Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Thanks WBF. Blood work was ok.... mostly inconclusive. Couple things elevated, couple things down but nothing so far out of whack to be extremely disturbing. They're adding a new med to the Zantac. She starts it tonight, so we'll see if she is puke free tomorrow morning.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - it's been awhile. Did ya'll miss me?????

So, I had to go to Dallas last Thursday and pick up my grandchildren so my daughter could go out of town to a wedding. I got up there Thursday afternoon and daughter and BF left that evening. My granddaughter has been sick for several weeks so I wasn't anticipating getting a whole lot of restful sleep - and I didn't. She started throwing up and having diarrhea at 3:30am.... poor baby. By 6:30 that morning she had her last bout and by 7, she was feeling better and wanted to go to school. Geeze....

I took 'em to school Friday morning and picked up up as soon as attendance was done and we headed south. OMG, I'd forgotten how much 'fun' a 5.5 hour car trip is with three children ages 2.5 to 6. WOW. Only took me 4.5 hours to get there, but we had to make a stop for lunch. I needed them to get out of the car for a while! I had totally forgotten that children could talk so much, lol. And, it was the 2.5 year old doing most of it. I can NOT tell you how many times she sang the ABC song, or Mary had a Little Lamb, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! But, thankfully even with three of them in the back seat together there was no fighting. They're such good kiddos. We had a good weekend and the sick one got better... no more throwing up! However, the other symptom is still hanging on.

Daughter had a flat tire Sunday evening on the way back to my house to pick up the kids. Guess what- tire stores close at 6pm on Sunday evening. Guess what time they had their flat? Geeze... They had to drive about an hour on the donut just to get to my hosue. I couldn't let them drive on the donut from south of Houston to north of Dallas at night, with my three grandkids , so I sent them home in my SUV and I've got their car. I took it to a tire shop Monday morning to see if the tire could be patched, but unfortunately it was pretty eaten up and unfixable. So, Merry Christmas to them - they've got a new tire on their car. AND, we've still got to switch out vehicles. Boyfriend and I will meet up halfway on Thursday so I can get my SUV back, and they can get their car. I miss my vehicle, and it's the only thing I've got to pull a trailer with. I'm planning on finding some hay this weekend so I neeeeeeeeeeed it!

In farm news - I've got baby quail, quail and more quail! I had two incuators going and over 100 eggs cooking. We hatched 66 little ones. Not bad for shipped eggs! (Thanks WBF!) Honestly, I wasn't expecting such a good hatch so I'm gonna have to scramble to put together another batch of pens. I've got the wire and clips already so I'll tackle that this weekend. Or, I may try Pink's tip and use shelving wire. Anyway,they'll be in brooders for a couple weeks, so no real rush.

I didn't get much else done over the weekend because of kiddos and rainy weather. I did notice yesterday evening that I've got some stuff in the garden peeking through. Looks like carrots and radishes have sprouted and the cabbages, kales and greens I planted a few weeks ago are growing by leaps and bounds.

We got our first real cool front over the weekend and I'm enjoying it so much. It's sposed to get back into the high 80's by this upcoming weekend though. Cool weather has me thinking about some butchering chores that need to get done. I've got two pygmy wethers that need to be taken care of along with some extra roos that are hanging out, harassing the hens, and eating entirely too much. So, they're on the list also. And, I've got two more young wethers that will over-winter and be processed in the spring. Still not sure about the sheep. I'd love to raise a lamb or two a year, but I surely don't want a ram. Maybe what I should have done was buy a couple young rams to castrate and grow out for butchering. I do loooooove me some lamb!

With kiddos around and the weekend rain, I fell behind on chores. I want to build a section of fence so we can drive to the barn without worrying about critters getting out. It'll make life much easier. But - I still need to get some driveway material hauled in. Crushed concrete is WAY expensive, so I'm still looking for an alternative. But, I may have to just bite the bullet and buy it because I really need to get moving on it before it gets too wet to get ANYthing done. So much to do, so little time...

