Monday

Another day ..... done. Finally. Seems like every day is 10 years long. Seems absolutely endless sometimes.

I slept in this morning. I didn't get up until 6:00am. That's late for me. Probably because I got up at 2am this morning because everybody was barking their freaking heads off at some invisible intruder in the yard. I let everyone out to show them that there's nothing there. ....but it still broke up my night. and took me a while to go back to sleep.

I made myself an egg and cheese on an english muffin with coffee. Went out and did chores around 6:30. Wandered around the farm for a bit. Went back inside and watched HGTV for awhile. Played on Facebook a little bit ... updated the NIAHAC website ..... did dishes.

Went back outside and used up the rest of my weed killer spraying weeds in the little pen by the barn. Wandered around some more. Filled the mower up with gas ...... lawn doesn't really need mowed so I didn't mow.....just filled the tank .... cuz the gas can was sitting there ..... and it looked empty. Figured why not. I might mow tomorrow. That'll give me something to do tomorrow. I kept on dinking around outside picking up stuff laying around the yard. Went out and petted Miss Candy Cane in the mini pasture. She comes to me now. The donkeys swarmed me when I was out there. I stayed and petted them for a while then saw Deb, the mail lady, drive by so I walked out to the mailbox and got the mail. Nothing good, just bills. Then I went back inside and called Dan to see if I could pick up a round bale sometime today. He said 1:00pm worked for him.

It was about 11:30ish at the time so I made myself some lunch. Sweet corn. Ate alone ....with the puppies sitting at the table with me while I watched tv. I kenneled everybody up around noon.......then decided to let Cally ride with me today to get hay.

Went into town to Casey's to put some air in my front tire. It just won't stay inflated. Still not where it needs to be, but it was better. Figured I was on half a tank so I got some gas, too, since Casey's has diesel now. Cally sat in the truck waiting for me to finish filling up, then we headed over to Aredale. Got halfway there and it started to get dark out. Looked like a storm was coming but it wasn't really forecast. It started sprinkling as Dan dropped the bale in the back end of the big truck ....He said "Looks like rain." I said "Yep, sure does." I thanked him, handed him his check, and headed off.

As I drove, sprinkles turned to rain which turned into a complete down pour. It was nasty. Luckily no wind or my bale would have blown right out -- just torrential rain -- out of nowhere. I had to slow down at one point because it was so bad. As I kept driving it finally went away. ....but then came back again once I passed Highway 3. Again with the heavy sheeting. I saw a couple little cars pulled over on the side of the road. I thought ... it's bad, but it's not that bad people. Geesh. As I kept driving towards home it slowed down. Got to the lake and the sun came out and all of a sudden ..... it was completely gone. Just like that. That fast.

Got on the gravel road and it was dusty. What?! Yup. No rain touched my place. In that whole thunderstorm .... the line was right at the lake. Nothing to the west was touched. I got home ....had a grain bucket sitting out thinking it would be filled with water ..... nothing. So I pulled up ...... went to the barn and got some grain for Huck, Tess, and Reymond ..... coaxed them into the adjoining pasture .... shut the gate ..... opened the big gate .... dropped my tailgate ....and as I turned around I saw Kent, the farmer who farms the ground next to us, pull in the driveway....

He says, "Hey .... Do you guys have a longhorn cow?" ..... No. Why? He says "There's a longhorn cow out standing in my field over there." I laughed and told him it was likely Vossburgs. A few years ago, we had a young longhorn cow in our yard and it turned out to be Vossburgs so I'm guessing that's the same one only older and bigger. He thanked me and took off to go let them know their cow was in his field. ....Ok, so you may be laughing thinking that was odd .... Nope, just another day, here on the farm. There's so many weird things that happen here I don't even notice them anymore.

SO ... after Kent left, I jumped in the big truck with Cally ... put it in 4 wheel drive and away we went into the pasture. Dropped the bale out then drove out. I opened the little gate back up to let the horses back in and closed the big gate. Parked the truck, walked around and lifted Cally out of the passenger seat (she hurt her back and can't jump so she needs help getting in and out of the big truck) Then we walked to the barn together to let Gato out.

I went back in the house to let the hoard of animals out who I swear haven't seen me in a year the way they were acting. I think that's why I love them so much -- doesn't matter how long I'm gone, they always act like I've just come home from overseas and I'm their biggest hero in the world. You can just see in all their eyes that they love me so much and are so happy I'm finally home -- even if I've only been gone for 30 minutes.

After they all finally settled down and I had petted everyone, I sat down and checked emails. Nothing important. Played on Facebook a little again. No wash to do. Dishes were done. Saw my El Gato scrapbook sitting on the organ bench so I sat down and went through it updating it with new pics of our last outings with the puppies sitting around me. Got done doing that and was tired so I laid down and took a nap with the puppies. Got up around 4 and ate an apple. Went outside because Gato was shaking his head up and down standing by the gate. That's his sign that he wants back in. He's hot. ....and he's getting mad. When he wants in ..... he wants in NOW. He's such a baby.

Soooo ...grabbed my sweet corn cob from lunch and the apple core I just made with my snack and headed outside to give him a treat so he'd quit waving his head around like a loser. I cleaned his stall .....brought him inside .....gave him his supper then brushed him while he was eating. Then I changed a light bulb that burned out and swept the barn.

After that I went to check on donkey waters. Filled up both tanks ..... overflowed them so it was a little muddy. They like standing in the mud...must be cool on their feet. Puppies like playing in the mud, too. Ducky (llama) lays in the mud. So I just stood there overflowing the tanks for a while. Laughing at the puppies fighting over the mud with the donkeys. Boo Boo found a peice of dried poop that she thought was quite a prize and tried burying it with her nose but then Baby Girl came up to her and she quickly grabbed it and ran away taking it behind the water tank where she tried to cover it up again to hide it. I walked over laughing at her and said -- you know I can see that. She looked up at me in horror realizing that I have seen her hiding place, then she grabbed it and ran away as fast as she could running up under the horse trailer then layed there guarding it with her life. I couldn't quit laughing. What a nut. :o) Those puppies are so funny.

Ducky came up close and touched my hand when I was filling the little tank. That's about as close as you can get to him. Since Fluffy passed last year, he's gotten more social but still keeps his distance. He's awfully soft when you finally get a chance to touch him.

So yeah .... that was pretty much my day today. I'll likely skip supper ..... not very hungry. Didn't really work up an appetite doing anything. I will probably take a shower a little later ....... and will sit and watch tv with the puppies until I fall asleep tonight. Yup ..... so that was pretty much my Monday. I guess it wasn't all that bad actually. Sitting here writing it all out .... I did do something. I took care of everybody. It wasn't such a wasted day after all. Maybe it's ok if I'm not super busy all the time 24 hours a day 7 days a week. I didn't change the world or create something phenomenal ..... I just existed. ....and helped others exist. I guess that's not so bad.