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Retired at 45

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Retired at 45

Monthly Archives: February 2016

Please caucus for Bernie

27 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by JamiG4 in Politics

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

American Dream, Bernie


Super Tuesday is this week.  And I am hopeful for Bernie’s chances in Minnesota.  But it will be an uphill battle as Hillary continues to fight for her second chance at the White House.  It may well be a Clinton/Trump final faceoff.  But how much of a faceoff will it be?  Two ultra-rich people who propose they are going to make the country great again for the rest of us.  I’m having trouble buying it…

Trump_wedding_clintons

Photo credit http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-money-drew-hillary-clinton-wedding/story?id=32936868

You see, it’s hard for me to see either of these millionaires getting into power and doing very much to change the system to allow the rest of us to benefit.  If elected, they will have been carried into office by their friends and donors. And I believe they will (as Molly Ivans often said), “Dance with the ones that brung ‘em.”

On the other hand, Bernie is inspiring millions, bringing people into the election process for the first time and bringing back those who had given up the hope needed to stay involved.  He’s being carried forward by me and you and the masses of Americans turning out to hear him speak, to praise his ideas, to believe in his message of hope.  Hope that we CAN take back our government from the oligarchy it has become and make it into a system that provides for ALL, not just the wealthy few.  Hope that, together, we can remove the money from politics, restore our corrupted system of justice, provide care for our veterans, and restore our crumbling infrastructure.  Bernie is drawing huge crowds and is largely supported by small donations from the grassroots.  This means that he will represent US.  He will work to remedy our broken political system so it begins again to work for All the People.

LA Crowd

But what about Foreign Policy?  Name all the Presidents with foreign policy experience prior to coming to the office.  Anyone?  It’s a pretty limited list.  GHW Bush and Eisenhower probably had the most but how much does it matter?  Even teams with lots of experience have had pretty disastrous results.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/17/every-new-u-s-president-faces-a-surprise-international-crisis-so-in-the-primaries-should-foreign-policy-experience-matter/

But all the Foreign Policy experience in the world doesn’t help you if you can’t get into the White House.  First you have to be elected. (I will forego a coronation comment here.)

So what about electability?  All the latest polls show Bernie beating the opposition:Bernie vs Repubs

https://www.facebook.com/BernieAction/photos/pcb.1765274230363348/1765274050363366/?type=3&theater

Clinton vs Repubs

https://www.facebook.com/BernieAction/photos/pcb.1765274230363348/1765274060363365/?type=3&theater

 

The DNC says, “When we Vote, We Win!”  I agree.  When Democrats come to the polls, we win.  The candidate likely to bring out the votes needed to win, to prevent a Trump victory, is Bernie.   Why won’t Hillary have the votes to win?  She doesn’t have support of the young people (18-35) like Bernie does.  She has women, but many women have left her side over the years due to her hawkish nature and her incorrect stance on environmental issues and trade policy.  (Of course, she sounds a lot more like Bernie on these issues of late…)  She says she has the black vote but will they come to the polls for her like they did for Obama?  I’m thinking not.  Besides, every redneck in America can’t wait to vote AGAINST her.  I’m pretty sure Bubba will stand in a 2-hour long line for that opportunity!  I foretell that a Hillary nomination will call out the Republican voters in larger numbers than Democrats.  And I’m not alone.  https://www.currentaffairs.org/2016/02/unless-the-democrats-nominate-sanders-a-trump-nomination-means-a-trump-presidency

 

Portland Crowd

Bernie is bringing out the Democratic voters.  Why?  Because he is giving them hope that we can again have a system of government that works for the people.  He is talking about a Revolution where we will again have a voice.  And people are ready to have their voices heard.  They know:

  • We need a BIG change in how things are done – our current system is broken.  And the word “Socialist” doesn’t scare them.  The 1950s are over.  With the internet and global communications, we are a much more informed society.  We get that what Socialism means is, “We pay taxes = we get services.”  It’s not scary, it’s logical.
  • We need a candidate committed to overturning Citizens United if we want to have any hope of one day re-claiming our government from the rich and powerful who currently own it.  When the rich and big corporations can contribute as much money as they please to support a candidate, the power of the vote diminishes.
  • We need to start by asking for everything we want if we ever hope to attain some of what we want. Yes, even Bernie knows that it isn’t likely to achieve ALL his promises.  But if you aim high, you have a chance of progress.  When you want $12 minimum wage, you don’t start by asking for $10.10, you start by asking for $15.  Once people see that a $12 minimum wage doesn’t kill the economy but instead actually makes it thrive, then you can get a $15 minimum wage.  It’s called negotiation.

