If you are looking for the perfect gift for your gun owner please consider buying American made!  JD Haigler with RFired Holsters makes efficient molded holsters.  I use the word efficient because the Kydex molds to your gun setup so that it is easy to holster and unholster your piece. Whether you simply have a gun or you have a gun with a flashlight or other added piece, RFired can mold your holster to your setup.

JD also makes beautiful customized holsters to your specifications with your logo, name, or picture burned into the leather.  You can buy your enthusiast a one of a kind holster that will fit his or her personality and needs.

Responding to demand for comfortable Inside-Waistband concealable holsters that A) Have local customer service B) Have a quick turnaround of approximately two days(in area) vs. six weeks C) Can conform around any light, laser, sights or anything else you can mount on your gun D) Is cheaper than the competition.Also available is an Outside-Waistband Paddle holster that again: A) Has local customer service. (He’s a nice guy too. In my opinion) B) Quick turnaround once product is ordered C) Can conform to anything D) Is cheaper than the competitionRFired Holsters has two main holsters, customized to your need specifically. For most models, a bluegun can be obtained and I will not need to possess your firearm to make the holster. However, if I do not have the bluegun, or your firearm has any attachments, I will need it to make the holster. On the IWB model, prices will vary, but base price is 65$ Standard features offered include:1. Belt loop variants. (No extra charge for any version) A) Kydex Over the belt B) Kydex Jhooks C) Metal over the belt 2. Combat cut. (No extra charge) 3. Tuckeable 4. Adjustable gun tiltAlso offered is pig-skin lining inside the holster. This is important if you’re wanting to protect your gun from the normal wear a Kydex holster will cause. This is an additional 15$ added to the price. The OWB Modelhas a base price of $50. Standard features offered include:1. Paddle or beltloop attachment. Your choice. 2. Combat cut 3. Tilt is not adjustable, so I need to know what angle you want your handgun to be at, be it straight up, or an FBI angle.

Pigskin is also offered on this deal, but it’s $20

Here is a chance to give back to the group without spending a dime! I received a call from the fabulous Liz from Grow Nebraska explaining their latest endeavor to raise money and awareness for Grow.  I am always more than happy to promote what they are doing because they are such an incredible group.   (PS.  I found that texting the vote was easy!)

Here are the details!

GROW Nebraska Competing For Pepsi Refresh Grant Lincoln, Neb. – Aug. 4, 2011 – During the month of August, GROW Nebraska will contend with 122 other hopefuls for $25K from Pepsi Refresh. GROW applied for the grant to get necessary funds to help small Nebraska businesses compete globally through training and market access. Pepsi will award up to 64 grants and more than $1.2 million this year to fund amazing ideas that refresh the world. Ideas with the most votes on www.RefreshEverything.com will be funded. To vote for GROW Nebraska online:

• Visit http://www.refresheverything.com/grownebraska
• Click “Vote for this Idea.”

• A pop-up window will appear asking for a login using either Facebook or a Pepsi Refresh account. If you have a Facebook account, click the Facebook button and grant access so that you can vote.

• If you do not have a Facebook account, click create an account, fill out the required information and hit submit.

• Once you finish this, your vote will have been recorded.

To vote for GROW Nebraska via text message:

• Text 107918 to Pepsi (73774).

You can vote every day. Also, on the inside of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi or Pepsi Max boxes and bottle caps, there are ten-digit codes that can be entered for additional votes. The bottle caps are the yellow ones. Please save and send these to info@grownebraska.org. GROW will be offering a 10% discount on purchases to customers who turn in codes. Pepsi has awarded over $20 million through the Pepsi Refresh Project and local grants to ideas across the country including grants to refresh over 123 schools, 78 parks and playgrounds, 21 foster homes and housing facilities, and starting up more than 60 independent organizations. GROW Nebraska is a 501(c)3 non-profit that has been serving hundreds of Nebraska small businesses and entrepreneurs since 1998. Based in Holbrook, Neb., the mission of GROW Nebraska is to create sustainable economic development by supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses through promotion, market access and education. GROW Nebraska is the only program of its kind in the state. GROW Nebraska welcomes both product and service based businesses. All members receive online and print-based promotion. Members have the opportunity to sell products online at www.shopgrownebraska.org, and in various retail venues across the state, including the Hilltop Mall in Kearney, Conestoga Mall in Grand Island and Downtown Norfolk. The program also offers educational workshops and online seminars on a wide range of topics including marketing, financing, and product development. All Nebraska businesses and entrepreneurs are eligible to join GROW Nebraska. To learn more about GROW Nebraska, its members, and how the program is advancing Nebraska’s economic role nationally and internationally, visit www.grownebraska.org. For more information, contact: Heidi Garvin Social Media Coordinator GROW Nebraska info@grownebraska.org

This week I put together some cinnamon rolls for my crew that is detassling and because I do not have a timer on this stove, I overcooked one batch.  Nothing was burnt but they were not as soft as the batch before them.

