Spring is here, way past time for an update

I started this and then saved it to come back to it, 2 seasons later..... I am just going to finish it up and start on the next one...... Lots of updates even since this one.


Normally I try to update this blog- well as it seems it has been a very short 4 months and I have yet to keep you updated on here. I do try harder to post on Facebook and Instagram, but this blog was created for our grandchildren to someday look back at the crazy things we done, they will not believe the stories we or even their parents tell them- I am sure of it.

So, at end of last year we had begun to lamb- we are officially done lambing season this year, and we survived. It was a lot of long sleepless nights taking turns to walk to the corral and check on mommas. We were blessed that we had no middle of the night births- only one that was late in evening and I ended up pulling that lamb as he was a record weight this year at 11lbs from Penny- we named him Titan. We lost one lamb from Butterscotch, we are not sure if she was premature according to our records or if it was first time momma issues, too cold or combination of all. Over all we did pretty good with all of the ups and downs of our first lambing season- most of all we are happy it is over. We are still busy with vaccines, weights and tags, paperwork to keep up with and soon we will be weaning. We have since weaned several with no real issues, we will be getting ready to see who is staying and who is going to either another farm or freezer camp.

We have more recently been busy with the idea of rotational grazing and providing the girls with more choices of pasture grasses and  grains in the form of annuals and perennials. The idea is great, but putting it on paper and then to see how it works in the pasture has been something short of a nightmare. We have ended up with 5 various sized paddocks- we tried to stay 100 ft x 100 ft, but we fell short on one and longer on another. We have been purchasing seeds and thus far we have the warm season grasses and crops ready to plant soon. We ended up with Sunn Hemp, Mancan Buckwheat, Iron & Clay Cowpeas, AU Grazer Sercia Lespedeza and a white clover. We haven't purchased all of cool season yet- but our plans are to add Chicory, Purple Top Turnips, Perennial Rye, Persist Orchardgrass, Birdsfoot Trefoil and white clover. On the ridge Hairy Vetech, oats and clover. We will see how this plan works out. We are hoping to break the worm cycle for allowing the pasture rotation, we will allow them access to a single paddock for seven days and then they are moved into another paddock, and so on. We do not unnecessarily treat for worms as we do fecal floats every six months but this allows another piece of mind in this department.

You have to look carefully to see the yellow connectors for the paddocks

Front of house and paddocks #1, #2 left to right. 

We have more chickens in the brooder box and Silkies have been introduced to the Rabbitat. More on that next time! Stay posted to see what happens next!

Fun on the farm

I said stay tuned for more updates on the farm and I must apologize for all of you that have waited and waited and well, waited some more. ALOT has been going on- obviously it has taken me 6 months to get back here and get this updated. Well, let me tell you all the fun we have been having around here.

In the summer we spent most of it finishing up fences and getting ready for the SHEEP, and they arrived last count you had was 8 ewes and a ram. So 9 or so. Well we purchased a whether and he made 10, then we purchased another ewe from Sand Mountain so we have 11. Well, in January, whether has an appointment to go to freezer camp so we will be back down to 10. So how does that factor into our new year goal of 12 or more..... WELL, our ram, Hank, did such a GREAT JOB, we have received our first blessing as a single birth from Brownie she gave us, Sugar. Sugar will remain on our farm, she will be given a new boyfriend in the Spring. Bambi gave us our very first set of twins, Belle and Prince. Belle will be retained on our farm and will share the same boyfriend as Sugar. Prince, his fate is unknown at present. If he is worthy of breed-stock he will sold to another farm. I hope he is, he is awfully handsome. And his grandmother is #2 on the NSIP Elite Dams list. So maybe his future is bright. So we are up to our goal!! We have 13 sheep!

Prince (brown) and Belle (white) our first set of twins

Sugar, our first born

The girls (hens) started laying eggs and we have been very blessed with the amount of eggs we gather daily. Since the time change our production has decreased, but not terribly noticeable, we still gather between 10-15 eggs a day or every other day. We have noticed if we rearrange the coop or make any changes within the coop such as moving waterers or feeders, they seem to get mad and not give us as many eggs. We had installed an automatic waterer system as to not fill the buckets so often. They liked it, but one day during the drought they knocked off the end piece and it drained the water tote dry. It was bad enough we were collecting water from work, the park and every other place we could get water. But then to lose an entire 55 gallon tote, we were pretty devastated by this loss. We have since gotten rain!! And changed our water system to the good old fashioned bucket and they have gotten a 275 gallon tote to collect rain water from. It works well and they seem to be pleased with it. We would have never come up with this idea, it wasn't until the steer was moved into the "small pasture" that we noticed all the "big girls" were going over there and drinking his water. So why not simply again. DONE!

Junior, the Steer, who thinks he may be a sheep after all?

So what is this steer you are referring to??? You have a sheep/ chicken/ rabbit operation.... We purchased a steer for our own personal consumption. He was purchased from a commercial dairy, where we used to buy our grass fed beef. So why buy it, we would rather raise it! So now we have "Junior", they had already named him before we picked him up, and boy was that an adventure- so while I am here, I will tell it. We had recently purchased a used truck for "farm" purposes. So we set out for Lawrenceburg in the truck and trailer, truck starts acting crazy like its the transmission. We stop put fluid in it. Nope. Not doing any better, come home get Camry with trailer, head back out. Now, we have agreed to meet at a certain time frame and the time sensitive individual I am- was worried sick about messing up someone else's day. Get there, LATE...and well he was ALOT bigger than we bargained for. We had put some cattle panels up on the trailer to keep him in. IN MOMENTS, he jumped out, bent the panel and was loose on the farm. I screamed, why I am not sure. And of course the guys were running around trying to corral him back into the barn. You can envision this calf (not really) running around loose. I seen $$$ flying out the window. So he finally got caught again, to me, seemed like forever. We tied him to the trailer, in hopes of a decent ride home. After 1 mile up the road- he kicked and thrashed about so bad he was rocking the trailer and Camry from side to side. He had to be hog tied, lying down, to the trailer. the farm we purchased him from swore there would be a YOU- Tube video out soon of this said shenanigan. If one showed up, I would just have to chuckle with the world. Junior, did make the hour long journey home pretty good. We ended finishing the small pasture fence by the truck and car headlights that night.

A peek in the rabbitat- looking through you can see the meat chicks

A bunny having a snack in the food bowl

So we thought we would wind down the season and get ready to slide into fall nice and easy. NO WAY, we ended up having to cull one of our breedstock mama rabbits, Ginger had a litter and she was urinating on them and they all died as a result. First we tried to save one, two and at some point I had four in the house trying to feed them. Not one survived. So we visited another farm to get away from that breed Californians. We decided we liked what we had read and heard about Rex's, so we were able to find a breeder in the area that shares our same beliefs in GMO's. So after a visit to their farm- we were enlightened in the colony living and how it benefited them. We had to have a "rabbitat". Did I say we were planning to slow down for the fall? YEAH, ok right. So, the hubby set out to build our rabbitat, but wait we are planning on "meat chickens" in the next year? So why not get them on sale for the end of season "fryer special".... Sure, lets do that, it will butt up next to the rabbitat and Molly will help us take care of them, and it will help train her??!!! Well, the training is another story- Standby!
So we spent several weekends working on this rabbitat, we received the meat chickens and bought 2 Rex does in the process- getting ready! (to rest)... Not quiet....

