We bought a house-Part Two

In my last post about this I left off with what I knew the evening of the first day.  At our Realtor's suggestion we put a new lock on the gate that day.  After that it got even more exciting, though maybe not all the good kind of exciting!  With an auction you pay a deposit the day of the bidding and then the remainder has to be paid prior to 5PM the next business day.  The office location was downtown Phoenix and since Tony had a job there that day we went with him.  On our way home we went by to see if the keys I remembered seeing in the RV would unlock either the front or back door.

We pull up to the gate and there's a different lock on the gate!  Our lock is gone.  No signs, no notes, nada.  There's a lockbox also.  A call to our Realtor confirms he didn't do it, he gives us a code to try on the lockbox, and tells us that it's our house-if someone has changed the lock they are in the wrong and we have every right to break the lock off.  Off we go to get tools.  Tony hammered open the lockbox which we assumed contained the key to the lock-we were right. 

Can you imagine the thoughts going through our heads during this time?

• Did we just get scammed?  Our we out $30K now?
• Are we dealing with an upset previous homeowner who will make our lives miserable?

As we approach the house we see that all the gates around it that were previously open are now closed.  There's a lockbox on the gate to the front door, and another on the front door.  Once again, a call to our Realtor and he's able to identify who it is by the colored box on the front door.  He calls us back with info from the guy and suggests we call him.  This picture shows how far from the road the house is and why we couldn't tell all this from the gate.  This picture was taken a couple of days later, but Wednesday night when this was taking place, the sun had set before we were able to get in.  What you see here is our driveway and the road is out by the two evergreens.

Tony called the other Realtor who had put the lockboxes on.  He'd been contacted that morning by FreddieMac to secure the property and prepare it for sale.  Needless to say he was a bit put out by the lack of communication between the bank/trustee/FreddieMac.  He asked if we got a good deal.  Tony simply answered yes, and this other guy says, "So you paid what, about $75,000?"  I think he almost creid when Tony told him what we actually paid.  I feel pretty good about the price, knowing a Realtor felt two and a half times what we paid would still be a good deal!

I had the power turned on last Friday and we went over to check a few things, but haven't been back since.  Tony's eager to test the well and the pipes in place to irrigate the pastures.  He took pictures that day and I'll post those soon.

The books we ordered to learn more about meat preserving have arrived and Tony's thinking it's pig butchering time sooner than he thought.  Our goat buck is in the same pen as the does and our cow.  All 3 are pregnant and need extra food, but Boots (the buck) shoos them away, so he needs his own pen-hence the earlier than expected pig butchering time.  She's over 250 though, so she's plenty big enough.

We bought a house today!

For anyone that's hung around long enough to read my blog for a while, you'll recall we've been trying to find a house to buy.  We even got close a few times-as in accepted offers that either got revoked by the seller or us.  Last night at 530 our realtor called to tell us about a property that was being auctioned this morning at 10AM.  Not so odd except we had told him we decided to stay here and add on, so he wasn't even really looking for a house for us anymore.  We had contacted a SIP home manufacturer and were awaiting their reply as to whether they could build a modified version of their standard plan.  In other words we weren't even looking anymore!  We couldn't get over to see the property before dark yesterday, so we got up early today to have a look.  The auction was at the courthouse at the county seat-an hour's drive from here-so we needed to be ready to head that direction before 9. 

Did I mention we didn't get to see the inside?  Or that to bid on a house at a trustee's sale you have to take a cashier's check in the amount of $10,000 as a deposit?  And the remainder has to be paid prior to 5PM the next day?  How about that we didn't get to see the inside first?  Oh yeah, I did tell you that part already!

We knew at least 2 other investors were interested in bidding.  We knew that both would want to make a quick sale afterward.  We knew we'd be willing to pay a little bit more for that investor to hold the note, should we decide to buy from him or her.  We were told to arrive about half an hour early, but we weren't able to do that and I was getting nervous.  We got to the courthouse at 955AM after having rushed into a branch of our bank that just happens to be across the street from the courthouse.  Tony and Goober Gus went ahead to see if we needed to check in or something like that, bu the trustee's rep wasn't there yet.  Whew.  Another couple and a single lady were though.  Were they there to bid on the same property?  All the excitement!

The trustee's rep told us he hadn't heard from the trustee yet that morning as to whether the sale was going thru.  What?  All this and the sale might not even be today?  OK, maybe that was one way God was answering our prayer to lead us in this transaction.

Turns out the single woman was a rep for one of the investors.  Hmm, how would we handle bidding against an investor with a rep that's well versed in these transactions?  Tony had rehearsed his strategy in his mind on the drive over.  He was going to let someone else open the bid and gauge how serious they were and set our upper limit. 

Having been told there could be a wait, Goober Gus and I went inside to use the restroom.  When we returned, the trustee's rep was reading the legal intro to the sales process, then proceeded to read the details of the property we were there to bid on.  I looked around-the investor's rep was nowhere to be found!  The rep opened the bid at $30,486 and asked if there were any offers.  Tony stammered over his words and started saying $35,000 (our upper limit), while he actually meant $30,500.  The rep instructed us that the first bid only had to be $1 over the opening price, so Tony restated our offer at $30,487.  The rep asked for other offers.  Having heard none, we heard the familiar, "going once, going twice, sold for $30,487"! 

Wait.  What just happened??  Did we just buy a house?  Without seeing the inside?  Do I care?  We just bought a house on 2 acres with 2 pastures, outbuildings, a 5th wheel trailer and backing up to Forest Service land.  We just bought a house.  In the span of 5 minutes!  It's been 10 hours and I still can't quite wrap my mind around it.  We've been looking for about 3 years, gave up and now we have a house for one tenth of what we planned to spend when we were going to build!

God is so good!  Did I mention that we still haven't seen the inside??

Oh yeah,  one of the new neighbors is a lady that was a dear friend of Tony's mom.  They bought the land from Tony's dad years ago.  Kinda funny, huh?