 

Madison crowd

I am caucusing for Bernie because I believe in what he represents.

Bernie Sander’s candidacy is based in love.  He sees the humanity in each of us and wants to fight for all of us.  And he HAS BEEN fighting for us.  In Congress he is known as The Amendment King.  Amendments he built with bipartisan support created progressive legislation to help the working people, veterans, women, and the neediest among us.  He increased funding for heating for the poor, expanded free health care, protected pensions, increased accountability in corporate crime, expanded funding for the National Guard, and exposed corruption in the military-industrial complex.  And he was able to do this whether Dems or Reps were in charge!

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/bernie-gets-it-done-sanders-record-pushing-through-major-reforms-will-surprise-you

I urge you to caucus with Bernie on March 1st.  Locally, our caucus is at Alexandria Technical & Community College, Law Enforcement Building Rm 743, starting at 6:30.  You must be in line by 8 PM to be able to cast a ballot for Bernie.  Please be there.

If you are caucusing elsewhere in MN, here’s how to find your caucus location: http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us/

Bernie is a real person.  He understands what it’s like to live without millions of dollars, something that seems to be harder and harder to find among the representatives in our political system.  His campaign is financed by everyday Americans, not big corporations or wealthy friends.  He believes in the little guy, the average worker, regardless of color or religion.  He fights for the most vulnerable among us to assure we all have a chance at success.  He believes in a living wage, access to healthcare as a right not a privilege, restoring fairness to our system of justice, and a chance to better our lives through education.  Bernie believes in the same things that most Americans believe.  And he will fight to bring these things back to the American People.  If only we stand with him.

 

San Antonio Crowd

Photo Credits:

  • LA: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-sanders-california-20150811-story.html
  • Portland: http://liberalvaluesblog.com/2015/08/10/bernie-sanders-is-the-future-of-the-democratic-party-and-party-leaders-ignore-this-at-their-own-peril/
  • Madison: http://www.pdafund.com/component/k2/item/95-bernie-sanders-draws-his-biggest-crowd-yet-in-progressive-stronghold
  • San Antonio: http://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/a-growing-number-of-sas-grassroots-progressives-are-feeling-bernie-sanders/Content?oid=2459774

 

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Death in Spite of Hope

22 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by JamiG4 in Death, Family

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Death, family, Freedom


No matter how each of us hopes to live forever, we will, each in our turn, pass from this mortal coil.  We will all die.  This is the basis for the class I am facilitating for Community Ed for the second time, Dying to Talk!  We gather together to discuss fears, experiences, hopes, plans and questions.  We share our ideas on the many aspects that we face at the end of life.  We discuss how to be prepared… financially, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We are not experts.  We are humans.  We will each have multiple shots at walking through this process of death; once for ourselves (or rarely, two or more times) and, quite often, many times with those we know and love.

Nevertheless, we often are not prepared for death.  I don’t know that I am, as much time as I have taken to contemplate and discuss the subject.  I would count myself better prepared than some but there is still so much that intrigues me, so much more I want to discover, understand and share with those around me.  And, I believe, like having a child, until you’ve done it, it’s difficult to comprehend.  So death, facing it, becomes something that we can only prepare for by degrees and with experiences.

Someone once said (I couldn’t find a notable source), “Death is the new pornography.”  Actually, many have said this, I’m sure, as I’ve said it often.  Death is the scary thing we no longer talk about.  We used to be intimately involved with it.  People died at home, their lives were celebrated and remembered at home-based funerals and often, burials were done by immediate family, many times in the back yard or down the road in the local churchyard.

But over the last century or more, we’ve outsourced death.  We leave our loved ones to the hands of others.  We trust that process of caring for the dead (and often also caring for the elderly in the years prior to death) to people outside our family, to those we pay to fulfill these services.  We have separated ourselves from this process.  But there is a growing movement to reclaim these responsibilities, to be more intimate with the process of death. We’re beginning to talk more, to dispel with the mystery and to be open with each other about this final process of life.  And some of us are even taking on the preparations of the body for funeral and burial.

NPR did a great TED Radio Hour on this subject recently and there is much to digest here: http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/464423367/rethinking-death?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20160131

I really like the second talk by Amanda Bennett where she discusses the recurring cancer in her husband.  She reminds us that, in hope for a cure, we may get too focused on the next step… and miss the last step in the journey. Our hope may mean we forget about saying goodbye, thinking goodbye will never come.

