Farm Filosophies

PayPal has me mad enough this morning that I’m thinking about cancelling my account with them. I have a PayPal account so that people who want to pay with a credit card can - because otherwise I pay $30.00/month at my local bank for the ability to run the transactions through them. I don’t have enough volume to justify that cost - so PayPal is more “cost effective”. But now, not only is PayPal taking 3% of my transaction as a fee, but now they are holding up to 20% of my transaction for 60 days. Their reasoning - to protect themselves in the case of a dispute between my customer and I.

So I called them this morning - and got someone in Customer Service in the Phillipines. I’m sick of all of OUR jobs going over seas to save these corporations a few bucks - so I asked nicely to be transferred to a CS representative in the United States. I got a “we don’t have any CS representatives in the US”. So I got aggrevated and told the guy I wanted to talk to someone in the US. He gave me apparently the only number he had, which was for Legal in the US. Of course they will only talk to Law Enforcement…. so I had to call back to the Phillipines.

The second call I made, I was really pissed - not only did I want to complain about the revolving hold policy, but now I wanted to complain that I am pissed about CS only being outside the US, and that I got the runaround when trying to talk to someone in the US. Which I’m sure in the long run will make no difference at all to PayPal…. but it has made me think. Do I want to do business with PayPal? Can I afford to have some of my money tied up for 60 days?

I take credit cards for the convenience of my customers who feel safer doing that. I’ve been using PayPal because it WAS the most cost effective way to take them. So now, what do I do - put down my foot and stop taking credit cards through PayPal? Is my piddly little amount of money enough incentive for them to move the jobs back into the US, or to stop doing the rolling hold?

I feel better for having complained, but just wish that my voice would make a difference.

Maybe I’ll appeal to any of my readers - next time you get customer service outside the US, complain! Maybe eventually the companies will care about what their customers say…. And beware of PayPal holding your money! And for small business owners, save us a little money by writing checks instead of using credit cards - because we’re usually forced to pass the cost onto our customers.

I guess Summer has arrived - you know that old saying “Time Flies When You’re Having Fun”? Well, I’m thinking that it should be more like “Time Flies when You’re Busy”. I’m wondering where the spring went to - while it’s still beautiful here, and we’ve started feeding the humming birds, the time has just flown by. Here it is Jun 7th already - and Frank’s got most of the top of his barn filled with hay already. He is going to do more hay today - cut several days ago, and now ready to bale. May was a busy month here at the Weston House, we had reservations at the end of April for 3 of the 5 weekends, and ended up renting 4 - with a last minute drop in Turkey hunter. That worked out well, we were empty. They were a family from Germany with two toddlers and a black lab. Great dog - obedience trained - but didn’t speak a word of English! Then we had a whirlwind of groups of young couples with babies or toddlers. They loved coming over to the farm and petting the horses noses. Laurie and Rose both happy to comply. Ellouise (last summer’s bottle fed porch sheep) is still a great hit because she comes down to see us, and let’s total strangers pet her, unlike most of the flock who are paranoid of strangers. She’s raising her really cute little white ram, but he’s not friendly like her - he’s a real sheep.

Anyway, the people have been happy at the house, but the time has just gone by so fast. I look down at my computer date, and can’t believe it’s already June 7th and where has the time gone? Rach finished school for the year, and now is working on plans to meet up with friends over the summer. I guess that’s the way it is when you’re busy!

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend, for April - Mid 80’s for temperatures, and yet, at our house it snowed. Well, it wasn’t snow exactly, but when you look at it from the road, my side yard is covered in white. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that what looks like snow is really hair. Dog hair. It was hot, so we decided to shave both Great Pyrenees. You’ve heard me talking about how much hair they have as they are shedding - but when you shave them (which we do with sheep shears, by the way), you really see the hair. I kid you not, it’s a patch of ground probably 15 feet by 15 feet with almost 3 inches of hair on it. And what is even more hilarious than to see the snow, is to watch the dogs and the cats when we do this.

Maybe I was just hyper sensitive about it because I started thinking about writing this, but it seems the dogs were extremely embarrassed by the de-hairing almost immediately. They both stood by resolutely while we did the shaving, but once released galloped across the yard and rolled in the grass. The funniest thing is to watch Rocky - who is used to having this incredible pom-pom like tail above his back, now seeing this thing that looks like a rat tail over his back. He looks at it like, “OMG what the heck is that?” Then he realizes it’s his tail when he sniffs it, and goes about his business, until he spots it again later, and goes through that all over again. Even the cats have been on alert, “What strange dog has mom allowed in the house today? Hummm, it doesn’t smell like a strange dog…. but I’m not going to get too close.”

Anyone who’s seen Rocky knows he’s a huge dog - and while we keep telling people he only weighs about 120 pounds no one believes us - well, stop in to see the huge “rats” (as Rachael calls them) and without hair, you’ll see why he only weighs 120. You’ll be surprised that he still has huge feet, and a huge head, but has really nice long graceful legs and is really a nice fit, and trim dog under all that hair.

