DON"T try this at home!!!!!!

This all started because Donnie and I were talking about the fact that I REALLY need a haircut but money is a little tight so I remembered an article I had read in a self sufficient blog once about giving yourself a haircut. The lady made it look so easy and the results were stunning! All she did was put her hair in a ponytail and strategically cut a chunk of hair off. Then she proceeded to take her hair out of a ponytail holder and her locks flowed beautifully at her shoulders, layers and all. Now I thought this would be awesome if I could cut my hair at home and save some time and money.
I told Donnie about this idea and he decided we needed to try it. After all we had nothing else to do tonight. "It's just hair" he says! LOL! So here is what happened(LD took the pics for me)

I'm not so sure about this!

Folks this is what happens when you have lots of time and little money!

snip snip

Would you look at the grip he has on my hair! LOL!

AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! WHAT HAVE I DONE!!! It looks horrible!! This picture makes it look better than it does!!

OMG! I can't believe I did this!! LOL!!

Ha ha good times and ugly hair....

So needless to say THAT did NOT work!! LOL!! Looks like ponytails and braids for me for a while! Even though it did not work out at ALL, at least I learned to NEVER EVER cut my hair at home!!! I think I'll just grow it out from now on. Ha ha ha...

Fires, pretty dress and a new wagon

Today I need to write a little about everything. I promised my mom I would post a pic of the dress she got Pip for her birthday that came with a matching dress for her doll. I took the pic on Sunday before church. I was forced to bring the Rapunzel doll with us to church because Piper said they had to be together to match. that being said I looked very cute carrying my doll around on Sunday. ha ha ha. I also promised I would take a picture of the kids in the new wagon my parents also got Piper(and the boys) for her birthday.

Now last but not least, We got a HUGE amount of branches burned over the last couple of days and who can have a big fire WITHOUT wieners and marshmallows?? Although Donnie being the piro that he is decided that more lighter fluid was better and so the fire was CRAZY hot! LOL! So hot in fact that I had like a 5 foot stick and still couldn't put it to the fire for more than 3 seconds. Needless to say the wienies were cooked more on the outside than in, but all in all the kids had fun and we got all our branches burned!

Pip and Rapunzel with matching dresses

It's a PARADE!

He was the lucky one that got pulled by everyone

The ridiculously big fire

SOOOO hot! LOL!

This guy is WAY to happy to burn in a fire! And don't tell me he doesn't know it's coming.........look at his shirt! LOL!

Whoa! Was what Ryker kept saying at the fire

Eating some hot dogs

And I almost forgot. Let's go back in time to  when the Nintendo first came out and all little boys sat in front of the T.V. playing video games. Apparently we never got the memo that there are better game systems out there now cause LD is in LOVE with this original Nintendo. his favorite games, Duck Hunt, Mario and Ninja fighters. LOL!

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure....

The Amish have a saying, "an ounce of  prevention is worth a pound of cure." I love this saying but I normally don't adhere to it. I usually find myself fixing things after they have already been broken so since I am starting with a clean slate here I decided to do things right.

Our garden is just a hair under 1/4 acre and with all the other things going on during the move I wasn't able to plant in time for a good growing season. Another reason I haven't planted yet is because I have been putting of the  tedious task of fencing in the entire 1/4 acre to keep out the cute but annoying little bunnies. We have about 26 bunnies running around the farm(the old owner just let his pet rabbits go when he moved and now they have had babies...a LOT of babies!) and I don't mind em' when I don't have veggies for them to munch on. But bunnies and gardens don't mix. So after much delay I finally took on the fencing task today. I have to say I am VERY sorry I did! Ha ha ha.I first put up all the paneling around the areas that had no fencing at all. then I had to strip all the chicken wire from the fencing that the old owner had put up (We have done every single project at this house for free so far. We have done all of our landscaping with all the stuff that we have found around the property, up until now we have done most things with logs from dead trees but now I have been able to utilize all the weird extra fencing this guy put up.)  After I striped the wire from the old fencing I had to dig a trench along the whole fence line so my chicken wire could go a little underground in case we get any diggers! 

Here is the chicken wire after I buried it.

LD was helping me cut wire from one of the fence's ....

This is half of my garden the other half is behind the camera. We burned that big pile of wood after this picture was taken so now I have a lot more to till. SIGH.... ha ha ha

I decided to do a very small area of test garden to see how certain things would do out here. First I tested my soil to see what I was workin with. They call the dirt out here "poof dirt" it is the weirdest soil I have ever seen. I discovered I am workin with something similar to clay as far as nutrients go. Note the AWESOME tan line. LOL!

