A Descendent of Job

I'm beginning to think I might be related to Job.

Every time I think I've got a handle on things and we get some forward momentum, something disastrous, costly, or dire knocks at my door.

We had our garage sale to great success. That's the good news. We didn't sell the furniture because most of it was too big to move and we were so busy I didn't have time to make a sign in case anyone was interested. I think it'll be better if we sell it on Craigslist or a Facebook group.

We did sell tons of stuff though. Before we opened, I couldn't even make a path between rows of tables--we were that full. I had to move the overflow outside. Now with what's left I can keep everything inside and easily walk around the tables. 

There's a neighborhood sale this week. If the weather is decent we'll open our doors for a few hours to see if we can sell what's left, otherwise, it gets boxed and shipped to Goodwill. 

People kept commenting on our low prices. I wanted that stuff gone. The bigger it was, the cheaper it was. It wasn't coming back in the house. I'll try to write a separate post on the garage sale later.

the twins

During the sale, my other two does had their babies. That's when my troubles began. First, it was Heidi's twins. They're still scrawny but they'll eat if she lets them. 

Lucy is the one I'm really worried about. Her udder is terribly full. We try to milk her a couple of times a day but she hates being milked and it's always a struggle. She only had one baby and it is finicky! She nurses when SHE wants to nurse. Leading her to the teat is futile. 

Lucy meanwhile is hurting with all that milk. I haven't had time to sterilize jars so I've resorted to using any old bucket and feeding the milk to the chickens. They think they've gone to heaven. I've since ordered a milking machine in the hopes it'll be faster than me and less painful for her. Poor girl.

Lucy with her baby

So the final score is two males and two females. Prince Albert is looking quite magnificent. I'm hoping his cousins will catch up soon.

The owls and hawks have been cruising by their pen in shifts. I need those babies to grow big soon before those predators get wise.

In other news, we had to rush to Casa South (the house we're selling). We've had a LOT of rain down there. The grass was nearly knee high and I had to give the ground enough time to dry off. This was my only window of opportunity to mow the property.

Meanwhile, the top half of a tree had fallen on our power line. Fortunately, it didn't knock it down, but we had to pull that tree off and that was a job and a half. 

Then we walked inside and found the parquet floor in the front room had buckled. During periods of high humidity, (it's semi tropical there) you must keep the AC on. The power had gone out at some point and the AC was off when we got there. That had created enough moisture for the wood floor to expand and buckle. 

Oy! 

We're alleviating that problem by removing most of the wood floor and having carpeting installed. At least if the wood expands again, what's left can move freely against the carpet.

There's more, but I'm trying not to sound like a soap opera. That's just the highlights.

It's a juggling act, but I'm trying to look on the bright side. The house still looks nice and will look nicer still when we install the carpeting.  The babies are all alive. The mama goats look better than they did a few days before.

In time everything will work itself out, but I'm exhausted. I'd kill for a solid day off with no worries.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a cute picture of Prince Albert sticking his tongue out. It's a little blurry but it was too cute not to include.

A big hug for Greg. Through it all, he's been a real help to me, helping to wrangle goats, nurse babies, and milk Lucy.  It would've been so much harder without him.