2008-Jul-24 - Critters critters everywhere...

Well, our critters are getting big and getting to be a lot of work!  LOL

Several of the pigs should be ready for the processor in the next few weeks.

Our meat chickens and several of our other chickens are scheduled for the processor on August 15th.  Just 2 days before we leave for Disney.  I was just glad to get them in before we leave.  I think it would be good for them to grow a week or two longer, but I didn't want anybody to have to care for them while we were gone.  So they might be a bit on the small side, but we won't have to worry about them while we are gone.

We have 19 meat chickens and 6 misc other chickens that we are sending to the processor.  Plus 5 turkeys.  The turkeys will also be on the small side, but they'll be gone and we won't have to worry while we are gone on vacation.  We'll only have about 12 chickens and 5 guineas for Lance's brother and SIL to care for while we are gone.

Ok, maybe less than that.  I have to do a head count today.  Something attacked them last night just before they went to roost.  I'm not sure how many are missing as I couldn't find them all last night.  The girls and I went out after dark and rescued the turkeys and several chickens from the girl's playhouse, where they decided to roost after the attack.  We put them in the coop but we couldn't find several of our laying hens.  I see them out there this morning, so it looks like most of them are ok.  I figure whatever it was caught 4 or 5 of them altogether.  There were feather piles in several places but it was dark and I could have missed something.

I sold our baby goat last week.  A guy came to the door asking for a goat and I told him I had one baby and one doe.  He said they were going to eat it so he wanted the baby (he was 3 months old and ready to wean.  That's the age they like them for eating).  Anyway, I sold him for $40.  The guy wanted more so he went to the fair and bought 5 wethers that were a little larger.  He said he'd sell me one of them if they didn't eat them all.  I would like a companion for my milk goat now that her baby is gone. 

We had to milk her for about  a week since selling the baby.  We just didn't want her to stop cold turkey and get mastitis or an infection.  I'll check her today, but I think she's fine now.  Lance milked her Monday night and she didn't have much, so she should be fine now.  She gave me almost a quart the first two times I milked after the baby was gone.  She is such a good milker, she'd give me a gallon per day if I'd milk twice per day.  I just can't milk right now.  We'd have to have somebody to milk her while we were at Disney and that isn't probable at all.  PLUS I want a home pasteurizer before we start milking again and that costs $400.  I could just put it on credit, as it really is an investment for us, but it's just not a good time for us right now.  Hopefully I'll get one before next year when we start milking again.

The steers are holding their own out in the field.  We still have the heifer but she's going to auction as soon as we can arrange it.  She is just not nice to the other steers.  We are also going to sell the other doe I have and get a companion for my milk goat.  I don't like that doe with the horns, she's hard on Violet (my milk goat).

We brought home a kitten from my mom and dad's and he's doing well.  He's adjusting to life on the farm and seems to like it here.  Lilli had named it Boots, but now changed it to Smoky.  I haven't seen him since we returned from GWL so I hope he's ok.  ?

Our other Tom cat, Socks is doing well and hangs around all the time.  He's a hambone and loves to cuddle against your legs when you walk.

RC and Biscuit are doing well.  Biscuit just keeps getting bigger!  He still tries biting your ankles when you walk outside but he is getting a bit better about it. 

The big dogs are doing good but I think we may be selling them soon.  They eat a lot since they are so big and we no longer have a goat herd for them to watch over.  They need a home with a job.  LOL.  We have one goat in there with them and they all get along great.  LOL

The turkeys continue to be the most entertaining critters.  They are just so funny.  They are almost as tall as Lauren so they love to run up to her and see what she has in her hands.  They peck at her clothes and it makes her so mad.  She hollers, "NO...NO BITE".  LOL.  This, of course, does nothing to deter them and really just calls the rest of them over to see what the fuss is about.

Poor Lauren also has to deal with Biscuit who is getting quite big now.  He starts pulling on her her clothes and won't stop until one of us goes and rescues her.  She gets so mad at that dog.  I don't mean to laugh, but it's hard not too.  He just wants to play and he thinks she is the perfect size.  LOL

Lilli is enjoying the critters and loves her puppy and new kitten.  She gets frustrated with Biscuit when he gets to pulling at her clothes and won't stop, but he really is getting a bit better about that...sort of.  The kitten is quite lovable but has scratched her several times when she was holding it and it got spooked by one of the dogs.

CHICKEN PROCESSING:

I don't know what everybody pays for processing, but we go to an amish place in Indiana and they charge $1.25 per bird!  That is so cheap that it is worth the drive down there.  We drop off the night before and then pick up the following evening.  It's worth the drive.  The chickens come ready for the freezer.  We do put them in individual bags, as they bag them 5 to a bag usually.  They are clean and we have always been happy with them.

