Farm Force One

Ok, that may have been the cheesiest title ever...

This weekend was very rainy, which means that not a whole lot of farm work got done. We got to relax a little bit and spend some family time together. It finally stopped raining yesterday afternoon, and we had a chance to go out for a little drive.  The dogs love it when we go for rides because they get to come along too.

                                                 Smoke                                           Harley

 First, we had to go over to our sprayer. It was supposed to get below freezing last night so we had to wrap up the main pump so it wouldn't freeze.

The reason for this post title, is this:

Patrick and his dad always joke that the tractor with the sprayer wings out look like Air Force One coming down the runway. We call it Farm Force One because it looks like an airplane driving through the field. That's farm humor for ya! Ha!

While we were out and about, we decided to go check out an oil well that is being put on our family's land.

And just cause we have this going in doesn't mean that we have all this crazy expensive stuff you can come steal from us. So, if you can figure out where we live by the "address" above, please don't come steal my shit :) Thanks :) Oh, and I'm armed. There's your warning :)

Our area is going through a gigantic oil boom and there are thousands of jobs available. We had an oil drilling rig here a couple weeks ago, and they drilled a giant hole. I'm not quite sure we're allowed to go onto the drill pad site, but we did anyways!

The big containers on the right are for storage when the oil starts getting pumped out of the ground.

All of the blue containers are for when they start hydraulic fracturing, which helps loosen the oil from the shale underneath the ground.

The machine right in front is just a light tower that goes up when they work at night. The holy grail that actually is the hole they drilled is the piece on the right.

I wanted to just go turn the handles SOOOOO bad! I imagined that black oil would just start spewing out of the ground like on Beverly Hillbillies. It probably wouldn't, but that's what I'd like to think :)

And finally, Eddie says heeeeeeyyyyyyyy!!!

How was your weekend?

Flippin' Flippin' Flippin'

I'm telling you...Friday never gets old. NEVER.

Thanks for joining me today for an online Flip Off and Flip On of this week's happenings! If you have a blog, feel free to grab my button and either link back to Amanda or I...

Now for the link up: We all have highs and lows of the week. This is a place to review your past week and give a FLIP ON to those great things and a virtual FLIP OFF to those not-so-great things! Make sure you grab the button to put on your post, and give both of our blogs credit if you decide to link up. Thank you for participating!

So what's good with me this week?

-FLIP ON to the rain that's supposedly coming this weekend! Patrick and I have all of our crop in, and we need it to rain rain rain! I want it to rain so hard that Patrick says, "It's raining harder than a cow pissin' on a flat rock!" Yep...

-Flip ON to my friend EMILY, who has decided to come visit us in a couple weeks...which just happens to be the same weekend that we're branding cows! Home girl is from Wyoming, so she's familiar with the whole country/cattle/ranching/farming thing. But, she's not so familiar with the guns. So we'll just have to have a little lesson :)

-FLIP ON ON ON ON ON...I could go on....to my sister coming this weekend!!! She'll be here sometime early next week, and be with us for the whoooooooole summer! I'm so excited to have her here!!! I'll use some more exclamation points just to show you how excited I am!!!!!!!!!!           !!!!!!!!!!

-FLIP ON for the month of April almost being over! It's been one helluva busy month and I'm just ready for it to be done. I feel like I need to just take a big breath and RELAX...

-And for the biggest FLIP ON of the week...I got to talk to my baby brother, who is at Basic Training with the Army! He called me yesterday afternoon at work and I got to talk to him for a total of 3 minutes. It was great to hear his voice! We've sent several letters back and forth so far, but it was just so awesome to hear from him! He was also chosen as his squad leader, which is a pretty big deal. He's doing great and I can't wait to see him when we travel to Columbus, GA for his graduation.

So....the NOT so good....

-I had a an acquaintance from college pass away this week :( We don't really know what happened yet, and the guy was only around 29 years old. I've mentioned before that I was in a sorority, and this guy was in a fraternity. It's just hard to lose one of your fellow Greek members. Prayers are with his family and friends as they go through this unbelievably hard time :(

-FLIP Off to the flippin' wind that blew alllllll day yesterday. And not just a slight breeze...like, when I opened the door to outside, I had to hang onto the door handle with both of my hands and brace myself against the wind. It was NUTS!

-Flip off to the stinkin heat this week-it was over 90 degrees earlier in the week, which is UNHEARD of for practically living in Canada. Oh, and our a/c wasn't working in my office building...which made for a bunch of lazy, unproductive workers who became slightly delirious by the end of the day :) he he he


Ok, that's enough bitching for this week...have a GREAT weekend everyone!