So as I set here and update the blog- I receive dings from facebook messenger for the next adventure. We have placed a deposit for another guardian dog she is a different breed than Molly- she is Akbash x Kangel, where Molly is Anatolian x Great Pyrenees. After reading about dogs and the different breeds each one brings forth a different style in which they manage the herd. We want the best of both worlds. We have been training Molly now for 6 months and we have really only began, as these dogs can take up to 18 months before they are fully trained. She has really tried our patience and I have no doubt we have tried hers. That is where the 54 meat chickens come in. As we started with 54 and at present have 43. We have lost all 11 to Molly and her antics. She hasn't killed them for the sake of eating them, more so she likes to play with them and throw them in the air and when they stop squeaking she is all done. So we had to purchase a shock collar in order to help her remember to not play with the chickens. After about 3 solid weekends we have made progress! As lambing season was fast approaching, we would rather her kill chickens vs lambs. So we have opted to put the lambs and mamas up for a week at a time in order for the lambs to get their legs good before we turn them out with the herd. I touched on lambs born earlier- I could talk all night about cute little lambs but instead I will post pics.

Zena, the newest member to be added to the herd in Febuary

The guineas, we had hoped for great things with these wonderful creatures as they are bullies and known to be just that. We had to give it a shot, but after one of the girls had some feathers missing and a guinea lost all of his tail feathers and they refused to let our Beta Rooster, Mr Peabody eat.... They met their demise and went to freezer camp early. I wasn't convinced that an all dark meat bird would be very tasty, but quickly changed my mind. And like I have heard usually the meanest are the best tasting- they made me a believer!

Stay tuned for more farm updates... we are expecting snow for the New Year, lets hope I can get some updates sooner vs later. Enjoy!

We have SHEEP!

So life has been incredibly busy and that is an understatement. With the last update on the blog- I was going to keep you updated on the sheep as they were set to arrive in a few weeks. Well, a few weeks have passed and well, a few more weeks have passed. I think we knew we would be busy- what I don't think is we knew how busy we would be and telling a sheep or lamb to do something is nothing like you think it will turn out.
We had to get them somewhat used to being handled, so a little coercing with grain goes a long way. Then we needed to test them for Johnes' Disease and OPP. That was another nightmare- chasing sheep all over the 2 acre pasture. As we had no stable housing in place to "catch" them. Then we needed to do fecal floats- which consisted of walking around the pasture and waiting for everyone to drop magical beans so we could go pick them up. Great news was all of hard work paid off. Fecals were so good no one had to be dewormed!! And everyone was negative for OPP & Johne's Disease. So on to better things right like letting us rest in the pasture and not be bother by humans.... Not so much. We have to vaccinate against overeating disease, tetanus and CL. So in the middle of all of that- with a few of our chickens being killed by a not so friendly neighborhood dog- we had to introduce Molly to the herd. She has come a long way and the sheep are doing a great job at training her. Just think I was so worried about her hurting the sheep, as I hear her yelp for overstepping her bounds and one of the ewes has head butted her into the pasture. After Molly had a brief introduction we purchased 2 more lambs from another farm. I wanted desperately a black ewe as we have white, brown, red, grey and a variety of all four. So from what was to be 2 to 5 or 6 to now 8- soon to be 10.

You can add, eh?

Looks like my husband and his "chicken math". That chicken math is he wanted "no more than 3 varieties" and just a few of each. This is how it is in reality. First bunch 10 black astralorps, 5 plymouth barred rocks= 17 (we bought 15 they sent 17) then we bought 6 more "black sexlinks" from TSC, that is what 23? well, oh yea and that is 3 varieties.... right? UH, well... lets see we ordered another set of chicks and that is well..... 10 speckled sussex and 5 lavender guineas= 16- right! ( we ordered 10 they sent 11). So where are we in this chicken math.... oh yea 17+6=23  a neighbor dog killed 2, so -2= 21. 21 +16=37. So yes, we have 3 varieties of chickens and 1 variety of guineas.

A few of the gang members

So back to the sheep math- as he would say to me. We have at present 6 sheep (1 ram and 5 ewes), 2 lambs unregistered. And are slotted to pick up another registered ewe lamb and whether lamb in the upcoming weeks. Our lambs will not be old enough to breed this fall, so maybe in spring they will be ready, and our whether will be going in the freezer as he is big enough. Our goal at present is to have 1+5+2+1+1 and that will eventually equal 13 right? Oh, well I guess we have to buy more sheep, oh yes- permission to buy more sheep! I love that idea.

Addition+2... =13!

Stand by for updates on the next happenings on the farm- we have baby bunnies and our chicks are beginning to lay eggs....

The Dream is closer..

In the last blog we were rehousing rabbits and chickens and just in general doing alot of busy work stuff. Well as I would say, shit just got real! We are still rehousing chickens and more chickens and more chickens!! We have so many updates- I will start with the animals first. Rabbits were behind the house against the retaining wall, they seemed to get alot of afternoon sun and seemed far too warm in the evening. So we had to find them a better location, but where to move them that was convenient for us too? We eventually agreed upon the ridge above the chicken coop. It has a constant breeze of the southern winds, it is shaded by huge oaks and maples, fairly flat as it is a "ridge" that run the entire width of the property and it is located near the chickens, neighbors the goats on the west side and butts up to the woods on the north. It has been a little over a month since the move, we bred the girls to our buck prior to the move, we may have stressed them out so much that the pregnancy wasn't viable as it is day 32 and we do not have bunnies. This is part of the learning curve. If no bunnies soon- they will be bred back soon. We are more than certain they love their new location as they lay on the wire legs spread out, bellies on "grate" we say between us as we know they are relaxing and soaking up the life. Pampered, as we have green stuff galore and we "forage" every few days for purple clover, dandelions, milk thistle, wild roses, blackberries or whatever is growing. Occasionally, if we are being lazy they get a third of a banana or a carrot! They have a pretty good life, we say. Not that anyone on the farm suffers or starves..... as you can see by the sizes of these bunnies

Lil Boy Bleu

Ginger

Big Mama

UP close pic of the ridge above- and the rabbit hutches, far away pic of the ridge and hutches with the chicken "bahhn" in the sunshine.







The chickens are equally spoiled, they get grower in everyday feed, they get to somewhat free range, we moved the compost and now only throw the compost down to them- they LOVE watermelon! We have (of the first group) 5 Plymouth Barred Rocks , and 15 Black Astralorps- 2 black astralorps were attacked and killed last week as they had been allowed to free range and a nearby neighborhood dog decided she was hungry- so they are back on lock-down for the meantime or at least until Molly arrives. We purchased a second group of "sex links" from Tractor Supply- you never know what your getting until their feathers come in. It now appears that we have 6 more Plymouth Barred Rocks, they are in a brooder box in the coop, separate from the big girls. As they get a little bigger, we will intermingle them. And now in the house we have another brooder box with our latest shipment of 5 Lavender Guineas and 11 Speckled Sussex, they arrived the same day the 2 Black Astralorps died. So although sad, we understand we will have unexpected losses.

6 chicks in outside brooder box- one of the big girls is checking in on them too!

    

The newest chicks and guineas. Chicks are brown, guineas are white.

 Molly- the livestock guardian dog or some refers to them as LGDs, that is actually how we found her on LGD locator. She is just a pup about 9 weeks old. After doing some research it was believed to get a pup and train it for what you needed, some that are adults already have a mindset of what they will do and when as they are very independent thinkers and may or may not take orders. Statistics say only about 60% of LGDs are actually good livestock dogs. And it takes about 2 solid years to train them. So with that said, we have our work cut out for ourselves- again. 

