, we felt it was a really good deal.

Ray got naming rights for his first name, and he chose the name Larry. My mom decided that his last name is White because, well, see for yourself:


Cute, huh?

Vicious Animals

While vacuuming this morning, I came across this poor, mutilated veterinarian:

It took awhile, but I found his missing appendage behind the television:

These two have declared their innocence, but I'm not sure I believe them:

Sandy

How could I forget about the newest member of the Jochman family? My parents bought a pony!!! I think my dad went a little overboard after Silky died - chickens, a steer, AND a pony?!? Lol! Now he has plenty of farm critters to feed :)

Anyway, here she is:


She came with the name Cindy, but no one in the family cared for that, so Dad renamed her Sandy.

We all think she's going to be a great pony for our baby to learn to ride on!

Ten Fingers and Ten Toes, Unless You're a Chicken

Last Tuesday, we got to see Norman Jr. on ultrasound! He/she has grown so much since our 8 week ultrasound!



The ultrasound technician verified what my midwife had guessed - I do have an anterior placenta, which is why I haven't felt Norman Jr. much. I have been feeling him/her more now, and Ray even felt him/her on Thursday night!

Babies seem to be the theme of the month of April. My dad has been wanting a new farm critter ever since Silky died this winter. He finally settled on twelve new farm critters:

They're cute now, but they'll be ugly chickens in just a few weeks! I think my dad called them "jumbo fryers", so that tells you a little about their fate :( My mom is pretty excited about having organic chicken this fall!

As if a dozen baby chicks weren't cute enough, Daisy out at my parent's place wasn't about to be left behind. Four more cute babies arrived this week!


Babies everywhere!

Chicks Silouette June 5th, 1986 - February 20th, 2010

I've been putting off writing on this blog because I knew I couldn't write a post about anything else until I wrote about my beloved horse, Silky, whom we had to put down unexpectedly last month.

I received Silky (Chicks Silouette is her registered name) as a Christmas present (can you believe it?!?) in 1990. I had been bitten by the "horse-crazy bug" as a little girl and had been taking riding lessons for a year or two. I don't know how my parents scraped up the money, but that Christmas Eve they blindfolded me and drove to the stable where Silky was being boarded. She was the best Christmas present ever!

First picture of Silky and I, in 1990.

The following spring, Dad put together a barn for me and Silky came home, where she would live the rest of her life. Silky and I did the 4-H horse shows every year until I turned 18. We even made it to state twice!

Silky and I at the State Horse Show in 1994

In 1996, we bred Silky to a handsome stallion name Booker T Boss and the following spring, my little Diego was born. Unfortunately, late in the summer, Diego somehow broke his leg while he and Silky were out on pasture and we had to put my baby down.

Silky and Diego (one day old), 1997

Silky had a couple of barn mates over the years. My mom got interested in horses for a few years. Mom tried out a couple of horses, but her favorite was Sunny.

Mom on Sunny and Me on Silky, 2004

Then, last month, I got a call from Mom after work on Friday afternoon. She said that Dad came home, went out to feed Silky, and found her stuck lying on her side in her stall. She was caught next to the wall and wasn't able to get up. She had probably been like that all day. While Ray and I were on our way out to the barn, Dad and Mom got Silky up. We thought everything was going to be ok.

After monitoring Silky for a little while, we all went into the house. The neighbor called a couple of minutes later to say that Silky was lying flat on her side out in the snow. I ran out, and we got her to get up again. Something was obviously wrong, so we decided to call the vet.

The vet examined Silky and said she probably had a twist in her intestines, called colic. She gave us some options, and the best one for Silky seemed to be to sedate her and wait out the night to see if her intestines would untwist on their own. It was a really long night of checking on Silky every half hour (Ray did a lot of the checking).

By the next morning, it was obvious that Silky's intestines were still twisted. We made the difficult decision to put her down. I pet Silky's beautiful face and gave her tons of kisses while the vet gave her that last injection. Dad was able to find a good spot on the property where the ground wasn't frozen, and Dad and Ray laid her to rest on Sunday.

Silky's last walk with Ray and I on Saturday morning.

Silky had a great, long life, and I'm so thankful for that. Still, I had always envisioned my children sitting on her back in her senior citizen years. I can't help but feel a little cheated - with our first child due exactly 6 months after Silky died.

I'll never forget you, Silky-girl.

A Horse and a Bathroom

A Horse
After some issues with an Amazon seller, I finally got Silky's grazing muzzle last week. Ray and I went out by Mom and Dad's on Saturday and put the muzzle on Silky. She was NOT impressed! She kept shaking her head up and down, trying to get it off. We fed her some carrots through the hole, so hopefully she'll figure it out.

As you can see from the picture, it looks like a torture device! The fly mask is not part of the torture, actually. She really likes to wear it and definitely needed it on Saturday - she had about 25 flies swarming around her eyes before we put it on - yuck! You can also see in this picture exactly why she needs the muzzle! That's quite a belly she has :)


A Bathroom
Ray has been slowly working on our main bathroom for over two years now! Since it's only the two of us, and we have another bathroom, this project always seems to get shoved to the bottom of the to-do list.

