Normally, we try to go to both J's family and my family for Thanksgiving. We don't necessarily eat at both houses. But, each year, one side has priority, and we just try to fit the other side in. We've always been able to get it to work out until this year.
This year, both feasts were set to begin at the exact same time, and my inlaws had "custody". My food assignment was all of the pies and the rolls. So, I didn't want to bake all of those pies and then not be around to eat them. We made the difficult decision to not see my family for Thanksgiving this year, which was really sad. However, I really like my inlaws a lot, and enjoy their company, so it was a very fun day, which was exactly what I expected. My mother in law got out her (actual SILVER SILVER) silverware, which was awesome for me. I now desperately want actual silver silverware. Guess I better get working on being fabulously wealthy, since my SIL and I had a quick battle over who got the silverware when MIL dies (yeah, I'm super polite), and I admitted that the daughter definitely gets precedence. Oh well.
Pies this year included homemade pumpkin (including pumpking that I had baked and pureed), cherry, apple, and razzleberry. The girls helped cut out the stars for the cherry pie.
Then, I did an old fashioned apple pie (J's favorite).
The kids were really wanting to help, so I made a bit of extra filling, and let S & Z make their own "mini" apple pies.
The kids were nearly out of their minds with excitement, and Z was trying to decide what to wear. I told him that it's a nice idea to try and dress up a little for Thanksgiving. He thinks for a moment, and then declares that he'll wear his Darth Vader costume, because it's his best outfit, in his opinion. I managed to keep a straight face. Sort of.
After dinner was over, we had a little fun with Z's outfit and his light saber, and had him pose like he was going to carve the turkey. He is such a fun kid to have around.
I have to admit that although I was sad not to see my family, it was nice to not be rushing from place to place, stressing over whether we spent enough time with each side of the family.
We agreed to let KC, the guy who sold us our calves, pasture some of his cows in our field. It's worked out beautifully for us because he helped us find a great deal on our hay for the year. Even better, because of the deal he's worked out with my neighbor, he's providing the water for the whole herd for the winter. Considering this was one of my top worries in keeping a couple steers, I'm thrilled. He's also been keeping everyone fed. I've offered to help, but for now, he's liking doing it on his own, and says he'll just pull from our haystack when the time comes. Yes, folks, I have a haystack now.
One of the steers KC introduced to the herd freaked me out more than a little. I think he came a bit sick, and his left side seemed a bit distended. KC put a valve INTO THE SIDE OF THE CALF and that helped reduce the bloat. Which was good. On the bad side, this cow had poo oozing out of the valve and running down his side at all times. As a novice cow raiser, this freaked me right out. Here was yet another thing I didn't realize I had to worry about. I guess this is called "bloat" and isn't completely unheard of. Great.
Let me interject here by saying that KC is one of the biggest animal lovers I've met- he's realistic about what happens in livestock, but he seems to love taking on the tricky cases, and bringing animals back from the brink of death.
So, Oozy (as I privately called him) was actually a fairly friendly guy, and knew I had treats and would always come when I came to give my cows a little something. I felt guilty because his gut was really gross and scary.
Yesterday, I went out to feed my chickens the leftover cereal (dangit kids, why can't you pour JUST ENOUGH?!) and I saw Oozy laying on the ground, kicking up his legs rather frantically. I've seen horses do this to scratch their backs, but not cows. In my limited experience, this seemed very, very bad.
I jumped the pool ladder that I have going over the fence and went out there. Oozy looked very, very bad. I noticed the valve was gone out of his side, and his side looked awfully big. I hurried to call KC, but as I was leaving the voice mail, the steer stopped breathing.
KC was to the field within 5 minutes. He told me that the valve had fallen out a couple days ago. He'd been watching the steer closely, but so far, had been doing really well. A valve is kind of a last ditch effort because it really increases odds for infection, so he was hoping the calf had worked through whatever was causing the bloat and could be done with it. He'd fed him the night before, and had seemed fine then. When I was consulting with Dr. Google, DVM, it sounds like bloat can kill within 15 minutes, so it can come on awfully fast.
