Animal Cruelty

The warm weather is over for us. I brought Bootstrap back to the barn and put him in a cage with lots of straw. He just was not strong enough to deal with the cruelty of the rest of the chickens. I put him back in the goat/chicken shed and they ran him out, got him down and were trying to kill him when I rescued him. It wasn't only the roosters that attacked him but also the hens.

If you listen to those who say that humans are the only animal that kills for sport or that humans are more cruel than any other species, you can pretty well bet that they have not had much animal experience.

Dogs, Coyotes, Wolves and big Cats with go into a pen with animals that have no way of escape and kill everything there and not eat anything. The excuse that they are given is that they are teaching their young to kill, but that doesn't hold true when it is just one dog, coyote or wolf.

I have heard of a pen full of pigs being killed by a pack of adult dogs with nothing being eaten. The same thing happened to several Alpacas that I read about and I know of goats being attacked and severely injured by well fed neighborhood dogs.

Chickens have no compassion, they simply eliminate the weakest among them. A hen will peck another hen's chicks to death for no good reason.

Goats will injure each other with or without horns. Many does miscarry after being butted hard by another doe. A doe with newborn kids can be horribly vicious to another doe's newborn kids even injuring or killing them.

Horses are brutal to each other. We had a mare who was close to foaling kick another mare's newborn foal as hard as she could, the poor little guy went rolling head over heels but somehow was not injured. I even saw a friend's mare kick her own young foal after biting it several times, she kicked her so hard that it was a miracle that she didn't have broken bones, just because she tried to eat some grain with her mother.

If you are still not convinced that animals can be cruel, just watch your kitty cat with a mouse, bird, chipmunk, baby rabbit or squirrel. They love to torture before the kill.

Catching Some Rays

The sun is shining, it is warm and beautiful. A perfect time to put Bootstrap out to get some sunshine. However, he escaped his cage and was viciously attacked by the hens and other roosters. He has always been able to hold his own and was second in command, second only to my huge Barred Rock Rooster, Rocky. He was hiding and cowering under my little red wagon, I picked him up and put him back in his cage and patched the hole.

He still isn't 100%, I think that he has some problems with his feet, they were pretty frozen when we found him. I sat here at the computer with him in my lap and massaged his feet until they loosened up some. His comb is nearly all black and he is still pretty weak.

I also put Cooter in the dog kennel for the day, so that I could put Calico and Paris in the goat lot for some sun.

Calico and Paris both enjoyed the sunshine. Angel enjoyed the sunshine as well but Abby is staying in the chicken/goat shed for some unknown reason.

And finally, the horses... I think that I counted 16 horses DOWN in this one pasture, the sad part is that we have four other pastures. Don't even ask how many we have.

And for no reason at all, here is a picture of Rocky and a few of his choice hens.

Peanut Butter Fudge

One of our gifts for Christmas from my Husband's Aunt was a homemade recipe book that is just adorable. As I pulled out the recipes to look at them I was pleasantly surprised to find the recipe for Uncle Jimmy's peanut butter fudge.

I had my DH pick up the items that I needed to make the fudge from the store on his way home from work yesterday. We went to Prayer Service last night and the plan was to make the fudge when we got home.

After the wonderful warm weather that we have had for the last few days, I knew that all good things have to come to an end. There was a nasty storm in the making when we got home. I had measured out all of my ingredients and had the 5 cups of sugar with evaporated milk and butter cooking on the stove when the cold front started sweeping through our area. The wind was horrible, along with the hard driving rain.

My mixture was just about to come to a boil when without warning the electricity went out. My stove is electric and I hoped against hope that it was just a temporary problem but it wasn't. My DH held the flashlight while I quickly removed the pan from the hot burner and started covering up all of the ingredients that were already opened and measured out for the fudge, I covered the pan with a plate

I started lighting candles and since the storm outside didn't show any signs of letting up, we both put on our Energizer Headlights, propped ourselves up with pillows on the bed and read our Jeffrey Shaara books. He is now reading "The Last Full Measure" and I am reading "Gods and Generals". Those headlights are just perfect for reading whether you have electricity or not. The lights came back on sometime during the early morning hours. I remember him asking me, Who turned on the light?

I finished the fudge this morning before Sunday School and got to taste it when we came home and I just keep going back to taste it again and again. My DH said it was a little grainy but he keeps going back to taste it again and again too.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap, my feather footed banty rooster, is slowly improving. He slept on his feet last night for the first time since we found him nearly frozen. He is still in the house and will stay in the house until I am convinced that he can take care of himself outside. I am not sure what happened to him but he did show signs of leg mites and lice, that had most assuredly drained him plus his beak was frozen shut.

He is talking to me now when I go into the room, which is another sign that he is improving. We have taken care of his mite and lice problem, so he is starting to gain some weight and get his strength back.

The reason that I didn't notice that he was having a problem was because he stays in the goat/chicken shed all of the time with the little D'Uccles during the cold months. The rest of the crew are always out and about, so I can spot a problem with them but the D'Uccles and Bootstrap are always nestled in the straw of the nests or on the roosts. With his fluffy feather cover, I just could not see that he had lost so much weight and his foot feathers hid the leg mite damage.

Christmas Break

For some reason my hens decided to take an egg laying break on Christmas day. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and not terribly cold, so there is no other explanation than they just wanted to take a Holiday. One hen did go ahead and do her duty, so it wasn't a totally eggless day, she must not belong to the Union.

All was back to normal yesterday and it turned out to be a 6 egg day. They had better give me at least 5 eggs per day for as much grain as they are eating. I put out what I think is a large amount of Chicken feed, cracked corn and black oil sunflower seeds plus some goat's milk occasionally and they have it all cleaned up in no time. I usually fill their feeders three time per day during the winter months.

It was such a strange day yesterday, rainy, foggy and warm. I spent a lot of time outside last evening without a coat or sweater. I even tried getting some pictures when it was almost dark. My camera has a night time setting on it that I had never used, so I snapped a few pictures of my DH putting out big round bales of hay in the muddy field in the fog.

I love the way the fog creeps into our lower pasture and fills the valley. Sometimes the fog even stands up in tall columns and looks pretty spooky. Now that I know how to take pictures in the dark, I might be able to actually get some pictures of the phantom columns. It was really a lot darker than it looks in these pictures.

Fruitcake

This Christmas was nearly perfect, my Sister-in-law made and gave us her delicious fruitcake. I know that Christmas Fruitcake is usually a joke but hers is just wonderful and I had been thinking about it before Christmas, wondering if she would make it. She hadn't made it for us for many years. My DH and I are already arguing over it but he is working today and I am here all alone with it.

The only reason that Christmas wasn't completely perfect was because I didn't get any electronic gadgets this year. I always enjoy Christmas night when it is all over and I get to figure out how my new gadgets work. Any kind of gadget will do, radio, computer, printer, clock or even kitchen gadgets. But I didn't need any new gadgets this year except a computer and that is something that I have to pick out for myself.

I did get a new antenna for my Police Scanner, so I need to reprogram the scanner because I am sure that I can pick up a lot more stuff with it that I couldn't get without an outside antenna. I only listen to it during the winter months and during storms. You can find out road conditions with a scanner that you can't get with a regular radio.

My luck being what it is though, our local Police Department just announced that they are getting a new radio system that can't be monitored with scanners.

I Have Returned

It has been nearly a week since my last post, I have gone though a very stressful time, it was called Christmas. We had Christmas early here to give our kids the freedom to keep other family obligations. Christmas should be enjoyable and I did have a good time after everyone arrived, it was the preparation that was stressful.

Having a two year old Granddaughter is just the best, that age is so much fun. The older kids were fun too but after they reach a certain age they tend to be a easily disappointed. Our oldest Grandson wanted expensive gifts this year, Nike Shocks, a Carhartt jacket and a Bible. He really liked them but there were no toys to play with. I remember that age and the disappointment, like something important is missing.

We had our Christmas on Monday evening, then yesterday I just relaxed and didn't spend much time on the computer. We went to town last night after the icy roads cleared up. We ended up at Wal-mart and the famous last words of my DH were; "Just go ahead, look around and I will find you." I wanted to set up a meeting spot but he thought that he wouldn't have a hard time locating me. Needless to say, we both spent hours looking for each other.

We met people that we both knew and they tried to help us out by telling us where they had last seen the other person but that didn't help much. We would run into the same people later and get directions from them again but to no avail. I finally just sat down on a bench in the middle of the store and waited. My feet and back were killing me from the miles that I had walked. He finally wondered by and sat down with me. I suppose if you lived a boring life and liked treasure hunts, you could make it into a healthy pursuit with lots of exercise.

