Everything is going Bueno!! (Ecclesiastes 7:14)

THE FARMHOUSE:

Grab a cup of coffee.  I have A LOT to share today!! 

The house has come a looonnnggg way in a little over a month.  We have hard wood floors in, windows are in, screen porch framed up, carport and porch ceilings in, Hardie board and batten up on the sides of the house, new roof, AND plumbing, mechanical, and framing all passed inspection!!!  

They exterior doors have been removed as they prepare to install the new exterior doors.  The columns on the front porch have been removed as they prepare to rebuild those.  Rock veneer should be in this week and they will began rocking around the bottom of the columns on the front porch, carport, and chimney.  

Maybe even begin laying the tile in the bathrooms and laundry room.  The wood siding came in last week and they will began repairing the old clap board this week.  Now that all the inspections have been cleared, sheet rock and shiplap will began going up soon on the inside. Hopefully it will began to look like a house on the inside in the very near future!!!  Most of our construction workers are Mexican.  Communicating has been challenging, but we have been able to understand, “No bueno and bueno.”  Paul has a funny story about the placement of the water heater.  Be sure to ask him about it if you see him.

Paul and I have  been doing a little work ourselves.  We tore down the old tool shed and the old chicken coop. We had some massive bonfires!!  Paul tore the old siding off the smokehouse as I cleaned out the smokehouse.  It appears the old smokehouse is a little wonky.  

Paul is coming up with a plan to straighten her up.  The ranger we bought has come in very handy with a lot of our projects!!  Did you know you can wrap a wench cord around a 1000 lb bale of hay and driving backwards, pull it into a field?  He also used it yesterday to tighten up a 34 ft fence he installed. We had found some grape vines behind the chicken coop.  They actually produced some grapes last year, but something ate them before they got ripe.☹️  Paul built them a little trellis and began training them to grow on it.  He says this area will be our little orchard. There are peach trees out there also.  We hope to get a blueberry Bush and for some reason Paul wants a fig tree.  Ever since I’ve known him that’s all he talks about is wanting a fig tree!!

One evening I went to check the mail and it was jammed packed full.  I had to pull and tug to get all the mail out.  Paul must not check it very often.

Once all the mail was out, I closed the mailbox lid and the whole box fell off.  The movie The Money Pit, ran through my thoughts.  I took a picture and sent Paul a text that said, “Good thing we bought a new mailbox!”

THE ANIMALS

PIGS:

The pigs got a new watering system.  It was hard to keep water for them, mainly because Peppa can’t eat or drink unless her whole body is in the bowl and then within a matter of minutes they turn it over.   So I did a little research and found a nipple you could order and install it in a bucket with a little silicon.

 It works wonderfully and they are hilarious drinking from it.  If they run out, you never know where the bucket may be.   They are quite destructive!

We purchased these “pasture pigs” so they could run with the cows, however our fencing does not keep them in so they have been staying in a stall.  I have said several times I was going to let them out and Paul, still being traumatized over Iris attacking Arnold , was against it.   One afternoon I was picking up old nails left over from a burn pile and decided this was the day....I was letting the pigs out.  I opened their stall and they slowly walk out.   They didn’t run off, but just started grazing.  Arnold would come over by me and check out what I was doing and then move along.  Peppa was all excited and just running circles around Arnold.  Iris still does not like PIGS.  She must have been bullied by a pig in her younger years!😂🤪. She moooed and carried on the whole time they were out and watched their EVERY move.  Running up and down the fence line trying to keep up with them.  So the pigs had been out a couple of hours and were doing great.  Paul, who had been working on his grapevines, walked over and asked if I had seen any old pipes he could use as a brace.  I suggested we go look in the barn. He was quite impressed the pigs were doing so well.  We walk down to the old barn and search for the pipe he needed and found a couple of things that might work.  We walk back to the Implement shed where me and the pigs had been hanging out.  I didn’t see the pigs and thought they were probably behind the implement shed.  However they were not behind the shed and Paul began the ..”I told you not to let them out.”  We start looking for them and then I  notice they had gone into the field with the Highparks.  Apparently they don’t detest pigs like Iris does.  As we try to come up, quickly, with a plan to get them back up here, we watch them walk under the fence and into the road🤦🏼‍♀️.  Paul takes off through the field with food as I am yelling the cows are going be all over you trying to get that food!!!  I get food and hop in the ranger and drive over to where the pigs are.  By the time I get there the pigs are in front of the gate by the barn and Paul is feeding them, but they won’t go in the cracked opening of the gate.  It was locked and we didn’t have the key on us.  Paul left to go put Iris up and I continued to work to get the pigs in the gate.  Did I mention on there little adventure they took a moment to stop and roll in some cow manure?!?  Peppa was no longer pretty and white, but more of a smelly army green color😖.  I finally got them inside the gate and Paul got the feed from me and they followed him all the way back to the shed with him shaking the feed.  

I climbed the gate to release Iris once the pigs were safely out of her field.  I absolutely love the way Paul and I work together on the farm. There is nothing else that compares to that feeling of working along side someone you love.  Poor Paul though, he does all the heavy lifting.