I felt so terrible! It's sad to see an animal die regardless. But, to see an expensive animal die, especially one in which the owner has put so much time, effort and emotion into fixing was even worse. Also, the hassle involved has got to be tough too- I'd guess Oozy was over 500 lbs. That's not exactly a simple disposal, like a goldfish.
Anyone who says animals don't understand death or have feelings just needs to be around when an animal die. Oozy was definitely scared and in pain. After he died, Tbone came over to see what was going on, and he definitely seemed upset by the fact that his big buddy was down and not acting right.
J was on a business trip in France this week. He promised the kids presents upon his return. In Z's mind, it turns out that "presents"= toys.
He was out of his mind waiting for his daddy to get home. I wanted to think that he just missed J, but I suspected it was the present.
This afternoon, J got home from his trip. He got each of the little kids a tshirt from Paris.
Z tried really hard to hold it together, but he absolutely crushed that he didn't get a toy. He was trying really hard not to cry. In an attempt to cheer him up, S says, "I'm really sad that I didn't get a toy too, but I'm not crying about it." Ouch. Poor J.
He asked J why he didn't bring toys.
Me, in a fit of deceitful imagination, burst out, "Because the children in France don't have toys!" This stops both kids cold, and their eyes got very big. "Why not?!"
"I guess they just don't believe in toys for children."
They've done nothing but talk about the poor children in France who don't have toys, and are contemplating sending some of their toys over there.
So, if my kids say something about toyless children in France, I have no idea where they heard that idea.
In a fit of insanity (I am prone to those), I decided to do The Tough Mudder. I committed to it months and months ago with a whole bunch of my friends. I've been doing my best to train for it for quite a long time- kickboxing a couple times a week, weight lifting a couple times a week, and running several times a week (still hate running, for anyone curious).
I was also desperate to lose weight prior to the event because I knew it'd be much more difficult with the spare pounds on. Much to my dismay, nothing I did worked. Looking back, I'm wondering if it was because I was training too hard. In July, I took drastic measures and quit drinking Mountain Dew, swearing I wouldn't have a single sip until the Mudder was over. I did it, too. I didn't cheat even once! Race day came though, and I was the usual weight. -sigh-
For those who haven't heard of the Tough Mudder, here's a quick video that shows an overview of the event.
The morning of the event, we filled our car with teammates and got out to Tooele at the Miller Motor Sports park. Temperatures were in the 50s and I was sooooo cold!
To get into the starting pen, we had to jump a wall.
From there, we had the MC talk to us for a bit. He did such an amazing job of pumping us all up, getting us revved up and excited to go.
Our race was right around 12 miles, and there was 21 obstacles. Most sounded pretty intimidating, but the three that had me the most worried were the Arctic Enema (jumping in a huge pool of ice and water), The Electric Eel (crawling through muddy water and getting shocked while you're at it), and Electroshock Therapy (more electrocution). It turns out my concern was not misplaced. Arctic Enema was just as horrible as I suspected it would be. I was really nervous about it, especially given how cold I was. Mike, an ironman teammate of mine told me that every time he's done an ice bath like that, within 30 seconds of getting out, he would have this rush of heat and felt pretty good. I threatened to beat him up if I didn't get said rush. I did get that heat rush, and it was wonderful! My toes and fingers were still cold, but otherwise, I felt warmer afterwards than I'd felt all morning.
Electric Eel
The Electric Eel was deeply unpleasant, but since I've accidentally tangled with the electric fence in our back yard, it wasn't too bad. It didn't seem to affect me as much as others on our team- several reported having the sensation of waking up and being disoriented after each shock. One team member even had to have EMTs look at her afterwards because she felt so horrible.
We plugged on, going through the obstacles. Some people had a lot of trouble with heights on some, others preyed on people's claustrophobia. I made mental notes to work my upper body strength more in preparation for the next event because I definitely wasn't as strong as I needed to be. I was incredibly lucky in that I had awesome, amazing teammates who were willing to give us short people boosts on the obstacles.
