Archive for October, 2007
Farm Babies
October 18th, 2007 | 
Author: These pictures are for my friend Becky and her son Kaishon since I know Kaishon loves the farm pictures! 
First up are three of our newest baby calves. The black and white bawdie calf is a little over one month old and growing quickly thanks to her mother, Patches. The other two are about one week old. And, yes, the brownish colored calf is quite big for his age.
At the bottom are our two boy pigs. As I walked up to the pen to take the photo, the pig on the right was rooting in the mud with his snout while the other one was standing in his water trough throwing water around. It was quite comical and I wish I could’ve taken a photo of it, but they were too quick to come over to say hello. They belong to my brother-in-law so I don’t know their names.
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The Start of Autumn
I took this picture earlier today just before it started raining (the haze in the background). I am truly impressed with our fall colors this year. Previous years have been so drab and we all assumed with the drought that our colors would be awful. Not so! The brilliance of leaf colors is determined by the amount of sunlight, dry weather in late summer (definitely had that one!), and cooler temperatures at night. We definitely hit the nail on the head for the dry weather. And because of the lack of rain, there were a lot more mostly sunny days than I remember from previous years. The cooler temperatures (lows in the 40s) must not have a lot of bearing on the colors because very few nights have been that cold so far. This picture is from our highest meadow (approx 1500 ft. above sea level).
Meet Charlie
This is Charlie, our pet rooster. He’s 4-months-old and is just learning to crow. He loves eating out of our hand and comes when we call him.
Lessons from Wednesday’s Farmers Market
We live in an incredibly rural area and the market has five regular vendors (one being my mother-in-law) so it isn’t terribly huge. The in-laws went on vacation to visit friends in Las Vegas so we took over the market duties for two weeks. It is amazing the different kinds of people that one meets in a matter of 5 hours – all with a different story to tell. The regular vendors are all transplants from other parts of the country. We talked about how this area is so dramatically different than the rest of the country. Granted most of us transplants came from heavily populated areas such as Philadelphia suburbs, New York City etc. It takes some adjusting to get used to a trip to the grocery store taking a minimum of 1 hour and that’s only the drive time. Or that pizza isn’t delivered. Or making sure your gas tank has gas in it before you leave civilization because you have to have enough gas to get home and back to the gas station (ask my brother-in-law about how to learn this the hard way). But despite the differences, I don’t think you would find nicer, more caring people than here in West Virginia. Where else do you drive down the road and every passing driver waves at you – even if you don’t know them? Where else do people plant massive gardens so they can trade produce with others? It’s an awesome place to live…..once you get used to it.
Where I’ve Been
Well, sadly enough, it’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Where have I been since the last time I posted? Nowhere but the usual! I guess you could say that I was procrastinating about blogging or just enjoying my dishwasher too much!
First, the dishwasher drama – We live in an older trailer with an addition. The previous owner thought it would be a great idea to build his own kitchen cabinets. That’s not a bad idea, if you can use a straight edge and a level. Apparently, this person was a little incapacitated in that area. Not a single cabinet door is straight and despite numerous attempts to straighten them, they’re still crooked. The builder didn’t make the actual cabinets straight. So, when we were given a dishwasher, we immediately decided to gut the cabinets under the sink. That particular area of the kitchen was a pet peeve of mine – the 2nd shelf was so close the the sink pipes that it was useless; the one cabinet door only opened about 8 inches because it was wedge next to the stove; and on it goes. Now, after 3 weeks, I have wonderful, roomy cabinets with all of the space utilized and a working dishwasher!!!! The dishwasher is particularly exciting because I work online tutoring in the evenings and I don’t have to waste 30-45 minutes washing dishes! Modern conveniences are awesome!!!! Hmmmm…what to do about the other lopsided cabinets….
We adopted a handsome rooster about a week ago. He’s a friendly bird that will let you pet him and he’ll eat out of your hand. Currently he is living on our front porch which is definitely something that will have to change. I am being patient, though, and waiting for my husband to build a small coop for the rooster. (I wanted the kitchen cabinets done first). I’ll be sure to post his picture as soon as my camera returns.
Speaking of the camera, it’s at Canon being repaired right now. They are waiting on a part to arrive so hopefully it won’t take too long. Deer season starts this Saturday and I told my husband that he isn’t allowed to kill any large bucks til the camera comes! Last deer season I was working in town and missed photos of his 9-point. Of course, with a 10-point already on the wall, he needs to shoot an 11-point or larger. He says that he has seen a very large buck in recent days so…. I should have more time to blog starting next week because I will be a hunting widow. It will be great to have fresh meat to put in the freezer too. Deer steaks – yummy!
For all of you with thyroid problems, definitely look into taking the correct amounts of vitamins. In an earlier post, I mentioned that I had read about vitamin levels and how for a hypo the requirements are different. A quick trip to the pharmacy resulted in a vitamin close to the right levels. Wow! What a difference!!! Another change that I’ve made is taking the vitamins in the morning and the meds before bed. Getting up is sooo much easier now! Don’t get me wrong, the symptoms are still there at times, just not unbearable like before.
We received an exciting piece of mail today – we now have a date for our next workers comp mediation! 12-11-07 is D-day! Of all of our mediations, this one will be the most important since the permanent disability status will be determined. This is a mediation that we know will go before a judge – comp can’t settle a disability status without a judge’s decision. So all of our current issues will definitely be addressed, unlike the last time when the mediation was canceled. As I write about the mediation, I find myself getting excited because this could be the light at the end of the tunnel. However, another side of me is reminding myself to not get my hopes up since we’ve been near the end before. Oh, and we also have a new attorney – same practice, different attorney. Our previous attorney, who we didn’t particularly care for after awhile, decided to move on to other things. What a shame. Now, our attorney is one of the owner’s of the firm and has 25+ years experience dealing with comp.
The cats are growing. When the camera returns, I’ll try to get the three babies to pose together – it will probably be around the food dish but they are so adorable! It’s so much fun having kittens (even 4 month old kittens). Since my last post, we also had 2 more calves born (one last week) and my brother-in-law has started a pig farm. He has 3 females and 2 males. One of the females will be a future sow when she’s old enough so we’ll have pigs every year and won’t have to buy ones specifically for butchering. Pigs are funny animals but also quite smelly. Yuck.
I’ll be back later with more things that I’ve learned….