I am not saying this is truly the cause, but could the fact that I am using a white "base paint" with a warning written underneath that it "HAS TO BE TINTED BEFORE USE" have anything to do the fact that I've had to put FIVE coats of paint on the doors and at least 3 on the stairs so far and it still needs another coat each? Not to mention the fact that I didn't realized it was "base paint" until literally the last drop of the whole can and I was sitting there wondering how and why white paint would dry with a yellow tint.
For days I've been slaving over this painting wondering why it is taking such an ungodly amount of coats and I could have saved myself about half the time by actually using paint intended for the use instead of a base paint. So much for paying attention to what I'm pulling off the shelf.
Good grief. Hand me award, I've got to be the winner!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
You've We've got mail!
Anyone notice what we got in the mail???
TATTOOS!
Thanks Lois! The kids were so darned excited they didn't even listen to me read the letter.
Thanks Becky too for the card. You guys are great!
TATTOOS!Thanks Lois! The kids were so darned excited they didn't even listen to me read the letter.
Thanks Becky too for the card. You guys are great!
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sustaining
I'll spare you the photos of this next post as most of you, I imagine, may be pretty disgusted at reading about it.
We left out pretty early yesterday morning after morning chores and went up to the Jo's and Franks. Back in the early spring they had bought a Nubian/Boer whether (castrated male goat) for fall butchering. His time had kinda come. Well, it hadn't kinda, it had. They also had about 8 roosters and 8 is just too many. One is plenty.
Jeremiah, the kids and I made the 90 mile trek up and butchered the goat. Well, Jeremiah and Frank butchered...actually, it was more like Frank...Jeremiah helped hold the carcass still but really, 2 people is too many when it comes to knife wielding.
We butchered 3 roosters as well. I wasn't looking forward to this scalding bit as my Grandma says to this day she cannot stand the smell of a scalded chicken. To be quite honest, I didn't smell a thing and after Jeremiah's tweezer plucking incident with that wild turkey he shot 2 years ago, I can honestly say that scalding is the way to go! Those feathers come off so easily and after about 7 minutes worth of work, ya gotta clean bird!
Admittedly, I would rather pluck a birth (scalded of course) than smell goat blood. Which brings me to my discussion on goat's meat. So many people love's goat's meat. It's much leaner than beef and it's eaten more around the world than beef.
Jeremiah and the neighbor butchered one of their meat goats last Spring and after tasting it, I thought surely my dairy goat raising was going to be an issue because I just couldn't stomach it! Which is kinda funny in and of itself, because Jeremiah BBQ'ed the thin meat from the stomach of that goat. Anyway...it wasn't that it was bad, at all. It wasn't the greatest meat we've ever had either. Both of us agree that "Cookie" the cow's t-bone steak was hands down the best meat we've ever eaten.
For those of you who don't know, "Cookie" was the same neighbor's angus that was butchered last sprig.
At any rate, as I said, it wasn't that the meat was bad. I was there for the butcher and something about the smell of the blood really soured me to goat's meat I think. I didn't agree with the neighbor wanting to hang it to rest (like a cow) for 24 hours either but I tried the meat anyway and the taste of the same smell of blood lingered and it just wasn't something I wanted to try again. It may have just been me. Jeremiah said it was good, tough, but good.
So, after that incident, I figured the best thing to do was to try to find someone to trade the culls with for home raised meat or take them to auction for the cash. We wouldn't need much of the meat since I didn't like it.
However, after last night's BBQ of the ribs and tenderloin, I can honestly say that goat IS good. I am just assuming that letting the goat hang last spring may have made it taste stronger. The tenderloin we had last night was fresh, hours old, and tasted like mild beef...not gamey, not overpowering, nothing like that. So, we're back on with keeping more of the meat whethers. I would still love to be able to trade some for home grown beef as I refuse to have a cow but that can be figured out next year.
I can honestly say there wasn't a whole lotta meat from this goat. He was perfect butchering age and probably wouldn't have gotten much more out of him if he was older. I think we figured on 35 meals, how much weight it yielded I don't know as we didn't weigh it but we figured it came out to about $2.22 a meal for the meat, possibly less as she may get left overs. I think all in all we got 7 different roasts and 35 portions of ground meat. A lot of it went to ground meat. It's not that bad I don't guess as they did pay for the whether when he was a youngster and paid for feed and what not. It would be much more economical to not have to buy one. Buying goat meat in the store, which I've yet to see here, is quite a bit more expensive so all in all, it was economical nonetheless.
On sort of that same note though, I may have found a pig farmer to buy my milk. Interestingly enough, it may also be a source of alfalfa and beef as well. Selling milk to a pig farmer really delights me as we may both benefit handsomely.
I've been debating on when we should get chickens and I had thought it may be best to wait 'til spring when it warms up so I wouldn't have to keep chicks alive in the cold weather but actually, I think we may go ahead and buy some online.
I've gone back and forth on the free range chickens vs. not in regards to the goats and I think it may be best to allow them to coexist. If the chickens start getting into the goat's feeders though, I draw the line there and will have a completely separate area for them...somewhere.
I have done some research on breeds and I think we're gonna go with 6 Buff Orphington females and 1 male, 76Barred Rock females and 1 male, 6 Rhode Island Red females and 1 male, a couple banty hens (because they are GREAT setters of anyone's eggs) and a couple guinnes. God knows, I HATE guineas, but with the amount of ticks we've had, even to see if the guineas will help cut down on the number, I will live with the noise. Plus too, the neighbor has those barky dogs and I just love having loud and annoying "out of the ordinary" animals to piss him off (like guineas, and goats in heat). I don't know if it actually does. But the simple thought of knowing it may makes me smile. The three main breeds I've chosen seem to be very good dual purpose (egg and meat). The guineas (if female) also lay edible eggs and the bantys will also be egg producers though I doubt would yield very much meat. I think banty roosters are nearly as cute (from a distance of course) as baby goats and we may get one of those. Jeremiah says I have a few too many roosters for my number of hens but I just have this thing with un-purebred or is it interracial...interbred (?) chickens. I'm sure in a few years I just won't care :o)
You may be laughing wondering how I will be getting male chickens and how I will keep all the breeds seperate if I plan to free-range...if I order them online they are sexed and guaranteed. I can also order something called a straight run which is a mix (extras per say) but I don't want to chance getting a lot of males because they will just end up in the pot and spending more than $1 for a male chick I'll still have to raise doesn't really make a lot of sense.
I wonder to myself how I expect to keep the breeds separate since I do plan to free range them. It's not like they are picky about what breed of the opposite sex they breed with. I guess my biggest concern is having a free for all and end up with some funky cross bred chickens but I've got a plan for that! I don't know how good of a plan it is but all I can do is try. Jo's had chickens for a number of years. She assures me banty's are excellent setters and excellent mothers. The plan is when I'd like more of one breed, pen that specific breed together for a week or so and keep all the fertilized eggs, stick 'em under a banty at night and she will set them and I'll end up with a purebred chicken. Every other egg we can eat but to keep the breeds "pure" that will be the plan of attack. We'll see how that goes. We could also incubate them in an incubator and we may but that's some other time.
Just thoughts for now...the goat's are screaming at me for dinner. Best I go.
We left out pretty early yesterday morning after morning chores and went up to the Jo's and Franks. Back in the early spring they had bought a Nubian/Boer whether (castrated male goat) for fall butchering. His time had kinda come. Well, it hadn't kinda, it had. They also had about 8 roosters and 8 is just too many. One is plenty.
Jeremiah, the kids and I made the 90 mile trek up and butchered the goat. Well, Jeremiah and Frank butchered...actually, it was more like Frank...Jeremiah helped hold the carcass still but really, 2 people is too many when it comes to knife wielding.
We butchered 3 roosters as well. I wasn't looking forward to this scalding bit as my Grandma says to this day she cannot stand the smell of a scalded chicken. To be quite honest, I didn't smell a thing and after Jeremiah's tweezer plucking incident with that wild turkey he shot 2 years ago, I can honestly say that scalding is the way to go! Those feathers come off so easily and after about 7 minutes worth of work, ya gotta clean bird!
Admittedly, I would rather pluck a birth (scalded of course) than smell goat blood. Which brings me to my discussion on goat's meat. So many people love's goat's meat. It's much leaner than beef and it's eaten more around the world than beef.
Jeremiah and the neighbor butchered one of their meat goats last Spring and after tasting it, I thought surely my dairy goat raising was going to be an issue because I just couldn't stomach it! Which is kinda funny in and of itself, because Jeremiah BBQ'ed the thin meat from the stomach of that goat. Anyway...it wasn't that it was bad, at all. It wasn't the greatest meat we've ever had either. Both of us agree that "Cookie" the cow's t-bone steak was hands down the best meat we've ever eaten.
For those of you who don't know, "Cookie" was the same neighbor's angus that was butchered last sprig.
At any rate, as I said, it wasn't that the meat was bad. I was there for the butcher and something about the smell of the blood really soured me to goat's meat I think. I didn't agree with the neighbor wanting to hang it to rest (like a cow) for 24 hours either but I tried the meat anyway and the taste of the same smell of blood lingered and it just wasn't something I wanted to try again. It may have just been me. Jeremiah said it was good, tough, but good.
So, after that incident, I figured the best thing to do was to try to find someone to trade the culls with for home raised meat or take them to auction for the cash. We wouldn't need much of the meat since I didn't like it.
However, after last night's BBQ of the ribs and tenderloin, I can honestly say that goat IS good. I am just assuming that letting the goat hang last spring may have made it taste stronger. The tenderloin we had last night was fresh, hours old, and tasted like mild beef...not gamey, not overpowering, nothing like that. So, we're back on with keeping more of the meat whethers. I would still love to be able to trade some for home grown beef as I refuse to have a cow but that can be figured out next year.
I can honestly say there wasn't a whole lotta meat from this goat. He was perfect butchering age and probably wouldn't have gotten much more out of him if he was older. I think we figured on 35 meals, how much weight it yielded I don't know as we didn't weigh it but we figured it came out to about $2.22 a meal for the meat, possibly less as she may get left overs. I think all in all we got 7 different roasts and 35 portions of ground meat. A lot of it went to ground meat. It's not that bad I don't guess as they did pay for the whether when he was a youngster and paid for feed and what not. It would be much more economical to not have to buy one. Buying goat meat in the store, which I've yet to see here, is quite a bit more expensive so all in all, it was economical nonetheless.