Ray and I both took the week after July 4th off, and Ray took the opportunity to get a little more done on the bathroom... well, a lot more done, actually. Prior to that week, the drywall was up and the tub in. During our week off, Ray got all of the mudding done - a very time-consuming process - and he and his dad got our shower surround cut out (it's Corian).

We've been trying to put some more time into this project lately, so since the week off, Ray and I have also sealed most of the walls and primed the whole room. I want to save before pictures until the project is complete, but here is what the room looks like with it's coat of primer:


It may not look like much to you, but we're pretty excited to be this far :)

The goal is to paint the room this summer and for Ray to get the surround and the glass blocks in this fall. Then, Ray can spend the winter making the cabinetry. He's really looking forward to that part since he loves woodworking!

After we're done painting the bathroom, I'd like to spend some of my days off starting to paint other rooms in the house. We're keeping busy!

The Old Mare Just Ain't What She Used To Be

Last fall, I took my 23-year-old horse, Silky, for a ride and noticed that she was limping ever-so-slightly. I knew I couldn't take her for another ride until I had a vet take a look at my elderly old girl. Last week, I *finally* got around to booking the vet appointment for Silky, and the vet came today.

Lots of bad news. Silky has arthritis (which I had suspected) in her front knees, and it's pretty significant. There's not much that can be done, it's just going to continue to gradually get worse. No cure, no medication that's worth pursuing (too many side effects and it wouldn't "fix" it anyway). No more riding (the vet actually didn't say I couldn't ride, but it would obviously cause Silky pain).

There are some things I can do to hopefully slow down the progression of the arthritis:

• Number one is to get Silky's hooves trimmed more frequently. No problem, I'll get the farrier out as often as I need to.
• Number two is for Silky to lose some weight. Hmmmm. That's a bit tougher. My dad is a notorious animal over-feeder and he feeds Silky since she's out on my parents' farm. I've told him numerous times in the past that he's over-feeding Silky, but it never seems to do any good. Luckily, my vet had a solution. A grazing muzzle. Looks like torture, doesn't it? There's a tiny hole in the bottom that Silky will be able to get grass through. Poor girl! The trick is going to be getting my dad to put it on her every morning. *sigh*

She's been an amazing pet and friend through the years, and I want to do right for her in her senior citizen years. I sure do love this old horse!

2005

1995

Archie, The Three-Legged Cat

I mentioned my parents' cat, Archie, in my last post. Here he is in his Christmas finery :) The missing leg would be in the back on top. He gets around really well. Missing a leg doesn't seem to bother him at all!

Funny People

I will be the first to admit that I'm not really funny. I'm sure that's evident from reading my blog. Informative, maybe, but it's definitely not funny. I do know some funny people, though. I'm even related to a few :)

My husband, Ray, has a pretty dry sense of humor that really cracks me up. He's especially good at writing zingers in emails. Ray sent out one of these emails recently.

My immediate family (parents and siblings) picks names for Christmas. Before picking names, we each write a few ideas of things we might like for Christmas. These lists then go into a bucket and that's how we pick names. We do this on Thanksgiving Day every year and then my mom spends from Thanksgiving until Christmas trying to figure out who has which name.

Recently, my mom sent a silly email out saying that she knew which name everyone in the family has. In response, Ray sent a "picture" of his person's list, to show that Mom had guessed incorrectly. This is what Ray sent:


To explain, my parents have this really cute cat. I wish I had a picture of him, I would have posted it. At any rate, the cat's name is Archie and he's an indoor/outdoor cat. This past spring, Archie showed up one morning with a broken leg. My mom took him to the vet and they said that they couldn't fix the leg. The only thing they could do was to amputate it.

I grew up on a hobby farm, so usually a case like this would have resulted in the cat being put to sleep. My mom had grown really fond of Archie, though, so she had the vet amputate Archie's broken leg. Thus, a new leg is the only thing on Archie's Christmas list this year!


To continue with the funny people theme, I started reading a cute blog recently. It's just called Big Mama and chronicles the life of a wife and mother in Texas. How can you not love reading a blog by someone who can come up with the sentence "She rolled out the dough with the grace and precision of a monkey after too many shots of tequila."?! Too funny :)

The Gray Old Mare

She's actually a palomino mare, but the title sounded fun! I went out to the folks' house today, and Mom and I brushed my horse, Silky, out. She's shedding A LOT! We joked that we had enough fur on the ground to create a second horse :)

Silky's doing really well for being 21 years old. Horses usually live to about 30, so she's definitely in senior citizen territory now. I guess she's still feeling pretty good, because she kicked my dad in the arm a couple of weeks ago. Horses can get really sassy when they sense spring coming, and we think that's why she kicked Dad. I swear she's not a dangerous horse - she hasn't kicked anyone in years!

At any rate, she seemed to enjoy getting brushed out. Shedding is an itchy undertaking!

Check out all that hair!