No Guts, No Gain

I was surprised how I thought I raised kids that had a lot of Yankee ingenuity. You know the ability to try something and figure out how to make it work type. Boy, was I wrong..Liz called me the other day at work and told me "I locked my keys in my car, can you come and call AAA for me?" First, I gave her the parental lecture of "Why don't you have a spare key?" and "You should have had one made!" after I finished with that tiraid, I said "You just need to break into your car" I couldn't believe it, she started whining and crying about ruining her car and scratching the paint, breaking the window, I had listened enough. I said "I cannot believe that you can't take a coat hanger and pry your window open and slide it in and open your car" She said, "I am afraid to break something." I said to myself SISSY!! I can't believe this is my daughter! I thought I had raised a strong and independent woman, not knowing how to break into her own car!! Where did I go wrong?? I also couldn't believe that she also got a ride home and left her car at work! So I drove home and got Liz and John and opened the closet and got out two wire coat hangers and said (as any parent would), "In my day, we didn't have AAA, we didn't expect our mother to run to our aid when we had a little inconvenience like this!" I loaded them all in my car and drove to Liz's work. I showed them how to open the coat hanger, how you needed two, one so you can push through the corner of the window to keep it open a bit and the other so you can actually push through to push the lock button or pull the latch. John (Liz's boyfriend) actually got the hang of it and in no time at all ...opened the car!!, thus saving me from calling AAA and using it on such a sissy event. I couldn't imagine calling my mother to come do this for me, no...I had learned on my own!!
On a lighter, non complaining note, I wish all my family a Merry Christmas and for all of you that I will not see this Christmas, I think of all of you often and smile! I am sending you all a hug and kiss and all my love. Have a Wonderful Holiday!!
P.S. We are going to a candlelight church service this evening, I don't know if it is just me, but i worry about John (age 6) holding a candle!! We shall all wear flame retardant clothing!

As I am sure you all know by now that we had 3 calves born within 24 hours..You can imagine how calm a scene that was!! We had planned Saturday morning to get up early and since it was going to be a 70 degree day!! we had planned to clean out the cows area, since it had rained alot the last week and everything was so muddy. David went out to feed everyone and he came running into the house and went into Elizabeths room to wake her..Liz said, "Nothing gets you up faster than your father walking into your bedroom and yelling "ELIZABETH! You need to get up I believe Clara is in labor." Then he called me and said,"I think you need to come outside, Clara is in labor." So sure enough, she was and she was pushing...David called Mark and Chrystal as they both wanted to participate in delivery..and we got Clara into our little birthing shed. Chrystal brought over John, as Emily was still sleeping and Brandon came to watch also. This was about 6:10..she did very well having the little one around 8:22..He is so cute. I have sent you all the pictures, but I will add one. . He is very handsome and Clara is such a good mom. She has no problem letting you get near him. We named him Casper for being born on Halloween.

Everyone was so relieved. We had been waiting all month. When the vet came and did a pregnancy check back in April..He told us, Clara was the farthest along and would deliver first, then Maddie and lastly Elsie..little did we know that he meant all within a 24 hour period!!

So we all were just watching Clara and smiling and talking. The kids were all excited and had lots of questions.(all good!!) and then we were cleaning everything up that we had used and walked over towards the house and I decided I would cook a big breakfast for everyone. We were all sitting around talking and Liz went out to check on everyone and came back in saying, "Oh boy, Maddie has a bag of water hanging!" We all scrambled to quickly find a place for her to calve as our little calving shed already had a occupant!! We moved our little heifer out of her stall and Mark expanded it and we got Maddie in there...She was mad!! Hollering at Owen, (her older calf) and of course he was yelling back..She was so agitated, that we decided to leave her alone for a while...it seemed she had just stopped everything! So we would check on her periodically and then finally she started showing more and more signs. Finally around 5:30, it was Marks turn to check her and he came in saying,"Liz, I see feet!" So off everyone went again and she delivered a lovely bull calf around 6 pm. She seemed stunned right after she had him and got right up and started washing him and now was mooing to him, he seemed to get up really fast..Maddie does get pretty protective of her calves and when Liz went to dip his navel she head butted her and caught her in the lip...Fat lip for the Halloween party they were all going to!! Well, it seemed that the babies were now over..as we recalled what the vet had said about Elsie..that she would be the last to deliver, so we all thought at least we had a few days or weeks to go..Off everyone went to the party and David and I were exhausted from all the work we didn't get done!! All night long, I had terrible dreams about Elsie, how in all our excitement with the other two, we had overlooked her and we were not there when she delivered and the calf had not survived...I tossed and turned alot that night..So when I finally woke, I realized it was Daylight Savings time and my watch said 7:30, but it was now 6:30!! I woke up David and said, "Get up, we have babies and Moms to attend to." We both laughed and I looked out and said, "Oh it had rained during the night! "My little heifer had been outside all night as Maddie was in her stall, so I felt bad and wanted to check her and my chickens as well as they have been staying the barn with the little heifer Lila and now they had been displaced as well. As I walked out the door, I saw Elsie on her side rocking side to side like she was trying to get up, but then she would be really still..Curly was right next to her and nudging her to get up..(Curly and Elsie came together to us, they were both so little and they really look out for each other) Curly finally succeeded in getting her up and I could see she really was in labor, close to delivery..I ran to wake up Liz (who had gotten home from her party around 3 am!!) and David called everyone..(we have a whole delivery crew!!) Everyone came to mann their stations..Emily made it for this delivery!! We could not get Elsie to come into the barn, she just laid down in the mucky hay and started delivering the baby...We rushed and put a tarp under her, so the baby would not be born in the muck..and sure enough out he came...What a handsome boy!! She was washing him off right away..and we made a sling out of a sheet and carried him into the barn, then she came right away to be with him..So now I have come to the end of my delivery stories..I am glad they are all done and I am grateful to all the help we had... and luckily I had put in a roaster chicken first thing this morning, so we could all have a big lunch, everyone was so hungry. But I am really exhausted, probably more mentally than physically!! Today we did get to clean up all the mucky mud and moved all the boys down into the lower area..Curly was not pleased as he could not see Elsie..but he did go in the barn with her after she had the baby so he could see she was all right..but he is down there yelling to her still... We still have to move Clara and Casper up to the upper paddock, we are making that one all moms and babies. so then I will have the 3 steers and 1 bull down in the lower paddock..Eddie is now a proven sire, but I wish he hadn't done it all in one day!! thats all for now, I am going to bed and sleep forever!!! Love and kisses, Patti

