My Hobbit Name

I've never been much of a Hobbit fan, but I ran across this Hobbit Name generator on another blog I visited over the weekend and found my Hobbit name is Ivy Toadfoot.

Until next time.

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Garden Update End of October

I finally got a chance to weed some in the garden on Saturday morning.

It didn't take too long, especially since ds2 helped me for a while. The radishes are growing like crazy, and occupy much of the bed. We only found two that were large enough to pick though. There are also carrots, swiss chard, beets, cilantro, lettuce and onions coming up.

Now I need to get another bed ready to go! The way to prevent the weeding, I told ds2 this morning is to get the next bed ready and then water it really good, as if seeds had been planted. Wait about ten days for all the weeds to come up, and then rake and hoe and shovel the bed up again, displacing and burying all the weeds. That way you can eliminate all that weeding!!

Until next time.

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Baby Sweater Update

You might want to click on the image to get a better look.

I have the back done, the left front, the right front... what's going on with that right front? Oh. Dear. Me. Something's wrong. I guess I'm going to be redoing that right front for the third fourth time. The sleeve I've barely started on, and it will have to wait until I get that right front correct. Or could it be that the left front is wrong? Apparently THIS is what happens when you ignore the pattern when it tells you to end on the "wrong side" or "right side".

I'm making my fourth trial loaf of soaked flour bread today. I've also thawed out a chevon leg roast and chevon liver, for dinner.

Until next time.

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Pretty Young Rooster

Near the first of this month, on a post entitled Thinking and Not Crocheting, I mentioned a pretty young rooster doing something neat and cute.


I finally got a picture of him yesterday morning. He's less than a year old, but anxious to make room for himself in the flock, and especially to make himself attractive to the ladies. The "Big" rooster, our original, guards his girls very closely, and will attack a younger male for straying onto his turf. This guy is the grandson of our first "Pretty Rooster".

So the neat and cute thing I saw him do... I have heard that roosters do this, but have never seen it with my own eyes. Apparently roosters keep their eye out for yummy food and then cluck and call to the hens to come get some. I was emptying the watering buckets and rinsing them out. Bugs are always under the buckets, and as soon as I lift one they scurry for darkness. The young rooster snatched one of the bugs that was scurrying away, holding it securely in his beak he walked a few feet toward a group of hens. He tossed the bug down on the ground in front of them and started clucking to them about this dandy, delicious bug candy he had found. They flocked around him and started pecking at the bug.

It's neat to experience things firsthand that I've previously only read about.

Until next time.

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Gift From My Son

I've always been a salt lover. I can remember when I was in the sixth grade after lunch I would take a napkin and shake about a teaspoon's worth of salt into it. Fold the napkin into a little square and carried it out with me onto the playground. I'd dip my finger into the salt and lick the salt off my finger.

I was a boring child.

Anyway... not long after that memory I began to have headaches from eating salt straight, so I stopped.

I have remained a big salt fan. There's this thing at work about me and salt. I usually eat lunch with Coworker 1 or Coworker 2, sometimes the three of us eat together. Coworker 1 rarely uses salt, but Coworker 2 always comments about finding it near me, AGAIN. Sometimes, when Coworker 2 and I eat together, I'll get her a salt shaker of her own, so we can both have our own.

At home, I'm always getting blamed for having the salt shaker with me near my computer and not putting it back in the kitchen for everyone else to use while cooking or after dishing up their plate. The last month or so, I've had my own salt shaker that stays at my desk all the time, and solved that problem!

We don't eat at the table. This is due to my terrible childhood memories of eating around the dinner table with my stepfather. Right now we actually don't even have a table to eat at. We each have a wooden TV tray of our own. When we have a table, it just gets piled up with stuff, so we don't use it anyway.

We do eat at the table occasionally, usually for holidays. Always for Thanksgiving.

Back to salt. I have learned that regular ol' table salt is not good for us. Sea salt, brown and dirty and full of grit, is the best thing for us, because it has minerals in the little boulders particles contained within.

Here's a blurb from Weston A. Price Foundation about salt:
http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/kitchen.html

COMMERCIAL SALT
The salt that you find in table salt and most processed foods is sodium chloride. Salt in this form has been processed at high temperatures, which changes the molecular structure and removes vital minerals from the salt. Table salt also contains additives, anticaking agents, and even sugar. Excess salt consumption is associated with high blood pressure, fluid retention, heart and kidney disease.

Trash It: Dump out your salt shaker and toss out all other packaged or processed foods with a high sodium content. This should be pretty easy for most people.

Stash it: We have been told for years to avoid salt, but following this advice can lead to even more problems. We are all salty on the inside--our blood, sweat, tears, and even our urine--it's all salty. It's important to replenish the salt in our body, using the right salt is what makes all the difference in the world. The best way to put salt back into your body is to use Celtic sea salt. This high quality salt contains over 80 balanced minerals from the sea. Celtic sea salt is essential for maintaining proper fluid balance and utilization in the body. It also normalizes blood pressure, enhances digestion, and nourishes the adrenal glands. Celtic sea salt is available at many natural food stores or can be ordered through The Grain and Salt Society, call 1-800-TOPSALT.

