Kitchen Appliance Update

Hey y'all,
I wanted to show y'all my new and improved small appliances. All it took was a couple can's of spray paint and about fifteen minutes of my time. Then I just let it dry.

I absolutely love how the crockpot turned out. 

The Food Saver needs another coat of paint, but I ran out of black before I could get a second coat on. Also, I think I'm going to go back over it where I left it white. I originally wanted to see the food saver label, but now I just think it turned out tacky. The mixer turned out great, as did the crock pot. I love the crock pot. Now let me tell you why I didn't paint it black. Our color scheme for our new house is going to be turquoise and terracotta. Now the crockpot isn't turquoise but it was as close as I could find at Walmart. The reason I went with this color though was because of the inside pot. I just didn't think it would look good with black paint and a splash of color right in the middle of the table just looks so pretty to me. This is not the original lid that came with the crock pot. The one that came with it was old, warped and plastic, so I threw it away. I had a couple of old metal lids that I lost the pot's, years ago, so I picked the one with the plastic knob and painted it to go on top. It looked so good, my husband asked me why I didn't paint them all the same color. It looks like a brand spanking new pot instead of the old vintage one, I bought for a dollar at a yard sale. What do y'all think? Should I paint them all the turquoise or leave them black to match my large appliances? I may have to go back with some different paint later and redo the plastic pieces of the stand mixer, such as the top and bottom of the blender. I didn't realize it but I bought the wrong can of spray paint. This one didn't specify that it could be used on plastic, so fingers crossed that I won't have to fix it later, but if I do that's alright. If y'all decide to do this project, make sure the paint you buy is made for all surfaces like the turquoise paint is.

Anyway, I made a video of the process, and I have posted the link below.

Be sure to check it out.

https://youtu.be/bdt3fWXI-1w

Catch ya later!

Plastic Tote Brooder

on the way home

Well I finally found me some buff orpington chicks. I couldn't believe it. I walked into my feed store and I saw a light on back where the chick pens are and a few people standing back there. I didn't hear them chirping but I asked if they had chicks and they said yes. "What kind?" I asked. "Banty's and buff orpington..." "that's what I want." I cut her off before she could finish. I finally got around to asking the price which surprisingly turned out to be cheaper than the hatcheries online and the other feed stores that had chicks. Good thing none of them had buffs or I would have wasted money I could have saved buying at my local feed store.  I just hope one of these babies turns out to be a rooster.  They are straight run, so who knows.  I may have all pullets or I may have all roosters.  I just hope I have at least one rooster, but it would be nice to have a couple of them be pullets.  We'll find out in about ten weeks.  Also, I would like you to notice the holes I drilled into the sides of my brooder.  This is new.  Last year I cut a big square hole out of the top of the lid and put a metal grate over it.  I didn't really like that too much, so I changed it up this year, partly because I have a big puppy, that still has some learning to do and I don't want her thinking the little babies are snacks for her.  I had an extra lid laying around for the tub, from an old one that I had before.  I didn't want there to be any holes in the lid in case of rain blowing in on the porch and things of that nature.  My first plastic brooder like this was clear and I had a hawk fly down and land on it trying to get to them.  Luckily it didn't succeed but I changed to the blue brooder the next year.  What I did was drill three rows of holes on each side of the plastic tub, then I cut out a hole for my heat lamp on one side.  I had it a little too high and the lamp touched the lid.  So I put the cord through the hole and used my lamp clamp by sticking the clamp end on the outside and the smaller end that holds the lamp, I put through the hole.  Then I had to attach the clamp to something to hold it in place.  It worked perfectly and better than my original idea.  I lined the bottom with news paper but am planning on getting some shavings for it this weekend or next week.  I didn't want to use my big waterer and I gave my small waterer's away, last year.  What I really want to do though is fix up a waterer and feeder that isn't sitting on the floor of the tub.  I am thinking about a rabbit feeder and maybe even a rabbit waterer.  One of the things I hate more than anything with raising chick's is how nasty their water and feed bowls get.  If I could get them up off the floor so they can't jump on them and poop on them, then I am on top of things.  I do have some rabbit feeders but they all have the wire mesh in the bottom and the chick starter falls right through.  I'll have to get a new one without the mesh.  As for the waterer, I have an extra rabbit waterer but I'm not sure if they can drink out of it.  I'll have to research this a little, maybe even experiment with it to see.  

