Pork

A cool breezy start to Tuesday morning. We had a nice storm blow though last night which dumped some rain which was badly needed. Rachel was invited to a sleep over last Friday which we were getting ready to take her to before 6 when the clouds rolled in, the thunder and lightening started. I raced to get the clothes in off the line and not a minute too soon because the sky opened up and then we lost power. I had intended to make nachos for dinner but that was out of the question so Drew, Jeremiah and I headed to town to grab a bite. We got back just before 8 and later I found out exactly what happened but not knowing at the time, it looked like all hell broke loose. It's odd how storms can be so strong in one area and non-existent a few miles away. Not 5 miles north after dropped Rachel off there was barely a sprinkle, at our house though and further south, 70 MPH straight line winds snapped power poles along highway 50 which is what knocked out our power, took down a tree in the front yard smashing a metal trellis and plastering the south side of the house with debris.

The weather has been extremely hot and heat indexes are topping well over 100. We can't complain too much, the summer has been pretty mild thus far and will cool down again just in time for fair "week". We did not enter anything and are not taking the goats. We'll go just to have fun!

The kids start school next Wednesday. There is an open house next Tuesday night that I plan to attend and I will take them all in on Wednesday morning as we plan to carpool with someone who will be bringing them home. I'll get the low down on what traffic conditions are like and let Jeremiah know so he can better plan the morning and what time to leave so that he can get to work within plenty of time. Mornings aren't generally our forte so it may be harry for a while!

I've been feeling okay, not sleeping well so I try to get a nap in mid-day...or rather most days I HAVE to. I am looking forward to the cool down. We've spend a lot of time at the community pool and at a nearby private lake with a friend. Jeremiah works the concession for the football game this Friday, we have dinner plans with friends Sat. and we intend to take Jeremiah to a Mongolian Grill place in Wichita for his birthday on Sunday. Somewhere in that whole mess we have to fit in tiling at the rental house and hopefully a few other odds and ends.


I best go, I'll leave you with some piggy photos I took yesterday morning. They grew out a bit faster than I anticipated on the new hog feed and the next processing date wasn't until Sept 18. Mama Sow is due to farrow Aug. 31st and the whole process starts all over.

FiRsT dAy Of ScHoOl

Easter at the lake

After church we headed up to Kanopolis State Park for a little sightseeing and fun in the shallows. It was a beautiful drive. This warm weather and rain is making everything grow so well. It always reminds me of the song in Oklahoma when it mentions waving wheat. Kansas has SO MUCH WHEAT, and it's beautiful waving in the breeze.

Kanopolis is about an hour and 15 minute drive through the countryside. Unfortunately, as with much of Kansas, small towns are common, finding things open on Sunday is virtually impossible (even gas stations) and finding one open on Easter Sunday is definetly impossible. I truly thought we'd be going through a larger town to pick up picnic stuff but that didn't happen so we couldn't stay long as we were all very hungry. But, it was a nice little excursion and a place we'll be visiting again! The beaches and amenities are very nice and the only thing that would have made it nicer is if we would have packed a picnic from home.

As it was, the kids enjoyed themselves very much and it was a gorgeous day to be out!

We ended the day with an egg hunt in the back yard and a steak dinner. A very nice Easter for sure!


 

 

Random...ness

If you would have asked me 2 weeks ago if I thought I'd be sitting in the living room thankful to have a fire, the answer would have most certainly been 'no'. Good thing you didn't ask me, I would have had to open mouth & insert foot.

It's probably in the 60's out but darnit, it's overcast, and drip drop rainy and it just feels cold. So, by the fireside I sit...warm...and cozy.

So much going on...I had lunch with Drew today. I went to school specifically to have lunch. The children get to eat lunch at school once a week, any more and they would hate me. My lunches are better and it's not everyday they get to gross their ham and cheese eatin' friends out (while teaching them about REAL food) when they open their thermos and have warm red beans and rice, or tomato soup or things like that. What kid (other than a select few) would dare admit they like tomato soup, after all. Speaking of red beans and rice, it's been a long time since I've made it. I'll have a recipe up one of these days for it if in the event you feel like making it too.

