Please forgive me, I know Christmas is like 4 months passed now, but this is my Christmas letter I sent out to family and Friends. I wanted to get it posted on my blog, so that maybe my blog viewers would get a laugh or two.
Everything is for real, and it kind of gives you all an insight as to why I have not been doing a better job of keeping my blog up.
Here goes:
Christmas 2017 Page
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It has been a few years since I have sent out cards, and
to this, my apologies. Life has gotten so busy that Christmas is here before I
know it, and then it is to late.
Then I thought, well, I will send out NEW YEARS cards
with my letters. Once again, it was here and gone all to fast.
This year, I don’t know why, but I have a bit of time,
and the Christmas card bug hit me, and Wahla! You are now holding in your hand
a prized possession! 😊
Rick’s mom passed away on Feb 11th of 2017,
this past year. Rick’s sister, Vikki was caring for her, and she wanted to move
back home. Home to her was going to be at her Daughter’s house in Idaho, but
when she got to our house, she decided to stay for a week or two, and it has
turned into a permanent place for her.
Our mini farm has given her a lot of peace of mind, and
some healing that she needed. Being a caregiver of someone you love is no easy
task, and it really takes a lot out of you. I am happy to be able to have her
live here.
It does not come without challenges though. Since she is
OCD in many ways, I get tired just being in the same room with her. 😊 She
has taken on the Cooking, Cleaning, and most of the chores. Finally, I had to
sit her down and say, hey look:
We do not do laundry every day. We do it once a week.
With only three of us, and my huge washing machine, there is no need to do it
every day. She kept saying we needed laundry soap every time we went to the
grocery store. You know that stuff is expensive. So, we got Vikki outfitted
with enough clothes that she could go a week without needing her essentials
washed every other day.
I have not used my washing machine since she moved in and
if I do need to do a load, I have to get the instruction book out and read it
first.
The same with the dishwasher. Heaven forbid there should
be a single dirty dish in the sink. I joke with her that the hinges are going
to wear out on my dishwasher before the motor wears out. I like to accumulate
dishes throughout the day, and then do them all after dinner. Then it looks
like something has been accomplished. But oh NO! The minute it is dirty, IN THE
DISHWASHER it goes! 😊
When Vikki moved in, she wanted to do everything! I
finally had to set some ground rules and I let her have full custody of the
chickens. The goats and horses are off limits, because when I do my chores it
is the time I get to spend with them, and check them over, and do a well check
on them. She understood.
So now with the short-day light hours, the chicken egg
production has come to almost a standstill.
It started out with her whispering to the chickens, as they sat on their
roost watching her gather the fruits of their labor. Then I heard her voice
rise to a talking to, scolding them for no more than two eggs, out of 17
chickens. Now it is plain blasphemy at
the chickens. (Not really, just sounded good).
So, she asked me the other day, can’t we put a light in there to get
them to lay? Well yes, we could, but each chick is born with the amount of eggs
they are going to lay in their life time, why would I want to rush that
process? Nope, I like the more natural
approach. It is not like we eat that many eggs anyway. I have over a hundred
eggs sitting in lime water preserving them for future use.
My sewing room is a place that I like to take comfort in.
I am working on teaching Vikki how to do the same, by, making quilts. This has
been a challenge, and my patience has been tried, but mostly we laugh over the
silly way she will get things sewed up.
She has learned to be quite the effective Reverse Sewer. I do have to
say, she has made a few really pretty quilts. It is therapy, and I love it when
she goes and works on her sewing projects. I know she is relaxing and doing
something fun. Being creative is always fun.
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Now every quilt on God’s green earth has some mistakes in
them. Good Quilters never point out those mistakes. But Vikki being OCD as she
is, knows exactly where each mistake is, and it drives her up the wall. But with time, I am sure she will be able to
accept the minor detail in that area.
They say you can’t have two women living in the same
house without complications. Well I was hesitant, but I am glad. I think we get
along pretty darn good. We both laugh at and with each other. We both like the
same music, and love to listen to it at a high decibel. We can pretty much
finish each other’s sentences, and think a like on a lot of things.
One day she made potato soup. It was a bit on the runny
side, and she wanted to know if she should thicken it with corn starch. I said
no, as I don’t like soup thicken with that. I went out side for a bit, and a
light bulb clicked on. I ran back into the house to tell her to use instant
potatoes, and here she was cutting the top off a box of instant potatoes! That was so weird. The potato soup was pretty
darn tasty.
We like to say, “Great minds think alike”, and we are
still wondering what is so great! 😊
I am not to sure what Rick thinks about having to live
with two women now. That is a story you will have to ask him. But I like to
think that we do not make it too difficult on him.
