Firsts

A week of firsts.

First time I have seen a real gun

First time I have seen a real gun shoot an animal in the back of the head

First time I have watched someone go through the process of rupturing an appendix

First time I have tried to chop wood

I'll explain….in order.

So the status on the goat that I talked about in my last entry is that she did not recover, the calf died, and so we had to put her to sleep. John and Julia and Ben and I went down to check on her this weekend and she wasn't doing well, couldn't walk and was delirious. So in their expert opinions, John and Julia decided to put her out of her misery. So, I acted like I wasn't freaked out when John took a well-aimed shot and sent her on to more pleasant times in goat heaven. Afterwards I acted like I was checking out something in the distance…but really I shed a tear for that little goat. After John shot her, Julia did an autopsy and tried to discover what exactly went wrong. Her suspicion that another calf might be inside was unfounded, but we did find an extremely large bladder which I suspect meant she had some sort of infection. I can sympathize because I'm prone to bladder infections as well. If only I had known, I could have shared some of my wealth of cranberry drinking products.

On to human health complications. On Tuesday John was having a horrible time with his stomach and complaining of abdominal pain. We didn't know what it might be, so we gave him expert advice…you know "c'mon John, try to take a shit," "put this heat compress on it"…."walk it off." After a couple of days an increased pain and some other twists in the story that I won't include, Julia finally insisted he go to the emergency room. And there in the emergency room folks, is where they discovered that John's appendix had burst and as the doctor explained "exploded into pieces." Yikes, poor John. So he had surgery and was in the hospital for two days. He just got home today and we have set up a mini hospital room up in the living room. Lesson: don't ignore abdominal pains, it could be your appendix about to burst into pieces.

I tried to chop wood. It was pathetic. The axe man-handled me. Oh well.

Other than that…all is well, we are babysitting another dog this week which brings the total count up to 9. Goats are doing well…eating grass, looking sweet, searching for higher ground….like Stevie Wonder

B

Rainy Day Blabber

So I forgot to post this picture earlier...kind of hilairous huh? It's from a few weeks ago in Colorado. I never claimed I was the most experienced skiier on the course that day...but I will say I was the most fashionable.

Welp...can't say that I have too much to say, but it's been raining for about 8 hours and I just finished complaining to my mom on the phone about how bored I am....and she scolded me for not writing on the blog. She was right...so I'm gonna take this opportunity to blabber. Thanks for reading.

I finished reading a cool book that I am ready to recommend to anybody ready to learn about something they probably know nothing about. Enough suspense? Okay...the book is called All the Shah's Men. It's about the US-backed covert coup and overthrow of the Iranian prime minister Mossadegh in the 1950's. Now it may sound like a relatively particular situation that you could go on with your life without knowing the details of. But....the things is, this book explains so much about the current situation in Iran and the middle east and why there seems to be a lack of understanding between middle eastern and western cultures. It sheds light on how extremist governments have come to power in Iran and other developing countries and why the US is not viewed as the friendly giant. Anyway...it's good.

Ummm...also I want to make a general call to see if anyone would like to travel in Central America any time between immediately and May. Even as little time as a week is welcomed. I am stirring the idea of going back to the Nicaraguan area since I have some unfinished travelling business and a free airline ticket. Any takers?

So something I am learning out here on the ranch is how brutal nature is. It's true...and it's something that really has to be experienced to be understood. Today Julia went to check on the goats and she found a mother-goat giving birth to an infant. It was pouring down rain and the process wasn't going so well. The kid had been stuck with only its head outside of the mother for a long time (maybe hours) and its head was swollen to almost twice the normal size. It's eyes were swollen shut and the tongue swollen and hanging out of its mouth. Julia pulled the kid out and later John and Ben went back and carried the mother and kid to a drier area under some trees. Picture this...Ben with the adult slung over his shoulders and John with the kid in one hand and the placenta in the other. The mother was "completely stressed out" according to Ben and seemed to have another kid inside of her that will probably come soon. We'll see if the shade of the trees will help things pan out in favor of the baby and mother both. Julia's the real goat expert though and she didn't seem too optimistic. Nature can be cruel....but I guess that's the way it has to be. Yesterday we found one of the dogs chewing on an aborted deer fetus. Hmm.

So on a lighter note.....I ate a whole box of graham crackers today in one setting. I had forgotten how good they are.

Alright....I gotta run, I have to pretend like I am helping to cook dinner. Mostly that consists of moving things around in the kitchen while other people cook. It's not easy being this smooth.
Bree

If you don't try hard in school you may become a gondola singer in Las Vegas

It's blog time again. There's so much to catch up on, as an unusual amount of stuff has happened in the last few weeks. Currently. Ben and I are in northern California, right outside of the city of Ukiah on the ranch with our friends John and Julia. Last time I wrote we were in Colorado and so I'll catch you up on what happened since then.