On sort of that same note though, I may have found a pig farmer to buy my milk. Interestingly enough, it may also be a source of alfalfa and beef as well. Selling milk to a pig farmer really delights me as we may both benefit handsomely.
I've been debating on when we should get chickens and I had thought it may be best to wait 'til spring when it warms up so I wouldn't have to keep chicks alive in the cold weather but actually, I think we may go ahead and buy some online.
I've gone back and forth on the free range chickens vs. not in regards to the goats and I think it may be best to allow them to coexist. If the chickens start getting into the goat's feeders though, I draw the line there and will have a completely separate area for them...somewhere.
I have done some research on breeds and I think we're gonna go with 6 Buff Orphington females and 1 male, 76Barred Rock females and 1 male, 6 Rhode Island Red females and 1 male, a couple banty hens (because they are GREAT setters of anyone's eggs) and a couple guinnes. God knows, I HATE guineas, but with the amount of ticks we've had, even to see if the guineas will help cut down on the number, I will live with the noise. Plus too, the neighbor has those barky dogs and I just love having loud and annoying "out of the ordinary" animals to piss him off (like guineas, and goats in heat). I don't know if it actually does. But the simple thought of knowing it may makes me smile. The three main breeds I've chosen seem to be very good dual purpose (egg and meat). The guineas (if female) also lay edible eggs and the bantys will also be egg producers though I doubt would yield very much meat. I think banty roosters are nearly as cute (from a distance of course) as baby goats and we may get one of those. Jeremiah says I have a few too many roosters for my number of hens but I just have this thing with un-purebred or is it interracial...interbred (?) chickens. I'm sure in a few years I just won't care :o)
You may be laughing wondering how I will be getting male chickens and how I will keep all the breeds seperate if I plan to free-range...if I order them online they are sexed and guaranteed. I can also order something called a straight run which is a mix (extras per say) but I don't want to chance getting a lot of males because they will just end up in the pot and spending more than $1 for a male chick I'll still have to raise doesn't really make a lot of sense.
I wonder to myself how I expect to keep the breeds separate since I do plan to free range them. It's not like they are picky about what breed of the opposite sex they breed with. I guess my biggest concern is having a free for all and end up with some funky cross bred chickens but I've got a plan for that! I don't know how good of a plan it is but all I can do is try. Jo's had chickens for a number of years. She assures me banty's are excellent setters and excellent mothers. The plan is when I'd like more of one breed, pen that specific breed together for a week or so and keep all the fertilized eggs, stick 'em under a banty at night and she will set them and I'll end up with a purebred chicken. Every other egg we can eat but to keep the breeds "pure" that will be the plan of attack. We'll see how that goes. We could also incubate them in an incubator and we may but that's some other time.
Just thoughts for now...the goat's are screaming at me for dinner. Best I go.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Kansas
A couple photos that I snapped this afternoon...
...On my way to pick up our new goat!
Meat (I'm so bad!) Meet Fleur! (SG (Superior Genetics) Six M Galaxy Hermione's Fleur)
Yeah, I couldn't help it. She's a sweet 4-year-old gal. Should give me some nice kids in the spring. The (human) kids love her.
...On my way to pick up our new goat!
Yeah, I couldn't help it. She's a sweet 4-year-old gal. Should give me some nice kids in the spring. The (human) kids love her.Thursday, September 23, 2010
This week
Woke up late this morning, about half an hour late. Jeremiah said the alarm went off. I was dead to the world after a pretty rough night.
I won't lie, the kids are still having grandparent and family withdrawals. Rachel's are bad at night, they always have been. Nights when she is overly tired, she has these emotional breakdowns where she cries inconsolably about people she misses, sometimes about people she barely knew (like Great Grandma Hargett).
They miss life in Ca. I won't lie, I do too. We're happy, don't get me wrong. We're very happy. But night time is especially hard when you're winding down from a long day, you're overly tired and your mind allows things to creep in. I have to think it will get better someday. The kids don't always understand why we had to move here. It's hard trying to explain that to them. On one hand it stinks, on the other hand, it's a great opportunity. Try telling that to a 4 and 6 year old though who don't understand grown up life and all the things that go with like dreams, and paychecks, and LIFE.
I have always had this "in between time", for lack of a better definition, where I want to go back home. In this case, maybe for the 2nd time of the 4 times we've moved in which all have been major moves, I do but I don't. In all cases we couldn't go back and pushing forward is the only direction to go. The "in between time" is the time where you miss what you left, aren't quite used to where you're at and pushing forward is living day to day knowing some day it will get better but currently is still a challenge to deal with. The "in between time" is the time when your heart still aches for the good memories you left knowing you won't live them again, missing the places and activities. Ug. I miss Apple Hill about this time.
We wish at times we could pick up friends and family and move them closer but we realize those people would miss their lives as well and so that wouldn't be fair, not to mention the fact that's it's a wishful dream, not reality :o). We do agree though that everyone would love it here, er, love parts of it anyway. It's green in the summer, I LOVE that! We don't have mountains, I like mountains. The things we do have are different from what we had in Ca. and they are nice in their own rights.
As each day passes, memories will be made here and the hurt becomes less and less. We are happy here, we love our property and this place. No, it's not California. It's different, in good ways, and it's just going to take time getting used to the new places to visit and making them a stomping ground for us year after year.
As a side note, we've yet to make it to the town of Yoder but I have it on good authority we will soon because I really want to see this Amish hardware store up close and personal. Maybe THAT will become our new stomping ground :o).
Jeremiah's family will be able to visit more often and I know that is something he looks forward to. Being on nearly opposite ends of the US makes visiting difficult and after 13 years of being nearly completely apart from his family, living in Kansas will make it possible for him to get back what he's been missing for so long. I am happy about that.
_____________________________________
Jeremiah has a welding simulator coming to school tomorrow. The state of Kansas (and possibly neighboring states) have a competition going on for all the highschools on this simulator for welding students. The school with the highest score will win prizes. Jeremiah said today anyone wanting to try it will be able to, their welding ability won't be of importance. He says winning isn't important. He may even be in the local paper!
It's nice to be able to say that I am or my husband is the new welding teacher at the high school. Granted, there are a few high schools around in other towns, and even though they may not know Jeremiah's name or face yet, in the event someone were to say something like "my son is taking welding at H. High" people will remember that at one point they met the instructor or the wife of the instructor...it's a small town feeling like that. You kinda get to know people easier that way. Being the only welding teacher at H. High is a pretty recognizable thing. Seems everyone around here works in education or has a spouse or neighbor or family member (or several) who does.
Along with the simulator, I learned today, Jeremiah is hosting a BBQ for the students. This evening we get to go shopping for hamburgers, hot dogs and all the condiments for feed approximately 30 people. Nice right?
___________________________________
Rachel is going on her first field trip tomorrow to Dillon's Nature Center right here in Hutch. There is also a carnival at school tomorrow evening that we'll be attending.
____________________________________
It's raining pretty good right now as I write this. We've needed it. The storms seem to keep skirting us and my grass has been fading to a nice shade of brown.
______________________________________
There is a doe (goat) up for sale by a herd somewhat close by, at Fiddler's Ridge (about 35 min. from here). I am back and forth on buying her. She's a Six M Galaxy doe and for anyone who's not familiar, they are known for their high milk production genetics. My spotted doe Granite's sire is a Six M Galaxy buck.
____________________________________
I am nearly finished with the basement. The floor is painted and I finished up the faux painting this morning. I has planned to do faux tile but I could not find 1/4" or anything close to it in painter's tape and I didn't feel like cutting it all down by hand from 3/4-1" widths so it just all got an all over sponged coat. It looks nice, I think. I am hoping everything is in place for me to finally start sewing again on Monday!
____________________________________
Rachel's poison ivy on her face cleared has nearly completely cleared up, no doctor intervention required but she must have gotten into it yet again while Jo and Frank and the kids were here because now it's all over her left side of her body. I'm about at my wits end!
______________________________________
Jo, Frank and the kids came over on Saturday and spent the night. We all went to the K-State fair on Sunday and had a good time. The majority of my day was spent at the goat show. I met up with a gal who lives right here in Hutch who raises some lovely Nubians.
_____________________________________
The rain is coming down in buckets now and the kids will be home from school in just a little while. I've yet to do the dishes from today and I need to start on dinner. Over and out for now.
I won't lie, the kids are still having grandparent and family withdrawals. Rachel's are bad at night, they always have been. Nights when she is overly tired, she has these emotional breakdowns where she cries inconsolably about people she misses, sometimes about people she barely knew (like Great Grandma Hargett).
They miss life in Ca. I won't lie, I do too. We're happy, don't get me wrong. We're very happy. But night time is especially hard when you're winding down from a long day, you're overly tired and your mind allows things to creep in. I have to think it will get better someday. The kids don't always understand why we had to move here. It's hard trying to explain that to them. On one hand it stinks, on the other hand, it's a great opportunity. Try telling that to a 4 and 6 year old though who don't understand grown up life and all the things that go with like dreams, and paychecks, and LIFE.
I have always had this "in between time", for lack of a better definition, where I want to go back home. In this case, maybe for the 2nd time of the 4 times we've moved in which all have been major moves, I do but I don't. In all cases we couldn't go back and pushing forward is the only direction to go. The "in between time" is the time where you miss what you left, aren't quite used to where you're at and pushing forward is living day to day knowing some day it will get better but currently is still a challenge to deal with. The "in between time" is the time when your heart still aches for the good memories you left knowing you won't live them again, missing the places and activities. Ug. I miss Apple Hill about this time.
We wish at times we could pick up friends and family and move them closer but we realize those people would miss their lives as well and so that wouldn't be fair, not to mention the fact that's it's a wishful dream, not reality :o). We do agree though that everyone would love it here, er, love parts of it anyway. It's green in the summer, I LOVE that! We don't have mountains, I like mountains. The things we do have are different from what we had in Ca. and they are nice in their own rights.
As each day passes, memories will be made here and the hurt becomes less and less. We are happy here, we love our property and this place. No, it's not California. It's different, in good ways, and it's just going to take time getting used to the new places to visit and making them a stomping ground for us year after year.
As a side note, we've yet to make it to the town of Yoder but I have it on good authority we will soon because I really want to see this Amish hardware store up close and personal. Maybe THAT will become our new stomping ground :o).
Jeremiah's family will be able to visit more often and I know that is something he looks forward to. Being on nearly opposite ends of the US makes visiting difficult and after 13 years of being nearly completely apart from his family, living in Kansas will make it possible for him to get back what he's been missing for so long. I am happy about that.
