Archive for January, 2009
Jan
2009
Entrecard Top Droppers January 2009
January 31st, 2009 at 09:46 am by Shari Thomas in About this Site, EntrecardNew thing on Shari’s Gone Country!
I belong to a “blog exchange community” called Entrecard. You may have seen the “Blog of the Day” widget on the sidebar. Basically it’s like a “business card dropping service”. You join the community. You place the widget on your page. Other bloggers purchase your ad spot using Entrecredits. As you’re surfing around, and discover other bloggers with Entrecard, you click on the “drop” spot, and you earn an Entrecredit.
Of course, there’s a whole community, where you can meet a ton of other bloggers.
So, this month and the months going forward, we’re all starting another “new thing”. We’re publicly giving thanks to our Entrecard Top Droppers.
For the month of January…
Daily Coloring
Pages…If you’re a homeschooler, here’s a site where you can download coloring pages for your little ones. If you like to color, it makes a great “side by side” project.
New Orleans Food & Fun…This blog always makes me hungry, and long for the South, too. While I’ve never been to New Orleans, I am a big fan of both Creole and Cajun food. Geez… now I’m drooling!
Hi Tech News and Information… Are you techie? This blog is for you!
Austin Counsel Lawyer Blog… a collection of strange laws from around the world.
Web Blog of Greg Matthews…Greg writes about “online blog marketing” as well as Internet Marketing. I think he just put a bug in my head about joining “Dropaholics”.
how much love… One of my most loyal advertisers! Visit this blog to rest your eyes on beautiful art.
Five O’Clock Somewhere – Artisan Jewelry… Thought-provoking blog along with some awesome jewelry from a Californian mother who cares alot.
ESCUDERO’S A PAINTING A DAY… Nice art, fun blog!
Fire and Glass-Sweetwater Designs… If you’re into blown glass, as in glass beads, this is a place to visit regularly.
LinGzspot… A very nice blog by a young Filipina girl.
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Jan
2009
Snow: Five inches in three hours
January 25th, 2009 at 08:36 pm by Shari Thomas in About Beryl, Around the Farm, Chickens, Dogs, Family Cow, Horses, Sheep, WeatherShortly after dinner, Cindy suggested we feed, even though is was about an hour early. Good thing we went out when we did. The wind was already sustained from the south-southeast at better than 20 mph.
We got the chickens fed, and closed in again (with high winds we keep their door closed), and turned our attention to the rest of the animals. As I tossed a couple flakes of hay into the cow and calf, I couldn’t help but think of the Arnold Palmer Classic Golf Tournament, where they had sustained winds in excess of 30 mph. Talk about golf balls going where you didn’t want them… the hay didn’t exactly land where I wanted it, either.
On to the sheep… C’mon girls, go that way so I can throw the hay over here and miss your woolly coats. You’ve done well this year. Maybe your wool will be worth a little more with less alfalfa tangled in it.
Cindy fed and watered the horses and called our two dogs back to the house. By then, it we spitting rain and we still had to reposition a couple bales of hay at the cow stack. With that done quickly, we stopped by the hen house to gather the eggs and head inside.
Within about 45 minutes, it was snowing… hard! It’s been doing that now for the past three hours. Weatherbug tells me we’re supposed to have five to 10 inches by tomorrow night.
Hmmm, we already have five inches and there’s a lot more storm to come yet. Bev’s not gonna have much fun tomorrow, digging out to go to work, only to have to dig the Senior bus out, too.
We’re even expecting a thunderstorm or two this evening… better known as “Thunder-snow”. Right now it’s 29.5 degrees. The wind had shifted to the northwest about time the snow started. That’s our indication that the front has passed. Never mind the jet stream is going the opposite direction.
I know one thing, the “arctic dogs”… Sarah the Finnish Spitz, and Koda the part Siberian Husky, would rather remain indoors, while our two lab crosses just love the snow. The shepherd… she’s not sure but will go play as long as someone else goes first.
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Jan
2009
How do you like the new look?
January 24th, 2009 at 09:04 pm by Shari Thomas in About this SiteI finally found a theme I love. Cindy had found it for a blog she’s working on, but then found something she liked much better.
