and on we go...

Well, yesterday we had yet another snowstorm, and yet another snow day.  And normally I enjoy an unexpected snow day.  It's unplanned bonus time that you get to spend with your kids, enjoying a beautiful scene out the window.  Of course, I usually do have to work from home, so there is some obligation, but for the most part it's an enjoyable day.

But we had a snow day 2 weeks ago, and last week L was sick.  Three weeks ago he was sick also.  So I can't remember a week that has gone by in recent memory that I have not been home at least one day.  And you know the old saying, "I see you've been missing work lately..."  "Well, I wouldn't exactly say I've been MISSING it!"  Yeah, that's how I feel, especially since I have had to work those days, just get to do it from home.  But I am SO behind at work, it is weighing on me.  I need three catch up days that nobody else gets!  The trouble is, I can't even put in serious time on the weekends, as we have so many goats that there is always something to do.  Now, when I *sell* some of them, I'll be happy to have that income, and will feel like my efforts are paying off.  However, right now, it feels like a glorified hobby gone horribly wrong.

Yesterday, despite the snow day, we had our HughesNet fixed.  The technician came and said it had been installed incorrectly, and was horribly un-level and that is why we have had problems with it since day one.  Nice.  And who do we hold accountable for that???  Why do we have to pay $125 for him to come out and fix someone else's work that we already paid for?

Just as he was leaving, I looked into the mudroom (which is just by the back door) and I saw a puddle of water.  Yep, the washing machine had leaked all over the floor.  Add that to the list, along with the water heater.  I don't dare ask, "what next?"

When it rains, it pours. 

Congratulations Cindi!

In the middle of a snowstorm, with nobody around, she kidded triplets today.  It was the third unexpected set of trips we've had this season!  Yay!  The vet scanned them all for twins, but they surprised us.

L named them Joomla, Mambo and Blogger.

They are adorable.  Photos to come.

Night.

Seems Like a Long Time

This is one of my favorite songs:

(Seems Like a Long Time by Rod Stewart, edited a little bit)

Nighttime is only the other side of daytime 

but if you've ever waited for the sun 

you know what it's like to wish daytime would come 

And don't it seem like a long time 

seem like a long time, 

seem like a long, long time

Hard times are only 

the other side of good times 

but if you ever wished hard times were gone 

you know what it's like 

to wish good times would come 

And don't it seem like a long time 

seem like a long time, 

seem like a long, long time   

War time is only 

the other side of peace time 

but if you've ever seen how wars are won 

you know what it's like 

to wish peace time would come 

And don't it seem like a long time 

seem like a long time, 

seems like a long, long time

2008 is going to be one of those years, I fear.  It seems like it has been an endless winter, long and cold.  Not just cold, but frigid.

Things are breaking around here, left and right. The water heater has started shooting fireballs and will need to be replaced (nobody worry, it’s under control, but creepy), both of our cars are making weird noises and have to go in.  We will be replacing the machine shed/garage this spring.  Our automatic waterer froze and will need to be replaced. 

People in our lives are also having a hard time.  A dear friend has a 25-year old daughter who is suffering from an inoperable, terminal brain tumor.  She has two young sons (age 1 and 4) and a loving husband.  Our dear friend has fallen and torn ligaments in his knee, so he is unable to help with her care.   Another good friend lost her grandmother early this year in a strange series of events.

It has been a cold, gray couple of months, in body and spirit.  I hope that spring brings both warmth and hope to our body and souls.

Two conversations at my house:

Me: I can’t find those scans of those pedigrees for my website.

 

L:  What’s a pedigree again?

 

Me: It’s a notation of bloodlines—like a family tree for an animal.

 

L:  Oh, I thought it was a toenail makeover.

 

 

We were watching TV because L is sick with the flu.  We don’t normally watch TV, but it’s cold, he’s bored, and well, the TV was on.

 

B: Son, we didn’t have commercials for ED when I was a boy.  We didn’t have to watch all of this.

L:  Huh?

B:  Erectile Dysfunction.

 

L:  What’s that?

 

B:  Ask your mom.

Why am I the one that always has to have the touchy conversations?

Will it ever end?

It continues to be brutally cold here, it is below zero nearly every night.  Today I was truly happy to see that the high was 17 degrees.  That is a significant warmup from yesterday, when the high was 3.

