Long day.

It's been raining here the past few days. I mean, really raining. Like a lot of rain. I am so glad to see it too. It's been so dry and I was worried I might have to start feeding hay already. And it's supposed to rain all week! I know all the grass and trees and so thankful. The sun is shining right now, but that could change in a few minutes.

I spent the day with my hubby. My Trooper broke down and I've been borrowing Mrs. T's car. Her daughter is coming this weekend, so that means she'll need the car. That means we'll need to get a tow truck out here to tow the Trooper to the transmission shop to get checked out. It broke down the day before we left for Savannah. And of course my husband had towing insurance dropped on all our vehicles. One guy wants $75. I'm waiting on another guy to call for his price. Just seems like a lot for 16 miles. And I hope it's not the whole transmission that's messed up. I drove it down the driveway and onto the road when I heard the loud scraping noise, then turned around and went back home. Last time the transmission died, it just stopped right in the road. So this makes me think it's not completely dead yet. And last time, the check transmission light was on. It's not now. So I hope we caught it before it was too far gone.

So I went with my hubby to his doctor appt. after we dropped Mrs. T's car off. That takes forever at doctor's offices. Almost 3 hours. I just don't like going. Then we had lunch.  Stopped at my mom's to get my tea I had bought yesterday and left at her house. Then I had to go back to the yarn shop to get my knitting friend to fix my baby sweater sleeve mistake. I sure wish I could figure things out myself. Then we came home. I am tired.

This is the rest of that beautiful Romney fleece I bought last year. I had washed half of it and got it spun up and I love it. I think I'll make the Barn Sweater out of this wool. It's so soft and so many pretty colors all mixed up together. I just want to sleep on this wool!

Goats are mean.

 Yes, sometimes goats can be just plain ole mean!

Look at this face. Olga is so pretty and sweet. Most of the time. But then, for no reason at all, she will ram her whole body into poor little Inga. A lot. But just look at her. She has invisible devil horns, this one.

This is Inga, in the front. With the horns. Every day, I go get some branches for them to eat. And Olga rams poor little Inga. I can put piles in 10 different spots, but Olga will go to each spot and push the little ones out of the way. They run to the next pile and here comes Olga. Goats!

Sweet little Alva. I have still not pet her. But I'm feeding Inga and Alve when I bring Olga and Freja into the milk room. So I get to be a little closer to her and talk to her. She's so sweet.

So I am really thinking about banding Inga's horns when it starts getting cooler. I've read about how to do it. I think I'm going to. Has anyone ever banded goat horns before? What was your experience? Inga is young and her horns aren't very big yet.

Last week, I started milking Freja once a day. I'm getting nearly a half gallon. That's what I was getting when milking twice a day. This way, I'll save a little on feed. I sure hope I don't have to start feeding hay yet. It's been so dry here. But it's raining as I type! And chances for rain all week! We really need rain. I have lost a few blue berry bushes.

In the fall, I plan on planting blue berry bushes down between the apple and pear trees. I'll be able to water down there now. And I want more blue berry bushes here.

Just realized we've been here at Outback Farm 11 years. The 2nd longest place we've lived. We'll be married 37 years Oct. 28th. The 1st home we lived in for 6 years. Then moved to Flintstone and lived there 17 years. Then to Ringgold for 3 years. Now here. I keep saying when I can't do this anymore, we're moving to St. Elmo, right inside Tn. I love it there. And it's right near Chattanooga, where I am several times a week.

Lots of sky pics...

                                                         The pier is to the right here.

                                               There was a bird flying across the sky in this one.

                            I love this picture so much. It was in Savannah while on the ghost tour.

                                                        See the elephant on the right? And a horse on the left?

This is one with all the chairs and umbrellas all lined up in a nice row. I would have gotten one, but they were $25 til 4:30.

Didn't realize I had taken so many pictures of the sky. But all so pretty and different.

And I keep forgetting to say that I have lost 48 pounds since I started March 7th! I only have 3 pounds to get below 200 and it seems to be taking forever!But I will get there. Then I'll have 40 more pounds to get to my goal weight of 160. When it starts getting cooler, I plan on walking and riding my bike, plus exercising some too. Just to firm up. I still hate my big arms.

But I feel fantastic and am so proud of me!!! 48 pounds is like half of my mother's weight. Geeze.

My leg is better today. I was at Mrs. T's all day, so got to keep my leg up and knit a lot. My favorite thing to do anymore. I love knitting! I just wish I could read patterns without someone telling me what to do.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

More Savannah...

 This is the house my mom, brother, sister and I lived in when I was 12-14. I loved it there. Just a few blocks from the beach and near the light house and the old fort. It was an old bakery and we had the left side. It has a huge old oak tree to the side, where we'd climb and my brother built a tree house.

This is one of the squares in Savannah. My 3 beautiful grand daughters, Kansas, Coryn and Chloe.

And this is the first house tour we went on. I cannot remember the names of the houses, sorry. But there's a gift shop at the bottom right corner of the house. That's where the tour starts. And they are leaning more towards letting people take inside pictures.

This is the 2nd house we toured. It was bought by a young single lady way back in the Great Depression. Fawlkner I think. She went on to buy several more houses in Savannah, on her own. Also owned antique stores. She was quite a lady, way back in the day.