Fixing the floor of my rabbit pen

Moved the Pens back to back

Well today I replaced the floor of one of my rabbit pens.  I've been meaning to do it for a long, long time now, but I kept putting it off because I just didn't feel up to it.  After finding my stapler and my husband buying me a new drill, which I love by the way, I thought there is no sense in putting it off any longer.  I got right to work on it today, after I moved the pen out of the bushes which was no small feat being the only one homether than my two year old son.  He helped by staying under Mama's feet.  I kept running him out of the bushes and distracting him with the dogs.  I was scared to death he was going to get on a snake.  I ended up moving both of my big pens, and let me tell you, those things are heavy.  I cut the wire underneath it completely off.  I know it was put there to keep animals from tearing into the pens but it holds all their loose hair and rabbit pellets.  It had the pen smelling awful.  So I cut it off and let all of that mess fall to the ground.  I then had to take the sheet of tin off the front of the pen so I could get to work on it.  I still need to work on the door, and I think I'll use the extra foot of wire I had left to put on the inside of the door.  After I removed the tin, I laid out my roll of wire and snipped the corners where the landscaping timbers go.  Then I stapled the end down and rolled it to the other end stapling as I went.  I then cut a foot of wire off the roll and again snipped the corners for the landscaping timbers.  I then proceeded to staple everywhere I could.  The more staples you put in it the more secure it is.  I wouldn't mind going back tomorrow and put a few more longer staples in it.  I sent my daughter to the store with her grandma to get me some more staples and made sure to tell her I wanted the longer ones.  For once she listened and got me just what I needed to finish the job.  I did go ahead and move the rabbit back into this one so I can do some maintenance on his pen.  One thing I want to do is remove the roofing tacks in the front of the pen holding the tin in place.  I will replace them with tin screws.  I also want to inspect the wire on the inside of this cage as well.  Before I put him back in it, I am going to cut the extra wire off the bottom like I did the other pen.  My next project is going to be the smaller cages.  I really want to make them the actual pen for my breeding pair.  I finally found me a new doe. Im going to get her this weekend, but first I've got some work to do on the pens.  Anyway, the two bigger pens will be for the grow outs.  I can separate the males from the females and have plenty of room for them to move around.  I don't intend to have a lot of rabbits, but it will really just depend how things go down the road. I just want two or three rabbits for breeding, no more.  I intend to let this be my daughters project.  It will be a good learning experience for her and a 4H/FFA project. Of course, I will get something out of it as well, because what she doesn't sell will end up in my freezer, just as my chicken project will do the same for me.  I intend to breed three different colors of orpington chickens, buff, blue and blue/buff crosses.  You can find out all about that in an earlier post.  Anyway, we have what I believe is a broken red new Zealand buck.  I don't think he's a standard rex.  His fur doesn't appear to look velvety to me.  I've found pictures of broken red new Zealand's that look a lot like him.  I could be very wrong though, as I've never seen a Standard Rex rabbit or even a Mini Rex up close.  I've only seen pictures on line.

This is a younger picture of him, right after I got him

This is a good picture of him now.

Family Command Center Update

Every home needs a family command center.  With all the different things going on and our schedules being so busy and hectic, it's nice to have it all organized.  Kids need a chore chart.  Bills need to be organized in a way that makes it easy to find, and sort.  An excellent way to do that is to have an incoming, outgoing and a to be filed area.  The blue box with the circles is my to be filed box.  I'm going to label it later.  I made it out of a box that goes on a book.  This was actually from my college years and I still had the book, don't need it or the case so I took the case and covered it with contact paper.  I wrapped it just like I would a gift except where the opening is at the top.  Then I put two holes in the back to hang it.  The board on the left was just one solid marker board on right and bulletin board on left.  I used washi tape to divide the marker board into sections.  My children's chores are listed in the two bottom sections and the upper section is for notes.  I glued and taped three envelopes together with washi tape to make individual files for things like coupons and receipts.  The to do list to the right of the notes and chore chart is a picture frame with a note card inside decorated with washi tape and check boxes drawn on.  To the right of that is where I tack up business cards and sort my incoming and outgoing mail.  At the bottom of that is a place to hang keys, but since I don't hang my keys up I used it to hang a basket to put dry erase markers and a marker board eraser in.  At the bottom is my calendar with a section on the left to make my grocery list.  I still have plenty of wall space available to the left but I haven't figured out what to do with it yet.  At the top of the wall, I plan on putting some inspiring words and a picture frame with a family photo.  I have seen a lot of different family command centers and all of them had great qualities, just not many that applied to me, so I made it my own.  I don't need a menu board as many of the command centers I've seen online.  I like to plan it all out that day not a week ahead or even a day ahead.  For moms who work out of the home though, a menu is probably a great idea that way you know what to lay out that morning before you leave for work.  For me I like instead the idea of having a grocery list here, because I can write stuff down as I discover I'm low on it or out of it.  Then when I go shopping, I just snap a picture with my phone.  As for the to be filed box, I hate filing things.  Its just easier to me to put it all in a box like this one and when it gets full, I have to make myself file it.  It would be ideal for me to have a desk under all of this so I can sit down and write out bills as needed, but there's no room for one because of the island.  Anyway, I usually pull them out and stand at the island sorting through them, going from one website or app to the next paying them, then I put them in the to be filed bin.  The two that I have to write a check for, do not have a website for me to go and pay, so I write those two out and stick them up in the outgoing mail section, until I get around to heading to the post office, usually the next day, or on the way to do my grocery shopping.  I like to run my errands all on the same day if possible.  I am still looking for new ideas to improve my command center.  Anything that will help me improve my hectic life with two kids is great for me.  Maybe some of these ideas will work for you or maybe you can throw some ideas my way. 

