My Messy Life - Journal

[SteepedInSheep]

One of my friends from Bible study texted the group to say she found her brother passed away in his tent. He had his own place, but he would pitch a tent on her back porch to spend time wirh her and her husband the last couple years. He was an alcoholic, and it looks like he passed away from complications from that. Nancy is heartbroken. My sister died a few months ago and I'm glad I didn't have to find her like that.

 

[SteepedInSheep]

Also my hairdresser lost her dad a few days ago. I wouldn't say we're friends since we don't talk outside my hair appts, but we are very friendly. I have a haircut scheduled in a few days. I would like to bring something beside a card... are flowers the only option?

 

[RR Homestead]

For a loss like that I tend to give a small living rose bush or something if they have any place to plant one. Then they enjoy it for years to come and a smile for the loss when they see beauty instead of grief.

 

[Baymule]

We finished cutting up the beef today. We have been working on it for the last several days. I haven't tallied how many lbs we got yet.
I've been thinking about my sheep flock recently. One of my favorites is a great girl. She throw twins, is a good mama, has had no issues with anything. Her lambs are on the small side. I was supposed to process her daughter last year but ended up keeping her to see how well she grew out. She's not as big as her mama... And the twins she had last year are pretty runty. They'll be 1 next month and they are little... I doubt they're even 40 lbs.
Mama is a Prarie sheep mix. She's been such a good girl... but if her babies just don't grow out nicely, there's no point in keeping her.
On the other hand, my other favorite with hardbag, who makes complete sense to either sell or process, I don't think i can bring myself to do it. I have to bottle raise her lambs. Her lambs have been hearty, though. She just can't raise them.

It's ok, you are allowed to have favorites that it makes no sense to keep. It's a problem if the problem keepers outnumber the good keepers. Sometimes we have to make hard decisions, cut our losses and move on. I recently had to sell 15 grown ewes and it really pulled at my heartstrings, but my situation is different from yours. You do you.

 

[Baymule]

For a loss like that I tend to give a small living rose bush or something if they have any place to plant one. Then they enjoy it for years to come and a smile for the loss when they see beauty instead of grief.

This is a great idea!

 

[SteepedInSheep]

 

[SteepedInSheep]

I put the sheep onto some decent grass this morning. To get there, we had to go through another paddock that had decent grass, but not as good. Natually they were all eager for ANY grass so they immediately scattered and started grazing. I went to the paddock I wanted them in and opened the gate. I jogged inside while calling them. It made my heart swell when they all stopped eating and followed me.

 

[fuzzi]

I put the sheep onto some decent grass this morning. To get there, we had to go through another paddock that had decent grass, but not as good. Natually they were all eager for ANY grass so they immediately scattered and started grazing. I went to the paddock I wanted them in and opened the gate. I jogged inside while calling them. It made my heart swell when they all stopped eating and followed me.

And my sheep know my voice and follow me...

 

[SteepedInSheep]

My asparagus came up! I got to eat a few raw spears while working in the garden this afternoon.
Red bud tree

I've gotten a lot of sun the past few days. Moving the sheep fencing, gardening... even just sitting on the porch. I've felt burned out emotionally recently and sitting in the sun feels therapeutic.
I took the family out for supper tonight. I found a cute family owned restaurant that was having 1/2 price kid meals with the purchase of regular priced meals. I got a spicy chicken sandwich. Delicious! I would go back again. The owner and his wife were very kind and didn't mind all the children.
The kids enjoyed their food but their portions weren't enough to make them satisfied. DH decided to buy some ice cream on the way home. A happy van of kids!

 

[SteepedInSheep]

@Finnie I don't remember where it was but I realized I didn't respond to you about the beauty bushes, or whatever they were called. Sorry about that. Your offer is very sweet but I'm all set for now. This year I'm going to focus on getting my little wildflower patch going.

Most of us have colds. I was feeling crummy when I woke up. DH grabbed the little guy out of his crib this morning so I could sleep in.
The feed store had a customer appreciation day. Free food and potential to win door prizes. We had a good breakfast of biscuits and gravy, sausage, scrambled eggs, beverages, and little homemade fruit turnovers. It was nice not to make breakfast

After we got home, the kids all went to play in the yard. DH went back to working on building a structure to put the tractor under, and I moved the lambs. @Baymule I also have a driveway I can block off for animals to graze. Mowing it's not a big deal, but I see that grass and think, "hey, free food!"
The lambs were excited about it, naturally.

This afternoon I accomplished the grocery shopping, as well as picking out new church shoes for my oldest (there were tears ), a coffee stop, and grabbing a few things for the hardware store.
Coffee shop was a new place I hadn't been. It's a mom and pop and I like supporting those types, so I tried it. I wish I had looked at my receipt while I was there, but I didn't. They charged me an extra .30 to have less ice in my espresso. I'm assuming the argument is that if they put less ice, that means they are going to use more expensive product to fill up the cup. But I got an americano. ( For anyone who doesn't know, it's strong coffee in the bottom and then they fill the rest with water). They literally filled up the extra space in the cup with water so how can they justify charging extra to have less ice? Insane. It's not even like the 30 cents is a lot of money or anything ...it's more the principle of it. I was not told when I was checking out that it was extra charge to get less ice. The staff was super friendly, the coffee was good, but I doubt I will be back. I always order my espresso with less ice, but I sure don't want to be charged an extra 30 cents for that. Crazy. Again, really wish I had noticed at the time because I would have asked the cashier about it... It's possible that if they knew their drinks they wouldn't have put it extra charge for it.