Uh yeah. I knew that. I mean, I really have read that before, and I need to bring my own shaker with sea salt in it to have at work.

Today, ds2 made me a present. This jar holds 48 ounces. Ds2 put brown rice in the jar to keep the salt from clumping due to humidity. [Update: Dh weighed the jar of salt. It weighs FIVE pounds. Every time I use the salt shaker, dh and ds2 snicker at me, because it is so heavy and awkward that I must use two hands to salt my food. Aren't they sweeties? ;-) ]

Until next time.

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A.F.5 Rename Your Files Program Review

I appreciate that Windows allows us to change filenames in one fell swoop, but I hate the naming convention. For example, if you want to change the name of ten pictures all in a row, click on (highlight) the first one in line, hold the SHIFT key, and while holding the SHIFT key, click on the last picture in line that you want to rename. All the pictures will be highlighted. Let go of the SHIFT key. While your cursor is hovering over the highlighted pictures, right-click for the shortcut menu. You will see an option to Rename. Click on that, and you will be allowed to rename the first picture in line, and all the others will be the same name, but they'll have a number appended with parentheses around the number. Like this: renamed_photo.jpg, renamed_photo(2).jpg, renamed_photo(3).jpg, etc. I just don't like those parentheses!

So about a year ago, I went looking for a program to rename my files the way I'd like to rename them. I found one I like and have continued to use. It's called A.F.5 Rename Your Files by Alex Fauland. It is a free program, and works quite well. I like to rename the photos that I take, since the camera names them something like 101_2875.jpg. Which isn't very easy to remember, nor very descriptive. ;-)

I'm slowly but surely working through labeling all my posts.

Until next time.

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Running Into Family

Yesterday dh and I ran into one of his sisters. She is a mean one. She takes after their father. He passed away about sixteen years ago. He was a scary father in law. I'm sorry to say I'm glad he is no longer with us. He was very verbally abusive. He would say mean things on purpose to people, just to get a rise out of them, and then laugh at them. You could never trust him, because just when you thought he was being nice and really listening to you, he'd say something mean and nasty.

She didn't recognize us at first. I haven't seen her for probably a dozen or more years. But she had seen her brother and our sons less than five years ago. She said she couldn't recognize me because I was wearing a bandanna. Sigh. I know why she couldn't recognize me. I'm fat! Twice the size I ever was when she knew me way back when. She's gained a little weight around her stomach and is a little pudgy.

I know that I shouldn't care, but deep down inside I do.

Oh well. Not really much I can do about it. It's not like I can go on a diet and lose 60 pounds and never see that weight again. Some people can, but I'm not one of them.

Okay, so it's not like we're planning to hang out with her or anything, so I can just forget about it.

That's another thing I was thinking about (yet again). Why is it that I have to be so worried about how and what people think about me?

I'm pretty lucky, I think, because we don't do family get together type things. Neither my family, nor my dh's. It works for us.

Ds2 is outside on the tractor right now, preparing a new campfire pit area. The weather is turning chilly and it will be fun to sit and roast marshmallows and hot dogs. We are hoping to check it out tonight.

In the morning, when I milk, it's getting a lot more chilly. I am still milking under the starry sky and enjoying watching the herd while I milk each doe. This morning it was 48°F and I was not cold... and I was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. All that extra padding, you know.

One lady called it being "fluffy". I'm not really "fluffy" though. I look like I weigh about 180 or 190 and I'm about 25 pounds heavier than that. I am definitely pretty solid for the most part. Anyway, I think chubby grandmas are much nicer to hug than skinny, bony grandmas.

I have dinner in the crockpot as I type. Five chicken breasts with 2 cups kefir, about 10 cloves garlics crushed and one sliced onion. If you don't have kefir, you could try using sour cream, or yogurt. It is supposed to be really delicious poured over warm rice. It smells good as it is cooking.

Ooooh, I feel tired already. I wish I could take a quick nap, but I have so much to do before this day is over!!

Until next time.

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Cod Liver Oil

Our case of, yes, I said CASE of cod liver oil finally arrived. Actually it arrived on Friday evening, but I was fishing for something to blog about tonight and that's what I hit upon. Cod Liver Oil. We ordered our CLO from Green Pasture and each bottle cost $13.90 plus shipping. It's an investment in our health. Ds2 is now taking CLO, so that makes two of us. We liked the cinnamon flavored, and wanted to try the others. We got some orange and some arctic mint. The orange seems to be flavored with orange peel oil. Bitter. The arctic mint is funky. I like the cinnamon the best, so ds2 and I have decided to take the orange bottles first, then work on the arctic mint and save the best for last. We anticipate these twelve bottles to last close to one year. The dose is only 1 teaspoon and you get your 10,000 IUs Vitamin A as recommended by Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions. Cod liver oil is one of those things I vowed as a child to NEVER, EVER take as an adult. I did not care if my life depended upon it. The thing is... Green Pastures Blue Ice CLO is deodorized and so there is almost no cod liver oil taste.

I did get to work a little bit on one front panel of the baby sweater today.

I am hoping to get my garden weeded tomorrow. There are millions, if not BILLIONS of baby weeds that must come out.

Until next time.

