Farm Archives - The Pennington Point

Never Trust a Cow that Jumps a Fence

by Lisa on May 27, 2013

Our weekend was spent visiting with family and trying to stay dry. Basically we got more rain over the past 3 days than we have in the last 2 years. Our farm looked like a flood zone.

One thing I love about life in the country is the constant change. One day you’re a happy farmer with a cow grazing in the field. The next day you’re a crazy woman wading through mud in your good shoes chasing a cow down the street.

We discovered he (yes he, but we still call it a cow) was jumping over the fence. We noticed him out on the street wandering around mooing like he owned the world. Not a care, not a worry. Then we saw him jump back in. Not good.

We have a large pen on the back of our property where we used to keep our billy goat, so we decided to put the cow in there until we figured out what else to do. Have you ever tried to coax a cow into a small opening? Right. It wasn’t going to happen.

Jacob and Noah tried various tricks, in the pouring rain, to get him go in. But every time they would get close to the pen the cow would bolt, leaving my poor, wet boys to figure out another plan.

Since James was gone for the day, I decided to go out and help. At one point we were trying to discreetly tie the cow (Jacob had managed to get a rope on him) to a post he was standing near. Noah and I were hanging onto the rope when he decided to run. It was a split second after Jacob got it tied to the post, so the cow couldn’t go far, but Noah and I found ourselves in a muddy heap. Fortunately we were not hurt, but we both made a firm decision after that not to join the rodeo.

Then I got an idea. We could chain the cow to the tractor. I would lead him with the rope and every time he moved Jacob would move the tractor a little more toward the pen. We kept the chain shorter than my rope so he couldn’t get to me. (To be clear, we weren’t pulling him with the tractor, he was just anchored to that so he couldn’t run off as I pulled him with a rope) It took an hour and a half to move him about 50 yards, but we did it. And he was so hungry by the time we got there that he went fairly willingly into the pen where there was a delicious pile of dry hay waiting for him.

But here was the problem. In order to get him in the pen and get the chain off of him I had to lead him in with the rope. That left me inside the pen with the cow, who was now between me and the gate. Not a good position to be in. He was happily eating while Jacob and I weighed our options. I could try to scale the 5.5′ high fence. Not. We decided to tie him with the rope (which was still around his neck) to a post so he couldn’t get to me as I slipped past him.

Now, picture me in my long skirt trying to go slowly past a hay eating cow. No sudden movements. I almost made it. I was right near him when he gave me a quick BUTT in my behind. He couldn’t do much being tied to the post, but he managed to get my skirt hooked on his small horns and there I stood, with a bull up under my dress.

I moved as quickly as I could, feeling sorry for Jacob’s full view of my panties as I made my quick escape. I was willing to let the skirt rip, but thankfully it slipped off of the horns. I leapt out the gate and I was free.

Lisa – 1

Cow – 0

Jacob – scarred for life

I can now check “getting butted by a bull” off my bucket list.

And being a rodeo clown.

And playing in the mud with my boys.

My hands were the cleanest place on my body.

Life on a farm isn’t easy. But the truth is, while it wasn’t easy, we had a great time and made some funny memories.

Slow Days and Possums

by Lisa on February 7, 2013

We’re heading into a busy weekend with the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. All day for three days. My older kids like to stay late and do every last session. Mamma wants to sleep.

I’ve been getting myself ready by taking longer naps and drinking plenty of water. I tend to get a little dehydrated when I’m running around and not paying attention to my water intake. It’s just one of the many delights that age has added to my life. Wisdom, maturity and bladder issues if I don’t drink at least 4 glasses of water every day.

Speaking of aging, my Poise giveaway is still open so head over and enter to win that $100 VISA gift card! You can bet I will have my Roll On Cooling Gel with me at the festival. My new motto is “don’t leave home without it.”

The past few days have been pretty quiet here. We did school, played outside, cooked…..all at a nice, slow pace. I love being in no big hurry. It makes me want to go rock on the porch with Aunt Bea and my banjo singing old mountain songs. I miss Mayberry.

Where everything is black and white….la da…la da da da da…..

Rascall Flatts. Gotta love ‘em.

Great. Now I’m stuck on the Mayberry song.

