It's Ain't Easy Being Jesus

That's right. It ain't easy being Jesus. Last night when I went down to feed and lock up chickens, goats, etc. I did my usual head count and we were one short. Oh no. Because I had postponed my feeding chores until after dark this was going to be a challenge. I quickly assessed that Jesus was MIA and my heart sank. I headed out with my head lamp leading the way and was able to locate her in another shelter with the hay and straw. It seems that with the unusually foggy and misty day her lovely fro of white feathers had turned a dingy grey and was falling from the weight of the moisture blinding her from being able to navigate her way back to the coup. So sad!! So she had hunkered down for a long Novembers night all alone in the hay.

More to follow...

Playing Catch Up

I hate it when I let so much time go by in between posts. Then I feel obligated to fill you in on what has happened so you don't think I have just been sitting out here eating bon bon's and twiddling my thumbs. Not the case!! I guess I have Okie to thank indirectly for this early morning opportunity to do a little writing. I thought I was so smart giving him the leftover bbq'd pork (LOTS of it) yesterday morning so he would have a chance to work it out of his system during the day but it is safe to report that didn't work out as planned. And I have a nose like a...well...a blood hound?? What has a fantastic nose? A wild animal?? I don't know but anyway...the bbq'd pork came back to haunt us at some point in the night and here I am unable to sleep anymore.

Last week Doug was down with pneumonia. He was so sick and miserable that he wasn't able to go to work until Friday. He is feeling a lot better now and I hope he won't get that sick again. It was hard on everyone.

Got a couple rides in during the past week. The last one was rather wild. Both horses were far too fresh to be heading out into open country on. I always take both horses, riding one and leading the other so they both get exercise. Having intended on going for a nice long relaxing ride I cut it short about 2 miles into the ride when I realized it wasn't going to be fun OR relaxing with one or both horses on the muscle and ready to jump out of their skin at any little thing. SO....back to the barn we went.

We had our guest house occupied last week with a couple of nice men (brothers) we have been getting to know over the past year who like to come to this area and bird hunt. I always enjoy having them here and I think they had a relatively successful hunt. Sounds like they will make it over one more time before the end of the season in January.

Bible study continues to go well. I feel so fortunate to have so a great discussion leader and interesting women in our group. It will be fun getting to know them better during the year and hear what they are getting from their readings and questions.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store to do some hard core grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. We will be hosting my family (mom and dad and sister and family) on Thursday while Doug's mom goes to Idaho to spend it with her parents and siblings. Then Friday Betty will join us along with Dean and his aunt Karen for Thanksgiving II. I have never made a turkey and this year I will be making two. But I think I am fairly prepared. The last two times I have been to Safeway I have cornered different women in the turkey section and questioned them about the turkey baking process. Yesterdays victim, a woman in her 70's, gave me plenty of good advice. Wish me luck.

Last night Doug and I went to the Northwest Grain Growers annual dinner and meeting. Doug's brother and our neighbor joined us. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed getting all cleaned up to go to town. :) Prime rib will get me to just about any occasion and this was a very good meal, no disappointments. It was enjoyable to visit with people I don't always get to see and we got to sit with my family. I am afraid my sister and I (especially me) made my mom nervous because we were a little loud but we had some good laughs.

At the risk of missing something monumental that happened this week that I didn't report...consider yourself up to date.

But I have to add something about Okie. In addition to his "problem" last night/early this morning, I have to say I have never seen a dog hunt flies like him. It must be hard to be a working dog living in a lazy woman's life. That dog has so much get up and go. If I get up in the middle of the night (which pretty much happens every night because I have poor sleep hygiene) he will be up and ready to go, jumping up and down and telling me to just point him at the work to be done and he will do it. Geez what I wouldn't do for an ounce of the dogs energy.

Trappers Moon

Oh I love a full moon. Friends, take a look out your window tonight. It is gorgeous. This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

Last Sunday was Doug's 39th birthday. To celebrate he went hunting with a hunting buddy in the Blue Mountains. He got up early in the morning, well before sunup, and headed out. He said he would also like to ride his motorbike at Juniper Dunes in the Tri Cities but by the time he got back from the mountain he was tired. Our neighbors, Eric and Kylie, came by for a visit and they drank a couple beers followed by a dash into Applebee's for a dinner with my parents. Kate, Hadley and I had picked out an ice cream cake earlier in the day for him so we had Doug's mom and aunt and brother out for cake to finish out a good day. No one was more excited about the cake then Kate and Hadley. It was fun to watch.

I have to back track a little since it has been so long since I have written. The day before Doug's birthday he had a couple friends come out and work on the track. They used the tractor and the quads and did some maintenance, changed some corners, berms, etc. Then they had some good conditions to ride. It would have been nice to end on that note but I am sorry to report his good friend had an accident on his quad and broke his scapula. OUCH! He got pretty banged up other than the break but he is on the mend. He is tough and this is not the first time to visit the emergency room for an ATV accident.

It seems like it rained the entire week which we greatly needed. Rain and wind, rain and wind. It seemed like a perfect excuse to hunker down inside and do cozy things but tell it to the pups. They need so much more physical activity than I do. Hadley was sick on and off this week but is on the mend now.

I want to congratulate our neighbors, Melissa and Eric, on the birth of their son. Preston was born around noon today (Thursday) and all is well for Melissa and the baby. I can't wait to see him but I told them I would wait until they get home and settle in again.

Today was a break from the rain. We had plenty of sunshine but that darn wind stuck around. I couldn't take it anymore, I decided to go ride while Betty was watching the girls. It was so nice to ride Cruiser in the arena. We had a good ride and then I picked up irrigation pipe in the pasture (finally) and got a few things done with the horses.

(Back tracking again) Betty offered to watch Kate on Wednesday's so I could return to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). I had gone before I had her for about 3 years and have gotten so much from the study. It is an international organization that studies the same book in the bible every year. This year we are studying about the life of Moses from the book of Exodus. The stories are intriguing and our teaching leader is a entertaining speaker which gives her the ability to not only bring the stories alive to each of us but also show us how those stories and teachings apply to our lives in the here and now. We do a weekly study and answer questions which we then discuss at BSF with a smaller discussion group before we meet in a large group with the rest of the women and hear Janna speak about the weeks lesson. It has been life changing for me, I had never gotten into the bible before but since my first year I have deepened my spiritual connections and I feel like it has gotten me back on track. So stay tuned for tidbits from the stories we are studying.

Wanna try a good recipe?? It is a spicy orange garlic shrimp dish that I served over brown rice and broccoli. I think next time I would make it with scallops just to allow me to eat more (I have a shell fish allergy) but the shrimp were very good too. I picked up the recipe from my very very favorite blog site called thepioneerwoman.com and she has a section on cooking. Check it out.

That's all folks!

Keeping Me Grounded

You can always count on kids to keep you grounded and humble, right? Well, at least I can. Maybe your kids are different and if that is the case you should stop reading right now. After I dropped off Hadley at preschool, Kate and I went on a mission to find a light weight jacket for Hadley. After looking at Gottshalks and Shopko I decided to stop at Sears. Soon after entering the store I realized why I stick with the the "mart" stores like KMart and Walmart, etc. Because they have SHOPPING CARTS which act as corrals on wheels. Kate was shoeless (her princess sandals were left in the car) so this made her especially stealthy. I found a jacket for Hadley quickly but then I started looking for baby clothes for my friend Colleen's new baby girl. Oh sweet Jesus are those baby clothes DARLING! I am absorbed with looking at all the sweet little pink outfits but I am keeping an eye out for Kate, she is hiding inside the clothing racks and loving it. But soon she becomes very bold for a wild coyote pup. She starts straying farther and farther from her mama. And as soon as I call her and start to try and track her down she bolts. I can only track her by watching for clothes to move on racks, she is quiet as a mouse with her shoeless baby feet. And if I caught sight of her she SHRIEKS with delight and sprints off. I am in a full sweat by now. I am one of those mothers with the out of control child in the store. The kind I scoffed at before I had my own pups. There is no doubt that a large majority of their wildness must stem from lack of quality parenting but surely some of it is genetic?? It couldn't have been from me, I was a mouse when I was little. A sassy mouse but still a mouse. I don't think I would have ever gotten out of sight from my mom. And Doug wasn't much different. Nature vs nurture is weighing very heavily on the side of nurture right now. Oh lordy. So I finally catch her, and believe me it wasn't easy. I am paying for my purchases and I have told Kate to stay close by. She darts off again but I can see where she is hiding, inside another clothes rack in the ladies department. And soon she comes back WITHOUT her tights or diaper. OH MY GOD!! WHY ME?? So, with sweat starting to roll down my back, I go on a diaper hunt. And she pretends to know where it might be. Yeah, right. I don't want to tell you how long we looked in the aisles and under hanging clothes before I finally just decided to cut my losses and head out the door in shame. I said a silent apology for whoever finds her tights and diaper and whatever else might be included in that little package.