I've Gone Country A blog about a city girl learning a whole new world

I was going through some old pictures I had taken.  Some of these pictures are several years old, but they are cute.

Hey everyone!

This blog sure is going great isn’t it! Who knew what a photographer my mom was. I’m impressed!

I’m here for less fun matters though I’m afraid.

There is a bill in congress called SOPA which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act.

That all sounds well and good but it’s not honest.  What the bill really does is it gives the US Government a blank check to close any site at any time.

The same type policy that created “the great firewall of China”. It introduces a censored internet for America.

SOPA is an all encompassing entity to the point that it includes almost any site where people can post their own things.

That means from Facebook, to Twitter, to even a humble blog like my mothers.

This means that the government can and will enforce the law very selectively, which is the entire danger of the bill: it’s a blank check.

They can remove wikileaks because some article they link to has “copyrighted material”, or take down the site of a political watchdog group because “one of their videos has copyright music playing in the background”.

The lack of due process also allows the possibility that if a site hosts something the government doesn’t agree with, they can just block it from anyone in America seeing it.

This is a very serious and dangerous bill.  If this passes we are handing over our individual freedoms even more.

Guys, this should scare you. It’s a scary thing. Government censorship on a massive scale in AMERICA.  This on the heels of the indefinite detention act, we will soon have less freedoms than the average Chinese citizen.

Call or write your congressman, tell your friends, do something, but the time is now to take a stand.

-Garrett

In a past post I spoke about our how we  combine our cows every now and then with our neighbors cows.  Well, it is our neighbor who bought the… BULL… and they have shared him with us.

I like to name every critter that comes along our path so I started calling him Ferdinand.  He seems very gentle…yet I know…that you still have to be extremely cautious with any animal, especially a bull.

I give him his space, but I have been able to enjoy catching a few good pictures of him.  I watched a clip of an old Ferdinand the bull cartoon made by Disney on you tube.  It was cute.  And yes, I think that our Ferdinand is similar….although he doesn’t go so far as smell the flowers.  He is very  “Masculine”  and he loves his wives.

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever!  Now I think he truly looks like he should be called Ferdinand.

This is a precious picture.  The cow he is flirting with is Clementine.  Clementine had it rough before we got her.  We purchased her from my brother, but there was a time she was with another family and she experienced some trauma.  When my brother got her back she was very withdrawn.  They loved her and she got better.  When we brought her to our pasture she was expecting and before long she gave us our first calf.  Ironically it was born on my brother and sister in laws anniversary.  I thought that was cool.  She settled into our pasture very nicely, it was as if she got a new chance at life.  She actually acts as if she owns the place.  Well, that is until Ferdinand comes along.  Then she acts all shy and sheepish.

This picture was taken only a few minutes after we combined our cows after they had been separated for a few months.  She was VERY glad to see him.  He was Very glad to see her too.  I sat and watched how they re-aquainted themselves with one another.  It was down right cute.

Look how sweet.  This is one of our neighbors cows.  She was blessed with twins over the summer.  This is not the clearest picture, but one of the few that I was able to get of all three of them.  Ferdinand ended up giving us two sets of twins this summer.  We actually had twins when Chuck was born.  However, our twin didn’t survive.    Both sets were boys.   All of them have good dispositions, which I am so thankful for.  One of our friends said he has been around cows his whole life and has never had a set of twins.

All our girls hopefully will deliver this spring or early summer.  I cannot wait!

Meanwhile we are enjoying the ones we have, including sweet Ferdinand.

I have tried to get into the habit of taking my camera most everywhere I go.  In doing that, I have been able to snap a few shots that I think are neat.

Like this old barn.  I have passed it many times.  In the summer it is covered up with fresh green growth and is hard to see.   You can really see the structure now.  I think it has so much character.

I passed by these beautiful horses when I took a shortcut on a road that I wasn’t familiar with….ended up not being a shortcut….but the view was worth it!

I don’t know what it is about old barns and buildings.  I just always think….if these walls could talk, what neat stories they could tell.

When I saw this church, it was the week before Christmas.  I remember thinking how special it was this year to have Christmas fall on Sunday!  It just seemed to add that extra special touch to be able to celebrate Jesus’ birthday on a Sunday.  A day we already set aside to honor and praise Him.

On January the 11th of 2005 my mother passed away.  It seemed every holiday after that was so hard to go through without her.  However, I remember that first Christmas, we were trying to make a new normal.  I remember waking up that morning with such a flood of emotions.  All of a sudden my Spirit was lifted as I thought about her getting to celebrate her first Christmas in heaven.  I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of special celebration the angels would hold for Christmas Morning in Heaven.

What kind of beautiful music the angels would be singing.  Better than any Christmas music we have ever heard on earth.  The beauty of heaven…. sparkling in the Light of Christ.  More beautiful than any Christmas light display we could ever envision.

I love to hear the song “I can only imagine” by Mercy Me….. It really says it all……I can only imagine….what it will be like.

Luke 2:13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel,praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”  And that was just a glimpse of the angels celebrating when they came to tell the shepherds!

Yes….it must be a wonderful celebration indeed!

So when I saw this precious country church with its beautiful stained glass windows and….

its beautiful steeple….it just touched my heart.

The weather is… well…winter weather.  It seems like all the Tractors are in hibernation.  They are waiting for spring, probably as eagerly as we are!

When I looked around, I noticed that tractors come in different colors.  I suppose I never really thought about it.  I began to take pics whenever I would see one.  I have only just begun.  There are soooo many shapes, sizes and colors!  Here are just a few.

Now…that is a purty tractor!

This is a favorite cookie around our house.  They are simple to make and taste better than they look.  I am going to call them cowgirl cookies because, let’s just say the name our kids named them is not very appealing.  You may call them whatever you like!

The Recipe:

2 Cups Sugar

2 Tablespoons Cocoa

1/2 Cup Milk

1/2 Cup Butter or Margarine

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter

2 Cups Uncooked rolled Oats

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

(Go ahead and place two sheets of wax paper or foil about the size of two cookies sheet pans on the counter before you start cooking.  I usually have everything pre measured and ready to go when I make these.  It makes it a lot easier and I think they set up better if you make sure you really boil it for a full two minutes and quickly add rest of ingredients when you take it off the heat.  I drop them by the spoonful immediately.)

Melt in boiler 1/2 Cup Butter or margarine and add 1/2 Cup Milk.  Stir in 2 Cups sugar and 2 Tablespoons Cocoa.  Stir well, turn heat to low or medium low; cook until it starts to boil.  Stir it constantly as it boils.  BOIL A FULL 2 MINUTES.  REMOVE FROM STOVE.  Now add 1/2 Cup Peanut Butter stirring well and then add 2 Cups rolled Oats.  Stir until really well mixed.  Add 1 Teaspoon Vanilla…stir.

Now…Drop onto wax paper or onto foil.  I drop them by the teaspoon, you can make them as big as you like.

Let them set at room temperature until they are firm.

Ok…so I usually try one…just to make sure they have set up enough to put on a plate!

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

It seems sometimes like the animals talk among themselves.  I guess I have watched too many Disney movies!

I hear that they are back….

Well, it’s about time!

I am going to act as if I didn’t even know they were gone.

Well you can act like that if you want…..but we did miss them.

We all missed them….and that’s the truth!

Happy New Year!