Our layer chicks arrived yesterday...25 of them. I sold 2. I don't need 25 layers! I don't need 23 either but I figure we'll loose some. They are silver laced wyandottes and let me tell ya, they are cuter than the average chick for sure! See?

Course, the model doesn't hurt either. Wouldn't you want to take a chick home is a kid like this was trying to pawn it off on your like a girl scout cookie? Yeah, me too! Come to think of it, forget the chick, I'll take the boy.

Right now the chicks are living in a large water trough in the shop basking in 250 Watts of heat lamp with water and food at their disposal. The butcher roos moved out to the chicken tractor in the barnyard and we've yet to loose one, which is a good thing...loosing one means not eating...kidding. 

We're up to 8 baby goats- 4 boys 4 girls. We had 5 girls but one left us last week. Such is life on the farm. We've still got over half the does yet to kid with one holding out for God only knows what reason. Their photos can be seen on the farm site (www.marmaladehollow.wordpress.com) if you're so inclined.

Rachel reads up a storm, in case you didn't know. She reads every night before bed. I suppose we should take a hint, but watching TV is more mind numbing and who doesn't need to be numbed before slipping off into slumber? I'd drink, but TV's cheaper. Anyway, back to Rachel, she made it to the '100 point' club 2 weeks ago and today received recognition and her t-shirt. She's actually up to 108 points. I told her if she made it to 115 points before the end of the year we'd go out for a steak dinner. Books vary in their worth by how hard they are and each book has a test to take which turns into points depending on how many questions were answered right. At her last parent/teacher conference, I believe her teacher said she was reading at a 6th grade level. It blows my mind she can pronounce words like 'victorian' and not bat an eye or have to sound it out.She just flies through books and it's fun to have her read outloud as most time she will even

Life is...going.

The kids' Sunday school teacher mentioned to her husband, who mentioned to Jeremiah, that our kids our kids are so well behaved. What the heck does that say??? It tells me parents need to lock their children in the closet more often. Kidding. It means we are doing a terrific job and not only are we doing a terrific job of raising well behaved children, more importantly we're raising good people. All parents should be like us <gafaw>. Lots of people say it so it's not like she's nuts or something. Our kids really are great, and while I am bias, it has little to do with the fact that they are great people and yes, thankyouveryuch, I do take great pride in this because it's the hardest (yet most rewarding) most important job we have! Everything else takes a back seat to our two great kids.

On to other news. We've gotten a lot of rain the few weeks. Yesterday morning I was in the barn doing chores and it just POURED. It's such a nice sound. The thunder was pretty cool too. Jeremiah and I watched a really cool lightening storm one evening around 9 PM off to the east. The storm just skirted us so it was amazing to watch the sky light up over and over while we stood in the front yard in our jammies and it was pleasantly warm too! It reminded me of our living room in El Paso. The window faced north towards New Mexico (which was literally a stone's throw away). We'd lay on the couch and watch the storm come up and over the mountains that cut West El Paso from East El Paso. The lightening would crack across the valley and light up the sky, cool stuff. I love thunder storms. They are really neat here too.

Well, I guess that's all for now. It's Easter weekend. I mentioned to Jeremiah that if the turkeys didn't shut up and stop waking me up at the crack of dawn on my days to sleep in, we'd be eating them for Easter. I think they heard me because they've shut up! We're having steak, and potatoes and a host of other yummy things for dinner. We did an egg hunt at church last Saturday. I can't imagine they are egg hunted out so I suppose we may hide some eggs too! Tomorrow (Friday) unless this doe decides to kid, we're going to try to go on a drive. You now, it's amazing, despite the drought last summer, the wildflowers sure are prolific this year! I should get out and mow the barn yard because they are nearly as tall as the goat's backs. But it looks so picturesque to see them walking through back high wildflowers.

I have mowed the 'yard yard' 2 times in the past week and a half. Last year I think I got lucky to mow the yard yard twice the whole of spring and summer!

Springing Spring!!!

Spring is springing rapidly! It's a bit early, but I, for one, am NOT complaining!