_____________________________________
Jeremiah has a welding simulator coming to school tomorrow. The state of Kansas (and possibly neighboring states) have a competition going on for all the highschools on this simulator for welding students. The school with the highest score will win prizes. Jeremiah said today anyone wanting to try it will be able to, their welding ability won't be of importance. He says winning isn't important. He may even be in the local paper!
It's nice to be able to say that I am or my husband is the new welding teacher at the high school. Granted, there are a few high schools around in other towns, and even though they may not know Jeremiah's name or face yet, in the event someone were to say something like "my son is taking welding at H. High" people will remember that at one point they met the instructor or the wife of the instructor...it's a small town feeling like that. You kinda get to know people easier that way. Being the only welding teacher at H. High is a pretty recognizable thing. Seems everyone around here works in education or has a spouse or neighbor or family member (or several) who does.
Along with the simulator, I learned today, Jeremiah is hosting a BBQ for the students. This evening we get to go shopping for hamburgers, hot dogs and all the condiments for feed approximately 30 people. Nice right?
___________________________________
Rachel is going on her first field trip tomorrow to Dillon's Nature Center right here in Hutch. There is also a carnival at school tomorrow evening that we'll be attending.
____________________________________
It's raining pretty good right now as I write this. We've needed it. The storms seem to keep skirting us and my grass has been fading to a nice shade of brown.
______________________________________
There is a doe (goat) up for sale by a herd somewhat close by, at Fiddler's Ridge (about 35 min. from here). I am back and forth on buying her. She's a Six M Galaxy doe and for anyone who's not familiar, they are known for their high milk production genetics. My spotted doe Granite's sire is a Six M Galaxy buck.
____________________________________
I am nearly finished with the basement. The floor is painted and I finished up the faux painting this morning. I has planned to do faux tile but I could not find 1/4" or anything close to it in painter's tape and I didn't feel like cutting it all down by hand from 3/4-1" widths so it just all got an all over sponged coat. It looks nice, I think. I am hoping everything is in place for me to finally start sewing again on Monday!
____________________________________
Rachel's poison ivy on her face cleared has nearly completely cleared up, no doctor intervention required but she must have gotten into it yet again while Jo and Frank and the kids were here because now it's all over her left side of her body. I'm about at my wits end!
______________________________________
Jo, Frank and the kids came over on Saturday and spent the night. We all went to the K-State fair on Sunday and had a good time. The majority of my day was spent at the goat show. I met up with a gal who lives right here in Hutch who raises some lovely Nubians.
_____________________________________
The rain is coming down in buckets now and the kids will be home from school in just a little while. I've yet to do the dishes from today and I need to start on dinner. Over and out for now.
A (crude) Floorplan
Finally, the pièce de résistance. It should give those of you who have been asking a better idea of our floor plan. The house faces South to the road. I don't know what our frontage is but it's pretty substantial. The property is in an L shape with the larger portion of the "L" to the north. We also have an easement to the road to the west across the neighbor's northern boundary. We have the option of an easement if in the event we ever wanted to put it through for a second driveway/access.
We near daily talk about how to remodel the place. I think we've decided to go off the back, put a covered porch on the front and bump out the entry way just a bit to give us a more formal foyer/entryway. The back remodel will allow for a more open floor plan with a kitchen/family room. The living room will remain a formal sitting area, and along with the kitchen/family room off the back, a new master bedroom and bathroom are in the plans as well along with a large deck with handicapped accessible ramp to both the family room and the (eventual) guest bedroom (that is right now the master bedroom).
We had talked about going off the front and while we do sit back from the road, I am wanting a much larger kitchen and liking the open floor plan concept, going off the back will give us a much nicer view of the property with the grazing goats, hills, trees, pond, etc. and keep the living portions of the house farther back from the road.
Obviously a lot may and probably will change from our current plans but we'd like to go out 20' from the house to the North by 50 foot wide a. From approximately the location of the wall between the bathroom and laundry, we'll come straight out. We cannot go off any further west where the master bath and bedroom are as our well is right there. But there is enough space to put in a nice deck with a wheelchair ramp along the side of the house which will also connect to the front porch/"wrap around" deck we'll put on. We'll install another window on the west side of the house in the master bedroom and french doors where the current window is now which will access the deck.
Above is the addition. It's a crude mock up. Somewhere in the plan will be a large pantry, a 1/2 bath accessible for the "living" parts of the house, and the laundry will be moved around a bit or made bigger with a door to access it from the deck. The laundry will have a wash area for after chores clean up to include a ground level wash basin for shoes, legs, feet, etc. Little kids with dirty feet should have a place to wash themselves without tracking through the house.
I don't exactly want the master bedroom accessible from right off the living room/kitchen so may work in a hall or something. The east side of the house has a real lovely view though and our (new) bedroom window will look right out onto the pond and pastures.
Anyway, these are future plans, nothings going to happen for a while but it's still nice to play with plans anyway.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Chastity Belts and Plastic Suits
I'm not really too happy of a camper mom today. Perhaps I am blame shifting here or maybe who I am pissed at is not really who I should be pissed at.
A week and a half ago Friday Rachel came home from school and said that somelittle wretch misguided child was touching her in the "privates". She had said once before that he was poking her in the rear end and now it had progressed to the front region. When she told me about the rear end poking 3 weeks ago I asked if she had told Mrs. H (Rachel's teacher)? She said she had. I thought that was the end of that. I asked, when the second incident had happened that Friday, and after some questioning I found out it was an every day occurrence in music class and that she had told two teachers now.
The reason it was still happening is that she had told two different teachers, neither of them had mentioned to each other (no reason to really) and so nothing had been done. I stewed about it all weekend and trotted down to school on Monday morning and talked with Mrs. H. I was assured it would stop, the little boy would be moved and the little boy's mother would be spoken with. I believed it, no reason not to.
My only concern is that he would be moved by another child who would then suffer the wrath of a sexual predator in the making. Maybe I am being a bit liberal with my assumption. I'm sure the odds are stacked in his favor that he'd turn out just fine. Jeremiah thinks I am being too harsh in saying that it's him and/or his parents to blame because, after all, our children poke each other. Not that it's common but it has been known to happen in which they are reprimanded for. BUT, we are family, and so okay, we've told them it's not okay to poke other people and it's not as if we walk down the hall and poke the other in any old place we choose in passing but we also teach our children that when someone asks you to stop it, you stop. And YES, they don't always stop fighting when we ask them to but dangit, I am trying to prove my point and I guess I don't really have an answer other than to say if it were an isolated incident, fine. If it happens again, his parents need a good whoopin'. Jeremiah is a half empty kinda guy. I'm a jump to conclusions too soon and raise all sorts of hell and suffer my wrath kinda gal. At least I didn't march down to the school on Friday, that may have turned out badly.
As far as I know the child has not touched her again and has been moved. Whether he's touched anyone else is anyone's guess. I've checked up with Rachel about it, she's told me he's not been but also has said she's not been asking about it either. Like I said...anyone's guess.
3 weeks ago Rachel came home with marker marks on her brand new pants. No big deal really. Accidents happen. How they happen THREE times on one pair of pants I don't know but moving on. I asked how it happened and she said some girl in her class did it on accident. Okay, fine. Last week, same thing. I'm thinking this girl is accident prone with the dry erase (PERMANENT) markers and I feel like taking my daughter's wardrobe fund out on her marking peer's rear end. Today Rachel comes home with marks on a third pair of pants and I have had it!
Seriously, do I really have to go down to the school AGAIN and talk to the teacher about a kid who's marking pants on purpose? And yes, it is on purpose. It's not like the gal's leaving the marker on her desk and it rolls off. Onto Rachel's pants. Three times. In three weeks. On THREE separate pair of pants. Nope, apparently she's marking all sorts of people and today I have freakin' had it with children who cannot behave themselves. We've got a cereal toucher and a cereal marker-er and it's what, the 5th week of school? What's next?
I am hating conventional school at the moment, and hating ill behaved children, and hating parents who are obviously idiots. Obviously right? Okay, maybe not obviously and maybe they aren't idiots but saying that they must be makes me feel better anyway, if only for a minute...until I were to meet them...then I would feel badly for speaking so poorly of them...unless...they really ARE idiots...which surely they must be...right?
So what, I need to buy my daughter a chastity belt to protect her from 6 year olds at school and a plastic suit for every day of the school week so I can just wipe it clean when someone starts marking it with permanent marker?
In a way, it's just clothing and touching isn't a big deal* unless I go freakin' out about it and making her feel like she should feel violated. I know. But on the other hand, we are not made of money and thankyouverymuch but I don't want to be touched in my "privates" when I am trying to harmonize. I do like to send my kids to school in clothing that makes them look and feel successful. A chastity belt doesn't sound like it would be too comfortable, not that I would know, I'm just assuming that it would be a distraction and if you're distracted in school you cannot concentrate and maybe these touchy marky kids should just be turned into chastity belts and plastic clothing.
*I am not downplaying the fact that touching should be off limits but unless there is a serious concern of children who touch turning into sexual predators, I really don't think it's that big of a deal. For the most part. When it's not my kid. I mean, you know what? Nevermind. It's not that big of a deal and people shouldn't make it to be a big deal but don't go teaching your children it's okay to touch people all willy nilly because it's not acceptable behavior and it's distracting and if someone tells you stop, DO IT. That's what the child should be taught.
Am I being to anal, shallow, any other choice adjectives? Maybe so. Part of me thinks so, the other part of me doesn't give a crap today.
I'm still pissed.
A week and a half ago Friday Rachel came home from school and said that some
The reason it was still happening is that she had told two different teachers, neither of them had mentioned to each other (no reason to really) and so nothing had been done. I stewed about it all weekend and trotted down to school on Monday morning and talked with Mrs. H. I was assured it would stop, the little boy would be moved and the little boy's mother would be spoken with. I believed it, no reason not to.
My only concern is that he would be moved by another child who would then suffer the wrath of a sexual predator in the making. Maybe I am being a bit liberal with my assumption. I'm sure the odds are stacked in his favor that he'd turn out just fine. Jeremiah thinks I am being too harsh in saying that it's him and/or his parents to blame because, after all, our children poke each other. Not that it's common but it has been known to happen in which they are reprimanded for. BUT, we are family, and so okay, we've told them it's not okay to poke other people and it's not as if we walk down the hall and poke the other in any old place we choose in passing but we also teach our children that when someone asks you to stop it, you stop. And YES, they don't always stop fighting when we ask them to but dangit, I am trying to prove my point and I guess I don't really have an answer other than to say if it were an isolated incident, fine. If it happens again, his parents need a good whoopin'. Jeremiah is a half empty kinda guy. I'm a jump to conclusions too soon and raise all sorts of hell and suffer my wrath kinda gal. At least I didn't march down to the school on Friday, that may have turned out badly.
As far as I know the child has not touched her again and has been moved. Whether he's touched anyone else is anyone's guess. I've checked up with Rachel about it, she's told me he's not been but also has said she's not been asking about it either. Like I said...anyone's guess.
3 weeks ago Rachel came home with marker marks on her brand new pants. No big deal really. Accidents happen. How they happen THREE times on one pair of pants I don't know but moving on. I asked how it happened and she said some girl in her class did it on accident. Okay, fine. Last week, same thing. I'm thinking this girl is accident prone with the dry erase (PERMANENT) markers and I feel like taking my daughter's wardrobe fund out on her marking peer's rear end. Today Rachel comes home with marks on a third pair of pants and I have had it!
Seriously, do I really have to go down to the school AGAIN and talk to the teacher about a kid who's marking pants on purpose? And yes, it is on purpose. It's not like the gal's leaving the marker on her desk and it rolls off. Onto Rachel's pants. Three times. In three weeks. On THREE separate pair of pants. Nope, apparently she's marking all sorts of people and today I have freakin' had it with children who cannot behave themselves. We've got a cereal toucher and a cereal marker-er and it's what, the 5th week of school? What's next?
I am hating conventional school at the moment, and hating ill behaved children, and hating parents who are obviously idiots. Obviously right? Okay, maybe not obviously and maybe they aren't idiots but saying that they must be makes me feel better anyway, if only for a minute...until I were to meet them...then I would feel badly for speaking so poorly of them...unless...they really ARE idiots...which surely they must be...right?
So what, I need to buy my daughter a chastity belt to protect her from 6 year olds at school and a plastic suit for every day of the school week so I can just wipe it clean when someone starts marking it with permanent marker?
In a way, it's just clothing and touching isn't a big deal* unless I go freakin' out about it and making her feel like she should feel violated. I know. But on the other hand, we are not made of money and thankyouverymuch but I don't want to be touched in my "privates" when I am trying to harmonize. I do like to send my kids to school in clothing that makes them look and feel successful. A chastity belt doesn't sound like it would be too comfortable, not that I would know, I'm just assuming that it would be a distraction and if you're distracted in school you cannot concentrate and maybe these touchy marky kids should just be turned into chastity belts and plastic clothing.
*I am not downplaying the fact that touching should be off limits but unless there is a serious concern of children who touch turning into sexual predators, I really don't think it's that big of a deal. For the most part. When it's not my kid. I mean, you know what? Nevermind. It's not that big of a deal and people shouldn't make it to be a big deal but don't go teaching your children it's okay to touch people all willy nilly because it's not acceptable behavior and it's distracting and if someone tells you stop, DO IT. That's what the child should be taught.
Am I being to anal, shallow, any other choice adjectives? Maybe so. Part of me thinks so, the other part of me doesn't give a crap today.
I'm still pissed.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Laid Up
The hay came in Tuesday, 104 bales. Two words. I'm tired!
The grower/seller was kind enough to bring the hay down on one of those big hay trailers. He only lives a few miles up the road and for us to make 3-4 trips with a flat bed wouldn't have been all that fun bring as how it'd be double the work basically...unloading it off the big trailer (as it was just brought in our of the field), loading it onto the flat bed, driving home, unloading it into the barn and doing ti 3-4 times.
However, I am wondering if it would have been easier in a way. The access wasn't all that easy to maneuver so we may do something about the fence line. Although, if the guy we bought it from had had the time he could have dropped the trailer and let Jeremiah back it up. As it was, he had obligations to attend to and had a much larger truck than our Explorer so he did the best he could and get it as close as he could. We later hooked up the Explorer anyway and get it a little closer.
Imagine moving 103 65 lb. bales stacked on a hay trailer into the barn. NOT FUN! But a good workout anyway.
It's super nice hay. I am so happy with it. I've been really happy with the hay quality here in Kansas compared to California. Everything we got there was so thick stemmed with the 1st and 3rd cutting being so courser stemmed that they'd waste 85% of it. That's money down the tube! The past two loads (3rd and 4th cutting this year) has been so leafy you have to look for the stems which equals less waste both on the ground and from the pocketbook.
After all that work, I feel like being laid up today.
The kids were off school Wednesday. It was in "in service" day meaning all the teachers work and all the kids get it off. I guess for a few years so many kids would play hooky from school to go to the fair they just decided to give them a free day to do so they wouldn't miss school. As it was, Tuesday was $1 day (get in for $1, ride the rides for $1 each, etc.) so a lot were out Tuesday anyway and then no school on Wednesday.
We're attending the fair tomorrow (Sunday), the last day. The senior dairy goat show is that day and Frank, Jo and the kids are coming to spend the night tonight so we can all go on Sunday. They are also bringing down about 50 bales of Brome hay (grass hay kinda like Orchard Grass) as well. I will be changing the goat's diet a bit to include the Brome to cut down on costs a bit and for two, they are wasting so little of the alfalfa as it is and getting so much from it, there's no reason to give them 100% alfalfa.
More news is that Rachel and Drew have yet again gotten into poison Ivy. Last February it was actually poison oak but practically the same difference when it comes to how one reacts to it, especially Rachel. Although, her reaction doesn't seem to be as bad as it was the the oak. I don't know if we caught it sooner, it hasn't been given enough time to cause her the reaction, it's not as potent or all of the above but so far, she's not had the swelling like she did last time.
I'd like to try to keep her off the prednisone but I have been vigilant about the hydrocrortisone and benadryl and for the past 2 days have gone to school at lunch time to administer/apply. We'll see what she looks like on Monday and if it's no better (or worse) I'll take her to the Dr. So far, at least parts, seem to look better. But it's worrying me it's not looking better all over as I got a small bit on the top of one finger and it's practically gone except for a few scabs. I am hoping it's just taking longer for her to fight it off.
We're expecting company at the end of the month. Jeremiah's Mom, sister, brother-in-law and their two kids are supposed to be coming to visit. I'm not real sure where we'll put everyone as I am still working on the basement but maybe next week I can get the baseboards down.
I did get the floor painted however it's just the "basecoat" that will be my grout color for my faux tile look. I still have the (probable) intricate job of laying masking tape and then sponge panting on top to create the tile look. I'm not real sure I'm all for all that but willing to give it a try anyway. I did discover the easiest painting I will ever do though FINALLY after the fiasco with the paneling. The gal at Walmart must have thought I was talking about painting concrete and not paneling because painting concrete was the easiest painting I ever did!
Goat breeding has begun. With any luck, Bonnie will have kids come the middle of February. Her handsome hunk of smelliness was Andy (my spotted buck) this year so hopefully we'll have bouncing spotted babies!
Lotsa work to do this Saturday. It was supposed to be cooler than the forecast is predicting darnit! We need to make a dump run from all the barn waste so that should be exciting!
I finally got around to registering my car in Kansas. I finally have Kansas tags!
That's all for now...
The grower/seller was kind enough to bring the hay down on one of those big hay trailers. He only lives a few miles up the road and for us to make 3-4 trips with a flat bed wouldn't have been all that fun bring as how it'd be double the work basically...unloading it off the big trailer (as it was just brought in our of the field), loading it onto the flat bed, driving home, unloading it into the barn and doing ti 3-4 times.
However, I am wondering if it would have been easier in a way. The access wasn't all that easy to maneuver so we may do something about the fence line. Although, if the guy we bought it from had had the time he could have dropped the trailer and let Jeremiah back it up. As it was, he had obligations to attend to and had a much larger truck than our Explorer so he did the best he could and get it as close as he could. We later hooked up the Explorer anyway and get it a little closer.
Imagine moving 103 65 lb. bales stacked on a hay trailer into the barn. NOT FUN! But a good workout anyway.
It's super nice hay. I am so happy with it. I've been really happy with the hay quality here in Kansas compared to California. Everything we got there was so thick stemmed with the 1st and 3rd cutting being so courser stemmed that they'd waste 85% of it. That's money down the tube! The past two loads (3rd and 4th cutting this year) has been so leafy you have to look for the stems which equals less waste both on the ground and from the pocketbook.
After all that work, I feel like being laid up today.
The kids were off school Wednesday. It was in "in service" day meaning all the teachers work and all the kids get it off. I guess for a few years so many kids would play hooky from school to go to the fair they just decided to give them a free day to do so they wouldn't miss school. As it was, Tuesday was $1 day (get in for $1, ride the rides for $1 each, etc.) so a lot were out Tuesday anyway and then no school on Wednesday.
We're attending the fair tomorrow (Sunday), the last day. The senior dairy goat show is that day and Frank, Jo and the kids are coming to spend the night tonight so we can all go on Sunday. They are also bringing down about 50 bales of Brome hay (grass hay kinda like Orchard Grass) as well. I will be changing the goat's diet a bit to include the Brome to cut down on costs a bit and for two, they are wasting so little of the alfalfa as it is and getting so much from it, there's no reason to give them 100% alfalfa.
More news is that Rachel and Drew have yet again gotten into poison Ivy. Last February it was actually poison oak but practically the same difference when it comes to how one reacts to it, especially Rachel. Although, her reaction doesn't seem to be as bad as it was the the oak. I don't know if we caught it sooner, it hasn't been given enough time to cause her the reaction, it's not as potent or all of the above but so far, she's not had the swelling like she did last time.
I'd like to try to keep her off the prednisone but I have been vigilant about the hydrocrortisone and benadryl and for the past 2 days have gone to school at lunch time to administer/apply. We'll see what she looks like on Monday and if it's no better (or worse) I'll take her to the Dr. So far, at least parts, seem to look better. But it's worrying me it's not looking better all over as I got a small bit on the top of one finger and it's practically gone except for a few scabs. I am hoping it's just taking longer for her to fight it off.
We're expecting company at the end of the month. Jeremiah's Mom, sister, brother-in-law and their two kids are supposed to be coming to visit. I'm not real sure where we'll put everyone as I am still working on the basement but maybe next week I can get the baseboards down.