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in my recliner minding my own business when I heard a scratching kind of rustling sound coming from the ex-nursery (we are trying to come up with a new name for it). I knew no one was in there but still I called out, “Hello?!” No reply. I heard it again. Scratch-scratch-rub.

So I got up and walked in there and sure enough there was no one, but I could hear the sound. Louder and definitely not small. It was coming from the far corner of the room where there is nothing but a twin bed. It sounded like something was rolling around under the bed, maybe struggling.

In that flash of a second between sanity and insanity I decided…for certain…that there must be a possum under the bed. Why a possum and not a cat (since we have several outdoor cats and I have never even seen a possum here) I don’t know. But I froze. In 2 seconds all of this flashed through my mind, “How do you get a possum out from under a bed?! Will it bite? What’s the procedure for getting myself to the emergency room after it bites me? How long does rabies take to set in? Or should I just back up and close the door and leave it alone?”

You might not want me to be with you when there’s a high pressure situation. I don’t think clearly. I chose to inch my way toward the possum and see what happened. The scratching sound got louder as I got closer. “Hello!” I called. Maybe it was a friendly possum. The sound stopped. Uh-oh. Whatever it was it heard me and now we have reached the point of no return. It’s me or the possum.

After a second the scratching started up again. I was in a hill country horror movie. Kill or be killed.

From 4 feet away I sort of got down on the floor to see if I could figure out what was under the bed without risking my life when all of a sudden a big CRACK sound startled me. The window! It came from the window! Turns out Jacob was trimming limbs on the bush right outside of the ex-nursery and that bush is so overgrown that it was scratching against the window. HUGE RELIEF! I don’t have to wrestle a possum after all! Trip to the emergency room averted.

This is my life. Day after day I face death in some way or another.

It could be why I need so many naps.

The Great Pumphouse Makeover

by Lisa on January 1, 2013

In going back over my old posts, I realized that I never showed you a BIG project we did last summer. How could I have missed it?! I showed you my front porch makeover, the little deck makeover and when we fixed up the back of the house for $25. But this is probably my favorite project of the year.

We have an old, dumpy building in our backyard. We call it the pumphouse. We call it that because it houses our water pump. We are clever that way. It has always been an eyesore in the back. It’s an ugly, drafty, makes-me-crazy building.

It’s so ugly that I never took a picture of it. James and the kids decided to start the project while I was gone, so we didn’t take any great before pictures. This is one from when I was taking pictures of the pool (the red building on the left is the horse stall).

Let’s zoom in, shall we?

Both doors are falling off, the roof is rotting, nothing matches, it looked awful!

We couldn’t afford to tear it down and build a better building. But we needed something to house the pump and all of our animal supplies. So we decided to reface it and replace the rotting wood. After they tore off the front James started rebuilding the wall support. While he built, the kid carried scraps from our wood pile and laid it on the ground in order of size. That way James could easily grab the length he needed.

We used all recycled wood from old projects or scraps that friends had given us.

Noah and I built new doors. The only materials we bought new were screws and the metal for the doors. I wanted to use metal to add another texture. Otherwise it would have looked like a wood wall.

And here is the finished pumphouse.

It looks SO much better! I’d been collecting old, rusty tools for a while just waiting for the day I had a place to hang them. Now they are home on the pumphouse wall.

My goal is to completely cover the wall with old tools. It’ll be fun to be on the lookout for them at flea markets and junkyards.

The whole project cost less than $100. Most of that was for screws. You’ve gotta attach it all together somehow!

I’m completely thrilled with how it turned out. No longer do I walk out the back door and cringe over the ugly building I see. It’s charming, simple and cost hardly anything. If we can’t build a whole new barn….this is the next best thing.

I’m kinda glad I waited 6 months to show you. This way I can tell you that it still looks great and we are enjoying having such a cute little building in the back instead of the ugliness that used to be there.

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An Animal Themed Weekend

by Lisa on November 19, 2012

The theme of my weekend was animals. Well, it starts with animals and ends with animals, with a middle of various other activity.

I’ll just start with the saddest thing that happened a few days ago. One of our miniature horses died. He was acting funny the day before so we planned to call the vet the next morning, but when we went out to feed him he had died. I had to gather the kids up and tell them the sad news….many tears. Then James had to figure out what you do with a dead miniature horse. Our city upbringing didn’t prepare us for this possibility. A goldfish, yes. Horse, no.

