Chicken's and things....

Well, our weekend came and went and we all went with it! It was full of a ton of stuff!

For starters, the drive down on friday night, no one slept in the car! :-) I think some little boys may have been a bit too excited to see grandma. :-) Friday night, John and I spent a good portion, once we arrived, hanging out on the back porch, sipping on a few beers..... one thing about the country is the QUIET. Nothing but the wind in the trees and the occasional animal noise.... we got our first dose of my mom's sheep that night too..... we tried to feed them round 1 AM (and failed miserably, they are not people sheep apparently). But it was interesting to watch two momma sheep with their four little lambs following them around....

Saturday morning we all got up early (well, some earlier then others) and we had a few problems. Problem number one, I felt horrible! At first I thought I was just a tad bit hung over but as the weekend wore on, I'm guessing it was more of a flu bug because I had other symptoms and now John and my mom both have it. Problem two, My hoe toe was pissed! (For those of you that are unaware, I have an ingrown toenail that I have been dealing with for 1 and 1/2 years. I'm one of those idiots that will do the "bathroom" surgery to myself, gross I know, but I am DEATHLY afraid of the actual surgery!) My foot swelled and put pressure on the toe so I could barely walk all day long! Problem 3, we had 3 VERY TIRED children :-) I don't think I need to explain that one anymore! Despite all these problems though, we did some pretty interesting things :-)

1. Had a ton of fresh air, even though it was cloudy and rainy, we got to spend quite a bit of time outside.

2. John got to help my mom build a chicken cage for her new egg layer baby chicks.

3. The kids got to play with the sheep.

4. The kids got to play with my mom's big ole doberman's (Hunky and Callie)

5. Yes everyone, we butchered 3 chickens on sunday. (and the kids got to watch as well)

6. We managed to come home with 3 lbs. of fresh asparagus and a fresh chicken :-)

The chicken thing was definently interesting to say the least. My mom went at it like a champ :-) I gave all three boys the choice to watch or to turn away, but of COURSE they wanted to watch. We had a small talk about what knives are used for and why we were doing this to the chickens. They all were fascinated by it! I was worried they might have a nightmare or something but all three have slept like babies since then and they have all told there teachers about their "farm experience" :-)

John is a little bit different :-) He watched and took pictures of the event. He was ok, as in he didn't throw up :-) He has however named the chicken we brought home with us Maxwell. (I guess Maxwell will be our "special" guest at dinner coming up soon!)

So in conclusion, I have a ton of pics for you all and we made it through the weekend :-)

Here's some of the chicken cage going up:

Cutting the thick as hell fencing (yes, John got a nice blister!)

Digging in the poles.

Zak giving the pole thing a shot :-) He's turning into such a little man :-(

Here are some of the random farm pics:

Zane trying to feed the sheep (that sheep had a look on her face that said, "Yeah right kid!")

Boys analyzing the sheep, the sheep analyzing the little people :-)

Zane running excited about mom and the chickens :-)

Boys will be boys! The joys of having a penis and peeing outside :-)

Here's a few of the chicken pics. *Note* I have left out quite a few for those with a week stomach :-)

Zak checking out his soon to be dinner.....

I even had to turn away and take a breath at a few points :-)

Zane.... can't just see it? "Oh mom..... what are you DOING!?!"

ALL DONE! Three chickens in the bag :-)

No nightmares here! Just brother's cuddling in bed :-)

"Hey John, wanna talk about Maxwell?"

"Dana..... shut up."

And this is the face :-)