Is it Friday yet?

 

[Denim Deb]

You can keep the heat! It got cooler here overnight and I'm enjoying it!

 

[Wannabefree]

Hmmm I guess you can't get "crush and run" limestone there for the driveway...that's the common driveway material used here.

That's a LOAD of baby quail!

Glad the kiddo quit tossing food. Another trip after all that....yeah, sounds fun

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I needa check into limestone too... I need to keep in mind that there are options.

Ewwwweeeeee - color me stinky today. I've been busy from darn near sun-up. Neighbor is re-roofing the old barn for me. I got him lined out this morning and wouldn't you know it, a couple hours later it's raining. Oh well.... it's leaking, but only when there's serious wind-blown rain and thankfully, we're not getting that today. Just trying to get ahead of it before worse weather gets here.

I started worming goats yesterday....did more today...and still not done. Yesterday I did the two pygmy doelings, all the kinder kids and one of the pygmies, just cuz she was dumb and let me catch her! I milked all the lactating does this morning so I'd have plenty on hand for the dry spell that worming brings on. I probably won't start drinking the milk again for 4 - 5 days.

I also wormed 4 of the 6 bucks today (biggest reason for my stankiness, lol!) and the sheep. Oh, guess it's a little bit of a mis-statement to say I did 4 bucks today - cuz I banded one of 'em. The youngest little buck that was born right before we went to CA is not happy with me right now... but he'll get over it.

Quail are growing so fast, hard to believe they're almost a week old. They make me crazy! I never thought that such itty, bitty, teeny, weeny birds could make so much poooooop! I'm eady for them to move outside, but its just not quite time yet. I'm trying to work on their permanent housing this weekend too. I've got about 5 breeder size cages ready to go, 3 more that need a little TLC, and have the materials to make cages like Pink's out of shelving material. I'm excited about those!

Talked to my DD this morning and after dealing with puking from granddaughter for nearly three weeks - grandson threw up twice this morning... Poor thing, I hope he's not in for a round of 'whateveritis' like his sister went through.

DH wants shrimp for dinner - yummy! I just happen to have some in the freezer. Now to figure out what to do with it....Shrimp Alfredo? Shrimp n' grits? Marinara? Jambalaya? I dunno what to do!??! But, when I get really hungry - it'll come to me!

Happy Saturday - and UT ROCKS!

 

[Denim Deb]

If you're not sure what to do w/the shrimp, send it to me and I'll take care of it for you.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sorry Deb - but I figured it out. I had made stuffed peppers last night and I had some of the rice/tomato sauce/ cheese stuffing left over so I sauteed some more peppers and onions, added the leftover stuffing and put the chopped shrimp in it. It was jambalaya-ish and it was flippin delish! DH swears he can finish it, but that would make three servings for him.... maybe a jambalaya omelet for breakfast?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

The barn roof is almost all done... everything except the ridgecap... think that's what it's called??? Anyway, rained most of the afternoon. At one point there was no choice except to go out and work in it. Not all so bad, lol. Reminded me of playing in the rain as a child. I should have done more because the rain was gentle and the temps were moderate. I've got some fence building to do and it woulda been a good post-hole digging day... Ok, really, no day is really a good post-hole digging day uless you have a power auger. Oh well...

Not much else went on. Wormed a couple more goats, trimmed some feet, and cleaned some nest boxes. Did the typical rainy day inside chores and boiled up a bunch of eggs. How boring is my life....

 

[Denim Deb]

About as boring as mine.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Lol, Deb. It took a while, but I've learned to give thanks for the blessing of an occasional boring day!

Hubster is working from home today - he's a little under the weather. He seems to have an old fashioned chest cold...chest is tight (scared me at first when he said that!) but it's respiratory not cardiac - thank God! He's wheezy and stuffed up too... poor baby. He had a couple cups of fresh ginger tea and a soak in the hot tub last night and he seemed to have gotten a good nights sleep - unlike Saturday night.

Well....onward and upward - it's a brand new day. Happy Monday ya'll!