More hair tranformations!

Gigi AKA Cinderella also is sporting a new hair style thanks to Naruto.

She and Daddy went for the minimal approach.

Their heads feel like stroking teddy bears. I sometimes do get sympathy looks and have been asked once how she was doing.

This is Cinderella giving Daddy a hair cut !

Naruto- what is in a name?

MD has changed his name again ...and hair

He used to be Mario and has been called Buzz, Indy ( Indiana Jones)and Luke ( Skywalker).

Now he officially introduces himself as Naruto.

He is also doing Taekwon Do and loving it.

Selfish Passion

Pat Robinson wrote this about 4 years ago and posted at the AlwaysUnschooled Yahoo Group today so I asked her if I could put it here and she said OK.

I just loved it as it is rings so true for me.

Here is goes:

Selfish Passion

I have a confession about a selfish passion of mine. It seems to have developed to the exclusion of many other worthy and enjoyable goals which I have held in the past. My passion is so integral to my Being now, that it is inseparable from my core needs.

I would have thought that I was sacrificing my other pleasures,challenges, and well deserved indulgences, if it hadn't become such a prominent aspect of my life. I thought that I "should" continue to be involved in my prior avocations, with due awareness of their continued importance, in my current and future life. But my passion seems to have become so rewarding and fulfilling, that I don't choose to participate in many of my prior activities. And my prior loves don't have the same significance that they once had.

My passion challenges me physically in the same way that exercising with the goal of climbing Mt. McKinley once pushed me further than I thought possible.

My passion challenges me mentally in the same way that the acuity of critically ill patients once demanded my most attentive and intellectual self.

My passion challenges me emotionally in the same way that caring for indigent people who had to choose between buying medicines or food or paying housing expenses, drained and empowered me to do more.

My passion challenges me socio-culturally in the same way that assimilating a third world culture required me to question all my assumptions.

My passion has supplanted the multitude of experiences which I once considered a whole and full life. But, I am becoming aware that my passion actually fulfills my goals of stretching my strengths beyond what I thought humanly possible.

My passion displays the beauty in every little thing, when I thought I must search and travel to find the beauty of the world.

My passion has provided me with opportunities to find the courage, and confidence, to follow my own path.

My passion has developed compassion for both, myself and others,beyond the judgments that I "knew" as right and wrong in the world.

My passion has demonstrated the hope of the future despite any insurmountable challenges of the moment.

My passion has shared the trust in all the goodness of life.

My passion has surrounded me with the joy of innocence that I lost a sa child, and opened my heart to its delights.

My passion has developed talents that I never knew were available tome, although I always demanded more of myself; but I never demanded as much as creative problem solving with another demands.

My passion has cultivated an imagination of the world as it could be.

My passion has endowed me with a reverence in wonder and miracle more devout than any faith could.

My passion has amplified my understanding of my significance in the universe.

My passion has produced more love than I dared to believe was possible.

My passion has given me the gift of faith in humanity.

My passion is being my son's mother.I have no other passion that holds more self-indulgence and personal growth.

Pat Robinson

Thanks Pat!
and thanks to Heather Brown for the picutes.

Racer X nd MD

Here a little bit of cat love from Racer X to MD ( still wearing his cast on left broken wrist/arm).

Princesses can do chores too

Who said princesses don't get their hands dirty. Gigi does chores everyday. She does it in style too!

There was a storm coming but she needed to go see her Bubbles ( her calf she showed at County Fair)!

Hot Dogs and Gigi

Dad likes to call the show cow "hot cows" but Gigi calls them "hot dogs".

Libby is our "hot dog" according to Gigi. She can pick her out even when she is in with all the other cows.

That is hard even for me! But she can tell who is who. And at 30 months old I know she cannot read tags yet ( show cows don't have tags anyway!)

Racer X and Gigi

Since our barn cats are all spayed and neutered we are now adopting stray or barn cats already fixed from CampCompanion who has helped us with out cats.

A couple months ago a cat shelter in town was closing and Michelle ( from the above organization) was tyring to place some animals. MD and Gigi love cats, specially MD so we went to take a look at them.

They fell in love with Stephen the white cat. We them decided that he would come live in the barn with our other cats. Our barn cats are taken care of as best as we can since some are feral.

They get heat lamps and shelter in our cold winters and food everyday. They also get medical care as best as we can ( see reason above).

Most cats are now friendly but we a few that you cannot touch. Michelle told us that Stephen had been a wild cat and he was friendly enough but to not let the kids pick him up.

A week after Stephen, now called Racer X- Speed Racer's brother cause he has a grey X in his head, kids can do almost anything to him. Gigi calls him Speed Racer but she know he is Racer X

He is absolutely become a pet! He loves the kids and is extremely friendly. If you sit down he will jump in your lap and rub you until you can't take it anymore! Or he will sneak and go take a nap with Gigi.

Singing

I can't sing to save my life. Really. Cannot hold a tune.
I am "vocally disabled" but at least I can sing the right words ( most of the time anyway).
Here is someone who ...well.....I will let you hear it for yourself.

We won!!!!!!!!!

MD and I won Best Video on Learn Nothing Day Contest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY for us!








And here is mario555555 AKA MD dressed with the shirt:












Best part is getting Sandra Dodd's book Moving a Puddle or Thinking Sticks.
So much fun making our YouTube Video !!!

We lost Landis.

One of our most important cow just had to be put down this past Tuesday. She was only four and a half years old.
On Friday night she got done milking as she was on of the last cows to be milked ( show cows and fresh cows go last)
She had just calved a few days earlier and was fat. She is also very big. She has been in a grass pasture and had lost a lot of weight but we could not put her on a diet since she was pregnant so the pasture was healthy for her and baby.
Well we are in the barn and my husband goes looking for her on the pasture since she did not come in to eat and he wanted to get her to her special pen.
The cows get food outside in the pasture and inside in the big freestall barn and they usually like to come in because of water.
She would always come into the barn since she knows she gets special food in her pen.
He finds her a few feet from the exit of the milking barn down on the floor.
The nightmare started that second . This was 9:30 at night. Next morning at 5:00 AM my hubby leaves for a two and a half hours drive one way to get the AQUACOW for her. He gets back home and we get her in and fill up with water. She cannot float her hips and hind legs.
She is so big and the aqua cow is even small for her but it helps to keep the weight off.
We keep her in for a few hours and then drain and we do that Saturday and Sunday all day and night. She is eating great and she is feisty and fighting every minute of it.
On Monday he drives again for another 5 hours to get a sling and see if that would help.
Again not working so good and she is also a bit to big for it.So we load her in to the trailer and take her to the University of Wisconsin -Madison where they are the best.
There they have a special sling that takes the cow to an aqua cow with controlled temperature and they can finally examine her and x- ray her.
They have state of the art stuff for cows there.
Hubby got home at 100AM.
The chief intern calls this morning ( She is awesome and has saved many famous Dairy Cows like the Jersey Veronica)

Well Landis dislocated her hips so bad there was nothing they could do.
She thinks it is because she was so fat that it was so badly dislocated ( probably got into a "fight")
We had to put her down. My husband is devastated.
We couldn't even save her ovaries since she just calved and its not cycling yet.