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BLESSINGS in ABUNDANCE!

That’s what it’s turning in to here in Kansas.  The wind has been howling since before dark, which hasn’t helped the restfulness that we all hope to acquire in the quiet of the evening hours.

Not alot going on here, in some ways.  My days are about the same, day after day.  I DO live on a working farm, so ALOT of my time is spent taking care of the farm, after I have successfully taken care of my husband and son.

Cooler weather has come to Kansas.  The temperatures have been Fall-like, but they also remind us that snow could be coming at ANY time now.  We have about half of the hay that we wanted to have.  We will be getting more hay next week at some point, or the week after.  The grain for the rest of the animals will do us until towards the end of November or into December, so we will be okay there for a bit.  We will probably need one more order of grain to get us through the Winter, if I keep feeding at the same rate I have been.  We will be laying in lay mash for the chickens in the next two weeks, as well, which means the rest of the grain should last us even longer.

I AM kind of concerned, though.  One of our goats that we hadn’t meant to breed until next year appears to be pregnant with her first babies.  Goats are breedable at 4 months old or so, from what we’ve read, but we had basically decided to not breed our younger doelings until NEXT year….to give them a little time to grow some more.  So, now, after having done all the calculations as to when she MIGHT have been been bred, we wait….and count the days….and see if she really IS pregnant….or whether she is just a bigger pig than we figured.

The horses are doing good.  I was able to get up on Alice here a few days ago!  It seems like a LONG time in coming, since that has been one of the goals on my to-do list since we moved in here two years ago.  She was calm and collected.  I had my husband out with me, to make sure that, IF anything happened when I got on her, I would have someone there to pick up the pieces.  And I put a lead rope on Alice and he led her with me on her without ANY trouble!  That is a BIG step for her!!  I need to change the bit on the bridle that I was using.  I don’t think she likes my mechanical hackamore that I had on her.  It has been apparent that she is used to having an actual bit in her mouth.  So, I will be taking the curb bit off of one of my other headstalls and cleaning it up (it was doused in Neatsfoot Oil the last time the bridle was oiled) and trying it the next time I ride her.  She might respond a little better.

On another horse note….or two…..we acquired another horse when we went on vacation.  His name is Rusty and he is completely broke to ride already, so I have been able to ride him several times since we got back from vacation.  I have taken him out and up the road twice without too much trouble.  I have figured out that he hasn’t seen a culvert before, so the next time I take him up the road, I will probably have to take the time to let him investigate the 4 or 5 culverts on my riding route.  He rides nice, though.  I even had him into a canter for a short distance a few days ago when I rode him.  That was a BIG step for us, as I had shied away from letting him canter because, when he tries to play that he is spooked, he will try to run.

We will probably be getting rid of Pheline…probably at one of the livestock sales before long.  I have been having some challenges, and just don’t have the inclination or patience to try to train her to ride at this point, and, at this point, I’m not even sure she could handle being ridden.  She has VERY poor confirmation, as well as a bad hoof or two, and she’s not all that healthy.  I am not even sure that the sale is the best way to get rid of her, if she’s not going to be of any use to anyone.  We will have to see, though.  We have put the word out that we are trying to get rid of her, so we will see if anyone wants her in the next week or two.  By getting rid of her, that means we have one less productive mouth to feed through the Winter.  The direction that we are taking the farm in the coming months will be even more towards the producing-side of things, so if it’s not producing something for the farm, then it won’t be here very long.  There will be an exception or two….but not too many.

Well, I think it’s time to see about doing something else….now that I’ve rambled for a bit on one of the longest entries that I have done in a long time.

Have a BLESSED weekend!

The heat continues here in Kansas.  We had about a day’s worth of break from the extreme heat and then it came back.  I have seen the television on in places where I shop over the last couple of weeks, and it seems that all they are talking about is the heat and how people are coping.  I would have to guess that, in the cities with all of the asphalt and pavement and very few trees in most places, people are learning to cope by changing their urban clothing from polyester to cotton.  I know that is one way that WE have learned to cope over the years.  And now, it is to the point that we actually own very few pieces of clothing made out of polyester or polyester blends.

