New Stove

Finally got the new stove hooked up. We had ordered the wrong parts from the manufacturer and had to order a different part from a company in Northern Kansas. A 3 week delay due to the manufacturer being on back order for the wrong parts and then waiting a couple days for what we needed to be shipped down we were finally able to put a fire in her last night. Boy is it nice to have a wood stove back and boy is she a nice one! Our last stove was "Thomas", he was the little stove that could. This stove is entirely too purdy to be considered a he so maybe we should call this one "Thomasina".  Jeremiah says it's too powerful to be a girl and he says he's purdy...stalemate, ha ha.

At any rate, burning in it is different, it heats up slower, which isn't a bad thing...the stone takes a while to get hot. Saturday night I put a decent size log in at 8 and there was a good amount of well burned coals in it it this morning to put another good size log in and have it catch this morning. The damper was all the way down, the end of the hall was 72 degrees, living room was neither blazing last night or cold like normal with the other stove at 7 AM. The temp. outside was 44. Not freezing but not warm either.

We're happy!

We went and got a piece of plywood and some tile it for a backer. The stove should be 24" away from the wall. The last stove only needed to be 16" away as it had a deflector. Don't need the timbers in the wall drying out and breaking so the chore this week is to tile the plywood and grout it. We lucked out because as we were pulling the plywood off the shelf an employee was walking by with a piece of 3/8" that he had cut for a customer that was going into the scrap because the guy didn't need it that was the perfect size for or project so it was free!!! Can't beat that. 

Halloween came and went. Last week Saturday we joined some friends at their lot on a local lake for a party/get together. Last week I spent prepping for a craft fair on Saturday for our county 4-H. Thursday I spent the afternoon with the kids at school for their Halloween parties and by Saturday night I was exhausted.

Jeremiah had a student over Saturday morning while Rachel and I were gone to help him clean up the wood pile. They had every intention of splitting all the wood as a surprise for me when I got home but the tractor has been acting up so that was a no go. There was water in the hydraulic lines so Jeremiah drained and refilled 2 times and it's working much better now. The truck has been acting up, the relay on the glow plugs was going out so he changed that and it seems like in this never ending circle of things needing to be done, other chores fall to the wayside.

I have been after Jeremiah for a year to get that shop cleaned up and little by little we make progress and then after all the chores and fixing, it's a disaster again. The garage is cleaned and I appreciate that because it's imperative in the winter not to be falling over things nearly killing ourselves dressing and undressing from barn chores. I cannot tell you the huge load of stuff we took off to the Goodwill! I try to give this stuff away for free and people say they'll come and get it and never do. So much of it is auction "throw in" stuff that follows us home. Meaning, we didn't really want it but to get the item(s) that were being auction we did want, we had to take the throw in stuff. Some of it, you just wouldn't believe...brand new in the box <insert item here> and people just won't come and get it so we've gotten wise and the chore when we get home from the auction is to sort it right then and there and whatever we don't want or need, it goes directly to the give away. 

Oddly enough, the whole auction thing has become a little bit of a side job. We enjoy the auctions very much and bring home some really nice things that we can either use or need. Some of it is by chance we pick it up and re-sell the large items and pay for everything we bought for the day so it works out! The kids HATE the auctions, oh how they hate them.

Snow had her (small) litter of pups 4 weeks ago, a male and a female. The male will be following us to California. A goat friend of mine will be adding him to her farm. The female may stay here locally but I'll start advertising her pretty soon here. They are cute as can be at this age.

November has stayed pretty warm though people are expecting a bad winter. All the weather "experts" are expecting it to be warm this month. We had 2 days of rain last week and got more than an inch of rain between the two. November and Dec. are usually pretty dry.

The colors this fall are simply amazing. I wish we had more orange and red leafed fall trees but the cottonwoods and hedge trees are in full color...though after the wind we had yesterday I am sure all the trees are bare now. Driving to town on 4th is beautiful...all the trees lining the road are so vibrant and as much as I hate poison ivy, it's the only pop of red color so it really does look very beautiful right now.

We're expecting a big storm to roll in tomorrow and temps are dropping into the 50's. I threw out some wheat seed last week into the pastures and the dang turkeys multiplied to about 50 head overnight from the original 20 or so we've had hanging around and I am sure there's probably not a seed left out there! Jer said he's going to thin them one of these days. We need them thinned by about 3 dozen. That would feed the dogs for a while! Stupid turkeys.

The chicken coop is winterized (meaning we replaced the metal roosting poles with wood). The sow is probably bred again for a mid-Feburary littler, most of which I think we'll keep and raise on pasture and goat's milk and sell for those looking to put a half or whole hog in the freezer. I expect to raise another brood of layers in about January from the incubator if our hens will be laying at all. I've learned that fall chicks will molt the following fall where as the spring chicks will go a year and a half so that should ensure eggs more regularly.

This time of year the wind howls almost constantly and it's wearing. I'm still hanging clothes out on the line while it's still nice though tomorrow I'm hoping to process the last of these 3 bushels of apples we bought while it rains outside. I've made some outstanding pie filling and applesauce so far. The garden is kaput. I have some furniture I'd like to refinish that I've bought here and there and I had better get on that before it's too cold in the garage.

It's nearly time to get the kids up for school. I'll end for now. Have a great week.

A fall post

Fall is upon us! Today is overcast and windy and in the 60's, nice fall weather. This past weekend was gorgeous! We took a mini-working vacation up to Lawrence (upper NE corner of the state about half an hour west of Kansas City) to attend the Mother Earth News Fair. Originally we were just going to go up for the day but in the last week the guest speaker line up was finally posted (or that's when I finally saw it!) and both of us wanted to see what was being offered on opposite days so I hurriedly called the neighbors to see if they could feed and we left out early Saturday morning before the break of dawn.

It was a whirlwind weekend, that's for sure! It takes so much just to get ready to go anywhere for an overnight trip and it's difficult to remember that no one knows the inner workings of this place like I do. It's never more apparent than when I have to leave and while I know that there are others perfectly capable, even having to explain which spigot to use for which animal becomes a chore to remember for me. I go out every morning to do chores and it's second nature and writing it all out so that someone else knows to "feed the chickens in the roving coop in the pen closest to the pigs" because there are 2 roving coops with different aged chickens for different purposes along with the free ranging layers!

Anyway, I have complete faith in the few who I leave the farm to while I'm gone and I am so glad we got the opportunity to go! I hadn't started out wanting to go to the bee keeping presentations but oh so glad I did! We met some friends up there who were also staying for the whole weekend and she and I listed to 2 hour-long sessions on bees. Jeremiah and I have talked about bees for a long time, wanted to get them but like everything else, in due time. However, after this weekend, that's our next animal project for next year and I am so super excited! There is a lot to plan for and this winter will be the perfect time to read up here and there so that by spring, the perfect bee-gettin' time, we'll be ready...or as ready as we'll ever be, anyway.

It was pretty amazing, this "fair". It was like Disneyland for me, so much to learn and do and it was nice to get away with the kids and not have to do anything, if we didn't want to!

In other news, the new stove isn't hooked up yet. I have been asked quite a few times if it is. We had to order a couple parts and so for now its just sitting in out living room waiting. We haven't needed it quite yet anyway. We do need to get started on getting wood split here pretty soon.

Three weeks ago I thought I lost my favorite hen to a fox because I didn't see her come out of the coop when I opened it one morning. She hadn't been around all day either. I don't name the chickens but I do have a certain amount of each breed so I keep track of them by how many of each I can count. The next day she showed up and the day after I didn't see her and didn't again for about 4 days. I thought for a while I was crazy in how many of her kind I had counted the day before when I thought I saw her but it sealed the deal when she disappeared and showed back up again and I knew at that point she had a nest she was sitting on, "gone broody" they call it. Last Friday I was picking up some tools that had been left out and finally found her in a stack of tire walls we had piled up (our neighbor takes big tractor tires, cuts off the "walls" and uses the cylinders as raised bed planters). We ended up with the walls for a project. Whether or not we ever get to that project is anyone's guess but she had made herself a nice hidden nest nonetheless.

