Sand and surf?

Good morning everyone!

Just a quick update.

We're actually going on holiday tomorrow! We'll be going to the beach for two days thanks to Type A sister-in-law (who arranged the entire trip, thank you so much!) and my mum (who is caring for the animals and the farm while we're away, again, thank you!). Many sun-soaked pics to follow. (And, hopefully, a more relaxed me.)

EGH had a birthday! Here's the cake midway through icing:

Bleh, chocolate icing! Happy birthday you chocolate-loving sweetheart!

Here's a hat-trick of handsome young men who take after their daddy:

Bulk, Fiver, and Boy.

And some girlies in their summery clothes:

The HCTD and Bitty.

And here's another shot of a completely toilet-trained Bulk (by about two weeks now) and our newest family member, Roy:

More after we get back from the beach on Thursday. For the Farm Report go here.

PS: So, did the last Harry Potter RAWK or what?! OMG, I so want to be Molly Weasley when I grow up!

PPS: Check out my new site for the store. I separated out just the snarky stuff for ladies onto it's own site. I have the Pirate stuff up on it's own page as well. What do you think? The teacher stuff is next.

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The NEW post

So, you say, gosh it's been a while since Blue posted ... has the farm been in stasis?

Nope. I've just been wicked busy with the family and the stores and all.

So, since you've been so patient, I'll recap in pictures:

The Ford (truck) broke. I sussed out an electrical problem after removing a large portion of said electrical system and discovering that Fords (of this type) have no solenoid on the starter! Bizarre! If a Ford-driving mate of mine hadn't told me where to find the solenoid I've been flummoxed. Here's a pic of both:

It was NOT fun removing that heavy-arsed starter in the boiling heat and bugs and humidity. *angry face*

My OTHER Ford runs like a striped ape (when it's not broken); my new tractor the 8N:

I adore this little beast. Yeah it's old. Yeah it doesn't have a whole lot of heft, but it does what i want and it cranks up every time and it has ... personality. Incidentally the dig about it not running is sincere. It ALSO had an electrical problem and the pic is of it going back to the tractor place to be looked at. (Turned out to be the coil) That's my new trailer, BTW.

Off the topic of spending money, I found this cool item in the dump (cat not included):

Not an antique or anything but a nice sturdy chair that matches my decor (and my cat).

More free new stuff ... Baby pigs!

That's Bunty with her lot. Ginger had hers a few days later. They're about 6 weeks old now. I'll update with new photos soon. They're all fat and active now.

Here's Daddy Green in his new bachelor pad (turned out to be totally unnecessary. The babies squeeze into his pen and eat right out of his dish and he doesn't mind a bit.):

More newness. Our new Farm Dog, Roy, with his adoring human sisters. He's an Aussie although I have my doubts as to his purebloodedness (is that a word?) His dad is a friend of mine's working dog and is clearly a pureblood and is a good working animal. His mum came from a 'breeder' and she has these really short legs and upright ears making me think that she has some Welsh Corgi lurking in her background.

I guess we'll see. I'm totally unconcerned with looks or breeding. I need a working dog and he's keen as mustard so far (hard to really gauge as he's only 6 weeks old). I 'll keep you informed.

Here's another new addition, our new farm sign:

How cool is that?! I got a bloke named John over at Plasma Designs in Newberry SC to do it up for me. It's laser-cut, powder-coated steel. Barring it being stolen, this sign will outlast me.

(Yeah, I know it's crooked. I was lining it up with the ground, but the whole mailbox leans and so it looks crooked as hell. I'm going to go back out and adjust it. EGH says it adds 'rustic charm'.)

PS: In case you don't read my Mommy Blog, take a look at my new site for my snarky t-shirts for women, and my new page for my Pirate stuff! Teacher tees coming soon as well as all my goat-related and rural items.

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Boob tube spendthrift?

Check out this interesting article (the correct title should be 'How to earn 1 million by giving up your telly'). It talks about the cost of having a telly. It mixes in gaming and film viewing with actual TV viewing and so the title is misleading, though.

Anyway, it's pretty eye opening. There's this stunning fact about commercials and how well they work: Economist Juliet Schor estimated that for every hour of TV a person watches each week, he or she will increase his or her annual spending by about $200. (emphasis mine)

And coupled with this, which left me speechless: Nielsen Media Research reported that the average person watched approximately 4.5 hours of TV a day, or 31.5 hours a week, they concluded that the average person spends an extra $6300 per year under the influence of telly, a suggestion that most telly-viewing-diehards would angrily deny, I'll bet.

Four and a half hours a DAY?! 31 hours a week? That's almost equal to full time employment! Who has time to waste like that? Am I just insanely busy? Or is it that I'd rather read a book - or read a book to my children - than sit gape-mawed in front of the idiot box for the six minutes a day I have free?

And I do watch films. Y'all know I'm a movie fanatic. I have a DVD collection that would make Netflix moist-eyed with pride, but we manage, maximum, an hour (on a good day) after supper*. Often we don't watch any at all. I don't think I've ever in my life sat in front of a television for over four hours in a day.

I personally don't watch TV because I find it dull and annoying. Obviously not all of it is. There are a few shows that I loved (Star Trek et al, X-files, and Firefly spring to mind) but I HATE commercials and I hated the demanding nature of telly; you had to be home to watch a certain show on a certain day at a certain time (yes, I know there's TiVo now, LOL, but I hear folks lamenting that they have to rush and watch something they TiVo'd so they can TiVo something else).

I also stand by my opinion that the lion's share of telly is just plain crap. The entertainment equivalent of celery: something for your brain to chew that has no nutritional value and not much taste. The yap, yap, yap of those awful talk shows and the 'news', tinned laugh-tracks, commercials, ugh!

Do you watch telly? Why do you watch? Do you feel that you watch too much? Do you let your kids watch it? What about films? Or games? Were you startled at the amount of money the article claimed was spent?

*Please bear in mind that the 'we' here is me and EGH. The Brood get to watch a film (like a Pixar animated film) or a documentary (we can Netflix us some David Attenborough!) about twice a week.


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