Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Weekend on the Farm is Like a Vacation for the Mind


I don’t make it home as often as I used to anymore. It used to be that I would go home and help out on the farm or go to some sort of pig show or sale nearly every weekend. But, the past couple of years it seems that I have only made it home about once a month or every six weeks in the winter and summer months. Although, I do still make it home quite a bit in the spring and fall, because those are the busiest seasons on the farm and I can never turn my dad down when I know he needs the help. 

In some ways I think it is a good thing that I spend fewer weekends at home, and in other ways I think it might be good for me if I tried to make it home more often again. Back when I used to go home practically every nine out of 10 weekends, I used to wish I could have more weekends to myself to relax or go out and have fun. But, now that I have more weekends like that, I sometimes find myself wishing that I could spend a little more time on the farm. What I really need is to find a balance between the two. Too many weekends spent on the farm can make me feel worn out and like I don’t have time to get anything accomplished around my own house. While too many weekends spent in the city can also drive me nuts. There is just something about open space, fresh air and peacefulness that can make a person forget about their worries for the time being. I wouldn’t call it a relaxing vacation by normal standards, but it is definitely a vacation for the mind. I’ve never even taken a real vacation so I suppose I wouldn’t really know what one feels like, but I can imagine how it would feel and I also do know that even though my hands and feet may be worn out after a long weekend on the farm, my mind tends to feel much better. That is until Monday rolls around at least…

This past weekend was one of those weekends that I got to spend on the farm. My dad’s birthday was last week on February 15th, so of course I went home for that and instead of a cake, this year I made him a homemade cherry pie – his favorite – to celebrate. But I also went home for another reason... I needed to help take pictures of pigs for our online pig sale we were having this week on the 21st. Spending a whole afternoon photographing uncooperative little pigs and then an evening sorting through all of those pictures is tiring and not always enjoyable. But it pays off in the end and this sale especially went very well by the way. We are really excited to see how this set of pigs will do at the upcoming shows this spring and summer and would like to say a special thank you to all of our customers for a great sale and good luck! 

Also, remember that we’ll be having two more online sales this spring on www.showpig.com on March 15th and May 17th, as well as our 12th Annual Show Pig Sale at the farm on April 14th! Now, because I like to share pictures with each of my blog posts (and I forgot to take one of the scrumptious cherry pie before it was gone) here is one of the top selling pig from our sale this week. She sure is gorgeous.


Saturday, February 11, 2012

Bathroom Overhaul, MBA & Dog Treat Ventures

First of all, I know it has been several months since I’ve posted anything on my blog and that is way too long. I’ve had a pretty busy fall and winter so far. As some of you probably know, the spring and fall are the busiest seasons for my parents’ farm and I try to help out when they need me to. Then, in November and December I was busy with the Holidays obviously, as was everyone else. So I suppose that is not really a good excuse for not blogging, but I was also busy trying to completely remodel my bathroom at that time. With the help of my dad, mom, sister, brother-in-law and his uncle, I completely gutted and remodeled my bathroom. It is a tiny bathroom, but was still a lot of work! And it turned out great by the way and I’m so happy with it! However, I haven’t posted any pictures of it yet, because there are still a few little details that I need to finish up before it is 100 percent complete and ready for pictures. They’re not major details, but I need my dad’s help with them to make sure it’s done right and I’d rather hold off on taking the “after” pictures until it’s done. Unfortunately, it might have to wait until about May since my dad is currently overwhelmed with his spring pigging season right now.

After I made it through the major bathroom project, Christmas and New Years, I started taking online classes again to finish earning my MBA. Each class is six weeks long and there are 13 classes. I had three under my belt previously and I just completed my fourth, although it felt like my first again because it’s been a while since I took the first three. I am proud to say that I earned an A, but it was a lot of work and I start the next class this week! I’m not looking forward to it or any other class in the future for that matter, but it feels good once each one is finished, knowing that I am one step closer to being done forever! It seems like the end is nowhere near right now, but I just keep thinking to myself how awesome it will feel when the end does come and I can say I’m done with homework forever! Maybe I’ll finally be able to take a vacation then… That’s enough about boring old school, though.