Lila Update

UPDATE ON LILA

We have good news. Lila's leg seems to be improving nicely. The bandage change tonight showed no drainage. She is so good. Liz picks her up and we put her on the tailgate of the truck and she just lays there. She doesn't move at all. She must think this is a everyday occurrence. I wonder if she thinks, "How do they do this to the big cows?" She is on her last day of injectable antibiotics. When the vet came out yesterday, he knocked her out and said it looked really good and he did another RLP (region limb perfusion) with antibiotics and said we could start putting a lighter bandage on her. So tonight we did put on a lighter bandage and she was looking good!!

Earlier Liz had let her out with the big cows and she just started running and running around, pretty soon she had all the big cows running and running. We had a damn stampede!! It is pretty impressive when the big pregnant cows start running and kicking up their heels..Who said happy cows live in California... Here is a picture of Lila looking at her bandaged leg. I will try to take one tomorrow to show you how she just lays on the tailgate of the truck. It really is incredible.

I had a wonderful picture of her, but she is too nosy, so by the time I clicked the picture she had walked into the camera lens. All for now. Love, Patti

Life at the Zoo

Well it has been a while since I have written anything,but since I have finally finished viewing Katherine's baby's pics. He is so cute!. I now have the time to write. We have come back from vacation and it seems we have been at a dead run since. Liz's ducks have grown considerably and we have found out that she has 3 Mallard duck females, and 3 Peking ducks -We believe 2 males- 1 female (the females are the loudest in Peking ducks)They are very cute. As you can see she lets them out when she comes home from work and they wander around the yard eating the grass and swimming in a little pool she sets up for them, They have a bigger pool in their enclosure. the Mallard ducks can fly, but the Peking ducks are heavy. The Mallard ducks love to hide in Liz's pond that she has in our yard, with all the lilly pads and flowers, they try to hide among the plants. See pic. Can you see the mallard duck? Look to the left of the picture, she is hiding under the long arms of the plant, you can only see her back. One of the other ducks is looking on. Linus, our newest male cat, loves the ducks-he would love to eat them! He thinks he can catch them, but they walk away from him, or the Mallard ducks go after him, he never learns I think he just like to stalk them. He also loves to help put water in their pool. It is all great fun!

I have found that I can get help when I weed the garden, I have 3 hens who wait patiently as I pull each weed and then they grab any bug or worm that gets uncovered. the only problem is they obscure my line of sight and then fight over who get the prize! My "Red Hen who hates Me" still hates me and now Emily and John have given her the name "Pecker Chicken" . I have started letting my chickens out in the morning and by 6 pm they are all back in the hen house. They don't leave the yard, but scour around for all kinds of bugs, etc. I have had to hunt for the eggs however. Now I know where the term "Egg Hunt" comes from..they are pretty good at finding places to lay their eggs, but i have it all figured out. "Pecker Chicken" has started waiting for me to come out of the house, standing on the stairs, pacing around the walk way. She is awful, but I can't help but like her anyway. She is actually low man in the flock and when the other hens see her peck at my feet, they run over and peck her and then she runs away. The other two are sweet and I can hand feed them all...even though Red seems to peck my hand! I am sure she just loves me!!! (wishful thinking!!)
All my other felines are fine, if we ever can't find Joy, we just look in the nest I made for the chickens, we just call it Joy's nest. silly cat. Mel, (the beagle) is just hanging out, She got loose a while ago and was gone (following her nose) luckily she came back..We have to be so careful with her! So know the question of the day is "What are we going to do with the ducks all winter?" and suggestions, please email me. We are open for all suggestions, except for one!! Love to you all, Patti xoxoxo

Running with the bulls/cows or is it away from???