A Crazy Mixed-Up Day

It started off sanely enough.  No plans outside of the ordinary daily tasks.  Kinda felt a bit of freedom as a result.  Did I say it started off sanely?  Shows how crazy it's been-Tony slept in and I got up to let the chickens out.  I noticed that Sugar was out of the goat pen with Spice.  Spice gets out all the time, but it was odd to see Sugar out too.  Then I saw the rest of the goats were out and the gate was open.  That explains the noises that sounded similar to Goober Gus getting out of bed and stomping around in his room.  The hay bales are outside our bedroom, so we could hear them stealing food.  I grabbed Annie and Molly by the collar and Peaches tagged along and went back voluntarily.  Sugar and Spice did too.  That just left Cream and she eventually jumped in on her own.

Last night was the first time we took all the baby goats out-they're old enough to be weaned now, so they're in their own pen full time.  At milking time I got 158 ounces total from Annie and Molly.  That's a gallon and bit over a pint.  I left 2 quarts out for a new batch of yogurt that I'd decided I'd culture for 4 hours instead of 8 and see how that came out.  Some time during all this I decided I could bake crackers-oh, but we're trying to do all those things with sourdough and it should ferment overnight.  I figured I'd go ahead and start it and bake them after several hours instead of overnight.

Then I remembered that a friend of ours has a neighbor with overloaded peach trees and neither the friend nor the neighbor do any food preserving, so the trees were made available to us for picking.  Goober Gus and I got about 5 pounds the other day and I told the owner we'd be back when more ripened.  All 3 of us went today and returned with roughly 80 pounds, and you can hardly tell we took any!  Both days we picked up the bug eaten ones to bring to the chickens, so they're getting a treat too.  This is one branch and there are several trees, all loaded like this.

Sorry about the sideways shot...
On the way home we stopped at a farm stand to get more cherry tomatoes.  I bought half a pound the other day and GG ate them all before I could tell him to save some for dad.  We also got giant green bell peppers for .75¢ and this farmer doesn't use chemical herbicides or pesticides.  Organic peppers sell for $6 EACH at the grocery store.  These are so flavorful that you can smell them a yard away.  We also bought some very spicy salsa to snack on for lunch.  So spicy that I had to add tomatoes, green chilies and onions to thin it out some.  We made 2 trays of nachos and polished off another bag of our new favorite tortilla chips.

It was during lunch that I decided we could make lasagna for dinner, so I took out a package of ground pork sausage and tomato sauce from the freezer.  We've got 2 gallons of whey to make ricotta, so it was all set.  I also decided I better learn the process of lacto fermentation and be ready to start preserving these peaches.  Tony spent close to an hour placing them in apple boxes that this same friend had brought us when we thought we'd found a place to move to.  The inserts to separate fruit were still there, so they came in very handy.  We have 3 and a half boxes of peaches!

OK, so now I have cracker dough souring, 80+ pounds of peaches picked, plans for a fairly involved dinner and I'm looking thru my GNOWFGLINS courses for the one on lacto-fermented fruit.  Tony needed to go to the shop and work on a couple of cellos.  GG asked if he could go with because his bike tires are both flat and the air compressor is at the shop.  I reminded Tony that today was the last day of a pretty good sale at OfficeMax and asked if it was worth it for me to drive to Cottonwood to take advantage of it.  He suggested I drop them off at the shop, go to Cottonwood and pick them up on the way back.  I hate dislike it when he makes a logical suggestion that doesn't line up with what I was thinking. 

Alright, so instead of working on peaches and spending some time planning out the upcoming week-GG wants to study volcanoes-I drove to Cottonwood.  Did I mention that driving makes me drowsy?  Yeah, so when we got home a nap was definitely needed.  GG watched Prince of Egypt and we dozed.  Until I remembered I wanted to put the yogurt in the fridge at 130 and it was now after 4.  So much for a nap.

I went out to check all the animals and poor patches had his head stuck in the fence.  Reason enough to dehorn any horned animal, IMO.  We tried cauterizing the horn buds when all the babies were a few days old, but the boys' horns grew anyway.  Now they're banded, but haven't fallen off yet.  It was at this point that I remembered that I needed to check the mamas and see if they needed to be milked again.  We (I) normally only milk once a day, but with this being the first day of weaning, I figured they'd need a second go around.  Got all the feed and supplies ready and came out to find that Spice had jumped out and eaten the milking time treats, so had to start a new batch soaking.  "When am I going to be able to start dinner?"  I thought to myself.  GG and Tony were playing "bollyball" (that'd be volleyball for anyone over the age of 10) and it was a nice late afternoon outside.

The girls gave nearly another 3 quarts of milk, though we only got to keep about half that.  Molly promptly stepped into the bucket today and then kicked it about 15 feet behind her.  I retrieved the bucket and milked her anyway, giving it to the chickens, who probably suggested she kick the bucket in the first place.  I'm not sure what the chickens do to repay the goats for this, though.

OK, on to dinner.  Tony started cooking the sausage-I asked why he was slicing it instead of just crumbling it and he said it was venison.  What?  We don't have any venison.  He told me to look at the wrapper in the trash.  Sure enough, the inside packaging says venison.  I looked more closely at the butcher paper on the outside and the word I couldn't make out this morning was now obviously antelope.  I vaguely recall neighbors giving us this when they gave us some pork sausage to try.  OK, so the lasagna is going to be made with cubed antelope sausage.  I also decided to try a recipe I had seen for lasagna "cupcakes".  In the original recipe won-ton wraps are used to line muffin tins and hold all the filling.  I had 6 lasagna noodles left from the last time we made it and didn't want to buy another box, so we tried this method.  Oh, but first I have to tell you about the ricotta.  For something that's supposed to be easy, I've had more failure than success.