It’s just a shame we couldn’t make a fur coat out of that hair - but at least the birds are happy as they hop around picking up clumps of hair bigger than they are…. They are saying, “Wow, what nice nest lining this will make - and our eggs will stay so warm, even if it snows.” Seriously, I heard them all…..

Today is my last official day off, after having a week at home, I have to go back to work tomorrow. And yes it is Easter today! Happy Easter to all. I’d like to say I had some prolific or philosophical thoughts about Easter this morning, but I don’t. I was only thinking that it’s really been a great week to be home. Rach only had Wed - Friday off from school, but it’s been nice having her at home for 5 days. Weeks like these really help me appreciate the farm and where we are.

Even as I sit typing to you all, the sheep are loose in the front yard, and the air is filled with the little baaaha’s and the Mom’s answering BAAAHA’s as the silly creatures can’t ever seem to all be finding each other at the same time. They are really wonderful to watch. I sat on the front porch for a few minutes watching them. The babies are so absolutely adorable.

Frank even let the big dogs out with the sheep. That’s a bit comical to watch as well, since the ewes are pretty protective of their babies, they head straight for the dogs, and since the Pyrs are not agressive, they veer away leaving the sheep in peace. What great creatures the dogs are!

Well, bye for now, and best wishes to all for a Happy and Family Filled Easter.

We’ve thus far had about 65 lambs. That means all but about 6-7 of our ewes have dropped their adorable little lambies! Ellouise was one of the smaller ewes when we put them all with the rams in the fall, and now she’s holding out on having her lamb(s). We are anxiously awaiting the time when she goes into labor, and are all on pins and needles. We worry a bit about the young ewes because they do sometimes have trouble giving birth. We’ve had a good season so far this year, with little death loss, and only 1-2 instances of really bad motherhood. A couple of the ewes have gotten impatient themselves with waiting and have tried to steal another ewe’s babies. It’s a bit of a challenge to keep a 140 pound ewe who thinks she’s a mom, from stealing another ewe’s babies. I have at least one sore muscle to prove it after trying to separate an alleged thief from the object of her desire yesterday!

Anyway, Ellouise did go back to her antics this week, took a walk around the property with Frank, the Great Pyrenees and the current Weston House guests. She toted her fat little belly all the way around. Still no babies popping out so we’re still waiting…….. I’m posting a couple of pictures of fat little Ella in the Farm Views Photo Album. Only because it’s pretty funny to see a sheep as wide as it is tall.

Recently Rachael has been interested in trying out her greenthumb. She is taking after Frank in this respect, since I have had such bad luck in that area. I had made it my vocation to take care of a young White Pine, but I have been failing miserably, and Frank, out of sympathy for the tree, has taken over the care of the it. Last Saturday, we got Rachael a bonsai tree. She had been bringing up how she would enjoy taking care of one. Frank and I decided it would be good for her to try, and Frank was particilarly enthused since he has had a fascination with bonsais. I am proud of her. I think she is doing a great job of taking care of this tree. She hasn’t over watered it and she tells me that is a leading killer for bonsais. She read the book (which is over 200 pages) in two days. She also has been taking care of watering the tree suprisingly well.

This year in May we have a gardening group coming. Our goal then is to decide who is taking care of their tree better, Rachael or Me(Frank). I indubitably hope that my tree lasts that long and is not reduced to a bunch of scragly branches with pompoms for needles, or more likely a pile of toothpicks.

Thursday this week, we got chicks in the mail. Frank moved the portable chicken coup up into the middle of the dog pen last week, and had hooked up the heat lamps inside. As background, some of you may remember I mentioned that we lost a whole bunch of chickens this past year to something – we believe it is a weasel or mink. We’re down from about 75 chickens in the spring to 5 left. So to protect the new babies that we ordered, we decided inside the electric mesh fenced dog pen with the Great Pyrenees would be a significant challenge for that predator.

So, yesterday it got really cold and windy, so Frank added another heat lamp, and lowered the fixtures so that there was plenty of heat for the babies. He’d checked on them several times over the course of the day, and they were happy-peepy little babies. Then last night after we had just gone to bed, the coup burst into flames. Unfortunately, the babies didn’t survive. The good news, if you can say such a thing, is that they died instantly when the coup flamed. There’s no way they could have survived the fire for more than a couple of seconds.

We were thankful that the coup was away from both the barn and garage (Frank had been keeping the coup right between the two buildings) or we would have had a real tragedy. The garage holds my Mustang, our Subaru and Frank’s new tractor. The barn is where all the sheep are – so we breathed a sigh of relief about that, but it was still a pretty sad morning here.

I haven’t broached the subject of getting more to him yet – but we’ll be out of egg production for quite awhile either way.

