A Good Soccer Day

Although Joseph's game yesterday was cancelled due to inclement weather, we got to go to Petersham for Cedric and Seth's game. Wow, they've got a nice looking school! I just like the building.

We know a family who lives in Petersham and although they are moving soon to Washington state, I knew that their two older girls played soccer. I was hoping that their grandmother would be there to watch the game and, guess what? She was! It was awfully nice to say hi.

The game was good even if I'm not very good at getting good pictures. The last one of Cedric running is good. Hopefully, I'll remember to take my camera next week and we'll get some better ones.

Cedric in blue farthest to the left.

Joseph being silly.

Joseph and Mom being silly.

Seth farthest to the left.

That's Cedric farthest over on the left.

Very blurry, obviously, but I think Cedric is the one in blue farthest to the right.

Cedric is in more pictures this week. He's nearest the goalie.

Cedric again. In the center right by the goalie.

Cedric running. I do like this one.

 

I didn't think I'd like going to soccer games but it turns out, I do. I enjoy watching the boys and, dare I say it? it's actually kind of fun.

A Typical Milking

As promised, here are some pictures to give you an idea of what a typical day of milking includes.
It was kind of interesting getting the pictures of me milking as my helpers were all still abed.
Still, all things considered, I think this works pretty well.

The 'empty' bucket. Empty referring to the lack of grain, obviously, not the lack of everything else.

Now we have everything here we need: grain, teat dip, and bag balm.

The milk bucket complete with one and a half wet paper towels.

Scraps collected from the day before.

Changing of the shoes. I do not like to wear Birkenstocks out for milking. Crocs are fine (at least when it isn't too wet out.)

On the milking stanchion.

Goldilocks and Snowflake ready to go.

Goldilocks and Princess having a feeding frenzy.

The grain. I don't have a shelf so a hole in the rocks must suffice.

The teat dip gets to hang on the flap over the door handle and lock. It works.

The stanchion doubles as a towel rack.

Snowflake has to have the cardboard because her neck is too fat to go down far enough to get the grain otherwise.

Snowflake pigging out.

Now I have a chair.

Not the greatest picture. The paper towels are for cleaning any detritus from the udder and teats. Hay, dirt, poop, you name it, you'll find it.



Bag balm. The purpose is to keep teats soft and supple and make milking a little easier. A little bit goes a long way, though, and if you get too much, it actually makes milking more difficult (imagine too much lotion).

Let the milking begin. You can see the stream of milk coming out the left side (my right hand). Basically, to  milk, you grab the teat as near the udder as possible with thumb and forefinger and squeeze beginning with the thumb and forefinger, continuing down with each finger. Snowflake has nice teats that are just the right size for my hands. Smaller teats would require the use of fewer fingers, larger teats often mean the milk is not fully expressed from the teat. 

Once the milk is mostly out, you still grab the teat as close to the udder as possible with thumb and forefinger and squeeze but slide down the teat, expressing milk as you go.

You can see a stream of milk here.

Next is dipping with teat dip. Teat dip is simply diluted iodine. It disinfects the teats which helps keep mastitis and other similar problems at bay. They don't like it but that's tough.

Snowflake has to be right there.

Princess is sticking her head out the door and Snowflake is just watching. George and Fred have been let in the pen but Goldilocks is still in the stanchion (you can see the tip of her ear above the bucket in the lower left corner).

All empty again.

Change shoes again on the way in. (Look like the same picture? It is.)

Milk. Only half a bucket.

Empty scrap bucket. Yuck. It is in need of washing.

Empty jar.

Jar with the strainer upside down waiting for the filter.

Milk filter.

Milk filter and the disk that helps hold it in.

Filter and disk inside the ring that screws on to the funnel part of the filter.

Ditto from the inside.

All assembled and on the jar.

Beautiful milk!

And that's about it. If you'd like to come help sometime, feel free!

Wet Rainy Friday

Well, good rainy Friday! It is nice and wet outside. I am nice and wet inside still from milking more than an hour and a half ago. And yes, I do know what to do about that. It isn’t cold and it isn’t terribly uncomfortable so I’m waiting until Paul is out of the shower (and probably until he leaves) before I get in.

Yesterday I got about zero school work done. I wrote one sentence for my case study and I finished reading one article and looked for more for my essay. Guess what I’ll be doing today?

