Mar 22, 2009

A Glimpse of Retirement?


Last year, Mont and I purchased a toyhauler trailer house. We thought it was just the ticket for us. Load the wheelers, head on the mountain. Needless, to say, the bunk bed was not made for two older (not old!) people. I couldn't find the ladder in the night to get to the bathroom and Mont was paralyzed by the bed and couldn't get down in the mornings. We then decided the answer was to use the blow up bed after the wheelers were taken out of the hauler. When we bought a trailer, there was 2 things I wanted. A bathroom and a bed I didn't have to make every night!.

After lots of thought, we put our toyhauler up for sale, and found a great deal on a 29' "retirement" house. It's a little long, but SO comfy and easy to spend weeks at a time in.

Now let's go back in time a few years. Mont's folks used to head to Quartzsite, Arizona every January to enjoy 70 degree + temps while we were shivering here at home. The last few years that Grandpa and Grandma went down there, Grandpa's health didn't allow him to drive them down there and back. Mont and our great brother-in-law, Ken would get them there and back. The last year they went down, I went with Mont to bring them home. They were staying in a little RV park in the middle of the desert and all I could think to myself is "there is no way in hell I am ever going to do this"! Honestly, I thought the most entertainment they had was watching their underwear tumble in the dryer!

Now back to the present. The past three weeks Mont has been having decompression treatments on the disks in his back with a chiropractor in St. George. The first week he had water meetings there and then would have a treatment each night after his meetings. The second week, he took our new trailer down to his sister Polly's and her great hubby Ken and parked it in the little RV spot they have at their house in Santa Clara. I was pretty jealous that he got to go spend a week there! Last week, I joined him. We spent Monday night and Ken and Polly's and had a great time having a barbecue with them and just catching up. It has been so long since we have seen them! They are such great people and always willing to give everything they have to help someone out. On Tuesday we took our little house and went out to Sand Hollow State Park and stayed there for the next two nights. It was SO much fun and so relaxing! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and Steve brought our boat down and we spent Wednesday fishing and soaking up the sun. Suddenly, I had glimpses of me camping down in the desert of Arizona, soaking up the sun, attending the swap meet and rock show in Quartzsite and meeting some great new friends from all over the country, just like Grandpa and Grandma! And you want to know something??
I think I'm going to LOVE it!!

Mar 13, 2009

Green Acres

I'm sure most of you are too young to remember a show that used to be on tv at least a hundred years ago, or when I was young. A farmer went to the city and found him a bride (ZsaZsa Gabor) and brought her back to live on the farm.

Now Richfield is not New York but Lyman is probably just about as rural as it gets. I've "helped" out on our little family farm. I've fed, lambed sheep,attempted once to help dock lambs (you don't want to know), helped with the shearing, fed the shearers, herded sheep (once in purple house slippers), plowed, changed sprinklers, baled hay and probably several other things I have chosen to block out.

I'm amazed that my husband can spend a day in the corral mucking around in sheep poop to his eyeballs and never bat an eye. Why then did he gag and have dry heaves when he had to change a baby's diaper? Which, I might add, was NOT very often!

I have, at times, been left to be the shepherd of our small flock. Now, I admit, I love when the baby lambs are born. I love to watch as they come into this world, usually on the coldest night of the year, get on their shakey legs and find something to eat. It's amusing to watch as they play together. Running as fast as they can to one end of the corral and back. It never ceases to amaze me, that no matter how far the lamb can be away from the mother and no matter how many sheep there are, that lamb can hear its mother calling it. Cracks me up when a pair of twins come on a dead run across the field and both attack the mother to have something to eat at the same time and the ewe's hind legs come clear off the ground.

And now, the NOT so amusing part. I was called to be the appointed shepherd this week. "Only 2 ewes left to lamb" Piece of cake. Monday night, we have the blizzard of the year. Couldn't even see to get home from they gym. Wake up Tuesday morning, it's 3 degrees. Yeah 3! I go to the corral to feed...there standing in the snow...SHAKING..are triplets! 3 AGAIN! Is this a pattern? I do my shepherd duties and get them all locked into a little pen. Thinking at this point I am SO proud of myself. I go home at lunch and checked on them. One is dead. Oh great. Have they not eaten? Did she step on it? Are the other 2 going to die? Lambs DO NOT need a reason to die. So then I get nervous they haven't sucked. Now what to do. I reach into the files of the things I have been taught over the past 32 years about lambing. Bellies look full, but still..why did the other die. SOOOooo..I climb into the pen...position my fat derierre on the bucket that is used to water the mama sheep and proceed to teach these little lambs about where their bread is buttered.

Problem #1 Mama sheep has only 1 place to suck from.
Problem #2 Place to suck from isn't very long.

At this point I am trying to hold the mama's leg up and shove the lamb in there to find something to eat. Sheep DO NOT like their head touched, let alone having them drug somewhere they do not want to be. Mama sheep was at this point somewhat amused, I think. She kept turning her head back to look at me as if to say, "What in the hell do you think you're doing?"

After rigamortis (sp?) set in and I couldn't get off the bucket I wandered into the house, still wondering what to do about the little lambs. Around 7 I warmed up a bottle of milk and took out to them. Reaching into the poop pit I dug one little lamb out and proceeded to pry it's mouth open and insert the bottle. So proud of myself! The little lambed sucked a little, then blatted at me like, ok I'm so full I'm bout to puke, could you remove the bottle? It was then I noticed how tight his little tummy was. Ok so they HAVE eaten. They do NOT want anymore and it's ok for me to go to the house and get warm.

As I slipped off my poop covered shoes, coveralls, coat, gloves, etc., I could hear my husband saying to me, "Good job, honey!" In the words of my sweet little granddaughter, MaKenna, "Whatever, dude!"