The method is simply bringing the whey to roughly 180° and then pouring it through a butter muslin lined colander.  The one success I can recall, I brought the whey to nearly boiling, so that was my aim tonight.  Didn't work.  No ricotta.  Zero, zilch, nada.  {Hmm, that rhymed, maybe I should write children's silly stories?}  OK, I'm not going to the store for ricotta when I've managed to find a suitable alternative for everything else.  We decided to use chevre and just added Italian seasoning, garlic and salt. 

Cutting the partially cooked noodles into the right size circles seemed easy enough until we realized the size that fits the top is too big for the bottom, so Tony used scissors and custom cut them.  I topped with tomato sauce, antelope sausage, chevre, more sauce, another noodle and mozzarella.  Did I mention it's about 7PM already?  Or that the sweet elderly man that brings yard and garden trimmings for the goats and books or toys for Goober Gus stopped by just before we started cutting noodles.  As the oven is warming up and we're about done filling muffin cups with lasagna goodness, I start smelling something close to burning.  We just put a new (freecycle find) oven in yesterday, but it was clean inside.  Oh no!!  I put the cracker dough in there to keep flies off it!  Fortunately it was in a large Pyrex bowl, so no breakage, and I don't think the heat was a problem for the fermenting process, but it actually could be now that I think about it.  So we get these things into the oven finally and I start washing dishes so the kitchen won't be a total disaster tomorrow.  Tony and GG clean off the table and empty the dishwasher-oh wait, they did that while we waited for the whey to boil.  I finish the bulk of the dishes and check the lasagna.  Why aren't they cooked more than that already?  In my rush to stop the burning smell, I turned the oven off.  Goodness!  Will the craziness never end today? 

Here's the steps to filling the tins:

I turned it back on and we waited about 10 minutes.  Tony read a chapter from Charlotte's Web to Gus.  We started it last night and it's our aim to read a few chapters each evening.  Dinner was a hit, despite the many obstacles.  The flavor was outstanding!  Tony ate 6, I had 5 and GG had 4!  I thought he'd be too full to eat because he ate all the partially cooked noodle pieces.  Fooled me!

By now it's nearly 830 and we are at least half an hour behind in our evening routine.  We went out to lock up the chickens and check the goats, then got teeth brushed, read one more book, took fish oil and put him to bed!  That was at 9, it's now 10 and all I've done since then is write this very long description of a crazy weird day!  If you've read this far, pat yourself on the back and grab a gold star, you deserve it!!

Books and Clutter

You may be wondering how these go together.  Or maybe you already know.  In my house, books are treasured.  Not always read, but still treasured.  Their mere presence can cause two types of clutter:  physical and mental.  The space they take up, especially with a young child, can be overwhelming in a small house.  Goober Gus has 5 plastic bins for storing books-I got this idea from an organizational book I read.  Pre-readers can't tell what book it is from the spine, so storing them the way a library does on a shelf causes angst for them and the one who has to put them back after that child has moved all to the floor to get to the desired book.  This method has worked well, we've just run out of bins and places to put them.  I also try to have a specific place for library books to be kept so it's easier to find them when they're due back.

Well, that's all good until even that space is overrun with more books.  A good friend is in charge of the library book sale and she regularly gives me "special admission" to the sale on non-sale days to preview new donations.  So yeah, the spot for library books technically is holding library books, just ones that don't have to be returned because we've bought them.

Then there's my books.  I try not to buy books that I won't use again in the future, such as fiction.  I also prefer to check a book out from the library before purchasing just to be sure I like it and will refer to it regularly.  There are times though, that I just can't pass up a bargain even if I haven't read it (or at least perused it) to be sure I want to add it to my collection.  I have boxes of books in storage.  You're probably wondering why in the world I'd have books in boxes?  Simple.  We were supposed to be in this house temporarily while we built elsewhere.  That's no longer a plan and I don't have any place to unpack those books.  It will be like Christmas when I do finally get to unpack those boxes!  There are 2 that I miss, The Power of a Praying Wife and The Power of a Praying Parent.  If I could easily access the boxes I'd get them out, but that's not the case.

That covers the physical clutter, now on to the mental clutter.  Time.  Time to read these wonderful books and make good use of them.  I started to clear out and clean a space in our entertainment center that is home to a few books, some scrapbook materials, a beautiful tea set I bought two years ago at a yard sale (and have never used) and office supplies (a whole different love affair).  The books here I haven't even thought about for a long time and most were acquired while I was involved with MOPS.  I was going to sell or give them away.  Then I started looking thru them and realized I need to reread some.  I've been feeling a bit dry spiritually lately and was about to order a devotional book to give me something to focus on, then realized that at least 5 of these can fill that need. 

But when?  Most of my non computer screen reading happens in the moments before bed and I prefer that not be anything to keep me awake thinking.  Oddly enough, I got up close to 90 minutes earlier today than usual, just to have a few moments to read my Bible and pray before taking on the day.  I got dressed and went outside to release the chickens and feed the goats.  Guess who walked outside 2 hours before his normal time?  Yep.  So much for a few minutes to read and pray.  I'll never understand or figure out how kids know the days to get up early when parents want them to sleep in.  He'll easily sleep until 830 or 9 most days and was up at 630 this morning.

But I digress.  My daily schedule needs some shaking up anyway, so perhaps adding in some reading breaks would clear the mental clutter of having all these wonderful books that I want to read but don't.  How do you squeeze in reading time?

These are the ones I don't want anymore.  See one you'd like?  Let's make a deal!  Books for Sale
Adding these to my devotional time.  Got suggestions for more?  Devotionals

About My Floors

For some reason tonight I had a bit of ambition and beyond wanting the kitchen to be clean and ready to start cooking in tomorrow, I also wanted the floors to be clean.  I don't clean my floors very often and while I was sweeping I was having a conversation with myself.  Please tell me you do this too, I need to know I'm not totally bonkers!  Partly is OK, totally is not, haha.

