Hen23's Journal~Goodbye

[Henrietta23]

I'm trying!! We do need the time to get ready. Too many projects going on. DH is installing the new dishwasher. I can't even move in the kitchen which is causing some cooking issues. I just tossed some chopped veggies into olive oil in a foil packet and threw them on the grill. I've got some hamburgers and Applegate Farms hot dogs. It's going to be simple but we'll eat.
Had a fun baseball game. It's much better when the kids are rested. Friday night games are the pits. Afterwards one of the boys had a little birthday party. THere was cake and ice cream, chips and soda. DS didn't even ask if he could have anything. He came and asked me what I had brought him. He ate a muffin with dairy free chocolate sauce and some fruit juice. Not a complaint. Several of the family members kept offering him stuff. He was polite and said "no thank you, I have food allergies." I was very proud. He also played really well, got on base twice, got 4 RBIs, and made an out at 1st.
The birthday boy's dad was talking to another mom and my ears perked up when he said the magic word, "goats". I didn't have a chance to talk to him but I did get the boy to tell me they have 2 bottle babies and chickens. They live less than 2 miles from us. I think I may have to strike up a conversation soon!
Bought a few more tomato and pepper plants as well as some borage. I love the flowers! So I have more containers to plant up tonight. I have raking to do and a goat fence to lay out. I want to get the posts in next week.
My allergies have gone wild. I can see the pine pollen blowing out of the neighbors' trees. I've been outside too much in the last two days. I keep washing my face to get it out of my eyes. They are burning!! I'm very excited that DS's homeopathic remedies are keeping his under control! We got back his opening day baseball pictures. They are awful! I will have to scan one to show you all his puffy red circles under his eyes. Poor thing. He took one look at the pictures and said himself they were terrible.

ETA:
I've got all but one pepper and one tomato planted. I needed a break. DH has the water turned off. I can't wash my hands. So annoying!! He says maybe another hour and he'll be done. He can do this, he just doesn't do it often so he takes his time. Can't complain about that I suppose.

 

[TanksHill]

I had my dh replace my kitchen sink faucet last month, so I can totally relate. The hard part was you need to take out the garbage disposal to reach it. Then he had everything back i and there was no hot water. The faucet was defective. Everything came back out and he went back to lowe's. Put in all back in and wa la!!! Those poor men.

Your son really sounds like he adjusting so well to the diet. Saying no thank you to treats has got to be so though.

A neighbor with goats can come in very handy. Maybe you could trade taking care of each others while on vacation?

Glad to hear about all the new plants!!

Gina

 

[Henrietta23]

I had my dh replace my kitchen sink faucet last month, so I can totally relate. The hard part was you need to take out the garbage disposal to reach it. Then he had everything back i and there was no hot water. The faucet was defective. Everything came back out and he went back to lowe's. Put in all back in and wa la!!! Those poor men.

Your son really sounds like he adjusting so well to the diet. Saying no thank you to treats has got to be so though.

A neighbor with goats can come in very handy. Maybe you could trade taking care of each others while on vacation?

Glad to hear about all the new plants!!

Gina

Yeah, I'm hoping they plan on milking theirs too. That's gotta be the toughest, finding someone to milk if you need to go away! My parents do most animal care but asking Mom to milk may be a bit much. Dad would do it if his health were better. He thought I was blowing smoke with this whole plan. Now that he knows I'm serious he's really excited. He's a farm boy at heart having spent his summers at his grandparents' farm.
Haven't checked on progress in a few minutes. I've dirt under my nails. I don't like the feeling. Part of gardening, but when I'm done I want to wash up, you know?
Oh I almost forgot my discovery!!! I raked out all the leaves that had accumulated under the huge rhododendron bush DH cut down. The soil is gorgeous!! I am definitely going to have to plant something on that corner! It's partly shaded. I'm wondering if I coudl get blueberries to grow there. There's room for at least 2 bushes and other stuff in front. It will have to be fenced off to keep the dogs out.
I hear him fussing with the DW door. Need to go check it out...
He is thinking that it should shut more easily than it does. Hmmmm

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

vacation!?!? who wants to go on vacation when you can stay home and squeeze goats!?!?!?

