Wild week ahead

[Kay/NC]

Seven dry days in the forecast, and fall/ frost just a few weeks away. Considerably cooler today, so the last of the flock is being ear-tagged for auction sale.

Yes, we are getting out of sheep, except for a small handful being kept to anchor the guardian dogs to this place. We are afraid that without their charges, we would find them going walkabout, and the highway at the east end of the farm is way too busy for that.

Mike just says that he isn't up to another winter of feeding, and I agree with him. One less thing sticking us in one place everyday.

After they finish that chore, deworming for the last time while the scrapie tags are being snapped on, he hits the hayfields. They have been threading the needle between rains, and the barns are pretty much full, with some stacks under tarps already.

This means a lot of bales need loading for delivery very soon, and customers will be picking up t all hours as well. To complicate that usual rush, SIL is hauling several horses cross-country, starting Friday, and returning sometime next week.

Not the best timing, but it is his seven days off week, which comes once out of every four weeks. Neighbor riding along, I hope splitting the driving time.

Next ,throw in a live-haul driver dealing with family emergency, which delayed the load that was supposed to go out second on Monday, shifting the emptying of that house until Thursday. we were already set to sort out a university research load that delayed emptying the second nursery until Friday...now, the last load of the total of four leaves late Friday afternoon.

Oh, the research load required the crew to mark 450 head for sexing even numbers of gilts and barrows once they get there. That was an extra chore our serviceperson asked for the crew to assist with on Monday.

That Friday loading of a whole house has never happened in almost 20 years, and puts a solid three days of washing starting 4-6 days behind schedule, if not more. Biggest company in the world, and it doesn't have one spare truck driver...

At least the vaccination schedule got accelerated as far as it could, and there's only 1.5 buildings of that chore in the next couple of weeks. You cannot let yourself get behind around here, just in case some craziness comes up...seems if it is one complication, it is a dozen.

Winn and I will be joined at the hip, except when his other Gma is on duty. Need to get busy on cooking up that batch of play-dough, and storytime starts at the library on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the AC guy has to go back to Jenna's for what has better be one final tweak there. Mike will hopefully be taking care of that one morning, probably Friday or Saturday. Not that we'll get a chance to stay over for the foreseeable future...just run up and spend a few hours by myself here and there, keep the flowers and cat tended, spend a while with quiet thoughts.

Glad I got bookwork ahead last week. Not much to do but payroll this week, and the new check stock for that just arrived yesterday.
I would hate to need a half-day to play catch-up this week.

If they do this right, we should be fairly well done with most of the hay in ten days or less, except for selling it. Some sheep pastures may need a final cutting, with so few grazing now...nothing major. Horses may end up inside those fences anyway.

Change...daily, seasonal, life plans...all at once. A wild week every once in a while shows us if the limits of our endurance are shrinking yet, or not.

When do you anticipate your next wild week, and why?

[Suey73]

Anytime the combine is running is a wild week.   Only the pigs take prededent over the combine.   Planting can be done with one person.   Combining requires  3-4 people to keep the combine running in corn.    So right now we are in the calm before the storm.   Catch up on few jobs.  Finish the summer projects.   Start getting  combine, tractors, bins, augers and wagons ready  

Tom is at our daughter's  helping put a curtain on their calf barn.   After doing 4 curtains in the past 15 months he thought he could handle a little job for her.   We had nursery pigs delivered yesterday  so  I'm all by myself.   Had trouble sleeping last night  so I'm getting a late start.   Now,  what can I do with that loader tractor today  while the cat is away? 

[Kay/NC]

He is brave or nuts, you tell me whch. When we have to replace a curtain on a nursery, it is 100 feet long, so two or three people on the job makes it so much simpler.

I think it is a lot like hanging wallpaper border...I can handle the sheet for the walls alone, but boder is a B, wanting to fall down behind youas fast as you can work to putitip ahead of you.

I remember moving from corn to peanuts to soybean harvest, all of which started as we were trying to barn the last few pulings of tobacco, which had started in mid-July, not long after wheat harvest in June, planitng doublecrop soybeans on those acres. Harvest this strung out from mid- July into November. Cotton, whch wene er grew, would have taken us into December. Hay, which we did do, threw cuttings at us from late April until october, interspresed into everything else. Plus cows and pigs.

No wonder I was exhausted all the time! Not to mention trying to raise the family and keep the house done and meals made, clothes clean, teaching Sunday school and VBS, and coaching.

This is like a microcosm of those days. It is just that this shipping schedule throws Mike for such a loop. Got my volunteer work for the week done yesterday, and have asked them all here ato give me requests for deli and such that they want for quick bites the next few days.

