Thursday, January 4, 2018

Baby It's Cold Outside


A nod to all of my fellow bloggers who are currently freezing their tush off. We do feel your pain here in true Nor Cal!

The photo above was taken of Burney  Falls about an hour from my the farm in 2013. That was the winter we got our Artic  Blast and it didn't come from Dairy Queen.  For this girl from the flatlands of the central San Joaquin Valley the absolute thrill of having cold and snow in my own backyard was a gift, a treat for about one week. When it became apparent that after day eight it wasn't  warming up anytime soon with lows anywhere from -3 to 5 degrees and highs of 12 to 13 degrees and hauling water in five gallon buckets twice a day to the goats and chickens the  thrill was waning if not becoming down right old. 




By the beginning of week three it was down right coyote ugly.  But thaw it finally did and a lesson was learned. It is pretty but when your barns aren't build for extreme cold and no matter how hot the fire is it  never got really warm that lesson was "watch out for what you wish for you just might get it." As I said we understand.

This winter has been mild in comparison. We are finally getting more rain. Which is a great blessing as when we get rain we get grass in the fields which makes the goats eyes light up and my feed bill go down. Now that makes me smile. 

The last few months have been preoccupied with Geoffrey's health. I can report that currently the CLL  (chronic lymphocytic leukemia) is not active but not yet declared in remission again. The chemo treatments have ceased for now. To every up side there is a down side. Hey that is is life. So we are now currently tackling a list of issues that were revealed by the same scan that showed the state of inactivity of the leukemia.We  are dealing with one thing at a time in a triage fashion and a list of about half a dozen potential problems.

I am slowly working on a couple post that will bring you up to speed on the farm and fiber activity. Trying to use the blogger format and not the app for doing it.  I must say that if I had known what a pain it is to do that I would not have opted for just getting an iPad. I may be getting a new laptop as blogging is important to me and I would prefer an easier format.  I am interested in your opinions on a dependable lap in the $300 range.  My last one was an HP with a life of five years . I am  not a Dell fan after several issues which left me with a bad tastes for the company. I realize that isn't much of an investment but since I do have the iPad I need a laptop with the basics not a lot of bells and whistles. Thanks ahead of time for your suggestions.









8 Comments:

At January 7, 2018 at 6:49 PM , Blogger Rain said...

Hi Goatldi! :) So nice to get an update. I'm still sending good energy to you and your hubby. xxx
I have a Dell, ugh...speakers don't work properly and when I use the DVD player, I get the dreaded blue screen...the last laptop I had was a Toshiba that I'd bought in 2003. It was a ROCK. The only reason I replaced it...TEN years later was because I couldn't put enough RAM (speed) in it to compete with new apps out there. I fear that quality has just declined so much that it's a crap shoot. I hope someone else can give you some good advice!!!

 
At January 8, 2018 at 11:38 AM , Blogger Goatldi said...

Thank you Rain! I don't think I've ever had a computer last 10 years I don't use mine a ton but enough apparently I think they make them to die early death so will all go buy another one. But the jury still out looking for more input so if anybody's got a suggestion as to what kind of laptop they love let me know.

 
At January 8, 2018 at 6:30 PM , Blogger The Wykeham Observer said...

I'm glad I ran into your blog. Wish you well on your farm and with health issues. Phil/Minnesota

 
At January 8, 2018 at 7:24 PM , Blogger Leigh said...

So glad to hear you are finally getting some rain and that Geoffrey is doing fairly well at the moment. So glad the news isn't worse. (I've been praying for you all!!!) Sounds like you're about as prepared for cold winters as we are - barely to not at all! We finally got a treat of only going down into the 20s last night and now it's raining with warmer temps right around the corner.

I was hoping someone would give you a recommendation for a computer, because I may be in the market as well, depending on my fixing attempts with my "old" one (16 months should be old for a computer!) Like you, not a Dell fan, although I'm currently limping along on an ancient Dell Inspiron 700m. Backlight is fading but at least I can get online! I have my eye on a an Alpha Litebook, but it has Linux preinstalled (not a Windows fan either.)

 
At January 9, 2018 at 5:36 PM , Blogger Goatldi said...

Glad to meet you also. I will put you on my follow list so I can keep up with you. Check back when you can as I may be slow in blogging now but life is fairly entertaining 😊

 
At January 9, 2018 at 5:47 PM , Blogger Goatldi said...

Hi Leigh nice to hear from you.

Yes the rain is quite welcome even though our far northern piece of. California has been in none drought conditions for almost a year. But if we don't continue to get a more regular dose of rain that could change as people tend to do stupid things when they get comfortable. Like waste as they fall back into the "unlimited source" illusion.

Thank you for the prayers and please know they are reciprocated. I am blessed with a nice supportive group of folks both in person and online. Love my angels !

I should email for more details on the product you are watching. I fear the pitfall of getting in over my abilities.

 
At January 14, 2018 at 6:52 PM , Blogger Mark said...

Hi Goatldi,

Catching up on return blog visits. I'll go back and get the whole story, but I am sorry to hear all that Geoffrey is going through. One day and one thing at a time is the way to get through. I'll be praying for the both of you, too.

I'd love to be able to offer suggestions on your computer issues, but we have the same struggle. My primary laptop is a Dell. I got the same professional-grade version I use at work (a used, factory reconditioned one) and it's been ok, but we've had bad Dell experiences too. I have an Acer with not enough memory and some odd OS quirks. I've had three Dell tablets and won't buy another. My current tablet is a Packard-Bell I bought on clearance that is ok, but slooooowwww. No shining stars in my pool of processors.

 
At January 14, 2018 at 11:34 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's Danice, from Homespun Hannah's Blog. We are getting very cold weather, and a dusting of snow the other day. As long as no frozen ice, I'll be fine.

 

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