In other news, we had two baby ducks hatched this afternoon!  It should be interesting to watch them grow, as they are a mixed breed.  I might post pictures of them on a later post.

Other than that, not doing a whole lot these days, other than getting ready for our trip in less than 2 weeks, and trying to make sure that everything that we are taking is coordinated, so we don’t forget anything.  We are looking forward to a few days away!  And when we come back, I am sure that we will be refreshed and ready to start the new school year and everything that is going to come with it!

Have you ever noticed that definitions of words are different with EVERY person?  That fact has been made a stark reality in our lives in the last several years, and continues to be shown to us!  It is taking some getting used to and adjustment to the way we think.

Hope all is well!  Only a few more days until my Son is home again during the week!  We love you, Bud!

God Bless!

Yep, I believe it’s Sunday again.  Another Sunday we won’t be going to church for various reasons.  But I WILL be doing some Bible reading later this evening when the house is empty except for me.

I was up the majority of the night again.  Weird dreams have been visiting me for about 6 or 7 nights straight.  Weird enough that they wake me up, and they have been real enough that some days I have trouble distinguishing between what was in my dream and what happened in my real day or night.

Took a halter off of Alice yesterday that she’d had on for about a week because we’ve been redoing fences and turning the horses out into the pasture and such.  Figured it wouldn’t hurt her to learn to wear it for more than a few minutes.  I have been starkly reminded why I DON’T leave halters on them when I’m not actually using them.  The halter has rubbed several sore spots on Alice’s jaw.  Apparently, with the heat, Alice has been rubbing the halter because she ISN’T used to wearing one.  All but one is where it’s just rubbed the hair away.  They aren’t really super major, at this point.  The BIG thing will be to keep the flies from getting in them and making them worse.  Soooooo, nitrofurazone AT LEAST twice a day for about a week, and we will see how they look then.  They SHOULD be all but healed if I can keep the flies out of them with the nitrofurazone.  Wellllll, I have been thinking that I should see about getting her used to being handled again and see about getting a saddle on her in July.  I guess it will be MUCH easier to decide how much to work with her and Pheline every day since I HAVE to go out and doctor her twice a day anyway!

Pheline has settled down drastically over the last couple of months.  I can walk up to her out in the pasture and get within arm’s reach without her moving away most of the time, and she has let me touch her on more than one occasion for very brief amounts of time without a rope and halter!  Shouldn’t take much more than just time to bring her to the point of being ready to work more on her leading and get HER to the point of being able to start working on saddling her!

The goats are all doing fine.  They have all enjoyed being able to go out and find their food in the pasture the last couple of weeks.  I will have to get some pictures of them out in the pasture this afternoon or evening, so I can print them off and put them in an envelope to send to my husband’s Dad in Colorado.  Since we borrowed his buck, Barker/Snoopy, I thought he might enjoy some pictures of our does and kids and his buck out in a nice, green pasture.

We MISS our boy!!  Love ya, Buddy!

Well, almost time to get breakfast going, so will sign off for now.  Have a blessed week!

Yep, I’d have to say that we’ve been as busy as a Manhattan Accident Attorney the last couple of weeks!

We’ve got two strands left to put up on our main fences, and then we have a couple of fences that we put up field fence instead of barbed wire (for the main goat pastures), and we have a couple of strands of barbed wire that will need run on the top of those in order to keep horses or cows in there at any point in time.  Getting the majority of the fences up completed one of the most MAJOR projects that was on our to-do list!

Our next biggest project that we will be undertaking will be in a couple of weeks when we rent a skidster and do some “tractor” work, like moving manure around, rerouting some rain water in several places, filling in some holes and low spots, pulling some fence posts that are supposedly set in concrete, etc.  That will also be the same week that we get 20 gallons of paint or so and, after all of the tractor work is done, we plan on painting the outside of our outbuildings, to help preserve them a bit better.

All of the animals are doing fine!  Our latest set of twin goats is now almost 3 weeks old.  They are all doing good and ENJOYING being out on pasture, as are the horses and donkey too!

Have a blessed weekend!

