Busy, busy, busy

Hi Everyone:

Things here at the Farm are very busy. Between the animals and the house, the garden's been taking up tons of time, which is why I haven't posted since May.

We have a new puppy named Bud, if I didn't mention it. We also got a new cat, Norphan, who will be our mouser around here. Bud was neutered and Norphan was spayed about 1.5 months ago to keep from making or having babies. Miss Lacey, my eldest cat who's a tortoisesheel Persian and will be 16 years old in February, had a hematoma on Wednesday, so I took her to the Vet for surgery. Now her head is half shaved and her right ear is flopping down and I highly doubt it will be upright again. She's very embarrasshed by the whole thing, but she'll survive.

We had to start buying hay in July because of the drought we've had here in SE Washington. We could only water every 3rd day so the grass didn't get enough water to thrive, but they're doing okay. I traded two registered Icelandic sheep for 2 alpacas this summer. I was going to buy two angora does, but that didn't work out, so maybe next summer. We'll see how it goes. The alpacas I traded for are both male: Al Paca is a white Suri and Earl Gray is a rose gray Huacaya. Now I have two brown Huacayas: a cinnamon named Koko and a dark brown named Java; and a shite Huacaya named El Dorado whom we call Eldie. All in all, they're good boys.

I also sheared an alpaca at Detour Farm just down the road from us so that he wouldn't get too stressed out in the heat. I only sheared Eldie once last year, so he was only the 2nd that I sheared. So, this spring 2006, I will have 5 more alpacas to shear and gain a lot in experience, plus a couple of llamas as well. At $26 a head to shear from the regular shearer, I will have gained quite a bit in savings by doing it myself. Our sheep shearer doesn't do alpacas, but this year he's going to help me learn to shear sheep because he's going to retire. He was supposed shear the sheep on Halloween, but it was raining like the sky broke, so as soon as we have two to three days of dry weather, he'll be by to do my rams and ewes.

I harvested strawberries, peaches, apricots, raspberries, and apples this summer. This fall I've already harvested about 5 pumpkins and 10 squash from my garden patch along with tomatoes, onions, shallots and elephant garlic. Next year, my rhubarb will be ready to harvest so I'll be able to make plenty of rhubarb/strawberry pies fwith my everbearing strawberries and the 5 rhubarb plants. I also will have gooseberries and currants. Oh, my English walnut trees have been dropping nuts like crazy. I can hardly believe it. I have 3 large boxes just full of nuts and there are still a ton on the ground, so I'll be out again picking them up.

I had a slight accident two weeks ago, though I didn't cause it. Lance, my DH, was massaging my right foot and he pulled on the foot a bit too hard and subluxed my cuboid joint. So, I wnt to the Podiatrist the other day to find out why my foot hurt so much and they told me that had happened, and it will take a few more weeks until 1) it pops back into joint or 2) it heals. If it continues to hurt by the time two weeks are up, I have to see the other podiatrist in the office and he'll try to put the joint back in, and if that doesn't happen, then I get to see the chiropractor. I can't believe that just a too hard a pull could cause so much pain and hurt. I guess my DH doesn't know his own strength. He's a good man otherwise, just has to be a bit more careful with my poor little feet.

My daughter was molested when she was 4-5 years over a period of 9 months. I made sure he was caught and had to go to jail (sentenced to 60 days, but only served 40--got off for good behavior--nice that there were no kids around so he could behave) among other things he was sentenced to. I didn't bring a civil suit against him because I figured when my daughter was old enough, she could bring a suit against him to make him pay for what he did to her. The suit was filed about 1.5 years ago, and it was settled a month ago. SHE WON!!! I'm so happy for her, not because she got some money so she could afford to go back into counseling and back to school, but so she could get her power back and get on with her life. It wasn't easy for her to come tell me what he did to her, and it hasn't been easy for her since it happened. I had no idea what to do for her, so I helped her the best I could. I did know what she was going through because of the rape/molestation by my family (mother/maternal grandmother from just born to 9 yo, my stepfather from 13-15 yo), so I wasn't going to let him get away with what he did. Now that she won her case, this will make it easier on her all the way around and if she sees him anywhere, she's not going to feel like he can still get at her. He threatened her that if she told anyone, he'd kill not only her, but me as well. And I was in love with this jerk...though I didn't date for 4 years after she told me what he did because I couldn't look at a guy who had kids at a park and not wonder if he was molesting or raping his kids.

So, this year has been both good and bad, but for the most part, very good. I hope that next year will be even better.

Hugs to all of you!
Jet