After the 10 mile marathon, we went to McDonald's for an Eggnog Shake, my favorite. Of course, they didn't have them, for the last three weeks every time we have gone there they have told us that their machine was broken. Last night they told us that they had run out and wouldn't be getting anymore in, I was devastated. For the record, the McDonald's in Bedford, Indiana is poorly managed.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, it was very cold here over the weekend and with my Christmas preparations, my dear, sweet Husband took care of all of my animals while I stayed warm and comfortable inside the house.

He fought frozen water tanks and frozen hoses and on Monday morning he brought me a frozen Rooster. Poor Bootstrap was just about dead. He was weak and could hardly support his own head. I sat down and held him for awhile, pried his frozen beak open and rubbed his stiff legs and feet.

Because of his fluffy, new feathers, I couldn't tell that he had lost a lot of weight. He had been acting strange for awhile but he was molting and I thought that was his problem. I wormed and deloused him because he had some leg mites, I also coated his legs with vasoline and made him a straw bed with food and water in our back room. His comb turned blackish purple, but he is eating and drinking and slowly regaining his strength.

My one egg day was just that, one egg for one day. The next day I got five eggs and have gotten 4 to 5 eggs every day since then. The weather has been all over the place, freezing cold, warm and sunny, ice storms, snow flurries, strong winds and right now as I am typing this, I hear thunder and it is suppose to get up to near 60 degrees after an ice covered day yesterday.

Now that my Christmas stress is completely relieved (it feels so good), I will be blogging again. This blog is one year old, I started it on Christmas day last year, it has had over 10,000 views according to my hit counter and those are not page reloads.

I never dreamed that people would find my life interesting in the least, I have never understood this whole social networking business, like My Space or Facebook but I guess it has it's purpose. I know people who have nearly abandoned television altogether for My Space and connecting with their friends. All of their spare time is spent there. I do enjoy reading other people's blogs and finding that there are actually other people out there who live the same sorta life that I live.

** Happy Birthday, Jackie!! **

A One Egg Day

There have been colder days than today, there have been nastier days than today. We have consistently received at least five eggs everyday since the cold weather has arrived. Something changed today, only one lonely egg.

The good news is that the shortest day of the year, Sunday, December 21st is about to arrive and then the days will start getting longer. I always love to get on the other side of that short day. I love cold weather and snow but I don't care for the long nights.

Angel and I both saw an unusual sight today. I was walking back to the barn from feeding Cooter. I had already fed the Chickens in a couple of different places, there was a group pecking at their feed right in front of our horse trailer as we passed.

All of the sudden from up on the hill above the barn, something came swooping down upon us heading right for that group of chickens. I stopped and at first glance thought it was a hawk, it had the same coloring. Angel was a few yards behind me and she froze in place, looking up, high over her head. I was stunned and relieved when I realized what it was, it was one of my little banty hens in a hurry to get to the feed before it was all gone.

I have never seen a chicken fly that high, she had her wings stretched out and glided in for a perfect landing, right in the middle of the feeding frenzied large hens who make her life pretty difficult. Those hens scattered in all directions, they thought the sky was falling. I am almost certain that she was playing big, bad, bird of prey. It was very affective but the moment of panic didn't last long and the big hens ran her off again.

Inspiring

While catching up on some of the blogs that I read this morning, I was inspired by Chris' post and determination at Johnson Family Farm. He is really putting himself to the test and making a public declaration to be held accountable. Hopefully he will keep us all informed about how he is doing while breaking his 1 1/2 pack cigarette and 20 can diet coke per day addictions.

I don't smoke or drink diet coke but think of the money that I could save if I quit eating so much!! I could actually kill three birds with one stone, lose weight, be healthier and save money.

Headlight Review

I got all of my feeding and milking done last night well before dark, I had looked forward to coming back into the warm house to thaw out. My DH had to run to town to pick up some corn for my chickens and some prime rib that has been processed into dog food for my dogs or at least that is what I think they make it out of, it may be veal, leg of lamb or New York Strip.

He took too long shopping while in town and it got dark, so he called me and asked me to feed his horses for him. Not a problem or so I thought, but because of the recent 59 degree weather and rain showers, then the drastic drop of temperatures into the low teens, things were not as easy as I had anticipated.

First the side door of the barn was frozen shut. I had to leave the feed buckets full of grain beside the door and went out the front sliding door, came around and put my shoulder into shoving the door open.

I managed to feed the stallion without any problems. Then I came to the second metal gate that leads to the lot where the 2 yr. old, yearling and weanlings get fed. The chain on that gate was frozen to the gate, this slowed me down and was a little hard to get opened. I had to put the buckets down and try to get the chain loose while holding the flashlight.

With this accomplished, I went over to set the bunk feeder up on it's feet because my DH always leaves it on it's side so that water won't collect in it. Of course, it was frozen to the ground and it was a struggle for me to break it loose and set it up.

Next came the third metal gate where the younglings come into the feed lot, the chain on it was frozen too, this one wasn't as bad as the other one, but still aggravating.

I finally arrived at the fourth metal gate that lets the younglings into the lot that contains the feed lot. Is this perfectly clear? Anyway they were waiting impatiently at this gate to be let in for their grain. They were huffing, puffing and pushing, but the problem here was a busted metal gate that was tied together with a doubled piece of rope in a fancy knot.

Now this knot had been rained upon then frozen solid, I tried and tried, but it is very difficult to untie a fancy frozen knot with cold ungloved hands while trying to hold a metal flashlight in your mouth. I finally realized that it wasn't going to happen. My face and fingers were nearly frostbitten, so I started for the house to get some pliers and a screwdriver to pry the fancy knot loose.

As I arrived at the house I remembered the one thing that I had asked for for Christmas, a Headlight! You know, one of those lights that miners and coon hunters wear on their heads.

I knew it was in the big Christmas box of gifts waiting to be wrapped. So I tore into the box, found my lonely Christmas gift and started the long process of getting it out of the impossible packaging. I ripped and cut my way in with a steak knife, put the batteries in it and strapped in on my head.

Oh, my! I love this thing, it is an Energizer, Trailfinder Series, 1 Watt, LED Headlight. We got it at Walmart, so it was made in China but it has a Lifetime Guarantee. The button switch on top is a little small and hard to use but it has three different light settings and it tilts to aim where you need it. The main spotlight setting is really bright and lights up a wide area.

I took my pliers and screwdriver and managed to work the fancy knot loose, got the gate open and the horses were saved from starvation, all because of this really handy little headlight. I don't know how long it will last or how fast that it will go through batteries but my DH had to try it out when he got home and he wants one of his own.

In a Fog

Not only is this the most stressful time of year but it is also the time of year that I chose to get sick. Stuffy, foggy, watery eyes, runny nose, headache, can't sleep and grumpy. I woke up like this yesterday morning, then was fine during the day but as soon as night approached it all came back. I went to bed at 8:30 after taking two NyQuil Sinus liquicaps, slept well until around 1:00 am, then tossed and turned, couldn't breath. I am hoping it will pass when the sun comes up.

I would like to be down and depressed, everyone I know has high speed internet, they tell me all the things that they can do online. I continue to sit here in this seat, click on a link and wait and wait and wait. I have no control over that though, nothing that we can afford comes to our area, nothing comes to our area period. Our only option is Satellite and it is too pricey and too unreliable.

I also need a new computer, this one is on it's last legs. I need a new camera, we need to sell horses (our constant money drain), my DH needs a permanent job, we need a house. I need some socks.

We were reading a local article online the other night about a 6 yr. old girl who told someone that she didn't believe in Santa Claus because he had never brought her anything for Christmas. Of course, the person that she told this to went out and bought her a bunch of stuff. We laughed about it because my 5 yr. old Granddaughter had recently told me the very same thing. My Son commented that Santa had never brought him anything either. I said that in all of my 50 years, Santa Claus had never brought me anything, people sure are gullible

Then there were my plans of milking Calico all winter and having Paris kid in the spring, then start milking her after her babies are weaned and breed Calico to kid in the fall.

A perfect plan, except that Calico is faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. She got out of her barn stall, somehow got out of the barn and lured Cooter through his electric fence. I found them together happily eating what was left of my little pine tree in the yard.

Like I said, I would like to be down and depressed but I am reading "The Last Full Measure" by Jeff Shaara and reading about what those men went through during the Civil War makes it a little hard to feel sorry for yourself.

Faith Restored

Shopping online was made just for me. I hate to shop and even shopping online is not my favorite pastime. I would much rather read a good book. But online shopping has definitely made my life easier. Sometimes I try to imagine what life must have been like before the internet, it must have been a dark and difficult time.

Consider this, I am 50 years old and am only half kidding. I really do have a hard time remembering what it was like. Think about the kids of today who have a hard time understanding that our generation was actually able to live without cell phones.

I didn't mean to get side tracked with this train of thought. I was really going to blog about having my faith restored in an eBayer.

