Unwanted Visitor

We have success on our new Trail Cam!

The culprit came in, unlatched the door, ate the chicken food for 45 minutes and then left.

I am so relieved that he only eats the feed. 
Thinking back, during the summer, we would let the chickens free range for the day and they would eat bugs all day, scratching in the dirt. We were going through tons of chicken feed for chickens who were supposed to be free ranging. Now we know why!

Now we have a latch on the inside of the coop so the girls are all snug inside without this racoon waltzing in and eating their food. Nana felt that we should let it stay because it is probably cold and needs someplace for it to stay at night. NO! Racoons aren't supposed to be in chicken coops Mom! They rip their heads off and leave their bodies. They could eat our whole investment and then we would have to start all over again! Nana said that is why she should never have any animals other than dogs. I told her that if this was her chicken coop she would probably make the racoon a bed and put a dish of food out for it. She agreed.

 

Naptime

Part of training a puppy is exposing him to many situations in a controlled atmosphere so he doesn't get scared. So we take him in the van for rides to IFA because IFA loves animals and lets them in their store. We saw a video once of these people who took small cows into Tractor Supply. I told Victoria, no we are never taking the goats into IFA. They would poop all over the place. We can take Merk and Jasper though. So we went on a puppy field trip to buy Jackson a new heated bucket. He didn't make it far. He fell asleep in Victoria's lap. 

Isn't he the cutest little guy....even when he sleeps, he's cute. We are pretty sure he grew over night.

 

Hanging out on the Hay

After running a short errand, Victoria was pretty wiped out and ready to take a rest. This medical condition stinks when your young. She came out to help me in 9 degree weather to feed the animals which we have started to do about 11 am everyday rather than 6:30 am. Between the two of us we can get through all the chores much quicker when it is this cold. My fingers were already freezing from Reynauds, which is never fun. I went to come into the hay barn and found Victoria sitting on the very top. She was actually supposed to be pulling another bale down. She was happier being outside climbing hay bales. It is worth pushing her to come out with me to see her smile. Being 16 with dysautonomia and Chiari Malformation is a real drag! But having the opportunity to climb hay and be with animals is worth the push!

 

Frozen Bucket

So, frozen buckets of water and Billy Goats don't mix. Even though it is heated, the bucket is just too small to keep up with the temperatures. We have larger heated buckets for the other animals and they don't ever freeze. So when Jacks' bucket freezes, he head butts

 it to break the ice and then it unplugs making it freeze completely.

Today is Jackson's lucky day. He got a new, bigger heated bucket . So now the cord is wrapped all around the fencing and hopefully Brody won't play with the plug and unplug it.

 And, hopefully Jacks won't try to knock it over!

Goats can be so much more challenging than any other animal we know!

 

3 Degrees Fahrenheit!!!

Kirk took this frosty photo of the garden this morning.

Being very frigid out, it still amazes me of the beauty in all of the seasons.

I love summer the most but winter has it's qualities that I am happy to experience. 

I look at the garden from time to time and am already planning out next summer's garden. I already had to tell Victoria that we are going to need the Lego table in a couple months to get our seedlings started indoors. Our growing season is pretty short, so we have to plan ahead. I love looking at our garden in full swing of summer AND in the dead of winter!

 

Unwanted Visitor

Brody seems to be enjoying the snow. He even sleeps on the ground in it by the does fence, while all the does are huddled in their little houses. Well, except Bonnie, she sleeps in her feeder. 

Brody is still learning his manners. He is only 1 1/2 years old so he has a ways to go, so we are in training mode, constantly. Which is why I go out to visit him with no agenda. He gets a little tired and stressed trying to figure out what it is that I want from him. He is doing really well for now. We are still working on his feet so we can get a Farrier out to trim his hooves. We are getting pretty close.

We have discovered that there is an unwanted visitor in the chicken coop at night. We heat their coop, which is why we still are getting about 10-15 eggs a day. We have found that there is racoon tracks, big, racoon tracks in their yard and around the coop, not to mention the scat inside the coop. No wonder it smells different than the normal chicken poop smell. 