Those temperatures are to be expected at least one spell during the winter.  Usually it comes the last week in January.  But we have had brutally cold temperatures since Christmas. It just doesn’t seem to end, and it is taking its toll.

It is not enjoyable to spend time with the animals.  I spend as little time as possible in the barn, and being with them is one of the things that feeds my soul.  So I have missed that tremendously.  Of course, I still have all of the obligations to them—getting up at the coldest time of the day and going outside to feed and break the ice in all of the water buckets.  And of course, doing it all again in the evening.  As I type this, my feet are still recovering from being numb—they hurt now, as did my hands before I warmed them up when I got inside.

Living where we live this weather is to be expected.  But it is the coldest winter in 30 years, the snowiest, the iciest in a long time.

I am trying to keep positive—spring is just around the corner.  At least that’s what I’ll tell myself tomorrow morning at 5:30.

Fab February

I am sorry I haven’t blogged lately.  Not so much for those who look forward to reading my thoughts—though I am sorry to you—but for my own reasons.  I love to consider my perspective and put those thoughts down in writing.  It’s kind of like purging my mind of the ideas that are chasing their tails in my head. I also like to write because it provides a timeline for things that happen on our farm.  I am not the best at record keeping, as you can imagine, but if I blog, I can go back and see what happened when.  What day was the storm, what day was it cold?  What day did we add those pens… and on and on.

 

So I miss that.  When I say that I will be better about posting, it’s because I want to be a better documenter of my life.  I also want to spend more time considering my perspectives and tracking what is going on with me and my thoughts about events that take place.  It disappoints me when I don’t deliver on my promise to myself.

 

Lately we have been so busy we don’t know if we are coming or going.  There are the usual things with the kids—a birthday, social groups, church (it’s Lent already!), concerts, basketball games, doctor appointments, and everything else that is just getting through the day stuff.  Work has been crazy, and I am looking to transition into an IT position with my company, so I am doing double duty right now.  Adding the farm to that, as well as my soap business, equals very little “me” time.

 

Our goat herd has increased to 20, at the moment.  Unfortunately, Clark, our “house goat” with the nerve damage, died.  As did one of the triplets with the cleft lip.  Both of those were very much for the best.  We had 2 first fresheners kid  last week, and both are not the best mothers.  In their defense, they kidded in the extreme cold and the babies could not have made it anyway.  The last one kidded out triplets at 2:30 am, and we were lucky to wake up and check the cam to find them.  By the time we brought them in, their ears were frozen, but we did manage to get them healthy again, and there are now 4 babies in the house.  It’s not a quiet home.  They are all wearing diapers.  It’s quite comical, actually.

 

Only 2 more does to kid, and this season is over.  We consider ourselves incredibly lucky, as we did not lose any kids so far due to birthing problems.  We did lose the two after the fact, and while we are not happy about it, to say we were disappointed with the outcome of our kidding season would be incorrect.  We are really pleased with how things have gone.  Not only that, but we have had two does that kidded triplets, and I think that is a testament to our care for them.  They will abort or absorb the fetus(es) if they cannot sustain a multiple birth. And our kids are quality babies—we are proud and excited about seeing how they do at the shows.  We have one kid that looks like he may be upwards of 60 pounds at weaning (3 months, weaned next week).

 

I am at work now, blogging from here, as my internet is down at home.  Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never get  HughesNet.  And I meant NEVER.  Not even for a second.  Oh, and never.  It is the worst internet ever.  It has been down for a week, and no technician has called “within 1-2 business days” so that I can have the pleasure of paying them $125 to come out to my house and attempt to fix it.  Until the next time it breaks and we get to do it all again.  This fun is in addition to the $70 per month we pay for the pleasure of having limits put on our downloads and outages every time the sky clouds up.  Because you don’t really need to see the weather radar IN THE MIDDLE OF A BLIZZARD!!  Nope, no need, no worries.  Plus the cost of the system, which was something in the ballpark of, oh, SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS.  But not to worry. 

 

Did I digress?  I was talking about blogging from work.  On a Saturday.  The work part of my work is done, and I should end the blog part, so I can go home to B, and the 2- and 4-legged kids.

 

Happy Saturday.  Hope it’s not so long ‘til next time.