Why Do We Live Like This?

My planned blog post was an update on my yearly goals. Boring! I think instead I’ll give you a glimpse into my crazy life.

The week began with twin lambs. Now most years lambing takes place in the coldest of weather. I’m usually trekking back and forth to the barn as icy rain assaults me and wind chills any part of my body that the rain missed. This year the weather has turned mild, but the lambs don’t seem to be as thrilled as I am. They keep dieing.  Well, not all of them, but half. Many years we get by without losing a single lamb. One of the twins didn’t do so well and I spent an afternoon tube feeding it and trying to convince the little guy to live. She had other plans. Heartbreak aside, it looks like we’ll still have enough lambs for the girls to take to the fair.

Speaking of fair, Ryan is bringing his steer home after the first weigh in on Saturday so the steer pen needs to be ready and the feed for the beast needs to be bought and hauled home. Hopefully we’ll have room for another ton of hay on the trailer so we won’t need to make another trip for the horse.

Thursday found me hooking up the stock trailer to take our dear Bella for a riding lesson. She’s been a real pill and has decided that she doesn’t want to move when the girls want her to. After thirty minutes of brushing dirt off the horse that thinks mud is from rolling in, we took off. I took a wrong turn and spent way too many minutes trying to back the trailer into a tiny place so I could turn around. We made it to the stables though and the lesson was fabulous. Bella even exerted herself (a little).

In other news, our house is 112 years old. With an elderly house comes surprises. This week’s present came in the form of a plugged drain line. After much work from my husband, we finally called in a plumber. The verdict wasn’t too sweet. Apparently a great portion of our drain pipe is made of a special kind of material called Orangeburg. I won’t go into the details, but I will say that this is not a good thing. The pipe needs to be dug up and redone. The plumber cleared the plug and we thought we could get to this project in the near future. Surprise! Last night the clog reappeared. This morning I was in the backyard digging up the drain line. Okay, I’ll be totally honest. I was in the backyard wearing my robe and green rubber boots, digging up the drain line.

So why do we live like this? It sounds like a lot of work and it is, but what I didn’t mention is the sweet lambs that I can see from my window. They chase each other around the field adding the occasional twist in the air. And I didn’t tell you how proud my oldest daughter was of that stubborn horse of hers and how big her smile was when she cantered. I left out the satisfaction I got from finding the pipe way down in the dirt and the thrill of turning that trailer around all by my self.

All this work leads to a feeling of accomplishment and a life full of adventure. And it sure beats doing the dishes!