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Nice Day Relaxing

I had a pretty nice day today. I'm trying to get off this computer, so I can take a hot bath. I've been taking baths lately... I mean, as opposed to showering. I usually shower. I rarely bathe. But I find I want to bathe more when the weather turns chilly. Which is probably not the best thing to do, since it seems to dry out one's skin, soaking in hot water.

Let's see, what did I do today. I cleaned up in the kitchen and made enchiladas for dinner. Oh and I made a double batch of egg custard. That didn't work out too good. It took longer to bake, but I finally got it done.

I pulled a few weeds from the garden. Since I am working with dh tomorrow, I'm hoping to spend some time weeding on Monday.

I got a few rows done on the baby sweater.

I'm having a lot of fun working on my new Cafe Press shop. I've added two Christmas designs today. I have more to add and will as I find time!

I just wanted to touch base here.

Until next time.

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Wow, Time Flies

I honestly do not believe three days have passed since I posted last.

I'm feeling quite a bit better, but still not 100% myself. Ds2 and dh are working together tomorrow, so I'm supposed to have the day off. I'm looking forward to it, as my garden needs some serious weeding done and of course there are hundreds of other things I need to work on! I always have to remember to pace myself and don't get too ambitious for I can only get so many things done in a day's time.

Oh yeah. I posted last on the day I was off work. That's why I forgot. I went to work on Wednesday and tried to get three days worth of work done in two days, plus handle a crisis for a co-board member who was on vacation in another country, attend two board meetings, deliver invoices that were lost from July, and on and on! I was asked to attend an event today for a coworker who has won disabled employee of the year, and also was asked to attend a board/staff meeting tomorrow. But I asked to get out of it. I'm glad I did because I'm still tired.

The meeting on Thursday, we had a man come to speak with us. A man who I found, and who is going to be of great help to us in a project we are currently working on. He is volunteering his time to us, which is amazing. One of our group asked his motivation and he mentioned doing volunteer work through his church and I thought that was just really cool. I was thinking how lucky I got at first, then my coworker who is not a believer actually made a comment that made me remember that I don't believe in luck. I believe that God is in charge.

I've started a new business. Now I just need to find time to get some more images uploaded, and once I'm ready, I need to start publicizing. It's here: Herd Queen Productions.

It's 64°F out and by morning it will be very nippy, probably down into the fifties. I know. That's what I SHOULD do tomorrow. I should work on the milking shed and get it ready to milk in. Currently we are milking outside in the open, which is pretty awesome because I can see the stars in the morning, and can also watch the herd to make sure everyone is okay and not feeling poorly.

I will definitely wear a DUST MASK. I don't want to do what I did some months ago and kick up my asthma for days and days because of breathing in too much dust.

My little puppy, who is not such a little puppy anymore (he is 8 months old and weighs 70 pounds!!) thinks he is a big dog now and wants to sleep outside at night. Only problem, his hair is so short he freezes out there. The other dogs have long hair with thick undercoats. Not my LJ. I'd better see if he wants to come inside now.

Until next time.

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Playing Hooky

That's what it feels like. Because I have been conditioned all my life to go, go, go, no matter what, unless I'm deathly ill. Heck, in my twenties, I went even when I was deathly ill. I worked in a warehouse, driving a forklift, unloading trailers, loading the small Toyota longbed which we sent out on daily deliveries. Every Thursday we rented a big truck which our truckdriver, Melody, drove. I admired that woman to no end. She was one tough momma.

I remember one day there, laughing hysterically about something and I could hardly hear myself laughing because my ears were clogged with infection. My tonsils were infected and swollen and I could hardly swallow. My throat ached, my eyes were watering, my nose was running. But I didn't have sick leave and I had been programmed all my life that you don't stay home from school/work unless you are so sick you have to crawl to the toilet. Not that I was sick much. I pretty much just kept going, no matter how I felt. Especially since I worked for minimum wage, had no medical insurance, or sick leave. Other jobs I've had, the State for one, required a doctor's excuse if you were out more than three days in a row. Who went to the doctor for a mere cold? You had to, if you didn't want to get written up.

In the summer of 2002, I started getting sick and I kept pushing myself for days. I had already been under a great deal of stress as we were looking for a new place to live, and the thought of moving alone is always stressful for me. Before I knew it, I was deathly ill. My eldest son ended up having to be hospitalized with the same illness, pneumonia, for ten days. I was out of work for an entire month. I was so weak and so ill that I couldn't sit up in a chair for more than an hour at a time. After I finally was able to go back to work, I couldn't work more than four hours at a time, and had to drive to my friend's house, who lives near my job, to lie down and take a nap before I could manage the hour long drive home. I also had to use those drivable shopping carts that the grocery stores provide for people who are handicapped. Those suck. I can't tell you how many times the battery ran out on me, and I'd be stranded in the back of the store. I'd have to walk slowly up to the front and ask to speak with the manager about the situation. I was so weary. It was a very scary time in my life, as I've always felt strong and capable.

During that time, my youngest son was the best nursemaid you could ever ask for. He waited on me hand and foot. My dh strung a piece of rope from my bedroom into the living room and attached a bell to it, so I could ring it whenever I needed something. I was experiencing bouts of violent coughing. I was not hungry at all, but suddenly I'd become ravenously hungry, which would quickly escalate into nausea. I had to eat something, quick, but everything made me feel like puking. So I'd ring for ds2 and ask him to list off what we had on hand that he could make for me. Buttered noodles were a favorite, quick and easy. I was trying to keep myself hydrated so instead of the guys bringing ice water in to me all day long they'd bring me a bucket of ice in the morning and a gallon container of water. I remember I started having trouble drinking plain water, and found I liked it a lot better with just an ounce of juice or so per 8 ounces of water.

I was experiencing a lot of fear. We were right in the middle of signing the contracts to buy this place out here, and I was sicker than a dog with Parvo. I found the only thing that kept me comforted and calm was to keep my Bible near me (under my pillow), and my mom gave me a little booklet called 40 Thought Conditioners by Norman Vincent Peale that I read over and over again. I prayed a lot. I had grown distant from my God prior to this sickness, but I felt I was spiritally reawakened and renewed my relationship with God because of it.

I had gone to the doctor; he said it was a cold and gave me antibiotics and cough medicine. The cough medicine made me have horrible nightmares. I had a series of four in a row. One of them convinced me to stop taking the cough medicine. I was sitting in a darkened room, a large oval table with chairs and several suit-dressed elderly men sitting there with me. I said to the one nearest me, "So what? Am I here to meet my Maker?" He replied, "You will be if you take another dose of that cough medicine."

Uh, I did not take one more dose. A couple of weeks into being sick, my chest started feeling constricted and I couldn't breathe. I also couldn't sleep. I thought I hadn't slept for three days, but my mom tells me it was really nine days. I went in to Urgent Care and they told me I was having an asthma attack. They diagnosed me with bronchitis-induced asthma and gave me medication to use. It must have been Albuterol and it did help me to breathe. I lost 15 pounds in that month while I was sick. And of course gained it back within six months.

Eventually I got better. But I became afraid of my body's ability to heal itself. I was so weak. It took me a good six months until I felt like I had some strength. I'm now very careful not to push myself too hard. Luckily, thank God, I rarely get sick-sick. I think I've been out sick from work one day since summer of 2002, and that was because I injured one of my tonsils trying to swallow too big of a piece of dry pork which I hadn't chewed well enough. My tonsil became inflamed and infected, and I felt like crap and thought I was getting a cold. But it turned out that it was only the injured tonsil causing me to feel so crappy. Actually I have been able to prevent tonsillitis for over a decade now by gargling with strong salt water.

I'm baking Baked Maple Egg Custard as I type. Ooops, the timer just went off, I guess it's done. Of course, I futzed with the recipe. I used 2 1/4 cups milk and 6 eggs. I was trying to think of something to make that will help to use up some of the milk and eggs. We are getting over one gallon of milk each day and we have not yet started to use it for anything much more than drinking it and I've been freezing either a half gallon or gallon every day. A friend of mine has offered to send her cream separator in exchange for the website work I've done for her. We're pretty excited about it. She is hoping to get it shipped today.

So... I feel like I'm playing hooky, since I'm not deathly ill. My brain feels fuzzy, and I know I would have gotten nearly nothing done if I had gone in. At least this way I can nap if I'm tired, I don't have to be stressed out about everything I'm trying to do in not enough time. It was hard to make the decision to not go in, because I have so much going on this week. And so much left over from last week.

Ds2 just woke up and said he thinks he's stepped into the Twilight Zone, because the house is cleaned up (courtesy of dh) and I'm home on a Tuesday. One of ds2's birthday gifts that he requested was "The Aligner" by DMT. I found mention of The Aligner on this website, with this comment, "To a chef, there is nothing more important than his knife. It is not only an extension of his hands, it is an extension of his very personality. The knife is a chef’s paintbrush." Wow. That is cool. See, ds2 loves to cook and is such a good cook, I envision him becoming a chef. I know he would make an excellent chef. I love that he is so knowledgeable about cooking things, and many times I can just ask him questions, instead of having to go to the Internet and do a search. He seems to absorb the information by osmosis, a true sign to me of extreme interest. There are just some things I'm interested in, and others I'm not. I get pissy if I feel I'm being forced to learn something I don't want to, because it's HARD to try to cram that information into my head! But if I'm interested in it, I just suck the information right into my brain and remember it easily.

I am going to take advantage of this opportunity to figure out our budget and do some more crocheting on the baby sweater! I also just tried the custard and it is delicious! So smooth and delicate tasting, and SO SIMPLE! Just put all the ingredients into your blender My maternal grandmother used to make egg custard in little cups. I never much cared for it as a child. I wasn't much of an egg fan. I think part of the problem is sometimes the whisk that Grandma used didn't thoroughly blend the eggs.

Until next time.

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Not Feeling Too Much Worse

My soup is delicious. I did find some barley, and added whole (frozen) okra. I wanted to add a can of diced tomatoes, but we don't have any on hand. Oh well. It turned out great. The chevon back flavored the broth nicely.

Dh made a huge round donut-shaped loaf of bread. It has crushed garlic rolled into it. It's huge.

I always forget to use Arnica gel on bruises. It can stop the progression, so you don't end up with this. Lovely, eh?