Last night around 8:30 pm, Jenny and Marks dogs were barking, Jenny and Mark went out on their porch to yell at the dogs, but they wouldn't stop..then they heard the crashing through the woods..at first they thought it might be a deer and then realized it was just to heavy...it must be...you guessed it "THE COWS", so they made a quick phone call to us and headed on over. Jenny's dogs were so brave, when they saw her and Mark coming closer they ran and hid behind them..Of course it is sooooo dark and Jenny and Mark shined their flashlight around and saw Maddie, Clara and Eddie (the bull) in the woods...by this time David and Liz were already outside and David could see where they had broken the fence way in the back, Jenny was standing there and David opened the back gate and Jenny called Maddie and she came (only because her baby was mooing!) and then David saw Eddie and he called him, Eddie came close and then decided nooooo, he would rather go with Clara...at this point we had dropped the fence railing at one point were we would probably herd them to and Brandon (age 11) was placed to guard this area and let no other cows escape..Mark Jr.( 16) and Amanda (20) we helping to herd, Mark Jr. was calling Clara and she looked up and was so excited she went running for him which in turn scared the heck out of him and he turned and ran, tripping in the woods and falling on his face, Amanda (with all her sisterly love) was laughing hysterically and yelled, "you better get up here she comes!" Clara is like having a 1200 lb. dog...she will always come when called..Mark Jr. scrambled to his feet and by then Clara was heading over to see Liz and see what she is doing...Liz went to get grain and I started to pour into the feeding troughs, so here comes EVERYONE!!! Eddie hears the grain falling and runs straight for Brandon who has the fence open and is standing perfectly still..Eddie runs right past him into the paddock and over to the feed bunk. SUCCESS... then we closed off the section where they broke the fence so they were now confined to the front area...we will fix in the morning.. I was surprised how brave Brandon was and mentioned it to David, he said,"He wasn't scared at all." But when I talked to Jenny later, she said Brandon said he had never been so scared in his whole life, but he figured if he didn't move, then Eddie wouldn't hurt him...Poor Kid....and Amanda is still laughing about Mark Jr., but Clara is the least of our problems, when we were trying to load one of our other steers to send him to market, Clara was on the trailer, figuring that we must be hiding food on there. We had to push her out...She is so nosy. She is pregnant, due in Oct...so we will have a Holstein/Hereford cross baby...also Maddie is pregnant and Elsie also....3 babies all due in Oct early Nov. we are very excited..and hooray for Eddie, he is now a proven sire!! We shall keep him for another couple of years...Did I tell you that Liz brought home 6 ducklings...we had to convert the dog coop into a containment place for the ducks and then we had to buy them a pool and liz brings them in every night in a big tote on wheels and they just sleep for the night and in the morning she wheels them out into their home...We just keep on adding the animals!! I have no idea what we are going to do with all of them..but they are cute...there is a little one, that Liz calls Sherman...he is so cute...unless he is a she then his/her name will be Shermina.. Winter planning is going to be fun!!! My 3 hens are doing well, now that the rooster is gone..but Red still challenges me every time I let them out...She pecks at my feet and bats my legs with her wings...that is another reason I do not wear shorts or sandals!! I get 3 eggs a day, Plenty!! We are down to 7 cows, since we sent off Ike...now we probably will wait until Spring for Curly, he is still pretty small..Elsie moans and groans every time she lays down and tries to get up, she is probably only 5 months along, you might think she is due any day the way she grunts and groans..It still hasn't gotten really warm here, a few days, then cool again...rain for the next few days...I have to tell you all a funny story about my boss..In our office we had this regular clock on the wall...Numbers, second hand etc. and it kept on losing time, so he decided that we needed a new one, so he went to Radio Shack and bought a "ATOMIC CLOCK" it is a big thing...DIGITAL and if you place it correctly, it will set the time by FORT COLLINS, COLORADO!! It also has the DAY, DATE and TEMPERATURE!! You can just imagine...Well every since he has put it up, it has been 1 hour off and everyday he adjusts it...He just loves it...The other day, he informed me that he had fixed it...Well that lasted for 1/2 the day and then it just turned to military time...WONDERFUL...Why can't we just have a regular clock...NOOOOOO we have a ATOMIC CLOCK...I have figured out we must not be facing Fort Collins, Colorado, but I am not sure where we have to place this clock so that it is facing the correct way...it is supposed to automatically correct itself to the correct time... Considering Fort Collins is not in EST at all, I don't know how it will work...but I guess since I use military time on the ambulance I will be subtracting 12 all day...Thank god for the clock on the computer...That's all for now...Love to you all, Patti

Well all, I am sorry I haven't written in a while, I guess I just don't have any fun or interesting news to tell. Hope you all had a nice Easter. We had dinner at Mark and Jenn's and then she had a Easter Egg Hunt for us to all go on after dinner. It was like 36 degrees and windy (nice time to be outside!!) She had made us all riddles we had to solve to find our prize. She had planted little prizes between all the three houses! and we all started at different points. She gave us 11 envelopes with pieces of paper with the riddle on in each one, for example "What has 4 wheels but carries many legs?" answer "the cattle trailer". Inside the trailer was a little prize, she had put 8 in each place as we were all paired up with each other. My partner was Brandon, which was good, he could run fast. David was paired up with Mark Jr. and so on . It all started out fun, but in true Furno fashion it became competitive!! First, David and Mark Jr. secretly opened all their envelopes, so they would get a jump on everyone else. At one of the places to find a prize, Adam had quickly taken all of them, so we all would waste time looking. As I ran past David, he reached in my bucket and stole some of the prizes I had collected. So there we were running back and forth from one house to the other with all these envelopes and colored buckets, yelling at each other..on Easter...When we finally finished we had to wait for Amanda and her Grandma Barbara to finish, they didn't run and knock people over like my family did!! We all had to admit, It was great fun..Jenny said she didn't want the kids to grow up dreading having to go to Auntie Jenny's for holidays and have it be boring, so her and Mark had stayed up the night before thinking of clues and prizes for us all. After we all had dessert and coffee, I just looked around at everyone and thought, I am truly blessed, for I have all my children and grandchildren near me and we can all sit at a table and talk and laugh, even if we have to talk louder than one another to be heard.
On a another topic, I had bought at a yard sale at the end of last year, this screen house (tent like), it was a great price of $20 and the box was ripped and falling apart, but the screen house had never been assembled. I had carefully made sure I had all the poles and put them all together in a bag with the screen house and the one page of instructions. It had gotten warm, so I brought the screen house out to assemble it and took out all the poles, placed them in sections, for example ,I had 6 poles that had the number 4 on them and 4 poles with the number 3 on them., and so on..... I found the page of instructions all folded up and when i went to open them, they must have been damp when i put them away because now they were stuck together and I couldn't open them to read them. It figures!! So I thought I would just go on the internet and find the company that makes them and just download the instructions..well I couldn't find them at all!! I did find one comment on it, it said "This screen house is so easy to assemble." GREAT...So I went outside and looked at all the poles...no clue, I really had no clue at all on how it was supposed to look as there was no picture...So I went back inside and took the instructions and stuck them in a bowl of water and left them for a few minutes...then I slowly started to peel them apart....some ripped, some didn't...so I finally found the page that showed the poles and the order they go in, so I carefully pieced those pieces together on my cutting board and then went outside and assembled it...Success!! I looks lovely...now I just have to remember, when I take it down to write how it goes back up because the pieces that were on my cutting board dried and stuck to it, so they had to be scraped off!! My newest kitten thinks it is just great as he dives from the porch railing and grabs onto the screen and then climbs up to the roof, no matter what I do I cannot stop him from this as there isn't a better area to put the screen house in. So now besides all the cows and chickens (no rooster anymore) I now have 4 cats and 1 dog and Liz's fish just had babies!! (the ones that we rescued from the house that had the fire) so now we have another tank for the babies...So that now makes 3 tanks and one for the turtles, we can't forget them...Liz has setup a nice pond outside and put her water lilies in and the frogs have moved in...so we get to listen to them all night!!! some of them are pretty loud, because it has been pretty nice recently we have been leaving our windows open. Well I am sorry that I have not had anything exciting to write about, but I sure something will soon. Oh and one funny note..John's (Liz's boyfriend)Dad and his girlfriend came to visit and when they left they stopped off at the pond down the road, because we have two beautiful swans there, and they wanted to see them, so Ann Marie got out of the car and walked over to the water and threw some bread to the swans, the male swan swam over to her and then came up on shore and chased her back to the car and bit her bottom before she could get in the car...she was not hurt but it stung and we all had a good laugh and made a mental note not to get out of the car to see the swans!!!
Love to you all...Patti xoxox

"What if..."

I was going out the other morning to feed my chickens and saw Joy (the cat) on the edge of my pool looking in the water. The pool cover is still on and the top is filled with water and she was leaning over into the pool batting at a leaf. I called her name and walked over to the edge of the pool, I reached out and touched her and she reacted by leaping straight up in the air and landing in the middle of the pool, she sprung forward grabbing the edge of the pool cover and hauled herself out and ran across the lawn. My heart was in my throat! I started thinking "What if....the pool cover had ripped and she had slid under the cover, since the ladder is not up, how would I have gotten her? Could I get to something to try and cut the cover off the pool, would I have had the strength to rescue her? Would I have been able to find something to stand on to get into the pool? What if she slid underneath the cover and I couldn't get to her in time, What if I couldn't find something to cut the cover with in time, What if I couldn't find something to stand on to reach or get into the pool, What if I couldn't find something for her to grab on to? What if....What if.. all kinds of thoughts ran through my head and my heart was pounding with all the visions of doom I was having. Later that evening, Jenn and Mark stopped over and I was telling Jenn the story and I said, "What if..." and Mark said, "Now I know where Jenn gets the "what ifs from!" I guess I never realized that it was not just me that thought this way, maybe I inherited this...!!!
MOM.!!
Does everyone else in the family have the "What ifs'?? or is it just me and my daughters...obviously it is a female thing, because none of the male members of my family ever think of the things I do, or maybe they just don't admit it. David said, "You always add more to a situation then there really is." and he is right..I "what if....it to death!! I have many visions of different scenarios and I can play them back in my mind over and over again and they are always the worst that could happen, it is like some horror film. OK I really am not crazy!! but then again,
What if I am??? Love to all...Patti

Apologies

Apologies to the older, sophisticated sister... who did her share of shoveling and now lives in sunny, warm Texas. I love you!! :)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow (somewhere else!)

I just wanted to share my morning with all of you...and yes, that is a black cow. (No heat loss there!) Shoveling my car out, brought back a memory of when I was a teenager. This is how I recalled this memory.(it may not be accurate, we will have to verify with Chris and Mom)
It was a snowy day and we had no school, we lived in the big house on Main St. and the mill workers used to come and plow the driveway, but they never shoveled the path from the garage to the house. I believe I was about 14 and Chris was 16, and we had relaxed for the day, I am sure we were doing important things!! Dad came home and asked why we hadn't shoveled the path and Chris and I were just too busy. So he said, "After supper, you two will go shovel the path!". I was appalled!! Manual labor!! and it was getting dark..I was sure that making us shovel the pathway was borderline child abuse!! So off we went after supper and it was dark and we were complaining loudly, crying and carrying on!! It didn't seem to faze Dad, he put the outside light on for us...We couldn't understand why our mother, who we were sure was in there pleading with him to allow us to come in out of the cold, was allowing him to treat us like slaves, we were sure he was a tyrant!! So Chris and I started arguing. I had to start from the garage and Chris started from the house. I was sure we were going to die from hypothermia, I was sure they would find us in the morning frozen in a snowbank, (and boy, Dad would be sorry then, he would be begging our forgiveness!) As i was wallowing in self pity and shoveling and crying..my path was not straight as Chris's was, I can never make a straight line, so my was kind of curvy. When we met in the middle, there was a 4 inch wide 8 inches high pile of snow between us, Chris decides that she has shoveled more than her share and I am sure I have shoveled more than my share, so we argue back and forth over this 4 inch wide hump in the middle of the path, but it was about 8 inches deep. and we could not come to an agreement on who needed to shovel it..so Chris said,"I am not doing it." and turned and walked into the house, usually I would submit and after much crying and yelling, I would do it, but not this time...so I turned and said,"I am not doing it either!" and walked into the house. Dad said, "Is is all done?" and we both answered "Yes" and then we went to bed. During the night, it had started to rain a freezing drizzle which turned our little hump of snow into a frozen hump of ice.. So you can just imagine, Dad's surprise as he went out to go to work in the morning and walked down the path, and then had to climb over the hump and continued down the path, I am sure he was just thrilled!!! He later referred to my path as straight as a dog's back leg!!(I didn't get what he meant at the time, I thought it was a compliment!!) It stayed that way for quite a while until it was warm enough to melt it...I cannot remember the consequences of that shoveling episode,but I am sure there was some!! and Dad did laugh about it later in life, (much later!!). I don't believe Margaret ever had to shovel, she was always older and to sophisticated. (that's what we always thought) When Lori was old enough to have to shovel, Dad bought a snow blower!!! (they wouldn't have dreamt of throwing her out in the dark, freezing night to shovel now would they!!) Chris and I always had all the grunt work, as Dad would say, we were always badly done to.. I told Jenny this story and she laughed and laughed. I am sure Chris could add something to this, I could only write about the injustice that I felt... That's all for now, Pray for warmer weather...Spring is supposed to be here!! Love to all...Patti

