Another Day in Paradise...

I was going to write a post about the Ham Balls/Loaves I was going to make last night, but I was too tired to cook.  So Matt came home and cooked.  It doesn't happen very often.  Usually when I am extremely tired or sick.  And he only makes three things: Goulash, Lasagna, and Tuna and Noodles.  Last night we had Tuna and Noodles.  I will take it.  Any guy that will come home after a long day of working outside when it's almost 100 degrees out, cook me dinner and never complain is definitely a keeper.  I did help, though.  I boiled the noodles.  Hard work, I know.  So in light of my laziness, this is another hum drum day that happened last week...Ham Balls tomorrow.  They are way better than they sound, really.  And it is my Grandma's recipe... 

The other night I was able to ride Remi for the first time in almost a week.  It has been so incredibly hot lately, and we finally had some reprieve.  Our reprieve was a temperature in the high eighties if that tells you anything.  After I was done I hosed her off.  I don't know why she still had her leg wraps on in this picture.  I took them off after I snapped this photo. 

I love sitting on top of the roof on the barn.  We have some great views.  I don't know why I took this picture of the chickens.  They were running away.  From what, I have no idea.  It wasn't a "Run for your life!!!" kind of run...more of a "Let's go over here!" type of run.  Maybe some different bugs showed up, I don't know... They run funny, though and they make me laugh when they run. 

Afterwards I went over to take some pics of Matt and Casey who were about ready to cut hay.  Until they discovered a little more work was needed on the mower or baler...or whatever the heck it is.  It's actually a mower. I mean a baler. This was a good opportunity to snap some photos before I left to make dinner.  It was the first night in a long time that I walked outside and didn't feel like I was drowning in humidity, so I decided to stick around and enjoy the fresh air.  Unfortunately, a bolt was missing from the baler and my task was to help look for this bolt.  Not very exciting.  I wasn't successful, either.  Casey ended up having to go to a friend's house to get a bolt.  I gave up the search so I could lay down in the grass for a while under a tree.  I'm a lot of help, as you can tell.  I thought it would be kind-of a cool pic to take a photo of the leaves above with the sun shining through them.  If anything, it might be fun to edit the photo and see what I could do.  As I snapped the photo I felt some type of slime fall onto my face, and this is what I saw.  Sam.  Yep, stinky, smelly old Sam.  Isn't he cute???

 "Whatcha do'in?"

After pushing him away I closed my eyes for a little while and woke up to Matt saying, "Sam! What'd you do now???"  

He was wrestling with the tarp chord...It won.  The

chord, not Sam.  It roped him.

I got tired of waiting for the guys to finish putting the mower together so I went home to start making dinner and told them to call me when they were ready to start baling.  Sam came with me.  I had left Cope at home because a few weeks ago he caught one of Casey's chickens and killed it.  When I walked into the house I knew something was wrong.  Cope didn't rush to come see me.  Crap.  I knew what this meant...This is what greeted me as I walked around the corner:

The last time I saw this face he ate my sundress.  For the second time.  Different sundress.  The time before that he had eaten his second pair of my boots.  And the time before that he had shredded my new sweater.  Into bits and pieces.  The list goes on.  He had been really good for a while, up until this point right here.  Guinness may have done some provoking.  Why Cope never bothers to chew Matt's things up I'll never know...This is not a good face, and it is a face I dread. 

"I did something bad, Mom..." 

At least he fesses up, right?

Earlier I had spilled flour all over the place and brushed most of it into the trash can.  Cope found it.  Obviously.  That is the white stuff is on his face....      

 Are you mad? Oh I hope you're not too mad..."

       

 

"Oh, she's mad. And Sam is here to watch me get in trouble.  How embarrassing...Awe Mom, why do you have to do this now??? I'm going to look away and pretend she's not here..."      

After spending 30 minutes cleaning up the flour blizzard that had been dumped all over the kitchen, creating icy and treacherous conditions for Cope, I received a phone call that they were finally ready. This is Casey on the tractor.  They were happy, and relieved to be able to start baling the hay...

They were like kids in a candy store...

This actually looks more like play than work to me...

And they have success.

Dinner was late, though.  I don't think we ate until 10.  I had another mess to clean up when I got home.  Someday, I will learn that Guinness + Cope = Catastrophe, and I will lock them both up.  Separately.  Did I mention he also chewed up the vacuum cleaner that night, too?

   I just don't know what his deal has been lately...If only

dogs could talk about their problems instead of demonstrating

that they have an issue....maybe just maybe more of my things

would be intact...