Molly the livestock guardian dog

So in our efforts to get the fence up, buy more critters, train critters, breed critters and all the maintenance associated with all of this fun stuff- I haven't even mentioned the fun with the USDA, that we have been having. So far I just updated the critters, but in order to tell you about all the critters I must tell you that without the financial backing of the USDA the next and biggest set of critters would not be as possible without them. It isn't official as we haven't closed on the loan, yet. But we are scheduled to close soon and I don't have pics of the next set of critters either. So in the last update- we were on the fence between goats or sheep- as the husband said I cannot have both. Well, ALOT of research and observations helped us come to this choice of Katahdin Sheep, they are referred to as hair sheep. I will have to update you on our personal experiences with this breed in the next update. They require little to no human intervention- as I observed with goats they tend to need more human intervention, I want the herd to work for us not us work for them. They are hair sheep which means no shearing them, we originally went in to the farm idea of raising alpacas- they need shearing, they need parasite control often. Although they are awfully cute we couldn't find a "multipurpose" for them other than the fiber. Everything in this adventure has to be multi- purposed. So back to the sheep, this particular breed are well with parasite resistance, lambs on pasture- alone, hardy, attractive, of course the cuteness factor of lambs in 5 months, resale value for breed-stock is incredibly well and market lambs are holding steady vs goats. This of course is research- the real hands on experience will come in about 4 weeks to start, and as they arrive I will share the details. In the meantime, stay tuned for the next update with the potential of 5 ewes and 1 ram.                 Coming soon.......

Eviction Notice

Eviction notice came very swiftly. Farm animals in the house are cute- when they are small furry and cuddly, well maybe not really cuddly but small cute and furry for sure. Rabbits got the eviction notice early as they had grown quickly and the house was warm. As they all 3 laid around on the wire- appeared to be warm we decided we had to get them out of the house before the chicks arrived, and was somewhat successful. Until one day come a huge rainstorm and ( I felt) it too wet and cold for them to be out. So I brought them back in to the safety and security of the house (until hubby got home). We come up with an agreed covered to keep them out of the rain, and stapled a plastic drape of sorts to let down in the event of a storm. So far, as long as we know the storm is coming and able to drop the cover- it works wonderfully! So we did decide on some more official names too. Ginger is one of our does, she was the one that ended up with the orange mark on her head and we couldn't figure out what to call her, Ginger has stuck. Big Mamma, she has always been Big Mamma as she has been the largest doe in the crew from day 1. Lil Boy Bleu- is our buck, I believe he is either a runt of a litter or he was too little to be weaned from momma when we acquired him. He is coming around and finally putting on a little weight and starting to overall fill out. Due to his size we was surely worried about him for a bit.

The plastic drop we added for the sake of staying dry. 

The chicks arrived and the room had to be warmed to 100 degrees on week one and then decreased 5 or so degrees every week- so that made the temps in the room where the critters were housed too warm for rabbits. So the decision was made. Rabbits had to go back outside. So we moved their temporary housing to a more permanent housing in the back on the retaining wall. Stacked pallets on sides for walls and underneath for easy cleaning, plus we get to watch their crazy antics of running races around their cages and jumping into mid air for no apparent reason- from the convenience of the dining room table- dinner and a show somedays.

The other angle of all 3 hutches with plastic down. 

So with the rabbits outside and settled, a few weeks have passed and  one what we thought would be a quiet afternoon, hubby came home from work to check on all the critters and the chicks have begun to sprout adult feathers and fly from the brooder box. So in a one and only chicken round up- hubby said that's it- ya'll get evicted too! So the chicks got kicked out last night. They spent their first night at home away from home in the chicken "bahhn" as it is far too big to be considered a coop. It is the Cadillac of coops. 

Outside coop- checking out the new window

Fencing- other than wire purchased, everything else was re-purposed

2 black Astralorps settling in the new coop. I think they like the new "bahhn"

Stay tuned.... I will have to update soon on the gardening aspect of this homestead adventure- as plants live or die, we will see how good mother nature is going to be to us this season. Also, we are in mixed decisions of goats vs sheep- breeds- meat/ pets and lots of other factors.

Are those Farm animals?

A few weeks have passed and lots and lots have changed again, it surely doesn't take long around our house for changing scenery. We have since had a very cold winter and some freak snow storm and another chance few 3 or 5 snow squalls. Looks like the seasons are trying to change and with the change we too are ready for warm weather.
We have bought our first 3 meat rabbits- Californians, they are breed for meat and that is their intended purpose. We have kinda named them as they are they ones we are not going to slaughter initially. We couldn't keep track of who's who, so we ended up marking them with a permanent marker on their forehead until we could separate them. Turns out we have Bleu- he is the buck, but he was so tiny, half the size of the medium one, he has earned Lil Bleu. The medium sized one ended up with an orange mark on her head- I have searched for a french orange name and have only come up with orange. So Orange has kinda stuck with her for now. maybe she will be Ginger? The largest bunny did not receive a mark, but she has earned her name as Big Mamma, she lays around like a a Big Mamma- always in the food trough and huge next to the other too.

Christian and bunny on ride home

Bunny Selfies!

Trio- has settled into their almost furever home

After about 2 weeks after the bunnies arrived- we also received our first order of chicks! We are scheduled to receive the second order in May - we want chickens and guineas, that is another aggravating story I won't relive today, but know chicks and guineas do not hatch at the same time so you get what they have when they have it. Long story short, we now have 2 orders and will have to raise chicks again in May. It actually worked out pretty good as our first order gave us 17 chicks (we ordered 15) they send extra in case you have some that do not make the journey. Fortunately all of them made it just like troopers! And after reading about guineas- they need chicks to teach them certain things so, we have 5 guineas coming and 10 more chicks. In the meantime, we get to learn from these wonderful little precious ones. 

So here we are busy- living the FARM LIFE dream....

Chicken Selfies too! 

The solid black is unknown sexed
 Barred Rock and the yellow black
is a pullet Black Astralorp.