Yesterday I did go to New Hampshire. Ahhhh, what a beautiful day. I wish I’d’ve taken my camera. I met with Anji Church, a midwife, and two of her assistants, Lucinda and Robyn. She has another who does back up and some assisting but she’s also a labor and delivery nurse in Vermont and I got the feeling that she’s a nurse first, a midwife second. I get to meet with just Anji in a couple of weeks. I’d tell you when but I don’t feel like getting my planner out. Anyway, I think they’d all be fine to work with. Hopefully they feel that way about me.

My drive north was fairly uneventful. I looked at the map Google Maps provided and wrote down street names but forgot to write down which direction to turn. I remembered from looking at the map so that was okay. I figured out that I had my new phone as well, which has GPS but when I was trying to figure it out, it wasn’t working. It turns out you have to have the data turned on. Anyway, I drove by one of the streets I needed to turn on so I kept going and turned at the next available street. It turned out to be one way and I was going the wrong way. All I did is turn around really quick, so it wasn’t a big deal, but it was interesting. When I left, there’s a rotary to go ¾ of the way around to get going in the right direction. The rotaries in NH are not like the ones in Gardner. At least, this particular rotary in Keene is not like the ones in Gardner. Gardner is probably about the size of Yreka, more or less. Keene is a bit bigger than Ashland. More traffic. More difficulty getting in the right lane of the rotary to get out where you want to. I’m not very good at it. I ended up going ¼ of the way through and then turned at the next stop light which happens to be where the Volkswagon dealership where Paul has taken the Jetta.

So, that was fun.

This morning Ruth Britt called and asked if I could take the kids to the Troops as she was feeling a bit under the weather. I hate saying no but I did because I’ve been fighting this stupid cough. I think it’s safe to say the cold is gone but I’ve still got the cough and it makes me tired and if I do too  much, I have to use my inhaler which I don’t like doing. As it turned out, I got to sleep for about 40 more minutes and got to take my time waking up and got to have a really strange dream in which we had four horses living in our bedroom and when I told Paul I couldn’t sleep, he asked me to hand him his computer so he could send me some emails. I then noticed that the horses had gotten out and he said we’d go bring them in in the morning. My alarm went off about then. Crazy.

I had to wake Cedric up to get some dishes done. By the time everyone left last night, it was too late for him to do them last night. If I’d have taken Joanna to Gardner this morning, I would have gotten him up when we left but I got him up when I took the dogs out for their morning bathroom duty (I can’t call it a walk because we didn’t even make it to the end of the driveway due to the water falling out of the sky). He got the milk bucket washed and a few other things but he’ll have to finish after soccer practice.

Milking was fun. The milk is slightly watered down by the rain. I got nice and wet and the goats were out of order because Goldilocks came out before Princess. While I was milking Goldilocks, a chipmunk ran out from under the goat shed to the rocks behind and to the side. Darn rodent!

Jonathan and Elizabeth were planning on coming over today but I sent him a message last night to the effect of I have lots to do that I have to get done and could they come next week instead. All I was going to do is be a taxi driver and take them home once they’re done with what they wanted to do but that takes a good hour out of my day that I ought to be doing school work in today. I haven’t heard back yet but my phone is upstairs so there may be a message I have not seen.

Cedric and Seth have soccer practice unless it gets cancelled due to rain. I’m not sure if I hope it does or not. If it does, I’ll stay home and get work done. If it does not, I’ll take my work with me. Either way, makes little difference.

Last night, we ended up having not only the missionaries for supper but Walter Cyr as well. He works with Paul and does massage and his wife just left him. She pulled all sorts of lovely tricks and managed to get not only custody of their daughter, but permission to leave the state and supervised visitation for him. Paul has known him for years and I’ve known him now for a couple. There is absolutely no reason why he should have supervised visitation. Paul thinks that Walter should have the child and the mother should have no visitation because she’s a nut job. Anyway, it was interesting and we made Elder Shem happy with Hoddeok (pronounced really fast and something like hoe dee uk).

So, that’s that. I’m still wet and getting cooler so a shower is going to feel really good. I had a piece of toast for breakfast but really need some tea or milk. I got some milk out but it was sour and I didn’t feel like getting more out of the back. Maybe I’ll make some hot chocolate soon.

