General Discussion & Chat: Coffee and...For Sunday, March 5, 2006 =^..^=, 1 by MaryE

MaryE wrote:
Me again. I did some more reading and wanted to make a few more comments.

Sarv, you asked about me having a major town near me. I guess the term is relative. Baker City is 20 miles from us, 9000 people, county seat of a geographically large county with 18,000 total population. It is a center for farming and ranching supply. My sister who lives on the other side of the county travels 40 miles to Baker City about once a month to do her shopping. We have 2 major supermarkets, a warehouse type of grocery, and one discount store (part of a northwest chain called Bi-Mart). Also a big farm store, tractor and implement dealers, tire store, etc. LaGrande is 2 or 3 times as large, has a Walmart that is adding on to become a superstore, more kinds of businesses, JC Penney store (old and small) and Eastern Oregon University. 90 miles in the other direction, toward Boise, Idaho, is Ontario, Oregon and Payette, Idaho, which have a state line dividing them, bigger, more stores, etc. And then 150 miles from us is Boise. I guess the term "major" all depends, some people would not consider Boise as major, but from our perspective, it is major enough for us.

Oz and Babs, I believe that the term disability is one that dishonors people. We know some very able "disabled" people, one even uses the email name of Ability. He is a former US Marine, quad, goes to the vet hospital to help others cope with their physical conditions. Another example that comes to mind is a little guy named Tony who was born severely deformed as a result of Thalidamide which his mother took for nausea during pregnancy. He has one eye, one functional hand, one partially functional hand (after reconstructive surgeries) cleft palette, speach impediment, one leg missing below the knee (has a prosthetic leg and can even ride a horse) and is mentally retarded. He is happy stacking firewood, mowing a lawn, or cleaning horse stalls because he feels good that he can work. He has a small pickup that a former employer bought for him. He learned to drive, memorized the shapes and colors of the road signs, matches the numbers on the speed limit signs with the numbers on the speedometer, and had verbal help to pass the driving test because he does not read. Tony is one of the happiest people we know. Always smiling, grateful, pleasant and helpful as much as possible. My hubby gives him as an example when able bodied people who feel sorry for themselves start to complain. He just tells them about Tony and asks "now, what is your problem?"

Babs, you sure do put in some long hours, and I can't blame you for wanting to cut back a bit after all these years in fast forward.

I'm gonna look for a few more pictures of the inside of the barn so you can see what happens between the pasture behind the barn where the pregnant ewes are, and the pasture across the road where they go with their 3 day old lambs (yesterday's pics if you missed it). Ok here we go. This newborn lamb is well loved, I can't tell you which ewe is the mother, but I do recall that she had another one and was put into a pen like the one in the background. Hope I got the right one, darn those thumbnails are small when eyes aren't that good.