Way past time for an update... Back to living the dream

So, 1 year and three months ago I updated this thing and boy has time gotten away from me. My goal then was to stay on top of this thing like I had done once before. ALOT of things have changed since the last update, some things I will not dredge up again as they are meant to be in the past, of course I will update you on the positive stuff and and of course you will get the updates on the kids, grands, and the pups but more recently the DREAM has become a reality and you will see all the fun we have been having and hear about all the fun we are expecting to have!
First the kids- Jenifer has graduated with her Associates and has started back working on her Bachelors, she purchased her first home in Aiken, SC and continues to work and take care of Dallas- Dallas, has started school and seems to love the new-found fun of education. We was able to Christmas this year at her new house and life is agreeing with them.
Robyn and Anthony not much has changed with them they are still in Manchester and she is working at a local hospital- she is considering a career change that requires more college so they have tossed this up a bit. Anthony started a new job at "the other store" the "orange store" we won't talk anymore about that! Lia has just celebrated her 7th birthday- oh my goodness where does the time go? It was just yesterday that Robyn was pregnant, goes to show you how quickly time flies when you are having fun.
Nicolas has been completely resolved of his military experience and had moved back home for a short period of time- he has since relocated to Knoxville with the goal of being accepted into UT- we don't hear from him too much but ever so often we are blessed with an update, he is working and studying!
April too has since relocated twice since the update, she was in Georgia and then in Tennessee with us for the pregnancy of Alayla, she has since birthed her and relocated back to Georgia- why we are unsure as it seems we have been once again shut out of her life. But we have another beautiful granddaughter (although I really wanted another grandson) as now we have 3 grand girls and 1 grand son. The great thing is they are all healthy that is what really matters.
Michelle has been extremely busy this year from fracturing her ankle and having surgery to going back to school to finish up her education. Her and Cody were married in December and she (of course and him) relocated to Texas as he has enlisted in the military and is now stationed out in Texas.
Ok, I think that sums up the kids and grands.....
Now the DREAM- in some of my last blogs I ranted and raved about the post house buying experience where we were truck drivers and told to quit our jobs and come back and reapply. Well apparently God had other plans and things that needed to be worked out first, he started on both of us first and there were some things in our marriage that needed to be addressed before we could move forward- neither one of us was aware of. But we are now aware of why some of those other things never worked out. I am not going to play the blame game and point fingers about who was right and who was wrong- just know that summer of 2015 was one to forget, but before that happens we must learn from what has happened and continue to build each other up in unconditional love and faith. We have stepped back and made another run at this hill called life and we are doing things again that we swore we "would never," for example, I started back classes in the fall 2015- took Anatomy I and II, studied for the LPN challenge exam and PASSED! All in the same semester, that in itself was a HUGE accomplishment. On top of that dealing with some not so positive stuff. And then before the semester was out, I was offered a seat in the RN program- which I declined for several reasons, working on those kinks at present. My husband has been ever so understanding and supportive of this new decision to conquer this goal, and I truly appreciate him for it. All the while, we were struggling through an obstacle and told at this point (late fall 2015) DO NOT make any life changing decisions! TOO LATE, by then we had started back looking for a house to buy- but not any house, our piece of heaven on earth! So normally- I would have bored some of you with the details of the whole lending/ looking and negotiating process. Today is your lucky day and I won't unless you want details of the process and who was our realtor and lender, send me a message and I will gladly share those details. Just know your lender and realtor make a HUGE difference in your house buying experience and this is hopefully our last one and thus far has been the best- so the old adage save the best for last- we got it!
SO we have the FARM, now we just gotta work on the work part of it and get us some critters! I am going to post a few pics of the progress!
It just so happens where ever we go record winters/ snowfall follows- Christian says it because the year 2007 when I took a travel assignment to Vermont, I prayed for snow that year and boy did I get it, and every year since where ever we have been, God has blessed me with the same records of snowfall. Snow makes me smile- not sure why as it is in reality a pain, but it sure is beautiful to admire.
The second pic is another one of my "callings" my husband and many friends and family will say there is "something" about me and fire- the pic of part of the pasture will prove true, as I went down to burn the diseased willow tree by the mailbox and the winds changed and before I knew it, I was surrounded by this darn fire. Thankfully the hubby was nearby and we was finally able to control it!
Stay tuned, I have no doubt I will have more shenanigans to post in the upcoming summer months and soon we will have some farm animals too!

More adventures, we do say! Prayers for change...

Wow, so it has been over a year... REALLY I have been meaning to update this blog, but I have continually let life get in our way. Lots of things have come and GONE, all things gone are not always missed, all things that have come have truly been blessings. I will be updating pics on this blog, that will be your first indicator to those that may have come or gone!

Let me start by updating ya'll on the kids first, probably in order that I should have been updating you a year ago! I will do my best to list them chronological, but it has been over a year and my demented brain barely works after 24 hours have past.
 First off we welcomed that wonderful grandson into this world ( to whom has already celebrated his first birthday) Trenton DeVonte, he is so precious. It is unfortunate that he now lives so far away, but close in our hearts! April has relocated to be closer to (the babies daddy & family) in poedunk Georgia, she is also trying to find her own way... although her mother doesn't agree with alot of things her mother and her "muffin" are very supportive of her choices.

Nicolas returned from Afghanistan in January- February time frame and we was able to go up and spend a few days in the cabin with him, Robyn, Anthony and Lia. We went snow tubing and had a great time! It was great to just catch up and spend some time out of the truck (more about that later).

Robyn and Anthony relocated from Vermont to New Hampshire, we wasn't totally convinced that was a great idea for them, but totally supportive of their adult choices.

Michelle has graduated high school and still trying to find her own way. We are mending fences currently, it has been a broken relationship for a long time, so it is going to be equally lengthy to complete the healing process.

Jenifer has relocated from Germany to South Carolina, has divorced Fritz and graduated with her first degree, she is currently working on her second. We are extremely proud of her accomplishments. We too had a broken relationship and loving the fact we can now try to mend these fences too. We had our first visit with Dallas back in the late summer and was able to hang out for a few days, we went bowling and to the mall, short and sweet visit but it was a start to a NEW!

Truck driver- officially... So late October of 2013 I was able to pass my CDL, and boy was it a feat. I hired on Werner to team truck drive with the hubby in November. So pretty much immediately we signed on to go to the Canadian Division and that pretty much ended my blogging, and any sort of communication life that we had as we had verizon and the data was unbelievable in Canada. So in a nutshell every storm that passed through, let me help you remember.... Atlas, Boreas, Cleon, Dion, Electra, Falco, Gemini, Hercules, Ion, Janus, Kronos, Leon, Maximus, Nika, Orion, Pax, Quintus, Rex, Seneca, Titan, Ulysses, Vulcan, Wiley, Xenia, Yona, Zephyr.....well maybe not all of them we was sent into the eye of, but I am pretty damn sure we was sent right in the middle of most of them, or so it felt. We was stranded and broke down more times than I ever care to recant. So after a RECORD amount of snow and storm seen in Canada, we had decided we definitely was not relocating to a snowy area, so New England and Canada was OUT!

So I was scheduled for some outpatient surgery and on the down hill mend... well in the process we had asked for some few days out of several months off and was given the ultimate run around, I am being gentle by not giving you all of the details... but needless to say we are SICK of this company and ready for some changes, well we prayed, and prayed and prayed some more for change. What happens when you pray for change, YEP you guessed it. YOU GET CHANGE.

Don't complain when its not the change you expect!

We had started looking for a home to buy in Tennessee, been through the area we was considering. Started seriously looking and signed a contract on our DREAM HOME. Well it was at the time what we thought our dream home! It was a 1 bedroom 1 bath all cypress home on 12 acres in the middle of no where poedunk Tennessee. SIGNED, SEALED...... screeching effect here..... NOT DELIVERED. We got through the entire process, home inspection, new stove, various other improvements, just a week before closing and the lender says the underwriter says, we don't have REAL JOBS!!! WHAT ARE YOU FREAKIN (didn't use that nice word) KIDDING ME!!??!!

True Story- the lender of not only one company but TWO, agreed that in order for this dream to e a reality we had to quit our not so real jobs, come in off the road and get hourly jobs and try to ask again for lending. We seen through this but decided that we would do just like they suggested. We seen that the next time around they would say "why would you quit your job", but they reassured us that wouldn't happen. OK, yeah well... remember back up there we prayed for change. WELL we kept praying and we asked for signs, like if we find jobs then we take that as a sign to stay off the road, if we find housing, and the list goes on.

Doors and opportunities like we never seen before opened and of course closed, we was praying ( and continue to) pray for change

So we moved into a hotel, no really we did our first one was in Goodlettsville but due to the location the prices was steep like $400/ week. So we set out to find a more economical one... In Columbia, which is where everything we owned was in storage, so we continued to pray... and things started or should we say continued to happen. BOOM, we had an apartment and the hubby was offered an amazing job at Lowes, but we didn't have much to move. I guess that too was a blessing, we had given everything away and had to start fresh, new state, new jobs, new careers to some degree, new everything... literally!