I purchased a Christmas present on eBay and when it arrived it was not even close to the way it was described. It was suppose to be NWT (new with tags) and not only did it not have tags but it was dirty, scratched and definitely used, parts of it were even missing.

I shot off a message to the seller about my disappointment and started proceedings against the seller through Paypal. I didn't hear anything back for a couple of days and then got a reply that said that they had sold the item for a friend and would refund my money if I would return the item.

I didn't want to get caught paying for return postage, lose my money plus the item, so I sent another message that I wanted the return postage paid before I returned the item. Not only did they send the return postage but they also refunded all of my money. I will return the item tomorrow.

I have had some bad dealings through eBay a couple of times both as a Seller and a Buyer and there are times that you begin to think that everyone out there is a swindler.

I bought some Avon on eBay once and I have to say this made me madder than buying something then never receiving it. The Avon came and it was the wrong item, I sent a message to the Seller in New Orleans that they had sent the wrong item. They said to return it and they would send what I had actually bought. The right stuff finally showed up but they did not refund my return shipping. When I ask about it, they sent me a message that said that the tubes that I had returned were half empty and that they would not reimburse me. I wonder if they survived Katrina.

Just Confused

Others that I know who have goats know exactly when their does are in heat. I have always had trouble with this. It seems that my does do not show obvious signs. I turned Cooter in with five does last winter and when spring rolled around I only had three does who looked bred, the other two were questionable. Two of the does had twins and the other was carrying triplets when I lost her and all three babies.

The other two does never produced any kids and I never seen them show signs of heat. I also never seen Cooter breed any of them. After the babies were all born and I was ready to put their mothers back into the goat lot, I took Cooter to the pen up the hill. Then tied him out every day to eat grass and weeds.

One day in October, Collette who was always a trouble maker and tried to be the herd Queen started acting submissive and quiet. She also showed an interest in going to visit Cooter, so we took her and she stood quietly while he bred her. I sold her not long afterward and also sold Cinder as a doe in milk. I was milking Calico at the time so I kept her in the barn stall and put Cooter back in with Paris.

So, this is where we are today, Paris looks bred but I have been fooled before. On Saturday, she had a long string of goo and so I thought that she must have gotten out sometime this summer while I had Cooter tied out eating grass and went to visit him.

When I seen the goo, I assumed that she was getting ready to kid, so I put her in the barn stall with Calico. She doesn't have any sign of an udder but that is not too unusual. On Sunday morning she had blood all over her tail. But she didn't act strange other than she was crying continually and wanting to go back to Cooter.

Yesterday she had more fresh blood and today she doesn't seem to have any new blood. I have asked the powers that be if this could be a heat cycle and have gotten conflicting reports, some think that she is getting ready to kid in the next few weeks and some think that it is just a weird heat. She has quit crying now and acts fine, her temperature has been normal through all of this, so I am just stumped and don't know what to expect.

If you have wondered why I haven't been blogging lately this is part of the reason, along with a new Grandson, who is just too handsome. Also there have been Christmas programs to go to and the usual fun things to do around the farm this time of year, like breaking ice and carrying water. I have also been trying to do some Christmas shopping and catching up on my rope halter orders.

He's Here!

My three Granddaughters got to welcome their new little baby brother to the world Friday afternoon at 2:30, he weighed in at 7 lbs. and not quite 2 oz. He was 19 in. long and has a full head of dark brown hair.

Google My Life

I guess that I am totally dependent on Google to run my life. I use igoogle for my home page, gmail for my e-mail, Google Reader for my favorite blogs, website articles and my blog comments. Google is my only search engine. Google maps and driving directions help us find our way, Blogger and Blogspot for my blog. I use Google bookmarks. I did use the Google desktop search for finding things on my computer before my hard drive got so bloated that I needed to get rid of some of the excess fat, I also use Picasa2.

I get a little frustrated when I lose something around the house. I sometimes want to sit down and type in the item in a Google search to find out where it is. Then I sadly remember that Google doesn't have my house categorized and indexed, or at least I don't think that they do. Google does know too much about me, it serves me ads about horses, chickens, goats, children, vet supplies, farming, pets, internet technology and electronic gadgets.

It is really pretty scary, they will probably come up with a chip to install in our brains soon to help our memories and give us access to a huge knowledge database. They will have us in a category and index us along with all of our thoughts. We will no longer be human but walking, talking googlebots.

Anxiety

Here it is the end of another day and I still don't have my Christmas shopping done. I received my first Christmas card today and it caused me great anxiety. This year has flown by with each month passing by faster then the previous one.

The days are so short that I barely get my morning feeding done and it is time to do my evening feeding before it gets dark. I am always so rushed that I feel like I have forgotten something important.

We did get some small projects completed today. My DH shoveled out the goat/chicken shed and fixed me an area inside to feed the "stay in the shed" chickens, so the goats can't get to it. My Mille Fleur D'Uccles are the only ones who cannot tolerate the cold weather and spend their winter days on the roosts.

I got six eggs today but only three yesterday, the hens didn't like the rainy, snowy day that we had yesterday. The Sun inspired them today, it inspired me too.

Google Reader

Thank God for Google Reader! There are several blogs that I enjoy reading on a daily basis but because the authors use complicated backgrounds and lots of gadgets, I can no longer go to their actual blogs. I don't blame them, if I had high speed internet I would probably do the same thing but since I am still on a dial-up connection that moves as slow as molasses on a freezing cold day, I cannot wait 20 minutes for a background to load.

Google Reader is just great, all that I get is the text of blogs that I am following alone with whatever pictures that they posted with that blog. All of the latest blogs from my favorite authors are there in one place, no ads and no gadgets in the side bars. Google Reader helps me to find some extra time in my day.

AT&T has finally brought DSL to one of the small towns that I live near, but it does not reach me. The other small town that I live near on the other side has cable internet service but it doesn't reach me either. I get depressed when I think about it, so I won't think about it by using Google Reader.

I do have HOPE for CHANGE in this upcoming year. Once President O gets in office, I will have both cable and DSL to choose from.

The Day After

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday evening. I made the Turkey, Dressing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and 5 Pies. It was the pies that done me in. By the time I got all of the dough rolled out and apples peeled, my lower back was screaming, Enough already!

So, today my DH had to go to his family's Thanksgiving Dinner alone and I am barely walking with a cane. As I type this, I am enjoying a heated, message cushion. I still don't have all of the dishes cleaned up from last night and that will have to be done today.

I regret having to miss seeing my Husband's family and all of the wonderful desserts. What I will miss the most is my Sister-in-law's Oyster Dressing. I asked my DH to bring me a plate or at least some of the dressing.

The Faithful

To my faithful blog follower and friend; I am so sorry that you lost your mare to EPM so quickly after you learned what was wrong with her. I know it hurts and I know that it isn't fair, because no one takes better care of their horses than you do. I knew when the phone rang on Sunday morning that it was you and my heart sank.

To my faithful blog follower, cousin and friend; I missed you this weekend, sorry to hear that you were under the weather and I hope you are feeling much better.

To my other faithful blog follower and friend; I owe you an apology, I have new pictures of Buddy, Bullseye and Fancy from this Spring and Summer that I have never taken the time to send to you, maybe after Thanksgiving.

To my other faithful blog follower and friend; I see that you signed up at Goatbeat.net, now introduce yourself and join the conversation.

To my other faithful blog followers, who are also family members; We hope to see you on Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon.

To my other faithful blog followers who don't fit in any of the above categories; Thank you for reading my blog and just in case I forget to tell you, have a wonderful Thankgiving!

Purses

I bought myself a Christmas present Thursday night but I can't tell you what it is, it's a secret. I really shouldn't have, I rarely spend this much money for myself but if I don't do it, no one will.

I was recently shocked by what some of the women that I know spend on purses. I have a hard time understanding spending $400 for a purse that looks just like everyone else's purse.

When we go to Church everyone there is carrying a Coach purse. Unless I ask, I can not tell who has real ones and who has fake ones. So, what's the point?

Are you suppose to go up to women and ask if their purse is a real Coach? Or are you just suppose to think that it is a knock-off and they are just trying to impress everyone. You could also assume that they are all real Coach purses and that they all have more money than sense.

I don't know why you would want to carry a $400 purse anyway, isn't that just inviting thievery? A crook will figure that if you have enough money to spend that much for a purse, then you've probably got some big bucks in that purse and as an added bonus they can also sell the purse.

Most of my purses are hand-me-downs or straight from a yard sale table. I can only remember buying two new purses in my whole life. If my ship ever comes in, I don't think that I will buy a popular, stylish purse like everyone else. I will buy a custom made, one of a kind expensive purse and no one will know how much I spent but me.

Crispy Morning

It was pretty chilly out there this morning. All of the waterers had two inches of ice on them. So I got to use my little red wagon in earnest this morning. Since this was my first icy morning, I didn't have everything that I needed in my wagon on the first trip. It will take some planning and organization to be really efficient with my feeding schedule.

Let's see, I need a bucket of Chicken feed, a bucket of goat grain, two scoops of dog food, two flakes of hay and two buckets of warm water. I don't think that it will all fit, I will have to make two trips. I want to take the hay at the same time that I take the grain, so that I can fill the hay feeder without any assistance from the goats, they will be distracted by the grain.

I will have to come back for the water, that way I can take more than two buckets, I carried about five buckets this morning but they are small, it is the number of trips that wear you out.

This sounds like a good plan but it will change from time to time with the weather. If it is sunny then I will be taking Calico outside for the day and she will have to be fed and watered out there.

If it is raining, all of the feeding has to be done inside the goat/chicken shed and that is a mess. Just getting into the shed through the slick mud with buckets and hay in your hands with the starving, welcoming committee in the doorway is always a treat, if I can even make it without falling before I get there.

The ice in the water offers another challenge. I wouldn't have to haul as much water if I could effectively remove the ice from the water buckets and troughs without using my hands. I take a small hatchet or splitting maul (whatever is handy) to break the ice, then if I could pick out all of the ice chunks most of the water could be preserved, recycled, it would be the green thing to do, I could save the planet! Usually I just go ahead and grab the ice with my fingers and pitch it out but this is not the wise thing to do on a crispy morning. I need some type of small crooked pitchfork device or a small holey shovel for ice removal.

For those of you playing the home game, I have only smacked my head one more time on the nesting boxes and my DH ate a Wheat Thin last night, just one with no problems, he will probably insist on eating two or three tonight.

Stubborn Man

Yes, he is a stubborn man that must be why I married him. My DH loves Tomato and Basil Wheat Thins, it is really more of an addiction than a love affair. I can't even stand the smell of them. He usually eats them everyday but we hadn't been to town and he hadn't bought any for about two weeks.

On Monday we went to town and he bought some. That evening he started eating them and all of the sudden he started itching all over and I am not talking about a little itch, the poor man was going crazy and scratching all over. I tried to get him to sit down and try to calm himself but he said that he couldn't.

Before long, he started wheezing and could hardly breath. I gave him two antihistamine capsules that I keep on hand for bee stings and suggested that we go to the ER but he wouldn't. He broke out with little bumps all over his stomach and he was bloated. I prayed for him and then called my friend who has had three episodes just like this and asked her opinion.

She said to get him to the Hospital, I reminded her who we were talking about and she told me what they did for her, which was nothing that I could do at home. He was mainly focused on his hands that he has so much trouble with anyway. He was rubbing and scratching the skin off of them. He finally started settling down and put his hands in some goat's milk and he started improving.

When the medicine kicked in he started getting sleepy. I checked his stomach and the bumps were gone. He stopped itching and was ready to go to bed. His poor hands were a mess, very swollen.

I woke him up during the night to give him another dose of the antihistamine and he was fine the next morning. His hands were still a little swollen but that was all.

The Wheat Thins are still on the table, I tried to throw them out and he wouldn't let me. I am afraid that he is going to try them again when I am not looking. My friend's allergic reaction was to something that she had eaten lots of times before as well. The Doctors told her that it was probably a preservative that she had a reaction to.

My DH admits that it had to be a severe allergic reaction to the Wheat Thins but he is having a struggle with having to live his life without them.

The Lord just has to take care of people like him, I guess. I asked him during the middle of the crisis, what he would do if it were me, there was a long pause before he said that he would take me to the Hospital, but only if I wanted to go. He covered all of his bases there.

The Truth

I hope that I don't offend anyone with my blog this morning. It is not my intention to alienate anyone who doesn't hold my same opinions. I would be devastated if anyone stopped following my blog because of this post. That said, I must unburden myself and reveal the long hidden truth that has remained concealed for much too long.

I have not kept this secret from everyone, my closest and dearest friends know this awful truth. Most of my family members know it as well. Although some of my friends and most of my family openly criticize me and try to get me to change. I do have some friends who share my feelings and opinions in this matter. I ask you to please open your hearts and accept me the way I am.

I love Winter, I love snow, I love the cold, all of it, the frozen ground, the frozen waters, being able to see my breath. I love the way the snow crunches under my feet, the way the snowflakes softly and gently float through the air. I love the quiet of a snow covered landscape. I love the feel of heat hitting my face when I come inside after being out in the freezing cold. I love being snowbound. I love the anticipation of a coming Winter storm. I love burrowing under a pile of blankets on a cold Winter's night.

I don't know how I got this way, I don't know how it happened, but I ask for tolerance and acceptance. I have already heard all of the arguments that there are in the world against my feelings and views. Those arguments have never been able to sway me or change me from what I am.

Sure, I don't like everything about Winter. I don't like for my family and friends to have to be out on the roads when they are slick, I don't like to be out on the roads when they are slick. I feel for the road crews and law enforcement officers. I worry about the elderly and the sick. I worry about the animals when it is real cold, windy and/or freezing rain.

Maybe I am immature and this all stems from getting snow days off of school. As a teacher, I got just as excited as the kids at the prospect. But I don't have to go to school anymore as a student or a teacher and I still love Winter.

There, I have said it, I have confessed my faults. I feel much better now that I can openly say that we had snow flurries yesterday and I was just thrilled to see them.

We Caved

I had already decided that we would not buy Elmo Live for our almost two year old Granddaughter for Christmas. But we took her and her older sister to Walmart today while their oldest sister went to the Doctor. The youngest really loves Elmo but we were going to be a little bit more practical than that.

But there he was on the bottom shelf and fully accessible to toddlers. She was so thrilled with him, kept kissing him and looking up at us laughing. What were we suppose to do?? We were snared, caught in a trap, forced to do something against our will.

I've got to give credit to those who come up with these marketing techniques. He is right there in his packaging completely exposed to little hands and in working order. Placing him on the lower two shelves was just a stroke of genius. His cute little voice inviting a kiss was just too much for anyone to resist.

So, we ended up coming home completely defeated and are mustering all of our remaining resources together in a vain effort not to give him to her before Christmas. But wait, I nearly forgot, maybe all is not lost. She has a birthday before Christmas, so we can give him to her early after all.

Scams and Spams

Someone on a forum that I frequent posted the link below to the Washington Post website and noted that they were already seeing a difference in their e-mail inboxes and spam folders.

Major Source of Online Scams and Spams Knocked Offline - Security Fix

I read the article yesterday and noticed a big difference in my spam levels as well. This morning was the icing on the cake, only eight spam messages awaited me upon my awakening. There are normally around forty the first thing in the morning.

I haven't visited my gmail or yahoo email accounts yet but I am going there now to empty my spam folders then see how they look in a day or two. The sad part of this story is that we were led to believe that most of our spam and scams come from other counties, but now we see that it is mostly home grown.

First Day

Today is the first day of gun season and I am usually awakened by the sounds of a military invasion in our valley. There are woods all around us on the hillsides and even shots from the tops of neighboring hills reverberate through our valley.

I have often wondered if there are really that many deer that are shot at on opening day and if the people shooting are really that bad or if they get buck fever and are shaking so bad that they just can't hit anything. Because it is never just a shot or two from one direction but a volley of shots coming from first one location then a volley of shots from another location.

This morning was different, I only heard a couple of shots and they were far away. Either no one chose to hunt around here this morning or the deer have all moved away. It was raining and cold but I have never known a true deer hunter that was scared off a first day hunt by a little cold and rain. I guess it could be that hunters are getting soft. I don't know what this world is coming to.

Culture

I know that you who know me well would never guess that I am actually a cultured person. You think that I never leave the farm and that my best friend is a billy goat.

While I may be a little eccentric and prefer the outdoors, horses, dogs, goats and chickens to crowds of people and parties. I do have a artistic side. I can be thoughtful and philosophical. I love a challenging exchange of ideas and debate.

Why, just tonight I changed my clothes, washed my face, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, polished my Crocs, then went out to dinner and to the Theatre. It wasn't one of them movin' picture shows either, this was honest to goodness Theater, with a stage, curtains, actors and padded theater seats.

It weren't no Church or School program with little kids dressed up like pumpkins, snowflakes or shepherds. It was real live Theater and it was opening night and I had a front row seat in a nearly full house.

I can offer witnesses, if you don't believe me, my daughter-in-law and some other people from our Church went with us. My daughter-in-law and I left our uncultured husbands at home. She did take the time to call her uncultured husband to check on him and all he could do was gripe about the pizza that she had ordered him not arriving.

