Let's Go to the Movies!

I decided that the Pure Water Hollow crew needed a little break from all the mowing, gardening, fencing and farm chores, so last night we enjoyed a rare "night on the town"!  We ventured over to a town we seldom visit in a neighboring county.  We ate at a quaint diner/dairy bar and then found the movie theater located in the community center.

This is the Roy F. Collier Community Center in Inez which houses, among many other things, a movie theater!  It is a nicer and cleaner movie theater than the one in Paintsville.  The place we ate was across the street, so even though it took too long for them to bring our food out we were just minutes away from the movie.

I had originally planned on taking the family all the way over to the Mountain View Drive-In movie theater in Stanton to watch the new movie, "Monsters University", but there was a threat of thunder storms.  I doubt a drive-in movie would be very much fun in the rain!  Two years ago we went to that drive-in and watched the Pixar movie "Cars2".  We took our one-ton with the large 12 foot flat bed so there was room for the whole family.  We set up our chairs and cushions on the truck, ate pizza, and enjoyed the movie.  That was a lot of fun, and I was hoping to do it again this summer.  But, the possibility of rain took my thoughts in a different direction.

Thinking about "Monsters University", I realized that it was being shown in both the 2D or 3D formats.  This may sound odd to those of you who go to the movies all the time, but my family had never seen a movie in the now popular 3D format.  Instead of going to the drive-in, this would be our first movie experience in 3D!

Actually, Christina and Simon had seen Toy Story 3 in 3D when they stayed with Grandma up in Cincinnati during the summer of 2010, but Monsters University would be the first 3D movie that we would see together as a family.

I was pleased with the 3D and everyone had a great time!  I still have many of my old viewmaster reels that we get out and look at every now and then and this movie made me feel like I was watching a viewmaster reel with movement!  How fun! 

Actually I was surprised how quickly I got used to the 3D effects.  I realized this when I noticed that I was no longer being amazed, even though the picture was still in very life-like 3D.  If the 3D trend fizzles out, this would probably be the reason, coupled with the higher cost.  (I can't believe I actually paid $9 for each ticket.  $54 for my family just to see a movie, not counting any refreshments, is rather steep!  But my wonderful family deserves a treat every once in a while, and I thank God for blessing me with the means to make it possible!)

I wanted to get a picture of us in the movie theater with our glasses on. Christina really enjoyed the movie, even though she did not think it was "cool" to have her picture taken in the theater with the glasses on!  I'm glad she still puts up with me! 

The 3D glasses sure have come a long way since I was a teenager!  For the one or two movies in 3D that I saw in the 80s we had white cardboard glasses with one red lens and the other blue, if I remember correctly.  Talk about a "not cool" fashion statement!

In the same building as the movie theater, there was a McDonald's play place, which was pretty neat.  No restaurant, just the play area!  After the movie, Timothy had to try it out some.

  That's Timothy up there in the tube and also flying an airplane.

This is a picture of the seating area next to the play place.  Lisa and Simon are looking up at Timothy.

And here is Timothy at the bottom of one of the tube slides.  He had a great time playing here and I think he may have enjoyed this more than seeing the movie!  (Wouldn't you know he would have more fun with something free than something that cost money?)


But enough of play time!  Let's get back to some more work around the homestead!

Homestead Happenings: Random Pics From First Half of May

Things have been rather busy around here, lately, and I've not had time to record much of it.  I did take the camera out a few times and got some pictures, however.

The meat rabbits are still doing well. 

Simon and Timothy enjoy taking care of them!

Our Angora rabbits are also doing fine.  Christina tends to them everyday.

Matthew, Christina, and Simon went on a fishing expedition down the river the day before Mother's Day.  Lisa was hoping for some catfish for her Mother's Day dinner.  They had a nice time on the river, and saw several geese and a couple of mama ducks with their ducklings, but the fish weren't biting.  Maybe next time.

Chief is rather old, for a Great Pyreneese, but he is still with us.  I think he has the sweetest face!

Christina did not want to wear the helmet, but since they were going to be on the road, we insisted.

Augusta (long u in the middle) is a good dog and loves her family.  Wherever we go, she is sure to follow!  Luna is still with us, also, but she didn't make it in a picture this time.

