Never Know What You'll Find in the Laundry

Don't you hate it when you sort the clothes to do laundry, check all the pants pockets and pull out the assortment of loose change, screws and receipts from your husband's pockets, then run them through the washing machine cycle and as you are putting them in the dryer, you see this at the bottom of the washing machine?

Oh, that never happens to you?  Well, never mind.

Rogue Donkey

Lilly, my brown donkey, has been escaping the pen daily, sometimes several times a day.  We knew something was wrong with the electric fence, but had not had a chance to find out what was going on.  All I know is she kept getting out.  Once out, she would graze around the house and hay field, not going too far but not staying in the pen either.  After putting her in the fence three times today only to watch her go right back out a few minutes later, I called Fred and left him an urgent message that he had to come home and fix the fence.  I just couldn't take it any more.  I love Lilly but lately I've been referring to her as "that damn donkey".  Sorry for the bad language, but I can't get anything else done!  Fred came home and spent a couple of hours putting a new electric box in and making sure it works.

----- UPDATE -----

It's 12:30 a.m. and I'm just about to head to bed when I look out the kitchen window and guess what I see? 

Lilly drinking water out of the dogs' plastic pool in the backyard!  Out again -

That Damn Donkey

Help, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up

After two days of rain, the dogs and I were ready to get outside.  After my usual routine of feeding the horses and donkeys, letting the chickens out of the chicken coop for the day and throwing the ball for the dogs, I decided to take the dogs for a walk.  I had on my boots because of the standing water on our path in the woods, my carhartt jacket because it was cool and windy and my phone in my pocket.  I was enjoying the walk and the dogs were thrilled to be out of the house and splashing through the large puddles along the path.  The best part was the wind blowing through the tall pines and making the most wonderful rustling noise.  I stopped several times just to enjoy the trees swaying in the wind.  A perfect morning.

After a while I decided we had better head back to the house.  As I walked along the path and the dogs ran ahead of me, I stepped into a puddle and my feet slipped out from under me.  Down I went!  I knew I wasn't hurt but immediately soaked through my jeans and down into my boots.  As I started to get up, the dogs ran over to play.  They were all over me, jumping around and splashing.  Every time I started to get up, they would jump on me again, sure that I was there to play in the mud and water with them.  Finally, I think they must have heard something in the woods, because they all ran off together, happy to investigate the unknown.  Muddy and soaked, I was able to get to my feet and drip back to the house.  As I poured the water out of my boots and peeled my wet socks off I was thinking "So much for my perfect morning!"

Mint Cookies - Yum!

I saw a recipe on Pinterest the other day and had to try it.  These cookies are yummy and easy to make.

Andes Mint Cookies

1 Devil's Food Cake Mix
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 package of Andes Mints

Mix cake mix, oil and eggs together.  Drop spoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 6-9 minutes.  Don't cook any longer than that.  You don't want them overdone.

Take sheet out of oven and while the cookies are still very hot, place an Andes Mint on top of each cookie.  In about 5 minutes, the mint will be melted.  Take a spoon and smooth out each mint like frosting.

They are really yummy when they are still warm.  Add a scoop of ice cream on the side, and I'm in chocolate heaven! 

Warning:  I put a piece of wax paper on my dining table to put the cookies on while they were still warm and it apparently melted part of the wax onto my table!  Please don't make the same dumb mistake I did. 

Do You Ever Wonder . . .

Do you ever wonder what your animals are thinking?  I know that sounds crazy but I was just thinking about that today. 

I wonder what my chickens are thinking about me.  Do they go into the chicken coop at night and talk about me?  Do they say to each other, "Oh she's wonderful!  Isn't she great?"  Or maybe they're saying "Can you believe her?  She didn't even let us out this morning until 10 o'clock!  Hasn't she ever heard the saying the EARLY bird gets the worm?!" 

As I look out the window and see my donkeys standing in the rain, looking so pitiful, I think they might be saying to each other "Can't she see us out here, soaked to the bone?  Look at her in that warm, dry house.  Doesn't she even care?! And when is she going to get her boots on and come out here anyway?  I'm hungry."

Of course we know dogs can not talk but can communicate in mysterious ways.  Take Fred's dog, Diesel, for example.  He will sit in front of me staring at my plate and I know he's trying mental telepathy.  He's willing the food to fall off the plate on to the floor.  Or he'll stare at me.  I know he's thinking, "Look how adorable I am.  You know you can't resist me.  I need that last cookie." 

Maybe I've been in the house too long today.  I need to get out of here.

Chicken Yard, will you ever be finished?

As you know, the scouts started putting up the poles for the chicken yard for me but couldn't finish because of the rain when they were here.  I went out there this past week and stood looking at the size of it, on a beautiful sunny day I might add, and decided that I wanted it twice as big so I started laying out the 4x4s and 2x4s to see if we had bought enough to make it bigger.  Turns out we only needed a few more boards so I headed to Home Depot with Fred yesterday, another beautiful sunny day, to get what we needed in anticipation of building it today.  But as we all know, Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor, and had other plans so here I sit, as it pours rain outside.  Don't get me wrong, I love a good rain day as much as anyone but really, couldn't she have waited until a week day?  I only have two days to get things done around here with Fred! 

Cute Gift Wrap Idea

My daughter was here last night and needed to wrap a present.  I couldn't find the wrapping paper but as I walked by my desk, I noticed my large calendar and offered her the month of March as wrapping paper!  She loved the idea, wrapped it up and we took some black and white polka dot ribbon I had to make a bow.   As you can see, she wrote "Sandy's Birthday" on the actual day of the month her birthday is.  Quick thinking, super cute package!!