REI Trips

My brother got to select one of the REI guided trips as a graduation present. (Limited to the United States) Someday we will go on one of the foreign ones. My brother took my dad, and they went to Half Dome Yosemite. It looked amazing. They hiked for three days, and have the most amazing photos.

I just think spenting individual time with your children is so important. John is moving to Sacramento, and attending Sacramento State in just a few days. It was such a wonderful thing that they got to have an amazing adventure together before he headed out into the world.

Will is 26!

This past weekend was Will’s birthday. I love Will’s birthdays. I don’t know what it is about celebrate his birthday particularly, but I would guess I just like him being celebrated. Will went to the Rubicon in Sacramento, then to Rick’s Desert Diner, and then around midnight you could find us in Ink. It was quite a bit of fun.

I have been made aware that our license plate light has gone out. I got pulled over for it. Well, really I got pulled over so she could preform a sobriety test, but needed an excuse. I know it, and she said it. I passed. Of course. I mean I was the DD. The worst part was she made follow her finger with my eyes, but half the time she beyond my peripheral sight. Oh well. Other than that I had a great time.

Doesn’t Will look happy?

Scott, Becca, Andrea, Brett, My Dad, My Mom

Rico and Londa

My Brother John and Madison

Jeff and Amelie

I am pretty sure Will was more worried about his wings.

Andrea has no idea I am taking a picture

This time she knows.

Me, Becca, and Andrea

Amelie, Jeff, and Spencer

My brother John, Madison, oh and Greg at the right.

Us at Rick’s

Amelie enjoys some American Cherry Pie, and Jeff has his milk.

New Sister-in-law

My newest sister-in-law is finally here! Will’s brother, Jeff, got married in Germany to a fantastic girl named Amelie. I am just so excited to have them both in the States. Jeff has been in Germany for the past year and we have missed him so very much.

I was lucky enough to drive down with my mother-in-law, Londa, to pick them up from SFO.They were so tired when we got them. Over twenty hours of traveling and they were finally done.

Thorns

Apparently, I have been poked and scratched so much by the thorns of our blackberries that I don’t even notice when one breaks off in my foot. My very own foot! There I am showering from a day around the someday micro farm, and when I scrub the bottom of my foot only to feel a bump. I flip it over to see an half inch (LARGE) blackberry thorn embedded in my foot, big toe to be exact. I, of course, pull it out. Seriously people, I had no idea it was even there.

And what is scarier. This isn’t the first time.

Delivery

The delivery truck has become quite the treat. Yesterday it brought our kitchen faucets, and the master bathroom’s faucets and vessels. They are beyond nice. I purchased them off Overstock.com, which I have used in the past. Fantastic! The came quickly and I can’t even tell you how excited I feel. Okay, maybe I can tell you.

I had some concern about the quality. I figured we were getting a good deal, too good, but I expected decent product. Just not an amazing product. I was wrong. The kitchen faucet and pot filler (oh yes, a pot filler I am officially a kitchen snob) were gorgeous and much heavier than imagined.That brings us to the amazing bathroom sinks. I think they are just the coolest thing. Yes, I said coolest. I was a teen in the 90s, so bite me. I am just going to direct you the photo, because I would just confuse the beauty.

Waterfall Vessel with Faucet

Kitchen Faucet

Kitchen Pot Filler

So Many Desicions

I like to have givens when designing something. Something that has to be there, or look a specific way. Maybe it a wall, or chair, perhaps a logo. Anything really. It gives me somewhere to start, and bases to work from. Especially a new house that you personal drew the blueprints for, there are no givens. After a year of starting from scratch I am tired. But I can see the light at the end, hopefully its not a train.

I am working on getting the house plans, and sketches on the blog. I sketch by hand. Its faster, and easier, mostly due to the personally build installations. We build furniture or fixtures to suit our needs better. You’ll see them soon.

Last Pieces of Siding

I quite like the look of our lap siding.  Installing it is another matter completely. The peaks are over 25 feet high, and cement board is not the easiest to put up. Cement boards, or Hardiboard as we used, is manidtory because Amador is a very high risk for fire. Many people refuse to clean the brush, and it creates a dangerous situtation for others and firefighters. So much risk that the fire department inspects everyone land and if you are not creating a defensable space you get placed on the we can’t help you list.

You see if we weren’t here a fire would run through the hills and canyon every few years, burning all the underbrush. However, we are here and we prevent fires from traveling, so then we most do as it would and clean up. It really doesn’t take that much.

Anyway, here is some pictures of our progress.

Soapy, Cold, and Bleeding

Our six baby goats each get tethered to their own cinder block in the brush. So far it works just fine. The only problem I seem to have is how unbelievably greedy the little monsters are. If I didn’t know better, I would believe they were starved. They push, scream, and scramble to any and all leaves. Then they pass out, wake up and do it again.

Today I was hooking up the last one to his block when Shadow darted behind me, and knocked me down a hill. I am fine, but I landed in a ton of poison oak. Fantastic. I run in to the trailer, cover myself in Technu, and flip on the water heater. Just as the shampoo reached my eyes, I heard it. The incredibly loud thump of the air condition shutting down. It shook the trailer and sent the carefully perched razor straight to my toe.