Now remember I stated I am a quilter. My room is full of
quilting fabric. Quilting fabric is USUALLY made of cotton fibers. So, one day,
while browsing a second had store, Vikki found a reborn baby doll. If I thought
I could have tripped her and beat her to the floor for that doll, I would have.
These dolls sell upwards of $200.00 on the internet. There is a lot of work
that goes into these dolls. The price tag was $10.00. You read that correctly,
TEN BUCKS!
We get the doll home, and it is just like a real baby. I
told Vikki she probably should make it a bonnet so that the hair on her won’t
get rubbed off. So as Vikki sat and pondered making the bonnet, and I was
reading a book, I hear her ask: “do you have any cotton?” Umm….I am thinking
cotton balls. I look up at her and say, “Cotton?” She said, “yes to make the
bonnet.” Ummmmm…..I busted out laughing, and it took her a minute, but she
figured it out! My whole room is NOTHING BUT cotton fabric.
One evening in November, the weather was actually pretty
nice. We were sitting on the back porch.
Vikki whisper to me, “See that cat, or something, up at the chicken shed?” I
squint, and can’t see a thing, so I run into the house for my flashlight. I run
out side, as quietly as I can, and turn it on, and shine it on the moving
object. At first it looked like a cat, but the way it waddled away and as it
stepped down off the deck, we saw a RAT TAIL! POSSOM! So, I go running out the
yard, and hollered, “follow me!” so she did. As I was scanning the property
with the flash light, I moved towards the barn. I have seen evidence of
possum’s and skunks up there. As I turn around, and we walk back the way we
came, my flashlight picks up two bright eyes walking towards us in the dark! I
gave a start before realizing it was Mittens my cat, that just had to come see
what we were up to. Just about had to change my shorts right there. We never
did see where that possum took off to.
With Vikki living here now, I can get a few things done
that takes two people and I don’t have to wait for Rick to come home from work.
This comes in pretty handy at times.
When I wanted to make a pen for Cricket to begin the
torturous procedure of weening him, Vikki helped me carry panels to the lean
to, to create a pen for him. When I have to do moving of the critters, she is
there to help me move them in case one of them escapes and I can send her off
running hell bent for election after the said escapee. And when we did canning this
year, she helped me make home made ketchup, pickles, relish and grape juice. It
is always fun to have someone to work with.
Well when spring rolled around, the yard work around here
is a lot! I could never use Rick’s gas-powered weed eater so I went to home
depot and bought a battery powered weed eater. I also grabbed some refills that
you can just pop into the socket when you run out of string.
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Vikki took over the chore of weed eating right away. The
first day, she ran it out of string. HELP! I hear in the back ground. “How do I
change out the string?” Well I had yet to read the directions, so we dig
through the box, and find them. After reading the directions, we pop the bottom
off, and in no uncertain terms is that refill going to fit in that slot. I
think it was for another type of weed eater. I actually had to you tube how to
change the string. So, you have 2 old ladies, with a weed eater torn apart,
upside down between them, and 10 feet of string tangling up, because you know
that shit is curly! After a couple of hours and four hands, (we actually needed
a fifth, but the dogs were not about to help), we finally got it rolled up and
in working order before Rick got home! We felt accomplished!
The wind blows through our patio and I have been thinking
of a wind break that could be a temporary thing. So, with two great minds
working together, Vikki and I decided that a tarp would be the ideal thing.
Once again, we go to Home Depot and I buy a tarp that would fit the opening we
needed to cover to break the wind. I actually got the tape measure out and measured!
We come home, and on a ladder, I am nailing the tarp to the eve of the patio
where each grommet hole was. Half way through, I find that we have the tarp
short side to the top. Now we have to turn it. Wouldn’t you know it, the darn
grommets going down the side of the tarp are not spaced at the same measurement
as the grommets going along the top. Now I have all these nails on the eve,
because I can’t pull them out without falling backwards off the ladder, and I
can’t count on Vikki to catch me, as she is on the other side of the tarp.
We laid bricks at the bottom of the tarp on the ground
after we got it hung. The tarp was doing its job. The wind was not blowing yet.
We were quite proud of our redneck wind break wall. Rick on the other hand
could only shake his head, as I am thinking, “you will thank me later!”
As the evening progressed, the wind of course decided to
pick up. The tarp was wafting back and forth. It would snap each time it was
sucked out, and once again as it was sucked back in. I now have doubts if this
was a good idea.
I go to bed. The wind must have blown pretty good that
night because when I went out side in the morning, the tarp was in shreds!
Rick, bless his heart, never said a word.