I didn't expect her to hatch anything out, she's a younger hen, only February born and her first brood. However, this morning at chore time I went out to give her some food so she wouldn't have to get off her nest and she had cheeping coming from underneath her. She hatched out 4-5 of quite a few eggs so I am happy with that! One was dead and one didn't hatch from the egg and there are still a few unhatched eggs so I will leave her be for the time being until she gets up and leaves that nest. I may take the chicks from her too to raise. It's kinda sad but hens don't grieve too much and there are just too many things that can get baby chicks around here, mainly aerial predators and these chicks are all females from what I can tell.

I learned to feather sex chickens earlier this year. Not all breeds can be feather sexed but most can and I am pretty accurate! Rachel wanted some of her own chickens to raise up for 4-H this year and the local farm store gets 2 batches of chicks in the fall to sell so I went down and got her 2 Barred Rocks (black and white sort of speckled chicken) and 3 Buff Orphingtons (big fluffy super docile buff colored chicken). A week later the general manager -who is on a farm site I am on- announced all in stock poultry was half off and so I went back down to pick up some Australorps too (they are an all black bird with a iridescent green sheen to them).

It just so happened they had a whole tub full of "fry pans" -which are generally roosters of the laying breed variety that people raise up for meet. They take a lot longer to raise to butchering age than actual meat bird breeds and there isn't a whole lot of meat but they are cheap so people buy them-. However, these "fry pans" were straight run (meaning not sexed at the hatchery so they could be male or female) and just by looking at wing feathers I cold tell there were an awful lot of pullets in there! So, for 90 cents a piece I picked up another 3 buffs and another 3 barred rocks and which made 9 pullet chicks! Then, I hatched out 13 from the incubator a few days after I picked up the chicks at the farm store and only 3 of them were cockerels (based on feather sexing) and so we've got a lot of pullets and that's never a bad thing!

It's strange that the ratio of males to females that I've gotten out of the 3 good hatches from the incubator have been pullet heavy.  I am not complaining, believe me! With as many as we loose to foxes, I'd just assume be pullet heavy though we do keep several roosters too. Anyway, that's the chick update.

All the piglets have been sold and are off to their new homes. We hadn't planned to breed Snow (the dog) until next spring but I made a slight mistake and let her out of the containment pen too early and there's no such thing as family planning in the dog world so we had new pups a week ago last Friday...just 2 and (fortunately) but unfortunately I have more people wanting them than I have pups! This place never seems to be long without baby animals of some kind!

It rained last night and was fairly windy. Today is clear and cool and it looks like our days of high 70s and 80s are a thing of the past. Time to start remembering morning jackets and no longer are we enjoying warm evenings where it's light until after 9 PM....I'll end this for now. Today is grocery shopping day and there are lots of errands to run. It's not my favorite day by any means but necessary.

Have a great day...


 

Auction bound

Where to begin, kinda hard when I don't even know where I left off last. Things are usually busy around here but it seems the past 4 weeks have been exponentially busy!

I'll work backwards. Yesterday we loaded up and went to an auction outside of town. I don't even recall the reason Jeremiah wanted to go, the auction bill always holds something that catches our eye. The weather was getting a little hot there for a while, well over 90's but we got some rain this week and it has cooled down to the 70's and 80's. Yesterday was a nice day to be outside. It never fails that we come home from auctions with things we need, things we don't need and things we never new we needed and sometimes you don't think you want or need something until the price is too good to pass up =)!

Anyone who knows us knows we LOVE auctions. Not only do we make money selling the stuff we buy, it gets us away from work for a day, its a good family day. The kids hate them but we try to bring stuff along to keep them occupied and we always meet great folks at these things and it becomes a gathering place of sorts for "regulars". 

Yesterday's booty consisted of a brand new breaker box and all new breakers, something Jeremiah paid $90 for but saved us $100 and we need one for both the shop and new milk barn and would have spent well over $200 buying it from Lowes.Then some heavy duty ratchet straps which we can never have too many of. We can always use good sturdy plastic tubs with lids around here for storage and it so happened a $4 box came filled with fabric. Who could pass up that deal? Another tub had a new Kitchaide hand-mixer and there is nothing wrong with mine, I've been using it since Jeremiah and I got married but for $2 you may as well upgrade and it came with a programmable new in the package thermostat, something we've been needing.

I bought an old desk, solid oak, for $10. It needs a little cleaning up but will make a really nice telephone stand and kid work area for the kitchen. They had a lot of nice pieces there, some went for well over $600.

Then came the implements. The owners had over 28 farm gates. Where on earth a person puts so many gates is beyond me or why they didn't go with the property but whatever, those things are pricey at the store and besides being a little faded, they were all in good condition and a lot heavier weight than what we can currently buy at the farm store. We walked away with 4 for $100, $25 a pieces which saved us $100 or more.

The owners also used high tensile wire for their fencing. In fact, early in the day I was talking to the owner asking when they put theirs in and how they liked it and they've been using it 20 years, it all still looks brand new and they LOVE it. Naturally, I had to ask as we put the same thing in 3 springs ago and we LOVE ours so I am glad to hear of someone else who loves theirs just as much. It just so happens that just like us, that had a few extra rolls that they stored in the barn they never used and the rolls that generally cost $100 a piece, we got for $6 (where we'll use it I don't know because each roll is 4,000 feet and we have 4 rolls left from out project as we plan/planned to do a little cross fencing but for $6, you just can't turn that down. Which brings me to my next point. We always try to buy something that we get at a good price and re-sell to pay for all or much of what we buy at these auctions. Cattle panel and hog panels, wood lathes, vehicles, garden tools, etc. We spend the day buying what we need, a few hours selling what we don't and slow but sure we build this place for free, basically.

We often wonder why people have estate and property auctions as sometime the things just go for so cheaply it hardly seems like the owners make anything. But sometimes it's just easier to have it all go at one time, they don't have to worry about it and everything is cleared off their farm in one day, literally! Sometime there have been deaths and the family members need to make it easy.

I will admit, yesterday was an expensive day, but money well spent on things we need/may need and it still saves us in the long run. We had just got to the auction when I noticed from afar a woodstove on the porch that had been pulled out of the house. Looking closer I nearly couldn't contain myself. It was a soapstone stove, something I had wanted from the beginning as they are #1, gorgeous, but #2 exponentially better at holding their heat and getting up at 4 in the morning to reload a stove that Jeremiah only loaded 6 hours prior gets old by the end of winter. This was was in beautiful shape. I never did think I'd walk out of that auction with it. You never can tell what kind of people are there and what they'll be bidding on. I always sort of hate to see a couple of familiar ladies there as they always drive the price of furniture and collectibles up because they have a consignment shop and will pay far more than I am willing to spend on any # of things but such is life.

We ended up getting the stove $350 for it but I knew it was worth well over $2,000. Turns out, the model sells new for $3500 and getting what I've wanted all along for a fraction was well worth the cost. Not to mention we'll sell "Old Thomas" for that and basically just swap out Thomas for what I've wanted, but could ill afford, all along. We paid a little more for Thomas 3 years ago but he's saved us far more than that in heating bills and we always try to pass the savings we get at auctions on to others.

Out with the machinery and farm stuff they had an upright air compressor. Jeremiah ended up buying that and then the chipper shredder. One of those things where it would be nice to have since we have all this crappy brush but not something we intended to go buy! But much like that rototiller we bought in El Paso -the one we ended up buying because it was cheaper than renting, used it, proceeded to rent it out to a few friends and then sold for more than we paid!- it was far too good a deal to pass up! It's got an electric start and gasoline motor and I don't know why a chipper shredder would have an on board air compressor but there it is. We spent $250 on a dumpster this past spring to clear out our front woods - of which we barely made a dent in- wishing all along we had a chipper shredder and here we are, 6 months later, $175 poorer but the owners of one that will save us thousands to keep the woods cleared. Can you guess what we'll be doing today? Playing with our new toy! To say that I am excited really is true! Whether we sell it or hold on to it is anyone's guess, trees will always break and there will always be brush around here. It's resale value is about $600-700.





So that was about the end of our auction buying. We generally don't bring a trailer with us as parking is usually at a premium and we don't go too far from home for thee things (within a 15 mile radius). We drove back home and picked up a few strong helping hands to help with the wood stove and the trailer yesterday afternoon. We had been at the auction about an hour when I got a call from our neighbor saying that their horse had died the night before and wanted to know if we knew anyone who had an excavator. As it turns out, a gal down the road who we know rented one for the weekend to dig some new water lines and wanted to know if we wanted to share the rental. We had planned to bring it here on Sunday to dig out a few stumps but it appeared that we may be digging a grave instead. As it turns out, we were able to get it all dug and the horse buried with the tractor. Never thought I'd be spending the evening burying a horse, but then, I don't imagine most do! With all of that yesterday though, I think we'll just play around with the chipper shredder today and call it a an early weekend!