Adding compost, Piper was "helping" me. I think I had some in my eye. ha ha ha

Adding some seed to a test area.

So we will see how well my fence does at keeping out the critters and how well different veggies do in our garden. I always do REALLY well growing watermelon so hopefully out here it does just as well. If so half the garden will be for watermelon so we can sell it at farmers market next year. So here's to good luck with my test veggies and fence!

Princess PAR-TAY!!

Yesterday our little princess turned  3!! I took her on a special trip to get her very own princess balloons on her special day. Then today we had a princess party for her. I have to say that between throwing parties for boys and throwing parties for boys I have a lot more fun with the girl parties. LOL. All the pretty decorations and all of the cute presents. i honestly don't know who has more fun playing with her toys, me or Piper! Ha ha ha. She really seemed to enjoy showing off for grandma, grandpa and auntie Cook!

In other news we have decided that Ryker looks like Mater from the movie Cars. We got him a Mater shirt and we honestly couldn't tell the difference LOL...  

So you tell me do you see the resemblance??? LOL!

 Ahhhh yes, I almost forgot. LD is walking a little bit more aarrogant these days. When they did our septic they let him help drive the backhoe. He actually got pretty good at it. By the end of the day he was able to do everything by himself with no help.

AND here are the birthday girl pics!

Getting ready for her presents

She wanted a Bell cake. I wasn't very happy with this one but she liked it so that's what matters

Opening presents

do you remember when you got THIS excited about YOUR birthday??

She LOVES Rapunzel!

Blowing out the candles

She got make-up but none of it is left in the case because it has already been applied heavily to her face!

Happy Birthday to my little Princess Piper. Mommy and Daddy love our little girl!

SEPTIC! YAY!!!

Today was a big day! ha ha ha. They installed part of our septic system today. It was actually a pretty cool process and we learned quite a bit about where our "stuff" goes. LOL! I took some pictures because I'm a nerd and it was to hot out to be doing anything productive at 2 in the afternoon. I did end up getting some work done later in the evening in the front area where our grass will go(pics soon). ANYWAYS here are some pics because I have nothing better to talk about today. ha ha ha...

Digging the worlds biggest hole! LOL!!

This is our new tank. It is stinkin HUGE! At least it will be stinkin, soon! Ha ha ha sorry I couldn't resist.

Giant hole

The hole in comparison to a 6'5" guy.

Putting the tank in.

YAY! It's in!

So there ya have it folks. That was my day today. Another plus about the septic being dug is that we have TONS of extra dirt that we really needed to level out the yard were we will be putting grass as well as giving us extra dirt in the garden. Until tomorrow....

Can I get a "HOLLA" for the herbs!

First and foremost I have to say I cannot take any credit for the knowledge I have about this topic. That all belongs to one of my friends who taught me most of what I know about herbs.
We try our hardest not to use any unnecessary meds on the kids when they are sick so my first "go to" is my herbs. I have a ridiculous stoke pile of them for pretty much any ailment one might have. Unfortunately LD came down with a bit of the tummy bug yesterday and the day before so I made up a batch of my "tummy tamer tea". We drink our herb infusions everyday but this one is great for upset tummy or if you ate to much, basically anything you would take Pepto for you can use this in it's place.

First I start with some really good high quality herbs. I use three different places to buy mine, The Bulk Herb Store, Mountain Rose Herbs, and if you live near Vegas you can also check out Herbally Grounded. The herbs I use for this specific infusion are Chamomile, Peppermint, Lemon balm and I also use a couple of slices of fresh ginger.

This is the Chamomile, great for calming down and settling down an upset tummy.

Lemon balm good for flus, colds, fever, upset tummy and many other ailments.

Next I add a couple of spoonfuls of each herb and a couple of slices of ginger. (you can play with the amounts to get the taste you like.) I use a quart jar because it seems to hold the right amount to give us all some tea.

Now add boiling water and mix it up a bit and place a lid on the jar. You can leave it like this anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.

You can see the ginger floatin around in there.

After it has sat for a while I strain it into a new quart mason jar.

And of course I add some fresh honey. And voila!!  I give this to the kids or drink myself. It always does the trick for me when my stomach is a bit strange feeling. It also works well to stop the kids from throwing up when they are not feelin so hot.

I could go on forever about how much I love herbs. There is an herb for every ailment and I swear by them. I look forward to my nightly cup of tea! Until tomorrow...