One obstacle that I didn't have time to fret about was Walk The Plank. You climb up a 15' tower, and then jump into water and swim to the other end. If I'd really thought it through, I would've been more nervous. I'd simply not had enough time to worry about it after the other biggies for me! It wasn't a big deal though.
Finally up Everest!
After that came Everest, (see video for example) which I hadn't worried too much about because it was simply unattainable for me without a lot of help. I figured the tall boys would help me out. To make it even tougher, they actually lubricate the wall to make it even more slick!! It took me several tries to get high enough up the ramp to get caught though, so it was equal parts mortifying and exhausting. They finally were able to catch me and hoist me up.
At that point, we were more than 11.5 miles in, and only had one more obstacle left- Electroshock Therapy. Yay! More electrocution. I managed to get through it without losing consciousness or otherwise embarrassing myself.
Done!
Once you finish that, you're done! You go through the finish line, and people are waiting there with the famous orange headband that they stick on your head for you. The sense of accomplishment was exhilarating!
Our team is missing two people in this photo- one of our teammates was just exhausted and freezing, so she opted to skip the last few obstacles and just finish the race. Her boyfriend went with her. Once they got past the finish line, they just left- she was too cold and tired to wait for the group.
After that, we got to get our participant shirts. You didn't get the shirt or the headband unless you actually completed the event. I've always loved my race shirts, so I was really excited. Then I got to the table. In ladies' sizes, they had a junior's size small and medium. They were cut small for size too- I'm not sure that my daughter could've worn the medium without it being awfully tight. Since I have a bit of a belly and broad shoulders, I KNEW that ladies' medium wouldn't fit. The next size available was a men's large. I got that, and it turned out to be quite large- it fits my husband perfectly, and he's 10" and 70 lbs heavier. I know it's a stupid, minor thing, but it absolutely crushed me. Instead of feeling like superwoman, I felt like a fatass. If I hadn't been so tired, I would've cried. I know I shouldn't let a stupid thing like that get to me, but it did. I'd tried so hard to lose weight in the months leading up to the event that it was a very sensitive point for me.
I'd planned to buy a couple stickers to put on our cars, but at that point, I was feeling so humiliated and exhausted that I forgot. I went the next day to buy them online, and they were charging EIGHT DOLLARS SHIPPING. For two stickers. Seriously?! I decided that I would just have to live without the stickers at that price. I'm trying to find someone running in an upcoming race who will pick them up for me, but so far, no dice.
The next couple of days brought a gorgeous array of bruises and scrapes all over my teammates and I. My upper body was absolutely trashed, but the rest of me felt pretty good.
Next June, our group is contemplating either running another Tough Mudder, or trying the Spartan Beast. I'm leaning towards the Spartan for two reasons. First, I think it would be interesting to compare the two events, and secondly (silly, emotional me), I have kind of a bad taste in my mouth for the Mudder, and it's not the mud.
Overall, the experience was positive, and a lot of fun. I had such amazing teammates, and I felt so lucky that they let me be a part of their group.
Post Script: A friend of mine ended up volunteering at a Tough Mudder event and picked up a couple stickers for me.
And, more exciting: At the urging of my friends, I ended up emailing Tough Mudder and told them how I felt. They wrote back within a couple of days and promised to send me a new shirt. I got it today!! It fits perfectly. I am thrilled. The only sad thing is that Utah has been taken off their map for 2013.
I think that I've done a pretty good job of establishing the fact that in the traditional sense of the word, my husband is not the most romantic guy. He's never been much for love letters, flowers, poetry, etc. I have to admit I love that stuff, but most of the time, when he tries to be romantic in the traditional sense, it feels strange and awkward to me because it doesn't seem natural.
He shows his love in other ways though, and though it seems so simple and basic, it's very, very sweet.
For example: today. I have been running around like a mad woman all day. I have a brief 10 minutes at home, but had to gather up some fruits and veggies in that time. He made me a bean burrito. Grilled it even! And wrapped it in a paper towel so that I could eat it as I drove (I know, that's frowned upon, but I swear I was really careful and attentive to the road).
I didn't ask him to do that, and it was a very sweet, surprising gesture.