These goodbyes are lovely when we get to say them.  To honor the love we have, to share our thanks and forgiveness for all that has passed in this lifetime, to be present in this most important of transitions.  Accepting that death is a part of each of our lives can help us face it with more care and thoughtfulness, and less fear.

My husband Dan and I have been talking about death quite a lot of late, likely due to the class.  When I’m facilitating Dying to Talk!, I tend to focus more time than normal thinking and talking about death.  A few weeks back, I said to Dan, “If I die, be sure to let Tom (our son) know that I really loved every minute of it.”  He agreed, saying, “It’s been a good ride.”  We talked in more detail about just how happy we are and, if this is all we get, then so be it.  It may seem strange but this conversation made me feel better as I realized, we’ve really been lucky to have as much time as we have, and so many lovely experiences as we have, to date.  Of course I hope for many more years of happiness (and all the other stuff life brings) but it was good to bask in the knowledge that we’ve made a good life and enjoyed it together thus far.

Just this weekend, we spoke again.  Dan is pretty sure, based on family history, what will come for him someday.  And I asked what he wanted to do, if this phenomenon arose.  While I knew most of his answers already from past conversations, it was good to reiterate as things can change with time.  We talked about game plans in a general way and I feel comforted having this knowledge, facing the prospects of possible futures with some level of pragmatism.  I do comprehend that, if the situation does arise, things could change and it may be harder to practice only pragmatism as the reality of the situation brings emotion into play.  But I also have hope that we will be able to face whatever comes our way together and without excessive panic or drama.

I know my son is facing the possibility of my death as a reality.  He recently texted me, “I would hug the shit out of you right now if I could 😉 ” along with a post from Kevin Smith on his own mother’s hospital stay involving some risky surgery.  I think in realizing we can lose someone, they become more valuable.  When we take each other for granted, there is less connection, respect and passion.  But we cherish more that which we remember we may someday lose.

1-7-16

We spent some time with friends this weekend watching Griefwalker, a documentary about the work of Stephen Jenkinson. It’s a tough film and leaves many questions but gives much food for thought.  From his website: “Stephen is a teacher, author, storyteller, spiritual activist, farmer and founder of the Orphan Wisdom School, a teaching house and learning house for the skills of deep living and making human culture. It is rooted in knowing history, being claimed by ancestry, working for a time ​yet to come.​” (http://orphanwisdom.com/)  The basic idea of the movie is that we all need to find our path to comprehending death as it will help us live life more fully.  And we must accept that death is a part of life, in fact, it is the part that makes it beautiful and valuable.

I do believe that the fact that we won’t live forever does make every minute special.  Not knowing when or how we will pass from this life behooves us to make the absolute most we can of every minute. Enjoying each day, each moment of every day, is a goal that makes for having a happy life.

 

 

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

14 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by JamiG4 in Crafts, Family

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

being nice


V-Day2016 (2)

Today is Valentine’s Day and I am finding myself blessed and want to share some of the beauty that has come into my life.  These photos today are from friends who swap fabric postcards – literal mini works of art – as a hobby.  It never ceases to amaze me when I see the variety of ideas and it tickles me to know the love and attention that goes into making these cards.  All through the last couple weeks, I’ve been getting love in the mail.  This first card was the first to arrive from my lovely Momma Christine Moore. This is a perfect card for us because, when we are together, it is BIG LOVE! She is my hero and guru for staying young via an ongoing crafting addiction. 😉  She sends out love every week in handmade cards (her specialty) and she gives so much to her friends in teaching crafts of all kinds. She also is a prolific quilter. I can’t wait to see all her projects next time I visit. I am really looking forward to getting the chance to spend time with her when I head to Indiana in May.  We always have so much fun crafting away.

 

V-Day2016 (3)What’s shakin’!?!  This card above is from Marilyn Earles and while it’s not clear in a still photo, it has loads of seed beads trapped between the fabric and a plastic overlay creating a card that you can shake to create pattern after pattern and a lovely noise like raindrops falling.  Marilyn is pretty new to our group and it’s neat to see the progression of her work.

This card is from Les Clarke – a beautiful embroidered heart.  I absolutely LOVE hearts.  They are my kryptonite.  If I see heart beads or buttons, it’s always hard to resist buying them for crafting.  And embroidery is so intricate and fun – creating pictures with thread – magic.  And this one came all the way from Australia.

 

V-Day2016 (5)

Fran Andrews’ card arrived this weekend, just in time! And how lovely!  Fran has such a perfection about her cards, balancing colors, adding dimension and detail.  It’s always a joy to see a work from her in my mailbox.  This is a great example of her classy style.

V-Day2016 (1)

This last one is a card that I made.  It is for Mom & Tom who celebrated 15 years of wedded bliss this Valentine’s Day.  It seems many people celebrate a Valentine’s Day anniversary.  I was telling my puzzle friends Dale & Marlys Weber of Special Memories this past week about how my parents still share a wedding anniversary even though they’ve been divorced for decades, because both re-married on February 14th.  And these puzzlers too had married on this same day!  Even my son and his girlfriend celebrate this as the day they began dating.  Ah, love is in the air!!

V-Day2016 (4)

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I made goat cheese!!

08 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by JamiG4 in Homesteading, Permaculture, Retirement, Saving the Earth

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

cooperation, family, simplicity, sustainability


What a weekend!  Our friends in Bemidji have a farm homestead and they occasionally like to take a family vacation which means we get to Farm-sit.  This was a full weekend of adventure.  We made a lot of mistakes which will be recognizable to experienced farm people right away but, as noobs who do not have goats or dogs, we were taken by surprise.  It was also full of fun and happy surprises that really made it special.

Our first mistake was unavoidable as it is winter and Friday was a work day.  We arrived after dark.  It’s been such a long time since we’ve done this that 1) we’d forgotten there were outside lights we could have turned on to light up the yard and 2) several of the animals had moved or were new.  Once we had opened the door to let the dogs out, we unloaded our gear into the house.  Then we found some wind up flashlights in the drawer in the mud room and we headed out to get the chores done.  [Note: We realized later that Paul’s videos, also made after dark, were actually pretty representative but we’d watched them the previous day so were doing our best to remember as we trundled through the dark.]  The first thing was giving water to the horses, which was uneventful.  We weren’t worried that we didn’t see any horses.  We were just glad to have only to fill about 4 5-gallon buckets to refill their trough and were happy Sara and Paul had left a big hay bale in the feeder so we didn’t have to throw hay.  As we finished this task, we were amazed with the brilliant stars and stopped for a pause to enjoy the night sky.

Next we went to get water for the ducks, who were shut in the greenhouse. The first instance of cuteness was that Gracie, one of the three black labs, had to get a drink from the water spigot as I filled the bucket of water for the ducks and bunny.  She would repeat this over and over and it was adorable.  The ducks had food so we just had to fill the water bowls and gather eggs.  Sara had warned us of the “fake” eggs that they leave in the nests.  And as I went to gather eggs, I just couldn’t tell the difference between the fakes and the real ones.  I didn’t know how many fakes there were so kept second guessing and finally ended up taking all but two into the house.  I figured if I had any fakes inside I could just return them to the ducks later.  Sara texted me later saying the fakes were larger but the duck eggs were pretty huge too.  There were some I collected that seemed just as big as the big ones I left outside.  (These below will not allow this carton to close.)

Eggs 2-6-16

After the ducks, we took care of the rabbit which was the easiest job, the only hard part being pulling back the chicken wire roll to gain access.  The bunny is adorable and very happy to have fresh, liquid water and a handful of food pellets.  The chickens were good for the day so we headed next to the goat care, which is where the real fun began.  In the dark, we walked straight past the hay bales on our left as we looked to the right at the deck where it was supposed to be.  However, we happened upon some straw which I remembered using with the goats a year before so we grabbed a couple flakes and headed to the boy goat quarters, figuring milking would be the last thing we did.  We stuffed the hay bags with the flakes and saw no evidence of goats.  The previous year, I’d gone in the male goat quarters with the kids (who seemed not excited about entering) and I’d survived.  Seeing no goats, I decided to go in to get their water, now an ice bucket, busted up and re-filled.  The entryway to the area was quite tricky as one side of the door is tied in place and the other side is tied in place at the bottom and has a bungie tie holding the top of the chicken wire.  I unhooked the bungie and stepped up and over, contorting myself through with a definite lack of finesse.  Thank goodness Dan was holding the light so I could see what I was doing.  After getting things with the water in order, I headed back out to take care of milking the two girl goats.

First we headed to the shed for the grain which we knew we would need to distract the ladies as we milked.  [I missed an obvious sign that would later become clear.  Paul had said something about running out of grain for the goats but from what I could see, there was about a third of a 50 gallon barrel and another half barrel of feed.  This first red flag did not deter me from my task of getting these goats milked.]