For Christmas, we got a Trail Cam to set up to see this big racoon going into the coop. Yep, we got him unlocking the door and letting himself in. I am so relieved that he isn't killing our chickens!! We have noticed that his Scat is mostly cat food, so we think it is fairly domesticated. It probably never learned to kill chickens. And now thinking back, we think it has been going into there longer than this winter. We suspect. Now, we are getting a different lock that we will do from the inside. Growing up we had a pet racoon, so I totally remember witnessing their dexterity. It has to be a good locking mechanism. 

This is Brody's first winter in snow. He was born in south Utah so they got snow but not like what we get here. He seems to be enjoying it and it doesn't seem to be bothering him. Though between Beau next door and Jacks, they have managed to trim Brody's forelock and his tail!! His tail used to be really long and pretty and now it looks like a baby tail, chopped!!

He did manage to partially rip the slide off the play structure. I will say that containing a pony is so much easier than containing a Billy Goat. Much Easier! We are up to double cattle panels on Jacks, and he already has the second on bowed out from smacking it with his head. I will be glad when all the does are bred and they aren't in heat and Jacks goes back to being a reasonable goat once again and out of Rut. 

 

What the?

I walked into the kitchen Christmas morning to find this stuck to the counter top. 

I know what this is. 

This is the work of Jared's revenge on Victoria.

She leaked the information that she had wrapped his gift with zip ties and duck tape so that he would have to cut it apart with wire cutters. 

The one rule was that she could only use a multi-tool to open it. 

It was worth it though because her brother buys good gifts. She now has a new western belt. She's pretty happy. 

This is what instigated two cans of spray foam! 

It cracks me up how they will do things to each other, pulling pranks on each other.

Gingerbread Men

Notice that Jared is not decorating a single cookie.

Jared has always been present for these activities but has never truely participated.

Though if you call tasting and eating cookies participation, I guess we can count that.

I'm impressed that we actually pulled it together to actually do something that counted as a Christmas thing to do this year. We didn't do it last year because Victoria got a head injury which kind of knocked the whole holiday off kilter. 

Kaleb decorated one of the cookies like his old boss that he worked with at Whittaker a year ago. He texted him a picture of it and his boss replied "I'm getting chubby!"

Daphne's famous one ton cookie

Cousin It

A Kitty Gift

 

Merktavitch

Kaleb has a new puppy!

Merktavitch

Merk for short.

He is the most adorable 10 week border collie ever!

Okay, Jasper was pretty cute too.

Kaleb has high hopes for Merk being his hiking, backpacking, 

cross country ski, search and rescue buddy. 

He has made himself a place napping with Sammy. 

It is fascinating watching him, watch Jasper. He already does the border collie "stare". It is so funny because he will do it sneaking up on Jasper who is literally watching him. When Merk gets super close, Jasper will reach out and nip him, like, "I got you", and Merk will jump back and run around only to come back and do it all over again. Jasper will also pick up a tug toy and hold it in front of Merk's face waiting for him to grab it so they can play tug.

I love that both Sammy and Jasper have taken him in and love him. They have welcomed him with their little doggie hearts. Of course we love him too. 

Brothers for life!

 

Watching the Neighborhood

Jasper was barely awake. He had one eye on the neighborhood, checking to see that all was okay.

When I came down the stairs, he wouldn't move so I had to literally crawl over him.

He kept one eye on me without moving his head.

He was barely awake.

 

You Gotta See This!

We lived with this disgusting bathroom for 5 whole years!

We drew the line of tolerance when the ceiling was about to let go and fall in on us which I frequently worried that it would do when I was in the shower. It never did. Whew! And then the overhead light kept flickering. We knew that the wiring was the original wiring wrapped with cloth. We felt it was a disaster waiting to happen.

NOW look at how beautiful this bathroom is. It was a joint effort. Jared was the brains behind the whole operation. He, being the contractor. Kaleb custom bent the shower curtain with Poppa supervising, because you know, we couldn't do anything standard. Kirk was the plumber and electrician and the grunt numerous times. I was the cook and clean up crew, and the designer. 

