The Park Wife Goes to the City

We went to the "city" yesterday. When I say city, it is about40,000 people and about 30 miles away. It has more than just a Wallyworld. Primarily we shop at our nearest town about 10 miles away, but there are just some things that a small town does not have.

So, the Buckaroo's and I got up early and headed out. Our first stop was the Farmer's Market, I purchased some Roma tomatoes (E-Coli freaks me out so I want to know exactly where these came from), some peaches (YUM!) and luckily I scored some strawberry jam from a very nice Mennonite lady.

The Buckaroo's are so excited, can't you tell? Their faces lit up when I told them where we were going next.....

We were looking for some toy spurs for the Buckaroo's. You can't be a cowboy without spurs I hear. You have heard the saying "kids in a candy store", hmphh, "Buckaroo's in a cowboy store" is more our speed and it was like Heaven on earth for them. We spent a long time looking at all the cowboy wares and they are making their birthday lists now.

We then stopped by a book store that has a Thomas the Train set for kids to play with. I got to sit for a minute and look at a book, and when I say minute, I mean we were only there one minute when the Littlest Buckaroo announced in a very loud voice that he had to go potty. After this brief interruption, we headed back to the train area to relax and enjoy for a while.

Big Buckaroo had a Betta fish on his desk at work, I think he is on his last leg, well, fin. So, what did he do? He brought home the ailing fish so that we could live through a fish funeral. It is not enough that we slaughter chickens, pigs, even goats (actually we only slaughter the chickens ourselves, the rest are sent out to be done). Now, we have to flush a fish. Circle of life at its best around this place.

Big Buckaroo decided a goldfish was a better idea. We went to a big pet store and checked out what they had, but decided to stop at a small, family owned pet store and pick up a much more expensive goldfish. I had the best of intentions to help this mom and pop store but the 15 cent fish I could have bought at the mega-pet goodies store was $2.50, I hope mom and pop enjoyed the profits!

I thought about going back to get the cheap one, but I would have spent the difference in gas plus the lady that greeted us when we walked in saw the Buckaroo's packing heat and sneered at us. I really don't think their play guns were going to hurt the fish, plus they have to keep them holstered in public. I respect people who choose to not let their kids wear cowboy boots, hats, gun belts and guns every where they go, all I ask is to not sneer and roll your eyes because my little warriors are being boys. Anyway.......

There were other stops, Walgreen's, a thrift store, and a natural foods store, but I was so tired of getting kids in and out of the car, I stopped taking pictures.

We have decided to cut our trips to town or the big city to only 3 a week max to cut back on fuel cost. I feel this is a great idea and have adhered to it so far, but in a few months when I am going stir crazy, someone come pick me up please! (Hey, I will pay you in squash and cucumbers!)

The Park Wife

Forrest Gump of Squash

Summer squash, particularly the yellow variety, is a very popular vegetable in the South and really popular in my garden. You can grill it, broil it, steam it, stir-fry, deep-fry, boil, bake, or stuff it.

I feel like Bubba in Forrest Gump in the evenings when I list the ways we could have squash to Big Buckaroo.

There's um, fried squash, baked squash, squash casserole, squash puffs, squash pancakes, squash souffle, cream of squash soup, squash patties, squash bisque.....

This is what I picked from my garden today!

I am overrun with squash right now and the cucumbers are coming in full blast. What am I going to do with all these cucumbers?????

Does anyone have a church social that needs a squash casserole that can feed a lot of folks? Or, loves cucumbers? Give me a call or stop by, I am drowning in squash and cucumbers!

Anyway, like I was saying, there's um, fried squash, baked squash, squash casserole, squash puffs, squash pancakes, squash souffle, cream of squash soup, squash patties, squash bisque.... um, that's about it.

Now, as I walk to the garden I am thinking ~
Run Park Wife Run!

