Saturday, April 21, 2007

At dinner last night:

Two waitresses are at the register. One is Mexican (MW), one is white (WW).
The WW says in replay to something the MW says, "Cool beans."
MW says "Excuse me, what did you say."
WW "Cool Beans!"
MW says "Ok, whitey whatever."
WW says "What? Cool beans, like Cool, Good, Awesome."
MW says " Oh I thought you were saying that cause I'm Mexican."
WW "Uh, No?!"

I'm not sure why this struck me funny. I think it was the obvious fact that people are too fast to jump the "are you being racist" bandwagon.
We've been talking alot this week with random people about the VT tragedy. It's so shocking (?) the differences in safety since even when I was in school last. I'm not even sure it's safety, maybe it's the moral fiber, or the take on right and wrong.
I carried a gun in my car every day to school. Every day. It was probably loaded some of the time. I would have NEVER ever thought to walk out there and use it to settle a dispute. No one in my school would have thought to use mine or their own to settle a dispute. Did we fight? Hell yeah. There were a few pretty good knock down drag out's in the halls. A few in classrooms too. When the dust settled we were embarrassed for the fighters. We were a little concerned for them too, because you knew that phone would be ringing at home in a few minutes and the punishment would be worse than anything the school system could muster up.
When you got caught playing a prank you were made to clean it up, all of it. And you would probably be mowing the lawn of the persons house you TP'd until you were 18.
I guess it boils down to taking responsibility for your actions and being willing to pay the consequences. What happened to teaching that to our kids? Have we become so fearful of what other people will think of our parenting skills to worry about how this child, who's life we are molding, will turn out. I am not always the best parent. I let things slide I shouldn't sometimes. But I will yank my son up my the bootstraps in front of God and everyone if he deserves it. I still remember my mom literally kicking my ass on main street one day in front of everyone there.
Surprise! While you may think everyone will rain down on you for disciplining little Susy or Tommy in public, you may find thank yous and pats on the back instead.
Please. Hug your child. Love your child. Discipline your child. You are making a better person. One who will hopefully know the difference between right and wrong and be embarrassed for those who don't.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

No great news today.
G-Pa is doing pretty well. He finally asked for something to eat. And he smiled. When Bill was smacking me with a shoe lace he found. Sadistic old man.
Did I mention I shaved Gee's head? It's what he wanted. Until he came home from school telling me he was sick of hearing "Man you're bald."

Track meet was fine. 26.6 was his top throw. He placed second to his buddy so it's all good. It was a practice meet anyhow, I find out later. Another meet this weekend. These meets are saving me from goat meetings I don't want to attend anyway.

I just realized I'll be coming home from a training seminar to head to OR for a goat show the next day. Shit.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Ahhhh, Gee is off to school again.

We're back on our 6am milking schedual which, while a PITA, is a nice set start to the day. Except today.
We have a routine. While he opens up the out shoot (where the goats exit to the field) I put the first two on the milk stand. While I'm getting them grained and washed, he starts up the generator.
Today I grained and waited. Silence. I waited some more (sometimes he's a little slow in the AM). He comes to the door and says;
"Mom the generator is gone."
My jaw hits the ground and I have flash backs to the morning we found my 4 wheeler stolen. The sheer look of shock must have made him think again.
"No, not gone gone, gone like it won't start gone.... it's broken."
"oh." I stumble out to see it I can figure it out, I can't, I call Bill at 6:30 am. He decides he needs to come look at it.
Gee and I start hand milking. I have a milking machine for a reason. I hate to hand milk. It kills my shoulders. Arm numbing pain.
We milked over half by the time Bill came to the rescue. Luckily all my big or hard to milk does wait to the end so we didn't have to milk them by hand.
And thinking about it, we missed one. Come to think of it, where is she? No not the one I sent off, I know not to look for her. Her partner in crime though is missing. Uh Oh.

I work today. I was supposed to work tomorrow also but my client called and canceled. He didn't have time to get his new cows tagged. He bought them on Friday and we were set to test on Tuesday afternoon. He only bought 30. My guess is it won't be done by test day either.

I bought gas today. It looks like it is a good thing I did. It went up this morning in town to $3.47. My gas bill last month was more than my mortgage payment.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Two does left today. I'm not sure Molly knew I was coming, she seemed surprised to see me. I'm sure Sarah told her since she knew about the kid with the horns. *shrug* I'm left wondering about the hay exchange still. I told her we could work the same deal she made with Sarah but nothing more was said and she went on to say she didn't fit as much hay in the trailer as she thought. I'm thinking at least two does are gone.

We went back and milked and came home. My head was starting to split by then. 3+ gallons of milk today. What am I going to do with all this milk? I need a milk outlet.

Our friends goat Noodles has them SUCKERED. He hurt his front end the other night, jamming his front feet and probably hurting his shoulder or neck in the process. We've been keeping a close eye on him since them. That means I've been out to look at him daily. I might as well own him. Yesterday the owner caught him standing up eating berries on the fence. When she stepped out on the porch he spotted her, dropped to his knees, and started crawling again. Ha! Last night she called to say his stomach was bubbling. I'm sure his rumen was just working and she (since she was sitting in his house with him) heard it for the first time. I am finding I have to be VERY careful what I tell them to do with him because they do it LITERALLY. If I say keep an eye on him, they will sit in the yard watching him. I told them to offer him baking soda every day in case his tummy was upset since he was crawling around, I was afraid it might upset the rumen. So since he was just sniffing it then sneezing she gave him some in his bottle of water (which he gets because they were afraid he wasn't drinking enough). Now we know why she could hear his tummy grumble.
Noodles has found a great home for sure. This is the kind of home you hope all your goats find.