Thank God for the Break!

It's been awesome having time off. From school at least, if not the barn!

Shane's hair is beyond shaggy. I'd love to cut it, but he wants to grow a 'man-bun.' There's a cartoon character who's a volleyball player with one and Carrie joked about me getting one, but it stuck with him!

Not that I can throw stones. My own pandemic hair is probably the longest it's ever been. Carrie attacked my hair one morning and then told me not to move for a picture.

I've trimmed the beard since then. I got tired of my mustache curling into my mouth!

No school takes some of the urgency out of barn chores. There's no planning or class lurking if we take too long. Carrie's been feeling better, so we've been going out as a family. That's let us tackle some of the odd jobs that can be overlooked for a while, but elevate the operation when done.

Like poopbusting.

I don't remember the last time we dragged the dry lots. Shane got a kick out of riding around with Mom.

Maddy has been her usual itchy self. Carrie tried switching to a different allergy medicine to see if it helped to no avail. 

Maddy will walk over and ask for scratches when we're around. She's got her favorites and we've learned a number of them.

She's very expressive!

The barn is a source of community and we hope a blessing to everyone who's part of it. Laura had a bit of heartache when she was walking Ernie. He spooked and stepped on her ankle. I found out when Carrie bolted inside to get ice. Laura found out she had a fracture on Sunday.

Barbara showed up while Amy and Carrie tended to Laura.

There was a riding party in the works. Carrie was on Eowyn.

Barbara was on Maddie.

And Gay was on a mule for the first time in her life!

"The ears are a hoot!"

Pockets hadn't been worked in a while and was reluctant to earn his keep, but Gay got him moving!

It was Carrie's chance to introduce Gay to Eowyn, too. The point of buying Eowyn was to ride, so I'm glad that Carrie's been active! 

Barbara tried out Maddy's new saddle and declared it a success. Maddy's been feeling good lately. A couple rides back, Barbara asked for a canter on the trail and Maddy offered to gallop....and gallop she did! We hadn't realized she was a speed demon and Eowyn couldn't keep up!

I took a few pictures to chronicle the fun before going inside to be with Shane.

The windows were up to get fresh air and I heard my name on the wind later. Abby was beside herself. All of her girl buddies were saddled up and she was all alone! The anxiety made her make a fool of herself.

Carrie asked me to stall here and close the curtain door.

I brought in Eddy to give her a buddy. He happily went to eating the remains of Pockets' hay while she marginally chilled out.

I went back to playing Legos with Shane. I was thrilled he showed an interest, so we made a concourse for his airport, a bridge, some mansions, and a bank, etc.

I went outside again when I heard horses squabbling through the window. 

The ladies stabled Pockets on the boy's side since Eddy was in his stall. They hadn't closed the curtain door and Magic and Pockets were acquainting themselves with each other!

Horses were a big part of the break, but we finally had board game time! Carrie and I finished Pandemic Legacy Season 0! It was worth the preorder. We played 5 Minute Marvel as a family several times, and Shane and I played a round of Horrified.

Shane spent a couple of hours looking at some of my Battletech stuff and asking questions, so we ended up playing a mission. One of my sourcebooks was for the animated series (that's canon as an animated series in the universe!). Shane was curious, so we looked it up on Youtube and watched some episodes. It's no masterpiece, but it was a shared moment.

The days blurred together, but Sunday rolled around. We saw highs of 70s early in the week and ticks became active again. The prediction for Sunday morning was mid to upper 30s, but it dropped into the 20s instead.

Laura was shambling around, so we did the majority of the barn chores. Carrie gave her 'das boot' to help and walked Ernie for her. Shane helped by playing announcer with Amy.

The sun warmed the air and it turned into a pleasant day with a high just over 60° F. Scott, Mark, and Hazel came over to grill and hang out!

We opened up a bunch of windows and the adults played 5-Minute Dungeon and The Crew while the kids curled up with tablets on the couch. 

And I didn't take any pictures. Can you believe that?

The one picture I have is from when we played The Crew. Carrie had a crazy hand and wanted to show us after the round.

I realized I didn't have any good kid pics as we were saying goodbye, but it was too late!

Landie came over an hour later. Shane 'babysat' her. They played hide-and-seek, Legos, and Shane read part of a Dogman book to her. There was a My Little Pony break in the middle, but Landie isn't the type to stay zoned out forever.

Carrie got jumped on by both kids multiple times! 

Shane got in a little trouble after his shoulder nailed her in the chest! "You're not that small anymore!"

It would've been nice if we could've had another playdate somewhere in the break, but double visits on Sunday was a strong finale. 

Have I mentioned I've enjoyed the break? Cause I did. I was productive, too. I wrote 22 blog posts over the span of 5 days! I didn't do any grading, but my students didn't do much over the break either. I'm as ready as I'll ever by for Virtual School on Monday and I hope they're in the same boat. There are three weeks to go until winter break. We've got to cover polygons, quadrilaterals, and basic circles before taking a couple of weeks off to forget it all!

Thanksgiving 2020

Cole started it.

Shane was happy to send a goofy picture back!

I texted many people a "Happy Thanksgiving" and that picture!

Our day was a quiet one. Shane wanted to build a city out of Legos to get hit by natural disasters. Whether he was trying to play survival or destroy it is anyone's guess!

He had a radio tower to start, so I started building some townhouses, quads, apartment buildings, and a gas station as seen from an airplane. That led to Shane building an airport and some airplanes to fly overhead.

Carrie joined us after a shower.

Shane's radio tower became an air traffic control tower and Carrie built a radio tower that Shane later souped up to be a power plant.

With all the  natural disasters Shane was ready to inflict (including a blanket sized tsunami) it seemed prudent to give the town a hospital.

We managed to play without electronics for the entire first half of the day!

Carrie went non-traditional for our Thanksgiving meal. She mean a soup involving bacon, potatoes, and pumpkin. 

For our evening entertainment: American Ninja Warrior! We watched some The Floor is Lava the other night, so we were on an obstacle course kick. 

Shane was willing to bounce on the couches, but he had no interest in building our own course and getting some exercise!

It was a much quieter Thanksgiving than years prior. Grandma and Grandpa opted to go to NOVA rather than host, because Rachel and Chris had some concerns about Shane coming back from SC without much time in between. Sophia was just in the hospital from a ruptured appendix, so germs and health were in the forefront of their minds.

On one hand, we would have liked to have seen them. On the other, it was really nice to have a day with no expectations. I've been enjoying the break from work and time with family immensely. 

Thanksgiving 2020 was the holiday we needed. We can have a busier Thanksgiving with more people next year. 

Thanksgiving 2019

Thursday.....Thursday was a day off. There was a lot of napping in the house. Loki found a sunbeam on the kitchen floor.

Max found her sunbeam on the kitchen table.

And Bucket.....Bucket discovered she likes to hide in our island for hours on end!

She can open the door and crawl in on her own. She'll hang out there and then make me think I'm going insane when I hear the cabinet growl at Loki as he trots by. She can let herself out, too, so......I guess I'm going to have to be careful putting the toaster away from now on.

Speak of Loki, he stunk. I tried not to do much work outside of the normal chores, but he got a bath!

Loki hasn't been feeling the best lately. He's had diarrhea for several days in a row. We tried to switch his food to help, but there was no change. Carrie put him on a fast today to restart his system.

Shane and I went on a couple of walks around the property with him. It entertained us and him! 

Loki really, really likes to chase cars. It's both funny and terrifying. I can stand along the front stretch of our property and he will try to zip and keep parallel with any car that drives by. They're always faster, so sometimes he gives himself a head start. He'll start trotting along and as the car catches up he pours on the gas!  He sprints his little heart out.

The dangers are obvious. If he were to ever try to go in the road.....

Thankfully, it's unlikely. Loki is afraid of the road and the cars. 

When he was younger, I tried to check the mail with him on the leash. He was terrified. He stood next to me tugging and shivering as I waited for a car to go by before stepping up to the road. Then he dug in his heels, slipped the collar, and ran away when the coast was clear! I had to pull him shivering out of the ditch and haven't checked the mail with him since! He has been on the leash as the school bus pulls up and he's shied away from it, too. 

So far, the fence line has been a solid boundary. If Loki looks like he's going to duck under the wood fence for any reason I scold him and he turns back.

The cars give him a great workout as he zips back and forth. When we turn the corner, Loki gets to chase Shane onto the horse jumps.

I normally have the leash on Loki whether I hold it or not. It slows him down slightly and gives me a way to catch him in a hurry.

There are downsides to letting him run dragging the leash behind, though...

Loki was tucked our by midday.

He curled up and slept beside me on the floor while we watched some Dragon Prince on Netflix.

It was largely a do-nothing day with some food. I didn't want it to be unmemorable, so Shane got his first driving lesson!

He'll get more in the future. Consider it a perk of farm-living. 

I'll eventually be able to send him out on errands in the gator, so there's something in it for me, as well!

Full Time Farmer For a Day

Our herd has grown from our 0 to 2 to 6 since opening our doors. I've learned a lot in 2 months since the first time I helped with the chores. I nearly gave Carrie a panic attack the first time I did the chores without her (intended as a pleasant surprise). I started to do them on my own while she was hurt, but now it's a joint effort. She does the thinking and I play support.

We've worked together enough that we've come up with a system.

Carrie has things written down and has labelled cups and jars for measuring each ingredient out.

