I love yous and a brain dump from the Mother Ranch (newsletter)

Hello friends!

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you guys. It's been a busy week and I was just now able to respond to the emails I received after my last newsletter—I always love reading your letters! I saw this earlier this week and thought of you all:


I love you guys and feel like you are often right here, laughing and crying along with me. Thank you. Maybe my new motto is: Life is short, make it weird. :-)

This week brought some good news from my mom! She's on a new chemo and the first infusion was really tough but the doctor listened closely to her and tweaked it in a way that made it much easier to handle. We are SO thankful that she's been feeling a lot better! Maybe this is the chemo that really makes a difference! As always, we appreciate your thoughts and prayers and I feel you out there, like you are lifting us up on soft wings.

This week I realized that, ew ew ew, THIS was stewing around in my head:

Pre-pandemic mindset: expect good things and for the most part good things happened.

Pandemic mindset: don’t have expectations and then they won’t be dashed and I won’t be hurt or angry.

Oh dear. That’s akin to: don’t fall in love because they will die eventually and it hurts too much to lose them. Or, don't get a pet for the same reason. OMG!

Is there a way to expect good things but be neutral if they don’t happen?

If not, I’d rather expect good things and for the most part receive good things (and occasionally not and feel sad) than to live in the sadness and depression of no high expectations. It seems, as the sadness and depression of no expectations becomes the norm—good and happy things go by the wayside as I no longer expect those things to happen to me. Ew. Nope. No thank you. 

So, I've started listening to Abraham again and find myself feeling much more like, well, ME. Perky. Hopeful. I've even started penciling in my 2022 business calendar, something I've not done since December 2019, a month before covid.

The little boy goat barn has its rolling barn door and all the siding has been finished. I think the boys are going to be so happy to have a nice sturdy shelter after their 5 months in the tarp covered hoop house. It took the girls several nights before they wanted to be in their barn, I think they got used to living more in the open! Much easier to do here too.

Speaking of boy goats, go check out my funny new video, part 2 of the boy goats screaming. When we breed, we pull one boy and put him in the pen with the girl. The one boy is happy as a clam. The other boy...lol not so much. Wait until you hear it—my new favorite video!

In mama goat news, not one of the three girls that I bred in November have come back into heat, yay! Also, I'm starting to think about waiting to breed the two others until April so we can have fall (September) babies too! Oh my! Double the excitement and happiness!

As I'm looking at 2022 I'm considering NOT having goat yoga classes but instead having Goat Snuggling Sessions. Lots of people loved goat yoga but there was a fair percentage who felt out of their league when thinking about taking a class. I tried telling them it was 90% goats and 10% yoga but it was still uncomfortable for them. Seems to me a Goat Snuggling Session might be more inclusive.

A couple of things that made me laugh this week:

I mean, other than Schitt's Creek, where are they? And for that matter, David on Schitt's Creek wasn't really bi was he, he was pansexual right?

Then there was this mannequin, holy moly, the stance is so spot on isn't it? Schlumping through life yelling, "I'm not getting my way 24/7!" Haaaa! Love my sweet boy but the teenager stance that occasionally bubbles to the surface looks so much like this!

I hope you find things this week that make you laugh too! The next time we're together, it will be Christmas day and if all goes well, I will have some fun news for you! Off to straighten up the house, my brother is coming into town and will stay until Wednesday! So happy!

Love to all from the Mother Ranch,

Julia