Sad decision

I haven't heard from my dad in over a week after I left him a message and I've decided not to call back (like Big Daddy says I should) or look for anything further. He has his life and I have mine...that's just the way it is.

And I had some text conversation with my sister but after I stopped the chit-chat and asked some personal questions (I'd love to get to know her!) in a text, not a word have I heard. So, I'm done there too.

Sad thing is I would never have thought her would act this way. O-well. I need to move on because frankly, I've had so much sadness and what I would consider a hard life, I don't want anymore of it. And I'm okay with it...I guess:)

On a happy note, Domino is settlin' into his home nicely, though Spirit is a butt head when I give them lovens. He promptly pushes under Domino's neck and swings his butt around to get his outta the way. It's kinda funny but I feel bad for Domino. Spirit is a Mustang though and a little man at that. He's got an attitude;)

We also got the new deck on the front. We just broke down and paid the money for the lumber and got it done. It's so big and nice compared to what we did have. I already have my flowered pots on there. Though we do still need to treat the wood.

I guess I should get off here. I do hope it rains like it looks like it might. We need all the rain we can get. It has been hotter then two mice in a wool sock around here...I'm not a fan of Summer. I could skip it all together. I do hope to get a Fall garden put in. I need to get the chicken coop cleaned out and put in the garden. And my mom also told me about burin' wood where you need good soil. Maybe I'll get the kids to pick up all the twigs and branches to throw in there with all the cow and chicken poop. Then till that all into the ground:)

Anyhoo, have a great day!!! O-and just a random thought but I still think of Sheridan often...

Long buried post...The Move

I haven't read this since I wrote it over 3 years ago...not sure I want to as I know I talked about Star and Choncho...but I hope you enjoy our memories.