But the blessings or prayers haven't stopped.

So I had pretty much gave up on nursing when I went to school to get my CDL, I had seen all I ever cared to see, done everything I had ever cared to do, and pretty much given up on humanity. As a nurse you have to become calloused to things, people and even yourself at times and that was not the person I wanted to be, I am a very heartfelt, loving, compassionate person... I had become hard hearted and feeling taken advantage of all too often. I used to see it in older nurses and never understood it. Now I do. So after trucking and not dealing with what I would consider to be professionals, don't get me wrong they are professional drivers, not professional nurses.... HUGE DIFFERENCE! I now appreciate both. So to tell you my faith has become a little restored, comes in an answered or unanswered prayer, however you look at it. So your dying to know I was forced back into nursing as we live in hillbilly country and they don't think women should drive big trucks even if they hold a Class A CDL. And even had a hard time or what I would call a hard time finding a nursing job, but this isn't just any nursing job. This is a job that I would not have considered in a million years, why I don't know... was there no supply and demand where I was from, do they have a bigger than normal population of this type of "persons served". I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. But I do know that these individuals have needs, wants, attitudes and personalities just like you and I. I have been given an opportunity to serve these unique individuals and I am still not sure, but I believe one thing tends to lead to another, just like my story!!

So with my new job that I started around June- things quickly turned from a dream job to a reality nightmare, I recall calling it on facebook, I won't bore you with the details but long story shortened a bit, this new job working with intellectual and developmental  disabled persons is a serious need of persons to tend persons on varying degrees of care. Seeking out a new job/ career but liking to stay within this field wasn't a task to terrible to undertake. So I set out to find others ( same field, different company models). Hear is where I tell you about our latest attempted adventure/ undertaking....

We are in the process of yet ANOTHER move, only to move again in the spring... hmmm, we must love to move?? Well we currently are in an upstairs apartment, it isn't considered handicapped friendly. Downstairs we move in the next month, to a ground floor, handicap friendly apartment. To date of this typing, we are going to have a "roommate" move in in the next month or so as long as things move along as they have. Of course, tons of hoops to jump through when taking on such an adventure. My job title will change from nurse to Lifestyle Family Teacher, in laymans terms I will be a stay at home mom to an adult with disabilities. I am expecting tons of challenges and adventures to say the least but we are hoping to improve the quality of someones life (possibly our own). This is a huge ordeal and it literally will change our lives. Our hopes and prayers is that is a beneficial change for everyone affected.

Our dreams of being homeowners in Tennessee hasn't changed, just some minor setbacks for now. When it is our time, it will happen. When it happens you will know!!

A blast from the past? I think not...

This blog, a day in the life well it is just that... I can hope one day the children will relive our adventures to our grandchildren and great grands when we are no longer available too. My hopes that my grands will know the real us, and not  some elaborate made up story from someone whom really didn't.
First off today, my faith in huminity was restored for a brief moment as we are considered "professional drivers", although I am not officially, I still place myself in this category as I am living the lifestyle at present. I will get back to that story in a minute. As we had another late nite, meaning no sleep til 0430 due to a late load out of hotlanta to Jersey, we of course called it a nite somewhere in North Carolina, so after noon thirty today we decided it was time to rise and shine, go get some coffee and a shower. On our way in a trucker stopped us, as we was carrying our shower bags and evidenced we may be heading in to do something other than buy coffee, he stops us in the parking lot and tells us not to use our shower points, as it turns out he works local and used to work OTR and tells us when he sees OTR drivers he tries to gives his showers away because he remembers what it was like. How awesome, he is trying to pay it forward,  and this day we was blessed. He too will receive blessings, I am sure! That is my restoration of hope in humanity...I need explain about the shower thing, all big truck stops like Loves, Travel Centers of America and Pilot give a free shower to every 50 gallons of fuel purchased, so we of course have all of the cards and rewards cards to where we are allowed to fuel and we utilize those free showers as I used to enjoy at least 2 showers a day, I have since been downgraded to a daily shower.

Back to the 0430 mornings, so it seems we are cursed in this area at the moment. We are very much in hopes this too will pass. It started last week but it seemed to have subsided a bit, until I of course opened my big mouth, as last week I was fussing about our new dispatcher and how we had gotten shafted to some late pick up and drop off loads, well he at least got us "home" on time this time for the hubbys appointment with the VA and the pups had to go in for their annual check up and shots too. Every one got a clean bill of health for another year, yahoo..But, the drive in for the second week was equally hell as the appointment s are in Valdosta and our quote home is in Albany which a 2 hour drive, that requires someone... namely April to come and meet us so I can pick up a car and then go meet my hubby where everhe drops the load. Drop truck and then drive back to Albany, yeeeaa so 0430 we crawl into bed so we can sleep fast and hurry up and get things done in order to make those appointments. Which brings me to the next greatest adventure we have mutually agreed to headfast and feet into. Since the last child has decided to move out and head out into the real world, we have decided there is no real substantial reason to maintain a quote home, so that day we decided to be home-less and so here it is all pistons firing as we would say to one another,  lets pack up and put everything in storage, yea sure sounds like  a great idea! HAA, we at least opted to take a nap that rainy afternoon before setting out on the latest greatest adventure... after our nap,  it was well into 8pm, we loaded the trailer, the Smart and Camry to as full as we could possibly stuff them and headed southeast to a place I had never hoped to call home again,  Waycross, Georgia, I had lived here many years ago as a newly wed and a new nurse just getting out of school.  I honestly had hoped to never return to this aweful town, I say its aweful for my own personal reasons, but my only brother and mother and now youngest child consider this place home,  so I will hang our hats in storage here for a little while. At the time of this writing, we are expecting Trenton in about 7 weeks give or take, so this movement will help when I need to go "home" for his birth. With the trailer finally packed at about 1130pm, it looked like we may make some good time to Waycross seeing it is about a 3 hour drive. No lie, I was following my hubby as I was in the Smartand he was pulling the trailer, we knew we needed tires and needed them pretty bad but we had put it off even since our last trip when we took the motorcycle to Nic in New York, back in April, we was going to press our luck as we usually have to, we had looked at Walmart the previous day and no one had the tires we needed. So, we pushed forward on a hope and a prayer. I honestly think we would have made it, until I opened my mouth and posted on Facebook how tired I was of these 0430 mornings and no sleep. Guess what, no joke it no more than posted and boom, a tire blew. Literally, the middle of no where AKA Axson, Georgia. I set out to Waycross to find tires, due to the one driving the Smart would be the goffer in the event anything happened, I am sure the hubby wanted it that way. So 30 miles one way to Walmart get tires, to which are not the suggested size but will get us back rolling,  back to the trailer and well you guessed it, another 0430 morning after it was all said and done. Wheeww, so glad that adventure was short lived!
So fast forward to today, which is officially tomorrow now and back to my blast from the past, usually the past is well in the past where it should be. But I guess I should elaborate a bit on some past aggravations as the go with the story, my reasoning for not caring for Waycross, I once upon a time left the biggest - well one of the many biggest aggravations in my life there, my ex husband. You know they called ex's for a reason, to my thought process is DO NOT bother me for whatever reason, I think this should go for all ex's, all they do when they show up is cause drama and then make light of it. I have my life and you should have yours.  Long story short, they no longer are connected.  But obviously someone felt the need to aggravate me today about some issues that are years old. I won't bore you with the details, until next time..
We are in hopes to make it to the family reunion before Saturday in Manchester,  as it is now Saturday and we are heading to New Jersey, it isn't looking very promising, but we remain hopeful to see some family. So as we head north boundand the wheels go round and round we are heading in the right direction.