I went out to water my seeds today and already I have herbs and one tomato up! I planted them a week ago and nearly all week they've been outside. Why? No greenhouse or hot boxes and I have yet to put them inside under a florescent light so they sat outside. Jeremiah's not been home to help me build some hot boxes but I think finally today we'll get a few together so I can at least get these guys under some cover even if they are eager to grow! Our days have been in the 70's and 80's and our nights in the 60's so it's no wonder they are popping but still, warmer and out of the wind would be better!

Tomato

Basil

Oregano

It was goat show and tell at school on Friday for Rachel's class. Of course everyone ooooohs and ahhhhhs and it makes Rachel feel special and we get to promote goats and all that fun stuff.













I just happened to think, some of you may like to view the rental house and how it's coming along. Follow this link to checkout the demo and framing photos: Framing and Demo

That's all for now, another busy week ahead with rain expected tomorrow. No more goats due until the end of the month. The current 5 are all well and having fun as baby goats tend to go. 

Read Across America & Celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday With Crazy Hat Day!

And the Army life keeps rolling along...

Wednesday's orthopedist appointment had Rachel leaving in a cast. It's just as well, she's less fragile this way.

She's been getting along better on her crutches. The school has a wheelchair that they are happily allowing her to use. Which is a good thing, because being on crutches all day would tank! Except, the wheelchair needed to see the inside of Daddy's shop on Tuesday evening because (we joked) it had been in an accident. Hey, the humor HAS to keep coming otherwise we'd hang ourselves! So, a little bit of screwdriver-ing here, some banging, a little bit of jumping on it there, and we're all set!

 

Thursday the UPS man showed up with a lovely package for Rachel. The Mischlers, Rachel's 4-H project leader(s) for fiber arts, sent 'get well' flowers. How sweet.

 

Included are also some belated birthday photos. On Monday, we went down to Wichita, and drug our broken legged daughter to the movie theater. It's always amazing how (seemingly) little things can really change the way one does things! But, all in all it was a very good time. I am normally not a fan of 3-D movies, but Beauty and the Beast (even though we've all seen it a million times) was really REALLY good in 3-D. Drew will deny it, but he was sitting on my lap and literally jumped at one particular point. I chide him about it.

And yes, if you must know,  it's wrapped in a bag. We bought several small knitting looms for her and given the fact she's immobile, it was the perfect gift to pass the time. We gave it to her on Sat. figuring, why wait? So it did not get wrapped. Tacky? I don't care!

Thursday I got a call at home half way through the day saying that Rachel's cast was bothering the back of her leg. Before they put the fiberglass wrap on, a cotton mesh sock goes on, then gauze. The gauze is folded over the wrap at the top and bottom and then more wrap is applied. The gauze and netting makes the top and bottom plush. On occasion, the fiberglass wrap is applied too high and there isn't enough gauze and netting to fold over. Such is the case on the back of her leg. So, down to school I went to apply some moleskin to the back so it wasn't slicing into her skin. I thought surely this had to be the end of chasing and we can get back to life as we know it with a broken leg! By the way, I went down to take care of her leg at 1:30, if I had had the time to just sit down there until the end of the day I would have. But I don't! I am already taking Jeremiah to work too and so my day is literally starting about 2 hours late and I am loosing another hour and a half in the evening! More on that later...

Negative on being the end of it all. Yesterday (Friday), I was working away and the phone rang. I am beginning to dread that dang phone! It's the school's secretary/part-time nurse/part-time cashier  (a woman with many hats). Rachel fell in class and her leg was hurting. "Awwwww crap!", I think. I talked to crying Rachel. I calm her down and she wants me to come. What other choice do I have?  THIS is the exact reason I do not work outside of the home and it's beginning to look like, until the kids are married, that I will not ever! SOMEONE has to be their for the babies. So, back down to school I went. Apparently she had decided (which was actually my idea) to try the crutches for a while instead of the chair and she was getting ready to sit down in her class chair when she either hit it with a crutch or it (somehow) moved away from her and she sat down on the ground. I really don't think it's as bad as it sounded over the phone and I am sure it scared her and her medication was late in getting to her yesterday so who knows. She probably added another year on to that cast's wearing life! UGH.

I pulled Andrew out of school early at 2 and we all just  headed home. After everyone was situated, I fell onto the couch and napped. If you know me, naps are few and far between. I just won't take them. But if my nap yesterday was any indication of how my week went, that should say a lot! I was not about to turn right back around and have to lift Rachel in and out of the car just so he didn't have to come home early. I was ready for that week to be over.

Oh, you're wondering how my day goes now? Well, let's see...because the big truck is a diesel, cold temperatures mean things work a little differently. First off, the truck has a heater, it gets plugged in. We forgot to do this Monday evening so it refused to start on Tuesday morning. Jeremiah was supposed to drop the kids off at school but at the last minute I had to throw on clothes and get Rachel settled and explain to half a million people the issue, fill out medication releases so the school can administer it, blah blah blah blah. However, there's the issue of getting her up and dressed and all of that!

Wake up: Wake up isn't much different. She is able to get up to standing on her own and usually uses the crutches to get down the hall either to the kitchen table or living room where she eats and gets dressed. Her toothbrush is brought to her and she pretty much does everything from the couch.

Getting her dressed: What does she wear? Well, I've taken to cutting a leg off thick knit tights and putting her in a dress. She has a pair of pants that would probably fall off her waist if they weren't held up by her cast and a pair of PJ pants that work well too. One must get creative! The weather has been so darned cold that it's been difficult to figure wardrobe out!
 
Getting to the car (AKA The Explorer): She walks crutches out the front door and either Jeremiah or myself (usually me) carries her down the steps, sets her down where she walks crutches to the car, someone picks her back up and deposits her into the car, loads crutches, loads Drew, loads backpacks and off we go.

Back to the truck. Wednesday, the day of Rachel's orthopedist appointment, the truck started just fine but then quit after idling to warm up after about 5 minutes. Jeremiah can't get it re-started and we figure it's the biodiesel freezing. Biodiesel is good to about 20 degrees and we didn't think to mix it with regular fuel given the fact we had about a million other things on our mind and the previous weeks temps had hovered around freezing over night.  Well  above 20 anyway! It was probably 3 degrees out Wednesday morning  so at the last minute again we all piled into the car, we dropped Drew at the front door and made it to work by the skin of our teeth! I got home, rushed out to do chores, hurried up, got a shower and Rachel and I headed out the door for her dr.'s appointment. We didn't get out of there until noon, ate a quick lunch and I dropped her back off at school. I came home, did 'house' chores (dishes, laundry, picking up, stoking fire) because I hadn't had time before. And then before I knew it, it was time to pick up the kids and Jeremiah...again!

We thought perhaps the fuel filter needed to be changed on the truck, as is often the case when you run 'bio'. The fuel filter does need to be changed more often so we picked up a new one on the way home and some regular diesel to 'cut' the bio enough to get it started and running down the road. Thursday morning, it's the same issue and he really had planned to take them that day so it was late. Back into regular clothes quick and in a hurry I go and out the door we zoom! I was really hating life at that moment.

Friday morning, against my wishes, Jeremiah said if he got it started, he will just leave. He thought that it was just so cold the fuel was freezing in the lines while it idled, which is perfectly understandable. It is cooking oil after all. But, I had said I already planned to take everyone, I was ready that day and me having to go was not coming as a surprise. I told him if he so chose to take the truck and it breaks down between here and the school, DO NOT CALL ME, Call AAA, DO NOT LET ME COME HOME TO FIND YOU HERE, PARK THE TRUCK WHERE I CANNOT SEE IT and let me go about my day blissfully unaware and while you're at it, find a way to get that truck home with YOU behind the wheel. I don't care if it's towed here or what, I DO NOT want to know about it! Capeesh? Capeesh. So, as it was, it drove fine, the fuel was probably freezing. We do have an injector going bad and it will need to be replaced but the source of the issue was this darn cold and the fuel. The problem has been solved by further 'cutting' the bio with regular fuel. I won't say lesson learned, we had other issues come up preventing us from doing what we knew needed done.

So, there's my week folks. Sounds like fun right?

The orthopedist wanted to see us back in 2 weeks where they will cut the cast off and re-x-ray it. He thinks it might be healed. Silly dr. didn't take in to consideration my daughter was going to fall though! I've got half a mind to call him and tell him to give it another week. That sounds awfully quick doesn't it? Yeah, I kinda thought so too but he's the dr. so whatever. 2 1/2 weeks of immobilization is good for me...we'll see!

I was more than ready for the weekend to start to say the least! If nothing else it means a short reprieve from having to do all the lifting and driving! However, one should always be careful what they wish for because...well, for one, it could always be worse (que broken leg) for two, next week may be even worse as I won't have the weekend to look forward to extra help because extra help won't be here! Jeremiah is scheduled to take some students to Mo. for a welding competition...leaving me here...alone. As usual, I am queuing Scarlet O'hara, as I so often do, and, "I'll thank about that tomorrow." One day at a time.

Life with kids

As I am sure you may already know, Rachel has broken her leg. I am sure as time passes this will become less of an issue and more of a plain old inconvenience. For now though, it's an issue. I am sure as time passes Rachel will become more and more adept at using her crutches to get around and I will feel more comfortable letting her but just like it's hard to let a child do things on their own so that they can learn to be independent, sometimes it's just quicker to do it yourself. I fight this urge because she has to learn how to do things herself as she is. I have no idea exactly how long this may take to heal but the latter end of it seems so very far away! When I bounce back to reality it doesn't seem very far at all so I'll hold on to that thought. The dr. said 3-4 weeks, we're planning on 6+. We'll see.

I have to call tomorrow (Tuesday) to make an appointment with the orthopedist on Wednesday. I am hoping a hinged brace can be found (if a small enough one is made for her), otherwise a cast may be necessary. Right now it's covered in gauze, then 2 cast like popsicle stick splints were applied (one on the front of her leg, one on the back molded to the contour of her bent leg once the splints were moistened and dry), then it was wrapped in an ace bandage.

Because it happened over the weekend, a 'real' cast could not be applied. She may not need a real cast either, it all depends on how well she is able to keep her weight off of it. Granted, it's only been 2 days (at the time of writing this) so it still hurts to much to put any weight on it but the more weight she can keep off, the less of a chance for a cast. And not that one would be all that bad, it would definitely have it's pros but it would definitely have it's cons too. The break is on the tibia, just below the 'heart' (as I think of it0 portion of the top of the bone, where the joint it? She probably shouldn't have use of her knee and the hinged brace would probably be stationary anyway but it just would, I feel, make life easier. Maybe I am wrong though.


She was given Tylenol with Codine for a painkiller but yesterday (Sunday) she woke up at 9 AM looking like death and feeling just as bad after taking a whole pill at 4 AM. She had a tangerine and a banana to eat and that didn't stay down at all. We've concluded that she can have half a pill at night with dinner on a full stomach just before bed which should keep her all night and we'll go with Mortin during the day. The Motrin does not last as long (4 hours) and she has to have it on schedule otherwise the pain is too much but this schedule should work and I hope that within a few days she won't need pain killers at all.

 

In the meantime, I doubt I'll be able to keep enough books around. She read Heidi in one day, off and on.
I am also scrambling to figure out what to do about clothing and dresses seem to be a good compromise. She has so few knit dresses that are easy to put on that I am ordering fabrics and hope to get some made this week and to get a few more knee high socks to keep her 'good leg' warm. Fortunately, the weather has been pretty nice and if it keeps up, a knee high sock may be all that's in order. If not, I'll have to buy some stretch pants and cut off the bandaged leg up to her thigh as pretty much no pants will go over. I could also make some PJ style pants and that may work.

On a more farm-y productive note, Jeremiah and I got into the shop yesterday (Sunday) and you wouldn't believe the transformation in there! We hauled off a huge load of stuff to the Goodwill. I know we sold off and/or donated a lot before we left Ca. and I still can't believe the amount of stuff we hauled out here and then I couldn't believe the amount of stuff we're really NOT going to use and hauled it to donate. Ugh, why all the stuff??? I have yet to to bring in all my deco items though I really should. I should stop saying things like, "One day we're going to remodel." Well yeah, one day we will remodel but in the mean time, I should just go ahead and paint everything anyway instead of waiting for the day we bust out walls, etc. I may never see my deco stuff at that rate!

We are working on taxes too- income, farm and business.Fun stuff! So, in between catering to Rachel, cleaning the shop and life in general, it's busy, as usual.

