The good, the bad, the ugly, and the adorable

First of all, the good news! I finally have my date for surgery and they moved it up 2 weeks from the dates they first told me. My surgery will be on July 18th. We need to be in Atlanta by the 14th so I can go to all my pre-op appointments. I am beyond relieved and happy. I have been in so much pain for a long time but the past few days especially. This morning I woke up in less pain and was afraid to move because I didn't want to have it come back. I will have three really amazing Doctors working on me and I have so much faith this will give me great relief. I am not looking forward to the recovery, but it's a small step towards feeling so much better. 

The bad news is that we have to pay for all three Doctors up front and then wait for TriCare to reimburse us the 75% they pay. That's tough - it's a whole lot of money. But we'll do whatever we have to. I am so fortunate we have some options - we don't have the money, but we have ways to make it happen short term and a lot of people don't. I have read about so many people that are unable to see these kinds of specialists because they are all out of network providers and need to paid up front. I feel very, very, blessed, to be able to even be doing this at all. I know what would happen to me if I couldn't and didn't have this option and it's not pretty.

So now we need to get ready! I'm excited, anxious, and scared, all at the same time. But I must say I'm the least scared I've ever been before a surgery and this is one of the most intense I've had. I've always worried about what would happen after, and this time I'm not. I really feel this is my only hope and with that, I cannot be afraid. Whatever happens after has to be better than what's happening to me right now. I also feel pretty confident in the Doctor's I have and I'm sure I'll feel even better once I meet them in person.

The ugly is, I went up to the barn yesterday to find Max with a facefull of porcupine quills. I've had dogs quilled before, and all three of our previous dogs before Max got them. But Max is five and there has never, ever, been a porcupine in the barnyard or goat yard. Thank heavens. Only once a skunk. 

But it's a spring of painful firsts... porcupines in the barnyard, stinging nettles around my gates and chicken house ramps... Thankfully he only had about 20 (which is plenty) and all in his nose, none in his mouth (because that is hell and we would have had to rush him to the emergency Vet, somehow. Try moving a 125 pound dog full of quills. Yikes.) So we tied him up, I held his mouth so he couldn't kill Kevin, which he thinks about doing on a good day when Kevin is not pulling very painful quills out of his mouth and he was an angel. Really, an angel. He hated it but knew we were helping him. It was over quick thankfully and today his face isn't even swollen. I'll watch close for any sign of trouble, in case one was broken off or he gets any kind of infection. Then he'll be off to the Vet. The key was to get him out of immediate danger and pain. We did that in a major downpour, on Father's day. I made Kevin brownies. I think it helped.

And as for the adorable... let's just say there may or may not have been a Puffin in the bed this afternoon...



and in the kitchen...



Douglas is thinking "another goat in the house?"





Yesterday the downpour was not appreciated by some of my plants...



But it was by others...

Especially my buttercrunch lettuce which popped right up... 

On Saturday I went out in the mule for a ride to my best wild strawberry patch... it's about a mile from the house through our forest trails. I picked berries for about an hour, hour and a half. It was beautiful outside and it felt so good just to be in the forest, quiet, and enjoying my surroundings (and strawberries.) It might have been what heightened my pain levels but I don't care, my spirit needed it so badly.



It was beautiful at one of our creeks, and amazingly even though I was tramping through the bush I only found one tick on me.



The Devils paintbrushes are out, one of our favorite wild flowers... also known as Hawkweed.



and the bumble bees are out, a very welcome sight!

I love this time of year, when all the fields are just full of wild flowers...



This is one of my favorite fields on the property, it's always loaded with flowers...



and in other news, we got the call this morning that we are the proud new owners of a used square baler and a rake... no mower yet but if we cannot find one on time, our equipment dealer told us he'd let us use one of his so we could get some hay in. Hay have not been taken off these fields in 60 years. And the last time hay was mowed it was not by a tractor it was by hand and horses. We have no idea how many bales we'll get, our fields have not been seeded so the hay is thick in places and sparse in others, but we do have timothy hay and lots of other good stuff goaties love. We need to get this done before we leave the farm and head for Georgia, by the 11th of July.

and these things also happened:



Our road worker/digger helper Charlie got his digger stuck trying to lower one of the dams for us. We don't want the pond drained, but the water was way too high and taking over our yard. Usually Kevin manages it with the tractor but it was so high he couldn't even get the tractor back there. They had to use the winch to get the track that was thrown off back on the bobcat and then Charlie was able to pull himself out.



They found an antler right outside our little barn in the big summer pasture... just lying there, waiting to be found!



Kevin took this picture from the other side of the pond looking back at the house...



and this one of wildflowers in one of the fields...



And they saw this muskrat!



who wanted to know what they were doing taking pictures of him... darned paparazzi...



and there was a whole lot of this.

It seems like it was a long day. We have lots of work ahead.