And the adventure, by way of aggravation, continues...

So my last update was about my newby experience on the truck, the hubby getting his new truck and the joys associated with all of that!
Well our last dispatcher had a way of "taking care of us". Rude awakening to us on the following Monday morning after getting our new truck, you have a new message... this means someone from dispatch is making contact.. So long story and email short, we have a new dispatch... well thats just fucking great... I will save all the in between drama, hubby has a VA appointment, which consists of a 2 week process the first week you go get labs, pee in a cup and then wait a week for results and the following week the doctor will see you and then interpret those results to you. It is a pretty important deal, since you only have to do this once a year..Not this year it seems our new dispatcher has no idea what is going on, whether it be with his fleet or whatever.. as you may notice my tone with him is less than pleasant, I haven't enjoyed talking with him, but the husband says he is probably about 20 years old and arrogant as____-you can fill in the blank with any appropriate word.. Had I spoken with him, we probably would be shopping for a new company to drive for, as I do not hold my tongue well especially when it comes to blatant stupidity. The VA appt has been on the board for notice ever since the hubbys date of hire,  so why in the hell was we still driving at 2am on the day that we were supposed to be home AND why was we routed 2 hours away from home. See what this dumbass fails to realize, if there is no one at home to drive 2 hours to get you, how are you supposed to get home. ? Hhmm, well long story short the husband was able to route us through our "hometown" and luckily April was there to pick me so I was able to get the car and of course drive the 2 hours were the husband had to drop a load on the second day of his 3 days he requested off. So I drove to pick him up because once he dropped the load, we had to have a way home. In between dropping me off and dropping his load he made his first appointment,  although he had to drive through Valdosta and park in a no semi lot to run and get his stuff done. Hubby delivers on time and I am there to pick him up and drive home another 2 hours northwest.. So we are supposed to have 3 days off and be back to the truck for Thursday,  by my calculations driving all nite on Tuesday and delivering a load on Wednesday and reporting back to truck on Thursday is NOT HAVING 3 DAYS OFF? So we return to truck on late Thursday nite after having less than 24 hours "off" to find the quallcom has been sending tons of messages, to include a loads we was expected to be at by 1am. Really? How can you assign us a load if we are technically off the truck. Let me explain, if you log off the truck it is like normal people clocking out and going home for the end of their day has come. So how do you/ canyou expect someone to work,  by taking a shift when they are not even there.  Well just like most normal people dispatch only works 8 or 10 hours and then they get to go home totheir husband and wife, kiss the baby and the dog. Unlike us Iif you don't take a load, it is considered refusing a load and that my dear is occupational suicide. ?. So fear of being labeled as refusing a load- because we wasn't even in the truck, we sent a message to nite dispatch who is sometimes wayy worse that your best frenemy, to tell them what the misunderstanding was on "their part" of course in a nicer way than I would have put it, my husband has a was with nice words... We had only hope we hadn't committed suicide,  as the weekend is now passing... it doesn't look real good we have been officially screwed at least twice in the last 2 days, so the odds are not looking like they are in our favor.  So as the new week approaches we are hopeful for some good loads after the second of 2 scheduled appointments.
Which brings me to some maybe good news after all of that bad.. April and Dom, well thats a mouthful its just they had been holding down the homefront, butwith all of the new changes that the husband and I have making, they of course are involved. With the upcoming birth of the third grand, I felt like April needed to be closer to some family, so I suggested she move closer to my mother and brother, especially since we are on the road more often than not. So she did, and Dom was at the house, but he has since decided tomove back to his mothers too. So all is well,  there is no since in paying for an apartment that has little furniture in it and no one living there. We have given most of our worldly possessions away, and what it left at this moment willbe given away too. We have 2 cars to place in storage and whatever fits in our cars, I feel like is all we will keep. I plan to return to school sooner I originally planned,  but it is so I can hurry up and get trained, and we can get on with our future and doing whatever we want to. Midlife crisis- this screams at you.. haa I know, considering we are willing to be home-less, hell most people go spend money on a new home or car... not us I guess we have really never been what they call typical...

Update on the adventure....

Well, it has been well over a week since my last update and equally the same amount of time since I arrived to take the passenger - co pilot seat. I must say it it different than I might have expected, first off I packed wayy too much stuff!! I also packed according to the size of the truck, to our surprise that too changed this week. Last week I ranted about our breakdown and how we was stuck in Atlanta for several days, thankfully since then we have been rolling with the exception of having to called in to the terminal for the new truck. I don't think usually it would be a big deal to go to the terminal but with the last several terminal incidents,  it has turned out to be a less than desirable outcome so of course we had braced ourselves go be down a few more days this time around too. After our load from Albany to Alachua then to Beech Island,  S.C. we received good news to go to Omaha. We heard that very important message,  somedays it is like winning the lottery when you get that message, we both looked at each other and smiled knowing the SDM, or dispatcher knew something that we didn't know but we were sure hopeful nonetheless.  A load to Omaha could only mean one thing, we had a new shiny truck waiting on us!?!  Hell bent we set out of course there is really no driving straight through,  so we plan our stops that are geared toward fuel stops, as we are only allowed to fuel at approved facilities,  and where we can possibly shower and park overnight. Sometimes we get lucky and get both, sometimes we are literally being chased by the clock and don't have a chance to both. We manage, its kinda like camping EVERY night, something fun and yet mysterious about it.
On the way up, I imagined we would have had a 34 hour reset, that means you run out of hours and your pretty much stuck where ever you are and staying down for what is considered a 34 hour reset, basically your reseting your drive clock. So with my thinking about we would have a reset in Nebraska, I immediately went into looking how far a drive it would be to Mt Rushmore as that is on our bucket list, it turned out we didn't have reset and in turn hageenough time to get to Dallas, which is where we are heading now. On these resets, in order for you not to be in DOT violation the truck doesn't move, so you have to find alternate means of transportation.  Long story short, no Mt Rushmore in the plans this week.
As it turns out, our plans for a load to Omaha was to pick up the hubby's new truck!! It isn't a brand new truck but for what we traded, we are very pleased. Our last truck had an air conditioner in the middle of the sleeping bunk, so it was virtually impossible to get a good nites sleep in comfort.  Our new truck has a solid bed with no ac unit in the way, and the to9 bunk is completely lifted out of the headspace way, no ducking to get around. So in all after the wait and terminal aggravation, the fleet manager did us very well.
In the mean time of trying to find a new adventure along the way, we just keep the greasy side down and the shiny side up and the wheels go round and round...

Adventures abound?