They charge $3 per turkey under 20 pounds and $5 per turkey over 20 pounds.  I am sure our turkeys will be under 20 pounds.  LOL.  They don't even have all their adult colors yet. 

I was going to keep one male and one female turkey but we decided to just process them all rather than try to keep them through the winter.

That about covers our critters lately.  I'll be glad to have the meat chickens gone...they are getting to be a lot of work now that they are eating so much.  LOL

2008-Jul-24 - The still neverending audit...

Yes, it's still not over.  We received our final papers and even came up with the money to pay it.

Our grand total was $3748.34.

H&R Block was covering ALL of our 'amount due' for 2006 as  that is the year we purchased the Peace of Mind insurance.  They also pay all interest for every year we filed with them (2005 and 2006).  We didn't file with them in 2007, but we only owed $314.22 for that entire year, with only $6.22 in interest, so that's not a real big deal.  They also pay the self-employment tax for those years.

Our grand total after H&R Block pays:  $1945.22.

So anyway, I had an appt with H&R Block to give them the final papers and so they could send in their paperwork to pay their share.  We also had to have them file an amendment on our Michigan taxes, as the audit changed our gross income for those years.  So now we'll owe something to Michigan as well, but that should be very minimal, hopefully.

They made copies of all the paperwork and I was told to pay the total amount owed and that H&R Block would reimburse me.  The rep would also refile our Michigan taxes and we'd be called to sign the papers and send them in at that time.

Well, the rep found an error in the audit.  Yes, an error.  She couldn't make the numbers work.  So she called the auditor, who called us.  The auditor made an error.  Go figure!  The IRS makes mistakes too!  Ha.  It's even in our favor!  Woohoo!  I don't know how much it will save us, but anything is better than nothing. 

Somehow the auditor's computer (it wasn't her fault, of course) didn't compute our losses for any of the years in question.  They also charged a self-employment tax because the income went up so much from the original paperwork (because the losses weren't there).  Anyway, it probably won't save a lot, but like I said, anything is better than nothing.

So our neverending audit is still neverending.  We were told not to do anything until we receive yet MORE paperwork from the IRS noting our final amount due...again.  LOL

2008-Jul-24 - Great Wolf Lodge :)

I thought I'd post about our 'mini' vacation at Great Wolf Lodge earlier this week.  We had a great time and we were all sad for it to end.

We drove in separate cars as Lance had to come home early to go to work on Tuesday.  Our reservations were for Sunday and Monday nights and I didn't want to cut the trip short for the girls, so the three of us stayed until check-out on Tuesday.  Lilli stated that it just wasn't the same without papa.  :)

If you've never been to a GWL or similar, I highly recommend it.  There is so much to do, it's fun for children and adults, age doesn't matter.  If you shop for your reservations online, you can usually find a pretty good deal.  I found our room for $150 per night.  That really isn't bad when a standard hotel (a reasonably clean one anyway) is near $100 anyway. 

Anyway, there is the entire indoor waterpark that is great for all ages (kiddy area for young ones, pools, water slides, climbing and play area, lazy river and hot tubs...not to mention an outdoor pool and miniature golf.

When you are tired of swimming, there is a game called MagiQuest.  It costs extra, so be prepared for the extra $$ if you plan to play (I definitely suggest playing).  You buy a magic wand and pay to have it activated while you are there (you save your wand for the next trip and then just pay to have it activated again).  Then you go on a quest with your wand and find all these hidden clues that are along the hallways.  You zap these items with your magic wand and they light up or treasure chests open, or or or...Then you can go on adventures and fight goblins and dragons with your wand.  It really is a lot of fun.  I believe the wand is about $20? (we bought ours last time) and then it's $10 for activation.

Now on top of all that, there is the Cub Club.  They have crafts for the kids to do throughout the day.  Some are free and some cost a little $$, depending on what they are.  We didn't even make it to the Cub Club this time, we were so busy with swimming and MagiQuest.

At 8 and 9PM they have story time in the lobby.  They have a large display of animals and the animals 'come alive' and sing and talk.  Then somebody reads a story to all the kids in the lobby.

At 9AM they have a kid's 'critter walk' around the lobby and talk about all the different animals on display.

I always pay extra ($15 per night) to have warm cookies and cold milk delivered to our door at bedtime.  This is pretty pricey, but it is truly a highlight of our trip.  Their mascot (in costume) brings the bedtime snack and the girls just LOVE it.

Lilli really wasn't into the slides this time.  She was much more excited to play in the pool and practice swimming, and I'm happy to announce she has almost mastered the doggy paddle.  :)  She loves to go under water with her goggles on, and she loves to jump into the pool.

Lauren loved it all.  There is no fear in that child and we are really going to have to watch her around water.  She saw Lilli jumping into the pool so she had to do it too.  She would just step right into the pool, go under water (I was holding her hand and she had a life jacket on), and she'd come up smiling and laughing and saying, 'more, more'.  I cannot believe her.

