Ok so last night I was messing on the computer, checking out various blogs and what know when I noticed our farm dog, Joey (pictured to the left) was barking, and not just barking to bark he upset. I looked outside but didn't see anything I went out with a flash light and he came to me, but then continued to sniff around, pace, and bark. I went back inside and locked the door, SOMETHING was out there and it was NOT going away. I sat in on the couch and I could hear Joey pacing and going from one side of the house to the other, then down by the barn, then back to the house...it was intense. The odd thing was that ALL the other animals, the horses, donkeys, geese, etc. were ALL silent. Even when I had gone outside and talked to Joey, usually the Donkey's would have heard me and let out a loud bray, but they didn't. It was like everyone was waiting, waiting for something to happen. I was home alone with the baby and I was starting to get somewhat paranoid. Now, I like scary movies, they are cool and usually I don't have nightmares or anything like that. Well, as Joey continued to bark my mind started to wonder an I began to think about every scary movies I had seen about a woman being home alone, yeah, I was paranoid. He kept barking for over an hour, maybe two, I called a friend to get my mind on it but I was seriously having some anxiety, THE BOOGIE MAN was going to get me! My hubby finally got home, my anxiety disappeared and so did The Boogie Man. Joey had been successful in finally scaring off whatever was out there. I know better than to believe things from movies, but I could not stop my mind from wandering... just a couple days ago we were driving in the car and a car had stopped in front of us. I slowed down, but my hubby immediately reprimanded me for doing so and said to never slow down to keep going especially is I was alone or with the baby in the car. Evidently, there has been a gang in Indianapolis that has been setting up "fake" cars on the side of the road, its some sort of gang initiation or something. What they do is they take a baby doll, make it look all bloody, put it in a car seat in a car and stage the car in a remote area on the side of the road. When someone stops to help, usually a woman because of the baby, the gang member jump out and rape the woman, several have even been killed. SO, guess what else what going through my mind... this story, we live in a really rural area and I feel like it is pretty safe, but anything can happen anywhere, right? Well, nothing happened and whatever it was left and this morning none of my birds were missing, so its all good.

Must get going to work, will write more later dear followers!

Ok, I know I'm new at this whole blogging thing, but I think I have figured it out pretty good so far. I was thinking today about how much I love other blogger's reviews and giveaways. I thought that it would be something I would like to do. There are so many different products I use on a daily basis and now becoming a Mommy has added even more to the list of products I use. I'm going to be contacting some places about doing reviews, hopefully I will be able to get thing rolling and get some good giveaways going on! I've always loved writing and this will help be tone my writing skills once again.

This past week has been gloomy and rainy. Where has the sun gone? Its like someone switched the sun's "Hide" button and forgot to turn it back on... will it ever end? Project Pete didn't get to go outside today and boy was he upset, but not too upset because his grain was still his #1 priority. I started him on some a product called Fiberpsyll made by Select the Best, last night. We live in an area where there is a LOT of sand, I figure that he may have picked up some sand out in the pastures. My hope is that if I get rid of some of the sand in his belly, it will work a bit better and he'll gain weight just a little better. Shortly after he finishes his round of Fibersyll we will try some plain yogurt to get some good bacteria back into his belly.

My baby girl is REALLY starting to say Mama now. Today we were in the office and she said Mama to get my attention because she wanted picked up, it blew my mind. It was just too cool! It is so amazing how quickly babies grow and how quickly they learn things. Its amazing!

Well, I off to research more review websites ;o)
Good night and God Bless!

Well today I really did not want to get out of bed... its been a  LONG weeks and today is supposed to be my day off. My baby girl on the other hand, I just can't get to understand that its ok to sleep in on our days off at the office. Well, since she was so insistent of being up at 8:00AM I was up and about. I started a load of her laundry and a load of her cloth diapers this morning and watched her play on the floor in the living room while I checked my e-mail and played Farmville. Yes, I play Farmville, such an addicting little game, ERG! Well, she was on the other side of the coffee table and started to get really quiet. I got curious as to what she was doing or rather what she was into. I walked over to find her face down, knees pulled up under her with her face resting on her hands. She was ASLEEP! The little booger had played so hard she laied down to take a nap. The sight made me laugh and I proceed to take a photo with my camera and send it to my family, it was just too cute. I picked her up and took her to her crib so she could finish her nap in a more comfortable setting.

