She’s Back!

It’s been a long time since I wrote last, I know.  Did you notice?!

I didn’t mean to stay away so long but I was really waiting out potential buyers for the house and potential buyers for the last two alpacas all at the same time!  I was hoping to be able to post with great news quite a while ago but as things go, I had to just keep waiting and waiting and waiting for things to fall into place and be finalized before I mentioned it.  I didn’t want to broadcast it across the internet before I  knew for sure that things were going to go through.  Once they did, time just flew by.

The same day that I got a call from the gal that bought the two alpacas & the horse saying she wanted them, we got an offer from another couple on the house!  What a crazy day THAT was!  And…it’s been crazy ever since!

Things have been moving forward steadily & quickly.  The alpacas and horse have been delivered to their new home and are settling in there nicely & have sold the farm!  Since the farm was never listed for sale, yes, you read that right…in THIS economy, we have sold our farm without ever putting it on the market with a Realtor!  We just happened to go to an alpaca show at the end of March just to see a couple of alpacas that we sold and see them show.  We were introduced to a couple that also have alpacas but were boarding them.  They were in the process of looking for their own farm.  The rest is history.  We’ve now rented an apartment in the town where I work and are settling in somewhat.

I know I whined and complained that things were moving too slow for me at times throughout this process but the last few weeks have flown by and pieces fell perfectly and painlessly into place.  Now, we’ve moved to an apartment and are waiting for an opportunity for Jon to work in Florida so we can move down there!  Pretty scary but exciting too.  I have a feeling it won’t be long before we’re on the move again.

So many things have fallen into place so seamlessly in this process that we can’t help but believe it’s the right thing to do.  We made the decision to move to Florida and started this process way back on July 3rd, 2009 and here we are.

Scruffy’s Story

Scruffy

My heart has been heavy lately with thoughts of the impending passing of our little friend Scruffy.  Scruffy is a little dog, a variety of breeds.  Our teenage son found her beside the road, after having been hit by a car.  She had some bumps & scrapes but other than that was ok.  He picked her up, put her in his Jeep and drove her to her new, and forever home.  Jon & I were living in a small apartment at the time with our son Justin and Abby, a Golden Retriever, while we were in the process of building our current home.  The apartment got smaller but our hearts grew bigger when we met Scruffy.  I realized Scruffy was obviously a neglected soul at her previous home when I noticed under the thick fur, she was wearing a collar that was way too tight and literally beginning to grow into the flesh around her neck.  The first thing we did for Scruffy was to carefully peel the collar from around her neck and treat the open wound that was left.  After some petting and assuring her that she wasn’t going to be hurt anymore, we offered her food and water and she ate a hearty meal, hydrated her little body and found her spot to rest from her ordeal.

It wasn’t long, maybe an hour or two, when our son headed out the door to go and meet up with some friends.  When the door closed behind him, Scruffy was up and on her feet and whimpering at the closed door.  Trying to assure her that Justin would be back, she didn’t believe me and continued to cry for him to return.  I was amazed at how quickly she fell in love with her savior.  They say that rescued dogs are the most appreciative and loyal of all and Scruffy confirmed that.

Eight years later, Scruffy, (also known as Scrumshie, Scrumptious or Special) still demonstrates her appreciation and loyalty on a daily basis.  She has been an exceptional farm dog…following us everywhere we go, she arrives long after we do but she still arrives.  She lays in the shade of the farm equipment we may be using, the tractor, 4-wheeler or whatever while Abby lays in the cooler barn or in the air-conditioned house.  It doesn’t matter how hot it is outside, Scruffy is there, helping, supervising or maybe just protecting us from unseen danger.

She has always walked with a stiff hind end and we know now that she has severe arthritis in her hips.  The vet told us it was one of the worst cases he’s seen.  Her age is starting to show more and more every day and the arthritis is beginning to cripple her mobility, but don’t tell her that.  We’ve had to make the dogs sleep in the barn at night in the last year since Scruffy hasn’t been able to go all night without needing to go potty.  In the barn, she can go whenever she needs to.  In the mornings when we open the barn door and let Abby & Scruffy in the house, Abby runs to find a toy and Scruffy gimps along behind her and straight to the front door to go outside.  Once outside, she stands there looking lost.  Occasionally, she’ll walk down the sidewalk, turn around and come back inside.  Sometimes she wanders down the hall, stops & stands there for a moment, then turns and comes back.  A touch of dementia is apparent.

