Day 11 of 365 day in the life of a small farm family

Today was a day that I had to be roused from the bed by the little bears and hot coffee, I had no desire to get up and start what I knew would be a very long day.  I have been watching the approaching storm system with great dread, having been in Arkansas during the last great ice storms.  Last time we were without power for over a month.  So I knew that aside from going to class and such that I would have to go to Wal-Mart and cash a check and then go and get grain.  I did find time to play with the horses before I left , they came right up to the pasture behind the house and the baby was very snuggly today, maybe he is feeling a bit better, I kissed him, the kids the other horse and the hubbie before leaving on my great quest.

So here is how it all played out, I barely got to school on time after passing the bears and Rachael and Michael on the road coming back from taking out the trash, and felt compelled to find out what happens if I with draw from a class, because I have become so distraught over losing Elaine that I found it hard to finish my on line English class, epic fail on my behalf and I will do my best to fix it.  My advisor explained the basic rules of it all and I hope not to need to do it, it was like the readers condensed version, of don’t fail and if you do , well than wait till the last minute to do so.  At three minutes before class I left her office and after pausing for a soda from the vending machine hurried myself off to my math class.  I hurried for no reason I guess as when I got there the last class had just let out, oh well.  Anyway the teacher Prof. Jim Bob and I had a lovely history /political conversation before class and it seemed to spill over to the math class as well, making it much easier to deal with as a whole.  I felt much better about the whole thing once we had a mutual respect for one another, I am not in his class because I am dum, I am there to bone up on the new terms, which to my great surprise as well as his have changed.  Knowing what a natural number is was of great use for me to day as the book did not define it, but because of my past work I knew the answer.  The class went well and after class I decided to go to the gym and work out, however I got into the van and backed out of the space, only to hear, thump, thump, thump, I parked it again and got out and saw it was a completely flat tire.  I moved the van into a different space in case I need the tow guy, one never knows.  Then got out and assed the problem, it was the same tire I had just gotten fixed, ewwwwwww.  Ok I said I have a pump, no worries.  I pulled out the pump just as Prof. Jim Bob came by to check and see what the problem was.  I said I have a flat and he came over and looked at what I was doing, I placed the little part on the tire stem and plugged the pump into the cigarette lighter behind my seat which is like a ton closer than the console(thanks Chrysler for thinking a head), and nothing happened…lol  I picked up the little box and looked it over for a switch and than as I pressed the on button, the most terrible sound came out and it attempted to fill the tire which as luck would have it , was flat to the rim.  Mind you I have changed my fair shar of tires but have no idea how to put air in one that is on the ground like this,I found out latter from my husband Michael that you need to have air in a tire to beable to put air in with one of these puimps, well thank goodness the Prof.  Must have know this as well, for after several minutes I gave up with the pump and went to start tearing down to change the tire.  I was so pleased, here is my new jack, and here I have gotten the cover off of the spare and what, wait where is the four way, OH…….ewwwww  No four way, well this is fun.  The Prof. excuses himself for a moment and comes back with a can of fix a flat and asks me if I care if the mechanic  gets angry, I said I don’t care, I just want him to fix the tire( sexist of me hu? I figure it will be a man..lol).  anyway I kind of watch him with a raised eyebrow thinking this is not going well, when I start to see the tire rise and he then puts back o the pump, which now starts to fill the tire, shortly after tha he leaves me with the can of fix a flat and a tire above the ground.  After about I guess ten minutes more I realize that the tire does not seem to be getting anymore air in it.  So I take off the part from the valve stem and turn the pump off and I hear the hiss of a leaking tire.  I go over to the Jeep that Isaiah is driving thinking, well I guess I will have to change a tire after all, but it is not there, of course, and no four way either..so now I am back to having a leaking tire and I am debating on what I should do, when I see one of my friends leaving the building heading to her car and I ask her which way she is going she says to the court house, which as luck would have it is in the other direction, she asks me why and I tell her about the can and the tire and that I am afraid to drive there without someone following me and that my dear son, who’s birthday is today is nowhere to be found.  So she says, no worries, that she will follow me, so I drive there with her behind me the whole way and I get there get out of the van give her a hug and thank her for making sure I made it there safe.  I then went into Wal-Mart and let them know about the tire, he asks me which one and I tell him the one you just fixed and that I did not know if it was the same problem or a new one, but that I needed it fixed if at all possible.  I proceeded to go into the store proper and walked around for a while, dang I still forgot the index cards, oh well.  I went to the front and saw my friend K working and another one of my friends standing in her line.  One my other friend was done we moved our conversation over to in front of the bank; we were talking about horse, my horses which is very hard for me.  I had gotten my daughter favorite horse Ice, the father to the baby horse I know have and that I had a female paint horse dreamer that was looking for a new home as our horses did not like her at all, that is just the way some horse are.  She is currently thinking about it.  As I am standing there talking my phone rings twice it is Isaiah asking me if I want him to hang with me, I told him sure, sounds great and told him where to find me, no sooner had I hung up than K had gotten her lunch break, which we shared at Mc Donald’s, home of the world’s greatest French fires.   Very short on cash at the moment so I did dollar menu, you know how it is.  It was nice to sit and talk with her; we have been talking about doing lunch for like ever.  We once worked together at a call center and became good friends.  She is a wonderful person and a great friend, but really busy. 