While the baby was asleep I went out to visit Project Pete and to feed him and the Crew. As I was getting grain ready I kept hearing thundering hooves back and forth behind the barn. When I went out of the barn, Dottie, one of the young horses was running from the dry lot to the pasture and back. It was SO funny, it was like she was racing an imaginary friend. The other horses in the lot with her just watched her. You know when you where little and you pointed your finger at your head and moved it in a circle to say someone crazy... if those horses know how to do that, THAT is what they would have been saying about Dottie at that moment. I think she wants to be a barrel racer or something, she can turn on her haunches and go, plus she is a fast little booger. Well, Pete was outside grazing in the yard while I was getting things ready, I had to mix a couple bags of grain together in a rubber tub that I keep it in and he HEARD me mixing and came walking in the barn. The little nosy man would NOT leave me alone, lol, I had to put the wheelbarrow in the doorway to keep him out of the barn. I guess I am trusting him a bit more because today I let him out to graze with just a halter on, before I would leave a lead rope on him in case he didn't want to be caught, but he has been so easy and good I decided today that he really didn't need it anymore. So, when I had everyone fed and watered I went to go get Pete. He followed me in the barn and into his stall. I proceeded to grab the curry and brush his coat out a bit. His coat is FINALLY deciding to shed out and when I was done it looked like I had murdered a small bunny underneath him. I decided to try picking up his feet again today. He did better than last time, but still didn't want to pick them up for very long. He picks his back feet up much better than the fronts, which I found odd, but greatly appreciated. I picked out his feet the best I could then left him to finish his lunch. ....Didn't see Sheba today, but perhaps she will be there tonight. I did however remove her kitten from the hay and took care of its tiny body.

My day is just starting, not sure I will get back on and write more tonight, but I want to! Have a wonderful day my dear followers and God Bless!

Well, today was somewhat busy even though it really wasn't supposed to. I went out to feed Project Pete this morning before church to find a black cat sitting on the hay. When she spotted me she jumped down and ran about 10 feet away then looked at me. I looked at her while I walked towards the hay, when I brought my head around in view of the hay I thought I saw the remains of a mouse she had caught. In the back of my mind I was thinking "Good Girl, you get 'em". Then I took a closer look, it was a kitten, tiny little body still wrapped in its sac with the placenta attached. She had given birth but didn't break the sac to free the kitten, perhaps from inexperience or perhaps it was still born and she knew that. She ran off once I got close to it and watched me from the other side of the road. I opened the sac and left the kitten there for her to see and to mourn. I got a bowl of water and some soft cat food that we had in the house, left over cans from when we used to have barn cats and put some in a bowl and set it on the hay with the water. Hopefully she will come back and decided to take up permanent residence in the barn. I need a good mouser around to keep the population down. I came back to feed Pete lunch but there were no signs of my new little friend. Pete was a bit antsy and wanted to graze, but it was raining and I had to get up to the office to take care of some things. About an hour ago I fed Pete his dinner and what do I see, a small black body moving away from the hay, the cat had come back! I think I'm going to call her Sheba, when I was younger I knew a dark colored cat named Sheba and this new little gal just looks like a Sheba to me ;o) I'm guessing that she is feral from the way she runs from me and the fact that she isn't in that great of shape. Hopefully, if she keeps coming back I can feed her a little and get her looking good. I've been wondering all day if she would come back and if she did, how many kittens did she have, and where are they? Cats normally don't just have one kitten, but all I've found thus far is the one dead kitten. In the morning, hopefully I will see her again and I will be able to inspect the barn for signs of kittens!

Well, once again a long day and I'm a bit tired... so good night my dear followers!

Ooooh my goodness I am SORE! I have spent the last week catching horses, deworming horses, and delousing horses... I'm SO over going in circles, LOL! My shoulder blades and my shoulders just ache the muscles are sore from hauling buckets of Permetherin mix and holding the lead rope of not so happy horses while they are being bathed... Very productive week, but once again a reminder that having a baby made me seriously loose the great shape I was in. Before the baby stuff like this wouldn't have phased me, I did stuff like this every day, no biggie. But now, I am once again using muscles I haven't use in over a YEAR! I don't even know how to slowly work my way up, because I never knew I used those muscles before! Everyday I do something I find the next day that my body really wasn't quite ready for it. I know you all are laughing at me, my dear followers are laughing at me. What can I say, I'm young, I figured I could just jump right in with both feet and expect to do it all... not so much... Well this is going to be pretty short tonight, I am BEAT! Have a great night dear followers! I am SO looking forward to church tomorrow morning! God is Good!

On another note, Project Pete is doing great. Every day he seems to have more and more personality. He went from just existing to living with purpose. Tonight he was even pawing the ground while I was putting his hay in the hay net (I had to start using one because he was spreading it all over his stall and pooping on it). The hay net is working out great and he isn't wasting the hay anymore.

Went to the office at the big barn today and bathed some horses, what an adventure. Ponies are not my thing normally. Miniatures, I love, Mustangs, I love, Regular Horses, I love, Ponies, not so much. They just seem to want to give you a hard time on purpose. The all seem to have bred to be mischievous! Anyways there were ten to bathed and move and ten were bathed and moved.

Well, last night I was really bummed. I had REALLY wanted to join the Twitter Party #GetRealDiapers hosted by @EcoMomMedia and several others. I was hoping to win some cool prizes or at least learn something new about cloth diapers. Well, I get everything set up and and ready. I figured out the Twitter Grid and everything was great. THEN the internet decided to hate me. For whatever reason it started bouncing from connection to no connection. I tried for over an hour to get connected to the Twitter Grid. Finally I gave up and went to bed... but it was SO disappointing! So, I'm hoping to be able to at least do the next Twitter Party... we'll see...

Today is my Wedding Anniversary. So far its been, well, pretty good... I can't complain. I feel good, I feel right where I'm supposed to be with the man I love and our perfect little baby girl! Life is Good! Life is Great! Thanks be to God! ;o)

On that note, I'm going to head to bed, its been a    l    o    n   g    day dear followers!

I am so tired tonight. I feel like I worked hard today, but all I did was talk a lot... Trying to make some changes and get the horses evaluated this spring. Within the next couple weeks I think I'll have everything sorted out pretty good, but trying to find somewhere to start is hard. I just gotta take one project at a time and work the projects.

Project Pete had a rough day today. It started out well, I went out to feed him in the morning, again he was waiting for me and nickered. At lunch I let him out to graze for a bit while I fed the crew, nothing much happened. Well between lunch and dinner he got himself cast in his stall.... for those that don't know what cast means, it just means that he laied down, rolled and got his legs stuck against the wall and couldn't get up. Well luckily I had asked our farmhand to take some sawdust down to the barn for him and he saw Pete stuck in his stall and got him up. He was a little weak but ok. When he came back to the office and told me I went to the barn to check him over. He was ok no sign of injuries, but I gave him some Banamine just in case he was having some colic issues or if he was sore from trying to get up. Its a good thing he was down at the barn because somehow all the miniatures got out and were running around the barn too, little boogers, they figured out how to undo the chain on their gate. So, now I have to figure out what to do with that... Tonight at dinner Pete was waiting for me again, ears perked and awaiting his dinner. He was acting fine and didn't seem to be phased by being cast earlier today. I think I'm going to start adding oats to his grain to help with any gas so that he doesn't get colicy and try to roll in his stall again.