He figured it out, but it wasn’t easy. It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear the other horse crying all day. He misses his friend.

On Saturday James and I drove a few hours to the other side of Austin for a meeting he had to attend. I sat in the lobby of a hotel all day while he and a dozen or so other people made important business decisions. You don’t want me in those kinds of meetings. While someone is showing a chart of the income from last year I just look around and think about straightening all of the crooked pictures in the room. My attention span is equal to that of a 2 year old. Except when it comes to the crooked pictures. I can’t stop thinking about the crooked pictures.

After the meeting was over I somehow convinced James to take me to IKEA, which was only half an hour away. I sealed the deal by telling him that we are 4 chairs short for Thanksgiving and I thought we could get the cheapest chairs there. That’s his love language, saving money. If I said anything like, “They have the cutest Swedish Christmas trees made out of cardboard that you assemble yourself,” he would have driven right past IKEA with me hanging out the window crying.

The problem, however, was that his back was hurting. When James’ back hurts he can’t stand still…he has to keep moving. I had to glide around IKEA without stopping. I’d circle tables and Expidit shelving…..pace back and forth past the glassware….all to keep him from noticing we were actually shopping. If I let his back start hurting it would all be over and we’d have to leave. I felt like a shark that can’t stop swimming or it will die.

We did find some $9 folding chairs and a few other little things. I made it all the way through the store before his back started to hurt. Score one for my expertize in constant motion.

Sunday morning while we were having family breakfast the unthinkable happened….we heard a little clicking sound in the kitchen. Click-click—-clickclick. My radar signals immediately started going off. I knew what it was….the thing I hate the most about country life. The thing that sends me into a frenzy of sleepless nights and terror. A mouse. James and the boys investigated and sure enough that’s what it was. Don’t doubt the power of my radar. It never fails.

I rushed to my room to hide while they set traps. I considered dipping into my coveted truffles to help the sounds of the clicking get out of my head. Thankfully, within an hour there were rumors that it had been caught and the hole where it was getting in had been covered. It turns out that mice don’t have little rounded shaped “doors” in the floorboards behind which they build teeny furniture out of your old spools and matchboxes. They are just gross, creepy, nasty little things and we will have no more discussion about it.

I spent the rest of Sunday sleeping. Well, sleeping and/or watching movies and hanging with the kids. I just decided it was time for a day off. It was a much needed rest after the drama of the weekend. That’s just too many dead animals for me.

Let’s have a better theme for next weekend. By the sound of it my next weekend theme will be, “shopping for bargains at 4 in the morning.” My four girls have Black Friday on the brain. That may be just as tiring, but much more pleasant.

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A Time for Mourning and a Time for Dancing

by Lisa on August 20, 2012

I have so much to tell you about our weekend. It started pretty rough. I had a full day of adventures planned for Friday. I was going to take my 3 little boys to the Witte Museum, out to lunch (a rare treat), do some shopping and maybe…if Mommy could stand up long enough, get some frozen yogurt.

We never got yogurt. It was all too much.

We planned to leave the house at 8:30 Friday morning. We prepped the night before. Baths given, clothes laid out, breakfast ready to grab and go. It was all going OK and we were headed out the door when Patience ran to me from the backyard. She and Hope went to feed the dogs and they (brace yourself….this part is upsetting) found that our dog, Andy, had died unexpectedly during the night.

It was awful. The girls were crying and the little boys, oblivious to the whole thing, were excitedly rushing out the door to get into the car. James and Jacob were gone. I was all dressed up for my day in the city and ready to leave. {sigh}

Patience was really upset, poor thing. I had to leave her with Grace while I figured out what to do. I led Hope and Noah out to the backyard. The 3 of us stood on the patio while I told Noah what had happened. I handed him some gloves while I put gloves onto my own hands. We discussed the options. It was decided that we would wrap Andy in a tarp and put him in a place where other animals couldn’t get to him. Then when James and Jacob got home the next day they could help us bury him.