I still have some work to do on post formatting, but hey… the sidebars look really good.
It’s only taken about 8 hours to whip this into form. I’ve learned about 17 new things today about “php”… farm more than I ever even wanted to learn.
There are new plugins, new ways of getting things done, and soon I’ll have the image issue solved (that means going back and hand-loading each and every one of them).
The one thing that isn’t working for this theme is “Sez Who”. That will take some serious work to adapt it.
Ok, enough work… time to go play for the rest of the evening.
Buy me a beer and I'll write more posts more often.
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Jan
2009
An average winter day on the farm
January 22nd, 2009 at 06:32 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Chickens, Dogs, Family Cow, Horses, New Life, SheepThought I’d share an average day here at “Four Country Gals”.
With five dogs in the house, morning comes early, as in when the first dog wants out. That’s shortly after 5 AM. Mom gets up, since it’s her dog, Mindy. Then she heads back to bed.
Now, if Mom stays really quiet, the rest of the dogs settle down for another hour or so. About time Mindy wants in, the other dogs want out, so that’s a good time to start the coffee… around 6 AM. Start the coffee doesn’t mean “brew”. It means put the beans in the grinder side.
Brew is as easy as push the button to start the grind/brew cycle, something the next person up gets to do. That’s usually Cindy. She and Mom like to watch the sunrise from the kitchen. At this time of year, that’s about 7 AM.
Bev is up by 7:30 and I follow anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes later. Since Bev leaves the house at 8:30 at least 3 times a week, she gets her morning “computer duties” done first.
I get online shortly after 8:30, first checking e-mail and then proceeding through the overnight stats. By now, the dogs have all been out and back in at least three times before settling in for their morning naps.
Cindy and I both eat breakfast at the computer, with the exception of a weekly “breakfast at the table”. That’s the day we have a hearty farm breakfast. The rest of the time, it’s cold cereal or toast.
About 10 AM it’s time to feed the animals. Why so late? It has to do with the weather, attempting to keep the sheep from lambing in the middle of the night, and our own schedules. We’ve found that if we wait until 10, we’re not in quite such cold temperatures. It takes us about 30 minutes to get the horses, sheep, cows, chickens and wild birds all fed and watered.
Every once in a while, we have to spend a little longer rearranging the hay stacks. If we bring 10 or more bales into close reach, we only have to do that every couple of weeks.
By 11 it’s time to get serious about driving traffic. I have found that I can combine my Entrecard “drops” and Adgitize ad visits. It takes me about an hour to visit 50 blogs, stopping to read fresh content, and also to comment where appropriate.
All the while, I keep an eye on CNN, watching for breaking news.
Every three to five days, I spend time approving Entrecard advertising requests. On a monthly basis, I award credits to random advertisers, so I have to maintain some spreadsheets, which I keep updated regularly.
With six blogs to maintain, my biggest problem isn’t what to write, it’s what to write today. I have chosen to update one blog a day at a minimum. That keeps content fresh, but it also gives me permission not to write in each blog daily.
I guess part of it also has to do with “rewards”. Entrecard gives me 25 credits for new blog posts (maximum 3 per week), and Adgitize provides 100 points for a single daily blog post.
By late afternoon, I’ve typically fleshed the post in my mind. But first… it’s time to feed the animals again. As the sun stays up later, we’ll adjust the feeding schedule to feed about an hour before sunset (in the cool of the evening).
It takes me 15 to 30 minutes to create my blog posts. I edit as I go and use a spell-checker.
Once that is done, I drop some more Entrecards (rarely more than 100), sometimes working from the “inbox” where folks have already visited me, and sometimes just using the toolbar to select random blogs.
By 7:30 I’m ready to quit working and start playing. I keep a paid membership at Pogo, and we also have several games installed on each computer.
Bedtime comes as early as 9 PM. Since we each have TV’s, we tend to watch TV from bed for another hour or so, before quieting down for the night.
Oh, the dogs… they get at least two “last outs”. Mom puts them out and when they come in, they get treats. Bev puts them out before “pills”, and then lets them in for “pills” (only two actually get meds, but all get 1/2 a marshmallow). I put them out last and when they come in, I dispense treats in turn for obedience as in “sit, down, etc”.
