Bushed

George Bush, the president who stole the election from Al Gore, is on TV giving a news conference with a wrap-up of his presidency. He says, defiantly, that the response to Hurrican Katrina was not slow, that 30,000 people were lifted from rooftops immediately. No mention of all those people languishing in the convention center, and patients drowning in their beds in nursing homes. Okay. Who said the American people get the leaders they deserve? Ben Franklin? I don't know...but when that guy got re-elected I lost a LOT of faith in America. Matt said don't worry, America can survive George Bush, but I don't know. Are we headed for a fall? Rome fell, so did the British Empire upon which the sun never set. America is bled dry and will take years to recover. I am old enough to remember the Greatest Generation that saved the world for democracy in WWII. My father came home to the 6th floor apartment in the Staten Island project and told my mother he bought a ranch house on an acre over looking the South Branch Raritan River valley in Somerset County, NJ, just 35 miles from Manhattan. It was $28,000 in 1958. A fortune then, but manageable on a NYPD cop's salary. Much tougher for kids to get a piece of the pie now, and getting tougher all the time. I didn't feel safe in that house for long, as we were afraid of Nikita Krushchev and the Bomb. My father stockpiled food, water and guns in a corner of the basement in the furnace room. He told my brother to shoot the neighbors if they tried to steal our water when everything above is radioactive. It was pretty scary for a little girl. My brothers were always cleaning their guns, getting ready. I was practicing my piano lesson one day, then got up and skipped down the hall. A giant blast blew a hole in the floor, shattered the back of my piano seat and put a hole in the ceiling above it. Willie had been fooling with his shotgun downstairs and let go with both barrels. That was my big brush with death. My Swedish Opa came out from Brooklyn and put the floor back in. Those were strange times. But for the here and now...chores done at 9:22. I do some things when I get home, like bottles immediately for Larry and Lester, and fill the water tanks for the sheep and chickens. I walk the dogs - Pip and Tanner have to be on leashes or I won't see them for hours - and come back in side to have a cup of coffee and start dinner. I watch a little news, then Matt comes home and I feed us. Around 7:30 we go out to start chores and come in around 9. Granted, I am doing a lot of playing with kitties, lambs and bunnies. That is my playtime with my animals. I am feeding them sheep meat, which I am not enjoying. It is beautiful meat, if you can think of it that way, but I see Andrew and Malcolm's face every time I peel back a wrapper. Mutton has a distinct smell, which is not unpleasant. The cats and dogs love it, but it requires thawing and dealing with bloody juice and plastic wrappers. I'm not sure it's cost effective, as it is expensive to get sheep "processed." I'll be glad when it's gone. The White Boys will miss it. Matt gives them a 2 lb hunk every night, which is gone in two gulps. I have a yearling ewe who is not well. I noticed her lying down quite a bit, but she was nibbling on hay and I moved on. I wormed her and let her be. Today she had her head down, so I made my warm molasses concoction and gave her some LA200 and Vitamin B shots. She got up and walked to the far end of the barn where I found her later. Pulled her back to the front and into the area next to the milk room where I keep critters who need special treatment. She ate corn and bunny pellets (which sheep love but I only give sparingly). I will watch her closely. She's got a gorgeous, thick black fleece and is a very sweet ewe. Maybe she hasn't been getting what she needs. Hopefully I can boost her up. Very tired now. Have to put some pants in the washer and get to bed at a decent hour tonight. Very cold this week. Gosh, it's just January??? Feels like winter has been here for a very long time. The pipes going into the apartment from the milk room go through an unheated part of the barn. They're wrapped with heat tape but in extreme cold, who knows? It went to minus 20 F. when I was living in the RV. That's when my hair froze to the wall when I was sleeping. Glad those days are over. The fire goes out while I'm at work but the apt. stays warm a while. When I got home at five it was 60 in here, not bad at all. I have to get the fire going again as soon as I get home. No insulation up top, thank you NY State who made me get all the hay out of there, and no money to buy any synthetic insulation as long as I am buying hay every week. Let me go to bed and try to forget about all this for a while.