The conversation was about why I've stopped cleaning my floor on a regular basis.  Many excuses entered my mind-but the one that resonated was that it simply wasn't a good investment.  The time it stays clean isn't really worth the time spent cleaning.  Sure, I could clean it tonight and enjoy it for about half an hour, then we'd be off to bed and before noon tomorrow my son would have tracked in enough dirt to make anyone think it hadn't been cleaned for weeks.  If it's going to look as though it hasn't been cleaned for weeks, why should I clean it any more frequently?  I was comfortable with this excuse and proceeded to go ahead and sweep the bathroom floor too.

Not even 5 minutes passed and Tony took our son in to brush his teeth.  I warned them I had just cleaned the floors.  Tony carefully took Goober Gus's boots off and dumped the dirt outside, leaving Gus to take his socks off.  You would not believe the dirt that gets into his socks!  FIVE MINUTES, and I wasn't even in the bathroom to enjoy the clean floor!  Five minutes.  The return on investment just isn't worth it to me, and that was my thought when I had visions of it still being clean in the morning...

Something to Think About

I thought I had made a similar post in the last couple of months, but checking my archives I find nothing on this topic.  So here goes.

I've been feeling the need for a big shake up lately.  You know-totally change the way my days flow, what's important vs what's not, what takes up more time than it's worth and what I'd like to spend more time doing.  That kind of shake up.  My brain is full of things I'd like to do "when I have time" but if I don't just make an effort to do it, that time isn't likely to come.

There have been a number of times in my life where I realized I could live anywhere I wanted, the first time being after my divorce.  With no husband and his job tying us to a location, and no children that would feel uprooted by simply taking off and going somewhere, I gave it serious thought.  What kind of environment is important to me?  What am I looking for in a community?  Weather would be the biggest issue for me, right after cost of living.  Having been raised in sunny, warm, AZ I knew I wouldn't like dreary, cold winters, and that's why I turned down a job offer in PA.  It was good pay doing something I would have enjoyed, but I need sunshine to operate.  The man offering the job tried to get me to believe that there was plenty of sunshine in PA.  Apparently he'd never been to AZ where we have more days of sunshine than any state in the nation.  Every picture I found for apartments there was taken on a cloudy day.  No thanks.

While I was single I met a man from Albuquerque and wondered what it'd be like living there.  That fizzled quickly though and I never gave it another thought.  After meeting & marrying Tony we talked about various places we might live.  Until recently though, we were a bit tied to the area we're in.  We're now able to do what we do from any location, so the topic is open for discussion again.  Together we've ruled out any place that has long winters-neither of us is crazy about cold weather.  California is out for political reasons, as is Colorado.  New Mexico might be alright, though just not quite what we're after.  High humidity places are also not given a second thought, although I wouldn't mind a bit more humidity than the dry southwest has! 

That doesn't leave very many options, does it?  Oh wait, we only considered places within the USA!  If we can truly do what we do from anywhere, are we limited to the USA?  Not really.  But would we really just sell everything and go somewhere that they may not even speak English?  Maybe.  I'd at least consider it.  And that's what this post is supposed to be about.  Considering the why behind a move to say, Tuscany.

First off, could I really do it?  What would be left behind vs what to look forward to?  Next, is the why.  Why leave the state I've lived in for 37 years?  Maybe because I've lived here for 37 years.  The where is important of course.  I don't think I'd be typing this if the option was Moscow.  I've never been to Europe.  Heck, I've only been to Central American countries on my few travels.

The why for me right now has to do with that need for shaking things up.  For making my days different than what they are now.  Do I really need to consider moving to another continent for that to happen?  Can I just make it happen right here?  What would it take?  Above all else though, what's God's will in all this?  Is this just some crazy idea that popped into my head or is there more to it?  Do I feel like I need shaken up because some shaking is about to take place?  It's odd, but all of our local connections are dwindling and drying up.  Am I making that happen with some level of discontent, or is it being orchestrated by a Mind far greater than mine?

I shared with Tony a month or so back that I felt our days needed a new focus.  More purpose.  Living life more intentionally.  This past weekend I shared my crazy idea to move to Italy for a couple of months.  While talking about it, we realized if we were going at all it should be for a year.  I think I like it because it feels like I'd have less responsibility.  We could act like tourists for a while.  We could spend a day at the beach without making a big deal out of it.  We could simply sit outside enjoying the countryside.  But would it really be like that?  If so, do we have to go there (or wherever) to get that ability?

What are your thoughts?  What would you change in your life with the right opportunity?  Would you pack up and move if you could?  Where would you go?  Why did you choose that place?

Reading

I'm a reader.  Books, magazines, blogs, forums, email, billboards...you name it, my eyes are scanning and reading it.  Since I find so many things interesting, I'm subscribed to a number of blogs and email newsletters.  I have them sorted into folders as they arrive-homeschool ideas into the Homeschool folder, and general ideas to help me be a better wife, mom, homemaker go into the Mom Stuff folder.  The homeschool one I can usually keep up with, but the mom one gets way more messages and I get behind.  If I delete w/o reading, I feel guilty, or like I've missed something.  This is, of course on top of email that doesn't fit either of those categories!

Lately, I've been taking advantage of Tony's night time music jobs by sitting on the couch with my laptop while TJ watches a movie.  He feels more like I'm spending time with him, and I get to catch up.  I made a big dent in the total number of messages weekend before last, as Tony played out of town both nights.  I was almost able to keep current after that, but today/tonight I managed to clear ALL of my folders of unread messages!  Trust me, that's a big accomplishment!

I didn't do any meal planning or homeschool prep, but I do feel good about this being done!  I even learned several things and have stuff I want to research too.

So now it's off to bed, where I'll read a few pages from Dumbing Us Down: the Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto.

Paradigms

No, not that kind of paradigms, but I couldn't resist.  Sorry.  Lame, slapstick humor.  The kind that I often choose to not even grant the obligatory eye roll/moan process when my husband does it to me.

