Redneck Hillbilly Search

Friday, February 26, 2010

Porky Puppies

This is Red - she's an 8 1/2 yr old little lady that we found on Petfinder when she was just a puppy, and had flown to B.C from Texas. She's a mutt of unknown heritage, and strongly resembles a golden retriever but is half the size. We think she may have some Nova Scotia Duck Toller in her because while she doesn't swim, she loves to play at the water's edge.

Red is definately the porkiest of the two, and has been for some time now. Her ribs are nowhere to be found, and when she sprawls out on the floor for yet another long nap, her belly in all it's round glory is exposed for the world to see.

She has been on prednisone for the last two years to fight pemphigus vulgaris so we allow her a little more leeway and excuse the bulging belly as water retention. ;p Vulgaris  is an accurate description of this rare disease because it is truly vulgar. It causes her immune system to attack and separate the layers of skin on her body, so a few days without her magic pill would have her nose bubbling up in blisters and the rims of her ears oozing.  We figure if she has limited time with us, it might as well be a good time living in the lap of luxury with treats-a-plenty.


This little lady is BLUE. Yes, I know, Red and Blue. People always think it's funny when we call out their names, and think we should get a third dog named White. Of course, we're not American so that would seem silly!  

We also get people calling them Yellow and Green, or Pink and Purple - which they always think is original and  hilarious.  She's a little fatty just to keep the treats fair with Red. Can't give to one without the other, right?


Spring is here and summer is on its way, so these two couch potatoes will hopefully spend some more time outside frolicking as dogs usually do and work off some of that excess winter weight. 

I'm hoping it works that way for  us human folk, too. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Be Dazzled by Zazzle

 With a flashy name like zazzle it's no wonder I'm dazzled.

A few months ago I signed up with Cafe Press - the POD (print on demand) Grand Daddy. I uploaded a few designs in a free basic shop and wonder of all wonders I actually sold a couple things before Christmas. Great products, great variety of colors and styles to choose from, but not geared to the cheap redneck designer like myself that doesn't want to fork out for a premium store. I found it clunky and time consuming to open a new free basic store for every design and lost interest very quickly. I won't close it, that handful of products can stay there for all eternity in the hopes that I hit the minimum payout amount - but I won't bother wasting any more time there.   Boo, Cafe Press.

Rated R Redneck
Around the same time I signed up at Zazzle, and recently turned my attention there after realizing they had numerous advantages over the tried and true Cafe Press. I repeat: Numerous advantages. A decent assortment of products to work with, a fairly straightforward design process, a full blown store I can categorize and organize however I wish, and the options to customize my html or css down the road to truly make it my own  if I ever want to tackle that. Potential earnings increase exponentially with the referral program. I haven't earned a dime there yet, but I'm confident that if I build it, they will come.   

Bye Bye Cafe Press and HELLO Zazzle! (wolf whistle)

Stop by when you get a chance and let me know what you think!



Saturday, February 20, 2010

Go Canada!

Go Canada!
The spirit is contagious!


While I may not agree with the amount of $$$ spent on the Olympic games,  I certainly do support our local athletes.  They are the reason for the olympics, the whole purpose of all this nonsense - and the over-commercialized items that have registers cha-chinging everywhere.

The amount of determination and focus these people possess is impressive.

We have a decent medals count now - a few of very color from gold to bronze, and many top 10 finishes. I watch the evening news every evening to see where we stand and swell with pride when I hear of my country's achievements. We may not get a medal with every event, but those that finish off the podium still deserve Kudos - just imagine being one of the top 10!

I am a proud Canadian even when it is not "cool" to be so. I may not have a flag waving out my front door or attached to my truck window - and I may not wear the red and white colored hoodies and toques - But I do know that I am fortunate, or "blessed" to be here.

 What an amazing country to have been born in, what  an amazing country to be living in!

 So along with the rest of the crowd you will hear me chant....

"GO CANADA!"

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

One week down!

It's been just over a week since we got this year's calves: JimBob, Hank, Delilah, and Bessie.

It's been an interesting week of changing routines to allow for milk feedings in the morning before the school bus arrives, and in the evening just before dark. Then there's the shelter bedding changes, topping up water, hay and grain, and anxious mom syndrome while we assess the health and wellbeing of the little babies.

Shipping fever is a common occurrence for calves being moved from place to place, and a couple of them were feeling a little punky in the back corner of the shelter for a day or two but are lively and alert once more.

Going from excess waste dairy milk at their old farm to commercial milk replacer at ours also caused a little bit of scouring for Delilah and JimBob while their digestive systems adjusted.

Scours, for those unfamiliar with the term is a nice way of saying diarrhea. Explosive, extremely watery, foul smelling diarrhea that can cause a calf to dehydrate and die within days. We added some electrolyte powder to their milk and water, and I tried a commercial Scour Remedy this year which worked wonders to clear that up.

So now they are all pooping solid brown, happily eating hay and grain in addition to two litres of milk twice a day, and lively enough to play ring-around-the-rosy after a feeding.

Life is good in calf land today.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Redneck Hillbillies

RNH - It's the next hip logo for the youngin's to wear, don'tcha know?

