Swimming Upstream

I've missed blogging for nearly 2 months now.  It's a busy season.  I used to wonder why God made me so tired in the winter and gave me so much renewed energy in the spring--as He does for everyone.  This spring, I find myself always behind, feeling as if I'm constantly swimming upstream, and I realize that He gave us the energy to accomplish the tasks at hand.

Spring means kidding here at Stoney Heights, which then means kids.  Not only do we stay up watching does so we can assist in the birth of kids, but we then have kids to care for, which means feeding around the clock (as with any newborn) and parasite prevention, since animals don't wash their food.  I got a bit behind on my parasite prevention with all the other things going on here, so switched from using Corid to DiMethox 40% on kids since it will kill all stages of the coccidia lifecycle.  That should make up for my brief lapse in administering Corid (which must be used religiously in order for it to work since it only kills one stage of the coccidia life cycle.)

Spring also means gardening, which is another story...   I started hundreds of seeds in the house this year and still have to get them in the ground.  The rain and David's work schedule have not been cooperative.  Just as we got some dry days to put up the garden fence and till the ground, the tractor broke.  We are waiting for the repair folks to pick it up tomorrow.  It won't start.  Now, it's raining and the grass is getting long and the fencing still needs to go up and the seeds and plants need to get in the ground.  I got the doe barn cleaned out and David got it tilled into the ground where the asparagus and tomatoes are to go.  The buck barn needs to be cleaned yet.  Another round of tilling would be good.  There are many rocks in the ground to deal with.  I wonder if we'll make it. 

The kiddos all have runny noses and coughs and I wonder if they are going to have my allergies, or if it's another cold that will pass.  Spirits are good, though.

We have several projects around here that we've started, some years ago, and have yet to finish.  I want to start more projects but have told myself that I may not until the current projects are done.  One of those is our bathroom.  Yes, if you've followed this blog since the beginning, you may remember me taking a saw to the wall to repair a leaky shower...  That is now fixed, but still lacks the primer and paint to make it pretty.  The bathroom received a new floor last year, or maybe it was the year before.  Anyhow, I recently scraped all the popcorn off the ceiling and then sanded it.  There are a few spots where I gouged the drywall scraping the ceiling, so I need to repair those and then sand some areas that I didn't do so well.  Now that all the dust has settled, I can see those spots.  Then there will be priming, painting, putting up molding, putting up the large mirror that I got from freecycle, and shelving in the new linen closet David built in there.  One day we would like to put in new cabinets and countertops, and a new shower.  However, there are other projects that need to come first and we've made a goal: not to do a project that we can't pay cash for.  Our carpets must go next!

There will be another major change in our lives that has already started to take place.  David's mom will be moving to Tennessee, as will his brother John and his family.  We are excited about the move and having more of the family close by.  This change comes with no small amount of work.  The next few days will see Margaret's move to her new apartment and we will continue to help in the house hunt for John, Melonie, Shelby, and John (Jr.).  In the process of house hunting, we have also considered selling them our house and finding a new place for our family.  I can attest to the fact that moving (even the thought of it) and finding a new place to call home is really time consuming and emotionally draining. 

Poppy had another heat cycle exactly when we anticipated, and we put up a kennel to keep her from getting bred again so soon.  Great Pyrenees dogs are wonderful escape artists, though.  This serves them well when they need to get out of a fence to deal with a possible predator before it gets close to their charges, but it also serves to get dogs bred when you don't want them to be.  We debated as to whether or not to spay her immediately or let her have another litter of puppies first.  She had grown considerably in the time between having her first litter and when she got pregnant again and we decided it wouldn't hurt her to have another so soon, provided that it is her last.  She had her puppies this week.  She isn't as excited about puppies this time around.  In fact, when I woke up the past two mornings, I found that she had left her puppies to come sleep by me instead.  Which means that there are carpets to clean...  Out of 11 puppies born, there are 4 living.  This makes me really sad.  I think some she just squashed by laying on them.  She will be spayed as soon as the babies are weaned.  I don't have the energy for this.

Last night, David and I went to see Carmina Burana performed by the Nashville Ballet, Nashville Symphony, Nashville Choir, and Nashville Children's choir.  It was impressive to have so many performers, but I was overall really disappointed.  The musicians and dancers did a fantastic job, but I wish I had done a bit more research on what it would be about before purchasing the tickets last fall.  I never thought I would see such lude behavior on stage in a performance like that.  More than once, I was embarrassed and just ill.  I left feeling ever so thankful that we decided to not continue Shiphrah's ballet lessons.  Surely the parent of those dancers never imagined that their children (even though they're adults now) would do such things on stage when they carted them off to lessons in their little pink ballet slippers and tutus.

So, I'm off to clean and prepare for house guests.  There is a film of white ceiling dust that seems to have covered everything in the house.  Laundry.  Mopping.  Cleaning carpets.  Just keep swimming.