It's OK Thursday

Yep, I'm linking up again this week with Amber from Brunch With Amber for:

It's OK.....

...to almost drive off without your coffee in the coffee drive thru line...yikes. On the plus side, the barista thought I needed another shot in my latte because of that, so she gave me another one for free!

...to not go to the grocery store for almost 2 weeks.

...to be spoiled by your mother in law...with multiple fabulous gifts from a Coach store, just because  :) :) :)

...to ride with my convertible top down on the 25 mile drive to work, and to let my hair get messed up before work and not even care...not even a little!

...to eat that WHOLE bag of microwave popcorn.

...to walk out of your house wearing a white, long, flowy skirt...only to realize 4 hours later that your skirt is see-through and your bright pink undies are showing through...yep.

...to let those dishes sit in the sink overnight...or for a couple of days for that matter.

...to be pissed that CMA Fest is 3 weeks before my trip to Nashville this summer, and it doesn't look like many country artists will be in town when I'm there :( 

...to fall off of the "healthy eating" wagon when you have a fun weekend planned.

...to bring your nail polish with you to work and paint your nails throughout the day. (If you have a desk job).

...to spend too much $$ on a good swim suit. It's worth it!

...to have a HUGE crush on Adam Levine. Yum.


What's OK with you today? Anything exciting? I'll be back tomorrow for FLIP ON/FLIP OFF Friday! And then it's the weekend!!!

Pinteresting Wednesday!

Soooo, today I just want everyone to know that it's my half birthday! YEP! 6 months until my birthday! Feel free to send flowers or wine :)

Anyways...

Ok, so first of all, I feel MUCH better about my Pinterest habit after finding a lady who has almost FIVE HUNDRED boards...and almost 60,000 pins. I shit you not. My internet at home froze when I tried to upload her profile in Pinterest. Now, whenever I feel like I'm spending too much time on Pinterest, I'll just remind myself that it's not as bad as her! HA!

So here's some awesome things I've found recently:

Cute, no?

How about delicious?

  Pecan Pie Bars

German Chocolate Cookies

Caprese Pizza Toast

Penne w/ Roasted Asparagus and Balsamic Butter (I'm making this one tonight!)

Jalapeno Cream Corn

And last but DEFINITELY not least, the funnies!!!

This one is for YOU, Kelli!

 Lastly-this one gets me EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. You have to say it out loud to yourself to get it.

Come on, you know you laughed!!!

When The Tractor Gets Stuck

The other day when I had bought my new gun, Patrick and I were going to go out and shoot it to test it out. Right before we left the house, grandpa called and said the tractor had gotten stuck. This is not just any tractor, but our BIG tractor. The only things we use this tractor for is to plant our seed in the spring. And when this sucker gets stuck, it's usually a big deal.

We drove over to the field to find this:

If you're lucky, you can pull the whole setup out without having to unhook the air seeder cart from the tractor.

Welp, we weren't so lucky. We tried and tried, and the tractor just got more stuck.

So, we had to unhook. Once we unhook from the air seeder, we have to concentrate on getting the big tractor unstuck. This part went well thank goodness.

Look at the size of the hole from the tires! If I were to climb in there, it would be about waist-deep on me. 

But then the bad part comes. There's really no great way to lift the hitch on the front of the air seeder off of the ground, so you pretty much have to drag the front of it through the dirt and mud until you get to dry ground. We made a boo boo and accidentally put a hole in one of the hydraulic lines, so we have to now fix that before we can start seeding again.

After you get both pieces of machinery out of the mud and into dry ground, you have to jack the front of the air seeder up. This is no easy task, as a full grain cart means the whole setup weighs about 24,000 pounds. Since Patrick is the youngest and strongest, he is the lucky one that gets to push the jack down every time.

Three generations of confused farmers trying to figure out what the heck they're doing:

After you jack it up so far, you put wood blocks underneath it to keep it raised up since the jack only has so much space to move up. Once you reset it, you just keep jacking it up until it gets even with the hitch on the back of the trailer.

Thankfully nothing else went wrong. All in all, this was about a two hour process to get everything pulled out of the mud, moved and hooked back up. And I'll tell you what...it makes for some cranky farmers!

Hope everyone has a happy Monday!

WOOOHOOOOO!! FRIDAY!!!!

My friends, I cannot BELIEVE how excited I am that today is Friday! Unfortunately I have a BIG thing going on for work, so it's not like I can just sit back, relax and enjoy. It's gonna be a doozy of a day for me! I won't keep you waiting, so let's get started! And remember, if you wanna link up, grab the button and make sure you reference back to Amanda and I...thanks!

FLIP ON!!!

