The past few weeks have been very busy, so let's see if I can remember enough for a decent update. Thursday, December 22 we finally got our tree decorated and cleared out the dining room so we could have Brian's parents over for dinner. December 23 I selected pictures for our Christmas cards, uploaded them to Wal-Mart, and one hour later picked up the cards. Love it! The tree fell over and had to be redecorated, but turned out pretty nicely none the less. Note to self, add fishing line to that list of indispensable household items (you know, duct tape, WD40, and a leather shoelace - my first car was held together with two of these three items). The stuff from the dining room just moved to a table in the basement, but that's just a temporary home. We had some time to work on the basement kitchen over the holiday break and were able to finish all of the framing. Just this weekend, Brian and Pete placed the counter/cabinet, installed lights, and ran wires for all but one of the electrical outlets. Next up, building the pantry shelves, hanging paneling, and calling in a plumber to hook the sink drain up to the septic system. I haven't taken new pictures of the basement, but here's the tree and the living room decorated for Christmas.
Brian's Christmas present was some new paint.
We kind of got off on the wrong foot though. The tractor was delivered a day earlier than we expected...so far, so good. On the afternoon in question, Brian came into the house and asked if I would drive him to the end of the road to get his truck. It took a minute for me to process how he could be at the house with the truck at the end of the road, but once I realized he had driven the tractor up I was happy to run him down to get the truck. He failed to mention to me that there had been a slight problem with the delivery, so it was a bit of a shock for me to see one of the brick columns flanking our driveway lying on its side in the middle of the flower bed I had created around it. All in one piece, but clearly not where it was supposed to be. At the time I didn't even really notice that the wrought iron fence between the two columns was severely twisted as well. Apparently the guy unloading the tractor did not leave enough room and knocked the column over, taking the fence with it, as he came down off the trailer. I was a little annoyed. Those of you who know me in real life can probably figure out that is understated sarcasm.
So Brian assured me that he would call the dealer and get it worked out. By the time we got back to the house he had talked to the dealer and made arrangements to get a diverter valve that would allow him to hook up more stuff to the hydraulic system (anything mechanical - not my thing, so hopefully that's close to right), and he said, "so we're calling it even and it's all taken care of." Wrong! You are taken care of; I am pretty sure the column is still going to be lying in the flower bed next Christmas. But I underestimated the allure of new paint and putting it to immediate use. Brian and his Dad set the column back in place that very evening and all was well. Except the next morning Brian got a message from the dealer to give him a call. We figured he had come to his senses and realized that a diverter valve was not really a fair trade. Wrong again. He said they were on their way to our house to drop off the valve and reset the column. He proceeded to do just that, putting the column back in place, setting it in quickcrete and fluffing up my mulch - end result the column looks good as new and is probably sturdier than it was before. And he took home the fence to fix in his personal forge. Haven't heard back on that yet, but overall what impressive service! He earned repeat business from us for sure.
One of the best things about being off from work is that there was time for something story-worthy to happen almost every day. The day after Christmas some close friends of ours had their first baby. Welcome Garrett! We spent the day with Brian's family, and among other fun things, we had a family sing along and played Scrabble. I got the highest one-word score I've ever received, by using all of my tiles at once to spell RUMINATE. Not only was that worth 68 points, but what a great word for a dairy scientist!
The following day was the wedding reception. On my way to the church in the morning to help prepare for the party, I noticed that the chickens were all crowded up against a fence. This is really odd behavior, especially since we had only let them out a few minutes before and their days typically begin with widespread foraging. Even more suspicious was the White Rock hen I saw a little further down the driveway. It was tightly hugging a depression in the side of a hill with a dazed look and a pile of feathers all around. I called Brian to let him know what I had seen, and he grabbed a rifle (just in case) and headed out the door. He had barely stepped out of the basement when he saw a big red fox with a chicken in its mouth just a few yards away in what we call the high-tensile field. He shot and the fox dropped. When he got up close to it he realized it was quite old and quite impressive in size. So for some reason he promptly loaded it up and took it to the taxidermist. Any men reading this probably totally understand. Me, I don't really. Where are we going to put a full-body mount of a 21-pound red fox?
Just so there's no confusion, this photo is taken before mounting!
Ah well, I guess that's present number two for dear hubby. And I think that is probably why he then went out and bought me a totally extravagant present.
When we got home from the reception that evening he made a big deal of me walking into the house with my eyes closed and then revealed my gift... an upright bass. Wow! Wow! No, I don't play the bass, nor do I even read bass clef music (apologies to Ms. Bell, who tried to teach me to play the organ). But I love hearing the bass line and had toyed with the idea of getting a bass a few times in the past. I haven't had a lot of time to play with it, but in the time that I have, I think it is going to be a lot of fun.
The following day we finally got the ewe lambs moved to New Hope and settled into their new pasture and then brought the rams home. Breeding season is officially over. All of the ewes were marked, so we have a potential for 46 new mamas this spring. That could be as many as 92 lambs (if they are all twins), but we're more likely to have somewhere around 65 (1.4 lambs per ewe on average).
Then we headed to Pennsylvania for Christmas with my family. We had a nice trip even though it was brief, and I enjoyed a girls day out shopping with my mom and my sister while Brian and my sister's husband fished at one of their favorite spots, Spring Creek.
On the drive back home, New Year's Day, the sky was amazing.
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