Okay, so I record American Idol... not sure why but I like the show... Well tonight they were doing their "Idol Gives Back" Episode and I was slightly disappointed in the Black Eyed Pease and Alicia Keys. Not sure if they were having technical difficulties or not but their performances kind of, well, weren't good at all. Carry Underwood was good, she seemed to sing well, but the others, they were really disappointing.

Erg, I think that I have poison oak or poison ivy or something, icky. My right arm itches and I have some red raised bumps. That's what I get for working out in the woods picking up landscape timbers. Oh well, its for my birds, hopefully I can get a new area built for my peacocks. Oh that reminds me, I lost one of my Pekin Ducks today, not sure where she is... yesterday she was in te pen and today she was gone. I have a feeling she got out and something got he because when I let our farm dog out this morning he went right over to the woods by the duck pen and starting sniffing around and howling... so I think maybe the coyotes got her, bummer... guess I'll just have to find me a couple more female ducks... I'm totally bummed, she was such a pretty white girl and gave me nice Extra Large eggs, bummer.

On a good note, my baby girl seems to be doing better, thank goodness. Her cough is finally starting to go away, YES! And the congestion is almost gone too! God works wonders, its amazing what a little prayer will do! God is Great! .... "Honey, God don't care which church you go to as long as you show up." Dolly Parton from Steel Magnolias. Isn't that ironic (or maybe its "A God thing"), just as I was writing this paragraph I turned to Steel Magnolias and started watching it, well that line just came on the screen and I was driven to add it to this blog! You know what gets me... I don't know, I guess it is obvious to me since I believe in God, but sometimes I wonder why it is people don't believe in God. I mean seriously, there is nothing bad that can come from believing in God, there are no drawbacks, nothing bad that can happen. Can you imagine a world where everyone believed in God and lived by the Bible? Everyone would be nice to each other, there would be no crime, no greed, and we would all have everything we need in life to live healthy and happy. The greatest lessons in the Bible talk about LOVE. If you love someone and care about them you try to help them and are concerned as to what goes on in their lives. How can believing in God be a bad thing and why would people want to be against God, I just don't understand it. I will be the first one to tell you that I don't always live by the Bible, even though I know I should, I'm a work in progress, but at least I'm trying and making an effort towards becoming a better Christian, Wife, Mother, Friend, ect. by strengthening my relationship with God. I want my daughter to grow up always knowing God, why wouldn't that be every parent's hope? I know our society isn't doing so well, but why not change that? It got the way it is by change, why not change it back?

Oh well, I'm getting tired, I hope my "Midnight Messages" about God make sense... they make sense in my head hopefully they make sense to you or at least make you curious about God if you haven't had a relationship with God before. He's there, listening, waiting, all you have to do it talk to Him! Oh, Small note, if you are going to read the Bible for the first time, don't start at the beginning, skip to John, he makes everything make better sense. The Old Testament is more of a History Lesson and the New Testament is what you live by today ;o)

Have a wonderful evening and good night dear followers!

Ok, if you can see the images to the left, then I did good and uploaded the photos correctly, if not, leave me a comment and please tell me how to fix it ;o)

Okay, so the other day I broke down, caved in, and decided to see what this whole revolution/movement/whatever, they call Twitter actually is about. I signed up and starting "Tweeting" and it absolutely confused me. I didn't get it. I still really don't get it. But I'm trying too. The only "good" thing I have found is that I can use Twitter to get more entries for the giveaways that some of the blogs I follow have on occasion. So, this is why I will continue to "Tweet" If you'd like to follow me, please do @RuralMama! Still don't have any comment or followers of my blog, bummer, my life as I know it really is as boring as I thought it was...