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Jan
2009
Back from Mesquite… said hello to livestock!
January 19th, 2009 at 08:04 pm by Shari Thomas in About Beryl, Around the Farm, Day off, New LifeWhat a fun day!
I’ve not had as relaxing day in a long time. Of course it didn’t hurt that the slots were loose today, either.
I got to meet Jerry and Nancy, feeling very much like I’ve known them forever, just like when Cindy and I first got acquainted.
Now it’s time to focus on the most history-making event in my lifetime… the inauguration of Barak Obama, the first African-American President in US History.
Having grown up in a racially mixed neighborhood in Portland, Oregon that was only “mixed” because I lived within blocks of a previously segregated neighborhood. This whole process over the past two years has refreshed tons of memories, both good and bad.
Yesterday, knowing I’d be away from TV and the Internet today, I took the time to watch, listen and read Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I remembered well when he came to Portland just after that, and a riot broke out. I lived within blocks of a furniture store that was fire-bombed.
I was in college at a “lily-white” college that had a few “token” blacks when Martin Luther King, Jr was assassinated and because of my unique background, I was able to spend the night with the black students, talking through the grief, the anger, the extreme disappointment, and the huge desire to destroy the town… hoping to bring revenge on a community that had an intense dislike for them. You see, blacks weren’t welcome on the town streets after sundown… and this was in Oregon!
Tomorrow, I’ll celebrate as I watch the inauguration, the parade, and the balls.
Living here on the SW Utah desert, the four of us are in a very distinct minority. Our county voted over 75% in favor of Mc Cain, and that includes the results from the more liberal Cedar City.Our neighborhood is not very happy… oh well!
Come Wednesday, it’s time to get back to work… helping to make our world a better place to live. First we do that ensuring we are self-sufficient and are able to look to our future.
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Jan
2009
First time ever… someone else will feed
January 18th, 2009 at 06:12 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Day off, Family Cow, Horses, SheepMonday morning, bright and early (as in way before the sun rises), Bev, Cindy and I will be leaving for a day of “play” in Mesquite, NV.
We’re forced to allow Clyde, our neighbor, to feed our animals.
We’ve NEVER all been gone at a time when it was literally impossible to feed our animals. A couple years ago, we all left pretty early a couple of mornings (just before sunrise) to go to a Clinton Anderson Clinic, but then, it was summer and no frozen water buckets, or icy areas to cross.
So, Clyde will feed.
Cindy and I have carefully laid out the feed, measured the chicken mash, and left watering instructions. Clyde may keep all the eggs he finds. That could be none, one, or maybe even six or seven.
We’ll be playing away, and meeting with old Ohio neighbors by the time our chickens, sheep, cows and horses realize we’re not home… That’s unless they wake up at o’dark-thirty when we leave.
Buy me a beer and I'll write more posts more often.
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Jan
2009
Curious chickens, growing calf, pregnant sheep, muddy horses…
January 16th, 2009 at 07:12 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Chickens, Family Cow, Horses, Sheep, WeatherThe weather was nice enough this morning to spend some time constructing a photo journal of what it looks like in mid-January on the SW Utah desert. Yeah… we have winter.
Curious chickens
Buttercup's growing up
Aren't I cute?
Don't bother me, I'm eating!
Two pregnant yearlings
Dakota, the 3-yr-old filly
Dusty showing off his hay belly
Neche, our oldest gal
We’re still good as far as our hay supply is concerned.
No hay left here.
Nearly 4 tons left for the horses
Over 4 tons left for the sheep.
About 3 tons left for the cows
Lamb and calf bedding straw.
There you have it. Our muddy little farm in the middle of winter, on the SW Utah desert. Those pregnant sheep will begin lambing in mid-March. Sure hope this mud is gone by then.
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Jan
2009
Snow won’t leave… Christmas lights must go
January 13th, 2009 at 04:05 pm by Shari Thomas in Around the Farm, Chickens, Dogs, Family Cow, Horses, Sheep, WeatherToday’s the day. It’s as warm as it’s gonna get (with the wind not howling), so Bev just donned her heavy sweatshirt to head outside and remove the Christmas lights.
