Elise and Jeff Ferguson

We had a baby

2011-10-13T10:26:00.001-07:00

Hey, we had a baby! Check him out on http://www.ineedanap.net

More Remodeling

2011-04-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

In light of the baby's impending arrival Jeff has been remodeling the basement. Eventually the computers will go down there and the old office will turn into the baby's room (by eventually I hope to mean sooner than later).

Here's a slide show of the basement so far including photos from before Jeff had even moved in. Unfortunately I think it plays newest to oldest so it's sort of a reverse timeline.

The Big News

2010-11-29T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well if you haven't heard through the grapevine or any of the other usual outlets, Jeff and I are expecting a baby in June! You can check out all the gory details on the baby's blog at http://www.ineedanap.net

Boo :(

2010-11-22T13:16:00.000-08:00

I'm very tired of these posts. Massey got onto the highway a couple months ago and got hit by a car. It's very depressing. A farm is no place for puppies I guess.

I'll leave you with a photo of one of the new farm kittens who may or may not still be around, kittens tend to not last long either, mostly they wander off and we never really know what happened to them. I bet they find some fabulous other farm, maybe a dairy farm. :>

Obligatory Menagerie Update

2010-08-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

So here it is, your Ferguson Farm Menagerie update:

Puppy - Massey Ferguson - crazy as ever, knows "sit", sort of knows "lay down", does not know "no", trying to learn "play dead", loves to ride in the car/on the 4 wheeler/on the lawn mower/in tractors

Theodore - previously Black Kitty - now waits until the dog gets put away for the night then comes down to the house and mews at Jeff's dad until he goes up to the shed and feeds him
Orange Kitty - seems to be around still
Calico Kitty - I think she's maybe pregnant or had kittens recently but I have yet to see any signs of her offspring
White Pants - still around, still fuzzy but longer and leaner than before, has recently decided maybe Jeff isn't quite as scary as he once was and comes out of the woodwork a little more often
Big Pants - haven't seen him in a while
Earl - also has not been spotted in a long time
JR- the farm is apparently not big enough for two tom cats as we haven't seen him around in a while, he took up residence in the dog house for a while but we haven't seen him since

New Orange Kitty - showed up one day and was BFF with White Pants, Jeff managed to pet him a bit but I haven't seen him around lately myself
Lost Black and White Cat - showed up at the farm a couple weeks ago, skin and bones, gash on its foot, burrs in its tail, declawed on all four feet, super talkative, not afraid of the dog, very friendly except, in very hot water as it bit Jeff's mom, I'm guessing it won't be around very long after that :/

Other Cats - I actually spotted a very bright calico cat a while back but it must have just been passing through as I haven't seen it since

Happy and Sad

2010-06-18T13:06:00.000-07:00

A while ago Cam got in an accident and didn't survive. Everyone was very broken up about it and decided there would be no more dogs at the farm. But some of us decided it was just too depressing without a four legged friend and Jeff's mom went out and got a new puppy this week. She's Aussie/Heeler/Border Collie mix and doesn't have a name yet. Jeff and I won't get to meet her until next weekend. Maybe they'll have her trained by then ;)

More Puppy Goodness!

2010-03-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well Cam is growing like you wouldn't believe and she's as hyper as ever. She's had her first run in with a cow hoof, spent quite a bit of time in the "mud," loves to play in the snow, loves to ride in the truck, finally got to play with the big dogs, and took a bit of a swim in the culvert. She can sit, almost stay, almost lay down, heel, and fetch on command. And she's over 16lbs.

This blog has moved

2010-03-08T09:52:00.001-08:00

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New Blog

2010-02-02T10:23:00.001-08:00

So blogger is making some changes and I won't be able to FTP any more. I'm not sure what this means for this blog, it'll probably just get a new URL and I'll just link to that but if something goes haywire you'll know why.

A New Addition

2010-01-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

No, not that kind! A puppy! Last Monday I stumbled on an ad on Craigslist for some Blue Heeler cross puppies. Jeff went out and picked up the last available puppy that night. Of all the puppies in the litter we ended up with the only black one. The rest were all blue merle. The mother is a blue heeler that is apparently a great herding dog and the dad could be one of two dogs, the neighbor jack russel terrier or the neighbor black lab. I think our puppy has webbed toes, but I'm not certain. And she's got some pretty decent sized paws so I'm putting my money on the black lab. Rumor has it, the black lab is out of Raven from KARE11. So in the end she has some good breeding (even if she is a lab).

She's staying in our shop for the week until we deliver her to the farm on the weekend. She's a surprise for the family and so far they are doing everything in their power to mess up our plans ;) There's some talk of Jeff's parents going to Colorado this weekend. We haven't spilled the beans yet, we're waiting to hear what's going on.