As we looked over the female goat pen, we tried to come up with a game plan.  I went inside and looked around while Dan waited outside.  I kept getting bitten in the butt by someone – turns out it was mostly Milkshake.  After making an assessment of the area, I figured we had to get one of the two milking goats into the shed, up on the stanchion, with grain dish in place and then wash the udder, work in the bucket and get the milking done.  Having only two hands to hold the grain, the bucket for milking, the water bottle for the rag to wash the udder, the aforementioned rag, and the second bucket of grain (for the second milking goat) was making things tough.  Danny had his own battles trying to give me enough light with the windup flashlight (which, as you may have guessed, meant frequent turning which required both hands) while also fighting the rush of the other 5 goats, the second milker and 4 younger gals, who also were trying to get to the grain I was juggling.  The first milker is meanwhile looking at me like I was crazy asking her to jump up on this stanchion in the shed.  [This was red flag number two.  The goats, Sara told me, were readily jumping up for milking.  This was not going as well as I had envisioned.]

Dan eventually pulled the shed door closed to keep the other 5 goats out while I finagled the rest of the process after eventually getting the first milker in place.  Dan had meanwhile injured his back fighting the goats and was now writhing in pain as he tried to hold closed the door. [At one point he yelled out, “I think we’re gonna have kabobs soon!!”] The goats outside are making his job tougher as they keep biting at his gloved fingers on the hand holding the door closed.  I milked the first goat, re-learning the process which I’d only done a couple times previously and had never done alone.  I managed pretty well, and was able to get a good amount of milk before the grain supply was devoured by Angel.  I let her go back outside and we managed to get Milkshake, and only Milkshake, into the shed for round 2. (Though it sounds easy, it took quite a while as everyone wanted to bum rush the shed for the grain during the transition.) She also looked at me like I was crazy, fought longer to get up on the stanchion but finally surrendered and made her way up.  [Red flag #3 ignored.]  I was now milking better, remembering the squeeze from top to bottom of the teat.  Though Milkshake was much more sensitive and several times tried lifting her leg, I managed to keep her from kicking over the bucket as I milked.  Again, I didn’t feel I’d done a thorough job but at this point, we’d been at chores for over two hours and I finally let her go as well.  We ended up with about 3 pints of milk and I knew I’d at least kept them from being too uncomfortable for the evening.  I’d try again in the morning.  With some light.

We’d managed to lose the udder rag along the way.  First, we’d lost it when I put the water bottle and rag down with the grain and milking bucket outside the pen as Dan and I considered our options.  When he brought the water bottle and bucket over I asked, “Where is the rag?”  “What rag?” he says.  Turns out Hunter, the youngest of the black labs, had decided it was a toy. [This should have been a sign for me to watch Hunter moving forward but I failed to catch on to this.  I know dog owners everywhere are like, “What is she, NEW?!?”  Yes.  I am.]  We see Hunter in the backwash of the light shining from the house, rag dangling from his mouth.  Danny goes to him and secures the rag bringing it to me.  Once inside and finally getting the first goat washed down, I tuck the rag between my knees.  Yes, I have gloves and rag between the knees as I struggle to milk, prevent a loss of the bucket and try to see in the half light of Dan’s wind-up flashlight.  When the goat switch happened, I looked down for the rag to wash the second udder and… it’s nowhere.  I am sure that one of the goats grabbed it and, very likely, are it.  We found it nowhere all weekend long.  I was glad to have managed to not lose either glove.

After finally finishing the chores about 8:30 PM, who knows, maybe later, we headed inside to make some dinner and relax with the cats and dogs.  I strained the milk, washed the milking bucket and duck eggs gathered and prepared to make some fresh scrambled eggs.  Each time I banged an egg against the counter I was sure it would be a fake.  They were large with very hard shells. But each time… voila! A real egg!  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and started to relax.  After being inside a while, we realized we were short by one cat and texted Sara asking about Gatito, the calico.  Apparently she’d left one day last October and never came back.  While this sucks (Gatito was my favorite of the two because she was really lovey and let you pet her forever), I too lost a cat this way once and it was the easiest loss I’d ever had, as far as cats are concerned.  I grieved more easily once I realized he was not coming home and could always wonder with a bit of hope that he was out living a fat cat life.  The one cat remaining was the GIGANTIC orange tabby named Lucky.  Yes, he’s so big that he tripped the DNR cameras once and the DNR guys thought they had a mountain lion until Paul, a DNR officer, told his buddies, “Nope, that’s just my cat.”  The camera was low, so when he came through, Lucky looked even bigger than he is.  He’s not nearly as big as a cougar, but he is big.  And he was more lovey-dovey than ever!  He was immediately in Danny’s lap, rubbing and purring and snuggling.  It was hilarious!  He gave me a bit of love but Danny got the lion’s share.

