Moose on the Loose.

We have grown used to the moose, there are 11 out there on the land. The children know to retreat quickly and not provoke the moose. My sister on the other hand gets as close as she can get with camera in hand. This weekend, one of Miriam's friends wanted to sleep over, they went on a walk back to the lily pond and ran into a moose. Joseph was with them and says he was a two year old. The girls were out of there like bats out of a hot cave. It as funny!

It is so cold, -32 F. The ladies aren't laying and I don't blame them!

I detest Snakes!!!!

This morning was freezing, I put my hand out from under the down comforter and pulled it back in. Gary told me to stay in bed, while he showered and dressed quickly. But I needed to get up, I hate sleeping in, it isn't fun to me. So I rolled onto my knees and turned to back out of our bunkbed, we are on the bottom but we still have to use a stepstool because it is three feet to the floor. Then I saw the snake, I had been sleeping with...my reaction is embarrassing, it involved a great deal of screaming and scrambling and Jacob and Gary trying to catch a two foot long garter snake. I don't remember getting undressed and into the shower...GROSS!!!! I imagined snake juice all over me, YUCK! It was too quick and escaped. So I am doing my ranch stuff on the couch with my feet upon a step stool, and I try not to have to move off it. In other words, when I really really really need to go, I run to the bathroom and run back.

I read about some snake repellent on line, I am buying some!

The cabin

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Someone was asking me about the cabin on my Facebook.

Gary had a heart attack 16 months ago. We were doing advanced scuba certification and were 60 feet down, when his instructor noticed blood in his mask. Gary says that he showed her the rise to the surface sign, and they did pretty rapidly. I was diving with my sister's husband, James, also a physician and we followed but made the 15 foot stops. When I got to the surface, Gary was already on the shore and I knew immediately that he'd had a heart attack. I don't know how but I also knew he was dead. I panicked and couldn't think to inflate my BC. Because we were diving in salty water, I had about 40 lbs of weight in my BC and was sinking, I was also screaming, basically drowning, my son, Jacob dived in to save my rear end. So did my sister. She and James told me Gary had passed. I felt so alone, my friend was dead. There were so many things I wished I'd told him, he had had a rough year, gone through a nasty divorce, so many health problems and he was gone.

But there was a new search and rescue guy on the shore and he would not stop doing CPR. Kevin is a hero to me, for 7 minutes, he performed CPR and he saved Gary's life. A truck took him out of the desert to meet an ambulance and from there he was driven to Life Flight and they flew him to Salt Lake City.

James, drove me to LDS Hospital. Gary healed quickly after they put the stents in his chest. After watching him for a week in the hospital, I realized that Gary was more than a family friend. I was in love with him. We married the end of October.

Well, in December we went ice skating on our 12 acres on the North Fork. One of the kids needed rescuing and Gary fell through the ice. There was a disgustingly dirty cabin on the property and the kids had been told NEVER to go into it. Well, we needed to get Gary dry and so in we went. The cabin had been abandoned ten years previously and several living critters had moved in and out, at some point. I removed my clothing, Gary removed his and then he put on my long johns and a dry pair of extra socks we had brought with. In the mean time, Miriam and Joshua got into a fight outside and Joshua ended up needing stitches...awful!!!

I got thinking about it. As much time as we spent playing up at the ranch we needed a warming hut. So we spent several evenings removing and burning the old furniture, taking stuff to the dump, bleaching and vacuuming. Then it moved to painting. Everyone loved the cabin. We had a baggie toilet and lots of wipes. The fireplace had a metal sill, so lots of hot chocolate and "soup in a cup" could be eaten. Gary refused to use the toilet...it was funny.

Then Gary had more health problems, he retired from anethesia and decided to retire. His ex had ended up with the majority of their assets and he had inherited every bit of debt. So I suggested we move into the cabin to save money. We built bunkbeds from the floor to the ceiling, five beds, remodeled the bathroom, eventually got running water and electricity. We lived there before we had those essentials, it was an adventure. The day we got running water, the children stood at the kitchen sink, water running across their fingers and squealed. There is a small loft and the ceiling height is about 4 feet. Jacob, Joseph and Caleb sleep up there. In the twin size bunkbeds are the rest of us. Gary and I share one. Yes, you heard correctly, we share a twin bunk bed!...lol. Then Miriam, Joshua, Gabriel and David have their own. So when I say, go to your room, it is pretty funny. We share the cabin with our two parrots, Davie and Drusey, our Yorkie, Harley and the odd critter needing help. The cabin is an odd shape, an elongated hexagon. I will have to draw the floor plan and take a photo of it. It is about 20 feet wide and about 30 feet long. Imagine a 12 x 20 foot rectangle with a triangle on either end. I have a photo of Joshua in his bunk.



