Jun 28, 2013

Snake in the grass



There are not many things that I am scared of, but a few weeks back while baling hay I got attacked by a dog and that was a fear I had never felt before. It was a terrifying completely-out-of-my-control situation that I never want to feel again. The only other thing that I could imagine making me feel that way is a snake. They give me the heeby-geebies on a grand scale. 

Growing up as a child I had a reoccurring dream about a black snake slithering up the laundry shoot from the basement into the bathroom and then into my bedroom. I just hate snakes.  Where I grew up we had a lot of black snakes. We would find their skins in our hay mow and around the barnyard. I never wanted to go up in the hay mow because I was afraid of the snakes. One night my dad told me to throw some hay down for the ewes. I was being a wimp and was whining about going up there because of snakes. My dad said, “I promise there are no snakes up there.” I climbed up the ladder and began tossing down the hay. It was hot and I was wearing shorts. I felt something cold on my ankle. I looked down and, wouldn’t you know it, there was a huge black snake on my leg. I screamed so loud and jumped so far I am lucky I did not jump right out of the mow.

Earlier this week, we were again making hay and while I was moving wagons, the kids found the front half of a snake out in the field. I try not to let my fears project onto the kids, but with snakes it is just hard for me to do. Campbell was touching it and I was grossed out. I was thinking with relief that I was glad that snake got chopped in half.

I continued to haul wagons and began to unload a wagon down the road from the hayfield. I was on the wagon tossing bales down to the guys. I was kind of joking about how light a bale was as I held it in one hand longer than usual before throwing it down. Little did I know that, hanging out of the bale when I threw it down at my friend, dangled the back half of the snake. He thought I knew it was in the bale and was not happy when I tossed it directly at him. Had I known there was a snake in the bale, I would not have been on that wagon let alone holding that bale. We quickly set that bale aside and finished unloading and stacking. It was later determined by another much less snake-weary party that it was only half a snake. What are the odds that out of acres and acres of hay we would end up finding both ends of the snake? The bottom line is that I am just glad there is one less snake on the farm.

Jun 19, 2013

The dog ate my eye lashes!


MAC eyelashes #36 just in case you want a matching pair!
I am by no means a girly girl or a trend setter. I do my best to keep in decent shape, dress within the decade and indulge in a little makeup. Several of my friends who are much more fashionable than me own fake eye lashes. They convinced me that I should give them a try. I purchased my first set of eye lashes from the MAC counter. I had no idea there were so many options for eye lashes. I went with a conservative length and thickness. There are some pretty dramatic lash options out there. What is really conservative about buying eye lashes…seems pretty crazy to me. It took me a little while to not feel like I had spiders on my eyes but by the end of the evening I was rocking those lashes.
This bouquet is just beautiful, it smells just as it looks!
My brother got married this past weekend and I decided to pull out the lashes to complete the hair and bridesmaid dress. It was a special occasion so it seemed perfectly natural to put on the fake eye lashes. After a long wedding day, I got home and removed my eye lashes. I placed them on the bathroom counter but somehow in the morning when I went to place them in the case and they were gone. I could not figure out who would have taken my eye lashes.  I found myself looking high and low yelling “have you seen my eye lashes?” My husband’s family was staying at our house and my desperate search for my eye lashes was entertaining I am sure.
About 15 minutes later my sister-in-law said “I thought I saw the dog with something in her mouth”. I heard some odd coughing and hacking coming from the dining room. I walked down stairs to find my crumbled up stuck together dog slobbered eye lashes. By this point my eye lashes really did look like a large spider. Let just face it this farm girl is not meant to wear fake eye lashes. I will stick with the more realistic all natural approach, at least until I have time to get to the MAC counter for a new pair.
 

Jun 18, 2013

Not your Kentucky Derby

In Ohio, when Summer arrives it is officially County Fair time. We live in Fairfield County and our fair just happens to be in Mid October and is the last of the County Fairs in Ohio (they save the best for last). As we await our fair, we usually try to go to a couple of other fairs around the state each summer.
This week the Pickaway County Fair kicked off and they have a Combine Derby. We decided to take the kids and visit our neighboring county for a little summer County Fair fun.
When I hear the word Derby, the Kentucky Derby immediatly comes to mind. The big hats, classic dresses and horses worth millions sounds like a ton of fun!  The Combine Derby is more like I imagine the infield of the Kentecky Derby is like but still a lot of fun in a way more relaxed redneck kind of way. Watching the combines smash each other, the loud screams from the fairgoers and people watching is always a grand time. Congrats to the winners who were from my home town in Fairfield County! This is a short clip in case you have never had the privilage to watch our kind of Derby! Maybe next year I will wear a big hat!