I'm sorry I'm so bad at answering emails.  If you have an email (or two) in to me, and I've not responded... it's that they've fallen below the site line and I've not managed to get back to it/them.  Feel free to resend as needed.

Here's the thing, and I've eluded to it, but I feel like I can mention it now, since there is light at the end of the tunnel.  We decided to fire our ranch employ at the end of June, as a measure to cut expenses on the ranch and to downsize a bit.  This fellow has been a crappy employee all year. He used to be good, he's been with us for just over 5 years, and I felt like we treated him as family. But since January, he's been spending more time doing his own stuff and not being available to work. He's told us that he had "an appointment", which we presumed to be medical, but no, they were to pick up pigs or chickens, deliver eggs, go to grocery stores to get expired produce for the chickens/pigs, or do whatever else we knew nothing about.  Turns out, he was also going behind our backs, talking to the landlord of a large portion of land that we rent, trying to make a deal for himself to rent the land.  He was telling the custom farm guy not to sell us any hay for our cows, he tried to sabotage our ability to get into one of the pastures by putting a lock on the gate, and he was telling neighbours that we were no longer going to rent that piece of land!  We only found out about it all when he confessed that he has been speaking to the landlords and had figured he would be renting the land and staying in the house just to learn that we struck a deal with the landlord, and he indeed had to move out! (He had the audacity to ask us for more time!)  It has been very stressful - for my whole family!  Well, we're down to the final count down.  He 'officially' leaves on September 30th (his house was included as part of his job, and as such, we had to give him 3 months notice... which we didn't mind giving him prior to learning about his 'back stabbing'.)  Better yet, he's going back home to England (so, he can't cause us more grief by staying nearby)!
After he leaves, I'll have to clean his house so that my one son, Cole can move in to that property, then we'll clean that Cole's house so that we can move the other son, Billly into Cole's house, and then lastly tidy/clean Billy's house that we were going to leaving vacant and/or help demolish (or maybe not... I have one clinic staff member that is looking for somewhere to live, and while this place is NOT what she is likely looking for - if she's in a pinch, she can move there until she finds something better. And if she's reading this and she knows who she is, I'll fill you in on Tuesday!)  So, the year has been stressful, and since mid August when the ranch employee confessed what he had been doing, I've felt betrayed and worried about what else this guy would be trying to do behind our back, and I don't relish all of the cleaning and moving of boxes, furniture, etc in October!  However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I am hoping that this is the universe just clearing the way for the next chapter of good things!

Oh and I bought 4 more raised garden beds to help with my sanity!!

That's it for the updates... On with the show!