Pink Squirrel Farmstead

Sunday in Childress a family put on an event at their home where they dress up as The Grinch and Cindy Lou Who and let people come take pictures with them. I took the girls to take their photos. Payton was a bit bashful at first so Cheyenne took her picture first. She loved her dress, her favorite color is red and she said it was so comfortable.

The sun was right in their eyes. Payton said mom it’s your turn. I was like eh I don’t need a picture. She did not take no for an answer so I got my picture taken too. And yes, I got a new shirt at the ballet Haha. I was able to talk the girls into a couple different poses and we headed back home. I just love this time of year! I am so glad we moved to Childress, we really feel at home here.

If you told me 15 years ago that I would meet and marry the most wonderful man in the world at a prison, I would have told you that you were a psychopath. To clarify we both worked at the prison, neither of us were incarcerated, haha. I never knew that I could be loved exactly the way I am or as much as he loves me by anyone. I didn’t know you could be truly this happy in a marriage.

I am so thankful for each and every moment we have together. We just like being together, even if we are just sitting on the couch not talking we are just happy to be with one another. I know that’s enough with the sappy stuff. But, sorry ladies he is taken.

Friday morning Chad called me and asked if I wanted to ride with him to go sign some papers for work in Amarillo. Told me to get dressed and fix my hair and stuff. I said sure after our doctors appointments ( we were establishing care with a new provider in our area). The doctor wanted to do a bunch of labs and an X-ray on my wrist that has been achy for quite a long time. Chad was thinking jeez doc we got places to be. Little did I know, he had a secret he wasn’t telling me.

As we were driving to Amarillo I asked what time he needed to sign papers because he had set the GPS to hobby lobby. Of course if you know me, you know I am very inquisitive and I ask a lot questions. He said he didn’t need to sign papers anymore. Then told me he never had to sign papers but wanted me to go with him to Amarillo today. He could tell I was a bit confused because he doesn’t ever fib to me. Then he proceeded to tell me he had a surprise for me and it was the only way to get me to go to Amarillo with him that day. He said luckily I didn’t throw any kinks in it about wanting the kids to go or anything because he already felt bad for keeping this secret from me.

He told me it was something that was on my bucket list. I knew immediately what it was! He was taking me to see the Nutcracker Ballet! I fought back tears of joy. I have wanted to go since I was a little girl. I was so excited that all I bought at Hobby Lobby was a gift bag. And well I could spend an entire paycheck there. Excited is an understatement! It was so sweet for him to plan this whole trip for me and was able to keep it a surprise. I am truly blessed!

Chad and I always tell each other I love you more. Now he says obviously he loves me more, he went to the ballet so it is obvious that he loves me more…. I guess I’ll let him think that for a while.

I loved the show, Chad may or may not have dozed off a few times, haha. The costumes were so intricately designed and they performers were so amazing. After the performance we rushed to the lobby to beat the crowd and I was able to get a few souvenirs so I can remember that night every year when I am decorating for Christmas. Additionally, I got me and the girls each an ornament as well. This was definitely a night to remember! Best Christmas gift ever! Thank you so much Chad, I definitely love you more!

We are in full swing for Christmas around here. We started our advent calendars. This year The advent calendars I picked for the kids were a new ornament each day. It has been exciting to see the new ornaments each day. Zeppelin and Oreo have advent calendars too. Last year we got Zeppelin one and he shredded it getting all the treats out after the first day when we we’re not home. I told him this year that he needed to be patient and get a treat each day. Yes, I talk to my animals like they are humans. Each day he will sit by the office Christmas tree and wait for us to do advent calendars, he even likes Oreos advent calendar too.

There was a gully washer of a rain storm at the farm yesterday. Unfortunately, when we get big rains like this the neighbors ditch overflows right into the barn and floods our barn. I think we will need to put a dump truck full of dirt on that side of the barn with some plastic barrier down to try to eliminate this problem. I definitely do not want this to continue to happen. In addition, after big rain storms like this some water seeps into the basement. We are open to suggestions if you have any, we have done extensive research and have a few solutions to try, but we are definitely not experts. Luckily, there are drains in the basement floor, but we would eventually like to finish out the basement.