So ends our auction escapade. Auctions are always the place we go to finds the things we need, the things we don't and the thing we didn't know we needed =). Happy Sunday.

Complaining...about the fair.

I take the kids every year, usually alone in some respect. I put on a happy face and try not to let my disdain for it rub on the kids but I seriously HATE it. It's so hot and zaps all my energy. I took the kids out of school a little early, generally we go in the morning and are home by 2 or so and next year we're going back to that way. I feel visiting the fair is an educational experience and therefore taking them out of school is just as educational as school would be. That aside however, for as much as we did yesterday, 99% of it we do at home every single day. There was a sow in the birthing barn who had just given birth to about 9 piglets. This is thrilling for me because baby pigs are incredibly cute but what's not thrilling is that the kids don't find it thrilling...at all! Why? Because we just watched our sow give birth to 7 baby piglets 3 weeks ago and after about the 4th one was born, legos beckoned. Oh sure, they like to go out and watch them run and jump around and try to pick them up of which their high pitched sequels have the kids nearly throwing them back onto the ground before mama sow gets irritated and wants to know why we are "hurting" her brood.We just picked up new baby chicks and the ones in the incubator are about fully "cooked" and will be hatching soon and aside from the new baby bulls, which we see nearly every day we drive to town, the quilts and crafts, it's just not very exciting for them. Rachel did get a kick out of looking for the types of chickens she will be raising in the poultry barn. She wanted some more barred rocks and buff orpingtons and was quite taken aback at how big they get.

The rides are, of course, the highlights for the kids. By the time we got to the rides it had cooled down a bit at 6 PM but the people, the mass exodus INTO the fair by that time was hell on earth. The loud music and the commotion, it was just too much! I grit my teeth and bared it though but swore never again at that late an hour would I go. I told Jeremiah the next time it would be like "old times" where we are at the fair by 9 AM, go through all the exhibits and see the animals, get on the rides when they open at 11 AM and be out of there by 11:04, ha! Either that or he can take them and I will stay home because I am the "no fun" Mom anyway who puts her foot down and does not allow them to ride certain rides anyway.

We were trying to make the demolition derby at 7:30 but Jeremiah had to work late and we didn't end up meeting and I decided for my sanity, I needed to call it quits and we went home. I don't understand how people in this town can go (and WANT to go) to the fair every.single.day for the 9-10 days it goes on. Now, if I could sit and watch demonstrations like sheep sheering or one of the small concert venues, fine. Especially if it's in the air conditioned buildings but to walk around being asked over and over if I am interested in wood stoves, combines (pshttt yeah, do I look like I need a $100K combine? NO!), any of the # of farming implements, wooden signs or anything else they are trying to sell.

It felt like a week long trip in an afternoon and I am happy to be back to doing chores this morning of which laundry and canning some tomato sauce, green chile sauce & grape jelly will be the highlight...oh, and feeding baby piggies grapes!

 

Saturday Humor

Conversations with kids: Pigs and Little Lambs

 

 

Rachel and I were sitting on the couch looking at photos I had taken of the piglets a few days ago. 

 

She said, "Little piglets are so cute...but they aren't when they get older. It's amazing how that works. Oh well, I am still Great-Grandma's Little Lamb." 

 

 "...and so is that stinky pot, Drew!" 

 

<SIGH>

Wordless Wednesday: Never too early to be milk drunk!

Garden photo Monday

Kansas heirloom melon

Delicious heirloom melon

Not a morning person.

Red potato blooms

Flooding

I talked about rain and moisture in my last post 6 days ago. I have lost track in inches how much rain we've gotten but I think it's well over 10 at this point for the past 2 weeks! Both the Arkansas and the Little Arkansas have gone over their banks in several places, we're still high and dry for the most part but last weekend, Sunday I think, I walked out to pond being well over 1/2 full OVERNIGHT! That was the rain we got over 7 inches alone. It was nuts. It would stop raining for a day, then rain that night and so it went for the entire week except Thursday, which rained all day, I think and Friday for most of the day as well. The rainy days meld into the next, it seems.

We gave up on trying to finish tying in the electrical lines for the new milk house- too much water, too much mud. We got all the other conduit in though and the water lines and got the trenches filled. There were a few places that were washed out but Jeremiah got bucket loads of dirt today and filled all those in.

Drew and I were sick today. I am not sure from what. With all the mosquitoes I joke that we probably have malaria. Oh my lord the mosquitoes are SO bad! We literally cannot walk out side without one landing on our person immediately ANY time of the day so for the most part, we just stay in! Fortunately I am feeling better and I am sure he will tomorrow. We both started feeling pretty crappy after lunch out yesterday so I have to wonder if it's not a little bit of food poisoning.

Today the sun was out, not that it mattered much I had a fever so I was sweatin' sitting still.

I have some photos to share. I know I don't post nearly as often as I should.  Some are old, some are recent. I don't seem to have enough time to play around with photos like I'd like but occasionally I can sneak away. Have a good weekend!

Tea Time

Rachel was invited to a tea party Saturday put on by our super talented friend Amy and her daughter, Brayden. Amy and Keith have kids (boy and girl) the same age as Rachel and Drew and they get along wonderfully. The tea party was a smashing good time...for girls and dolls only!

P.S. You probably wouldn't believe it if I told you, but another 1.1" of rain dropped on us Friday night and this evening I was woken up by thunder so loud it sounded like the house was cracking in 2. I'll check the gauge in the morning, I expect at least another inch for a total of over 9 inches in about 10 days time! As of this morning, we had over 7 inches of rain in a little over 8 hours!  Some of our rivers are nearly overflowing their banks Our rivers are over their banks in many locations and parts of northern Kansas, as usual, are flooding out. I hate to see that, but for the rest of us, it's just so needed! 

Up a Creek

How quickly the weather can turn around. I thought surely we'd be in for another hot long dry summer. So far, I was very mistaken! While one vacation we received at least an inch of rain and in the past week, over 7 inches!

The hail the other night was unreal and we didn't even get the brunt of it. But it's so funny how storms around here can be...it can be raining on one house and be completely dry the next house over. About 5 miles away as the crow flies hail as big as softballs bombarded areas for as long as 6 minutes. Lowes had roof damage so severe the roofing guys lost count at 6,000 dents in the roof and it's so bad, the whole thing will need to be replaced. Even almost a week later there were buckets and cans and every type of container they had lined up side by side all up and down the aisles to catch the dripping water. I am sure they had to keep all employees on staff just to be sure the floor was moped up!

Glass from windshields littered the parking lots of several businesses (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, etc.). It was pretty bad! But, we got a lot of good rain out of it, 2.5" from that storm. The past couple of days and nights it has rained and rained and rained! We were getting a bit flooded out going out to the barn. The water comes down off the hills and channels right through the middle of the barnyard and veers east to across the orchard a bit and into the pond.

Jeremiah desperately wants his pond to fill but it's gonna take an awful lot of water to get it started. Everyone north of us has to fill theirs first, not to mention we'd much prefer the aquifer fill first! The Little Arkansas is near flood stage and Jeremiah said the Arkansas is very high too. Everything should subside in the next couple of days though as it looks like we'll be dry for a couple of days. It's a good soaking rain for the most part. The first few storms softened up the ground enough that the next storms to come through had a chance to soak instead of running off, and that's what we need! Everything is SO green! It's gorgeous. Course, with the wetness comes bugs, there's never a happy medium!

The garden has grown leaps and bounds. I'd show you with a photo but I need a new battery for my camera and have been a little slow in getting that done. We still aren't picking a whole lot out of it. It always seems mine takes a little longer than some to get going but once it does, it goes crazy! We have picked lots of peppers and there are lots of tomatoes on the vines, which are HUGE again this year and so healthy, but still green yet.

I have had enough of my make shift milk room and I finally put my foot down 2 Fridays ago and decided it was a task that needed to get started. If it never gets started it certainly won't ever get finished! So at the last minute Friday afternoon Jeremiah was calling around to equipment rental companies and getting estimates for a trencher rental. By Friday evening we Jeremiah had the yard all dug up.