He gave her a lecture about having her cell phone shut off in an emergency situation like this. She called the offending pizza place who had written down the wrong address, they made him a new pizza and delivered it at no charge, so I don't know why he was so grumpy. It must come from his Dad's side of the family.

Milk Soak

My DH has had a problem with his hands for quite some time now. He is a part time mailman and handling paper all day is very drying to his hands. They started itching, peeling, cracking and even bleeding. He was having a real hard time sleeping and nothing that he was doing as far as creams and lotions was helping him.

I decided to take the bull by the horn and try to do a few things to help him out. I made him start using used coffee grounds when washing his hands at the end of the day. I started using the coffee grounds with soap to get the billy goat smell off of my hands, it works and after a few times of using it, your hands get soft and smooth.

I told him to avoid washing his hands during the rest of the day. This is hard for him because his hands get so dirty. I found him a bar of Ivory soap and that is all I am letting him use. No more anti-bacterial stuff.

After he washes his hands at night, I make him soak his hands in goat's milk for 10 minutes. I told him to use bag balm on his hands after that but he only did that one night. It made his hands too messy. So far so good, he is really noticing a difference. He thinks that the goat's milk is the key. So chalk up another good use for goat's milk.

Floaters

Unless you have floaters yourself, you won't be able to appreciate this post. I have had floaters for many, many years. They are a great part of my life. I would be lost without them. I have seen people get a floater for the first time, it is comical to see them try to grab or swat at something that is flying around their head that isn't really there.

I don't remember having a first floater, my floaters came on as many floating cobwebs all over the surface of both of my eyes. They can be quite entertaining, when I get bored, I can always look up at the sky and study the shape and sizes of my floaters. I can also do that while blogging because of the white screen background. Mine come in many shapes and sizes, some are just dark spots, but most are like spider webs, threads or hairs.

Floaters can also be beneficial, they have completely cured me of my fear of wasps, hornets, yellow jackets and other flying insects. I no longer run away or swat at any flying insect because if I hear something buzzing around, I can't tell which darting black spot is the actually bug.

The reason that I decided to blog about my floaters today was because I had a very persistent floater that kept getting in my way while I was trying to type a blog about a different subject that I will finish and post later. This little floater just kept blocking my view and was being annoying. I finally realized that it was not a floater at all but a little bug crawling around on the lens of my glasses.

A Day Off

My DH had a rare day off today, so the neighbor and I put him to work. We were barely out of bed this morning when the neighbor called for some help with a large dead tree that was threatening his barn. They managed to get it down without damaging anything but one top strand of a barb wire fence.

I got my DH to move one of the roosts in the goat/chicken shed and to build a bridge for the hens to walk comfortably to all three nesting boxes. We also ran to town to get ten bags of BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) that we had ordered a few months ago.

The goats and chickens have been without BOSS for over a week and I can tell a difference in egg and milk production. I know that the colder weather will affect egg production but I am anxious to see if the BOSS makes any difference. I am only getting four eggs a day now and some of the shells have been very thin.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, so my Husband doesn't have to work tomorrow either. I need to make a list of things for him to do, but I guess I'll give him the day off since he is a Veteran.

Cold Hands

My poor milk goat is being milked for the first time in cold weather. As you can imagine she is quite shocked by my cold hands. I have had to rethink things a little bit.

During the summer months the most important thing about milking is getting the milk into the refrigerator as quickly as possible, this greatly affects the taste of the milk. With the cooler weather, that is no longer my top priority. My main concern now is keeping my hands warm and keeping my doe from going through the roof of the barn.

Gloves are helpful to a point, but not the entire solution. I can't milk with gloves on. They do keep my hands warm while I am preparing to milk. I am still using my spray nozzle hand milker that I blogged about before, but I still have to strip the teats out by hand. The problem is that I have to take my gloves off to use the milker and by the time I am done and ready to do the stripping my hands are cold.

I also have to use a wet cloth to wash the udder and teats before I start and that cloth can get cold pretty quickly too. So, what I have been doing with gloved hands is getting everything ready, including putting all of my milking equipment beside the milk stand and getting Calico on the stand and already eating, then I run back into the house, take off the gloves and get the warm wet cloth.

This has been working out fairly well but my hands still get cold by the time I am ready to strip her out. Another thing that I have had to change is bringing the Bag Balm into the house. I have been applying it to her teats after each milking, so I always leave the can outside on the milk stand. That first cold evening that we had, I couldn't understand why she didn't want me putting it on her anymore, she kicked and squirmed. I am a little slow at understanding things sometimes.

Back to eBay

I have been wanting to start listing some of my junk on eBay for a long time but I just haven't done it because I have had so much other stuff that took priority. I still have things that have to come first but I did list a 1996 "Songs of Christmas" Waterford Crystal Music Box for my Son on eBay last night, it is very pretty, has a Nativity Scene on it and plays "Silent Night".

It wasn't all that painful to list it, that was one of the reasons that I haven't been using eBay because they have changed so much stuff and I didn't want to take the time to learn anything new. It wasn't hard and it didn't take me that much time. So I may go ahead and start listing a few things again.

If you would like to see my Son's music box, you can visit the auction here: Crystal Music Box

The last time I checked it didn't have any bids and it is only a 3 day auction, so it will end late Sunday evening. I don't think things sell as well on eBay as they used to but we will see.

Other good news for today is that I found my black light insect zapper. We went to Wal-Mart the other day to get a few things and I looked for a bug zapper there for my Ladybug problem. But all of the lawn and garden section of Walmart has been magically converted into a Christmas section. They didn't have anything for bugs.

So, this morning I looked around here for the black light bug zapper that I knew we used to have but I couldn't remember if it got broken and tossed or not, it has been years since I saw it. I found it and it actually still works, I put it in a dark room and it is busy zapping Ladybugs and whatever other bugs find it attractive. I smile every time I hear it pop.

Thumped

Why is it that it always takes you so long to get used to things when they change. My dear Husband built a large, heavy, sturdy nesting box for our hens. It actually contains three nice big nests. But it didn't take long before we realized that we had hung it in the wrong place, that wrong place being right amongst the chicken roosts. The nests became really nasty very quickly.

So, my DH finally got around to moving the thing. He moved it to another wall inside the goat/chicken shed. It is now right inside the door and hung a little bit higher than it was. That little bit higher is right above eye level.

I knew that it was now in a dangerous place if I wasn't really paying attention when I came through the door. I had several close calls where I glanced up right before I walked into it.

But my luck finally ran out and the corner of the thing smacked me right in the hairline of my forehead. I bounced back a couple of steps then staggered to the window and grabbed a handful of window sill to steady myself.

I moved my other hand away from my forehead where it had landed instinctively and I felt something wet. I was just certain that I had busted my head wide open and was bleeding profusely but it turned out just to be dog slobbers from where Angel had licked my hand when I walked into the shed.

I survived somehow with just a small dent in my skull and it still hurts when I move my eyebrows. I have refused to go back into the shed since then. There are just too many unpleasant memories for me there now.

I have always loved my goat/chicken shed but now it scares me. You would think that once you banged your head into something like that, you would never forget it and it would never happen again. But I know myself better than that. It takes more than a dented skull to make me remember anything, it takes time and lots of it. Once that nest box has hung there for 3 or 4 years, I will never run into it again.

Proper?

I finally got my Lifetime Handgun Permit in the mail. I got it laminated and put in my wallet. Now I am wondering how long my lifetime will be. The paperwork that came with it says that it can be revoked at anytime if I do not remain a Proper Person. Now, I am not sure if I am even a proper person on a good day. It could be that I am more of a proper person than most people are.

I am not sure what the word "proper" even means. I suppose that it all depends on who you talk to. I know a lot of people who are not proper but that doesn't mean that they are law breakers or even bad people. I think this word pretty much leaves the door open for my lifetime to be cut short at anytime.

Back to the election, all is not lost, even though my State (Indiana) has changed from red to make me blue, California did shock me by taking a stand against gay marriage. I am considering moving to Kentucky, Texas or Alaska because they are all red States.

The Lord's Will

The world is still turning this morning, even though I didn't get my way. It all has to be the Lord's will, He is still in control and each day brings us closer to His return. That is something to look forward to. Keep your eyes on Israel.

I look forward to next year, we will all be wealthy, we will all have health care, all of our Soldiers will come home, there will be no more wars, there will be peace on earth and a chicken in every pot. Well maybe not a chicken in every pot, maybe brussel sprouts.

Since Democrats finally have complete control there will be no more excuses for them not to get this world straightened up and there should be no more Americans complaining about anything. I just wonder how long it will take the news media to start turning on our new President?

Tracfone Reborn

I think that I posted about my Tracfone no longer ringing awhile ago and about talking to someone in India who didn't have a clue. I was finally told that I would just have to order a new phone, which I didn't want to do because this phone had hardly been used and I had just put more time and minutes on it. It made me just a little suspicious that the ringtones would no longer work when the beeping of the keypad continued.

