Sometimes you have a few days that are pretty durn tough. I mean “slap you in the face, make you stumble, prolly even bring a few hot tears of frustration to your weary eyes” kind of tough days. . . I was having a few of those last week. Had plans for the weekend to go exploring and we get in the car and we have NO brakes. Well, just stomp all the way to floorboard and kinda drift to a stop sort of brakes. The ones that make you immediately think… master cylinder.

Why is it called the Master Cylinder? Are there slave cylinders? Or any other cylinders at all? Sounds little pompous to me. Haha. But I digress.

Tough days.

Everyone has them, no one is immune. Days that just don’t seem to go the way you planned, or even imagined or hoped. Just sort of days that you’d really like to go and get back in bed and reset the day. Don’t you wish you could do that?

And it was just raining and raining and raining. And cold. Very cold. Hard to work in a house with no heat sort of cold. I listened to the sump pump kick on every 6 seconds. Yeah. Kind of hard to sleep when you are counting the time between the pump cycles. And thinking that if you lost power… AGAIN… that basement is gonna be pretty darn wet. Sure, it would be nice if I could just peel off a couple hundred for a battery backup. Sure, no problem. But it stayed running fine. And the hail storm only made us loose power for a few minutes, so it’s okay.

This is not the first home I’ve been involved with, so I’m fairly okay with houses being money traps if you let them. I think the real secret is not to panic. And not to rush to things in the middle of the night and such, if you can help it. Turning off the water for a few hours to wait for day rates for a plumber are much better than calling at 2 am for emergency rates. Nearly most things can wait till the light of the day. Okay, a basement filling with water? Time to get that little pump outta the shed! haha… But again, thankfully, it was only the internet that got taken down.

But again, I digress. I don’t need to go into all the details because they are all just little things and getting resolved but still, sometimes in life, when it rains, it pours and days can get ugly fast when that happen. And it’s easy to start feeling the heavy weight on your shoulders when you’re a single mom. Or I suppose a single dad.

Sometimes the thing I miss the most about being married, was being a team. It was US, not ME when it comes to so many things… especially tough days. I have my dear daughters, and yes, they are getting old enough to help shoulder a little of the burden, but still, as a Mom, you don’t want that for your children, ever. You want to be super mom and standing tall through thick and thin, stalwart as the sunrise and strong as hard granite. But with a spouse, or a partner, you can be weak when they are strong, support each other through the whole job. I used to think of a good marriage as a team of big tough Belgian drafthorses. When they plow, there’s a term called “being in the ditch”. One horse is always in the ditch, in the just plowed soft dirt. It’s much harder to pull in the soft turned up dirt. And the one on the hard turf above, he will pull a little harder to make it easier for his ditched mate. And when they wheel around, the roles reverse. The other horse is now “in the ditch”.

Seems to me that’s a fair way to deal with life in general with your mates. Whether they are married to you or good friends, business partners or just your BFF… you pull harder when they can’t. Because you know, in a good matched team, they will do the same for you when you need it.

So some times, on these tough days, when I think I’m all alone… something comes to me and says, no… you’re not. And the odd thing? On my worse day, my day of most worry, waiting on the car and such… the 15th… I had over 1,027 readers on this dorky little blog about a crazy unconventional gal trying to make a homestead for her two kids. Yeah. A thousand people. It completely overwhelms me. And all the comments… I may not get to responding to them all as they come in, but I do read everyone and I just thank God for all the people who took a little time to write to me about something I just put out there and thought I’d share. It’s so wonderful and it makes me just smile so deeply, I’m pretty sure if I keep it up, my face will stick that way for a good 3 or 4 hours.

And sometimes I’ll go and look at the stats. To be honest, I haven’t thought to do it for a good month or more and I was just so surprised… my average daily readership the last month or so is well over 500 a day! Shesh! Crazy! Super fun!

And I get to see some of the super nice things that people say about me on their blogs and websites… I found this and I had to show the girls… haha… it was so nice… and I just love her blog… go and take a look!

http://corninmycoffee-pot.blogspot.com/2011/05/homesteader-me.html

Well, I will report that most of the issues are slowly resolving… and the weekend is supposed to be nice and warm and GOSH DARN IT I AM GETTING MY CHICKENS THIS WEEKEND OR I”M GONNA HAVE A KANIPTION FIT!!!

Honest. It’s not going to be pretty, either, so you might want to skip a post or two if things get ugly.