While Hope went for the tarp I talked quietly with Noah. He’s 13 years old. He is bursting into manhood with the speed of a bullet and having some struggles. I sensed this was a time God was giving him to step up and do something hard. I quickly prayed, “God, help me get out of the way for you to do what you want with Noah.”

It was going to have to be Noah doing the heavy lifting. Hope and I would help, but the weight of the job would fall to him.

“Can you do it?” I asked him seriously. He took a deep breath, looked over to where he knew the dog was lying and paused. I silently prayed. After a minute he turned back to me and simply said, “Yes ma’am. I can.”

He’s always had a father or older brother around to carry the burden of these things. It’s never fallen so completely on him before.

And he did it. He never hesitated or winced. It was a terrible job and yet, so good for my boy-turning-into-a-man. He needed to know he can do something really, really hard and unpleasant if he has to. Once, when it got really rough I stepped forward to help, but Noah said, “No Mom, I’ve got it.” I was proud of him.

45 minutes, many tears and a gallon of sweat later, the boys and I were in the car and headed to the museum. The rest of the day was busy and HOT. We played some Tom Chapin in the car and danced while we drove. We were late to the museum event, but still had a great time. After the Witte we went to Freddy’s for lunch….that was really fun. Just me and the 3 boys talking and eating and giggling over silly stuff that boys like. Someone tooted and that sent the whole table into peals of laughter. Boys.

By 4:30 the heat started getting to us and we headed for home. I realized I’d had enough when I noticed I was holding my head in the cooler at Sam’s a little longer than necessary just to get a package of cheese. Sorry boys, no yogurt. Mommy is wiped out. I let them all decide on one special snack-ish thing to get at Sam’s.

That’s the way we do it. Everyone agrees in 2 minutes or Mommy decides. And if Mommy decides there’s no guarantee it won’t be something no one really wants…like apples, or nothing at all. After a little deliberation they chose Cheetos. The backseat of my car is now is orange, but they were happy.

The rest of the weekend was spent working on the girls’ room makeover and cleaning. The room is taking oh-so-much-longer than expected. None of us can figure out why. We’ve been at it full steam ahead for a week. I hope this doesn’t turn into the project that just won’t end.

I am not a patient person and a week on one simple project is my limit. I need the house back; I need the girls to stop sleeping on the couch; I need some frozen yogurt.

Sunday night made up for the rest of the long, hard weekend. We cooked hot dogs on the grill and the whole family went swimming. We do this fairly often and it’s such a delight for James and I to hold hands in one “corner” of the pool watching the kids all play and sing and drag each other around laughing. The pool is full of activity and silliness and I marvel that this is my life.

My favorite part is how the boys and girls naturally separate. At first everyone is kind of playing together and then, about 10 minutes after the rest of us, Jacob comes out. As soon as the other boys see him getting in the pool it’s like a magnet. Within minutes he’s pushing Levi in his little boat around as fast as he can with the 3 other brothers hanging onto his back. Levi is shouting delightedly, “Go faster Jacob!” while the other boys try to take Jacob down. Jacob’s laughing and I just watch; my heart melts. In the middle of the pool, away from the wild and splashing boys the 4 girls hold hands and sing songs, taking turns singing lead, giggling and dancing around.

My family. A blessing I never could have imagined as a girl growing up in the city. It’s a life I couldn’t have dreamed for myself, but God knew it would bless my socks off every day. Every moment, even the hard ones, bring swells of gratitude.

Despite the sadness of the loss of our sweet dog there was a joy to the weekend. A story of a boy growing up, some rare Mommy time for Adam, Elijah & Levi, the girls’ room getting closer to the goal of being finished and the whole family together in the last moments before a busy week.

Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

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Don’t Let the Little Things Get You Down

by Lisa on July 9, 2012

It was a weekend of little things, stresses that weren’t really anything important and me being sleepy.

It started on Friday morning at 6:30. Jacob needed to take his driver’s test so he could (finally!) get his license. See, we have some weird phenomenon going on over here, none of the kids really care about getting their driver’s license. I finally had to put my foot down and insist. So we went up there and dropped Jacob early and he waited in line until they opened their doors at 8:30. Around then I drove back up there to leave him my van to take the test in. Makes sense so far?