I did get the floor painted however it's just the "basecoat" that will be my grout color for my faux tile look. I still have the (probable) intricate job of laying masking tape and then sponge panting on top to create the tile look. I'm not real sure I'm all for all that but willing to give it a try anyway. I did discover the easiest painting I will ever do though FINALLY after the fiasco with the paneling. The gal at Walmart must have thought I was talking about painting concrete and not paneling because painting concrete was the easiest painting I ever did!
Goat breeding has begun. With any luck, Bonnie will have kids come the middle of February. Her handsome hunk of smelliness was Andy (my spotted buck) this year so hopefully we'll have bouncing spotted babies!
Lotsa work to do this Saturday. It was supposed to be cooler than the forecast is predicting darnit! We need to make a dump run from all the barn waste so that should be exciting!
I finally got around to registering my car in Kansas. I finally have Kansas tags!
That's all for now...
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Barn Raising Splitting
Despite our best efforts we did not finish the barn splitting this weekend.
I cannot explain it but time in Kansas goes three times as quick as anywhere else. I just don't understand it. I will check the clock, 9 o'clock. Not 2 minutes, TWO MINUTES, later and it's 9:45! How is that possible?
Saturday morning we headed to Lowes for our cattle panels. I cannot believe how long it took to demolish the middle portion of wood partition that was up. There were probably no less than 14 old rotten pallets as well in the back portion of the barn in the ground where the hay used to be stored. We had planned to leave them but Jeremiah pulled one up and it was rotten to the core so up they all came. Which was a good thing actually. They would have had to have come up eventually.
(standing in the "open" area, milk room behind me, looking out into the new hay area) The corner of the barn has a pretty substantial beam (4x6) that had about 6 inches rotted away from the ground up. The corner vertical beams are sunk into the ground and the concrete foundation is poured starting from each beam to the next corner for the framing to sit on. Jeremiah had to install a few pieces of 2x6 that are sitting on the concrete now and stabilize it permanently. It wasn't too big of an issue.
We managed to get it split half way back with panels, install the feeders and jerry rig it the rest of the way with a 12 foot gate to keep them from getting into the "open area". It'll do just fine to keep them out of the hay too. I forgot to buy the horse panel (4"x4" openings) for the kidding area. We were at Lowes and they only carry the horse panels at Tractor Supply. We'll pick it up this coming weekend when we take the livestock trailer to the dump.
(Future kidding pens area in the back of the barn. They'll be two once we pick up the horse panels)I am really loving how it came out so far! I LOVE being able to feed the girls from the "safe" side of the fence. I no longer am mauled* when it's feeding time.
*As much as a goat could possibly maul you being as how they have no upper teeth on the front portion of their gums and the fact that my does wouldn't hurt a fly.
At any rate, hay comes in today.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Conversation with kids
Alternately titled: Kids say the darnedest things.
I am in the kitchen making dinner and Drew comes in from outside. Conversation ensues:
Drew: "Rachel, why are you in here and not (out) playing with me?"
Mama thinks: "Is it Rachel's soul purpose to play with you Andrew?"
The other night Jeremiah and I were kissing at the kitchen sink. Andrew walks in and says, "Rachel, do not come in here, you don't want to see this."
He walks down the hall mumbling something about kissing romantically. HA!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Slow Progress
"The easiest painting you'll ever do" is becoming my worst nightmare! Painting paneling flat out sucks! Painting in a basement is even worse and I am so sick of painting I think this whole entire place will just stay the color it is. Which, let me tell you, is shades of cream. Didn't know cream had shades? Well, it does. AND it's awful seeing cream and brown and dark cream and mocha and light cream and dark chocolate and every other shade of the cream and brown spectrum. ALL. OVER. EVERYTHING.
The kids want their room painted. I'm of half a mind to hand them a brush and a can of paint and tell them to have at it.
Aside from that, the basement is slowly progressing. I painted all 4 walls today. I put up painters tape on the ceiling because I didn't buy a special cutting in brush and thedamn tape took off bits and pieces from the paint on the ceiling. "GREAT!", I think. Instead I said, "Screw it!" Crown molding will be much easier to install and so there it is.
The shade of green I picked out was totally left field from my original pick of, you'll never believe this (!), COUNTRY WHITE! That's funny right? ::Sigh:: What can I say? shades of cream ARE okay but not always paired with shades of brown throughout the entire house!
I like the green anyway. It's called pale spruce or some fancy crap. It looks nice but painting in those craters on the paneling is awful and NOT easy and time consuming. I didn't get the closet painted. The ceiling is finished but my can of paint ran dry, I was high again on fumes, the kids were almost home and I hadn't started dinner. Heck, I didn't even know if the fricken chicken I had set in the fridge the night before had defrosted for my baked chicken dinner. Today is not a good day and tomorrow doesn't look good either...just so you're forewarned.
Anyway, Jeremiah will be home a bit late from work. He's making a picket pounder. That'll save us about $30. Tomorrow we're borrowing a trailer to go get the supplies for our barn project.
Oh, and I have something else to talk about. For weeks now when we go into town there are live traps set out in all the open areas along the road. They are actually in town and not on the way to town but anyway...so, before the traps were even out there we'd always talk about the cute little prairie dogs that live in the open areas along the road while we were stopped at red lights. They really are adorable and abundant. For about a week not the traps have been out and I didn't put two and two together until a couple days ago when I saw a new sign directing people towards the fair grounds.
The Fair-it's such a big thing here I thought it should be capitalized- is almost here and no wonder why all the lives traps are out. They want to beautify the place so people don't think that this town is trashy or anything. WE may be trashy, but our town? Nope, it's not trashy or overrun with prairie dogs. The funny thing is, there is a live trap by every single hole and honestly if they caught 3 of thousands I would be surprised. We'd always cheer for the prairie dogs, though I don't think they needed our support. Most were smart enough to know not to go in.
For a while there was nothing to entice them into the trap. I guess the city just thought they'd willingly wander in. Yeah, right. So, then they started bating them with water melon rinds. I'd like to know A. Who paid for all the watermelon and B. Why weren't we invited to THAT party.
Anyway, in the end, though I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure it was Prairie Dogs: 4 million City of Hutchinson: 3.
But speaking of The Fair, it starts tomorrow and goes to the 19th. We're going on the 19th because that's when the dairy goat show is. Ha. Is that selfish?
Would love to have gone Tuesday evening. The Oakridge Boys are playing butwe don't know of anyone to watch the kids I don't know anyone I trust to watch the kids and plus too, it's a school nice. Maybe next year.
Now to figure out something for dinner. I don't feel like cooking. I mean...the chicken didn't defrost in time.
The kids want their room painted. I'm of half a mind to hand them a brush and a can of paint and tell them to have at it.
Aside from that, the basement is slowly progressing. I painted all 4 walls today. I put up painters tape on the ceiling because I didn't buy a special cutting in brush and the
The shade of green I picked out was totally left field from my original pick of, you'll never believe this (!), COUNTRY WHITE! That's funny right? ::Sigh:: What can I say? shades of cream ARE okay but not always paired with shades of brown throughout the entire house!
I like the green anyway. It's called pale spruce or some fancy crap. It looks nice but painting in those craters on the paneling is awful and NOT easy and time consuming. I didn't get the closet painted. The ceiling is finished but my can of paint ran dry, I was high again on fumes, the kids were almost home and I hadn't started dinner. Heck, I didn't even know if the fricken chicken I had set in the fridge the night before had defrosted for my baked chicken dinner. Today is not a good day and tomorrow doesn't look good either...just so you're forewarned.
Anyway, Jeremiah will be home a bit late from work. He's making a picket pounder. That'll save us about $30. Tomorrow we're borrowing a trailer to go get the supplies for our barn project.
Oh, and I have something else to talk about. For weeks now when we go into town there are live traps set out in all the open areas along the road. They are actually in town and not on the way to town but anyway...so, before the traps were even out there we'd always talk about the cute little prairie dogs that live in the open areas along the road while we were stopped at red lights. They really are adorable and abundant. For about a week not the traps have been out and I didn't put two and two together until a couple days ago when I saw a new sign directing people towards the fair grounds.
The Fair-it's such a big thing here I thought it should be capitalized- is almost here and no wonder why all the lives traps are out. They want to beautify the place so people don't think that this town is trashy or anything. WE may be trashy, but our town? Nope, it's not trashy or overrun with prairie dogs. The funny thing is, there is a live trap by every single hole and honestly if they caught 3 of thousands I would be surprised. We'd always cheer for the prairie dogs, though I don't think they needed our support. Most were smart enough to know not to go in.
For a while there was nothing to entice them into the trap. I guess the city just thought they'd willingly wander in. Yeah, right. So, then they started bating them with water melon rinds. I'd like to know A. Who paid for all the watermelon and B. Why weren't we invited to THAT party.
Anyway, in the end, though I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure it was Prairie Dogs: 4 million City of Hutchinson: 3.
But speaking of The Fair, it starts tomorrow and goes to the 19th. We're going on the 19th because that's when the dairy goat show is. Ha. Is that selfish?
Would love to have gone Tuesday evening. The Oakridge Boys are playing but
Now to figure out something for dinner. I don't feel like cooking. I mean...the chicken didn't defrost in time.
Artwork and M&m's and a photo
Watercolor by Drew
Rachel's M & m's-how stinkin' cute (no pun intended) that she wrote at the bottom "My mom macks biprs" (My Mom makes diapers)! We didn't do a whole lot of practice with our letter writing over the summer being busy and all with the move. I know, we're poor excuses for parents :o).
And a snapshot taken by someone photographing Grandparent's Day at "B.O."
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Project Hay Storage & Kidding Stalls
My apologies in advance if the photos in this post look crappy. I have yet been able to keep a digital camera working for longer than a few months.
Normally the camera dies in a liquid related accident (i.e. #1 bottle milk when Rachel was 9 months old. #2 I washed it! #3 I can't remember but it had something to do with water #4 wet clothes). But this one was not liquid related, the screen just stopped working altogether.
My digital camera has a screen on the back, that's what I look at to see what I am taking a photo of. For those of you used to the old cameras, it's the "window" you looked through (or don't/didn't depending on your photography style and how much actually cared about what you were taking a photo of) to see what you would be taking a photo of. Anyway, my screen is now just white, I can no longer see what I would be taking a photo of. I don't know what I did to it. Quite honestly, I was just holding it and it crapped out. So, please excuse me while I shoot blind.