We had bought her a wand last time we were there (so I could use it since she was only 4 months old...ha).  Anyway, we didn't activate hers this time, but she opened several treasure chests as we were passing by them in the hall.  At first Lilli and I thought Lilli was doing it, but then we realized that Lauren was waving her wand around (copying Lilli) and actually doing it herself.  LOL

It was actually 'Christmas in July' while we were there, so it snowed in the lobby in the evenings after story time.  It was very cute and the girls loved it.  We also had cookies and chocolate milk w/ marshmallows in the lobby in the early afternoons.

The drive is a long one though.  It takes us about 5 hours to get there with our stops.  Probably just over 4 if we drove without stopping.  We usually take back roads into Baldwin and then up to Traverse City.  I took 31 home as I didn't want to take a chance on getting lost, I really don't know those back roads as well as Lance.  It's about 220 miles for us (one way).

I have heard that there is an indoor waterpark in Indiana and I think we'll look into that.  Gas prices are just so expensive to drive such a long ways.  We do only go once a year, so we may still do it anyway, we'll just have to see.  It is a nice 'mini' vacation and Lilli really looks forward to it each time.

We had a great time, but were bummed that Lance had to leave early.  Hopefully he can stay the entire time next time :)

2008-Jul-14 - A Great Summer Day...

Our day started slowly today.  Lauren woke early (before 7AM) and then went back down for a nap from 8-10.  Lilli woke at about 9:30ish.  When Lauren woke from her nap we all had breakfast (Cheerios for Lilli and Raisin Bran for Lauren and I) and I started a load of laundry.

We all got dressed and did our hair and then it was time to hang the clothes out to dry.  The girls played outside while I did that. 

Once that was done we had to do our morning chores.  Morning chores consist of:

*Letting the chickens, turkeys and guineas out to free-range for the day (we don't do this too early or we don't get any eggs...they hide them and we  can't always find them).

*Watering the chickens, turkeys and guineas (they free-range all day and we feed them in the evening).

*Feeding and watering the meat chickens.

*Putting Violet (our milk goat) and her buckling out in the field for the day.  They stay in a stall in the barn at night and we move them out to the field each day.  They have a nice size yard attached to their stall so they are fine if we don't get them out to the field, but there is much more for them to eat and much more room to play in the field than in their yard, so we put them out everyday it's not raining.

*Feeding and watering the dogs and cats. 

Once that was done, we headed out for our weekly errands. 

First on the list, not so fun.  I had to go to the credit union to file a dispute.  Somebody is taking money from my checking acct each month to make an AT&T payment.  I don't even have AT&T, I never have, and I don't even know anybody who does.  I tried calling AT&T but they said to leave a message and to file a dispute.  So I did.  I have no doubt that my money will be returned.  I love my credit union.

Then we headed for the nearby grocery store.  We picked up picnic foods and a few necessities.

Then we headed for the nearby park.  It isn't a park we go to often, so it has a lot of different things to play and climb on than we are used too.  We had a blast.  We ate our picnic lunch of deli meats, sandwiches, chips, and blueberries and then we headed for the play area.  Lauren had so much fun and there really was a lot she could do.  Usually she's too small to get up high, but this one is made great for that...very safe.  Lilli had a great time running through all the different wooden areas too.  It was just an enjoyable time for all of us.  We ate a few cookies on the way home.

Lauren barely made it out of the park parking lot before falling asleep.  LOL.  It's about a 15-20 minute drive home and we had to stop at the feed store for chicken feed (100# chick feed=$30) and the post office.  I drove really slow and took a back road home as both girls were sleeping by that time.

We came home and had a snack and Lilli and Lauren watched a movie while I tried to straighten the kitchen (why can't you tell it now?) and start supper.

Lance had called and said he had to come home, go to the bank and get pig feed, and then go back to work...so we only saw hime for about 2 minutes in between.  He just called again and thinks he'll be home about midnight.

The girls and I had supper...BBQ Chicken, broccolli, mac and cheese, and crescent rolls.  Both girls ate great all day today!  YAY for that.

After supper, the girls put their swimsuits on and I put water in the turtle pool for them to play a bit while I did evening chores.  They had a fantastic time and it was about 7:30PM by then.

Evening chores consist of:

*Feeding and watering the chickens, turkeys,  and guineas

*Feeding and watering the meat chickens (or just checking that their feeder/waterer is still full from morning)

*Feeding and watering the cats.  (The dogs get fed and watered throughout the day, but not after 6PMish as we are still potty training the puppy and we like him to make it all night without accidents).

*Bringing Violet and her buckling back in from the field and putting them in their stall with fresh water.

*Locking the chickens, turkeys and guineas inside the coop for the night.

I should note that these are MY chores only...Lance feeds and waters the pigs and cows in the morning and the evening as well.