Back to Christmas fun, we made our annual gingerbread houses. Most of the time everyone gets frustrated with getting the house not to fall apart putting them together with the frosting in the kits. So I cheated and hot glued them before we got started, it’s not like we eat them anyways. One day I want to make my own gingerbread from scratch to make a gingerbread house, but I am not that ambitious this year.

The town we live in has a good size Christmas light display in the park. We took a drive through it and then went to get some ice cream afterwards at Dairy Queen. I love doing things as a family for Christmas. My favorite things about Christmas is not what is under the tree (even though I am happy to announce I am done Christmas shopping and everything is wrapped, yay!) but it is making memories together. I love decorating cookies together, listening to Christmas music, playing games, gingerbread houses, decorating the house and watching Christmas movies together. I have tried to get Hunter to put up some outside lights at the farm but he just simply refuses. How rude! I even texted him this picture, because I do have shimmery light up chickens, but he still told me no.

This morning I woke up to pictures from my dad. The first snow of the a year at the farm! He said he wished he was in Florida and that I was at the farm. I think his excitement for the snow was not the same as mine! I wish I was there to take a bunch of pictures of the snow. They followed the snow plow into town when taking Hunter to work.

Hunter said all the snow melted off already but it sure was pretty! Today I did some holiday treat making because my spoiled Husband said we didn’t have any snacks in the house. I resolved that issue for him today. The girls helped with them today. Cheyenne was super excited to put on the Christmas sprinkles.

Chads mom used to make buckeyes every year at Christmas and I loved them. When she passed away I inherited some of her cook books. I looked through the cook books for her recipe but couldn’t find it. One is wayyy older than me and it was falling apart but I wanted to preserve it so after talking to my sister in law Carla, she suggested laminating the pages. I finished laminating them today and I am going to bind the pages into a new book.

I hope you and your family are having an amazing holiday season making memories together. One day all you will have are memories, so try to make as many as you can.

It’s beginning to get cold out at the farm so dad has been working inside as much as possible. I’m sure Hunter was glad because dad started putting electrical plugs in upstairs.

In addition to electrical, dad has been working on the bathroom. In the bathroom we planned to have the toilet, and a sink in one room and a pocket door into the rest of master bathroom, where the tub, shower, vanity is. Dad scratched his head a few times to get the pocket door just right. We think he did an amazing job! I can’t wait to see it in person.

Hunter is getting in the spirit of Christmas. He bought a few new Christmas sweaters. They look adorable! I also got my dad a Christmas shirt to help him be less Grinchy , and yes, that is my face all over his shirt!

The goats have been doing good. They learned that the goats love to eat peanuts for a treat. Mom and Buford have decided to play nice with each other finally. Well sorta, it’s more bribery than playing nice but, if it works, it works. Mom drops a few peanuts on the ground and Buford leaves her alone.

Chad finished my desk and we got it in the house. I love it! I am going to try to make a quilt. I have never made one but I think it will be fun. I will start out with a small one and see how it goes. Chad did an amazing job on my desk. Chad put in some extra lights for me and we added some organizing peg boards on the wall, which I may or may not have said some ugly things to while putting up.

Payton is going to be 16 soon. I cannot believe my baby girl is gonna be 16! Her birthday is 2 days before Christmas so we took her to get a pedicure over the weekend since most things are closed on her birthday. Please wish he a Happy Sweet 16 when you see her.

We all know Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I mean I purchased my farm house because it would be so cute at Christmas time. When we moved into the new house we decided to just decorate for Christmas instead of decorating for fall for a couple weeks. Of course I had no objection to doing this.

But the BAH-HUMBUGS at the farm have fought me tooth and nail about decorating. They found the ugliest tree we own in the attic (I knew I should have thrown it away) and put it up. Luckily, dad and Hunter were just joking and being butt heads. They got a good laugh about it.

Hunter still put up the tree I wanted in the living room. They refused outdoor Christmas lights, and refused all the other Christmas decorations. I guess it will be fine for this year. But, there is still time to talk Hunter into putting out my light up chickens. Wish me luck!

Sorry it has been a while, we have been very busy since Halloween. We moved for my husbands job at the beginning of November and went from our RV into a house. That was a fun and exciting move but also very expensive since we had to furnish the house. When we bought our farm we moved all of our stuff that we had in storage after moving into the RV.

Chad worked very hard building us a farmhouse style bed that I had been wanting and he did an amazing job. He worked in the evenings after he got off work and on his days off. I love it! I am super thankful for all his hard work.

Chad is currently working on making a desk for me to do crafting and sewing. I told him I wanted a very stable desk so there is not any movement when I am working on stuff. he has finished the first part of the L shaped desk. I am not looking forward to moving it in the house but I am looking forward to it being in the house.

At the farm it has been starting to get cold. The firewood has been stacked after each load and they goats have been giving my dad hell. My dad is not a fan of my sweet Buford during rut. He likes to run away to get some love from the neighbors nanny goat and dad has tried a couple different methods to keep him in the yard. We purchased more fence to put up to goat proof better but the weather has not been the most cooperative.

My mom and Buford have a mutual hate for each other and they are both quite hard headed. So, it is a constant battle between the two. The girl goats have been exploring the property and covering themselves in cockleburs and my dad has to brush them out of their fur each day.

My mom had surgery for a partial knee replacement at the beginning of November and is healing up pretty good. She is up and moving a lot, and some days are harder than others. She has been going to physical therapy and has been doing great with it.

The front entry sign has been started, the wood still has to be painted and the the flower bed still needs filled with dirt but it is coming right along. I am still not sure how my dad was able to hoist those solid oak beams up by himself.

Fall is here and is coming in with a vengeance. They have had several days of cold weather already and there is snow in the forecast for next week. Not sure how excited they are for that but I am. I can’t wait to go visit the farm again soon.

We are excited to announce we have 2 new goats. The new goats came from the same farm as Sugar and are super friendly. They are doing great on the farm and are making themselves right at home.

Ginger is a Boer goat and Ally is a Kiko goat. Buford is very excited to have some ladies on the farm. He has already decided he is in love with Ally. Ginger has let him know that she is not interested in shorter men. Buford doesn’t seem to be a gentleman when it comes to waiting for marriage.

After a while Buford calmed down a bit and they roamed around the hillside enjoying some grub. He did end up getting himself in trouble and got put in the pen by himself for a while. He head butted my dad pretty roughly a few times and horned Hunter in his manly parts. Luckily, rut season is only a few months long and now he is leaving Sugar baby alone.

For some reason all the goats love this door. Maybe because they can see their reflection in it, but it is super cute! Our little farm is growing.

Last weekend, Chad and I took a day trip to Midland/Odessa and saw the Stonehenge replica and got some lunch at a amazing Italian restaurant called Mi Piaci. I would recommend it 10/10 amazing. The service was great and the food was scrumptious! I love getting this one on one time with my husband!

There are many predators for chickens. For instance dogs, coyotes, cats, foxes, raccoons, weasels, skunks, opossums, snakes, owls, and hawks. We mostly have problems with hawks trying to get the chickens on the farm. We want the chickens to safely be able to forge for bugs.

Hawks will attack any time during the day. Hawks have extremely good eyesight and will scope out areas from high up in the trees. Once a hawk finds its prey it will go in for an attack. Sometimes hawks will pick up the chicken with their talons and take off with them but they will also pin them down on the ground and use their talons to kill them on impact. Unfortunately, there are usually not any signs of an attack; you will just notice you are missing a chicken.

There are many different ways to keep chickens safe. You can build safety shelters like chicken tractors, or chicken runs. They keep them safe but with everything there is always cons. If chickens are in a small area they will destroy the ground and it will eventually just be dirt. We prefer the chickens to free range.

I have heard of people using reflective ribbon, and pinwheels to scare off hawks. The sunlight will shimmer on the ribbons and will make the hawks nervous to approach the area, and as wind blows it will make noise. These options usually work temporarily but the hawks are very intelligent and will figure it out.

Even though dogs can be a predator, they can also protect them. Live stock guardian dogs are or can be trained to protect animals on your farm. The dogs can intervene an attack or even alert you of an attack. But hawks can even carry off small dogs so you would have to have a larger breed dog.

You can make a scarecrow and set it up to deter the hawks from coming into the area because they think it is a human. You cannot just set it up and you are good to go from then on. You will have to periodically move it to different spots.

When I was at the farm last we tried letting the chickens out to free range and it did not go as well as we had hoped. We had previously seen a couple small owls but we had also seen several hawks. Unfortunately, when my parents went to put the chickens back in the coop there was a hawk devouring a poor chicken. Now I know it happens but we try to do everything we can to keep our animals safe and we started researching what to do.

