"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...

Farmers and Shephards

Land of Oz goat show. Waiting for showmanship class to start. 

 

We had 3 babies born in the pasture yesterday. Rachel found this one.

Drew is learning how to drive the tractor.