Have a wonderful day!

Beautiful Autumn Day

Good morning one and all! It is a beautiful sunny day! Another perfect autumn day (it’s somewhat amazing that there can be so many).

Yesterday I ended up going to talk to the honors advisor at the Mount because I need to turn one of my classes into an honors component class. I got some ideas from her that might work. I was thinking about doing something for accounting along the midwife line but it appears that the teacher kind of has her own thing set up for the honors component so I might attempt to connect with the marketing instructor. For marketing, I thought it might be good to write up a marketing plan for soap. It’s something that I ought to do anyway, if I really want to sell it. So, that was that. On the way, I dropped Laura off at Walmart so she could get a few things and I picked Jonathan and Elizabeth up as they’d taken the bus to Gardner and done what they needed to do. When I was done, I had to wait a few minutes for Jonathan and Elizabeth because they’d gone in so Jonathan could talk to an advisor about going back to school in the spring. Laura was waiting when we got to Walmart so that worked out well.

Cedric and Seth had soccer practice at one and Joseph ended up not having practice due to the possibility of inclement weather. Joanna was going to take her scooter to work and then asked if I could give her a ride because it was supposed to rain then just took her scooter because it looked like the rain had gone away. It ended up raining on her a bit on her way home. It must have been fairly local because I don’t think it rained at the church then. Although it might have; I was inside.

We had lentils for supper. They turned out pretty well. I used the juice from the pork for the fajitas for seasoning and that’s all I used. I added carrots, celery and onions and some chopped up salami. I also used four cans of beef and turkey broth. After supper, we left to go to church. I asked Jonathan if they’d found a ride home from church and he said no. That was okay because the van needed fuel and it’s less expensive in Leominster and Fitchburg so I used taking them home as an excuse to get fuel. The van needed it as it was under a quarter tank and that last quarter on the van goes very quickly. I filled the tank for less than $100 (by a few cents) so that was good. Paul called when I was dropping Jonathan and Elizabeth off and wanted to know why I wanted to fill up the van (I didn’t, really, it takes so much to do it) and I reminded him that I’m going to New Hampshire. He said I didn’t want to take the van to New Hampshire (which is fine with me) and ended up filling the Jetta. He paid two cents less a gallon than I did.

Today and tomorrow are picture day(s) at school. Seth and Joseph get theirs today and Amena and Cedric are tomorrow. It was fun getting everyone up and fed this morning while getting snacks and picture orders ready. I’m glad I only had two this morning. I should really do the other two today so they’re ready to go in the morning.

Today we are going to feed the missionaries corned beef. We have some red cabbage in the garden to use for it which should be interesting. Especially if there are any caterpillars or snails in them.

Other than going to New Hampshire and feeding missionaries, I have planned only school work. I need to finish that case study for marketing and work on my essay for English. I would like a nap as well. I’ve gone from recovering from a cold to recovering from a cold with allergies thrown in. All I have left from the cold is some of the gunk I’m almost done coughing up. Yesterday I couldn’t talk or laugh without coughing. Today it feels almost normal with just a little tickle sometimes.

This seems awfully short to me but it’s what you get for today. Perhaps, if I get my writing stuff done, I’ll have time to do another post (the one about milking). That would be fun, I think.

In the meantime, have a wonderful day!

Perfect (in my mind) Fall Day

Good morning! It is a drizzly one here; just the kind I expect and even enjoy in the fall.

This was not taken on a drizzly day but they are pretty, don't you think?

Currently, we are in various stages of being ready to go out to catch the bus. Joseph still needs shoes. He’s putting cookies and cherry tomatoes in his back pack for snack. Amena is eating a bagel. She’s taking watermelon and cookies for snack. I’m not sure what Seth is doing, hopefully brushing his teeth. He’s taking cookies and cherry tomatoes for snack like Joseph. Now Joseph is putting on a jacket. Cedric is already outside and has an apple and cookies for snack.

Joseph couldn’t find his shoes. They were right under his bed but the blanket had come off and was on top of his shoes. What is it about people his age that they do not think to look under things? Walk into a room, take a look around, don’t see the object being looked for, say, “It isn’t here,” and move on to the next room. It just doesn’t work that way. Ah, the joys of children.