At 8:30 I drove back up there, squeezed through the crowded DPS office, found Jacob, handed him my keys and said I’d be waiting for him at the bakery across the street. Then I walked to the bakery and set myself up for a few hours of quietly working on my computer while Jacob waited for his turn to take the test. A few hours later I got a text from him, “I passed!!!” I did a little dance in the bakery then replied with, “Wahoo! Go get your paperwork and drive yourself over here to get me.”

About half an hour later I started to wonder why it was taking so long. Then my phone rang. It was James, “Um, are you OK? Because Jacob just got home. He forgot to bring you home with him!”

He just drove himself home, leaving me at the bakery in town with no car and nowhere to go.

I started laughing SO HARD. I was laughing so much into the phone that James kept asking me if I had lost it completely. “Honey, I can’t tell if you think it’s really funny or if you’ve gone hysterical.”

Maybe a little of both.

After Jacob came back and picked me up I took a nap. I was exhausted from all of the excitement.

On Saturday we worked to fill orders in the shop. We got all caught up and even created some new products. My new scalloped chalkboard labels are already a new favorite of mine.

Then yesterday was the big stresser of the weekend. We woke up to NO WATER coming out of the faucets. For a few weeks our pump (we have our own well) has been acting up and the boys have been jiggling it and messing with it, trying to keep it running. Then yesterday it went out completely. No amount of jiggling or rigging with coat hangers was going to fix it. Yes, we do things the redneck way around here.

James called the pump people and they came out with huge equipment and spent a couple of hours pulling the looooong, 64′ to be exact, pipe out of the ground. Thankfully, it was just some part that had rusted at the bottom and once they replaced that it worked again. Whew! That could have been a major situation.

I’m not sure why, but the pump thing and all of the little disasters that take place around here every day all threw me into feeling unusually upset and irritable. I was feeling pretty grumpy. James had the great idea to make it all better by taking us all out for dinner…a rare treat around here. A little Mexican food can fix any bad mood.

And now that it’s Monday I feel like we have a fresh start. Jacob has his license and I am home from the bakery. Orders are filled, water is running and all is well with the world. My mood is better and I am planning to spend some time with the kids….just being together.

Have a great week!

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It’s Been a DIY Month Around Here!

by Lisa on June 22, 2012

There’s been a veritable DIY craze going on a my house for the past month. Now that it’s too hot to actually work, it gives me a chance to slow down and take a few photos of the projects.

One of my favorites has to be the front porch. Our front porch was looking pretty raggedy. The floor boards at the end were all rotten and had big holes in them. The paint on the floor was rubbed off from being pooped on by chickens then scrubbed. So if you think having chickens is some kind of dream fantasy, remember that they don’t use a toilet and they eat the cat food. Just sayin’.

Anyway, the porch was pitiful so we removed all of the furniture/toys and got the floor all clean. Then we replaced the rotting boards, which was not as hard as I expected and makes me wonder why it took us so long to do it.

I changed the color a little. I’m a change girl. If I’m going to paint something I’m going to change the color. It is my way.

So I went a little more gray. After I painted it the kids kept calling it baby blue which was making me mad because it was supposed to be gray. This would never do.

I thought maybe adding a rug would distract from the slight blue-ish tinge. I had some black paint leftover from the back door makeover, so I painted the shutters on the front porch and some trim on the front door. I love using leftover paint. It makes me feel so thrifty.

Then I used same the paint to make a rug in the center of the opening from the front. I like it….it adds charm. And it was free.

You can see how I did it over at Life Your Way. I’m sharing some of my home/DIY tips over there a couple of times a month.

Speaking of Home/DIY….I have something so exciting to show you. I’ve put all of our top home and DIY projects all into one place. There’s a new button in the “At the Point” sidebar or you can access it right here.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’ll pop over and check out my new Home/DIY gallery.

Great Summer Kid Activities

by Lisa on June 1, 2012

This week I’m mixing it up. I’m showing you some summer ideas for kids plus a couple of greats from my friends Gina and Andrea. Don’t you just love blog friends? They ROCK!

Now that we’ve heated up I need some fun things for the kids to do. They can’t just swim for the next 3 months…or can they?

I am definitely going to try this game from The Taylor House. It’s simple and the kids will LOVE it.

