Wedding Nightmare Number Two

I know that listening to someone else's dream can be a bore, but I've had two nightmares about the upcoming wedding that I thought were somewhat remarkable because of the way that my mind resolved them in the end to make everything allright.

My first dream was a couple of weeks ago. In it we had gone all the way through the wedding and reception when I realized that I had forgotten something major. I don't remember now what it was, but I was aghast, "I forgot the (whatever)! Oh no, what a disaster!". Then I realized, "oh, this was just a trial run, so it's ok."

Second dream was a couple of nights ago. We were all dressed, Meagan in her wedding dress, me in a dress that was like a tube top that I couldn't pull down long enough to cover my hiney no matter how hard I tried, heading out the door on our way to the chapel. I suddenly gasped, "I forgot to bake the wedding cake! Oh no, what are we going to do!?". Then I remembered, "oh yeah, this is just a trial run, so it's ok."

What's with all the trial run weddings?

Tonka Trucks...Supersized

Tom:  "Charles is going to teach  me how to drive his dump truck.  He'll fill it up, then I'll go dump it."

Me (with renting or leasing in mind):  "It sure would be nice to have two dump trucks so that while you're taking one to be emptied, Charles can be filling the other one up.  That way, he wouldn't be having to just sit around and wait for you to come back."

So...he bought one.  The next time I have some sort of time saving tips that might involve big machines.  I will keep my mouth shut.  Anyone who farms knows that big equipment breaks down.  A lot.  Yes, this truck has already had its moments.  But, overall, the men who have come to check it out have assured Tom that this is a most excellent dump truck and will accomplish all manner of wondrous feats.

"Oooh and aaah!"

Recipe for Happiness

I heard a song on the radio the other day and the lyrics went like this:

Blow up your TV
Throw out your papers
Move to the country
Build a home
Plan a party
Eat a lot of peaches
Find Jesus
On your own.

Spanish Pipedream by the Avett Brothers

We Don't Homestead for Monetary Gain

I was at the feed store the other day choosing some garden plants from their rack outside.  When I walked in, there was a discussion about the red BMW in the parking lot.

Woman:  "Look at that Beemer!"

Man:  "Where?"

Woman:  "Parked outside.  That red one.  Ahhh, I'd love to have that."

Sighs of approval all around.

Man:  "Wonder who it belongs to?"

Woman:  "I don't know."

Man:  "Probably some insurance man."  Said with a slight sneer.

Me (because I couldn't let everyone think that only insurance men drive little red sports cars):  "No, that's my car and I'm not in insurance."

Woman:  **gasp** "What do you do?"

Me:  "Well, I farm now."

Woman:  "Ah, are you new?"

Me (hoping for a useful tidbit):  "Yes.  And I don't know anything.  I need lots of help and advice." 

Woman:  "Just do it until the money is all gone."

Me:  "Thanks"

That car was bought back in 2006, long before we took on farming.  It's not the most practical car for this lifestyle, but...it's paid for and I like driving it.  We have trucks and Tom's diesel VW wagon for the heavy work.  So, I haven't yet figured out how anyone makes a living on a farm.  So far, all we've done is spend money.  We don't have to buy eggs anymore and I sell just enough to pay for the little bit of chicken scratch that we use, so eggs are free.  For periods of time during the year, we don't have to buy milk or veggies and I can see us getting to the point where we can stop buying them almost altogether - when I can store up enough milk to last through the winter and when I figure out the veggie preserving processes.

Just a Couple of Pictures

Birds over the water.

Charles, the digger (also the one who helped Tom build the apartment), and Reid, our teenage laborer, taking a YooHoo break.  I used to like YooHoo, but now all I can think of is that it must taste like chocolate water, which sounds really awful.

Trivia for the Prepared

A 2.3 oz. deoderant stick, when used once a day, will last for seven months.

A large tube of toothpaste, when used an average of three times a day, will last for three months.

Goats and Goatweed

When pastures are left empty around here, the goatweed takes over.  If you're smart, you will not plow a field and then leave it empty.  We've seen some people do it and in just a few months, they have a beautifully cultivated stand of goatweed that looks like it was meant to be there. 

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find out what goatweed is good for or why it is called goatweed.

Goats don't eat it.  These are our does amid the goatweed that has sprung up along the barren side of the dam.  They are eating everything BUT goatweed.

