Rosie, healing up, more projects, work

Rosie is back to her old self now. When I sat down to eat a sandwich last night she was at her usual spot begging. I had seen yesterday morning that she was at least moving around. That is something she had not done for days. Grandma and Mama were very relieved; Mama probably more so than Grandma but it looked like a draw to me.


My back is getting better. It usually does over the course of several days but we are still going to have a doctor take a look at Mama’s knee. Unfortunately she comes from a long line of persons with serious knee problems. Almost every person on Grandma’s side of the family has bad knees and several have had both knees replaced within the last decade; some quite recently. I am hoping to escape that with Mama but we will have to get a more professional diagnosis than I have gotten to date.

I was almost feeling good enough last night to put up a couple of pieces of OSB we are using for the exterior of the apartment, but I talked myself out of it pretty quickly. Mama and Victoria were all gung ho to help, so I guess we could have done it. It is almost a guarantee that it was better to wait a little longer so I can hopefully be at full strength when I am off.

Grandpa has let our calves into the upper meadow to eat what they could of the coastal and alfalfa there. Now he has given them access to the big meadow to eat it down. He is trying to conserve the hay we have in the barn to ensure we can feed all our livestock through the winter into the spring. If we get some rain we will still get some growth in the meadows, but we have not gotten enough to encourage the grass to keep growing.

He feels, and I agree, that what we have in the barn will go largely to the horse to keep them fed through the winter – unless there is some growth in their pasture. They require a lot of feed to sustain those large bodies. I tried to tell Mama we were a little early in getting them but she is only now beginning to realize how poorly equipped we are to keep them.

On my days off next week I will have to take the time to build a shelter for the two horses. Mama is worried about them getting wet when it does rain and she wants a place to shelter them from the very hard, and now cold, winds we have in this area. It will not take more than a day but it will take me away from the project I really need to be working on. Grandpa could do the construction, but he is not interested in wasting his time on the horses. So it will fall to me and Mama.

After having completed all the scheduled interviews I am left with the feeling that I did not get the right person for the job. The people who will be taking over the training are satisfied with the candidates we interviewed but I am coming up short of that. I suggested we start over again but there is some push to get the responsibilities away from me and on to the person who will lead the effort going forward. I am just not sure we found that person. Time will tell.

I will be in training all day today and most of the afternoon tomorrow. Today is some refresher training I elected to take to prepare myself for an interview with licensing early next year. I am still praying for direction in that but I felt it will be better to prepare for the interview even if the Lord directs me other wise. Tomorrow will be normal monthly meeting.

My last work week of the year is flying past me.