New Life Old Farmers

With My Loving Spouse on the mend from his total knee replacement, I am currently wearing many hats.  On a recent trip into town, I debated about taking a 15 minute break from all my jobs, sitting with a latte and my book for a few moments.  I honestly couldn’t decide, if I should go or not, then made a wrong turn on the way to Starbucks, stopped and said to myself…15 minutes, it’ll do you good.  I had no idea how much!

I was all settled in with my book and my latte.  It was nice.

“Oh, hi!” said John Jr. and his wife, the eldest son of the previous owners of Glory Farm.  We’ve had lots of interactions with John Jr. and I even worked with his wife at one of the elementary schools.  We like them a lot and always enjoy visiting with them.  We got ‘caught up’ and then John Jr. said,

“My parents are here would you like to meet them?”  His parents poured years of hard work into this place, the house had no electricity upstairs and linoleum covered many a surface.  Leaving Black Knight Ranch (Glory Farm) was hard for them, and we knew that they had not been in the best health recently.

“I would love to!”

I then met two smiling, slightly frail people, who invited me to sit down as we started chatting about the home we both love, its dirt, its flowers, the barns, our animals and where we’d each put our vegetable gardens.  The conversation was lively…  I started to say that I didn’t feel as if we ‘owned’ the place, just that we were the current ‘care takers’, whereby this small frail woman waved her hand and said,

“Pshaw, it is yours.  You own it”, which was a sweet blessing to me.  She has never wanted to come back and see the inside of the house, for which I truly understand when you love something and then must move on… but she blessed me even more by saying, “I’ve never wanted to go back into the house, but now that I’ve met you, I might”.

The Vegetable garden is finished.

One of many, many projects around here and oh, so rewarding to see if finally completed.

From where we started to where we are now…it has taken some time…and plenty of help, for which we are very grateful.

If I were a professional photographer, there’d be all kinds of great before and after pictures….

but here is our little montage….

The back of the house soon after we moved in…

The dog run August 2012, behind The English Ax Wielding Teen..

Help from the Cousins to take it down…Help from kids…

So proud and happy to see it come all together…

With My Loving Spouse My Patient reasonably comfortable (pain meds in full force) and not needing anything at the moment, I decided to finish painting the vegetable garden fence.  All in all there was only half of it that needed painting and with a sponge roller, I should be able to finish it off simply and easily, attending to My Patient as necessary.“If you are okay, I am going out to paint the fence.”

“Oh, Sweetie, why don’t you use my new paint sprayer?  You will love it and you’ll be done in no time.”

“Hmmm, I don’t think so…” I said, “I’ve never used one and it might be better if I used it when you are up and able to help me, I’ll just roll the paint.”

“It is really easy and you will be back in here with a Cheshire Cat grin on your face in minutes!” 

“I don’t know…”

“You can do it, it is simple”,  said The Patient currently hallucinating on pain medication.

So out I went to read the directions, to the Fabulous-It-Will-Be-Easy-Paint-Sprayer.  The directions came in a variety of languages:

Spanish and English For The Tool Savvy.  There were no directions written in what I needed, which was English For The Non Tool Savvy.  Sometimes I do not read directions…  However, this time I read them and re-read them and then read them again.  I probably read those instructions 10 times.  They were not complete and left out all kinds of stuff…like what was this thing?I could only assume it was a cup holder or a holder for the spray gun thing, but still I did not know where it went.  I read the instructions again and briefly thought about trying to read them in Spanish as well, after all ‘I will love it and be done in no time’.

At the end of the English For The Tool Savy Instructions it said,

“Now put the intake hose and the return hose in the paint and paint”, so that is what I did.  Whereby the ‘I will love it’ Paint Sprayer spewed one gallon of paint onto 20 pickets in a thick gooey mess in about 5 minutes.  Spraying me and everything else within reach… I did-NOT-love-it….at all.

The Patient (A Tool Savvy Man) could hear the sprayer and had hobbled out on his walker (a major fete).

“Didn’t you hear it?”

“Uhmmmm….yes”, I said sort of tensely, flinging my speckled glasses across the yard.

“Well, it shouldn’t have sounded like that.”

Really…

Back I went to the hardware store to get another gallon of paint, in all my paint speckledness.  I was helped again by the same man who sold me the last gallon of paint.  I might have told him, I wasn’t too keen on our new paint sprayer and he (who was not hallucinating on pain medication) said, “Oh, those don’t get easy until you’ve used them about 10 times”.