Written January 20, 2009

The move

While trying to fall alseep last night (after waking at 4:30am that moring with the baby and spending the day with all 4 kids ‘cuz we didn’t think there was school for MLK day…there was) I got to thinking about the long journey we had moving from Idaho to Oklahoma.
Picture if you can (because for some reason I didn’t take ANY pics…phone, camera, video camera…not a one!) a family of 5  and a half setting off for a long move from Idaho to Oklahoma. It is the second week of July, hotter then all get out and I’m 33 weeks preggo with our fourth. O-and we are moving 3 horses, 2 dogs, 2 cats, a goat and all our stuff with 2 trucks (my 4-door big girl truck pulled the horses, goat, 50 gallons of water and 10 bales of hay and various other tack, while Redneck’s big 454 truck pulled a trailer with household stuff, with me at the wheel) almost 1500 miles…all the while it is hotter then 2 mice wrestlin’ in a wool sock. We didn’t use our ac due to towing big loads.
We set off on Wednesday about 11am. Hoping to get 600+ miles behind us, landing at the horse hotel I had picked out. Horses loaded good, goat did too…kids were a little harder but we got it done.
 To say I am freaking out at this point is putting it lightly. I was leaving all I had ever known (Idaho, Arizona areas mainly) and my family to move to Oklahoma and be closer to Redneck’s dad and family. My mom was really sad because she was going to miss the birth of our youngest and seeing the kids when she wanted since they were born. Plus dealing with all the craziness that comes with pregnancy and my complicated one at that. I just wanted to get to OK and my in-laws where we were to live for a while and relax until our baby’s birth day…HA!
We made the first day of the trip good. Made really good time with all stops for bathrooms, fill up’s (my truck only has one tank working right now so we have a 15 gallon tank that needs refueling A LOT when towing heavy trailer and horses…every 125-150 miles=$60+ in fuel) and eating. We made it to Wellington, CO and boarded the horses overnight at  www.geocities.com/interstate_stables/  with Larry and Marge Enke. They were wonderful and made our horses feel right at home. Star wasn’t wanting to drink water but Choncho and Spirit were doing good, despite the long, hot trip so far. My goat, on the other hand was horribly scared and I wasn’t really able to milk her that night or at all for those three days. She stayed in the horse trailer with the dogs in the parking lot of the hotel. We swam a little and then went to bed to be ready for day 2 of 3.
We left out of Wellington as early as you can after loading horses and other animals and getting all family fed and in the trucks. The second day went good. Though there wasn’t much scenery and it was HOTTER then all get out and my feet were starting to swell pretty good. All animals were holding out good, except for maybe the fat cat who was really hot and I wetted his head more then once…he liked it. On top of the heat, there was also so much moisture in the air, you’d swear you were breathing swap water. We’re from dry ‘ol Arizona where the tumble weeds and dirt have races in the wind, this was new.
We stayed in Salina, KS the second night. I won’t tell ya’ll where the horses stayed because the guy was an ass. Charging us $75 for nothing really. And this is what I HATE the most about people’s perceptions of *Rednecks*. We have Redneck written in BIG letters on the back of my truck and our horse trailer isn’t pretty but it is paid for and structurally sound. Why is it when some people think redneck, they think ignorant, toothless, hoopty driving, no indoor plumbin’ having, inbred ingrates??? That is just some stupid thinking and people need to educate themselves.
Day three started good…but this is where it gets a little Okie-fied and crazy. Redneck had been following me the whole way but when we got to Oklahoma City, he took the lead. Now, mind you he is driving the big truck with a 4 horse trailer and I’m in his truck with the uhaul trailer. He loses me in all the maddening traffic of the city and I don’t catch up to him until we are out of the city. I get stuck behind a lady doing 45 mph and the left lane filled with whizzing cars in a hurry to somewhere, so I couldn’t pass her for about 20 minutes. Of course Redneck was already passed her and down the road. Upon passing her, I see she is on her phone…NICE!!
Redneck took the lead in OKC because he had *a shortcut* he’d been given by his dad’s nephew, who was a trucker and knew all the roads. Our shortcut first took us over the BUMPIEST roads you could imagine and twisty. Okay, that’s fine…it’s hot, late in the afternoon, we’re on a road we’ve never been on that is bumpy as hell and we’re still getting new directions by the minute. The altered directions take us down a 2 lane road, middle of nowhere, that turns into a dirt road RIGHT before you see the big bridge WASHED OUT!!! Guess they’d had a big flood that washed out the bridge and someone forgot to tell nephew. Redneck goes to check out the bridge while I stay at the top of the RAVINE and get to cussin’! He comes back and states that if we keep it in the middle of the ruts in the road, we can make it over the bridge. Not only was I thinking that was the dumbest idea I had heard since deciding to move here, I TOLD him that. I told him I didn’t get this far across the damned country to have my truck wrecked and animals hurt in the middle of BFE and no cell service. HELL NO we weren’t tryin’ it.
So, we turned the parade around and headed back to where we last saw people (in a small town with 4 cops and they were ALL watching the new people from Idaho getting gas, that was kinda twilight zone-ish). Called nephew and he gives us new directions…I’ll be damned, the bridge is out??? Yeah, bulletin for southern OK residents…bridge in the middle of BFE is OUT!!! New directions take us down a new, exciting BUMPY road. It’s getting dark now and I don’t see well in the dark due to my horrible eyesight and night blindness. Needless to say, the bumpy road, 10,000 little bridges and hills and dips had me a nervous wreck by the time we met nephew on the highway. I thought I had felt all the bumpy roads in southern OK…NOPE!!! The bumpiest was the rode to my in-laws. For some reason, someone had decided to patch the road with whatever they had on hand at the time. Or they just left the bigger pot holes for small car fun…or tired horses in a trailer all day fun. And Redneck had to keep up with our escort, even though they were in a car and doing like 40 mph. I didn’t keep up. I had come that far, they could find me if I got lost.
We made it about 9pm that night. Got the horses unloaded and settled in. Star finally drank after we got their own water trough out. She must have missed it. Goat was happy to be out of the dog kennel and trailer and was doing the happy goat jump/dance and bellowing. I was happy to be out of the truck and felt SOOOO relieved that my family made it to OK without any mishaps…kinda. I just wanted to enjoy the ac and get some sleep.
I am so glad we made it here and have enjoyed most of it. Oklahoma is much different then the West but we’re adjusting. Now, if I can just get past the fact that you can’t see nothin’ for the trees…
Tip of the Day: Always carry a map

     

What a great post to find! I will find some more to post from my *begining* blog.

 

Oklahoma drought

I guess I was naive or just hopeful but I never thought we would have a season like we have had this year.

We hail from the west (AZ, ID and MT) and livin' in Arizona, you just know it will be dry and then pray for the monsoons to hit in late summer. But Oklahoma is different. There is water everywhere...lakes, streams, rivers, ponds...we have it all...until now. And it is scary!!

I planted a full garden that never produced a thing, blackberries didn't put much fruit on, pastures are brown, cattle are dyin' and most of the state is prayin' for rain...to no avail.

We would be in a dust bowl of the 21st century if we didn't have native grasses coverin' a good portion of the state. But Oak trees are dyin', pretty much all trees that have shallow roots (hard woods mainly) are dyin'. I said earlier this summer that when the weeds start to die, we are in trouble. Well, the briar's are dyin' and that is really somethin'. Those buggers will grow no matter what.

Water tables have lowered to the point that native plants are dyin' too. We have a spot in our yard that has an underground spring and that is where I planted the apple tree, roses and a gardenia. Even they are dyin' now due to the water lever goin' down.

The Kiamichi River, which is a big, flowin' river that supplies us with water is just about dry. I was blown away when I took the kids to go swimmin' there about a month ago. The river that was once flowin' at least 10 feet above normal level is now no better then stinky ponds of water here and there. The water isn't flowin' and the fish are dyin' in the stinky mud holes.

Hay prices are through the roof. Usually we can count on at least 3 cuttings, if not 4 and there has been 1 this year. When we moved here the price for a ton bail of hay was around 25-30 and now the estimates are at 125 or up per bail. A bail would last us about a week with our two horses in the winter. Now I just don't know. My new job will probably be enough to cover feed bills for the winter. Heaven help us!!!

And God help the poor cattle and ranchers. The cattle are droppin' like flies and there's nothin' to be done about it.

Here is an interestin' article Drought effects on cattle

It looks like fall here...

Texas/Oklahoma cattle herds

And not only has it been dry, it has been one of the hottest summers on record. We've had over 55 days of 100+ degrees, add that to little to no rain and it spells a major disaster that will have a trickling effect for years to come. I worry about the deer population, which supplies a lot of food for families around here (we hope to tag at least one deer and 2 wild hogs this fall)...I really am just at a loss. I like bein' positive in most things but the country right now leaves little to be positive about.

Here's our poor dogs tryin' to beat the heat. They've dug holes (which I usually frown highly on but I'm allowin' it) to get down to the cool dirt but the holes have gotten bigger and moist, cool dirt less and less. It will take a tractor now to fill in the holes.

On a positive note, the kids are enjoyin' school and doin' well...even our little man:O)

I am sorry to all of my followers for not postin' too much. After not workin' outside the home for over 10 years, my waitress job is kickin' my butt:O) Ten hours on my feet and all I want to do is come home and sleep. I'm gettin' more into the hang of gettin' up at 4:30am but my poor feet don't want to. I'm a little worried about my left big toe. It crunches and is painful all day long, not to mention cracks with every step but I hope it will get better. If not, I might have to go to the doc, which I don't want to do. Not really a fan of modern medicine...it seems that surgery is the only answer for most things and my experience is that surgery usually makes things worse. O-well...quit bitchin' huh;O)

Anyhoo, I'm gonna get off here and plant my butt in our bed and watch some tv on my day off. I hope everyone has a great Hump Day!!

Where's the rain????

Mercy!!! It has been so hot and muggy here...and no rain. Everything is dyin' or near death. I wish we would have had our rain barrels ready when it rained the last time. We're gettin' out of the rainy season, with little to no rain. Not sure what that means for the rest of the summer...hot, hot, HOT!!!

The garden is doin' pretty good. But the cherry tomatoes that were about to turn red, got eaten by the damned chickens!!! So, I have to get some cages around the toms today and then try and get the t-posts in for the fence. Brandon wants to put wood posts in. I could dig the holes but I would rather just pound the t-posts now and get a better, permanent fence in come fall. At least the goats are gone and the horses are in the pasture.

I just read a great article in Mother Earth News about the wolves in Yellowstone. Very interesting and I learned things I didn't know...I love it:O)
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-community/keystone-species-zm0z11zrog.aspx

O-also on a side note...I figured out what my mom was thinkin' about her necklace. It was all a big misunderstanding that could have been cleared up had she asked me face to face. She now knows she was wrong, dead wrong...but I have yet to get an apology. Hell ain't freezin' any time soon, that's for sure;O) But it's all good!

