Catching Up Around the House and Other Things

So, a few things have happened since my last post.
Let's start with yesterday...
I milked the goats and then let them loose like usual. Somehow, someway, they managed to get under the house.
You see, our house is a double wide trailer/modular home...whatever you want to call it. Anyway, it has skirting around the bottom. The skirting (in the back, anyway) is partially protected by some fencing that was put there long before the Darlin' Man moved here. The goats, as goats are wont to do, managed to push the fencing out of the way and get under the house. There they lolled about in the cool shade until discovered. At that point, they scattered in panic. In their panic, one of them (Oh No MOLLY!) managed to snap a pipe that was just outside the skirting. A geyser erupted. Turned out, that pipe was the water pipe coming into the house.
I managed to get to the water turn off and turned off the geyser.
So, that left me with no water.
No water means no swamp cooler which means the house heats up FAST!
I got the goats back in their pens, closed up the house, turned on the fans and turned off the pump on the swamp cooler so the motor wouldn't burn out.Called the Darlin' Man. Got his voice mail as he was in a meeting. Darn!
He called back about a half hour later and told me he called the landlord and gave me the landlords number. I called the landlord and he told me he would be here at 9 pm to fix the pipe. I also measured the broken pipe and gave him the size, etc.
The kids got home from school and starting stressing..."No water!?"
Heh...I got this. I pulled out some of my water storage and everyone was able to have some nice cool water to drink...I also made lemonade.
At 9 pm, the landlord showed up and repaired the pipe in about 5 minutes flat.
So that problem was not too big a bump in the road.
Interestingly enough, the landlord didn't say a single word about selling the place, needing us to move, etc. His wife was the one that informed the Darlin' Man about the impending sale, but her husband was present. I just don't know what is going on there.
I am still going on with the property search!
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The Darlin' Man is having a few health issues. He had a small pimple on his face to expanded to humongus proportions overnight. He went to the doctor and after they drained it and ran some tests, the doctor told him it was MRSA. Turns out, the first time he had a abscess like that form was when he was in Desert Storm I.  The one he had that time was on his neck and got to the size of an orange! Turns out, quite a few soldiers returned from Kuwait and Iraq with MRSA. So, he is on antibiotics and I am trying to boost his immune system through diet. Figure if we go after this on all fronts we have a better chance of beating it down.
Also, his back had been giving him a fit, so he had the doctor check that out as well. Looks like something is wrong with one or two discs in his back. He gets an MRI this week so they can get a detailed look.
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The Darlin' Man's oldest daughter is coming to visit for the rest of the month. She is going to college in California, but has a break from her classes and her job right now. When not in school she stays with her grandmother (Darlin' Mans mother) in L.A.
So, she is not used to goats, chickens, etc.
Thjis should be fun! I'll get her to help me milk in the mornings.
That's not TOO evil, is it?
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Ugly Betty never hatched any of her other eggs.So, I checked them out and a couple were complete duds and the rest just never completely developed.
So, Betty is happily living on the front porch with her three babies, "Bo", "Peep" and "Inky".  Like I have said before, Betty is a good mama hen. It is fun to watch her teaching her babies to drink and eat, etc. At night she makes a little chirring sound and all three run to her and duck under and snuggle down. Inky has the habit of trying to snuggle down on top of his mama, but Betty is having none of that! She makes sure he (?) is tucked under her wing before she nods off to sleep.

Sunday Update

Well, here we sit...not knowing what to do next.
The landlords have not said one thing since they made the announcement that they were selling.
Nothing. The Darlin' Man is thinking it was some sort of *bluff* to make sure he pays the rent on the first of every month and no later. Maybe.
But we are doing a major cleaning/reorganizing thing here just in case and getting quite a bit of non-essential stuff boxed up.

Ugly Betty only hatched out 3 chicks. The rest of the eggs were *duds* She is settled in a large wooden planting box on the screened in front porch with her chicks..."Bo", "Peep" and "Inky". They are so cute! Betty is being a terrific mama hen and is teaching her chicks to eat, drink, scratch, etc.

The goats are being really rambunctious lately. Nina has been getting downright mean. She head butts, bites and tries to get me with her horns. I have checked her all over...nothing physical...she is just moody as hell right now!

The heat has hit...ugh. Except for early morning, late evening and emergencies, I am effectively house bound during the heat. It actually makes me feel ill if I stay out in the heat for more than 15 minutes, so my way of dealing is to flip night and day and sleep during the day and stay up at night.
I hate the heat!

Curses, Changes Again!

We have been informed by the landlord that they plan on putting this property up for sale in four weeks.
Four weeks?!?
We can stretch it out a bit longer than that because the Darlin" Man has to get leave approved, etc. to get the time off to find us a place to move to, and purchase said property and then move us there.
We plan on moving to Vermont.
I have ramped up our property search and have found around five properties that may suit us.
They range from from 10.5 acres to 40 acres.
All have houses on them (we won't have the luxury of building with this short time frame!). The houses are in various states of repair, or disrepair , as the case may be.
I probably will not see the house and property in person until the day we arrive.
So...a new adventure begins!
I figure the end of August will be our limit here...until then, I'll be packing, taking care of the critters and desperately looking for a property online that we can afford and that has most of the things we want.
We also have to figure out how to transport the 5 of us, 2 dogs, the goats we are keeping (either 5 or 7...still discussing), around 10 chickens plus Pender, the peafowl, maybe a turkey or two. The geese will be going to a new home.
Yeah...Noahs Ark on wheels!
We'll figure it out...somehow, someway...