As I said, she's the brains of the outfit. She has the experience to see the bigger picture and chart a course. My part isn't rocket science. It takes effort and a willingness to get dirty.

Carrie withheld food from Oakie today and used it to lure her onto the trailer. Oakie's owner hired Carrie to drive Oakie home when their Plan A fell through.

Oakie's not a fan of traveling. She was a sweatball last trip and Carrie drives her trailer grandma-slow and rock-steady when she has horses in tow. I heard Oakie rambling around a little as they went underway.

That left me to tend the farm.

Things were an uneasy status quo. Annie's low-girl on the totem pole. She wants to join the other girls, but they're both bossing her around. Nibs is still being aggressive (which I wish was a surprise), but Maddy?

I didn't think a horse could be more submissive than Maddy, but I watched her assert herself. That leaves Annie as a horse in between.

Despite Nibs' temperament toward her, Annie seems really attached. She keeps running back and coming up alongside Nibs.

The drama flared up a few times over the course of the day (Annie skidded out and hit the fence again), but things were calm most of the time. I was able to tighten the line and fix it in seconds.

I got a picture of all three ladies eating together drama-free midday.

Meanwhile, the boys are comfortable enough to lie down and nap together. 

Shane and I left to go to the library for an hour or so midday. It was his standard "I don't want to go," followed by the "Now I don't want to leave!" I bumped into someone behind the library desk I'd last seen a decade ago in today's edition of "It's a small world."

With things calm midday, I was able to catch up on a lot of writing and uploading. Carrie called a few times for addresses. She had me call a flooring company that has more pallets than they know what to do with. They sell them for a buck a piece! 

The next round of horse drama became barn work after Carrie got back. She dropped Oakie off without issue, picked up some pallets, and picked up some tools. She went into the field and Nibs ran over to say hi. 

Nibs is incredibly fond of people. Especially Carrie since she "Mama" and bottle raised her. Nibs can get jealous when other horses monopolize Carrie's time, so guess what happened when Annie came over and wanted to crowd up next to Carrie and Nibs?

Nib's kicked. She missed Annie, but nailed her stall door perfectly.  

I got a good look at the nails the builders used, because they were knocked clean out of the frame!

We couldn't risk exposed nails, so we went straight into damage control. We stalled Annie and Maddy and closed their curtains. They had fresh hay and water to keep them occupied. Then Nibs was easy to keep at bay as we removed the door.

Nibs got to wander around and ponder her newfound freedom while we worked.

We laid the door down and pulled off the boards that had separated. Then we looked at each other and said, "Screw it."

I mean that literally.

The nails slid right off, so we decided to over-engineer the door with a bunch of wood screws. We didn't have enough the right size, so Carrie scooted off the to hardware store and left me to remove the nails. 

I'm no contractor. I took a couple shop classes in middle school and Pop made sure I learned a thing or two as a kid. Basic repairs weren't too much to ask for. 

Speaking of teaching kids, though....

I went inside the house and made Shane come out to help. He got to assist hammering the nails back through, so they could be clawed out.

Carrie came back and Shane got reassigned while Carrie and I shifted the hinges. Some of the old screws were loose and needed to be re-set.

We upgraded the latch to a bolt when we hung the door. It's been on the to do list (along with 1,000 other things) and this was the perfect time!

Nibs was stalled next and then Carrie had a new project in mind. Shane got to run back inside and play Super Nintendo (We are on break!).

Carrie had me tie strips of rope onto the top of each section of polywire to make it more visible for Annie. She followed behind with a can of glow-in-the-dark spray paint. Each strip and each post got a quick coat.

"How many do you want to do? All of them?" I asked.

"All of them," Carrie said.

There were a lot of them.

If the glow-in-the-dark works well it should look really cool at night.

Carrie found one pole that was improperly grounded as she painted and checked connections. The fence tester sang and lit up a few more notches when we checked!

And that's with some jury-rigging.  I spotted where Annie snapped the line.

We learned we needed to swap out another door latch when Maddy pushed her way out to join us! She wanted scratches and shadowed Carrie everywhere she went. I let Loki out and he enjoyed romping around with the girls.

Shane came back out with me and I got a cute picture of him and Annie.

Looks idyllic doesn't it? A quick look at the original shows I cropped out some of the stinky bits!

I scooped them up after. We were a little behind from the week and Oakie's stall needed a good cleaning. I filled multiple buckets of poop over the course of the day.

The ladies were turned back out and got to enjoy the field before we brought them in for dinner and evening chores. 

Being a farmer can be a fun change of pace.....but it's also a good reminder of why I got my teaching license! 

When I was growing up, Nana would say, "Degrees let you work in the air-conditioning." I enjoyed being outside. I enjoyed problem solving to fix the door and I especially enjoyed being out of school, but I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon.