No trouble sleeping here!

Hello. Ben and I are holding down the farm, so to speak. It is very fun and rewarding, but there are not enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished!!! It's a never-ending, wonderfully fulfilling life. *contented sigh*

We had a bit of excitement the other day. First of all, we are looking into getting some heritage breeds of hogs and cattle, to raise up for meat, and to help get them off of the critical list (endangered cattle, who knew?). Anyway, that morning, I spoke to a person from the ALBC, while Ben played in his 'office' right there, listening. That afternoon, we ran to town. Pulling into the drive, I was thinking about what all needed to be done, when Ben said, "Oh look, our cows are here." Well, not OUR cows, but there were definitely some one's cows meandering up the driveway. They sort of milled around a bit confused, so I went ahead and pulled in. (They had not spotted our garden yet, and were headed toward the back pasture, so I just encouraged them, you know, with a tiny little acceleration in their direction. If any gravel went flying, it was a coincidence. :) Unfortunately, there are few things that make you grin that spontaneous, pure bliss, sloppy grin more than chasing a group of animals. *hmmmm* Especially when they go where you want them to----oooo, it's when you're chipping ice off the sidewalk, and you crack it juuuuuust right, and a ginormous piece comes off, so big, you can barely lift it. *ahhh* good times, good times.

So... oh yes, cows, well, I called around, the nice farmer from down the road came to take a look, offered his advise, and left. It was a nice teaching moment for Ben. He wanted to know why that guy wasn't taking the cows with him, so we talked about responsibility; the person that owned the cows needed to come and get them. I have to say when I called around it seemed that with Eric being gone, these guys around here sure didn't want to bother my pretty head about some loose cattle. At first, I was a little offended, but honestly, I didn't want to be out there, trying to get a herd of cattle to go over and around to.... somewhere. So, you know what, I said thank you. Thank you for taking this responsibility off of my shoulders, and letting me know that I am not alone, and if I need help, I can find it. They may not have meant it like "Don't bother your pretty little head" that was never said, I felt it had been implied. It was an AHA moment. Why would I make my life harder because, why? so they don't treat women with... um, I got nothin'. So it turned out that the owner of the cows happened to be baling hay faaaaaar away, and wouldn't be able to come until the next morning. So, we got to watch cows run down the road, over the fence, and 2 guys on 4-wheelers got to experience that bliss of having the herd go where they wanted them to. It was a great day!

So, with the garden, the goats, the dogs, the cats, the chickens, and the kid (my personal favorite), our days are full. Eric is working hard far away so he can be closer longer later. We may be tired, but I've never been more proud of us.