Homeschool ain't as hard as I thought!: Blog-anima-travel-tography

I call this bloganimatraveltogrophy because I plan to cram all of the latest and greatest into one post. We have picked up so many new hobbies and activites around here since I last blogged about the birth of our puppies! Hence why we haven't blogged. Too many activities, too little time.

Speaking of the puppy litter, they have all gone to great homes and are thriving well. We get monthly updates.

Ok, back to the subjects.

Blog-because we are bloggin'. :)

Anima- is for animal. We've picked up more. What?! Yuh-huh.

Travel- says it all. We took a trip to across the South.

Tography- is for photography. Yes, we are doing photography now. Not well, but we sure are trying.

Make sense now? Ok.

So let us give you an update.

Since the last blog about the puppies, we got 2 blackhead dorper sheep. A female lamb and a male lamb. Just so happens ours sheep were already named- Patricia and Patrick. Patrick and Patricia were both bottle raised by our good friends the Rodriguez's. I don't know why anyone would want to leave Texas, but they did. They left Texas to go back to Cali. and had to leave their sheep in good ole' Texas hands. (We don't hold it against them.) I would proudly admit that was our good ole' Texas hands if tragedy has not struck on Patrick.

Patrick and Patricia

Our poor stock dogs had never actually been around stock before the sheep arrived. Some people say it's instinct for them. I'm not really experienced enough to comment. It's a known fact that herding dogs should never be left unattended around the herd. Which was our intention. We were slowly introducing them supervised and weren't getting anywhere with our female heeler, Sissy. She has been stubborn since the day she was born! Our male heeler was proving to be gentle and effective. Even though our female wasn't, we were still determined to keep on persisting with her. But one day our female heeler houdini-ed her way out to the sheep when we were gone. In short, she attacked Patrick, resulting in his death. So needless to say, we are now down one sheep and one dog.

Oh, we always learn lessons the hard way. The awesome thing about owning new animals is we are forced to learn about them. We have to learn behaviors and how to care for them. It's so much more interesting to Katie to open a book and learn about something she is actually touching outside her back door. I find her teaching our 30 something year old city friends about when to shear a sheep or how to raise chickens! Our friend's 16 year old daughter Emily does that to me too. She always shows me up or teaches me something new! Dang it! I stopped calling the vet, and just call Emily.

So since we were down one dog, we ended up keeping one of her pups. Not for that reason but it turned out that way. They let me name her this time. Lola is her name. We like her.

Lola

So after that happened, we gained a 6 month old AKC female German Shepherd puppy named Pepper. We weren't looking to own a German Shepherd and we didn't even know she was full blood when we agreed to take her off some guy's hands. He was ready to dump her off for tearing up his property. It was really a compassion thing with an added bonus. Added bonus because she is a great dog! We don't know what all the fuss was about because, so far, she is a really great non-destructive dog. She has fit in so well that she is mingling with our other dogs now full time. We plan to breed her in the future.

Pepper. It is hard to get a good pic of her. She is fast!

Now on to the travel. We traveled 8 states in a total of 8 days. Well 9 states if you count Texas. We went through pretty Arkansas on through Grand Ole Opry-land to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Then on to our short stop in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina to visit my Mother in Law and family. Katie took a shopping trip in Mimi's purse closet, visited a friend's cattle farm, and spent some time with her Great Grandmother. It's always hard to leave.

Katie on her Mimi and Papa's land in North Carolina headed back from the river

From North Carolina we took a Short drive through South Carolina onto our destination, Georgia, where we met up with my sister and her family. We all piled into my Dad's house on an airbeds to celebrate Thanksgiving together. One of the best parts about that trip was getting to see the places my father and his father built with their hands.

From left to right: My sister Kelly, My Dad, Me, and Katie in front. Standing in front of the church my Dad and his Dad built many years ago.

Still has the original stained windows

I learned that my Grandfather was a Baptist Preacher at this church and never took any money from the congregation to pastor.

Also, we visited my mother's house she lived in as a child. And the house one of my sister's was born in. It was a modest home but my grandfather provided it for them as a young couple.

Here's the house my Dad and Mom first lived in together. It's blurry because it was a bad neighborhood and we were driving fast!

I visited my Grandpa and Grandma that I haven't seen since I was 15 years old.

He says her kisses are so sweet that she's going to give him diabetes. :)

Katie hugging her Great Grandpa with cousins all around

Of course, there is my crazy mountain redneck Uncle Tommy that I could just put in my bag and take home with me. Don't let the smile fool you, there's mischief in that grin.

Katie and her 2nd cousin Jayce

I learned a ton about my family history. I shoulda taken notes!

Mom's side of family from left: My great grandmother, my great great grandmother (and her dog), My great great grandfather, my great aunt, my biological grandmother. Top row: My great uncle, my grandfather (he's the one in the other pic kissing his woman), Great uncle in law Wayne, and My great grandfather. All have passed except my grandfather and great aunt.

We visited Amicalola Falls in the North Georgia mountains and stayed in a cabin with my sister and family over night.

Me, Katie, Jude, and Seth at the falls.

My manly bearded sweetheart and I

On our way home, we stopped in Alabama at Tannehill Historical State Park and picked up some handmade pottery. Then on to Poverty Point, LA where it is said an ancient tribe lived. That was a good homeschool field trip filled with controversial questions! ex: "If a tribe lived there, why didn't they find any bones?" ahhh a mystery.

Katie on the mounds Poverty Point LA

Then of course, we did what all rednecks would do and stopped by the Duck Commander Warehouse in West Monroe, LA to check things out.

Now the photography, My husband bought me a nice camera for Christmas. Since I was a jerk and ruined my surprise, I got my gift early. Bonus! Which meant I was able to take Christmas pics!

Here's some pic's we've been snapping: