Opie at a month!

Opie is 4 weeks old! He has changed a lot since I've had him. I've just started noticing that he is growing. He just looks taller. He has a lot more personality as well! He pops right up out of his straw bed when I go over to feed him in the mornings. He won't even drink from the bottle anymore, his head goes straight down into that bucket. He is so funny... When I put the bucket down before I pour the milk in he will put his head down in there and 'bump' the bucket and then get down on his knees as if he's trying to get down farther just incase he can't reach it! One time I turned around and he had the bucket on his head walking around. He always makes me laugh!

After he drinks his milk, I halter him and take him out to the pasture. He is staying by himself for now because he would chew off the bottom of Flints tail if I put them together... and I'm quite sure he would try to nurse on Flint! I'm going to let him get past his baby stages before I put them together, but they get to see each other everyday, hopefully they'll get along.

He stays outside all day with his hay and grain. He eats more and more everyday which is really good. I'll still keep him on milk replacer until he's well over 2 months.

Opie, poor thing, will lose his manhood sometime this week. I guess that's what comes with being a male animal! I'm sure he won't notice :)

Another Contest

There is a new Pioneer Woman Photography Contest. I wasted some paint this morning and took some photos for it (after my work was done of course). Well, it's not completely wasted. We are letting all used paint dry in their little palettes and then we will crush them up and let kids throw the paint crumbs on stuff to make a cool effect.

Anyways... here are some photos and I would love some input! I have a 2 more days in which I can put up one photo each day.

I have my favorite in my head, now let's see if it is the same as everyone elses! :)

Gracias!

The theme for the contest is Green.

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Photo Shoot Times Two

Last week I had the chance to photograph Bridget hoping to get her a small career in modeling. I took her to some old barns and a garden that is across the street from my house and took about 600 pictures. We also ended up going to my barn to use my dad's tractor. It was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed getting to do that. Maybe they'll like my pictures!

Today I was in a photoshoot for Country Living magazine. It was a lot of fun as well! I was a 'cousin' of Virginia Willis. She is a chef in Atl that travels all over the country... and other countries cooking. The story will come out in April 2011. That's so long away... Though I would remind myself so I could look back at this and remember! You may see me sitting on our neighbors, Mr. Gene and Mrs. Kathys, front porch in a rocking chair. I was also in the dinner shot- all of us sitting at the dining room table 'eating'. I only ate some biscuits, pickles, and cheese straws because most of the food was cold by the time we got around to doing that shot.

Anyways, my point.... the photographers for the Country Living spread looked at all my pictures I took! They said they were really good and that I should think about doing photography on the side. That made me really happy! Makes me feel good to know that professionals liked my photos! They had a really really fancy shmancy camera... the pictures showed up on the computer as they took them... ahhh. Must be nice!

Here are a few of my favorites! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I wish I was in Auburn

I heard about a website that has popped up in the last couple of weeks and 2 guys from auburn (who live in my old apartment complex- creekside! I noticed the cabinets and doors in the videos) put the website together. It's called  ahugfromtaylorswift.com.  They are on a mission to... get a hug from Taylor Swift. 


Taylor Swift heard about this website and did a video about it that is on the front page of her website... taylorswift.com


She issued them a 'challenge' which will lead to multiple challenges getting harder as they go! Challenge #1 was 'Help a little old lady cross the street'. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxBSpHji2oo


They made a response video and are currently waiting for their 2nd challenge. 


Their response video gave me chills! Just watch it and look how many people come into play! It's so awesome to me! 

http://www.youtube.com/user/FourMinuteProduction#p/a/u/0/tcIr6y1VduU

Taylor Swift will be going to Auburn soon because of this and I want to go when she does!

New Ride

Now that my liberty is being fixed I was provided a rental car. When I think rental car I use to think.. yuck rental car. But, I just may not give this car back... I really like it! I want to stop by the car fixing place and say hey! take your time! I don't need it back for a month or more! I think this may be my next car in the far away future when I buy my own car. Or possibly the new model of it which hasn't even been made yet! Anyways it's a JEEP of course!

ah. i love it.