This weekend, before we go get our big* load of hay, we need to change the barn around a bit. I hadn't planned to do much to the barn at all. As you can see it's about 1 1/2 times as deep as it is wide. Keep in mind, the previous owners had horses so everything was made for horses. We've had to lower gates and rig fencing, etc.
*big is an under statement from what were used to. Because hay prices in our area go up over winter, because we have the space to store it, because we don't have the time to go get hay once every month or so, because I have no idea what the winter will be like, and because we cannot just go to the feedstore to pick up hay if in the event we need a few bales (because feed stores don't carry hay!) I want to stock up as much as possible (which I am hoping is enough to last until next March when the pastures start to green up), that's about 8 months worth of hay to the tune of about 240 bales!
There are two front "stalls" with gates that swing shut (as you can see one is closed, the other is open inward against the wall). My original plan was to attach a piece of plywood to one gate and close it for winter. The goats would enter the stall though the one opened gate and enter the other stall through the opening just on the other side of the green water bucket there on the ground. The plywood would create a wind block.
I am not very concerned about cold temps. They've arrived in plenty of time to acclimate to the cold. They'll have each other to keep them warm, a dry shelter and to be quite honest, they'll have it made in comparison to some. I won't be kidding in the dead of winter- aiming for late winter/early spring with most of them- and there is electricity in the barn if in the event it's needed.
At any rate, the back portion...
is mostly hay storage. 1/8 of the barn is taken up by the tack room (my new milk room) which can barely been seen in the photo above in the upper right hand corner and in the photo below in the upper right. It's basically a box built within the barn- concrete floor, lights and outlets.
In the photo below I am standing at about the milk room door looking into the stalls with the current hay storage area to my right. (Please excuse the mess. That big wooden gate on the left used to be where the tube gate is now)...
the tube gate used to be located here...
to separate the stalls and the place in the lower left hand corner that looks wide enough for a horse to walk through (though not tall enough) was actually blocked by a big galvanized water trough that could be accessed by both stalls.
The opening where the tube gate was (center screen photo above) is where I had planned for the does to enter the stall that was draft free (see plywood on gate). The new plan though is instead of the front of the barn being totally for goats (as it is now), we are going to use the stall that I am currently standing inwhen I took the photo above (where they currently eat) as the new hay area. We will be splitting the barn in half lengthwise instead of width-wise which takes care of a lot of the concerns I had in regards to kidding and warmth and electricity and ease of use, etc with all the goats being exposed up front.
Where the hay is stored right now...
...will become 2 kidding stalls that will open up right into the loafing area.
With the new configuration, the goats will have half of the barn on the entire west side. The east side will be my milk room in the back (approx.) 1/8th, the front portion will be hay storage and the last (approx.) 1/8th in the middle is an area I will leave open as an aisle-way/open area (to be used as the possible location of show shaving later on, etc. since there are outlets there).
There is a gate...
on the outside (as well as a red sliding door that will be closed in the winter more than likely). I can bring the does in for milking from a gate along the new center wall from the loafing area into the open area and then into the milk room. They'll exit the barn completely from the big orange gate (or door, depending on time of year). This would be helpful if the gate on the front of the doe's area of the barn was shut so the milked does couldn't get back in causing havoc, which isn't usually a problem since they go back to eating once fully milked and always establish a milking pecking order but it's just a thought anyway.
The gate on the new hay storage side will be shut to keep the goats out (and deer and anything else that would like to get in to eat my yummy hay). The gate on the front of the barn on the doe's side will still have plywood installed on it as a wind block but this will also allow me to shut them in (and shut out cold and other creatures). I don't find locking them up totally important, but in the winter it may be necessary for warmth as well as when we have small kids. The property isn't fenced to keep out coyotes and the barn isn't so close to the house that I could hear something before it was too late. And for a host of other reasons.
It may be necessary to exchange the one large gate on the front of the barn on the west side where the does will be for 2 shorter ones so that one could be shut to block the wind and the other could be open so they could come and go.
We can load hay from the front of the barn and I will access the hay area from a gate in the open/aisle way for feeding. I can feed from the hay storage area as I plan to have feeders along the center wall. I haven't yet decided what the wall will be made out of, but it would be nice, quite honestly, if it were just cattle panels. The hay wouldn't be so close the goats could reach it but the wall would be easy to take down if we ever wanted to (and not as expensive or labor intensive as 2x4's and plywood).
As I've mentioned before, for those who don't know, the cattle panels have large enough openings of 6" x 6" on the upper portion (from about 2' high to the top) . It's plenty of room for a goat without horns to stick his/her head through. Cattle panels are normally 16 foot long and 42" tall with graduated spaces starting small on the bottom.
We figure we can get 10 pallets (2 deep and 5 long or 5 deep and 2 wide depending on how you look at it) or more into this new hay area. Stacked 8 high, we can get 160 bales. Stacked 9 high we can get 180. Providing they are snug up against the east wall of the barn, that leaves me plenty of room for an aisle between the center wall and the wall-o-hay in which to feed the goats from (and enough room that they cannot stick their heads through and feed off the bales). We have a lean-to that is about 20' wide and 8-10' deep that has 2 fenced pens. One side of that lean-to will be additional hay storage
We could leave just as it is with the back portion being hay storage and we could get more hay in there but this new configuration gives us 2 kidding stalls at the back of the barn where we can insulate and it allows for a better flow for milking and easier hay loading. As it is right now, the trailer has to be backed up to the sliding door and unloaded from there which is somewhat of a pain.
In regards to the kidding pens: The "walls" separating the 2 pens from each other and dividing the pens from the loafing area will just be horse panels. Horse panels are just like cattle panels but the openings are 4" x 4" all over which will be safer for birthing mama's and tiny babies (i.e. kids cannot go through the openings, cannot be born into the openings possibly hanging them, etc.). I can hang water buckets off the panels. Feeders can be attached to the panels without having to drill holes and install mounting bolts. It will allow the does to see her herd mates and interact, be close to them, but keep new kids at a safe distance from other does and offer security to the new babies and mamas. I can remove the panels completely if I wanted to for cleaning or whatever the case may be. The walls along the actual barn itself will be insulated and plywood or chipboard will be installed 4 foot tall for an extra buffer from cold.
____________________________
As a side note, once the kids are old enough to be separated from mama at night (I usually start this from 2-4 weeks) this will be an area that I can place the kids.
I have found that it is much less stressful to A. separate at night when most of the time away from each other is spent sleeping and B. the kids and dam can see each other. Why do I separate? For those of you who don't know, I take the morning milk for household use. The kids, by 2 weeks of age (and for those kids that are dam raised and not bottle raised they are often nibbling on hay the DAY they are born) should be eating hay and grain. It's not a lot, but they do eat it. In the wild, the dam spends much more time away from their kids as captive goats do. They leave kids unattended to go eat themselves just like deer (they are related after all). When the kids are old enough to venture out (usually by 2-4 weeks) with their dam, they are eating forage much more often and are not so dependent on the amount of milk they normally would get in domesticated situations. By separating, I cannot mimic nature exactly but it is a way for the doe to provide us with milk before weaning and a way to get the kids eating naturally without being any more unnatural as possible.
__________________________________
The floors in this barn are just earth except the milk room with the concrete. I like concrete floors with straw for bedding and while this barn is good shape for its age, I think we'll just go with rubber mats to keep the dirt in and for ease of clean up. Which, as you can see by a few of those photos, I have not bee doing. Stall and feeding area clean up used to be, normally, a daily thing. Right now they don't sleep in there unless it rains so most of this waste hay isn't soiled or wet.
So, there's our project for the weekend. It shouldn't be too labor intensive or expensive but does need to be done because the load of alfalfa is just about ready to be picked up and I don't want to load hay into the back of the barn just to have to remove it later.
So, without further ado here is the new hay barn layout! You're probably going to wish you had skipped all that rigmarole before this I'm sure. You know me, have to make a short story long. And sorry, it's a bit off kilter. I blame the scanner.
P.S. You can click on the "photo" below and it will enlarge it for ya.
P.P.S. This is NOT to scale. As I mentioned, the milk room is approx. 1/8 of the whole barn, the "open" area is about 1/8 and this barn is about, I don't really even know for sure but I am going to say about 24' x 36'. The kidding pens will be about 8' deep x 6' wide each. They could be made deeper, but with the width, I'd like to get 2 in side by side in between the milk room outer wall and the inside wall of the barn but this is the general plan.
In the rafters above the spigot on the inside there is an electrical outlet in which a tank heater is hung in the winter to keep the water from freezing. The heater's cord will be placed inside a piece of PVC pipe to keep from the goat's chewing on it and cooking themselves.
Right now I have a long hose attached to the spigot but in the winter I will have to reattach the hose that is only about 2 foot long so that the water inside the hose can drain off so it doesn't freeze.
That spigot is a special spigot. It has a valve inside the pipe at the bottom of the whole piece (where it attaches to the main water line which is below the frost line) that allows the water to siphon back into the main pipe so that water is not left in the vertical pipe to freeze.
As for the bucks, their set up isn't so nice at this point and I may just be bucketing unfrozen warm water over to them but, at least for this winter, that's what it'll have to be. I can move them over to the other lean-to though where there is electricity (and where the excess hay storage will be on one side) but that's not top priority right now.
I was talking about those old water troughs earlier. We have probably 9 of them! My thought is to flip them upside down, cut a u shaped opening on the face of a couple of them and a square shaped opening up top, place metal screening over the square opening on the top and a head lamp can sit on that. It then becomes a heated kid house to sit in the kidding pens, or just outside with an opening in the cattle panel for the kids to get though into the heated house which would save space in the pen.
I have no idea what winters will be like. I am bracing for the worst. I don't want to kid so late in the year when it warms up (in JULY) that the kids won't be ready for fall breeding, but I also don't want frozen kids. Ca. average winter temperatures will have nothing on this place, or so I expect so I am daily thinking about ways to survive comfortably.
Anyway, there it is. And that's all for today.
Normally the camera dies in a liquid related accident (i.e. #1 bottle milk when Rachel was 9 months old. #2 I washed it! #3 I can't remember but it had something to do with water #4 wet clothes). But this one was not liquid related, the screen just stopped working altogether.
My digital camera has a screen on the back, that's what I look at to see what I am taking a photo of. For those of you used to the old cameras, it's the "window" you looked through (or don't/didn't depending on your photography style and how much actually cared about what you were taking a photo of) to see what you would be taking a photo of. Anyway, my screen is now just white, I can no longer see what I would be taking a photo of. I don't know what I did to it. Quite honestly, I was just holding it and it crapped out. So, please excuse me while I shoot blind.