Lucky2 & Dan

Finally in bed late, I only had to get up a couple times for the dogs to head outside so got a bit of sleep.  I woke up about eight, knowing Dan was really feeling his back, I figured I’d get as much of the chore work done as I could.  Maybe I could even milk the goats on my own!  Yes, I was awake but was really dreaming on this one…

Heading outside into the light of day, I had multiple realizations and knew, as much as we felt like we’d accomplished the previous night, we had made many mistakes.  We had certainly worked hard, had tried our best, pushing the limits of frustration with the goats to get the job done, but we are not seasoned and had made many rookie mistakes.  And I had more to make today…

The first thing I saw coming around the house were the large bales of hay sitting at the fence, yes, near the deck but not visible if you are walking between them and the deck, looking at the deck.  The farmers were laughing paragraphs ago (or maybe just shaking their heads in disbelief) but I quickly realized: Hay is not Straw and Straw is not Hay.  I realized not only had I NOT given the boy goats any food, but I’d also not thrown fresh hay into the manger for the girls either!  In all the frustration of milking, I’d forgotten this completely.  So first thing, I headed to see the boys who were out of their shed and watching my approach.  Frederick was super lovey, rubbing his head on the fence.  I grabbed the bags of straw, still full, though it was obvious they’d tried it…  Goats will eat almost anything but apparently they have to be real hungry to eat straw!  I threw the straw into the girls bedding area and filled the bags quickly.  I noticed thankfully there was still hay in the manger so felt a bit less guilty.  I had ducked into the chicken coop to see if they were OK (since we hadn’t checked on them at all the night before and grabbed the one egg – they are a bunch of freeloaders – and tucked it into the egg carton I’d brought from the house). Frederick was so happy to see me coming with the hay bags and, I dumped the egg carton into the 5 gallon feed bucket as I tucked inside the pen to break up and re-fill the water.  Frederick and I head butted each other and I gave both boys apologies and love.

I left the pen and looked down realizing the egg carton was gone. What happened?  Well, it was either Hunter or Gracie (Jake wouldn’t do that) who had stolen my egg carton.  I found the carton but no egg.  I yelled at the dogs, then threw the rest of the hay in to the girls and went to reload the wheelbarrow.  I threw a bit more hay and then looking at the pen area in the light of day realized I could close all the other goats into the feed side of the pen and isolate one milker.  I could do this myself!  I pulled Milkshake into the shed side and closed off the gate.  I didn’t know until later but Danny was now up and watching this unfold through the living room window.  What he saw, that I didn’t, as I walked toward the shed, was the goats behind me already sticking their heads through the gate figuring a way to come after the grain.  Sure enough, by the time I got into the shed and turned around to encourage Milkshake to get up on the stanchion, here’s a baby goat staring at me through the door.  Luckily Dan had gotten his boots on and was heading out to help.

I was in fact able to do it the milking myself with Dan holding the gate closed keeping all the herd out of my hair.  Now they were biting his pants!  [We initially tried it the other way with one milker on the manger side of the pen (since all the goats were now ahead of me and would not leave the shed side…), but that was just not going to work and it’s just another long and unsuccessful story.]  So, while I thought chores would be shorter, in fact, they were just as long or longer than the previous evening.  At least I felt like I had gotten more milk from the girls giving them a real milking and relief.

Milking 2-6-16

I was near exhaustion after another hard fought battle of chores.  But I was also feeling like a champ when I had almost two whole quarts of milk filtered.  We made GF pancakes and then I made some goat cheese with the fridge full of milk from the previous week.

Cheese making 2016

This was a fun process and new for me but the recipe was simple: Heat the milk to 150° then add some vinegar and let it sit for an hour.  Then, put the whole shebang through the cheese cloth, and you have cheese!!  It was pretty exciting to make my first goat cheese knowing I’d been a part of the whole process of making it.  I made three types: simple chives with salt, garlic, and red & white pepper w/parsley, turmeric and white pepper.  And later that evening we found it to be pretty tasty!
Goat Cheese 2-6-2016

But first we were heading out to meet our friends Megan and Ryan for dinner.  They’d also done goat sitting for Sara and Paul and my first question was going to be, “How do you milk the goats?”  I just knew I was missing something but could not for my life figure out what.  Sara couldn’t possibly spend two hours twice a day taking care of this farm.  In order to save some time with evening chores in the dark, we put the ducks away in the greenhouse getting them all set for food and water, made sure the horses were good, I even through them some fresh hay (though they had some remaining, I figured we’d make that hay last).  [I think I was just so excited about hay that I wanted everyone to have some!]  I also refilled the boy goats’ hay bags (with hay this time!) and set them aside so all we had to do was hang them later in the dark.