Park Fun Day

The Park celebrated the first official weekend of summer with children’s games, surrey rides, town ball, and interactive demonstrations this past Saturday.

We jumped on the bandwagon, or surrey (haha), to celebrate. I took the Buckaroo's along with their good friend Princess Ri to play games of yesteryear.




We began with a three-legged race. They are all smiles here, but...



after the first two steps, crash! It is harder than it looks. Well, that is not really what Littlest Buckaroo is saying as he stares at them on the ground. But, he does have his daddy leading the way for him. After a little bit of fretting, they were up and going again, slowly, but going.


More fun games. They went through them pretty quick, I guess they are used to more "modern" games. The park historian pulled out the big guns and they played..

pick-up sticks. Princess Ri got bored so we went and worked on her modeling career.

Then there was the watermelon, or marshmelons as the kids were calling them. I have no idea why, but sometimes you just have to go with it.

Nikki brought Hot Rod Car to meet up with us after their trip into town and he enjoyed his marshmelon too (he had just consumed a blue sucker prior to this, that is why his finger and mouth are blue).

We had a great day at the park, take time this summer to enjoy the parks in your area, they are a treasure.

The Park Wife

Blueberry Pickin' for a Healthy Family

I am very concerned about my families health, what they put in their mouths, and where that food came from. We raise our own meat chickens, buy grassfed beef, have laying hens, and now there are the pigs. I have vowed to put as much fresh vegetables and fruit in my freezer this summer so that means trips to local Farmer's Markets and U-pick farms to supplement my booming squash crop and pitiful tomato crop.

So, we headed out with my good friend Penny to pick some blueberries at a U-Pick farm about 45 minutes away from our house. Of course, I had the Buckaroo's with me and they were big helpers. I kept telling them that they only needed to pick the pretty blue ones but every once in a while the Littlest Buckaroo threw in one that well, let's just say was nowhere near being ripe.

We finished a little bit before Penny did so we went to go cool off under a tree.

The Little Buckaroo decided he had not eaten enough while he picked, so he was going to eat just a few more.

I told him that some of them were not quite ripe and I had not picked those out yet. This was a good lesson in why you should listen to your mom. UGH! Yuck, spit, splahhh!

He composed himself well, I thought he might be an architect, engineer, or doctor, but maybe food taster could be an option. Well, a food taster at a bakery because I have to stuff veggies down him most of the time!
Did you know that each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles? If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week! That is not gallons, but barrels.

I urge all of you to check out your local Farmer's Market, be sure to ask the farmers if they use organic methods or synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides. Also, if you do not have a spot at home to grow a little garden to teach your children where food comes from (no it does not really come from the grocery store, there are many steps before it gets there), most farmers at the market are happy to educate your kids on their produce, how they grow it from seed until it arrives at the market in the back of their pick-up trucks.

Eat well,
The Park Wife
(with a freezer full of blueberries!)

Family, Father's Day, Fun!

We spent an extraordinary extended weekend at our land, camping out, clearing our cabin site, and itching. Alright, I have pretty much kept the poison ivy at bay this time but the chiggers and ticks did me in. Is this what I signed up for people? Well, I guess I did when I married a park ranger.



When we got there, this little piece of the property was covered in cedar trees, poison ivy, vines, and other stuff that made it impossible to even walk through it. With a lot of blood (from vines), sweat (from the heat and brush fire) and tears (are we done yet? I am itching), we have it cleared a bit. This is the area where we will build our sustainable cabin in the woods.



A special surprise! Big Buckaroo's dad along with his two sisters came to visit and got suckered into helping out. The Buckaroo's wanted to be like their Pops and have a bandanna on to keep the sweat out of their eyes. They then turned into David headbands and they played David and Goliath most of the day. Hey, whatever keeps them busy. They were troopers, they did not whine or complain about being outside watching the adults work for 3 days, plus, we forgot to bring toys along and the DVD battery was dead. So, they had to make their own fun, and they DID!

