I am living on less than the desirable amount of sleep these days. I went to bed a bit late last night, which has been happening a lot lately. Jordan offered to put on the irrigation, so I laid down at about 11:30, and Katrina needed to get up at 3:40AM. I tried to get her awake then, but fell asleep and got her up finally at 5:00. I laid awake from five till six, when I got up to shut off the irrigation. Raising cows on this place is truly a labor of loving being wet, and raising grass. I was awake after putting off the irrigation, so I am journaling and trying to get that fresh start in life that I need right now.
Mom is over. There is a bit of dispute as to why, but in the end, it is because she and her mom don’t get along, and need some time and space between them. I want mom here. She hardly knows my children, and I want her to have the time to come to appreciate them. We need to figure out how to get her back to Denver though, so she can be home. She has been out since her dad died in April. It has been a long stay for her, and it is getting time for her to head home and get some things settled there, particularly pertaining to her health.
Yesterday was a bit of a laugh. Before driving David’s chair to Sam’s Club for an exchange, I rescued a baby Robin, and with Dylan’s help, put it back into the nest it came from. After returning home, I had to rescue Jordan who seems to have a bad fuel pump. On my way home, as I passed Ross Bird’s house on the right, a calf came running into the road from the left, and I had to stop and pasture it. I think it is Sverro’s calf, so I put it in our pasture for him to determine and retrieve when he is over again. So yesterday was spent helping others.
Now that we have the house all to ourselves, there is a lot of work to do, and I need to get tooled up and stocked on wood to get at that. There is cabinetry to build, and shelves to construct, and finally, a lot of redecorating to do! We are still trapped under a lot of cleaning, especially in the barn and the granary, but the house is almost completely clear! I have a bad water heater to replace, and a septic system that will need work, and windows, insulation, heating, and cooling to sort out. We have lighting upgrades to work on too. I also have a busted lawn mower to fix! There is landscaping outside, a garden space to kill the overgrowth of weeds on, and a pasture that still needs fencing repairs and upgrades, as well as five gates to buy and install. There are also animal shelters and facilities to get built in the sacrifice pasture before winter! I need to finish cleaning out the garage, which really serves as a workshop. That has to be sorted so I can work in it! Oh, and there is a Colorado Blue Spruce that needs all of its lowest boughs cut off so we can have a shady part in the yard to sit in, more yard space, and a view to the pasture across the road from the house, because it blocks a huge portion of that, making it that much more difficult to be aware of our livestock.
Then there is The Prospering Peasant. (www.theprosperingpeasant.com) That poor little website has been so badly neglected, and needs all the love and attention I can afford it! I have got so much work to do there!
Oh, and did I mention the basement?
Thankfully it is not a full basement. Well, it is a full basement! But not under the whole house! It is only under the pantry. I will obviously never be able to save it, so I think the best option will be to fill it with gravel and sort the pumps out to work properly to well below wherever the top of the gravel level is. The cracks in the wall are huge, and between whatever seepage there if from the canal across the street, and the amount of irrigation that gets poured on all sides of us, and the possibility we may even be on a spring, and whatever else, we are doomed to be forever flooded down there. I need to do something with it before any of those walls fall in, or things will get real expensive.
Did I also mention that I need to start stockpiling winter hay? Anyway…
Kelsey J Bacon
Next time let me dig the hole! Hehe