This Friday sees the new Thomas Kinkade release - Hometown Pride. Our designers have been really busy so I wanted to show you some sneak peaks.

Look how effective this looks stamped mono chromatically with just the flag colored in.

SO this stamp can be used all year round not just for patriotic events but for those friends in your life who are moving house.

Hope to see you on Friday when all the wonderful designs will be on full display in the CHF Gallery.

Thanks Liz

I don’t know about your Mother’s Day but mine wasn’t that quiet! In the afternoon we took a walk down the field to look for asparagus as it that time of year but alas we picked about 5 stalks. It has been cold & dry here - in fact we are normally eating Sunday breakfast down by the river in April & this past Sunday was the first Sunday that it was warm enough but nobody thought about it. Anyway so no asparagus so Richard then decided to cut down some little Russian Olive Trees that we have growing where they shouldn’t be. For those of you who are not familiar with Russian Olives they produce NO fruit, have long, sharp spikes and are really more of a weed. There were a few growing out in the main pasture but you know how it is. You think that the job will take five minutes but as you start hacking, you realize that there was more than you thought.

At the same time Chris was down here mending fence as the cows were coming in for the summer. They came back in the evening with 26 cow/calf pairs. T-Bone was very interested to see new friends.

Of course we warned Chris about Cinco. Richard & I don’t think he could reach their cows (Angus) BUT we can’t take the risk so Chris is back here tonight tightening up our girls pasture to hopefully keep Cinco in. Cinco is down there bellowing as he knows there are females around. In fact today was the first time I have seen him not beside Lilly’s side

We have a nice agreement with Chris as we rent the land out at a very reasonable price & then they take care of all the fences & irrigation. Richard & I just do not have time to deal with it all at this time in our lives. The cows help to keep the grass down and fertilize it.

Harvey bit me on the leg yesterday - I was SO mad. I was feeding Rosie Lee & minding my own business. He came up so fast I didn’t even hear him. Tonight both him & Jasper were trying to mate the poor turkey so I had to hit them both over the head with Rosie’s empty milk bottle (plastic) to make them stop. I do hope some of the goose & duck eggs hatch out this week - they’re due Friday. Then Jasper can have friends of his own kind!

I finally figured out the camera so here is the first pic I took. One sleepy boy with one content chick.

Enjoy.

Liz

Have you ever got to the place in life where you are fed up with turkeys peeping at you? No, I’m guessing that not many of you can answer yes to that! LOL! BUT by Friday of this week I was fed up with the turkeys waking me up each morning. They have a very loud, piercing peep when they are hungry & it was worse on Friday as it had rained on Thursday so they had not been able to go out.

I had had enough so once they were put out on Friday I started to plan where they could sleep that night. We did some re-arranging & moved Rosco & Penny out of their shed, put the turkeys in there and Rosco & Penny moved into Rosie Lee’s pen to sleep. Rosie Lee is now big enough & has shelter so she can stay out. She didn’t like going in anyway. SO that problem was solved & I was happy.

Going back a few days to Monday, T-Bone & Chuck had managed to annoy a porcupine hence the title. What a mess! We had to catch them & bring them up here into a confined pen & then it took Michelle & I to hold them whilst Michael pulled the quills out. T-Bone had them the whole length of his face - he must have really been in pain, poor thing or should I say STUPID COW! Chuck wasn’t quite so bad but still had a few so that was how our week started. I wanted to take some pics for you as it was quite a sight BUT I broke the camera. I dropped it & that was the end of it. Richard has since bought me a new one which I wanted anyway as ours was getting really old but now I have to figure out how to get photos from it to the computer so apologies for the lack of pics tonight!
Today Richard & I have been on a training course about Child Brain Development. It was run by the staff of a home in Helena who have a center for kids that everyone else has given up on. The kids come into their program so traumatized & abused it is awful but they are there for 2 years & alot of them go on to live productive lives. It was a very interesting seminar - we learned alot.
We have had some much needed rain this week so that has been wonderful.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Liz

Our trip to Memphis went really well. It was good for Richard & I to get away for a few days. We did get time to relax but we also learned a LOT. The EPE crew took care of us really well. The first night, as you know, we got the VIP tour of Graceland along with many different types of food. It was fascinating to see the whole set up - gave us a real feel as to who Elvis really was.

Here is a picture of Richard & I outside Graceland:

Here is the living room:

Not sure how much you know about Graceland but each year on the anniversary of Elvis’ death (August 16th) they have a candlelight vigil going up through the property to the Memorial Gardens:

Elvis was a horse lover so there are still horses here:

Graceland is set on 13 acres & it is beautiful. They have done an incredible job of preserving it. For any car lover the Car Museum is a must. Loads of different cars including his famous Pink Cadillac:

It was quite an eye opener to tour the Lisa Marie - his aeroplane.

Although outdated now, in its time it was very plush but also very homely.

Richard thought this suit would look really good on himself!