But me, I'm standing on the edge of the forest trail peering down the long, dark, wooded trail... but I can see that it's lined with wildflowers and wild strawberries, and not so dark and scary after all. I'm ready for this adventure...

A break from the rain and lots of strawberries

Thankfully we've been having a break from the rain, and we've been enjoying it. I put Beatrice out a long lead yesterday to let her mow some of the grass by the goat yard gate and she was quite pleased and willing to tackle the job for me.



I couldn't get over how adorable she looked in her new pink halter.



She didn't really care that she looked good in her new pink halter, she had bigger concerns, like not missing any of the really good pieces.



And the other goats had bigger concerns too, like how did Bea get outside the fence and why isn't she getting in trouble?



I was in bed almost all of yesterday, it was a rough day... I put Jack on grass outside the bedroom window so I could keep an eye on him.



Plus I just like watching him.



Today I had hoped to do a lot of things that I wasn't able to, but this evening I really wanted to go out and look at the fields and just go out for a bit in the forest, so we did for over an hour. The fields are really getting high. Tomorrow night we are going to look at a mower and rake for the tractor - we've decided to invest the money in some used equipment and try our hand at haying. We'll need to seed the fields to improve the production but it's a start.

One small step for us goat slaves... I mean farmers...



When we got to our road that goes between two marshes we found bear tracks.



After we found the tracks we found lots of other sign further down the trail, big rocks moved, logs tore up. We always have bear sign in this area in the spring and were surprised we hadn't seen any this year. But there she is, right on schedule.



Because it was just before dark, the flowers were closing up for the night to go to sleep.



Goodnight flowers.. sleep tight...



It's hard to believe how green everything is and how high it is too! It's like a jungle in the forest.

When I started checking the wild strawberries - I found a lot of berries, but not ripe ones....



And then - I found ONE ripe one. It was delicious



At a second patch there were dozens and dozens of ripe berries and I fought the ticks and mosquitoes and grabbed as many as I could. I was so excited. Wild strawberries are so delicious. Kevin darned near had to drag me home. As soon as I wake up tomorrow, I know what I'll be doing! Looking for more berries!



On the way home we spotted this lady watching us. She kept looking down and I bet she had a fawn in there. Hopefully she'll bring it by some day so we can see it.



We were also excited to see lots of baby apples on our trees! Fingers crossed we'll have a good crop this year.



And we just missed the Timberdoodle (AKA Woodcock) but found where he had been working..



That big beak is made for poking holes to find the bugs!



It was a beautiful evening, we had a beautiful sunset and it was pleasantly cool...



When we got back inside I cleaned up my strawberries...

Oh man... so many berries! 

And I whipped up some fresh cream and ate some of them. It was heaven. A real treat and a great way to end this day.

Hopefully now we'll all get to sleep as well as the flowers do... 

2.5 minute pretend s'mores

I wanted s'mores.. I have no idea why. Even around a campfire, I rarely eat s'mores. I love roasting marshmallows, we do it every year when we go camping. But I just never seem to see that through to a full on s'more.

But I wanted chocolate, and marshmallows. And so... when you decide at 1 AM that you really want s'mores but don't think it's a good idea to make a campfire and you don't have time to make graham crackers (or have them in the pantry).. try this.

You need:

Ritz crackers

Nutella

Marshmallows

Put some nutella on a cracker. Put a marshmallow (no matter the size) on the chocolate. Then spread some nutella on another cracker and place it, chocolate side down on top of the marshmallow. And repeat.

Put in the oven and set it to broil for about 2 minutes. Watch closely they don't burn.

Some may fall over. 

But I promise if they do, it won't affect the taste. Just the presentation.

And seriously when you are up in the middle of the night half asleep, it's not about the presentation. It's about as close to instant gratification as one can get.

Apologies...

To anyone who happened to stop by the blog today and got lots of lovely Photobucket error messages, I apologize. 

We went into the city today to pick up our bale spear for the tractor, and I just got in and I was alerted to the problem. It's all fixed now! Phew. I don't know which crisis was worse tonight, Photobucket freaking out, or my dropping of a whole chicken on the floor. It's debatable. 

But it's all over, thank heavens! 

Emergency strawberry jam making

Why is it an emergency? Because I'm out. And I've been out. And it's been terrible.

And I know that was a terrible sentence. I'm sorry. 

And why am I standing on a stool? 

Because I'm short, for one thing. And secondly when mashing strawberries it's helpful since my gut is so... busted. I have no idea why being above the pot put a lot less pressure on my stomach but it did so I went with it. The dogs were not really sure what I was doing, but they were sure there was food involved and that's all that mattered. 