I wrote to one of my goat mentors, and she agrees that D is probably just coming into heat. It does make sense, because D doesn't act this way when she's pregnant and for about six months after she kids.

I did take a nap. I'm still feeling tired and not myself, but I don't think I'm going to get any worse than I am now. After a good night's sleep I'll feel much better.

I don't have enough time to figure the budget, so maybe I'll crochet some more on the baby sweater.

Until next time.

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Head Cold

I'm sick.

I think it's a head cold.

I should have stayed home and rested yesterday, but I went and worked with dh. I started sneezing on Saturday afternoon, but couldn't tell if it was due to the green chiles being broiled in the oven, allergies, or if I was getting sick. A telltale sign of getting sick for me is the "nose dripping like a faucet" aspect (that was happening). My tonsils were a bit inflamed as well. This could also be interpreted as allergy problems.

It's always hard for me to tell if I'm getting sick. I don't get sick-sick very often. The last time I was out sick from work was the summer of 2002. I have coworkers that are out every month or every other month, with a cold or flu. Ds2 is JEALOUS that I'm sick. He thinks my whining, "I'm miserable, my nose is running, I think I have a fever" is bragging. He was having the same symptoms on Saturday afternoon. Sneezing mainly. So he was pretty much overjoyed when he woke up yesterday morning and felt crappy. I went off to work with dh, ds2 took a long nap, and woke up feeling great.

When I told him taking a nap is one of the WORST things you can do if you want to continue to get sicker. LOL.

While dh was talking to his sister, and later in the day, his mother, I actually managed to make some progress on the baby sweater. The last time I was able to make any significant progress was on October 2nd. The part I'm working on is the back. I am currently "shaping the armholes" and I have to continue until this section is 5" long.

I've always had some confusion about the "WS" versus the "RS". WS = Wrong Side. RS = Right Side. As in, "...ending with a WS row."

Yesterday I painted a deck using the sprayer. It was kind of a nightmare, since the wind kept blowing. I ended up with several areas of overspray.

Note to self: Listen to what you've always heard all your life. You CANNOT spray a formerly painted surface with *stain*. The stain will drip off the painted surfaces.

Yes. I can't believe I did that. But I did. I actually went ahead and painted an already painted surface with STAIN. I actually ended up making it look okay, but I hope it's not peeling off today, or won't peel off the next time it rains.


I'm making some soup for myself. I sauted some onions and garlic and wow, the onions were strong. I had to continue with peeling my garlic with my eyes closed. I found myself using techniques I've learned about for people who are blind. For example, keeping the sharp edge of the knife away from me. I am using a chevon back. We'll see how this turns out. I'm also thinking yellow squash, zucchini squash, carrots, leeks, and okra. I wonder if we have barley... that would be perfect. I'd be making a gumbo sort of soup.

I have so much to do today, but I'm steeling myself against doing any of it that isn't absolutely necessary. I'm going to take a nap here soon. My back has finally unstiffened from last night and I'm tired.

I made some comfort food for myself, which was partly good and partly bad. I don't believe that regular semolina spaghetti is very nutritious. But butter and freshly crushed garlic are. I also had two carrots, steamed, for the Vitamin A. That's what my mom always tells me to have when I've got a throat thing going on... cooked carrots with butter. My tonsils actually feel less inflamed this morning.

I started taking goldenseal/echinachea tincture on Saturday when I first started sneezing, just in case, to strengthen my immune system. I am still taking that, plus gargling with strong salt water. My MIL reminded me to put some cayenne pepper in the water. I don't think this is going to last long, but I know I need to have extra rest to give my body the chance to heal itself.

Off to nap.

Until next time.

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*I'M* the HERD QUEEN

Our herd queen and I got into a fight today.

Those are the two lovely bruises on my leg to show for it.

Our herd queen has always had an attitude problem. She is the only goat that dares to pick a fight with me. The first time it happened, it scared me so bad that I ran in the house, threw myself onto my bed and cried and cried. "Why does she hate me so, why does she want to cause me harm?" I worried and wondered. After a while, I stopped being scared and started getting mad about it. I alternated between carrying a thin switch to keep her away from me, to a squirt bottle filled with water.

After she kids, she's really mellow for a few months. Then she starts up with her nonsense again. [I think she's PMSing.] She's been acting irritable for the past couple of weeks. She comes out readily enough to be milked, but when she' s done, she jumps off the milking stand, runs back toward me swinging her head, like she's trying to whack me. Usually I just grab her collar and lead her back into the pen and ignore her hormonal hissy fit. She will then run into the goat yard, kicking her hind feet up in the air in anger and then rushes over to this push broom head that we have mounted to the fence. She rakes her head against it angrily, back and forth, back and forth. She is disbudded, but it almost seems if she had horns, she'd be trying to sharpen them.

Today, she was extra irritable and she swung quick and hard with her head and hit my thigh. I grabbed her collar and pushed her home. She backed around and faced me and I advanced. She wasn't moving and I was feeling irritable myself.

The treatment for a goat that thinks they are your boss is to knock them down on their side and pin them down for a couple of minutes.

Talk about a drama queen...