It isn't 'fully loaded' just a plain ol' car. It does have satellite radio though! but it's nice nonetheless! I look forward to driving to work every morning :)

Opie

3 Weeks old today!

Visiting Flint

Playing

Cutie Pie giving him kisses!

He loves his mommy!

Still no name...

I can't think of a good one that I absolutely love! I even went to bible characters to see if I might could find one that I liked. I like Moses (always have) and Eli and Malachi. I still just don't love one. Maybe Moses.. I do like that name a lot. Malachi is different, but I don't see me calling him Malachi.

I was rubbing on his soft little head day before yesterday and the heart turned into a badge shape, so I thought about calling him Sheriff. I would call him Deputy, but I named one of my foals that and then sold him. I don't like to use a name twice! I heard about this one couple that had some kind of little foo foo dog.. After their current dog died, they would get a new one and name it the same name! That's just dumb. I think you should have fun with pet names! I love naming animals, but I just can't come up with the perfect name for this little guy! At one point Josh said the name Cruise/Cruz. Mom said Patch. Mrs. Beth said Amore (love). Dad said Barney (which surprisingly is growing on me!). I just think of that purple Barney thing.

Anyways! We had quite a busy day yesterday. I found my tiny little foal halter and put it on him and gave him his first leading lesson! Josh brought me a cow halter and lead later that afternoon and it looks (and fits!) much better!

He did very well! He finally figured out when I pull, if he walks forward, I let go! I led him up to the pasture to see his future pasture buddy! They are going to be best friends!

Flint liked him. I think he liked Flint too! This is acutally the second time they have met. I was riding Flint the other day and they met over the stall door. He was kind of scared of him then, but he'll get use to the big horse!

Also, continuing the busy day... I taught him how to drink out of a bucket! yay!

(sorry for the horrible photo. It was taken with my cell phone. I was so excited that he was drinking out of the bucket that I couldn't wait to take a picture. I'll retake it with my nikon later!)

So, why is this important? Why can't I just feed him out of a bottle? Well, when a calf drinks out of a bottle they drink it so fast that is gets into their lungs sometimes. This is called aspiration! Otherwise known as pneumonia. yuck. Who wants pneumonia? not my baby cow! We are tyring to learn how to drink out of a bucket as quickly as possible. It's so funny because he'll drink out of the bucket for about 20 seconds and then look up. It looks like he would say "hey, where'd that nipple go?!" Well... nipple being my fingers! haha! So then I have to remind him again. Hopefully he'll be able to drink up a whole bucket pretty soon without having to be reminded where to keep his mouth!

We'll see how he does on his leading lesson today! It's raining... so we may not get far!

He's finally here!!!

My new pet!!

Isn't he gorgeous! Look at his precious little horns growing out of his head. The guy said they would be big in a few months... 

Ok.. I'm just kidding!!! I didn't get a moose. Well, elk. Whichever you would like to call him! I think he's an elk. Anyway, he lives down the street from my house with 2 or 3 more elk, but this guy is always standing out in the field when I'm on my way home from work. Josh and I went to feed the chickens at work (yes, we have chickens at work!) about the same time I'm usually leaving and he was there! I had my camera in my car (my brothers car) and I had to stop! He was so close that I just couldn't pass it up. He was farther away at first than he is in this picture, but he decided he didn't want me standing there and charged at me! well my flash went off and he halted then I took this picture! Here he is charging at me....

He's happy looking isn't he! haha

Ok now for the real new pet! Drumroll please!

TaDa!

This is my brand new 2 week old Holstein bull calf :)

He doesn't have a name right now.. just 'baby boy'

I'm in the process of trying to pick out a good name. I don't really want a 'pet' name... I want a random word or a clever one. He has kicked me twice and I know that I'll have at least one bruise because it's already showing up! So, Josh and I started calling him Kix/Kiks while I was giving him his first bottle, but I don't know if that will be THE name. Notice the perfect heart on his head... I might try to use that. That would be so much easier if he was a she!

We'll see!

In his new home until he joins his buddy Flint!

