farm archives: the mama mouse & me

Saturday, February 04, 2012

i feel like i need to start documenting past and present stories of happenings on the farm. i've had some adventures that could make your skin crawl...and still makes my skin crawl.

i think  my dear, sweet cathie said it best: "how are you going to survive out there?"

but i'm doing it! my farmer, my single-wide, my mama mouse, and me = harmony.

long long ago (probably about 3 1/2 years ago if we're getting specific) my farmer had been farming for a few months and i had just returned from my idaho hiatus (i'll tell that story later...it's not chronological). i was thrilled to make the one hour trip from the big city to the farm to spend the weekend with my farmer. upon arrival i thought it would be fun to go for a run together. i was way into running at this point and obsessed with the south beach diet. a real treat to be around, i was. but hey, i had finally lost my college weight.

sorry about the tangents - i'll try to stay on track.

so my farmer and i brought my bags into the single-wide and we changed into our running clothes. we were probably gone for about 45 minutes. during that 45 minutes i had thrown some sort of fit about how i hated running on gravel or i needed farmer to stop trying to make me chat while working out. all my breath was needed for my effort. he's a very patient man. an angel, really.

once back into the single-wide i approached my suitcase. i started pulling out my farm clothes for the day. a pair of jeans, t-shirt...hold that thought! out of my suitcase leaps a large mouse and starts rip-roaring around the bedroom, back over the suitcase and into the bathroom. i immediately leaped on the bed shaking in fear...or disgust...or whatever. THERE WAS A MOUSE IN MY SUITCASE!!

my farmer, being the man of a man that he is, tracked the mouse to the vanity and concluded that mama mouse had escaped through a little hole under the trailer. he immediately filled that hole with some magic foam and i haven't seen a mouse since.

oh, did you think that was the end of the story? it's not.

so farmer had the foam and i was still on the bed. my farmer approached me slowly saying how sorry he was and  realized there was a solid chance i may never visit the farm again. (what was he thinking? i was in it to win it.) when all of a sudden we heard this little "eep eep" noise.

"eep eep."

"eep eep."

my farmer approached my farm nikes (work shoes) and inside, mama mouse had birthed her babies inside my shoe! IN. MY. SHOE!! if memory serves, i believe there were about five babies. with the grace of a ballerina, my farmer scooped my shoe up and whisked it away. i didn't ask any questions, but those baby mice were gone.

my farmer returned and i was still poised on the bed in a karate stance. farmer leaned down toward my farm pants laying on the duvet to check the rest of my clothing out.

"eep eep."

he unfolded the farm pants and there in the creases...ANOTHER BABY MOUSE! sweet mother, i practically fainted at that point.

to summarize - that mama mouse had made a brilliant nest in my suitcase out of my clothing. the clothing she ruined includes:

-two banana republic shirts
-one j. crew sweatshirt
-one pair of pants
-some work shirts

she had an incredibly productive 45 minutes.

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the snow arrived so we left

Thursday, February 02, 2012

happy day, ya'll. do you ever have those moments when you return from a vay-cay and you need a vay-cay because your vay-cay tired you out so much from all the vay-caying? yeah, me neither. in all honesty...we had such an awesome vay-cay. okay, i'll stop calling it that.

farmer and i left the farm as soon as the snow arrived. that sucked. we flew to denver ($100 flights!!) to hang with some of our most favorite people: sissa kell bell, robbie and katie, joey...and joey's daaaaahling girlfriend maria.

side note: whenever i would say maria...i wouldn't stop there. i had to sing maria maria...she reminds me of a west side story...featuring santana. remember that one? look it up. moving on.

we were go go going the entire time. and by go go going i mean eat eat eating. have you ever experienced the "pants fresh out of the dryer, pull them up by the belt loops, attempt to button, suck in, try to button again, success, look in mirror and discover a vicious muffin top that wasn't there four days ago?" that happened.

allow me to summarize our trip through a photo dump:

1. we visited the denver museum of nature and history. it was pretty interesting...especially when you're married to a dinosaur enthusiast. there was also a pretty interesting health exhibit that showed you what you would look like when you're 75 and obese. let me just say, my farmer is one lucky man. i looked disgusting. what's worse than disgusting? horrific. it was a nightmare. so here is a picture of me not obese outside of the museum...scowling.

and my adorable dino-farmer. the dinosaurs seriously looked more realistic in person.

2. next we went to ski movie preview in just about the sketchiest part of denver. i believe it was called the "don't make eye contact or you'll be stabbed" district. but once we stepped foot inside the venue it was fantastic. they gave us free, delicious powderhound, a bunch of shwag, and a live band started playing. oodles of fun. unfortunately the band played a little too long and the movie started a little too late. my farmer fell asleep in his seat.

naturally there are no pictures of the ski movie, since it was a movie and all. you understand.

3. on friday we went to something called BEERFEST. it. was. FUN. it was located in what is affectionaly referred to as the rape district. but once again, once we were inside everything was a-okay. i'm an IPA kinda gal. me likey the hops. so i usually stick with that. but at beerfest you arrive and they give you a mini glass (that you get to keep) and you go around to all these brewers stations and they let you taste anything and everything. now let's say you don't like a particular beer. you just dump it right into a little pail and move on to the next sample. they had good food, good music, good beer and it was in this fantastic old warehouse. the real kicker? you would think that with all the beer tastes i might have a bit of a headache the next day. i'm extremely proud to say that we really were on our very best behavior. nice work team.

just look! farmer smiled and didn't make a dumb face!

farmer and his creepy face, sissa kelli, joey aka zoolander aka creep

they were giving out blow up footballs. i threw this to my farmer and he destroyed it. ripped it in half. what a bully. so i wanted to squish his face with my claws...just like he did to my football.

we also enjoyed beerfest with the lov-er-ly maria. (maria maria...she reminds me of a west side story...) the creepy faces must be a UofI thing. please continue to ruin every photo-op boys.

4. the next morning we left denver to do some SKIING!!! remember, this is why we left idaho, but four days before we left, idaho got dumped on and denver was in a snow drought. not a single flake fell folks. super disappointing. oh well, we drove to breckinridge and hit the slopes.

we had some time to kill before i was able to get the super-duper discounted lift ticket ($60 still!) so we snapped some shots. did you know it's EXTREMELY difficult to jump in ski boots?

and if i jump, she jumps...it's a sister thing...

next, we hit the slopes...

oh, no pictures of us skiing? yeah, as it turns out, when you're on a double black diamond bargaining with god that if you can just make it down this one run with all your bones where they should be, you don't exactly have a lot of time to snap that must have action shot. but if i did have time, this would have been how it played out:

"wait, oh, stop skiing right there! okay, let me ski down. okay! start skiing. damn...it's blurry. my hands are cold."

yeah, unless you know what you're doing or the person you're shooting knows a super-sweet trick like a spread eagle, ski pictures are lame.

5. we did some walkin' and a lot of eating. as earlier mentioned, robbie and katie (both originally from idaho) now live in denver. they were in breckenridge too! here are some shots before and after dinner. breckenridge is daaaahling.

6. the FINAL activity of our week in denver was red rocks. and red rocks is magnificent. red rocks is a tourist attraction in a town just outside of denver. they have an AMAZING amphitheatre where some super big names have played. performances such as the grateful dead, jimi hendrix and sonny & cher. loco. my farmer and i have big plans to hit a concert this spring/summer.

i snagged this photo right off the wikipedia site.

i took this one with my phone.

that's it. that's the end of our denver trip. bored yet? i am.

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the gift that keeps on giving

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

after my little blast from the past post yesterday i received a facebook message. the message was from my childhood best friend's husband. he had a special little treat in that message and now i'm sharing. please enjoy.

*please note the "cool butterfly."
*please note the thumb in my face.
*please note how AMAZING my childhood best friend's buttery fly was.

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