After swimming and chores we headed in the house and a nice warm bath for the girls.  They played in there for about 45 minutes (They LOVE water...LOL). 

After tubby they had a snack and watched Scooby Doo before it was finally PAST time for bed. 

We all went to bed at around 10PMish and the girls fell fast asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.  I got back up and am on the computer while waiting for Lance to get home.

**************************************

Tomorrow looks like another great day.  We are heading to the beach with SIL and niece.  Another day of swimming...yay!  :)

2008-Jul-13 - Meal Plan Monday - Weekly Plans

Well, it's Monday again!  I really enjoy Mondays a lot more in the summer months than I do during school!  LOL

Here is our tentative supper plan for the week (I still don't have an oven, but my mom let me borrow her small countertop one...Thanks mom:)

Monday: 

Tuesday:  Beef Stroganoff - crockpot

Wednesday:  leftovers

Thursday:  Chicken Alfredo

Friday:  Supper w/ family

Saturday:  Supper w/ family

Sunday:  WOOHOO - Great Wolf Lodge!  :)

Here are our tentative plans for the week:

Monday 7-14:  grocery shopping, credit union (to file a dispute...more on that another time), picnic at the park, and stops at the feed store and post office.

Tuesday 7-15:  Lilli plans to spend the night with her cousin Alyssa.  We may attend the local youth fair first, or we may go to the beach, I have to talk with SIL.

Wednesday 7-16:  Lilli may spend the night with my parents since she'll already be in town.  Lance (and I) will help his brother move a few things.

Thursday 7-17:  Lilli will come home and we'll try to help Lance's brother.

Friday 7-18:  Lance is off of work (he's working 4-10 hour days this week) so hopefully we can all go to the fair together.  I get sick on the spinny rides and Lilli LOVES them, so I'm hoping Lance can go with us and he can ride with Lilli since he doesn't get sick.  I never used to get sick, and I LOVED the spinny rides, but last year I was (un)lucky enough to get sick and puke after riding the Tilt-a-whirl, the teacups, the Himalaya and the Swings (in that order).  LOL.  It was not fun and I hope I don't go through that again.  I can laugh now, but I was too sick to care then. 

Lance will also help his brother.

Saturday 7-19:  We'll help Lance's brother if needed, and maybe watch the demo derby at the fair (I need to check the schedule to see if it's tonight).

Sunday-Tuesday 7-20 through 7-22:  WOOHOO!  We head to the Great Wolf Lodge!  We are staying Sunday and Monday night but we are driving separately as Lance will come home Monday night in order to be at work Tuesday morning (he'll work 10 hour days Tues-Fri so he'll still have  40 hours).  The girls and I will stay and drive home after check-out on Tuesday.  Lance and Lilli ride all the big slides together and then she likes to practice swimming in the pool with him.  Lauren and I will spend all of our time in the kiddy pool and she is going to LOVE it this year.  She loves anything to do with water so we should have a great time.  After Lance leaves then Lilli will hang out with us in the kiddy area.  She enjoys it there too and she'll have plenty of time to ride slides with papa while he's there.  We also enjoy the MagiQuest game with our magic wands so we'll do that when we aren't swimming.  We already have wands from our last visit so we just have to pay to have them activated this time.  Lilli already has them packed in her suitcase.  LOL

Lance's brother has hernia surgery on Monday so sending quick-healing vibes his way :)

Wednesday 7-23:  I've been invited to a jewelry party but I'm not sure if I'll make it or not.  We'll have to see how everybody is doing after our GWL trip.

Thursday 7-24:  We have a vet appt for RC and Biscuit and Lilli will probably spend the night w/ my parents.

Friday 7-25:  I may be attending a scrapbook convention with my two SILs.  I need to verify that they are going before I know for sure :)

Saturday 7-26:  We may be going on a bus trip to Chicago.  I'm not sure yet and have to check into it.  It's a fundraiser for the PTA and I think we are signed up (we never received any paperwork).  I hope to go as Lilli really wants to see the T-rex bones at the field museum.  I think we'd also visit the aquarium while we were right there since they are right next to each other.  We'll have to see if this even happens...

Sunday 7-27:  ??

July 13, 2008 - Bear Paw, basil and cucumbers, VBS, and who stole my summer??

We didn't get a summer this year.  We have only broken 70 degrees twice this year and we have had maybe 3 sunny days.  There is constant cloud cover.  It is getting ridiculous.  I don't mind the temps being in the 60's so much, but I'd sure like to see some sunshine once in a while!!  I feel like we're in limbo.  We haven't done hardly anything this year, as far as travel or hiking or anything.  We're still waiting for summer to arrive....