Chicken Tractor Update Part Two

outdoor paneling covering the nest box and roost pole

Since my last post about my chicken tractor being torn into by an animal, I have finally found the culprit.  I still don't know what happened to my rooster but I'm still going with a broken neck judging by the looks of him. You will never believe it when I tell you. You are probably thinking a dog or a wild animal but if you are, you would be wrong. Nope, its none of those things. The culprit is my thousand pound horse who thinks chicken feed is horse feed. Yep I realized this a few nights ago. I laid some wood over the two wholes and attempted to use chicken feed to lure one of my roosters into the pen. This didn't work of course and I gave up trying to catch him but later that night I heard the tin on the pen being knocked around and the dogs started barking. I went outside and found my horse trying to get to the feed. After I run her off, I went to look at my pen and sure enough there was a new hole on the other end of the pen that looked suspiciously like the other two holes from before. Well now that I know the culprit is actually a horse and not a wild animal, I feel safe using my pen. I just needed to patch the holes. As I was walking around outside today, I remembered that I had a long narrow piece of dog wire laying around somewhere. It was just the right size in height to cover the whole lower front where the three holes were. So I stapled it on and trimmed off the excess. As I was doing this I decided there were a few more things I wanted to change. For example I decided the tin on the one side with the section totally and completely covered with wire wasn't necessary.  So I removed it and over the nest box I screwed a piece of outdoor paneling. Then to keep it from getting wet at the top I put a piece of flashing or whatever it's called. It's the piece that you put at the upper most pitch of your tin roof. I call it flashing but that's probably not right. (Shrugs shoulders) it doesn't matter as long as its leak proof to keep the rain off of them. Now, one reason I wanted to remove the tin was to allow more sun light in.  Chickens need plenty of sun and it just makes more sense to remove the tin as opposed to propping it up and worrying about the wind catching it. After all this could be how my rooster died. As I said it looked like his neck was broken and the tin which had been up earlier had been knocked down or blown down. The rooster was laying on that side with his head next to the tin. Its quite possible that when it fell he had his head out the wire and the tin hit him killing him. There was no sign of sickness, no bloody mess which is why I believe his neck was broke. If I am correct then by removing this tin I will be able to prevent this from happening again. However, I left the tin over the opening on the opposite side.  It makes it easily accessible for me to get in and change the water, remove chickens or put them in.  This piece can be faced North if the wind is too much, but for now it is facing west.  The nest box wall is facing North, so there's no chance of wind getting to them from that direction either.  They should be warm enough and out of the rain enough the way I did it.  One of the things about my chicken tractor is that its a constant work in progress.  I can change things as I determine they need to be changed.  I love the idea of a chicken tractor, because you can easily move it, you can update it as you need to and you can free range without actually free ranging.  I like my stationary pen.  It's not that it's impossible to move.  The pen itself pulls up from the ground and folds in half.  It's the coop that's difficult to move.  I've contemplated putting a wire bottom on it and adding wheels to it.  The thing about the coop and pen is that it can easily be landscaped to be something beautiful.  Mine may not be that pretty but there are some I've seen pictures of that are gorgeous.  People plant pretty flowers around them, grow vines on them.  You can do all kinds of things to make them beautiful, or you can have it be as ugly as sin.  It's whatever your preference.  If we move, like I'm hoping we can, we'll have more room to build pens and things.  I would love to build three or four larger A frame chicken tractors, to separate the different colors of orpingtons, that I want.  I would love to have a pen for my buffs, a pen for my blues, a pen for lavenders and so on and so forth.  I might even like to have some silkies just because.  Right now, the three colors I have mentioned are the ones I want, but I might like to start a blue/buff pen as well.  Once I figure out what works with my chicken tractor, I will know exactly how to build my new pens if and when I get that opportunity.  Another possibility for the current chicken tractor is that I could add onto the bottom.  I have thought about this, recently as I know that my pen will need to grow eventually.  Of course I can always just build a brand new one but it is possible to add on to the existing one.  