Ok, so maybe it'll  just be my chitlin and kidlet wearing this beauty.

It's dirty. It's grungy. It's messy looking.   Perfect!

Almost like the GRG of Garage, or the W49, or the big E for Etnies....

yeah, I can almost hear my kids sighing with a big "not even close, mom!"

A girl can dream, can't she?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

And Bessie makes FOUR!

<-- Delilah on the left, and the smallest of the bunch, Bessie on the right. Both are Angus X heifers.

Jim-Bob is the Red Angus
and Hank is the holstein.

Give a big welcome to the latest additions to the Redneck Hillbillies family!

New Spring Calves!




Introducing Hank, Jim Bob, and Delilah!

Yesterday we went to a local farmer and bought three spring calves. A holstein (Hank), a Red Angus (Jim Bob) and an Angus/Dairy (holstein) Crossbreed. (Delilah)

They appear to be healthy and strong, better than last year's calves anyways. The added bonus is that they weren't run through the auction ring and exposed to all sorts of problems.

Today we actuallywent back and bought a forth calf, since we like to keep animals in pairs. Jedidiah (or Jed, for short) would have ended up being its name,  but IT ended up being a heifer so she was named Bessie. She's not in this latest video so I'll have to go film her for a while and upload another one in the next few days.

Mooo!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Sugar n' Spice

Sugar and Spice and everything nice.
That's what little girls are made of.

*choke* ok um... they weren't talking about girls like me when this was penned. ;p

The popular country song "A little bit" (no idea who performs this little ditty, my apologies)
comes a little closer with this nugget of wisdom:

A little bit of sugar,
A little bit of spice,
A little bit of nasty,
A little bit of nice.

Or maybe I'm just nasty and spice ? You'd have to ask Mr. RedneckHillbillies that one. Of course, he'd have to answer verrrrry carefully. LOL.

In any case, us redneck girls don't usually fit the stereotypical mold. Some of us are composed of our own special recipes containing more piss and vinegar than anything you'd want to bake with.

With that in mind, this sprung forth from my not-so-much-sugar noggin this mornin. I may not be a wild child,  or bush beast - I just ain't a sugar dumplin' .

Perhaps I should have added a little sugar and spice to the morning coffee ?





Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Will Work For Beer!

A couple days per week I go in to the local U-Brew and cook up a few batches of kettle brewed beer.
Everything from watered down horsepiss American style pilsner/lager style beer, to heavy and dark ales.

One of the biggest perks (and the reason I'm still there) is the deal on beer.

It's great beer, really. Alot of people have this idea in their heads that Ubrew beer is awful. Murky, yeasty stuff that tastes like pond scum.  While that may be true for lesser quality establishments, the stuff I cook up is ... for lack of a better word - awesome.

Here! Here!

Cheers to Beer!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Olympics SchmOlympics.

Mr. Redneck Hillbillies saw an interesting sight on the freeway this morning while on his usual commute:  Several dumptrucks loaded with... Snow.

It seems the 2010 Olympics committees have to resort to something other than crossed fingers and wishing  on the first star for cold weather and snow accumulations and are now bringing it in. By the truckload.  Most likely harvested from Manning Park Resort, this precious white stuff will be melting fast with our  unseasonably warm temperatures. It also doesn't help that the convoy of snow carriers will spend an agonizingly long time crawling along an overly congested, completely inadequate highway system. On a working weekday too yet, in the short window of time between the morning and evening rush hours with thousands of commuters. Expensive Snow!

We aren't fans or supporters of the Olympics, so we're not stressed out about what may end up being a miserable failure. Other than the fact that we'll be paying for it long after the athletes have returned home. We're not out there protesting in the streets with pamphlets and placards like the crazy guy I spotted creating a disturbance in the downtown square. We just have no interest whatsoever in taking part in any of it.  No fancy red gloves, no special liscense plates, no stuffed mascots or overpriced sweatshirts. We also won't be out there watching someone run with the torch since we realized some of these runners were chosen only because they could buy their way into it.

So much for the olympics being about  athletes. Sure, they're the main attraction, but they're wrapped up in a banner of marketing and merchandising, sponsorships, politics, and a paycheck for everyone standing in line waiting for their turn to suck off the olympic teat.

It's always only about the almighty dollar.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Death and Taxes.

Death and Taxes.

 Thankfully, death isn't something I've had to deal with this past year, although the clock has run out for both business and personal income taxes.

About this time every year I have to sort through mountains of reciepts, figure out year end numbers for all sorts of expenses, and compile it into something the accountant can work with. Once that hard part is done, comes the next hard part: Finding out how much the government is going to rape out of our pockets.

Rape is a strong word, but when I see what kind of work is involved to bring it in, it's sad to see such a large chunk ripped out of our pillowcase come tax time. It doesn't really matter whether it's a big number or a small number - it's all relative. And it's always too much! I'm fairly sure they could "make do with less" if they pared away at extra fat and had to buckle down and pinch pennies the way most families have to today.

To save for a rainy day was sage advice I've heard many times over.

 It'll be a rainy day when we get the numbers back - perhaps some of those rainy day (after tax) dollars can be spent on a much needed  all-taxes-added  where the hell is the sunshine today pick-me-up!