Several months ago, last fall, we thought we had lost our little angel.  Both dogs went outside to potty, play and roam around a bit.  Abby returned to be let back inside but Scruffy was missing.  Not one to wander very far, I worried.  I looked everywhere for her…everywhere.  I took the 4-wheeler and combed the property the best I could to no avail.  I returned to the house hoping she would return eventually.  I worried myself sick when the sun started to set and she still wasn’t home.  I left the barn door open enough where she could get in if she returned but I found Abby alone in the barn the next morning.  This series of events repeated every day for the next 3 days.  My biggest fear was that she had gone someplace to die.  I held out hope that someone had found her and taken her in.  Jon had been out of town and returned one day while I was at work.  He went through the steps that I had and as luck would have it, found her.  Alive.  She had fallen into a ditch near our pond and couldn’t get herself out.  It was obvious that she had tried and exhausted herself.  She was muddy, wet, and cold.  Jon washed the mud off of her and when I got home, she was still shivering.  I wrapped her in warm towels from the dryer and just held her.  She wasn’t herself.  There was something different about her.  She was in shock.  I just knew she was going to pass overnight.  Her eyes were dark, dull and lost-looking.  By morning, she seemed a bit better but still not right.  I took her to the Vet where she spent the next couple of days being re-hydrated, x-rayed, and loved on.  But, this was the start of her going downhill.  She is not as active as she was, although she was always slow and stiff, she is slower and stiffer today.  Her eyes are bright and she gets excited and jumps up and down with just her front feet…her little bent over ears flopping up and down…she wants to play but it hurts.

As I watch her closer, I realize she can’t see anything that isn’t some distance in front of her.  Things close to her are invisible.  She steps on things, stumbles and fall down.  She steps in their water bowl if she gets too close to it for some reason other than to drink, so often I stopped counting the many times I’ve mopped up water.  She doesn’t hear much if anything.  Her eyes are always focused on your face, taking cues I guess.  Poor Abby is tolerating her aging buddy like a champ…Scruffy has taken to loving on Abby by leaning on her, standing over her and licking her head, and blindly stepping on her.

Her days, I know in my heart are numbered.  The day this little soul leaves us plays over in my head.  As she lies on the carpet with her head cradled in her food bowl, dreaming…twitching in her sleep, my heart swells & I feel tears coming to my eyes.

As I Was Saying…

As I was saying in my last post before I realized I had rambled on and on for so long, there’s more to life than just living day-to-day.

Jon and I have made it our goal in life to chase our dreams, no matter how big or small, or crazy they may seem.  When we were not just struggling to make ends meet but literally living on credit cards in Maine back in the fall of 1991, a job opportunity presented itself to Jon here in Missouri.  After a bit of contemplation and weighing options, (there weren’t any), we announced to our families that we were packing up and moving to Missouri.  Everyone thought we were crazy and made no bones about it.

Let me give you a bit of history. (*Yawn*)  When I was a kid growing up, we moved around a bit…more than what is “normal” for most people.  In fact, I was in a new school every year until I reached the 8th grade.  My mom was trying to raise 10 kids by herself (the majority of the time) and was always looking for the perfect place to raise her kids.  That’s what she told us anyway.  So, moving around and changing scenery isn’t a foreign concept for me at all.  In fact, I have to rearrange our furniture about once a year just to change the scenery in the house.  :o)  Jon always jokes that it’s a good thing he isn’t blind.

 

Jon lived in two different towns in New Hampshire before he moved to Florida and joined the military at age 17.  Yes, his mother had to sign him in.  He served ten years active duty in the U.S. Air Force so moving around for him isn’t a problem either.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, I can move on.  Living in Missouri for the last 19+ years has been a milestone for us.  We’ve lived here longer than we’ve lived anywhere both as a couple and as individuals.  With the history we both have, it was important to me that our son grew up and attended school in the same school district with his friends.  We lived in 2 different houses but were able to keep him in the same school district until he finished school.  Our first home was on a little 1/2 acre and we felt like we were out in the sticks.  We could only see one other house from ours.  When Justin started 10th grade, we built a big house in a large subdivision with hopes that he and his friends would hang out close to home & stay out of trouble.  Well, that didn’t happen but we stuck it out & started looking forward to the day that the school district wasn’t an issue.  Jon and I enjoyed our little 1/2 acre so much compared to the subdivision that we started looking for acreage out of town.  We wanted a place in the country where we could have horses and raise some kind of livestock.  We finally found and purchased 20 acres of land about 40 minutes north of where Justin grew up and our dream was in motion.