Onto the one subject I never bore of talking about – my silly little corgi, Mary, who is doing just great in case you have been wondering. She turned three years old on January 3rd! I can’t believe she is three already. It seems like it was just last year that I brought the little squirt home. However, she isn’t a little squirt anymore. In fact, she needs to go on a bit of a diet here lately since she has been getting the full advantage of my new dog treat venture. Yes, I have found in the past year or so that I rather enjoy baking dog treats and have even started selling them online and to friends. I’ve always enjoyed baking, but try to keep myself from doing too much of it so that I won’t get fat and coincidently I ended up discovering that I enjoy baking dog treats just as much! Mary loves the homemade treats much more than the store-bought ones. Plus, I know that they’re fresh and exactly what ingredients are in them. And I end up saving a little money in the end, too, because those little bags of store-bought treats can get expensive when you have a spoiled corgi. I have a handful of different recipes – all approved by Mary and her dog pals – but Mary’s favorite happens to be the peanut butter and honey crunchy biscuits. These also happen to be my favorite, too, because they’re the quickest and simplest to make. If you’re interested, I encourage you to check out my online shop that I have set up at http://www.etsy.com/shop/corgilicioustreatery. I plan to have some treats listed on my Facebook profile soon as well.

Thanks for reading and I’ll try to be better about posting more often from now on!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Pearl Snaps and Cowboy Hats


The 79th Annual Kansas Junior Livestock Show is taking place this weekend at the Kansas Coliseum. When I was in 4-H this was always one of my favorite livestock shows in the state. It is like the State Fair in a sense that you have all of the species at one show, but much more relaxed and with cooler weather. I still enjoy going to the KJLS every year to watch kids show pigs they bought from my family and hang out with friends. This past May my dad’s sisters were going through my grandparents’ old photos and gave us a bunch of old pictures of my dad when he was a kid, some of my brother, sister and I with our cousins when we were little and a lot of other random pictures. My favorite picture in the whole pile was this one of my dad from 1965 with his Hereford steer at the KJLS. I find it so interesting how much times have changed since he was a kid. For example, steers back then had really short legs and I just think that is the silliest looking thing ever. We use shavings now instead of straw, he isn’t using a show stick (did he use one at all? I should ask him.), and then there’s his outfit. It is very vintage and western. I think it’s cool though. I’d probably wear it today. It also makes me think about what it was like at livestock shows back then. Probably more simple and relaxed, but still competitive I’m sure.

Another reason this picture caught my attention so much is that I had no idea he used to show at the KJLS, too! I don’t remember ever seeing pictures of my dad showing cattle or pigs before we found these photos and he rarely ever talks about things he did back then. The only stories I’ve ever really heard are short versions about all the mischievous things he used to do at the State Fair. Back when the kids all slept in the barn at night with the animals and from the minimal stories I’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like much sleeping was going on. Sometimes I think it would be fun to just sit down and go through old pictures and listen to the stories behind them and see what my dad and other family members used to look like. I don’t really have a whole lot to say other than that. I mostly just wanted to share this cool picture and why I think it is so cool.


Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Pay No Attention to That Dog Behind the Curtain!


I think most of you have met my dog, Mary, at least once before. She’s a 24-pound, tri-colored, Pembroke Welsh Corgi, a product of the Crow Ranch in Holt, MO. Mary has many aliases including Wiggles, Waddles, Wig, Wiggy, Dart, Snuggles, Speedy and my brother-in-law calls her Smelly, but she does not answer to that. Mary is a very interesting little dog. I honestly think that she believes she is a human sometimes, except that she does have a few canine traits in her. 1) She absolutely loves walks and will sniff and pee on something every five feet during them. 2) She despises baths and even hides under the kitchen table when I get “her towel” out. 3) She enjoys eating pig poop on the farm. 4) She has a natural hatred toward cats, bunnies and squirrels. In fact, she will sit and stare out of the sliding glass door all day long, just looking into the back yard, protecting her territory from the neighborhood menaces.
Since I have floor length curtains hanging over the door, Mary must sneak behind them in order to see out the door. Sometimes she hides herself so well that I cannot find her and eventually, after calling her name several times and wandering throughout the house searching for her, she’ll finally poke her head out from around the curtain as if to say “Mom, seriously. Can’t you see I’m busy? What do you want?” 
 Can you find her behind the curtains? She’s in there somewhere. I promise. 
There she is!
 Every time she does this it makes me think about the “man behind the curtain” scene in the Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to that dog behind the curtain! And then I imagine her saying to the bunnies and squirrels who dare venture into her yard; “I am Mary! The great and powerful corgi! I know why you’ve come! You want to dig holes in my yard and nibble on my mom’s flowers! I have every intention of granting your wishes, but first you must prove yourself worthy by performing a very small task.” Then, the bunnies and squirrels reply, “A small task? That’s all? You name it and it’s half done!” And Mary says, “Bring me the chew stick of the pit bull next door!” The bunnies and squirrels gasp, “But we would have to kill him to get it!” Mary shouts, “Bring me the chew stick and I’ll grant your requests! Now go!”
That’s where my imagination stops. I don’t want to think about what would happen to the bunnies and squirrels who dare venture into the pit bulls’ yard.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