This weekend, before we go get our big* load of hay, we need to change the barn around a bit. I hadn't planned to do much to the barn at all. As you can see it's about 1 1/2 times as deep as it is wide. Keep in mind, the previous owners had horses so everything was made for horses. We've had to lower gates and rig fencing, etc.
*big is an under statement from what were used to. Because hay prices in our area go up over winter, because we have the space to store it, because we don't have the time to go get hay once every month or so, because I have no idea what the winter will be like, and because we cannot just go to the feedstore to pick up hay if in the event we need a few bales (because feed stores don't carry hay!) I want to stock up as much as possible (which I am hoping is enough to last until next March when the pastures start to green up), that's about 8 months worth of hay to the tune of about 240 bales!
There are two front "stalls" with gates that swing shut (as you can see one is closed, the other is open inward against the wall). My original plan was to attach a piece of plywood to one gate and close it for winter. The goats would enter the stall though the one opened gate and enter the other stall through the opening just on the other side of the green water bucket there on the ground. The plywood would create a wind block.
I am not very concerned about cold temps. They've arrived in plenty of time to acclimate to the cold. They'll have each other to keep them warm, a dry shelter and to be quite honest, they'll have it made in comparison to some. I won't be kidding in the dead of winter- aiming for late winter/early spring with most of them- and there is electricity in the barn if in the event it's needed.
At any rate, the back portion...
is mostly hay storage. 1/8 of the barn is taken up by the tack room (my new milk room) which can barely been seen in the photo above in the upper right hand corner and in the photo below in the upper right. It's basically a box built within the barn- concrete floor, lights and outlets.
In the photo below I am standing at about the milk room door looking into the stalls with the current hay storage area to my right. (Please excuse the mess. That big wooden gate on the left used to be where the tube gate is now)...
the tube gate used to be located here...
to separate the stalls and the place in the lower left hand corner that looks wide enough for a horse to walk through (though not tall enough) was actually blocked by a big galvanized water trough that could be accessed by both stalls.
The opening where the tube gate was (center screen photo above) is where I had planned for the does to enter the stall that was draft free (see plywood on gate). The new plan though is instead of the front of the barn being totally for goats (as it is now), we are going to use the stall that I am currently standing inwhen I took the photo above (where they currently eat) as the new hay area. We will be splitting the barn in half lengthwise instead of width-wise which takes care of a lot of the concerns I had in regards to kidding and warmth and electricity and ease of use, etc with all the goats being exposed up front.
Where the hay is stored right now...
...will become 2 kidding stalls that will open up right into the loafing area.
With the new configuration, the goats will have half of the barn on the entire west side. The east side will be my milk room in the back (approx.) 1/8th, the front portion will be hay storage and the last (approx.) 1/8th in the middle is an area I will leave open as an aisle-way/open area (to be used as the possible location of show shaving later on, etc. since there are outlets there).
There is a gate...
on the outside (as well as a red sliding door that will be closed in the winter more than likely). I can bring the does in for milking from a gate along the new center wall from the loafing area into the open area and then into the milk room. They'll exit the barn completely from the big orange gate (or door, depending on time of year). This would be helpful if the gate on the front of the doe's area of the barn was shut so the milked does couldn't get back in causing havoc, which isn't usually a problem since they go back to eating once fully milked and always establish a milking pecking order but it's just a thought anyway.
The gate on the new hay storage side will be shut to keep the goats out (and deer and anything else that would like to get in to eat my yummy hay). The gate on the front of the barn on the doe's side will still have plywood installed on it as a wind block but this will also allow me to shut them in (and shut out cold and other creatures). I don't find locking them up totally important, but in the winter it may be necessary for warmth as well as when we have small kids. The property isn't fenced to keep out coyotes and the barn isn't so close to the house that I could hear something before it was too late. And for a host of other reasons.
It may be necessary to exchange the one large gate on the front of the barn on the west side where the does will be for 2 shorter ones so that one could be shut to block the wind and the other could be open so they could come and go.
We can load hay from the front of the barn and I will access the hay area from a gate in the open/aisle way for feeding. I can feed from the hay storage area as I plan to have feeders along the center wall. I haven't yet decided what the wall will be made out of, but it would be nice, quite honestly, if it were just cattle panels. The hay wouldn't be so close the goats could reach it but the wall would be easy to take down if we ever wanted to (and not as expensive or labor intensive as 2x4's and plywood).
As I've mentioned before, for those who don't know, the cattle panels have large enough openings of 6" x 6" on the upper portion (from about 2' high to the top) . It's plenty of room for a goat without horns to stick his/her head through. Cattle panels are normally 16 foot long and 42" tall with graduated spaces starting small on the bottom.
We figure we can get 10 pallets (2 deep and 5 long or 5 deep and 2 wide depending on how you look at it) or more into this new hay area. Stacked 8 high, we can get 160 bales. Stacked 9 high we can get 180. Providing they are snug up against the east wall of the barn, that leaves me plenty of room for an aisle between the center wall and the wall-o-hay in which to feed the goats from (and enough room that they cannot stick their heads through and feed off the bales). We have a lean-to that is about 20' wide and 8-10' deep that has 2 fenced pens. One side of that lean-to will be additional hay storage
We could leave just as it is with the back portion being hay storage and we could get more hay in there but this new configuration gives us 2 kidding stalls at the back of the barn where we can insulate and it allows for a better flow for milking and easier hay loading. As it is right now, the trailer has to be backed up to the sliding door and unloaded from there which is somewhat of a pain.
In regards to the kidding pens: The "walls" separating the 2 pens from each other and dividing the pens from the loafing area will just be horse panels. Horse panels are just like cattle panels but the openings are 4" x 4" all over which will be safer for birthing mama's and tiny babies (i.e. kids cannot go through the openings, cannot be born into the openings possibly hanging them, etc.). I can hang water buckets off the panels. Feeders can be attached to the panels without having to drill holes and install mounting bolts. It will allow the does to see her herd mates and interact, be close to them, but keep new kids at a safe distance from other does and offer security to the new babies and mamas. I can remove the panels completely if I wanted to for cleaning or whatever the case may be. The walls along the actual barn itself will be insulated and plywood or chipboard will be installed 4 foot tall for an extra buffer from cold.
____________________________
As a side note, once the kids are old enough to be separated from mama at night (I usually start this from 2-4 weeks) this will be an area that I can place the kids.
I have found that it is much less stressful to A. separate at night when most of the time away from each other is spent sleeping and B. the kids and dam can see each other. Why do I separate? For those of you who don't know, I take the morning milk for household use. The kids, by 2 weeks of age (and for those kids that are dam raised and not bottle raised they are often nibbling on hay the DAY they are born) should be eating hay and grain. It's not a lot, but they do eat it. In the wild, the dam spends much more time away from their kids as captive goats do. They leave kids unattended to go eat themselves just like deer (they are related after all). When the kids are old enough to venture out (usually by 2-4 weeks) with their dam, they are eating forage much more often and are not so dependent on the amount of milk they normally would get in domesticated situations. By separating, I cannot mimic nature exactly but it is a way for the doe to provide us with milk before weaning and a way to get the kids eating naturally without being any more unnatural as possible.
__________________________________
The floors in this barn are just earth except the milk room with the concrete. I like concrete floors with straw for bedding and while this barn is good shape for its age, I think we'll just go with rubber mats to keep the dirt in and for ease of clean up. Which, as you can see by a few of those photos, I have not bee doing. Stall and feeding area clean up used to be, normally, a daily thing. Right now they don't sleep in there unless it rains so most of this waste hay isn't soiled or wet.
So, there's our project for the weekend. It shouldn't be too labor intensive or expensive but does need to be done because the load of alfalfa is just about ready to be picked up and I don't want to load hay into the back of the barn just to have to remove it later.
So, without further ado here is the new hay barn layout! You're probably going to wish you had skipped all that rigmarole before this I'm sure. You know me, have to make a short story long. And sorry, it's a bit off kilter. I blame the scanner.
P.S. You can click on the "photo" below and it will enlarge it for ya.
P.P.S. This is NOT to scale. As I mentioned, the milk room is approx. 1/8 of the whole barn, the "open" area is about 1/8 and this barn is about, I don't really even know for sure but I am going to say about 24' x 36'. The kidding pens will be about 8' deep x 6' wide each. They could be made deeper, but with the width, I'd like to get 2 in side by side in between the milk room outer wall and the inside wall of the barn but this is the general plan.
In the rafters above the spigot on the inside there is an electrical outlet in which a tank heater is hung in the winter to keep the water from freezing. The heater's cord will be placed inside a piece of PVC pipe to keep from the goat's chewing on it and cooking themselves.
Right now I have a long hose attached to the spigot but in the winter I will have to reattach the hose that is only about 2 foot long so that the water inside the hose can drain off so it doesn't freeze.
That spigot is a special spigot. It has a valve inside the pipe at the bottom of the whole piece (where it attaches to the main water line which is below the frost line) that allows the water to siphon back into the main pipe so that water is not left in the vertical pipe to freeze.
As for the bucks, their set up isn't so nice at this point and I may just be bucketing unfrozen warm water over to them but, at least for this winter, that's what it'll have to be. I can move them over to the other lean-to though where there is electricity (and where the excess hay storage will be on one side) but that's not top priority right now.
I was talking about those old water troughs earlier. We have probably 9 of them! My thought is to flip them upside down, cut a u shaped opening on the face of a couple of them and a square shaped opening up top, place metal screening over the square opening on the top and a head lamp can sit on that. It then becomes a heated kid house to sit in the kidding pens, or just outside with an opening in the cattle panel for the kids to get though into the heated house which would save space in the pen.
I have no idea what winters will be like. I am bracing for the worst. I don't want to kid so late in the year when it warms up (in JULY) that the kids won't be ready for fall breeding, but I also don't want frozen kids. Ca. average winter temperatures will have nothing on this place, or so I expect so I am daily thinking about ways to survive comfortably.
Anyway, there it is. And that's all for today.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Grandparent's Day at "B O"
What a sweet day it was indeed. For those of you who don't get the title, maybe I haven't explained it before. It's really quite
She didn't find the humor in it when we all started to laugh. She still doesn't get it, not that we've explained it to her, and she still will occasionally call it B O. Oh well.
