When It Rains It Pours

I think I have journaled before with that same title.  It always seems to pour at my house!

Three weeks ago, the alternator went out on my car.  That was an unexpected $550 that I paid to get it fixed.  Thank goodness for a great mechanic, who really charges far less than he is worth.  I had no problem paying HIM, I just had a problem paying…

Now my car is broken again.  Well, the air conditioning is STILL broken (for the second time since 2004).  I had the entire system replaced once, but it broke again, and it has stayed broken. 

But along with the A/C, the VTEC solenoid is broken.  I don’t really understand the ins and outs of how that works, but I do know that my car can’t go above 60mph, and even then, to get there, I have to shift it judiciously.  I don’t know how expensive it will be to fix, but I do know that I really had not expected yet ANOTHER round of repairs on the car.

And, since we have the luck o’ the Murphys, it would only make sense that the water heater would break this evening, too.  The pilot light won’t stay lit now.  We know it needs to be replaced, but with the recent rash of unexpected repairs, it was something that was on the “just after the short-term fires are put out” list.  Operative word here is “was.”

Well, I guess I have the government’s economic stimulus check spent six ways to Sunday.

ugh, more of the same

Tonight Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain showers and isolated thunderstorms in the evening...then partly cloudy with a chance of rain showers...light snow showers and isolated thunderstorms after midnight. Low in the lower 30s. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 40 percent.

Movie Stars

They are filming a movie in our town. It has consumed our little town for the past couple of weeks, and everything is just abuzz with camera crews and trailers. The plot of the movie is apparently centered around a high school, and has to do with an unplanned teenage pregnancy.

L’s friend in town said they wanted to use his house for shooting a scene.

They plan to film a school dance in the gym, and a football game in the stadium. I thought it might be fun for the kids to be extras.

Apparently, however, they are also filming in the school during the day (my tax dollars at work). The kids have both come home ranting day after day about how mean the movie people are. They said that they tell people to shut up, they make people (including teachers) take off their shoes in the hall if they are noisy, they have blocked off areas of the school so the kids complain about being late to class and for the bus. They are so angry about the whole movie thing that they don’t want anything to do with it. Apparently, there are prize incentives to show up and be an extra in the football game crowd, but they can’t even be swayed by the chance to win a flat screen TV.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. The kids tell me that everyone is angry, from the administration to the teachers to the students. Who signed that contract?

Searching for the Happy Medium

Do you see the lovely grand dame that is to the left of your screen?  That is Precious.  She came to our farm nearly two years ago, and has delivered us four beautiful babies. 

Precious came to us as an adult, and quickly established herself as the Herd Queen.  All rankings of the does were through her.  She put the youngsters in line, and the older does knew that she was wise and kind.  She was an assertive, gal, however, and didn’t hesitate to pull rank if necessary.

We lost Precious two weeks ago.  It has taken a while for me to be able to compose this sad story for my blog.  Her death hit us hard.

She died doing what she did best—being a mom.  She was pregnant with triplets, naturaly, as she was a fabulous doe.  She had a difficult birth with the first two boys, and I had to go in and reposition them so I could pull them.  We missed the third kid and did not realize she had a last baby in there until it was too late.  The next morning, I pulled the last kid, but the kid (a doe) was dead, and Precious died a few minutes later.

I feel so sad about her death.  First and foremost, because she is a great doe.  Not only a great producer and asset to our farm, but a nice goat.   Secondly, because I missed the kid.  I feel as though I failed her.  She depended on me and I let her down—not just a mild letdown, but she paid with her life.

She did deliver her two beautiful boys before she died, and for that we are thankful.  There is not a day that goes by that we are not sad about her passing and thankful for the contribution she made to our farm and our breeding program.

We had to dig a big grave, and it was no small feat.  Dragging her out to the grave was one of the worst things I have ever had to do.  I was on the verge of being sick the entire time.  Thank goodness for B, as he did the lion’s share of the nasty work.  I don’t know how he held it together.

You know, I started this blog to chronicle my transformation from suburban woman to farm woman.  I wanted to track the events as they happened, and my reaction to them.  I remember blogging about the mice in my house, being mortified that these creatures would live among us.  I have graduated, (and blogged about it) to accepting the mice (or at least having a great mouser), and to accepting the vast differences that living here entails.  But I don’t know if I can come to terms with this as easily.

I don’t know if losing animals will get any easier as time goes on.  I look at the farmers who live around me, and if you asked me if they were hardened or calloused about such things, I would probably answered with a qualified yes.  They certainly don’t seem as affected as I am.  That being said, I have had discussions with some of those hardened farmers, and they have told me that it affects them.  That even slaughtering animals affects them.  That doesn’t mean that they don’t do it, but it lends an aspect of respect and thankfulness that most folks don’t have.  You just don’t feel grateful to the animal when you pick up the styrofoam package of extruded ground beef at the store.

I know I have written about it before, but it doesn’t seem to get easier as the other things did.  I go back and forth about this.  I want the sadness to go away, to be replaced by acceptance and the ability to just move on.  However, I am grateful for my compassion and respect.  I never want to forget that they are God’s creatures, and I am entrusted with their care.  They look to me for food, water, shelter, and protection.  Total trust.  I never want to lose sight of that aspect, either.

 

HEY, Mother Nature! Here's a clue: IT'S SPRING! CUT IT OUT ALREADY!

WTF?

Here is the weather this week:

	Tuesday Night Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain or snow in the evening...then partly cloudy after midnight. Low in the lower 30s. Northwest wind 10 to 15 mph.
	Friday Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of rain or snow. High around 50.
	Friday Night Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain and snow. Low in the mid 30s.
	Saturday Partly sunny with a 20 percent chance of rain showers and light snow showers. High in the mid 50s

Um, hello?  It's April.  Nearly MID April.  Can we get a week WITHOUT SNOW??

Mother Nature is a Cruel, Heartless Bitch

Yesterday I woke up to pouring, torrential rain, thunder and lightning.  It was as if Mother Nature was announcing, “Listen up, Suckers!!  You wanted Spring, you GOT Spring!”  Complete with her wrath.

I admit, after the last thunderstorm we had, I was a little gun-shy about running outside in the storm to feed the animals housed in a metal building.  But they had to eat, and I had to get to work, so I did it.  Then, after we remodeled our bathroom so wonderfully, I was again worried that plunging myself into a cast iron tub, with water inside, in front of a window, while it was lightning outside might not be the best idea.  But again, the work thing, and then the stink thing.  So I did it.  And lived to write this blog about it.

But THIS morning.  THIS morning, Mother Nature has played a cruel April Fools joke.  She is so heartless and ruthless.  There is an inch of snow on the ground this morning.

Well, at least I was not concerned about bathing during the flurries.  And, after all, I have had plenty of practice driving in it.

I really wish Spring would come.