Cows Gone Wild!

Actually, everything seems to have gone wild.  It has been a crazy month.  I am pretty sure I could write a hit country song based on our experiences!

On September 26th, at about 9:30 am, our dog, Chewie, was outside going to the bathroom when he was attacked by a coyote.  Since he is just a 5 pound Pomeranian, I was not sure what his chances of survival were going to be.  Zach and I rushed him to the vet and were told that he was going to need surgery and to expect around $600 in bills to save him.  I swear this dog has nine lives and so far each of them has cost us about $600!  (He had parvo when we got him as a puppy, thanks to a negligent breeder.)  Anyway, he had surgery and they discovered that his diaphragm was completely torn in two and his stomach and intestines were in his chest.  He was a mess.  Thankfully, he made a miraculous recovery and is still with us.

Chewie with his drains and stitches.  He has staples up both sides.

OK, so part one of the country song covers a sad story with the dog.  Part two for a good country song is that our tractor broke.  Scott has been doing a lot of restoration on it so that we can at least brush hog the land, and he had it running pretty well, but then the rusted wheel broke.  We already needed new tires, but now we need new wheels, which are crazy expensive.  I am pretty sure we could buy a whole tractor for less!  I think a new tractor and a back hoe/front loader will top Scott's wish list for Christmas.  (Not that Santa or anyone else I know could afford them!)  We have ponds that we need to dig out and dirt to move around to help with how water flows on the property.  I think we could stay busy with a back hoe for months with all we would like to do.

Part three of our country song involves cows, and lots of them, with a bull or two thrown in for good measure.  We have a neighbor that has 7.5 acres with longhorn cattle on it.  There is no house or anything, just the livestock.  The fence is a little short, so they keep jumping over to our side.  So far a cherry tree has been the only casualty, but it is a bit disconcerting to have the kids come face to face with a 1000+ pound animal in the yard.  A couple weeks ago a mama cow jumped the fence to birth her calf in our yard.  The result was what Zoe calls the "Dalmatian cow"!  (Oh, and lots of cow patties during the two days she was wandering our land while calming down enough to round up her and the calf without anyone getting hurt.)

The week following the birth, we had a visit from another one of the cows, along with a different neighbor's bull, both of which we were told were a bit squirelly and mean.  I guess rounding up wandering livestock is one way to meet the neighbors.   I now have full appreciation for the old saying, "Good fences make good neighbors!"

The final verse to our country song is dedicated to the fridge dying.  I know, that doesn't sound very "country song-ish, but if you think about it in terms of not having anywhere to cool your beer, that brings us full circle!

Now, we're gonna throw that all into a song, not necessarily in the order I wrote about things, but in there none the less.

Everyone now, to the tune of "The Gambler"...

Got a bull in my pasture
A cow in my front yard
A coyote got my doggie
And then my tractor broke
The fridge ain't a coolin'
No ice in the freezer
Still doin' renovations
And all my money's gone

You gotta know when to hold on
Know when to calm down
Keep being thankful
Despite what's goin' on.
Stuff's gonna happen
It's all a part of livin'
There's not time enough for pouting
With work to be done

Thank you, thank you very much.

P.S.  The kids also found a kitten and brought it home.  The jury is still out on whether that is a good thing!

The Cine-Gym-O-Mat is Here!

It is amazing how life gets in the way of renovation, but we have made some visible progress - finally!  I wouldn't call the project finished, per se, but the Cine-Gym-O-Mat is usable and functional.  What is it, you ask?  It's a home cinema!  It's a gym!  It's a laundry room!  Ironically, though not yet neatly organized and decorated, it is the most popular room in the house.

  

The Cine-Gym-O-Mat is fully furnished with a TV, 4 station weight machine with a 300 pound weight stack that doubles the weight for leg presses, a recumbent bicycle, kettle bell, treadmill and 3-50 lb dumbbells with an incline/decline bench.  There is also a washer/dryer, deep freezer and side by side refrigerator/freezer.  A folding table acts as my sorting table for the laundry and a broom stick hanging from the garage door rails by three hangers acts as my clothes hanging area.  We even managed to cram three of our theater seats in there!  Add in a couple of storage units and a bunch of stuff that we don't know what to do with and you have the semi-put together, semi-cluttered room that we now call the Cine-Gym-O-Mat!  (Say it several times, it's fun!)

  

I think my favorite thing about the Cine-Gym-O-Mat is that I can open the garage door and feel like I am outside.  This time of year it is perfect.  Oh, and the other really nice thing about it is that the only money we spent in there was for the red paint for the wall.  We already had the gym flooring from the old house.  It's not exactly as finished out as we would like, but it works for now, and like I said, it is still the most used room in the house.

Now that the Cine-Gym-O-Mat is fully functional, I am working out daily and welcome company! 

The next completed project will be the downstairs bathroom.  We finally have all of the materials, so we are very close.  Hopefully I will be able to post pictures in another couple of weeks.

Stay tuned ...