Nothing ever goes as planned however (and it's never as budgeted!) and when we thought we could tie into the existing line to the barn, Jeremiah decided against that. He has visions some day of putting in an ag well and between an ag well and everything I may eventually be running in the new milk house, 30 amps just won't be enough to run the milk house, a well AND existing things out in the barn which isn't a whole lot unless it's winter and then we've got the tank heaters.

Anyway, so we trenched a whole new line from the house out to the milk house site, the old wire and conduit will eventually be cut half way out to the barn and the wire from the house to the cut will be removed and used up front. See, there's not enough amps going out to the shop either. Not enough for Jeremiah anyway so he trenched a line from the house to the shop too! There was plumbing put out there when it was constructed but water was never put in so we put a water line in, then new conduit for electrical too. He's going to take the 30 amps currently going out to the barn and send it to the shop and put in a 100 amp breaker in the box and send it out to the barn. That outta do it! We were working against time to get the conduit and water lines in before the storms filled them back up with dirt but I now have 3 new water hydrants out at the barn (one to the orchard, one to the eastern pasture (where the pigs are now) and one int he northern pasture that he trenched a 300' foot line for). That should be plenty of hydrants!

Snow, the dog, is in heat and I don't want another round of puppies so soon so she's in the garage and driving me insane! She got out once by opening the door and I went chasing her across the yard at 1 AM! She's trying to fit through the cat door as we speak. By the time all is said and done she'll probably destroy it! She's no small dog and I am wishing I had a kennel big enough to put her in. I would put her in one of the goat pens but she'd dig or climb out! She'd probably destroy a kennel too so needless to say, neither of us are happy campers right now. To top it off, we castrated buck kids over the weekend and I have major poison ivy on my forearms from them roaming through it eating and me picking them up! I have not slept well in nights despite taking Benadryl and drinking myself to sleep and now the dog! 

We're driving down to Wichita Saturday afternoon to meet someone coming up from Oklahoma to buy a buck kid. Another lady in Amarillo wants the last papered buck kid I have for sale and I said I would meet her half way for gas money. There isn't a whole lot to see in the SW part of the state I don't think and I don't want to cross state lines but I am sure we can find something to do since the trip is paid for. I think we've got that planned for the weekend after next.

We have 2 new foxes back and have lost a few hens. Yesterday morning I found a pile of feathers by the roving coup. The stupid batch of chickens we got in February are pretty much near full grown now, most of which were roosters (!) and they roost out in the open on top of the roving coup! Stupid birds. They won't go into the coup. I counted heads though and everyone still has theirs so I guess it was a thwarted attempt. Still, this evening at dusk I put the hens that roost up there into the coup and the rest of them I put into the roving coup and shut the door. It does not have roosting poles in it, they sit on the ground. It's big enough for 3 full grown birds really.

The second set of meat birds I let out during the day. I hate them. They are awful awful creatures, I call them the minions, they are also referred to as the piranhas too. The other meat bird batch weren't nearly as bad as these guys. They would peck you to death if you let them I swear and they are always under foot! Honestly you feel like the Pied Piper, only they aren't rats their flesh eating chickens! Why do I continue to let them out of the roving coup then? Because they can forage all day long and it's free! I still feed them a lot twice a day, though that's when they are the worst when they are "starving" so I do give them that in their defense. Any idea what it's like to see 75 white chickens all over the yard? On the whole bug issue though, we've had VERY few ticks this year. It's all a give and take, I guess.

I am incubating 22 eggs. We'll see how that goes. I've not had much success with incubation and after 3 attempts and 12 hatching from the last batch of 40 eggs, I gave up for the spring. We lost a few of those once they were feathered out to who knows what the and rest of them went as payment to the person I got fertile eggs from for the first 2 incubation attempts even though none of those eggs even hatched...the eggs that I finally had success on the last batch which were all from my coup after tweaking the incubation method I was using.

We've got a Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster now and mostly SLW hens too. We have 3 golden laced wyandotte hens and more roosters than we need and then just one last blue laced red wyandotte hen and 2 roosters and one of these days I'll put her and a matching fellow into the roving coup and pull some eggs from her to incubate. The golden hens mostly stay with the golden roosters so I am sure, without even having to separate, I should have pure chicks. You'd laugh if I told you I got 6 golden laced wyandotte roosters to 3 females. We'd butcher some of them if we had the time!  At this point I just want replacements in case the foxes get more and I am sick to death of paying an arm and a leg for chicks from the hatchery!

Our girl piggy is due to have piglets any day. We separated the male from her. We're penning them with electric wire, 2 strand for their previous pen and one strand for the male since we ran out and it seems to do the trick and he doesn't test it. They each have a pretty big area of pasture to root up.  Piglets should be an interesting experience. We don't plan to keep them, we'll sell them as weaner pigs after we castrate them. That'll be a new experience too but I figure if we can butcher chickens and pigs and goats and burn baby goat heads to dis-bud, certainly we can castrate some pigs!

Well anyway, we are supposed to be dry here for a couple of days I think. Jeremiah will be in Kansas City Wednesday through Friday evening. He's taking part in the last of that state tech-ed overhaul project. Least you think he didn't pick up another project though but he was volunteered to be president-elect of I don't even remember what now but something having to do with executive decisions on the state level for Kansas Career and Technical Education. Next year he'll move up to president. He said they want new young blood. I wish it were a paying position (but it's not) and it means he'll be spending at least 3 more nights away for conferences in 3 different cities (Topeka, Kansas City and somewhere else) over the course of the year and I am sure there is paperwork that goes along with it! I know it's a huge feather in his cap but to be honest, I am a little perturbed actually. Yet more time away. But anyway, nothing to get all worked up about. I'm thankful he has a good job with people who think so highly of him to put him in these positions. I know it speaks volumes of him.

The dog seems to have settled down...or chewed her way out but at least it's quiet and I am going to try to grab a few more winks of sleep before another day dawns.

Have a great Wednesday!

Rain

It's amazing how much rain can affect your mood. Isn't it Wa. that has the highest suicide rate? Alaska has got to be somewhere at the top I'm sure too. Those dark and gloomy wet places, it's a must to take vitamin D. or sit under a "happy light", which is a lot like a jaundice light for infants!

It rained most days while we were on vacation or at least threatened to but you know what? Rain used to spell disaster for me but since moving to Kansas, rain is just like sunshine, you learn to love it and I have definitely learned to love it after 2 years of drought. Rain here doesn't usually last long, short bursts of storms roll though and it's back to work...a little wetter maybe but no worse for the wear.

Speaking of the devil, our weather radio just went off. I haven't heard that thing go off in ages, since last summer I think! It's been quiet for us tornado wise so far. I used to think the Mid-West, Kansas in particular, lived and breathed tornado warnings all year. It's so not the case. In fact, Kansas is not even on the top 10 list for severe weather in the nation and while we are centrally located and part of "tornado alley", there are states that get them a lot more often and a lot more severe than us.

Spring started out good in the rain dept. then tapered off just around grass hay cutting time which puts the alfalfa and corn growers on edge of course but without a break in the moisture, the grass hay doesn't dry and the wheat can't be cut, so many American's don't realize how much weather affects their food supply half way across the nation. The wheat harvest was a little late (but certainly within normal range I think) this year due to the usually cold spring (i.e. snow on May 2!) we had. All in all it was a pretty nice winter and one I could be happy with again. It was pretty mild for the most part, lots of snow but it didn't stick around long and really helped us pull us further out of drought.

Then the rain stopped and the heat began. We left watering the garden every other day, staggering waterings actually- one part of the garden would be watered well one day, the other part the next. I fully expected to come home to one dry and brown state once again! We were pleasantly surprised to see that everything was green, really green! And growing! We've gotten regular rain since we got home and aside from one day of watering, despite temps in the 90's to near 100, the garden has not needed water because of adequate moisture from above! Thank goodness! People complain they have to mow their grass more often. I will mow every dang day and be happy about it if it means we get rain!

