Rainy Days and Mondays

It has finally stopped raining here, and I can tend to the peanuts.

Turns out that those birds that Hooter brought us had a Coccidia infestation. They looked fine when he arrived with them, but when I found two of my adult birds dead, and then say the diarrhea of one of the surviving Hooter's, I knew what it was. Great! It is being taken care of with my one remaining bird. And the 6 adult birds that where given to us Saturday night by my B-I-L should be ok.

My three boys are indeed still in the public school system. I was going to homeschool, but it just didn't happen, for various reasons, as fast as I wanted it to. Small has a problem. He has had most of his vaccinations. I had waited until he was older to get them, rather getting them in those early early days. I don't have a problem with vaccines. I think they are handy, and I have indeed done all my research, and know all the pro's and cons. This was a personal decision for my family. I had thought he had received all the shots required for the Stat of Kansas for attending school, I was wrong. He is missing 3 shots. Ok, no problem I will get them. I headed over to the Health departments website to see how much they cost. 2 of the shots needed are $20 a piece (a little less actually). That's do-able. However the Chicken Pox vaccine which is now required, and 2 of them to boot, is almost $100. That I can't afford. So as of tomorrow, Small will be suspended from school because of his lack of one (and IMO, ridiculous) shot. I could spout religious reasons for not getting the vaccines, but that would be untrue, not to mention suspicious as he has all his other shots. I don't know yet if he will be allowed to go back to school this term after he gets the shot past the State's deadline. So I will be homeschooling just him. It is only Kindergarten after all. My mother called me and informed me that she found homeschooling books in my price range, a whole bunch cheaper than this one shot. Edit; I just spoke with the school nurse. I so LOVE small towns. She said that if I can't get the Health department to reduce the price, that she would find a way to come up with the money. I know this problem seems like nothing to many f you, but it is a big deal for me and mine.

Speaking of my mother, her husband (my stepfather) has just been diagnosed with something called Drift. (I think that's what she called it) It is super rare. You know those shin splints some people get? My stepfather is getting them, but on his spine. It is degenerative, and he will be in a wheel chair in the future. Don't know yet how soon, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Our propane dealer showed up the other day, and even though we have yet to pay off our bill from the beginning of the year, he went a head and gave us 250 gallons of the stuff. I thanked him and almost cried. We chatted a bit as the tank was filling. I told him that we are bringing in over $1,000 less per month than we were a year ago, and that's why we were having so many problems. For us, this amount of money loss is a huge deal. We have tried to make it up in different ways, but there has been some issues. It's been stressful. We spent our retirement money on the cattle, banking in them to replace some of the money, if not more or all. Now my husband has actually began talking about selling them. This is super hard on him. He has been yelling at me. He has never done that before. The stress of losing everything we have worked so hard for is catching up to him. And I am scared that our relationship won't make it through this. But I am trying. I realize that he is just venting at me, but it still hurts. And without me having an outside job, he finds it easier to jump on me. It isn't like I haven't tried to get an outside job. But they are not out there. Aircraft engineers are taking the fast food jobs, what chance have I with all the requirements a job must have for me to accept it. The biggest one is third shift. Blah! What am I doing? This wasn't what I was going to talk about. Apologise all around.

What I was going to say is, talk to me. Got something you ant to ask, need a recipe? Ask away.

Local School District Wants You to Snitch

Not too sure what to make of this, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't have a scanner, so I am writing this out verbatim.


Dear Parent/Guardian.

We are asking for your help. In an attempt to better provide quality educational services to all students of USD 262 we would like to connect with those parents/guardians that live within our school district boundaries whose children do not attend our schools.

Our goal is to connect with these parents and provide them information about our school district as well as answer any questions they might have.

We need your help with identifying these patrons so we may contact them with a letter. Would you please use the space below to write down the names and address of your neighbors that have school aged children that do not attend USD 262 and then return this list by September 11. You can return this information with your child (only 1 per household) or use the drop box at the district office located at 132 S. Park Street.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Scott Springston
Superintendent of Schools

*********************

Then there is three spaces for snitching out your neighbors with. Should we be concerned about this? In the State of Kansas you have to register with the State if you are homeschooling. They should already have a list. And if these people want to have their children attend this school district, then they would have registered their kids their. People choose what school if any they want for their family. This just doesn't seem quite right to me.

Not a Profit

We did a little garden prepping yesterday. The garden will not be as big as it was last year, due to the fact that I won't be here to tend it. The ground at the farmstead hasn't been worked. Ad will take this summer and the winter to get the grass problem under control. My husband will tend the garden here, while I build a house and other things needed on the farmstead. He will bring ready to can produce up on the weekends when he comes to visit.

I was chatting with the neighbor across the way. The one that can't make up her mind if she wants to be in the country or the city, and is raiding sheep for butcher sales. She informed me that she now wants to get into Dairy cows. I must say that this caught me off guard, and I was speechless. I know! Can you believe that one? I did manage to say something. I asked her if she realized how much more work Dairy cattle were compared to sheep. She said yes. I asked her if she realized that she had to milk them everyday. (she wants me to milk her goats for her) she said that she was going to pay someone that knew how to do it. At that point I didn't know what else to say. I guess I should say good for her. But my gut says, she trying to step on my toes. I know I shouldn't feel that way. I should be happy that she wants to do these things. I feel bad that my mind went to that bad place, but I live and work out here, she is only out on the weekends to check her birds and sheep. And the lack of work ethics, and the caviler way she treats animals as profit bothers me. I know, I know, get over it. Competition never hurt anyone, but I already have decent competition so that doesn't bother me in the least.

Jack and Betty, the baby goats, are super active. They are official into everything and have tested every single fence on the property. Their horns are coming in, and they are the chubbiest dairy goats I have ever seen. Spoiled little buggers.

Murrial and Courage are doing well. Courage has her full run on, her little tail curls up as she books across the field. Unlike the Dexters, she isn't afraid to be more than a couple steps away from mommy, but she is starting to shy away from me. I expected that, but they come around again. The youngest Dexter heifer, Urth, seems to be suffering from OCD. My brother and I were stand out in the field talking, and she walks up and starts licking me, and didn't stop. She managed to take of several layers of skin. Those that have been licked by a cow can tell you about that. Their tongues are rough like a cat's tongue, an huge! It isn't like a sweet dog kiss. Yesterday Urth manged to corner my husband and began the licking process with him. She has a mineral block, but she wants to lick us. I guess she is just a big sweety.

Donkey the sheep is due for shearing soon. Right now he is a big ball of fluff, with legs. Sammy (horse) has accepted him as a companion. Poor Donkey, his legs can barley keep up with Sammy's stride. I have a feeling that once on the farmstead, I will be riding Sammy, with a desperate Donkey running behind us, everywhere.

I talked with Medium and Large yesterday about homeschooling. They are both for it. Medium however made it clear that we would be going to the library. I said yes, that we would. I thought we could make a day of going into town. There are several historic towns in the area, we can do the museums and go up into the oldest jail in the State, things like that. They both seem thrilled about it. I know Large has issues with school mates, and will be glad to get away from that.

With us headed into gardening season, is there anything you want to know about?

Busy busy

I have always heard that Kansas was great about Homeschooling. I just went and read CHECK, there is nothing in the State Laws about Homeschooling. I have to declare my home a private school. But there is no State fees for registering. And there isn't mandatory testing required. It is all rather interesting.

I looked up some of the things you were suggesting.

Sonlight seems promising

And I guess I need to find a copy of Wisdom's Way of Learning.

I am unable to find a homeschooling group for the area we will be living. Which truthfully doesn't surprise me. More than likely I am going to have to approach them myself once out there.

In other news.

My Step-father has had a headache for a full week. Not a migraine. He went into the Dr. office and they discovered an infection under his skin on his head. He was given meds and was told that if the headache wasn't gone by today, they were going to do a CT. I am worried, as of yesterday he still had this headache.

We went to our friend Hooter's house yesterday. My husband worked a bit more on his motorcycle. While the boys and I helped Hooter with my Husband's motorcycle's paint job. Can't wait to show you guys what it looks like. Then the boys got to paint our giant mailbox.

Late spring gardening season is rapidly approaching. Our last frost date is April 28th (zone 5 and sometimes 6). Are you ready?

I'd say she was a home schooled cow

First I want to say thank you to Be A Survivor. He was some very loyal readers. Yesterday he made a short post which included my blog, and it seems like all his readers paid me a visit. Welcome Readers!

Now is a good time as any, since it is slow here and all that. I need my readers help. Some of you just got your wish.

I will be homeschooling next year.

I can hear the gasp, the applause, and you, stop shaking your head. I am still uneasy about it. But I did have to take my kids into consideration. It is a 2 hour bus ride one way to school every day. A 45 minute ride by car. That is a huge chunk of time to be riding around, and being off property. The boys would have to be up by 4 am, down the 1/2 mile driveway and waiting for the bus by 5 am. There is another family down the road, maybe a little less than 2 miles if you add in the drive way, that home schooled. (Mom asked me how I know that, It was a Monday afternoon and there where 5 kids of all different ages running around the yard) Plus most of our neighbors home school as well, the Mennonites out there do. I think it is only the ranchers that send their kids off, if I remember correctly.

So here is your chance to fill me full of info about homeschooling. Just please, no super derogatory remarks about the public school system or people that place their kids in public schools. Every one has a different experiences with them. I really like the school system here, and the boys school out there is one of the best in the country. Thank you.

We are now officially on Calf watch '09. Murrial's due date is the 17th. Even my husband's boss (who hasn't seen Murrial) is excited. She says she feels like an aunt or something. It is always cause for great celebration around here when a wee one comes into the world. Hope you guys are prepared for all the baby photos that will be flying around here. And all the gratuitous udder shots as Murrial gets her first ever human milking!

Guess some background is quickly need for the new readers. Murrial is our newest milking cow. She is an American Milking short horn. At 4 years old, she was a breeder, and never handled by people. Click the tag cattle and dairy and you will get all the sorted stories about her and my Long Legged Kerries (aka Dexters)