I took in a goat on a baby-sitting agreement. She is a
Nigerian dwarf, that is stunted in growth.
When she was born, she was a twin and mom abandoned her in a snow bank,
and the owner found her and brought her back to life. Her name is Squeakers and
she is unlike any other goat I have ever known.
I tried to put Squeakers with my goats, but they were not
happy about that situation what so ever. Squeakers was even complaining that this
was not the thing to do. So, I put her in the back yard, until we could figure
something out. My back yard is done in hog panels and it works to keep the dogs
in, but a goat? Well she can squeeze through those squares!
One day I was working on the computer which faces a
window that over looks my pasture. Out of the corner of my eye, I see some
movement. I take a better look and here it is Squeakers, meandering along the
front of the house, nibbling on all the flowers.
It did not take her long though, before she figured out
how to maneuver the doggie doors. I have one, that goes from the patio into the
garage, then one that goes from the garage into the house. One of the first
days she was here, I think the second day, Vikki and I were in the sewing room,
and all of a sudden, a little goat streaking through the kitchen, bleating to
high heaven. She was hollering for us, and did not know where we went. But she
knew we were in the house.
We had to make her a cardboard collar so she will not
escape the yard, yet it does allow her to get in the house. Squeakers loves
human companionship and she will come in, and jump up on the couch next to her
mama, “Vikki”, and proceed to get comfy and watch TV! Game shows are her
favorite if there is nothing on ME TV.
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Speaking of, “mama”, Vikki has taken on that roll to
Squeakers, by default. She follows Vikki
all around. If Vikki is not in sight, Squeakers is generally hollering for her.
I am of no use to the goat, and can not comfort her as well. I am like an
Aunty, and not mommy.
Squeakers provides a ray of sun shine, and a lot of
laughs in the short time we have had her. She will chase Mittens, head butt the
dogs, and follow humans. She even likes to sit in your lap too. She has us all
wrapped around her hooves, and is the sweetest little goat ever. I will be sad
to see her leave when the times comes, when her real mom can take her back. She
is a lot of work. We have a hard time
keeping her contained as she is a real little Houdini.
Not ever living on a farm or being around horses, there
is a bit of skill that comes with getting a horse haltered. I have miniature
horses so they are pretty easy to get along with. Well one day, I had to move
Racer and Scarlett. I gave Vikki Scarlett’s halter, and I took Racer’s and off
to the pasture we go. Thinking Vikki was going to wait for instruction, I went
ahead and put Racer’s halter on. I know she was looking at me out of the corner
of her eye to see what I was doing. When I was done, she was also done with Scarlett.
She asked me, “How’d I do?” Very Proud of her accomplishment. I tried to keep a straight face, really, I
did, but the laughter began deep in the pit of my throat. I could not contain
it any longer and I busted out laughing so hard!
Here Scarlett was standing there with her halter on
UPSIDE DOWN being so patient! First off, I was shocked that Scarlett let Vikki
even get close to her with the halter. She came at her front on, like a
predator! But she stood there for Vikki.
I always go around to the side of the head, slip the nose band on, and buckle
the halter on their left side. For all the right ways of haltering a horse,
Vikki did it all the wrong ways. But we both had a good laugh at Scarlett’s
expense because she did look hilariously funny, and I showed Vikki how to put
the halter on right.
Kind of reminds me of the time I came home from being out
of town, and Rick, had put Libby’s fly mask on for her, upside down! AND she wore if for half a day like
that! It is the thought that counts!
Cricket, my miniature pony, was born April 7th
of this year. He had a rough start as mama’s colostrum made him very sick. I
knew what signs to look for this time around, and caught him within two hours
of him crashing. I can’t thank the vet enough for saving him. He in an ornery
little guy, but he is my guy, and my baby. I have plans for him to cart when he
gets old enough. He has a white mane and tail, and a reddish-brown body. He is
eye candy out in the pasture. He gives his mama, Racer and Buddy a run for
their money.
Mittens, my cat that Cameron rescued, is my baby. She
helps me with the chores and terrorizes all the other animals. Especially the
other cats. She is sure the queen of the house, and does not let anyone here
forget that.
We still have Sydney and Sassy, and I watch Sydney age
before my eyes. Both are the ever-faithful companions. Harper, Cameron’s dog,
spends the days at our house while they work. So he is just as part of the
family as everyone else.
Every day, I wake up, and I never know what surprises lay
in store for me. There is always a giggle here and there, and sometimes a belly
laugh that hurts so good!
Wishing everyone a wonderful Merry Christmas and a Very
Happy New Year this year.
Rick and Jody
