Starting my blog today…

March 11, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged adopting from Russia, Alpine goat, dog boarding, emu eggs, farm, NCSU Craft Center, pet cremation, pottery

On the advice of a good friend I met several years ago in a pottery class at NCSU Craft Center I am no longer waiting for my 13 year old son to make a website for my farm…I will do it myself (as a blog). I think my days are ordinary, but I know most friends would disagree…

YESTERDAY I took two goats to a pre-school and met with children on the playground. “Gabrielle” is a one year old Alpine goat who is pregnant with her first baby and “Hannah Montana” is an all-white baby (4 weeks old) Alpine. Both did great traveling in the car and at the school and the children had fun feeding them and walking and running with them. At one point I had a bunch of kids following me and we’d do whatever Hannah Montana did-jump, stop, shake, turn…

“Maddie”, our favorite huge St. Bernard arrived in the evening for a week stay. Little one-eyed “Bandit” the Tibetan Spanial, “Duffy” the Shitzu and “Tank”(who we call Pierre) and “Minnie:(who we call Sophia) the Bouviers are here as well.

TODAY I heard from Angel Hess (purple53.com)-he’s been on CNN. http://www.cnn.com/exchange/blogs/notebook/2008/03/i-reporter-hits-and-lives-road.html

I met this morning with a man who may store a trailer filled with furniture here for a while til he moves to a condo and I walked around the farm with a woman who counsels people when their pet dies. She and I had an interesting conversation about my dream of pet cremation in my outdoor wood furnace. I would make pottery urns or pottery name plaques to post around the farm wherever pet ashes were spread.

I then spent time with a Mother, Grandmother and little boy who enjoyed meeting the animals, especially the baby goats and seeing the farm. I had him try to guess the color of emu eggs but he was very surprised by finding out they are bright green! I have many extra dogs boarding here and most of them accompanied us on our walk. We ended up sitting with dogs on the back deck talking about my experience with adopting from Russia while the little boy, Garrett, raked leaves from my patio and put them on my garden. He enjoyed his first ever trampoline jumping and I’m hoping they’ll be back again.

When I spoke with Kim, my NCSU Craft Center friend, we were catching up on ages of talk…she has a friend who may want to make crafts with my different colored eggs-both emu and chicken.

Danal, an old friend from Middle School who now lives in Thailand popped back into my life the other day via. Facebook.

My link is: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=544168032

I have been surprised to have complete strangers request to “be my friend” and have so far just ignored their requests. I was probably way too happy when my 13 year old son invited me to be one of his Facebook “friends”.

The internet is an amazing place and I love being able to communicate so easily and quickly. Just this past weekend I used the internet to send condolences to someone who’s husband died. It was incredibly easy to write a long detailed note about what I especially remembered about him and then just hit “send” without searching for an envelope and nice stationery and a stamp (or going out to buy a condolence card which never seems to say exactly the right thing).

We’ve been busy rearranging the house here to make room for Dot, our Grandmother type friend, to move in. Elizabeth volunteered to move from her room so now Dot has a suite with a bath. Elizabeth picked the paint colors for her new room-bright orange and yellow. It ‘s a sunny room now and she’ll never suffer from seasonal depression! I feel like I’m in a tanning booth if I’m in the room on a sunny day! Alex decided to move his bedroom furniture around and make room for a skateboard ramp in his room. Ben took the larger, queen sized bed, that had been in the guest room and changed out his twin. His room seems very empty since he spends more time at his father’s house lately.

I am reading multiple books about Mt. Everest and I enjoy all the different perspectives of those who were on the mountain during the tragic May 1996 pre-monsoon period. The latest book I just finished is THE OTHER SIDE OF EVEREST by Matt Dickinson. I enjoy some adventure and did some sky diving when I was younger but I know I don’t aspire to climb mountains. I enjoy reading about Tibet, esp. in my very favorite book LOST HORIZON by James Hilton.

I am reading a stack of books about explaining physical body changes and life choices to my children. Purity is my goal for them and my personal example to them while single. During a recent weekend conference on Purity for middle schoolers at my church, Crossroads Fellowship, I felt a very strong call to eventually make my farm a place of education along these lines for children and parents and am considering a title like “Birds and Bees”…this will take some research and perhaps start with educational programs for parents and small children, then move toward educating and informing older children including teens…I am thinking the new 5th and 6th grade combined “pre-teen” ministry at my church might be a possibility.