Finally

IT IS FINISHED. You heard me right, I finished the fence. It seems like it took forever (it took 2 months). Overall, it turned out pretty good for my first time building a fence by myself. There are a few things that aren't perfect but nothing in this world is (except the sushi from Rice Village). I would just like to send a shout out to those who helped me with the fence..... this shout out goes to Gary, John, and my wife, and a big shout out to my dad who gave me a gate and some other stuff but even bigger taught me how to build fence. I am so happy to be finished so that I can now start working on other things. I will post a few of those "other things" in a couple days. Here are a couple pics of the fence, but to get the full effect you have to come see for yourself.

The other big news is that I have goats to put in my fancy new fence. My friend Trav gave them to me. He had them when he was here in Fayetteville but he recently moved to Ohio for work and he left them to me. They have been at my dad's since he moved but I brought them to my place the other day after I finished my fence. We are very excited and happy to have goats. I would like to take this opportunity to send a shout out to Trav for the goats. The goats have been eating brush and briars and all sorts of other things like crazy. I guess we officially have a farm now that we have livestock.

New Job

I got a new position at the VA. I probably won't start that position until around late October or November. The new position is in the urology clinic, which means I will have weekends and holidays off. I am so excited because I will have a more normal life again. I just thought I would share my big news with everyone. This whole new job thing got me to thinking about all the jobs I have had up to this point in my life. I don't know if anyone cares but I thought I would give a quick rundown of all the jobs I have had. I never did the normal working at Wal-Mart or waiting tables while I was in school. This is quite a random list.

1. Gathering eggs in a chicken house. I did this for one of our neighbors. This was before I could drive so I rode my bike there. This was my first real kind of job because it was regular and I got a check every week.
2. Working for a painter/carpenter. I worked for a guy from my church. He was ok to work for and I learned a lot about painting. I was probably 15-16 years old when I worked this job.
3. Working at Ouachita Rehab and Fitness. I helped people with their fitness programs and ran the fitness center at night and on the weekend. This was my all time favorite job, I loved it. If I could make a living and support a family doing that job I would still be doing it today.
4. One summer while working at the above job I also worked at Mena Steel Buildings. I did steel building construction all summer. I really liked this job even though it was really hard, and I loved working with construction workers. They were really funny and treated me really good.
5. Working at Transitions. I worked as a nursing assistant/mental health tech. This place treated geriatric patients who had psychiatric problems. This was a very interesting job and I have some funny stories from that job. I did this job while I was in college.
6. RN at Washington Regional Medical Center. I did this for 10 months after I graduated and I worked night shift. I hated night shift but I got some good experience.
7. My current job at the VA.

It makes me wonder what kind of jobs I will have in the future.

Neverending project and my first kill

Well, I thought I might catch everyone up on what's been going on the farm since I have not posted in a while. I AM STILL BUILDING FENCE. It is the never ending job. There is light at the end of the tunnel though. I have all four sides completed and I am working on the fence coming up the driveway and around the house. I am very thankful for the cooler weather. I think the high today was 66 which is awesome compared to the 105 it was a few weeks ago. I thought I would estimate (I haven't actually measured or counted) for you how much fence I am putting up. Approximately 3,400 feet of field fence and barbwire, driven in between 320-350 t-posts, dug 40-50 big wooden posts, and soon will hang 4 gates. I will take some pictures when I am finished and put them on the blog. It will probably be another week or two until I am finished, then I can start on other, more fun projects and I will be posting a lot more.

As I was writing the above, my dog started barking outside. If any of you know Macy, you know she is not the greatest watch dog, but I still go out and shine the light (it is 10pm right now) and see if there are any varmits out there. Well surprise, surprise there was a varmit out there, an Armadillo. CAUTION: If you are a PETA person you might want to stop reading here. Let first start by saying I love animals and don't kill animals unless I am going to eat them or they are a threat. I killed the armadillo. Armadillos dig up your land and garden, they also make big holes in the ground for their burrows which can cause a cow or any other animal including a person to break their leg. I have killed lots of armadillos during my life, one of the funnest memories I have from growing up on the farm (I don't have a whole lot of them because I did not like growing up on the farm, it is funny how things change) is going out to work early in the morning in my dad's old green farm truck and seeing an armadillo in the pasture and trying to chase it down in the truck and run over it. It was a lot of fun because we would be sliding all over the place because the grass would still be wet from the dew. I was going to post a picture of the dead armadillo but I decided that might be a little to much.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay

Actually my dad is the lumberjack and I'm am his sidekick, I think my sidekick name should be 'The chainsaw kid'. There were several large trees around our house that needed cutting, either they were dead, or were where the fence was going to go, or to close to the house, or close to power lines. Since it seems that I may not be the best tree cutter yet (see previous post of 'Death by Tree'), I decide to call my dad who has years of experience cutting down trees, and I have years of experience watching him cut down trees, which has made me come to the conclusion that I do not learn by watching someone else do something. Anyway, this past Saturday dad came over (6:30am) and we cut down all the trees that I needed help with. It was pretty interesting over all but went a lot faster than I thought it would. We had no deaths or trips to the hospital, no structural damage or loss of electricity, and only minor injuries, so I would say it was a pretty successful day. Margo took a couple of pics, and I thought they were very "epic" looking pictures. Like old pictures you see of your grandpa out working or standing by some amazing thing. So I made this one black and white to add to that affect. Also, here is a link to a great video and song about a lumberjack.