My Experiences in Remodeling My 1st Home


This past April I signed my life away and bought my first home! I found out it is quite an exciting, yet pretty scary step for a 25-year-old (at the time), single gal. But I wouldn’t undo it even if I could. I’m so happy to finally have a place I can call my home again after living in apartment after apartment for about eight years! So, this whole summer I’ve been very busy nesting and trying to do some DIY remodeling. 
Then, the other day, while I was working out some frustrations in the garage on some trim from my bedroom that I should have just left alone a few months back, my older (not always wiser) sister, Kim, said I should be blogging about my home makeover experiences. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that 4 months ago?! Then I thought, hmm I am going to have to take pictures now. . How am I going to remember to stop and take pictures when I’m hard at work? Well, we’ll see how that goes I guess, but I am going to try my best. Now, the correct thing for me to do would be to go back and blog about everything I’ve done around the house to date. I am not sure how I feel about spending time doing that. After all, I have a lot of work yet to do! I can’t be spending all of my time on the computer. But what I will do for ya’ll is give a little overview of what I have done and share some before and after pictures. 
And, to bring you up to speed on what I’ve done so far in the past four months… I moved in mid-April, perfect time for yard work and gardening, which my home needed a lot of! The previous owners left me with a bare slate to start with, but that also meant the soil had not been worked with in more than 10 years! Special thanks go out to my brother-in-law, Doug, for tilling it up for me. My mom, Debra, and Kim spent one entire weekend trying to help me plant flowers, but it was just my luck that we would have (officially) the hottest summer in history in Wichita this year and practically everything ended up brown and crispy except for the begonias! They must really be a miracle plant. My list of plants to buy for 2012: begonias, begonias and begonias. I wish I had some fabulous “After” pictures to show you for the garden, but it didn’t end up that great for my first year. I do love mums though and it is that time of year now, so maybe I’ll try to plant some of those for fall and get some pretty pictures of that. 
While sprucing up the yard and garden last April, I also learned real fast that a leaf blower/vac is going to be a must-have tool for me this fall. With the help of Doug and Kim, (again, more thanks to them) I picked up 10 gigantic black bags of leaves out of my front yard that the previous owner left for me! I got a nasty note from the trash man that week. Sorry trash man, I didn’t know there was a limit to how many bags I can throw out each week. I do now, though! 
As for the interior of the home, a lot of what I’ve done so far is just cleaning, painting and trying to decorate so it feels like my home. I am slowly getting there. Better Homes and Gardens magazine isn’t lying when it says a new paint color can totally change a room’s appearance! As you may have guessed from an earlier comment, I am currently in the process of trying to paint some trim. I initially was going to replace the 50-year-old, original trim with something fresh and new, but then I realized how much it’d cost me so I’ve opted to paint it for now, but not until after I’d already removed all of the trim from my bedroom! It is all Kim’s fault! I just had to throw that out there. So yes, now I have to put that trim BACK! Chalk it up to experience I guess. I will now know how to remove and install trim properly. 
But, my biggest challenge, and the one I can’t wait to finish, is to redo my entire bathroom! I’m so blessed to have a dad who literally knows how to do anything and everything. My mom is pretty handy with a set of tools, too. Just make sure you hide the duct tape before you turn her loose on anything. He and my mom are planning on coming to visit during Thanksgiving weekend to help me with this task. Wish us luck. Also, I would gladly entertain any advice or ideas that ya’ll might have for me! So please don’t be shy.
Now as promised, here are some pictures...
Living room before

Living room before
Living room after

Living room after

Living room after

Bonus Picture! Mary, the "rug rat"
dining room before
Dining room after (this is also Mary's favorite space so don't mind her kennel in the back corner)

Dining room after

Dining room after
 I welcome any ideas or suggestions if anyone would like to share! Thanks!