Going It Alone

Wow, where to start.  My husband is now a political prisoner in a federal prison camp.  How about that?  Yes, in the United States of America.  I don't know exactly how to begin.  I hate those TV shows and movies that start out with a caption "Five days ago" or "20 years ago" and they flash from past to present day and then back again. Ugh. But I don't know how else I'm gonna tell this.

First off, I'm terrified of being the lone caretaker for the next 18 months for this 36 acres of property, 14 goats, 4 donkeys, 21 chickens, 2 cats, and 3 dogs (2 of them are puppies that need training), tons of equipment that breaks down regularly and needs maintenance, a gate opener that regularly stops working, generators that need regular maintenance and sometimes don't work.  But sometimes we don't get a choice in life.  Well, often we don't get a choice about how our life is going to turn out.  Did I ever think I might go to prison or that I might be married to a man who is sentenced to prison? I can't say that it ever crossed my mind.  I mean, I'm a law abiding citizen.  I'm a Christian and I know the importance of living a life dedicated to doing the right thing.  I married a man with the same convictions.  Yet, here we are.

It needs to be said. My husband is innocent. The government prosecuted him because he's been an outspoken advocate a of lawful, Constitutional monetary system for years. Oh, that's not what it says on the indictment or any of the transcripts.  But that's the truth of it.  They had to trump up charges and lie to get their indictment and conviction.  Even after hearing him talk about this for decades, I'm still not really qualified to convey the particulars with complete accuracy.  But, I'll tell things from my point of view and try to be a brief and accurate as possible.

So for the next few days, weeks, months - however long it takes to, I'll tell our story.  And I'll try to intersperse it with what's going on at the farm and how I'm handling things on my own.  We have WONDERFUL family and friends that have rallied around us and ALL of them have offered to help me in any and every way possible. So, with their help, and with God's help, I'll muddle through here.  There will be tears.  There already have been lots of tears on my part. In fact, just thinking about tears makes my tears start to flow.

So, I mentioned two puppies. If there are any of my original readers left, you probably remember our beloved livestock guardian dog, Harry.

We lost him back around Mother's Day. He was old and just walked away one day never to return. Since we need another LGD to work with Ginger, we just bought "Boy" a couple of weeks ago. He's in training and going through that horrible puppy stage where he tears everything up.  So far, he hasn't shown an interest in killing chickens, so that's a good thing.

And one more introduction. Back in October, I got a Border Collie in the hopes that she could some day help me with the goats.

This is Clodagh. Say "Kloh-duh" in your best Irish accent.