After this I went to grab a soda, some bread and some butter to take home, as I figure I will be stuck on the mountain for a few days.  I got to the tire repair part of the store and they said it was a nail, ugh…oh well it is fixed and off Isaiah and I went to the gym, I did not stay long as I am still a bit under the weather and I know the clock is counting down the hours to the feed store being closed.  So off the feed store I headed forgetting that Isaiah always stops for gas before coming home.  So I hear the cell phone ring and low and behold, he is getting gas, so I tell him I am going on ahead and get there a few minutes before him and get to talk to Ken the owner.  We often talk and I like to buy my feed from him, even when it cost more, because his feed mill is run by him, not some large group of people and the money stays in the community.  Plus he is very wise and knows tons of stuff about farming that I am still learning.  So we spoke about Elaine and I explained that it was not just the alfalfa that killed her it was the type.  I had always bought compressed dried bales in the past and decided on the compressed cubes never once thinking about it being an issue.  Well it was, compressed feed uncompressed in the horse and that is most likely why she bloated so badly.  Plus that she was an old horse.  He asked me why they would even sell a feed like that knowing it could do that to an animal.  I told him the vet said not to give it to goats, sheep, cows or horses, he (Ken) asked me what it was good for then, I told him, and well I guess I could soak it like beet pulp and feed it, but it seemed like a lot of work.  He explained that after hearing all this he really was non to keen on selling it anymore and I sort of felt bad as he mainly started carrying it because of us.  He saw there was more than one kind and well it does look like a great product and a good deal, sadly it is not.  Ken is a great guy; I just wish more people would take the time to shop at Salem feed.  A lot of people from around here shop for their feed up in Thayer, but when you figure in the cost of gas to go up there, you save a bunch just buying local.  Plus like I said he is a great guy. 

Next I went to the grocery store to get the bread that I meant to get at Wal-Mart and grab some hot dogs for the bears, I know, but they begged and I gave in.  After all that I came home, Isaiah had the grain, and I have the straw.  It is Isaiah’s birthday so we made a cake, Rachael did most of the work, while I finished up Geography home work, which for once was in way ahead of the dead line and then I frosted the cake and made sure dinner got done.  We had pasta with our beef and red sauce (I had plain pasta with butter, garlic, red wine pomegranate vinegar and a little salt) .  After dinner we sang happy birthday to Isaiah and had him cut the chocolate cake and everyone but me had a slice, I took a bit, do not really need the calories and I am still a bit under the weather.  Rachael, Michael, I and the bears watched a wonderful movie we got in the mail today from Netflix (just love these guys, they are easy, with a big E), Nanny McFee returns, it was just as good and wholesome as the first movie, I sure hope they make more moves in this series.  They are lovely story’s with no bad language and a wonderful sweet story line that in the end makes you want to watch it again and again.  Don’t know of many movies I could say that about.  So that is about all, other than writing and sharing this with all of you.  This dishes are done, thank you Dah’veed, the babies are a sleep, thank you Rachael and Daddy bear, and the house is quite, save for me hitting the leys on the laptop and I’m glad for the day I have had and that we have been able to share it with you.