I have tried in the past, but have never been able to toss D. onto her side. Today, I could feel I was stronger, I guess all this manual labor I've been doing, and I managed to force her down. So she lays there, and starts whimpering and moaning, blinking her eyes slowly, like she's in severe pain and dying. I had straddled her, not sitting on her, but was holding her down and she started kicking her back legs, trying to right herself. That's when my leg got scraped. I didn't even feel it, and had no idea I was bruised until later today. Anyway, I held her down and was holding her head down, not letting her up. She struggled a couple of times, and then was blinking her eyes again like she was in horrid pain, whining and whimpering. I started to feel concerned that I was/had hurt her. I was afraid I'd broken one of her legs or something.

I moved off of her and let her up. The AHEM jumped up, faced me and reared up high into the air with the intent to headbutt me.

OY!!! I was so irritated with her!! Faker!! I know she jumped up and was saying "PSYCH! I GOT YOU!!"

Anyway, I decided to stop trying to show her who's the herd queen for the time being. At least her attempts to headbutt me don't scare me to tears any longer.

Until next time.

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Boggle To Go!

A few posts ago, I blogged about a secret, well I can let the cat out of the bag now. Ds2's birthday was on the 6th and I was wrapping presents for him that evening.

One of things I impulsively picked up for him was a Boggle To Go! game. I mostly shop for my children from a wish list they have given me, so buying something totally off the list becomes impulsive.

Ds2 has not played Boggle before, and he every night he gets better and better. Tonight we played 2 sets of games. Three games made the first set. He scored 38, I scored 31.

The second set we played four games. He scored 53, I scored 31.

He found this site mh-z Boggle/Tangleword Solver which allows you to put in the letters and the computer gives you a list of all the possible words. Sometimes when we get a bad bunch of letters we'll look up what we could have found, if we were computers. ;-)

It's very interesting to see how many words we come up with that are separate, and how many words there are right before our eyes that we didn't see!

Until next time.

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Cotyledons In My Garden

cotyledon. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 09, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=cotyledon Pronunciation[kot-l-eed-n] noun Botany 1. the primary or rudimentary leaf of the embryo of seed plants.

Okay, lesson over for the day. My garden bed has sprouted hundreds of Malva parviflora cotyledons. The little leaves are heart shaped. I was not sure what they were at first, but then I found one with the first true leaf, a tiny rendition of a full sized leaf. I googled and found this site which describes the heart shape and shows a picture of the cotyledon. I will need to spend some time weeding these babies out.

I also spotted carrots, beets, lettuce and lots of radishes. My dh is going to put up the secondary fence tomorrow. In the following picture, you can see the radish cotyledons popped up all over the place.

Here is a closeup of the weed cotyledons.

I crocheted for a few minutes on the baby sweater while dh was loading ten bales of hay into the back of the truck. I am finished with the first section and had hoped to work on the next section, but never got around to it today.

I did get to take a short nap today, and now I'm up late. That's not how it's supposed to work! Take a nap, go to bed at the same time to catch up on sleep. I read a book many years ago that said sleep works like a savings account. People can only deplete the account for so long before they have to replenish it. That is why people sleep late on the weekends, to catch up on the sleep they missed during the week. At least that is what the book said. I wish I could remember the title of it.

Until next time.

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Kneepads, Where Have You Been All My Life?

I worked with dh again today (as well as yesterday). Over the weeks, I've been slowly gathering items to make this job more comfortable for me. I've always been a glove wearer, and found a nice pair of real leather gloves from one of those cheap tool places for $5. The gloves actually seem to be well made and high quality.

I have also worn a hat over the years, to protect my face and neck from sunburn. Gloves and hat when gardening in the summer. During the winter I'm not so fussy about it.

The first new addition this year was wearing a bandanna. I haven't really worked much in the HOT HOT part of the day for much of my life, and haven't needed something to mop the sweat that drips off my forehead, and runs into my eyes, burning them with salt. I actually never knew I sweated this much, to be honest.

Yesterday, we worked on putting a deck back into place. Whoever built it didn't do the best job. For one thing, it's a pretty large deck, 20 feet in length by about 12 feet, and they only put in supports on the outside perimeter of the deck. The ledger, which was attached directly to the house, was the only support for the beams. Anyway, it's hard to explain since I don't really know all the official terms and probably only carpenters would care about those anyway. I don't think any carpenters are reading my blog...


But here, with this picture, maybe you can get the gist. Okay, see the board against the back that the "ledger" arrow is pointing to? The bottom of the first beam you see is just bit below that ledger, but see how the next one is quite a bit more below it? The bottom of the beam should be level with the bottom of the ledger, so you can see it's sagging down quite a bit. Then, see the nails pulling out from the ledger? The beams were being held in place with nails, and also, you can see there are no supporting pillars (under any beams) from this view. The entire side of the deck was attached to the manufactured home! Remember, this deck is 20 feet long - and that length was butted up against the home and nailed into it. It's a wonder it hasn't started pulling the home apart (it is a double wide) from the weight of it.

Okay, so here is a picture during the repair. We used joist hangers to secure each beam to the ledger. This should have been done originally, and this problem would have been less prone to happen. We also used metal straps to help secure things better. We also put several pillars underneath the deck in various spots, to give it more support, rather than just counting on the ledger to be the sole support.