I'm talking about the belief system that we all have regarding just about everything in life.  The way we think about a topic or view the world around us.  In the last year and a half or so, many of my personal paradigms have been knocked on their duff.  It's sent me on a journey that is changing my life and the way I process new information now.  My eyes have been opened to so many new ways to see things, but it does get hard and confusing. 

For instance, most of us were told (popular media influence, school texts, etc) that to be healthy we needed to restrict our saturated fat intake and consume more carbohydrates.  Many obediently pursued the low fat approach, trusting that this would lead to a healthier life, reducing risk of heart disease and obesity.  I for one, never asked to see the research, nor looked at the daily evidence that there's now actually more heart disease and obesity than at any time in modern history.  Why?  Why is the advice of many research studies and government programs not working?  Perhaps because those studies are funded by businesses that have a vested interest in the outcome, and reports are skewed?  Do I sound paranoid yet?

I've come across a lot of new information during this journey and it can be so overwhelming that I just want to shrug and say, "oh well, I'll just keep doing what I've been doing".  However, that might not be what's best.  Instead, I've learned to run the new info through this filter test. 

• Who stands to gain from this line of thinking?
• How was it done before the Industrial Revolution?
• How did God design the process?

Is it foolproof?  Not as long as this fool is involved.  I do think it's a better way of digesting all the conflicting, and sometimes misleading, information that's out there though.  After answering these questions, I can determine the route I think is best for me and my family.  That won't necessarily be the route that's best for you and your family, but I do want to encourage you to at least consider when something new comes along that it might be valuable.

I'm noticing, however, that many people simply to choose to keep on believing what they've always been taught, not questioning it at all, and I think that's a sad statement on our society.  We've grown complacent and we just accept the way things are done in this country as normal, a standard to be reached.  I say we because I know I'm just as guilty as anyone.  I'm trying to change that though, and want to encourage you to do the same.  The next time someone comes to you with info that sounds corny, conflicts with what you've always believed, or any of a multitude of reasons for why you'd tune it out, try listening and running it through your own filter.  Listen with an attitude of "this person must believe this, or think it's worthwhile, maybe I should examine it too."  Maybe the person presenting it to you cares about you so much that they want you to know what they've discovered.  I'm not suggesting that the new info will always be better, just that it's worth it to consider why it was brought to you in the first place. 

For myself, I feel betrayed by the very institutions I once trusted and wonder why someone didn't show me what I've been discovering with my own research.  It's with that attitude that I bring new info to those around me.  I may sound nuts, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.  If I think it can help you live a better life, I'm going to say something.  If you don't like what I say, that's certainly your prerogative, and I won't spend time trying to persuade you.  I will continue to present new ideas as they come to me though, because I care.  Not because I think everyone must do it my way, but because the info was so profound to me, that it changed the way I live, and I want to share this new discovery to give you the opportunity to perhaps improve your life!

Here's to growth and improving one's life and the world around us!

Learning to Milk With Two Stands

When we took Annie to our pasture to spend a month with our buck, Tony built a second milking stand to leave there.  I used it a couple of times before the neighbor asked if they could "foster" the goats for a while and decide if they want to get dairy goats.  Sure!  The 3 of them got a new pasture of grass and I didn't have to go over there daily to milk!  I taught him what I do, bought the feed we want her to have at milking time, and set them up.  In exchange for milking her, they got to keep the milk.

Well, her month is up and the neighbors are leaving town, so the gals came back and so did the extra stand.  It occurred to me this might speed up the milking process.  It was taking me close to an hour total to get the job done, milking 3.  With Annie back it would take even longer, and she gives the most milk.  I've tried it for two days now, and I'm not sure it's really speeding anything up!  It's funny to watch me (I'm guessing) and it's funny to watch the goats' reaction when they see an extra stand.  I don't have any photos to share, but they all want to go to the familiar stand, even when there's already a goat there!

So how does a dairy maiden use two stands?  I start with the first goat and milk her out.  It takes her longer to eat her goodies than it takes me to get the milk, so that's generally the time consumer-waiting for her to finish.  Before bringing the next girl up, I empty and measure the milk from the bucket.  Back out again, I can bring #2 up to the second stand, but #1 is done eating before I've finished with #2, so she starts getting antsy.  At this point, I don't get much from #2, so I finish her fairly quickly and measure her milk before exchanging #1 for #3.  #3 used to be Belle and she HATES being milked.  I've trained her to the point of being able to milk one handed while holding the bucket with the other-makes it easier to get it out of the way before she steps in it-but she still stomps a lot.  However, since Annie has returned, she thinks she should be #1 (used to be) but I wanted her to be last because she smells like a BUCK IN RUT!  I was successful at making her #4 yesterday, but not today.  Are ya with me here, because I've lost track of what I'm doing, hahaha!  Oh yes, so #1 goes back and #3 comes out, rinse, lather, repeat.  I think you get the picture.  It still took me about an hour today, though I have to admit to not noting the time when I started.  Tomorrow I'll make a point of timing it all, starting with soaking the feed.  Maybe it'll be my daily goal to get as much milk in as few minutes as possible and see if I can beat the previous day.

OK, seriously, I think I need a better hobby!  Although, if ice cream and cheese made from Nubian milk is as good as the yogurt, then this is a fabulous hobby!  We need to take the two doelings out of the pen and see if that increases output from the Nubian mamas.  We're going to try putting them in the backyard and see how hard they try to get out.

Oh, and the whole reason I decided to write about this is that today when I brought Belle out, Peaches was on the familiar stand still eating.  Belle ran to it and tried to push Peaches out of the way.  I had to grab her and get her to the second stand before she broke poor Peaches' neck.  In the process I stepped on a small branch on the ground and cut my foot (silly me-I wear flip flops for this job because I don't like lacing up the boots when it's hot out).  It's not that bad, but it's in a spot that makes it hurt with each step.