The worst part was that it was my fault. I know perfectly well to watch where the other animals are when working. I know not to plug in more than one major appliance (air conditioner, microwave, or water heater). And I know not perch a sharp razor on a way too small “shelf”.

I just can’t wait for the rest of the day.

Roam No More

Public Service Announcement: While going through major hormone adjustments don’t make any decision on subject you find controversial or stressful subjects.

Samson is now neutered. For the general public this is not a big deal, and I knew that we would one day neuter Samson. Actually, when I say we I mean Will. I find the whole subject stressful to say the least. I firmly believe that animals are the be respected and honored as gifts. Undo suffering or harm is unreasonable in my opinion. However, I do occasionally consume meat (added to being Kosher, I am virtually a vegetarian). I go out of my way to only consume animal products for farms that treated the animal with respect, and was killed in a swift manner. I also believe the animal needs to be an adult. I don’t even consume fertilized eggs. This is extremely important to me. I believe that what and how you eat is large portion of how you choose to live, and how you live is who you are.

I don’t know where neutering lands. On one hand, Samson wouldn’t be able to breed and a major organ is getting removed. On the other hand, having urges that he will never be allowed to act on is just mean, and roaming to find a female could easily get him killed. Plus I don’t want him to try a breed some unsuspecting guest.

This issue got pushed to the extremely last week. Samson left my side. Samson’s entire life has been next to myself or Will, and he doesn’t just leave. He was gone for about thirty minutes. The next morning he has blood dripping from his genitals. Now I am not an expert on canine genitalia but I assume dripping blood is not good. So I swoop him up, all 90 pounds, and we are off to the vet. Samson has a blood blister. Great. Oh and he is filled with sand. Wait, what?

We have a large sandy beach on our property. Samson rolls and plays in it all the time. Apparently, Samson got excited and got covered in sand. Fast forward now he is in vet, muzzled, three people holding him as a small lady vet is shooting saline solution in him, and give him the most uncomfortable and detailed bath ever. The look on his face was priceless. I am sure mine was too.

Between roaming, sand blisters, and the threat of random humping attacks, it was time. My mother made the appointment. It was all I could do to not cry. This is where the hormones could into play. I am shifting my body’s hormones to healthier levels, so a little Oller can join us safely. Which is great, but it makes my sad sadder, my mad madder, and my I seriously don’t want to do this in to a giant angry, defensive ball of I will freaking kill you, don’t even test me.

I literally felt as though they were trying to kill Samson. They were going to hack him up into little pieces and try to sell him back to me as an improved version. They were going to pull a “New Coke”, except I could never get the classic version back. I thought of plans to ran away with him. Conspiracy plots start to make sense. I was losing my mind. And the worst part of it, was I completely knew I was losing my mind. I was paralyzed to stop it. Here I was a freaking on monster binge, with the knowledge that this ridiculous.

Will sat down to make his point.

Samson is not going to come back. Either way, Samson is going to different. As a slightly calmer, maybe even depressed dog. Or as a rampaging rapist who you will have to battle and at 90+ pounds, you may not win.

This did not help me. I have never been away from Samson since he was 7 weeks old, and now no matter what decision I make, he’s gone.

Samson got dropped off at eight in the morning, and wasn’t to be picked up until four in the afternoon. That gave me the whole day to feel sick. They asked if I would like him on pain medication or not. Or not? Have you had your nads cut off? Probably not, and if you have, I going to bet you wanted pain medication. Why is this even an option? Are there that many people who are going to $150 for neutering, $20 per month for food, $200+ for vet costs every year (if they are lucky), then G*d knows how much for toys, leashes, dishes, replacement shoes….. you get the point. If you have a large breed dog you know two things, they are not cheap and you don’t want those teeth in so much pain that they are going crazy.

I race over at four, only to have the vet assistant come out and say she needs to talk to me about Samson. My heart dropped. I hope she heard it fall. She pauses for dramatic effect, “I need to go over his medication schedule.” Really, you could not just blurt that out. Thanks. The real thanks goes to the desk lady, who had the decency to step in before I laid the vet assistant out. She recommended that the assistant go and get Samson for me.

He rounded the corner, doing his signature trout impression. My love was back. I placed his green e-collar on and we were off. No more roaming and I still have my Samson.

P.S.
Do to the heat, and his inability to regulate temperature Samson had to stay with us in the trailer for three days. A tiny bit cramped.

Samson is high and excited to be in air conditioning.

Samson with his new Mr. Feet the V

Samson drugged, and trying to catch a ball in his collar.

Changes

I wish to make changes to my blog. First off, I am constrained by wordpress’s free site and would like to make the move to private hosting. I own other sites, and not having complete creative control over my blog is simply frustrating. For example, I wish to integrate my book and product reviews to this site. It really isn’t as simple as it may sound.

Having a web developer for a spouse may seem like making changes to my sites are as simple as asking. The key word is “seem”. Will’s time doubled up as it is, and my wants are a back burner, at best. Between full-time work at Blast, then freelance, and the oh so tiny task of building a house, Will is swamped. With all that said, Will has gratuitously offered to make the changes I crave. He has said that it should take no more than an hour. So in the future look for the changes.