When we announced to our friends and families that we were moving to the country to build a farm everyone thought we were crazy and made no bones about it.  We’ve been here for over 7 years now and have raised chickens, guinea hens, & turkeys and have enjoyed fresh eggs & meat, we have owned 5 horses and have enjoyed seeing countryside that we never would have had a chance to see if not from the back of a horse, we’ve raised approximately ten cats, 4 litters of kittens, 5 dogs and somewhere between 25-30 alpacas.  Call us crazy but we have enjoyed every backbreaking minute of this life in the country and on the farm.  Ok, maybe not every single minute but most of them!  There have been a lot of blood, sweat and tears shed here on the farm but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I promised in my last post that I would disclose a relatively new dream of ours that we have only shared with a small handful of people so far.  Once again though, my post length has me concerned that if I continue here, I will lose most of my readers that didn’t cringe when they saw this lengthy post and went on reading.  But, a promise is a promise so what I’ve decided to do is to go ahead and post this entry for today and in addition, I will also move the very first post from our other blog which will tell all & satisfy your curiosity.

I’m not sure how it will come across…whether as a new post from today or whether it will settle itself in the timeline chronologically as I’m hoping it does.  The title, if you want to find it is “A Dream is Born” and it was written on July 3, 2009.  You should be able to find it in the Archives on the right hand side of this page.

Until next time…

2011 Predictions

In regards to the subject of this blog…no, I don’t mean predictions like someone who claims to see into the future.  I can’t claim that skill as far as I know.  What I mean by “predictions” is more like what I hope to see happen or what I’m looking forward to see happen.  Here they are in a relatively chronological order.

• Jon to start contributing to this blog as a second author.
• Making more time to read
• Focus more on my writing, both with this blog and learning more about getting published.
• Making more time to spin on the spinning wheel and make yarns to sell.  My way of keeping up with the alpaca farming industry once we’ve sold all of our livestock and have sold the farm.
• Speaking of selling the alpacas and the farm, I would like to see the final 4 sell by this spring so we can put the farm on the market to sell and ultimately sell the farm by fall.
• I’d like to get moved into an apartment which is our plan for the next step towards our move to Florida.
• Take a Christmas trip this year to someplace warm.
• I’d like to see Jon get moved into the National Accounts Manager position so that he’d be able to work from anywhere in the country with the same company he’s with now.

As I look back and review this list of predictions, it does look a little ambitious but this is more about  my hopes and not true predictions as I mentioned earlier.  I don’t claim to be psychic.  :-)

If I can drop a hint here to my subscribers and to those of you who have not clicked that SUBSCRIBE button on the right side of the screen…if you leave comments below, it’s very encouraging to me to keep up my regular blogging.  Hint…hint…

Until next time…

2010 In Review

Now that we are getting started with the new year (2011) I thought I’d fill you all in on some of the key highlights of the last year.  Now, don’t start yawning yet…it shouldn’t be all that bad.

2010 started with a bang!

