4.15.10 Adventures of a Woman Homesteader

I'm reading The Adventures of The Woman Homesteader, The life and letters of Elinore Stewart (I'm also reading Seed to Seed, The Road & The Last Ship). I've read several times the complaint that Elinore only wrote about the good bits and never the bad but I find that is not the case. For instance, she wrote about the loss of at least two of her children, which hurt her deeply. I think tho, for the most part, Elinore simply saw things differently than most folks. The book was actually recommended to me saying ... read this, you'll like it, she sees the world kind of like you do. And she does seem to, tho I'm not far into the book yet. I think she does try to see the good or at least give the good more power than the bad, which is as it should be in my opinion.

And that leads me to my morning of less than joy and goodness.

It started out ok, I woke exhausted and have felt exhausted for a week or more now ... slept in till 7:00, fed Kirin, had coffee and watched the cats play on the porch. At 8:00 I went out to milk and that's where things got unpleasant.

Anna was a bit terrible. She wouldn't get on the milk stand, we ended up having to lift all 200 pounds of her up there, she wouldn't eat her feed at all, she knocked the feed bowl down spilling feed on the ground, she stomped and hit my hand hard with her hoof, got her legs twisted and almost fell onto me hurting my arm, stomped more and spilled about a cup of milk and continued to stomp and almost falling on me until I had to call Nik to hold her still so I could finish milking. It took almost an hour to get done *~*

She was perfect both milkings yesterday and the evening before and I know she'll be fine soon but it was a horrible ordeal for her and us.

She just needs to get used to us, the way we do things and that this is her new permanent home. I don't know if they raised her from a baby or not but I know they had had her a long time. I know she misses it all, that life and those good people, and I don't blame her at all. We've also had her separate from the rest of the goats, right next to them so they can sniff noses and talk but still alone. She's the first lone goat we've brought in, everyone else also spent time in the chicken pen and holding pen but everyone else had a sibling or friend.

Anyway, my hand is bruised and still hurts quite a bit, I still feel exhauseted (so does poor Nik) but we're all, including Anna, feeling better. She's now in with the herd and they're adjusting and making things right for them. I know she's still not feeling at home yet but I do think she's feeling better.