Happy post Valentines day!!
As you know I am always bad at remembering holidays...(well really, this isn't a holiday). Today was a warmish day..41 degrees..sweatshirt type of day...it is really nice to get rid of all the heavy coats and hats and gloves...even though the weather forecasts 3 - 5 inches of snow for us on Wed - Thurs..we can always hope it blows out to sea. My chickens have started to lay eggs again, I got 5 total in the last 2 days, (someone still owes me a egg) so I have stopped telling them that they are all going into the cooking pot. I let them out today and moved some rocks and things so that they could find some sleeping bugs to eat, they were so cute, following me around waiting for me to move things and when they saw something move, the rooster would make this clucking sound and all the hens would run really close to see. They found some lose dirt near the foundation in the front (the ground never freezes there because of the wood stove) and they scratched it up and had a dirt bath..Poor things, it must have been a long winter without a bath!! Our cows are all looking forward to spring and Eddie (hopefully) has done his job and we have all pregnant cows. We are selling Eddie to a young couple who are looking for a bull for their cows. They came to see him and were pleasantly surprised how docile he is. All the others ran right over to greet the new people, it was really hard for them to get close to Eddie with all the other heads fighting to get their attention..but they really liked Eddie and we are waiting a few more weeks to make sure all of our cows are pregnant before we send him off to them. The water buckets have thawed and the ice is floating now, making it easier to drag the hose from down cellar and hook it up to the outside faucet to water them, (we were putting through the kitchen window so they could have warm water). They really no longer need warm water. David and I took a ride today and we saw a ice fishing derby, so much for our thinking that the ice is melting!. There were people all over the ice and lawn chairs and some even had a fire on the ice. They all had holes cut in the ice for their fishing equipment. I don't think I would want to be out on the ice, at all!! I would be sure that if I was out there, the ice would crack and I would fall in. There is no doubt in my mind that it would happen. I hate going out on the ice. Emily all winter long has been bugging us to teach her how to ice skate, I told her to have her Daddy make her an ice skating rink in her back yard. I recall vaguely that we had one when we were little, I remember Dad setting it up in the back yard. I really don't remember if we ever skated on it, I just remember what it looked like. There is a house up the road, where they have a hockey rink set up. They board it all off and put plastic in it and then flood it in stages during the winter, so it freezes really nice and their kids play hockey. (they must have lots of extra time on their hands!) The ride to work is getting more interesting every day!! The frost heaves in the road, have made my commute a roller coaster ride..HELPFUL HINT: Do not drink coffee while driving unless you have your coat zipped completely up to your chin. Very dangerous!! Not only is the coffee is hot, but my shirts look pretty bad by the time I get to work. And while I am complaining, here are a few other things: I am low on glasses (no Christmas glasses this year). I had to buy some miscellaneous ones at a yard sale! Some of them had liquor names on them and now they are disappearing also. I am also low on forks...I don't know where they are!! I broke one of my glass measuring cups...(I know, I know, what was I doing with a glass one!!) it was my favorite..I have plastic ones, but I use them to feed the chickens with. I can never seem to keep my kitchen clean..I am sick of sand, it is everywhere..The dog bites my vacuum cleaner when I use it, the cats will only go out for a short period of time.. On the bright side...because I am an optimistic person..The days are getting longer..the temperature is warming..the snow is melting..i am getting eggs again and pretty soon things will turn green again..See there is a happy ending...Love you all. Patti