When guests come to the cabin they love it. The kids' friends love to sleep over, they know that comes with helping out on the ranch with feeding etc.

When we got back from Ashton, after Christmas, a storage tent had collapsed under 4 feet of snow. Some friends turned up to shovel off the greenhouse and that ripped most of the new plastic on top, so we will have to redo it. In the photo you will see the collapsed tent to the right and a blue cover on the left. Last winter the snow slid off the roof and blocked the entrance, and exit, to the cabin, so this is our solution, for now. You can see a photo with the blue porch and one without.

Chickens and winter

It has been so cold and some of the animals have a hard time, especially some of the chickens. It seems like male bantams have the worst time. Last night the boys brought in a rooster who was frost bitten and lethargic. Gary soaked his feet in warm water and then we put him in a box, in a warm spot. This morning I was washing dishes, having forgotten about the rooster in the utility closet, when he came pecking across the kitchen floor and ate Harley, my Yorkie's, dog food. Out he went, into the ladies' coop! There are heat lamps in there so I had the boys catch all the Banty boys and put them in there.

This evening, two of the Bantams looked lethargic and they are in a box being doctored or vetted, in our cozy cabin.

I do like to treat the chickens to hot breakfast a few days a week. I will put a large saucepan on the back burner, half full of water and on low heat. Then throughout the day and evening, I will clean out the fridge, potato peels, wrinkly apples, leftover oatmeal, dinner scraps, fridge yuckies etc. The next morning, the pot is full and while reheating, I add the final touch, cayenne pepper and garlic. Cayenne pepper fakes the ladies into thinking they are warm and the garlic is a great way to eliminate parasites and I think that if garlic is good for all sorts of human maladies, it must be good for chickens too. Besides, if I were a chicken I would love a hot meal a few days a week, for all the work involved in laying!

Saturday housekeeping

Today we slept in, till 8:30 a.m. and it was so wonderful. The cabin gets really cold and it is a mad rush in the morning to hurry and get dressed, and warm. So we lay in bed and kept cozy and I chuckled when Jacob, our 16 year old and "ranch manager", asked "Mama will the animals all be okay eating at nine instead of six?"

So eventually we got up and Jacob and Joseph, who is 14, went out to feed. Gary and I spring cleaned the cabin. Yes, we are far from Spring but, the sun was shining! The boys invited a bunch of cousins and friends over to play Airsoft and Johanna brought Alexander over, for us to babysit, while she went to a wedding luncheon.

Xander is 8 weeks old now and loves to smile. He cuddled and went to sleep, on my shoulder. I love being a grandmother! I talk to him in Afrikaans and my name for him is Katjie, kitten, because he never cries and when he was born he made mewling noises, just like a kitten.

Fell off the blog wagon

I just blogged and it disappeared! Our internet has been down for a couple of weeks and so...no blogging! Also I have had the winter blues and you really do not want to hear what I had to say...lol I am a sunlight person, I love winter but it is bad for me, I get very depressed.

Gary is enjoying working in the new practice. He loves Family medicine and working with Dr Parker and Dr Curtis. We are looking forward to receiving our first paycheck, the first in over a year. We raided the change jar for gas money the other day, thank you for the $3 Jacob, and Gary said that we are in the Fourth watch. I wonder if there is a fifth watch we don't know about yet.

I have learned so many lessons the last two years.
Never listen to gossip because you are probably being gossiped about and you are the only one who is aware of the truth.
Family, stick by you, no matter what.
Friends, should be few and well chosen, like books.
Be grateful and look for the miracles constantly.
Heavenly Father cares, comforts and listens all the time.
Health is a precious gift, never take it for granted.
Be kind to yourself.
Love and listen to your children.

I am so blessed to have my children. Each of them calls almost everyday. They come out and help on the farm, or come and listen to me worry and fret. They call to encourage and cheer us on. They never ask for anything, try to figure out what they can do to be of service. They are wonderful! Jacob borrowed Garys car to go to Young Men last night and this morning noticed that Jacob had filled it up.

This will be a growing year. I have learned that self-sufficiency is a path to freedom, and one of our goals this year is to become even more so. Thank goodness for chickens and pigs. It's a good thing we all love eggs and the chickens love us.