I need to get goin' and get my chores done. Little tip for ya'll...vinegar kills mold, as does Tea Tree oil. I keep a spray bottle full of vinegar, water and essentials around for general cleanin' and to spray the shower or anywhere else that might be havin' a mold issue...which is anywhere here:O)

Take care and have a great day!

God bless Tushka, OK!!!

What a night we endured...but the residents of Tushka weren't as lucky as us. We are about 30 miles north east of Tushka. We travel through there all the time goin' to Durant, OK and Sherman, TX. It is a small town of about 500 folks, not unlike a lot of towns here in southeastern OK. It really just breaks my heart and is just sad. And in a time when it seems everyone is bitchin' about one silly thing or another...it puts things into perspective.

We did have a plan if things got serious. We have a narrow part of the creek on our property that is deep and skinny, though the fence we put up will make it take a little longer to get there. There is also a cellar across the street where our neighbors parents home is. No one lives there but we are more then welcome to the cellar...thank you Dwight!! And last but not least is the community center about 2 miles down the road if things got too bad. We've gone there once but I stayed in the truck with the dogs while Brandon took the kids in. That was last spring and I'll tell ya...it scared me bad. I couldn't see anything past about 20 feet and the rain and wind was vertical. It lasted about 15 minutes while it hovered along highway 3.

We have family scattered from northern TX all the way up to OKC and I can't say that all of them take the weather seriously enough. Some even believe tornadoes don't happen after night fall but I bet residents of Tushka believe and know otherwise...though it was about dusk.  We take it seriously! As do the coaches that cancelled practice last night.

I have a lady comin' over this evenin' to pick up some hens. I'm sellin' about 8-10 for $8 each...not too shabby:O) That will help Brandon and I go out tonight for our 12th anniversary.

I have a lot to get done today so I need to get off of here. I pray that everyone effected by the storms last night and today can find some solace durin' such a trying time...

The infamous road trip of '09

Okay, the following post was written a few days ago...my little trick worked so I will be having more posts. Merry Christmas ya'll!!!



I finally have time to sit down and tell the tale of the crazy OK-AZ road trip of ‘09 involving snow, ice, fog, below freezing’ temps, gail force winds among other things that are sure to amuse. I just pray that I can get this post from my word processor to my blog.

Okay, my cousin Becky and I (and Bay-bo) set out at 4am on a Tuesday to pick up my mom who’s movin’ here from Arizona. We’re to drive straight through and pick her up and a uhaul she had already loaded. We didn’t drive straight through…we missed our turn onto I40 and ended up in Tulsa before we realized we had missed our turn. That was about 70+ miles outta the way. Not to mention it had been freezin’ fog since I left the house…too fun! So we get beck to I40 and start headin’ west…into the big ass snow storm that went through the southern half of the country into the plains last week. All was goin’ pretty well until we hit some really big winds west of Amarillo and just about run outta gas. Rounding the turn of the off ramp we started to sputter but I just gased it and she pulled on into the station for gas at a sweet price of $2.89/gallon. The wind there was enough to blow my little Chihuahua away when I let her out…she was curled into a crescent moon shape tryin‘ to buck the wind…lol.

Well, we’re pullin’ into Albuquerque little after dark (and I can’t see well at night time due to bad eyes that contacts can’t help) and the roads almost instantly turned into frozen slush. I start to freak out a little because I’m not used to driving on icy roads but Becky helps talk me through it and we make it drivin’ 30-35 miles an hour. O-I’m drivin’ Brandon’s Chevy pickup and they SUCK on icy roads even though it is a 4x4. I’d rather drive a car on ice…trucks in snow.

We make it to town only to realize my mom can’t just pay for the hotel room with her debit card over the phone. She has to go to hotels.com or some site like that to book and pay for the room online. And my mom is not really computer/websites inclined at all. So, we’re at McDonalds waiting to see if my mom can figure out the whole thing, tryin’ to gag a little food down if we can. Baylar is runnin’ around crazy like because he’s 16 months old and has been cooped up in the truck for a lotta hours and needing exercise. Becky suddenly thinks she lost her last $20 but then after searchin’ everywhere found it in her jacket pocket. Thank goodness! Well…I realize I HAD just lost my last $20 at the counter and there had been a bunch of kids that had just come in and left. So now I’m down to 14 bucks, half a tank of gas and we’re at least 390 miles from Paulden, AZ. We try again at the hotel and my mom pulled through but now the clerk needs her card number again to confirm it or some shit. I call mom and ask what her number is and she can’t find the card and during her rants and cusses lookin’ for her card she is askin’ me why the lady couldn’t do it that way to begin with. I’m tryin’ not to fully, all out lose it right there and tell her I don’t know just give me the card number. She finally finds the card and we get the number though the last 4 where wrong when I read it back to the clerk lady…heaven’s to Betsy.