dog wire covering the holes in the chicken wire, under the opening.  

tin removed on the opposite side to provide sunlight

One of the buffs checking out the nest box

Chicken Tractor Update part one

Well I knew I should have used mesh wire on my chicken coop instead of chicken netting.  Last night about one in the morning I was sitting at my computer working on my book, when I hear my chickens going crazy.  Now my dog isn't barking until this happens and she's on the porch the entire time.  So I go out to see what all the commotion is and I see one of my buff hens out running around.  The five roosters that are out free ranging all day are chasing her around.  I run back in to put my shoes on and come back outside to rescue her.  I'm wondering how she got out and where the other buff hen is, thinking the worst.  I sick Sadie on the roosters to keep them away from the hen and me while I grab her.  She comes to me willingly so you know she's had enough of the boys chasing her.  I tucked her under my arm and she's completely quiet and still.  I need to see how she got out first and make sure nothing is in her pen.  There is a huge hole tore into my chicken tractor but luckily the other buff hen is alive and well.  I didn't see any animals inside but something sure tore into the pen.  I take the hen in my arms and put her in the coop with my blue orpingtons and come back to get the other.  She isn't happy about it and squawks loudly sending all five of the roosters after me.  I drop her when one of them comes at me, but luckily Sadie gets between us.  Its hard to see those blue roosters at night in the dark.  Anyway the hen runs from me and corners herself between the fence, a play kitchen that belongs to my kids and a bucket that is setting beside it.  She is completely surrounded on three sides and can't get away when all five roosters pile on top of her.  Literally, one jumped on her, then another jumped on him and so on until they were all on her.  Again, I sick the dog on the roosters because I am not capable of fighting five roosters off at once.  Those things are too fast and too mean.  Now granted all but two of these were hand raised by me. The other two were out of eggs my mothers hen hatched.  She gave them to me when I gave her my extra pullets that I didn't like.  She didn't want to fool with butchering them and did not want two roosters running around, so I took them.  These two you have to watch, carefully.  As I said I sicked the dog on them and she ran them all off, while I eased in and got the poor hen who had just been assaulted by five roosters at once.  Then I put her in the coop with the blue orpingtons.  I will have to get some wire sometime this week to fix the chicken tractor if I'm going to keep my buffs separate from my blues.  I guess I will also have to butcher the roosters soon or build a pen to put them all in too.  I don't know if they tore the hole in the fence or if something else got in but I have to wonder since just last week my buff rooster died unexpectedly.  I wonder now if something got him through the fence and maybe broke his neck.  Could it have been those roosters running loose or was it a wild animal? I've learned my lesson though. Always use good wire instead of cheap, chicken wire.

Chicken Tractor

With all the talk of bird flu lately, not to mention how easy it is for chickens to get attacked by predators, its a good idea to keep your chickens in a pen.  Still some of us believe free range is better, so in order to keep chickens safe while still letting them move around freely on fresh ground day after day, somebody came up with the idea of a chicken tractor.  It may not seem like it after looking at all the different plans of chicken tractors, but it is actually very easy to build one.  You can even build it from scrap wood as I did or you can buy all the supplies brand new. You can modify it as you want, change it as you find some things you like or don't like as I have or you can simply build it just like mine and leave it that way.
I used three 2x2s, one slightly longer than the other two.  One 16 foot long 1x4, I cut into five pieces.  Four of those five pieces should be 3 feet and the other should be 4 feet.  I also used an old piece of shelving board.  I'll explain that in detail in a minute but first let me tell you how to put the pieces I've already told you about together.