I never did order a new phone because I felt like they were just messing with me. Low and behold, yesterday our phone started ringing again out of the clear blue sky. Hmmm? I am not accusing them of anything but this all seems a little strange to me.

Other exciting news for today is that I talked to someone this morning who gave me a hard time about not blogging every day. He told me that he enjoys reading my blog and is disappointed when I haven't blogged. He almost made me feel good about myself until he continued with the point that it is good to know that someone else has a more boring life than he does.

It's Almost Over

All of the campaigning is nearly over, no more campaign mail in my mailbox, no more news reports about how many points Obama is leading McCain by. No more telephone surveys wanting to know who I would be more likely to vote for if the election were held today. It was really overdone this year, we got way too many calls and way too much junk mail.

I have a friend who is on a cruise, I told her that she might want to consider staying out of the country depending on who gets elected. She thought that it might be an interesting few days, watching people throw themselves overboard when they get the election results.

Back to the real world, I had so much fun today that I can hardly contain myself. I went to Wal-Mart, purchased a face mask, the kind that covers your mouth and nose. Then I came home and attacked the goat/chicken shed with a broom and a shovel.

There were times that I couldn't see my hand in front of my face because the dust was so thick or my glasses were so dusty, I'm not sure which. My eyes got full of chicken poo dust and they still feel like they have sand in them several hours later.

Chickens sure do make a mess, it really didn't smell that bad and it cleans up pretty easy but it creates a lot of dust and I wouldn't recommend tackling it without a mask to protect your lungs. Safety goggles might not be a bad idea either.

If you don't have your own chicken house to clean, you might consider finding someone who does and volunteering for the job. It might help you clear all of this year's election drama out of your mind, like tonight's news of Palin being cleared of any wrongdoing in the State Trooper scandal. They cleared her just in the nick of time, on election eve. They didn't dare clear her after the election that would have been to obvious.

Ladybugs

Today is the day! Usually the day comes around the 12th of October but since our weather has been so quirky lately they didn't come back until today on the 1st day of November. I am talking about the return of the Asian Ladybugs. Someone should make a horror film about this phenomenon. But if they did no one would come to see it because it is just too tragic.

This is a plague of Biblical proportions. The problem is that these sweet little creatures like our house because others of their species have liked our house in the past. They are just looking for a nice place to camp for the winter. So they come by the thousands to use our campground.

Ladybugs bleed a little bit to ward off predators, their blood is yellow and stinks. If you have ever smashed one of them you know what I am talking about. But you don't have to smash them to smell their blood, they can release it at will to make you leave them alone. I hate that smell, it is worse than my billy goat.

The real problem with Ladybugs is that they swarm in on you and you are completely outnumbered. They are all over our barn/house right now, looking for cracks that they can crawl in through. The sad part is that our house will be full of them tonight, I will have them crawling on me in my bed. I know this because it happens every year.

I have closed the barn up, so that they can't get in as easily, but resistance is futile. Every time I have gone outside today, I have had to go stand in front of a mirror to pick all of them off of my clothes. I have not come in with less than eight all day. They always find their way under my clothes and crawl around on my skin, that is the part that I really hate, bugs crawling up my back.

This day brings me closer to insanity than any other day that I know of. I actually did grab one with my hand while I was outside today and it released it's stench on me. They are the skunk of the insect world. I went over and rubbed my stinky hand on Cooter, he was repulsed. But the billy goat smell did get the Ladybug smell off of my hand.

Bone Chillin'

The weather forecast is nice for the next few days. These recent cold nights have been hard to adjust to. I am normally a polar bear. I really like cold weather, it may have something to do with hot flashes. Last winter we really saved on heating expenses but my poor DH nearly froze to death.

I got all of my green tomatoes picked before the freeze and I had to rush around to get my pool filter unhooked and drained. The wind was so strong and cold one day that my hot cup of coffee was just lukewarm by the time I got to the fire that my Husband had built to burn some stumps.

There I sat on a chunk of wood by the fire drinking a slightly warm cup of coffee. It just kind of ruined the whole affect. That wind not only ruined my coffee but it kept changing the direction of the sparks and smoke. My DH ended up having to set up two chunks of wood, one on each side of the fire for me to sit on and I kept having to get up and run to the other side. A very relaxing evening.

Some of my hens have stopped laying, I am only getting five eggs a day now. I also lost one of my Rhode Island Reds, we found her dead on the nest.

We sold Collette to a friend with good fence, so I will get to see her babies and still get to see her occasionally. My DH and I both sighed a big sigh of relief after we delivered her to her new home. Paris is still getting out once in awhile out of habit but I think that she will eventually stop.

Calico is still not liking her new living quarters inside the barn, she cries day and night. Her cries are sorrowful, mournful and loud, they are actually more of a wail than a cry. I thought that she would get over it eventually but I don't think she is going to. I tie Cooter up outside the goat lot and put her in with Paris when the weather is nice during the day, so it isn't like she is totally without companionship.

Naylor's eye still looks bad, the cloudiness is still there and he is still keeping it slightly closed but it isn't watering anymore. We have tapered off putting the medicines in it to once a day. He is still being such a good boy, most horses wouldn't let you get near them after what we have put him through. He always comes right to us and sometimes we don't even have to halter him.

Invalid CTF File

I have been having this problem and getting this error trying to update AVG Anti-Virus 8.

Invalid Update Control CTF File

To fix this:

1. Navigate to:
For WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Avg8\update\download

For Vista: C:\ProgramData\avg8\update\download

2. Delete avginfoavi.ctf and avginfowin.ctf

I did this a couple of times and the error just kept coming back the next day. So I took the next step of downloading and installing a fresh copy of AVG 8 after removing the original program. Guess what? After spending a grueling 6 hours downloading and installing the new AVG, I started getting the same error. So, I am back to square one and back to deleting the files again.

I have done many searches on Google and find these same fixes time after time. It seems to fix the problem for most people but I guess I am not most people.

**Update** After a few weeks this problem finally went away on it's own with no extra help from me or anyone else. So, if you are still having this come back time after time, there is hope, just keep on deleting.

**ANOTHER UPDATE** Here it is nearly two months later and after thinking that this problem was solved, I got the same error again today on Dec. 17, 2008. Please, if anyone knows of a permanent fix for this besides ditching AVG altogether, post your solution in a comment below.

Already Voted

We voted absentee yesterday at the Courthouse. We did it to avoid the long lines on Election Day. The trouble was that there was a long line at the Courthouse. They said that it has been like that every day. The workers can hardly get a lunch break of go to the restroom.

My DH also got a haircut yesterday and an angry debate broke out, with only one Democrat fighting for his life and the others questioning his sanity. It all worked out alright though we canceled his vote with ours.

When it comes down to it, Abortion is the main reason that I vote. The only person that I really voted for is Sarah Palin and I didn't even get to put a check by her name. There are other things about America, other issues that have been the backbone of this great country that are falling by the wayside and they are going away so quietly that we hardly notice. I don't want a leader who hates America, I want one that will love and protect her.

Wasted Time

I have spent a whole week working on my computer. It is very disturbing to have so much work to do and not being able to do anything because of having to tinker around with an old clunker.

I tried to weed out the problem by the process of elimination, occasionally finding a fix that worked for one day and then the same problem returned the next day. I was truly beating my head on the desk but that didn't help either.

As of this minute my computer is fixed but it may be a different story tomorrow. The poor thing is a dinosaur and should have been retired a long time ago but I keep putting band-aids and duct tape on it and feeding the squirrel that runs the gears vitamins and power drinks to keep him going but he has developed a bad cough and wheezes a lot.

I don't deal with change very well, I like things to just stay the same. I love new technology and gadgets, if they would just stop being obsolete by the time you figure out how to get them out of the clamshell plastic packaging.

Corneal Ulcer

While showing a horse to someone on Sunday afternoon, I noticed that several of the horses eyes were watering. One of them had quite a bit a pus in his eyes so I meandered down into the herd for a closer look. His eyes were fine but I started looking at other eyes and was shocked to find Naylor, our two year old, AQHA, solid bay gelding with a painful, runny and milky eye.

This looked very serious and we tried to get him in to see the Veterinarian on Monday but he wasn't available. On Tuesday morning we tried again to get him in to see our Vet and failed. So we called the new Vet who just opened a practice very close to where we live, she is just a young girl starting out and when we had called her once before her prices were too steep for us but we were desperate this time. She said that she could see him at 2:00.

She did a very thorough exam of his eye and diagnosed him with a corneal ulcer caused by an injury of some type, which she wanted to treat very aggressively. Very aggressively means that we have to keep him out of the sun or keep a fly mask on him and give him a shot every day plus put three different ointments in his eye twice per day and two of those ointments 4 to 6 times per day.

It wouldn't have been so hard if we could have put him in a stall and kept him here at the house but he had never been stalled and he wasn't having any part of it. He nearly tore the barn down. Naylor is a very quiet and gentle boy, my DH just got on him and rode off the very first time he was ridden but he didn't like being confined at all.

Since my Husband was going to be working all week, I didn't want to have to deal with him getting himself in trouble or hurt in the stall, so we stuck a fly mask on him and turned him back out with his herd. His herd doesn't want anything to do with him and treats him like he has cooties or worse.

They are savage, vicious and down right nasty to him. They bite him, kick him and chase him. He is totally confused and so pitiful, these were his best friends. We take the mask off of him at night and they are all happy to see him. Then the next day it's the same old battle.

This has been difficult for us, having to walk so far to get him in the dark and bring him back to the house. We have to twitch him to get him to hold his head still to put all that stuff in his eye. Tonight it was raining and cold, we drove to the top pasture and my DH had to walk out into the herd to find him, which isn't easy in the dark, he went right past him to another bay horse. Then he had to bring him back to me and the Blazer headlights to do the dirty deed.

What is shocking about the whole thing is that he never tries to get away from us when we come after him with a halter and lead rope. Sometimes he even sees us coming and walks to meet us. I don't understand why except that he loves to be petted and loved on, he doesn't exactly like having his eye messed with or getting a shot though. We have tried giving him some grain as a reward for his good behavior but he won't eat it, he just wants to get back to the herd after the loving and petting is over.

The Vet called to check on him yesterday evening and I didn't get her called back until this evening. I told her that we weren't seeing much improvement except that he doesn't act like it is hurting as much. She said that we wouldn't see much yet but that he should start keeping it open more, even if it does continue to water and look white. She said that it might even take a couple of months before all of the milkiness goes away.

I have to say that she impressed me, she is a very empathetic Doctor, her eye watered the whole time that she worked on Naylor's watery eye, plus she didn't charge us too much and that earns her a lot of points.

Ouch!

I had to go to the Doctor on Monday and that is like one of my least favorite things to do in the world. It ranks right up there with shopping or having to leave the farm for any reason.

I must have had some kind of mental lapse while I was there because I asked for a Tetanus shot. We give our horses tetanus shots every time they injure themselves and since I am always working on rusty barbwire and poking myself with the barbs, I thought that it might be a good idea. I think that I may have made a mistake.

While I am typing this, pain is shooting down my left arm in spasms. The nurse started to give me the shot in my right arm because I am left-handed and she said my arm would be sore for a few days. But being the deep thinker that I am, I told her that I wanted it in my left arm because my right arm is my mouse arm. I only do a few things with my left arm anyway and they are mostly unimportant things like writing and eating.

The shot itself didn't hurt but my arm keeps hurting worse each day. Now I did not ask for a Diphtheria vaccination but they slipped that one in on me. It wasn't until I read the little direction sheet that they gave me that I learned that I had been given both shots in one. I have had the symptoms of Diphtheria ever since because I am very impressionable. I have been having a hard time breathing, I am coughing and clearing my throat constantly.

Today is Wednesday and the muscle in my upper arm is hot, hard and swollen. It isn't red but that will probably happen tomorrow. She told me at the time that she gave me the shot that I should rub it vigorously all day and I did, so imagine how bad this would be if I hadn't.

Another thing that I have done that might have been foolish is stop taking all of my pain medicine. I really didn't think that it was helping my back that much and I was tired of the expense. I haven't taken any for a couple of weeks and I have been having trouble coping with the pain. I guess that it was helping me more than I thought. I don't feel like doing all of the things that I have been doing and I have to sit down and rest my back more often. If I am sitting a lot I have to get up and move around more often also.

I asked the Doctor about getting one of those tables that hang you upside down and he didn't actually recommend it but he told me that he has one himself. He also told me that if I do get one, to limit the time that I spend on it but since I do have perfect blood pressure he wouldn't say that I shouldn't use one. My problem is that I don't have room for one, but if there is a chance that it might help my pain, I will make room for it.

iGoogle Blogger Gadget

My home page on my computer just got better. I have been using Google for my home page with all of the neat gadgets for a long time now but they just made some really neat improvements.

I love the new way iGoogle is laid out and gmail just got so much easier for me. It was taking so long to access my gmail account that I hardly ever went there but I can get to it quickly and easily on my new personal iGoogle page.

And it gets even better! I can blog from my home page now too. I am writing this with the Blogger Gadget on my home page. The whole system is so much nicer and so much faster. This is not a commercial and I don't work for Google but I wish I did. Actually I am just testing this Google Gadget.

Oh, NOOO!!!

Frost! They said that it might happen but we didn't really believe them. But just in case, I did put a blanket over my tomatoes and a bucket over my little rose bush. All of my other flowers and plants have been destroyed by my wondering goat herd.

I took this picture of my poor little pine tree the other day as my goats were finishing it off. I didn't think that they could damage it any more than they already had but then they started peeling the bark off of it.

Owning goats is not for the faint of heart. They will disappoint and annoy you everyday and make you cry at least once per week. My little rose bush was a gift from a student of mine. He actually gave me three miniature rose bushes to start out but the other two met untimely deaths as bedding on a cool, sunny morning for our dearly departed pit bull, Holly.

The last remaining rose bush has soldiered on, fighting off attacks by these local thugs, who find rose and berry bushes so succulent. It has been trimmed back to only two leaves on several occasions this summer. I finally put a milk crate over the top of it and they figured out how to tip it over. They are very determined destroyers.

Zone Alarm

My slow dial-up connection is holding me prisoner tonight. I started a download of the Zone Alarm Firewall at 8:00 this evening and it is now 12:30. I am very sleepy but I cannot go to bed and leave the connection open all night. I thought about setting my alarm to get up and shut the computer down when the download is complete but I know that I would just keep hitting the snooze button.

My download is 79% done right now and I wouldn't have to even do this download if it weren't for either a Microsoft Update or an AVG Update that killed my internet connection. This same thing happened to me back in July with a Microsoft Update and I got it fixed somehow. This time I couldn't fix it without totally uninstalling Zone Alarm.

I may be wasting my time anyway because I may install this new Zone Alarm Firewall and lose my connection again. Microsoft or AVG is doing something that makes Zone Alarm have a nervous breakdown or something. I am going to shut off the Automatic Updates from Microsoft, but since I got an update from AVG at the same time, I can't say for sure who the culprit is. I don't have time to figure out how to fix their messes in either case.

Good Morning! I ended up going to bed and setting my alarm, I finally woke up enough to disconnect the connection after hitting the snooze button around five times. I am going to do some more research on my computer problem before reinstalling my new copy of Zone Alarm. I will try to find out if there is a fix or if the offending update has issued a patch for the problem.

Morning Workout

I do need to lose weight and had my DH mow me a path around the lower pasture, so that I can walk everyday. I have walked it twice since he mowed it several days ago. I have good intentions though.

This morning I got more workout than I bargained for. I was still in bed when I heard the sound of horse hooves running around the barn/house, with a groan I got up and got dressed. This only happens when my DH is at work. When I finally got outside there were five horses out, Seville, Buddy, Cougar, Naylor and Darth. They weren't too hard to put up but then I had to find the hole in the fence and fix it.

The fence was down in the upper pasture at the farthest end. I got all of the fence back up and then followed the electric wire all the way back around the top field. I figured that there would be a break in it and there was. So I fixed the break and started back to the house.

When I came past the goat lot, I decided to lower one corner of the wire. I had been working on electric fence all morning, so I didn't think about it being hot. I had unhooked the gate at the top of the hill so that fence would not be hot, but now I was in the valley and I just wasn't thinking. I grabbed the t-post and started trying to unhook the insulator, my memory was completely restored when the jolt came. I hate it when that happens, I feel so stupid.

I also gave in to convenience today. Right in the middle of the horses all running around in the yard, I noticed that Paris, my yearling doe had gone through two electric fences in order to get to Cooter. She was trying her best to scale his woven wire fence. A goat friend of mine kept asking me if I was afraid that Cooter would get loose and go to the does if they came in heat. I told her that I was more afraid that the does would go to him and I was right.

I gave it some thought, then made a quick decision that it would just be easier to put Cooter in the goat lot with Paris and Colette and put Calico in the barn stall. It would make milking so much easier for me and make feeding so much easier for me. But right now I am wondering if I made the right decision because Calico is right outside my living room door and she is screaming her head off. She doesn't want to be alone.

I tried putting Angel in with her and that helped but I can't leave Angel in there all of the time, she would go nuts. Hopefully Calico will adjust or lose her voice before long. This all means that my two does will be kidding in the middle of March while it is still cold and snowy. That should make some interesting blogs.

No Turning Back

Well I made a decision yesterday and there is no turning back. I wanted to wait until December to breed Collette and Paris but Collette was obviously ready yesterday and so we put her with Cooter. The timing was perfect because she stood for him and he got the job done. If she conceives, she will be kidding in mid-March. I would like to have Paris kidding in mid-April. So I will put her in with him next month.

I plan to milk Calico all winter then breed her in the Spring. Putting Collette in with Cooter has also solved my wondering goats issue. Paris and Calico have not gotten out of the fence since Collette has not been there to lead them.

Angel and Abby have finally become friends, they were just tolerating each other but they are finally starting to play together. Abby is just a little more playful than Angel, you would think that she was the youngest.

We enjoyed another nice night under the full moon last night. My DH built a fire under the big Maple tree where our Grandchildren love to play. It is right next to the goat lot. The Grandkids have gathered sticks there for a couple of years and they are always going to the stick pile to play. Their mean old Papaw burnt all of their sticks last night. I told him that he was going to be in some serious big trouble.

The reason that he was burning the kid's stick pile was that we had bought new fence and was going to enlarge the lot to include the big Maple. But while burning the pile and sitting there watching the fire. We decided that losing their favorite spot might give them issues later in life, so we are going to preserve the area and fence the tree outside the goat lot.

We are even going to add a concrete bench to the spot under the tree. The only problem that I see with our plan is that they can no longer call it "The Stick Pile". Unless they get busy and gather a bunch more sticks.

Moon Shadows

If you didn't go for a walk in the moonlight last night, then you just aren't living. I took two walks last night. For some reason, it may be a compulsion, I have to take a short tour of the grounds before I go to bed. My tour last night was just inspiring, that harvest moon was a thing of beauty.

I marveled at my shadow that was so clearly defined. Two of the goats were out and snoozing in the driveway along with their faithful companion, Angel. She was bright white, soft and cuddly in the moonlight when she ambled over to me for a rub and a hug. I enjoyed the scenery for a few minutes then went to bed.

I had a rough night, I couldn't get to sleep. I had a headache most of the day yesterday and it got worse when I laid down. When I did finally doze off, I kept waking up in pain, then my stomach started complaining about something I ate. I promised myself that I would quit eating spicy stuff right before bed, then later I promised myself not to eat anything before going to bed, still later I promised myself not to ever eat anything spicy at anytime of the day. I ended up promising myself never to eat again period!

As I flopped about the bed with all of these thoughts, pains and promises, Angel and Abby both started pitching a fit. They normally bark throughout the night to ward off predators but this was different, this was something serious that needed someone's attention and since nothing wakes my dear Husband, it fell my lot.

I walked out into the night with my tiny flashlight that wasn't needed because of the brightness of the moon. The dogs fell silent as soon as I walked out and no longer seemed concerned, they had done their job, they had alerted me to a problem that really didn't affect them.

I looked around and didn't see or hear anything, then I walked around the corner of the barn and saw something that most people would love to see in the moonlight. It was just the most beautiful sight. Although I didn't have time to stand around and marvel long at it, because I had to run into the house and wake up my Husband before this beautiful sight got ugly.

There, standing in the yard, in the moonlight on his hind feet pawing at the sky was our white stallion. It took my breath away for more than one reason, it was an awesome sight, he is very beautiful. But he was also challenging our Grullo Stud, who was only one tiny electric wire away from him and he was making some challenging moves himself. They had already broke one wire and the valley soon filled with violent screams and squeals.

It was really no big deal, I woke the man and he grabbed a halter and lead rope, I went back out and yelled at them. They were like a couple of kids who had been caught doing something wrong. Badger trotted off and Jazz started pacing the fence but stopped and stood still as quick as my DH said his name. He haltered him and put him in the corral for the night, then went back to bed. He is out fixing fence this morning. He had two days off in a row, that is just amazing.

As for me, I have still sworn off food. I did have a glass of goat's milk this morning and that seems to have settled things down for a little while. My head is still aching, so I am thinking that I have probably contracted the bout of flu that has been making the rounds.

Followers

I currently have four superior, intellectual people following my blog. I know that there are more of you out there who are ashamed to admit that you can't get through the day without reading about how many eggs I gather each day.

I would like to welcome Punky to my Follower's list, it was very brave of you to own up to reading my blog faithfully. If you don't know what I am talking about, you just need to scroll down a little ways in the right hand column of this page until you see the "Followers" area, then click on "Follow this blog" to add your name to the list. Don't be afraid, no one will know who you really are if you don't use your real name.

Also, just in case you are interested, we were away from home most of the day today. I went with my DH on one of those quick trips to pick up a fuel tank/tool box combo for the back of the new truck. Of course we actually came home with a fuel tank/tool box combo, another bigger fuel tank and a 6 ft. yard box. The only reason that we didn't make it home with a new rifle was because the man who had it for sale wasn't home.

These quick trips always last most of the day and my DH comforted me with the fact that I got to stop at one yard sale. The one yard sale that I got to visit was actually where we bought the fuel tank/tool box combo that we had gone after in the first place, so that was pretty painless for him.

I did buy three pairs of shoes, a purse, assorted ribbon and yarn and two teddy bears, so the day wasn't a total loss. Plus I got a Heath Blizzard from Dairy Queen.

The chickens were locked out of the barn/house today, which means that we don't know where they laid their eggs. We had a short egg hunt before it got dark and found only one out in the yard and a few in the goat/chicken shed but where the rest of them laid, we do not know. I added this last paragraph for those of you who love my egg reports. And by the way, I do have a couple of faithful egg buyers now, who are good for two to three dozen eggs each week.

I will also add this for those who need some goat news, Calico is giving one and one third quart of milk per day now. She would give more if I milked twice per day but I am not willing to put forth that effort, since we aren't using all that she is giving now.

Darth

He finally did it. My DH finally named a horse, he says it is his first. I usually do all of the naming around here and had been throwing several names at him for the new Tennessee Walker, who is totally black. Then my Husband took the horse for a ride out on the road and when he came back he had come up with the perfect name, Darth.

This horse is pretty awesome, we don't think that he has ever lived outside of a stall or been ridden outside an arena or round pen. He is just acting like he is seeing the world for the first time. My DH said that he did great out on the road, he wasn't flighty or spooky but he looked at everything with interest.

When we turned him out in the main pasture yesterday with the rest of the herd, he was more interested in sight-seeing than in the other horses. He just wondered around everywhere and looked at everything like he was seeing nature for the first time. He is a loner, he wasn't really interested in socializing.

We are very impressed with this gelding, he really seems to have the right stuff. We were told that he is a 3 yr. old but in comparing his teeth with one of our 2 yr. olds, we think that he probably just turned two this past Spring. He will probably be a tall boy when he stops growing. I have taken some pictures of him but haven't transferred them to the computer yet.

While The Cat's Away

My DH took yesterday off to get the new horse and Zircon gelded plus have the Vet sleeve two mares. The geldings went well and the sleevings went really well. When the Vet announced that both mares were empty, we breathed a sigh of relief. He thought that was funny because usually when he tells people that their mares aren't bred, they are disappointed.

These two mares are 3 and 4 yr. old riding horses and not broodmares. Jazz, our stallion, got out with them on Christmas day while we were away and they both looked bred. We hadn't seen them come into heat since then either. So, we were expecting Thanksgiving babies.

My dear Husband put the new horse in my goat lot after his traumatic event, he was moving slowly and he is a quiet horse anyway so we didn't think it would be a problem. We went to town for several hours and when we returned home, the fillies in the main pasture had broken a strand of the goat lot fencing trying to get to the new horse (haven't named him yet).

The strand that they broke was holding my gates, so all of my goats got out. Which was fine because they get out all of the time anyway. The problem was that Cooter had somehow gotten loose from his stake-out. So when we got home there was all of the goats together as one happy family. One of the does was breathing very hard and I assume that it was from running from Cooter.

I had planned on putting Cooter back in with the two does in December, so that they would kid in warmer weather. I wasn't going to breed my milking doe until Spring, so that we could have milk all winter. Now all I can do is write down the date that he got loose with them and hope for the best. My milk doe was clean, so I don't think that he got to her but the other two acted pretty receptive.

This type of thing always happens when you are away from home. I know that I shouldn't be this way but I would just prefer to stay home all of the time. I am fairly sure that Jazz planned his Christmas day surprise well before Christmas Eve, he knew that we would be gone all day.

This is the first time Cooter has gotten loose, I thought at first that he must have gotten his halter off but he didn't. Somehow he had released the bull snap, that takes some skill if you don't have fingers, but desperate times call for desperate action.