It isn’t supposed to be QUITE as warm, temperature-wise, today.  The cooler temperatures, even if they aren’t all that much cooler, are welcomed by my animals!  Most of our goats originally were bred in cold weather countries, so they haven’t been taking the heat all that well.  We do have a couple of Boer goats, though, which were bred originally in South Africa, and they haven’t been bothered by the heat.  One of MY hopes is that our babies will pick up some of that Boer-type heat tolerance.

Tuesday night did not go as planned.  We had planned to take the 4-wheeler out to the South pasture and get some trees out of the way, so we could run wire for the South fence last night.  Tuesday night found us BOTH pretty tired, so we didn’t even hit the pasture.  But we went out for a bit last night and got some trees sort of out of the way, so we can run fence wires on Saturday.  With the trees out of the way, and all of the posts already in for the most part, it should just be a matter of stringing the wires and clipping them to the posts, which we SHOULD be able to do easily on Saturday.  And then, Sunday and/or Monday, we can do the East fence on the South pasture, and then a bunch of these animals can be put out on pasture instead of being fed hay!  Then, next month when we start buying hay, we will actually be stocking up for the Winter!

Other than that, things are going okay.  Slept through the alarm this morning, so the morning started with being pushed a bit more than what we like.  No real harm done, though, as we still had enough time to get to where we had to be without being late.

It was GOOD to talk to our son last night for a few minutes!  We miss you, Buddy!  Jasper and all the animals say “Hello” too!  Stay safe and KNOW that we LOVE you!

Lots on the agenda to get done in the next couple of months!  Not sure if we will get it all done or not, but we will be putting a MAJOR dent in the list, if nothing else.

Made some ice cream and a vanilla slushie type thing yesterday.  Slushie thing still needs frozen, but the ice cream was put in the freezer last night.  We have found that homemade ice cream makes a NICE treat on these hot Summer days!!

Have to run into town a couple of times today, so basically this is a day of running.  I’ll be home long enough in between trips to say I was here….and get comfortable….before I have to leave again.  Really don’t have the inclination to just stay in town and kill that four hours or so that I will have in between appointments, though.  We will have to see, I guess.

Have a GREATLY blessed day!

…of alot of things…but I actually have a direction I want to take this tonight.

It is HARD to think….that I might ACTUALLY be looking at another 8 or 9 days/nights with little to no sleep.

After spending the last two and a half days or so (as of this morning) fighting a battle to save a new born goat, she finally died this morning.  My husband and I had spent the last two and a half days or so feeding her and giving her fluids and such every two to four hours.  And yes, that even included during the night.  As many hours as my husband works, ALOT of that responsibility fell to me.  I was glad to do it, though, if there was even a SHRED of chance of saving Loopie (the new born goat).  This morning after I got back from delivering the boy to the bus for school, I went out to get Loopie to bring her in the house to feed her, and KNEW she wasn’t right….KNEW we had lost ground over the night, for whatever reason.  But, we fed her and gave her some fluids and put her under a heat lamp to warm up, and I selfishly went to lay down with my husband for a couple of hours before having to get up and feed her again and give her more fluids before I headed for the Dr.’s office.  My ONLY regret of the last two and a half days and all of the hours lost sleep is that Loopie died….ALONE.  I felt in my heart this morning that she wasn’t going to make it.  She was having something going on, neurologically.  I KNEW this…..and still I opted to lay down instead of sitting with her for the last little bit of her life.  I have buried ALOT of animals in my lifetime, but I can honestly say that MOST of them died while I was there, so they didn’t have to die alone.  This is the second major one that has died alone….and I regret that.

Now, our focus turns more to her Mama, who has not been “right” since Loopie and her twin Sisters were born on Monday afternoon.  There for a couple of days, we thought for SURE we were going to lose Mama and be able to save Loopie.  Now, even though she’s still not completely 100% herself, Mama IS eating a bit today….and got her tongue wet in the water while I was out there….and is actually showing an interest in what is going on around her!  I THINK, with God’s help, she will be back to herself in a few days.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but I think part of it might have been kind of like a post partum depression….after having two of her three babies still-born.  Then again, having triplets would HAVE to take it’s toll on the body, also.