Egg door made from scrap wood

You will want to lay the three 2x2s out.  2 of them are 7 1/2 feet long while the one in the middle is 8 feet long.  The middle piece is going to go at the top.  Your going to piece this all together in a triangle shape, as known as an A-frame. Take your four shorter 4x4s and attach two at each end.  Remember it will form a triangle or a-frame all the way through.  On one end the top, middle 2x2 will hang over as it's longer than the others.  Now on one end of the triangle you will take you longer 1x4 and attach it to the bottom.  I did this on the end that i had the 2x2 sticking out further.  Next you will get your shelving board and on the opposite end you will cut it to fit.  The first piece of shelving board was 4 feet long and 12 inches wide.  The next piece you will not nail or screw down as you will attach it with hinges to the bottom board.  The third piece goes above the one with the hinges.  It will be screwed into the 1x4s on each side.  Then attach a latch to it to keep the door closed.  Just inside of the shelving boards I have attached a nest box.  I only used one, but two may fit.  Next you will want to attach a roosting pole from one end of the pen to the other.  Oh I forgot the wire.  You will want to get a roll of good wire.  I bought chicken netting but if you want them to really be protected from wild animals, I would go with the small mesh wire that everyone uses in rabbit pens.  

The 1x4 is not screwed into place yet but here is where the tin will open up so you can reach inside. 

The tin is propped up so the chickens can get some sun.

You'll want to have your staple gun ready and pull the wire as tight as you can get it. This might be a good time to call in a helper.  Put a lot of staples.  I put them every other hole, all the way around my pen, with the exception of the end with the shelving board.  I did cut the wire out about half way up on one of the long sides.  Here a screwed in a 7 foot 1x4 and stapled the wire to it on the inside.  Now you have an opening above this board across the entire side of your pen.  Here you will use tin cut to fit the opening and overlap the 1x4 you just put up.  I used another sheet of tin on the opposite side of the pen that covers that entire side.  Yes I know I have wire there but I will explain why I did this in just a minute.  I screwed both pieces of tin in at the top, letting them slightly overlap one another.  Now here's what thinking is for the opposite side with the wire and the larger piece of tin.  I wanted to be able to keep the cold wind off of them in the fall and winter.  During this time of the year I can turn this side to the north and block the north wind.  With both sides having tin over the top, they will be protected from the rain as well but this doesn't allow for a lot of sun, so I use two tomato sticks to lift the tin up on the side with the larger piece of tin.  This way they can get sun during the warmer months when they are laying.  Over the nest box I have hung an old piece of wool from an old horse blanket to keep it dark even when the tin is up.

Here you can see the piece of wool hanging over the nest box.

Chickens like it dark where they lay.  I may even hang a piece of material around it like a curtain to make it darker.  One more suggestion for this pen that I haven't done myself is that you may want put wire in the bottom to keep things from digging under.  I didn't do this myself but I am considering doing it later.

Here I've lifted the tin up so I can reach inside and put my hens in the pen.

Here's my girls in their new home.  The nest box is at the back.

It ain't the prettiest chicken tractor but it'll do for now.