In the country there are a LOT of trailers.  People here have all kinds of trailers (stock trailers, horse trailers, travel trailers, utility trailers, tilt bed trailers, trailers for toys and trailers for tools) and drive them around like it is no big deal to drive through town with a trailer trailing behind them.  They not only drive them, but they park them!  If you are not impressed, then you’ve never driven a trailer and you’ve never ever tried to park a trailer, because here is the thing…in reverse they do not go the right way, they go the other way, backwards to the way you are going!

One of my new girlfriends can drive their horse trailer….forward.  We are going to go on a trail ride someday, we just have to make sure we do not have to back up.  I am very impressed with her.

We’ve acquired a few trailers for a few reasons.  Occasionally, My Loving Spouse will say something like,

“We should go down to that empty parking lot, so you can get comfortable driving the trailer.”  (The oxymoron is in red!)

Now like all good wives, I might maybe sometimes remind (gently) My Loving Spouse of stuff that we need to get done, I can assure you trailer driving practice has never been on the list.

Unfortunately for me, there was the day we rented some big-ol (real word derived from big and old) piece of equipment and it came on a trailer and had to be returned at 9:00 am in the morning.  My Loving Spouse went to work at 8:00 and the equipment place did not exactly want to open an hour early, sheesh, so I had to return it.  I dressed very carefully and had a plan.  I’d drive a route that had the least amount of turns and just park it on the street outside the rental place even if that meant that it was double parked, then let one of ‘them’ (a real trailer driver) come and park it.  All went well,  I didn’t knock out any of our fence posts on the way out or side swipe any cars on the way in and I made it to my pre-planned landing spot.  Then I saw where they were waving stuff into their yard and thought, maybe I could do that and so I did.  It was a beautiful thing.  I’d driven that big-ol trailer and all was well.  I was done.

However, then the equipment Rental Dude said, “Oh pull it around a little bit.” So, I tried and it went twunk into another thing and I said a Bad British Word and then the Rental Dude said, “Okay…back up.”  It was then that I jumped out of the truck a lot flustered.

“I can’t even drive this thing!  I’m wearing pink and purple, so you’d know I cannot back up!  How much do we owe you for the dent?  But I cannot drive this trailer….”  It went pretty much like that, as I was wishing I stuck to my original plan of leaving it out on the road.  They banged out the small dent and that trailer is still rental-able and they do still rent it out…just not to me.

With My Loving Spouse in the hospital, I had to drive one of our trailers.  I got to where we were going and home again, but that is when we ran into trouble….parking it and backing it up.  It seems that if I had maybe enough room (something akin to a football field), I could probably do it.  However, I had to get it between stuff.  It only took two days.  Day one with Number Two Son’s help, I almost ran it into his car, so I quit for the day knowing I had 3 options the following morning:

1.  Leave it where it was for the next 3 weeks

2.  Get the Fire Captain neighbor to park it

3.  Try it again….so get ready to be amazed, because I am pretty proud of this picture.

Here it is again, notice that the stock trailer on the left has no new scratches and the fence on the right is still standing, for which you’ll have to take my word about.

PS:  In case you think this looks easy…there is a Rental Dude in town that will rent you a big-ol trailer to practice on, just don’t mention my name.

For some family time on Father’s day, we moved another fence.  Squaring out the property and supplying our ‘massive’ (3) growing herd with more grass to eat.We were anxious to get this done prior to ‘knee day’.  Team Offspring were ‘invited’ to spend some quality time with us moving the fence, after all, it was only going to take us 30 minutes or so….3 hours later we were wrapping it up.Knee Day arrived for My Loving Spouse with the ever constant pain in his knee and for me anxiety pains in my stomach.  I know, I know, they do these knees everyday, it is no big deal….but…they don’t do it to My Loving Spouse everyday and so my stomach pains showed up.

My Loving Spouse was in good hands and off for the operation.  It was then that the ‘parade’ began, a visual expression that I/we are not alone in this journey called ‘life’, as God placed people beside me all morning.  The first a dear friend who was leaving an appointment, then a friend who’d called that morning came bringing coffee (double yippee), a co-worker of My Loving Spouse with his family crossed our path as well and prayed for us all on the spot, as my coffee friend walked out through the hospital doors another friend from church walked in…God’s Tag Team and I was blessed.  I had known I needed to not be alone, and with Team Offspring working I sort of assumed I would be…Thank you Lord.

As for My Loving Spouse the surgery went well….and we are grateful.