Yesterday morning I did chores in the rain. This evening Jeremiah was working on the water lines we're putting in out to the pastures (I'll write more on that later). I had looked at the radar a bit earlier this evening and there was a storm growing up north. Storms don't usually go south in the spring or summer (in winter they do which is where we'll get the really cold temps), so I didn't think anything of it until I started dishes and saw it growing and growing and growing out the kitchen window. I checked the radar again and with radar showing no ring of mild green weather but rather a huge ring of pinks and purples, I thought I ought to go out and do chores and tell Jeremiah to finish up. No sooner after I finished feeding the pigs did the hail the size of golf balls start to drop from the sky, the wind picked up and Jeremiah and I literally had to sprint to the house while being pelted the whole way. It hailed for quite a while and the wind was just awful. But then, it rained! Rained and rained and rained, over an inch in about 45 minutes. Oh how we need it so badly! THIS is what summer is supposed to be like, I can even live with the humidity on the stormy days if we get the rain. We're fortunate we didn't get the really big hail. Friends had photos of baseball and softball size hail a little further north. I can do without the hail, it dents vehicles and breaks windows and puts holes in roofs.

The rain tapered off for a while and is back now. It's late, near 11 and I can hear it pour outside. After dinner after the rain had passed, Jeremiah, Drew and I sat in the dark master bedroom eating french silk pie and watched the lightening show out the window with the window open and the breeze coming through. I can't think of a nicer evening than that. Our pond may not fill up this year, but I am hoping this rain is going to pull us out of the drought and get us back on track.

The temps haven't been near as horrid like the past 2 summers. We've had a few very bad days over 100 with a higher heat index due to humidity but for the most part, it's been OK. We're looking forward to some days in the 80's this week and next and after 2 summers with temps over 110 for days on end, even 96 seems like a reprieve.

It appears we'll be soothed to sleep by the flow of drip drops off the roof. It's been a week or more since I've been out to the far pastures but the hay consumption has been way down for the past couple of months so I know there's good eatin' out there.

Time for bed as the short hand nears 11. It's good sleeping weather. Night night.

Back home from vacation

I had wanted to post more vacation photos but truth be told, we spent a lot of time running around and visiting, back and forth between states and houses that I didn't really get a whole lot of time to take photos in the first place.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent at Jeremiah's folk's house. Friday we went south in Kentucky to Loretta Lynn's (famous country singers) childhood home. Her brother owns a general store in town (photoed) and we were supposed to go to the store and "ask for Herman". We did and the cashier sent us up the road to Butcher Holler, the same Butcher Holler she sang about in her country song "Coal Miner's Daughter". The song and the movie are a bit off in truth but regardless, it was still a nice day to spend out there. The weather was wonderful, it wasn't humid and it was nice to just sit and talk.

Saturday Jeremiah, Matthew, Drew and I drove up to the graveyard where his uncle was recently buried. When Aunt Ruth grew up there, she said getting up to the church and grave yard was nothing but a walk up the hill but since the coal company has bought the land out, under certain restrictions they must leave the cemeteries alone (there are 3) but the more mines they dig, the longer the road gets so what used to be a short jaunt was a 1 hour ordeal. We had to pass through the guard shack to even get onto the road and passed coal semi trucks going up and down. We could have spent all day out there trying to find that cemetery since the guard said she was new to working there and really had no idea exactly where it was. The older gentle man we talked to down in the town before going up the coal road didn't really know, they said it sounded familiar and thought it was about 5-6 miles up the road.

We were about ready to give up after driving up and down the roads. I saw a coal truck stopped and asked Jeremiah to ask him. He drives the roads all day long, certainly he should know! As it turns out, it just so happens we are at the entrance. It was worth it. The old church is still there and they still have funerals in it. I don't think either of the 2 other cemeteries had churches on them (one had a covered area with pews and long tables for gatherings. Aunt Ruth and Gracie said family reunions are popular at Graveyards. 

We stayed for a while. It really was a lovely spot. I wish Rachel would have come along with but she wanted to go with Tonya and Deana for the day. On the way home we stopped at Twelve Pole Church where the boys said they would occasionally attend monthly gatherings for singing. Jeremiah made me cross the cable bridge over a creek, he knows I HATE heights. He said they used to run across as kids...and I used to run across gravel bare foot as a child, so there you go.  There were some people there doing work on the church so we chatted a while before heading back out to meet Aunt Ruth and her daughter Candy for dinner.

Sunday we went into Ohio and did some more visiting. It's been so long since we'd been back that it seems a lot of time was spent visiting and I wish we could have had longer. We tried to fish every morning before heading out and the kids had such a wonderful time with cousins!

The goats and animals were taken care of by friends and the garden had grown leaps and bounds while we were gone. It took us 5 days to get caught back up with work and we're finally getting regular rain! It's been so humid the past couple of days but this summer is completely different than the last 2 and is more like what is should be instead of the hot incredibly dry like we've had! The pond isn't holding water but I am hoping we're finally pulling out of this drought. The pastures look wonderful.

Big Sandy River one evening

Ohio River

Cable bridge at the Twelve Pole Church in WV

Queen's Ridge Cemetery and church.

Queen's Ridge Cemetery...a gorgeous & peaceful final resting place.

I like taking photos of outhouses. Here's a his and hers.

Single seater

Vacation: Day 4- Drowning Worms

Vacation: Day 3

After a lovely drive through eastern Tn. and Kentucky, we made it to our cabin in the woods Tuesday night. Yesterday was a kind of a "get our bearings", catch up on sleep and stretch our legs kinda day. The kids went fishing for a bit, we visited some and Jeremiah, his Dad and brothers got to work cuttin' a tree out of Aunt Ruth's pool.

Our cabin is simply adorable and I can see this being a wonderful vacation spot more than once! The view is gorgeous!

It was humid as all get out yesterday and hot. Round about 7:30 the sky opened up and there was lots of thunder and lightening. It's so green and gorgeous here. I've loved this part of the country since the first time I was here before Jeremiah and I were married.


 

View from the front porch while we have coffee.

View from the front porch.

 

Vacation: Day 1

Good morning from Forrest City, Arkansas -where when you mention the summer temperature you're also mentioning the relative humidity, the size of bugs in meters and the number of dead animals on the road in a 1 mile stretch!-

Our hotel was overbooked last night so at 10 o'clock when it was still 100 outside I was on the phone trying to book a new one without having to drive all over town. We were comp'ed $25 in "travel pay" -which, incidentally, meant being heavily inconvenienced by having to travel across the street *snarf snarf*- As it was we sat at a "dead red" for at least 5 minutes so I felt better about accepting the compensation. We also were comp'ed $100 toward our next booking and I didn't even get snippy though I wanted to as the heat and humidity had triggered the monster mood. 

The kids, as usual, are fantastic travelers. Jeremiah and I have only managed to come close to killing each other once which I think may be a new record for us. I am somewhat of a stressed traveler while he is not. Suffice to say it makes for a somewhat volatile traveling relationship! I like to know that every creek and bump is normal (even if it's a false sense of security) and I don't like forking out vacation funds to pay speeding tickets. While on the other hand, Jeremiah's best travelers insurance is AAA and he thinks 5-10 MPH over the speed limit is tolerance. Oddly enough our only altercation yesterday had nothing to do with speed or mechanical problems, it was a toll issue in which I apologized to myself profusely for for him because I told him I didn't think it was a good idea to go into the "coin only" lane (not knowing it was a coin only) but he wanted the shorter route. I also thanked myself profusely for saving the day by having (i.e. hiding) enough quarters to pay the toll out of my "Aldi rent-a-cart fund" (which inevitably is usually taken by miscellaneous people)! I also apologized for not being an adequate TC (A.K.A. navigator) although I thought my comment about it not being a good idea to enter that lane was a sufficient warning. Anyway...
Our new smart phone is actually is anything but. I've cursed and shaken it at least a half a dozen times (as if that makes it work better) so it's well broken in now. It's a blessing and a curse suffice to say. I am sure every time I get mad at it I hear Jeremiah muttering under his breath that it's a user issue. I don't believe it.

We should have made it further yesterday but it's clear Sooners and Arkansans don't travel out of their own two states much otherwise they would realize how crappy their roads are (Sorry Kiley and Amy, but it's true!). Not to mention that we've spent probably half of what it cost in fuel yesterday ($301.24) in tolls alone. Okay, maybe it was more like $10 in tolls but still. Jeremiah says the tolls go to give toll collectors and the people who put road cones out so it looks like the roads are being worked on a job. I believe it!

We cross the "Mighty (dirty) Mississip" this morning. We're going to let the kids swim for a little bit because it's Rachel's life obsession to swim at every hotel's pool we ever stay at regardless of how cold it is. This one should be rather refreshing (not) seeing as how the outside temp. is probably 90 at this point and the pool will be a close to ambient. J is trying to convince them we should get on the road early and skip the pool so we can "get home" sooner, the kids aren't buying it, HA! I fear the debt would be far more than we can afford anyway.

