Feelin' Farmy

My hubby is Safety Man at his work. He’s the one in charge of keeping all the employees safe. And some of them don’t particularly like the safety rules – lately it’s about compliance with the fire safety codes. (Note: Candle warmers are a No! No!) Because Hubby is such a nice, approachable guy, his co-workers feel free to tell him what they really think about some of the safety regulations. This causes him stress. (But something must be working because his workplace is one of 14 employers to be specially recognized by the Worker’s Compensation Fund of Utah.) Anyway, I came up with a hand-dandy new slogan for him.

Safety Man: Do what he says, and nobody gets hurt!

Of course my Sweet Baboo is self-effacing enough to never use it. So I called the HR manager who is his supervisor. She thought it was catchy and fun. I hope she uses it soon!

In other news, my dog is great! She is an expert at catching objects in mid-air. Tennis balls. Frisbees. Tug toys. A chewed and battered old soccer ball. Dog biscuits. Rocks. I’m not happy about the rocks. The little neighborhood toddlers give them to her through her kennel. She tosses them up in the air, catches them and then spits them out. Oh, and she’s also pretty good at riding in our wheelbarrow. (I tried it yesterday after raking up and dumping a bunch of grass.) She jumps in and stays for short rides. Annie is awesome!

Belly Acre Farm is getting more and more farm like. We’ve got six little chicks out in the garage. Never mind that we got them for free from our little neighbor’s preschool. They’re leghorns. Straight run, so we don’t know how many will be hens and how many will be roosters. (The roosters, sorry to say, won’t last long. Their fate will be similar to my favorite verse of “She’ll be coming ‘round the mountain” – the one that mentions the Old Red Rooster.) Hubby and I were discussing the overall plan for where to put the chicken coop and run. Our favorite spot is farthest away from electrical access. He wondered if it would be possible to use solar power. I about died laughing! We could have the only solar-powered chicken coop in the valley. Giggle, giggle.

Things are really starting to buzz around our place, or they will be by the end of the month. That’s when we try our hand at being bee farmers. Hubby just received his order of bee gear – pith helmet, face nets, white jumpsuit, special gloves – even the little smoker thing to keep the bees subdued. The girls had fun trying it all on. (Photos to be posted shortly.) He’ll take delivery of the actual buzzing insects on the 26th. Bee-u-tiful!




And finally, no one in our family has gone longer than 3 days without complaining. We bought the purple reminder bands (www.acomplaintfreeworld.org) for everyone and had a special Family Home Evening lesson to kick start our family’s foray into reduced complaining, gossiping and use of sarcasm. I can’t say that we’ve been too successful. The kids aren’t even wearing their bands anymore. Hubby and I do, but the longest I’ve gone without complaining, gossiping or using sarcasm is three days. Sigh. (Sighs don’t count as actually complaining.)

Sigh.