Sure

My Susan

Gabby's kids, two on the left are boys, one on right is a girl

kids pestering mom for food. :)

Well, we've been busier lately than we've been most of the winter. We got our loan finally, so Justin has been super busy rebuilding our machines. Today he is working on nickel plating some of the parts that are constantly in the salt water, so that they won't rust. He's been rebuilding drive trains, steering cylinders, and all kind of broken, scraped, bruised, and rusty stuff. Everything is coming together so far.

We went to Anchorage this weekend, and it was so nice to get away. We've been stuck at home for so long, because we were so broke we really couldn't put gas in the car. Sad but true. But we were able to go to the big city, and get some parts that Justin and dad need for fixing everything. I got to go to the mall, which was nice. I found nothing to buy, or at least nothing I thought was worth the price they were selling it for. I love the brazilian nut body butter from the Body Shop, but it was $20 for a container of it, and I just wouldn't pay that. Then they had some earrings that I wanted, but they were kind of ugly smiley faces, and they were $11, and I know its silly, but they were the same earring we paid about $4 for in the early 90's and I just wasn't going to pay that much for them. Something I'm sure you're all interested in. :)

My sad news is that we sold our goats, which was really hard, especially since Gabby just had her babies 2 weeks ago. They went to a great home, Beth, the woman we bought them from originally bought them back, and she was excited, and her girls were excited, so that helped, but I still cried, and am sad they are gone. We just absolutely could not take care of them in the summer working the hours we do. Couldn't happen. But we put almost 2+ years into them, and I loved them. Someday when our lives are more stable again, we will get goats again, but for now, my Susan and Gabby have been re-homed. Super sad about that.

Mom's having another procedure on Thursday, still trying to work up to a hysterectomy. Hopefully something good will come of thursdays procedure and she can get the help and recovery that she needs to move past this particular stage in her life and feel better.

I've been making bunches of earrings, I made something like 15 pairs last week. I saw a cool craft show on tv, and she made a super simple pair of earrings, and it gave me all kinds of ideas, so I've been busy making them. I think I've made a pair to go with every shirt or dress mom or I own. I might have a few more to make though, to go with the fabric we have for new clothes. :)

I guess that's all my news. We're working, goats are gone, and it is still snowing! GAH! Enough snow. I've been happy with all the snow storms we have had, until this morning, and when I opened the curtain when I got up, and it was a white out, I was not impressed! I'm glad for the moisture, but I have gardening to do, and seeds to start before I go back to work at the launch, and I need warmth for that! I really don't want to have to give up my baking center to make it a planting center. I will, but I don't want to. Oh, and we're going to get some new chicks this week or next. I'm looking forward to that. Ok, well, I guess that's it. Oh, and I got a new printer/scanner/copy/fax machine on sale at Fred Meyer, and sent my first fax today, and it was awesome! I loved it. Its been SO hard to try and run a business without a printer, I mean, there is a ton of stuff that needs printed running a business, and now I have a printer, a copier, a scanner, and a fax machine. woohoo! I know, I'm a geek. :) But I'm an excited geek.

All the news that isn't the news

We've had an eventful week.

It started out with Justin still being sick, and having big red splotches and sores all over his legs (which were also very painful), plus a fever, and general ickiness. Then tuesday his feet swelled to twice their normal size. time for a doctor visit. Took him to the local satellite clinic here of a larger clinic in Homer. They were completely freaked out, said it was the weirdest thing they'd ever seen, had no clue what it was or how to get rid of it. SO, the sent us in for blood work, chest x-ray, and to make an appointment for an abdominal ultrasound because they said his spleen was enlarged and ready to burst. After the tests, went to their big clinic in Homer to see another doctor, she thought she knew what the spots were, but didn't know what was causing them. Told us he might have leukemia, hodgkins lymphoma, heart failure, kidney failure, liver failure, TB, pancreatitis (pancreitis?), mono, strep, bacterial infection, viral infection, cancer, etc. Basically scared the crap out of me. Wednesday I made Justin an appointment with a "real" doctor, at another clinic. Thursday morning was the ultrasound, then appointment with the "new" doctor. The new doctor walked in, looked at Justin's legs, said you have Eurythma(something or other) nodosum, and here's how we'll treat it. Said it could be cause by something serious, but he didn't think so, he said that what happened was Justin got sick with the flu, or strep, or some sort of basic winter illness, and then his immune system went to work, eliminated the illness, but then his immune system just kept cranking in overdrive, and that was what caused the inflammation, swelling, fever, etc. His immune system sort of turned on his body. He said if it was something else that caused it, then that other illness will show up when we clear up the leg inflammation, but that generally it was just his immune system going way overboard. He'd treated it before, and said it could take 6 months to clear up, we'll just have to see, but he wasn't concerned or anything, just very competent and knowledgeable. I really liked him, I had seen him when I was in the ER this summer, and liked him, so when I couldn't get Justin in to his regular doctor, luckily I was able to get him in to Dr. Brady instead.

So now Justin has his pills, and he feels like the inflammation is reducing a little, so that's great. His feet and ankles still swell when he's upright too long, but we were able to go to church for an hour this morning, so that was an improvement. The first time we've been able to go in February at all.

Other than illness, we're still waiting for our loan to be approved, and hoping and praying desperately while we wait. Mom and I went to Soldotna on friday, that was fun. We had a really good time at Joann fabric looking at patterns and fabric - we haven't been able to do that in years. So we're looking forward to working some new patterns and making some new clothes in the coming weeks. Should be fun.

