Rant!

I hate confrontation. Not good at it, stresses me out, and I generally would rather avoid it.

However, sometimes it needs to happen.

I board a horse for someone at my farm. All I've ever asked is for supplies. You know, pay for wormers and hoof trims, get me some hay.....

I don't think that's too much. Actually, it's damn little.

Back in July I asked for a years supply of hay for this horse. Just this horse, not my own, just this one. Back in July.

End of September I was asked if this person could just make payments toward hay. Nope. Sorry. I don't have extra. I HAD enough for my two horses and my cattle back when haying season ended. I asked for a years supply of hay for one horse. I don't have extra for this person to buy back. I understand that it's hard to come up with the money to buy that much hay, so why is it expected that I'll do it and then I can be paid back. If it's so hard to come up with x amount of dollars to pay for x amount of hay, then why is it ok for me to do that, and just have this person pay me back. Sorry, I just repeated myself, but I think the ranting rules will allow for that.

I'm sorry. Again. I don't have the hay. I have no way of getting the hay, so no matter how much you offer to pay (a little every week) I still don't have it to sell to you. Why don't you go buy the hay and make arrangements to pay a little bit every week to someone else.

This leads to quite a bit of stress on my part. Hubby, who helps me with my hay, and whom I really couldn't do this without, wants the horse gone. Why should he put up hay for someone else's horse. I get that, I just was willing to do it to avoid the confrontation. Remember the part about me not liking confrontation. So it was with great trepidation, loss of sleep, and even near tears that I had to make the phone call to say "I think it would be best if you came to get your horse and find someone else to make payments to". Knowing all along that I had been feeding said horse at my expense all summer and didn't really expect to be compensated.

Ok, no problem, I'll come get him, I appreciate all you've done, I won't screw you over.......

Guess we'll see. Even if I don't see another dime, I'll be a lot closer to getting through until next haying season only feeding 2 horses than I ever was feeding 3.

Whew. All better now!

And the good news.... yes the horse is now gone, but hubby hasn't yet realized it, wonder how long it will take, but I digress.

The good news? I have 2 brothers coming in from California and Colorado end of the week for a long weekend. I'd like to think they're coming to see me, but I know better. But, that's ok :-)

Can't wait!!

Augh. Have to hurry and get my barn cleaned out. I got more hay coming.
Also gotta venture out to find more sticks for my tomatoes.
Oops one of the chickens is out again. Ok got that done.
Now to find some branches. Let's see. The ideal branch should be fairly sturdy, have at least one fork and be.. Blackberries! The blackberries are comin, on!
A bit of a historic detour here if you've never had the pleasure of picking blackberries.
Blackberries are (or should be) a winter sport. You have to put on long jeans, socks and something a bit sturdier than flip flops.

I don't like flip flops, the thing that goes in between my toes and all.

Anyway, You also need a long sleeved shirt and dont' forget to put up the hair.
Picking blackberries is not a sport for the faint of heart. If you can fend off the hungry insects, there's the occasional bear or two who may have already marked that berry territory for himself.

Ok I made that up.

Yeah the bears are there, you see signs of them regularly, but actually see them very unregularly, but I've really never had to go one on one with a bear over a blackberry.

So let's say you've risen victorious over the insects and the bears.
There remains an arch enemy you will not win against, and that is the bushes themselves. They will reach out and grab you, pull on your hair, snag clothing and leave their little barbs deep inside your clothing (or skin if you didn't wear you armour) and itch and scratch you.

Are they worth it? You bet, they are good! And they only last a week or so, due to the birds and bears and all.. So get em while you can, boys and girls, and then you can resume your stick hunting adventures. Oh yeah, and get the hay loft straightened up! Did that chicken really get out again??

I Got Nothing!

I have nothing for you today! Nothing! nothing exciting happened (except for that my laundry hanging on the line finally dried, but I didn't get it off and it's supposed to rain, so scratch that!).

My chickens continue to be escape artists and find their way out of the pen, so that's nothing new. I think I know where they're getting out though, it's somewhere around the pen.