Well, they are all safely on the bus and on their way to school now. I have order forms for all of them for pictures which are being taken tomorrow and Friday. Pretty exciting. We never did get Seth’s last year—I’m not sure what happened to them; I have a cancelled check but no pictures.

Paul is showering, Joanna is napping, Laura is doing what she does best at this time of the morning—as little as possible. I have a relatively short list of things to do today and one of them is not going to class as it is the last of the Jewish holidays for a while—Yom Kippur. I get to work on my essay for English. I am writing about how the KKK influenced the Harlem Renaissance. It should be interesting. I’ve learned some things I did not know already and I’ve only read part of an article I printed out Monday at school. For marketing I need to take a quiz and start the case study that is due Saturday (well, Sunday, but you know I don’t do school work on Sunday). That’s all I have on my list. Finishing the case study would be nice and actually getting the rough draft of the essay would be nice. Of the two, I’d rather get the case study done first. Partly because it’s due sooner and partly because I really don’t like writing them; I’d much rather write an essay (even though the case study only has to be about 2 pages [but single spaced] and the essay has to be six or seven pages [but double spaced]). Business writing, think concise and to the point, is just not my style. Creative writing is much more . . . me.

Tomorrow I get to go to Keene, New Hampshire and meet with Angie and her gang. That is going to be fun, I think. I am hoping that that goes very well. Just in case anyone needs something to add to their list of things to pray for, I would certainly appreciate it.

There is just a half day of school today and Cedric and Seth’s soccer coach has to work this afternoon so their practice is from 1:00 to 2:00 today. Joseph’s should be at the regular time—5:30 to 6:00. Then we’ll be off to church for Scouts, etc. Jonathan and Elizabeth are planning on coming over today at some point. They’re taking the bus to Gardner and will need to be picked up and then we’ll take them to church and they’ll get a ride home from there. I think that works well.

I mentioned my new phone last week. I really like it but it’s funny that it’s 4G and I don’t think I’ve been on a 4G network since I got it. This leads me to wonder what the point is. 3G is what is available here. People can say what they want about 4G speeds being so much faster but if they aren’t available, who cares? Just a funny thing.

Mom, it’s good to have you back online.

AD, I’m glad you guys are settled in. I saw on Facebook that John is getting baptized in a couple of Saturday’s. That is cool.

Grandma, did the pictures come yet? There is only one of a rock wall. I can send more if you’d like.

Trista is such a funny dog. She will stand and bark at Paul and wag her behind and generally be excited but until Scooter goes to him, Trista keeps her distance. I think the only reason she goes when Scooter does is because she can’t stand to let Scooter get all the attention. Trista is a very jealous dog which I think is hilarious. Sad to note is that her tumor is growing. And Scooter is getting more blind.

I think I should add to my list of things to do today making bread. I haven’t done that for a while and Amena mentioned that I should do it. I need to grind some flour first which is why I haven’t done it yet. Plus it was rather cool in the house yesterday and I knew it wouldn’t rise well. I can remedy that today by drying a load or two of laundry. Speaking of laundry, Laura folded about five loads yesterday. I said I’d make something chocolate and gooey if she did which means I also need to make something chocolate and gooey today since I didn’t yesterday. I’m thinking chocolate zucchini bread because it’s chocolate and the chocolate chips make it gooey.

Can you see the gooey chocolate chips in there?

Last night was the Open House. I’d emailed my instructor but since she works 12 hour shifts at the hospital, I didn’t really expect a response, so I talked to her before class about my leaving for an hour to go. She said that we were just going to do  mannequin draws again and I could either just not do it or do one next week before we do each other and I should just go and not worry about going back and forth. That was nice. When I got home, Joanna said, did you get my text? No, I turn my phone off at school. Paul had called and told them to tell me to stay in class because he was on his way. So, I ended up leaving class early but not going to the Open House and Paul got to hear all the good things about the kids. He said, “Well, I know where all our money has been going.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah. I talked to Joseph’s teacher,” I was thinking, what on earth does Joseph have money at school for? “She said that he’s doing really well. And Seth’s teacher says that Seth is doing very well. And Cedric’s teacher says that Cedric is doing really well.” “Oh,” I said, “I see.”

“And Amena’s teacher says that she’s quiet.”

“Oh, and did you ask if she was talking about the same Amena that lives here?”

“I asked if she gets her hair all over her desk and books.”

