Dream came true



When I was thirteen we got our first horse. She was an old appy mare and us kids rode her all over the desert and back. I always wanted to be able to camp out with my horse. I made plan after plan with my friends in high school to ride towards New River, have them meet me half way and camp out in the desert overnight.

We'd sit under the Ramada at lunch and make plans and lists. Who had horses, who could bring what, who needed extra gear, and who could bring extra gear. We had great plans, but we never did go.

Bucket and Jar Score, Canning Green Beans

We camped out in the yard last night, Scott and I. Threw up the tent, had a fire and everything. We really don't have the extra cash right now to go anywhere, or the extra time. Last night was a great night for throwing up the tent in the yard though. It wasn't too cool with the cloud cover. There was clouds and lighting in the distance we could watch through the door of the tent. The new fire pit The Boy dug for us made for a great campfire. We blew up the air mattress, brought out the blankets and pillows from our bed. It was even better than camping since when I wanted a midnight snack I could raid our fridge.

The only downside is we pitched it right next to the round pen. The steers are in the round pen right now since the fence is down. Whoever said cows are stupid never met my steers. Out of three Jersey steers, My steer from last year, not Andrea's steer, has figured out that the irrigation water doesn't make it all the the way down to the front corner of the pasture. That means nothing grows in the corner.Why the hell the cows want to be out in the corner in the first place, since there isn't any grass growing is beyond be. The ground is all sand so there isn't any conductivity from the fence to the ground, which equals no zap. So now the fence is torn apart, the cows are in the round pen, and come daylight, they were mooooing in my ear. The roosters were crowing behind me in the trees. It was kind of a noisy morning. Wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Connie got us a hell of a score the other day. I asked her to ask at the grocery store what they were going to do with their frosting buckets. They gave her all 6!!. They have lids with gaskets so they are airtight. The buckets are 3-1/2 gallon buckets. WOOT!!! I already have one filled with rice, and one three quarters of the way filled with pinto beans. Flour is next. I'm going to keep going back and asking for more. They are food grade and perfect for home storage.

Scott's friend Pat was going through the storage in his garage and came across a bunch of old jars that belonged to his mother. He asked if I would be interested in them. Heck yeah I would. There were boxes and boxes of them. Scott and Pat loaded them all up and brought them to my garage. I did one whole load in the dishwasher and there are still boxes out there. 

And last for today is the green beans. I've had green beans coming out my hiney. The stringless beans we've been eating as fast as I can pick them. I have two small batches out in the freezer. I planted two rows Kentucky Wonder Bean. They were supposed to be a pole type bean, but we never put up a trellis for them. They just grew wild all over the place like a chaotic version of the green bush beans. We started picking them last night. I have mounds and mounds of Wonder Beans.   

We shelled out some of the beans out of the biggest pods.

And then from THIS SITE, The Canning Granny, I love her site, we canned beans. Seven Quarts, and Nine pints. 

I'm home. Only bad to spend 8 days in the hospital this time, instead of 12, so I got off early. I'm getting a million "What happened?" questions, and I don't mind dishing the details. Again I was an ass and tried holding out going to the ER till the last minute. At least it wasn't the last dying minuet this time. I'd been having a lot of lower abdominal pain starting the Thurs before I gave in and went. Rode my horse, and went to work for two days in pain bad enough that they gave up shooting me in the arm, and gave me the button I could push every ten minuets. Yeah, color me stubborn. In my defense, I already had a Doc appt on Mon, and I was trying to hold out until then. I did pack a bag when I drove myself to the ER, knowing they were going to most likely keep me. Again, color me stubborn, I wouldn't let Scott take me. I was right, they admitted me, after giving me the "We're going to test you for this type of cancer, and three others." That scared me a little. Turns out all this crap wasn't related to the Crohns disease problems I'm already going through. Stupid ovarian cyst the size of a softball was on my right ovary. Since I'd just recently had surgery to take out 16cm of small intestine, they couldn't go in laproscopiclly to fix it. They had to open me up all over again from my belly button down. 25 staples later, a lot of pain later, and I'm home, all better, except for the recovery. Scott and I are arguing over that I want to be a hard ass and go back to work after two weeks off, and he wants me to take off the six the docs say I should. We'll see who wins this time. lol. Anywho, I'm home.

Went to the Doc's yesterday to get the staples out. Good thing since I already popped two. He said they were More than ready to come out. the skin was already healing under and around them. It's only been 9 days since I got out of the hospital. Tues Sept. 13th is when I had the surgery. I'm healing a million times faster this time than I did the last surgery. Heather was still driving me around three weeks later because I couldn't drive. I barely got up and shuffled around a few times a day. Didn't get to sleep in my own bed until almost two weeks after i got home. this time I got out on a Mon, was driving by Thurs. sleeping in my own bed the second night. Walking all over, moving the horses, did the irrigation the other day. I'm still taking the painkillers mind you, but I'm so much better.  


We got most of our hay. Four ton of grass, a ton and a half of alfalfa right now, with one more ton of alfalfa coming. Scott and Jess got most of the grass stacked before my hospital staycation, and when Everyone was over this last weekend for Maria's first b-day so the boys helped Scott unload the alfalfa off the trailer and stack it when they were here. Jess and I helped Scott get the tarps over it. 

 Trip to Blackfoot Fair

maria's 1st Bday

And here's some pics I've been a slacker about getting up. Camping above Sun Valley.

Slacker

Been a little bit. Geeze, since May. So enjoy some pics

Jess, MaCall

Liam