We're told that quail love it.  That must be true because quail and dove season just started and there has been lots of shooting around here in the fields where the hay and grass has died off and the goatweed has taken over.

Pansy thinks she owns the place.  It took me and Tom both quite a while to get her out of the golf cart.

Disappearing Pond

Because of the drought, many ponds in the area are drying up.  Ours is not gone yet, but it is very low.

It's a little round watering hole now.

In a normal rainfall year, this tree sits right at the water's edge and it's branches dip over nearly into the water.

All of this used to be covered by water.  Since the pond is so low, we decided to take this opportunity to have it cleaned out and dug it deeper.  I've noticed that a lot of people around us are doing the same thing.

The locals call this "sugar sand".  It's very fine and white and most of our property is covered with it.  Our neighbor, who originally dug the pond, told us that when he dug the pond, he dug down to clay and none of this sand was in it.  Over the years, all of this sand has washed down into the pond from the neighboring fields.  I'm a little bummed that they are digging it out because it was nice to have a sandy beach around the pond.  When it's a clay bottom it gets slimy and slippery and if you step in it, your feet can slide right out from under you before you know it.

Within the first couple of days, they dug out over 200 tons.  The dirt guy expects to dig for about a month.

It's "Be Mean to Your Kid" Week

Well, not really, but from what I have observed, apparently some parents think so. A few nights ago, Tom and I went out to eat with some friends. A young woman came in with two children and sat in the booth behind us. She put the baby in a high chair and her other child, approximately five years old, sat across from her and was misbehaving. She proceeded to hiss loudly at him about how awful he was and, through gritted teeth, hatefully proclaimed how terribly he was acting. i can't imagine why, but he wanted to sit by her and she rudely told him she didn't want him to because he crowded her, blah, blah, blah. It really was pitiful to witness. Oh, how that woman will pay for her hatefulness.

Then, overheard in Walgreens tonight:

 Little girl, about eight years old, wearing flip flops, following her dad to the back of the store, "slap, slap, slap" went her shoes.

Father, glancing back and with a hateful tone of voice, "Stop walking like that with those shoes, that slapping is driving me crazy!"

Little girl quietly adjusts her walking so that there is no slapping sound, "squeak, squeak, squeak" went her shoes.

Father, again with a hateful voice, "now I hear that awful squeaking!"

Hello, what should your little girl do, crawl through the store so she doesn't annoy you with any footsteps?

Landscaping Update

This is the progress made as of Saturday.

Back when I did the flagstone patio in the back yard, I told myself that I absolutely was never going to do anything like that again...too much crawling around on my knees and heavy lifting.  Well, never say never.  To build this wall, the first layer of bricks had to be level all the way across.  Tom helped get the first bricks at the walkway level, then I did the rest.  Each spot has to be either dug out or built up with sand, which requires placing the brick to check to see if it's high or low, removing the brick, adding or subtracting dirt, putting the brick back on, checking the level, removing the brick and adjusting the dirt, etc.  Sometimes four or five times are required. 

I suppose that professionals level out the whole area first so they don't have to do it that way, but this is the only way I know how.

After the first row is done, the rest is a piece of cake.  I had Tom and Reid (the teenager that we hire to help us sometimes) fill the brick holes with sand, then we stacked the second row and filled those with sand.  Tom wants to stop with two rows.  I think it needs three. 

Tom has to do some more grading of the soil so that the water flows down to the brick, then we'll put the river rock along the edge of the brick so that it will (hopefully) be like a dry creek and when it rains, the water will flow away from the foundation, into the creek, and out to the side yard.

When the grading is done to Tom's satisfaction, I'll be able to put some plants in along the foundation.  But, guess what I want to do now?  Well, actually it's been in my head all along, but I didn't want to admit it.  I want to extend that skinny front porch (on the right edge of the above picture) out to the retaining wall with flagstone.  Somebody stop me.  Quick.

New Landscaping Project

The soil along the front of our house has always been too high up on the foundation and we've been concerned about rain water (if it ever rains again) flooding into the house like it did in the living room the year we moved in.  We asked our neighbor to dig it out and regrade it for us with his Bobcat, which he has done.

Since we have it all dug up, we (well, really *I*) decided that now is the time to do the landscaping that I've been wanting to do in the front yard.  Who wants a big ugly trench in their front yard?  So, while Meagan and I were shopping for wedding stuff in Dallas, Tom went through and pulled out a truckload of grass and old tree roots and smoothed out the whole area.

