Love Affair Gone Bad

Just over 3 months ago I gave up my love affair with Coca-Cola.  Let me tell you, it has NOT been easy.  I really depended on all the sugar and caffeine - consuming about 6 cans a day to keep me going.

In fact, it substituted as breakfast.  As soon as the hubby drove off for work, my first can was cracked and gone within 5 minutes.  Loved the feeling of the fizz and most importantly, it gave me the urge to poop.  I know, I know - TMI (too much information) but seriously if I didn’t have a can of coke, there would be no toilet time.

Just say NO!

With addicts, they remember their last time, just one last fix.  Well, my one last can wasn’t planned nor did I see quitting even coming so the words “one last time” didn’t apply.  My last can happened at my step-mom’s birthday party on Dec. 15th.  I hadn’t had a coke all day so when we got there I happily cracked open a coke.  Little did I know that the next can would become the last.  I sipped away on the second can until we were ready to go and that’s when it happened - the love affair abruptly ended.  Not because I wanted to...it was more because I didn’t have any left at home and I refused to buy a 12 pack at the local country gas station for $6!  So for two days I was without....then the migraines & nausea set in.  WOW, I was miserable!  That’s when I decided enough is enough.

Here is my parting letter the day I said I was done:

Dear Coca Cola, 

We have been together for a long time - from thin to thick (which I thank you for contributing to my midsection muffin top), and in good times and in bad. You have been there for me to keep me going when sleep is hard to come by, help control/maintain my bitchiness, give me enough energy to juggle two businesses, a farm, kids, bowling & roller derby and finally stimulating morning bathroom duties.

After this weekend and having the last can out of your case and being totally out for two days, you punished me with an awful, awful migraine and even made me throw up my delicious Grizzly’s dinner. That was totally uncalled for. How DARE you make me waste an entire day of not being able to get anything done!! I have dreaded the day that I would say this but I am ENDING my love affair with you. No, I will not be bringing home your buddy Diet, he does not meet the expectations as you had fulfilled.

Sad to see you leave my life but here’s to the beginning of a new, hopefully healthier new year!!

Signed ~

YOUR FIZZLED OUT LOVER

The first few weeks were really tough.  I craved the sugars so bad.  I almost gave in but was able to hold on and be strong.  I think one of the toughest days was going from derby practice to a beef meeting and sitting besides someone who had a can of pop (and not even a coke at that!).  It looked like GOLD and was sooooo tempting.  As she lifted it up to her mouth, I felt like ripping it from her hands and guzzling it down.  Now obviously I didn’t do that but I do wonder what the rest of the members would have thought if I did that!!  Crazy, pop deprived mom dressed in fishnets and shorty shorts stealing pop.  WOW, that would have been a sight to see!

Boring black tea

I must confess that I did not cut out the caffeine.  I LOVE plain, black, boring tea so I now consume MANY cups of that a day.  I do use the same tea bag for the whole day so I am not getting as much caffeine as one would think, in fact by the end of the night, its pretty much plain hot water.  However, there have been two nights that I must not have had too many cups during the day thus making my night tea caffeinated which then resulted in me being up until 3 or 4am.  Lesson learned - no tea after 6pm or make a decaffeinated cup instead.

Scale today!

So here it goes......the best part of this whole “ending my love affair” is.......the scale!  I went from over 200lbs to just hitting the high 170’s.  23.6lbs to be exact.  That equals out to be a small child or a bag of dog food or 3 gallons of milk!  It’s crazy how much I have lost just with cutting out pop.  I am sure the 2-3 practices of roller derby a week sweating for an hour and a half each time has contributed to the loss but I know that from practicing I have gained a lot of muscle.  Not only does the loss show on the scale but it shows in my clothes too.  My jeans that I bought last fall are falling off even with a belt, shirts that wouldn’t normally fit actually look half-way decent again and....my underwear are all too big!!  Body wise - my love handles are getting smaller, my belly is somewhat looking flatter again (despite the ever lasting butt looking appearance it has from the emergency c-section) and my boobs are once again sticking out further than anything else on my body!  YAY!

Way too big!

