Finding Time

I’m trying to find the time to clean up the Halloween stuff left in the barn. By the time the kids are picked up from the house it is time to do chores and do stuff in the house. Monday and Tuesday nights Christine is gone. Trying to get anything done with the kids around is almost impossible.

Tonight is trick or treating at the mall and the auditorium. Tomorrow Christine and I have a conference to go to. That pretty much leaves Sunday to get things done. I need more time than that. I have to clean up the barn, put in fence post, string wire, and move the goats.

Apollo is still here. He was supposed to be gone by Saturday but it doesn’t look like it. I will probably have to get rid of him.

Christine and I went riding last night. Midnight (the horse) was good overall. She did catch attitude a couple of times. She would try to bite my foot when I flexed her. Then she wanted to run to the barn before I was finished with my ride. I weaved her in and out the tree line. After a few minutes of that she calmed down.

I think I’m going to light bonfire for tonight and clean the barn while Christine and Claudia take the kids T or T.

Haunting Barn

We had a Haunting Barn set up for Halloween Sunday for the children. It went pretty well considering the wind gusts and the drop in temperature. We put our tent poles up in the barn and covered them with black plastic. Then decorated it with lights, webs, and the usual scary stuff.

We had a rough Saturday night with the visiting boy. He through one of his worst fits. It seems like it is always around bedtime. He’s up all day at school then tries to stay up most of the night even though we send him to bed at 8 PM. It is getting old.

It looks like some good things are heading our way. There should be plenty to celebrate this Holiday Season. More to follow on that.

Trying to move the goats over to the barn. It is going slow. I have to put up a fence first. The goats still haven’t had kids yet. They are getting big but nothing yet.

We did get a new horse. Her name is Midnight Beauty. She is very gentle it seems. She has become top mare. HD runs from her. I haven’t had a chance to ride her yet. Apollo is moving to another place. The liability of having someone else’s animals out there while we have other people’s children is too great. I don’t want to be sued.

If my chickens don’t start laying eggs, they are going to the cutting block.

Delores is off the property. She is telling anyone who will listen that we are kicking her off the property. Whatever. All I care about is I don’t have to put up with her out there any more.

Secret Room

I started moving my stuff into the secret room in the barn. The “secret room” is the name I gave to a room built inside the barn. It was where Delores stored her stuff. It had old books, carpet remnants, backpacks, this and that in there.

I laid claims to it a while back. I just want a space to call my own. A lockable space that I can put my tools, start and finish small projects, sit and have a cup of coffee, and perhaps design a few things for use around the farm.

Anyway, I started moving my stuff in there. I had to sweep up some mice droppings, old insulation, and about a pound of beetles. Now I just have to keep people from storing stuff in there just because there are shelves in there. It’s MINE all MINE.

We cleaned out some of the garage so Christine can pull a vehicle in. Now she doesn’t have to worry about the rain or snow. The kids will be able to get in and out of the vehicle without worries.

Christine’s grand parents are supposed to be gone today. Milford is ready to pull out and park over at Randy K’s.(his son). Delores is stocking the trailer cabinets with her stuff that didn’t sell at the auction or isn’t taking with her. The same trailer Claudia is supposed to be renting.

Delores doesn’t want to clutter up Randy’s place. She would rather inconvenience the people that are going to rent her trailer. This way she can store her stuff and get someone to pay rent and Delores doesn’t have to pay a thing. It’s all about the money. I hope she doesn’t think she is putting stuff back in the barn. If so I am charging a storage fee.

The sewage backed up again in the trailer. Claudia and Rich weren’t happy to hear that. Christine and I told Claudia to get a contract drawn up stating the responsibilities of the two parties involved in the renting of that trailer. Delores will bite them in the ass if they don’t. I say good riddance Delores.

We got a new horse this morning. We traded Lacey for this black one. I don’t know her name. She is gentler than Lacey. Still no goat kids. Chickens are still not laying that great. I get 2-3 eggs a day from over 14 hens. Not a good ratio.

Life Goes On

Kathy and I started cleaning out the secret room. I threw some junk on the trailer and hauled it to the fire pit. Up in flames. Perhaps this weekend I’ll get a chance to move some of my stuff over there before it fills up with other stuff.

Goats still haven’t had kids yet. The coyotes are starting to get more active. I have been hearing a lot of yelping lately. The chickens haven’t been laying many eggs. I only get 2-3 a day. Some of them look like they may be molting. I have to clean the coop.

Home life is driving me crazy. I come home, kids are whining. I ask them to stop or what is wrong and they elevate their volume. I don’t have much “Me” time. Kids show up at 5:30 AM and stay until 5:00 PM. Then we get the visiting kids ready to eat dinner, do homework, and take baths and before we know it it’s time for us to get to bed and repeat the whole process again. All our cleaning time, quite time, and leisure time has been reduced drastically. I need a vacation. Alone would be nice.

Auction Day

It started off as normal. Christine and I got up to receive the Daycare kids at 5:30AM. At 6:00AM I put the overalls on and headed to the barn. I was wondering if Milford (Christine’s G-Pa) started moving stuff out of his garage and barn. The Auctioneer was coming at 7:30AM.

The barn area was still dark so I took the opportunity to walk around the barn area and soak up some silence. I walked back to the house and seen Claudia outside so I talked with her for a few minutes. I went inside and got another cup of coffee and headed back to the barn.

I seen Milford’s garage opening and headed that way. I helped him uncover the hay racks that held all the stuff. He didn’t want to move too much stuff until the Auctioneer arrived. I had to being the school kids to the bus stop so I went back to the house.

Met the Auctioneer coming up the lane, the time was 7:45AM. Put the kids on the bus and headed back to the barn. We started moving the hayracks out of the barn. I was trying to hide my pleasure of getting that stuff out of there. I headed back home so Christine could go to the auction. The auction started at 11:00 AM.

I put Kamera down for a nap and watched some TV. I noticed the cars and trucks parking on the hay field and starting to move up the lane toward the house. I pulled my vehicles up to block the lane and the advancement of cars towards my yard.

Kamera woke up and I headed over to the auction. Delores was walking around with her sour face. She was trying to fluff things up to make them more appealing to buyers. I kept my distance from her. I did however hear some of her comments.

She told one of her kids that bought something, “that sold for half of what it is worth”. Was she sad it didn’t sell for more? Did she want the kids to spend more to fatten her Delores fund? Other comments were; “I can’t believe it only sold for that”, “I worked so hard on that”, “That was ‘so-and-so’s”, and my favorite one was the one she made to my wife.

Earlier that morning. Randy came over to the house and got the crock we use to make kraut with. This crock has been in the family for a couple generations. We traditionally make kraut in it every year. Delores wanted to put it on the auction. Christine was pissed to say the least. When the crock came up for sale Christine stood up front and just held her bid number up until she won it. The price she paid wasn’t that high considering what this crock means to her.

Delores comes over after Christine bought it and say, “I can’t believe you paid that much for that, I know you can’t afford it.” Christine spun around looked at her grandma with draggers and said, “Don’t worry about it, it is mine now” and turned and walked away. I was watching Delores as Christine said that. Delores looked stunned that Christine would say something like that in that tone of voice. She got the “deer in the headlight” look and turned and went back to the auction.

We went to the house with the crock. Just another day at the farm. SOLD!

What a Weekend!

This weekend sucked.
Friday night Christine took the kids into town for dinner with our nephews and her parents. I stayed home to get chore done and wasn’t really wanting to go into town. The kids hardly ate anything. Christine bought home some of their food. After dinner the boy runs out the restaurant and almost gets hit. Christine yells at him to stop. He figures he’s in trouble and starts his screaming and crying. He screamed all the way home from town. Randy rode home with them. He was ready to put the boy out at the end of the lane and have him talk to the house. Poor Christine and Randy.

When they got home he was screaming and went right into time-out. He finally stopped his screaming long enough for Christine to talk to him. She told him she yelled at him to get him to stop so he wouldn’t get hit by that car. We got them to bed and went to bed ourselves.