On a new note...
My family takes in abused/neglected horses and rehabs them then adopts them out to new homes. I have a pony at the house, he hasn't been doing good up at the big barn, we will call him "Pete", I'm trying to put weight on him...he is a larger pony, not sure of the breed about 400-500 pounds but should be closer to 600-750 pounds. I will try to get pictures and try to figure out how to get them on the blog so that I can update my "followers" on his progress. He is about 2 years old and is just a doll to be around. No bad habits that I've found so far. He came down to the house about four days ago. I started him on 1 1/2 pounds of grain and one flake of hay 3 times daily. I'll be increasing it as time goes, but so far that seems to suit him well. He has also been dewormed with ivermectin and panacur. The day I started caring for him I also had to give him a permethrine bath for his lice, YUCK, luckily horse lice are species specific and they don't like me ;) I have several other horses at the house, 14 more to be exact, along with my poultry that I raise. So, while I feed the rest of the crew I've been letting him out on in the yard to get some grazing time. I have him in a stall to monitor his water intake and make sure he is eating all the grain I give him, right now he is too fragile to put out with the other horses, but he doesn't seem to mind at all. Not sure if he is gelded or not, so as the days pass and he puts on more weight I'm going to make a point to check him. Not that it would do any good, he needs to be a LOT healthier before he can be gelded if he is still a stud colt. Well, so far even though his weight hasn't changed much in 4 days his attitude has. When he came in he was sort of blah, like he just existed, like he just was... there was nothing going on upstairs. Today he nickered at me when I came in the barn, his ears were up, and he was waiting for me. It made me smile, he knew I was coming to take care of him and showed some emotion. I let him out of his stall to graze and after I was done feeding the crew I put his grain in his stall, which he heard immediately and started walking in the barn himself. I really wasn't ready for him because I hadn't picked his stall yet, but the grain just did him in, so I had to pick it with him in the stall, no biggie. I tried to curry his coat a little to try to get some of the long winter hairs out, its kind of hard to do right now because he is so skinny that if I press to hard on his bones he cringes. So, I also took a soft brush over him, which he loved, especially on his neck.

So, now I have two babies to take care of... my human baby and my fur baby "Pete".

Also, wanted to note that one of my favorite Cloth diapering sites, BabyEcoMart is having a sale on Happy Heiny's OS Pockets and Fitted diapers. http://www.babyecomart.com and use code HH30 at the check out for 30% OFF any of the Happy Heiny's!

Have a wonderful evening dear followers,

Well, this week my baby girl has been sick. She started coughing and a couple days ago her temperature went up to 99.2 degrees F under her arm when it is normally 97.6 degrees F under her arm. Made me nervous so I called the doc. Well the receptionist tells me she is going to talk to the doc and then call me back. So....... I wait and wait and wait and finally an hour or more later she calls back and they want to see her that day. Ok no problem... so we go in. My new issue with public places: Parents that don't wrangle their kids and let them RUN all over the place! These young kids, under 3, are running all over the waiting room, snotty noses, coughing, and touching everything AND everyone! No WONDER my child is sick, it seems like every time we go in for her Baby Well Check visits about a week to two weeks later we are BACK there because she is sick, probably something that she picked up in the waiting room. Can you guess when her last Baby Well Check was? Yes, your a genius, about a week and a half before she started getting sick! I try my very hardest NOT to let my baby touch anything in the waiting room and I DO NOT let her off my lap. But these uncontrolled children are running around spreading their germs and visiting everyone in the waiting room. The last time we were there some kids came over to us and tried to grab Baby K's bottle from her diaper bag. ERG! OK so back to our visit... I go into the exam room and wait, they send in a Nurse Practitioner... which I don't really trust much, EVERY time I've seen her she says the SAME thing like it is her auto response to "Why your baby is sick" no matter who you are, it sounds practiced and recited. ERG! So she tells me my baby girl has an upper respiratory infection aka a cold...ok waste of my time, WHY tell me to come in when you could have told me this OVER THE PHONE! I did feel better after seeing "someone" better safe than sorry, but geez. So I go home without a prescription or anything to help ease her symptoms. Poor thing has a nasty cough and is raspy (BUT the Nurse Practitioner said she wasn't) her nose is running and now the snot is green. This poor child is miserable and fussy. I have made attempts to help her out, Baby Vics on her feet and chest at night, cool mist humidifier at nights, nasal suctioning before eating, and Baby Zyrect at nights...