Time for a Change

I'm just not satisfied with the tools available to change the look and layout of my blog since they added the new template designer.  It's probably because I don't understand HTML and really need drag and drop capabilities to do it easily.  I think I managed to give my page a new look though.  I don't have time to teach myself all these cool things, and really shouldn't be sitting here right now! 

I have company coming for dinner and the house needs to be cleaned.  So what do I do?  Clean out the cabinet where my plastic containers are kept.  Yeah, that's a priority when visitors are coming!  It's done though and I'm glad to mark it off my mental "to do someday" list.  Maybe now I'll sleep at night, lol!

We've been busy driving around neighborhoods within about a 90 minute radius of us, and it's crazy how much time it can take to peruse a neighborhood.  We stumbled across a great deal online recently and have put in an offer.  I'll come back with details when we get word of acceptance (or not).  Trying not to get my hopes up just in case the offer isn't accepted.

OK, I need to walk away from the computer.  Hope you're all having a great day!

Weekly Farm Report

Let's see if I can remember major events for the week as they pertain to the farm...

It might be easiest if I start with today and work back.  We made it to the farmer's market for the first time since July 24th.  I didn't do any bartering, but bought grass fed bratwurst (they are SO good), salad tomatoes, a giant sunflower head for the chickens, some purple beans and carrots and sourdough bread.  I put it all away before I took pictures, so sorry. 

After the market we went to check the critters at the pasture and noticed a yard sale sign.  We followed that and ended up at a friends house!  They want OUR house.  I can't believe anyone would want our house.  The property yes-the house no.  Anyway, they want to downsize so they seriously are interested.  We'll be having dinner next week to talk about possibilities. 

From there we went to look at some property that Tony found while TJ and I were on vacation.  It's for sale by owner, and the owners moved to 57 acres in Arkansas.  The husband comes back once a month to maintain the place-seems like a LOT of driving.  Anyway, we started with the outside and I was getting excited!  There's a pond (used to have bull frogs and turtles in it); a hen house and run; a stable and tack room; lots of mature trees and grass; and a fenced garden area.  It's fenced enough to keep animals on one side and people on the other.  There's a large garage/workshop that would be good for Tony's work, a drive over oil change pit, and a separate workshop from the big one.  Then we went inside.  The outside looked cute-has a nice covered patio and is two stories (TJ wants stairs).  I have to keep in mind that they haven't lived there for a while, but I was disappointed with the house.  The main level has a bathroom, kitchen, living room and office.  None of it very big.  The living room is two stories.  Upstairs is the master bedroom and a kids room, with just one bathroom.  I think there was a linen closet too.  It also has a basement.  I almost got excited again!  Half of the basement would be perfect for aging cheese.  Then the owner pointed out a leak.  Not so good for a basement.  It was more like seepage, but won't seepage become a leak?  There's also a pantry and another bedroom.  No windows in the bedroom though.  Wouldn't work for foster care.  All rooms for kids MUST have two exits to the outside.  They're asking price is a bit high for the area, but it is two acres of irrigated land, away from town and traffic noise, with nearly perfect out buildings and set up for animals and gardening.  Too bad the house falls short.

Wednesday we took Annie and Cream over to the pasture to meet Boots the buck.  Boots got quite excited-hopefully the girls will come into heat and let him have his way with them.  If I haven't posted pictures of him before, here he is.

Having Annie at the pasture means gathering up all the milking supplies and going over there to milk.  Tony built a new stand so that there's one at each place.  By taking Cream away from Peaches, I'm getting more from her.  Not a lot, but more.  I got 11 ounces one day.  She stands still for me though, so that's good!

Tuesday we drove to Payson to meet my parents and celebrate my dad's birthday.  We drove thru a big rainstorm that followed us into town.  We sat on the patio at the restaurant and watched it blow in, then had to go inside just before the meal came because the wind was blowing so hard.  We drove around looking at property there too.  We found a 3.75 acre parcel in a little spot filled with people that garden and/or have critters.  There are some out buildings and incomplete house on the property, but the house has a cracked foundation, so that would just come down or be turned into another out building.  We talked to the neighbors and it sounds like a great place!  Too bad that owner wants too much money too.  It's in a cooler climate, but not so cold that winters would be rough.  I think we're going to take another trip that direction and look at some properties further up on the Mogollon Rim.  I told Tony it would be colder there, but he's OK with that.  Might find a place on one of the creeks there.

We got a good portion of the garden weeded and have some mystery squash plants growing.  We don't remember planting anything there, and there's nothing on my map in that area.  We never watered there, but when we had a few weeks of rain, they popped up!  Tony planted some potatoes from a friend while I was gone.  We pulled a beet, and I made a juice drink with that and 4 carrots and 2 apples.  Not bad!

Oh yeah-Mr Redford got out of the yard.  Tony was putting one of the younger hens in the hen house and couldn't close the gate.  I got there while he was still near the gate but he hopped away.  We were sad, but hopeful that he'd come back on his own.  I'm happy to report that's just what he did.  Now he's learned to hop onto a chair and then over the fence.  I was milking this morning when he came hopping up from who knows where.  At least he knows how to get back-we just worry that a predator would take him.  We moved the chair.  :-)

So I guess our farm report is more of a moving report.  Or would that be property search report?

Down Time

I hope to spend some time over the next few days praying and coming up with a schedule that allows for housework, exercise, animal care, home schooling and fun time. This might help me have relaxing time on a daily basis and get closer to good health. I’d like to be able to implement it shortly after returning home, with schooling starting the day after Labor Day.


While out camping, my aunt brought paints and wood crafts for all of the little kids to paint. TJ hasn’t been interested in that kind of thing in the past so I was curious to see his response. He chose to paint a door hanger in the shape of an elephant and actually did a pretty good job. Then he wanted to paint a bird house and covered it quite well too. Then some of the older kids started looking for rocks to paint and he found one that looked like an alligator and painted it green, and gramma put wiggly eyes on it. On the last day he found a stick that he called a “soldier gun” so that got painted brown and green in an attempt at camo design. Now I’m glad that we bought him a couple of simple wood models to paint and a set of paints at the back to school sales. Hopefully I can continue his interest in crafts after we get home.