The first thing Saturday morning the 2 older visiting kids were at it. They were squabbling, nit-picking, and just down right aggravating each other. I sent them outside to play or watch a movie in the hall. You’d think I stuck them in the eye with a hot poker the way they reacted. The boy falls on the ground and starts that ear splitting wailing. He sounds like a little girl screaming. Nothing against little girls but that is all I can think of comparing it to. I think they have trouble comprehending what you say. I say one thing and they hear another thing.

The day progressively got worst from there. The boy spent a great deal of time in time-out. Most of the time-outs were spent outside. He starts rubbing his head when he is getting ready to explode. I tell him to relax do a little controlled breathing. Sometimes I think he just wants his way and his mom may have given in to him when he pulls this.

I am getting pretty tired of it. Saturday evening I had had it. The boy was outside whining and I went into the kitchen and told Christine I am ready to put a ten day request on him. That is a request for DHS to find another place for the child within 10 days. As usual the crying started when it was time to go to bed. “I want my mommy, I want my mommy, I want my mommy, I want my mommy.” Over and over and over.

Sunday morning started out the same as Saturday’s had, bickering. I suggested they go out and let me fix breakfast and I’d call them when it was ready. You’d think I slammed the door in their face. I told them to go to their room if they were going to continue screaming and yelling.

I put the baby down for a nap before church and told the older 2 if they woke her up they were going outside. They woke her up by bickering. I sent them outside. They wailed. They were alright in church. They started to get restless about half way through. Went to the store afterwards and headed home.

Claudia and Rich came out and bought Lerica out to ride HD. Things went okay. Bed time came and they cried a little then went right to sleep.

What a weekend. I have them tonight since Christine has a 2 ½ hours class tonight. Just another day at the farm.

It’s Turning Cold

The nannies haven’t had the kids yet. I may have to move them over to the barn soon. The nannies were supposed to have the kids by end of August. It is now the beginning of October.

The visiting kids and my nephews rode HD yesterday. Christine and I worked with Lacey. She is a stubborn old horse. Someone broke the bottom strand of the electric fence across the pond. They just left it there all coiled up in the pasture. It looks like who ever it was, was getting something out of the brush on the other side of the fence. They just pulled what ever they were after through the fence and left it.

I still have the uck. My throat is raw. My head is congested. I don’t ache that much but I am tired. I slept in the recliner last night so I wouldn’t keep Christine awake and I needed to be elevated a little because of my sinuses. I think it is going to be a short day at work.

The auction was listed in the Bonny Buyer Tuesday. I see the “secret room” is cleared out. Everyone at the farm knows how much I want my own area. That’s all I ask. Out of these 30 acres, I just want an area to call my own. We’ll see. It’s just another day on the farm.

Approaching Auction

I still feel like poop. My head is congested, my body hurts, and I’m coughing uncontrollably. Other than that I feel fine.

The inside of the barn looks nice. Kathy cleared and reorganized the inside contents for the auction next week. There is still a lot of stuff in that secret room. I guess we are supposed to help with the loading of the hay racks and store them in the barn. That means I have to fine a place for the tractor, lawn tractor (mower), and the “jalopy” (Lawn tractor w/o the mower deck on it), we use it for a utility tractor. Randy said he isn’t helping. I don’t blame him. The only reason I’m helping is to clear out the “Secret room”. Delores already wants to pull the shelves out of the room. I don’t care as long as she gets her stuff out. The reason she is so eager to get those shelves out is because she doesn’t want anyone to use them. Heaven forbid someone use something of hers w/o paying her some kind of fee.

While the snow birds are gone for the winter I am going to be busy in the barn arranging it and making sure Delores has no business in it. I am also going to put locks on the doors. Since we will be the ones there I feel it needs to be secure.

I can’t wait for the auction. I may even video some of it. Mostly the expressions Delores makes when her “prized” processions don’t fetch a King’s ransom like she is counting on. I would have a different outlook on her if she wasn’t so “me-me what about me” all the time. I will always remember her as the person who will screw over family, friends, and strangers to get what she wants. Soon I won’t have to worry about her being out here for a while.

The day care is going ok. We still need to get organized with the paperwork. I need to step up and start doing more. Having Foster kids is a little time consuming. We have to have them do more around the house. Clean their rooms, put their clothes away, and help with household chores. We get there. Just another day at the farm.