I BACK FROM WHERE I LEFT OFF YESTERDAY...

As I promised,  I'm back to continue my story of woes. I had gotten up at 4:00am, Monday morning, filled all my large pots with hot water and loaded up my van and took it to the calf area  by 4:30 and went back home for another load of pails filled with cold water to mix their milk replacer as quickly as I could before the water got cold. All my work got done and as I think I said, I was only 14 minutes late for my blood test appointment.

I'm a blood technician's worst nighytmare. My veins in my left arm are hard as nail and the last time it took two people to take a little bit of blood and it took them almost half an hour but this time I got a 27 year veteran technician and she got lots of blood from that stubborn vein. I was so thankful and I was so hungry since the last time I had eaten was Sunday morning at breakfast around 10:30 or so. I went to the small coffee shop in the lobby to get a cup of coffee and a muffin to tie me over till I got home. It had been 17 hours since I ate last.  I didn't care if there was soybean oil in it or not. I gulped it down and went down town to pay my car registration. I was lucky to find a nice parking spot  and I put money in the meter and I hope that since it was a rainy Monday it would only take a few minutes and I paid for 35 minutes just in case.

I was early and there was nobody in the lineup and I handed the clerk my registration paper and he asked for my insurance. Rats, I had left it in the car. I backtracked and  went back in but already there was 5 people in the lineup. When I got my turn I handed the clerk my insurance and he looked at it and said, Mam, your insurance expired in July. I said, impossible. I remember paying my car insurance.
He pointed me the phone over there and said get the insurance company to fax me the insurance. I called the insurance number and I got someone from the motor vehicle branch. Thinking that I made a mistake, I called again, I got another person answering the phone from a different department of the motor vehicle branch and she said, just dial again.  A third attempt had the same result and I went to talk to the clerk and told him what was happening and he said" Did you dialled the # 9 in front of the phone number?" Deh... I was way too tired to think straight and my sugar and coffee rush hadn't kicked in yet.

I got a hold of my insurance and she said"Your insurance is paid but give me 10 minutes to fax that to the Motor Vehicle Branch. I had never received the insurance card to carry in my wallet as they mail it from headquarters. They will send me a new one.

All this time my parking meter is ticking and I'm glad that I had put more money than I thought it would take but I was sure that my time was running out.
Finally the fax came in and I got my ticket to pay my registration and I have to sit some more and wait my turn. Time feels longer when I wait with nothing to do. Finally they call my number and I paid and I'm out of there. I rushed to the car and I couldn't believe that I still had 3 minutes left on my parking meter. It doesn't take much to make me thankful and happy.

I'm trying to do all my errands while I'm in town to save on gas. I went across the bridge on the North side to my Credit Union to make a deposit and I got a call from my husband George.

The hospital where my son was had called for someone to pick him up as they would not allow him to drive home  after Day Surgery and told him to take a few days off to recuperate and no lifting...

I rushed back home to pick up my husband and drove him to the neighbouring town hospital to pick up the truck and I picked up my son Vaughan.

When I arrived home it was almost noon and I'm truly famished. I warmed up the mushrooms I had sauteed the night before and cooked the T-bone steaks and steamed some carrot curls and I warmed up a bit of left over sticky rice and my husband and I had lunch. After lunch, I laid down and fell asleep on the couch for an hour.

When I woke up, I checked my emails and opened the stack of business mail and did a bit of office work and went to work at the farm early since we were one man short.

I remember one more incident that happened last Saturday night after work. As I was getting ready to leave the barn, my son asked me to help him. One of the milking cow had knocked a little one way door right off the wall. He needed someone to hold it in place to nail it back on. It had fallen right in the manure and was all dirty. Thank goodness for disposable gloves. My son hammered the nails back in but it wouldn't hold. I told him to get a few big spikes and I held the little door while he hammered. We got it back in place and well balance.

There are many little details that I've forgotten but one just came to mind just now. A day before the meat is ready to be picked up my husband announced to me that he's picking up the meat at the butcher tomorrow.  What meat?  He said "I told you about the meat. No you didn't. This is the first I heard of it and I just filled the freezer with lots of food and bread. I even bought some hamburger on special...

He thought that he had told me but a housewife would never forget an important thing like that...
I had to turn on the spare fridge in my upstair kitchen and get stuff moved. Luckily my son's freezer had lots of room to spare.

My husband went on a weekend silent retreat  in the neighbouring city and I've been home alone . I worked at the farm from the time I woke up and since I had all the hired hands to feed I had put a beef roast to cook in the slow cooker last night before going to bed and had a big country meat and potato dinner for them. My son came to get the left over for his supper.

This afternoon , Saturday 23rd, after lunch I went to clean the pit in the milking room. It's a sunken area where the men stand to milk the cows.  Big heavy rubber mats had to be removed and my grandson and I worked for 4 hours and finished just in time for the guys to milk the cows. I then went to feed the calves. The men cleaned the big pens and added beddings everywhere so now all the cows and calves are happy for the moment.
I'm waiting for another cow to calve but she only due on the 30th. I'm hoping that it will slow down soon. We milk about 60 cows twice a day and have approximately 120 head of cattle to care for.

My son just got my pots out of  my van  this evening. I kind of had forgotten about them. lol... They have been rattling in my van all week since Monday. Today has been extremely busy but everything went very well. I hope it stays that way. Tomorrow I'll clean my pots.

Our lives takes us on different journeys and we all encounter our crosses but it's a good life and I'm thankful for having some work to do.

Thanks for  putting up with me and reading my life's ups and downs. Life is like that.
I enjoy your visit and comments and I'll try to catch up on your blogs  as soon as I can as you mean a lot to me. I'm off to bed now.

Good night.
JB