Speaking of sun, back a couple of months ago, a friend gave me a basil plant.  It was just a baby thing.  She had tons of them and brought some to the women at church.  I took mine and sat it near my kitchen window.  I've harvested a few leaves off of it, no big deal.  Unfortunately, my house is completely shaded by trees.  Which is awesome in some ways, I love trees, they are gorgeous.  I love that my house doesn't ever get overly hot, which is important since we don't have AC.  (not that we need it this year anyway...).  However, those trees are being the death of any plants I have.  My poor little basil plant grew to about 6 inches long.  I was at my friend's house and she was showing me HER basil plants, the "brothers and sisters" of MY basil plant.  Those suckers were like basil TREES!  They are a good 2 feet tall and branch out everywhere!  TONS of leaves.  So, she gave me one of those and I'll be taking my poor pathetic spindley little thing to work, where I now have a big desk with a big window and LOTS of sun.  (ya know, when the sun shines at all....)

She also gave me about 6 or 7 cucumber plants at the same time she gave me the first basil.  Those are equally pathetic.  I'll be taking those to work, too.  Such sad little creatures. 

Meanwhile, that basil tree we brought home last night really scented up my van.  My husband LOVES it and had his nose stuck in the plant the whole time he carried it down the hill to where we parked.  MIL and my crew...well, not so much.  I love the smell, too, though, and am glad my kitchen is going to be nice and fragrant.  (until lack of sun kills it.  LOL)

And its already Bear Paw Festival time again!  I can't believe it.  I'm not ready for such nonsense.  That means summer is half over!!  We went to Eagle River for the parade again this year.  It is a huge long parade that lasts an hour.  It was ok this year, not as good as last year, in my opinion.  This year had a Circus theme, and I just don't get into clowns and stuff.  Ah well, it was nice anyway.  We walked from my parents' house to the parade and then took "the long way" back home again.  It was a nice trek.  It felt good to walk so much. 

This coming week is our church VBS.  I'm excited because I'll get to actually go this year!  Last year I was working night shift and had to miss it.  We have a nice big enrollment this year, several visitors coming.  Its going to be a blast.  Anyone who lives in the Anchorage area who wants more info, please feel free to email me and I'll fill you in.  We'd love to have you! 

2008-Jul-12 - Lauren's ENT appt, Lilli's summer so far...

I thought I'd post a little update on us.

We've been doing good, but have been busy, as usual. 

Lilli had her annual physical this last week and all is well with her.  Her reflux seems to be under control and we've dropped from 30mg down to 15 mg of Prevacid per day.  She is still a picky eater, even when it's something she likes one day, she won't like it the next.  Even if she does like it, she won't eat very much and then wants a sweet treat right after eating.  We'll have to work on finding more foods that she likes. 

We eat too much fast food right now and we need to get out of that habit as well.

Lauren had a problem with her throat this last week and I started her on Omnicef per orders from the ENT.  They said to put her on the med at the first sign of infection.  Well, I started her on the med on Tuesday and she was still VERY sick on Friday so I called the ENT and they wanted to see her.  They put her on a pretty high dose of steroid (Prednisone?) to help reduce the swelling in her tonsils.  I must say that after just one dose I could tell a difference.  I hate giving her all these meds but she seriously couldn't even drink water without screaming, it was horrible.  She cried and cried for about 3 nights in a row because it hurt her so bad. 

The ENT would like to get her tonsilectomy done sooner but because she has to spend the night in the hospital, Sept 4 is the soonest they can get her in.  Her infections are coming every couple of weeks now.  :(

The ENT did take her off of her Kidney antibiotic while she's on the Omnicef.  Her ped always ok'd extra meds with the Kidney med, but the ENT didn't feel comfortable doing that and actually called our pediatrician while we were in the room (!) to verify that he could take her off of the Bactrim.  I actually heard the conversation.  I've never had a Dr do that...usually they say they'll check into it and call us if there is a problem.  He did it right while we were there.

Not only that, he called Friday evening to check on her.  He wanted to make sure we got the med and that she was doing ok before the weekend.  ??  I've never had that happen either.  Maybe we don't have good doctors?  LOL

Lance and I are doing good.  He's working a lot but had this weekend off.  We were just given a TV.  Our old TV had quit working over a week ago, and it has been on the brink for months...with waves going through the picture and taking 30 minutes for it to warm up and come on...LOL.  Our new TV was too big to fit into our entertainment center we had already so Lance built us a TV stand today.  I LOVE it.  I think he should build shelves to match it now.  I'll have to post a picture later in the week.

Thursday Lilli spent the day with Lance's brother and his wife.  Their grandson was visiting and he and Lilli are the same age.  They get along so well together.  Lilli went over and spent most of the day there and they played and played.  They set up a little pool for them and they had a ton of fun with that.  It's hard to find a compatible play mate and they truly do get along perfectly.