This is a spring fed creek that we go through to get to the building site.

If our home or cabin ever burns down, there is no need to investigate, I would be a horrible arsonist. It took work to get the brush to burn, thank goodness Pops was there to start and man the fire or the piles would still be sitting there.

And, here is our big creek. We had a great time cooling off in the COLD water and the Buckaroo's had plenty of rocks to throw in the water.

This will be our back yard area, the picture does not do it justice. I will try to do better next time!

We returned to the creek to wash off and cool off before heading home. It was a wonderful weekend filled with what is important to us ~ our family, our land, hard work and most of all, working on our dream!

The Park Wife

The Park Wife MIA

Don't send the dogs out, we are all fine, just been busy so I have not been able to post. Actually, if you sent dogs out and they are anything like our dog Lucky, they would not find us anyway. There would too many sticks to pick-up, birds to chase, lazing around to do, we would be lost forever.

We spent some wonderful days at our land working on the cabin site. My father-in-law and two sister-in-laws went with us and we had a fabulous time. I am traveling today to take my father-in-law back home, but when I return I will post some pictures from our fun-filled Father's Day weekend.

Alright, you can rest easy now knowing that The Park Wife is fine. Whew, I know you just were not sleeping you were so concerned!

The Park Wife

The Buckaroo Dad

With Father's Day this weekend, I thought I would take the opportunity to publicly brag about my incredible husband (surprise, surprise, huh?) As I sat down, I thought how in the world could I ever convey how extraordinary my husband is as a dad? I will try to stumble through, forgive me for not having the eloquence to do him justice. If you aren't in the mood for mushiness, come back later.

Big Buckaroo is a wonderful, devoted dad and the Buckaroo's adore him. They want to dress like him which means full Ranger uniforms, gun belts and all, they want to be strong like him, seek adventure like him and just want to be with him.

They are so happy to see him when he walks in the door and usually want to go to work with him (too bad they don't meet the age requirement). They would be with him all the time if they could. Even though he has a very demanding job, he does not stay late often and he rushes home to play outside with them.

When I look at our boys, I see Big Buckaroo and am so blessed that the Lord gave me my love of a lifetime. Plus, I am thankful that He gave me the strength to wait for him to walk, well saunter, into my life.


When Little Buckaroo was born, they handed him to Big Buckaroo and his face glowed with unconditional love, he was our miracle that transformed us from a couple into a family. Little Buckaroo had to be in the nursery for a few days after birth, he came out talking, um yeah, he is chatty, always has been, so his lungs were filled with fluid. All my love swelled up with pride and adoration when we went into that nursery and he held our baby. With tears streaming down his face, the strongest man I have ever known so naturally transformed into an incredible father.

Littlest Buckaroo is just as amazing as his big brother but with totally different strengths and personality traits, he is very much like his dad. So much so that at the young age of 2 1/2 he even walks just like him, yes, he has that Ranger saunter that I fell in love with back in Memphis. He is a man who walks with integrity and I pray that the Buckaroos will walk with the Lord just as their daddy does.

These are the moments I thank God that I am alive.

But, the best part is that he loves their mommy so well. In him I found my true companion and I could not ask for more.

So, on Father's Day, Big Buckaroo enjoy the adoration of two great little boys who want to be just like their daddy, there is not anyone on this earth that I would rather them be like. And, know that you have a wife that strives to honor you and loves you with every thing she has.

Happy Father's Day,
Always and Forever,
Your Park Wife

(O.K. these are the pictures I took of the Buckaroos for their daddy's Father's Day gift, aren't they the cutest things! I know, I am partial.)

Rainy Day Fun

A storm was coming our way, the boys were lying in the grass watching the clouds, and then... I called them in for dinner. Their fun was squashed, no I did not serve squash even though I have a ton of it! I mean that their excitement over the immanent storm diminished before I could say "drink your milk".

