Friday, January 14, 2011

Aaahhh! The Simple Life

Good Morning!  Yesterday seemed like such an easy day when it started.  I had kept my calendar clear of everything except traveling to meet my parents halfway and pick up Michaela, who has been enjoying a week at the grandparents.  After an extremely late start (which I had help creating) the trip went well.  We met at a Burger King, ate lunch, enjoyed a short visit with my parents, picked up Michaela and returned home.  It was upon the return that things went completely out of my control.

The stray Michaela had taken in had knocked the bag of salt for deicing off the box it had been sitting on and it was E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E.  In the middle of cleaning this up, phone calls started coming in.  (Did I turn an open sign on when I drove in?)  OK, that's cleaned up.

 I put the water on to heat for the lasagna noodles and begin to prepare to go do the evening feeding.

A gentleman, who usually shows up at my farm when he has a problem with one of his animals,  shows up with a problem with one of his animals, this time a 3 month old Jersey heifer.  After determining what could be the problem (without seeing the animal and picking my southeast NC way through a strong middle eastern accent), I was in the middle of giving him some suggestions when I hear glass shatter behind me.  My Australian Shepherd, whose self given job is to protect the property from any and all visitors, had broken the glass in one of my bedroom windows.  Oh, wonderful!  My house is 100 years old this year.  The windows, as well as some of the glass itself, are all the originals.  This means that I will have to take the storm window off, chip out the glazing, remove the pieces of glass and try to piece them back together to get an exact size, go purchase another piece of glass, put it in, reglaze the window, and paint.  And if I am going to do one pane, I may as well get the whole window done.  Meanwhile, it's going to be 20 degrees tonight.

The phone rings, again.  It's Ray this time.  With news that the farm that was breeding my Jersey and three of my Boer goats will be bringing them back tonight.  OK.........Wait, I have no dairy feed (the feed store was out on Saturday).  A quick call to the feed store, no they still don't have any until their truck comes in after lunch on Friday.  The other feed store in town has something I could use, so I turn off the lasagna water, which has been boiling away unnoticed, jump in the car, and head to the feed store to get there before they close.  Oh yeah, I also have to pick up Kelsey and Tessa from their respective work places at 5pm.  And pick up dog food, because I have none.  A fact that no one thought would be important to me (or the dogs obviously).  I give up the lasagna idea.  Since I have to stop at the grocery store for the dog food, I might as well save myself some stress and pick up supper.  This actually becomes a major blow to my budget: 1medium/1 large bag of house brand dog food, 1 rotisserie chicken, 1 fried chicken, 1 bag of garlic bread, and 1 bag of salad mix = $57......ouch).  Stress-savers are very expensive.

Back home, Maggie is back in the pasture eating hay.  The three Boers are working out herd leadership status.  Ray has done my animals.  Ashley arrives home from work to get supper laid out.  Tessa helps Michaela with the goats.  After a quick bite of supper while semi-watching ELF, we all head to bed, extremely glad to see it.  The dishes can wait.....I know without a doubt they will be here when I get up.

And they are.

May Yahweh bless us both in this new day!

Laurie

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