Ideally we would have taken the thing down and redone it, but then you have to pay for permits and inspections, and that sort of thing. So if the deck could be repaired, that's what we were asked to do.

So yesterday dh removed five boards to create that gap you see. The person who put in the deck wasted no expense or time on nailing down the boards. Every single board had 3 to 4 nails pounded into every single beam. The boards are six inches wide by twenty feet long. The beams were probably 18 inches apart, so each of the five boards had 39 to 53 nails, long nails, mind you. We didn't really have a work table or anything like that, so I worked on my knees pulling out the nails. I also became very good friends with my cat's paw, as I learned how to use it to gain more leverage when pulling out the long nails. Otherwise I was whacking the hammer again and again, without the nail budging. Very cool.

You see, I've always loved this kind of work. Every since I was a little girl. When my father left when I was five, I kind of stepped in as the "handyman" around our house, which was just my mom and the three of us girls. So I'm pretty lucky that I do like this kind of work. It is gratifying work!

We worked on this place several weeks ago, putting up a fence. So it's been about a month since I've been back. I did notice that I could navigate the terrain much better -- meaning it feels like I am in better shape now than several weeks ago! The house was set up on higher ground, and there is a steep grade to walk up to the deck area. At least this is the quickest path. I could walk several yards east to where the cars are parked. But that would make for a lot of walking back and forth with tools, etc. Then of course, coming down, with the sandy dirt and rocks, you have to tippy-toe and walk fast, almost running to keep from falling due to the steepness.

Yesterday I decided that I was buying myself knee pads, no matter if dh thinks I'm a sissy or not. ;-) (Actually I get a break because I'm a "girl").

So this morning when we stopped at Home Depot for more material to build the new stairs, I took a little detour over to the knee pads. I also decided that I should get myself some goggles, since we were going to be using the circular saw today. I hate getting sawdust in my face and almost in my eyes every time. I found this nifty "professional" kit for less than five dollars, which included plastic goggles, plastic earplugs with a string (like little children's mittens often have), and a dust mask. Dh tried to hide the look on his face as I walked up with my choices. He's such a Real MAN ®, and apparently REAL MEN don't wear ANY safety equipment, thank you very much!!!

We got to the worksite and started marking up... wait, I must tell you about the free wood we found on the side of the road. I can just say there was a LOT of it. Like twenty boards. Made of pine, all 1 inch width. Varying lengths, from probably 6 feet to 10 feet long. There was a little sign on it that said, "FREE - Pine Flooring". So we stopped and loaded it up. Oh, and while at Home Depot we found a bunch of cull wood, which sells for $0.51 per piece. I found a piece of real oak which retails for $14.95 and the cashier even called someone over to ask and make sure it was really cull lumber, since it didn't have a black or pink mark on it. The lumber area guy walked up while we were there with more cull lumber and it was some kind of board that you use to put at the lower part of a room, and then put trim at the top of that to decorate the room. It cost almost $9 a sheet and since it had been cut for someone -- wrong cut -- they were now selling it for cull price $0.51 per sheet. There were nine pieces. I love getting cull lumber.

But we started marking up the stringer... see, I'm learning all these technical terms. The stringer is the part that goes under each tread to support. You ask, "What's a tread?" The tread is the part you step on. So the zig-zaggy piece that goes under each tread is the stringer. We marked up the stringer, and then it was time to get my stuff put on.

Dh couldn't stop from laughing, and he kept saying "You can see with those on, can you?" So I was groping around for my tools and pretending like I was having a hard time seeing. I had my earplugs in, too, and kept saying, "Huh?" He said he just had to take a picture of me.

So here I am all decked out. My senses were dulled: touch, sight, hearing. It really was harder to see, especially since my sunglasses kept going askew (bad grammar?). I couldn't breathe very well under that mask either. But I was all set for putting up with the noisy saw and sawdust!

It wasn't until a while later that I got to try out my new kneepads. OH OH OH. If you do any kind of yard work on your knees, forget those stupid little cushions, buy yourself some KNEEPADS!! Do it today!! They are INCREDIBLE!! I cannot believe HOW much easier it was for me to work. I ended up having to pull out more nails from more boards and usually I can't stay on my knees too long, and have to sit down, or if I have to move from one section to the next, I have to actually stand up, then reposition, then sit back down. But with kneepads... just walk on my knees to the next spot. I was helping dh hold the treads in position with the level, and I was able to rest on one knee, then the other, then both, and switch, so I could hold the position without having to ask him to stop for a minute while I took a rest.

A few years ago, I would have bought the cheapest ones I could find, but I've changed my mind (and having more money to work with HELPS) about trying to find items that are higher quality. I ended up getting some kneepads that have a hard plastic front piece on them, and I'm sure glad that I did. If I'd bought the cheapy foam ones, I don't know if they could have withstood the little rocks and bits of sand I was kneeling on today. The cheapest kneepads were $3.97 all the way up to $40. I opted for the $10 ones and they worked GREAT!

See my cute work pants? They have pink embroidery on the left knee. They are one size bigger than I need, and they are really comfy which makes it easier to work.