And the best..... NOTHING is scheduled for this weekend. This might not be a good thing being as how the hay supply is far short of where it should be this time of year.

Normally, we'd be scrounging for a spot to stack all of the hay, moving and restacking just to fit 50 more bales. But not this year. We haven't had 3 or 4 days without rain all summer (well, except for the week that I was on vacation and not around anyway).

Hubby's been scouring the county (I personally think it's an excuse to ride his motorcycle and visit all his good old boys) in search of anyone who has extra hay that we can buy. Not good, he's coming up empty.

Cherries should be in, so I'll hopefully get a couple of flats of those this weekend and put them in the freezer. Then, some cold winter weekend, I'll dig out the strawberries, rhubarb, cherries, and whatever else I stash between now and then and make all of my jams and syrups. YUM!

So basically, this weekend is FREE!!!

Now I need to make a list. An outdoor list, and an indoor list (in case it rains). In any case my son's room needs to be vacuummed and dusted - he's flying out of Baghdad tomorrow! Yipee!!!

I need to fix his sign. I have a really cool sign in my yard that says "Home of a Soldier", need to spruce it up and get out the yellow ribbons. That will be first on either list, it needs to be done anyway.

The garden desperately needs to be hoed, or in this particular case, rototilled between the rows. Have to stake up more tomato plants.......

Got work to do in the barn and chicken coop, hey, I found an egg in the chicken coop yesterday, which lays to rest the "I don't know how to get from the pen into the coop" look I get from my birdies.

Still have a baby buk buk who thinks he's a cow, but that's ok for now.

Maybe I'll try to find my mower, although I'm trying really hard to not use any more gas than necessary. I've been pulling weeds for the chix and using my push motor (the old fashioned kind that doesn't use a motor), but it just won't go through some of those weeds!

And... I need to finish up my stealth knitting project. My knitting time really decreases during hockey's off season!

So that's how I spend a weekend off..... planning and making lists, and actually getting quite a bit done! Gotta do it now though, who knows, if the weather turns we'll be haying the rest of the summer with not a second to spare!

I really do love this life, but once in awhile..... oh forget it, I just got back from a week of margaritas on the beach vacation.

Tractor Zen

So, I'm out baling hay, which is fairly relaxing in itself. The sun is shining (950 degrees), the birds are singing (which can't be heard above the sound of the baler), the breeze is blowing (a hot humid sticky breeze). It's relaxing. It's where I love to be. And I hit a rock. My bad, should have been watching. Oh, yeah, I was. Watching behind me, making sure the baler was actually scooping up the hay like it's supposed to do. Every now and then something happens to "wake me up" so to speak. Like a rock, or a tree. There's nothing like being totally mesmerized by the rhythmic sounds of the baler crunching up dried grass and spitting it out the other end, when WHACK! All of a sudden I'm swatted with a branch. No big, just a pine tree, and a white pine at that, you know, the ones with long long soft pine needles? They don't hurt, they just serve to wake me up and shake me from my zen-like trance. But it is enjoyable, even if every muscle and every joint in my body is just burning this morning. Things aren't moving quite as well as they did when I was a few years younger.

What else did I do over the long weekend? Well, first of all, I officially became a 50 year old! And the same day, I got my first AARP card in the mail. WTF????? NO. I REFUSE! (Can you refuse stuff like that?)

Of course, we did the obligatory parade and fireworks on the 4th. We have a HUGE hill by where we live and you can see the town fireworks, all the country people who light them off, the small towns around, it's like a 360 degree display. Quite Cool!

A friend and I took off for Traverse (west coast) on Saturday to get fresh cherries. We found that they were still about 1-2 weeks out, but they did have lots and lots and lots of strawberries and asparagus. So, loaded up and then we hit the local yarn shop, well, because you have to do that. I can't very well recommend that particular shop if I've never been in there to drool and pet or, touch and aah and ooh over the yarns.