Rachael, about 6 months ago, submitted a story to the Small Farmer’s Journal a quarterly publication with information applicable to most farmers and anyone interested in old farm equipment, horses and some of the “greener” ways to farm. It’s a great publication that Frank has been getting for years. (If you stay with us, sometimes he puts them in the Weston House.)

Anyway, Rachael wrote a short story about Ellouise when she followed the dogs last spring when they ran off. She titled it Ella NOT so Enchanted. It was adorably cute as a story. She submitted it to a writing contest that the Small Farmer’s Journal was sponsoring. They were encouraging young people to write stories about farm life.

A couple of weeks ago we were notified that Rach’s story was going to be published in the February issue of SFJ. We’re anxiously awaiting the printing - maybe I’ll take the time once it’s published to type it on the website - or scan it and put it on a page.

And yes, Ella made it through the selection last fall when Frank sold sheep, and has been bred, and it with the rest of the flock in the barn, but still baaaas at us when we go by the barn and will come over to the fence when I stop by. She’s really grown over the winter and is as big as the other Ewes. I hope she doesn’t decide to have twins - and I can’t wait to see what happens this spring with the lambs, especially when he lets them out in the yard. Ella will likely be really first to the porch, looking for the dogs and the dogfood. We’ll have to see.

Rocky keeps getting bigger and bigger. It’s been awhile since I wrote about the puppies - and whether I mentioned it or not, I’ve been afraid since he was very small that he was going to grow into his oversized feet. Well, that’s finally happened. They’ve turned out to be great feet to have in the winter time, somewhat like snow shoes. Rocky loves the snow - spending a lot of time in the yard, even in sub-freezing temperatures, he’s got a nice warm coat that keeps him warm. It’s pretty funny when it’s real cold to have him come in, because he’s got ice frozen on his whiskers and quite strongly resembles a harp seal. He’s also discovered the joys of barking. I’m sure his deep bark can be heard for a mile down the valley. At least it’s a nice pleasant bark. He’s got a great personality - always smiling - and willing to go wherever you want, in, out or for a walk.

Gigi on the other hand is having some difficulties this winter. She has decided she prefers being an inside dog - but finds that she’s nervous inside and scared of strangers when they visit. On top of that, because we burn wood for heat, the house is very dry, increasing the static discharges we get when walking around. Gigi has now decided that anytime she gets one of those static shocks, that she’s obviously been bad. No matter what we do to try to calm her down she won’t until we put her outside for a few minutes. I wonder if she thinks that’s penance for being bad?

Kaya loves winter too, but being so small, and having much less fur than the Pyrs, she’s quite the comfort loving creature. She really likes best to sleep either on our bed or in a chair, and goes outside and back in as quickly as possible when nature calls. When she’s out, however, and the horses are nearby, she can’t resist a bit of play with them. She’s gaining weight because she’s found a bunch of deer bones to chew on and is getting less exercise because she’s inside more where it’s warm. She does, however, take pride in herself as quite the provider for the big dogs.

We’ve probably got another month of really cold weather, then we can look forward to two great big white dogs and Kaya shedding! Yippeee! Can’t wait ’til spring.

Merry Christmas to all, and may all of your neighborhoods be as cool as ours!

The little town closest to us - Bladensburg is a wonderful little town this time of year. We have our own Christmas parade. We also put up Christmas decorations on all the light posts on the main roads in town. It’s so cute. The town, for those of you who’ve yet to be here is only about 6 blocks wide with the elementary school on the west end of town, and the river on the right, and only about 4 blocks from north to south from the body shop to the church. There’s only 2 main roads the east-west road (Hwy 541 - also known as New Guilford Rd), and the north-south road (also known as McLarnan and Henpeck). That means there’s really not a huge amount of Christmas decorations, but we love them anyway. The parade is special also, and most of the town and neighboring countryside come into town to watch that. It’s usually held on a Saturday around 2:00 pm, and has a rain date.

At our place, we decided that it was cold this year, and so didn’t put out many outside Christmas lights - but we did try to out-do ourselves from the redneck Christmas we had a couple of years ago when we put lights on the bulldozer, and then put the yard-art reindeer in front of it. This year we decided really to get into the spirit of the season and join in with all of our deer hunting neighbors. We got ours a bit late, but this is a great time to be hanging them from the trees in front of the house. No, they’re not real deer. They’re the light up kind you see standing in everyone’s yards these days. We just decided it would be fun to hang them from the trees. It’s borderline politically incorrect, but everyone so far has thought it to be hilarious, which is how we meant it.

The other thing that’s pretty hilarious about our house this year is that the Christmas tree only has bulbs and decorations on it from about 3 foot high and higher. Why? Because we have a kitten and two puppies. I think it’s a conspiracy. Zippy climbs up in the tree, snags or bats at the decorations until they fall to the floor, and then the puppies think they’re toys and munch them. It’s pretty funny. Whenwe manage to snag them before the puppies, we hang them higher in the tree. I may just have to take a picture of it to put in my New Year’s letter of 2009.

Hope you all have a great holiday season! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.