They come and they go...

Ali is gone. School starts Tuesday, so Mommy wanted her home to get things ready. It seems strange without her here. It was really nice having someone so young around for a change. She had a fundraiser for her new soccer team to attend Saturday. Daddy came to pick her up at the same time that MIL arrived back home.

MIL had been in the nursing home for almost a month. By the time she left, she could lift herself out of her wheelchair! She could also take a couple of steps to get from the bed to the chair. She got home around lunch time Saturday. That evening, after dinner, FIL wheeled her back to their bedroom. Hubby heard her tell FIL, "You'll have to get me up. My legs aren't working tonight." Yes, all the effort spent in the nursing home to help her be more self-sufficient was gone less than six hours after she arrived back home.

If she doesn't use her legs, it's just a matter of time before she will lose the ability to stand on her own. Then, we'll right back to square one...

Chick Update...

Some of you have been following the story of our baby chicks since day one. Well, actually it was day two. They ship them as day-old chicks. The hatchery is less than 50 miles from here, so they arrived at our post office the next morning. This picture was taken on April 9 when we first got them...

Hubby was pleasantly surprised today when he went to feed the chicks! He wasn't expecting this for another week or so...
You've come a long way, babies!

For fans of Weathervane...

In case you are missing Rae at Weathervane, she is experiencing some problems. Read my essay's post for more info, if you're interested.

Rae at Weathervane is raving mad!

My little problem seems to be fixed. Well, at least the inability to leave comments. I had to enable third party cookies.

Now I'm upset again! A good friend (Rae at Weathervane) is locked out! It's blogger's fault for first thinking she was spamming, then making her change her password, now she can't even get to her google mail! Ever try getting HELP on blogger or google? Impossible.

I tried going through 'help' for her. It got to where I could click on something to actually write to someone! Yea! I clicked it... It took me back to a sign-in page, then back to where I started! Now I'm as frustrated as she is!

I just got another e-mail from her. They sent a new password to her... AT HER GMAIL ACCOUNT! She can't get into her gmail account! Anyway, now she has been instructed to 'halt all efforts' to log in for 24 hours and then try again. If it doesn't work then, she has to start all over.

Since we have many followers in common, Rae would like me to pass along that she is locked out for now, but will be back as soon as possible. So don't think she fell off the face of the earth... She's just stuck in the twilight zone!

Trouble in Blogville...

Seems as soon as I fix one thing, something else starts happening... I don't know what's going on now, but if someone out there has a clue how to fix it, I'm listening!

Here's my symptoms:

From my dashboard, if I click my own blogs or one I follow, they show up as though I'm not logged in. On the top right, it says, "create blog/sign in". There is no 'customize' link. I cannot leave comments on many sites. Seems the ones with a pop-up box work OK, at least so far. But the comment boxes on the post page do not. It will show me as not signed in. If I type a comment and click, it will ask me to select a profile. I'll click 'google account' then 'post comment' and it disappears, never to be seen again.

I've clicked to follow a couple of new blogs, and my profile pic shows up as a box with a red dot in the center. Weird, huh?

I left myself a couple of test comments and they worked, but I use the pop-up box. But I can't delete those test comments. If I click 'sign in' it takes me back to my dashboard. Yet, when I click out of the dashboard, I'm back to not seeming to be signed in... I'm caught in a vicious cycle!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm using Firefox browser on a Vista PC.

My 100th Goat, er,.. I mean post!

Actually, this is my 231st post, if you count all 3 blogs... but who's counting?

I've been meaning to post some pics of the goats for a while now. This morning I saw a cute goat photo on another blog, and it prompted me to grab the camera before the rain came. As usual, the goats were not very cooperative for the camera. They are sweet and loving, but they never stand still for photos!

When I uploaded the pics, I noticed this was my 100th post. So I decided to add a couple of extra photos to the post...

Below is an aerial photo of our farm, taken for county records in 2003. I labeled it so you would have a reference now when you read about the front pasture, etc. The property lines are marked in yellow. We own 2 tracts; one mostly open field, the other woods. The small area in the lower right labeled 'leased' is what I call the side pasture. We lease it for $1 a year. It's a little hard to see, but the red 'X' marks where our house now stands. The V drive now circles around, and in the center of it is the round pen. We built the barn first, then the house. We moved in on Hubby's birthday in December of 2003.

This is the way our farm will look some day... The photo was taken last fall. I embellished it just a tad. The pine trees on the right are much smaller and the front garden isn't finished yet. I erased all the parked stuff and greened up the front lawn. I had to finish 'building' the hen house, as Hubby didn't even have it under roof for this pic. Do you like the added touch of the white 'horse' fence? OK, maybe I'm dreaming there. It will probably remain the white electric rope that stands there now.

So there. My 100th post featured the entire farm. I thought that was appropriate. Now on to my intended post.

Introducing my other herd... the goats. Elvis has left the building, but he's now in my pasture. He had that name when we acquired him. He is much older than the others. Notice the nice beard.
Next is our only girl, Nanny. Real goat people think it's a sin to name a girl goat Nanny. Oh well. She's a real sweetie. Funny thing is, she also has a beard! The other two boys are the same age and they don't! Must be the water...
Mr. Universe... We call him Oreo. When he was a baby he had a big 'O' on his belly. Now it's grown into a 'C'. He has curly hair, and in the summer when it gets its reddish tint, he it absolutely gorgeous! He is also the leader of the herd, and the most brave.
Last, but certainly not least, is Derby. I call him my lover boy. He doesn't know when to stop eating, so he's a little chubby. He loves kisses and affection. Definitely my favorite! I named him Derby because of his white markings. When he was a baby, it looked like he was wearing an English saddle. Now that he's full grown, you'll just have to use your imagination.

We had two other goats that passed away last year. Biscuit was the runt of the litter, and silly Willie was the comic. It broke my heart when Willie died. He had the most comical personality. I miss how he made me laugh.

Our goats are Nubians, a large dairy breed. We don't breed Nanny, so we don't have milk. They work on keeping the woods cleared out, and have well earned their keep! They follow us whenever we take walks through the woods, and come running when I call them. They are not the smartest creatures God put on this earth, but they are certainly among the sweetest!