rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

I'd be game! I'll message back when my son gives my laptop back.

The hay man remembered. He even brought a tractor to unload and he tossed a bale over each fence for me to fill feeders with. It's mixed grass but the does approve.

 

[rachels.haven]

Very fluffy and heavy, but God gave me biceps and other stuff and right now, today, I'm strong so i got them rolled into the shelters. Now i can feel sore and be still for the rest of the day, guilt free. Plus you never have to lift the whole bale at one time.

 

[Baymule]

You have hay, that poor man remembered. That's a positive. You need some positives in your life right now. @farmerjan will come test your does, another positive. The witches that are downing you and your herd are negative ugly women. Women can be meaner and more ugly, more backstabbing than men. In an industry run mainly by women...... I would not do well there. I hope you can weather the storm and blow them off. Do what you do and don't worry about them.

 

[SageHill]

Women can be meaner and more ugly, more backstabbing than men.

Ain't that the truth!

 

[Finnie]

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.

Dissing everyone else's animals makes theirs look better

I once met a dachshund woman at a bird fair and we got to talking about dachshunds and breeders. I mentioned a breeder I knew of in NW Indiana, and then this woman started really dissing that breeder. From her talk, she would have you believe that she was the best breeder ever and that the NW Indiana breeder was scum! This woman was so obnoxious that I got her name so that I could write it down and make sure I never buy a dog from her.

Sometimes when these kind of people show their ugly colors, they shoot their own selves in the foot.

it feels silly to be drowning right since the children and the goats are doing so well right now and everything and everyone doing what they should be doing and all the things squared away,

Don’t feel silly. These types of situations do not follow logic. When I was suffering from depression, I would look around at my circumstances and see that I had everything I used to dream of. Good children, good marriage, good home. And I would be so frustrated that the depression was beating me down and being thankful for what I had couldn’t fix it. The one really has nothing to do with the other. Hopefully you are just feeling a little drowned and not actually seriously depressed.

The hay man remembered. He even brought a tractor to unload and he tossed a bale over each fence for me to fill feeders with. It's mixed grass but the does approve.

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.

 

[rachels.haven]

Today Mark interrupted my chore time while I was draining water hoses and while we were talking I got to looking at the side of the house. Then I noticed something. The down spout to the gutter on the low and far corner had a drain pipe to take water away down the front side of the house, but below the part where the tube attached to the house it was shredded like it had been weed wacked so rain has been draining along the foundation to add to the water running up the walkway into the basement door. Our neighbor down the street, a different retired contractor (basically all our neighbors are contractors or dairy men and a few would be homeless in a semilegal trailer/camper park rental situation), anyway this guy also likes to talk, told us many months ago that the house flippers that owned the house had water in the basement and got taken to town by waterproofers because their gutters weren't draining right and said if we ever had issues that weren't that leaky pipe we just fixed we should always look at the gutters first. Then we started having problems. And I told Mark to go look at the gutters while I was busy frantically trying to stop the water/move the stuff/everything else as the river of water just ran across the floor. In fact, I've probably told him every time we've had flooding to go check the downspouts on the gutters. And he has. Once. But Mark is minorly visually impaired. He has to look directly at stuff to actually see it. And his brain fills in his blind spots in his periphery. So he always told me they were fine...looks like they were not fine.

Anyway, today I'm hauling Mark down to the Germantown Home Depot (into the land of crazy drivers, so I'm driving) to get more gutter accordion tube thingies to get the water to drain more away from the house. On one side of the basement doorway it will make a difference, so slight water reduction. The other downspout pipe is also shredded but the pipe is routed to drain into the insufficient drainage system that overflows into the basement door walkway so... I also hauled a bunch of stall mats up to make a hump to hopefully help block the walkway for the water since the yard is graded into the house and all. I think we still need a dry well, but maybe things will be less bad, and finding something wrong and feeling like I can do something is better than where we were. So if the landscaping/hay/beef farming neighbor never remembers that he was going to take on the job of putting in a dry well, at least we can be safe from the milder storms. He also told Mark to trim the weeds really good around the downspouts...yes, he has memory issues, but I kind of wonder if he knew, or God knew we really needed to be told to check the stinking gutters again.