Timothy, 'Gusta, and Sandy looking around up the mountain.

Tigger is one cool cat!

I didn't take pictures of the other cats, but they are all cool cats as well. 

Since I'm thinking about it, I'll report that Fritsie has had her kittens!  The children found them in a box in the wood shed.  I think there are 6 of them, but Fritsie hasn't brought them out to play yet.  When they start appearing in the open and playing, I hope to take several pictures of them.  It's been many years since we've had the kitten experience!

The chickens enjoy their free-range time! I like to let them out early in the afternoon, as long as they don't go to the highway in front of the house.  When they get into that bad habit, they find themselves staying in their lot much later into the day!

One of the White Rock hens is setting right now.  If all goes well, we should have baby chicks around the first of June.  But I'll not count my chickens before they hatch!

We still have 2 hogs at the moment.  We will be butchering them if we don't see piglets pretty soon.

So, I've reported about our dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, and pigs, but I've not said anything about the cattle or bees. 

Well, one of the hives swarmed earlier this month before we could divide it.  We lost them because they swarmed to the highest point in a tree in an impossible location for us to capture.  We need to try to divide the other hives before they swarm, too.

I haven'tt gotten a picture of the cows in their lots for a while.  Right now we have Violet, Dandelion, and Rosebud  here, close to our house.  They have both barns and the hill lot that we originally fenced off for goats.  It's not a very good pasture, but at least they have room to move around and they like to eat some of the leaves and branches from various trees and they find some grass and weeds that they eat. 

We plan to start trying to milk Dandelion soon, but are concerned about her cooperating with us.  Rosebud was her first calf so she has never been milked.  Violet should calve sometime in June, we think.  She is starting to show some signs already.  But after our experience with Dandelion, we're not going to expect any calf too soon!

Meanwhile, Gracie and the two bull calves are at Pure Water Pastures.  There has not been much change over there in a while.  I plan on doing some more fencing work over there.  I already have all the materials laid out there for a second lot, but I need to find the time to invest the sweat equity required.

So, that's a bit of what has been happening around our homestead.  We've also spent several evenings getting our garden out.  I hope the garden will do well, even though we've had some cold temperatures in May.  Last week we even had a few nights in the 30s!  But I'll save the garden news for a future post, because we still have some room out there to plant.

Thank you, Lord, for your many blessings!

Rosebud Says, "Hello, I'm Ready to Grow!"

Rosebud was 8 days old today, so she has passed that first week danger period!  The vet said that if she did not get enough colostrum her first 12 hours of life then she would likely die during the first week.  We were concerned since she could not get her mouth on Dandelion's teats those first couple of days,  but it appears that we did ok with the bottle!  She was full of bounce and energy today and was excited to get out into the pasture.

Timothy thinks it is really neat to have a "baby cow" around. 

 

These pictures were taken when Rosebud was 4 days old and still in the barn full time.  I think Timothy and Rosebud are adorable together!  That last picture shows that Dandelion was close by and keeping an eye on everything.  I'm glad she is being a good mama!

Since we were concerned about Rosebud nursing, I thought these pictures were really nice.

To celebrate Rosebud passing the one week test, we decided to introduce her to the rest of the current herd of animals sharing the pasture.  Violet and her calves seemed curious about the new calf.

Those calves sure have grown since we got them in September!

Here are some pictures from the pasture this afternoon:

Here are a few pictures that I liked of Christina and Timothy outside the fence on our gravel road:

Simon helped with the chores of feeding and watering, but then he went to explore one of his favorite places: the dump.  Near the pasture (in a secret location) we have a treasure trove of discarded junk from previous owners over the past decades.  Simon was having such fun, after awhile Christina and Timothy joined him.

One of these days we plan on cleaning the junk out and selling most of it for scrap metal.  But for now it is just a place to explore and find all sorts of neat stuff!  (I wasn't going to take pictures of such an eyesore, but I decided that we may appreciate having this record some day.)

It was getting late.  Time to leave the pasture and ride off into the sunset.

We give God thanks for sunny days, loving family, green pastures, newborn calves, and even old junk!