-Flip on to my garden being rototilled! Patrick brought home a tractor with a rototiller attachment on it, and got it all done! Some of you might think, "why the heck did he rent a tractor to till a garden?" Well folks, because we don't do any manual labor around here that can be done with a machine! HA! That, and any of the tractors that we own are too big to till my garden. And in case you're wondering how big it actually is, my garden measures 71 feet by 53 feet. HUGE!

-Flip ON to it being Friday. Like I said above, I am SO SO SO stinkin excited for the weekend. Not because I have anything amazing going on, but because I am SO ready to be done with work for the week.!

-Flip ON for coffee today, and well...every other day of the year. I'll be going for a triple shot latte right after I'm done with these here post!

-Flip on to my dad for sending my mom flowers at work!Everybody now...Awwwwww! She works at a bank and they merged with another bank. It's been hectic to say the least and everyone is cranky and working long hours.

-Flip on to the two letters we have gotten from my brother, who is at Basic Training for the Army! I typed a letter back to him-do you think that's lame? Should I actually write one out? I didn't think it was lame but someone else thought it was silly that I didn't hand write a note back. I figure, as long as he's getting something, it doesn't matter what form it's in...right? Wrong? Help?

-Flip ON for helping our local library start their very own Pinterest page! I'll be getting it started today! You think I can quit my regular job and just become a FB/Twitter/Pinterest/Blogger person for the local companies? That would be GREAT.  Social media for everyone!

FLIP OFF!!!!

-As much as I'm ready for the weekend, FLIP OFF to the mayjah mess that awaits me at home. UGH. And it's been a little rainy this week, so needless to say my floors are covered in muddy puppy prints.

-Flip Off to there only being two new episodes of Desperate Housewives left! I am going to feel like a part of me is missing on Sunday nights when those bitches are gone :(

-Flip OFF to all of those Victoria's Secret emails and catalogs I get, what seems like every day of the week. Anyone else have that problem? They suck me in! It's like they know I just paid my VS card off, and they want me to buy buy buy!


Ok friends, wish me luck with my work event today. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend and we'll see you next week! P.S. Sorry for the bad language below, but I think most people can agree with this :)

It's Ok Thursday

Hi everyone! Don't get pissed cause I didn't post yesterday...I've just been insanely busy at work, home, the farm and FFA stuff that I just couldn't bring myself to pouring any energy into my blog yesterday...sorries!

This faaaaaaabulous girl that I follow, Amber, does what's called "It's Ok Thursday" every week. You know why she's awesome? Cause I find that every week when she posts this list, I find at least 5 things that could have come straight from my mouth or my life. And, the chicky replies to EVERY comment I post on her blog! It makes me feel like she's grateful for the time I spend reading about her life. Thanks for being an inspirational blogger Amber! Go check her out HERE to read what's ok with her....

And for me....

....it's ok to have coffee this morning, and then go for coffee again this afternoon to catch up on "work" with a friend. Right Amanda?? ;)

....it's ok to spend too much money on salon shampoo, find out that you HATE it, and then go back to the drugstore to buy $3 Herbal Essences shampoo.

...it's ok to eat the whole box of mac n cheese if you're having a bad day, or if sometimes it just tastes SO freakin' good you can't stop eating it. (here's a hint: put about 2 pinches of grated mozzarella cheese in with your mac n cheese-it makes it SO much creamier!)

...it's ok to think you should get paid more, but work less. Or not at all and still get paid :)

....it's ok to wipe the drool off of your face after looking at desserts on Pinterest.

...speaking of Pinterest...it's ok to feel like your world is off-kilter if you haven't been on there for a week.

...it's ok to ride around with your windows down and the AC blowing in your car

...it's ok to sing really loud in the car and be "that person" that everyone laughs at as they drive by.

...it's ok if you have too many Coach purses and your mother in law just happens to find one that a hell of a deal that you absolutely cannot live without!

...it's ok to keep those pair of jeans that you really want to fit back into someday, and occasionally try them on to see how much more you need to lose.

...it's ok if you have a couple "off" days eating and feel to ashamed to put it into myfitnesspal.

...it's ok if you just go home and do nothing but sit on your bum catching up on your DVR



So what's OK with all of you??? Go see Amber and link up!

HAPPY ALMOST FRIDAY PEOPLE!

My New Toy

If you've been reading here the last couple of weeks (or even remotely skimming), you will have read how I was taking a class so I could get my concealed weapons permit. Well folks, the day is here! I picked it up and this puppy is ALL MINE!

I had to block out all the stuff on there like, ya know...my address, DOB and signature. 