Other than that, it's travel as usual. We had forgotten how beautiful eastern Ok. and Arkansas is and how much the goats would LOVE either one. The grass sometimes IS greener on the other side, but probably mostly because they've just gotten more rain. Jer keeps pointing out locations with deep enough woods that it would make a good "shine" location. He's watched too much "Moonshiners" on Netflix recently.
We'll make eastern Ky. today via Tn., providing the roads improve. For now it's time to grab some food but not before figuring out what to do about toothbrushes because apparently, we forgot all of ours! I guess it's better than some of the other things that could have been left and there always has to be something! Ahhh, never mind, the toothbrushes were in my purse because that's always the place you pack toothbrushes, isn't it?

Have a great day!

Gone Fishin'

Jeremiah and a friend of ours took the kids fishing last week, I joined in for the last hour. Drew says fishing is boring. He doesn't yet understand that is the point of fishing, for the most part. Maybe he would prefer lure fishing more?

At any rate, Rachel snagged  2 catfish (which we released). I spent the last 45 minutes trying to persuade Drew that patience is important though despite having a few nibbles, it wasn't enough to keep him interested. He would prefer to play in the dirt. I can live with that.





Jeremiah and I started on the job of butchering the meat chickens. It was not a job either of us were looking forward to simply for the sheer undertaking it was! It started off slow as we weren't sure how to go about all of it but like anything else, you find out what works and you get in to a good rhythm.  It wasn't the actual butchering that was causing problems, it was the, 'which job are you better at and which am I and what table do we use, where do we put this', blah blah blah.

After about bird 8 we had it all figured out and the remaining 18 or whatever it was went quick! I can pluck just as fast as he can skin and I can skin and in about 3 minutes flat, Jeremiah took a little longer but by the last few birds he understood what I was doing. We did not pluck all of them. A friend showed us how easy it is to skin so I'd say a little better than half are completely skinned which is fine with me because we cook most of our chicken with the skin off anyway but I wanted some for roasting. These birds did not require hot water dunking to loosen feathers, which I don't mind doing but it makes for a wet dirty mess. We just hung them by the legs and got to work.

It was supposed to be well in to the 90;s yesterday but it started out overcast with rain and continued on that path for the better half of the day. Working under the trees was really pleasant actually and other than our feet and legs being tired last night, it was an easy day.

I am relieved that job is over. Those birds will eat you out of house and home, but that's kinda the point. Their feed conversion is outstanding. Now, the group that's in the shop is ready to go in the roving coup and THAT will do us in chicken for the entire year and beyond. We'll have to try to sell some. As it is we'll need a second freezer to put them in, but more importantly, Jeremiah and I cannot butcher that many birds alone. In our defense, we were never supposed to get the second set. The order was canceled and not paid for, someone didn't get that memo and you cannot just ship chicks back once at the post office!

We leave for Tn. tomorrow and there's lots left to do. I wasn't expecting the chickens to take as long as they did yesterday and I hate leaving the house a wreck to come back to so there's some cleaning in my future today...and laundry. When is there not laundry?? 

I'll try to update along the road. We'll be someone in Tn. tomorrow night and finish the drive Tuesday. I've only been to a small part of Tn. (Cumberland Gap), and Rachel and Drew have never been. Drew will also get Ok. and Arkansas under his belt too. Rachel has been to both. I have wanted to drive through Tn. so we're taking a longer southern route. We could go through Mo. to Tn. but it's just as fast to go down to Ok. and cut across and up. On the way home we'll hit Indiana just because we do and I am sure we'll be going to Ohio as it's just right across the river. We've all been to Illinois and Mo. before. Jeremiah's "bucket list" is hitting all 50, surprisingly, he doesn't have too many more to go! I'm not sure what the fascination is, but I do love driving through states though some are a lot more fascinating than others and time of year and time of day dictates a lot too! I-80 and 50 are a lot prettier through Utah in the winter covered in snow and Nevada is better in the dark, ha ha!


Anyway, time to start on chores, the day isn't getting any younger.

"Reading the Water" , Perspective, Geographical Oddities, Life Immitating Art & Joy: Part 2

If you have not read Part 1, please click HERE and partake in the festivities so that you are up to speed.

Have I left you in suspense long enough? Probably too long huh? Sorry about that. Jeremiah left for Kansas City (as discussed in a previous post) and I was busy.

This may seem totally unrelated but we had 5 kids born last week to 4 different does. They are all yearlings and while not the brightest bulbs on the strings, they will get better at their mothering abilities. They will not stay back in the barn yard until their kids are a few weeks old and strong enough to make it out to the pasture and back on their own, they are too "herd bound". Which, okay fine. I go out in the evenings and count new babies in the barnyard to be sure there are 5 and if not, I walk the pasture until I find whomever is missing, usually under a cedar tree hanging out waiting to be picked up and taken back to Mom.

Here's what happens: They follow mom out to pasture, get tired, take a nap, mom wanders off with the herd forgetting she has a kid, baby wakes up, no one is around and instinct tells them to go and hide until someone or something (that doesn't want to eat them) comes a callin'. In steps me usually. For the past week I have been doing this almost nightly for 1 to all 5 of them. I'll come back to these thoughts later.

Where did I leave off? Oh yes! I left off  with looking death in the face with the tow truck and some misc. other truck arriving. SALVATION AT LAST! The tow driver and the misc. people -who end up being friends of Gabe's brother- come out on foot to access the damage. The tow truck driver clearly stated, much to my happiness, "Oh yeah, no problem, we'll get 'em all out." "Fantastic", I think. Finally, I can go home!

Both vehicles made it out onto the beach fine and just as I was getting comfortable with the idea that I could soon crawl in to bed, the tow truck driver points his truck up-bank and floors it! If you can guess the next part, I'd say you are psychic! TOW TRUCK STUCK! I think at that point I was so tired I was delusional because I started to laugh! Surely I did not just see our salvation plunge grill first into the sand and sink axle deep! No no no! I turned around and there was carnage all around. The other Chevy (the misc. people), had hooked up to Gabe's truck and while time-wise he did a little better than the tow truck driver, he managed to sink his truck in about 3 revolutions of his tires flat!

The tow truck was in front of us and it was sort of convenient how from the Escape forward we all made a nice little line from the beach to the road. -I figured if any more morons wanted to come out, we could start forming a "wagon wheel" circle, light a damn campfire and start singing "Kumbaya" and maybe, just maybe the Lord would "come by here" and save us all from ourselves!-

The tow truck tried to use his winch, with us as an anchor, to pull himself out but that did very little but sink him deeper.


Let's count causalities do some math-

original vehicle = vehicle #1
Our truck = vehicle #2
Gabe's truck= vehicle #3
Tow truck = vehicle #4
Misc. truck = vehicle #5

FIVE separate vehicles stuck in the mud including the so called "salvation"! Salvation comes in many forms however and up drives misc. vehicle #6 (another friend of Gabe's brother answering our plea for help!). It took 5 vehicles for the boys to figure out that coming out onto the bank was not the best plan of attack. (They're kinda like monkeys you know? They keep doing the same thing over and over...maybe that's the definition of insanity? Nevertheless, after 5 they finally had it figured out.)  Staying up closer to the road was the best course of action.

Vehicle #6 hooked up to the tow truck's winch and the tow truck was able to winch himself out enough of his ruts but it was a back and forth effort as the boys would have to push misc. truck #6 out of the sand, then winch up tow truck, then push truck #6 out, and so it went until finally tow truck could get a little bit of a running start.

Don't think "Dukes of Hazard" won't make it into this story! The tow truck FLOORED it and catapulted himself up and over a dune and flew through the air and landed on 2 of his four tires, bounced to the opposite two and so it went for the better half of 60 feet. The kids just thought this was the best part of the night ever and laughed hysterically! We watched from a great distance back. I have to admit, I laughed too.