Forecast 1-3 inches starting at 7am

Well, thats how it was supposed to be, what really happened is that it started at 3AM and by 7AM there was 3 inches all ready on the ground and showing no signs of stopping anytime soon...So David was out sanding and plowing and Adam also, Chrystal woke me up at 6:00 with the kids so she could go to work...I tucked them all into bed with me, hoping we could all go back to sleep for a little while....that wasn't happening, so I turned my tv in my bedroom on to their kid shows and "rested my eyes" (Mom!!) for an hour, then we all got up..I sent them down to wake up Liz, so she could go feed the cows this morning and I bundled up to go feed the chickens. "Little Red" and I had a usual go around this morning, though I was yelling louder that I was going to put her in the pot and cook her!! She is a feisty one!! The snow continued all day and I noticed the cows were running back and forth, kicking up their heels and playing. I had been watching Clara- who I knew was going to be coming into heat and our bull, who we got 2 weeks ago was paying extra attention to her...so I was hopeful that she would be pregnant soon...The kids and I went over to Jenn and Marks to play with their Nintendo Wii, since they had gotten some new games. While we were there, Mark saw something go by the kitchen door and he looked out and said, " A cow just ran through our back yard!" My heart goes in my throat whenever I hear the phrase, "A cow is loose!". So as we are all getting dressed to go out, because it is not as easy as throwing your coat on, or just running out the door. There are boots and gloves to be put on...so finally I am the last (of course) to get out the door, but I have already called Liz who is at home, to tell her someone is loose. A white pickup truck has stopped in front of the house, probably just witness this steer running across Jenny's front yard, snow spraying up all around him, probably looked damn lovely!! He asked if we were going to need any help and i said, "No, I am sure he is not going to get far from the herd, but thank you." He said, "Ok" and drove away. Liz meanwhile had herded the rest of the herd into one paddock and Ike (the fugitive) was waiting near the fence line. Jenny and Mark had walked up behind him to block any escape route. Liz dropped the other fence board and he ran back in with the rest of the herd. We have this one place where we can slide the fence boards and corral the cows in a certain area and those are the ones that he had managed to knock down and escape. Thank God the whole herd hadn't decided to escape with him...He was snow white (and he is a black steer) He had been running everywhere, his hoof prints were throughout the woods and all through Jenny's backyard. I was so worried, because a few snowstorms ago a bull up the road had gotten loose and someone had hit it with their car and killed him..That is a scary thought for bull or driver!!! So now everyone is back where they belong for the day!! David just came home for a hour (7pm to 8pm) and it has started snowing again, so he was called back out!!! I didn't tell you about our bull story...no really... it is a real BULL story...
We haven't been able to catch our cows when they come into heat to have them artificially inseminated..the only one we did catch in heat was at Christmas Day, the only day they don't come out!! So we decided we would advertise for a bull, to lease one for a few months. We put a ad on Craigslist. We got a few answers, one person was a livestock dealer and he was going to pick up a red angus bull the next day, so he would rent him to us for a couple of hundred dollars for a month..but he didn't know what his temperment was and would let us know..Then we got reply from someone who had a 18 mo. old Hereford bull, who was in with pregnant cows and was related to them, so he was going to have to be sold or he was going to market..He needed to get $450. for him...(we were shocked, what a great price...then we thought,what was wrong with him...) So we made a date to go and look at him, their farm was in Woodstock, CT...a 25 minute ride..so we went and found ourselves at this huge farm with rolling fields and stone wall fences...beautiful..We had to walk through this big, old barn..built in the 1700's and it was as sturdy as every, full of dust webs..it smelled GREAT!! I just loved it!! So we walked throught the barn out this one door into a big field, where 3 horse and a Mule came to great us, then we trudged across the field, full of snow, to these four cows that were on the edge...One was the bull that we were coming to see, they were kind of down hill and when, Fred, (the farmer) approached the bull (his name is Eddie) he sniffed him and then just looked away, we were impressed..not aggressive at all...he said he knew he was a little small for a bull, but his Uncle was just like him and is now a big bull, would we like to see him, we said, "Yes", so we trudged back through the field, by the way, the wind was whipping across the field making it alot colder than 18 degrees...we walked to the back side of the barn, where Fred said, Uncle would be in the horse stalls stealing their hay..as we approached the opening in the back barn, someone yelled, "Watch Out, here he comes.." and this damn big, big bull came running around the corner and stopped short when he saw all of us...his head was so huge , in fact he was so huge...all our mouths just fell open...then he looked at all of us and calmly walked away...We made the deal to buy Eddie and made arrangements to pick him up in a week...So the week passed with rushing around to register our cattle trailer and getting ready for this bull. David was worried that he was to short and would not be able to fulfill his duties...Liz kept telling him, that he was looking at Eddie downhill and he was not that short..The Saturday came to pick him up and we had arranged to pick him up at 1pm..there was a snow storm coming in at 4pm and we wanted to get him and have him settled prior to David having to leave..So we get there and Fred says, you are going to have to drive through the field and down around the back where they have Eddie locked in a smaller corral...David looks at the field, with its new ice coat from the last storm and says that he needs to walk it, because he doesn't want to get stuck in there...so that should have been a clue, that this was not going to be a piece of cake!! So finally David comes back and says, "The only real icy part is the beginning, then the rest of it should be ok..there is plenty of manure and hay about for traction,if we cant break through the ice crust on top of the snow...so he put it in 4 wheel drive and we proceeded through the gate and into the field...all the cows wanted to know what we were doing, so they proceeded to get in our way and then there was the horses and the mule....all walking in front of us....what a nightmare!! and all the yelling from the cows, because they knew something was going on!! and Eddie was yelling back at them!!!..so we finally get around the barn and start to back up to where Eddie is and the truck starts slidding...I am praying with my head buried in the seat...and all the cows and horses are in the way!!! finally we are able to back up to the location...everyone gets out but me, I am staying in the truck!!! The mule has her head buried in the bed of our pickup because there is corn residue form the silage that David gets for the cows...and the others are all around the trailer and the fence line watching and yelling to Eddie, the corral they have him in is too big and gives him plenty of room to run away from them...we had put hay and grain in the trailer and finally that is what got him in ...it was at least 20 min. of trying to get him loaded...then we have to get out of there...the other guy is trying to move the cows and horses, so that we don't slide into them, but they keep running back in our direction, I am yelling for David to watch out for the horses and cows, David is asking me to quiet down (well, he didn't exactly ask me, nor did he use the words "quiet down") so that he can concentrate but he can't turn the truck around it is too slippery, he is sliding into a stone well cover in the ground which will ruin the tires, so he decides he will back out...so he is backing up and I am still hiding my head, my heart is pounding and I am thinking awful thoughts of what could happen!!! then Liz says, "Oh my god, Uncle is walking beside the truck and keeps getting closer, look at the size of his head!!" Meanwhile, Eddie is in the trailer, yelling to everyone...and Uncle is right next to the truck...I am asking myself, "Why did I want to come along? What possible reason did I have to think this was going to be fun? What the hell was wrong with me?" We finally get out the gate and then David stops the truck so he can pay Fred and get any necessary paperwork...again I stay in the truck because I feel like I can finally breathe, I am just not brave at all and I hate when David says Uh oh!!, I immediately go into panic mode, now everytime Eddie moves in the trailer, I can feel it in the truck..I am anxious just to get home and I look out and David and Liz are chatting away with Fred and the other guy...I can see Eddie pacing back and forth and yelling...finally David comes and we head off home...it seemed to take forever!! David keeps on saying, "Wow, I can't believe how big Eddie it, I really didn't think he was that big! I really thought he was smaller!!" Liz said, "I told you that you were looking down hill at him and he is not that small!!" I am just thinking, lets get home and get him unloaded...and hopefully it goes well. So, We finally get home and everyone is in the barn taking their afternoon nap...just as we pull in the driveway, Eddie lets out this big MOOOOO..and eveyone comes running from the barn...Mooing and running around...so now we have figured that we will pull up the driveway and open our gate and connect to the trailer and it will go perfectly...so we get all set up and open the trailer gate....and we wait....but Eddie is not getting off....so we wait...no more movement...Clara comes around the gate and looks in the trailer and we have to shoo her away...finally David gets a stick but before he can use it, Eddie decides to get off the trailer...Thank God!!! so we close up the gate and all the cows are sniffing and head butting and checking out the new additon...amazingly it all goes well!!! Eddie (who we now call Edward) is doing fine and he is not aggressive at all...not that we will every trust him completely, we don't turn our back on him and we never get in between him and his intended love...this had really worked out nicely...and even though we do not know if he is a proven sire...we have a few months to find out...and we can always send him to market if we want...but if all goes well we might keep him for a few years...either way it was a great price and he seems to working out real well..I think we feed more food than he is used to getting, in fact from talking with Chris, we seem to feed more than we need to...but it keeps them warm and happy...So that is all for tonight...it is still snowing we got about 7" already and are expecting another 4" so much for the forecast...Love to you all...

