Very Updated: Trials, Tribulations, and No Pantyhose

So... According To A Rodent, Winter is not over yet!

OUR BACKYARD VIEW

NOTE TO ME:

Don't spend your time on time wasters. I know what those are, and I need to so fix that.

I have written these thoughts over a few days and can see a trend. I'm a bit sad about some changes that I can't handle, or have no control. Makes me feel down. My husband gave away my $500 buck goat. It was the best, of the best, linage. Yes, the goat was mean, but I still admired this buck so much for the improvement he could have done for my does. Wow! Over 27 years of working to get this line. I think I need encouragement from my animal husbandry daughter. I need her assurance that she'll come home from college and AI the does for me. I really did love this flashy buck ... compromise was needed because he was tearing - up our fences and fencing is really expensive.

I thought about a comment given to me at my swimming class. "YOU have potential, and YOU remember that!" Translation: "You stink!" I suppose that label will be remembered my whole life. It was like a knife. I do know that potential is hope and if I work on my potential for change, I can develop whatever my potential happens to be. Now, I wish there were more potential goals I could work toward and accomplish. I am trying through the Young Women's Values, it seems a lot like getting Girl Scout merit badges way too late. I'm just kickin' the goals up a bit more challenging.

Conversion is a life-long process. Baptism is a step, A strong testimony is a step, prayer is also a step, as also scripture study. The biggest goal here should be putting all these steps together and walk toward our Heavenly Father to thank him for our lives and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.The showing our love for the Savior is by giving back helping with charity, love in all ways, donations, and service to all our brothers and sisters, outside and inside the Church.

Sometimes my aerobic exercise includes going to the missionary transfer meetings. I don't swim on Tuesdays ... but my heart pounds listening to the missionaries strong and enthusiastic song: "Called To Serve" with so much strength. Tears fill my eyes every time. The testimonies really incredible. I was reminded to do things the Lord's way because the "natural" or my way, will not ever work.

I found that saying a prayer before I seek, helps so much even when it is just small. Prayer for help is a faster way to accomplish finding whatever I'm searching for at anytime. Spiritual strength is just as important to find as a lost object or even a change of attitude

Do avenging angels have sharp edges? I think our Angel does.I need to make sure I file all the edges, I need to do this all the way around so when I touch the Angel, it doesn't cut my hand or finger.

There will be an explanation in an upcoming blog.

I amazed myself day-before-yesterday. I have an infection with a fever... and even though I felt terrible, I cowgirl-uped fed and watered all the animals. I even played with the cats and dogs and watched our sheep. I ended the fun as the sun started setting and just did happy brodies in the mud with my FJ Cruiser.

I guess "Strong" is just a state of mind. I'm thankful for better balance to put my clothes on with-out sitting down and the best part of balance and strength is the change to work and dance at the same time. I get so into it that I sometimes forget what I was going to accomplish next.

I remembered: hahaha

I needed to check on my storing of my clothes from way early last winter. All my children said that all of my belongings were in the 40' container, here on the ranch. It supposedly didn't leak. I need to clarify...the exception IT DOES LEAK and lots of Steve's genealogy is in there. All were safely stored tight in the big storage container. Steve said he thought everything we were storing was in the basement. Whew...But my mind reflected on my daughter's remark that the boxes were the storage container and since my girls did that for me, they knew the place all was stored.

I was outside anyway.

The sheep were out grazing in Jurassic Park and I had put-out the horses in the big pasture.I worked my way back to the rear of the container. It was full of water and lots and lots of rubbermaid containers. Nooooo!

My closet space and my huge, whole, linen closet was emptied and remodeled (torn -out) and the really large closet was removed for another entrance into the bathroom. The new door entrance really helped all my a company and especially for my grown children and their families. They needed the extra room and needed to stay with us for a couple months. One family was waiting to move far, far away; and my other daughter and family were waiting for a house in town.

So today, I went into the container just to check. No one knew the container leaked. It was flooded and much of the water went right into the rubbermaid containers. As I opened each box, with lids, I saw so much ruined. All my best clothes, things that I've been missing. My most sad moment came when I realized that our families genealogy was so wet. Steve's pictures are in big books in the house, but all of my pictures of my young life and most of my children's were sopping wet. I have done a few scrapbooks, but I still have tons of work to do with my pictures and my children's photographs. Steve's precious antique and signed books on Abraham Lincoln were wet and its too bad, they were suede leather. All my own children's books that I HAD WHEN I WAS YOUNG and.... 100 year-old books my grandfather gave to me about horses and judging are wet and ruined. ALL MY FEATHER pillows, old quilts, and tablecloths are wet and mildew-laden.

Sorry this seems like rambling...
but this experience really has made
me stronger. It's not the end of the world.

I tried to pull-out the boxes... but not only were they all beyond heavy from all the water, they were not balanced and everything keep falling out as I tried to pick them up. I even found my old purse with my vanished license. I cried hard for an hour and thought I wished I had enough money to get pantyhose and knee highs. hahaha (I'm laughing only because that's what I need right now) That actually really did make me laugh-out-loud. I do have a huge bruise from when I fell through the porch. One leg is going to messed-up for my life, with knots and junk.

That's okay, I'm almost 60 and they don't hurt. I want to cover them with pantyhose and that's still funny for a Californian. We dress differently than the rest of the world.

I need knee stabilizers also, my old ones just fall to the ground. Funny things come to your mind when stuff happens like this. Mainly the ground outside is so...I can only describe it as uneven and there's iron rods in the weeds, they aren't standing up, so they are trippers. I need to keep my knees in-line.

I dislike the noxious weeds of stinging nettles hidden in the Malva weeds. I'm so glad our sheep like nettles and Malva. The sheep have been loose all day wandering around. Darby keep rounding them up and putting them in the pen and Little Dog is sleeping in the middle of the herd, basking in the warmth of the day. I can see she's so irritated by our Red Heeler, Darby. She never stops to just enjoy the moment. It's always time to round them up and put them away. I'm so glad the dogs don't eat sheep and they stay right by them. Danger Ranch has coyotes and lions. Actually, something the other night (very late) really growled at me by the horse pens--way out by the crik. We've decided it was probably a mother raccoon because there's this weird, nest, hole under the hay container. I'd bite if a giant were near my baby and worse--I was shinning a LCD flashlight all over. I was the Cyclops Monster.

I col'cocked a huge Pelican at the Stearn's wharf or pier, in Santa Barbara, when Kiely was a toddler. The big, brown pelican was just walking like it was going to gobble her up. They were the same height. I jammed over there to the huge pelican and took my fist and knocked it upside the head and it fell over side-ways, like one of those big punching toy Bozo Clowns, with the weighted bottom.The pelican hit flat on it's ugly eyeball. It also shook it's head when it cane to, and flew away shaking it's head. I think it was bewildered, not hurt. I don't know why this "mother-bear" urge came over me, but I truly understand, if there was a nest of creatures and the giant (me) came over ... shining a high beam light, I'd growl the biggest growl ever, to save my youngin's.

The sister missionaries are coming for dinner tonight and we are having our ever fun "dough-dattles" It all ready except for the dumplings. The recipe is from Bohemia which is located in the Czech Republic. A few years ago we had a Canadian missionary sister who was we thought a native Canadian. She really was from this area of Bohemia and our interesting dinner
turned into the greatest feast ever for this sister. She was more than just a little excited to eat a real home cooked meal. What a great turn on us. We really love this dinner. Our children in town heard that we were making dough-dattles this evening, and called for take-out. The pot is now a canning pot full of soup. How interesting how the word gets around--they love it.

Later: The sister missionaries loved the soup. I think! I'm glad I didn't mess it up!

The chicken soup is made with water, chicken or turkey, onion, chopped carrots, chopped celery and little salt and pepper. Cook for a few hours and when putting the dumplings in the soup, the soup has to be a slow rolling boil.




Dough-dattles is made with 7 or 8 eggs, fill a large bowl 1/3 full of milk with eggs, salt and pepper (especially salt) and then add flour enough to make the dough come away from the sides of the bowl. My grandfather called the mixture woody-looking. See above photo of dough. I just keep stirring until it's smooth, elbow grease needed. Heat-up the spoon in the boiling chicken soup and scoop of spoonfuls of dough and let them slide-off the spoon. Do not stir, but set each dumpling around the pan and they will start to rise as they cook. The dumplings have to cook about 20 minutes and need to cook until firm. The soup is even better the next day.

Today: I walked-up the stairs. I mean right-up the stairs, one foot on one step, and the other foot on the higher step. I know that that might not mean anything to anyone. But, I did a dance at the top of the porch.I'M STRONGER! I was so happy .... that the white, mean cat (not ours) that sprayed the whole neighborhood and my door, didn't mean anything to me. I just danced. I'm going to go get all the mares and put them back in their paddocks, feed, water, round-up the sheep (they don't need much..thank you Darby) and put the dogs in jail. Life is so good and I'm going down the stairs one foot after the other. If I fall, I'll write about it in my blog.


Live Time: I fed all the animals. The sheep were in their pen, but it wasn't Darby who put them there. The sheep were hiding and didn't come out for alfalfa.

That is not possible because they are pigs! Sheep will eat, even though they've been grazing all day. First weird feeling....

I fed the donkeys and the stallion, Sonny. Sonny was jumping all around and the donkeys both had their big ears up and looking at the crik, and also all of them were not hungry. The donkeys and Sonny didn't even graze.

Yes, Jurassic Park! The barometric pressure must be going down and I feel maybe all the animals are just frisky. Why are the dogs and cats hiding?

Okay, this is where I feel I need to prepare and listen to the voice in my head about the horses.

I DID have a clue that the mares were not going to be easy to take to their corrals. I was ready. I decided to put all the halters and leads on the horses. The two last ones I wrapped the rope around their necks and through the halter like they were going to be trailered. They knew I wasn't leading them. I had Banner. My daughter calls her "the brood mare" like it's a cuss word or something. Banner walked through the gate and something spooked all of the mares. I heard what they heard, a rustling in the trees and bushes. I didn't have my glasses on, but it could have been a hiker or a bear and I wouldn't have known the difference, or even cared at this point. Horses are loose. The two young ones just bolted. I just took Banner back to her pen easy, slow, and actually she was hugging and licking me?


These strange manners are really untypical for this mare. I let her loose in the corral and she went completely nuts! Rearing and looking out at the back toward the mountains, and bucking. There was alfalfa and she eats 'til every scrap and leaf are gone. She was not interested. It was as if their were "boogers in the bushes" as my dad would say. Horses sometimes look for a reason to act out-a-control, that's their way of buffaloin' ya.

The other mares easily went to their pens. Sahara did not want to stay there at all and turned quickly and tried to "shoot" the gate, again.

I sent her back in and now she's pacing back and forth looking out toward the crik and trees. Okay, somethings out there, I can't see it. House is tight, feed is tight, everything's locked-down for the rain. I went up and down the stairs easily three times without even thinking about how hard that load of steps is for me. I even forgot I had written about the stairs on my blog. It must have been an adrenalin rush.(sound familiar... Twilight fans?) Okay ... give me more. Never mind, I changed my mind.

It's gonna' rain for sure!

Updated today, tried to fix my little notebook's messes. Feb.5, 2010
All animals accounted for this morning. Whew!
Lambing Season is Now Beginning, They have Enormous Udders.