Daughter asked me to haul her housecat to the groomer, while Win is with me tmorrow. We will grocery shop inthe next town past her place while Jack the Cat gets pretty. Personally, I could put off a beauty appointment for an adopted cat for a few days, but NO!

I have to find time to get to our bank...whch isn't in that direction...before Friday. The AC guy has confirmed that he is going to go with Mike to Jenna"s early on Saturday. I need to check things out there before then, so probably Friday, then run back to watch Winn for the Friday riding lessons.

If I had a loader and a day to run it, I might dig a hole and crawl in, just for the rest.

[turkey feather]

We are doing a flea market the rest of the week and I am not happy with myself for having all of this stuff. As I have probably said before here I think the Hoarders show is keeping people from buying things.  Of course not everyone likes things in their homes. I was hoping the the spending would be up this year with the better news about the economy but no now we have the threat of war. I am already worn out as my stamina is not good yet. Any suggestions for what to do with what a few years ago was valuable antiques?

[Suey73]

I don't want to hear that those valuable antiques are hard to get rid of.    Assisted Living is having a yard sale for their activity fund.   MIL  said we could bring in some stuff.  Took in the first 2 boxes yesterday.   Carried the 1st box to the front door but sat it down.  Looked in and there sat my MIL in the front lobby.   They all understood and met me at the side door.  Yes,  she said we could,  but they/ we all know it would be mildly upsetting.    So that is how we are trying to get rid of baskets, knick knacks, old kitchen stuff.   The valuable antiques someone has claimed.   My mom's house is a museum of antiques.  8 display/china cupboards plus  some still in storage containers and sitting around the house.   My saying is:  "yes, it is valuable and maybe worth lots of money to:  the right person/s, on the right day in the right place.  Hope when we have to empty mom's house the market has come back. 

[Ruby Lou]

My mom collects cruets.  She must have 300 of them.  Oh, boy...do people even know what a cruet is anymore!  She also has a smaller collection of oil lamps.  I asked her last night to mark the ones that were "family" ones.  she said one of the lamps and I don't think any of the cruets.  Started collecting cruets years ago when we went into an old farmhouse and found one with a dead mouse in it!  Sure wish we could start selling them.  I keep wondering too who is going to take all the geneaology stuff.  My kids won't be interested in it.  It would fill a room at my house!  You can comfortably have a family gathering at my mom's, but, seriously she has way too much stuff!  (so do I) !

[Kay/NC]

The kids or their kids may surprise you on the genealogy stuff someday. I know our girls had to do a senior history project on their family tree, and my mother's obsession with it, to prove we were DAR, was very welcome then! I wouldn't do away with that...it is irreplaceable.

The is a bolt for every nut...someone out there really loves oil lamps, someone else craves cruets. eBay is one outlet. At least there are millions of potential bidders there. You might just look up a few, and see what they are selling for, at least.

[Kay/NC]

It is gar more likely that the price of gasoline is dampening the buyers' spirits, more than hoarding shows, I believe. The news about the economy is very limited as to how and where it is good, too.

We are still seeing schools closing here, and one mall town of 800 people supposedly has 60 houses for sale. Talked with a friend today, and her husband is consulting in retirement because the company he worked for for decades cannot get anyone to relocate here in any professional capacity. Some places are just in this societal death spiral, and others are still very stressed.

[turkey feather]

There was an excellent crowd at the show. There were lots of vendors too. We probably sold more than the last couple of years but not enough. I am trying to think of where to unload most of this stuff. Goodwill or thrift shop that spends profit on food bank and helping others in trouble.

I have also said I am not making donations since the problems with the renter who wasted the food she received. I should not have been surprised that renter went to show and told vendor that she had to keep buying new expensive knives again as the I kept stealing hers.  DD manages the flea market and she knew this vendor would pass it on to DD who was next to her at the market. (most of mountain of trash bags they left were clothes, too lazy to use the washer and dryer)

Of course the gas prices jumped as the show opened and that does make a huge difference. I remember how the sales quit when Princess Di died.

I am vowing not to buy anything at an auction this year or ever. Although I have made some valuable purchases for very little. DH expects me to go along at night. He did make good profit on some anvils.

[Kay/NC]

Winn and I walked through a private school yard sale Saturday morning. There wasn't one item I would have taken for free, much less bought. Gasoline is $3.63.9 here...but, there were people on the piles like seagulls on a garbage barge.

We have noticed that yard sales do best on first Saturdays, Since everyone's eagle has flown by then. I would guess you guys have seen that trend, too. Glad you had a good show.