Oh exciting news, my cloth diapers came in, YEAH! But my hubby forgot to bring them home from the office, ERG, so I will probably make a trip up to the office to get them tonight, I'm too excited to wait for him to bring them home tomorrow night when he gets home.

I made a pretty good dinner tonight, Chicken and Rice Casserole. It worked out well, but since everyone likes more or less salt I didn't add any so that they could season to taste. I also made some Butter Pecan Cupcakes with Vanilla icing, yum! :)
Have a wonderful night dear followers!

Sorry for the long time between posts, life is busy...

Well, Baby K's Auntie is getting her 3 Nubunz One Size Pocket Cloth Diapers http://www.nubunz.com . I am SUPER excited to get the package and try them out! All I know is that there are 2 velcro and one snap. The colors are a surprise, whooohoo.

Oh something totally cool that I found on HyenaCart that I'm dying to get some day. We have a Swifer & the Swifer Wet Jet. I love the concepts but despise the idea of buying the cloth thingies to put on dust/mop then throw them away... what a waste. Well like I said before I found something on HyenaCart... made by The Daisy Co. in The Wading Pool's congo http://hyenacart.com/thewadingpool/ , they are washable Swifer/WetJet pads!!! Totally LOVE the idea!

Oh random thought... I made some really good Tuna Casserole last night. I found a recipe and modified it... here is what I did:
Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Boil 4 cups Cremette Egg Noodles. In a bowl I mixed 2 cans of Cream of Ckicken Soup, 1 Can Evaporated Milk, 1/4 cup water, 1 tablespoon butter, 4 small cans Tuna (the dolphin friendly kind of course), and 1/2 cup of leftover cooked frozen peas I made the night before :) When the noodles were soft (approx. 8 minutes) I mixed the noodles and the mixture together and poured it into casserole dishes. I then baked it for 30 minutes. Since some people eat more or less salt I did not add any so when it comes out you have to add to taste but I thought it tasted good without salt. I was very pleased at how creamy and yummy it turned out :)

On a sad note I have no followers... hoping to get some soon :)

Ok, so when I had my baby girl we started off using Disposable Diapers. The only brand we could use was Pampers or else she got red and irritated. PLUS the only wipes I could use were also the Pampers, but they HAD to be unscented, alcohol free, hypoallergenic, etc. In February a group of gals from my CafeMom.com group suggested I try cloth diapers and insisted they were easy to use. Well the more I read the more I wanted to try them out. I broke down and got 6 Haute Pocket OS Cloth Diapers. Now your probably going, who what huh? right? I was thinking the same thing when the ladies would talk about them. As the days went on I learned the Cloth Diaper Lingo easily and I learned which type would work for me. Haute Pocket is a brand name for a cloth diaper. OS means One Size, which is SO cool because they use snaps to change the size of the diaper, which means mine will fit any baby from 10-30 pounds depending on the snap settings. The more I learned the more my stash grew and I went from cloth during the day and Pampers at night to FULL time cloth and I LOVE it. It is SO much easier than I thought cloth diapering would be like. Yes, I do more laundry, but you know what, my baby is worth is and so is our pocket books!


My main focus for posting today to let everyone know about the “Networking Nine Giveaway” on The Cloth Diaper Whisperer (http://www.theclothdiaperwhisperer.com/). They are giving away an awesome package of cloth diapers that includes: 3-bumGenius One Size 3.0 diapers, 1-Flip One Size Stay Dry System, 1-Flip One Size Organic System, 1-FuzziBunz One Size Diaper, 1-Gro Baby One Size Shell Set, 1-Econobum One Size Diaper, 1-Rump-a-rooz One Size Diaper. This package would make a great starter kit or even a nice addition to your stash of cloth diapers! I would LOVE to win this pack, it is full of AWESOME stuff! So, if you are interested in cloth diapers, I suggest you head on over to the site and enter the giveaway!!! :)



This will not be my only post about cloth diapers, I will For SURE be writing more!

Have a wonderful day!
Kelsey