At the Becida Bar (best place in town for food! – you will only get this joke if you know how big Becida is – it’s the only place in town), we met with Megan and Ryan and I asked my question.  Ryan says, “Well, you have the grain and the milk bucket and you put the grain in first.”  I stopped him and said, “No, start from the beginning, how do you get the milking goat isolated and keep the other goats from interfering?”  He says, “Well, you let the milking goat out of the pen and she runs right to the milking trailer, but you definitely want to have the grain in there before you let her out.”  I am dumbfounded.  “Milking Trailer?!?” I say, “Are you fucking kidding me?” (Quote marks mean I have to say what I really said.) “Where is that?”  Turns out, that horse trailer in the middle of the animal area?  It’s a milking trailer!!  I text Sara, “So, Megan says you have a milking trailer.”  Now the text she sent Friday night makes perfect sense.  In reply to my asking her, in the midst of figuring out the process, “What is the trick to get Milkshake up for milking?” She replied simply, “Grain”  Yeah, like I wasn’t trying that!  And now it made perfect sense to her how insane I must have been.  Trying to convince the goats to do something that was now foreign to them and actually succeeding in getting the milking done (though wanting to almost kill the goats in the process (especially the one that kept biting my ass)) was a real miracle.  [I did take some pride in being able to get all this done the hard way.  And I was able to inform Ryan of the proper technique for accessing the male goat pen which had to date eluded him.]

As much as I was so ticked at Danny and I having struggled for so long the previous 24 hours, I was greatly relieved for the evening’s chore round.  By doing a lot of pre-work and knowing we could try the milking station, I was sure we’d be well under the average chore time of more than 2 hours.  Indeed we were. We were done with everything in less than 45 minutes.  Since I could handily milk each lady in peace all by myself, Dan was free to handle all the other work.  I milked each girl completely and was so happy to have had an easy time of it.  The next morning I was able to allow Dan to sleep in and did all the chores solo.  I was lucky that it was warm enough that the water just needed refills as ice had not formed.  I can’t recall how long it took but under an hour for sure.  I even refilled the hay wheelbarrow so the folks relieving us for Sunday night would be all set.

So was it all worth it?  Yes!  Sara left a nice gift bag for Dan and me and we got lots of love from the animals.  The best moments were with Lucky,  After I’d thrown hay for the horses Saturday morning, he came running up to me and so I went to pick him up and he jumped up on my shoulder wrapping around my neck and snuggling against my head, purring like crazy.  He rode around on my shoulders all around the house as I walked to the bedroom window to show Danny and around the deck area and up to the back door.  Lucky did this shoulder trick a few more times and every time it was wonderful.  Then, this morning, I found him lying on the bed all stretched out and I laid down by him and put my head to his.  He snuggled with me, putting him paws up on my hands and arms as I pet him and then he licked my face like it was a big ice cream cone!  He also jumped into bed with us in the mornings when he came in from outside and snuggled a bunch.  So, yeah, I learned a TON of stuff, realized how much I don’t know, and had a bunch of fun.  I’ll sign up again in a heartbeat.

Lucky 1

Oh, anticipating the question most will ask…  There are 4 horses, 29 ducks, 1 rabbit, 8 goats, 20 chickens, 3 dogs, 2 fish, and 1 cat.

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Another week in the life

01 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by JamiG4 in Book Review

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bernie, communication, Death, Freedom


As I contemplate this week’s blog, I look forward to the last week of happenings and the next week of activity.  It’s been an emotional week with discussions at the Civil Rights movie, concerns expressed in Jay Sieling’s Senior College teachings on The Internet of Things and the political discussions.  And the coming week hints no end to the possibility for emotion.

