Who remembers this old commercial?

This was one of my favorite commercials as a kid.

Now I want to know who pissed Mother Nature off again .... 

I'm ready for this ....

NOT this!
 

 Let's hope the forecasters are wrong!

This Explains It!

The word lunatic is derived from the word lunar.

 My students have been been out of sorts the last couple of days.

 

Now we know why!

My equine friends don't seem to mind it though!

A friend on Facebook posted that this is the 

Full Moon of the Wolf.

Named by Native American Tribes, 

this moon arrived when howls of hungry wolves could

be heard outside of villages.

Here, it should be known as the Moon of the Coyote.

They have been yipping and carrying on like crazy.

Last night they were right across the creek.

Fun Facts about the Full Moon

Coral mate during the full moon.

Migratory Birds appear to follow the patterns

of the moon for timing and finding their path of migration. 

 

Auto accidents rise 14%.

 

Women who have already had children are

likely to give birth on the day of the Full Moon.

I looked this last one up to see if there was any truth to it

in regards to my dear sisters.  It was within three days.

There have been countless studies about the effects of the full moon, 

but most have proven inconclusive or have shown that there is no effect.

Wanna bet?

Just ask anyone who works with groups of children, groups of animals, 

or groups of the chronically mentally ill!

Colonel Cluck

Yes, I said Colonel Cluck,

not Colonel Klink.

Last summer just before school started I began hearing roosters.

Trust me when I say my hearing roosters was nothing

like when my better half began hearing kittens.

(I hadn't been exposed to pain killers and anesthetics like she had been

but that's another story for another day.  It's a great story though!)

I had heard crowing roosters for about a week.

We live about a quarter of a mile from our closest neighbor

and we never hear their poultry.

So I set off on a walk to find my early morning alarm clock.

North of us I discovered a big white rooster and his hen,

so naturally I gave chase.

It pretty much sucks when a rooster can outrun you.

I was disgusted and hot so I went home.

I began to call the white one Colonel Crow
and the red one Madame Cluck.

I sat and pondered how to catch them.

I knew I would have to be wily, 

so I channeled one of my favorite cartoon characters. 

He always used bird seed,

so I decided to use grain.

Let's just say that didn't work

and since I was

fresh out of dynamite,

I wasn't sure what my next step would be.

About a week after my grain bribe,

one of my faithful companions squeezed under the fence

and went on a walk-about.

I discovered my escape artist had escaped 
and so I went to look for him.

I found him down the road a piece, crouched over the hen 
and just a 'chewing away.  I was mortified.

 I could see the hen was still breathing

but looked to be in bad shape and I suspected that I would have

to put the poor bird out of it's misery.

When I pulled Sammy off, the stupid bird took off running.

Now I figured even I could catch an injured bird, but 

that stupid hen led me on a merry chase.

However, I was ultimately successful

and I carried the bloody bird back to the farm.

I put it into a small dog crate

and allowed it to settle in.

It made all sorts of chicken noises and sounded much

like a hen.......

until bright and early one morning I heard the crowing of a rooster.

A weak, very hoarse crow, but a crow it was.

Seems like I'm not any better at sexing poultry than I am at sexing goats.

Turns out our hen was actually a rooster

and became Colonel Cluck at that time.

He's been very lonely so I've been watching

Craig's List for some hens.

I finally asked a co-worker if she could spare just two hens.

She could, and so I picked them up last Friday after school.

I took them to the pen and Colonel Cluck

began scratching and throwing dirt like crazy.

Let's just suffice to say that he's very, very happy.

Bi-Annual Visitor

I have written a lot about the beasties that share our lives,

but I tend to write more about the dogs.

Our most popular post of our blog since we began writing 

way back in 2008 was about our cat crew.

About once a week somebody does an internet search

and then clicks on 

Tryptophan Overdose.

This is Trey, one of Willowby's (now Mama Kitty) kittens

all stretched out after his indulgence.

He disappeared about a year ago 

and showed up in late July or early August.

We had decided that coyotes had gotten him,

but evidently he had found better digs elsewhere.

After a few days he disappeared again just as

quickly as he had appeared.

Two nights ago he popped through the pet door

as if he owned the place and had never been gone.

I have no idea who we are sharing ownership with,

but he seems content to let us know that he is still

alive and well.  

Student Intern

This year I am teaching 2nd and 3rd grade as I have done for the past few years.

To say that this class is a challenging bunch is an understatement.

It seems like there isn't enough of me to go around.

When the opportunity arose for me to have a student intern, 

I jumped at the chance. 

It didn't hurt that I've known said intern since the fifth grade.

This is Mrs. Fast on her first day with the kids.

(She's more proper than I am.)

We had spent the entire day on Sunday planning.

Then I recommended that she not touch anything school 

related until Wednesday morning when she began.

Believe it or not, she actually listened to me.

I assured her that she would start out nervous,

but after the first hour she would feel much more at ease.

I threw her right to the wolves.

She was reading to the kids the first day.

Today when I had a student experiencing a melt-down 

and I needed to work with him, she got right into the thick of things.

She has taken two reading groups on and is doing guided reading.

The kids just love her.

I expected her to be dead tired the first night.

I was.

I went home, made supper, had a glass of wine and crashed.

She stayed up past 10.

I hear there is news on the television at that time!

And yet she looked like this on Friday ....

 

..... at the end of the day!

Looking for a book? Just ask Confucius.

Confucius say ....

If you are in book store and cannot find

the book for which you search, you are obviously in the . . .

A friend sent me this and I just couldn't resist.



Two Thousand Twelve

New Year's with Sister Two

This is George, he is a cowboy at the feed lot

His family and friends are making us one of their favorite meals.
He started with a half of pig, cut and trimmed, salt, and some grease. There
could have been a little bit of beer added for flavor.

Stirring the pork with his board.
After it had cooked he melted and browned some sugar.
Then poured over the cooked pork.

The wives came in next with a huge bowl of pico de gallo,
green chili sauce, and dough for fresh tortillas.

She used a wooden press and turned the dough into flattened tortillas.

They placed the dough on a heated grill until the tortillas turned golden.

They worked hard for about an hour. While the rest of us enjoyed the New Year's feast.

Mean while Krista mixed up a pitcher of Cherry Limeade.
We enjoyed a great food, drink, and desserts.

Here is to a great New Year.

The Day After New Year

Today we spent the day at Brandon and Kristle's.

With our varied schedules we had not been

 able to get together to celebrate Christmas.

We had asked what we could bring and Kristle had it all under control,

 but humored us and told us we could bring bread and ice cream.  

On our way to their house we stopped at the

 Evil Empire and picked the two items up.

The first thing I heard upon entering the much

 despised big box store was,

 "Tttttrrruuuuddddyyyyyyy!" 

 I turned around to see one of my students grinning his mischievious grin,

and happy as all get out to see me.  

That alone makes all of the endless meetings at school bearable.

I quickly grabbed what we needed and then 

drove to Kristle and Brandon's new house.

They recently moved into a log cabin.

I loved their new place --- it was so cozy and homey.

Brandon, the boys, and I went out to talk about where he should 

put his garden next spring.

Talking with Brandon about gardening transported me back a year or two ...

surely it couldn't be more than that!

The day was beautiful and Nathaniel showed me his "King of the World" pose.

We went in and enjoyed chicken chili and then the kids opened their gifts.

We got Kaleb a dinosaur chair.

The dinosaur looked happier than the kid

but I managed to get a tiny grin.

The older boys were happy with building their heroes,

but the real hit of the day was Trinity's knitting machine.

Okay, so I lied.

The real hit of the day was playing with their new pups.

New Year's Resolutions

Bill Watterson obviously channeled me for this cartoon!

Several years ago I resolved to quit making resolutions.

I had been pretty successful at keeping this one

until I was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease and then ...

http://trio-of-sisters.blogspot.com/2010/09/lifestyle-changes.html.

I still need to do better with the lifestyle changes

and I really am going to try, but I have decided that I have really missed writing the blog so I am going to try to begin writing more regularly again.

It's a great outlet and I do enjoy it, but  tend to have trouble coming up with ideas.  My kids complain about the same exact thing and I tell them to suck it up and to look at their idea book.

Now I'm going to take my own advice.

I just need one of those darned idea books!

All ideas for topics and stories are welcome.

If you don't make suggestions, then you can't complain when you're bored!