I made a skirt yesterday with mom's advice and instruction. We had a little trouble with our math, some measuring issues, and some fit issues, but eventually got it done. Its a blue corduroy skirt, looks good I think, although not how I pictured it, but then clothes I make almost never do. I have trouble with that. I actually get really frustrated making clothes because clothes have to be altered to fit me well, and its hard to do that without having to redo stuff over and over, and anyway, its really easy for me to get frustrated making clothes. I love to quilt - totally love it, in fact I made a small quilt to give to the women's shelter this week, but making clothes is harder. I go through phases where I enjoy it, and I seem to be in one of those now, so maybe I'll get some new clothes done soon. That would be nice. Especially because I already have the fabric, I just need to put in the needle time and get it sewn.

My poor kitty has a deep wound on his backside. The neighbors cat bit him, we think trying to bite off something rival male cats would be trying to bite off if you get my drift. But he has this big sore now, about the size of a quarter or a little bigger, maybe between the size of a quarter and a fifty cent piece (ok, how many people remember 50 cent pieces? I do, my grandparents sent them all the time, and I have a good collection of them around here). Anyway, we cleaned his wound, and gave him some love. We're not sure if we'll have to take him to the vet or not. If we do I guarantee the neighbor is paying for it. You can't leave town for months at a time, and just leave your pets alone! Very frustrating, and I don't do well with my kitty being sick or wounded, poor little guy.

So, that's pretty much what's been happening with us. It was really nice and warm, but now its pretty cold and windy, guess winter decided to come back to us. No goat babies yet. We sold our billy goat (by Billy Bob!), and we're pretty sure we're going to sell our herd after Gabby has her babies. I love them, and we love the milk, but we don't have time or energy to take care of them in the summer, and I guess they just dont' fit our lifestyle right now. Maybe when our lives are more stable and less up in the air. It will be hard to get rid of them, although I'm still pretty heartsick over all the ones that died last year and the drama with that. I'll miss my Susan. We'll see what happens though, but I think that's how we're leaning.

Ok, now I think that's everything going on around here. :)

Looooong Winter

Its been a long winter around here, not weatherwise, but lifewise. We've been hoping and wishing for more snow, but nothing doing, didn't happen. Hopefully we'll still get some snow this march, a nice big fluffy pile of snow.

We've been really sick this winter, a lot. Poor Justin just can't get well. He's on a strict vitamin regimin now, we're hoping it will help. We just keep passing stuff around, and getting sick over and over and over. Makes a looooong winter when you can't get well, and you can't get anywhere, and you're broke...... Thankfully its february, and warm now, so maybe we're looking up.

Today I tried on every piece of clothing I own, and sorted it down to almost nothing. I think I have about 10-12 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, 2 dresses and a skirt. Not much to wear.....so we (mom, Justin and I) went through all my clothes to decide what looked good, what fit, what didn't, what was flattering, etc. It was really helpful to me. I'm not much of a fashionista, I don't really worry about what's "in", I just want to look good and have stuff fit comfortably, but that's still really hard, especially in the sizes I wear, with the budget I have this winter, and with how hard I am on clothes. Its very difficult. But this also ties into my other news, I joined a "Biggest Loser" competition that my work is offering for this spring and summer! I'm really excited about it actually, the prize is $1500, and I really am looking forward to that extra motivation to get healthy and skinnier. Plus yesterday I worked out, which is a big step. Eating isn't really the biggest problem for me, its not exercising. I always think that my daily activity is enough, but obviously it isn't. :) So that's what I'm working on right now - designing some new clothes, and losing weight.

We're also in the seemingly never ending search for money for our business. We're having a major change shortage this winter, and its been really hard (as it has been for almost everyone this year). We've applied for several loans, looked for investors, and are in the middle of applying for another loan right now. Its a time consuming, frustrating, scary experience. I guess the upshot is that it has completely re-committed us to paying off as much debt as we can this summer, so that we don't have to go through this again. We are so ready to be debt free, and so tired of the fear and uncertainty that it brings into everything, and so restrictive. Honestly its been a painful, long, frustrating experience, which we hope will start to look up any day now.

On the positive side, our goat Gabby is going to have kids any day now. That is exciting, and a little scary after the mass casualties of last year, but still excited to see what happens. We're selling, or trying to sell, our billy goat. He's not really a good fit for our barn, he's too closely related, and we'd like to bring in a new blood line, instead of kissing cousins, or in this case, kissing half siblings. We'll have to post pics of the new babies when they come.

The dogs are good, the chickens good, cat is a cat, and we're plugging along, hoping to get better, hoping to get the money we need, and hoping for more snow. :)

Moose in the yard

We had some moose in the yard, a mama and this years calf. Had to take pictures of course. They hung around for a long time, they ate a bunch of willows (they're the reason we have willows- so they come around more) and then bedded down next to the pond and chilled for a while. They were still there when the sun went down, so that was neat.

New sign

I've been wanting to make a vinyl sign for the bathroom wall that said this for a while now. Finally got around to it. I think it looks great - not sure why the bathroom wall looks that color, the wall is actually a nice light cream color. But anyway, the sign looks cute, now hopefully it will stay - the vinyl didn't really like the textured wall.

Dad's new (ish) chair

Mom got a new chair, that will help her get up and down more, given to her from her insurance company. So dad decided to trade up from his old broken chair, to mom's "old" chair. Mom's been trying to get him a new chair for years, and he wouldn't even consider it, but then the other day he decided that when she got her new chair, he would trade for the chair she was sitting in. So, now he's got a newish new chair. And its a recliner and a half, so there's even room for a puppy to sit with him. And it didnt' take 2 very long to figure that out. I think he'd been sitting in the new chair trying it out for about 20 seconds before she jumped up there and sat down on the empty side. She was so cute. Mya wanted to get up too, but she didn't want to jump up, so she just leaned over the arm of the chair. Such funny dogs!

Justin's new bowl

Here are some pictures of Justin's newest bowl. Its beautiful!