And no, I didn't smile in my picture. I felt like I needed to look mean in the picture, and I think I accomplished that! So, since I got my permit, guess what comes next?!?!?

THIS bad-assness is what comes next:

It's a Ruger SR9 9mm. It is a one-piece glass reinforced nylon, with an ambidextrous magazine latch, a trigger guard, a manual safety switch, a loaded chamber indicator, a striker status indicator, and an adjustable rear sight. It also came with an extra magazine (the thing that holds the bullets).

 Basically, I FREAKING LOVE IT.

I already went out and shot this bad boy, and it doesn't have too much kickback. It shoots beautifully, and I can't wait to go out and shoot it more! The salesperson tried to sell me a cute little pink gun. Ummm, gimme a break. This B is not shooting anything like that.

So why did I choose this gun? I've shot a couple other handguns...and wasn't in love with them. I shot a .22 handgun and it was just too little for me. I shot a .357 (the one in my header pic) and that definitely packed a punch. I also wanted a semi-automatic and not a revolver. I'm sure most of you have no clue what I'm talking about....

Anyways....I picked this gun because it felt good in my hands. I felt comfortable holding it and it just felt right.

A lot of people have asked...will I actually carry this thing every day? You betcha. On my person? Not every day, because I can't bring it into my office. But it's in my car every day, and as soon as I get a holster, it's going on my hip. Am I going to carry it in my purse? Nope. Too many other things in there with it, and I don't want the safety to accidentally get knocked into the off position, and the gun go off and shoot me in the shoulder or something. 

I am a BIG advocate of gun rights (as if you couldn't tell already), and am thinking about joining the NRA. Yep. I am also a big advocate of knowing the laws for carrying guns, how they differ from state to state, and which buildings you cannot bring them into (post office, schools, banks, credit unions, etc). I'll be brushing up on all of that as well. In most states there is a waiting period of 3 days to buy a firearm. That is in case of a domestic violence dispute, one spouse can't go buy a gun and take it home to shoot the other. Since I have my concealed weapons permit, I have no waiting period. I went in last Tuesday to buy this gun, and walked out of the store with it about half hour later. Awesome!

I am not a fan of people that don't know how to use their guns. I was talking to someone who has a friend who said, "I pack my gun everywhere now. To my kids' school, the post, office, running errands to the bank, everywhere." My friend was like, ummm...you can go to prison for that cause it's illegal. FYI. I'm not a fan of stupid gun owners that don't know what they're doing.. Most of the time, those are the people that don't know how to use them anyways.

So, to play devil's advocate a little bit....how do you all feel about guns??? Are you absolutely against them, do you love them like me, or do you have no problem with them, as long as you don't have to shoot one? I'm just curious to see what all of you think :)

Weekend Recap

Hey friends! I hope your weekend was as GREAT as mine was! It was wonderful to see friends from college, and spend time with one of my best friends and her baby boy. This was the view from my friend's house:

Right on the river! Doesn't get much better than that! Saturday morning we went for a walk with her son and her niece and nephew. He says, "Auntie Nicole, it's COLD outside!" (Side note: The seatbelt in the stroller was broken, which is why there's a bungee strap across his chest!).

We basically hung out all weekend, and went to the wedding on Saturday night.

I had a great time this weekend, and now it's back to the daily grind! I'm also excited, because these two are coming to visit us in a couple of weeks! They'll be here in the middle of May, and this will be their first visit to our home! I've already got lots of stuff planned that we're going to do! I'm excited if you couldn't tell :)

Oh, and only a few short weeks until this fool is coming to live with us for the summer again.

Watch out, Eastern Montana.

Happy Monday, people!!!

Today Is My Friday!

Isn't that the most AMAZING feeling when it's Thursday, but it's actually your last day of work for the week! LOVE it! In addition to that, today has been a pretty kickass day....I went and had a pedi done on my lunch break, and received THIS in the mail!

 

Ahhhhhhh!!! It's like the angels sang down from the heavens! I read through it already and I can tell you...it does NOT disappoint! There are a lot more different recipes in here, whereas her last cookbook was pretty plain-Jane county man food. This one still sticks to that, but there's a lot more flare in her recipes.

I know yesterday I promised pics from college, but that's just not happening with my busy workday today. I promise though, you'll get them eventually.

This weekend I'm traveling 5 hours to go to a friend from college's wedding. There will be lots of my sorority girls there, which I'm so excited to see. I'm also going to be spending most of my time with my friend Chay, who's wedding I was in last August.

AND, her cute little man :)

Since I'll be traveling tomorrow, there will not be my usual Flip On/Flip Off Friday. Sorry friends! Hope you all have a great weekend and we'll talk next week!