How to make loading easy!Eight at a time!
Pretty tired of looking at this stuff but grateful we've got it!
Friday, August 12, 2011
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!
How to make loading easy!Eight at a time!
Pretty tired of looking at this stuff but grateful we've got it!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
2011 Reno County 4H Fair
I feel somewhat like a failure in regard to this whole 4H thing. I vow that things will run smoother for next year!
Rachel had signed up for 3 different categories to show, one of them being a sewn item (which we did not get done in time), the other two were her goats that she raised (Dawn and Cheedoe. Although she ended up showing Apricot because the two little punks didn't want to lead) and a baked item. If I had a better understanding of how thing whole thing worked ahead of time it probably wouldn't have felt like such a disaster but live and learn.
That said, I missed the deadline for the 4H state fair show in Sept. She can still participate in the open show with the "big leagues" along with me I believe but as for the junior competition, she cannot. My fault somewhat although I really had no idea what in God's name all the shows are/were!
The county fair was a joke as far as the dairy goats were concerned. I don't know how many different 4H groups are in Reno County but there were a total of 6 dairy goats shown at the fair by 2 different groups (Ours (Buhler) and the Royal Clovers). One single class-meaning all 6 regardless of age which is not normally how showmanship is done because dairy goats NEVER go up against meat goats in the 'real world'. I was such a shambles not knowing what was going on that I'm sure my anxiety was passed on to Rachel and she was extremely nervous going into the showmanship class (which is based on the show-er and not the actual goat. Although, having a goat who cooperates is certainly a benefit!!!).
She was up against 7 and 8 year old's for her showmanship class, first place being taken by an 8 year old girl whose goat was docile and didn't care one way or other other where she was (show, home or otherwise). Second place was taken by a girl and her goat whom she had to drag around the ring (the goat, that is). Had I known they were passing out awards for the biggest pain in the ass [goat], I would have sent Rachel out with Dawn to begin with! As it was, we made a change and sent her with Apricot instead of Cheedoe just so I was sure the goat wasn't adding to her stress!
The goats were due at the fairgrounds on Friday morning. They didn't show until Saturday starting at noon. Much of what was in the barn was meat goats, they're real popular. We were back and forth between the house and fairgrounds probably 4 times on Friday. The heat has been unbearable and while the barn did have port-a-coolers (think huge portable swamp coolers), after a while, they really did do more harm than good as the air by afternoon was heavily laden with moisture AND it was over 100 degrees. All one could do was sit in front of a portable fan strapped to each pen (that showe-rs provided) to just live!
All in all it was a good experience. Rachel won a blue ribbon for her baked good (Chocolate Chunk Cookies). Best I can tell is that each exhibitor is scored against themselves and not another exhibitor. Basically it means everyone ribbons. I didn't tell Rachel that as she doesn't understand placing right now anyway. She's not got that competitive streak about her (yet). Perhaps she never will, she's a lot like Jeremiah in that aspect and I want to encourage that if that's who she is. She was happy to blue ribbon in both of her goat classes too (showmanship and grand/reserve grand) and pretty much said something to the affect she was glad she didn't get 1st place because those ribbons were purple and she preferred blue anyway. Simple pleasures of a 7 year old, ahhhh.
Rachel had signed up for 3 different categories to show, one of them being a sewn item (which we did not get done in time), the other two were her goats that she raised (Dawn and Cheedoe. Although she ended up showing Apricot because the two little punks didn't want to lead) and a baked item. If I had a better understanding of how thing whole thing worked ahead of time it probably wouldn't have felt like such a disaster but live and learn.
That said, I missed the deadline for the 4H state fair show in Sept. She can still participate in the open show with the "big leagues" along with me I believe but as for the junior competition, she cannot. My fault somewhat although I really had no idea what in God's name all the shows are/were!
The county fair was a joke as far as the dairy goats were concerned. I don't know how many different 4H groups are in Reno County but there were a total of 6 dairy goats shown at the fair by 2 different groups (Ours (Buhler) and the Royal Clovers). One single class-meaning all 6 regardless of age which is not normally how showmanship is done because dairy goats NEVER go up against meat goats in the 'real world'. I was such a shambles not knowing what was going on that I'm sure my anxiety was passed on to Rachel and she was extremely nervous going into the showmanship class (which is based on the show-er and not the actual goat. Although, having a goat who cooperates is certainly a benefit!!!).She was up against 7 and 8 year old's for her showmanship class, first place being taken by an 8 year old girl whose goat was docile and didn't care one way or other other where she was (show, home or otherwise). Second place was taken by a girl and her goat whom she had to drag around the ring (the goat, that is). Had I known they were passing out awards for the biggest pain in the ass [goat], I would have sent Rachel out with Dawn to begin with! As it was, we made a change and sent her with Apricot instead of Cheedoe just so I was sure the goat wasn't adding to her stress!
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| Showmanship class |
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| Talking to the judge in the showmanship class |
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| This is Rachel's fake "I'm nervous as heck & I wish this was over" smile. Apricot, not as nicely set up as she should be, stood like a champ anyway and I was relieved for the effort! |
Monday, August 1, 2011
A year's progress
August 1. We're coming close to marking a year's worth of life in Kansas, in this house. How it has flown! Just yesterday I could have sworn I was taking photos of Jeremiah on the tractor cutting the brush down in the pastures readying it for the goats. Just yesterday I could have sworn I was sending the children off the bus for school. Just yesterday I could have sworn I was making Halloween costumes, baking pie for Thanksgiving and decorating the Christmas tree, passing out Valentine's pencils at school, making sure the kids were wearing green on March 17th, attending preschool graduation and looking forward to summer vacation, finally, and warm weather.
And now here we are, nearing the end of summer vacation sweating and wishing for this horrid heat and drought to end and wondering what on earth this winter could possibly have in store for us. I almost feel jipped, though those cold stormy winter nights will have us wishing for 110 degrees once again.
There is still lots to do before winter. We haven't gathered a stick of firewood, although what we have accomplished has been great! Both basement rooms are, for the most part, complete. Both rooms are lacking baseboards and molding but the back storage room is now a lovely sewing room, cozy and quaint. The front room is now the family room but in the near future we'd like to take out the staircase and reconfigure it so access to the basement is from the living room and not the door laden hallway. The concrete floor is painted, I did that last summer when we moved in but after a cold winter, we've decided that concrete is not the way to go. We bought laminate flooring that we did install in the sewing room and once we have redone the staircase, we'll lay the flooring there.
Both of the kid's bedrooms have been painted and one of these days I'll get around to making curtains. My living room is finally less cluttered and it makes for a wonderful respite away from the noise of the TV and children for the adults. We had company for the past week and a half and boy was it nice to be able to retire and talk at a normal level. Jeremiah scraped the ceiling about 2 weeks ago but I ran out of time so the paint was put on hold. The work on the house seems slow in ways but I do believe we've made great strides.
Jeremiah has installed quite a few new doors throughout the house. The previous owners really REALLY liked dark wood and flat cream walls. To be perfectly honest with you, I hate it! We are replacing all the doors in the house with 6 panel "off the shelf" doors. The dark wood doors took paint fine but after seeing what the hallway could look like with new doors, we decided against any more door priming and painting! Boy do the new doors really make it look completely different!
Jeremiah wanted to do some demo over Thanksgiving, mainly the kitchen, but we're excited about company coming to visit and demolition of the kitchen is now on hold. I'd love to rip the bathrooms apart, but all in due time.
We put up a pool a couple of weeks ago just so the kids would have more to do than sitting inside. It's heck when the inside is all there is because it's so hot out! While the cousins were here, we had all 5 kids remove the bricks from along side the outside perimeter of the shop. They were allowing water to flow underneath the sill and eventually it would have rotted it out. Jeremiah needs to get up on the roof of the shop with someone (who, I don't know because I am deathly afraid of heights and so was his brother who was just here). There are opaque center panels that allow light to shine in but they were installed incorrectly and the roof is leaking. They need to be removed, cleaned of the silicone caulking and reinstalled correctly then re-rivited. I am hoping the offer of a good free meal will get someone over here to help out.