I want my training chickens. I have everything ready for them. Well, Maggie and I have to make them a roost and a couple nest boxes tomorrow, but other than that, I’m ready. Really Ready. LIke ready for the last 3 or 4 years ready.

Took Blue over to Scott’s house, our new mechanic and drywaller… (yeah, everyone out here likes to wear a few hats… it’s a rural thing.) Had a lovely visit while he worked on the brake line that was rusted out and leaking. He tried to sell me a little old organ in his garage. I had to pass. I’m holding out for my baby grand off Craig’s List. Problem was, once he got the long length under the main body all replaced and snug, and then bled the system a bit and got it ready to test, he found it was leaking up near the back wheel!!!! Agh! Durn it. And it was 3 minutes after closing for the only auto parts store within 30 miles. (Another rural thing… not many places stay open past 6 unless they are like a pizza place or a quickymart…) So I have to go back tomorrow. Not a huge thing at all, because it’s better, just not perfect. We filled it up good and he gave me an extra bottle of fluid to fill her up again tomorrow before I come back. She drove better, but still kind of mushy and weird.

He did a good go over her and she’s pretty sound. Changed out a burnt out blinker bulb. Filled up her water, she was a bit low. Was concerned that she has a little dribble leak in the front that might be a coolant hose, and he’s going to check that again tomorrow. It was hard to tell if it was or not because it’s been raining for oh, 24 days straight and everything is dribbling of late. I feel a lot better knowing that someone straight up and honest is keeping an eye on the old wagon for me. With Gunnar down, Blue has to keep us in touch with civilization. And of course, drive me to the Hillsdale Livestock and Junk Auction on Saturday so I don’t have a fit. Haha.

And don’t tell anyone…. but he thinks the problem with Gunnar is a $34 transmission shifting module. Of course, it’s in a really tight spot and will be a bit of a bear to replace along with the broken transmission mount… but he says if I buy it and pay him a fair price, he’ll change it out and I only got to pay him if it fixes the problem.

I am a gambling lady, so of course, I’m going to take him up on it. Getting it to Larry in Akron is going to cost me over $300. And this fix is less. And if it works, I’m back in the two car business. And if not, I’m only out $34. Sounds like a good deal. He’s going to come get my lawn ornament sometime end of the week. Let’s all think good thoughts, eh? Thanks! (gg)

Okay, I’m rambling… getting late, need to get to bed. It’s been one of those wonky days. Although I did limp home and saw that Maggie had mowed the whole east yard and front and west pasture!!! With a just little walk behind mower. It looked so beautiful in the early evening sunlight. Like a golf course! Such a rich lush green and thick. I can’t WAIT to get that poor child a riding mower. She’s been mowing now every single day. One area at a time as soon as it’s dry enough to try and get a quick cut in. We found an awesome riding mower on Craigslist this morning, but the fellow has not called or emailed us back! Darn! We’ll keep at it. Soon… soooooooon. Her dream wheels are out there. It will happen.

Oh… and Topaz almost caught a mouse! In the house! Through a hole! She’s a toughie for sure! I was so surprised… I heard a little noise and looked over just in time to see her dart her little paw through this little knothole in the wall, in my office. (It used to be an outside porch, so I’m not surprised… and she pulls half way through a little field mousie! Squeeking, I think it bit her paw and she left go and it booked. Topaz was QUITE proud of herself and sat there for about 2 hours waiting for another chance but I think it’s safe to assume that the mousie emergency alert system is in full effect and she won’t have another chance.

And Jack got himself beat up by the field kitty we saw a few weeks ago. A little orange tiger kitty. Jessy heard a little ruckus outside the screen porch and went to investigate. She got there in time to see Jack getting the stuffing beat of him with some little kitty and he was running back into Jessy’s protective arms like a little greased rocket. Since someone decided to take his little front claws out, he’s a little prone to being the picked on one of any kitty gathering. Heck, Evee even likes to taunt him. She likes the Non-Sharp Kitty… as we like to call him. She will get right in his face and Jack will smack her like a drunk prizefighter while Even just takes it with a smirk. FInally Jack will grab her around the neck and try a vampire move on her neck. Which usually lands squarely on her collar and she trots off laughing at the poor kitty boy.

Poor Jack.

Well, soon he’ll have some chickens that will probably treat him easily without much respect. Should be interesting! I’m sure to have pictures!

Well, good night and thanks to everyone for dropping in and checking on us gals here at Windhaven. We really do appreciate it. It’s just nice. Makes me feel a little better on those rough days.

Night!

Sherri

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