I requested a light in the linen closet, done, ship lap walls, I got Tongue and Groove (it's beautiful), I got wood ceramic tile, done, I wanted the shower with a rock floor and wood walls, like I'm outside. Got it! 

I love the shower! I escape every day. It's like I'm camping every day. 

A few years ago Jared brought this beautiful pedestal sink home from a house they were remodeling. The guy just wanted to throw it away so my genius son, loaded it in the back of his truck and brought it home. I kept looking at it in the shop wondering if it was ever going to be installed. OH! the bifold door is GONE! The boys installed the basement door into the bathroom. Awesome! AND, I wanted a shelf for all my things like the plants and clock. Jared built the window sill along the whole wall. Now we don't have to worry about the ceiling falling. 

 

Darn Cat!

 Thunder has a bad habit of playing with her food! She brought in two mice into the house to play with and then let them go. We spent 8 weeks trying to catch one, which we did, thinking that was the only one until we watched her staring at the oven. In cat terms that means there was still a mouse in the house, scurrying between the ground floor and the basement. And since we don't currently have base boards, it is easy for it to squeeze through the ton of holes in the floor to escape. I have to say that we have never had a mouse chew a tunnel into an entire loaf of bread before. Pretty amazing if you think about it. Lightning on the other hand will just eat the mouse. Actually, he bites the heads off and leaves part of it on the rug by the door. We told them to do their job, it just took a while and required snap traps. Currently, our house is Mouse Free!

Heated Water Buckets

Animal chores were done each morning by Victoria, pre-concussion/Chiari Malformation/Pots Syndrome. Now, it's me in the morning and Daphne at night. The thought of lugging warm water out to the animals all winter was not looking appealing. The wonderful men in my life, two of which I gave birth to, ran electrical plugs out to the all the animals so that we could use heated buckets. It's a beautiful thing to see steam rising up out of the water in lightly falling snow. Just beautiful!

This is Brody's first official winter of snow. So far he doesn't seem to be bothered by it. 

Really I think that Jared just wanted to run the trencher. He is in his element, digging dirt.

Brody wasn't too sure about the trench. At first he wouldn't go over it and then he discovered that he could just run and jump over it. He was pretty about it. After we filled in the trench we were piling it up and tamping it down. We turned around and he had walked up and down the strip of dirt making nice little hoof prints.

These guys worked hard to get all the electrical in by the end of the weekend. Kaleb cracks me up, he pulled his Whittaker safety vest out to do the job. We definitely didn't miss him. They even installed a flood light on the side of the shop so we don't have to feed animals in the dark in the early mornings. It's great!

 

Bed Buddy

I thought Border Collies weren't supposed to be this big. Jasper is one big boy. I love how he just lays out on the bed. He was squinting his eye at me, like he was waiting for me to tell him to move or something. How Victoria would even fit in the bed with him there, I have no idea. He's keeping the sheets warm for her.
 