We're finished with the fencing, did I tell you? When we arrived home from Ca. we finished up the 770' west stretch and, minus a gate in the NW corner where we own a 30' easement to Willison Rd., we're done! Even managed to get some cross fencing up for the buck's pasture. Although, it won't do a bit of good because there isn'tcrap
I am planning for November breeding of the goats for April babies. I learned my lesson and will NOT be kidding anywhere near February or March if I can at all help it! There are a few goats who will go off to auction in a couple of weeks. The price of beef is falling because of the lack of summer grass to feed them and the certain lack of hay available this winter. It's more cost effective for us to buy half a cow to stick in the deep freeze right now.
Can I tell you how many loads of hay we've gone and gotten? Do let me tell you. Load 1 and 2 consisted of large round bales of alfalfa and grass hay. Three of them are in the barn, 3 of them are outside. The round bales, if set correctly, normally shed water and snow pretty well. There is an outside layer of about an inch that is usually no good but it protects the inner hay quite well. There is also a netting they use to keep it all tight (baling netting) that also helps shed moisture. Load 3 of 100 bales of grass hay went to the neighbors. We bucked all that by hand. Load 4 of 100 bales of grass hay was delivered on our way back down from picking it up to some people east by about half an hour, we bucked that by hand too. Load 5 and 6 consisted of 100 bales of the finest alfalfa Kansas has to offer-every bit of that went into our barn- and 120 bales of grass hay of which 58 went into our barn, 60 was delivered right down the road and 2 went to someone using it just for their county fair heifer and steer project.
I still do not feel we have enough stored as of right now. The last thing I want is to get the goats through and run out at the last minute. If I am hoarding, so be it. We have plans to make another trip up for hay at the end of the week, all of which is being delivered down the road to the same person who bought half of the last load of grass hay. I have 280 bales on hold with the grass hay grower and 100 bales of alfalfa on hold with the alfalfa grower of his 4th cutting this year. I am to call him back towards the end of August. Of those 280 bales of grass hay alone, 140 bales are spoken by the guy down the road and then the rest are mine.
With, let's see...140 grass hay, 200 alfalfa, 58 bales of grass hay already in the barn and 6 round bales, I'd say we're probably good!
This may all sound pretty boring I suppose, but it's our life. We look forward to kidding next year, though many of the does will be bred to Andy, our spotted buck, as the economy is still bad and spots sell. He's nothing to scoff at for sure but now that I have the breeding stock I want, I can focus on building up the herd and that will mean cuts next year. I can only hope we get the rain necessary to keep the pasture green and growing! That seems like such a long way off and to be perfectly honest, after this horrible summer we've had, looking ahead to another winter is not really something that brings warm fuzzies to mind!Another year older and Another year wiser though and it should be a bit easier on us!
Jeremiah has gone back to work. He was supposed to be in Kansas City this week for the annual teacher's conference but was able to forgo that to take another class putting him one step closer to a pay raise and his Masters. I too have thought about going back to school now that the kids will be in school full time but I think I will ride out the Fall semester and perhaps apply in the Spring. Business is going great guns and with as busy as we've been this summer, I'd really like to get better organized before taking on one more thing.
We've put off Jeremiah taking the classes for his CWI (Certified Welding Inspectors license). Someday...just not today. That seems to be the motto these days. We'll get there. We're forever reminding ourselves that Rome wasn't built in a day.
At any rate, I suppose I've gone on long enough. All I ever seem to have time for anymore is updates. I have photos of the 4H show over the weekend that I promise to post. 4H was another stressful venture that I think we'll have a better understanding of this coming year!
And now here we are, nearing the end of summer vacation sweating and wishing for this horrid heat and drought to end and wondering what on earth this winter could possibly have in store for us. I almost feel jipped, though those cold stormy winter nights will have us wishing for 110 degrees once again.