While we were in town yesterday I jumped at the chance to get strawberries. I've been waiting for my local strawberry guy to get his picked but with all this heavy rain and no sunshine things are behind. I decided to jump at the chance to get some nice berries in the store (in large quantities) so I could put up some strawberry jam just in case I don't get another chance. With my physical limitations right now and surgery up in the air, I didn't want to risk not getting jam made because I am completely out and I can barely sleep at night worrying I'll have to go all winter without strawberry jam. 

I just wouldn't make it.

I'm already planning how I can work around my limitations to get all my raspberries picked and processed and my canning done. If I have to do it from bed, I'll figure out a way. 

So last night I managed to finish two out of five batches of jam, and then my body screamed at me to quit... so I did. I mixed it up a bit by putting vanilla in my first batch of jam, and maple liqueur and maple syrup in my second. 

I miss the Donna that could stay up until 3 AM making multiple batches of apple butter. I hope she comes back someday!

But I'm just glad I won't have to come to a terrible end in the near future, perishing without strawberry jam to sustain me.

I gave the goats some of the strawberry tops.. - that Kevin didn't eat. He was pretending to be a goat and picking off any bit of berry he could.

The Kakarikis (house birds) got berries too...and so did the Prairie dogs.

Everyone loves strawberry, but especially Hector. Hector is going on 14 and the old man of the bunch (the girls are not far behind him though) and he's quieted down considerably in the past few months... but he wasn't about to miss fresh strawberries just because it interrupted his nap...



He really enjoyed his berries.

Today I finished up my other batches of jam. The best one was the one I made with the raspberry liqueur, It's divine. I gave the rest of the berry tops to the rabbits and goats again, and the poor chickens missed out. I'll have to make it up to them with more tops or a different treat... I simply ran out!



I picked a big bag full of fresh grass for all the rabbits, I do that usually 3 times a week at least. I used to do it everyday but right now I'm doing it as I am able. The rest of the time they get their hay but they do appreciate the good green stuff.



and then there is Queen Dahlia. This picture of her makes me laugh, looking so royal, with teeny Puffin in the background.



When I got back to the house to work in the kitchen, I saw this out the kitchen window... Bulrush standing up to reach the green leaves on the highest tree... he does this every year and I never tire of watching him do it either...



Hmmm... which one is the very best leaf of all? 



I'll find it, one of these times. A ladder would help... 



After I got the jam finished up and made some pizza dough for dinner, I worked a little bit on the deck planting my chard, some more lettuce, and zucchini... It was nice that we finally had some sunshine today.



Douglas appreciated the sunshine too...



I've almost got my planting done, almost...



My peppers and tomatillos are coming along nicely...

In the big garden, Kevin managed to get the onions in. We are just taking it all one day at a time, and we'll just see what we end up with when the time comes.



I used my new pizza stone for the grill tonight and made us a pizza with caramelized onions, mushrooms, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, spinach, garlic butter, parmesan and feta cheese.

I cannot wait to use the stone for Naan, I think it's going to be great for that.

By evening chores I was pooped. I collected Jackson who was tied out on the grass by the back porch and headed up to the barn to put everyone away.



He's my little wild man... That hair, those eyes... He's the biggest horse you've ever seen...



If you've never seen a horse before.

I admit, I feed his ego by going along with his big horse act. It makes him feel tough. 

This video is actually from May. I tried to post it twice before and blogger just wasn't having it. So I gave up and forgot about it - until right now. I tie Jackson out on different places around the house and barn on fresh grass everyday, and every evening he goes back to the safety of his paddock and his house. But first, he has to have a roll... he does it every evening. The walk up to the barn is shaky because I was carrying baby bottles, a grain scoop and a bucket for milk along with the end of the tie out all in one hand! I blame my days as a waitress, I always think I can carry more than I should. 

And now we are comfy in bed and going to rest, once Rollie is done editing my blog posts for me.

But before I go, I have to share one last thing.

When we made the trip to town yesterday, we didn't go alone. Annabelle, Beatrice's kid, went with us to meet her new family. I had always intended to sell Annabelle when she was born, being half Pygmy and half Saanen, and the people who did buy her actually told me about a week after she was born they wanted her... and they have been waiting ever since for her to be weaned and old enough.

When we arrived in the hardware store parking lot to meet them, I was so happy to see it was just as good of a family as I'd expected from my exchanges with them and the little girl (about 5 maybe) came over to me with a little mason jar full of change to give me some of the money she'd been saving to help buy her this little goat. It warmed my heart. They also bought two other doelings somewhere else, so Annabelle will have friends and I'm sure be very loved by that little girl.

It made me feel good. For Annabelle and for that little girl.

And if I'm being honest, Bea is glad. She's a good mom and feeds her kids but she never really bonds with them the way some of the other does do - she's an independent lady and she's always been that way. Now that she's on her own again she's back on weed whacking duty for me. She's so easy to move from place to place so I use her to clean up. She's heading to the chicken yard tomorrow to trim it down for the ladies so it's not like a jungle for them.

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend!