Fall Nearly Done

I guess I had better hurry, if I want to blog at least once this month.

The leaves fell from the trees too quickly this year with all of the rain that we had. But I am still enjoying the cooler days. My oldest Granddaughter and I spent nearly a whole day exploring our island and the Indian Creek creek bed.

We had tons of fun opening muscle shells, looking for pearls, watching the fish and a big old crawdad. We gathered odd rocks and looked at tracks in the sand, Indian Creek is a very sandy creek.

While we were on a gravel bar down in the bed of the creek, I pointed out to her how beautiful a creek is when you are on the same level with it. Looking upstream and downstream, as opposed to looking down on it from the bank is a much better view. I wish I had taken my camera but when I asked her, she didn't want to be bothered with posing and asked me not to take it.

Thanksgiving and Christmas are sneaking up on me as usual. Arranging dates to meet everyone's Holiday schedules is the hardest part. Finding money to buy gifts is another challenge this year. I normally have all of my shopping done way before now but couldn't get that accomplished this time.

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.

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.

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.

Crocs

Finding time to blog is getting difficult. My Husband, bless his heart, has decided to make me shoulder the whole load of taking care of my goats with no help at all from him. He thinks that I will realize that they are too much trouble and I will get rid of them.

Little does he know that I still enjoy them and the only real problem that I am having is that I keep falling. I fell again yesterday. I have been turning Cooter out of his pen to eat, instead of feeding him hay that we don't have at this point. So he spends most of his day in the yard eating my blackberry bushes and strawberry plants. He also makes visitors quite uncomfortable by his pleasant aroma and peeing on them and their cars.

Yesterday he had been out all morning and had taken to eating what hay we do have in the barn. So I went to put him up and as I was coming back down to the house I ended up on my back again, right on level ground. It was muddy from the previous night's rain but this was so unexpected. As I struggled back to an upright position, I began to think that this was not all together my fault or the fault of the slippery mud. It must be my shoes.

I love Crocs and have several pairs, they are just comfortable and easy to clean. But I don't think that they are the proper foot attire for goat/chicken farmers in muddy environments. So I am in the market for an easy to slip on but well cleated barn shoe. As for my Husband, I am hoping that he will give up this plan of his and allow me keep my goats. After all, I don't spend endless hours shopping and/or spending his hard earned money. I also don't run all of the gas out of his vehicles because I don't go anywhere.