There is still lots to do before winter. We haven't gathered a stick of firewood, although what we have accomplished has been great! Both basement rooms are, for the most part, complete. Both rooms are lacking baseboards and molding but the back storage room is now a lovely sewing room, cozy and quaint. The front room is now the family room but in the near future we'd like to take out the staircase and reconfigure it so access to the basement is from the living room and not the door laden hallway. The concrete floor is painted, I did that last summer when we moved in but after a cold winter, we've decided that concrete is not the way to go. We bought laminate flooring that we did install in the sewing room and once we have redone the staircase, we'll lay the flooring there.
Both of the kid's bedrooms have been painted and one of these days I'll get around to making curtains. My living room is finally less cluttered and it makes for a wonderful respite away from the noise of the TV and children for the adults. We had company for the past week and a half and boy was it nice to be able to retire and talk at a normal level. Jeremiah scraped the ceiling about 2 weeks ago but I ran out of time so the paint was put on hold. The work on the house seems slow in ways but I do believe we've made great strides.
Jeremiah has installed quite a few new doors throughout the house. The previous owners really REALLY liked dark wood and flat cream walls. To be perfectly honest with you, I hate it! We are replacing all the doors in the house with 6 panel "off the shelf" doors. The dark wood doors took paint fine but after seeing what the hallway could look like with new doors, we decided against any more door priming and painting! Boy do the new doors really make it look completely different!
Jeremiah wanted to do some demo over Thanksgiving, mainly the kitchen, but we're excited about company coming to visit and demolition of the kitchen is now on hold. I'd love to rip the bathrooms apart, but all in due time.
We put up a pool a couple of weeks ago just so the kids would have more to do than sitting inside. It's heck when the inside is all there is because it's so hot out! While the cousins were here, we had all 5 kids remove the bricks from along side the outside perimeter of the shop. They were allowing water to flow underneath the sill and eventually it would have rotted it out. Jeremiah needs to get up on the roof of the shop with someone (who, I don't know because I am deathly afraid of heights and so was his brother who was just here). There are opaque center panels that allow light to shine in but they were installed incorrectly and the roof is leaking. They need to be removed, cleaned of the silicone caulking and reinstalled correctly then re-rivited. I am hoping the offer of a good free meal will get someone over here to help out.
We're finished with the fencing, did I tell you? When we arrived home from Ca. we finished up the 770' west stretch and, minus a gate in the NW corner where we own a 30' easement to Willison Rd., we're done! Even managed to get some cross fencing up for the buck's pasture. Although, it won't do a bit of good because there isn't
I am planning for November breeding of the goats for April babies. I learned my lesson and will NOT be kidding anywhere near February or March if I can at all help it! There are a few goats who will go off to auction in a couple of weeks. The price of beef is falling because of the lack of summer grass to feed them and the certain lack of hay available this winter. It's more cost effective for us to buy half a cow to stick in the deep freeze right now.
Can I tell you how many loads of hay we've gone and gotten? Do let me tell you. Load 1 and 2 consisted of large round bales of alfalfa and grass hay. Three of them are in the barn, 3 of them are outside. The round bales, if set correctly, normally shed water and snow pretty well. There is an outside layer of about an inch that is usually no good but it protects the inner hay quite well. There is also a netting they use to keep it all tight (baling netting) that also helps shed moisture. Load 3 of 100 bales of grass hay went to the neighbors. We bucked all that by hand. Load 4 of 100 bales of grass hay was delivered on our way back down from picking it up to some people east by about half an hour, we bucked that by hand too. Load 5 and 6 consisted of 100 bales of the finest alfalfa Kansas has to offer-every bit of that went into our barn- and 120 bales of grass hay of which 58 went into our barn, 60 was delivered right down the road and 2 went to someone using it just for their county fair heifer and steer project.