With my attentions focused on Mama for the most part, I headed to town to see the Dr. because I saw a different Dr. last week, and he prescribed an antibiotic which did absolutely NOTHING for my persistent, bronchitis-type cough.  When I called his nurse the day before yesterday to get something else, they called in the same exact thing.  Therefore, a call to my regular Dr. this morning got me an appointment for this afternoon.  After running up some more bill at the Doctor’s Office and the hospital, he prescribed something different….something that I’ve been on several times before throughout the years…..something that the ONLY side effect I have ever gotten from it is the….can you believe this?….the inability to sleep….*tired sighs*  It’s a 7 day course of treatment, and, when I’ve been on this prescription before, I have been unable to sleep for the better part of those 7 days…AND a couple or three or four days AFTER I am done with the treatment as it leaves my system.  I am going to try something a bit different after dropping the boy at the bus in the morning when I get home, in an attempt to get some rest with my husband, but I’m NOT going to hold my breath on it working.  If it doesn’t work, it looks like I will be “Sleepless In Kansas” until about the end of the month…give or take a day or two.  COULD make for some VERY long days, which are long anyway!  I guess the blessing to the curse of not being able to sleep while I’m on this prescription is the fact that I don’t feel the tiredness NEAR as much….and sleepliness is NON-existent, so I actually get ALOT accomplished some days, even after dark when I should be sleeping but can’t do anything outside!

Have a BLESSED weekend!

….how a long time resident of a neighborhood could be found dead in her house…..

AFTER…….

She had been dead for at least a YEAR?

This is a current news story from California.  An 80-something year old woman was found dead in her house, after neighbors (and this is what gets me!) called the police to check on her because her “mail was piling up and there were cobwebs in the mailbox”.  Now, if someone could explain to me WHY it took neighbors of an elderly woman A YEAR to realize her mail was piling up and that they hadn’t seen her lately, I would be REALLY grateful!  It is hard to believe that we actually live in a society that is so full of themselves, and so worried about what THEY are doing that they don’t keep track of things like that…even just a tad!  Now, I’m not the nosey sort where my neighbors are concerned, but I have been known to know their best known patterns like when they go and come home from work, etc.  And I have been known to either do a welfare check on them or HAVE one done by law enforcement if I haven’t seen them around lately.  I’m not too sure, but I would have to say that I would feel PRETTY embarrassed, as well as a TAD guilty, if my neighbor hadn’t been seen in better than a year…their mail was OBVIOUSLY piling up…and then I called to get a welfare check done and they were found dead.  I’m not too sure I would be able to cope with that one very easily.  And you know what?  I KIND of would like to have neighbors that would at least come check on ME if I hadn’t been seen much lately…or if my mail was piling up.  I always kind of thought that was what neighbors were for….keeping an eye on each other and helping each other.  I guess I might just be living in a dream world these days….at least according to the news reports.

In closing, I urge you to check on your neighbors, even if you don’t like them.  It doesn’t take much to go over and knock on their door and say “Hello….Do you need anything?”

God Bless!

There are ALOT of things that are classified “a thing of the past”.  Things like:  cameras that actually use film;  walkmans;  audio tapes;  vinyl records;  home cell booster;  mice and keyboards that hook into your computer with a cable;  having to have your computer hooked up to the internet via a cord;  landline phones;  And MANY, many more.

Some of our children will never see some of these things.  Alot of the other ones that they will see will be gone in a few years.  Enjoy them while you can.  Don’t forget the past, but embrace and use progress to make your life a bit easier.

God Bless!

Okay, I have to admit that I am not REAL sure what yok3d is or stands for at this point.  It sounds like it could be a code word for a secret governmental facility.  Or maybe it’s the password that you need for the keypad on the door to one of the Federal Mint buildings.  Maybe it is the name of a top secret file that could change the world as we know it.  Maybe it’s the code that opens a safety deposit box in a Swiss Bank that’s got the map to a treasure in it.

Oh, the possibilities a body can come up with for weird codes!!  Where does YOUR brain go when you see random letters and numbers together?

Have a BLESSED weekend!