Raising Baby Chicks

One of my hobby's as of late is raising chickens, particularly orpingtons.  I love these chickens.  By far they have been the sweetest, kindest chickens, I've ever owned, so you can see why I was so very excited when I finally found myself a buff orpington rooster to go with my buff orpington hens.  To my dismay though he didn't make it.  He broke his neck, I think or something got to him.  I have had the hardest time finding a buff rooster and blue orpington hens.  I have a blue rooster, you see and two buff hens.  So, I decided last season to take all the eggs from my buff hens and hatch them.  Up until that point, I'd failed every single time.  This time, I hatched fifteen of them.  I was so excited.  It was much like being an expectant mom, only without the uncomfortable feeling of having another little human inside you.  Okay so it really doesn't compare to having your own children, but its still very nerve racking and yet exciting at the same time.  I must have checked the thermometer a thousand times.  I was constantly making sure there was enough water in the incubator.  I even used two different incubators this time, one with an egg turner so I didn't forget to turn the eggs and one for the the final three days when they would be hatching.  Thankfully I managed to get five blue/buff pullets out of the batch.  The rest were either roosters or black.  Blues throw blacks sometimes, but I didn't want blacks I wanted blues, so I gave the black pullets to my mother and turned the roosters loose in the yard.  They're going to be butchered one of these days for the freezer but as of now they have not been because I just haven't wanted to do it.  I may do so this week since my daughters out for spring break.  She will be around to help me with her brother.  Anyway, I raised up the blue buff pullets and put them back in with their father.  Yes I know this is technically imbreeding but these are chickens and people do it all the time with all kinds of animals.  It's called linebreeding.  I hope the next batch will not have the buff color at all.  I built another pen for my two buffs and my mother, God Bless her she found me that Buff rooster.  I was planning on hatching out pure buff orpingtons this year, keep a few pullets and sell the rest, but as nature would have it, that's not going to happen as Mr. Buffy as my daughter called him, has gone to chicken heaven.  I've considered putting one of my blue/buff roosters in with my hens but I really wanted a buff rooster.  I really wanted to be able to sell some little buff chicks as they are really sought after around here.  I could say I have the worst luck as a few years ago my male goat broke my female goats neck when he got too rough.  My plan for her didn't go like I wanted either.  For some reason, I can't seem to keep anything alive.  I even lost one of my blue pullets after she got stuck in the fence during a down pour.  Oh, if only my hens would lay a few eggs in the next week, I could get them in the incubator and hatch them, before they are no longer fertile.  Hens can lay fertile eggs up to two weeks after being exposed to a rooster.  Just as my luck would have it though, they have decided to go on strike.  My blue pullets are not yet laying though I'm sure they will be soon, as their cones are getting red and the days are getting longer.  I've had chickens for a long time and I have learned many lessons over the years.  One you have to fence them in all around to keep predators out.  Two it's a good idea to have a guardian dog such as a heeler or a shepherd of some kind.  You do have to train them not to kill the chickens though, but once they learn that, their territorial instincts kick in and they run everything off that even comes near those birds.  Three, they die, just out of the blue they die.  Four they are stupid!  Yes that's right chickens are probably the stupidest animal I've ever owned but they are so worth it to me.  I love raising them.  I love watching them.  I don't even mind it when they peck me and they do, often.  Five, they will eat anything and crap on everything.  It's best to keep them off your porch.  When I raise mine, I like them close but not inside the house.  I keep a rubber tub on the porch to put them in with a metal grate on top and a heat lamp to keep them warm.  This has worked out better for me than anything else I have tried.  You have to make sure they have some kind of traction for their feet too, so I put those drawer mats that are textured in the bottom of mine and you should put shavings in it to soak up the manure and the urine.  If they don't have something for traction, they can get splayed legs.  One way to correct this is to take a rubber band, tie a knot in the middle of it then stick their legs through the loops on each end.  After about a day in this contraption, their legs should go back to normal.  I keep them in this rubber bin until they are six weeks old, then they go outside into another pen.  After this age, you no longer need a light to keep them warm although it can't hurt if the nights are too cold. You can usually tell what gender they are by the time they hit 11 weeks.  You look at their cones.  Roosters have larger cones that get red at about this time where as a pullets will not turn red until she's ready to lay.  You look at their tail feathers.  One gender has rounder feathers but at the moment I can't remember which.  You also want to look at the feathers on the back of their necks.  Roosters or cockerels, will have longer feathers that appear somewhat pointy.  Pullets do not have this.  In the picture of them at 11 weeks old, the one in the front is a cockerel.  Notice the larger cone that's already turning red and notice the weird tail feathers.  It takes some practice but eventually you will figure it out.  Sometimes I want to see a pullet but I know deep down it's a cockerel.  I just have to remind myself to look at these traits and when in doubt google it.  The Backyard Chickens forum has pretty much every answer to every question you have about chickens.

hatching out

Two or Three days old

Mr. Blue and my two buff hens

11 weeks old

RIP Mr. Buffy

Our Rodeo Trip

Watching the Bronc Riding

My baby boy has loved horses and all things cowboy since he was born. I swear he was born to be a cowboy. He has always loved westerns and would not sleep for a long time without watching The Cowboys with John Wayne, literally every night. Recently we got the chance to take him to his first rodeo. Now don't get me wrong, he's been to a horse show but this was his first rodeo. He wore his cowboy hat the entire night and he paid attention particularly to the bronc riding. That was his favorite as I've never seen him with a more intense look on his face. He was into it, sitting up in his seat, eyes focused on the cowboys trying with all their might to make the 8 second ride on whatever bronc they drew for the night. He was so handsome in his cowboy getup too. I can't help but hope that I've got myself a future cowboy.

Isn't he handsome?