Today is the last day of school!  I haven’t been this excited for the last day of school, since I was about 10 years old!  When I was 10, summer meant reading books, until my Mother told me to “Put that book down and go outside”, swimming, playing outside after dinner, the beach, trips to my Uncle’s farm, Popsicles and that ‘freedom’ that comes when it is summer and you are a kid.  However, this year it might be even better….

I love, love, love my job at the school, (total truth, there is one small part I do not love and that part is now over and I never have to do it again, so when I go back in the fall, I will just have the good stuff) but still…this is my first summer off from all of it and this is my first summer off from having kids out of school for the summer!  A quick 20 years and wham, we are done.  I am not going to hear about how anybody is ‘bored’ or try to limit teenagers electronic time, when really ‘they should put down that gadget and go outside’… I still bought the kids their first book of the summer (a tradition) and I’ll probably keep a few Popsicles on hand, but I am not in charge of anybody’s summer but mine.  I have a box of books to read, literally, sent home with me by My Librarian.  I am going to paint the house, ride horses, dig in the dirt and sew.  A husband to nurse through a ‘total knee replacement’ and then…THE Grandchild’s birth, so it is sure to be the best summer ever…

I am already looking forward to summers with grand kids at the farm…we’ll read books, eat Popsicles, paint barns, ride horses, dig in the dirt, maybe even sew and if they say they are bored…well, I’ll just tell them to….call their Mom.

I was going to call this post ‘Saddle Sores’, but I was afraid that no one would read it, but worry not, this has nothing to do with one’s comfort issues or lack of comfort issues after spending time in a saddle and everything to do with spending money on a saddle.

We have uncharacteristically been out to our favorite saddle store three times in the last week.  The first time was simply to pick up a bit of off-cut leather and to take Dear John and Dear John’s wife on one of our favorite field trips.  I snagged this picture from Dear John’s blog, you can go there to get their take on the experience and see a bunch of cool pictures.I have a beautiful saddle, a very beautiful saddle and I love it, but there was concern, that my beautiful Beau does not.  One of the experienced riders at the Saddle club thought that Beau might be bucking because he is hurting, so we loaded up the horse and the saddle and went back out to the experts…Don’s Leather Shop where the Bacon family has been making custom saddles for years.

We rolled in to Bacon’s told the brothers that the saddle we’d bought there last year does not fit our horse.  This was a priceless moment as both brothers looked at the other and said, ‘Did you fit that one?’  I assured them, that we’d messed it up all on our own and that they were not to worry, but we did need their advice.  It was determined that indeed my beautiful saddle did not fit Beau and we would leave it at the saddle store on consignment.  It made me sad, but was the practical thing to do.

The inside of the saddle, the tree, is what the saddle is built on.  It comes in all sizes and shapes and is the predominant concern for fitting the saddle to the horse, so began our lesson in saddle fitting…a happy horse will certainly be a happier rider, especially if that rider is me.  

Beau is a big boy.  I am a big gal, so we needed a better saddle to fit us both, as we plan to barrel race at lightning fast speeds, or at least to break out of a trot.  We are quite happy to buy stuff used (cheaper and broken in).  We quickly learn that used saddles do not always fit and are not always cheaper…as in the case of this custom used beauty on sale for $2000.00(Insert funny caption here about the horse I am riding…)

We find one in the store that almost works and is only a little bit more expensive than my beautiful saddle we are leaving behind……but it doesn’t fit Beau…darn.  We leave to think things over….the Bacon’s assuring us that they are happy to help check the fit on any saddle we might find…I am a bit sad, but being practical.

My Loving Spouse starts a saddle hunt on Craig’s list as he is an optimist.  He and Number Two Son also picked up Dixie who had been broken and begun early training, so saddle issues are now in place for her as well!

Fast forward a few days and we are now back at the Saddle store for the third time, with 2 horses and 2 saddles.

1. My Loving Spouses beloved roping saddle that belonged to a good friend

2. One he found on Craig’s list.

The bad news is that his saddle does not fit either horse.

The cheap saddle from Craig’s list is a cheap saddle (one time terrific) from Craig’s list.

The saddle that fits our sweet Dixie?  My beautiful saddle, that we’d left on consignment, but now remove and I say to My Loving Spouse, “Happy Father’s Day/Birthday” you now have a beautiful saddle.

…and for Beau and I?

We break down and order a new saddle with all the right measurements for horse (Beau) and rider (me) at more than I was comfortable spending on me…not on Beau, but you know….not a custom one, but fancy for me none-the-less.

That’s it.

End of the story.

Spending more money on the saddle than we did on the horses (except that the saddles do not eat while we are sleeping).