"Get a cow," they said. "It'll be fun and easy," they said. "Heck, may as well get two!" they said. Hah. I didn't expect it to be easy, but I have to admit it has been more difficult than I anticipated. My first trouble was with T-Bone, the smaller calf. I followed the instructions I was given on him, except for one part- it was recommended I give him some calf starter grain each day. I went to my favorite feed store, and they'd never heard of such a thing, and they had a lot of cow people come through. So, I figured it probably wasn't that important and didn't do that. Otherwise, I fed them bottles at the intervals suggested. The seller gave me a roundabout idea as to when he would be ready to wean. Within a couple days of that, I saw him out in the field, chewing his cud, which is a sign of readiness to wean. I wanted to be sure, so I watched the next day, and saw it again. I mentioned to the seller what I saw, and that I was planning on beginning to wean him. I cut back from two bottles a day to one bottle a day, and followed that for nine or so days, which was longer than the week I was advised. A couple weeks after he weaned, I noticed he was looking skinny, and was worried, but figured the seller would mention it to me if it wasn't normal. Turns out it wasn't normal, and he was in bad shape. So, I'm back to feeding him two bottles a day. I went to another feed store and bought the calf starter, though so far, he hasn't expressed much interest, though Casanova LOOOOOOOVES it (he gets a little treat each night too). Most days I don't mind; it's like having a 200 lb puppy. I did feel hurt because I got the distinct impression that people felt like I was neglecting the calf, or being lazy. I was just trying to follow instructions, and felt hurt that they'd see me that way. So, it's been a little over a week since I started Tbone back on bottles, and he's doing really great (other than a cold, which seems to be clearing up ok). But then yesterday, I notice that Casanova's right eye seemed wrong. It was very runny, and just looked off. I got a better look at it, and it looks exactly like the pictures of pinkeye in cows look. Awesome. I hate pinkeye. I call the seller to see if he'll take a look or offer insight. After hearing my description, he felt like I should call a vet. Great. I feel way out of my depth, so I'd like to get a real professional involved. I call the recommended vet, and describe what I'm seeing. They say that it is either pinkeye, or a foreign object that has caused an infection. Either way, I'd want to treat it with LA 200 injection, and that runs $.30 a cc. How much does my cow weigh and do I want to come pick it up? You're just going to trust me? Don't you know who I am? I don't know a thing about cows! I mean, I'm calling my calves "cows" and they're steers. That's an obvious newbie mistake! I don't even know how much he weighs! So, I went outside, tried to take a fully body picture so they could get an idea of size, and attempted to get a couple of eye pictures. I walk out of the vet's office with two giant syringes and instructions to inject them into the muscle, 48 hours apart. I also should use a water bottle to attempt to cleanse the eye. If he'll let me, try to sweep my fingers between the eyeball and eyelid to see if I feel anything.
oooookay. This'll be easy, right?
I take a few minutes to collect myself (ok, an hour), and I head out there armed with my pink mucking boots, a squirting water bottle, and a syringe. TBone sees me and comes running. The fact that I'm holding a water bottle compounds the problem. He's convinced this bottle is for him and keeps trying to drink from it. Meanwhile, Casanova thinks me squirting water in his eye is a terrible idea, and he doesn't like the look of that needle either, so he's trying to make a run for it. All this commotion got the attention of the other cows (steers) so they moseyed on over to watch everything. This all ended with a cleansed eye (no sweeping under the eyelid though) and a cracked syringe, and no shot given. I decided it was insane to think I could do this alone. Even the smallest of the cows steers weighs more than me. When J got home, I asked him to help me. I got the bright idea that I should bring some of the calf grain into the field as a peace offering to Casinova. Well, the grain got the attention of Baby, the horse. She wanted some of that. Badly. So she's chasing me around the field, trying to get her nose in the bucket. I know she's on a very strict diet, and I'm fairly certain that diet doesn't involve calf starter, but it was looking like she was going to win that battle. I sneakily gave the bucket to J, and Baby continued to follow me. When J was mostly to the "time out corral", she noticed HE had the bucket, and took off at a gallop to get to him. He got there first and was home free! I felt very lucky that only TBone and Casanova had noticed I was back with the white bottle. Eventually, I was able to give the injection, and I irrigated the eye a bit more. I brought a rubber glove so I could try to sweep under the eyelid, but I lost my nerve. I did try to peek and didn't see anything though. After that syringe was empty, I put the contents of the cracked syringe in the intact one, so that dose is ready to go. We get to repeat the antibiotics shot on Saturday. Whee!!