Yesterday, July 15th marked the first official day that I was allowed the chance to finally set sail with the husband in his "office" as he calls it. I had previously booked the entire month of July off work to go out on the truck with him and the four legged children. For whatever reason, it never worked out for several weeks, for when your making plans; life happens. So after a refreshing weekend of trying to move into the truck we left Albany after 1:30pm, the first stop was a "live unload" so after April and I waiting at the truck stop we decided to meet Christian at the drop, still after April dropped us off it was still another several hours of waiting for the unload. UGGH, thank goodness for AC esp, in the south, in a truck and surronded by concrete! Well as I am hoping as soon as this unload we are bound for ADVENTURES!! Well, as they unloaded the trailer- there is damage to the trailer, so that means we have to take the trailer somewhere to be repaired... more time spent wasted. Let me explain a lilttle as I am learning too, once you log on to your truck- literally your clock starts and although you may not be driving or technically working your still losing hours, you are allowed 14 work hours, and 11 hours of driving time. So to help make it make sense, we spent 14 hours while the driving hours where only 4 hours spent. What that means in lay persons terms is, if your not driving- your not making money. They do not pay hourly, it is strictly MILEAGE.. So technically, yesterday sucked. So after we dropped our trailer to be repaired, we message dispatch via Qualcomm, that is another computer generated tracking/ communication device like a little computer in your truck. You cannot surf the web, it is like your life life to the company terminal. So as we set and wait on return communication from dispatch, this takes HOURS- literally! So in the waiting time, we crawl in the sleeping cab and enjoy lying down, eating lunch, walking the babies or whatever we want to do and anxiously await verbal message...insert ding-"you have an important message".. those are the joyous noises! Finally, we have a load.. to pick up in Macon... Great we are moving! Take a trailer from the place that we just dropped a trailer, heading to Macon, hoping for a trip North or West as I had asked to go, not that dispatch listens but they do try to work with you. Heading down the highway....not even out of Dougherty County- insert ding "you have an important message"- so as your driving down the road, the messages are verbal and they will not show typed text while the truck is motion, so we have to stop and this is alot of work. You are not allowed to just pull off and park anywhere, so you have to find a "safe haven" to stop and read your messages, they will read it to you but it literally reads everything like the message and letters and dashes so it is hard to understand exactly what they are saying without looking at the message, you get the just of it that there has been a CHANGE to your load, and oh shit--- so are you now going the right direction? Or picking up a different trailer in a different place... Just crazy change your mind and direction in one simple "you have an important message" So after we are slotted to pick up in Macon, well that load is still on BUT, now the rules changed a little bit.. Go meet another driver at ### this location and swap loads...? WTF, really! Ok, so we make it to Macon to an undisclosed location that was as heavy protected as FT Knox, getting cleared through security.. husband says do not get out of truck<scratch my head> but ok. OH hell it gets better. Get our load and get outta town, dispatch sends another message that he must call and get briefing on load... bottom line, high potential for theft, KEEP MOVING!! NICE, I thought and we are going to where? ATLANTA ugghhh, not what I was hoping for. So we arrive at our "meeting" place to swap loads, the other driver is still outta town for a bit, as we got caught up in traffic from an accident, we are sure either he encountered the same or just hotlanta rush hour traffic, either way... we are screwed. We cannot "sit" we have to keep moving till we meet up. UGGH, so drive in and around Atlanta looking for a somewhat safe haven to kill some time or to pee or do whatever.. Yea right! Not happening. We have 2.5 hours left on clock.. There is no way we will swap loads, deliver this other guys load and get outta Atlanta in that amount of time, we knew we would be stuck there.. Guess what, dispatch doesn't usually answer too many calls "after hours" so trying to get in touch with the other driver at this time seems bleak.. and they won't answer the phone? Continue to drive around.. well lets seek out the local truck stops as we may have to stop there.. WOW, the google reviews say "if you value your life you will not stay" at this one and that one, $15 parking posted on reviews saying it isn't worth it.. We finally find a truck stop.. FULL, slam full of people- trucks- less than desirable people who readily approach your truck asking if you wanna have a good time? EWW, true story one less than desirable approached the truck, jumped up and stuck her head in the window.. I know she was going to offer a good time, until she seen me in the sleeper, HAA, then she just asked for some money "to get the hell outta here", we watched her approach one truck/ person or another. So freaking disgusting. Well after that fun, and numerous messages finally a phone call from the other driver... SCORE, we are making a drop and swap in the middle of a parking lot... QUICKLY! So as it turns out the driver we swapped with, was the first driver of our truck and he asked how it was doing, my husband unknowingly jinked us just then... He said, he hasn't had any trouble..!! BIG mistake, husband. We rush over to drop this load on time, wahoo. But we have about 30 mins left on the clock, now what? Luckily, we are blessed on a REGULAR basis as it turns out, the place where we dropped the load has some property nearby, we are granted access as a safe haven for the night!! First overnight in an 18wheeler, truck shuts off every hour due to the temperatures outside, so I awake the husband every hour to restart the truck, we are also parked VERY nearby the airport, the puppas are bed hawgs, and the bunk is NOT a full size + the non working, non removed air conditioner is in my back on the wall... SO yea! as the husband asks "did you sleep at all" hmmm, well.. doesn't really matter, my job is a passenger and requires no brain cells or sleep!! And its a good thing too!!
So we set the alarm for 0600, in hopes of a load to the North or West this am (as now it is a new day) and we get up and walk the puppas, do some morning ritual stuffs and await the message... lets go back to sleep!!! SO we did get another hour in before the notorious bleep- "you have an important message".. Good news, my adventure is rolling ? Yea ok. Heading to pick up load, the trailer is dragging? Christian gets out and checks the brakes.. hmm, nothing. Get back in and drives, still pulling. Don't know whats going on of course niether of us are mechanics! Get to pick up location, they do not accept empty trailers, you must come in as a "bobtail".. I am learning the jargon! So we head somewhere else to drop the trailer, UGGH.. dealing with fat, lazy security guards all before coffee, REALLY! Finally drop the trailer and thinking we are heading to get some coffee and heat up some breakfast, as our load will be unloaded and ready in 2 hours, coffee, yes! Leaving the trailer yard..the truck is jerking like crazy, hmmm smells of burnt rubber or something of those lines.. Coming to a stop, the truck is smoking? Just get to a truck stop, get some coffee and we will message dispatch of what is going on..Good thing we opted to get some coffee and breakfast all the while. After coffee and breakfast, no messages.. Hell, lets lay down for a bit. Nap thirty. Actually 2 hrs later, we get a message to drive truck to Atlanta terminal for repairs. So an extremely long story short, we are in a hotel tonite, while the truck is undergoing some definate needing services. Husband returns from terminal just before 5pm.. another day, no wheels going round and round. Epic suck. Shop manager is going to try to get us on road tomorrow, prayers he is successfull! Good news is the bed I am sleeping in tonite is a full size, for real!

First day of the next chapter

Sunday embarked another First in our lives, the husband was released from his trainer and set loose in hotlanta to seek out what new adventure awaited him..WOW, that about sums it up. His first truck assigned, had something wrong with it, oh yea... they searched the lot up and down and duh, it wasn't even there. So they assigned him another truck, they found it but might have been better off if they hadn't! It was driven by a smoker and wreeked of cigarettes, nastyness and other stuff, bad news brakes are bad, leaky shocks and some pump not working on top of no fuse for cigarette lighter outlet? So how did he light all those cigarettes? So much for off to a good start, my husband says ww, we will start again fresh in the morning. WW means between husband and I, WHATEVER, WHATEVER!! We use that phrase amongst ourselves when we are talking about something that is usually beyond our control and it consumes more time to worry about it, than it is actually worth. 

So, before my husband set out on this journey- believe it or not- he was doing some research to see what company offered the best this and that and just reading what was on the internet about OTR drivers and their experiences, and we came across someones "blog" that was actually quiet hiliarious it went along the line of describing me and uptight, person with severe OCD as the wife and just like my husband, the man was laid back and like whatever comes his way he was ok with it!. The story was funny and sounded alot like ours whereas the wife was upset that he had been granted a POS truck and the husband was so happy because he actually got a truck, we giggled about that story last night and how it was coming true for us too!

