Farm Friday: Bring on the Hay!

Spring finally has sprung here.  After crazy winds for five days, we are now enjoying some wonderful, warm weather.

Our big accomplishment this week was finishing up with the planting of our hay fields.  We planted a total of 16 acres in grass hay and 21 acres in alfalfa.  

Now, we pray for a little bit of rain to help it get a good start.

In other Sherman happenings:

• The master bathroom vanities have finally arrived
• The kitchen cabinets are installed (sans the doors we still need to pick up)
• The subway tile backsplash in the kitchen is about half finished
• The appliances have been picked up from the warehouse 

The list of things to complete is miles long...one step at a time!

It's Been a Wee Bit Hectic...

Just a tad bit.   Thus my absence from blog-land for the past couple of weeks.

We have been dealing with snotty noses, shedding horses, bored dogs, crazy cats, a maze of paint colors, subway tiles, building IKEA cabinets, school work, planting our fields...but I won't bore you with everything.

The best thing over the past couple of weeks was a little photo session for the kids by my friend and former favorite barista turned photographer.   

Addison & Bunny

"The luckiest little girl & horse in the world"

Sweetness!

A Boy & His Mamma 

And my first ever photo of myself on my blog...

Me & My Mini Me

 The photos were supposed to be just of the kids.  

The Three of Us

Thank goodness Addison convinced me to put a clean cute shirt on.   

The sweetest part was when we saw the photos in the online gallery for the first time, Addison got all teary eyed.  When I asked her why, she said Lynnette, our photographer, gave her the best gift ever:  

Pictures with her mom and with her brother.  

And she said next time "Daddy will have to come to make it even more complete!"  

Yes, that is true.  Flea of course was out farming and could not join us.    

I didn't realize how special or important it would be to a 7.5 year old little girl to have family photos.  I thought that was just a "mom" thing....Now that I do know, we will be making it a point to include all of us.  

Addison asked if that meant we could also include all of the animals next time...  Like the dogs.  And the cats.  And all of the horses.  

Ummm.  Well that may pushing it a bit too far....I mean you will be lucky to get us to wear somewhat matching outfits.  I can't guarantee anything with the pet thing.  At least not the cats...

Project Sherman: Too Many Choices...

I love choices.  But often, I find myself spending WAYYYYYY too much time considering each choice and looking for the "next best thing" like I am missing out if I don't look at every.single.one!

Does anyone else do that?

Right now my peril of "too many selections to choose from" is in the bathroom faucet department.

Rustic Pewter.  Chrome.  Brushed Nickel.  Oil Rubbed Bronze.  Polished Chrome.  Tuscan Bronze.

Moen.  Price Pfister.  Kohler.  Delta.  Peerless.  Kraus.  AmericanStandard.  Vigo.  Aqua Source.   Sign of the Crab.  

Yes, Sign of the Crab is really a faucet brand and not what's for dinner.

My brain is spinning.  

Not to mention hungry after thinking about crab for dinner.

Flea said we could only do Moen.  But the only Moen bathroom collection I like is a budget buster.

Budget busters.  They are my nemesis.

My top three choices are all by Price Pfister (or whatever their technical name is now).  Never having any experience with this brand, I naturally read some reviews.  After doing so, I am not entirely sure how I feel about them because:

a).  You actually have to CLEAN  the faucet to keep it looking nice.  Imagine my horror when I read that one...you mean, I actually have to take a rag and polish it to keep it looking nice and new?  1 star for that for sure!

b).   You have to keep all the parts in the box when it arrives to actually install the darn thing.   You mean they don't just ship extra parts for my junky pleasure?  I could have made a killer necklace out of those extra washers.  2 stars for that one!

c).  Your plumber will not like the style.   This is a great warning and I will definitely consult with my plumber as he has excellent taste and style.  Not.  That person must not have the same experience with plumbers as I have had....

After reading the more serious reviews, so far so good.  I think I can convince Flea to let me choose from the ones I actually like.  Especially, when I mention the words Budget Friendly!  

The Fur Herd Celebrates!

Today was a special day.  

Doyle, the King of the Fur Herd, turned 15 today!

This is a big feat.  You see, 4 years ago he was given six months to live because of a faulty heart.

But he defied the odds!

Then one month ago, he became extremely ill.   We didn't think he was going to make it given his age and how ill he was.  But thanks to the awesome vets at the emergency pet clinic, some antibiotics and a little R&R...

He defied the odds yet again!

Addison decided that having a 15th Birthday Party for him today would be loads of fun.   No birthday celebration would be complete without a special "cake" and party hats for all of the pets so she spent the morning creating hats and this lovely version of "cat cake"....

Yes, I said "cake" and party hats for the pets.

They were all game with the hats.   

(Ooley B. B'Dooley looks extremely upset about his hat. Not.)

Doyle enjoying his "cake" before the assistants moved in.  

The assistants, aka "The Smudges", wasting no time in helping.

It got a little crazy after the dog got involved.  

Nothing was going to deter her though from the cake.

Not even an attack from one of the Smudges.

Too bad I didn't get a photo of the cat claw stuck in the dogs eyebrow....

Yes, it got a little crazy.

Which is nothing new around here.

Happy Birthday Doyle!