Looking into the future - I think with a little bit of a diet change and/or added daily exercise besides barn chores and derby, I could easily see being down to 160lbs or less by the end of summer.  Is that my goal??....Well, I am not sure yet - get back to me in a month!

Until then - cheers with black tea!

And then there were cattle....

Part 2 of the start of the farm....

White faces from a few years ago.

A year went by and I got the “honey, we should get some cows”.  My answer - NOPE!  NOT HAPPENING!  We knew nothing about cattle and were still very new to the horse thing that I didn’t think it was a good idea.  My husband would still bring it up now and again and finally one Sunday while I was doing a photo shoot consult there was a knock at the door.  It was the farmer neighbors from down the road who we buy hay from.....and annouced that our steers were here and where could they unload them.  WTF!!!  I flew off the handle!  (Thank god my photo consult was a good friend otherwise I might not still have them as a customer.)  I went outside cursing my husband, I was SOOOOO furious!!  I couldn’t believe that this was happening!!

A jersey that we raised up bottle
feeding dressed up for a contest as
Marilyn Mooooo-nroe.

They unloaded them into the horse corral which was where they were suppose to stay until they settled down and learned the electric fence.  Well, apparently one had no intentions on staying in there.  Have you ever seen a steer jump?????  Well he did that day....He jumped over the 5ft high boards smashing them to pieces and proceeded to run straight through the fenced in pasture with the horses chasing him.  Do you think he stopped when he got to the gate on the opposite end?...nope....kept right on going busting through the gate and into the second pasture.  HOLY CRAP - there goes $700 running away!  &#$^#(%(!!**%#&#*(%)%*@&^#@%#@*Q%(&*%(#*&%(Q*#^%#@*&^*@$^*&#^%#^%&)##!*@  (I think the farmer neighbors learned some new words from me....all profanities!!  The one even commented that I might have scared the other from dating!).

Since he ended up in the second pasture (or so we hoped....), we were told just to leave him and let him settle down.  And that if we didn’t see him in a few days that we might have to go “hunting”.  The next day we spotted him at the fence line and let him back in.    So that is how we got into beef cattle!  

Stay tuned for more...still have goats, bees and chickens to go!

Work, Work and MORE Work

We have a baby!!  Ok, she is a week and a half old now...I am slacking on blogging.  But seriously, there hasn’t been any extra time to blog.  Last week was a whirl wind with no relaxation in there.  

Baby girl Onyx

Somewhere between Thursday night and Friday morning, Brownie had given birth with no complications.  It was a nice surprise to start Friday off with - a cute little black baby girl.  Ok, she was actually pretty big since she was the only baby.  Brownie needed that though as last year she had triplets and I think she needed a break as those babies are demanding!  I took the baby into the house in the later morning and did a quick photo shoot with her.  She was so sweet nuzzling up to my chin trying to nurse on the way up to the house.  Momma wasn’t to happy though.

On to Saturday and the kids had their beef spaghetti dinner/silent auction fundraiser.  Spent the whole afternoon into the evening from setting up to serving to taking down then home to do chores in the dark.  

We started off Sunday with barn chores, then going down the road to pick up calves, back home to clean the barn, band, tag, worm & vaccinate all the calves that were already in the barn.  I am the lucky one who gets to do the banding....for those who don’t know - that entails putting a rubber band around the calves balls.  Usually its pretty quick but there are some instances where they suck their balls up so you have to massage them back down.  Yep - fondling cow balls!!  Sometimes you even get crapped on in the process too - thank goodness that happens about 1 in 20 times and I was lucky to stay crapless this time.  By the time we were done with everything and back in the house it was 6:30pm.  We were both exhausted.  Catching those 4-6 month old calves really takes a toll on your body.  I was on the ground and run over WAY to many times.  Got a nice bruise and cut at least 6 inches long on my arm from trying to catch and hold a calf but resulting in my arm not holding and scraping down the cattle panel.  Then was plowed to the ground and had my pelvic bone stomped on by #50.  He is NOT a people person and was not about to be caught.....Seems to me that he cause the cut on my arm too.  And I know my husband ended up on the ground from him as well.  

Relaxing in the truck
after getting a cast.