• On December 30^th of 2009, Jon and I left for Florida where we visited Dad & Tiny (Jon’s dad and step-mom) for a few days and then boarded Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas for our 25^th wedding anniversary cruise.  We visited the Bahamas, St. Thomas, & St. Maartin & returned home on January 11^th 2010.
• February was rather quiet other than all the snow we got.  Actually we had snow on the ground from December through March!
• In March we sold two of our alpacas, Callaway will be shared by two alpaca breeders that live on two different farms in California and Tanner went to a farm in Maine.  Both boys are enjoying their new homes and new jobs of herdsires!  We also attended an Alpaca show here in Kansas City.
• April 14^th was shearing day for all 22 alpacas.  The next day, Jon traded in my 2003 Ford F-150 pickup truck for a 2010 model of the same truck.  We started putting in our vegetable garden and sold two more alpacas!  Maximo & Othello have moved to a farm in Oklahoma.
• In May, I helped find a good home for 17 alpacas at a farm here in MO that came all the way from a farm in Michigan!  We took in a big concert with Hank Williams Jr., Jamey Johnson, & Eric Church.  We hired a trainer to come out and work with Mickey, our little 2-year-old paint horse.  We painted most of the inside the house and took a trip up to Omaha for the weekend-a little getaway.
• In June we raised money for cancer research and walked in the Relay for Life.  The couple that were boarding their alpaca herd here decided to keep their farm in MN so we delivered their seven alpacas to their farm in MN. Summer is fun for taking in an evening at the dirt track races with our friends Jeff & LaVona & we did that a couple of times.  Later this month, we had our first cria (baby alpaca) born.  Cooper was a solid black and beautiful boy!  We also moved Justin & his girlfriend Harvest into their own apartment.
• In July, our second cria of the year was born.  We call him Cowboy.  We had several families come this summer to see the alpacas and visit the farm.  I took a beginners spinning class @ The Yarn Barn and am now practicing spinning my own yarn to sell.  We went in with our friends Bill & Rhonda and ordered Maine lobster for our 2^nd Maine “lobster feast.”  We did this last year and enjoyed it so much we decided to make it a once or twice a year occasion!  We went to another concert and saw Justin Moore and sold yet another alpaca.  This time it was Sterling.  He is enjoying his new home in central Missouri.
• August we celebrated Jon’s 49^th birthday and got a chance to see the PBR (Professional Bull Riding).  That was quite a production!  Jon took several days to meet up with an old friend and went on a fishing trip in Colorado.  A couple of weeks later, I went to California to visit my brother and his wife (J.C. & Joanne)  We celebrated her birthday by going to Las Vegas for the weekend.  It was SO good to see my brother again and spend some time with them.  In case you’re wondering, no, Jon and I have NOT started taking separate vacations!
• September, like other summer months was busy with fun stuff like the Kansas City Irish Festival.  We also sold two of the three horses, Lil & the two-year-old, Mickey.
• In October, we took a trip to Annapolis, Maryland and spent 3 days at a huge boat show where we also met up with my niece Jaycie and her family.  It was great to see them & all the big boats!  October also brought more alpaca sales…this time it was Summer, Taylor & Taylor’s cria, little Cooper.  The three of them went to the same farm in Bonner Springs, Kansas.
• November was a month to remember with a great trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.  We surprised Dad & Tiny.  It was great!  We also were able to get re-acquainted with other family members that were there, which was a real treat.
• December brought Christmas parties, another Maine Lobster Feast with the Butlers, and we had a special Christmas celebration with Justin & Harvest with dinner & carriage ride on the plaza with all the lights and decorations.  It was wonderful.  New Year’s Eve, Jon and I went to the Hyatt Regency’s big New Year’s Eve party.  We had never done anything like that before so that was a big treat!

And an added note:

This is Justin and his girlfriend Harvest.  Harvest is a very sweet girl that we have grown to adore.  She has brought a lot of light and laughter to Justin’s life and for that, we are very grateful.  They have been together for almost two years now and share their home in Kansas City with their dog Kane.  Justin is working as an independent contractor for AT&T as a sales rep for cellular, cable, internet, U-Verse etc. & Harvest works as a Licensed Massage Therapist & speaking from personal experience…does an excellent job!

Tomorrow will be a crazy day at work so I’m not 100% sure I’ll have the energy to apply my mush brain to my blog but if I do, I’ll be back tomorrow.  If not…well…

Until next time…

Really. Alpacas for Christmas!

Funny how things turn out.

The email blast that I mentioned in my last entry went out as scheduled the first week of December & we got no response whatsoever from it.  BUT, we did get a couple of calls right about that same time (coincidentally) from two gentlemen, one was interested in the suri girls (Lady Di & Cheyenne), & the other was interested in the farm!  The guy interested in the alpacas wanted to buy a couple more alpacas for his wife for Christmas & she had her eye on these two for some time.  Turns out, I had communication with her back in June stemming from an earlier email blast, regarding some of our farm equipment and she asked about the girls back then but it was so rainy and muddy this spring that we couldn’t arrange a good time for them to come and look.  We sold the trailer in the meantime to someone else and Lady Di was in Colorado for a breeding until this summer so we decided to put it off.  Sure enough, he came and looked at them, and ultimately purchased them-cash-in full, no financing, so I’m waiting for the check to clear now so we can pay off Justin’s car.  w00t!!

The other guy was actually interested in the farm!  He was bored one day and was just browsing the Alpaca Nation website and saw that we were liquidating.  He had accepted a job here in Kansas City and was tired of living in an apartment with his wife only visiting on occasion from their farm in Colorado.  Anyway…he was a bit concerned about the lack of storage space here (my only complaint also) but thought otherwise the farm was perfect for them.  He said he also would need to build another barn which he was fine with.  this would also allow for storage, so it was still a possibility.  He looked at the house two weeks before Christmas and was planning to go home for the holiday and would get back with us after the first of the year.  He said if we were on a basement, he would write us a check right now.  Ugh.  If only.  I know things will work out as they should so again, we try to stay positive and keep moving forward with our plans.  We only have 3 more major bills to pay off besides the house…Justin’s car is next, my truck and then the tractor.  The tractor was purchased on an interest free loan so it’ll be last to pay off.

We are now down to 3 female adult alpacas and one almost 6 month old cria.  SO close!