Then I laid out the line for the short retaining wall that we're going to build.  The ground slopes very slightly away from the house and away from the front walkway so that the water will drain away from the house and down the driveway.  I had envisioned a sharper slope, but that was not to be.

This is the other side of the walkway.  The water should drain out to the side yard and around back.

Next step is to level the ground where the bricks are so that we will have a nice level wall.

New Vacuum Cleaner

Remember back in August of 2009 when I said, "Don't buy a Hoover Windtunnel vacuum cleaner...it's the worst thing ever."?  Well, I've been hating on that Hoover ever since and finally got rid of it.  I gave it to the future son-in-law so he can hate on it for a while.  And Tom bought me a new vacuum.  Yay!

Riccar...the only vacuum cleaner still made in America!

I decided on a cannister since all of my floors are wood and I only have area rugs scattered about.

Retractable cord.

Onboard attachments and full bag indicator.

The brush has its own place right on the height adjustable handle.

The big attachment does hard floors and carpet, but these extra hard floor attachments come with it, too.

I love it... as much as anyone can love a non-central vacuum system.

Rain!

Wonderful, marvelous, beautiful rain. 

The clouds came.  The thunder rumbled.

The wind blew and kicked up a dust storm.

Then it rained.  It wasn't much...more like a drop of water on a dying man's tongue, but it was something.

Then, unexpectedly, it rained later in the night.  We need a whole bunch more, but it rained enough to soak the ground and leave a little water in the livestock feed troughs.

We are grateful.

I'm Back, Cyberfriends

Just when I thought I was going to coast through the rest of the summer painting and napping, my daughter went and got herself engaged and set the date for October.  So, there will be no napping for the next two months.

The mother-in-law needed a picture to put in their city's newspaper, so I was elected to do some quick snapshots.  Now, I've never claimed to be a photographer, but I have a really nice camera with lots of fancy features that I don't know how to use, so I gave it the old college try.

I took about 20-25 pictures, then transferred them to the computer and told Meagan to go through them and delete the ones she didn't like and send the one she wanted to her mother-in-law to be.  When I came back to check on her progress, she had deleted all but one.  Well, I didn't think I was THAT bad of a photographer.

Luckily, I hadn't deleted them from the camera and was able to load them back on my computer for my own use.

It was my wacky idea to stand by the tree.  Somebody shoot me before I get any more ideas.

It was only about 103 degrees and poor Drew has a suitcoat on, but he was a trooper.  I think turnabout is fair play, don't you?  Women have to freeze in most public places and formal events with cold air blowing up and around their sleeveless dresses so men can be comfortable with their jackets on. 

"Look natural," I say.

Now we're getting somewhere.

"Um...hot."

What a guy will do for love.

Touchdown!

**Click on pics to get a better look and especially to see the ring**

Slow Season

It's the slow part of the year for me right now, especially with the drought going on.

With all the goats and donkeys foraging in the hayfields and pastures, I don't have regular feeding time.  I've let the milk goats dry out because (1) I was tired of milking and it really ties me down; (2) I was concerned that the heat was stressing the goats who were producing; and (3) they'll be bred again in September or October and I wanted all babies weaned and all the mothers to have time to rebuild their strength before then. 

The only thing producing in the garden is peppers, so all that is necessary right now is pulling up the few weeds that can survive the heat.  I started planting my fall garden last week, but so far the only thing that has come up is one winter squash and one pumpkin.  It's a little soon to expect much, but I don't know if anything will make it since as soon as it comes up it will be blow torch scorched with this heat.  I'm watering every evening to give the seedlings a fighting chance.

Tom has still found plenty to do even though he has finished goat fencing the perimeter of the entire property.  He cut down the worst one of those maples in the front yard that really didn't come back after the Arbor Barber pruned it severely.  That's OK.  It was ugly anyway.  We put a red oak in its place and we're hoping it will survive.  He spends the day fixing things, mowing, cleaning the chicken coop and taking frequent breaks in his office drinking gatorade and trying to cool down.

I think the heat is stressing the chickens because we're getting an average of three eggs a day, whereas we were getting over a dozen a day before the heat got so severe.  They could be hiding their eggs or a snake could be getting them, but I mostly think that they just aren't laying.

So, I actually have a lot of free time right now and have started on a project.