He was originally going to be $30, but the guy gave him to me. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. 1- something might be wrong with him?! 2- he was limping on his front left leg.. so maybe the guy felt bad? 3- Josh says the Dairy market may be down and he wouldn't have been able to get rid of it anyways. And.. it was the only bull calf he had so why waste the gas to haul one calf when you would only get $15 dollars?! 

I'll just keep a close eye on him. He drank half a bottle today which is good. The guy said he got out of his pen and found his momma this morning before I got there so he probably got a nice big meal then! He said that I probably wouldn't get him to take a bottle for a day or so... he drank a pint and a half 20 min after I got him off the trailer! (Thanks to Joshua for trailering him to my house! and taking some pictures!)

I will update on him as he grows! :)

Gertrude in the Hospital.

Who would have thought that my poor little liberty would go to the doctor today. It sat in one place for a week while I was gone to North GA and the day I decide to drive it she gets messed up!

I woke up like any other day. My kitty was wanting to cuddle and Lola wanted to go outside. I took care of those two and got ready to go to work! I headed out a few minutes early to be there before 10 because mom had a biscuit class she was teaching at 10 (and she had forgotten some stuff). Well I get into Fort Valley headed towards town. I was less than 200 feet from my destination... a red ford thunderbird pulled out in front of me and BAM. An hour later, a big dent in their car, a dent in another car and my cars left front end ripped off... my car was off to the doctor.

I think that the very nice couple was too busy looking at the 'Official Vendor' for the Peaches to Beaches thing they do. I really don't think they had to put an "Official Vendor' on the corner of an intersection... anyways, they didn't stop or didn't see me coming and pulled out. Luckily I didn't get hurt. They were ok too, thank goodness. They were very apologetic to both me and mom (who ran over from the Peach Palette). They weren't denying it being their fault at all and they were worried about me. They were really nice and made sure the officer had the story straight that it was their fault and they pulled out.. yada yada.

My car wasn't THAT bad. Theirs was worse I thought. Mrs. Wendy said because its a JEEP! :) I do love my Jeep!

you can't really see it that good... but it was a nice dent. notice the donut. I guess their tire busted cause it sure was pretty flat! I want to be sorry... but they should have paid a little bit more attention.

See you in a few weeks, Gertrude. I hope. 

New Photography Assignment!

Kitties!!!

Oh I have plenty of those!

My current kitty... Coal and I will have a photo shoot this weekend sometime before I go out of town. I also have plenty of pictures of Rascal, Oscar, and little Coal I am going to use! yay!

Coal

Rascal

We'll see how they do!

Doing a little research!

For the past two days now I have been researching a new project. I went with Josh to a special place in a tiny little town, loaded with hillbilly's (I think that Josh and I were the only people with a full set of teeth!) and I saw a new project that I want! Josh said he'd take me back to get it if Daddy Tim said it was ok.

Well, when I got home that night Daddy Tim was already in the bed so I didn't bother! Mama Jan knows about it and she needs to keep it a surprise! (ok?!) The next afternoon when I got home from work I mentioned it to Daddy Tim and he said "I don't care, as long as it doesn't cost me anything!"  Really?!... I was super surprised. He doesn't allow me to get fun projects like this very often! I'm lucky I get to have my 5 horses! But, they are here to stay. 

Anyways, I am going back to hicktown to pick it up a week from tuesday! March 16th. I can't wait! :)

But I guess I'll just have to wait! So to pass the time, I'm going to north GA for the week to spend some time with my wonderful friend Bridget! I'm really excited about this too! We're going to ride horses in the mountains (yay!), go to Helen (where I plan on buying some yummy fudge!), and maybe going to Dahlonega to pan for gold! It's going to be a fun week and I'm quite sure there will be a lot of pictures and posts to come about that and my new project! 

Oh, 

My project just happens to be an animal by the way! :)

and at that I'm going to leave you hanging!

A Birthday Party

Yesterday was my cousin's 11th birthday! I don't have any pictures of the actual party... but I have pictures of her riding my Flint. Thought I'd share! They are precious pictures.

This is my personal favorite!

Dad... being dad! Asking her for her driver's license and registration!

She had a lot of fun! Even though Flint wanted to follow me around... she learned how to show him who was boss and make him take her on a ride!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!