With two of the SIX vehicles un-stuck they could work on misc. vehicle #5. It was about 12:30 AM at this point. We figured since we were a 3.5 ton anchor, it may take a chain of trucks to get us out so we waited. Let me share some perspective though. From the road where misc. vehicle #6 was to the water's edge, it's about 500 feet! We used every bit of the tow truck's 100 foot cable, (3) 50 foot tow straps, a fire hose (don't ask me where the fire hose came from but apparently people use them for tow straps), and a 25' chain! Some of these were used all at one time to reach the farthest away vehicles, but nat any on given time everyone was walking back and forth taking off or putting on straps, chains and cables...and a fire hose. I sat in the truck plotting revenge and tried to nap. It didn't take too much to get Misc. truck #5 out and then Gabe's truck and finally it was "Beast's" turn.

She fought it the whole way like some kinda battle worn soldier determined to stay until the bitter end. She'd come up out of the sand and then sink again and her brand new tires were so full of heavy wet clay that the new tread made no difference. She kept creeping along until finally she was up out of the muck and on to safer ground. I jumped in the front seat like a puppy ready for a ride.


Unfortunately we weren't going home just yet. Drat! Remember the branch Jeremiah was "not quite sure about"? In steps the chainsaw. I knew there was a good reason we had it and not the shovel! There was a grove of trees that a small path was made through to skirt the metal barricades at the turn about which is the reason we were down on the beach in the first place! Going out onto the bank we took the drive slower through the turn but since 5 other vehicles floored it through the sand, it made it a more like a sandbox than a packed road! I won't admit to taking out a limb or two to widen the path, suffice to say, it was miraculously a little wider.

The tow truck went through first just in case anyone else got stuck. Then Misc. truck #6. We were next and I asked Jeremiah if we'd have to floor it through like that and he said yep, pretty much, though he would try to go about it a little less dramatic. The kids were asleep and strapped in, Jeremiah floored it through fishtailing us through the path, around the corner to the turnabout and FINALLY back onto the main road but not before a low branch screeched the entire stretch of the cab and camper! Everyone else followed suit...but what about poor Escape? Unfortunately with all the cables, tow straps, chains and even the fire hose, there was no reaching it to the winch cable and the tow truck obviously got stuck going out so we had to abandon the whole reason we were out there! Not exactly what I wanted to tell our friends.

We finally got home at 2 AM but we were so far from being able to fall in to bed. Remember the "missing" goat kids? Stage left, I had worried about them all night hoping that they all were able to follow their dams back in to the barnyard and chores would be nothing more than throwing some hay, feeding the dogs, meat chickens and pigs. Alas, we were not so lucky! ONE did not come back so Jeremiah and I were out in the pastures first with the crappiest flashlight you ever saw and next with the car up and over the hills trying to position the headlights just right to shine into the cedar trees, LOST CAUSE! I abandoned the effort, hope the kid had hidden herself well and reluctantly went to bed. Not 3 hours later the sun was up enough to go back out to start looking and we looked and looked and looked for over an hour, under every trees, over ever hill and amongst the grass, even took the kid's dam out there to scream her fool head off and nothing. No kid. I was BUMMED!

I came to the realization an animal must have gotten her which would not have been difficult even with the dogs. She was tiny and foxes are fast and stealthy. They don't call them "sly" for nothing. I failed. I sat around and mopped for a while, it was getting hot but something was nagging at me to go back out and check again. The does were in the eastern pasture (what we call the oat pasture) and one of the does was screamin' for her kid to catch up and keep up when I swore I heard a tiny "maaaa" coming from the other direction. I followed the tiny "maaaa" and sure enough, pent up waaaaay underneath a cedar trees low limbs was the missing kid! HOORAY! I cried tears of joy, I just couldn't believe it. The lost was found! I scooped her up, took her to her mama where she got a nice full belly and carried her to the front yard to show her to Jeremiah who was feeling pretty rotten!

Finding that kid made it all better! I wouldn't have cared if the cars fell into the lake. Unfortunately it was pretty costly to get the Escape out, $800 later. OUCH! Though, if you ask me, I would not be surprised if they tacked on a little extra for the binder the night before even though it was the tow truck driver's fault he was stuck to begin with and thank goodness for "misc. vehicle #6" otherwise I don't know what we woulda done!

So, that's how I finished my 33rd birthday...by going against better judgment. Someday I'll put my foot down when Jeremiah even contemplates "reading the water".

Musings: 1st Edition

Jeremiah has been in Kansas City since Monday. One of his students was first at state for a welding sculpture. I know it's good publicity for the school and a pat on the back for him to have such great welders but dangit, sometimes I feel like we're back in the military again! He'll be gone 2 weeks in August. He signed up for some kinda revamping of tech. ed., it's al volunteer and he figures if he's going to have to teach to a certain standard he may as well have a hand in writing them, which he has! His first meeting was some time last Fall in KC, the 2nd in Denver shortly after Christmas and then this last one is back in KC and he goes to that just before training in Columbus, OH.

Jeremiah, his students and HCTEA (school) are so lucky, the school and Jeremiah know just how lucky they are to have the available funds and the people (taxpayers and the "higher ups") who actually give a crap about tech ed. (unlike some stupid states, not to point any fingers). Jeremiah requested the purchase of a VERY expensive piece of machinery for next year and it was approved. With this machinery (robotic welder) comes a week of training in Columbus for him and 2 other teachers. The machine shop teacher will be going along with the college welding instructor which HCTEA works very closely with. -As a side note, the high school students also get college credit for the cases they take as of recent.- Not to mention, the welding teacher and his wife and family and the 4 of us have all become really good friends so it's almost like being in the military again- same job, husbands "deploying" at the same time!

 I have been here running the place alone which normally isn't a big deal as generally I do the chores mostly alone anyway but yesterday the heat was unbearable! 109* with the heat index at 116 (with the humidity) and just like wind chill is real, so is heat index! Lord have mercy, it was sweltering! Keeping the animals cool was the main priority all day, especially the meat birds as they do not do well in the heat once they are nearly butcher size. I couldn't keep enough water in the pigs wallow so I ended up turning on the sprinkler for them which they were much appreciative of. A friend of mine scoffed when I mentioned the last time Jeremiah was gone that I was "running" the place alone as if it weren't a big deal. I didn't even have the garden then! Not that I need a pat on the back but it is a lot of work and I will be happy when he is home.

I am really looking forward to vacation here in a couple of weeks. We've rented a cabin near a Lake on the WV/KY border. Friends of ours are going to milk the goats while we are gone and take care of everything for us. I plan to do a lot of relaxing, though I am afraid I really don't know how to do that!

Our last puppy left just today. We were boarding him for the new owners while their new fences went up. I was very sad to see him go, he was a sweetie!

The refinance finally went through on the house, good Lord I thought I'd never see the end of that abut it sure is nice to see the miniscule interest rate we scored!

We've got plans to put in a new milk barn but first new water and electric lines need to be dug and we've got to rent a ditch witch for that. All in due time. The weather is supposed to cool down dramatically so maybe within the next couple of weeks we can get that done.

The grass hay is all put up for this year, alfalfa will be next though we're going to have to shuffle that around a bit as cutting time falls right in between 2 of the trips for Jeremiah I was discussing and hay in the field waits for no man. Our own grass that we planted this past spring looks so very nice! Jeremiah mowed it all about 2 months ago to prevent the cheat grass (A.K.A. June grass) from reseeding itself. We HATE cheat grass! If we continue to fertilize the brome (of which brome is usually fertilized in Feb.) it should continue to take over and we'll seed some other areas this fall with the 60 or so lbs. we had left over. We decided against seeding everything to be sure that what we had already put out was actually going to grow. With all the moisture we've had, the brome hay yields have been so good for everyone (but don't think most people went down in their price!!!) so ours looks really good! Brome growers only get one cut a year, it's a cool season grass and comes to a head which is when it's cut for hay. Some people will let it go to seed and not cut it at all. Since we cut ours back to clear the cheat grass it is behind on growth but better that in my opinion than having to spray for the "weeds". If we get decent moisture, it'll stay green and should come to a head once it cools down and then we'll mow it all next fall after it's gone to seed. It also sends out runners, like Bermuda. Maybe next year we can put up our own brome!

Anyway, I pick up Jeremiah from town late tonight...er, soon here as I got called away from finishing this post. I'll leave you with some random photos I've (or the kids) have taken recently.





black eyed susan

Edison, the last pup who stayed for further "training" left to his new today. I will miss his silly antics!

The brome grass is growing nicely!



June kid "Biscotti"

Ahhh, and the piggies. They've been put on pasture now.

Roxie

The meat birds in their roving coup/chicken tractor, almost butchering size.