She's quite the handfull, this little girl puppy. The first night we had her home she was scared and quiet. She played a little bit but was pretty mellow. The next day after work she was a ball of energy. Barking, running around, jumping and hopping, walking on her back legs, whining, and chewing on everything. Since then we've tried to wear her out by playing for several hours after work and as long as we can before work. She seems to do well over night but she gets pretty bored and riled up during the day.

We haven't thought of a name for her yet. The only thing that comes to mind is "little s**t" which while it's applicable, is probably not the best name. And I think we have to give her a name better than "black puppy" (similar to all the cat's names). We're hoping she'll be a good herding dog. She seems to show some heeling instinct. Jeff is hoping she'll want to swim at the lake with his friends and their dogs (since she's part lab after all). I'm hoping she'll stop trying to walk under my feet.

FYI I'm going to schedule this to post after we've supposedly made our puppy delivery to avoid ruining the surprise.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

In lieu of a holiday letter, here's a blog post! Yay!

The annual Mojo holiday party was another success. This year's theme was the 60s and 70s. Well actually we couldn't tell what the theme exactly was, there was some conflicting information. So we went with gogo dancer dresses and bell bottoms. And since we waited until the last minute that was kind of the best we could do.

Thanksgiving was at our house again this year. But this time I borrowed some folding tables and we were able to get everyone a spot. So no one had to balance their plate on their lap or sit around the pool table.

A sad update about Gray Kitty. She was just too tame for her own good and found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luckily she didn't suffer and she had a pretty decent life up to that point with a warm hay shed, lots of leftovers, and catfood.

And we did a bit of farming in the fall and I got to do a fair amount of digging with the new GPS and autosteer setup in the big tractor. Go me!

2 Years

2009-09-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

Hey we made it 2 years!

Kayking Trip

2009-08-25T19:05:00.001-07:00

After getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday we trucked it up to Grantsburg for some kayaking action. Brad, Amy, Cody, Jeff, and I all were in for the adventure. Before we even got into Wisconsin a bear crossed the road right in front of us. So the theme of the trip was how many different animals can we see. In all we saw wood ducks, trumpeter swans, eagles, otters, turtles, bear, hawk, herons and probably a couple others that I cannot recall.

We ended up kayaking about 17 miles on Saturday and about 10 on Sunday. The paddling was pretty uneventful on Saturday. Brad took a little swim not on purpose but that was about it. We claimed our campsite, one which I've been to before, it's off the beaten path a bit and we were happy to see it was empty.

Sunday's paddling involved a lot of rapids which was a nice change of pace. Especially since past years there hasn't been enough water in the river to paddle on much less have rapids. It was nice not having to get out of the boat ever. We had our lunch at the Old Paint Mine and it wasn't much later that we were pulling out of the river and on the way home.

SCUBA

2009-07-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Jeff got his Open Water SCUBA certification lat weekend.

Jeff is finally home!

2009-06-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

Hopefully to stay for a little while at least! He's got some posts up on his blog with some photos from the Hot Rod Power Tour.

Jeff's Trips

2009-06-07T09:41:00.001-07:00

Since Jeff isn't so great about updating I'll leave you some links to his photos from Switzerland and hiking.

First is Switzerland

Hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail

I'm sure he'll have more photos to share when he and his dad get back from the Hot Rod Power Tour.

Jeff's Hiking Trip Update #2

2009-05-17T20:46:00.000-07:00

They were back on the trail today armed with warmer sleeping bags and I think warmer weather. From what I can tell from the forecast it will be in the 60s all week but with some rain. Got a text around 4pm that they made it to the same group campsite that we camped at last year, the one where we ended up on the rocks over the waterfall. Though being a Sunday night and still kind of chilly for camping I don't think they'll have to fight for a spot in the "real" campsite.

Jeff's Hiking Trip

2009-05-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

So Jeff and Andy went up north on Thursday to start their thru-hike of the Superior Hiking Trail. Something like 250 miles total. They stayed in a hotel on Thursday night and set off at the beginning of the trail on Friday morning. Sounds like they hiked 12 miles and it was a tiring one. I got a call around 7pm last night saying it was raining but they got their tents up before it started. They were worn out and calling it a night. This morning's update was "it was so cold last night. I was okay but Andy almost froze to death. There was ice on the tents in the morning. We hiked on to Gooseberry Falls this morning and hitched a ride with a couple of campers to the car. Then we drove to Duluth so Andy could get a better sleeping bag. It's supposed to be worse tonight." So they are thawing out in a hotel tonight and picking the trail back up in the morning. Around 10 this morning when I checked the weather page it said 36F in Two Harbors. Brrrrr.

Wow an update!

