Gettin' it done,... ?

Today we had many, many tasks to complete. We needed to start unpacking everything that we moved from the 2 PODS to the future work shed; we needed to find the house plans to give to the contractor so he can work up an estimate on the stairs and the finishing of the attic/library; we needed to start putting together the computer desks and setting up each of our offices; and we needed to do a little cleaning. On top of that are the regular chores, feed the deer, cow and dogs.

So we went to Lowe's and bought a baby tractor.

It's a cutie, classified as a garden tractor, 22 hp, 54" mowing deck. It can also have stuff attached to it, like tillers, and a cute lil front-end loader. Since we have the big tractor, we didn't need to buy the sub compact tractor. But we still WANT one,... Now we need a weed eater.

No Goats!!!! I prefere a gas powered weed eater!

Then, we went and watched two movies. The Fantastic 4 and Sky High. Both pretty good. Sky High was pretty silly, but cute. (Yesterday we went and saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I loved it! Willy is pretty creepy, though! It's hard to believe the same actor played a pirate last year. Johnny Depp is one of my favorite actors.)

In between movies, we sat at Books a Million (Eric is Cheating on Barnes and Nobles!!!!) and discussed all the chores we needed to get done,....

So, that counts, right??

Well, gotta go pull the Tamalies outta the microwave,....

Later,
Cheri'

Long Overdue Update,..

Well, Let's see,...

Some history,....

We bought 5 acres from some really interesting folks who had an exotic animal rescue here. They had camels and capibara, and coati mundies, and civit cats, and all the c animals, =-) They also had fennic foxes, very cute! I tried to hide one in my pocket, but they were on to me, LOL!

We gave them 3 months to closing, cuz they had to move all the animals (180 +). As it were, they couldn't take the camels, emues or cows. So I got to babysit them for a couple of weeks. Eric said I couldn't keep the camels either,...

But I got to keep the deer! A small herd of 9 fallow deer,.... 3 bucks, 4 does and 2 fawns. I think they may be does as well. The one buck, Dick, is about 10 years old. He is herd sire. The other two are his sons. The middle son will go on the grill Aug 20th. The youngest buck will go in the freezer next year. He only sports spikes this year, and needs to get a little bigger. The oldest does are Rose, who is a real sweetie, and will let you pet her, and Tulip, who isn't quite sure of me yet. The rest are as spookie as wild horses! Can't get near them. Have to dart them to med them.

Fallow deer come in four colors; pale cream, red with white spots, dark red with white spots and a black stripe down their back, and chocolate brown. They also come in two subspecies, the European, known for their spectaculay racks of antlers, palmated like a moose's, and Mesopotamean, which are 40% bigger, and used more for meat. Ours are the cream and the light red ones, of European stock. When Dick dies, I want to replace him with a chocolate buck with a huge rack.

Poor Mitch had the roughest time catching the last cow, so he let us have her. She is a very wild cow, and a great jumper! But she looooves her grain, so I lured her into the emu pen with the 7 ft fences. Let's see Moobie jump outta THAT! She has an appointment Aug 8, in Seville to see a man with a big knife and a freezer,..... My friend Maria will come over that Monday morning, and we will (try?) to get her into Maria's trailer for the hour long trip over. Eric plans to man the video camera, as he is sure he will capture the prize winning video worth $10,000.

We bought the tractor from Mitch. The guy who was supposed to haul it dissapeared,.... It is a Ford 4600 deisel, about 20 years old, w/ bushog. A very cool tractor. I have driven it from one side of the yard to the other. I felt very manly and farmer like. =-) I even backed it up. Bart, our older dog, kept wanting to get under it! I want a mower for it so I can go chop up snakes,... I mean, mow the grass,...

We have AC now, Thank God!!! I have no idea how the previous owners lived in the middle of this swamp-surrounded orange grove with no AC. They were tough folks!

We FINALLY got two different contractors out to look at the possibility of putting stairs in so we can redo the attic into a library, so Eric can put his books out. Contractors are hard to find!!!! They are most all still working on repairing last year's hurricane damage!!! Still waiting for the bids to come back,.... I am sure we will need to be sitting down,....

Planning a party Aug 20th. It's a "We didn't want to go to Pennsic anyway" Party. We do Medieval recreation through the SCA, and Pennsic is a big war in Pennselvania, held in Aug. There were 13,000 people last year when I went for the first time.

At this party we plan to put up fencing. Need someplace to keep the horses!

Oh, we are getting horses,... Here's a link to our website with their pictures, www.blackroot.org/farm They are Stonewall Sporthorses, and I think they are WONDERFULL!!!!!! They arrive in October. We have the money put aside to get them here, $2100!!!! They are both preggers. Eric said horse, I thought he said herd,....

This will bring our family up to; Eric and myself, one 20 year old daughter, Jacqueline, very beautiful, the Most Beautiful Girl Child in the Entire World, and hardly spoiled at all! (pics one day,...), 3 Miniature Australian Sheperds, Bart, Kisses, and Tripod (who HAS all FOUR legs,...) one cat, Pissy Kitty, the heifer Moobie, and the 9 nine deer, Dick, Rose, Tulip, Venison, Spiker, and the Bambettes,...

Well, that's about it for now,.... I will try to do better to keep up!

Happy Day!
Cheri'

Painting, and painting, and painting,.....

As the title says, we have been painting, a lot! We are paying Jacqueline, Jessica and Jamie to paint the new house. They are doing great!

People at teh door, more later!