Shekhinah

No on the hubbies part of the blog…

News From the Doghouse and how to thwart remote viewing with Chinese fortune cookies... Last night my feet fell asleep watching TV, a show called Hogs Gone Wild, like it was some alternate universe of the girls from Welcome Back Kotter...had it nice and toasty in here last night at 79F, SO...did not have to get up and put wood on the fire in the middle of the night as usual...but little Elisha climbed into bed saying his cheeks were cold...hmmm, maybe the curtain wasn't closed properly at the window by his bed, oh well he's a warm potato anyway heh-heh-heh Finally got up and made coffee in the percolator <-- sp? and the usual way of water boiling in the tea kettle, not that I needed extra coffee today, just will take awhile with the coffee pot purking or puking...got into The Shteltblaster (Green Hornet's got The Black Beauty, so hey) and got the Sanitation Engineering Department going, and had the full crew of supervisors with me today...nothing eventful to report, except coming back home on Wild Turkey Road we met a turkey driving a van, guess she never saw a donkey driving either heh-heh-heh <-- that's LOL or LMAO in cybergeekese... Had a little variation in the usual pattern of controlled chaos in chores, got back from the trash run and went to the basement to start a fire, clean the woodburner of soot ect...cause it got cold and damp it was like 40F but wind chill was 33F, and the air had moisture in it that it was like misty rain, then went to the incubator to water the eggs, sounds strange but just filling up the containers to hold the moisture level steady for hatching, old news for some, insight for those with no experience, anyway had a peeper hatching with his beak all the way out and nothing else, but it looks like it needed some help, so I am checking the peeper out periodically all day. Since I am doing laundry, it’s no real problem at all. The egg successfully hatching is the core of the issue. Then it was off to the porch and quail peepers, some duckies, and chick peeps, starting to get some eggs again from the quail. Then grabbed Dah’veed from his electronic chess board programming, to help roll some hay to the horses, before it gets too wet or rainy or cold, it’s a nice big bale, had it up on a pallet and covered with a tarp. If you have to improvise, then you improvise. After that I rolled wheelbarrow loads of wood to the basement, need it dry not saturated and/or frozen. That was 7 or 8 loads, lost count, and did 2 loads last night when it was nearly dark...after my feet watched Hogs Gone Wild, I may have to rethink going out after dark now, bad enough when it was just the Bogey Pig.... Went out to the barn, and did the usual stuff there, and the cayugas rewarded us with a nice black egg...came in to have a break for java mud, and watch the Bears, one was asleep and the other clunked out from the Weather channel being on, we are at 72520 if anyone wants to program their cities viewing on the weather channel locals box. About the only thing left is to wait for the Boss to come home, and she's running late because of trying to stock up some supplies for the animals...and the livestock lol We got plenty of goodies, its just nice to have some extra treats around, and extra feed for the birds, just in case the weather takes a turn for the worse than whats expected. Maybe I will get out and cut some more wood as well. Helped the peeper out of its eggshell, thick membrane and shell, oy, this is a job for the more experienced. They do not pop out of the egg like they do on TV it’s a slow process, and they are wet, not dry and fluffy. After a couple of hours it will either struggle to stand or not make it at all. We shall see.

Elisha’s part of the blog, (mom is typing for me).  I am three years old.  Today I played on my computer, took out the trash with daddy, I stayed in the car, that’s ok, cause he is just a bear dad, that’s ok, it was cold. I watched my show blue’s clues, I learned about birds house.  I got all three clues, that’s all.  Good night….(he is waving, that is so cute..lol  he thinks you can see him…)

Elijah’s part of the blog:

Hi it’s Elijah here, today I am gonna post the blog.  Today is Isaiah’s birthday.  He is twenty and I got to eat cake. I took my nap today, like a good boy and tomorrow there is gonna be a new fetch with ruffman show. I dumbed trash today and saw mommy on the road.  I did some school work and fed heart my ferret and watered her with help.  That’s all.

Good night, I will tickle dads feet at 6 o clock….

As the baby said good Night and may your dream be wonderful …

Gonna buy this...never gonna be with out on again...