Thursday was also when we mailed the last of our information to the IRS.  Pray it all turns out well :(

Friday I took Lauren to the ENT for her infected tonsils.  It broke my heart to see her trying to drink water and just screaming in pain.  :(

Friday evening we went to say goodbye to Lance's stepmom.  She is moving to Florida and was leaving Saturday morning.  Lance's brother and SIL were driving her down there.  They pulled a trailer with all of her things.  Lee drove his truck and pulled the trailer, and his wife Marie (who we call Hot Dog) followed in Elaine's vehicle.  Their 15-year old grandson rode down with Lee and he'll help unload everything when they get there.   Lee called Lance this evening and they were at the halfway point and spending the night before making the rest of the trip tomorrow.

Today the girls and I went for a visit with mom and dad while Lance stayed home and build the TV stand.  We had a nice visit and the girls rode to the store with mom and dad while I went through a couple of boxes of things with dad.  I should have done more and hope to go early enough to help a little tomorrow. 

Vicki and Alyssa came in the afternoon and we visited with them for awhile before Lauren and I headed home to spend time with Lance.

Lilli is spending the night there tonight.  After Lauren and I left, my brother Tom arrived and took Lilli and Alyssa to Walmart for Lilli's birthday present.  He bought both of them a movie and bought Lilli a child-size couch.  Mom said they were gone over 2 hours and they actually went looking for them to make sure they didn't have car trouble or run out of gas!  LOL 

As for critters...

Nothing to really report in that area.  I had my Royal Palm turkey poult die the other day and I'm not sure why.  He was inside the coop so I don't think a critter hurt him.  We are missing a few chicks here and there but we still have an overfull coop.  The turkeys are the most entertaining creatures ever.  I swear they look like do-do birds.  Bald and ugly and way over-friendly.  We can't get into our car without them sticking their heads in after us.  We have to push their heads out of the door before we can close it!  LOL  So funny.  I had planned on putting them all in the freezer but I'm thinking about trying to keep a male and female and raising my own next year.  I can slip the turkey eggs under my banty chicken and she'll raise the poults for me.  I hope to do that with chicks too.  We'll see how it goes.

I really need to call the processor and set up a date to have my meat chicks processed.  They should be ready to process before our Disney trip in August.  That will make it nice so that nobody has to take care of them while we are gone.  Lance's brother is going to come and take care of our other critters while we are gone, so that will be one less thing for him to worry about.

We plan to process some of our hens too.  Probably the ones that I bought for $1 each for sure.  I think there are 10 of them.  They lay small white eggs, and while they taste the same as the large brown ones, I just prefer the browns ones.  Strange I know...I just can't help it.  I also like the green ones, so we'll be keeping our Auracanas too.  I think we only have one rooster chick and I don't like him at all...he's just ugly.  I'm just not feeling the love and he may be in the freezer too.  LOL 

We do need a rooster though, if I want to raise my own chickens next year.  We'll have to check the auction when we take our baby goat and the heifer.  Maybe we'll buy a roo while there.

Guineas...I think I have 6 guineas.  I thought 7, but I'm pretty sure I only saw 6 in the coop tonight.  The guineas are a favorite of mine.  I love them.  They are so funny and entertaining.  The turkeys are great too.  They are all great bug catchers and I really think they are keeping our mosquito population to a minimum.  They do laps around our garage all day and then start branching out into the yard in the evening hours.  One of them will get after a bug and they ALL have to chase the same bug.  LOL.

The guineas and turkeys stick together most of the time, along with a barred rock and one other chick.  The laying hens seem to keep to themselves.  The $1 hens prefer to forage alone in the weeds.

Lilli is like the pied-piper when she goes outside.  She walks around the yard and every single feathered critter we own follows her around.  LOL

That about covers us lately.  I hope to post more often now that things are slowing down a bit.  Even slowing down, we're still pretty busy.

Lance will help Lee move some furniture this week and we plan to go to the Great Wolf Lodge early next week.  Disney is coming up fast as well.  That vacation is set for Aug 17-23. 

I am really looking forward to that.  Lilli is starting to get excited and I really think Lauren is going to love the Disney characters there.  We passed a dancing pizza (LOL) in front of Little Caesars the other day and she just laughed and laughed.

After Disney I believe we'll be canning quite a bit.  School will start.  Then Lauren will have her tonsils out.  The fall will be a slow time for us I think.  Canning will keep us busy though.  :)

I hope to post the week's menu and plans tomorrow or Monday... 

2008-Jul-10 - Our ongoing (and seemingly neverending) audit venture...

Well after our first meeting with the auditor, we looked to owe about $6500.  Then we talked to H&R Block, who we filed our taxes with for 2005 and 2006 (the years we were being auditted for).  We bought the Peace of Mind gaurantee for 2006 but not 2005.  H & R Block will pay everything we owe for 2006, and all interest and fees for 2005.  That leaves us owing about $3000.  Better than $6500, but still a lot of money.  Especially when our tax preparer (at H&R Block) is the sole reason we owe a good chunk of the money.