My dad recently made a scarecrow (maybe he was inspired by all the fall decor I put all throughout the house haha). If you know my dad you know he loves vibrant colors, and Hawaiian shirts as you can see above. So you know he made a Hawaiian scarecrow. So far the last couple days it has kept the hawks away from the chickens.

Time change is coming soon and it will be getting darker earlier so it was time to add more lighting to the bathroom. My dad has been doing an amazing job with putting in the electrical, I know it is much more difficult with trying to put in into finished walls. I am so excited for each and every improvement on the house. Let their be light! 

Nothing starts your day like finding a new water leak on the RV. I didn’t want to have to do plumbing today so I tried tightening the connection but no, it wasn’t having it, still drip, drip, drip ugh! Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind fixing things or working on things but the crawl space is just less than ideal for cutting pipe and using tools. First things first, I turned off the water and drained all the water lines. Since I don’t know the size of the piece I need I had to take it off so I can compare the sizes at the store, I know the pex line is 1/2” but I didn’t know what size the screw on thing-a-ma-jig was. I cut the pex line and started unscrewing it as hot water started pouring out, I quickly grabbed a hand towel to try to lessen the burn and got it off. Whew, finally! Off to the hardware store I shall go!

I got back home from the hardware store and put the new piece on, thought wow that was too easy. I had Payton turn the water back on and Cheyenne turn all the water faucets back off, water started spewing everywhere, all over me, all over the storage compartment I was laying in trying to fix it, I yelled, “turn it off, turn it off!” Luckily Payton was still there and got it turned off quickly, and Cheyenne turned the faucets back on to drain the lines again. I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy.

I realized I had not pushed the pex line in far enough into the connector, thought it was fixed but I was wrong again. I use shark bite connectors because it works good for me and they are easy to use in tight places. Since the screw on thingy wasn’t tight enough I would have to figure out how to get the shark bite end off of the pex line, so YouTube here I come. I watched a video showing how to do it but I didn’t have the tool to take off the shark bite connectors…. Luckily, the hardware store had them in stock and they were only $2. By the way, the video made it look a lot easier than it was. Needless to say I got it off, tightened up the screw on thingy and then connected the pex line back. I talked real nice to it, prayed it was fixed then had Payton turn the water back on and Cheyenne turn off all the faucets in the house. Hallelujah! I did it! I’m a rockstar! Okay, maybe not but there is so much satisfaction in fixing something, even though I am beginning to hate RV’s.

Got to talk with my parents yesterday, my mom is going to have to have surgery on her knee and get a partial knee replacement, and due to some other things going on in life right now, I won’t be able to be there. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers next week while she is in surgery and recovering.

The goats have been giving dad a run for his money. Trying to keep the two separate has been quite the task at hand. Dad rebuilt a pen twice and used some redneck ingenuity but he is surviving. It’s comical to me because I am here in Texas, it is not so comical to him dealing with it there in Kentucky . But they are pretty darn adorable and they apparently love morning glories.

Payton is in all online public school, the school gives a timeline of when things are due but you can go ahead as well. Payton finished this semester of Spanish yesterday with an A! We are super proud of her, the semester doesn’t end until January 9th. Sometimes a little hard work will make life a little easier. She will also finish this semester of Art next week. Way to go Payton!

Hunter is excited he has a door on his room now. Since the door was taken off of the entrance to the stairs it makes it hotter in his room when the wood heater is on, so now he can block off some of the heat. I’m sure he will appreciate the heat more as it gets closer to winter.

Fall and winter brings out my love for baking. Over the weekend I did a side by side comparison with a new bread machine recipe. I made the same recipe one with all purpose flour and one with artesian bread flour. I blind taste tested them with family members. It was a unanimous vote with the all purpose flour as the winner. The artesian bread flour loaf made the crust crunchier than the all purpose flour, but they were both good. This bread will be amazing sandwich bread. I like using the bread maker to make my dough, it helps keep a good constant temperature for it to rise. Today, I tried to bake it in the oven but I split it into two loaves. Unfortunately, I should have made it into one loaf but at least it was still delicious. I guess I’ll have to try it again. Let me know if you are interested in the recipe. Who doesn’t like fresh warm bread and butter?