Not Thrilled

Henry James

Henry James....We miss you Bad Dog. We always said you were either Full Blast or Out Cold! We knew you would be full of life up to the very end. You had a knack for detecting UPS and FedEx, three streets over. You were good at letting us know that there were fireworks, just in case we didn't see or hear them. And when I would lay in bed and tell you to close your mouth and stop barking, you literally would bark through closed lips. You crazy dog. You could catch the scent of any animal in the yard, prancing through the grass with your nose up in the air. You were awesome in 4H dog agility and for some ridiculous, crazy reason, you were really good in Obedience and Showmanship. You were a Bad Dog outside of the ring but once you entered you could sit three minutes and get you and Victoria trophies and Purple Ribbons. This past year, you escorted me everywhere, even letting me know when it was time to go to bed. I purposely would take a detour and you would quickly gain the upper hand, cut me off and walk in front of me once again. You had lightning speed. You could catch any crumb of food that fell off the counter or off Jared's fork before it ever hit the ground. Your eyes would dart from person to person watching to make sure you caught the food before anyone else. Your eyes moved so fast, how you never got dizzy, I have no idea. We knew life was abruptly changing before us once your hearing started to go. We knew your days were limited and memories of your first year with us when as a puppy you would steal the boys socks while they were trying to put them on and disembowel stuffed animals of their stuffing when we weren't looking. You had a good life you Bad Dog, we loved you dearly and wanted to ring your neck too. We never did. We love you Bud. You were the only dog I know who has a middle name. And you knew that when you heard your full name, by golly, you did what you were told. You pushed every boundary that you could possibly push...and some. Your last day, you were really tired after having two strokes in four days. Victoria and I took you beyond the border to explore everywhere you wanted to go. You chose to attempt to hike your leg over every bush in the entire acre and a half of yard, you trotted right past the chickens, the pony, the goats....your only desire was to sniff your way through the back pasture behind the shop. We asked you where you wanted to go next, so you made a slanted, wiggly, bee line past all the animals again , which was totally unusual and unnerving to the compost pile to sniff. Victoria and I laid down on the grass where you laid out between us when you had your fill. You sat quietly facing the house, like you were just soaking it all in, taking inventory of your doggie life. Sammy snuck out along the grass line, behind the chicken coop and slipped in to nuzzle up to his buddy Henry. You had a good 14 years with us Henry James. We love you!
 

First Hike ....in Forever....

It was just one of those days where you just couldn't even be in your own skin...It was a pretty rough week and with Victoria's medical condition that keeps her off her feet quite often, we headed into the canyon to just get away. It was actually the first day since her head injury that she felt up for a hike and did quite well considering. Victoria opened up about almost everything, I almost hated to get back in the van to drive home. Life is full of twisty turns and walking along a dirt path can somehow iron out the wrinkles that usually leave you confused and tired. Listening to the crunch under foot is something I always long for when life gets rough.
 

The Year from Hell

 I can write whatever I want because this is our blog, so I am just going to lay it all out on the table. No one reads it but us anyway...I think. This has been the year from H...E...Double Hockey Sticks! And not from Covid either. Well, maybe yes. It has definitely made things really weird. Like wearing a mask in public. Being a nurse, it is easy for me to wear a mask....when it is necessary. But try to convince a house full of black sheep to wear a mask and you would think we were doing surgery on them without anesthesia. Don't get me started on whether or not we should be wearing a mask at all times. It drives me insane seeing people wearing a mask riding a bike or driving a car when they are the only ones in the car. Really??

We are swiftly approaching the one year anniversary of Victoria fainting in Jill's barn only to mark the beginning of a 6 month recovery from a concussion, which she still hasn't fully recovered, will she? That lead to nasty headaches causing us to seek an MRI on New Years Eve only to find out that she has Chiari Malformation. Who knew that her cerebellum is descended down her foramen magnum. No wonder why the kid was having nerve issues in her hands, neck and shoulder pain, and struggled with landing her axel on ice, which she finally did with the harness in the Fall of 2019! It sure explains quite a bit. We have now found out that that is why she doesn't swing her arms when she walks, why she started getting dizzy with spinning on ice, why the haircutter spin bothered her neck and threw her off balance, why her posture is perfectly straight because she was naturally holding her head in a position so it wouldn't hurt and why she stopped growing taller at 5ft 5in when we have known all along that she was to grow to be close to 6 ft. She was always so much taller and bigger than other kids her age. 

Oh, and all this time Kirk's work flooded in the Fall of 2019 so he was home working in the basement freezing his butt off. I can say butt because remember, this is my blog and I can say whatever I want. I can even say "crap" if I want to. So not only are his fingers freezing but his legs are going numb sitting in our concrete, low ceiling basement working on the computer. Which they hadn't made any real progress to fix the flood problem, nor did they offer to give him a tiny raise to help cover the cost of the added electric bill of running his computer and monitors, the upgraded internet needed and the electricity to run the lights and an electric blanket and heaters down there so he doesn't freeze. 

In the mean time, Ice skating is over, the idea of actually accomplishing school is on hold, the projected goal of becoming a vet is over and the couch now is the place of comfort with her head propped in a really weird way which we know is to give her brain all the space it needs in her skull. And no amount of medication can help with the 24/7 headaches, dizzy spells, upset stomach and emotional trauma of the entire ordeal. And then get diagnosed with Dysautonomia, which by the way there is no treatment for, only eat salt, which she naturally has craved dill pickles her whole life, and drink lots and lots of fluid. 

Enter Covid. We know Kaleb already had it in February wiithout realizing it. We did manage to keep the rest of us from getting sick. I honestly don't think Victoria would have done well at all if she had gotten sick at any time this past year. I called around all of Utah to find a concussion clinic that could help Victoria but couldn't find one that would treat someone under the age of 18. You have to be kidding me!! So we actually went up to Driggs, Idaho after they started seeing people again in May to a concussion clinic and they did absolutely NOTHING! On to the next. We started seeing a Naturopathic who have helped her a little. At least she is able to be off the couch most days. And amazing, we finally did find a concussion doc that would see her. Where was he before when I called his office, I have no idea.

Summer came and went with so many restrictions on 4H that I am shocked that we managed to meet as much as we did with the dogs. But the heated indoor arena that we finally got to meet in during the winter with snow on the ground is no longer available to us due to Covid. Eerrrrghhh. And now the kids can't meet anyway. Which is something Victoria really needs.

In the meantime, Kirk's work got the flood taken care of but then decided to not lease their space again which sent Kirk back home to work permanently. So we made the choice to put new carpet with a super thick pad for insulation to try to maintain the heat so he doesn't freeze. It is actually working. It is much warmer down there. I guess when I prayed during the winter that he wouldn't be traveling all summer and be gone like he usually is. I was thinking that he would be getting a new job or something. I had no idea that Covid would enable him to do it all online in our basement. God knew it was coming. He made me have the feeling that he wouldn't be traveling for the summer and he didn't. He was home.

Hobby Lobby won't let me use their art room to teach my art classes so I am having to do small classes around our dining room table. I am thankful to be able to continue but I am bummed that I can't use the art room where I have successfully been able to use it for the past 6 years. Now, I have to make sure everything is cleaned up on my art days where as before I didn't worry about dishes or books on the table from school. I know, quit the sniveling.

Why am I whining? It sounds like it.  I am thankful Kirk still has a job. And I am thankful we still have our daughter and that she will get through this illness? We have seen two neurologists, talked with two neurosurgeons, been to Instacare once, had two MRI's done, saw the OT, PT, Concussion specialist for weeks on end, not to mention the therapist to help her sort through the loss of her figure skating ability. I have become trained in Craniosacral Therapy to do the frequent adjustments on her head and neck to give her relief and now am becoming educated in Homeopathic medicine to treat her many, many symptoms to root out the problem deep inside her body.  We have good things happening but it hasn't been easy. Jared is a licensed contractor now, and Kaleb quit his welding job to partner with Jared in the construction world. Daphne hung in there with her little violin students until this last round of quarantine rules. Who knew that this past year was going to be this way. 

Can 2021 get any better than 2020? I sure hope so. Okay, I vented. I told it like it is. In the meantime, I will bundle up and find peace and quiet even if it means finding a rock to sit on in a lonely field or hanging out with the animals and learn to speak goat or pony or something.

Color Wheel

I can't teach art in Hobby Lobby because of Covid, so

I teach art at home, outside. One of the lessons was the color wheel.

 I had the kids collect objects of various colors to apply into a wheel.

I thought it turned out great.

 

Life of a Contractor

Jared, once again, smashed his hand, not once, not twice but three times!

 All in the same day! It was not a good day. At least he is smiling.

 

Bear Lake...One Last Time

Nana is teaching the kids to walk like Laverne and Shirley

Kirk was the only one brave enough to emerse himself in the water. 

I felt it was just a little to cold to do that. 

I never take summer for granted. I enjoy every single little second that we spend anywhere. I cherish the feel of the sand and the water. I love the time spent together and am so glad that we all love to spend our time just hanging out. It is almost the only way that we just stop moving and spend some down time.