Dying to Talk!  Feb 7/21 & Mar 6/20 @ 6:30 PM at the Nest in AAHS

Our 4-session discussion group Dying to Talk! begins again this week.  I will help facilitate people through discussions of end-of-life concerns such as facing terminal illness, POLST forms, determining ideals for the aging process, dealing with aging parents, death with dignity, and designing your own funeral.  We will learn from each other as we share experiences, ponder aloud on ideas and work our way through understanding a process through which we will all walk.  I hope I provide some good fodder for the discussion and I’m excited about the group that will be participating.

Civil Rights Struggle   Loving Story  Feb 4 @ 6 PM Grand Arbor

We watch the final film in the series (postponed due to weather last week, so I don’t want to hear any crowing about how amazingly adept us Minnesotans are with regards to weather) The Loving Story billed as a “heartwarming story of Mildred and Richard Loving, an interracial couple who married in 1958 despite Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws”.  http://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-loving-story  I adore that their name is so perfect for their story!  But again, as with the other films in the series, it will bring up details in a story to which most Americans have never been exposed and one that some today still wish had never happened.  It is making us face the racism inside each of us and I’m enjoying the discussions with all those who come to share. 

Reading for the week

Lots of books in the agenda at present:

  • Ordinary Grace – the Community Read and William Kent Krueger will be here the 9th.  As I read, I have the strange feeling I read this book before… it happens.
  • Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer – Have to at least get the first two sections read for the Non-Fiction Book Club this Sunday at Cherry Street Books – 6:30 if you want to join us!
  • Socialism, Seriously by Danny Katch – I’m about halfway through this but it’s been in progress for months (I am always reading so many books that some get finished in hours while others languish on the pile).  It’s really making good points about the nature of capitalism and socialism.
  • Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson – A new ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) of a book on the idea of 4 students from Berkeley heading to Braggsville to intervene on the Civil War reenactment rebranded “Patriot Days”.
  • Felicity – This book of poems by Mary Oliver will be relished this week as we move closer to Valentine’s Day.
  • The Essential Bernie Sanders by Jonathan Tasini – This will take a few weeks to process but I figure I better get more up to speed on my candidate.
  • The Wonder of All Things by Jason Mott – the opening of this ARC includes the crashing airplane of the town hero and it’s drawn me in already.
  • When Things Fall Apart by Pemo Chodron – It’s been on the pile for weeks but may get cracked this week if time allows.
  • Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande – Should finish this one this week for sure.

Is this too much to expect?  We’ll see!!

I read a book this past weekend called “George” by Alex Gino about a young child named George who has been born with the body of a boy but feels like a girl.  It’s geared for 8-12 year-old kids and is written in a clever story addressing the feelings and circumstances of this experience.  I hope it will help kids and families who are dealing with this issue which I personally find difficult to understand.  While I don’t completely comprehend feelings of this sort, I struggle to find comprehension.  I sent a long note to the author and then had a discussion about the topic with my son and his girlfriend which brought even more food for thought on this issue.  The idea of gender is getting much attention of late and our ideas about gender are changing.  Homosexuality is more accepted than ever, women and men both are breaking stereotypical gender roles in the workplace and at home, and I find myself ever more frequently asking if the person I am seeing is a boy or girl.  But the question I believe I should be asking is, “Why does it matter?”  I think one reason it does is in respecting the person for their preference in how to be addressed.  I found great insight in this blog regarding the singular “they” by the author: http://www.alexgino.com/blog/ And for those who don’t believe they can be singular, did you just read past, without noticing, my use of it a couple sentences back?  I think there is opportunity for much discussion if I can only find a group of grammar-nazis like me.

Having just checked Urban Dictionary for the details they have on the use of the term grammar nazi (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Grammar+Nazi) I’m now a bit worried about the trail I have left in the Interwebs…  Jay’s class these past few weeks on all things Internet was interesting but created an increased paranoia of how much information the Interwebs now has on me!  It also prompted me to update some passwords, adding length and symbols to them which really increases the probability of security… from what?  Who knows?  But it made me feel a little more cozy.  If you want to check your password’s strength, check it out here: https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm  Though in talks with my son last night about rainbow tables, now I’m not so sure again…

I should probably go back to worrying about my tooth which may need to be replaced with an implant.  Cha-Ching!  Thankfully we have dental coverage.  Which many Americans still don’t.  Which brings me to a plug for Bernie:

Healthcare costs - Bernie Medicare for all

And the big news for this week, the Iowa Caucus!  It will be interesting to see how things turn out… on both sides.

Dan and I will end the week goat sitting for our friends in Becida.  It will be good to get north to the Harn again and maybe we’ll even get over to Itasca State Park which this year will celebrate 125 years.  Hope that you have a wonderful week full of fun too!

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