My down time will hopefully consist of some blocks of internet time (if you’re reading this, I at least got a few minutes of internet time-I’m writing at another aunt’s house, but she only has dial up and I don’t think my laptop even has a dial up modem); some time wandering at the farmers market Saturday; and some planning time. I think I operate better when I can take periodic breaks to assess the current system and make necessary changes. Right now I think a lot of changes need to be made, and being away from the normal daily routine should help highlight those things.

I miss my CaféMom friends and blog land. If I get at least one block of internet time I’ll be able to do a little catching up. I’m thinking I can take TJ to a McDonald’s that has a play place and internet access and both of us will get to do one of our favorite things!

This Heat is Killing Me!

Maybe not literally, at least not yet, but I can hardly do anything!  I don't even have the energy to prepare meals, so I'm doubly knocking myself out.  It's a downward spiral, that's for sure!  My head is heavy and groggy, my thoughts are fuzzy, my ears are ringing more than usual.  But I don't sleep well because there was hardly any physical activity during the day, and that adds to the trouble too. 

Fridays are my new "afternoon off" according to Tony.  He said he'll give me time off every Friday from 3-5, and today I'm thinking of taking the laptop to some local place that has free wi-fi, where I will either begin planning a routine to fit in more essentials and fun stuff, or just read blogs and catch up on stuff like that.  So I'm thinking I ought to go force feed myself (did I mention that besides not having the energy to prepare food, the heat also kills my appetite?) so I will have the energy and brain power to enjoy my time off.

There's a heat advisory in effect here today.  Telling people to stay inside with air conditioning and drink plenty of fluids, and check on elderly family and neighbors.  Tony won't care and might still try to take our son out to do something so I can just stay here, but I think it would be better if they had a cooler place to hang out.  I say cooler because we don't use the AC from noon til  because the rate goes up during that time.  However, even my cheapskate-ness has limits and if it gets too hot inside the AC's going on!  It's hard to say what temp that is, as our thermometer is not accurate, nor is the inaccuracy consistent.  We've tested it against a digital thermometer and when it's cool in here-like winter time, the temp can be off by as much as 10 degrees (reads high).  But in the summer it can show 90 and be 86.  So I just don't trust it, and go by feel most of the time.

This sure turned into a long post for someone who hasn't done much this week, therefore doesn't have much exciting to share.  Tomorrow I will go to the farmer's market and trade a pound of cheese for a few pounds of plums, see what other deals are out there, and then go to a used curriculum fair for homeschoolers.  Next week we go to the statewide homeschool conference, with lots of vendors and more workshops than I can fit into the time allotted.  Speaking of that, perhaps I'll pour a cold drink, grab some cheese and finally choose just which workshops I'll go to!  Stay cool, everyone!

Time Conflicts

Do you ever wonder how we'll handle eternity?  Knowing there is no end?  It's a concept I can't wrap my brain around in a world where no one seems to have enough time!  I'm either busy living life, while simultaneously thinking  about how I want to present this experience on my blog, or sitting here reading other blogs and web sites learning to do  things that will take me away from the computer.  There are days I could make 4 or 5 posts, but then I'm not sure if they'd all get read or simply lost in the shuffle, so I wait.  Then a whole week goes by and I haven't blogged!  So just a quick summary of things that have been on my mind:

1. This is our first year planting heirloom seeds (I think I'm using the right terminology-seeds that can be planted and seeds from its fruit can be saved for next year) and the package tells me I can't plant a different variety from the same cultivar with 1/4 to 1/2 mile of each other.  What??  So I can only have one type of melon?  Or beet?  Or cucumber?  Anyone else had any trouble with this?
2. We went to the County Fair the other day and had a great time!  I called it our Official Kick-Off of Summer Fun.  Got some good pictures, then my poor husband sat down with it in his back pocket.  The screen cracked and you can't see anything on it anymore.  It still takes pictures though.  Looking at eBay for another one.
3. I want to have a contest to name the trio of goats that arrived at our home April 15th.  I need good pictures of them first.  The prize will be a homemade bread bag, and I wanted to post pictures of the tea towels I bought to make them with.
4. My husband and I celebrated the 4 year anniversarry of our engagement last night by attending the Celtic Woman concert in Phoenix.  My parents watched our son and we got a hotel room afterwards.  It was a fabulous time and I want to find links to youtube videos of this concert to point out some of the highlights.  In addition to the amazing voices of the singers, the musicians are unbelievable too.  Dual percussionists-quite entertaining to watch.
5. Tonight we got to watch a local performance of The Sound of Music.  It's my favorite movie, my husband enjoys it, and every now and then our 4 year old son asks to watch it.  We took him with us and he did quite well.  He preferred the singing parts and got a little restless during speaking parts, but never so much as to be a nuisance to those nearby.
6. I'm getting 3 quarts of milk a day from our goats.  We aren't keeping up with using it!  I've run out of canning jars to store it in.  And gallon jugs.  We have 2 gallons away this week.  I made 4 quarts of yogurt in the last 10 days.  2 quarts of ice cream.  As soon as I place the order for cheese cultures I can start making cheese!  I thought I might be able to find some in Phoenix, so waited til that trip was over, but never even found a cheesemaking supply store.  Polly-did you say you get yours from the NE Cheesmaking Co?  I checked their site and will probably order their goat cheese starter kit tomorrow.  Hubby said he could make a cheese press for me.

Those are just the ones I can remember.  I probably ought to set a time just for posting, but I'm not good at sticking to a regular schedule.  I'm enjoing reading the blogs I follow, and I'm making some "friends" in the process. More later.  Thanks for stopping by!

