What's going on outside the house...day 4

Day 1, Day 2 & Day 3 have already been covered this week.  If you missed them, please check them out...but you don't have to.

I have saved the best for last.  Most definitely.

How is this the best when on the previous 3 days I have covered are things that contribute to our lively hood?  We eat the produce from the garden, we sell & eat the sheep that we raise and the vines produce a product that we sell.  However, today is all about our sloppy, hyper, brown 4-legged child!

Mallie...

Oh man, she has grown sooo much!  Chris has been working diligently with her almost every night.  Hopefully she will be ready for hunting season in September.  I have started taking her on walks in the mornings to help with her leash training and she protects me from all the crazies out here...since there are so many of them :)

She will be a year old on September 12th...or 14th, I can't remember.

This was taken last Thanksgiving, she was just over 2 months old.

So cute, tiny & fluffy!

I took these pics last week.  I can't believe how fast her puppy look faded.  Oh, but don't be fooled, she still acts like a puppy!!

And she is a real woman now!  She just finished her first heat cycle (that's why her bobbies look so big).

She really is a good dog, loads of energy, but I'm so glad we have her!

Linking up with Farmchicks Farm Photo Friday!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

What's going on outside the house...day 3

Day 1 & day 2 were covered on Monday and Tuesday.

Today...

The Vines

They have grown a ton just since the middle of March.  There is a lot of growth in just 3 months!

The berries are just starting to soften...that is a good sign!  So hopefully harvest will be a little earlier this year (weather permitting).  Chris is irrigating at 2 of the 3 ranches this week.  He just got finished discing, furrowing & furtilizing at one place and is moving the tractor & implements over tonight so he can disc, furrow, furtilize & irrigate here this week/weekend.  

We (he) are busy this time of here.  Most people take their vacations in the summer time, but when you are a farmer, that is the busiest time of year, for most anyways.

Hope you all are having a great summer & not burning up to badly.

What's going on outside the house...day 2

So yesterday I talked about all the happenings in the garden, check it out here if you missed it.

The Sheep...

It has been a while since I have posted any lamb pictures.  Like several months ago.  Needless to say, they have grown, a lot!

It's funny to me because some people don't realize that small, cute, little baby animals grow up.  The type of sheep we have, all the babies are born black.  The people that live across the street from us asked one day "What did you do with all the babies?"  Ummmm...they are still out here, they just grew up.  It was so hard for them to believe that.  Just kind of funny to me.

Anyways, all of those babies have already either been sold or spoken for.  The ones that we felt were not show quality went to the sales yard, we are keeping 2 ewes as replacements, one was sold as a butcher lamb, we are going to have one butchered to put in our freezer and then the rest have been sold to FFA students who will show them at a few different county fairs in our area.

Our new ram just doing his job.  

This last pictures is of the lambs, they do grow up!  Except for the one we call Shrimpy.  You can see her on the right.  She was born at the end of January and weighed about 2 lbs, I thought she was dead because she was buried in straw.  I saved her from being stepped on, we bottle fed her for a couple of days because she was too short to reach her mom's udder.  She eventually got the hang of it, but never grew quite right.  She is still much shorter than the rest of them, but we are keeping her around for a little longer, just out of curiosity, to see if she will ever grow.

What's going on outside the house...day 1

First off...today marks 6 years since Chris & I first met.  Someday I will have to tell the story on that one.  

I realized the other day that I haven't posted about anything outside the walls of our home recently.  The last post that I said anything about farming was May 29, almost a month ago.  Sad.

Today is day one...this will at least go thru Thursday, giving you an update on everything that is going on around here.

The Garden...

It keeps growing and growing and producing like crazy!  The 'free range' garden as I call it (last year's garden was disced under and came up on it's own this year) has me out picking about every other day or so.  We have squash coming out of our ears!  I don't even know how many grocery bags full I have given away to people.  There are no true breeds of squash out there, they are all pretty much crossed with each other.

Adds a whole 'nother element of flavor :)

This is just after a couple of days in the 'free range' garden.  Picked these on Saturday, I'm sure there is a lot more to pick today.  Who wants squash?  And our first two little tomatoes...hundredSSS more growing and ripening.

Now, the garden that was planted intentionally is doing well, too.  I only planted a few squash plants in it this year, because I knew we were going to have so much from the other garden.  But here we have: roma tomatoes, black heirloom tomatoes, a couple of heirloom tomatoes that my aunt gave me, and corn.  The seeds that were planted last week, that are almost ready to be transplanted are: okra, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, anaheim chillies and jalapenos.  

Hope everyone else's gardens are doing well!  Come back tomorrow for the next segment.

On a winning streak!

I have been on another blogging hiatus this past week or so, and I will never not check in on things again!!

Last week, The Wife of a Dairyman was selected to do a giveaway for Boot Barn on their new line of Shyanne boots.  I entered.  Not expecting to win, because I NEVER win anything.  It's the truth!

And holy cow, I got a comment from her this morning say I had won!! She had posted on her blog yesterday morning, and I went a whole day not knowing anything.  Such a tragedy when the boots are as cute as these are.

I have to run to Boot Barn today to make sure I pick the right size and I am still debating between these two styles.  Leave me a comment and let me know which one you would pick!

Black with turquoise

Black w/ red flowers

If you have not already checked out The Wife of A Dairyman , you should!  They are dairy farmers in northern CA with some pretty cute kids.  Seems like they are always doing fun stuff, and she has some great ideas for around the home.

Blue bathroom renovation

When we started the buying process on our house in Dec of 2010, we knew there was some aesthetic things we wanted to change.  Flooring, paints, window coverings, appliances & such.  

We did the flooring before we moved in, we painted (almost) the whole house before we moved in, some curtains have been done, laundry room has been painted blue & grey so the next room I wanted to work on is...da da da THE BLUE BATHROOM!!

My decorating skills are sub-par, to say the least.

My mom & sister on the other hand are great at it, so I needed a little extra help.  My mom came and spent a couple days here last week and helped me paint, paint, paint, shop and give me some more ideas for things that we didn't get finished.

It's not completely done yet, but here are some sneak peaks.  

**The color on the walls was a dirty off white**

I still have some more things to finish, but I will post final pictures when it's done.  New light fixtures, new hardware on the cupboards and a few more fun things.  Stay tuned for another post this will of the finished project.

Thanks again, Mom for all the help!!

Hard water & Calcium Deposits...GONE!

**EDIT:
I see a lot of you coming over from Pinterest, and it is greatly appreciated!  This product really does work on pretty much everything that water has stained.  I have a client that used in on a bath tub ring & it worked great.  I have since had several people order a bottle and they are all happy with it.  If you have any questions or would like to order a bottle, please visit my site or email me at amy(dot)coolidge(at)conklinibo(dot)com

So, I've been on a little hiatus from being a Conklin IBO.  But, I am back at it again.  So if you are interested in anything that I'm going to talk about, please visit my site.

As some of you know, we have a blue bathroom.  Yes, blue.  Everything except the walls.  It's actually an ok shade of blue.  Thank goodness.  But anways, the bathtub faucet has leaked for as long as we have had the house, and I'm sure for years before that.  A few months ago we had a plumber out to fix something else and we had him look at the bathtub faucet to see if he could fix the leak.  Sure enough, it worked!

I don't know how many products I have tried to clean this...

Probably pretty much every cleaning product that says anything about being able to remove calcium deposits, lime scale, hard water, etc.  With a lot of scrubbing and money down the drain, nothing ever worked.  I figured we would just have to end up buying a new bathtub if we ever wanted to use it.

Now that my head is back in the game with being a Conklin IBO, I decided to try their cleaning product that is supposed to work on stuff like this.  I love all the Conklin products that I use regularly, so I was hoping this was going to be the same.

Got my order about a week later, and got started on the bathtub.  Wow, I couldn't believe how it literally dissolved all the crap away.  The directions say to mix it into a gallon of water with different concentrations depending on the severity of the calcium and lime deposits.  It says if it's really bad, just use it full strength, so that's what I did!  Poured it on my scrubber sponge, then wiped it across the area where I was working, then scrubbed like crazy!  Now, this is years of constant water dripping, and where we live, our water is really hard, so all our faucets get like this if I don't wipe them down all the time.  

You ready for the after pictures??

In case you wanted another 'before' picture

Little over half way done

Can you believe it?!?!?

This is the stuff!!

No need to replace the bathtub now!  Even though I wish it was white, this bottle was A LOT cheaper than a new bathtub!

So, if you have any type of mineral deposits on pretty much any surface, you need this stuff!  It is amazing and for a whole quart of it, it only costs $8.80!!  

For the bathtub, at full strength, I probably only used 1/4 of the bottle.  So it only cost me about $2 to have a clean bathtub.  Well worth it!!

Please visit my website and click on the "Shop Online" header on the left hand side. 

All of their cleaners are amazing.  I use the multi-purpose cleaner on everything else & I love it.  One quart is $11.30 and since it is a concentrate, it makes 16 22-oz bottles of cleaner!  

Lets compare Mox® to 409.

409 Cleaner: 32-oz = about $7.00 

Mox® makes 352 oz of cleaner for $11.30

Almost 10X as much cleaner for about $4.00 more.

Conklin is a top of the line company and has so many great products.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions!

**If you have Pinterest, please pin this so everyone can see it!**

WINNER & a Girls Weekend (Plus 2 boys)

If you are visiting from Cows, Corn & Country Girls, WELCOME!!  I would love for you to become a follower!

I entered her birthday give-away last week and WON!!  This key fob is totally something I need!  I am ALWAYS losing my keys, so this will be perfect!  So Jamie, thanks for having this give-away.  I can't believe I won!

This past weekend, my mom & I met my sister in San Diego.  My sister is shooting my cousin's wedding in September and his fiance lives in San Diego.  So, unfortunately she needed a babysitter while she did their engagement shoot this weekend.  It was fun to see the boys, since I haven't seen them since February.  They have grown so much!!

Sawyer, 7 months old

Greyson, 2 years 10 months