the barn at the end of the world

You know it is summer when....

...your house is invaded by moths...lots and lots of moths. Moths that fly at you when you turn out the lights when you go to bed. Moths that swarm at all the lightbulbs in your kitchen. Moths that are swift and furious and are hard to swat. Moths that like to buzz past your ear when you are writing your blog.

...you get to eat the strawberries from the garden that are the most ripe (about a dozen each day for the last 3 days, and more green ones that are turning pink). The best strawberries ever, by the way!

...Buffy the Chicken (she's a Buff Orpington) decides she will sit on the nest for days and days and days trying to hatch eggs that we keep taking from her. The eggs aren't fertile (we have no rooster). 3 eggs today.

...your vet calls to say your entire herd is BVDV free (HOORAY!). Ok, so this isn't a sign of summer, but we got the call today that none of our animals has to be destroyed, so that is pretty exciting.

...Jennie locates her shorts and actually wears a pair of shorts out in the world. Jennie usually wears shorts 2-3 times total in the summer, so this is a big deal.

...tomorrow is the first veggie pick up from Cure Organic Farm. I belong to the CSA at Cure (community supported agriculture) and starting this week, every wednesday for 20 weeks I get to go to the farm and pick up my share of fruit and veggies!

Currently reading :
The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd
By Mary Rose O'Reilley

Mrs. Biglopper is gonna smash your ass

Hooray for 3 day weekends. Here's some highlights

Friday I spent most of the day at home working on redoing our business website...it isn't done yet, but I'm close. In the middle of the day I went to Boulder for a leadership seminar for managers and had a blast (seriously, I really liked it!) Then back home for more fighting with dreamweaver. Back down to Boulder in the evening to catch the X-men III movie with Michael and John and Kate. 4 eggs.

Saturday I went to an alpaca organization meeting in the morning and then spent three hours in the afternoon with Michael weeding the garden and then transplanting the pumpkins, okra, and cukes. We have a tremendous amount of volunteer dill...which is perfect since we have three pickling cucumber plants (dill pickles!). Later this summer, I'll have to get some books on pickling...I've never done it before. 4 eggs.

Today was a big adventure day. We started out with worming the two female llamas. We purchased these two girls in a semi-rescue situation. They weren't abused, but had been neglected. We've done a lot of work in the year and a half we've had them getting to trust us. I can now catch and halter Aquirius on my own! Merle, is another story. Poor Merle is a 400+ pound scardey cat. Any time we get her in a small enclosure, she starts trembling and shaking. We did an amazing job of teamwork today and really worked slowly and gently and she even stood still while I stroked her neck! Major success.

After llama wrangling, we decided to tackle the weeds that were growing along the side of the patio and driveway. These weeds had gotten a bit out of control and we had a ton of thistle that had grown 2 to 3 feet high. Michael used the short-handled pruners, and I used the long-handled loppers used for small tree branches. At one point, Michael said to me "Mrs. Biglopper, I need your help over here". So I came over to this particular monster weed and told it "Hello, I'm Mrs. Biglopper, and I'm gonna smash your ass." And I did.

And the final joy of the weekend...I made a vegetable and tofu thai green curry for dinner. And now everytime I go outside and come back in, the house smells like a delicious thai food restaurant. I'm going to have to make this a lot more frequently!

Oh, and 5 eggs today.

meat, apples, shopping and beets

Today's headline news: Jennie ate meat. Cousin Paul and I went shopping today and and afterwards we went to the new Jewish Deli in Boulder...and I had a corned beef and turkey sandwich. This is the first meat I've eaten in weeks. As excited as I am about a new deli, I'm not sure how much I can support them since delis are mostly about the meat. I really deliberated over the menu and kept thinking about the cows, chickens, and turkeys that I've met.

In other news, the beets I planted in the garden have sprouted! We also seem to have some volunteer tomato and dill sprouts. I'm very excited to see what other surprises we get (besides all the weeds).