The next morning, Tuesday, the meetings started in one of the conference rooms at the hotel. I’m guessing there were about 200 of us in attendance. Priscilla did give a speech along with many others. They fed us incredibly well - breakfast, lunch & dinner! That night we headed down to Beale Street to the Hard Rock Cafe. EPE had taken it over for the night. The only downer here was that the entertainers they brought in were SO loud you had to shout to hear each other so Richard & I didn’t stay around for long.

On our way back in the trolley car we met George Kalinsky & his wife - a very nice couple. George is the famous photographer for Madison Square Gardens in New York & recently found 100 photos of Elvis that he had taken when Elvis was at Madison Square Gardens. EPE are putting up a brand new display which opens this month sometime.

Wednesday saw another day of great information. I think the lawyer’s presentation was the most interesting - quite incredible all that is involved. In the afternoon George spoke as did one of the Elvis artist’s Joe Petruccio. We have one of his images being released in July. That day finished about 3pm & that was it.

Richard & I took advantage of the gorgeous weather & walked along the river. ate dinner & then took the trolley car all the way around to see more.

All in all it was a very worthwhile trip.

Thursday we came home.

Now it’s back to the routine. Today has been gorgeous here also so Daniel & I planted onions & lettuce. We still have a chance of frost so can’t be too eager. I had to remake the “herb” garden as the pigs & chickens had scat the stones everywhere. I didn’t have any success with my herbs last year so am now keeping that space for lettuce, spinach & green onions. I see the weeds are just starting to push their heads through.

Hope you all have a great rest of the weekend,

Liz

Well we are home & catching up with stuff. Before I share all the pics I figured you were itching to know which of you won the Elvis stamp.

On our first night during our time at Graceland I shook hands with Priscilla Presley. Priscilla wasn’t going to be there originally but then her stint on Dancing with the Stars ended early so she was able to be with us on the Monday night & all day on Tuesday.

I’m the one on the left.

The winner is:

#36 Linda C.

CONGRATULATIONS!

I’ll be back in a bit with more info on our trip.

Liz

Richard & I arrived in Memphis this afternoon - glorious weather. Tonight we got our Private tour of Graceland & spent an evening looking around the Elvis shops etc. I took loads of photos but unfortunately we forgot to bring the camera attachment to enable us to transfer the pics onto the laptop SO I will give you a full tour when we get home.

Why are we here? Being licensees of Elvis Presley Enterprises we are down here for the EPE World Summit. There are folks here from all over the world. They fed us well tonight & we got a large goodie bag each. For the next two days we will be in meetings which we are actually looking forward to - should be very informative.

So as I do not have any photos to show you I am going to offer you some blog candy. Who did I meet tonight & shake hands with? And NO it was not Elvis! LOL! I will draw a name from all the correct entries on Thursday evening or Friday when I show you the photo. The winner will get to choose an Elvis Stamp of their choice.

Happy guessing!

Liz

Poor Richard yesterday had one very frustrating day. Our upstairs shower/bath started dripping a few days ago but by Wednesday it was so bad that we had to turn the water off overnight to stop wasting water!

SO he starts pulling it apart in the morning but of course these things are never as simple as one hopes. Access was very limited & in the end he had to cut a hole in the wall plus saw off some 2′ x 6’s” to get into the pipes. The folks who did all the renovations before us obviously didn’t think there would ever be a leak. Needless to say Richard worked on it all day & part of the evening. We now have a new fixture & are leak free.

The good thing though was that the weather was beautiful yesterday so Hannah was one happy little girl. Her & Daniel played outside for ages. Daniel introduced her to the old bonfire so both of them came in black & had to be dumped in the bath before they could even have their tea (dinner for those of you in the USA).

Even the goats were relaxing in the calm weather & as I looked out the window yesterday this is what I saw:

What a cute picture of brother/sisterly love. Evie is the one with her head on Goat Chop. As you can see some of the other goats were flat out too. Can you see Crystal in the top right corner? Fuzzy is looking at the camera, Milky Bar is behind here & then there is Chocolate.

The ones not pictured were in my lilac bushes!Today was windy & cold again so no playing outside for Hannah.

10 more turkeys arrived yesterday to make up for the ones not sent last week. They also sent 5 chicks to keep the turkeys warm. One chick died today but everyone else appears to be doing great. We hope to get the black chicks out tomorrow to the big chicken coup where they can be shut in & safe. They will still have a heat lamp but there is natural sunlight over there & plenty of space. One of them has already jumped out!
Have a great weekend,

Liz

Well the animals think it is Spring but the rest of us realize that it has disappeared for a while. Here’s a picture of the duck house on Sunday morning!

Yes our temps in the wind chill were 10 on Sunday. We have warmed up into the 30’s and alot of the snow has melted but it is still too cold for Hannah to go out & play and she is not happy. We were glad of the moisture though and the grass is now beginning to green.