I still do not feel we have enough stored as of right now. The last thing I want is to get the goats through and run out at the last minute. If I am hoarding, so be it. We have plans to make another trip up for hay at the end of the week, all of which is being delivered down the road to the same person who bought half of the last load of grass hay. I have 280 bales on hold with the grass hay grower and 100 bales of alfalfa on hold with the alfalfa grower of his 4th cutting this year. I am to call him back towards the end of August. Of those 280 bales of grass hay alone, 140 bales are spoken by the guy down the road and then the rest are mine.
With, let's see...140 grass hay, 200 alfalfa, 58 bales of grass hay already in the barn and 6 round bales, I'd say we're probably good!
This may all sound pretty boring I suppose, but it's our life. We look forward to kidding next year, though many of the does will be bred to Andy, our spotted buck, as the economy is still bad and spots sell. He's nothing to scoff at for sure but now that I have the breeding stock I want, I can focus on building up the herd and that will mean cuts next year. I can only hope we get the rain necessary to keep the pasture green and growing! That seems like such a long way off and to be perfectly honest, after this horrible summer we've had, looking ahead to another winter is not really something that brings warm fuzzies to mind!
Jeremiah has gone back to work. He was supposed to be in Kansas City this week for the annual teacher's conference but was able to forgo that to take another class putting him one step closer to a pay raise and his Masters. I too have thought about going back to school now that the kids will be in school full time but I think I will ride out the Fall semester and perhaps apply in the Spring. Business is going great guns and with as busy as we've been this summer, I'd really like to get better organized before taking on one more thing.
We've put off Jeremiah taking the classes for his CWI (Certified Welding Inspectors license). Someday...just not today. That seems to be the motto these days. We'll get there. We're forever reminding ourselves that Rome wasn't built in a day.
At any rate, I suppose I've gone on long enough. All I ever seem to have time for anymore is updates. I have photos of the 4H show over the weekend that I promise to post. 4H was another stressful venture that I think we'll have a better understanding of this coming year!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Work work work all day long
I'm sure I've done enough complaining about the weather but there's really not much else to complain about. I was hanging out clothes the other day and decided, this past year in Kansas hasn't impressed me too much. Some say the winter was just mild in comparison. Well, I don't know about anyone else, but negative twenty four is not really mild in my, humble yet persuasive and dramatic, opinion. What do they mean by mild? Do they mean there wasn't a lot of snow? Because I'd say 4 good storms, one of which dumped snow up to my thigh, is not exactly mild. Now, granted, we're not Minnesota or Iowa, it isn't normal to be gassing up the snow plow in August to use in September and putting it away in June for just about a month before pulling it back out again. I wouldn't say it was mild, but maybe there isn't a lot of grey area here. Then, this summer has just been horrid. I don't think it would be too overly dramatic to say it went from thigh high snow one day in February to one hundred and twelve degrees. Okay, maybe that is a bit exaggerated, but not by much!
To be truthful though, I don't think we've had a drop of rain in a month. The temperature dipping into the mid 90's during the peak of the day is a cool down and to hear about a chance on rain from the weather man makes me want to choke him/her! We're being punished, I think. It rains all around us yet there is no rain for Hutch. It's awful. The grass is dead or dying. The pasture looks horrible and one of the perks about leaving California was that it would look like a California spring for much of the summer here in Kansas. Well, that's pretty far from reality.
We begrudgingly pull ourselves out of bed at 6:30 AM to begin work and not that it makes a bit of difference because the minute you step outside the sweat starts to pour from your face. We have managed to complete the perimeter fencing and for that I am overjoyed. We even managed to get about a 300' cross fencing section done which is the new buck pasture although it's not the joyous moment I thought it would be because there isn't much edible grass to speak of. The only saving grace to this lack of rain and abundant heat is that mowing is a thing of the past!
I remember taking photos of Jeremiah last year brush hogging the property of lush green weeds up to my neck! This year, we're lucky if they reach mid-calf and they are a shade of brownish grey that reminds me of California in mid-summer. I was certain we moved ourselves 1600 miles but it sure doesn't look like it!
A few hours in the heat of the morning does us in so we've been doing a lot of inside work too. We bought quite a few new interior doors for the place and Jeremiah has been installing those. The back room in the basement is now officially my sewing room. Last week I moved my sewing table back there. We bought a shelving unit to go onto the wall to hold some of my fabrics. We got a second hand roll around desk and another chair , both of which I painted. Right now my sewing table is home to 3 machines, one of which (Rachel's) is going to go on the roll around desk. The machine actually used to belong to Grandma Hargett, and while it's nothing snazzy, it's a great machine for Rachel.
The front room of the basement will become the new family room. We have 2 couches in the shop that are waiting for their home in the living room upstairs but until the front room of the basement was cleaned of my sewing stuff, there was no room for the futon.
Speaking of the basement, Jeremiah has finally come up with a plan to get the stairwell entrance to the basement fro the hallway (eliminating 1 of EIGHT doors) and into the living room. More on that some other time. We've got big plans...one step at a time though.
We bought 3 new mattresses. The kids need a regular size bed now so their tiny beds have been pulled out to accept a regular twin size mattress. I would love to have a murphy bed built for downstairs for the queen mattress that we replaced. It's not bad at all, Jeremiah just said he wanted something different. Project for another time though.
We've hauled 2 loads of hay down for ourselves from 100 miles north, still need at least another 2 and Thursday evening we hauled down a load for our neighbors. Speaking of which, while the west fence was down we had the neighbor's horses over for a visit. I'll post photos later. They were quiet company.
Other than that, it's been work work work. Yesterday we did steal away on our first date since moving here! Our neighbors, who watched the goat's for us while we were gone, have a son and daughter (15 and 17 respectively) who babysat the kids for us so Jeremiah and I could catch a movie. Drew is quite enamored with Joshua and literally cried when we had to go. So far Joshua thinks they are pretty cool but I have to wonder how long that will last. Five and seven year olds are only cool for so long. But, maybe the thought of money is enough incentive =)...bribes, gotta love 'em.
We have company coming in next week. Jeremiah's brother has orders for Scott AFB in Illinois so they are moving. Their stuff has already been picked up from Shepard AFB Wichita Falls, Tx and they are visiting family down there before heading up here for a few days. I hope to make a trip up to one of the lakes further north of here for at least a day. There's been plenty of rain up there!
The goats are handling the heat. Bonnie has come down with pneumonia I think so I've been medicating her the past 2 days. It's not uncommon for it to happen. I think the new buck may have come back with a bit of shipping fever and sniffles, snots and coughs have run throughout the herd. Most of them are over it but Bonnie's not recovering as well as everyone else so she's stuck in the barn with the fan on her. Speaking of which, I have to go out and dose her with some Penicillin.
So, I guess I'll end here for now.
To be truthful though, I don't think we've had a drop of rain in a month. The temperature dipping into the mid 90's during the peak of the day is a cool down and to hear about a chance on rain from the weather man makes me want to choke him/her! We're being punished, I think. It rains all around us yet there is no rain for Hutch. It's awful. The grass is dead or dying. The pasture looks horrible and one of the perks about leaving California was that it would look like a California spring for much of the summer here in Kansas. Well, that's pretty far from reality.
We begrudgingly pull ourselves out of bed at 6:30 AM to begin work and not that it makes a bit of difference because the minute you step outside the sweat starts to pour from your face. We have managed to complete the perimeter fencing and for that I am overjoyed. We even managed to get about a 300' cross fencing section done which is the new buck pasture although it's not the joyous moment I thought it would be because there isn't much edible grass to speak of. The only saving grace to this lack of rain and abundant heat is that mowing is a thing of the past!
I remember taking photos of Jeremiah last year brush hogging the property of lush green weeds up to my neck! This year, we're lucky if they reach mid-calf and they are a shade of brownish grey that reminds me of California in mid-summer. I was certain we moved ourselves 1600 miles but it sure doesn't look like it!
A few hours in the heat of the morning does us in so we've been doing a lot of inside work too. We bought quite a few new interior doors for the place and Jeremiah has been installing those. The back room in the basement is now officially my sewing room. Last week I moved my sewing table back there. We bought a shelving unit to go onto the wall to hold some of my fabrics. We got a second hand roll around desk and another chair , both of which I painted. Right now my sewing table is home to 3 machines, one of which (Rachel's) is going to go on the roll around desk. The machine actually used to belong to Grandma Hargett, and while it's nothing snazzy, it's a great machine for Rachel.
The front room of the basement will become the new family room. We have 2 couches in the shop that are waiting for their home in the living room upstairs but until the front room of the basement was cleaned of my sewing stuff, there was no room for the futon.
Speaking of the basement, Jeremiah has finally come up with a plan to get the stairwell entrance to the basement fro the hallway (eliminating 1 of EIGHT doors) and into the living room. More on that some other time. We've got big plans...one step at a time though.
We bought 3 new mattresses. The kids need a regular size bed now so their tiny beds have been pulled out to accept a regular twin size mattress. I would love to have a murphy bed built for downstairs for the queen mattress that we replaced. It's not bad at all, Jeremiah just said he wanted something different. Project for another time though.
We've hauled 2 loads of hay down for ourselves from 100 miles north, still need at least another 2 and Thursday evening we hauled down a load for our neighbors. Speaking of which, while the west fence was down we had the neighbor's horses over for a visit. I'll post photos later. They were quiet company.
Other than that, it's been work work work. Yesterday we did steal away on our first date since moving here! Our neighbors, who watched the goat's for us while we were gone, have a son and daughter (15 and 17 respectively) who babysat the kids for us so Jeremiah and I could catch a movie. Drew is quite enamored with Joshua and literally cried when we had to go. So far Joshua thinks they are pretty cool but I have to wonder how long that will last. Five and seven year olds are only cool for so long. But, maybe the thought of money is enough incentive =)...bribes, gotta love 'em.
We have company coming in next week. Jeremiah's brother has orders for Scott AFB in Illinois so they are moving. Their stuff has already been picked up from Shepard AFB Wichita Falls, Tx and they are visiting family down there before heading up here for a few days. I hope to make a trip up to one of the lakes further north of here for at least a day. There's been plenty of rain up there!
The goats are handling the heat. Bonnie has come down with pneumonia I think so I've been medicating her the past 2 days. It's not uncommon for it to happen. I think the new buck may have come back with a bit of shipping fever and sniffles, snots and coughs have run throughout the herd. Most of them are over it but Bonnie's not recovering as well as everyone else so she's stuck in the barn with the fan on her. Speaking of which, I have to go out and dose her with some Penicillin.
So, I guess I'll end here for now.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Misc. Ca. Trip Photos
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| Church in Laramie, Wy. |
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| Donner Lake, Ca. |
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| Rachel, Drew and Julie |
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| Foxglove |
Saturday, July 9, 2011
July Hollow Update
We've hit the ground running since returning from vacation. Yes, the dog was happy to see us. The goats we hauled back with us from Ca. made it fine and are settling in. Ann took no time at all to establish herself as herd queen and is quite happy to eat anything green, herbaceous and delicious. Iris, on the other hand, is more picky but sweet just the same.
We're in a major drought this year. Hay prices have gone sky high and we're hauling in hay from 100 miles away, 2 1/2 ton at a time. We'll need to make a few more trips north to bring enough down for the next year. It's not just that prices are sky high within the few surrounding counties, there won't be enough to go around either. Most hay fields aren't artificially irrigated, in case you were wondering, so whatever grows off of what falls from the sky is it. Fortunately for us, it's cheaper up north AND more abundant, so providing we've got the time to go up, we should be just fine.
We've got visiting friends with us. Because we've pulled all the posts and fence line from the west side of the property we've got the neighbor's two paint horses here. We could easily have the lines back up in a day but ran out of time Wednesday evening to get the lines up. We weren't around Friday and so today may be the day. It's either all or nothing as I would hate to get one or two up to have the horses get caught in them. To be perfectly honest, putting up the fence line is the quick and easy part! Taking it all down and cleaning the fence line beforehand is what takes the time! The goats haven't minded the horses and visa versa but I did lock the goats in the "main pen" so I could be sure they weren't visiting the neighbor's. I don't mind if the horses are over here but I don't need the goats getting into mischief over there.
It's been so hot which only adds to the misery of having no rain too. I try to get out as soon as the sun's up but getting back on Central time has been difficult. It also stays light out here until nearly 10 o'clock and working in the evenings is nice and cool. Jeremiah's a night owl anyway. I am not, but have been working well into the dark to maximize the time we can work.
Other than that, the kids are fine. We're preparing for the county fair in which Rachel has a few entries. I suppose I also need to think about getting the paperwork in for the state fair as well. Jeremiah goes back to work in a few weeks. His classroom and shop are being painted right now so he's back to square one (as in, the same place he was last year with his shop in total disarray). The summer sure is flying by!
We're in a major drought this year. Hay prices have gone sky high and we're hauling in hay from 100 miles away, 2 1/2 ton at a time. We'll need to make a few more trips north to bring enough down for the next year. It's not just that prices are sky high within the few surrounding counties, there won't be enough to go around either. Most hay fields aren't artificially irrigated, in case you were wondering, so whatever grows off of what falls from the sky is it. Fortunately for us, it's cheaper up north AND more abundant, so providing we've got the time to go up, we should be just fine.
We've got visiting friends with us. Because we've pulled all the posts and fence line from the west side of the property we've got the neighbor's two paint horses here. We could easily have the lines back up in a day but ran out of time Wednesday evening to get the lines up. We weren't around Friday and so today may be the day. It's either all or nothing as I would hate to get one or two up to have the horses get caught in them. To be perfectly honest, putting up the fence line is the quick and easy part! Taking it all down and cleaning the fence line beforehand is what takes the time! The goats haven't minded the horses and visa versa but I did lock the goats in the "main pen" so I could be sure they weren't visiting the neighbor's. I don't mind if the horses are over here but I don't need the goats getting into mischief over there.
It's been so hot which only adds to the misery of having no rain too. I try to get out as soon as the sun's up but getting back on Central time has been difficult. It also stays light out here until nearly 10 o'clock and working in the evenings is nice and cool. Jeremiah's a night owl anyway. I am not, but have been working well into the dark to maximize the time we can work.
Other than that, the kids are fine. We're preparing for the county fair in which Rachel has a few entries. I suppose I also need to think about getting the paperwork in for the state fair as well. Jeremiah goes back to work in a few weeks. His classroom and shop are being painted right now so he's back to square one (as in, the same place he was last year with his shop in total disarray). The summer sure is flying by!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Tom's cabin on the river
While in California, one Friday, Grandpa Hargett, Debi, Jeremiah, Auntie Lo, Becky the kids and I trekked up to Tom's place along the Consumes River. It was GORGEOUS! The water was especially chilly and high but it was a lovely afternoon with great company nonetheless.
I spent the better part of the first half decidedly tippled from a single glass of wine! I won't be drinking at Tom's again! I haven't decided if it was the atmosphere or some unusually potent wine. I know it wasn't an empty stomach as we had eaten sandwiches by the American River in Coloma only about 2 hours before. At any rate, the hike was lovely and we didn't even need bread crumbs to find our way back. Although we did wonder a few times if a search party would be necessary.
I spent the better part of the first half decidedly tippled from a single glass of wine! I won't be drinking at Tom's again! I haven't decided if it was the atmosphere or some unusually potent wine. I know it wasn't an empty stomach as we had eaten sandwiches by the American River in Coloma only about 2 hours before. At any rate, the hike was lovely and we didn't even need bread crumbs to find our way back. Although we did wonder a few times if a search party would be necessary.
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