How about water balloon games? Ministry-to-children.com has some great ideas!

Oh we all need a snake….this strawberry shortcake snake from Disney’s Family Fun would be a huge hit around here.

For those long trips in the car, I love this coloring case made out of a DVD box by handmade by stacy vaughn.

For more GREAT summer ideas hop over to The Shabby Creek Cottage and see Gina’s outdoor light fixture she made. I am amazed!

And my sweet friend Andrea at The Cottage Market has 25 outdoor ideas that will knock your socks off.

If you need a Pinterest invite let me know. I’ll be happy to send you one!

The Pennington Work Crew Strikes Again

by Lisa on May 29, 2012

Oh my goodness y’all. That was the most exhausting weekend I have had since I can remember. We all, every single one of us, worked ourselves to near collapse. Well, maybe not the little boys. But even they worked hard. I was real proud.

Friday through Sunday we were outside working by 7:00 AM and we stayed out as long as we could considering the heat was pretty bad. When I tell you it was a sweat shop around here, I mean that literally. Quite a few of us stayed out all day past sunset. There was a lot of work to be done.

James and his crew worked on tearing apart our horrible little pump house in the backyard.

They refaced it and I mean to tell you…I can not WAIT to show you the finished product. They still have to finish the doors, but then I will unveil what may possibly be our best junk/free project yet.

The younger boys worked on tearing out rocks and dirt from a mess of a patio we have on the back of the house. Noah and I repainted the front porch floor.

Gee that sounds so simple. “Repaint the porch floor.” It was a huge job. There were rotten boards to be replaced and old paint to sand off and the whole thing was so filthy that we thought we’d never get it clean. But we did it and it look a-mazing. Again…the after shots will have to wait because I was too tired to unload pictures from my camera. These are all from my phone.

You know me. I couldn’t just paint the floor. I had to add all kinds of details and extras and we’re not quite finished. I’ll show you this week. Let me rest my sore muscles for a minute first.

You can be sure Sonic had a good weekend since we picked up drinks or Blasts every time we made a run to the hardware store. It kept me going.

But it wasn’t all work and no play. Some friends came over at 4:00 last night and we had a blast just sitting around shooting the bull. That’s what we do in Texas. It’s fun!

This morning I’m off to the orthodontist and several other, non sweat related errands. I’m just glad to be standing upright instead of bending over with a paintbrush all day.

But I’ll probably still stop at Sonic. After all of the support they offered me throughout the long, hard weekend it seems I owe them a debt of gratitude.

What did you do last weekend?

The Screen Door Project

by Lisa on May 1, 2012

We are having the BEST weather and I am enjoying it like nobody’s business. The windows are open and the screen doors are letting in the heavenly breezes.

Ever since I moved my shop to the guest house living room I’ve been a little sad because there’s no screen door on the guest house so I couldn’t enjoy the spring like weather while I worked. I thought about just leaving the door open, but the 7 cats and 8 chickens that perpetually wander around in our yard are like magnets to an open door. They think we can’t see them stalking the opening trying to slide in unnoticed. An open door is an invitation for cat hair and chicken poop all over the house. No thanks.

I finally decided that I just couldn’t live a happy life if I couldn’t leave the guest house door open. So I went out to my junk pile and found an old screen door that has been waiting for years to be used for something interesting. I pulled it out from behind some other old, broken down doors and dragged it over to the guest house. If I prop it just right, it keeps the cats and bugs out so I can leave the door open….hallelujah!

There’s just one teensy problem. It is not easy to go in and out since the door has to be propped just right or it falls over. I am constantly carrying armloads of product or packages out the door and now I have to set it all down, move the screen door, push a few cats and a chicken away with my foot, pick up my things, go out, put it all down again, push away another cat or two, prop the screen door back into place, pick up my pile and walk away. As soon as I get out I realize I forgot something and have to do it all again.

Oh my….isn’t it funny how you can walk past something 25 times a day and not realize how bad it looks? These pictures show me that the guest house is in serious need of some TLC. And isn’t the huge power box by the front door a charming welcome to our guests? I promise it looks better on the inside!

I’ll add the guest house work to the ever growing list of things that need to be done around here. Right after hang a screen door.

It may be a while though. You know how those lists go.