One happy boy riding the tractor wagon to the fair entrance last week!

News This Week

• Elsie went to Charm School.  Or is it Finishing School?  Her previous owner offered to take her and see if she can train her to be a good milk cow.  We jumped at the chance! 
• Our son now enjoys playing in the pen with the goats because Elsie isn't there to trample him!
• My weekly plan seems to be working.  I feel a sense of purpose AND freedom.  Nice combination.
• Car trouble abounds.  We returned home from small group last night to discover a nearly flat tire on the minivan.  Tony took it to be repaired today and the guy broke the brake line!  It's just a little shop-I doubt the guy's gonna be able to pay for the repair, but we're gonna ask anyway.  Need a spare for the truck before we head to Flagstaff tomorrow.  Good news is we have an awesome mobile lube guy that comes to our house to change the oil.  How perfect is that?
• Male readers be forewarned-the next statement is totally feminine and might not be suitable for you to read.  I did more research on washable, cloth pads for use during my period.  I think I'm going to order them.

I'm tired today.  Maybe because it was cloudy AND it's paperwork day, so I was focused and intent on my work.  Think I'll go to bed early tonight!

Weather and Moods

I've never officially studied what science calls "seasonal affective disorder", sometimes called cabin fever, but I know enough to say "duh"!  Does it really take scientific research to confirm how seasons and weather affect mood?  For those living in cold winter climates, I'm guessing you can attest to the need to get outside ASAP once the snow starts melting and the sun starts shining.  For my local friends, I think it can happen even in summer-you know-when it's over 100 degrees for days or months at a time and you're stuck inside.  Personally, I need sunlight (or is that SONlight) regularly and the feeling of freedom that I get from being outside regularly.  We've had about 3 days of perfect weather now and I notice that I'm in a better mood, able to adjust better to things that might have triggered stress last week as a result of spending time outside.  I'm indoors writing this right now because I got too warm while sitting outside.  I do feel fresh and rejuvinated though!

Miscellaneous

I have so many tings I want to blog about, but haven't been able to for time limitations, laptop problems, or sleepiness.  My eyes are burning right now I'm so sleepy, but it's only 9 o'clock.  It's been a full week of all kinds of things and one day I might get around to blogging about it all!  We got new chickens, had one drown, learned some stuff about our family dynamics, learned more about a new friend...so many things.

Keep writing your new blogs cuz I like reading them!

I'm Back!

At least I hope I am!  I'm writing this from my laptop, something I haven't been able to do for a couple of weeks now.  I think the hard drive is repaired, but the real test will come after the 1.34 GIGAbyte SP2 update is finished downloading and has been installed.  I got close once before and everything locked up.  I think this time it's going to work because I couldn't even do this before.

Tony complains about how slow his computer is and I've tried some diagnostics and fixes to see if I can speed it up, but after using it for a while I think the problem is the video card.  I'm thinking it just doesn't have the power to keep up.  Late Valentine's present to replace it for him?

I sure hope this fix works because I'm getting behind on things I need to do-like tax prep to get it all to the accountant.  I was going to sit here and install the programs I need, but decided it'd be better to wait for the service pack to finish.  SInce the downloader says that will be over 7 hours from now I think I'll just go to bed and see how things have progressed tomorrow.

Favorite Web Sites

I wish this were a post telling you about some of my favorite sites, and maybe I'll still do that, but I'm really wondering if anyone knows of an easy way to clean up my Favorites folder. I try to keep subfolders so that like items can be kept together, but sometimes I just can't think if a good subfolder and it gets saved to the general file. Once that happens it seems harder to find in the future. What's the point of having a Favorites folder if I can't find what I need? Today feels like a good time to sort thru them and move some to better places, but within Internet Explorer I can only move one item at a time and I really don't have the patience for that! I think I'll try a web search for a little file I can download to make this easier. I tried exporting the info and opening it in Word so I could move things around, but it didn't import back in properly.

I did a few searches looking for a tool to help me, but didn't find what I was looking for, so I just decided to work on it a little at a time. I just completed the folder named Farm & Animals. I'd been putting all kinds of stuff there and broke it into Garden and Homesteading. Guess I'll just keep plugging away!

Randomness

I wrote this on Jan 6th and decided not to post it at that time. Doesnt say much, but I took the time to write it, might as well post it!

Today was interesting. Maybe. I'm trying to get up at 630 each morning so I have time to read my Bible and pray before the day really gets going. That's not easy for me to do. Monday I hit the snooze once and got up at 635. Tuesday I turned it off and got up at 7. Today it was 8. I might be better at getting up early if there was someone here to talk to (besides my 4 year old son), but then the purpose of getting up is to spend time alone with God. Tony is gone before 6 and I have offered several times to get up with him and see him off. We've tried it a few times and he's the one that ends up cancelling the plan after a couple of weeks. We've tried in the summer so we can exercise before it gets hot, and enjoy a nice sunrise. We've tried other times just so we can have a few moments together before the crazy day starts. I guess he's been doing it alone for too long to change it because it just doesn't work out.

OK, one rabbit hole down, several more to go. I slept in, got the animals fed and took son to preschool. Or maybe the animals didn't get fed until I got home because I remember starting my hot chocolate and then taking hay to the herd. Tried to get a fire going to warm the place up-yup did that before I took son to preschool. Opened Bible and read 2 Philipians. Tony came home after dental appointment. We talked for a bit before he headed back to the shop. Decided that dental insurance is not worth paying for! I need a crown-the cost is $900. We could get family insurance at $855 or so per year and they'll pay a percentage of the crown, but not much. I'd save $471 with insurance. Or spend $1400 to have insurance pay for $360 of the crown. Um, I think I'll just pay for the crown myself! BTW-that benefit wouldn't be available if I hadn't been on their plan for the last 3 years thru Tony's work. I'd have to pay insurance for 24 months before they'd kick in that $360 towards my crown. What a racket!!