14 years old!

Yesterday for her birthday, Erinn was sick. Really miserably, throat killing her, congested, sickly sick. Mooky was feeling nearly as bad, but he is 24 hours behind her into this sickness. Kris had "IT" for about 5 days last week...

We rescheduled the family party for Saturday, but went ahead and gave her the presents from us. Originally she said she wanted to wait and have the cake on Saturday. But, then at 6:30 she said "It just doesnt seem like my birthday without a cake!" She ALWAYS makes her own cake, and decorates it too. It's a family tradition. But, this time she was just too sick. So, I grabbed the Betty Crocker Gluten Free cake mix and whipped up a birthday cake for her. She did manage to make the icing herself, and do the decorating too.

This is pretty much how she looked half the day. Got some extra computer time since it was her birthday.

Never shoot a skunk before church

I did a head count on my chickens Friday evening and finally realized exactly how bad the predator situation has become. I only have 5 adult Maran hens left, and 2 banty hens!! Still plenty of roosters strutting around though.... what's up with that? Do I need to put a sign out that says "Please leave my hens alone, but you are welcome to the roosters" ???

So, on Saturday night I set a trap out with a raw chicken bone in it and this morning I went out to check....

....oh no. Another skunk.

Mooky was in the shower, and Kris had been sick all night so I didn't want to ask him to shoot it. Therefore, I shot it myself. "And dragged the whole cage behind the four wheeler as far away as possible. I thought maybe if I kept my distance from the cage I wouldn't stink so bad.

It didn't work. Even though I wore the oldest rattiest clothes possible and threw them away afterwards, I still needed a shower and it was already time to leave for church. I didn't even try to get the skunk out of the trap - I just left him in there! A problem to deal with another day.... *sigh*

I found out two things I wish I never knew about skunks. This one had a nose shaped like a duck's beak. Seriously! And, when they spray, it comes out dark green. lol

A last minute horse trailer for Erinn

In late July we found out that there would be a monthly 4-H horse club meeting in Kerrville starting August 23rd. Erinn was not feeling any better, but I started praying that somehowsomeway she would be able to go to the meetings... The problem was that not only do we not own a horse trailer and can't afford to buy one, but Erinn was feeling as terrible as ever. That Lyme Disease was really keeping her down. I didn't even feel confident that she could ride just once a month, but kept praying about it anyway. ;o)

I did a little asking around (not much) and no one had a horse trailer they could loan to us or sell cheeeeap, so I kinda just let it go. Then, around August 13 Erinn perked up a little and started feeling a bit better. She was able to start taking 2 of her very important medications on the 13th, and has taken them every day since!! (Die Babesia, DIE!!) On the one hand she is up and off the couch a little bit more, and on the other hand the die off caused by the meds is making her feel a little worse. But overall, small improvement.

On August 18 Erinn asked me if I thought she'd be able to get a trailer in time. I told her that it was awful late now, but I'd go ahead and look in the newspaper and on craigslist. I was at GB's house for the afternoon, and mentioned that there just wasn't enough time left to find a trailer for a price we could afford. Aunt Loy said something to the effect of "Well, that's plenty of time for God!"

On the 19th I sent an email to the FreeCycle group, asking if anyone in our area would either rent/lease us a trailer once a month, OR if someone had an old piece of junk trailer needing to be fixed up that they would sell cheap. I got a reply, and we went to look at the trailer Friday (the 20th). It's old, and needs a little work, but all in all it's road worthy and that is what counts. Erinn told the owner that she could only spare $100 for this trailer because she needed to save the rest of her money for horse feed and to pay the farrier. I inwardly cringed, thinking there was NO WAY they'd accept that amount of money. Kris and I were trying to figure out if we could add a little bit of money to that hundred dollars when they lady came back and said "My husband says he'll take $100 for this trailer."

WOW. Only God.

!!!!!!!!!!!!