Life After Ugh...

Life has greatly improved, I must say. I was back to normal by yesterday morning. Rachel had a slight illness right after I did. Rod is currently unavailable for comment. He is holding his bed down. He feels right miserable. Apparently this is a very short lived bug. Yesterday we took the children to the Phoenix Children's museum. Very neat place. They had a play store which the children enjoyed. They had a paint room and they had a drum class... Jayden was really bopping around in the drum class... I had to laugh at him... He definitely has something in him my other children don't have... Rachel has two aunts living in Phoenix and we met with one of them at the museum. Last evening we met the other aunt at McDonalds for ice cream. They covered lunch yesterday and the ice cream last night. Very nice of them... Today we are planning to go to a huge used bookstore here. That should be interesting...
Oh, I should mention the hot tub. I haven't got in it yet but I would like to... It is out side.
Also, the backyard is about 20X50. It is surrounded by fences. The girls had these annoying flutes they were whistling on and we sent them outside. So, they are outside whistling away and soon the dogs started to join them. So, I took a peek over the wall to see the dog. I couldn't believe it. On one side we had a huge Great Dane, snarling at us. The other neighbor had three dogs, don't know what breed, yapping at us... The kids thought the Great Dane was pretty amazing...
Ok, enough for now....

Ugh

Well things went well until we had boarded our plane in Raleigh. Jackson, Sierra, and I were together with Rachel, Kaiden, Aleya, and Jayden directly in front of us. The plane was extremely hot and Jackson was very nervous about the whole idea of flying. He kept telling Rachel he wanted to drive to Phoenix, poor kid. So, as I was saying, suddenly Jack has an upheaval in his stomach. I frantically try to catch what I can but I am completely late and have started moaning to my wife when another upheaval comes forth. This is much worse then the other and I am too late on the draw again. We stripn him down to his shorts, wrap him in blankets and land in Atlanta an hour later. We put fresh clothes on him and head for our new gate. We board the plane and everything is great. Jackson wants a snack and a drink. So I let him have a little. He keeps it down so we let him have some more. By then we are feeling quite comfortable about it. He falls asleep. Sometime later he starts moving around and here comes some more. All over the seat and his shirt. I want to yell at him, TELL ME WHEN YOUR GOING TO DO THAT... But I don't I mopped it up took his shirt off and went to ask the unhelpful steward for a blanket. (The first flight we had two very sweet and helpful grandmotherly types of people for our attendants, not this one...) So, this happened several more times but I was begining to be quite good at having the bag ready. You miss some you catch some. Well, we finally land in Tucson and due to the children and the nakedness of Jack we calmly sit and wait till everyone is off the plane before we start dragging our things together. We were just getting up and the steward said "Ok, lets get out of here...) I looked at him coldly and said "Son, our boy has been puking the whole trip and you have done nothing to help. Never asked how he is doing, nothing. Now you want to rush me off the plane... You need to lighten up." Ok Ok I didn't say that, I wanted to but I didn't. I did look at him coldly and, holding up a bag of puke, said "do you have a trash can?" He looked back just as coldly and said "There is one at the front of the plane." I couldn't believe it. So, imagine this. A three old boy straggling off the plane with a thin blue Delta Airlines blanket trailing behind him. A mother holding a five month old. A 8 yearold dragging a backpack. A five year old wanting to do something. Another 3 year old strolling along nonchalantly. And then Dad... Whewee, Dad has a large suitcase, another carryone, and the bag of puke. trying to make it off the plane... I was not happy.... They were extremely unhelpful on this last flight....
Now, I have been spending my day today sleeping and sitting in the bathroom... So, whatever he had it was more than a nervous twitch...