Tonight I was here alone apart from the two little ones who were in bed so had to go shut the animals in and feed Rosie Lee. Rosie came to me for the first time tonight so that is a good sign. Much nicer not having to chase her. Rosco & Penny did not want to go to bed but eventually made their way to their pen. There were two stupid turkeys who had decided that they were not going to bed so I had to shoo them in. Once they finally got into the pen I discovered why the poor things would rather sleep outside. Jasper was on top of one in a shot & Harvey was chatting up the other one! LOL! Of course it is too dangerous to leave them out with so many predators around. We will have to put the new ducks that are hatching in with Jasper so that he has friends of his own kind.

Hope your week is going well. Busy here as usual but no complaints. We had a new member of staff start here this week - her name is Patricia. I threw her into packing orders on the first day & that can be a little overwhelming when you see walls & walls of rubber along with piles & piles of wood mounted stamps and you have to learn exactly where everything is. BUT she is learning fast & doing a fabulous job. WELCOME Tricia!

Take care,

Liz

Look what arrived yesterday!

There are 52 here & they are feisty little things. They are black broilers & we have found them to be very hardy chickens well suited for up here in the north & with all the predators we seem to have. One died today but that happens. No more turkeys have died so that is good. And yes they are all here in the living room. Y’know what though? They are so relaxing to watch. When we get a few minutes we just stand & watch them.

PLUS we now have the incubator running with 15 goose eggs in it & 18 duck eggs.

The duck eggs are our own but the goose eggs we purchased from a lady on eggbid.com They are a mixture so it will be a surprise as to what hatches. We normally only get a 50% hatching rate but that will be plenty. Something got into our ducks on Thursday night - one was dead in the morning & another had two broken legs so we had to put it out of its misery. We think that whatever it was tried to pull them out the hatch but didn’t succeed. Richard has now reinforced the door on the opening so nothing can get in.

Remember I told you we had shut Lilly in the barn hoping to catch Rosie Lee? Well Lilly snapped the gate in half - completely ruined so that was the end of that scheme. Michael finally caught Rosie Lee yesterday so we have now taken her away from Lilly. Needless to say Lilly was out bellowing all night. She has calmed down tonight & is in the barn. Rosie Lee was very scared last night but Michelle & I took a bottle to her this morning. At first she wasn’t interested but she soon got the hang of it. We are feeding her 3 times a day - Hazel has plenty of milk. By tonight’s feeding she was really into it & drank 4 pints. We left her shut in today so that Lilly couldn’t find her plus the weather was too bad for her to be out anyway.

Cinco, the bull, is so funny. He is Lilly’s shadow. Wherever she is, he’s right beside her. Talk about a match made in heaven

We went from glorious weather yesterday:

to snow today. The day started off as rain & snow so the ground got a real nice soaking which it desperately needs as you can see from the above picture. (Daniel & Hannah were filthy when they came in!) Tonight though the snow started coming down heavy & along with a cold wind so it is only 15 out there in the wind chill. I went out to shut the animals in & feed Rosie Lee & what do I see? A turkey sat out in the snow. I’m not sure it will survive - its wings were all iced over & it may have frost bite in its legs. Stupid bird - everyone else was in their warm houses. After feeding Rosie Lee I headed down to the cow barn. All the cows were in & were glad for some hay. Then I headed up & shut the ducks in or so I thought. I come up to the house & all the ducks are up here so I had to go back & open up the gate & their house & then shoo them into bed.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. I’m looking forward to a day off. It’s been a long two days cutting rubber etc.

Take care,

Liz

Hey folks!

Spring must be here because look what arrived today:

Our living room is no longer quiet - these turkeys are now in residence. We ordered 40 hatchery choice so as to get a good variety. They only sent us 30 but we think there are 5 different types in there so that’s great. They are sending the rest out next week.

Alas turkeys are very hard to raise. Two have already died on us today for no apparent reason. We check them very regularly but come back to find one has snuffed it.

Miss Lilly is shut in the barn tonight. Both her & Cinco needed worming so we fed them hay in the barn tonight instead of outside. Caught Lilly but not Cinco. We’ll get him tomorrow. As for Miss Rosie Lee, she & Sir Loin just ran off but Rosie needs her halter loosening so we are hoping that by Lilly being in the barn Rosie will go in too. We are headed out of town here again in a week but once we come back I am going to take Rosie & put her in a separate pen. That is the only way we are going to tame her down - make her rely on us for her food.

This afternoon I went out to check on Hannah who was very quiet. As I crept around the corner I saw her sat on the concrete beside Chocolate & Chocolate would lean towards her & Hannah would stroke her. It was SO sweet. I quickly ran in to get my camera but when I got to take the photo Hannah had already got up. Took one anyway

Beautiful weather here today but there’s a storm coming over the weekend. I hope we get some moisture like they are saying. Our poor grass really needs it.

Don’t forget to join in the Backgrounder Blitz starting on the forums tomorrow.

Hugs,

Liz