We actually have been on two trips to Zion recently. We took the whole family in the RV at the end of July. The kids absolutely loved it. I was really impressed at their mad hiking skills. We were going into the Narrows, and figured we'd go in a bit, and then turn around. We made it all the way to Orderville Canyon, and then walked to the waterfall at Orderville before turning around. All told, we walked almost 8 miles that day, and the kids didn't complain once. When we were about 100 feet from camp, Z did ask to be carried. I was so impressed with them.
Then, J and I decided to go back to celebrate our 17th anniversary. This time, we decided to tent it. I have to admit that I haven't gone tent camping in 6 years, so I was a little apprehensive. It was nice to sleep under the stars (we kept the rain fly off, so we could see them), and it really was fun. For a long time, it's been on J's bucket list to hike The Subway from the top down. We managed to win the last minute lottery, and got a permit for Friday.
The Subway is a 9.5 mile hike that has a 2000 foot elevation change, three rappels, bouldering, and some required swimming. It's rated as 3B III.
The problem with the Subway is that there's two parking lots, 7 miles and 2000' elevation difference between them. People have two options: they can hitchhike, or they can pay for a shuttle. The shuttle cost $30/person, which offended me. We decided to take our chances and hitchhike. The night before, we found a group that also was planning on going, and we got them to agree to give us a ride from the bottom lot to the top lot.
They ended up being a really fun group of people, and we did the entire hike with them. It came in handy for them because nobody in their group brought gloves, which are really, really, really nice when rappelling. Also, their rope was only 50', and for the first rappel, you really need a 60' rope.
I didn't bring my fancy camera, and 95% of the time, I was so relieved I hadn't. This hike was definitely the most intense, most technical hike I've ever done. That would've been tricky to have along. But, there were a couple shots I'd really wished I'd had it. Instead, I brought my little point and shoot in its' waterproof bag.
I was nervous about the rappelling, or downclimbing, whatever the experts would call it, but it ended up not being a big deal at all. My upper body strength was better than I thought, and the "obstacles" were kind of fun. The weather was hot, so the water wasn't too terribly cold. I brought 3 liters of water, and ran out about 1/2 mile from the trailhead. We had purification tablets, so if there had been an emergency, we would've been fine.
The views were utterly amazing.
We got through the narrows part, and still had a couple miles to go. There was a lot of hopping around over rocks, which got pretty exhausting. Then, we had to climb about 400' through switchbacks to get out of the canyon. That was rough at the end of the day, and with sun. It was getting a bit cloudy though. In fact, once we got out of the narrows, we started to hear thunder, which made us quite nervous, and we picked up the pace.
Once we completed the hike, we got in the car and started to drive back to camp. Within 15 minutes of getting in the car, a flash flood warning was issued, and rain started to pour. J and I have always wanted to see the main canyon in the rain, so we hopped the shuttle to go check it out. We saw several new waterfalls, some of which were quite large. It was amazing to see.
The next day, we were both very, very sore in our quads. So, we decided to hike some more!! We wanted to check out some family friendly hikes we'd heard about, but were unable to find when we had the kids. We found several great ones this time around though. We ended up checking out the Many Pools hike, as well as the Hidden Gardens and Weeping Rocks hikes. We also wandered around town a bit.
Sunday morning, we decided to go for a little bicycle ride, so we went on the Pa'Rus Trail. I was a little unsure about this, as I was really, really hurting at this point, but J convinced me, and I'm glad he did. It was a lovely, scenic trail, and it was still fairly early, so it wasn't too hot.
All in all, we had a marvelous time, and are excited to go back next year.
Then, I did an old fashioned apple pie (J's favorite).
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