As it turns out today, his truck was fixed last night and he was granted "move in" status! So early this afternoon he was awaiting orders from the fleet manager to get his first load. After I came home from work, I had phoned him with some good news from the mail box, while we are on the phone chatting he gets a beep-beep-beep, he says hold on, .... standing by... he comes back on, he has mutually good news.. his first load, he has orders for his first load to Douglas, GA !! Yea, he says "I always knew you was good karma"
So as I update the blog this evening, I am anxiously awaiting the phone call to meet him somewhere to pick him up, as he has no where to park the truck at the house. He picks up a load in Albany in AM and is set for Ft. Lauderdale, FL. <phone rings NO LIE, after this, and guess what>  SAVE as DRAFT, off to Tifton to meet my hubby because he doesn't have enough hours to drive to Albany tonite. Well, actually that was now a few nites ago, and am picking up where I left off.. BOY, wheew what a last few days I have had...

So for what was supposed to be a nice quiet evening with my husband home after over 6 weeks of him not being home, soon turned into a nightmare. At 3:30 am, Cleopatra is sick, well she has had an upset stomach with vomiting and loose stools for over a day at this point, going into the third day. She loves to get into the trash, eat everything, lick frogs or whatever she can get in her mouth. I swear, if it doesn't eat her, she will surely try to eat it..So initially I did not get alarmed by her sickness, as usually in a day or so she is back to normal. Well, this time its different, she is having bloody stools and she isn't able to control it. Red flags start going off, due to we lost a chihauhau back several years ago and more recently our baby Napoleon contracted Parvo and was successfully treated although both dogs had been previously vaccinated, it doesn't really matter they can still get it. So you guessed it, we was sure that is what was going on. So the first phone call to the vet to see if I could give her some "human" phenergan to hold the vomiting to a minimum. The vet is wonderful as she always is, said yes of course and give it rectally if needed. Done that, no success in either direction. The loose stools are now projectile and its call the vet back or take my husband to Phoebe for a heart attack or stroke, as this is his dog and he isn't handling this stress very well. SO another phone call to the vet at 4:00am, I tell her what is going on and advise her, we are enroute with Cleopatra. So donned in a diaper and so softs and towels covering my car..... off we go. BUT FIRST, I have to take Christian back to the truck in Tifton, because he has a pick up in Albany that morning. So off to Valdosta, its a 2 hour drive one way to our vet from our new residence. We refuse to change vets and few other services due to our loyalty to their great service. Thinking the worst in our minds, both husband and I are literally sick too. Dropped the husband off and of course Cleo is still drinking water and constantly wretching it back up. Thankful she still has the urge to drink in order to attempt hydration. Before 7am, I am at the vets office awaiting the Dr, I have explained to the staff my recent phone convos with Dr Hiers that am. They know our worst fears and come in immediately and start doing tests on her. Thankful that I am there with her and she is going to be taken care of, I am a bit relieved!
Days later, literally.... as I have had some moments in time to update this, Cleopatra is back home and after 5 days of antibiotics and 4 other drugs, she is MUCH better!!!

Wrap this up

as the title says wrap this up my time with my trainer is just about over. It is been a very long 5 weeks of shitty roads, loss of sleep, shitty food, and in general living with a complete stranger and very close quarters for 5 weeks has taken its toll on not only me but the guy who was stuck with me. thank God my army training has prepared me for this. It was more than one time when I was ready to inflict grievous bodily harm on him and I'm sure he was ready to try and push me out of the truck while it was moving at a high rate of speed. Unfortunately in our travels I am one of those people that want to stop see things and try different things. While in the very heart of Louisiana cuisine I wanted to have some gumbo some boudin andother Cajun delicacies. So after directing my trainers traffic and telling him that next time we are in the area we have to stop because I am going to get said gumbo and boudain. well needless to say my trainer had other ideas. It is damn near impossible to turn an 80's foot tractor trailer around after he passes the only restaurantsof said Cajun cuisine. So after waiting weeks which seems like it was years I was not able to get any. Okay change in plans I'm flexible, I will kill you later, whatever let's keep on rolling down the road. So we got a shipment to West Memphis Arkansas also known as Jonesboro I don't know why the city has two names but it does so what the hell who cares. While driving west into the sunset I realize that there's more to life then being upset over little things. Now I know this I've experienced a lot of disappointments in my life and have had carrots dangled in front of to tote a load that I thought was too heavy but I complished what I needed to. See the sunset, seeing those around me that had less than I do, and watching some of those less fortunate that were around me made me realize that though I didn't get the boudain and gumbo I was going to be OK but I was still pissed off. Now for a change of pace I have to explain to you that West Memphis and/or Jonesboro Arkansas is 1 hell of a prostitute haven. In our trip from Madison Alabama to Memphis Tennessee back to Madison Alabama through Memphis Tennessee again into West Memphis and/or Jonesboro Arkansas we were not going to have enough fuel to make it back to Madison Alabama so we have to stop at certain truck stops that Warner Enterprises authorize. One of those is a loves truck stop. well I like coffee my coffee, Nay I love my coffee, and it is free at loves because I have a professional driver reward card. Professional driver what the hell were they thinking? But I digress, I walked towards the door to go in and purchased coffee. There was a gauntlets of [I'll be nice and call them women others would call them whores] trying to sell their wares to those that dare to venture into the pit of of ill repute.as I was able to fend off the advances of those more worldly than I, I noticed that of the five showers available to truck drivers for a fee or if you are a professional driver you are allowed 1 shower every 50 gallons of diesel purchased. one of these shower rooms are being utilized by the local working ladies. so with my past military training I was able to about face and extract myself from the hostile zone. by the time I got back to the truck my trainer stated the pumps were not working anyways that we needed to go on to a different stop. That is not a problem let us get out of Dodge. so we get back on the highway headed east towards the mighty Mississippi and after crossing into Mississippi we pull off to another Loves .again this is the only place we can stop that Warner allows us to in this area. After seeing the condition of the truck stop I'm ready to go to Home Depot and buy a link of garden hose and start siphoning diesel to avoid this kind of place. But with no Home Depot insights I have to fuel up here. No sooner I get the fuel pump running I get approached but what appears to be a woman? I questioned it is only because as I observed its gait, it almost tripped 3 times on its own shoes. Immediately the hand when up in a stop gesture and I said I am all set go away. Fueling what seemed like 2000 plus gallons ended and I need coffee. If I did not get coffee I'm going to kill somebody. And I can hide the evidence and body. I don't care whose body somebody's gonna get hurt if I don't get my coffee. So again I'm going to go through a gauntlet of I don't know what but I had to make it through this time. I walk into the building this time and my trainer is on my 6. I get asked hey sweetie are you spending the night here do you want company? I looked at said Jezebel and with a straight face pointed back to my trainer who had no idea what the hell was going on and said yeah him and I are spending the night together here.I got my coffee and left without further incident. So if you're ever in the Memphis Tennessee or West Memphis / Jonesboro Arkansas area and you need gas or fuel take your chances and go elsewhere. As of Monday I will be officially on my own tearing up the roads of the 48 States and Canada. Wish me luck and I hope these blogs are as enjoyable to you as they are to me. And as a side note my grammar really isn't this bad, I'm talking to text.