After Colorado and hanging out with Maggie we headed west and made some stops in Utah. We visited Arches National Park where we were both blown away by the beauty of the landscape. I am putting up some pictures and all of the ones with the rich red landscape and arches (hence the name) were taken there. We knew Utah was going to be a bit like another planet, I myself was a little worried about being brain-washed into marrying a man with several wives and trailers, but Utah turned out to also have the landscape of another planet. There were extreme red cliffs and deep caverns and jetting rock mountains. After that, we drove farther west and stayed a night in Zion National Park. Zion blew our minds as well and we saw interesting wildlife like moose and hiked around without seeing any other hikers. We decided that despite the cold temps, winter is the time to see national parks because you have the whole place to yourself. In Zion, Ben was itching to camp and against my better judgement we pitched the tent and slept out in the 10 degrees. I almost burnt my face off as I was trying to get myself as close to the fire as possible. I actually thought about barbecuing myself because it seemed to be the only option for warming up. But anyway, I made it through the frigid night (although when I woke up my hat and sleeping bag had frost on them). It was truly beautiful. So, Utah gets two thumbs up. And I think they would be pleased…because two is better than one.

Ben has an aunt and uncle that live in Los Angeles so we made that our next destination. From Zion we headed southwest and passed through Las Vegas. Ben wanted to blast through, but as we got closer, the excitement inside of me kept building and we agreed to stop for a couple hours. We did a crash course through the Venetian and Cesar's Palace and the Belagio. Vegas is truly the weirdest place on earth….actually, I don't think it is really on this earth. We had a lot of fun laughing at Vegas….one of the most hilarious sites was the man whose job it is to ride around on the fake canal around the Venetian Casino and sing opera songs. We bet a dollar and won two cents…so we were in an out of Vegas and only out 98 cents.

We got into Los Angeles and for two days Ben's aunt and uncle rolled out the red carpet. His aunt Judy showed us all around and we got to see so much including little Ethiopia, the University of Southern California, the farmer's market, Venice beach (fully equipped with men in speedo's working out on the beachside gym at muscle beach), went out for dinner and drinks in Pasadena and got stuck in a LA-style hour and a half traffic jam. After all that big city excitement, we were off from LA and headed north toward the ranch. We camped a couple of nights on the beaches and made tuna and soup on the back of Ben's pickup truck in downtown Santa Cruz as people with purple hair and leg warmers gave us frightened looksa. We made it to the ranch last Friday.

So what are we doing? Well here's the long and short of it. Our friends John and Julia are living in northern California on a ranch that is owned by Julia's family. The property is 4,000 acres and includes rolling hills (more like small mountains really) and lakes and redwood forests. John and Julia have taken over managing the property which is a huge job and are also starting their own goat business. So Ben and I have been lending our hands and learning about the goating and ranching life. One of the most stretching experiences was the morning new went horseback riding. I have been horseback riding several time in my life…but it has always been on a trail and with a horse that lives in a barn. John and Julia's horses run wild on their 4,000 acres and so we went out on the four-wheelers to "catch" the horses before we could ride them. I was a little uncomfortable and John kept telling me "just be calm and confident and they will respect you." I spent most of the afternoon trying to fake that I was calm and confident but in the end I'm pretty sure the horse wasn't fooled. It was good that they gave me the senior citizen 25 year old horse that was too old to try any games with me.

So usually we work during the day and eat wonderful food and read books and magazines at night. Julia makes cheese and the dairy products flow like water here. John has some homemade beer and sauerkraut that we munch on and Ben has reintroduced us all to the wonderful world of grits. I finished reading a wonderful book recommended by my mom called Angela's Ashes and have been reading lots of John and Julia's collections of the New Yorker magazine and listening to internet broadcasts of NPR. Maybe all that politics is having an affect on me since lastnight I had a dream that I pushed George Bush into a pool and then said some things to him that I can't really repeat but had something to do with how I envisioned his conversation going with Saint Peter at the pearly gates. I'm thinking about working on one of the democratic candidates' campaign and I haven’t narrowed down who it will be yet…but I'm leaning pretty heavily toward Barack Obama. What do you think?

So hopefully that gives you a bit of an idea what I've been up to. I'll put some pictures up on shutterfly that document some of our trip. We haven't really taken any pictures of our time here at the ranch, but I hope to do that soon and put them up as well. As for how long I am staying, I really have no idea. Ben and I are both planning to stay until we feel like moving on….so we'll see when that is.

So this is it for now….let me know what's going on with you all, and until next time, I'll be herding goats and bathing inconsistently.

With love
Bree