The $3000 could get lowered a bit after I sent this last bit of information to the audittor today.  She was asking for a complete inventory of every animal on our farm for the last 4 years.  Not only that, but we had to make a list that looked like this:

DATE BOUGHT / PURCHASE PRICE/ QTY / ANIMAL / DATE SOLD/ SALE PRICE

Now that really wasn't that hard, but it was a little time consuming.  I had all the information in our records, it was just putting it all together on one sheet.  Lance and I did that together last night.  The hard part was that Lauren is really sick and cries and cries at times when we were trying to concentrate on the paperwork. 

Other than the inventory for the last 4 years, we had to provide receipts for our farm equiptment that we depreciated for those years.  We had all the receipts, but they are handwritten ones and she frowned on that.  Hopefully she'll accept them anyway, we'll just have to wait and see.  When you buy from small farmers, you get handwritten receipts and you deal in cash, both of which are frowned on in an audit because there is no paper trail.  I hope she realizes that I did all I could to keep accurate records.

We also depreciated a pickup truck that we only use on the farm.  It doesn't even leave the property unless we are picking up hay down the road.  It is used solely for the farm, hauling animals from the field and hauling fence supplies.  She wanted to know exactly what we use it for.  I don't know if she'll disallow that or not either. 

The good thing is that I think she disallowed everything already, so anything she allows back on will help lower what we owe. 

We didn't buy any new animals in 2007, but we still had our goat herd.  We didn't depreciate any of our equiptment because we weren't using it.  I am not sure if that's proper or not.  If you stop the business, do you still depreciate the equiptment if you still own it?  Neither the audittor nor the H&R Block rep could answer that for us.

Our fence is supposed to be depreciated as well.  We never did that, so hopefully that might help us out a little when she adds that in.

"IF" this audit changes our gross profit those years then we have to refile our Michigan State taxes for those years.  Great, eh?  It's not bad enough to owe one place, now we'll owe another too.  Sigh.

The H&R Block rep was very surpised that we have no penalty fees yet.  All the penalties were zeroed out.  The rep said that was unheard of.  I'm not sure why we aren't being penalized, hopefully it's because the audittor likes us.  LOL

The audittor said that if we do continue to make money in the future, we can put it under hobby and include expenses and profits in that area instead of filing an actual farm form.

I just thought I'd write everything down for a reference.  I'm sure it's not very interesting to read.  LOL

Blah on audits!  They suck even when you are honest in your filings.  :(

7 July 2008 - Need help with my Bosch mixer

2008-Jul-6 - Our 4th of July - a parade - loose pigs-moving-ER for Dad

I hope everybody had a great 4th of July weekend!  Ours was very busy but pretty good overall.

Thursday (the 3rd) we spent time helping my parents move and their trailer was moved from their old place to their new place. 

Friday (the 4th) our Lilli was in a 4th of July parade.  She rode on a float and waved and smiled to everybody.  It was very cute.  It was a float built by her dance studio and all the girls aged 3-8 years were on the float in their dance recital costumes.  The older girls walked behind the float and danced all through the parade.  It was a very good idea and a great advertisement for the studio.  Those little girls looked too cute up there in their costumes.

After the parade we came home and Lauren took a 3! hour nap!  We wanted her to get her nap out as we knew we'd be out late for fireworks that night.  We still had to wake her up, even after 3 hours.  She did good though, even if we did wake her up.

We headed to Lance's Aunt's house on an inland lake for the evening.  We missed most of the other family visiting because we were so late arriving, but we had a fantastic time.  It was too cold for swimming by the time we got there, but Lilli was able to fish and play with Julian, Lance's brother's grandson.  They had a great time together and played and played all the time we were there.

Lance and Lilli even rode around the lake on Lance's brother's pontoon boat.  They had a nice time.  I stayed with Lance's Aunt and Lauren.  Lauren is just a little young for enjoying a 45 minute ride in a pontoon and I'm not sure it would have been an enjoyable experience for me either (while keeping her from climbing overboard).  LOL.

We stayed for fireworks and they were very nice as well.  The lake association puts them on each year and this is the second year we've attended.  I LOVE going.  It's very nice and relaxing with no crowds and the company is great too :)  I love visiting his aunt and  I hope we are able to go often this summer.

Saturday the 5th - the girls and I headed over to mom and dad's around lunch time to help with moving and settling in.  Lance was going to come along later (after doing chores around here) to help move heavier items.  When the girls and I arrived at dad's, we realized how bad his back had gotten.  He'd been having pain and a hard time walking in the last week (so bad that his knees would buckle from the pain in his back), but he couldn't even walk when we got there.  He decided a trip to the ER might be a good idea. 