Until…

The saddle store called…my saddle would take all summer to make and get here, but this particular saddle company has another saddle a bit fancier (more expensive) that is ready now, but it has some small blemishes that they are not happy with, so they’d offer it to me at a discount…and so we say yes…

After what felt like a long weekend pacing the field, watching Agnes‘s backside for labor, waking up at all hours of the night to check on our heifer, she very kindly started calving early in the morning.  Of course the wind was blowing, but the sun was up and Our Friend the Farmer (who was my ‘help we the calf is stuck’ go-to-person) was conveniently baling alfalfa in the field next door.  My Loving Spouse went off to work leaving all three of us ‘city people’ behind as ‘cow mid-wives’.

Number Two Son, My Girl and I were able to view our heifer up close with her labor, but stayed far enough away to keep Agnes ‘comfortable’.  (Oxymoron… labor & comfortable…none of these go in the same sentence!)  My Girl was photographer all the while muttering, “Oh my blank-blank, this is the best birth control ever!”  Number Two and I were concentrating on the hoofs that were coming out, relieved to see two and both presented in the way Mother Nature intended.  My Loving Spouse was texting for updates and I lost count of the number of phone calls to Our Friend the Farmer, but I was concerned at how long it was taking.  He assured me that Heifers just take more time and to be patient.  With this assurance that it would still be awhile, I ran inside to use the bathroom, Mother Nature did a little giggle, and our calf was born.

My greatest concern at this point was that Agnes, would be stunned (duh!) and going ‘Holy Hannah what just happened‘ and not clean the baby’s nose.  Agnes, now upgraded to Mama Cow, was doing exactly that, while the baby was blinking in the sunlight.  The city midwife crew and I calmly walked toward our calf, as we drew near Mama got on her feet and began doing a proper job of licking up our little calf.   We got to stand about 8 feet away as both Agnes and Elsie joined in to care for the little one, watching as the little calf struggled to its feet.

Watching a birth is exhilarating… successfully adding a new little calf to our herd was beyond exciting, sharing it with my kids was very special, and sharing it at work with anyone who’d listen was just plain fun.  Our Friend the Farmer says we now will have to change our name to Glory Ranch as we are officially raising livestock.

B14 is the cutest calf in Kittitas valley!  It is a boy, a bull calf.  Number Two Son was trying to talk me into naming him Angus or Roberto…so I guess his full name can be Angus Roberto Walton, but you can just call him Bob.

Glory Farm calf watch 2014 is in full swing.  Agnes is getting very close, which means a restless night for her owners.  I went to bed last night, but set the alarm for midnight, when I threw a jacket on over my flannel cow pj’s, put my boots on and sauntered out to the field to check on her with a strong flash light in hand.  I spent enough time with her to know she was not calving and passed the ‘calf watch baton’ to My Loving Spouse for the 5:00 am alarm.   Up very early for church and still no calf.

Our weekend started by taking Dear John and Dear John’s Wife out for diner and a ‘boot of beer’.  We do so enjoy having them around.  They are interested in just about everything, take all our the farm’s craziness in stride and were our what-to-watch-for-the-heifer-might-be-calving-back-up emergency response team.  With this stay’s project completed, they were set to roll on to their next adventure.With our Schroeder family off down the drive way, we set about our weekend chores.  The front of the house had no hose spigot, so watering the flower boxes took multiple trips with the watering can and when I needed to use a hose out there, it took three hoses attached together to make the distance, but just barely.  Needless to say, a hose spigot would really come in handy and we’ve been trying to figure out how to make it all work, because 2 years without a hose is a long time.  Did I say that there is no hose spigot in the front yard?  After all, if there were one, we’d know it.  Luckily, My Loving Spouse figured out how to tap into the sprinkler system to add a hose spigot for me…he said, it would be really easy, so we started digging around the sprinkler box…to find a second round sprinkler box contraption.  

“Oh, what is this…” as he dug about just on the other side of the box where he’d planned to add the hose spigot.  He got it opened found a strange plumbing do-hickey (technical term) and unscrewed it.  It was then there was a very loud ‘pop’, almost like a ‘bang’, water went spewing forth, My Loving Spouse went rolling backward covered in watery mud.  I went for the main-line water shut off tool.

So it seems, all this time there was no hose spigot, there was a quick connect attachment thing for a hose spigot.  Sometimes it is really helpful if you actually know what you are looking for…

Long story short, we now have a hose spigot in the front yard and are ready for easy watering.

….and since we were at the hardware store getting hose spigotty things to replace the one that got dismantled, I got us ready for our calf as well.