Recently, Buford has been having some peculiar behavior compared to his normal sweet loving nature that we have enjoyed. First he started urinating on our outdoor couch and luckily the cushions are washable. He has been grabbing my mom with his horns and pulling her towards him. Then while my dad was in the chicken coop he knocked over his beer and decided to help himself to it. It was a bit of odd behavior but not too terrible.

My dad and Hunter mowed the yard(they are hoping for the last time this year) and dad cleared some more along the fence line. It is very important to clear around the fence line to be able to make sure the fence is all intact and no repairs are needed. As we get animals on the farm we need to make sure we can keep them on the property.

My dad was able to find a guy to deliver firewood to the house and then him and Hunter would just have to stack the firewood for cheaper than the cost it was for him to drive to get it and have to unload it and stack it themselves. While they were stacking the firewood that got delivered Hunter and Buford took their relationship a bit further than Hunter would like. While Hunter was bent over picking up firewood Buford decided to try to mount him. Let’s just say Hunter was a bit traumatized by it. Unfortunately for us they weren’t expecting it and didn’t get a video. I asked Hunter if he could recreate it for educational purposes on my blog but he said no.

Buford is in rut. Rut is when a male goat (buck) has a surge of hormones raging through them. Usually this happens between the months of August and January, and they are ready to mate with does (female goats). They can breed all year long but during rut breeding is the only thing on their brains.

After doing extensive research I have learned a lot about goats in rut, and lucky for you I will share some of what I have learned with you. It is advised that a buckling be moved away from their mothers at 3-4 months old because they can start breeding and may impregnate their mother. In fact, a buckling can technically breed a doe at 7 weeks old, but luckily it is not very common.

During rut bucks can have a stinky smell and it can be pretty intense. You definitely want to stay up wind from them. The smell actually comes from their own urine and from scent glands behind their horns. Apparently the does like it, and the smellier they are, the more chances they have of getting to breed with the doe. Unfortunately, some bucks urinate in their beards or on their faces to get really stinky to flatter the does. Not sure Buford will get a lot of snuggles from me during rut. Hopefully he doesn’t do this part. Ewe, just ewe.

In the midst of his rut my dad found a new baby goat that we added to our farm. Her name was Jill but that is my mom’s name so we had to change her name. At first I wanted name her Maybell but it just didn’t fit her and we ended up deciding to call her Sugar. She looks like a bag of sugar. I can’t wait to go to the farm and snuggle her. She is about 3-4 months old and cute as a button.

Sugar was pretty scared and confused when she got to the farm. Her life as she knew it is now completely changed. And Buford’s raging hormones just got worse. Dad even asked if we should change his name to Chester the molester because he was trying to mate her. She is wayyyyy to young for that and they had to be separated. She was very vocal the first day about her life changes. It is usually best to separate new goats from your current herd in case of they have sicknesses and then you won’t have to treat your whole herd but we only had Buford.

After she got there some more rut behaviors began with Buford. Flehmen is when bucks utilize nerve endings in their lips to smell an exciting smell. It looks quite hilarious because they stick their lip up and stretch their necks up as far as they can to the sky.

Other behaviors that bucks do that is pretty disgusting is that they will run up to a squatting doe to smell or drink her urine. Other than her urine releasing certain hormones about her readiness to breed I don’t know why they do this.

Like normal men trying to show off for women, bucks try to do the same. They stomp, strut around, stretch in funny ways (to us human folks). Trying to be fancy for his girls he will grunt, stick out his tongue, and make other weird noises. Your buck may also surprise you some day during rut by masturbating. He may do this in a colorful variety of different ways, but just know it is normal and their is nothing wrong with him. I tried to keep that as PG as possible but you get to learn right along with me. some bucks even get aggressive during rut but not all.

In a not so awkward conversation, my dad built a firewood storage rack that I wanted out of Oak boards. There is an Amish sawmill down the road from our farm and they cut the wood to your likings and the price is amazing. Since they are solid oak they are super heavy.

Since the boards were so heavy my dad designed and cut the boards then assembled them in the house. It would have weighed close to 300 lbs assembled. I love that some of the boards have a live edge on them too. After building it they carried firewood up to fill it up. It holds about a half a rick of wood. It looks so good, don’t ya think?