 

[Henrietta23]

vacation!?!? who wants to go on vacation when you can stay home and squeeze goats!?!?!?

I know, that's why I said "need" to go away, not "want" to go away! We rarely go anywhere anyway.

 

[freemotion]

Ah, someone to milk the goats..... Tell ya what, move down the road from me, and we will trade! I mean, closer than where you are now!

 

[Henrietta23]

Ah, someone to milk the goats..... Tell ya what, move down the road from me, and we will trade! I mean, closer than where you are now!

Wouldn't that be great??? Or dangerous??

We're off to buy fence posts. Wheee! Then I will head to Whole Foods. We are trying to reach someone at Lowes about the dishwasher. There is a cracked piece of plastic on the side. We don't know if they will replace that part or if we need to return it and wait another 5 days to get a new one. GRrrrrrrrr!
I have no water, no dishwasher.

ETA: It has to go back. Even though DH is capable of replacing the part if they order it for us it would void the warranty. Grrrrrrrrrrr! They have to order us a whole new machine. It's just a pain but grrrr!
We are still going to get fence posts but this eats into the time we have to get holes dug and start getting them in.
We still need to build a dividing wall inside the barn. I'm wondering if we make a 6 foot wall will that keep the goats from getting to the chicken side? Or can we do a 4 foot wall but with some sort of wire fence that goes higher...... the ceiling in there is really high.

 

[FarmerDenise]

Whatever happened to quality control! Wouldn't it be nice, if the large puchase you just made was free of defects

Yesterday we watched a Troy Built lawn tractor being delivered to the nosy neighbor, from Lowes. It took them a while to get it off the truck and then it wouldn't start!!! The guy must have fiddled with it for about an hour. Later in the day we noticed that they had delivered another one (the neighbor was using it) and were picking up the non working one

I am working on putting up our goat fence also. Those little goats are too good at escaping their current pen, which is actually our summertime chicken yard.

 

[Henrietta23]

Well, they were nice enough about it. It looks to be a factory problem rather than Lowes as the box was undamaged. They offered to deliver the next one free and the dept. manager will be inspecting it before they head out. Now if we can find a good time for them to deliver. That was the problem last week so DH just picked it up. And no, he didn't do the damage himself.
So, the new one will arrive in 3-5 days. In the meantime we're washing dishes by hand which is no big deal for a few days. I've settled down.
We bought our fence posts, 6.5 footers. I hope they keep our future big goats in. We'll be putting one electric line across the top. DH is finishing the barn roof and he needs to mow the front lawn then he may start putting one or two in. Should be interesting, lots of rocks. It's amazing, but 100 ft of fencing doesn't go as far as we thought. I hope it's a big enough pen for them! Neither of our lawn mower is running but the neighbors were getting rid of theirs so DH grabbed and hopes it will run. Then he will take it to school and use the engine on a hovercraft.
Lowes took too long so I'm not going to make it to Whole Foods. I'll have to do the local grocery store for the time being and try to get out to WF Tuesday evening. Baseball and Cub Scouts tomorrow night, unless it rains.
Got more veggies, a huge eggplant, another tomato "Mr. Stripey" I couldn't resist the silly name. I also got two small blueberry bushes for my newly cleared corner. I'll have to fence them in, but I'm thinking maybe some strawberry plants in front or asparagus, I'd love some asparagus. Is it too late to get it in the ground? I know I won't harvest this year, but ...... hmmmmm I also got a nice big basil plant and some coleus and sedum for the front garden. I'll have to wait until the resident garter snake heads for cover before I dare try to plant out there. There was a second one behind the garbage can this morning. I don't mind if they're here, I just want to know where they are. I don't like be startled by them. I stepped on one barefoot when I was about 11 and never recovered.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I would think that you could still plant asparagus. Our self seeded plants come up from early spring to late summer. You just need enough time for the crowns to establish themselves before your winter sets in. So the plant need to have time to grow and develope nice fronds, so it can store energy in the fat roots over winter.