As with any foray into Farmer's Market territory, there is the results of that foray to be dealt with. That afternoon I put 48 cups of crushed berries and close to 25 lbs of asparagus into the freezer. The berries will be turned into jam, but not until a cold crisp autumn or winter weekend, when I have cherries, and peaches to add to them. I'll dig out the rhubarb too, then all the jam will be done in one day rather than in fits and starts.

Got most of the garden weeded and my "over the winter" lettuces started. I found the coolest rainbow swiss chard. Can't beat a good garden fresh salad in January. Also planted some cabbage seeds to winter over and make kraut, yum!!

Got a lot of hay put into both barns, worked on the chicken coop, got all the nesting boxes built and perches put up, still have to put netting up on the inside and cut a "trap door".

Tonight? Blessed rain! So, I'll finally get some inside work done, you know, like dishes, floors, laundry folded, stuff like that! And gasp.. maybe some knitting!! Probably not, my wrists and hands are trashed from haying.

Someone who now is famous, coined a phrase, I'm sure you've heard of it: Life Is Good. And it is!

Pics of Eggs Hatching and Other Stuff

Today, a short introduction into my seriously whacked out family!
This is too cool. Li'l Brother #4, who is a "chicken farmer" in the middle of the city in California recently sent me this video of one of his eggs hatching.
http://132.239.50.242/Chicky/Chicky
If and when any of my turkey eggs ever hatch, I'll upload those too.


Another Li'l Brother (#3) who lives in another city in CA, has started his own website called Demand95.com in which he calls everyone to demand that at least 95% of their charity intake goes to the intended recipient. He sponsors orphanages in Thailand, Africa, and Togo, eye surgeries in Viet Nam and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff that he hasn't gotten on his site yet. Be sure to check it out, it's the greatest thing I've ever seen.
This brother also won the Name Ter's Bike contest, in which the only rule was that the acronym must be LIG. "Losing It to Gravity" will be the official name, a nickname will ensue naturally, they always do, just like my critters, they name themselves!

Another Li'l Brother (#1) lives in Alaska of all places. Never will my feet touch the soil, or snow or ice in Alaska. Never! I'm sure it's beautiful, but I'll never find out for sure. Why??? Because it would surely be a one way ticket. On the off chance that my body and mind (which often travel together, much to the surprise of, well, everyone)ever end up there, surely they will not return, together or separately. A one way ticket. So it's just safer to stay in the lower 48. Talk about a logistical nightmare, we can't even imagine moving all of my farm stuff and all of hubby's construction and mechanical toys that far. One day my person will possess a pilot's licence and one day hubby will build me a plane and one day, we will take air trips to lots of different places. This is a for sure thing. The only unsurity is the date when it will happen, but it will happen.

The Mouth has already declared that she will not ride with us. Makes it easier, only have to build a two seater! Well, 3 actually, have to have room for The Bu-Dawgh! Because he can't be left alone. He's a baby, the poster puppy for separation anxiety.

One more brother (#2), and he lives in Colorado. There, I capitalized it, are you happy?

No sisters, never wanted them, never got them (until my brothers married). I was the oldest and only and happy about it. I was Daddy's girl. I ruled. I still do, ask any of them, they're afraid of my 5'3" mightiness, as rightly they should be.

Delivered a couple more hay bales to a neighbor who ran out and then rode LIG to work. The ride to work this morning was nothing short of GLORIOUS!! Warm enough for just a sweatshirt, the morning mist was in the air as was the smell of the dairy farms. My ride to work very rarely passes anyone else on the roads, I pass through no cities, villages or towns, just 4 miles of 4 season splendidness. Each season has it's own sensory nuances, this is clearly spring. My Mother's daffodils are blooming, and things are turning green. The trees are budding out, it's just waaaay too nice to spend time inside.

Unless the playoffs are on, then all bets are off.
Hey, Li'l Bro #2, your Avs made the 2nd round! So depending on who wins tonight, we'll either play you or the Flames.
Go Wings!! We will seriously spank you!!