She added this really big nice 3rd floor for her Irish servants.

I just love Savannah and all the old buildings and doors and secret places.

I took SO many pictures I won't bore y'all with. But it was really fun. And Savannah is a great place to go. I would love to go by myself once, just so I can take my time and wander the streets. It's really beautiful there. Maybe in later Fall?

So last night, after being on my feet all day yesterday, my leg was huge. And hurting pretty bad. I was just a bit scared to be honest. Thinking I might better get to a doctor in the morning. But my friend Stephanie had called and told me to get plantain leaves, crush them up, put a little honey and ACV in it, and put it on the wounds and wrap it up. So I did that last night when I got home. Kept my leg up til I went to bed. I have 2 pillows I put my leg up on in bed. This morning, it feels SO much better. I mean, I was scared and worried and cried a little. I know, I'm a big baby really. But I was just thinking of all the doctor bills and how we just really cannot afford anything extra right now. Especially with my husband just being in the hospital for 5 days last week. So I am feeling a lot better, knowing I will pull through this. I am so mad at that darn rooster. They are still locked up, til I get better and can figure out what to do.

I had to go out back to give the buck (who is not mine, he's just staying here til the guy comes to get him) some worm meds. He had horns too. Well, he almost got me right on my left leg with a horn. I should have just stopped and let the guy do it when he comes to get him, but I finally got it in him. Darn buck!

So I'm just hanging out here today. Just finished another wool hat. Going to start on a cowel or shawl next, with some of that beautiful Romney wool. Just need a pretty pattern to use. I'll look through all my Taproot magazines to see what's in them that I could use.

Y'all have a great Thursday!

Baby sweater...

I have knit this baby sweater that past few weeks. I am now at the part where I do the arms. I think I'll go ahead and sign up for another 4 weeks of this knitting class. I love going to this place. I feel like I've really learned so much.

I see a really bad mistake that I made right after starting under the arms. It looks like I started adding stitches on the left. I didn't notice it til I was already done and had binded off. But I still like it.

Looks like I'm going to once a day milking. It takes 3 milkings to get a little over half a gallon now. I'll save a little money by not feeding twice a day. Anyone else milking once a day now?

My leg. And some elderberries.

So yesterday, I was thinking my leg looked lots better. It seemed to not be hurting as much as at first. I did go ahead and start on the Cipro last night. I always seem to get a nasty yeast infection the few times I have taken antibiotics. I know if you eat yogurt, it's supposed to help. But the last time, I was eating the yogurt with the pill and they were counter-acting each other and I got a yeast infection anyway.

So I did a little research and found several places that said to eat yogurt 2 hours before you take the antibiotic. So I did. And this morning too. I hate waiting because I think I'll forget. I sure hope this helps. I have plain yogurt that's really good and thick. Wish me luck!

So I've been trying to keep my leg propped up since this happened. But last night, my whole middle section of my leg was huge! Like I couldn't even see my kneecap. I was a bit worried. But no streaks or excessive redness. I slept with my leg up on 2 pillows last night, so this morning it looks a bit better.

I'm going to meet my mom today, and she might insist I go to a doctor. But really, all they'll do is give me a prescription for antibiotics and charge a fortune just to get in. (And I have no insurance) When I have  a good fresh bottle right here. And Cipro is used for skin problems, staph, E-coli, and various other problems. So I think this is a good one for this  just kind problem.

It's kind of strange that both my husband and I are having problems with our left legs right now. He ended up in the hospital last Tuesday, while me and the kids were at the beach. His left foot had a blister that just got out of control and got infected. His doctor put him in Memorial on Tuesday. He got out Saturday. His foot is SO much better. They got it in time. If he'd waited just a day or two longer, he'd have lost his foot. But it's good now, thank the Lord. So we are both limping around the house, looking quite pitiful right now.

And I have elderberries! I've never gotten the berries because the birds get them first. I've always had to buy them to make my syrup. But not this year! I have them all over the place. And a friend gave me hers. I am so happy about this! I am trying to dry them, but am wondering if they can just be frozen? Aren't they beautiful?

Dang rooster!

Black Bart attacked me this morning. In the coop. I was feeding the one little lone chick that made it from the snake invasion a few nights ago. I was trying to keep the other hens away and he came up behind me and got me twice. I was bleeding like crazy and it hurt so bad. I could hardly walk it hurt. And blood gushing out and down my leg. I cried. A lot. And screamed and cussed that damn rooster up and down.

I was just shocked that he'd do this to me. I have always said what a wonderful rooster he is. Now I am wondering if he tried to do this a few weeks ago. They always follow me to the coop for dinner in the evening. He was right behind me and I stopped for some reason and he ran into my right leg. I just thought he was so close that when I stopped, he ran into my leg. Well, it bled then too, but not like this. I thought his beak got me. But now I'm thinking he was attacking me.

So now I'm afraid to go outside. And we have our youngest grand daughter today. And the Dish guy is coming out to hook us back up to Dish. We were stupid and switched to Direct. We HATE Direct! So they will be gone today. And also the Home Health nurse is coming out to check my husbands foot. So we called to let them know to call before they get here because we now have an attack rooster. Don't know what I can do though. Stand out there and let him attack me instead of them? This ain't good folks.

I guess Black Bart might make some good chicken broth.