Wordless Wednesday - Leaf Rocker

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Wordless Wednesday - A Rare Occurance

This doesn't happen often and I didn't make them pose. :o)


For more Wordless Wednesday visit the home of Wordless Wednesday and A Beautiful Mess.

The Only Chore the Kids Beg to do....

Raking leaves!! Do you remember how much fun it was to play in the leaves? Do you remember a time when you would look at all those leaves and think of something other than back breaking work?

Well, the kids have completely taken over leaf raking. They think it's the best thing ever! Nothing like work at all! Yeah for them, but I still think it's a chore. One I am very happy to pass off to them.

I do enjoy watching them enjoy themselves though. They make forts and tunnels and all sorts of other leafy creations before the big haul to the garden. (We compost them into the garden for their soily goodness).


This past weekend was absolutely beautiful to spend time outdoors. It was about 60*, sunny and just lightly breezy. Perfect fall weather!


The kiddos have been out there raking and playing in those leaves for 4 days in a row now, but I took these pics over the weekend.

4-H Nature Walk

What a great October we're having!! The weather is still nice and warm although it is really, really dry out from lack of rain. There is soooo much sunshine though that I just can't seem to get anything done inside. I feel the need to be out enjoying this sunshine because I know that before too long it will be a distant memory.

This past week was our monthly 4-H meeting and we had planned a nature walk. Our hosts gladly volunteered their land to let us explore.

It was a lot of fun and the kids found so many interesting things. I loved seeing what they thought was worth putting in their collection bags. What one kid thinks is cool the next thinks it's gross. :o)

Most of the kids were astonished to realize there were plants in the wild they could eat! The treat of the walk were the turnips found growing way in the back field. Of course none of the kids would actually try them, just the grown-ups.

I learned there is nothing more exciting to a bunch of kids than the discovery of a play fort (deer blind). They would have played there for hours if we'd let them, but it was supposed to be a nature walk not a nature play.

They all survived the walk and were happy to finally reach home again. I think we should do that more often!

Our Newest Baby Alpaca - Wendy

We had one more little alpaca cria (baby) we were waiting for this month and although momma wasn't due for a couple weeks I was hoping she would decide to have her little one during this warm stretch of weather we've been having.

Well, as luck would have it, she choose this last Friday to introduce her wee one to the world. I couldn't have asked for better weather than 80's in October! This little one would have a super weekend to get used to the world.

I had barely gone back to the house after feeding the critters when the hubs yelled for me to come back. She must have waited until I wasn't looking because when I came back there was a head and legs sticking out. All of the other mommas knew what was happening, but they still had to check it out.


Within minutes there was the darkest alpaca I have ever seen! A complete solid black from the nose to the toes! A lot of times when a black alpaca is born, their fiber can look brown on the tips, but there is no brownish tints anywhere on this little one.

Oh, the best part of all......it's a girl!!! After having all boys last year and the first baby this year was a boy, 2 girls in a row is like a breath of fresh air.

A lot of times the babies don't get names for a few days because you want something that really fits them, but her name was a piece of cake. She's all black and born in the month of October. She's got to have a Halloweeny name, right?

Officially her name is Tomorrow's Bewitched, but to us she is Wendy (like the good witch). She is a spunky little thing and is already learning some independence from mom.

I tried to get a video of her walking around the first hour, but another one of babies decided he needed some air time too!



I did finally get a cute little video of Wendy so you can see just how adorable she is!!

A Walk Around the Farm today

I took a walk around the farm today. The weather is so beautiful and in typical Michigan fashion, it is completely not what you'd expect.

Today is the 10th of Oct. and it's nearly 80 degrees. I'm not complaining, but really, what's up with that?

Anywho, this is what I found on my walk....

Wordless Wednesday - Mini Pumpkin

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Recipe of the Week -- Kid Friendly Chili

Post number 200!!! Can you believe it!! I honestly never thought I'd write so many posts, but thank you everyone for being there along the way.

This week's recipe is a great one. It's probably one of the few things everyone agrees on for dinner. Well, one picks the beans out, but.....

I'm not a huge fan of chili myself, mostly because I don't like big chucks of tomatoes, but this has all the flavor and no chunks! Its tomato soup base is so kid friendly and is spiced just enough to make the grown-ups happy too.


Kid Friendly Chili

1 lb. ground beef, browned
1 can (15.5 oz) dark red kidney beans, drained
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed tomato soup
1 soup can water
1 tbls. dried, minced onion
2 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. pepper

Combine all ingredients in a med. soup pot. Bring to a boil. Simmer on low 10 minutes. Serve with crackers.


For more great recipes visit Two For Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesdays, What's Cooking Wednesday and Tuesdays at the Table.

Tricks, Treats and Birthday Cake

Ah....Halloween. The scaring of little ghouls and goblins and the overloading of way too much sugar.

We lean on the not so scary side of Halloween since the kiddos are still kinda little. Pretty tame and this year with Halloween on a Saturday we were also able to celebrate Micaela's birthday on her actual birthday. Yes, Kayla is my treat for Halloween. She was born smack dab in the middle of trick or treating time. Not my idea, but doc was headed off for vacation the next day.

We traditionally spend the evening at my grandparents. It started because we live in the middle of nowhere with no real place to trick-or-treat. The grandparents live in a nice neighborhood that's got a few good blocks of houses. Now it has morphed into my entire family being there. We have dinner, go trick-or-treating and then come back for dessert.

We headed off to the grandparents with fond distant memories of last year's trick-or-treating. Last year it was nearly 70* at trick-or-treating time. We didn't even need a jacket. This year it was windy and somewhere in the 40's. We went out with coats and gloves. Brrrr!!

Since we were celebrating Kayla's birthday (8th) we started the afternoon off with presents. She got lots of fun things from her aunts, grandparents and of course, mommy and daddy. Mommy made the lamb <--. After presents we had our customary, kid-friendly dinner of mac & cheese and fish sticks. Actually, quite tasty. Thanks grandma!

The kids couldn't resist playing with their food a little.After dinner it was off to canvas the neighborhood. It was the knight, the indian and Laura Ingalls in search of candy treasure.

And boy did they ever find treasure....

Last came the birthday cake. They were supposed to be little pumpkins, but apparently the trick was on me. I waited too long to get them started so since they were too warm they didn't cooperate. We called them chocolate volcanoes instead. At least they tasted great! Happy 8th birthday Micaela and Happy Halloween everyone!

Chores and FUN!

Chores are never-ending on a farm. There are animals to feed, poo to scoop and a long list of things that should be done, but never quite seem to be finished. Fall just heaps another big one on that list when it starts raining leaves. Seriously, yesterday our big maple out back was full. Today....completely empty. How did that happen?? Needless to say, I'm going to be raking leaves until spring.

I did manage to convince the kids that a little time doing chores with mommy could be fun. With the promise of a big pile of leaves to jump in and pizza for dinner they were ready for anything.

We started by making large piles of leaves. Yuck, they were wet from all the rain we've had, but we kept going. Lizzie was using the wheelbarrow to take them to the garden (good compost!). Nick, Kayla and I raked and raked and raked and raked. We hardly made a dent. We'll be doing this again, but I did promise them the fun. So I raked up one big pile and this is what they did...After all of that, they were still congenial enough to help mom with the alpaca chores. Wow, that pizza promise worked good!

Of course along with alpacas, Charley (the cow) needs to be fed. But my favorite image of the day has to be this....enjoy it while I go eat my pizza ;)