Soooo Cold Brrrrrr

It is so cold out today, yesterday was cold but not as cold as today. I was getting up for work yesterday and put my shirt on ,then a sweat shirt, then my thinner zip jacket and got my gloves and hat ready, made myself breakfast and it was really hot in the house, of course, it could be because I had so many clothes on! Then I left for work and got half way there and realized I had left my jacket at home!!! Can you imagine!! So today, I repeated the process but I made sure I had my winter coat on before I left!! I went out to feed the chickens today, I had closed up their coop last night because it was so cold..I have one chicken who hates me...a Rhode Island Red...she just can't wait to see me and think of ways to attack me...she is a hateful little thing...but in a way it is pretty comical..I don't know if you have every seen a chicken when they get mad, all the hair on their neck stands straight out!! She lays in wait for me, just waiting for me to open the chicken coop door and she is there!! Lunging at my hand to peck me and if I show any signs of fright, it just pleases her more...so i have devised a way to put their feed inside, I just hold the container of water in front of me and push it in the coop first, so she pecks at that..The rooster will protect me from her if we are outside, but when they are in, all he sees is my hand coming in, with the container first so he is not really sure if he should be alarmed or not. so her and I continue to play this game every morning, seeing who can outwit who...When it is warmer, she just attacks my legs and beats me with her wings. They are pretty strong, but I always have boots on so it all you really feel is the pressure of her wings...When she looks at me you can actually see the dislike on her little face...I always say to the kids, "Look at her, she is saying, "come on, come closer, come in here". I forget how that sounds to the little ones, Emily thinks I can talk to all the animals..She said to me once, "Mema, will you tell Olivia (the cat) that I like her because I don't know how to talk cat." I guess I have to watch what I say, like when the kids are rubbing Mel's belly (the dog) and she is wagging her tail, the kids will always say, "what is she saying Mema?" and I will say, "she is saying, "I just love when those kids come and rub my belly, it feels sooooo good!" and they will laugh...I am going to sound like a crackpot in a few years don't you think..they will wonder why they believed I knew what the animals are thinking!!! They will have me committed!! All the cows are enjoying this weather, they were all playing and running around...The cats and dog are all in the house, not going out much at all, only to do their duty!!! and then right back in... The kids were with me tonight, because Adam had to work on a water main break for the town and I just put on Craigslist and went to Farm and Garden section and John just clicked on all the equipment that had pictures...every five minutes, he was yelling, "Quick Mema, come look, look at this backhoe, look at this tractor, look at the snowblowers!" I told him I needed to do dishes, so he moved the laptop around on the table so that I could see it from the sink, so he could show me all the wonderful and neat equipment he could find!! He spent at least 2 hours at this...it really was cute.. I said to David, "Gee, I hope Adam has enough warm clothes, you know how he gets when he gets cold!" Emily pipped in "Do you mean crabby, Mema?" I said, "No, I mean his hands get numb if they are cold." She said, "Oh, because he is usually crabby!" She said it so matter of factly!! I chuckled under my breath... Emily and I will play games online, we take turns on the different levels, she is very funny...tonight she helped me dry the dishes..she is getting so big.. I do enjoy the kids so much. Jenny and Mark bought a Nintendo Wii and I never had so much fun...We played tennis and Jenny was pretty impressed that I could play so well.. I was really surprised on how much exercise you get playing, because you actually have to move your arms like you are playing, so you build up a sweat pretty easily..and then we played bowling, my arms were killing me!! We decided we are going to have to have a game night, even the younger kids were good at it.. The have skiing and snow boarding games, I always wanted to ski, but I am afraid of the lift...it the fear of heights that i have..so it should be fun, i was told that your leg muscles really hurt after playing the game, because you actually stand on a board and the way you move is how you move on the game, it is really amazing how they do all that....I hope you all are keeping warm and I will write again soon...Love to all

