Little things, little extras, too much stuff

Sunday afternoon on our way home from church, Mama and I passed a house where a trailer full of square bales of hay was set up to sell the hay. The sign advertised the hay for ten dollars per bale. A really good price for this area right now. So, Mama and I got changed and went back to look the hay over. The bales were heavy, tightly packed, and freshly cut. It was high quality coastal hay. There was a bit of broom grass in the hay, but it had not matured or seeded out, so it will not interfere with the goats eating the hay. We bought ten bales which I put in the little shelter next to the buck’s paddock. That should carry us through until Norman comes from West Virginia with the bales he promised to haul to us from there. Tomorrow we will begin feeding out that hay. Since there is absolutely no grass in either of the paddocks, the goats will not turn down the offering and we will be able to gauge their interest in the hay. I do not foresee a problem, but time will tell. Sometimes the goats are a bit picky.

Grandpa and I sat together Monday evening in the chairs set up on the front walk for him and Grandma and talked in general. As we both looked over the front yard, I mentioned that if Grandpa would like, he could scrape the dirt area in front of us to level out and fill in the areas where Samson had dug a huge hole over the past several years. Grandpa is much better at that type of tractor work than I am, and I told him so. My concern is that the hole fills with water when we do get rain and it makes for a muddy mess in our front yard for extended periods of time. It is unsightly in dry times, but much more unsightly in wet times. Well, yesterday he did just what we had discussed. He scraped down the high spots, filled in the deep hole, and raked out the area to make it presentable. More so than it has been in years. Those kinds of little things are a real blessing to both Mama and I as well as to Grandpa who gets to produce some valued service for us all.

Mama will go Friday to pick up our meat from the processor. I called yesterday evening and was told that the two halves had been cut and wrapped and put in the freezer. Most processors require two days in the freezer to be certain the meat is completely frozen before being pickup by the clients. We were also told that the two haves were about one hundred forty pounds each, meaning our calf weighed about five hundred pounds. Small but tender. Mama and I could have fed him out for a few months, but I did not want the expense and we do not need a huge amount of beef to store in our freezers. We should end up with a little less than two hundred pounds of beef. That should last us a fair amount of time and we have a little buck to process next month which will net us about forty pounds of ground goat to add to the mix.

When Mama went yesterday afternoon to get feed for our animals, both Grandma and Grandpa went along. I could not figure out why until almost four hours later when Mama got home and told me they had made four stops in the drive. Once for Grandma to get chicken nuggets. A second time for Grandma to get a coke to help her swallow her chicken nuggets. A third time for Grandma to purchase cinnamon rolls and other packaged sweets to go with her morning coffee and a fourth time for Mama to look in a store for a particular item. With that kind of progression, I am hoping Grandma and Grandpa do not go with Mama to pick up our beef. The processor is an hour away and if any additional stops are made, the meat will be thawed by the time they finally get home. All those little extra trips and stops do not normally make a big difference, but sometimes they do,

Tomorrow evening, I will prepare the freezer for the boxes of meat Mama will fetch from the processor. I have conscientiously begun limiting the items we put in the chest freezer where we will keep our newly processed beef, but I want to make sure what is in the freezer really needs to be there and that what is oldest of the freezer contents is put on top to be consumed first. We have so much in the three freezer spaces available to us. Some of it needs to be thrown away. Deciding just what that is, is a difficult process for Mama.

Speaking of too much stuff, Grandpa spent over one hundred dollars on totes and as much again on shelving so he and Grandma could go through their accumulation of personal items now in a storage unit Norman wants to empty next month. The shelves were assembled in the well house and the totes were hauled to the storage unit to be filled as both Grandma and Grandpa go through the things Norman boxed up (rather haphazardly) and stored when he unpacked Grandma and Grandpa’s camper for sale. Grandpa is still a bit peeved about Norman selling the camper while he was in the hospital recovering from his stroke, but in the long run, it was a proper decision. Nevertheless, all their stuff will be coming to our property this month, filing up our well house. Oh, well.

I will be teaching a full-day class tomorrow and presenting at a conference Friday. It has been a busy week so far and continues to stay busy.