A busy week, watching the babies, loving it

If all goes well I have a busy week ahead. I will travel to Houston today via Rogers, TX. I am hoping to visit with Sarah and Fabian on my way down. I am not sure how often they get visited but this seemed like a good time to do so. While I am in Houston, I plan on driving down to see Joshua. It may not be a long visit, but it would be a shame to be that close to him and not make the effort to drive the two hours to Victoria to take him out to dinner. On the way home from Houston I plan on stopping by Martha’s to visit and to pick up some items she is holding for me and Mama. Wednesday will end up being my shortest night in town, but it is also the day I will be in a class for eight hours. It will be a full schedule if I do get to keep it, but you know how life is; you make plans only to change them as life actually happens.

I am a little worried about the cows running out of hay while I am away. There is too much available right now to set out a fresh bale but I am pretty sure it will be gone before I get back late Friday night. Mama and Victoria will figure something out and Mama is fully capable of getting a bale set out.  I am just not sure she will. Other than that, things are set for me to be gone a few days. It even rained last night – not a lot, but enough – so Mama will get out of watering the plants tonight. She will have to water on Thursday if there is no more rain between now and then, but we have things set up so that watering is much easier than it used to be.

On the way home from the doctor visit I had after work yesterday I stopped at the pet store and picked up some fish to put in our cattle trough. I have it set up with a float so that it is constantly full but Mama does not like the algae growth that accumulates when she cannot dump it and scrub it clean. If the fish do not help with the growth at least they will be fun to watch for a few months. I do not know how cold a water temperature they can survive but we should be able to keep them until sometime in November, at least. If I know Mama, I will have to get an aquarium to winter them over in. My plan is to dump the tank when temperatures are too cold to keep the hose hooked up and let the coons have the fish. I am not sure Mama will allow that to happen. Time will tell; you know how Mama gets attached to things.

Both calves and the baby goats are growing as expected. It is delightful to watch the three little goats as they race across the yard, over the rock pile and back again. They move with such sure footed-ness, but still, it is almost frightening to see how fast they cover the ground especially when they get to the rocks we have piled up on a mound of dirt. Last night I watched them hop from cinder block to cinder block while the blocks are laying on the side that exposes the open side to the goats. At best, there is only a two-inch-wide surface for them to balance on and yet they were hopping from one to the other. I have thought about getting Mama a side-by-side to drive around the farm. It would be facilitated by a bridge type crossing through the fences so she would not have to open and close gates. My concern is that I could not give her access to the goat area because the goats would not be the least bit intimidated by the access – not like cattle would.

We love our life on the farm. We are both hoping we can heal up enough to really enjoy it without all the pains we are now feeling. If not, we will adapt and bear the pain to have the blessings of the farm; at least for the next several years.