We try very hard not to waste anything so I sat down and thought about what I could do with overcooked  cinnamon rolls.  Here is my recipe that turned out great!

If  you do not have a good cinnamon roll recipe or stale cinnamon rolls on hand here is the recipe to the Ultimate Cinnamon Roll.

French Toast Casserole

3 cups of chopped up cinnamon rolls

6 eggs beaten with 1/2 cup of milk

Mix all ingredients together and put in baking dish, cook at 350 for 25 minutes or til it starts to brown.  Serve with syrup. (more milk can be added if it looks dry)

Also one small pan of sweet potato rolls did not rise so I made a regular breakfast casserole out of them.

Next time you are cooking and you fail to get the results you want, don’t despair, just create a new dish!   It may just become your new favorite!

We knew from the beginning this house was temporary, the owners were going to tear it down and put their dream home on the great piece of land.  When the opportunity came up to buy a cute victorian in Nelson, Nebraska we jumped at it.  It needed a lot of work but we had boys just going into their teens and they needed to learn all of those skills.  In the mean time our landlord’s sold the property after we had been there temporarily for five years and we bought a beautiful property outside of  Trumbull, Nebraska with fourteen acres.

In 2006 a gifted gentleman from Idaho proposed that we go into business with him and have rentals.  He had a property in Harvard he had bought site unseen and we had the property in Nelson.  Dave and Harold put the LLC together and we quickly bought three more houses, two in Nelson and one in Clay Center.  We have been landlord’s now for about three years and we are evolving!

We found that driving an hour to rental property for any reason was to far to drive and was to far to deal properly with renting and renters.  We found that we did not want to spend all of our extra time and weekends working on a house we were not going to live in.  We are naturally evolving!  We are adapting as we learn and have decided it is time to sell the houses that are an hour away!

The following are pictures of our first house in Nelson.  It has a new roof, most of the lathe stripped out and is ready for someone to restore it.  We are needing seed money for our new ventures so we are asking $2500. for this property.

Here is my Craigslist ad:

Handyman Special 4 bedroom 1 bath House

We bought this 4 bedroom 1 bath house several years ago when we thought our rental would be sold out from under us. We have roofed all but one small flatroof which will be done by time of sale.

This house features:

large corner lot
quiet neighborhood
old victorian trim on the outside
small car garage/shed
4 bedrooms
1 bathroom
large kitchen area
small basement
pine trim
nice wood floors through most of house
half story
Front and back porches
old doors and knobs

The house is structurally sound it just needs someone with the time to bring it back to it’s prime. Must sell!
Much of the house has been stripped of it’s plaster except where wallboard had already been done. The kitchen cabinets were taken out by previous owner.

Any questions, please write. We can also give you the address for more pics

5th and Maple at Maple (google map) (yahoo map)

Up to this point in our goat journey it has been all sweet and fun but this last month  brought all of that to a screeching halt.  The saying that is all fun and games til someone gets hurt is so true in this case.

At the end of May we traveled with our baby goats to give them a new home.  I had traveled with them before when they were smaller but they fit in totes in the car or truck and there were no problems.  This week however the temperatures went from 70 degrees to over a hundred and I had the goats traveling in an wire enclosed carrier in the back of the truck.

We fed them as normal and started out but had no idea how hot it would get or how the heat would effect them.  I reached my destination and our goat who was lame suddenly died.  The next morning, I had a goat with bloat and the following morning, he died.  I believe that the heat and the travel stressed their systems so much it killed them.  On top of these two, I had one injured at the farm we were on and that injury even though it was not major stressed her system and we had fought to save her but she too died.

Unfortunate lessons have been learned!  When traveling back, I had less goats and I carried them in cage in the cab of the truck with the air on.  I chose a day that was cooler to travel, I started earlier and I went straight home.  I have not lost any more but I can say I am very careful about what we do.

I am glad that I did not know of the heartache ahead of time, It would have paralyzed me and I still would not have these wonderful babies that get into everything but give so much sweet companionship it is worth it.

One important thing we learned in this process other than traveling in heat is that a good quality aloe does more for goat bloat than almost anything else we tried.  One of the goats ended up at the vet and they tubed him but it did not help any better than the Aloe.   A twelve hour fasting period is also good when they show signs of bloat.

We have gone almost a full month without major problems, Praise the Lord!!!

These two ladies were helping 500 goats  give birth.  On top of the birthing there was nanny school to help mamma’s adopt babies and there were bottle feedings for those babies that did not have mammas.  Of course there was also fence that had to be taken down, moved and built to give a food supply to the goats!

Plan A did not go as planned where Michelle and Heather kept all the babies for Heather’s new goat herd because two people can only do so much when one has a broken ankle and is headed for surgery.  I became plan B!

I loved being plan b but I was not prepared to take on 13 new baby goats that I was going to bottle feed!  Like western Nebraska, we were getting a lot of rain and these babies needed shelter!  After thinking over the situation, we cleaned out a chevy van we were preparing for scrap.