"Reading the Water" , Perspective, Geographical Oddities, Life Immitating Art & Joy

I swear to you, if our lives were books -despite being not a bit fictional- the stories the pages held sometimes would seem so unbelievable you'd swear it had to be fiction. Unfortunately our real lives just can't be made up, no one has a good enough imagination to recreate our reality!

God knows I love my husband. God knows no one is perfect. Not me, not him, not you. Don't judge, just laugh.

I have changed the names of people and companies to protect those who possess temporary lapses of good judgement and not so honest responses. I take full responsibility for my own decisions so I will play my character and Jeremiah's name stays the same because it's not as if he couldn't be figured out. 

A prelude (of sorts):

 For those of you who know us, you may understand the partial befitting title once you read the following post. For those of you who weren't privy to be there when Jeremiah "could read the water" or have heard the story, a short summary: While living in El Paso, Jeremiah wanted to go for a drive. Long story short, our F350 was dead weight in a flooded creek with water up over the hood one particular Sunday about 8 1/2 years ago after Jeremiah said everything would be fine, he "could read the water"! I was not happy to say the least & he STILL blames me to this day mentioning that if I hadn't been "bitching" to be let out with our year old daughter, he could have gunned it and made it across. I envisioned something out of the Dukes of Hazard with Rachel and I screaming "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAW"  at the top of our lungs but Jeremiah begrudgingly obliged  and let us out. Rachel and I stood on the bank while Jeremiah gunned it (He says he was already committed to go forward  (never-mind that the truck DOES have reverse!). And then the truck was up "shit creek", excuse my language but it's very befitting seeing as how the following day we stripped the inside of the cab and buckets and buckets of  rabbit/turtle/deer/etc. manure tainted flood waters flowed out. It's something we laugh about now, as does everyone else who knew about it and for those in the know, when you ask if anything is a good decision, you have to follow it up with the statement, "can you "read the water?"

On to the story: The how and the why's of how it all began aren't really all that important. Suffice to say that a friend's son (almost 17) got his vehicle (a Ford Escape) stuck at the lapping edges of a local lake- about 400-500 feet from the barricaded end of the road where vehicles are supposed to park- when he ignored the parking turnabout and went through a path cut through the trees. Jeremiah had gone out the night before when the friends called asking for a tow rope or chain, but the rain and lightening were so bad he called it a lost cause for the night and came home with the friends and their boy in tow.

June 19. I am peacefully minding my own business enjoying the last few hours of my birthday relaxing on the couch when Jeremiah asked if I was game to go see if we can get the car out. "No" was my response, I clearly remember that part. However, this post wouldn't be nearly as long if I didn't sometimes give my blessing for Jeremiah to use poor judgment to do what he wanted to do and we wouldn't have cause to create ridiculous historical memories, so I told him whatever he decided was fine. I would come to regret those words.

He convinced a (since graduated) former student to go along and we all load up in 2 separate trucks to go down to the lake. It was a nice drive, the wheat fields are almost ready for harvest. It gives meaning to the words, "amber waves of grain". We've gotten significant rain and the grass is green. At the end of a fairly long dirt road was a small turnabout for cars to park and 2 metal barricades. Most people would take that as a sign that you must park and walk the rest of the way. We walked down to the water's edge, which was about 500 foot away from the turnabout, the lake is very low due to drought but there, in the lapping waves was one very stuck Ford Escape. After talking a bit and doing a bit of checking of the compaction of the sand out to the car, we decided Jeremiah would go in the F350. All was going along well until he turned up- bank, the sand got soft and then things went down hill. He was in 4 (wheel drive) low, he said, but came to too quick of a stop and sunk like a lead weight. "CRAP", I thought, but actually I was quite relieved knowing at that point we could call AAA and be done with it all, pull the vehicles out and go to dinner. Oh ye of little faith, Amanda.

I would love to tell you that was the end of the story and that everyone went out for birthday cake. But no, the night is still quite young! Instead of calling AAA, Jeremiah and Gabe decide Gabe's truck was lighter and has wider mud tires and certainly he could pull them out. I just shook my head and decided we were in it for the long haul. The children, by this time, had managed to get completely filthy playing in the muddy sand and water. Gabe drove onto the shore and made it along just fine, turned around, backed up to hook a tow rope to the Escape, started pulling and broke suction...and then...SUNK! Oh my LORD! THAT was our ride out. The boys talked ahead of time and had a back up plan. Their back up plan included several people with vehicles light weight enough to pull them out if they were to both get stuck or at give us a ride home!. That was about the time smoke could be seen coming out of my ears and I told Jeremiah whatever plan #3 was, GET ON IT!

Jeremiah had already tried digging out the tires a little. Oh, and about the digging part. The night before Jeremiah put shovels into the back of the truck when they went out in the storm. Jeremiah took them out to go to the dump yesterday and AS WE WERE LEAVING the driveway, I asked him if he had put them back in. His response, "No, but it'll be okay." Somewhere faintly in the background I could hear the familiar words "I can read the water" wafting around in la la land! I said under my breath, "I'll remember that one, silently." He did remember to bring a friggen' chainsaw though because he said there was a branch, "he was not quite sure about"! Okay, great...we might be stuck without a shovel but maybe we can saw our way out!

While Gabe was on the phone I got on my hands and knees. With the "...it'll be okay" shovel (i.e. my bare friggen' hands), I started digging like a mad woman. Mind you, I had not intended to do ANY digging. I wasn't really dressed for digging!!! I told the kids, who were completely filthy at that point, get dirty and DIG! They happily obliged. The lake is surrounded by trees and I walked the 200 feet to the willows and started picking up downed trees with lots of thin bendy limbs to act as "snow shoes". I figure if it worked and we got out, I could tell them I saw it on "Man vs. Wild" (Reality TV show) -which I didn't- the "snow shoe" idea just seemed logical and I needed comic relief.

While I dug and my blood boiled I sang a little tune to pass the time about being in Folsom Prison because of an act of murder I was about to commit, I learned that the back up plan A. (i.e. the other individuals with lightweight trucks that could come pull us out) was in Colorado and the others truck was in the shop! So much for back up plans, right? AAA was eventually called and I had finished my "snow shoe" experiment and asked Jeremiah to give it a try.

SUCCESS...for about 25 feet..5 feet away from complete success before he sunk...again! It was getting dark and the hour I had just spent hauling willow limbs would need to all be done again as the previous ones were too far in the mud to re-use. I was done at that point while people sat around on their phones.

So, this tow company that Gabe called... I asked Gabe, "How long did the tow company say they'd be?". Gabe said, "He said half an hour." Let me pause for a minute...Have you ever seen "Oh Brother Where Art Thou"? One of my favorite parts is when "Everett" (George Clooney) visits a general store and needs a few items - a part for a car which had to be ordered and "Dapper Dan" hair gel of which the store didn't carry Dapper Dan, they carried "Fob". Everett said he didn't want Fob, "He was a Dapper Dan man...". The clerk mentioned it could be ordered. The response was always something to the affect of, "I can get it in about 2 weeks". Everett McGill was tired of that answer and said to him (edited), "Ain't that a geographical oddity, 2 weeks from everywhere!".

Our last experience with AAA was a couple of months ago when we needed a tow on a truck we bought to get it home. It was freezing cold, the truck didn't start like it should have and Jeremiah called AAA and was told the tow would be there in half an hour. Half an hour meant 1 hour and 45 minutes. So, I asked Gabe if by chance he knew who the tow company was (there are only a few in Hutch where we assumed they'd be coming from) even though I knew deep down it was "Bob's Car Care" and so it came as no surprise when he said, "Bob's Car Care". I thought, "Now, isn't that a geographical oddity, half an hour from everywhere!". Half an hour was about 2 hours later! In the mean time, it was basically pitch black and we had nothing left to do but sit and boil...sit and think nice thoughts about each other....sit.

Ten ten at night we finally see headlights...not one set but two. Since I had no idea who was calling who, I was in the dark about who was actually coming to save these idiots, myself included. I may have said out loud something to the affect of, "Great, they are probably here to kill us!" Rachel, of course, goes into hysterics and up 'til then the kids were thinking this outing was pretty dang cool because Mom let them get FILTHY and this was a real adventure!  I had to reassure her that I was kidding. Though, murder at that point, sounded kind of reasonable.

I question whether to leave you hanging here and continue this saga on another post because certainly what I am about to say is just going to blow your mind!

To be continued...