As we were eating, it started to rain. The boys giggled and talked about tunder (no, I did not misspell that, that is how Littlest Buckaroo says it), clouds, lightening, and concern over Lucky the dog getting wet.

After dinner, I thought that since we were about to go get baths, why not go have some fun in the rain.

The Buckaroos had a blast riding their motorcycle and stomping in puddles.

Of course the greatest, most fun dad ever had to get in on the action.

There were so many puddles that we had to bring out the big guns, the Go-Kart! Yes, it is still working, no Go-Kart debacles lately. Look at their faces, one excited, one intense, describes their personalities exactly. Life is good!

Even The Park Wife got soaked (meaning horrible hair and no make-up, I have to have some excuse for looking like that!) and was chauffeured by her Little Buckaroo around the yard a few times. He is a great driver, but I have to keep telling him that he can not drive in to town to go grocery shopping on the Go-Kart. Where would he put the groceries?

Too bad it is sunny today, we had a lot of fun!
The Park Wife

VBS Week Insights

We had a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School with very good attendance. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves and I pray that many seeds were planted. As with anything like this, it was a learning experience. For the past few years I was in charge of crafts, but this year I moved over to the 5th and 6th grade class to assist my friend Penny.

I learned:

• Out of 17 5th and 6th graders, only 2 did not have cell phones. It is amazing, but I did not have a cell phone any of the years I attended VBS and amazingly my parents knew where I was and someone was always there to pick me up. Plus, although not a metropolitan city, we do have phones at our church in case of emergency.
  
  
• It only takes one day to decide to "go together". When I saw one of the boys leaving on his bike, he was alone. Certainly his new girlfriend could have rode on the handlebars because I kept hearing them say they were going together. I am just not sure where they were going.
  
  
• Getting up and being somewhere every morning on time with 2 young boys is hard for a gal who aside from church on Sunday morning does not have to be somewhere at a required time every day. I must say there was a lot of running around, screaming through the house to brush hair, teeth, put on shoes while I was putting on make-up. At times it was frustrating. Then, as we were on the way to church, my 5-year-old always asked what my Bible story was for the day. After one tough morning, I realized that Little Buckaroo was asking for a story of someone who showed God's love and character, but my life was the book report that he was seeing lived out. Note to self: When doing a book report on THE book, know the book and live THE book.
  
  
• During the third day at Bible School I was struggling with my own ability to lead. We had to separate the boys from the girls because frankly their hormones were raging and all they were worried about was if a boy was looking at them or if he or she was going to call them later. I was having a hard time getting the kids to follow my directions. When I was a public relations professional before kids, I feel that I was very capable in my job, I was a good leader. I got a little frustrated and overwhelmed, thinking how could I not have control over these kids? Have I lost all the skills I worked so hard to hone while I was a working professional?
  
  This week reminded me that leadership is a skill that requires work and humility and patience and time. I felt like I was herding cats on Wednesday, but I accepted my own failings. I learned that ONLY Jesus is a born leader. The rest of us are fated to struggle and study and wait for our own leadership abilities to develop. Through work, experience, and maturity we can all learn to lead like Christ, who led minimally, fairly, and honestly, with little flair, but words that are simple and to the point.
  
  
• The motions to the songs are like an aerobic work-out and I am not in shape! Plus, I can't sing, which all the kids figured out pretty quickly. I am going to start training for next year now.

O.K. enough already, but I want to give a little Park Wife parenting advice. What was that? A huge sigh? Well, this is my blog so here it goes.

Please send your child to VBS, you never know what seeds are being planted, how their life can change. Mother's of daughters, please teach them to not give their hearts and emotions away to every boy who comes along, the same goes for the mom's of boys.