ICE

Ice has been the thorn in our side this month.  Apparently he feels he makes the decisions around here.  He also feels that it is his job to point out all the weak areas in our fencing!!!  He has got out of his pasture 5 times this month.  The last time being the scariest of all.  He broke through some fencing and then knocked a gate off the hinges and released the new highlands into a field.  We were not quite ready for that, but apparently Ice thought it was time.  Friday when Paul got home from work, he was in the wrong field again.  It took him about an hour to get him back where he belongs.  I arrived on Friday around 5:30ish.  We just had a new fence installed on our back property line.  It will be our largest field for the cows and we can’t wait to move them, because the fields they have been on definitely need some recovery time.  Anyway, Paul was anxious to show me the new fence.  We hopped in the ranger and took off up the hill.  The fencing really does look good.  We drove the old fence line to check out what all needs repairing before we put the cows over there.  Paul stopped the ranger and back up.  He said, “I know he’s not, but doesn’t it look like Ice is in the front yard.”  We looked again and looked at each other and said...”He’s out AGAIN!” This time however, he was completely out and by the road!! We took off to grab feed, treats, and whatever else we could and drove to the creek.  I jump out with his favorite apple treats and got him to look at me, but he just kept mooing.  Paul crossed over the creek to help sway him in the right direction and it was obvious he had no intentions of cooperating.  A neighbor, we had not met yet, stopped and asked if we needed help.  Paul said, “well we might”.  He pulls over and helps try to corral him, but Ice takes off running across the driveway.  We all follow, hoping to head him in the direction of the bridge.  I still had a bucket of apple treats and was calling him.  He turned around and looked at me and then ....... head down and in a fast trot started heading right at me.  All I could say was “PAUL!”  Paul said he was screaming my name telling me to move, but I just froze.  I couldn’t move. I never heard Paul. I was so scared.  Ice ran within a foot of me and came to a screeching halt and then opened his mouth and reached for a treat.  With my hands shaking I put one in his mouth and he dropped it🤦🏼‍♀️.  I bent down and picked it up and gave it to him again.  He ate it and then took off running again.  I’m not sure the treat stopped him or if it was a guardian angel.  I’m just so grateful he stopped.   I told Paul I was bracing for flight.  Ice then actually ran across the bridge toward the house, which was good.  Paul and Luke took off after him,  I hung out at the bridge so he couldn’t cross again and to regroup.  When it appeared he wasn’t coming back toward the bridge, I headed on back behind the house.  Ice was checking out the vineyard and scratching his head on the post and wires😒.  He checked the back fence line and then went to Paul to eat some feed.  He was only about 6 ft from the gate opening and Paul would let him eat and walk back, let him eat and take a step back until he was finally within a closed area.  Luke helped me close the gate and we finally had him contained once a.g.a.i.n.  I asked Luke if he had cows, and he said he had been around them his whole life and they could definitely be a pain when they wanted to.  He said he didn’t think Ice was being aggressive, but just excited to be out of the fence.  I’m sure he got a kick out of me and Paul calling our bull by name and hand feeding him treats.  I did tell him we had no idea what we were doing, we were learning as we go😂!  Thank goodness for kind neighbors!!!  Ice is on the verge of being for sale.  We are going to try some electric fence and if that doesn’t work, we may have our first bull for sale.  I am rethinking the jersey’s altogether. When I researched jersey’s I read they were the easiest and most docile cow, but ours cause more trouble than any of the highlands or Highparks....and we haven’t even had the chance to milk yet.

OTHER COWS:

Baby Waylon is doing good and looking healthy.  Our 2 new highlands are doing good in the pasture with the other Highparks.  They still come up to us for treats, when Britta and Candy will allow it.  Candy escaped once this month, but she is so motivated with food, it was pretty easy to get her back in.  I am hoping to get the vet out to the farm on April 30th to preg check Candy, Wilma, Iris, and Lita.  Keep your fingers crossed 🤞.  We really need Candy and Wilma to be pregnant!!!

The cows got to enter the new field today (Sunday)  We thought they would have been more excited, but I guess they were blown away with the amount of grass in the field.  All they could do was graze.  A few of them kicked up their hills and they all ran the length of the field a time or two.  Ice and Iris were not happy with the other cows moving fields.  They both pitched a fit the remainder of the day.  The new bale of hay we gave them didn’t seem to help their feelings much either😕

CURRENT LIVING ARRANGEMENTS:

 

Never, in a million years, would I have though I would stay in an old 67 camper, with a camo tarp draped over it, outdoor lighting attached to the tarp, and the excess tarp used as a carport for a riding lawn mower at times. But apparently, this is my weekend home for the time being.  Life can definitely throw some curve balls.😂😂

Paul and I are so grateful for the progress on the house.  We are grateful for Charlie and his willingness to step into our mess and get the ball rolling again.  Cows and remodeling have taught us there are things that are simply out of our control.  One of satan’s lies he subtly tells us a thousand times a day is that we are in charge, we can plan, we can direct, and we can control. God gives us Free will, so it’s easy to believe the lie that we are in ultimate control of everything.   Ecclesiastes 7:14 says, “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future.”   The Scripture tells us this lie is not true. God is the one in charge. Whether He sends us prosperity or adversity, it is always designed to benefit us.   Prosperity and adversity are from the balanced hand of God and He has very wise purposes for both!  Without hardship we would be proud, thinking we had no weakness or that all we achieve was by our own strength. Life fluctuates between good days and bad days, but both are from God. Only He understands how all this works out. We have to trust in Him and His Loving kindness.