Drew and I were stand ins for all the Grandparents. We got to do an art project. As you can see, Andrew's looks pretty good doesn't it? I'll take credit for that thankyouverymuch. He got himself into a tissy when Rachel asked for her regular seat back and made him sit in the slightly larger computer chair that we had borrowed to sit in. By the time the pictures were finished he had come around enough to put a cloud on it and add some polka dots as the finishing touches.
We got to eat lunch in the cafeteria too! I mentioned earlier that the chicken and noodles was on the menu. Despite what Rachel says about it being as good as Great Grandma's, I can say with certainty that it is not. First of all, it's not even the same thing. It's more like, well, I don't even know what to liken it to. It wasn't horrible but it was thin pasta like fettuccine with a chicken gravy and chunks of chicken over dehydrated mashed potatoes. Not awful, but not the chicken and noodles I think of.
All in all it was nice. Lotsa kids had their grandparents there so it was bittersweet of course. BUT, it 'tis what it 'tis. After lunch Rachel went out to recess on the playground and Drew went down the hall to preschool.
All the stores you need to visit to make it a complete weekend
1. Lowes or Home Depot (2 points for those who visit both!)
2. Walmart (2 points for those who visit twice!)
3. Tractor Supply or other farm store
4. Auto parts store (8 points for those who visit 5 or more times in one weekend)
5. Pawn shop
6. Grocery store
2. Walmart (2 points for those who visit twice!)
3. Tractor Supply or other farm store
4. Auto parts store (8 points for those who visit 5 or more times in one weekend)
5. Pawn shop
6. Grocery store
Friday, September 3, 2010
You know it's going to be a bad day when...
- Your neighbor's yapping
stupid little annoying mutts who you would like to shootadorable pouches are no match for your very loud doe in heat at 6:30 in the morning and that's your morning wake up call. And although it's 6:30, you smile because your incredibly annoying doe's constant wailing is par for the course and you feelslightlyincredibly satisfied that the neighbors are getting a taste of their own medicine. Victory, although short lived.
- You figure since both of your kids will be eating at the school cafeteria that day you can sleep in and totally forget your husband doesn't eat in the school cafeteria.
- You are so sick of seeing straggly hair on your 6-year-old and think it's time for a cut while she eats her breakfast and you screw up somewhat but don't say anything, stick a clip in it, and send her off to school.
- You go out to feed the goats and slip on a 12 inch long spring and fall flat on your
assrear end.
- After falling flat on said rear end and after the dust settles, you proceed into the tack room to get a scoop of grain and hit your head on a hook on the way up.
- Rubbing your head vigorously thinking you should have just stayed in bed, aforementioned doe in heat wails at you while you walk up to the house for breakfast and you think, "And it's not even 9 o'clock, I can't wait for what the rest of the day holds!"
The smell of fall is in the air
Or wait, maybe that's au de toilet toilette BUCK.
"WHO, ME????" Andy says.
Actually, it's both (depending on where you are on the property).
The smell of fall is definitely in the air this morning. It's one of those mornings when you walk out in summer clothes expecting summer temps and there's a breeze blowing cool enough air that it gives you goosebumps. What, never experienced that? Okay, well, take my word for it.
The trees are still green, grass is still green and lovely but the evenings are cool and the season is winding down. That's for sure.
The goats, oh my the goats. If the weather doesn't prove the season is winding down, count on the goats to convince you for sure. We have 4 pens within the pasture. Two of them are used by 3 of our bucks. The pen we use is separated into two smaller pens, as I have explained before, and both of those smaller pens are opened for the bucks to commingle. Each pen has a smaller walk through gate and then a larger gate of about 12 foot.
This morning I was out feeding and one of those huge 12 foot wide gates is damn near bent in half! Course, they are those cheap aluminum stock gates which I hate, but good Lord! Someone, not to mention any names ahemPrinceCharmingahem, is leaning up against it on his side. The girls are leaning up against it on their side and it's being bent back and forth. It's not much longer longed for this world. Jeremiah could weld it but I think I'll ban it to the scrap heap.
It's Grandparent's Day at the kid's school. Rachel has some special thing going on at 10:30. It may just be where Grandparents get to come in and have lunch with their student. Drew and I will attend. Rachel's a bit sad but she understands. At least someone can attend thought. Ironically, they are serving chicken and noodles which she said are as good as Great Grandma's but the mashed potatoes aren't so hot. I wonder what she thinks of the gravy ::wink wink::.
The smell of fall is definitely in the air this morning. It's one of those mornings when you walk out in summer clothes expecting summer temps and there's a breeze blowing cool enough air that it gives you goosebumps. What, never experienced that? Okay, well, take my word for it.
The trees are still green, grass is still green and lovely but the evenings are cool and the season is winding down. That's for sure.
The goats, oh my the goats. If the weather doesn't prove the season is winding down, count on the goats to convince you for sure. We have 4 pens within the pasture. Two of them are used by 3 of our bucks. The pen we use is separated into two smaller pens, as I have explained before, and both of those smaller pens are opened for the bucks to commingle. Each pen has a smaller walk through gate and then a larger gate of about 12 foot.
This morning I was out feeding and one of those huge 12 foot wide gates is damn near bent in half! Course, they are those cheap aluminum stock gates which I hate, but good Lord! Someone, not to mention any names ahemPrinceCharmingahem, is leaning up against it on his side. The girls are leaning up against it on their side and it's being bent back and forth. It's not much longer longed for this world. Jeremiah could weld it but I think I'll ban it to the scrap heap.
It's Grandparent's Day at the kid's school. Rachel has some special thing going on at 10:30. It may just be where Grandparents get to come in and have lunch with their student. Drew and I will attend. Rachel's a bit sad but she understands. At least someone can attend thought. Ironically, they are serving chicken and noodles which she said are as good as Great Grandma's but the mashed potatoes aren't so hot. I wonder what she thinks of the gravy ::wink wink::.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Getting high on "the easiest painting you'll ever do"
Excuse me a minute while I pass out!
I've spent the last few hours getting high on primer fumes while I experience "the easiest painting I'll ever do", according to the gal working at the paint center at my local Walmart.
Who knew painting paneling could be so easy. If this is easy, count me our for any more! (If you cannot sense my tone of sarcasm shame on you.) God, thank heavens the paneling is ONLY in the basement and of that it's only on 3 walls.
Which, by the way, is NOT easy! Painting paneling SUCKS. I did not cut in the valleys with a proper...I can't even think of the word, I must be high...brush, yeah that's it. I've been lathering the roller in primer and squishing it in there. There is NO easy way to paint paneling as far as I'm concerned and so I've decided not to take any more painting advice from the gal at Walmart.
I've gone back and forth on painting the paneling or removing it about as many times as Liz Taylor's had different husbands. Today, I finally had an epiphany, this is OUR house. The El Paso house was always someone elses house. We owned it yes, but we were always fixing it up for the buyer and so while the things we did to it were things we liked, I wasn't about to paint it red because red doesn't normally sell. Haven't you ever watched the shows on HGTV and taken their tips? Keep it neutral!
Anyway, my epiphany was that this IS our house and after the past 4 weeks of moving I decided, we aren't moving..EVER. Well no, okay, I am not moving...ever. If Jeremiah wants to move, good luck to him. If the kids want to move, fine. But me? I am not moving. So, therefore, painted paneling is O.K. with me. Plus too, I have to get to work and the sooner the better and I need a nice retreat to go to to work and so painted paneling it is! Even with the primer on there, it looks much nicer. I'd like to slap the personal who invented paneling up side the head with a piece. Painted paneling...grumble grumble...
And so it goes. I had already removed one smallish piece. I tried to put it back up with the nails that were still stuck in it but I decided I had better just get the nail gun and air compressor. I did manage to use up a whole can of Kilz primer between the ceiling and two walls.
I am feeling a bit light headed as well and I think I would prefer, from now on, if I decide to get high, I'll go out in the back 15 and pick some wild marijuana and smoke it instead.
Have to meet The Husband at the bank today. He forgets we have kids in school. The bus doesn't get home until 3:40. He wants me to meet him at the bank at 3:30. I forget, they are my kids, I can pick them up from school if I want to!
That's all for today. If I ever get around to it, I've got more photos to share.
I've spent the last few hours getting high on primer fumes while I experience "the easiest painting I'll ever do", according to the gal working at the paint center at my local Walmart.
Who knew painting paneling could be so easy. If this is easy, count me our for any more! (If you cannot sense my tone of sarcasm shame on you.) God, thank heavens the paneling is ONLY in the basement and of that it's only on 3 walls.
Which, by the way, is NOT easy! Painting paneling SUCKS. I did not cut in the valleys with a proper...I can't even think of the word, I must be high...brush, yeah that's it. I've been lathering the roller in primer and squishing it in there. There is NO easy way to paint paneling as far as I'm concerned and so I've decided not to take any more painting advice from the gal at Walmart.
I've gone back and forth on painting the paneling or removing it about as many times as Liz Taylor's had different husbands. Today, I finally had an epiphany, this is OUR house. The El Paso house was always someone elses house. We owned it yes, but we were always fixing it up for the buyer and so while the things we did to it were things we liked, I wasn't about to paint it red because red doesn't normally sell. Haven't you ever watched the shows on HGTV and taken their tips? Keep it neutral!
Anyway, my epiphany was that this IS our house and after the past 4 weeks of moving I decided, we aren't moving..EVER. Well no, okay, I am not moving...ever. If Jeremiah wants to move, good luck to him. If the kids want to move, fine. But me? I am not moving. So, therefore, painted paneling is O.K. with me. Plus too, I have to get to work and the sooner the better and I need a nice retreat to go to to work and so painted paneling it is! Even with the primer on there, it looks much nicer. I'd like to slap the personal who invented paneling up side the head with a piece. Painted paneling...grumble grumble...
And so it goes. I had already removed one smallish piece. I tried to put it back up with the nails that were still stuck in it but I decided I had better just get the nail gun and air compressor. I did manage to use up a whole can of Kilz primer between the ceiling and two walls.
I am feeling a bit light headed as well and I think I would prefer, from now on, if I decide to get high, I'll go out in the back 15 and pick some wild marijuana and smoke it instead.
Have to meet The Husband at the bank today. He forgets we have kids in school. The bus doesn't get home until 3:40. He wants me to meet him at the bank at 3:30. I forget, they are my kids, I can pick them up from school if I want to!
That's all for today. If I ever get around to it, I've got more photos to share.
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