We get in the room and are so tired from a long, crazy day that we quickly go to bed…only for both of us to be up every hour tryin’ to get back to sleep and never fully getting to sleep. What a night that was!!! Thankfully Baylar slept good after getting to explore the room a little before bed.

We get up early and on the road. We’re told that the night before I40 had been closed from Albuquerque, NM to Kingman, AZ which is west of where we needed to go. By the next morning the roads had opened and it was clear skies but cold. We almost ran out of gas again and were slowed WAY down by a semi accident in Flagstaff, AZ but we finally rolled into our destination by about 5 in the evening’.

We end up spending a horrible, restless night in a hot house. We didn’t end up getting everything loaded into the truck and the trailer hooked on until after 2 in the afternoon but we still head out. Everything my mom owns including a puppy, 2 cats, 2 bearded dragons, a cockatiel and a passel of plants. The truck bed is loaded with a bunch of tubs but the lids aren’t taped down because the tarp is supposed to keep them on (good Lord help us!!!). They didn’t have enough rope so we had to buy some more at the easy stop and rope it off some more and hope it would hold.  Get everything hooked up except the lights on the trailer aren't working. My plug is a little temperamental at times and it chose that day to not work.

We get as far as Winslow and decide to stop for the night and get a fresh start…this is where the fun begins…we order pizza but Baylar didn’t want to eat. Poor little guy was just getting’ worn out and ready for home. Well, a little while after we’d eaten he is sittin’ on my lap and proceeds to spew what seems like a gallon of puke into my lap. All I could look at was the fountain which was his mouth, all Becky could look at was my lap fill up with puke and all my mom could do was look with her mouth gaped open. Good Lord…the little man is up all night long throwin’ up. Every time he would start to wiggle, lick his little lips and then start again’. I would then get up to set him up and hold a towel in front of him so he wouldn’t choke. It was a long, horrible night.

We head out early the next day and I had been away from my family for 4 days by now and bound and determined to get home and not stop again. We had to truck it all the way across New Mexico, the panhandle of Texas, across Oklahoma then south to damn near the TX border. It was a long haul for a truck/trailer with my mom drivin’ her car…tarp and all rippin’ in the wind. But I was gonna get us home if it took all day and night…it almost did.

It was a very long day that turned into a very long night. We ended up getting lost looking for the turnpike. I knew where it was but Becky took a different route usually, through little towns, and I didn’t want to go that way. We find the turnpike and roll into home about 4:30 in the morning’. I was never so glad to see home and my family in all my life. It was such a relief to have everyone together again and nothing’ bad happened. I have a tendency of thinking accidents are just around the corner…kind of paranoid I guess.

O-I did forget to mention all the trouble we had getting the truck doors open without breaking the key to unlock them, or the nice little window trick my mom’s PT Cruiser does…it decides to unroll any time at all and stay down, blasting in the cold air on the lizards and cats. We get it taped up and then it decides it was time to roll back up…cute! Or the neat little trick of locking the doors while it’s warming up…thankfully mom found her spare. It seems the car is having some electrical issues…we’re pretty sure at least.

Then to top off the wonderful, crazy, give me a stroke trip…we all get Baylar’s stomach flu except Emmah who it missed thank goodness. It was nasty stuff too!! The kind where you can’t…a-*pass gas* without using the restroom, can’t leave your house for a few days type stuff. I’m glad it was gone by the time the girls had their Christmas play at school last night.

I hope to get this posted today (12-16-09) but it may be my last post for a while. I still have my Christmas shoppin’ to do and we have a bunch of family comin’ in this week and next. I really am tired of taking my computer over to the in-laws to use it too. I really don’t like spending much time over there as it is. I’m still hopeful we’ll have internet at home soon!

Take care everyone. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! May you have beautiful memories of a wonderful time with people you love. Bye ya’ll!!!