Summer Birthdays are over :)

Yesterday we celebrated our final summer birthday :) Baby girl (GH) celebrated her 1st birthday in May, along with DH who is getting old, lol. My youth was celebrated next, followed by SL, our now big 5yr old, he is becoming quite the little helper :) And finally, last but not least, IL celebrated her 3rd birthday in style, as we had my mom, sister and brother in law in town, a rare treat :) Pics to be uploaded soon.

My mom, sis and brother in law have blessed us with a living room remodel, it is going very well, it is amazing how quickly a room can be transformed. The experience is very humbling and I wish there were more that I could help with, as it is DH is giving up a lot of sleep to try to help and thankfully AR is able to assist. The kids are eager to get to see it, but have tried to stay nicely in the dining room. It is sometimes overwhelming for them and they come sneak little peaks but that's to be expected. :) No, I absolutely did not take before pics, but I do have the before pics from when we bought the house. :) I'll upload them as soon as we get done.

NB: Sunday is the final day (until midnight) to enter the Cast Iron Skillet giveaway :)

New study puts final nail in the;saturated fat causes heart disease; coffin

For more than five decades we’ve been brainwashed to believe that saturated fat causes heart disease. It’s such a deeply ingrained belief that few people even question it. It’s just part of our culture now.

Almost every day one of my patients in the clinic tells me proudly that they have a “healthy” diet because they don’t eat butter, cheese or red meat or any other foods high in saturated fat (nevermind that red meat isn’t particularly high in saturated fat, but that’s a subject for another post). Or I might overhear someone at the grocery store saying how much they prefer whole fat yogurt to the low-fat version, but they eat the low-fat stuff anyways because they want to make the “healthy” choice.

What most people don’t realize is that it took many years to convince people that eating traditional, animal fats like butter and cheese is bad for you, while eating highly-processed, industrial vegetable oils like corn and soybean oil is good for you. This simply defied common sense for most people. But the relentless, widespread campaign to discredit saturated fat and promote industrial oils was eventually successful.

What if I told you that there’s absolutely no evidence to support the idea that saturated fat consumption causes heart disease? What if I told you that the 50+ years of cultural brainwashing we have all been subject to was based on small, poorly designed studies? And what if I told you that a review of large, well-designed studies published in reputable medical journals showed that there is absolutely no association between saturated fat and heart disease?

Read more New study puts final nail in the “saturated fat causes heart disease” coffin

Spider Who?

Name this spider please, he is currently hanging outside one of our windows. Has anyone else noticed how much bigger the bugs are in the country? Seriously and what's up with this web pattern?

on a side note: The feeder pigs are finally ready to go to new homes. We have relocated them to the trailer.

Missy looks to be pregnant, we'll soon find out. Pinky and Mama do not seem to be able to get along :Read Pinky is a real . . . Pig, lol: Soon we'll know who's preggy and whose not and will have lots of bacon and pork chops, lol.

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Runaway Slave Movie Teaser

The snake bite

Last night the children found a snake in the bedroom headed to the dining room. They called for Dh and then came to get the camera. Husbands and children seem to love this particular brand of excitement, I opted to pass. Sure enough Dh reached for the snake and received a bite for his trouble. Baseball bat in hand he proceeded to try to crush the snake. The snake appeared dead and he took it outside. I have obviously not impressed upon him the make sure it's dead theory, ie cut off it's head. From the picture it was difficult to tell exactly what type of snake it was and he was able to go take a look once more to verify the shape of the snakes head was not diamond. When he went the second time the snake was gone. Either the chickens got it or it was still alive, I dislike those odds. Either way, we called the local ER just in case, they had no clue and don't even stock anti venom, they would have to transfer him to Wichita if it was necessary. We called the ER in Wichita and they were unable to provide much help except the number to poison control. The lady at poison control became concerned because of the pattern on the snake, it could be a gopher/bull snake or Massasauga, the latter is venomous. They told us what signs to look for and said that they would call back in 2 hours to check on him. He had a small muscle spasm in his hand and then it began to itch but both subsided. We were grateful that it wasn't serious but were able to find a hospital closer that carried anti venom (just in case) by that time. All in all it was an eventful night. *Pic to come as soon as I find my card reader :(

Click pic to see larger:


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Fun stuff

A friend pointed me in the direction of a new shopping site, CNS Stores, by new I mean new to me. It is HUGE, I mean I have been on it for days now and I am yet to see everything, from twin beds to toys, the pots and pans are amazing. I am super duper excited by the educational games and school supplies that they carry, this cannot be good for the bank account, lol :) Take a look around, they have 200+ stores within this site, it is incredible :) Leave me a comment telling me what you liked the most, I am still working my way through. Did I mention they even have canning supplies? This will take a while, lol.

Life with pigs

It's a constant adventure. We have gotten to the point where we check on them hourly. Don't get me wrong, except for the unfortunate winter potatoes and corn plants incident, they haven't done any real damage. They really should be pastured fulltime, the longer we keep pigs the more I am convinced they need wide open spaces to graze. Mama and her babies love to roam, they even like the wheat field across the street. Theyre not above eating roadkill either, apparently armadillo tastes good even with tires tracks. 1 piglet - the only boar, has a pinched nerve so he shakes his head a lot, another got stepped on by a cow and is paralyzed from the waist down, boy can she move. Mama and babies love to nurse in the open grass, the babies fight for position most of the time, lol.

Side note: IL has laid claim to miss kitty and carries her like luggage, lol.

You maybe having a bad day when . . .

You wake up to find a pig and a cow (Patches) out by the road. Then after you get then back in, an hour later you find that the larger cow (Blackbird) have completely busted the fence. Luckily, I'd sent AR to check on the animals which saved the nice officer a trip to the house :( AR, the officer and a kind stranger attempted to fix the fence. AR then rounded up the cows to get them back to the barn. This did not go over well with Notch who attempted to charge him, so he left her be. Dh is attempting to convince Ms overprotective back to the barn. This should prove interesting as she is not known to be easily persuaded. :( I will not miss her when she's gone to the sale in a few months.

Independence Day baby :)

Happy Independence Day everyone! Notch had her baby about an hour ago, sex tbd as she is HIGHLY protective and attempted to ram DH when he approached the baby. Blackbird's baby is to be called Ebony. We are keeping an eye on her as DH is concerned that Blackbird may not be feeding her enough.
**Update** it's a boy :) His name will be Chip.


In honor of America's Independence Day, here is Ray Charles and America the Beautiful live @ the McCallum Theater

Mama pig took the babies for a walk

For some reason Mama pig has become impossible to contain. This evening I woke dh up to do chores before going in to work and not 5 minutes later a stranger pulled up to the house. Mama had taken the babies for a walk by the highway 8| AR and DH rushed out and got them back in the corrals. Mama has trampled and dug up my garden over the past few weeks :(

Black Jack, Missy and Pinky have had to be locked down in the corrals as the dug under the fence of their old pen :( Missy seems to be the only one that minds, and has assisted Dh in finding all the weak spots. :roll eyes:

Dh is looking for a part-time 2nd job to help catch us up on bills, as am I. No leads yet. I am thankful to have my swagbucks to get amazon gift cards for books for the kids, it is a life saver with 3 kids b-days in summer and 3 in winter.

The cows decided to press their luck last night and rush Dh as he entered the gate, since it was dark their little escapade cost us part of the electric fence :( Dh worked a double shift today so we'll have to assess the damage Wednesday or Thursday.

The kids and I are having loads of fun this summer, focusing mainly on Religion, Math and Reading