2009-04-21T12:33:00.001-07:00

Just a photo of Jeff and I from this year's We Can Ride Annual Chefs' Brigade Dinner Fund Raiser (dang that's a mouthfull). Unfortunately I don't think I have a whole lot more to say! The kitchen is the same as it was on Thanksgiving, we haven't done any more work on it. Jeff's been working a little on the attached garage, putting up drywall and insulation. By this coming winter the new mini will be toasty warm. We started some yard work recently which I think involved making a worse mess than we started with. Jeff is pulling up some bushes and putting down pavers. I finally cleaned the stick pile out of the raspberry bushes. We have to get someone in to cut down some trees and grind some stumps one of these days, they are growing into the power lines. I'm not sure what the plans are for the garden this year, so far it's just the perennials. Jeff is itching to get working on his Camaro, he had his carb rebuilt and installed that already and has gone for a quick drive. The Trans Am still need an oil change and a new U joint before it gets out and about. And in a few short weeks Jeff is off for a 2.5 week hiking trip. He and his friend are going to hike the complete Superior Hiking Trail. Something over 200 miles. I think they are insane and I will be at home on the couch with a blanket.

Watch Out!

2009-02-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

Jeff made the mistake of getting me a Flip Mino HD camera for my birthday. It's a little video camera that takes HD videos. No tapes or memory cards, the camera just plugs right into the computer via USB and makes it a lot easier to get videos online.

Had I this camera a long time ago you'd be seeing videos of the silo getting knocked down or one of my dressage lessons on Axel. But those were taken on a video camera with a tape and the videos remain to this day on those tapes.

Mostly there is going to be a plethora of videos of my horses posted to my horse blog. So you might be spared the majority of the poor framing and bad editing that I'll do. But never fear, you'll get to view some select footage here as well.

To start things off, here is the very first video I ever took on the new camera. It's a riveting story about a guy watching television.

A Long Week

2009-01-30T05:50:00.000-08:00

It's been a long week. I am officially an NSM widow. In February every year Thomson has a big sales meeting and for several weeks before the meeting Jeff is up to his eyeballs in work. So much that he didn't even come home on Wednesday night, just worked straight through from 4am Wednesday until 4pm Thursday. Then of course he'll be out in Phoenix for the actual sales meeting to take photos or whatever it is they have him doing.

But I've been busy as well. My counterpart at work quit last week so now all the work is falling on me, on top of that the backlash from a slow December means that January is the opposite. Now we're down to only one day left in the month and I'm behind my quota by 9 websites. So both Jeff and I are going to be in the office late tonight.

Tomorrow we'll take a break from our cubicle jail cells and transport the horses from their current barn to the new barn 2 miles from our house. Having the horses closer will be so nice. But I'm guessing that as soon as the horses are settled in it'll be back to work. Luckily Sunday is a new month so my goals will start all over again.

We haven't been home much since there's been so much going on with our families, so the kitchen is in the same state that it was at Thanksgiving, functional but not quite finished. Maybe when things slow down again we'll get back to all the projects at the house. As long as the freezer has ice cream in it, I think we'll be fine.

The Mini and the Snow

2009-01-16T06:51:00.001-08:00

The mini isn't too bad in the snow but when the driveway hasn't been plowed and there's a foot of new snow, it gets a little unhappy.

Holiday Letter 2008

2009-01-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

I promised a copy of our holiday letter in case you didn't get one. So here it is in all it's glory.

Trying out the Email to Blog Feature

2009-01-02T07:36:00.001-08:00

Bear with me now, just trying out a feature that might make it easier for us to post entries. I promise one of these days to update with something truly interesting. Or just a little recap of the holidays. And I was going to post our holiday letter wasn't I? Wow so much to do, I must have really been slacking over the holidays. Sorry folks!

The Kitchen Project

2008-12-23T05:58:00.000-08:00

Yes, you have heard correctly, the kitchen is almost finished. And for now we'll just call it finished since it's so much more finished than it's ever been! We've even hosted Thanksgiving Dinner and a Pampered Chef party in the new kitchen. We still have to finish the cabinet above the stove and a few odds and ends like trim and toe kicks. But we're almost there. It was about a year in the making and wow is it nice to have counter space for cooking and putting down stuff that doesn't belong in the kitchen like mail and shopping bags and tools. ;) Be sure to check out all of our photos of the process as well as the before and after shots on our Flickr set.

Welcome to Our Blog!

2008-12-22T08:14:00.001-08:00

Why in the world has it taken this long for me to set up a blog for our website? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I already have eleventy billion blogs? Nah. I was just looking at EliseandJeff.com and noticed how stagnant it was. So why not set up a blog and pull in the feed? So here goes nothing!

Tada! Feed. Now the hard part will be keeping this updated. Jeff is working up the final touches to our holiday letter and I think I'll try and get a duplicate of that up here one of these days. And if I haven't lost momentum I will get some updated information about our little kitchen project posted.