Also, if you put little halter dresses or short skirts on your girls when they are 6 and think it is so cute, don't complain when they are 13 and filling out that they want to wear tank tops and short skirts. Your daughter's dress often reflects her heart. What's in her heart is important. If the desire for acceptance from other girls, boys and society in general is in her heart, then she'll be tempted to dress in a provocative manner. If pleasing God and her parents is in her heart, then she'll be able to resist those temptations to dress sensual. And, she will be "different" and that is alright!!!! We are called to be different from this world. So, dress your little ones modestly now, or you are going to have not only a fashion battle on your hands in a few years, but a heart battle.

If you have boys, please teach them early how to turn their eyes away from these girls, to keep their hearts pure.

Also, be careful with these cell phones parents, they are not being used for good. Texting very inappropriate things that they would never be comfortable saying from their mouths. Oh, I know what you are saying, my daughter only has a cell phone to call me in an emergency. Believe me, I watched these girls, this is not all they are doing. Don't be naive, it is a temptation that these children are not resisting.

If any little girl EVER calls one of my boys, they will be told it is inappropriate for a young lady to call boys. Am I a prude? Maybe so, but I also want my boys to have a pure heart when they find the one God has made just for him. It is not "cute" when 6-year-old children are "going together" or having an "innocent" little kiss on the playground. Do you not see the danger in this? If they give their heart away, their bodies will be next!

O.K. I am stepping off my soap box now.

I am thankful for God's grace in my life and that I have received wise counsel from some wonderful people He has put in my life. I hope that I was able to pass on even a little bit of wisdom to these kids last week and showed them God's unfailing love.

Recuperating,
The Park Wife

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Let me start this with saying that I am not a very good gardener, but I would like to be. Every year we try and I can grow some mean zucchini and usually get tomatoes for a few weeks. We do not use any kind of fertilizer or pesticides on our "crops" so that we can avoid putting all that harmful stuff into our bodies.

Little Buckaroo wanted to get in on the action and asked if he could have a garden this year. I am all for child labor, no not in China, but at my house our boys already help clean bathrooms, make their beds, clean their own rooms and help with laundry. They are only 2 and 5. But, if we want to grow them into responsible young men we can not wait until they are 12 and decide that we are going to make the be responsible. And, squash, zucchini, tomatoes last for a season, growing Godly men is an every day responsibility that will last a lifetime. His grace has truly been upon us.


I gave Little Buckaroo a couple of packets of seed that had been in the refrigerator for a few years, and by golly, his zucchini and cantaloupe look better than anything (aside of my squash) in the garden. He is so excited to go out and water his garden and pick what is ready.

But, look at this squash plant people, isn't it beautiful??? Remember, I have not sprayed anything on it or used any type of non-organic fertilizer.

However, we do have garden robbers around. This is a perfect example of what a gopher can do. And, look! I can grow some beautiful weeds too.

Then there are the tomato plants, yes, it is resting on the ground. I have no explanation for the death of these plants, well except for my brown thumb.

HARVEST! Look at all the squash! I really don't have enough recipes to use all this squash for, so if you have any ideas, please email me or drop by and pick up a basket for yourself.

Going to weed the garden,
The Park Wife

Going Postal

I have an extraordinary friend named Dore', AKA Chicken Friend if you have been around my blog for a while. She is one of those people that beyond a shadow of a doubt God put in my life. Dore' and I have a lot of similarities, from how we were raised (long live Amy Vanderbilt and Miss Manners), we are both transplants to this town, we both are blessed with extraordinary husbands, and our hearts are so similar in how we are training/raising our children (among other things). I adore her!

Whenever I am having one of THOSE days, all I have to do is talk to her and things are better. She never hesitates to pray with me, talk me through how I am feeling and at the end, I feel understood, calmer and at peace.

All that to say, she and I took our little ones on an outing together last week. She has two beautiful, intelligent, loving girls who mesh perfectly with the Buckaroos. So where did we go? Chuck E. Cheese, um, no, we both have germ phobias. To the playground, no, it is MUGGY outside. We took the kids to the post office for an educational tour.