The girls stayed with mom while I took dad to the ER.  We checked into the ER at 1:30PM.  We didn't get into the room to be seen until after 6PM.  They did a CT scan but told dad that they couldn't give him any pain meds because he's already on all the really good ones.  He may have the really good ones, but he doesn't find any relief from them.  The pain is always there.  They did give him a script for a muscle relaxer and said that it may help him sleep/relax and that may help the pain some.  The CT scan showed things we already knew, but it did show a bulging disk as well.  They want him to follow up with an MRI w/dye.  He also has a narrowing of the sack sorrounding the spinal cord.  The ER Dr said that is sometimes painful as well.  They gave him a dose of Dilauden(SP?) and Finergen (SP?) (along with an IV) and that really relaxed him.  He slept quite a bit after thatt.  They gave him a second dose about 5 hours after the first.  Then they gave him a shot of Morphine for the ride home.  He was doing good until the shot of morphine.  They gave it to him on his sore hip and the nurse was horrible.  She jabbed it in hard and then pushed the meds in quickly.  Dad was sore most of the way home just from that.  We filled his script at the pharmacy in the hospital and then we left.  It was 11:30ish.  We'd been there 10 hours.  I felt so bad for dad.  It's never fun to sit in an ER waiting room, but it is ten times worse when you have a sore back.  We took his own wheel chair from home and wheeled him everywhere he needed to go.  I don't really think he's much better, but he is walking today (the 6th)...very slowly and with a lot of pain.  :(  The muscle relaxer really doesn't make him sleepy, but hopefully it's relaxing something in his back so he can rest easier.  :(

Lilli spent the night since it was so late already, but I brought Lauren home, even though she was already asleep.  I'm sure she'd do fine, but I'm not sure how much sleep everybody would get.

We got home around 1AMish and were asleep before we hit the pillow.  Lance never heard us come home even though RC barked at us.  LOL

Sunday the 6th-  Lance woke and took care of Lauren while I slept in.  It was wonderful!  I slept until about 9:30ish (woohoo!) and then I took a super hot shower.  LOL.  Lance was outside mowing the lawn with Lauren when I finally got up and about.  We did chores and headed for my parent's house for a day of moving.

We stopped on the way and picked up a bucket of chicken, fish, fries, mashed taters, cole slaw and rolls, soda and ice.  My parent's haven't had a fridge so their eating has been limited to mostly meals out or snacks.  They've been using a cooler for important things and they just had their stove hooked up on Saturday.

My brother Tom called while we were on our way and he and his wife and boys came to help with the moving.  I was so happy to see those boys!  I'm not sure I would have been much help to Lance with some of the things he needed to move.  He did move the fridge completely by himself before they arrived.  We did get that all hooked up for mom and dad so they are pretty well set up now...foodwise anyway...LOL.

My Aunt and Uncle came for a visit after seeing the old place completely gone.  LOL.  I'm sure that was a shock.  The trailer is gone now, as is the pole barn.  It looks pretty vacant now and is a shock even if you are expecting it, for somebody just stopping by, it's probably quite a blow.  They helped with moving things from the trailer to the new place and we were very grateful to have them :) 

A friend of the family called Lance today and left a hilarious message about the old place.  They'd stopped by for a visit only to find everything gone.  He's a hoot anyway and his message had Lance laughing out loud in the car.  We did the right thing and told them we had no idea what was going on and hadn't seen my parents for about a week or so.  Ha.  Just kidding.  Well, we said it, but we fessed up shortly after.  LOL

I think we moved most everything that was left.  There is a large piece of the wood swingset and a wood privacy fence that dad wants but we didn't have a big enough trailer today.  We are hoping somebody can help with that tomorrow.

Our electricity was out for 2 1/2 days over the holiday.  We ran our generator and it cost us $40 per day!  We had to have it on for our freezers.  We have 3 freezers full of meat not counting our fridge/freezer in the kitchen. 

Lance went down to do chores while the power was out and found pigs out of the fence.  The pigs realized it wasn't hot and they were out and about having a nice time.  Lance rounded them all up while we were at my parent's house and then he plugged the fence charger into the generator.  LOL 

Lesson learned.  Charger gets plugged in when the freezers do from now on.  Ha.

I hope everybody had a nice and safe holiday weekend. 

I do have some pictures but I can't currently find my camera.  I'm honestly not sure where to look...I thought it was in the diaper bag but it's not.  Lauren might have moved it or mom might have set it up if she saw Lauren had it at their place.  I'll post pics when I find it and have some time :)

I don't always take the time to say it, but my husband is great.  He works hard.  10 hours a day lately, PLUS another 2 hours of driving time to and from work.  He gets up at 4AM to leave by 5AM to get to work by 6AM (about an hour drive).  He comes home around 5:15PMish and works hard taking care of our critters (which I have suggested scaling down on so he isn't working so hard all the time).  I know he must be exhausted, as I know I am tired and I don't even get up at 4AM.  I just wanted to take the time to mention how much I love my husband.  :)