When we came home today, we found two dogs in our big pasture, running around and barking at the alpacas (who were thankfully not in the big pasture today). While Michael was chasing them off, I discovered that the gate to the boys' section was open. Since the boys were still inside their run, I figured they hadn't noticed...unfortunately, we found evidence that the boys did go wandering in our backyard today. The apple tree in the backyard was really brutalized...branches broken, leaves chewed to bits, and a lot of branches with bark stripped. Oh those bad, bad boys!

AND, we've finally named our new baby girl. Her full name is SanchoPaca's Doña Brinca, just "Brinca" for short (say it breen-ka with a rolled R). "brinca" means jump...and she is a very bouncy baby.

my sibs are cool

My siblings are cool. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to stop being the oldest sister, and be more like a peer. I feels like it is hard to do since I remember when they were each born, changed their diapers, taught them how to dance, taught them how to climb trees, beat them at every ATARI and Nintendo game we ever had, was always the mama bird in that bird game we played, helped them with their math homework, edited their essays, got them in trouble, got them out of trouble, broke down the cerfew barriers, "set a good example", softened up the parents so they could have it easier, gave each of them the "how to use a credit card (the right way)" and "what mom and dad didn't tell you about the real world" talks before they went to college, let one of them live with me for nearly a year, gave one a car (even if it turned out to be crappy), took another one on a pre-college scope-out of two colleges and co-signed student loans, etc. I love them, can't ya tell.

I dropped the egg count for a few days. 4 eggs today, 3 yesterday, and I forget how many before that.

Tuesday afternoon

So I'm finally trying to emerge from the black hole of the past few days....what a whirlwind! It was amazing, and wonderful, and I'm glad that most of the work is done...now for the aftermath (sigh).

Yesterday was alpaca shearing day...we made 2 trips to the vet hosptial in Ft. Collins to get 6 animals shorn...they look incredibly funny now! I'll have to get some pictures posted. My poor, hairless, naked babies...and everytime I look at them I start laughing!

I took Miko to the airport early-early this morning, so I'm home alone for the rest of the week...and I think I'm coming down with a cold.

popping bubbles

Yesterday, we went to my boss's house to watch the Bolder Boulder, Boulder's annual 10K run. His house is about half-way on the route, and so we got to see an incredible mass of humanity streaming past. I didn't see any of the people who I knew were in the race, and saw several people that I didn't realize would be in it. My boss's wife set up a bubble machine in the front yard to keep the kids occupied and also as entertainment for the passing runners. It was fascinating to me to see runners of all ages coming past us excitedly yelling "BUBBLES!" and running with arms over their heads through the soapy, floating, spheres.

I thought of those bursting, glistening orbs when I spoke to my grandma last night and she told me that it wouldn't be too late for me to go back to school and get my PhD. The mantra I kept hearing from my mother and grandmother when I quit med school and became an engineering PhD student was that I could always change my mind and go back and get my MD. Then later when I quit my PhD program with "only" a masters degree, again the mantra that was chanted in my ear in most every telephone call "you can always go back, you can still get your doctorate".

So many people over the years have seen me as a bright, shiny object, one that could do amazing things, and over and over I keep bursting their expectations. I don't regret my choices. I feel every bubble popped has lead me in a direction that has felt right. My choices may not be ones that my mother or grandmother would have made, but I am happy. I am home.

my very scheduled life

I've been feeling very claustrophobic with my life the last few days...I have so many things that I want to do with my time, but don't have the time to do them all. My weekend is so full that Michael and I have to schedule a time to go to the grocery store! I love having a farm and a garden, but I have to be able to be home a certain amount of time everyday to take care of a bunch of necessary responsibilities. I love my friends and family, and I never have enough time to talk to everyone I want to, or spend time with everyone I want to.

Michael desperately wants a dog. He grew up with dogs, and the longest I've been around a dog was a week last summer when we owned a dog and then had to give it back because it kept running away. It has become more and more clear to me that I don't want a dog. I don't want to add on the responsibility of care for a being that needs human attention and affection (on top of routine care like feeding). Our alpacas and chickens don't need us to be around, and really just need us to make sure they have food and water and shelter, and at birthing time to make sure they don't die in labor. Every time he talks about getting a dog, I get more claustrophobic. I've told him this, and I know that he gets it on some level, but that doesn't keep him from wanting a dog...sigh.