A Very Sad Blog :(

Tonight I covered for a few hours for another EMT and we got a call to a residence that i knew for a elderly man who had a seizure. My heart went in my throat!! On arrival we went in and the first thing I saw was Mrs. M, who looked like she was about to crumble and she whispered my name when she saw me, I quickly gave her a kiss and a quick hug and proceeded into the living room..Mr M. was in and out of it and his daughter was there and I believe it was the older Son also...Mr. M. did not want to go and he was making all kinds of angry sounds...she said sometimes he is not coherent..We wheeled him out of the house and I was carrying the bags and Mrs. M. looked at me and gave me a hug and I gave her a kiss, she looked so frightened. When we were on our way to the hospital, all i kept on thinking about was Dad and all the fun times they had together, all the singing and parties...It was so sad to see this frail man, he can't weigh more than 88 lbs..(the name Porky fitted him no longer).When we got to the hospital, his daughter was waiting as she drove ahead and walked with us in the hospital..When I stood by the side of the stretcher, Mr M. looked at me with some recognition and I said, "Its me Patti" and he said, "whats wrong, what happend" and I explained it to him, then he just kept repeating the same thing. I rubbed his arm and wheeled him into his room, as we were unbuckling the straps, I noticed a tear coming down his face and I reached up and brushed it away and caressed his face. I thought for a moment I was going to break down and cry, all I could think of was Dad...This is so hard to see someone who was such a strong man reduced to a frail and frightened man...my heart was breaking for him. I don't think I like seeing our parents and their friends come to this point in their lives, it is very hard for me... So I came home and proceeded to cry over what i can't control or cant stop from happening... Thanks for letting me share. Love to you all....(I had to change the names, so as not to violate HIPPA laws.)

Lifes Lessons

As you all know, I have been complaining about the Fedex drivers and my delivery of parts so that I can fix my stove..Well, they finally came in...they were not delivered to my house, but to Jenn's (so much for the intelligence of the fedex driver) I could understand if her last name was still Furno, but it is now Gosselin...so I fail to understand why my parts were delivered there, but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth..so I installed my new heating element and then I replaced a infinte switch (it controlls the burners on the stove part, mine was just staying on high) I was so proud of myself...I really must give credit to Dad..he gave me the courage to try fixing things...I believe it was after I complained to him that David couldn't fix anything, that was a real shock to me...I really thought all men knew how to fix everything!! So anyway....I finished fixing everything and David kept on saying," I hope you know what your doing, we don't want to be blown up if you put it in wrong...blah, blah, blah...." So as I was going to replug the stove in, I had a moment of anxiety, (had I really fixed it, did I really know what I was doing? What if I get shocked? ) I looked over to David and he said "What's wrong?" I said, "I am just a little nervous about plugging this in?" He assured me he was sure that I did everything right....go ahead and plug it in...again I started to plug it in and again I was unsure and I looked over to David and this time he looked over at John (Liz's boyfriend) and said, "John, you want to come over here and plug the stove in?" John assured him, that he did not!, after all he said you need a good witness to tell exactly what happen.. Then it dawned on me!!!..after all these years of marriage, David would not risk his life for me..he would not take my place if any danger was going to befall him...He would give me all the encouragement as long as he came to no harm!!! He would watch while I was electrocuted!!! and John would record the moment as a good witness!! Later, Liz told me I should have given him the broom, so he could have knocked me out of the way of the cord if I was being electrocuted...I am sure he would have done that as soon as he was far enough away!! So I took a deep breath and plugged it in!!! No sparks, no fire....just perfect...and my brave husband, my soul partner, my confidant, my friend...smiled at me and said, "See, I knew you could do it!" and then he helped me push the stove back in place!! One more eye opening day for me....
FYI...the fire the other night...I ended up going over to their house to take pics with David's brother John (deputy fire chief) and ended up calling Liz to come pick up their fish...they had a huge fish tank and all the fish were dying from the cold...so we put them all in a bucket and Liz set up a new fish tank and transferred all the fish...we only lost 2...they were really cold and hardly moving at all...I gave them my number, for when they wanted their fish back, they were so grateful that they had someplace to send them...It is really sad, when something like a fire happens...Their poor home was just a mess with soot and everything was frozen...they were waiting for the insurance company to call and send a contractor over, they were so afraid all the pipes would burst from the cold. We offered them our camper, if they were having trouble getting something from the insurance company, but we did not hear, so I am sure they are ok..It was all so sad.

1-1-09 to 1-2-09

It is now 3:10 am and i have just returned from rehab for a structure fire...can it get any better??? It is 8 degrees and i couldn't find my long johns, so my legs are frozen under these thin emt pants...I have 3 layers of tops, plus my coat and hat and the only gloves i could find are thin dressy ones....STORY OF MY LIFE...NEVER PREPARED!!! That is my new moto.. Jenny and I went shopping today, and I was telling her how I can't seem to get anything done (cleaning wise) so she suggested I make a list of things and try to do at least one each week. I told her that wouldn't do as I would just keep adding things to the next week because I wouldn't do them, so my list would just be longer and longer.. She said she would love to help me, but I would have to agree to throw some things away...I told her, "thanks anyway, but I couldn't bear it if you threw stuff out." and then we both laughed..
Back to the fire, it started out as a chimney fire and then spread into the walls...luckily everyone got out and the house was not a total loss...The woman who owned the house told me the fire detectors were not working, but they started to beep and just a singe beep but constant and they woke her up...she usually is a heavy sleeper, but the constant one beep drove her crazy, she said she was so surprised when the house was full of smoke...good lesson to us all, change the batteries in your smoke detectors!! They finally admitted they have lived in the house for 4 years and never had the chimney cleaned...(bad idea!!) But I told her, you can replace all the material things, but everyone got out safely and that is all that matters...She has a 13 yr old daughter, who had a friend sleeping over and a 11 yr old son who was sleeping over a friends house...everyone was safe!! It was just sooooo cold...but no wind, so that was good...we were there for about 2 1/2 hours..so here i am, can't sleep so i am writing my blog as my older sister told me I should...thanks for the advice Margaret!! I really think I am going to like writing all this stuff, I hope you all enjoy reading it..Well I am hoping for my parts delivery from FedEx tomorrow, I need my stove back!! They really are a bunch of sissys!! Maybe it will be to cold to deliver, you never know..I am writing this with the cat snuggled, purring next to me..I just love that!!! Well, thats all for now, I am going to try to get some sleep.