DOA

Last night I had one of the nastiest jobs I have ever had. I had a cow with a dead calf. This is nothing new except for one small detail. This calf had been dead for quite sometime. In fact, it wasn't in one piece when I was finished removing the calf from the cow. Talk about disgusting...
You know, it wouldn't be so bad if it didn't smell. I tried hard to breathe through my mouth which helped immensely...
Another cow had twins one lived and one died. They were both bulls.
I had another cow fall in the holding pen while I was milking last night. I was sure she was never going to get up again. Tonight she was up and we milked her. Answer to prayer...
Whew, I am tired...
Till next time

3 X Milking

After struggling to pay the bills last week I decided it was high time to bite the ole bullet and start milking 3x a day. Our current schedule is 10 at night, 6 in the morning, and 2 in the afternoon. Nobody is overly fond of the night milking so I told the guys I would do this milking. It is taking right at 3 hrs to milk. This puts me back in the house about 1:30 or so. I like it for some strange reason. I think my body is slowly adjusting. I usually sleep till 8:30 in the morning and then I try to take a nap between 4 and 6 in the evening. I would rather do it this way then get up at 3 in the morning. So, for you local yocals, if you can't sleep for some silly reason feel free to stop in and chat with me about life. Come on in and I can put you to work and listen to you ramble at the same time....
All right enough rambling....

Life

I have, after much agony, decided to go to 3x milking. Milk price is dropping which means less cash flow. So, we will try the 3x here for several months and see what happens. Hopefully this will make a lot of difference and we will live happily ever after....
I will be singing at another wedding today....
Need to pick up a heifer at Dr. Gardner's...
Need to feed this eve.
It's 0 this morning...

Quartet Retreat

I feel it is my duty to inform you, the reader, of a dilemma... (He he) The Dilemma is this. We have one person registered for the retreat. Yes, you read right, One. So this could mean several things. The first being only one person is coming. This would be an economic catastrophe. Second, it could mean that you haven't registered yet. Which is fine if you don't want too eat... Right now we are planning on feeding one person so if you haven't registered and you show up you will be driving to Breezewood or somewhere for food...
So, you better register don't you think....???!!!!

Dusty Job

I had the daunting task of bedding stalls today. (A stall is what the cows lay down in to rest. At least they are suppose to.) We have been getting loads of sawdust by the semi-load from different furniture plants. The last load to come in looked like powder. I also noticed rain doesn't make it very wet. Or, it has the ability to soak up lots of water/moisture. This load looked like sawdust from a belt sander. Very fine and powdery. This means it is very dusty...
I bed 80 stalls and the bed-pack barn, carrying this powder with the Bobcat. Needless to say I was a dusty mess by the time I finished. The cows seem to like it. It looks very comfortable.

Mud

Rain is a good thing, really. It truly is. I wish, however, we could space it out a little more. Why not have more rain in July and August and a lot less in Dec. and Jan. We have red clay for soil. It is really amazing stuff. In the summer it acts like a brick. Hard, and very difficult to work with. In the winter it is greasy and very slippery. I managed to get a dump truck full of wood stuck today. It isn't stuck really, just spinning.

Mile Stone

The other day Sierra was riding with me on the Bobcat and I let her drive. I didn't help her but I was sitting on the seat. After she did this several times I asked her if I could drive the tractor while she drives the bobcat. No, she didn't think so. I suddenly had this brilliant fatherly idea. I told her to let me get out. She did. I got out and sat on the bobcat bucket while she started driving. She wondered if this is what she would be doing while I was on the tractor? I said yes. She said ok. So, I asked her if I could go get the tractor? She said yes. I went...
Today, she drove the bobcat every time I needed her to. It was great.... I am proud of her...

09

Well, 2009 is here. Can you believe it? I wonder what the year will bring...
VOP is stepping into uncharted waters with a new bass. I have discovered it usually takes a year for the group to gel when there is a personnel change. There will be social changes, as well as vocal changes. I have also discovered the social make up of the group has a big impact on how good we are vocally. How well we get along affects how well we sing... So these are all changes coming in 09.
Work: Wow, I don't know what the year will bring... I am firmly settled into phase one on expansion. At this point I am sitting tight and waiting to see how things develope.
Family: Who knows what 09 will bring. More kids, I doubt it.... Death? who knows....
So much is unknown....
Because of the unknown it is of utmost importance for me to dig deeper. Develope a deeper relationship with my Father.... The things that I do know should push me into a deeper relatioship...
I wonder alot why this relationship is so difficult... Why do I struggle so with it? I must not be commited enough...
So there you have it.... I really doubt whether 09 will be much different than 08... This morning wasn't. It was beautiful, cold morning....
God Bless us one and all as we seek his face....