Hey, I remember when a stamp cost 22 cents back in 1985. I really like sending correspondence through the mail, it is what is appropriate in many instances, but man, if gas does not get us, stamps will.



This very nice lady explained all the ins and outs of the post office from the point a letter is mailed until it arrives in our mailbox.



She even let the kids get in a "postal jeep" and pretend to drive. Isn't the Divine Miss M just precious? Oh, and that child's heart is just as beautiful as that smile. She is a blessing to her parents, they work very hard training her and her sweet spirit is a direct reflection of her mother's spirit.

And, here come the Buckaroos. Of course they had to test out the horn....52 times. Yes, it did work, every time. We ended up with a coloring book of stamps, knowledge of how we get our mail, and 4 kids who were hungry!

Although we thought we got out of going to the playground, we ended up at McDonald's. So, after some food, they got to go on the playground. The muggy, germ filled playground.

But, that's alright, Dore' and I are proper southern ladies, we don't sweat, we glisten. And so did the kids after I sanitized them down when we got in the car.

I will have the top ten things I learned this week from 5th and 6th graders at VBS soon. We have one more day and who knows what I will be able to add to the list.

The Park Wife

He Said ~ The Ranger's Version of Our First Date

Note from The Park Wife: I have not changed anything that the Park Ranger wrote, although I really wanted to in some places to make me look better. My version can be found here.


After meeting the Park Wife at the trade show I was curious to know more about her, but not curious enough to drive several hours one way just to chat so nothing happened for a couple of weeks. The trade show had been in late March and our first date was Mother’s Day, so somewhere in between I was making reservations to fly to Oregon to visit my parents who were living there. My flight schedule had a lay over in Memphis but only of a few minutes, so, after thinking it over I called the travel person back and had it extended so that I could visit with Ms.“I don’t need any help with these heavy boxes”.

I found her card, called her and set up the meeting. We chatted briefly on the phone about why I would be there, when etc, I specifically remember her asking me how old I was, I replied “25”, she said, “Oh you are just a baby”. I thought she was fixing to tell me she was 40 or something. I asked “how old are you?” and she replied “27”. So I was a bit confused how being two years younger made me a “baby” but later I learned that this was normal behavior having been raised with five brothers….. I hung up the phone with a date with a beautiful woman, even if she was old enough to be my, two year older sister maybe????

Before the Park Wife and little buckaroos, I did exercise a lot and so had a metabolism that demanded I eat small frequent meals. I was expecting to go out to a restaurant and eat, that was the whole plan so I had missed a couple of my “snacks” on the flight. That had been the whole point of the last conversation we had had in person. I assumed that she had a plan and stepped off the plane hungry. The hunger was a bit subsided by the site of her sitting in the chair at the gate reading and looking up at me like “surprise I did come” with a mischievous and cocky but beautiful and contagious smile. I have to admit here that I remember looking around while getting off the plane thinking, “I hope I recognize her, I hope she doesn’t notice the yogurt stains on the front of my shirt”, the yogurt had exploded when I opened it on the plane, probably had to do with high altitude pressures. She asked where I wanted to eat, I said “anywhere is fine with me” thinking I was fixing to eat some great BBQ or maybe steak, cheese burgers, hoagies, something. This is the woman who said she would take me someplace “good” after I had told her of the restaurants I had been to that included the more popular touristy restaurants in the city. I was expecting some food, I had come hungry.

So, we threw my carry-on in the trunk of her little sporty car and away we go. She is driving like a mad woman, passing cars on the one lane on-ramps, and generally going faster than my country self was use to. She did mention, after my white knuckles started to blind her, that she had it under control and this was how you drive in the city. I was a Christian so I just put my trust in Him and went with it.