So, it appears that they are all doing well. Mrs. LaRose (Joseph’s teacher) asked Paul if I was going to be coming in to help this year. He told her he didn’t know but that I am taking classes and might be kind of busy. I’m actually less busy this year because I don’t have math and I’m amazed at how much time that took up. Actually, I’m amazed at how much more time I have for everything else. It’s nice. I emailed her as well as the two Mrs. McDonald’s (Cedric and Seth’s teachers—one is a Tracey and one is a Sherry) this morning saying that I would like to come in and what days I can.

That’s about it for now. At least that I can think of to tell you at the moment. So . . . .

Have a simply wonderful day!

And this is a good note to end on. Amena brought these in and they just add the right touch to the kitchen window.

Short One

Good morning! It is a beautiful day outside; sunny and chilly.

Yesterday morning I almost forgot that I had class to go to so I had to hurry and take a shower and get ready to go. I went and was right on time. On the way, I saw a kid who looked like he might be in my class but I don’t know how cool it is, or isn’t, to stop and ask someone if they want a ride so I didn’t. He was 20 minutes late. Maybe if I see him again, I will stop.

Class was pretty good. We only talked briefly about an article the instructor had posted for us to take a look at which is good because I didn’t want to talk about it because I knew that if we did, a lot of people in class would say things much like the comments at the end. From what little was said, I think I was right. If you’d like to read the article, here is the link: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/20/13989510-empty-chair-lynchings-anti-obama-protests-gone-too-far#.UFvATrhQp59.email I’m not crazy about the whole thing, personally. I think it’s ridiculous that TWO people hanging chairs from trees in their yards mean that ALL Republicans are racist; that ALL leftists are racist; that ALL southerners are racist; that it bodes ill for all those who are not white. Come on, people! It might mean something, it might not. It almost makes me want to hang a chair in my front yard to see if it makes national news.

After class, I came home and did school work and ate lunch and that sort of fun stuff. I stripped the bed and washed sheets and made the bed. I need to do that to Joseph’s bed today. I have a pretty good list of things that need to be done today. Adam is having car issues but usually has Ryan today. I am kind of hoping he does not come over while he’s waiting for Ryan to get out of pre-school because I never seem to get anything done when he’s here. Nothing school work wise, anyway.

Last night I had a wonderful headache from coughing. I had a cup of tea and then I had another cup of tea. I tried ginger and it seems to have helped the cough a bit. I was able to go to sleep which was nice. Sometime shortly after midnight, Joseph came to the bedroom door and I guess was calling for me. I think he must have been afraid to come in because Paul still had his light on. He was having a missing Daniel moment so I got my teddy bear for him and he was able to sleep through the rest of the night.

This morning I did not want to get up to take Joanna to Gardner but I did. I didn’t want to take the girls on our typical route for morning walk either because I didn’t feel like getting soaked feet so we walked down the driveway and that’s it. I didn’t really feel like milking the goats either but I did and now it’s done and doesn’t have to be done again until tomorrow. I am currently thinking that a nap about now would not be out of the question.

I hope you all have a restful day.

Tuna

What do you think of when you hear the word tuna? Through my mind flash things such as sandwich, casserole, and salad. None of them are particular favorites; they're a way to get rid of the many cans of tuna we have sitting in the basement and a way to get some protein in the diet.

 

When Paul brought some tuna home from work last week, I thought, okay, I'll fix it and eat it but I'm not going to prepare myself for any grand, exciting culinary masterpiece destined to excite the palate. One of the investors of the company Paul works for had gone fishing and brought home a tuna. That's great. We somehow manage to have some of the most interesting things in the kitchen; why not tuna?

 

Well, as you might imagine, this wasn't tuna out of a can. Some things, like peaches, are delightful canned. Tuna isn't. However, I dutifully looked tuna steak up online and after looking here and there came up with the following:

Isn't it pretty?

Well, okay, so it isn't that exciting. What it is, is:

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 cloves garlic, squished

small handful fresh oregano, chopped

 

Pour it all over the tuna, cover, and let marinate in the refrigerator. I let it stay in all morning and had it for lunch.

I think the only thing I would have done differently is adding some mushrooms (which I did the following day since I couldn't eat the whole thing [even with Laura's help]).

 

TUNA!

 

Yum!