I've made much progress on it since taking this picture, but it's a gift and I don't want to reveal too much until it's done.  Then I'll explain what it is and why.

Bag Boy Liam

Who needs toys?

Look at this great bag I found!

Hmm, what can I do with it?

Oh, I know!

The very definition of LOL!

That was so much fun!

I Love Buttercream Frosting

I'm not much of a fancy baker and am not one to make up new recipes or experiment with food.  Pretty much I just plain ol' don't like to cook.  But I like to eat and since there's nobody else around that's going to cook for me, I do what I can.  I'm a good cook and what I do cook tastes good, I just don't enjoy the process.

Anyway, the past couple of months with it's events and occasions have presented the "opportunity" for me to frost a lot of cakes and cupcakes.  I used to just buy Betty Crocker or Pillsbury frostings and be done with it, but I wanted different colors and decided the best way to do that was to make it myself.

For the first couple of batches, I used a recipe that Meagan found for me on some woman's cake decorating blog.  As her base, she uses shortening.  It's good, but it's a little to greasy tasting to me.  So, I found another recipe and tweaked it a bit and I think it is wonderful.  I could (and have) eaten it by the spoonfuls.

This recipe will generously frost about 30 cupcakes.

1 cup of unsalted butter (two sticks), about room temperature
1 cup of shortening
8 cups of confectioners sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
Up to 8 Tbs. milk or heavy cream

Beat butter and shortening together with mixer on medium for a few minutes.  Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and with your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere), mix until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Add the rest of the sugar while mixing.  Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 1 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.  If the frosting is too stiff, add milk/cream one tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency that you want. 

I'm sure this could be made without the salt, but I wouldn't recommend it.  That little bit of salt adds just the right touch so that while you're eating it, you get that little hint of salty/sweet that makes this so enjoyable to savor.  Yum!

Hmm, Feed Trough?

We've only had one rain this summer and the paddocks are pretty near eaten bare, so it looks like we might have to start supplementing with hay soon.  The vet told us that the goats get worms from eating stuff off of the ground because when it gets so dry and the grass isn't growing, instead of grazing off the tips of the grass, they have to graze down to the ground.  We're supposed to keep their feed up off the dirt to minimize the ingestion of worms.  The problem is, we have no feeders to put hay in out in the fields.

The above picture is one of Tom's solutions.  I know it used to be a feed trough.  It's one of the things that Tom found abandoned out in one of the pastures, but the plastic liner is long gone.

Tom has a vision for it and, to be fair, it is not finished, but I'm not seeing it.

Fail

Well, our foray into raising Boer goats was pretty much a fail.  We were warned in the beginning that goats have a problem with intestinal parasites in east Texas.  I think what we are finding out it that BOER goats have a problem with intestinal parasites in east Texas.  I don't know why they are so popular here - Boers and Boer crosses everywhere.  They can be seen out in numerous fields as one drives along and that is the goat of choice for FFA students to show.

We bought three fullblood Boers last year and we traded our spring Nubian doeling for a fullblood boer doeling this spring.  So we had four fullbloods and three of them died from worms.  Buttercup, the only surviving fullblood, is doing well.  I'm not sure why she has survived unless it's because she kidded back in December so her system wasn't stressed this spring and summer.

Someone told us the other day that if you cross a Boer with just about any other goat, they will have a much better chance of resisting death by worms.  So far, we have found that to be true (knock on wood).  Pansy is a Boer cross (we don't know what with) and she has been fine.  All of the babies that are either fullblood Nubians or Nubian/Boer crosses are also thriving.  Our fullblood Nubians, Hyacinth and Daisy, seem to be unaffected by worms so far.

Even though our intention was to raise Boer/Nubian crosses, we can't keep our Boer nannies alive, so we are officially out of the Boer business.  We're going to try Kikos, which are a meat goat from New Zealand.  They are supposed to be very hardy and parasite resistant. 

We went to see some yesterday.  They look rather scrawny compared to the Boer.

But we bought two doelings, brought them home, and are hoping for the best.

We put them in with Buttercup, the surviving Boer, and her little herd of orphaned girls.

Indulge Me for a Grandmotherly Moment, Please

Birthday Boy Liam.

I mean, really, how could I resist showing off that sweet face?

Intent on birthday presents with his daddy.

Something is hilarious in his one year old world.

Peeking mischievously over my shoulder at Pops.