We went to her apartment where she gets out this fruit tray with watermelon and strawberries. Now I like watermelon and strawberries as much as anyone, I appreciate that they are a healthy choice, but I was hungry, had BBQ on my mind, had been promised a good meal, and I was about to faint. Somehow I made it through I think only by the distraction of beautiful view. I really don’t remember what we talked about, just being hungry and wondering if she was at least going to feed me some McDonald's on the way back to the airport. Man can not live on watermelon alone. She didn’t stop at Mickey D’s we were late getting back to the airport, she pulls up in front and we get out and she kisses me, then kisses me again, I admit I liked it. However, I am ten minutes late for my flight and have to leave literally running towards my gate still about to faint. After that I remember having a hard time concentrating on my book on the flight home and that the flight attendant was nice enough to give me several extra packages of peanuts, probably the only reason I am still alive today.

The Ranger

Now, it was only an innocent little peck, not some big kiss for all of you who could not believe I kissed him on a first date. The Park Wife


Read Chapter 10: The Park Wife and The Ranger - Possibilities

Old Park Wife Has a Farm

Never did I think when I was living in Memphis that I would ever, ever, ever, did I say EVER? have farm animals. If you asked anyone I grew up with, my college roommates, or my colleagues in Memphis if they thought The Park Wife would have any type of animal they would, after verifying the information because of disbelief, laugh hysterically. Actually, if you told them back then that I would live on a state park, they would have told you that you had me confused with some other girl. One that wore jeans, boots, and t-shirts that said things like "Buy Organic" or "Let's Go Hiking".


But, here I am......The Park Wife....with a house full of boys and a yard full of animals. You have met some of our brood through previous posts, but today, we have 2 new little friends to introduce you to. But first, let's refresh your memory.




This is Tom, he has a surrey-pulling partner named Pete that also lives in our pasture. They got a little unruly, scared the surrey driver, so they have been "retired" to our pasture, they have been here for a couple of years now. SCRATCH THAT - Big Buckaroo just told me as he was reading over my shoulder that they were sold a couple of weeks ago and are not out there any more. People, I have so many animals that I did not even know they were gone.

This is Jill, the retired Civil War Reenactor horse that lives in one of our pastures. Yes, there is such a thing, I would not have believed it either before relocating to this historical park. She is so used to hearing gunfire and cannons that the noise the Little Buckaroo's make out in the the yard all day does not bother her. Her owner works at the Park, but she has pretty much become our sweet ole gal.

Here are our laying hens, yes, FRESH eggs. Aside of the Rooster who gets night and day confused a lot (earplugs are on my next grocery list), they are not much trouble. Plus, they multi-task, we put them on our garden in early Spring to dig up weeds (although my garden is still covered in them) and to fertilize.





Here are our goats, Huck and Tom. They are very gentle and sweet. They really serve no purpose except we take them to the Park on "vacation" so that they can be seen and petted by tourist at the historical homesteads.



Speaking of no purpose animals, this is Lucky. And, let me tell you, he is lucky, lucky to be alive. His manners are horrible, he gets real excited and jumps on visitor's often. The poor Dish Network guy was getting out of his truck and he jumped so high trying to get petted that the guy caught him in the air. Oh, and the electric meter reader was so "afraid" of him that he got a remote reader installed at our house so he does not have to come through our gate and be confronted by this BAD DOG. I find this hilarious, aside of licking you to death or knocking you over trying to get your attention to pet him, he is harmless.

Without further ado, let me introduce you to Frank and Lucy.

The picture is not great, but hey, it is my first time taking a picture of pigs. Well, unless you count that last Mississippi family reunion we went to where Uncle..... oh, never mind, that is just not nice. (Hey, I am kidding, I have not been to a family reunion in Mississippi in years.)

Anyway, welcome Frank and Lucy to the Old Park Wife's Farm. Now, as you know, we raise our own pastured poultry, buy grass-fed beef from some friends, and now, there is Frank and Tom if you know what I mean. If you don't, that means don't get too attached they will be "going away" in a few months.

With an oink-oink here and and oink-oink there,
The Park Wife