Thankfully, all she has to do is find the extension cords (buried under 6 -8 inch snowdrifts, disconnect all the pre-assembled pieces and put the displays back in their boxes until time to put them up next year.
In the mornings, the ground is still frozen at the surface, so feeding the cows, horses, sheep and chickens is quite pleasant, but the evening… well, tonight it will be back to muck boots!
This morning when Cindy and I went out to feed, we took the big black Lab (Mindy) with us. She’s behaving when called again, so the reward is to tag along on the morning chores. She loves to run around and “say hello” to the chickens, the sheep, and the cows. She’ll swing by the horses, but only for a second as she’s right at the broken-down fence line and there are smells to follow.
As we were getting ready to bust ice on the sheep and cow water barrels, Cindy was remarking how I’d left the crow bar too far out of her reach.
I noticed the hose length was missing and asked her what she’d done with it… She watered last evening, I think…
Well, on closer observation, the cows (mama and calf) must have had a party. The hose was in their shelter, and they’d moved the crowbar about four feet north on the panel between them and the sheep. Silly girls!
Just call it never a dull moment at the “Four Country Gals”.
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Jan
2009
I was right, it’s cold again
January 10th, 2009 at 08:55 pm by Shari Thomas in About this Site, Around the Farm, WeatherYep, the muddy boot prints are about an inch deep and frozen solid.
We’re seeing nighttime temps around 10 degrees F and daytime about 38 or so. No more 50 degree days ’til March now.
That means we’re going out to feed twice a day, taking care of a few extra chores, like getting down the Christmas lights as the snow recedes from them, and knocking down the last of the untouched hay stacks.
On the Internet front, I’ve got something that really caught me off guard this week. If you used WordPress, you REALLY need to read the rest of this post.
It tells you about a WordPress security issue that most likely affects your blog(s), even if you’ve upgraded to WP 2.7. When I first found out about it, Cindy began keeping her eyes open to see we’d snare a free download. (She belongs to a program where the owner buys software and appropriate rights).
Sure enough, within 48 hours we had our hands on it, and have since gotten it uploaded to our server.
This is so important, I felt it necessary to offer a “Personal Use” edition of the security program. That means you can download it (along with the instruction videos) for simply giving me your name and e-mail. I’ll take good care of them.
If you think you’d like to get the resale rights, then there’s a way to purchase the program from me for less than the price of a bag of feed.
I’ve taken advantage of at least locking each of my blogs part way, and this week, my goal is fully implement all the security and SEO instructions.
If you’d like to see what I say about it at Ask-Us.biz, here’s the link to that post.
Now, back to work…
Buy me a beer and I'll write more posts more often.
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Jan
2009
New year, new day… melting snow
January 2nd, 2009 at 05:01 pm by Shari Thomas in Family Cow, New Life, WeatherAfter having nearly been snowed in over Christmas, we’re now thawing out. Of course, thawing out means mud… well, really slick, wet fine sand… and muck boots.
Wouldn’t ya know it… our neighbors asked us to feed for them, too, as they’ve gone north to pick up their granddaughter. And, they’re really muddy at their place.
Oh well, we’ll get thawed out just enough to leave really deep boot prints, and then winter will set in again, preserving those prints, and covering them with just enough snow to make it hard to use the same paths without falling down (and that’s no fun).
I’m keeping a close eye on our cows in their pen. I really expect they’ll be sinking to their knees before things stabilize. One neat thing, the calf has been getting up on the “cow mound” the past couple days, as well as bedding down in her little shelter. Mama…she’s a true range cow, prefering the elements.
On the “internet marketing” front, I’m winning the war. You’ll have to take a look at some of the things I’ve done at Ask Me Why… Work From Home as well as “Let’s Do Business with Real Online Companies“.
Over the years, Cindy and I have been quietly gathering software and information, waiting for just the right time. I’d have to say the time is now, as more and more folks are unemployed and looking for ways to make a few extra bucks.
Buy me a beer and I'll write more posts more often.