I guess if the landscaper/hay farmer/beef farmer also doesn't remember he told and showed Mark everything he was going to do, pictures included. Mark is too perfectionist to be handy, but he has a good memory and should be able to find someone to do it. If we don't, so help me, I'm going to go buy some bags of concrete or something and do it my way. Lol, maybe I'll rent/find a backhoe and dig myself a ditch to regrade the backyard.

We've been trying to keep the water out of this house for a year. Worrying about the basement door and if I need to rapid clean up is like carrying a backpack full of boulders (with desiccated frogs and earthworms that I keep having to clean up). At some point we've got to find a solution. This backpack is heavy.

 

[rachels.haven]

Other than hopefully being able to reduce the water going into my boys room, I adjusted my home made milk machine again and now it milks better than i do with little to no milk left to hand milk after. I added a couple of oz of weight in the form of a kitchen sprayer weight to each inflation so they don't suck up onto the udder as easily because when they do that the milk stops or slows and i have to hand milk the rest. This is to mimic the more expensive milker setups that have weighted inflations that cost $250/each, so $500/pair. The weights pop on and off my usual inflations and cost $6 each. My usual inflations are also very easy to clean vs the expensive ones that require specific tools and are more of a pain. I take just about everything apart every time i clean so that's important to me. I'm going to make sure my scc doesnt go up after doing this, but i suspect it's going to be fine (everybody looks and acts good still). Then I'll be ready to have a full house of milkers.

 

[Ridgetop]

We're going to wait until he can't stand it anymore or they fire him apparently.

Before the job market gets flooded with people he should get his resume sent out. Can he set up in business for himself as a consultant? Then you could move to a less expensive area.

Women can be meaner and more ugly, more backstabbing than men.

I read many years ago that in one country women were not allowed in the military because they were more bloodthirsty and did not take prisoners like male soldiers did. Might have been Israel but they do have women in ther military now so who knows. The theory was that while men fight for their families and country, women fight for their children and are more willing to kill to protect them. Not sure if it is true. I can only say that if I were fighting for my children I would probably not stop until the intruder was dead. Don't want any of those fim scenarios where the dead bad guy suddenly leaps up again! LOL

 

[rachels.haven]

Side Crushered 6 former bucklings today while waiting for DH to come back from taking the oldest to go help setup for church Christmas party tonight. We're going partially because Mark has to play piano for what is becoming increasingly everything (which is okay, just funny). Getting maybe 2" of snow after 10 tonight so people might be skipping. The snow plows are eagerly assembling. I understand from talking to the neighbor that the majority of them, if not all of them are contractors paid by the various govts for the time around snow fall. I guess they want their paychecks this time. I'm sure the two or three giant ones intended for highway use are owned by the county or state (and probably don't need to be out right now, geeze). We got salt brined this time, thank goodness. As long as we snow smart we should be fine out there...although a lot of Marylanders will be more like projectiles or obstacles so staying home once we get home should be the goal.

The three doelings and one keeper wether also got cdt'ed and the doelings got their microchips. As soon as the former bucklings feel better I can put them in the buck pen, and after 6-8 weeks, I guess they can go in with the does to finish growing out.

Now I just have to hoof trim and vaccinate everyone else pre-kidding. Unfortunately I went with a friend to a antiques barn in Etchison, three minutes from my house because last time we tried to get out Dh was in the middle of a work collapse and I had to make sure he ate, slept, and showered so I felt like I owed it to her this time. The antiques place was like a real life "eye spy" book of interesting things but it did not trim hooves. Soon, I guess. In fact we may not have church tomorrow, so I might try to do it then. 2" is too much for here.

I really need a putter around and tinker day where I do all the stuff and feel like I've got it all back together again (I might need like 3 days of that actually, but I'd take one if I could get it).

 

[Finnie]

I went with a friend to a antiques barn in Etchison, three minutes from my house

I’d probably be in real trouble if I had an antique barn 3 minutes from my house!