Kneepads are awesome tools. I can see myself using them while gardening, or any kind of work outside where I might have to kneel. I'm going to have to find a duffle bag to stash all my work equipment in so I can find it easily every weekend. That's another thing, trying to keep all this stuff together so I don't forget to bring anything that I need to have to be comfortable!

Until next time.

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Thinking And Not Crocheting

I've looked all around for my crochet hook, but have not found it yet. I know I have at least two other sized "F" hooks and so I took a look round my bedroom for them. No luck. I really felt like crocheting tonight. It's a little bit scary for me because I can lose interest quickly. I don't want to lose interest. I can't believe I might have to BUY another hook on Friday.

Since I couldn't crochet, I focused my attention on something, which I cannot disclose tonight since someone in my family might read my blog and discover what I did.

I thought and thought and thought while doing the secret something, trying to decide what I could blog about, but nothing came to mind. I could have written about something neat and cute I saw the young pretty rooster do the other day, but I want to take a picture of him to include with the blog, so that will have to wait.

Oh, here's one tidbit of news. There are little green babies peeking their heads up in my garden bed. I am pretty sure some are radishes, but there look to be a lot of weeds, too.

I am very tired tonight, so I guess I will just call it a night.

Until next time.

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Lost My Hook!

I've lost my crochet hook! I don't have time to crochet tonight anyway, and I learned it was lost this morning on my way to work when I was wondering if I could sneak in a few stitches while sitting in rush hour parking lot. I mean traffic. Uh, so I guess it was for my own good that I didn't find it this morning.

I also felt a bit more hopeful about my garden last night. I think if I can pound t-posts into each corner of the garden and then wrap chicken wire around the posts, and attach the chicken wire embedded in the dirt up into the chicken wire that is around the posts, maybe I can prevent the gophers from getting into that bed. Only problem is it is going to be like Fort Knox getting into my own garden bed to weed, harvest, etc.

Until next time.

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My Fall Garden

I woke up this morning and remembered that not too many years ago, I woke up every morning without an ounce of pain. Now it's pretty much routine for me to wake up stiff and aching. I'm not sure why, if it's the extra weight, the exercise, the extra work. I hope eventually the pain will subside. I mean, it's not incredible, unbearable pain. It's just uncomfortable, and not normal. Or maybe it is just growing old.

I drove the route we took on the bikes last night. It was 5 and 7/10ths of a mile! It's not too hard to get that kind of distance out here, since there are long, long roads with miles between stop signs, and no signals at all. At least not out in our area. We went north on the main road that goes by our property about 1/2 mile, then east for about 2 miles, then south for about 1/2 mile and then west again, through a neighborhood area which eventually took us back to the main road that we live on. The first little stretch is downhill, the next two miles are downhill - this is just the slightest grade, but enough that you can definitely feel it when bike riding. The next 1/2 mile is uphill, as was the next 2 miles. And the wind was blowing. Not too hard, but enough that you could feel it.

I realized while riding yesterday that it makes sense for what is uphill and downhill, if you take into consideration the flood control: the canals, the washes.

Ds2 helped me with hoof trims yesterday morning and this morning. The last ones we did were on July 30th and we didn't trim the herd sire's hooves. His don't seem to grow as fast as the does. We have two bucks, the other is a Nigerian Dwarf and he almost never needs hoof trims. I probably did his six months ago and his hooves were barely overgrown. Wish I could somehow pull his genetics for feet into our herd.

We did fourteen sets of hooves. We also gave everyone a shot of BOSE, and took girth measurements on them all. I'm still trying to do things to increase milk production. Everyone has stayed about the same. BOSE is given for selenium deficiency, and we live in a deficient area so we give shots every six months or so. It can also cause milk production to drop.

L's milk production went from 2 pounds one day to 3 pounds the next day. She used to give 5-8 pounds, so she is still down. They are supposed to increase every year, not go down!

Here is my progress on the baby sweater. I was able to put on a few rows while waiting for dh to throw 17 bales of hay on the back of the truck. I'm supposed to make this piece somewhere around 7 inches long. I'm getting there.

I put in one bed of my garden tonight. It has been over a year since I have tried to garden. I think it's been over a year. The gophers win every time lately. It's been a big fight out here. The first year, Fall 2002, I just put the seeds in the ground. The birds came from far and near and ate every single tiny green shoot coming up. So dh made a chicken wire cage about 18 inches tall to surround the entire garden. I managed to grow some that year. The next year we made a chicken wire enclosed garden. That worked for a couple of years, keeping out most of the birds (the smallest could still slip in through the 1" chicken wire), ground squirrels, ground chipmunks, cottontail bunnies. Until Fall 2004, when the gophers came. They took one look at the succulent goodies inside and burrowed right under the fencing.

I tried again last Fall, but had no luck. Tonight I just tossed seeds here and there... well I kind of tried to put them in specific places, but as I was planting seeds I noticed the dirt was also overrun with fire ants. Those cannibalized my okra one year. I put Amdro down around the perimeter of my garden, hoping it will get rid of the ants.

I am not sure why I'm trying again. It makes me sad to not have a garden. Here's a picture of my garden in October 2004.

Until next time.

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