A chevy van has become my new small animal barn.  These poor babies just needed a shelter from the rain, otherwise they are pretty hardy.   The van is a great water tight shelter when it is raining and a place to lay under and around when it is sunny.

When life throws a curve ball and you become plan b, just be creative and go with it!  We did and we’re sure glad we didn’t miss it!

If you would like more information on goat grazing, come take Happy Goats Grazing:  Successful Starts Seminar  www.joyfulpromotions.com

The adult male is a beautiful deep chocolate brown.  He is right out of some mountain ram truck commercial, very majestic.  He is definitely in charge of the group that consists of a large female and two young chocolate kids and himself.

There were no fences on the property that would keep these critters in.  In fact outside of a barbed wire enclosure for miniature donkeys, there were no fences.  Imagine four adults and two teenagers trying to capture four wiley goats with no way of getting them into a corner, it was simply round and round the mulberry bush.  They finally decided some pre-planning was necessary and agreed to call us when they were ready.

As we drove home we thought about the fact that the couple never planned on fencing these creatures in.  They had very little grass on the property, they did not feed the goats pellets, they just let them graze.  Soon the neighbors land would become the goats favorite place to hang out.   Because goats are voracious, the crop damage would be extensive.   We really should be responsible animal owners!

Please fence them in!  Electric goat netting is easy to set up and take down and move so that the goats are eating  weeds in a concentrated style.  If you don’t have the property to feed them and you are not going to fence them in and feed them pellets, don’t get them.

In the early part of the 20th century goats were introduced on Mauii.  At the time they were seeding the islands so that there was a food supply  or some such thing.  When we were in Mauii in 1993 we mentioned that we had seen goats on Haleakalah and they imediately went hunting for them.  Native trees, shrubs and other plants were being destroyed by the goats and there were erosion problems because of that.  They allowed them be hunted but when that did not work, they destroyed as many of them as they could find.

So how did I get from one couple letting their goats run free to Mauii?  Goats can be a wonderful tool for weed eradication but they need to be managed with fences so that they do not destroy property and natural resources.  Goats multiply and soon they are running amuck, we should take our lessons from the people of Mauii!

Please Fence them In!

So here is a multi-million dollar company who could afford to have their pastures mowed on a regular basis,  inviting about 200 goats to come clean up their pastures.  Google says that is cleaner and greener this way and way more fun!

My question is, if Google does it, shouldn’t we?  I don’t agree with most of what Google does but I do have to say in the instance they got it right!

If you would like to know more about Goat Grazing and how you can implement it in your business or how you can start a business.  Check us out at www.joyfulpromotions.com or you can Google it, lol.

My two little babies,  JarJar and Binks are the most loving, beautiful goats in the world.  They are easily satisfied with love and petting.   In the area of food however, these two little demons have an  insatiable appetite!

When I picked them up on Monday, Michelle told me not to spoil them.  Seriously?  you put them in my arms, told me their mother had died, they are cuddling and looking to me for love and I was  told not to spoil them?  So,  I had to ask her exactly what she meant.

Michelle told me that these lovely little critters would drink just as much milk as I would give them and they would want more but they were only allowed so much and it would be detrimental to them to have more.  Ohhhh!  Good, I can feed them sensibly and then spoil them right?

We have certainly taken our foster parenting very seriously.  JarJar and Binks only get the amount of food that we can safely allow.  All the hugs, ear ticklings and cuddling are just to make sure they digest it properly!

When these two are older and out in the real world that insatiability will be to our benefit.  They’re insatiable appetites will clear whole fields of weeds which will in turn provide really nice fertilizer to the owner of the field and a usable piece of property without the hassle of clearing it themselves.

To learn more about these wonderful creatures and how they can help you manage your property and disrupt your life, lol, check out www.joyfulpromotions.com for our seminar dates!

On Monday I went to Western Nebraska to get a hands on perspective of Michelle Wendall’s Happy Goats Grazing operation.   Michelle winters her goats on her daughter’s property and in the spring they have a couple of months of kidding.

There were mammas and babies of all shapes and colors scattered across the landscape.  Michelle and her daughter had them separated according to what stage of the process they were in.    Mammas and babies that were healthy and taking care of babies on their own were close to the house.  Other nannies were in the trees waiting to drop their packages.  A nursery was set up for orphans and a nursing school was created for mammas who had lost their babies and orphans who had lost their mammas.   Babies were paired with mammas and taught how to nurse, I love how this works!  Michelle’s daughter Heather just has a knack for teaching.

I toured the operation, took down fence, put up fence, hitched up a water wagon, drove the old stick shift truck across the pasture to their home and even came home with a couple of kid orphans myself!!!  Oh what fun they are and what fun I had!  Thanks Michelle and Heather for all of the fun!

Check out tomorrows blog:  Insatiable appetites!