Monday I spent the morning at the vet with a goat.  She must have gotten underneath in the herd, got stepped on and broke a leg.  LOVELY!!  So there I was putting her in the front seat of the truck, she refused to lay down and was standing up the whole way into town.  I got some weird looks at the stop lights as who expects to see a goat looking at you through a window when you are at a red light.  We got there and she decided to poop, good thing I had a blanket on the seat.  I plucked her out and put her on the ground and then she peed!  THANK GOODNESS she was outside because she had a river flowing!!  Into the vet we went.  After the exam and xrays, she was casted.  They said she was the best goat patient they ever had, didn’t cry, try to get away or anything.  I carried her back out to the truck and she finally laid down.  She had some learning to do with this cast on her leg as she wasn’t sure what to do.  Next it was time to spray out the  bed of the truck from hauling calves.  Went to the first car wash, no dualies or ext. cabs with 8 foot boxes allowed.  Called the hubby and he said go in anyways....I didn’t as the owner or manager was in the office and I didn’t want to get yelled at....

Glad to be home!

I headed across town, dropped eggs off for a customer and then pulled into another car wash.  Since there were no signs - I drove in barely fitting.  Now for the fun job....Let me tell you I will NEVER spray the bed of the truck again.  I was covered in spattered cow crap from head to toe!  Disgusting!!  I felt bad for the person who was waiting in line after me.  There was even poop splattered on the car wash garage doors!!

Next was the post office and ofcourse I would run into someone I know....remember, I am splattered in poop looking my finest.  Then it was a quick run into the sandwich shop to grab lunch and meet my husband since I still had an hour before I picked up grain from the brewery.  

Creative way of moving a 500lb
barrel of grain to the calves
at the back of the barn since
the 4-wheeler trailer had a flat tire.

Finally headed home, got the goat settled into a pen then started chores.  Still super sore from the day before - dumping 2000lbs of wet grain for the animals was a little difficult but I did get it done.

The next day was more farm work - headed to pick up three of our butchered steers and deliver them.  That meant more lifting....1000 lbs of meat - UGGHHHH.  Who needs to work out????

Finally got a break on Wednesday to get some computer work done - my only day of the week so I had to use it wisely.

My brother unloading hay.

Back to farm work on Thursday hauling hay.  We were down to one bale and the person who we buy from didn’t have any extra to spare since he had semi loads hauled out to the south where there was a shortage on hay.  Thankfully, I found another local person who had some hay to spare and didn’t charge me a $100 a bale like some other people in the area are doing.  Glad to know there are still some nice people out there!!  But before I could get on the road with the trailer I had to get it out first.  I hooked up to it and tried to go - NOPE, stuck.  The tires of the trailer were frozen in ice.  My brother (who was over to help unload since I do not know how to use the skidsteer - more on that in a different blog) had to lift up the back of the trailer with the skidsteer to get it out of the ice.  Perfect, try to pull forward again - NOPE.  The yard where the trailer was parked was pure ice so the tires on the truck just spun and spun, there was no moving this big, heavy trailer.  He tried pushing the trailer from the back while I tried going forward - NOPE.  Just great, I went from getting to the farm to pick up hay early to now going to be late.  One last option, he was going to pull the trailer backwards while I was in reverse.  YAY!!  It moved and I was able to get out.  It was smooth sailing from there.  I even got to practice (ok, it probably wasn’t practice since I really needed to do it) backing up the huge trailer numerous times  to turn around and by the end of the day was able to do it on the first try without having to pull forward numerous times and start over.

Selling goat milk soap at the expo

Friday was spent getting ready for the women’s expo the next day where I had a booth to sell my goat milk soaps.  Mad scramble as always to get everything ready and NOT forget anything!!  I would say that I was pretty successful as the only thing I forgot was my business cards but I was able to make some generic ones so it was no big deal.  Expo was a success, sold a lot of soap, met a lot of people and even got to talk “goat” with some goat owners.

PHEW!  That was the week and a couple of days in a wrap, now you see why there was no blogging!  Glad it is over, now I have to plant my butt in my computer chair to get caught up on photos.  Oh and don’t worry, I have more to share on the start of our farm.  You won’t want to miss it, I PROMISE!