Wordless Wednesday: December Farm Fum

Wordless Wednesday: A White 'Skype' Christmas

Another Fabulous Weekend

Jo, Frank and the kids came up for the weekend. Course, I decided that it was a good time to get sick so pretty much all of Saturday I spent lying on the couch contemplating puking. Drew was sick the week prior. No, we don't get the flu shot. I'd rather have the flu, even in the thick of this sickness, whatever it is. .

I did manage to haul my butt off the couch so we could make soap- (1st batch) blueberry pomegranate & (2nd batch) brown sugar & cinnamon but after thinking about it some...I have to wonder if the brown sugar will leave one more sticky than clean...hrmph. Oh well, time will tell once it cures. It's super pretty though!

Sunday we made a boat load of cookies and the whole time the guys were in the shop welding  a platform for an auxiliary fuel tank for the Abair's truck so 2x4's or plywood can be slid underneath- nothin' worse than a full size (pickup) bed you can't fully utilize! We don't have such an animal, though I suppose we could but with the camper shell, I don't think we'd really use it. More times than not we end up hooking up the flat bed. Anyway, that's totally uninteresting I suppose. I should have taken a photo of their handiwork but I don't know that I took a single photo the entire weekend. Maybe the next time their down. The guys also installed a pump (or sorts) so that the auxiliary tank pumps right into the on-board tanks. Jeremiah talked about doing this on ours but I almost kinda like having the real gas pump on the actual tank...the pain is getting into the bed to hand the pump through the window but I must say that fueling up at a Nevada hotel from our own vehicle is pretty impressive to some people.

Today and tomorrow we expect rain.  I know we've gotten a lot of it...making up for the lack of it this summer perhaps? So far, I'd say this Fall was nicer than last fall. But then, last Fall I thought was winter and when winter really kicked in (January 1 it seemed), I was ready to kill Mother Nature.This year I wasn't so disillusioned to think that once the calendar actually says winter, it's not going to be green grass and singing daffodils right around the corner.  No ma'am. It has been pretty mild though, I think...or maybe I am am getting used to 40 degrees faster than last year?   

Most of the goat's have settled (their pregnancy). We start kidding mid-March and go into May. We're looking forward to baby goats again and I am looking forward to the higher possibility of not being out in the barn all night in negative four degrees and snow on the ground.

In other news, Rachel has met her 50 point AR reading goal...and BEFORE Christmas. That's awesome. She gets to go to the Imax theater at the Cosmosphere next week as a reward.  Drew brought home several books last night and December's homework is to read them over and over. It's amazing to me...this sounding out and  reading!  Drew excels in Math and isn't doing bad in reading at all but I really think his lack needing glasses but not having them set him back a little last year. Fortunately, I don't think he's at all behind the class though Drew  is Drew and what Drew doesn't want to do (i.e. reading or school work of almost any kind), he puts off. It's a struggle to motivate him. He's smart, he's just...well, lazy. It's the youngest child mentality that someone else will do it for him if he whines enough. Granted, getting a stern scolding for whining isn't fun, but he's still just sweet & smooth talkin' Drew.

Jeremiah is done traveling for a little while. This time last year he was in Vegas. For whatever reason the convention was early this year so they knocked out St. Louis and I didn't have to worry about him missing  school or church Christmas festivities. He goes to Mo. again in January for a welding competition and Tulsa in Feb. I think? If the Mo. trip wasn't such a po'dunk town, I might consider going but there wouldn't be anything for the kids and I to do other than relax and really, relaxing isn't all that relaxing for me.

Oh anyway, about that time for me to get out and feed the herd but not before I find a vice big enough for my head to relieve this head ache!

I'm relishing the little bit of ice I've had to break in the mornings. This time last year I was hauling off inches of ice and bucketing hot water! We have had some nights and mornings in the teens and only just a few days where it stayed below freezing all day but so far, I've not had much to complain about weather-wise. It's a miracle right? Well,  you just wait until next month. You'll get your comeuppance!

Hardy Hearty Hair

Misc. Photos

What happens when you let your 7 year old have free reign with the camera.


How to make loading easy!Eight at a time!



Pretty tired of looking at this stuff but grateful we've got it!