Sorry, long post.
Yesterday I made a chicken foot broth in the pressure cooker (picked some up at Costco on Saturday, cooked half the package down to the almost crumble stage so all the goodness was out of them, about 4 hours under high pressure and strained into my soup pot) then grabbed some amaranth grain off the shelf (I was listening to the agriculture resource service's podcast this year on non-traditional grains. The last question the researcher that day was asked was "what non traditional grain do you wish people would try" and the answer was amaranth, so for $13/lbs I picked up some from bob's red mill, because why not if it's just once? and it sat on my shelf until yesterday when it joined the soup). I added peas from the freezer, a can of chick peas, and combined and cooked it together and that was dinner. Mark also made smoothies to help clear out some forgotten frozen fruit and feed the kids that don't like the mixed textures of soup. I really liked the amaranth. It's like little quinoa with a nuttier, earthier flavor and when chewed it's grainier like tiny wheat berries, except it does not make me sick afterward. Very enjoyable, but too expensive to do again, lol.
Then Mark and I went to go look at the neighbor's hay. It's nice, but unfortunately despite not looking or be very up there in age, about as up there as Mark's parents, the man appears to be struggling with memory and I'm not sure he has room in his memory for one more character or job. I suspect a lot of our neighbors are like that. He appears to both be and want to be a good, normal, functional person too trying to function around memory loss but slowly losing the battle, which made the whole thing heartbreaking. Unfortunately he's also the landscaping contractor Mark brought over for an estimate to fix the basement two days before and he didn't remember Mark either so I do not think we've made any progress on that this week either. I hope his family takes good care of him.
He's also a long time resident of the area and has built quite a business and several houses in the town next door and is very proud of his family and the homes he's built them. I suspect he just can not mentally stop working and his family is helping him do this and that here and there so he can still do what he remembers and not feel out of place since it appears he's stuck a few decades ago. That feeling I got when I remembered he said the arborist I hired to trim our tree was a good boy and I realized that man is still probably a boy in his memory-sometimes I hate mortality. We arrived here about 20 years too late to really meet him at his best. Although who knows, he may be happier now. He seems pretty happy.
No, I can't be frustrated at the lack of progress this week on finding some softer winter grass hay for the late pregnant does or fixing the water in basement but just letting you know we probably didn't make any. And he may still remember the hay, although I'm not sure I want to add to that cross for him to bare.
The neighbor hates crazy drivers-the tailgating, instant road rage, and disregarding all traffic rules if they can get away with it to the point of stupidity. Apparently they're a "new" thing, so probably in the last decade or two. We talked about the corners where the citiots seem to be disregarding traffic rules hitting everyone every few days on our road. He's lived on 2 of the three major corners that get a lot of accident activity and he could start a knocked off bumper collection. The DC and Baltimore drivers spilling over into the ag reserve are not welcome or enjoyed, lol. He also hates the Harleys that used to go down 108 every Sunday. IDK if they still do, but I do know about the drag racers at night. Oh boy are they earsplittingly LOUD and I'm like two fields away and set back from the road and his homes are/were up by the road (and one of the fields that separates me is HIS, lol). The trip was worth hearing about the traffic from a sane person alone. Enjoyable conversation, even if a little sad.
He also told me I can't go on being the tractor in regards to moving the rounds and that I should just get a tractor. He says Kubota. Lol, someday. Until then, rounds roll. With the company promising instability and all the big tech companies (illegally) doing the same together so nobody can get a good new job even close to the previous pay grade or even stability, now is not the time for big expenses. (Might actually be time to relocate soon thanks to this if we're fired because without the high income we wouldn't be able to afford to live in the expensive place we're required to live in to make the big money...which I'd argue makes the big money mean less so why are we doing this again?)
The school kids are sick with a mild stomach bug that just makes you miserable so no one to take to school. I guess I'll go do chores early. I'm sick too, but the feeling of vomiting or anything else is not real so I'm going to keep going as long as the dizziness doesn't take me out. I actually might be getting better now. I think this is day 3. Not sure. I haven't stopped to really think about it.
I've started sleeping with a heating pad and suddenly I'm awake before my alarm and not creaky or stiff in the morning.
Man, I feel like I always meet the coolest people like 10-20 years too late. I guess I'll just keep goating.
On that tangent meeting that hay man was a stark contract to the experience I had a few days ago trying to sell my two very nice cross bred milkers. One of the show people in our dairy goat association government even told me in public in front of everyone that they were worthless I should just sell them for meat (not a very professional front for our association, and the only reason I know that person at all is because I was told by my milk testing supervisor to ask her for a verification test...which she agreed to then ghosted me about while still getting lots of community support and laud for HER goat herd all year, and I'd even offered to pay or or give her some very expensive, quality semen I KNEW she probably in exchange, but not even a "no". I'm just not worth continuing to talk to unless it's to slam my stock.). And my experimentals are not worthless, they are a little dumb and not Lamanchas and that's a big reason I want to sell them (that and the need to be lean because there's a chance we may move, stupid company). The experimentals would be amazing milkers and I suspect good in the show ring. But man, if that's the face of nice dairy goat breeding here, my industry is not nice, very catty, proud, and self centered and I suspect they'll be gone when the profit runs out. I can't imagine them being here when they're old. The "community" they built around them would just eat them. The rest of our association leadership is just as much fun too.
Sometimes I wonder why I'm even breeding goats. I'm great at growing out, keeping, and milking goats so they reach their potential (or at least near it, I hope). I'm nowhere near mean and nasty enough to deal with the other serious goat people. I should just paint "MOO" on the goats and say they're cows. Though the cow people are usually blunt they seem to be more down to earth rather than nasty and full of nasty self centered games. I don't have time for any of that nonsense! I have a lot of respect for those people...but I'm also most likely not a "backyard" cow person and I probably couldn't cut it. Those women are tough. Those jerseys would look at me and see a nice person to ignore or bowl over and I'd wound up another name in the paper "died by being sat on by a cow" or similar...you know, if the papers still existed here or were like the ones in Iowa where I finished growing up (most interesting ways to die they published that I remember from my youth was being strangled by snakes, a disproportionate number of people seemed to have pythons or constrictors and then the snakes got them, to this day I do not understand what was up with that or why on earth).
Oh well, it's not early anymore. Time to go out. I definitely feel better than yesterday. Might edit this down so I don't have to read it again later.
You spent some quality time listening to an old man opining about his life, and offering your understanding. You made a connection with him, and he remembered that! This is priceless. Kinda making my eyes a little watery.
